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Indivisible (Xbox One)

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Review

Indivisible is a quirky Turn-based RPG Developed by Lab Zero Games and published by 505 Games. The Visuals are amazing and appear to be hand-drawn, the art style is interesting and unique, the battle system is a great blend of traditional RPG systems and hack-and-slash adventure controls, along with some platforming elements thrown in. The characters are well thought out, and the writing for many of them are top notch. They help mask the fact that the game has some very disjointed story moments, and there are still plenty of tropes abound, and of course the game has some extra baggage because it was created by Lab Zero Games. The game follows a young hero, Ajna, as she seeks revenge for her the destruction of her home and the murder of her father. She meets a slew of friends, and foes, and builds a large team of allies to aid in the ever growing troubles of the world. What starts as a quest for revenge quickly turns into a battle to save the world. If that doesn’t sound like every other RPG that came out since the late 90s I don’t know what does. I get it, it’s the hero’s journey. You start from humble beginnings and all the sudden BOOM, you’re saving the world. The problem is that Ajna is also a “chosen one” which just makes it that much worse. And the Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG) you are led to believe is the BBEG is so comically underdeveloped and flat. On top of that it has a storyline that feels disjointed at times. There are characters introduced and sequences that happen that just don’t make sense. There were times I was playing that I had to ask “Wait, when did this person get here?” There are also mentions of places or events that seem so superficial. It’s even more jarring because the dialogue for the characters and the characters themselves are great. It’s also a bit of a let down because the game forgoes the traditional medieval-style of RPGs and has a very “Indian” feel. I saw it has an Indian feel as I’m an American who’s never been to India.

The characters interact with each other and Ajna and whoever wrote the dialogue did a great job. Nothing seems extra cheesy, and it’s usually well executed. Some of the humor stems from the fact that Ajna has “absorbed” all of her cohorts into her mind, giving them a floating island in her brain to live in. It’s a fun little twist on “where do you store all the characters at” question that most RPGs from the 90s and early 00’s ignored. Characters come from all walks of life, and you have a very diverse cast of characters that also range in race, age, and gender. Each character also offers different battle tactics, benefits, and some combinations of characters work better than others.

Speaking of combat, outside of visuals, that’s one of the best parts about Indivisible. You are allowed to have 4 characters in your party, one assigned to each controller button. Each character is also given a certain amount of attacks. So if you have Ajna on the “x” button, for instance, you can tap “x” and she’ll do a standard attack. That seems novel, except when you throw the directional stick in the mix. By moving the stick down or up and the attack button (“x” in this example) the character will do different attacks. Some characters do multi-target attacks if you do one combination, or another character will do a ranged attack and then a heal with the other direction. Combat is turn based, but it’s turn based in a Final Fantasy 8 sort of way where your characters have to fill wait and fill up their attack gauges. The enemies also follow the same rule. So the battle can get really frenetic, and if you time it correctly you can just rain down a mean series of attacks on your enemies from all your characters. You also have to time blocks with the same button for each character when an enemy attacks, and there is a “block with everybody” button so that for multi-target attacks on your team you can try to block the damage. If you time the block correctly you take very little damage. You also have a super attack that each character can perform after you fill up a gauge, but each time you get hit the gauge drops, so it’s a constant process of filling it up to use the big attacks.

The final issue I have with the game isn’t actually related to the game at all. Back in August of 2020 multiple employees left Lab Zero Games with allegations of abuse from the studio head Mike Zaimont. I follow one of the artists on Twitter (@kinucakes), so I got to see the art designs of Indivisible as they were happening. I also saw the letter that she posted talking about the allegations. It’s very hard not to play Indivisible and realize that you may be supporting Lab Zero Games, and that’s sad because it does taint the experience. The artists, programmers, and in-the-trenches workers created an overall great RPG with some interesting characters, scenery, and a neat battle system. It’s not the employee’s fault and yet they suffered as a result.

Conclusion

Indivisible is a great RPG to play if you don’t mind the classic “hero’s journey” tropes with a “chosen one” and the occasional weird story element that doesn’t seem to fit. The Battle system is fun and new, the visuals and characters are wonderful, and the diverse cast of characters is really refreshing.