THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE TACTICS
The Hups and downs of a retro revival
Having waited 38 years for The Dark Crystal to return, it feels fitting that this recently-revived ’80s film should head to PS4 by way of PS1’s classic strategy roleplayer Final Fantasy Tactics. But does a double dose of nostalgia just mean twice the disappointment?
Age Of Resistance Tactics follows the story beats of the new Netflix show (a prequel to the movie), with your god-like hand guiding the childlike Gelflings to victory over the life-draining Skeksis across grid-based rounds of tactical skirmishing. Each mission rarely stretches past 15 minutes and battles breeze along effortlessly. The game’s simplicity never leaves you scratching your head – all moves are accessed from a radial menu – but that directness also leads to a lack of depth.
As you plod through the story recognising key moments that had more charm and personality on Netflix, you can unlock and recruit new characters that fall into standard classes. Scout, Paladin, and Soldier, for example, dictate a character’s movement and the kind of armour and weapons they can carry. Eventually you’ll have over a dozen Gelfling and Fizzgig heroes. A store enables the purchase of new weapons and gear, but the menu structure is a slog.
The Job system – lifted, as so much of the game is, from Final Fantasy Tactics – offers some interest. Jobs dictate the special attacks and passive abilities you can assign to characters under your command. The game’s one interesting twist is the option to eventually mix and match
Job classes: a heavy-hitting soldier can also heal and act as a makeshift support unit.
Some of the maps can change state as you play: in some cases strong gusts of wind blow units across the map; in others tidal waters rise and recede. In a turn-based battle this can lend a tension to otherwise stale missions.
It’s a glimpse of what Age Of Resistance Tactics could have been, if the ambition had stretched beyond a casual replication of Final Fantasy Tactics’ ideas.
JUST THE DEETS
As the game closely adheres to the story of the TV show, there’s an assumption you will know the broader mythos of The Dark Crystal, the whys and whatnots of this complex world. This leaves a void at the heart of the game, one that could have been filled with involved tactical twiddling, but again the game fails to offer more than a passing shot at imitating its source material.
The game lacks charm and finesse, too. Menus are clumsy and XP is earned per round rather than per action, which limits the challenge and reduces the appeal of grinding through missions you’ve already played.
Picking at the bones (but not the meat) of the Netflix series rather than the broader world of The Dark Crystal,
Age Of Resistance Tactics feels small in scope and sadder still in execution.
VERDICT
Too casual and limited to appeal to anyone but die-hard fans of The Dark Crystal and Final Fantasy Tactics, this tie-in lacks the depth and complexity of its retro references. Ian Dean