‘Indivisible’ Demo Review: A 2018 Smash Hit In The Making?

The producers of Skullgirls at Reverge Labs made a name for themselves with their hit, frame-for-frame-drawn fighting game. Filled with references, impressive voice acting, music, and below-average dialogue befitting a fighting game, there was nothing to complain about unless, you know, you’re bad at games. However, we’re not reviewing that today. A smart person would review Skullgirls, and this is me we’re talking about. I’m going to review a demo of Reverge Lab/Lab Zero Game’s next project, Indivisible.

I know, it’s crazy to think you would hear about another game Lab Zero is gong to make considering they’ve spent at least three years of development time pre-release and have been updating Skullgirls for the next four. Now that they’re working on another project, naturally they’ve changed the genre entirely. In this RPG-platformer, you play as Ajna, an obviously foreign girl who wants to find out the origins or her powers. Actually, just kidding, this is the demo, so you’re just going to chase after some small orb-looking, cute creature with no context whatsoever. As you progress, more characters suddenly join you and you are given magical powers such as wielding an axe and having access to a map. It’s a demo, I know, but Jesus can I have some written dialogue, please?

It plays similarly to a traditional Paper Mario game, which means it’s going to be my favorite game of all time if done correctly. You walk around as a 2-D platformer before encountering an enemy, in which case you suddenly play a time-based RPG. You press a button to make a character attack, yet the more characters you have and the more times they can attack, the longer your combos can be. The damage doesn’t seem to multiply by all that much in a combo, yet I’m almost certain that’s exactly the case. Each character gets a super attack as well, the hyper gauge or zen meter or whatever it is allows you to block, yet provides you with a sturdy offense. It allows you, the player, to decide whether you want to block an attack or retaliate. This sense of control deepens once you realize that if you block an attack perfectly you lose little, if any, meter, rewarding you for mastering the battle system.

The battle system is fun, but there are a few complaints: all found within the “final boss fight.” Whatever the hell creature this is, it’s an ass and I don’t like it. You will quickly realize, “oh, so this is where they put all that difficulty! GREAT! I can’t WAIT!” as you die. The realization comes to you as soon as the only guy who can heal gets blown to smithereens. There is only one character out of four that can revive and heal other characters effectively, and if you lose him it’s basically over considering there are no items to be found or used over the course of the demo. You will also probably realize that guarding does not stop all damage, and you will then cry and crap yourself as a result, scaring away your friends and family in the process. For a final boss in a demo, I was expecting, I don’t know, something that wouldn’t upset me to the point where I would dedicate a paragraph about it in an online article like a full-blown man-child.

Yet, I digress, there are a lot of “yets” in this demo highlighting the gameplay itself. The music is generic, yet the graphics are as beautiful as the animations. The combat is turned-based and predictable, yet gives you a feeling of control as you begin to get a grasp of it. For every fault there is a strength, a reward for every risk. Considering there is not yet (haha, get it?) any dialogue other than basic voice acting for combat, the game itself looks great; let’s hope the journey will be astounding. Indivisible looks like it’s going to be a 2018 smash hit from an already successful producer.