The Legend of Heroes Ao No Kiseki Evolution Beta

Just completed the trial of Ao no Kiseki Evolution this week and I guess I can give a few insights for those of you who are interested in buying the PSVITA remake.

I kind of miss this art style

The trial runs all the way to just before where the opening movie starts so basically the entire prologue, as usual with all the other Falcom game betas, although I should make it clear that Zero and Ao Evolution's are both developed and produced by Chara-ani and Kadokawa so technically, they are not Falcom productions.

I guess two of the most important selling points of this 'evolution' remake line are higher resolution and full voice casting. Personally I'm not typically keen on resolution and stuff, which I believe is something I share with many Falcom fans, but it is quite refreshing to be able to replay the game on PSVITA's HD-ish screen (I really suck with technical stuff so apologies if it's not HD, but you get what I mean)

And the voice, I guess it can be the most controversial part of this remake. Reason? Kakki changed the voice in the most obvious way and since it's quite consistent throughout the whole prologue I guess it's intentional, I'm not sure whose but there's one thing I'm sure of, Lloyd sounds like a completely different person.

I don't personally dislike Kakki's feminine voice (actually I think it's quite cute) but to change the protagonist's voice in a remake that sells on full-voice, I think it's just amongst the most stupid things I've ever come across. I still can't say that I've quite gotten used to the new voice after the whole prologue but we should see. If the main reason you'd want to buy the remake is Lloyd I'd suggest you to rethink before you click 'order'.

For other characters, most of them are quite consistent with previous productions, Arios sounds less musky, which I'm really gutted about, considering how much I love Morikawa's musky masculine voice (Rai in Lamento, hallelujah)

Re-defined clips

Dudley's name got cut

In-game trophies, apparently the trial's trophies don't translate to PSN system

Game clear

And something for those who have Japanese PSN accounts, there will be a small item pack in the actual game for those who've cleared the beta, but you need to keep the beta program and the game data till then. Well, I guess by items it means a couple of potions.

I've impluse ordered the Chara-ani ultimate pack with 2 copies of the game and all the tokuten but I started to regret it straight after I've paid everything. Reason being that I only wanted that pack for the five figures because I thought they were authentic nendoroid but now I look at the sample picture again they look actually kind of dodgy. Maybe I'll sell the other tokutens together with the second game copy.

Has anyone ordered the Ao Evolution yet? Or is everybody else just waiting for Sen II?

To see my review on Sen no Kiseki click here