A.W. : Phoenix Festa
Overview -
'A.W. : Phoenix Festa' is the first game based on the hit anime series, and now it's time for the English debut on PS Vita. Retelling the events of the show, players can either control protagonist Ayato Amagiri or their own custom character. In this action RPG, players can form relationships, fight other students, and emerge as the victor of the Phoenix Festa.
Video Review
While the character models look mostly fine, the rest of the game's visuals range from average to terrible. The arenas are all practically devoid of detail (and one stage that does have some detail, funnily enough, just has dozens of stores all named 'Asterisk' everywhere I could see), and observing some aspects of it as closely as possible leads to some really dreadful texture work. If there's any real evidence that the game was a rush job, this is it.
Audio Review
I did not find a single memorable bit of the soundtrack here, and while the entire anime cast reprise their roles here, only a handful of scenes are fully voice acted. Other parts of the game just repeat the same voice clips constantly. I can't say that any of the sound here is particularly bad, but it's about as mediocre as it can be.
Final Thoughts
For as much as 'A.W. : Phoenix Festa' fails to capitalize on the potential of its strong ideas, there is something oddly compelling about the whole game that had me start up a second playthrough pretty much immediately after my first ending. I can't really recommend this to anyone but diehard fans of the series, but even then, it comes with the caveat that it's a flawed, rushed game. It's nice to see more titles like this brought over, but this is one that can safely be skipped.
