Official PlayStation Magazine - 04.2020

094

REVIEW

INFO

FORMATPS4

ETAOUTNOW

PUBENMASSE

ENTERTAINMENT

DEVBONUSXP

THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE

OF RESISTANCE TACTICS

The Hups and downs of a retro revival

H

aving 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

sadderstillinexecution.

JUST THE JOB? @IanDean4

VERDICT

Most missions can be

completed without much

effort, or level-grinding to

beat a Skeksis boss.

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