The Awakened Fate Ultimatum Review

The Guided Fate Paradox was a dungeon-crawler with rogue-like elements and The Awakened Fate Ultimatum is a sequel to that title. While it takes place after events of the former, the latter is actually a standalone story and players will not need to play the previous title. It should be noted that this author did not play The Guided Fate Paradox, so this review will look at this game without drawing comparisons (other than face value ones).

You are Shin Kamikaze, a high school student who is going about his normal life one day, until he is attacked by devils, who end up stabbing and killing him. Thanks to an angel, he is brought to Celestia and has a crystal implanted into his body, bringing him back to life and also turning him into a God. With his newly found powers, it is up to him to help the angels in their war against the devils.

Throughout the story, Shin will have to make decisions between two choices, sometimes leading to some grave decisions. These Ultimate Choices will affect the story in different ways and it is these that make it interesting, as you will see Shin reflecting on the changes that happen, although he seems to kind of come off as whiny at times. There are a few twists here and there, but nothing too major and it can be pretty easy to tell that they are coming.

The music in Ultimatum is both good and bad, as the first time you hear it, especially when delving into the dungeons, it can be satisfying to the ears. Unfortunately, there isn't much variation in the songs chosen, so you will be hearing the same ones over and over, which can get repetitive, especially during the cutscenes.

Outside of the music, the English cast does a spectacular job at performing their roles, with Shin being portrayed by Johnny Yong Bosch and Ariael being played by Michelle Ruff (my favorite performance). Those two stand out above the rest as being the best in the game, although the others are still just as well done. The only voice I wasn't particularly fond of was Hien Inugami, who is one of the antagonists.

If anything truly shines in the Ultimatum, it is the gameplay, with the game being a true dungeon crawler. The dungeons are randomly generated, although the number of floors always remain the same. Unlike the first game, you go into these dungeons alone, with nothing but what's in your item bag, which is limited to only 30 items. That makes it a hassle sometimes, especially if you get a lot of item drops, so you'll have to manage your inventory.

Luckily, the battle system is pretty simple and doesn't take much to get accustomed to, once you progress through an actual dungeon or two. For those familiar to this genre, every time you take an action in the dungeon, enemies will also take an action. That's pretty much the basics to the battle system, with a few additions to make it stand out from the rest.

Since Shin has godly powers, he is able to manifest it into two different forms, which is called Deitizing. By simply pressing one of two buttons, he can switch to an Angel Form and a Devil Form. These are needed because the enemies encountered in the dungeons will have one of the two attributes, allowing you to deal more damage to them, while receiving less damage at the same time.

Outside of the dungeons, there isn't really much gameplay, as it's mostly story cutscenes. You can power up your Angel/Devil Forms through the use of Crystal Customization, with you obtaining these Crystal Points via leveling up and making the decisions during Ultimate Choice segments. You're also able to enhance equipment by combining it with other ones, as well as embedding gems that will have effects on your equipment.

There lies the biggest problem with this game, as there isn't a lot of content in it outside of the dungeon crawling. The overall game flow is pretty much story cutscene, mixed with choices once or twice per chapter, then dungeon crawling and more cutscenes after that. There are three endings you can get, as well as some postgame content, but it's just more dungeon crawling, although you do get to meet some familiar faces, especially if you've played the first game (there's some cameos from a few anime characters as well).

There's no in-game timer, but it should take someone around 20-25 hours to do everything in the game, and maybe some more hours on top of that to get the Platinum Trophy, for those who like that sort of thing. There's also a New Game+ mode, where you begin over at level 1, while carrying over everything else, but it's still the same game as before, albeit you can make the choices you didn't the first time.

While The Awakened Fate Ultimatum, overall, is a game that has a core mechanic that is very well done, it still feels like it's been stripped down from something else. You basically have story segments and dungeon crawler, and that's about it, although both are enjoyable. It is one of those games that could have benefitted from something more, as once you play through once, there's really no desire to do it again.