Set shortly after the events of Operation Abyss, a new threat - the Embryo - has appeared in the skies over Tokyo and unleashed a horror upon the city below. With Alice Mifune and her allies captured by the Embryo it's up to the New Xth Squad to take the fight to the Embryo and save the day!
Operation Babel is a re-release of the third and final game in the Generation Xth series, Generation Xth: Code Realize, originally for the Playstation Vita. In terms of gameplay, Babel is basically everything Abyss was, only better. They fixed a lot of the problems of the first game, added a new "sub-class" system that lets you take the skills of a secondary class, and even added a new class, the Conjurer. (Side note, I feel like the Conjurer must be a mistranslation because they don't conjure anything. They charm monsters in battle and while their spells are stated to be summons, the mechanics involved and the fact that the spell class is listed as "TRAN" implies that it's actually transformation, not summoning. But I digress.)
That said, it still isn't great. I mentioned in my review of Abyss that it was based on the first two games Experience Inc. ever made and that it shows... well, Babel is based on the third game they ever made and that also shows. It isn't terrible and it did improve on Abyss but it's also still pretty short and the extended post-game is weak. It's essentially just a series of battles against the same seven bosses you've already fought, over and over, getting slightly harder each time. Forgive me as I give the biggest, longest yawn ever.
As for the story... it really pissed me off a lot more than I feel like it probably should have. It isn't bad, but I'll get to that in a bit. First, the reason why I hated it. It's quite simple, really - it's because I liked Operation Abyss. Yes, even though it wasn't the best story ever, I really liked it, so much so in fact that I immediately went out and spent money that I didn't have just so I could play this game and see how it ends. It didn't take long for me to regret that decision. Like I said, the story isn't bad but it has dick all to do with Operation Abyss.
First, all of the characters get changed out. This applies to your own characters - as I mentioned, this is the NEW Xth Squad - but also all of the supporting cast from the first game get shoved to the side for the sake of new characters. I mentioned in the 8 Rules for Character Customization that a good way to piss me off is to make me feel like my characters don't matter. Abyss never made me feel that way. Not only did Babel make me feel that way, it retroactively made me feel that way about the last game because no one even seems to remember my old team.
What's especially weird is that the original Code Realize allowed you to import your team from Code Breaker, who would become playable after you killed the final boss. This was removed from the PC port for reasons lost to the wit of man.
Second, it completely ignores the sequel hook from the end of Abyss with Mu'La becoming the "new King of Babyl," instead making Mu'La a lackey to the new villain, the Embryo.
That said, the story isn't terrible. It's all fairly competently written. It also explains the origin of Babyl, the Abyss, and the Xth Squad's powers, and that explanation actually ends up being pretty damn cool. The story pissed me off because I was a fan of Abyss but after I accepted it for what it was I found that I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.
Well, there is actually one weak link in the story: partway into the game you receive a mission to go back to the graveyard level from the previous game. This mission relies heavily on callbacks to Abyss in order to confuse you, and feels like it was written before the decision was made for this to be a new team. None of it makes any sense from the perspective of this being a NEW Xth Squad, especially not the end of it when you're saved by the ghost of a person who died in the last game who supposedly appears because of his "strong connection" to your characters... who he never met. Just, what?
Oh, and also there is no English voice acting. It's not a huge deal because the text is still in English, but it is disappointing and a little strange considering that Operation Abyss was fully voice acted in English.
At the end of the day... even with 107 hours of enjoyment from this game, I have to admit that it's just objectively not good. At the same time, it's also not as bad as the last game in the series either. Still, my ruling for the purposes of the Steam version of this review remains unchanged. This game is not recommended, and I suggest in its place trying out Stranger of Sword City, which is actually another game I need to review here at some point.
Until then...
MEDIOCRE
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