Well over two years since it first launched in South Korea, Destiny Child has finally gone global, and we could not wait to get our hands on it. Check out our Destiny Child first impressions below to know our thoughts on it!
But first a little background. Destiny Child first launched in South Korea way back in October 2016, and only recently did it make its way to Japan. The global version then came out not long after all, and this is the version which we will be looking at. While the name Hyung-Tae Kim may not be familiar to most, he is a key figure in the South Korean videogames industry. Well known for his character designs that are intentionally very exaggerated, you may have seen his work in big titles such as Blade & Soul and Magna Carta.
Right off the bat, if you are a seasoned RPG fanatic, you will come to realise that the game is very reminiscent to that of the Shin Megami Tensei or Persona series in terms of style and tone. There is a huge emphasis on the campaign, and this is its influences are evident. RPGs like these are dime and a dozen but rarely do they have this level of polish.
The game utilises a technology where characters are animated in two dimensions, but because each are made up of more than 200 different parts, the end result is something akin to 3D movement, no unlike that of Live 2D.
There is only so much eye candy can do for you, and we are happy to report that the game itself is fairly fun to play too. The combat system is fairly elementary, and can be automated for the most part. You may need to take control yourself once you reach a boss fight, but for the most part, you can just let the game play itself.
Destiny Child presents itself as a modern dungeon crawler, so you are not seeing your party manifest in battle, and instead they are represented by their portraits. However, unlike the static nature of such games, everything here is fully animated so combat is still a spectacle to behold.
The story is nothing to write home about honestly, and serves just to progress you along the way. As with any other collector RPG, you will be recruiting party members in the form of a Child. Think of a Child as a demon which you recruit from Shin Megami Tensei and Persona and you will have a decent idea.
The process of recruiting involves delving deep into the psyche of an individual in which contains the Child in question. Resolve their problems and you will be able to form pacts with them. Sound familiar? Anyway the core plot involves a certain demon lord who suddenly abdicated his position, and you find yourself thrust into a competition against your own will to ascend the throne.
As you might expect, in order to truly strengthen your team, you are going to have to resort to gacha. Being a single player game for the most part, Destiny Child is more lenient in terms of the party you need to assemble since there is no competitive element. In other words, you will be able to set up a team of characters you like, instead of having to stick to the meta. Of course, you still want to have the strongest possible lineup, but you can still get by with the basic characters.
There is the inclusion of a PVP mode, and this is where having the best characters would matter, but this is completely optional and should not really be a detriment to your overall experience.
To sum it up, Destiny Child does not particularly add anything new to the genre, but it is still worth checking out due to how well it is made.