Babylon's Fall Couple Co-op Review
When I was growing up, I had this really good friend who I hung out with all the time. I mean, we did everything together. We listened to music, played video games, watched anime–even played Dragonball Z cards…. Like, yeah–I know– I’m pretty sure we were the only nerds alive that actually PLAYED Dragonball Z cards rather than just collected them. Anyway, this good friend of mine was like a brother to me. He came over EVERY weekend and if he didn’t–I went over to his place to hang out. We always had tons of fun and I’ll never forget it.
Now, this friend of mine had a younger brother who was different……And when I say “different,” I mean like 4x more so than “playing Dragonball Z cards different.” This kid was unique. He was a legend. Not quite sure if this was due to his upbringing or something but for sure, this kid definitely lived in his own world. His own universe…..maybe even his own multiverse. Now, this legendary human being was so incredibly picky when it came to food that 93.75% percent of the time, he would only eat one thing: Chicken Nuggets. Now, it goes without saying that there’s a lot of different kinds of food out there. I’ve tried food from just about every corner of the world and let me tell you–Chicken Nuggets are definitely not even close to the top–to the metaphorical peaks of quality dishes that anyone could enjoy. But, that’s all he ate. To him, every other kind of food was either almost mediocre or absolutely deplorable.
To you food heads out there, hearing that may have been heartbreaking or even offensive but it’s a true story nonetheless and unfortunately, it was the gaming community that reminded me of this strange memory. I’ll get into that later.Today, we’re talking about a game that’s different but maybe not so different in the way that most people preferred. This is Babylon’s Fall, a sci-fi fantasy, action RPG developed by Platinum Games and published by Square Enix for the PC, PS4 & PS5.
Now, if you’re here to watch yet another video about yet another reviewer bashing the most hated title of 2022, then you may be disappointed. On the other hand, if you’re an advocate of honesty when it comes to game journalism and reviews, then you’ve come to the right place. We’re not here to defend Babylon’s fall by any means but we enjoyed it and hopefully with this review, we can clear some misconceptions about the game.
Now, when I first heard about Babylon’s Fall, I was really excited because I was intrigued by the concept of teaming up with friends to explore the large dungeon-like floors of this huge fantasy tower that took inspiration from the Bible. I can confirm that the game totally delivered when it came to my expectations. The only deviation from that, however, was that I thought the tower would be so incredibly long that we’d never reach the top until some future update or something seeing as this was a live-service game. But, without spoiling it–the top of the tower was definitely reachable within the base game and there was even more areas to explore after that than just what was within the tower.
If you’ve been around on our channel long enough, you know how I feel about character creators and while this wasn’t the worst one that I’ve seen before, it definitely could use some more variety. It wasn’t that the options were bad–there just didn’t seem to be enough. It turned out later on that you could unlock more hairstyles and stuff–which is cool but they weren’t able to be colored which again took away from the variety.
The art style for the game takes inspiration from European oil paintings which took some getting used to at first but definitely made for some interesting visuals. There are times when it doesn’t look so great and then there are times when it looks fantastic. Overall, though, I think it would’ve been best to have a toggle for the post-processed oil filter. Kimmie and I are able to play with the graphics turned up to max so it looks great for us but I imagine that if someone tried playing this on lower settings the game’s oil filter would probably make it all look like it was covered in mud.
The gameplay loop is most easily described as Monster Hunter but with dungeons. Like Monster Hunter, you have a central hub town where you prepare for quests, buy and sell equipment and manage your character build. Later in the game—like 24 hours later—you can even craft loot, upgrade equipment, manage your own class skill tree and even change the way your character combos attacks with each of the 4-individual weapons that you have equipped. Each of those 4 weapons are attached to a specific button on your controller layout. Preferably, it would’ve been nice to have more weapon types to choose from, especially considering that you can have 4 different ones equipped at once. Still there is a bit of variety when it comes to how they’re equipped because you can change the way you combo depending on what buttons you equip each weapon to. Most quests are laid out as linear dungeons but with bosses at the end of them. For those who are familiar, think OG Phantasy Star Online but with shorter areas. There are also quests that are just gauntlets of mobs and others that feature a large boss. Quests are easy to join and the game features crossplay so friends can play with each other if they’re either on PC, PS4 or PS5.
Babylon’s Fall is really cool. I honestly don't understand why many people hated this game ever since it was released, but it's funny because while I was reading the negative comments of reviewers on Steam, I noticed that a lot of them only played for a short time… I don't know what's up with that but I wanna share my opinion on this one.
I like this game and my husband and I have had fun playing it a lot. I like how you have a lot of weapons you can use against the monsters and how you can change the colors of your armor and weapons.
The loot is amazing too, it gives me a challenge when it comes to building my character and gives me motivation to really grind it out.
The gameplay is fast and monsters can be challenging. The different places you explore are fun and they each have their own feel to them depending on your chosen quest. There are a variety of missions so you never run out of things to do- and most of all, they’re fun to play as well as satisfying to beat. I even like the platforming in this game even though it was challenging for me to figure out at first!
Not every game is the same, that's why you have to appreciate what's in it and not ask for more even if they are open to doing more. As usual, I am more for making and finding cute or nice armor for my character than anything else but I noticed that you have more choices when you progress further into the game which is awesome for me. Again, this makes me want to play more to see what I can find like in monster hunter. I really appreciate the painted looking cutscenes they have and the story that I found to be surprisingly deep. Each character has their own uniqueness and backstory and The best part about it all is that you can play this with friends.
- Kimmie-Immie
The story wasn’t the best that I’ve seen in a JRPG but it was definitely good enough to keep me invested. Besides, a game like this isn’t really one you look for a deep story in. Despite that, however, I found myself not only familiar with the characters but even liking a couple of them. There were times where I was impressed with how much thought was given to the story and I found myself enjoying it way mor than I did in other multiplayer co-op RPGs like Torchlight, Monster Hunter World or Minecraft Dungeons. It provided clever context to the gameplay through it’s light world-building and there were some unique parts about the plot that I’d really like to get into but if I did–it would make it easy for me to spoil the story.
For the longest time, it seemed like action RPGs would either be top-down, 2D or just limited to monster hunting. However, Babylon’s Fall manages to pull off something that we haven’t seen in a non-mmo multiplayer action RPG in awhile by giving us linear, instance-based dungeons that contain treasure to find, light puzzles and even a bit of platforming from a third-person perspective. Oh, wait–that’s right…there WAS another multiplayer game that tried this–and FAILED at it, wasn’t there? What was it again??? Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance! That’s right–but you couldn’t create a character in that game so…sorry…that doesn’t count.
Anyway–In Babylon’s Fall, there are no loot boxes or randomized packages of content that you can purchase with real money. And even though it’s a live-service game, I didn’t once feel like Babylon’s Fall lacked in its content or was trying to underhandedly snatch at my wallet. There was even a pretty hefty free update that was rolled out with new areas, a new weapon, new quest types, and new bosses not even a month into the game’s release. Plenty of content. Plenty of things to do. But, maybe this wasn’t what people were looking for in an RPG. Maybe they wanted something more like the souls games with brutal difficulty and themes about death. Maybe they wanted something more violent or something with more sexualized characters in it. But, for me and Kimmie–we enjoyed our time with Babylon’s Fall and we hoped to see it live on to become something similar to Destiny where it has a strong following and an insurmountable amount of content to enjoy. Personally, I think people didn’t like it because there were a ton of gaming journalistic sources as well as reviewers and influencers who spoke negatively of the title before and after it launched.
Don’t believe me? Well, check this out: Remember at the beginning of the review when I said that Babylon’s Fall was a “Sci-Fi Fantasy” RPG? Most likely, you have heard from other sources that it’s “just another fantasy RPG” or even a “generic Dark fantasy RPG” but that’s entirely untrue–which tells me one of 2 things about the different outlets that reviewed this title. Either, they specifically lied to give Babylon’s Fall an unfavorable comparison to Elden Ring which released shortly before it OR they didn’t even make it to the end of the game’s story to see the plot twist that revealed the true nature of this game before releasing their reviews to their followers.
Now, I totally acknowledge that I could be wrong. Seriously–maybe it’s because I have the unpopular opinion, I’m actually incorrect. Maybe opinions are no longer acceptable. That review scores and words from influencers are now the only thing that’s valid anymore whether they’re factual or not. Numbers and data are of what’s of importance rather than personal experience and enjoyment. However, I’d like to think that’s not true. I think everyone should be entitled to their own opinion. But, that’s exactly why I was reminded of the chicken nuggets story.
See, it seems to me that the popular opinion is becoming more and more narrowed down as the years go by. Like, there are only certain standards that a game has to reach or molds that it has to fit into in order for people to like it. For example, If a game is an RPG, either it has to be open world or it has to be soulslike in order to be good. A game has to show some sort of blood, gore or even sexualized characters and explicit or adult themes to be mature enough for adult players to take them seriously. On the other side of the spectrum, indie games should either be incredibly simple or they need to pay homage to retro 8bit or 16bit graphics in order for them to be considered attractive. Then, when it comes to an action game, it seems like it’s more readily acceptable if it’s a shooter–otherwise it’s deemed too repetitive. Then, when it comes to a game having an acceptable price model, it either has to be sold for a base price or be free with microtransactions in it. A live service game is just BAD if it’s not an MMO, right? I’m not saying that a game is automatically considered by most people to be good if it meets any of these criteria but it has to have at least one of the few generally acceptable qualities to make the cut. At least, from what I’ve seen, that seems to be the popular opinion these days.
We might say that we want more variety but when you think about it–we’re really just looking for the same food to eat. What we find acceptable is narrowing down by the year almost. Even for myself, what drew me to the concept of Babylon’s Fall was the fact that the level design reminded me of classic Phantasy Star Online areas. For me, I’m going to always come back to what I personally like in games. Again, we’re only really looking for the same stuff to consume–whether or not it’s wrapped up in the same package. It’s like the only thing we can eat are chicken nuggets just like my old buddies’ brother. And if we don’t get chicken nuggets, everything else is either barely mediocre or absolutely unacceptable.
- Last BeNeVoLeNcE