You might be prepared to indulge Celestian Tales for its nostalgia value and lovely hand-drawn art, and that’s not a bad thing. The visuals are some of its best assets: impactful character imagery that captures heroes’ and villains’ souls, as text dialogue fills up the coloured boxes below them.
Celestian Tales shares its story between six heroes, all with their ulterior motives and desires. Each character gets a tailored prologue sequence, after which they team up for a campaign centred on their quest to become knights. However, there is nothing on show here that players won’t have experienced before. Combat is a hollow, bland experience lacking any elaborate tactical decisions. There are RPGs that came out decades ago and used sprites against 2D backdrops in a similar tactical turn-based layout, yet are still more interesting than what you’ll find in Celestian Tales.
The most appealing aspect of Celestian Tales is your party o f heroes. The banter, personality conflict and character growth manage to hold attention, though it’s easy to picture a checklist of fantasy tropes being ticked off as you get to know everyone in your little group. Only one playable hero, Isaac, has an origin story that you might find surprising, however, as the rest are instantly forgettable.
Celestian Tales promises more than it can deliver. It wraps several plot threads into a single scenario we’ve played before in some form or another and don’t need to play again - let alone six times for the sake of discovering every hero’s story.
VISUALLY APPEALING, BUT SHALLOW