I really want to like Axial a lot. At first glance it really drew me in. Pixel RPG that looks like a game boy on steroids? Yes. However, after the first hour, I'm not quite hooked.
I will definitely pick it up again, but there's a couple of annoying humps to get over.
First off, it looks great. The sort of green monochrome interface feels like a game boy, but the game scenery and characters itself are a wider range of color. There's always a dark side though, and every rose has its thorn etc etc. I have an issue with the monochrome: the weaknesses of enemies and commands are all the same color but use different random icons like a circle or a triangle. Maybe it's just me, but it's hard to remember triangle beats circle. I find myself constantly having to check which is which. Some variation in color would go a long way.
The scenery is mostly cityscape. Clean futuristic lines lead you to normal looking buildings with seemingly cloned doors and windows. This, combined with a lack of direction and goal setting in the early game set me up to just kind of poke around for awhile. Luckily, there's not a lot of places to go so I eventually wandered into the story triggers.
Now, before I talk about why I will pick it back up, I'll mention the last two annoyances. The SOUND EFFECTS ARE LIKE SOMEONE TYPING IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME WITH NO PUNCTUATION. A little like nails on a chalkboard. It's really sad that the effects are grating and overdone because their counterpart, the music, is so good. Synthed chip tunes with 8bit sound vibes but strong beats. They set a nice tone combined with the game boy esque color scheme.
Last annoyance, the dialogue for characters is too similar (except Sai). There are some transcendent moments where personalities are developed via dialogue, but most of it could have come from any character. This is especially noticable with the adults: Oli's father and the Agent. It feels a little like "Hello fellow kids".
I do want to mention the battle system. It shows promise and I think it will become more engaging as I progress in the game. It's a turned based battle system that has the usual stats albeit different names. There's an interesting mechanic, the subcommand. These can be used at the start of the round, when selected and do not take up the turn for the character. Almost like a bonus action in D&D but used at the start of the entire round.
Something else that felt misleading: The game touts itself as a deckbuilder, which essentially amounts to selecting up to 8 actions for each character from the pool they know. I wouldn't call this deckbuilding as a deck builder mechanic builds a deck as you play, and generally implies drawing from the deck to limit real time choices. So far, it seems neither of those defining deckbuilding mechanics exist in this game.
All in all this could be a great game. I'll come back, but probably not tonight.
