Since I always likes Skullgirls and most of the creative designs behind it, some time ago I got this thing out of my chest and tried Indivisible.

I was kinda scared to try it because I mostly heard bad things surrounding the controversies for the main artist behind the project (the reason why Lab zero itself shut down)

Though I gotta say, it still feel like the rest of the team put a lot of love and effort behind this work.
You can feel there is a lot of heart put into this little gem, not just from the developers, but also from the people that supported and kickstarted the game, wanting to see this project realized.

It is a weird mix of platforming and rpgs like Valkyrie Profile, a gameplay formula that can feel off putting and a bit repetitive, but it still works pretty well. Stunning animations (even made by Studio trigger of all things) and a really fantastic cast of playable characters.

It's not really that long and the controversies around the studio hurt especially the final section of this game (that doesn't feel unfinished but you can feel they miss something, including a bug that literally blocks you from completing a quest for an extra playable character). There were even supposed to be updates with indie guest characters that never came out, which is a big shames that hurts what could have led to a lot of needed fixes and huge improvements for the title.

But overall.... yeah I honestly really enjoyed.
I still recommend it despite some of its flaws.

Where it Shines:
Art Style - 7/10
Characters - 6/10
Representation - 6/10

The Good:
- Characters are interesting and plenty to unlock
- Metroidvania + RPG turn based combat is a very unique style that has potential
- Voice acting is decent
- Art style is really nice, colorful
- Story is half decent

The Bad:
The most major thing to note with this game being lowly rated is how the dev fucked over the project. There are entire sections of the game that are just unfinished and still have quests or dialogue prompts, but you can't progress or do anything with. It's depressing. That said, the game needed a lot more work and love:
- repetitive combat with samey enemies
- clunky controls and platforming, which is a no-no for metroidvanias
- half ass executes jrpg combat and platforming, doing neither all that well
- seems like it has way more depth (and probably may have eventually gotten there if not for the dev), but in reality is just unpolished.
- Priced at 50 bucks new is insanity
- plenty of bugs, particularly with enemy ai pathing

Summary:
Indivisible was a game I really, really wanted to like more. On paper, it seems like a great idea for a game. It's got the potential to combine to genres that don't really go together that often, had a charming cast of characters and endearing story, and a great art style. But you can see the holes in the project where the dev fucked the project over, rushed things, and just said "ah fuck it". It's a real shame, because this game, if given some more time in the oven, had the potential to be one of the most unique games I've ever played and a solid 4 out of 5. Would I recommend it? On sale, or on gamepass, sure. But go in with tempered expectations.


Note on my ratings:

Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.

1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite

I have a serious love-hate relationship with this game. I initially enjoyed a lot of things about this game starting—with the characters, the combat, the environments, etc. The anticipation for what was to come, especially seeing the gameplay demos years before. After playing it, I felt unsatisfied. The game felt very unfinished and was a fragment of the potential it set itself to be. Most of the cast was one-dimensional (the exceptions being Ajna and Dhar), the story is lackluster, and the gameplay can get repetitive & boring with nothing to spice it up a bit.
I know of Mike Z's tom foolery and how it led to why the game ended up like this. I still had fun and appreciated what was there, but it had HEAVY flaws.

This game has had so much potential. The combat rules. It's so unique, it looks great, it feels great, it just rules. They thank the Street Fighter 3 artists and animators in the credits and you can see and feel the influence. They did a good job of making any team composition viable—maybe too good of a job? Should I be bummed they're isn't a definitive best comp (unless you're speedrunning)? You have a LOT of options for combat and everyone levels up at roughly the same pace, which makes leveling up pointless but opens you up to experiment the whole time if you want.

The characters really carry the whole experience. Though some of them are more endearing or interesting than others, all of them look cool and have beautifully animated movesets full of clever details and personality. The characterization and VO is really top-notch, with a bunch of unknown-to-me actors in the lead roles, and Star Trek: The Next Generation's own Lieutenant Worf, Michael Dorn, as Ravannavar, the boss of the first 1/3 or so of the game.

The platforming aspires to Metroidvania but we don't quite make it there. The movement never really feels fluid and the maps are difficult to navigate. Everything looks the same, getting from one end of a map to the other takes forever and the minimap is not helpful. They tried to do linear paths through big sandboxes but they should have picked one or the other. The settings are cool and exciting but moving through them was my least favorite part of the game.

One of the things that makes this game so compelling is that you can see the ambition, you can see the lack of resources, you can see that they had a vision and some of it really works! And some of it doesn't. Like why go to the trouble of making an innovative, gorgeously animated combat system and then make combat so infrequent after the first half of the game? Why have exp at all if it doesn't really do anything? They tried to cram so much stuff in and while i love that ambition—doubly so because some of it is realized—it just needed more time in the oven. It's a shame what happened with the studio because a sequel could have been something very special.

This was my second playthrough and I finally put down Qadira and Tungar to try Nuna and Ginseng & Honey. I'm not sure you really need a healer or support characters at all to be successful in this game but they're just adorable so we keep them around. I also enjoyed playing with Thorani a bit, she has fun mechanics. Maybe next time I'll finally figure out Zebei, Baozhai or Kushi. Razmi still rules.

El concepto del combate de Valkyrie Profile me gusta cómo lo traen a este indie con ya sus años (se nota en glitches del sprite de Anja PUNTUALMENTE en la exploración).

Se nota que viene de la misma gente que hizo Skullgirls por su rico y colorido cast, pero también su sistema de combos, que le da velocidad al combate de Valkyrie Profile. Ello unido a la animación de los sprites y su sistema de ataques tipo smash (dirección + botón) incentiva la rotación de personajes en la party.
El problema es que precisamente por esa diversidad, no es difícil forzar una combinación ganadora, arruinando las ganas de experimentar con nuevos compis de viaje. Muchos rpg y jrpg pueden tener este problema abusando de una "fórmula ganadora" (abusando de habilidades OP, por ejemplo), pero en Indivisible llega antes de alcanzar el tercer acto. De hecho, puede que por ello no interese investigar los mapas estilo metroidvania para obtener al resto de personajes (que no se unan a Ajna obligatoriamente).
Esto del metroidvania es la otra cara de la moneda, y hace un muy buen trabajo otorgando capas y capas de complejidad al movimiento, sin abrumar a les jugadores. Resulta satisfactorio encadenar movimientos y encontrar un pasaje nuevo, o sumar nuevas piedras que canjear por más defensa o número de golpes. Es un buen rpg para gente que odia el concepto de rpg japonés por turnos. Muy vistoso, colorido, buena música, animación... Muy bien para sus 20h de juego sin relleno ni misiones de recadero.

I really liked this game, I thought the combat system was well done, the game looks nice and the controls for traversal are tight. The camera in this 2D game is strangely not great, often I found myself at the edge of the screen unable to see ahead.

The main character is insufferable. She causes all the problems in the game by being a stupid brat, then the writers seem to expect you to forget that and rally behind her later on. I didn't, she was a turd and brought the entire game down with her terrible character development.

Indivisible is a game I do not go out of my way to recommend nor play again. With that said it has a good OST, character designs/art style, and cast.

This game tries to strike an interesting dynamic between turn based combat and metroidvania esque exploration that is linear generally. A lot of people are going to look as both as weaker halves of a whole.

If you like Alex Ahad's art style that may be enough to push you through this. There are many RPGs out there and many metroidvanias out there that are much better. Sadly this game does not reach its true potential and I cannot recommend it in good faith.

Finally sat down and played this game. It was fun and enjoyable. The story was interesting, the art was wonderful, and every character felt fun and unique (in and out of combat).

Only complaint I have is that the beginning felt rushed and introduced so many characters. I couldn't get a feel for a character because the next one was introduced shortly after. I had to decide if I would change up my party 15 minutes after the last character was added to my party.

Also the final boss was a little frustrating lots of trial and error.

An intriguing action-RPG / Metroidvania hybrid with some great ideas, but let down in key areas. We play as Ajna, a young woman in a Indian myth-inspired fantasy world. Her home is razed and father killed, but when she confronts his murderer, Dhar, she accidentally absorbs him into her mind and recruits him to fight alongside her, setting her on a quest against a warlord named Ravannavar who wishes to unseal a great power and destroy the world.

Central to Indivisible is a Valkyrie Profile-style combat system, but backed up by the kind of creative approach that comes from developers used to programming fighting games. Your party is vast, with each character showcasing very different ways of fighting, but the writing is where they're let down as each one has a paper thin personality. The general quality of writing is mediocre, with fairly predictable plot points and a deeply unlikable main character, and completionists will find themselves backtracking across the same stretches of land for hours, but beneath it all is a decent game.

A genuinely fun blend between sidescrolling-metroidvania, action-turn-based gameplay with Mario RPG-esque mechanics and every character featuring their own moveset with special and super attacks akin to a Fighting Game.

Sadly, the game unfinished with a lot of its promised features and additional characters missing, a lot of remnants of unfinished mechanics and quests, as well as a ton of questionable design choices. In short, the original developer team got completely screwed over and fired by the lead-dev, before the studio and the rights to the game were sold to 505 Games, who have no intention of adding the missing content.

The writing is questionable, with a lot of tonal whiplash between goofy and cheesy dialogue, as well as emotional moments the game tries to play straight, only for the characters to move on immediately after (The protagonist overcomes her father's death at the beginning in a few seconds tops).

The platforming and combat is really fun, but the amount of backtracking you have to do for the side quest, as the only fast travel options are between very few specific points in the map, makes it a slog towards the end. An entire character can be rendered unobtainable because the quest monsters you need to kill is highly susceptible to a glitch which makes them disappear off the map, but still being marked as "unfinished" and preventing you from obtaining the character in question.

If you're still interested in the game in spite of its many flaws, I personally recommend grabbing it during a sale or grabbing a key if you'd rather not support the lead-developer who's responsible for the game's current state as is.

"Indivisible" segue a história de Ajna, uma personagem que é descendente de heróis que selaram uma força sombria há 16 anos. Sua vida cotidiana em uma pequena vila é destruída quando um exército ataca e destrói a vila. A vida de Ajna é poupada quando ela, de alguma forma, absorve um dos atacantes, transformando-o em um aliado que é obrigado a lutar ao seu lado. Usando seu novo poder, Ajna parte em busca de vingar sua casa.

A história, no princípio, vai parecer bem genérica, mas ao longo que o jogo se passa, ela vai se demonstrando cada vez mais intrigante. Além disso, o jogo é parte 2D, possui uma pegada JRPG e uma pitadinha de Metroidvania. Ajna começa apenas com a habilidade de pular e deslizar, mas à medida que o jogo avança, ela desbloqueia novas habilidades, que vão desde a capacidade de usar um machado até o poder de se teletransportar para inimigos e criar barreiras em paredes com espinhos. Há uma enorme quantidade dessas melhorias, e você continuará desbloqueando novas habilidades até o chefe final.

Eu adorei a jogabilidade de plataforma presente no game. O jogo começa bem devagar para não dizer básico, mas ao longo que você avança, mais fluida e divertida fica a nossa gameplay. Ele realmente proporciona um excelente senso de progressão. O sistema de combate em Indivisible também se inspira muito em JRPGs como dito antes. Quando você entra em combate, é jogado em uma tela 2D. Você tem um grupo de quatro, cada um ligado a um dos botões do controle. Pressionar esse botão faz com que o personagem ataque. Cada personagem só pode atacar uma vez no início, mas à medida que você avança, eles desbloqueiam até cinco ataques seguidos cada um. Uma vez que um personagem tenha atacado, eles têm um período de recarga, que é determinado pela velocidade do personagem e qual ataque eles usaram por último. Os inimigos seguem as mesmas regras, mas enquanto estão atacando, você tem a chance de bloquear em um mecanismo de defesa parecido com Mario RPG. Acerte o tempo corretamente e você sofre dano reduzido ou nenhum.

Outro ponto legal sobre Indivisible é que você tem uma enorme seleção de personagens, mais de 20 se você encontrar todos os recrutamentos secretos. Cada personagem joga de forma diferente. Ajna é direta com combos básicos e não pode sair do seu grupo. Dhar, seu primeiro recruta, causa muito dano. Conforme você avança, os recrutas se tornam mais diferenciados. Não são todos os personagens que são igualmente equilibrados. Alguns são incríveis e outros bem ruinzinhos, mas há uma variedade bem legal a ponto de você gostar de quase todos.

Para mim, o maior problema com o sistema de combate e o jogo tem é que, uma vez que você chega na metade, ele rapidamente se torna cansativo e repetitivo. Toda luta, incluindo as lutas contra chefes, se resume a mandar ataques o mais rápido possível, e nenhum inimigo depois de um tempo dura tempo suficiente para atacar. Quando cheguei ao chefe final, eu não tinha realmente participado de uma luta que durasse um tempo legal. Ele mais se parece com um game que de fato lembra um Metroidvania do que propriamente JRPG, já que essa parte claramente é deixada de lado ao longo do game. Isso é decepcionante por várias razões. A principal é que claramente o que faz você se apegar ao game logo de cara não é o Metroidvania, e sim o JRPG, e como eu disse antes, nem todo personagem no game é balanceado. Quando você encontra um combo de personagem certo, já era, o jogo fica muito mais muito fácil e seu dano é absurdamente alto, literalmente tudo que parecia importar no jogo era personagens de dano, não é à toa que depois de um tempo eu simplesmente abandonei os personagens de cura, pois parecia sem sentido ter um.

A outra parte decepcionante é que as lutas contra chefes, que eram o ponto forte até metade do game, são significativamente enfraquecidas por conta dos fatores citados acima. Na primeira metade, as lutas contra chefes são muito legais e envolvem muito combate e plataformas. Na segunda metade, os outros chefes foram derrotados tão rapidamente que ficava sem graça.

A triste verdade é que Indivisible parecia ser um jogo muito marcante como indie, porém quando chega metade do game, fiquei desapontado porque tudo o que amei na primeira metade simplesmente sumiu. A parte de plataforma é divertido, realmente me agradou bastante.

Uma coisa que eu achei lindo no game foram suas animações e seus gráficos. Os cenários, personagens e praticamente tudo estão incríveis aqui. Há muitos detalhes presentes no game. A única verdadeira decepção sobre os gráficos é a falta de variedade de monstros. Mesmo levando em conta variações de cores, a quantidade de inimigos se repete demais no game.

Indivisible, no geral, é um bom game. A primeira metade do jogo é emocionante, envolvente e faz um trabalho fantástico de mesclar jogos de luta, Metroidvanias, plataformas e RPGs. Infelizmente, a segunda metade só consegue acertar nos aspectos de Metroidvania e plataforma. Como está disponível no Game Pass, eu realmente recomendo bastante que joguem ele.

Pontos Positivos:
- Ampla variedade de personagens
- Gráficos interessantes pela proposta do game
- Gameplay intrigante até certo ponto.

Pontos Negativos:
- Enredo previsível
- Dificuldade deixa a desejar

Versão utilizada para análise: Xbox Series S