One of the larger booths at PAX East this year was for a mobile game called AFK Journey. AFK Journey is playable on mobile devices as well as PC. I was able to schedule an appointment with some hands on time with AFK Journey. I played the PC version but the mobile version appears to be exactly the same. Before you come after me, you’re able to have your save on PC and mobile. Let’s get right into AFK Journey.
AFK Journey does a nice job of setting up the story at the start of the game. You play the role of Magister Merlin who has lost his powers. A fire starts burning on the other side of town and it’s up to you to investigate, along with your familiar Chippy. It appears that no one knows that Merlin has been staying at the Mystical House and you don’t want to blow your cover. This is a cool way to introduce the customization feature where you can change the look, gender and clothing of your character. I found out that you can change the gender whenever you’d like while playing.
Start out on your journey and you will run into a vast group of characters. You will be able to build your squad when you acquire different fighters for your team. Think Pokémon Masters in terms of how you get new characters for the party. You will find letters along the adventure that you can use to recruit party members. You can get duplicates but if that happens, you can use those copies to upgrade that party member.
This is a mobile game so you can buy things with real money. Developers at the booth said that they have played the game for a long time and haven’t put a cent of real money into the game. While playing the demo at the booth, I was able to get a quite a few recruit letters and a ton of equipment so I tend to believe the idea of not having to put money into the game for purchases. However, it is a gotcha game where you have to get lucky to get characters you want for your team and that could cost money. I’m not saying you have to use real money but like most games like this, you can buy more pulls for characters.
I really like the voice acting in the game as all the characters have nice animations when you pull them and when they use their attacks in battle. You also have the ability to get variant outfits for characters and I have to say, some of the characters look pretty good regardless and that has to do with the great artwork of the game.
Lets get into the gameplay of AFK Journey. I was playing on the PC version and I think that will be my preference for the game. The mobile version makes things like daily login bonuses much easier to get since you don’t have to boot up the game on the computer. That being said, one thing I really don’t like is that there isn’t controller support for the PC version. I don’t like having to move my character with the joystick on screen with the mouse. It’s fine for the mobile version but I could have sworn the developer at the booth told me that I could play the PC version with a controller.
The game makes things very streamlined at times like when you need to equip new weapons and armor for your party. You can go into a status screen and equip equipment to all characters of that type like the Tank characters for example.
There are different groups of characters that will help you battle. Mages use magic and healers restore hit points. Archers attack with range and sword fighters fight with swords. I have a couple of animal warriors who use their strength to attack and look pretty cool doing it. It’s going to be fun getting the perfect party that looks cool and kicks ass too.
Combat is pretty cool in AFK Journey because your party members have special attacks they can use. During battle, each character has a gage that fills during the battle and when that’s full, a special attack can be used. It could range from big damage, large magic or a healing spell. You’ll see a grid pop up on screen where you can actually cast the spell/attack.
You might be out of range so be careful. You might also get lucky and have two party members be a part of the same faction. If that’s the case, they might get a power boost. There can be environmental hazards to deal with in battle as well. Exploding barrels and walls are just some of the hazards you’ll have to deal with. I say walls because they can separate the party in battle and having the party split up could be a problem.
You’ll also have to deal with strong monsters that are similar to boss fights. Have your strongest party members ready for these fights because the enemy will have a health gage that needs to be drained several times in battle. The stronger the fighters, the quicker you drain the HP bar of the monster.
Make sure you take advantage of the daily sign in bonuses that are available to you as well. When you come back into the game, make sure you collect whatever you’re able to at the chest in the bottom left corner. You can collect things and unlock AFK Stages at the same time. It’s another incentive to pop in and play daily.I have to say, I didn’t think I would attend PAX East this year and get sucked into a new mobile game. I also didn’t expect to love it and that’s what happened with AFK Journey. It’s a fun game that has a lot going for it and it’s one of my games of PAX East.
Did I mention the Waifus? I can’t not mention the waifus!