![A.W.: Phoenix Festa [学戦都市アスタリスクフェスタ 鳳華] Game Sample - PS Vita](/images/yt/8l/aw-phoenix-festa-game-sample-ps-vita-3zkbh.jpg)
A.W.: Phoenix Festa [学戦都市アスタリスクフェスタ 鳳華] Game Sample - PS Vita
28On my hunt for unusual games, I wound up acquiring the "holy grail" of the PS Vita library, Bandai Namco's "A.W. Phoenix Festa". Based on the anime and novel, "The Asterisk War: The Academy City on the Water" (aka "Gakusen Toshi Asutarisuku"), this was the second game developed by the relatively unknown team at APLUS Co., Ltd. (responsible for a few of the modern "Kunio-kun / River City" games, "Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time", and "Kill la Kill: IF") and released in the U.S. as a download-only title July 26th, 2016. While initial reviews of the game were less than positive, there is a deceptive amount of content hidden in the game's repetition for those eager enough to dig it out, but the game was permanently delisted less than 18 months later at the end of 2018 due to licensing issues and poor sales. Many thought the English version would be another title lost to the sands of digital time... and it almost was.
There is another way to get the game in English that was not well known until fairly recently -- it saw a TINY physical release in Southeast Asia (mainly Malaysia) and has since been tightly held by mostly private collectors scattered across the world (and many of the ones that surface remain unopened once the news of its cancellation broke out). I knew about this title for a while but never picked it up the first time and randomly started thinking about it when I ran into a major Vita enthusiast on the web who graciously set me up with this game and a few other English-Asian titles to be played and covered on this channel, and the rest is history. A.W.PF is a hybrid Simulation / Breeding / Visual Novel / Action-RPG arena brawler that starts from the same general point as the anime and then diverges from there as the player is presented with unique scenarios as they can pursue a romance with one of the four main heroines (and not just the "main" route like the anime / novel) as well as one hidden female route from either the perspective of Ayato Amagiri (the main character) or a custom character (friend zone).
While prior knowledge of the franchise helps in understanding some of the character's backstories and some key terminology, the game can be enjoyed without it and might be preferable as the routes are not too deep as to not clash with the novels (which are still being produced to this day). Ayato and the CC's stories unfold in different ways, but Ayato's has more robust character interactions and his campaign is shorter (dubbed Easy Mode, he comes fairly OP) as it takes place only two weeks before the Phoenix Festa while the CC gets an additional 71 days to train and be customized (facilities unlock for CC's in a more timely fashion and mechanics can be more thoroughly explored, and can be dubbed Normal Mode).
In theory, the game is an intriguing lite combination of genres and the sim / dating portion in particular doesn't find its way into too many Western releases. While not deep, each genre offers enough context without over-staying their welcome. The game allows you to set up appointments for dates and duals, buy presents and other items, take on jobs, earn titles and skills through player actions (skills having beneficial effects, titles being simply superfluous), train your stats in various areas and level up training regimens (which potentially doubles or triples their effectiveness), and more. Your character's mood also impacts the effectiveness of activities (training, dating, etc.) and most actions will impact your "Life", so having items on hand or resting is important. You can perform two actions a day and schedule events five days in advance. Fighting works well enough and players can fight with six different weapon types, execute dashes, double jumps, block, guard break, and perform three different type of "Meteo Attacks" (super moves). Two of them depend on your weapon proficiency (which maxes at level three) and health (as you can do a high-powered desperation Meteo at low health and max proficiency) while the third is Ayato / Ser-Veresta specific and requires a tag-battle heroine with a "Perfect" relationship rating. You can occasionally switch playable characters during the story or choose from a variety in vs. battles (which are Ad-Hoc only). Part of the combat foundation was used in their later "Kill la Kill: IF" title.
The graphics and sound, while not amazing, are serviceable for a Vita title (though the assets are fairly limited, there's a decent amount of CGs and the opening, "Brilliant Star", is cool), the game has a lot of replayability (with New Game + carrying over skills) and the localization is surprisingly competent, but the game doesn't excel in any given area and has an almost complete lack of challenge and an abundance of RNG (see pin). There was a similar AW game made for mobile in 2016 with Gatcha, but it was shut down multiple times. It would be a great entry-level title for those trying to get into this type of game if it wasn't so rare now.