Kickstarter Shout-out: Indivisible

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With the Indiegogo campaign Them’s Fightin Herds getting funded, it made me realize that, like I said in my last Kickstarter Shout-out, that Indiegogo is not really that good with having quality video game projects. Not only do they clump in board games, but many of the projects are just mediocre. There is an obvious issue with quality control, and I feel like a lot of indie developers would do better by going to Kickstarter instead, or try out that new crowd-funding platform, Fig. The reason I say this is because of one of the best Indiegogo campaigns going on right now, Indivisible. It’s being developed by the same team that made the indie fighter hit, Skullgirls. Unfortunately, either due to bad timing or a combination of things, the slow pace that it’s getting funded is raising some concerns. Then again, this is Kickstarter Shout-out, so I must be talking about this game for a reason. Let’s dive in.



You play as Anja, a tomboy who was trained in the way of martial arts by her father in a small rural town. Unfortunately, a group of warlords attack her town, since warlords are jerks. During that attack, Anja finds out that she can absorb individuals known as Incarnations that can help her in battle. She then sets off to get revenge on her town, and take down the evil villains that wronged her.



Indivisible is an action RPG with a splash of Valkyrie Profile and a little Metroidvania with the ability system. As you traverse these levels, you will gain items that you can use in combat or exploration, like the axe can help you cling to walls, and arrows can be used to hit far off levers. So, how does the combat work? If you have played Valkyrie Profile, then it’s basically that. You will run around the 2D levels and run into visible enemies.  Each of the face buttons on your controller will represent a different character, and each character has his or her own abilities, and pressing the face buttons will have them attack enemies. Each character is limited by the number of attacks by a meter that will refill. Beating a certain number of enemies will upgrade that bar so you can unleash even more devastating attacks. There will be another bar at the top of the screen that will fill up the more you attack or take damage. You can either use that specific bar to defend yourself, or use your character’s super moves, like the woman with the tiger pelt can heal everyone, and Anja can unleash a huge amount of melee damage. Each character also has a lower, mid, and upper attack depending on where you tilt the analog stick. The developers have kindly put a really good playable demo that gives you a huge amount of feeling about how the game will work. You get a good-sized level and a big boss at the end. The gameplay is satisfying, but challenging. You need to learn how to attack each enemy the best way possible.



Since this is made by the people who made Skullgirls, the 2D-animated graphics are pretty freaking good. Fluent animation, great character design, and a lot of personality and passion were put into how everything looks and moves. Granted, the 2.5D levels don’t look as good, but then again, that was the case with the original Valkyrie Profile. The music is also pretty fun to listen to. It’s well composed by famed composer Hiroki Kikuta, who worked on the Secret of Mana series and Koudelka.



Now then, it’s time to talk about my concerns. For one, I think the price point for entry for a free copy is rather high. I feel like an early bird special would have worked, since this part of the year, people are saving up for holiday gifts for the family/friends. $30 is a pretty steep entry point. Since I just mentioned this time of the year, that is also a problem. It’s usually not a good idea to release Kickstarters during certain times of the year. Sure, you can say those charts that show when it’s the best and worst time to put up crowd-funding projects are not true at all, except that they are. This is why last year, I stopped covering Kickstarters around November, since a lot of Kickstarters I talked about and looked up didn’t do well, but then did better at a later date. Indivisible should have also waited to either be on Kickstarter or Fig. Again, this is just from a personal point of view, and while I only pay attention to the gaming section, there is a reason why a lot of the big and well-known developers go to Kickstarter or sign up to Fig rather than Indiegogo.



However, I do have faith in this project. It has a lot of what makes a good crowd-funding campaign by being detailed on their page, actual game footage, and having downloadable demo/prototype of the game. I just think due to a combination of bad timing, maybe being on the wrong site, and a few other elements, that it might fail due to how slow the funding is going. Maybe it’s also because they made a fighting game, but who knows. I do think they will make it, and I hope more people find out about this project. Congratulations, Lab Zero, Indivisible gets my Kickstarter Shout-out!

(if you want to support this project, go to this link!)