Developed by Asuka Watanabe and published by Regista, Mist World The After was released on console for the Nintendo Switch on August 5, 2021. It the actually the second entry to the Mist World series of which was created by the aforementioned Asuka Watanabe. The series has been mobile exclusive to the iOS platform and as of now, this has been the only one ported to consoles. It is only available in Japanese as well.
A traditional RPG story minecrafted
Allow me to translate from the Nintendo store page where you can buy the game if you can access the Japanese e-shop. There are no official translations for the names so bear with me as I make them sound the best I can:
“Ignats as a hunter was in charge managing the forest in which he lived with his late grandfather. Recently, he felt that strange monsters were appearing more and more. To search for the origin of this phenomenon, he headed to the capital. At which time in the capital, an incident which the theft of a forbidden book which concerns the evil deity Nisfor occurred. Together with the librarian Mari, Ignats pursues the disappearance of the forbidden book. What is made clear is that someone is conspiring to revive the evil deity. Will Ignats be able to the stop the revival of the evil deity!?”
It kind of helps if you know the series but I would not say it is a requirement
I started this game not even knowing there were other entries to the series despite the obvious subtitle of after being in the title. After looking at some information, I could see there were some shared similarities even with reappearing characters in the titles. However, I was enjoying the story as is and would say it is not a prerequisite to start off with the first Mist World (even though the two characters in the main title screen are not the first two characters you control).
[…Ignats, take the kid with you and run] proclaims Ignats’ late grandfather before he meets his demise fighting off the monster in front of him.
Ignats’ home in the middle of the forest somewhere
You start off the game here with the character you control being the darkish-haired one in between the trees and not the cloaked one by the water.
The man underneath the hood
You will fight your first battle with the cloaked figure as shown in the screenshot above this one. Although this is a symbol-encounter battle, normal enemies are fought by way of random battles. The encounter rate can seem kind of high at times but opinions may vary. Monsters in this game tend to have a light-hearted appearance to them and gives the game a similar appeal.
Let’s take a look at the basic fighting menu at the top-left in order from top to bottom and perhaps very obvious description of them:
Regular Attack: Carried out with your equipped weapon.
Defend: Lowers received damage.
Skill: Use a special move that requires the use of MP. There are several different moves for each character.
Item: Use an expendable item.
Run: Flee from battle
A bird’s eye view
[The mysterious map is an item that allows you to view your surroundings for five seconds. Because it is expendable, it will disappear upon use.] Because of the style of graphics, some things may be hard to see or you may get lost. Using a mysterious map lets you see a zoomed out view of the area. However, it only lasts five seconds. You can get around this by just taking a screenshot with your Nintendo Switch and looking at it later should you need to.
Camera 1
Dungeon crawler style view akin to the first Mist World series title.
Camera 2
An isometric angled view that most RPGs older and some newer ones employ. Whichever view you choose to play from, they can be toggled at any time via buttons.
An old staple
As you can see in the screenshot above, there is a huge treasure room that alas is locked by a key the player wouldn’t have at the moment upon first visit. This game takes some classic staples from RPG series greats like Dragon Quest and utilizes them in this game. For example, there are several types of locked doors which require different keys to get. There is also locked chests and a rich young maiden who collects old coins in which you have to search the game throughout to get.
Your first ally
[I have some business to tend to in the capital and was just on my way. Do you want to come with me?] Ignats on the right talks to Mari on the left after he rescued her from a monster. She is a healer and magic-user type and definitely comes in handy when battling.
One monster’s drop is another man’s treasure
One major thing that sets Mist World apart from other RPGs is that almost every monster can potentially drop a piece of equipment. This equipment may or may not be better than what the player has so you have to keep battling to find out for each monster. However, the drop rate for each piece of equipment from each monster is about 5% so basically one out of twenty chance to get it.
That RPG healing
[The party’s status has been completely healed] Whenever you see a light shining like in the photo above, head to it and it will completely heal your party.
Ain’t nobody moving boxes but us chickens
[“If you check that box over there, you can push it…got it?” I feel it is saying] There are some standard puzzle elements in Mist World like moving boxes similar to the Legend of Zelda and other action-adventure RPGs.
Tweet the developer should you want a localization
As this game is made by one person, chances are that contacting her might show that there is enough interest to localize this game in English. She can be reached here if you want to show your support.
I’d hate to be that person but look at a program called smile game builder. In terms of character design they seem to be the basic ones that comes with the program. Hopefully the story is good but no matter what good for her for being able to put a game together with that limited and frustrating engine. Regardless of the asset flip, that is an accomplishment in it self. If it ever gets an English translation I’d give it a try,
Hey, I didn’t know about the program. Thanks for letting me know. In that case, I still like the basic character designs although they weren’t created by the maker of this game. I will alter that section.
I know the creator, Asuka, made the game by herself but didn’t how many pre-built elements were involved.
I asked her about a English translation on twitter, but she only speaks Japanese so she can’t do it herself.
The buy link says Steam but is the Nintendo store
Ops, Fixed. Thanks 🙂
I’d hate to be that person but look at a program called smile game builder. In terms of character design they seem to be the basic ones that comes with the program. Hopefully the story is good but no matter what good for her for being able to put a game together with that limited and frustrating engine. Regardless of the asset flip, that is an accomplishment in it self. If it ever gets an English translation I’d give it a try,
Hey, I didn’t know about the program. Thanks for letting me know. In that case, I still like the basic character designs although they weren’t created by the maker of this game. I will alter that section.
I know the creator, Asuka, made the game by herself but didn’t how many pre-built elements were involved.
I asked her about a English translation on twitter, but she only speaks Japanese so she can’t do it herself.