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0 LumenTale: Memories of Trey is an Action, Adventure, RPG from Beehive Studios with assistance from Team17. The game uses a turn-based combat system similar to other such games. However there’s a catch, you’ll get to have a team of four Animon fighting at the same time! But, there are a few other twists in this game that really have you strategizing. Yet, I did try to do some online battles to no avail. Now let’s fling out Holoken and start the show!
What do you mean I can’t do Yo-yo tricks when using the Holoken! I wanted to do an around the world trick before catching one!
Gameplay
LumenTale: Memories of Trey has you start off with a quiz that I still don’t know what it was for. Although after a few minutes of answering those questions, you wake up as Trey. An android that was discovered by Ales when coming into town to live with his uncle Professor Kapan. We discover that Ales is actually afraid of Animon because of the incident that killed his parents. However his uncle has been trying to get him back into wanting to be a Lumen.
Besides the lore and backstory of the characters, we got the Animons that we can choose as a starter. Which in this case, you get to choose from five different Animons. After selecting your chosen partner, the game has you going through about an hour or so of tutorials. After some time, you finally get the chance to decide if you want to go North or South. Now depending which way you go, the story breaks into two paths with you heading one way until it’s complete.
Throughout your adventure you can encounter specific Animons that reside in certain regions. Some would be easy to capture by either fighting or doing so while out in the wild. But doing that method left a slight bad taste in my mouth because of the fact of the controller choices. Steam recognizes that I’m using a PlayStation controller, but the game goes straight to the Xbox format. The reason I bring it up is because the capture method when using the Holoken is a QTE. There is no room for error and will make some people a bit mad when adapting the speed of the capture.
Advancment in Animon Technology
With each level up for the Animon, you can set points into that Animon’s stats. It’ll take only 3 points to increase a stat point up by one. Which thankfully is getting to full control of how to fully build my Animons. There’s even the fact that grinding is a light breeze with me just flinging my HoloKen with an Animon selected. Doing this one shots a wild Animon, gives your exp and gives you resources.
But you can also fight the wild Animons if there are a few that can survive the attack. Which is the perfect time to capture the Animon if you haven’t or just to scan them if they don’t get in the sphere! Now we also have an evolution that is a bit different. Once you’ve reached certain level caps for any Animon, you can choose to evolve them. Some have one evolution, while others have none, but each of the starters have four count it, FOUR EVOLUTIONS!
Now the last thing I want to touch on is the combat during the turn base portion. You all get a turn order that you can see who goes when. If you plan it correctly, you can easily beat the toughest of Animons. However, I need to bring up what will make everyone’s brain go into overdrive. The SP system is shared among the whole team and you have to calculate which move is worth using.
You can accidently burn through all the SP before ever reaching your last Animon and needing to pass. Even using an item costs some SP, so plan carefully and don’t rush though it. But, something else you should keep your eyes out for is the TP Action. It builds up from each time you land an attack the enemy is weak to. The TP Action allows you to do another attack with no SP cost.
Graphics and Audio
Now this part I really wanted to touch on because I love the blend of going between pixel art and clean 2-d portraits. The character portraits have different images that show their emotions during certain scenes. For example, Trey has a scene where the line reads as if he’s in distress. Beehive Studios took amazing care into making PNGs for each tone being represented. The other attention to detail I want to cover is the unique designs of the Animon.
The creative ideas that were made for each of these creatures never triggered the “this Animon looks like so and so.” Which is pretty refreshing to have to see new elements for the types. Even the capture mechanic is creative with the thoughts of a yo-yo or yo-yo balloon. Looking at the map of the whole region and how beautifully crafted it looks from the map Blanco shows us. Even the fusion of using a 3-d world and a pixel art model just gives me a great feel of interest.
But, that’s not all! I feel the part that really got me wanting to see the art team’s work was the TCG that’s in the game! These cards look so amazing and personal since each one has a different style invested into them. I already have a favorite card being the Canabble card being surrounded with ingredients. Seriously, I would try to get a poster or something of this card and place it on my wall.
I’ve talked enough about the graphics, now let’s talk about the music and sounds in the game. During my adventure, the music did change depending on the region I went to and whenever battle started. There is even a different song playing when you battle other Lumen. Even the boss fights have some good music. Which I don’t mind listening to again even after they beat me into the ground from underestimating them.
Longevity
I’m currently 40 hours in and that’s because I’ve been trying to get every card from the TCG portion as my focus. There’s also trying to fill the AniWiki and back tracking certain areas with the HoloKen powers I unlock throughout the journey. Once you’ve at least got one of each type, you should be able to rotate your team. Based on your need for the HoloKen power or to get ready to fight anything you come across to help capture them in battle.
Just remember that, like other creature capture games, you will be going for one very long haul.
Final Thoughts
My time with the game has been enlightening. There are several flaws that I came across like the ability to see or remember Animon’s attacks. This is just one of a few things I hope they’re able to fix besides the issue with the controller choices I’ve encountered. I played on both the PC and on my Steam Deck and got to say that I rather play it on my Steam Deck. For a game like LumenTale: Memories of Trey, it feels more comfortable playing it in handheld mode.
There is also the ending that felt kind of lackluster that almost killed my motivation to try to continue my completionist route. Again I hope this does get resolved over time. However, it is Beehive Studio to make the changes and we have a lot of time for change to happen.
I give LumenTale: Memories of Trey the Thumb Culture Gold Award
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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