Infinite Links (Switch) Review
Release Date: May 11, 2022
Developer: EXE-CREATE
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch (Reviewed), Android, iOS
Price: $14.99 (Consoles), $7.99 (Mobile Premium), Free-to-Play (Mobile)
KEMCO has been developing and publishing games for quite some time now, and every single title of theirs has harkened back to the golden age of JRPGs where pixel art stood out as a wonderful art form of its own alongside their engaging stories and deep gameplay. The world-building even to this day within JRPGs is unparalleled, and while the genre has grown tenfold to adapt to new technologies to create some of the most immersive experiences ever seen within any medium, art directions tend to blend into each other with similar fantasy and anime-inspired elements that it can cause a lot of games to unfortunately look, feel, and play the same. There are certain foundations and philosophies set in place that create the DNA for certain genres, so it's unavoidable, but an identity begins to become lost and it's hard to stand out as the years pass on. KEMCO, however, provides JRPG fans like myself a chance to go back to a time that once was: A simpler time where charm exuded from every aspect of a game's pixel presentations that even included fancy menus, sound effects, and character illustrations that packaged the whole thing together in a form-fitting way. Infinite Links, much like most KEMCO games before it, continues their signature pixel-focused presentations and provides a nostalgic JRPG adventure that fans of the genre will more than likely feel right at home with, but it's not without fault as, despite being a fun game, the game itself feels generic in a lot of ways thanks to constant cliché story beats and character archetypes, but it's admittedly a fun time from beginning to end with a compelling enough adventure that you're willing to forgive the areas that are seemingly sub-par.
Infinite Links sees siblings Kronos and Serene amid training with their grandfather to prepare themselves for the Evils that plague the land. The Evils have corrupted the kingdoms for quite some time now, and even with the intention of stopping it all, their calling and goals increase tenfold once an Evil Lord, Alzoph, planning on taking over the world comes to their small village looking for talismans and kills their grandfather trying to protect them. After a small altercation that also causes Serene to become temporarily corrupt, Alzoph vanishes, and Kronos and Serene set out on an adventure with the aid of others to rescue the talismans, cleanse Serene of her growing corruption, and create peace amongst the Kingdoms that also have their agendas for the talismans in existence - all of which hold a special power of their own. Going through the lands you'll come across many dungeons, ruins, cities, and kingdoms where you'll meet new characters that will not only join you on your journey but aid you in your search to study the talismans and rid the world of the Evils that plague it, and each has their own identity that stands out and makes each immediately recognizable when traveling by foot or fast traveling.
The fast travel system is extremely useful and can be done in many locations and even to travel within each larger location by activating portals you come across, but on the world map, each area is automatically added to the list of eligible fast travel locations you can go to at any point in time. Infinite Links gets you immediately acquainted with this function once you've finished the first tutorial dungeon, and it's made immediately apparent that Infinite Links – alongside its many mechanics that are intuitive and have a multitude of quality-of-life features – is an accessible adventure that is great for those that have been long time fans of JRPGs or like to dabble in it once in a while, which is hugely appreciated. In large part, this is due to its mobile roots which KEMCO largely develops for before porting them to consoles later on, so whether you're looking to binge on Infinite Links or play through it in increments, you'll make good progress thanks to its great pacing and features that include auto-battle, auto-win (for random encounters where enemies are a significantly lower level than you), and options to increase battle speeds, text speeds, and difficulty. To make the experience more palatable and accessible, KEMCO has paid DLC options to increase progressions like large EXP and Gold multipliers, and all premium currencies that would otherwise require real money on mobile are made available in-game as well by completing tasks that can be accomplished simply by playing the game, so you'll accrue a multitude of what they call Divine Gems passively as you go. These Divine Gems are extremely useful as the Shop that's accessible through your main menu has a wide range of offerings including the aforementioned EXP and Gold multipliers, as well as Stat boosts, better drops, treasure keys to immediately unlock difficult to open chests, and locations, and much more that will inevitably make you feel like a Godly warrior once you've unlocked it all.
Having options like those available will ultimately make the game much more palatable to a wide range of players, and with RPGs being notoriously long, it's nice to still have that sense of adventure without feeling like thirty hours could have easily been shaved off of an 80-hour game due to nonsensical filler content that adds artificial and unnecessary bloat. With KEMCO having such a large focus on mobile content, they understand this best compared to most that have RPG offerings on the mobile platforms, and having all content included in their console ports makes the games translate well, especially with the added controller support. Everything within Infinite Links is intuitive and easy to read which makes the entire experience feel comfortable, and even with quite a bit of depth to its resource and equipment management system like being able to upgrade and craft equipment, implementing fragments into armor for added stat boosts, setting formations that can help with buffs to party members, and forming new moves with Talismans on a skill board, it never once feels like the menus are exploding with information and complexity to give a false sense of depth or prove something to the "hardcore" fans of the genre. Infinite Links knows what it's doing mechanically and does it well for the most part, and its illustrations, pixel art, and overall structure and pacing provide enough to keep things consistently fun and engaging—it's arguably one of KEMCO's best offerings in quite some time.
While there's no denying that a lot of it is what you would find in your standard RPG Maker-developed game, even for those that aren't made that way, Infinite Links still has plenty of flaire within it that undoubtedly makes it one of the better budget JRPG adventures you can find on the Nintendo eShop, alongside other KEMCO titles which tend to do the same. The battle sequences are usually what stand out the most, as you're able to place your party in a 3x3 grid that will determine damage taken and dealt, and the designs of the environments have a subtle 3D feature next to the detail of the enemies and attacks themselves make the battles feel fun and worthwhile, even while grinding. Infinite Links' battle system also has a semi-real-time feature that shows a turn order depending on speed up at the top of the screen, and this can be manipulated any which way depending on status ailments, equipment, base stats, and more from character to character. While the traditional archetypes exist here, the characters are compelling enough that you like to see how they function with each other in battle, and as your team grows and dynamics change, it keeps Infinite Links fairly fresh throughout and rarely tumbles into a roadblock that feels artificially placed to force the player to grind especially if you've already been doing so. The biggest complaint I have, however, is that while most of Infinite Links feels consistent and well-packaged, the enemy variety quite honestly makes no sense with everything going on. Infinite Links feels like your standard fantasy-inspired RPG with a focus on relics, talismans, and the like that would remind most of Uncharted or Tomb Raider, yet when you head into battle you can easily find yourself going up against a skeleton who's next to a wolf, who's then next to a siren, and then next to a robot with the occasional surprise metal slime that pops up akin to Dragon Quest. It doesn't quite make any sense, but frankly, I didn't care much as this was the only real part of the game that took me out of the immersion as I began questioning things, and even after doing so, I'd continue to let it slide because repeatedly finding and slaying monsters of various types grants rewards from a compendium that tracks every enemy seen.
Infinite Links has plenty of depth that spans the coast of its lands you'll traverse thanks to added side-missions and activities like Arenas in which you'll test your strength and the all the crafting that goes on to utilize the most out of the Fatal Moves and element types that will undoubtedly help you steamroll through the game. All of this will vary Infinite Links' length depending on how you've set things up and what you've unlocked, but I'd be surprised if it took someone more than twenty hours to beat - and even then that's a bit of a stretch as it took me the better part of 12-15 hours, which also felt like went by rather quickly once again thanks to its well-paced gameplay. If you've played other KEMCO published titles, you'll already know what you'll be getting into with Infinite Links, but it still has its own identity and a good enough cast of characters that I believe most will want to see the journey through to the end as the relationships grow, change, and twist throughout your adventure. Some of the scenarios can feel cliché, sure, but you appreciate the simplicity of what it does and not having to overstep boundaries just to make things convoluted for the sake of trying to impress the more hardcore crowd of JRPG lovers. There's a lot to like about Infinite Links that I think will please more casual players than hardcore ones, but even the hardcore crowd like myself should have something to appreciate here as the simplicity of it all makes the experience oddly relaxing as you're essentially on auto-pilot while playing the game. From a compelling enough group of characters, diverse kingdoms, and biomes, as well as a battle system that's palatable and intuitive, Infinite Links is a great pick-me-up for those wanting a budget-friendly JRPG that won't ask too much of you while still providing an epic that's engaging enough to sink your teeth into no differently than the juggernauts of the genre.
PROS:
The 16-bit pixel art is wonderfully done and keeps getting better with each new KEMCO release
Characters are compelling enough that you're interested in their stories as you go through the story with them
With plenty of options available, Infinite Links is extremely accessible and lends itself well to both short and long sessions of gameplay due to its mobile roots
CONS:
Infinite Links can often feel generic as it follows the same formula and style of every traditional JRPG, especially those that are more mobile-centric.
Music has no transition and cuts in and out at such a rapid pace that it can, at times, feel cacophonous when opening treasures, then leveling up, changing areas, entering battle, and going into cutscenes that have multiple moods.
Our utmost gratitude goes to KEMCO for providing us a copy of Infinite Links for the purpose of this review!