Game Review #245: Neo ATLAS 1469 (Nintendo Switch)

Updated: Oct 8, 2019

Reviewer: FrankieW

Developer: Artdink

Publisher: NIS America

Category: Adventure, Simulation, Role-Playing

Release Date: April 19th 2019

Price (at time of review): $49.99

Buy Neo ATLAS 1469 from the Nintendo Switch eShop here.

Buy Neo ATLAS 1469 (physically) from Amazon here.

Explore the Old World!

Neo ATLAS 1469 puts you behind the reigns of discovering the world, from Europe to beyond! It refers to itself as a “New World Exploration Simulation” and I don’t think I could come up with a better name. It's a new idea that is perfectly self-described! You play as the decision-maker of a trading company you inherited and it is your job to explore the world, find treasures, and keep your company afloat. To do this, you will be trading and exploring in order to find the best trade routes and the best items to trade, all while putting down rumors that come up in other areas! Let's get into Neo ATLAS 1469 a little more together.

Command your fleet

The gameplay will have you commanding an increasingly large collection of admirals and their collective fleets in addition to having to manage the business side of the trading company. You’ll accomplish this by building trade routes between areas to make money so you can pay your Admirals their yearly salary to stay afloat as a company. A cool bonus is the ability to produce new trade items by, for example, having a place that trades grapes trade with a city who produces barrels which will allow you to get wine as a trade item! So far I have made TONS of combinations of items so the selection seems pretty vast in terms of what you can make; gunpowder, jewelry, and more! If you have some intuition, you can rack in the riches with these combined items! But don’t let your funds go into the negative, or else it's game over!

Disprove myths, discover truths!

Each of your admirals have different capabilities and abilities. Some are smart, some are amazing explorers, and some can dive under the depths of the ocean in order to loot wrecked ships! Each of them are also packed with personality. Having to classify this game is very tough. Its part graphic novel, with padded out characters interacting with each other as you make your way through everyone's quest lines that deal with their actual characters, but then you are also playing a capitalism simulator - chasing riches, buying low, and selling high! And then beyond that, you have the world exploration mechanic!

Your company is based in Europe, and that is all that is known to you! Some people think the world is flat, some people think India is a country made of gold and more! You will have to send your admirals out into the world to explore the unknown and dispel (or confirm!) any rumors that come up, or stories of lands unknown.

There is a little bit for everyone in this game and although it starts a little slow as it slowly trickles its mechanics to you (Which is necessary, this game has a TON in it, and to drop it all at once would be rough for the player) you find yourself multitasking the entire game flawlessly, and it is super satisfying once you get there. I certainly found myself a little lost early on as I got used to the mechanics but it didn’t take me too long to start getting a feel for the way the game wants to be played.

Wrapping up

The in-game graphics are simple but non-offensive. They convey what they need to, and character conversations are done RPG style with portraits conversing. You also occasionally get full screen illustrations for events and such, which are pretty. The music is there, but to me it didn’t stick out. After a bit I popped on some of my own music and just had the sound effects going. The sound effects are crisp as well, but nothing that stuck with me. Happy cheer for mission success, downbeat sadness for a failure. Most of the gameplay is done with numbers or watching ships sail, so at the price point for $49.99 this might not be for everyone.

This is actually an entry in a long running series of games dealing with similar elements that we never got here in the states, but Asian countries have long loved this style of game! Neo ATLAS 1469 surprised me with a game I didn’t think I would get into, but slowly and surely I found myself loving exploring this world, making money, and dissolving the secrets of an old time! I loved that the world wasn’t just the world we live in, but this earth can certainly be VERY different from the one we live on. I give Neo ATLAS an 8/10!