Wild Arms 2 Review

Being the second game in a newly created series is pretty tough. It’s a fine line to walk between alienating the fan base with too much innovation and not attracting any new players with new features. Wild Arms 2 (The 2nd Ignition) tends to err on the side of the former. There are some changes, but most of the gameplay follows pretty directly from the first game. For all that, there is a totally different approach to the story. With a mix of old and new, it’s an intriguing game to look into.

The story starts off, like the first Wild Arms, with a separate intro for each of the three main characters. Ashley gets his stuff together as a dungeon explorer, Lilka shows off as the puzzle solving magical girl she is, and Brad tries to escape capture for the war cries he didn’t really commit. Say what? Yeah, in an attempt to keep up interest among older players, there’s some really darker themes in this story, with more nuances to the villains than there were in the previous game. Not bad, considering the villains of the previous game were a diverse lot. And there’s all sorts of political maneuvering in the story of Wild Arms 2. The main problem with the story is the format it takes. Rather than have players follow a relatively straight path, wandering from objective point to objective point for most of the game, Wild Arms 2 casts you as the members of a paramilitary organization, Operation Arms. As such, you get orders from your direct superior/founder of the organization, Vincefelt. You do everything from stop terrorist organizations to unearth ancient artifacts to, yes, save the world from destruction. This makes the pacing pretty choppy, as you frequently don’t see the link between one mission and the next. There’s also the issue of an extremely poor localization. Grammar, spelling, and syntax are strained beyond credibility in a fair number of instances, leaving you wondering what is really going on in the game’s complex storyline.

On the other hand, the characters are excellent. Boasting the largest roster of characters in the main series (if you include guest characters) and tied with the remake, the game’s eight characters are all moderately well developed. One of the most notable is Brad, who is a gristly old war veteran from the losing side who might just be gay, but certainly has some deep issues to deal with. Kanon is a bounty hunter who has replaced nearly all her body parts with cybernetic implants in an attempt to live up to the feats performed by her highly renowned distant ancestor, Anastasia the sword princess. Even Maribel, the optional character, has development regarding her loneliness as a crimson noble (read: vampire) who has outlived all her friends by hundreds of years. She even has the only cameo in the series before the fifth game came along.

Each character has a number of interesting attributes. They have their own force abilities, usable at the expenditure of 25% increments on the force gauge. They also have their own set of special attacks, which are learned in different ways for each character. Ashley finds his in chests, Lilka combines two elements together on each crest graph she obtains, Brad gets his out of chests that only he can open, Maribel sucks the blood of certain enemies enough times to learn a spell, and Tim learns his by defeating enemies with a certain medium equipped. The mediums make a return, acting as summon spirits. However, each also has its own custom command, like steal, invincibility (for one turn) or a killer blow (which does double damage if it hits). The only catch is that mediums can only be summoned when Tim is on the battlefield. You can only have three members out at a time, so you have to switch party-members in and out of battle to succeed. With magic points abolished, a character’s force level is what gives them access to special attacks, giving a little bit more strategic management to the combat system. All in all, it’s a lot more of a strategic affair than the first game, which had a relatively simple battle system. Apart from these changes, the basic format of battles remains much the same. You enter all your commands at once, and then they play out in order of the response attribute of the combatants. Unfortunately, since you can skip random battles around 75% of the time by pressing a button, the strategy is to some degree optional.

Each character also gets three tools, which function for puzzle solving much like they did in the first game. However, because there’s so many characters, there are a lot more tools, and a lot of them only get used a couple times. Even so, the puzzles in this game are excellent, and in some cases even a little more interesting than the puzzles in the first game. One particular example comes to mind, which involves the gods after whom the days of the week were named. The word puzzles you encounter can be really tricky, and add an element of difficulty to an otherwise pretty easy game (not counting optional bosses, who are custom made to be extremely difficult).

The replay value in this game is pretty limited. Despite the mission format of the story, it’s pretty linear until the very end. You do get to give your characters certain abilities when they level up. Basically, you get a certain number of points to spend on passive character enhancements like increased attack power or resistance to poison. That’s all fine and dandy, but it has little effect on the game. Especially since there’s only a few good options. Hmnmm, I could get an ability that blocks physical attacks, which basically every enemy in the game uses, or I could be immune to this one status ailment I’ve never seen before except in one boss fight, when said boss only rarely even used the attack. So, I’d say this game’s rating is “Replayable only for the truly obsessive or the criminally bad at managing.” There’s really no point in playing the game again, apart from nostalgia that you can get for any game.

Overall, Wild Arms 2 somehow just doesn’t fare as well as the first game. Maybe it’s the poor localization, maybe it’s the pacing of the story, maybe it’s just that it’s no longer a fresh concept. It’s still a great game, and has some of the best characters in the series, but it’s just not quite as fun as the first game. It ranks in at 8.0. Solid, dependable, and pretty much the middle point of what you get in an RPG. Better than mediocre, but not great either.

Quick Tip: The blocker skill is really useful. It blocks physical attacks with certain probability based on the level of the skill. Though it’s a good choice for all characters, it’s a must for all you squishy omnimages.

Fun Fact: In an unusual multigenre crossover, Ashley has a poster of Vash the Stampede in his room. The creators of Wild Arms have admitted that Trigun was a creative influence for the series.

If you liked this game, you should try one of these games. Wild Arms: Alter Code f  has just as many playable characters and a pretty similar battle system, while Wild Arms 5 has cameos from playable characters in Wild Arms 2. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is in a lot of ways a sister game, being an evolution on the first game in its series that added a significant amount of content. Final Fantasy VIII has some its share of unique character attributes, and also has a similarly sci-fi world.

Wild Arms Review

 

I’ve missed a few weeks now, but to make up for it, I’ve got a special feature. This week, I’m going to review the entire Wild Arms main series, back-to-back. Today starts off with Wild Arms. This game came out for the Playstation in 1997. It was the first rpg on the system to use 3d battle graphics. The story follows a protagonist who, though largely silent, speaks a little bit over the course of the game. This shows that this game is not exactly your older brother’s jrpg. The plot runs that the planet is dying, due to the loss of mystical energy necessary to sustain life. In addition there’s an ambiguous stranger who at some points helps the party, but ultimately helps an extraterrestrial terror, whom he addresses as “Mother,” in her attempts to destroy the world. Sound just a tad familiar? Well, Wild Arms came out before Final Fantasy VII (well duh, given when FFVII was released). Yep, all of those “revolutionary, never before seen” story elements in FFVII were already out. Was Wild Arms a better game? I guess you’ll just have to find out.

When you begin the game, you do a brief prelude with each of the game’s three playable characters. Rudy, the blue-haired protagonist, saves a town from a horrible monster, but in so doing reveals his terrible power. Jack, the treasure hunter, narrowly escapes from a ruin filled with traps, helped by his companion Hanpan, the spirit mouse. Cecilia, princess of Adlehyde, undergoes a test of her magical power, ingenuity, and compassion in the Curan Abbey. It’s a cool way to introduce the three characters, and also gives you a tutorial for various gameplay elements, as well as introducing the various segments of this Wild West themed world. Rudy does a lot of dungeon crawling, Jack has to deal with traps, and Cecilia has a lot of puzzles to solve. In honor of these preludes, I’m going to look at each of the aforementioned sections in turn, taking a break from  my usual format.

Dungeon crawling. Most rpgs have some. Battles in Wild Arms are random, so you’ll get into a fair few during your romps. The way battles play out is that you enter commands for all of your characters at the beginning of the turn, and they act in order of their Response attribute. In addition to basic attacks and items, each character has force abilities and special attacks that they can use. Special attacks involve attacking the enemy with magic, sword techniques, or guns, respective to Cecilia, Jack, and Rudy. Force abilities are a little more complicated. As you take actions in combat, the force gauge increases. Successful attacks, dodges, and parries all increase the force gauge. The higher the gauge, the more powerful your character. However, you can use the force gauge to power certain abilities, which consume 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of the gauge. For example, Jack’s 25% ability, accelerator, ensures that he acts first in combat, and also powers up his special attacks. At 100% force, each character enters “condition green” and all their status effects are cured.

Traps. This game has them. To avoid them you’ll need a decent amount of skill, which gets this game its dubious “action rpg” reputation alluded to on the case. It’s not really an action rpg, but the traps add a minor action element. To run, you hold down the x button, which charges up, and release, which starts you going. You can only run in a straight line, which makes things pretty difficult at times. Still, it makes thing interesting when you’re not even in a battle.

Puzzles. Ah, now this is where the game shines. Each character has an assortment of tools, which allows them to perform certain tasks. Rudy’s bomb’s blow stuff up, Jack’s grappling hook gets him across gaps (only when there’s a hook shot post nearby) and Cecilia’s pocket watch reverses time, resetting traps and boxes. Plus, each character can throw boxes, allowing for “hit the crystal” puzzles. There’s also a fair number of word-based puzzles, but a number of those are optional. Most puzzles are reasonably doable, but some are pretty tough. Expect to scratch your head over some puzzles for quite a while.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at the replay value on this guy. There’s no new game plus, or even bonuses at the end of the game, but you can set your characters up with different accessories and summoning mediums. But really, this game gets “play it once, and then, if you feel like you want to play it again, play the remake instead.” It’s solid, but the remake was made especially for fans, so take advantage of it.

Time to get to the thing I’ve hinted at since the beginning. Is this game better than Final Fantasy VII? Well, the short answer is no. Wild Arms is a fun game, and has a lot to recommend about it, but it’s not really comparable to Final Fantasy VII except insofar as the latter has a plot that is suspiciously reminiscent of the former. Wild Arms ranks in at about 8.6 out of 10. The story, while pretty good most of the time, occasionally has some stutters and transration moments. And, when you get right down to it, battles are a bit on the slow side.

Quick Tips: Early in the game, there’s a girl in the middle of the fair grounds who sells tiny flowers. Buy 99 of these immediately. Go out and fight battles till you have enough gella. They increase luck, and after a certain climactic point early in the game, they are exceptionally rare.

How I Broke Game: There’s an Item duplication glitch. If you only have one of an item, when you get into a battle, you can have the first two characters use heal berries on themselves, then have the third character switch the place (in your inventory) of the heal berry and the item to be duplicated, and then attack, you’ll get 255 of the duplicated item. I did this, and beat Ragu Ragla. The final boss was unfortunately easy after this. It’s cheap, but it is the only time I’ve ever beaten Ragu Ragla.

If you liked this game, you should try out one of these games. Wild Arms 2 is almost exactly the same system, with exactly the same font J. Wild Arms Alter Code: F is the remake of this game for the Playstation 2. It’s completely faithful to the original, the story isn’t changed significantly, and has more playable characters. Wild Arms 5 is basically filled with nostalgic sidequests involving older Wild Arms games, so that’s another good choice. As far as other series go, well, Final Fantasy VII is basically the same plot with a different setting (sci-punk instead of sci-western), and is an excellent game in its own right. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete fall into a slightly more traditional battle system, but in the end not so different that you can’t see the similarities. Tales of Destiny is a completely different battle system, being an action game and all, but the storytelling mode is not too far off.

Top 10 RPG Cutest Guys

Happy Valentine’s Day! In celebration of this wonderful holiday, we’re going to look at the top ten cutest boys in JRPGs! That’s cute in a strictly PG-13 way. We’re not getting into sexy in this article. For this list, I’m only looking at main characters. Sorry, Sephiroth is not going to be on this list. Also, to represent a broader range, each game series only gets one entry on the list. After all, I wouldn’t want to neglect lesser known pretty boys after having every single Final Fantasy  dude on there. I’m looking at the categories of looks, personality, and character development. I also want to look at what the character does in-game, because they are supposedly part of the team. So, let’s get down to business.

10. Vyse, from Skies of Arcadia. Vyse is a daredevil. An absolutely crazy daredevil. He has a strong sense of adventure, and unflagging optimism that is remarkably contagious. His monocle goggle is pretty cool, as well as his silly shirt sleeves. Overall, he’s moderately handsome in a rugged sort of way. He learns how to get serious over the course of the game, but that’s about it for his development as a character. In battle, he’s unfortunately just your standard physical attack specialist. He can cast magic just like the rest of the party, but he’s usually more effective attacking.

9. Hiro, from Lunar 2. This guy is kinda cute, with his face markings playing off his tan skin pretty nicely. He’s really curious and excited about the world, but he manages to be remarkably empathetic towards people who are in trouble. He manages, narrowly, to avoid being unthinkingly-in-love, but only by deepening his initial attraction to the first girl he sees. In battle, he’s actually pretty versatile, with the standard male RPG protagonist  physical attacks being supplemented by wind magic. He’s still pretty classic, but there’s just a little bit more to him.

8. Hero, Dragon Quest VIII. No, his real name isn’t “hero.” You just get to name him. And, somehow, even despite being a silent protagonist, you really get to know this character. He’s a bit of generic do-gooder, but he proves himself to be dependable and loyal. His character doesn’t receive much development though. Maybe it’s because he’s so generally likeable that he rates as high as this on the list. In battle, he’s basically the best character. He’s got a solid mix of skills, with some healing magic thrown in with travel and attack magic. He has all around decent to good stats, and has a number of good equipment options. In a word, he has subtle protagonist powers, in that he’s very good, but not broken.

7. Oswald, from Odin Sphere. Oswald is a creepy stalker. In a good way. Despite the fact that he decides that he loves Gwendolyn before she even meets him, and then takes her from her father as payment for services rendered, he ends up respecting her freedom. He’s definitely a melodramatic character even for the game he appears in, and is more than a bit emo. He’s really stick thin, but his face is pretty enough, in a dark sort of way. As a character, he handles like a brick. He has the highest starting hit points, but that’s about all he has going for him. His combos don’t work very well, and shadow form is just not very useful.

6. Adell, from Disgaea 2. Adell’s got some pretty nice guns, and his shirt definitely shows them off pretty well. He’s one of those neighborhood guys type of person, with a strong sense of honor. His character doesn’t really develop over the normal course of the game, so not much going for him there. He’s pretty solid in battle though. Not quite as stupidly overpowered as Laharl, he’s a great physical attacker. His magic could use some work, but all in all, he’s very useful. Too bad he ends up playing such a traditional role.

5. Yosuke Hanamura, from Persona 4. Okay, Yosuke’s attractiveness might be a little questionable to some, he radiates a perfect “boy next door” kind of cute. He’s super awkward, and has his class-clowny moments, but he really does have a fair amount on his plate, and he deals with it in a surprisingly touching way. His looks aren’t anything great, but on the other hand, he isn’t hard on the eyes. In battles, he’s your wind elemental specialist, though he gets a few healing spells on the side. His stats are pretty middle of the road, meaning he’s a solid addition to basically any party.

4. Zelos Wilder, from Tales of Symphonia. Zelos may be a playboy, but his heart is somehow in the right place. His long hair, held by a headband, is alright, but mostly his best feature is that he has the balls to wear a speedo. His development is interesting, as it’s never quite clear whether or not he’s actually on your side. In battles he’s your jack of all trades, with a solid mix of attack magic, healing magic, and sword skills. While he never excels at anything, he’s a fun character to play as, and can fill in for another character that you don’t like as much.

3. Arnaud G. Vasquez, from Wild Arms 4. Arnaud is pretty cute in his tight bell-bottoms, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. While he tries to be upbeat and might seem not to take anything seriously, he actually cares very deeply about those around him. He takes the role of the adult in the party, even though he’s only 18 himself. In the end he proves himself to be a “good man,” and sticks by his woman no matter what. He’s your attack mage in the game, which is actually a pretty unusual role for dudes like him, so props for that. He even has decent physical attack power and great speed, which makes him a key part of your team.

2. Riku, from Kingdom Hearts II. Okay, this is slightly spoileriffic, I guess, so if you care about that kinda stuff, then don’t look at this entry. But, when Riku finally joins your party at the end of the game, he’s starting to look pretty studly. Maybe a little bit on the sullen side, but with his position as someone who’s had to walk between light and darkness, with emphasis on the darkness, you can’t really blame him. His development is okay in this game, what with his whole issue about being ashamed to face Sora and all. In battle, he’s a pretty handy ally, and the only ally you have for the final battle. While the sections where you have to play as him are pretty annoying, he is still a great ally.

1. Balthier, from Final Fantasy XII. While this game might not have been everyone’s favorite in the series, it sure did have one great character. Balthier’s a sky pirate, with all the dashing romanticism that implies. He’s sardonic, savvy, and just a little bit troubled by his past. As far as looks go, he’s definitely rocking those sideburns, and has a remarkably reasonable haircut for a character in a JRPG. He is also the only male character in his game with a decent shirt. His character changes a little over the course of the game, especially once you learn of his origins. Otherwise, he’s pretty close to Han Solo, which is never a bad thing. In battle, well, that might not really apply to this game, since all characters end up exactly the same by the end. Still, when you get him, his gun skills will prove to be a nice complement to the melee attacks the other characters favor.

Anyhow, that’s that. Next year you can look forward to the girls. Everyone knows you have to go through the men’s hot spring to get to the women’s hot spring.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Review

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is one of the first games I remember reading about in a magazine. It got a huge amount of hype for being the first in the series to feature fully 3-D environments, and also for having cell-shaded graphics that would best show off the artwork of Akira Toriyama. Bearing for the first time the rightful title of the series, this game was a little surprising to a lot of people in America, who knew the series as Dragon Warrior instead. For whatever reason, the series was hugely popular in Japan, but only moderately successful in the States. Even so, Dragon Quest VIII  got people’s attention. I didn’t get to play the game for a long time after I read about it, but when I did, I found that there had been some really great design that went into it.

The game begins with you heading into town with a wagon, accompanied by a small Namekian and a scruffy bandit type. You jump straight into the quest with a minimum of exposition, basically to the effect of “evil jester cursed the kingdom, and you’re out to stop him.” The story starts off kinda slow, and meanders significantly, but by the end of the game, you get a pretty decent plot. The game plays out mostly as a bunch of side-quests, many of which are really fairy-tale-like. For example, in one kingdom, you have to help a king who is grieving for his dead wife to extremes, and to solve the problem, you have to go to a certain hilltop at night, and pass through a door made of the shadows of the moon. Inside, you find an elf, who uses his music to reunite the king with the good memories of his wife. It’s mostly unnecessary to the main plot, but it’s a pleasant little story. And if the main plot is not very good for a long while, the side stories are well-written. Also, if the cell-shading doesn’t make this game look like an anime, it at least makes it seem something like a colored manga, with running gags and some pretty good still shots.

The characters in this game are pretty interesting, with a number of really deep side characters, as well as some well-developed villains. The ultimate evil villain isn’t very great, but some of the minor villains along the way do some devious stuff. The playable characters are decent, if not 100% great. Yangus is an ex-bandit, who has his gruff, earthy ways, but a good heart. Jessica is an aristocratic sorceress who is kind to everyone, especially children. And Angelo is a templar by name and a flirt by habit, with a sardonic approach to most things. The main character doesn’t get much, because he’s a silent protagonist avatar for the player, but there are some interactions that give you a good idea of what he’s like. All the characters in the game are significantly helped by very good, if occasionally excessive, voice acting. Most of them have British accented English, but there are a few other accents thrown in for good measure.

The battle system is solid, if a little bland. You get to attack, use magic, use an item or flee. There’s also the option to intimidate enemies instead of fighting them, but that doesn’t work very much. You can psyche yourself up to increase the damage of your next attack, but again, it’s not terribly useful except in one or two circumstances. What is really cool about Dragon Quest VIII’s system is how you level up. Whenever you level up, you get some points to put into one of the character’s weapon or skill proficiencies, which, once enough points are put in, yields some special ability or attack. An example might be if you level up Yangus’ club skill, his attack power increases with club weapons. Another example is Jessica’s sex appeal skill, which gives her access to the hustle, which restores hp to all party members. You’ve got five skills for each character, so you won’t be able to max out much more than one or two.

There’s a bunch of fun stuff to do on the side for this game. There’s a monster arena, where various monsters you catch on the world map can fight other monsters in teams. You can make things by combining two or more items into the alchemy pot and walking around for a good while. This is especially cool because there are some items that are useless until you combine them with something else, and you can get some really great equipment. Plus, the mini-medal collecting and casino aspects of previous Dragon Warrior games returns. It’s a good thing that many of these sidequests have rewards, because you do not get very much money from monsters relative to the cost of new equipment. This often means you’ll have to make do with equipment that you find laying around or make yourself, rather than relying on buying up the best gear available.

Dragon Quest VIII is a reasonably long game, so you’ll definitely get some good mileage on that front. However, the early game is pretty unimpressive, and you only really start to have fun when most of the sidequests have opened up. If you don’t mind that early part, you definitely can find a lot of interesting things to do on another playthrough, because of the level up system that forces you to choose only one or two of five areas to specialize in for each character. And, since recipes you discover for the alchemy pot will, for the most part, work at any point in the game, your old save file’s recipe data will help you get through the early game more easily. All in all, this game rates a “one playthrough, and then a good two or three more to really get all you can.” As a final note, you can unlock some optional areas after you’ve cleared the game once, playable on the file that cleared the game, so there’s an epilogue of sorts to play through.

The rating for this game is pretty easy. There’s very few issues with this game, and most aspects are either outstanding or at the least good. However, it is unfortunate that some of the weapon/skill trees are simply not very good at all. It reduces your opportunity to try out different strategies to some extent, because there are only a few that really work. That, and exploring, especially areas that you can use a mount of some sort, is really tedious, with a slow walking speed and huge map. So, the numbers. This guy’s running in at 9.2 out of 10. It’s a really excellent game, and even the minor issues don’t hurt the game too much. Yeah, it takes a little getting used to it, but you’ll be glad you did once things start to open up a little.

How I Broke Game: So, mystifying mixtures are made by combining a moonwort bulb, an antidotal herb, and a medicinal herb. They sell for more than the total cost to buy these ingredients. However, their price is weird. I sold them for 290 gold at some points, and 980 at others. I have no idea how this happened.

Quick Tip: If you’re not doing anything else with the alchemy pot, put a pair of herbs in. You get tons of herbs through the game, and the good healing items you get can be really helpful.

If you liked this game, you might want to try playing one of the following games. Dragon Warrior VII, which is not even close graphically, but has similar story elements and an even better class system. Dark Cloud 2 is made by the same developer, and has some really good item creation systems, not to mention similarly cell-shaded graphics and decent voice acting. Legend of Mana has an entirely non-linear story, made up of vignettes, and also has some item creation in it.

Legend of Mana Review

           Today’s game is Legend of Mana. There’s some days when you just have to wonder who decides to bring the first game in a series stateside. I mean, sure you’ve got some games that simply wouldn’t do well in the US that do great in Japan, but it’s tough to bring an innovator in the series to a new audience. Maybe change is supposed to be good, I don’t know. Anyway, Legend of Mana  is an interesting choice of first game, so let’s take a look.

The game starts off with a story telling how the world of Fa’Diel was destroyed through a war to control magic power. Pretty standard stuff, but where things take a turn is when you learn that you, the chosen hero, must recreate the various places in the world from the artifacts they have been stored in. And that’s just about it for metaplot for the whole game. You place artifacts, visit lands, and participate in various quests. There are about three main storylines, but they’re entirely separate. There are also a great number of minor events that help flesh out the world. The events that you participate in frequently involve either running around town talking to people, exploring dungeons, or visiting specific places in a variety of lands. The dungeons are probably the easiest to navigate, though they frequently have screens that look almost identical, leading to getting lost occasionally. When you’re in for a town adventure, watch out! You’ll need to talk to everyone, usually several times. Occasionally you’ll even need to talk to them from a specific direction or on a specific day of the week. Without a walkthrough or serious use of hints, a lot of these will take a long time to figure out. While tedious, few town adventures require much legwork. Not so with exploration missions, which will have you trekking all over Fa’Diel searching for something, anything, that will trigger a scene in your latest quest. The events that you run into run the gamut of content, and so it’s hard not to enjoy at least a few of them. However, the story is so non-linear that it’s frequently difficult to figure out anything at all to do, which detracts from the enjoyment of the scenes when you eventually find them. All in all, not the worst stories out there, but Seiken Densetsu 3 (the next most recent incarnation of the series) has all of them beat. Not to mention that the stories are not worth the aggravation of going through talk quests (been there, done that.)

If Legend of Mana has a strength, it’s in the characters. Where the story is not so great, the characters are truly interesting. With so many side events, almost all the characters in the world are unique, and are developed in at least one event. Plus, reading up in the in-game encyclopedia on the people and monsters that you meet really gives the world of Fa’Diel the feeling of depth. The characters involved in the major storylines are ven more intriguing. The character of Larc, a dragonman bound to serve an evil emperor working from the pit of the netherworld, is wonderfully dark. Pearl is a princess (with a secret) who’s protected by the knight Elazul, both of whom are on the run from a mysterious enemy. And of course Niccolo, the rabbitman who will do anything for a profit, up to and including faking amnesia. Some of these characters sound familiar, but there’s a certain amount of nuance to them, mostly from their participation in the varied and expansive world the exist in.

The battle system? Do we have to? All right. The battle system is real-time. You hit the monsters, and when you hit the monsters enough, you can use a special move. That’s really all there is to it. There’s a lot of weapon types to choose from, but they function essentially the same on the battlefield. Each weapon type has its own set of special moves, which are learned at unspecified points while using the weapon. Special moves are pretty bad, because while they leave you invincible during the charge up, they hit so infrequently that it’s hardly worth the bother. This goes for boss enemies too, so even bosses in this game aren’t too hard. In fact, on the default difficulty that you get on the first play-through (see replay value below), the whole game is almost painfully easy on the combat end of things. Once in a while you might have trouble with a boss, but normal enemies are never anything more than a waste of time.

Of possibly more interest are the systems for farming, raising pets, creating golems, and creating weapons. While going into each of these in too much detail would be as tedious as it would be repetitive, the basic premise for all of them is very similar. While you explore dungeons, you may run into a monster egg/elemental spirit. By doing some annoying cat and mouse antics, you can catch said thingy and get a monster/elemental coin. At home, you can harvest fruits to feed your pets hatched from eggs, customizing their stat growth, and you can make weapons/armor by taking materials and tempering them with elemental coins. Golems are just random pieces of equipment strung together with some kind of AI instructions. Sound complicated? It is. In fact, it’s really too bad that none of  it’s even remotely necessary, because of the game’s ridiculously easy difficulty level. Even so, it’s very difficult to get anything useful out of these places, because very specific ingredients and items are needed to make something that’s better in any way than what you just find lying around.

Replay value is where this game is supposed to shine, I guess, and to its credit, there’s a lot of things that you can do differently. Different part of the map, different order of events, different weapons use, you name it. There’s even an adjustable difficulty the second time around, which is handy, since it makes for some challenge in an otherwise pretty easy game. Even so, the battle system’s not great to begin with, the item creation system less so, and the different weapons aren’t really all that different. The only remaining pleasure might be had from finding events that you missed on the first play-through, but if you follow a walkthrough, it’s possible to get every event the first time. So, that makes this game’s rating a dubious “at least once with a walkthrough, and who know how many without.” While you might manage to accidentally find more events yourself simply by trial and error, there’s a fair number that are very difficult to find without a clear idea of what you’re shooting for.

So, that was Legend of Mana. Really, not a terrible game, just not as great a game as could be expected. You’d think that the previous game in the series would have been a better choice to bring to the US, but I guess that wasn’t in the cards. The only thing I should mention before I get to the ultimate rating is that this game is pretty. The art is colorful, vibrant, and gives the game its own unique style. While the art doesn’t exactly make up for the problems with the game, and indeed occasionally exacerbates them, it’s still so good that I feel it deserves some mention. With that aside, this game gets a 7.0 out of 10. It’s underwhelming, but there’s little that’s jarringly wrong with it. The battle system’s extreme simplicity is the game’s biggest downfall, though the annoying town quests contribute too. It’s fun enough to at least play once if you follow a walkthrough.

Quick Tip: When selecting a location on the map to start your game, be sure to choose one that has very little water. You need a little water for those lands that require it, but otherwise, you’re better off on land.

How I Broke Game: If you press the attack button quickly, you go into a combo, with ghost outlines of yourself showing up. However, at the end of the combo, you can’t attack for a while. A friend and I figured out that if you wait just a little after the first hit, you can attack again without being in a combo. This means that you can be constantly attacking.

If you liked this game, then you should definitely try out some of these games. Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2 are action RPGs with weapon modification systems and town building aspects that are remarkably similar to those in Legend of Mana. Dragon Warrior VII and to a smaller degree Dragon Quest VIII share a certain amount of the episodic nature found in events. Odin Sphere has some similarly deep stories for its protagonists, and is also an action RPG. It’s quite a bit harder though, so be warned.

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love Review

Every console deserves one final, great send-off game right? Sure, sometimes there are games that come out for the console afterwards, but the send-off game is the last one that’s any good. The game doesn’t have to be the best game for the console. It just has to be a game that is better than anything else that’s come out in the past couple of months. Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, is that game for the Playstation 2. Just from reading the premise on the back of the box, you can tell that this game is going to interesting. Interesting doesn’t necessarily mean good, however, and the first Sakura Wars to hit the United States has some significant problems. Whether its high points can overcome these problems is what we intend to discuss right now.

Sakura Wars really has two battle systems, because it is both a dating sim and a strategy game. We’ll start off by looking at the dating sim aspect of the game. You take the role of Shinjiro Taiga, a young ensign from Japan. Arriving in New York, you find that the unit receiving you is less than pleased with you. Apparently, they were expecting your much more famous uncle, who is the star of previous games in the series. All of the female party members pretty much start off hating your guts, and it’s your job to show them that you’re up to snuff. Whenever you get time off, you can wander around to various locations in New York City, where you might encounter one of your teammates. If you do, you’ll frequently be treated to one of this game’s mediocre minigames, or better yet, get some dialogue options. Do well enough, or answer right, and the girl in question will start to like you more. The dialogue is frequently hilarious, whether you choose the best option or not. It’s probably the best dating sim to hit the mainstream American market, not that that’s saying much.

The other battle system, the strategy part, isn’t so hot. When you get into a battle at the end of every chapter, your characters get into their steam-powered mecha and fight crime. In this mode, you have a certain number of energy bars, which are expended while you move, attack, guard, and charge your sp for special attacks. So long as you don’t do anything else, you can move around with no penalty, simply regaining the expended bars when you get closer to your starting point. You can normal attack up to five times as part of a combo, and if you want to start again (assuming you have enough energy) you’ll start a new combo. Special attacks are powerful, but mostly consume your sp, and you can only use them once per battle. Joint attacks attack each enemy in a straight line between you and your partner, dealing damage based on how close the two of you are. See, that random dating was worth something. As the leader, Shinjiro can declare three styles: all-out attack, balanced, and total defense. There are times when you’ll want to use the other two, but mostly the default of balanced is best.

The missions frequently take the form of “destroy x and y so that you can attack the main form before it retreats. Mince, slaughter, repeat.” While there’s a little variety, like a mission where you have to save statues or defend your base of operations from suicide bombers, the battles are frequently pretty dull, and no amount of enlivened voice acting is going to stop you from fervently wishing that the boss would just die so that you can get on with the story.

Speaking of the voice acting, there’s a fun little thing about the Playstation 2 version of this game. You can play with the original Japanese voice cast or the English dub. The Japanese cast is pretty good, but the American cast does a decent job, and gets various characters’ accents across better. This reviewer was particularly fond of Diana’s English voice, because it perfectly fit her role as the party healer. On the other hand, Mexican loli Rosita is absolutely awful, sounding nearly as Russian as Mexican. The music is good, with several pleasant, jazzy tracks, and some excellent, energizing battle themes. There are even some decent somber pieces, which help set the mood when the story takes a turn for the darker.

This game is not hard. At all. If you do even decently at the dating sim part, the battles should pose little difficulty. Occasionally you’ll run up against a tactical snag or make a bad decision, but it’s quite unlikely that you’ll want to start a battle over again more than once or twice throughout the entire game. If you don’t mind losing points with a character when you let them die, it’s even easier. The completion time for this game is barely over 20 hours, which is short, but not too short. Fortunately, there’s ample reason to replay the game, as beating it not only unlocks a dialogue skip feature, but there are at least five character paths to explore, and innumerable dialogue options. So, that’s a solid “one for the money, two for the show, three to go steady, and six for the lols.” You might end up sandbagging a bit through the battle sequences, but the dating sim might actually be enough to keep you going that long.

Well, there you have it. I loved the Playstation 2 as much as the next guy, and I feel this is a good game to think of as the last. It wasn’t the most original thing out there, and it certainly wasn’t challenging, but it had lots of heart. The sense of humor evident in its production helps to overcome a lot of the trite material, as it’s always amusing to see a game go totally over the top.My overall rating for this game is 8.5 out of 10. It’s hilarious, fun, and pretty well localized. The voice acting is solid, with the exception of one character. The gameplay isn’t the best around, especially for the mecha battles, but it does pretty much everything else quite well. With this game, I feel I can truly say “So Long, My Love,” to a great old console.

How I Broke Game: Well, once I figured out that you could move as much as you wanted before you attacked, I used Subaru’s first turn to rescue two of the three statues you need to during her chapter’s first mission.

Quick Tips: Some times the best option is to say nothing! When you don’t like any of the choices, or you’ve tried them before and they didn’t work, try letting time run out. It occasionally is the optimal choice.

If you liked this game, you might want to check out one of these games. Persona 3 and Persona 4 almost have as much dating sim in them as this game does, and the RPG parts a much better. The humorous approach are remarkably similar to those found in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. I guess Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria has a somewhat similar battle system, though it’s much more difficult.

The Legend of Dragoon Review

              HARPOON! Ahem. Excuse me as I get a few things off my chest. Cool Boogie! Flurry of Styx! Pursuit! Okay, I think I’m good now. So, yeah, The Legend of Dragoon. That game that was supposed to be a Final Fantasy VIII killer. It’s been a long time since I’ve reviewed a Playstation game, and this one’s going to be interesting. A long awaited game comes out and… nothing. Not awful, not raves, nothing. Apparently this one sold well enough that it merited greatest hits, but… no one seems to give this game much notice. Or at least, that seems to be the case for me. So, let me remember this game for you.

It starts out with a promising cg scene showing a village being burned and an army unit running through. They find a girl, test her with a glowy stone, and take her into custody. With voice acting. Hah! Take that Final Fantasy! We have voice acting in our game. Neener neener. When cut to our protagonist, Dart, as he returns to town, he is saved from a dragon by a mysterious stranger, named Rose. He makes it back to his village to find that it’s been burned down and his childhood friend Shana has been kidnapped. So, he sets out on an epic quest to save Shana, save the world, save Shana, learn the secret histories, save Shana, and right wrongs. Oh, and save Shana. It’s not a great story, but it might have been alright. There are some interesting myths associated with this world, and a number of the locations you visit look like they could be interesting. It’s really hard to tell, because a horribly mangled translation mars the whole project, and makes it so the story does not flow. The dialogue is stilted, and, when not outright grammatically incorrect, sounds awkward. It ruins the mood when the characters talk with a strange mix of over-formality and poorly-used informal speech.

The characters suffer from the same transration plobrems, which damage characters to one degree or another. The main character is pretty okay, if bland. He is completely oblivious to the fact that Shana has the hots for him since forever, and apart from that, he’s full of hot-blooded determination. Shana is the worst. Literally her only purpose in the story is to be kidnapped and serve as a thing for you to rescue. She’s not even an interesting character. Prince Albert has some interesting conversations acting as the well-educated ruler of a country, assuming you can understand through his awful translation. Meru is actually pretty good, because her perkiness makes it such that weird translations fit her character. Rose is good at being dark, brooding, and somewhat mysterious, and even seems to have suffered less bad translation issues.

It’s a good thing the battle system of this game is good, or it would have been a total bust. Each character has a number of “additions” that you can equip before battle. These additions are basically the normal attack of this game. Whenever you attack, you have to press a button (usually the X button, but occasionally the O) at the correct time. If you hit all of the timings correctly, the attack does significantly more damage, nets you more sp, and ends with the character announcing the name of the addition. In case you were wondering, that's what was with the beginning of the review. The voice acting on the attack names is definitely "so bad it's good." Anyhow, sp powers your other major battle ability, the titular Dragoon Spirits. Once a character has a Dragoon Spirit, they can transform into a Dragoon. Each turn in Dragoon form costs 100 sp, so mastering additions is very important. Dragoons can attack or use magic, and their defense power is doubled while in Dragoon form, as well as boosting all other abilities. This is the only use of magic in the game. Otherwise, players use attack and healing items. In this game, defending not only reduces damage, it heals 10% of a character’s hit points. It’s a good mechanic, as it gives you a reason to use the guard command, which is pretty much neglected in many RPGs. The various additions are really great, because each one deals a certain amount of damage, hits a certain number of times, and grants you a certain amount of sp per hit. They’re set up so that none are strictly better than any others, since even ones that do more damage and more sp gain frequently have more hits, so more opportunities to mess it up. Though there are some that you’ll find you want to use more frequently, it’s nice that you have to weigh the pros and cons. Similar balancing occurs in the equipment sector, where many weapons and armor have special abilities that make up for slightly lower power levels. It’s obvious that a lot of thought went into the equipment in this game, and the uniqueness of the items is another high point. Dragoon form is somewhat underwhelming, as it removes your ability to heal with items or guarding, and forces you to attack in some way each turn, even if the enemy has a counter attack. There’s a number of battles that you are heavily discouraged from using Dragoons in, making Dragoon form less a super form and more of a gimmick.

This game is very long. Four discs of long. Each disc will take at least 15 hours to complete, and probably several more. Part of this stems from the “random” battles, which are encountered after a set distance traveled. Most areas are set up that simply walking through the area will trigger at least one battle. Battles are fun, but they can get tedious if you’re just trying to get from point A to B. That, and the complete lack of any significant customization for characters, or a new game plus feature, or even many sidequests doesn’t help this game in giving players cause to replay it. Thus, this game is pretty much “nah, no thanks. Once was enough,” on replay value.

Well, it’s hard to tell by looking at all the things wrong with this game, but it is not exactly a terrible game. The game systems are balanced, so that there’s a decent amount of strategizing available to you. While the game is pretty easy on the whole, there are some boss fights that are remarkably challenging. If there had been a good translation of the mediocre story, it would have made for a pretty good game, where the battle system carried some of the weight of the story. However, with the translation as bad as it is, the story and characters are pretty much dead weight, and so the battle system is the only thing you look forward to. I frequently found myself becoming impatient during story sequences, because I wanted to get back to the battles. So, as it stands, the game gets a 7.2 out of 10. It’s still not a terrible game, but there are enough problems that I can’t even give it an average rating. It’s severely underwhelming for all the hype it’s given on the back of the case.

Quick Tip: On the ghost ship, make sure you play the treasure chest combination segment until you get an Ultimate Wargod. It’s a very useful accessory for when you just can’t quite seem to get a certain addition to work out.

How I Broke Game: So, I figured out that an enemy called OOPARTS frequently appears on the map stretch between the prison  and halfway to the commercial city. It’s fast, and frequently instakills your party members and runs away. If you defeat them though, you get a spirit potion and 600 gold, which is very handy for buying some snazzy equipment.

If you liked this game, then you might get a kick out of one of these games. The Shadow Hearts series (Shadow Hearts, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, and Shadow Hearts: From the New World) has a similar timing based battle system. Final Fantasy IX has a somewhat comparable high fantasy genre, with a world that is equally populated with interesting locales. Final Fantasy VI has a good amount of unique items, and lots of good ways to deck out characters with equipment.