Got this in last week from VG+. I've spent most of my available games playing time on this game. I'm about 8 hours in and absoluely loving it. The story is very slow in getting started, nothing much seems to happen in the first few hours. It's not bad but isn't exactly that much different from many other RPG stories. However the game doesn't take itself too seriously and is filled with a quite a few LOL moments IMO. The main characters are Klein(pronounced Clayn) Kiesling and Lita Blanchmont. I've also come across three other characters who are now in my party of adventurers. I'm not sure if there are any more.
There's the option of the japanese and american voice acting. I'm currently playing through with the american VA on and it's pretty decent IMO. There are one or two audio problems with this game such as stuttering or voiceovers being stuck in an endless loop until you continue to the next part of the dialogue. At first I thought it might have been a problem with my disc but apparently quite a few people are having the same problems. It's even mentioned in the Gamespot review as well. It isn't ideal but for me it hasn't detracted from the game too much. The music is very nice as well, with some nice upbeat tunes throughout.
The game looks gorgeous IMO. It's in 2d but looks better than any other 2d rpg/srpg on the ps2 that I've played(not many I admit). The game is very vibrant and colourful, the graphics seem to be higher res than those found in say for example Disgaea. When you leave a town and you are running around the world you get this sort of extremely basic 3d setup, which doesn't look as good as the 2d stuff IMO but doesn't really detract from the game either. Those of you who've played Tales of Symphonia will have a basic idea of what I'm talking about here, where you've got some wonderful town locations and graphics but the actual overworld screen is not as good.
The game plays similar to many turn based RPGs. You have the random battles(athough I must say for me the encounter rate hasn't been that high), levelling up, distributing skill points etc... There's also some item creation systems which play a very big part in this game, such as the creation of mana items, weapons and even items to be sold in shops. The process of creating mana items is known as mana synthesis or Alchemy in this game. Currently of the characters I control, Klein is the only one capable of creating and using mana items which is only natural since he's an alchemist. If you'd like to know more about the item creation stuff I could post it, but it'd make for a very long post. I tried typing it up before and I just ended writing loads. I find it hard to explain but easy to understand these systems. There are in game tutorials which explain things quite nicely and are evenly spaced as well. You don't get loads of things thrown at you at once. You'll get introduced to the concepts of the game world gradually.
There's also an action element to the gameplay. When you are on any screen not including the 3d overworld screen e.g. in towns, dungeon locations and so on, you can run around and jump on various things, which can gain you access to new areas. You also gain skills such as a destruction blast, which open up new areas. Think of a basic version of Metroid or something similar, where you can see that there is somewhere to go but you don't have the skills to get there. It works quite well IMO and makes the world feel more alive/ more interactive than your standard RPG. You can also destroy or extract mana elements from various objects such as rocks, barrels, flowers as well as enemies. As before Klein is the only one that can do this. Basically everything in the world is made up of mana elements which can be extracted by Klein. If you are in a battle and you use the extract element attack and you kill an enemy you will extract the elements that it was made up of e.g. some enemies called Punis give you water elements when killed. These elements are used in alchemy to create mana items.
Any questions? Want me to elaborate on something? I'd love to hear what others think of this game as it's definitely been very enjoyable for me so far.
There's the option of the japanese and american voice acting. I'm currently playing through with the american VA on and it's pretty decent IMO. There are one or two audio problems with this game such as stuttering or voiceovers being stuck in an endless loop until you continue to the next part of the dialogue. At first I thought it might have been a problem with my disc but apparently quite a few people are having the same problems. It's even mentioned in the Gamespot review as well. It isn't ideal but for me it hasn't detracted from the game too much. The music is very nice as well, with some nice upbeat tunes throughout.
The game looks gorgeous IMO. It's in 2d but looks better than any other 2d rpg/srpg on the ps2 that I've played(not many I admit). The game is very vibrant and colourful, the graphics seem to be higher res than those found in say for example Disgaea. When you leave a town and you are running around the world you get this sort of extremely basic 3d setup, which doesn't look as good as the 2d stuff IMO but doesn't really detract from the game either. Those of you who've played Tales of Symphonia will have a basic idea of what I'm talking about here, where you've got some wonderful town locations and graphics but the actual overworld screen is not as good.
The game plays similar to many turn based RPGs. You have the random battles(athough I must say for me the encounter rate hasn't been that high), levelling up, distributing skill points etc... There's also some item creation systems which play a very big part in this game, such as the creation of mana items, weapons and even items to be sold in shops. The process of creating mana items is known as mana synthesis or Alchemy in this game. Currently of the characters I control, Klein is the only one capable of creating and using mana items which is only natural since he's an alchemist. If you'd like to know more about the item creation stuff I could post it, but it'd make for a very long post. I tried typing it up before and I just ended writing loads. I find it hard to explain but easy to understand these systems. There are in game tutorials which explain things quite nicely and are evenly spaced as well. You don't get loads of things thrown at you at once. You'll get introduced to the concepts of the game world gradually.
There's also an action element to the gameplay. When you are on any screen not including the 3d overworld screen e.g. in towns, dungeon locations and so on, you can run around and jump on various things, which can gain you access to new areas. You also gain skills such as a destruction blast, which open up new areas. Think of a basic version of Metroid or something similar, where you can see that there is somewhere to go but you don't have the skills to get there. It works quite well IMO and makes the world feel more alive/ more interactive than your standard RPG. You can also destroy or extract mana elements from various objects such as rocks, barrels, flowers as well as enemies. As before Klein is the only one that can do this. Basically everything in the world is made up of mana elements which can be extracted by Klein. If you are in a battle and you use the extract element attack and you kill an enemy you will extract the elements that it was made up of e.g. some enemies called Punis give you water elements when killed. These elements are used in alchemy to create mana items.
Any questions? Want me to elaborate on something? I'd love to hear what others think of this game as it's definitely been very enjoyable for me so far.
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