<div style='font: 9pt Garamond; text-align: left; '>Graphics - Very pretty 2D art and animation. 2D freaks will love this game for that alone. The portraits are especially nice and in a western style, no anime here. Bit disappointed in the utter lack of parrallax scrolling in the dungeons. I guess that's a limitation of the system. PSX wasn't really built for 2D and it shows especially when they try to implement some scrolling like in the opening sequence in that cathedral-like building. Battle animations are awesome and the character designs are fantastic for the most part. Sprites are a bit pixelly though.
Music & Sound - Not much to speak of here. The score is nice, what there is of it. You'll be sick of the overworl, dungeon, and battle themes by the end though since that's 90% of the game. Voice acting is hit and miss but for the most part pretty well done and they fit the characters.
Gameplay - O.K. This game is not for everyone. Basically, the game is broken into chapters and periods. 7 chapters with 24 periods each. Visiting dungeons, towns, resting or searching take up periods. While being very strict time-wise, the game is very open ended. You search as Valkyrie and then go to the area she's drawn to. You'll either find a new character with a little back-story or a dungeon to raise levels in. The point of recruiting souls is to send them to Valhalla to fight for the gods. It sounds a bit repetitive as each chapter you do the same thing, but the constant flow of characters in and out and decent dungeons keeps it fresh. You also have the incentive of impressing the gods and seeing your recruits perform well in the war in Valhalla.
The dungeons are side scrolling with visible enemies that you fight by making contact with them. You could go through an entire dungeon and only fight the boss if you wanted, but not advisable. Enemies are also gone for good until you leave and re-enter a dungeon so levelling up is not really a luxury in this game. It is a difficult game if you're playing for the best ending, giving up artifacts and sending your best to Valhalla. My only proble with the dungeons is that for the majority of the game they're very simple to get through...and then you get to the last few of them and all of a sudden it's a total mind fuck. Vague clues as to how to get through...difficult platform jumping and timing sequences...it goes from easy to "get the hell over to Gamefaqs" without warning. I was stuck on one part for hours and I was ready to smash my controller. I hate "clues" that are completely mis-leading or totally vague, and "puzzles" that make you feel like you're wasting you're time and quit doing what you're doing for the 10th time when you only had to do it 11 times to proceed...
There are no shops or inns. You have to find in a dungeon or "divine" all your weapons, armor, items and accesories by using materialize points, which you get for performing well, or converting found items into points. It's an intersting concept, but not really much different than if there were towns with shops. Materialize points just replace money. If you want to rest, it takes up a period in the chapter. I didn't rest much, just used items to heal and only rested when I was done in a chapter and had periods to kill.
Battles are fun and semi-real time. You and the bad guys take turns, but your comrades are each assigned one of the button on the controller and can perform 1 to 3 attacks each round based on the weapon you have equipped. Hitting their button will launch an attack, and you can time the button presses to pull off combos. Successful combos can break an enemies defense and they also fill up a meter that lets you perform special "finishing" moves, which are pretty damn cool.
There are 3 endings I believe...you'll probably need a FAQ to get the best one. When I read one after beating it and found out what I had to do, I was severely pissed. There's really no point in doing what you're suposed to do when you're supposed to do it, and not even a hint that I could find while playing that leads you to doing it. At least the game is fun enough to play a second time and get that ending.
Anyway, I recommmend this game to 2D nuts and anyone that likes a bit more strategy to their RPG's. It definitely falls more toward the strategy genre than a typical RPG. There's also a lot of potential to make a much bigger and better game. The chapter system is far too limiting. I'd like to spend as much time building characters as I want and exploring more of their backstories. I'd also like to take a more in-depth part in the battle in Valhalla. Just reading about what my characters were doing was a disappointment.</div>
Music & Sound - Not much to speak of here. The score is nice, what there is of it. You'll be sick of the overworl, dungeon, and battle themes by the end though since that's 90% of the game. Voice acting is hit and miss but for the most part pretty well done and they fit the characters.
Gameplay - O.K. This game is not for everyone. Basically, the game is broken into chapters and periods. 7 chapters with 24 periods each. Visiting dungeons, towns, resting or searching take up periods. While being very strict time-wise, the game is very open ended. You search as Valkyrie and then go to the area she's drawn to. You'll either find a new character with a little back-story or a dungeon to raise levels in. The point of recruiting souls is to send them to Valhalla to fight for the gods. It sounds a bit repetitive as each chapter you do the same thing, but the constant flow of characters in and out and decent dungeons keeps it fresh. You also have the incentive of impressing the gods and seeing your recruits perform well in the war in Valhalla.
The dungeons are side scrolling with visible enemies that you fight by making contact with them. You could go through an entire dungeon and only fight the boss if you wanted, but not advisable. Enemies are also gone for good until you leave and re-enter a dungeon so levelling up is not really a luxury in this game. It is a difficult game if you're playing for the best ending, giving up artifacts and sending your best to Valhalla. My only proble with the dungeons is that for the majority of the game they're very simple to get through...and then you get to the last few of them and all of a sudden it's a total mind fuck. Vague clues as to how to get through...difficult platform jumping and timing sequences...it goes from easy to "get the hell over to Gamefaqs" without warning. I was stuck on one part for hours and I was ready to smash my controller. I hate "clues" that are completely mis-leading or totally vague, and "puzzles" that make you feel like you're wasting you're time and quit doing what you're doing for the 10th time when you only had to do it 11 times to proceed...
There are no shops or inns. You have to find in a dungeon or "divine" all your weapons, armor, items and accesories by using materialize points, which you get for performing well, or converting found items into points. It's an intersting concept, but not really much different than if there were towns with shops. Materialize points just replace money. If you want to rest, it takes up a period in the chapter. I didn't rest much, just used items to heal and only rested when I was done in a chapter and had periods to kill.
Battles are fun and semi-real time. You and the bad guys take turns, but your comrades are each assigned one of the button on the controller and can perform 1 to 3 attacks each round based on the weapon you have equipped. Hitting their button will launch an attack, and you can time the button presses to pull off combos. Successful combos can break an enemies defense and they also fill up a meter that lets you perform special "finishing" moves, which are pretty damn cool.
There are 3 endings I believe...you'll probably need a FAQ to get the best one. When I read one after beating it and found out what I had to do, I was severely pissed. There's really no point in doing what you're suposed to do when you're supposed to do it, and not even a hint that I could find while playing that leads you to doing it. At least the game is fun enough to play a second time and get that ending.
Anyway, I recommmend this game to 2D nuts and anyone that likes a bit more strategy to their RPG's. It definitely falls more toward the strategy genre than a typical RPG. There's also a lot of potential to make a much bigger and better game. The chapter system is far too limiting. I'd like to spend as much time building characters as I want and exploring more of their backstories. I'd also like to take a more in-depth part in the battle in Valhalla. Just reading about what my characters were doing was a disappointment.</div>
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"My Pain is God's Love"
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"My Pain is God's Love"
Go look at my artwork:
[url]http://philemonjung.deviantart.com/[/url]
