This is one of the most solid games I have in a while. The story is very addictive, it reminds me of Ogre Battle/FFT. The composer is the same who does the Kingdom Hearts series, also known for Street Fighter 2, Parasite Eve, Third Birthday, and helped the Skies of Arcadia composer arrange Little King Story's classical score. The tunes are similar to Skies of Arcadia, probably mostly due to the fact that this game has a Steam Punk setting as SoA did.
Battle system is turn based, but uses a tactical grid system which can be exploited to do extra damage, hit multiple enemies with a single target hit, and more; bonuses are awarded to exp and gold for combos and such. Battle is turn-based in the FF10/Xenosaga slot style. Encounters are on the map, the player can hit the enemy with weapons on the map, stunning them and allowing for an extra turn at the battle start. Weapons can be used on the field to pass certain obstacles (ie. Swords can eventually cut vines, small bombs can be set on barrels for bigher explosions to blow away rocks.
The big attraction is that the user can jump around on the history of the game; it is like Chrono Triggers New Game +, except the user can start at one of many points. The story also contains many sub-plot paths, and what appears to be two main plot paths - one where the player chooses to work as a special ops agent, and another as a member of the military rising through the ranks. The user can essentially play through multiple timelines at once via time travel, in this way the player can go to the special ops timeline (for example) and discover skills/information that will help him in his military career in the other main timeline; or vice-versa, the player can learn of internal military movements that will aid him in his decisions in the special ops timeline. Also, the player can go back in time and change past events with new info/skills that will alter the future. All levels/items/etc pass from one time to another, so a player from deep in the future returning to the past would have the same level and skills.
The setting is a mix of Steampunk and medieval, similar to FF6. As far as I can tell, there is a faction who feels the energy source used is bad for the world. There are even Industrial era armours similar to magitek armour in FF6. The main player works in an Empire (Alistel) which is opposed to another Empire (Granorg). Neither Empire seems wholely good, similar to Aveh and Kislev in Xenogears. Alistel is much more industrial than Granorg, but Granorg is larger, and is the aggressor. Although so far military forces seem to be of equal power.
Overall, I am enjoying this one a lot. It is one I am glad someone got for my birthday, otherwise I would have overlooked it completely. For those who are fans of PSX era RPGs, but enjoy the later gameplay conventions that work, this is a must have game.
Although the PC gaming RPG community seems to love this one too:
Battle system is turn based, but uses a tactical grid system which can be exploited to do extra damage, hit multiple enemies with a single target hit, and more; bonuses are awarded to exp and gold for combos and such. Battle is turn-based in the FF10/Xenosaga slot style. Encounters are on the map, the player can hit the enemy with weapons on the map, stunning them and allowing for an extra turn at the battle start. Weapons can be used on the field to pass certain obstacles (ie. Swords can eventually cut vines, small bombs can be set on barrels for bigher explosions to blow away rocks.
The big attraction is that the user can jump around on the history of the game; it is like Chrono Triggers New Game +, except the user can start at one of many points. The story also contains many sub-plot paths, and what appears to be two main plot paths - one where the player chooses to work as a special ops agent, and another as a member of the military rising through the ranks. The user can essentially play through multiple timelines at once via time travel, in this way the player can go to the special ops timeline (for example) and discover skills/information that will help him in his military career in the other main timeline; or vice-versa, the player can learn of internal military movements that will aid him in his decisions in the special ops timeline. Also, the player can go back in time and change past events with new info/skills that will alter the future. All levels/items/etc pass from one time to another, so a player from deep in the future returning to the past would have the same level and skills.
The setting is a mix of Steampunk and medieval, similar to FF6. As far as I can tell, there is a faction who feels the energy source used is bad for the world. There are even Industrial era armours similar to magitek armour in FF6. The main player works in an Empire (Alistel) which is opposed to another Empire (Granorg). Neither Empire seems wholely good, similar to Aveh and Kislev in Xenogears. Alistel is much more industrial than Granorg, but Granorg is larger, and is the aggressor. Although so far military forces seem to be of equal power.
Overall, I am enjoying this one a lot. It is one I am glad someone got for my birthday, otherwise I would have overlooked it completely. For those who are fans of PSX era RPGs, but enjoy the later gameplay conventions that work, this is a must have game.
Although the PC gaming RPG community seems to love this one too:
Jason Schreier of Wired gave the game a score of 9 stars out of 10, concluding that "Atlus has created the perfect blend of innovation and tradition."[21] Matt Peckham of PC World praised the game's nonlinear multidimensional concept which allows the game to be played differently by travelling to a decision point and choosing another path, in contrast to "BioWare-style head pats, where whatever you choose, the game plays out more or less as it would have anyway."
Last edited by Julius Seeker on Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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