role-playing

You might remember a game called Final Fantasy Tactics. This is a similar game, but is sooooo much better in almost every way.

You play Larharl, the Demon Prince of the Netherworld. You've just awoken from a two year nap to find your Father, the Overlord has died, and everyone else is fighting over your throne. So, with your not quite faithful vassal Etna and a squadron of Penguins, you set out to reclaim your birth-right.

Sound funny? Well it is. The storyline is played out in Episodes, and is full of pop culture references, [physical] innuendo, and a few bad puns. And despite that, the characters have depth. And they're not the only things.

Aside from the storyline battles, you can delve into the hidden world in literally every item in the game. These dungeons are randomly created, and can go down up to 100 levels (or more?). Each level you complete makes the item that much better, in addition to affording you more XP and items. And there's also the Dark Assembly, a Congress of Demons who can make serious changes to the basic game, if you bribe them enough or beat them into submission.

But beware... This game will eat up every free second you have, and a some you don't...

I so wanted to be able to give this game 5 stars, as it has almost everything Final Fantasy Tactics had, with a few more layers of complexity. The item world is a rediculous concept, but it's also one of the things that makes the game so enjoyable! The dark council is another stroke of genius, allowing character combinations and classes that make the game infinitely replayable.

Unfortunately, there are a few flaws which detract. First of all, the graphics look similar to FFT's PS1 graphics. There's little detail, and only being able to rotate the camera by 90 degrees on the isometric battlefield can make seeing some tiles and enemies nearly impossible. It's a rule that many game companies ignore: If the characters can see something, the player should be able to as well. The camera angles simply make the game harder to play, and it shouldn't have to be that way. Even the option of being able to see the battlefield from directly above would have helped greatly.

With the graphical lack of detail, it can also be difficult to tell who is who on the battlefield. When you have your 10 characters mixed up with the enemies who often look identical, it can be easy to lose track of enemies. The "characters" tab on the battlefield helps out a lot, making this only a minor problem instead of a serious annoyance.

And finally, there is no in-battle save feature. I know that not being able to save makes the battles a little harder, but it also means that you have to invest a nice chunk of time to play the game non-stop, especially in the item world where you have to fight through 10 levels without being able to save during or between the levels. Item world runs can often take hours, making it difficult to simply pick up the game for half an hour. The only other option is to leave the PS2 running for long periods of time, but for many of us that's not an option, nor is it desirable... and it ruins the # of hours played counter on the save games as well. :)

So, 4/5 stars. Despite the length of the paragraphs above, these are minor gripes compared to the overall enjoyment of the game. It's too bad, because the flaws that keep this game from being perfect are so easily fixable as well.

This game is one of the reasons that made me realize I should research things before becoming impulsive and spending my hard earned money on crap. Not that this is total crap. I was attracted to the anime. And it does have some humor in the storyline, and sounds.

However when I started playing, I realized that the game play was too much like playing puzzles. Gets redundant and dull and boring. And the music is annoying. Just not my type of game but that's just my opinion. I prefer Final Fantasy type RPGs.