Post by Bytor on Feb 11, 2011 13:15:22 GMT -5
-Visuals- 9.4/10
OK, bottom line is that this is by far and away one of the best looking games (for what it is) I've ever seen. The visuals are crisp and colorful in pretty much every aspect. The characters are all rendered wonderfully and for the vast majority of the time the backgrounds and scenery all look wonderful as well. Each different environment is actually one of the strong points of the game, jungles look like jungles, ruins like ruins, cities like cities, sewers like sewers etc. The special effects renditions are also very well done especially when the Dorgenark is in action! The various enemies encountered are also nice, although they don't seem to have quite as much attention to detail as Jaster, Kisala, Steve and company. Now, here's where some may not be as in love with the visual aspect as I am. The styles are cell shaded cartoonish and not FFX/GOW realism renditions. This, in my opinion, actually adds to the game as it fits the overall feel of the game much better than a more realistic approach would have. So, agree with me and you'll rate it as I did, disagree and I imagine you'd rate it much, much lower.
-Sound- 8.5/10
A little bit of a mixed bag here. The voice acting itself is I believe very well done. I love the nuances and accents the game uses. Jaster and Kisala are perfect as younger, less experienced individuals while Zegram and Deego come across wonderfully as the most jaded and seasoned travelers. The background music is well done as well as it doesn't take away from the gameplay, I'm not sure how often I even noticed it for that matter, and while that doesn't make it stellar at least it doesn't make it horrible. The only real complaint is the repetitious nature of the vocals during travel and battle, I swear if I heard Deego talk one more time about his army days or Jupis talk about giant lizards I was going to go crazy. Still, overall the superb acting overwhelmed the obnoxious repetition.
-Gameplay- 9.7/10
Now for the true jewel in this little known game. The game is at heart a true JRPG with real time battles, which are unreal customizable. You go into battle with your lead character (i used Jaster the vast majority of the time) and two allies. You will have your attack mode set to all attack one enemy (in which case your allies will attack the enemy you do), each attack separately, all fall back or all out (in which case allies will use items, magic or physical attacks using the AI inherit in the game, which is actually very, very good), actually the best way to do the boss battles! The other aspect of the customizable battles is the hint system. At various times during the battle hints will pop up right over your status screen which are triggered by using L1 or L2. For instance one of your allies may become suddenly low on HP so a heal potion hint will pop up and by pressing L2 a potion will be used in real time thus not changing the ebb and flow of the battle hardly at all, although it does take a little time to get used to keeping one eye open for the hints, which will disappear shortly (or you can make them go off the screen by pressing L3). The level system is also very well done. Everyone gains experience from battles although your two active allies receive a larger amount than non-combatants. The skills learned are all individual although there are some traits such as defense up and attack up that everyone can learn (although still individually). What makes this system so much fun is what's called the revelation chart. Basically items collected in battle or found in chests are placed on a flow chart type environment to learn new attacks/defense. What makes this challenging is you have to decide how to use the items as each item may be used on different allies individual chart giving different allies different abilities, you really want to be aware of this and make sure you are leveling up everyone's attacks equally. This is, to say the very least, vitally important later on in the game, and I mean vitally!
The battles them selves are for the most part strategic in the sense that different enemies have different weaknesses and at times without discovering these it will be impossible to win, although most battles can be pretty straightforward there are enough of the more complex battles thrown in to keep it exciting and of course all of the boss battles will require some thought and attention to actions preformed. The travels system is well done as well, which is important as later in the game you will need to backtrack in order to get objects for the revelation chart. Basically once you have been to a planet you can easily travel back to it via the Dorgenark and fast travel anywhere on the planet using the save/transfer points.. There are also three different groups of side quests. One is the bounty hunting, basically you buy licenses and using objects as "bait" you can fight optional boss battles and climb up the ranking as a hunter. Another side quest is the Insectron tournaments. In this you will use a trap to catch insects, breed them, raise them and then fight them in a tactical battle (similar to chess) against other insects in a mini-game for supremacy. The funnest, at least to me, side quest was the Factory, here you'll use machinery you have to set up (correctly) with various items to create other items. I swear it's simply hours of fun (and frustration) in attempting to piece the various machinery together in the proper order and proper layout (you will receive blueprints/recipes from various NPC's throughout the various areas) to produce the desired items. And there's actually more, weapon synthesis (a frog will eat two weapons to create a different one), the quest for optional uniforms, the search for rare items and of course the various side stories that evolve each individuals character. The gameplay is simply remarkable in it's depth and wonderful implementation of puzzling, strategy and exploration in a wide open universe which you can roam at will to discover new items, NPC's and battles.
-Story- 9.6/10
You basically start the game as Jaster, an orphan who was adopted by Raul, a priest on the planet Rosa. When a beast attacks his village he takes off to confront it...a mysterious man helps him...two space pirates mistake him for someone else (actually the mysterious man) and recruit him to join their band. They then travel through space unwrapping a 50,000 year old mystery. The story actually develops rather slowly but to be honest I was so enthralled by the character development, and I mean every main character/space pirate has a story, that I stayed totally immersed all the way to the end of the game. It's seldom that you find such a seemingly whimsical game that has such deep characters, overall simply great story telling and unreal deep development in Jaster and company.
-Overall- 9.5/10
Hours and hours and hours of great, well developed fun, and very little to complain about. This is by far one of the true hidden gems for the PS2. There is such a great story (although it does take a bit to develop) such interesting characters and unreal fun in the gameplay that I cannot recommend this game highly enough.