Post by Bytor on Sept 26, 2010 0:26:46 GMT -5
-Visuals- 8.0/10
The characters are rendered wonderfully assuming that is you like anime, lol. The issues lie in the backgrounds, there is quite a bit of flicker and frame rates that appear clipped and slowed to the point that it can be an annoyance, although to be honest I ignored it for the most part. The villages and NPC's are certainly cartoonish but it fits the over all feel of the game nicely.
-Sound- 7.8/10
It's fine for what it is, but, it reminds me of an older 8-bit game and while unobtrusive it got old pretty fast, of course after a while I simply ignored it and ceased to hear it.
-Gameplay- 8.3/10
This is basically a real time RPG. The battles are though, to be honest a tad simple. You can pretty easily control the battle by attacking , side stepping/retreating and attacking again. The hardest aspect of this system is the weapon management. You have to, not only, upgrade your weapons constantly, but you also have to keep them "repaired". If you allow a weapon to break it is gone...forever, so, you must pay attention to your weapon's status and make sure they are always upgraded as need be and kept in great shape. The battles can get a tad repetitious and the dungeon crawling is nothing that will make you jump for joy. I do, however, like the aspect that you can leave the dungeons at will (provided you have the appropriate item needed) and start back at the beginning of the dungeon. The side quests are fun as well, while re-building the villages are the main quests such things as searching for various stronger weapons and items provides many hours of fun, not tom mention the fishing!
-Story- 8.5/10
You play as a young boy who was chosen by the "Fairy King" to restore the world after it was destroyed by an evil man "controlling" an Evil Genie. The Fairy King managed to save various parts of the world and hide them, your job is to find them and restore the world.
-Overall- 8.3/10
It's a fun game, and it will easily keep you entertained for 30+ hours. My major issue is while certain aspects (the weapon mgmt and village building) are unique and fun, other aspects (the battles) are at times way too repetitious> I'm not going to go so far as to say the game is more suited for RPG newbies (read younger player) but.....it's pretty close to that, still, there are certainly many other high profile games that are no where near as fun.