Chalryn
PSLS Level: Bronze
I can't say I've seen much talk of this game among Wii-owners I know, so I'm curious if anyone around here has played it.
I actually had my eye on it for a while, before I even got my Wii. (In fact, it was one of my first reasons for wanting a Wii, if not the reason.) Being a JRPG, with Kenichi Yoshida (see: Eureka Seven) on character designs and Yasunori Mitsuda (see: Chrono Trigger/Cross) among the soundtrack composers, I was already psyched, just based on those factors alone. After looking into it a bit more, it seemed promising, and I can't say I was let down when I got around to playing it firsthand. (Sunk a good 140+ hours into it, on my first playthrough alone.)
Granted, yes, I'll point out the elephant in the room: it's got some pretty poor voice acting. Personally, I don't think it's that bad (I've certainly heard worse), aside from a handful of specific examples (i.e. pretty much anything out of Niko's mouth), but if you're sensitive to sub-par voice acting, you'd probably be better off turning the voices off.
But putting the voice acting aside, I really found it to be a refreshing experience -- a sort of return to roots in the genre. Turn-based combat (a mix of random encounters and mobile battle triggers), most comparable to... well, I can only think to say it's like Grandia meets Legaia 2. And with a relatively simple, yet fun and effective, character customization system. A great soundtrack ranging from somber tones to catchy exploration tunes and some exciting battle tracks. It's got a pretty respectable amount of extra content, from your staple battle arena and casino to mercenary-for-hire sidequests and collections. And on some lesser notes, you've got some things that have been absent in many of the more recent RPG's (particularly on the HD systems), like a world map and an airship (one you can actually manually fly!). Oh, and to top it off: it's actually pretty challenging at times. Not throw-your-controller-in-frustration difficult, but the kind of challenging that really puts your party choice and strategy to the test and gives you a genuine sense of accomplishment when you pull through.
I just can't help but feel like this game is a bit of an overlooked gem, so I wanted to share it with anyone not already aware of its existence. ^^ For those who've already played it, though: What did/do you think of it?
I actually had my eye on it for a while, before I even got my Wii. (In fact, it was one of my first reasons for wanting a Wii, if not the reason.) Being a JRPG, with Kenichi Yoshida (see: Eureka Seven) on character designs and Yasunori Mitsuda (see: Chrono Trigger/Cross) among the soundtrack composers, I was already psyched, just based on those factors alone. After looking into it a bit more, it seemed promising, and I can't say I was let down when I got around to playing it firsthand. (Sunk a good 140+ hours into it, on my first playthrough alone.)
Granted, yes, I'll point out the elephant in the room: it's got some pretty poor voice acting. Personally, I don't think it's that bad (I've certainly heard worse), aside from a handful of specific examples (i.e. pretty much anything out of Niko's mouth), but if you're sensitive to sub-par voice acting, you'd probably be better off turning the voices off.
But putting the voice acting aside, I really found it to be a refreshing experience -- a sort of return to roots in the genre. Turn-based combat (a mix of random encounters and mobile battle triggers), most comparable to... well, I can only think to say it's like Grandia meets Legaia 2. And with a relatively simple, yet fun and effective, character customization system. A great soundtrack ranging from somber tones to catchy exploration tunes and some exciting battle tracks. It's got a pretty respectable amount of extra content, from your staple battle arena and casino to mercenary-for-hire sidequests and collections. And on some lesser notes, you've got some things that have been absent in many of the more recent RPG's (particularly on the HD systems), like a world map and an airship (one you can actually manually fly!). Oh, and to top it off: it's actually pretty challenging at times. Not throw-your-controller-in-frustration difficult, but the kind of challenging that really puts your party choice and strategy to the test and gives you a genuine sense of accomplishment when you pull through.
I just can't help but feel like this game is a bit of an overlooked gem, so I wanted to share it with anyone not already aware of its existence. ^^ For those who've already played it, though: What did/do you think of it?
