"An average game, nothing more"

Not very often could I say that I have been disappointed by an rpg made by tri-Ace, but this would definitely be one of those rare occasions. Considering I have always been a fan of action rpgs I figured I would give it a try, but when all the dust settled I found it to be nothing more than an average cliched game.

Story/Characters 5/10
The story starts out with a young boy named Jack Russell, who at 16 decides to follow his father's footsteps by joining the Radiata Knights. Arrogant and over confident he fails the qualifying tournament miserably, and is only recruited because of his name. The story of the game was a complete let down. Many of the story elements were very cliche and had almost no real characters development. Part of the problem was there was over 170 characters in the game. Not that I mind lots of recruitable characters, but it severely hurt any chance of having any decent development. Most of the characters would never see action, and had no part to do with any part of the story. While Jack may have been humorous at times, I found him to be quite immature and I really couldn't grow to like him at all. There is a positive note to the story though, you can play two different storylines which does give you different perspective to the main plot. Story is definitely not a strong point, but if you like loads of characters than you may like that part.

Graphics 8/10
I have to admit that there was a fair amount of detail in general, especially with some of the character modeling. Some of the dungeons were well done, but there were others that were poorly done, and almost looked like they were not finished properly. Radiata City was done beautifully with many different environments, such as a wealthy area, the slums and the sheer size. Too bad there were no CGs in the game besides the introduction. Then again too much flashy graphics can hurt games as well. Not bad, and one of the saving points of the game.

Sound 6/10
If you are familiar to game tri-Ace makes then you will recognize many of the music scores in the game. Most are re-mixes from other games made by them. However I found them to be quite bland, and there were only a couple of scores I actually liked, and there were many. Battle music had to be the worst part, mainly because it was extremely bland and didn't add a very good aspect while battling.

Gameplay 6/10
I am extremely disappointed with this aspect. It's a action style battle system instead of a turn-base game so you are able to move around on the battle field and execute commands at any given time. But there is a downfall that severely hurts the combat system. While you can obtain over 170 playable characters, you can only control one character, Jack. The AI for most of the characters leaves much to be desired, and most of the time are nothing more than a nuisance to have around. You also can only change equipment with Jack, which can make some battles quite hard. It's such a pity that what could have been a great battle system ended up very mediocre. Another let down with the gameplay was it's length. I managed to finish the game in under 20 hours. I suppose taking the time to get all characters would increase the time, but recruiting characters shouldn't penalize the overall time it takes to complete a game.

Extras 5/10
The only extras the game had to offer was a few side missions that were more annoying than anything. There was a post game which was nice, and an extra character you got as well, but it was rather simple even at low levels. And there was a New Game + which was pretty nice allowing you to play the side of the story you did not participate in the first play though.

Pros
+ Loads of recruit-able characters
+ Decent character models
+ Choose to play the side of the Humans or non Humans
+ Decent graphics

Cons
- Very linear from both sides of the story
- Battles can be rather boring and offer very little in terms of customization
- Very little characters development, and quite cliched

To buy or rent
I would personally rent the game for a couple of days. It's quite short so you might be able to finish in less than a week and save yourself some money buying it. If you want to buy it then try and get it used.

Overall 6/10
Not a game that I would have bought if I would have rented first, but honestly not the worst I have played. Just make sure to try it before you buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/06