This game is one that was on a small journey before making it to stores.
First, it was called Dew Prism and was slated for a certain release in Japan.
Next it’s Japanese release date was pushed back. Then, they considered changing
the name, bit didn’t. Then, finally, the game was released there. The next step
is porting over to North America. This title had a long translation period, and
during it, the name was changed like originally planned to Threads of Fate.
Finally, after much trouble, this game was translated all over the world,
although with different names in some places.
I first heard about this game during its initial production, with the initial name. I had seen pictures
and an article on the Internet, and I was quite impressed, as were others, the
game had a hype building. But because of the long initial delay, the hype
started to die. I on the other hand was still quite interested. After it’s
release in Japan I lost track of it until its release here, I didn’t even know
its name was changed until someone told me. I went to rent it soon after. I was
impressed that it had lived up to my expectations, because they were high. After
much playing, here’s what I thought.
Gameplay The gameplay could be hard to describe in this game,
but I thought of a good word to describe it; centralized gameplay. You see, this
game, much like the game that was called it’s predecessor Brave Fencer Mushashi,
is set in one town. You play from one town and you go to other places from
there, without a real world perspective. That was one flaw. I didn’t like not
being able to explore all over, or even be able to go on the paths to the other
areas. You see, in this, you get to the gates of the city, and then you pick
which place you want to go to, and there you are. Not a good thing for me, and
many others. One other note on this game is that it is an action RPG, or in
other words, game where you simply fight your enemies on your main screen just
like anything else, no special screens, or special hits. A turn on for some, an
annoyance for others.
The town itself at least is big enough to satisfy
all of your needs. Within the town square you have two houses for residents, a
weapon shop, an inn, a resting place here you can sleep for free, and a church.
First, you may be wondering why you have an in, and a place you can sleep for
free in. Well, at the beginning of the games, you made some friends, and they
allow you to sleep in their little abode. The difference is, when you sleep at
the house, you don’t have dreams, nor does your MP get refilled. When you spend
the 500 to sleep in the inn, you get to have both your HP and MP filled, and
sometimes you get little dreams, or small little story explanations. But one
thing the inn doesn’t have is a save feature, for that you need to head over to
the house.
From the town square you can head to a small variety of other
places in the town. First, the beach. There isn’t a huge need for this place,
but a certain person resides there. He fights you for 100 dollars,, and if you
win, you can win 1000 dollars. But don’t think its that easy, this man is a
weapons maker, and he has a trick or two up his sleeve. The next area, is the
docks. There is almost no purpose for this place, it is how you arrived In this
town at the beginning of the game, and it is a hangout for some people. The
final place is the back alleys. It may seem like a scary place, but nothing is
there but a tavern, and a shop. The tavern is that and nothing more, what you
can do there is buy drinks, which refill magic, it is also a hangout. Now the
shop, this is basically that and not much more, but the items they sell here are
different, he sells items that raise your vital stats such as strength by one.
The only downside is that his prices are insanely high…
The other area I
want to discuss is the church, there actually is a reason for it. You see in it,
you can make a donation, and when you do, you get a coin depending on the size
of the donation.
While I am on that subject, the coins. There are four
types of coins, gold, platinum, bronze, and one other. They are like extra
lives. When you die, you are given the option to choose one of the coins, and be
revived. The difference between the coins is this, they refill your MP by
different amounts. The most valuable will refill the most MP, the least valuable
will refill the least. As you can expect the coins of lower value are easier to
find, but fear not, you wont need to worry about the MP too much.
Now,
there is another special feature that I liked in the gameplay of this one here,
this is the reason you wont need to worry about your MP too much. You see, you
have two bars on the top of your screen, one is for HP, one is for MP. As the HP
one lowers from hits, the maximum slowly increases, this is the way of getting
stronger or the more common phrase ''leveling up'' in this game. When you use
your MP point from spells, you also get the maximum refilled, but the good thing
is that as you fight enemies, your MP is actually slowly restored on it’s own.
Nice feature there.
There, unfortunately, is a very small selection of
items in this game. Your two main items are the magic bottle and the life
refill. What they do, is fairly obvious from the names that they have, the magic
bottle refills you r magic, and the full refill refills you life, or HP. You
obtain these items from killing enemies. Your secondary items are the weapons
and armor. These are obtained from the weapons shop, and simply raise your
attack and defence power. the final items you get are the enemy coins, when you
get them, you can sell them for money, this is the only source of money for you,
quite annoying…
Now, in this game, there are two characters you can play
as, each has it’s own story, and each has their own abilities, but they do cross
often. First, I will discuss Rue. He is a young boy in robes or something, and
he uses a large axe as a weapon. His special ability is a weird one. He has the
ability to transform into his enemies at will. When you kill an enemy, you are
able to become that enemy for however long you so wish. You get it’s attacks,
it’s shape, but luckily, your attributes and health remains the same. The second
character you can play with is Mint. She is the perky young princess-outcast who
uses an odd weapon, and as magic as her special skill, not the best of the two,
but still fun.
A great job in the gameplay section. Much to talk about.
Graphics The graphics in this game are well done for the most
part. the characters and enemies exhibit a level o detail and rounded #D that is
well up to par with the capabilities of the PSX. You characters don’t require a
lot of detail, but they have it. It isn’t something n untrained eye would enjoy,
but for a reviewer such as myself who looks for such things, the clothes etc.
were well designed. The backgrounds are up to the same level as the characters.
They are basic in the way of the usual grass, tress etc. But they have many
other things that interest me such as moss, and one area known as ''Mel’s
Place'' that is just… odd. Well done overall, not much to rave about, nor rant
about.
Sound I liked the sound tin this game. It showed that
the developers put some effort into it, and looked it over before putting it
out. Sometimes in a game, the sound is so bad, I think they didn’t even do that,
not here. The music is orchestral. That is the best way to describe it. They use
all of the instruments available to them, and they formulate the music. Some
people may like this type of music, I know I did techno and such just doesn’t do
it for me… The sound effects fit nicely with the origin, is there anything more
you could really ask for. Realism, a nice word to describe the sound effects.
Great, a nice word to describe the sound in general.
Story
The story tin this game is divided. You are able to play as two
characters, and each as their own storyline. Sometimes they cross as well. What
was also fun is that when you finish one’s story, it has an impact on the next
one you play, you can even be powered up etc.
First Rue’s basic
storyline. He is a mysterious boy. His earliest memories are living with a
lovely lady named Claire, his understanding is that she saved him, he was truly
happy with her. But one day, a man, an evil man, and a mutant all in one. He Is
a regular person, but one of his arms as gigantic and monstrous. He descended
upon Claire and Rue’s home and killed Claire. Rue tried to stop him, but
couldn’t. He now vows to find the magical relic of ancient times and use it to
revive Claire.
Mint has a more self entered story than Rue, also a more
simplistic one. She basically was a princess, a princess of a large empire. but
her ways got her exiled from the castle by her sister and family. She now only
wants power and control over them and everyone, and that is her only quest. She
believes the relic is power, so she is after it as well.
Enjoyability
This game is quite enjoyable. I liked playing this one, from start to
finish. Despite the lack of area to explore, and the lack of items and things to
discover, the story and minor side quests are enough to make me happy. But, one
downside is the mini-games. In other games the mini-games are fun, but in this
one they are evil, annoying, and they make me want to kill… Kill everyone.. But
anyway! Don’t worry about that! Very enjoyable game.
{~~Other
Important Scores~~}
Replay Value: Low This game isn’t
great to play again. You will ant to play the other character as soon as
possible, but most likely you wont be playing the same character more than once
for quite a while. This is simply due to the one-time storyline, the lack of
exploration, and the lack of side quests and mini-games.
Challenge:
Medium-Low This game is not very challenging at all. Although you
occasionally come across a very annoying part that will take you a while to
pass, for the most part, this game is fairly easy. Don’t worry about frustration
here.
Buy Or Rent: Rent This, despite the good things I’ve
said, is a game I suggest renting. Simply due to the low length (about 35 hours
for both characters), and the low replay value. You will love it the first time,
but not more that that. Rent and enjoy.
Good Points -good
graphics -action RPG -two stories -overall fun to play
Bad Points -low challenge -low replay value -low
length -nowhere to explore -only one city
Overall a great game.
I would suggest playing this one. You will enjoy it for the entire time you play
it, and you wont want to stop. But for more playing after that, I wouldn’t
suggest it. Despite all that, this game gets a seifer guarantee!
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