wow. Finished this today after 42 hours. And what a great adventure it was.
There's so many things that Namco could have screwed up when making this game, but somehow, they managed to get it all right. This was a pleasure to play.
Gr4phics:
Cel-shading of the cartoon show variety. And the best ive seen since Zelda: Wind Waker. Alot of companys have tried shading and some haven't done a very good job with it (Capcom - Viewtiful Joe), but ToS seems to do it very well. The scenary and backdrops are wonderful and the special effects are bright and colourful. If I have one problem with the visuals, its the use of so many greens and browns o_o Nearly every landscape is a mass of green grass, brown rocks and greeny-brown trees. Oh, and the Overworld x_X Jesus Christ what went wrong there? It's so barren. Compared to the amazing look of a mystical forest in the background during the battles, the overworld looks like a sneeze on green canvas. Ick.
But apart from the green/browns and the overworld, the characters, explosions, and the anime cut scenes are wonderous.
s0und;
Very good. This is another thing they could have screwed up, but didnt. The voice acting was very good indeed. There wasn't one character out of the 15 to 20 i remember who got on my noodle. The only possiable complaint is that kiddy Mithos sounds like a girl. Couple this to looking like a girl and acting like a girl and you have one confused me o.O
The soundtrack is also very food with great battle tunes and mostly atmospheric level music. Sets a good mood. could have used a vocal track for the end theme though.
Gameplay;
I was very pleased with the battle system. It was in real time and let you perform hawt hack and slash ackshon, but it also let you pause and select Techniques/spells, items, reorganise the team's stategy to effect how the CPU controlled comrades fight, runawayveryfast and set up what moves to use in a unison attack.
Geez, now that I think about it, the battle system is far more complex then it comes across o_o Brillaint. Its deep and complex, but not hard to use!
Each character has a wealth of techniques which they learn along the way. The CPU characters will use these depending on how you set up the team stategy. If you told them to attack same/use magic/dont pursue, that means the character will attack the same character you are, with spells, while not getting too close. If you select, Save/heal/frontline, the CPU character will concentrate on attacking the badguy who's attacking the weakest member of your team, while giving priority to healing the team when they need it, while staying close to the action.
weeee. confused? I wasn't o.o And thats whats cool about it. It's not difficult int he heat of battle.
As for out of battle gameplay, it's the usual puzzle solving stuff. The game itself isnt too hard o.o 'Random Encounters' arn't here cause you can avoid the on screen baddies to avoid getting in fights. The puzzles are well thought out and will keep you entertained and you'll find more then one "Scratching my chin" moment of thought.
But you wont find it too hard, if you stick at it.
Story;
Long. Deep. Good script, if somewhat heavy on the text. If you like a deep, complicated, plot, then you're gonna love this. If long drawn out scenes and alot of stopping to listen to the characters chitchat about random stuff isnt your thing, you wont like this game >_> I only liked it cause the character building was very well done. o_o Though no option to skip the scenes more quickly during the overworld chatting must have added at least an hour or two to this game. Sheesh.
But yes, very nice story o.O If a little weird. You have to try hard to actually get it.
Overall, I loved this game. And that surprised me after I didn't like Skies of Arcadia. I'm not big on RPGs, but the way this game eases you into the adventure is done so well, it cant be hated for it small bad points, such as the poor overworld. This also wasn't quite as challenging as I would have liked, but it did require concentration. One moment of misjudgement and a boss will have half your team flat on it faces. Best voice acting and script intergrity i've ever heard for a game so heavy on it. Preety. Namco really have firmly placed themselves in my top 5 producers for this one. And it just goes on and on o_o; But if you like that, and like these real time RPG, plot heavy games, you'll love this.
9/10 ^_^
~ I'm not big on RPGs, but I do love Adventures. And this was one hell of an adventure.
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