Overall score on pook's 100-point system (TM): 65, or just 7. Considered a classic of the genre and one of the Genesis' best games, this one simply does not hold up well at all for a modern gamer who never played it back in the day.
-the breakdown-
Graphics (20/30, judged by era)- Visually this doesn't strike you as being that great for what the Genesis was capable of. While a definite step up from PS1, the tiles are cleanly drawn but mostly utilitarian, the characters dull. The game makes up for some of that with the enemies, which are varied, often quite large, and nicely drawn, with lots of little animations. Spell effects and battle animations are decent as well. Also, the game has a lot of very large dungeons. Though they mostly use similar tile sets, they're still large. Perhaps too large…
Sound- FX/Voice (7/10) Totally respectable sound effects for the era. However, one thing that brings the score down a tad is that some of the battle attack sounds are mixed way too loud.
Sound- Music (9/10) A fantastic and unique soundtrack accompanies the game's many levels and situations. Definitely a highlight of the game.
Gameplay- Length/Replay (15/15) This is a long game. We're talking 40+ hours if you finish it (see below). However, a lot of that is spent in leveling up, especially towards the end, or whenever you switch players. Even without it, the game is plenty long-it's a shame Sega didn't balance the game better to avoid having you age visibly during the course of playing.
Gameplay- Story: (4/5) Again, for its time the game sports a fairly unique story, doled out bit by bit after some major events. Just having an RPG set in a futuristic setting will allow opportunities to create something unique among RPGs. Revisiting some of PS1 and knowing PS1 is in the lore of this game adds some nice continuity, even if the game takes place long after its predecessor.
Gameplay- Game Design (10/30)- An ambitious game, for sure. It's huge with tons of enemies and dungeons. Mirroring the concept that the Dragonwarrior series did around the same time, of having multiple characters that you choose a party from and switch in and out of at will, this game broke lots of new ground in character management.
But the flaws weigh it down. While this may have been considered excellent game design in the day, and many people still love it on nostalgic grounds, it does things that are almost inexcusable today. For instance, the game came PACKED with, essentially, a player's guide that had maps of dungeons and lots of extra tips. Now, when your game comes packed with a player's guide, and when the player decides to play without it is practically FORCED back to using it, that's bad game design. Player's Guides have their place, but mandatory usage is not one of them. So, while Sega ambitiously tried to create giant dungeons, they are practically impossible to adventure through on your own. They are intentionally convoluted and confusing, getting you quickly lost-and should you forget warp items or to save enough points to cast warp spells, it's entirely possible that you could be stuck for good in a dungeon depending on where you last saved. I tried drawing my own maps on grid paper like I did on PS1 and found it almost as impossible given the size of some of these dungeons. So, mandatory guide=bad.
Beyond that, the game puts you through a punishing amount of leveling up to beat the game. The dungeons are huge enough to enable the opportunity for lots of random battles (and they happen constantly). Yet, even with fully exploring every dungeon and a little leveling up in-between, by the end of the game I learned (thanks to an FAQ) that I was nearly 10 levels away from even THINKING of attempting to beat the final boss. That's hours of leveling. I got almost all the way there (after so long a game, it's tough to give up) and tried and realized I was still nowhere near ready, that another few hours of training would be necessary. I could have begun and finished a shorter game in the amount of time this game required me to train. And it's not like the battle system is all that fun where hours of nonstop fighting is a joy.
And, this all happened in a game where I decided fairly early who my party was going to be. There were some characters I didn't even try. So, one of the strengths of the game is in the large pool of characters to try. Yet, the game is designed to completely discourage you from trying them-if you seriously play with each character, you've easily got 20 hours of pure training to look forward to during the course of this game. In the end, I couldn't bear to waste another hour of my life and moved on, so near to the end. And I did put in a good few hours of solid training before coming to that conclusion. I don't think a menu-accessible automap would have been so much to ask even then. It would have solved half my issues.
Final Thoughts- I've enjoyed going back and playing many of these older classics. They're educational, and fun at times. PS2 was enjoyable at first, got really frustrating when I realized I couldn't explore the dungeons relying on my memory, got worse when hand-mapping seemed fruitless and I realized I had to use the guide. Then it got fun for a nice span of time, then dragged on to complete drudgery at the end. For all its good ideas, PS2 is a game that served a purpose at the time and entertained many during its place of history. Play it as a curiosity, or if you have a high tolerance for training. Otherwise, accept that it was considered great at the time even if you don't understand it now. Like 80s music, or something.
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