Byronic Hero
Member
Origin:
The entire reason I bought this game was because of this thread. I bought it almost instantly because I love games with twists. Games like Bioshock and 999 are great, but their twists make them memorable and satisfying to me. So after reading about this JRPG that I had barley heard of, I decided to try it based solely on the fact that there would be a surprising plot twist. The only problem with me getting this game based on that fact alone is that I expect a twist.
As Ive experienced with Virtues Last Reward and Bioshock Infinite, when good writers build up a certain rapport, you come to expect things from them. So when you play through them, you know its coming, and while VLR and Infinite were great, I didn't experience that same sensation of surprise/shock as I did with the original titles. So, I know its coming, I dont know what it is, but just the fact that I know that there is a left turn somewhere in this darkness dampens the experience a bit.
So after buying the game, and about a month of pure procrastination, I finally started it, having almost no idea what to expect. What I heard when before I even got to the title screen was just a precursor of things to come in terms of horrid voice acting. Here we go.
Story:
The story is pretty straightforward so far, nothing too out of the ordinary, teens/adults on a quest to save the world by stopping the resurrection of some old god of destruction. Standard affair. You got your reluctant, self-obsessed main character (similar, but not nearly as annoying as Luke from Tales of the Abyss); your possible love interest white mage girl; burly fisherman/aggro builder; smooth(?) imperial guard gunman; and tough-as-nails warrior woman. I think there's one more, but I haven't gotten him/her yet.
Again, not much out of the ordinary for a JRPG, but one thing that is a bit original is that fact that the main character has an invisible companion (You, the player) who he talks to Francis York Morgan style whenever the chance arises. You get to name your self, and since the game is voice acted, the characters address you, but pause whenever they are supposed to say your name. It kinda brings you out of the experience when a character is addressing everyone else then asks you: What do you think ______? Are we going to go or not?
Gameplay:
The gameplay was something I did absolutely no research on when I bought the game, so when I got it I was completely lost when I started playing. Its a card-based battle system that is half Kindom Hearts: Chain of Memories and half Final Fantasy XIII, if I had to make a comparison. You have magic cards, attack cards, healing cards, defense cards, ect. And over the course of a battle, the cards you have in your deck are randomly given to you in hands and you choose which ones you want to use while subsequently gaining more from your deck.
It works great, and I enjoy the battles for the most part, its just that some of them tend to drag on a bit longer than necessary. The boss battles are the biggest offender, since none of the enemies have life bars, you dont know how close they are to being defeated, so you cant always plan accordingly. Another thing I like about the battle system is that some items will change with repeated use, making it essential to use lots of different cards to find their secondary uses.
Sound:
Now we get to both the best and worst part of this game. Lets start with the good news, the music is top notch and really reminds me of the PS1 to PS2 Final Fantasy games, the battle theme is especially good and even though it hasnt changed (except dusing boss encounters) it hasnt gotten annoying.
The bad news is that the voice acting IS F*CKING ABYSMAL! Its honestly some of the worst Ive ever heard in a JRPG, or hell, a game in general. The only one that even comes close is Arc Rise Fantasia for the Wii and I didnt even have to suffer through that as I played through the undubbed version. Heres a breakdown of all the main characters voices:
Kalas (Main Character) Passable, but not great. Say Cheeseburger!
Xelha (White Mage) Terrible, no emotion, and just plain bad lines. (During special attack) Be Careful, Im not that innocent! MAGIC! Sparkle of Light!
Llyude (Gunman) Atrociously akward. Special Attack! Concerto (With absolutely no emotion or volume)
Gibari (Agro Builder) Painfully mediocre. I cant think of any terrible quotes for him, as I rarely use him.
Savanya (Tough chick) Just shy of decent. Most of her quotes are not too bad, but apparently the mixing just sort of freaks out whenever shes about to yell because it gets really quiet.
ALL NPCs Its like they didnt even hire these people, like Namco just found random people on the street, and asked them to read the lines with absolutely no creative direction at all.
ALL NPC CHILDREN Oh ..my ..god
Also, some of the names in the game are just plain stupid, and dont sound like they even tried. Giacomo (pronounced jack-em-o) and Geldoblame stand out as some of the dumber ones.
So far, Im about 16 hours into the game and Im enjoying it. And Ive heard that the voice acting is much better in the second game, so Im looking forward to that as well. Ill keep everyone up to date, and when I get to the twist, Ill make sure to post my reactions Neiteio-999 style.
