LOOKING BACK: ZEPHYRUS AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

So begins the heavy religious overtones that echo throughout Zephyrus and the Kingdom of Heaven. You are Aegis, son of a powerful leader and mage as he witnesses the undermining of current beliefs and standards and the second coming of humanity's savior. Needless to say, this savior is not all that he's cracked up to be.

If you can process all of the religious sentiments thrown at you(If you've played Xenogears you'll understand), put your own beliefs aside and just accept the game for what it is.. a game, then you will enjoy the storyline very much. It's story really is this game strong suit. The characters have well thought out motivations and there are certainly enough twists and turns to immerse the player within it's unique world. Set in a kind of dystopian future, Rue669 does a masterful job of splicing technology and science with religion and other fantasy elements, much in the same vein as Squaresoft has done so successfully in the past. I would play this game again for the plot alone.

Rue669 was a great mapper, there were no real obvious mistakes, and the vast majority of the maps were interesting and varied. Although I was hoping to explore it's world more so, Zephyrus is a very linear experience lending it's plot to the forefront of the game. All of the tiles that were used flowed nicely together, and I truly enjoyed his use of them; he pieced them together well and tastefully.

The cutscenes were nothing short of beautiful. From the text speed to the character movement to the subtle animations and poses, Rue669 showed us why he was one of the best in the community when it came to this aspect of game creation. I learned a lot from the way in which he crafts his cutscenes. For a first game, this was WAY ahead of the pack.

Everything in the game worked pretty smoothly and without any glitches that I know of. This game proves that you don't need a fancy custom menu system in order to have a functional and aesthetically pleasing one. This game utilizes Rm2k3s side view battle system well with Rue669 making great use of all the battle events at his disposal making for interesting encounters and challenges through out. I especially enjoyed the scan crystals and their importance in battle. It was nice to not just button mash but to actually have to think about my actions and take my time to select the right skill, not just the most powerful.

I also loved the semitransparent message boxes and excellently colored text. It's truly an underused tactic in Rm2k/3, and I am glad that Rue669 took advantage of the little things.

I would say the only real thing lacking was it's linearity through out. No point you can really deviate from it's written path to partake in something on the side. Thankfully though Zephyrus is a story you wont want to deviate of path for, it truly stands as one of the classic narrative pieces of the old community and I recommend wholeheartedly you guys check it out.