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The king is dead!

  • Silviera
  • 08/02/2010 08:11 AM
  • 519 views
I'd like to start this review off by saying I encountered a few annoying bugs while playing this game. The first of which is that early on in the game there were points where when I attempted to save it caused the game to crash and delete the save slot I had chosen. I also ran into a few points where it's possible to freeze the game, although you have to go out of your way a bit to activate these. These problems were infrequent enough that they did not impact my enjoyment of the game too severely, though if you do intend to play this I advise saving often and placing multiple saves in different slots.

Storyline- 2.5/5
A tale of royal revenge.

In the dead of a night the king is murdered by his eldest son. You play as his younger brother, attacked and driven from your kingdom by your brother. On your quest for revenge you become aware of a prophecy predicting the revival of a dark order known as the Runelords, and discover that you are the chosen one who will prevent their revival. Overall it's a pretty typical RPG plot. I spent most of the story hoping for the political intrigue to spread beyond a simple revenge story but it instead the demo focused entirely on the chosen hero angle, which was a little disappointing. Overall the story is competently written and the scenes are short enough that they won't become annoying, but by the end I already knew exactly where everything was going and just couldn't stay interested.

What's more the castle cat has fled by sliding on your slippery sled and crashing through your grandma's shed.



Battle System- 2/5
Normal rm2k3, but you rely on equipable rune items to flesh our your skill set.

Battles are standard rm2k3 though nothing is balanced particularly well. Enemy groups do not vary much and any strategy that works on one group is likely to work on everything. Enemies make use of poison a bit too liberally and the curve from one area to the next is occasionally too steep. Character skills are relatively standard although they are learned in an unusual way. Each character has an equipment slot in which you can place runes. As you fight with a rune equipped you will slowly learn the spells it contains, and additionally you will gain a boost to a character's statistics when they learn everything a rune has to offer. Anyone who's played FF6 will be right at home with this mechanic as they are essentially Espers minus the summon ability. Each character has also a specific unique ability with no mp cost that can be accessed from the main battle menu. These abilities are generally more useful than many spells which unfortunately downplays the effectiveness of runes. This is especially evident in temporary guest characters who frequently join the party for a short period, some of them have abilities that are enough to wipe out encounters immediately without effort.

One of these things is not like the others.



At certain points in the game you will encounter vortices known as Demon Nexuses, which are basically exceptionally difficult bonus boss battles that hide powerful gear. These are pretty fun optional goals but are not at all required to progress, unfortunately the very first one you find will likely require a bit of grinding to beat. The ones beyond that are far more reasonable. Overall although combat isn't particularly engaging, it's also not difficult and since enemies have reasonably low hp you'll blaze through most of it. The encounter rate isn't unreasonable so the battle system issues don't drag the experience down too far.

Characters- 2/5

I really don't have a lot to say about this category. Most of the game's text takes place during the intro and your party changes frequently throughout the game. As a result it's hard to grow attached to anyone. The prince has no real personality outside of his goals for revenge. The plot is always moving forward so the characters have no time to stop and interact with each other. The villains are also your stereotypical evil power hungry monsters, though you learn very little about them as there is no confrontation throughout the demo and they do not get a lot of screen time.

Level Design- 3/5

Overall level design is simple but effective. Maps are small and relatively straightforward. Puzzles are infrequent and very simple, and for the most part you'll just be going from one destination to the next. You will encounter frequent short side paths in most areas that generally lead to treasure so it's always beneficial to explore each area thoroughly. There's nothing particularly engaging about any area but at the same time there are no annoying points. Since the encounter rate isn't too high you can blaze through most areas rather quickly.

I'm sure it's just magical fire. Nothing strange about a burning swamp.



Graphics- 3/5
A combination of RTP and FF6 rips. For the most part there is a sense of consistency to the whole thing, aside from the odd misplaced battler or RTP sprite standing next to an FF6 squad. Nothing outstanding but no major complaints.

Music/Sound- 3/5
Mostly composed of ripped music, though it is well placed. Most songs are taken from various popular SNES games so you'll likely be hearing a lot of familiar music. There are also a few Byorn Lynne songs thrown in.

Random stuff I liked-
Although towns are pretty rare they are absolutely packed with NPCs to talk to. There isn't a lot to each conversation but there are so many people around it makes exploring cities a bit more fun than usual.

Random stuff I hated-
Late in the game I came across a casino, but I was unable to gamble. Although there was a simple gambling minigame elsewhere it just wasn't the same.

Final Thoughts-
The game has some promise but bugs and poor balance drag the experience down. Might be worth checking out if you need an old school fix and don't mind an unpolished experience. Certainly worth checking out if it is ever finished one day.