The Radical Child

Bravely Frustrating

In 2012, Square-Enix published the Nintendo 3DS title Bravely Default, which many videogame critics hailed as a throwback to instalments of the Final Fantasy franchise of old. It would receive a sequel for the system, Bravely Second, which continued the story of its precursor. The Nintendo Switch would take the 3DS’s place as a hybrid handheld and home console, with the company releasing Bravely Default II, which has no connection to the original game or its direct sequel, and continues the franchise’s tradition of turn-based battles with an emphasis on classes. It also sports some interesting changes, but are they for the better?

As mentioned, Bravely Default II, much akin to its brethren franchise Final Fantasy, has no narrative connections to other games in the franchise, and follows four playable protagonists: the enigmatic main character Seth, the refugee princess Gloria, the traveling scholar Elvis, and the mercenary Adelle. They embark on a quest to retrieve four elemental crystals while dealing with adversaries who utilize Asterisks, giving characters the ability to change classes. The sequel isn’t shy about its story’s resemblance to that of the original Final Fantasy, and is one of its primary detriments, although the background is decent.

The localization is mostly legible, although terrible decisions such as naming one of the protagonists “Elvis” really distracts from its okay quality, along with unnatural dialogue like “Protect! Protect! Protect!” and so on. The old-world speak is decent, and there’s a notable deficit of spelling and grammar errors, but the translation team could have given this aspect a once-over.

That leaves the gameplay to shoulder the burden, with the general mechanics containing many similarities to the prior two entries of the series. Rather than having an adjustable encounter rate, however, this entry contains visible enemies wandering dungeons and the overworld, with fights naturally triggered through contact, Seth able to slash foes on the field to give his party the advantage. Battles start with Seth’s party facing an entourage of enemies, with speed determining turn order, this mechanic somewhat different from the traditional turn-based structure of prior games. Characters and foes instantly execute their commands, akin to titles such as Final Fantasy X.

Rather than having a turn order gauge, however, Bravely Default II opts for having enemies show exclamation point icons to indicate their turns are imminent, with Seth and his party having active time gauges that determine which character goes when, and given some necessary foresight, an actual meter showing command order would have definitely been welcome. The sequel sports mechanics bequeathed from its precursors such as being able to Default, which serves as defense and accumulating one Brave Point, characters and enemies able to have a maximum of three Brave Points, and able to get extra commands within their turns.

As in prior entries, the game caps the number of executable orders per character and enemy turn at four, and it’s possible for both sides to have negative Brave Points, where they have to wait until reaching zero, recovering one Brave Point per turn, until they are able to execute another command. Much of the gameplay meat comes from the Asterisks the player acquires from defeating bosses who have them, which allows Seth and his companions to change classes, each with twelve abilities, passive and active, that they learn through leveling the class until mastery at level twelve for each vocation.

Characters have standard experience levels alongside class levels, with victory against the toughest bosses far more dependent upon which abilities the player has from their classes. Commands aside from Defaulting and executing supplemental turns include attacking with equipped weapons, using HP or MP-consuming abilities obtained through class mastery, using consumable items, or attempting to escape from the enemy, which naturally doesn’t work all the time, particularly against foes whose levels are on par or higher than the player’s. Victory nets all characters who are still alive base level and class experience, as one would expect.

Outside battle, characters can equip a subclass in addition to a primary class, which allows them to access that subclass’s abilities provided they have acquired a few levels in the vocation. For instance, players can have a fighting monk that can cast the white mage’s healing spells. Furthermore, the player can adjust the difficulty level, although even on Casual mode, bosses can still be walls preventing players from advancing the main storyline, having tons of HP, powerful enemies fighting alongside them, lots of cheap tricks, and taking upwards to an hour to complete, with failure resulting in an unceremonious Game Over and trip back to the title screen, largely necessitating online guides for strategies.

Control is superficially decent, with a fair save system, skippable cutscenes, clear direction on how to advance the central storyline and even subquests, auto-dash, the ability to see how prospective equipment affects stats before purchasing it, easy menus, a skill allowing to see how many treasure chests remain in an area, and so forth, although dungeons would have seriously benefitted from maps, their absence inexcusable given that even games from several generations past such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past had this feature. There are also plentiful load times, unskippable startup company screens, and the absence of a soft-reset or actual ability to pause the game, but in the end the controls are passable at best.

The soundtrack is probably the strongest aspect of Bravely Default II, with a number of solid tracks such as the overworld theme’s variations, the town themes, the battle music, and so forth. Sound effects are believable as one would expect from a game of its time, and there is voice acting as well, though its quality is somewhat mixed, especially in the case of a few annoying accented characters such as Elvis, who sounds somewhat like the eponymous ogre from the Shrek films.

The visuals are more of a mixed bag, with a three-dimensional chibi style similar to prior games in the franchise, which generally look decent, although there are some hiccups such as the player’s characters and enemies not making contact when attacking one another, some blurry and pixilated texturing, and a great deal of choppiness that somewhat bring them down.

As I didn’t complete the game, I can’t accurately gauge the time necessary to play it to completion, although at twenty-three hours, I was still partway through the second of seven chapters, so one can expect to spend quite a while if they wish to see it through to the end.

In the end, Bravely Default II is another Japanese RPG that I really wanted to like, but it just didn’t love me in return, given the various JRPG screw-yous in its gameplay mechanics, control issues such as the total lack of maps for dungeons, the generic narrative, mixed voice acting, and average visuals. It does have a few positive aspects such as its music, although frankly, that’s reason to purchase a soundtrack, not a videogame, and I can safely say there are far better Nintendo Switch RPGs out there, and won’t be revisiting this franchise anytime soon.

RECOMMENDED?
NO

Cress Cross

Namco’s Tales series commenced on the Super Famicom back in 1995, although it wouldn’t receive any spotlight outside Japan until a fan translation over a decade after its release, with North America’s first exposure to the franchise being Tales of Destiny for the Sony PlayStation. Phantasia would see a remake on the PlayStation, although this too remained in Japan, one on the Gameboy Advance hybriding elements from the SFC and PSX iterations that would see an English release, a fully-voiced port to the PlayStation Portable, and a touched-up version released on the PSP with the remake of Narikiri Dungeon entitled Tales of Phantasia: Cross Edition, to date the definite version of the game.

Phantasia opens with warriors from the past sending an evil lord named Dhaos into the future, where their descendants seal him inside a sarcophagus. Years later, the son of two of said warriors, Cress Albane, goes hunting with his best friend Chester Burklight, during which soldiers incinerate their hometown of Totis in search of one of the pendants used to seal Dhaos that Cress received from his father Miguel as a birthday gift. Cress eventually separates from Chester and meets other companions such as the healer Mint Adenade, whose mother had also participated in the sealing of Dhaos.

Cress and his companions’ journey will take them through the past and the future of their world, during which they meet other companions, including the summoner Claus Lester, one of the primary tasks of the narrative being his formation of pacts with various elemental spirits. Aside from the somewhat-tried time-travel aspect, the game generally tells its story well, with the heroes and villains largely being believable, alongside some potential variations in the form of extra characters such as the ninja Suzu and, new to Cross Edition, the time-traveling Rondoline Effenberg. There’s also a subquest involving two star-crossed lovers that can have differences depending upon the player’s choices.

Fortunately, the gameplay backs the narrative experience well, with random encounters on the overworld and in dungeons whose rate is mercifully less than in the Super Famicom version, and increasable or decreasable respectively through Dark and Holy Bottles. Phantasia sports a combat system with side-scrolling two-dimensional gameplay reminiscent of a fighting game restricted to two dimensions, the player controlling protagonist Cress and the AI controlling up to three active companions. Cress can chain attacks of either the slashing or thrusting varieties (most of his weapons having different attack power for each type), and execute TP-consuming special skills.

Cress can master physical skills after a hundred uses for each, allowing for the use of combination abilities that he largely gains by purchases through warriors across mostly in the past and future. His companions’ abilities also necessitate the use of TP, although enemies can interrupt the use of special skills by Cress and his confederates, and the AI admittedly isn’t always cooperative when it comes to Cress’s magic-centric allies. Fortunately, the targeting system is actually much better than in other action-based RPGs in that the action pauses while the player is switching enemies for Cress to target, most effective in Semi-Auto mode.

Also helpful is a minimap that shows the locations of the player’s characters and enemies on the linear battlefield, even showing when units on either side are in the process of casting magic, giving a bit of foresight as to whom to focus Cress’s attacks on. Eliminating magic-based antagonists is largely preferrable in that their spells, especially late in the game, can be especially deadly and decimate the player’s party easily, in which case death results in the typical Japanese RPG kusottare of a trip back to the title screen, wasted progress if far from a checkpoint, and needing to reload a previous save.

There are admittedly areas that would have benefitted from better placement of save points, although the gameplay is generally fast and as long as the player is playing on Normal difficulty, there isn’t a huge amount of time possibly wasted. Winning battles nets all living characters in the party, even those on the bench, experience for occasional level-ups, money to purchase new equipment and consumables, sporadic items, and a number of grade points depending upon performance largely stemming from who’s survived the battle and the maximum number of hits chained that the player, after an initial playthrough, can use to carry over certain elements into a New Game+.

Characters such as Claus, Arche, and Suzu don’t learn new skills from leveling, but rather in the first character’s case story events when contracting with spirits, the second’s case of purchase from NPCs and treasure chests, and the last’s case mostly the same as Arche. One element changed from previous incarnations is the replacement of the food sack system with a cooking system, new recipes gained from a chef found mostly in food shops, with successful cookery of dishes resulting in certain effects such as partial recovery of party HP or TP.

Perhaps the biggest improvement over prior versions of Phantasia is that, during the player and enemy’s spell animation, the action of battle still continues, accounting for faster combat and reducing the fluff in previous iterations. Generally, the gameplay works well aside from some occasional annoying enemies and fetch quests that necessitate the player gain random drops from certain enemies (two dungeons respectively needing fire and ice-protection accessories equipped on all characters to prevent death from field damage), and I can provide some tips such as using transformational Rune Bottles on stat-increasing items to increase their potency.

Control does have its positive aspects, such as the easy menus, shopping, quick dash, skippable text, and whatnot, although there are things that could have been better such as the absence of maps for the sometimes-convoluted and consequentially annoying dungeons, not the mention the odd placement of save points at times, with occasional long distances between save points and mini-bosses. Given the language barrier, as well, a guide is almost wholly necessary to make it through the game without a hitch, and there are a few points where, after completing dungeons, the game makes the player tread all the way back to their entrances, and exit items and magic would have been nice. Generally, the game doesn’t interact with players as well as it could, but things could have certainly been worse.

One of Motoi Sakuraba’s early soundtracks, the music is one of the high points of Phantasia, aside from the absence of the main theme from the PlayStation and Full Voice editions, with plenty of nice tracks such as the town theme, the main battle theme, mini-boss theme, “Fighting Spirits” (the summon boss battle music), and so forth, with other pieces such as “Aviators” definitely making the player stop and listen to the whole track loop. The voices also fit the characters in and out of battle, and aside from the typical seiyuu butchery of English names for skills, the sound is definitely one of the highlights of Cross Edition.

The visuals outside battle also imitate those of the PlayStation remake, with pretty colors, good anime art direction, and characters sprites that actually look like the luminaries they represent unlike in the SFC version, although their chibi design might be an acquired taste. One major difference from previous versions, however, is the battle graphics, with the player character sprites having much better anatomy, the spell animations being pretty as well. Perhaps the biggest strike against the visual presentation, however, is the heavy degree of recycling in terms of palette-swapped enemies and many rooms in dungeons looking exactly the same, but generally, the graphics are very much easy on the eyes.

Finally, the game will last players around twenty-four hours, with plenty of extra content such as the deeper floors of the Mines of Moria, and plentiful lasting appeal in the form of a New Game+, with a Grade Shop allowing players to carry over elements from their last playthrough into a new game, although some of the issues regarding the annoying enemies and dungeons may make the player hesitant to go through again.

Even so, Tales of Phantasia: Cross Edition proves to be the definitive version of the Namco classic, given its fast and fun battle system made even quicker through the lack of standstills during ability animations, well-written narrative, excellent soundtrack and voicework, and pretty visual direction. As mentioned, though, it does have issues regarding elements such as the ease of death at times and sometimes-convoluted dungeons, although it definitely puts prior incarnations of the title to shame, and certainly warrants a rerelease onto contemporary consoles, given the franchise’s rise in popularity outside Japan during the previous decade and odd lack of remasters during that time.

The Good:
+Fast, fun battle system.
+Great story.
+Excellent soundtrack.
+Nice visuals with some touch-ups.

The Bad:
-A lot of annoying enemies.
-Likewise, dungeons.
-The language barrier.
-A lot of graphical recycling.

The Bottom Line:
The definitive version of Phantasia.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: PlayStation Portable
Game Mechanics: 9.0/10
Controls: 6.0/10
Story: 9.5/10
Music/Sound: 9.5/10
Graphics: 9.0/10
Lasting Appeal: 8.0/10
Difficulty: Slightly Hard
Playing Time: ~24 Hours

Overall: 8.5/10

Nietzsche im Weltraum

Those who beat Squaresoft (now Square-Enix’s) science-fiction RPG Xenogears noted that the ending credits proclaimed it as the fifth entry of a larger series, akin to the original Star Wars trilogy’s chronological placement as episodes four through six, and a Japan-only book called Xenogears Perfect Works covered a timeline detaining countless events that never made it into the game. A console generation later on the PlayStation 2, developer Monolith Soft produced and Namco published a spiritual successor/predecessor to Xenogears, Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht, which definitely retains the spirit of the original PlayStation game, but is this a good thing?

Episode I opens with archaeologists in Kenya, sometime during the twenty-first century, uncovering a relic that enables humanity to travel space beyond the Solar System, the monolithic Zohar. Over four millennia later, humans would leave Earth to colonize the galaxy after a cataclysmic event, with a human scientist named Shion Uzuki the caretaker of an android dubbed KOS-MOS, able to materialize and defeat alien beings known as the Gnosis. The narrative in general takes inspiration from philosophers such as Fredrich Nietzsche, and is very-well told, if forced down the player’s throat due to unskippable voiced dialogue, and slightly derivative of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Much of the dialogue is well-written, although there are occasional hiccups such as the tendency of much of the battle dialogue, particularly with regards to characters shouting the names of their Techs in battle, to sound somewhat unnatural, and most of the lip movement during voiced scenes to be way off at times and indicative of the title’s Japanese origin. Probably the biggest localization change that makes a huge difference is the ability to skip voiced scenes completely, and there is occasional humor in the dialogue. Regardless, the translation somewhat seems unrefined at many points, with a little censorship of a few scenes as well.

For a game that allegedly emphasizes the narrative above the gameplay, the general combat mechanics are surprisingly well-executed, even somewhat addictive. Models indicating enemy parties populate the game’s dungeons, with occasional traps that the on-screen character can detonate to gain an advantage in the encounter triggered when contacting a foe, such as one boost point for each of the three active participants in battle to start with. Combat has a turn-based structure similar to other roleplaying contemporaries such as Final Fantasy X, with commands immediately executed after input, and each ally starting with four action points (six the maximum for each fighter).

Each action consumes a certain number of action points, which refill in between character turns, with characters having four AP able to execute melee and ranged attacks against enemies, each consuming two AP. A character can also defend to conserve AP, and when they have six the following turn, they can chain two attacks and execute a powerful Tech at the end of the combination, the player able to set up to four after different square/triangle button combinations in the game menus. With enough Tech Points acquired from winning battles, player can allow characters to use Techs after executing only one square or triangle attack with just 4 AP, with a maximum of two of these “shortcuts” per character.

Players can also use Tech Points to empower character Techs or reduce the wait time after execution before their subsequent turns in combat. Additionally, the player can use TP to provide increases to character stats outside combat, with each stat having a max that slightly increases when a character levels through standard RPG experience acquisition. Characters can also equip a weapon and an ammunition cartridge when available, along with a piece of body armor and two accessories. Using Skill Points also acquired alongside Tech Points from victory in combat, players can also extract passive benefits from accessories that provide benefits such as defense against certain status ailments, each ally able to equip up to three of these.

Each playable character in Xenosaga also has a “level” with regards to the aforementioned passive skills, with the acquisition of new ones from accessories gradually increasing it, level five seeming to be the highest tier. Additionally from combat do characters receive Ether Points they can invest into ability trees that allow them to execute EP-consuming magical attacks, with a cap as to how many they can use in combat. There are also certain Ether abilities that the player can only acquire through special means, although these may require referencing the internet to find, but mercifully the game is still beatable without finding them.

Another interesting facet of combat is the ability of playable characters to “boost” when they’ve acquired enough stamina from attacking enemies, with each ally having a maximum of three stackable boosts in battle, and can only do so when one character’s icon doesn’t appear in the turn order gauge at the bottom-right of the screen. However, these boosts are “use it or lose it,” and reset to zero with each new battle, with enemies able to boost for extra turns as well, although these seem to be spontaneous, and adversaries don’t seem to have any limit as to how many additional turns they can get.

One the main issues of combat is the need at many times for foresight, especially since the developers made the unusual decision, one that would repeat itself through the game’s two sequels, to have the turn order meter only show for up to four turns who goes next, with the gauge eventually running out of icons before “refilling.” It’s not a game-breaking design issue, and combat is generally fun (although a turbo mode, given some drawn-out Tech animations, would have been nice), with the various parallel systems being nothing short of engrossing, and accounting for a solid gameplay experience.

Control, on the other hand, could have been better. Most notable is the total inability, during voiced cutscenes, to skip dialogue, definitely not accommodating towards audiences such as hearing-impaired gamers who could only read. There are other issues as well such as the glacial menus, among their problems being their needless depth at times, for instance, with players needing to go to a character’s stat screen to change equipment. Autosaving, given the length of many cutscenes and sometimes-inconsistent placement of save points, would have been welcome as well. There are positives such as the ability to pause and skip cutscenes, but Xenosaga could have been more user-friendly.

Xenogears composer Yasunori Mitsuda composes Episode I’s soundtrack, which definitely has its share of good tracks, with some good cutscene pieces and a central theme that ultimately has a vocal iteration during the ending credits. However, most exploration throughout the game is silent except for footsteps and maybe whirring engines, and there’s only one standard battle theme until the final boss. The voice acting is largely solid, with voices fitting their respective characters, although allies whining and crying when they die, and shouting the names of their commands, can get tiresome. The sound isn’t solid, but could have certainly been worse.

For a game that’s around a score old, however, the visuals look surprisingly good, with well-proportioned character models containing good animation, anime designs, and expressions, lips moving as they should during voiced cutscenes. The environments are believable and contain nice coloring, and the designs of enemies in combat are good as well, with some occasional solid CG scenes, although as with most three-dimensional graphics, there’s an occasional tendency of environs to have blurry and pixilated texturing. Even so, a decent-looking game.

Finally, one could possibly make it through the game, skipping all cutscenes, in as little as twenty-four hours, although a playthrough with all cutscenes viewed and grinding occasionally necessary at times can push playtime up to around forty-eight (which was my approximate ending time) or beyond if the player really wants to grind their characters excessively, although there really isn’t much motivation to go through the game again, with no New Game+, a dearth of sidequests aside from tedious minigames, and most players likely wanting to move on to the sequel after a single playthrough.

Overall, Xenosaga Episode I is a competent Japanese RPG that hits some good notes, especially with regards to its surprisingly-fun gameplay systems, developed narrative, and nice graphics, although there are significant issues with regards to its glacial pacing, the notable waste of composer Yasunori Mitsuda’s talent, and absence of lacking appeal. A remaster would ideally resolve whatever issues it has, although the latest news of the series indicated an enhanced port wasn’t in order despite rumors, and while the first entry of the series was better than I remember, it certainly isn’t worth breaking out an old PlayStation 2 just to experience the game.

The Good:
+Surprisingly-good game mechanics.
+Well-written narrative.
+Some good music.
+Graphics look good even today.

The Bad:
-Battles would have benefitted from turbo mode.
-Glacial menus and cutscenes.
-Yasunori Mitsuda’s talent somewhat wasted.
-No reason to go through again.

The Bottom Line:
A competent but average JRPG.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: PlayStation 2
Game Mechanics: 8.5/10
Controls: 3.5/10
Story: 7.5/10
Localization: 5.0/10
Music/Sound: 6.5/10
Graphics: 7.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 0.0/10
Difficulty: Relatively Easy
Playing Time: 24-72 Hours

Overall: 5.5/10

Currently Playing:

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - My younger brother had warned me about this game's controls, although I opted for button-only control, and I've been having a decent time thus far, though as with other games in the series, the localization team really didn't make much of an effort to make the dialogue sound realistic.

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht - I'm aboard the Durandal during the invasion by human soldiers, and I've spent a few hours grinding, which has been surprisingly fun, and I even was able to up the speed of one of Jr.'s Techs that attacks all enemies so that I can easily smack down enemy parties.

In My Backlog:

Baldur's Gate I + II: Enhanced Editions - Low priority.

Dragon Quest - Don't know when I'll get to this, if ever.

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel - Might or might not be my next game, depending upon whether I beat anything for the rest of August.

Ultima II - A potential candidate for my next game, depending upon whether what I'm currently playing lasts me into September.

Ultima III - Will of course only play this after beating its predecessor.

Currently Playing:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - I'm in Chapter 4, and spent an hour grinding quickly in missions, before finding thanks to the internet that it's apparently a better idea to change classes for characters earlier.

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht - I don't know why, but I just had a strange itching to go through this game again, despite my mixed feelings on it from ages ago. It's actually a lot better than I remember it despite its flaws, and for some reason I've been having a blast grinding.

In My Backlog:

Baldur's Gate I + II: Enhanced Editions - Low priority.

Dragon Quest - Don't know when I'll get to this.

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel - Depending upon the circumstances, this may be the next game I begin.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - Another game my younger brother loaned me. He warned me that it has issues with its controls, and I'll probably hold off on it until I beat Three Houses.

Ultima II + III - Low priority too.

Currently playing:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - My younger brother lent me this game, so I'm prioritizing it so I can get through it as soon as possible and get it back to him once I've exhausted its content. I think I'll go through it to see the different stories of the three houses and get a more complete experience.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux - I'm at the final dungeon and have explored the first few floors a little. The blacked-out areas are somewhat annoying, although I hope to get the App that makes them visible on the automaps, after which I'll finish the Womb of Grief.

In my backlog:

Baldur's Gate I & II: Enhanced Editions - Not on my mind right now.

Dragon Quest (Nintendo Switch) - I do hope to play this this year due to it being the franchise's 35th anniversary.

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel - It'll be some time before I get to this.

Ultima II + III - Low priority right now.

Trials with Class

While critics and fans largely regard Secret of Mana on the Super NES to be one of the greatest games of all time, its remake for the PlayStation 4 and Vita attracted significant criticism, especially from those who consider the original game infallible (which I don’t). Thus, there was naturally some trepidation at the announcement that Square-Enix was giving similar treatment to the long-untranslated Seiken Densetsu 3, given the official English name Trials of Mana, although expectations were more cautiously-optimistic given the original version’s beloved disposition in the fan translation world, with the remake meeting said anticipation.

Trials follows six different protagonists: the swordsman Duran, the beastman Kevin, the amazon Riesz, the thief Hawkeye, the sorceress Angela, and the healer Charlotte. Upon starting a new game, the player chooses one of these characters to be the main one, with two allies selectable among the bunch. Each character has different prologues before meeting their companions (with players able to play through those of the chosen protagonist’s allies once encountered), and afterward, it’s off to save the power of Mana from exploitation by dark forces. The story has plenty positive elements, such as a well-developed cast, political and religious themes, and the like, but there are little to no links to other Mana games, and one big plot twist in Duran’s quest has been done to death.

The localization is perhaps the remake’s weak point. While the dialogue certainly is legible, lips mostly sync with voices during voiced cutscenes, and the menus are clean, there is a lot of unnatural battle dialogue, with the convention of characters shouting the names of their attacks not translating well to the Anglophone world, and the script makes some questionable decisions such as referring to the Mana Faerie who joins the chosen characters early on as “Faerie” instead of “the Faerie,” which accounts for some awkward dialogue. In the end, Square-Enix does from time to time produce its share of translation turkeys, with Trials among them.

Fortunately, the gameplay largely compensates, with the remake taking more chances in this department than its predecessor’s updated rerelease, visible enemies encountered on fields and in dungeons between towns, and the battlefield limited to a certain area from which the player can escape by running towards the yellow border for a few seconds. However, combat is entertaining enough so to the point where most players likely won’t want to evacuate, and the adjustable difficulty accommodates players of different skill levels. The player manually controls one character, although they can switch control to the others any time during combat.

The controlled character the player can have string a series of combination attacks with the circle and triangle buttons, and even jump to attack aerial enemies. Some foes have a barrier the player needs to eradicate by attacking with a charged triangle button attack, breaking the monotony of battle at times. AI controls the character’s allies, the player having a number of options to adjust it in the game menus, dictating things such as how much of their MP they’ll use before conserving, and the option to use consumable items, nine of each the player can have at one time in battle in the franchise’s trademark item ring (which also has a limit to how many different item types players can have in combat).

One neat feature of combat is that before foes execute special skills, the game shows a “danger zone” that the controlled character can safely evade. Defeating all enemies in a battle nets experience for all characters, which occasional level-ups providing the leveling characters one or more training point the player can invest into five different stats so that they can learn occasional passive and active abilities, the protagonist and their allies initially able to equip up to two of the former, although this limit increases to four and six with respective class changes. When a character reaches level eighteen, the player can change their class in a light or dark direction at a Mana Stone, which unlocks more powerful training abilities. The next class change is possible at level thirty-eight with the addition of a special item gained from planting ??? Seeds, adding further abilities.

In addition to being able to rest and recover at inns, the player can also plant different item seeds to obtain various items, which in turn gradually levels up the item planter, with higher levels meaning better items. The game mechanics generally work well, aside from the tough decision of which classes to which to change the player’s characters and occasional idiocy of the AI in areas such as allies attacking shielded foes with normal attacks and not caring about enemy danger zones, but with the choice of characters and the class system itself, there’s plenty of diversity in playstyles, and the endgames for each character aren’t terribly drawn out.

Trials also interfaces well with players, with an easy menu system that’s light-years better than in the original version as well as explicit direction on where to go next to advance the narrative. Moreover, virtually all voiced dialogue is skippable, even in many instances actions occurring in between the delivery of lines, and maps help players with their journey. The only issues are the lack of a suspend save, given the occasional iffy placement of save points (gold ones fully restoring the party, silver statues allowing saving only), and the lengthy load times, but control is another high in the remake.

Composer Hiroki Kikuta returns from Secret to compose its sequel’s soundtrack, with players able to select between the remixed version in the remake or the original Super Famicom version, as well as select between English and Japanese voices. The main theme is superb, and there are plenty other standout tracks such as the various town themes, field tracks, and dungeon themes, although places such as the Windhall lack music. The voice performances are also of mixed quality, especially with the unnatural battle dialogue, but the sound effects are good, and the remake is overall easy on the ears.

The Trials remake uses a cel-shaded anime visual style that looks pleasant for the most part, with good character and enemy models, the former having moving lips during voiced cutscenes, although many of the latter consist of reskins. While the environs largely look pretty and colorful, there is noticeable environmental popup of distant elements and noticeable dithering at times, alongside blurry, pixilated texturing when the player views scenery up-close. The rerelease is definitely more than artistically competent, but has some kinks the developers could have worked out.

Finally, the remake is fairly short, with players potentially able to blaze through in at least twelve hours, and while the choice of characters when starting a new game and PlayStation Trophies make for nice lasting appeal, there isn’t much side content otherwise.

Ultimately, Trials of Mana, regardless of which platform players choose to experience it on, shows that Square-Enix’s Mana series yet has life, given the solid redesigned mechanics, excellent control, different choice of playable characters, great soundtrack, good visuals, and plenty reason to come back. Granted, it does have issues regarding its derivative story elements and spotty localization, although to date it remains one of the strongest entries of the Seiken Densetsu franchise, certain to please most gamers, most likely those that didn’t care much for the Secret of Mana remake.

This review is based on a single playthrough with Duran, Angela, and Charlotte on Beginner difficulty.

The Good:
+Great redesigned combat system.
+Solid control.
+Different party setups and playstyles.
+Excellent soundtrack.
+Nice visuals.
+Plentiful lasting appeal.

The Bad:
-Some derivative story elements.
-Spotty localization.
-A few weak voice performances.

The Bottom Line:
An ideal remake.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: PlayStation 4
Game Mechanics: 9.0/10
Controls: 9.0/10
Story: 6.5/10
Localization: 4.0/10
Music/Sound: 8.5/10
Graphics: 7.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 9.5/10
Difficulty: Adjustable
Playing Time: 12-15+ Hours

Overall: 8.0/10

Better than Emulation, but Not Flawless

During the sixteen-bit era of videogaming, the Super NES and Sega Genesis were the dominant consoles in North America, the latter aimed at older audiences and the former striving to be “family-friendly,” given Nintendo America’s draconian censorship policies. Both systems would receive their share of respective RPGs, chiefly the Final Fantasy franchise on the SNES, and the Shining and Phantasy Star series on the Genesis, most of which would see many ports during future console generations. Among the latest releases of the Shining titles is Shining Force Classics for the iOS, bringing along with the core games some contemporary enhancements.

The very first Shining game, Shining in the Darkness, is a first-person dungeon crawler with randomly-encountered turn-based combat in the main massive dungeon fought by three protagonists. A single town serves as a hub for performing functions such as resting to recover strength and purchasing new equipment, with navigation being a rather simple affair. While the inaugural Shining title does have some things going for it, such as a great soundtrack and good art direction, the chief game mechanics somewhat mar the experience, given the often-sluggish, generic combat and ease of losing oneself within the voluminous labyrinth.

The franchise would shift to the strategy RPG subgenre with Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention, divided into chapters with turn-based tactical battles necessary to advance the central storyline, a change that was certainly for the better, given the straightforwardness of the game mechanics, although there is a bit of character fatigue, some user-unfriendliness, a lackluster localization, and limited lasting appeal. However, story was decent for its time, and there are other positives such as a nice soundtrack and pretty visuals, and overall, the original Shining Force is a competent, if generic, strategy RPG.

The first numbered sequel, Shining Force II, is too a strategy RPG, although the developers didn’t divide it into chapters like the first game, given the less linear progression, which admittedly can lead to some instances where the player can lose themselves on the overworld figuring out what to do next, and there is again a deal of user-unfriendliness and spotty translation. However, it builds upon its precursor’s strategic gameplay for the better, has an original storyline, and has nice aural and visual presentation, although on the whole, it doesn’t quite achieve greatness.

Ultimately, Shining Force Classics is an okay collection of games that somewhat show their age, even with contemporary enhancements like save states. Shining in the Darkness is perhaps the low point of the anthology, given its genericness, although the shift from traditional roleplaying game to strategy RPG was for the better, both Shining Forces being more enjoyable, though they aren’t without their flaws. Those wishing to experience the original Shining Force would be better off playing the Gameboy Advance remake, and the collection needs not rank high in one’s gaming playlist.

This deep look is based on a playthrough to completion of all three games in the anthology.

Recommended?
Hesitantly

Thank Chafee

Let me preface this review by saying that I despise American politics to the point where I don’t even look at newspapers for fear of them triggering my dark side, and don’t bother browsing sites such as Twitter. I hate it even more when the topic injects itself into nonpolitical subjects such as videogames, although there are rare cases where the topics intersect in a good way, such as Texas politicians providing initiatives to Austin-based game developers, or a loan from the State of Rhode Island financing the development of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which would see a remaster entitled Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, allowing a new generation to experience the Western RPG.

Like the original version Re-Reckoning features deep lore by fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, which is very engaging to the point where even subquests add significantly to the narrative. The game itself begins, unusually, with the player’s character’s death, although the gnomish scientist Fomorous Hugues revives this protagonist, the “Fateless One,” after which the hero embarks on a quest through the Faelands, one of the titular Kingdoms of Amalur, to discover the circumstances of their initial demise and life beforehand. The plot definitely helps the game well, although there are some played fantasy tropes such as the quest for immortality and general lack of distinction from other fantasy mythos.

Fortunately, the gameplay helps Re-Reckoning far more than hurts, with the player creating a customized protagonist of one of four playable races when starting a new game. Players begin as “Fateless,” although they can, when their character levels, invest points (three per level) into one of a trio of skill trees, corresponding to warrior, rogue, and mage classes, each with plenty active and passive abilities. The player also gets to invest one point when leveling into another breed of skills that decide things such as how much money they receive from selling excess items and how much detail the helpful minimap shows such as Lorestones that grant a pinch of experience and supplemental backstory.

Players can also wield a variety of different weapons such as swords, hammers, bow and arrows, knives, chakrams, and staves, with the gameplay generally devolving to hacking and slashing enemies regardless of armament, although charge attacks ultimately become available for each method of attack, as do mana-consuming abilities with active and passive actions, some of which the player can have “sustained,” consuming a fixed percentage of their maximum magic points for a neverending effect. Other notable magic includes one spell from the mage tree that can temporarily summon an AI-controlled skeleton ally that fights alongside the Fateless One.

Difficulty in Re-Reckoning is adjustable to fit different player skill levels, the game mechanics work well, the camera being an issue, and the lack of targeting akin to the Kingdom Hearts series not hurting at all. Battles tend to flow smoothly and accommodate many different playstyles, especially with the different skill trees, and there’s plenty of fun to have. Pretty much the only real issues are that gaining experience bonuses from Reckoning mode (which temporarily increases attack power) requires a great deal of button-mashing, and the player can’t always put up their shield to defend enemy attacks.

The remaster is generally user-friendly, with the rare ability to skip voiced text during most cutscenes, accommodating to hearing-impaired gamers. There’s also an in-game clock as well as fast-travel among visited areas of interest, although there are some points where instant conveyance is unavailable, namely in the middle of dungeons. While the direction on how to advance the main storyline and most subquests is generally clear as well, there are maybe a handful of moments where the player might find themselves needing to use a guide. Regardless, the game generally interacts well with players.

Probably the weakest aspect of Re-Reckoning is its audio presentation, given the relative lack of memorable music akin to many prominent Japanese RPGs, although there is good orchestration and excellent voice acting.

The remaster, however, fares better visually, with good colors and details such as different equipment affecting the protagonist’s appearance, realistic environments, character and enemy models with believable anatomy, and the like. There is a bit of choppiness, environmental popup, and some occasional blurry and pixilated texturing, but otherwise, the game is far from an eyesore.

Finally, while there is a great plethora of side content to prolong the experience, the remaster surprisingly doesn’t feel padded at all, especially due to things like fast-travel, and there’s plentiful lasting appeal in said extra material, although the Nintendo Switch, as usual, lacks achievements.

Overall, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is a worthwhile remaster that hits most of the right notes with its gameplay, control, well-developed lore, and good graphics, with only a few areas in which it fumbles such as fast-travel not always being available, the lack of distinction from other fantasy settings, the unmemorable soundtrack, and a few technical issues with the visuals. Although the original version sold over a million copies, it was so overbudget it didn’t break even financially, causing some controversy in Rhode Island in the original’s time, but that it’s a great game largely compensates for that, and one could consider it a certain former Senator and Governor’s greatest accomplishment.

This review is based on a playthrough of a copy purchased by the reviewer.

The Good:
+Excellent game mechanics.
+Tight control.
+Deep lore.
+Nice visuals.

The Bad:
-Fast travel not always available.
-Not a whole lot of distinction from other fantasy settings.
-Soundtrack generally unmemorable.
-Some technical hiccups with graphics.

The Bottom Line:
A great Western RPG.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Game Mechanics: 9.5/10
Controls: 8.5/10
Story: 8.5/10
Music/Sound: 8.0/10
Graphics: 8.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 9.0/10
Difficulty: Adjustable
Playing Time: 30-60 Hours

Overall: 9.0/10