So I bought this game and played for like 2 hours... Keep in mind, I'm a fanboy for these games (I even liked 3!). I like it so far, definitely feeling the oldskool gameplay. Story seems pretty basic, (you wash up on an island with humanoids with tails and big ears, they think you Elusians, or humans from off the island, are evil but when you save one of the village chief's two nieces from a monster, they trust you more, etc...) but one thing that's cool is every character (at least in the first village) has their own portrait and voice acting. Voice acting isn't as horrible as you would believe (from like the IGN reviews), I think the VA that plays Shinra in FFX2 is in there for a few of the kids.
Controls are fast and responsive, it plays pretty much like a spiritual successor to the Mana games (although a lot faster). There are some basic combos you can use, it's no where near as deep as some of these "stylish action" genre games (Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, etc), but it works perfectly here. Getting to actually swing your sword is cool, and the rhythm in it reminds me a lot of the rhythm of attacking enemies in the earlier Ys games. Music is pretty good, but it sounds heavily synthesized - the boss theme is still kickass though. I'm sure I'll get to parts with better music, too, but so far it's not amazing.
Environments and graphics definitely get the job done - although it's kinda hard to make the detail out on the polygonal characters since the graphics seem rather zoomed out. There's also a bit of backtracking at the beginning of the game, but it makes for good experience building, so it's not so bad. My biggest complaint so far is that to get to the status screen, there's like a 2 or 3 second load - not bad, but would have preferred a menu appearing on the same screen instantaneously, like the other Ys games. Further impressions will come soon but I'm definitely enjoying it! Definitely worth the money!
Controls are fast and responsive, it plays pretty much like a spiritual successor to the Mana games (although a lot faster). There are some basic combos you can use, it's no where near as deep as some of these "stylish action" genre games (Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, etc), but it works perfectly here. Getting to actually swing your sword is cool, and the rhythm in it reminds me a lot of the rhythm of attacking enemies in the earlier Ys games. Music is pretty good, but it sounds heavily synthesized - the boss theme is still kickass though. I'm sure I'll get to parts with better music, too, but so far it's not amazing.
Environments and graphics definitely get the job done - although it's kinda hard to make the detail out on the polygonal characters since the graphics seem rather zoomed out. There's also a bit of backtracking at the beginning of the game, but it makes for good experience building, so it's not so bad. My biggest complaint so far is that to get to the status screen, there's like a 2 or 3 second load - not bad, but would have preferred a menu appearing on the same screen instantaneously, like the other Ys games. Further impressions will come soon but I'm definitely enjoying it! Definitely worth the money!
Glad I traded in instead of purchased the game. I don't think I would've been happy paying 40 bones for a 20 bone quality game.
