A look back at: Soul Nomad & The World Eaters

Ah, so we have reached this.

A fantastic game that swept me off my feet when I played. One with great characters, great story, great gameplay, great music, and loads of customization. Where to start? It's a turn-based tactical game, with some general things like attack this or use this field tactic. The units can be any kind from archer to swordsmen to dracosage to even some monsters. The rooms can have certain types of effects, and the decor to put in will enhance effects too. The inspection command is where it's at though. Imagine a random battle simulator that allows you to fight several targets, including a sentry/tyrant who's the main boss and all. Also take into account that there can be several field effects, and the action is frantic enough to make me feel like I was playing a strategy version of Smash Bros. Even when not fighting, the dialogue in town and elsewhere is great, and it's even possible to fight locales for random things.

Soul Nomad & The World Eaters manages to have not one, but two excellent plots. Both of which involve Gig, the most hilarious imbecile ever, the Master of Death, self-advertised so well and inhabiting part of your main character's body. The gist of both is that Gig wants to use all of your body just to cause havoc. It doesn't even matter to him, whether he wants to take out the World Eaters that he had previously commanded or whatever. The whole normal path is basically your main character saying no to all this, meeting a few new friends, and throughout the course of the journey just sort of making Gig into someone who's not ax crazy and all. The demon path is the opposite, you agree with Gig, burn and kill anyone that stands in the way, and even then still get some allies. Though in that path, the main character somehow manages to prove even more evil than Gig in the end.

And then you look at the rest of the cast, and they are quite strong. You look at Danette's overall ditziness and being called a stupid cow, as well as other characters, like Odie who pretty much is a failure entirely, and the villains like Shauna and Cuthbert. Levin's betrayal in this game I consider to be iconic, and one that the game pushes you so far away from that you will NOT expect it. The foundations for each and every important character manage to be quite important for the most part, except for a select few villains met very late in the game. A whole lot of optional content does open up some plotholes, like the whole prologue involving Median who's not really seen anywhere else in the game.  And Endorph is probably the single most interesting character, possibly because he came straight out of another Nippon Ichi game. I plan to play Phantom Brave sometime.

But Soul Nomad is worth a play and certainly worth a replay for its many plots and amazing characters and gameplay. The music certainly captures the mood well for the mostly grim settings in-game.