Yikes, nine RPGs in a row and all of them never made it out of Japan, in other words from Minelvaton Saga up to now I've been playing those games that basically got lots of fans to translate them and then play their fan translations. But Princess Crown's translation is still apparently in development hell or something, so taking the chances I went with the non-translated version and used a guide to figure out the story.
It's basically Odin Sphere-lite. Combat is the tough beat-em-up style but you fortunately fight one enemy at a time, even if there are multiple opponents they do the tag team thing or something like that. It really does feel like a hybrid of a beat-em-up and an action RPG, and given this came out before Odin Sphere that makes it a bit more unique. Further compounding that Odin Sphere stuff, the stories are of course told in books, where your real world character basically reads them (or has them read by grandma) but you control each character in their scenarios. Too bad Gradriel is the one who gets almost all the credit, and most of the sidequesting too. The random encountering here is much better than Odin Sphere as well.
I couldn't help but notice all sorts of cliches and similarities overall. Having played La Pucelle Tactics, Gradriel here is very, very similar to Eclair in that game, with a long triangular sword, a small shield, a battle dress, and even the superpowered evil side. Looks like Nippon Ichi took some cues there. Edward frankly doesn't have all the Oswald vibes, but he seems like a remorseful enough guy. I'd imagine Proserpina would definitely have that mini-witch thing going but her scenario was too short to really make much of it, and it was completely intended for comic relief in the end. Hindel was pretty much reused for Odin Sphere, although I don't recall if he was a boss there or not.
I'd imagine this game to be some sort of treasure in some way, especially considering the forming of Vanillaware following it.
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