A look back at: Orphen: Scion of Sorcery

A BITE...OF LIGHTNING!

This was, by far and away, the most confusing game ever. Not in terms of its in-game stuff, but the whys as to how it was made and just what the heck even was the gameplay and plot. Honestly, I just don't get it. The original premise is alright at the very least, then you choose one of three companions, go through a bunch of cutscenes, have bits of 3D game gameplay not unlike the 3D Zeldas, and then you basically have more cutscenes. The game's battles are incredibly perplexing. For a real time battle system, you'd think that movement is important, but the characters stay in place the whole time. You've got targeting, projectile attacks, sword attacks, shield, and elemental spells. And geez, this just has to be one of those games where the voice acting has to say the spell name every single time. It's so weird. And even moreso that the voices show up for new spells every time you beat a boss. Although that is Metal Gear's Colonel giving the voice there, I will admit that's cool. Orphen is kind of a dick more or less, especially since all he cares for is money and has some...very questionable lines throughout the entire game.

So this plot is strange too. How? Well, you pick a character, go through his/her scenario, then you're back on the sinking ship. Even worse, that stupid monster that was trying to sink the ship is one you have to battle two more times, which was annoying. But what was weird was how the familiar old lady, the familiar witch girl, and the familiar granddaughter were basically in every scenario, but in different roles. Like the old lady is fairly ambiguous, being a flat-out villain in Zeus' scenario while being an exposition fairy more or less in Mar's. That Quaris girl was confusing, being a villain in Sephy's scenario, but somehow is Azell in Zeus' scenario and Mar's mother in Mar's scenario. What the hell? And then you finally realize the truth after finishing the three scenarios as the whole thing was supposedly all acting, all by this one machine that makes these people perpetually act out everything. None of this makes any sense to me and possibly never will.

So while I applaud the game for NOT taking a path strictly from an anime/light novel it's based off of, it frankly had me turning my head way too much.