A look back at: Spectrobes

 

Ah, Spectrobes. I have no idea how the heck I got you for a Christmas present, moreso the fact I got your so-called Collector's Edition. But who am I kidding, you were an interesting Pokemon clone. Or more accurately, Phantasy Star meets Pokemon. Revisiting you was a hidden gem in a number of ways.

But I gotta say, no one really talks about the original Spectrobes anymore. Any time I search anything Spectrobes-related it's always about Beyond the Portals or Origins. There were even commercials for both airing on TV. But NEVER for the first game. That's honestly a bit sad. I think that every first game in a franchise basically sets the bars for the better sequels, and are usually the ones to look at for the roots of what made those sequels good. It's why I like certain first games better in certain RPG franchises like Suikoden or Lunar.

There was a lot to get used to when I played this the first time. Battles were surprisingly complicated, using L and R buttons for Spectrobe attacks, while trying to keep Rallen safe. It's funny that the glove weapon, which almost always does 1 damage, is actually better to use than the sword or blaster, but only because it knocks Krawl away from the weak Rallen. Blaster and sword don't even do much damage in general, you pretty much must rely on your own Spectrobes to get through the battles. Having only one slot for a healing item was another thing I remember, giving more challenge to the game. You don't switch out Spectrobes like Pokemon in-battle either, since these happen in real time and you really just wanna finish up battling these Krawl before they kill you, basically.

Perhaps a big weakness in Spectrobes is its plot, as all you do plot-wise is to stop the Krawl invasion on your home star system and visit planets to help them out. A HUGE chunk of the game was spent on excavating and incubation, and I gotta admit, it does get addicting to doing that stuff. While battling is great for experience, incubating Spectrobes is the way to go more or less. It's also funny how the card input system in this game breaks it too. Thanks, collector's edition, although I at least tried to play it without too much game breaking. I didn't even bother collecting the geos for Ultimate Spectrobes, excepting that one you get in the story of course. It remains one of the more interesting games in my library to this day.