A look back at: Princess Crown

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.

Thousand Arms' Minigames

Here we go, a game where you're more likely to enjoy the minigames more than the actual plot, due to the whole dating mechanics involved. Well, you don't have to do this, but a whole chunk of the game is much harder unless you date the ladies, since you lose out of weapon power and magic skills. There's several ways to do this, by actually dating, giving presents, and finally, the minigames, oh yes.

Cooking Attack

Sodina's minigame is a simple Simon Says, up to 10 different combinations which start at 2 button presses, then go up by one after every two combinations is finished, up to 6. It's super easy and honestly quite boring but better than some of the games on here.

Hammer Strikes

A whack-a-mole game involving the Playstation's direction buttons and actual buttons, basically hit the corresponding button when a Damashi pops up but don't hit Wyna. There's a few set patterns, so this one is actually save-scummable to get the perfect score. One pattern actually opens every single door at once, with seven Damashi to hit accurately. Not save-scumming this one could make this one of the harder games.

BJ King

This is honestly self-explanatory enough for those who know how to play Blackjack and I'm not gonna say much about it. Except that it's one of two luck-based minigames and that's all there is to it.

Hit Damashi

The worst mini-game. You have to protect Nelsha from Damashi which show up around the screen by shooting at them with a crosshair, but not shooting her or letting them hit her. Problems with this game include the slow crosshair speed, the high amounts of Damashi that pop up before the timer runs out, and the awful hitboxes of these characters. I think this game actually is scored based on how many Damashi you actually kill, but it's hard to remember when you have to protect Nelsha too. The fact that this skill-based game is more annoying than the two luck-based minigames really shows.

Sweeper Blues

This is the best mini-game. Palma has it, and it's a nice puzzle involving cleaning up every single square on the 5x5 board and it's got the nice puzzle element that has some nice thought to it. This one is graded by time but is still surprisingly easy and worth it.

Shell Joint

Kyoka's minigame is a memory game where you have to pick which face is the one that she wants. This is actually the easiest minigame, due to it only being three patterns. Once you memorize those patterns, you can just do it blindfolded. I'm not even joking. They don't even bother to really change locations of the faces here.

Super Rock Paper Scissors

And then we go to possibly the worst luck-based minigame I have ever seen. Yes, it's a RPS game, but you'll notice that the opponent either wins or loses against you, never ties. And then the second round is basically guess which way the robot will turn, one of four cardinal directions, or if you lost the first round you have to avoid it guessing you. Both rounds need to be won in order to gain a point, no partial credit. It's save-scummable, yes, but not fun, and Marion's voice really is grating. Making matters worse is this game is actually required for one quest!

Brain Teasers

This is an easy addition/subtraction of shapes. It's timed but still rather easy and shouldn't even be possible to lose unless you are deliberately trying to lose intimacy

Palace of Knowledge

A trivia game. Save the answers to these ones and you win every time.

So yeah, Thousand Arms has some pretty easy games to figure out. It's actually the most fun thing to do in this game, because this game's battle system although unique isn't really all that fun to get the hang of. And the dating questions are often trick questions, so I often leave actual dating out of the question. Basically, these games are the best ways to go.

A look back at: Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

So I have just recently reviewed this super easy game, so this will be a weird one to look back on considering how quickly I reviewed it.

It's short, easy, girlish, and somewhat forgettable. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is basically what you would expect if you take a Disney film and turn it into a JRPG. This was surprisingly one of Nippon Ichi's first games, and also partnered with Atlus USA. Odd, considering just how hard Atlus makes some of its games. For a game considered to be the second easiest RPG on the Playstation, I at least got to see what else it could offer.

And I wasn't entirely happy of course. The fights last less than a minute, naturally excluding bosses (but sometimes including them). There are two boss fights, back-to-back which you have to lose, along with another one that ends after a few rounds. The navigation seems alright, until you get to the dungeons at least. This is what I forgot to mention in my main review. The dungeons? They are awful. Seriously, there's the cave layout and the castle layout, but you will quickly notice that there wasn't much effort made into making dungeons interesting. There's the usual passageways, the forks that may lead to treasure rooms, even the dead-end rooms are bland. There's another mechanic I didn't mention, involving Monster Masters, since Cornet can apparently recruit monsters in the same manner the Legend of Legaia characters can learn Seru Magic. I never really bothered with it much, instead focusing on balancing my own party even if this means having a horrifically unbalanced Cornet sitting at level 84 at the end of the game.*

Well what they failed in dungeon design, they do okay everywhere else. NPC dialogue is alright, though some make odd references and such. The side stories involving the puppets you find often fall by the wayside, only to crop up when you don't expect them to, which is interesting in itself. The fact the puppets remain in the party after they say goodbye is good too. The quest for the stones has some interesting morals going for it. You can choose to kill the guardian for the Thunderstone, or don't kill it, fight Gao, and get the Holystone instead. The Waterstone is a trip through a sunken ship, the Firestone through a volcano, and the Earthstone through...a giant worm apparently. They tried to make the boss interesting enough too. Parts of the story are pretty much in light heart, except in a few cases, like with the people inside the worm liking the way they live there or Michael's idiotic death scene. And of course, the music tracks basically add more flavor to this game. It's basically nothing but a quick and super easy game that doesn't really take itself too seriously. But don't expect the absolute best of things with this game.

*I kid of course. You can steamroll practically everything in this game since the level curve is very generous, even if you pick the Hard difficulty. Cornet doesn't even have any main skills apart from playing her horn or utilizing rewards, I just level up my puppets in Pokemon style for this game, pretty much.

A look back at: Thousand Arms

No it is not a part of the Wild Arms series.

Thousand Arms might just be the single most unique RPG I've seen. It makes its main character an aspiring blacksmith, allowing him to create new spells for several character's weapons, but they require the help of his female companions that help him out, via dating simulation! And it's basically what I end up doing for the vast majority of the game, rightfully enough. But wait, shouldn't this RPG have a plot and a system of battle against enemies? It has those, yes, and the battle system ALSO is unique, but not necessarily to my liking.

So yes, dating takes up much of my time here. Give the girl a present, hopefully she's gonna like it. Take her to a dating location, answer her questions, although these questions sure can be difficult. Maybe a kiss to raise the intimacy level. Not to mention some photographs if possible. The minigames I found to be the easiest way to gain intimacy levels, and surprisingly the most fun thing to do as far as dating goes. Well not all are great and everything. Marion and Kyleen's minigames pretty much have you at the mercy of RNG, and Nelsha's is impossible to effectively even master due to terrible hitboxes. Of course, to get certain spells sometimes the intimacy has to be lowered.

But even then, I wonder if spells really do play a part for the battle system. These battles are mostly one-on-one, using some sort of faux-active time battle system where actions can definitely say quite a bit on how to win most of them. Spells are often mitigated to supporting characters, who also cheer or taunt in battle, and special moves (Summons in Meis' case) are finite in use as well. Unfortunately, those boss fights that the game has are pretty much marathons, since many of them have way too much health. And switching out a character for another one is not a good idea, since it removes them from the EXP pool and you can't unswitch them back. Lame.

Well the plot could be better, just an evil emperor, his five (!) cohorts all cyborgs with different crazy personalities. Also this rival blacksmith who gives himself the ultra-lame name of Dark Master and is oblivious to this one girl who loves him so darn much. I'll admit though, Bolt's death scene was hilarious. And then you get the whole scenes full of cliches. Yes, Meis and Sodina lose their hometowns* but somehow they come back. And Sodina is another case of a "chosen female". Guh, you could've done better just somehow making this game an actual dating sim. But I'll give Thousand Arms credit, it does a lot of things to impress.

*Kyleen does too, the big floating continent thing with balloons. But hell, she doesn't even mention it and neither does anyone else. What gives there?

A look back at: Kartia: The Word of Fate

Now here's a strategy game that fell completely under the radar. Kartia was honestly quite simple without a whole lot of substance, save one girl, get involved in a fight against another faction.

Only this time we pull a Threads of Fate and can play as two different protagonists, and somehow, they both don't intertwine all that much. Yes, I enjoyed playing both scenarios rather well. And even though Toxa's story ends up being mostly helping the one girl he saves, because wow he just sort of falls in love with her almost immediately, his companions manage to be just as good. Misty goes from being an enemy to a good character real quick, and Posha's determination and her haircut are also good. On Lacryma's side, things are much better storywise, and the characters there certainly are just as good. Troy's a jerk, but at least has respect for his boss, Kun's trying his best to be decent, and, well, I don't like Ele, but who cares about her. The plot Lacryma goes through is significantly more interesting, but in both protagonist's cases, their plots are pretty much driven through characters.

Now I usually do gameplay first, but for a strategy RPG these storylines manage to at least do the best character-wise, despite some simplicities and lack of substance. Well for a strategy RPG it works out well enough, not too annoyingly reliant on RNG all the damn time. The whole deal with Phantoms is certainly one thing as it involves creating with Kartia. Spells also function that way too. Sure, you get enough of that to work around just about anything, especially if you somehow manage to find the secret chest in the second mission in Lacryma's plot. Pretty par for the course. But some missions like the 15th one on BOTH plots basically require you to limit yourself in order to get the best of the best. Worth it? Sure it is. Admittingly I didn't have too much trouble keeping anyone alive, even Phantoms at times. Now, the one mechanic to look out for in Kartia is that there's no permadeath, but that human characters must survive at any time. It's a game over should any human on your side fall.

Now and then though, I'll admit, this sleeper hit really wasn't bad at all, and actually manages to somehow be above mediocre as well. Good game.

A look back at: Odin Sphere

This one I just sort of found out about. It's got the most convoluted timeline for several interesting plots, and for an action RPG, extremely challenging gameplay.

All of the gameplay is a 2D side-scroller, but with tough enemies, weak characters, and a few abilities to use at the disposal. It's so easy to die no matter which character you use, and the Phozon concept only really helps for leveling up, same with eating foods. Not too useful in battle. Alchemy is probably the only real interesting way to do things in this game, and I use it almost exclusively when the fightings over. Oh yes, and you get these ranks depending on how well you do in every battle, which honestly I don't really care that much for. You know another thing making this one really hard? The extreme graphic detail, which for a PS2 game is quite nasty to contend with when so much action is exhibited in the playing fields.

Sure the game has some very interesting ways of leveling up HP and Psypher energy indeed, and a lot of it can be done after the battle. I wish that the special moves in this game were actually unique, when it seems all but one of them have the all-powerful Cyclone spell and it seems that most of the other spells are not really that useful. Having to drink potions to keep both hot and cold elements from sapping health is also really annoying. Due to the different settings and what may be encountered, it's a good idea to have certain accessories on hand to block out the harmful effects, like wearing one amulet to prevent poison which predominantly shows up in the forest level. And then there's always one particular area with 5 stars and just the nastiest hordes attacking at once.

All of Odin Sphere's characters do end up memorable, friend and foe alike. Yet the storyline is screwed up in a number of ways. Why is Gwendolyn's chapter, chronologically the last in the timeline, the first to be played?  Many of the other chapters happen before that chronologically, often intertwining with one another. You look at characters like Valentine and think they are just flat-out insane, in comparison to the more ambiguous ones like Odin and Ingway. The NPC interactions in certain non-combat areas are quite interesting, like when Oswald is in the netherworld. I gotta give the final chapter at least some credit in its nonlinearity, yet the correct way to do things without still losing even when you beat the final bosses could be difficult to figure out. Certainly a story-driven game that really could have done a whole lot better if it didn't skip around a timeline so very often.

A look back at: Crusader of Centy

Ah this game. Sega's answer to Zelda, oh wait just joking. Well it is a very Zelda-like game, and one I erroneously claimed was an RPG. But it's action-adventure in Zelda style, featuring animals everywhere, past and present time travel, oh, and there's Sonic the Hedgehog chilling on the beach in some sort of cameo.

I'm not really sure what to make of this game's plot, but at least it is unique in a way. You see this one hero guy often, but he's completely minor. You train with your new sword (that is throwable and a boomerang too), then get some spell cast on to you. Now you can only speak to animals! What the hell. There's a whole lot of silliness here, and your items are actually animal companions who join you, and you can have up to two with you. They are basically required or not required for many different puzzles, and most enemies you probably won't care that much for. Still, the boomerang sword thing is honestly pretty darn silly.

Perhaps the strongest thing about this game are the bosses. For a Genesis action-adventure game, these are some unique boss battles. The wire dude is a memorable annoying one, as is the one where you have to guess which of the enemies is the real one, otherwise you take damage. The boss rush at the end is also quite unique. Plenty of bosses for this actually short game provide the weirdest kind of challenges where they are actually enjoyable. Given how much of the gameplay isn't spent on killing regular enemies as much as it is avoiding traps and triggering switches, I find the bosses quite welcome.

Crusader of Centy is basically the Genesis version of Link to the Past, with unique boss fights and odd gameplay overall. It's story is hard to figure out though, much of it not making a whole lot of sense. So monsters are evil, or are they? And for the record, no one has been able to figure out who this Centy is, exactly. So there's the big minus there. It's so odd that its title doesn't really pertain to anything.