My Playtime: Still playing . . . Currently leveling and finishing up quests
Genre: Turn Based Traditional RPG
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Story: After the legendary battle with Delgaia, the God of Destruction, the world of Berge was divided into 2 worlds: Luminous and Dark. Every few centuries, Delgaia reawakens to place judgement on the world. The warriors that originally sealed the God are reborn when his awakening is near. As they travel to the Tower of Judgment, their actions will decide whether Berge faces Destruction or Birth.
The usual, predictable plot line. The only interesting aspect of this game is that there are 2 sides to every story. At the start, you have the choice of playing as Cecilia or Levant. Their stories are slightly different since it is from their perspective in the game. The fun part is that you will constantly bump into each other throughout the gameplay. So, technically, you will have to replay this game twice to fully get the entire sub-stories.
Graphics: The characters are in 3D chibi form on the screen. The only time they are full grown is when they are talking to each other as flat 2D images and in FMVs. The graphics are not mind-blowing good, but good for what it is.
Gameplay/Handling: The learning curve is pretty simple. It’s your basic turn-based JRPG. Who goes first depended upon you and your enemies’ speed. Whoever has the highest agility goes first and so on. There is a pull down menu where you can choose to attack, use skills or items. The menu is easily navigable. Each character have at the start a basic "Ragnafact" that are meant for each of them. Each Ragnafact can be leveled up with FP that is collected when you defeat monsters and bosses. This is where you get your basic attack and techniques. Throughout the game, there will be more to find, so no one is limited to just one. You can also forged new weapons and armors that replaces the traditional "store in town." These are made from items that monsters drop. However, unlike Ragnafacts, the forged weapons will work for about 1-12 turns (depends on the weapon) and then become worthless. It can be a pain when you forget to trade the duds before a big battle.
Battles can be avoided since the enemies are visible on the field. Difficulty is not bad. This is your experience grinding kind of game. So as long your level and your weapon's level are high enough, the bosses and enemies are pretty manageable.
For most of the duration of the game, you will have of 3-4 characters at your disposal. But your lineup only allows three. I hate these kind of games. The character that is not the battle does not receive experience points and I do rotate my teammates. Then, at the finale of the game, guess what? Everyone now joins your team! So you now have 9 to choose from. Luckily, they are at the right levels. However, I'm a purist. I stuck to my original 4 and concentrated all my energies on them. And anyways, when I do play through the game again, I will be the other team in any case.
The maps are awesome here. The map appears in the upper right corner, completed, with locations of chests and save points. If you need to see the entire map, push select.
My main gripe was that there was no way to exit the dungeon except through the designated portals. You would have to walk all the way back when the area was a dead end one. So, it was annoying fighting monsters, especially the weak ones, over again.
Characters: Everyone has their own clichéd personality quirk.
Dark Team
Levant von Schweitzer - He possesses the Crimson Sword. A knight for Rosenbaum, he is honest to fault and because of this, it became his downfall when he saved his enemies during a fire. Levant does what he believe is right and willing to die for it. He actually had a story line that I did not see coming. What an awesome twist.
Irene von Rosenbaum - Illegitimate princess to the throne. She has corkscrew hair that constantly get made fun of. But she has integrity and cares deeply for her friends.
Ciel - An elf who is looking for her sister. She's quiet and doesn't have much personality.
Griek - A Lygar warrior who knows no fear. He is your strength guy here. Griek has great character development.
Lustrous Team
Cecilia Armaclite - She possesses the Staff of Light. A cleric serving at the Temple of Palfina. I'll say it. She will annoy you with her snide remarks and selfish attitude. But as a main lead character, what can you do?
Rafael Gemini - Looking for his sister who was kidnapped. He is such a sweetie. He has a crush on Cecille that is absolutely charming. But he is constantly interrupted when they are trying to get closer.
Luffina Gemini - Rafael's twin sister. As you can tell, you will eventually rescue her. She pretty much acts like a kid sister.
Ignus - Leader of Drake race. A man of few words but has the strength to rival Griek's.
Extras/Quests: There aren't many quests. What little quests that there is are mostly search and find or go kill a monster. It will be tedious. The quests are the same for both sides. You will have to talk to people to initiate these quests. So talk to everyone. Try not to miss one. If you forget to do these, you will lose creation points for that chapter. There are some lame extras that you can access from the start up page. You can unlock a bestiary, videos and music.
Vocals/Music: BGM was okay and matched the scenes. However, nothing memorable. There are vocals in FMVs and during battles.
Final Battle/Ending: Hard. Very hard. I was around Lvl 60 with Levant and Griek. Irene was around 50. I did die once. I was not properly prepared with my ragnafacts. There are 2 consecutive battles and there is no room to heal or refill your inventory. After winning, you get a good ending that shows what everyone is doing after the battle.
I'll be honest. This is my second try on finishing this game. After a point, I grew bored with it and had a new game that I had to play. So, my first time through, I played as Cecilia. So, I switched to the other side to liven things up. Currently, I'm hoping I can finish this before I get my Epic Mickey game. XD I will restart Cecilia's game another time.
Update 4/15/13 - I finally finished Levant's story a few weeks ago. I was forced to since it was my only source of entertainment when I was on a business trip. >_< Now, I'm nearing the end with Cecilia's. I can't believe it. YEAH! I can finally get rid of this game. What I did notice that Cecilia's trip is less battle-oriented and definitely not as dark.
Update 5/27/13 - Since I had the pleasure of being off for Memorial Day, I was determined to finish this game. And I did! YEAH for me. The ending was from Cecilia's view as she traveled through Berge. The final battle was definitely much better since I was better prepared and having Cecilia was a major advantage. As long as your characters' HP was over 2000, you are good to go. I did beat it on the first try. XD But guess what? This is not the official ending. There is now an option for HARD mode. You get to replay both sides again to get the "true ending." Whatever. I'm sick of this game. I'll play this game again in the future when I have nothing else to play. Right now, I'm going back to "Y's: Oath of Felghana" that I started over 2 years ago. ^_^;
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