Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel
Mar. 15th, 2010 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroSquare-Enix made a couple of tie-in games to the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime. I picked them up (cheap, used via Amazon) because, dude, Square-Enix. I finished the first one, Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, this past weekend.
The game plays mostly like a Dynasty Warriors clone, though there are a couple of button changes that are annoying--in DW, you use triangle to do combo attacks. In this game, you use it to pick up and put down weapons. Which lead to some early stages where I'd be all "SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!...put down my spear." Other than that, beating things to death is fairly straightforward. The system is weak for platforming, but there's very little platforming in the game, so I never found falling off of things particularly frustrating.
My biggest complaint revolves around Al. You play as Ed, and Al follows you around, fights on his own, and can be commanded to do a couple of things (ram enemies, block for you, do combo attacks) through a simple system. He's pretty good at fending for himself and keeping big crowds off your back, and if he dies, he'll just appear fully healed a little while later (or when you next hit a save point). My complaint? You always have two characters with you; why doesn't this game have a two-player mode?
The alchemy system is cute--the stages are littered with objects that you can transmute, and you usually have two choices for each one. There are three basic types: Equippable weapons, traps (which usually are good about hitting enemies, but friendly fire happens too) and mounted weapons like chainguns, crossbows and cannons. The latter is where Al really shines, because his aim is incredible. Many halls full of otherwise-difficult foes can be easily dealt with by transmuting a chaingun and saying, "Al, kill stuff."
And because it's a Square-Enix game, your characters gain levels, can find items to use and can equip accessories to improve their stats. Which is something I heartily approve of in an action/beat-em-up style of game, because it means that if you reach a boss you can't handle because you can't get the proper timing of dodging his attacks, you can go back, kill a few more monsters and open a few more chests, and get past the boss with a stronger character. As I'm not actually very good at action gaming, this makes some games playable for me.
The game really emphasizes the New Game+ feature, as it's only on your second play-through that you can unlock the movie and picture viewer modes; and you really need to be on your second play-through to have a prayer against the bonus bosses. If you were really crazy, you could play through three times to get both special items from both bonus bosses, and then a fourth time to use those items! ...not that I actually recommend that unless you really love the game, because it really doesn't deserve that level of affection.
And finally, the story. It takes place mid-second season, as Armstrong is accompanying the boys to Central. The train is derailed in a city the boys had visited years before (while studying with Izumi) and they meet up with former acquaintances who, being alchemists, have done horrible, horrible things with the best of intentions. There's about as much plot as a two, maybe three-part episode with a lot more fighting that you'd normally get on the show; and thematically, it works as a decent side-story to the anime.
Overall, fun if you can get it cheap, but too short and not quite inventive enough to have been worth full price. And we'll see how the sequel is, when I get to that.
The game plays mostly like a Dynasty Warriors clone, though there are a couple of button changes that are annoying--in DW, you use triangle to do combo attacks. In this game, you use it to pick up and put down weapons. Which lead to some early stages where I'd be all "SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!...put down my spear." Other than that, beating things to death is fairly straightforward. The system is weak for platforming, but there's very little platforming in the game, so I never found falling off of things particularly frustrating.
My biggest complaint revolves around Al. You play as Ed, and Al follows you around, fights on his own, and can be commanded to do a couple of things (ram enemies, block for you, do combo attacks) through a simple system. He's pretty good at fending for himself and keeping big crowds off your back, and if he dies, he'll just appear fully healed a little while later (or when you next hit a save point). My complaint? You always have two characters with you; why doesn't this game have a two-player mode?
The alchemy system is cute--the stages are littered with objects that you can transmute, and you usually have two choices for each one. There are three basic types: Equippable weapons, traps (which usually are good about hitting enemies, but friendly fire happens too) and mounted weapons like chainguns, crossbows and cannons. The latter is where Al really shines, because his aim is incredible. Many halls full of otherwise-difficult foes can be easily dealt with by transmuting a chaingun and saying, "Al, kill stuff."
And because it's a Square-Enix game, your characters gain levels, can find items to use and can equip accessories to improve their stats. Which is something I heartily approve of in an action/beat-em-up style of game, because it means that if you reach a boss you can't handle because you can't get the proper timing of dodging his attacks, you can go back, kill a few more monsters and open a few more chests, and get past the boss with a stronger character. As I'm not actually very good at action gaming, this makes some games playable for me.
The game really emphasizes the New Game+ feature, as it's only on your second play-through that you can unlock the movie and picture viewer modes; and you really need to be on your second play-through to have a prayer against the bonus bosses. If you were really crazy, you could play through three times to get both special items from both bonus bosses, and then a fourth time to use those items! ...not that I actually recommend that unless you really love the game, because it really doesn't deserve that level of affection.
And finally, the story. It takes place mid-second season, as Armstrong is accompanying the boys to Central. The train is derailed in a city the boys had visited years before (while studying with Izumi) and they meet up with former acquaintances who, being alchemists, have done horrible, horrible things with the best of intentions. There's about as much plot as a two, maybe three-part episode with a lot more fighting that you'd normally get on the show; and thematically, it works as a decent side-story to the anime.
Overall, fun if you can get it cheap, but too short and not quite inventive enough to have been worth full price. And we'll see how the sequel is, when I get to that.
