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chuckroThe students of the Will-O-Wisp school are sent away to a summer school by the Valencia seaside despite warnings that several students from other schools had gone missing on the beach in the past. One afternoon, a strange monster called an Enigma appears on the beach, abducting some of the students. The hero must find the missing students and uncover the mysteries of the Enigma and war that occurred in the kingdom.
I think I needed to be in the right mindset to go into this game: It was made by Brownie Brown, the developers behind games like Sword of Mana and Magical Starsign; games with a certain cutesy Mana-series sensibilities that hide a dark underbelly. Also, games that have big dreams and not necessarily enough game to sustain them.
At this point, it's been years since I played Magical Starsign, but I remember it REALLY wanting you to use magic there, and it's the same here. Your MP constantly regenerates and physical attacks are often nigh-useless. There are an insane number of elements in this game: SIXTEEN. They obviously got feedback from that, because Starsign only has seven. Each element has an associated character (therefore the game has a huge cast of playable characters) and an associated spirit. The spirits are a collection quest, as summoning them doubles the power of your next spell, but there are actually seven of each type of spirit to find.
You can fill out your party with a "magic doll" (for those times when you're forced to use fewer than six characters) that mimics an existing character but doesn't gain experience. It's handy when you need it, but you're better off grinding the real characters where you can, and you can't bring the MD into the final dungeon regardless.
I made it about halfway through this game, lost the trail of the plot and got tired of the gameplay, and never got myself to go back. They tried to do too much and didn't have enough game to cram it into, and didn't put enough thought into whether having all that stuff would actually be fun. Massive props to the fan-translators, though; they did an excellent job.
Overall: In retrospect, I think now that I've played pretty much their entire catalog, my love affair with Brownie Brown has waned. Sword of Mana won my heart with a burst of nostalgia that disguised the fact that, yes, it was a very flawed game. Without that, it's clear that most of their work is an exercise in "how much stuff can we cram into this?" without real regard for "how can we make this game genuinely fun?"
I think I needed to be in the right mindset to go into this game: It was made by Brownie Brown, the developers behind games like Sword of Mana and Magical Starsign; games with a certain cutesy Mana-series sensibilities that hide a dark underbelly. Also, games that have big dreams and not necessarily enough game to sustain them.
At this point, it's been years since I played Magical Starsign, but I remember it REALLY wanting you to use magic there, and it's the same here. Your MP constantly regenerates and physical attacks are often nigh-useless. There are an insane number of elements in this game: SIXTEEN. They obviously got feedback from that, because Starsign only has seven. Each element has an associated character (therefore the game has a huge cast of playable characters) and an associated spirit. The spirits are a collection quest, as summoning them doubles the power of your next spell, but there are actually seven of each type of spirit to find.
You can fill out your party with a "magic doll" (for those times when you're forced to use fewer than six characters) that mimics an existing character but doesn't gain experience. It's handy when you need it, but you're better off grinding the real characters where you can, and you can't bring the MD into the final dungeon regardless.
I made it about halfway through this game, lost the trail of the plot and got tired of the gameplay, and never got myself to go back. They tried to do too much and didn't have enough game to cram it into, and didn't put enough thought into whether having all that stuff would actually be fun. Massive props to the fan-translators, though; they did an excellent job.
Overall: In retrospect, I think now that I've played pretty much their entire catalog, my love affair with Brownie Brown has waned. Sword of Mana won my heart with a burst of nostalgia that disguised the fact that, yes, it was a very flawed game. Without that, it's clear that most of their work is an exercise in "how much stuff can we cram into this?" without real regard for "how can we make this game genuinely fun?"
