 Review By: David Pulgar |
Developer: | Game Republic |
| Publisher: | XSEED Games | |
| Genre: | RPG | |
| ESRB: | Everyone 10+ | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Wi-Fi (trade birds, game share), Memory Stick Duo | |
| Buy Now: |   |
In Japan, RPG is a religion, not a pastime. For that reason, there’s no dearth of well-made imports from the Land of the Rising Sun. Brave Story New Traveler (Brave Story) is one of the latest in a long line of Japanese RPGs translated and distributed for consumption by the rest of the world. It’s a beautiful game that really shows off the PSP’s visual muscle, but it’s not perfect. I do have some reservations with the story and how the game progresses. Honestly, Brave Story can be dull at times and the only thing driving you forward is the lust for pretty graphics and the curiosity to see what the next big weapon will be. I’ll admit meeting new people helps drive the story too, but more on that later.
Before I delve into this review, let me give some background on Brave Story. Players will take on the mantle of Tatsuya, an 11-year old boy whose friend, Miki, has mysteriously fallen into a coma. While visiting Miki, Tatsuya goes to the hospital’s top floor and is followed by a small green frog and a mysterious female voice. The voice gives Tatsuya the choice to save Miki if he embarks on a quest. “To change fate, you will have to go on a long and arduous journey,” she says. Without knowing what dangers await, Tatsuya accepts the challenge and is presented with the Traveler’s mark, a key that allows him to pass through the Porta Nectere, a gate to Vision, a land where wishes come true for any Traveler who can collect several gemstones and present them to the Goddess of Destiny. And that becomes your mission, collect the gemstones and save Miki.
Unfortunately, story-wise, that’s where the problem starts. I don’t know Miki. Tatsuya might, but the player isn’t compelled to save her or want to save her. And completing quests doesn’t give players any answers until well after their affection for the game has passed. So why am I giving this game a 7.5? Because it’s a technical marvel and it’s also got some of the best turn-based RPG game mechanics I’ve ever seen.
Let’s start from the beginning. After Tatsuya accepts the mysterious voice’s quest and travels to Vision he eventually enters an area with four living statues. These are the guardians of vision. Based on a player’s response to a guardian’s question, their stats will change. It’s an interesting way of integrating character customization into a story. My quarrel with this system is you can’t choose a profession (even though the guardians say answering their questions will determine your profession). But then I think: “Do I really want to be worrying about what profession I want to be and what job I want to play as, yada, yada, yada?” Brave Story takes gamers back to basics. You play as a fighter with a sword. Yes, it’s limiting but also less troublesome. And that’s not to say customization doesn’t exist. As players collect gemstones, they can choose which to apply, changing their sword’s physical characteristics based on their choices. For example, applying a green gemstone grants the player’s sword a wind attack while a red stone grants the fire element.
It’s this feeling of discovery and surprise that drove me to continue playing. Earlier I said, “meeting new people helps drive the story.” That’s completely true. If Brave Story would have removed the customization element and not given something else in return, I’d have thought the game was horrid. However, removing the customization helped me to focus on the people I met while journeying through Vision. And that’s why I love Brave Story more than I hate it. There is a constant flow of new characters in and out of your party. Yes, there are a few central characters in Brave Story, but more than a few supporting characters too that come and go as they please. These characters level up with you and on their own. That means if they leave your party and return later, they will be at a level comparable to yours. And they will also level with players; so playing with them unlocks new team abilities. Because Brave Story is all about the characters, players have access to Unity skills. These abilities are shared between two characters in your party and initiate a team action when activated. Sometimes it’s a physical attack, sometimes it’s a buff or debuff. Whatever the action, it encourages gamers to play with all their characters, because you never know when you’ll run into someone again and need a particular Unity skill to take down an enemy. That reminds me, all characters in a party gain experience from battle, so players don’t have to swap out characters just to make sure they’re all combat worthy. Brave Story solves that one, very annoying flaw of most RPG games very nicely.
Posted: 2008-04-28 19:57:24 PST