Gaming

Garnet Chronicle (Japanese Version) – PSP Review

Today I had a chance to spend some time on Garnet Chronicle, an anime-style RPG, but unfortunately it is the Japanese version and as far as I know there is no release date for the English version.

History and controls

Since it’s in Japanese, I know vaguely what’s going on, so far! Your hero character is a knight student from a knight academy. Your first mission is to take a letter of recommendation from the academy director to the commander somewhere near the village. Suddenly the entire battalion is being attacked by an evil looking character and his companion as a werewolf, no surprise the entire battalion is wiped out and of course our main hero survives but barely and saved by a sexy thief elf / treasure. Hunter. From then on, he joins you in the search for the “Stone of the Evil Mind” (sorry, it’s a direct translation from Japanese to English). Then, once inside the “Tower of the Lost”, you meet another character, this time it is a magician class and it joins you after the words. That is how far I am in the game.

The controls are typical of walking with your analog joystick, R will show the map but until now there is no map when entering the dungeons, the circle is confirmed while the cross is canceled, typical Japanese style, the American version may have these two buttons inverted. Unfortunately, there is no run button, so walking can seem slow at times. You can also save the game at any time and fortunately the menus are in English as well as the explanation in Japanese, although only the menus.

Game and graphics

The game is pretty much the same old turn-based RPG similar to Final Fantasy (up until Final Fantasy X-2 as the battle system has changed as of FF11). You and your enemies will take turns attacking / defending / casting magic against each other. Which is fine, except that it feels very slow and quite boring, it would make a big difference if the attack was smoother and faster, so that the attacks are executed as soon as the previous one finishes its movement. But as you gather more people on your team, the fight becomes more interesting and faster, so it’s not so bad after all. Level polishing is also part of the game, but not required. However, it’s surprisingly quick to level up, at least for the first 20 levels, which can really speed up the grind. As you finish each battle, you are rewarded with money, experience, random items, and skill points. Skill points can be spent in each character’s skill tree to unlock more powerful attack and support skills. Unfortunately, skill points are shared between all of your characters! And last but not least, the money you earn in each battle, obviously, will be to buy weapons, armor and support items. There are also cards and stones that can enhance your weapons, such as spinning your sword to have an ice element and enhancing your special abilities. Treasure chests are scattered all over the map, inside buildings, in the forest, or anywhere in the villages. Some are less obvious as I have found a hidden one so far.

One cool feature that I’ve never seen before, at least in an RPG, is the “sneak” feature. When you approach your enemies from behind without being seen, you can deal damage to them before the battle begins. The same applies to enemies, if they saw you, they would run towards you and if your back is in front of them, you will be attacked first. You will know when your enemies have seen you when an exclamation mark appears on the top of their heads. This feature is independent of who strikes first when the battle begins, so there is a chance that you can strike twice before an enemy can attack you, the same applies to enemies. If you can use this feature, you can really gain the upper hand in fighting and it makes battles much easier.

The graphics are not fancy at all, but they are well drawn in the anime style. Everything is 2D based, but don’t let that get you because even though the characters are simple 2D sprites, their expressions and body gestures can be clearly seen depending on the situations. There are also nice eye-catching special effects when your characters use their special abilities.

One thing I don’t like is the fact that all enemies look the same on the map, so you don’t know what kind of enemies you will be facing until the battle screen appears. I don’t see why the developers can’t make enemies appear on the map as well. But again, what if there are more than one type of enemies, which one would they show? Maybe that’s the reason.

Sound

Your typical anime music, your characters and enemies will say something before attacking, which will make the battle less boring. Sometimes your characters will even speak out during conversations. I imagine the English translation will be bad and take away the Japanese “vibe” just like any other game that went through the Japanese to English translation. In general, the music is great most of the time, but sometimes it can get a bit repetitive and have annoying subsequent words.

Final verdict

In general, I think this game is worth trying, this type of game is nothing new, but it is still enjoyable. I had trouble turning off my PSP until the batteries were drained while playing games. That should give you an idea of ​​how addicting and fun this game is, especially for level players like me. Hopefully the US version will be released soon so that English speakers can enjoy this game as much as I do. And for those who can read Chinese, Japanese, or don’t care about history, they should be able to get a copy on eBay or YESASIA.

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