Tsugunai Preview

Despite its best efforts, Sony hasn't had a lot of luck with its attempts to challenge Square's ironfisted grip on RPGs. Wild Arms, and more recently, Legend of Dragoon, were plagued with poor gameplay choices and bizarrely uneventful storylines. When compared with Square's polished franchises, Sony's RPG efforts to date have been decidedly lackluster. Despite being lambasted by critics, Sony hasn't been dissuaded from its attempt to seize a portion of the lucrative RPG market. Its latest attempt at RPG respectability is Tsugunai for the PlayStation 2. The game features episodic trappings that should prove to be a departure from the established formula of RPGs. Of course, there are the staples (battles, summons, and magic), but beneath these elements are the deeper experiences of six different characters, all attempting to make amends for previous actions in their lives.

Tsugunai's main character is a wandering spirit known as Reis. He and five other characters have shameful secrets that haunt their existence. As the game begins, they all find themselves on a quest for personal spiritual redemption. Of all, Reis is the most interesting character--his unique ghostlike abilities allow him to possess others' bodies as he pleases. While there aren't many specific plot details available at this point, Sony has explained that this ability to jump from character to character differs from possession in games like Messiah, because the character's power is out of your immediate control; you won't be able to control when and where Reis decides to "jump into" another character.

This makes Tsugunai's premise much less like other video game premises and more like a string of episodes of Quantum Leap or Highway to Heaven. Reis will occupy at least 30 characters, and each possession is separated into a unique episode or self-contained quest. While there's no predetermined length for anyone's story, you'll notice television influences like recurring characters, moralistic stories with simple conclusions, and so on. Most of the gameplay seems to take place in a single town, though the stories themselves vary wildly. There are simple quests early in the game, like finding a lost friend (which conveniently gives you a tour of the town) and acting as a courier between two parties. Such quests are mostly nonviolent, and you'll end up interacting with all sorts of people from different walks of life and solving other peoples' problems to learn more about your own. Of course, the game also has plenty of typical role-playing fare; you'll eventually jump into the skin of a warrior and learn how to fight and cast spells. Not long after, quests and characters will have you venturing out into the countryside and into the town's dangerous series of catacombs in search of monsters, notoriety, and treasure.

Tsugunai puts an inventive spin on much of the game's combat. While you have an indefinite amount of time to give commands to your characters, you only have a limited amount of time to defend against enemy attacks. When a monster begins to move against one of your characters, you'll be prompted with a warning and required to hit a button to assume a defensive posture. If you don't make any effort to defend your characters, they'll suffer much higher amounts of damage. Other elements of the combat system are unique as well; magic is dealt with through a system of runes and amulets. Amulets are contained spirits that are sources of magic and summoning power. Runes are the conduits that let you draw on the power of the amulets. Without a suitable rune, your powerful amulet is pretty much worthless. Naturally, establishing a balance between the two types of magical artifacts will be necessary if you hope to succeed.

Graphically, Tsugunai features entirely 3D environments, ranging from a rather average medieval town to expansive outdoor environments with smoothly detailed terrain and unobstructed visibility. The character models also stand out, with lots of polygons and necessary extras like full facial animations and realistic movement. Some of the monsters Sony's shown are imposing--like a woolly mammoth that towers over the main characters and a dragon that breathes impressively detailed flames across the screen. Then there is the other promised multimedia bonus of a score by Yasunori Mitsuda, the man responsible for the Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger scores.

Perhaps the title Tsugunai is a reference to why Sony is developing the game. Obviously, the company hopes that Tsugunai's episodic gameplay and inspired storyline about atonement and death will redeem the company in the eyes of RPG gamers who are tired of Final Fantasy clones. The only problem is that the game's mature storyline, with so many characters and side stories moving around the central plot, could easily become a jumbled melodrama instead of the stirring narrative it strives to be.

Tsugunai will be released in Japan this February. Barring unforeseen circumstances, expect it to be translated and localized for the US sometime this fall.