Definitely an rpg you must look into!
The Legend Of Heroes: A Tears Of Vermillion tells the tragic story of a protagonist, Avin in search of his sister Eimelle, who were both separated 8 years ago. This simple quest alternates into a fight between the Gods of good and evil and his childhood friend, Mile will accompany him on his journey along the path towards his goal, while others in turn will lend a helping hand. For some apparent reason, I played the Legend of Heroes II before this one, because I tried the first one before and the frame rate issue irritated me, so I stopped. After playing the second one and adjusting to the issue, I decided to come back and play the first one and I have to say, this game is much more better and has a darker storyline.
LOHI is an old school turn-based visual novel role-playing game for those who miss this type of style. The game starts out slow and quicken it's pace later on and is linear and to the point, so you will be forced to follow the path assigned and will barely be able to free roam. The graphics like the second are what made me come back, with it's brilliant visual and scenery and of course the 2-D chibi sprite characters. The portraits of the characters with changing emotions are what distinguishes them from the rest, though not enough emotions were added to show their personality. The village and towns are beautifully rendered with 3-D houses and shops and small details such as flowing rivers and the glare of the sun. Each person also has a thought bubble above their head that is lighted up with a red exclamation point when they have something important to say. This is quite helpful, because you can easily lose your way around the area trying to complete a task to advance forward.
Many characters will come and go from your party on your quest, some staying for a short time while others for nearly throughout the game. In the beginning you will have the choice of choosing a pet to follow you (I chose the cat this time), they will attack enemies or increase your defense depending on their mood (they're less bipolar this time around), but it's pretty pointless in feeding them unless you're an animal lover who cares about their happiness. You are also free to save whenever you want in case of trial and error.
The controls are very simple, but the menu could be improved a bit more, such as to show how much exp. points you have, stats, etc. In battle mode, you are allowed up to four characters, and like I said, it's turn-based. There is the distance range, where if you're too far from a monster you will miss a turn trying to move on in closer to them, but this time the range is wider earlier on. The enemies also have a mood bubble that will indicate if you're stronger or weaker then them, if you're stronger they'll chase you, and if weaker they'll avoid you. Because of this, you won't have to worry about annoying random encounters when you're trying to get somewhere or complete an errand. The thing I liked about this game was the battle moved much faster, the spell moves doesn't take forever to execute, and cost little to use multiple times, but the power gauge fills up slower. The power gauge is a meter that fills up for every turn you attack an enemy, and when it's full you can unleash a very powerful attack on your enemies for the finishing move.
It's quite ridiculous in the beginning the low amount of exp. points received for highly challenging monster, but it improves later on. Another thing that seems rigged is, in some area even though you are much more powerful monsters will still chase after you and you battle to find they can be killed in a turn, while weaker monster run from you and you seem to receive more exp. points from them. Strange right? In the beginning you will be level grinding for quite a bit, then later on not so much, but I suggest you keep leveling to keep up with stronger enemies and bosses. You will do a lot of backtracking, especially in areas you will hate, because the path does get confusing in some areas of the game, which you'll dread going through even just once. You will be forced to do pointless task just to add to the game to it's '50+ hour of game play', by running back and forth for errand or helping someone out, but just breathe deeply and you'll pull through.
The music, I have got to say beats out the one in the second game, but then again, why am I comparing it to the second one? I enjoyed listening to the soothing tunes, because it gave off a wistful feel to it. I recommend using headphones to listen or it would sound repetitive. My favorite tunes were mostly in caves or isolated areas, because of its melodramatic-ness. Battle sounds in here in my opinion sounded better then LOHII and the way the monster disappear after being KO'd whisked away with a satisfactory noise. But the text, oh the infinite amount of text you will be reading never stops! This game suffers from bad translation, so most of the time, I just vigorously pound the X button and really didn't bother to read through it, because the story was fairly easy to understand. There are no voice acting, which saddens me, as it could have given the story more depth, but the humor is enough to make up for it.
As I mentioned earlier, there was the frame rate issue that stopped me once from playing, and it happens randomly throughout, but you will learn to see it as second nature. Another glitch that started occurring near the second half of the game is when you have your character just standing idly, it will start to walk on its on randomly and it happens till the end of the game. I found this slightly annoying, but amusing how I could just let it walk by itself, while I rested my hands or grabbed some snack and somehow it'll reach an area i was supposed to be. I hated how the map was shown in here compared to the second game, so I hardly ever checked on it. There is a history chart that will show what you have done, but you also have to read books random books to add to it.
Overall Legend of Heroes I is a immersive game with a great storyline and long long game play. You will sympathize with your characters even with their cheesy lines and long dull conversations. You most definitely get your moneys worth here, if you invest the time into playing this game and I highly recommend this game if you love an old school style rpg with a tragic storyline.
Storyline: 8 [you will be absorbed]
Graphic: 8 [great colors and detailed]
Controls: 8 [very simple to grasp]
Game play: 8 [good rpg]
Music/Sound: 7 [you'll enjoy it, because it adds to the mood]
Difficulty: 8 [easy enough to follow along]
Load Time: 8 [very fast]
Value: 8 [worth coming back to]
Originality: 8 [there are things that set itself apart from other rpg]
Enjoyability: 8 [the moment you turn it on you'll want to keep going]
Overall: 7.9/10