A classic Chinese tale told in an entertaining traditional way.
You start out as a young priest named Genjo Sanzo (you can pick male or female) and while you are sleeping you are given a vision from a heavenly being with a mission from Buddha. You wake up to realize that this dream was not just a dream but in fact real, you are holding a magical staff, it is then you decide to go on your journey west to do as the vision says, to bring the staff and it’s guardians to India. Along the way you meet the supporting cast of characters. Son Goku, an arrogant yet comedic man who fights with a magic pole and turns into a giant ape. Sa Gojo, a well mannered man who fights with a pole-axe and turns into a water beast. Cho Hakkai, a large man who loves to eat as much as he loves to cook and fights with a rake who turns into a giant boar. Shu Ryorin, an energetic young girl who fights with a sword and turns into a dragon. Lady Kikka, A dryad (tree spirit) who wields a bow and arrow and turns into a giant butterfly. So Kinrei and So Ginrei, two sisters who were turned ware at a young age, Kinrei wields a sword while Ginrei uses a boy and arrow they both turn into ogres. Lady Tessen and Lord Taurus are old allies of Goku that have a gang of monsters, Taurus weilds a barbell like weapon and Tessen uses a sword. Taurus turns into a bull and Tessen a scorpion/ogre mix. Chin Genshi, Hakki’s master and Kikka’s grand father, he fights with a walking stick and turns into a tree-beast. Lastly, Prince Reikan, a prince who seeks the love of Ryorin who fights with a sword and turns into a turtle.
Your enemies in the game consist of everything from monsters to humans and even Devils!
The places the story plays out are simply China, India and Heaven. All shown from a world map, each section of which is played as a chapter.
The gameplay is turn-based strategy. You pick your characters, place them on the field and take turns picking what to do. The drawback to this is that the attacks are usually lengthy and repetitive.
The progression in the game consists of moving on the world map which is broken up into chapters. There are also many side-quests and dojos to conquer, these too become horrible repetitive.
Also, like every RPG there are stores to buy items and new equipment which helps you become stronger or heal in battle. Again, the downside is the prices are high and the best way to get money is doing jobs at town posts which are repetitive and usually involve a battle. There is also a card game to get rare items that requires buying medals to play. The game is a decent mini-game of blackjack-like gameplay, get your pile as close to 9 without going over or get the super bonus of 3 10s. Again repetitively hurts it.
The sound is ok but not great. The music is great, it keeps the feel of the type of game and area specific music changes are nice as well. The voice-overs in-between each chapter are very well done but the sound effects, although decent are repetitive.
The Graphics are great, the character sprites are well drawn and amusing, the fields are well rendered and the map is accurate and has nice detail. The cut scene animation is great. The in battle animations such as spells, attacks and summons are cool the first few times but after that become repetitive.
The replay factor is pretty low like most RPG’s there isn’t much to do after, the only thing unlocked by beating the game is a bonus menu which contains cut-scenes, alternate endings and some other not so important stuff. I can say that the game itself is at least a 70 hour game since I put over 90 hours into 1 save file and I lost quite a few battles and had to start over I’d say I personally put over 100 hours into this.
In the end, I’d recommend this to any fan of turn-based RPGs and anyone who like Chinese mythology. But not anyone looking for anything fast paced since this game contains nothing that moves fast.