The mystery of Lazulis Island will be solved as you enjoy one of the most unique JRPGs to be released this Generation.
The story is about the young mercenary Zael; a young man who wishes to become a knight and protect people. He travels with a band of people, all with a distinct personality to bring to the group, to Lazulis Island. The leader of the mercenaries is Dagran; an old friend of Zael's. One day, Zael finds a young woman hiding in a wagon and this gets him tangled up in a war against a race called the Gurak over a secret and a legend left behind by the founder of the Arganan house. It's all very interesting and engaging...when it's actually moving forward. The game's story is split into chapters and each is quite short therefore each bit of plot is given out in short spurts only to be followed up by side-plots. The story drags it's feet at first, picks up around half-way through the game then fades for a bit only to resurface near the end. Though what is there is really entertaining, even if it can be a bit standard.
The gameplay is pretty unique. The field of the game is just Lazulis City, the city on Lazulis Island clearly, and you can explore it at will. Here you will find sidequests and multiple shops. It's pretty self-explanatory and standard for an RPG. There is no field map and no areas to explore outside the city when not in a story chapter. When in a story chapter, the party goes into combat mode. Here they all run around with their weapons drawn and get into fights. There are no random battles, all are scripted so there is not much place for grinding. The only grinding you can do is when you find this red summon circles that allow you to start a fight, win and you get bonus experience.
The combat is what is unique about the game. It's an action RPG in which you can get behind cover and pop your head out to shoot with Zael's crossbow. It's pretty simple there but melee combat is strange. You just run into your target and you attack automatically. You can block by holding a button, which also allows you to strafe around the enemy closest to you. Your allies are controlled by the AI and they do a decent job with fighting. They all only have two patterns in combat at the most and it's up to the player to switch them. Zael also has the ability to draw the attention of the enemies in combat, called the Gathering ability, protecting the mages and allowing your melee fighters to get some hits on them from behind.
It's not as game-breaking as it sounds however. If Zael gets knocked down or knocked out it breaks the effect. If Zael gets knocked out, he gets up as long as he has one of his five lives in stock. Zael can revive the others when they are down by running over them with the Gathering ability active. When someone's lives are all run out, they are out of this battle. There are a lot of different weapons and a few armor sets and all can be upgraded for either money, materials or both. Some weapons become a new weapon when fully upgraded. It really keeps you coming back to upgrade everything. Some sections are mini-stealth sections and can be bypassed by successfully sneaking through, if spotted you must fight your way out of what might be a tough battle.
Every once and a while you may take control of another character who plays slightly differently than Zael. Magic users must take care of themselves and need time to cast their spells, though they can still fight in melee. The other melee characters fight only slightly different than Zael, only missing the Gathering ability and his ability to dispel Magic Fields. Magic Fields show up a little into the game and can alter how you fight. Each has an active effect when up; such as giving your weapon an elemental punch or healing whoever stands in it, but dispelling it sends out a shockwave that has another effect; such as bringing down the defenses of your enemies. It adds strategy to the fights and most of the bosses have gimmicks used to defeat them, some involving the Magic Fields.
The game is short by most RPG standards, only taking around 25 hours to complete the main story, but there are sidequests to add to the total. Even then it's still short by RPG standards. Combat does have some issues, while still remaining really fun. You automatically attack when you touch an enemy regardless of whether you want to or not. Some enemies can be pretty annoying, relying on gimmicks to beat; such as using magic to punch a hole in a magic shield so you can follow up with a crossbow bolt to remove the shield. When you are trying to deliver this crossbow bolt, you can be pushed around by other enemies while your British allies are screaming at you to shoot him, ignoring your current predicament of getting beat up.
Aside from the minor issues found during combat, it works really well and you'll never find the game getting old as you fight countless battles with your mercenary buddies. Speaking of buddies, you can hop online and have battles with or against your friends or strangers. Yes, a JRPG has a multiplayer feature. It's either standard deathmatch or a co-op mode where you fight bosses. You can play as characters from the single player and, while it is interesting, it won't keep your attention for long. Glad to see it didn't distract from the single-player any...I hope.
The music is pretty good, considering it's made by the original Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu it better be. You'll remember the main theme that plays often and the rest of the music is great. The voice acting is well done and it fits really well with the setting. Everyone sounds great and you'll never get tired of most of the characters, such as Lowell. This is a case where it's best that the European dub was the one that made it here. There is no option to use the Japanese dub which will probably upset some out there, but the dub is good enough that hopefully it won't be a problem.
The visuals are a mixed area. The city is great to look at, and the civilians actually react when you bump into them. The castle looks great too, but the other areas; such as the caves you explore during the story missions are kind of bland. The character models look great for the most part, there is a bit of clipping involving the armor the characters wear, considering their is no set appearance for each character since different armor changes the appearance and adds more details and armor pieces as they are upgraded. Some scenes are awkward looking since the game tries to go for a more real anime look, like Final Fantasy, rather than stylized and the Wii's limitations really hinder it in this regard, especially in the framerate department as it tends to dip often. These issues don't happen all that often and it's still a great looking Wii game.
PROs
- Interesting story
- Likable characters that you get quite attached to
- Unique combat makes it stand out from any other Japanese RPG
- Battles tend to need strategy to survive
- Great soundtrack
- Fittingly great voice work that, once again, stands out among JRPGs
- Makes you want to see what happens next
- Sidequests are pretty interesting and the arena is fun
- Character models look great and the art stands out
- Ability to play with the Classic Controller
- Dialogue is almost fully voiced
- Small details in town, such as smashing your head off hanging signs, are neat additions
- The one-on-one boss fights are extremely enjoyable
- Multiplayer is interesting to say the least
CONs
- Framerate issues that pop up very often
- Minor issues with the combat that holds it back from it's true potential
- Not all music tracks stand out
- Game is quite short, even with doing the sidequests
- Plot takes a while to pick up
- Plot twist at the end can be seen a mile away
- Some areas exist solely for dialogue and if you travel too far into the area, the dialogue stops
- Enemies can be annoying relying on gimmicks to slow you down
- Not enough one-on-one boss fights
- Dialogue choices have no purpose except to change dialogue in a small way
- Awkward scenes can really pull you out of the game
- Multiplayer is not going to hold you
Story: 8.0/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Audio: 9.0/10
Presentation: 8.0/10