Lotus666
06-08-09, 11:27 PM
An epic LF game review out of 2004...
After a long time of rediculously annoying leveling up, item hunting, and save limiting thanks to the fact that I like the boss battle music AND that I needed waypoints in case if I REALLY screwed up (I'll explain later).
Anyways... You are Rolf, an Agent of the Government of Mota (Motavia in Phantasy Star) who is essentially an investigator, the police, judge and executioner all in one, save for the robotic troops that work under Mother Brain (Yes, I said it - MOTHER BRAIN, but not the weird-ass bitch who looks like a mutated or malformed brain in the Metroid series), which is a big-ass computer system that controls all necessary aspects of life, such as the Bio-Systems lab necessary for developing plant life that requires very little water to survive (Mota is originally a desert planet) and other beneficial life-forms, and Climatrol which is neccessary for altering the climate so everything stays peachy and life can proceed at its most efficient rate. Rolf is the only character who obtains the "Megid" technique, which sells off a small portion of your and everyone's life-force to create a rediculously devastating attack that hits ALL opponents on the field (gained at Level 35).
Unfortunately, most things these days have not been proceeding as planned:
The Bio-Systems Lab has been malfunctioning and has been sending out wave after wave of almost all forms of life that have a natural tendency to attack all life-forms, whether they're Palmans, Motavians or Dezolians (from Planets Palma [aka Palm, Parma, and Parm], Motavia [aka Mota, Motabia] and Dezolis [aka Dezo and Dezoris] respectively). Those monsters have been adequately dubbed "Biomonsters".
The Climatrol has also been malfunctioning, since there has been a drought for quite some time, and the main reserve where there normally is some water has been completely empty for god knows how long.
You gain new companions as you continue to travel - the more cities you visit, the more companions you gain. There are 7 total allies.
Your first companion, Nei, is a strange female life-form, who is an estimated 7 months old, but has the physical and mental faculties of a 20 year old as well as has pointy ears and seems to level up rediculously quick. She is one of the original prototypes for the "Newman" (aka Numan from Phantasy Star IV) species, a human cross-bred with a biomonster that ended up producing this lithe and rediculously quick being. The strange thing is that she is actually the conscience of the being Neifirst, who is essentially, the host of life for Nei. You must defeat Neifirst if you wish to survive the ordeal. You can defeat her as Nei, which is freakin' hard, or you can let Nei die by Neifirst's hands and then let the rest of the party just slaughter their way past her. (She won't be revived when Neifirst dies, and the stupid bitch at the clone labs says that "she led a full life", despite her being 7 freakin' months old)
Rudo, a hunter who was originally a soldier lost his family to biomonsters. Thanks to the onset of rage inspired by the biomonsters, he has a reason to ally with Rolf who is investigating the matter. His main affiliation is with guns - they can pierce through all defenses, which makes him VERY valuable when dealing with the robots that show up later in the game, but guns have the tendency to do the exact same amount of damage range no matter what, and has no techniques whatsoever.
Next up is Amy, a doctor who realizes that the matter must be put to rest, despite the fact that thanks to the biomonsters, she isn't hurting for work. Her healing techniques are what makes her VERY important in this game, as she's the only person capable of getting the NASAR technique in the game, allowing you to heal everybody to their maximum possible HP in one shot. (Gained at Level 30)
Afterwards is Hugh, a biologist whose techniques revolve around biomonsters only, who allies with Rolf because the investigation of the Biosystems Lab showed that there was something extremely wrong about the data that Rolf recovered from the site. He's useful up to Neifirst, then loses his his usefulness until about the search for the 8 "Nei" items and then Noah, the final battlefield.
Then it's Anna, a vicious woman who hunts Agents who are convicted of wrong-doing. She wields boomerangs and slicers with expert skill, and has very little technique capability.
Later comes Kain, a wanna-be engineer and electronics repair-man turned wrecker after he figures out that everything he tries to fix ends up being destroyed. His techniques only work on robots (with those robots showing up after Neifirst and a little bit into Dezo before the search of the 8 Nei items).
Finally, it's Shir (of the Wind). She's a rich girl who has ALWAYS gotten what she has wanted and, just for kicks, steals shit from almost everybody. Whether it's the holding compartment at the main building where you get your orders, or if it's from the shops, she'll steal it. If she does steal anything, once you leave the shop or whatever, you'll notice that she is no longer walking in your party. Go back to your house to get her.
NOTE: You get VERY good stuff from Shir, for instance, from the holding area of the main building, you get a Visiphone, which allows you to contact Data Memory wherever you are and save your game (except in battle), or if you hijack stuff from a shop, you can get a Star Mist which allows you to heal your party or you can get a Moon Dew, which allows you to revive a fallen character (or you can sell it off for 4000 meseta). After a while, her "abilities" become annoying and seemingly worthless.
The battle system of this game hasn't changed much from Phantasy Star I, other than it got rid of the "monster level up" bit and now you choose your attacks through a special "Strategy" menu rather than going through just standard ol' FIGHT.
In short:
Storyline: 4.5 out of 5 - I really wish those guys at Sega would just quit with the blatently stupid misspellings. Seriously, three names for the same freakin' planet, and they're all different by about one letter. Talk about retardation.
Gameplay: 5 out of 5 - it's the only game that I know of you that can allow you to not fight anything if you don't freakin' want to (a little trick: Sega Genesis or Mega Drive version: move, then quickly press B then C to open up the menu and cancel it. GBA version: move, then quickly press B twice to open up the menu and cancel it.)
Graphics: 4 out of 5. Not bad, the only unrealistic parts are such things as BLUE HAIR! (Small joke for those who actually saw the Strong Bad Email #57, "Japanese Cartoon" http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail57.html ) The techniques look kinda cool too.
Sounds: 3 out of 5. Seriously, some of them are just weird.
Music: 4 out of 5. Total Classic stuff, the problem is is that ALL music gets REALLY annoying if you play it too long.
Replayability: eh, it determines what you did.
1. Did you beat Neifirst as Nei? You get a special little sequence if you do.
2. Did you screw up when the three Army-Eyes descended upon you? Such as... did you defeat all three of them (with 3000 HP apiece) within three turns? If you did, did you save over all of your games? If so, I recommend you go outside, find the biggest and thickest stick you can find, and then beat yourself over the head with it. Repeatedly. You're not supposed to win. You're supposed to get captured when one of them uses their little plasma rings move in the third turn and captures your dumb-ass to be sent to the Gaira Sattellite so the story can continue.
If you saw both little sequences and you didn't screw up, there really isn't that much of a reason to play it again, unless you like playing through a game you completely slaughtered. In short, 3 out of 5 if you didn't see everything... 0 out of 5 if you did.
Total: about 3.5 out of 5.
After a long time of rediculously annoying leveling up, item hunting, and save limiting thanks to the fact that I like the boss battle music AND that I needed waypoints in case if I REALLY screwed up (I'll explain later).
Anyways... You are Rolf, an Agent of the Government of Mota (Motavia in Phantasy Star) who is essentially an investigator, the police, judge and executioner all in one, save for the robotic troops that work under Mother Brain (Yes, I said it - MOTHER BRAIN, but not the weird-ass bitch who looks like a mutated or malformed brain in the Metroid series), which is a big-ass computer system that controls all necessary aspects of life, such as the Bio-Systems lab necessary for developing plant life that requires very little water to survive (Mota is originally a desert planet) and other beneficial life-forms, and Climatrol which is neccessary for altering the climate so everything stays peachy and life can proceed at its most efficient rate. Rolf is the only character who obtains the "Megid" technique, which sells off a small portion of your and everyone's life-force to create a rediculously devastating attack that hits ALL opponents on the field (gained at Level 35).
Unfortunately, most things these days have not been proceeding as planned:
The Bio-Systems Lab has been malfunctioning and has been sending out wave after wave of almost all forms of life that have a natural tendency to attack all life-forms, whether they're Palmans, Motavians or Dezolians (from Planets Palma [aka Palm, Parma, and Parm], Motavia [aka Mota, Motabia] and Dezolis [aka Dezo and Dezoris] respectively). Those monsters have been adequately dubbed "Biomonsters".
The Climatrol has also been malfunctioning, since there has been a drought for quite some time, and the main reserve where there normally is some water has been completely empty for god knows how long.
You gain new companions as you continue to travel - the more cities you visit, the more companions you gain. There are 7 total allies.
Your first companion, Nei, is a strange female life-form, who is an estimated 7 months old, but has the physical and mental faculties of a 20 year old as well as has pointy ears and seems to level up rediculously quick. She is one of the original prototypes for the "Newman" (aka Numan from Phantasy Star IV) species, a human cross-bred with a biomonster that ended up producing this lithe and rediculously quick being. The strange thing is that she is actually the conscience of the being Neifirst, who is essentially, the host of life for Nei. You must defeat Neifirst if you wish to survive the ordeal. You can defeat her as Nei, which is freakin' hard, or you can let Nei die by Neifirst's hands and then let the rest of the party just slaughter their way past her. (She won't be revived when Neifirst dies, and the stupid bitch at the clone labs says that "she led a full life", despite her being 7 freakin' months old)
Rudo, a hunter who was originally a soldier lost his family to biomonsters. Thanks to the onset of rage inspired by the biomonsters, he has a reason to ally with Rolf who is investigating the matter. His main affiliation is with guns - they can pierce through all defenses, which makes him VERY valuable when dealing with the robots that show up later in the game, but guns have the tendency to do the exact same amount of damage range no matter what, and has no techniques whatsoever.
Next up is Amy, a doctor who realizes that the matter must be put to rest, despite the fact that thanks to the biomonsters, she isn't hurting for work. Her healing techniques are what makes her VERY important in this game, as she's the only person capable of getting the NASAR technique in the game, allowing you to heal everybody to their maximum possible HP in one shot. (Gained at Level 30)
Afterwards is Hugh, a biologist whose techniques revolve around biomonsters only, who allies with Rolf because the investigation of the Biosystems Lab showed that there was something extremely wrong about the data that Rolf recovered from the site. He's useful up to Neifirst, then loses his his usefulness until about the search for the 8 "Nei" items and then Noah, the final battlefield.
Then it's Anna, a vicious woman who hunts Agents who are convicted of wrong-doing. She wields boomerangs and slicers with expert skill, and has very little technique capability.
Later comes Kain, a wanna-be engineer and electronics repair-man turned wrecker after he figures out that everything he tries to fix ends up being destroyed. His techniques only work on robots (with those robots showing up after Neifirst and a little bit into Dezo before the search of the 8 Nei items).
Finally, it's Shir (of the Wind). She's a rich girl who has ALWAYS gotten what she has wanted and, just for kicks, steals shit from almost everybody. Whether it's the holding compartment at the main building where you get your orders, or if it's from the shops, she'll steal it. If she does steal anything, once you leave the shop or whatever, you'll notice that she is no longer walking in your party. Go back to your house to get her.
NOTE: You get VERY good stuff from Shir, for instance, from the holding area of the main building, you get a Visiphone, which allows you to contact Data Memory wherever you are and save your game (except in battle), or if you hijack stuff from a shop, you can get a Star Mist which allows you to heal your party or you can get a Moon Dew, which allows you to revive a fallen character (or you can sell it off for 4000 meseta). After a while, her "abilities" become annoying and seemingly worthless.
The battle system of this game hasn't changed much from Phantasy Star I, other than it got rid of the "monster level up" bit and now you choose your attacks through a special "Strategy" menu rather than going through just standard ol' FIGHT.
In short:
Storyline: 4.5 out of 5 - I really wish those guys at Sega would just quit with the blatently stupid misspellings. Seriously, three names for the same freakin' planet, and they're all different by about one letter. Talk about retardation.
Gameplay: 5 out of 5 - it's the only game that I know of you that can allow you to not fight anything if you don't freakin' want to (a little trick: Sega Genesis or Mega Drive version: move, then quickly press B then C to open up the menu and cancel it. GBA version: move, then quickly press B twice to open up the menu and cancel it.)
Graphics: 4 out of 5. Not bad, the only unrealistic parts are such things as BLUE HAIR! (Small joke for those who actually saw the Strong Bad Email #57, "Japanese Cartoon" http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail57.html ) The techniques look kinda cool too.
Sounds: 3 out of 5. Seriously, some of them are just weird.
Music: 4 out of 5. Total Classic stuff, the problem is is that ALL music gets REALLY annoying if you play it too long.
Replayability: eh, it determines what you did.
1. Did you beat Neifirst as Nei? You get a special little sequence if you do.
2. Did you screw up when the three Army-Eyes descended upon you? Such as... did you defeat all three of them (with 3000 HP apiece) within three turns? If you did, did you save over all of your games? If so, I recommend you go outside, find the biggest and thickest stick you can find, and then beat yourself over the head with it. Repeatedly. You're not supposed to win. You're supposed to get captured when one of them uses their little plasma rings move in the third turn and captures your dumb-ass to be sent to the Gaira Sattellite so the story can continue.
If you saw both little sequences and you didn't screw up, there really isn't that much of a reason to play it again, unless you like playing through a game you completely slaughtered. In short, 3 out of 5 if you didn't see everything... 0 out of 5 if you did.
Total: about 3.5 out of 5.