You know, as an RPG fan living in the UK, most of my time is spent looking forward to what other territories have had for ages. I know that I like a niche market of games, it’s my fault and I can accept that, but it gives me something to look forward to and dream about at night (amongst other things, ahem). But thank the maker for Koei and Nippon Ichi! Over the last year or so, this rather marvellous partnership has released some of the best strategy RPGs money can buy in our fair land. And about time too!
For those not “in the know”, Nippon Ichi specialise in creating isometric 3D landscape battlegrounds with delightful 2D character sprites. The look is one for the “old school” RPG fan really as its style that harks back to the early days of strategy RPGs on the PS1, with the likes of Vandal Hearts (from Konami) and Vanguard Bandits (from Working Designs, sadly never released in the UK). Whether or not this is a popular style is debatable, but Nippon Ichi do it with such gusto and sense of fun, you can’t help but love it.
Being the third part of the popular series (especially in the States and Japan, which also includes Disgaea and La Pucelle: Tactics) the story is, for Nipon Ichi anyway, the usual fair… Hugely powerful demon-overlord Lord Zetta (that would be you) is nothing but power hungry. Not content with already ruling the entire Underworld, Zetta feels the need to gain even more power, but there is an ancient Tome that has predicted the end of Zetta reign, and upon finding this powerful book, Zetta attempts to destroy it before it can destroy him and his kingdom. But dontcha just know it, the prophecies are all about to come true because Zetta destroys the book! - DOH! In a final attempt to save his land Zetta binds himself with the book and becomes one with it. From here on in, it is now your job to restore your once powerful kingdom to its original state… in the form of a book!
Lord Zetta is now accompanied by a whole host of wonderful, colourful characters in his quest, like Pram, a sassy witch and Dark Lord Valvoga, a crazy beast constructed from three other Dark overlords that has a tendency to argue with itself. The characters and their designs are part of what makes this game great, they are so over the top, yet extremely likeable. The game’s cut-scenes are all well scripted and very funny in places, although on occasion, the ‘madder than a spoon’ American over-acting can get a bit much.
Gameplay wise, this is about as deep an RPG you could ever want, and because of this I can only really scratch the surface of the amount of features included. The main premise of the game sees you (Zetta) essentially creating minions and creatures from basic elements around from the game’s “hub” world, each with their own strengths and weaknesses depending on what you make the character from. So for instance, if you choose to make a minion from a rock, that character will have a better defence rating than say a character made from a flower, and therefore better suited to a warrior role etc. More character and class types are unlocked as the game progresses, giving even wider scope for customisation and experimentation. So, once you’ve made yourself a little army of followers, you bring them in to the battle section, the main bread and butter of the game.
Each battle takes place on an isometric land that can be rotated to give you a better view of your surroundings. The lands have high and low points that can be of advantage or disadvantage. Zetta can essentially summon as many as eight minions to a battle at any one time to fight the forces of evil for him (he is a book after all!). The battles are turn-based, so you need to plan what you’re going to do from the off to try and give you that little advantage. There is a massive scope for strategy here, as you’ll need to take into account all of your minion’s strengths to win. The battles are tough, very tough, and you’ll lose many of your troops, and once all of them are gone from the battlefield, it’s “game over”. Because of this, you’ll find yourself returning to earlier battlegrounds over and over in an attempt to raise your characters’ stats and levels before moving on.
And I really wanted to. The crazy story helps move the game along very well. It’s one of those RPGs that’s really well-suited to a lazy Sunday spent gaming and chilling out, as well as an all night session trying new tactics to beat the ever increasing difficulty levels!
Nippon Ichi really do have something special at the moment as far as RPG fans are concerned. They know what they like and it’s reflected in the games they make. They don’t rely on fancy graphics and huge budgets to try and impress, they succeed with a good story, a decent challenge and a fun element – and long may they continue to do so.
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