I've spent around 30 minutes total trying to play this game and yet not only have I not been able to play, but I haven't seen another player online. Since this was released free on the PSN I doubt there's nobody playing it. Listen up, Warner Brothers. It doesn't matter how good your game is IF NOBODY CAN PLAY IT! Don't waste your time or, god forbid, your money.
This game has no value in the modern SRPG field. Issues include: 1) The worst thing about this game is the AI. You often have guests - friendly AI controlled characters - on your team that screw up everything. For instance, one of them ran into a doorway, behind which was almost the entire enemy army. He was a strong fighter, so I positioned my White Mage behind him to heal why he fought. I healed him, it came to his **** he used a potion on himself (to restore about 15 of his 78 hit points) and ran away, leaving the enemy army against my White Mage. Horrendous. 2) You place your characters on grey square tiles before you even get to see the map. Random enemy placement often results in team members being in less than ideal positions. 3) The camera is horrible. It works off the four angles of the board, so if an enemy is in between walls in the middle of the map you usually can't see them. Worse, you generally have to exit the command menu to actually control the camera. 4) There's no easy way to check the turn list or AOE on enemies attacks. You have to exit the command menu, bring up another menu, find the character you want and click on them. This really slows games down, as enemies will often charge a spell within two seconds, so you're checking every move to see where you can and can't move and wondering whether they've locked the attack to the unit or tile. The enemy always knows what you've done, but there's no way for you to know. 5) It's impossible to keep your team alive. Phoenix Downs restore a random amount of health, which is always less than a single hit from an enemy. Trying to restore an ally to health usually results in the death of your healer. 6) Enemies rank off your highest level character. The game's tutorial suggests you keep a balanced team, but it's impossible when in one mission your entire army dies. You go to town, hire new warriors, find a random battle, and then die instantly because the enemies are 8 levels higher than you. I honestly have no idea how this was ever considered any good when it was released, but it certainly isn't any good now. All the Fire Emblem games are basically the same gameplay wise, but they are infinitely better than this. The same goes for Jeanne D'Arc, the Disgaea games and Tactics Ogre. I would never recommend this game to anyone. My biggest regret is assuming it would be good and buying it off the PSN, since I can't return it.
