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I’m a huge fan of Japanese Role Playing Games y’know.
Wait, wait! Come back! Ah – I’ve lost some of the site readers now!
Anyway, for those of you left this should really be your next download. It’s not precisely like a J-RPG but it’s along the similar lines. Therefore, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. I do think you should try it at least, let me explain why…
This is a side scrolling RPG. I’ve never played one before but I really enjoyed this different perspective rather than the top down, isometric or 3D views you usually get. But again I’m ahead of myself. Lets start from the very beginning!
You get to choose three characters from a list of nine. These are grouped in three’s so you get to choose a character from each group. And this is one of the best things about the game because the different characters you pick help give the game a different feel every time you play through it. This is done by the use of different, but seamless dialogue changes depending on what characters you chose.
Like every good RPG it starts off with the circumstances of how your characters meet. And before long you end up in your first battle. Each of your characters has a number of different abilities. You can set up chains of these abilities before you enter a battle. So it’s pretty easy to have one character constantly bashing the enemies while the other two are offering support and the occasional pot shot. It sort of reminded me of the Gambit system from FF12, but less event-specific. This works well because you might find yourself switching between the chains during battle to adapt to the situation.
Sometimes I did find the battles a challenge. Around chapter 5 there felt like a huge skill gap where I had to spend quite a long time levelling up. I’m not opposed to a bit of grind but there was just a tad too much there for my liking.
There is a great story that this game revolves around. And it does well not to bombard you with all of the information and world history at once. The dialogue is never too heavy and it slowly draws you in. Character development is nicely integrated into the plot and none of it feels forced.
I want to say more here, but no-one likes a spoiler!
The graphics are nicely drawn. The level of detail is great and there is no let down of quality anywhere. The locations are all unique and quite stunning. Nearly everywhere you go there are other non-player characters running around and background events occurring. It really adds to the feel of the game.
Musically it does very well indeed. Josh Whelchel really is skilled at this music stuff and this work is easily on a level with larger budget role playing game titles.
This is a great work. It’s not often you come across a game with so much charm and passion built in!
Score: 84 out of 100
The Spirit Engine 2 Review End - Click here to try the game!
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