One kid and his... pink thing...
Written: Mar 02 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Appealing to kids & beginners (maybe?)
Cons: Not much there for hardened RPG fans
The Bottom Line: Some cute features for kids but little here for RPG fans.
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| setzergab's Full Review: Guardians Crusade for PlayStation 1 |
This game tells the story of one boy and his fairy (girl)friend, who are mysteriously catapulted into a bizarre mission.... who return a pink hippo/rabbit confusion to his mother... waiting on the top of the ominously named "God's Tower".... Will you be swept along with them on their quest or will you be leaving them on the shelf to gather dust? Probably the latter if you can't get over the poor graphics and tedious gameplay.... however it has a cute factor that might just be winner with kids.
The storyline isn't really the most gripping of tales... though there is a save the world element to the plot, it really doesn't surface till half way though the game... the first half really being concerned with getting the ungrateful pink blob home by wandering around seemingly aimlessly, doing good deeds for the inhabitants of the maze-like cities that exist in the world of the game, just on the off-chance it will actually get you closer to realizing your goal. There are really few memorable characters in the game... apart from the arch bad guy Karmine, and the mercenary Darkbeat, all the others fade into a blur... as they are all pretty much identical... both graphically and personality-wise.
Graphically the game is seriously lacking... in this age of FF9 and the like, Guardian's Crusade really looks ancient.... big bulky polygon characters in a world of big bulky polygons... even the few FMV sequences are awful... they just lift slightly more polished versions of the same badly drawn characters and put them in a matching CG background. I can't believe that they would have actually set out to have the graphical style that they do... the game really would have benefitted from more developed graphics to perhaps makeup for its failings in other respects. Sonically the game offers nothing special but has pleasant enough tunes for wandering around... the battle theme uping the pace sufficiently to match the small amount of action.
Monster encounters are not random, like Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, and the like, but the monsters move around the map until they see you. The relative strength of the monster when compared with yours is reflected in it's appearance, and it's reaction to you. Weaker ones are represented by small white ghosts, which turn tail once they spy you, which allows you to avoid pointless battles, whereas comparable or greater strength than your own is represented by larger pink ghost, or in extreme cases, giant white evil-looking ghosts with red eyes, which will chase you and hunt you down unless you act fast.... and if you and a ghost meet... battle ensues.
Which brings me quite nicely to the combat engine. It's based on the standard turn based model, where everyone puts their actions in at the start of the turn and then they are resolved in order, fastest characters first. Sadly this very important part of the game suffers from the same lack of attention that is prevalent throughout the rest of the game. Your character has the standard fight and item options, and the whole skills/magic bit is dealt with the "Living Toys" system. Living toys are just that.. toys that are living... and they can be summoned in combat (some have uses outside of combat too) to use their skill to protect, heal, attack, or just entertain. Use of living toys involves the use of psychic points, placing a limit on their effectiveness, meaning that normal monster encounter boil down to you and your pink baby attacking with your standard attacks.... which makes for a fairly tedious time. You don't have direct control over the baby... your can just give a general commands like attack, defend, help or run... and then the pink blob will most likely totally ignore your order and do whatever it wants... which includes attacking you! In theory how well you treat your pet monster (whether you feed it well and give it enough naps) influences how likely it is to do as it's told... but in my experience it makes very little difference... that is unless a diet of cheeseburgers and bubble gum makes it grouchy ^_^.
So what does this game really have to offer? Well, very little for hardened RPG fans, who have the likes of FF9 and other great titles to choose from. The target audience is much more the beginner/child share of the market, who don't want to have the more involved systems of this game's peers. The cute element of looking after a monster baby also might win some kid's heart (and parent's cash), but their are much better titles of this kind around (the Monster Rancher series... and dare I say it.... Pokemon...). I can't help but wonder whether because it was aimed at children, the developers thought they could get away with a product that was less than polished. However even saying that it still could be a contender in the children's game market.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
setzergab
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Member: Dan Adams
Location: Nottingham, England
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
Video Games, Music & anime are amongst my passions...
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