Post by Zenks Renway on Dec 3, 2009 18:42:44 GMT
An early PS1 RPG, Popolocrois Story is a fine game that sadly the English-speaking gaming community never got to play. Yes, there's the recent PSP port that combines the original and its sequel, but it's quite butchered and is a footnote compared to the original games.
Plot-The plot is pretty complex, with many sub-plots, most of which were cut from the PSP port for some reason. The game starts with a mad inventor called Gami Gami Devil (Dr Eggman and Chuck Norris combined) launching a full-scale assault on the kingdom of Popolocrois and stealing the Crown of Wisdom, so Prince Pietro goes on a quest with several other misfits to recover the crown and put Gami Gami in his place. Believe it or not, this is only the opening scenario. Much more than this happens later on, but I'm not willing to spoil anything.
Gameplay-The battle system is like a much harder version of Final Fantasy Tactics, however to appease for the difficulty, there's a surprisingly well-done gimmick- the Guts meter. Each character has a meter that slowly drains with each attack they land. The lower the meter, they weaker they get. However the meter can be restored by skipping turns and this can also be done to pull off charged attacks that do more damage than a critical hit. Having to get used to the Japanese trend of using circle to select and X to cancel is a minor annoyance.
Graphics-For an early PS1 game, the graphics are quite good. It's all sprites and Anime FMVs, but very well animated and detailed. I'm not a graphics or anything, but the look of this PS1 game seriously makes me want to mouth-water.
Sound-The music is simple but memorable. While there are some annoying tunes (Guilda's theme, ugh), the large music variety and some of the best battle themes ever heard in an RPG next to the FF franchise and Valkyrie Profile save this (www.youtube.com/results?search_query=popolocrois+music&search_type=&aq=f). The voice-acting is well-done, and the language barrier shouldn't prove too much of a problem for non-Japanese gamers.
Appeal-Over-all, this game is excellent and I recommend it to anyone who likes RPGs. You'll have to import it and have a Japanese PS1 to run it, but it'll be more than worth it.
Plot- 8/10
Gameplay- 9/10
Graphics- 10/10
Sound- 10/10
Appeal- 9/10
Overall- 92%
Hinthint- If you wanna know more about this series, go to this guy: www.youtube.com/user/Wyrdwad He knows much more about this series than I do, and that's really saying something.
