This was the game I played the most, this weekend. Since I already wrote some incredibly short “first impressions” a couple of days ago, these impressions are “second”. 
Let’s see. The game is, as everyone probably knows, a turn-based tactical RPG, where your characters fight several kinds of missions against several kinds of enemies, becoming more powerful, and can be customized (up to a point) however you want. There’s also a story, and the characters have some personality, which is good.
The music is great; however, the graphics are not. They aren’t “bad” in any way, but the Cube is capable of much, much more. Still, the graphics aren’t really the point.
Although the game itself seems fairly linear, there are many ways to influence what happens. For instance, if a character dies, he or she really dies – no Phoenix Downs or anything like that. Although you can, of course, reset the console and try again, later battles are long and hard, so you will probably have to make some sacrifices by then. Besides, it’s fun to see variations of the story without playing a “perfect” game where everyone survives.
Many characters are optional, and not that easy to recruit. For instance, in one of the first missions, where you’re attacking a pirate ship, a girl riding a pegasus is already there fighting them, and after the first turn you can easily see that she won’t last long. But… if you can quickly move through the rest of the pirates, reach her and talk to her, she’ll leave that battle, and come back a few missions later to join you. If you don’t get there in time, you can still complete the mission, but that girl is lost to you for good. Choices like this are common in the game.
Mission objectives are varied: they include killing every enemy, killing a particular boss, reaching a particular place on the map, or, some of my favorites, defending a position for X turns. In those, the enemies never stop coming, you simply have to endure, move wounded fighters to the back and replace them with other characters (assuming you have them, of course), heal the wounded, protect your mages and healers, and so on. Sometimes you can even use a couple of characters to run towards a boss and kill him – it’s risky, it won’t win you the mission, and you’ll have to run back to your battle lines, but bosses tend to have some good weapons…
So far, a very good game.
But you can probably still buy it, and cheaply, too. If you like the 3D Zeldas (Ocarina, Majora, Wind Waker), go buy it immediately; if not, or if you don’t know them, at least take a look at it; rent it, or something. It’s a work of art – so much that Peter Jackson recently contacted the main author, Michael Ancel, to create the game version of his next movie, King Kong.
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