thought it was interesting that square enix would publish a full fledged(maybe?) jrpg title on the ipad/ipod/iphone. so i decided to check it out.
so its starts off, deciding on who you want to play as, i decided to go with escher and musiea. First look and it is pretty graphically impressive for the ipod. ps1 graphics at least (think FF8 style). the story is pretty standard, Your partner and yourself have been summoned to compete in a competition for eternal life. 4 couples (or partners you could say) and they have to collect rings in order to make it to the "ark" for combat. Fairly standard if you ask me, typical drama added with backstory added in. so so far, generic jrpg story ?, not surprising considering square enix and this latest trickery
So we move on, past all the text, i should mention it has a fast forward button in the top right corner, good stuff. and then we actually get to moving around. i must say, square enix got movement right on the idevices. point and drag on the screen and a little joystick image will pop up at the point you originally pressed, and you'll start moving in the direct you dragged. nice system as, a) there's nothing cluttering the screen when you want to look at it and b) you're not limited by where the "buttons" are. so i like this method of navigation, only other thing on the screen is a little button similar to the old school minimize/maximise buttons in windows that brings up the menu.
so we skip all the drama again, character backstory gets hinted at and then we're on the field. random enemy encounters as per usual, and once again a slightly different combat system. You commence battle, straight away, you're given a choice of attacking individually or in a pair. when you attack as a pair, damage is greater, but you also recieve damage and any status debilitators as a pair. so you get poisoned, both characters are poisoned. fair enough, lazymodo for people who are lazy(like myself). so you attack, and then the break system gets activated. break system is pretty much, which ever side has the advantage, gets a bigger advantage. so past this, kill the enemy and you recieve a gene. you get them whenever you encounter and kill a new monster. you equip them, and new skills open up. you can also grind and unlock new skills belonging to the gene. similar to the gf's from ff8. also about the monster designs, reminiscent of designs from Lost odyssey, it seems se are running out of ideas or something (Phoenix with a mayan or red indian headress, really?).
so we run through the dungeon for a bit and then we reach a puzzle. don't expect to play this game and not encounter a puzzle guys. i'm guessing it changes with later dungeons as i've just reached the next one up. so we've gotten to this puzzle, did i mention you won't get anywhere without encountering these puzzles? they're simple, puzzles, a little maze, where you double tap on blocks/gems to get to the other side after collecting all the gems. bad thing about this? the idea and controls for it really. the blocks - fair enough, they're big enough for you to be able to double tap to teleport to them, the gems? not so much, seeing as double tap also means focus on double tapped area. so you'll be trying to swap places with a gem, and maybe after the 6th or 7th time? actually get it. maybe i've just got fat fingers.
so we continue on, through a high amount of these puzzles and teleport crystals and get to the boss. i forgot to mention, either square thinks most idevice owners suck at games or something, your hp gets refilled after every single battle. though they did make the enemies damage absurdly big. some general grunt monsters can kill you 2-3 hits if you don't kill it fast enough. back to where i was before, the boss, the first boss (not counting the miniboss), is pretty plain, its called cereberus but only has 2 heads. its also a tiger. pretty dissappointing as well, downable in 4 turns.
As for the music, nothing shining out so far, maybe its just i didn't pay attention to the music, but that usually means something.
so far, its been fairly generic, i'll probably stick around for the grinding of the genes. but, if you do like jrpgs, by all means get it. it should satisfy any wants of an rpg on your idevice.
