<b>Game name</b>
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World Destruction: Michibi Kareshi Ishi
<b>Release date</b>
JP, 09/25/08
<b>Game info</b>
Note from me :
I knew there's a rumor about the US release at Q4 2009 but I dunno if it's gonna be released in US since mostly anime based games rarely comes to US(except mainstream animes) but just in case if it's not gonna released in US I put it here......but if there's an official confirmation about the US release just delete my post <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
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credits to Kumori from gamefaqs user reviews :
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->"On the Other Side of Oblivion"
Sega and imageepoch decide to reunite the key members of the Xenogears team in this apocalyptic RPG. Between jumping from Square Soft (now Square Enix) to Namco, and now to Sega, it seems these guys just love jumping on board different boats.
Plot: 7/10
The title explains it all. Humans are enslaved to beastmen and thus things are looking gloomy for humanity. A young man by the name of Kyrie possesses the power to destroy the world (I told you the title explains it all), but does not know why.
Enter Morte, the leader of the World Destruction Committee. She isn't exactly the typical heroine, as she's not out to save the world, but nuke it in hopes things will look better in the aftermath. Her motley crew invests some interest in our hero, Kyrie, because of his power. Now if only the World Salvation Committee didn't have a say against this debacle… If that doesn't spell it out, the game comes down to destroying it – not saving it.
Sounds awesome, right? Well, it's a great idea on paper, but the execution could have been done better. For having 2-gigabits of space, it makes you wonder exactly where they pissed a lot of that space to. Another issue that comes to mind would probably be the pacing of the story that damaged it overall.
It's not a bad story (far from that, actually), however it could have been written better in some areas. It certainly is far less serious compared to the staff's Xeno-titles, as there is a slightly higher degree of humor in the air as opposed to past projects (that's praise, not criticism).
In fair argument, the staff probably learned from their past mistake that was Xenosaga not to do a heavily-detailed plot (albeit the writer from Xenosaga was not involved with this title, but still share some staff members) for the sake of boring their audience and to keep it a little more simplistic. I can't blame them the least bit seeing how Xenosaga entered with a massive audience, turned into a bomb dive, and pulled out towards the end only to wound up with maybe only five people left watching.
Graphics: 10/10
As the advertisements have shown, this game does not displease in the graphics department. The game takes a Final Fantasy IV approach, with a FMV intro and great 3D backgrounds. However, instead of 3D models, we are treated to sprites. This certainly isn't bad the least bit, because the mix of 2D and 3D was rather done well and reminds me of the faint memories of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile.
While I'm a little disappointed with only three areas that use brief FMVs and yet the game was heavily advertised with them, it doesn't hinder the game the least bit. The game itself still looks fantastic and the hand-drawn portraits are a real treat.
My only beef is that some areas, your character may slip between the 3D buildings, but that has nothing to do with the graphics itself, just merely a glitch that may hopefully be fixed in the North American release. It's not much of an issue so as much as you don't hug to any walls while exploring dungeons.
Music: 10/10
If there's one thing I liked about this game, it's the music. Then again, it's Yasunori Mitsuda, so I shouldn't be too surprised. Quite possibly some of the best music I've heard for a DS game in a long time (last soundtrack I enjoyed was Pokemon Diamond/Pearl). That is, we're not counting rhythm-based games where the obvious best quality is the music (Elite Beat Agents comes to mind), but still a fairly wonderful soundtrack for World Destruction.
The music is a huge mix, varying on the mood of the game or even the setting. Some tracks are more upbeat if a crowning moment of awesome is coming up for a character or just the party overall. Sometimes it is epic if it's a boss fight, or even depressing if things are looking gloomy for our destructive crew.
Other tracks may be mysterious if you're lurking around old ruins, or calm and serene when exploring the autumn fields. There are a dozen more tracks or so in the game, but it's all so well done. Now if only there was an official release of the soundtrack...
Sound: 9/10
Sound really plays a big role in this game, seeing as one of the main features advertised for the game were voice overs. This could be seen as a good or bad thing, seeing as the voice actors were met with mixed opinions.
I felt the voice overs were okay, though a few were… well, bad. Naja's voice actor comes to mind, as his voice really lacked feeling – Almost monotonous, you could say. This makes me one sad panda because I rather liked Naja, yet it's a shame to see his voice turn out… so bad because they picked someone fairly new in the voice acting industry. The other voice overs were okay, but some could stand for some improvement.
Sound effects for attacks are well placed, amongst other things. There isn't much to comment on them as they sound exactly as they should.
Gameplay: 8/10
This could be argued… very easily, as it's one of the game's weak points, yet is also a very strong point. It's just a matter of addressing it from both sides.
Unlike its older siblings, Xenosaga Episode I and II, World Destruction does not suffer from a horridly slow battle system. This is obviously a good thing as no one wants to be sitting around in a random battle for anything longer than five minutes. Initially, yes, it starts off slow as most RPGs do, but the pace picks up as you level your attacks and have more people join your party.
I'll continue on the pro's for this. The battle system is solid, and mimics that of Xenogears and Xenosaga to a certain degree. It follows through a similar AP-style that gives characters a number of attacks per turn. You gain more as you rack up more hits within your turn. You earn CP in battle and use it to upgrade your rush and blow attacks, and can even link your attacks together. Sounds fair, right?
While solid, this can easily make the battle system extremely unbalanced. Once you link your rush attacks together, it's just a matter of healing in between turns (or using a spell that negates enemy stat boosts after Kyrie pulls a Terra Branford later in the game) when needed and the rest is done for you as you can endlessly pull out your special finisher very easily.
It's a great system, just for how unbalanced it becomes, bosses can be dispelled in a matter of minutes for how overpowered your party can become. A few bosses meet this exception, but never go beyond a minor annoyance.
(imageepoch has already responded to this complaint and is apparently tweaking the difficulty for the North American release, I'm willing to be forgiving. However, it's still something they should have probably refined before releasing the game.)
A neat feature they have for the game that is called a “voice set”, but they're essentially abilities with a twist. You equip your characters with these voice sets and they give benefits when they are said in battle. I personally felt they could have just given us a small ability system that is unique to each character. Taking advantage of Lia's dragon abilities, or Naja's wolf-side would have been something interesting to see.
Difficulty: 5/10
I believe I've already went over this in the previous section, but it doesn't hurt to recap it. As stated in the previous section, you start off fairly weak when you have low-leveled attacks. Fair enough, that's where the difficulty remains… in the beginning of the game.
This doesn't last long enough, as you can be sure to pick up enough CP to level up your attacks. That's where the difficulty begins to extinguish, especially after you pick up more party members. Eventually, it leads to your party easily stomping the game flat for most of the time.
The rare exception is a boss or two that prove to be extremely annoying, but nothing beyond that. Early on the game, the bosses can actually prove to be a bit challenging, but that is before you usually have enough points to link your attacks together and making the game a cakewalk from there on out.
Enjoyment: 8/10
If you get past the lack-of difficulty the game offers, it's a very enjoyable experience. The battle system is fairly fun and interesting, nothing that would bore the player too much. The story is average but interesting; it's enough to make it good as far as handheld RPGs go and a nice little treat to play when you're on the go.
The characters were probably my favorite part of the game; albeit some characters (not named Kyrie or Morte) could have stand to receive more development. It's not quite a bad thing, all characters still get some development, just not nearly enough compared to the likes of Kyrie and Morte. It can't be helped, however, given how short the game is.
Replay Value: 5/10
I can't really criticize this part much, as it's a console-styled RPG. Console-styled RPGs generally suffer from the fate of lack of replay value in contrast to other genres, so I wasn't expecting much to begin with. If you enjoyed the story enough to play again after setting it down for awhile, that could serve as a reason to play the game once more.
Another supporting reason would be missables that are scattered throughout the game, for those who are looking for a complete game (I myself opted to not get character's final weapons out of laziness and realized a few of them are missable). Otherwise, there isn't much to come back to play with.
It would have been nice if they pulled a Breath of Fire and given a split ending, considering the plot of the game, towards the end as opposed to just a one-way track. However, I mostly prefer to keep a game to a single, solid ending, but others may feel different about it.
Overall: 8/10
World Destruction certainly isn't the handheld to end all handhelds – Actually, that's a matter of opinion, but I digress. At least, the story isn't nearly as strong as the staff's previous works, but seeing as how no one invested enough interest in those titles, I can see why they kept the story to something a little more simplistic.
The game mainly suffered from such limited hardware that brought it to a lot of downfalls in the end. If they really wanted to make this title on a handheld, PSP probably would have been the better choice (it'd give me another reason to invest in buying one) as it has much more room to work with. I won't crucify World Destruction for some of these downfalls, but the rest of its faults are something that I can't just look the other way.
Nonetheless, World Destruction is a solid game and worth picking up when it comes to North America next year. Aside from the difficulty fix (which kills off one of the faults it had) and some new tracks being made just for the English release, let's hope imageepoch could possibly lend an ear to more of the game's faults and fix it up… Although I'm certain they will probably try to pull a Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix deal and re-release the game with the benefits of the North American release in Japan to cash in on.
Still, this apocalyptic-adventure is still worth checking into, despite some of the blatant faults if you're looking for more RPGs on the DS outside of Pokemon and Final Fantasy.
Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/08<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Screenshots</b>
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