Record of Lodoss War

"Dreamcast isn't dead yet."

Story:
The game starts with 3 pretty long FMV's. You are a warrior resurrected by Wart. He explains to you that a female rival of him is about to resurrect a ancient Demon. Wart wants you to find warriors scattered around the island so that together you can combine forces to destroy the evil demon.
And so your quest begins.

Graphics:8
The graphics are like games such as Diablo, but it's all in 3d. The graphics look very cool, but they aren't the best you can find on the dreamcast. The high resolution make the graphics very clear and detailed. Enemies are very well designed and differ from small Goblins to huge golems. There are a lot of diffirent enemies in the game and you will have to fight lots of them at a time. Sometimes the screen is filled with all kinds of creatures who wants a piece of you. Unfortunately this is where the game shows it's only big flaw. Slowdown. When there are a lot of enemies on screen the game drops in speed rapidly. Fortunately the game moves at a fantastic rate most of the time so these slowdowns only appear when there are A LOT of enemies on screen and so i think it isn't a huge problem.

Sound:9
You can't complain about the music or the sound affects of this game. There are two types of music in the game: Battle music, once you encounter an enemy the music starts and stops when you have destroyed every enemy in the area. Battle music differs per location and is mostly orchestral and it's very good. Event Music: When you encounter a new ally or enter a village this music starts.
The sound effects are really cool too. Thunder, rain, monsters screaming, allies shouting. Sound effects also differ depending on the type of armor you wear. Leather boots make less noise then iron ones and thus attract less enemies.
Voiveacting is also very good in this game. Diffirent characters often speak either in FMV's or in the game. The quality of actors and recording is very good. Certainly way above average. It would have been nice if all text was in voice, but usually a conversation starts with one spoken sentence and the rest is text only.

Gameplay:10
This is where the game really shines. Games like this need excellent controls and gameplay and this game has that and more. Fighting enemies is a lot of fun. You constantly need to upgrade or change your equipment to succesfully defeat diffirent enemies. You can upgrade/change your equipment in the Smithy. The smithy is located in a goblin village. This goblin village is used as a safe haven. You can transport to this village at any time in the game and change weapons or restock in medicine. Your warrior gains levels and becomes stronger depending on the quantity of enemies you destroy, but you also have to upgrade your armor and weapons. Al over the island you find certain stones with ancient inscriptions. These inscriptions can be attached to your armor (HP+4, Strength+2 etc.). This way you can manually upgrade your warrior. You have to collect certain ore if you want to add ancients. Some ancients consist of a spell like shooting thunder or fire from your weapon. These spells can't bepermanently enscribed into your weapon so you have to change spells depending on the enemy.
Off course there are other spells to. These spells can be learned from books. Press and hold the X-button to gain acces to the spell menu. These spells can be used during battle at any time, but sometimes take time to charge.
There is much more to tell about the gameplay, but these are the basics of the game. I find it a lot of fun to change armor of your character. You can even change colours so that's pretty cool. The warrior can wear a lot of items at the same time. He can wear a helmet, earrings (two), body armor, rings, bracelets, a belt, a cloak, boots, a sword and a shield (only in case of a one handed weapon). All items have diffirent abilities so choose your equipment wisely.
Off course you don't fight alone. During your quest you encounter allies who want or need to join you. This is a really cool feature in the game. Unfortunately you can not equip your allies or give them new spells. They should have included that in the game IMO. You do need to keep an eye on their health and heal them if necessary. Some allies have really cool spells and this makes fighting enemies a blast.

Overall:8
This game features a great story, a lot of FMV's and excellent sound, graphics and gameplay. I highly recommend this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/20/01, Updated 03/20/01