Elemental Gimmick Gear

"A tough, but somewhat fun RPG"

One of the first RPGs on DreamCast doesn't get a bulls eye, but close enough.

Features:
-Completely hand-drawn 2D graphics
-An original story-line
-Not exactly your easiest RPG (that's not a bad thing)

Gameplay: (6/10)
With an original story-line and great graphics (see section below), E.G.G. may seem like it's unstoppable, but only 1 thing gets in the way. Many people will agree that E.G.G. is way too tough. I remember playing vs. the second boss, and it took me 10+ times to beat him. If you can get past the difficulty factor, E.G.G. just may have what you're looking for. E.G.G. is a futuristic RPG, so be aware of some machines that look strange =). Overall, it's not that terrible.

Graphics: (8/10)
Sure, it may not be one of those fancy 3D RPGs (like Skies of Arcadia or Grandia II), but the graphics are great. The hand-drawn graphics are shown from a bird's eye view, and it's very comfortable. After time, you will fight a number of boss battles, which are in a 3D arena. The graphics there aren't the best, and they seem like PlayStation quality graphics. Most of the time, you'll be in the 2D map, so you probably wont mind the 3D boss battles. The graphics tend to remind be of Super Nintendo RPGs, like Final Fantasy 3/6, 5 and some others. Overall, very good.

Music: (7/10)
I didn't really pay attention to music (I had my radio on :P), but for the time that I did, the music wasn't that bad. The boss SFX are a little twitchy in my opinion, but the music wasn't that bad. The main gameplay music was traditional RPG, so you can expect it to be pretty good.

Replayability: (5/10)
I'm not so sure you'll want to play this again because of the difficulty factor, but if you spend a lot of time practicing (and knowing your enemies), this will seem something like Final Fantasy 3/6, and we all know that was a good game. Basically, if you like it the first time, you should like it the second.

Bottom Line: (7/10)
When it all comes down to this, E.G.G. is a great game, but some flaws are evident. If you can get over the difficulty factor, it'll be a great game. My only other thoughts were that E.G.G. looked like a RPG from Super Nintendo, and it didn't use the system's power. The storyline is a bit short, but for the bottom line: if you want to play a classic RPG (not classic great, but classic old) that's a bit too hard, this game's for you.

One of the first Dreamcast RPGs proves DC RPGs aren't all that bad (but extremely tough).

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/01, Updated 08/30/01