Seventh Cross Evolution

"Truly, a great game."

Seventh Cross proves one thing beyond all doubt: A few bitter reviews can ruin a game utterly.

Case in point? This game right here. Ever since it came out in japan, i've heard almost nothing but bad things about it. I've heard that the game runs slowly, that the graphics are awful, the music is bad, the gameplay is fatally flawed, it takes too long to play, its borring, ect, ect, ad nauseam.

However, thanks to a few favorable reviews from readers up here at Gamefaqs.com, i decided to buy this game, despite raised voices to the contrary. The verdict? I love it.

In this game, you play as a creature trying to evolve. You do this by killing things. You start out in a lake, as a creature that cannot fiight, but quickly turn into one who can, and by using the expirence you get from battles, you can 'buy' body parts to become stronger in attack, defense, magic and the like. Standard RPG stuff. The fun comes in, however, when you start mixing and matching body parts to get better results.

As for the game itself?

Graphics: 9- I've already seen better on the Dreamcast, but this game does some wonderful things- Intricatley detailed creatures, nicley decorated wilderness zones, little to no pop-up, almost no clipping violations... As a masterpiece? Yes, we've seen better. But bad? No way. You want bad, go play Soul Fighter. Oh, there is one slight flaw here, but i didn't consider it enough to lower the score- The game does run a little slow at times, in places like the ocean, where there are many textures at once, but this is not a major problem. Sure, the FPS drops sharply, but hardly to the 1 FPS level that many claim it does. I know here is not the place to go into it, but latley, i've noticed that the definition of 'slow running' has become 'runs less than 60FPS'. Nope, sorry to dissapoint you all, but not everything can 'run fast'... But this game hardly 'runs slow'.

Sound: 8- The music in this game is atmospheric, and very nice. I espically love the boss music. The flaw here is in the audio tracks. There's no diversity in the noises the charachters make- There's one main 'swimming' noise, one or two shouts for each head... It gets a little repetive after a while. Some more diversity in voices would have been nice, but the ones they have aren't bad. Just sparse.

Control: 8- This game has good controls. You push forward, he goes forward. You push backwards, he goes backwards. You push left, he turns left. You push right, he turns right. You push the button, he attacks a monster, and so on. Very responsive. You do sometimes get stuck against a wall, or are trying to go through a gap in the rocks, only to find that you cannot, but this is rather minor.

Gameplay: 9- Its solid, gripping gameplay. It does get a little tedious in places, but is still a wondeful game. Its not borring to me, and a few hours to get out of the first area is not 'too long' for an RPG-style game such as this. The only gripe i have is that certian body parts to not seem to act in accordance with their stats, and the process of gaining new body parts is a little annoying, and random. My suggestion? Make the process a little less chancey in the sequel... This game is a little short, but unless your a fanatic and play it for at least four or five hours a day, it will take you the better part of a week to beat it. Still, an excellent game.

Overall: 8(rounded down, for the sake of fairness)- This is a wonderful game, but not for everyone. You should probally rent it, unless you get a kick out of playing 'artificial life' type games. This game has more action in it than your standard Chao-breeding session, but still gets a little slow at times. Try before you buy, i say. But at least try it. Its a good game.

And not nearly as bad as you think.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/07/00, Updated 01/07/00