"From the purveyor of dating sims comes.... A strategy RPG?"

Never saw that coming, did you?
Yes indeed, NEC Interchannel made a strategy RPG, and a darn good one at that.

Gameplay 9/10

Standard SRPG fare I suppose. You have a menu of options to select for your characters to perform, and then set them off on their merry way to attack the enemy. While the mechanics of the game are simple, it can be difficult for the Japanese impaired, as all the battle options are in Japanese (and everything else for that matter as well) . However, it won’t take you long to figure it out, as simple trial and error will show what the options do. You can also use a translation guide, of which there are several available.

So what does the game do to set it apart from the rest of the pack?
Well, for one thing, spells and super moves are performed by using “Blood Points”. From where do you obtain these essential points you ask? Well, from knocking out and killing enemies of course! At the end of battle, experience points and blood will be distributed to your party. The blood points can then be used to power up weapons with special attacks, or saved up so that you can cast spells and the all-important summons latter. Experience is also distributed in an interesting way. You can choose who in your party gets experience points. So, you can have either a well-rounded party, or just one super powerful guy/girl, or anything it between for that matter. This is extremely useful for when a new character joins your party, and you want to get them up to speed with everyone else in a hurry.

Also, when someone dies in this game, they die.
When a character runs out of HP, they will be KOed (you can still heal them at this point, and they will get up again). If they are hit once more, they will turn into a pile of bones, signifying their permanent and irreversible death. So, if someone in your party is running low on HP, by all means heal them! This is very important on the higher difficulties, as you’ll need just about every person you can get your hands on in order to win some of the latter battles.
Did I say difficulty levels? Why yes I did.
Yet another feature is that you can select at the start of your game if you want it to be easy, normal, or hard.

Story 11/10 (can I even do that?)

Story is important in RPGs, as you otherwise have no reason to care for the people you are playing as. Luckily, this game doesn’t disappoint. The background story is thus: In the great battle between the forces of good and evil (God and the Devil if you must), someone didn’t inform the demons that there supposed to lose, and let good control the universe for all time. So, what we have here is a complete overhaul of society as a result. The worst crimes that you could possibly commit are now believing in love, freedom, justice, human rights, equality, and being weak.
The bat-winged people are now the ruling class, with those with angel wings being left to die in the streets. If they’re lucky, they get to be enslaved by a bat-winged master. Joy to the world, as they say.

You play as a newly sold angel slave, named Able.
At the start of the game, you get to choose from 5 female masters to watch over you (this isn’t a hentai game people, so get your mind outta the gutter!). Afterwards, you can spend up to a year (game time) doing various odd jobs, such as moping, cutting firewood, and cooking. While you can skip these chores, it is recommended that you do them, as they will increase your base stats, so when you get to the SRPG part of the game, you can have a slight edge. Over time, your master will slowly begin to fall in love with Able, and Able will do likewise over his master.

One day, your master has mysteriously vanished…..Where could they have gone?
And so you set off to find them, and trouble ensues…

The story actually gets very deep, with many interesting points about morals and mortality brought up, so stick with it, and it will grow on you.

Graphics 7/10

The game proper doesn’t look like it is pushing the Dreamcast hardware at all.
The characters are 2D sprites, and while they are well drawn, they look a bit on the pixilated side.
Backgrounds are all pre-rendered, and look good, but as with the sprites, there is pixelation.
What really saves the graphics are the character portraits and anime cutscenes.
NEC Interchannel is know for the quality of its dating sims, and thier experience with working with the anime art style is really shown here. As for the cutscenes, they loot great, and are of very high quality. They look as good as a bid budget anime show, which is really stunning.

Sound 5/10

“Just what is this coming out of my speakers?”

That’s what I said to myself while listening to the music. While not truly bad, it is certainly very out of place, with the most common battle song being something that sounds like a bad attempt at rap, with a guy saying what sounds like “take it out, yo!” every few seconds. Honesty, when I’m fighting the forces of my oppressors, I certainly don’t want to hear badly done imitation rap!

Some of the songs are really nice though, with good orchestral scores that help to set the mood.
Unfortunately, they are the exception and not the rule.
What ultimately saves the sound score is, again, NEC’s skill with making dating sims. That is, they have a very good cast of voice actors portraying the characters, with excellent skill in reciting the script they were given (which isn’t an easy one, I must say).

I’ve heard nice music for NEC before in their dating sims, so the fact that they couldn’t transfer this skill over as well is disappointing.
Though, if it really came down to it, I suppose I like having very good voice actors and sub-par music, instead of the other way around.

Replayability 10/10

Often the fatal part of many RPG’s is their replayability. Fortunately, you have many reasons to play the game again.
For one thing, your choice of master changes the story, so you can play again with a new master to see new sights and sounds, not the least of which is another ending.
Also, you have the three aforementioned difficulty levels to select from when beginning a game. This for many people should be of interest, as you can replay the game on a higher difficulty setting, and it won’t be as boring as if you had restarted on the same difficulty.

Final Recommendation

The Dreamcast few RPGs, and even fewer ones that truly stand out against the offerings of other consoles.
This is one of those games; It tells a tale so different then what you are used to, I recommend that everyone who likes RPGs, strategy and otherwise, give this game a try.

You may like it, you may not, but I can tell you one thing: you’re in for one “hell” of a ride.

Final Score: 9/10

(The final score is not an average)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/29/04