Mystic Heroes

"Massive hordes of enemies, Enormous bosses, combos exceeding 500!? Oh yes baby, it's all here."

So you are interested in Mystic Heroes eh? Well, have you ever played Dynasty Warriors 2 and or 3? Well, if you enjoyed what you found in those two awesome Koei titles, Mystic Heroes is sure to become another favorite gem amongst your gaming collection.

GAMEPLAY:10/10
This is where the game shows it's true colors. This is where Mystic Heroes really grabs your attention. You can play for 5 minutes and be completely hooked. You have a standard system of regular attacks, magic attacks, and magic sword spell attacks. Pressing the ''A'' button makes you perform a standard attack with your weapon, and doing combos builds up magic. Pressing ''B'' makes you jump, which is very easy to do. Pressing the ''Y'' button allows you to do a Direct spell attack, which is a quick shot of a different magic spell depending on what you have equipped. If you hold Y for a few seconds, you will go into 1st person and you can do a Target spell, which can lock on to up to 4 enemies, but some spells have a wide attack range and can do massive damage to much more than 4 enemies. If you press X, you will do what is very similar to a Musuo attack from Dynasty Warriors, which is basically a large sword combo where you are invincible for a short time. And if you press X while in the air, you will do a devastating Bombing or Jump Spell, which is good for scattering enemies.

GRAPHICS:8/10
The graphics in this game are really nothing special, but to judge this game poorly for it is really pointless, because this isn't really a game you want to have bump-mapping and high polygon count and such, because with so many enemies and attacks going on, the frame rate would be horrendous. However, most of the spells are very vibrantly colored and give a beautiful feel to the game. The character animations are not high, so that the game can have a good frame rate. Really this game only slows down in Multiplayer, with 3-4 characters. When it's just 2, it's pretty much perfect. Don't expect Star Fox or Resident Evil quality Graphics, but it's trly not something to worry about.

STORY:5/10
Ugh, very basic cliche type story here folks. Almost make me think of Power Rangers. There's this one dude, Kang, who is really powerful since he's got this Dragon Orb, and he has a bunch of little followers at his side to do his dirty work for the most part. And a bunch of pesky super warriors always stop him from global domination, whoo hoo, boring. But hey, this isn't Final Fantasy or Zelda. You gotta remember that is awesomely monstrous hack-and-slash like you've never seen, so keep in mind that the story is really actually kind of amusing at times, if not just pathetic.

REPLAY VALUE:10/10
With Four characters to choose from who are all very unique and distinctive to play as, this game really lasts a long time. Plus, you can collect up to 70 different runes, and there are 10 different Multi player maps and 5 different modes to choose from. I know many out there seem to be avoiding this game since Dynasty Warriors 3 has around 40 characters, but many of the characters in Dynasty Warriors are very similar. In Mystic Heroes, there are no ''Clones'' or similar characters, like in Super Smash Bros. Melee where there was Mario and doctor mario, or Pikachu and Pichu. *Gag* But anyways, in Story mode, there are 8 stages, each consisting of 2-4 levels, so all together, I think there are 24 Levels, unlike Dynasty Warriors which only has I believe 6-8 Levels for each character. So ha! Lots of stuff do here people, especially those with friends, you'll never get tired of this game.

OVER ALL: 9/10
An absolute blast. A game that could easily take you away from Your PS2s and Xboxs. Or for those with only a GC, this will make you drop Animal Crossing and Super Smash Bros. quite some time. This is an absolute must-buy!

RENT OR BUY?
BUY!!!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/02, Updated 10/17/02