Gemfire

"An average Koei game with RPG elements"

Storyline-6/10
Firstly this one is a story thought out by Koei. It was not based on any history at all. I would not mind such a story if they had actually released more information on the characters. Its hard to get into the characters compared to games by koei like the three kingdoms or Bandit Kings of ancient China. Also the fact that there are only a few characters made this game a boring one.

Graphics-7/10
Yes this one is actually one of the more colourful games made for the genesis by Koei. The character portraits are also quite well drawn.

Soundtrack-5/10
Seriously I hated the sound track of this game. It really got a bit irritating at times.

Gameplay-6/10
Flaws
1) It is very hard to recruit or hire people. Because there are very few people in the game. Yes the smallest cast in any Koei stretegy game. Most of the time kingdoms that get defeated can somehow end up with zero POWs for you. Yes they just somehow end up serving some other ruler.

2) Because of the lack of characters you are basically using only 1 guy in battle. Thus battles are rather lame since there are 2 leaders in a battle.

3) Since you do not really need to do much hiring you only need to concentrate on building armies and attacking.

4) Characters do not join your army even though when they come of age. Yes in three kingdom games they do so. In this one no nothing happens. If you want to control your younger brother you must play the next scenario.

5) You can not play as many of the rulers. Yes only 4 rulers for each scenario makes the game boring with less replay value.

6) The battles are usually one sided and very rarely can great tactics win the day. It is hard to defend against people with gems when you do not have gems. But if you raise a huge army no one seems to dare to attack you. Very often you will either be retreating or attacking. The end result there is hardly any chance for great battles. Also there are very limited tactics or strategies to be implemented since there are very few variables.

Strengths
1) This is Koei's easiest game. Thus people who can not cope with the tougher ones. This is the one for you.From governing civil matter to battles in the battle field this one has been really simplified.

2) This one has RPG elements since it is set in a magical world.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/15/03, Updated 06/15/03