Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

"A great change from the hack and slash 3D dungeon crawl we've all become accustomed to."

Upon entering the video story I saw a man, likely age 26-30 returning this game, laughing his head off and telling everybody how silly and worthless it was. Needless to say, I had to rent it.

Rhapsody is a tactic RPG (a la Shining Force) with a turn-based strategic combat system and a `choose the map point' world map system. Nothing that hasn't been done before, right? So what makes Rhapsody special?

In short, it breaks every norm a modern console RPG follows. Instead of trying to save the world from an evil all-devouring force with 17 different forms, you are trying to get the local prince of the kingdom to fall in love with you. I think this is wonderful. I'm so sick of having to save the world from some faceless villain of god-like power.

Don't misunderstand me though, this game does have villains. It has five, but one is a secret. The ''reminds me too much of Naga from Slayers'' Marjoly is the leader of the villains, the ''too-cute-for-her-own-good'' Myao is the spell caster, the ''take-on-the--entire-WWF'' Gao is interresting opposition and the ''very-deep-and-honourable'' Crowdia is... well, Crowdia.

The main characters are equally lovable, too. Kururu is constantly getting you into trouble. Cornet, although she can only play one song on her horn is scripted to talk exactly like a 16-year-old girl. Etoile is one of those characters you wish you could beat the tar out of, and Ferdinand isn't a girly boy like the trend in princes shows.

As for side quests, extra stough and 5000 hours of gameplay, look elsewhere. This game doesn't have it. It's short, easy, and simple. You can beat the game in 20 hours easy. The monsters don't have a prayer of beating you, and the final boss goes down in 2 rounds. You can a level almost every battle and I was rarely ever attacked, even by bosses. This game is from Atlus, remember. The comapny that made Tail Concerto which was clearly a cute kid's game.

Rhapsody also has an interesting feel to it. It's like a mixture of Shining Force, Pokemon and a Disney movie. Let me explain before you think this is the worst game ever.

You play the part of Cornet, a puppeteer. Occasionally she will play the ending theme to Evil Zone on her horn and make puppets come to life or monsters join her. This gives the game the `collect the monsters' replay value if you are a fan of that genre.

Being called Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure you can expect the game to be forcused on beautifully orchastrated musical wonders. Close, but no dice. Although the BGM is quite good, fitting and catchy, the real musical power fcomes from the musical numbers the characters preform. I'm a fan of theater musicals so I could easily pick out how much they made the characters act like they were in a musical. The lyrics are quite lame but funny.

That is until they hit songs like ''Let's Go On'' ''Courage'' and ''Thank You'' which are absolutely beautiful. I still listen to them and I would like ''Thank You'' to be played at my wedding. Other songs like ''Mountain Men'' and ''Amazing Pirates'' aren't very good, but they're still very amusing.

You can also switch the songs to Japanese if you wish. I'm an anime/J-pop fan so I would save often and if a musical number popped up, I would listen, reset, reload, and then listen to the same song in Japanese and compare the two. Unfortunately, the ending song doesn't seem to play in Japanese which is a shame.

Rhapsody is well worth renting but I wouldn't pay normal price for it. As a bonus though, it comes with the soundtrack which is wonderful. If you can get it on a deal, buy it for a fun play and a good soundtrack.

STORY
I'd go as far as to say that the story is very original. It's not that saving the prince is a new thing, but it's a nice change from destroying the evil demon-god. The dialogue is flawless, nobody ever steps out of character and everyone is lovable and has their time in the limelight. As for suprises, there's plenty of those. Especially towards the end.

As an added note on characters, check out DarkNight. He's halarious.

MUSIC
A beautiful mixture of both what's to be expected from a console RPG and what's to be expected from a Disney movie. There's songs for the kids to love, and then the sweet songs that people won't give you weird looks for while playing it. There aren't that many BGMs because the game isn't very long. If you're skilled you can even pick out instrumental versions of the vocal songs being played here and there.

GAMEPLAY
Tragically simplistic. There is nothing majorly complex about it. No limit breaks, no night/day transitions, no needing to eat or sleep. I feel this is great. Gamers have been screaming for a game like this to lighten up on the generic FF style RPGs.

As for combat, it too is simple. However, the animations are funny and Cornet's `reward' attacks are so silly you'd have to see them to believe them.

The dungeon crawl is a bit annoying however. This is definately a game you make grid maps for. Also, it can be hard to know where to go next at times. The only other drawback to the gameplay is that it's way too easy. On the hardest difficulty setting you don't need to build levels (which I don't mind) but the final boss goes down in the 3rd round.

GRAPHICS
2D, so don't expect any spectacular lighting effects or FMVs. They are however quite beautiful and detailed. Actually, the detail is a tad humourous too. At some point through the game every main female character will have at least one bouncy scene. You know what I'm talking about. They actually worked bouncing breasts into the tiny 200x200 sprites. Oh, well. Whatever sells.

REPLAY VALUE
Nil. Although it's wonderful the first time through it has nothing more than that. As I said before, this game is simple and simple means no replay value. You could however try to learn every spell/attack for every monster/puppet in the game. That would take a while.

IS IT A GOOD GAME?
Yes. It was well worth playing and if you can find a cheap copy, get it without hesitation. The final parts of the game is packed full of suprises and the ending is quite good.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/14/00, Updated 07/14/00