Saiyuki: Journey West

"Headin’ west within the Far East"

OPENING STATEMENT
Saiyuki: Journey West has the privilege of being one of the last games released on the PlayStation. This has both its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages, of course, are that the game has very little recently released competition to fight with it for market value. The disadvantages would be that Saiyuki: Journey West needs to be compared with a two thousand game library already existing. Luckily, on both counts, this title succeeds in becoming both one of the most unique and one of the most entertaining titles on the Sony PlayStation.

GAMEPLAY--7
The gameplay in Saiyuki: Journey West is solid as a rock. Quite possibly the biggest problem with it is that it is basically pilfered right out of Final Fantasy Tactics. In other words, Saiyuki: Journey West is your typical Strategy/RPG. The battle system involves movement within a specific range, and then carrying out a task, such as use of a spell, a physical attack, or an item. Luckily, unlike in most Strategy/RPGs, you can do all tasks your character is able to carry out after movement, rather than just a select few. This results in combat being easier to just pick up and use. . .not to mention a little bit less strategy. The battle engine is no more simplistic, just better thought-out, and that is what really matters.

Easily the most unique aspect of the gameplay, ‘werechanging’ allows a character to change forms, into a beast specific to him or her. This aspect is also the one that sets Saiyuki: Journey West apart from the rest of the games in its sub-genre. In your character’s ‘Wereform’ he or she has access to very powerful attacks and spells. However, each action takes up a set portion of your ‘Werebar’ and when that bar runs out, your character reverts back to human form. Thus, this really makes up for any lack of strategy in being able to cast spells and such after movement. Because, if you werechange at the wrong time in battle, it can spell doom for Sanzo and friends. So, think before telling your party members to transform.

GRAPHICS--5
Saiyuki: Journey West is certainly not one of the more graphically impressive PlayStation games around. The game is all hand-drawn, and it looks quite good in that sense. (If anything is not hand-drawn, and I know for a fact that there are a few things that are not, then they look like they are hand-drawn.) One problem I found with the graphics were the muted colors. There really are not too many vibrant tinges or hues of any one tint, which results in lots of use of rather bland looking earth tones. The few snippets of blue, green, and red tend not to be the bright shades of colors either. Generally, for example, the blues turn to sky blue and navy blue, and the greens to more yellow-green and olive, which, once more, heightens the muted, earth-tone look even more.

The character designs are certainly interesting looking. In the actual game the characters almost have the super-deformed shape of Final Fantasy IX’s famous cast. In their discussion windows (or the windows in which their speech is written) they have much more realistically shaped faces and bodies. Granted, the realism in which they are shaped in those windows does not translate to normal characters at all. These characters are very eclectic both in their designs and personalities. And very few look like humans after all. I suppose that is because none of them are completely human, except for Sanzo. (Who, as a result, looks more normal than any of the rest of them.) I will leave you in this section with this statement: Whoever happens to be the hairstylist of these characters is just a little too creative for their own good, A single turquoise curl in the front of someone’s bald head? A little too ‘interesting’ for my tastes.

MUSIC--7
SOUND--5
The music for the most part is nicely done. My biggest problem with it is that it seems very repetitive. There are quite few overall songs in the game, but most of them are not only overused, but remixed in quite a few other locations. So, basically, the songs that are included are all high quality; there just are not enough of them. The music is all styled like classic, traditional, Chinese music should be, which really adds to supporting the theme and the plot. Once more, though, have you ever heard of remixed traditional Chinese music?

The sound effects are usually nicely done, but they are really not noticeable at all. The spell sound effects seem rather frivolous and corny for the most part, and these noises really bring back down the overall quality of the grouping as a whole. The rest of the effects are just your typical strategy/RPG sound effects. Hardly anything special, but solid and getting the job done well. The menu noises are varied and they never got on my nerves too much. The only part of the sound effects that irked me beyond the spell sound effects, were the lack of, well, blocking noises when a character blocked an attack. That is questionable indeed.

CONTROL--9
Perhaps more so than any other Strategy/RPG I found the menus easy to navigate and find out exactly what I needed to know in Saiyuki: Journey West. Everything you could ever possibly need to know, and some fun things like battle statistics that you do not, can easily be found within about two or three clicks of your handy-dandy PlayStation controller. This results in Saiyuki: Journey West being a much more user-friendly experience than most games in this genre. (Read: Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics.) Within battle, your characters movements are easy to carry out as you would wish them to. Koei really put their effort into the right part of Saiyuki: Journey West.

FUN--9
Despite not bringing all that much new to the table, Saiyuki: Journey West was still an immensely enjoyable experience to play. A very large part of this would be the story that Koei has based this game off of. Saiyuki: Journey West is based off an ancient Chinese myth. Another notable game based off of a Chinese myth? Suikoden, made by Konami, which just happens to be my all time favorite game. Anyway, this myth has a monk, who was visited in a dream by some person very high up in the Buddhist religion, and was told to travel to India. Being the good little monk that he or she is, depending on if you chose a male or female character (the game is identical either way), she sets off at once. Joining her on the way is a group of characters that can best be summed up in one word: eclectic. These characters range from a prisoners to cooks to eternal wanderers. And they all will eventually be yours to command.

CHALLENGE--MEDIUM
As long as you battle like you are supposed to, and utilize the amazing Wereforms that you are given, you probably will not have too much difficulty completing Saiyuki: Journey West. The game will be even easier if you battle religiously at each of the dojo’s that Sanzo and company come across in the various towns that they visit. The story is very linear, and paths only open up when you are supposed to take them, so there is never any fear of getting lost. That lowers the challenge a little bit more as well. But, I am not saying that you will breeze through Saiyuki: Journey West no holds barred. If you do not battle like you are supposed to, using strategies in healing your characters and such, and if you do not sharpen up your weapons and visit the dojo when you come to it, you may find this title very difficult to progress in indeed. However, almost all of the aforementioned tasks come naturally to any experienced role-playing game player, and I sincerely doubt that casual fans of the genre will purchase Saiyuki: Journey West. Which is a crying shame, I might add.

REPLAY VALUE--LOW TO MEDIUM
As most Strategy/RPGS go, you will not find very many reasons to play Saiyuki: Journey West after completing it. However, before finishing off the game, and heading into the final area, there are some nice little side quests that you can go on, to gain money, access some of the greatest weaponry in the game, and the like. These quests most certainly add to the replay value of Saiyuki: Journey West, especially early on when you are playing the title, and desperate for a few of these things.

PROS
*An amazing story right out of the history of Chinese lore.
*Great traditional oriental music. . .the first time you hear it.
*Greatest control scheme of any Strategy/RPG to date.

CONS
*Graphically cannot compare to most recently released titles on the PlayStation.
*Sound effects are rather generic and average.
*Not the most difficult role-playing voyage around.

CLOSING STATEMENT
Saiyuki: Journey West is a very enjoyable venture into a chronically underused genre, and style of story. Koei is continuing to expand their developing horizons with great success, and Saiyuki: Journey West is another wonderful example of their shining future. If you even remotely like Strategy/RPGs, this title is a must play.

OVERALL--8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/12/01, Updated 09/12/01