PAL: Shinken Densetsu

"Ya' love old-school RPGs? Ya' love dogs? Then you'll loooooooove THIS puppy!"

This is the very definition of ''niche game.'' The developers, a Japanese company called ''Tohokushinsha'' (Northeast Productions), very obviously had a vision for this game, and they dutifully met it. The result is a game that only a select few will appreciate... but if you're part of the target audience, you're pretty much GUARANTEED to fall in love with this odd little masterpiece!!

For starters, this is the ideal game to use if you want to test someone when they say that ''graphics don't matter in an RPG, it's the story that counts.'' In all my years of gaming, I've never seen a game so blatantly under-perform on any system. The graphics are below average for even the SNES, or perhaps SUPERB for the NES... yet this is a native PlayStation game!! Think ''Earthbound,'' and you've kinda got an idea what you're in for. The music, too, is very SNES-ish, albeit extremely catchy and well-composed. And the sound effects are early-day SNES, at best.

This lack of detail is by no means representative of a lack of effort, however. It actually seems to be wholly intentional. The result of it all is the single most nostalgic, old-school game the PSX has to offer. If you've always lamented that modern RPGs just can't deliver the same ''atmosphere'' as those old SNES romps you knew and loved, then this game is an absolute MUST for you. You'll feel like a kid again, like you just got your brand-new copy of Earthbound, or FF2 (FF4j), and are playing through it again, for the first time. PAL may very well be the last game to ever deliver this feeling, in the exact same way you remember it from your childhood. And it does the job flawlessly.

And if you love dogs on top of that, and can read Japanese at a second- or third-year college level (there is NO KANJI, I repeat NO KANJI in this game's dialogue!), it is an absolute edict of the universe that you must IMMEDIATELY track this game down and play it, for it will bring you an unmatchable level of joy.

The reason for this, of course, lies in PAL's unique hero... erm, Pal. Pal is a puppy. Just your average, run-of-the-mill puppy. A high school girl named Kaoru found him abandoned in a box outside her house one rainy afternoon, and decided to take him in. Her dog-hating mother, however, didn't appreciate this, and after a month of putting up with puppy problems, she insisted that Kaoru get rid of it.

But Kaoru didn't exactly have much of a chance to do this, since she had apparently been targetted by an evil organization fronted by none other than the world-famous prophet Nostradamus. And while our brave little puppy tried his hardest to take on the war-machine sent to abduct her, the battle ended with exactly the fate you'd expect when a puppy squares off against a war-machine. Bruised, battered, and on his own, poor little Pal seemed to be in a hopeless situation...

...until Zeus stepped in, anyway! After passing a series of trials, Pal is endowed with the ability to take on any shape of his choosing. Taking on a humanoid warrior-like appearance (though forgetting to give it vocal chords, it seems, as Pal is YET ANOTHER in the long line of mute heroes that the RPG world has come to know oh so well), he is accompanied back to the human world by the Poverty God and the Mountain Goddess (who are married, and bicker like mad), and sets off to solve the mystery of Kaoru's whereabouts, and to figure out, once and for all, what the motives of Nostradamus and his minions really are.

And he also enlists the help of Kaoru's boyfriend Yukito, who is apparently quite an expert chef.

For a nostalgia-inducing game of this kind, or even just for dog-lovers, PAL has the ideal storyline. Everything about it is old-fashioned, and everything about it just screams ''puppy love,'' in the most literal sense. It's also really bizarre, but tends to take itself semi-seriously, which in turn makes it MORE bizarre. What other game would pit your puppy-warrior main character against Copernicus in order to shut down his emotion-altering machine, then within the next 10 minutes, throw you into the middle of a daring escape from Mt. Fuji as it erupts?

PAL is actually a fairly long game, as well, and will definitely hold your interest throughout. It almost seems to subscribe to the theory that every plot point should be a twist, so your locale, goal, and even the world itself is constantly undergoing change. While a more serious game would be hindered by this approach, PAL is most assuredly aided by it, and it's this level of unpredictability that makes PAL the fun play it is.

Fast-paced and furious, PAL's plot is indeed one of the strangest and LEAST predictable in RPG history. Your quest will take you everywhere from a topsy-turvy upside-down town to the startlingly Chinese-inspired Land of the Gods (which, regardless of the many Chinese legend references, is still ruled by Zeus). And your goals are equally unpredictable: from working part-time at a department store to saving the Poverty God's marriage, from fighting the apple-headed Professor Newton and his mean little doggie to facing off against Grandpa Mona Lisa and the abstract Mr. Guernica, this game will constantly keep you guessing, laughing, and most important of all, PLAYING.

The game's battle system, while by no means perfect, nor even slightly innovative, is quite acceptable, and just as nostalgic as anything else in the game. It bears the closest resemblance to the battle systems of Earthbound or Dragon Quest/Warrior, but with your characters and their movements actually visible on the screen -- and with a surprisingly large and varied library of battle themes. Completely turn-based random battles, four-character parties, a big text box explaining everything that happens in unnecessarily great detail, money dropping from the enemies' lifeless corpses (though believe it or not, PAL actually EXPLAINS this phenomenon!) -- it's all in here. And the game's magic is split into six different categories (fire, ice, lightning, earth, light, and gold), and can be powered up to target all enemies instead of just one (for example) by going to a Shinto shrine and talking (!) to the collection box.

Those characters who don't use magic and don't rely upon strong attacks are given the unique ability to cook various damaging or healing delicacies mid-battle -- but those of you who have grown weary of complicated cooking systems in RPGs, fear not! This is as easy as they come! Culinarily gifted characters learn recipes as they level-up, and each recipe has its ingredients clearly listed in the character's status screen. Simply have one of each required ingredient, and the recipe will be selectable from a menu during battle, just like anything else. What effect this recipe will have, however, is a complete unknown -- but the worst case scenario is that it has NO effect, as these recipes are incapable of damaging your party OR healing your enemy.

Buying ingredients, however, is a bit of a time-consuming task, since this game has actual, honest-to-goodness grocery stores in it, complete with aisles full of unique products, shopping carts, and checkout lanes. Be prepared to spend a wee bit of time in the store every now and again, but don't worry -- it's only a minor nuisance.

By far the greatest aspect of this game, though -- and this will only be worthy of notice if you're a TRUE dog-lover -- is the absolutely REAL relationship depicted between a dog and its master. Those of you who have dogs, and truly care for them, already know the sort of deep, indescribable love that they evoke in you, and the sort of unconditional love you evoke within them, and this game does a truly remarkable job of emulating it. Mute hero or not, Pal's determination to find and rescue Kaoru is truly moving. When Kaoru is first kidnapped, she screams for her boyfriend Yukito to come to her aid, and you can really feel Pal's heartbreak at never even being CONSIDERED as a potential hero -- though why would he be? How could Kaoru possibly know that Zeus would intervene and give Pal the power to rescue her? Later, Zeus warns Pal that, even if he succeeds, it will probably be Yukito who gets credit for it.

But if you know dogs, you know that Pal wouldn't let that stop him from attempting to save his kind and caring master -- and making that his top priority, no less.

All in all, PAL is charming, funny, baffling, nostalgic, and REALLY cheap to get ahold of (if you can find it, that is!). If you've read this review, and THINK you'd like the game based on what I've said about it, I can give you a virtual guarantee that you WILL. It's a niche game, though, so buyer beware: if you don't like old-school and you don't like dogs, YOU WON'T LIKE PAL. Period.

But at the very least, now you can confuse people by telling them that ''PAL is only available in NTSC.'' ... ba-dum pum!! (:

Special thanks to jetfuel for the joke. (:

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/19/02, Updated 09/19/02