"Dedicated to my obsession with magical anime girls."

This is a slight update from my previous review for this game. I noticed a few things I omitted and I need to correct that.

Ever since I saw the anime, I have really wanted to play this game. Even though it is based off the anime, there are enough differences in it that will make you still want to play it even if you have already seen the anime. In some ways I like this game better than the anime due to some of the different turns the game takes. There are even characters that you meet in the game that were never even in the anime. Now then, on with the review.

Gameplay:9 In this game you move around kind of like you would in a Zelda game. You can attack, run, jump, swim, and Smash rocks and other things in your way. But only once you've gone to the correct person to learn those techniques from. You can switch between any of the Three girls at any time during the game. Their names are: Fuu, Umi, ( My personal favorite.) and Hikaru. If one of them loses all of their health then you have no choice but to use another one. Each of the three girls attacks differently than the other one does. Fuu uses arrows and has long range, but does the least amount of damage. Umi has a long sword which has a fairly long reach and does more damage with her physical attack than anyone else. Hikaru uses a weapon like a short sword and does more damage than Fuu, but not as much as Umi does. Each girl also has a charge attack that allows them to do more damage than they normally could. Each girl has a different kind of magic to use as well. Fuu uses Wind magic, Umi uses Water, and Hikaru uses Fire. Some of the boss battles are fairly difficult and will require you to use your magic wisely.
Along your quest you will find these special Amulets that will allow you to get special equipment that you can only buy at the rainbow junction shop. I never found them all, so that's one reason why you might want to go through the game again.
One thing that I really liked about this game is that I have never seen in any other game, is that when you look at something you can switch between each character and they will say different things about what they are looking at. Some of the things they say are quite humerous. Talking to the people in towns is also quite amusing. It's easy to tell that this game was made by Working Designs.

Story:10 Three girls have been pulled into another world called Cefiro by the Master Mage Clef in order to help save Princess Emerald from the High priest Zagat. Umi, Fuu, and Hikaru will all have to deal with their own personal problems besides having to stop Zagat and his minions. The amount of character for the girls is great. You should be feeling for each one of them throughout the game. One thing I forgot to mention before was that each girl has a diary, and as you reach certain points in the story more pages will be added to it. These are filled with each of the girls thoughts on what happened. Each girls diary is read out loud by whoever's it is.

Sound:9 All of the music in this game was done rather beautifully. It's got some of the best town music I've ever heard in a game. The music for Polizu just sounds kind of sad and it really fits. It may not be as good as Skies Of Arcadia's town music, but it's still great. The voice acting for the most part, is fairly good. My only beef is Hikaru's voice. I just don't like it. Zagat the main villain and Umi have my favorite voices.

Graphics:10 The towns and dungeons all look pretty nice. The animation in this game is great. Only a very small amount of the animation in this game is pulled from the anime. Most of it was only for this game. Whenever an important character speaks you will see their face and the emotions that they express on them. They all seem to be done quite well. One of the original characters in the game, Caltus, has the coolest facial expressions.

Difficulty:7 This game isn't exactly hard, but it's not easy either. Normally enemies shouldn't pose much of a threat, but some of the bosses can be rather annoying. The boss fights may not require a lot of strategy, but you will need to be careful with which girl you are using.

Replay:8 Some might be satisfied with beating this game just once, but if you didn't find all of the amulets the first time through then you may want to go through it again.

Buy or rent: You really have no choice on this one. You are going to have to buy it if you want to play it. The only problem is that it's fairly hard to find and it can go for a lot. As I said before, if you like the anime, then you should like this.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/02/01, Updated 01/11/04