Paladin's Quest

"A semi-decent RPG starring deformed string-puppets."

Not to be confused with Squaresoft's highly hyped "Final Fantasy IV", Paladin's Quest is an RPG for the SNES made by Enix. While it's a fairly strong effort in trying to have an original and new feeling, the whole game just comes across as being extremely average in almost every aspect. And there's no Paladin in the entire game...

From the very beginning of the game you'll see that the graphics aren't the best for the system. They're fairly basic and somewhat bland. The sprites are detailed, but the colours used really don't offer any kind of eye-candy. They make the hero look like some sort of deformed string-puppet with bright yellow hair wearing a blue and white dress. Hero's also got little black beads for eyes that look like rabbit excretion. The NPCs also end up looking like puppets that were beaten around a bit. The backgrounds, thankfully, aren't as bad as the sprites. They're kind of odd, you've got big balloon-shaped things growing out of the ground on the overworld and perfectly rectangular beds where the townsfolk sleep. Still,I think the graphics have a certain little "charm" about them in some way. The world of Paladin's Quest is certainly very bizarre, but in a good way. It doesn't have a "theme" as such. It's not set in a futuristic utopian society, nor is it set in ye olde times. It's a balance of both of them.

Hero's default name is an odd one. "Chezni", they call 'em. Anyways, young Chezni attends the magical school for the gifted elite. One day Chezni's friend decides that the two of them should climb up the large and ominous-looking tower in the eastern quarter of the magic school. Both children climb up the tower and reach the top. Once there, Chezni sets free an evil force that beats him up and destroys the whole school. When Chezni wakes up, he's told by someone that he's freed an evil spirit and that everyone is dead. He's then told that it's up to him to put thing right by going on a quest to defeat the evil spirit. Hence the "Quest" part of the title. But, as I've already said, there ain't no Paladin to be seen anywhere in this game. It seems that Enix tried to cash-in with the Squaresoft fanboys with that little trick. Still, the plot isn't wonderful but there're many worse out there.

The music in Paladin's Quest isn't terrible, it just isn't any good. I'd imagine that you'll quickly forget most of the songs you hear in the game quite quickly after you're finished playing. Thankfully, the battle theme doesn't get annoying too quickly, unlike so many other RPGs out there where irritating battle music can stop you from enjoying the game as much as you'd like to. Sound effects aren't bad, magical attacks sound realistic, as do the physical weapons such as swords and axes. There's an annoying little "bleep" noise at the end of every box of text, though. That sound can very quickly get on your nerves.

The dialogue itself isn't great. Chezni remains mute, while the supporting characters seem to lack in personalities. The way sentences are constructed are similar to that in the original Lufia; Short and to the point. You'll often hear words of wisdom like this in Paladin's Quest:

"You must go to the cave. It is east of here. There is treasure in it. You will be rewarded if you get the treasure. Good luck."

Although the dialogue sounds like it was written by robots, there are very few punctuation and grammar mistakes to be found, if any at all. At least that's a plus.

Paladin's Quest sometimes leaves you with the "Where the heck am I supposed to go next?!" feeling. You'll normally get this feeling after completing a dungeon, walking through a forest, or something along those lines. Although all you have to do is walk around the overworld until you find the next town, it's still very frustrating. Considering all this, the game itself is actually pretty linear, with very few sidequests to keep you busy before you start continuing with the storyline.

Encounters with monsters are random. The battles themselves are all controlled with the directional buttons. You've got attack, magic and item commands, all the usual stuff. Magic itself is learned by visiting shrines and temples around the world and speaking with its priests. Magic points aren't used in Paladin's Quest, instead using magic consumes your health. This type of magic system may seem enjoyable to some, but awful to others. None the less, it's still an original system. The main problem with this magic system is that you'll end up saving your HP by not using magic and instead use normal attacks which takes longer. I suppose that may be part of the strategy. You can also combine spells to make them even stronger, which is nice. Another interesting aspect of the game is the Mercenary System. You can hire up to two different mercenaries at once. Sometimes they're reliable and fight well for you in combat, sometimes they're not and take your money and run. I quite like this system, and I believe that it was the first of its kind.

If you can stick with it, Paladin's Quest can last you some time. Maybe over twenty to twenty-five hours of gameplay, if you can manage it. The game starts off slow but it kind of improves along the way. But I can certainly see why people would throw this game away after the first five minutes, it's not going to blow you away with anything, except for maybe the battle system. Even though it's got below average graphics and music, the fairly interesting storyline and neat, original battle and mercenary systems certainly make it worth a brief play at least... Even though it stars deformed string-puppets.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/26/04