Shaman King: Legacy of the Spirits, Soaring Hawk

"Deeply Ensconced in Ineptitude"

The Shaman King line of comic books tell stories of dynamic battles and engaging quests with travesties along the way. Yet in spite of the inherent quality of the content that spawned this game, there is above nothing else a sense of ineptitude pervading this through and through. From the very first set of battles, players will realize the repetitive battle system, devoid of any strategy or mechanics. Moving from the battles to the gameplay, there is nothing in this game that has not been done before; that is to say, Shaman King: Legacy of Spirits, Soaring Hawk is deeply ensconced in a sense of ineptitude that makes it feel like a light, rushed, meretricious token of what it could have been.

Gameplay: 1/10
While playing this game, I tried to ignore the shortcomings and focus instead on what made this game unique or unusually engaging. I found nothing. Shaman King Legacy of Spirits features a poorly contrived system of finding/catching/coercing spirits into your service and complements this with the capability of fusing spirits together to make outlandish new creations. Intriguing, yet highly reminiscent of Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh. The latter can be expected, since Konami is also responsible for the many Yu-Gi-Oh RPG games.

The battle system for the game is like what could be found on a NES or GBC. It is primitive beyond all reason for a system as the GBA, and makes very poor usage of graphics. Referring again to why this game is rushed, there are no animations within battles save for the shaking attacker and the quaking defender portraits. It is bland, repetitive, and boring to live through this for the course of every battle you'll encounter. Therefore, I found myself fleeing from battles quite often, not because they were difficult, but because I could not withstand the feeling of boredom and exasperation as the repetitive battles kept prompting.

In conclusion, one can safely assume the gameplay of Shaman King Legacy of Spirits to be undesirably disappointing. The battles are repetitive while the mechanics rushed in design. Reiterating my previously stated opinion of this game feeling rushed, I must add that the poor gameplay quality is the single greatest contributing factor to this opinion.

Story: 7/10
This Shaman King game follows the printed material quite closely. As with underlying story of Shaman King, this game follows the adventure of one Yoh Asakura, who embarks on a quest to realize his powers as a shaman - a link by which powers from the spirit world can manifest in the material world - so that he may 1) defend the world from various threats and 2) pursue a victory in a grand combat competition known as the Shaman Tournament. Along the way, he meets and befriends several idiosyncratic characters. Humor ensues, as well as portrayal of deep friendship.

Graphics/Sound: 2/10
The other reason that this game feels rushed in design is the quality of the sound and, to a certain extent, the graphics. While the back of the box righteously proclaims "Stunning Graphics", actual gameplay reveals average quality sprites and backgrounds. During battle, the portraits are colorful and detailed, but as said before the lack of any strategy or action during battle saps the enjoyment utterly. It is irritating to me that graphics are as they are. In terms of sound, there are no catchy tunes inside and outside of various facets of the game. The BGM during battle is, as the battle itself, exceedingly repetitive. The BGMs during all other times in the game are nothing extraordinary either.

Play Time/Replayability: 0/10
While reminiscent of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, this game takes quite a shorter amount of time to complete. Nonstop play will complete this game in a matter of hours. The meretricious quality of this game will deter a replay.

Tilt: 2

Final Recommendation
This game is barely worth renting, if at all it is worthy of existing. There is just too much missing from a game such as this to make it worth entertaining the money for.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 03/05/05