Astonishia Story

"Where's the rest of the game?"

Astonishia Story - RPG/Strategy

Summary - You play the role of a knight who has been promoted to an extremely high position at the young age of 24. So high is your rank that you get to guard one of the four powerful items that could potentially bring the world down onto its knees. On your way to taking the item to a new location, the caravan is attacked and almost everyone involved gets killed. Now you, the knight Lloyd von Roiental have sworn to get the staff back at any cost.

Many-a-plot-holes in the first five minutes:

Here you have a world with people who are over 100-200 years old, and not just the Dwarves and Elves, yet they leave a young 24 year old boy to guard one of the most important items in the world. Good call. Next, while guarding the caravan everyone decides to make stupid decisions. Instead of guarding the caravan like they should have, they decide instead to chase after a group of small fry goblins even though they've already said they know it's a trap! Good job, you were right! Though they're not the only ones to blame.

There's also the priest who for whatever reason was in charge of making battle decisions. He was the genius who decided to send the soldiers off after the goblins who shouldn't have even mattered compared to the "oh-so" important item that they were transporting. Lastly, when the hero comes back by himself, one of the villain's who had killed everyone at the caravan decided to let the hero live for being "brave" and attacking him. I guess the soldiers guarding the caravan decided it was a better idea to continue eating their lunch while they were killed one by one. Okay, another stupid mistake, but at least it's the villains this time. And all of that was just in the opening.

Story - 5/10

As you can see, it starts off on a pretty bad foot. Overall it was a pretty decent story. It follows the "end of the world" plot, though they don't bring it up as much as some games and try to mask it with the fact that the hero is trying to recover the stolen artifact. On the way he meets plenty of people who join him on his dangerous quest to repay him for his kindness, a debt they feel they owe him, out of sheer boredom from living a hundred years, and some just for the hell of it. I mean, why not? He's only going on a dangerous mission that could end in tragedy. And the ultimate

Gameplay - 9/10

Here is where this game shines, and the only reason I managed to finish the game. The worldmap travel is similar to most other console-based RPGs. The only difference is you can see your enemies roaming around and it's your choice to either fight them or run from them. The best part about the gameplay is definitely the battle system. It's very similar to the Lunar and Final Fantasy Tactics systems. It's turn based but your characters move around on an invisible grid. You must stand next to your target or your ranged attacks (Bow and Spells) must have a long enough reach so you will be able to attack your target.

Graphics - 7/10

It is far from the best in terms of graphics. In fact, it reminded me of the later generation SNES RPG graphics. Which were good for the SNES, but not so good for the PSP. The only advantage this game has over the old SNES games is the detail. Everything in this game has quite a bit of detail to them. Such as the insides of buildings; all of the walls were literally covered with with different kinds of designs. Some of the spell effects were quite nice, and the only things actually in the game that looked like it belonged on the PSP.

Sound - 4/10

Nothing spectacular at all, though it's not horrible. The sounds and the music do absolutely nothing for the game. I wouldn't have felt cheated if the game came with no sound at all. To me the music should help to improve the mood the game is trying to make. But throughout the game, whether it's supposed to be happy or sad, the music is always neutral. What I mean by that is the music is neither happy nor sad, and it's not even trying to attempt a certain mood. It's just music, and it's there.

Other Notes:

- Emotionless characters. It's like if someone were to die or get married, you wouldn't even care. They do very little (if at all) to develop the characters, so a lot of things feel like they just happen. And I feel that well developed characters are THE most important part to enjoying a story.

- The battle system is great. But like I said earlier, you have to move around on the grid in order to attack your target. And some of the most "difficult" bosses in the game DO NOT ever move, so it leaves a lot of room for exploiting to an easy victory.

- You're only buying (or playing) half of a game. The game is extremely short and you'll be surprised when you've completed the game. I know I was. I thought I was just finishing a subplot, and then the credits showed up.

I do not recommend buying this title. I recommend renting it or borrowing it from a friend first (or your brother, like I did), and then buying it afterwards if you enjoy it. Oh yeah, and another reason why you might want to rent this title first is because you'll be finishing it before the weekend if you choose to.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/15/06