Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light

"Not quite what I was hoping for."

Blade Dancer for the PSP is another RPG shelled out for the PSP, one I had high hopes for seeing as the publisher was NIS America. Unfortunately the game didn't quite meet my expectations but it was still a fun game to pass my time with.

Story: 3/10

The story for Blade Dancer is pretty uncreative to say the least. Another angsty teen somehow stumbling on a mission to save the world. The story begins with a tale of an ancient war in the world of Lunadia involving the Dark Lord (creative name, no?) being the big bad guy. A great hero (the Blade Dancer Gerard) steps up to challenge the Dark Lord and both mysteriously vanish. Lance (our main character) ends up following the path left by the Blade Dancer in his journey.

Gameplay: 8/10

This is where the game shines through and where all the fun is had. The game exists entirely in real-time in and outside of battles. Even if you have your menu up the game continues so you can be attacked while changing some stuff around. Enemies appear on-screen so there are no random encounters which I feel is a plus. Also regarding weapons don't have infinite durability which means you'll need to buy and craft more weapons as others become useless. I've never really liked games that employ such an idea but I have to admit it adds to the challenge.

The combat system is pretty fun and active. You pretty much have a turn-based system based on a timer which keeps things interesting. Special attacks for each character are dependant on a single gauge built by successfully attacking enemies and receiving damage. In addition to yourself, your enemy also uses the same gauge as a resource for their own specialized attacks which adds more strategy to battles and keeps things interesting. You can also perform group attacks whose damage is based on how many party members contribute to the attack so the battles are fairly active.

Also the game supports multiplayer ad-hoc gameplay which I haven't been able to try out (none of my friends have this game or PSPs for that matter). Still it looks fun and worth giving a try.

Graphics: 7/10

The graphics for this game vary. The game starts out terribly with some bad polygon graphics but as you progress through the game the graphics seem to improve and show off the PSP's capabilities. I'm not sure why or how NIS slacked off with the graphics in the beginning of the game but they made up for it in the end. Still probably not the best idea but there isn't much more to say about it. The landscapes outside of battle are kind of bland but there are some really nice touches and detail occasionally. The battles have great character and enemy visuals. The more you play this game the more the graphics shine.

Sound: 5/10

The sound is pretty nice with battle music and small touches like the sound of a river flowing however the game fails miserably in the voice-acting department. I don't mind voice-acting at all in RPGs but producers should not include it if it's done so poorly. The voice-actors for this game overact the voices almost as if the emotions are being forced out of each character. Its not very fun to hear and ruins moments in the game.

Rent or Buy?: Rent

If you're interested in this game, rent it first because it might not meet your expectations. This is one of those games that you need to try out first before buying it. I didn't feel it was worth the purchase but whatever, hopefully you'll enjoy this more than I did. I hope this review was helpful to you.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/20/06