The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion

"Just Short of Legendary"

When browsing through the PSP's library of games, it shouldn't take you long to notice that it is severely lacking in quality RPGs. Thus, it would be hard for The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion to disappoint, as there aren't exactly an ample amount of alternatives to choose from if you looking for an RPG for the PSP. The game shows a lot of promise, as the story is really well done and there is an undeniable charm imbued at the core of the game. However, when all is said and done, LoH: AToV provides a remarkably average experience that is too marred by simple mechanical issues to be considered especially noteworthy.

LoH follows the story of Avin, an orphaned youth who must travel with his supportive, innocuous best friend in search of a missing family member and ends up in the middle between the struggle between two opposing gods (I guess Bandai thought that if they were going to employ one cliche, they might as well use them all). LoH is plodding through very familiar territory for most RPG buffs here and even though this game was never released stateside before, many gamers will most likely develop a nagging sense of deja vu. However, the introduction to the game is rather deceptive, as AToV itself actually packs a very impressive story that contains its fair share of twists and turns. Now, the game does take awhile to shuck itself of its generic appearance, as the first half basically consists of Avin embarking on one mundane tangent after another (lost relatives be darned, some random girl needs her teddy bear!). Characters suddenly join your party and leave it just as quickly; minimal attention is played to actually fleshing out any of these characters or buttressing the primary focus of the quest. Fortunately, this tedious beginning is really just all a set up for the significantly improved second half of the game. Partially due to the low expectations set by the first half of the game, I found myself pleasantly surprised by what enfolded before me in the later chapters. When the dust finally settles and the final boss is defeated, AToV actually packs a story that should satisfy most RPG aficionados. Unfortunately, since AToV takes so long to wind up, I have a feeling some will end up giving up on the game before they actually reach the meat of it.

The second half of the game does require significant backtracking and nearly every town in the game is visited at least twice. Although this might not sound appealing initially, revisiting every town actually substantially contributes to the atmosphere and charm of the game. There are plenty of people to talk to and interact with in each town, which really helps flesh out Avin and his party. Unlike some RPGs, conversations do not involve you being talked at by the townspeople and are rather interactions. Make sure you talk to every character in every town, as many of them have interesting and amusing stuff to say. From parents that are trying to force their son into marriage to a bard who unsuccessfully tries to woo all the female (and sometimes male) members in your party, many of the people in the cities have distinct and unique personalities. AToV actually does a better job than most games in immersing the player in the world it is creating by putting extra effort in the development of even some of the minor characters.

Unfortunately, some of these random villagers end up more interesting than some of your obligatory party members. AToV ends up with a cast of characters that seem to be borrowed from a number of previous games. Brooding hero with a tendency to isolate himself? Check. Rambunctious tomboy princess that causes her father an undue amount of worry? Check. Powerful, elderly leader that provides guidance for the party? Check. Yep, the entire gamut of RPG stereotypes and cliches appears to have gathered in this game, some of which were not particularly interesting the first dozen times I encountered them. However, this isn't to say that the entire cast lacked any redeemable qualities. While the game did end up wasting space with a few of the temporary party members (*coughcough*Rael*coughcough*), some of the characters are likable despite their generic appearance. Although Douglas plays the role of token comedic musclehead and Mile as the supportive best friend, they both play the part well. Additionally, characters such as Shannon play a great comic relief while Rutice and some of the other villains prove surprisingly deep and interesting. Unfortunately, characters like this end up being the exception and not the norm, and Avin ends up towing disposable garbage such as Rael, Muse, Martie, Elenoa, Rael, Archem, Conrad, Michel and Rael much of the game. Oh, and the three Raels in there are intentional; one didn't properly express how much I despise him.

Aesthetically, AToV is fairly impressive. Sprites are the norm in this game, so don't expect people to look too much like people or the monsters to be especially distinctive. However, this is typical for any old school game, and AToV really pulls it off well. The surroundings and backdrop are both vibrant and colorful, really displaying the capacity of the PSP. The game really does look great despite everything being 2-D, and is comparable to anything else out on the market for the PSP right now. Additionally, small depictions of the characters appear beside their text box, conveying their emotion. Although it really is a minor effect, it is a nice touch and all the characters are well drawn. The music isn't quite up to snuff though, as all of the tunes are rather forgettable. This is more of a minor gripe though, as the sound also doesn't detract from the game.

The emphasis here is clearly on the story and the characters, so much so that Bandai did not really bother to add a noteworthy battle system. All the familiar options are there, from attack to magic to defend to run and so on, but there is only a couple of battles where you need to do something besides mash the attack option. Magic almost seems to be a lost art in this game, because while every character typically has at least some magic at their disposal, the only spell you need for 95 percent of the game is heal (er…I mean “rare”). The battles really become tedious only a couple of hours into the game; mashing x is only fun for so long. Worse yet, there are only a handful of boss fights to break the monotony. Although the second half of the game is better, and boss fights seems better spaced out, in the first half there is only a couple of legitimate boss fights (in over twenty hours worth of game time). With the exception of the final boss, none of these battles prove particularly difficult and can usually be finished with one round of special attacks. Luckily, the game developers apparently realized how terrible the battle system turned out, as they do everything possible to discourage you from participating in too many battles. Experience is accrued on a sliding scale, so after leveling up a couple of times the experience gained from the same enemies decreases significantly. Once a certain level is attained, the enemies will even run from Avin, either in awe of his incredible strength or because they've grown bored with the battles as well. Thus, at a certain point you will actually have to chase down some of the enemies just to gain a couple of experience points. Unless Bandai had made the enemies crippled kittens that happened to be veterans from foreign wars, I'm not sure they really could do more to dissuade individuals from participating in extraneous battles.

The quest itself is also incredibly linear. Not only is exploration discouraged, it's impossible. Avin literally can't go to some places at certain times of the game. Try to leave one side of town and invariably one member of your party complains that you're going the wrong direction or a guard prevents passage. While this does give you a definite sense of direction, I couldn't help but feel stifled at times (I want to explore the sewers, so stop your complaining, Muse!). There is also a severe lack of extra things to do besides go along on the main quest. While there is an option of searching for books and the author of the books, this really doesn't achieve much besides some extra humor. Luckily, the quest itself has enough meat to it (around thirty to forty hours worth, probably) even without any extra material.

Now, while ineffective pacing and a lackluster battle system both end up detracting from the overall quality of the game, what truly prevents the game from rising above its mediocrity is the atrocious translation. While the occasional grammatical error would be forgivable, the frequency and blatancy of the mistakes leads me to believe that the translation team was either not fluent in English or intoxicated throughout the duration of their work. While mistakes in spelling and punctuation are more frequent than they should be, they are not so obtrusive that they can't be ignored. However, the frequent grammar mistakes make some of the text literally unreadable. When a game focuses as much on the story as AToV does, such blatant disregard to the efficiency of the translation is entirely inexcusable. What is worse is that these mistakes are readily apparent to anyone capable of reading at a fourth grade level; if anybody had bothered to actually play through this game these mistakes would have been found and corrected. There is an extreme lack of polish that makes the game itself feel more like a first draft than a final copy, which is a shame because the game itself has so much promise.

Despite my numerous gripes and complaints about AToV, overall I found it to be a very enjoyable game. The story was good enough in the later chapter to motivate me through the game despite the forgettable battle system. The game has enough charm, humor and playability to have been really good and possible even a staple RPG for the PSP. However, the lack of effort in production here is painfully apparent. In addition to the hackneyed battle system and engrish mistakes, Avin also has a propensity to start wandering around without any prompting from the player. It really is just a minor glitch, but it ends up being another aspect that seems like it would be easy to fix and was simply overlooked. Minor improvements really could have made AToV great and as such the game ends up being slightly disappointing. Hopefully, Bandai makes some adjustments to any upcoming sequels, specifically in terms of editing and polishing the final product. If they do, the PSP really has a chance of carrying a flagship series for the system.

Legend of Heroes (THE GOOD):
+Really impressive story
+Great atmosphere and undeniable charm
+The graphics look great on the PSP
+AToV really emphasizes it's strengths while attempting to minimize weaknesses

Legend of Zeroes (THE BAD):
-A very unpolished final product
-Can somebody tell the people at Bandai they might want to find a new translation team?
-Boring, unrewarding battle system
-Too many uninteresting characters
-Poor pacing, and far too few bosses

Lehguhnd off Here O's (THE UGLY):
Did I mention how terrible the translation was? About halfway through the game, the dictionary I keep on my desk burst into flames and I think I actually heard the English language crying. True story.

THE VERDICT: 6.50/10.00

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/30/06, Updated 06/19/07