"One of Square's forgotten gems"

I played this game recently and it just wowed me. Everything feels right; it is truly a shame that it never was localized here in North America.On to the review
Graphics: 10/10
Here is where the game shines the most. Everything is highly detailed and is probably one of the most beautiful Super Famicom game ever. The game is very well detailed in the overworld map as they get the job done, but where it really is beautiful is the in-combat graphics; everything is moving your sprites actually attacks the enemies and do not swing in the air like they did for example in the snes FFs. Plus the many spells(discussed in Gameplay) are actually well animated, you'd think that with that many combinations possible that they would have to cut down the number of animations but while some are only color variations of other spell there is actually a huge amount of spell animations and they are all well done.

Sound: 10/10
The music is absolutely beautiful and is probably one of the best soundtrack I've heard. Composed by Ryuji Sasai, most of the themes are very evocative and pulls you through the game, there will actually be moments where you'll be spending more time than you should in the overworld-map just to listen to the theme some more. My favorite being Sion' Overworld theme.

Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay is pretty good but is your basic turn-based console type Japanese RPG, with one main difference, the way spell are gotten. You actually have to create them using Katakana and Kanji characters and there are many possibilities, but overall the battle gets fairly repetitive. The spell are nice but obviously with no knowing of Japanese one cannot understand this portion of the game that is crucial to the advancement.

Story: 9/10
Here, again the game is very good. Without giving out anything, there are many themes involved that are interesting particularly in opur era, as the ecological is present throughout one of the main character's journey. The setup of letting you choose which journey out of the three main characters you wish to advance is very refreshing too. Tired of Sion' path take Salent an it is very fun to see the story cross path.All in all the story is very interesting with gods and a dash of religion thrown in.

Overall: 9/10
What you get is an excellent RPG that is fun, has an interesting storyline and refreshing take on advancement and spell casting.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10 | Originally Posted: 02/18/04

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