Today I had a chance to spend some time on Garnet Chronicle, an anime-style RPG, but unfortunately it’s the Japanese version and to my knowledge there is no release date for the English version.
History and controls
Since it’s in Japanese, I vaguely know what’s going on, until now! Your hero character is a knight student from a knight academy. His first mission is to deliver a letter of recommendation from the beginning of the academy to the commander somewhere near the village. Suddenly the entire battalion is under attack by an evil looking character and his werewolf partner, to no surprise the entire battalion is wiped out and of course our main hero survives but is barely saved by a sexy thief/treasure elf . Hunter. From then on, he will join you in the quest for the “Evil Mind Stone” (sorry, it’s a direct translation from Japanese to English). Then once inside the “Tower of the Lost” you meet another character, this time it’s a mage class and he joins you after the words. That’s how far into the game I am.
Controls are typical of walking around with your analog stick, R will show the map but so far no map when venturing inside dungeons, circle confirms while cross cancels, typical Japanese style, American version may have these two buttons inverted. Unfortunately, there is no run button, so walking can feel slow at times. You can also save the game at any time and luckily the menus are in English as well as the explanation in Japanese, though only the menus.
Gameplay and graphics
The game is pretty much the same old Final Fantasy-like turn-based RPG (until Final Fantasy X-2, as the battle system has changed from FF11 onwards). You and your enemies will take turns attacking/defending/casting magic at each other. Which is fine, except it feels really slow and pretty boring, it would make a big difference if the attack was smoother and faster, so the attacks would be executed as soon as the previous one finished its move. But as you gather more people in your team, the fight becomes more interesting and faster, so it’s not so bad after all. Level grinding is also part of the game but not required. It’s surprisingly fast to level up though, at least for the first 20+ levels, which can really speed up your grinding. As you finish each battle, you are rewarded with money, experience, random items, and skill points. Skill points can be spent on each character’s skill tree to unlock more powerful attack and support skills. Unfortunately, skill points are shared between all your characters! And last but not least, the money you earn in each battle will obviously go towards buying weapons, armor and support items. There are also cards and stones that can enhance your weapons, such as converting your sword to have an ice element, and enhance your special abilities. Treasure chests are scattered all over the map, inside buildings, in the forest, or anywhere in the villages. Some are less obvious as I have found one hidden so far.
An interesting feature that I have never seen before, at least in an RPG, is the “sneak” feature. When you approach your enemies from behind without being detected, you can deal damage to them before the battle begins. The same applies to enemies, if they saw you they would run towards you and if your back is facing them you will be attacked first. You’ll know when your enemies have spotted you when an exclamation point appears above their heads. This feature is independent of who attacks first when the battle starts, meaning there is a chance you can attack twice before an enemy attacks you, the same applies to enemies. If you can use this feature, you can really gain an advantage when fighting and it makes battles much easier.
The graphics aren’t fancy at all, but they have a well-drawn anime style. It’s all 2D based, but don’t let that get you because even though the characters are simple 2D sprites, their expressions and body gestures can be clearly seen depending on the situations. There are also some nice flashy special effects when your characters use their special abilities.
One thing I don’t like is the fact that all enemies look the same on the map, so you don’t know what kind of enemies you’ll be facing until the battle screen appears. I don’t see why the developers can’t make the enemies appear on the map as well. But then again, what if there is more than one type of enemies, which one would they show? Maybe that’s the reason why.
Dream
Your typical anime music, your characters and enemies will say something before attacking which makes the battle less boring. Sometimes your characters will even talk during conversations. I can imagine that the English translation will be bad and will take away the Japanese “atmosphere” like any other game that went through the Japanese to English translation. In general, the music is great most of the time, but it can get a bit repetitive at times and have annoying epilogues.
Final Verdict
Overall, I think this game is worth a try, this type of game is nothing new, but still enjoyable. I had trouble shutting down my PSP until it ran out of battery while playing games. That should give you an idea of how addictive and fun this game is, especially for level grinders like me. Hopefully the US version will be released soon so English speaking people can enjoy this game as much as I do now. And for those who can read Chinese, Japanese, or don’t care about history, you should be able to get a copy from eBay or YESASIA.