If you're a fan of strategy RPGs, this is one of the games your collection
can't do without. The grand scale of things in this game is just breathtaking, whether it
be the colossal maps (sometimes spanning an entire country) or the endless number of enemies you face.
Where to start, where to start. For the sake of the review, I'll start
with gameplay. As I said before, the game is just epic. The maps you
explore will always take up about 20 screens, with the exception of the
prologue. In the second chapter (first if you don't count the
prologue), you invade an entire country. Aside from the epic scale of
the game, all the elements come together perfectly. You control a small
army (which eventually grows to about 25 or so characters), saving
villages, killing enemies and conquering castles in what would seem
like a normal strategy RPG. However, if a character dies in battle,
they remain dead, thus giving you more incentive to keep all your
characters alive. Another nice feature is the love system. Letting two
characters of opposite gender stand next to each other long enough will
result in the two falling for each other. Besides stat boosts and
almost automatic criticals, the characters in the first generation
almost need to fall in love. Making sure who falls in love with who
will seriously affect the second generation's stats, equipment and
abilities, adding yet another layer of strategy to the tactic heavy
game as it is. The game also enhances some of the frustrating parts of
the earlier installments. Instead of limiting which characters can
promote and having to spend extra time levelling up the character to
get the most of them due to the 2 level tier system, you now have a one
tier level system and you can level said character to the lowest level
possible for promotion and still have a good chance of maxing them out.
Weapons no longer break with no hope of ever using that particular
sword again. Now it's possible to have your weapon repaired...for a fee
of course. Plus you can't infinitely level up your character in the
arena; now you have a limit of seven tough to face characters. However,
arena abuse can still be managed through RNG abuse. Besides that, some
elements of the game seem broken. For example, you can only let certain
characters talk at certain points in certain chapters or miss it. Plus
if you just happen to let an enemy get to your conquered castle, it's
just destroyed with no hope of ever re-conquering it. Plus the game can
be really short, especially for those who have already played games in
the series. This is most noticeable at the beginning of the second
generation, where all your characters have the potential to become
powerhouses. You can blaze through chapters pretty quickly except when
the AI corners you or you are one of those damn perfectionalists (like
me) who insists on getting every character and item in the game.
Despite it's shortcomings, it wraps up nicely into a great game that
should last you at least 30 hours.
The graphics also got a nice overhaul compared to it's older brother,
Monshou no Nazo. The overworld sprites (and the overworld) no longer
look like the were easily done in a Paint program. They seem more like
a painting rendered on the Genesis. The game's portraits have matured
greatly. Whilst the last game had a children's Saturday morning cartoon
feel, the portraits in Seisen no Keifu have a more seinen (teen anime)
feel to them. The battle graphics, however, seem to be on even ground
both in terms of artisticness and creativity. Whilst the overlapping
features like forest edges are a nice little improvement, the graphics
can't be compared because they both try to pull of different things.
Whereas Monshou no Nazo had a realistic yet vibrant feel to the graphics, Seisen no
Keifu seems to have a more cartoony look with realistic animations.
The sounds contribute greatly to the experience. Instead of hearing the
same sound effect for each weapon, certain weapons are accompanied with
different sounds. Whilst this is more prevalent in the spells than in
the hand weapons, it's still nice to have that little feature. Whenever
a character dies, a grunt (male) or a shriek (female) is followed after
their death speech, something surprisingly absent in the American
installments of the series. The music is also a vast improvement over
the previous games in the series. Each score is much more involved and
complex than the other installments. Whilst it predecessor merely had a hideously wretched melody repeating over and over, this game has a much more
fitting theme that changes almost every chapter.
The story is very well written, but at some points it seems hard to
follow. It also becomes hard to understand early on as it overindulges
itself in politcal escapades that most people simply can't comprehend.
The overload of events and mention of political terms you most likely
will have to look up in a dictionary are a bit cumbersome. If you can
manage to keep up with the events, there's a great story underneath the
overload of events and mysterious words that plague the RPG genre.
If you're willing to put in the time to import the game and learn Japanese, by all means get it.
