As a Korean-American, I like to try out a lot of games from Korea. There hasn't been a lot of games from Korea that make to U.S., and there are a lot of flat-out unpopular Korean games, like.. Magna Carta or the first Astonishia Story for that matter. Nevertheless I was pretty excited to see CGS come here in English. I'll now present my reaction in details.
I guess a little backstory is in order. This game is called Crimson Gem Saga in North America, but in other places it is named Astonishia Story 2. It follows up on the first Astonishia Story, which wasn't very successful. The first Astonishia Story, first published in mid 1994, was pretty standard game of its time; considering games like Final Fantasy 5/Dragon Quest 4 and such came out in those time frame. However, most folks in U.S. didn't know about that and when it was released for the first time in Western consumers on Playstation Portable, they probably thought Astonishia Story was made for PSP instead of old port of an 16 bit RPG, hence the harsh reviews the first game has been getting by NA reviewers. Now, nearly a decade and a half later, the old Sonnori team of the AS got together, changed their development team name into Iron Nos(sonnori spelled backwards), and tried a gamble of reviving their biggest game series as they face hard financial challenge and bankrupcy.
Ironnos/sonnori team are not an exceptional team. Historically, they have been making OK games. It isn't surprising that Crimson Gem Saga too is a pretty standard game for its time. However, what they have been good at is little details of their games, and it shines here too. Let's talk about the game's features to clearify. The game is a standard "j"RPG(although clearly it was from Korea), where you have a very linear, set-in-stone storyline to follow. Some hints of "w"RPGs are present, such as being able to build up a skill tree, recording quests, and customizing equipments. Unfortunately most characters' equipments don't change in actual appearance, though. Visually it can be compared to PS1 era 2-D RPGs; at times I had a flashback to Tales of Eternia while playing CGS. Lush colors cloak the 32 bit color palettes and they are not bad on the eyes. Some battle attack sequesnces are rather crudely animated with few unique frames, and it is a dissappointment considering the first Astonishia Story had very good animated sprites. A lot of same melodies from the first AS return in CGS, but in a much better quality. Imagine the jump from, say, Lufia 1 to Lufia 2, then it'd be pretty close. Now that we're in 2009, the musicians were able to present their scores the way they were meant, it is much better sounding in CGS than in AS, though they are of the same composition. Not one single voice acting is terrible, Herbert sounds homosexual at times, but even his lines are done badly, just with a lot of colour, and he is a very minor character anyway. There are parts of story where you face very tough opponent, and it's OK to die in those battles but if you manage to beat them you can skip an entire section of the game. In combat, Ironnos team took a lot of clues of current RPGs, and I'd say it works for the most part. Characters are laid out not unlike the way in Valkyrie Profile 1, although the farthest characters still can get hit; enemies are seen on screen before combat like Grandia games; there are multiple character combination techinques like the ones seen from SaGa Frontier and Chrono series; character orders are visible much like a lot of PS2 turn-based games. There is a slight twist in the battle mechanics that keeps things dry-such as very powerful block that only blocks once, and the way they set up each battle is very brutal(ambush or be ambushed). This game is mash of good things from a lot of different games and I applaud the project team for successfully managing to make game such way.
So the game played pretty decently, basically. The remaining issue is the translation - while it is not nearly as crappy as the first AS one done by UBI soft, I feel I need to warn other Korean Americans. It is clear that Atlus USA, which handled NA localizations, translated from the Japanese version. They did the same thing with Magna Carta too, by the way. The result is while Atlus' know-how of quality localizations show, there are a lot of hiccups in the game. A lot of lines are flat out rewrites, and they added jokes here and there in the North American Crimson Gem Saga that weren't present in the original Korean language Astonishia Story 2. Also, there is a lot of Japanese reference that weren't translated that I felt was unnecessary; most people-either Korean or American-wouldn't know what "kitsune udon", "kunoichi" etc are supposed to be. When I see a gang of spiders and their names say "Guh Mi" which means 'spiders' in Korean language, "Hwal"(bow in Korean), "Cal"(knife in Korean) - you know, completely left alone untranslated - it's just not a good feeling. Localization hiccups like that makes me wonder if Atlus tried to present the game as a Japanese game, which I find offensive to be honest. With that said, the game still feels natural, though.
I like the game. The game has so-called "new game plus" where players start the game again from the beginning with all the techniques they earned from the last playthrough. If you didn't unlock them all, in the next playthrough the game lets players KEEP the points from last playthrough to help unlock them. It's a really nice gesture considering that the game is probably about 15~20 hours long for most people. This game was meant to be a second part of multiple chapters, thus naturally the game may seem like unfinished story. For me thought, I am really looking forward to Astonishia Story 3. I also hope that since this game is solid, they'll be able to call it Astonishia Story 3 because I've became a big fan of the series thanks to Crimson Gem Saga.
Crimson Gem Saga Feature
- Ambushes and chained critical hits add additional layers of complexity to what gamers will immediately find to be a solid, tried-and-true combat engine
- Featuring artwork and a beautiful presentation designed to take full advantage of the PSP's high-resolution screen
- Delivers the crisp character designs, sweeping background art, and stunning special effects gamers have come to expect from elite JRPGs
- 30+ hours of gameplay
- Stunning 2-D art design
Crimson Gem Saga Overview
OLD MEETS NEW IN THIS PURE JRPG EXPERIENCE FOR PSP! With beautiful, high-resolution 2-D artwork, novel battle mechanics, and a classic tale of fantasy, adventure, and heroism, Crimson Gem Saga delivers the pure, classic Japanese RPG play experience PSP owners have been clamoring for since the hardware's launch. Taking full advantage of the crisp, clear PSP screen and boasting a colorful, catchy musical score, Crimson Gem Saga is a blast from the past presented just as you'd expect a modern RPG to be.
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Post time : Sep 17, 2010 07:05:04
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