While playing the game today, I grabbed some screenshots of the battle backgrounds. I think they’re a good example of how the colorwork and sprite work in the game creates a unique flavor when playing it.
Geometric crystals tower over the battlefield in the plains.
In the plains, for example, you have strange crystalline mountains, odd round pink flowers, and the pastel colors used by most of the game.
The forest shows odd round trees and more of the crystalline rock formations.
Above is a shot of a forested area battlefield. I suppose one criticism of the game is that it can be seen as weird for the sake of being weird. Our migrating birds are “purpbirds” or our cows aren’t called cows, and so on. I suspect this is part of the reason why this game is so polarizing. Some people adore the strange flavor of the game, and some people hate it.
The cave background is a bit more "normal" compared to the other two.
So far today, Chezni accidentally unleashed Dal Gren from the Tower of Gabnid. This destroyed his school, and he also found that Midia, another powerful spiritualist, was kidnapped during the confusion. He traveled south to rescue her, and found out that her kidnappers were associated with Zaygos and Gabnid. Now he’s looking for an elder in a temple who can tell him more about Dal Gren.
The main frustration was apparently there’s some sort of event trigger that prevents a companion from appearing. As best I can tell, you need to know that you have to go south to find Midia before Fritz will appear in a cabin to the south to help you.
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I have both fond memories of this game and memories of being really, really frustrated with it at times. I think the creators had a unique, non-JRPG standard setting that, unfortunately, you don’t get to do much interesting in. It’s like the gameplay and game mechanics just weren’t as interesting as the setting itself was, which was a letdown. When I saw previews of the game in magazines, I expected the game to be more fun than it ended up actually being. Great blog, by the way.
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I always found the elements late in the game where they show the backstory for Gabnid to be particularly tragic. Of course, the combination of the underground ruins music and the strange ruins helped with the mood.
I do wonder how much of the plot was hurt by the translation issues. Since half the game is aiming at a mood (and not giving you much to do with the world,) maybe the subtle textual stuff is lost.
I’m glad to find another person who played the game back in the day. It seems like everyone who has either hated the art, or found it an interesting and flawed game.
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