Any one that loves anime, will at least get a visual buffet, from one of the most underrated gems the RPG world offers!!
As the title of this review states, we cant discuss anything before we discuss the graphics. Shining Tears is with out a doubt the most beautiful game that i have played visually, featuring beautiful character designs and gorgeous backgrounds. Of course as I mentioned, the game basically looks like an interactive anime, as the art design was made by an anime/hentai artist, Tony Tanaka. The thing is, most of the animation style is in 2d, but any real rpg gamer will tell you that 2d graphics can look just as impressive as 3d ones. And truthfully, the add to the sort of fairy tale/ fantasy stories that most eastern rpgs are. Basically, if you love the design of most of nippon ichi/atlus's games like Disgaea and Thousand Arms then you are set here. And if you like what you play, an anime was made combining the sequel and this game into a crossover show called Shining tears x wind. I havent seen it yet, but will comment later in my blog.
The art was what sold it for me, but the other strong suits of the game are its characters, a relatively solid story in this day and age, good replaybility, and a nice diablosque weapons setup.
As far as characters go, theres someone for everyone. Xion is the main character of the game, and will appeal to men with his spilt personality character design. He has both a good and bad side, and aspects of the gameplay change depending on which state you are in. Then of course there is the lovely Elwyn, a charming elf, which no fantasy story can be without. If she is not your thing there is also the cold ice witch Neige, the sweet and gentle prietess Ryuna, or the adorable cat girl Mao. Or you can play as tough guys Volg the wolf, Lazurus the dragon, or later on as Neige brother, who much like sepiroth wields a ridiculous long katana. And to make players even more happier, you do not even have to play as Xion later on in the game, any time you replay a level to get exp you can choose any two characters to use. And a nice feature that is in this game is that characters can collaborate on attacks, although like i said if you are playing this game by yourself then something are easier said then done. I personally prefer xion, and one of the girls but its up to you.
I wont say much of the story, but its fairly entertaining and throws in nice twists every now and again. The gist of story is that as Xion you was up on the shore and are found by Elwyn. You wash up along with two rings, which might be the legendary dragon rings, but luckily or not for you the saucy Elwyn holds onto one of the rings until you pay her back for her troubles. Obviously theres more to the story than that, and more to Xion and Elwyn, but i leave that up to you to find out; and if your a bum go look at gamefaqs.
Although not exactly like Diablo, or maybe a more limited verison, this game features a system whereby you can upgrade your weapon with various items that you find, thats right folks customization. Although nothing new, it works pretty well in this game. Everybody has their own weapon which can then be combined with various ingredients that you pick up to boost not only attack power, but also to give the weapon various effects. This same trick can be done with armour as well, although I must warn you this becomes a pricy task and the better building materials are harder to find. The game is basically a hack and slash, ie a live action rpg, something along the lines of zelda, and when you defeat enemeis there is the chance that they will drop various items, but things like dark matter and orichaleum are few and far between. But this is nice feature, because like the character selection it offers more freedom to beat the game in the manner you want to, and isnt freedom man's greatest desire, well maybe second behind money or power.
I'll just make a quick note about difficulty here. Yes, imo this is a harder rpg to beat completely due in part to what I mentioned earlier. But then again that is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact most gamers can appreciate a higher level of difficulty. The only thing that kind of irked me was that there is really no way to tell how much damage you have done to an enemy. This is not really applicable to regular enemies, but against bosses this will leave you scratching your head. And one other thing, I never figured this out myself, but damage may or may not combine. Ie if you die in a boss battle, there is a chance that the damage combines, so in theory you can eventually, win the battle with perserverance. However, i could not confirm this.
Finally, there the issue of replayability and sidequests, which is pretty good in this game. There are several sidequests, of which i will only highlight one, the tower of heaven, a 60 floor tall dungeon that will be almost always the last thing you complete before beating the game, and more likely you wont be able to beat it until at least a second run through. Of course if you play the game a second time, stats carry over and the levels you can reach on spells and the like doubles, as does the level of weapons you can obtain etc. Theres also this book of monster that is held by Pious, kinda like your guide, and if you collect all the cards of the monster you get items; however, you only get cards as random drops from enemies, so obviously you will probably have to play the game mulitple times to get all the boss cards. And perhaps the best reason to play the game mulitiple times is for the, you guessed it, multiple endings. As you play a game, whatever character you use the most with xion will develop a higher affinity level, which you can check in the game. And based on which girl, or i guess guy , you work the best with, you get a different ending based on that character. I havent read the manga or seen the anime yet, so I dont know which ending is considered cannon. But its a nice little bonus thrown in there.
Look, i would recommend buying the game, if for anything else it would look nice in your collection, but i realize the game is not a bargin bin item, so on that note, if you like anime, are a collector, or a like action rpgs i recommend you buy. But everyone should at least try the game out, and if it was not meant to be, well then it was not meant to be.
Overall: 10.00/10.00
Graphics - 10
Music - 10
Story - 8
Characters - 10+
Gameplay - 8.5
Replayability - 10
Extras - 10
Collectability - 7-8 (this game is getting harder to find in stores, and will more then likely appreciate in value)
Recommend - should buy, atleast rent