More robots, sexual euphemisms and strange half animal half people than you can throw a cowboy and his android at...
The story starts with Haken Browning who is a cowboy bounty hunter/ladies man and his gynoid assistant (that's a female android if you didn't know). Upon investigation of a local crashed spaceship, you meet up with another girl, Kaguya who happens to have large breasts and a dress that is about 2 sizes too small for her. Oh yea, she's a ninja princess too. Further on, you travel to other worlds via "Cross Gates" and meet more people, one of which is KOS-MOS of Xenosaga fame.
The mystery of the Phantom and war is straightforward at first, but the travelling to all the different worlds of the Endless Frontier gets a bit confusing with all of the terms and worlds thrown at you, especially since there is the English version and the strictly Japanese version. I didn't know what the heck a Kusabishi-mon was until 30 hours into the game. So if you aren't a Japanophile this dual dialect is quite confusing if you are trying to keep up with what's going on. Eventually, about 75% of the way through the game though, things start making sense and while the characters are actually quite endearing throughout the game due to some clever writing, when things fall into place, this game starts to shine. There is one scene between Haken and his android partner Aschen that I thought was funny and memorable.
While the overall story isn't rock solid until the end, the characters are great and it does end on a good note.
The graphics are quite impressive on the little handheld, especially in battle. Characters are quality sprite based figures with surprisingly detailed and fluid animations, especially during special moves. The actual overworld map is quite bland, and would barely be considered equivalent to a 16 bit overworld of sprites. Another fault is that for the 4 or 5 worlds you visit, you do a lot of back tracking to the same locations on each of those worlds. This is one of the major faults with the game and doesn't help on the "Endless Frontier" of places to explore graphically.
Sound for me is a mixed bag. The music is top notch, reminiscent of Phantasy Star mixed with Megaman. I really can't put it any other way but it's often stuck in my head, and if you like the music, you're in for a treat, it comes with the CD soundtrack (which sadly is missing Koma the Shop Cat's theme music which is the standout track of the game). However, the game is entirely text with the exception of a few pre battle, during battle and post battle bantering and move callings out, which are done entirely in Japanese. Aside from one of the characters saying "Xiaomu desu" (which I know means "I'm Xiaomu"), anyone who doesn't speak Japanese will be at an entire loss of comprehension.
Either learn Japanese, or go without. I suppose some forgiveness can be given due to this being such a niche game which is a pseudo import, but I mean how much effort could have gone into translating a few lines, not even the whole game.
Anyways, the combat is pretty unique in that you get a bar called "com" which is short for like Combat Points or Command Points or something. You have up to 5 slots for attacks per turn. When you either run out of com or use up your attacks, your character's turn is over. You learn up to 5 different varieties of attacks, each of which have different damage, Frontier Gauge (like limit breaks) charge, and possibly stun or poisoning properties. The more powerful a move the more com it uses.
But besides the attack strength, how well it keeps an enemy in the air or launches it for a second attack is important. The key to victory is combos in the air how the game plays. Enemies when landing on the ground have a chance to end your turn through "Forced Evasion" if you don't keep them juggled. They also can block the first few attacks when you initiate combat or they land, so juggling and timing is key to victory. It would take too much to explain it, but it is evident when playing.
Other factors include the enemy's weight, support attacks (you get two per turn where your extra allies can hop in for an attack and keep the enemy going in the air) as well as straight out special attacks that hit all enemies or really damage one or something to that effect.
The most unfortunate part of the combat is that you will most likely fight probably at least a dozen of the same enemy characters at least 3 times throughout your course of play. Their techniques do not change, and neither will your strategies. And if you are sufficiently leveled, you at worst will have one character fall, then revive him or her, and keep going. I never used my uber powerful Megalixir type items the entire game even on the last boss.
And outside of the combat, there is some light puzzle solving and pushing blocks with a few times you mash the A button to power something up, but beyond that the extras outside of combat are pretty bare.
It's not that the game is bad, it's just not really breaking any new barriers or doing something old particularly well. It's just "good" and too bad it only starts getting great in the closing moments of the game.
Would I buy a DS for this game, no, not at all. Is it worth playing if you got nothing better do so on a handheld? Sure.
Gameplay - 7 out of 10
Graphics - 7 out of 10
Sound - 7 out of 10
Value - 7 out of 10
Tilt - 8 out of 10
Overall - 7.5 out of 10
Pros
+ Endearing characters with clever writing
+ Great music (free CD comes with it)
+ Nice animations and in battle sprites.
+ Unique combat system
Cons
- Game doesn't pick up or make sense early on.
- You backtrack a whole lot and fight the same enemies a whole lot.
- The enemies aren't particularly challenging or require much of a strategy besides brute force and use of items to restore your skill points.