The only traditional console rpg/dating sim out there! The quirky and fun writing made for a worthwhile experience.
First I'll start with some bad. The controls feel pretty loose, your character can either walk too slow but run too fast. Load times are annoying. Now onto the main course, the actual game. It is pretty traditional rpg stuff. You level up, buy items and weapons, and gradually grow strong enough to best any enemies or bosses in your path. There is a reasonably vast world map, tons of towns and dungeons to scour through. Not much on the extra side quests and hidden features side of things, but the entire linear quest is satisfyingly long with at least 40 hours. The dungeons don't have much in way of puzzles, and the layouts are something you've seen before and will see again with the result of a few minor places. Nothing special, but above average. This wouldn't be such a drag if the battle system was good. If your roleplaying is utterly let down by a lacking battle system, then this may not be the game for you. Battles are easy and dull. You only control one character, while two companions you choose will cheer him or her on in battle. They don't do anything other than up stats every now and then, or lower the enemy's stats. Or maybe cure a little bit of HP. You can control any of the characters in your roster (which will start out as two and end up as a grand total of 7 characters by game's end) but there really is no incentive to use any character other than the main character, Meis. If it weren't for the next feature I'm going to start explaining in a moment, gameplay would definately get a 5.5
Now for that feature.. the saving grace of this game, a feature that isn't in any other RPG (even today) and that is the dating sim! There are 9 girls in all. They have diverse, distinct personalities. You get to know these girls on dates in which they'll ask you silly questions and knowing what to say to please the girl is sometimes devestatingly obvious, and other times impossibly based on luck. If you answer something stupidly or in a crude manner, they'll dump you often right on the spot and add some hilarious chiff as well. You can also give them gifts or play mini-games they have to offer you and the results will either make their affection for you rise (and you'll be able to acquire better magic spells to use in battle!) ..or fall (the game will be slightly harder and you may be despised) This whole feature could have failed but it didn't. That is because the writing is genuninely funny and the girls all have shockingly good characterizations. Very rarely have I laughed in a game, but with a character as insanely unique and unforgettable as, say, Mil, it's hard not to. The actual storyline is pretty standard but with the injections of comedy and good characterizations reminded me a -little- bit of the benchmark of rpg storylines (IMO) Lunar. So marks are good.
*Graphics
The ingame graphics are pretty strange. On one hand, we've got these insanely simple little sprites that look like they just jumped out of another weird little game called Earthbound from the SNES era. But the villages are pretty, detailed, and rendered in full 3D. There are a couple of anime cut scenes along the way, but best of all, are the dating sim scenes which have a variety of full-screen character art of pretty high quality. Not Growlanser awesomeness, but good. The dungeons are also in 3D and look pretty standard from what I remember. But one thing that absolutely deserves mention are the monster designs. They have this weird and outlandish style. Kind of like the over-the-top enemies in comic books and some shounen manga (Jojo's bizarre adventure comes to mind.) A nice change from fantasy mammals that many rpgs have for you to fight, and makes this part of the game stand out even more.
*Sound
With the exception of the opening theme- which I'm still shocked is featured in this game, Ayumi Hamasaki is a pop star of the highest order. I'd expect her songs on a high-budget drama and not a low budget RPG. Regardless, "Depend On You" is a really catchy high quality pop song that doesn't grind the nerves. There is also an ending theme performed by her called "Two Of Us".
Anyway onto the actual in-game music- it is quite plain. With the use of recycled tracks (Being someone who has played 100s of hours of Harvest Moon : Back To Nature I recognized at least 10 tracks that the orchestrater just copied and pasted) Ouch. But then we've got some more good.. the voice acting. Atlus did a great job with casting (and you'll probably recognize a few of the voices if you're familiar with anime) while some acting falls flat, It's decent overall. Points for effort.
*So overall..
Pros: Fun (and can be hilarious) story and characters. A bit cliched but solid. Lots of unique features and personality. The dungeons, overworld, and pace are adequate. The dating sim and some of the mini-games are very fun.
Cons: Lame battle system, annoying control issues and load times. Those three things combined can make parts of this game a real chore to play. The interface looks kinda cheap.
Not great (just see my rating) but recommended!
Oh yeah one last note. The review is over by the way. Yes I know Azure Dreams and Harvest Moon have dating sim features. But Azure Dreams is a dungeon crawler (not traditional rpg) and Harvest Moon is my life.. i mean.. a life/farming sim.. Riviera and Atelier Iris also have some girl-hunting but they aren't as clearly defined. Any other games (besides PC ones) like that? Dating sims are fun. Fufufu..