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> Results: Kingdom of Paradise
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Kingdom of Paradise is an action-based role-playing game steeped in Japanese mythology and martial arts, with a story that explores many traditions from the history of the country. The game attempts to blend a deep and complex story with an intricate combat system, but only manages mixed results.
You play as a character named Shinbu, who was a disciple of a martial arts sect until he was expelled for using the monument at the school to learn Chi Arts secrets before it was time. Being expelled ends up being fortuitous for Shinbu, as the rest of his clan is wiped out, and it is up to him to uncover the evil plot and destroy the villains. Along the way you will learn about the other clansﾗincluding their fighting techniques and Chi Artsﾗas well as much of the mythology surrounding the story. The game plays from a side-perspective, yet movement is three-dimensional ﾖ this is done by allowing front-to-back motion on the otherwise linear path. This allows enemies to attack from all directions, making the combat more varied and interesting. In a rare twist for a PSP game, the camera and controls work very well and never get in the way of accomplishing your tasks. Combat consists of melee and Chi Arts, each controlled by a different button. There are other buttons that change the melee attack or Chi Art you are using, and the quick inventory item selection.  Melee combat consists of moves called Kenpu, that are strung together on scrolls called Bugei. These are all from certain disciplines that can only be used together ﾖmixing styles requires a rare ﾑfreestyle' scroll. By arranging Kenpu properly, you can achieve a deadly array of melee attacks. That is the best part of the game because despite all of the Japanese martial arts and mythology and the story, the game is best when you are fighting. The more enemies you are battling the better, because stringing combos and hitting multiple foes is where the combat engine shines. However, despite the power of the melee attacks, your Chi Arts skills are much more powerful and useful. Because they can be used without limit, and because time freezes while you execute a move, and because they become tremendously overpowered as you progress, Chi Arts form the basis of your combat through most of the game. This is unfortunate because they are simply charge-and-release attacks requiring no real strategy other than knowing the weakness of the enemy. The excellent combat system comes at the expense of any real role-playing depth. You are Shinbu, and you have a few character statistics, but they increase automatically as you gain levels. Given the relative dearth of any reason to change weapons, your only choices in the game are whether to use melee or Chi Arts attacks.  The graphical presentation of the game is excellent, with high quality visuals and environments. However, this comes at the price of frequent load-screens. They aren't long load times, but they happen entirely too often. The sound is substandard for a PSP game. Not only is the dialogue poorly translated and spoken, but there is very little variety in the sounds and combat speech. For a game with a clear combat focus to have one line used over and over when the main character is hit during battle quickly becomes very annoying. Kingdom of Paradise is a great looking game with an excellent combat system but not much else. It is a game that starts strong and immerses the player in the mythology and settings, but quickly fades into a series of combat encounters in various settings with little other impetus to keep the player motivated. This is made worse by generic sounds and an overpowered Chi Arts system. It is never bad, but never great. When taken as an action-combat game it is a solid effort; but as a role-playing game it is lackluster. 
This game gets its T rating because of mild language and intense action. The characters are teensﾗas is the obvious intended audienceﾗand the dialogue is appropriate for that age group. The intense action and themes of death and loss are also aimed appropriately at teens.
This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Kingdom of Paradise |
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