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> Results: Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion
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Have you played games such as Final Fantasy since the early Nintendo NES or even Sony PlayStation days? Played them for so long in one sitting that you have twisted dreams that you are still playing but the characters and settings have changed? You might have played Legend of Heroes in one of those dreams. It's a familiar type of game rendered in a familiar style.
It tells the story of a boy named Avin, who is separated from his younger sister at a young age, and his quest to find her. Along the way their mission evolves into a greater quest to uncover an evil plot in the kingdom. You move your party around the world using the analog stick while using buttons to access menus and dialogue options. When traveling outside of cities and towns, you face monsters that either pursue or run from you based on their level. This is a great change from the typical ﾑrandom encounters' in this type of game since you can seek out or avoid battles when you travel between towns. Combat is turn-based, and presents the player with a variety of tactics to use to defeat enemies. Each character has strengths and weaknesses, as do the monsters. For example, Avin is good with swords and decent with ﾑblack' (offensive) spells, whereas his friend Mile uses a ranged boomerang attack and ﾑwhite' (defensive/healing) spells. There is also a meter that charges up as you hit enemies or receive damage. When it is full you can hit an opponent with a ﾑDeadly' attack. Each character also has different skills appropriate to their class, which can be very useful at certain points in the game. Magic follows traditional strong/weak rulesﾗan enemy with a water attribute is strong against water magic but weak against fire and so on. The combat system is enjoyable, allowing you time to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each character and monster. Early battles are easy, affording you the opportunity to learn the nuances for more difficult late-game fights.  The game is huge, and features dozens of quests and locations with lots of fleshed-out characters to meet and talk to along the way. The developers seem to have put tremendous effort into creating a story and characters that players would care about, and succeeded. While it breaks no new ground, it is solidly entertaining throughout. Unfortunately, the game lacks a useful quest log or journal. Instead it provides a collection history that tells you things you have learned chronologically. For a game of this size and scope, it's a problem, since it makes it hard to restart a game after any time away from the story. The game also requires you to manually backtrack across the country time and again. In a game that took me well over 50 hours to complete, the need to trek back and forth across areas is truly frustrating. Add to that the inability to get detailed information from the map. It's good for general location information only. Another annoyance is the fine motion control of characters. When you need to get close to someone to speak to him, it can be difficult to position accurately. You occasionally find yourself spending a minute or more moving back and forth trying to get into the right place to initiate dialogue. There is tons of dialogue throughout the game, much of it poorly translated from the original Japanese. Large sections are perfectly fine, but then you encounter an excessive amount of poor translation. Occasionally you even have difficulty discerning meaning.  The game is technically wonderful. The graphics are quite nice for this type of game, and the sounds are enjoyable. The environments are varied and well drawn, and the characters are drawn with a variety of appropriate expressions. The entire experience is positive. The settings are appropriate, but never scary. Combat is challenging but never impossible. Dialogue is plentiful but never laborious. There just isn't anything new or innovative about the game, and it's never stunning or amazing in any way. Legend of Heroes is a solid game with obvious roots in console-style role-playing that offers loads of playability and minor flaws. The familiarity of the story and style limits the appeal if you've played too many games of this type, but for everyone else it's a charming and enjoyable role-playing romp. 
The vast majority of Legend of Heroes is similar in presentation style and story delivery to the E-rated Final Fantasy I & II for the GBA from last year. However, there is mild bad language along the way and some situations are more appropriate for slightly older kids. That said, the violence is strictly fantasy and indirect. You call the attacks and watch them play out, so there isn't the visceral impact of an action-based role-playing game. I see no reason this couldn't have been rated E-10, and therefore am recommending it for anyone 10 and older.
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: Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion |
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