well i first played this game back in the early years, playtasting the original demo (which i still had but unfortunately became corrupt sometime in the 8 years or more i had it). so i redownloaded it from the pavi and met the same corruption of data.

this would be a very short review if it stopped here so i fiddled with the files and found that copying them by hand rather then using the mem card copy command. this worked and the data became readable on the playstation! i wonder if anyone else had this problem?

the plot was an interesting collection of final fantasy cleches and jen's own creations. the baseline plot was easy to follow but the bigger picture of spirits, guardians, rings, crystals, and a pile of other crap was impossibly confusing. i still havent a clue how all that other stuff worked out but i ignored it and focused on the quest and was happy.

the game itself has a pile of interesting items at the very beginning. nearly 90% of them are totally without any use beyond being quest related or outright novelty. yet even still they added a different flair to the game. the novelty wore out there as no other town had anything like it, so the feel quickly was lost.

magic was very scarce in this game and limited to select characters. i found i never used even one magic shop and doubted they was even a magic shop until the very last scene in the game and even then i still never got a chance to test the shop.

the first random battles of the game where a make or break thing. you either got a massively hard battle or a pushover that cut the edge off the next battles. this is the way random battles are but there are precautions you can take to reduce this severity.

the only bug i encountered was during the firehouse scene where if i went back a screen from the event i repeated the previous scene. the only reason i even discovered this was because the battle was impossible and i was trying to get out to restock. i ended up beating it after a few tries but it was one of several very difficult boss battles at the end of the game.

the magic in the game was one of the most balanced ive experienced. the low mp for spells worked and having no mana healing items made you conserve. the support spells where useful, and this was the first time i even used status effects on boss' and was rewarded. most times status effects seem to be only around to hinder the players.

sometimes the games poison encounters were difficult because there was no opportunities to re-acquire poison recovery. it was only fortunate that there was statues around to fully heal you else it would of been an easy game over.

the weapons and armors where nice, they where varied enough and came at the right intervals. the money free flowing was also great, though this happened only after a certain character switch and access to the world map. i found i was purchasing end game equipment from the second story arc and equipping it to my main character when the arc swapped.

the two arcs was interesting. it was like two storys working from opposite ends. i really enjoyed the fact that the dungeons i crossed with this story arc was not repetitive so kudos to jen!

the mini quest posters i didnt even know about till i stumbled upon them and even then i never found another till the final two. i dont know if collecting them all does anything but was an interesting find.

i disliked the pumpkin head of cursedness since i couldnt remove it as there was no way to do so. it didnt prove to be too serious a burden though.

i never encountered an eskill even though there was prompts that would indicate they where there. maybe this was the mystery shops fuction but as i never found a place to use them i never did find out.

the final boss was a massive hell raising impossibility with no less then 4500-4800 hp. if you plan to use magic to destroy it then you will run out long before you can beat this boss. if you plan to use attacks to destroy it then you will die years before you can whittle its outrageous attacks. i had the best equipment available, i was at a very decent level, and yet it was impossible to defeat this boss. after dieing several times i tried casting silence on it which worked but i still died as soon as it cured itself, what saved me was the 100 needles item i had equipped. i used its deal about 100 damage magic and kept using that with silence to beat the boss. its kind of disappointing to have only a cheap technicality beat the final boss. i wonder what level the testers where and what they used to beat this battle?

overall i was satisfied with the game. i played it for around 6-8 hours and i enjoyed my investment. its worth checking out if you can get the cards to work. starba made a great game back then and even though it isnt filled with all the trimmings of todays blockbusters, it still does a good job of entertaining.

at the very end of the game you found out why the game is how it is. though i will say that the chocobos where a cute addition as was another unmentioned race.