Okey doke, let's just get the bad stuff out of the way shall we. After playing an hour into the game(yes, it doesn't take long to judge a game with little variety), I've concluded that it's an even 3 out of 5. First of all, after starting up the game(while bypassing flashy screens and menu saves) and starting off you'll notice that you won't really understand the story. Everything said is slightly hushed under the music, but even so, the characters begin talking in rapid Olde English, so as much as you can hear, little of it can you absorb. You could read the manual, obviously, or just try and hear it again, but what they give you doesn't offer much information besides "you are in a gothic world that's not Earth. You had a friend, he's not your friend, he wants you dead because you did something to his girlfriend." Just to name off a few cliches, I expected a love triangle, a bunch of FF-esque backdrops, clothes, and weapons, and finally, a Sephiroth carbon copy villain. Those who cared enough to get past an hour, tell me if I'm wrong. I don't mind criticism.

So, aside from that, let's talk about the good stuff. Let's face it, this game is less than loaded. It's set up in walled in "Stages" where you fight a bunch of monsters, summon your own, and occasionally have an objective aside from getting to the boss guy. And that's the game. Well, it does have some pretty unique high points. For one, this is one of the most graphically intricate games since the Onimusha series, with fleshed out models, sexy weapons, attacks, and characters. It all just looks so cool. The gameplay isn't so bad either. The camera control threw me off at first, mainly because I didn't read the manual, but it's just something that gets used to. Meanwhile, there are lots of options for spending exp(though it may take you awhile to allocate enough to get even one notch ahead) and the battle system is pretty nice. Nothing overly amazing, but the Legion summoning system is pretty effective.

Think Golden Sun for GBA. You fight mini-bosses at the end of each stage to grab new Legions, or monsters that fight for you and do other handy tricks. As far as I was in the game, I liked the ability to snipe with the Malice Legion. Anyway, the point is that you summon them to fight for you, either by targeting monsters and letting them rip away or by using their unique abilities, as described above.

All in all, it piqued my interest, but for now I just feel like selling it to get Monster Hunter. The one thing I have the most beef on is the story. You can't have a mildly exciting action game without a story to make up for it. Shame on the developers for making it unbalanced. One last thing that turned me off is how restricting the whole game is. It's one stage after another and that's it. Sonic would have made a better game, and it was the first game to use stages. As for how it's better than DMC, I can only imagine that it's because you have some liberty in navigating.

Fun: 2/5  Graphics: 5/5  Soundtrack: 3/5  Story: 1/5  Overall: 3/5
Okey doke, let's just get the bad stuff out of the way shall we. After playing an hour into the game(yes, it doesn't take long to judge a game with little variety), I've concluded that it's an even 3 out of 5. First of all, after starting up the game(while bypassing flashy screens and menu saves) and starting off you'll notice that you won't really understand the story. Everything said is slightly hushed under the music, but even so, the characters begin talking in rapid Olde English, so as much as you can hear, little of it can you absorb. You could read the manual, obviously, or just try and hear it again, but what they give you doesn't offer much information besides "you are in a gothic world that's not Earth. You had a friend, he's not your friend, he wants you dead because you did something to his girlfriend. " Just to name off a few cliches, I expected a love triangle, a bunch of FF-esque backdrops, clothes, and weapons, and finally, a Sephiroth carbon copy villain. Those who cared enough to get past an hour, tell me if I'm wrong. I don't mind criticism. So, aside from that, let's talk about the good stuff. Let's face it, this game is less than loaded. It's set up in walled in "Stages" where you fight a bunch of monsters, summon your own, and occasionally have an objective aside from getting to the boss guy. And that's the game. Well, it does have some pretty unique high points. For one, this is one of the most graphically intricate games since the Onimusha series, with fleshed out models, sexy weapons, attacks, and characters. It all just looks so cool. The gameplay isn't so bad either. The camera control threw me off at first, mainly because I didn't read the manual, but it's just something that gets used to. Meanwhile, there are lots of options for spending exp(though it may take you awhile to allocate enough to get even one notch ahead) and the battle system is pretty nice. Nothing overly amazing, but the Legion summoning system is pretty effective. Think Golden Sun for GBA. You fight mini-bosses at the end of each stage to grab new Legions, or monsters that fight for you and do other handy tricks. As far as I was in the game, I liked the ability to snipe with the Malice Legion. Anyway, the point is that you summon them to fight for you, either by targeting monsters and letting them rip away or by using their unique abilities, as described above. All in all, it piqued my interest, but for now I just feel like selling it to get Monster Hunter. The one thing I have the most beef on is the story. You can't have a mildly exciting action game without a story to make up for it. Shame on the developers for making it unbalanced. One last thing that turned me off is how restricting the whole game is. It's one stage after another and that's it. Sonic would have made a better game, and it was the first game to use stages. As for how it's better than DMC, I can only imagine that it's because you have some liberty in navigating. Fun: 2/5  Graphics: 5/5  Soundtrack: 3/5  Story: 1/5  Overall: 3/5