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Guardian's Crusade Review
Kim Wild
00/12/0000
Ever since the release of Final Fantasy 7, role playing games are now a lot more mainstream.
Guardian's Crusade is the latest game to enter the competition but it will have to offer something special to stand up to the current crop of RPGS such as Final Fantasy 8.
Guardian's Crusade puts you in the role of Knight, a young boy seeking his destiny. After a storm, Knight is sent to run an errand for the Mayor. On his journey, Knight and his fairy companion Nehani come across a young monster named Baby. From this point onward begins a quest to return Baby toits mother.
The introduction at the beginning of the game shows the young Baby being dropped by a stork during a heavy storm. The animation is very bright and colourful and not unlike a Disney movie. The accompanying music to this sequence is also very moving. The in-game graphics however, are not as crisp as the introduction and aren't anything special. They are by no means terrible (some of the
locations you encounter can be quite pretty) but in comparison to more
modern RPGS they are nothing to write home about. The bad quality of the
graphics are noticeable in the battle sequences. The backgrounds look like cardboard cutouts and the enemies look terrible although some of the magical attacks can look effective. The music is pretty good though. The tunes suit the different locations you visit and are quite nice to listen to.
An annoying aspect of the game is the positioning of the camera. The camera overlooks the characters and towns which makes exploring more fiddly than it should be. To be able to see entrances to buildings, the camera has to be rotated a lot which is very annoying. Having to rotate the camera also brings up another problem; it can be hard to tell which buildings you have previously visted. This isn't so bad in the early stages of the game but as the villages get larger later on, it becomes that much more of a nuisance.
The game does have some original ideas and that is mainly due to its battle system. When you first start the game, it is just you and Nehani in battle, although Nehani will rarely help you out. When Baby is discovered and joins
your party, more options are opened up to you. Baby is controlled by the CPU and will help you defeat the enemy, depending on how nice you are to it throughout the game. As Baby gains more experience, it will learn new transformations and become stronger. Later on in the game, you will come across the Living Toys. These are magical toys which can be summoned during battle and perform different functions. Some toys will stay with you once
summoned until the end of a battle whereas others will disappear after one turn. Enemies are visable on the world map so you can avoid them if you wish to.
Unfortunately, these original aspects of the battle system are also the game's main flaws. Up to three living toys can be used at once and this unfortunately makes the game too easy. With up to three living toys and Baby accompanying you in battle, the enemies are not difficult to defeat. The game itself is not that long and will only take you around
15-20 hours to complete which isn't long for an RPG. The plot itself is also nothing special. It is fairly simple and doesn't offer anything exciting to get your teeth into. It's a shame really as Guardian's Crusade is reasonably fun for a while. If you are a beginner to RPGS, than this game is a good introduction to the genre. For RPG fanatics, this is okay to fill in a few hours and worth playing through for the first time but offers nothing to keep you coming back for more. Rental only
