I rented this game back in the day when it initially released mainly because at this point in my life I was really getting into role playing video games. Final Fantasy II (IV) for the Super Nintendo system blew me away and I just loved playing anything that resembled said game. I remember renting this and winning it on my initial rental and I never played it again. That is until just recently as my fiancé got a box of old games from a friend of hers at work and this was one of the games. Suffice to say, I popped it in and gave it a whirl. It was longer than I remembered and a bit more challenging than I recall too. My guess is the difficulty was more due to the fact I am not quite up to playing old school games as I used to be. The length probably has more to do with the fact I work now and I cannot just play a game ten or more hours straight with no interruption like I used too. It was rather fun, just a few issues here and there as this game is an action role playing game rather than turn based. I prefer turned, and compared to Secret of Mana, this one kind of pales in comparison. Still, it was fun reliving this game and I made it through once again!
The story has a young man named Will, who along with his friends and a girl named Kara set off on a quest. Seems Will's father has been missing, but it is his voice from a flute that sets will off on a journey across many lands as he and his friends go to real temples and such to figure out the mysteries of the world. They will have to endure many hardships and loss as they begin to learn that there is something coming that may begin the end of the world, or a new world.
The battling in this game is done completely through the main character Will. All of his friends in the game are simply there for interaction purposes, not help in battle in any way. They progress the story and do their own thing for the most part. The fighting starts out rather simple, but it gets more difficult as the game progresses as you fight through temples that at times seem to have a very Legend of Zelda type feel to them. There are boss battles in this one, but for my money the most difficult one I faced was the first one! You gain more strength, get more hit points and become more durable by clearing a room of its enemies. There are herbs to regain strength, but getting these are few and far between and quite frankly they may as well not have them as you cannot even buy the things. You do go into a few towns and such, but only to progress the story, once again no stores to speak of in this one.
So what are the problems with the game? Well, the story at times is hard to follow and there is a quirk with it in that if you push the button to soon you will skip over dialog and miss what is going on. The story as a whole seems a bit incomplete and the last part of the game seems very rushed. An example of the story being a bit incomplete was the whole Kara's parents subplot and the villain, the Jackal. Such an ominous name for a character that really does not make much of an impact at all in the long run. What is good with the game? A lot of things, this game was made by Enix who would later merge with Squaresoft and the two would become mediocre. Back when they were separate they churned out a lot more variety of role playing games than what they do now. Though this one is not as good as another Enix game, Soul Blazer, it is a nice little romp through what is essentially our Earth.
