Salintheus

Wow, I wanted to get this game when it came out last year but I waited until now (by now I mean last week) and got it for $25AU.
It is one of the most amazing games I have ever played, so time for a mini-review.

As soon as you start this game, you get thrown into this incredibly vibrant and incredibly JRPG style story.
The premise: You are inside Frederic Francois Chopin’s dream while he lies in his death bed. A very interesting and different concept. Throughout the game there are cutscenes back to the ‘real world’ and between each chapter there are rather long music peices, composed by Chopin of course, which have photos and the story of Chopin. Pretty cool and educational. Being a JRPG there are a lot of cutscenes and this game is no exception. I think the first 5 hours of gameplay, you sit through 30 – 45 minutes of cutscene.

The battle system is pretty cool albeit not hugely different from other JRPGs. There is the time-based turn in which you can run around and do multiple attacks and spells. The main difference is the light and dark battle system. That is in light you do different special moves as to if you are in dark. Simple, cool and sometimes annoying.

Graphically, this game is on par to where it should be. There are no annoying little graphical glitches and everything is in the same style.
Aurally, it is as amazing as Lost Odyssey if not more so. Being a game based on a fictional Chopin, you would expect the music to be nothing less than brillaint, and it isn’t.

As for a learning curve, it takes a short while. But as the story goes on and your characters level up, you gain ‘party levels’. This changes the way that battles are fought, i.e. they become more tactical and difficult. Rather fun and adaptive.

Score: 8/10