CIMA: The Enemy Introduction - GBA
0"CIMA: The Enemy" is an... interesting game from the Japanese video game developer "Neverland", who are best known for the cult-classic series, Estpolis (Better known as "Lufia" overseas). CIMA was published in the U.S. in 2003 (by Natsume) and in Japan, oddly enough, in 2005 (by Marvelous Entertainment). While I'm pretty fond of many games put out by Neverland (two Japan-only gems in particular, "Chaos Seed" and "Energy Breaker", don't get the recognition they deserve), CIMA only comes off as interesting at best. Since this isn't obvious at a glance, one has to play the game to fully understand why.
In the game, humanity is fighting for survival as the world is being overtaken by an alien race known as the "CIMA", creatures who feed on the hope of humans by sucking them into "Gates" and manipulating their hope in seemingly impossible dungeons before inevitably killing them. However, various resistances throughout the world have trained amazing warriors known as "Gate Guardians" to fight back against the CIMA threat and secure "Majesties", great sources of power which can be synthesized into goods and give them the edge in the battle against the Cima. However, two key components are missing to fully turn the tide of war which both sides are desperately trying to find; the "Plug" and "Base". If the humans can't locate these and open the supreme gate soon, the "Singularity", then they are all doomed. The game starts with your rookie heroes, Ark J. (a 18 year-old red-head reminiscent to Maxim) and Ivy F. (a 17 year-old female somewhat reminiscent to Lufia and Selen) guarding a train with fourteen pioneers of a brand new immigration group who are going to unknown lands. Leading the effort is an elite Gate Guardian and your mentor, Jester R., who ensures that the group is in capable hands. An important note is that most characters are several years younger in the Japanese version.
Naturally, things quickly go wrong, your crew is sucked into a large Gate by an incredibly powerful CIMA, Jester R. is killed (but not before imparting his wisdom), and the pioneers get seperated and lost within a highly complex Gate World. Ark and Ivy survive and assume the pioneers must be somewhere in the world as well, as the whole ordeal is an effort to consume large quantities of their hope, and your job is to slowly find them all, defeat the CIMA, and return to your world as you learn the true value of being a Gate Guardian. The general premise of the game is pretty good and as you actually have to control the pioneers en-masse or individually to solve a variety of puzzles while fighting off enemies, the game is actually pretty original... but originality doesn't always equate to enjoyment.
CIMA has several aggravating issues. The biggest issue is that commanding groups of characters quickly becomes annoying when you have to scope out every single area, clear it of invisible enemies (seperate from spawning points), and then plant characters infront of crystals and mindlessly whack at respawning enemies until pioneers pass, which can take a minute or more at a time. This wouldn't be so bad if the interface was good... you get the impression that Neverland tried given the hardware, but characters get stuck in walls or objects far too often with no indication that they're stuck until you realize a minute later, and when some characters get stuck and not others, shuffling through menus to move "just those stuck" can become very cumbersome. As if that wasn't enough, Ivy, your main long-range partner, is utterly useless, especially in boss fights where she would actually prove useful as most bosses are beaten through mindless slugfest and lack real strategies, and since you can only use five items on bosses, if you lose the items you need early, you might as well restart. Why? Because Ark (who you use ninety percent of the time) has range comparable to the hero in "Lagoon". I can't just blame Ivy's A.I. though... none of the characters have any real A.I. and if even one character dies (which is usually no fault of your own), "Game Over" for you. To be fair, the game has many convenient save and restart options, but they don't quite make up for poor design or linear gameplay (as there is little in the way of power-ups and you do the same thing the whole game).
Visually, the game is bright and colorful like most other Neverland titles, but the audio is a farcry from the likes of Lufia and Energy Breaker, which consists of many unremarkable, repetitive tunes (the latter had a variety of nicely-composed themes). Overall, CIMA is an ambitious game with some interesting puzzles if you're patient enough to put up with the game, but you aren't missing much if you've never played it, and there are better games in Neverland's catalogue. Just knowing that a Japanese-developed game was released in Japan two years after it was released in the U.S. should be a red flag in and of itself. We have a few vids of it in action. Enjoy.