One Life Challenge. Time Stalkers.
2It's time for another One Life Challenge video. And this one here, it's really obscure.
The Sega Dreamcast doesn't have many great RPGs, unfortunately... especially J-RPGs. This might be argued as being the system's weak point. It got some good ones, like Phantasy Star Online and Skies Of Arcadia, but sadly none of these games really are system exclusives that would demand you to buy a Dreamcast. And perhaps, this might be one of the Dreamcast's weak points: even though it got some really amazing games and has a fantastic library for arcade style gamers, it went underrated as it went along mostly due to not having many games that aren't already ported to later consoles or consoles before it, like the Gamecube, PSP or the Playstation.
But as I say this, I need to warn the skeptic person here, that the Dreamcast did had a bunch of hidden gems that stayed on the system, so it's not entirely to the level of the Wii U, whose games are probably going to be re-released through the future Nintendo Switch's virtual console.
So enough yacking for once, let's talk about this game and a quick first impressions, since it's a rare title that probably is a aim for collectors and Dreamcast fans.
It starts interesting, but then you quickly realize that it is "one of those games with a moon cycle storyline". And it is just like so, which is a shame... many J-RPGs, action-adventure and Dungeon Crawlers from the era, following the Playstation and the popularity of Final Fantasy, Zelda and the Chrono series, milked this idea dry. How dry? Milk cow dry... they couldn't ever come up with something new and legitimate, and it took games like Zelda and Legacy Of Kain to move it to a new place with the destiny thing. And now of course RPGs are all about the feuds stuff, coming directly from Tolkien and Game Of Thrones, because this is what is popular right now for people who like medieval and ancient themes which fantasy is based upon, and so is our modern society. So from a originality standpoint it has none.
As for gameplay it's got its share of the J-RPG melt pot, that's for sure. By that I mean it goes at great lengths to do exactly as games such as Chocobo Dungeon, Final Fantasy X and the aforementioned Chrono series. So while it's nice that there isn't random encounters like Final Fantasy (I'd supposed the vast majority of people can't play these games anymore due to this annoying mechanic, I at least can't fathom which is why I prefer Zelda and Legacy Of Kain styled games these days, more substance you know), it will bore you to death with the large problem that it essentially has no level scaling, and no real party system at least to the point I've played it to. Which wasn't far... but regardless, it didn't hold me on long since it seemed they wanted more style over substance, and that's what I really got.
So again, stick to Skies Of Arcadia or Phantasy Star Online. They are better, more original and cohesive titles on the system. This game, it is kinda cool but at the end, it's got the same old tiresome 80s and 90s Anime look, and the mental illness/moon cycle styled storyline. And it gets old quick, really.