Game:

Orphen: Scion of Sorcery (2000)

Duration: 8:50:26

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What a weird game. I honestly don't know how to properly describe it. It's sort of a platformer with some psuedo action turnbased combat. The game is linear and split into levels. At the beginning of the game you get a few choices with what path you want to take and the story goes off from there. You do have to go down all the paths to get an ending and trying to make any sense of what is really going on in the story until the end is almost impossible. They feel like completely separate events happening even if they are all the same characters. It's a really strange game and takes some odd chances. I don't think there are random encounters, I think they are scripted encounters. As you make progress and beat bosses you get new abilities. In combat you can choose the types of attacks you want to use. They are elementally based. Some for groups and some for large areas. You can even charge them up for more power and extra projectiles. You also have a shield and sword for defense and some melee. You stand in one spot and hit buttons and hope you chose the right spells for quick combat. I tried to mess around and find spells for the right situations, but there really isn't much of a way to tell if you chose right. Health is displayed in gemstones, but it's hard to tell what kind of damage you are doing. It's a real minimal display which is cool and gives a more immersive feel to combat, but health bars and numbers do serve a purpose in letting the player know what's happening in combat. You just have to get a feel for what's going on. You have 2 other teammates most of the time that help out. In most boss fights you are on your own, which is pretty cool and makes it pretty intense. The checkpoints are fair, but sometimes you have to run back through an area or sit through unskipable cutscenes if you do happen to die to a boss. The controls aren't terrible, but they do take some getting used to. The music is alright. The level design is interesting and you do see a variety of areas. Most areas are pretty small and the stages are very linear with some treasure strewn about. Speaking of which seems to serve no purpose. There are a bunch of healing items, but you never need them. You cannot use items in combat as far as I know, and if you change your loadout the fight restarts. You do find new equipment and spells from time to time, which is helpful. The voice acting is as good as you would expect from a game from 2000. It certainly made me giggle a few times. The final boss is also a real toughie and has a super long cutscene before the fight. That was rough. The game is a mixed bag, but there really isn't anything like this out there. It truly is unique and a fun curiosity. Enjoy my blind playthrough.

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