PSP - Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch

Format
PSP
Publisher
Bandai Namco
Developer
Falcom
Country of origin
Japan
Release date
June 2006
Genre
Turn-based strategy

Legend of Heroes II : Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch

By David Rasmussen
20th Aug 06

As of late it seems you’ve been getting more and more options for playing RPGs on the PSP.
At the start it was good luck on finding a good RPG, what with the PSP seemingly catering more to the Sports and Puzzle fanatics more than the RPG fans (with the GameBoy Advance holding court as the best place to find portable RPGing even at it’s low end graphics and capacity). However, now that games like Kingdom of Heaven, Astonishia Tales, SquareEnix’s only RPG for the PSP this year Valkryie Profile, and this game out you find that there is more decisions out there to be had… but which ones?
With RPGs for the PSP coming in at a steep $40 a pop (the price of a fairly priced PS2 game) you have to be abit on the selective side when picking out your RPG (with even Star Wars Battlefield II coming in cheaper at only $20 a pop). To that end I’ll see if I can help you out with my review of one of these games, Legend of Heroes II : Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch.

First off if you’ve seen this game or heard of it then you know that this game boasts a few things, but is it all hype or just trash talking we have here? Let’s find out…

Promise #1 - Colorful 2D sprites inhabit a rich, detailed world.
Yes. Yes it does. The game is a beautiful visual eye candy of nice graphics. That it lives up to in spades.

Promise #2 - See enemies on the world map - no more random encounters!
Yes. Throughout the game you will see everything before it has a chance to pounce on you… unless you are moving at a quick running pace then you might end up colliding into enemies before you have a chance to change course. Otherwise things like trees, rocks and other barriers cannot hide enemies as their “vocal” bubble will point them out to you as you move along.

Not “promised”, but worthy of note is the intelligent AI of the monsters which gauges your strengths and acts accordingly. It’s not much, mind you, but they do react. As you approach from a distance you’ll see their “vocal” bubble as green (no reaction), but when you approach it will either change to red (they become aggressive and attack) or blue (they become passive and avoid contact with you).
This is something I haven’t seen much of, and it’s a change of pace from the endless “random” encounters that happen out of nowhere (especially if you are trying to avoid combat so you can quickly get to town so you can restock on vital supplies or complete an objective).

Promise #3 - Fill up the “Deadly” meter to unleash a devastating blow on enemies.
Another meter to watch… or not. The so called “Deadly” meter unleashes a special attack that usually kills in one blow (sans for the very very very very few sub boss creatures (one of the flaws in the game which I’ll address later in this review)). This fills quickly, and (just to break the monotony of the combat) you might as well pop it once it fills because you will find this world is slim on major boss battles (a downer if you are into that sort of thing).

Which brings me to a flaw in the game, two actually…
One flaw is the combat system. It’s quick and easy to pick up, which is a promise only made in advertisements for the game, but it lacks depth.
The major selling point of this game is the fact that you can slap this into you PSP and start playing anywhere with no real need to be taught everything. Easy to play right out of the jewel case, it is fun and simple to pick up without any muss or fuss. Problem, though, is that by being simple to pick up and master it is also way to simple in the combat system. Sure, you can learn magic and summonings (your character only) but they are only really useful with you have large amounts of enemies to deal with, otherwise most of the time you can get by with just your standard attack with nary a reason to vary from the straight forward combat system (right down to the pattern that you use in battles which should vary very little from battle to battle).

Promise #4 - Perfect for the handheld system: save at any point outside of battles and events.
Yes. Another plus. And while this is all nice and all the main selling point is the game itself, or to be more precise it’s difficulty level. So then, ladies and gentlemen set your PSP to… newbie.

Perfect for the new RPGer on the go, Legend of Heroes II is sort of like Newbie’s First RPG, in that this game is great if you are just getting into the genre and looking for a way to learn about it without being thrown into the Orc’s den in the first batch of hours.

Twenty years ago a silver haired young woman (a witch) traveled the kingdom, visiting special shrines that contained special viewing devices called “Magic Mirrors” on a pilgrimage. Along the way she foretold a future that had some grim tidings, and people either (20 years later) blessed her for her warnings or cursed her for her grave misgivings she gave. Little is known about the young woman, but it’s 20 years later and you are about to follow in her footsteps on your own pilgrimage (your name is Jurio).

You live in one of those odd villages where your whole village throws out it’s youths and sends them on “pilgrimages” to see shrines with magical mirrors (which can only be seen by the young or young at heart). You and your female companion and best friend since childhood (I’m not betting on love interest despite the fact I should be about over halfway through with the game as this review airs) Chris set out… after you thwart a bad Team Rocket clone male/female thief team (who occasionally haplessly crosses paths with you along your misadventures). The trip is simple, go throughout the country and see the mirrors, easy.

NOT so easy. In the first city you arrive at it looks as if an army is being amassed by the Kingdom’s leaders for some reason… more on that probably later in the game.
Then you run afoul of the rampages of a gigantic whale monster named Galga (no relation to retro space shooter Galaga though it might have been named that in honor of the game) who destroys villages, and is NOT actually seen…
Then you have disturbing visions everytime you go to one of these shrines which doesn‘t make an … ah… well, let’s slow down abit here. First off the major disappointment of this game.

This game is majorly disappointing in one way in that it is NOT negotiable. This game IS truly and purely for the newbie, and thus the game more often than not wants to take you by the hand and walk you through quite abit of the “action” in the game (whether you asked for help or not).
Basically a lot of the times in this game you are not so much as problem solving as you are following a visual trail of “exclamation points” from event to event. This speeds things up (just look for people with an exclamation point connected to their face bubble to know who you must speak to to move the story forward for instance) but it also takes quite abit of the decision making out of your hands.
For instance on a boat trip to the second shrine you become caught up in a mess concerning a thieving passenger who is stealing from the passengers on the boat (no question who it is as there is really only one person to pick from). While you can deduce the guilty one, and do chase them a bit, when it comes to the final catching and the events afterwards the computer controls all that (no boss battle with the thief).

Come to think of it this game has practically NO boss battles.
There are a few, but they are so few and far between that you have to play for hours just to reach one.
The rest of the story is just as simple, and yet hard as you can’t leave certain villages and areas without completing ALL the story elements of that area (which means you have to turn the area upside down and give it shaken RPG syndrome just to find every last bit of story before you can move along little sprite).

And then there’s the happy little people of this game, which brings a brand new entirely errie meaning to the term “happy little people”. I mean, we’re talking hooked on prozac happy here… except for the one village, but then it’s oppressive depressive! Is there no middle ground? Must everyone be oppressively happy or oppressively depressed or oppressively grumpy?!?
As for HOW happy a village can get? Well at one point you’ll drop your special “Silver Dagger” into a river (this is sort of like a sharp pointy “Credit Card” where showing it gives you lots of freebies like free room and board and free travel on ships), and the entire village turns out and jumps into the river (litterly) to walk around the bottom of the river looking for your thing… gee, I know you’re all helpful and all but come on! Too helpful there!!

Also this game lacks a coherent motivation for you.
In other games you’d have some great evil (either monster or human) that is threatening the peace and you, plus your companions, must set out and make things right.
In this game while there IS something going on, something evil… it’s not very apparent. It isn’t until you confront Galga that you finally get a hint that something is going on… something sinister… but maybe this is just a gimmick to keep you from a real boss fight as you will NOT fight Galga in this game no matter how appealing the thought sounds (and the fact that Galga killed the parents of one of your traveling companions who joins you during the game).

Eventually some “shadow” thing arises in the game, but it takes too long to happen and… well… by now you’re wondering if it will even make a difference that the “motivation” is finally slowly creeping up after going through so much of the game without it.

The game is not a horrible game, and has some depth… but that depth is tempered with the difficulty setting set way too low on the title (and seemingly no way to adjust it). I wish the game was more intense, or at least adjustable for newbies or veteran gamers, but as it stands if you are a die hard gamer who wants a stiff unyielding challenge to test yourself against then Legend of Heroes II is not going to be that challenge.
Try Valkryie Profile or Astonishia Tales (which I hope to review soon). Breakdown time.

Legend of Breakdown II : Prophecy of the Reviewing
What’s Hot?
For a beginning RPG it is a solid game, and if you are new to the whole RPG thing (or just want something for the road that isn’t too complex for quick bites of RPG goodness that is simple and easy to get into) then you should find much joy in playing Legend of Heroes II.

What’s Not?
If you are, however, a die hard player of RPG looking for a new challenge to test yourself against then Legend of Heroes II is not going to be that challenge. It is way too easy and you should have no problem making quick progress in the game.

Moments to Remember?
For a pair of “kids”, your character and female character Chris sure do seem to bicker like an old married couple for some reason!

What to Ignore?
There is some depth to this game, and the RPG is a nice one overall… if you are willing to ignore the fact that the game tends to hold your hand way too much and does things you are more than capable of doing for yourself. If you can ignore the game’s lapses into babysitting mode you should do OK with this game.

Overall?
It’s not the worst RPG out there, but if you are looking for a new game to test the limits of your skills against you’d be better off getting SquareEnix’s new RPG. This one is for the newbies, and that is something you should keep in mind as you play it (even the story is seemingly written at times with a young gamer in mind which says newbie in my book).

Overall you should only get this if you are ready for a newbie experience. Otherwise die hard gamers should look elsewhere for their RPG nirvana as this game may insult more than entertain.

-- David Rasmussen 20th Aug 06

PSP Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch Images