Record of Agarest War

GAME: Record of Agarest War
DEVELOPER: Idea Factory
PUBLISHER: Aksys Games
PLATFORM: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
RELEASE DATE: April 27, 2010 (North America)
GENRE: Strategy Role-Playing Game

 

 

 

Short Review:

A look at the advertisements of this game will paint the wrong picture. They make it look more like an eroge dating sim than a strategy-RPG. But hey, sex sells, and the more attention this amazing game gets, the better. A must-have for SRPG or JRPG fans.

 

 

Pictured above: a strategy-RPG.

 

Long Review:

 

STORY & CHARACTERS

Agarest is a strategy-RPG with an intense story spanning five generations, centering around the Raglen family. Each generation puts you in the shoes of the son of your last generation's hero, starting with the ex-General Leonhardt. Leo betrays his country (which has recently began to attack other countries) in order to save the life of a young elven girl named Ellis, and he is quickly killed because of it. Dying, he is approached by a mysterious woman named Dyshana, who offers to save his life and grant him the power to put an end to his country's misdeeds, in exchange for surrendering his life (and the lives of his next four descendants) to her and becoming a "Spirit Vessel". Essentially, Leo and his descendants will be sealed into five pillars located across the five continents, and reinforce a seal that keeps five dark gods from returning to the world. But first, each hero needs to do something on their continent; usually stopping a large war, or protecting cities from the forces of darkness. The story intensifies over time, and the player will eventually have control over more than 30 well-developed characters, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, personalities, and backstories.

 

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is rather innovative. Battles take place on a grid (usually about 12x12 spaces), with each of your characters and most enemies taking up one space. Each turn, all characters gain a certain amount of AP (action points), which can be used to move, use items, or attack. The player uses AP to select how their character will attack (attacks are queued up, and all are unleashed at the same time). Attacks are performed by using techniques, which can be equipped to a character and their weapon (some weapons may have slots for fire techniques, general techniques, power techniques, etc.). Performing certain techniques after another may result in your character using an "art", which is essentially a stronger attack that replaces the ones it is made of. They can be hard to pull off with a character, however, due to them often requiring different types of techniques. Which brings me to the main focus point of battles: extended areas.

 

Each character has five or six spaces that are "linked" to them; some might be one space behind them, others may be five spaces in front of them, another may be five spaces in front and two to the left, or anywhere inbetween. When a character is in another character's extended space, they gain extra AP, and can act simultaneously with the other character (even if they are out of range, they can move towards the enemy, something that cannot normally be done). This allows arts to be performed much easier, and allows you to put more damage on an enemy without giving them a chance to heal. However, enemies have extended areas too, and letting them link can end up getting your characters killed off.

 

 

The spaces outlined in blue show Elaine's extended area. Elaine is linked to Leo, who is in turn linked to Winfield, Luana, Fyuria, and Zerva, allowing all six characters to act together.

 

In addition, characters and enemies have a "break" gauge, which goes down each time they are attacked consecutively (whether the attacks hit or not, or deal good damage or not). When a character reaches their breaking point, they will take extra damage, and any arts used on them will roughly double in hits (combined with the extra damage, this is often fatal to normal enemies and allies).

 

In addition to AP, characters can gain SP during battles, which is gained in small amounts whenever an ally attacks, uses an item, gets hit, etc. It is gained in slightly larger amounts when another ally is killed, or if an enemy is killed. SP is used to unleash EX Skills, which are the most powerful attacks that a character can use. EX Skills can be chained into arts similar to normal attacks, but the resulting attacks are much, MUCH more powerful.

 

Dipping back into the story for a moment, each hero (with the exception of the last one) has three women that he meets during his travels that fall in love with him. The game keeps track of each heroine's affection towards your hero, and at the end of each generation, the player picks one of the women to marry, and she will give birth to the hero of the next generation. Depending on which woman you picked, and their affection, your next hero's appearance and stats will change. This is the main attraction of the game, and has been named the "Soul-breeding system".

 

One more part of the gameplay worth mentioning is the Alchemy system. Essentially, the process of forging new weapons, armor, items, or skills. Throughout the game, you will collect crafting manuals, which allow you to make new items or weapons, assuming you have the materials. Materials can be collected by killing enemies, performing certain tasks, found in a treasure chest in a quest area, etc. EP (equipment points), which are gained through battle, are used to upgrade weapons and armor, and once they are fully upgraded, you have the option of breaking them down into a rare material, usually used to create another, more powerful weapon. Over 150 different weapons can be created, as well as a myriad of armors, items and accessories.

 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN

I'll be blunt here; battles don't look all that pretty (see the above picture). While I'm quite alright with sprites, they just seem out-of-place in current-gen games. However, that's just in battles. Cutscenes will have CG images of the characters shown, of impressive quality. In addition, visual effects in battle are impressive.

 

The game's music, sound effects, and voice acting are incredible. Little else to say there.

 

Now, as I mentioned earlier, the game does contain a number of sexually-suggestive images and situations. However, the game itself has a T rating, and no one situation ever really goes too far. These scenes are usually played for laughs anyway.

 

VALUE

The game is fairly cheap now (didn't sell very well at first), and you can pick up a copy for around $20 USD. PS3 owners will have to download it directly through the Playstation Store, since Sony refuses to sell games that don't have English voice acting. $20 USD for over 100 hours of gameplay (on the normal difficulty) is certainly a good deal.

 

THE VERDICT

If you are an SRPG or JRPG fan, I cannot recommend this game enough. It is simply one of the most unique and enjoyable experiences I've ever had with a game, and all the fanservice the game throws at you does nothing to detract from the experience.

 

 

Pictured above: an intense war drama, or a bunnygirl fellating a banana. Your choice.

 

FINAL SCORE: 9.8/10