![]() To further balance combo-ing, you accumulate risk which increases the damage you take and the chances an enemy will land a critical attack on you. I believe at combo 8 and 13 the number of frames you have to hit the combo button is reduced. This is balanced by making you use precise timing, that gets more unforgiving at set combo thresholds. In theory, once you start an attack, you can endlessly attack until the enemy is dead. You can select different body parts, which will have varying defenses, and then you can combo attacks. If an enemy is in said sphere, you can attack them. You press Circle to pull up a targeting sphere. Even reviewing the intimidating manual, I still didn't feel prepared for the game. You're forced to sift through pages of texts in the manual included in the pause menu and experimenting gratuitously. Combat is complicated and not well communicated to the player. What makes this game wholly unique is its combination of tactical combat, box puzzles and light platforming. Apparently the original Japanese script used modern language and Smith made the brilliant decision to put an archaic Old English spin to the dialogue which helps elevate the atmosphere. He went above and beyond his duties as a translator. Alexander Smith, who did the English Localization, deserves grand praise for his contribution. The writing is among the best that Square Enix has ever released, easily surpassing contemporary titles (note that this is graded on a curve). There's dramatic lighting, engaging camera angles and a great sense of pacing with how the plot unfolds.I honestly think it outclasses Metal Gear Solid despite not having voice acting. It's a cinematic game with cinematography that would translate well shot for shot into a movie. Apparently the original Japanese script used modern language and Smith made the brilliant … More ![]() It has a pretty unique, dark and experimental sound track that contrast sharply with the more bombastic Danny Elfman style of compositions more common to Square Enix games. The character models have changing expressions and even have their lips moving to dialogue despite no voice acting being present. The limitation of a full 3-D environment resulted in a smaller scale and it works for the plot and game mechanics. The game is rendered fully in 3-D whereas most Square Enix titles at the time would use per-rendered backgrounds to save on memory space. In addition to the graphical fidelity, this game had several departures from Square Enix's typical formula and design. It's night and day how much they could push the hardware. It's always fascinating comparing early titles to end of life titles for a gaming console. I'm impressed how good this game looks for a Playstation 1 title and it might be the best looking game to ever be released on the system. But god I don't want to play it any further, at least not without cheating. It's really hard to hate this game, or for me to flat out say I dislike it. I'm being charitable with my stars here despite my issues, because it's clear a lot of passion and technical innovations were put into this work. It's so boring, and this isn't even mentioning the ridiculously disgusting menuing to swap to every weapon and etc., or the block puzzles that impede progress by wasting your time further! You use items whenever your risk or MP is down too much, but it's easier to just juke until it's all up again. It's literally just timing combat and then waiting for your risk meter to fall back down, and it's so pathetically easy otherwise. However, the combat is the most mind numbing shit, and it was starting to reach more than the majority of time. I wanted to like this game, the aesthetic is solid, the story is written in such an excellent manner with deliberate ye olde english translation, and the (MOSTLY) seamless cuts between gameplay and story leave it a lot to like.
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