Review
Release Date: 10.13.1999
Platform:
PlayStationDeveloper:
Red EntertainmentPublisher:
Atlus USA, Inc.Reviewed by
Wade Monnig on 4.28.2003
| Review Rating: 9/10 | User Rating: 6.83/10 |
Thousand Arms is the creation of a collaboration of Atlus and Red Company (mainly known for the creation the Sakura Taisen series). By mixing different ideas, looks, and gameplay features, they have created an RPG experience that you won’t want to miss.
The graphics are the first thing that you will notice about Thousand Arms. It uses a unique, super-deformed style during the in game overhead map and dungeon graphics. The character graphics are sprite based and are surprisingly detailed and, by using unique animations for various emotions, Thousand Arms really gets the most out of them.
Once you actually enter your first battle, not only does your perspective change but the entire look of the graphics does as well. Instead of using the typical three-quarters overhead combat view, Thousand Arms switches to a side view (a la Street Fighter II). Suddenly, you have beautifully hand drawn full sized characters at your disposal. Each attack in meticulously animated from the start of a sword swing to the impact and reaction of the enemy. The magic attack graphics ranges from the typical fire spell to some astonishing summon spells. With these summon spells, Thousand Arms takes the premise established by Final Fantasy and, by using a mixture of hand drawn graphics at stunning visual effects, truly make them their own.
Thousand Arms also includes some gameplay innovations that were unseen in the United States up until its release. The dating simulation aspects are the ones that will garner the most attention. Throughout the game, you meet various different females that you have the ability to date. Date’s consist of 3 different choices (and luckily one of the choices is NOT “What do you want to do?” “I don’t know, what do you want to do?”).
The first choice is an actual date, which ends up being like a game of “20 questions”. The girl will ask you a question and you must choose your answer from one of two choices. If you answer enough questions correctly, you intimacy level will rise with that girl. For the most part, this works extremely well but there are some frustrating bits when the answer you give seems to have no connection to the response the girl has to it. The second option is “Present”, which is just like it sounds. You buy a present and give it to a girl and if she likes it, your intimacy level will raise. Your third and last choice is Mini-game, where each girl has her own game ranging from a whack-a-mole type game to a repeat-after-me game that resembles the old Simon handheld game.
You may be asking yourself "What does all this intimacy raising have to do with the actual game?" Well, Meis, the main character is a spirit blacksmith. The higher the intimacy level with a girl, the better the spells and attack ability his is able to forge when working with this partner.
The idea of a spirit blacksmith is just one on the innovations of Thousand Arms. It intermingles plenty of fresh ideas into the main plot and the side-stories. The story is generally well translated, with the exception of some of the directions you are given. Even after slowly reading over where my next objective is, I still ended up scratching your head trying to figure out where to go next. An unexpected amount of modern day humor is included and, while this may upset some purist, but it mixes well with the flow of the game.
There are hours and hours of voice acting within Thousand Arms. I personally found some of the female character voices like fingernails on a chalkboard. Of course, that was pretty much the personality of the character, so I guess we can chalk that up to proper typecasting. For the most part, the voices are well done and a great showing for Atlus's first vocal intensive RPG.
As I have stated many times before, story is one of the driving forces behind a great RPG and Thousand Arms is no exception. Still, every fairy-tale has a beginning, middle and end and, quite frankly, the ending of Thousand Arms is a let down. After being spoiled by extensive anime-styled sequences throughout the adventure and putting dozens of hours into reaching the finale, the ending is less than satisfactory.
Thousand Arms is a role-playing game that shouldn't be overlooked. With it's magnificent innovations, quality story and distinctive graphics; Thousand Arms is the crown jewel in Atlus's turn-based Playstation RPG lineup.
