Much better than the PSP remake and overall a great addition to ps1's already huge library of good jrpgs.

Arguably, the best thing about Popolocrois is it's beautiful presentation: animated cutscenes, great pixel art, a good soundtrack with plenty of variety(tired of jrpgs that use the same battle theme over and over? popolocrois got 14 battle themes!). The story doesn't really gets going till late game, but it doesn't matter, because the characters and the presentation are enough to carry the game.

The gameplay is fine, but characters take a bit too long to unlock their skills and most of the interesting skills can't be used against bosses anyway. Sadly the game won't take much advantage of its grid system either, as most characters and enemies have ranged or area skills and boss fights occur always in open areas, plus bosses don't use minions or grid barriers either. This doesn't mean the game is easy though, there are some brutal bosses that can wipe your whole party in a single turn if you aren't prepared, but it never gets to a point it feels unfair.

If you like ps1 jrpgs, definitely check it out.

I’ve been waiting for the fan translation of this since it’s announced, was it worth it? Maybe.

The charm of this game seems to be that the NPC are very unique, they have their own story and stuff to do. They also will change their dialogue whenever an event happens, so if you like talking to a lot of NPC, this game might be for you. But not for me. A lot of the NPCs are pretty quirky, reminds me a lot of Earthbound, just with less nonsense.

What I’m gonna comment on is the main story.
I feel like this game will make more sense to the fans of Popolocrois anime/manga, for a newcomer to this series, I feel a bit lost. I mean, the main story is simple enough, but some side characters are introduced very suddenly and a few of them are really important to the main story.

The story is Pietro wants to save his mother who has been sleeping for 10 years, apparently her soul is trapped in the world of darkness. So off he goes, along with 3 of his friends, Narca, Sir White Knight, and GamiGami (the tsundere). Along the way they met a lot of characters, including the 4 main villains. Now these 4 main villains are my major gripe with the story. They don’t feel threatening, I actually thought they were joke villains just like GamiGami at first. But no, they persist to the end of the game. One of them even became the penultimate boss fight.

Speaking of fight, it’s a tactical turn-based combat, which isn’t really that different from your usual turn-based combat but you need to think about your position in combat. Most of the time this position doesn't matter, even in boss fights. Narcia and GamiGamil will move as far as possible from the boss, while Pietro and Sir White Knight corner the boss. Even then, some bosses can just teleport away. Most boss fights boil down to the same tactic even until the final boss. A lot of the bosses are damage sponge, so expect to sit and repeat the same strategy over and over until they finally die, the final boss is the most guilty of this.

The game is very short for a JRPG, my playthrough is just about 20 hours, but again, that’s because I wasn’t interested in talking to a lot of the NPC, so it can get longer if you want it to be. It is still an enjoyable game to play, the story is fun to follow, the combat, while repetitive, can still be engaging, and I like all the party members except GamiGami, he kinda creeps me out early in the game because of how jealous he is with Pietro hanging around with Narcia.

Oh, one thing about the FanTL, they add fandub on some of the scenes because they couldn't bother adding a subtitle. All of the anime scenes are fully subbed, but the other cutscenes are fandubbed. Just FYI. Not sure if there's any other version where you can revert the fandub, but I haven't found one.