It's hard to believe this is a PS1 game, given how basically all of it feels like it could've fit into a SNES cart. Obviously the animated opening and the music are far too advanced, but the game doesn't really look to impressive outside of the occasional cool sprite animation and the dynamic battle camera. When viewed from the lens of modernity, the stuff this game pulled off which likely seemed exciting at the time are no longer very impressive. I was 2 in 1995, so maybe I'm wrong, but the big features seem to be the size of the playable cast, the inclusion of large-scale battles, and the cinematic battle scenes. I already briefly touched on that last one, and it certainly looks cool for a bit, but it doesn't necessarily carry the otherwise simplistic combat you will spend many hours in.
The sheer scope of having 108 individual characters, with most being payable, is neat in theory but ultimately leads to a bloated cast where individual characters aren't really able to shine. Gremio, Viktor, and Flik really feel like the only characters who are explored in depth. You could argue Tir gets more exploration, but he's a silent protagonist so you don't really see any growth. You're allowed to make dialogue choices, but unless you are deciding whether or not to recruit someone, it doesn't have an impact on the story. If the story was just the small band you're forced to carry around for most of the game, it likely would've been more engaging, especially since I liked the personalities of a number of characters which never received more than some brief story moments.
The large-scale battles certainly feel neat in concept as well, but if you break it down, you realize how lame they actually are. They're essentially just rock-paper-scissors, and whether or not you pick the right one is completely by chance unless you send out scouts to determine enemy attacks. It's really lame to have such a mechanic in an RPG, and they make it even worse by including another type of 1v1 battle which does the exact same thing. I can't help but feel the concepts in this game were thought out long before they actually designed any of this, which is normal I think, but then when the game didn't shape out in a playable way, they didn't bother ironing anything out and instead watered down these ideas.
All that being said, there's a certain appeal to the collecting of soldiers as if they're Pokémon. I had a blast searching for all the recruits, and I still had a blast when I used a walkthrough to find the rest. You even get a surprise near the end if you collect everyone, but that surprise is kind of bad imo, since it takes away a solid character moment while also being a wet fart of a climax since it feels like it was written in at the last second. Anywho, it's also great to know that I can just take whoever I want into battle, assuming I have open slots. Most of the game you're force to have at least one other character with you, but you can use open slots with whoever the hell you want. And if someone is underleveled, the game has this neat feature where they'll just shoot up in level super quick and can be on even footing with the rest of the team. It's good stuff.
And honestly, if you stripped this game of all those somewhat unique features, you'd have a fun JRPG to play with. It's not lighting the world on fire with it's combat, and it especially isn't doing so with it's level design, but it's never repetitive or aggravating to play. It's just a well-polished turn-based RPG and that itself is worth praise, even despite the poor execution of it's grander ideas. 4/6
The sheer scope of having 108 individual characters, with most being payable, is neat in theory but ultimately leads to a bloated cast where individual characters aren't really able to shine. Gremio, Viktor, and Flik really feel like the only characters who are explored in depth. You could argue Tir gets more exploration, but he's a silent protagonist so you don't really see any growth. You're allowed to make dialogue choices, but unless you are deciding whether or not to recruit someone, it doesn't have an impact on the story. If the story was just the small band you're forced to carry around for most of the game, it likely would've been more engaging, especially since I liked the personalities of a number of characters which never received more than some brief story moments.
The large-scale battles certainly feel neat in concept as well, but if you break it down, you realize how lame they actually are. They're essentially just rock-paper-scissors, and whether or not you pick the right one is completely by chance unless you send out scouts to determine enemy attacks. It's really lame to have such a mechanic in an RPG, and they make it even worse by including another type of 1v1 battle which does the exact same thing. I can't help but feel the concepts in this game were thought out long before they actually designed any of this, which is normal I think, but then when the game didn't shape out in a playable way, they didn't bother ironing anything out and instead watered down these ideas.
All that being said, there's a certain appeal to the collecting of soldiers as if they're Pokémon. I had a blast searching for all the recruits, and I still had a blast when I used a walkthrough to find the rest. You even get a surprise near the end if you collect everyone, but that surprise is kind of bad imo, since it takes away a solid character moment while also being a wet fart of a climax since it feels like it was written in at the last second. Anywho, it's also great to know that I can just take whoever I want into battle, assuming I have open slots. Most of the game you're force to have at least one other character with you, but you can use open slots with whoever the hell you want. And if someone is underleveled, the game has this neat feature where they'll just shoot up in level super quick and can be on even footing with the rest of the team. It's good stuff.
And honestly, if you stripped this game of all those somewhat unique features, you'd have a fun JRPG to play with. It's not lighting the world on fire with it's combat, and it especially isn't doing so with it's level design, but it's never repetitive or aggravating to play. It's just a well-polished turn-based RPG and that itself is worth praise, even despite the poor execution of it's grander ideas. 4/6