Brave Story: Aratanaru Tabijin (to be released as Brave Story: New Traveler in the US this July) is an RPG game that is based on a popular anime-series of the same name. When I first saw the screenshots of this game, I knew I had to get my hands on this baby because of the wonderful graphic and the interesting character design. Since the game was only available in Japanese when I purchased it last July, I had to slog through this with a guide in hand – definitely not my idea of entertainment. Still, even without fully understanding the storyline or what I was doing, the game was quite a wonderful experience. And that speaks volume coming from a gamer with high-expectations.

A Wonderful Story in a Land Far, Far Away

Before we proceed to the game, let’s talk about the origin of “Brave Story”.

In the anime series, “Brave Story” is about a boy named Wataru who is on a journey to change his ill fortune (his father left him and his mom is seriously sick) by seeking the Goddess of Destiny in an alternate dimension. The story takes place against the backdrop of a land of magic and monsters, where Wataru’s quest is helped by comrades of mystical nature, including a cat-girl and a lizard-like traveler.

The “Brave Story” game on the PSP (there’s also one on the PS2) takes place in the same world except with a different protagonist. The hero, aptly named Traveler (you can change his name) is on a quest to save his girlfriend who has fallen into a coma following an unfortunate accident. His only chance is to travel to the mystical land in order reverse his ill-fortune, much like Wataru in the original series. While traveling, the hero would soon meet up with a colorful cast of characters to aid his course, including pretty cat-girl Juno, the mighty lizard-warrior Sogles, the sexy Miredy, young wizard Ropple and armored knight Raynaut. Being a non-japanese speaker, this is as much as I could get out of the storyline, but I’m sure the English version is going to change all this very soon ;D

The beautiful thing about “Brave Story” is that its storyline is tied loosely to the anime series – in a “fan service” sort of way, not to the extent that would require you to watch the anime before playing this game. During the course of the game, you not only get to meet the original hero Wataru and his trusty comrades, you even get to fight along side with them in a “tag-team of the heroes”! I’m sure fans would surely be delighted by this move; but at the same time, gamers who are new to the series shouldn’t feel too out-of-place because you can simply treat Wataru like just another character. Who knows, you might even be enticed to go watch the series after playing this gem of a game!

Nothing New… But Fun!

For an old-school RPG gamer, the gameplay of “Brave Story” is pure heaven. Throw your manuals out the window! The battle system is your standard turn-based “Dragon Quest” fest; you walk around the world screen until you meet up with an enemy, where the game then transfer you to the battle screen. During battle, you have your usual commands like “Attack”, “Brave Skill”, “Items”, “Defend”, “Flee” and a co-op attack called “Combined Brave Skills”. Your party’s movement is also determined by Brave Points (BP), which goes up every time you attack an enemy. When your BP is high enough, you can deal more damage as well as use “Combined Brave Skills”. It’s fairly standard stuff.

Now I know this may sound lame to those seeking something totally new, but man, sometimes simplicity itself can really be exciting and fun too! In “Brave Story”, you have no confusing sphere grids (ie. Final fantasy X) or highly-technical customization (ie. Tales of series) to contend with, all you need to do is fight, fight and fight, and watch your protagonists get better and better with enhanced stats and new skills. So for casual gamers and those who aren’t too fond of cracking your heads trying to figure out a battle system, this game should be quite a hit for you. After all, I played this game in a foreign language without too much of a problem.

A Sight to Behold (And Nice to Listen to Too!)

For a PSP game, the graphics of “Brave Story” are actually pretty darn gorgeous. The game takes place in a 3D environment, complemented by wonderful hand-drawn portraits. Character modeling is excellent and the hero actually reminded me of Sora from Kingdom Hearts, and that is on the PS2! Battles are also nicely-detailed, and the skills scenes are done beautifully to make you wanna level up just to watch the next one.

In addition, the music too, is nice and does the job well; especially the theme in the opening movie that really got my blood pumping. Background themes are generally nicely-composed and the battle music doesn’t get on my nerves as well. If I really want to be critical, however, the game do suffers from a lack of voice-acting. Sure, there are some voices here and there during battles, but for the kind of standard that this game has set in general, one would certainly expect more effort in this department. Well, there’s always Brave Story 2 (hopefully…).

Compared to the ports that seem to be the norm in PSP RPGs nowadays, I feel “Brave Story” is much more sincere in employing the power of the console and for me, it really kicked the standard of PSP RPGs up a notch.

I Don’t Understand the Characters, but Man Do They Look Attractive

In the tradition of its anime series, “Brave Story” gives you a colorful cast of characters that many would argue form the backbone of a good RPG. Given my complete lack of understanding of the language, I can’t say for sure how much characterization was given to your party members. But one thing’s for sure, the character design really do attracts gamers. Even the cliché hero looks kind of nice (Of course, my personal favourite would be the feisty Juno). I’m sure I would have loved the characters more if I do understand them.

RPG Gamers – You’ll Want This!

Overall, “Brave Story” is one of the top games in my book. It has a great worldview, likeable characters, beautiful graphics, music you’ll actually want to listen to… all in all creating an excellent gaming experience. For a PSP RPG gamer, this is definitely a “must-get”. You won’t regret it!

In conclusion, PSPHyper gives “Brave Story” a highly-enjoyable 4 out of 5. Depending on further understanding of the storyline when the English version is released, it might even get a perfect 5!

Posted in PSP, Reviews on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 4:59 pm | Comments Feed | Leave a response | Trackback