Brave Story: New Traveler

Yuqin's been playing Brave Story: New Traveler recently, yes, neglecting her school work hah... I've caught quite a few glimpse of the game when she's playing and thought it looked interesting enough. Will try it out soon, it's recess week after tomorrow!!

On a day that starts out like any other, an 11-year-old boy's life is changed forever. As the main character, Tatsuya, and his friend Miki pass a leisurely afternoon, Miki suddenly collapses from an unknown illness. When the girl shows no sign of waking, the main character grows distraught over not being a better friend and not having the means to save her. Suddenly, a strange voice offers him a second chance: "Beyond the door you can change your destiny!" He soon leaves the real world and journeys to the world of Vision, where, as a novice "Traveler", he will surmount myriad ordeals in hopes of ultimately meeting with the Goddess of Fortune to have a single wish granted. The would-be hero quickly makes friends both strange and fascinating as he finds himself blossoming into a successful Traveler. The battles you'll run into (there will be a lot as you crisscross forests and beaches) are set up for the traditional turn-based, party battle. You'll have three slots to fill on your team, and as you get used to the game you'll get used to having Yuno (a half-kitten/half-girl) and Sogreth (a beefy lizard) as your backup.

Although your sword, Yuno's bow and Sogreth's battleaxe will be the primary way you crack the skulls of the gimblewolves and seductresses you come across, Brave Story features three concepts, friendship, courage and growth, that will greatly affect the way you beat baddies. The longer you toil away with the same set of combatants, the better friends your group gets to be. That sounds nice in the lovey-dovey way, but what it means is that the longer you're together the more ways you get to kick ass together. Unity moves open up as you go and involve everything from Tatsuya and Yuno pulling a pick-pocket, or stab routine to Meena and Tatsuya running to one side of the screen and bombarding the enemies with craziness. These team-up moves will be critical to beating dungeon bosses, but need to be implemented with some forethought because they drain your Brave Power (BP) meter. BP is the light pink meter onscreen that governs what kind of special moves you can pull off, which is that courage thing in the game. As you battle, the pink meter fills. When it's your turn to attack you can select one of those cool unity moves, or Bravura moves, which are similarly devastating attacks that you can do without another party member. The final element of the battle system is growth. Sure, your characters are going to get bigger and better through experience points and new equipment, but for Tatsuya to get an audience with the goddess, he has got to find these magical gemstones that fit into the faceplate of his sword. Each time he finds one, the sword changes forms and gets stronger.

The graphic during battles is something different in a normal RPG game. You get to see 3d views of the characters' strokes and moves instead of the typical top view of their heads. Still, after a few battles you get sick of them, especially when you're simply training them to be up for the boss fights. Sometimes you would wish that the noisy half-kitten would talk lesser. Afterall, Brave Story's pastel color scheme and menu system is that it makes me feel like I could be playing any RPG. Enter a dungeon, beat the randoms, beat the boss, upgrade your weapons and so on... Well, it's a solid RPG that's sure to appeal to fans who want a fun yet simple romp through the genre they love.

For walkthroughs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/game/932265.html