Rating: E10+
Developer: Vanillaware
Publisher: NIS America
Platform: PSN (PS2)
Release Date: 2007
For some reason I never got around to purchasing or playing GrimGrimoire. Despite being a crazed PS2 fan from 2004 onward I skipped over a lot of gorgeous-looking games (Eternal Poison, Odin Sphere). Why? I think there wasn't enough money going around for me to pick up each and every cool game. So, it was super lucky for me that the game recently came out on PSN. I grabbed a review copy of the title and finally got to experience it. Review can be found here.
First thing that must be mentioned about any Vanillaware game are the graphics. The game looks fantastic. The 2D character portraits appear to be painted and even if they aren't it is extremely pretty. They also "breathe" and emote more interestingly than most do for other games employing the same static character technique. The in-game RTS battle stuff at first looked kind of like a gussied-up Flash game but I got over that. By the time I was halfway through I was totally immersed in strategizing and stopped noticing the slightly lower quality of the monster sprites.
There were some weird things in the game. Like, it may have just been me but there appeared to be some LGBT subtext between certain characters throughout the story. If that really is the case then I'm impressed since it's not pointed at as some odd token thing. It's just there... somewhat. Perhaps I just had my gaydar turned up too high.
Overall I'm sad I missed out on this game when it first came out. It's super fun and a pretty good challenge too. I'm mostly surprised they managed to make a RTS game that doesn't suck on a console. I'm still on the lookout for a physical copy of the game but until then my PSN one will have to do.
Would I play again?: Yes!
3 comments:
Glad to see you enjoyed it, Marcus! I've got a review copy myself but haven't been able to put much time into it yet. I did get to play Odin Sphere back when it came out but sadly I missed this one. It's great that we have the chance to play it now on the PSN!
Ah, I've had my eye on this game for quite some time, too. Have yet to pick it up for the same reasons as you, basically. Anyway, it's good to hear you now have a copy of the PSN version and that you like it. Guess I'll have to pick up a copy of it sooner rather than later then...
@ApricotSushi
How was Odin Sphere? Do you recall enough about it? I'm hoping that many more games like this come onto PSN soon :).
@Bryan
If you hate RTSes then this probably isn't the best choice but if you don't mind them it's pretty good. I'm somewhere in the middle of enjoying/not enjoying RTS stuff and still had a lot of fun.
Also I really appreciate that the game can be beaten in 8-12 hours as I don't have as much time to play things now as was the case in the past! :P
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