Gameplay
This is one of my favourite games on the Dreamcast, it is an action RPG, very similar to Diabolo, but better imo. You run around in the world of Lodoss, performing tasks & killing baddies with your sword, cast magic, heal, rinse repeat...but thats not all. First of all the controls are spot on & very responsive. One button to attack, another to use potions and stuff, another for magic and so on. Also there's a ton of things to do and collect, with subquests in subquests in subquests
. Mind that this game is hard, VERY hard, you'll find yourself wanting to throw the controller through your tv at least 20 times before you see the ending and then... well the ending, this is also a long game, VERY long (60 hours at least if you play it half right).There is also a ton of equipment to collect, modify and use; every boss (and there's +30 of em) is vulnerable for something different and this is where the fusion of ancients (runes) comes in. Through the game you'll find or win those runes and you'll have to fuse them in your equipment (armor, sword, helmet, shield) to make em stronger. This isn't free, it costs mithril, lots of it; enemies sometimes drop it when killed, the rest you need to excavate in caves so you need to make pickaxes and so on...
As I said, there's a lot to do in this game.
Graphics
Average, everything is high res and very detailed, but it has a PS1/N64 feel to it. The camera can be turned 360° to your likings and it stays where you put it, this is a plus imo, specially since the game is in 3/4 overhead view.
Sound/Music
There's no music in the game, only thing you hear is the weather; music only starts playing when baddies appear or when facing a boss or something similar. The sound effects are excellent, from footsteps (sound changes depending what boots you're wearing), clashing of swords, thunder, grunting of baddies, etc...
Story
Someone's trying to revive the Goddess of darkness and you're summoned from the dead to beat her. Thats basically it, there's a few twists and turns, but don't expect SOA epicness.
Replay
There's as good as no replay value, but in this case thats not a bad thing, as the game is so long and hard. You'll be glad when you see the ending
Overall
8.5/10
As I'm a sucker for this genre and even more for the leveling up for the sake of leveling up with too much to do kind of game, I'll have to give it a 8.5/10 and thats only for the graphics or it would've been a 9
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZC5B6VmARA[/youtube]
