Sony PSP Review: Crimson Gem Saga

When it comes to delivering classic turn-based RPGs to the PSP, Atlus easily takes the crown. Games with resplendent sprites, playful characters and simple-entertaining stories are released from the publishing house nearly every month. “Crimson Gem Saga” for the PSP is no different. If you’re looking for a game that breaks the mold for RPGs, then this game isn’t for you. If you’re all about JRPGs from the golden age of the Genesis and Super Nintendo era, then this is a game that will give you countless hours of gameplay.

“Crimson Gem Saga” does nothing to break the mold in RPG storytelling. You start your game as Killian, a newly graduated knight with a severe chip on his shoulder. For his entire life, Killian has always been second best. Graduating salutatorian only helped bolster his personal disgust with himself. Now, he’s on a mission to join the army and somehow prove that he doesn’t always have to play second string. Much like other RPGs, Killian joins up with a group of unlikely heroes. There’s a thief, a boisterous mage, an ex-priest with a hammer, and even a guy with a massive karate chop. The unlikely group appears to be your cliché group of misfits tasked with saving the world. After a few hours of play, the unique personalities and voices will quickly grow on you, making this a ridiculously fun adventure despite the “been-there-done-that” story.

The visuals have a hand-painted feel, which carries over to your in-game map. Most of the time during dialogue sequences you will see an image of the character appear on screen. The drawings here have a nice visual feel, although it would have been nice if the look were varied for different emotional moments. Whether Killian is angry, happy or sad his expression will always look the same. This would have been a simple addition to the gaming experience, but instead was overlooked. The in-game map feels like a hand drawn blueprint. The map appears over you’re the world map, so you can still move your character around without having to switch back and forth. Unfortunately, the maps are not present in dungeons, which will cause you to get lost on more than one occasion. Each dungeon tends to be filled with rooms that are abundantly similar. So, leaving out a map here was a big oversight on the part of the development team.

Gameplay features your classic turn-based RPG engine. You’ve got special skills that you can acquire and upgrade through leveling. Each fight will grant you Skill Points that you can use to upgrade your characters via the Skill Tree. The skill points are given to the group and not the individual, so you’ll have to plan out how you want to distribute those points. Once you get used to how the points system works, you will probably error on the side of upgrading Killian to be your group healer, while giving Henson, your mage, all the powerful magical attacks. Eventually, your team can perform combo attacks as well, which are pretty cool.

During fights, a character will periodically get the chance to land multiple melee attacks after a critical hit. This involves pressing the X button after an attack has landed. There is only a small window of time to do this so you’ll have to pay close attention. Also, enemy fighters can land multiple attacks as well. There is no real warning as to when this will happen so be sure to play close attention to your parties health meters.
The game features an ambush system in dungeon and world map encounters. If you walk up behind an enemy on the map, you will surprise them when the fight begins by having your entire team deliver the first strike. However, if an exclamation mark appears over an enemy’s head, they have the chance to surprise you and deliver the first attack.

No matter what enemy you fight, they will always be represented by a little blue goblin looking creature on the world map. Also, inside the fight screen, instead of seeing a tree for a tree monster, you will once again see the little blue goblin head. This isn’t a major point of contention, but adding just a small level of variety here would have been nice.

The music in Crimson Gem Saga is pleasant to listen to and helps to push the story along. Nothing really stands out in the score, but there is also nothing that is overly abrasive to the ear. The VO characterizations are nice, although actual dialogue sequences are sparse. There is a lot of attention to detail, and you will hear sounds from the environment that often go overlooked.

Crimson Gem Saga isn’t a game that will break the mold for RPGs. This is a classic turn-based RPG that will give you the typical forty-hours of gameplay thanks to hours of leveling. Despite being a mundane story that’s been told countless times, Crimson Gem Saga still begs to be played.