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Rhapsody
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Graphics & Sound:
There is a never-ending supply of "new" games that are really rereleases of older games. Some of these are great to see again, whereas some should never have been made a first time, much less a second. Rhapsody is one of the latest of these rereleases. Thankfully, I might add. It is definitely one of the ones that I'm glad to see back!
It seems to me like the games that were originally made for the PS1 look the best on the handheld screens. Rhapsody fits well into this category. The graphics looks wonderful. The detail is beautiful, but yet it doesn't feel cramped on the small screen. The characters are cute little sprites. They're all colorful and creatively done so that you can tell one from another just by looking. Personally, I think the cutest one is the little dragon Flame who still hasn't completely hatched from his shell, so it looks like armor.
Since the game's tagline is "A Musical Adventure," you would expect it to have at least decent music. Rhapsody went above and beyond the call of duty in that department. The music is simply wonderful. All of the areas have their own background music. Usually once during each chapter, you'll also get to see a full-length song performed by various characters. Granted, they're still in the original Japanese, but since you do get the lyrics printed at the bottom, it's still understandable. If you do decide that you want to skip these to get on with the game, you can go back and re-watch them at your leisure just by choosing Encore from the Title screen. They also put in little things like the battle sound. For a normal hit, you get a dull drum sound. A critical hit produces a sharp snare drum noise though, so you can tell what is happening in battle just by listening. |
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Gameplay:
In Rhapsody, you are playing as a teenage girl, Cornet. Cornet is very special. Her heroic parents were killed in a war years ago, so she lives with her grandfather. Her mother left her a very special horn, though. When Cornet plays the horn, all her wishes can come true. She is also the only person who can talk to puppets (who are really dolls, but since they translated it as puppet, I'll stick with that in this review) and she can help them to realize their dreams.
Your first quest in Rhapsody is to find your Prince Charming, or in this case, Prince Ferdinand, and win his affections. Yes, I know this is sounding very girly. The first 1 -2 hours of the game are girly. After you find the Prince, you have to battle Etoile to become his bride. The beginning quests are all things to win this contest, like find a dress to wear. This doesn't last very long, though. Just as Cornet is about to confess her feelings to him so they can live happily ever after, Prince Ferdinand is kidnapped by a very wicked witch who wants to marry him herself. Cornet decides to take on the very dangerous task of rescuing her prince, no matter how hard it might be. From here on out, the game is very much a normal RPG and not nearly as girly.
The majority of your companions along the way are puppets. Kururu is with you from the very beginning. She is a different kind of puppet. Kururu can talk to other humans, unlike any other puppet. She is Cornet's best friend and constant companion. Cornet and Kururu will meet many others on the way to save the Prince. Some of them you will automatically get as part of the main game, but some of them you will have to find on your own. Each of your party members will also have their own little quests that you can help them complete on the way to the Prince. |
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Difficulty:
Rhapsody is almost like an RPG with training wheels at the beginning. You can't really die. Since the characters heal to full when they level, you don't even need to heal them that much. When you do, both of your first 2 characters have the ability to heal, and it doesn't take many magic points either. Since those points also restore to full when you level, you can use a lot of healing without a problem. Poison, confuse, and all other status ailments go away at the end of the battle too, so you don't have to worry about healing them after it is over. Goddess statues wherever you see them will fully restore your HP and MP too.
As the game progresses it does get a little more difficult, especially if you go to an area before you're supposed to. If you are under level for the monsters you are fighting, you will find it very difficult to win. Since you can save the game anywhere that you want to though, just save before you go into a new area. If you die, you can load that save back up and wait on that area until you're a higher level. Your non-battling party characters will get experience for the battles, just not quite as much as main characters.
There is also an auto feature for battle. When you choose auto, the characters will attack without you having to tell each of them what to do. As far as I can tell, they will not use any healing spells though, so if they need to be healed, you'll have to stop auto and do it yourself. Auto can make the game much easier, because you don't have to worry about hitting so many buttons to beat the easy enemies. You can also see how many hit points the normal enemies have, so you'll be able to tell if they're difficult enough for you to direct the battle or not. I would not recommend auto for the boss battles. They're not that difficult, but you're definitely going to want to use your spells to make them go quicker!
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Game Mechanics:
Rhapsody has every possible feature that you could want in an RPG. There's a map. It's a map like in Dark Cloud though, so you really don't know what the landscape looks like, just where the rooms are. The maps do not show where the stairs are, so you have to wander around to find things. The Talk feature lets you talk to Kururu, who will usually tell you where you need to go next. You can use magic to heal outside of battle, use items, and check status of characters. Once you have been to an area on the world map, you can get back to it easily. There is no roaming between the areas on the world map; you just click where you want to go to.
You can use the touch screen to move the characters around, call the battle moves, and everything else if you want to. You can also use the D-pad and buttons to do the same thing. I really like the fact that they fully implemented both so you can use whichever method you like the best. There is supposed to be bonus features after you beat the game, but don't go looking for it because it doesn't exist in the English version. I have also read that there are some glitches in the game, but I did not encounter any of them. Since you can save anywhere and the save takes only a few seconds, I recommend saving often. There are three save slots available, so you can keep multiple copies just in case you have a problem.
I did not play Rhapsody back when it first came out, so I'm quite glad to get this version. I will admit that I was skeptical at first. The first hour or so seemed way too girly and was lacking any major action. I'm really glad I kept playing though, because it gets really good quickly. If you like RPGs, I recommend getting Rhapsody today!
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-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl |
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