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Makai Kingdom
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Game Name:
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Makai Kingdom |
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Console:
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Sony PSP |
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Reviewed:
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Unknown |
NIS America is a mind boggling company. They produce almost exclusively strategy role playing games, a genre that is largely under appreciated, to say the least. But they don’t just make strategy role playing games, they consistently put out quality, and sometimes downright amazing, games. Looking down a list of RPG’s available for the PS2, one will notice only a few games in the genre, and of those every single quality, well-known title on that list will have been made by NIS. Whether it be Disgaea, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, or another quality RPG game, NIS America was behind it.
Now, NIS America is at it yet again with Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome. Makai Kingdom is aspiring to be yet another innovative, original, quality strategy role playing game that everyone can enjoy. And, indeed, while it isn’t the most flashy or amazing role playing game ever made, it is still a unique, fun, and technically sound game that will offer a lot of satisfying moments for interesting RPG fans.
As with almost all of the RPG’s released by NIS, the game doesn’t offer any kind of Final Fantasy type story. On the contrary, it offers a rather simple yet fairly interesting storyline that has enough different, personalized characters and well written dialogue to make it presentable.
There really isn’t much to explain about the gameplay in Makai Kingdom if you have played any of the other games released by NIS. The gameplay centers around turn-based combat similar to that of Final Fantasy Tactics in many ways. Each character gets one turn a round where they can move, attack, use items, etc during the battle. However, what is unique is that each battle map is uniquely drawn and animated so that each new battle looks different from every other battle. Also, each battle begins with only one character available and you must call on additional characters, up to eight, to fight alongside you within the battle.
The only new additions to the core gameplay is that now within battle there are vehicles, buildings, and “Extention areas” which are areas of the battle map that can open up to players to allow additional movement. The facilities and vehicles offer unique variations to the battles and especially the vehicles can be very effective since they can be equipped with various accessories and the vehicle takes damage before the character within absorbs any punishment.
The presentation of the game is also just like any other NIS game in its essence. The characters are very childish and take a lot of anime inspiration in their looks. The entire game is in 2D meaning there isn’t too much eye candy, however that doesn’t mean the game doesn’t look good. On the contrary, everything in the game is drawn very well and has enough personalization so that characters and environments are actually quite enthralling.
As usual, the music in the game isn’t epic but is just enough so that it matches the theme of the game perfectly. Sound effects have definitely been recycled quite a bit but that isn’t too annoying, thankfully. Overall, the game sounds and looks very well and does good to highlight the unique appeal of the game.
Makai Kingdom, as has been previously mentioned, isn’t the kind of RPG that will be remembered 10 years from now. However, it is the kind of RPG that plenty of fans will love to have in their libraries. It is unique and original and has plenty of hours of fun moments to offer gamers who take the time to enjoy what it has to offer.
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