Case Cover
The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch
Case Cover
Game File
Publisher: Bandai Namco
North America Release: June 20, 2006
Number of Players: 1
Wi-Fi Mode: N/A
When I finally got the first part of The Legend of Heroes and working my way past the halfway point of the game, I discovered that Bandai Namco made an announcement of bring The Legend of Heroes II to North America in a couple of months. I figured this isn't that bad since I can still get the story fresh in my head a bit since the game is part of the Gagharv trilogy.
About the game
The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean is actually The Legend of Heroes VI in Japan & is part of the Gagharv trilogy. Of the three games, this takes place in the middle of the trilogy. The trilogy games are ports from the PC version. The firmware version required to play is 2.71.
Graphics
The still portraits of the characters in the character selection screen are quite good as it has that anime feel to it. Comparing them to the first game, it's more sorter in colour & more anime styled with the big eyes. Like the first game, there are a small number of them & I felt some of them didn't match with the conversations that the characters were saying. As for the game sprites, they are basically your chubby SD characters that like to walk when standing. Although they are in 2D form, it feels like 3D due to their chubbiness. As for their movements during game play, it's pretty smooth. However, a lot of the actions are limited & it's pretty boring to watch them cast spells or pull off some of their Deadly moves. Sprites for the spirits aren't bad, but they are basically stills floating on the screen.
The background is beautifully done once again. Like the first game, it's really like living art as it makes use of the PSP's colour capability so nicely. The colours of the background is very nice & the movement is nice. I liked how the water flows. It's almost real. Also, the colours blend very nicely with the characters & background. No clashing anywhere.
Music & Sounds
Nice, crisp, & clean. Although the sound effects weren't great in my opinion when it got into the fight & battle scenes. The hitting, cutting, & weapon swinging didn't sound real. It's fake. However, but it was fair. Like the first game, there are no voices and the sound effects seem to be the same.
The music is pretty nice. But I wasn't able to get into it. It's probably because it's old school & I've gotten use to the new music in newer RPG games. Sometimes, it created the mood well. But, the music wasn't very memorable to me.
Gameplay
The controls are a bit better now comparing to the first game. The coordination has improved & I was able to aim for the directions that I wanted to go to now. But, the running still feels slow even though you can barely walk at a slower speed.
The battles aren't too bad. You get to see what enemies are on the map & they aren't random encounters. You can avoid the monsters depending on the situation. If the monster has a high level than your party, it will chase after you. If its level is lower, it will run away. So, you can pretty much control the situation. As for the battle system itself, it's turn based as you decide what all of your party members should do during each round. The battles can be boring at times & you may be avoiding most of them. The experience points earned isn't good when you fight some weaker monsters. So levelling can be a pain. Also, if you didn't like how the game played in the first part, you probably get sick of it here as well. I got bored with the battles very quickly when I started playing this game. However, there are very little boss battles here & most of the time you will be read more dialogue & solving puzzles.
The pet system now serves a function. You still get some free items on the ground & it doesn't happen much or does happen too much again. The best part about it though is that I save money from buying healing or support items. Depending on the food you give your pet, it can act as a support or attacker in battles. Feeding your pet will make it happy. However, there were many times where my pet became happy on its own when it was angry. The pet doesn't run away as well.
The story is pretty good & the translation & use of grammar & spelling is a bit better here than the first game. At start of the game, you don't really see these mistakes. It's only when you get deeper into the game that you see these. Wrong words used, missing words, bad sentence structures, etc. Although you can pretty much make out what the game is saying, the mistakes are an eye-sore. People that played the Japanese version of the game have stated that the North American/English version is missing a lot of parts of the story that makes this game interesting. Since I never played the Japanese version, I can't make a comparison of the two. However, I liked the story & the ending does complete the story okay.
Saving is very important if you are playing a RPG game on a portable system & this game doesn't disappoint much. You can save anywhere in the game with the exception of battles & cut scenes. These are not quick saves. However, sometimes the cut scenes can be very long & waiting for the chance to save your game can take time. Other than these, it's very nice. What's also nice is the loading times.
Like the first game, there is very little loading involved in the game. The longest load I've seen is around 5 seconds. But most of the time, there isn't any almost. You can hear the UMD loading while playing, but it doesn't stop or lag the game play. It's most like a gift from the gaming heavens. There are the rare occasions where you will see the "Now Loading" screen at certain points of the game. But the loads are still pretty fast.
Extras, Bonuses, & Secrets
The extras are pretty much hunting for books to collect. They are mainly fiction novels & exchanging them all will give you a special item.
Another extra is transferring your game data from The Legend of Heroes I to here. Basically, you are transferring the history data together to see all the events from the Gagharv trilogy. Nothing too great really unless you want to go in-depth of the trilogy & see how all the events tie together.
Replay Value
The game has little or hardly any replay value. Once you past the game, it's finished. Luckily, this is a long game even though people say it's shorter than the first game. For some reason, I felt they are the same length
Overall Conclusion
If you played The Legend of Heroes, it wouldn't hurt to pick this game pick up. I give The Legend of Heroes II a 7.5/10. The game play isn't too bad, but the battles can get old as leveling starts to become painful. If you are picking up the battles from the first game, you may grow tired of them if you didn't like them at over time. Although it's got a beautiful storyline that got me feeling for some of the characters, the translation & scripting job is terrible even though it has improved from the first game. It really affects the mood & this is one of the biggest downfalls that prevented me from giving this game a higher score. Also, the game isn't for everyone. If you didn't like the first one, I don't see how you will like this game. I've seen more copies of this game available on shelves in many stores. It's probably because there are less people getting this game now.
Last updated on June 28, 2007
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