Case Cover
PoPoLoCrois
Case Cover
Game File
Publisher: Agetec Inc.
North America Release Date: November 29, 2005
Number of Players: 1
Wi-fi Mode: None
Although it is a popular PSX game back in the 90s, I've never heard of it. The design does look a bit childish & it made me think a bit if this was worth getting. The game was extremely hard to find & manage to get it & see the box for the 1st time around January.
About the game
I think this PoPoLoCrois is a port of the old PSX game. Although there is a bunch of PoPoLoCrois games released in Japan, this is the 1st one that has been released overseas. The game is a strategy turn-based RPG. Think of Final Fantasy Tactics & Ogre Tactics & you will know what kind of game this is. This is actually a bunch of the old PoPoLoCrois games put into 1. However, out of the 3 stories, 1 of them is completely new & a PSP original.
Ten year old, the Ice Demon attack PoPoLoCrois. He filled the lands with icy weather & snow. The people of PoPoLoCrois didn't have the power to fight back until 1 day, a beautiful dragon came. For many weeks, the Ice Demon & dragon fought against each other until the dragon won. Before going into the World of Darkness, the Ice Demon took the dragon with him.
Present time & King Paulo's son, Pietro, turns 10. The people of PoPoLoCrois wish him well & celebrated on his birthday. But.... for some reason, Pietro still seems lonely.
The above story is only for 1 storyline. The others are somewhat different from 1 another.
Graphics
Old school RPG at it's best. As a port, it keeps it's 16-bit sprites with some improvement & they look good. It uses cell-shaded 2D graphics & the PSP really makes it shine. The backgrounds & scenery are quite detailed & are in enriched with nice tones of colours. It's really like a work of art.
When moving around in towns or dungeons, I felt a bit sick. The graphics get blurry a bit when you run around. The transaction isn't smooth & it's quite choppy as it creates a lot of shadowing. Since I don't play 1st person shooting games or spend my time playing a lot, this might be my own problem. However, if you are 1 of those people that rarely plays video games or get sick playing with 1st person shooting games for a short period of time, you may face the same problem as me. The running mode is always on unless you hold down the "X" button to walk instead. However, I think walking would be rarely done since running is no doubt faster & I do mean fast. Pietro runs very fast.
For the anime cut scenes, the colours are more brighter than the game. In fact, maybe a little too bright. I always set my PSP at the lowest brightest setting to sustain a longer screen life & longer game play. At that setting, the cut scenes seemed bright. But it's very smooth as if you are watching anime instead. However, the designs don't look good for me personally as they seem very childish & old school. But this isn't really a bad thing since this is a port. However, a lot of it appears in the 1st & 3rd stories.
Music & Sounds
Amazingly quiet. This is the 1st PSP game that I ever came across that is so quiet. The games I have are set at their default volumes, which is roughly in the middle of the scale, & they are loud enough. I don't use headphones much & my PSP volume level is set at 1 bar most of the time. I had to set the game to maximum volume.
The clarity of the sounds are sometimes not too great. The loud noises tend to have some fuzzes.
The sound effects aren't on the realistic side. It's more in the fake department. Think of it on the cute & funny side. The timing of the sounds are on cue.
The music is not too bad, but I felt some of them was too light for some of the situations. It's more on the childish side, which is understandable.
The voices here are in English. Personally, I felt it wasn't the best voice acting. It was more terrible than annoying. It was probably because the seiyuus were trying to hard to get into character.
Gameplay
As mentioned, the game uses a strategy turn-based system. During battles, you take turns in a timely matter, like a real time battle. When a characters turn comes, time freezes. The battles uses a grid system where you place your characters. Of course, you can't overlap them on top of other characters or objects & you can't attack your own characters. Aside from moving from different grid positions, you have to decide which direction you want your characters to face. If your side is turned to the enemy, you will receive more damage than usual. The back side is the most dangerous. Of course, this applies to enemies as well. If you position you characters right & see 2 enemies next to each other, you may have the chance to strike both of them at once. Same goes against you.
The commands are straight forward, but it lacks something I usually see in other RPG games: defend. Instead of that command, you have a "skip a turn & charge focus attack" type of command. Basically, it's want it is. You skip a turn. When it's you character's turn again, he/she will attack the enemies with a strong attack. Sometimes, it can create a special attack. These attacks aren't mentioned in the instruction book, so you need to experiment with them. Some of them require a partner at certain distances & positions. However, if you don't use it, you lose it. Personally, I would like a defend command as well to lessen damages against my characters. If you want your character to stay in the same position, you would either use the charge or attack command. Overall, the battles can be quite challenging & require some strategy.
One other thing to note is about dead characters. If a character is dead during battle & remains dead when you defeated all the enemies, he/she will be revived automatically & receive experience points. So you don't need to worry about getting your characters alive at the last moment to give them experience points. But you need to heal them since they get 1HP restored. Another thing to note is the starting ending of battles. The battles take place in the same map & areas most of the time. Because you more around a lot, Pietro will move back to his starting point at the end of a victorious battle. Sometimes it's good because you aren't moved away from the exits & sometimes it's bad because you are moved away from the exits. You'll see what I mean when you play the game.
Enemy encounters can be tedious in this game. Take about 10 - 20 steps & you'll have random enemy encounters almost every time. There are many occasions where the enemies meet you at the door when you enter a new map area. Personally, I don't mind the fights since the battle system is pretty fun. But encounters like these can get irritating. Especially if the enemies are far away from you. Although you can flee from battles, you will pay the price by losing gold. I tried this once & lost roughly around 1000g, which can be a lot. However, the item call Piggy Bank helps solve this problem if you store your gold there. However, you need to take it out when you want to buy something & constantly put gold in every time you gain some from defeating enemies. The game isn't too nice in the items department as you will be buying your gears from stores most of the time. So, gold is important. There is a spell that Pietro can cast to lessen the enemy encounters, but I haven't tried it.
Saving the game isn't a problem. There are 2 types of save modes. There's the standard type where you go to save points or inns to save & there's a quick save where you can save almost anytime & anyplace you want. Of course, you can't save during a battle or cut scenes. Chances are you will be using the quick save more often if you are a person goes out a lot & have play this during short trips or breaks. But there's a difference between the 2 modes. The standard mode allows you to have multiple save slots. The quick save only has 1. So, saving in quick save will overwrite your previous quick save. Because there are side quests near the end of the game before you go into the final battle, you will want to use the standard mode when you get the chance. The multiple save slot can come in handy if you miss something.
Loading times aren't too bad. The longest I got was roughly 20 seconds. The fastest was 3. On average, I get around 5 - 7 seconds. The 1st time loading it was pretty long. I think 30 seconds. This probably because it was checking my PSP version & finding any save files. You need 2.00 to play this. After that, it was fast. The load times occur when you go into new fields or into buildings or dungeons. Even the enemy encounters has load times of around 3 - 7 seconds. If you been inside a building or field once, the load time is shorten to 1 second. I assume the game temporary stored the maps into the PSP's memory, so the UMD isn't searching for it. They will be overwritten if you go to a lot of different places in 1 sitting. Keep in mind, a lot of the maps aren't very big. Also, the game does have some loading times when special attacks or spells are being performed. The load times is roughly 3 seconds. The longest I got was 7. If the spells or special attacks were performed once during battle, it will not load again unless it's out of the PSP's memory cache. However, there were times where it was loading for as long as 30 seconds & made me think the game froze, which it did temporarily.
Story
Because it's focused around a 10 year boy, most people may be turned off by it in thinking this is a kid's game. Don't let that affect you. The storyline is quite nice as Pietro is determine to find a way to save his mother, his kingdom, his people, & the world. Later on, he takes responsible as a king to save the world. The characters are nice as they have some good & funny personalities, which makes the story interesting. However, it's quite predictable. Some of the answers are given to you before they become a mystery. Plus, you can pretty much guess what's going to happen. This is because the story is simple is probably indeed written for a younger or family audience.
In terms of the transition flows between the 3 stories, it's not too bad. The link quite nicely. The 2nd & 3rd stories are tied very well, especially since the 2nd story is completely new. The game's ending seems open ended, but it ties the whole trilogy pretty well even though they aren't any more games made after PoPoloCrois.
The translation to English looks very good. I understood all the sentences without problems. The game does suffer from some minor grammar & spelling problems. For example, I don't remember exactly word for word, "My mother was a beautiful women." So far, these mistakes rarely appear & there aren't anything major since you pretty much know what the game is trying to say.
Extras, Bonuses, & Secrets
The game has side quests & happens just before the final battle of the game. However, it mainly deals with find summon orbs for Gabo & getting characters into your party. Strangely enough, the game has English subtitles. Personally, I think it's useless since the voices are in English & you can't change it to Japanese. Unless you set the game to mute, there is no purpose for this really.
When you pass the game, you get a save data file gallery that contains all the anime cut scenes. It's a totally different file & shouldn't overwritten on your game files.
Replay Value
According to websites I've seen, there is nothing special after you completed the game. I don't know since I've not finished with the game yet. So, when you passed it, it's over. Very little replay value if this is the case. Unless you missed out on some of the side quests or want to play your characters to their maximum level, it has some life left but not much. The game is suppose to last you at least 30 hours from what I've heard. So, this is more than enough if you don't play this very frequently.
Overall Conclusion
If you like old school RPG or into strategy based games, this is your cup of tea. Don't get distracted by the childish designs. This is really a great game. However, the storyline is simple & it's pretty much written with the theme of fairy tales. So, it may not appeal to everyone as it is quite childish.
I give PoPoLoCrois a 8/10. The story is nice & the game play is quite fun even though it's old school RPG. Gaming companies should really make more of these types of games. Problems with PoPoLoCrois are the number of enemy encounters coming up frequently & the storyline being predictable. Also, the shadowing effect in towns & dungeons really made me sick. Although I could have avoid it by using the walking command, I didn't. As mentioned above, this game isn't for everyone if you are looking for something with a good, grownup, non-fairly story.
Last updated on June 28, 2007
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