Been playing Shining Tears (PS2) for the past week. Yes, I am the sort that easily goes absolutely beserk over any Shining series game, and since there was a lot of hype surrounding this game, I told myself that I had to get it no matter what. Thanks to Chris, he got me the game straight from Japan on its official day of release and I am very grateful for that.
I must say that I enjoyed the game a lot. The anime intro is spectacular. The opening and ending songs by 保志 総一朗 left me wanting more (quick, MP3s! I don't think HMV will import the CD Single). The storyline, though short & cliche, is pleasant and full of neat little twists. The character designs are great; the allstar cast of seiyuu (which includes 林原 めぐみ) do justice to their characters. Everything else about the game is highly reminiscent of the Shining Soul series, which is just the way I like it.
But somehow, I feel a little sad that such a beautiful game is marred by technical flaws. Yup, technical flaws. Load times are inexplicably long (5 seconds between screens, 10-15 seconds for battles) and you can only save 1 game per memory card (story no longer progresses after finishing the game unless you start a totally New Game). It's pretty bad and somehow, I felt that such issues could've been averted. (What are you doing, SEGA?!)
Oh, well. At least I don't regret my purchase. I haven't touched my PS2 for quite a while and it's quite refreshing to get in touch with the Shining series once more.
No comments:
Post a Comment