I realize I didn�t do a Strange Anime License
Friday last week, and for that I apologize.
I was in negotiations, y�see, with friend-of-the-show
Jeanie in PA. And these negotiations were
fruitful. I�ve managed to score some time
with a very, VERY Strange Anime License, one
that actually saw a US release, one that has
the distinction of being the very last Saturn
game brought over to these shores. Yes, it�s
the CLAMPtacular Magic Knight Rayearth, featuring
the translation efforts of none other than
Working Designs, and a dub cast that bears
no intersection whatsoever to the actual Media
Blasters dub. C�mon. It�s 1998. What were
you expecting? I�ll tell ya what you weren�t
expecting. SECRET OF MANA.
Or a very reasonable facsimile, as it were.
One moment, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu were chasing
a dog around the observation deck at Tokyo
Tower, the next moment they�re blown into
a fantasy world under siege by evil forces
and informed that they�re the destined saviors,
stop me if you�ve heard THIS one before.
After about a good half hour of plot exposition
- well-voiced and entertaining plot exposition,
mind, but still a good half hour of it - you
three girls (swappable by the L and R buttons)
set off on a quest to reawaken the machines
that... um... will stop the bad guys via means
that no one really seems to understand. All
you can tell is that you�re supposed to
find Mokona - unsure of what a �Mokona�
actually is - and have the local super-blacksmith
forge you a set of freakin� awesome weapons
that level up via plot rather than some arbitrary
system of experience points.
For an Action RPG (as it says on the freakin�
box), Rayearth certainly plays the Action
element rather heavy, with little-to-no number-crunching
outside of buying items and whatnot. The order
of the day is running, jumping, slashing,
shooting arrows, and flinging spells in real-time,
much like the aforementioned Secret of Mana.
But depending on your own proclivities, its
simplicity might be a positive or negative.
Yes, the whole experience is very streamlined,
but at the price of foregoing obsessive stat-mangling
(which might be your thing). The extent of
your control is in how to distribute the occasional
HP and MP bonuses you can find in the field.
Outside of that, spell acquisition is entirely
plot-based, level acquisition is entirely
plot-based, and enemies drop only restorative
items and cash. It�s much more of an arcade
feel, and - were it not for the towns full
of NPCs to interrogate, general setting, and/or
aesthetic - barely deserving of being called
an RPG, in my book. Not to say it�s a bad
game at all, far from it. It�s just... barely
an RPG. So tell the text on the box to go
take a powder; call it a straight-up action
game with towns and chibis and a pretty sweet
soundtrack. (Well, save for that strange rendition
of the opening theme, but... hey, folks didn�t
know jack about international rights acquisitions
in �98.) Throw in a healthy handful of cutscenes
- because why bother with disc-based media
if you don�t get to use pre-produced video
- and you�ve got a strange, but fitting
swan song for a strange, but fitting console.
With an adorable, rabbit-lookin� mascot...
thing. Bonus.
