I took a break from Cherry Blossom’s games recently. Partially due to real world distractions, but also because I was really getting burnt out with the “B movie” plots with boobs. From a game perspective, some of them are fairly interesting and fun to play, but they can become a grind after a while. Again, the artwork is nice, but without much substance beyond that, it’s difficult to tough it out.
I came back to them with Final Battle because it was sitting in my library for quite a while, and it looked like it would scratch the “fantasy RPG (with boobs)” itch. And it did a decent job!
At first, the game felt like it was moving in a similar direction as pretty much every other RPG coming from Cherry Blossom: a single dude that is either dense or overly macho that only cares about girls with big racks that is followed by a cast of VERY dumb and submissive women that are all too eager to take their clothes off for TERRIBLE reasons. The main character, Blade, [i]almost[/i] fit that bill. He was a mopey young dude, that hated his life in a backwoods town, who only wanted to laze about and marry a woman with massive knockers. His mopey/horny demeaner continues as his “harem” grows throughout the story, but it slowly changes with time as the severity of the situation becomes more daunting. The plot in this game, although incredibly cliché and recycled, is actually decent! There is actually a point to the adventure that doesn’t involve stripping women “for their own good”.
The cast of female companions also has more depth than some of Cherry Blossom’s other titles. Crystal is a young priestess that is a bit pushy due to the pressure to maintain order. Raven is an Amazonian (Amazon in the game) who strives to achieve the highest rank in her clan. Vulcana is an aspiring wizardess who is researching magical devices at her univeristy. And Tina is the young princess (I think…?) of a strict, male dominated culture. While, of course, it is possible to get them all in their birthday-suits by the end of the game, at least 2 of them have semi legitimate story driven reasons to do so. Both Raven and Crystal can be “promoted” to a higher class, and in order to do this, they must be naked. Out of context, that sounds odd, but considering Raven must be one with nature, and Crystal must be completely pure and free of earthly bonds, it’s not so far-fetched. The other two… are still pretty lame, but, hey, you came to see them nude, not worry about why.
Honestly though, none of the characters seem completely manufactured. There are moments that make the women seem a bit flighty, but there is nothing so egregious that made me want to skip the dialogue. Blade is reasonable toward and actually somewhat protective of his companions, all of which get hit on during the adventure. Also, none of them really take crap from Blade or each other for that matter. They all seem to have reasonable thoughts and feelings, making them more endearing and interesting than mindless bimbos that do stupid things just for attention.
Anyway, besides the story, the combat is very standard fair for RPGMaker games. I normally play these games on the highest difficulty, but decided I wanted a little less of a challenge, so I stuck with the middle ground. It was a decent balance. Some battles were still pretty tough, and none of them were complete throw-aways. I will note that a lot of enemies have WAY too high of a chance to avoid, counter, or reflect damage. Even on a higher difficulty, I highly recommend toning these traits down a bit. Random elements (such as a flat percentage rate to just do 0 damage) in games like this make them feel a lot less fun. I can understand having a chance to have reduced damage, but continuously missing, or even worse, having the damage kicked back at you, just makes battles a TON more frustrating.
The final boss, like a few other Cherry Blossom games I’ve played, is HARD. Yes, I know in this game it should be, considering the title eludes to it heavily. To be clear, it’s far from impossible, and it isn’t just an HP sponge. You have to pay attention to the flow of battle, and be aware that Blade gains skills as the battle progresses. The only really unfun part of the final battle is there is a “mega attack” (game’s term) that is meant to take about 25% of the final boss’s total health, which should be enough to finish it by the time it comes out. BUT, it has a chance to miss… Yeah, it’s annoying from a gameplay perspective, but it’s also kind of dumb from a story stand point as well. You get all hyped up, charge up this big attack, AND…. *whiff*. It just feels… meh. Like opening a massive present, and only a single pen sits at the bottom. Not horrible overall, just a bit annoying.
I always like to mention the art, which in this game is pretty good. Some of the portraits look a bit odd, since the artist was trying to reuse an asset for multiple purposes. The one that really sticks out in my mind is when Raven’s sword is edited out of her hand, making it look like she is missing several fingers. Creepy… but other than that, I think everything is very well done!
Last few little things I’d like to mention. SAVE OFTEN. If you play straight through on a reasonable difficulty, I’d say this game could be finished in about 8 hours, give or take an hour or so. The problem is there are several points of no return, one of which completely cuts you off from several achievements. Sure, getting back to the point in the game with those achievements would only take a few hours apiece, but it sucks when you get close to the end of the game, you know you have things you can go back to do, and the game just refuses to let you do them. And, the only excuse it gives you is “we don’t have time”. What does that even mean? Ehh… overall, a small thing, but it just bugged me.
Honestly, I really had fun with this one. I did get frustrated a few times due to the difficulty of some of the battles, but I pressed on, and I’m glad I did. The price is fair when not on sale, but it seems to go on sale often if you’re a bit tight on cash. Give it a try, and you’ll be swimming in boobs in no time!
