Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess

Let's start with the glaring change to combat, we've gone from Tactics to Standard RPG. I'm not saying I dislike Standard Turn-Based RPG's, I'm fine with them, big lover of Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Dragon Quest etc. However I really liked how this was a Tactics Based Series, however I do like the tie-in to the previous game in the form of our MC being the daughter of the first games MC. That was a nice subtle little nod which I feel didn't need to be done but the fact that they did? Thank you so much. Now for a few negative bits - The Puppets. The change here felt very much like they weren't all that important anymore. They're equippable now like Accessories whereas previously they felt like Valkyrie Profile's Einherjaar. They had story. Plot. Now.. not so much. The second issue I have is the same as the first game in a way - It's the Dungeons. Now the Dungeons were a bit difficult in the first game, but being an old veteran I got pen and paper out and used grids to work my way around. In this game we've gone full Final Fantasy 13. Linear. That's a really poor choice because it just went too much the opposite way, not it's too easy. There's no challenge at all. It's barely a Dungeon! those two things aside we're back with a lot more of the same. Excellent Music, Great graphics (for a ps1 title especially), those pixels are sweet! Also a very heartwarming plot where you just feel good playing the game.

[h2] Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess [/h2] Esse jogo foi lançado apenas no japão para o PS1 em 1999, finalmente recebendo tradução em inglês depois de 24 anos desde sua estreia, muita pessoas sequer sabiam que o Rhapsody original possuia uma sequencia. E posso confirmar algo, é realmente uma sequencia bem trabalhada, as sprites desse jogo são MARAVILHOSAS, o visual em geral é uma gigante evolução comparado ao anterior, a ambientação foi melhor trabalhada, não possui mais a cara de ser um RPG extremamente simples comparado ao primeiro jogo, a jogabilidade foi alterada para ser um RPG de turno ao inves de estratégico, o sistema de puppets funciona de uma forma diferente, onde funcionam mais como summons do que integrantes da party, a trilha sonora continua muito boa, o jogo possui dublagem em ingles para algumas conversas, as musicas continuam em japones, a historia é melhor desenvolvida aqui (Não espere algo marcante), os personagens possuem suas personalidades bem definidas, incluindo as vilãs, e existem diversas cenas para rir muito. Em geral, o jogo é uma evolução imensa do primeiro, apesar de alguns defeitos como dungeons não serem marcantes, taxa de encontros alta (No primeiro jogo era ridiculamente baixa) e o sistema de equipamento resetar toda vez que alguem sair da sua party (VAI ACONTECER MUITO, SE PREPAREM), eu recomendo fortemente jogarem esse jogo, é uma belissima reliquia do PS1 que ficou perdida por muitos anos. [h2] OBSERVAÇÃO: SE FOREM JOGAR SEPAREM OS SAVES POR CAPITULO!!!!!! [/h2]

Um defeito que encontrei são os dois postos do quarteto que são dinâmicos e são submetidos a um entra e sai de personagens conforme a estória se desdobra. Como em obras tais quais Final Fantasy II&IV, seu time, salvo Kururu e Crea, mudará de membros incontáveis vezes. Um aspecto irritante dessas trocas, que podem durar, digamos, 10 a 15 minutos em vez de uma hora inteira, é que ao regressar o personagem estará desequipado, forçando várias aberturas de menu repetitivas. Para mitigar um pouco do efeito desagradável os programadores incluíram uma ferramenta de auto-equip, mas se você é bem preciosista na estratégia não aceitará os inputs da CPU!

I played Rhapsody 1 on PlayStation relatively recently, and I actually liked the game, so I gave its sequel (Rhapsody 2) a try. Overall, it's a basic and easy JRPG (much like Rhapsody 1), which is fine for me, since I'm not very particular about difficulty. I found it to be a "comfy" game. Even if you play it on hard, it's just as easy. The dungeons have been greatly simplified; they're no longer as labyrinthine as in Rhapsody 1. There was almost no world exploration until the second half of the game. In other words, the first half of the game is restricted to a specific area. The combat is no longer tactical, but classic turn-based, and I appreciate that; it's less tedious. The story is good; it's not as deep as a Final Fantasy, but it serves its purpose well: the adventures of a heroic princess. If you've played Rhapsody 1, this story at least fills several plot holes, but it creates others (which were supposedly resolved in Rhapsody 3, but I haven't played that game yet). For some reason, almost all the characters are blonde. There are some s3xua1 or scatological jokes (like the "ice cream" one), but this is normal Japanese stuff. Recycling: Many sprites and some soundtracks are taken directly from Rhapsody 1. And despite the recycling, the visual art is still beautiful. The music is also good; I personally liked the Nyanko theme ("A Warrior's Fate," "Roar it Out, Willpower Magic!"). SUMMARY: If you're looking for a simple JRPG more for relaxation than for a challenge, this game is fine.

This is a really solid remaster/port of a 1999 Playstation 1 title. Like the first Rhapsody title, the original was fairly low budget and it shows, but it's still enjoyable if easy to play. Art is a mix of 2D sprites, 2D side scrolling areas, and a few 3D areas. The 2D sprites and areas look pretty good, lots of parallax scrolling, and decent detail. The 3D areas are a bit more pixelated, due to the limitations of the Playstation 1. There aren't a huge amount of graphical updates to modern systems. Music's great, and just like with the first game, the characters will break into musical numbers. It's one of the charms of the series, and the songs themselves are pretty catchy. Story is fine, it's aimed toward teen girls, and I'm by no means a teen girl anymore so I'm way outside the demographics. It's still fun to play. Combat is different from the first Rhapsody title, it's a more traditional turn based title than the tactical RPG style of the first. This is not an ATB based turn based system either, you input commands for the whole party and they do their attacks based on their speed (and the enemies do the same). Puppets also work differently from the first game, they're no longer separate units, they're a type of equipment that grows in levels as you do. The puppets give you stats, and have a collection of spells they can cast. Spells also work differently in this title, there is no MP so casting spells costs your MONEY. There are accessories you can get later on to help offset some of this cost, but you're not going to be using spells too often as it can cost you more than you earn. Each character also has some special attacks, these attacks cost HP to use, which then you have to use items or spells to heal up. This is a very different resource management system than is typical. Combat in general is more difficult than Rhapsody 1, but you're still not going to hit any game-overs as long as you have some jRPG experience. There's some humor, but a lot of it is the insulting and derogatory humor directed toward girls in a lot of Japanese media. Level design is better than Rhapsody 1, but it's still fairly plain and uninspired. You'll see a lot of long repeating corridors. Some areas are far too long. Overall, it's a fun adventure, pretty easy (turn it up if you want even a bit of challenge). It's an old game, and while it plays pretty well, there are a few QoL areas that could be improved on. The most frustrating is that every time your party reforms, anyone who is re-added has their equipment and sometimes puppets removed. In some chapters, this can happen 5 or 6 times in short order.

Пумпкин пантс.....

はじめに、このゲームの想定プレイヤー層とはかけ離れているであろうことは明記しておきます。 前作をプレイしてから今作をプレイしていますが、いろいろな部分が改善されていると感じました。 ＜良かったところ＞ ・キャラクター 前作同様、全体的にキャラクターデザインはとても優れていると思いました。 キャラクターの性格ついて、前作は敵方の方が魅力的に見えていましたが、今作は味方の方がより魅力的に描かれているように思います。 ・グラフィック 前作同様、グラフィックがとてもかわいいです。 ・シナリオ 前作は掘り下げ不足や伏線不足が目立ちましたが、今作は丁寧に作られておりしっかりと感情移入できました。 ・どこでもセーブ これも前作踏襲ですが、戦闘中以外は街中でもダンジョンでもどこでもセーブできます。 任意のタイミングで中断できるのは便利でした。 ・早送り機能 既に見た会話などは早送りすることができます。 ゲームのテンポの良さは徹底しているように思います。 ＜前作と比べて良くなったところ＞ ・エンカウント率の緩和 前作と比べて体感のエンカウント率が下がり、戦闘以外の部分にも集中できるようになりました。 ・戦闘の面白さがアップ 前作はほとんど意味のない戦闘中の移動やらが面倒でしたが、今作ではシンプルなコマンドバトルになりました。 また、敵も味方も複数キャラが同時に行動するようになり、エンカ率との相乗効果で大幅にテンポアップしています。 弱い敵との戦闘はオートだけで対処でき、逆に強めの敵にはオートだけでは勝てないというメリハリも利いています。 ・使い回しでないダンジョンマップ 前作はダンジョンの全容を把握するのに記憶力を酷使するようなゲームでしたが、今作は探索が割と容易になっています。 マップの枚数も増えており、画変わりがあって探索に飽きにくいです。 ・分かりやすい街中などのマップ 前作は何かありそうな場所とそうでもなさそうな場所の境界が曖昧で辛かったですが、今作ではきちんと整備されていて歩きやすくなっています。 全体的にスケールも大きくなり、外観もキレイになっています。 ・しっかりした動線 前作は次は何をしたらいいのか？何が目的でどこに行けばいいのか？が分かりづらかったですが、今作ではきとんと説明されていて進めやすくなっています。 ＜総評＞ 総評などはクリア後に追記します。 前作のノリで甘く見ると痛い目を見るのでセーブはこまめにしましょう。