The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion – PSP – Review

Over the course of the year, the PSP
has been littered with exceptional games in almost every genre imaginable.
Lumines has remained king of the puzzlers; Madden and FIFA are carrying the load
for sports fans; and Liberty City Stories has proved to action lovers that old
dogs can learn new tricks, but sadly, a launch title by the name of Untold
Legends is still solely responsible for all things role-playing. Thankfully,
Bandai has taken notice and has now released the systems first true RPG with The
Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion, and despite a few nagging issues, it
manages to provide a noteworthy adventure from start to finish.

First off, Heroes is strictly old
school, so anyone who learned the ropes from this generation’s current crop of
RPG’s will feel slightly out of place. You won’t find 20-minute cutscenes to
help this legend along, but even without the added visual assistance, the story
still manages to keep you interested, even if it does come at a slower pace than
normal.

Your journey begins after taking
control of the main character Avin; a young boy who spent most of his childhood
without his parents, but luckily his sister Eimelle is there to share in the
grief. Unfortunately, he doesn’t realize that his sister possesses an
exceptional power until some very bad people come looking for her in hopes of
pulling off a kidnapping. With the help of a few others, both Eimelle and Avin
are able to escape, but not before being forced to part ways, where they must
remain so in order to protect the whereabouts of Eimelle.

After growing up, and with the
passing of his generous caretaker, Avin must now decide what to do with the rest
of his life. With the dying wish of his caretaker on his mind, and the
ever-longing desire to see his sister once again, Avin sets out with his friend
Mile on the adventure of a lifetime. They soon are caught up in much more than a
simple family reunion, however, as they are eventually thrust into the battle
between light and darkness, which will play an enormous role in shaping the
world of El Phildin.

The action in Heroes is carried out
via a turn-based battle system, and although this is nothing new, there’re a few
additions that help keep things fresh. Other than the normal fads like leveling
up, acquiring spells, and unleashing special attacks, you will notice that a new
pet system has been implemented. Although this doesn’t play a major role in the
overall scheme of things, taking care of your pet of choice can definitely have
its rewards. If you choose to encourage your pet rather than scold it, the
little guy will do everything from finding hidden items to taking out your
enemies for you. This minor feature won’t convince you everything is golden, but
it does offer a slight change of pace once and a while.

The pet system isn’t the only thing
that sets the gameplay apart, as a few other key elements help make the battles
more exciting than you’d expect.  In the beginning of the game, the enemies
offer little resistance, but not too far into the story, you will have to use
everything available in order to succeed. One of your options is using the
“deadly” meter, which each character is capable of filling up after each fight.
Once completed, you have the option of unleashing a devastating attack that can
rip through enemies in a heartbeat. Luckily, these types of attacks don’t come
around so often that you are able to exploit them, but saving the deadly meter
for some of the tougher bosses in the game is essential to survival.

Another ability you will want to
take advantage of in the heat of battle is the movement system, which lets both
you and your enemies move freely around the map. This allows you to target
enemies that are too far away, as you will simply move to that area of the map
before initiating your attack. This is particularly helpful for Avin since his
weapon is not of the long-range variety, but due to this, he is still able to
hit his target of choice. This also comes in handy when on the defensive as
well, because when you become injured or need a break from the action, simply
choosing the wait option and sending the appropriate character to a safety zone
on the map will more than likely save his or her life.

Fans of games like Chrono Trigger
and Earthbound will feel slightly at home with the world map, as Heroes does
away with random battles and allows you to see your enemies before the fight
ensues. This supports the portability of the PSP remarkably, as not many people
want to experience an unexpected battle moments before they must stop playing.
Each enemy sports a pop-up window above their head as well, which helps
represent their level of aggressiveness at the time. The stronger creatures will
actively pursue you when in close proximity, while the weaker enemies will
scatter in fear, therefore allowing you to choose your battles effectively.

The visuals in Legend of Heroes are
definitely a bright spot for the game. Although the characters are 2-D, they do
wander around impressive polygonal worlds that are filled with nice touches like
lens flare from the sun and cool water effects. I will admit that some of the
locations looked a little too familiar, and the towns and cities are a jumbled
mess to navigate. Most of the special effects from battles are underused also,
and offer little stimulation, but a few exceptions do help keep things exciting,
and fill the screen with a multitude of astonishing colors. 

Since there is no voice-over to be
found, the dialogue is carried out via beautiful pop-up text filled windows.
These are nice to look at indeed, but no amount of eye-candy can make up for
what is written within these dialogue boxes. The Japanese to English translation
is absolutely horrible, and ranks right up there with the worst performances the
industry has ever seen. Some times this turns out to be slightly humorous as you
can mostly fill in the blanks, but other times you are left bewildered for
minutes trying to decode what seems like it has to be a hidden message. I did
get used to it as time went on, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. This
especially hurts the more serious parts of the story, as I found it quite hard
to feel sympathy towards characters who speak in gibberish.

The horrific translation does take
the experience down a notch, but even with its glaring faults, Heroes manages to
hold your attention to the end of the game. Considering that this is the only
real role-playing offering to be had on the PSP, it’s tough to look the other
way. If it were released on the genre-heavy PS2, however, things might not have
worked out so well, but as it is, Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion
provides a noteworthy portable adventure and is definitely worth a look for RPG
fans.

Gameplay: 8.4
The battle system has its share of nice features, but the unresponsive controls
make smaller tasks like opening doors and talking to the appropriate character
excessively complicated.

Graphics: 8.5
The visuals for the most part are very nice to look at and the worlds you
traverse in are decent enough. There are some cool battle and environment
effects, but many of the games locations along the way are poorly laid out and
look a little too familiar.

Sound: 8.5
Some decent sound effects can be heard during battle, but the real treat is the
soundtrack. Most of the tunes are catchy and support the action nicely. The only
complaint is that they repeat themselves just a little too frequently.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 7.7
The first true RPG on the system could have turned out disastrous, and even
though Heroes has some problems, for the most part it’s a very good start.

Overall: 8.0
The Legend of Heroes won’t blow you away by any means, but the lovable
characters and engaging story should keep most people happy, even if it is a bit
poorly paced. Had the translation and control problems been adjusted, Heroes
could have been an exceptional experience. As it stands, this game will probably
only fill the void for serious role-playing fanatics.