Crimson Gem Saga

If you're into Japanese RPGs (meaning you're into young, androgynous heroes, who fight evil empires bent on destruction, with massively-oversized weaponry), then your pickings are fairly slim on the Playstation Portable. Fortunately for you, the PSP's Crimson Gem Saga adheres to the classic Japanese RPG blueprint pretty closely, which -- like their standard, large-breasted female characters -- can either be a pretty big turn-on, or a trite, cliche bygone.

THE VERDICT by Will Herring Will Herring's Avatar Always looking for fresh adventures for the PSP, Crimson Gem Saga looks to be just the right mix of fun gameplay and solid presentation -- even if some tried and true JRPG cliches rear their heads.

Stop me if you've heard this one...

Crimson Gem Saga will receive few points for originality. You play as a young male who knows how to handle a massive sword, and in his quest to do good, he composes a crew of rag-tag outcasts who slowly grow stronger with each defeat of progressively tougher enemies. However, there are a couple of things that make this antiquated formula forgivable: 1) due to the limited number of RPGs on the PSP, it really isn't too common on this particular console, and 2) every recycled idea is done so well, that you won't mind if it feels very familiar.

Crimson Gem Saga

Sure, we've all seen battlefields where the combatants are perfectly lined up and each take turns attacking one specific enemy. But here, each character's animations and actions are so vivid and well-done that the banality is completely bypassed and enjoyment ensues. Crimson Gem Saga does throw one wrench into the J-RPG's familiar formula, albeit a fairly small one: While the battles are turn-based and pretty orthodox, the way in which you enter said combat is not. What I'm saying is that the archaic system of random encounters has done its best impression of Jessica Simpson's waistline and disappeared. That's right -- each individual enemy in Crimson Gem Saga will appear on your display, meaning that you can choose to engage certain enemies or not. And if that doesn't blow the minds of J-RPG purists, nothing will (besides a nude Aeris from FF7)

Crimson Gem Saga

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DarthKratos_

GREAT! this review just sold the game for me. I've been looking to buy a RPG for the psp recently and CGS caught my attention. I was waiting for the bigger sites to review this game. so far Gamespot gave it a 5, but thanks to you gamepro you cleared my doubts. Im getting this FRIDAY!!

fueledsystem

^^^ never trust gamespots reviews after the infamous scandal there the site is a joke its clear that they review games for the wrong reasons one of the reasons i pay more attention to gp(always finds the positives) and ign(always gives clear negatives)

ignore gamespot they are always off the scale

DarthKratos_

Yeah thanks ! I definitely hate gamespot now. It's weird how all of the psp game ratings are lower than a 9 (except Crisis Core)..

spacer1205

What this reviewer forgot to mention was the dungeons are ridiculous hard to navigate that it becomes frustrating since there is no map like in the over world. Frustrating=Fun?

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