Finding this gem once again

From the first time I picked this up from FuncoLand (Yes, I know, they did once exist!) I knew this one would be a keeper. Gamepro had already rated it as one of the best titles of the year thus far, and I was ridiculously excited to bring this one home and check it out. Unfortunately, I have this annoying tendency to be exceptionally hard on judging a game when it has so much hype attached to it, and this title was certainly going to go under the guillotine. Thank God that it turned out to be one of the best game playing experiences of my life.

After the opening credits and cutscenes you are dumped in the ultimately dark and sinister city of Lea Monde. I found myself wandering around looking for a point early on and once I encountered my first enemy it was a roller coaster ride the entire way through. The sphere grid combat system was easy to pick up on and targeting enemies with grimoires (spells) came to be second nature in under an hour. There were plenty of treasures to be picked up and enemies to dispatch.

What set this game apart from most was the use of it's weaponry. As you attacked a particular type of enemy (elemental, undead, ect) with a weapon, it began to gain an affinity for that enemy's destruction. Some metals were better served against certain types than others. I quickly gained an inventory of multiple weapons in an effort to have one weapon for each type of affinity I was facing against. You also have to make sure you're using the right type of weapon to make it effective against whatever you're targeting.

Chain combos came a little more slowly, but once you had them under control they became incredibly effective, particularly during boss fight. In one such battle you can't win unless you chain your combos so effectively that you can land a few hits in upwards of 30 or 40 combos in a row.

Not only was the story great but the free roaming cutscenes were awesome. I found the graphics to be slightly gritty, however, that only added to the effect of making Lea Monde a depressing and creepy atmosphere. All of the cutscenes were rendered without CGI and the motion acting was very, very well done.

If you ever get the chance to steal this from your older cousin's collection of vintage playstation titles I suggest you do right away. Even after nearly a decade of it being absent from my playing experiences, bringing it back for one more round was almost as satisfying as the first time I opened the case. I would not pass this one up.