Brave Story: New Traveller

On a day that starts out like any other, an 11-year-old boy's life is changed forever when his friend Miki suddenly collapses from an unknown illness. Without the means to save her, he grows increasingly distraught when suddenly, a strange voice offers him a second chance: "Beyond the door you can change your destiny!" He soon leaves the real world and journeys to the world of Vision, where, as a novice "Traveler," he will surmount myriad ordeals in hopes of ultimately meeting with the Goddess of Fortune to have a single wish granted.

Graphics

So so for me. I do not find it very fantastic but I do not find it an eyesore either. For someone who is very anal about graphics when it comes to games, I find the graphics to be bearable. I find the animated sound effects during the battles are rather childish. But I love the font and font size they use in the game. It makes the gaming much more comfortable to the eyes. And if really the developer once the players to have a "reading story book" kind of feeling, the font does work ^^

I hate the in-game animation since there is not much variation., especially the battle. In fact, it seems that the developers are lazy to develop the graphics for the battle. There are many skills which the characters perform similar movements. To make things more lame, the characters are slashing the air, rather than the enemies, when dealing the special attacks. The worst is some characters share the same movements and skills. It gets kinda boring and that is a negative point for me.

 Good or bad? Just bearable for me

I like the character frames, fonts, etc during the battle

The irritating and childish "sound effects"

One thing I would like to highlight is the changes in Tatsuya's sword everytime he gets a new orb. The upgrade in his weapon is very conspicous and there are moving parts! Now.. That's very cool!! Haha.. There is one upgrade when there is a part which looks like dragonwings continously flapping. Then the final form of the sword has 5 orbs continously revolving around the sword. I think it's very cool! Nuff said about this sword thingy haha.. Unfortunately I cannot find pictures so you have to use imagination here.

Gameplay/Features

I am so happy to find an RPG game with the old RPG system. Haha.. Yeah I am lazy so I am glad to be able to just press commands and let the characters execute the movement. I am tired of real time action battle style. Lol

The gameplay allows me to focus more on the story rather than the fights. BP (needed to execute magic or special attacks) will be automatically refilled when the characters land attack. There is not much need to go shopping for potions etc. I hardly used items to refill HP and BP since sleeping at inns is cheaper. Buying new weapons prove to be quite problematic due to shortage of cash (monsters do not drop money.. but the more monsters we kill, the more money we can get from Highlander office... Supposedly, it is our job as Highlanders to kill monsters and the more we kill, the higher the wage). But it is only a problem if we want to get everyone (6 people in total) new equipments.

There is not much difference among different characters. In other words, it does not matter which character  you bring to the battle. Sogreth is the only one with significantly higher HP, higher attack, higher defense, and slower speed. There rest are very very similar. There are various unity attacks with different combination characters. But again, most have similar effects to the enemies as well as similar poses/animations etc, so there is really not much point to use different characters. Most likely, you just choose your favorite based on the voice/looks and it's alright.

Essentially, the battle system is very simple and easy. In fact, this is the very first game in which magic attacks are lousier than physical attacks! Lol. There is no need to farm for levels either. So yeah, just concentrate on the story :) There are ample side quests to get accessories. But trust me, even without these crafted accessories, you can breeze through the fight quite easily. Anyway the powerful accessories become part of the story so there is no need to do the side quests per se. Again, just concentrate on the story :)

Thank goodness that battling is a minor thing here. The vocals during the battles are really noise pollution. The same few phrases keep being repeated. There is an option to change the vocal from Japanese to English anytime to reduce the boredom. But overall I think the voice actings fail big time here.

An interesting minigame here is called birdbrawl. Basically, it's chicken fight. We get to "farm" chickens and let our group of chickens battle with someone elses'. It is quite cute and refreshing although I find it more frustrating than the main plot. Haha..The minigame is not that WOW or what... It is just interesting haha.. Perhaps because of the novelty

 

Birdbrawling

Replayability

I would say none. There is a new game + option to complete certain side quests, which can only be completed after the main game anyway, one bonus dungeon, and the opportunity to use all the guest characters in the main storyline. Other than for the bonus dungeon for extra challenge, I don't see any point replaying the game. The new characters have less skills than our main 6 and the skills are very similar anyway. And they have no unity skills.

Storyline

The story itself is quite simple and straight forward albeit too short. There are many aspects which can be explored better such as the role of the dragons here. As of now, it seems that the dragons are only introduced for the sake of giving us a mode of transport. Kinda lame for me. In similar note, Tatsuya met other travellers in the games but it was not explained how come there are so many travellers or what they are doing bla bla bla. I know this is a spin off from the original Brave Story but then, I think players should be allowed to know any connection towards previous games since there are characters from the previous game. I am sure many experienced RPG gamers will have similar questions.

The plot is kinda unexpected. Tatsuya is actually not a Traveller. That is to say, he is actually not a hero that Vision expected. Wow! After all the hardwork, but well, that's a nice plot. Eventually his wish is a realised not from the Goddess but because he beat the toad which put the curse on Miki. The unusual plot is kinda cool for me.

 The Goddess which looks a lot like Miki. Another CHEESY 'coincidence' urgh..

Unfortunately, the ending is marred by very cheesy scene. Supposedly, Miki and Tatsuya will watch a movie about a Traveller in the world of Vision i.e Tatsuya's own adventure. Sorry, I find this very cheesy (yucks!). And I am undecided (whether to say it's good or bad) for the opening scene which describe Tatsuya as a gamer addict! In a positive light, I guess the message put across is: for the boys out there who just play games whole day, please go out, have an adventure outside and you discover better delights other than gaming.

 Tatsuya playing PSP in the opening scene

Overall

Graphic: so so

Audio: terrible

Bonus features: nothing much other than birdbrawling

Story: cheesy and simple

It does not sound very encouraging eh? But surprisingly, overall I don't hate the game. Perhaps it is because of the traditional RPG battle system and less emphasis on levelling up/doing sidequests/getting ingredients etc so as to focus more on the story. The greatest strength of the game for me, however, is the characterisation! The characters' characters and the interaction among themselves are very realistic here. Perhaps because there is no act cool guy here? I am not gonna go into details but to me it is just hilarious to see the characters quarelling (in a fun way) throughout the game. It is touching to see the adults treat the 11year old Tatsuya as their compatriots rather than as adults protecting kids etc. The best part is the parting scene, especially Yuno. She is depicted as older than Tatsuya. She decided not to cry when Tatsuya had to go back to his real world but after he left, she just broke down. It touched me haha..

In short, this is a "true" RPG. I am sick of complicated political  and too futuristic storylines.. I am sick of grinding.. I am sick of frustrating side quests and puzzles which take up more time to complete than the main plot. I am sick of sidetracking until I forget the main point of the game. In playing an RPG, what I want to enjoy the story and to have fun. Please do not force me to do certain things/complete certain feats in order to unlock things to beat the final boss or something. That's not fun!

This game basically encompasses the basic ingredients of a good RPG game: great characters, good  linear plot (even though it can be very simple like this!), a healthy dose of fantasy environment, and FUN! (I am tempted to put in good graphics too! LOL but good graphics will only be a bonus point I think :p)