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« on: March 05, 2007, 08:02:05 PM »
game: Virtua Quest
console: Gamecube
price (what I paid): $40
players: 1
length: The timer says it took me 13 hours to finish it the first time through, but the timer is wrong(25 is problay more accurate). I must have played about 70 hours total, finishing it twice and then unlocking every secret in the game.
Virtua Quest is basically a final fight type game with move upgrades and cut scenes after every level. Sega calls it an rpg because you can gain levels through experience points(this is very limited though(only 3 levels per "rank"))and will need to equip items that increase health and attack strength. Also it has a story.
Graphics: 7/10, nothing to complain about in the graphics. There's some decent variety on the levels and the virtua fighter characters look like they should but also there's nothing amazing about the graphic either.
Sound: 8/10, the music seems like virtua fighter music. I enjoyed it while I was playing but it wasn't very memorable like good rpg music should be. The most significant thing is that virtually every character has a voice in the game(of course all the virtua fighters do but also most minor characters will get a voice also) though their voice isn't always used for every scene. Another great thing about this game is mario's voice actor Charles Martinet contributes to the game(I forgot if he voiced shun or lion or both). All of the virtua fighter characters voices seems suitable and they all speak english when they are taking(in VF all the asian characters all speak japanese), it isn't as distracting as I thought it might be.
other/presentation(story(very minor spoilers)): 8/10. The game takes place in the distant future on some kind of city floating on water. In the games world the internet has evolved into a virtual reality where people can go and it looks like they're actually there. The main character is named "Sei" (a kid who just wants to spend time with his busy father) he is drawn into a evil plot while looking for "data chips"(the currency of the virtual world) on an abandoned server("servers" are where all of the games levels and sidequests take place).
Helping Sei learn how to progress in the game is "Bit". Bit is a floating robot animal who tells you everything you need to know about finishing levels and will sometimes help by attacking the enemies or giving you health.
The games storyline has been critisized by professional reviewers as being horrible. While some of the lines at the beginning of the game could have been writtin better by the time the game ended I wanted the story to continue(that's how a good story should be). Sometimes I wonder if any of the pro reviewers even played this game for more than 1/2 hour.
Gameplay: 9/10. Finally the good part of the game. The game consists of 8 levels, 3 lobbies,4 skill tests, and 9 missions, plus some other bonus battles. The levels each have a different theme and gradually get harder as the game progresses. They're not all straightfoward fighting (temple level feels a bit like playing zelda with some complex puzzles).
From the lobbies you can access anywhere in the game but you need to have a high enough rank to get access to all 3 lobbies. To do this you takes "tests" after finishing the games training mode. This are like those sub levels in mario sunshine without fludd. The ones in mario are funner but the ones in virtua quest are more challenging(maybe not the beginner or intermediate test but the advanced one was and I know that the master test was too, that one was more challenging then all of mario sunshine combined). In the more advanced lobbies the shops have more advanced items.
Missions are objectives with a restriction or time limit("defeat all enemies without breaking too much furniture"). After you finish them you return to the person who requested the mission and they will give you a reward. They are almost all optional, some are used to advance the story.
Now that the game structure is explained I will attempt the explain the game mechcanics. The abilities Sei has while in the virtual world are jump, attack, block, special attack(use virtua fighter moves), energy wire, and syntax break. You can map up to 6 virtua fighter moves at a time to different types of attack(they are broken into catergories such as running attack, floater,normal, jumping). You can change them anytime once you learn them and they are much more powerful them regular attacks but they use "SP"(you have a meter that can run out(it recharges by hitting opponets) and will replenish slowly once it reaches zero but you can't use it again til it full recharges).
They way you learn these moves is the virtua fighters teach them to you after you have a short battle with them to prove your worthy. To start a battle you need to find "virtua souls" scattered throughout the levels. There are 45 move taught from the 13 virtua fighters at that time(taka arashi didn't make it into this game either)
Syntax break also uses SP but it is useful in a different way. Holding down on the syntax break button(I forgot which one it is) make you glow and almost any enemy you hit will slow down for you to get lots of mid air hits until you release syntax break. the point is to chain a bunch of cool looking moves together but it also makes you invunerable temperairily(you might think this would make the game really easy but it doesn't(I got more game overs in this game then any other rpg + double dragon + final fight + turtles in time combined by a big margin).
The energy wire is for latching on to glowing orbs found in various level. When you latch on it can be used as rope to swing across gaps or sometimes it will automatically drag you to the point it wants you to go. This lets levels be more spread out horizontally and vertically. It is most used in those test levels. Also they want you to use it to attack some floating enemies.
I should discuss the camera next since there was a lot of complaint about it from other review. The camera isn't really bad at all, it's just outdated. It resembles starfox adventures camera where you can manually put the camera behind you if you want to but otherwise didn't have any control. The camera auto adjusts to your actions(it tries to say static unless you travel significant distance) though it does make some strange choices about what the best angle is every once in a while, it isn't too big of a deal.
The last thing I should mention is the amount of gameplay customization there is in this game. For an rpg its not that much but for a final fight type game it's alot. By then end of the game you can choose to have your attack power greatly increased or your HP or SP depending on how you want to approach it. You do this by equiping items. But the game limits how many items you can use at once(there's this rubix cube you have to build using items the good items use more cubes(it less complicated then it sounds(maybe))).
Also Bit can be customized using food. Bit has around a dozen animal forms that do different things to help you out(the dolphin seems the most useful). To unlock all his forms you need to balance his intellence, braveness, and loyality attributies carefully(there 6 types of food, 3 that lower his attributes and 3 that raise it). This is 100% optional and only sort of fun.
OVERALL SCORE: 9.2/10(this game is better than the sum of its parts and the most underrated game I ever played).
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