As you continually relive the next five days of your life, your primary task is to enlist partners in your quest against Xelpherpolis. Unfortunately, things soon get hot and heavy when you discover that Xelpherpolis, the groom, has placed the island under a nasty time-looping spell and intends to suck the life out of every living man, woman, and child of Pandule. Konami's Ephemeral Fantasia attempts to unify both groups by serving up a quest that is significantly open-ended at the start but becomes increasingly more focused as time marches on.Īssuming the role of a guitar-playing bard named Mouse, you and your guitar, Pattimo, find yourselves invited to play at a royal wedding on the island of Pandule. However, in recent years, a growing faction has also come to prefer the "do anything/go anywhere" approach of nonlinear RPGs, such as Shenmue and Dark Cloud, where plot progression often takes a backseat to things such as character development, exploration, and battle. All in all, Ephemeral Fantasia is a great game, but it's cute anime style can keep people from realizing that it's also a game that expects you to "git gut".If the success of Square's Final Fantasy series is any indication, the story-driven approach of linear RPGs is the golden ticket when it comes to popularity. Lastly, and most importantly, if you really struggle with the minigame, there are some cheat codes available online that can make the difficulty trivial (as well as some for more of a challenge). Third, the game supports a guitar controller in the second port, which will make things easier (I'm not sure if it HAS to be a Konami guitar controller or not). Second, that missing a song will rarely keep you from progressing the game. First, that the game lets you practice songs whenever you like. However, there are a few saving graces here. On a regular Playstation 2 controller, some of these can be quite difficult to play. The last thing I could bring up is the songs you'll have to play throughout the game. The navigation and knowing what to do when can be confusing, but I don't consider those faults because it's an intended part of the game - as I've stated throughout this review, the game wants you to learn things by investigating, and make decisions for yourself. I don't hold that against it, because I love the Dreamcast and would never fault a port for being a port, even if the original was unreleased. It was originally made for the Dreamcast, and it has Dreamcast graphics. Which begs the question, why am I rating it a 10? Simply put, for every fault I can list, there is a counterpoint for why I wouldn't let it affect my rating. Of course, it's not a game without faults. Despite the looping nature of time, it's a game where your actions have consequences and your choices matter. On top of all that, the game has multiple endings and characters you can miss completely depending on what you do. Each additional party member you can recruit has to first be broken out of the cycle, made to remember what happened on previous loops, and the only way to do that is by learning about them, then using that knowledge to open their eyes. Want to learn a particular NPC's schedule, so you know what they'll be doing at any given time on each day? You can and you should. Want to spend a week learning the map? You can do that. Want to take a week to grind? You can do that. Over the repeating "Groundhog's Day" week of the story, you can do things in whatever way you want. It is 100% true that it won't just tell you what to do next. You can't just coast by in Ephemeral Fantasia. You'll find secrets, interwoven stories, and a world where your investment in it is rewarded. You'll find an engaging battle system that shapes itself to your play style through evolving skills and a "catch up" mechanic for less leveled characters that I've never seen in any other game. If you do get invested, though? You'll find a complex story full of twists and surprises waiting for you. Engage with the game world, pay attention, and get invested, or it will leave you behind. It doesn't hold your hand, and it expects you to make a little effort. You will get out of it what you put into it. First of all, I'll be straight with one thing - this game is not for the faint of heart. First of all, I'll be straight with one thing Ephemeral Fantasia is practically my test for whether someone has good taste in games or not. Ephemeral Fantasia is practically my test for whether someone has good taste in games or not.
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