I was a Square Fanboy.
Much like most games I pick up, I discovered Final Fantasy, a bit later than most. Despite being late to the party, I was still completely hooked. My first true Square addiction was Final Fantasy III (yeah, I know that III is VI, but I’m talking North America and SNES, so relax). Granted, I played Mystic Quest and the Final Fantasy Legend years before, but I don’t think I’ll get many arguments when I say those don’t really count.
I loved FFIII, and when I heard Square was moving to the new Sony console with a new installment, I was ecstatic. As soon as I had enough money saved, I bought a PlayStation and FFVII, but I still wasn’t a fanboy. It took two more games to send me down that dark path: Final Fantasy Tactics and Einhander. Both games are consistently at the top of my all time greatest games lists. Both are original, beautiful games. Both made me believe that Square could do no wrong.
For the following few years (well, maybe decade would be a better word choice), I gobbled up all Square had to offer. For the most part I wasn’t let down. Sure, I wasn’t super excited with Final Fantasy VIII and the Bouncer pretty much sucked, but the vast majority of what I got my hands on was pretty solid.
It is hard to say when my love affair with Square started to fade. Of course I still give Square, now Square-Enix, the benefit of the doubt and play most of their franchise games. But, somewhere along the Final Fantasy X, Front Mission 4, and FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus years, my love for all things Square(-Enix) began to fade.
Now, why do I tell this little anecdote? Because Secret of Evermore came before my membership in the Cult of Square. I was playing Final Fantasy III when Evermore hit store shelves, but this was before I had any particular brand loyalty to any specific developer. In those days, loyalty was still heavily influenced by the extensive propaganda of the Nintendo/Sega console wars. Loyalty back then was to the console not a studio or publisher.
Long story short: I never would have picked up Secret of Evermore based on it having been produced by Square. Perhaps, if I had played Secret of Mana, I would have been drawn to it by the extreme similarity in titles. Instead, all I had to go on was box art. And, uh, seriously, it's not that great.
Had I been swayed by the box art and played Secret of Evermore in 1995. I’m positive my young early-teen mind would have loved it. But playing it today, I can plainly see that the box art did not lie, the game is indeed second rate. However, after finishing it, I still think it worthy of some attention, despite its general mediocrity.
This is already getting way to long, Let’s roll with the bad:
Secret of Evermore is not Secret of Mana. To be honest, this game constantly gets compared to Secret of Mana, despite the games having no correlation other than the same menu systems and similar titles. But for someone who has never had the chance to play Mana, Evermore had enough vague similarities to only served to make me want to play Secret of Mana more (and Evermore less).
Wonky Hit Detection. Hitting fast moving or flying enemies was difficult and frustrating when using anything but the Spear. In fact, I never used any of the other weapons except the spears, mainly because they could not be thrown. Even the bazooka saw very limited use with me.
Plot. Everything seemed rushed. It was like the game ran out of time and places to continue the pacing established at the beginning, so they just shoved it all in at the end. Furthermore, the plot was just plain bland. I mean, an evil robot butler? Really?
Difficulty. Once I got the hang of the combat system (and ring menu system, which proved tricky due to my lack of an instruction manual), the game went fairly easily. Then out of nowhere, the Verminator boss in Ebon Keep laid down the law. He was like a massive Santa Claus of the Rat People, reaching into his bag of presents to hit you with spells several times stronger than you had yet faced. On a similar note, the end boss was also substantially harder than the difficulty curve for game. But, that’s cool. I can dig a hard final boss.
Alchemy is useless. Aside from Heal, Cure, and Revive, the only Alchemy that saw any use were the spells required to solve puzzles. Really? Pretty much the central gameplay mechanic useless? Lame.
So, why did I still enjoy the game?
It was genuinely funny. Having been the only Square game to be completely developed entirely within the United States, it didn’t suffer from poorly translated, poorly localized, engrish. Consequently, the humor throughout the game actually had me chuckling out loud. It is pretty rare for a game to make my angry, bitter self chuckle.
Cecil. I love that Cecil was in the game. Made my freaking day. Oh, and the way he is all nonchalantly leaning on the counter, just hanging out. He’s managing his shop with a total ‘I don’t take crap from anyone’ attitude. Yeah, that was awesome. Cecil’s cool. He should have stayed a Dark Knight. Screw that Paladin crap, let a bad guy be the hero for once.
Total package. It might seem like a B movie, but the game celebrates that fact. Despite being mediocre in most respects, it is still fun and quick to play through. I was rarely frustrated or angry and I even laughed now and again. It may not have had impressive graphics, deep story, or complex and innovative gameplay, but it was fun. And I guess that is what video games are all about, relaxing and having fun.
Oh, and one more thing about magic.
What the Hell Square? In almost every other Square game, Cure recovers HP and Heal recovers from status ailments. Why are they reversed here? You didn’t have a problem ripping off so much from your other games, so why deviate from the norm here? You know how many times I wasted ingredients casting the wrong type of spell?
No comments:
Post a Comment