A delightful multimedia extravaganza, every animation meticulous, every lip-sync aligned perfectly with dialogue, all voice actors giving it 100%. Wonderfully written, charming adventure/minigame segments, and lavish beyond anything we in the west would've been seeing in 1996. An absolute treasure from top to bottom.
....except that combat. I actually stopped playing after getting two game overs on the next-to-last combat segment. I am generally not a tactics fan in general, but I get the feeling that this combat is especially perfunctory and under-baked. I'm sure later games in the series refine and complicate things in more satisfying ways, and I would give anything to be able to play them.
In all ways (except combat) the absolute apex of Games as Multimedia.
....except that combat. I actually stopped playing after getting two game overs on the next-to-last combat segment. I am generally not a tactics fan in general, but I get the feeling that this combat is especially perfunctory and under-baked. I'm sure later games in the series refine and complicate things in more satisfying ways, and I would give anything to be able to play them.
In all ways (except combat) the absolute apex of Games as Multimedia.