Wachenroder

[fingersmaloy]

Well, so I just bought Wachenroder for 300 yen. The strategy RPG thing isn't really my genre, but I've heard it's a pretty nice game, and it had been barking at me from the shelf for months. I knew nobody would ever buy it and I felt bad for it.

So anyway, I know there's someone on these boards who occasionally goes off on how great this game is, so I plead to you now: get me hyped up to play this game. What makes it great? Is it really great?

[Bootaaay]

For me what makes Wachenroder great is the setting & art direction - the beautiful steam-punk art-style, the cg cut-scenes and the evocative music are the primary reasons why I found Wachenroder to be such an enjoyable experience. The graphics aren't spectacular, while the 2d sprite work and 3d backgrounds look nice the game has a tendency to zoom in too far and cause pixelation, also the 3d attack animations look very dated nowadays (and can be turned off in the options). As far as the combat goes, Wachenroder does little to change the standard srpg formula - although one nice feature is the abillity to rev up your weapons attack power at the cost of potentially over-heating your weapon for the next turn. The game isn't really much of a challenge - each character has 99 action points per turn, which at times felt rather generous and I never really had to replay a single battle too many times until near the very end of the game. Also, it is a very linear experience (though this was quite helpfull playing it through the first time without a guide), you have no choice of progression outside of the battle sequences, each one interlinked with cut-scenes, dialogue and equipment shopping.

Overall Wachenroder isn't the best srpg for the Saturn, but it's unique style and simple but enjoyable gameplay made this a memorable title for me that I would more than reccomend to any fans of the genre not scared by a bit of Japanese text. Also, if you're looking for some srpg's on the cheap i'd highly reccomend the little-known Terra Phantastica - the 2d graphics have got a beautiful medieval europe vibe, and the game is much more epic and challenging than other Saturn srpgs.