Makai Kingdom PlayStation 2 Review (Page 2)


	Platform PlayStation 2 Genre Strategy Role-Playing Publisher NIS America Developer Nippon Ichi ESRB T (Teen) Released July 26, 2005

-Insanely addictive strategic gameplay -Tons of customization options -Hilarious writing and voice acting

-New additions don't really add very much -Subpar graphics -Unbalanced difficulty necessitates heavy character leveling

Review: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PlayStation 2) Review: La Pucelle Tactics (PlayStation 2)
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The turn system - wherein you issue orders to all of your characters at once, then tell them to begin battle when you deem it so - has returned from Disgaea. The equipment system also returns, allowing you to carefully balance your characters for attack, defense or speed. There are a huge variety of weapons, ranging from daggers, swords, katanas, axes, nunchucks, ball and chains, pies, rifles, flamethrowers, syringes, spellbooks and UFOs (for stealing enemy's items.) The list of character classes includes familiar characters like fighters, mages, healers, archers and prinnies (the zombie penguins from Disgaea), although new classes include medics, professors and soldiers. Most of these new characters deal with one of the most interesting additions to Makai Kingdom: vehicles.

There are a small handful of mechanized units to be found, including mini-tanks, motorcycles, and anime-like mechs. Each vehicle need a pilot, and naturally certain characters are more adept to getting the most out of these behemoths than others. Other
than the great distance that these things can cover, the vehicles don't really add anything strategically. They take a long time to build up and buy useful weapons for, although they are a lot of fun to roll around in.

The levels themselves unfold a bit differently as well. Each level begins on a small partition with an enemy or item labeled "Key". Destroying this unlocks a new part of the battlefield, and the cycle begins anew. Thus, instead of having a large, rectangular battlefield, you have several small areas, usually linked together by bridges. Many of these elements - including enemy placement and terrain types - are randomly generated, which gives a very haphazard feel to both the gameplay and visuals. The designers have said that Makai Kingdom took six months to development, and the rushed development shows.

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It's great to see such a variety in Makai Kingdom, but I can't shake the feeling that permeates most Nippon Ichi games - they change from game to game, but they don't necessarily improve. The new additions render Makai Kingdom less head ache-inducing than Phantom Brave, and thus may be a bit friendlier to newcomers, but it's still overwhelming to the point where people looking to get into strategy games should probably look into something lighter, like the first GBA Fire Emblem. As for strategy vets - while a lot of these additions do

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bring something new to the table, and thus something new to play with, they don't seem particularly well implemented. This is really only an issue because Nippon Ichi set the bar so high for themselves when it comes to innovative gameplay - a lesser company would be happy to just churn out the same stuff over and over, so the fact that Makai Kingdom is still unique is an accomplishment in itself. However, the flaws of all Nippon Ichi games remain - amongst them, the mandatory power-leveling, the PSOne quality graphics, and the wonky AI. But most fans have already shrugged these off - the wacky characters, impossibly upbeat music and insanely addicting party management, will have strategy gamers obsessed long after the doldrums of the summer months have passed. Makai Kingdom isn't the best of the bunch, but it holds its own quite nicely.

Kurt Kalata

(July 25, 2005)