PlayStation
Guardian's Crusade
| Graphics: Sound: Gameplay: Overall: |
7.00 7.90 8.30 8.25 |
| Votes: | 20 |
| Reviews: | 1 |
Rate this game
Review this game
| Reviewer: Nj | Date: Dec 4, 2023 |
| Played this game when I was a kid and it remains a fond memory. It's a very charming PG-rated JRPG with solid depth to an overall generic plot. You play silent protagonist "Knight", a dude in blue armor with his fairy companion Nanahi, who is basically Navi with more spunk. One day you find a pink baby dragon along the road and some angelic being suddenly appears and tells you that you're destined to save the world, and in order to do that you gotta return the baby dragon to its mother. On the way you learn about an ancient evil sealed away, some jerk who wants to free it, and the previous hero who originally sealed it away with the help of five mythic beasts. You see where this is going, pretty standard but well executed. Your fairy friend does most the narration and the translation team did a solid job with the dialogue. It's fun.
All that being said the story does have some serious and surprisingly mature/heart-wrenching points to it, so it's not pure G-rated in that sense. There is genuine depth to the characters, though it's mostly in Nanahi and your baby dragon companion. Knight suffers the usual silent protagonist handicap of just being along for the ride. Graphics: 6 Pretty standard for the PSX era. Lotsa bright, soft colors which reinforce its g-rated vibe quite well. Very comfy. Sound: 8 Soundtrack is an upbeat jazzy synth-type vibe. Gameplay: 4 Combat is very mediocre. Combat is basically physical attacks and "summons" via mechanical "living toys", of which there are 50 in the game to collect, half of which have unique (and some very abusable) abilities. You can also command your baby dragon sidekick to attack/defend/heal (which is mostly useless), and he'll randomly transform into previously encountered monsters and drop stupid damage on enemies. Although one thing this game did right re combat is that enemies appear on the map as weird ghost things that you can usually dodge with ease, and when you gain a few more levels than them they actively avoid you. So, yeah, no random encounters in a PSX JRPG. It's a godsend. Other than combat, world exploration is pretty fun. Most objects are interactable with Nanahi giving pretty humorous narration, and occasionally you'll find an item as well. Also, the world map is entirely seamless, meaning no loading zones as you walk around (however there is *brief* loading while entering houses & dungeons). This game is largely worth playing for the endearing characters and story, with active combat a distant second. Keep the turbo button handy. Overall: 7 It's a cute, well made, noob friendly JRPG. If that's your thing definitely give it a shot. If you want engaging combat, strategy, execution etc look elsewhere cuz this game's all about cute characters overcoming hardship while saving the world. |
|