Revelations: The Demon Slayer Game by Atlus Reviewed by Deathpunk Deathpunk@yahoo.com Size: 8mb Save: Battery: 3 save slots Released: 1999 Works with: Black Cart [all w/ GBC enhanchments] **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: What do you get when you take all the cute things out of Pokemon? Well, Atlus had the nerve to find out. Running on a VERY similar engine, and playing like a cross between it [Pokemon] and Final Fantasy, Revelations certainly is a unique game at least. Ever since this game was announced in the summer [99] it carried a "Pokemon ripoff" stigma that in many ways it will never shake. But when compared directly to the "child's" game, it is in many ways....better than the freakishly sucessfull Pokemon! While alot of "Pokemon freaks" will turn their snotty noses up at this one, mainly for the ripping off part:), SERIOUS old school [D&D] RPG lovers will jump at the chance to play a game that stays true to good old "Hack n' Slash" gaming, and taunts Nintendo's "Monster collecter" at the same time. **************************************************************************** Gameplay Descripion: Revelations, like 99.9% of all games made today, wasn't blessed with the greatest plot in the world; Basicly you live in a Mid-evilpunk ["punk" meaning every thing is going wrong...like "Cyberpunk"] world that has been "Invaded" by monsters. From where? Well....it never really talks about that:)It talks for a while about them "Decending from the heavens...." but anyways, you leave home searching for the "Good-guy" monsters that were living in the temple in your small village. To sum it up, a dumb plot with alot of Fluff. Instead of an interesting background ridden character, you control a "Unisex" [not looking inherently male or female] flat [as in personality depth] sprite through the rather small overworld talking to monsters [instead of "catching" them you try to convince them into joining your party], killing monsters, avoiding monsters and monstering monsters.... well making new ones:) Unlike Pokemon the monsters that you "persuade" to join your party, don't level up. The only way to improve them is to combine them with magic. But most of the time you just end up getting a "These monsters can't be combined with you current level" message, but your human party members [all three of em'] do level up SLOWLY. This however doesn't really matter because the weapons and armor you buy is the REAL factor in your offensive and defensive stats. But thankfully it's fairly easy to rack up tremendous amounts of cash to buy them:) Also unlike Pokemon, this game actually has a fair amount of difficulty. Most RPG's today are far to easy, I've beaten most of them without even dying once, but Revelations is a completely different story. The game itself isn't hard [like the endless search aspect of Zelda] it's the fights that are the brutal part. It's not uncommon to die, without healing, every few fights or so! Take that nine year olds! [who say they loooove rpg's.... when they've only played Pokemon] Mu-HA-HA! Somewhat on the down side, Revelations is strongly menu based; and to complete most actions you have to navigate an upwards of five menus sometimes! While it does give you an unparalleled flexibility, it slows the game down a bit:( Also some people who demand plot and complex character development will simply hate it, because of the formentioned "lack o' storyline". Liked: Most everthing Hated: too many menus!!! **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: The game itself takes place from a tile based overworld that looks mysteriously looking like a upgrade of Pokemon's, complete with color and small animations. The main sprites are around the same size, but have about twice as much detail. As for battles, Atlus "stole" a page from Final Fantasy II's book. The battles take place from an almost identical, though with GREATLY enhanced graphics, perspective. While the monsters in battle do not animate, the amount of detail in them is amazing. Some of the earlier monsters look a little dumb [Heckett or Slime for example] but just wait until you see the BIGGER and better ones:) The only real downside to the otherwise perfect [for gameboy, NOT NGPC!] graphics, is the simular looking towns. But hey it's Gameboy....hasn't it done enough already! Look at Final Fantasy 1-3 then look at this, R:TDS is alot better! Liked: Everything, except for the towns Hated: Why did someone -wink,wink- give pokemon, and FF2 a 5 star rating in graphics and only give Revelations 3 stars? **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: Atlus scores again! The music fit's the game very well, and sounds like something out of Final Fantasy. Still I hope Nintendo adds a better sound device on the forthcomming Gameboy Advance. The sound effects too, are above average and great for the GBC. Liked: everything Hated: nothing **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: To be blunt, Revelation's menus are it's biggest triumph and it's greatest downfall . While it does allow you to select every little thing; a plus to nit-pickers, some may argue that so much user input is an unnecessary overkill. While I think the menus ARE a bit much, after playing the game for a while you really start to like-maybe even love them:) Also worth mentioning is the slightly floaty unprecise feel of the controls in the overworld. Sometimes in a building it's a little difficult to manuever, but there isn't action in these areas so it doesn't hamper it as much as I expected. As I've said before this game plays much like the "bastard" [not meant in the cursing way] child of Pokemon and Final Fantasy. It mixes the monster collecting from Pokemon, and the character building n' weapons and armor from FF. While it does scream "RIPOFF" it whispers "UNIQUE" and the overall effect is one all it's own. Liked: unique and a ripoff at the same time:) Hated: a little floaty:( **************************************************************************** Improve: Give monsters more attitude; add more monsters; let the monsters level up without combining them. RIYL: Pokemon, Final Fantasy Legend I-III, RPGs **************************************************************************** Final Words: The RPG community today is mostly spilt into two sects: Pokemon and Everything else. Atlus tried to bridge this gap by putting classic RPG gameplay in a "monster collecting" type game. While Revelations failed at that, mainly because your monsters don't "do" anything and lack any real character [you won't see any little kid going around saying "I have a Banshee! Yeah!!!!"], it's still better than Final Fantasy AND Pokemon in Gameplay and Graphics.....even though in most aspects it ripped them both off! But in any event I'd rather be collecting monsters with names like "Golem" "Skulls" and "Lucifer" than that infamous electric yellow mouse:) **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: **** and 1/2 Graphics: **** and 1/2 Sound/Music: **** and 1/2 Play Control/Game Design: **** Personal Opinion: ***** Total: 22.5 Final Score: 90% **************************************************************************** Currently Known Codes: 1:Instead of you TALKING to monsters, use your highest level monster instead....if he is better than the other one it works 90% of the time!!! 2: COMBINE two lower level monsters to get a "LICH" then COMBINE him with a high level monster to get a REALLY good one:)