My original reveiw page
The Sacred Tears ~True~Opening Words
This is really fantastic, graphics of quality close to XP standards, and the story is really, an epic to say the least. This is a squeal of
"Smile of a Angel", and unfortunately, unlike it's prequel, this is a commercial game.
The quality is top, and definitely way better than it's prequel, both by artistic as well as game play, so it's well worth it.
The story itself is quite the spin, see, Alpha Nut's games all have a similar feel, much like how all the Tale's games are like. In the Tales series, all the games seem to start off in one place, and the next few mins, it all of a sudden a trip to get back to that place from far away.
For Alpha Nuts, all of their games seems to start with the sea, a ship, traveling somewhere, anywhere. This one is different, it is the squeal of one that does, but this one starts in the home town of 2 thieves.
In "Smile of a angel", the story based around a man and his younger sister, and they eventually come across the main characters of Sacred Tears, the two thieves.
One thing that I love about Alpha Nut's games that is always the same that still remains, is the amazingly cool blue streaking hair. Alpha Nuts and their team just seem to love blue hair on their main male characters.
Graphics- 9/10
Dispite the fact this game was made in 2k, it was specially scripted so that it has the ability to run in window mode as well, and the visual game play feels like something thats far better than something from XP.
The custom template for character sprites have continued from it's predestors, but the animated side veiw battlers change in style from generation to generation, this, I would say, being even better than the side view battlers of White Ties.
The custom artwork is always amazing, but they really out did themselves this time. The face sets retain their variety, and although not like "So the Wind Feels", the only game they've made that has face sets for absolutly every creature you interact with, even if they were a bit simple and generic, but still had great quality, the faces for Sacred Tears were much, much more vivid.
Let me just say that the sprite actions in here are absolutely fantastic!
SoundTrack- 8/10
Sadly, the soundtrack this time was not heavily used. All music were completely original, and the opening them did nicely, but the strength and feelings of all the songs were overall, only average.
GamePlay-8.5/10
Gameplay is heavily based on the story. The story here is kindof generic, but the characters and the sense of humor put into the game will make you chuckle, and once atached to these characters, even get emotional. The best part about this game is the plot twist. At first you play as theifs, but eventually, you befriend the government, and only to have the goverment turn their backs on you. It's very exciting. Anyways, better not let anything else out, gotta try it yourself Wink
Mapping-8.5/10
Although the mapping not may seem anything special, it certainly is perfect. There are very few bad things, and alot of good visuals. The towns are big, yet never boring, detailed, but still calm. Great mapping over all, and blends in perfectly for the storys to take place.
Systems- 9/10
The systems. Now there are many simple and useful systems that make the game neat and fun, but the menus and the battles are the highlights. Unlike it's predestor, "Smile of a Angel", the battle system this time around is much more complex, and alot more dependent on both strategy and luck.
Using a card based system to determine the battles, opponents moves are unforeseeable. In the previous system, you simply stopped moving bars, and were able to see both yours and the enemy's bars.
The menus allows for that everytime you lvl up, to distribute points diablo style, but skills are based on the deck, which can be edited further along in the game. Over all, the simplicity of 2k3's systems plus a abundance of simple systems and the card based battles make this game an original experience.
Over All: B 8.6/10
Pros-The experience combines elements from many modern games and the exotic card battles are very fun and complex, putting skill into effect. The artwork and sprites are absolutely AMAZING
Cons-Excelent game with very few downs. However, it can be confusing at times, especially since my japanese translator doesn't work that well.
Overall, you have to really play some of their games, to truly appreciate how amazing Alpha Nuts are as a team of Game Makers.
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