Legend of Heroes Review

Platform: PSP
ERSB: Teen
Genre: RPG
Number of Players: 1
Publisher: Bandai
Release Date: November 15, 2005
Official Website
Writer: Trina

Rating: 7.0

The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion

Legend of Heroes was the first Japanese-style RPG released on the PSP. Japanese-style RPG’s are typically colorful and use history or mythology in their games. The storylines are usually about saving the world from some large disaster or the legendary fight between good and evil. Eastern RPG’s, unlike their Western counterparts, use strict scripts. One usually cannot travel far from the storyline.

Legend of Heroes follows Avin who starts on a quest to find his lost sister Eimelle. They were raised in a church and were separated during an attack by people that pledged themselves to an opposing god. During the game Avin becomes an adventurer and teams up with many interesting characters. Because of the differences between the opposing gods, the world Avin lives in is threatened.

Graphics:
The graphics are probably a bit more like old school RPG’s. You aren’t going to get anything mind-blowingly new here. What I did enjoy is the use of bright colors. It definitely made the screen lively.

Controls:
The controls are pretty easy to learn. You control your party and attacks are turn-based. The menu system is easy to go through. My only problem was when I found something in a treasure box and then could not find it in my inventory to find out what it was. There are also controls to feed your pet. Yes, you have a pet to take care of. You can feed, scold, or reward it. The pet comes in handy sometimes.

Sound:
The game does not really have a good soundtrack.

Flow:
Because it’s a Japanese-style RPG, the storyline is linear. You have a task to do and you can’t go or jump between worlds otherwise. If you try to go in the wrong direction, characters will remind you of where you need to be heading. I have three complaints about the flow of this game. One, cut scenes. The cut scenes go on and on and on. You can get a snack, and maybe the cut scene will be ending. I am a huge fan of cut scenes because sometimes you get animation you just can’t get otherwise, but these scenes are just people talking for what feels like forever. My second complaint is the inability to save between boss fights. In some sections of the game you have three boss fights in a row. No save in between. Which would be okay except each boss fight has it’s own cut scene. So the whole fight takes about an hour to get through. If you die in the final fight, you have to do it all over again. The level of frustration from wasting an hour if you die almost made me throw my PSP a few times. My last complaint has to do with the map system. You travel on roads for most of the game to get to the various towns. It’s nice to use those roads to level up because there are many monsters along the way. Because the PSP is a portable system, sometimes you are playing for a limited amount of time. I found that if I stopped playing on a road, by the time I got back to the game I couldn’t remember which way to go. The characters will remind you of where you are going, but only once you are trying to get into another town or area. So you could be going the wrong way for thirty minutes or more.

Fun Factor:
I found the storyline very intriguing. The fighting system was pretty easy to use, and it made leveling up fun.

Is there a female playable character:
The main character is male, but there are plenty of females that add to your party. This game does a very good job of providing strong females.

Replay Value:
While the game is fun, I do not believe there is much replay value to the game. The story is so linear I don’t believe there is much else you can do other than follow the story again.

I would have scored the game higher if it wasn’t for the cut scene factor. I really enjoyed playing Legend of Heroes. I identified with all the characters and really felt immersed in the story. If there had been fewer cut scenes or the ability to save more often I think this game would have scored higher. If you are an RPG fan this is a must-get for your PSP.