Brave Story: New Traveler for PSP Reviews by Gamers

There are hundreds of RPGs out there for you to pump your free time into, so it's important that developers establish a connection with gamers to keep the masses playing one title. The folks behind Brave Story: New Traveler must know how important this connection is because they did their best to cast someone you'd be familiar with as the main character -- i.e. you.''''Now, I'm not talking about how they let you name the main character -- that's nothing new -- I mean that this kid is you. He plays handheld videogames, he ignores his friends when they try to talk to him while he's gaming, and he's a big enough God of War fan to name his dog Kratos. ''''It's like they put a camera in your shower, man.''''Set to be released next week, Brave Story: New Traveler is the newest PSP release from XSEED Games and puts players into the shoes of a nameable main character -- I'll call him Lord Laffy Taffy for this review -- as he sets out on a world-spanning quest to save his friend, Miki. ''''The game takes place in the same universe at the Brave Story manga and features some familiar faces (Wataru, Meena, etc.), but you'll start the game playing videogames in a modern day park with your best friend Miki by your side. In typical chick fashion, Miki's yakking on and on about something or someone, and in typical gamer fashion, you're ignoring the hell out of her until your trusty pup Kratos comes back from a walk to bark his head off. ''''What is it, girl? Trouble at the old well?''''Yes, Miki has fallen ill. She's taken to the hospital where the doctors can't figure out what's wrong with her but are nice enough to tell her parents she might never wake up. Lord Laffy Taffy runs to the rooftop to cry, a mysterious door appears and a disembodied voice tells him "Beyond the door, you can change your destiny."''''And the adventure begins!''''On the other side of the door, the story comes into focus. You're a traveler. You have the ability to go between our world and that of Vision -- a crazy world of lizard people, magic-like abilities and swordplay. If you find the Goddess of Fortune in Vision, she'll grant you one wish -- psst, you want to save Miki.''''You won't have to go it alone in Brave Story. The battles you'll run into -- and there will be a lot as you crisscross forests and beaches -- are set up for the traditional turn-based, party battle. You'll have three slots to fill on your team, and as you get used to the game you'll get used to having Yuno (a half-kitten/half-girl hottie) and Sogreth (a beefy lizard) as your backup.''''Although your sword, Yuno's bow and Sogreth's battleaxe will be the primary way you crack the skulls of the gimblewolves and seductresses you come across, Brave Story features three concepts -- friendship, courage and growth -- that will greatly affect the way you beat baddies.''''The longer you toil away with the same set of combatants, the better friends your group gets to be. That sounds nice in the lovey-dovey way, but what it means is that the longer you're together the more ways you get to kick ass together. Unity moves open up as you go and involve everything from Lord Laffy Taffy and Yuno pulling a pick-pocket/stab routine to Meena and Lord Laffy Taffy running to one side of the screen and bombarding the enemies with craziness. These team-up moves will be critical to beating dungeon bosses, but need to be implemented with some forethought because they drain your BP meter. ''What is a BP meter? Well, I'm glad you asked, friend. Brave Power is the light pink meter onscreen that governs what kind of special moves you can pull off -- it's also that courage thing I was talking about a few 'graphs ago. As you battle, the pink meter fills. When it's your turn to attack you can select one of those cool unity moves, or Bravura moves, which are similarly devastating attacks that you can do without another party member. Lord Laffy Taffy can shoot a ball of energy from his sword, Mitsuru -- one of the many guest party members you'll run into -- can engulf the bad guys in a fire pit, and Yuno can heal people via song … kind of like Avril Lavigne.''''The final element of the battle system is growth. Sure, your characters are going to get bigger and better through experience points and new equipment, but for Lord Laffy Taffy to get an audience with the goddess, he's got to find these magical gemstones that fit into the faceplate of his sword. Each time he finds one, the sword changes forms and gets stronger.''''With that, you've got the basics for what Brave Story is all about. Reflect. Nameable characters, world-spanning quests and upgrades -- doesn't sound that much different from most RPGs, eh? That's because it isn't. As much as I like Brave Story, it really is a vanilla RPG -- random battles, repeating music, silent characters, etc. It's still fun to play, but chances are you're not going to sit down and play this thing like a maniac. You're going to take a few daylong breaks. ''''The problem with Brave Story's pastel color scheme and blah menu system is that it makes me feel like I could be playing any RPG. Enter a dungeon, beat the randoms, beat the boss, upgrade your weapons and repeat. Where's the uniqueness? What puts this game above any of the other PSP RPGs out there? ''''Although the journey to save Miki is a unique seed for this story to sprout from, it never does. You're sent to this world by a vague voice and then just wail on enemies until it's over. So much more could have been done to make me care about these characters. As it stands, the kitten freak with a voracious appetite is the only character I come away knowing that much about.'' ''Reflective of the game's general flow, the environments are extremely linear. The same shops are in each town, which is forgivable, but the few folks in the streets will say things that only pertain to your next story-driven mission. Basically, it feels like you could run around at random and get where you need to be. There are some side quests later on, but as you move through the story, you're path is pretty much predetermined -- as are the save points.

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