Monday 8 August 2016

Legend of Heroes: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch

Lets just get a few things out of the way.

This game is the 3rd legend of heroes game
It is part of a trilogy known as the "Ghargav Trilogy", there three games are "Prophecy of the moonlight witch", "Tear of Vermillion", "Song of the ocean". (in that order)
For some reason when Namco Bandai localized the games they put it out in the order "Tear of Vermillion, Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch and then Song of the ocean"
I don't know why they did this other then because they could? my best guess is that maybe someone thought they should be chronological as tear takes place before Prophecy? i honestly don't know cause other then taking place on the three continents separated by the storm wall on garghav.... they don't seem to have too much in common... maybe song of the ocean will change that... i don't know yet.


Now... i have already finished Tear of Vermillion, i beat it in 2011 and only found out during the end credits how chronologically confused this whole mess was. So technically speaking i have been playing the game in North american order.
Does it change anything? not really... maybe there are some references in Tear that would have been more meaningful had i played it second... but past that they really aren't very connected.
well other then you can have a cat companion follow you around in both...

I will say that between these two games the translation is a million times better in Prophecy... even if the story isn't quite as heart wrenching as Tear.

The story is fairly simple.
Jurio and Christina (shortened to Chris) are two kids from a small town called Ragpick and they have just come of age to start the pilgrimage that everyone in town goes on. It's a tradition that not many do anymore but it is still strong in this tiny village.
However what is supposed to be just a simple journey around the continent ends up being the key to thwarting a plot to destroy the world. (because this is a JRPG and it has to be something like that)

Along the way they meet many people (from low life bumbling theifs to kinds and great sorcerers)  and learn more about the Moonlight witch and why she had a similar pilgrimage to the one these children are on.

There are a few loose ends that i think may have just been lost in translation.  mostly the fact that Chris is a year older then intended for the pilgrimage (she was too sick to do it the previous year)... i thought that may come into play but i never really seemed to? it's just an odd detail to have but to not follow up on... i guess they just didn't want you playing as one character the bulk of the game.
Because oh yeah did i mention... for most of this game you have a two person party... and when you do get other members you never get to pick them... not even for the final fight (which sucked cause two characters could barely do any damage so they were just on healing duty while the other two murdered stuff)

The game itself though.... it's okay...
for a falcom games the music is very.... blah... the songs work as song for a game but i expect a bit more from the music this company produces.
Gameplay is where this falls on it's face.
wanna know what attacks will be effective? too bad.
wanna attack something with magic but it's too far? too bad.

The combat is 'fine'... but considering every fight is actually pretty dangerous (in the fact that even weak enemies can really take a bite out of your health) and repetative (almost every encounter is the same set up of monsters) i found myself just avoiding battles near the end... which you think would have been bad but the final boss was pretty easy... i almost one shot the penultimate boss...

However the story is cute, i liked seeing Jurio and Chris deal with the fact that they are in so far over their head yet they continue to push on.
I really enjoyed how the moonlight Witch fit into everything and was this invisible connection to everyone involved.
and yeah... all the characters were fun and pretty memorable.

I first started playing this in 2012 however when i picked it up again in 2016 i remembered very little (which kinda sucks.... i was really close to the end) so i ended up replaying the whole game... it wasn't very long i can't give an exact number because it doesn't let me save at the end (I HATE when games do that) but i would say between 20-25 hours.

And now all i have left is Song of the Ocean. Maybe because it's the actual third game in both japan and north america some of the games oddities will be ironed out.... or at least maybe a better translation? either way i am a little excited to beat yet another Legend of heroes game as i wait for Cold Steel 2 and Trails in the Sky The 3rd... wont be long now~

On final Note.... a little annoying that Namco Bandai desperately tried to make this seem like their game... falcom is barely mentioned at all and that is kinda lame.

Curious about what i thought when i beat Tear of Vermillion over 5 years ago? you can read it here

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