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Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure:
Platform: Playstation Publisher: Atlus Software Developer: Nippon Ichi Software Projected Release: May 2000
Atlus gave RPG fans a very fresh take on the RPG genre with Thousand Arms in 1999. A few years ago a game like this would never have seen the light of day in North America, but this RPG / Dating Sim hybrid beat the odds peaking fans interest in the rather unconventional game. Now Atlus is busily localizing another unique RPG with Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure for the Playstation.
Players are put in control of a heroine by the name of Cornet, who has the ability to talk to puppets, as she tries to save the Prince, who has been turned to stone; all while trying to find her one true love (now, now, don't cringe at the lovey-dovey stuff). So off she goes with her puppet companions on a journey throughout the Kingdom of Marl to make things right and defeat the evil sorceress Marjoly, who cast the spell on the prince.
Sticking with its ultra-cute theme, Rhapsody's graphics are of the 2d Sprite variety, with very anime influenced character and monster design. Looking at the images, they are very bright and cheery, helping add to the happy-go-lucky vibe of the game. It would seem that games like Saga Frontier 2 with hand-drawn artwork are beginning to regain their popularity, after a fairly strong showing from the polygon crowd.
Battles take the traditional turn-based format, but players will be able to move their characters across the field to areas within their range, much like in Final Fantasy Tactics except it's all on flat terrain. Armed with her magical horn, Cornet uses it summon her puppets to wreck havoc on the enemy. In a setting like a battle, where carnage would usually reign supreme, Rhapsody's cutesy qualities shine through once more. Forget about going sword to sword and launching fireballs for a moment, because here you'll also be able to drop huge stacks of pancakes, and launch shortcakes on the monsters in order to achieve victory. The "Musical Adventure" part of the game comes through singing breaks much like that of a Broadway musical. After some talking, the characters will break into song to progress the story, as opposed to a cut-scene. This could be a great tool to help players get through a long section of story telling. Instead of pushing themselves to get through the reading, players could find themselves humming along. "Quirky" and "unique" are two words that are often used to describe games as they're in production, but they almost always fall short in the end. With the approach that Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is taking it's hard to imagine these words not fitting the bill. Preview by Kaspian May 5, 2000
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