From the WIKI page:
The story is good, but it seems to drag on a little painfully at times. Of course, I'm basing this on a fan translation... Though you can tell that there wouldn't be much difference otherwise.

Most of the back story is "optional". You get to hear more through cutscenes by talking to certain characters. This is good if you want to get straight to the action, but it leaves you a bit unsatisfied if you don't talk to everyone every chance you get.

Where the story shines is in the characters. They each have a distinct personality, which gives you a strong sense of attachment. Matelite and Taicho add some very welcome comic relief, Yoyo is a chick that actually grows on you and Rush really gets you into the action with his upbeat persona.

All and all, it's pretty solid and enjoyable.


The music, oh god the music. If you enjoy the music from Final Fantasy 6, Secret Of Mana etc... Then the music in Bahamut Lagoon is gonna grow on you.

The only problem is, that the same songs get played too often. For the most part you hear one song for the enemy phase and one for the player phase. It gets repetitive pretty quick... But it's enjoyable, so I don't really care.

The actual sound effects are top notch too. Sword attacks sound like sword attacks, fire spells sound like fire spells... And there's a great deal of them to go around.


This is one of those games that make me which they would go back and do some more SNES games. It proves that with the right team, visuals can rival that of PSX games.

Did you think the enemies in Final Fantasy 6 looked awesome? What about the backgrounds? Well, take all of those graphics, add even more polish (doesn't seem possible, but they pulled it off) and animate nearly everything. Yes, I said animate. Probably 95% or so of all the enemies and characters are animated to some degree. You'll take one look at them standing still and say "Holy crap! That looks freakin' sweet!!!". Then once they attack and show off their fluid animation, you'll most likely crap your pants.


It also takes advantage of some awesome MODE7 effects for backdrops during the cutscenes. Probably some of the best I've seen.


The only reason I didn't give the graphics a perfect score, is because some of the animations are a little whacky. If you've fought a chimara, you'd agree that it's hard to tell what the hell is going on with it's legs. This reason, and the fact that Star Ocean/Tales Of Phantasia have it beaten are why it gets a 9.0.


This is gonna be a long one...

Gameplay is what makes this game so enjoyable. It's your standard strategy RPG affair (ala Final Fantasy Tactics), but with a few major twists.

First off, each troop consists of multiple characters. When it's your turn you can move, attack, heal, blah blah blah... The thing is, there's two different ways to do everything.

You can attack/heal on the field as in FFT mentioned above (this is mainly done with long range attacks/spells), or you can go straight up to the enemy and begin a turn based battle. Turn based battles net you more EXP, gold, items and are generally stronger... While field attacks get you fewer of said things, but can't be counter attacked.


Another big twist are the dragons. Each troop get's there own dragon, to which they can issue commands (Go!, Come!, Wait! etc...).

That's not the cool part though... In between each battle, you get the chance to feed your dragons items you've won. Each item has a different effect on it's stats. Fire Rods will give your dragon points in "Fire", "Attack" and "Wisdom". Ice Armor will give it points in "Ice", "Defence" and "HP". You get the picture.

The elements cap out at 100. After it gets one point in any element, it will learn an attack in said element... For each 10 points after that, the level of that attack will raise by one. Changing it's animation and strength.

For each elemental attack a dragon learns, it's troop will learn attacks based on that element as well... So if you have a troop with a wizard in it and the dragon is of the fire element, that troop will be able to use a fire base range attack on the field and fire based spells in battles. Also, if your dragons fire element is at level 6, the attacks your troop have will be as well.


This game has another thing I'll call "stacking". Say you have one wizard with a LVL 4 ice spell. Put that wizard in a troop with another that has a LVL 9 ice spell. This will give you the ability to use LVL 13 ice spells (only on the field, as allies take turns in battle). Put a healer with LVL 6 light element in with a LVL 5, a LVL 8 and a LVL 3... You'll be able to use LVL 22 healing spells.

The only reason I gave gameplay an 8.5 as opposed to 10, is the lack of controls over the dragons... This is SERIOUSLY going to piss you off. One dragon has 200 HP missing out of say 4,000. Does it need to be healed? NO!!! But the healing dragon doesn't seem to give a damn. He wants his friend to be in tip top shape. Another thing... Say your dragon has LVL 10 fire skills and LVL 1 poison skills. It'll go ahead and try poison more often then you'd think. Stupid bastards...


This is seriously one of those gems that needs to be played. If you're not into strategy RPGs, at least check it out for the music or just to gawk at how great the enemies look. Sure the dragons will make you shake your head in sadness from time to time, but this is how it would be in reality (if dragons actually existed). Teaching a dog to use Fire Breath on ice enemies, and Thunder Blow on earth enemies isn't a sure thing... He's bound to mess it up sometimes.

Story 4.5/5
Sound 4.5/5
Graphics 4.5/5
Gameplay 4/5
Score:

Okami
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Clover Studio
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1

Okami was a game that I was first intrigued by simply because of its art style. The game looked absolutely gorgeous and it had my interest immediately. Knowing little more than that about the game, except that my sister planned to buy it day one, today I got to play it. It immediately felt like LoZ:TP wolf mode in good way. Like Zelda with way more style. Well not quite Zelda.. But close. You begin with none of your actual powers (Sound familiar?) but that doesn't last long at all. In 2 hours you should have 2-3 of you brush techniques acquired and you'll be well on your way. You'll be wondering how this game will stretch to 30 hours but apparently it does! The brush work is fun, quick and easy especially when compared to the PS2's offering 2 years back. Other than the lackluster dodging with the nunchuck this game feels like it was built for the Wii.



Combat is fast and fun but not as often as some action games. Theres plenty to keep you interested in between battles however. I found myself enjoying myself doing practically nothing because of how it looked. Just running through a cave is almost fun. Other than that there are plenty of side quests and smaller missions to keep you very busy for a long time.

My biggest complaint is easily the voices of the characters. They sound like the people from Animal Crossing if their vocabulary was badly reduced. Very unpleasing to your ears. Its a wordy game too so get used to high pitch mumbling noises.



With that being said its an amazing game. My biggest complaint is something that most would find trivial and has no serious effect on the game. If you have not played Okami or maybe its been a while you absolutely have to buy this game. For a budget title this game is simply amazing. $40. Go buy it. In fact buy 5.

Score:

Wii Review by zzt
LostWinds
(Avalible on Wii shop channel under WiiWare)

Publisher: Frontier Developments
Developer: Frontier Developments
Genre: Adventure
# of Players: 1
Price: 1000 Wii points ($10)

Overview:
In LostWinds you play as Toku, a young boy who finds a piece of the Spirit Stone that contains the spirit of wind Enril, and the two set off on a quest to seal off an ancient evil that has invaded the island of Mistralis.

Gameplay:
In this game the player uses the wiimote/nunchuck combo.The nunchuck is mainly used to control Toku, the little boy. He climbs and reacts automatically. The most you have to do is push Z make him pick up objects. Then comes the main reason this game is so great, the Wind. The Wiimote is used to control the on screen cursor (the spirit Enril) to put the power of wind in your hands. Just move the cursor, and a sudden breeze wisks by anything nearby. This in itself is very amusing as people react, trees sway, and the grass and flowers flow at the mere signs of the wind. Then the A and B buttons come into play. Holding A creates a gust of wind, letting one do a number of things, the first and formost of which is letting Toku jump. Just draw a gust of wind under Toku and he is wisked upwards. Later you can draw what is known as a "slipstream" with B to create a wind current, of which I will let you discover its uses. As one of the first Wiiware games, I just have to say this kind of gameplay is so refreshing. There WILL be moments that you think to yourself " that is just amazing..." when you discover the true power of the wind.


Graphics:
There are some games that have good gameplay but poor graphics, and vice versa. This game on the other hand lets you have your cake and eat it too. What I mean is that while the gameplay goes above and beyond, the graphics are PHENOMENAL! The pictures almost speak for themselves. The game takes place on a 2D plane with 3D graphics with maybe a bit of cellshading. The style seems to be a mix of Native American/Aztec. The closes thing it resemebles to me is LittleBig Planet, a PS3 game for crying out loud! Seriously though, there are many games on the Wii that cost 5 times this much and do not look anywhere near this good. I can only hope other developers take a que from this and start taking advantage of the Wii as such.

Sound:
Another one of my favorites. The sound also takes a que from the Aztec/Native American style as it consists of drums and flutes. There seems to be only this one song through the main parts of the game but it is so beautiful and calming you will not mind. Battles do have a small melody that comes into play when enemies are in the area.

Replay Value:
Alas, every rose must have its thorn. If there was one issue with this game, it is its length. The game time clocks in at about two and a half to three hours, maybe four if you find all the secrets. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT let this turn you off, as this is really only a quality over quantity issue. The time you spend with this game is one of a great experience. Not since Okami has a game inspired me this much. Also remember that the game is only $10. You will more than likely want to play this one again from time to time, so take that into consideration.

Conclusion:
What a game. After playing this, I cannot wait to see what else can be done with the Wii and its WiiWare. The graphics and gameplay are great, the sound is wonderful, and the only reason not to get this game is if you are looking for a high energy, bloody, gory, action intense game. Even if you did somehow mistake this game for one, you would still have a great time.

Score:
I wish there was a way to give a score with only a quarter of a point off (like a 4.75) but I have to work with what I have. Due to the relative short length of the game, which is only a small complaint, mind you, I give this game a:



IMAGES COURTASY OF IGN

Viva Pinata
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Rare
Genre: Life Simulation
Players: 1-2



At first glance, Viva Pinata may come off as a kids game, or even a girls game. In reality it is a game that people off all ages can enjoy! For those unfamiliar with Viva Pinata, the game is similar to Animal Crossing. The purpose of the game is to built your garden and attract various Pinata's to the garden by fullfilling various requirments.



The game is controlled through a cursor in a "first person" sense. The gameplay is built for a PC, but it works remarkably well on the Xbox 360. You must build your garden from scratch using various tools at your disposal, later on in the game you will unlock shops that will allow you to buy ornaments, clothing, etc for your garden. Once you attract Pinata's you have the opportunity to breed them by filling certain requirments, once you have enough of one species, you will have the opportunity to send them to parties, or to sell them at the local shops for choclate coins.



The graphics are beautiful, although my only complaint was the frame rate drop when the game decides to auto save. It is miniscule and really dosen't hurt the game play any.



The audio is beautiful, the sound track is amazing like all the audio coming from Rare! The Dolby mix is remarkable and helps compement the game greatly.



Their is a ton of replay value in this game, no two play throughs will be a mirror experince, along with the saying that no two gardens will be alike.



I highly recommend you pick this game up, sadly it is in many bargin bins now.



I though this review would be timely since the sequel was announced this morning for a September release date, I'm suprised how nothing gets leaked from Rare now a days!