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Crimson Gem Saga

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From: Atlus
Category: Video Games

List Price: ~~$29.99~~
Buy New: $29.59
as of 7/30/2010 05:25 CDT details
You Save: $0.40 (1%)

New (8) Used (3) Collectible (2) from $20.00

Seller: game-ware
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

10 reviews
Sales Rank: 4707

Platform: Sony PSP
Genre: role_playing_games
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Sony PSP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.1 x 0.6

MPN: CG-60008-3
Model: CG-60008-3
UPC: 730865600083
EAN: 0730865600083
ASIN: B001QTW2HI

Publication Date: May 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:

•	Ambushes and chained critical hits add additional layers of complexity to what gamers will immediately find to be a solid, tried-and-true combat engine
•	Featuring artwork and a beautiful presentation designed to take full advantage of the PSP's high-resolution screen
•	Delivers the crisp character designs, sweeping background art, and stunning special effects gamers have come to expect from elite JRPGs
•	30+ hours of gameplay
•	Stunning 2-D art design

Accessories:

2-Year Replacement Service Plan - Covers Electronic Items $0-$49.99

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Crimson Gem Saga for PSP...Crimson Gem Saga is all about the fundamentals of RPG fun: lush hand-drawn visuals an engaging fantasy tale and an easy-to-use interface. That's not to leave out the fast turn-based bat ambush attacks bo chains and special attacks involving multiple party members. And you certainly would not want to overlook the stellar musical score and voice work. In fact pared to the Korean and Japanese releases there are over 500 more lines of recorded voice just for the North American release. RETURN TO ESSENTIAL RPG FUN-Remember what made RPGs simply fun experiences and you'll find it here. Easy to pick up and play with a full package of addictive bat beautiful graphics interesting story and fantastic voice work this is a title that will charm genre newbies and veteran players alike. AWESOME BO-FILLED BAT-This is turn-based RPG bat at its most fun. Attack your enemies before they attack you and gain the advantage of the first hit in battle. Master the Critical Combo System to deliver multiple hits and deliver major damage to an enemy. Team up with allies to unleash massive dual triple or full-team attacks. DISTINCTIVELY BEAUTIFUL 2-D WORLD-Vibrant colorful and distinctive this is a world that will draw and keep you inside the fantasy. Detailed character portraits and fluid beautiful sprites further make this a treat for the eyes. A FAR SUPERIOR SEQUEL-Forget what you know about the series because this is a totally new experience. With a plete graphical facelift a brand new story and cast and newly polished bat this is a game that blows right past its predecessor.

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 10

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Amazing game! June 9, 2009
J. Grojec
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

I have been a bit skeptical when picking this game up. There are a lot of bad RPGs out there on the PSP and Nintendo DS.

This game though is just amazing. It is a very simple old school turn based RPG done right. It has amazing graphics. The whole game just looks beautiful from villages, towns, castles to characters. You will never see a boring looking location or character and the battle animations are top notch as well.

The dialogue and story is VERY well written even between regular villagers or people you meet. It also has a bit of humor thrown in. When I entered one INN in a village and talked to the girl behind the counter she said "I am running the inn because my mother is sick, and NO this is not a start of a medicine fetching quest. You adventurers are all alike." Or I found a bomb in a treasure chest next to a bed in an INN and the main character stopped and said "A bomb, at an INN next to the guest bed?"
This sort of writing and interaction makes you actually WANT to talk to all the villagers instead of just running through the game doing the main quest.

Anyways, pick this one up. It is really a great game. I am very surprised that it received so very little hype and marketing. It could have really made the headlines.

5 out of 5 stars

A great solid JRPG June 8, 2009
AlexJouJou (California)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Crimson Gem Saga is great for what it is: traditional JRPG. It does not set it self up to be the most innovative new game so the expectation from the beginning is that this is an excellent solid turn based role play game. Does it deliver on the expectation? Yes.

The graphics are quite nice with clear sprites and lush backgrounds. You can see some of the expressions on the sprites which is very neat. In some of the dungeons it can be hard to tell the difference between what you are supposed to interact with and just regular dungeon as the color scheme is so neutral but you do get used to it.

The characters are as standard as it gets--and you can read about them in the booklet. You've got recent graduate boy out to make a difference in the world, your mage, your thief, etc etc etc.

Localization: In a word--AMAZING. This title will have you smiling and laughing at what some of the characters say--early on Killian (lead) opens a "treasure" box in an inn (standard for RPG...the ones in this game are green) and there isa comment from him "A BOMB! Next to a guest bed?". Moments like this are why I developed a hearty apprecation for the localization crew for this Atlus title--and Atlus can be hit or miss on this. I find it fairly unique that when Atlus gets it they literally knock it out of the park--this game and Luminous Arc (first and second) just have wonderful dialogue between characters and they've retained all the humor, sarcasm, and uniqueness even with a tranlsation which is not easy to do. THANK YOU ATLUS!

I was very shocked to hear the voice acting which I found *really* superb---and I rarely say that about a RPG for a handheld. Wherever they got these guys I hope they go back for any future games--the emotions are spot on and the voice acting (it is only partially voice acted) really conveys the characters emotions and personalities very well.

The music is another area where I was very pleasantly suprised. There are some great tunes for battles and the bosses and overall I found it well crafted. The energy of the music is used very well as it fits within the story.

The gameplay is standard. Dungeon's, quests, towns. I did like that it was not really random encounter based--you can see the enemies and it becomes a game of who can catch who first---proper benefits (ambush) to the victor. Neat! The menu works fine although I wish when you went to shop you knew how many of something you had--but that's a minor issue and the information is accessible just not on the same screen.

I like the use of skill tree's. I find this greatly enhances gameplay and I appreciate being able to choose how I will allocate those points. Revealing all the levels on the skill tree is kind of a waste--because you may not want to have all those skills or you may choose to allocate your skill points across characters--but, as always, this is an RPG so you will be grinding anyway so SP isn't that hard to come by if you know where to look.

Difficulty: Medium. I had heard this was too easy---I don't think generically this is easy---but I do think that you can "over" skill or level your characters thereby making combat a breeze. This would be up to you though as a player. If you choose to get Ultimate Skills with tons of power early on you really can't expect that this choice isn't going to affect the gameplay. And you as a player have a choice with whether to use any of these special skills in each round--so really it is all about the player.

Overall--Excellent game. Doesn't push any boundary's (although it does break the fourth wall) but is a solid enjoyable experience. It is not really long so if you are looking for a 60 hour complicated masterpiece with a New Game+ at the end this is not your game. For anyone else this title should simply not be missed. The price point is standard. I was kind of bummed there were no spoils for this title but that has nothing to do with the game itself.

5 out of 5 stars

Great sprite based RPG January 5, 2010
C. Jackson (Youngsville, NC)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Love this spritet based rpgs the best. There's beautiful graphics, great voice-work, interesting and quirky characters, fun combat (everything you'd expect out of a classic rpg). This may be an RPG for hardcore gamers though. Even if you level up a lot, monsters are still a challenge. Some people say it's a flaw, but I think it was made this way to be hardcore. The only thing I don't like about this game is that you can learn the characters skills to fast. Other than that, it's a great RPG.

5 out of 5 stars

i luvs it! but i can't stop being annoyed by a few things... June 8, 2009
Antistrophe (Rhode Island)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful

i really like CGS... a lot... but there are a few niggling issues that have gotten under my skin:

#1. no numeric HP on enemies. just a yellow gauge. it hamstrings your strategy by not allowing you to choose an appropriate attack. you'll either waste MP on performing a special attack when a regular attack would have done the job -- or the opposite -- thus lengthening a battle by several rounds.

#2. the same 'blue monster' in the field. i know that's how it has to be since it's not 'random' encounters, but a tiny variety would be helpful so you'd know whether it's a battle worth fighting, or just weaklings not worth your time since you'll only get 1 or 2 experience points.

#3. staying with the 'blue monster' issue... during battle, there's a 'turn gauge' by way of little 'head avatars' representing all involved in the battle and their turn order. unfortunately, there's no way of knowing which specific enemy will be attacking next, because the 'turn gauge' avatars for ALL enemies are the same 'blue monster' heads, NOT the actual enemy heads. so, for example, it's Killian's turn and the 'turn gauge' shows an enemy will be next. you won't be able to attack for certainty that specific 'looming' enemy in an attempt to kill it before its turn, so you're left guessing which enemy will be attacking next. (you'll be wrong most of the time.)

#4. time wasting issues, like excessive 'X' button pushing... when you turn on the game, when you save the game, when you navigate the menus, during battles, etc. etc.

BUT, i still LOVE the game!
(and it's very purtty =)

4 out of 5 stars

Something that you might not be expecting. June 6, 2009
M. Swanson (North Dakota, USA)
35 out of 36 found this review helpful

I will admit, this game caught me off guard. Crimson Gem Saga is a sequel to Astonishia Story, a game that came out a few years ago for the PSP. However, there are so many differences that they chose to release it under a new name, or from what I understand anyways. When I originally heard that it was from the same team, I grew rather worried because Astonishia Story was a very lackluster title, or at least I thought it was. However, any doubts were immediately washed away when I first started playing this game.

Crimson Gem Saga was brought over to the US by Atlus, which means that we'll be getting a high quality translation along with great care to the product. One can immediately tell by the beautiful anime introduction that they didn't skimp on this title. The story is about a young man, Killian, who strives to be the best, but always ends up coming in second. The game starts you off, waking up late and almost missing your graduation. I won't go into any more of the story, for this is something that needs to be played to really enjoy it. Granted, the story isn't grand by all means and some might consider the beginning to be slow, but Killian soon discovers that he has a much greater adventure than just simply trying to figure out what to do after he graduates. Killian is met by a very well rounded cast. Spinel, who is your elf treasure hunter and is probably by far one of the best voiced characters in this game. There is also Henson, the arrogant-ish mage. Gelts, who is a former holy man, though he looks more like a warrior. Lahduk, who is the silent and very powerful monk and Acelora, whom I haven't encountered so far in my 8 hours of playing the game.

While I haven't played the Japanese version, I can say that Atlus did a superb job translating this title. I don't think I've played an RPG in the past few years that had me smiling as much as Crimson Gem Saga has, nor enjoying it as much. They even go so far as to break the fourth wall rather early in the game. However, none of this ruins the mood of the game and only adds to the enjoyment of what otherwise would be a rather typical plot line. What also caught me off guard was the voice work. This is by far the best voiced title from Atlus and one of the best for the PSP. They chose a very well rounded cast that perfectly fit each respected character. I personally consider the principle of the school Killian graduates from to be one of my favorites. There are dips in performances here and there, but overall it's a very well done game. There is not a Japanese VA option, so for those who prefer the original voice work, you might be disappointed. However, I don't think it would of synced up very well with the English translated scrip anyways.

Crimson Gem Saga is also a rather gorgeous title. It uses sprites and strives for a more traditional feel, which works very nicely. The backgrounds for all the areas I've visited so far are all quite lovely and there is a variety in monsters, skin swapping included though. Sprites have a nice look to them and each character has a death animation as well. They even provided Spinel with some 'bounce' to her character, but it depends on if you look at that as being unnecessary or generous. Either or, you still have to admit they put a lot of work into the characters for this title. Characters interact in a traditional manner via one still portrait and text below, sometimes accompanied by voice work with the text. As previously mentioned, this is a very well translated title, with some rather unusual NPCs. The sound is another aspect of this title that caught me off-guard. I wasn't expecting such a different style of soundtrack for this RPG, or at least I felt it differed from the norm. I found that CGS offers a rather enjoyable score on the overall.

Battle is also rather traditional, being turn based. Monsters are visible on screen and you run into them to initiate battle. CGS also has a pre-emptive system, which is highly recommended. If you initiate a battle with the enemy from behind before it can spot you (it'll have a ! over it's head if you've been spotted), your entire party will attack however many enemies you may be fighting once before going into turn based. This can be reversed, however, if the enemy spots you and runs into you after the exclamation point goes away. This makes fighting much more than the standard formula. What also breaks it up is if you get a critical, you have a chance of continuing your attack. Near the bottom of the screen, just above your team's health and mana status, an 'X' will appear. Pressing it allows your character to attack once more and if their lucky again, they'll get another 'X' in which they'll preform yet another powerful attack, more so than the first two. This can really turn the tide in a battle and, in some cases, kill an enemy in one turn or severely damage it.

I'm close to 8 hours into the title and I've got quite a bit of gameplay left to go. I have to say that I highly recommend this game. The only downside is CGS likes to do quests within quests. Being that you might be assigned one quest by someone, but the individual you need to go talk to might want you to do something for them before they give you what you need, etc. This can become rather tedious and unfortunately there are a decent amount of fetch quests in CGS, but the quests within a quest scenarios don't happen often. That's probably the only downfall I can really think of this title, but I don't personally consider it a problem or find it hampering to my experience. Even then, I'm absolutely enjoying this game and considering it runs at $29.99 I can't see a reason as to not picking this title up.

Showing reviews 1-5 of 10

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