 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | Game Arts |
| Publisher: | Square Enix | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | HDTV 720p | |
| Buy Now: |   |
I’m a sucker for flight combat games. I always have been. Games like Wing Commander and the X-wing series hold a special place in my all-time library. This even bleeds to action/flight titles like Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge for the Xbox. Unfortunately, the genre’s pretty much fallen on hard times. On the PC side, there hasn’t been a relevant release in years. As for consoles, outside of the sole Crimson Skies title, there really isn’t a solid flight game that balances high action gameplay with at least a passable story. Enter the Xbox 360 exclusive Project Sylpheed: Arc of Deception. One look at the box should let you know what to expect here. This is an anime Space Opera jammed between an action space fighter game. The pedigree of the series goes back to Silpheed series (early PC, Sega CD, and PS2), though I honestly had never heard of it until now. Developed by GameArts of Lunar fame, Project Sylpheed is published by Japanese RPG giant Square Enix. If you’re familiar with the products of any of those companies, you should have an idea of what to expect from this title.
The story progresses in Project Sylpheed through cutscenes before and after the missions. If you’ve ever watched a Japanese animation series involving space navies and a war, you can essentially guess the plot. A group of colonies have rebelled against earth, and it’s up to a batch of teenagers to save the universe. Typical anime fare, and even someone who’s only watched what they used to show on Cartoon Network’s Toonami could guess all of the plot twists and what actually happens here. Putting the clichéd plot aside, Project Sylpheed does effectively bridge together a story between missions. It may not be a good story, but you certainly have a feel for what is going on with the characters and in the game.
There are issues with the story and the cutscenes. They never really establish Bird Flight at all (the other half of your squadron, whose flight leader appears in multiple cutscenes). There’s also just something wrong with how the characters look inside of the cutscenes. They don’t look lifelike, and almost resemble puppets ala Team America: World Police. You never really understand why the main character has an unhealthy obsession with his old friend on the other side. I get they’re trying to show he’s conflicted with fighting his friend, but the obsession over it shared by the main character and their mutual female friend just comes off wrong on far too many levels. Again, the plot is clichéd, even for anime standards and seems to crib every Sci-Fi anime made to develop a hodgepodge plot. Again, it works for what it is, and it advances the game, but it has some really bad, cornball moments.
The actual gameplay is similar to that of the Ace Combat series, except in space so that pesky ground and gravity can’t take over. Before each mission, you can outfit your ship with a variety of weapons. New weapons are developed using points awarded after each mission, and some have prerequisites to unlock (ie: develop this first, beat this mission). The weapons load affects your weight class of the fighter. While lighter builds were certainly more maneuverable, I found myself going out with a heavy load in every mission.
The actual missions themselves are fun. You have a choice between simple or advanced controls (main difference being advanced controls separates Yaw from Roll controls), and you can either put the camera in a 3rd person view behind the ship or a first person view. You don’t get a full cockpit view, but the first person view is close enough. Targeting controls are extremely awkward, and I just found myself following the mission critical tags out of the HUD rather than cycle through the targets. As far as the actual combat goes, Project Sylpheed does an excellent job of recreating that same feel you would get in the old PC space combat simulations. You can weave between larger ships while pursuing a fighter while issuing orders to your squad. One small touch that I enjoyed was that the communications channel is flooded with chatter from your squad, supporting ships, and the enemy. It helps distract you from the bad background music (which sounds like 16 bit era RPG music), and it gives a feel for action in a space combat zone.
Posted: 2007-08-16 17:30:05 PST