Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (PSX)

[PDorr3]

(Did a quick search and found no topics talking directly about this game)

Thanks to Gamequestdirect I was able to final play this game as it arrived today.After playing this game for 5 and a half hours today I have come to the conclusion that is is beyond easy, this game is childs play. At the start of every battle I simply use the horn to power up my puppets, and then use the puppet with holy next to whipe out all the enemies. I truly have yet to run into a battle that does not last more than 1 minute. I have yet to have one character die, and I usualy finish off the enemies in 1 turn.

YES, even boss battles only take 2 rounds to complete. Im playing on normal difficulty, and wish I had put it on hard to hopefuly add some kind of difficulty, as there obviously is none, but I hear its not too different on hard either. Its a shame because beyond the occassional bad music lyrics and music that gets repeated WAY too much (isnt this game about music? I mean the same song is played for every town and dungeon) is a great little game, I mean if it kept me occupied for over 5 hours today I'm sure it has some kinda charm. I am wondering for those of you that have played it, how long it took you to beat. It seems like I'm basicaly halfway through the game already, if not more. I really wish it was more challenging, as this game trult could have been really really great.

What are your thoughts on this game?

[Daria]

yup. It's easy.

I can play through the entire game on hard and never use an actual puppet in battle. And the manual even describes Cornette as a little girl, not a warrior. All I can figure is that from playing Nippon Ichi's other titles is that ATLUS might have actually lowered the difficulty settings for this release. Maybe they were aiming for children... speshul children.

That said I still love the game, and the ridiculously easy difficulty level does allow me to fly though the story in a few sittings. The battles also pass so quickly you almost forget the game even has random battles. They're just not a chore... well... to a fault.

[roushimsx]

If I had known anything about the game before I bought it, I would have just saved my money. It was sitting on the shelf, it had just come out, reviews weren't out, and the back of the case made it sound interesting and look really cool.

Money down the drain, as far as I'm concerened.

The highly touted music was crap, the storyline was uninteresting, and it's the single easiest game I've ever played on the Playstation. It was nice that Atlus gave you to option to choose between english and japanese songs, but when both suck you're kinda stuck in a lose lose situtation :(

I wish i could find my case for the game...I'd ebay the hell out of it.

It's sad, because once I found out that Disgaea and LaPucelle Tactics were made by the same company, I totally avoided them until a friend with similar opinions reassured me that LaPucelle Tactics and Disgaea were infinitly better than Rhapsody.

Thank god for him, otherwise I would never have given another Nippon Ichi game a chance again. I don't believe Atlus had anything to do with making the game easier, btw. The game was designed for little girls :(

[Daria]

Oh right almost forgot. I played the game initally in a single evening. Stayed up all night and clocked in 10 hours. But I also missed the netherworld dungeon. That alone adds another hour or two of game play.

As for the music, the only song I really found truley awful was Ferdinand's love song. Corny lyrics are one thing, but that was downright embarressing to listen to. I also find it amusing that none of the characters are really that great of singers, except Cornette. The girl who plays both Etoile and Koruru seems to struggle staying in tune. But they're voices are unique, which is actually more important. Really fits the character's personalitys. And besides storywise Cornette's suppose to be the better vocalist.

I can forgive the repeatition of theme music. I don't think Rhapsody was created on a large budget. That game seems to recycle whenever it can. Which is especially noticable with the dungeon graphics. Everything looks identical. The games really gives the impression that most of the money probably went into recording the vocalized music.

[Dangerboy]

I have to agree; it was beyond easy (though some of the later maps I needed to map out, cuz I have no sense of direction :P) but damn I loved every second of it.

Jason

[PDorr3]

Oh right almost forgot. I played the game initally in a single evening. Stayed up all night and clocked in 10 hours. But I also missed the netherworld dungeon. That alone adds another hour or two of game play.



can I ask what I haveto do so I do not miss this dungeon, if you remember.

[Austin]

This is all very disappointing to hear. I really thought the game sounded really interesting. I suppose I'll save my money. :/

[Daria]

Oh right almost forgot. I played the game initally in a single evening. Stayed up all night and clocked in 10 hours. But I also missed the netherworld dungeon. That alone adds another hour or two of game play.



can I ask what I haveto do so I do not miss this dungeon, if you remember.

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Well you have to recruit the white bunny to your party. So vist him as often as you can, he'll eventually join if he hasn't already. He's in the forest near Orange Village.

And here's the part I first missed...

Then go back to the underground path, the one you used to sneak into the castle in the begining of the game, eventually you'll gain a key to open a locked door down there. When you do you can explore the dungeon.

[evil_genius]

No me gusta...

[sealboy6]

If I wanted this game, what would be a reasonable price, because I can get it for 35 dollars. Is that reasonable or a little too high.

[Aussie2B]

$35 is perfectly reasonable. At this point, I'd say up to $40 for a used copy is fine, and up to $50 for a sealed copy (more if it's got the white seal, I suppose).

Keep in mind that not long ago people were paying what, near $200 for a used copy on eBay? And since people knew what big bucks they could get for it on eBay, it was nearly impossible to come across in the wild before someone else got to it first (probably store employees, in most cases). So really, we're all making out quite nicely. :P I'm just happy to finally be adding it to my collection, along with Persona 2. I just wish they'd hurry up and arrive. :P

[MrRoboto19XX]

I just picked this game up saturday, Im yet to play it. Its one of the only games Ive ever bought as an "investment". Ran me about $40.

Heh, I recognized it from a collectors closet feature in T&T, but who knows how credible that source is, right? :D

[Aussie2B]

I don't know if it's such a good investment anymore, now that there's an unknown number of reprinted/refurbished copies out there. I expect the prices to rise once again when the supply runs limited, though.

[googlefest1]

Great !! now i must find this game

little time + easy game = ahhh, i finaly beat something

[vintagegamecrazy]

The Gamestop near me has a copy for $40 I may try to grab it soon to add it to my collection.

[davepesc]

I just found a copy of this for $40 at EB. Bought it along with Castlevania Chronicles for $30 and a free FF VII (been wanting to replay it) as part of their Buy 2 get 1 deal.

The clerk rang up my $70 and physically braced for the complaining to start. After a second, his partner said, "at least he's not going to complain about the price."

I laughed and said I knew what Rhapsody and CC go for and had let several ebay auctions slip through my fingers.
Besides, it was kinda cool just to see them in a store.

[Aussie2B]

I just gave it a try last night, and I was pleasantly surprised. The general consensus on the game (not just here, but everywhere on the 'net) isn't especially positive, but I liked it. More than anything, the game is so charming. It almost reminds me of Wonder Project J2 a little (or perhaps another favorite of mine, Tail Concerto). It's so cute and saccharine, yet somehow manages to avoid being sickeningly sweet. It's definitely a nice change of pace from the typical teenage angst in most RPGs, and I've had my fill of "dark" games. The dialogue is actually genuinely funny at times, and the silly characters are endearing, like the egg guy named Kid who wields an axe. :) I even kind of like the ridiculous, sappy plot.

The graphics are really beautiful, even if it does get repetitive at times, and the music is pretty nice. I only heard one song with vocals, but I was surprised that the singing was actually half decent in Japanese. I have no idea about the singing in English, though.

I put the difficulty on hard after hearing about how easy it is, but even that was incredibly easy. While I can see this getting potentially annoying after several hours, I wasn't too bothered in the hour and half or so I was playing. The battles are fast-paced, which helps, and the unique strategy RPG style to the battles keep them interesting. They could've easily killed it by going with a generic turn-based or ATB system, but making the battles feel different from the norm saves it from its low challenge level.

So overall, I'm quite pleased. :) Rhapsody is so easy to get into, I might have to make the time to play through the whole thing sometime soon. I can totally see where all the complaints come from, though. When most gamers are guys, and most of these guys who play RPGs worship stuff like Final Fantasy VII where it's all about huge swords, monsters, and drama, I can see why they'd feel like Rhapsody is a threat to their masculinity. :P But since I'm a chick, it doesn't matter a bit to me. :)

[PDorr3]

Yeah I wish I had played through on hard, because the whole game you can just use holy with your first puppet at the start of every battle and kill everything (bosses take 2-3 hits)
It was enjoyable though despite its OVERLY easy gameplay.

[Kid Fenris]

Rhapsody really is a mediocre game. The battles are boring, and the grid-based combat is pointless when fights are so easy. I'd like to try the original Japanese version to see if Atlus toned down the challenge, but even if the game got harder, that wouldn't improve the dungeon treks, which are only slightly more interesting than marching your character in a straight line.

That said, I love the shit out of Rhapsody. The visual style and music have a bright, gentle, zen-like quality, and the story's a fun reverse-clichéd fairy tale, with a clever translation that lands somewhere between the usual competent Atlus localizations and the humorous rewrites of Working Designs. The songs can border on the excruciating, but I give the English voice cast credit for trying. I wish I knew the actors' names.

Yes, Rhapsody's a waste of time for those who value gameplay above all else (which probably accounts for its lukewarm reputation more than any testosterone-inspired complaints). Yet it's really a unique and charming little game. I don't plan to sell my copy, partly because I like it and partly because I won it in a contest from the GIA, which makes the game constant proof that I haven't failed at everything.

I bugged the NIS rep about Marl's Kingdom or whatever the Rhapsody sequel is called, but they have no plans to release it over here. Oh well, I'll just shut my eyes and sing to myself "Whenever I am feeling sad...And everything around looks BAAAAAAADDD..."

[jdc]

You don't play Rhapsody for the game......you play it for the experience. Great humour, cute characters with bad attitude, incredible presentation and a general love of Atlus games.

[Aussie2B]

I just wanted to say that last night I played this game again, but this time I waited around on the title screen to see if there was a demo and... GOOD GOD that was horrible. x_x I'll say one nice thing first: the singer for Cornet was half decent, in an insipid sings-for-English-dubbed-video-games kind of way. However, Kururu's singer was AWFUL, and the entire song was ruined by the embarrasingly bad lyrics. It's clear to me that they put little effort into actually translating the Japanese lyrics (and this I say without even knowing the Japanese lyrics, haha). Instead, they just tried to come up with something that rhymed, and clearly, whoever was given this job is NOT a poet or a songwriter. I read through all the lyrics in the manual of the game, and man... I bet whoever wrote this tripe was really proud of that "ocean/lotion" rhyme in the pirate song. :P

You know it's not a good sign when someone is credited for "Lyrics Sweetening".

[hezeuschrist]

Now I'm torn on this title. I want to pick it up simply because it's a PSX RPG made by Atlus... on the other hand I didn't put it on my initial list because it didn't sound that interesting, especially for the cost at the time.

I guess I'll snag it if I can find it around the $20 range.