Ever since its inception, I thought the PSP was going to be an RPG rich console. Great screen real estate, powerful graphics for a handheld, and plenty of disc capacity. Playing chunks of RPGs while on the road, waiting for appointments, or laying in bed at night always seemed like a great idea. The DS has received a ton of RPGs, few of which are really high quality affiars, but the PSP does not have either the abundance nor the quality. Along comes a new Atlus RPG with little to no fanfare, no big name to market, and without a well known developer behind it, Crimson Gem Saga. Even though the name could be mistaken for a match-3 puzzle game, what we get is a very high quality, turn-based RPG.
I won't say Crimson Gem Saga has an old-school feel. I hate that term for turn-based RPGs. That's like saying Halo 3 has an old school feel because it's basically the same play mechanics as Doom. Saga sports a slick battle system that both plays quickly and has the expected strategy involved. Turn order is listed at the top of the screen, much like Final Fantasy X. On a player's turn, menu choices appear in standard menu based format with attacks, skills/spells, items, and run choices available.
Outside of battle, each character has a skill tree for development. This is a lot like a Diablo skill tree, or one from Digital Devil Saga or Xenosaga (hey, maybe it's a Saga thing). Battles earn you both XP and SP, where SP is spent to progress across the skill tree. There are a number of branching points for each character, so without large amounts of SP grinding, choices will have to be made. Even normal battles can be tough, so a bit of grinding for SP will also help with the leveling curve. It's almost like the devs thought you might want to farm SP, so they made the enemy levels rise a little faster than a normal curve.
The story is nothing to write home about, but many moments that could have dragged are saved by some witty and sometimes funny dialog. I was very pleased with the translation overall. The story of a salutatorian graduating from military academy, always being second best, yet caught up in a plot much bigger than expected turned out to be pretty fun to follow.
While the battle system is great and the character development is addictive, having to stare at abysmal 3D visuals or crappy old 2D pixel art would have really put a damper on things. This is an area where Saga really shines. If it was possible at the PSP resolution, I'd almost call it HD visuals. Think of King of Fighters XII or BlazBlue and then shrink that artwork down to PSP size. It looks amazing. It's great artwork and excellent animation in battles. I really love 2D done right, and this is an example of right and something I'd love to see more of.
Load times on the PSP run the gamut. Some of the earlier RPGs and voiced games had long noticeable pauses where the disc was being read. Crimson Gem Saga is mostly fine in that area. The biggest problem is load time before battles. I don't know if it was more noticeable because it's not as prevelent as it was back in the PSOne days, but they seemed really long to me. Especially with the number of battles you'll face while traversing a map.
I'm really happy with Crimson Gem Saga. It goes right up there with Jeanne d'Arc as far as PSP RPGs go. Now I'm a big turn-based fan to begin with, so my appetitie may be a little larger than yours. If you fancy some great artwork and animation, a little strategy in your battle system, and the addictiveness of growing your characters' skill sets then Crimson Gem Saga is a comfortable game to grab onto. Exactly what I'm looking for in a PSP RPG.
