Soul Nomad appeared soon after I got around to playing Final Fantasy 12.
Final Fantasy 12 is sort of like a single player MMO. I put well over 100 hours on that game and when it was done, I was ready for a change of pace. I had purchased Phantom Brave a long time before and finally I decided I wanted to try it. It was the total opposite of FF12. Tactical combat. Cutesy characters. A story that did not take itself seriously. I put about 30 hours onto that game in well under a week. I loved every bit of it and would not have minded 30 more hours.
Anyways, I am not typically your cutesy game playing regular. I love hard politics, I love fatal drama, and I especially love mysterious badasses kicking seemingly impossible to kick ass.
I read about Soul Nomad and thought it sounded incredible. NIS somehow knew what I was thinking when I went looking for a new game. The soul of a evil God stuck inside me. The ability to destroy anything at any time... with the consequence of losing my own soul. That kind of stuff is right up my alley.
After beating the game, I have to say I enjoyed the game even more than Phantom Brave. I liked the story more, I liked the combat about 100 times more, and the characters were numerous and enjoyable as well. If pressed for negatives, I liked a bit more control on my character leveling in Phantom Brave. Also I think Phantom Brave had better music. Tenpei is quickly becoming my new favorite music maker though, if Phantom Brave was a 9 on the music front, then Soul Nomad was an 8.
The story definitely lived up to what I was expecting. I wasn't expecting Xenogears here, but what I got was a bit more in depth than Phantom Brave. It had all the charm with a bit less cute. The tale of Gods, demons, and mortals intertwined a glimpse at a time and ended up with a nice grand and satisfying tale.
The combat was fun and unique. It was a little bit of Ogre Battle(the squad based system) and La Pucelle. You moved your group on a grid, but when you fought it went to a sort of side scrolling combat field. Different combinations of classes and characters bring you different and powerful skills. Also, every class has a different attack style depending on where you arrange them in their squad. Put them up close they may slash with a sword, put them in the back and they may call down lightning. I just wish arranging rooms and upgrading characters was a bit more user controlled and fun.
The characters were great. There are several memorable characters in this game, including the scatter brained half cow half human co-star Danette. Also the southern sounding monk named Levin is my favorite "monk" type character since Sabin from Final Fantasy 6. Its the evil god Gig that steals the show for sure though. I have never heard so much profanity outside of Grand Theft Auto, but he's not just foul mouthed, he's funny.
The ending was pretty good and wrapped up things. I got the Danette ending for those that know what that means. Nippon Ichi endings are not going to win any awards, those are for Final Fantasy Endings. Even my most disliked Final Fantasy games had top rated endings. Nippon Ichi's endings are much like the stories told in their games. They are adequate and you don't feel cheated, in fact they tend to make sure nothing is left out in their endings. You're just not going to see a 30 minute CGI movie.
Would I play it again? The answer is yes. Once you beat it, you can play it again with a twist... you can embrace and become evil. That lends it some replay value and adds a few bonus fights with cameos from characters from other games made by them(mostly Disgaea, but Phantom Brave as well).
I'd give the game an 8.5 out of 10. Only losing points on the randomness of character advancement, the lack of challenge to 90% of the fights, and the useless room leveling mechanic.
I'll rate its story after I have time to think about where it fits on the list I think is most important for an RPG.
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