Over the course of the year, the PSP has been littered with exceptional games in almost every genre imaginable. Lumines has remained king of the puzzlers; Madden and FIFA are carrying the load for sports fans; and Liberty City Stories has proved to action lovers that old dogs can learn new tricks, but sadly, a launch title by the name of Untold Legends is still solely responsible for all things role-playing. Thankfully, Bandai has taken notice and has now released the systems first true RPG with The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion, and despite a few nagging issues, it manages to provide a noteworthy adventure from start to finish.

First off, Heroes is strictly old school, so anyone who learned the ropes from this generation’s current crop of RPG’s will feel slightly out of place. You won’t find 20-minute cutscenes to help this legend along, but even without the added visual assistance, the story still manages to keep you interested, even if it does come at a slower pace than normal.

Your journey begins after taking control of the main character Avin; a young boy who spent most of his childhood without his parents, but luckily his sister Eimelle is there to share in the grief. Unfortunately, he doesn’t realize that his sister possesses an exceptional power until some very bad people come looking for her in hopes of pulling off a kidnapping. With the help of a few others, both Eimelle and Avin are able to escape, but not before being forced to part ways, where they must remain so in order to protect the whereabouts of Eimelle.

After growing up, and with the passing of his generous caretaker, Avin must now decide what to do with the rest of his life. With the dying wish of his caretaker on his mind, and the ever-longing desire to see his sister once again, Avin sets out with his friend Mile on the adventure of a lifetime. They soon are caught up in much more than a simple family reunion, however, as they are eventually thrust into the battle between light and darkness, which will play an enormous role in shaping the world of El Phildin.

The action in Heroes is carried out via a turn-based battle system, and although this is nothing new, there’re a few additions that help keep things fresh. Other than the normal fads like leveling up, acquiring spells, and unleashing special attacks, you will notice that a new pet system has been implemented. Although this doesn’t play a major role in the overall scheme of things, taking care of your pet of choice can definitely have its rewards. If you choose to encourage your pet rather than scold it, the little guy will do everything from finding hidden items to taking out your enemies for you. This minor feature won’t convince you everything is golden, but it does offer a slight change of pace once and a while.

The pet system isn’t the only thing that sets the gameplay apart, as a few other key elements help make the battles more exciting than you’d expect.  In the beginning of the game, the enemies offer little resistance, but not too far into the story, you will have to use everything available in order to succeed. One of your options is using the “deadly” meter, which each character is capable of filling up after each fight. Once completed, you have the option of unleashing a devastating attack that can rip through enemies in a heartbeat. Luckily, these types of attacks don’t come around so often that you are able to exploit them, but saving the deadly meter for some of the tougher bosses in the game is essential to survival.

Another ability you will want to take advantage of in the heat of battle is the movement system, which lets both you and your enemies move freely around the map. This allows you to target enemies that are too far away, as you will simply move to that area of the map before initiating your attack. This is particularly helpful for Avin since his weapon is not of the long-range variety, but due to this, he is still able to hit his target of choice. This also comes in handy when on the defensive as well, because when you become injured or need a break from the action, simply choosing the wait option and sending the appropriate character to a safety zone on the map will more than likely save his or her life.

Fans of games like Chrono Trigger and Earthbound will feel slightly at home with the world map, as Heroes does away with random battles and allows you to see your enemies before the fight ensues. This supports the portability of the PSP remarkably, as not many people want to experience an unexpected battle moments before they must stop playing. Each enemy sports a pop-up window above their head as well, which helps represent their level of aggressiveness at the time. The stronger creatures will actively pursue you when in close proximity, while the weaker enemies will scatter in fear, therefore allowing you to choose your battles effectively.

The visuals in Legend of Heroes are definitely a bright spot for the game. Although the characters are 2-D, they do wander around impressive polygonal worlds that are filled with nice touches like lens flare from the sun and cool water effects. I will admit that some of the locations looked a little too familiar, and the towns and cities are a jumbled mess to navigate. Most of the special effects from battles are underused also, and offer little stimulation, but a few exceptions do help keep things exciting, and fill the screen with a multitude of astonishing colors. 

Since there is no voice-over to be found, the dialogue is carried out via beautiful pop-up text filled windows. These are nice to look at indeed, but no amount of eye-candy can make up for what is written within these dialogue boxes. The Japanese to English translation is absolutely horrible, and ranks right up there with the worst performances the industry has ever seen. Some times this turns out to be slightly humorous as you can mostly fill in the blanks, but other times you are left bewildered for minutes trying to decode what seems like it has to be a hidden message. I did get used to it as time went on, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. This especially hurts the more serious parts of the story, as I found it quite hard to feel sympathy towards characters who speak in gibberish.

The horrific translation does take the experience down a notch, but even with its glaring faults, Heroes manages to hold your attention to the end of the game. Considering that this is the only real role-playing offering to be had on the PSP, it’s tough to look the other way. If it were released on the genre-heavy PS2, however, things might not have worked out so well, but as it is, Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion provides a noteworthy portable adventure and is definitely worth a look for RPG fans.

Gameplay: 8.4
The battle system has its share of nice features, but the unresponsive controls make smaller tasks like opening doors and talking to the appropriate character excessively complicated.

Graphics: 8.5
The visuals for the most part are very nice to look at and the worlds you traverse in are decent enough. There are some cool battle and environment effects, but many of the games locations along the way are poorly laid out and look a little too familiar.

Sound: 8.5
Some decent sound effects can be heard during battle, but the real treat is the soundtrack. Most of the tunes are catchy and support the action nicely. The only complaint is that they repeat themselves just a little too frequently.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 7.7
The first true RPG on the system could have turned out disastrous, and even though Heroes has some problems, for the most part it’s a very good start.

Overall: 8.0
The Legend of Heroes won’t blow you away by any means, but the lovable characters and engaging story should keep most people happy, even if it is a bit poorly paced. Had the translation and control problems been adjusted, Heroes could have been an exceptional experience. As it stands, this game will probably only fill the void for serious role-playing fanatics.