Spectral Souls

Deep concentration. Lengthy battles. Choreographed attacks. Carefully planned assaults. These are a few of the ingredients of a strategy/RPG. Spectral Souls, a port of a classic Japanese import for PS2, features all of those ingredients. The grid-based combat is traditional but expansive. Players will be able to take control of three separate armies, each with their own story to tell. Better still, you'll get the chance to combine special attacks for some explosive (and exciting) results.

Where, you must be wondering, does the game go wrong? There's a technical limitation that's plagued other PSP titles, an issue many developers have yet to overcome.

Join me as I take you through this adventure – a grand RPG that falls victim to a technicality.

This Game's Got Soul

Organically created for all types of strategy/RPG players, Spectral Souls gradually sets you up for its most enjoyable features. The introductory battles are clear and easy. Hardcore players might question the game's difficulty, while anyone who's new to the genre will feel empowered. This isn't too hard for me, they'll think.

Then the game brings in more difficult enemies. As time progresses you might expect the battle system to suddenly turn into this ultra-complex array of endless options. It doesn't, but you will begin to uncover the game's most rewarding intricacies, many of which were there all along. You just won't realize it until the game needs you to.

One of them is the Charge function. It seems strange at first, and much too risky. Using it means that that particular character cannot attack. You'll select an attack, but the character won't use it. Instead the move is held until another ally performs the same move on the same enemy. When done successfully, the two will hook up for a superior link attack. As the game grows, performing successful links will be the difference between a win and a loss. In the circumstances where losing affects the course of the story, you'd be wise to take advantage of this function.

But be warned: if you fail to have another ally use the same attack on the same enemy, the Charge attack will be wasted.

Hold Onto Those Who Care

Another great feature is the Hold function. The game will tell you how it works, but after playing through countless RPGs, I barely wanted to skim the description. That description likely had a few vital details I shouldn't have missed. Consequently, it wasn't until I tried it a few times that I began to see just how important (and exciting) the function can be.

Here's how it works: when it's your ally's turn to attack he or she will have several options appear within that character's "Skills." Skills can be anything from the most basic attacks in the game to magic spells and special sword strikes. If it's a move that can be used against your enemies, you'll find it in your Skills.

Some characters begin the game with more than one listing for the same skill. You might have two "Attacks," or two "Slash" moves. This seems like a glitch until you use the Hold function.

Normally allies can only perform one action at a time. Select a skill, execute, repeat. That's not the most effective (or the fastest) way to take out an enemy. If you select Hold before performing any skills, you can select as many skills as you like – provided you have enough AP (attack points). Spectral Souls is technically a turn-based strategy/RPG, but it's not one move or a particular time period that decides who goes and when – it's AP. Therefore if you have 12 AP and three skills each with a required AP amount of 4 or less, you may select all three.

Once executed, the attacking ally will unleash a chain that is potentially more powerful than if you had chosen to use each move individually. It also goes much faster, since the strikes occur one after another without any menu selection breaks in between.

By combining skills, either of the same kind or of an experimented mixture, players can trigger new spells, skills, and other cool attacks that were not previously available. Ice and Wind are two of the most basic (and initially most powerful) spells in the game. Use them together with the Hold function and they'll create a new icicle spell that causes up to four times as much damage as either spell individually. At the same time, if you have two "Slash" slots open and choose to use them together, you'll create a triple-slash that does a minimum of 50% more damage.

Those are the first of many Hold combinations you'll discover in the game. Typically an RPG's story is the only thing I have to refrain from spoiling. But if I continue, I'll be robbing players of the satisfaction of seeing these new skills come to life after trying their own combinations. If you hate the thought of strategy guides and love to play through games without knowing what's coming next, you'll be glad I stopped here.

Disc Access

Spectral Souls's spectacular battle system is all a strategy/RPG needs to be remembered. The story could be a snore as long as the battles are in the right place.

Within a battle system – good or bad – certain things are expected. Players expect to be able to play a game freely and quickly, without any pauses unless they decide to take a break. Strategy/RPGs require a lot of integral thinking. But once your thoughts are finished, you want the game to jump into action, just as you'd want to quickly complete your move after finishing your strategy in a game of Chess.

In 1992 we had RPGs that allowed us to do that for the SNES. We had comparable RPGs for the PSone in the latter half of the 90s, and have had continuing quality on the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube.

Which is why Spectral Soul's single (but very significant) gameplay flaw does not make any sense. The load times are insane. Almost everything you do – whether it's reading dialogue or selecting an attack – requires several loading periods before the action can be completed. There are times when the game will load before an attack is set up, and then again in the middle of the attack! It really bogs the game down, and makes it hard to tough out at times.

That's the most unfortunate thing of all. Spectral Souls is great RPG. These moments of boredom (and at times, torture) would not have existed had the load times been faster. It's one thing to have to "tough out" a really crappy game. But to have to tough out a great one simply because the technology is messed up is a serious disappointment.

NIS America tried to fix these loading issues, all of which stemmed from the Japanese version. Though some were alleviated (reportedly – I have not played the Japanese version), the game still moves at a sluggish and often aggravating pace.

Spectral Souls is a great strategy/RPG that's been taken down a few notches (and then some) by unavoidable load times. Strategy fans with a lot of patience – I repeat, a lot of patience – will be engrossed for hours. Most, however, should stick to games that move at a normal pace. Here's hoping the PSP port of Disgaea is able to evade these disc access problems.

Gameplay: 6.7
It always amazes me when a game nails the gameplay aspect but totally misses the mark on general functionality. I wish the load times could be forgiven, because underneath is a game that a lot of players would have enjoyed.

Graphics: 7.0
Crisp, clean, and free of pixelation. The sprite-based characters aren’t standout but look good, and will appeal to the anime-loving crowd. Spells are not overly complex but still manage to assemble some impressive effects from time to time.

Sound: 8.0
Solid sounds with a lot of soul. Sound effects are kept a minimum (no complaints there), while music is an entertaining mix of orchestral tracks that stretch beyond the bounds of the typical RPG.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
A deep but forgiving strategy/RPG with gameplay concepts anyone can grasp.

Concept: 7.0
The Hold and Charge functions aren’t necessarily new, nor are the rewards reaped by using them. But they’ve made for an exciting battle system that’s only brought down by the loading limitations the game was unable to overcome.

Overall: 6.9
It’s like the song says, “Load times killed the video star.” In this case a well-planned, well-executed RPG caught in a cluster of technical idiosyncrasies.