Koei Crimson Sea X Box Action Review

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

Price Paid:  $6.00 from BB rental

Summary:
Crimson Sea is a fun experience that will appeal to the type of gamer that likes killing swarms of enemies and have different mission objective styles mixed in to complement the game play. However, the gameplay is relatively weak (not terrible, but could've been better and more fluid), the story is unoriginal, and the characters are certainly nothing special. If you like anime style, you would probably enjoy the story and/or characters more than I, since I do not enjoy anime any more than I enjoy getting splinters from a park bench. However, the overall gaming experience is solid enough and features a few exceedingly fun missions (and a few that are not), a few RPG type elements, and crisp visuals that will entertain you. I did not find enough to merit much replay value, so with the relative average game length, I did not think it was much of a value beyond a rental unless you really enjoy this genre.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Price Paid:  $50.00 from Gamestop

Summary:
Describing Koei’s Crimson Sea is quite a feat. It’s an action game. It’s a role playing game. It’s an adventure game. But I think what would be more appropriate to say is that it is a fulfillment. It is a fulfillment of something that many games have tried to be before… a perfect balance of the three aforementioned genres. Other then a few mild successes such as Square’s Vagrant Story and Parasite Eve II, not to mention the mind blowing but slightly flawed visionary epic that was Eidos and Quantic Dream’s Omikron: The Nomad Soul, the true action-RPG has never been created. Until now. Crimson Sea will take your breath away in awe. You will be stunned when you see the extraordinarily beautiful graphics, hear the full orchestral score, begin to comprehend the intricate story, and realize just how many extras and replay value this title has; not to mention how incredibly polished it is. It will also take your breath away for a totally different reason. Crimson Sea will shock you. Never before in a game have there been literally over a thousand enemy characters onscreen at the same time. Never before has the first spell acquired (or “Neo-Psionic” rather) been a screen rippling explosion of mass destruction. It is things like this that set Crimson Sea apart. And, not to sound biased (the Xbox is in fact my favorite system), but the Xbox has been a host to many slightly above average games, and very few incredible games. And Crimson Sea is just that… and incredible journey of a game.
The experience of playing Crimson Sea, contrary to almost every other review that I have read, is perfect. A general outline of play is as follows: you load your save game from the hard drive and begin standing in what I guess you could call your headquarters. From here, you can buy weapon pieces, new Neo-Psionics, train, save, and talk to the many people there. After you have done this, you go up to a mission screen and use it. This gives you a list of current quests in your particular mission. You select a quest. This leads me to what, in my opinion, is one of Crimson Sea’s highest points: the quest variety. From finding an item to killing all the enemies in a certain time, your generic quests are all here. In addition, the majority of the quests are not standard. For example, one quest has you searching for invisible enemies who will explode if every one of them is not found, taking out an entire town. Finding them requires careful use of your radar, hearing and sight. Hear those footsteps? See that dirt flying up as if someone was running? It’s a stunningly immerse affair. And, unlike both the majority of action games and role playing games, it makes you think about what you are doing. You can’t just shoot the townspeople and destroy their village. Another quest has you trying to find out which of the people in the poor region of a city are really alien enemies in disguise. Once again, this is very hard and requires thinking. But not all of the variety is so drastic. One typical “kill all enemies” level is made much more complicated in that you can’t hit the walls too much or they cave in and you drown. Did I mention that the level is in a tube system with little space? It’s challenging and creative. And that makes it great. Many of the quests also end in boss battles. These bosses are usually very difficult, very varied, and sometimes very big. One quest pits you against a sea turtle whose head alone is larger then your entire party. It’s a spectacular way to end a great quest. After your quest, you return to headquarters. Something else that makes Crimson Sea great is the non-linearity. While the overall flow of the game is linear, often you choose the order of your quests. What is so unique about this is that the game fills in the story with cinematics between individual quests (with both FMV and in-game graphics… which are hard to distinguish between) regardless of the order in which you play them, yet the story remains consistent and flows. It’s really incredible and hard to believe it would all come together so well, but it does. As if the main quest wasn’t enough though, the extras are phenomenal as well. First off, the game modes: the game has four modes of play- G-Squad, Standard, Crimson, and Standard-Ex. They all contain the same missions and the same story, however the have varying difficulty and new weapons and neo-psionics. This adds a lot of replay value. There is also a “select a quest” option where you can just pick up and play any quest that you enjoyed. And a “Story” section where you can watch every minute of FMV and in game cinematics whenever you want. In addition there is more, including a “Sound” section containing a music player for the games incredible soundtrack, a enemy gallery with info and enemy models, and a glossary like section that keeps updated information on the people, places and things in the world of Crimson Sea.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Price Paid:  $50.00 from Game Gallery

Summary:
Crimson Sea is destined to become one of those "Sleeper Hits", it's a game that was mostly overlooked, but because of it's great gameplay, graphics, and characters, it's easy to get into and enjoy. I love the premise of 1 against 1000. It runs (in gameplay ideals) much like Koei's other game, Dynasty warriors. If you liked that one, you'll like this one, chances are.

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Price Paid:  $6.00 from rental

Summary:
Crimson Sea is a straight up hack and slash adventure title from Koei, the same people who brought you the Dynasty Warriors series. Set in a futuristic, outerspace setting, you take control of Sho, who represents humanity's last hope against a mysterious alien invasion. Fair enough, right? Seriously, the bottom line is that you are here to kick butt and chew bubble gum, and you're all out of bubble gum. The story line is both neglible and silly. It's poorly written, but at least the cut scenes look nice. None of the characters are the least bit memorable. The sole saving grace of this game is the action, for which is there is plenty. Replay is minimal. I don't see why you couldn't complete and have your fill of this game in a single rental; I did.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Summary:
An odd, yet extremely fun game, In which you play the role of Sho, A human living in a futeristic sci-fi galaxy who has special abilities revolving around sound, making him a "vipa". The plot, though slightly Chaotic and unexplained at times, was very entertaining, and came hand in hand with alot of extremely well done cinematics.