Cidolfas's RPG Reviews: Threads of Fate (PSX)
You Are: Rue, a mysterious young swordsman, or Mint, a spunky princess.
Your Goal Is: Depends. For Rue, it's to revive his beloved Claire. For Mint, it's world domination. 8-) Either way, they're looking for something called the "relic" which can grant whatever its finder wants.
General System: Threads of Fate is a very simplistic game. There's basically no menu to speak of, other than a quick "circle menu" allowing you to choose your attack. Rue can turn into various monsters (he can hold up to 4 in "memory" at once). Mint, on the other hand, can use spells of various types and elementals. All enemies drop items which heal HP or MP, and MP is also healed just by hitting the enemy. Rather than raising levels, your HP goes up as you take damage, and your MP goes up as you use magic. Strength and defense can be raised by buying equipment.
Battle System: Go around bashing enemies. It's an action-RPG (emphasis on action), so you can jump around or fire magic at people.
Graphics: A bit pixelly, but the characters are large and well-animated.
Music: Quite good, although one or two tunes will start grating on you after a while.
Story: There isn't much of a plot... the entire game has exactly one village, and several dungeons. There aren't many characters, either. But the script itself is really entertaining and frequently hilarious. Mint is quite possibly the funniest character I've ever seen in an RPG. And the very simplicity of the game gives it a charm that more ponderous games lack. And note that this is really one and a half games - Rue's and Mint's stories, though they follow the same basic thread, diverge several times. (It isn't a retelling from a different view so much as it is a retelling, period. Many things do happen differently.)
Challenge: Easy (although beating Rod can get nigh-impossible if you keep trying).
Length: About 20 hours, but playing with the two different characters makes for two quite different games.
My Thoughts: As I mentioned, this is a very simple game. However, there aren't many RPGs that start out intending to entertain you and have fun doing it. This one does, and it really is a lot of fun. The two battle systems are simple but effective, without distractions. The story is charming, like a small-town version of an RPG. If you like big epic RPGs, you won't like this one at all. But if you like being entertained (and isn't that what playing games is about?) you'll probably enjoy it.
Overall Rating: 8/10
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