Release Date: February 28, 2008 (Japan), No US release scheduled.
Genre: Action RPG

(Names of sections stolen shamelessly from Gametrailers)

A game that has not yet graced the shores of the United States has recently graced my Nintendo DS which, before now, lay dormant on my shelf collecting a thin layer of dust.

It has only been a month or so since I was introduced to the world of ROM Hacking and ever since I sought to play this game. The folks over at GBA Temp are host to many fan-based translation efforts for both the GBA and DS platforms. Through the magic of various kinds of hex editors and a massive number of hours, fans of games help those not literate in Japanese or other foreign languages to enjoy the games in their native language.

The catch is you need to have a ROM of the game – and by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright Act of 1976, if you own a physical copy of the game you are entitled to own a single digital copy for archiving purposes. With the help of E-Bay I put my hands on a copy of this game and proceeded to download and patch the ROM.

You’ll need a flash card of whichever type you prefer to play the game, but putting that all aside I finally was able to enjoy the game I had heard about only through GBA Temp.

Story

Soma Bringer is, for all intents and purposes, impossible to place within a timeline relative to our own calendars. It takes place on a planet which is governed by magical energy called “Soma”. All technology is based on Soma energy and it is interwoven into the lives of all the inhabitants of the world. The story concerns itself with the 7th division of the military organization known as Pharzuph who have been called upon to deal with the arrival of beings known only as “Visitors”. On their first mission, the 7th division comes across a girl trapped inside a cocoon in the forest whose memory has been seemingly wiped clean. The girl, Idea, joins up with the 7th division on their investigation of the Visitors and the plot they uncover threatens to affect the entire world.

Every aspect of the story has been done before and there isn’t anything really groundbreaking here. The members of the 7th division have unique characters and it’s more than enough to entertain during cutscenes. You are introduced to the entire cast of characters from the get-go and though at first it may be hard to differentiate, before much time has gone by you come to make sense of everything.

Typical RPG story cliches follow leading up to a conclusion that completes the story without leaving you saying “..finally”. Overall I would say that some of the supporting characters lacked much arc throughout the story which detracted a bit, but I came to be at least emotionally involved enough to garner a satisfying feeling.

8/10

Design/Gameplay

Soma Bringer pulls the same kind of scheme that Ragnarok Online pulls but in reverse — similar to the PS1 era Final Fantasies. Characters, items, and enemies are 3D models while environments are 2D backgrounds. The two blend together quite well, as even the best 2D character sprites cant quite convey the same character detail. Environments range quite a bit throughout the games chapters and you never feel like you are in one place for too long.

Character development is big in this game and it really helps to keep the variety going throughout. There are 6 playable classes which represent the classic RPG archetypes, each with a multi-tiered skill point system. Each time you level up you get points to increase your base stats as well as skills. The great thing is that you aren’t bound to whatever spec that you choose. At any time you can remove and reassign points into different skills if you want to try out a different play style or if you find a new type of weapon for which you are not specialized.

Joining your character are two other members of the 7th division of Pharzuph whom you are able to select or change whenever you are in a main town. Aside from being able to select which team members you have you are able to select from a list of different skill specializations and AI behavior for each member. The party AI is pretty rudimentary, though severe errors are infrequent. I can only recall one instance in which my party member designated for healing decided it would be a better idea to melee than stand back and be supportive. You cannot change the equipment of your party members, instead their equipment is dictated by their skill presets.

There are a vast number of items and equipment in the game each with a slew of different possible enhancements. Loot is present in massive amounts stemming from creatures and randomly place chests. which brings back memories of Diablo 2, though there isn’t the same tedious inventory micromanagement. You are entitled to so many inventory slots on your character’s person and a handy storage system which can be accessed in main towns. You are able to send items to the storage from the field whenever you wish as to keep your bags a little lighter. Similarly to just about every MMORPG after World of Warcraft, items come in a variety of rarities ranging from common to legendary. Interestingly enough Unique items are not as good as Legendary items, though they have much cooler names.

My qualms with the items lie in the fact that there is simply TOO MUCH loot. There is so much loot in this game that after selling off all the excess I was left with such a hysterically large amount of gold that I wondered how my character managed to carry it all at once. There really isn’t a huge use for gold either. The equipment you find on the field is always better than what you can purchase from vendors, and the only time I found myself spending anything near a large amount of gold was when I was ditching my old potions for newer, better ones.

An interesting fact about this game is that it does not use the touchscreen at all. Instead it opts to use the lower screen for extra information display. The screen is utilized surprisingly well by the intuitive menu system that the game employs. On the main screen is all the relevant information about your character, and with a press of the shoulder buttons, you alternate between bag and battle mode. In bag mode you are able to bind four items to the face buttons of the DS and under battle mode you are able to bind four skills to the face buttons. There are 2 different sets of battle mode hotkeys which can be alternated between with a second press of the right shoulder button. The menu system works extremely well in every situation and is very easy to become accustomed to.

The battle system takes place entirely in real-time very similar to how a game such as Diablo or Dungeon Siege would operate. Enemies are placed singly or in small clusters throughout each map and after they are killed they do not respawn unless you quit and reload your game. You will face a very large number of enemies throughout the game whose types vary based on each location. Enemies each have skills and weaknesses which can be discovered through fighting them. Sprinkled into the mix of normal enemies are stronger variations of common enemies which offer better experience and always leave behind a chest as well as boss enemies with unique names and the best loot the game has to offer.

Story related bosses are quite frequent throughout the game though their difficulty doesn’t always reflect your position in the story. There were several occasions where I encountered a random boss in a dungeon that was several times more challenging than the story boss located at the end of the same dungeon. Small irregularities in the design like this are easy to look over however when you consider the obvious care put into designing the rest.

The penalty for death really isn’t all that great. When you die you are sent back to the most recent main town and must return to a headstone that was placed at your death site to recover some of the lost experience. This might sound daunting, however frequent warp gates that function as checkpoints ensure that you are never more than a couple screens away from where you died. In addition, enemies do not respawn making the runs back quite painless and they even seem to maintain the HP levels that they were at when you died making even the toughest of boss much less challenging.

There are a small number of side-quests which can be picked up in the main towns and they rarely take you too far away from where you’re supposed to be during a chapter. Overall interaction with NPCs is quite limited, there really isn’t much exploration involved in the main town areas, and the journal in your inventory always tells you exactly where you should be going and what you should be doing.

On top of the single player aspect there is a cooperative mode that is available over the DS’s wireless capabilities. I cannot speak for the functionality of these aspects as I could not find anyone to play the game with.

It is extremely obvious the level of care and time that went into designing this game. It is easy to pick up and put down without having to re-familiarize yourself with the game’s controls or nuances, it is highly customizable and beckons multiple playthroughs due to its interesting classes, and the length of the game is quite surprising for a handheld title. I sunk at least thirty hours into it before I finished the story, although I did take on the additional short side-dungeon as well.

9/10

Presentation

In terms of technical prowess the game doesn’t push the envelope of the Nintendo DS. That being said the games graphics are impressive. The models of characters, enemies, and especially items are wonderfully detailed. There are no generic weapon models in this game, each type looks different and genuinely awesome.

Spell effects are impressive, some featuring 3D models, others being sprite based. They are colorful and varied, though it isn’t terribly easy to distinguish certain spells from one another.

Animations are a little blocky in a PS1 feeling sort of way, though there aren’t any kind of game-breaking clipping problems or unrealistic movements.

The art style of the game incorporates high fantasy with a few steampunk-era notes in a few of the cities. The styles mesh together nicely in the wonderfully detailed and varied environments throughout the course of the game.

Overall the game does not push new ground, but manages to still impress at times despite the DS’s limited hardware capabilities.

8/10

Conclusions

I have to say that while I enjoyed my time playing Soma Bringer immensely, the hack and slash aspect got old for me around chapter 5 (of 6). There were simply too many enemies for me at that point and the dungeons became only increasingly larger as the game progressed. I had to put the game away for about a week before I came back to it to finish it off and the time away definitely helped ease some of the tedium.

Overall the game is a solid hack and slash RPG that, while it doesn’t do much to separate itself from the crowd in terms of story or technicality, is a fantastically designed and executed game that would appeal to anyone who is a fan of the genre. If you’re a hardcore turn-based RPG fan I’d still greatly suggest giving Soma Bringer a try, it may even swing you around to discover a great, albeit more casual, genre.

Story : 8/10
Design/Gameplay: 9/10
Presentation: 8/10

9/10 [Not an Average]