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I admit, my Dynamis schedule’s been a bit backed up lately. I’m only at about 2,000
ancient currency, meaning it’s gonna be a little while until I can actually obtain
my own Gungnir. So, in the interim, Sting have stepped up to the plate to offer me the
next best thing: One of their text-loaded, consistently excellent tactical RPGs, which
for now will have to take the place of my ne’er-to-be relic weapon. Which is fine
by me, because between the awesome art style, quality storyline, and eye-meltingly complex
mechanics, Gungnir... well, let’s face it. Gungnir made me finally stop playing Pangya
for a moment. And that’s a hell of a feat.
What we have here is a very Final Fantasy Tactics-esque tale of class warfare and the
uprising of the oppressed in the slums, presented in the context of a very Final Fantasy Tactics-esque
tactical RPG experience. Sure, I cou ld liken it to its own brethren, like Yggdra Union
or Knights in the Knightmare, but I found that the actual gameplay is much more familiar
than those more eccentric offerings. You move your units, attack enemy targets, take strategic
points... concepts more familiar than, say, choosing a card to determine movement and
then engaging in micro-battles where you have to alternate taking offensive and defensive
postures. If you’ve played FFT, or Disgaea, or Shining Force, you’ll have the basic
gist right off the bat. What you won’t have, though, is an understanding of how combination
attacks work, the use of the Tactics gauge, what Boost effects do, the extensive and arcane
timing rules, what the hell a counter number is, item capacities, item refinement, item
augmentation, elemental affinities, or most of the 38 different status effects you might
get hit with. I didn’t stutter. THIRTY-EIGHT. I shed a tear just reading that. This is my
kinda game!
But to boil it down: You’re the #2 of this rebel faction, going up against the evil empire.
Said empire demands return of the quote unquote “Prisoner” you’ve taken - a noble girl
sympathetic to your cause - and begins executing your people willy-nilly, as loudly and painfully
as possible, because they can. And then you die in battle... or you would, if you didn’t
have a vision of a bureaucratic valkyrie and a distressingly ornate spear. Suddenly, the
spear plunges out of its weird pocket dimension and saves your life, setting in motion the
kind of bloody, violent rebellion that makes a smashing game. So dig out your PSP - yes,
that weird black oblong thing that’s probably under a stack of magazines, wadded up Nip-Chee
wrappers, and Indian takeout menus. You can play games on it, remember? Either obtain
a physical copy, or download it from the PlayStation Network. And if you happen to be selling Whiteshells,
well, you know where to find me.