Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Forever Kingdom

Written by John Scalzo on May 23, 2002

Full Review: I would make some lame Secret of Mana ripoff crack, but you'll get plenty of those in the review.

Once upon a time there was a game. It was called Secret of Mana. It told the story of three mismatched friends trying to save the world from impending doom. Nothing original there, but Secret of Mana did it better than any game before and has done it better than any game since. It truly was a golden age.

It's an age-old RPG story, and it's told all the time. Earlier this year it was told again in the form of Forever Kingdom, a sequel to the PS2 launch game Evergrace. When it comes to RPG storylines it's really just a cut and paste world now. Three friends go off on a journey. One has memory loss, one is a great solider, and one is a bookworm. The world has been overrun by monsters. A great evil can be felt by those connected to the mystical world. These threads have been used time and again in the Role Playing genre. What's one more right?

The Secret of Mana comparisons are inevitable. Forever Kingdom takes many of Mana's cues and places them front and center. Just look at the character descriptions, replace "bookworm" with "sheltered princess" and you have the Mana characters. This is Forever Kingdom's greatest flaw. Moving through the game leads to almost non-stop comparisons to Mana. And every time Mana comes out on top. Forever Kingdom features a three-person action RPG combat system with the option of performing feats of great strength when an energy bar is full. That same sentence can be written word for word about Secret of Mana. Maybe I'm just bitter that all those years ago Secret of Mana included an unprecedented three-player option to allow every character to be controlled by a real person. I was so hoping for Forever Kingdom to feature a similar system. There was no such luck and I miss the combat system of Mana all the more. There's no party customization in Forever Kingdom. You can't set the other characters to stand back and guard or to rush forward and attack. They just permanently stand in the middle of the battle, doing nothing. The AI is just lame and I was completely disappointed. Coupled with a poor camera that is constantly losing your character around corners and controlling your party is a real bitch.

There was plenty of good in Forever Kingdom too. The voice acting was surprisingly good and the cool little score featured a whole range of sounds. Strumming guitars one minute, weird chanting the next. I liked it. Sound as a whole was great in Forever Kingdom as the sound effects rounded out the great package. Little water effects, explosions, and sword swinging. There's no comparing the sound in this game to Mana, it's superior (although that Dark Lich theme in Mana gets me pumped everytime... I am so old). The graphics are fairly top notch as well. Nothing mind blowing that will make you just stop and go wow, but the world of Forever Kingdom certainly has a charm to it. The monster designs in particular are pretty cool.

There are two other little bits to Forever Kingdom that momentarily make it rise above the RPG heap. The first is the "Fashion Rating." If you never played Evergrace, allow me to explain. When you buy new weapons, armor, helmets, anything, it is placed on your character in real time. You can see the change in their appearance as the game progresses. It is very cool and there is also a giant blue elephant you hides out in magic portals scattered across the game (much like Neko in Mana) that rates your fashion sense. It's totally surreal, but it adds just a little something to the game. There is also the little matter of the curse at the beginning of the game. All three characters are bound together to share the same life bar. If one dies, all three die. It's a different style that takes a little getting used to and is at least partially redeemed by the L3 quick heal button. If you're in danger of dying, hitting L3 will use a life crystal if you have one and restore your life. It adds another dimension to the heat of battle.