Gaming Generations :: Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

NeedsMoreZazz · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 6:24 pm Post subject: Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Release Date: 9/23/08
Genre: RPG
ESRB Rating: Everyone

Plot
You take the role of Cornett, a 16 year old girl. She's talented at singing and playing the trumpet, both her parents are dead and she often dreams of marrying a handsome prince. Her only real friend is a talking puppet named Kururu. One day while out in the forest she is actually saved by her handsome prince, manages to meet and dance with him more or less Cinderella style, before a large breasted, g-string wearing 200 year old witch crashes a dragon into the castle, accidentally turns the prince to stone and then she and her sisters steal him away to their flying castle.

Setting
The game takes place in a small fantasy world in the Marl Kingdom. It features pretty typical ruins and monsters.

Gameplay
Pretty typical RPG fare, you travel through dungeons with a map on the upper DS screen and randomly run into groups of 2-4 monsters. The dungeon maps are pretty uninspired, in most of them just look at the rooms and head for the furthest point from the entrance to continue on. The majority of the treasure chests in the dungeons contain expendable items and the game is very low on equippable gear in general. Cornetts allies in battle are various puppets you find throughout the game. They have their own strengths, weaknesses and spells. Some of the puppets come in sets and have their own special quest. If you manage to complete it, Cornett will get a special ability. Cornett is mostly used as a support character for her puppets, and each time you use a special ability you gradually fill a meter called a kansa guage in the upper right that allows use of special powerful attack or support moves.

Graphics
The graphics in the game are pretty much average pixel art, pretty good quality as is typical of NIS games.

Sound
The sound in the game has good points and bad points. On the one hand, it's called a musical adventure for a reason. Periodically throughout the game Cornett and/or one of the other characters will break out in song. Sadly, the songs are all in Japanese, have no instrumental accompanyment and are generally lullabys or other slow songs. The sound effects in the game are not bad, they are simply not present. Aside from a snapping sound when somebody dies, most attacks and actions make no sound whatsoever.

Summary
The game has some funny dialogue and a pretty decent storyline. It becomes pretty apparent early on that the story is aimed at girls. Aside from the final battle, the game is very easy and requires almost no strategy, it is also quite short to boot. It can be beaten in 5-6 hours if you know what you are doing. The first run will likely take 10-15 hours. It has a few issues where the game doesn't give you any clue as to what to do next, but they aren't too hard to figure out. Overall it was a pretty lukewarm title. The game has a decent cult following but unless you fall into that crowd I'd recommend getting the game used, if at all.

Graphics: 7
Sound: 6
Control: 9
Gameplay: 7
Replay: 5
Overall: 6.5
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completed reviews
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