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A Review: Soul Nomad, by NISA/N1

I don't know how to begin, so I'll just come out with it: Soul Nomad is a great game. It breathes a bit of new life into Nippon Ichi's square-based tactics system and tells you a good story at the same time. It's not any sort of revolution in gaming, but merely a sort of expected evolution on what N1 has done in the past. Much in the same way Makai Kingdom was from Phantom Brave. Are the changes in Soul Nomad things I'd like to see in their main line Disgaea series? I'm not entirely sure. They've obviously lifted a few things from Ogre Battle with their room system and such, but it all has a very Nippon Ichi feel to it. I'm going to touch on the room system and the obvious battle changes in this review, but I'm going to keep silent on a number of changes that I thought were just brilliant. If you don't want to read further, I'll keep you from having to do so – the game is fantastic. I'm not going to go as far to say that N1 has outdone themselves, but they've created an (another) incredibly deep SPRG that will keep most fans healthily nourished until Disgaea 3 comes out. Whew, that was long. The rest is after the jump.



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I pin N1's success on the fact that they aren't making their games for damned handhelds.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness comes out in about a month.

Ohhhhhhhhhh, I see what you mean.

Yes, you're probably right. They let Idea Factory make all of their shitty handheld games.

Here's a fact: handhelds are cheaper to program for.  This means executives are attracted to them most strongly for budgetary reasons, plus they just can't consume lots of features and art.  Even if it's the main dev studio working on it, there are lmitations.  I think of them as proto-Wiis, in that sense, and I attribute the GBA platform for the majority of FFTA suckage... the minority being a "who cares, it's a GBA game, those kids will buy anything" attitude.  Handheld games go into the same bucket as Wii and PC casual games, in my mind.

I should get this in the mail today!  I've really been looking forward to it.  But, I'm so god damn sick today I don't know if I'll even be able to play it!  Grrr.

Pondering the handheld discussion has me worried for next gen too.  Where are devs like NIS going to go?  Where am I going to get my crazy niche SRPG fix in 2 years?

On the DS Lite SP Advance.

Mine's arriving this afternoon via post. Can't wait. I'm going to force myself to finish Persona 3 before I crack open the shrinkwrap, though.  :oops:

Im currently in the middle of D&D Tactics and Luminous Arc so yet another SRPG to go behind Jeanne D Arc might not be in the cards, especially since I want Galactic Assault for my Windows partition.

(D&D Tactics in spite of all its shortcomings is still one of the most kickass SRPGs since Pathway to Glory.  Group EXP gain > Individual action XP gain.

I think this is a good game.  It is a good game because it is fun to play.  I enjoy it very much and would recommend it to others.

That's my third-grade book-report-style review.  I played it for 8 hours today instead of doing homework.  It wins.

Just FYI, Hardcore Gamer sort of trashed this one.

Take that for what it's worth.

I noticed quite a few reviewers are trashing it actually.  I'm puzzled. 

I played for about 10 hours last night and from what I can tell it's an excellent game.  The mechanics are much different than Disgaea and past NIS games and I'm not sure if that is catching people off guard, or what.  Whatever the case, I'm not dissapointed in the slightest and will be playing the shit out of it in the coming weeks.  I'll post some impressions once I get closer to the post game stuff.

Stupid reviews make me want to punch kittens.

EDIT:  Just to clarify I didn't mean your review Schild, I enjoyed the read.  I saw some links to some terrible reviews earlier today here (http://ps2.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r32386.htm) and  here (http://www.honestgamers.com/systems/content.php?review_id=6315&platform=PlayStation+2&abr=PS2&gametitle=Soul+Nomad+%26+The+World+Eaters).  They both make me angry.

I didn't want to give away anything in the review :( There's so much new stuff.