Crimson Gem Saga [PSP]

Poor PSP. You've gone through some rough times, haven't you? You've had countless ports and lackluster attempts at RPGs shoved in your face, and nearly all of them have been visually underwhelming, plagued by technical problems or, worst of all, just weren't fun. But don't worry; Atlus is here, and it's bringing some considerable muscle from... wait, Korea?

Korean game development may be synonymous with massively multiplayer online games, gender-confusingly effeminate lead characters (even by Eastern RPG standards) and, uh, StarCraft, but with Crimson Gem Saga, it can conclusively stake the country's claim as up-and-comers on par with Japanese devs like Falcom. That comparison isn't a passing one; CGS harkens back to the glory days when simple 16-bit, turn-based role-playing games concerned themselves more with solid battle systems and simple character growth -- something the Ys series has done very, very well even in the current climate of HD visuals and ridiculously complex battle systems.

That's part of why Crimson Gem Saga is so damned refreshing, though. Beyond a basic turn-based battle system, some impressively deep character growth, a light-hearted (and at times fourth wall-breaking) localization and some seriously retro backgrounds and sprites, there's not a whole lot to the game. The lush art, detailed sprites, chuckle-worthy dialogue and easy-to-understand battles almost instantly click in a way that feels innately old-school but in a tribute sense rather than being antiquated. It's just a simple little RPG done right, and that's precisely why I enjoyed it so much.

Poor, over-reactive Killian has something of a complex. He graduated second in his class, is constantly being picked on, and reacts... well, with the kind of knee-jerk immaturity of someone with something to prove. Luckily for him, he'll get that chance, as it seems fate has a place for him in the middle of a rather epic battle for the fate of the world. He'll meet up with a sassy female sidekick, a mysterious mage, a booze-guzzling ex-priest with a huge hammer, some ridiculously powerful villains and... yeah, okay, so it all sounds like JRPG 101, I know.

In truth, the storyline is a pretty paint-by-numbers affair, but Atlus' localization has infused personality into each of the characters so that they don't feel like the trite little archetypes so common to JRPGs. Some great voice work, a few clever jokes that don't fall too heavily on the rest of the story and an inoffensive sequence of events that quickly thrusts the game into typical do-or-die scenarios keeps it all moving at a nice clip.

That includes the battle system -- which drops you into simple little turn-based duels with minimal load times, offers some wonderfully detailed sprite animations for the characters in the party ("treasure hunter" Spinel's default teleporting strike never gets old), and gives you a logical breakdown of moves. You can attack with a normal physical strike, use special attack/spell-like skills (more on those in a sec), defend, run and so on. All of this is done with a simple up/down set of menu choices and puts the focus on the usual upgrade chain of getting better weapons and armor to deal and take more damage as the game goes on, but even normal fights can be a little on the challenging side without a bit of grinding.

That's a good thing, though, as the fights dole out experience and cash for normal spoils, of course, but Skill Points too. SP goes into a combined pool for all characters, which allows you to first discover and then unlock new special moves by dumping those points into a skill tree that starts to branch rather quickly. This allows for an impressive amount of customization and tweaking of party roles. Will you make Killian a support healer or trust him to lay waste to all enemies in a single mana-burning special attack? Should Henson, your mage, concentrate on having a powerful single-enemy attack or spread the damage to multiple foes? Because all of the SP is divided up amongst the whole party, you'll have to balance pumping up a single character versus spreading the love to make sure everyone can hold their own.