Mystic Heroes
From KOEI Corp
In a world thought to have existed only in legend, four brave mystics rise against the shadow of darkness that has engulfed the land. Increase your abilities and gather runes to even the odds in the battle against evil. You will wield an incredible arsenal of mystic attacks. The game, a fantasy action-adventure of epic scope, offers single- and multiplayer options, including both versus and cooperative options.
Mystic Heroes ROCKS!
Mystic Heroes is a very good game. The first-player mode is a series of battles in which you choose one of four characters with unique strengths and battle your way through the plot. Aside from the actual thrill of battling through hordes of monsters, the interesting part is the Runestones; you find them in various levels and they give you a wide range of magical abilties. Although the single-player is short, it has a lot of replay value with three different diffictulty levels, four characters to choose from and many Runestones to collect.
The truely fantastic part of Mystic Heroes, though, is the multi-player. The screen is split into four screens, and each player is unleashed in seperate locations in a land full of baddies. Teamwork is essential, and it's exciting and challenging. It's almost like the game Gauntlet, only a lot more fun. If you have a bunch of friends who love party games, this is the game for you!
Although the single-player of Mystic Heroes is pretty good, unless you have a bunch of Gamecube-playing friends or siblings you won't uncover the true beauty of the game. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes adventure or party games.
Zelda without the puzzles
Mystic heros is like Zelda but with only the monster fights the story is kinda weak but the game play is awsome! You have four kinds a spells, direct(close range), ranged(long range), Sword( guess), and Jump( bombing). You'll love this game!
Hack and Slash fun
Name: Battle Houshin (Mystic Heroes)
System: GameCube
Release and development: Koei
US release date: 9-30-2002
Development and/or staff origin: Japan
Supported devices: Memory Card, GBA link (Japanese only)
Genre: Action (Hack and Slash)
Story elements score: 5 out of 10
Story elements: Battle Houshin contains a somewhat shallow level of plot development and basis. The base of the plot lies in the area of the Asian good versus evil verity. The evil character posses a dragon orb that must be retrieved from the "good" character. Very bland development of the story and predictable character development is what can be expected. The story is not horrible in any comparison, yet appeals to a younger generation of gamers (age 8-12). Presentation of the story is also not of a great level, yet it does not distract other aspect of this game. In all, quality of the plot is not to be expected by this title.
Game play system score: 10 out of 10
Game play system: The problems that lie in the plot development and execution are made up for in game play value. Battle Houshin in consistent with the Hack and Slash genre of action gaming. This game does not really have deep game play but will be enjoyed by most of the gamer market. Difficulty is generally at a minimum but can be challenging in some boss fights. The game play can become a bit repetitive, yet it is a good game to keep since it only takes a few minutes to get back into it. The level up system adds to the game value, allowing upgrading of your characters. A strong point of Battle Houshin is the little skill needed to enjoy the game play, yet can be enhanced by gamer complexity.
Environment and artistic value score: 7.5 out of 10
Environment and artistic value: The character design for the main characters is of a good quality. Non playable characters and monsters can be a little on the bland side. The layout of the environments and design is excellent, yet it does not translate well in the graphics department.
Graphics score: 6 out of 10
Graphics: The environments are executed and rendered at a lower level than the GameCube hardware capable of displaying. The environments seem to have very little in the area of depth rendering, distant textures are very blurry. Textures in the near line of sight are a bit on the blurry side, but again this does not distract much from the overall fell of the game. In contrast, the lighting is fairly well integrated and shadows are generated fairly well. A few clipping issues were discovered in both the Japanese and American release, yet they don't pose too much of a threat. Character models of the playable character are of an excellent quality, very little artifacts add to the character quality. The camera movement and character movement is very fluid, frame rates remain very constant even when a great deal of graphic events are executed.
Sound score: 9 out of 10
Sound: The voice acting in both version (American and Japanese) is surprising good, but is excellent in the original Japanese version. Sample quality of the sound FX are high quality and looping is yet not to be detected.
Music score: 8 out of 10
Music: The music is in no way breath taking, but it is perfect for this title. After a while the music does render into a repetitive state.
Replay value score: 10 out of 10
Replay value: Battle Houshin integrates a good deal of replay value along with the excellent game play. Runes are used to upgrade character stats and over 70 will keep the gamer entertained for an extended amount of time. Also a selection of 4 separate characters with different plot view points are available to complete the game with.
Overall score: 9.5 out of 10
Bottom line: Lower quality graphics and a shallow story are overshadowed by excellent game play and replay value. Battle Houshin can be enjoyed by most age groups and genre preferences; it is worth getting a copy due to the currently low price.
Pros
Excellent Game play, awesome replay value, good for almost all ages, no learning curve
Cons
Low end graphics, shallow story, can get repetitive in long durations
