14 DAY TRIAL // 
Final Fantasy is my favorite RPG of all times and Square-Enix has yet to fail when it comes to producing some of the best role-playing titles ever released. They seem to possess a successful recipe that works every time, so it's normal to see tons of games borrowing or copying trademark features from the great names of the genre. Game Republic did a wonderful job with Brave Story: New Traveler, another one of those role playing titles that can be compared to Final Fantasy. However, when quality graphics meet decent gameplay, a lengthy and fascinating story and funny dialogs, success is right around the corner.
Story I was tempted to mock the game's plot after watching the initial cutscenes that featured Tatsuya, the main character frantically playing on his PSP. Yes, you've heard me, I'm talking about a PSP game, that features a character playing on a virtual PSP. How cool is that? His gaming obsession makes him lose sight of a dear friend, Miki, who mysteriously disappears and ends up in a coma at the hospital. It's up to the 11 year old Tatsuya to save the girl from certain doom, by entering the magical world of Vision and collecting 5 gems. The boy becomes a Traveler, a sword-wielding fighter, with the sole purpose of returning to the real world and saving his beloved friend. After entering the world of Vision, Tatsuya receives the Traveler's Sword from an old man named Lau.
He then joins forces with a cute kitkin girl, Yuno and the fierce waterkin warrior Sogreth. The trio will have to travel throughout a fascinating universe and you'll get the chance to swap your party members as you meet new and original characters. It may bother some of the Final Fantasy fans that Tatsuya is the silent type of character, similar to Squall from Final Fantasy VIII, or even worse. He will only answer questions when he's prompted to, not being part of the dialog sequences. So, our hero is a God of War fan (because he named his dog Kratos), who never speaks, likes playing PSP games and collects gem for fun... Sounds familiar? I might be a romantic gamer, but the thing that impressed me the most in Brave Story: New Traveler is that every time you collect a gem, you are allowed to go back to the real world and visit Miki at the hospital... Sad? It may be, but you don't even know 10% of the game's whole storyline. Play it and get ready to be astonished!
Concept There are not many quality RPG-s on the PSP, mostly because of the platform's limitations, but Brave Story: New Traveler manages to prove that the console's capacity is not as important as the producer's will to create magnificent content. First of all, I have to mention that this is a huge RPG, because, taking my time and solving all the quests in may path I've spent 10 hours collecting the first three gems out of five. I guess that there are at least 5 hours of quality gameplay left... Brave Story has it all: numerous characters, tons of skills, a bestiary, random battles, a huge universe plus a fascinating storyline. All of the game's battles are turn-based, but not the active one available in Final Fantasy, as the enemy waits for the player to perform his move before striking.
You'll travel as a party of three heroes that will always include Tatsuya as the leader, plus a couple of episodic characters and the above-mentioned Yuno and Sogreth. Aside from the normal attacks, you'll be able to use Bravura attacks, Unity attacks, escape the battle or defend. The Bravura attacks are special abilities that require the use of Brave Points, as do the Unities. In order to perform a Unity three characters must spend some time together and participate in battles as allies, being able to join forces in an extremely powerful strike. During battles your characters can be hit by various status ailments like paralysis, isolation, oblivion or poison. These can be cured by resting at an inn, or by using the items you collect throughout your quest. Like most of the RPG-s there are some chests and pots you'll be checking out in order to find useful items or combat gear.
Characters can be equipped with weapons and various accessories that grant them special attacks, increase or decrease their stats and protect them from various elementals. The concept of Unity ads a bit of strategy to the battle making a player grow fond of a certain battle formation and keep a strong character close by in order to perform better Unities. While traveling from one location to another, you should use big blue spheres to save the game and search for green pyramids close by as they recharge your HP, Brave Points and cure your status ailments. Brave Story also features a currency called tems, that will allow Tatsuya and Co. to buy items and accessories from various shops spread in the cities of Vision. Typical to the role playing genre, this game features an evolution system based on experience points. Your characters level up as they gain these points, getting new abilities and increasing their HP and BP.
In case you reach an area filled with foes that can kill you instantly, you'll be able to go back to another location where weaker enemies lurk around and level up. After doing that, you will probably be strong enough to defeat those pesky enemies, that defeated you before. The gamers who played Brave Story often complained about the numerous random battles they had to face. That won't be a problem, unless you play short game sessions of 20 or 30 minutes. However, I must admit that some of these random battles are annoying, especially in the areas where there's a lot of walking to do. Now let's talk a bit about the game's environments, as it's another pretty good feature.
Brave Story: New Traveler couldn't have kept me glued to the tiny PSP screen for 10 hours if it didn't feature lots of locations to explore, could it? You'll visit cities, battle your way through forests and caves, climb mountains and escape the desert alive. All in all Brave Story manages to deliver what games ten times larger in UMD size and fame can't in a decent package and managing not to become a Final Fantasy copy-cat.
Gameplay When you mention "gameplay" in an RPG, you'll surely talk about the battles, the combat system and the characters' evolution. Once again, the Unity attacks are the first to be worth mentioning, as they involve a major coup featuring all three characters. It can only be performed after battling it out with the same party for a while, in order to get some sort of affinity going. The Unities will range from devastating blows to mediocre slashes or useful pickpocketing. If you're a Diablo fan, you shouldn't be playing Brave Traveler, as the game features a turn-based battle system, so combat sequences can become rather dull, specially when you're able to perform long-lasting Bravura attacks. Since such moves rely heavily on the use of Brave Points, it will be tough to counter attack when you ran out of the useful BP. That's where an unfair advantage kicks in, spoiling the MP system we adored in Final Fantasy.
Unlike Square-Enix's title, where you had to use your magic carefully as your MP meter got depleted, the similar BP meter from Brave Story can easily be replenished by slaying enemies. So, logically you'll perform only Bravura attacks, because the BP will never run out, unless you start using Unities. The AI is not impressive and you won't die as often as you'd expect, mostly because of that unfair advantage I mentioned earlier. Maybe the bosses will give you a hard time, but such battles tend to be rather long than difficult. Once again I have to compare Brave Traveler with Final Fantasy, because it features a fun bird-catching minigame, similar to the whole Chocobo racing concept we played in the FF series. This time, the birds aren't golden ostrich-like creatures, but average ones, available in all sorts of colors. Tatsuya gets a net and a time limit to catch these birds in a ring. You should know that each of the flying critters will be part of an ultimate bird, created at the end of the bird-catching minigame through the fusion of the ones you caught.
Practically, a small bird is an attribute of the bigger one, like HP or pecking power. Once your birdcage is full, you can send this minigame to another PSP, via Wi-Fi or take part in bird fights available in Brave Story. While you're not battling you can press triangle at any time (except for the dialog sequences) to see the game's main menu. Here, you can change formation and place another member in your party, choosing characters like Leynart, Ropple or Meladee to replace Yuno or Sogreth. The player can also view his items in the main menu, as they're divided into normal items, weapons, armor, accessories, materials and valuables.
In the "Other" section of the main menu, you'll be able to select the Settings, Books, Crafts and Birdcage options. While the settings are pretty easy to figure out, the books will show you a neat bestiary called monster album, a book of quests that lists your tasks and an accessory book. Brave Story allows the player to forge his or her own accessories or dismantle the existing ones and use their pieces to create new combat gear. That's the use of the Accessory Book, which is practically a "recipe book" for creating various items. We've seen a similar system in Vagrant Story, but this is a more simplistic version, that adds to the whole gaming experience and helps the player obtain cool new accessories to equip his party members with.
Video
The game features some of the best graphics I've seen in a PSP RPG, ever. Each battle includes cool-looking moves, sparks and Bravura attacks that make the whole leveling up process worth the effort. The character design is also top notch, although Tatsuya looks very much like Link from The Legend of Zelda, because of his hood and tunic. Of course, the almighty Traveler's Sword is impressive changing its size and shape with each new gem attached to it. The enemies look decent enough, featuring good animation, a couple of swell attacks and even some taunts. All of the game's cutscenes manage to deliver the storyline quite well, but some of you won't be able to put up with the constant chattering that's going on with the aid of those dialog screens.
Sound Brave Story's soundtrack reminds me of the beautiful songs I've listened to while playing Chrono Cross, with those gentle violins and a battle BGM that seems "borrowed" from a Final Fantasy title. You shouldn't worry about dialogs at least when it comes to Tatsuya, because the boy's mute, but the other characters sure have a lot to say. It surprised me to see that many of Yuno's and Sogreth's lines are funny and the title departs from the standard dramatic saga recipe, filled with profound dialogs and lots of tale-telling.
Multiplayer Can this game be considered a multiplayer title? The answer is yes and no, because it features an Ad-Hoc mode, where you can transfer the Bird catching minigame to another PSP, in case you want to fill your birdcage and continue playing the regular game at the same time. This way you can earn money and items, by selling the birds that one of your friends catches on his or her PSP. How's that for a money-earning trick?
Conclusion If you're a Final Fantasy fan, this game is a must and if you've got a PSP, it will be a shame not to take full advantage of its potential thanks to Brave Story: New Traveler. A pretty original (and childish in a positive way) story gets complemented by good graphics, a well-done turn-based battle system and funny dialogs. This is surely a title that's worth at least twenty hours of your life, if you call yourself a RPG aficionado.
