12/24/2023 0 Comments Grimgrimoire unicornThe characters and setting may be 2D, but they aren’t devoid of life. There’s nothing exactly like it that I’ve seen, outside other Vanillaware games, and its pretty breathtaking the first few times you see it. I said at the top of this review that the game was praised for it’s crazy-cool art, and it deserves every word of it. Walking in circles isn’t fun unless you find something knew each lap. That’s frustrating as a viewer because, being on the other side of the fourth wall, you want to see progress towards a conclusion. I don’t want to see different Imagining the Tenth Dimension possible outcomes bullshit. Watching Lillet problem-solve as she loops, retaining knowledge from the previous repetitions is what makes it interesting. From disbelief to exploiting it for personal pleasure, and finally to depression that he is seemingly stuck reliving the same day for all eternity. Remember Groundhog Day? That old movie with Bill Murray? The movie was good because we got to see Bill’s reactions to time repeating itself. The story follows one character, who retains memories throughout the loops. GrimGrimoire sidestepped the worst pitfalls of the concept because of one thing. We need to move away from it and on to more fertile narrative grounds. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni butchered that shit so horribly I wish I knew how to selectively erase memories, and Cross Channel is so bad I feel like I’m giving it too much publicity by mentioning it here. I’m extremely wary of the well worn “looping” concept. It can neglect to properly explain things that probably needed more dialogue to sort out, and there are some aspects of it that are criminally under-explored. I liked the story, and it was good enough to keep my friend planted next to me on the couch during story sequences, but I’ll not say that is isn’t at least a bit cryptic. Fortunately the story is more compelling than Harry Potter, and there are pretty pictures to go with it. There’s a reason the localization team changed Gammel’s last name and broke the established convention of naming all of the characters after liquor and alcoholic beverages. If this reminds you of Harry Potter, rest assured you’re not the only one. Left shaken, and more than a little confused, Lillet sets out to prevent the deaths of those inhabiting the tower, as well as uncover why she is stuck looping through time. Moments before her death, the tower’s bells toll, and Lillet is suddenly back to her first evening at the Tower. On the 5th day however, Lillet wakes to the sudden news that almost everybody in the tower has been killed, and a mage’s soul that was sealed in the tower has been released. Her first days spent there are normal enough, even if the people surrounding her are more than a little unique. Lillet Blan was recently admitted to the Tower of Silver Star, a prestigious mage academy, on recommendation by the headmaster, Gammel Dore. When I came back I sat down and finished it, clocking in at exactly 12 hours.Īlong with Muramasa, which I sat in on a friend’s playthrough recently, GrimGrimoire has rekindled my recently dormant love of 2D games. I played to roughly the 50% mark then walked away in favor of important things like eating or getting a working Windows OS on my computer. On a whim I stuck it in my console and was instantly re-hooked. I played it for about 10 hours straight, then set it down and didn’t touch it until this week. I bought GrimGrimoire forever and a half ago, back when PS2 games were still getting reviewed. The game is considered unique for its resplendent art style and 2D approach to RTS gameplay. GrimGrimoire is a Real-Time Strategy game developed by Vanillaware and publshed by Nippon Ichi/NIS America.
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