Journey to Kreisia (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Journey to Kreisia starts with a reluctant hero falling into a journey similar to his favourite video games. Yusis is everything expected from a JRPG hero, down to the pointy hair and the sarcastic tone. He is joined by Cynthiana, a naive young woman who believes in the goodness of other people and the need to fight for those who are marginalised.

This 16-bit turned-based title checks all the JRPG boxes. Even the music is right down to the note. It's, in fact, so expected that it manages to be charming. This isn't a game that is trying to reinvent the wheel, but remind gamers why the wheel is so nice.

As players journey across the land, they will encounter fairly standard turn-based RPG fights. Levelling seems to be fairly quick, as the random encounters are less common than in similar titles. It's good, although most of the encounters are fairly bland, as it means each fight feels less like a factory installed cog and more like an actually random encounter.

Exploring the world is also great fun, although Cynthiana is keen on moving the mission at hand forward. This means a lot of exploration is stifled in lieu of, "We can't go through here. There's nothing here for us" dialogue. Still, there's plenty of places to explore in the overworld, and frankly a diverse enough selection to keep your attention for a while.

Journey to Kreisia suffers from some rather boring architecture. While villages and caves look very detailed, a lot of the interior shots are just sets of lifeless blocks strung together. It sounds trivial, but watching a detailed 16-bit scene turn into a poorly made Flash experience is jolting.

What isn't trivial is the number of cut-scenes that litter even just the first hour of the game. JRPGs have always gotten guff for the number of cut-scenes they employ, but here it borders on absurd. The first 30 minutes alone feels more like a visual novel than an intense JRPG. It doesn't help that Yusis goes from sarcastic to "we get it; you're edgy" pretty frequently. Still, if the ridiculous number of cut-scenes are something you can look past, there's plenty of fun to be had here.