Turn-based strategy's shining moments arise when a battle's won against staggering odds -- like avoiding defeat when half of the party's been wiped out. Record of Agarest War Zero features dozens of these tactical triumphs through its solid combat, but the stale other areas keep it from surpassing its predecessor and leaving a truly memorable mark on the genre.
Record of Agarest War Zero continues the mechanics, story-style, and gameplay of the original Record of Agarest War. If you've played it, you'll be quite familiar with the territory treaded here. Zero's dropped the overt-sexuality of its predecessor, such as the well-endowed mouse pad in the special edition -- though you'll still find plenty of heaving chests and big-eyed maidens. Zero uses three main types of gameplay: turn-based combat, a dotted world map, and portrait-based city scenes. The combat is the strongest element of the package because the other types of gameplay still aren't as engaging.
Record of Agarest War Zero is the prequel to Record of Agarest War. The tale follows Sieghart, an army commander who gains magical powers from a strange woman named Mimel. Blossoming from this setup, Record of Agarest War Zero is a slow-paced tale treading on familiar territory: the world is in danger and it's up to a small band of warriors to set things right. Sieghart travels through the world and wins the affection of a gaggle of ladies. This doting is odd set against the tumultuous events in the world, but it comes with dating-sim territory.
The main reason the Agarest War series is different from other strategy games is that the story is split over multiple generations. When the curtain finally closes on Sieghart's side of the story, it's his offspring with the maiden-of-highest-regard that carries on the tale into future years. It's a cool mechanic that suffers only from its own unpredictably. Namely, almost none of the dialogue choices with the in-game ladies logically apply to the strength of each relationship. Choices feel random and don't necessarily add points towards the maiden you may want to connect with.
Record of Agarest War Zero's shining light is combat. Moving characters into position like a chess board is a challenging undertaking, but a rewarding one. Depending on which square characters occupy, they can link to other characters to unleash joint attacks with powerful results. But it's the calculated movement of sprites into position that makes exciting battles. While the terrain is flat and backgrounds repetitive -- the environment is still a non-factor like the original Agarest War -- the strategic requirements of success are fulfilling for all strategy fans. Like winning a tense game of chess, Record of Agarest War Zero requires patience before revealing its spoils. Many enemies and spells return from the original Record of Agarest War, so don't expect a completely new experience, just more (plenty more) of the same.
Battles dish out experience like candy, yet money feels constantly tight. Record of Agarest War Zero is unforgiving in its difficulty (which isn't a bad thing) but because at least one character's slaughtered in almost every confrontation, resurrecting them becomes a huge money sink. Without selling off items and powerful spells in the inventory, it's difficult to sustain a battle-heavy lifestyle within Record of Agarest War Zero -- and that's really the only lifestyle there is. While keeping characters alive is an element of every fight, it's an expensive tenet of the experience.
One element that bothered me throughout the experience, more so than the original, is the lack of tangible connection to the characters. This begins during character creation, when selecting a vague set of cards dictates what the main character's strengths are. While the idea is interesting, the obscurity of the symbols makes for confusing character creation.
Continuing into gameplay, Agarest War Zero never has a section where you completely control your party running through a dungeon (which Record of Agarest War had). So the only time you really get to connect with your party is when their portraits are subtly breathing and speaking to each other. While this style did bond me to the characters eventually, it took a long time to feel like I knew them.
The graphical style is a striking aspect of Record of Agarest War Zero, for better or worse. The main party is made up of classic sprites pulled from a long-gone era, along with the majority of normal enemies. But these sprites stand in stark contrast to the 3D rendered backgrounds and bosses. This mixture makes the battlefield a jumbled mess of graphical styles that don't synch up. The 3D animations are smooth while the sprites jaggedly skip around. On their own, the graphical styles are cool, but it's the blending that's unappealing. It's as though Agarest War Zero can't decide whether to be a window to the past or an evolutionary step forward -- almost exactly like the last Agarest War.