Some of you may remember a little title that released on the PlayStation 2 from a developer that may have the most artistic style I have seen in gaming, Vanillaware. If GrimGrimoire doesn’t immediately come to mind, then that most likely means you never played it or forgot about it. Vanillaware are the masterminds that brought you one of my favorite action platformers, Muramasa: The Demon Blade. This time, I am reviewing a classic real time strategy from the PlayStation 2 that is now available to download and play on the PS3. In GrimGrimoire, you play as Lillet Blan, a magician that comes to a magic school, but on the fifth day everyone disappears, and when Lillet wakes up, tasked with uncovering the strange disappearances. I know this may sound like Harry Potter, but more entertaining, I promise.
Being that I have played Vanillaware’s other titles and somehow missed this gem, I had to pick this up and see if it compares to the other titles from this developer. Low and behold, it does, maybe not as well as Muramasa, in my opinion, but definitely one to have around to go back and play over and over again. The art style is exactly what you would expect, and the story is even more than I was expecting. Though I am not a huge fan of RTS games with the exception to Warcraft, it does take you by the hand in the beginning and prepares you on your journey to uncovering the mystery behind the strange vanishing. The characters have a lot of depth and provide an adult tone to the humor and dialogue, making it tough to put down as you play on to see what happens next.
The bad, is there any? I would say it would the speed in which the story develops as it can be a bit slow at times, but the twists are worth it and playing through the levels help move it along in between long cut scenes. Also, I was not a fan of the button layout and trying to select specific units, as this is an RTS, you have to think carefully about your next move, but the ability to select the difficulty in between days does help if you find yourself stuck.
All in all, I regret not playing this game while it was on the PlayStation 2, but very happy that this was made available to play again on the PlayStation 3. I must say if you are a fan of Vanillaware’s titles and have not played this or remember playing on the PS2 and get the itch to play it again, you should definitely check it out, as their titles do not come out as often as I would like, but maybe the few and far between releases are what works best for them. Now if only they would release some art books for their games and please, please, please bring Muramasa and Odin Sphere to the PlayStation Network as Downloadable titles.
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