A 6.5. That's ok, but I was expecting a little more out of the game though. I've read all of the review btw.

Yeah, they definitely thought Chrono Trigger when making this game. That's what the battle system in this game is like. Its slower but still good. Not to mention the graphics are almost spot on like Chrono Trigger. The soundtrack is alright. The random battles are weird. Sometimes, you'll get no battles for a long time. Other times, you'll get them about every few steps. It is a bit annoying but so far not enough to get me stop.

Only in about three hours so far. Its pretty good. Gonna go play more actually.

yeah.... they gave a 6.0 to Radiant Dawn

Honestly, I think reviewers are hitting this game for being too derivative of the old Squaresoft formula, whether or not they're willing to say it. Or maybe there just aren't that many game reviewers who like SNES RPGs?

I've only played the first two hours, and I'll post more about it more later, but the only faults I can lay on this game are:

1.) too many random encounters, and no sound effect going into each one, just a fade in. Also, in each area there are only about 5 encounters, so you run into the exact same ones a lot.

2.) touch screen controls in combat a little wonky.


But here's the thing. These are the good points:

1.) beautiful graphics, somewhere between chrono trigger and Final Fantasy VI

2.) a combat system that gets almost as good as chrono trigger the second you get a second party member.

3.) good music, nice compositions in a unique enough style that it gives the game some character. Mysterious music

4.) talking to people in towns is actually fun, unlike almost every rpg of past few generations. You can reveal a lot about the story just by exploring and talking to people, and people have some hilarious things to say as well.

5.) It feels like playing an old JRPG that I somehow missed years ago, with one major difference. For the first time in my life, I feel like I'm playing a true JRPG in its original form -- in english. The feeling of translation is totally absent. Every joke works, no dialog seems a bit off, and both humor and more dramatic themes are clearly grounded in western culture. It's an incredibly interesting experience, and I think Black Sigil is the first game of its kind to achieve this.


Maybe the story goes downhill, I don't know. I'll post more impressions later. But right now I can't imagine those bad points weighing the good points enough to warrant such low reviews.  This is looking like it could be one of the two or three best original JRPGs on the DS, whatever final scores it's getting.

@Alic0004:

Scenarios= Chrono Trigger
Battle= Chrono Trigger + Breath of Fire
Characters= Final Fantasy
Storyline= Reminds me of the old FF games

The problem is this: "Encounter rate is extremely high"

I thought this game would get better reviews too. I'll wait for more opinions just to be sure this game isn't that much of a let down :\

Well GS is tough on reviews for every game.

I wouldn't trust Gamespot for RPG's. They just gave Crimson Gem Saga a 5.0, when IGN gave it an 8.4 and its lowest score before Gamespot's review was 7.0.

playing knights in the nightmare, 358/2, and infinite space atm lol, prolly will never have time to play black sigil at this point.

The DS is at the point now that RPGs really have to stand out to get a good review score. Plus if one falls to the wayside there are five more right around the corner to take it's place. For anyone skeptical about getting this game now, you always have the option of gettings Knights in the Nightmare, an absolutely fantastic turn based and real time strategy RPG all in one package.