Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel Preview (PS2)

The Final Fantasy series is Square Enix's biggest franchise, but I find myself far more interested in unrelated titles, chief among them Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel. A third person action RPG, it's shaping up to be a fun and epic adventure that should be one of 2005's early hits.

Based on the famous Japanese anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist tells the tale of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric who live in a time where alchemy is a practiced science. After their mother dies, the boys attempt to resurrect her but the process backfires. Edward loses an arm and a leg, and Alphonse's soul gets stripped from his body, though Edward manages to trap it in a suit of armor. The only way to return to their normal states is to locate a relic known as the Philosopher's Stone, and so they both embark upon a quest to find it, and as you may have already assumed, there's going to be a lot of monsters and other characters who are going to take exception to them wandering about.

While the story revolves around both brothers, you can only play the game as Edward, though Alphonse can be summoned to aid you. Edward, being the more magical of the two brothers, often uses magic to manipulate the gameplay environments, the most impressive of his powers being his ability to transform every day objects into weapons. These include swords and spears as well as guns, bombs, and pogo sticks, so whenever you want to get a weapon, all you have to do is activate Edward's special powers. The cool thing about it is you have a choice of what weapon you want, because mixing different combinations of magic will yield two different results and you'll choose one, so it's possible to turn something like a box into a land mine or a cow that fires purple bubbles.

Edward is skilled at creating useful things out of boring every day items like rocks, but he also has basic attacks and weapons including a sword and the ability to raise spikes from the ground to pierce his enemies and place walls in front of him to block attacks. As for Alphonse, Edward's powerful brother can perform charges as well as tag team attacks where both boys deliver the big hurt on their foes.

Fullmetal's gameplay is in no way complex, as it's a simple button-mashing hack-and-slash affair. Alphonse will charge into battle and you can go off and fight other monsters, though you should always keep an eye on his health, especially since you both share health items, but, aside from the alchemy and the ability to level up your characters, the game doesn't appear to be very complex. In fact, it may not even be too exploratory. Just as you're limited to choosing one of two weapons when you transmute objects, most of the game's environments appear to be small arenas and narrow corridors and mountains, meaning that we may be in for a rather linear experience.

The game's graphics engine is no slouch, but it doesn't appear to be pushing the PS2 hardware. Both brothers are distinct, with Edward being the smaller of the two, blonde, and wearing a read cape and Alphonse lumbering about in his artificial body. The monsters are pretty cool looking and include giant wolf-like creatures and pig/reptile abominations. The particle effects that ensue while Edward is using his powers are equally impressive, and the environments, from red-earth mountainous passages to old wooden towns are extremely well-done.

While the game will feature animated cut scenes, during gameplay characters communicate via 2D pictures, which, while they're well-drawn, are rather disappointing. It would've been nice to have nothing but in-game movies and animation from the series peppered throughout the gameplay.

While its presentation isn't as slick as in other Square Enix games, Fullmetal Alchemist is a promising action RPG whose features should set it apart from other games in its genre. Fans of the series should definitely be excited, as the game appears to perfectly capture the essence of the series. Be sure to check out Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel when it releases mid January.