In Japan, virtually all successful anime and manga series have found their way to the PlayStation 2. With the growing industry here in the states, its no wonder that Fullmetal Alchemist, currently playing on Cartoon Network, has also made this crossover. Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel is an action RPG that follows the story of Edward Elric, who with help from his body-less brother Alphonse are embarking on a quest to find the Philosopher's Stone, after receiving clues about it from outlaws who attack their train. With the stone, the boys hope to regain what they lost -- Al's body and Ed's left arm, after a failed attempt to bring back their deceased mother through alchemy.

Square Enix has made a solid attempt to make Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel stand apart from the generic action RPG. One of the unique gameplay elements is the ability to control Al with command inputs such as tackle, pick up weapon, and block (Al literally becomes a human shield). The game environment also allows your character to transmute certain objects. These objects turn into various items such as bombs, swords, spears, and guns. Eventually they will disappear or run out of bullets, which isn't a real problem since there is an abundance of items. Some of these items can even be combined with each other or elements to create a super-weapon that dishes out maximum damage.

Other than the addition of alchemy, the battle system in Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel is quite basic. Using your normal attack, Ed will use his handblade to slice up the enemy, dodge will cartwheel, back flip, or breakfall when you get knocked down, and accu-strikes are precise attacks that are far more powerful than your normal attack. Using alchemy you can create rock blockers, which are basically stone walls that can guard you from enemy attacks, or be used as stepping stones, and stone spikes that can be used with your weapon combo attacks. Camera angles are a bit lacking, and although you can freely adjust the angle, it can be a pain in the middle of a battle.

As with the typical action RPG, as your character levels up, you will gain new abilities such as creating more than one rock blocker at a time. Bonus points are also awarded which you can allocate to improve your attack ability, defense, life bar, and alchemy strength. With the addition of these unique gameplay elements to the classic action RPG style, Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel still falls short. Turning a signpost into a sword is not enough to keep the gameplay from being your typical hack and slash. For those of you who enjoy mashing or have trouble with more advanced battle systems, this game might be the road to take. The difficulty is easy as a result of the repetitive hack and slash style.

Graphically, Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel is nothing out of the ordinary. The backgrounds are bright and clean, but they are also bare and boring to look at. The beautiful anime art style is non-existent in this title. This is a let down to the fans of the anime and manga series that enjoy the unique look of anime style. Sound effects and music are about average overall, although some of the tracks seemed to better fit the games in the NES days. Perhaps the only real value to this game is the story. Fullmetal Alchemist fans will be enthused to follow part of the storyline from the anime series. However, there are no English subtitles, so some avid fans may not like hearing the American voices of the characters. They will find the voice acting to be terrible compared to the original Japanese voices, but those who follow the Cartoon Network counterpart shouldn't have much to complain about.

Overall, Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel is merely your typical action RPG that's been given a brand name in order to sell. The alchemy system of the game offered something new to the genre, but because it plays such an important role in the series, Square had to include it. There is far too much hack and slash in Broken Angel to set it apart from a crowded library of mediocre action RPGs. For this reason, unless you are a fan of the Cartoon Network series, this game should stay off your list of must haves for this month.