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Mana Khemia: Student Alliance
Developer: NIS
Publisher: Gust
Genre: RPG
Release Date: March 10, 2009
Platforms: Playstation 2, Playstation Portable
ESRB: E10+ - Everyone 10+
Reviewer: Eric
I love role playing games. Anytime a new role playing game comes out I buy
it, even if I didn’t finish the last one I was playing. When I heard about Mana
Khemia coming to the PSP with new content I couldn’t stop smiling. One of the
sleeper hits on the PS2 last year will get to see new life on Sony’s portable.
NIS America has done a good job with their games on the PSP. Prinny: Can I
Really Be the Hero? was a great but hard game and Disgaea was better on the PSP.
Mana Khemia: Student Alliance marks the first mistake NIS has put on the PSP.
This game is such a huge mistake I can not recommend it.
Click Here to
read the Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis review.
For the most part Student Alliance is the same game as Alchemists of Al-Revis.
.There are some differences in the story but I will never know if the ending is
different. This has got to be the first role playing game that I have no desire
to complete because of the loading.
Student Alliance is the worst port I have ever seen. Loading screens plague the
game, blurry images occur more than they should and the frame rates are the
worst I have seen since…well this is the first time I have ever seen anything
like this.
If you have no idea where to go/proceed in the game then you are going to have
some problems. Moving around for longer than 10 seconds will have you facing
some tiny loading. Try jumping. The UMD will actual think for a good 2 seconds
on that one. Nothing in this game works. There shouldn’t be this much loading!
Here is an example on doing a simple task in the game.
1. Open up the menu (5 seconds)
2. Move to the item selection (3 seconds)
3. Use a heal item (3 seconds)
4. Exit item section (4 seconds)
5. Exit out of the menu (5 seconds)
This is no joke. I can not stress enough how much loading is in this game. You
can be here all day trying to do the simplest tasks and you will still get no
where in Student Alliance.
Final Verdict
Just take a look at what I wrote. The original game on the PS2 was fantastic, it
was a solid RPG. Porting the game on the PSP like this just makes you wonder
what you are missing on Nintendo’s front. Do not buy this game; only buy it if
you are a collector of PSP games because I predict all of the unsold copies are
going to be buried in some wasteland.
Rating Breakdown
Gameplay: 2 out of 10
+ The game is fun if you have way too much free time.
- No point sitting through all this load time.
Graphics: 5 out of 10
+ When things aren’t messed up it is a passable game on the
PSP.
- Things are messed up way too much to tell what’s going on.
Audio: 7 out of 10
+ Good music and decent enough voice acting.
- Loading prevents this games score from going any higher.
Replay Value: 2 out of 10
+ It’s an RPG; there is always something to do.
- Not worth playing after 5 hours because of the loading
time.
Overall
4 out of 10
More reviews:
MetaCritic: 4/10
TestFreaks: no score yet
IGN:
2.7/10
Mana Khemia: Student Alliance Trailer
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