Disclaimer, this review was made in 2 years ago (Tho I slightly modify) it modify it when the fan translation just had came out, one week ago I made a PS1 JRPG retrospective and mentioned this game, and the fact I made a review about it.
Ecsaform was released in 1999 for the PS1, however we westerners only had the chance to play recently with a fan patch made available in june of 2023
When I begun playing it, I had my expectations really low, I was thinking Ecsaform would be a bad game, while it was better than what I was expecting, It's nothing more than a okish game at best.
Gameplay:
It's definitively the best thing about it, a lot of SRPG from this era have the issue, of being really slow during battle, even from the best SRPG of the PS1 have this problem, this game doesn't which already makes it better than 80% of SRPG from the time period, at least on the gameplay departament.
The gameplay is quite different from other SRPG, you work with AP, AP defines what actions you can perform during battle,be it moving, attacking, using a item , magic or skill, unlike most game you don't need to do them in a certain order, you can even attack the same enemies 3 times in the same turn if you have enough AP. however this game has also EP, It works like a shield, every turn all characters start with 0 EP, but if you end a turn with the AP of 5 or higher the character AP will be full, it's important to keep EP full because otherwise your characters can easily die , the same thing is valid to the enemies, if you end the turn with a character between 1 to 4 AP, you will have some EP.
This AP/EP mechanic is really well done and fun to do strategy with.
Despite having a solid foundation , it sadly doesn't do much with it, the game is easy, they likely did that because the game only allows you to save right before battle, so it would be really easy to softlock yourself in unwinnable scenarios, I just don't understand why they did that, why can't you save during the moments you are allow to shop, there's no shame in using save state in this game, unless you abuse them.
Story:
It's not bad, and the translation did a good job in translating it, however it's paper thin, it had everything to be a good JRPG story even if it would have beeing full of JRPG tropes, but everything is extemly undercooked, scenes that should have being at least 5 minutes long are just 2 text boxes, which makes for a very poor plot, shame considering it had very cool concepts, for example there's this giant bug, which has a city on top of it, working independently as a city-state, very cool isn't it?
but you only visit it for 5 minutes and not much is discussed about it, this game has 2 disc but it different from what you would expect from most PS1 games, the first disc is the game while the second disc is a data base full of concept art and a data log similar to games like Final Fantasy tatics , Final Fantasy 13 and the Xenosaga series.
(The concept art in disc 2 of the city on top the giant bug I was referring too)
Graphics:
They are pretty good for PS1 pixel art, it certainly not the best on the PS1, Breath of Fire 4 and Xenogears does it better, however it's important to note that this game was made by a much smaller company than Capcom or Square, the fact that this game is in the conversation with them is pretty impressive, and it does that with a unique aesthetic and good looking places to visit, a lot of people are drawn to the game because of the visuals.
Music:
It's weak, there's is only one track that I would listen outside of the game, the reset while fitting with the game is not memorable, which makes it a bad sound track by JRPG standard, a lot of mediocre JRPG have at least Decent to great OST, but this game sadly isn't the case.
Conclusion:
While I enjoy my time, I wouldn't recommend it to most people, it flaws make this a very unmemorable game, that was forgotten for a reason, but if you feel like playing a short (only 17 hours long) and easy SRPG or feel like playing a new PS1 JRPG that you hadn't played before, you might enjoy it.
Ecsaform was released in 1999 for the PS1, however we westerners only had the chance to play recently with a fan patch made available in june of 2023
When I begun playing it, I had my expectations really low, I was thinking Ecsaform would be a bad game, while it was better than what I was expecting, It's nothing more than a okish game at best.
Gameplay:
It's definitively the best thing about it, a lot of SRPG from this era have the issue, of being really slow during battle, even from the best SRPG of the PS1 have this problem, this game doesn't which already makes it better than 80% of SRPG from the time period, at least on the gameplay departament.
The gameplay is quite different from other SRPG, you work with AP, AP defines what actions you can perform during battle,be it moving, attacking, using a item , magic or skill, unlike most game you don't need to do them in a certain order, you can even attack the same enemies 3 times in the same turn if you have enough AP. however this game has also EP, It works like a shield, every turn all characters start with 0 EP, but if you end a turn with the AP of 5 or higher the character AP will be full, it's important to keep EP full because otherwise your characters can easily die , the same thing is valid to the enemies, if you end the turn with a character between 1 to 4 AP, you will have some EP.
This AP/EP mechanic is really well done and fun to do strategy with.
Despite having a solid foundation , it sadly doesn't do much with it, the game is easy, they likely did that because the game only allows you to save right before battle, so it would be really easy to softlock yourself in unwinnable scenarios, I just don't understand why they did that, why can't you save during the moments you are allow to shop, there's no shame in using save state in this game, unless you abuse them.
Story:
It's not bad, and the translation did a good job in translating it, however it's paper thin, it had everything to be a good JRPG story even if it would have beeing full of JRPG tropes, but everything is extemly undercooked, scenes that should have being at least 5 minutes long are just 2 text boxes, which makes for a very poor plot, shame considering it had very cool concepts, for example there's this giant bug, which has a city on top of it, working independently as a city-state, very cool isn't it?
but you only visit it for 5 minutes and not much is discussed about it, this game has 2 disc but it different from what you would expect from most PS1 games, the first disc is the game while the second disc is a data base full of concept art and a data log similar to games like Final Fantasy tatics , Final Fantasy 13 and the Xenosaga series.
(The concept art in disc 2 of the city on top the giant bug I was referring too)
Graphics:
They are pretty good for PS1 pixel art, it certainly not the best on the PS1, Breath of Fire 4 and Xenogears does it better, however it's important to note that this game was made by a much smaller company than Capcom or Square, the fact that this game is in the conversation with them is pretty impressive, and it does that with a unique aesthetic and good looking places to visit, a lot of people are drawn to the game because of the visuals.
Music:
It's weak, there's is only one track that I would listen outside of the game, the reset while fitting with the game is not memorable, which makes it a bad sound track by JRPG standard, a lot of mediocre JRPG have at least Decent to great OST, but this game sadly isn't the case.
Conclusion:
While I enjoy my time, I wouldn't recommend it to most people, it flaws make this a very unmemorable game, that was forgotten for a reason, but if you feel like playing a short (only 17 hours long) and easy SRPG or feel like playing a new PS1 JRPG that you hadn't played before, you might enjoy it.
Pros
- + Good Visuals
- + Good Gameplay
- + Unique Gameplay mechanics
Cons
- - Not being able to save on outside of the battle preparations screen
- - Having a undercooked story
- - Forgettable music
- - Missed opportunity
8
Gameplay
Certainly the best thing about it, fast snappy and innovative (for the time) but like everything in this game it feels undercooked and the game doesn't do much with it.
8
Graphics
Might not be the flashiest PS1 out there, but it just pretty to look at, the opening moments of the game encapsulate the dark atmosphere the game was going for, and hold it own pretty well.
6
Story
It has a lot of really cool concepts that would make for very compelling story, but sadly the games feels rushed and that we are having a abridged version of the story.
4
Sound
I don't remember anything about it, which it is a crime for PS1 JRPG, but at least it didn't have any straight up bad music, which is the most positive thing I can say about it.
1
Replayability
There's no character customization system besides different equipment, only one ending or any reason to replay it, besides being a really short game for a RPG.
7
out of 10
Overall
When I first played I was expecting to be a really bad game, I was pleasantly surprised this wasn't the case, but I was still disappointed for it's wasted potential.
Thanks for sharing.
