Panorama
The visuals are very simple. There is no animation, and no 3D rendering. Everything is stationary art, even the cut scenes. If you’ve played the classic Fire Emblem franchise, you’ve seen the style before. Despite this lack, the graphics are crisp and nicely styled, everything you expect from Square-Enix illustrations. It also means that any computer that can run Windows XP will be able to run this game.
The graphics are static, even during cut-scenes.
Reigns
On the Xbox 360, the game controls about how you would expect. Use the left analog stick, and a few buttons. The controls are completely intuitive. I didn’t get a chance to try it out on the PC, so I can’t speak to the mouse controls.
Noise
The music was appropriate, but it certainly wasn’t up to the quality Nobuo Uematsu usually delivers for Square-Enix titles. After a few hours I had to turn on my own music. Ironically, most of the music stored on my Xbox 360 is from Final Fantasy Soundtracks, and that music fit perfectly with the game.
Encoding
I found that sometimes, there were objects on the screen which were impossible to select with the cursor. Using a mouse would be no problem, but on the Xbox 360, when selecting something, pushing a direction on the analog stick would jump the cursor to the the thing that is furthest in the direction, so if you happened to have a screen with items on every edge, and an item in the middle, it would be impossible to select that middle item.
Last Word
It’s difficult not to compare this game directly with Puzzle Quest, since many of the features, and even the general stylization seems to be seeking to put itself in that same genre. However, going into the game expecting it to act like Puzzle Quest might leave you a bit disappointed, as this game represents a new take on the genre, and perhaps even already a diversion from it. While Gyromancer may not be the puzzle RPG it seems to have made itself out to be, it is certainly a fun, dynamic, beautiful, and challenging puzzle game. Just ignore the plot holes and linear skill development. You’re not really looking for those things in this game anyway.
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