Have you ever played a game you really, really enjoyed until one fatal flaw sours the entire experience for you? Most would cite Mass Effect 3 and its controversial ending (though those people should be shouted down and booed; it ended the way it HAD to end, people), but that isn't quite what I'm talking about. The incidents I'm referring to often don't have much to do with the game itself; some examples that come to mind are on-disc DLC, in-app purchases, shoehorned in touch controls, shoddy ports, etc. Atlus' SRPG Gungnir, one of the very last games released for Sony's PSP, contains one of those fatal flaws, and it alone drags the entire score down for an otherwise interesting and fun way to cap off the portable system's lifespan.
Since you are probably most curious about that massive misstep, I'll start there. Believe it or not, Gungnir, despite being released months after the PS Vita's debut, cannot be played on Sony's new handheld. No way, no how. Some (though it should be all) PSP games are more than Vita compatible and available for download on the PSN Store. Gungnir is not one of those games. What the hell went wrong? A quick look at Atlus' message boards better framed the situation for me; apparently Sony is working on making the game Vita-compatible sometime in the near future. Anyone who knows Sony's track record can translate that promise: Gungnir will never be playable on the Vita. It's a good thing I held onto my PSP Go, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this review, well, ever. Regardless of who is to blame here, this major misstep knocks at least 20 points off the game's overall score, though my initial knee-jerk reaction had me subtracting even more. As a matter of fact, Gungnir is entertaining and engaging enough to keep me from assigning a score of zero, my first thought. If you see pigs gliding by your window and Sony has made the SRPG Vita-compatible, simply disregard this tirade and skip to the next paragraph (and add 20 to the overall score while you're at it).
As we all know by now, Atlus RPGs can run the gamut from crazy good (Yggdra Union) to crazy bad (Knights in the Nightmare). Gungnir falls on the positive side of the spectrum with a sweeping narrative focusing on the futility of war and a new mechanic that sets the game above your average ho-hum SRPG. The tale follows Giulio, an unwilling participant in the war gripping the world. As he comes to grips with the role thrust upon him and his new, powerful weapon, a demonic lance-thing with summoning powers, Giulio changes from a reluctant warrior to a true hero. The characterization here is top-notch, especially when considering how few previous Atlus SRPGs made me actually care about the characters and their fates. I should say "character;" as much as I empathized with Giulio, none of the other characters are quite as memorable. Still, it's the conflicting goals of these forgettable supporting characters that build the game's feeling of moral ambiguity, a trademark of the better Atlus' SRPGs.
Gungnir's gameplay hook is even more refreshing than the engrossing story. If you are an SRPG fan, this will blow your mind: The battles are not turn-based. What? I'll explain. Each party member is governed not by the order set up for you, but by individual counters that are depleted and refilled by actions. If you move a character, a little of this counter will disappear and need to be refilled over time before the character can act again. Special moves, attacks and everything else subtract from the counter at different rates, meaning that the planning ahead aspect of games like this is still just as important as when things are turn-based. Reading back over this, I'm realizing that the mechanic isn't the easiest to explain in words. If you think about the Active Time Battles (ATBs) from the Final Fantasy series and the normal turn-based SRPG fare mixed together, you'll have a slightly clearer idea of how things go in Gungnir. Aside from Tactics Ogre's rewind mechanic, this system is the best new spin on the SRPG I've seen in years.
The game looks and sounds fairly decent, just not great. The sprites are attractive enough, but the battle animations and arenas are pretty standard fare. The voiceover, and there is a lot of it, is the typical over-the-top nonsense you've come to expect from games like this. There isn't anything wrong with the presentation per se; it's just middle of the road and easily interchangeable with any other recent SRPG. This feels like a wasted opportunity when you consider the innovation in gameplay, like somehow the presentation should have tweaked the genre in the same way the new battle mechanics do.
Maybe it is because my most recent SRPG experience was with the Vita port of Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention, but Gungnir refreshingly moves at a quicker pace than other games in the genre. Where games like Final Fantasy Tactics and the Disgaea series place a lot of emphasis on "the grind;" endlessly playing and replaying maps to boost unit stats, Gungnir keeps things interesting by breathlessly whisking players through the main story (at a comparative pace anyway). Each encounter moves things forward, keeping the narrative at the forefront. Other grind-heavy SRPGs become less about the story and more about stats (after too many hours in Digaea's Item World, it wasn't uncommon to forget character's names and motivations over their attack and defense stats), but like Yggdra Union, the story remains Gungnir's main focus. Smartly, though, the game retains plenty of opportunities for those looking for that endless grind, and players can conceivably make it to the end of the lengthy adventure whether they utilize it or not.
If you are still a PSP owner and a strategy fan, Gungnir is almost a must-buy. It's one of the last games the system will ever get and it's pretty good to boot. That said, do not buy this game if you are a Vita owner looking for another title to ease you through the current game drought. You won't be able to play it, and you probably never will. I got a lot out of Gungnir and will probably continue to play for quite a while, so it pains me to see such a problem lead to such a terrible review score.
Final Rating: 55%. Let's hope Atlus reads this and starts beating down Sony's door to make a very good SRPG available to a wider audience. If that day ever comes, Vita owners (don't hold your breath) should get this title immediately and tack an extra 20 points onto the score I've assigned. Until then, not only does Gungnir gets the shaft, the Vita owners do as well.