As I said in regards to the main character, the art style is rather different; stylized, if you will. I once heard the main character described as “a cross between David Bowie and a chimp,” and I think that sums it up fairly well. Not all of the characters are like this; some are pretty cool-looking, though most have some weirdness or exaggerated characteristics. The monsters are particularly oddball, many looking like they were assembled in a junkyard. The graphics are pretty good in general though, with many fun particle effects, explosions and highly unusual environments.

After starting to check out the manual, and setting up for initial play, I realized it resembled a certain other type of game very strongly, if it were translated into video game form. It used words like “Arsenal,” “Skills” and “Aura,” where I couldn’t help translating them to “Deck,” “Spells” and “Mana.” This is not necessarily a bad thing, I just feel that it should be pointed out. If you’ve ever played a little collectible card game known as Magic the Gathering or one of its many offshoots, you may find these terms popping into your head as well (and no, I don’t play CCGs any more). These recognizable elements work to make the game more understandable, I think, and people who have played such games will be right at home with the way your character’s abilities in this are set up. Those who have no familiarity with such things will be in for a longer learning curve, but the single player missions/scenarios do an excellent job of showing you things in a progressive, step-by-step manner that will have you slinging Skills around with the best of them.

Okay, let’s set aside such comparisons now, and focus on what’s going on here. The players represent a type of people called “Espers,” who wield these special powers or Skills (which are organized into Arsenals), seemingly granted by the mysterious Dust which covers the world’s surface…the same Dust that has robbed everyone of their memories, at least with regards to a time before the world reached its current state. They have one memory in common: some strange ruins. The people live in underground communities to limit exposure to the Dust, and because the surface world also seems to be infested with strange creatures, many of whom are hostile. Espers are valued in their ability to survive for limited times topside, fight off the creatures, bring back supplies or information, and hopefully find some answers … like maybe where those mysterious ruins are, and what they signify.

I’m not going to touch on the plot much beyond that. It’s strange, often maudlin or depressing in mood as the story progresses, and has a fair amount of holes in it (in my opinion). It’s a peculiar trip as the search for answers progresses, and it has a fair amount of revelatory stuff I don’t want to spoil for you either. You may like it, you may hate it. It provides a good excuse for some Esper-style dueling and the occasional boss fight (some immensely huge and bizarre in appearance). It reminds me quite a bit of some post-apocalyptic anime that I’ve seen, in terms of tone, convoluted plots, weird revelations, etc.

The basic scenario in this game, whatever the underlying reason for the fight, usually involves you as the main character, a partner as your ally, and one or more enemies. Sometimes these enemies are humans like you, other times they’re an assortment of bizarre monster-types who use Skills similarly to the way you do, each with their own particular Arsenals and methods for ending your life. They exhibit different physical characteristics as well, some being humanoid, others looking more like, well, toasters that dodge really well. Some float around, others run and jump (like you), etc.

Now, these Arsenals you have … you can have up to 16 of them, each with its own case. They basically represent different sets of Skills (spells, if you prefer) that your character can bring to the battlefield. You can use one Arsenal of choice in a given scenario, and sometimes they even assign one to you, or limit what you can use, via various special conditions for winning. In a given scenario, for example, you may be required to use a specific attack Skill a certain number of times successfully, in order to learn more about that type of attack. Win, and you’ll probably get a “memory box,” among other things, that either advances the plot in some way with the info it contains, or is simply a textual message regarding game mechanics that you can refer back to if you forget how something works. You can also get Skills to add to your Arsenals, and money for buying more cases or Skills at the shop. Each of these Arsenal cases can hold up to 30 Skills/Aura particles (these are what fuel your powers - absorb them and your power Level goes up). You generally want a good balance between Skills and Aura in your Arsenals, so you don’t wind up having access to a bunch of nifty attacks or defenses that you don’t have the power, or Level, to use. This Level regenerates after being used, and is mainly dependent on how many Aura particles you’ve absorbed, though some special Skills can also be used to change your Level. How fast the power regenerates is determined by how many different “Schools” of Skills you’re using in a given Arsenal. (Yeah, a new term!) They’ve got five different Schools, each with a different style to how they do things. Some are all about the long-range zap attacks, others have powerful attacks which involve sacrifices of health in addition to power usage, and still others focus on short-range mayhem.

There are also six different types of Skill: Attack, Defense, Erase, Status, Environmental and Special. Most are pretty self-explanatory. Special is a fun category that includes some cool movement powers such as Jump, if I recall correctly. They’re pretty situational, but it’s fun to do the occasional anime-style leap around the battlefield (not so fun when they shoot you out of the air, though). Environmental Skills might be something a little newer to you, though; they change battlefield conditions when you play them, and are generally represented in glowing capsule form on the field where you placed them. To make it go away, the enemy has to capture it. And yes, I will tell you a bit more about capturing and capsules as well.

Imagine your Skills as cards, if you will (sorry, I had to do it). The area of the battlefield you start out in is like your home base, and this is where your “hand” of randomly drawn Skill capsules will appear, color-coded to indicate type. If you stand on one and hit a face button, the Skill gets captured, and will be mapped to that button for future use, unless erased or overwritten by another Skill. One annoying thing that can happen at times, is when you try to use a Skill while standing too close to your base area. New Skills or Aura capsules pop into existence to replace those you’ve picked up already, and sometimes one will pop up right as you are trying to attack or defend, and you’ll capture it instead, overwriting whatever it is you were trying to use, and generally getting nailed in the bargain. So, be careful. You can also “mulligan,” or redraw, once at the beginning of a match, if you end up with a bad initial “hand.” Since they are randomly assigned, this can be quite handy.

The arenas you’ll be fighting in represent different areas on the surface, and some are more suited to long-range, others more to short or mid-range attacks. Much of the terrain is destructible (a very cool feature), and it’s possible to be hurt by flying debris. In fact, sometimes you’ll get even more hurt if you, for example, get slammed by debris, knocked off the edge of something, and crash into the ground (with bits of gravel flying here and there as you do). If you lose all your health, it’s over. If you have the most left after time runs out, you win.

It’s considered bad form in the online community to persist in a standoff when you’ve basically lost (have no attacks left, etc.) but are able to simply avoid or defend against attacks until time runs out. However, while I agree with that sentiment, it should be noted that the online community for this is a rather mixed bag, with many people getting offended or angry at the use of basically anything they don’t like, and many also seem to be into exploiting in order to gain “rares” (you get a rare Skill after 30 wins online, so some folks will try and trade wins), and other unsavory activities such as triple-teaming someone in what was supposed to be a two-on-two, etc. I chose to primarily involve myself in the single-player mode to avoid the silliness, though I understand there are some pretty cool players out there, and the game can be quite fun in system link or XBL multiplayer if you’re playing with people you know and trust.

The game has plenty of play just from the single-player missions, if that’s what you’re into, and multiplayer can extend it indefinitely (or anger you until you quit in frustration, heh). Your mileage may vary, of course. It’s well worth the $20 USD price tag, considering what you get, and is indeed a fun blend of action and strategy, with a fair amount of depth to it. I challenge you to go back to shuffling cards after playing something like this…those pasteboards lose a lot of appeal compared to this sort of experience, I dare say.