411mania talks about this week's game releases. Highlights include Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Cursed Mountain, and Harvest Moon: Magical Melody.

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy

Mana Khemia 2's developer, Gust, has a knack for creating item-crafting-heavy games that are actually fun to play. As it has been pumping out Atelier Iris games continually since 1997, the company has had a lot of time to refine its games' combat and synthesis systems. The first Mana Khemia, often considered the spiritual successor to the Atelier Iris series, can be seen as the culmination of all that Gust has learned over the years, at least when it comes to gameplay. As far as the story goes, MK left a lot to be desired. In fact, the story was fairly non-existent. MK2 fixes that by not only providing a more fleshed out story, but by also by allowing gamers to play through two separate scenarios with different main and secondary characters. The superior story, along with improvements to the already solid combat and synthesis systems, should make Mana Khemia 2 a must buy for Gust fans as well as those who are still in the market for the latest and greatest RPG on the PS2.

frostyhudson via 411mania.com »