Another KEMCO JRPG, For Better Or Worse
I’m mindful of the fact that there hasn’t been a new KEMCO game release on Xbox for about thirty minutes now, so luckily the developers over there have stepped their game up and thrown one out the door. Going by the name of Fortuna Magus, this new offering is a fast paced first person shooter set on an alien world. Just kidding! What we have here is another retro styled JRPG from the masters of retro styled JRPGs. Yep, the scene is set for ANOTHER memorable adventure…
Kicking off with the presentation, and here the news is exactly the same as the umpteen KEMCO games that have come before. You have no idea how hard it is to come up with new ways of saying “anime style characters” and “retro style backdrops”, so I don’t think I’ll bother this time. If you want to know how the game looks, please see my previous sentence!
The big change this time around though is that in, I assume, an attempt to streamline the gameplay, the traditional overworld map has gone. Now we merely select our destination from any of the nodes that are available on the world map, and we are instantly warped there. Otherwise, Fortuna Magus is very much business as usual.
Sound also sees something of an evolution, with this being – I think – the second KEMCO game where the characters are voiced. However, before you get too carried away, they are voiced only in battle: a muttered “Arigato” when you are healed, for instance, being about the sum of it. Other than that, it is again the case of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Expect swishing swords and whooshing spells, stirring battle music and the rest of the contents of the RPG sound effect book all present and correct. All in all, nothing to stun and amaze us, but it is still perfectly serviceable.
A Familiar JRPG Story
Story? Well, we play as Amane, a young man who lives with his two adoptive sisters and his father in a domestic idyll. One day, his father leaves abruptly, and the children are left to fend for themselves. Some years later, one of the sisters, Lill, takes off to go and look for their father, and is never heard from again. Meanwhile, Amane and the remaining sister, Tiaey, try to carry on as always, until that is, a bunch of bandits arrive to cause havoc. The siblings are saved by Rett, a man who turns out to be a magus. However, this is a bad thing to be in this world, as all Magi are branded as evil, and so Tia and Amane are carried along on a wild adventure as they help Rett and try to find their father. The rest is up to you…
More Of The Same Gameplay
Now, it will come as a shock to absolutely no one that Fortuna Magus, that so far has the standard graphics and the standard sound, also has the standard gameplay that KEMCO are well known for. There are a couple of tweaks that add a pinch of spice, but by and large you’ve seen it all before. Go to a location, wander around finding chests and having random battles every ten yards, make your way to the end of whatever dungeon you are in, beat a boss, and then it’s home in time for tea and medals. It’s no exaggeration to say that this is a fairly short game though, as the main story is 27 chapters long, and each chapter involves pretty much what I mentioned above. The dungeons are about three screens long, and while each screen is a decent size, it doesn’t take long to work your way through. I fear this may well be some mobile roots showing through.
Team Attacks And Revelations Add Some Variety
But what of those tweaks I mentioned? Well, they are all in the battle screen, to be honest. As we fight, we gain TP (Technical Points), however these points don’t make prizes, but can instead be spent to use team up attacks. Tia and Amane can pull off a team attack, for a start, and the other characters that we find can also team up. No spoilers, however!
Using these attacks can lead to the other new feature, Revelations. Revelations enable the team members to learn new attacks by utilising old ones, and while the criteria seems somewhat random, the effect is very welcome. When a character has a Revelation, not only does the attack they used get triggered, but also the new attack at the same time: I had a lovely chain going on at one point where a team-up attack led to each member getting a new ability, which then also hit the boss in question. With a little more guidance on how to achieve these results, this could have been something to work towards, but honestly it does all feel a bit random.
Solid But Familiar
In conclusion, Fortuna Magus is very much like any other KEMCO game you may have played. The story writers have done as well as they normally do, and you do begin to care about Amane et al, but this is very much middle of the road as far as the rest of proceedings are concerned. If you have an RPG shaped hole in your life, one that you need to fill right now, then this should work, but otherwise there are better games in the genre.
Important Links
Fortuna Magus – A New Fantasy Adventure From KEMCO – https://www.thexboxhub.com/fortuna-magus-a-new-fantasy-adventure-from-kemco/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/fortuna-magus/9NRCRH05QL97/0010
There’s a Special Edition too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/fortuna-magus-special-edition/9NTTCRS6VR4Q/0010
