Crimson Sea (Images come from Koei's official Gamecity website)
By Sigma Project X1
System: X-Box
Developer: Koei

Introduction

Crimson Sea (Kurenai no Umi in Japan) is one of Koei’s best games released on the Xbox. The game is essentially a version of Koei’s Dynasty Warriors series set in outer space. The gamee is about much more than that though as it has a lot more depth to it, rather than being a mindless beat-um-up.

The game was released in the middle of December 2002 in Japan and t was released in America very shortly after (about 8 days). Much to my (and Koei’s) dismay, not many people have been able (or will) play the game because for some reason Koei decided to make only one print run of it so as a result of this it is a rather rare game to find.

Maybe it was also due to the fact the game didn’t live up to the hype it received. In Japan, the game was the lucky recipient of TV commercials, 2 page print ads, and the Famitsu Platinum Award, which is a rather high honor. Whatever the case is, the game is worth hunting down, even though it didn’t live up to the commercial hype.

Review

The game is about a young man named Sho, who is trying to earn a living as a private detective. Accompanied by his sidekick, Yangqin, the two get a task from a mysterious and very exotic woman who hires them to retrieve an item in the underground tunnels of Grarve in the wake of an incident that has been decimating the planet of Theophilus. A lot of interesting characters will join your party and their survival is essential for completing some of the 24 missions you will undertake. As the game progresses he story picks up great traction and the characters develop in very interesting ways.

As for the game being Dynasty Warriors in Space, that description is very much dead on, not only does the game play like it, but also a lot of the artwork is reminicent of ancient China. Along with there being good artwork the game has some very well done graphics. The characters are extremely, painstakingly detailed, the backgrounds are decentl, the lighting effects are rather impressive and the frame rate is smooth. I’ve heard some complaints about the camera, but I never noticed any problems with it. The game’s music and sound effects are average. Also its worth pointing out that the voice acting stinks, but it grows on you as it slowly fits with the characters.

The game play is setup in your average third person action game' style. All you do is run around and kill enemies that get in your way. There is a good selection of puzzles, and the missions are rather varied. In one mission you are to collect a specific number of waveforms, while on another section you are to escort the presidenton and on a different one you are to protect you friend Yangqin as he is repairing your ship. With all of this variation in stages, it wouldn’t be shocking if the game was difficult at times and that it is. There is a hidden G-Squad mode that is unlocked if you die a specific number of times in any mission. That helps make the game easier, but not by much.

Conclusion

All in all, the game is over 10 hours long the first time you play it, and there is quite a bit to unlock also. Since Koei never shipped a large number ofcopies for this game it’s rather hard to find, and expensive in some areas, but if you're lucky may actually find a copy still hanging around at your local game store. If you can’t find it, wait till next spring as Koei is supposedly bringing the game over to the PlayStation 2 in Japan and the PlayStation 2 release is also slated for a release in the United States.

Sigma Project X1