System: PSP
Dev: Game Republic
Pub: Xseed Games
Release: Aug. 2, 2007
Players: 1 (Multiplayer Online)
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
Review by Cole Smith

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Review Rating Legend
1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid
2.0 - 2.4 = Poor
2.5 - 2.9 = Average
3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
3.5 - 3.9 = Good
4.0 - 4.4 = Great
4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
5.0 = The Best

Moves are activated by the Brave Power meter. It fills during combat and empties when you access certain moves. These moves are most powerful and devastating to the enemy so you'll want to use them as often as possible to quickly finish the battle and move on. Team-based moves utilize two or three party members at the same time. You can also use the BP meter to dish out single-player special attacks. This is useful if you only have a handful of enemies to take care of and don't want to waste your mana. On the other hand, team-based attacks are most useful for defeating bosses and other seemingly impossible situations. They are cool to watch, in any case.

Experience points will upgrade your weapons and skills, but the most obvious transformations take place as a result of the magical gems that you place in your sword. Sogreth the lizard man wields a battle axe, and the cat chick uses a bow and arrow. They also continue to upgrade in weapons and skills. You can access healing powers from other characters, as well as magical spells, so it's not all combat that you have to contend with. There is some strategy to the battles, but as soon as you see the various enemies you're up against, you just have to follow the textbook rules.

To keep things a tad more interesting, there is another collecting element aside from the magic gems. This involves finding bird-like creatures called Goalfinches. Using a net, you snare them and add them to your collection; sorting out the five strongest fighters. The Goalfinches are then placed into battle against five other such creatures from an opponent's collection. If you happen to win this cockfight, you will be awarded with a special item. You never know what you're going to receive, and you can't get these items by dungeon crawling, so you'll have to take part in the cockfights if you want to collect everything. It does become redundant, but then again, so does the rest of the gameplay.

The multiplayer component is relegated to trading your collectibles, mainly the birds. You can also game-share a mini-game of collecting the birds with other players, but there is no head-to-head combat or co-op modes.

Brave Story: New Traveler is a good-looking game, although it doesn't raise the bar for graphics on the PSP. It looks about as good as any decent RPG on the system, but I should add that I was impressed by the sophisticated camera angles. Of course, this can be accomplished because the combat animations are all pre-rendered. The characters have the requisite spiked hair and anime eyes, but fortunately they don't suffer from that painful overly exuberant dialogue. The environments are colorful and well designed, but they are repetitive. The villages and dungeons are all very linear. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a little variation would make it seem a tad more realistic. The interface is easy to use, but I would have liked more control in battles. Instead, it's like checking off a shopping list and sending your chauffeur off to do your bidding.

There are a lot more engaging RPGs available for the PSP. Brave Story: New Traveler just treads the same old ground.

By Cole Smith
CCC Senior Writer