P4 is a role playing game (RPG) set in a fictional town in Japan.You shouldn't be put off by the fact it's part of the Shin Megami Tensei metaseries as the game stands alone. The protagonist, is sent to stay with his guardian, a detective. People start going missing and links are made by your friends and yourself to the "Midnight Channel", a TV station which shows disturbing images of the missing until they turn up dead in the real world. To say any more would render the start of the game even duller but the whole story is interspaced with some nice Anime from time to time.
Even though the only things they have in common are Moogles, Chocobos and characters called Cid dozens of games bear the Final Fantasy name. It is one of the biggest brands in videogames. The Crystal Chronicles games are a spin-off series in a more action-RPG style and Echos of Time is SquareEnix's response to the phenomenal success of the Monster Hunter games.
There is a theory in cinema of herding. Two studios can, independently, start making similar films that end up being released around the same time. Step forward Deep Impact and Armageddon, Volcano and Dante's Peak, or The Prestige and The Illusionist. It seems the same is now happening with games...
Crossing musical melodies with a fairytale Japanese role-playing game may not seem as well-matched as strawberries and cream but that's exactly what developer Nippon Ichi have set out to achieve with Rhapsody, a 'musical adventure' with a distinct style all of its own.
Let's face it, games based on films are usually rubbish. Only a few are worth playing, and fewer still that actually good games in their own right. Part of the problem is that publishers tend to be so busy worrying about making sure their games are released at the same time as the film that nine times out of ten there isn't a decent game underneath. The other common difficulty is that games and films by their very nature have different narrative structures, and what works in one medium doesn't automatically work in the other. Mr Uwe Boll please take note.
Xbox 360
