Most RPGs would not feel complete without some sort of minigame, and Brave Story delivers on that aspect as well. In a certain forest early in the game you can tackle a minigame which involves you catching as many birds of various colors as possible within a time limit, and at the end of the time limit all the birds you have captured in that session would combine to form a bird of a certain color and level with a certain set of statistics generated by the number of birds of each of the different colors were in the combination. These birds can then be either traded for items in various locations, or they can be used to participate in Bird Battles with certain challengers located in each town. While the premise might sound interesting, it isn't particularly deep and I found myself bored of it rather quickly.

All in all, the game is an excellent effort from Game Republic on a system desperate for original RPGs. The main adventure lasted about seventeen hours, and after a rather enjoyable ending the game allows a clear save which places you back in the final save spot - with a nice surprise I will not reveal. You can then continue playing the game to uncover the secrets and optional events you might have missed or skipped, so there's still some on-going play value. For a portable RPG it's pretty much a sweet spot, not too long and definitely not too short. I had a good time and I think anyone looking for a fun traditional diversion from larger scale console epics will have a great time too.


That's a lot of ducks

Being a fully text-driven RPG, it would be difficult to gain full enjoyment with no knowledge of the text. The graphics and animation are definitely appealing and detailed enough to be enjoyed even if you're playing with no understanding, but the menus might pose more of a problem. It might also be a little hard to tell where you are supposed to be going if you are unable to read the text, although the game does have a handy feature where you can hit the R trigger at any time for the party to remind you what you current task is.

• Excellent 3D graphics and great animation
  
• Good fitting background music
  
• No loading times, extremely fast and pleasant

• Very traditional RPG gameplay
  
• Not enough save points for a seamless portable experience
  
• Random encounter rate can get rather high