The worst parts about EM aren't actually too bad. They fall into the categories of story, dungeons, and encounter rate. In EM, the plot is the typical predictable, slightly slow, and not very epic rpg tale. It won't really motivate players to keep moving forward, yet it's at least enjoyable and it never drags on for long amounts of time to frustrate the players. Dungeons are all pretty basic and definitely give off the 'first rpg' vibe with the majority of them consisting of running across huge areas that take 5-10 minutes per screen to cross.

Probably the biggest turnoff for many will be the high encounter rate of the game. Since the areas are all so large and take many steps to cover the addition of a high encounter rate every 15-30 steps really drags down the pace of the experience. Luckily battles are all fairly quick (under a minute) and loading is short as well, so these problems can easily be looked over when playing, though they do take the level of enjoyment down a notch.


Despite being a game in the new HD-era with sharp high-resolution textures, visually EM isn't all that great. Character designs tend to be ugly (possibly because the team was trying [and failing] to make them 'westernized' to appeal to Xbox owners), areas are often a mix a great looking sections to the left and then really ugly looking sections to the right, and to top it all off there are almost zero cutscenes in the entire game (which may be a good thing considering how bad the characters are on closer inspection). There are a few FMV cutscenes at key points in the story, but the entire game is pretty much told through standard dialogue screens. Overall the visual package can look better than any rpg to date when the camera is in the perfect angle nothing is moving, but once the player starts moving around and sees the lack of animation, subtle details, and weak texture work, at many times it looks worse than the majority of the latest PS2 rpgs.

In addition another disappointing aspect of the game is how incredibly easy it is. For the first 75% of the title, EM is pretty close to being the easiest rpg ever made. This is probably because the title was created as an entry-level Japanese rpg for western Xbox fans. Only during the final 25% of the game does the game actually require strategy. This is pretty sad because when the game does require the player to use strategy, the battles become incredibly fun. But as it is most players will just auto-battle through 99% of the encounters and never die. Even if one does lose in battle they can just hit "retry".

There are also online rankings for the mini-games at the casino. But since all the mini-games are luck based rather than skill-based (slots, bingo, roulette) it's not really competitive. Also include is an online battle mode where players can fight each other, but this just comes down to the player with higher level characters getting first attack and killing the other player before they get a turn.


[EM]-eNCHANT aRM- has a predictable, yet entertaining, plot featuring a small cast of likeable characters, a moderate sized world that will take about 40 hours to explore, and a good battle system. Sure the graphics are a mixed bag, music is strangely absent, and the encounter rate is high, yet it's still a nice start for next-gen rpgs. It's definitely not a game worth buying a system for, but at the same time, if you own an Xbox360 and enjoy rpgs, EM is a solid experience that's worth the price of admission.



The game really isn't that import friendly. Sure most of the time the game points a red marker at where to get next, but at other times the player will have to re-visit some older location. Considering that the game world is very large and that traveling from just one area to the next can take over 15-20 minutes, getting lost would be a bad, bad thing here.

• Creative battle system that makes the player think.
  
• Good visuals at times
  
• Likeable main cast of characters
  
• Good length
  
• Fun optional quests
  
• Online mode

• Story is rather generic.
  
• No cutscenes
  
• Weak graphics at times
  
• High encounter rate
  
• Online mode has problems.