GAME REVIEW: THE BOUNCER

When I think of Squaresoft, I envision epic adventures across vast continents, a diversified cast of characters, dramatic scenery and attention to cinematic detail, deep and sublime plots, and sweeping classical music scores. When I heard of the first game coming from Squaresoft to the Playstation 2, I waited with bated breath for it's arrival. The only RPG on PS2 was Summoner, and the Action/Adventure titles for the system were piss poor. Knowing The Bouncer was around the corner really perked my attention to Playstation 2 again and I downloaded the wonderful looking screenshots in hope of a masterpiece. However the realization was underwelming compared to the anticipation. I got The Bouncer hoping for more, than what I got, mind you it looks beautiful, but it's just a pathetic effort on the part of Squaresoft compared to very exquisite games we've seen from them before. What happened? Did they want to make an interactive movie or a game? I don't know, but geez, what happened here? Well, I might as well take it apart and explain what the deal is with The Bouncer.

First off, the initial wow factor in the graphics category is without question impressive. Let it be no mistaking that they did an wonderful job on rendering cinematics and integrating FMV flawlessly. The level of detail on this game is unprecedented on anything I've seen before, surpassing even the efforts made in Shenmue toward realism. Character design is immaculate and detailed. The characters themselves, Sion, Volt, and Lou, are distinct and exhibit different personality traits. There is an unusual aura about the environments and some of the cinema in this game. Is it just me and my TV, or is this game have an almost misty or foggy appearance to it. It's very faint, perhaps a dramatic atmospheric addition, but it is unusual. The implimentation of dramatic cinematics and effective visual expression is well defined during the progression of the plot.

Considering this game is NOT an RPG, I do accept the fact that it doesn't have these epic sweeping scores that involve many different themed songs and melodies. This is an Action/RPGish game, and the music does appropriately convey a very cinematic sense throughout the game. The active battle music is a little generic for Squaresoft standards but acceptable and not annoying. The sound effects involved are there. Explosions and sounds coinciding with vibrations in the dual shock 2 are a nice added effect, to bring a small amount of interaction to the gamer. I think there could have been a few more things added environmentally and sonically to further add realism to the game. This game is also supposed to be compatable with surround sound, but regardless it still seems the same. There were voiceovers throughout the game with some pretty good acting (not the best mind you), and all dialogue was spoken, however I would have to say it was synched poorly to the movment of character's lips more than 60% of the time. Sometimes you would see people talking, and their lips just didn't match, or they didn't move at all.

Where this game falls flat is on gameplay. What happened Square? You take a Van Gogh canvas and rub horse shit on it and expect it to wash with all gamers. Now, mind you I can accept the fact that this is an active playing fisticuffs brawl match, however the lack of innovation during the brevity to the game's short lived playspan is disturbing. Okay, kicking and punching guys to death is fine with me, but what about picking up surrounding materials and clobbering them with a pipe or a chair, perhaps breaking things that they come in contact with. And what's with the stoppage of gameplay after every little battle. Couldn't those BP just be allocated in active time during the fighting sequences, so the player could simply pause the game or press a button to bring up the BP allocation screen as he sees fit without having to always get that screen at the end of a brief 1 minute fight? Okay, so you use this pause in gameplay to restore the character's energy, why not make a gradual active restore, or an active trade off capability where you could put one character like Sion out of the battle while he gets his power back, and you control the other character like Volt. This could be accomplished by pressing one of those unused L buttons a la Tekken Tag Tournament. Another annoying thing is a game over. Why can't they just continue like everyone else, rather than have to go all the way back to the title screen, press start, choose Story Mode, Select, Load Game, select the game you want to load, choose okay to load the file, wait for the file to load, skip three cinemas, just to get right back where you were before. That one is almost a total "duh" right there. I mean that programmer was just sleeping on the job that couldn't put in a continue feature from the place where you left off. They did manage to include a multiplayer battle royale mode, and a survival mode, but these are just filler to extend the game a miniscule amount. I'll give them credit for allowing you to play as all the characters in the multiplayer battle mode, but that's about the only thing that saves this game from getting a bottom score in gameplay.

The plot of this game really had me going for awhile until I realized that I was done with the game so quickly. I was like, "that's it?" This game had HUGE potential to be something awesome in this aspect, however it just didn't happen. There are a few instances where the plot will be slightly different if you do something different, like not finding the keycard in the train before it blows up, but other than that not much else. Now I know that you can fit more stuff on that 4.7 GB DVD, I just see a developer being a little lazy and hiring more guys to do rendering, writing, and voice acting. What little plot there is, is very good. I was almost seeing hints of Xenogears with all the genetic experimentation, cybernetics, and mechs, but they just didn't use the tools. Squaresoft has so many great minds at their disposal, yet they just sat on their hands with this one. I like the plot, but it was just so puny compared to even a sub standard RPG, shorter than Resident Evil, and Metal Gear Solid, it's sweet flavor is short lived. I completed this game in 3 hours.

The only real replay you can get out of this game is replaying the game to max out all your characters. You would do best to play the game all the way through with one character and then replay the same save with a different character, and so on until you max them out. You can play survival mode, but I suppose that could get boring rather quickly. You will probably have this game mastered in 7 hours.

The best comparison I can make with a game like this is getting a report card that shows A's in Math, English, and Social Studies, and getting an D- in Science, and an elective. I like this game, and I kind of don't like this game. I will use this game to show off to my friends and say hey look what I have for playstation 2, but that's all it is, eye candy. For sure, rent this game and marvel at it's graphics. Is it just me or does this game seem rushed? I've been hearing about it being under development for some time now, but it just seems so brief, and the plot so accellarated that it makes me think whole sections were removed and what we have is a huge cut n' paste of various completed sections of the plot blended together to form a game. The way I see it, this is like a teaspoon full of Final Fantasy X goodness. I hope and pray this is not the direction they plan to go in with Final Fantasy X.