Review: Soul Nomad And The World Eaters (PS2)

Your role as the main hero is one of constantly balancing good against evil, and resisting for want of a better phrase, the dark side. Unfortunately your body has been infused with the spirit of Gig, an evil warmonger from ancient times who loves death, chaos and destruction on a legendary scale. The land of Prodesto has seen much of this over the centuries, with Gig leading three of the World Eaters. These giants scarred the terrain with their brutal display of power. Factions within the resistance soon developed with some areas pledging allegiance to these massive creatures.

In a last ditch effort Gig was trapped by magic and the World Eaters fell silent. Two hundred years later and you have been cursed with the spirit of Gig in an attempt to develop and train your own crew of warriors, who can defeat the World Eaters and those that pledge allegiance to them. You will converse with Gig on a regular basis and at times he will allow you to use some of his power, but you must always resist the option to allow him full control. If you do so then the game is over.

The banter between this split personality and those around him is well delivered through Nippon Ichi's customary static scenes, accompanied by text and over-the-top voice acting. Some may find the dialogue tiresome and childish, full of cliches and language that feels out of place. To Gamestyle it all adds to the charm and tongue in cheek feel of a classic B-movie romp. Ignorning the acting for a moment, the actual accompanying soundtrack is excellent and a real highlight.

Unlike previous releases from the developer such as Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, Soul Nomad is much more centred on the storyline than the actual opportunities offered by the battle system. Both are important but in this release there seems to be more of a status quo, a balanced approach to the options and requirements for success. A knock on benefit is that the linear route and subsequent plot development are obscured.       

Nippon Ichi has never been concerned with creating a breathtaking visual tour de force instead content to focus on other areas. Arguably Soul Nomad easily run on at least the two previous generations, with the characters and maps reminiscent of the 16-bit era. Dig a little deeper and it’s clear this retro appearance is more polished than ever before with character movement and special attacks being two areas of noticeable improvement.

Clearly some elements remain untouched with the strategy being played out across grid-based maps. These environments are smaller than before, cutting out the excessive manourvering of previous releases. Navigating the menus at first can be frustrating, as initially too many options are on screen and mapped to the controller. A more user friendly system combined with widespread tutorials would have been beneficial. Fortunately the option to save is almost constant as you work your way across the landscape.

The key to success is creating additional groups to summon during battle. You build these teams in advance, changing colleagues as you see fit and hiring new guns. Thankfully new arrivals come with a relevant level of experience, allowing them to make an immediate impact and saving you from the grind of levelling up. It all adds up to a more accessible formula that includes a great deal of replay value. However Gamestyle would have enjoyed the ride even more if an option existed to skip through attacks, rather than watching the same footage again and again.   

Soul Nomad & The World Eaters may be a disappointment to a minority of fans, being Nippon Ichi’s most mainstream release. The monstrous depth, challenge and tactical considerations arguably have been watered down and reconstituted into a more streamlined experience. Despite this flaw to some, Soul Nomad still retains the power to be captivating. Clearly such changes will not result in much deserved success, but lets hope the studio keeps on trying.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Jason Julier