Fullmetal Alchemist: Dream Carnival

By Spencer . September 26, 2005 . 10:14pm

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With the announcement of Fullmetal Alchemist coming over to the US in Fall 2004 more and more people are getting interested in the anime series. As it’s fan base is growing in America it is reaching its peak in Japan as the series comes to a close. Even though the popular series may be ending Bandai has managed to sneak in one more Fullmetal Alchemist game for the PS2 before the series’ popularity declines. Learning from the commercial success and critical acclaim of Naruto: Narutimett Hero, Bandai already knows how to make a winning game. Instead of making the game exactly the same game, Bandai improves on their winning formula.

 

If you’ve played Naruto: Narutimett Hero you should have a good idea of what to expect from Fullmetal Alchemist: Dream Carnival. You have cel shaded characters and multi tired stages to fight on. Each level has a couple of areas you can move in and out of by pressing jump and holding up or down. This allows players to select which plane they want to move on. Being on a different plane allows you to nimbly dodge attacks. All characters have basic punch and kick combos that can be done by pressing the X and Square buttons. Standard combos allow you to launch opponents in mid air to perform aerial raves or even slam an enemy into another screen (aka Dead or Alive). However, you won’t need to spend hours to master combos shown in the move list. New gamers will opt to button mash with results of damaging combos while experienced players will use the most effective combo over and over again. The game gets much more interesting when you mix in the alchemy system. Most of the characters in the game are alchemists, which gives them the ability to transmute objects. One of the show’s themes, the "you can’t get something for nothing theme" plays a role in how you can use alchemy in the game. Spread out the level are transmutable objects like a giant rock, a metal crate, a bunch of bricks or a shiny piece of quartz. If you go over to the item and press circle you’ll use the power of alchemy to change a metal crate to something more useful like a cage to trap an enemy for a few seconds. Each character that can use alchemy has different results. For instance if Edward uses his alchemy ability on a wood block he’ll gain use of his traditional staff to attack with for a few seconds. If Armstrong uses his alchemy ability on the same item he’ll call upon a wooden trap to freeze a player in place. To balance characters like the sharp-shooting and appropriately named Hawkeye who has no alchemy ability Bandai gives them unique abilities. Hawkeye has full use of her guns so she can blast away at players far from where their attacking radius. Each character also has the ability to summon two ultra alchemy attacks by holding R1 or R2 while pressing circle. You can only do this move when your green meter is filled from giving out enemy hits. When you call upon this ability the battle screen moves to the top right hand corner like a picture in picture TV. The main screen flashes to a quick and dramatic animation of the extremely powerful move. The picture in picture is a brilliant idea because while Armstrong is preparing his gold statue attack Alphonse can ready a counter move to prevent damage.

 

Renderware’s innovations continue on how they execute the 2 on 2 fighting system. They cleverly designed the game to allow players of mixed levels enjoy the game together. At the start of each round all players are given a full bar of life. Both teams are also given three stars and each star will completely recover life for an injured character. If a team loses all three stars its game over. The brilliance in the system is that the three stars are shared between players. So if you’re a new player and you lose a star early on the match isn’t over there is still a good chance for the team to win. The three star system also always has every player controlling a character instead of just waiting around if they die. The game also supports all the possible combinations a 2 on 2 fighting game can handle. You can play with a partner against two computers or try your luck with each of you having a computer partner. If you have a multitap you can play with three players or go all out and play with four players.

 

If you’re going solo there are a number of gameplay modes to choose from. There is the ever popular and basic battle mode that teams you up with a computer against two other artificial intelligence loops. Playing through the battle mode allows you to collect different items, some of which unlocks new characters. Probably more interesting to gamers is the scenario mode. The scenario mode automatically teams you up with a computer partner and goes though the series’ story. Playing through the different scenarios eventually unlocks more and more characters, which gives the game further replay value. With only a handful of characters at the start of the game including Edward, Alphonse, Mustang, Hawkeye and Hughes you’ll want to unlock characters as quickly as possible. Some of the unlockable characters include Greed and Bradley.

 

Fullmetal Alchemist: Dream Carnival makes good use of cel shaded graphics. Edward and crew look great on the PS2. The animation is fluid with little to no slowdown even when all the players on the screen are using super moves at once. You can notice the polish in the characters when you see them execute their super moves. Characters are fully designed even with facial expressions and minor movements that look well done. For having so many different planes the static backgrounds look fairly good even if they are a little bland.

 

Full Metal Alchemist: Dream Carnival is the Full Metal Alchemist game that fans of the series have been waiting for. It’s pick up and play potential and long list of collectables makes the game easy to jump into. The fast pace of gameplay, loads of action and innovative twists makes Dream Carnival stand out on top of other fighting games out there.

 

Import Friendly? Literacy Level: 3

With an all Japanese story line and Japanese menus it may be difficult to get everything out of the game without understanding the language. On the other hand the concept of gameplay is easy enough for anyone to learn with or without knowing Japanese.

 

US Bound?

Even though Fullmetal Alchemist is licensed in the US, this game is published by Bandai and Square-Enix has the US rights to make games based on the license. Unless the two companies can reach an agreement this title is destined to remain in Japan.

 

+ Pros: Innovative and fast paced Marvel vs. Capcom 2 meets Naruto: Narutimett Hero fighting action.

 

- Cons: With a combo system similar to smash brothers there isn’t the same level of fighting depth.

 

Overall: Fullmetal Alchemist: Dream Carnival is one of the best party fighting games out there.

 

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