Review: Project Sylpheed – In space, nobody can hear you scream

Mike Bantick
Monday, 20 August 2007 18:49

Opinion and Analysis

From the makers of the Final Fantasy series comes an anime space drama of limited scope and substance.

Let’s cut to the chase, you can probably have the same experience as playing Project Sylpheed (PS) by simply putting a copy of the Miami Vice soundtrack on and staring out the window through a kaleidoscope.

That should save you around AU$70

Project Sylpheed
	Developer	Square Enix
	Publisher	Microsoft
	Rating	M
Xbox 360

Or you can buy and play this teen-anime space opera, full of cheesy story-lines featuring large–breasted capital ship commanders and doe-eyed kids flying lithe fighters through a interstellar not-so-void filled with colourful planets, nebulae and other spacey stuff.

Where have all the good space drama games gone ?  Where are the Freespace’s, I-Wars, or even Wing Commander’s for the 21st century?  Yep, I would even prefer the horrible Mark Hamill Full Motion Video scenes between missions of Wing Commander III to the story line presented in PS.

Still you can skip the cut-scenes; it’s a game after all.

In the game you will pilot a space-fighter as the character Katana, guiding your ship against enemy fighters and capital ships (the only real “obstacles” in the game).

There is a lot happening on screen, colour-coded jet-streams (in space!) trace the paths of enemies and friends alike.  In a similar fashions, the trails of rockets and the energy beams of laser weapons light up the screen.  Meanwhile, capital ships fight out their own gigantic battles, with hundreds of fighters buzzing around them.

At the same time you have a very busy HUD (Heads Up Display) to deal with.  But that’s okay, because with this game you can fly through space with your eyes purely on your HUD:  Lock on to a craft, let the enemy come into range and then let loose with one or more of the many upgradeable weapons in the game.

And so it goes, there are a few special moves – mostly needed to beat boss characters - but the vast majority of the game is a laborious drudge through countless kills, surprise countdown timers and confusing objectives.

You must play this game through on easy first, it is the only way to take an already upgraded ship into the harder levels, which will keep your sanity in check as the requirement to complete all of the objectives – some of them sprung on you in an illogical fashion – or fall back to the briefing room to retry the entire mission again.

There is better space faring games out there, somewhere, errrm perhaps in the bargain bins for the PC platform.  Meanwhile perhaps Square Enix should stick to refining their Final Fantasy masterpieces.