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"The Jet Gamer" Game Review: Zone of the Enders
9 years ago
A Kojima game is next. Some timing I would say after all the announcements on his new game.
Zone of the Enders
I’ve always been curious about this series. It wasn’t until after I started getting slightly more into these mech games that I finally got around to getting the game. Some mech games do appear to have some sameness factors to them though, so is this another case of just mech’s fighting mech’s with nothing much else added, or does this game offer that extra zing that you need to make this a memorable experience? Let us take a closer look at Zone of the Enders and find out.
Gameplay
Zone of the Enders does appear to be more than just your typical mech vs mech fighting game. This time it is actually more of an adventure game mixed in with the mech fighting. The whole point of the game is that you are going from area to area fighting other mech’s while trying to save the space colony you are in at the same time. In each area of this gigantic city, they are groups of enemies patrolling around, and also damaging the colony. It is your job to try and defend the colony while defeating the enemies as you work to get to the other end of the colony in your mech, Jehuty. While this may sound simple, there are actually more things to worry about than just fighting all the enemy units. The environment can get damaged as you are fighting, so you do need to be aware of where you are fighting. If you are fighting in a populated area, you could end up causing a lot of damage to the city. There are even some missions where on top of that, you need to worry about civilians in some areas. If you make mistakes here, you could end up killing these people if stray shots head towards their buildings. This isn’t often, but it is a nice twist that was added to some missions that forces you be more careful about where and how you are fighting. IT would have been nice for there to be a lot more missions like this, but I get where they were going with this. Speaking of fighting though, there are a variety of moves you can use from standard shots and sword slashes, to all sorts of special weapons you can make use of when you are fighting enemies. They come in all types and vary in usefulness depending on the enemies you are fighting. There are weapons like javelins, machine guns, to homing shots, and even a healing shield much later in the game. You just need to pick which sub weapons work for you and the situation. That’s nice they gave you a variety instead of just like two or three weapons. This makes it much easier to pick the type of weapons you like and find useful. To find these weapons, you normally have to find a terminal that unlocks them for you. To unlock these terminal though, you need to find an enemy that has the passcodes to the terminal. Luckily, you can tell what enemies are carrying the passcodes, and also ones that are carrying ammo refills for your weapons, as well as health. They were nice enough to make finding the weapons not too hard. You do in a way get better as you play the game as your level does increase, though I didn’t usually see much difference when it even did go up. I almost didn’t even notice it was there if it wasn’t for the numbers on the enemies trying to explain their own levels and capabilities to you. You do still have to use a bit of strategy when you are fighting the other mechs in this game. You have to know when to boost back, guard, when to attack, and when it might be best to escape battle and to go try and heal if possible. All the enemies do get trickier to deal with as their levels go up later in the game, so you have to change your strategies based on that as well. A level two enemy will behave much differently than a mech of the same type that is level six. You have to keep this in mind. There are bosses in this game as well, that are much bigger than you. You do have to plan accordingly when fighting them, since if you don’t strategize with the bosses, they will hurt you fast. There is even a boss you can’t even beat at first as you don’t have the necessary weapons to fight it, meaning it will one shot you. This is the bulk of the main gameplay of the game. It actually is fun and a nice little twist on the mech fighting games I’ve tried in the past. There are a few downsides to it, but they aren’t exactly devastating to the game at all. One of the main downsides to the gameplay of this game is how short the game is overall. I beat this game in around six hours. Yes, the game is THAT short. I haven’t found a game this short in quite some time, at least that isn’t some old school platformer game. If you are expecting something long here, you are going to be disappointed. The game is fun to play, and I can see people wanting to play it again, but with how short it is, that is bound to turn some people off to it. For those that want a quick experience though in a game, or something they can easily beat in a day or a short weekend, this is something for them for sure. So yes, while the length is a downside, it can be a plus to those with not much time to play some games. Other than this, there aren’t too many other downsides to the gameplay of this game. It’s actually pretty fun to run around as Jehuty and wonder what is going to happen in the end.
Story
Speaking of what happens in the end, the story of this game is actually wonderful. You are a kid named Leo who has stumbled around an orbital frame called Jehuty. There is a war that is currently going on at the moment, and all the other mech’s, called orbital frames in this game, are looking for the frame your character Leo has just stumbled across. Leo though doesn’t exactly want to fight or kill anyone in this game as he has seen enough death from the beginning of this invasion. He has also not exactly had the best life so far, so he doesn’t have the best outlook on life and on other people. The game’s story is there to not only show Leo’s progression as he has to come to terms with what is happening in this war and what people are wanting Jehuty for, but he is also getting to know the AI of Jehuty. The AI is for a lot of the game using computer logic and doesn’t understand human emotions or why Leo is acting the way he does when it comes to how he treats others on the enemy’s side or the way he takes extreme risks that seem very illogical to a computer who wants things done in this certain way. I’m not going to spoil too much of the story, but this is sort of the basic idea of the story. It is actually pretty good, and does play out like an anime movie in a sense. If this was completely animated and was a normal anime on TV, I can see people watching this, if it isn’t already that is. The ending isn’t the best, as it does just sort of come to a stop and not on a good note I have to say. Also, Leo does get a little repetitive as the game goes on, as he does repeat himself quite a bit on not wanting to do certain things people want him to do. Those are my only complaints with it. Other than that, the story is almost perfect, and is one of the best parts of the game for sure. I just wish there was more of it.
Graphics
For a PS2 game, and an early one at that, I do have to say this game looks gorgeous. You don’t normally expect this kind of quality at times from PS2 games, as it was still somewhat of a transition period to some people where you could still easily see the pixels on characters quite often, or they just sort of somewhat looked realistic. You can tell that Konami and Kojima really took their time with the look of this game. Jehuty looks great and very articulated as the game is going about, and even the characters themselves look pretty good. They aren’t perfect, but they are pretty close for anime characters. There are even some full on anime scenes in this game, which look fantastic as well. I do have to say, when it comes to designs, this game looks pretty flawless. The environments, while nice aren’t perfect. The entire game takes place at night, and they took advantage of this to hide the capabilities of the PS2 in some ways. Being that it is dark, there is in a sense this fog that is always just out of sight that doesn’t allow you to see long distances in some areas. I’m sure this is to help with loading and not being able to show as much as the game would like. I’m not exactly a fan of this fog, but I guess it is the compromise to making the game look good all the time instead of some of the time. There is that sameness factor when it comes to buildings when you are in the city, but that’s mostly a trait of any PS2 game that normally does cities like this. The fact they do as much as they did in this game is impressive. If the world was just a bit more open, then it would be great. Seeing as you fly above the city to get from area to area to limit how much is loaded is another tricky they use to compensate for the limited areas you can fight in during the game. While not perfect, for a PS2 game, this game looks great.
Sound
The sound in this game is wonderful. The characters voices sound great in all the cut scenes and even during the game. The AI of Jehuty can sometimes get a bit annoying in that she can be repetitive at times, but other than that, I don’t really have much complaints about the sounds here in this game. All the characters sound fine, nothing is blurry, and it really sounds like these actors are being natural and making this sound as realistic as they possibly can. The sounds of the AI while you are fighting, while sometimes repetitive, can be really useful when she is announcing when there is trouble or when you are starting to take too much damage from battle. The sounds of fighting and explosions are realistic sounding and it really does sound like you are having battles over a city where stray shots and blasts are taking its toll on the surroundings. Even normal music is fine throughout this game. You have very anime like music, which is usually Japanese style music. It really fits in and helps make this game feel more like an anime movie that I described earlier. Yup, this is one of those areas where this game I feel performs almost perfectly.
Control
The controls aren’t perfect here by any means, but they aren’t terrible either. Controlling Jehuty can be a bit confusing at first, as you have different buttons for ascending and descending, boosting, various attacks and locking on features. It can all be a bit confusing as you are in the heat of battle and it can easily lead to button mashing at times. You do need to try and fight this though, as button mashing won’t get you very far as the game progresses. You need to find what attacking techniques are most effective for you, then you will do a lot better. I’m just glad that the beginning of the game does offer a tutorial not long after it starts to explain all the controls for you. This helps a lot. While you are bound to forget a thing here or there and sometimes not always worry about using certain control schemes, it is helpful. Without it, I think the controls would be a lot more complex if you were left to just figure it all out for yourself. I will say though, that it can still be a bit confusing in the heat of battle though, and it is easy to make mistakes if you aren’t paying attention or are trying to move too fast without thinking things though. That’s my only real complaint about the controls. They do their job, but they are also easy to mess up when you start to panic. I think that may be part of the game, but it can be a little frustrating as well.
Replay Value
This area is a part I have to bring up the length of the game once again. The game being short does make it where you can easily replay it without much of a commitment, but it can also turn away someone that was expecting something much longer and in depth. While the game is good, the short length can likely discourage some people or feel like they might have gotten ripped off after paying for such a short game. I’ve seen this on both end of the spectrum, but I do have to say that the short length can be a deciding factor for or against this game for certain people. I didn’t mind it being short, but I would have loved for it to be longer that’s for sure as well. There isn’t too much different though I can see you doing on a different playthrough that you didn’t do on your first though. Unless you ignore helping civilian or want to try using different sub weapons on different enemies, the game is a bit on the linear side and doesn’t offer too much different on a second playthrough that I can see. I may be missing it myself, but with nothing extra added, other than different difficulties, I can’t see getting too much of a different experience on other playthroughs. Once again, this can be a plus or minus depending on who is playing the game, but I always do enjoy games that give more modes or different ways of playing after your first playthrough. Other than that though, I would say the replay value is good, but it isn’t as good as some games I’ve play for sure in this department.
Overall, this is a great game for your PS2 library and something that is actually not that hard to get a hold of. With people constantly wanting to play more games from Kojima, other than Metal Gear Solid of course, this is something different, but also has that same great story telling that the MGS series has as well. It even looks similar to MGS when starting as well, if that’s anything to go by and let you know it is another game from a great producer. When it comes to this game, it tells a great story, sounds great, and is really fun to play. You just have to be sure you are okay with the short length is all. The controls are negligible at times on if they hurt the game that much or not, but the length can really hurt this game for some people and kill its replayability at times as well. If you want something from the same guy that did MGS, or you just like mech games, I would give this game a try. It seems worth it to me, and I know I would play the second one if I ever run across it. Give it a try I say.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Zone of the Enders an eight point five out of ten.
Gameplay: 8
Story: 9
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Control: 7
Replay Value: 7
Overall: 8.5
Zone of the Enders
I’ve always been curious about this series. It wasn’t until after I started getting slightly more into these mech games that I finally got around to getting the game. Some mech games do appear to have some sameness factors to them though, so is this another case of just mech’s fighting mech’s with nothing much else added, or does this game offer that extra zing that you need to make this a memorable experience? Let us take a closer look at Zone of the Enders and find out.
Gameplay
Zone of the Enders does appear to be more than just your typical mech vs mech fighting game. This time it is actually more of an adventure game mixed in with the mech fighting. The whole point of the game is that you are going from area to area fighting other mech’s while trying to save the space colony you are in at the same time. In each area of this gigantic city, they are groups of enemies patrolling around, and also damaging the colony. It is your job to try and defend the colony while defeating the enemies as you work to get to the other end of the colony in your mech, Jehuty. While this may sound simple, there are actually more things to worry about than just fighting all the enemy units. The environment can get damaged as you are fighting, so you do need to be aware of where you are fighting. If you are fighting in a populated area, you could end up causing a lot of damage to the city. There are even some missions where on top of that, you need to worry about civilians in some areas. If you make mistakes here, you could end up killing these people if stray shots head towards their buildings. This isn’t often, but it is a nice twist that was added to some missions that forces you be more careful about where and how you are fighting. IT would have been nice for there to be a lot more missions like this, but I get where they were going with this. Speaking of fighting though, there are a variety of moves you can use from standard shots and sword slashes, to all sorts of special weapons you can make use of when you are fighting enemies. They come in all types and vary in usefulness depending on the enemies you are fighting. There are weapons like javelins, machine guns, to homing shots, and even a healing shield much later in the game. You just need to pick which sub weapons work for you and the situation. That’s nice they gave you a variety instead of just like two or three weapons. This makes it much easier to pick the type of weapons you like and find useful. To find these weapons, you normally have to find a terminal that unlocks them for you. To unlock these terminal though, you need to find an enemy that has the passcodes to the terminal. Luckily, you can tell what enemies are carrying the passcodes, and also ones that are carrying ammo refills for your weapons, as well as health. They were nice enough to make finding the weapons not too hard. You do in a way get better as you play the game as your level does increase, though I didn’t usually see much difference when it even did go up. I almost didn’t even notice it was there if it wasn’t for the numbers on the enemies trying to explain their own levels and capabilities to you. You do still have to use a bit of strategy when you are fighting the other mechs in this game. You have to know when to boost back, guard, when to attack, and when it might be best to escape battle and to go try and heal if possible. All the enemies do get trickier to deal with as their levels go up later in the game, so you have to change your strategies based on that as well. A level two enemy will behave much differently than a mech of the same type that is level six. You have to keep this in mind. There are bosses in this game as well, that are much bigger than you. You do have to plan accordingly when fighting them, since if you don’t strategize with the bosses, they will hurt you fast. There is even a boss you can’t even beat at first as you don’t have the necessary weapons to fight it, meaning it will one shot you. This is the bulk of the main gameplay of the game. It actually is fun and a nice little twist on the mech fighting games I’ve tried in the past. There are a few downsides to it, but they aren’t exactly devastating to the game at all. One of the main downsides to the gameplay of this game is how short the game is overall. I beat this game in around six hours. Yes, the game is THAT short. I haven’t found a game this short in quite some time, at least that isn’t some old school platformer game. If you are expecting something long here, you are going to be disappointed. The game is fun to play, and I can see people wanting to play it again, but with how short it is, that is bound to turn some people off to it. For those that want a quick experience though in a game, or something they can easily beat in a day or a short weekend, this is something for them for sure. So yes, while the length is a downside, it can be a plus to those with not much time to play some games. Other than this, there aren’t too many other downsides to the gameplay of this game. It’s actually pretty fun to run around as Jehuty and wonder what is going to happen in the end.
Story
Speaking of what happens in the end, the story of this game is actually wonderful. You are a kid named Leo who has stumbled around an orbital frame called Jehuty. There is a war that is currently going on at the moment, and all the other mech’s, called orbital frames in this game, are looking for the frame your character Leo has just stumbled across. Leo though doesn’t exactly want to fight or kill anyone in this game as he has seen enough death from the beginning of this invasion. He has also not exactly had the best life so far, so he doesn’t have the best outlook on life and on other people. The game’s story is there to not only show Leo’s progression as he has to come to terms with what is happening in this war and what people are wanting Jehuty for, but he is also getting to know the AI of Jehuty. The AI is for a lot of the game using computer logic and doesn’t understand human emotions or why Leo is acting the way he does when it comes to how he treats others on the enemy’s side or the way he takes extreme risks that seem very illogical to a computer who wants things done in this certain way. I’m not going to spoil too much of the story, but this is sort of the basic idea of the story. It is actually pretty good, and does play out like an anime movie in a sense. If this was completely animated and was a normal anime on TV, I can see people watching this, if it isn’t already that is. The ending isn’t the best, as it does just sort of come to a stop and not on a good note I have to say. Also, Leo does get a little repetitive as the game goes on, as he does repeat himself quite a bit on not wanting to do certain things people want him to do. Those are my only complaints with it. Other than that, the story is almost perfect, and is one of the best parts of the game for sure. I just wish there was more of it.
Graphics
For a PS2 game, and an early one at that, I do have to say this game looks gorgeous. You don’t normally expect this kind of quality at times from PS2 games, as it was still somewhat of a transition period to some people where you could still easily see the pixels on characters quite often, or they just sort of somewhat looked realistic. You can tell that Konami and Kojima really took their time with the look of this game. Jehuty looks great and very articulated as the game is going about, and even the characters themselves look pretty good. They aren’t perfect, but they are pretty close for anime characters. There are even some full on anime scenes in this game, which look fantastic as well. I do have to say, when it comes to designs, this game looks pretty flawless. The environments, while nice aren’t perfect. The entire game takes place at night, and they took advantage of this to hide the capabilities of the PS2 in some ways. Being that it is dark, there is in a sense this fog that is always just out of sight that doesn’t allow you to see long distances in some areas. I’m sure this is to help with loading and not being able to show as much as the game would like. I’m not exactly a fan of this fog, but I guess it is the compromise to making the game look good all the time instead of some of the time. There is that sameness factor when it comes to buildings when you are in the city, but that’s mostly a trait of any PS2 game that normally does cities like this. The fact they do as much as they did in this game is impressive. If the world was just a bit more open, then it would be great. Seeing as you fly above the city to get from area to area to limit how much is loaded is another tricky they use to compensate for the limited areas you can fight in during the game. While not perfect, for a PS2 game, this game looks great.
Sound
The sound in this game is wonderful. The characters voices sound great in all the cut scenes and even during the game. The AI of Jehuty can sometimes get a bit annoying in that she can be repetitive at times, but other than that, I don’t really have much complaints about the sounds here in this game. All the characters sound fine, nothing is blurry, and it really sounds like these actors are being natural and making this sound as realistic as they possibly can. The sounds of the AI while you are fighting, while sometimes repetitive, can be really useful when she is announcing when there is trouble or when you are starting to take too much damage from battle. The sounds of fighting and explosions are realistic sounding and it really does sound like you are having battles over a city where stray shots and blasts are taking its toll on the surroundings. Even normal music is fine throughout this game. You have very anime like music, which is usually Japanese style music. It really fits in and helps make this game feel more like an anime movie that I described earlier. Yup, this is one of those areas where this game I feel performs almost perfectly.
Control
The controls aren’t perfect here by any means, but they aren’t terrible either. Controlling Jehuty can be a bit confusing at first, as you have different buttons for ascending and descending, boosting, various attacks and locking on features. It can all be a bit confusing as you are in the heat of battle and it can easily lead to button mashing at times. You do need to try and fight this though, as button mashing won’t get you very far as the game progresses. You need to find what attacking techniques are most effective for you, then you will do a lot better. I’m just glad that the beginning of the game does offer a tutorial not long after it starts to explain all the controls for you. This helps a lot. While you are bound to forget a thing here or there and sometimes not always worry about using certain control schemes, it is helpful. Without it, I think the controls would be a lot more complex if you were left to just figure it all out for yourself. I will say though, that it can still be a bit confusing in the heat of battle though, and it is easy to make mistakes if you aren’t paying attention or are trying to move too fast without thinking things though. That’s my only real complaint about the controls. They do their job, but they are also easy to mess up when you start to panic. I think that may be part of the game, but it can be a little frustrating as well.
Replay Value
This area is a part I have to bring up the length of the game once again. The game being short does make it where you can easily replay it without much of a commitment, but it can also turn away someone that was expecting something much longer and in depth. While the game is good, the short length can likely discourage some people or feel like they might have gotten ripped off after paying for such a short game. I’ve seen this on both end of the spectrum, but I do have to say that the short length can be a deciding factor for or against this game for certain people. I didn’t mind it being short, but I would have loved for it to be longer that’s for sure as well. There isn’t too much different though I can see you doing on a different playthrough that you didn’t do on your first though. Unless you ignore helping civilian or want to try using different sub weapons on different enemies, the game is a bit on the linear side and doesn’t offer too much different on a second playthrough that I can see. I may be missing it myself, but with nothing extra added, other than different difficulties, I can’t see getting too much of a different experience on other playthroughs. Once again, this can be a plus or minus depending on who is playing the game, but I always do enjoy games that give more modes or different ways of playing after your first playthrough. Other than that though, I would say the replay value is good, but it isn’t as good as some games I’ve play for sure in this department.
Overall, this is a great game for your PS2 library and something that is actually not that hard to get a hold of. With people constantly wanting to play more games from Kojima, other than Metal Gear Solid of course, this is something different, but also has that same great story telling that the MGS series has as well. It even looks similar to MGS when starting as well, if that’s anything to go by and let you know it is another game from a great producer. When it comes to this game, it tells a great story, sounds great, and is really fun to play. You just have to be sure you are okay with the short length is all. The controls are negligible at times on if they hurt the game that much or not, but the length can really hurt this game for some people and kill its replayability at times as well. If you want something from the same guy that did MGS, or you just like mech games, I would give this game a try. It seems worth it to me, and I know I would play the second one if I ever run across it. Give it a try I say.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Zone of the Enders an eight point five out of ten.
Gameplay: 8
Story: 9
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Control: 7
Replay Value: 7
Overall: 8.5
