Sailing Towards Destiny, Foo!

Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light is an upcoming traditional RPG for the PSP. When I played it, I was quite pleased with what I saw, as the graphics were beautiful (on par with the PS2) and I was also quite pleased with what I played, since this style of RPG is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

The story is quite typical; the blue-haired hero must visit and investigate a mysterious island named Foo. After an opening sequence on a ship, I found myself in a quaint seaside town, where people could be spoken to by pressing the square and then the X buttons. Speaking to people can be quite valuable, as some will ask you to perform tasks ranging from delivering lunches within the town to searching further and wider to accomplish more substantial things in dangerous places. I was also able to acquire a recipe for a basic healing potion; crafting and item-creation (and finding items with which to do so) seems to be a major part of the game.

The traditional RPG hero, blue hair and all!

Outside, the world was big and open, with quite a bit of detail. While monsters were visible while I walked about, and there were no random encounters, touching them brought me to a separate battle screen. Battle is turn-based, with a distinctly Final Fantasy-like ATB system; when a small dot travels all the way around a circle, I had the chance to input a command. The demo featured only one controllable character, but there may be more. As I got attacked, a "Luna Gauge" slowly filled up, but I never got the chance to see the significance of that gauge.

Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light looks like a beautiful new game for the PSP with a very traditional flair. The PSP is a system that could use a few extra RPG titles, and this could do the trick quite nicely.