Life and Leisure. Tech and Toys.

I beat Project Sylpheed after about 2 weeks which is what I expected since the game only consists of 16 flight missions and the last mission barely even counts. The game recieved dissappointing marks on IGN, garnering a lowsy 5.9 rating. While low ratings are something out of the ordinary for Square Enix so is the genre.

The space flight simulator genre has had very little attention in recent years and I think this title reaffirms that there is a market to be captured there. I have played a game like this since Starfox or X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter. Since these titles are totally irrelevant now I believe there is a vulnerable market. If Project Sylpheed included some online multiplayer with co-op and a single player mode with multiple story paths I think they would have had a winner on their hands.

Back to the actual game. The two themes that this game plays upon are Macross and Star Wars. The Macross style missle trails and streaking fighters create a nice ambience for an aerial battle. The mission objectives is what makes it reminiscent of Star Wars. There are missions where you have to protect your ships from enemy fighters, asteroid field battles and even an assualt on a galactic weapon known as the Prometheus Driver (Death Star).

The characters are typical of a Square title but you’ll only ever see them in the cutscenes. The beautiful cutscenes are to be expected but the visuals can’t be ignored. I did have an issue with some of the poor lipsyncing from the dubbing. Which brings me to question why they didn’t include the original Japanese vocal track. Just like most Japanese games I found myself playing through the game just for the cutscenes.

The Delta Saber that you pilot is pretty customizable however some of the weapons seem pretty worthless and would only be fun to use if a multiplayer mode was available.

In the end I thoroughly enjoyed the game and since I only paid the used price I was pretty satisfied with what I got. The game isn’t easy and is almost too frustrating on the hard difficulty setting so I don’t think I’ll be playing it much now that I’ve beat it once. There are still new weapons to unlock so there is still a tiny bit of replay there. I don’t think the game deserves a 5.9 rating. I think that is just IGN being the Japanese game haters they are.