40 hours. About 20 hours more than was good for me. Zill O’ll Infinite Plus
Seeing as I’ve spent the better part of the month talking about Zill O’ll, I’m not going to bore you (or myself) any more with it. Today I’ll share my final impressions of the overall game and then move on to other things.
The Good
+ Character glossary fleshes out the world and the story
+ Characters gain experience and level up even if they’re not in your party
+ Free-roam scenario gives you a high level of independence
+ Great soundtrack
+ Lots and lots of characters
+ Multiple endings. Good luck getting them without a guide
+ Lovely character designs
+ Random battles can be avoided using skills
+ Sidequests are fun, largely optional and fairly rewarding
+ Soul growth system lets you control how your characters grow
The Ungood
– Almost everyone important will die if you play without a guide
– Colors are all browns and greys and yellows, very depressing
– Each playthrough takes too long, even if you don’t waste time doing quests like I did
– Grimdark stories/histories are not my thing
– Low level of challenge except for final bosses (might be a good thing, depending on your tastes)
– Lots and lots of loading, lots and lots of slowdowns
– Once you hit the right triggers, history goes on with or without you (might be a good thing, depending on your tastes)
– Too many useless skills, abilities and items
– You can only switch party members in one place on the map
In spite of these few complaints, I rate Zill O’ll pretty highly overall. The story was great. Dark, and slightly hard to follow without paying attention, but great nevertheless. The mute main character somewhat detracted from my ability to immerse myself in the game’s world, but apart from that I had a fantastic time. I don’t know if I have the stamina to ever play this again, but I wouldn’t mind, say, watching all the different endings to see what I missed. It was a good game.
In other news, I’m wrapping up my first route in Pri Saga Portable. Should write about that next time. It also turns out that my family has both The Last Story and Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii. I’ve played a little bit of each, and to be honest, I don’t like them. But it’s way too early to tell for sure, so I’ll devote more attention to each of them in the coming weeks. Oh, my PS2. ;___; My poor PS2.
Thanks for introducing me to Zill O’ll. I just finished a play through and received a worse ending where the MC decides to go off alone at the end. It’s a shame that the game was so hampered by the loading, slowdowns, and balance issues…it has potential to be a great game.
Don’t thank me; thank Tecmo for coming up with such a (potentially) brilliant game.
Looks like you got an even worse ending than I did! The loading and slowdowns all bothered me, but what really spoiled this game was the expectation that everyone is playing with a strategy guide. If Tecmo creates a sequel or a remake, I want them to provide hints throughout so we don’t accidentally trigger flags and kill certain characters or lock ourselves out of certain endings without even knowing it.
Agreed!
Very nice blog! Never played Zill O’ll Infinite, but thoroughly enjoyed the original for PS1, which I first played over 10 years ago.
The important characters all dying in the story must be a new thing in the remake. In the PS1 version, I remember getting the Xenetes ending as well as the Karula, Van/Nadge, and Luluantha.
I never understood how Zill O’ll was all but ignored by most importers, especially considering the big cult following it has in Japan. I remember the PS1 version got a bad review by Gamespot, written by someone who obviously neither read Japanese nor played the game for more than five minutes, and I’m sure that’s a big reason why a lot of people here never gave it a chance.
M…maybe I just sucked? They all dropped like flies one after the other.
It’s a very good game. The battles are a bit slow, but the story and characters are top-notch. It definitely deserves more attention, especially compared to some of the tripe that gets fussed over.
Come to think of it, characters do drop like flies in the original, but it all depends on your choices in the game.
Since Xenetes is so pivotal to the Rostorl storyline, his death naturally leads to a chain of events in which everyone else associated with Rostorl dies as well. If you spent a lot of time building affinity with him, and he dies, then logically you’re left with a crappy ending with one of the less story-important characters. From what I’ve read, the remakes are a lot more stringent in terms of what you need to do in order to keep high infinity with characters and even keep them alive.
That said, I’ve replayed Zill O’ll for PS1 numerous times, with at least 4 different starting scenarios. Sided with Rostorl once, then replayed and sided with Nemea in his war, getting Karula’s ending. Then shuffled party members a bit before the final battle to see the endings of the lesser characters. You’re right, though, that in order to get the most out of the game you need a guide book. Which, admittedly, I did have when I was playing.
I’m interested now in buying the PSP version. I knew Zill O’ll Infinite came out for PS2 in ’05, but I was too busy with grad studies to play video games at the time. Haven’t really followed the RPG scene in nearly a decade come to think of it.
I’ll definitely continue reading your blog. Aside from the shoujo stuff, your tastes seem almost identical to what mine were like back in the late 90s/early 2000s. I’ve played the original OreShika for PS1, was a Megaten fan back in the day, etc.
I had no idea Xenetes was supposed to be so important, for one thing, and I’m not sure the game made it clear. It’s all Nemea, Nemea, Nemea from the start, even though he’s the one guy who won’t die even if he is killed.
On top of everything else it’s really weird that I got an ending with Oiphe, the character I had almost nothing to do with, and not one with any of the minor characters in my party. I’ll play with a guidebook in hand next time.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing that they die so easily. It gives me motivation to play the game more carefully next time. Having said that, it still hurts. Especially losing Angirdan.
MegaTen… I’ve kind of gone off the series lately. I think I played too many too soon and overdosed. And there’s the fact that I’ve played almost all there is to play.
Was the original of OreShika any good? I’m told it’s not too different from the remake apart from a few extra gods.