Square Enix Party 2007 Round-Up

The biggest draws in Japan right now are the DS and the Wii, so it's no surprise that they also had a good showing at this festival. Dragon Quest Swords for the Wii had a huge booth in the corner of the convention center, and was a total blast to play. The game is very linear compared to Dragon Quest games of the past, as you could only go down pre-determined paths. Enemies seemed to pop up at set points too. However, the way that combat is handled makes all the difference in the world.

True to the name, the game lets you handle the Wiimote as if you're handling a sword, and in the demo you were given a vertical and horizontal slash as well as a thrust. First, by pressing the A button to select your centre point, you'll set your target, and then you can go to town on any enemy on the screen. What type of attack you use is essential because some enemies can avoid them. We found this out when a knight on a slime deftly avoided all of our horizontal slashes by bouncing off of the slime, but he was helpless against our thrusts. Ahem.

Another title that we got our hands on was the eagerly anticipated Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core. Playing more like an action RPG than anything else, the demo allowed you to fight against either Genesis (a new character and supposed buddy of Sephiroth) and against Bahamut, the king of the dragons. Combat was actually pretty easy to get a handle of; Circle controled your primary actions, and by pressing the L or R triggers, you could cycle between attacks, magic and items. Zack also auto-targets anything close to him, so it makes hunting down those pesky guards even easier. The most shocking thing about the game is that the graphics are near PS2-level. They're nearly on the same level as Kingdom Hearts II and that's saying a lot seeing as that game is one of the most visually appealing games on the system.

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