Previously on The IF Neverland Reportage:
"Without a doubt, this was a time of experimentation from Idea Factory....but there's still a good amount of importance to be found here, at least with Spectral Blade, Suna no Embrace and, to a lesser extent, Kingdom of Chaos, when it comes to the overall lore & timeline of IF Neverland. Humanity, now wielding absolute power (&, in turn, becoming corrupted absolutely), have become the subjugators themselves... Understandably, this isn't sustainable & eventually something's going to break under the pressure, just as it did when Chiffon killed Overlord Janus."
After the year 2000, Idea Factory would pretty much become almost exclusively focused on video games that took place in the fantasy world of Neverland for the next few years, with mid-2001's Run=Dim as Black Soul for the Sega Dreamcast being the sole exception & that wasn't even developed by IF, instead being handled by Yuki Enterprise, which would later become Examu & is now Team Arcana. Indeed, from 2001 to 2003 Idea Factory would develop (in-house) & release eight different games in what would eventually be called the IF Neverland franchise, and that coincidentally matches perfectly with the next part of this multi-part "Reportage" I've been working on whenever I have the time. This also marks the point where Idea Factory started truly experimenting on non-Sony consoles, as while the PlayStation 2 winds up being the primary hardware of choice of Idea Factory for the next decade or so we do see Nintendo's GameCube & Microsoft's Xbox get some love this time around, too, with the latter even being the exclusive home to one of the games we'll be going over for this third part of The IF Neverland Reportage.
Also... we get some truly awesome theme songs for the games from here on out. Prior to this, I'd say that only truly "great" theme song for an IF Neverland game so far has been "Break Out!!" by Ai Maeda for Spectral Force: Lovely Wickedness, though I do give a shout out to Spectral Blade's OP ("Hateshinaki Tabibito" by The Permanents) for being a completely out of left field choice, but from here on out we truly get (for the most part) "banger after banger after banger after banger".
After finishing up its releases for the year 2000, Idea Factory took its time getting its next games ready for 2001, so IF wouldn't release another title under August 9, 2001. That would be the day Japan saw the release of Generation of Chaos for the PS2, which marked the start of IF Neverland's second main series, putting a complete halt to the Spectral branding for a couple of years. Starting in Magic Era 1030, GOC would mark the canonical start of the "Second Neverland War", this time brought about in part by demonkind rising up against humanity, because despite the Simba Empire winning the First (neƩ Great) Neverland War & uniting the land under a new regime, said new regime wound up simply swapping which side was the subjugator & the subjugated. Also, you know, the whole "Krayce & his friends seemingly killed King Solty" bit from the end of Spectral Blade wound up creating a power vacuum, splitting the Simba Empire into two, and now various regional lords want to rule over all, once again. Just as with the Spectral Force games, while you could select from numerous regional armies to take command of, each having their own unique bits of plot, the "main character" of GOC would be Roze, a half-demon/half-human woman who originally lived a simple life with her sister as a seamstress, only for everything to change one day when the village she lived in decided to kill all who had demon blood in them, crucifying both Roze & her sister as their home was burned down. While Roze wound up surviving, her sister didn't, and after meeting with an armored warrior named Ashlay Rof (later revealed to be the remainder of her demon power, having taken form when Roze couldn't take it on as a baby) winds up leading a demon army in rebellion, based out of Hellhampur.
Of course, Roze is just one of the 21 leaders engaging in this new war, though upon starting a new game you only have instant access to five of them. This includes Ankrowyer (from Suna no Embrace) leading the New Simba Empire army out of Shilineeg & Princess Suzu-Oh being the new leader of a reborn Muromachi Empire, with these two considered the other "primary" characters of the game. In fact, Roze & Ankrowyer would wind up being the primary focal point for a lot of the lore of Neverland for the next few decades of the Magic Era, as while the Second Neverland War would eventually end with Roze uniting the continent via a mix of conquest & diplomacy under the Neverland Empire (the date of which has never been confirmed, oddly enough), which Ankrowyer agrees with, tensions would still eventually arise & lead to the next war, which we'll cover next time. Naturally, there are also characters from prior IF Neverland games in GOC, including Hiro, If, Byard, & Gaizan, either leading forces of their own or can found & recruited during gameplay; If & Byard, in particular, canonically become stalwart allies of Roze. Hiro, meanwhile, is more or less just a non-canon bonus character to unlock, as the actual IF Neverland lore states that in Magic Era 1024, a few years prior to the Second Neverland War, Hiro actually seals herself in permafrost (essentially not wanting her power to be used for the wrong purposes), & wouldn't play an active role in Neverland against until re-awakening in 1053; still, Hiro is the IF Neverland mascot, more or less.
Moving on to actually playing the game, Generation of Chaos isn't simply an updated take on Spectral Force's grand strategy gameplay. Instead, GOC is made up of two "parts" of gameplay: SLG & RPG. The "SLG Part", which stands for "Simulated Life Game", is indeed similar to Spectral Force in that you take command of your empire in order to both prepare for invading enemy territory & protecting yourself from invasion, only this time around there are many more menu options to be found, so much so that I admittedly find GOC nigh-impossible to even really get into, as my knowledge of Japanese is nowhere near that good. Also, instead of the 1,000 vs. 1,000 grand battles of Spectral Force, it's now just 400 vs. 400, but with slightly more detailed sprites, so I'd say it's a fair change. However, instead of simply separating Neverland into the various empires you select from you now have a variety of paths you can send your general down, including various other environs & places to visit & interact with... which is where the other part of gameplay comes in. Selecting the right option during SLG gameplay transitions things into the "RPG Part", where you control your general as though it's a standard RPG, exploring the actual place you're currently in, and if it's a place like a tower or enemy territory that even means engaging in random encounters! Yes, when not experiencing the SLG Part of gameplay, Generation of Chaos otherwise plays like your standard RPG, only without traditional experience & level ups, as equipment & the like become a stronger emphasis for powering yourself up. As for combat, GOC actually looks to take influence from Tri-Ace's cult-classic Valkyrie Profile, as your party of (up to) four fight against up to four enemies at a time in real-time combat. However, instead of selecting attacks from a menu you instead send out each party member to attack using one of the PS2 controller's face buttons, which correspond to their spot on the screen, and as long as no one's being attacked you can chain attacks from each party member together with the right timing.
There's also an element of risk vs. reward here, as your party can only attack if they've accumulated one "level" to do so, which is earned simply by waiting (naturally, faster characters can charge up faster than slow ones), with a max of Level 6. Therefore, if you want to have the best chance at creating a long chain of attacks you'll have to simply not attack & risk taking damage, or you could put some on hold while attacking more with others, but if the risk pays off you can create long chains of attacks that the enemy can't counter, resulting in big damage; you can also time a button press with an enemy's attack to guard. There are also special skills that look to be done by pressing buttons in specific orders, but I could never get any to work, and that's mainly due to my lack of proper Japanese to fully engage with this game. Still, I can see what Idea Factory was going for with this game, and even online I tend to see GOC looked at more positively than the Spectral Force games before it, though I can agree with complaints of it being the SLG Part feeling immensely obtuse to the point where it becomes tough to parse early on; there are also indications the RPG Part itself can even be ignored completely, if you play the SLG Part smart. Definitely a case here of an interesting idea that likely just needed some more fine tuning... and luckily GOC would become a series, so we'll see how things fare later on.
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| The same artwork was used for the OVA's DVD cover. |
To help promote Generation of Chaos, Idea Factory self-produced another OVA, Generation of Chaos Prologue, which came out packaged alongside the game as a special edition release, followed by a standalone DVD release on September 5, 2001. Unlike the Spectral Force OVA, GOC Prologue is a single ~30-minute OVA that does nothing more than set up Roze's backstory, which I explained earlier... but, oddly enough, this isn't the main attraction of the OVA. Instead, the majority of this OVA's run time is actually dedicated more towards a story starring Chiffon, specifically detailing how he outgrew being the main character of Monster Complete World & met Radui, Chris, & Langeais, setting up his eventual rise to being the young man who would kill Overlord Janus. Personally, I found this OVA one of the better self-produced Idea Factory anime, but its bizarrely unbalanced focus between the two stories, & the fact that the one relating to the game it's meant to promote comes off as immensely secondary, makes it a pretty awkward watch. Then, on February 6, 2003, Idea Factory would release Generation of Chaos Exceed: Yami no Koujou Roze/Roze, The Imperial Princess of Darkness, a GameCube port of the PS2 original that advertised itself as an "Anige/Anime Game", as it included Roze's sequence from the OVA. It also has its own OP theme, "The other side of darkness" by Yumi Kawanabe, which is honestly about equal in quality as the PS2 original's "The Place of Happiness" by Nana Mizuki; giving ports their own OP themes would be a common thing for IF Neverland games in the future. Unfortunately, today GOC Exceed is, fittingly, exceedingly expensive on the secondhand market, while the PS2 original is still relatively affordable.
GOC Exceed was also not directly produced by Idea Factory itself, instead being done by the director/programmer duo of Carlo Perconti & Christophe Lebouile, two ex-members of the French dev studio Toka (formerly Arcade Zone), with Perconti being one of its founders who later moved to Japan & founded HyperDevbox Japan in 2003. This relationship might have been because of IF executive producer Koichi Ota, who was credited under "Special Thanks" for some of Toka's game previously, including Burning Road, the PS1 remake of Legend, Soul Fighter, & even HyperDevbox's first game, ExZeus; Toka would also develop 2000's Sky Surfer, which was Idea Factory's very first PS2 game. HyperDevbox would go on to be a consistent ally to IF when it came to various ports of its games up through 2015, and they'll play an especially important role for a number of games I'll be covering in the next part of The IF Neverland Reportage, namely in regards to their international releases.
Two months after Generation of Chaos' release, & one month after Run=Dim as Black Soul, Idea Factory would put out its final release of 2001, Global Folktale for the PS2. Released on October 25, 2001, this title was a complete departure from pretty much anything else in the IF Neverland franchise at the time. First of all, it had almost nothing to do with any of the games before it, as while it took place in the same overall world as prior IF Neverland games (which it also generally referred to as "Neverland"), it actually didn't take place on the continent of Neverland itself. Instead, Global Folktale took place in Dukeland, Solty's homeland which resides on a completely different continent, and rather than take place during any of the previously established events it was actually the earliest back in time any of the games went (at this point, at least), taking place in Dukeland's Aurs Era 1598, which equates to Neverland's Magic Era 930. Hundreds of years prior a giant wall was erected between the two halves of Dukeland, splitting off the humans on Aurs to the south from the demons in the North. However, that eventually resulted in Aurs itself entering an era of war between humans, and now the Kingdom of Galvaria wishes to become an Empire that can rule over all of Dukeland, choosing to attack Rockowl, the kingdom that maintains the wall. However, instead of doing the attack themselves, Galvaria orders its vassal state, the Kingdom of Zodia, to do so, and this is where our hero, Prince Allen, & his friends come into play. Also, a younger version of Hiro's older sister Prana makes a few appearances throughout the game, so as to make sure that it's still firmly in the same world as Neverland itself; even if Overlord Janus only ruled the Neverland Continent at this point he obviously wanted to keep tabs on his neighboring continents.
In regards to how Global Folktale plays, it's surprisingly best described as a real-time tactics game. Essentially, battles here are done in nearly-constant real-time combat, with the only halting of the action happening when you actually select a character to tell them what to do next, whether that's go somewhere, chase after & attack a foe, cast a spell, etc. The overhead camera allows you to survey the entire battlefield & see what to do next, all while your characters do as you command them to do automatically, resulting in Global Folktale being a rather unique game in the IF Neverland franchise; you can also elect to control a character directly in battle, which turns the game into an early 3D action title. Of course, this is only part of the gameplay loop, as there is still the overall war simulator aspect, only now everything happens on the world map in real time, while there's also a "Skill Edit System" that allows you to insert elemental panels into a character's weapon, with certain arrangements giving them new skills to use when in battle. Overall this makes Global Folktale sound interesting, especially when compared to most of the games before it, but even with the limited time I put into it there was just a feeling of apathy throughout. Part of that also comes down to the presentation itself, as this is the first IF Neverland game with mostly polygonal visuals, and said graphics honestly look rather amateur. I wouldn't be surprised if Idea Factory actually planned this for PS1 originally & only jumped over to PS2 later on, so the staff weren't able to fully take advantage of the hardware beyond improved character models & the like. There's also a shocking lack of voice work, even for the in-engine cutscenes, making everything feel kind of barren. Finally, giving this game a try requires a lot of initial commitment, as saving can only be done when on the world map... which doesn't become available until at least an hour into the game; hope you like nothing but "cutscene, battle, cutscene, battle, etc., etc." for a first impression.
All that being said, Global Folktale's biggest problem is mainly in how bland an experience it feels like to play. Even in Japan the reception towards it is middle of the road, as while there is praise for your AI partners in combat being rather good & the ability to change the difficulty at any time while playing (plus, Allen's rather un-princelike attitude towards things is amusingly different than the norm), the overall experience just comes as nothing more than "just there". It's by no means the worst game in the IF Neverland franchise, but it's also by no means one of the best; it's purely in the middle, and to some that might be the worst place to be. I mean, hell, while there is a solid enough OP theme for Global Folktale, "Immediate Action" by Kazue Tsuda, there isn't even an OP sequence for this game to really show it off!
Before we move on to the next game, there actually is one more title from 2001 to go over, though it actually wound up never seeing release, and it likely never even got finished. Founded in 2000, XPEC Entertainment is a game development studio based out of Taipei, Taiwan and quickly entered into a working relationship with Idea Factory. The idea behind the relationship was that XPEC would develop some games for IF, specifically those of the IF Neverland variety, including games for hardware that IF would otherwise not really touch, like Microsoft's Xbox. This deal between XPEC & IF would stick around until after 2006, but unfortunately things didn't quite work out with the first game from the duo, Neverland Saga. Announced in 2001 for the Xbox, this looked to be some sort of card battle/board game featuring Neverland's characters & monsters up to that point, though what little video does exist today of the game in motion doesn't really convey much of how the rules would have worked. If I had to guess it looked like it might have been inspired by Omiya Soft's Culdcept, the sequel to which had only come out on the Dreamcast in mid-2001. Nothing more to be said about this unreleased game, unfortunately, but at least it helps make this part of The IF Neverland Reportage contain nine games.
The year 2002 would likewise only see three releases from Idea Factory, though at least this time they were slightly more spread out. After Global Folktale's release in October 2001, the next IF game wouldn't come out until April 25, 2002, which wound up being Generation of Chaos Next ~Ushiwanareshi Kizuna/Lost Bonds~ for the PS2. Also taking place in Magic Era 1030, GOC Next is similar to what happened with Spectral Force 1 & 2 in that this also covered the Second Neverland War, only now with a new "main character". In this case we have Erile, a knight-in-training of the Fredbarn Empire in Northern Neverland (a nation first seen in Spectral Force: Lovely Wickedness) who is friendly with Princess Rosy, the daughter of King Ryuhain, though their friendship soon turns into full-on love. However, Erile initially tries to throw away his feelings toward Rosy by tossing away a pendant she gave him, only for him to cave in & help her find where it fell. During that search, though, Fredbarn is attacked by a man who turns into a monstrous form; it seemingly came from the Simba Empire, which in turn enters Fredbarn into the Second Neverland War. At first Erile runs away from all of this, unable to take the weight of possibly becoming the next king by marrying Rosy, but he eventually returns to lead the Fredbarn army. Fighting alongside Erile & Rosy are Refier (a commander within the Fredbarn Empire), Polo (a demon girl with a knack for machines), Jyazu (a draconian knight who Erile earns the respect of), & Kuu (a beastwoman with penchant for getting into scraps), among others. There's also the chance to befriend or even became engaged with characters like Roze, Princess Suzu-Oh, & even Hiro, while a bonus final scenario, "Last Episode", can be unlocked where you take on a revived Jadou, who leads a force commanded by the new "Five Demon Generals": Mayura, Break, Wave, Zarak (one of the OG Five who fought alongside Janus), and Prana (another of the OG Five); honestly not sure if this is actually canon to the timeline, though.
While GOC Next utilizes a lot of the same multi-genre gameplay of the original GOC it attempts to make things a little simpler & more straightforward in execution by giving the player three modes to choose from. First is Next Mode, which takes GOC's fusion of SLG & RPG but now focuses solely on telling the story of Erile, Rosy, Refier, & the rest, with the game alternating between SLG & RPG gameplay as needed in the story; there are even tutorials this time around, to better welcome players in. After that is Ver. 2 Mode, which plays similar to the first GOC by letting you select a nation & aim to conquer all of Neverland by winning the Second Neverland War; however, this is purely just SLG gameplay, with no RPG Part. Finally, there's KOC Mode, which is similar to Ver. 2 Mode but now you select from a specific character to play as, instead of a nation, and things like your subordinate characters & power distribution between nations is randomized, in theory allowing for unlimited replay value. Because of how Next Mode works I was able to actually give this game a proper attempt, & it's more streamlined & focused start meant that I was also able to experience battle in SLG mode. Compared to the Spectral Force games, GOC's large-scale battles see you be a little more directly involved in the combat, now telling squadrons where exactly to move at any point, allowing for a bit more strategy than before, though combat itself is still automated. Overall, Generation of Chaos Next is indeed an improvement over the first GOC game, though it's mainly due to the game simply being more welcoming to players via Next Mode & deciding to focus on telling a focused story, while offering the more open-ended SLG gameplay via other modes. Even in Japan the reception looks to be a bit more positive, though still acknowledging that Next is more of a "Version 2" of the first game, rather than anything major. Still, this at least is an entry that, despite still really requiring a good knowledge of written Japanese to truly get into, one can manage to finagle themselves more through than the first entry. While still definitely not exactly my type of game, I could at least see what it was going for this time around in a clearer fashion.
Also, since there was no port of GOC Next to other hardware, a quick shout out to its OP theme, "Love & History" by Nana Mizuki, which is a rather solid song, but not quite one of the all-time best in the IF Neverland franchise. Still, it shows how Idea Factory had managed to get talented singers to be associated with their games, by this point.
Same as with the prior entry, GOC Next would receive its own single-episode promotional OVA on May 22, 2002, though this time the subtitle was changed to Chikai no Pendant/The Promised Pendant. Unlike GOC Prologue this one is completely focused on establishing the backstory regarding Erile, Rosy, & Refier that I mentioned earlier, though this ends with Erile running away from Fredbarn; interspersed are comical interludes with Polo & her robot Saemon. Back in 2013 I actually reviewed both of these one-off Generation of Chaos OVAs as a "Double Feature", since neither had enough substance to be worth reviewing individually, and while these two OVAs were actually my introduction to not just IF Neverland but Idea Factory in general I'll fully admit that they are merely serviceable OVAs, at best. It's also worth pointing out that there are actually two different releases of the GOC Prologue & GOC Next OVAs: There's the first version that came packaged with their respective games' Special Editions, & then there's the standalone release. The SE discs are actually highly stripped down, not featuring any of the bonus promotional videos or (in GOC Prologue's case) interviews with the staff, and the SE discs don't even have any of the game's OP/ED themes; GOC Prologue's SE disc just removes the OP sequence entirely, while GOC Next's replaces it with BGM from the game! Interestingly enough, Idea Factory would later re-release both of these Generation of Chaos OVAs as a combined package on September 22, 2005 that was exclusive to Sony's then-new UMD format meant for the PSP, titling the release Shinten Makai Gen’ei/New Heavenly Demon World Illusion, using the surtitle that the later GOC games were using at the time; since it's UMD Video the release is region locked, unlike PSP games released on UMD. To be fair, the IF Neverland game that did come out around the same time as this UMD Video was Spectral vs. Generation, which we'll get to next time & did feature both Roze & Erile as playable characters, so there was some sort of cross-promotional synergy there, I guess... but it's still a bit of an odd thing to release.
Half a year after GOC Next Idea Factory would release its next title, this time with help from TI Tokyo Inc. (which I cannot find any definitive info about, outside of what might be another company with a similar name), and this one is interesting for the IF Neverland franchise, as it not only took place after the Second Neverland War had ended but was essentially a preview of what to look forward to for the next era of the franchise itself. Released on October 31, 2002 for the PS2, Gakuen Toshi/Academy City Vara Noir: Kingdom of Chaos The Universe was a fusion of strategy RPG, life sim, & visual novel that took place in the titular Vara Noir, a gigantic academy nation that trains the next generation of heroes; it notably acted like Switzerland during the Second Neverland War & took a completely neutral stance. Taking place in Magic Era 1048, some time after the (never fully defined) end of the Second War, our lead character for this game is Mue, a simple girl who previously worked as a chimney sweep with her surrogate grandfather, but dreamed of being something greater. She then suddenly finds herself enrolled in Vara Noir, where she has to learn to not just become a proper warrior but also deal with the admittedly quirky class of fellow students she's a part of (& even some of the staff are a bit weird). In reality, Mue is the granddaughter of Chiffon, and when the seal on the Tenmaken was broken & Mue's parents were killed getting the sword for their daughter, as Chiffon wished for her to have it, she was put in the care of Radui, Chiffon's master/compatriot & a legendary hero of the First War in his own right, though Radui decided to keep his true identity a secret & never told Mue her true origins. Mue would go on to play a notable role in future IF Neverland games, though this is the only game where she's the main character.
As mentioned, Vara Noir is a fusion of genres, though visual novel definitely takes the primary focus. Unlike most of the prior IF Neverland games, there's A LOT of conversation between characters before you ever get to the more traditional gameplay, which in this case would be battles done using a strategy RPG style. However, instead of something like a Super Robot Wars game, where you get a lot of conversation for story advancement, before getting a menu to set yourself up for the next battle, rinse & repeat, Vara Noir instead is a bit more open-ended in how you advance. Once you get past the introductions, & an initial fight between Mue & her future rival/friend Lute Crystal, you eventually reach the point where you have the option to either go to various areas of Vara Noir itself via a menu, which allows you to converse with Mue's fellow students, or you can go to her dorm in order to set yourself up for potentially heading to other areas outside of the school to engage in battles. However, a major element of Vara Noir is "taking tests", which see Mue head into dungeons in order to accomplish a goal, and during these tests she can come across & recruit other students to fight alongside her in order to clear a test... if they like Mue enough, that is. In order for Mue to have good relations with her classmates she has to interact with them, which in turn means that you're choosing to postpone when you take the next test. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't able to get much into Vara Noir, as it's a game that absolutely requires heavy knowledge of Japanese to fully get into & enjoy, as outside of battles it's immensely menu-driven, which includes responses Mue can give at various moments during conversations; the handful of battles I managed to engage in were also kind of bland, mechanics-wise, & surprisingly difficult. Therefore, I mostly have to rely on how others felt about this game to properly describe it... and apparently how luck & randomness are the primary factor.
Yeah, a ton of Vara Noir gameplay is apparently randomized, namely when it comes to the dungeons. The dungeon layouts are random, where everything is placed (Mue, her classmates, enemies, items, etc.) is random, whether or not Mue's classmates will agree to help during tests is random, & even who gets kicked out of the school after each & every test (Vara Noir works off survival of the fittest, so those who can't keep up are expelled) is randomized, except for Lute (for story purposes). Therefore, long-term planning when it comes to who the player wants to see Mue grow a relationship with requires a lot of save scumming (though you're only allowed up to three saves & there's no soft reset command), and this even makes various school-related events tough to make happen if a specific character gets randomly expelled early on! Not only that, but while the battles themselves are done in a strategy RPG format, they're also more akin to a roguelike in that you start each & every battle at Level 1. Therefore, item synthetization plays a big role, so that you can have better equipment for the next test. There are also smaller nitpicks, like voiced lines during battle slowing things down immensely (though this can be turned off), and the roguelike nature of the dungeons is a "love it or hate it" thing that depends on the individual. While Gakuen Toshi Vara Noir looks to be considered a "kusoge" by some, I can't give proper judgement on that since I could only get a little bit in, but it definitely does seem to be another case of Idea Factory taking an interesting concept & getting a bit overindulgent with it, similar to how I felt with both Spectral Tower games on the PS1. Similar to those two PS1 games, nothing about Vara Noir mechanically seems to be inherently "broken" or "busted", but rather it's just that IF decided to emphasize certain elements to such a degree that it seems to feel overwhelming & tough to get into.
In keeping with the pattern we've been seeing during this time (ignoring Global Folktale, of course), Gakuen Toshi Vara Noir also received a promotional OVA to go with the game, though this time around it was two episodes long, with them coming out on October 23 (a week prior to the game's release) & November 27 (a month later); no alternate subtitle this time around, though. Unfortunately, despite having more time to properly establish the quirky nature of the school, its students, & how out of place Mue initially feels in it, this is what I personally feel to be the absolute worst of Idea Factory's self-produced anime. Just an absolutely shoddy production all around with cheap looking animation, some of the worst CG seen in any of IF's self-produced anime, a manic & bizarre comedy style that sometimes confuses more than amuses, and it does absolutely nothing to really make one interested in playing the game it's meant to promote. In fact, while I reviewed this OVA way back in 2013 it was only for the first episode, breaking my usual rule for traditional reviews, because I couldn't hunt down Episode 2 at the time & really have no interest in ever wanting to watch it. This isn't even my own opinion, as in Japan the Vara Noir OVA is considered a part of the infamous "Yashigani Trilogy", due to how poorly animated it is, alongside the original TV version of Episode 12 of Lost Universe (which is where the trilogy's name came from) & anime movie Gundress (which saw movie goers literally be given flyers apologizing for the film being screened in an unfinished form). On January 23, 2004, Idea Factory would release Gakuen Toshi Vara Noir Roses, a GameCube port of the PS2 original that was also categorized as an "Anime Game", a la GOC Exceed, but otherwise is more or less the same game as before, only with more anime cutscenes (at least this time there was more footage to utilize) & on different hardware; this would also be Idea Factory's final GameCube game, as IF wouldn't return to Nintendo hardware until 2007. Also, just as with GOC Exceed, Vara Noir Roses has its own OP theme, "Kimi Arishi Wagami" by Yuki Kitamura, though in this case I feel it's a massive step down from the PS2 original's OP, "Bridge" by Chihiro Yonekura, which I feel is one of the absolute best IF Neverland OP themes, in general.
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| No ISO rip, no video, & nothing for sale anywhere. All that exists (in decent quality, at least) are these six screenshots. |
For The IF Neverland Reportage I did my absolute best to get a hold of every single game that saw release, whether that be the original physical release or a later digital release, but there's one game that has continually been impossible for me to get, despite all indications indicating that it indeed come out. That would be Idea Factory's final release of 2002, and what may honestly be the most obscure & forgotten game the company ever put out: Field of Chaos: Senritsu no Earth Nova/The Terrifying Earth Nova. Released on December 11, 2002, FOC was a real-time strategy game for Windows (claiming support on the box from Windows 95 to XP), a true rarity at the time for the company, as this would be Idea Factory's sole PC-exclusive (at least, in regards to it being a "traditional" game, not a browser game like Kingdom of Chaos), and the company wouldn't even really support PC releases on the regular until 2015. What little information is given about this game doesn't establish when in the IF Neverland timeline this takes place in, though due to some characters making appearances, like Ankrowyer & Break, I think it's fair to say that it likely happens in the interim between the First & Second Neverland Wars, if it even has any canonicity to start with.
As for the gameplay itself, the only places that actually reported on the game (or, at least, the only ones that are still online) were 4Gamer & Game Watch back on October 22, 2002, so at least we know how the game worked, on a general level. As mentioned, FOC is an RTS game where the objective is to manage resources & expand your base, while taking on enemy forces, with the game supporting up to eight simultaneous players (or even just one player & up to seven AI bots) on one map. However, rather than simply being the last player remaining by annihilating your opposition, though that's also possible, the primary goal here is about accumulating the most money, likely after time runs out or by reaching a specific quota. This makes commerce & agriculture a very important aspect, since buying & trading goods can net you gigantic profits, while growing agriculture can provide you with consistent income, though of course combat also plays a factor as you can try to destroy your opponents' territory & ruin their income sources. I have no idea what FOC offered in regards to a single-player "campaign", alongside the usual network multiplayer option, but with 12 characters to choose from (each of which prioritizing either commerce, agriculture, or combat) that should at least give the game some bit of replay value... though by looking at the screen shots it's definitely not a looker with its heavy use of pre-rendered sprites. However, the reason why FOC is essentially impossible to get a hold of today comes down to how it was actually sold. Simply put, the only way to buy the game back in late 2002 was either via direct order through Idea Factory... or buying it through Kingdom of Chaos! Yes, rather than sell it through any traditional means, IF only ever made Field of Chaos purchasable by either contacting the company directly & paying either by WebMoney or Cash on Delivery, or by subscribing to the company's browser-based MMO & buying it through that; at the very least the MSPR was 3,300 yen, which even then was rather cheap for a new PC game.
Does Field of Chaos: Senritsu no Earth Nova actually exist? I honestly have no idea, though Idea Factory does list the game on its website (in the most minimal fashion, but still) & there is a listing for it over on both Amazon Japan & Suruga-ya, complete with the front & back of the packaging, so someone had to have sold a copy secondhand, at one point or another. Also, its front cover art is included in the Idea Factory 10th Anniversary Official Visual Guide the now-defunct publisher Aspect released in 2005, so it looks to be as official a release as it can possibly be. However, aside from those I have literally never seen any proof of FOC's existence, not even a photo of the physical release itself, and since it was never sold via traditional means back in the day that more than likely means that it's an immensely rare title today, as I'm sure very, very few copies were ever sold. If it DOES exist, then I can only hope someone who actually owns it is willing to make an image of it & upload it to a place like the Internet Archive, so that it can be preserved in some fashion. It may not necessarily be a good RTS game, but I'd love to at least give it a try.
Five months after Field of Chaos' (possibly non-existent?) limited release, Idea Factory would return the PS2 with its next title, starting off an admittedly busy 2003 with Generation of Chaos III: Toki no Fuuin/The Seal of Time. Released on May 8, 2003, GOC III may share its name (& gameplay) with the previous two entries, but it has little to do with the Second Neverland War. Instead, GOC III pulls from Global Folktale's playbook & takes place in a completely different area of the world than Neverland, in this case the continent of Old, which is southwest of Neverland, & in the year of Sealed God Era 125, which corresponds to Magic Era 1024, i.e. shortly before the events of Spectral Blade. The story here deals with the continental conflict between the Kingdom of Radia & the Church of Zenon, with the latter gaining the upper hand after dealing King Radia a mortal blow. It's now up to Prince Alfeld Flabrosse, his best friends Wells & Teefa Middle, & Radia commander Rare Burtoning to lead their forces against Zenon, led by the talented General Onyx, & bring peace back to Old, especially after they discover the resting place of an ancient power that's been sealed away for centuries. Namely, the power is that of Demon Beast Zenon, the being that the Church named itself after, who was so powerful that its battle with the Six Gods (Overlord Janus, Divine Goddess Coleia, Cherbim Epsilon, the Twin Goddesses Euro & Mercedoa, & Hellgaia) 3,000 years before the start of the Magic Era is what split the land into the continents of Neverland & Old.
Just as with GOC Next, GOC III also splits up its gameplay across various modes, though now they have wildly different names. Generation of Chaos III is the traditional "Story Mode", where you play through the story of Wells & Alfeld via a mix of SLG & RPG gameplay, alternating between the two as needed. Generation of Chaos Ver. 3 & Kingdom of Chaos: The Another Time are both SLG-only modes, with the main difference being that Ver. 3 Mode actually takes place on Neverland during the Second Neverland War, allowing you to play with & against the large cast from the prior GOC games. Finally, there's Spectral Tower, an RPG-only mode where you take your party of editable vessels up the titular Tower itself, though now its finally been reduced to a much more reasonable 100 floors, instead of the 10,000-floor monstrosity it once was back in Spectral Tower II; every 10 floors you fight a boss. There's also a neat little bonus where having save data from GOC, GOC Next, Global Folktale, & Vara Noir on the same memory card as GOC III's will allow bonus enemy forces to appear for the player to take on in Ver. 3 Mode, like GOC's Imperial Demon Army, Global Folktale's Zodia Squadron, & Vara Noir's Bad Rose team. To help contain all of this, GOC III would also be the very first IF Neverland game to ship on a DVD-ROM, instead of the CD-ROMs that even the initial PS2 games were being released on.
GOC III really emphasizes the four different modes of play here, with there being an option on the main menu just for switching between them... and each one utilizes its own save data, so even if you switched over to "Spectral Tower" mode & booted up a main story mode save the game would still load up in "GOC III" mode. Also, unlike GOC Next, the story mode here is much more story focused from the start, with Chapter 1 having only a single SLG battle & instead focusing on Alfeld reuniting with Wells at the grave of their friend who died in battle, Teefa semi-admitting her love for him, and ending with Alfeld's father passing away & him needing to take the throne as the new king. That being said, though, this is still the same general mix of RPG & SLG that the prior two GOC games were, which sadly means that once things move into the SLG move it becomes a bit too much for me to handle, as it's immensely menu-based & requires good knowledge of kanji to really make good use of. Still, what I did manage to play of GOC III did feel like the most polished of the three, with the SLG gameplay removing most of the real-time aspects & instead going more for a turn-based style where you dictate what your forces do over the course of the next month, before rival forces do the same & then everything happens at once as their "turns". Battles between armies is also simplified by simply choosing a formation & then all squads engage in battle at the same time, resulting in much faster conflicts. I definitely did get the feeling that Idea Factory wanted to try to simplify some aspects of the SLG gameplay with this entry, while still wanting it to feel like the GOC titles before it, in the broad strokes. Future GOC games would modify the SLG gameplay seen here into a new form, while excising the traditional RPG elements completely, & that would mark the point when the series would see release outside of Japan, so this initial GOC "trilogy" remains a Japan-only experience.
It's also worth noting that people who pre-ordered GOC III back in 2003 would have received a "Neverland Collector's DVD", which included a 13-minute video that went over the general history of Neverland that Idea Factory had told via the games it had released up to that point, which is neat; a low-quality rip was uploaded to YouTube back in 2009 across two parts, but with no subs. This video also features official romanizations for the various characters showcased in it, which is how I know how to properly spell names like "Ankrowyer" & "Krayce". Also, once again, as there were no port of GOC III I'll take a quick moment to shout out its OP theme, "Wing" by Sae, which is another all-time great theme song for the IF Neverland franchise.
Looking at how it was seemingly received in Japan, Generation of Chaos III seems to be cited as possibly the best entry in this original trilogy, featuring the most polished mix of SLG & RPG parts. It certainly still wasn't a perfect game, though, as there were apparently complaints of combat in the SLG part now being a bit too simplified due to its more straightforward execution, some bemoaned the (mostly) complete departure from the main Neverland continent (though certain characters, like Hiro, could still be founds & recruited), & the RPG side of things having some balancing issues. That being said, though, the story that was told was generally well received, and Wells in particular would become a popular & recurring character in the IF Neverland franchise itself, appearing in numerous other games, most often as a recruitable general, & also in some crossover titles, like 2006's Chaos Wars. Like its two predecessors, Generation of Chaos III would also receive a promotional OVA, though this one had no alternate subtitle & was also two episodes long, coming out on May 21 & June 25, respectively. In my opinion, the GOCIII OVA is the absolute best of Idea Factory's promotional OVAs, telling an interesting & somewhat compelling introduction to the main cast, setting them up well for the war that they'll be engaging in during the game, and the animation is one of the stronger efforts from IF, though obviously still working within limitations; in terms of IF's self-produced anime fare it's only surpassed by Kingdom of Chaos: Born to Kill. However, this would be the final IF Neverland game to receive a promotional OVA in this fashion, as the next OVA related to this franchise to get made (which would also be the last one, in general) went in a notably different direction... and we'll get to that next time.
It's at this point that we finally get to the first ever IF Neverland game that saw release outside of Japan... sort of... but not really? OK, this one is definitely a bit of a weird one to explain, & it actually ties back to the unreleased Neverland Saga. While that card battle game never saw release, Idea Factory & XPEC Entertainment would continue their partnership, with the first game from the two that actually saw release being Black Stone: Magic & Steel for the Xbox, which initially came out in North America on March 19, 2003, followed by a European release the following week on March 21. Both of those releases were distributed by Xicat Interactive, a short-lived publisher that still managed to get its hands on a handful of interesting or notable titles, like the Dreamcast port of Wetrix, the original Gothic, & the third Carmageddon game. However, despite the case cover, manual cover, & even some screenshots within the manual itself showing IF Neverland characters designed by Rui Kousaki (at that point using the alias Yoji Hiraiwa), Black Stone makes no reference at all to Neverland & said character designs are nowhere to be found in-game, replaced with (kind of rough, honestly) Western artwork instead. It wouldn't be until May 22, 2003 that Black Stone, now renamed Ex-Chaser, would finally see release in Japan & be an official part of the IF Neverland franchise; this would be the sole original Xbox game released by Idea Factory. Since we're all about the IF Neverland franchise here I'll primarily refer to this game as Ex-Chaser, though both versions play exactly the same, & it takes place in Magic Era 1187. Yes, that is indeed pretty far out of the timeline the IF Neverland franchise has established by this point, so far out that in fact that only a single future game would ever take place beyond it, and to emphasize this discrepancy the game is yet another entry that does NOT take place on the Neverland Continent itself.
Instead, Ex-Chaser takes place in the land of Zedan, far southeast of Neverland, and the reason why it takes place so far out in the timeline is because of time travel. In short, the "Third Heavenly Demon King" Evil Eye Madul managed to make his way into Zedan via an interdimensional gate & has spread his evil power across the land, plunging it into darkness. With all hope almost lost, the Wise Men of the only remaining area of Zedan, Heversalem/Heversalm (the games' manual uses "ćć“ć§ć«ćµć¬ć ", while IF's own website uses "ćć“ć§ć«ćµć«ć "), use their powers to summon powerful warriors to Zedan, with the hopes that they can make it to the Temple of Babylon & defeat Madul once & for all. In regards to the story in Black Stone it's essentially the same exact set up regarding Zedan & Madul, only with all references to Neverland excised & some terminology changes ("Wise Men" become "White Wizards", "Evil Eye Madul" becomes "Underworld Boss Madul", "Temple of Babylon" becomes "Dark Tower of Babel", etc.)... until you actually play the game. Yes, Black Stone's manual, aside from showing the Ex-Chaser character designs in some screenshots, is the only place that refers to the main villain as Madul, as the in-game cutscenes refer to him as "Xylon", despite everything else being the same; great continuity between the game & the manual, Xicat. The only major regional change is in the characters themselves, as while Black Stone treats all characters as blank slates Ex-Chaser's cast features both original characters only seen in this game as well as 10 characters seen in prior IF Neverland games, specifically from the time period of the Second Neverland War.
Namely, the 10 "known" characters are Ankrowyer from the Simba Empire, former Swordmasters of the Simba Empire Krayce & Flonne, Byard the (former) Vampire King, Medran the "Scorpion of the Desert" from Japitos, "Dreamer" Paro Paro of the Galleon Freedom Army, Big Mama of the Goblins, Gald the Dwarf King, Princess Tiana of the Meimai Knights (the daughter of Tina & Fort, who was first seen in GOC Next), & the prodigal Diana from the Army of Flauster. Alongside them are the 10 characters made just for this game, who are essentially blank slates here but are given some flavor text in the JP manual, like four being from Dukeland, one being from the Elf Alliance, one being a "mysterious Sylphy", & another being the "Gatekeeper to the Underworld". It's also worth noting that there was a character named "Madul" prior to this game in Generation of Chaos Next, but that's a young girl who's possessed by a being called the "Terror King"; the name is written exactly the same in katakana, though, so it could very well be the Evil Eye himself. That being said, neither game has much actual plot to it (the short narrative bits between each stage more or less just amounts to "And then this thing happened"), so the known characters from Neverland being in Ex-Chaser may as well just be generic randos anyway. I mean, you literally just name your character after picking them, & the narrator never makes reference to any specific character outside of Madul, so in the end you're really just playing as someone who simply looks like Ankrowyer, Krayce, Tiana, etc.
As for the gameplay itself, Ex-Chaser is best described as a variant of Atari Games' iconic franchise Gauntlet, which itself was directly inspired by the 1983 PC game Dandy. In short, it's a action-focused dungeon crawler where up to four players fight their way through each stage, killing enemies that spawn out of "generators" that you can destroy, opening treasure chests with keys to find powers ups (plus power downs, including the pig status from the Spectral Tower games), & make their way to the end. Also similar to Gauntlet is that the 20 characters here are split up across different five classes, four in each: All-rounder Warriors, magic-focused Warlocks, speed-prioritizing Thieves, tank-like Pirates, & long-range Archers. The goal is to make your way through each area, made up of two standard stages, one "tower" stage, & a boss stage that holds a Black Stone, with all six Stones needed in order to enter the Temple of Babylon to fight Madul. Everyone has a basic close range attack that has a three-hit combo, a long range attack that auto aims to the closest enemy or generator, a limited amount of magic attacks based on the next scroll you have in your inventory, & if you're playing with friends you can also perform a team attack. Beyond that you can also perform a dodge & charge up your power bar (which can also charge by killing enemies), which is necessary for performing long range attacks (which drain it slowly) & dodges (which drain it quickly), and while charging you can also perform a powered up close range attack (at the expense of some health) or magic attack (which uses two scrolls). Finally, some stages have a giant dinosaur you can ride for a little bit, which instantly destroys anything it attacks. From a basic gameplay perspective, Ex-Chaser is... okay, I guess. It's a perfectly cromulent Gauntlet clone, if more than a bit bland, but it was released on a console that would wind up with two games from that exact franchise; to be fair, Japan never got any game from that franchise after Gauntlet Legends, so Ex-Chaser did fill a gap in that region.
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| Hi Flonne, Krayce, Byard, Ankrowyer, Big Mama, & Tiana! None of you are technically in Black Stone! |
And, really, that's the game's biggest problem: It's just a bland Gauntlet clone. There's nothing inherently wrong with the game, though I do wish characters moved a bit faster overall, but at the same time after you've done the first three stages & the first boss you've more or less experienced everything it's about. Sure, you can power yourself up between stages, some stages have bonus sections that require at least two players to access, and there are stat level ups to be found for your Power, Defense, & Intelligence, but the overall gameplay remains the same exact thing throughout, with the only thing that can really count as "encouraging" you to continue playing being the fact that you only have half of the roster at the start, and you unlock more characters the further into the game you get. However, at 26 stages (including the seven bosses) you need to replay stages to unlock all of the characters, as you need "40 levels" to unlock the last one. Ex-Chaser/Black Stone: Magic & Steel truly is a bizarre game, as aside from the change between languages, the OP sequence (yeah, no surprise that Xicat didn't include "be with you" by Chihiro Yonekura, another all-time great IF Neverland theme), title screen (though the emblem seen behind the Ex-Chaser logo is still shown during loading screens), & the different character portraits everything between the two versions are exactly the same. Even the character models in Black Stone are very blatantly just the Neverland characters, and if you really look at the Western character artwork at the select screen you can notice how the previously-existing characters were redone in an "American" art style (poor Paro Paro looks utterly mangled); the only real difference in audio is in the narrator, too, as all characters share their respective grunts between regions. However, for whatever reason, Black Stone came out first, and Ex-Chaser's connection to the IF Neverland franchise is so tenuous anyway that it's almost a wonder why Idea Factory even bothered to have it be a part of the franchise, to begin with; I mean, was IF hoping that IF Neverland fans on the PS2 would buy an Xbox just for this game?
We end the third part of The IF Neverland Reportage with a game that would, eventually, see release outside of Japan, but that wouldn't happen until years later, once Idea Factory had started making proper inroads abroad. Instead, August 7, 2003 would see the Japan-only release of Cardinal Arc: Konton no Fuusatsu/The Paper Seal of Chaos for the PS2, which took place in Magic Era 1054 & would actually wind up taking place during the events of a game we'll cover next time, Spectral Souls II. Cardinal Arc stars Galahad, Mue's old classmate in Vara Noir who loves gambling & after graduating from the school has become a world traveler, who is teleported to a gigantic multi-floor underground dungeon on Umally Island (on the northwest end of Neverland), the titular Cardinal Arc, alongside seven other people. They've all been summoned to Cardinal Arc by its guardian Egma due to the seal on Hellgaia weakening to the point where it'll soon fail (he had been sealed away 1,000 years before the Magic Era by his fellow gods for trying to rule the world), and it's up to one of these warriors to prevent Hellgaia from roaming Neverland once again. Galahad and the others are cast in the role of "Dominators", people who can summon monsters to the field from magical "Spectral Cards" to help them fight each other to see who can reach the bottom. In the way of Galahad are Shaia (who thinks there's a great treasure to be found within), Iglus (who wants Hellgaia's power for his own purposes), Refina (a Muromachi priestess who's been corrupted by Hellgaia, made possible by the seal weakening), Sheriela (who simply wants to explore the ruins within Cardinal Arc), Simmon (an old tomb raider pal of Galahad's), Fellunder (a vain & self-proclaimed "Hero of Justice"), & Wise (a dark elf who wishes to unseal Hellgaia & unleash havoc on the world).
This actually isn't the first appearance of Hellgaia (technically) & Umally Island in an IF Neverland game, as the old Spectral Force trilogy on PS1 saw Hellgaia act as the leader of the Neverland Army operating out of Umally, though it was by way of disheveled boy who had been corrupted by Hellgaia, similar to Refina in this game; the boy was simply named "Hellgaia" in those games.
Befitting a game with the surtitle of "Neverland Card War", Cardinal Arc is a mix of strategy RPG & card battler, as both sides start off with nothing more than a Dominator & a shuffled hand of Spectral Cards. On each Dominator's turn they can move about the field one block at a time (each unit has their own "Move" value, usually 3 to 4), claiming any block they walk over as their own, and summon any monsters they have on hand onto any claimed block of land they currently own. The opposition, in turn, does the same thing on their turn, with a major element of the game being to walk either the Dominator or one of their monsters over enemy blocks & claim it as their own, reducing the amount of active land they have control over & giving them fewer spots to work with. Naturally, combat is also a major factor here, with the end goal being to deplete all of the opposing Dominator's life, either via direct combat using a Dominator or monster, or by the usage of spell cards & the like. The blocks of land also act as your total magic for each turn, with all actively-summoned units requiring a "Maintenance Cost" to keep on the field, so it's entirely possible to trap the opposing Dominator into an area of the field & reduce their total blocks/magic to a pittance, if not literally the single block they stand on, which forces them to dismiss active units if they can't pay the Maintenance Cost at the start of their turn, similar to a mechanic seen in Culdcept when you can't pay the toll on an opponent's space. Also like in Culdcept you have some units which are purely for defensive/blocking purposes, others have additional skills that can be made use of separately, there are both active-use spell cards & equippable cards, and also elemental blocks that can both buff compatible units & also allow them to be summoned in areas away from adjacent units or the Dominator. The end result is an interesting take on the collectible card game concept, while also differentiating itself enough from something like Culdcept in the way territory is claimed, playing more like a strategy RPG than the Monopoly-esque board game of Omiya Soft's franchise.
There are a total of 206 Spectral Cards and the only way to acquire more cards is by playing battles, while you're limited to just three decks of 30 cards each, so the game really does encourage you to plan out decks for different play styles. Speaking of battles, the campaign itself gives you 14 battles, including repeat fights with all but Simmon & Fellunder, before you fight Hellgaia for the 15th & final battle... at least for the basic ending. Yes, this is another IF game which has a secret "true" ending, though in this game achieving that actually only requires you to continue battling the computer by revisiting environments/opponents, until you've done so at least 50 times, in order to earn all of the required "Godseal Talismen" cards for the final fight with Earth, first seen in Suna no Embrace; in the annals of IF "true endings", this one's probably one of the most "reasonable". Sure, 50 battles sounds a bit much, but apparently the game stops giving you a card after you've acquired 10 copies of it, so eventually it will force rarer cards to be given out to you, once the more common ones have been exhausted; that said, you are limited to just three of the same card in a deck, so maxing out at nine would have sufficed. Cardinal Arc would wind up being the penultimate IF Neverland game to ever get released on CD-ROM, in this case a "blue disc" PS2 game, though the actual final CD-based game for the franchise (Spectral vs. Generation) would technically be a port from other hardware, not something made specifically for PS2, like this game was.
Though Cardinal Arc never saw release outside of Japan on the PS2, it would eventually see release in North America on October 27, 2008 via a PSP port, where it was renamed Neverland Card Battles, making it one of the small handful of IF Neverland games to actually use the continent's name in the title; this port looks to have been produced in-house at Idea Factory, rather than by HyperDevbox. Released by Yuke's Company of America, the short-lived US division of the Japanese developer best known for its wrestling games, Neverland Card Battles would receive a mixed critical reception in English, and the English release would actually come first, with the Japanese release, generally referred to as Cardinal Arc Portable (though the actual title is that same as the PS2 original), coming out a few days later on October 30. In regards to how it looks to be received over in Japan some seem to decree Cardinal Arc as a kusoge, but the reasons given seem to be more nitpicks than anything truly deal breaking. Honestly, you can look online & find plenty of responses towards Neverland Card Battles that are much more positive & found themselves hooked on the gameplay, because it really is a neat game, in the long run. Comparisons to a game like Culdcept are naturally obvious, but I think that's a good thing, because while the two are very similar in some ways Idea Factory was still able to make something wholly unique from what was likely a strong influence on the dev team there. Combine all of that with the fact that this actually does have an official English release, plus it's still super cheap to get a hold of today, and I honestly fully recommend Cardinal Arc/Neverland Card Battles if you find the concept interesting. There's even an fan-made "Undub" version out there online if you want the original Japanese voice cast instead of Yuke's English voice cast, though the Undub requires either emulation or a modded PSP that can play ISOs. Personally, I think the English voice cast is pretty good, produced over at Bang Zoom! & featuring the likes of Patrick Seitz (Galahad), Kira Buckland (Refina), Michael McConnohie (Simmon), & Johnny Young Bosch (Earth, though it's spelled "Arth" here), among others.
Also, one last time for this piece, a shout-out to this game's OP theme, "Seal of Power" by Izumi Osawa, which is another absolute great amongst the other excellent IF Neverland theme songs, and unlike other games in this franchise that were ported to other hardware this song was kept for the PSP port, both in Japan & North America; the OP sequence was altered, though, likely to better fit the PSP's widescreen ratio rather than 4:3.
This is, without a doubt, one of the best games covered in The IF Neverland Reportage, so far. Personally, I'd love to see Idea Factory port Cardinal Arc/Neverland Card Battles once again, this time to modern hardware, because it really should be given another chance to find an audience, as it's a great title & works extremely well as a standalone entry in the IF Neverland franchise itself.
Without a doubt, with Idea Factory moving over to new console hardware the staff seemingly also decided to experiment as much as they could with a variety of gameplay styles, as seen with the games showcased in this third part of the IF Neverland Reportage. While grand strategy games were still a thing in this batch with the Generation of Chaos trilogy, those three still tried to mix things up by adding in more traditional RPG gameplay, while GOC Next & III both focused more on telling a traditional plot, kind of like an expansion on what Spectral Force: Lovely Wickedness had gone for. Meanwhile, Global Folktale & Gakuen Toshi Vara Noir both tried offering more traditional RPG gameplay, but with their own little touches (real-time combat & visual novel/adventure game elements, respectively)... to more mixed results, more or less. Then there are Neverland Saga & Field of Chaos, the former never actually getting made while the latter may go down right now as one of the rarest, most unobtainable PC games of all time, considering its kind of mind boggling release method. Still, both aimed at doing something wholly different from anything else tried in IF Neverland, whether it was a seemingly Culdcept-esque card battler for Neverland Saga or a variant of the RTS genre for FOC.
But, without a doubt, what this third part finally did was give me some games to cover that actually had an English release! That being said, they really are a case of highs & lows, at least when compared to each other. While Ex-Chaser/Black Stone is by no means a terrible Gauntlet clone it's also honestly nothing more than "perfectly cromulent", delivering an experience that truly is meant for four-person multiplayer, but it's also on a console that already has tons of much better four-player experiences, including two actual Gauntlet games, so it kind of comes off as a bit of a wash; also, its connection to the IF Neverland franchise itself is so ancillary that it might as well be its own IP. However, Cardinal Arc/Neverland Card Battles is absolutely a highlight & one of the best games in the entire IF Neverland franchise in the chronology so far. Its fusion of strategy RPG & card battler is well executed & results in a game that's a lot of fun to play, while also differentiating itself enough from something like Culdcept that it doesn't feel wholly derivative. It's also noteworthy that the first two IF Neverland games in the franchise to receive English release (though not literally the first two to come out in English) are also games that aimed away from the more complex & intensive grand strategy games that mostly came before them, and instead offered something more straightforward & easy to pick up & play, while also not requiring any real knowledge of the IF Neverland timeline or lore beforehand.
Meanwhile, in terms of the actual lore of the franchise, the Second Neverland War has already come & gone, and with it comes an era of peace... as tenuous as it might seem. Still, games like Vara Noir & Cardinal Arc worked to establish a new generation of characters to take the lead from the heroes (& villains) of the past, while Golbal Folktale, Generation of Chaos III, & Ex-Chaser focused on establishing the world outside of the Neverland Continent itself by showcasing places like Dukeland, the Old Continent, & Zedan. Also, as you can see, certain characters & nations seen in prior games (both in previous entries in The IF Neverland Reportage & in this very entry itself) would wind up playing major roles in later games, helping showcase how large & interconnected the IF Neverland franchise was, overall; honestly, it's a scale that astonishes in how well it manages to hold together, even by this point.
Preview: Neverland is once again in an era of peace, brought about by humans & demons agreeing to a truce. However, some in the land are still stuck in old beliefs, resulting in other people from "Earth" being summoned to Neverland, for both good & bad, eventually resulting in yet another war that splits the continent up; however, life still continues on after. Meanwhile, tales of conflict from both other locations (the Lost Ground & the multi-tiered world of Aedis) & even the past of the Magic Era (both near & far) finally get told, all while Idea Factory reaches its 10th Anniversary. Plus, everyone likes a good ol' crossover arcade fighting game, right?
Not just that, but Idea Factory (& IF Neverland) finally starts making its first true strides outside of Japan.
Next time on The IF Neverland Reportage... Episode 4: The Seven Years War!
Generation of Chaos © 2001 Idea Factory
Global Folktale © 2001 Idea Factory
Generation of Chaos Next ~Ushiwanareshi Kizuna~ © 2002 Idea Factory
Gakuen Toshi Vara Noir: Kingdom of Chaos The Universe © 2002 Idea Factory/TI Tokyo
Field of Chaos: Senritsu no Earth Nova © 2002 Idea Factory
Generation of Chaos III: Toki no Fuuin © 2003 Idea Factory
Black Stone: Magic & Steel © 2002 Xicat Interactive © 2002 XPEC Entertainment/Idea Factory
Ex-Chaser © 2002 Idea Factory/XPEC Entertainment
Cardinal Arc: Konton no Fuusatsu © 2003 Idea Factory
Neverland Card Battles © 2008 Idea Factory
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