Genre: Action RPG
Developer: Climax Entertainment
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

For those that have seen Monster Hunter Freedom and Virtua Tennis: World Tour, the visuals in Kingdom of Paradise lie somewhere between. The entire game is rendered using a Playstation 2-era 3d engine, featuring decent textures, reasonably detailed player models, and a lot of glitzy particle effects. The art work is colorful and the color schemes in most of the areas are aesthetically pleasing.

I have not checked, but the same composer just as well might have done the music in Shenmue and this title. Technically, the soundtrack is a mixture of orchestra, synth keyboard samples, and clashing percussion. Musically, every melody is heavily inspired by traditional Japanese and Chinese music, fitting well with the oriental theme of the game itself. Cut scene voice acting is, for the most part, well done, especially that of Shinbu, the protagonist.

Kingdom of Paradise is an action RPG; a limited number of swords and accessories can be equipped, magic can be used, and the character is levelled up as the adventure progresses. The twist here is the combat-- you collect cards in this game, and each card details a move. You then string these cards onto scrolls, which enables a sword combo for your character to perform. Unfortunately, the world map is just a series of corridor-like areas that connect the towns. The gameplay flow involves fighting henchman while travelling from town to town, watching cut-scenes, and fighting bosses. The addicting combat engine makes it mostly worthwhile.

The appeal to this title is the creative combat engine, collecting new sword moves to perform, and the story, which unfortunately doesn't really get off the ground until the last couple hours of the game. The character designs are memorable, but their personalities are pretty superficial and, like almost every video game, are not really fleshed out. In fact, the whole game feels a little that way. It's a solid, fun 15 hour action RPG, but it just doesn't have the cutting edge in game design to take it to the next level.