Genre: Strategy RPG
Developer: HyperDevbox Studio
Publisher: Independent

Spectral Souls' artwork falls into two distinct categories: character art, and scenery art. The latter couldn't be any less interesting or generic, but the former-- although plagued by typical, cliche anime design-- is high resolution and well animated, with distinct character designs. The user interface is pretty coarse, lending a sort of unpolished look to the title-- unfortunate given the quality of the character art.

As far as soundtracks go, Spectral Souls' has all of the common characteristics of Japanese RPGs-- light guitar and synth work, up-beat during battle but melancholy and relaxed in towns and shops. Some of the tunes are actually fairly catchy, but it would be quite a stretch-- and this applies to the sound effects as well-- to call Spectral Souls a memorable title from an aural standpoint.

Spectral Souls features a number of exceedingly creative mechanics: one can defer attack sequences, and string together huge combos across multiple characters; the player actually assembles three parties throughout play, switching amongst them between missions; and new skills are acquired not automatically, but through crafting. If the game's unnecessarily complex user interface was a bit better, Spectral Souls could stake claim to the title of being one of the genre's more original entries.

In an industry that perpetually struggles with creativity these days, here comes an Android port of an obscure-- and panned due to technical limitations-- PSP strategy RPG that attempts to do something a bit different. Featuring a sophisticated, multi-character combo system, and some interesting crafting mechanics, Spectral Souls only suffers from a cumbersome user interface, and questionable style. It may not be perfect, but it's a step up in the production quality department compared to the average Android game, and therefore a step in the right direction.