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Note From The Author- This review was written before we introduced our new website therefore this is why it is in a completely different format than usual)
Sorcery Saga: Curse of The Great Curry God is an excellent game. Allow me to just go ahead and get that out of the way. I personally believe you should go ahead and quit reading this review and instead go purchase this game. It did not take me very much play-time before I realized that Curse of The Great Curry God was something special.
You play as a young girl named Pupuru who is a young mage at a magic academy. After some initial gameplay at the magic academy, to get you familiar with the mechanics of the game, Pupuru winds up in the city where she meets a young girl named Puni. Puni teaches Pupuru about The Great Curry God and her attempts to one day find him. Pupuru then takes Puni to her favorite curry restaraunt(Smile Curry) in town so she can learn more about The Great Curry God. While at Smile Curry Pupuru learns that her favorite restaraunt may be driven out of business by a curry chain that has opened it's doors nearby. Pupuru promises to find the ingredients for a great curry in order to save Smile Curry from closing up shop. This is where you begin your journey, to save Smile Curry and hopefully learn about The Great Curry God
Askys Games and Idea Factory did wonders with this game's story. Don't let the odd storyline and weird name fool you, there is a great experience to be had here for all story lovers, but as humourous and great the storyline is, the game truly shines when it comes to its characters. The characters are just beaming with personality, and oddly enough you can't help but fall in love with each one of them as the story progresses. I doubt that is what Idea Factory and Askys games were going for but it is what my experience was. Pupuru is an amazing protagonist, she is an innocent, good willed girl who truly wants nothing more than to help her friends. Puni is an odd cookie who is obsessed with curry and never quite is sure of what she is saying (you will see what I mean when you buy this game). Kuu, my favorite, never says anything except..... well, Kuu. Each character offers something different to the game and each one helps to make Sorcery Saga's experience great.
The gameplay here is great and what truly got me addicted to this game. There are several dungeons that Pupuru will visit on her quest. These dungeons are filled with some of the oddest creatures you will ever face in a dungeon crawler. I fought odd creatures such as a pork bun blob and a square tofu man that dropped even crazier items like honey bags or plates of rice. Once again all these aspects just make the game a more enjoyable and funny experience. You fight on a grid-like system when in the dungeon, but for those that hate grid systems trust me it works much better than it sounds. Once you enter a dungeon there will be several monsters awaiting you but be careful because if you die you will be sent back to town and lose everything you gained while in the dungeon. There are several things that you must pay attention to while in the dungeon, such as Kuu's health because once it starts to get low he will begin crying which attracts all the monsters nearby to you. The fighting system is not as punishing as it sounds, when you walk around your health will regenerate and there are several potions you can use to bring up your hp.
Sorcery Saga: Curse of The Great Curry God also allows you to go home to your room where you can learn new magic abilities, add money to your bank, use potions, and several other fun things to get ready for your adventures. You can even go to Smile Curry and use ingredients you found to sell, buy, or make curry which can offer many different abilities. One other feature I would like to mention is called "Chara-Theatre" which has different skits from the cast of the game that you can act out which are extremely hilarious. But not to much more on that, I would hate to ruin the experience.
Sorcery Saga: Curse of The Great Curry God is a great game, the art style is wonderful, the story draws you in (suprisingly), and the characters are hilarious. The gameplay also is very great, however the game does have its drawbacks. Sorcery Saga was originally in japanese, Askys did a great job of translating it, but know that only subtitles are in English while the characters voices are still in japanese. For some gamers this is preferable however I found it annoying and somewhat hindered my experience. I eventually got used to it but sometimes found myself confused and realized I had missed some of the Dialogue. Of course this game does have a feature to go back and view previous dialogue so I didn't miss much. The only other drawback I noticed was a small amount of lag when facing bosses, it was not enough to hinder gameplay but it was definatley noticable. Overall this game is fantastic and I hope it sells well as it definitaley should. Any JRPG fan should definatley buy this game so hopefully we can get even more wonderful ports from Japan.
Gameplay- 8/10
Story- 8.5/10
Replay Value- 9/10
Art Style- 10/10
Overall- 8.5/10
Reviewer- TheAuburnMan
Special Thanks to Askys Games for the review code.
