Game #1223: Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel

 This one doesn't cost an arm and a leg. 

 Good anime series will, inevitably, get mediocre videogames, thus it has always been. Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel was another such game, released at the height of Fullmetal Alchemist's popularity, during the original anime's run.

 In a few words, it's a linear beat'em up, spliced with a few minutes of completely original animation made just for this game. The cast from the English dub reprise their roles, which is probably pretty cool if you enjoy the dub. I watched the show in Japanese, so I can't say I cared about the dub.

 In the game you play as Edward, you can punch and kick with the square button, jump, or use alchemy. There are two levels to alchemy, tap the circle button to create a wall, for defense or as a platform to stand on, or hold it down for a while to produce spikes. Peppered through the environment are various items, highlighted by a circle, that can be transmuted into weapons. From stationary cannons and miniguns, to weapons such as lances or swords. There are other types of transmutations, but for the most part, they are there to help you deal damage. You can't really select what to transmute elements into, so a barrel will always turn into a Katana, a lamp post will always turn into a sword for Al. That said, some elements can be transmuted into any of two different objects.

 While you are restricted to playing as Ed, his brother Alphonse will follow you around, sometimes deciding to attack enemies. If he is far away, you can press R1 to call him over, and if he is next to you, you can press R1 to have him perform a tackle, which might be the only way to expose a few enemies' weakpoints. Al's AI is kinda clunky, he makes his way towards you very slowly, and aiming his tackle is not as intuitive as it should.

 Defeating enemies earns you XP, and leveling up lets you assign stat points to both Ed and Al's stats. You can also find equipment, which you can then equip on both characters in order to raise their stats, or usable items to heal any of the brothers with.

 The gameplay, overall, is passable, but it feels rather slow. Edward's movement speed is very slow, turning stationary weapons takes forever, and waiting for enemies to stand up after you knock them down, in order to attack them again, also takes a little longer than I would've liked. Y'know, it gets the job done, but the game is absolutely nothing special. Move from place to place, defeating every enemy in the way, using very basic combo attacks and every now and then using items and weapons. Plus, some environments are reused, so sometimes you even have to go through stages you've already gone through, a few times, even the enemy placement is identical.

 On the other hand, the game has a very early PS2 charm to it. Very basic, rudimentary character models, a very minimalist sound design and some environments that are needlessly large. It's not a good looking game, you may even call it boring, but I find it rather charming, though I admit I'm probably alone in that one.

 Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel wouldn't be a game I'd recommend unless you liked the franchise. But for fans, I think it's alright. The gameplay is passable, but the addition of original anime footage makes it worth a look, and, in all honesty, the script feels like a well done filler episode, not as good as the main plot(Even though you could argue the second half of this anime was 100% filler), but not as weak as the worst filler episodes.

 6.0