Balmung Cycle Part I: The Messenger and the Heretic

One of the most talked about games of the year, created by RMN's own Magi, who has asked the community for feedback and who is very possibly the person approving this review. Awkward… Anyway, I thought I’d see what all the fuss is about so I gave it a spin. Review may contain minor spoilers, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Blitz, an Einherjar in service to Asgard, is assigned a very special task to carry out in the mortal world by the Trickster God Loki himself. This probably won’t end well…..

Balmung Cycle takes place in a fairly unusual world that seems drawn heavily from Norse mythology but also to have a monotheistic religion as well. Or maybe just no one worships Odin. Or maybe the religion is to Odin, it’s kind of vague. Anyway, that’s not important! The point is Magi has taken elements from classic Norse Mythology and given them a unique spin, while retaining enough of the roots to maintain credibility, giving the game a unique style.

Balance 3/5:
The battles in this game need a little additional explanation. Magi has given the generic RM2k3 battle system a bit of a face lift with the inclusion of special battle events that give a special bonus when certain conditions are met. However, these conditions are generally met too easily and with no effort and rarely influence combat in any meaningful way. Also added to the system are Adrenaline points that are accumulated each time you attack and used to activate special skills. However, characters generally do not have nearly enough skills, Blitz learned only two over the course of gaining twenty levels. Many skills also have very vague or ambiguous effects, one claims it lowers an enemy’s level; I have no idea what it’s actually doing. Running from combat is generally a hassle as it requires either an item or for Blitz to use one of his skills, which cannot be activated at the start of a battle. All characters draw from the same pool of available spells, and which ones they can cast is dependent upon their weapon. Finally, upon accumulation of enough adrenaline, each character can unleash some killer finishing moves which are extremely gratifying to use.

The main problem with this system is characters seem to gain almost nothing upon leveling up except hit points. New equipment is somewhat hard to come by, meaning it is difficult to increase your characters abilities in any meaningful way. The character of Skuld, for instance, has very few available weapons and no new armor at all, meaning for most of her tenure in the party she will be using the same weak attacks(which many enemies seem to be immune to for no obvious reason) and the very small number of spells granted by that weapon. Other than that, battles are fairly standard fare and can get tedious after a while, except on those rare occasions when you manage to accumulate enough adrenaline to use a finishing move and send your foes to Valhalla with style.

Anyway, main drawbacks are lack of available equipments for Skuld and Elm, and a generally fairly low number of useful skills per character. Biggest pluses are the super awesome killer finishing moves (which never get old ever.)


Level Design: 4/5
A lot of thought and planning clearly went into the events and maps of this game, and it shows. The overall presentation and consistency of the game are absolutely top notch, everything from opening treasure chests to using skills in battle are wonderfully polished and professional looking in quality. The dungeons are very cleverly designed with some interesting puzzle mechanics, including usable skills such as blowing up obstacles or lighting torches. The dark and scary forest was a personal favorite and will likely bring back fond and terrible memories of any Zork fan ….Come on, I can’t be the only person who remembers Zork can I? Damn I’m getting old….. Ahem, anyway the atmosphere of each level is appropriate at least and excellent on many occasions. However, during several of the quick time events my horrible stone age computer was unable to process quickly enough, forcing me to brute force my way through them with blind dumb luck and many tries.

The game also includes a clever dueling system centered around knocking your opponent out of bounds. While this game is clever and fun, it is somewhat unbalanced as it requires a nearly unbroken streak of good hits to win, and your own skills are completely useless while your opponent’s are very effective. Phantasmagician Manor also suffers from a few collision detection issues involving skulls lying on tables, and one puzzle involving changing all the statues in a room to a certain color can be completed without fulfilling the proper conditions.

Characters 2/5:
While the visuals and graphics of the game are fantastic, this game has its share of flaws and sadly, many of those flaws lie with the ultimately flat characters. Blitz is an einheri and early one we are told that he may tempted to try to return to his family in Midgard, but nothing of this nature ever emerges. Similarly, an intriguing characteristic about Elm being a great storyteller is also never given any real development, perhaps because Elm gets little screen time compared to the other protagonists. Tragic villain and antagonist Njord turned out to be oddly compelling and sympathetic near the game’s conclusion, but prior to this he comes across mostly as a generic evil overlord. And his two henchmen, Vali and Kvasir are so underdeveloped and lacking in any distinguishing characteristics that they may as well be the same character, making the final confrontation with them oddly fitting. Kvasir at one point claims to be a great marksman, but he proceeds to challenge you to a sword duel and this fact is never mentioned again. The character of Ran, who has perhaps the most potential of anyone in the cast to be truly interesting and complex ultimately ends up looking like an idiot, making the scene in which she reveals her true intentions and motives a little hard to swallow. And the sub-plots involving the characters of Loki and Hod ultimately peter off without any real conclusion….

But fear not! There is a shining beacon of hope among these characters, and his name is Alrick, a man so utterly in love with his own flaws that he borders on self-parody. His dialogue and actions are so over-the-top and hilarious that no matter how disgusted you are with his behavior, it’s impossible to not like him at least a little bit. Go ahead, admit it, you’ll feel better. If only the other characters were this awesome.

Storyline 3/5:
The core storyline of this game is certainly nothing ground-breaking, but the massive amount of source material integrated into the game gives the world a feeling of being very in-depth. While hardcore fans of Norse mythology will no doubt notice some factual errors, the lore provides many options for lore-based puzzles and plot elements without drowning the player in minutia. The only real downside to the story is a number of sub-plots simply terminate without explanation, leaving a lot feeling unexplained or unsaid. However, the game’s climax/conclusion is very smooth, streamlined and satisfying and has a very epic feeling to it despite the lackluster story elements.

Music and Sound 4/5:
The music in the game has a consistency of tone and quality and all maintain similar sounds and include reoccurring themes, which is something I always appreciate. Much of the music is fresh and original, different from what you’ve heard in other games. The boss themes are especially great, while dungeon themes set the mood without becoming repetitive.

Overall 3.5/5
The overall game is highly polished and has a lot of truly great content, making a very impressive package overall. While it has a few problems with some character writing and an overall low number of skills, I have confidence that the next installment of this series is more than capable of correcting these issues, making for an even greater experience.