Forever Kingdom is a graceful game, created by a staff of good artists. It’s difficult to describe the graphics in any other way. Compared to the latest titles released for Sony PlayStation 2, Forever Kingdom’s graphics are far away from being spectacular, but they create a nice atmosphere that every RPG enthusiast should love.
The game is free of any aliasing issue; anyhow, there are a few draw-in issues and the camera angles are sometimes confusing. Fortunately, you can press the R2 button to position the camera behind the character. If you press the directional button while holding the R2 button, you can also take a look at the surroundings in first person mode. A nice feature, that should be included in any 3D next generation game.
The outdoor environments have usually the delicate colors of Autumn. Yellow, brown, magnificent blue skies are mixed together to create the atmosphere of a sleeping land; the trees, with their orange leaves falling slowly on the ground, are reflected in calm rivers and fountains. While some environments are clearly built like labyrinths and look repetitive, others are more detailed and rich. The dark dungeons, the shrines, the temples, the buildings you have to explore are filled with nice real time effects; there is a dark blue cave, at the beginning of the game, in which torches are reflected by puddles of water on the ground – it looks just beautiful.
Characters are built with a decent number of polygons, but they definitely lack the level of detail seen in other PlayStation 2 games. Anyhow, the possibility to change their look equipping new armor, helmets, shoes and items is extremely well developed. Animations are smooth.
On a last note, I have really appreciated the work of Ken Sugawara, the Character Designer. The characters of Forever Kingdom are original and designed with a unique style. Faeana is different from any other Japanese heroine and Darius, with his fierce look and his white hair, is a fascinating character.
