Michael Sollosi
This is my first time playing Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, and, well, the highest compliment I can give is that it goes down smoothly. Rhapsody is fast-paced, easy to understand, and so breezy that I wonder if it was a little too easy?
Rhapsody has a cute premise (a village girl falls in love with a handsome prince, and ends up competing for his hand in marriage and rescuing him from an evil witch), some intriguing mechanics (Cornet can manipulate puppets and recruit monsters into battle, and her special skill is to boost their attack power with her trumpet), and famously punctuates its major plot points with musical soliloquies.
But is this one of the greatest PlayStation RPGs, standing out in a crowded field? Probably not. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is fun most of the time, but I wish the dungeons were less monotonous, the songs were more moving, and that there was any challenge at all. However, I also wishlisted the Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles (with the second and third game), so… maybe I’m interested in more?
Wes Iliff
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is a game I’ve long thought I’d love but had never played, so I was excited to remedy that. What I found was more of a mixed bag than expected, but was not altogether unsuccessful. A charming concept and a few loveable characters were married to the world’s easiest battles, some decent musical numbers, and dungeon design that was dated even in the PS1 era when this game was released.
See, despite clocking in under 10 hours, I occasionally found myself getting tired of the game, and it was entirely due to the dungeon design. A handful of tiles repeated for every dungeon in the game made these segments feel like a chore, and one easy to get lost in. Luckily, these were the only things that really dampened my enthusiasm for an otherwise enjoyable—if shallow—romp.
I guess what I’m really trying to say is that Etoile is the best.
