Product Review

Though the game is in many ways flawed Orphen: Scion of Sorcery's interesting core game system often manages to transcend the game's poor production and haphazard design. It's not often that a console RPG attempts to challenge the established conventions of the genre. Indeed the lure of wrapping a trite narrative around a turn-based combat system and a set of "brilliant" CG movies often seems too much for most developers to resist as the slew of me-too console RPGs makes evident. Granted there is something to be said for a good story and well-thought-out characters but when the genre is examined from a technical standpoint only a few innovations have surfaced that have gained much in the way of mainstream acceptance.