Guardian's Crusade:
The Knight and The Baby

Story

On a stormy night, a stork carrying a pink baby monster, accidentally drop the pink monster near the village of Orgo. On the next morning, the pink monster was discovered by the people of Orgo. Upon assuming that the baby monster came from the Golden Tower, the mayor ordered Knight (hero) and his companion, Nehani, to take and returned the baby monster to the tower. And with that, your quest on a long journey begins.

Now the story is a simple one really. It starts off slowly as nothing more than an errand to return the baby monster but soon developed into a save the world quest. The quest is straightforward that will lead you to places all over the world map. You will meet different characters on the journey. Some friends and some enemies. Since this is a beginner's rpg, you shouldn't have too much difficulty with the quest. Just sit back and enjoy the story as it unfolds.

Score: 7/10

Characters

The characters in Guardian's Crusade is few and short. You basically get only 3 main characters and not much of a supporting cast. Knight (hero) doesn't talk and neither does Baby. Only Nehani talks. You of course will meet with other characters on your journey but most of them are small secondary characters to help you with your quest. Not much interests in the characters in this game at all.

Score: 4/10

Graphics

The game uses polygons in a 3-D world environment. The presentations of the polygon characters are kind of cartoonish to appeal to younger gamers. The 3-D background is adequate. The game could sport better colors but it is adequate enough for the game. The FMV are pretty good but too few and short to really matter in this game. The graphics overrall is a little better than average at best.

Score: 6/10

Music

Well, there isn't much depth in terms of music here in this game. Maybe two or three tunes available. Most of it is quite forgettable. I don't really recall any of the midis used in this game at all.

Score: 3/10

Gameplay

This is an action turn base rpg. More on the battle system down below. There are a few things that I will point out on the gameplay. The gameplay in itself is fairly easy. Most of the puzzles in the game are very easy to solve. There are a couple of things that will help you when you are in battles. One is Baby and the other are Living Toys. How Baby react in battle depends on your treatment of Baby throughout the game. Baby can do many things for you. It can search for items by going around and fetching stuff. The items you get depends on where you are as everything is random. You are also require to praise or scold Baby on what it finds for you. Baby moods is very important to you. If Baby is happy, it will help you in battle. If it's sad then it might attack you instead. Baby defense and attack also depends on what you feed it. Feed it weapons to raise Baby attack power. Feed it armours and such to increase Baby defense. So taking care of Baby is important.
Now the second thing is Living Toys. Throughout the world of Guardian's Crusade are Living Toys. They are scattered everywhere. Each Living Toys has a special function in battle. From heal to special defense and attack. It's best to spend time looking for Living Toys as they are great support for battle with bosses.

Battle System: Now the battle system is turn base between you and the monster. You can control only Knight and Baby. You can summon Living Toys to support you in combat. You can't control them though. What the Toys do depends on what their function is. Baby can learn enemy skills from the enemies in battles as well. Not all enemies have a skill that Baby can learn though. Nahani will randomly sometimes heal Knight when he is low on hp. Once a Toys hp reaches zero then that toys can no longer help you in combat. You can only summon a particular Toy once in combat so choose carefully.

Overrall the gameplay and battles are very easy. Some of the Toys you get can make fights very extremely easy. It's a good idea to learn and understand what each Toys does.

Score: 7/10

Extras/Replay

Honestly, there's no extra stuff at all in this game. No mini games or anything. You may want to replay it once you finish it but do you really want to?

Score: 1/10

Overrall, Guardian's Crusade is a good rental for the average rpg fans. Play it once and enjoy it but that's about it. The game doesn't give you much but it's decent enough for any beginner rpger to try and get.

Final Score: 5/10

~Chi