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FMA 1 was just an action game. This one's like actually playing the series.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 26 / 26
Date: July 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Earlier in 2005, we received Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, which was a little game(that was actually released in Japan 2 years ago!) based on the popular anime/manga series that was a decent enough action-RPG. In it, Edward and Alphonse Elric went through an original adventure in which they met with a young girl named Armony. Despite the fact that it was fun enough(if using alchemy to turn a mailbox into a mini-tank to blow things up is wrong, I don't wanna be right), it was still a bit lacking.

Enter Fullmetal Alchemist 2: The Curse of the Crimson Elixer. The game itself actually feels much more like the anime than the first game did. The graphics now sport a cel-shaded look that perfectly captures the feel of the TV show, the in-game cutscenes actually feature voice-overs from the cast(not just the anime scenes), many more characters from the series such as Winry, Hughes, Rose, and Scar make appearances, and the game even has the TV show's 2nd opening theme, Ready Steady Go. When it comes to capturing the TV series, FMA2 gets an A+.

Combat is also a bit more fun. Ed has plenty more combos to wreck damage upon his enemies, and this time around also learns a set amound of weapons to make that allow him to do much more damage. You'll also actually have to switch between them, one weapon will actually be more useful than another. There's also many more things to transmute, and this time around there's no stupid gauge like the first game. Ed will automatically learn new transmutations for objects as he levels up, for example, he can create a bomb, then turn it into sticks of dynamite. The plot can essentially be divided into 2 parts. The first half of the game is a basic retelling of Hiromu Arkawa's series, such as the Cornello arc and the infamous incident with Shou Tucker. It's the second half of the game where the real plot comes into play, as Ed and Al battle mysterious monsters called Golems in their hometown of Resembol. It's this, as well as an encounter with a mysterious girl, that prompts them to investigate. Their search eventually leads them to Jack Crowley, who looks like the long-lost twin brother of Final Fantasy 7's Sephiroth. The guy's a bit off the deep end, and his goal to bring back a loved one has wound up creating the most dangerous threat our two alchemists have faced yet. It all ties in with a mysterious Crimson Elixir(hence the title).

The problems? Well, first off, the game is possibly shorter than the first one. It consists of about 7 "chapters" and each one takes about an hour at the most to complete. Al is also still a pain to control with the R1 commands, and often winds up getting low on health, leaving you to either forced to use healing items on him or just let him be knocked out(however, I've read that the next game is going to fix this be actually letting him be playable, so there's hope).

Despite these shortcomings, FMA2 is still a lot of fun. Fans may also want to check the bonus DVD, which contains episodes 27-28 of the anime(since they haven't been released on TV yet). With games like FMA2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir, we may not just be seeing an increase of quantity of anime games in the US, but quality is well. Definitely worthwhile to a fan.

Fullmetal Alchemist 2 Exceeds the First.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: July 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is far better than the first one. In terms of graphics, the game far exceeds "Broken Angel" due to the fact that the characters are now cell shaded and look more like the anime versions. The game play is also better because you are given many more melee attacks then in the first where all you could do was use your arm blade. In this game, Ed can kick, punch, dodge and still pull off all his famous alchemic works. I highly recommend this game to anyone who is a Fullmetal Alchemist fan and anyone else who as ever wanted to perform alchemy on anything or anyone.

Fullmetal Alchemist 2: The Curse of the Crimson Elixir

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Fullmetal Alchemist 2 is the game Fullmetal and action game fans have been waiting for. FMA2 follows the two brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric in their yet-to-be-completed search for the elusive and mythical Philosopher's stone. In this game, you control the brothers in this story that follows the series for the first half. The game consists of 7 chapters, the first 4 following the series fairly accurately. But once you hit chapter 5, the game changes to a different plot than the anime series' and the real story begins to unfold. Throughout the game, you'll be controlling Edward, the older brother, whose right arm and left leg were lost when the brothers tried to transmute their mother back to life. While playing as Ed, you can also give orders to your younger brother: Alphonse, who lost his entire body in the process of the transmutation, but his soul was transmuted into a large, hulking suit of armor. When playing the game, you may order Al to attack or follow you by using the R1 button. You can also perform "alleyoops" with Al, in which he tosses you up into the air. This is mostly used when you wish to execute a "rage attack" which is where Ed transmutes a bunch of stone hands to shoot from the ground, damaging or killing most enemies around you.

The melee combat in this game has also been greatly tailored and enhanced from the first one, as has the alchemy system. In the first FMA you could only use your armblade and whatever other weapons you could transmute from other objects. In FMA2, you start out with using your fists and feet, but can ALSO use your armblade. You also learn how to transmute other weapons from out of the ground throughout the game (i.e. hammer, lance).
The alchemy system has been refined as well. In the first FMA, you had to charge an alchemy gauge longer in order to make better things. In this one, all you have to do is transmute the object by pressing the O button. If you have gained the ability to make an upgraded version of an available weapon, all you do is transmute the weapon again (i.e. Giant steel ball into a Giant Steel Ball with spikes.)

Another great addition to the game was voiceovers, the first FMA did not have voiceovers except for in the anime cutscenes (which there are not many of in either game), in this game, every character has a voiceover. Unfortunately, the talking portions of the game have little character animation and they will mostly just stand still while talking, and when they do move or do some other animation, it looks somewhat out-of-place and strange. Another somewhat odd thing is that there is no lip-syncing, while the characters are talking, the mouths remain shut and the faces don't move in any way, and it can look strange when the camera zooms in on the character who is talking. For instance, someone might be saying something inflammatory in an angry way, but their face still looks like that expressionless stare. The characters do blink, but that doesn't save it. If you're looking for a "cinematic" game like MGS3: Snake Eater, you're in the wrong place.

But even though the talking portions may not be up to today's standards the combat and actual play time is extremely satisfying and fun. And while the talking portions may be somewhat effort-lacking, the story still holds up and is well done. And I suppose I have to mention how all the characters are cel-shaded now, which is a great graphical improvement over the first FMA.

Overall, FMA 2 is a game that Fullmetal Alchemist and action game fans will enjoy to play through.

(My completion time was 8:50.)

8.7/10

Good for fans of the series and just a good game overall

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: September 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In an unfortunate state of affairs, the stores in my town suck when it comes to anime. We have Blood, Evangelion movies and the GitS: Stand Alone Complex anime and that's it. There's no Gungrave, Evangelion, Rahxephon, Fullmetal Alchemist, Escaflowne or Trigun to rent so people have to resort to downloading them(don't worry, I'm still buying the box sets whenever I find them). The first FMA wasn't particularly a big hit and critics weren't kind to hit so we have its updated sequel which is actually quite good, although as usual, there's some issues.

Story: The story can be divided into 2 halves: Ed and Alphonse investigating a couple people who are stirring some **** including a false prophet, a car bomber and a scientist's murder. The second half is where it makes a "plot" where mysterious creatures show up, along with a strange man and woman. 5/5

Graphics: Going for more of a cel-shaded influenced graphics the game is going ever so slightly to the feel of the show. Unfortunately characters don't move their mouths when talking and just show a anime-style character on top of the cel-shaded scene(similar to Lunar/Baten Kaitos style games). It does have some scenes animated directly like the show so bonus. 3.5/5

Sound/Music: I always consider English dubs to be a mixed blessing. You can better understand the scene and actors rather than reading the text at the bottom. It's just too bad that some of the lines are either delivered kind of flat(many of Al's lines or a bit too enthusiastic(Ed's lines). Music isn't too special either. 3/5

Gameplay: If many games are being GTA clones, than this game is like a Kingdom Hearts clone. Same style of engine only with a cool feature. Some of the specials you can meet on your quest allow you to help the battle. One acts like a giant vacuum cleaner so you can attack all the enemies in one shot. There's a rocket launcher, a big bowling ball, weapons you can use, even a bulldozer. Also cool is Ed has 3 weapons he can use in addition to fighting barehanded, a sword, a staff and a big hammer.

Controlling Al isn't that big of a concern. He's not too big on blocking so he gets hit a lot. You can do a alley-oop to make you go on higher platforms though. Some things will net you bonus points which allow you to raise your vitality, attack, defense and alchemy skills(allowing better specials on the field).

The game has one shortcoming too: it's rather short. It's got 7 chapters, each one will take you an hour to an hour-half to finish depending on how good you are battling. The story's interesting too, characters are well-loved including some cameos from the show, including hottie Rose, childhood friend Winry and Hawkeye. Speaking of the show, included with the game is an extra disc which contains Episodes 27 and 28 of the show so w00t.

If you're a fan of the show or just wanna play an action game with a cool story, try it out.

Eh - okay, I guess

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: March 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I think people are letting their opinion of the anime series cloud their judgement on this game. You play each level for 30 minutes to an hour then watch 20 minutes of cut scene. I use the word cut scene loosely. It mostly involves static images of Ed and Al talking with a static image of someone else. No moving cameras, no lips sync, nothing we have come to associate with modern games. On top of that, even though the text is voiced, the player is still required to press a button to continue the conversation. I guess this is how they keep the game interactive. Oh, and there is no way to skip any of these cut scenes as well.

That said, it is fun playing through the game, in the sense that you feel like you are going on fullmetal alchemist adventures. Most of the "game" is straight forward, though some of the alchemy stuff you can transform is actually pretty fun. The standard weapons don't really seem to differentiate themselves that much. The sword will do in nearly every situation.

I can't speak about how this compares to the first game, since I never played it. If you are a fan of Fullmetal Alchemist, then the game is passable, but even then be prepared to watch/read a lot of story and play a very linear, shallow game.

A Disappointed Fullmetal Fan

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I only just got this game yesterday, and I don't really think it was worth it. This game has non-stop fighting, and no time to relax, and look at your surroundings. Most spots are blocked off, only giving you one path to follow. There's no other way to beat the game. And it's a long way between save points, so you have to play the game for a long time in order to go to where you can save the game.

But otherwise, it was an ok game. I have to say that, being the Fullmetal Alchemist fan that I am. The cut-scenes were interesting, they were from episodes I didn't see. The first one is from a different version of "To Challenge the Sun", and the Chimera just sucked. The fight scene of it was pretty lame, but then, I'm not rating that one episode.

I'd reccomend this game to people who like Anime, and who like fighting games.

Very fun game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I loved playing this game, and it took me awhile to beat it, considering I had to go school all the time. But if you make a day for it, you could finish it all in that day, since the game is pretty short.

However, it is very fun to me, I loved the animating scenes and dialouge! You don't hear to many fans of the english dub, but I'm one them. Sure, in some lines Vic went a little overboard, but I love his voice for Ed. He's got the sorrow, anger etc for the character, and even Alphonse's voice was very good, I just can not see anyone doing Alphonse voice instead of Aaron Dismuke. Very good actor to be so young, wish I had that talent. Anyways on the game ratings...

Story- The storyline was pretty cool, in somewhat of a way. I liked the many people they meet up with in this game. My favorites being (Winry, Rose, Arlen etc...)Though the storyline chapters are short, I wish it would have been longer. 4/5

Sound- LOVE it, this was the main thing I was looking forward to when getting this game. I would always get happy when I approach a cut-scene or dialouge box. 5/5

Graphics- They're pretty good, kind of like Kingdom Hearts kind of thing. But I don't really pay attention to this kind of stuff. 3.5/5

Gameplay- Almost like every action game, the fighting does go on and on. I'm really not a fan of the boss fights, and that was what was kind of getting on my nerves. But its part of every game...so I can't complain too much. 4/5

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Overall this game was very good, and fun to play! I really enjoyed it and since I'm a big FMA fan, if they ever were to bring anymore FMA games to the US, I most likely would buy it!

Amazing!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: December 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I had a lot of fun playing this game. Though when people say it's like playing the anime, I think it plays the manga more then the anime. Lots of parts in the beggining of the game fallow the manga more then the anime.
I found the game play exelent. Though controling Al would have been better, he didn't seem to fight every time I commanded him to. There are plenty of things to transmute in the game too, which makes it so fun. The plot is so rich, I love to play this game over and over again. Though there are only 7 chapters (levels) in the game, which makes it fairly short. It's very quick and can be beaten in less then a day. I do dislike how they change some events that happened in the anime/manga in order to fit the game's story line best, but the game is still great. My only problem with it is getting a good score in the boss battles. They take quite a while and are bothersome. Other then that, a great game and a must buy for any fan of Fullmetal Alchemist.

great game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Great game for FMA fans.Lots of transformations,when the movies play its awesome,2 episodes from Return to Yock Island,plus the cool action and graphics.Its worth it,and now its more worth it since its for $20.

Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I liked this game a lot. This one is a lot better than the first. I enjoy the cut scenes inbetween certain parts. You can also save them and watch them later. Like a small episode with missing pieces. But it is a lot of fun. And you get a dvd with two episodes on it!

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