I'm not entirely sure just where Ephemeral Fantasia's graphical design got started, but it's fairly evident that it wasn't on the PS2. The world is blocky and nondescript, with muddy textures and a camera that takes way too long to pan around the screen. The character models fare slightly better, but the enemies are oftentimes cartoonish in their simplicity. And even Mouse and crew look a little strange, as their facial textures never seem to be quite right. Add to all of this a bad case of both jaggies and polygonal seams and you've got a game that, while you can see the potential, never really gets off the ground in the visuals department.

Much the same can be said for the music. The tunes you'll hear while you wander around are passable, but they're not particularly memorable. The pumped-up battle theme is nice enough, but it doesn't have quite the same amount of pull as many other themes from the genre. A notable exception to the mediocre music is the guitar solos that you get to play yourself, which range from good to fantastic. Of course, the audio quality depends quite a bit on your skill as a lutist, so be forewarned. The sound effects are strictly standard RPG fare, with clangs and booms and swirly-whirls that will do absolutely nothing for you. I'd comment on the voice acting, but there isn't any; considering the translation, though, that may be a good thing.

I can see where Konami was going with Ephemeral Fantasia. I can even appreciate it; the concept of melding a free-roaming world with traditional RPG elements is intriguing, and should definitely be explored more in the future. That doesn't keep Ephemeral Fantasia from being an almost universally unenjoyable game. The few glimmers of light that you'll find scattered around the title don't make up for its core flaws, which is a shame, because you can definitely catch a glimpse of just what EP could have been.

EP casts you in the role of Mouse, a world-renowned musician who also happens to be a master thief. He also happens to have a talking lute named Pattimo, which basically provides us with a voice for the main character, as Mouse is as mute as Crono. Unfortunately, while the sorts of things that Crono tended to say were simple enough to divine from his actions, Mouse is an attempt at a more complex hero, and his silent status only makes it that much more frustrating. It's hard to get into character when you're never really sure just what's going on with them.

The game takes place on the island of Pandule, a smallish plot of land that may remind you of any fantasy seaside resort. Indeed, much of the game takes place in the center city, which sprawls across most of the island. The city is one huge maze, which makes exploration frustrating, not to mention trying to make appointments on time; wandering around the world map can be an aggravating experience. Add in an atrocious mapping system which requires you to find pieces of the map and you have yourself a hindrance to the gaming experience from the start.

The storyline is actually rather intriguing. A man named Xelpherpolis (where do they get these names?) invites Mouse to the island to play music for his upcoming wedding to the Princess Loreille. Once you meet them, you can tell that there's something wrong going on; Loreille is much colder than you'd think a bride-to-be would be. Soon enough you'll discover the core conceit of the game, a time loop that keeps playing the same five days over and over again. Xelpherpolis is the Bad Guy, and you've got to stop him before he does Evil Things to the people of Pandule.

There are a number of characters that you can have join your group, and the methods to gain them range from the relatively simple (find them at a place and time, do some basic tasks) to the complex. Unfortunately, like almost everything else in the game, it's all timed, so if you screw up you have to wait for the next week before you can try it again.

That exposes one of the core flaws of Ephemeral Fantasia; it does wrong everything that Majora's Mask did right. With a world that's frustrating to explore, there's little incentive to go out and find what you need to do to progress the storyline, and the five days that have to pass before you can try something again can try the patience of any gamer. Of course, there are ways to speed the progression of time, but even that doesn't help much.

Add to that a weak translation. Character's lines often seem terribly stilted, and the translation of the instructions for the rhythm minigame are laughably bad [not to mention that they fail to tell you how to actually play]. Most of the jokes are pretty lame as well, more adolescent than anything else. While I never got to the point of actively hating the translation, there's not much going for it.

To be fair, Ephemeral Fantasia does do a few things right. The battle system is fast and furious, and while a good deal of the enemies look rather silly, combat moves along fast enough to keep you from noticing too much. The battle camera is a little hyperactive, but it does occasionally show a really cool attack, which is nice. The game uses a sort of min-max method to keep the battles fresh; the stronger your attack, the longer it'll take to recover to do the next. It's sort of like Final Fantasy IV's usage times in reverse. Along with that, the battles can have you surrounded by the enemy or you as the surrounder, each of which leads to different combat and spellcasting strategies. It's a shame that the random encounter rate is so juiced up; you'll find yourself dreading having to leave town, because of the constant fights you know you'll face.

And, to be honest, I loved the rhythm game. It helps to actually have the controls, though, so remember that L1 and L2 and the right button on the pad highlight the three columns, and O strums the lute.

There's a lot of gameplay in Ephemeral Fantasia, considering the number of times you'll have to loop the world occurances before you figure out just what you need to do. The problem is getting into the game enough to care about the gameplay. It basically throws you to the wolves from the beginning, and the habit of pulling you around when you least expect it and expecting you to figure out just what you have to do in the time you have is amazingly frustrating.

Ephemeral Fantasia is hard, but not because of any battle issues or anything simple like that. Just figuring out what to do can be a frustrating experience, and trying to cover the sprawling city only makes it worse. Add in all of the timed events and you have a game that seems to actively fight against you. The instruction book doesn't help, and being forced into a sink-or-swim situation isn't a good way to endear players to your game. Once you spend enough time with the game to figure out just how to go about your business--or cheat and look at a FAQ--you can get around to actually enjoying the experience, and the challenge level becomes more realistic. But will you bother?

Most of the controls in Ephemeral Fantasia are the sort you'd expect from any old-school RPG. You can talk to people, run around, and so on; the game also sports camera controls, although the rotating takes entirely too long and the zoom levels aren't particularly useful. The menus are easy enough to navigate, even though I can imagine the font used in most of the status screens could be very hard to read on a small TV. The battle mechanics are solid, with enough little twists to keep it interesting; the actual game mechanics leave a lot to be desired.

In addition, the lack of a detailed instruction manual really hurts the game. I completely botched the first rhythm game simply because I had no idea what buttons to press, the instruction book didn't tell me, and the 'instructions' in the game didn't tell me either. Later experimentation let me figure it out, but how frustrating is it to be thrown into a minigame with no clue of how to play it?

And the load times. Ah, the load times. While they're never unduly long, they're bloody everywhere, and may occur three or four or five times during a cutscene. Hur? Walking around the city entails hitting loads on a regular basis, which can only be described as frustrating.

Ephemeral Fantasia had a lot of promise. Sure, it uses many RPG cliches, but an old-school RPG with modern sensibilities about the complexity of an adventure has an appeal to many veteran gamers. Unfortunately, Ephemeral Fantasia just doesn't pull it off. With a learning curve that can only be described as sadistic and enough other nagging issues to bring the game down a few more notches, one has to wonder if it's worth investing the time into the game to get to the good stuff. I'd have to say no. Unless you don't mind a large dose of frustration in your RPGs, I suggest you stay far away from Ephemeral Fantasia; as a concept, it's nice, but the execution leaves a whole lot to be desired.