
Of course, a game needs to do more than look and sound pretty to be good -- and thankfully, Yggdra Union offers tons of gameplay. In fact, it may offer too much with an adventure that clocks in at about 30 hours. The lengthy story is far from original, but a growing cast of likable characters and a few nice plot twists make it an enjoyable adventure that kept me chugging through the lengthy story.
At its heart, Yggdra Union is an epic about underdogs that overthrow an empire. Your starting cast of a group of bandits and an exiled princess is severely outnumbered in an obviously one-sided battle. As such, players shouldn't expect a cakewalk through the game. Yggdra Union can be a relentless difficult game at times, so much so to the point of frustration. However, the challenge only emphasizes how important a solid strategy is when approaching each situation. Players must understand the importance of character placement and card selection -- a single error can lead to game over. However, the game's greatest hook comes from the exuberant ability to seize victory in a rather dire situation. Each battle is hard fought and incredibly rewarding.
As mentioned in our preview, Yggdra Union will test your tactical capabilities through and through. It's rather unique in its genre, and takes a few hours to understand what the game has to offer. We really appreciated the growing complexity of the game as it progresses. For example, characters must be positioned in a certain way to tag-team enemies. However, as the game progresses, the way Unions are formed changes slightly, adding another layer of complexity to the game. The game slowly introduces new elements, like cannons and catapults, level hazards and more. Even the core gameplay evolves, as players learn more about their cards capabilities. Eventually, players will be able to unleash interesting special attacks by managing their momentum in battles. Thanks to the way the game is structured, players will never feel overwhelmed by the mechanics -- each new tactic is introduced and reinforced. The real challenge comes from mastering new tactics to gain an advantage over the overwhelming enemy force.
Yggda Union isn't for everyone, but those that fall in love with its charm will find so much to like about the game. Unlike other games in the genre, there's no grinding here to be found. Some may find the battles too lengthy, as they're usually multi-tiered: just when you think you're done with a level, a new set of increasingly difficult reinforcements appear. However, because your character's morale (essentially, their HP) carries over from battle to battle, across every level, each battle is decisive. If you make too many mistakes with one character, you'll notice that they'll be at a serious disadvantage in upcoming battles. And don't think about grinding to level up your characters: you can't. The story moves at such a brisk pace that your success depends solely on your ability to choose the right cards, and decide exactly how to move your characters through the map.

There are ways to overcome a character's continuously dwindling HP supply. There's a Refreshment card, which can heal players when it's Noon. There are also consumable items which can be used before each level. While they're limited in supply, we found that proper use of the Refreshment card left us plenty of Medallions to use for only the most dire circumstances. The lengthy battles, which can take upwards of an hour, are alleviated by a few tricks. Pressing the R button will fast forward through story sequences, and will also increase the speed of battle. Suspending the game will create a save state for you to return to -- it's a great way of creating your own checkpoint before decisive battles. Forgetting to suspend may lead to incredible frustration -- starting a level from the beginning, and losing an hour's worth of work, will undoubtedly anger many. Save whenever you can!
Ever since I got my review copy of Yggdra Union, I've found no reason to play anything else on my PSP. This is an incredibly addictive game that's both challenging and rewarding. I absolutely loved the increasing complexity of the title, and while the story is far from original, the lovable characters really hooked me in. That being said, I understand that this game may simply be too difficult and frustrating for some gamers. For those that are looking for a new game on the PSP, definitely pick up Yggdra Union. Just be warned about the quirks and challenges you'll face.
PSP Fanboy score: 8.0
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-18-2008 @ 12:03PM
strike said...
Wow @__@
Sounds great. My kinda game.
Hows the replayability?
Reply
9-18-2008 @ 12:11PM
Andy said...
Hmmm, sounds good to me. Guess I'll have to have this on my list of holiday games to pick up...
Reply
9-18-2008 @ 12:13PM
Bryan said...
how do you pronounce Yggdra? its is like yug-dra? it really bothers me.
Reply
9-18-2008 @ 12:22PM
strike said...
I pronounce it youg-dra
The youg being like the yu-g from yu-gi-oh
9-18-2008 @ 12:58PM
aj said...
It's pronounced like ig-dra. The y is so soft as to not even be there.
That's how I've always pronounced it, and lo, the English voice actors say it in the game that way. Now I'm all smug and stuff.
9-18-2008 @ 1:16PM
cafecito said...
I've always pronounced it "EEg-drah" ... but I don't really know. I'll just grab a copy and check out how the japanese voice actors say it.
9-18-2008 @ 2:35PM
Kia said...
...It's "Eeg-druh/Igg-druh." It's Norse. e_e;
9-18-2008 @ 5:25PM
aj said...
Does ANYONE know the standard phoenetic symbology for the English language offhand? It might make the entire "how to pronounce the word" thing easier to talk about.
.....Of course I still vote for "go buy the game and listen to the English voice actors say it". And no, not the Japanese. Because you don't speak Japanese, and you'll just look like a moron if you pronounce everything the Japanese way even if you are, in fact, speaking English.
9-18-2008 @ 1:20PM
blutrane said...
nice review. I am enjoying this game quite alot. its already hard to find in the stores though.
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9-19-2008 @ 9:38PM
rob said...
It is pretty great. It's not perfect at all, but it's pretty good. I found some battles kinda annoying (when I use 3 units vs 1 boss and none can kill that mother f***er). But that may be just me being a noob. And it's great that even if you lose a game (get game over) you retain all of the exp that you've earned up to the last battle. This way you won't ever be really stuck at a level forever. Good game, story is ok so far. And I'm glad I got mine.
9-18-2008 @ 6:03PM
vahdyx said...
What sucks is, games like this that are good, people will just download it on their homebrewed psp's
I hate that!
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9-18-2008 @ 7:17PM
andwhyisit said...
Well I plan to buy it from a store, then play it on my homebrewed psp.
What sucks is, people blame piracy on the homebrew scene.
I hate that!
9-18-2008 @ 9:18PM
vahdyx said...
What sucks is people with homebrew don't like to admit it's their doing that is indeed the cause of the mass piracy on psp.
I hate that!
You personally may not do it, but I personally don't believe it, you can tell me all you want, until you're blue in the face, and I don't believe you're not a pirate.
9-18-2008 @ 11:45PM
andwhyisit said...
How about I take a photo showing my entire UMD collection, a series of psx game CDs and my psp with my username as the nickname and the firmware number on the screen? *sigh* I doubt you even want to be broken out of the illusion that all CFW users are pirates.
Though I hate the idea of being branded a pirate just because I want to play cave story (in my opinion the greatest of freeware games), play my old dos games on my psp, take in-game sceenshots, rip my own ps1 collection, etc. It is not homebrew scene's fault that people use cfw for piracy, they just want to develop for the PSP. I pay for ALL of my games, but for simply having cfw some n00b goes "OMG p1rate!!!11!!!111one" and I can't tell you how frustrating that is. You do the right thing yet people accuse you anyway.
I utterly despise that!
Oh and simply because you can't prove otherwise I say you're a pirate.
9-19-2008 @ 9:26AM
Frastoglegnia said...
You're making a lot of unfounded assumptions, whyisit. I've preordered Yggdra Union myself, yet I plan on playing the game on homebrew. Why, you ask? Because I like the convenience of carrying my games around on memory sticks and the safeguard of owning mint copies.
There's a lot more to recommend homebrew than simple piracy. If you're a musician, PSPRhythm makes your handheld an ergonomic music sequencer/tracker -- one that isn't MIDI-crippled like DS-10 for the DS, allows saves and does more in song mode than combining simple loops. No commercial product for the PSP can touch it: Those of us who need to write music on airplanes have ample reason to use homebrew without pirating anything.
9-19-2008 @ 9:04AM
Blue said...
It's cute that you're defending the homebrew scene, but the reason why people blame it for piracy is because it ENABLES the piracy. It's not like people have UMD-making devices in their homes that would let them pirate the traditional way. And homebrew makes it so that they don't need it.
9-18-2008 @ 10:24PM
Bryan said...
yep im all for this game.
Reply
9-18-2008 @ 10:33PM
RushX said...
So it's almost like chess. Good. Having to grind is such a goddamn pain sometimes.
Reply
9-19-2008 @ 12:00AM
Zippon said...
Picked it up and have been playing for a few hours. So far, I'm a bit disappointed. I realize I haven't unlocked all the basic features yet (like skills), but it feels like so much of the game simply goes on without you (or with minimal input). The interface, as some reviews have mentioned, is the biggest obstacle. Not intuitive at all. And you have to check on all sorts of details before deploying your army, and I'm resorting to randomly pushing buttons to see if I can review everything I need to (yeah, I read the manual). Hopefully, it will get better as it goes along. Right now, it's dense, slow, and confusing. :-/
Reply
9-19-2008 @ 8:12PM
Dr Haisook said...
Yggdra Union on the GBA has always received poor reviews. I don't understand why it's receiving all this fuss on the PSP.