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| Dance to the music. |
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is a music-based RPG from Nippon Ichi Software before their rise to fame with the Disgaea series. Combining Disney's animated musicals and NIS's self-aware humor, Rhapsody is a charming gem that's been sadly overlooked ever since its 1998 release on PS1. Following the tale of a girl out to rescue her dashing prince from an evil witch, the game's a light-hearted affair that's not short on personality. In 2022, it finally received a PC and Nintendo Switch release as part of Nippon Ichi's Prinny Presents collections. I thought I'd give Rhapsody a try on Switch since I'm in a retro mood lately.
Cornet, a young girl from Orange Village, can talk to puppets and heal their woes by playing her trumpet. One day when she's out in a forest, she's rescued by the Marl Kingdom's Prince Ferdiand and it's love at first sight for her. Things turn sour when he's kidnapped by the evil witch Marjoly and her cronies, who plans on having him for herself. So now it's up to Cornet along with her talking puppet friend Kururu to stop Marjoly and take back Ferdinand! While by no means serious, I still enjoyed the story as the cast of characters like Cornet, Kururu, and even their rival Etoile were all a likeable bunch. Even the villains like Marjoly and her gang were a blast to watch as their antics never turn out the way they plan to. The ending was also a sweet one too.
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| Join Cornet in her love-struck adventure. |
Rhapsody is a tactical-RPG where you control Cornet and her party as they battle enemies, explore around the game's condensed levels, and interact with the world. There are no party members to recruit as you'll be mainly recruiting puppets and monsters that you defeated to build your party. Don't go in expecting Disgaea-levels of strategy as the game is extremely easy. You'll be always a couple of levels ahead of the bosses and you'll have enough Inotium (the game's currency) to buy all the stat-boosting gear you need. Moreover, you can even auto-play battles which makes the tactics part a breeze.
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| The gameplay's on the easy side, though collecting new monsters was a lot of fun. |
It's a simplistic RPG that's geared towards genre beginners and those who've taken an interest in Nippon Ichi's work like me. That being said, the game comes up short in certain regards. Aside from a haunted pirate ship, the dungeons leave a lot to be desired as whether its an old cave by the lake or a gigantic erupting volcano, they follow the exact same layout of repetitive corridors as you look for treasures chests and a way out. Also, it can be vague on how to progress during certain story parts that I had to resort to a guide. It didn't take long to beat clocking in at 10 and a half hours to beat, which I didn't mind at all. It was a short adventure that packed some decent side-quests that don't overstay their welcome.
Visually, Rhapsody is a beautiful-looking game that boasts neatly-drawn 2D backgrounds and detailed character sprites, which shine on the game's villains. It runs great though it's presented in the original resolution with little in terms of polishing up the visuals, so the Switch release is more of a port than remaster. Since music plays a central role in the story, the voicework and soundtrack go hand-in-hand in delivering catchy and memorable tracks that feel if you're playing an old Disney film. My favorites were Cornet's song, Marjoly's scheming song, and ending theme.
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| Rhapsody has held up nicely. |
Overall, Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure was an entertaining little RPG all things considered. Sure, its lacking in comparison to the genre greats but it does pack a whole lot of charm that manged to grow on me. I liked the characters, music, and monster-collecting gameplay, and hope the later sequels (which also have been re-released), would improve upon them further.
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