I love role playing games, and the Playstation 2 graphics were incredible on some of the other games we've played. When I popped Orphen into the CD player, I was really expecting something spectacular. Unfortunately, the game didn't quite live up to the promise.

You play a male, Orphen, in his late teens, who is a loner with an attitude. He has a brother-sister pair with him, Cleo and Magnus, who spend the entire time sniping at each other and at him. "Shut up," he snarls at them. "Well, duh!" the girl cries out in response to something else. When water breaks in, her panic cry was not of the danger they were in, but "My favorite clothes!!"

Their two 'bodyguards' aren't much better - with their bickering, I actually cheered when a monster crab grabbed one and threw him into the water. I kept hoping that one would grab the annoying siblings as well, and get rid of them. Come to think of it, even the main character needed a good swat in the head.

The magic Orphen uses is intriguing. His weapons have names like "Bite of Lightning," "Sowrd of the Fallen Devil," and "Hand of Pyro." You don't have to remember their names - he cries them out quite often enough. That's when you're lucky enough to be in combat ... a lot of the time the game simply freezes when you're moving, going into a pre-set series of actions that mostly involve the main characters yelling at or picking on each other.

If you could only skip through them, it might be playable. But you can't.

The graphics are reasonably good, the monsters you meet are interesting, but there isn't anything to move you along through the game, except for the desperate hope that SOMETHING will come along and knock some sense into the characters. Unfortunately for everyone involved, this never happens.

If you're looking for a great RPG, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Final Fantasy IX over this game. If you already have FFIX, then you might rent this one to understand just how good the FFIX team really is.

Buy Orphen from Amazon.Com