Line #20 YMMV/SandsOfDestruction


1	[[foldercontrol]]
2
3	[[folder:The Video Game]]
4	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Depending on the version, Kyrie may end up being the whiny NonActionGuy that [[JamesBondage needs rescuing]], the CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass who wants [[TheAtoner to atone for his powers]] or the WideEyedIdealist that has LoveMartyr for Morte [[WrongGenreSavvy who will follow her anywhere and convince her to change her mind.]]
5	* AngstWhatAngst In the beginning of the game, Kyrie [[spoiler: levels his entire village, which includes his uncle, in an accidental outburst of power]] and never thinks twice about it. [[FlatWhat What.]]
6	** Hey, he's got no time for angst. He's too busy mooning over the cute OmnicidalManiac.
7	** [[spoiler: The angst starts weighing down on him after the second outburst at the Sky Gaol and after finding out his [[YouCantFightFate fate]] as the Destruct he asks Naja to kill him so the world would not have to be destroyed.]]
8	** He later elaborates that he was in serious denial about his role in the town's destruction, and when he is finally forced to confront the truth of it, he does not take it well.
9	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The gorgeous main theme, played over the static title theme, stands out as yet another feather in the cap of Creator/YasunoriMitsuda. One could very easily argue that the soundtrack is far superior to the game.
10	** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJT7twseFOM&feature=related Primal Lord theme]] is easily the best theme of the game...Shame it only plays three times....
11	* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The game opens with Morte and the World Annihilation Front attacking Viteaux like a bunch of BombThrowingAnarchists. You're [[IntroOnlyPointOfView in control of Naja]] and are supposed to fight her off and save the town, but the girl is having ''way'' too much fun either way. With the way Naja and his jerkish superior Rajif keep calling her a terrorist, she'd make an ''excellent'' poster girl for any sort of terrorist group: "Be a terrorist! [[StuffBlowingUp Blow stuff up!]] '''It's fun!'''" At least it does help you feel more sympathetic towards Kyrie for falling in LoveAtFirstSight: that kind of enthusiasm can be infectious, even coming from a PsychopathicWomanChild. [[spoiler:And, thankfully, she keeps her upbeat, determined personality even after changing her mind about destroying the world, proving that good doesn't have to be boring.]]
12	* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: Most of the reviews complained about the flaws in the battle system, such as overpowered flurry attacks, a randomized action queue, and the number of RandomEncounters. After that, they split into two camps: those who found the game irredeemably dislikeable, and these who felt that the story was fun despite the flawed gameplay.[[note]]It often came down to whether or not they found the protagonists enjoyable: is Kyrie whiny and obnoxious or understandably overwhelmed? Is Morte CrazyIsCool or just plain crazy?[[/note]]
13	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Toppi's so popular in Japan that he appears as a summon in Phantasy Star Zero.
14	* EsotericHappyEnding: The ending of the game is unambiguously meant to be happy: Kyrie has control of his PowerIncontinence, the [[SandIsWater Sand Sea]] is [[spoiler:now filled with water (and therefore much more liveable) and it's]] no longer trying to swallow all the continents to help end the world, humans are no longer [[FantasticRacism oppressed by Ferals]], and [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl best of all]], he and Morte (who no longer wishes to end the world) are a happy OfficialCouple. Well, great, except the epilogue doesn't show ''any'' Ferals except [[OnlyTheLeadsGetAHappyEnding Taupy, Rhi'a, and Naja]]. What happened to the rest? [[spoiler:Rhi'a is seen chasing after a house cat who resembles Felis Rex, so perhaps they've been turned into ordinary animals - a fitting end to those who were oppressive, sure, but the game points out that Ferals are as diverse as humans in personality; some are cruel and some are kind.]] On top of that, the only reason Kyrie has control of his powers is ThePowerOfLove, and he and Morte are teenagers: what happens if they break up, like so many other teenagers tend to do? Worse yet, [[spoiler:the Crimson Sun gave Morte the Destruct Code that controls Kyrie's powers, and]] the only reason she's [[LoveRedeems no longer interested in ending the world]] is because Kyrie is WorthLivingFor; she's still shown to be temperamental and prone to acting before she thinks. So if Kyrie ever falls out of love and breaks her heart, she's [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum likely to end the world in a fit of anger]] because she now knows ''exactly'' how to do it, and he'd be powerless to stop her. Oops.
15	* GameBreaker:
16	** Flurry attacks, once chained, will OHKO most normal enemies and easily hit for around 1/4 to 1/3 to even 1/2 of most bosses HP in a turn, thus taking any challenge from the rest of the game. They are, however, a form of MagikarpPower.
17	** While these aren't ''always'' a GameBreaker...for Kyrie, Agan, and Rhi'a? Most definitely. For Morte and Naja? Well for them, it's the ''only'' way you'll ever get to see their special attack since a base flurry with Morte and Naja only do 7 and 9 hits respectively. (Whereas Rhi'a goes for almost 20 hits, Agan goes 12, and Kyrie goes well over 10) Taupy, too, though he's just a bruiser in of himself.
18	** If you want Naja to break the game? Have him use War Cry.
19	%%* ItsEasySoItSucks: This game is actually EASIER than Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, and in fact, most rpgs targeted towards young children
20	%%* {{Moe}}: Kyrie is a rare male example.
21	* NotBadassEnoughForFans: Kyrie isn't the most manly of men: he ApologizesALot, he's a ReluctantWarrior, he follows the whims of a very destructive girl because he fell in LoveAtFirstSight but never tries to get in her panties, favoring verbal confessions of love to anything physical. If you flipped the genders of the leads, you'd have a very typical story about a gentle soul whose LoveRedeems, but with the male as the patient LoveMartyr, fans get annoyed. At least one reviewer blamed Kyrie's demeanor for the entire reason he didn't enjoy the game. This is despite the fact that, unlike the anime, Kyrie ''is'' a legitimate fighter here and is capable with his knives; he would just really rather not use them.
22	* ScrappyMechanic: Plenty of them.
23	** The chained flurry attacks described above are the only way you're ever going to see each character's special attack unless you get ridiculously lucky with your normal attacks. However, if you try to use them against most bosses, most of them have an ability that pushes them further up the turn queue the more they get hit, meaning they'll get 5-6 turns in a row when they do finally get their turn: while you can get the same ability yourself, nothing else in the game does nearly as many hits as you do and it's mostly useless, while any other methods of trying to fight bosses are infinitely slower and more tedious.
24	** Bosses can also spam Battle Boost (which increases their stats and gives them extra turns) with impunity, making the turn queue largely useless both because of this and the previous statement.
25	** The previously mentioned special attacks require you to complete a 5-button press minigame to make them do the most damage: however, the buttons are always the same and for the most part consist of repeated button presses (like X,X,X,X,X), except for Raja, whose inputs are noticeably more varied for whatever reason.
26	*** Actually the button presses are quite difficult unless you have an accessory equipped that sets them to one button, not that the game ever bothers divulging that information to you either.
27	** The morale system is supposed to give characters extra turns when they're in good mood, which is accomplished by keeping them in the active party for extended periods of time and giving them equipment that boosts it: in practice, this never works as intended and you can be stuck with a party full of characters in a miserable mood despite using them for most of the game and sacrificing actually effective gear over the kind they like.
28	** Even running away from battles is handled in a supremely awkward way: normally in fully turn-based games, running away works by giving either the party as a whole or each character a chance of successfully running away if they attempt to do so, which if they fail, either they or the party lose their turn, generally leaving them open for a beating. In most [=RPGs=] that have more action-oriented battles, running instead leaves the party or currently controlled character open until they finally do decide to run away (either by being allowed to do so by RNG or by filling up a bar) while the monsters keep getting turns at a normal pace. [=SoD=] decides to combine both varieties into one in a way that makes next to no sense: if you decide to run away (which you will, due to annoyingly common random battles), your entire party forfeits all their turns, allowing the enemies to keep attacking you constantly while you wait for the bar to fill, and if you decide against running after all, the enemy still gets to use all their turns they've gotten this way before you can actually attack again. This happens regardless of enemy, meaning that running away normally always means that you'll get hit several times with no way around it. However, if you have Agan in your party with his instant-runaway quip equipped, you can instantly run away from any battle, regardless of how strong the monsters are without them being able to attack even once. In other words, there's no middle ground to running away: either you get your ass kicked repeatedly by even the weakest enemies in the game, or you can be facing DemonicSpiders in the final dungeon with a lv1 party and never get hit once.
29	* ThatOneBoss: Any boss that flies, namely Jade Zephyr, Aquila Rex, and Noctua Rex. Noctua Rex is the worst, because he starts on the ground and if you air-toss him, normally a good thing, HE DOESN'T COME BACK DOWN. Also Serpens Rex, who prevents you from using your [[strike: LimitBreak]] Special Attack because [[spoiler: you're also fighting Morte, who results in a NonStandardGameOver if killed]]
30	* ThatOneSidequest: Agan's Rite of Ascension to become chief. The sand whale you need to defeat, Dark Crown, is an easy AnticlimaxBoss, but the sand is also full of [[BossInMookClothing Desert Kings]] who are ''ridiculously'' overpowered and possess the [[ThatOneAttack Dust to Dust]] skill, which instantly petrifies him resurting in an instant game over unless you have a certain accessory equipped. You'll likely have to face multiple Desert Kings before the Dark Crown will make his appearance, given the RandomEncounters.
31	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Don't ask fans if they like the [[VideoGame/SandsOfDestruction game]] or [[Anime/SandsOfDestruction anime]] better. The two are basically BroadStrokes adaptations to the point that they're AlternateContinuity; it helps nothing that production of the game began first, but the anime was released first, giving each a legitimate claim to being the "original" that the other changed.[[note]]It also helps nothing that there's a few hints in the game that characterizations may have originally been closer to the anime but were later changed: notice, for example, that Morte is extremely quiet and serious in the opening movie, whereas in the game proper she's a GenkiGirl, and Rhi'a is seen walking around with Naja but is never alone with him in the game's plot; the opening 3D movie would have likely been rendered early in production, and while changing a few sprites around is easy (the animations on the sprite sheet all exist no matter when or where you want to use them), it would be more trouble to reanimate a 3D scene, leaving the opening movie a relic of the game's "original" state that the anime was based on.[[/note]] The girls, in particular, have a problem with their personalities changing: in the anime, Morte is serious and driven and Rhi'a is TriggerHappy, whereas in the game, Morte is a [[PsychopathicWomanChild gleeful]] MadBomber [[spoiler:(even after she changes her mind about ending the world, she's still really upbeat)]] and Rhi'a is calm and mysterious. There's also the issue of voices; many fans of the game play it on a ROM simply because it offers the option to patch the voices back to the original Japanese.
32	* ValuesDissonance: The reason for the ExecutiveMeddling is that they feared the original draft, with humans being kept as livestock and eaten, would garner a Z rating in Japan. While Western markets may have only rated the game as T or 12+ (so long as there was [[GoryDiscretionShot no actual eating on screen]] or dismembered bodies for sale in the marketplace the way human butchers display animal parts, for example), [[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/116964/QA_Sands_of_Destruction_Team_Talks_Battle_System_Story_Creation.php they felt they should make the game first and foremost for the Japanese market]], which simply wouldn't allow those things in any but the most restricted ratings.
33	%%* TheWoobie: Kyrie.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:The Anime]]
37	%%* {{Moe}}: Kyrie, even more so than the video game.
38	* NotBadassEnoughForFans: Kyrie gets a lot of flack for being an ActionSurvivor and DistressedDude who tries to calm everyone down and talk his way out of fights instead of jumping in blade first. It doesn't help that his companions are both extremely skilled in combat while his skills lie in the culinary arts (and, unlike the game, he never weaponizes poisonous food). That time he defended a fellow human prisoner from an abusive feral prison guard? [[SarcasmMode Totally didn't happen]]. He's even derided for wearing a suit of armor (you know, ''being sensible'') when forced in a colosseum. He finally takes a level in the finale, which lead to quite a few fans wondering why he couldn't be like that for the whole series.
39	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Don't ask fans if they like the [[VideoGame/SandsOfDestruction game]] or [[Anime/SandsOfDestruction anime]] better. The game and anime are basically BroadStrokes adaptations to the point that they're AlternateContinuity; it helps nothing that production of the game began first, but the anime was released first, giving each a legitimate claim to being the "original" that the other changed. The girls, in particular, have a problem with their personalities changing: in the anime, Morte is serious and driven and Rhi'a is TriggerHappy, whereas in the game, Morte is a [[PsychopathicWomanChild gleeful]] MadBomber [[spoiler:(even after she changes her mind about ending the world, she's still really upbeat)]] and Rhi'a is calm and mysterious. Fans are divided on which personality set is "better" or truer to characterization (though, internally, they're pretty consistent; it's just comparing the game VS the anime). There's also the issue of voices and the great SubbingVSDubbing debate.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:The Manga]]
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44	* {{Moe}}: Kyrie, again.
45	* NightmareFuel: The zombie-corpses that haunt Kyrie's nightmares are quite grotesque. No wonder he jumps awake.
46	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The [[Manga/SandsOfDestruction manga]] gets less flak, perhaps simply for being less well-known and never receiving any official release. Morte's insanity is dialed up a few notches from the game, but Rhi'a is the one who really changes, becoming a complete CloudcuckooLander whose only real purpose is to be the PluckyComicRelief; her fans were less than amused. Morte being subject to extreme {{Chickification}} at the end probably didn't help with readers who liked having a strong female lead, either.
47	[[/folder]]

Context YMMV / SandsOfDestruction