by OL » Sat Oct 06, 2012 1:09 pm
The story is good, although many of the important background details are essentially missing from the games themselves, and require a little bit of research to fully understand them.
Regardless of stuff like that, if you care to invest some time in getting into it all, the ZOE universe is pretty well-thought-out. Along with the two main games, there's also a really story-intensive strategy title on GBA called Fist of Mars (which I still haven't played through yet; maybe I will when I hit my inevitable ZOE mood when the HD versions come out), an anime OVA called Idolo, and a full-length tv series called Dolores. I've seen Idolo and the first several episodes of Dolores, and it's actually pretty good (and canon to the games' story, if I remember correctly), though it deals with a whole different cast of characters than the the game does. Thinking about the fact that I haven't seen it inspired me to go order the complete collection just now.
So there's a lot of background stuff to get into.
The games themselves have pretty good stories overall, though some elements I could do without (as much as I want to like him, Leo Stenbuck, the protagonist from the first game, is one of the whiniest main characters in videogame history). They roll along at a quick pace like a good, action-packed anime series or movie. Very Gundam-ish in tone, but with much flashier designs and action.
Both games are really short though. Last I played them, it was about 4-6 hours for each one. So they're best played back-to-back as one big experience. The gameplay is about as fun as can be though.
Easily among my favorite videogame series ever.
OL has received a thanks from: AnimeGamer183