Retro Review: Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

Title: Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (The Puppet Princess of Marl Kingdom)

Developer: Nippon Ichi Software

Publisher: ATLUS USA

Consoles: Playstation & Nintendo DS

US Release Dates: December 1998 (PS) - Rereleased July 2000 (PS)

August 2008 (DS)

Genre: Musical RPG - Single Player

One of my favorite games growing up was Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. The perfect cutesy-wootsy girly game I’ve ever come across. You play Coronet, a young puppeteer slash trumpet player, who daydreams about meeting her prince charming. Alongside her adventures is Kururu, a talking puppet who is Coronet’s best friend and comedic relief. At the start of the game, you guide Coronet and Kururu through the forest to collect Inotium, the currency of Marl, for Coronet’s grandfather. They end up getting attacked by a weird looking beastie but get saved by the one and only, Ferdinand, Prince of Marl Kingdom. Coronet gets the stereotypical goo goo eyes for Prince Wishy-Washy, but their romance has yet to blossom when our wonderful Villainess, Marjoly, pops in and decides that she wants the prince all to herself, but is hilariously reminded by her three sisters that she’s WAAAY older than the prince and that she has a snowball’s chance in hell. The rest of the game plays out as you guide our heroine through the world of Marl to help rescue her prince….yada yada yada.

The battle system is pretty simplistic, with most battles lasting under a minute. So this isn’t the game for hardcore gamers. But if you like cute romance and comedy, this is a nice choice of game. Coronet’s abilities range from calling upon her puppet friends to help out or even ridiculous powers such as pancake stacks pummeling her enemies. The game has comedy, romance, pitifully evil villains, and a lot of song and dance numbers. Included in the US Playstation release, you also get the soundtrack which was a nice bonus. I did love this game because it was unique and like nothing else I ever played. Included in the “Extra Features” on the Playstation version are character art, backgrounds, lyrics, and Japanese/English versions of all the songs featured in-game. 

Rhapsody was rereleased in 2008 on the Nintendo DS although all the songs are strictly in Japanese and there are some extra scenarios added from the other sequels of the Puppet Princess series. The battles were also changed to turn-based versus the original strategic tactics set-up. So all in all, if you’re wanting to play Rhapsody and get the full experience, I would highly recommend the Playstation version over the DS version any day. 

See ya guys in the next article. Game on, Players! 

XO

by

Karen Caldwell 

Comments

[sandra]

I love musical adventure.... Thanks for this post.