How Was Kartia Received?

Well liked, rarely loved: the scores cluster at good, and so does the modern memory.

Kartia's reception was consistent across two continents. In Japan, Famitsu's cross review gave it 31 of 40 (10, 7, 7, 7), and Dengeki PlayStation's reviewers scored it 55 and 65, praising the world, the story, and Amano's characters while calling the system hard to grasp and the battles undercooked. In the West it averaged 75 percent on GameRankings, with Game Informer at 8.5, Electronic Gaming Monthly at 8.25, IGN at 8, and GameSpot at 7.7.

GameSpot praised the presentation, the music, and the sheer number of options in play, and docked it for linearity and slightly monotonous battles. Next Generation went warmer: an excellent soundtrack, a competent translation, and “a host of immersive and innovative features,” proof that Atlus could go to bat against the competition in the role-playing genre and emerge a winner.

THE SCORES

1998, as printed

Famitsu · 31 of 40

A 10 from one reviewer and 7s from the other three: the classic shape of a game one critic loves and the rest respect.

Dengeki PlayStation · 55 and 65

Japan's other big verdict. World and story praised, Amano's designs singled out for flavor; the system called difficult and fiddly, the terrain and height rules hard to read.

GameSpot · 7.7

Presentation, music, and options praised; linearity and monotonous battles counted against it. The review ran on 21 August 1998, days after the American retail launch.

IGN 8 · EGM 8.25 · Game Informer 8.5

The American magazine consensus: a strong second-tier strategy RPG in the strongest year the genre had.

THE LONG VERDICT

What time did to it

The remake lists

Kartia now appears regularly on lists of Atlus games that deserve remakes, described in one of them as one of the most criminally forgotten RPGs on the PlayStation.

Story over systems

Players who chronicle the genre tend to land where the 1998 reviewers did: a good story and a memorable world, carried by systems that can fight the player as hard as the enemy.

Why Is Kartia Forgotten?The 1998 Boom

How Was Kartia Received?

THE SCORES

THE LONG VERDICT

THE FIRST WORD