Growlanser Wayfarer of TIME...TIME...TIME...TIME...

'Time' is indeed the word. Growlanser IV, Wayfarer of Time, can quickly be summarized as the fourth of the Growlanser videogame series. Each installment is noted for its battle strategy, its anime artwork, and torrents of incredibly revealing female clothing, and Growlanser IV definitely keeps up with all of those categories. It does stand out all on its own as well, for more reasons than the one echoed out in the title of this article.

 

 

Growlanser Wayfarer of Time (PSP, in case anyone was wondering) starts you out as a mercenary by the default name of Crevanielle, and it's his life that gets entangled in wars that don't even stop for some tall destructive angels. As you're ping-ponged to one side of the war to another, you eventually discover the angels' purpose and how their fate intermingles with your own. But trust me, it takes a long while for this game's plotline to reach the start of that point.

 

 

The RPG elements to the game are truly complex, and virtually every conversation choice will affect the story's ending. There's really nothing wrong with that, but the tale of Growlanser IV just as truly crawls by at a snail's pace from the start. Eventually the tale does pick up some speed, but I say 'not quite enough'. Your progress through the game is stretched out by a constant need to level up, and it becomes torture when the monsters that provide the experience points provide very little. By the time you manage a level that tides you over the next major battle, your excitement and curiosity as to what happens next has waned.

 

Really, really waned. After a while your thoughts will follow along these lines: 'God, why can't you at least find some monsters that dish out a decent amount of EXP around here? Can I start seeing any results of my talk choices yet? Hmm, I haven't seen the opening anime scene for a while.' A part of you will be disappointed knowing that you could never see all of the forty-plus possible endings, but the rest of you is done. Finished. Finito. There's no way that the little cutscenes in between are worth all the time and trouble you have to endure to see each one. What do you care about politics and sinister machinations now? Maybe someone's putting up the cutscenes on Youtube! Ooh!

 

 

While I do find that the story of Growlanser IV is Growlanser-worthy as a whole, and while it is very pretty, not everyone will be able to slog themselves through from one partly interesting plot point to the next. It will take the stubborn, the devoted, and/or the borderline obsessive to reach the finish line of this game before the year is out. NEXT!