PlayStation Basement #69 - Saiyuki: Journey West

This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on December 21st, 2019.

Hello once again, and welcome back to the PlayStation Basement. PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of games for the original PlayStation that are somewhat obscure, unusual, or unknown. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral as a way to emphasize the review over just a number. Now, let’s go!

Today is the winter solstice, and many religious holidays are coming up, are underway, or have come and gone. From Diwali, to Kwanzaa, to Hanukkah, Yule, and Christmas, religious festivities abound around this time of year as the days soon begin to get longer in the Northern Hemisphere. I actually have a religious, or perhaps more mythical, game for today – Saiyuki: Journey West.

Saiyuki is a game based on one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China, Journey to the West (or Xī Yóu Jì). In Japan, this story is called Saiyuki. Even if you don’t live in East Asia or South Asia, you are probably familiar with some elements of this story, especially if you are familiar with video games, cartoons, comics, and the like. Journey to the West tells the story of a Chinese Buddhist monk (known as Tang Sanzang or Sanzo) who must travel many miles to India. He is to retrieve Buddhist writings and bring them back with him to China to spread their teachings. The monk is underprepared for the task, suffering in the wilderness without law or order to protect him, but he is soon joined by supernatural allies of somewhat questionable morality: Sun Wukong/Son Goku/Monkey King, Zhu Bajie/Cho Hakkai/Pigsy, and Sha Wujing/Sa Gojo/Sandy. On their way to India, the party encounters monsters and villains alike before Sanzo completes his goal, the trio of otherworldly men redeem themselves, and the group ultimately becomes enlightened.

Journey to the West is an archetypical adventure of redemption and heroism. It set the template for many anime and manga series, such as Yu Yu Hakusho and Dragon Ball, stories that prominently feature villains who ultimately become heroes. Dragon Ball especially comes to mind, as does the homonymous Saiyuki, as adaptations of the traditional novel. Video games with some connection abound as well: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, League of Legends, Legend of Wukong, Monkey King: Master of the Clouds, SonSon, and the recently released Monkey King: Hero Is Back. While most of these focus on the Monkey King, Saiyuki takes the whole cast (plus some) and has you come along on their arduous journey.

Saiyuki: Journey West was released on November 11^th, 1999 in Japan and August 13^th, 2001 in North America, developed and published by Koei. I wanted to get the game soon after it came out, as I had read a review in a magazine. In an ultimately benign but unethical scenario, an employee at GameStop (or possibly Funcoland at that point) handed my grandmother the similarly titled Suikoden, a different RPG also based on one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China (Water Margin). I assume she was somewhat confused, but the employee had told my grandmother that Saiyuki was a bad game unlike the great Suikoden. Personally, I like them both, but only one of the two is in this review.

The cover art for Saiyuki is keen to show the viewer the flowing character designs of the famous heroes. The North American version is very colorful but just sort of shows the characters standing together like cutouts from a different scene. The beautiful drawings of the main cast is juxtaposed by a very odd plain of 3D desert. The placement of the text is kind of weird too; it’s just too large and bold. The Japanese cover art actually looks pretty nice. The color palette and composition are much more composed; this appears to be an image constructed in whole to be the cover art instead of one that has been pieced together. The characters beautifully flow into each other, emerging from a white background and rising with the mountains. It’s mostly red and white, almost monochromatic, and fits the source material well. The art for these characters is beautiful and I’m glad that it has been emphasized in this way.

In-game, the graphics do a bit of things from both covers. As a tactical RPG, Saiyuki: Journey West places the 2D characters on a 3D grid for much of the game. Some of the environments look really great, especially as the game goes on, and, as your journey progresses across the countryside, the field maps of the different regions are very nice to look at. The fields of battle are much more detailed than that sand from the North American cover art, but the colors are, overall, bright and garish like that image. Though there are some neat designs for NPCs and enemies, there are not many; you will see many of the same monsters and townsfolk over and over. Though also repetitive, the spell effects are pretty cool, and the few animated cutscenes look excellent. Saiyuki isn’t the best looking game ever, but I do like much of what it does graphically.

In terms of the sound, Saiyuki: Journey West sounds very much like what I think of when I think of ancient China. I’m sure some of that is because I’ve played this game a few times. The musick tends to use traditional instrumentation, though there is some rock stuff going on too (especially the goofy vocal track about Son Goku that plays during the opening movie). The musick for each scene portrays the mood well; from gentle town themes to exciting combat tunes, it’s all here. The one thing is that, just like the graphics, there’s a lot of repetition here. Saiyuki uses many themes for much of the musick even though the game isn’t particularly limited in terms of tracks available. Sometimes, I felt like the musick lulled me to sleep with its repetitions, and other times I felt in focus from that same droning quality. Sound effects are your usual slashes and thwacks and stuff. There are some cool monster sounds too. Basically, Saiyuki: Journey West sounds good, but there could be more variety.

Saiyuki: Journey West is a tactical RPG. Like Final Fantasy Tactics, Arc the Lad, and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, much of the game is played through long-form battles with a grid to move about on. Before each battle, you select a number of characters to engage the enemies with, and then each character takes their turn by selecting an action and moving. Characters can attack, cast spells, and use items. Most characters can transform into huge monsters (Wereforms) for a number of turns. In these forms, they have bigger attacks that do more damage, hit more enemies, or cause powerful status effects. Were Attacks can even destroy boulders, trees, and other obstacles, clearing the terrain and often uncovering valuable treasures. Each attack uses some of the Were Gauge, and a character transforms back to their normal self once all of the Were Gauge is used. The main character, Sanzo, does not have a Wereform but instead can summon guardians (all characters from Koei’s previous Fenshen Yanyi/Mystic Heroes) to assist the party in battle. Guardians stay around for three rounds and provide characters close to Sanzo with some benefit such as increased attack power or recovering health. Each guardian also has a special attack that is also offered to Sanzo and is usually pretty strong. Each guardian and character has an element as in many RPGs. These are taken from the wuxing, the five elements of Chinese philosophy. Like the medieval western elements of air, earth, fire, and water, the wuxing consists of wood, earth, water, fire, and metal. The elements function in a chain where they are stronger against one element and weaker against another (earth beats water, water beats fire, fire beats metal, etc.). You’ll have to utilize all of these different abilities to come out on top of the many battles on the way to India.

Thankfully there are more than just fights on the journey west. Each region you encounter contains towns amidst the wild areas. Towns offer stores to buy items and equipment, dojos to train at, and the post, which offers sidequests to complete. Sidequests are fun, though they can get repetitive after doing a few back to back; like other elements here, there isn’t a huge variety of them. Many sidequests consist of traveling to another city and delivering an item or obtaining an item from a dangerous area. There isn’t a battle to fight for each quest, but there are a decent amount of them. Since there aren’t that many enemy types, many battles feel similar. Though your party is generally pretty similar unless you get some of the optional characters, there is some customization in terms of giving characters different spells, and buying new equipment can really improve how a weapon attacks, sometimes offering much-increased range. One other thing that’s pretty cool about Saiykui is that there is a decent amount of optional things to do or unlock. It really depends on the choices you make along the way, and, since you can’t travel back to a previous region once you come to a new one, you can get locked out of some abilities as you travel. It’s all optional stuff though, and the game is very beatable without all of the characters, special equipment, and spells.

There’s more to say about Saiyuki, but I feel that I’ve said enough. It’s a good tactical RPG with a mythical and historical basis featuring likeable characters, optional sidequests, and challenging encounters. The game can certainly get repetitive at times, and I feel that that is its biggest flaw. Regardless, I enjoyed the journey I took to India with the strange sights to see and the larger-than-life heroes at my side.

Saiyuki: Journey West receives a Good.

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