DESCRIPTION

Oprhen is a young but powerful sorcerer still in the process of learning his craft. Unlike many mages his age, he seeks to discover the deeper knowledge of magic for personal profit rather than love of the art. This rather unscrupulous facet of his personality has often landed Orphen in some sticky situations, but nothing like the journey he is about to embark upon. With his students Magnus and Cleo, he'll end up on Chaos Island, where they'll have to shift through time to find the various pieces of the shattered Crystal Egg in order to return the stream of time to its proper flow.

Orphen: Scion of Sorcery is an anime-inspired role-playing game for the PlayStation 2. You play the cocky titular character or one of the five companions he acquires at one point or another, exploring the land of Chaos Island, using your power to shift from the past to present to future in the hope of completing your quest. Along the way you will defeat bosses, discover treasures, find items, and the like. Often you'll journey and fight as a party, while occasionally one of the other characters will fight or travel alone.

There are two distinct engines in Orphen, the exploration engine and the battle engine. Between these two gameplay modes, the game will present cut-scenes featuring cel animation to help move the plot along. The battle engine is done in real-time, and is timing based, focusing on the characters' abilities with magic. Each of the four buttons is linked to a different magical attack, and these spells can be linked in battle if you time your button pressing correctly. As you advance through the game, you will learn different, more powerful combos with which to slay the enemy. The exploration has action elements, as well, featuring limited platform gameplay. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide