Nishikaze no Kyoushikyouku ~ The Rhapsody of Zephyr (西風の狂詩曲(ラプソディ)(初回限定版) is an RPG that developed by Softmax and published by Marvelous Interactive back in 2004 for the Sony Playstation home console system, exclusively for the Japanese market. The game first appeared on the PCs (1998) and later (2001) ported to the Sega's Dreamcast. The original PC game was in the Korean language but in 1998 , Nihon Falcom bought the rights for the Japanese localization/translation and publishing (outside South Korea). According to the intro, the scenario is "inspired" by Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte-Cristo. The hero of the game, Cyrano Bernstein, is betrayed by his fiancee Mercedes and is captured by the evil warlock, Cesar Borgia. After fleeing from the prison, Cyrano swears revenge, and sets off to find a legendary sword sealed on a nearby island . His goal is to recruit allies in order to get involved in a war between two powerful empires. An intresting detail about the Rhapsody of Zephyr is that it is considered to be a spin-off part of the "War of Genesis" series. Unlike the other installments , it features less tactical elements and is more focused to the traditional Japanese style RPG format. Aside from the typical turn-based, tactical combat system, which allows the player to move the characters on the battlefield, the game features a variety of magic spells, items, NPC recruition in order to help you in the battles etc. But the game's most unique part is without a doubt the weapon usage mechanism. Every weapon has a seperate HP bar which can be damaged or even destroyed during a battle fight. In general, the Rhapsody of Zephyr is a a really good game, featuring a fantastic soundtrack , an interesting presentation and some unsual gameplay mechanics. It's not an import friendly game.
