Guardian War

Guardian War is a console RPG or tactical role-playing game released for the 3DO console. It is notable for its use of 3-D animation which was uncommon for console RPGs at the time. It is also known as Powers Kingdom (パワーズキングダム - Pawazu kingudamu) in Japan and Europe.

Story
The player controls a golem who was awakened by the Goddess Erald which is fighting against Azrael, the Evil Lord.

Overview
In this strategy game you move your party around a linear map and when you are ready you can engage enemies in a "hostile" territory (called fields in the game), very much like that of Final Fantasy Tactics. When you enter a territory you move around a flat isometric grid world as single character until you come in range of an enemy. Once engaged in combat your party splits up into a default formation or a formation that you have planned out beforehand in your settings. Melee and ranged attacks have various ranges and area of effects. To continue moving along the trail you must defeat all the monsters in each territory that is blocking your path. Some side territories (called fields in the game) cannot be cleared and are used as a way to continue leveling your characters.

As you continue you collect more golems who you awaken along your travel to help you fight and join your party as a new character. This is the only way you can attain new members in your party that you can control.

Along the trails there are places where you can stop and buy items like weapons and accessories to equip. However, the most interesting equipping option are additional golem bodies which are classes or jobs. These can be applied to each one of your characters. They all have their pros and cons and effect your stats and as well as your skills. Each character can carry 3 bodies utilizing the classes. The primary slot determines how you look and your overall stat configuration. For instance if you choose a knight as your primary slot your characters defense and hit points will be much higher than that of a character who's primary class is a wizard. Additionally experience gained from killing monsters also applies to your class in your primary slot. This will allow you later on to upgrade from a lower class body to an upper class body. For example when you have earn enough levels as a Knight you can now equip a Paladin body, giving you new skills and effecting your overall stats. Later in the upper classes there will be skills that can only be applied if you have another character with a compatible combination skill, where one character will target another one of your members in your party that has a compatible skill and the other member's turn is ready it can cast its special skill. Also while you are moving around in a territory, if your main character's primary body is a bird class it can fly and avoid certain obstacles.

There are some rare items in the game that can allow you to try and persuade an enemy NPC to join your party. If you are successful the NPC will join your party and you will be able to use the NPC throughout the game. The NPC will also gain EXP when you kill monsters. The only draw back is that the NPC will continue to fight as an NPC as in Non Player Controlled. It will remain your ally, but when it is the NPC's turn to attack it will chose which enemy and what skill to attack with. The game finishes when you have reached the end of your journey and vanquish the end boss, Azrael.

Gameplay
Notable features include:
 * No separate screen or location for battles (atypical for most console RPGs).
 * Player controls all the golems when exploring. In battle, the player can control them individually.
 * Player can see which levels (known as fields in the game) are occupied by enemies before entering them.
 * Standard console RPG elements including statistics and character classes.

Body Types
When a golem has reached level 5 in their lower class body they will be able to equip the upper class bodies.

Levels are as follows.
 * Level 1 000 EXP
 * Level 2 015 EXP
 * Level 3 025 EXP
 * Level 4 100 EXP
 * Level 5 200 EXP

Recovery/Stat Boost

 * Power Stone: Heals 100 HP.
 * Power Ruby: Heals 200 HP.
 * Power Crystal: Heals 999 HP.
 * Manna Stone: Recovers 100 MP.
 * Manna Gem: Recovers 300 MP.
 * Reverser: Recovery from Stone.
 * Neutralizer: Removes acid effects.
 * Power Emb: Increases attack, can be found in Shrine of Fai.
 * Defense Emb: Increases defense, can be found in chest in Mushroom Forest.
 * Quick Emb: Increases Speed, can be found in Hinterand.

Tools

 * Bell of Love: Convert a monster to join your party
 * Acid Bomb: acid attack found in a chest in the second battle.
 * Lamut Medallion: Grants access to Extra Battles 1 and 2, can be found in Mueq W.
 * Sirum Medallion: Grants access to extra battles 3 and 4, can be found in Hinterand.
 * Tuphon Medallion: Grants you access to Extra, can be found in 23rd battle.

Equipment

 * Holy Ring - Strengthens the power of Light.
 * Black Orb - Strengthens the power of Darkness.
 * Robe of Wind - Strengthens the power of Wind.
 * Rabbit's Food - Fortune goes up.
 * Dragon's Fang - Magical defense Power goes up.

Voice Actors

 * Pamela Prather
 * Patrick De Volpi

Music
The two top people who worked on Guardian War's music was Yasufumi Fukuda and Yukiharu Urita.

Yasufumi Fukuda (Family name (in kanji): 福田, Given name (in kanji): 康文, Japanese Name (ふくだやすふみ)) is also musician as well as a composer. He was part of the Salamander Factory group. He worked on plethora of games which some of the most noteworthy games he worked on were: As well as the anime Murder Princess (OVA) (2007), Marvelous Interactive, Inc..
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008), Nintendo Co., Ltd.
 * Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon (Special Edition) (2007), Marvelous Interactive, Inc.
 * Blue Dragon (2006), Microsoft Games Studios
 * Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (2005), Nintendo Co., Ltd.
 * Shinobido: Way of the Ninja (2005), Spike Co., Ltd.
 * Blazing Heroes (1995), SEGA Enterprises Ltd.

Yukiharu Urita (Kanji 瓜田幸治 Japanese うりたゆきはる) was born on the year 1971 in Japan. Yukiharu is also part of the Zuntata Composer Group in Japan. Less well known than Yasufumi Fukuda as the most notable game other than Guardian War he worked on was Blazing Heroes (1995), SEGA Enterprises Ltd.. Although he was very active in many arcade games.

The original sound track (OST) can be found here http://www.mediafire.com/?jy0zkjwzann

Programmers

 * Shojiro Aoki
 * Tsuyoshi Tanaka
 * Hiroshi Yamada
 * Katsuya Nagai

Director

 * Yasuhiko Nakatsu

Producers

 * Executive Producer Hideji Tanaka
 * General Producer Naoto Oyachi

Reception
The game received fairly positive reviews. The game received two awards in GameFan's 1994 "Megawards" (Vol 3, Iss. 1)
 * GamePro Magazine Jan, 1995 4.5 out of 5
 * Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) Nov, 1994 7.6 out of 10
 * Amateur review in 1994