“Graphics don’t make the game.” It’s an expression I’ve always been rather fond of; as I grew up playing the Commodore 64, I never really cared too much for how well a game presented itself. Thus, finding that “Secret of the Solstice” had opted for the “Super Nintendo RPG” look didn’t present the enormous barrier for me as it may have for others attempting to play it for the first time. I feel this way, and always have, because in place of a “next-gen” graphics engine, games such as this generally seem to focus more on the actual gameplay instead, and more often than not provide a more enjoyable playing experience. This one, however, did not.

“Secret of the Solstice” begins, like many a mind-numbing beginning before it, by asking you to complete a somewhat lackluster tutorial that appears to last about fifteen minutes longer than should. You are sent gallivanting around town to speak to a series of NPC characters and collect an assortment of different items; however each of them will send you running automatically to the next, and aside from the occasional chance to kill an enemy or two, the interaction of the tutorial pretty much ends there. It feels a great deal more like you’re watching someone else play than actually playing it yourself, and while it does cover a great deal of ground and introduce many of the elements found in the game, I discovered that I had already forgotten most of them by the end, and really just wanted to get out there and kill a few things.

And kill a few things I did … and a few more after that, with little more than the click of my left mouse-button in rapid succession. This pattern continued for quite some time, with the occasional quest thrown in here and there to help break the monotony. It didn’t break the monotony, though, nor did it in any other MMORPG before it. Killing, questing, and getting a little bit stronger each day that you do is the MMO mantra as it were, and things are sadly no different here. If anything, they may actually come off as a little bit worse, as the dated graphics (however beautiful they may be, in their own right) remove all elements of eye-candy from the equation, and leave you with little more than an RPG for the Super Nintendo that lacks the engaging story and lovable characters.