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In this hard to pronounce role playing game, you will be faced with adventure and excitement as you embark on the quest of a lifetime at the young age of 10. Talk about growing up fast! The opening cinema is very well animated, complete with good voice acting that sets up the story. All of the characters, whether old or young, are drawn the same height, which is to say they are all short and chubby. After the opening cinema, there is a little bit of story between the prince of PoPoLoCrois and his father about what happened in the intro movie. The story starts with the prince finding out that ten years ago, on the night he was born, his mother went into a deep sleep which was caused by a curse from a demon. The prince then begins his quest to try and wake her.

PoPoLoCrois plays a bit differently than most RPGs in that it is a position-based game. Now what do I mean by that? Well, similar to Chrono Trigger, you wander around the world and when you encounter an enemy the fight takes place on the same screen. It then becomes a grid-based battlefield, similar to Final Fantasy Tactics where you can move your characters around on the grid to attack your enemies. Special attacks will gain levels as they are used, and new abilities will be gained as your characters level up.

Graphically the game has some nice character designs, and the towns look good as well. Everything is 2D and the attention to detail is refreshing, especially since it's somewhat rare to see non-3D graphics on the PSP. The art design is above average, with varying environments displayed well. While the game does have decent visuals, the map designs often don't connect with each other, so it's rather easy to become lost while exploring.

Good graphics don't make a good game. What has become somewhat of an Achilles heel of many PSP games, the long load times really drag down the adventure. From the very beginning of the game the load times become horribly noticeable, with even the opening anime taking a good 20 seconds to load. Every single time you enter a battle you'll be waiting for it to finish loading as well. Even initiating a new attack causes a hitch in the game while it loads the animation for the attack. This quickly becomes very frustrating and seriously damages what could have been a fantastic RPG.

Overall, PoPoLoCrois is decent. The artwork is pretty, and I like the 2D graphics. The story begins nicely, and as you continue to play the game you almost forget you start out as a 10 year old boy. However, the long load times and the average music make what could have been a good game play experience, simply an average one. If AgeTec could have at least hidden or reduced the load times for battles, the game could have received a higher score. If you must own every RPG release this year, then give the game a chance. Otherwise, you can do better and probably should skip PoPoLoCrois all together.