Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir is the prequel to Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, a game that fell a little short of the glory in its first showing here in the States. FMA 2 is considerably beefier, looks better and offers a myriad new features, a full blown storyline powered by nice cinematics (both full motion and in-game cinematic moments), improved gameplay and artificial intelligence for Al. The only real complaint that can be lodged against this game is how short it is (takes about 10 12 hours to complete), but while it lasts, Fullmetal Alchemist 2 is one of the most creative and fun experiences I've had with a game based on a popular anime series.

In case you've been living under a rock, the game is based on the popular anime series Fullmetal Alchemist, airing on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim late night cartoon block. The game tells the tale of the Elric brothers before their adventures in the first game. It offers a lot of cool storylines, wonderful voice acting and visuals that are sure to stir the soul of any true blue FMA fan.

Square Enix and developer Racjin have tweaked and changed the gameplay over the first game by leaps and bounds including improvements to Al's artificial intelligence, a graphical overhaul to the entire game world, new objects and weapons that players can transmute and use and a storyline that is awesome, fun and moving.

But the hallmark improvement to the game is the graphics, which have gotten a major overhaul over the previous title; now the game sports fully cell-shaded graphics that are almost as slick as the animated sequences in the game and the series its based on. The game just looks so much better this time around offering slicker animations, improved special effects and buckets of style. Monsters, bad guys, and NPCs of all shapes and sizes have also been refined and redesigned to add to the already cool overall presentation.

The role-playing in Full Metal Alchemist 2 is still a minor thing, with more attention being focused on combat and the art of transmuting. The game still allows you to control Edward and direct Al to do various things. Both can power up and level their respective skills. When our favorite brothers do level up, players dole out points that come from a shared bonus pool. These points can be spent on various attributes like power, defense, alchemy skill (for Edward) and a lot more. Players can also equip two items for each brother that will give them various bonuses to stats and special skills like the ability to get more item drops when they kill monsters, the ability to stun monsters and a boost to the amount of experience gained after each kill. While the RPG end of the game isn't very deep, it gets the job done. Obviously the focus here is supposed to be on combat moves and alchemy to kill things. To that end the RPG system gets the job done.

While there's not a heavy emphasis on role-playing there's a massive amount of focus on fighting, alchemy skills, inflicting massive combos on your enemies and bonuses based on those combos. FMA 2 also puts more of an emphasis on making Alphonse a useful part of your team. Al is a heck of a lot smarter than he was in his last appearance on a videogame console, and because Edward can bring him back from the dead he's a smarter and more useful tank character than he was previously. You can make Al pick up alchemic weapons and use them, man turrets and various other devices that Elric can create and generally make him work more closely with you to handle thousands upon thousands of bad guys more effectively.

If there was one thing I have a complaint about with this particular game, it is its short gameplay time. Strip away all the glitter and cutscenes and you only have about ten to twelve hours of solid play - that's pretty short for any kind of game, let alone an action role-playing game. Sure, you can replay through the game after you beaten it with all your items and experience intact, but it's not quite the same as having an additional 10 hours of gameplay.

So what's the final verdict on the Elric brothers' latest adventure? If you're even a moderate fan of the anime series then this is a must buy title. Fullmetal Alchemist 2 feels like a whole new, previously unreleased season of the anime. FMA 2 does a grand job of portraying the boys as they are in the show and improves on the weaker elements of the first game to create an action adventure that is fun and easy to play. It's a real shame that it's so short, but what's there is worth the price of admission for fans of this popular and entertaining anime series. For the rest, FMA2 is probably a rental first, because it is a lot shorter than it should be.

Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel and Fullmetal Alchemist2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir and all images associated with the games are copyright © 2004, 2005 Square Enix, Inc. All rights reserved, used with permission.