Doubt many of you have heard of this game, as it kind of snuck in and out of the market pretty quick, so allow me to give a brief explaination.

*ahem*

CIMA (which is almost always spelled in caps even though it doesn't seem to stand for anything), is a GBA game developed by Neverland Company and Natsume. It seems to be considered an RPG, but it has some elements of puzzle games all over the place. The game is about a pair of Gate Guardians-in-training, Ark and Ivy, who are learning the basics of their job from a fellow named Jester, who happens to be one of the six greatest Guardians in the world. But what is a Gate Guardian, you ask? They are soldiers who are to look out for Gates and defend civillians from the CIMA race. Gates are portals that link Earth to an alternate universe called the Gate World, where the CIMA originate. CIMA are basically monsters that feed on human hope, but there are more details that you learn about later in the game. For instance, as there are elite Gate Guardians on Earth, the Gate World has a team of nine advanced CIMA, but you only ever meet one of them (and his little group of minions that are not exactly specified as being one of the elite).

Well, as the story begins, Ark and Ivy are on a train with Jester and 14 other people, all heading for a mostly uninhabited part of the country that they refer to as the Frontier (which is why the Japanese version of the game is called Frontier Stories). They don't expect to encounter any danger, but it's always good to be prepared. Anyway, something does indeed happen, and the train encounters an unusually large Gate that forces everyone into the alternate world. It is here that Jester elaborates on the way the CIMA do things, and teaches Ark how to lead people safely through dungeons.

Which brings me to the objective of the game. You are to use points to direct people to locations within the dungeons, which contain puzzles to be solved in order to advance (the CIMA install these puzzles for the specific purpose of building up hope in their victims). You are expected to rescue people as you go through the game (everyone gets separated at the begining), and you are to protect them all. Why? Because the game ends if anyone dies, so you should especially look out for those little kids who barely have any hit points. x_x

I found it to be very creative and at some points absolutely hilarious, an overall excellent game despite its translation errors (one particularly major one at the end of the game that nearly throws the conversation out of context XD). Sure, it's not the best game out there, I can admit that, but it is definitely worth a run through if you can find the game anywhere. It's relatively short, taking about 15-20 hours, but it's a pretty good storyline with a lot of great characters (Rick the cowardly magician being a personal favorite of mine). The only problem is that the game was supposed to be part of a trilogy, but after 4 years there haven't been any sequels. This is bad because there are some plot holes that needed to be filled, some of which opened up just because the first and last cutscenes of the game contradict each other. =/ It's like they built up all of this suspense only to confuse us. And it was too well put together to be another translation error, so meh.

It has some pretty artwork, though there only seems to be official art for about 4 or 5 of the characters.

So, anyone else play this game or need to know anything else about it? I didn't want to flood the first post with too much text...

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I saw previews about this, but I never did see a review or a copy in the store.

Was it a sleeper/cult hit or sleeper fail?

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Heh, heck I dunno.
Hardly anyone seems to have played it, but those who have seem to like it. I mean I haven't even seen it in stores since the day I bought my copy, though occasionally I see used copies of the game for sale, so yeah, good luck trying to find it. x_x Definitely a sleeper-something.

Though on the plus side, I guess it means that I have a somewhat rare game on my hands. (hehe) Too bad I don't have the original box it came in anymore.

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I honestly didnt enjoy it that much. i got it brand new a long time ago. I thought it wouldve been great bust sadly just got old and lowsy 3 hours in. although the diffculty was pretty challenging, it didnt save it from being in my pile of games that have been traded in for money to buy more games

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Hmm... well you have to admit that the Village of Rooda was amusing, right? ^_^;

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