Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel lets you play as a pair of brothers who practice the art of alchemy. This magic-like system lets them create weapons from nearby objects and adds interest to their battles.

They key here really is that the game is *perfect* for fans of the anime series. It has the same characters, a lovely cel shaded look to it, great dialogue, fun voices, and draws you into the storyline.

When you're having battles you get fun options to create mini-guns and other weapons out of items lying around. It adds some variety to what you're doing.

You primarily control Ed, the "short" brother (who goes ballistic any time he's called that). You supposedly get support from Al, the robot-body brother, but this rarely works the way it should. This was much better handled in the sequel, where Al would actually attack on his own and help you out.

There is a LOT of dialogue and cut scene watching in this. At one point in the beginning I actually wondered if I had put in a playing DVD by mistake and would never get a chance to do something. It does get better as you go through the game, but it is very much a "moving story" that you watch as well as play.

People who have never seen the series before will probably be confused and not appreciate a lot of what is going on. The target audience for this is clearly someone who knows the series, knows the story, loves the characters and wants to interact with them. Those players will be very forgiving about the waves of copy-cat enemies, the lack of RPG upgrades (despite earning experience points and leveling up) and the linear levels.

Well recommended for fans. They'll love it. Non-fans will probably do better with similar games that don't expect you to already know the lore.

Rating: 4/5 for fans

Buy Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel from Amazon.com