Let’s just get this out of the way: Mind Zero is a blatant knock-off of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona with a bit of Etrian Odyssey mixed in. Luckily for us, and developer MindDiv, those are both good games. Even though I uncovered few traces of originality in Mind Zero’s depths, I still found an enjoyable dungeon crawler with engaging turn-based battle mechanics, lively voice acting, and interesting exploration.

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Traversing Mind Zero’s dark and creepy dungeons is fun, thanks to puzzle-rich levels and easy-to-navigate corridors. I liked that I never knew what was around the next corner, whether it be a warp point that would send me to a far-flung corner of a dungeon, or a tough monster standing between me and the nearest exit. Stumbling upon randomly placed treasure chests rewarded my trepidation with super-rare items, and I even approved of the upticking difficulty level in dungeon layouts, as it kept me consistently challenged for its 40 hours. I did start to get bored with the myriad sidequests that had me trudging back through the same dungeons over and over again (and long loading times between levels didn’t help), but using warp points and a fast-forward button during random enemy encounters made getting through these a lot easier.Speaking of enemy encounters, I really dig Mind Zero’s battle mechanics. The way you call upon ghostly beings (called MINDs) to help you in battle and use magic cards to boost stats is clearly inspired by Persona, but in a rather liberating twist, you can freely choose which powers MINDs have by swapping magic cards in and out of a character’s skill slots. You can also upgrade or enhance these cards with points acquired through combat. Deciding which cards to upgrade and equip became harder and harder as I progressed, as enemies became stronger and required different strategies to beat. For example, monsters have different elemental strengths and weaknesses. In order to defeat them, I needed to have the right types of spells equipped, otherwise my party would be wiped out in a hurry. Conversely, if I had spells that decimated these enemies in one turn, I’d be given bonus points. It gave me incentive to think more strategically (beyond simply not dying, of course).I wish I could be as enthusiastic about the plot as I am about the gameplay, but this is where Mind Zero almost lost me. The story doesn’t get much deeper than knowing that a group of high school friends must then employ their special powers to stop a group of bad guys from using MINDs for evil purposes. Even with a couple of plot twists and a cliffhanger ending meant to garner interest in the eventual sequel, I just couldn’t bring myself to care much about what was happening.The fact that the protagonists aren’t very interesting certainly didn’t help. They all have personal reasons to be involved in the story, but I never got to know them well enough to care. For example, the goofy Leo has been afflicted with a monstrous arm that will eventually take over his whole body if he doesn’t find a way to void the contract between him and his MIND... but he was more interested in showing off the latest goofy gadget he’d bought online than discussing it. This type of shallow writing causes other characters to be equally bland.If there is one bright spot in all this, it’s the acting. Thanks to some nimble voice work by the English voice cast, I actually enjoyed sitting through the mountains of stilted dialogue that accompanied each story event. And if I ever felt like practicing my Japanese or wanted to hear Takehito Koyasu’s silky smooth voice, I could switch over to the Japanese audio whenever I booted up my save file. I also enjoyed the catchy soundtrack and pretty graphics, which did a lot to bolster up the sagging story and elevate Mind Zero’s overall presentation.