Full Metal Alchemist and the Broken Angel is notable only in in that it is the epitome of generic. It fails to be memorable or original or entertaining, while simultaneously managing to avoid being memorably terrible. Racjin had took a completely forgettable brawler, added one slightly interesting idea but not even a modicum of polish.

Full Metal Alchemist is based on the anime of the same name, currently running on Cartoon Network. You take the role of Edward Elric, an alchemist prodigy, as he survives a train hijacking and tries to make his way home, solving the mystery of a chimera-filled town along the way. His younger brother, Alphonse, is a little boy's spirit bound to a giant suit of armor, tags along for the ride, trying (but mostly failing) to keep Edward from making too much of a fool of himself. They've got quite an interesting backstory, but don't expect to get much into it in this game; that's what the anime is for.

Instead, this is a largely-inconsequential side story, dealing with the fate of a couple incidental characters from the anime. Not that the story lends much of a framework to the game; most of the objectives are along the lines of "run across town to catch up to this guy so Ed can yell at him." By the time all is said and done, you'll just wish Ed would give up on some of the people he's chasing; too often you're given no reason for what you're doing other than Ed's whim.

It's not like he's doing it for the scenery. There are boxy city streets and linear canyons and repetitive mazes in spades in Full Metal Alchemist. A handful of environments are reused over and over again, to the point where even the somewhat-visually-interesting chimeras (multiple animals fused into a single creature) get annoyingly repetitive. Expect to fight each boss at least a couple times, and expect to see each area at least a half-dozen times.

Of course, a brawler can survive even the flimsiest story and the lamest environments if the action is there. Too bad, then, because Racjin just couldn't bring this one together. Ed is slow and sluggish, with a noticeable lag in his attacks. (This lag makes even the simple jumping puzzles a nightmare.) While he can technically call upon his brother, Al, to cover him or for team-up attacks, Al is slow to the point of uselessness in responding to calls for help, and the team-up attacks are inexplicably difficult to activate. Without a robust combo system or really any sort of originality, it's back to the tried-and-true pound-the-attack-button-as-fast-as-you-can brawling that will excite few.

Full Metal Alchemist does have one interesting hook: as Ed is an alchemist, he can transmute items laying around the stage to turn them into weapons. Ed can switch on the fly from dagger to boomerang to broadsword by transmuting barrels and park benches, or whip up a gatling-gun emplacement from a pillar. It's rarely necessary to do anything with this but whip up a quick spear or dagger so Ed isn't using his weak armblade, and many of the things that can be transmuted are useless or unclear in their application, but this is FMA's sole source of variety.

Even fans just looking for some extra time with the Full Metal Alchemist cast will be disappointed. There's about a single episode's worth of traditional animation on this disc, as most of story is told in text-only cut-scenes. These rather dry cut-scenes aren't even voice-acted.

The sound deserves special note; it's terrible. The music is from the anime, but is cut into annoyingly short loops. The cut-scenes are conspicuously quiet, as if they were originally supposed to be voice-acted and time or budget ran short. The little voice-acting there is, little in-battle snippets, are tinny and low-quality. It's just a mess.

If you can get past the bland presentation, don't expect much. Without actually retelling any of the events from the anime, Full Metal Alchemist recycles ideas and premises shamelessly. There's a fight against some revolutionaries on a train, ending with a fight against an officer with an automail arm. There's a spunky kid who wants to learn alchemy, but isn't allowed by an adoptive father. There's a fight with the Flame Alchemist. It's not the same train, kid, or fight with the Flame Alchemist as the anime, but you're left wondering why they didn't just reuse the anime's story if they weren't going to be original.

Originality is what Full Metal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, in the end, is lacking. The transmutation is mildly creative, but it's not going to sustain a been-there-done-that story or utterly mindless, thoughtless brawling. This is a poor use of the license, a poor effort to please fans, and a poor game overall.