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| Pollyanna 2996th Post
  
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|  "Re(4): Random Thread *I'm no stalker* edition" , posted Sat 5 Feb 19:57  
Did anyone else pick up Last Story? I haven't had the chance to play it a lot, but it's one of those games that's so much fun, I have to be forced to stop by outside forces. I think Mass Effect 2 was the last game like that I played. Actually...it reminds me a lot of Mass Effect 2.
RAAAANT
The fights have a really wonderful cinematic quality to them. Nothing is like "hit the enemy until it dies." If you're interested enough to read my ramblings, you've probably seen the trailers, and so you probably know that there's a heavy stealth/sniping element to the battles. One of the very early boss battles was especially interesting.
You're fighting a huge monster in a small room, with snipers picking you off from beyond your reach. Your mages can't get off any spells with the snipers harassing them and the big monster is chasing you relentlessly. You have to pick off the snipers while the rest of your party toils with the big thing, then climb up a platform, wait for the monster to come close, then do a special attack on its head that sends it hurtling face first into a wall. While it's stuck, your mages enchant your swords and you go to town on its ass until it pulls its head out and you start again.
They get more complicated than that, but it might be a bit bothersome to explain. The point is that the battles play out like a narrative without burdening you with any actual cinemas. Everything's in real-time, and you interact with your environment as well (blowing up platforms that snipers are standing on, knocking unsuspecting guards off of ledges, toppling pillars to crush giant monsters, hiding behind boxes, luring an enemy out, then ambushing them, etc...).
The main town is impressive as well. The character animations are really good and really diverse. There are two guys fighting each other, and people passing by will notice them and stop to watch. People are sitting and chatting, cooking, watering flowers, repairing walls, etc. You can hit your head on low-hanging signs, slip on a bunch of lemons that hit the ground, or shoot (!) banana peels at people to make them slide and fall. Its the most lively and interesting town I've seen in an RPG by a long shot.
I like classic RPGs too (I'm enjoying Criminal Girls on PSP right now as well), but I feel like "this is the direction RPGs should take." It has a bunch of fresh ideas and they all work wonderfully. The game really pulls you in and really propels you forward. It still has its downsides, though...
*The story, thus far, is super generic.
*The main character is lame.
*The soundtrack is good, but sub-par if you're expecting Uematsu's best.
*It suffers from some (expected) technical limitations.
*It's a bit easy. You have 6 "lives" in each battle, and although the solutions to the fights are clever, your party members solve the puzzles for you.
*They gave me an awesome dress to wear and no means to upgrade it.
This is neither a plus nor a minus, but the game has an excess of strangely beautiful men (with women's names). Even the middle-aged knight captain has gorgeous hair.
Just to end on a positive note, I like the voice direction as well. It sounds more like a Final Fantasy or Metal Gear dub... not quite as "anime" as most games (even if it still uses "big name" anime voice actors).
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| chazumaru 728th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(5): Random Thread *I'm no stalker* edition" , posted Sun 6 Feb 07:34:
I am fifteen hours in, around Chapter 25.
I am surprised how much I enjoy it. It gets very good starting from the intrusion in the Boat.
The game is full of great ideas. All battles have a strategic element to them and some can even be avoided entirely if you think your actions through. The Boss Fights are especially memorable as they all require some sort of trick to be completed. Of course the first fights are explained quite openly, but I enjoyed struggling a bit later on as it would take some time to understand the exact trick which needed to be performed.
It seems obvious to me that the town is heavily inspired by the Assassin's Creed series. Besides Shenmue, I have never seen a Japanese game make so much efforts on one specific place. It feels much more natural than the neighbourhoods in RGG, or even the town in Grandia. I love the sidequests and how they unlock new cool features (did you find out how to swim in the river?). I really appreciate how the color customization system and the forging system are set up. The whole bowgun thing (i.e. how it is applied inside and outside combat) reminds me of Azel's lock-on system.
Regarding your negative points, I have some comments:
*The story, thus far, is super generic.
Rather than generic, I would say it feels awfully dated. It is a typical scenario from the SFC generation; it could have been a story written by Sakaguchi between FF4 and FF5. Some important plots elements are downright stupid by modern story-telling standards and require a black belt in suspension of disbelief.
At least, the game is neither pretentious (like FF13), nonsensical (like FF13), loud (like FF13) nor filled with annoying modern anime archetypes (like FF13 Tales or Star Ocean 4). Thanks to all these horrible plots and characters from the last eight to ten years, I have lowered my expectations so much that I am almost relieved to follow a simple story such as this one.
One positive element about the story is the local feel of the adventure. Unlike most RPGs, you do not travel around the world and collect visits of millenial shrines all over the world. One entire sidequest is spent surviving an ambush in a tavern infested with bandits. The stories sometimes remind me of the type of quest you would rather experience in a pen and paper RPG.
*The main character is lame.
Yes. And he is called Elza. What the hell.
*The soundtrack is good, but sub-par if you're expecting Uematsu's best.
Many nice tunes though; I sometimes whistle some by accident at work. Sure, it is probably not as memorable as Anata Wo Yurunasai. However the town theme variations are excellent, which is important since you listen to it for so long in the game.
*It suffers from some (expected) technical limitations.
By which you means PS1-style slowdowns. Sometimes I think it goes down below 15fps. However it is cool to see a game try to reach the limits of the hardware. As cute as Xenoblade was, it remained a glorified PS2 game technically. The Last Story almost feels like a HD game shoe-horned on the Wii, which is quite cool.
*It's a bit easy. You have 6 "lives" in each battle, and although the solutions to the fights are clever, your party members solve the puzzles for you.
I like the life blocks system (isn't it only five?). I take it as a similar approach to how SaGa works with LP and HP. What would have made the game much more challenging and maybe more intense would have been to only regain those lives at a save point or the inn, rather than after each fight. Then, losing one life block would have meant much more, especially for your comrades. Maybe this is how the NG+ works?
*They gave me an awesome dress to wear and no means to upgrade it.
That means you are not so far in the game hohoho. Or maybe you have missed one specific character who could do that for you~
I was not expecting much from what I had seen of the game, but the long time allowed for polish has really paid off. I find the comparison with FF13 downright fascinating and I did not expect Sakaguchi and his new friends to have this kind of energy and ideas in them.
We can play some multiplayer next week if you want. It rewards players with a lot of interesting loot. However, don't try any of the Boss Battles until you have reached at least Level 20~25.
無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は
[this message was edited by chazumaru on Sun 6 Feb 07:38] |
| Pollyanna 2997th Post
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| "Re(6): Random Thread *I'm no stalker* edition" , posted Sun 6 Feb 08:03
quote:
Of course the first fights are explained quite openly, but I enjoyed struggling a bit later on as it would take some time to understand the exact trick which needed to be performed.
Looking forward to it! The battles are certainly frantic, so trying to figure out what to do in the midst of that is really exciting. To me, seamlessly adding a puzzle element to a game is a sign of strong game design (Mario Galaxy is a good example of this.) I was sad that so few of the later battles in Xenoblade required much specific strategy, especially since a few of the early ones were a bit more cinematic.
quote:
It seems obvious to me that the town is heavily inspired by the Assassin's Creed series.
Well, it certainly reminds me of Italy. They seem to have stolen a bridge from Venice.
quote:
The Last Story almost feels like a HD game shoe-horned on the Wii, which is quite cool.
This is true. Unfortunately, I feel like it suffers even more than the average Wii game when it comes to looking bad on HD TVs. Still, I remember Sakaguchi talking about how they could do more things because they didn't have to worry about HD, so I'll take what I can get. Even if the frame rates drop like crazy, I enjoy the character animations a lot.
quote:
And he is called Elza. What the hell.
To go along with our Tasha and Jill. And Trista? Because "Tristan" is actually a man's name and that wouldn't do at all.
quote:
*They gave me an awesome dress to wear and no means to upgrade it.
That means you are not so far in the game hohoho. Or maybe you have missed one specific character who could do that for you~
You just made my day.
Anyway, I'm still quite early in the game, so I haven't even considered online yet. With any luck, I'll spend most of the day playing like crazy, so maybe my opinions will be more "well rounded" after that.
PS: I think I'm in love with Manamia. She would make up for a game full of Elzas.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Pollyanna 2998th Post
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| "Re(7): Random Thread *I'm no stalker* edition" , posted Tue 8 Feb 19:42
Chaz:
Just beat
Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
Jill
End of Spoiler
That song was INCREDIBLE! Even if the scenario was a bit silly, that was one of the high points of the game for me. It can only go downhill from here, I'm afraid.
Manamia looks lovely in Kanan's dress. Are there any more special costumes? I have the dragon armor (thank you, haunted house). I'm tempted to upgrade it all the way, just to see how crazy it gets. Keeping the helmet on for everyone would certainly give the game a different flavor.
I learned how to dive a while back, but chickened out on the dungeon. Finished the first 2 rounds in the arena. Hope there's more!
quote:
the town is very richly detailed
How does it compare to the major towns of FFXII? Those were very lovely, even though the bulk of the towns people were noninteractive.
It's on a different level than FFXII. You can bump into people, listen in on conversations as well as engage in your own, trip people with banana peels, etc. Everyone seems to be doing something, from dancing to cooking to laundry. It's not just...totally amazing, where every townsperson has their own personality or backstory or whatever, but it's at least as impressive as Rabanastre in FFXII was when the game first came out. It's very lively. It feels like a real city.
It's really the only big area to "explore" in the game, though. All of the maps and scenarios are very focused. Not necessarily in a bad way, though...more like Mass Effect 2 than FFXIII.The game is short, but very rich.
The boss battles have continued to impress. I like how the game has a seamless narrative between dungeons, battles and cinemas. The story doesn't stop for the battle, the battle is part of the story. The clever ways you overcome the enemies reminds me of like...a shounen fight manga or something. That's where the game really shines. The worst boss battle in this game is better than the best in plenty of games. There are very few (if any) battles that resemble "random encounters".
As Chaz mentioned, the game really has a bunch of great ideas...but more than that, they all WORK. It's impressive that they were able to pull this off the first time when so many other games can't even get old ideas right, let alone incorporate new ones.
It's a shame that the story doesn't match the rest of the game in terms on ingenuity, but on the upside, the characters don't talk in circles, the cinemas are exciting, straight to the point and well-balanced with gameplay and even with a sappy romance, there's not a overabundance of melodrama.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Gojira 2706th Post
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| "Re(5):Re(10):Hard Corps: Uprising" , posted Sun 20 Feb 11:25
Yeah, Contra:HCU is quite fun, and even though I personally hate ASW their style works well here, especially when scaled down like this. I also like that if you enter the Konami code on the load screen for stage one, you get a version of the classic Contra stage 1 theme.
The difficulty is hard but not brutal, which is fine, but combined with the unskippable scripted scenes it tends to be a bit annoying to explore the ins and outs of each stage. At least they're short. Also the English voices that frequently pop up are hilariously bad, but it's also endearing as it gives the game a sort of 90's arcade aesthetic. If this was standing up in one of my favorite noisy arcade haunts 10 years ago I would definitely have shoved in some credits.
I'm let down by the DLC so far though. I tried the ninja girl (Sayuri I think?), but she only has a sword and doesn't seem to use any of the weapon powerups. She has more health, can do faster short-range attacks and charges up a full-screen attack, but I still kind of feel like I wasted 200 points on an incomplete character.
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| karasu99 555th Post
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New Red Carpet Member
| "Re(6):Re(10):Hard Corps: Uprising" , posted Wed 23 Feb 02:35
quote:
Yeah, Contra:HCU is quite fun
I love love love this game! It looks incredible, the styling of the characters is great, the music (don't recall who it's by) is perfect both for Arcsys and for the Contra series itself, the bad guys remind me of Treasure villains for some reason, the anime intro was enjoyable and exciting, and rising mode makes playing it over and over even more enjoyable. Plus, the difficulty level is really well tuned. This last is especially notable when viewed against Contra 4, which to me had a strangely adjusted difficulty.
I played this for about 5 hours last night-- longer than I've played a game in one sitting for quite a while, making it a much better value for around twenty bucks than games like MvC3, which was three times as expensive.
Also, in terms of the DLC characters, I got the idea that Sayuki is meant to be the 'hard' character (since I did not last very long with her) and Harley is meant to be the 'easy' character (since I stole the game's lunch with him). So maybe that is the point of Sayuki. I don't know.
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| Loona 381th Post
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| "Re(2):Ono saying crazy things again edition" , posted Fri 25 Feb 21:32
quote:
What's baffling about this comment is that Ono basically says that the Arcade edition is purposely less balanced than the home version to enhance the community & competitive spirit, what the hell does that mean?
Ono believes fighters with unbalanced characters are more interesting than those with balanced characters. AE characters were intentionally made unbalanced for that reason.
People on fighting forums have voiced similar opinions, that unbalanced fighting games are better than balanced ones, so it isn't exactly an uncommon thought.
This intrigues me quite a bit... let's try and come up with a pros and cons list:
Pros:
- An unbalanced competitive environment might create a wish for a new, more balanced version of th game -> more business in the near future; it wasn't that long ago that the GG games got away with several updated re-releases with a few tweaks and maybe a new character or 2 two each, but I'm not that familiar with that series' competitive environment
- playing up the relevance or certain characters - for merchandise purposes I guess it could work in some cases, but really, what company would set out to make a one-of-many character like Sentinel its focus, when there are more interesting individuals in their game? There ar, however, cases like Juri, which was made easy to use (certainly much easier than Hakan), and were focused on a lot in promotional material...
Cons:
- a competitive environment that degenerates easily into everyone picking the same character(s) - less of an issue in team-based games, sense there's still room for variety once the major threat character is dealt with, but things can get repetitive easily
- all the work the devs put into the many other characters gets disregarded by the players, as they gravitate into the highest tier guy(s) - makes them less interesting to bother with sequels or reusing the least-used characters n future games
- players who focus on the less powerful character basicallysee their effort wasted as they're creamed by "play to win" crowd that only picks and masters top tiers - makes the game less fun and less likely to get more people competing.
Maybe there's more than this, but still seems like a bad idea...
"Beat the machine that works in your head!" - Guano Apes "Open Your Eyes"
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| Baines 277th Post
Copper Customer
| "Re(3):Ono saying crazy things again edition" , posted Sat 26 Feb 05:06:
quote:
Maybe there's more than this, but still seems like a bad idea...
I have my own theory, but first the arguments I can remember hearing...
1) The more balanced characters are, the more identical they are, and the more boring the game becomes. The less the concern for balance, the wilder the design can get, and the more entertaining the game can be.
2) You mentioned relevance of characters, and for better or worse, that is an excuse that gets used. Both gamers and designers can believe that "powerful" characters need to be on the stronger side of the roster and "weak" characters should be on the weak side. There are both gamers and designers that want Dan to be one of the weaker characters in Street Fighter, because story-wise and concept-wise he is supposed to be weak. And they want Gouki/Akuma to be strong.
3) Not a legitimate reason, but rather a justification, there is sometimes the claim that weaker characters have the countering advantage of unfamiliarity. Basically, that because fewer people will want to play as them, people will have less experience fighting against them.
4) Another that is more justification than reason is the claim that people will be driven to explore other characters more in order to counter the strong characters. In a best case scenario, someone finds something that can complete reshape character rankings. And that can breath new life into the game as a whole. At least that is what some will argue as an excuse against balanced characters.
5) Some people like to play the underdog, and an unbalanced roster helps them choose as much as it does people who want an advantage. Again, not really a good reason to aim for unbalanced, but it is something that people have said. It pretty much depends on the idea that upon faced with a balanced roster, both the people who want an advantage and those who want a challenge will walk away to go play a different game.
6) Unbalanced characters lead to underdog victory stories, which can generate interest. It can also lead to grudges against the strong characters, and the people who use them. It can help engineer rivalries and help establish players as known figures that others might want to face or emulate, again generating continued interest in the game.
But I think it mostly comes down to "Most people want an advantage." People like to win, and overpowered characters are popular. People like to feel strong. Yes, you end up with most people playing the overpowered characters, which does a fair job of negating such advantages, but human nature still holds. Plus, you still have that advantage over everyone else that doesn't play an overpowered character.
[this message was edited by Baines on Sat 26 Feb 05:14] |
| Nobinobita 873th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member++
| "I want Catherine (and Katherine!)" , posted Sat 26 Feb 19:22:
In related news, Catherine doesn't look hot enough for western audiences. What Atlus saying now and has been doing since long ago to~~~~tally doesn't match at all, it might seems that right now they are going to just pull off a mean, nasty move.
I'm glad the game's doing so well. I feel like maybe this is part of their marketing plan, to drum up demand. That or I'm grasping at straws. I really want this game! It's got a comfortable "mature" or "adult" sensibility to it. The trailers make it feel like a Murakami novel or a Polanski film. I'm excited to see that paired up with very classic, brutally punishing arcade gameplay. The characters in the game (and the target audience) are approaching their thirties, so they presumably remember arcade games like that. It also works as a nice metaphor for relationships. Punishing, costly, repetitive, but also addictive and rewarding when you win.
www.art-eater.com
[this message was edited by Nobinobita on Sat 26 Feb 19:24] |
| Ishmael 4028th Post
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| "Re(1):I want Catherine (and Katherine!)" , posted Sun 27 Feb 10:28
quote:
I'm glad the game's doing so well. I feel like maybe this is part of their marketing plan, to drum up demand. That or I'm grasping at straws. I really want this game! It's got a comfortable "mature" or "adult" sensibility to it. The trailers make it feel like a Murakami novel or a Polanski film. I'm excited to see that paired up with very classic, brutally punishing arcade gameplay. The characters in the game (and the target audience) are approaching their thirties, so they presumably remember arcade games like that. It also works as a nice metaphor for relationships. Punishing, costly, repetitive, but also addictive and rewarding when you win.
Chazumaru is undoubtedly right in that Cathy will eventually make it out of Japan. But before it does I do hope they add more of a sliding scale to the difficulty. Making Catherine into Sexy Lode Runner was unexpected but making it tough as nails seems like a mistake to me. The presentation of Catherine feels very new and different. For people who have grown up playing videogames Catherine finally looked like an opportunity to play a mainstream game that was going down a route that had previously been unexplored. Instead, early reports are that Catherine is embracing every repetitive, frustrating, OCD habit that have been the hallmark of the worst videogames since the beginning of the industry. What I want out of a relationship is the chance to experience things I could not alone. I hope I'm wrong but I'm worried that Catherine is instead going to be a demanding, dysfunctional pain in the neck.
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| Loona 382th Post
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Silver Customer
| "Athena and Momo's Excellent Adventure (nope)" , posted Wed 2 Mar 00:56
quote:
Queen's gate includes Wonder Momo, finally something good from that game.
I had to look that one up, and seeing her original game's setting and whom else is in Queen's Gate, I can't help but think she'd make a great duo with SNK's Athena, but afaik there's no Queen's Blade/Gate book with her, nor have there been screenshots of her so far... I wonder if this'll succeed well enough for a sequel with more borrowed characters.
I really wish it could make it without the forced near-nudity though...
Speaking of which, it's nice to see SC's Ivy is in there too now.
BTW, other than this game, Cross Edge, the Samurai Spirits RPG games (that chapter split by console was a bit odd/unfortunate), KOF Kyo and debatably Namco Vs Capcom, are there any other RPGs that use fighting game characters in them?
The concept kinda interests me - move lists and combos come and go with each game, but a format other than 1-on-1 fighting has a way to preserve more "timeless" (for lack of a better word) aspects of a character.
"Beat the machine that works in your head!" - Guano Apes "Open Your Eyes"
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| Loona 383th Post
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| "Re(2):Athena and Momo's Excellent Adventure (" , posted Wed 2 Mar 10:08
quote:
Would you count the Nakoruru adventure game on DC?
My SNK fandom hurts for not remembering this one :(
Some quick research reveals it was a PC game before becoming a DC one, but there aren't many screenshots - the ones that are there hint at it being closer to a visual novel with focus on artwork and dialogue - still nice, but I was hoping for stuff that could translate the battle abilities to other formats. something the CFC games surprisingly succeed at for such a different format (Ex: Guile's defensive skills are so great he disables enemy skills!).
quote:
Off the top of my head and stretching thin, we have...
+ Athena Asamiya in Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life (you could argue she did not begin her career in a fighting game)
Forgot this too, shame on me. The focus here seems to be on mind-reading abilities and stuff like that, iirc...
quote:
+ Virtua Fighter characters in Virtua Fighter Cyber Generation
Wasn't aware of this one - gotta check. seems to have been marketed to kids, so I'm expecting some form of simplification of the controls, should be interesting to read about, even if the setting seems to be mostly outside that of the VF characters, not unlike the CFC games.
quote:
+ Some Virtuaroids from Virtual On in Dai3ji Super Robot Taisen Alpha
I think they're also in one of the portable games, for DS I think. I'm sad they went with Apharmd with a hat, to me the charm of that one was having a giant mech with camo pants.
quote:
+ Rainbow Mika in Startling Adventures
Now that you mention it I recall seeing her in some non-SF game's cover - gotta check how playable she is in that, assuming her skills can be used.
Thanks for mentioning those!
"Beat the machine that works in your head!" - Guano Apes "Open Your Eyes"
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| sibarraz
12th Post
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New Customer
| "Re(3):Athena and Momo's Excellent Adventure (" , posted Wed 2 Mar 12:34
quote:
Would you count the Nakoruru adventure game on DC?
My SNK fandom hurts for not remembering this one :(
Some quick research reveals it was a PC game before becoming a DC one, but there aren't many screenshots - the ones that are there hint at it being closer to a visual novel with focus on artwork and dialogue - still nice, but I was hoping for stuff that could translate the battle abilities to other formats. something the CFC games surprisingly succeed at for such a different format (Ex: Guile's defensive skills are so great he disables enemy skills!).
Off the top of my head and stretching thin, we have...
+ Athena Asamiya in Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life (you could argue she did not begin her career in a fighting game)
Forgot this too, shame on me. The focus here seems to be on mind-reading abilities and stuff like that, iirc...
+ Virtua Fighter characters in Virtua Fighter Cyber Generation
Wasn't aware of this one - gotta check. seems to have been marketed to kids, so I'm expecting some form of simplification of the controls, should be interesting to read about, even if the setting seems to be mostly outside that of the VF characters, not unlike the CFC games.
+ Some Virtuaroids from Virtual On in Dai3ji Super Robot Taisen Alpha
I think they're also in one of the portable games, for DS I think. I'm sad they went with Apharmd with a hat, to me the charm of that one was having a gi
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
I don't know if it counts, but in shenmue you can tell in some parts that this game at some point would be the ''virtua fighter RPG'' that yu suzuli had in mind, some characters had movelists similar to some VF characters, and well, also, the virtua fighter figurines that appeared on the game, so technically, I guess that we could include shenmue
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| Pollyanna 3002th Post
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| "Re(3):Quin's Gait" , posted Sun 6 Mar 05:01:
I don't know if anyone else played it, but for the record, I thought the first Queens Blade game was pretty good. I wouldn't have pursued it on my own, but it came with a very enthusiastic recommendation and I ended up liking it very well. If you don't take it too seriously, I'd recommend it to SRPG fans. Even the clothes destruction was kind of fun because it gave you something to watch even when you were getting beat.
I liked the overall system better than any SRW game (though admittedly, I haven't played one in a while) and the battles were a bit more thoughtfully put together, in my opinion. The only downside (from a system perspective) is that I lost interest in the game once I realized how much you could abuse a certain stat that made several characters grossly overpowered.
I'm not too interested in the new one for some reason, though. Maybe it's because I don't mind watching characters have their clothes torn off when that's what they were made for, but when it happens to characters from other titles, it feels kind of wrong. Like... sex symbol characters are fine, but having a character reduced to a sex symbol leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
[this message was edited by Pollyanna on Sun 6 Mar 05:01] |
| Pollyanna 3005th Post
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| "Re(2):AT LAST!" , posted Thu 17 Mar 05:48
quote:
What did the international sales on the previous Disgaea titles look like? I doubt it was over 50% of the total but it might help.
I remember the numbers being better than expected for such a niche title, but I don't know exactly. Although 200,000 was optimistic for Japanese sales, they should at least meet that number internationally.
Raaaaant...
Assuming it still has a following in the west, I don't think it'll be a disappointment to fans. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, myself. They really need to dump that damned Rosenqueen song, though. The music at your base is so cool, but every time you go to the shop or level up your skills, it starts that annoying song. And since the items in the shop are randomized, you may find yourself stopping and restarting the song 20 times before you get what you want. This is nothing new, but it's driven me crazy for a long time.
Also, the voice acting is kind of shoddy. A lot of potentially funny lines are ruined by mediocre delivery.
Wait...I said I was enjoying it, then I started complaining...hahaha. Well, what I mean is that those are stains on an otherwise enjoyable experience. The HD sprites are adorable, and it's neat to see the dialogue pictures actually animate. Some of the levels are really devious in their puzzle elements, and thus far, the plot is really well-paced, even if the writing is a bit sloppy here and there.
One really amazing thing is that you get to choose the personality of your (generic) characters when you make them. In other words, you choose one of three voice sets for them. Usually one of them is totally out there. For example, one of the ninja sets gives them this fake foreign accent. They say stereotypical "Japanese" things, like "Sushi!" and "Fujiyama!" and "Harakiri!" Killing someone (or leveling up), then having your character yell "sushi!" is strangely enjoyable. Not to be outdone, the main character often yells "sardine!"
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Pollyanna 3007th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(1):recently localized psp games" , posted Tue 22 Mar 08:22
I put about 10 hours into Duodecim before I thought I could use some "time off" from it. There's nothing really wrong with the game, it's just that if you pumped 100 hours into the first game, you might get burned out a lot faster on this one.
Oh, wait...there's one thing wrong. The difficulty balance is really off. The game will suddenly become incredibly easy or incredibly difficult without much of a warning. I only find about 1 in 3 fights terribly satisfying.
On the upside, the story is much improved from the original, which isn't saying much, since the original had one of the worst plots imaginable.
As for God Eater, the game(s) always came out when I was knee deep in Monster Hunter, so I never got around to playing them. A friend of mine picked up the US release and left me with the following impressions:
*It gives you a quick fix that Monster Hunter might not be able to.
*You have 20 different voices for your character and all of them are bad in different ways.
*The opening is awesome.
Also to anyone who may be reading this, even if you don't care about God Eater, give the soundtrack a shot. I'm starting to wish that Go Shiina would compose the soundtrack for EVERY game I play. I'm tempted to pick up the game, just for an excuse to listen to the soundtrack some more.
By the way, what is it you don't like about Monster Hunter? That might be fixed in God Eater, or even the newer version of MH. MHP3 is relatively pain-free, especially compared to something like Dos.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Pollyanna 3008th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(1):Xenogears Myth" , posted Tue 22 Mar 09:42
quote:
The idea of a new Xenogears orchestral album literally 13 years after the game came out, and after an arranged version was already made, is so bafflingly bizarre and potentially insane that the Random Thread is just the place for it. The music is still wonderful all these years later, but, but, but...who will care?
ME.
Mitsudaaaaaa...what happened to you!? This album is SO GOOD. It blows my mind to think that I remember almost every track from Xenogears and Chrono Trigger like...note for note after all these years. Speaking of which, Square recently released an Orchestra CD with a Chrono Trigger medley that was super nice.
Myth really caused a "game music explosion" in my heart. Fortunately, I've been playing Disgaea 4 lately, which has long stretches of bad music in its fights. That's given me plenty of time to bust out the Xenosaga soundtracks, Myth, Tales of Legendia and God Eater. I keep waiting for Mitsuda to make a dramatic revival, but I have Go Shiina to fill the hole in the meantime. Shame he isn't doing the Tales of Xillia soundtrack. It's a pity that the worst Tales game has such an amazing OST, while the better games have utter crap.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Spoon 2135th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(2):recently localized psp games" , posted Tue 22 Mar 13:04
quote:
By the way, what is it you don't like about Monster Hunter?
I'm certain I've gone over this a few times in this forum, but here goes anyway:
- unless you've already played the game or its previous iterations many many times and can beat the monsters naked while wielding the starting equipment, you need to grind a lot. I say "need to grind a lot", because without the right weapon, it takes forever to kill something, and without sufficient armor, you can die in 1-2 hits... which wouldn't be quite so bad if it weren't for how long it takes to kill something. It's also quite difficult to fight when you have both low health and lack special protection (e.g. earplug).
- a lot of the grinding is intensely boring. Getting the 1000 iron ores needed for an Onslaught Hammer was not something I could call fun or interesting in any way.
- it's too easy to waste a lot of time grinding up the wrong weapon. That Onslaught Hammer that took 1000 ores? Yeah, it still deflects off of a lot of monsters that are of rank suitable to your armor... which means you need to grind up a different weapon.
- it's hard to tell how long it'll take to kill a monster, which leads me to wondering whether or not I should grind up some other weapon or just stick with what I have. While there are cues in animation once a monster is getting very low on health, until that point you really have no idea how well you're doing.
- the skill system is obtuse. Without looking up an FAQ, I really have no idea what some of the skills do or what the different bonuses they give are at the different ranks of the skills.
- the rewards for progression feel really unrewarding. This feels kind of hypocritical, because I'm probably the biggest EDF fanboy there is, but I don't feel rewarded when one of the rewards for killing Rathalos is unlocking another quest where I get to kill Rathalos. Or maybe two Rathaloses! Same goes for some of the armor upgrades; since you might break your skills by swapping in just one piece of armor, you might have to wait until you've gotten the whole set before you can actually equip it.
- The font is fugly.
- I have long fingers so the claw grip is extremely uncomfortable.
- You can't meaningfully participate in higher level hunts because number of deaths is a team restriction. As a result, my presence on the team is a liability to the success of the entire team. Either my pals play without me, or I spend the entire game sitting at the base, or they have to go down to lower level hunts which are trivialized by their equipment or the fact that the hunt rewards are useless to them. No matter what, the result feels like a waste of time for me and/or them.
- I could download a hacked savefile that has tons of everything so that I can actually participate in the higher level hunts with them without investing 100 hours in the game beforehand, but then that invalidates the entire feeling of meaningful hunt rewards for them.
There's probably more that I can't recall offhand, but this post is long enough already.
In short, there's no way for me to play this game that doesn't make the experience feel like a waste of time. I normally love challenging games, and MH is full of things to love: its art is great, it's full of big meaty impacts, it has plenty of memorable audio... but I just can't stand playing it.
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| Pollyanna 3009th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(3):recently localized psp games" , posted Tue 22 Mar 14:52
quote:
I'm certain I've gone over this a few times in this forum, but here goes anyway:
I'm sorry, I forgot that you were the person I always disagreed with about Monster Hunter. I wasn't trying to stir up an argument. I think it got unpleasant last time where I was even complaining about your friends or something.
I'm not saying this to argue your points, but I feel the need to defend the latest game for those who may be on the line about the series...
I think Portable 3 is quite user friendly in reference to the previous games. I believe it is quite possible for a relatively inexperienced player to play to the ending (or finish all of the town quests) without repeating any given mission more than 2 times. For the first time, I played through the game with no FAQ or any online assistance, making only what equipment was readily available to me. Most resources were acquired from the farm, not from the levels themselves. I found the experience to be fairly easy. I would imagine that a less experienced player would find it "reasonably difficult".
On another note...
quote:
- the skill system is obtuse. Without looking up an FAQ, I really have no idea what some of the skills do or what the different bonuses they give are at the different ranks of the skills.
MHP3 has made an advancement in this area, letting you know how many points you need to get to each level of bonus and what that bonus provides, but the obscenely long list of different skills still makes the system, as you said, obtuse. I don't mind the trade-off, for such a robust system, but it's undeniably daunting and can require a lot of work to wade through.
The talisman system also totally sucks. It's neat that you have an "accessory" slot that gives you a chance to really customize your skill set and use a bunch of different armors that you might not have otherwise, but the way that you acquire the accessories is just plain stupid. I can understand if they kept a really powerful weapon away from you unless you totally went out on a limb for it, but making something so essential come from random mining is really obnoxious. It doesn't hinder my ability to play or succeed in the game, but I wish I could win talismans by passing challenges, rather than luck and the lowest level of what I would call "grinding."
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Pollyanna 3010th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(5):recently localized psp games" , posted Wed 23 Mar 05:09
On God Eater:
I got to spend some time with it yesterday. I'm no expert, but here are my early impressions in case you're wondering:
*Looks slick. Lots of variety in NPC characters, even if your character can only be "cool young anime hero".
*Again, the soundtrack is great, but it's poorly implemented. Some very powerful songs are wasted on random scenes and it often skips from one track to the next haphazardly. Still, the battle themes are great, after you turn down the oppressive sound effects.
*It's super easy to get into and the quests are short enough to play in any number. Switching between gun and sword on the fly is fun and stealing moves from the enemy is a neat touch.
*Since I don't own the game, I haven't been able to play multiplayer, but I like how you pick your team offline. It feels like an RPG. The fact that you can send special bullets (stolen from the monsters) to your pals with the press of a button is really cool.
*The cinemas and plot are only so good, but they still do a good job of moving you forward and keeping you interested in the world. I wish the voice acting was a little less grating (it's hit or miss), since the player communication during missions is a nice touch.
*Despite my wealth of compliments, the game feels more like a way to kill time than something meaningful. It plays well enough, but I don't feel like there's enough room for me to improve as a player. It's too simple and straightforward. Maybe that'll change as you progress, though.
*I'm not fond of the physics in the game. Your hits are too floaty and there's not much of a sense of impact. Feels like a Tales game or something. The monsters are fairly well-designed, but their animations are weak and they don't respond well to your attacks.
I'm trying not to compare it to Monster Hunter, but judge it on its own merits. It's a good game and I'd recommend it, but it's lacking an extra "umph" to really draw me in. Maybe once I find some more advanced things to do...
On the subject of Monster Hunter...
quote:
I don't think it got unpleasant at all!
I do remember you had a lot of valid points about how your group approached it, but it just didn't apply to mine.
I'm really glad to hear that. I try to express my opinion without being too rude, but sometimes when I'm so opinionated, I'm afraid it comes out wrong.
quote:
That sounds like a big improvement. I'll have to check it out... though I have a feeling by the time I do, MH4 will be out.
I don't know where they're taking the series next. Probably a 3DS port of the PSP games. The ending to P3 said "this is the end of this series". Maybe that was just my interpretation of it, but it seems like they're reaching the limit of what they can do with the PSP anyway. Maybe we'll see a 3P 2nd G, but I wonder if they can fit much more on a UMD and the game has plenty of content already.
If they do a "reboot" I hope they don't go back to their earlier line of thinking, as I certainly share most of your complaints when it comes to the early games in the series.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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"Random Thread "I'm no stalker" edition" , posted Fri 4 Feb 01:42:
"Re(2):Random Thread" , posted Fri 4 Feb 05:15
