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| Pollyanna 3154th Post
  
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|  "Re(4):Randomly New Random News Thread: Hayama" , posted Thu 15 Dec 09:42  
quote:
Speaking of games in need of panic buttons, DoA5 screens that actually feature girls have been released.
I love it! I'm glad they graduated from the stupid doll look. Well, they still kind of look like dolls, but they look like really good dolls now. Before I could say "I own dolls that look better than these."
It's always fun when a designer has to decide what a character would look like if they were a real person. I'm glad that they decided that Hitomi is 80% adorable and 20% funny looking.
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Speaking of upcoming games, TTT2 has been confirmed for a home release during... the holiday season of 2012? The hell?
Beats the wait we had on Tekken 6, which was announced before the PS3 launched and before anyone knew anything about the arcade version. In a world where games get announced 5 years before launch, this isn't so bad, but I guess it seems more frustrating since the game is essentially done already.
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While I love the new reveal and that Platinum Games is developing it, there's quite an outcry of hate around the internet about how "it's a button-masher, not a real Metal Gear" or that "it's too unrealistic and fantastic to fit the metal gear canon" and at the same time think that the 2010 watermelon cutting tech demo looked much better in terms of gameplay and even graphics. Which is just hilarious to me.
People complained about the original when they released info on it, too. Now Platinum can be a hate shield! I hate to see that, since they're probably my favorite developer, but I'm glad they're up to something, as it seemed like they were moving abnormally slow.
On the other side of the spectrum, I am terribly sad to see that Kojima's team is evidently useless without his direction and that he's condemned to either make every Metal Gear himself or shop it out to someone else entirely.
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http://www.1up.com/features/the-man-who-created-street-fighter
I was contemplating whether I should post this on the SNK thread or not since Takashi Nishiyama did spend a big amount of his career basically creating SNK's fighting game repertoire, but it also has a lot of classic Capcom information. Anyway, I enjoyed reading it.
Thank you so much for posting this. There was a lot of information there that I was ashamed not to know. You are my shame-eraser for the day.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Pollyanna 3155th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
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| "Re(6):Randomly New Random News Thread: Hayama" , posted Fri 16 Dec 09:47
quote:
Interesting new look! We were just complaining about this the other month, about how the DOA 1 character design was "PSOne CG" as opposed to a distinctive hand-drawn style translated to 3D, which I feel hampered the designs' ability to grow beyond "PSOne art." These are still a bit close for comfort, though, and probably will feel similar in several years, unless they really decide what these people actually look like as drawings...
I'm feeling hopeful for the game, and thus charitable, so I'm going to say that they had a misguided attachment to the doll-like designs and that the ones we're seeing now are an intentional "happy medium" between those and something that resembles actual humans.
I'm glad that we can see more than a 10% difference in features between the girls. Before, the message was that there was only one kind of pretty girl, and a divergence of more than 10% would result in something undesirable. I've bitched about this before, but I feel like they did the same thing with the girl's personalities in DOAX2.
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You bring up a good point about Kojima Productions and Konami in general. Other than their soccer games, Konami haven't made a big budget internally developed HD game since MGS4. Capcom for example made RE5, Lost Planet 2, and will be releasing Dragon's Dogma before Rising. And this ratio remains the same when considering outsourced developed games of both companies.
Konami doesn't do jack these days. They don't even outsource well. I can't believe they used to be one of my favorite companies. On the upside, I feel like Sega has recovered from their "laughingstock" status. But maybe that's my Platinum bias.
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And it seems that Kojima is now intruding Platinum's other plans as (Max) Anarchy Reigns has been delayed till summer
Bluuuhhhh! One delay is enough! I might have to go back and play Vanquish again. I recently finished Gears of War 3, which I liked at first, but bored me to tears by the end. For the last few hours, I kept thinking "I could be playing Vanquish..."
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Moo
72th Post
Occasional Customer
| "Re(7):Randomly New Random News Thread: Hayama" , posted Fri 16 Dec 12:38
I've always liked Dead or Alive for its animation, exciting combat and interactive environments. It's hard to tell people I like it though, because they always assume that it's only about the sex appeal.
I may be wrong, but I thought Dead or Alive 5 looked like they're still using the same face/body models, just with better textures, normal maps and shaders. The prerendered models used for images/cutscenes back in Dead or Alive 3 looked much better than the ones in-game and I think DOA5 looks more like those now, which is great.
I used to do some modding with Dead or Alive meshes and still have some of them on my drive. I've no idea if this is interesting to others, but I like to compare triangle counts and differences between sequels. They're also great for reference. Ayane's DOA3 black ninja outfit is around 13k triangles, and her overalls outfit from DOAU? is around 17k. I don't seem to have it on-hand, but if I recall correctly, her Beach Volleyball model was around 30k triangles. I guess they had polygons to spare from having simpler environments or something. A few meshes from other games for comparison: Resident Evil remake's Jill is ~12k triangles, Devil May Cry 4's Dante is ~30k and Marvel vs Capcom 3's Felicia is ~18k triangles.
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| badoor
239th Post
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Frequent Customer
| "Re(8):Nobunaga, I choose you!" , posted Sat 17 Dec 12:25:
quote:
What the hell?
If the pokemon universe is actually set in our "real" universe. Then can we expect to see other games set in real life historic wars that used pokemons as tools of destruction? How were pokemons used in World War 1 & 2? or the crusades? I mean, we already know KOEI will probably do a Sangokushi, three kingdoms version. I'm already picturing the poster with Lu Bu and a his might Snorlax.
EDIT: Trailer
It basically looks like Pokemon SRPG, which I'm surprised they have never made before AFAIK. Also, I'm surprised that 1500s japan possessed the genetic bioengineering know-hows to create Mewtwo. If not then this game is not only breaking the real-life lore canon of Nobunaga fighting wih pokemons but its ALSO breaking Pokemon lore too, unless Mewtwo time traveled to the past.
quote:
>Pokemon
>prohibition era
>Team Rocket as gangsters wielding Raticates, Honchkrows, Haunters, and Banettes along with their firearms
Wow, this must explain why Meowth speaks like a 1920s gangster in the anime.
[this message was edited by badoor on Sat 17 Dec 13:41] |
| Maese 667th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
| "Re(8):Nobunaga, I choose you!" , posted Sun 18 Dec 00:37
quote:
What the hell?
You know, there are these times when you think that you've already seen everything under the sun and there's no point on seeking for anything new that might strike your fancy or refresh your weary eyes anymore. I was having one of such periods. And now this... thing comes out totally out of the blue, forcing me to admit that, indeed, there is room for the unexpected on this world. While I'm highly skeptical about the final outcome, hey, at the very least THIS is a surprising one. Way to go, Koei!
Being a die-hard Nobunaga fan myself, I'll have to keep an eye on this. Now I wonder what the next WTF game featuring Nobunaga would be... a Nobunaga dating simulator? A Nobunaga-raising game à la Princess Maker? One can only wish!
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| Pollyanna 3156th Post
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| "Re(6):Randomly Random Encounter" , posted Thu 22 Dec 20:05
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Ha! The people that FF and DQ are being farmed out to really indicates the relative quality trajectories. DQ gets Level 5, who are clearly The Kings of Town, and FF gets...Tri-Ace, who are the kings of...something less good.
I agree that Level 5 are "the Kings of Town" in reputation, but I think there are a few things to put in perspective.
Level 5 mostly makes games for children. I don't like to say something is "too childish" for me, but Level-5's games cross that line. In addition, I don't believe they've made a decent RPG on their own. Certainly not ones that are significantly better than Tri-Ace's. Their recent PS3 Ni no Kuni also sold surprisingly poorly (though I can't personally account for it's quality or lack thereof).
And although Dragon Quest sells hugely well in Japan, it still falls far behind Final Fantasy due to international sales. Japan isn't even the largest market, after all.
Personally, I wish more companies would outsource to Tri-Ace, as they can put out games that look good, sound good and play good, but always seem to have unspeakably rotten stories.
But I still agree that Level 5 has a fantastic reputation, whereas Tri-Ace only has a reputation among big RPG fans.
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Hey wait just a minute, Tri-Ace used to make legitimately cool stuff. And during that period Enix used to publish their games (thinking VP and Second Story here).
I don't see Tri-Ace as being any better or worse than they were before. They make good games that fall short of greatness. I would say that VP is the one to break that standard, but it has aged a bit poorly, as interesting as it was when it came out. I have a lot of fun with their games, but I rarely win them because I have a blast with the system, but have no commitment to the narrative.
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Square fucked everything up and lost all their homeys' love.
I actually had a positive impression of FFXIII, until I finished it and realized the whole game was like Swiss cheese. But I have no doubt that XIII-2 was dramatically cheaper to produce and used a large amount of the cut environments from XIII. So that will likely cushion the lack of sales their bad reputation from XIII will cause them. Pity if it's an outstanding game and people don't buy it, though.
Which reminds me... I believe Devil May Cry 2 sold better than DMC3. When you make a game with a bad reputation, making a good sequel might not count for as much as it should.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Maou 2285th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(7):Randomly Random Encounter" , posted Fri 23 Dec 03:45:
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I agree that Level 5 are "the Kings of Town" in reputation, but I think there are a few things to put in perspective.
Hmm, I wouldn't just acknowledge that they have a great reputation, I would note that the reputation is duly deserved because they really do make good games! (Not games that I necessarily play! But undeniably good games! With actual craftsmanship and intelligent designs and visual appeal and uniqueness, and everything!)
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I don't see Tri-Ace as being any better or worse than they were before.
I realize I wasn't very nice to Tri-Ace. I mean, Star Ocean 1 on SFC was probably pretty impressive (I didn't care at the time), Star Ocean 2 sure did have two endings (I didn't care at the time), Valkyrie Profile was clearly good (I still didn't care at the time), and I have at least part of them to thank for spawning the break-off team that eventually made the one (uniformly) good Tales game.
But, but, but, but then, I just don't know what there is to say about a company that made Star Ocean 4. I've never even played it, but somehow I'm deeply, personally embarrassed that it even exists.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Fri 23 Dec 03:46] |
| Pollyanna 3158th Post
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| "Re(8):Randomly Random Encounter" , posted Fri 23 Dec 08:06:
Speaking of FF, did anyone else play Type-0? It's a pretty fantastic game except for its completely absurd difficulty balance where you have impossibly hard sidequests or no sidequests at all. Then difficult main quests that you're not prepared for because you can't finish the sidequests. It's like playing a SaGa game or something. It's really kind of game-breaking for me.
But boy, does it have a lot of beautiful death and destruction. It really had me gritting my teeth a couple of times and thinking "stop killing each other!!!"
If anyone hasn't seen it, the opening is quite good and represents the game very well:
Ace isn't the main characterrrrr
(Don't stop at the title screen, you've got a gratuitous chocobo death and Bump of Chicken following.)
quote:
Hmm, I wouldn't just acknowledge that they have a great reputation, I would note that the reputation is duly deserved because they really do make good games! (Not games that I necessarily play! But undeniably good games! With actual craftsmanship and intelligent designs and visual appeal and uniqueness, and everything!)
I'm sorry, looking back at my post, I realize I said that they made games for children, but I didn't say that they make extremely GOOD games for children (which is true). I don't have anything against Level 5 at all, but I'm still waiting for them to make a game I like. The closest is Dragon Quest 9, which I can only give them partial credit for.
Also, play more games. Newer ones.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
[this message was edited by Pollyanna on Fri 23 Dec 08:22] |
| Pollyanna 3165th Post
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| "Re(4):Asura's Wrath demo on PSN and XBLA" , posted Wed 11 Jan 17:10
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Ugh, but... I can't believe that Capcom is just putting forward this Dragon's Lair-esque QTE monstrosity-- it looks beautiful, but the gameplay is just non-existent.
It's a shame, because I enjoyed the bit of gameplay hidden in the demo. Though I suppose even that was just a vehicle for the cinemas. CC2's recent Naruto game had the excuse of having a complete (if simple) fighting game on top of its QTE super cinemas. If you just want to PLAY Asura's Wrath, I wonder if you're out of luck, or if they'll have some sort of mode to facilitate that.
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Plus, the soundtrack was composed by MGS's Norihiko Hibino.
Ah! I want to say it had a few remarkable tracks, but I didn't know he did it. I just thought "From Software usually has good soundtracks."
And
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Remember kids, in a better world everyone is Wakamoto
Thank you. That is possibly the best thing I've ever seen.
Also, please make another fighting game, Treasure...and not on a portable system. I don't even care if it's Bleach again.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| karasu99 819th Post
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| "Re(5):Asura's Wrath demo on PSN and XBLA" , posted Thu 12 Jan 06:53
quote:
It's a shame, because I enjoyed the bit of gameplay hidden in the demo. Though I suppose even that was just a vehicle for the cinemas. CC2's recent Naruto game had the excuse of having a complete (if simple) fighting game on top of its QTE super cinemas. If you just want to PLAY Asura's Wrath, I wonder if you're out of luck, or if they'll have some sort of mode to facilitate that.
It's a super shame, since the game looks really great and has a lot of playfulness to it, like the enormous stone dude you fight, and Asura constantly raging out all over the place. Let's put it this way: it's either an awful QTE-fest or whoever decided what would go in the demo made a serious miscalculation and included only most QTE-heavy stuff. If the latter is the case, I'll be curious to hear if the full game is more playable.
ANYWAY, on a more cheerful note, I saw this, which I can't remember if we discussed here or not-- it was announced a while ago and just now released. It's extremely good-natured, and it's pretty obvious that the people who made it really love the source material. It reminded me of the Super Mario Crossover game from a few years back that included a bunch of playable NES characters.
www.secret-arts.com
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| Pollyanna 3167th Post
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| "Re(6):Asura's Wrath demo on PSN and XBLA" , posted Fri 13 Jan 08:35
Abobo reminds me of this.
Love those howls of anguish (?). And the "punch until the enemy walks into it".
quote:
Oh man, I hope that works for the NA version of Asura's Wrath. I downloaded the demo last night but haven't had a chance to play it. No matter what, I'm grotesquely excited for it just for the art direction alone. But I am hoping that the final game has some actually engaging gameplay in it.
Capcom's tearing me apart on this one.
Check out the Limited Edition
I'm not always adverse to playing a Japanese game in English, but I'm really hoping for a Japanese option on this one, or I might have to import. I would say "sure Capcom has enough sense to do this", but they didn't for Basara 3, so who knows. It might be an issue of lip flaps, so maybe I shouldn't be so harsh.
I don't know if I can justify the cost of importing the LE, there doesn't seem to be a US LE, and I might have to go for the Asian version if I want the Japanese voices. This is a uniquely frustrating situation!
It's so hard to be a snob!
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Gojira 2806th Post
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| "Re(7):Asura's Wrath demo on PSN and XBLA" , posted Sat 14 Jan 04:36
quote:
I'm not always adverse to playing a Japanese game in English, but I'm really hoping for a Japanese option on this one, or I might have to import. I would say "sure Capcom has enough sense to do this", but they didn't for Basara 3, so who knows. It might be an issue of lip flaps, so maybe I shouldn't be so harsh.
To be fair, I suspect the reason that Basara 3 didn't have JP voices (among other things) was because of the existence of the Wii version. Since Capcom handles cross-platform as "whatever we can't do on one platform we will not do on another," the lack of space in Wii media for extra voice and DLC basically cut any possibility of that off at the tail.
Although I can't complain about the English voices in Basara 3 because they're freaking amazing. Even cheesy Red Ranger Yukimura was the best possible casting they could have done. I know it does nothing for people weaned on the JP voices though (which is like 90% of the players).
Anyway since Asura's Wrath is not being cross-released on lighter platforms, I'm fairly certain that there will be a JP voice option.
As for why the game is the way it is, remember who's developing it. No, not Capcom, the other one. The Naruto people.
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| Pollyanna 3168th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
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| "Re(1):SRW does Tetsujin-28" , posted Wed 18 Jan 20:29
quote:
[url=SRW does Tetsujun-28]Super Robot Wars Z2-2 goes with another series that once seemed impossible, creating a precedent for pilots outside the mechs?
The article also mentions 40 series - wasn't the previous record 30-something in Alpha 3?
Giant Robo was in...erm...Alpha 1? It was on PS1, whatever it was. You fought a tiny little Alberto in that one, too, but I don't remember much else about it.
I don't think anything could stop me from playing Z2-2. Z2 is my favorite in the series by a factor of 10. Actually, it's the only one I've played that really clicked on every level for me.
I'm glad that they're announcing new series for 2-2, but they had things covered pretty well in the first game. There were some strange inclusions, but I didn't cry over any omissions. I wonder if we'll be losing any series, though. A lot of stories really concluded themselves (Eureka 7 and God Mars come to mind). Mazinger and Gurren Lagann still have a lot to give, though.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| karasu99 824th Post
PSN: robotchris
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Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(2):SRW does Tetsujin-28" , posted Thu 19 Jan 02:22
quote:
[url=SRW does Tetsujun-28]Super Robot Wars Z2-2 goes with another series that once seemed impossible, creating a precedent for pilots outside the mechs?
The article also mentions 40 series - wasn't the previous record 30-something in Alpha 3?
Giant Robo was in...erm...Alpha 1? It was on PS1, whatever it was. You fought a tiny little Alberto in that one, too, but I don't remember much else about it.
I don't think anything could stop me from playing Z2-2. Z2 is my favorite in the series by a factor of 10. Actually, it's the only one I've played that really clicked on every level for me.
I'm glad that they're announcing new series for 2-2, but they had things covered pretty well in the first game. There were some strange inclusions, but I didn't cry over any omissions. I wonder if we'll be losing any series, though. A lot of stories really concluded themselves (Eureka 7 and God Mars come to mind). Mazinger and Gurren Lagann still have a lot to give, though.
Ahhh, this is fantastic news! Not only did I love the first game quite a bit, but I've been waiting for any iteration of Tetsujin 28-goh to appear in SRW for ages! On the downside, it appears we get Shin Tetsujin (aka 80's Tetsujin) rather than my personal favorite, the 1950's one, unless my crappy Japanese skills fail me completely.
More info here, with the complete list here, for those who don't want to dig too much.
www.secret-arts.com
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| karasu99 829th Post
PSN: robotchris
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Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(9):RE 6: Sausage Fest" , posted Sat 21 Jan 08:50
More info has been released regarding RE6 (link checked for accuracy THIS time): one more male lead (the other guy from the trailer) as well as some interesting notes about the tone they're going for-- zombies, to start with, and more shock scenes that require quick reactions (yeah, now that I think about it, that probably means a ton of QTEs). The setting will be the US and China.
I am in the minority I suspect, since I didn't care for RE5 at all, and was only lukewarm about RE4, for that matter. I understand that the series has moved on from its PS1-era roots of encountering zombies in enclosed spaces and careful ammo management, but I just don't care for the direction it's gone in, personally. Here's hoping that 6 will have at least a teeny tiny bit of a return to what I liked about the series in the first place!
www.secret-arts.com
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| karasu99 830th Post
PSN: robotchris
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Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(3):Re(10):FF XIII-2" , posted Mon 23 Jan 14:33
In a strange turn of events, I ended up trying the Final Fantasy XIII-2 demo tonight. It's the first new FF game I've tried since FF8, so I was prepared to be confused, and I wasn't disappointed. For the duration of the demo I had no idea what was going on, ever! It's very pretty, that's for sure! There are of QTE's during boss battles, but they call them something else. I didn't mind them, but there is little indication ever when one is about to be triggered.
I very nearly tried the first XIII, but I was derailed by a lot of negative info I heard-- that it was a completely linear game with no overworld and no cities or anything, and therefore no exploration, really. I've heard some better details about XIII-2, but playing the demo, I'm kind of tending toward not trying it, since I felt overwhelmed by its systems.
Also, I don't really care for the character design-- one of the main people, Noel, looks an awful lot like his character design comes by way of Kingdom Hearts, a series that I've studiously avoided in the past.
I'm suspecting that Polly may arrive and tell me why I should give modern Final Fantasy a shot. But then again maybe not!
www.secret-arts.com
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| Pollyanna 3170th Post
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| "Re(4):Re(10):FF XIII-2" , posted Mon 23 Jan 17:24
I've said this before, but although I enjoyed FFXIII tremendously at times, once I realized what a hack job it was, it lost all of its magic. It's like finding joy in something because of its powerful message only to find out in the end that it actually had no message whatsoever, or a totally stupid message unlike what you were imagining. It's strengths are fine (it's certainly beautiful and has many lovely touches), but its weaknesses are enough to break the deal. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
BUT, I also wouldn't recommend FF8 to anyone in this day in age. I might even recommend 13 over it.
I haven't picked up 13-2 yet because I don't like the protagonists. They're slightly more tolerable in Japanese, at least, so if I do pick it up, I'll be importing. Also, what the hell is wrong with Chocolina's voice in English!? She's super hot, but she sounds like somebody's mom.
The game looks fine though, as long as you don't set your expectations too high. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece to be worth playing.
In terms of modern FF games, Type-0 was really close to being both a masterpiece and a step forward for the genre. I have never played a non-SaGa game with a more frustrating difficulty balance, though. Really soured the whole experience.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Gojira 2808th Post
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| "Re(5):Re(10):FF XIII-2" , posted Mon 23 Jan 20:25
I'm glad this came up because I played the XIII-2 demo the other day. I hated so much about FFXIII except for the battle engine (when it's finally fully-featured) and a couple of the characters, so I had low expectations playing the XIII-2 demo. Surprisingly though, I came back with a positive impression.
Everything about the demo seemed to be geared towards showing me that somebody was listening when I rattled off the list of things I hated about XIII. Like, specifically me. It's eerie. Everything that I could compare in the demo to what I experienced in XIII was fixed. There are NPCs to talk to, a shop that's not an inanimate object, hidden things to find, branching choices, puzzle mini-games, quests with greater variety than just "hunt monster A," and a complete battle system from the outset. I'm not totally turned around but at least now I may actually be interested in playing it.
My only complaint right now is that I don't like the idea of Serah as main protagonist after spending the entire first game as a frail-looking thing. And Noel looks like Nomura phoning it in again, since he literally looks like the creepy lovechild of Sora and Tidus. But the two grew on me a bit so who knows, maybe they can keep growing.
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| Pollyanna 3171th Post
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| "Re(6):Re(10):FF XIII-2" , posted Mon 23 Jan 21:50
quote:
My only complaint right now is that I don't like the idea of Serah as main protagonist after spending the entire first game as a frail-looking thing. And Noel looks like Nomura phoning it in again, since he literally looks like the creepy lovechild of Sora and Tidus. But the two grew on me a bit so who knows, maybe they can keep growing.
Serah is at least reasonably adorable, but Noel has a weak design, a boring personality, an annoying voice and a face that makes me angry every time I see it. Pity (for me at least), since Lightning is my favorite FF protagonist by a long shot.
Maybe it's just me, but I had a visual problem with the fights. It's nothing new for Square, but there's no sense of impact in the attacks. They don't look powerful...it's like ballet. And with the characters running around more, it's like everyone's kind of absentmindedly dancing while numbers show up. I feel like the increased motion was supposed to make it seem more like a real battle was going on, but it had the opposite effect.
I like the limit break-type things the monster party members do, though. Pausing the fight for a second gives it more focus...more of a narrative quality. I think if there were more visual "cinch points" like that, I would enjoy the battles more. I'm not talking about lengthy animations, but little 1-3 second pauses to break up the number ballet, add some drama and make the heroes look cooler. I'd like super quick QTEs for critical hits or something
RAMBLE WARNING
The QTEs in the boss fights seemed non-invasive enough and added a good sense of narrative. It got me thinking about how memorable all the fights in FF4 were, though. The bosses went through different phases and you had to react differently and use very specific tactics in each situation. I think because of that, the battles felt like a part of the story, rather than just numbers and graphics. The fact that your characters and their skills were locked probably contributed to that...so you have a sense of "Cecil did this" and "Rydia did this" in terms of the "fight narrative".
I don't really have a point, I just think that's one of the remarkable things about FF4 and why it's a (relatively) enduring classic.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| karasu99 831th Post
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| "Re(5):Re(10):FF XIII-2" , posted Tue 24 Jan 02:28
There's a lot to reply to here! Here are a few key points:
quote:
But don't worry, I'm here to tell you it's still okay to live in the past, before she gets here! OR or or here is someone else's better way of saying it, and here is a shorter version of that same way.
Wow is that a long review. Even the short version was long, but both were enjoyable reads. Eh, I would not say I live in the past, at least not game-wise, although my predilection for FFV might make it seem otherwise.
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Also, what the hell is wrong with Chocolina's voice in English!? She's super hot, but she sounds like somebody's mom.
I was thinking the same thing! Although somehow I feel like I recognize the VA. Not sure where from though!
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In terms of modern FF games, Type-0 was really close to being both a masterpiece and a step forward for the genre. I have never played a non-SaGa game with a more frustrating difficulty balance, though. Really soured the whole experience.
Well, I think this is what it comes down to for me: I think Square Enix is in a weird place with Final Fantasy as a series: Sometimes it's like all any fan wants is a remake of Final Fantasy VII, but at the same time they need to keep the series fresh so that people won't view it as a dinosaur (which they undoubtedly do, ultimately, regardless of what SE does). I want there to be a way through that introduces new systems and so on, while keeping enough of what makes it a Final Fantasy game, but... wow, XIII's systems and gameplay are so baroque as to hardly even feel like a game for me. Having never played the first game, I can't really see the improvements made in XIII-2, but wow.
Well, is an interesting game to try the demo of, at least. I'm super excited to try Type-0 though-- the videos I've seen have been pretty promising seeming!
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| mbisonhatclub 438th Post
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| "Re(5):Re(10):FF XIII-2" , posted Tue 24 Jan 23:07
My evaluation of the demo is that I feel pretty lukewarm about the experience. It wasn't anything great. It tries to seem less linear, but it just provides more routes the same end path, and then it has you backtrack at a certain point. I guess there is one point where it asks you what you wanna do, but I never gave mind to try the different answers.
QTEs are a terrible thing and I've always said this, and this game has not changed my mind one bit. I wish whoever invented QTEs would press the decision that makes himself jump into an active helicopter rotor.
The battle system didn't change much from the last game, and while I don't have a big issue with that, I do wish they could have polished it some more rather than just adding "cinematic actions" (aka QTEs).
What little dialogue I've experienced in this demo is just more samples of bad writing that Squareenix has become accustomed to doing, and the trailers don't seem to dispel that sentiment one bit.
The leveling system is like a more compartmentalized, encapsulated thing that is probably not too intuitive at first, but won't take too long to figure it out if you know the first game.
Cannot say I care for the Pokemon adventures featuring Sera and Noel standing in for Ash or Companion-of-the-season, but I never really liked Ash either.
The only real improvement in my mind is the fact that you have a better chance of outrunning the enemies that appear randomly now, or you can press some attack button to get a preemptive strike on them if you hit them with it.
And all I have to say from what I've heard is, get ready for FFXIII-3.
Did I mention how much I hate QTEs?
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| Pollyanna 3176th Post
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| "Re(9):Re(10):FF XIII-2" , posted Fri 27 Jan 08:18
quote:
Actually didn't they say in the original announcement in Jump something like that they will be covering everything in the story all the way till new world?
B-but it's so hard to believe! Especially with them showing so many characters from CP9. I expected just to have Lucci. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but it looks like Koei is finally starting to redeem themselves (in my eyes, at least). C'mon Konami, you're next!
I'm not nuts about the renders in Kaizoku Musou, but they look really good in motion. I like the way the enemies respond to attacks, and the character's techniques are captured much better than in the anime, which usually looks like complete trash.
Speaking of which, on the other end of the spectrum, Cyberconnect's new Naruto game seems to have replaced their amazing 3D animation with cheap-looking stills from the anime and mediocre animated cut scenes? I never thought I would see the day where I complained about 2D art/animation in a game (and want 3D), but here I am!
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| sibarraz 334th Post
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| "Re(4):Back to SFxT" , posted Fri 27 Jan 13:29
I still don't understand why Capcom is doing this
Nobody will say ''haha, good one Capcom, I think that I will buy your game just to support all this awesome trolling and to keep going with your sophisticated sense of humor''
In the other hand, lots of MM fans which are already completely pissed off are probably now exploding from nerd rage, there is a big risk that some customers will not want to buy the game or know anything about Capcom. If this point of view is right or not, or if fans should not take things that seriously, in the end it really doesn't matter, since it's more easy to not piss off this fans instead of telling to each one of those ''dude, you take your fandom too seriously''
In the days of Megaman 9 and 10, this would have been saw as an amazing joke, but in this era post Inafune where some fans flat out believe that Capcom hates Megaman, and where some of them is incredible salty, this is an stupid idea no matter how much you try to paint it
Well, at least since I don't care that much for Mega Man, is still a big lol even though I hate how Capcom treat their joke characters.
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| Megane 556th Post
New Red Carpet Member
|  "Re(5):Back to SFxT" , posted Fri 27 Jan 15:12
quote:
I still don't understand why Capcom is doing this
Nobody will say ''haha, good one Capcom, I think that I will buy your game just to support all this awesome trolling and to keep going with your sophisticated sense of humor''
In the other hand, lots of MM fans which are already completely pissed off are probably now exploding from nerd rage, there is a big risk that some customers will not want to buy the game or know anything about Capcom. If this point of view is right or not, or if fans should not take things that seriously, in the end it really doesn't matter, since it's more easy to not piss off this fans instead of telling to each one of those ''dude, you take your fandom too seriously''
In the days of Megaman 9 and 10, this would have been saw as an amazing joke, but in this era post Inafune where some fans flat out believe that Capcom hates Megaman, and where some of them is incredible salty, this is an stupid idea no matter how much you try to paint it
Well, at least since I don't care that much for Mega Man, is still a big lol even though I hate how Capcom treat their joke characters.
Ono tweeted that he consulted Inafune a year back regarding a Megaman character in SFXT... this was the result.
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| GekigangerV 1735th Post
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| "Re(5):Back to SFxT" , posted Sat 28 Jan 01:18
quote:
I still don't understand why Capcom is doing this
Nobody will say ''haha, good one Capcom, I think that I will buy your game just to support all this awesome trolling and to keep going with your sophisticated sense of humor''
In the other hand, lots of MM fans which are already completely pissed off are probably now exploding from nerd rage, there is a big risk that some customers will not want to buy the game or know anything about Capcom. If this point of view is right or not, or if fans should not take things that seriously, in the end it really doesn't matter, since it's more easy to not piss off this fans instead of telling to each one of those ''dude, you take your fandom too seriously''
In the days of Megaman 9 and 10, this would have been saw as an amazing joke, but in this era post Inafune where some fans flat out believe that Capcom hates Megaman, and where some of them is incredible salty, this is an stupid idea no matter how much you try to paint it
Well, at least since I don't care that much for Mega Man, is still a big lol even though I hate how Capcom treat their joke characters.
I think these two new characters are primarily an advertising tool for the Vita (and PS3) to try to drum up interest. I am sure more people will be exposed to this game due to the conversation over these "joke" characters as opposed to two more "fitting" guest characters like perhaps Morrigan and Ivy.
It was a calculated move by Capcom. Perhaps they could have taken the resources used to make these guys and put in two more real characters like Charlie and JACK, but that would not have granted them much exposure to the main stream.
Apparently Lupinko (the guy that leaks Capcom stuff) said that Pac Man and Mega Man were also in the 360 version, but SONY was able to money hat them as well.
It's unfortunate that 360 peeps lost out on two extra characters (I would've like to have seen tournament play footage with these two guys anyways).
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Is it really that hard to believe? A year ago Inafune was doing this.
I wonder if this was supposed to be a coordinated ad campaign that would have seen around the same release date as Mega Man Universe.
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| mbisonhatclub 441th Post
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| "Re(8):Back to SFxT" , posted Sat 28 Jan 04:02
quote:
Crossover games have often brought out such silliness.
If only MvC3 actually understood this, but Marvel is a dick company and of course I naturally am opposed to them due to my anti-corporate nature
Though on this same note, a lot of SFxTekken should have understood this as well; the crossover series has been a pretty loose and fun mesh of characters who have not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to be fighting against each other, much less pair up with each other, and the storyline was simply "I'm the evil throwaway bad guy, fear my generic motives of taking over the planet, muhahaha!" and oddly, Pacman and Megaman are the first honest step toward this direction, despite not being SF or Tekken characters.
I don't have anything against the Megaman/Pacman thing personally though I do have to nitpick on the Megaman thing, because he seems more representive of an out of shape basement-dwelling cosplayer than he does the actual boxart depiction with its dislocated right hip and hunchback posture and "I'll get you, my pretty!!" pose. And I dunno how anybody is surprised about it because it was ONLY leaked QUITE A FEW MONTHS BACK, and those who are surprised weren't paying attention when other people were yelling in their faces. Welcome to the internet, the home of people with attention deficit disorder.
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| Baines 310th Post
Bronze Customer
| "Re(5):Back to SFxT" , posted Sat 28 Jan 16:08
quote:
In the days of Megaman 9 and 10, this would have been saw as an amazing joke, but in this era post Inafune where some fans flat out believe that Capcom hates Megaman, and where some of them is incredible salty, this is an stupid idea no matter how much you try to paint it
If Megaman Universe had been released, then it would have made sense. A new Capcom game would have a tie-in to another Capcom game. But MMU was cancelled.
If it had been an alternate costume for another character, it wouldn't have been bad. It would have just been some joke reference.
Making Bad Box Art Megaman into an actual full blown complete bonus character is just a bad idea.
And actually, what does it really say about Capcom? Namco gets their mascot Pac-Man. He's a bit comedic, but putting him in a Mokujin robot is certainly better than making a Pac-Man fighter. Heck, Pac-Man even ends up being a Namco/Capcom hybrid thanks to the Mokujin bot. Sony gets their mascots. And Capcom gets...Bad Art Megaman... Who has now put on an extra 100-200 pounds, and looks like an idiot. That is Capcom's "mascot" for the game, a really bad cosplayer.
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| karasu99 846th Post
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| "Re(4):Re(10):Back to the courtroom" , posted Fri 10 Feb 01:14
quote:
Now what would it take to get SNKP to pull off something like this to make a Garou 2?...
Yes, I hope Double Fine will provide a good example to most eastern software houses.
Like Sega (Panzer Dragoon, JSR, Shenmue), Capcom (Vampire, Justice Gakuen, 16-bit Rockman), ArcSys (2D Guilty Gear) and Square-Enix (Chrono, Xenogears).
I suspect there would be quite a bit of eye-rolling if a big company like Sega or even SNKP did a Kickstarter for a game, given that there is a perception that they actually have money to make most games. What would be cool is if they would greenlight independent development of their 'forgotten' properties by smaller and indie (or doujin) companies without the looming threat of litigation and cease and desist letters (a la Sega and Streets of Rage Remake).
But this is all fantasyland!
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| badoor
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| "Re(4):Re(10):Back to the courtroom" , posted Sat 11 Feb 06:17
quote:
Now what would it take to get SNKP to pull off something like this to make a Garou 2?...
There is a small but annoying group of fans who claim that a game company "owes" them something because they bought a piece of merchandise at one point. Can you imagine how obnoxious these people would be if they felt they actually had a stake in the game because they threw $5 into a Kickstarter? I get queasy just thinking about it.
But in the specific case of the Double Fine Adventure game, that is exactly what they are promising, fan input on all types of stuff, from art assets to gameplay. I guess the final game would probably be a mishmash of Day of the Tentacles, Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island games.
Personally, while I'm happy to see that they're making a new adventure game, it just feels a little bit on the shady side the way they're making it. It reminds me of how big hollywood studios now have an "Indie" branded production company, even though that term doesn't make much sense (Big companies are actually sort of doing this with Pre-paying for upcoming unknown DLC). Who's to say they might just go spend all that money partying and the final game might just end up being a piece of crap, especially given that there's not a single detail about the game other than it's just an adventure game. Now Granted, there's probably no other group of people more qualified to do that then Double Fine, but still I'm not 100% behind this, only 85%.
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| sfried 753th Post
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| "Re(5):Re(10):Back to the Mansion" , posted Sun 12 Feb 16:57
Having finished the main campaign of Revelations, playing a little Raid Mode, and having listened to the interesting Retronauts podcast about the Biohazard franchise, I wonder if the "militarism" angle might have been set up right from the start, knowing full well the people who ended up were special forces. Not that it matters much, since people like the more adventure horror game aspects of classic RE/REmake over the more action oriented later installments.
What strikes me as interesting is Shinji Mikami's approach to all this. REmake had many new aspects introduced like Crimson Heads and Hunters breaking down doors (along with many nods to the original), but it's not as if RE4 was lacking in any aspect of fooling one's expectations. Granted, Silent Hill might have trounced RE's attempt at scares with psychological stuff, but there were earnestly creepy moments in RE4 moreso than RE5.
Which brings me to Revelations: I kinda appreciate that they are revisiting these aspects again in some form with the ship exploration. I still miss the aspect of viewing key items to solve puzzles. There's a little bit of that going on in this game with the log/diary readings and some wierd mechanism oreinted devilry, but I really wish they went full out with crazy pieces that take up inventory. I guess they were trying to make everything work.
That said, I find it to be a very good RE despite experimenting with an episodic structure. Their hearts are in the right place, and I can only hope some of it passes on to RE6.
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| Pollyanna 3196th Post
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| "Re(6):musou musou" , posted Fri 2 Mar 21:02
RANT RANT RANT
I got Kaizoku Musou. It has far exceeded my expectations so far.
Story mode has a surprising amount of puzzle/platforming stages. They aren't good for replaying, but they round out the adventure fairly nicely. The chapters are categorized as "Action" "Musou" or "Boss" (although both Musou and Action stages have bosses as well).
I think Wapol's level was the most extreme example. The first part has you carrying a sick Nami, trying to prevent her from freezing and setting her down so you can solve puzzles to advance. There are a few fights scattered through that part, but it's mostly puzzle. After that, it starts a new chapter, which is an extended boss fight with Wapol and that's it.
The boss fights are quite good and play out more like an action game than straight-up Musou. You'll have to do very specific things to damage them, like swallow water then spit it on Crocodile or feed Wapol (making him stronger and stronger) until he gets sick. You have to learn the bosses' patterns and come up with solutions, rather than the usual "run around, then do your combo."
Unfortunately, I haven't played in the Alternate Scenario mode, which I assume is more like a normal Musou game, so I can't say how robust that is or isn't immediately.
However, the "Musou" elements are not poorly done...in fact, I would say it's my favorite Musou type game yet (before wouldn't been Basara 2, though Dynasty Warriors 7 is good as well).
You can't jump...instead you have a quick dodge/dash. Your move speed is very fast and you have a wide variety of moves (normal and strong attacks, musou attacks and several special moves assigned to the shoulder buttons). Most attacks can be charged for more damage/different effects and numerous attacks have situational advantages (deflecting cannons, launching enemies, breaking shields, pulling enemies closer). The characters are definitely more robust than the usual Musou heroes. The skill customization isn't bad either, and collecting the equippable "coins" isn't annoying.
You can tell this from trailers, but the character animations are also very good, enemies included. There's a good sense of weight with the characters and all of the signature moves are well-represented.
I'm also fond of their minimalist approach to the story. Usually when I play a game adaptation, I'm bored to tears (Why would I want to watch a poorly-done oversimplified version of a story I already know), but they kind of went for a "only show the absolute coolest moments in the series" approach. The end segments to the boss fights are gratifying and the cinemas at the end of each level are fairly well-done too. On the downside, since it's sort of a slide show of cool parts from the series, people who aren't familiar with the story would be a little lost (although it might inspire them to get into it more).
The music is nice, too. Regular Musou screaming guitars with an added jazz flair. The Baratie's big band-sounding them is especially cool.
On the downside, the exclusion of Thriller Bark is a huge loss. As a result, although Brook is in the game, to my knowledge, there is NO SCENARIO IN THE STORY where he is actually an active crew member (Since he's not around for Impel Down and Marinford). I can see excluding Skypeia because it's more trouble than it's worth, but despite how much trouble Thriller Bark would be, it kind of needs to be there.
The game is also very easy, but that's to be expected of a Musou game. They spell out everything needlessly, but I'm hoping the challenge balance will be better on hard.
The game doesn't supply near the volume of some other Musou games (which excel in that category), but what it has is better than usual. Koei could've made a mediocre game and it would've sold just as well, but they made a good one that makes you want more. The game's a good purchase even for non-One Piece fans, but it does immediately make me wonder what we'll be seeing in terms of DLC and updates.
Tiny note: If you taunt, certain characters will change their appearance. Sanji will either loosen or tighten his tie, Zoro will put on or take off his bandanna and Luffy will do the same with his hat. I haven't tried everyone else.
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| Gojira 2828th Post
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| "Re(3): Capsule robots live!" , posted Sat 3 Mar 08:39
quote:
On the downside, the exclusion of Thriller Bark is a huge loss. As a result, although Brook is in the game, to my knowledge, there is NO SCENARIO IN THE STORY where he is actually an active crew member (Since he's not around for Impel Down and Marinford). I can see excluding Skypeia because it's more trouble than it's worth, but despite how much trouble Thriller Bark would be, it kind of needs to be there.
Well, at least he's playable. But damn, that really sucks.
DLC scenarios were confirmed to be in the works a few weeks ago. Hopefully Thriller Bark is one of them, but something like that seems like it might be a little massive for DLC so I don't know.
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| Pollyanna 3197th Post
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| "Re(8):musou musou" , posted Sat 3 Mar 09:42
Another note about Kaizoku Musou...you have multiple musou moves, but I don't know if they're just a progression or if you can choose them. Also, the game is FULL OF CRYING. Since they include all the dramatic scenes and almost nothing but the dramatic scenes, it has more crying than any game I've ever seen BY A HUGE MARGIN.
quote:
Polly, that's about everything I needed to hear - I might order this while I'm out of town so it'll be waiting for me when I get back. I have a lot of games to play right now but I'm prepared to drop all of them for Kaizoku Musou.
Too bad it's so expensive! I forgot, are you a One Piece fan too, or just a Musou fan? I know you're pretty crazy about Musou games...
quote:
If they announce DLC for the game that includes Robin's hat I might not be able to hold off.
I think she might put her hat on for her taunt (I'll get back to you on that one), so you might need to make a more ludicrous demand.
quote:
DLC scenarios were confirmed to be in the works a few weeks ago. Hopefully Thriller Bark is one of them, but something like that seems like it might be a little massive for DLC so I don't know.
I was trying to read in between the lines with the DLC scenarios, but I have no idea what they're actually promising. They have a very affordable survival mode type-thing available now, but I hope the following scenarios will be a little more robust.
But yeah, they put a huge amount of effort into the story chapters, so I'm not getting my hopes up for Thriller Bark. In a perfect world, we'd have that and Skypeia as DLC, then add the bosses as playable and Fishman Island for the sequel. The only time skip characters in the game are Luffy, Zoro and Sanji. The character select screen has two very obvious missing slots and room for another row. I was trying to think which characters would be obvious additions. They already have renders for Bon and Ivankov, so a "SUPER OKAMA PACK DLC" might be possible. Hopefully they won't waste a slot on Vivi, who I can't imagine would be in very high demand.
Speaking of okama, I'm not into the One Piece anime at all, so it wasn't until recently that I found out that Bon and Franky have the same voice actor. Now, Bon just sounds like "Gay Franky" to me.
On a final note, their first set of DLC costumes were really interesting, so I'm excited to see what they do next. It'd be nice to have time skip versions of the remaining characters (though Franky would be difficult), but I'm expecting Strong World suits.
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| Grave 1437th Post
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| "Re(9):musou musou" , posted Sat 3 Mar 13:23:
quote:
Too bad it's so expensive! I forgot, are you a One Piece fan too, or just a Musou fan? I know you're pretty crazy about Musou games...
Yeah, the $100 pre-shipping tag I'm seeing all over is a bitter pill to swallow, but I think it's gonna be worth it. I love OP even more than I love the Musou series so how can I not?!
That reminds me, I never wrapped up Gundam Musou 3. I wonder if I can even find online games to 100% it with...
While we're on the subject of OP, has anyone else in the US tried Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha yet? Been using it on my phone and tablet, and I'm very impressed. The Viz manga app isn't perfect yet (and it's sort of only on iOS and their website right now) but having extremely high quality translations of SJ titles two weeks after Japan, delivered directly to me - this is pretty much what I've been asking for even before there was a US Shonen Jump, when I was going to the local Waldenbooks every week for my issue of Raijin Comics. I've given up on scans for the SJ titles altogether and now I just wait for these. Would be curious to hear what other folks think.
And speaking of SJ, I do kind of want that Naruto game coming out this month. The demo was gorgeous and there's something like 70+ characters... definitely interested.
edit: why is my text formatting weird
[this message was edited by Grave on Sat 3 Mar 14:49] |
| Pollyanna 3198th Post
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| "Re(10):musou musou" , posted Sat 3 Mar 14:15
quote:
I love OP even more than I love the Musou series
Then no price is too great.
quote:
While we're on the subject of OP, has anyone else in the US tried Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha yet?
Do they change the SFX like usual? I was hoping the need for a speed release would give them an excuse to break that habit. I'm fairly happy with the adaptation in Viz's more recent OP volumes, but I don't like to buy their books because I can't stand them changing the SFX. I was thinking about giving SJA a try, though, since Jumps are disposable anyway, and if I'm going to buy the Japanese volumes, it doesn't really matter if the SFX are changed in the weekly chapters.
quote:
And speaking of SJ, I do kind of want that Naruto game coming out this month. The demo was gorgeous and there's something like 70+ characters... definitely interested.
I thought the last game was very good, but this one doesn't play to CyberConnect's strengths. The story mode boss battles were super cool as were the fancy pants cinematic finishers...but they seem to have gone for a more direct fighting game approach in this one (that's fine, but the last game had it both ways). Also, it's a pity for a company that excels in 3D character animation to fill the story mode with cheap 2D art and animation. I mentioned before that Kaizoku Musou did a good job in picking the right scenes to show you (and does them as best they can...much better than the anime, generally), but I'm afraid the new Naruto might be doing the opposite. If I wanted to see mediocre animation, I'd just watch the TV series.
But maybe I have a misconception about the game. Feel free to correct me. I just don't have enough friends who are into these games to warrant a purchase unless they made super awesome changes to the system or had a good story mode.
RAMBLE
It bugged me in the older Naruto games how the cinematic super moves were super awesome to watch, but kind of annoying to sit through in a battle, since they could go back and forth and you could do them so frequently. I like in Asura's Wrath how the focus is to build up your gauge and do a fancy attack that advances the plot. I'd like to see CC do a fighting game where you advance to the next round with a cinematic super. Like, you have a power tug-of-war, and when certain conditions are met, you blow the person away with your mega radical CC cinematic awesome thing. That way it feels like it's progressing the battle rather than impeding it. The boss battles in Asura's Wrath were close enough to CC's fighting games that I wouldn't be surprised to see some of its ideas pop up elsewhere.
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| Grave 1437th Post
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| "Re(2):Re(10):musou musou musou musou" , posted Sat 3 Mar 14:59
quote:
Do they change the SFX like usual? I was hoping the need for a speed release would give them an excuse to break that habit. I'm fairly happy with the adaptation in Viz's more recent OP volumes, but I don't like to buy their books because I can't stand them changing the SFX. I was thinking about giving SJA a try, though, since Jumps are disposable anyway, and if I'm going to buy the Japanese volumes, it doesn't really matter if the SFX are changed in the weekly chapters.
Nope! They just put tiny English approximations (and it still fascinates me how everything appears to sound so much different in English for some reason!) alongside. WSJA issues expire one year after their release, which is a rather generous buffer for being able to view back issues. So far nothing seems to have been censored yet either, but I might have missed something. Other than a few app hiccups I'm quite happy!
quote:
I thought the last game was very good, but this one doesn't play to CyberConnect's strengths. The story mode boss battles were super cool as were the fancy pants cinematic finishers...but they seem to have gone for a more direct fighting game approach in this one (that's fine, but the last game had it both ways). Also, it's a pity for a company that excels in 3D character animation to fill the story mode with cheap 2D art and animation. etc
Well, other than a demo of the first PS3 CC2 Naruto, I haven't touched 'em... hell, the last Naruto game I owned was Gekitou Ninja Taisen 2, so it's been a while. I guess it'd be a little less disappointing if I don't know what I'm missing. Still, the basic play seemed awfully simplistic, but I figure it'd get better after turning the difficulty up in the final game. I'm almost positive I'm gonna pick it up if my store gets a copy, so I'll probably have impressions when I'm done traveling mid-month. Of course, if I cave and order Kaizoku Musou that might not happen at all...!
Of course, I still haven't finished Shadows of the Damned or Dead Rising 2, and I'm playing Twisted Metal and Soulcalibur V... and I wanted to play Bionic Commando again on hard... and I haven't even started Valkyria Chronicles or the MGS HD Collection yet. This is a problem. I need to stop doing this.
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| Pollyanna 3200th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
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Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(3):Re(10):musou musou musou musou" , posted Sat 3 Mar 18:52:
CORRECTIONS
Ah! There is a level with Brook! There's a Sabaody stage after Water 7. In the between chapter interludes Brook laments "What about my story!?"
You don't choose a Musou, it's level 1-2-3. You hold the button down longer to go to the next one. Luffy is Rifle->Storm->Gear 2->Gear 3. I wonder if the other characters get as many moves as they level up.
Gear 2 is like another mode, but Gear 3 is like a combo move. And yes, he deflates afterwards and is vulnerable for a while (though you can still run around and roll).
The CP9 theme is cool.
Robin DOES put on her hat for her taunt!
quote:
Well, other than a demo of the first PS3 CC2 Naruto, I haven't touched 'em... hell, the last Naruto game I owned was Gekitou Ninja Taisen 2, so it's been a while.
In that case, it's probably not a bad buy. It's just that the story mode boss battles in the last game were the high point for me, and that seems to be missing from this one. Otherwise, it uses the same system (from what I could tell from the demo), so it doesn't seem like such a great purchase for me, especially when I'm playing so many other games (and I'll have Mass Effect, SFxT, Tales of Innocence R and Gravity Daze next week).
And yes, the game is sort of simple, but not in a bad way, especially if you want to play with friends who are less than ultimately hardcore.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
[this message was edited by Pollyanna on Sat 3 Mar 20:36] |
| Pollyanna 3200th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
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Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(5):Re(10):musou musou musou musou" , posted Mon 5 Mar 08:15
Finished Kaizoku Musou's Story Mode last night and played a few Another Log (Musou) games 1P and 2P. I'll post a few final impressions, so I can stop crowding the board with my rants unless people have questions.
The later-game characters (Jinbei, Ace, Hancock, Whitebeard) all turned out very good. Really, every character is extremely well represented. When you play a character you love, you love the way they play. Hancock's use of her snake was a surprise and a delight. The facial animations for everyone are really excellent as well. I kept thinking "I know that face! I remember the panel it was from!" There are some nice effects, too... Magellan's poison looks like jelly and Akainu's drippy magma looks great.
Some of the game's strengths turn into problems when you play local 2 player, though. The attacks in the game are very showy...much moreso than other musou games. The characters flip and zip around, fill the screen with fire and fly into the air, sending the camera with them. When you're limited to half of a screen, you can hardly tell what's going on. Also, unlike other One Piece games, they preserved the scale of the characters accurately, so someone like Whitebeard takes up most of the screen. The fact that the characters run faster than the horses in Musou doesn't help either (although that's really nice otherwise).
The way Another Log works is really stupid. For example, if you pick Brook (or Whitebeard) you get one level and then an ending. If you choose Zoro, you get like...8 stages. Fortunately, you can choose whatever path you like, no matter who you play as, but it's...just awkward to do it that way. Awkward and lazy. On the upside, it's fun to level up the characters and unlock new moves for them. There really are a ton of different and interesting attacks in the game. I haven't tried challenge mode yet, so there may be more content than I think there is, but as of now, I think a few more musou levels would make for some nice, easy (and realistic) DLC.
A few random notes:
*It has my favorite Musou soundtrack by a mile. Unfortunately some of the best tracks from story mode don't show up in Another Log.
*Franky poses after every combo, but you can roll out of the animation, thankfully. He has to keep drinking cola to do some of his moves.
*Brook can play guitar and violin. I have no idea what the violin does.
*After you win story mode you can use 7 different variations of Luffy's costume, including time skip. I imagine you get time skip Zoro and Sanji by finishing their Another Log, but I haven't tried yet.
*The crying in the game really is out of control. If someone who doesn't know One Piece played this, they would get a very odd impression.
*Buggy, Mr. 3, Bon, Jinbei and an army of prisoners run around with you in Impel down.
*They bit off more than they could chew with the Enies Lobby battle. Too many characters are missing, so it doesn't feel like the original. I don't blame them...you can't have EVERYTHING, but this part of the story really didn't quite feel right. On the upside, a lot WAS included (Luffy vs Usopp, vs Franky, Luffy vs Blueno in Iceberg's mansion (then again later), Sanji vs Jabura, Zoro vs Kaku and Luffy vs Lucci)
*The boss battles in story mode are the best part of the game, but you have to go through some lengthy parts to replay them. Kind of a shame, but no part of the game is really bad, it's just that you'll probably be more excited to replay bosses vs stages.
*There is a trophy for clearing Marinford in a certain way called "Thank you for loving me."
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Pollyanna 3206th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
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Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(1):Journey" , posted Thu 15 Mar 05:59:
Before I start complaining about hyperbole, let me be hypocritical and say that Gravity Daze is my new favorite game ever. Each time I play it, I think "This is the best game ever made."
EDIT: And now that I know Iggy is here, have you played this!? I am constantly reminded of something you said in reference to Toyama...it was something like "Follow the creator, not the series".
quote:
I just wanted to state for the public record that Journey is a very good game.
This game is frustrating me before I even play it. So many people are giving it piles and piles of emotionally overblown praise and talking about how it made them cry when they didn't even cry at their father's funeral or whatever. I have no clue what the game is about whatsoever and I have been given the impression that it's much better going into the game knowing nothing. So...without spoiling me, is it really a good game or just a good spiritual experience? I didn't play Flow, but I would consider Flower both a waste of time and money for me. I love "artsy" and "emotional", but I don't want "boring"
And...
quote:
Mass Effect 3
I haven't spent a huge amount of time with the game, but my impression thus far is that while ME2 was generally excellent and occasionally profoundly brilliant, ME 3 is generally excellent and occasionally profoundly stupid. I can't deny that my hugely positive impressions of ME2 have shaped my view of ME3, but that doesn't mean I'm not happy to be playing a "generally excellent" game.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
[this message was edited by Pollyanna on Thu 15 Mar 06:00] |
| KTallguy 1363th Post
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Red Carpet Executive Member
| "Re(2):Journey" , posted Thu 15 Mar 06:37:
I played it (Journey) last night, which I think was a mistake. I was exhausted and kind of falling asleep during some of the later moments... But meeting a companion and just doing the entire thing in one shot, I felt like the whole game was so fleeting. It was very good, breathtaking at parts, and then gone.
I think I want to play the entire thing again and take it in more.
Oh and Polly, I completely ignored all media except for the very early screenshots. Going in with no expectations is better. That being said I do recommend it. I didn't cry and it didn't change my life but it was worth my time.
Edit: I would emphasize that it's a good experience first, a good game second. You're not shooting for high scores or other things, but it's replayable in the sense that you would rewind a movie that you really liked that had a lot of wondrous shots and beautiful moments and try to look at them more in depth, which you can't during the movie because you're swept up in it.
However the game bits are VERY simple. I think in this game's case, simplicity is on its side. Everything feels pretty much right, nothing is out of place or superfluous. The game is not void of danger, there are gamey bits where there are things you must dodge or should collect, there are loose challenges where you must reach platforms or use the environment to your advantage, but everything is distilled to very pure, simple gameplay.
Anyway it's 15 bucks and the entire thing doesn't last horribly long, if your on the fence I say go for it.
Play to win... or to have fun too! :)
[this message was edited by KTallguy on Thu 15 Mar 06:45] |
| Ishmael 4339th Post
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Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(2):Journey" , posted Thu 15 Mar 23:42
quote:
Just before I raise an eyebrow of disappointed malevolence, did you like Flower?
Be careful good sir, your frowning countenance is so severe that it's threatening to dislodge your monocle.
As for Flower, I never played it. I liked the idea of Flower but I always viewed it as an art piece created to promote discussion and reflection. Knowing Flower exists is enough, actually buying and playing the game would be redundant.
What I think that I most liked about Journey was its lack of text. Too many games think that rambling explanations or walls of text are informative or are fun in and of themselves. Even fighting games can become far too garrulous, with the story modes in MK9 and KoFXIII being two recent examples. I could not get through the story modes in either of those games and I'm a person that likes fighting game plots. Having a game told visually was refreshing change of pace.
quote:
I haven't spent a huge amount of time with the game, but my impression thus far is that while ME2 was generally excellent and occasionally profoundly brilliant, ME 3 is generally excellent and occasionally profoundly stupid. I can't deny that my hugely positive impressions of ME2 have shaped my view of ME3, but that doesn't mean I'm not happy to be playing a "generally excellent" game.
While I always felt that the plot of ME2 was a shaggy dog of a story I think that actually worked in the game's favor. ME3, in contrast, feels like it's moving toward an ending so there are points where the game feels a bit more creaky than it otherwise would. I do, however, like the sense of worry and despair that is hanging over the game as everyone tries to deal with the concept of a war they are probably are not going to win. I wish there was an option to have Shepard sit alone in her cabin and drink.
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| badoor 261th Post
PSN: BadoorSNK
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Copper Customer
| "Ninja Gaiden 3: Hayabusa's Wrath" , posted Sun 18 Mar 09:10
I've been playing the retail version for a few days now. Up to four hours in. As marketed, the main new features here are the more cinematic story by NES Ninja Gaiden and Chrono Trigger/Cross writer: Masato Kato, and well...QTEs. The cutscene QTEs aren't too bad and I think are handled well. I like the fact that the buttons would always correspond to whatever action is required (Say if Ryu needs to jump, you press the jump button. Or if he needs to roll away, you roll away using block+direction). In fact, you can turn off the button prompts and it still works.
My slight problem is with the combat itself. When doing a long ground combo on an enemy, you get this abrupt QTE pause right before they die(Called something like the "Steel on Bone" moment in their marketing) where you have to press the attack button once more to cut through. And then after that you can finish them off again to fill up your gauge I guess. I feel like it just slows things down more, when in NG1&2 they would've been dead 3 sentences ago.
Actually, the "Steel on Bone" QTE part reminds me of stupid annoying windows pop-up prompts. Kind of like "You've been slashing at this poor guy for a while now and he's one more strike to death. Are you sure you want to kill this bastard? If yes keep pressing the same button you've been pressing all along. If no, then don't do anything for a while and you'll get a kick to your face"
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| Pollyanna 3209th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
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| "Re(2):Ninja Gaiden 3: Hayabusa's Wrath" , posted Mon 19 Mar 12:19
I had so much to say about Mass Effect 3, but as I was typing I felt "do people really want to read all this crap?" so...
quote:
Ninja Gaiden 3
Do I want this game? I can't figure out what it brings to the table, other than plot, which I don't care that much about. I mean...I'm glad if they get it right, since I felt the plot a bit invasive in NG1 and awkwardly not present in NG2, so...that's a good area to improve, but not one that's going to sell me on the game if it doesn't stack up otherwise. Watching trailers, I can't figure out what the game does right to justify fewer weapons and a notably decreased length.
NG2 was quite long and had quite a lot of weapons, so it's not like I mind taking a hit in that category (and it seems NG3 will have DLC weapons), but what's the big selling point? Is the story that great? Does the product come together especially brilliantly?
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| badoor 262th Post
PSN: BadoorSNK
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Copper Customer
| "Re(3):Ninja Gaiden 3: Hayabusa's Wrath" , posted Tue 20 Mar 02:12
quote:
How is the difficulty? The NG games have been known for being tough and sometimes just plain cheap. Do the enemies need skill to beat? Are they simply cannon fodder this time out?
I'm playing at the hardest difficulty that's open from the start, just like I did with NG2, and it's very difficult, maybe even more so than NG2's equivalent. The regular lowest-level goons are nothing special, but any type that's a level above just have immense defence. They keep spamming out rolls that are invincible to my attacks. And they even do it mid-combo. I barely am able to connect 3-hits without having one roll away safely, even when backed at a corner. It also doesn't help that they keep spawning so much enemies at you within a room, it becomes almost average for you to clear out a room 3 to 4 times before you're allowed to move to the next kill room. And the fact that you only have 1 weapon and no items, no shops, or souls to heal or to use for the charge attack isn't helping. I still find it a lot of fun to fight them.quote:
Is there a bird waiting just offscreen to knock you into a bottomless pit?
Well, it seems that birds and bats are now in peace with Ninjas as I've yet to encounter any in combat. Actually, you have an eagle who's your loyal friend who can heal you and save you progress with its rather suspicious looking yellow "aura".quote:
Does that Steel on Bone thing come up during the middle of a fight?
It happens with almost every human-type enemy you fight (though you are invincible while doing it). You'll be doing that like 10 times a minute so yeah it does get old fast. At first, I though it could work like in Shinobi(PS2) or Kunoichi, where you combo on one enemy, and then after you do the QTE thing, you can immediatly strike the next enemy with it, and the next, to make a chain of 1-hit kill attacks. And it looks cool when you do manage to do it. But it just rarely happens and most of the time, the game just thinks you want to do the finisher move on the 1st guy to fill your ninpo gauge instead of attacking other surrounding enemies.quote:
Is the story that great? Does the product come together especially brilliantly?
So far, not really. Take note that I suck so when I said I'm 4 hours in, what I really mean is 4 hours crawling through the 1st "story" hour of the game since I die a lot. But anyway about the premise and characters...
Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
Ryu now talks (Sort of like how Samus "started" talking in Other M) but he neither says anything interesting nor annoying. There's an evil Mega Corporation. You have a female assistant/love interest/damsel in distresss, but now with less boobs in accordance to Team Ninja's new mantra about women. There's a cute little girl who's mute and cute. There's also a technition guy who I guess is like Otacon but is nowhere near as goofy or memorable. The story is basic "Who's the real monster now?" type. But Ryu just never seemed phased by that. You have a flamboyant archnemesis but Ryu's muted responses just undermines him
End of Spoiler
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| Pollyanna 3210th Post
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| "Re(4):ME3" , posted Tue 20 Mar 03:48
Okay, I'll do the short version of my ME3 rant. Keep in mind that I haven't won the game yet, so some of these opinions might change for better or worse by the end.
Karasu...I think you want to play ME2. ME2 is really, honestly one of the best games I've ever played. I have a top 10 list that shuffles, but this one is always very high on it. I have a few nitpicks about the game, but none of them spoil the experience. As a quick note, my favorite thing about the game is that it ends with a "we may not make it out of this alive" mission where every party member has a chance to die and through your actions, every party member also has a chance to live.
Okay SUPER RANTRANTRANT
The weird thing is, ME3 is probably the better game, but I like it less. Part of that is expectations coming from ME2, but I think it just doesn't come together quite as well.
The action scenes are more varied with different enemy types and challenges to deal with, but they're a little less elegant...a little uneven in terms of challenge.
As Ishmael mentioned, the story is a bit more of a story, but because it is required to propel itself towards an ending, it's more "creaky". ME2 was more like a bunch of short stories involving people and places in a world that all came together in a big climax. (Oddly, it reminds me a little of Dragon Quest, in that respect)
As Nekros said, there are a lot of people crying for help, but I guess that makes sense, since it's like the end of the world and all. I find some of the sidestories a little more interesting than the main events, simply because they have more leeway in terms of how they play out. I was pleased to see a few cases where choosing Paragon options made things more complicated. One of my few problems with ME2 was that Paragon choices all turned out wonderfully and Renegade choices were silly (if fun) and didn't make any sense. I wish more Paragon choices turned out poorly, so that there was a sense of "being nice isn't always the answer." (Still, I have found the Renegade choices in ME3 to be a bit more reasonable overall)
There is a similar sense of "Shepard is always right" in ME3, but it's more benign. Like, when you listen in on other people's conversations, you have an option to side with one person or another. It seems like the game goes out of its way to justify your position, by suddenly painting the guy you disagreed with as a jerk, or introducing some new element into the story that makes your decision seem especially smart. This is more funny than an actual complaint.
I do like the sense of "whatever you do, it'll work out in the end" in terms of not screwing yourself over, though. It's rewarding to feel like you worked through a scenario "your way" and even if it turns out poorly, you can keep trucking on without fear of later game repercussions. Still, I'm finding a lot of choices in ME3 are the same damned thing. My favorite was the choice between "Tell me about XXX" and "What's XXX?" One was Paragon and one was Renegade. SERIOUSLY!? There are also cases where you have two choices that are essentially the same, you choose one and Shepard says something completely different than what you had in mind. This is inevitable with the way Bioware does their choices but at least it's better than Old Republic ).
So far, my favorite improvement over ME2 is the wider variety of character animations during conversations. My favorite moment (as silly as this sounds) was talking to Garrus on the Normandy for the first time. Shepard leans on a part of the ship in the most natural way while talking to him, and later in the conversation, he gestures with his hands "let's keep talking, but I need to go over here". Shepard nods, and they walk and talk. THIS IS WHAT REAL PEOPLE DO! I also like that when you first see James, you can't help but think that this guy works out non-stop all the time...then when you go to talk to him on the ship, he talks to you WHILE DOING PULL-UPS. Now his over-the-top muscles are justified!
That reminds me, though, I'm not pleased at how they introduces a male/male romance option. I appreciate that they didn't randomly turn a character gay, but I wish that Shepard had the option to feel more gay as a lifestyle choice rather than an option with one guy. What I mean is that female Shepard can flirt with girls outside of romance options. I don't want to see Garrus turn gay, but I would love it if male Shepard could hit on him. There could be all sorts of responses :"I like you man, but not like that", "I can hardly tell human males from females, but I know you're not my type" or "I got really drunk one time and kissed a dude, but I'm not going down that path again". I understand that the gay options are probably just made by men who want to see girl on girl and women who want to see guy on guy, so the argument is kind of irrelevant. Still, I really enjoyed the feeling that female Shepard was the biggest pimp in the galaxy, regardless of the gender of who she was hitting on.
Oh, there's one thing I really don't like about ME3, though it's especially obnoxious to me. I didn't feel like you really lost out not loading data from ME1 when you played ME2. It's not like you LOST things so much as things just played out differently. In ME3 however, you are decidedly punished for not loading ME2 data (with a favorable outcome). You miss out on quite a number of scenes, some of them very good. Thanks to friends, I've been able to see these scenes, but since I jumped platforms from ME2 to ME3, my own game experience is messed up. The only remedy is to buy a game I already own AGAIN and play through a game I've already played to death a second time. Also, why bother giving us the Kaidan/Ashley choice if you're just going to screw us over on the other stuff? This is a sick joke for me anyway, as I felt great satisfaction at pressing a button to make Kaiden dead only to groan every time something came out of Ashley's stupid mouth. It's like having 2 cancers and choosing which one you want to keep!
Ah...another addition in ME3 that I just remembered that I like is catching your party members engaged in conversations with other people. Seeing them doing whatever they're doing around the Citadel is really nice (I think Persona did this first?) as well.
It sounds like I've got a long list of complaints and very little praise for ME3, but it's just that many of the improvements aren't as fun to talk about. Even if I don't like the package as much, ME3 is probably more successful than ME2 as both an action game and an RPG. I have cried "foul" on a number of my deaths, but seeings as they hardly penalize you for dying, I can look on the bright side and say that I appreciate the greater challenge. Also, the quests and battles are all just about the right length, so the game lends itself well to both short-term and long-term sessions. Similar to ME2, the overarching objective is nicely clear, so you can see how much progress you've made towards the end battle. I don't like vagueness and random choices determining if you get a good or bad ending. 60 hour games that rob you of 10 hour "real ending" scenarios because of some choice you made are the worst.
On a final note, I feel like I've had to bring a bunch of different races together to stop an impending disaster a few too many times in Bioware games.
Also, we still don't get female Turians do we? Anywhere? Maybe I'm wrong?
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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"Re(1):Randomly New Random News Thread: Hayama" , posted Thu 8 Dec 10:23:
who follow the path of a warrior
