[Takuhi]

I got that CD off Yahoo Auctions for a friend (in this very thread) for about $48. Jonny -- how is the CD, anyway? Is it even worth it? EDIT -- Takuhi! It's been years. Do you remember me? :)

John TV? Uh... Uh... Damn, not ringing any bells! But I have the memory of a goldfish anyway. How do I know you?

Congrats on scoring a CD. With the price rising so rapidly I wonder how high that thing will go... Then again, if it's only outtakes... Bleah. But I'm still glad I paid the extra $3 to order from Himeyashop instead of Play-Asia. :D

[john tv]

John TV? Uh... Uh... Damn, not ringing any bells! But I have the memory of a goldfish anyway. How do I know you? Congrats on scoring a CD. With the price rising so rapidly I wonder how high that thing will go... Then again, if it's only outtakes... Bleah. But I'm still glad I paid the extra $3 to order from Himeyashop instead of Play-Asia. :D

Sent you a PM!

[Jonnyram]

Hey guys, Atlus still sucks. :(

So basically, there's only me, sp0rsk and bebpo playing this, and neither of those guys seem to be into it anywhere near as much as me - I may as well go and talk to a brick wall :(

[jj984jj]

At least they are aware of it I guess...

http://sekaiju.atlus.co.jp/

[duckroll]

At least they are aware of it I guess... http://sekaiju.atlus.co.jp/

Yeah here's what it says... rough translation:

Dear duckroll, Hey we heard you can't get a copy of our game. Oh well, that's too bad. **** off! Love, Atlus Japan.

:(

So basically, there's only me, sp0rsk and bebpo playing this, and neither of those guys seem to be into it anywhere near as much as me - I may as well go and talk to a brick wall :(

Yeah well, there wouldn't be this problem if Atlus decided not to be assholes about the first print run. :(

[Galactic Fork]

Yeah here's what it says... rough translation: :( Yeah well, there wouldn't be this problem if Atlus decided not to be assholes about the first print run. :(

Well at least they said all that with love.

[FoxSpirit]

Yeah well, there wouldn't be this problem if Atlus decided not to be assholes about the first print run. :(

They are very cautious, as always. But at least nowadays you get reprints. And don't complain, Atlus isn't that big, does publish small scale games. If they were sitting on stock of a game once that would cost them a load of money.

So support them and just wait a bit longer.

[Zalasta]

So basically, there's only me, sp0rsk and bebpo playing this, and neither of those guys seem to be into it anywhere near as much as me - I may as well go and talk to a brick wall :(

I suppose it's time to make some new friends who don't suck at this type of games =P

[jj984jj]

There is a Wiki here for those who suck:

http://www15.atwiki.jp/sekaiju_maze/

[duckroll]

There is a Wiki here for those who suck: http://www15.atwiki.jp/sekaiju_maze/

The site doesn't seem to have a solution to my problem. I'm stuck at the game store, the shopkeeper keeps saying "The item you want is not in stock." and I can't do anything else. :(

[Soul4ger]

The site doesn't seem to have a solution to my problem. I'm stuck at the game store, the shopkeeper keeps saying "The item you want is not in stock." and I can't do anything else. :(

Knock over a magazine rack.

[Jonnyram]

I'm on the 5th floor now :O
Still can't touch some of the monsters on the 3rd floor. I'm level 15/16 across the board and still don't have a Paladin. Starting to get some nice equipment, and the skills are opening up significantly too. Not sure how I'm going to tackle this boss, though!

[^^remilia^^]

I'm playing Lolicon Labyrinth Sekaiju no Meikyuu too! I'm enjoying this game quite a bit.

It probably goes without saying, but Sekaiju plays very much like a descendant of the Wizardry / Bard's Tale type games, so people who dislike that sort of game are not likely to like this any more, really. That said, it plays very much like a *very well-done* descendant in that genre tree. Any number of little touches and design decisions just sort of show that these people know what they're doing.

Character customization strikes me as probably the best example, here. Max level is 70, with characters gaining one skill point per level, and starting off with three points at level one, for a total of 72 points total. Each class has about twenty skills, with many of the skills really wanting at least five points invested before they become truly useful. The implication of all of this is that you simply cannot make, say, a single bard, and have that person learn all of the bard skills and max them all out. Instead, you have to play a balancing game and make some choices: do I want a bard who can do a little bit of everything, but nothing exceptionally well? Or do I want a bard who is exceptionally good at a small number of things? The more I play, the more I become convinced that the latter is preferable... though it requires some planning and foresight.

Party composition is a similar balancing game. You have five slots in the party, with nine (I think?) character classes to choose from. Given the limitations imposed by character customization, it would even make sense to have more than one person with the same class in your party, each customized for certain tasks... but only five slots! You couldn't even have *one* character from each class in your party, and if you take more than one, that's one less slot to fill with a character of a class not already present in your party. Will I ever have room for an Alchemist? Who could I sideline to make room for one?

Further, you can squeeze up to three people in a row, which leaves you to decide: do you want a two-person front row, or a two-person back row? A two-person front row means that both of the front-row characters are very likely to be taking hits, and should be very well-armoured. With a three-person front row, there's one more front-rower to help spread the damage out a bit... you may be able to get away with a bit less heavy armour, in such a situation.

All of this seems very simple and even somewhat expected, really, but it makes for a really nice gameplay experience, and leaves me with the impression that there could be quite a bit of replay value in here: there are *plenty* of ways to set up your party, plenty of builds for the various classes to be more or less useful for various tasks.

I'm sure people have mentioned the fantastic art and the... well... awesome music. I can't really imagine a composer more able than Koshiro to heighten the game's "oldschool" feel with a nice nostalgaic FM-synth soundtrack.

I'll admit that I'm not super-far in the game yet... still peeking around the second floor. I'm very optimistic, though. So far, this game has met and exceeded all of my expectations. I can only hope it continues!

[Aeana]

Thanks a lot for the impressions, ^^remilia^^.

I'm hoping Atlus gets some more copies out soon, so I can get my hands on the game. I'm really not happy with this situation one bit.

[fresquito]

Could someone tell me about the pacing of the game?

I'd like to know what you usually do, the chain of actions (i.e: you ready your party in a town, enter a dungeon, explore it kill the monsters, level up and get all treasures, go back to town and restore/organize/configure the party, go to the dungeon...). I'd like to know if the game is too focused on levelling, or abilities and different skills are more important than leveling (like in FFT, where you could configure your party by using different abilities rather than being of a high level). How are the battles? More like your regular RPG?or more like a tactic game?

I want to know >_<

[Jonnyram]

For me, it goes like this:
- Go into dungeon
- Use up daily harvesting quota
- Fill out map while killing monsters encountered
- TP runs out -> go back to town
- Rest, repeat

So far, filling out the map to 100% has enabled me to keep my level at a good enough level to beat stuff. I guess that means, if you don't want to fill out everything, and just rush through each floor, you will be underlevelled and you'll have a hard time.

General rule of thumb, and I've seen this mentioned on Japanese boards, is 3 levels per floor. Well, this is bound to flatten out later in the game, when it will become more skill-centric, but for now, levels are important. It's also important to have the right skills when going against stronger enemies like F.O.E.s and bosses.

The first boss is really awesome. I lost my two front guys by the end of it, so it was hella close :)

[Dragona Akehi]

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****

WHY did I click on this thread?

I now have the insatiable need for this game. Even 200$ USD is looking like a deal now, even though I have no money.

JESUS.

[Pureauthor]

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** WHY did I click on this thread? I now have the insatiable need for this game. Even 200$ USD is looking like a deal now, even though I have no money. JESUS.

And another victim is ensnared. :lol

[Dragona Akehi]

And another victim is ensnared. :lol

The sad thing was that it was always a day one purchase -- I was just going to get the English version. It now seems too long of a wait ....(plus shipping times ugh).

[NichM]

The sad thing was that it was always a day one purchase -- I was just going to get the English version. It now seems too long of a wait ....(plus shipping times ugh).

Aww, it'll be May before you know it. And it'll be a lot cheaper than $200!

[Error]

Aww, it'll be May before you know it. And it'll be a lot cheaper than $200!

did you hear about Atlus of Japan not shipping a lot of copies? surely that's not going to happen here :/

I'll preorder tho just to be sure.

[duckroll]

Who cares about Atlus? If they don't want money why give it to them? I've cancelled my order for this and I'm not going to be buying Persona 3 Fes either. I'll stick it to them where it hurts most. If a small publisher doesn't want people buying their games.... then that's just what they're going to get! :lol

[Error]

Who cares about Atlus? If they don't want money why give it to them? I've cancelled my order for this and I'm not going to be buying Persona 3 Fes either. I'll stick it to them where it hurts most. If a small publisher doesn't want people buying their games.... then that's just what they're going to get! :lol

you are going that far? will you be able to resist?

[duckroll]

you are going that far? will you be able to resist?

Sure, why not? There are tons of other game publishers out there that don't undership.

[Avalon]

Sure, why not? There are tons of other game publishers out there that don't undership.

Have some sympathy...

They are relatively small and they underestimated how well the game would do (rightly so I would say)...

[Dragona Akehi]

Aww, it'll be May before you know it. And it'll be a lot cheaper than $200!

But but but but that's an entire ninety-six days away. That's just the beginning of May too! God forbid it's the middle or the end. I think I'm going to DIE.

[Jonnyram]

Sure, why not? There are tons of other game publishers out there that don't undership.

Harsh, man, harsh. I know you'll get it in the end though... it's sooo good :D

[fresquito]

For me, it goes like this: - Go into dungeon - Use up daily harvesting quota - Fill out map while killing monsters encountered - TP runs out -> go back to town - Rest, repeat So far, filling out the map to 100% has enabled me to keep my level at a good enough level to beat stuff. I guess that means, if you don't want to fill out everything, and just rush through each floor, you will be underlevelled and you'll have a hard time. General rule of thumb, and I've seen this mentioned on Japanese boards, is 3 levels per floor. Well, this is bound to flatten out later in the game, when it will become more skill-centric, but for now, levels are important. It's also important to have the right skills when going against stronger enemies like F.O.E.s and bosses. The first boss is really awesome. I lost my two front guys by the end of it, so it was hella close :)

Ok, I don't enjoy levelling for the sake of levelling very much. So this sounds more or less, good :)

[Aeana]

My cousin managed to secure a copy and she's going to mail it to me. Hooray! Now I can cancel my P-A order and finally get to play it. :(

[Bebpo]

Ok, I was digging into this today while waiting for something and it's really cool and I've sorta got the hang of it. But I do have a few questions.

1. When they say that monsters move along with you...does that mean just on your floor or in the entire game? Is the idea that every step you take, the ultimate boss from floor xxxx is edging one step closer to your position and climbing up floors? I'm guessing that's what's going on, as it would be the only way to prevent grinding.

2. If #1 is true than everything is based off the gameclock (date/time) I presume? In that case the best way to heal up would be #1 only with items (so you don't lose time sleeping at an inn), #2 only sleeping until night at an inn (so you don't waste an entire day) and the worst #3 would be to sleep all day until the next day. But since both 1/2 day sleep and whole day sleep fill your HP & TP entirely, why would you ever want to sleep a full day? Also does the time of day effect anything? Do the enemies get stronger/faster at night?

3. In this case, it would seem like the game flow would be to keep pressing on forward and warping back to town when you are near dead and buy items and heal up and then head back and keep pressing on.

Is that the kind of urgency you need to keep while playing the game? Or can you just go into a floor, fight until near dead, warp out & heal at inn, go back, repeat while leveling along the way until you make it to the next floor?

The first time I played I thought you couldn't leave the dungeon and you had to do the entire floor/quest in one shot, which is why I kept dying ^^;

[john tv]

This game sounds hot. I'm trying to wait for the US version, so in the meantime, I took up a bit of BUSIN, or Tale of the Forsaken Land, as its known in English.

God the localization sucks on that game but otherwise its pretty hot! I'm sorry I waited all this time to finally try it...

[NichM]

1. When they say that monsters move along with you...does that mean just on your floor or in the entire game? Is the idea that every step you take, the ultimate boss from floor xxxx is edging one step closer to your position and climbing up floors?

No, they only mean the ones on your floor. Though those monsters are often so strong when you first meet them that there's still a disincentive to hang around "new" floors and try to grind there.

Is that the kind of urgency you need to keep while playing the game? Or can you just go into a floor, fight until near dead, warp out & heal at inn, go back, repeat while leveling along the way until you make it to the next floor?

Yep, that's pretty much it. The game's hard, but it's not evil.

[Doctor_No]

Ok, I was digging into this today while waiting for something and it's really cool and I've sorta got the hang of it. But I do have a few questions. 1. When they say that monsters move along with you...does that mean just on your floor or in the entire game? Is the idea that every step you take, the ultimate boss from floor xxxx is edging one step closer to your position and climbing up floors? I'm guessing that's what's going on, as it would be the only way to prevent grinding. 2. If #1 is true than everything is based off the gameclock (date/time) I presume? In that case the best way to heal up would be #1 only with items (so you don't lose time sleeping at an inn), #2 only sleeping until night at an inn (so you don't waste an entire day) and the worst #3 would be to sleep all day until the next day. But since both 1/2 day sleep and whole day sleep fill your HP & TP entirely, why would you ever want to sleep a full day? Also does the time of day effect anything? Do the enemies get stronger/faster at night? 3. In this case, it would seem like the game flow would be to keep pressing on forward and warping back to town when you are near dead and buy items and heal up and then head back and keep pressing on. Is that the kind of urgency you need to keep while playing the game? Or can you just go into a floor, fight until near dead, warp out & heal at inn, go back, repeat while leveling along the way until you make it to the next floor? The first time I played I thought you couldn't leave the dungeon and you had to do the entire floor/quest in one shot, which is why I kept dying ^^;

1.) I don't think its based on the DS clock for the game from my experience (but I'm currently only on the 10th floor). As for enemies think you're talking about the FOE; they only move on the floor. Other FOEs can join in inside your battle while you're in the middle of a battle. 1 turn in the battle is considered one step. So like the first boss on the 5th floor, you have to kill the other Snow Wolf FOEs before fighting the Snow Drift Boss or you'll suddenly have a bunch of Snow Wolfs entering your battle with the boss (can get very difficult real quick).

2.)The clock in the game is for every 30 steps=1 game hour (I think), so far I don't see to much difference between night or day, I'm thinking the items you get from the items points change depending on the time of day. Since item points can only be gotten once a day, the time thing is only important in relation to getting items.

3.) Buying items to heal can get expensive, and money can be hard to come by at the beginning. Its best to get your Medic and Paladin do the healing. From my playing there is no urgency in anything (including quests). There is no way of doing the dungeon in one shot and the enemies get very strong very fast, best Ariado's string from Shirika's item shop to warp back and sell your items your got (to get money and make new weaons).

[Llyranor]

1) What's the encounter rate like? How many steps on average?

2) Is the story remotely relevant, or is it just, erm, there?

[Doctor_No]

1) What's the encounter rate like? How many steps on average? 2) Is the story remotely relevant, or is it just, erm, there?

1.) You see an orb on your screen, it'll turn blue to red when an enemy is going to attack you, I would say around 20-30 steps before a battle. The Paladin has a skill to reduce encounters (it only takes 2TP)

2.) No real in depth story or character development(since you create your own chracters).

[Mejilan]

This game sounds hot. I'm trying to wait for the US version, so in the meantime, I took up a bit of BUSIN, or Tale of the Forsaken Land, as its known in English. God the localization sucks on that game but otherwise its pretty hot! I'm sorry I waited all this time to finally try it...

SHIT that game was awesome. I'm still pissed we never got the GBA Wizardry... or the PS2 Wizardry sequel.

[Llyranor]

That's a pretty lenient encounter rate. Nice.

Speaking of skills, can someone - once they have the time - go over what the skills per class are? It's 20 skills per class, correct?

[Doctor_No]

That's a pretty lenient encounter rate. Nice. Speaking of skills, can someone - once they have the time - go over what the skills per class are? It's 20 skills per class, correct?

It actually doesn't feel to lenient when you're playing, you'll have plenty of encounters especially since it pretty much a maze and you go back and forth.

Here is a site I use that has the skill tree:
http://www15.atwiki.jp/sekaiju_maze/pages/94.html

[Jonnyram]

Encounter rate seems to be significantly higher than that sometimes. Is it based on floor or level? I put the game down for a bit to play Hotel Dusk. I left it on 6th floor, happy that the new "zone" had new graphics and music :) I'll be back someday.

[Bebpo]

One thing I don't get though, is that if the enemy movement is floor specific than all the talk about how the game would be hard and ungrindable is BS. Sure it might be hard, but there's absolutely no reason why you can't hang out on a floor where you're comfortable and kill enemies -> head back to town to heal -> kill enemies -> head back to town to heal -> repeat. The whole time gaining levels while piling up items to sell/aka piling up money. Seems like it's pretty grind friendly to me...

[Mejilan]

One thing I don't get though, is that if the enemy movement is floor specific than all the talk about how the game would be hard and ungrindable is BS. Sure it might be hard, but there's absolutely no reason why you can't hang out on a floor where you're comfortable and kill enemies -> head back to town to heal -> kill enemies -> head back to town to heal -> repeat. The whole time gaining levels while piling up items to sell/aka piling up money. Seems like it's pretty grind friendly to me...

While these kinds of RPGs aren't nearly as common as they used to be, IMHO, the type of RPG that actually had finite (or otherwise controlled) amounts of exp/loot are even rarer!

[Doctor_No]

Encounter rate seems to be significantly higher than that sometimes. Is it based on floor or level? I put the game down for a bit to play Hotel Dusk. I left it on 6th floor, happy that the new "zone" had new graphics and music :) I'll be back someday.

It might have something to do with your level, I can usually pass the first floor with 1/2 encounters and going directly that's a little over 40 steps. Also, once you learn the Paladin skill you can dramatically reduce encounters (which is important since getting to boss can get tedious since warps points are about once every 5 floors).

The monotony of leveling up is starting to get to me, not sure if I can make it all the way to the 30th floor, and I was thinking of starting Shining Force EXA(Ikusa) this week.

One thing I don't get though, is that if the enemy movement is floor specific than all the talk about how the game would be hard and ungrindable is BS. Sure it might be hard, but there's absolutely no reason why you can't hang out on a floor where you're comfortable and kill enemies -> head back to town to heal -> kill enemies -> head back to town to heal -> repeat. The whole time gaining levels while piling up items to sell/aka piling up money. Seems like it's pretty grind friendly to me...

This whole game is just grinding. The FOE thing is really not that big a deal, since the FOE moves as fast as you its pretty easy to avoid; including the 'Shadow who hunts all' on the 3rd floor which you have to avoid battle with.

[Jonnyram]

One thing I don't get though, is that if the enemy movement is floor specific than all the talk about how the game would be hard and ungrindable is BS. Sure it might be hard, but there's absolutely no reason why you can't hang out on a floor where you're comfortable and kill enemies -> head back to town to heal -> kill enemies -> head back to town to heal -> repeat. The whole time gaining levels while piling up items to sell/aka piling up money. Seems like it's pretty grind friendly to me...

Grinding may help you in the beginning, but the fact is that the max level is 70, and you can't max all skills in a class by that level. So when you get down to the final floors, and your level is maxed, you're not going to be relying on grinding any more :P Also, to a large extent, grinding stuff that is easy is not remotely worthwhile, in terms of exp. It would take you significantly longer to level up that way.

[Doctor_No]

Grinding may help you in the beginning, but the fact is that the max level is 70, and you can't max all skills in a class by that level. So when you get down to the final floors, and your level is maxed, you're not going to be relying on grinding any more :P Also, to a large extent, grinding stuff that is easy is not remotely worthwhile, in terms of exp. It would take you significantly longer to level up that way.

For the later levels, even though the max level is 70, you level up by having your party "relax" or "retire". When you have them relax at the guild you can reallocate all your skill points, but you will lose 10 levels. This way you can customize your character's skill points to your liking and use the the level deficient to level up and gain more skill points. You also "retire" a character and you can replace the character with a new character with improved stats. This is important since you only get the professions "Bushido" and "Curse Maker" much later in the game and will need to level up those characters from scratch.

Essentially where grinding takes place in this game is as you get further from the warp points, you need to level up high enough to get further and beat the boss, as with all rpgs its better to fight stronger enemies with more exp, but this game is really only about leveling up to get deeper into the labyrinth .

[Bebpo]

Yeah, the reason I was asking is just because all the talk made it seem like this is the type of game where 10 hours in you can screw yourself and have to restart the game from scratch...something that would've turned me off from it. I've never played Wizardry so this genre is a bit new and I just wasn't sure how to approach it.

Sounds fairly player-friendly to me, though still challenging as you're forced to balance your skill points and classes. Definitely will try to see this all the way through between console rpgs.

For the later levels, even though the max level is 70, you level up by having your party "relax" or "retire". When you have them relax at the guild you can reallocate all your skill points, but you will lose 10 levels. This way you can customize your character's skill points to your liking and use the the level deficient to level up and gain more skill points. You also "retire" a character and you can replace the character with a new character with improved stats. This is important since you only get the professions "Bushido" and "Curse Maker" much later in the game and will need to level up those characters from scratch.

That's absolutely awesome. Atlus R&D1 is the best developer ever.

[Mejilan]

That's an interesting respec mechanic. And you open up the two later classes by retiring powered up characters? Neat!

[Bebpo]

This game is too addicting for its own good. It could kill Japanese people from lack of sleep/food/etc...

Just played like 5 hours straight. Heading into floor 4 now to fight some snow wolves! Characters just reached lvl. 9! Saving money is a paiiiin. The inn is crazy expensive and if I have to use an item to escape to town I need to buy another one to replace it so that's 200gold down and enemy drops on the first 3 floors aren't worth much. Still in the green though at least, but haven't been able to buy a single piece of equipment in the game so far post-starting (even then I accidently blew all the initial money on medkits and 2 swords and that was it ^^;). Using Swordsman, Paladin, Ranger in front and Medic, Alchemist in back. Working pretty good so far, though the Ranger is a bit not useful at this point in the game. Would've rather had two alchemists or another Paladin, but I don't want to level someone else from scratch. Last thing I did before heading to floor 4 was to go back to floor 2 and take out the FoE enemies and finishing mapping floor...good stuff!

[Error]

I hate you bebpo for having the game. I want this game so bad :(

[Takuhi]

Yeah, I echo the comments on all sides. This game is crazy addictive, but also insanely frustrating. I hate that you can only save in town... Having to warp back to town, save, and then walk back to your floor (from the nearest multiple of five) gets old fast, especially when you just want to run into an F.O.E. to see if it's beatable or not. Man does it feel good when you can kill them, though!

If you're having troubles with money, Bebpo, whip up a few rangers and devote all their points to the Forage skill. You can then forage 6 times per ranger per day in that handy forage spot on the first floor. If you do that every new day your money problems will evaporate quickly! They'll gain some levels in the process and you can expand them into Harvesting and Mining (or whatever) later in the game.

Oh, and that $150 soundtrack? It's 16 minutes long. What a screw! And after Kaz said in an interview that there would probably never be an official soundtrack since they're not commercially viable.

[Bebpo]

If you're having troubles with money, Bebpo, whip up a few rangers and devote all their points to the Forage skill. You can then forage 6 times per ranger per day in that handy forage spot on the first floor. If you do that every new day your money problems will evaporate quickly! They'll gain some levels in the process and you can expand them into Harvesting and Mining (or whatever) later in the game.

!!?!?

I have the skill to get the items each day, but it says I can only use them at any item spot. I don't know what an item spot looks like!? I tried reading the manual but it just says "an item spot is an item spot"...

There's one on the first floor? Is it one of those crystal things?