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Weekly Japanese Magazine News (ODIN SPHERE)
- Thread starter duckroll
- Start date
lordfroakie
Member
duckroll said:
:lol :lol :lol
I'm surprised that no one knows that this is Dynasty Warrior DS...
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
vectorman06 said:
Uh...did you read the thread?
Can anyone clarify the japanese in the Musou ad`s title?
It`s Shin (somethin) Musou DS: Fighter`s Battle. I want to say the blank is Sangoku, but that`s not the right kanji...
lordfroakie
Member
TheTrin said:
I did read the thread Trin.
lordfroakie
Member
Amir0x said:
I thought it was Dynasty Warriors DS, but it might be something else.
Tell me about it, but I think think this month should see at least one big JP 360 announcement, if it's to believe that FamiXbox360 editor, even though he's usually more wrong than rightBlimblim said:
Btw. looks like Zoids Alternative for 360 appeared in Fami upcoming releases list this week, not that anyone should care about it though.
Stormbringer
Member
duckroll said:
Well, definitive confirmation that Naruto EX is DOOMED.
Goddamn you Tomy...
Chris Michael
Banned
It's awesome that everything gets babyfied on the DS, I can't wait for Dynasty Warrior Babies. =^.^=
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
Glad Odin Sphere is real.
Although I'm wary of any follow-up to Princess Crown. That game was junk.
Although I'm wary of any follow-up to Princess Crown. That game was junk.
jarrod said:
But it is strange that we still heard nothing about this game a month ahead of release... Even the official site of Koei didn't list the game, instead they already have the site for RoTK DS2 (release in mid of March) long time ago. If Omega Force is developing this, I wonder why Koei does not border to advertise this title. It will sell like crap, esp released on the same day as Musou Orichi on PS2...
Musou Orochi goes on sale a week earlier and still has not received much exposure too. I guess they'll start hyping the DS game next week or the week after. It's retarded to release three different Musou games on three different platforms in one month though, whichever way you look at it. God they'll probably release Sengoku Musou Wave in March just to top it all off. Blame earnings season.enishi said:
TheJollyCorner
Member
Bad_Boy said:
non-news rumor by some RE fansite. No 30 page GAF thread = no news.
TreIII said:........
:lol :lol
But seriously...I'mma need an actual basis to support your claim of why you thought that game was "junk" before I believe you can be taken seriously...
To be fair he's not the only one who didn't 'get' why Princess Crown is good besides the OMG animation quality...
Chris Michael
Banned
This week was a slow week... next week can we expect more newsies?
next week can we expect more newsies?PepsimanVsJoe
Member
TreIII said:
*LONG POST WARNING*
Fair enough
Princess Crown has some good ideas, excellent animation, a fairly entertaining battle system at times, and that's about it.
I'll just start from the top and work my way down.
The game is worth playing for the animation alone IMO. It's simply amazing and comes close to the quality of full-length animated films. The giant spiders and Dragons are amazing in particular as each of their limbs are fully animated(even the fangs on the spider move) and seeing such large sprites moving around with barely a hint of slowdown is very impressive.
The battle system is pretty damn nice. It's simple to get into and gives enough options to get through every encounter. The battles tend to stay pretty dynamic since things like healing can leave you open for attack(you can use certain jewels as healing magic, but most of the time if you want to heal mid-battle it involves trying to eat something while someone is attacking).
The music is solid. Not ear-grating yet not entirely memorable, but it serves a purpose.
The intro looks like it came straight out of an arcade game with the large scrolling engrish text and character portraits zipping by...great stuff IMO
And well here's the bad :/
Repetitive sprites like hell. There are a ton of similar looking townspeople wandering around the villages, some of the clones are even found standing right next to each other like identical twins(ew). But hey great animation and all..eh
Repetitive backgrounds like shit. Most of the dungeons are either caves or castle/tower looking things with bland brick or stone walls. Thankfully a map is always available or else I could imagine getting incredibly lost throughout them. Course the worst part is that the backgrounds are dead. While the characters are full of life the backgrounds are static and lifeless, just...bleah.
Boring area design in general. You progress through the game by walking through various paths linking towns, castles, and dungeons together. Course that's all you really do...you walk..sometimes get into a battle...and keep walking. Outside of battle the only time you can jump is to grab fruit out of trees and I just kept thinking with a little jumping, a little more exploration, it could be something really awesome..but alas.
Battle system flaws: For a game where all you do is fight it is expected that the most polish goes into this part. Well like I mentioned earlier it is fun, but not without flaws.
Shallow!- Combat can get dull after awhile since there's really not much to do. You have a basic set of moves, a sort of finisher which knocks the enemy down and randomly drops an item, and a meter from which you can combo slashes together. Course the enemies can break out of your combo..which kind of defeats the purpose at times. Sometimes the battles can become fairly dynamic and require a lot of moving around in order to position the enemy properly for the wailing. Unfortunately however most of the time it's a simple slashemup and you're limited to your base set of moves, a bunch of items, and sometimes your fairy buddy(who you can upgrade by finding candies). There are no additional weapons or abilities to gain except for an upgraded finisher and an additional form you get in the last hour of the game..more on that later. You can get equipment that adds certain bonuses but the stuff degrades everytime you take a hit and if you're not a fan of keeping equipment maintained through special items then you'll never have a use for it(The game is easy enough to not require anything of the sort).
Cheap!- Aside from breaking combos the monsters are all too capable of ending your game prematurely. Zombies in particular can trap you into combos and waste you in no time. After taking a hit Gradriel(the heroine) can be stuck in knockdown animations while the Zombie(or any other monster) can followthrough with an attack. It wouldn't be such a big deal except all you do in the game is fight..so yeah..bums me out something serious.
Runs way too long- Story-wise the game is fairly short but the awful dungeons stretch things out quite a bit. In fact one of the longest dungeons in the game requires that you go through it twice! It wouldn't be so bad except again the dungeon designs are extremely repetitive both artistically and in terms of exploration. They are simple like the paths linking villages and such except broken up with doors and other such nonsense. Course with the budget spent on animation I guess there wasn't much left for the actual game.
Oh and I can't forget some of the other highpoints of the game.
Late game spoilers
Late in the game Gradriel is trailed by an assassin who has breasts like basketballs..just absurd...nice...but absurd.
In the last hour you get a new form..a sort of Dark Gradriel who casts spells(drains HP though). You can't use the form against the last boss(wtf) but the transformation is just messed. It's one of those nudie Sailor Moon-esque ones where Gradriel goes from 13 years old to 21 in 3 seconds. So much wrong at once.
Oh and just for the record I quit at:
After beating the game you unlock a handful of other characters to play as in much shorter scenarios. I beat the Swordsman's game but the witch? Ugh got stuck in the Zombie dust loop.
I'm not sure what there is to 'get' but feel free to enlighten me.
The game is junk. Thankfully I broke even when I sold the game off.
I'm sure the developers of this game and now Odin Sphere have learned a few things though, but if OS is 30 hours of running down paths I see no reason to praise them as a developer.
PepsimanVsJoe said:
Alright! Now we're getting some where...!
I can agree with some of your claims, even though I didn't find a number of them as grating as you probably did. I mean, when you consider that a number of other RPGs have recycled sprites/models for years on end, I guess it just didn't affect me as much.
As for the backgrounds? Eh, I thought they did the job. It was probably just a trade-off on the devs part to focus more on the foreground objects, while the bg unfortunately got the short straw. Either that, or they couldn't be bothered to try and work around the limits of the Saturn hardware (it did great 2D, but even it had its limits).
Granted...but...what I'm mostly noticing is how you seem to neglect just how strategic the game's fighting engine could be. Besides being able to move Gradriel manually, you also had "counter attack" options which could be executed with well time button presses, enabling you to either quickly backstep away from the opposition, or possibly get behind them and take the fight to 'em that way. If you knew what to look out for, and didn't get yourself into bad situations, then you ideally shouldn't have been caught up in bad situations involving Zombies or Ghouls.
Also, there were the items. Practically everything in the game that Gradriel could stand to get could have a usage on the battlefield. Again, even the seeds you could end up getting after eating some fruit could be tossed on the field, and may germinate into more plants that could serve you in another way. Not to mention that other items could do anything ranging from freezing/stoning your foes, to throwing projectiles to add on to your attack, and etc.
If there was anything that was "shallow" or "cheap" about the game, is that I was left wanting more moves for Grad, and how there was literally no escaping from any fight whatsoever (not even an item you could pick up to do the deed for you). But those were my main gripes with the game from the start.
Oh and I can't forget some of the other highpoints of the game.
Late game spoilers
Late in the game Gradriel is trailed by an assassin who has breasts like basketballs..just absurd...nice...but absurd.In the last hour you get a new form..a sort of Dark Gradriel who casts spells(drains HP though). You can't use the form against the last boss(wtf) but the transformation is just messed. It's one of those nudie Sailor Moon-esque ones where Gradriel goes from 13 years old to 21 in 3 seconds. So much wrong at once.
Eh, it depends on your tastes, I suppose. If you weren't going to dig a game that starred a little girl and a fairy (or were at least willing to look the other way), then chances are you probably wouldn't going to take to kindly to "Magical Girl transformations" and other echi things either... ^^;
I'm not sure what there is to 'get' but feel free to enlighten me.
I won't try to lie and profess to say that the game was perfect. There are a number of things that I hope they would have looked and will improve in OS, especially since they've had a good 10 year gap. But, to me, at least, it was fun and charming game. And compared to the Tales of... series' "virginal voyage", I thought it did its job overall better. Thus, why I'm looking forward to Odin Sphere.
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
TreIII said:
I didn't bother to go over this because I'm aware you played the game. It's a great feature and I enjoy using the dodge move. I'm not saying the trap itself is dumb, but after taking a hit there's no way to get up quickly or move out of the way(Gotta wait for Gradriel's crown to fall on her head etc etc). Guess I should also add that the actual occurences were rare and deaths even less so(I think I died two or three times?)
As far as the items are concerned they add a little to the battles. Problem is you don't need them. Throughout the game I never felt like I had to develop new tactics for the encounters. Aside from bringing a bunch of food, some of those silver jewels, and the potions that restore depleted items to full strength, I just did the same thing I always did. Sure forcing the player to use some random item to specifically kill certain monsters would be pretty stupid but eh..I'm just annoyed by the lack of progression. You don't really learn any new tactics, and when the enemies start repeating themselves...it got kind of dumb.
What I am trying to get at though is that for a game where all you do is walk and fight the least the developers could do is make the experience as pleasant and/or entertaining as possible. It's a five hour game at the most yet it takes 20 something to complete. That is all due to the awful recycled dungeons and bland gameplay(outside of the fighting of course). If there was something more to the exploration...like maybe jumping? Anything to mix up the non-battle elements.
And hell I still liked the game. It's just when I put my mind into I can tear up almost any game.
It's definitely worth playing at the very least. I'm just an ass at times and would just go back to Guardian Heroes(Which given the chance I could easily find things to complain about..and it's in my top 5 favorite games of all time list)
Another thing I forgot to mention. While playing I always left an item slot open so that whenever the enemy dropped something I could pick it up and use it right there. I really enjoyed that particular dynamic and I hope to see it in Odin Sphere.