So as someone who thinks Nocturne's difficulty was just right, would you recommend starting with the highest difficulty setting from the get go?
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Cosmic Star Heroine E3 2016 trailer
- Thread starter Grim Patron
- Start date
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
Yeah, I expect a lot of people will enjoy that difficulty the most.
Tourist - Rhapsody
Agent - Chrono Trigger
Heroine - Persona 3/4
Super-Spy - SMT: Nocturne on Hard mode
Ragnorok64
Member
I wish it had an odd number of difficulties so I'd know which one is smack dab in the middle to approximate "Normal."Cosmic Star Heroine has 4 difficulties - Tourist, Agent, Heroine, and Super-Spy. On the Super-Spy difficulty (the hardest one), most battles are taking me multiple attempts and when I do win, it seems like most of the time, all my items & programs are used up (they refresh each battle) and most of my party is dead or dying.
Is "Heroine" the normal difficulty?
Heroine it is for me, as well.
Items as well are refreshed? So they are not consumables?
On the Super-Spy difficulty (the hardest one), most battles are taking me multiple attempts and when I do win, it seems like most of the time, all my items & programs are used up (they refresh each battle) and most of my party is dead or dying.
Items as well are refreshed? So they are not consumables?
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
We did this specifically because we don't want people to think there is a Normal difficulty. And if you look at the enemy descriptions on the difficulty select, it goes Easiest, Easier, Harder, Hardest. We want the player to actually make a conscious decision on which difficulty to use instead of thinking there's a default.
Do you dislike combat in RPGs and want to breeze through as fast as possible? Pick Tourist.
Do you like combat but don't want to get stuck? Pick Agent.
Do you like combat and want want a challenge but don't want to agonize over every little decision? Pick Heroine.
Do you like combat and want to really dig deep into the systems and find the perfect strategies? Pick Super-Spy.
I'm personally spending the most time on Super-Spy difficulty because as the person who designed the systems, I find it the most fun (plus I gotta make sure that it's beatable).
Yeah, items are equipped before combat and each item can be used once per combat. They're like abilities that your entire party can use. We've used a similar system in our past games and thought it worked really well, but it's much better in CSH (more items, more interesting item effects, and meshes better with the overall gameplay).
Interesting. As long as there is a good selection of items to use (especially healing ones) I am ok with this. I always make sure I am well stocked on items, and use them liberally when needed.
How many slots do you have to equip items?
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
You start out with 3 slots to equip items and gain more slots as the game progresses.
Here's a list of some of the early items:
Shield Breaker - Ailment: Vulnerable (Enemy takes double damage from the next hit)
Poison Mist - Ailment: Poison (Damage each turn. Only works on organic enemies)
Aegis - Target ally takes only 1 HP of damage from the next hit
Sunglasses - Target ally gains 40% style (style affects damage & ailment success)
Potion - Target ally regains 100 HP (Not reduced when ally is in desperate mode)
Pain Pill - Target ally can enter desperate mode once with no style cost (Desperate mode normally costs 50/100% style depending on difficulty level. Desperate mode means that when a hit would kill you instead you go into negative HP and only die if your HP is still negative at the end of your turn. In desperate mode, you get a damage bonus and most heal effects are halved)
Hyperizer - Target ally instantly goes into Hyper mode (Hyper mode occurs every X turns depending on the character and doubles your damage/ailment power for 1 turn)
EDIT: New screenshot!
Here's a list of some of the early items:
Shield Breaker - Ailment: Vulnerable (Enemy takes double damage from the next hit)
Poison Mist - Ailment: Poison (Damage each turn. Only works on organic enemies)
Aegis - Target ally takes only 1 HP of damage from the next hit
Sunglasses - Target ally gains 40% style (style affects damage & ailment success)
Potion - Target ally regains 100 HP (Not reduced when ally is in desperate mode)
Pain Pill - Target ally can enter desperate mode once with no style cost (Desperate mode normally costs 50/100% style depending on difficulty level. Desperate mode means that when a hit would kill you instead you go into negative HP and only die if your HP is still negative at the end of your turn. In desperate mode, you get a damage bonus and most heal effects are halved)
Hyperizer - Target ally instantly goes into Hyper mode (Hyper mode occurs every X turns depending on the character and doubles your damage/ailment power for 1 turn)
EDIT: New screenshot!
That is fucking awesome. Hate it when RPGs lock you to a difficulty level at the start of the game, this way I'll start on a higher difficulty I normally would and simply drop it down a notch if it gets frustrating.
Cornbread78
Member
Exactly! Wish more games did this actually. The Order did this as well and I appreciated it very much!
The Story
Alyssa L'Salle is one of the top secret agents at the Agency of Peace & Intelligence on the Planet Araenu. But when she uncovers a horrible conspiracy, she has to go rogue in order to save the day! Can Alyssa save the galaxy when everyone (and everything) is out to stop her?
Features
The best of classic and modern RPGs!
Brisk pacing that respects your time! Save anywhere!
No separate battle screen! Battles take place directly in the areas that you explore!
2D visual style straight from the height of gaming's 16-bit era!
Animated cutscenes reminiscent of the Sega CD and Turbo Duo era!
Soundtrack by HyperDuck SoundWorks (Dust: An Elysian Tail, Precipice of Darkness 4)!
Over 100 minutes of music!
Innovative turn-based combat system that focuses on flow and strategy!
Multi-character combo techniques!
Your own spaceship! Recruit new agents to help your home base grow!
Available on:
Humble Store Steam
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
Yeah, we're hoping that people will experiment with the difficulty, raising or lowering it until they find the one that they find the most fun. In fact, I'm planning on having a message at some point early in the game to remind people that they can change the difficulty.
Mikey Jr.
Member
Woah, against grandia. Thems be fightin words!
But seriously day one man. Game looks awesome. Your game looks way more appealing than setsuna for example.
StereoVsn
Member
I really hope late Summer doesn't mean September.
Ragnorok64
Member
I can respect that. I'll probably play on Agent then, there's too many different games out and I can't afford to get stuck on one.We did this specifically because we don't want people to think there is a Normal difficulty. And if you look at the enemy descriptions on the difficulty select, it goes Easiest, Easier, Harder, Hardest. We want the player to actually make a conscious decision on which difficulty to use instead of thinking there's a default.
Do you dislike combat in RPGs and want to breeze through as fast as possible? Pick Tourist.
Do you like combat but don't want to get stuck? Pick Agent.
Do you like combat and want want a challenge but don't want to agonize over every little decision? Pick Heroine.
Do you like combat and want to really dig deep into the systems and find the perfect strategies? Pick Super-Spy.
I'm personally spending the most time on Super-Spy difficulty because as the person who designed the systems, I find it the most fun (plus I gotta make sure that it's beatable).
Beatofficer
Member
I can't wait for this game. I accidentally triggered a bug at PSX with the Vita version and had to stop. Came back the next day and played it again avoiding what caused the bug and its so perfect.
what the... heroine to super-spy is a huge jump if those are your comparisons lol
How RNG is the combat system?
Been kinda frustrated with Atlus games of recent. Personally never a fan of super bonuses/chains after hitting a weak point. Fights just end up you praying that the enemy don't target the weak affinity type on their turn and combo a party member to death.
Thinking of knocking down the difficulty in tokyo mirage sessions lol.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
Not at the moment but we're considering one. Just gotta figure out the best way to implement it here.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
what the... heroine to super-spy is a huge jump if those are your comparisons lol
Yeah, we have a small group of fans who like brutal difficulty so Super-Spy is for them. Oh and when I said P3/4 for Heroine, I'm not talking about P3/4 on the easy difficulties.
Not very. Only RNG element is enemy AI (to a degree that varies from enemy to enemy). Ailments use an ailment HP system to determine success so there's no randomness there (i.e. if you use a Stun move, it deals invisible "Stun damage" and if that drops the target's "Stun HP" to zero, it succeeds. If not, well, at least their Stun HP is lower for the next move). Attack abilities have no damage range - they always do the exact same amount of damage based on power, ability, resistances, and defenses.
This might be a nitpick, but the player portraits/health being on the left while the actual characters are on the right is triggering me.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
We thought it was best to keep the portraits in the same place for every battle, regardless of where your party members are (battles occur directly on maps like in Chrono Trigger - there's no separate battle screen).
theofficefan99
Junior Member
I feel like the dialogue isn't going to be good, and I'm not liking the character designs (or names) at all, but the game looks good otherwise.
RandomSeed
Member
Did you play Breath of Death or Cthulhu Saves the World? I expect the dialog to be a highlight.
BlueDogAnchorite
Member
I can't wait for this game. Reminds me so much of Chrono Trigger (My favorite game)
robotzombie
Member
I think its unfair that you get to play the game you made before any of us
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
OniBarubary
Banned
Shoulda called it Heroin with the amount of time Imma put into this
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
Well, I'm hoping it'll be hard to put down. I think our pacing is great.
Fun stat, when you add up all the abilities (character-specific, item, and programs, including defense abilities), there are 33 abilities you can use in combat by the end of the first hour or so of the game. May sound a little overwhelming but it's a steady trickle of new moves as you go so I think it works really well.
Fun stat, when you add up all the abilities (character-specific, item, and programs, including defense abilities), there are 33 abilities you can use in combat by the end of the first hour or so of the game. May sound a little overwhelming but it's a steady trickle of new moves as you go so I think it works really well.
FrenchMovieTheme
Member
any idea when the physical copy will go up at limited run games? obviously not a date (because you don't have an actual game date itself yet) but is it going to coincide with the digital release or months after?
SupraDarky
Member
One of my most anticipated games of the year, definitely!
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
It'll be after. I'm not sure how long after, but at least a few weeks.
BlackGhost
Banned
Looking forward to this
Sweet baby jesus, really? I'm pumped! I feel like it's been forever since I payed a Zeboyd game, and I'm looking forward to it.
If nothing else, it's better to give the phys release some time after initial digital release so that any little bugs we missed at launch are fixed in the physical release.
But also handling all that after initial release is just.. something that gives us a chance to focus first on releasing the game and then time to focus on doing the physical launch instead of overwhelming ourselves all at the same time
late Summer? THIS YEAR?
I don't even care if it ends up in fall or winter. Been wating for this for quite a while (Kickstarter backer here), and everything showed so far has been awesome. Can't wait to actually play it.
That's nice to hear. I've never been a fan of traditional new game + where you one-shot every enemy and boss (ala Chrono Trigger and Xenoblade), but I love new game + variants that reward me for doing well in my first playthrough and offer new challenges in my second (like Tales of Symphonia or Defender's Quest). I'm sure the latter would add weeks or months to dev time though.
Lol, weren't you the guy on Gamefaqs who was obsessed with Final Fantasy XIII and defended its story to death?
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Might gonna go with heroine at first, too. Normally I'd never pick a difficulty comparable to Persona 3/4, but the fights actually look like fun (unlike in Persona, never liked the SMT systems that much) so I don't want them to be too easy. The item system in particular sounds really cool - I tend to hoard stuff and never, ever use them in JRPGs, so maybe this sort of an approach will fix that for me.
I know this is still probably somewhat a moving target but how are you feeling about Vita performance? Is it going to run pretty well?
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Yeah I'll be starting on Heroine difficulty methinks
People are going to think Heroine is the Normal difficulty because Heroine is in the game title.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Will they? The hardest difficulty mode in Deus EX: HR was called "Give me Deus Ex" (as opposed to "Give me the story" (easy) and "Give me a challenge" (normal)). It's not uncommon for harder difficulty settings to include words from the game title I think?
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
Last I checked it was running well on the Vita. Load times are a little longer (but still fast) and performance isn't always 60 fps like it is on the PS4, but very playable. I think people will be pleased with the Vita version.
Since Heroine isn't the hardest difficulty, I think Htown has a point. It's easy to think that if there's a difficulty level that's named after the game, it's either the hardest one or the 'normal difficulty'.
Valkyri von Thanatos
Member
Same, that's what I'd assume as well, but what were they gonna do? It seems like Heroine is a good name for a difficulty level based off what they were going for so it'd be weird not to use it.
Sounds great! Thank you for prioritizing getting the Vita version smooth! Is it releasing at the same time as the other versions as well? Any more hints of release timing beyond summer?
SolicitorPirate
Member
Hey Robert, sorry if this has been answered before, but how are status ailments, buffs and debuffs handled? As in how meaningful are they to combat?
For games like Etrian Odyssey, I can build my party entirely around inflicting status effects and capitalising on them. Would that be viable in CSH, or are things more like say FF13, where buffs and statuses were handy to have, but battles didn't feel like they turned on them.
For games like Etrian Odyssey, I can build my party entirely around inflicting status effects and capitalising on them. Would that be viable in CSH, or are things more like say FF13, where buffs and statuses were handy to have, but battles didn't feel like they turned on them.
