Support NeoGAF

[Parakeetman]

I am not very experienced in the genre. I had played EOIII, IV, Strange Journey, Dark Spire, Persona 1, Unchained Blades, and a bit of the PS3 Wizardry previous to Demon Gaze. Have added Untold and Persona Q since.

I found the challenge and strategy required for random battles to be absent in DG. I was able to safely autobattle the majority of the game. That is forgivable to some extent, because I like the dungeons themselves to be challenging, but part of the experience for me is also the anxiety of exploring knowing that a back attack from certain enemy formations will likely wipe me and preparing for that risk.

Which brings me to my main issue, that the dungeon crawling left a lot to be desired.

Spoiler

You get a demon early in the game that neutralizes threatening tiles. Spinning tiles are an absolute joke because the paths are always positioned so that you can tell exactly where you are. Dark rooms were a huge joke since you could actually see and kept your mini map. Puzzles were few and far between. Teleporting did show up, which I always appreciate, but also in a very elementary way.

For me, the actual dungeon crawl itself might as well have been on autopilot. Every single element I encountered except the clock tower was familiar and better executed in other games.

On top of that, the maps themselves seemed fairly small and I felt like other games I played had more dungeon to be explored overall. That part might have been in my head though, I haven't actually done a comparison.

Thanks for taking the time out to write that. In that case I would suggest you give Operation Abyss a pass as for the most part the gameplay is similar to Demon Gaze as you might have seen in the other posts. The dungeons design is different but might not be what you are looking for exactly. There were some puzzles in Operation Abyss but nothing major. Combat though is very similar.

If you do not mind the fanservice and what you see in that 4 part videos I had posted from the JP demo, then am sure this game might meet your needs a lot more. As it does offer more of a challenge and the crafting your own characters in the sense of picking what jobs they change into along with the mass amount of skills should keep you amused and more inclined to work towards leveling up for that next skill point. The dungeon designs are also quite good and nice to look at. Though do not recall any real "puzzles" so to speak. The starting half of the game may feel easy but things will start to ramp up as you advance and from there if you choose to spend the time to go through it the end game contents is sure to give players a good challenge.

Although this game also has a minimap and such. So if you are looking for a more pure hardcore type of experience that would be closer to something the Elminage 1-3 & Gothic series has to offer.

Thanks for the reply, set classes sound good, I'll have to give each one a better look but I'm leaning towards this one for now.

No problem if you have any other questions feel free to ask at anytime as got the thread on watch.

 

[flatearthpandas]

Thanks for taking the time out to write that. In that case I would suggest you give Operation Abyss a pass as for the most part the gameplay is similar to Demon Gaze as you might have seen in the other posts. The dungeons design is different but might not be what you are looking for exactly. There were some puzzles in Operation Abyss but nothing major. Combat though is very similar.

If you do not mind the fanservice and what you see in that 4 part videos I had posted from the JP demo, then am sure this game might meet your needs a lot more. As it does offer more of a challenge and the crafting your own characters in the sense of picking what jobs they change into along with the mass amount of skills should keep you amused and more inclined to work towards leveling up for that next skill point. The dungeon designs are also quite good and nice to look at. Though do not recall any real "puzzles" so to speak. The starting half of the game may feel easy but things will start to ramp up as you advance and from there if you choose to spend the time to go through it the end game contents is sure to give players a good challenge.

Thanks as always for taking the time to offer suggestions. I'll keep this game in mind over Operation Abyss. How does Stranger of Sword City compare? That's what I was thinking for trying out Experience again.

 

[Parakeetman]

Thanks as always for taking the time to offer suggestions. I'll keep this game in mind over Operation Abyss. How does Stranger of Sword City compare? That's what I was thinking for trying out Experience again.

Stranger personally what really adds the tension is the fact you can lose characters forever if they run out of life points. Which means battles are a lot more stressful. Esp when you come up against enemy types known to do instant kill type of moves. Or that can switch the party order.

For the tension part you mentioned that most def is what Stranger has. The dungeon designs are interesting also, but nothing overly complex. But just the fact knowing that you keep pressing on instead of having returned back home and saved only to lose a well developed character really can hurt lol. You can reload or play-on so to speak with the mistake.

Game really does put an emphasis on using a tank type of character though so folks who do not enjoy that might be a little turned off by that one bit. The reason being is there are some bosses who can pretty much 1 shot non tank characters which is why you need one around to use taunt to attract the attention / soak damage. But it does not work on all the enemy types so it isnt the end all solution.

I think you might enjoy Stranger when it makes its way to the West. While some of the gameplay mechanics are the same and you can plot through certain enemies on "autopilot" there will be occasions where if you do that and not pay attention to the enemy type you are fighting you can wind up with a dead character by accident.

Im actually still playing the game using an item that increases all enemy levels so basically made the game into hard mode. Was a special limited DLC they had for the JP version. Seriously lost a bunch of people thanks to doing that but really made the experience even more insane. I cant even kill the current boss now due to just how it is with its attack patterns D: Great stuff though for excitement with wanting to enjoy the battle. Problem with my PT is I usually have at least 2-3 characters who only have a single LP which means if they die its poof forever. All that time spent crafting them down the toilet lol.

The game is not super hard but it will give players an enjoyable challenge anyways most def. Though sprinkled with occasions of WTF happened. It seems that there are occasions where you will encounter stronger than normal enemies too with the random battles too so looking before you go trying to attack something helps to let you decide to run or not.

There is also a "morale" system which allows the player to use unique skills such as 100% instant escape from battle, accuracy up, defend against stats ailments etc. To some extent as long as you are smart about this you can abuse it in some ways to make things a lot easier. But other times it really is necessary for survival. Also you will have to make choices within the games story that will dictate which of these special skills you will learn from the 3 factions within the game depending on what suits your playstyle.

The difference with Stranger too vs the other Experience Inc titles is this one allows for you to change jobs and swap out specific select skills / traits from those classes you have leveled. Each time you class change though your level that you start the newly selected class is cut in half. And there is a limit of 5 times that you can do this. But the whole system allows you to craft characters to match your playstyle. Which makes it unique and the time spent leveling and doing this adds to the heavy feeling of loss if you do lose a character in battle.

One feature that some do not like though is to regain life points you are required to put your characters to rest in the infirmary which takes up a set amount of time, later on though it is possible to just pay money to recover them instantly but it is quite expensive. Early on its pretty much impossible and the game is designed as such telling the player do not let your characters lose LP out in the dungeons.

 

[Rephin]

God yes. My body is ready for a decent Vita DRPG. Will buy for sure.

 

[flatearthpandas]

Stranger personally what really adds the tension is the fact you can lose characters forever if they run out of life points. Which means battles are a lot more stressful. Esp when you come up against enemy types known to do instant kill type of moves. Or that can switch the party order.

Snipped most but thank you for the whole write-up and all of the additions. I'll keep my eyes on Stranger as well.

 

[Parakeetman]

Snipped most but thank you for the whole write-up and all of the additions. I'll keep my eyes on Stranger as well.

No problem if you ever have any other questions feel free to ask at anytime.

 

[Quixzlizx]

No thats fine, thanks I was just interested as Im sort of torn on stuff like this, on the one hand I like that decisions matter as it makes optimisation fun, on the other hand messing up can be annoying

I always have GameFAQs up for games like this. I don't spoil the story, or how to beat bosses/advance in the game, but I do like to know how the underlying systems work so I don't gimp myself. I like to think of it as doing my homework rather than cheating

There are usually separate class/item FAQs to avoid the possibility of spoiling yourself, too.

 

[Thanatos451]

Never play any of the series, but the trailer definitely got my attention. I will most likely be playing this.

The character artwork looks so beautiful.

 

[vagabondarts]

Operation Abyss LE is already ordered. I want all the DRPGs though, so I'll probably get this too.

Glad its PSTV compatible.

 

[Delusibeta]

Doesn't it bother you when people see creepy content that the kneejerk reaction is 'lol Japan'? It didn't used to be that way.

Yeah, the nineties was a good decade.

 

[Saphirax]

Apparently GS has the release date as 18/8.

http://www.reddit.com/r/vita/comments/32otjb/dungeon_travelers_2_the_royal_library_the_monster/

Gamestop's site won't load for me though.

 

[Tohsaka]

August is kinda far off, at least there's Moero Chronicle and Operation Abyss in the next couple months.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

We're probably getting EO:U2 around that date so I wonder how legit that date is, unless they don't care about releasing both games in the same month/quarter.

 

[Dorarnae]

Glad its PSTV compatible.

oh it is? maybe I should get a ps tv to one of my friend, so he can stop whining there's no rpg..(he only play on ps3 he doesnt like handheld... and we played FF5 together recently, ugh lol).

 

[Parakeetman]

oh it is? maybe I should get a ps tv to one of my friend, so he can stop whining there's no rpg..(he only play on ps3 he doesnt like handheld... and we played FF5 together recently, ugh lol).

Yeah seems like other sources (Playstation Blog writer) have listed it as PSTV compat even though did not see it on the OHP.

 

[Shizuka]

oh it is? maybe I should get a ps tv to one of my friend, so he can stop whining there's no rpg..(he only play on ps3 he doesnt like handheld... and we played FF5 together recently, ugh lol).

Here is the american cover:

 

[Parakeetman]

Here is the american cover:

Its hard to tell if that post he was replying to was about Op Abyss or this game. Since if it was for this then yeah as you showed and listed in the OP it was said that it is PSVTV compat.

 

[InfiniteNine]

The multiple fonts for the subtitles looks awful. x; I get what they were going for but they didn't pull it off.

 

[Parakeetman]

The multiple fonts for the subtitles looks awful. x; I get what they were going for but they didn't pull it off.

Agreed. Does not match at all. Plus the rounded text also looks just bad for the main part of the title vs the sharper ones used in the JP cover. To be honest for the main title text, feels to much like "since its cutesy girls we gotta make the font curved!" is how Im reading it. :/

 

[vagabondarts]

Agreed. Does not match at all. Plus the rounded text also looks just bad for the main part of the title vs the sharper ones used in the JP cover. To be honest for the main title text, feels to much like "since its cutesy girls we gotta make the font curved!" is how Im reading it. :/

Altus has the crazy font mashing going on in Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 as well.

 

[Parakeetman]

Altus has the crazy font mashing going on in Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 as well.

Yeah that one the "The Fafnir Knight" font and color just clashes with the rest of the design. :/ Did the artist even look at the original text?

 

[vagabondarts]

Yeah that one the "The Fafnir Knight" font and color just clashes with the rest of the design. :/ Did the artist even look at the original text?

Things like this are design by committee via artist making the changes. I'm sure the artist was like "aarrrghh" (I would be).

 

[Parakeetman]

Things like this are design by committee via artist making the changes. I'm sure the artist was like "aarrrghh" (I would be).

I sure hope the artist was pissed off about it. Since that looks just plain bad and clashes with the other font way too much.

 

[vagabondarts]

I sure hope the artist was pissed off about it. Since that looks just plain bad and clashes with the other font way too much.

I've been involved in projects like that, with visual results like that, unfortunately.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Yeah that one the "The Fafnir Knight" font and color just clashes with the rest of the design. :/ Did the artist even look at the original text?

That's beautiful... so sad that they ruined it.

Agreed. Does not match at all. Plus the rounded text also looks just bad for the main part of the title vs the sharper ones used in the JP cover. To be honest for the main title text, feels to much like "since its cutesy girls we gotta make the font curved!" is how Im reading it. :/

haha no panty shot for America!

 

[Parakeetman]

I've been involved in projects like that, with visual results like that, unfortunately.

Im more sad when marketing changes the whole cover art for something that is not as interesting... Thankfully am not a paid artist as all the stuff I do is just out of boredom, but man did feel for the artist who was behind the original design of particular project. D: Even more so when seeing that the idea of the "newer" design looked like it got lifted from something else...

 

[Parakeetman]

That's beautiful... so sad that they ruined it.

Am sure that even if the fans took to twitter and bombarded Atlus about it, its too late Id imagine. lol

That's beautiful... so sad that they ruined it.

haha no panty shot for America!

Its funny I just noticed that now too with the images side by side lol.

 

[Kama_1082]

fan service doesn't bother me one bit. Bring on the game!

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Its funny I just noticed that now too with the images side by side lol.

censorship, will not buy/play 0/10

I love how the memory card icon is blocking our view.

 

[Parakeetman]

censorship, will not buy/play 0/10

I love how the memory card icon is blocking our view.

The odd thing is that the actual artwork does not show anything and they turned the shadow there flesh colored for whatever reason with the box art. As have the actual asset from the JP HP. Which had used here.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

The odd thing is that the actual artwork does not show anything and they turned the shadow there flesh colored for whatever reason with the box art. As have the actual asset from the JP HP. Which had used here.

That's amusing.

 

[Parakeetman]

That's amusing.

Only thing I can think of is that they had an earlier version than what was later edited and put on the HP which would explain the lack of a shadow or they removed the shadow to not get in the way of the black borders of the mem card logo on top of not making it appear like it is black panties due to the angle created by the artwork and icon present.

*Think the 2nd half is the more plausible explanation.

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

Quick curious question


Why only Shin Megami Tensei games and no just regular Megami Tensei games?

 

[InfiniteNine]

Only thing I can think of is that they had an earlier version than what was later edited and put on the HP which would explain the lack of a shadow or they removed the shadow to not get in the way of the black borders of the mem card logo on top of not making it appear like it is black panties due to the angle created by the artwork and icon present.

*Think the 2nd half is the more plausible explanation.

In all honesty it's probably a layer that they forgot to re-enable! It happens sometimes.

 

[MikeDip]

Quick curious question


Why only Shin Megami Tensei games and no just regular Megami Tensei games?

There was, they were made by Namcot back on the NES. The first one is based off a book, the second was made as a sequel to the first game and has no relation to any other books.

Then Atlus took over.

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

There was, they were made by Namcot back on the NES. The first one is based off a book, the second was made as a sequel to the first game and has no relation to any other books.

Then Atlus took over.

That's what I mean. Why is everything since then Shin?

 

[MikeDip]

That's what I mean. Why is everything since then Shin?

I guess it's as simple as Atlus started Shin so that's the line they want to continue. They have the series now and that's where they started.

All my guess of course but it seems fine.

 

[BlackLagoon]

That's what I mean. Why is everything since then Shin?

As I recall, the original Megami Tensei was based on a novel. As Atlus' games started to diverge from its original source material, they added Shin to make it clear that their franchise was its own thing.

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

As I recall, the original Megami Tensei was based on a novel. As Atlus' games started to diverge from its original source material, they added Shin to make it clear that their franchise was its own thing.

Gotcha. So there isn't some demarcation between Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei like there is between SMT and Persona.

 

[Dracandros]

Thank you all (especially Parakeetman and flatearthpandas) for the information you are sharing on this (or asking about). I wasn't taking a huge look at the game until now and I was playing some of DG and felt like flatearthpandas was taking some of the words right out of my mouth.

Granted, I knew going in that it was going to be easier and that it was going to have a different focus and all, but I didn't expect to feel like I was struggling to finish the game like I did with CoH2 because it was that easy. Being raised with the early Wizardry and Gold Box games must have spoiled me. I would prefer a DRPG to provide a strong sense of reward. So I glad that this game sounds more rewarding (and that Stranger is as well).


I'll take a better look at the links another time. Whether they tone the fanservice down a bit or not...I can probably deal with it. I am perfectly fine with not completing all of the postgame content because it requires grinding. I need to figure out what to do with DG (put it down for a while or just stop) and a preorder of OA first. It's cool to support the DRPG genre, but getting some enjoyment out of the game would be awesome too.

EDIT: I'm going to keep going on DG. I'll change how I'm playing it a bit and give it a rest for a while.

 

[pariah164]

Day one for sure. Looks great. DRPG, from ATLUS, on my Vita? Fucking yes please.

 

[Einbroch]

Day one. Didn't think this would come westward.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Agreed. Does not match at all. Plus the rounded text also looks just bad for the main part of the title vs the sharper ones used in the JP cover. To be honest for the main title text, feels to much like "since its cutesy girls we gotta make the font curved!" is how Im reading it. :/

I agree with the thought process that if you never localized any other games in a series, drop the numeral. It'll just confuse people.

(That said, I wish they'd kept IV and V on Growlanser Wayfarer of Time and Heritage of War, respectively.)

 

[Parakeetman]

I agree with the thought process that if you never localized any other games in a series, drop the numeral. It'll just confuse people.

(That said, I wish they'd kept IV and V on Growlanser Wayfarer of Time and Heritage of War, respectively.)

Not exactly, since if it does well Id imagine them attempting to localize the To Heart 2 Dungeon Travelers also. Since we still do not have a release date for that Dungeon Travelers 2-2. I could care less about the number in the title, but the fonts, more the subtitle to be specific are a big no.

Would be odd if they do localize To Heart 2: DT considering that VN series never made its way to the west.

Am not sure if anyone brought the anime or OVA to the West either as do not follow localization for anime and such.

 

[Shizuka]

Some companies drop the numbers, some don't. Conception II came out last year with the "II", even if we never got the first game.

 

[Tohsaka]

Some companies drop the numbers, some don't. Conception II came out last year with the "II", even if we never got the first game.

Yeah, I don't think it really matters either way. Like you said, we got Conception II from Atlus, whereas XSEED dropped the 2 from Akiba's Trip 2 when they localized it.

 

[Parakeetman]

Tears to Tiara II was another title where the first one never made it states side and localized by Atlus.

The number is a non issue for the most part.

The average consumer wont care and those in the know already understand that there was a previous version of the game out on top of being not related to the second title.

Still with that being said it is important to at least put a little more thought into the fonts / design used with the localized title. At least the cover image used is the same, just resized slightly.

 

[Kieli]

I wish it came out sooner into the summer when I have time.

 

[Parakeetman]

Did this post in another thread but for those curious about what a full class & skill tree looks like.

The A B C that you see in there means the route from where the next class can change into.

Fighter (1st tier)

• Taunt
• War Cry
• Raging Smash
• Sword Mastery
• Axe Mastery
• Lance Mastery
• Avenger
• Double Attack

Paladin (2nd tier) A, B

• Defender
• Cover
• Parry
• Cross Slash
• Shield Bash
• Heal
• Auto Mini Recover
• Auto Guard

Berserker (2nd tier) B, C

• Berserk
• Aura Eliminate
• Frost Slash
• Geo Break
• Enrage Blood
• Adaptation
• Preparation
• Dark Aura

Valkyrie (3rd tier) A

• Material Guard
• Spell Guard
• Gust Slash
• Daidalos Attack
• Aether Strike
• Circle Heal
• Protection
• Moon Curtain
• Auto Refresh
• Grit
• Imperial Guard
• Absolute Attack

Samurai (3rd Tier) B

• Backwater Form
• Backside Strike
• Sever
• Armor Breaker
• Skill
• Hell Slash
• Katana Knowledge
• Soul Eye
• Triple Attack
• Flowing Water Stance

Dark Lord (3rd Tier) C

• Attract
• Power Charge
• Soul Bind
• Shock Spiral
• Megaton Press
• Life Bring
• Brave
• Gurage Accume? (no idea how to translate this)
• Dark Quest

All of the above is for the first tier class the Fighter. the 2nd and 3rd tiers are the other 2 tiers the player can class change into. Since Skill names are not that important some I didnt bother to fully translate, but this list should give you a single example for a full class & sub classes of what skills look like.

Now take in mind that each skill the higher it goes the more skill points are required, which means not always after leveling up will you have enough skill points to spend. Later in the game as you get higher level you will get more skill points to spend per level though.

 

[AlbionHero]

http://gematsu.com/2015/04/western-dungeon-travelers-2-four-censored-images

Its being censored.