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Gundam EXVS Force |Import OT| The stories about localization... It's true, all of it.

Kysen

Member
For some reason I can't use the friends/trophies or messages app while this game is running.
Is this a Vita TV limitation or part of that memory change in the firmware a while back?
 

Lyte Edge

All I got for the Vernal Equinox was this stupid tag
I'm glad this game is getting ripped a new one. There's no excuse for them to release a Gundam Vs. game in the state that this title was released in. I'm not going to buy it unless they patch in more modes and online multiplayer.
 

kollapse

Neo Member
It's too bad that the modes appear to be so thin, but If Extreme Force mode is substantial enough and long, then it should be enough to tide us over.

Curious to hear impressions of playing with a stick on a PSTV, I would suspect it feels the same but I'm nervous.
 

TreIII

Member
I'm glad this game is getting ripped a new one. There's no excuse for them to release a Gundam Vs. game in the state that this title was released in. I'm not going to buy it unless they patch in more modes and online multiplayer.

Same here.

It's a type of spin-off nobody really asked for, has a pretty poor roster and doesn't even have the baseline modes that people were expecting to have.

Yet, this is the title that Bamco decides to "surprise" fans in the West with. And I thought Digimon All-Stars was the worst recent example of sabotaging a franchise's hopes in the West.
 

Jubern

Member
It's too bad that the modes appear to be so thin, but If Extreme Force mode is substantial enough and long, then it should be enough to tide us over.

Curious to hear impressions of playing with a stick on a PSTV, I would suspect it feels the same but I'm nervous.

Actually it probably won't work that well. IIRC what I played of the game at TGS, the camera is actually unlocked, to be used with the right stick.
That's actually another reason I'm iffy about gameplay: in Force mode you actually find yourself free roaming quite a bit, something that feels really jarring and terrible in a EXVS game.

Hope it turns out for the best.
 

RootCause

Member
I'm very disappointed from what I'm reading. Still, if I don't support this when it gets released in NA, then we might never get another one. :(
 

Kysen

Member
Actually it probably won't work that well. IIRC what I played of the game at TGS, the camera is actually unlocked, to be used with the right stick.

Is that what it was, wow. I was wondering why all of a sudden I had to keep adjusting the camera with the right stick.
 

JKTrix

Member
Google Translate tells me that he thinks the thing won't let you take the survey until you finish the game, but that's not true. There's a serial code in the game's manual (just checked my digital one) that will let you take the survey. I think the survey just asks you to please play the game for 5 or more hours before you take it.

As for impressions from playing a bit last night,

It was pretty clear to me shortly after Force was announced that this was not meant to be a competitive portable version of the game, so my expectations were already pretty blank. That said, I'm mostly enjoying it so far, considering that I knew it was going to be a stripped down game system. The button changes are implemented pretty well, especially since I'm familiar with that 'shift' system that's been used in some other mecha games (like Another Century's Episode). A lot of them are missing some moves from the Big games because you only get 2 'special' attacks, so that is kind of a bummer.

The one change that I'm not crazy about is removing the Burst/Awakening system. Any of you who have played with me know that I'm not very good at dodging, so having even that one-time chance to break out of an attack string was very important for me. Maybe this game will make me 'git gud'/better at dodging, but when you have a time sensitive mission and Barbatos gets you in one of his long melee attack strings, it can get pretty frustrating.

Another kind of weird thing is the Lock On system and Free Camera mode. When the first mission was forcing me to look around with the right stick in order to lock on to enemies, I did not like it. If you see my stream, you might see one of the very first things I do before getting into a game is increase my camera sensitivity a little. After getting into the first game, I maxed it out. It's still less than ideal, but I suppose they did need a way for you to be able to look around in the large 'Force' missions that are not just straightforward 'VS' battles in a small space. In missions where you're just doing the standard fights, it's not a problem. You can just switch between two targets as normal.

I find that I gravitate to the VS missions in the main mode to avoid the hassle, but of course Force missions are required to progress.

The Force missions themselves are kind of interesting? Since I can only read very very simple Japanese I don't really get what's going on a lot of the time. There was one mission in the Zeta timeline that I kept failing on where you have to protect a building but at the same time you have to capture enemy camps around you. I didn't solve it on the stream but playing it in bed later I did eventually get past it. Another streamer, not sure if he's a member here, was ahead of me in the game and gave me a tip to send my minions to capture the bases while I stayed to protect the building myself, and that did the trick. I hadn't been utilizing my allies much at all (since they were pretty useless in a fight), and there was a whole 2nd 'platoon' space that I wasn't using. Once I filled out the 2nd platoon and sent them to just capture the bases, it worked out better.

I have no opinion on the story or the little girl mascots because I skip them whenever they come up.

The force missions are actually...kind of MOBA-like? you have these enemy turrets (like towers) that spawn minions that try to capture your bases, and other tougher 'hero' units will also spawn. Your own captured bases/turrets also spawn autonomous minions in addition to the platoons you bring in and they march towards the nearest objective on their own. As you kill stuff and progress, you gain currency that lets you purchase temporary bonuses for your units, and you get some more advanced bonuses as you level up, leading up to a full on assault from your equipped battleship at the highest level. I havent' figured out what all of the bonuses do yet, but the ones I've been using the most are Damage bonuses and HP recovering. Damage bonus in particular was useful for that building defense mission, because without it it takes way too long to kill enemies (even with two platoons) and they eventually swarm and overwhelm.

Persistent progression is also very simple. For playable units, you gain some kind of EXP at the end of the battle, win or lose, just for the user-playable units that participated. Units that you can not control that participate (i.e. Amuro's Dijeh) do not improve or earn EXP, but if you have a playable unit that's participating as an NPC in one of your platoons (i.e. Hyaku Shiki, etc that you're not controlling directly) they will earn XP. Each playable character has certain exp thresholds that will unlock a bonus once you reach that threshold. Examples I've seen are simple, static things like 50% increase to shooting power, 50% increase to boost gauge, things like that. Nothing that you have any direct control over like in the previous Big games.

Haro medals are also part of this persistent progression. Your platoon composition is limited by a cost, I think it starts at 3000. So in the very first mission, you can only use 2k Gundam and 1k Guncannon in your platoon (nevermind that it forces you). As you collect Haro medals, it increases by 500 at a time. I'm up to 4500 right now. Haro medals are basically challenges in each mission. Common examples are simply clearing a mission, clearing a mission using a specific unit, clearing a mission while only using melee, and clearing a mission within a certain time limit. I mentioned earlier getting stuck in a Barbatos string in a time sensitive mission, what I actually meant is for one of these Haro medal challenges. In addition to increasing your platoon cost, there are also missions in each 'route' which require you to earn a certain amount of Haro medals to unlock. In Area 2 where I am right now, there's a mission that I'm pretty sure will unlock F-91 once I clear it, but I need to earn 24 Haro medals just in Area 2 before it will even let me play it. So that's my priority right now, lol.

The game is pretty stripped down from what we're used to, but they did put some thought into this single player mode. The Haro medals have juuust enough of a hook to make them worth shooting for, and maybe extends the value of the single player mode a fair bit. I'm concerned about the longevity after you clear all the single player stuff, so I do hope there's more to it after that or that more features get added later.
Curious to hear impressions of playing with a stick on a PSTV, I would suspect it feels the same but I'm nervous.
I tried hooking up my Qanba last night, it didn't take. Would be nice if it did! Maybe I'll try it again. There's also no way to manually set each button in the software, so depending on your preferred layout you might have a little trouble.
 

enishi

Member
It's too bad that the modes appear to be so thin, but If Extreme Force mode is substantial enough and long, then it should be enough to tide us over.

Unfortunately, around 3-4 hrs to finish this mode; around 10 hrs to get Platinum trophy...
 

Lyte Edge

All I got for the Vernal Equinox was this stupid tag
Unfortunately, around 3-4 hrs to finish this mode; around 10 hrs to get Platinum trophy...

LOL. I feel like the English version of this game is being "sent to die." I don't understand why this wasn't a portable version of the latest arcade game, with online play, with this new mode added in. That would have made sense.
 

muteki

Member

Is Watching You included in the game or custom BGM? Edit, nvm I saw the menu earlier in your stream.

My expectations for the game are incredibly low. I'm not a fan of Breaker and am just happy to have some loosely story-based UC gundam action on my Vita.

Digital version has appeared on the store unusually early, but the store keeps throwing errors left and right for me. Maybe they pulled the trigger too soon.
 

kollapse

Neo Member
Rough... Thanks for the impressions everyone, but disappointing overall. Still, will buy when it gets out here to play on the go, and to support future potential North American releases of arcade ports.
 
LOL. I feel like the English version of this game is being "sent to die." I don't understand why this wasn't a portable version of the latest arcade game, with online play, with this new mode added in. That would have made sense.

Because they're still making money hand over fist from the arcade version. Maxi Boost won't hit consoles until a while after they release the next arcade game.

Anyway, despite Force being stripped down, I feel like it's my duty to buy the game ASAP when it hits NA PSN/retail.
 

Lyte Edge

All I got for the Vernal Equinox was this stupid tag
Because they're still making money hand over fist from the arcade version. Maxi Boost won't hit consoles until a while after they release the next arcade game.

Are they? That game came out in March 2014. It has been long enough and the arcade scene over there is not what it once was.
 
Some early impressions:

- If this didn't have the EXVS moniker, this game wouldn't probably be getting the same flak it's getting. As a single player game and because of its pedigree, the gameplay experience is waaaaaay more polished than the Gundam Battle series and Gundam Breaker. It doesn't have that jank you expect to have when playing those games.

- If you liked the mission objective based structure of those games, then you're going to enjoy this one as well, especially if you like getting 100% on missions.

- The force system is pretty neat with simple squad/ship commands. Force Battles feel MOBA-esque like jktrix said.

- I am actually impressed with how well they handled the free camera and targeting as it was always a nightmare to cycle through more than two enemies in the mission modes of the base games.

- The control scheme is pretty decent considering I can also play EXVS on a pad. While it looks like units have dropped moves to compensate for the control scheme of the Vita (i.e. no "A+C" attack), a lot of those moves appear to be mapped to directions. For example, Heine's Destiny neutral SP2 button is the shining finger. If you hold back while inputting SP2, then you get the boomerang.

My only real gripe are the charge shot attacks like CSa and especially CSb. They're easy to manage with a stick or the pad with extra buttons, but it takes work to use something like Heine Destiny's CSa into combos simply because you only have one thumb.

Outside of that, the controls are solid.

I only just got G-Self so I'm not too far into the game as of yet. I'm enjoying it so far and it's cool to see the EXVS mechanics in something outside of its core. Still don't know why they didn't do something like the old PSP VS games (especially since they were the arcade games plus more), but I would definitely like to see an Extreme Force mode get added to something like Maxi Boost ON or something like that.
 

Lyte Edge

All I got for the Vernal Equinox was this stupid tag
'Not what it once was' is pretty vague. Maxi is doing very well in Japan.

"Not what it once was" as in shrinking. More Arcades have been shutting down over the past year or two. I was pretty sad at what I saw last time I was over there in the summer. Not just the state of arcades, but the game shops too. But that's for another topic.

Source? I know there's an update that came out in October that must have boosted (no pun intended!) revenue.
 

Lyte Edge

All I got for the Vernal Equinox was this stupid tag
As a single player game and because of its pedigree, the gameplay experience is waaaaaay more polished than the Gundam Battle series and Gundam Breaker. It doesn't have that jank you expect to have when playing those games.

That's not really saying much. How does it compare to Gundam Musou?
 
"Not what it once was" as in shrinking. More Arcades have been shutting down.

Source? I know there's an update that came out in October.

http://www.am-j.co.jp

Maxi Boost is the 2nd highest earner in small cabinet arcade games under Tekken 7 in October.

That's not really saying much. How does it compare to Gundam Musou?

The gameplay is much more solid than GM and I love the GM series. It's still EXVS at the core. GM is a button masher at its finest. Battles are obviously at a much smaller scale than GM, but there's much more finesse to Force because of it.

It's like comparing God of War to Devil May Cry.
 
Even if it isn't what it once was, it's still bringing in fat stacks constantly. Isn't there a new version on the way, too? But really, they only release the games on the console once it's dried up and the well is empty, not when a few arcades are going out the door.

It sucks, but it's business. Force is also a straight up single-player game, while the Boost games require you to have another person to play with. They aren't balanced for 1v1, which is a huge minus against it in a FG aspect.
 

Lyte Edge

All I got for the Vernal Equinox was this stupid tag
http://www.am-j.co.jp

Maxi Boost is the 2nd highest earner in small cabinet arcade games under Tekken 7 in October.

I guess they don't go into any more details than just listing the top 5?

The gameplay is much more solid than GM and I love the GM series. It's still EXVS at the core. GM is a button masher at its finest. Battles are obviously at a much smaller scale than GM, but there's much more finesse to Force because of it.

It's like comparing God of War to Devil May Cry.

That's cool, looking forward to seeing what you think after playing some more.

Reading that the game can be completed in 3-4 hours and it being a single-player only affair has still has me skeptical. I was ready to import this and now I'm holding off to see what people think about it after a week or so.
 

Zapages

Member
I was just wondering for the folks who are playing this on their PSTV. Will the PS3's DS3 or Sixaxis work with the game or do you need to use a PS4 controller for it? One of the video was something, but never clarified. Thank you in advance. :)
 
this is differant then the fighter games from the psp isnt it? i remember i had one callded gundam breaker i think? not sure. really want to support this game because it may be our only chance of getting gundam games in the west
 
I guess they don't go into any more details than just listing the top 5?

That's cool, looking forward to seeing what you think after playing some more.

Reading that the game can be completed in 3-4 hours and it being a single-player only affair has still has me skeptical. I was ready to import this and now I'm holding off to see what people think about it after a week or so.

As for the arcade stats, I assume you'll need like some membership or something to access that data.

Regarding the game, I've clocked about 2 hours 30 minutes according to the in-game timer and just unlocked area 2 (Zeta - ZZ timeline). I've been unlocking as many levels as I can in area 1 and there's about 23-24? Haven't unlocked everything yet in the area yet, but I've also been attempting to get as many medals as possible as well. VS battles are fun but easy (for me I guess), but I'm really enjoying Force Battles the most. Shit gets manic, but it's pretty fun.

I've also unlocked the following mobile suits:
G-Self
God Gundam
Zeong
Char's Zaku II
Gyan
Alex
Double X
Freedom

Both Barbatos 4th and Heine's Destiny are unlocked right from the get go when you download them.

G-Self is by far my fave to use so far and Heine's Destiny is second. Loving G-Self's reflector pack and assault pack that feels like a more versatile G-Falcon.

I was just wondering for the folks who are playing this on their PSTV. Will the PS3's DS3 or Sixaxis work with the game or do you need to use a PS4 controller for it? One of the video was something, but never clarified. Thank you in advance. :)

The DS3 should work just fine.

this is differant then the fighter games from the psp isnt it? i remember i had one callded gundam breaker i think? not sure. really want to support this game because it may be our only chance of getting gundam games in the west

The PSP ones similar to this was Seed Federation VS Zaft Portable, Gundam VS Gundam, and Next Plus. Gundam Breaker was on the Vita. Force is a spinoff of the EXVS series, which is the newest iteration of the first three mentioned. Force is mechanically at its core the same as the EXVS series proper, but it's been tweaked for more of a single player experience.
 

muteki

Member
Game doesn't look so great. If you can't get the game to run at native resolution, you should at least make your menu and other 2d assets native.

That being said, I'm enjoying what I've played so far. Haro medals are fun (though the no damage ones are a bit annoying), and the Force mode is like ut2k4's onslaught mode with Gundam, which is as interesting as it sounds. I'm wondering about the difficulty level though, as so far most of the enemies are one-shots in the 0079 area.

Weird though that I can't open up Twitter or the store while the game is running.
 

kubricks

Member
With these serious backlash, how big the chance Bandai would succumb to the demand and patch in a free-mode?

I bought the game yesterday and still haven't the time to play it.... the situation is worrying lol.
 
Wow at that price I am almost tempted to buy it just to see if any of the complaints are that valid even though it would probably take me a few hours to even find my damn Vita. lol

They sound like they would bother me as well, but only if the other modes aren't very meaty. No online and VIta was the entire reason I was ignoring this release as well.
 

Kysen

Member
wow I didn't realize that much content had been cut. I wonder if NB will go the extra mile and add content to the game post release.
 
K, 7 hours in and I'm about halfway through Act 3 I think.

- If you're solely into the competitive part of EXVS, then this isn't for you.
- If you're not and enjoy single-player content, then you'll like this game.
- If you're a newcomer to EXVS or got turned off by some of the more VS oriented elements of it, then this game is a decent starting point.

Like I appreciate the simplified move sets depending on the units, but it's weird they took out Zeta's missile amekyan. But, they made Unicorn's BR zunda timing way more lenient!

I personally found some of the harder missions to be somewhat easy, but this is probably due to being an EXVS vet as well.

Online Force Battles would be pretty fun, too so here's to hoping they patch it in sometime as well. It's funny considering the EXVS team has had good netcode for their previous games as well. I'm guessing the lack of content would be due to getting the game out before X-Mas and the main team working on Maxi Boost ON.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Game isnt bad, I just see it as a "Gundam" game with EXVS mechanics. Though would have liked a free battle mode where I could have just messed around with specific units.

As Donkey said this most def would be enjoyable for someone who didnt care for the more "hardcore" vs aspect of the actual series. As the SP portion is well done enough.

The one major downside though is the EXVS mechanics are most def not made for large maps in terms of traversing distance.

And finally the one thing that did piss me off was the sudden price drop on amazon which is a big fuck you to those who actually preordered the game ahead of time. I dont mind price drops when they happen at least a month after, but a few days after release? Yeah thats bad business for all parties involved.
 
And finally the one thing that did piss me off was the sudden price drop on amazon which is a big fuck you to those who actually preordered the game ahead of time. I dont mind price drops when they happen at least a month after, but a few days after release? Yeah thats bad business for all parties involved.

Isn't that more just a retailer reaction? Big shipment which they were probably expecting to sell through in the coming weeks, but negative reviews and (probably) a lot of used copies already. I mean yeah, it definitely does suck, but I can't see much Bamco can do about it.

As for the reaction - I'm still very interested in the game based on all the impressions I'm getting. I can see why you'd be pissed if you were expecting a multi-player Extreme Vs. game, but for what it is it seems neat.

Btw, who's developing this?
 

LMN

Member
Isn't that more just a retailer reaction? Big shipment which they were probably expecting to sell through in the coming weeks, but negative reviews and (probably) a lot of used copies already. I mean yeah, it definitely does suck, but I can't see much Bamco can do about it.

As for the reaction - I'm still very interested in the game based on all the impressions I'm getting. I can see why you'd be pissed if you were expecting a multi-player Extreme Vs. game, but for what it is it seems neat.

Btw, who's developing this?

TBH I personally never expected a multiplayer Extreme Vs as 1-2 player and adhoc only was known ever since official announcement during TGS.
Coming straight from NEXT+, which is the one and only gundam vs series that I played so far, the only thing I wanted or expected from this game is a Single player EXVS game, a portable 3d arena action fighting game that I can play casually (player vs cpu aka free battle) along with a new take on mission mode like Next+ mode on PSP Next+.

Many people and myself included are not happy with gimp movesets, lack of online, or lack of burst system, but the true breaking point comes when it was revealed how the game only have mission mode and adhoc mode, with really really bare bone roster and content. No free battle mode, even though the game is branded as VS series is just...lol. Even Battle series have free battle. Combined with the fact how BN has been advertising and branding this game is very misleading. This is probably the main reason why many people are so angry with this game.

I still haven't canceled my Asian English pre-order yet, as I still have some little bit of hope that BN might do something later, but if there is nothing by next month, guess I might skip this game then.
 
13 hours in and halfway through Act 4, which I think is the last one. Haven't unlocked everything yet. Still need to get Wing Zero and the Archangel. Difficulty is nice and everything is TM Revolution now. I'm going to get a new capture card tomorrow and I'll upload some levels when I can.

I wonder if my Zudah is in the game. lol

In the mean time just using Barbatos

Zudah has been culled. :(

Also, anyone know of a jp wiki that has the haro medal requirements? My lack of moonspeak is only getting me so far in brute forcing some of these medals now, hah.
 

X05

Upside, inside out he's livin la vida loca, He'll push and pull you down, livin la vida loca
So finally played for a bit (first 5 missions or so), impressions starting from copying the game to the Vita:
- 1.4GB? Small game size, nice.
- That was one awfully short and disappointing intro video.
- I'm not liking TM Revolution's song, but at least is better than that Linkin Park crap in Vanilla.
- FFFUUUUU--- there really is no 2v2.
- I really don't care about the lack of online though, since my Vita's WiFi chip is absolute dogshit :D
- The font size in this game sucks (my japanese reading skill is garbage, but I can't even try here).
- WTF is this moe shit.
- Well, at least the lolitwins are speaking, so I can have *some* idea on what's going on.
- I don't really care though! Next, next, next...
- Neeeextttt...
- Free camera feels weird.
- Simplified movesets... Doesn't make much sense, since N+ was on PSP and it didn't do that...
- So you get Haro medals for doing specific shit. Would love it if i could read what those are.
- Oh, trophies are in English, neat.
- Wait, no awakenings? W.T.F.
Yes, I realized after I got the trophy with that in its name
- Oh, I can already use Barbatos and HeineDestiny, but everything else I have to unlock? That's bullshit.
- Free camera feels right.
- Unlike mission modes of previous games, skills on leveling up seem auto-assigned. Could go either way.
- You can buy single use skills for missions, that's a good idea actually.
- Yes, free camera is definitely right in those gazillion vs one fights.
- Fuck you Sony, y no tvout
- This is not bad, shame that if you want 2v2 on Vita FvZP is the only option :/
Conclusion:
I actually like it, but would've fared better if this was the mission mode of say, MaxiBoost PS4 rather than a somewhat barebones standalone.

Amazon.jp gonna amazon.jp I guess :p

Same here.

It's a type of spin-off nobody really asked for, has a pretty poor roster and doesn't even have the baseline modes that people were expecting to have.

Yet, this is the title that Bamco decides to "surprise" fans in the West with. And I thought Digimon All-Stars was the worst recent example of sabotaging a franchise's hopes in the West.
Well, it's not like they could release FB PS3 right now, since that one is 2 years old and everyone that wanted to play it has done so by now.
They really should've done MB PS4 though, and release that one globally instead.

LOL. I feel like the English version of this game is being "sent to die." I don't understand why this wasn't a portable version of the latest arcade game, with online play, with this new mode added in. That would have made sense.
A bunch of effects and shit had to be cut back for the PS3 releases of vanilla and FB, Vita would catch itself on fire trying to run MB.
What would've made sense is MB PS4, but I'm guessing Scamco is waiting for the userbase to grow.

Some early impressions:

- If this didn't have the EXVS moniker, this game wouldn't probably be getting the same flak it's getting. As a single player game and because of its pedigree, the gameplay experience is waaaaaay more polished than the Gundam Battle series and Gundam Breaker. It doesn't have that jank you expect to have when playing those games.
Yup, even if it isn't up to the usual VS standards, it's definitely on the upper tier of Gundam games.

Damn, the game is gonna bomb so badly it'll leave a crater worthy of a colony drop.

Shouta pls change title to "The Amazon reviews...they're true.....all of them..."
I guess we could change it to "It's true. All of it. The reviews, the localization. They're real." to keep the TFA references :p
 

JKTrix

Member
- Well, at least the lolitwins are speaking, so I can have *some* idea on what's going on.
- I don't really care though! Next, next, next...
- Neeeextttt...
Start button skips!

I'm on world 4 now too, there's one mission where i have to kill Psycho Gundam but she keeps dropkicking my ship, making the mission fail. Maybe I have to babysit the ship movement.
 
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