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[cress2000]

I'm starting to get the feeling you aren't supposed to buy that ultra expensive equipment anyway. After loading a piece of Killian's armor with the right elemental, he never fell in battle again. The enemies in the two dungeons after that were very easy.

Starting to seem like I'm near the end, but even though my levels are pretty high now (assuming max is 99), something's telling me there's still a bit more to go.

 

[Diseased Yak]

Are you diseased, yak? It's pretty terrible. I called it Astoshitia Story for a reason!
That said, I did finish it in like 14 hours, with every sidequest I could find completed. Bad game.

Now I'll be able to happily move on to Crimson Gem Saga.
As soon as I finish Suikoden 2.

LOL I didn't notice the shitia part. I'll take it off the shelf at some point and see if I can slog through it, though who knows when that will be due to my backlog.

Anyway, this game is tough. Just when I start to feel like I've got a handle on the enemies of a region, I get into a new one and get my ass handed to me. I'm really liking it, though. The humor is great. One of my favorite parts happened when you open a chest and get a shitload of a certain item and Killian goes "Oh man, I'm gonna be rich!" and then promptly drops and breaks all but one of the item.

 

[Tamanon]

Hallelujah! Randomly went to Gamestop to check if they got Class of Heroes in today, and even though it wasn't listed in their computer, they actually had a copy of CGS. Finally! To work.

 

[Mejilan]

LOL I didn't notice the shitia part. I'll take it off the shelf at some point and see if I can slog through it, though who knows when that will be due to my backlog.

It was only about 14 hours, and I don't really regret playing it for the backstory. But it is not, by any measure, a good game.

 

[Heretic Kazuma]

Combat is great, and typically fast. One thing I couldn't figure out, though. I thought the game healed you to full after each battle, but then some battles I start with lower hp? Perhaps those are the battles where the enemies ambushed me, instead of the other way around? That's the only thing I could think of.

Didn't see this answered anywhere, but you get full HP/SP when you level up.

 

[SamBishop]

Noticed something last night that is mildly annoying: the game's clock keeps running if you leave the PSP in sleep mode. I fired it up last night and it said I was 55+ hours into the game :lol

Yeah, I forgot to mention that in the review, but it was more amusing to me than annoying (though I never did find out how many "real" hours I'd put into the game). By the time I'd reviewed things, I'd apparently clocked something like 145 hours. Hmmm.....

 

[NichM]

Are you diseased, yak? It's pretty terrible. I called it Astoshitia Story for a reason!

That's a little clunky, though. May I suggest the somewhat more elegant Ass-tonishia Story?

 

[Mejilan]

You win this round, Nich...
Though, I don't know if I can really be held accountable. I was fresh out of finishing the game, and I think it's been scientifically proven that Ubisoft's localization temporarily leeches one of precious intelligence points. Thankfully, I rested a few times at the inn and made an almost full recovery.

Or, we can argue that I was actually going for a veiled, semi-obfuscated insult! In which, I win! Bwahahahaha!

 

[Jugendstil]

This game is a nice surprise. Really nice graphics, a nice and speedy battle system, decent music, funny characters. I think it really helps that the translation and voice acting is top notch. It's very charming. Nice work, NichM!

 

[Diseased Yak]

Didn't see this answered anywhere, but you get full HP/SP when you level up.

Yup, I soon figured that out, no idea why it didn't occur to me to begin with, but I think it was because I was leveling up so quickly early on.

 

[eznark]

Didn't see this answered anywhere, but you get full HP/SP when you level up.

I've only complete one quest, so I've killed like 5 enemies for horns, but I'm pretty sure that after each battle I recovered my full health. I thought it was odd too.

edit: oh, maybe I leveled after every battle...

 

[Tamanon]

You level REALLY fast the first dozen or so battles.

 

[biocat]

The demo for this game was so bad.

Why, of all the games they could localize, would they bring this one?

 

[Wilsongt]

The demo for this game was so bad.

Why, of all the games they could localize, would they bring this one?

Because it's a good game.

Demos =/= quality of the final product in about 80% of the cases.

 

[AwRy108]

Edit - Tons and tons of loading screens, which are kind of annoying, but since ripping it to memory stick, they disappear in about a second. So they make for relatively harsh, but inoffensive screen transitions.

Does the game offer an "install" feature like Mana Khemia, or did you rip the UMD via Custom Firmware? Please let me know.

If there's no legit "install" feature for those of thus without Custom Firmware, my next question is: do the loading screens have the potential to ruin the game through annoyance?

 

[MiniBossman]

My copy just shipped from Amazon! Looking forward to playing this one.

 

[Coverly]

Played the game for a couple of hours. I'm in the town after the spire.

+Better voice acting than most next gen rpgs. High marks on this category.
+Good story, well written. Funny.
+beautiful graphics and animation.
+Town maps are great, very useful.
+Rewards for exploring. Lots of chests around if you look around enough.
+Battles are fun. But they feel a bit slow after coming from a game like OG Saga Frontier(sp?).

-MP. There is not enough of it. Spells cost too much to cast except for Henson.
-Poison spiders at spire. Regular damage at spire were between 1-15 damage, but poison hit you for 40,50+ points on every turn. If there were 2 spiders or worse, 3 or more and each one has a very high chance of poison, your whole party would need to unleash special attacks asap to kill them in as few hits as possible because healing poison is a waste of a turn.
-Shared sp? I don't remember this one too well but the sp gained through battles is shared among all party members? I went to killans skill tree and used all of the sp to view what skills were possible and when i went to a different member's skill tree the sp was 0?
-Hidden skills that can only be viewed by spending sp on: this is stupid. There is a skill tree for each person but I can't see the name or description until I spend SP? sp should be spend on acquiring the skill but using it to just look at it? This really hurts at the early levels and hinders planning your skill tree properly.
-Is Henson suppose to be the healer for the party? He doesn't have the mp for it.


Despite the negatives I really like this game. I feel a bit poor at the cost of items but overall it's fun.

 

[cress2000]

+Battles are fun. But they feel a bit slow after coming from a game like OG Saga Frontier(sp?).

They soon get pretty blah, at least to me. Regular attacks quickly become almost useless after the first chapter of the game. It becomes an exercise in pulling off your multi-hit specials as quickly as possible because the battles become extremely slow without them.

-MP. There is not enough of it. Spells cost too much to cast except for Henson.

It's not as big a deal after reaching Habsburg (right after the spire). There is a merchant there that sells Milks--20MP heal out of battle on the cheap.

-Hidden skills that can only be viewed by spending sp on: this is stupid. There is a skill tree for each person but I can't see the name or description until I spend SP? sp should be spend on acquiring the skill but using it to just look at it? This really hurts at the early levels and hinders planning your skill tree properly.

The way it works allows you to skip skills/spells and go straight for the uber ones. If everything were visible it wouldn't make any sense to be able to do that.

SP also isn't a huge deal once you reach Habsburg. You'll have access to Ziggurat, where you'll get 52 SP right off the bat from the battles. Plus random bronze/silver medallion drops.

 

[Diseased Yak]

Does the game offer an "install" feature like Mana Khemia, or did you rip the UMD via Custom Firmware? Please let me know.

If there's no legit "install" feature for those of thus without Custom Firmware, my next question is: do the loading screens have the potential to ruin the game through annoyance?

I recently stopped using custom firmware on my PSP, and while there is no legit way to install CGS onto your memory stick, I can say that the loading times haven't bothered me in the slightest. They are really quick, and become quicker the longer you stay in a given area.

 

[Coverly]

They soon get pretty blah, at least to me. Regular attacks quickly become almost useless after the first chapter of the game. It becomes an exercise in pulling off your multi-hit specials as quickly as possible because the battles become extremely slow without them.

are there any combos you recommend?

The way it works allows you to skip skills/spells and go straight for the uber ones. If everything were visible it wouldn't make any sense to be able to do that.

Still iffy on this. They could have laid out the skill trees on the manual at least but I get what you're saying.

 

[cress2000]

are there any combos you recommend?

Earlier in the game typically Spinel's second-tier wind spell helped, then Killian's Cross Slash (I used the first silver medallion on it). If that didn't do the trick then I'd use one of Henson's attack all spells. Or just attack with Gelts or something if there's only one enemy left with little HP.

 

[outunderthestars]

I order this from Amazon today! can't wait to try it.

 

[mrkapawutzis]

What is the deal with the

Spoiler

Brownie event at the Hampburg mirror shop?

Are those weapons they offer and is their a right choice? I chose the first one and

Spoiler

the Brownie screamed like I killed him

but I didn't notice any new weapon in my item inventory.

 

[Mejilan]

Does the game offer an "install" feature like Mana Khemia, or did you rip the UMD via Custom Firmware? Please let me know.

If there's no legit "install" feature for those of thus without Custom Firmware, my next question is: do the loading screens have the potential to ruin the game through annoyance?

No install feature. I use my PSP the way it was meant to be used.

 

[Classic_Gs]

I've played around with CGS for a little over an hour and I the game has made good first impression. While the music seems average so far, the voice acting is surprisingly good and the sprites look great too. I can't wait to get more free time so I can play more.

 

[jaundicejuice]

Bought Crimson gem Saga a few days back sunk an hour or two into it. I walked away with the impression that it does nothing terribly bad but it doesn't do anything exceedingly well either. I'm probably not going to play it much more.

 

[AwRy108]

Bought Crimson gem Saga a few days back sunk an hour or two into it. I walked away with the impression that it does nothing terribly bad but it doesn't do anything exceedingly well either. I'm probably not going to play it much more.

Yeah, I'm afraid I'll do the same, especially b/c of the loading annoyances. My copy should arrive from Amazon.com sometime this week, so I won't pass final judgment just yet.

 

[Classic_Gs]

Yeah, I'm afraid I'll do the same, especially b/c of the loading annoyances. My copy should arrive from Amazon.com sometime this week, so I won't pass final judgment just yet.

I don't find the loading times to be annoying, I mean it is a PSP game afterall, so we are all rather used to long loading times, but I think I'm going to go the Mejilan route, and throw it on a MS stick to check out the difference.

 

[Heretic Kazuma]

What is the deal with the

Spoiler

Brownie event at the Hampburg mirror shop?

Are those weapons they offer and is their a right choice? I chose the first one and

Spoiler

the Brownie screamed like I killed him

but I didn't notice any new weapon in my item inventory.

Those weren't weapons they offered;

Spoiler

it was a dialog tree for how you wanted to deal hot death.

:lol

I don't find the loading times to be annoying, I mean it is a PSP game afterall, so we are all rather used to long loading times, but I think I'm going to go the Mejilan route, and throw it on a MS stick to check out the difference.

It's like night and day. Once you go the Mejilan route, you'll never want to go back. I can't play games from my UMDs anymore. (Thank/Damn you, Mejilan! :lol)

It'll be great once the PSP Go comes out, so people can enjoy running games off the memory stick—whenever Sony gets around to that.

 

[Hobbun]

It's like night and day. Once you go the Mejilan route, you'll never want to go back. I can't play games from my UMDs anymore. (Thank/Damn you, Mejilan! :lol)

So exactly how do you rip the game to your memory stick?

 

[outunderthestars]

So exactly how do you rip the game to your memory stick?

Is this possible on a PSP-3000?

 

[jaundicejuice]

Yeah, I'm afraid I'll do the same, especially b/c of the loading annoyances. My copy should arrive from Amazon.com sometime this week, so I won't pass final judgment just yet.

Speaking as someone who plays with a stock PSP, the loading times aren't a serious issue, they are perhaps a little more frequent than I'd like but they're somewhat short.

 

[AwRy108]

So exactly how do you rip the game to your memory stick?

Custom Firmware.

 

[mrkapawutzis]

Those weren't weapons they offered;

Spoiler

it was a dialog tree for how you wanted to deal hot death.

:lol

LOL. Yeah It dawned on me after trying it again and getting the same blood curdling scream. Killian is such an asshole :lol

 

[Classic_Gs]

Those weren't weapons they offered;

Spoiler

it was a dialog tree for how you wanted to deal hot death.

:lol



It's like night and day. Once you go the Mejilan route, you'll never want to go back. I can't play games from my UMDs anymore. (Thank/Damn you, Mejilan! :lol)

It'll be great once the PSP Go comes out, so people can enjoy running games off the memory stick—whenever Sony gets around to that.

I got around ripping my (paid) copy of CGS, and wow @ the loading time difference! It is really quick, 2 - 2.5 seconds to get into a battle. I am very impressed! **runs to go put Power Stone on a memory stick**

 

[Mejilan]

UMD is a horrible crutch and there's LITERALLY no reason to use it if alternate options are available. The only time my new games ever go into my PSP is for that initial ripping process. I typically read the manual as it rips, then through the game, booklet, and case on my handheld shelf, to collect dust. Even the occasional (typically streaming-intensive) game that barely benefits from running off the memory stick. If nothing else, I get the convenience of carrying the games around on a memory stick without lugging all of those bulky UMDs. It's a win-win situation, really.

 

[MiniBossman]

Got my copy yesterday. Backed it up to play off the memory stick, and promptly fell asleep before I really got a chance to play. Here is to this evening!

 

[Classic_Gs]

I am a few more hours in now and have a full party. The battle music has really grown on me and I really like the unlocking and upgrading skills system. The graphics look great as well, and the dialogue has so good moments too. The more I play, the more I like and I am glad to have picked this gem (pun intended) up.

 

[Jinfash]

So far this game is awesome. I'm really digging it and as soon as I started playing, I wished that there were more original RPGs like this on the PSP :lol

Here are some of my early impressions:

Pros:

+ Original PSP RPG
+ Good production values
+ Good presentation
+ Surprisingly good VO
+ Extremely vibrant and gorgeous (2D/sprite based/isometric perspective) graphics.
+ Dialog and translation seem very solid
+ Straightforward and old school battle system
+ Skill tree and SP gain

Cons (minor annoyances rather than game breaking flaws):

- Sometimes it gets difficult to position the protagonist in front of a specific object that needs to be examined (the character will sometimes "slip" in a different direction).
- The main character's movement are slightly slow.
- When trying to buy a new weapon or armor, the game will tell you whether it'll raise your stats or not, but won't tell you by how much. You have to purchase them first, then check the equipment menu to see the stats' boost.
- When buy weapons/armors/items the game won't tell you if you already own it (or how much you have of it).
- When strolling through towns or traveling outside of them, you can bring up the VERY USEFUL but equally HUGE AND DISTRACTING map by pressing R (check the screens).
- You have to spend SP on skill slots to reveal the skill first, then spend more to learn it. (So far this hasn't been THAT annoying since you get decent SP after each battle).

 

[KeioSquad2]

My Wife is coming home with this today as Atlus's Email's can be very enticing. It looks brilliant, but I've never played a K-rpg before, do they follow the same guidelines as Japanese?

 

[Jinfash]

My Wife is coming home with this today as Atlus's Email's can be very enticing. It looks brilliant, but I've never played a K-rpg before, do they follow the same guidelines as Japanese?

This game is technically a JRPG, but I can't vouch for other KRPGs since I never played any other than this.

 

[KeioSquad2]

This game is technically a JRPG, but I can't vouch for other KRPGs since I never played any other than this.

So just expect a good ol' fashioned rpg experience with some great 2d sprite work? Got cha....

 

[Jinfash]

After playing the game for more than 15 hours, time for some updated impressions for those who haven't tried it yet:

• Now that I have seen a few new locales, the game is still impressing me by how gorgeous it is.

• It still does a pretty good job at keeping you interested in the game's plot, thanks to the good VO, the interesting dialog, and the comical nature of character interactions (the game doesn't take itself too seriously).

• To execute dual character attacks, both characters need to learn the same attack and their turns have to be consecutive (by checking the turn counter).

• Each character have seven types of equipment: weapons, armors, footwear, amulets, and two accessories. Each has 6 elemental attributes that could be either increased or decreased with special items. Items that are called "Cards" are used to raise the other attributes of each equipment like HP, MP, STR, etc.

• You can level up the rank of learned skills by using special items called "medallions". Each type of medallion raise a skill from a certain rank to the next, eg. the Bronze Medallion raise the rank from level 1 -> 2. The game does a decent job at introducing the appropriate medallion type at the time you're expected to need it.

• Skills in this game are extremely powerful and useful, but they consume a LOT of MP (especially for non-magic using characters). This is balanced by the abundance of restorative items you get from fields and thanks to the high item drop-rate after battles.

• When visiting towns, don't limit yourself to checking chest boxes for items (which btw, may contain more than one). In this game items can be hidden everywhere from cupboards, barrels, mailboxes, haystacks to even spiderwebs. So get ready to check every nook and cranny in towns if you want more items and gold (we're talking around 5000G which is always a godsend).

• After recruiting more characters, the process of spending SP to reveal then learn skills can be tricky since you've got one pool of SP points that you need to distribute between all characters. Currently regular battles give me 15 SP, and a single skill currently requires 100 SP to reveal the skill and another 70 to learn. Keep in mind though, that mid-bosses and bosses battles give you from 100 to 250 SP.

• One more minor annoyance: There are a few NPCs here and there that can't be talked to, so sometimes I feel stupid running around one pressing X only to realize a few seconds later that I can't. Fortunately, they're not that many (mostly in crowded places like bars).

• The game is obviously not perfect, as you'll notice how hard around the edges it can be when trying to micromanage your characters or controlling your character in the more crammed up towns and locales. So far, these things have been tolerable to me, but I don't know how others may react to it.

So just expect a good ol' fashioned rpg experience with some great 2d sprite work? Got cha....

Yup, exactly

 

[depward]

Here is a weird question:

Does the game have a sort of FFXII-type reminder about where / what you're supposed to do for your quest? Sometimes, I put down an RPG for a week or two to take a break... and more often than not, I totally forget what I'm supposed to do. So then I mindlessly wander around until I stumble across my objective?

Any chance something like this is in?

 

[Jinfash]

Here is a weird question:

Does the game have a sort of FFXII-type reminder about where / what you're supposed to do for your quest? Sometimes, I put down an RPG for a week or two to take a break... and more often than not, I totally forget what I'm supposed to do. So then I mindlessly wander around until I stumble across my objective?

Any chance something like this is in?

Yes.

From the pause menu, you can access the "quest" menu option. It has a "proceeding" tab that offers the context and objective (+location) of your current quest. It also has list of all the quests you've completed. Both story and side quests go into this menu.

 

[soldat7]

I just can't leave JRPGs alone, despite not finishing one in years (aside from Chrono Trigger). That said, I may actually get to the end of this one. I'm about 7 hours in and still really enjoying myself. The voices are lame but the dialog is actually above average for a JRPG. I love that you can find random stuff everywhere; it makes exploring around towns quite enjoyable.

 

[radiantdreamer]

This game has great charm. The characters are colorful, and the voice acting is actually very good. (I normally HATE dubs, but this one is excellent).

I found a monk hidden in the forest in the back of the first town. He said "You found me! I guess I have to give you this." and gave me 5000 bucks. I talked to him again and he said "okay okay! Here's another 5000g now leave me alone!" that was great.

Any game where the black mage says to his jailmates "I wish they would just lock me in solitary confinement... you guys are driving me insane!" is a good game.

 

[depward]

Yes.

From the pause menu, you can access the "quest" menu option. It has a "proceeding" tab that offers the context and objective (+location) of your current quest. It also has list of all the quests you've completed. Both story and side quests go into this menu.

That. is. awesome. Thanks!

 

[Jinfash]

This game has great charm. The characters are colorful, and the voice acting is actually very good. (I normally HATE dubs, but this one is excellent).

I found a monk hidden in the forest in the back of the first town. He said "You found me! I guess I have to give you this." and gave me 5000 bucks. I talked to him again and he said "okay okay! Here's another 5000g now leave me alone!" that was great.

Any game where the black mage says to his jailmates "I wish they would just lock me in solitary confinement... you guys are driving me insane!" is a good game.

Tell me about it. :lol

Here are some of my favorites:

• I arrived at a town and went to the inn. I chose to "converse" with the girl at the desk, and she said: "I'm taking care of my sick mother... No, that's not a hint that I'd like you to go on a quest and fetch medicine for her."
  
  
• There was a chest next to a bed at the inn. It contained "3x small bombs". Killian complains about why there are bombs next to guest beds.
  
  
• I opened a chest and found 50x emergency potions. Killian: "This is my lucky day, I got it all worked out now", then: *In the excitement Killian dropped the box! only three potions remain*. Killian: "Nooo! My dreams have been crushed again!".
  
  
• Two NPCs having a conversation, Juliet: "Are you sure you can't change your name? It's just, you know, kind of awkward...". Romeo: "What are the odds of me falling in love with a girl named Juliet?".

The game is filled with these kinds of moment, and they really contribute to the enjoyment as they make usual JRPGs chores such as talking to NPCs and examining objects here and there much more enjoyable. Kudos to Atlus for a solid translation too.

 

[Mejilan]

I can't even begin to explain just how superior this game is compared to its predecessor.