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[sprsk]

I like this game a lot. Music is beautiful.
It's tough but not so hard you feel completely defeated like in a nino game.

Haven't cleared the first boss yet, but yeah definitely good shit.

 

[batbeg]

I like this game a lot. Music is beautiful.
It's tough but not so hard you feel completely defeated like in a nino game.

Haven't cleared the first boss yet, but yeah definitely good shit.

You did this in the S&P thread too you bastard :lol

*Jealous*

 

[TheChillyAcademic]

I like this game a lot. Music is beautiful.
It's tough but not so hard you feel completely defeated like in a nino game.

Haven't cleared the first boss yet, but yeah definitely good shit.

So...

Plot and Narrative...any to speak of?

 

[Freyjadour]

So...

Plot and Narrative...any to speak of?

Four youth go on a journey to save the world.

QED

 

[Oichi]

Got the game, playing now, it's fun.

I like this thread better because duckroll is the bestest.

Edit: I just finished the intro portion of the game, so now the real game starts. Woot!

 

[Sohter.Nura]

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

I want this game SO badly!

... Am I the only one who's having the feeling there won't be a Western release for this? D:

 

[RevenantKioku]

Got the game, playing now, it's fun.

I like this thread better because duckroll is the bestest.

Edit: I just finished the intro portion of the game, so now the real game starts. Woot!

I searched a few pages for this and didn't see it and figured if a NEW FINAL FANTASY had an official thread it would have been page 1 or 2 at least!
Fuck. ;(
Gotta go try to find the game after work.

 

[radiantdreamer]

When is this coming to North America?! DO WANT NAO!

 

[batbeg]

... Am I the only one who's having the feeling there won't be a Western release for this? D:

*Looks at Echoes of Time Wii* *Looks at Chocobo Dungeon Wii* *Looks at FFTA2* *Looks at Crystal Defenders* *Looks at FFIV-2*

...yeah, just you.

 

[Blackace]

yes this game is the goods!

The wifey and I have been playing off and on a lot today. She is farther than me

The music and art is great and the game looks really nice all in all. The plot up to now is fairly simple and I hope it becomes a little less generic but it is a blast!!!

 

[souvlakispacestation]

My copy from Amazon Japan arrived today. I played a couple hours. Impressions:

GOOD
-Nice quick, fun battles
-Graphics are charming and unique. I love the menus and the character stat window as you walk around.
-Music is great and nostalgic
-Simple, nice story. So far there are thankfully no stupid "quests" or other pointless filler that ruin so many JRPGs these days.
-Encounter rate is just right
-Crown system is fun and clever. You upgrade crowns based on gems you find, which unlock new abilities for the crowns (=classes).
-Difficulty is pretty good. Not really easy, but not very hard either. The prologue is a breeze, but a few bosses in and it gets somewhat difficult.

BAD
-Your save file doesn't record your play time. In fact, there is no way to ever see your play time
-Only one save file. Clearly this was just to try and get a few more sales, as I can't see how this game could really require it when a game like Saga 2 had multiple save slots. Lame.
-You can only save when you find a dude with a feathered hat. I'd prefer a "save anywhere" option, at least on the overworld.
-You can't target anyone in battle, be it an attack or a heal. You heal the person with the lowest HP, not the person with the lowest percentage of HP. For example, I had a guy with 30/43 and another guy with 34/68, and my healing went to the guy with 30/43. Every time. I guess they made it this way to counter-act the game's otherwise light difficulty?
-15 item limit (per character). So far it hasn't bothered me, but I have a feeling it's going to be annoying pretty fast. You can store 99 at the shops, but it's still pretty lame. This feels like another compensatory feature to make the game a bit harder than it otherwise would be.

Overall I'm enjoying it. Only a few hours in, so I'll have to see if any of the 'bad' things get worse or better.

 

[duckroll]

BAD
-Your save file doesn't record your play time. In fact, there is no way to ever see your play time

-You can only save when you find a dude with a feathered hat. I'd prefer a "save anywhere" option, at least on the overworld.

-You can't target anyone in battle, be it an attack or a heal. You heal the person with the lowest HP, not the person with the lowest percentage of HP. For example, I had a guy with 30/43 and another guy with 34/68, and my healing went to the guy with 30/43. Every time. I guess they made it this way to counter-act the game's otherwise light difficulty?

What. The. Fuck.

 

[darkhunger]

What. The. Fuck.

Being a seasoned Dragon Quest player, none of those bothered me... The lack of targeting feature just adds a bit of difficulty and strategic depth to the battle, but hasn't really been annoying or anything.

Love how the game is so genuinely old-school though. It really feels like a FF2 (in terms of characters) or FF3 (everything else) with 3D graphics.

 

[duckroll]

Being a seasoned Dragon Quest player, none of those bothered me... The lack of targeting feature just adds a bit of difficulty and strategic depth to the battle, but hasn't really been annoying or anything.

Wut. DQ has never had no targeting whatsoever. You can always select who you need to heal, and monsters are only auto-targeted when they're in groups. Auto-targeting doesn't even exist anymore in DQIX. It does not add any form of "difficulty" or "strategic depth" to anything. Stop fooling yourself, it was mostly a memory constrain limitation, and while it isn't annoying in DQ, it does not improve the game in any way whatsoever. It's a retarded "feature".

 

[Mejilan]

I look upon this thread with a mixture of pain and joy.
The DS is a fucking RPG monster.
But sadly, some of the best elements of said beast are reserved for 2010, for us faithful Westerners.

 

[Error]

-You can't target anyone in battle, be it an attack or a heal. You heal the person with the lowest HP, not the person with the lowest percentage of HP. For example, I had a guy with 30/43 and another guy with 34/68, and my healing went to the guy with 30/43. Every time. I guess they made it this way to counter-act the game's otherwise light difficulty?

it has to be a combination of factors because if it was strictly over % the the game would be seriously broken.

a knight type chara will always have more hp over a mage type character. lets say in a battle the mage has 25/50 and the knight 35/100.... based on % the game will auto target the knight, who doesn't need to be healed because higher def means he can withstand more hits, not to mention the mage has less hp when compared to the knight anyway.

I do wonder how buffs will work, though...

 

[Kard8p3]

What. The. Fuck.

You knew about the targeting or lack there of before now didn't you? Just wondering because I'm pretty sure I saw you post the news about it in an older topic but you're acting like you just found out.

 

[duckroll]

You knew about the targeting or lack there of before now didn't you? Just wondering because I'm pretty sure I saw you post the news about it in an older topic but you're acting like you just found out.

No game clock?! I already regret buying this!

 

[Kard8p3]

No game clock?! I already regret buying this!

Is a game clock really that big of a deal though? Why does knowing the exact amount of time you played important?

 

[duckroll]

Is a game clock really that big of a deal though? Why does knowing the exact amount of time you played important?

That way I will know exactly how many hours I wasted playing an inferior game when I could have just played more Strange Journey instead! :O

 

[bluemax]

Wut. DQ has never had no targeting whatsoever. You can always select who you need to heal, and monsters are only auto-targeted when they're in groups. Auto-targeting doesn't even exist anymore in DQIX. It does not add any form of "difficulty" or "strategic depth" to anything. Stop fooling yourself, it was mostly a memory constrain limitation, and while it isn't annoying in DQ, it does not improve the game in any way whatsoever. It's a retarded "feature".

Was it ever really a memory concern? I'm not the greatest asm programmer but it doesn't even seem like it should be that difficult to write a check and retarget.

 

[duckroll]

Was it ever really a memory concern? I'm not the greatest asm programmer but it doesn't even seem like it should be that difficult to write a check and retarget.

Well I might have been talking out of my ass. But the point remains, not only is the targeting system the same here, but I don't really feel it adds any "strategy" to DQ being that way either.

 

[Freyjadour]

Is a game clock really that big of a deal though? Why does knowing the exact amount of time you played important?

Yes, it is.

 

[Oichi]

My progress so far (minor spoilers)

Spoiler

Brand just arrived at the ice cave after failing to get onto that floating city, which Aire was able to jump onto.

No idea how far into the game that is, but I wager I've spent about 10 - 11 hours playing thus far. More on that further down in my post.

The game is a lot of fun to play IMO but there are just some really dumb design decisions that they made that frustrate me to no end.

- The auto-targeting system gets really retarded at times and it's cost me a few boss battles thus far. In one boss battle, I had my white mage (60/64), black mage (33/60) and thief (30/84), and I had my white mage cast cure, hoping that she'd cure the black mage, who even though has higher HP than my thief, had weaker defense... nope! Black mage didn't get the spell and ended up dying the next turn. :lol The only thing the auto-targeting system does is kind of tell you who your character will target by slightly adjusting the camera view. Well, I think it does anyway... I've just noticed it happen a lot.

- I don't know if it's just me but the game seems to be really bad at nudging you towards where you need to be. Even though I've spent 10 hours playing, I'm going to estimate that 2 hours of that was just wandering around wondering where the fuck I need to go. :lol I don't need things spelled out for me, and I've completed tons of rpgs, especially over the past four years on the DS, but this is one of the few rpgs where I'm actually walking around, thinking I'm going in the right direction, but I'm totally not. :lol

- 90% of my playthrough so far has been with only one or two characters in my party. Rarely have I had three characters in my party, and only in the intro portion of the game were all four characters present. This is kind of annoying to me because I'd rather play with my whole party instead of having them split up due to the storyline, but at least the story is somewhat interesting right now, which makes up for that.

 

[wrowa]

I hope they change the targeting system for the western version. It sounds like a deal breaker to me :/

 

[darkhunger]

Wut. DQ has never had no targeting whatsoever. You can always select who you need to heal, and monsters are only auto-targeted when they're in groups. Auto-targeting doesn't even exist anymore in DQIX. It does not add any form of "difficulty" or "strategic depth" to anything. Stop fooling yourself, it was mostly a memory constrain limitation, and while it isn't annoying in DQ, it does not improve the game in any way whatsoever. It's a retarded "feature".

1) It makes battles go by much faster
2) During boss battles, it actually makes you look twice at the HP of each character and plan from there.
3) Its not like in games where you CAN target characters for healing, you would never heal the wrong guy either. For example, a boss gets to your character before you can heal him/her, and then the spell is wasted because it goes on to heal someone with perfect HP. There's always going to be problems.

 

[Shig]

*Looks at Echoes of Time Wii* *Looks at Chocobo Dungeon Wii* *Looks at FFTA2* *Looks at Crystal Defenders* *Looks at FFIV-2*

...yeah, just you.

*Looks at the lack of Chocobo Tales 2*

*cries*

 

[PataHikari]

This game needs to be out in the US yesterday.

 

[duckroll]

- The auto-targeting system gets really retarded at times and it's cost me a few boss battles thus far. In one boss battle, I had my white mage (60/64), black mage (33/60) and thief (30/84), and I had my white mage cast cure, hoping that she'd cure the black mage, who even though has higher HP than my thief, had weaker defense... nope! Black mage didn't get the spell and ended up dying the next turn. :lol The only thing the auto-targeting system does is kind of tell you who your character will target by slightly adjusting the camera view. Well, I think it does anyway... I've just noticed it happen a lot.

Sounds as bad as we all feared. I wonder if there are job abilities and other stuff later which will allow players to better customize actions during a battle. Otherwise it sounds like it could get really annoying when the game gets even harder later on.

- I don't know if it's just me but the game seems to be really bad at nudging you towards where you need to be. Even though I've spent 10 hours playing, I'm going to estimate that 2 hours of that was just wandering around wondering where the fuck I need to go. :lol I don't need things spelled out for me, and I've completed tons of rpgs, especially over the past four years on the DS, but this is one of the few rpgs where I'm actually walking around, thinking I'm going in the right direction, but I'm totally not. :lol

Can't really comment on this until I play it for myself. Doesn't sound great, but hey maybe I have a better sense of direction! I hope... ^^;

- 90% of my playthrough so far has been with only one or two characters in my party. Rarely have I had three characters in my party, and only in the intro portion of the game were all four characters present. This is kind of annoying to me because I'd rather play with my whole party instead of having them split up due to the storyline, but at least the story is somewhat interesting right now, which makes up for that.

That's..... interesting. I suspected something like this would happen based on the trailers and screens they showed nearer to the release of the game. It seems like the entire "4 Warriors of Light" set up is really just something they introduce early on (ie: you meet up and become friends) and then everyone splits up for different adventures along the way until the plot brings everyone together again later on. Does it feel like it's moving in that direction to you?

 

[chicken_ramen]

Well of what little I've played I'm enjoying this so far. It's weird though. I think the no targeting thing is because the developers decided this game should be playable entirely by touch control. I'm not sure if they mentioned it publicly, I didn't follow the previews, but it and simplification seem to be the guiding principles of the whole design.

It's very definitely a modern take on the NES FF in terms of structure, and I really like that aspect. I also like the stripped back ability/magic system. It's different and that's interesting to me. I wonder where they'll take it.

The game is obviously designed for no targeting in battles so that's not a huge issue. But I had one annoying part earlier where my two guys were a white mage and a traveler and I basically didn't have to do anything, just set the auto battle to cure and attack and watch for a whole two dungeons. That's over now and hasn't repeated itself, but it was worrying. I haven't really had a hard time knowing where to go, even though the map is amazingly unhelpful. It's cluttered and weird. But if you talk to the townspeople and others you'll get pretty much enough clues about what to do to keep going, so far.

I like it. I prefer Strange Journey, but I can see this being a much more appealing package, generally speaking.

 

[ivysaur12]

The targeting kinda sounds like a potential deal breaker, at least for healing. Has Square been known to fix something like this for a western release if many people found it to be an issue? Especially since this a bit of a lower profile game.

Hearing this reminds me of Lunar DS, which isn't the best thing.

 

[Oichi]

Story spoilers:

Spoiler

I'm in Speria(sp) and I have Roran in my party and I'm going to fight the boss in this dungeon, but I'm getting continually pissed off here. Here's the situation... it's a two boss fight, one fire elemental and one ice elemental. Both have physical attacks and one physical elemental attack that hits all parties. Because of the auto-targeting system, all characters target the fire one first... even though he does the LEAST damage out of the two bosses. The ice boss' all party attack hits me for 30+ HP most times, whereas the fire one hits me for 15 - 25. So I beat the fire one, and then I'm working on the ice one... and the music changes, indicating that the ice boss is close to death.

And then what happens? The fire boss REVIVES AUTOMATICALLY and my party members start attacking that again! WTF! Why have this kind of fight when you have an auto-targetting combat system!? In a normal RPG I would've just targeted both enemies, with one attacker taking each one while the healer heals the entire party, but noooooooooo......

Man, I was actually getting really pissed off with this fight. :lol

 

[CTLance]

The auto-targeting system sounds really painful, especially since it's apparently exacerbated due to the enemy setup. If the boss battle above happened to me I'd probably yank the cart out and play something else.

 

[chicken_ramen]

The targeting kinda sounds like a potential deal breaker, at least for healing. Has Square been known to fix something like this for a western release if many people found it to be an issue? Especially since this a bit of a lower profile game.

Hearing this reminds me of Lunar DS, which isn't the best thing.

I'm not as far as the next guy posting, but the targeting thing is factored into the design of the game. It's not a big deal. I haven't had it cause me any trouble. It's just something you have to keep in mind. A way of changing the way you think about strategy in a JRPG battle which, to me at least, is a brave thing to do. If they changed it back it would fundamentally change the game, probably for the worse, seeing as the whole game is balanced for this type for targeting.

edit: also this game is significantly better than Lunar DS. I dislike the whole Lunar series but the DS version is a particular low for the genre. Rest assured that this game doesn't hit that level.

 

[Fuu]

- The auto-targeting system gets really retarded at times and it's cost me a few boss battles thus far. In one boss battle, I had my white mage (60/64), black mage (33/60) and thief (30/84), and I had my white mage cast cure, hoping that she'd cure the black mage, who even though has higher HP than my thief, had weaker defense... nope! Black mage didn't get the spell and ended up dying the next turn. :lol The only thing the auto-targeting system does is kind of tell you who your character will target by slightly adjusting the camera view. Well, I think it does anyway... I've just noticed it happen a lot.

Whoa. I want this game but the healing aspect is sounding really bad with the game not factoring anything else besides who has the lowest number. Not targeting enemies is ok since the battles are designed around that but not targeting who you want to heal adds nothing besides annoyance if the AI fucks up like that. I don't see how it "streamlines" anything or why they chose to make it this way, instead it just looks like it will be a pain in the ass during harder battles.

Still optimistic though. Thanks for all the impressions so far, everyone.

Edit:

Story spoilers:

Spoiler

I'm in Speria(sp) and I have Roran in my party and I'm going to fight the boss in this dungeon, but I'm getting continually pissed off here. Here's the situation... it's a two boss fight, one fire elemental and one ice elemental. Both have physical attacks and one physical elemental attack that hits all parties. Because of the auto-targeting system, all characters target the fire one first... even though he does the LEAST damage out of the two bosses. The ice boss' all party attack hits me for 30+ HP most times, whereas the fire one hits me for 15 - 25. So I beat the fire one, and then I'm working on the ice one... and the music changes, indicating that the ice boss is close to death.

And then what happens? The fire boss REVIVES AUTOMATICALLY and my party members start attacking that again! WTF! Why have this kind of fight when you have an auto-targetting combat system!? In a normal RPG I would've just targeted both enemies, with one attacker taking each one while the healer heals the entire party, but noooooooooo......

Man, I was actually getting really pissed off with this fight. :lol

Ouch, damn.

 

[zeelman]

Did we not learn anything from Lunar Dragon Song? Not having control over the targeting system is a terrible idea.

 

[Oichi]

So I finally beat the boss I spoilered up there today... after a day or so of thinking about how to beat the bastard lol. I'm on another boss... and stumped again lol. Although I did get very far and almost beat him the first try, so I'm thinking he's actually not that hard to beat.

Here are two things I noticed:

Spoiler

- If you use certain commands the game targets different enemies. I had my Hunter attack, and he hit the fire elemental boss, but when I chose Aim (Hunters special ability) he targeted the ice elemental boss). Also, I had my other attacker attack normally, and he went after the fire elemental boss, but when I tried to use an ice elemental bomb.... it auto-targeted to the ice elemental boss. WTF lololol I have nooooo idea how the hell this auto-targeting system works.

- One of things that's really getting to me is that I don't even know when it's actually my turn to do anything. As a test against a boss I did attack/attack/attack with my three guys. They all attacked first, then the boss did ice breath during his turn. Next turn, I do attack x 3 again and... the boss does ice breath first? wtf? I don't really get how this system works at all.

 

[Fuu]

Spoiler

when I tried to use an ice elemental bomb.... it auto-targeted to the ice elemental boss. WTF lololol I have nooooo idea how the hell this auto-targeting system works.

This can't be real. :lol It's like the game is trolling the player.

 

[duckroll]

I thought the auto targeting is "factored into the design of the game"? How can this be?! :lol

 

[Hobbun]

I thought the auto targeting is "factored into the design of the game"? How can this be?! :lol

No kidding.

I guess the balance is they want you to screw yourself/waste spells to “balance it out”.

What a crock.

 

[Sword Familiar]

 

[Error]

Seems like after The Bouncer, Tokita completely lost it.

 

[MechaX]

Spoiler

Also, I had my other attacker attack normally, and he went after the fire elemental boss, but when I tried to use an ice elemental bomb.... it auto-targeted to the ice elemental boss. WTF lololol I have nooooo idea how the hell this auto-targeting system works.

I... I don't understand how SE thought that auto-targeting like this would be a good idea in an RPG. I really don't.

 

[Fuu]

I thought the auto targeting is "factored into the design of the game"? How can this be?! :lol

Yeah, that was the sound of my optimism going down the drain.

 

[Llyranor]

Hmm, not sure what to think. I'm not completely against the lack of targetting for healing. It's opposite what we're used to, but as chicken_ramen says, it might just make you approach the battle differently. In the case of the mage33/thief30 example, if you KNOW that the heal will go to the thief, maybe you should opt for a different recourse, having the mage defend, buff, etc? Again, it's not what we're used to, but a different system could challenge us in a different way.

Of course, this only applies if it works :/ That ice on ice thing doesn't sound so swell. Random auto-targetting is BAD. If you remove manual targetting, there need to be clear concise rules as in Riviera, not random crap.

 

[Sword Familiar]

I... I don't understand how SE thought that auto-targeting like this would be a good idea in an RPG. I really don't.

I'm still waiting for someone to tell us that "wait, guys! I've figured it out!", and there's a trick to getting around it. *shrugs*

I'll probably try it for myself if I get a chance, but for now my interest for this game has gone cold.

 

[NinjaFromTheFuture]

Spoiler

If you use certain commands the game targets different enemies. I had my Hunter attack, and he hit the fire elemental boss, but when I chose Aim (Hunters special ability) he targeted the ice elemental boss). Also, I had my other attacker attack normally, and he went after the fire elemental boss, but when I tried to use an ice elemental bomb.... it auto-targeted to the ice elemental boss. WTF lololol I have nooooo idea how the hell this auto-targeting system works.

Regular attacks target boss A and special abilities target boss B, maybe?

 

[duckroll]

Hmm, not sure what to think. I'm not completely against the lack of targetting for healing. It's opposite what we're used to, but as chicken_ramen says, it might just make you approach the battle differently. In the case of the mage33/thief30 example, if you KNOW that the heal will go to the thief, maybe you should opt for a different recourse, having the mage defend, buff, etc? Again, it's not what we're used to, but a different system could challenge us in a different way.

I don't think that anything that is simply "different" is something that should be seen as acceptable, good or progressive. Anything which is different from the norm should be different because it either advances a concept, or introduces a new sort of logic which enhances the player experience. Taking control away from the player and introducing illogical targeting schemes is not something which sounds appealing to.... anyone at all. Sure, it could be a "challenge" to approach the game different, but that doesn't mean it would be fun.

I could design an action game where every time you attack, you either damage the enemy or you damage yourself. There could be very concise rules built around it, like if you're facing left and there is a wall on the right, you will damage the enemy, if not you will damage yourself. You could "prepare" for this by always making sure you face the left and there is a wall on the right before you attack. That doesn't make the game fun though, it just makes it frustrating because there is no actual rational behind such a play scheme.

Similarly here, there is no logical reason why you cannot target your own party members when using a single target healing spell. It's silly and nonsensical. The player uses control over a core mechanic in a turn based battle system (targeting), and in return gets nothing. It's not more fun, it's not more exciting, it's just more frustrating and illogical. That's just a terrible way to design a game, if what Reno is describing is true.

 

[Oichi]

Regular attacks target boss A and special abilities target boss B, maybe?

I would say for this battle, perhaps, but when you have four minor enemies in a battle, what happens then, and how does the game decide who will target what? That's really the problem here. The boss battle was just an example because it actually impeded my progress in the game for a good day, and I need to vent.:lol

Oh, and about that boss battle (spoilers)

Spoiler

The reason I was using those elemental bombs was because through one trial run, I discovered that the elemental bombs actually extinguish the flames of either the ice boss or fire boss, thus restricting them from using their all party attack... which made it even more frustrating because I wasted the ice bomb on the ice boss lol (the fire elemental bomb obviously hit)

Still, if anyone else gets up to where I am and can make heads or tails of the combat system I'd love to hear their reasoning, because right now I cant figure out crap.:lol

 

[duckroll]

Still, if anyone else gets up to where I am and can make heads or tails of the combat system I'd love to hear their reasoning, because right now I cant figure out crap.:lol

There is nothing I would like to do more than to be able to post "lol, Reno really fucking sucks at JRPGs, here's why..." after I play the game myself. I doubt it's going to happen, but I hope it does! :lol