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[Amir0x]

Release Date:

NA September 8, 2008
EU September 26, 2008
AUS September 25, 2008

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Developer
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These motherfuckers are pretty cool, eh. As you can see from the cover, they made the charming creation platformer "Drawn to Life." I really enjoyed it, because beyond its elementary platforming challenges was a really neat hook which elevated it.

I think Lock's Quest is likely to share that same spark.

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Game
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Generally, levels are natural layouts which you can build walls, turrets and other defenses while you prepare for some battle. Then you can send Lock in to fuck shit up while hoping your stuff is sufficient for holding. This is where the strategy comes in. It's not massively complex, but it is flexible and it has a pretty nice multiplayer mode that also takes advantage of the concept well.

IGN REVIEW - 8.6

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Impressions
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--updated later

 

[Mejilan]

Picked it up today (along with VP DS). Will have impressions later. Nice thread!

 

[jrricky]

damn you Amirox. I was gonna make this thread. *shakes fist*

 

[Tiktaalik]

Looks very cool.

Good art from a western developer??!?! INSANITY.

 

[Mejilan]

The opening cinematic is classy as FUCK. Love the highly stylized art style. I'm actually a bit disappointed that the in-game visuals don't match.

Haha. The cat says "oink" instead of "meow." That was random.

 

[mjc]

I'm gonna start playing tonight.

 

[dream]

Love the fact that it's pushed as being from the creators of DTL.

BUY THIS GAME!

 

[Mejilan]

Just finished the tutorial battle (day 1).

How awesome?

So awesome.

 

[CharminUltra]

Damn, I would so buy this game if I weren't totally absorbed by PW3. Buying as soon as I am done though.

 

[Volcynika]

I might look into this! Looks spiffy.

 

[Mejilan]

Not a fan of the in-game character portrait art, really. They don't match the map sprites at all. I dig that the characters have a variety of different expressions, at least.

 

[nestea]

Mines in the mail.

 

[Haunted]

Construction combat? 5th Cell creating new genres. :bow

 

[Mejilan]

Looks like the construction segments are going to be fairly meaty. Lots of pieces and options available. Different kinds of walls, able to be rotated to fit almost any actual scenario. Constructing your own turrets, traps, and robotic helpers, then deploying them around the walls and structures you put down. Granting defense bonuses to your turrets by properly reinforcing them with adjacent walls.

Then, once combat begins, you've got to juggle your responsibilities properly. Lure or otherwise funnel enemies into range of your traps and turrets to have them drop faster, alternate between fighting them directly and keeping your walls and turrets properly repaired, making sure to fight enough and collect the source (what's used to fuel your construction and repairs) and scrap (used to create new trap/turret technologies) that they drop, but not so much as to neglect repairs. The repairs themselves can be sped up by accurately performing quick QTE sequences.

Pretty good stuff, so far.

 

[abstract alien]

Intro = fucking badass. I havent felt this way since wind waker. I can feel the "epic" leaking off of this game...

 

[mattso]

I want to pick this up as soon as I can

:: crosses fingers for tomorrow ::

 

[jibblypop]

I ordered this one so it should be in the mail now (soon?) !

 

[Mejilan]

Intro = fucking badass. I havent felt this way since wind waker. I can feel the "epic" leaking off of this game...

Funny. I was going to say that the opening vid reminded me of an animated, monochrome take of the style used in the Phantom Hourglass opening cutscene.

 

[eznark]

for those that care, there is a pretty good interview with one of the 5th Cell guys in today's Nintendo Voice Chat. It starts with like 25 minutes left or something if you want to skip the pointless stuff.

Hoping I can grab this tomorrow.

 

[dragonlife]

Totally off-topic, but the kid's shoes/legs/pants remind me of Sora.

 

[Beavertown]

Haven't been able to find it yet.. hoping tomorrow.

It kinda reminds me of that goofy Kirk Cameron game on the 3DO.. The Horde, I think it was called. Pretty fun game.

 

[Haunted]

Looks like the construction segments are going to be fairly meaty. Lots of pieces and options available. Different kinds of walls, able to be rotated to fit almost any actual scenario. Constructing your own turrets, traps, and robotic helpers, then deploying them around the walls and structures you put down. Granting defense bonuses to your turrets by properly reinforcing them with adjacent walls.

Then, once combat begins, you've got to juggle your responsibilities properly. Lure or otherwise funnel enemies into range of your traps and turrets to have them drop faster, alternate between fighting them directly and keeping your walls and turrets properly repaired, making sure to fight enough and collect the source (what's used to fuel your construction and repairs) and scrap (used to create new trap/turret technologies) that they drop, but not so much as to neglect repairs. The repairs themselves can be sped up by accurately performing quick QTE sequences.

Pretty good stuff, so far.

Sounds pretty hectic. Nothing too overwhelming?

 

[Death_Born]

Sounds pretty hectic. Nothing too overwhelming?

Other than repairing the turrets and walls, your cannons do all the work. The only time you have to fight enemies is when they're breaching your walls or your cannons are overextended. There's even a gate so that you can make a tactical retreat if injured. You probably shouldn't fight enemies a lot because the other ones will blow up your defenses. Kind of like an engineer in TF2, you have to stay near your walls that are under attack.

At least, that's what it's like in the beginning...maybe there will be some kind of helper repair bot?

 

[Mejilan]

Sounds pretty hectic. Nothing too overwhelming?

I hear that the game gets pretty tough later on, but so far it's been very easy-going.
Also, the construction and battle phases of each map are split up, though some of them are timed.

Actual construction of defense, turrets, traps, helper bots, etc. occurs in one phase. Combat and repairs occur in another.

So far, nothing unmanageable.

 

[Haunted]

Other than repairing the turrets and walls, your cannons do all the work. The only time you have to fight enemies is when they're breaching your walls or your cannons are overextended. There's even a gate so that you can make a tactical retreat if injured. You probably shouldn't fight enemies a lot because the other ones will blow up your defenses. Kind of like an engineer in TF2, you have to stay near your walls that are under attack.

I hear that the game gets pretty tough later on, but so far it's been very easy-going.
Also, the construction and battle phases of each map are split up, though some of them are timed.

Actual construction of defense, turrets, traps, helper bots, etc. occurs in one phase. Combat and repairs occur in another.

So far, nothing unmanageable.

Good, good. Not that I'd particularly mind - I survived the insane TWEWY multi-tasking controls, so I guess I'll manage some construction combat as well - just trying to get more of a feel for the game. Thanks, guys.

 

[Phife Dawg]

Sounds good, I'm a little worried that the formula might get stale but if you have lots of building options I wouldn't mind a bit of repetition in the combat gameplay.

 

[Hive]

This looks so good, and it's great to see Amirox so enthused about this, too~

How about 5th Cell doing a Rampart-style DS game next??

 

[Jackson]

You can change difficulty on the fly in the title screen options menu if you think the "normal" difficulty is too easy. Switch to hard, and get your butt kicked.

Bozon played 90% of hard, but didn't beat the last level on hard...

The first 2 maps are easy... after that, the difficulty ramps up. But normal is still "easy" for the hardcore I think.

 

[Aurelius]

Sounds like a cool combination of action and strategy.

 

[FlyinJ]

I've found it kind of effective to leave a 1 square gap next to every wall-turret-wall that my guy can run through. I find the most enemies, and run through the gap and engage them while my cannons are firing on them. Even if there is a gap in the wall, the enemies will engage the wall and turret before advancing.

It seems very effective. I'm constantly fighting, then running to trouble spots to repair.

The pathfinding can be pretty bad though. I find it easier to tap where I want my guy to go as opposed to trying to guide him there with stylus-slide.

 

[mattso]

got it today. just finished the first battle after the tutorial. I probably could have planned better, I was running all over the place to keep my stuff repaired.

 

[jrricky]

Picked this baby up today and Im really impressed. Production values galore. Music, Art, Animation, concept, gameplay are all top notch. The Intro is really great with how its presented.

Ive done all the first missions now and its been a blast. Now Im in a slump, cause i cant pass this stage which has a Siege mode. The red character is so damn hard to kill. :/ Ive tried 5 times now.

 

[mattso]

Picked this baby up today and Im really impressed. Production values galore. Music, Art, Animation, concept, gameplay are all top notch. The Intro is really great with how its presented.

Ive done all the first missions now and its been a blast. Now Im in a slump, cause i cant pass this stage which has a Siege mode. The red character is so damn hard to kill. :/ Ive tried 5 times now.

I just did that. Buy a spearman and when the red guy comes out send him out. He should stop him from advancing and you can blast away.

I also had upgraded to 3 shots.

If you have enough source you can also buy the raining shots upgrade. That thing kicks ass.

After you beat it and do some other stuff before you leave if you play it again and win they give you 10,000 source. I did it again after that and got another 2,500 source, then decided it was time to move on.

So that's where I am now. Such a fun game.

 

[jrricky]

I just did that. Buy a spearman and when the red guy comes out send him out. He should stop him from advancing and you can blast away.

I also had upgraded to 3 shots.

If you have enough source you can also buy the raining shots upgrade. That thing kicks ass.

After you beat it and do some other stuff before you leave if you play it again and win they give you 10,000 source. I did it again after that and got another 2,500 source, then decided it was time to move on.

So that's where I am now. Such a fun game.

Thanks. Here is my other 2 cents.........BUY THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[noonche]

I loved DTD and PJM so I think I'll definitely have to give this a shot.

 

[Death_Born]

I just finished the part where

Spoiler

Lock has to defend his cute sidekick from an army of robots, by himself, for 5 days in a frozen wasteland.

Lock is such a badass.

 

[Mejilan]

Good to see others taking a chance on the game.

If you're on the fence, and are using Drawn to Life as any kind of bar... don't.
They have absolutely no commonalities, IMHO. Having liked or disliked DtL won't have any kind of bearing on how you'll feel about this one. So if the impressions, previews, or reviews make it sound at all appealing, give it a shot. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

[jet1911]

Bought the game today because of this thread. Hope it's good.

 

[Llyranor]

I'm pretty interested. The fact that it's apparently a challenge is a big plus for me. I'll wait for a bit more impressions before I commit, though.

 

[Beavertown]

Picked mine up today and played through the first half hour or so and am really digging it.

My only complaints really are the all touch controls, and the little sister plot thing, so I'm hoping it doesn't continue in that direction, like every jrpg known to man.

That said, it seems like one of the best games to come out of the DS and I can see myself spending a lot of time with it.

 

[Mejilan]

Actually, I thought the controls were damn fine.
Am I the only one who thought that Emi's map sprite was adorable, and her portrait art hideous?

 

[jrricky]

Actually, I thought the controls were damn fine.
Am I the only one who thought that Emi's map sprite was adorable, and her portrait art hideous?

Well its not the first time Ive seen it happen. Fire Emblem anyone. So I dont really pay any attention to it.

I like the diversity of missions its givin. Im lovin it.

 

[Mejilan]

Well, FE's map sprites are very small, zoomed out, and lacking in detail. They're more like slightly animated chess pieces rather than full-blown representative sprites.

The clash in Lock's Quest is quite a bit worse, IMHO.

 

[McBradders]

26th of September is so far away

 

[Mejilan]

For some, the 16th of September is even farther.

 

[eznark]

I went to Best Buy last night and they had received this...but not NHL09 for the PS3. I thought that was crazy.

Anyway. awesome game so far. I'm through the first mission and the concept is fantastic. When I heard the developers talking about "mini-games" I was worried, but they are excellently integrated into the action.

The only thing I don't like so far is the TERRIBLE character art during the cut scenes. The look completely pasted on and somehow just don't fit.

Other than that, awesome.

 

[Mejilan]

Yeah. I feel like I've been harping about the awful portrait art for a while now, but I'm really trying not to focus on it.

It's just rare when you encounter a game like this where the smaller, less detailed map sprites are significantly more aesthetically pleasing than the portrait art.

It's especially a bummer considering how stylistically awesome the opening animation is. Pity it wasn't used, to a certain extent, in-game somehow.

 

[Dyno]

A wrench as a weapon. I love it still. There is no sarcasm in this post, just admiration for bashing someone in the face with a wrench. Carry on.

 

[Mejilan]

It's pretty efficient, at least. You can go from skull-bashing to turret-repairing with nary a hitch!

I laughed at the comment Lock made to a wounded Isaiah at one point about not being strong enough to even heft a wrench.

 

[eznark]

Yeah. I feel like I've been harping about the awful portrait art for a while now, but I'm really trying not to focus on it.

It's just rare when you encounter a game like this where the smaller, less detailed map sprites are significantly more aesthetically pleasing than the portrait art.

It's especially a bummer considering how stylistically awesome the opening animation is. Pity it wasn't used, to a certain extent, in-game somehow.

Ah, I missed your earlier criticism. Agree 100%, although I don't think the opening stuff would work well for the overlays that they do. I don't know why but it just feels wrong. Too clean or something. Advanced Wars and Disgaea and others are able to do the same thing, just slap some portraits up there during dialog, but they always feel right. Somehow these don't.

Not that I particularly care mind you, just an observation.

If you didn't listen to that IGN interview, 5th Cell talked a little about a sequel, and indicated that multiplayer is something they would like to flesh out, if they did a sequel.