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Official Lunar Knights DS Release Thread
- Thread starter colinp
- Start date
First post now updated with 15% more goodness!
Including this gem:
Kojima Productions Podcast on Lunar Knights!
That there is a direct link to the mp3... WOohooo!
Including this gem:
Kojima Productions Podcast on Lunar Knights!
That there is a direct link to the mp3... WOohooo!
UncleScr00ge
Member
I will aquire this product tomorrow at my local Gamestop video game establishment in exchange for currency.
Loved Boktai and Boktai II so I'm really pumped for this.
Loved Boktai and Boktai II so I'm really pumped for this.
SlaughterX
Banned
The reviews ahve been looking good so far, and I already have it preorederd so I'll most likely pick it up. Need to do a lot of catching up on these DS titles...
I've got so many backlogged games to play right now but as soon as I get my hands on this it's going to the top of the list. I enjoyed the Boktai games with the light sensor gimmick stripped out (via rom hacking) so I have a feeling this game is going to be amazing.
OnWarmerMusic
Member
And I was finally making progress through the mighty DS backlog. Welp, I guess one more game on the pile can't hurt. Maybe I'll go track this down after work.1UP.com said:
Femmeworth
Banned
Hey john tv, why'd they have to ditch the old art style? I know they are trying to get away from Boktai, but this new art style sucks so much in comparison to the old artwork.
I called the local Gamestop around 1 this evening, and they said they had two copies. I asked to hold one, and by the time I went to pick it up after work the other copy was gone.
Woot! They also had a used DQ: Rocket Slime for $17.99, so I dutifully picked that up too.
let the good times roll
ps the podcast was really interesting- I encourage everyone to check it out
Woot! They also had a used DQ: Rocket Slime for $17.99, so I dutifully picked that up too.
let the good times roll
ps the podcast was really interesting- I encourage everyone to check it out
Ok, the faqs aren't up and I have a question.
when you first need to upgrade your sword, can you do it after you beat the chimera (scorpion/lion) you need 4 iron and 2 solvent. Where can I get the solvent? Do I have to beat margrave first?
Shit GAF. I just bought Phoenix Wright: Justice For All less than a month ago. I haven't bought Hotel Dusk: Room 215 yet, but judging by all of the people liking it over here, I guess I'll have to get that soon. This weekend I'm planning to get FFVI: Advance, and now this? My poor DS!
My poor wallet, my poor GPA, my poor Wii (and I was thinking of getting Sonic, SSX, and Metal Slug this month...)!
College has been non-stop the past week or so, and I don't think it will clear up until the end of next week. I'm in the last case in Phoenix Wright 2 and I'd like to beat that first before doing any more purchasing.
College has been non-stop the past week or so, and I don't think it will clear up until the end of next week. I'm in the last case in Phoenix Wright 2 and I'd like to beat that first before doing any more purchasing.
This game kicks ass. I've played about an hour and am roughly at the same place as Laramie...
This is my second DS game, the first being Elite Beat. My hands are cramped holding the damn thing!
Oh, and the music in LK kicks ass too. I <3 Lunar Knights!
Laramie said:
I haven't found solvent yet either, but if you go back to the mansion or whatever that first level was enemies do drop junk parts. I haven't picked up solvent yet, but I am going to go ahead and take on margrave (unless I happen to find solvent during my travels to margrave).
This is my second DS game, the first being Elite Beat. My hands are cramped holding the damn thing!
Oh, and the music in LK kicks ass too. I <3 Lunar Knights!
angelfly said:
I'm in the interior of the Mansion, just wandering around and hacking baddies apart, and i just picked up solvent. Yay! Now to spend the soll to go upgrade or wait until I'm in front of margraves door...
I've done vit 3, spr 2, skill 4
I'm probably going to focus on spr eventually since that seems pretty key in the game. I'll probably level spr and skill close to each other, and let vit lag a bit. WHo needs health when you're a badass?
Killed Margrave...
The cutscenes can be a bit pixelated at times, but it is definitely impressive and smooth. I like the voice work as well.
The shooting sections are great fun. I think the whole mechanic works really well, moving the ship around and then tapping on enemies to shoot. It can get manic trying to avoid missiles and the like, and the first boss fight gave me a run for my money (I guess I was a bit careless at the start!). Not too much trouble though
It is easy to see the Zelda influence in the game. Zelda + Vampires = woohooo!
Lucian is a pretty great character. And hey, who doesn't love having a flying cat as a sidekick?
The anime cutscene before and after the fight was awesome.
The cutscenes can be a bit pixelated at times, but it is definitely impressive and smooth. I like the voice work as well.
The shooting sections are great fun. I think the whole mechanic works really well, moving the ship around and then tapping on enemies to shoot. It can get manic trying to avoid missiles and the like, and the first boss fight gave me a run for my money (I guess I was a bit careless at the start!). Not too much trouble though
It is easy to see the Zelda influence in the game. Zelda + Vampires = woohooo!
Lucian is a pretty great character. And hey, who doesn't love having a flying cat as a sidekick?
Mejilan said:There's a puzzle in Hotel Dusk that seems to recognize two points being touched at once.
It worked for me in the Lunar games.
Isn't the Hotel Dusk example some clever programming or something? I remember reading about it though, and Kohler complaining because he knew the limitations of the machine and that's why he didn't try the obvious solution. :lol This is all my bad memory, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
It's the circuit breaker puzzle less than halfway through the game. You need to flip two switches at once.
But I also tried to flick only that middle spot to see if it would trigger the puzzle's solution, and it did not. So I imagine that glowing spot was just a visual guide, nothing more.
Still, if the game could calculate the center spot between two touched points, then that means that the DS can register two points at once, no?
There does seem to be some software trickery involved though, because I know for a fact that other games only register the first touched point. Most likely, that's the system's default, and individual games would have to be programmed especially to recognize two points at once.
But... who knows? *shrugs*
IGN's review
"Lunar Knights doesn't stray too far from the Game Boy Advance engine, but the extra horsepower and capabilities of the Nintendo DS definitely allows for a bigger and better experience. The game can handle a lot more on-screen objects and enemies, for example. Touch screen power-ups offer up some cool ideas to take out enemies when you're all charged up. And the extra cartridge space beefs up the presentation with brief spoken dialogue, some pretty awesome animated cutscene video clips, and a quality, energetic soundtrack."
8.2
"Lunar Knights doesn't stray too far from the Game Boy Advance engine, but the extra horsepower and capabilities of the Nintendo DS definitely allows for a bigger and better experience. The game can handle a lot more on-screen objects and enemies, for example. Touch screen power-ups offer up some cool ideas to take out enemies when you're all charged up. And the extra cartridge space beefs up the presentation with brief spoken dialogue, some pretty awesome animated cutscene video clips, and a quality, energetic soundtrack."
I don't have any art you haven't seen before; there's a bunch of additional art and concept sketches in the official Japanese strategy guide, but that's all that comes to mind. Is there an official guide for LK in the US or Europe? As for geeky trivia, a lot of that is probably best saved for after people have beaten the game and want to discuss stuff about the story.colinp said:
Which art style are you referring to? The previous Boktai games? Or that promotional art from around E3?ninj4junpei said:
A friend of mine played all the way through it and had nothing but positive things to say about it. I haven't played enough myself to give a detailed opinion, but it certainly looks nice!Soul4ger said:
TekunoRobby
Tag of Excellence
Sorry to hijack the thread but I wanted to throw out a quick explanation:
All simple resistive touch screens share this quirk. That includes: PDAs, touchpads on a laptop, electronic signature devices at stores, and the Nintendo DS.Mejilan said:
Technically it does recognize two inputs and calculates the center area but it can only track one input at a time. That is why when you do the puzzle in Hotel Dusk you can't flick both switches at once. Only the most recent input has any control over the movement of the glowing dot. If you have a laptop handy try out the touchpad; you'll encounter the exact same issue.Mejilan said:
Well, I got my copy. I think this is the first time I've gotten a DS game that Mej couldn't get. Take that, Nintendo World Store!
Anyway... John, you were right -- I'm loving it so far. And you guys did an excellent job on the writing / voice acting. Okay, let's see... some more detailed impressions.
The graphics are excellent. I know some people have bitched constantly about how the game looks like a GBA reject, and yes, there are some ways in which they could've been better... but the truth is that the backgrounds are very colorful and have lots of nice detail to them, the sprites are (again) very colorful and highly detailed, and have excellent animations. Watching Lucian's attack and defensive moves are really nice, just because of how smooth and fluid it is. Same with the enemies.
What's most impressive, though, is the generally high level of the production values in this game. Lunar Knights is blazing some trails for DS RPGs... unlike FFIII, which had the lovely opening cinematic and then that was it, LK seems like it's got plenty of high quality FMV cutscenes integrated into the game, and what's more, these cutscenes are accompanied by full voice acting (and good voice acting, too). The music's excellent. Zero loading and a smooth and simple menu interface also illustrate the production values in the game. The voice acting's not limited to the FMV cutscenes, either -- there are clips in battle, when you talk to NPCs in town, etc. Just a really solid presentation all around.
The story is campy, but fun. It's anime-styled alien vampires in space, with Star Fox look-a-likes, bunnygirls, and a cocky and smarmy purple-haired hero. The writing's very good, and it seems there's plenty of humor here (again: alien vampires in space; bunnygirls). Outside of the FMV cutscenes, the story is conveyed Fire Emblem-style -- static character illustrations over a text block. Good chance for the nice artwork and character designs to shine.
The best thing, of course, is the gameplay. The first dungeon alone is pretty huge -- not very mazelike, like SOTN games, but more straightforward... something you'd find in Secret of Mana, I guess. Nevertheless, it was still big and loaded with enemies, both of which are nice.
Combat is refined 2D overhead action RPG stuff... what's not to love? Non-auto targetting, which means you need to be precise in your movements and attacks. 3-hit combos (again, just like the animation, the attacks are very fluid and smooth). One really nice thing is how well blocking is melded into combat -- it's a pretty significant element, and most ARPGs don't handle it quite this well. Blocking is directional, so you can't just do a generic "guard." Also, you have a defensive gauge that decreases as you block, so you can't just stay in that stance. There are lots of little touches, too -- like blocking a charging enemy will cause him to get kocked down and dazed.
Other options in combat include using terrestrials (think elemental familiars) that allow you to add elemental boosts to your attacks at the cost of sapping your energy; trance-mode, which allows you to perform special attacks by using charges off a gauge that builds as you fight; using items. And this is just for Lucian -- Aaron's totally different, of course, since he uses his solar gun instead of the dark sword to attack.
I'm really pleased with this one so far. Much, much moreso than Children of Mana.
Anyway... John, you were right -- I'm loving it so far. And you guys did an excellent job on the writing / voice acting. Okay, let's see... some more detailed impressions.
The graphics are excellent. I know some people have bitched constantly about how the game looks like a GBA reject, and yes, there are some ways in which they could've been better... but the truth is that the backgrounds are very colorful and have lots of nice detail to them, the sprites are (again) very colorful and highly detailed, and have excellent animations. Watching Lucian's attack and defensive moves are really nice, just because of how smooth and fluid it is. Same with the enemies.
What's most impressive, though, is the generally high level of the production values in this game. Lunar Knights is blazing some trails for DS RPGs... unlike FFIII, which had the lovely opening cinematic and then that was it, LK seems like it's got plenty of high quality FMV cutscenes integrated into the game, and what's more, these cutscenes are accompanied by full voice acting (and good voice acting, too). The music's excellent. Zero loading and a smooth and simple menu interface also illustrate the production values in the game. The voice acting's not limited to the FMV cutscenes, either -- there are clips in battle, when you talk to NPCs in town, etc. Just a really solid presentation all around.
The story is campy, but fun. It's anime-styled alien vampires in space, with Star Fox look-a-likes, bunnygirls, and a cocky and smarmy purple-haired hero. The writing's very good, and it seems there's plenty of humor here (again: alien vampires in space; bunnygirls). Outside of the FMV cutscenes, the story is conveyed Fire Emblem-style -- static character illustrations over a text block. Good chance for the nice artwork and character designs to shine.
The best thing, of course, is the gameplay. The first dungeon alone is pretty huge -- not very mazelike, like SOTN games, but more straightforward... something you'd find in Secret of Mana, I guess. Nevertheless, it was still big and loaded with enemies, both of which are nice.
Combat is refined 2D overhead action RPG stuff... what's not to love? Non-auto targetting, which means you need to be precise in your movements and attacks. 3-hit combos (again, just like the animation, the attacks are very fluid and smooth). One really nice thing is how well blocking is melded into combat -- it's a pretty significant element, and most ARPGs don't handle it quite this well. Blocking is directional, so you can't just do a generic "guard." Also, you have a defensive gauge that decreases as you block, so you can't just stay in that stance. There are lots of little touches, too -- like blocking a charging enemy will cause him to get kocked down and dazed.
Other options in combat include using terrestrials (think elemental familiars) that allow you to add elemental boosts to your attacks at the cost of sapping your energy; trance-mode, which allows you to perform special attacks by using charges off a gauge that builds as you fight; using items. And this is just for Lucian -- Aaron's totally different, of course, since he uses his solar gun instead of the dark sword to attack.
I'm really pleased with this one so far. Much, much moreso than Children of Mana.
Chris Michael
Banned
ninj4junpei said:
Konami seems to have a fetish with crappifying their artwork to a whole new degree of fail, exclusively on the DS.
Thanks for the explanation Tekuno. Interesting stuff. So with some clever coding, they can take into account 2 touch inputs at once... just not perhaps for action gaming, you say?
No fair. It's known that the Nintendo World Store doesn't get third party titles early. Hell, they usually get those late!
And for all I know, the NWS MIGHT have gotten the game today (but if not, surely tomorrow), but I didn't check since my office building is completely shut down since Tuesday night, and at least until Monday, due to a fire! (Gotta tell you, climbing down 33 flights of stairs wasn't really fun).
I hit up some Brooklyn (where I live) stores for Lunar Knights, and struck out. Tomorrow I think I'll hit up the city (including NWS) for Lunar Knights.
ethelred said:
No fair. It's known that the Nintendo World Store doesn't get third party titles early. Hell, they usually get those late!
And for all I know, the NWS MIGHT have gotten the game today (but if not, surely tomorrow), but I didn't check since my office building is completely shut down since Tuesday night, and at least until Monday, due to a fire! (Gotta tell you, climbing down 33 flights of stairs wasn't really fun).
I hit up some Brooklyn (where I live) stores for Lunar Knights, and struck out. Tomorrow I think I'll hit up the city (including NWS) for Lunar Knights.
TekunoRobby
Tag of Excellence
Actually no real coding required, its part of the standard package. The real trick is finding any sort of practical use of that little feature. Hotel Dusk is the only application I've encountered that has bothered to incorporate it.Mejilan said:
Huge congratulations for johntv and Ryan Payton for this game. Haven't played it yet but I'm looking forward too it!