-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Official World Destruction (DS) import thread
- Thread starter duckroll
- Start date
BudokaiMR2
Member
Huh this sounds pretty good. If I didn't have such a backlog on DS I would already have it. Maybe I will play some DS this week and try to get a couple of games out of the way.
This time of year is always so rough :/
This time of year is always so rough :/
I finished the game, and I must say that I really enjoyed it quite a bit. The game was a little on the short side. I came in just shy of 24 hours, which is actually a pretty decent length, all things considered.
The combat system is really fun, even if it is breakable, and the customization system is relatively deep as well. I had fun figuring out how to break it, too, even if it did make some of the stuff at the end incredibly easy. The music was really nice, although I don't think even Mitsuda brought his A game. The graphics are pretty good... I'm not really one who pays attention to that stuff, though, so I don't have much to say about that, except that I love that the framerate is a really smooth 60. I'm not really sure what else to say without going into full-on review mode, except that I had a lot of fun with it, and would recommend it to anybody.
To those who were worrying about the story, it honestly doesn't stay super wacky for long. It gets a bit more serious, even if it does remain relatively lighthearted throughout. This IS a Kato story, through and through. Lots of stuff in this game reminded me of Chrono Cross and Xenogears, storywise. The characters range from okay to awesome, and most of them are developed decently (especially if you do their quests at the end of the game). Toppy is super, super awesome. I love him to death.
I remember reading in a magazine at some point that their aim for this game was to recreate the PS1 RPG feeling, and I think they succeeded wonderfully.
The combat system is really fun, even if it is breakable, and the customization system is relatively deep as well. I had fun figuring out how to break it, too, even if it did make some of the stuff at the end incredibly easy. The music was really nice, although I don't think even Mitsuda brought his A game. The graphics are pretty good... I'm not really one who pays attention to that stuff, though, so I don't have much to say about that, except that I love that the framerate is a really smooth 60. I'm not really sure what else to say without going into full-on review mode, except that I had a lot of fun with it, and would recommend it to anybody.
To those who were worrying about the story, it honestly doesn't stay super wacky for long. It gets a bit more serious, even if it does remain relatively lighthearted throughout. This IS a Kato story, through and through. Lots of stuff in this game reminded me of Chrono Cross and Xenogears, storywise. The characters range from okay to awesome, and most of them are developed decently (especially if you do their quests at the end of the game). Toppy is super, super awesome. I love him to death.
I remember reading in a magazine at some point that their aim for this game was to recreate the PS1 RPG feeling, and I think they succeeded wonderfully.
dermannmitdemcolt
Member
Aeana said:
Man, I have to play this. Is there a new game plus?
dragonlife
Member
That's a pretty decent length for a handheld RPG.
I'm near the end as well, but I'm finishing off the rest of the side quests first. It's not like there's a lot of them anyway. I'm about 18 hours in now, so I'll probably finish the game with a clear time of 20 hours or so. Not bad. Looking forward to the credits of the game, my favorite part of completing a game! 
Beat it. ~21 hours with everything completed. Not bad at all.
Pros:
- Great graphics, good music, top notch production values. This is without doubt one of the best looking DS RPGs out there. It easily ranks with FFIV and DQIV, but gets an advantage because it's an original game. It's not often that you see a real attempt to make a PS1-era RPG anymore, and it looks like the DS is the system for it. No complaints at all, it's just beautiful.
- Nice sprites, great animations. The 2D spritework is pretty impressive, with lots of custom animations for certain events, etc. The battle animations are good too, especially with the boss attacks. The sprite art throughout the game is pretty impressive with lots of different enemies. There are enemies that look similar but clearly have different sprites, and there are those which are the same sprite with a different coloring, but even then the coloring is always done in a unique way so they really look different.
- Fun battle system. The battles are extremely fun, even when they're broken, and you always feel really powerful. There are nice attacks, and a really nice special attack for each character. The game also manages to keep battles in dungeons from getting boring by having a good variety of enemy patterns. Even if there are enemies from earlier parts of the game reused in later dungeons, they're always mixed around so you never feel like you're fighting the same tiny group of enemies over and over. Nice touch.
- Great art direction. The art design and areas in the game really impress me. Every area you visit is unique, and looks really good. There are generic RPG areas like forests and mountains that look about as good as they can look being a generic wilderness area, but there are some really outstanding areas that are really memoriable.
- Interesting scenario. It's light-hearted and silly but captivating enough to make you want to keep playing. The setting itself starts off rather silly, so there's no attempt to establish it as a totally serious RPG. There are some really good laughs, and the writing on the whole is rather well done. It's not fantastic, and some of the later twists in the game are really hilarious and lame, but overall it was definitely enjoyable.
- Great characters. The characters in the game are mostly extremely likeable. There's a decent amount of development for each party member in the game, and it does a good job of establishing their positions in the worldview. Toppi and Lia are my favorites, and I would totally buy a spinoff with them in it.
Cons:
- Really poor game balance. The game can easily be broken early on, and with challenge completely removed from the picture it makes customization, money, and most skills totally useless. The number balancing in general seems totally broken in the game. An enemy which is buffed can be doing 100+ damage per hit, while doing 1-2 damage per hit otherwise. If you put on a defense buff, it drops back to 1-2 damage per hit. There doesn't seem to be anything in the game that is in-between, it's either overpowered or totally worthless. A speed buff would make pretty much all attacks miss, but there's no way to debuff an enemy so you're stuck just blocking or waiting until it's over.
- Crappy attack patterns and rather random AI tuning. There are many bosses that simply don't have a pattern or a "trick" to them. There are just a few really overpowered attacks they can do, plus boost attacks that give them extra turns. If they don't do them, you have a great chance of winning really easily by just hitting one button. If they do use those attacks in a certain sequence, then there's nothing you can do and you might die in a single turn. It's pure luck and has nothing to do with challenge or skill. :/
- Mazey dungeons, and really retarded backtracking "puzzles" in dungeons. There are a few dungeons in the game that are pretty mazey, and they can get pretty annoying when you try to figure them out with random encounters every 5-10 steps. There are also some dungeons (especially the final one, which is the worst offender) with inane puzzles that require you to go back through the dungeon to activate/collect shit and then run back to the end of the dungeon to activate something else. Back and forth, back and forth, with random encounters! Lolz.
- No replay incentive. There's no New Game+, no Event Viewer, no Music Player, nothing that unlocks when you beat the game that would encourage some sort of replay. It's pretty easy to see everything in the game the first time through, so there's really zero replay value here.
Pros:
- Great graphics, good music, top notch production values. This is without doubt one of the best looking DS RPGs out there. It easily ranks with FFIV and DQIV, but gets an advantage because it's an original game. It's not often that you see a real attempt to make a PS1-era RPG anymore, and it looks like the DS is the system for it. No complaints at all, it's just beautiful.
- Nice sprites, great animations. The 2D spritework is pretty impressive, with lots of custom animations for certain events, etc. The battle animations are good too, especially with the boss attacks. The sprite art throughout the game is pretty impressive with lots of different enemies. There are enemies that look similar but clearly have different sprites, and there are those which are the same sprite with a different coloring, but even then the coloring is always done in a unique way so they really look different.
- Fun battle system. The battles are extremely fun, even when they're broken, and you always feel really powerful. There are nice attacks, and a really nice special attack for each character. The game also manages to keep battles in dungeons from getting boring by having a good variety of enemy patterns. Even if there are enemies from earlier parts of the game reused in later dungeons, they're always mixed around so you never feel like you're fighting the same tiny group of enemies over and over. Nice touch.
- Great art direction. The art design and areas in the game really impress me. Every area you visit is unique, and looks really good. There are generic RPG areas like forests and mountains that look about as good as they can look being a generic wilderness area, but there are some really outstanding areas that are really memoriable.
- Interesting scenario. It's light-hearted and silly but captivating enough to make you want to keep playing. The setting itself starts off rather silly, so there's no attempt to establish it as a totally serious RPG. There are some really good laughs, and the writing on the whole is rather well done. It's not fantastic, and some of the later twists in the game are really hilarious and lame, but overall it was definitely enjoyable.
- Great characters. The characters in the game are mostly extremely likeable. There's a decent amount of development for each party member in the game, and it does a good job of establishing their positions in the worldview. Toppi and Lia are my favorites, and I would totally buy a spinoff with them in it.
Cons:
- Really poor game balance. The game can easily be broken early on, and with challenge completely removed from the picture it makes customization, money, and most skills totally useless. The number balancing in general seems totally broken in the game. An enemy which is buffed can be doing 100+ damage per hit, while doing 1-2 damage per hit otherwise. If you put on a defense buff, it drops back to 1-2 damage per hit. There doesn't seem to be anything in the game that is in-between, it's either overpowered or totally worthless. A speed buff would make pretty much all attacks miss, but there's no way to debuff an enemy so you're stuck just blocking or waiting until it's over.
- Crappy attack patterns and rather random AI tuning. There are many bosses that simply don't have a pattern or a "trick" to them. There are just a few really overpowered attacks they can do, plus boost attacks that give them extra turns. If they don't do them, you have a great chance of winning really easily by just hitting one button. If they do use those attacks in a certain sequence, then there's nothing you can do and you might die in a single turn. It's pure luck and has nothing to do with challenge or skill. :/
- Mazey dungeons, and really retarded backtracking "puzzles" in dungeons. There are a few dungeons in the game that are pretty mazey, and they can get pretty annoying when you try to figure them out with random encounters every 5-10 steps. There are also some dungeons (especially the final one, which is the worst offender) with inane puzzles that require you to go back through the dungeon to activate/collect shit and then run back to the end of the dungeon to activate something else. Back and forth, back and forth, with random encounters! Lolz.
- No replay incentive. There's no New Game+, no Event Viewer, no Music Player, nothing that unlocks when you beat the game that would encourage some sort of replay. It's pretty easy to see everything in the game the first time through, so there's really zero replay value here.
charlequin
Banned
This sounds great, although the lack of a New Game+ and Hard mode seems like a bit of a drag.
The #1 thing that excited me about this game when it was first announced was that it looked like it was aiming to recreate that "PS1 RPG" experience, so if it does indeed do so that's a huge plus in my book.
The #1 thing that excited me about this game when it was first announced was that it looked like it was aiming to recreate that "PS1 RPG" experience, so if it does indeed do so that's a huge plus in my book.
Sounds like a good chance of localizaiton, and some editing of the game's difficulty:
http://www.siliconera.com/2008/10/1...staff-shattering-north-america-in-the-future/
http://www.siliconera.com/2008/10/1...staff-shattering-north-america-in-the-future/
Aeana said:
Is there anything in particular in the score that would warrant change? A song that may not be licensed perhaps? I remember somebody mentioning that Mitsuda only contributed a portion of the soundtrack; maybe he intends to fill in the rest with a U.S. release?
Anyway, I'm really hyped about this one making its way over. Hopefully, Sega doesn't sit on it for too long.
I'm pretty sure by "full localization" he's referring to the fact that Image Epoch is dedicated to working on and altering anything that needs to be done for the localiztion. This will include any additions they want to make the to the game, any changes that have to be made, and of course reprogramming the cutscenes if need be for the english script and dub pacing.
It'll be nice if Mitsuda composed something for the opening FMV that could replace that fucking awful AAA song though. I'll buy it again if he does that! Also, maybe since the JP version actually didn't flop, they can afford to record and vocal ending theme now! Come on Mitsuda, you know we love Joanne Hogg!!!!!!
It'll be nice if Mitsuda composed something for the opening FMV that could replace that fucking awful AAA song though. I'll buy it again if he does that! Also, maybe since the JP version actually didn't flop, they can afford to record and vocal ending theme now! Come on Mitsuda, you know we love Joanne Hogg!!!!!!
charlequin
Banned
Awesome! Since hearing duck and Aeana's impressions of this I've been really excited to play it.
That's what I took away from it too. Assuming this post is accurate, it sounds like they're really going back and tightening things up, which is more than I would have expected from a small developer like Image Epoch.
<3<3<3
duckroll said:
That's what I took away from it too. Assuming this post is accurate, it sounds like they're really going back and tightening things up, which is more than I would have expected from a small developer like Image Epoch.
<3<3<3
charlequin
Banned
jj984jj said:
I wouldn't hold my breath for Shiren. :/ (On the other hand, Infinite Space is already announced and I would call Shining Force Feather a lock.)
Bumping because I bought this game about 2 months ago but put it off after
to finish off some other console games. Plus i had a lengthy vacation from work so I didn't play on my DS at all for the past three weeks... only play the DS when I'm on the train, and it's only an hour combined each day, heh.
I gotta agree with what duckroll said... the game looks really good, and the animation IMO is great for a DS game. The cutscenes IMO are too long for a handheld game and with no way to really replay cutscenes you're pretty much stuck watching them unless you want to potentially skip big parts of the story.
Really, REALLY hate how you can go from doing 100 - 200pts of damage on an enemy to 1 or 0 when they get their defense up, and how they can go from doing 1pt of damage to over 100 when they get an attack bonus. This coupled with a unfairly high encounter rate and a couple of really annoying dungeons
are just stupidly annoying to complete especially because the encounter rate drop. Well, with one of the last dungeons it drops significantly but that dungeon seems to be the exception.
I think I'm about 2 hours away from finishing the game, but I feel it's a solid, above-average RPG. If they fix the encounter rate and the buffing issues for the US version I think people will like it even more.
Kirie died
I gotta agree with what duckroll said... the game looks really good, and the animation IMO is great for a DS game. The cutscenes IMO are too long for a handheld game and with no way to really replay cutscenes you're pretty much stuck watching them unless you want to potentially skip big parts of the story.
Really, REALLY hate how you can go from doing 100 - 200pts of damage on an enemy to 1 or 0 when they get their defense up, and how they can go from doing 1pt of damage to over 100 when they get an attack bonus. This coupled with a unfairly high encounter rate and a couple of really annoying dungeons
the one where you revive Kirie and the dungeon of memories, which I just finished
I think I'm about 2 hours away from finishing the game, but I feel it's a solid, above-average RPG. If they fix the encounter rate and the buffing issues for the US version I think people will like it even more.
Chrono Helix
Member
Am I the only one experiencing some graphical glitches? Like the text not lining up right (like when you get the pre-emptive strike message in battle, and run away immediately with Agan's ability), or the BP indicators at the bottom of the screen not turning black properly, or how super attacks don't show the enemy's getting hit (I can only see the character performing it)?