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Ray Gigant |OT| - Baby's First DRPG

Took two hours for me. My Vita speeds are awful.

I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm just in the first Megalosite. It is really easy, especially since I was playing Stranger in Sword City right before this. I'm liking that this is more story heavy.

Which is baffling to me and still a mistery to me, considering how good of a connection I have now, but I digress.

Yeah coming from SoSC this is a lot more story heavy, and feels more like something akin of a VN with RPG elements sprinkled on top. Which is fine. I am very early into the game but I am enjoying the interactions, and the gameplay loop is fun enough to keep you busy until the next skit. Which I feel like is the purpose and focua of the game anyway.
 
How does this game have NO media on the PSN store? What are they hiding?
An incredibly stilted translation.

It feels like whoever was translating it got bogged down by the jargon and just threw their hands up in surrender and went
H1ztdxM.jpg
I particularly like the early dialogue where during a jargon frenzy switching between terms someone ended up defining a "lifeform" as "a form with something like life"
You're right, Ichiya. Vague doesn't even start to cover it. It did make me laugh though.

And sometimes you just get straight garbage like this (this is their explanation of what a dungeon megalosite is).
fgcast4.jpg
FVM9W3t.jpg
35fK3mJ.jpg
What?
Yes, Ichiya, you can.
Actually, the English version is making me like Ichiya more. I thought he was dumb as bricks in the Japanese version, but in the English version his dumbfounded expression is probably rather similar to mine.

There's also all sorts of other issues - the wrong forms of words like "its" being used, slightly off word choices, slightly off pluralisation, and some very weird phrasing in general. It's odd (and I've only just gotten started and I've already seen far, far more than the few I've linked here).

And then there's this stuff (I don't think any of this is actually spoilery but I'll spoiler it for safety's sake. The first is from the intro, the second explains a term associated with Ichiya, the third and fourth explain the term associated with his team mates, the fifth is someone explaining what senpai means before asking to be called that)
1.
hZV26Nf.jpg
2.
47GK5Cz.jpg
3.
J8vpImX.jpg
4.
MVg7O9e.jpg
5.
ubbb14n.jpg
I mean, none of it is technically incorrect but it makes me feel like I'm stuck reading some translator's footnotes.
Well okay, masochist[ic] might be going a little far. I'm honestly more disappointed than anything else.
I just keep finding myself grinding to a halt as I rephrase stuff in my head. And it's a shame, because some of it is perfectly fine but most of it just manages to miss the mark.

Thanks! But most of this is all recycled stuff from the JP one anyways lol. Its too bad I couldnt replace more of the screenshots as there wasnt any that matched well with what I already had up.
I've got a few you could sub in if you wanted?
I have Ichiya in Slash Beat Mode Slash Beam Mode (*shrugs*)
Some Parasite Mode shots similar to yours (I did cheat and stitch two together to get the one with the text, I just couldn't get the whole lot on screen at once ^^)
Edit: And one from your Screenshots section.
Edit 2: I changed my mind about the "translator's footnotes" screens. Some of that is technically incorrect, and even if they're dead-set on including the Japanese words some of that could be easily rephrased into something more like actual speech.
1 is a problem because the term they claim is "better known" rarely seems to be used in the text (so far, anyway), so at the bare minimum it should be switched around to
"These 'humans' became the 'demi-humans' better known as the 'Kamibito'"
(I still have issues with this because of the
'human'/'demi-human'
thing and as a lazy fix would opt for
"These guardians became the 'demi-humans' better known as the 'Kamibito'" (I picked guardians because that's what they were called in the previous screen. Warriors or even just 'people' would work just as well... just not 'humans')
2 has the phrase
"The power Yorigamis exhibits holds [etc]"
and "exhibits" doesn't work there. It should have been
"The power Yorigamis exhibit" (or even "The power Yorigami exhibit").
3 sounds awkward and should have been cleaned up into something more like
"Rumour has it that it's a play on the pronunciation of the word clone"
(Or a couple of slightly less clean ways that keep the explanation of that being a Japanese pronunciation:
"Rumour has it that it's a play on the Japanese pronunciation of the English word 'clone'" or "Rumour has it that it's a play on the way the Japanese pronounce the word 'clone'"
)
And 4s follow-up to that could have been similarly simplified to
"But officially it's due to their black hue, as 'kuro' means 'black' in English"
(I really would remove the senpai from 5 though, particularly because after the convo Ichiya seems to refer to him as boss - It's a bit looser but I'd probably have gone for something like
"'Dude'? You need to learn some manners. I'm your boss, not your friend"
)
 
So I couldnt play much last evening but I did the first dungeon until I unlocked the short cut and retreated again...there's a few things I want to do that dont seem to work,like target switching,I think you have to back out from manual at each character to switch/decide what ennemy to attack,but the one I choose seems to be everyone's choice when I hit Go...also didnt try a Red ennemy yet,my teamates seemed happy I chose Blue...
 
I've got a few you could sub in if you wanted?
I have Ichiya in Slash Beat Mode Slash Beam Mode (*shrugs*)

Some Parasite Mode shots similar to yours (I did cheat and stitch two together to get the one with the text, I just couldn't get the whole lot on screen at once ^^)

Edit: And one from your Screenshots section.

Thanks for taking the time out to do new pics Might see about replacing stuff or might not, since its not worth the effort at this point lol.

So I couldnt play much last evening but I did the first dungeon until I unlocked the short cut and retreated again...there's a few things I want to do that dont seem to work,like target switching,I think you have to back out from manual at each character to switch/decide what ennemy to attack,but the one I choose seems to be everyone's choice when I hit Go...also didnt try a Red ennemy yet,my teamates seemed happy I chose Blue...

For the most part there is no real reason to go after Red unless you really are desperate to collect as much resources as possible. Since unless it changed from the JP version there are no real drop rate differences with the 3 colors. So basically all fighting Red does is eat into your AP pool.
 
Thanks for taking the time out to do new pics Might see about replacing stuff or might not, since its not worth the effort at this point lol.



For the most part there is no real reason to go after Red unless you really are desperate to collect as much resources as possible. Since unless it changed from the JP version there are no real drop rate differences with the 3 colors. So basically all fighting Red does is eat into your AP pool.

Guess I won't bother fighting them, then. I've been clearing out every enemy so far out of habit.
 
It looks like the translation is a bit rough, which I've come to expect with BN. I understand it is a dungeon crawler, but how is the story?
 
It looks like the translation is a bit rough, which I've come to expect with BN. I understand it is a dungeon crawler, but how is the story?

Even though this was published by Bandai Namco in Japan, the English version was localized and published by acttil. Acttil is a fairly new company without much under their belt, and it's disappointing to see that we cannot expect adequate quality from them,
 
Even though this was published by Bandai Namco in Japan, the English version was localized and published by acttil. Acttil is a fairly new company without much under their belt, and it's disappointing to see that we cannot expect adequate quality from them,

Oh okay. It is sad that they released it this way especially if they are new.
 
Even though this was published by Bandai Namco in Japan, the English version was localized and published by acttil. Acttil is a fairly new company without much under their belt, and it's disappointing to see that we cannot expect adequate quality from them,

If that means getting cheaper games making it over, I'm okay with it. After all this was $29. Also the translation isn't THAT bad. It's no SAO HR Asian Version engrish lol.
 
Died to the first Boss,probably because of this stupid QTE type special attack where you have to follow the beat of the music and hit X at the right time...get this out of here please,jesus...

Seriously though,the levelling up is not very user friendly in this,not crazy about the way it works and how you have to assign items...guess I need to make another full run of the ennemies in the dungeon to gain a few levels(currently level 4 at the Boss).
 
You don't actually need to do the SBM event to damage the boss.
It's bonus damage, really, because it gets its own turn and does quite a lot of damage even if you miss some beats, but it's not necessary damage so if you don't want to use it you don't have to.
You can kill every boss without ever using SBM, it will just be slower (admittedly quite a lot slower in some cases) and you might have to be more careful as a result.
Also, you don't hit X. If you hit X you will miss every time, because hitting X does nothing. I'm not saying this to be mean, I'm saying this because I made that mistake on the Japanese release before I realised you had to hit O ;)

Leveling up your characters' skills and equipment is more important than actually leveling up the characters, especially because the yellow seed gems used to level your characters are few and far between early on.

What I'd say is to take a look at how you're spending Materia. Leveling your characters' ability to create weapons/armour using Materia is more important than leveling the characters themselves but it's important to note that leveling those won't actually matter unless you also spend Breed gems to actually create the better weapons/armour and then equip them.
(It's also important to note that when you try to use Breed gems to get weapons/armour and it says "Insufficient level" it doesn't mean the character's level, it means the level of that slot on the upgrade tree).

It would also be worth taking a look at the tactics you've equipped. Ichiya/Mana can equip items to their tactics sets that will work to heal themselves, whereas Kazuomi has a Heal Skill that can heal everyone.
(Though, erm, his heal skill doesn't heal "all ally HP" it heals the HP of all allies. It's not a full heal, basically).

And look into the skills each character has in their Command Trees to decide how best to spend your Force gems.
Ichiya, for example, has passive skills that will reduce the physical damage all allies take if you spec for them, which can be useful.
Mana has passive skills which improve everyone's hit and evade. Alternatively, she has skills that improve everyone's item use (if you're using items to heal that might help), or an attack skill (Cursed Arrow) that will recover her own health based on the damage she does if she uses it.
Kazu has passive skills that will improve the magic and status defense of all allies, or he has passives that will strengthen his spell effects which will make his heals more effective.
 
Guess I won't bother fighting them, then. I've been clearing out every enemy so far out of habit.

Yeah there is no real point outside of wanting to up your bar for SBM. Or if you really are heavy into grinding for resources.

All aboard the heli <3
(I'm sorry, I couldn't resist).

Yeah thats a bit steep... that always bugged me, esp due to how it showed everyone calmly having a discussion inside the overly spacious interior of the pseudo Osprey...

And thats with the seats up now.

Seats down pretty much full load.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw2THIDcfE0
someones phone vid recording what the inside generally looks like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYSmyb184zw
Cool stuff. Had thought this was in Japan for a second with that lone mountain that looked like fuji lol. Watched the vid again and saw the initial disclaimer section stating the location and squadron.
 
You don't actually need to do the SBM event to damage the boss.
It's bonus damage, really, because it gets its own turn and does quite a lot of damage even if you miss some beats, but it's not necessary damage so if you don't want to use it you don't have to.
You can kill every boss without ever using SBM, it will just be slower (admittedly quite a lot slower in some cases) and you might have to be more careful as a result.
Also, you don't hit X. If you hit X you will miss every time, because hitting X does nothing. I'm not saying this to be mean, I'm saying this because I made that mistake on the Japanese release before I realised you had to hit O ;)

Leveling up your characters' skills and equipment is more important than actually leveling up the characters, especially because the yellow seed gems used to level your characters are few and far between early on.

What I'd say is to take a look at how you're spending Materia. Leveling your characters' ability to create weapons/armour using Materia is more important than leveling the characters themselves but it's important to note that leveling those won't actually matter unless you also spend Breed gems to actually create the better weapons/armour and then equip them.
(It's also important to note that when you try to use Breed gems to get weapons/armour and it says "Insufficient level" it doesn't mean the character's level, it means the level of that slot on the upgrade tree).

It would also be worth taking a look at the tactics you've equipped. Ichiya/Mana can equip items to their tactics sets that will work to heal themselves, whereas Kazuomi has a Heal Skill that can heal everyone.

(Though, erm, his heal skill doesn't heal "all ally HP" it heals the HP of all allies. It's not a full heal, basically).

And look into the skills each character has in their Command Trees to decide how best to spend your Force gems.

Ichiya, for example, has passive skills that will reduce the physical damage all allies take if you spec for them, which can be useful.
Mana has passive skills which improve everyone's hit and evade. Alternatively, she has skills that improve everyone's item use (if you're using items to heal that might help), or an attack skill (Cursed Arrow) that will recover her own health based on the damage she does if she uses it.
Kazu has passive skills that will improve the magic and status defense of all allies, or he has passives that will strengthen his spell effects which will make his heals more effective.

Yeah,thanks for the tips...I didnt realise until one of the party member took a lot of damage because of consecutive hits that I had nothing to heal myself in battle except for the spell that heals from one character...assigned some now but you still need to make a choice,even if you have 3 kind of items,you can only equip one...it just was so easy before a few fights deeper in the dungeon that I wasnt paying attention at the evolve stuff.
 
Yeah,thanks for the tips...I didnt realise until one of the party member took a lot of damage because of consecutive hits that I had nothing to heal myself in battle except for the spell that heals from one character...assigned some now but you still need to make a choice,even if you have 3 kind of items,you can only equip one...it just was so easy before a few fights deeper in the dungeon that I wasnt paying attention at the evolve stuff.

Most def pay attention to the evolve stuff as if you fall behind on that you would be putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Though once you progress enough into it at the same time too makes the game hilariously easy lol

For the most part you will want to be focusing on the main characters for upgrades. Ichiya, Kyle, Nil.
 
I didn't think the localization was bad, it just missed a little flair.
I honestly don't understand how it isn't driving other people nuts. I really, really don't.
At best it's awful, sloppy, and unnatural... and that's a pretty lousy "best" by any definition.
It would be one thing if it was just a few but it isn't, the game is utterly rife with them. I don't think I've made it through a single conversation yet that didn't have any. It's ridiculous.

Here's just a few from the part I've played through so far today (and really want to re-iterate that this is only some of them. It doesn't even come close to being all of them).
I mean yeah, maybe it doesn't have the obvious penetrations and black man problems of SAO's Asian release, but at the same time that was a foreign release and was presumably overseen by people for whom english wasn't a primary language -- something which makes some of its translation oddities a little more understandable.
Now I honestly wouldn't be surprised to find that Ray Gigant's translation was handled similarly, but this is an official English/American release and I can't help but feel it should be held to a higher standard. Acttil should be raked over hot coals for thinking it would be okay to release the game in this state.
Yeah thats a bit steep... that always bugged me, esp due to how it showed everyone calmly having a discussion inside the overly spacious interior of the pseudo Osprey...
Hah, that's actually really interesting. I have to admit I'd never given any thought to the "real" version it would have been based on. That's a pretty tight fit.
 
I honestly don't understand how it isn't driving other people nuts. I really, really don't.
At best it's awful, sloppy, and unnatural... and that's a pretty lousy "best" by any definition.
It would be one thing if it was just a few but it isn't, the game is utterly rife with them. I don't think I've made it through a single conversation yet that didn't have any. It's ridiculous.

Here's just a few from the part I've played through so far today (and really want to re-iterate that this is only some of them. It doesn't even come close to being all of them).

I mean yeah, maybe it doesn't have the obvious penetrations and black man problems of SAO's Asian release, but at the same time that was a foreign release. This is an official English/American release, and Acttil should be raked over hot coals for think it was okay to release the game in this state.

This reminds me of Lux Pain. The font is ugly as well.
 
The localization seems like what I would call "spoken/street" English, rather than it being well structured and well written. Reading it out loud, some of the stuff in the game would seem like it came from some person you know, not putting too much effort into their sentences.

Actill is based in the US right? So either the localization was done by someone that isn't a native speaker or it's someone that passed English in school with B-/C+. Yes, it's sloppy at times. I am however gonna play Devil's advocate here and say something that I said before: if this is the price I have to pay both literally ($29) and figuratively (the problems in the localization) in order to see more niche games that otherwise would maybe not make it over our way, I am totally fine with it.
 
Okay so yeah. Probably won't be getting the game then, story was really the only thing I was particularly interested in.
 
Okay so yeah. Probably won't be getting the game then, story was really the only thing I was particularly interested in.

You wont be missing out honestly. Not to mention with the load of other titles coming out there is always something else to get.
 
I think there's a mandate that Vita games have to receive bad localizations now. That's the only way to explain why these companies put out such sub par and amateur translations.
 
I just realised I said before that in SBM you had to hit O, and that's not strictly true, so I thought I should correct myself.
It's not necessarily the O button, rather it's whichever buttons you have attack skills assigned to. By default that will be O, which is why I said it, but if you assign attacks to square or such you'll be able to hit that instead.

To try and counter some of my earlier complaining, I would like to say that rough (and irritating) as it is it does still have some charm. The exchanges between Ichiya and the others in dungeons and such can be a lot of fun, and some of the description text is funny.
They really do come across as friends ribbing each other :)
 
While I think the translation could definitely have used another editing pass, it hasn't really affected my enjoyment of the game any. I'd much rather have it release like this and be completely understandable than have to fumble through it in Japanese if it didn't get localized.
 
You'll have plenty of opportunities as you go through the game naturally, but if you really want to practice the only way really is to have 50+/100 on your SBM meter, save at a Jam Stone (or at base, I guess) and reload a few times to take pot shots at whichever enemies are nearby.
 
What I need to do for silver parasitism trophy?
Using it? But how many times?

Edit. Got it after killing lots of monsters with activated parasitism. Dumb description.
 
You'll have plenty of opportunities as you go through the game naturally, but if you really want to practice the only way really is to have 50+/100 on your SBM meter, save at a Jam Stone (or at base, I guess) and reload a few times to take pot shots at whichever enemies are nearby.
Do you have to get 100% perfect for the trophy? That's why I'm assuming it's going to take me forever (I suck at rhythm games).
 
Yeah it weird since I had managed to get it also when I missed one note.
Yeah I got it. Thought it would be harder. How do you get the gluttony trophy? I fed my main character snacks in battle until he wouldn't gain weight anymore but no trophy. Also he kept eating.
 
Yeah I got it. Thought it would be harder. How do you get the gluttony trophy? I fed my main character snacks in battle until he wouldn't gain weight anymore but no trophy. Also he kept eating.

I just kept feeding stuff to the mc till i got the trophy. Do not remember exactly but do not believe there were really any difficult trophies to obtain.
 
Wow, how am I just finding out about this now? This looks awesome.

But I'm a little weary after playing Operation Abyss. That game was intolerably boring. Just felt so repetitive immediately, and it had no personality whatsoever.
 
So for the MC learned all skills trophy, I learned all the blue skills and it didn't pop. Does this mean max all levels in all trees? I have a few more points before the red tree is maxed.
 
So for the MC learned all skills trophy, I learned all the blue skills and it didn't pop. Does this mean max all levels in all trees? I have a few more points before the red tree is maxed.
No, you only have to max the blue command tree, but the trophy isn't obtainable until later in the game (spoilers for exactly when)
in Chapter 18
because at that point the command tree gains some extra markers.
 
No, you only have to max the blue command tree, but the trophy isn't obtainable until later in the game (spoilers for exactly when)
in Chapter 18
because at that point the command tree gains some extra markers.
So you can't do it with Amakaze?

Also, how many chapters are in this game?
 
Let's be honest here, you've seen the trophy list so you know that you can. Just (very vague spoilers)
not yet. It's plot related
.
(More specific spoilers)
You'll get to use Ichiya again later on after the other teams have had their turns
.

And there are (number of chapters)
nineteen
chapters.
 
Let's be honest here, you've seen the trophy list so you know that you can. Just (very vague spoilers)
not yet. It's plot related
.
(More specific spoilers)
You'll get to use Ichiya again later on after the other teams have had their turns
.

And there are (number of chapters)
nineteen
chapters.
I don't know why I asked that question. For some reason I forgot that that trophy was actually 3 trophies. Sorry about that.
 
I don't know why I asked that question. For some reason I forgot that that trophy was actually 3 trophies. Sorry about that.
And I'm sorry if I came across as a bit snippy, I swear I didn't mean to.

Had a chance to play through a little more of the English version. My plans to get through it faster so I can take a proper look at the NG+ stuff are still failing due to my hangups over the language, but I'm not going to call it out anymore.
Okay, I lied. This one, this one still deserves a comment.
I cracked up at "conniving stink". I know in my heart that's it's some sort of bizarre auto-correct from skank but it's hilarious XD

There are still a load of fun character moments, particularly when they're sniping at each other.
These are a few from Chapter 7/8, all spoilered, just because.
N2pLPpC.jpg
UekNNAe.jpg
BtJBIOz.jpg
CfFk79X.jpg

I also took some time to replicate a few more of the Japanese screens on the OP as best I could (yeah, I know you said not to bother but I felt like it)
And I took a load of pictures of Kyle during SBM. When I was messing with Ichiya's I only seemed to get the same handful of comments over and over again, whereas Kyle's variations seem a lot more willing to show up. It did also reveal a couple more oddities, though.
Scums is... yeah. I haven't managed to get humank[ind] to show up on the other side of the screen but I have to assume it cuts off wherever it displays.
Yes yes, I know, I'll stop.
The others were fine, though the ones from later in the beatmap make for easier screenshots :)
And then there were these two...
(Spoilered SBM images with text involving another character)
GTsSUKB.jpg
p8nPQyb.jpg
Nope, no signs of unhealthy attachment there
(related non-SBM image about the same character)
Edit: looks like this one has gone for some reason. I need to re-upload it.
Nope, not there either ^_^

... I do like Kyle.
Conner too, but he doesn't get a SBM full of manic quotes, he just gets to sound super casual, say "bingo", and talk about booze a lot.
Not that that's a bad thing :)
 
Played a few chapters of the game (still on Ichiya's part). It isn't bad... story and characters are generally likeable, and game play is pretty unique and fresh. The entire game system hinges AP management, which is weird, but it's an interesting concept that can be fairly strategic.

However, much like what everyone else is saying, game is easy, mostly from the how hilariously underpowered most monsters are, and that you regain all your HP after battle. I mean, they could easy make the game harder by not topping your HP back up or just make enemies hit harder, not really sure why they didn't do that.

Also I'm finding some really annoying limitations. For one thing, unless I'm mistaken you can only pick your first enemy, then all your characters dogpile on it until it dies then move to the next enemy at random. So targeting enemies with weaknesses become a complete crapshoot when you encounter multiple enemies with different weaknesses. Also, whose bright idea was it to give your characters ONLY six slots to equip all your normal moves, skills and item usage?

Then again, if they fixed the above stuff, the game will become EVEN EASIER, so I dunno.

Still like is for the pretty graphics, nice music, and good story / characters (so far).

Decent timewaster / 10
 
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