The Snake
Member
That's fine, I'll have a look around. I've gotten too comfortable/stale with my choice of outlets and it occurs to me I should branch out more like I used to (when I'd hit up like 10 sites a day).
Thank you!
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Square-Enix appears to have disabled streaming for Left Alive amidst a rough debut in Japan
- Thread starter Shin
- Start date
That's fine, I'll have a look around. I've gotten too comfortable/stale with my choice of outlets and it occurs to me I should branch out more like I used to (when I'd hit up like 10 sites a day).
Thank you!
Sakura
Member
Video game prices, consoles included, do not fluctuate as the value of the yen changes. Neither do the prices of other things. I've worked in retail in Japan for a number of years now and the prices don't change just because the yen is 10 or 20% weaker (or stronger) than the year before.
The same is true for the US. The value of the USD fluctuates as well, but prices of games etc don't go up just because the USD is having a bad year. Or take the UK, the pound has been dropping in value in recent years, but prices are relatively unchanged.
They do it to countries like Canada because we are relatively small so they can get away with it, and because we share a border with the US.
Paracelsus
Member
They learned nothing from the Ace Combat AH fiasco. Never cater to the USA when making a sequel or a close relative of a popular Japanese game.
Abriael_GN
RSI Employee of the Year
I'm not sure what part of it caters to the USA. It's an obvious attempt to fill the Metal Gear Solid gap, but I don't really see any America-pandering in there. Fully Japanese team, with artists and Director popular in Japan, Russian-like setting...
Really can't see it.
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Paracelsus
Member
It looks a very streamlined shoddy survival stealth game, closer to Last of Us with mechs than MGS. Combat is hardly ever a feasible option.
CatCouch
Member
Oh, really? It's in that kind of quirky tier with games like Disaster Report? I have a deep, deep, love for games like Disaster Report/Raw Danger, EDF and others like Blue Stinger and Deep Fear. That sort of campy, janky but full of personality type game.
I'll definitely keep it on my list for a price drop buy!
Glad to see that it was an error blocking footage. That would have been a bad move. Looks like this is yet another reason for me to avoid GI. I used to collect their magazines, I have them from 2001-2015. Dropped them after that.
I'll definitely keep it on my list for a price drop buy!
Glad to see that it was an error blocking footage. That would have been a bad move. Looks like this is yet another reason for me to avoid GI. I used to collect their magazines, I have them from 2001-2015. Dropped them after that.
Abriael_GN
RSI Employee of the Year
It plays absolutely nothing like TLOU. Actually, its gameplay is much more similar to early MGS. Its inspiration and design philosophy are ALL Japanese, in the good and in the bad.
Allnamestakenlol
Member
I remember seeing the reveal trailer and being hyped. Then I saw gameplay vid a few months back and all the hype disappeared. I'm not very surprised to find it's not being reviewed well.
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Abriael_GN
RSI Employee of the Year
https://www.vg247.com/2019/03/04/square-enix-stops-left-alive-streams-and-discounts-game/
And the prize for another goon regurgitating Hachima/Siliconera's baseless allegations without doing any actual fact-checking of their own goes toooo... VG24/7, a whole two days after Square Enix issued an official response that they ignored.
Good job there.
And the prize for another goon regurgitating Hachima/Siliconera's baseless allegations without doing any actual fact-checking of their own goes toooo... VG24/7, a whole two days after Square Enix issued an official response that they ignored.
Good job there.
60 Steam reviews at the moment, only 15 are positive.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
I played this a little bit. I've not seen anything really bad to justify the overwhelmingly negative user reviews yet. It's definitely lacking technically, I have to lock this to 30fps and maybe later on I will also have to reduce settings if the frame rate is reduced to a crawl when shit hits the fan (say when some Wanzer is chasing you and wreaking havoc all around you). If it was running at a silky smooth 60fps like MGSV easily did I'd be fine with its graphics and think it's pretty great overall but at such a reduced framerate it's passable. Either way it's not a problem yet.
Mechanically it's something like a cross between Splinter Cell (Blacklist I guess) and pre-V Metal Gear Solid games. Like, this could be on PSP like Peace Walker since it also limits your movements and is clunky rather than fluid and effortless like V. You can't go prone for example, only duck with the common waist height cover objects and such. At the same time it has very much a reliance on crafting gadgets (maybe like MG Survive? I never tried that) you will need to use if you hope to make it through a fight.
There's no instant-win stealth kill, it took me a full 3-hit combo with a crowbar I found laying around to take someone unaware down from behind and another strike to finish him off. I don't know how it would go if I tried to use the standard melee attack you can do while holding a gun. With that in mind enemies will inevitably be alerted if you try to take more than one on if there's no full-stealth way around in that particular path or whatever. And since they have so much better gear you better use all your crafted items, from tripmines to RC explosives, Molotovs and all sorts of other things. There's also no radar or mark enemies to see them through walls or whatever, so far they're only marked if in-camera and close enough and there's a crafted gadget that you throw and it reveals enemies nearby but it also doesn't last forever. You have seen that in some of the trailers.
There's also a vague directional warning shown when they're near you or closing in, I'm not exactly sure of the limits yet. Maybe it's a bit like the MGS: Portable Ops sound based radar?
All that makes it fundamentally different to other games like MGS and even Splinter Cell which some may have expected it to be a clone of (that's what I thought too, maybe I'd have even preferred it as such) which is why some of them trash it so hard with barely any play time. Plus the game kinda throws you off the deep end, I just reached a point (see it in the first screenshot) where I'll definitely have to utilize gadgets and early weapons I found to proceed as I can't find a way around the enemies and I'm only a few minutes in the game with it still popping tutorials up as I find a new object or element. And it's not like I have a ton of stuff to craft said items with at this point, I'll probably run out of stuff if I use them in dumb ways while trying to figure it all out.
I also died once already by alerting enemies in a very disadvantageous position earlier on when the game was tunneling me in a different area but I wanted to grab some items I saw near the enemies, ha. During that I also found the first pistol you start with takes several shots to down the enemies, they seem fully armored up on top of having the firepower and numbers against you. I actually ran out of ammo while trying to fend them off at that point, took a few down, then had to take the ammo they dropped but the last dude got me anyway as I ran out again and couldn't get close enough for melee using the available cover (almost did it with a final daring leap off some boxes in front of him but he got me mid air haha).
I can't say if it's worthwhile yet of course, maybe some of the negative reviews with actual play time are right to trash it as the content, mission design, encounter design, fiddly mechanics for the necessary gadgets or whatever else, could be pretty bad all things considered but with what I have seen so far I think the game has good ideas, decent implementations of them outside the actual performance of the game and seems pretty nicely done, so far.
I'd guess for now it's most wise to simply wait and see what's gonna be the consensus from people giving it a real chance once the dust settles down.
As for people trashing the game as an insult to the series just because it's not a "real Front Mission" when it doesn't even pretend to be since it doesn't have the name maybe they should get educated on that the very second ever Front Mission was the damn cool Front Mission: Gun Hazard.
Mechanically it's something like a cross between Splinter Cell (Blacklist I guess) and pre-V Metal Gear Solid games. Like, this could be on PSP like Peace Walker since it also limits your movements and is clunky rather than fluid and effortless like V. You can't go prone for example, only duck with the common waist height cover objects and such. At the same time it has very much a reliance on crafting gadgets (maybe like MG Survive? I never tried that) you will need to use if you hope to make it through a fight.
There's no instant-win stealth kill, it took me a full 3-hit combo with a crowbar I found laying around to take someone unaware down from behind and another strike to finish him off. I don't know how it would go if I tried to use the standard melee attack you can do while holding a gun. With that in mind enemies will inevitably be alerted if you try to take more than one on if there's no full-stealth way around in that particular path or whatever. And since they have so much better gear you better use all your crafted items, from tripmines to RC explosives, Molotovs and all sorts of other things. There's also no radar or mark enemies to see them through walls or whatever, so far they're only marked if in-camera and close enough and there's a crafted gadget that you throw and it reveals enemies nearby but it also doesn't last forever. You have seen that in some of the trailers.
There's also a vague directional warning shown when they're near you or closing in, I'm not exactly sure of the limits yet. Maybe it's a bit like the MGS: Portable Ops sound based radar?
All that makes it fundamentally different to other games like MGS and even Splinter Cell which some may have expected it to be a clone of (that's what I thought too, maybe I'd have even preferred it as such) which is why some of them trash it so hard with barely any play time. Plus the game kinda throws you off the deep end, I just reached a point (see it in the first screenshot) where I'll definitely have to utilize gadgets and early weapons I found to proceed as I can't find a way around the enemies and I'm only a few minutes in the game with it still popping tutorials up as I find a new object or element. And it's not like I have a ton of stuff to craft said items with at this point, I'll probably run out of stuff if I use them in dumb ways while trying to figure it all out.
I also died once already by alerting enemies in a very disadvantageous position earlier on when the game was tunneling me in a different area but I wanted to grab some items I saw near the enemies, ha. During that I also found the first pistol you start with takes several shots to down the enemies, they seem fully armored up on top of having the firepower and numbers against you. I actually ran out of ammo while trying to fend them off at that point, took a few down, then had to take the ammo they dropped but the last dude got me anyway as I ran out again and couldn't get close enough for melee using the available cover (almost did it with a final daring leap off some boxes in front of him but he got me mid air haha).
I can't say if it's worthwhile yet of course, maybe some of the negative reviews with actual play time are right to trash it as the content, mission design, encounter design, fiddly mechanics for the necessary gadgets or whatever else, could be pretty bad all things considered but with what I have seen so far I think the game has good ideas, decent implementations of them outside the actual performance of the game and seems pretty nicely done, so far.
I'd guess for now it's most wise to simply wait and see what's gonna be the consensus from people giving it a real chance once the dust settles down.
As for people trashing the game as an insult to the series just because it's not a "real Front Mission" when it doesn't even pretend to be since it doesn't have the name maybe they should get educated on that the very second ever Front Mission was the damn cool Front Mission: Gun Hazard.
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The Snake
Member
Thanks a ton for this write up! This is the kinda content I like to see. A real breakdown of the game.
It does seem to me to be a game that was a force of passion in the planning stages but not given enough time or love once it left the draft room; It seems like there's some decent meat here that could just use some better spices and a little more time on the grill. It's a shame that they released it in such a state. I think I'll pick it up when it's discounted; I can't imagine this being $60 for very long. Hell, I bought Front Mission: Evolved for $3.
I also don't get the complaints about the game not being a "real" Front Mission game. I think it's pretty cool that it's set in the universe.
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Rest
All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
JohannCK
Member
Oops, thanks
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
I took one for team and....
It's different, very PS2 era
The game is based on stealth and survival.
You can craft stuff and make traps and it even has the Resident Evil item box that characters share.
There's also a David Cage like decision mechanic that effects the out come
Strangely enough for those playing on PS4 Pro I found that setting the graphics to stable is better.
The framerate is better and the graphics sharper and are better too.
Setting it to High Resolution seem to make the textures not load in properly and looks blurry and low res
Which doesn't make sense
Once you understand how the game works you do start enjoying it more, ala Darksouls.
But ya I wish I didn't pay full price.
But I think I would have got it cheap still.
It's different, very PS2 era
The game is based on stealth and survival.
You can craft stuff and make traps and it even has the Resident Evil item box that characters share.
There's also a David Cage like decision mechanic that effects the out come
Strangely enough for those playing on PS4 Pro I found that setting the graphics to stable is better.
The framerate is better and the graphics sharper and are better too.
Setting it to High Resolution seem to make the textures not load in properly and looks blurry and low res
Which doesn't make sense
Once you understand how the game works you do start enjoying it more, ala Darksouls.
But ya I wish I didn't pay full price.
But I think I would have got it cheap still.
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
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JohannCK
Member
Interview with Nabeshima on his vision and the reasoning behind a lot of things he did with the game
It turns out that a lot of what could be seen as problems with the game were deliberately put in- Being able to beat tanks and mechs to death with a pipe was left as a "challenge" for players, and the early parts of the game being unreasonably difficult that Jim Sterling and a lot of reviewers I've seen online quit before the game actually "gets good" (Sterling quit seemingly quit halfway through chapter 2 given his video footage) was done on purpose too.
(I cleared the entire game before writing my review, for what it matters)
To my chagrin the review I wrote was used for an absurd amount of console war shitposting- Some people even (mis)translated it to Japanese to shitpost on 5channel- Because of the low score, but I personally don't think the game is all that bad. I did kind of enjoy it, in the end. People who bought it should at least try to reserve judgement until chapter 4-5.
It turns out that a lot of what could be seen as problems with the game were deliberately put in- Being able to beat tanks and mechs to death with a pipe was left as a "challenge" for players, and the early parts of the game being unreasonably difficult that Jim Sterling and a lot of reviewers I've seen online quit before the game actually "gets good" (Sterling quit seemingly quit halfway through chapter 2 given his video footage) was done on purpose too.
(I cleared the entire game before writing my review, for what it matters)
To my chagrin the review I wrote was used for an absurd amount of console war shitposting- Some people even (mis)translated it to Japanese to shitpost on 5channel- Because of the low score, but I personally don't think the game is all that bad. I did kind of enjoy it, in the end. People who bought it should at least try to reserve judgement until chapter 4-5.
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