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[radios shipping overview]

I've played the demo a bit, and it's pretty disappointing already. It does feel like the SaGa battle system dropped into a dungeon crawler - one that's something more like a mobile or GBA game than any classic of the genre. It's a depressingly economical game structure and it has none of the wonder or ill-advised ambition you find in most of the SaGa series.

It's like they gathered all this top-shelf RPG talent and said to each other, "Well, we can make a game, but we only have ten grand to do it. What can we make?"

It does feel Bravely Default-ish, in that it has a lot of audiovisual polish on top of a relatively content-light game.

 

[ohlawd]

will it kick me in the ass to stick with the default party? I'm too lazy to micromanage.

 

[Vena]

will it kick me in the ass to stick with the default party? I'm too lazy to micromanage.

Who is your default party?

I have Meurs, Bianca, and Garnet, and they have been perfectly fine to the point where I stopped the demo (killing many Shadow Titans).

 

[ohlawd]

Who is your default party?

I have Meurs, Bianca, and Garnet, and they have been perfectly fine to the point where I stopped the demo (killing many Shadow Titans).

all the leads have a default party, right? I don't know who gets who but I'm thinking everyone is distributed equally

 

[Vena]

all the leads have a default party, right? I don't know who gets who but I'm thinking everyone is distributed equally

I meant that I have no idea who you got as characters, lol. Some characters are worse than others (early on) and may indeed make things harder. The thief kid has like the worst stats out of all of them, for example.

 

[Basileus777]

Amazon still hasn't shipped out my copy yet.

 

[finalflame]

This is currently sitting at my doorstep. After reviews and impressions I think I'm gonna send it back. Anyone who played it so far actually like it? Seems entirely lackluster, boring, and repetitive.

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

This is currently sitting at my doorstep. After reviews and impressions I think I'm gonna send it back. Anyone who played it so far actually like it? Seems entirely lackluster, boring, and repetitive.

Did you play the demo? Nothing better than judging for yourself at no cost.

 

[The Technomancer]

I wanted to like this but I gave the demo three hours or so and just couldn't get into it. Maybe if Bravely Second wasn't on the horizon, but that game will probably scratch the itch I was hoping this one would

 

[finalflame]

Did you play the demo? Nothing better than judging for yourself at no cost.

I did, and enjoyed it, but I was kind of hoping there would be more to the full game. From what I've read, there's not :/

 

[PokéKong]

I tried the demo for this not knowing anything about it, I was kinda blown away that the music is basically straight out of the FFXIII series, I can dig that for a whole handheld RPG. But then all enjoyment was killed off by the big dumb pointless copy-pasted dungeon design that of course has more walking around systematically filling meaningless map area for completionism sake, and a battle system that gave me no options for any variety, or at least never did within the span of time before I got utterly bored with it. I expect the real game has some Bravely Default-esque toying around with battle mechanics and classes n junk, but man what a weak way to start a demo.

 

[Zendoc]

I don't know about the game, but that OST is stellar.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

This is currently sitting at my doorstep. After reviews and impressions I think I'm gonna send it back. Anyone who played it so far actually like it? Seems entirely lackluster, boring, and repetitive.

Yep, I've decided the same. Probably going to get Zelda instead. The best part of the game seems to be its art and OST, both of which can be enjoyed from afar, without actually playing the game.

It's a shame because SaGa Frontier is an amazing game despite being unfinished, and this seems even more barebones than that.

 

[Canon]

I was going to buy it, but the difficulty is too hard and I have yet to play any RPG on the DS to completion, so... yeah, not really any point.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

What is the significance of picking a character at the beginning? I recruited the others really quickly.

Can you only view the ending of the character you picked on a single playthrough? I can't see anyone else's even if they're a part of my party?

What is New Game Plus? Is it so you can play as the other characters? How long is a playthrough?

Finally is their any reason to try to level all the characters or should I only focus on my best three so I can level up faster?

 

[Seda]

What is the significance of picking a character at the beginning? I recruited the others really quickly.

Can you only view the ending of the character you picked on a single playthrough? I can't see anyone else's even if they're a part of my party?

What is New Game Plus? Is it so you can play as the other characters? How long is a playthrough?

Finally is their any reason to try to level all the characters or should I only focus on my best three so I can level up faster?

The character you pick at the beginning will be your main character and the scenes - although there's not many of them - will be slightly tilted towards their motivations. You can't remove them from your party.

A playthrough is about 30 hours.

New Game Plus- You keep money and stances, but not skills or stats. Item Drop rate increases too.

It's most efficient to stick with 3 characters. I went with two heavy hitters and a defender, the only magic I really used was Water Shield. Luckily I was able to get the high-level reusable healing item from the ship early on and that was my main source of healing for the game's entirety.

 

[brian!]

game title is blowing me away

 

[Rich!]

Gonna import this to play on my UK 3DS.

Hopefully I can get it from playasia.

 

[@MUWANdo]

Gonna import this to play on my UK 3DS.

Hopefully I can get it from playasia.

You know NISA's bring it to Europe, right? It won't be out until early next year but it won't be a zillion-year wait like the usual Atlus game.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

The character you pick at the beginning will be your main character and the scenes - although there's not many of them - will be slightly tilted towards their motivations. You can't remove them from your party.

A playthrough is about 30 hours.

New Game Plus- You keep money and stances, but not skills or stats. Item Drop rate increases too.

It's most efficient to stick with 3 characters. I went with two heavy hitters and a defender, the only magic I really used was Water Shield. Luckily I was able to get the high-level reusable healing item from the ship early on and that was my main source of healing for the game's entirety.

Thanks. Looks like it's Garnett and Owen with probably Bianca or Frog Prince.

Not sure how enjoyable it would be to play again with how grind it is.

Do you get anything for playing each of the seven character's story?

Otherwise I may just YouTube the other 6 characters.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

Again, I have to say that providing so many playable characters to choose from seems pointless when there's basically no content difference between them and you can develop anyone into any direction you want. It seems like it was just thrown in as a token nod to Saga series tradition.

 

[Pangya]

Again, I have to say that providing so many playable characters to choose from seems pointless when there's basically no content difference between them and you can develop anyone into any direction you want. It seems like it was just thrown in as a token nod to Saga series tradition.

The content difference is there, it's just very slight. Eloise for example has dreams that reveals a bit of her backstory when sleeping in the inn. The opening and ending scenes also are different depending on the character. Also I'm not sure, but the Japanese wiki states that there is a special ending if you beat the game with all the characters? I just started my 3rd playthrough, but I really want to hop into Tales of Zestiria when it comes out. I'm gonna aim for beating the game with all characters by then hopefully...

 

[radios shipping overview]

This game is about cartography. Nasty monsters want to prevent you from making beautiful detailed maps of the island.

Or that might as well be the premise, anyway.

 

[atbigelow]

Received my launch copy today from Amazon! Didn't have any time to try it out or even open that beautiful box.

But tomorrow, my precious...

 

[radios shipping overview]

I feel like the character choice is a nod to SaGa that doesn't make a ton of sense for this game. SaGa games have huge worlds and interlocking character stories with vastly different starting locations.

I'm getting a similar feeling about the battle system. It's basically SaGa on the surface, but after a couple of hours, the only sparks I've seen have been for stat/attack upgrades, not for new skills. Kinda blah.

It feels like the team really wanted to make a new SaGa, but there was no money.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

So in the

Spoiler

altar

room. Anyone know what to do to

Spoiler

man the contraption work? I think I get water to all the monuments in all the areas.

Edit:

So I walked down...

Can I leave and

Spoiler

fight this boss later? Or will she disappear?

 

[duckroll]

Picked up the full game today. Wow. The package is really awesome. Atlus kinda outdid themselves with this one. The game itself might be a low budget project, but the packaging for the English release feels super premium. The artbook isn't very thick, but contains lots of great art and designs. I didn't expect it to be hardcover. And even the cover art is great. The mini soundtrack has 10 tracks! I haven't even opened the game case yet, and I'm already impressed. <3

 

[Seda]

So in the

Spoiler

altar

room. Anyone know what to do to

Spoiler

man the contraption work? I think I get water to all the monuments in all the areas.

Edit:

So I walked down...

Can I leave and

Spoiler

fight this boss later? Or will she disappear?

Defeating the elemental guardians is required to proceed. They won't disappear.

 

[GloriousBagel]

Picked up my copy after work, the artwork is gorgeous!!!! The artwork book is also really nice, the character designs are top notch, it's a shame we got in game chibi models instead.

 

[foxuzamaki]

I didnt even know about this until just now, but it has my attention.

 

[Lombax]

Spent the whole train ride this morning grinding in the forest. Really enjoying the game thus far. I just wish there were better explanations for systems in the game. The manual is ok, but really needs more detail.

edit: anyone else having trouble ripping the soundtrack into itunes / google music?

 

[Parakeetman]

Picked up my copy after work, the artwork is gorgeous!!!! The artwork book is also really nice, the character designs are top notch, it's a shame we got in game chibi models instead.

Anything more detailed would have eaten into the already shoestring budget lol.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Thinking about picking this one up for the soundtrack alone, lol

 

[Parakeetman]

Thinking about picking this one up for the soundtrack alone, lol

The soundtrack is pretty great. If there were 2 things that I liked about the game would be the music and the general character designs.

 

[Coinspinner]

I didn't grind in the demo, I just completed it quickly. Upon starting up the full game I went into Roaring valley and fought the griffon thing, but got worn down and had to retreat. How lovely that it does let you escape a fight like that. And even more lovely that I got to keep all the skill gains and weapon techniques I sparked during that fight! Couldn't play much longer than that, but I look forward to abusing that as much as I can, hah.

 

[TurnipFritters]

Do future dungeons have a lot of interesting gimmicks to try and keep exploration fresh? Like, the hidden forest had the poison grass that slows you down, so it'd be nice to know if the game continues to introduce new stuff like that or?

 

[radios shipping overview]

Picked up the full game today. Wow. The package is really awesome. Atlus kinda outdid themselves with this one. The game itself might be a low budget project, but the packaging for the English release feels super premium. The artbook isn't very thick, but contains lots of great art and designs. I didn't expect it to be hardcover. And even the cover art is great. The mini soundtrack has 10 tracks! I haven't even opened the game case yet, and I'm already impressed. <3

I really appreciate Atlus going all the way and delivering such a nice, comprehensive package. That way, we can enjoy all the hard work that went into the game without having to actually play it.

 

[Kazer]

Played this a bit on my commute into the city this morning. I'm enjoying it so far, but I can see why some folks wouldn't enjoy it. Playing it in short bursts will probably work best for me.

And as already stated, the packaging for this game is top notch. Kudos to Atlus for that!

 

[ohlawd]

wiped out by a team of flying snake things using their AoE

fuck, how do I reliably raise my HP

 

[Schopenhauer]

Do future dungeons have a lot of interesting gimmicks to try and keep exploration fresh? Like, the hidden forest had the poison grass that slows you down, so it'd be nice to know if the game continues to introduce new stuff like that or?

Yeah, I have run into quite a few in the dungeons after the demo. The demo areas seem pretty tame in contrast to what comes later on.

 

[Skulldead]

Because this game look like SAGA game, does the game use a BR-like system ? Where enemy scale the future you upgrade ?

 

[KdylanR92]

Does the bar have a purpose? or have i just not progressed enough.


I just finished beating

Spoiler

the Water Golem at the end of the forest ruins

 

[TurnipFritters]

Because this game look like SAGA game, does the game use a BR-like system ? Where enemy scale the future you upgrade ?

Doesn't look like it. Enemies and events (if you can even call them events...) seem to be tied to location.

Does the bar have a purpose? or have i just not progressed enough.


I just finished beating

Spoiler

the Water Golem at the end of the forest ruins

Some of the playable characters hang out in the bar so you may need to go there to recruit them, but other than that...

 

[TurnipFritters]

There's something very satisfying about taking down an Archwing by the skin of your teeth.

Is there any reason not to use Ricochet when you're guarding? I mean, I guess there are probably better shield skills on down the line, but at 1 SP it seems to be a pretty great little ability.

 

[gaiages]

There's something very satisfying about taking down an Archwing by the skin of your teeth.

Is there any reason not to use Ricochet when you're guarding? I mean, I guess there are probably better shield skills on down the line, but at 1 SP it seems to be a pretty great little ability.

From my experience, Ricochet has a chance of failing, and if it does, the tank fails to guard whatever character the attack was going to hit, so they have to eat the entirety of the attack.

From what I see the success rate appears to go up when you level it up, but after I used ricochet once and had it completely fail, causing Bianca to die and leaving my other two characters in dire condition, I shied away from using it all the time. During non-threatening battles, I'll use it.

I might just be unlucky, though. It's sorta hard to tell sometimes >.>

 

[Seda]

On a similar note, the "Fortress" shield skill (late game defense ability) had me laughing the first time I saw it. Super useful though.

 

[FreedomFighter]

Why no tagline or am I missing something?

 

[Seda]

Why no tagline or am I missing something?

In the thread title? I'm not clever enough.

suggest one

 

[radios shipping overview]

Why no tagline or am I missing something?

Why should every OT have to follow a checklist? Who looks at the first post after the first ten minutes?

 

[Schopenhauer]

Does the bar have a purpose? or have i just not progressed enough.


I just finished beating

Spoiler

the Water Golem at the end of the forest ruins

The topics that the bartender talks about changes as you make your way through the game.

There's something very satisfying about taking down an Archwing by the skin of your teeth.

Is there any reason not to use Ricochet when you're guarding? I mean, I guess there are probably better shield skills on down the line, but at 1 SP it seems to be a pretty great little ability.

One thing I noticed is that block seems to block multi-target physical attacks (bug warrior swipe attack) while Ricochet will only guard one party member, leaving the other party member open to attack.