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| the import topic; エルオエル 日本 | |
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| Topic Started: May 2 2008, 11:23 AM (2,140 Views) | |
| sharc | May 2 2008, 11:23 AM Post #1 |
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wandering slacker
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so after extended discussion via pm with kimimi, we realized that this forum is in sore need of a topic like this. we've got a lot of people that import any number of games and i'm sure there's a lot of collective knowledge on the subject here. anyway, we left off talking about ps1 rpgs that never made it anywhere near english-speaking regions, yeah? some of the ones that have most interested me are pal: shinken densetsu, moon: remix rpg adventure, veldesellba senki and over my dead body. kimimi, did you find anything for veldesellba senki? there's apparently a big map that should come with it, so make sure it's complete if you're looking for it... |
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| Kimimi | May 2 2008, 11:43 AM Post #2 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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I haven't been able to find one at all! I will look out for the map though, I love a game with a nice fold out map. Phantasy Star Collection (Saturn) came with 3 of them, and even though they were just reprints of the MD ones it was nice to have a spare (should I ever get lost in Motabia...). The more I play Harukaze Sentai V Force, the more I like it. It seems to my novice eyes that the design work was done by the same person/team that did KO Century Beast Warriors, which probably shows everyone the last time I was watching anime -_-; If I put on my sensible hat it's a rather standard affair of long anime cutscene -> event -> SRPG-lite battle -> next chapter but it's done with a lot of vibrancy and polish, and the anime sections are of an incredibly high quality. Sadly they don't have subtitles, and my spoken Japanese is poor so I'm quite grateful for the text sections so I can get back into it again! It also came out on the Saturn too, and I imagine the FMVs are of a poorer quality, and the 2D is the same. If I like this enough though I may have to buy it to make sure. Anyine played one of the Galaxy Fraulein Yuna games? Fancied a go on one but wasn't sure whether to go PCE or Saturn, or if I should even bother at all. I guess I'm in some weird "Buy games with 90s anime girls on the cover" mood, wonder what EA would make of me
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| sharc | May 2 2008, 12:43 PM Post #3 |
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wandering slacker
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oh hell. i just looked at harukaze sentai v force and realized it's one of the games i had seen on ebay recently that looked interesting. don't suppose you have any way to get screencaps with a camera or something? on the anime topic, choukousoku grandoll looks like some awful dating game, but is a fairly decent 2d platformer. controls are kind of sloppy and never makes much noteworthy use of the super metroid style grapple beam, but i'm sure we've both played worse. i got for around a thousand along with other stuff i was buying, but i definitely wouldn't pay more than that.
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| Kimimi | May 3 2008, 01:54 AM Post #4 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Ooh if I'm buying up another lot I'll keep it in mind! Do you find yourself more tolerant to these sort of import games if they aren't so good? I know I do. I think some of it is to do with it being something of a lucky dip - I love just finding out about these "new" games so perhaps I'm playing them more in mind of the joy of discovery rather than looking for a AAA experience. Price comes into it too - I think I paid all of £3 for V Force, and for that I've got a neat little game that looks alright and is an enjoyable way to spend it a bit of time on, which is all I'm after really. Here's some V Force screenshots I've done - Standard talky bit ![]() From one of the cutscenes (fullscreen too!) ![]() Battle screen. Initially I was a bit disappointed by these, as they use short anime clips to show attack/defense. But thinking about it some more I realised that there isn't actually much difference between watching these repeat (and you can turn them off) and watching some 3D whatever endlessly repeat its own animation cycle either. There's a few different ones too, depending on what you're doing and if you're attacking first or not. ![]() This is your usual move/attack and so on menu, the graphics aren't the best but they get the job done. At the very least everything is nice and clear, I've not had to guess if something is hiding just out of view (yet)
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| Carbunkle Flux | May 3 2008, 12:40 PM Post #5 |
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Abyssian Legend
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Wow, V-Force actually looks pretty fun o_o. Hmm...tempting. |
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| Kimimi | May 4 2008, 12:05 PM Post #6 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Well I've played a bit more and I'm actually quite impressed - units have limited ammo and of varying types, so you need to consider whether it's more effective to send your weaker tanks up against an aircraft rather than blow the more powerful plane missles on them. Effectiveness is plainly laid out before any attack, so you always have the option of picking tactically, rather than "Hang on, I *think* this one did 7-ish damage last time...". Battle was capped off by another very good looking anime sequence introducing the other two members of the cast (sunbathing on the aircraft carrier flight deck, of course). Typical girly bickering/enthusiastic one/cool and collected ace/stuck up girl kind of setup, but for whatever reason it's a lot of fun rather than grating rehash territory. I'd say it's firmly in amongst Sakura Taisen and Shining Force as far as gameplay style goes - you're never, ever going to contemplate your team build or worry about equipment and support classes, but you are going to have a good time playing it. |
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| sharc | May 4 2008, 01:04 PM Post #7 |
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wandering slacker
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fact: an f-14 makes any game better. one of the most obnoxious parts of reading japanese for me is trying to figure out exactly what mangled english word any given bundle of katakana is supposed to represent. ABURIIBU? ZEIDOKKU? what? i actualy started trying to learn with import famicom/fds games, thinking it would make things easier to have everything in katakana, but it instead just makes me appreciate how three syllabries break up sentences into recognizable chunks in a language without spacing or punctuation. so anyway i went and fired up grandoll to give you an idea of what it's is like. i guess this is based on some magical girl series? there's anime cutscenes of the main character running around eating ice cream and chasing her sempai until an evil flying knight sucks him into a parallel dimension and she has to summon a sentient robotic suit of armor that lives in her bedroom. ![]() y'know, normal stuff. for whatever reason, instead of being made into another shitty visual novel game, someone decided to turn this into a passable 2d platformer. i imagine a studio full of super metroid fans got handed some random ip and decided to live out their dreams of making real games, although if that's really what they were imitating they fell pretty far short. ![]() like all japanese women, the main character has a watch that shoots laser beams. you'd expect the offensive power of a stern breeze, but it's actually a one-shot kill on most everything in the stage and doesn't become a liability until later on. you can angle it straight or diagonally up, with a shoulder button to hold your position as your fire. ![]() the main quirk of the gameplay is the grappling hook. it fires with the other shoulder button and can be likewise angled around to latch onto any wall or ceiling, and then be used to pull yourself off for an assisted jump. ![]() like so ![]() ok let's pretend that one didn't happen. grapple jumps are generally pretty easy if you remember to scroll the screen around while grappled to check where you're jumping to, but the girl's standard jump is pretty hard to control. she goes extremely high, you can't cancel your direction and double-back in mid-air too well and she moves much faster while airborne than she does on the ground. precise jumping can be fairly annoying. her shoes, however, make a really neat clacky noise when she lands. ![]() as you've seen the first level takes place in some kind of electrified spike factory so you have plenty of opportunities to get used to the grapple-assisted jump. other products manufactured here: fodder enemies made of paper-mache and cheesy synth music. the shot in this picture actually misses me because i'm crouching and i guess giant silly anime hair makes people aim their headshots too high. disruptive camoflauge! ![]() what's this, platforms one pixel higher than my jump distance? time for ROVERY GRAPPIRINGU HOOKU ![]() also important is the mid-air somersault you do after pressing jump again in the air. it at first seems like some kind of malfunctioning double jump, but it counts as an attack and more importantly gives you a few frames of invincibility. and speaking of which, here we have the first boss, our dimension-hopping friend from the opening scene. now i remember why i stopped playing this game; anytime it tries to be difficult it turns into a giant frustrating wreck. the introductory boss of the game has two fast-acting, high-damaging moves that segue into each other well to hit you with one while you're dodging the other. she also has a metric assload of hp, natch. ![]() on her own, she fires this spread pattern of homing lasers that will inevitably nail you if you don't factor in their ability to curl around 90° or go through floors/walls. ![]() when you fire, she reacts by doing a rocket-powered dash across the screen. beating her means timing your shots so that this counterattack comes at some point after the laser spread that makes it possible to dodge and not get caught by both at once or one immediately after the other. ![]() dodging her attacks requires jumping and then quickly canceling out of its ridiculous height with the mid-air somersault, then landing and doing it again to dodge the rocket dash that she'll be countering with if you remembered to hit her. you also have to time everything right because she doesn't take damage while preforming either of these attacks, and she'll be doing them more or less the second she scrolls on screen. so, to review; high precision is required, the inherent randomness of her combined static and reactive patterns can create inescapable situations, and this is also where you really feel the burn from what seemed like trivial, sub-second lag when you land a jump or reverse direction. ![]() and i finally put this horrid bitch down! only for her to return in the last chapter, ten times more powerful, i'm sure. i'm not much for action games outside of shooters, but for what it's worth this took about half an hour, even with save states. i gain a suit of armor with new powers from her, mega man style, and proceed to the next stage. trouble at the carnival! also, a billion moving spike pit traps from hell. |
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| sharc | May 5 2008, 11:05 AM Post #8 |
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wandering slacker
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kimimi, for the sake of preserving my inbox space i'll just post the breakdown of my last yahoo! jp shipment here. everyone can have a good lol at my fiscal irresponsibility! Umihara Kawase Shun: ¥5,800, $73.51 totale Otocky: ¥2,480, $35.88 total Metalgun Slinger: ¥1,550, $23.30 total Adv. of Robin Lloyd: ¥400, $12.69 total L.O.L.: ¥3,000, $40.68 total ACID: ¥380, $13.51 total between the middleman's cut, usd-yen exchange rate, shipping within japan and then shipping to me, fees can definitely stack up, but it's nothing as ridiculous as competing services. and as i said, the guy is taking on considerable work for not much profit, so i can't fault him for it. the grand total for these items comes out to less than rinkya's base fees of $15 per item plus $15 for s&h (this is before their sliding scale fees and other add-ons are tabulated). all in all it's a good dal, but still prohibitively expensive for anything you could get locally. commonplace famicom disk games, for instance, are often cheaper and easier to get on ebay. now get to screencapping that pc-engine stuff! i wanna seeee |
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| Kimimi | May 5 2008, 11:31 AM Post #9 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Hey hey have patience I will do! Just need half an hour to myself without my little son needing one of his many daily demands
It's a shame Grandoll doesn't play too well, because the heroine herself looks quite nimble and lithe; thinking about it I can't personally recall too many 2D platform heroes that really looked athletic. Did you ever play Gunners Heaven (I bet you did)? That was another game with grappling hook action that didn't work quite as well as intended. Good game apart from that though. Oh, I totally agree with you about kanji making everything much easier to understand, I really can't get my head around games that only use katakana. I'm sure I'm missing out because of it too ;_; My favourite katakana-isation is "SHYANZEERIZEEZU" (or close enough) - that id |
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| Kimimi | May 5 2008, 11:49 AM Post #10 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Oops lost the end of my message! I meant to finish, that's supposed to say "Champs Elysees". Gives me a flamin' headache just thinking about it o.O |
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| sharc | May 5 2008, 12:23 PM Post #11 |
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wandering slacker
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it's just one of those games where the controls don't really match up with the actions they expect you to preform. feels like trying to fix a leaky pipe with a screwdriver. haven't tried gunner's heaven but it's on my hitlist. there are better games that i can actually take seriously when commenting on. you ever played internal section? |
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| Kimimi | May 5 2008, 12:31 PM Post #12 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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No not played Internal Section, is that the Square one or am I confusing it with something else? I don't know anything beyond th name, so a write up would be great! If you want I'll post up some Gunners Heaven screens and info at a later date, it's basically "I want to be Gunstar Heroes!" and got derided on release because it was a PS1 title that dared to be 2D when the whole world was excited about polygons and texture mapping. We even got a UK release of it called Rapid Reload, and they gave us the honour of removing all the crazy Japanese speak in case our puny minds couldn't accept a foreign tongue I wouldn't worry about taking things seriously, if you can't poke fun at something a bit rubbish then what can you do? |
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| RiotGrrl | May 5 2008, 06:52 PM Post #13 |
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Errant Dreamer
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I've always been very interested in Moon. Wish I could understand Japanese for that game. As for imports... I can't understand a word of Japanese, so the stuff I've played is extremely easy for the Western gamer to get into. I'd recommend Osu! Takatae! Ouendan for those who loved Elite Beat Agents. Same concept, better songs, harder too. It's on the DS, and it's not hard to play without knowing any Japanese. I'd also recommend Jam with the Band. Another rhythm game, but it's really fun, and the soundtrack is absolutely awesome. There are Nintendo remixes (including a Famicom remix and the Fire Emblem theme), plus the ability to completely compose your own pieces. It's an amazing little game. I've also played some of the GBA BitGenerations games, and I could definitely recommend Dotstream. It's a gorgeous little racer, totally simplistic but very fun. You're just a stream of light that can "drift" off of adjacent lights to take the lead while navigating an obstacle course. Very, very fun. While we're on the subject of import games, I've had this song in my head. Sorry I can't think of anything more interesting than these titles. Rather boring, I know, but when you have limited knowledge of kanji, katakana, and hiragana it's very very hard. I might be attempting a playthrough of Princess Crown on the PSP though, using a translation guide. We'll see how that goes. |
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| Kimimi | May 6 2008, 09:28 AM Post #14 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Oh I hope you do try Princess Crown, it's a really lovely game and it's not too complex to get through even if you don't know any Japanese. I keep hearing about the Bit Generations games, but I've not played them myself. The GBA never sat well with me for some strange reason, so I'm sure I've missed out on plenty of decent games. Right, onto another game! This is Patlabor: Chapter of Griffon. It's billed on the cover at a "Digital Comic" - surely a one-way street to endless non-animated badly drawn pictures and fanservice. Luckily, it's better than that. It doesn't start off too well though, with what amounts to a pop video as an intro, complete with silhouettes and quick cuts. Consider yourself spared! At least the image quality is very good. ![]() This is the basic gameplay window - ![]() If you've ever played Snatcher, Policenauts or a similar game, you'll be familiar with the Look/Talk/Move options you get. Basically you move about, chatting to people and triggering events as dictated by the plot. It's all voiced by the original VAs which is great, except there's no way of skipping it, which can be a bit tedious. Aside from those screens you also get some surprisingly well animated cutscenes that lay themselves out in a manner similar to scenes from Phantasy Star 4 - lots of little windows arranged in an interesting way whilst moving the plot forward. Helpfully, I didn't take any screenshots of those >.< Luckily if you don't like the main game there's plenty of extras on the disc - interviews with the VAs and Mad Gear, as well as these - Pick your Labor, then get a technical overview of it spoken by the pilot! You get a nice rolling set of mini-clips in the little window too. ![]() ![]() The last surprise was this; scissors/paper/stone with Labors and a VA singing the rhyme that goes with it - ![]() I lost... ;_; ![]() I wouldn't say it's recommended, but it's a better digital comic than others I've seen and the extras go beyond locking the VAs in a room with a mic, so I'd say Patlabor fans might want to have a look. |
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| Kimimi | May 16 2008, 05:33 AM Post #15 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Right then, this one's quite a biggie - Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 2! This was released in 1995, and exclusively for the PC Engine Super CD Rom. It's got fighting schoolgirls, cute robots and massive galactic battles - what more could you wish for? Useful info I copied from the wiki -
Now with that out of the way, onto the game! The opening sequence had a Xenosaga kind of vibe to me, featuring a space battle with hundreds of battleships and minions reeling off coordinates and looking shocked at things - ![]() What's odd is that Yuna is quite a light-hearted game, but this particular section is deadly serious and told completely straight faced. They make up for that later - ![]() ![]() ![]() Then we finally get to see Yuna herself, who turns out to be one of those anime girls young enough to go to school but old enough to not get people arrested From what I can gather the first game had her defending the Earth as "The Saviour of Light" and defeating a great evil (oh, and she's a successful idol singer too); in spite of this, she loves watching TV; her favourite show featuring Pororina, a masked crime fighter with the usual costume change and glowy wand.I should mention a few things about Yuna herself at this point - she's voiced by Chisa Yokoyama (who went on to do Sakura Taisen), and apart from being an intergalactic pop idol she lives a normal life with her Mum and Dad. It's quite an odd setting - it's perfectly normal for Yunsa Dad to read a newspaper and for Yuna to watch a CRT TV, then the next moment they're on a school trip to the moon.. That's when it all gets started - Yuna has a rival called Erica (and Erica has a gang called "Erica 7" ) and they basically end up away from the rest of the group and have a scrap. The battles aren't going to blow anyone away, but they look impressive for the time with enough animation and voice overs to make them fun. They also use a card system - you get four random cards, and when you use one up it gets replaced with another random one. You can use these cards to taunt, heal, defend or even ask for help, at which point a friend will replace Yuna until the battle is won or she gets her ass kicked. ![]() ...and from a later part - ![]() It would be a problem in a "proper" game, but this is a game you're meant to just sit back and enjoy, so there's nothing here that will get in your way. The adventure sections are totally linear; there's no moving around from place to place and choosing who to talk to like you do in similar games, the dialogue "choices" are there just to give the player a bit of a break. After falling down a hole you meet up with Yuri, an ancient android with super strength and a massive appetite. During your escape from the inevitable collapsing cave, the game suddenly throws this at you - ![]() A little first person dungeon. I've pretty much just illustrated everything that's in it, but it was a nice surprise. After you find the exit, you're greeted by a now souped-up Mami, a member of the "Erica 7" - all of them are designed around various activities, with Mamis being softball. Of course Yuna couldn't defeat her in her school uniform, so we get the typical naked transformation sequence and a funky new outfit - ![]() Ass kicking ensues, and everyone is happy. Nobody seems to mind that they had to make room for android girl on the way back home either. I've talked almost exclusively about the story, because that's pretty much all there is. There are no real choices (and very few pretend one too!), battles are designed with you winning in mind, and there's very little else to get in the way. What it is though is a hell of a lot of fun, and I can certainly see why it was popular - the cast are all very likeable and everything moves on at a decent pace. Save points are laid out a little haphazardly for my liking, but I guess you can't have everything. As long as you know what you're getting into and have some Japanese reading comprehension I'd say it's more than worth a look! |
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| sharc | Jun 24 2008, 10:43 PM Post #16 |
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wandering slacker
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import topic riiiise from your graveeee i know i like a lot of games that are, in any objective sense of the word, pretty damn not good at all. many games i'd recommend here are more for their value as curios than actual games, but one of my latest imports is a happy exception to the rule. oh yeah it's fuckin' CHAIN DIVE!! ![]() (sadly, biggest pic i could find) chain dive is a 2.5d action title, wherein the character moves through a 3d world on a 2d "rail." the game stars some kind of cybernetic maverick super-soldier named shark (!) who fights to save a world where kanji kanji destroyed cityscapes kanji giant bugs kanji kanji saving women kanji EXPLOSIONS. your main ability is the plasma chain, an energy grappling hook that can whip out to latch onto airborne markers. from there you can engage in some great acrobatics following games like umihara kawase or bionic commando, swinging from point to point or using the momentum of the chain's slight springiness to propel you around at mach speeds. these kind of abilities are generally only as good as the developers allow them to be, but the skies of each stage generally have grapple points all over. this is a good thing, because for the majority of the game there's very little solid ground below. alongside this is your weapon, a giant double-ended blade that will encase enemies in a huge ball of ice. the temporarily-frozen enemy then becomes a valid grappling point, making all your attacks extend the safety range of your aerial maneuvers. the sword itself doesn't damage enemies though, it only cools them down. to kill enemies, you have to freeze them and then latch on, pulling yourself towards them. with enough momentum you go right through, blasting them into frozen dust. continue to bust up enemies like this and you begin racking up chains. i'm generally not a fan of combo-heavy action games, but the idea is used beautifully here. the time to hit another enemy to start a new chain starts out as a very brief window, but as you rack up hits the game slowly gets more forgiving and extends the time limit to seek out your next kill.. the game further rewards skill by making the only possible source of life power-ups come from racking up high chains. your limited-use special power sends out a wave of ice crystals that freeze everything on the screen and then allow you to rocket about from enemy to enemy, blasting through targets even faster than usual and doubling or tripling your chain count if you've planned well. every use takes chunks out of your lifebar, making it a risky move but a natural partner to the chain-based heals. you'll notice that unlike the other posts, so far there are no pictures of this game. this is because without a working tv card or ps2 emulator there's no way to take good pictures of this game - it's just too damned fast. even the ign images are all a little blurry. the speed you can carry out attacks, grapple swings and massive chains sends you across the level or through an entire horde of enemies in a second, all the while a barely recognizable blur of color and exploding ice. fortunately, some kind soul has youtubed the whole thing. let's see if i can embed it! (nope, i fail, thanks ren) [dohtml]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/O3eZSq_YRZI&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/O3eZSq_YRZI&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/dohtml] like most games that seem relentlessly brilliant and awesome, there are eventual downsides. the throwaway story is told through lengthy cutscenes that constantly interrupt the action to ramble on about things that are not me causing explosions. you also have a substantial number of points where you need to engage in plain 'ol platforming or various gimmick stages, "protect the stupid ai" missions and timed lock and key puzzles. if the game stuck to its premise it would be a legendary piece of treasure-like action, but even with the flaws this is still a damn fine import for anyone that can play japanese ps2 titles and loves some fast-paced ass kicking fun. |
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| Justin | Jun 24 2008, 11:27 PM Post #17 |
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Teh RPG Master
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Would it help if I stickied this for you? |
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| Kimimi | Jun 25 2008, 12:34 AM Post #18 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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LOL That's pretty much how Japanese sentences come out in my head! That game looks great, who made it? Does it have score/time attack modes to encourage perfecting higher chains or anything like that? I've been dying to make up another post for this topic, but I was kinda conscious that I'd already done the last two, and I didn't want to swamp it *Fires up emulator* |
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| sharc | Jun 25 2008, 08:17 AM Post #19 |
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wandering slacker
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uh, sure! what the hell. i think between me and kimimi we can keep this going for a while.
near as i can tell, the developer has no similar games under their belt. i think it's the same house that did mad maestro/bravo music for ps2, but not really sure on that one. you have a timer on every level, and it factors into the mission ranking. aside from that there is a time attack option but it looks like it'll be locked until i finish the game. |
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| Kimimi | Jun 25 2008, 09:13 AM Post #20 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Cool! I loved Mad Maestro, I really should pick that up again. I've been mucking around with flippin' ePSXe all day - it's decided to suddenly cock up on me. Which is a shame as FEDA 2 features a live-action FMV intro starring none other than Mr David Hayter, and I *really* want to watch it. EDIT: Oh, lucky, lucky us - ![]() Goes on for bloody ages, and the elf-esque/cat people makeup is downright embarrassing. If I can get it working properly tomorrow I'll do a proper post. |
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| Pervan | Jun 25 2008, 12:18 PM Post #21 |
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Genetic Failure
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That game you described looks awesome, Sharc. Mostly just posting to show that some of us non-importers find this topic interesting, too. |
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| Kimimi | Jun 27 2008, 10:07 AM Post #22 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Well for whatever reason FEDA 2 won't go past the memory card check screen on ePSXe but Jellyfish works fine so I'll put up a few screenshots of that tomorrow - basically it's Seaman but with Jellyfish and without the talking and Leonard Nimoy. It's also kinda creepy, because Jellyfish are weirdy things :S |
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| Kimimi | Jul 3 2008, 06:12 AM Post #23 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Finally got everything working and also the time to do something about it! So here's Jellyfish: The Healing Friend, a pet game where looking after your pet seems to make no difference whatsoever. You're first choice is to decide whether you'll play as a young couple, a little boy or a single woman. You don't get to see them when you're playing, just in the cutscenes that crop up occasionally (pretty much just random trips back to the pet shop). ![]() Here's the tank! Your little jellyfish just goes round and round with the current, and doesn't do much else. ![]() These are the options you get - strength of current, clean the water, feeding and so on. You can also change the tank colour scheme if you wish. I tried to cook him, but nothing happened. ![]() This is the most interesting thing my jellyfish ever did. ![]() It's not crap, but that's because there's not enough game here to be crap
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| Kimimi | Jul 14 2008, 02:19 AM Post #24 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Well here's my latest one - FEDA 2: White Surge the Platoon. It's a PS1 SRPG in the style of Shining Force - the reason for the similarities is that they share the same character designer and one of the scenario writers for Shining Force became FEDAs director. What really sets them apart is that you play as an established military captain and your troops are already experienced soldiers. Battle shots - ![]() ![]() There's also a camp where fallen characters heal, you receive your briefings and can chat with your team members - ![]() It's not a bad game at all, but it hasn't grabbed me like the first one did. The first game opens with dragons bombing a village, you fighting your captain (as the village was just full of civilians) then breaking out of military jail and escaping into the mountains with a small force chasing close behind. This one starts with a beige map with some red and blue areas, and red arrows pointing between the two. Then you get a briefing somewhere grey, a briefing somewhere black, and then a briefing somewhere green. *Yawn* Still, if you want some more Shining Force style action this is about as close (and as modern) as you'll get. |
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| Justin | Jul 14 2008, 11:58 AM Post #25 |
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Teh RPG Master
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I never was a fan of the original Shining force, in fact I just flat out didn't like the earlier ones at all. The one I did like was EXA. I gotta say though the Japanese certainly have some odd and interesting stuff in their gaming market O_o |
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| Kimimi | Jul 15 2008, 12:02 AM Post #26 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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The most recent Shining game I own is Neo, but I would like to get the others. What's funny is that the "true" Shining Force fans over at shiningforcecentral.com practically consider it the anti Christ because they used "Force" in the title even though it's an action RPG. Shining Force 2 will always be a favourite of mine - I loved it back in 1992 (that's 16 years ago! o.O) and I still enjoy playing it now. My only real complaints are some characters are nigh on useless or pointless to train up (Slade, Claude, Kiwi) and Peter dominates everything without any effort at all. |
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| Darkstalker | Aug 26 2008, 05:17 AM Post #27 |
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~ The QUEEN ~
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What is this doing on page 2? I have acquired Berserk, for the PS2. Based on the manga of the same name. It's an action game in the vein of DMC, though there are stark differences. The most noteworthy difference is the main attack button, Square, performs an attack based on the direction press you choose. No preset combos here, you can theoretically just keep pressing Square to continuously attack nonstop. You can choose a new direction after each attack. The reason such a directional based system is implemented is because the game is focused on you being swarmed. A lot.* The game features a dash (circle), which can be used consecutively up to three times. Note that the more times you dash in a row, the longer your recovery. It also features Counters and Reversals and guarding (all done by pressing X). Holding X will block attacks to the player's front, pressing X just before an attack hits initiates a counter (with no damage taken) and pressing X after you are hit results in a reversal (basically a quick move to hit back at the enemy). Note that counters tend to be automated instances for timing correctly, though these sequences are pretty quick. That's the guts (lolpun of main dude's name Gutts) of the battle system. There're other options, but these highlighted differences are what set the game to be its own unique take on the genre. More to come as I trudge through the game whenever I have time. Other games: ESP Galuda (final boss what the fuck) and Sengoku Basara X. *OBA AND OBA, OBA AND OBA. TOO MUCH BLOOD. |
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| Kimimi | Sep 17 2008, 02:08 AM Post #28 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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On Sharcs recommendation I picked up Samurai Kid for the GBC, and he was right, it's a great game. It's a puzzle based platformer full of timers, ladders, springs and boxes to push. ![]() You permanently have three different weapons at your disposal; a gourd that turns certain enemies into blocks, a sword and a fan that can be used to lure enemies. All of them also have a different function when you charge them up; the gourd shoots out a glob of water that can be used to hit distant switches for example. (Screenshots are from the first level. hence the obvious signposting) ![]() ![]() ![]() Pressing start brings up this map. There are certain areas that you can only visit after you have gained powers from later levels, and they also serve as a handy progress marker. ![]() ![]() Occasionally some blocks require specific items to go through them - bombs and keys are all I've encountered so far. ![]() The boss! Sadly bosses aren't as clever as the levels are, but they're a nice change of pace. ![]() ..and afterwards you get a hyperstone; this one grants the ability to move very large rocks. You also get ranked on things like time taken and so on, so there's certainly plety of replayability. ![]() This "overworld" screen allows you to pick any level you have previously completed. ![]() Level 2 has a haunted theme, and these floaty spirits in the background are animated, which is a nice little touch. This level also introduces new puzzle elements to stop it just being a slightly more difficult repeat of the first level.
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| Kimimi | Oct 11 2008, 10:10 PM Post #29 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Not got enough screenshots to do this one yet, hopefully I'll put something up in the next few days - Laplace no Ma (PC Engine) ![]() ![]() Pretty different from the Snes version! |
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| UtopiaNH | Oct 11 2008, 10:40 PM Post #30 |
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Cu Roi
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Gotten a chance to pick up Lufia: The Legend Returns yet?
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| Kimimi | Oct 11 2008, 10:53 PM Post #31 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Ooh no I haven't - I forgot! It's not a series that springs to mind easily for me as we never had any of them released here, and just lately I keep buying SRPGs and Saturn games in fancy boxes full of extremely useful things like calendars for 1997.
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| Kimimi | Oct 17 2008, 04:32 AM Post #32 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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I really haven't the time to do Laplace no Ma justice, or fully explore all of the options it has, so please consider this post not much more than a collection of screenshots with a bit of commentary
Oh one thing I found out on my travels - the game originally came out on the PC-88, 98, and Sharp X68k, but as I've not found out any more than that I don't know if it's the PCE or Snes version that deviates from the original design. As with all PCE games, there's an intro complete with voiceover; goes on for bloody ages too. Not much of a fan of Humans artwork, but it's not too bad looking (and they do make a damn fine wrestling game!) ![]() ![]() ![]() There are really two points where this differs greatly from the Snes version - the first person perspective and the character creation. You're given free range to make your entire party (including extras) and apply bonus points to a randomised set of base stats. It's not totally freeform - you have to end up with your points in such a way that they lean towards a specific class, but it's not a massive restriction. The mansion looks great and really contributes to the atmosphere as well as making the transition to battles less jarring. The town segment is pretty much as before - you can buy items, chat at the pub, or visit a training centre if you please. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Enemies have both several frames of both attack and idle animation, which is a bit of a change for the genre and the era this game comes from. The strength and amount of enemies you'll face seems a bit random; sometimes you'll come through unscathed and others you'll be wiped out by a mass of man-eating plants. Death sends you back to the title screen, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your tastes. |
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| sharc | Oct 17 2008, 09:26 AM Post #33 |
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wandering slacker
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y'know if i ever do a review site there will be a section detailing how much time passes between you pressing start for a new game and the game actually starting. anyway, i haven't had a whole lot of time to play and document this stuff myself these days, but i have had time to buy stuff! ![]() quite pleased with the wonderswan although it's a little hard to hold in my hands, thing is surprisingly tiny. so i guess i'll do some microreviews here! gameboy stuff starts on the left, going down the collumn: afterburst has you riding a mech and focuses on charging and arcing your cannon shots to destroy targets in each stage, with a timer and enemies to slow you down. burning paper is especially neat; you stand at the top of a building and various bugs and monsters climb up the side. to beat them you use a laser to cut off bits of posters plastered to the building, to either cut off what they're crawling on or smack them down with a falling chunk of ad. first boss is ridiculously hard though. ca da is all about polarity, with each stage full of black and white pickups that switch your own character from one color to the other. certain items like springboards and even the stage exit are only usable in one color. decent, but definitely one you have to make a plan for while playing. chalvo 55 is a little more action oriented. you have a robot who can slowly walk around or curl up into a ball for super bouncing action to attack enemies and quickly travel through the stage. final reverse and volleyfire are both kind of odd, in that they're two-player vs shmups. final reverse has your ships fixed to randomly generated paths as you fight, and volleyfire has you on opposite sides of a scrolling belt of debris to hide behind and shoot through. vattle guice sounds like italian but shit if i know what it means. actually pretty good; clean visuals, good sound, and an interesting mechanic where you can temporarily duck down closer to the ground to make dodging bullets easier but dodging the landscape harder. wears thin kinda fast but this is still miles ahead of most gb shooters. trip world i saved for last here because it's goddamned fantastic and if i have to find a rom and email it to every one of you i will. music, animation and graphics are all excellent as to be expected from sunsoft. time spent reading about it is wasted. go play it instead! almost forgot shiren the wanderer gb, but don't have much to say other than it's instantly familiar if you've played a game in the series before and presents a stiff challenge in reading japanese since it's full of uncommon and archaic words. as for the ps2 games: homura and xii stag are taito's shooter offerings, and while they're both ok stag is hampered by an incredibly annoying special move that requires you to quickly move the ship left and right to generate shockwaves for your bonus multiplier. you cna set it to a button instead, which just makes it boring and easy. homura is a more standard bullet hell, with a medieval theme and alternate paths with harder difficulty (though the only thign that changes is enemies and bullet patterns). feels a little cramped for a bullet hell but you could do much worse. wonderswan titles: buffers evolution is a 2d racing platformer. yeaaah. done from a side perspective, you pick your cyborg animal racer dude and run through the stages as fast as you can manage. tane o makutoru is kind of hard to explain. each stage starts with a passing bird, ahem, dropping a seed. you then have a grid of vines or fences, where you raise or lower the horizontal parts to direct falling water droplets down to the seed so it can grow. rhyme rider kerorikan is from the parappa the rapper team and seems like some kind of prototype for vib ribbon. it's also much much worse than whatever you just pictured in your head while reading that. star hearts is a pretty neat little zelda clone. very bright and colorful with great music, but the japanese has been a sticking point. seems like there are a few times where you really have to know what's being said, not just the general idea, so use a faq. blue wing blitz is one of the potentially more interesting games; not really sure what's going on in squaresoft's dogfighting rpg but you may be shocked to know there is an empire - perhaps evil - and flying battleships that wipe innocent towns off the map. seems to be a lot of detail in that your attack characteristic changes greatly depending on whether you're flying straight at the enemy, changing altitude or turning. can't figure a damn thing out so far but could be quite a lot of fun. aaaaand battle gate and wild card are as of yet unplayed so that's all folks |
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| Kimimi | Oct 17 2008, 09:39 AM Post #34 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Dammit I wanted to hear about those too! Hurry up! Blue Wing Blitz is different to what I thought it was - I thought it was a plain old vert shmup. Nice to hear it's good fun. Looks like a damn good set of games, now please excuse me while I hop on over to eBay about a completely unrelated matter... *Buys more games* |
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| sharc | Oct 17 2008, 10:14 AM Post #35 |
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wandering slacker
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yeah, blue wing blitz isn't even a bit shootery. although that would be pretty neat! actually somewhat like shining force, or maybe ring of red; you move around a grid map and battles send you to a separate gameplay area with little pictures of your guys facing off against the enemy. it's a pretty complicated battle system, movement and positioning count for a whole lot. ![]() JUST SWEEP |
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| Kimimi | Oct 17 2008, 10:17 AM Post #36 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Oh stop it; stop taunting me with games I was happily oblivious of
Especially as I'd need to buy a WSC again to play it, and I'm not capable of being sensible and only owning one game *sigh* |
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| Kimimi | Oct 19 2008, 06:54 AM Post #37 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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This is one I really should have mentioned much earlier - it's available for free, and in English (and no, not the naughty kind of "free" either!).![]() For whatever reason, Falcom decided one day to translate their awesome strategy game Vantage Master V2 and then release it for free online. It's missing the CD audio (although the MIDI tracks are fully functional and present), but is otherwise complete and even has online VS play too! It's also not an RPG, and the recommended system requirements are a 100mhz processor and a monitor capable of displaying 640x480/256 colours, which should make it perfect work PC fodder The first step is to create your Master. This is done with a Q&A of the type seen in Tactics Ogre et al. There's a fair few possible outcomes, and they all have differing strengths and weaknesses that will effect how you play. This person plays a role similar to Marona in Phantom Brave - they are required to summon all your Natials (basically element-aligned spirits) and it's instant game over if they die. The enemy team is also lead by a Master, and it's the ultimate goal of the map to defeat them. ![]() ![]() ![]() This is your battle selection map - ![]() You are free to pick any battle available in any order, and you are given an overview of the terrain, a general description and look at the abilities available to your opponent. This is what you'll spend most of your time looking at - ![]() ![]() There are some nifty effects (OMG parallax!) but otherwise it's all pretty straightforward. In addition to elemental weaknesses you also have terrain (height, type, and if it's obstructing your line of attack) and a day/night cycle to consider. Some Natials are useless unless it's night, and some move much easier in water. It all gets you thinking harder about your choices, and there's no such thing as a "best" unit. There's really no reason to not give it a go - you don't even need to install it! |
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| Darkstalker | Oct 19 2008, 09:11 AM Post #38 |
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~ The QUEEN ~
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I remember VMO~! I'm gonna get it again now. |
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| Kimimi | Oct 19 2008, 03:38 PM Post #39 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Yay! Had a go yet? Hope you still enjoy it
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| Darkstalker | Oct 19 2008, 08:40 PM Post #40 |
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~ The QUEEN ~
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Yeah. I lost the first battle cause I forgot the interface and the elements and everything, really. I need to relearn this game. |
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| Kimimi | Oct 19 2008, 08:49 PM Post #41 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Hey no worries I suck at both this and the PSP version - I always seem to struggle with games I like, probably because my brain hates me. |
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| Justin | May 4 2009, 03:49 PM Post #42 |
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Teh RPG Master
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Ah what the hell. There was some pretty interesting discussion and such in here. *casts life 2* |
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| Kimimi | May 7 2009, 10:33 PM Post #43 |
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Teikokukagekidan: Hanagumi official tea maker :)
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Seeing as Sakura Taisen V has had its US release announced - Way back in 1996, Sega released the original Sakura Taisen, and in spite of its critical acclaim and commercial success, nobody outside Japan even noticed. Thirteen years, four sequels, fifteen spinoffs and countless re-releases later... it’s pretty much the same situation. This little write up is mainly to dispel a few myths about the series, have a look at the first game and a few general themes and systems that run through all the main games. So let’s start with the misinformation I tend to see crop up whenever Sakura Taisen gets mentioned – • “Sakura Taisen is an SRPG”. Nope. It’s not wrong to say that they have SRPG battles in them, but they are mind-numbingly easy and dwarfed by the amount of adventure sections in the game. The focus is very firmly on the adventure side, with the battle sections really little more than a change of scenery for the player. Even then they changed this very traditional style battle system after the second game (more on that later). Just FYI, Sega refer to the series as “Dramatic Adventure” games. • “Sakura Taisen is about having sex with little girls!”. Definitely not! Yes, you play as a male character. Yes, he is surrounded by a colour coordinated group of demographic-pleasing girls who all like him to varying degrees. No, you are not able to have sex with any of them. Oogami will, at best, get a shy kiss from his chosen lady at the end of the game and nothing more. • “Sakura Taisen is a dating sim”. While it is true that during the course of the game you will end up with a favourite girl and spend some time with them, that isn’t the focus of plot. The plot is about preventing Satan from wreaking havoc upon 1920s Tokyo, and the love bits happen during this. Battle System ![]() ![]() So what makes this game so special? Well, for starters it absolutely oozes quality. The voice actresses are all top-notch famous ladies, the artwork and character designs are by famous illustrator Kosuke Fujishima (“Tales Of...” series, amongst others), and the game is crammed full of high quality animation when most adventure games are happy to have a few sprites sliding around a different background image. The presentation is brilliant all the way through, with cherry blossoms making an (obvious) recurring theme. The adventure sections are also far more involving than the norm too – instead of picking a location from a list, you walk there. If you want to knock on a door, you move you little hand cursor over to the door and knock. It’s not some earth-shattering new discovery, but all these little bits and pieces add up to make an experience that balances a text-heavy story with a bit of gameplay. If the game has a trademark feature (and one that’s been used in every game since), it’s the L.I.P.S (Live Interactive Picture System) system. Occasionally in adventure games you will be presented with a choice – either between a few lines of dialogue, or an action to perform. Sakura Taisen takes this and essentially adds a timer to all these choices; dawdling may annoy the person you’re speaking to, and they will react accordingly. Alternatively, taking your time may even alter the choices available to you and turn out for the best. Later games in the series expanded on this concept in a few ways to keep it interesting. LIPS ![]() I suppose I saved the best ‘til last – the writing. It’s not something you’ll find studied in literature groups for years to come (or indeed, ever) but it does a great job of keeping you entertained and the characters endearing. Everyone has enough quirks and nuances to give them some real depth, and both humourous and serious scenes are handled well. It is overly sweet at times (“Love and friendship conquer all!”), but the game is always true to itself and never tries to be anything other than an enjoyable story played through your Saturn. Event Scenes ![]() ![]() ![]() The first game also has the honour of a proper remake – in 2003, the game was released on PS2 as “Sakura Taisen: Atsuki Chishio Ni” (“The Boiling Blood”) with improved visuals, a few extra scenes and a revamped battle system in the style of Sakura Taisen 3 (essentially a gridless turn-based system with usable action pints for everything rather than separate commands). This is the definitive version of the first game – the PC and DC versions (2000) only offer slightly higher resolution graphics (over the Saturn original) and the PSP version (2006) is a straight port. Remake screenshots ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The very best bit for us foreigners – a very lovely chap going by the name of Kayama has created full translations for Sakura Taisen 1 – 3 (and a basic one for ST4), so even those with no Japanese knowledge can fully enjoy the series and not miss a thing. Even better, his guides aren’t squirreled away on some abandoned corner of the net, they’re up on GameFAQs. Get going! The series has spawned everything from the usual TV series, model kits and manga to live stage shows and even an official cafe (now sadly closed)! I couldn't resist inflicting some of the awesomeness on you - enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbTK0r0deu0 |
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| Justin | May 17 2009, 04:53 PM Post #44 |
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Teh RPG Master
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That does look really interesting. Thanks for the great overview Kimmi ^_^ |
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