For a frame of reference, I'm not king of the RPGs J or whatever. The last RPG I attempted to play was Grandia 2 on the DC, because the combat system looked like something worth giving a punt and I liked the idea of not having to get leveled up by random battles and so forth... Basically the idea of random battles, the spectre of that loading, then being pwned by a lilly, well, I could never really buy into the concept, never had. The sky pirates RPG on the DC also looked interesting, but I played the demo or rented it and the random battles were so in your face I couldn't handle it.
Anyways, roll on ten years and for reasons such as "why the hell are Nintendo making a proper RPG (as it turns out Monolith Soft are a first party now)" and "the combat system doesn't look too cumbersome for my unrefined taste" and "Golly, the scope of that world looks fascinating in the interesting hybrid SciFi, Japanese, really creative non-western concept".
So I punted on it, and 5 hours later I am still enjoying it, its definitely come from a universe I barely understand... Like all the fetch quests complete on their own, automagically... The characters auto re-health after a battle (maybe on the assumption that you would do that anyways)... You don't really have to "press anything" to combat (although its slight more interesting than it sounds)... The design is (possibly derivative) really interesting to look at... The story is mind boggling, and maybe I can see why folk go all out on these types of game if you decide to commit to the story.
So the meat and potatoes is wandering around this completely amazing world that is basically a planet sized dead collosus which is "mid fight" or something with another collosus... The motivation of the main character is pretty grim, which seems to be a trope, and there is this sort of strange RPG short hand with a party system and gems and stuff that I am sort of going with, but not really totally hot on.
Combat should be utterly broken, 100% real time, you control the lead character, they attack when in proximity, but you have "Arts" which are special moves which you select in a slightly cumbersome use of the dpad, whilst all kinda crazyness is going down, somehow its really engaging, the main dude has Arts that are more powerful depending on which direction you are hitting the enemy, so skirting round and hitting it up the wrongun' pays dividends. The AI in the party does a good enough job of not crapping out all the time, and you have to combo with them by pressing b in a ouendan reaction kinda way, theres a whole everyone works together and encouragement thing I don't get either.
All in all its a complete blast so far and utterly utterly insane.
Argh, I was hoping to ignore this, but it sounds pretty good.
I really want to play this, the PAL version won't work on my machine though. Highly doubtful a US release will happen either.
Do you HAVE TO play this dubbed? This is the no.1 thing which has put me off playing Japanese RPGs now, I love them to bits but hate the dubs with a vengeance.
I'll check but I read you can switch the dubs. I may revert to Japanese as they haven't bothered with lipsync at all. I had no problems with the English one bit, and the fight banter even has some proper English play on words type things going on, which was a surprise. I think my expectations are really low though, really low.
I am rocking the classic controller pro btw, I am still slightly puzzled on the choice of using the dpad to navigate the Arts during a battle, but its like juggling chainsaws, you have to navigate the battlefield, select an Art and ensure you are in the right position against an enemy... Maybe I need to change my approach a little. I can't imagine its been optimised for the Wii Remote, I must check.
The first option is to change it to Japanese. So I think they have that angle covered, now you could argue that since there is some artistic licence with the translation the subs are the subs for the English, not the literal Japanese... I noticed "n'all" and the like, so I am playing in English since I'm not being offended by it, although I was attacked by a giant cockeneee robot, but that almost added to the sinister nature of the encounter.
As for my progress spoilers avoiding, it almost lost me when it introduced buffs and debuffs (no idea), also when attacking a certain kind of enemy you have enchant your team otherwise they only do no damage, now that's fine, but understanding when that enchanting has evaporated is a little more subtle that you'd expect... However, since I've gone with it, it only adds to the nuances of the combat, because you are forced to concetrate and understand each battle, vs just wading in... And due to the freeform wandering around battling, you can entice enemies and pick them off when they are loitering in a group... For instance it make sense to pick of airborn enemies first as they tend to have the more rangy attacks, to do this there is literally a button along side attack that will throw a stone at an enemy to get its attention.
So, it hit a bit of a learning curve hike, but I've kinda ignored it, and everything seems to be going along fine.
The first option is to change it to Japanese. So I think they have that angle covered, now you could argue that since there is some artistic licence with the translation the subs are the subs for the English, not the literal Japanese... I noticed "n'all" and the like, so I am playing in English since I'm not being offended by it, although I was attacked by a giant cockeneee robot, but that almost added to the sinister nature of the encounter.
This is exactly what they do most of the time now. These "Dubtitles" are very often a complete re-write of the original script. I use them as a set of stabilisers, I know enough to be able to tell when and by how much they're veering off what's actually being said.
Still trying to work out how I'm going to rock this game, I really don't want to buy a PAL Wii T_T
I can't distinguish the different accents in Japanese well enough to know who is yappin' what when, and you can use the audio cues to get people's health on etc etc so reverting to the English is a must.... I could go Japanese but its such a wall of extra sensory information I'd have to tackle, that I'm going to play it dumb.
Lovin' the Dubtitles name though, that's spot on. Naturally there is alot of simple stereotypes you can apply to characters with simply the pitch and accent, I'm guessing RPGs use these alot to shorthand character development, like a cartoon. Since I am a decade out of step its all fresh meat for me. Really enjoying it, 7 hours in. Seems to have a critical story beat every 3 hours.
Still trying to work out how I'm going to rock this game, I really don't want to buy a PAL Wii T_T
Can't you softmod and then use Gecko?
I'm going to try this - I'll see if I can sort it out over the weekend.
That or copy the PAL version and patch the ISO.
Clocked another couple of hours last night. Realised I had be utterly utterly and majestically brainwashed into the battle system. The way they have slowly ramped up the complexity whilst not battering your head with ideas is quite special or at least, assured. I realised I understood what was happening when I was starting to pick off flying enemies with ehat I can only call "the stone throw" option, kicking them to bits to take down the larger cluster, that hangs around like an group of self conscious work colleauges at a bar. The trick is to get the airborne guys, or atleast the ones with rangey attacks.
Anyways, I worked out what "aggro" was, which is a way the game determines which character has the focus of the particular enemy you are targeting, and you get "Arts" (special moves) that can change your "aggro" to enable you use some of the more positionally important attacks. None of this is expressly telegraphed in the tutorial pages, and you have to work out for yourself what chess pieces each character represents. Fortunately the AI knows whats going on a lot better than I ever will, so they use and position themselves in such a way to make your combat more interesting, and whilst you can be the other characters their "Arts" appear to be less mechanically interesting than the primary protagonist.
So since I only had a couple of hours spare last night, I managed to unlock a lot more of it in my head and it only further enforces the quality entertainment I am getting from it, and that's just the combat... The story and the setting and the art direction is still holding together nicely.
Thanks a for that - this sounds absolutely brilliant. I'm dying to play it, but the only option I have with my machine is to patch an ISO to switch it over to NTSC. I've bought the PAL original and will have to copy it and try and go that route - hopefully this will work!
No worries, I just hope the game matches your expectations. I am coming from a decade of nothing, essentially from Pac Man to Pac Man DX in one hit.... Or maybe Super Mario Bros to Super Mario World y'know some analogy like that... Its the same JRPG as always, but slick to a point of actually not being the same. Heckings it could just be the same game Monolith have made before as far as I know.
Well well well, I actually spent an hour last night, just running around a large field area (that looks a bit like the bonus track on Excite Truck) just leveling up for the pure fun of it. The "field" is so "out there" that I just looked at it for a bit, the design and aesthetic was so other worldly but tangable it just was a nice experience.
I was literally trying to understand the best way to get one of the gauges filled and then how to use it, and also combining that with some actual exploration, as you get leveling points for just loping around and finding land marks, and as a result of that you find little side quests just hanging around in caves.
I think because you retain all your experience once you die and you respawn at a found landmark, it can be quite sedate, gives you lattitude to experiment without having your wrists slapped.
Right, so I decided to shelve Skyward Sword until I got the tendons in my shoulder fixed, so I jumped back into classic controller land with this. Its still awesome, it taught me I had to think about my party, without me being annoyed about it. Basically I was rocking essentially a giant fist of three physical type characters, but I got to a boss that required a little more nuance, so I had to die alot to establish which combination was the most effective. Once character's bias it towards healing, so that and two of the thugs seems to be working out, after I explored the nuances of some magic something or other I didn't see the point of.
Still I swear I am only a third through, hitting about 25 hours so far.