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[Pellham]

Anyone getting this? My copy should arrive on friday (ems shipping from play-asia), i'll take pics of the premium box contents. Judging from initial impressions on gamefaqs, it seems like the game is pretty difficult and map strategies focus more on dealing with smart enemy AI rather than just facing overwhelming number of enemies like in the later Fire Emblem games. Sounds pretty promising.

In the mean time here are some scans:

http://zak.sakura.ne.jp/MAGAZINE/FAMITSU_PS2/062.jpg
http://zak.sakura.ne.jp/MAGAZINE/FAMITSU_PS2/063.jpg
http://zak.sakura.ne.jp/MAGAZINE/FAMITSU_PS2/064.jpg
http://zak.sakura.ne.jp/MAGAZINE/FAMITSU_PS2/065.jpg
http://zak.sakura.ne.jp/MAGAZINE/FAMITSU_PS2/066.jpg
http://zak.sakura.ne.jp/MAGAZINE/FAMITSU_PS2/067.jpg
http://zak.sakura.ne.jp/MAGAZINE/FAMITSU_PS2/068.jpg
http://zak.sakura.ne.jp/MAGAZINE/FAMITSU_PS2/069.jpg

 

[Bebpo]

Got it along with Namco x Capcom and Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana 2 today. Kinda want to play it but Namco x Capcom is really interesting and taking my full attention atm.

One guy on gamefaqs got it and said he lost the first battle twice and currently has a mid-battle save on his 3rd attempt now. Sounds kinda scary especially since there are no difficulty levels...hopefully the game is beatable ^^;

 

[Tempy]

Please keep us updated with impressions. More strategy games is a good thing. Soooo....what are the chances this will get translated into English? I seriously need to improve my nihongo-fu skills.

 

[Bebpo]

Well I did the first mission and I will only be doing the first mission for a while because it seems that the programmers suck and so the game save takes up almost 2 megs and I'd need to buy a new memory card just to play the game

Quick impression is that it's really hard and based a lot on luck even from the first battle. Like you have a healer run out on the opposite side of the map at first and an axe bodyguard guy run out with her. Now getting to the other side of the map quickly is a no go since you have some boss guy blocking the bridge between the 2 areas and even your strongest people only dent him a little at a time because he has high defense. Meanwhile your healer girl and axe guy are swarmed by about 4-5 guys. Because of the 6 way hex grid you can't really hide the girl and put the axe guy in front so instead you just need to kill as many enemies as you can with the axe guy and keep pushing the healer girl as far from the enemies as you can and hope they miss. 2 hits will kill her. So unless there's some trick getting this character to survive the map is all based on random luck of if attacks hit or miss her and random luck is frustratingly annoying and stupid so dunno. Also it seemed like about 75% of the attacks from both sides would miss, especially on the boss characters. Between the miss, miss, miss, hit shield and only do 4 damage of 50hp, miss, boss uses potion to full life, hit for 4hp, miss,miss, the battles tend to be prolonged much longer than they should be and again luck plays a big factor if there are a lot of misses on both sides.

Some positive impressions are that there is no loading at all. Going into the close up battles and back has even less loading than FE GC when doing that. Field battle animations are slightly slower though. Animation itself is pretty solid and art is good. Music is very nice from the start and there are about 4 pages of options that let you customize everything from text speed to various field displays. I like having lots of options so that makes me happy. Game speed is pretty reasonably but even from the 1st chapter they take some time so expect a long time consuming game. The game even asks you if you want to save every 5 turns.

Might play some more if I get a new memory card, but I think I'll just stick with NxC for now and put Berwick in the backlog.

 

[jiggle]

Got it along with Namco x Capcom and Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana 2 today. Kinda want to play it but Namco x Capcom is really interesting and taking my full attention atm.

Any impression on Eternal Mana 2? What came with the LE?

Can't decide if I want it or not since there'll likely be an english version.

 

[Bebpo]

EM2 LE has a music box statue of the two main character back to back with the little girl character also included (doesn't fit on the stand though) + a postcard.

 

[jiggle]

thanks. just saw how it looks like(nice!).
decision, decision
why'd it have to come out at the same time as NXC

 

[Pellham]

Some positive impressions are that there is no loading at all. Going into the close up battles and back has even less loading than FE GC when doing that.

Wow even faster loading than FE GC??? That is REALLY fast considering FE is one of the fastest loading strategy games (on disc) that i've played to date.

 

[Shouta]

I'm really tempted to get Berwick Saga but I'm not sure if I really want to plop the money down at the moment. =(

 

[Pellham]

argh my game is still in transit. I won't see it til tuesday now.

 

[Dragona Akehi]

I need to get this game.

 

[MrDaravon]

Anyone got any more impressions? And I have to ask the obligatory question: How playable is this for the rest of us? My kana is decent, but no kanji yet =/.

 

[Pellham]

from gamefaqs impressions, it seems like the game is a lot harder than Fire Emblem...

 

[Shouta]

A lot harder than Fire Emblem? Damn, I might need to jump on this.

 

[MrDaravon]

Hard doesn't necessarily equal good =p.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Quick impression is that it's really hard and based a lot on luck even from the first battle. Like you have a healer run out on the opposite side of the map at first and an axe bodyguard guy run out with her. Now getting to the other side of the map quickly is a no go since you have some boss guy blocking the bridge between the 2 areas and even your strongest people only dent him a little at a time because he has high defense. Meanwhile your healer girl and axe guy are swarmed by about 4-5 guys. Because of the 6 way hex grid you can't really hide the girl and put the axe guy in front so instead you just need to kill as many enemies as you can with the axe guy and keep pushing the healer girl as far from the enemies as you can and hope they miss. 2 hits will kill her. So unless there's some trick getting this character to survive the map is all based on random luck of if attacks hit or miss her and random luck is frustratingly annoying and stupid so dunno. Also it seemed like about 75% of the attacks from both sides would miss, especially on the boss characters. Between the miss, miss, miss, hit shield and only do 4 damage of 50hp, miss, boss uses potion to full life, hit for 4hp, miss,miss, the battles tend to be prolonged much longer than they should be and again luck plays a big factor if there are a lot of misses on both sides.

I'm glad sometimes publishers are choosy about titles coming over here...

Seriously, if there's no way to "tweak" your guys so they can counter or avoid that, it's just as you say, luck. How can someone say they "beat" it if they just lucked out?

 

[Bebpo]

I'm glad sometimes publishers are choosy about titles coming over here...

Seriously, if there's no way to "tweak" your guys so they can counter or avoid that, it's just as you say, luck. How can someone say they "beat" it if they just lucked out?

Well I take back most of that at this point. I still haven't had a time to sit down with the game because Namco x Capcom is insanely long (looking at 60-70 hours easy), but since I only gave Berwick one try on the first map I didn't really get a fair impression of whether the strategy was good or not, just that it was tough. Reading over at gamefaqs it sounds like the game is pretty fair and that it just requires very good strategies due to the high difficulty.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

If it's like Growlanser where reconsidering the strategy opens things up, that's not a problem. But missing? If it's not luck, it has a solution. Maybe a blind or back attacks or something would clear it. *shrug*

 

[Pellham]

Heh I skipped work today just to be home to pick up the package today. So now Berwick is in my possession! I'm a little disappointed at the LE goods. The locket is nice, but I paid $30 extra for all of the LE stuff. I can't possibly see how a music CD, locket, and bookmark are worth $30.

I am going out to buy another PS2 memory card and will post some impressions later tonight. I know I should beat Souen first, but the game's gotten too hard for me to beat quickly, so i'll put it aside and play nothing but Berwick tonight.

 

[duckroll]

Heh I skipped work today just to be home to pick up the package today. So now Berwick is in my possession! I'm a little disappointed at the LE goods. The locket is nice, but I paid $30 extra for all of the LE stuff. I can't possibly see how a music CD, locket, and bookmark are worth $30.

Yeah, LE goods from Japan have really dipped in quality over the last few years. I used to buy a shitload of them, now I'm a hell lot more cautious because most of the time it's just overpriced now.

I am going out to buy another PS2 memory card and will post some impressions later tonight. I know I should beat Souen first, but the game's gotten too hard for me to beat quickly, so i'll put it aside and play nothing but Berwick tonight.

Gogogogo! You're our last hope for a real strategy game this week! NxC is awesomely fun but it's hardly a strategy game.

 

[kiryogi]

Yeah, LE goods from Japan have really dipped in quality over the last few years. I used to buy a shitload of them, now I'm a hell lot more cautious because most of the time it's just overpriced now.



Gogogogo! You're our last hope for a real strategy game this week! NxC is awesomely fun but it's hardly a strategy game.

To further push the point, usually on the back of the case it defines the genre. For NxC, it's genre is "Other" :lol

 

[Pellham]

Just beat chapter 1 and the first submission. I gotta wake up early, so can't play more tonight.

Wow, Berwick is pretty amazing so far. There are a TON of changes since the first TearRing Saga, most of them already mentioned by bebpo. I didn't have much of any trouble in the first couple missions (only one unit died so far, and a simple reset to my latest save fixed that).

Seems like the class names don't really mean much of anything anymore, since characters are becoming more unique due to skills and what weapons they can use. That gives the game a Shining Force-like feel, but it's still cool.

I also dig the old-school 2D animation, and the complete lack of loading during battle. I hear things start to get really hard by chapter 3, so I've got something to look forward to.