The more I play, the more I can see the genius and annoyance of everything that's going on in the game's design. Later stages really start to feel more solid to me, both as if they're designed a bit better, and as if they expect you to put more work into what's going on, with more active dodging, more active beacon-grabbing, and those tighter, more nuanced bullet-dance athletics.
This game's "General movement" feels so much different than the traditional "React from everything, as you're the center of the screen" design that most games like this have. Its more like you have to be constantly aware of your movement, as the game itself is spinning the camera around and asking a lot more of your responsibility. Plus needing to aim separate from movement with each stick, which the game design actually depends on.
I finally faced "The Bloated Anomaly", and I have to say, I do wish it had the classic PD style "Enemy is locked at center, and you have free movement" feel to it. It's still BASICALLY that, but your ability to shift your view is much greater, so you have to push yourself towards facing him more. It is finally nice to get to accelerate / decelerate manually though, and I loved the scale of the battle.
For me, I finally got the default dragon maxed and up to rank 2, while I have another that I could rank 2, if I had the drops. The Day 1 dragon and a wind one have some levels, and I really got into a bit of score grind to level up the windy. So I purchased a good wingman, and blitzed a few old stages. This actually really made me appreciate the game's personal design; It's like Monster Hunter or an RPG light, but I don't find it anyway near as aggravating. It's actually kinda pleasant, more like a background motivation, rather than a demanded hiccup in your normal play.
The elements and attacks actually really remind me of Phantom Dust. And when I went from "Puny 3 lock, you barely help VS swarms..." to 8-lockon blast that have stronger sound, bigger graphical flare, and start making those waves feel like fodder rather than focus, I really grew to appreciate the strength I had acquired, ha ha.
This game would benefit from a straight "Arcade Mode" where you could straight progress through "Stage 1, 2, 3, etc" style stage design, and take on each thing, with a straight full power Bloodskin. This should be an option in all games that now offer grind and growth, that didn't in the past.
Good look, SAB CA. I can't wait to dig into it later, but I have to say that, in my brief time with it so far, the heavy dragon you control in the beginning hurts first impressions a bit. I found myself half-dodging with my head via Kinect and switching to bumpers in more heated moments. Looking forward to playing more.
Bloodskin gets decent movement speed in a few levels, and I feel fairly at home with him once he starts being able to move. By that point, I also appreciate the big, dumb "Dodge? Why, I have max HP!" style tanks one gets later on. And being able to Ampule up a dragon to give them the stats you feel they're missing, does seem to help. I had 19 or so "Agi & Def Up!" ones just SITTING there after a while, and they quite helped with some of the lack of dodge I was experiencing...
EDIT: Alright, I think it's been decided. I'm going to have to get this system for this game I think. Music is god-like. I think I may pick up the system when D4 drops. D4 and Crimson Dragon were the two main games I was interested in from this system. They're probably not going anywhere, right? For some reason I thought D4 was a launch game because otherwise I'd start hunting for one right now, lol!
Probably not going anywhere, but there's probably a time where sales won't really matter much for the game anymore, and it's fate will be decided, ha. There's about 7k on the leaderboards currently. Which really... isn't
horrible, especially for a brand new release on a brand new system...
D4 is said to be a Feb. release. I believe they said it's to be episodic? So I really wonder how it'll turn out...
Played for about twenty minutes earlier.
Seems about what I expected. Should have fun with it.
How have your opinions grown through extended play? Or have you been unable to get back to it? This game actually seems like it builds up kinda slow, but it does start to pay off more and more, as one gets deeper in.
SAB CA gave a pretty good summary of the game. My apologies if my impressions sound like a bit of a rehash. I agree with most of their points, but so far I dislike the new structure of the game.
Its interesting, but I think I actually like the structure by itself, as it seems much more aware of what's going on in modern games, than many such "classic revivals" such as these usually do. Though, like mentioned above, I do think a additional mode / unlockable option to play with classic PD forced leveling and linear progression, would be great.
The game also allows you to purchase revive crystals. They allow you to revive yourself if you lose all your health rather than failing the mission and losing the items you found during the mission. This could have been really sketchy, but the game gives you enough credits where you don't feel obligated to pay money.
I've started to get to the point where I actually get soundly beat if I make dumb decisions (such as brining a low level dragon to a later mission.), and even ocassionally by just being surprised (getting too lazy at dodging, fighting more enemies at once than expected.) Revive gems still seem pretty generous, and I've never BOUGHT one, so not too bad. It really all seems optional, and well made in the way that it encourages you to make the best of all your options, to beat trouble spots. Rather than just making one feel like they have no hope at all, unless they give into excessive grinding / micro-transactions.
Visually it looks fine but the fact that it runs at 30 fps is really disappointing and it can't even maintain that in some scenes. I would have been much more forgiving to the game if it ran at 60 fps, especially given it's pedigree as an Xbox 360 title. The fluidity that was in Orta is sorely missed here.
This really doesn't bother me too much, it feels as responsive as what it's demanding. I definitely feel more like it's a matter of design and stats, rather than feeling like the controls / fps responses isn't optimized enough to keep up with me.
VS the Giant Eel-K, it's pointed out to you that the boss sparkles before he attacks. This is a fine visual que, but I had times where I was shifted so far to the bottom of the screen in the chaotic movement, that I never saw the bullets approaching, until I was hit. This doesn't FEEL intuitive to me, because generally, you're the center of the world, and one gets a change to see everything around them evenly, but that doesn't happen in this game; it forces you to MAKE yourself reach that center, all while controlling aiming at the same time.
Still, I see the potential. I'm hoping that as the dragons level up and the amount of skills to choose from increase that the game will feel better. It's not what I was hoping for, but I think it could grow on me. Once the dragons become more powerful and responsive going for the challenges tied to each level could be more fun and less frustrating.
Definitely seems possible. A mix of stronger, easier to direct dragons + just getting better at what the game has on offer, seems to really help. Being able to take out something that you couldn't kill at all in 1 min, 30 seconds, suddenly being pushed to 21 or 47 seconds, really makes one appreciate what good planning can achieve. Beacon-grabbing seems kinda "WTH, why was that THERE?" on a first run, but if you go back with +Agility, and an understanding of the pattern they want you to fall into, it becomes a nice, low stress time to just listen to the music, and enjoy the scenery...
Bought this, but dislike the controls. I'd be a lot more into it if they patched in aim/move dragon onto the same stick, but that seems highly unlikely.
Still happy to support because we don't see many games with this type of art style or flying rail shooters anymore, but I don't think I'll play it much.
I think with the introduction of twin stick shooters and FPS becoming so significant, that aiming and movement together has fallen off. I think the game would need it's enemy waves and camera work entirely redone if it worked like older games, but I's actually love to see how it would feel like that. Much like the difference between 4 way and 8 way controls in a side scrolling shooter, of taking away the ability to aim up, to force a person to jump to platforms, I feel like the more limited method actually leads to tighter, more deliberate design. But it also can lead to a more scripted, less exciting feel...
Oh, and it's actually perfectly fine not to play this much; going through a run or 2 here and there works pretty well with it's stage structure. Just log in once each day, so you get your Daily Login Bonus!
Stockpiling on gems and credits this way will make it much easier to just jump in, and play the way you wish when you get that itch.
I hadn't realized that your partner dragon was in fact a profile from other users. Friends seem to be cheaper to recruit, even.
Is there some shared benefit of using someone else's dragon as wingman ? Do they get part of the loot/XP, like in Forza ?
You definitely get credits, but I don't think you get any exp or item drops. But I only have a single friend making use of my dragon on occasion, so you could get more if you have more people using your dragon.
I am absolutely loving this. No complaints. Controls are perfect by me. I just cant see why you would have the dragon and reticle move simultaneously. Easy to dive into. I kept playing until player lvl 7 on my first game.
I felt best about this game when I just kinda dived in, and started leveling and trying to perfect my runs a bit more. It's pretty enough that I WANT to do this, and I also start to find stages that just leave me smiling after running them, because they actually each feel pretty unique.
Getting to a stage that drops a full list of items not only from normal progress, but also from killing all the waves perfectly... while giving 7k+ EXP, or the moments where you totally ace a beacon-collecting section perfectly on the first try...... feels
good!