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[Weltall Zero]

Are you new to Vanillaware games? ;P

Odin Sphere has like 3 regular enemies 4 bosses 5 stages and takes about 60 hours to finish.

That is slightly hyperbolic. Odin Sphere has around 10-15 regular enemies (not counting variations), and at least 12 bosses (although it makes the unfortunate decision of reserving five of them for the very end). Not exactly a huge amount of variety, but not "3 regular enemies 4 bosses".

I'm also a bit sick of this "are you new to Vanillaware games?" shtick as a knee-jerk response every time anyone makes ANY question at all about longevity, variation or stages.

 

[Sword Familiar]

I think NOT being new to Vanillaware games is as much as a reason as any to be able to question the quality of this title. In my case, I've found Vanillaware games to be quite shallow, repetetive experiences which, frankly, haven't been worth my time. This being a genre I like a lot, I'm still interested in the game even though I'm afraid it will be more of the same. I'm sure many games are able to last longer by making you do stuff over and over again, but to me that doesn't equate to longevity. Quite the opposite, in fact, because I'm more likely to just stop playing the game and never pick it up again.

 

[Darkone]

Come on August 6, get here all-ready, dammm i am dieing to play this.

 

[meltingparappa]

I would have been much happier if Odin Sphere and Muramasa were shorter, tighter experiences. They were padded to the brim with filler, and that detracted from the wonderful tight diamond in the center.

Such a shame that there's so many people to pass on a game because of a very arbitrary length requirement.

 

[Jarlaxle]

How does the loot work in this game? Is it a matter of whoever opens a chest gets the loot? How is it distributed amongst the players I guess is what I'm asking.

Anyone?

 

[Mugaaz]

I would have been much happier if Odin Sphere and Muramasa were shorter, tighter experiences. They were padded to the brim with filler, and that detracted from the wonderful tight diamond in the center.

Such a shame that there's so many people to pass on a game because of a very arbitrary length requirement.

How is it a shame, at all? People have so much entertainment time they need fulfilled by X dollars. If you have $50 and you can buy a game thats 1000 hours for that price, or a game that's 15 hours, its not exactly an arbitrary decision.

If you have limited money then length is hardly arbitrary.

 

[Vanille]

Anyone?

Everyone gets their own personalized loot when a chest is opened. Players can't open chests by themselves, there's a thief constantly travelling with the party who does it for you, so it has to distributed evenly.

 

[antibolo]

So apparently the US release will not have Japanese voices. Damnit.

 

[Kincaido]

So apparently the US release will not have Japanese voices. Damnit.

Wait what?!!?!?

 

[SolidSnakex]

Wait what?!!?!?

I'm not really sure what he's referring to. The US version will have the Japanese voices as free DLC. After a month they'll go to being paid. So they aren't aren't going to be available to download until the game is officially released.

 

[Kincaido]

I'm not really sure what he's referring to. The US version will have the Japanese voices as free DLC. After a month they'll go to being paid. So they aren't aren't going to be available to download until the game is officially released.

Oh okay. So it's not on the disc? Kinda weird.

 

[akaoni]

I'm not really sure what he's referring to. The US version will have the Japanese voices as free DLC. After a month they'll go to being paid. So they aren't aren't going to be available to download until the game is officially released.

Are you sure you're not misunderstanding or have they stated something new?

From my understanding the English narration voices are free DLC or they can be acquired as drops in-game. There are no Japanese narration/NPC voices for the NA release. Battle voices are the only thing that's dual audio.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Are you sure you're not misunderstanding or have they stated something new?

From my understanding the English narration voices are free DLC or they can be acquired as drops in-game. There are no Japanese narration/NPC voices for the NA release. Battle voices are the only thing that's dual audio.

Yeah, I mixed up the DLC narrator with voices. The narrator is apparently English no matter which character voice you select.

 

[Kincaido]

I was ready to cancel my order and buy it on JPSN. Don't scare me like that guys :x

 

[Weltall Zero]

How is it a shame, at all? People have so much entertainment time they need fulfilled by X dollars. If you have $50 and you can buy a game thats 1000 hours for that price, or a game that's 15 hours, its not exactly an arbitrary decision.

If you have limited money then length is hardly arbitrary.

That mindset is exactly what he's complaining about, and with good reason. Portal was an amazing game precisely because it was so short; it didn't pad itself with filler, it was all 100% goodness that respected my time. Same with Braid, and many other generally acclaimed games. After a point in your life, money stops being the prime limiting factor for playing games and time starts being it. If a 15 hour game has the exact same content than a 1000 hour game, you can bet I'll rather get the 15 hour one. Would Dark Souls be better if you needed to grind for 700 hours to finish it?

Of course, replayability makes this point moot: many of the best games, like FTL, don't have an arbitrarily fixed length, but can be replayed over and over and be fresh each time.

I think NOT being new to Vanillaware games is as much as a reason as any to be able to question the quality of this title. In my case, I've found Vanillaware games to be quite shallow, repetetive experiences which, frankly, haven't been worth my time. This being a genre I like a lot, I'm still interested in the game even though I'm afraid it will be more of the same. I'm sure many games are able to last longer by making you do stuff over and over again, but to me that doesn't equate to longevity. Quite the opposite, in fact, because I'm more likely to just stop playing the game and never pick it up again.

That's actually the point; that VanillaWare have so much filler/are so repetitive that anyone asking about how repetitive this is hasn't played any VanillaWare game. It's tiring that it gets thrown around to shortcut any meaningful discussion about length, content, etc.

 

[antibolo]

I'm not really sure what he's referring to. The US version will have the Japanese voices as free DLC. After a month they'll go to being paid. So they aren't aren't going to be available to download until the game is officially released.

Oh, thanks for the info.

For the record my source for the previous post was this:
http://kotaku.com/sources-are-as-follows-originally-players-at-evo-noti-924779419

EDIT:

Yeah, I mixed up the DLC narrator with voices. The narrator is apparently English no matter which character voice you select.

D'oh. Oh well, not a deal breaker for me.

 

[mikeGFG]

Picked this up while visiting DenDen Town along with some second hand stuff.



Wont get back to my ps3 before monday



I'm still debating playing it or keeping it sealed. I have finished both FFVI and CT several times on other platforms. I just wanted complete copies of the originals for sentimental reasons

FF6 in box is only 1554 yen??!

 

[george01]

Is there voice chat/mic support while playing online?

 

[BarrettW]

I need someone to tell me what version to get I am breaking out in sweats just having to make the decision myself

 

[antibolo]

I need someone to tell me what version to get I am breaking out in sweats just having to make the decision myself

Get Vita first so that Atlus knows that Vita owners do exist, and they want some goddamn games.

Then when the game gets cheaper, get the PS3 version.

 

[Karsticles]

Get Vita first so that Atlus knows that Vita owners do exist, and they want some goddamn games.

Then when the game gets cheaper, get the PS3 version.

This, but in reverse order.

 

[SlasherJPC]

Alright I put in about almost 7 hours and finally unlocked online multiplayer. While the game def now has proven to be quite difficult, as before I wasn't having any issues. I'm extremely impressed with these battles in the "second half" if I can call it that. I might have reached the part where I need to grind a bit... but I will say this about the game.

It's a brawler, and in nature side scrolling brawlers are repetative, and while the side quests are in levels you've already completed and I might now have to replay a few levels or do more of the side quests, I find the fact that your constantly leveling up and building up helps negate the feeling of no progress. Your constantly getting better.

As for the difference between the two. Some slowdown on Vita more so then PS3, but I did see some slowdown in PS3 when I spammed an attack a few times. The other thing is that you can clearly see the touch pad implemention on the PS3 version. It can be a bit of contrast having to use the stick to point to doors, ruines, and finding random treasure.

Overall though I'm hooked, it's a beautiful game, and I'm just absorbing all this for my review coming up.

 

[Caerith]

If you have $50 and you can buy a game thats 1000 hours for that price, or a game that's 15 hours, its not exactly an arbitrary decision.

I get where you're coming from in trying to boil it down to dollar/entertainment-hour, but that grossly oversimplifies things by looking solely at quantity of entertainment and not quality.

Nobody is expecting Dragon's Crown to be some 1000-hour epic. It's a modern Mystara, it's not supposed to be an MMO-killer.

Get Vita first so that Atlus knows that Vita owners do exist, and they want some goddamn games.

Then when the game gets cheaper, get the PS3 version.

Silly, Atlus is like the only company that knows Vita owners exist.

 

[george01]

cool , i just saw it xd

 

[PatmanBegins]

Anyone know if this game will be available for download via PSN on release day?

 

[ThatStupidLion]

I need someone to tell me what version to get I am breaking out in sweats just having to make the decision myself

isn't the vita the definitive version - the touch screen is supposed to be way more helpful when picking up loot etc. opposed to a little onscreen cursor

 

[Athreous]

I got it yesterday (japanese import, PS3 version),and I must say that the game is really great.

Graphics look pretty good, so does the gameplay. The Gear system looks similar to D&D Shadow of Mystara, where you can hold a few weapons to use at a later time.

I`m getting it for PS Vita next month, the english version.

A must have game for every Hack`n Slash fans.

 

[evil_ash_xero]

I guess the thing that is kind of unclear to me is...is the game as repetitive on a first playthrough? Not counting the grinding? I mean, just the nine stages back to back. Are they different from each other? Interesting?

Does the game have more depth, battle wise, than Muramasa?

A lot of these impressions are a bit confusing? Like "when I jump online". And stuff like that. No offense, but that kind of makes it confusing as to what a first time go of the game is like.

That is what is important to me on this one. First time go on Muramasa and Odin Sphere is repetitive, no matter how you go at it.

 

[Reluctant-Hero]

Anyone know the memory card space required for the JP Vita version?

 

[Jarlaxle]

Everyone gets their own personalized loot when a chest is opened. Players can't open chests by themselves, there's a thief constantly travelling with the party who does it for you, so it has to distributed evenly.

Awesome. Thank you. So this means that if I'm the Sorceress I will potentially be getting better stuff than other characters out of the same chest because she has a higher luck stat, right?

 

[Espada]

Awesome. Thank you. So this means that if I'm the Sorceress I will potentially be getting better stuff than other characters out of the same chest because she has a higher luck stat, right?

This was posted earlier and it really helped me understand the stats. Luck has nothing to do with how good an item you get, only your chances of inflicting critical hits (and defending against them).

STR --- Affects strength of physical attacks.
INT --- Affects strength of magic attacks.
CON --- How much damage reduction you get off of physical attacks that hit you.
MGR --- How much damage reduction you get off of magic attacks that hit you.
DEX --- This affects how stable your weapon damage is (note: every weapon's attack stat is listed as XX to XX. For intance, an S class level 36 weapon might be 81 to 103, while an E class lv.36 one might be 3 to 103... this stat affects how consistent your damage ratings are, I suppose).
LUC --- Affects rates of critical hits.

 

[SlasherJPC]

I guess the thing that is kind of unclear to me is...is the game as repetitive on a first playthrough? Not counting the grinding? I mean, just the nine stages back to back. Are they different from each other? Interesting?

Does the game have more depth, battle wise, than Muramasa?

A lot of these impressions are a bit confusing? Like "when I jump online". And stuff like that. No offense, but that kind of makes it confusing as to what a first time go of the game is like.

That is what is important to me on this one. First time go on Muramasa and Odin Sphere is repetitive, no matter how you go at it.

Let me try to break it down to you in as little words as possible and witthout being a review (since I'm under embargo for review)

The gaming structure is 9 levels. While these 9 levels are obviously similar to each because it's a brawler, as you get further they get a bit longer and in depth, though nothing extremely long(simple for replayabilty in my eyes). For example the levels start off as a few screens you travel, and for awhile most new levels have completely different enemies. Each location is unique in style/visuals. A old temple, a forest, a underground area, a wrecked ship. As you get to the later levels more enemies, more traps, more doors to enter (you'll never get lost though) and a boat ride, carpet ride, etc. and then they start throwing various enemies you've run into in the levels.

As for continuing forward, your constantly leveling up and unlocked a vast assorment of skills and those skills you can level up as well. So even with grinding which you eventually will do, for me it's still fun and right about when you get to that point where the grinding begins, guess what?The online co-op opens up. There is a reason the grinding starts but I can't get into that with my impressions.

I hope this clarifies a few things for you, and while I've enjoyed Odin Sphere and Murumasa even moreso, I think this has the best chance of being peoples favorite game from Vanillaware. Embargo ends the 31st so I'll be sure to post my review in here and hopefully answer more questions you guys have.

 

[Caerith]

Awesome. Thank you. So this means that if I'm the Sorceress I will potentially be getting better stuff than other characters out of the same chest because she has a higher luck stat, right?

Luck doesn't govern drops, it governs critical hit rate.

I guess the thing that is kind of unclear to me is...is the game as repetitive on a first playthrough? Not counting the grinding? I mean, just the nine stages back to back. Are they different from each other? Interesting?

Does the game have more depth, battle wise, than Muramasa?

A lot of these impressions are a bit confusing? Like "when I jump online". And stuff like that. No offense, but that kind of makes it confusing as to what a first time go of the game is like.

That is what is important to me on this one. First time go on Muramasa and Odin Sphere is repetitive, no matter how you go at it.

Welcome to NeoGAF. There's a lot of hype about this game and a lot of people acting like Chicken Little. I suppose the fault is partly that the OT isn't up yet (but it's not like anyone reads those if they just wanna ask stuff). Take heart, however-- the sky is not falling.

Is the game repetitive? Yes, in a way. It's a beat 'em up. You're going to beat stuff up, then you're going to beat more stuff up, rinse, wash, repeat. Always repeat.

Are the levels repetitive? Not exactly. There are nine distinct stages (like, Lost Woods, Ghost Ship Cove, Ancient Temple Ruins, etc), each with an A path and a B path. Different paths have different bosses.

When do you jump online? For co-op, after clearing all nine stages on their A path. You'll be around level 17 at this point, and after this you'll progress through all nine stages on their B path (and can re-visit harder versions of the A path of each story). (For PVP, you can access the arena after beating the game on Normal.)

Does it suck that you can't play online immediately? Yes and no. Yes, because your co-op is limited to local so if you have a friend you want to play with, you can't unless they're on your couch. No, because at least this way everyone you meet online will know what they're doing (so, nobody online is a noob).

Hope that clears things up.

 

[antibolo]

Awesome. Thank you. So this means that if I'm the Sorceress I will potentially be getting better stuff than other characters out of the same chest because she has a higher luck stat, right?

No she gets better stuff because she has a bigger chest than the others.

ZING!

 

[No Love]

No she gets better stuff because she has a bigger chest than the others.

ZING!

I see what you did that. Quite clever, really.

 

[evil_ash_xero]

Thanks slasher_thrasher21 and Caerith. That is most helpful.

 

[devotedgmr17]

Not sure if this was answered or not, but it does seem that I'm able to play with players in Japan, as in their drop-in greetings are always in Japanese. Not sure whether that's because I'm playing with someone who has imported it, but nevertheless, thought I'd mention it.

 

[Kyoufu]

Finished Normal mode (20 hours). Going to try hard mode to see if anything is notably different.

 

[Karsticles]

Finished Normal mode (20 hours). Going to try hard mode to see if anything is notably different.

It's normal, hard, and then ???.

 

[KDash31987]

A friend of mine started playing it and was posting some impressions and stuff on Facebook about it. I figured I'd post it all here.

Dragon's Crown is awesome. If you liked the D&D games and Guardian Heroes, it's great. Though it is kinda funny that the game file is only 1.5 GB. :V

The game is so fun that it's ridiculous. I can't imagine how fun it would be not playing by myself. There's only a few things I don't like:

1. You can't use your character to open treasure chests. You have to hit L1 and then use the right stick to guide a cursor over it and then hit L1 again. I have no idea why they did it this way.

2. Sometimes the hit detection is a bit weird. I'm using the Dwarf right now and it seems to be 50/50 whether he'll hit the enemy or grab them instead.

3. The mandatory tutorial. GAAAAAAH. I hate whoever came up with this idea. Just let people play their games. ):

Now for the good stuff. The graphics are really detailed and videos don't do it justice at all. I like how the game is narrated, even if the narration is a bit annoying. Strangely, in this Japanese release, there is the option to have the narrator in English, as well as your character, but they are separate options in different menus for some reason.

You can have your character in Japanese and the narrator in English, and the other way around. Having the narrator in English makes it a LOT easier to know what you're doing, since he also tells you where to go next. There's no option for English text though, sadly.

There are a lot of skills for each character. The skill list is represented by a tarot-card-like menu. One set is for the class your character is, and the other says "common" and has universal skills like sliding, food cytology (?) and gold healing. So there's quite a lot of skills and moves to keep track of.

I'm an hour in and have fought three bosses so far. The second boss is hilarious, because it's a giant harpy with floppy boobs. I was laughing the whole way through.

Game's pretty hard. On the third boss, I lost a continue. Losing all your lives only seems to make you lose gold, as I was still able to continue just by pressing X. You get an AI partner after the first boss. Not sure if you get more of them later. Probably.

The gameplay itself is like playing the old D&D Capcom games, but more loose. There are off-the-ground combos and juggles out the behind in this game. I noticed the wizard that I have as an AI partner loves freezing the hell out of the enemies.

Dwarf has a bunch of throws. His side throw bounces enemies off the wall for combo possibilities. His up throw makes them fly off the screen and smack into the ground really hard (it also creates a domino effect for other enemies). If you jump and hit square he does this weird downward Blanka ball thing that hits about 6 times. Very good against bosses. So far Dwarf is the only one I've actually used. I plan on using Wizard next after seeing some of the stuff this AI wizard was doing. Holy hell.

 

[SlasherJPC]

It's normal, hard, and then ???.

Inferno.

 

[Qvoth]

Yeah, I mixed up the DLC narrator with voices. The narrator is apparently English no matter which character voice you select.

so it's confirmed english version will not have the option to change the narrator's voice?
aww man i really wanted inoue kikuko to narrate for me...

 

[akaoni]

A friend of mine started playing it and was posting some impressions and stuff on Facebook about it. I figured I'd post it all here.

I'm an hour in and have fought three bosses so far. The second boss is hilarious, because it's a giant harpy with floppy boobs. I was laughing the whole way through.

Someone call 'games journalism'.

so it's confirmed english version will not have the option to change the narrator's voice?
aww man i really wanted inoue kikuko to narrate for me...

EVO people said it.
ATLUS support(or something) said it.
Review copies said it.

So yeah, unless paid DLC.

 

[honorless]

The Japanese voices for the characters (as opposed to the narration) are just battle grunts/yells, right? No conversations or anything?

Since our artbook is being downgraded to softcover, and the English narration is available as loot drops anyway, if the first-month-free JP voices are nothing substantial I can push this purchase off until September or so without feeling like I've missed out. It'd take a lot of stress off my wallet...

 

[Seraphis Cain]

The Japanese voices for the characters (as opposed to the narration) are just battle grunts/yells, right? No conversations or anything?

Since our artbook is being downgraded to softcover, and the English narration is available as loot drops anyway, if the first-month-free JP voices are nothing substantial I can push this purchase off until September or so without feeling like I've missed out. It'd take a lot of stress off my wallet...

You could just grab the voice DLC while it's free anyway, even if you don't have the game yet. It's not like you need to own the game to download free DLC.

 

[InternHertz]

A friend of mine started playing it and was posting some impressions and stuff on Facebook about it. I figured I'd post it all here.

You can tell him that at least for the tutorial, you can choose not to see it when you create a second (or more) character. I don't remember if the first time the question popped or not but it's not that restrictive...and it's quickly done anyway

 

[honorless]

You could just grab the voice DLC while it's free anyway, even if you don't have the game yet. It's not like you need to own the game to download free DLC.

...It's not a code in the box that expires or printed on your receipt or something? It'll just be listed up on PSN for free?

That's pretty generous. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[Kyoufu]

Hard mode has new guild quests, new bosses and some sort of skirmish thing but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do in that. I'll look into it more tomorrow.

 

[Sou]

Been playing this since release, and to sum it up, this game is a major disappointment.
I am playing the console version.

Good:
- Pretty artwork
- Fully featured game-play mechanics (lots of small mini-games)
- At long last a new 2D side scrolling beat-em up in HD

Bad:
- Horrible controls (the game is designed for the vita)
- Battle system has little depth
- Loot balance is on the conservative side, and very little sense of reward
- Very very repetitive looking backgrounds

To sum it up: this game is a grindy 2D Diablo wanna-be that is not done right

There is just nothing that stands out aside from the artwork that makes me want to pick it up again. Give this rental before you buy. I really regret buying this game despite being a fan of games like the old capcom D&D games.

 

[Karsticles]

Been playing this since release, and to sum it up, this game is a major disappointment.
I am playing the console version.

Good:
- Pretty artwork
- Fully featured game-play mechanics (lots of small mini-games)
- At long last a new 2D side scrolling beat-em up in HD

Bad:
- Horrible controls (the game is designed for the vita)
- Battle system has little depth
- Loot balance is on the conservative side, and very little sense of reward
- Very very repetitive looking backgrounds

To sum it up: this game is a grindy 2D Diablo wanna-be that is not done right

There is just nothing that stands out aside from the artwork that makes me want to pick it up again. Give this rental before you buy. I really regret buying this game despite being a fan of games like the old capcom D&D games.

I am glad you gave facts to support your opinions.