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Earth Defense Force 2025 |OT| "I heard this game had a lot of bugs."
- Thread starter John Rabbit
- Start date
Just got past level 60. I switched up to hard for most levels and Im having quite a bit more fun now. Also just fought that crazy new enemy type that starts with a "D" and had an amazing time.
Still though, I think 2017 is better. Even though 2017 has less content, the game is so much tighter and knows how to space similar levels using boss fights and frequent location shifts. In 2025 has only been Mission 36 so far that has RESEMBLED a boss fight. Every other level is just a reorganization of enemies in a new location or with one slight twist. While 2017 feels like a tight classic, 2025 goes so far with its ambition to make a bigger game that it just spreads itself thin.
Still a great game (it's EDF, duh) and it's no Insect Armageddon, but it just doesn't have that *it* that came with the original Crimson and Dino-Mech levels of yesteryear. Wing Diver is so fucking fun tho.
Still though, I think 2017 is better. Even though 2017 has less content, the game is so much tighter and knows how to space similar levels using boss fights and frequent location shifts. In 2025 has only been Mission 36 so far that has RESEMBLED a boss fight. Every other level is just a reorganization of enemies in a new location or with one slight twist. While 2017 feels like a tight classic, 2025 goes so far with its ambition to make a bigger game that it just spreads itself thin.
Still a great game (it's EDF, duh) and it's no Insect Armageddon, but it just doesn't have that *it* that came with the original Crimson and Dino-Mech levels of yesteryear. Wing Diver is so fucking fun tho.
Gozer the Gozerian
Member
Whaaa? That's lame, are you sure you don't have it backwards? I don't want to be playing this with my friend and worrying about making sure each of us is picking up an equal number of weapon drops.
a Master Ninja
Member
Just got this game. I wish any time I put into Insect Armageddon could have been put into this game instead.
natsuyasumi
Member
I think that's dead on. Quickly got tired of "here, fight some dragon" levels.
I have it correct. It's not a big deal IMO. Note that (at least on 360) only the first player's Gamertag/savefile will get the acquired weapons, no matter which class they're for / who picks them up.
Gozer the Gozerian
Member
Oooh ok, so does that mean when I'm playing local split screen the second "guest" player will get access to my weapon selection as we're playing?
natsuyasumi
Member
Yep. The only thing that matters is which class picks up the weapon. If a split-screen guest playing Air Raider picks it up the savefile will get an Air Raider weapon. Etc.
Can't agree with that at all. I just find 2025 to be a superior game in every way. I can understand a case for some folk not liking the classes but that's about it. It trumps over 2017 and is up there with EDF 2 for me.
Yes, in local splitscreen player 2 is just using player 1's stuff. A lot of people are actually abusing this by playing split screen by themselves so they can have a second different class as player 2 and both classes get credit for the armor pickups.
The only thing I'm not super happy with about the game is that the Air Raider kinda reallllllly sucks if you're playing solo. Ranger and Wing Diver are fine solo (although Wing Diver is rougher earlier on) but I haven't messed with the Fencer yet.
The levels are way too long and dip their toe into repetitive territory a bit too often
NoirVisage
Banned
Oddly enough, that's one of the things I liked about IA, not every mission going as planned and a new objective or location to clear, but I agree the boss fights could have been done better (giving us the dinomechs!), and more frequent.
Yeah... I love 2017, but having 1000'd it on 360, playing it currently on Vita, and playing 2025 at the same time, there's really no contest as to this game being superior in almost every way.
Dub: I love how much MORE there is. I loved the stage quips in 2017 ("I miss the Sunlight!" in the undergrounds stages, for example), but hearing things like the chipper "Launching the SATTELITE BLASTER!", not just tied to mission, but your actions and classes as well... there's just SO much more personality to this game.
I do get that more people are in on the joke / campy buy design feeling, rather than the "Camp by accident" feel 2017, but I think it's a well-balanced step back from the way things felt in IA, where it ultimately just felt like the game was TOO tounge-in-cheek with it's script. Jamison Price and Richard Epcar are perfect in their roles, and the over-enthusiastic citizens remind me of extras in Sega's House of the Dead series.
Gameplay: Fencer W-Dashing-like Antics, the variety of weapons, the unique feel of each class... compared to Storm 1 solo, it's like I'm getting 2 or 3 full iterations of EDF rather than just what came with original 2017. I was bored playing my crazy little trooper in Titanfall, but going around as a fencer with Dashes, Scythes that cause earthquakes, rapid fire mach-punching fist, quake hammers, napalm spreading missiles, steel javelin rain, etc, etc... it's that Japanese-style level of big gameplay that little else can match.
Vehicles: I felt so bad for them in 2017. Like an add-on that couldn't be fleshed out due to lacking funds. Air Raider actually makes having a Mecha summon onto the battlefield feel worthwhile, and it's been a great backup to me in Co-op play. I also love all the ideas they explored with healing units, different choppers, etc.
Graphics: The framerate in Split is pretty annoying, and I'd love to get a next gen version that looked JUST like this with a solid, never-dipping frame rate, just to see it run so perfectly. But the destruction, the massive bloodspray on hits with pikes, the launching of things in EVERY direction on explosions, and the fact the building fall a lot more dynamically than before... it's kinda gorgeous, in it's own way. Reminds me why everything but loss planet felt kinda lifeless to me in the early 360 shooter days, the worlds just lacked in dynamic chaos compared to EDF.
The few grievances: Spiders webbing through buildings is annoying, but I can live with it. 2P really should be able to play their own profile offline. I'm really tired of seeing devs fail at making local co-op saves and achievement updating as robust as they SHOULD be. Even on 360, the choppy can get kind of crazy at times, and I've probably never enjoyed a game with a worse framerate, haha. The loss of the Kaiju guys is regrettable, but.. I didn't really feel like they mattered in 2017 either. They felt more like a reused model from R.A.D, than something that belonged in the game. I would have loved to have seen them fleshed out, sure, but not if all they end up as is basically a skin for Hectors.
All in all, I'm quite enjoying this game, even though I'm only like a 4th of the stages in. I don't feel repetition in fun games nearly as much as some, only in games that are dull in gameplay, or take themselves too seriously to be enjoyable. I wait seeing how crazy things get when I start doing some serious inferno fights, but having played on every difficulty before those in various stages, I'm having a great time.
EDF! Target... Annihilated!
Dub: I love how much MORE there is. I loved the stage quips in 2017 ("I miss the Sunlight!" in the undergrounds stages, for example), but hearing things like the chipper "Launching the SATTELITE BLASTER!", not just tied to mission, but your actions and classes as well... there's just SO much more personality to this game.
I do get that more people are in on the joke / campy buy design feeling, rather than the "Camp by accident" feel 2017, but I think it's a well-balanced step back from the way things felt in IA, where it ultimately just felt like the game was TOO tounge-in-cheek with it's script. Jamison Price and Richard Epcar are perfect in their roles, and the over-enthusiastic citizens remind me of extras in Sega's House of the Dead series.
Gameplay: Fencer W-Dashing-like Antics, the variety of weapons, the unique feel of each class... compared to Storm 1 solo, it's like I'm getting 2 or 3 full iterations of EDF rather than just what came with original 2017. I was bored playing my crazy little trooper in Titanfall, but going around as a fencer with Dashes, Scythes that cause earthquakes, rapid fire mach-punching fist, quake hammers, napalm spreading missiles, steel javelin rain, etc, etc... it's that Japanese-style level of big gameplay that little else can match.
Vehicles: I felt so bad for them in 2017. Like an add-on that couldn't be fleshed out due to lacking funds. Air Raider actually makes having a Mecha summon onto the battlefield feel worthwhile, and it's been a great backup to me in Co-op play. I also love all the ideas they explored with healing units, different choppers, etc.
Graphics: The framerate in Split is pretty annoying, and I'd love to get a next gen version that looked JUST like this with a solid, never-dipping frame rate, just to see it run so perfectly. But the destruction, the massive bloodspray on hits with pikes, the launching of things in EVERY direction on explosions, and the fact the building fall a lot more dynamically than before... it's kinda gorgeous, in it's own way. Reminds me why everything but loss planet felt kinda lifeless to me in the early 360 shooter days, the worlds just lacked in dynamic chaos compared to EDF.
The few grievances: Spiders webbing through buildings is annoying, but I can live with it. 2P really should be able to play their own profile offline. I'm really tired of seeing devs fail at making local co-op saves and achievement updating as robust as they SHOULD be. Even on 360, the choppy can get kind of crazy at times, and I've probably never enjoyed a game with a worse framerate, haha. The loss of the Kaiju guys is regrettable, but.. I didn't really feel like they mattered in 2017 either. They felt more like a reused model from R.A.D, than something that belonged in the game. I would have loved to have seen them fleshed out, sure, but not if all they end up as is basically a skin for Hectors.
All in all, I'm quite enjoying this game, even though I'm only like a 4th of the stages in. I don't feel repetition in fun games nearly as much as some, only in games that are dull in gameplay, or take themselves too seriously to be enjoyable. I wait seeing how crazy things get when I start doing some serious inferno fights, but having played on every difficulty before those in various stages, I'm having a great time.
EDF! Target... Annihilated!
Gozer the Gozerian
Member
Fantastic! I'll be playing through the entirety of the game in local split-screen on one account just like me and my roommate did with 2017 back in college, glad to know it'll work basically the same as it did in that game.
Agree 100%.
Especially those three words: Fencer, Dashes, Scythes. Beating level 2? (Trapped or something along these lines, underground level where you are swamepd with enemies) using that combination and mowing through the hordes was arguably the most intense battle I have experienced in the last 30 years of gaming
Seriously, this beats 2017 in almost every aspect.
You're definitely right in the levels being long but that's what I like about them tbh
Insect Armageddon for example I felt was far too long and 2017s too short, these are just right. Plus I'm finding the way Sandlot do the levels and enemy arrangements in this much more entertaining. But then as much as I loved 2017 I found it a big step down from EDF 2 so going back to bigger scale with 2025 is a delight for me 2017 was more or less a remake of the original EDF/Monster Attack.This will be definitely be on my shortlist for GOTY this year, no joke, and in all honesty I don't think I'll be seeing a better coop game for me this year. Also despite the typical slowdowns etc I'm very impressed with Sandlots netcode. It hasn't let me and my coop buddy down once. Hell I'm not even finding the slowdowns that bad even on PS3 tbh, but then I've suffered with EDF 2
A quick question for Fencer players, do you need to use the known method to dash about the battlefield or are their other/just as good ways to rush around the battlefield ? I only played the class for a level basically and found him sooooooooo slow, how do people tend to travel around faster ?
NoirVisage
Banned
The last few missions for a air raider, even with level 50 weapons are killer..if it wasn't for my railcannon tank, it'd been a wrap!
I love this game, on the last single player level, I like how they reveal the fate of the lone soldier from 2017.. The story may be tongue and cheek, but its actually quite good.
I love this game, on the last single player level, I like how they reveal the fate of the lone soldier from 2017.. The story may be tongue and cheek, but its actually quite good.
Agree 100%.
Especially those three words: Fencer, Dashes, Scythes. Beating level 2? (Trapped or something along these lines, underground level where you are swamepd with enemies) using that combination and mowing through the hordes was arguably the most intense battle I have experienced in the last 30 years of gaming
Seriously, this beats 2017 in almost every aspect.
OK. Picking up a copy tomorrow. Is this game still fun when playing solo? I don't have many internet friends.
NoirVisage
Banned
The last mission on single player..wow.O__O
I'd seen it many times, but never realized how urgent it would feel whilst playing, what a laser light show!
I'd seen it many times, but never realized how urgent it would feel whilst playing, what a laser light show!
Yes, I've been playing solo, played through every class except wing diver and went back to air raider and finished normal with him..had fun throughout, so many weapons, so little time..
At this point, I'm just chugging to the end. Mid-to-late 60s, and there are a few missions I just bumped down to easy immediately because it was clearly just going to be another "walk 300 feet and fight a pile of enemies" or "more flying shit." I just...really hope not giving up on this is going to pay off in the long run. I have a feeling this game would have been much better if they just cut 20 of the completely worthless missions and add 5-6 more proper boss fights.
Thanks. Hope the gamestop near my office has a sealed 360 copy.
eastx
Member
Completely agreed. We'd all like more boss fights and less getting stuck against buildings by spider webs, but those are minor grievances compared to how much new and improved content 2025 brings.
Plus: online play is just too much fun - people who don't have split-screen players can enjoy the team aspect, everyone can have their own profile (which continues to be a problem with split-screen), and 4-player is better than 2-player. If you're doing it all by yourself and never go online or at least play locally with a friend, you're definitely missing out on part of what makes the game shine.
REMEMBER CITADEL
Banned
EDF 2017 was by no means campy by accident. It was the third game in the series, and the campy tone has been well established by that point. It's just that it's been handled with a better sense for measure than in IA.
Talking about the English dub. As far as the US was concerned, there was no "voice" to EDF at that point, and their style and adaptation just happened to resonate with the people who liked the game. Sure it was still hammy (as I'm sure the JP is as well), but it wasn't so obvious they were chasing after that specific flavor, as it is now.
To compare it to TV or Anime, the first one felt like the product of a low-budget voice cast / dub doing what they could, while this one feels like a more richer cast that's making sure to keep some aspects of that memorable cheaper dub, even if they could do better if they wanted to.
angelic
Banned
I think the dub is perfect and hilarious, I couldnt ask for more. The main commander dialogue is completely genuine, ("are we going to continue with these useless aistrikes?")..its gritty and realistic considering the fantasy setting, but yet also funny. Its way better than the likes of COD that I bet uses ten times the recording budget at least.
The script overused the words "giant insects" during the early missions which is why so many reviews are all "giant insects! giant insects!" It's really annoying at the start.
I don't miss the boss fights that much, they rarely played very interesting (usually it runs around at a pace you cannot follow anyway and then launches huge attacks that you have no chance to react to, either they go wide because it was aiming completely wrong or they hit you and your whole neighborhood) and the lack of loot drops made those missions less desirable to play as well. I prefer the dynamics of dealing with crowds instead. Fighting bosses in Reginleiv was more fun because the dismemberment gave you more ways to interact with them.
I'm mostly playing Air Raider currently, all solo. You effectively spend most of your time in a vehicle so it's very different from other classes.
I don't miss the boss fights that much, they rarely played very interesting (usually it runs around at a pace you cannot follow anyway and then launches huge attacks that you have no chance to react to, either they go wide because it was aiming completely wrong or they hit you and your whole neighborhood) and the lack of loot drops made those missions less desirable to play as well. I prefer the dynamics of dealing with crowds instead. Fighting bosses in Reginleiv was more fun because the dismemberment gave you more ways to interact with them.
I'm mostly playing Air Raider currently, all solo. You effectively spend most of your time in a vehicle so it's very different from other classes.
NoirVisage
Banned
Turns out when you're playing online, the HP for enemies(damage scaling) if you're playing solo is the same as when you're playing 4 players..
With 2 player and 3 player being the lower difficulties..
Uhhh..how does that make sense?
With 2 player and 3 player being the lower difficulties..
Uhhh..how does that make sense?
Riposte
Member
Agreed, especially when you got a variety of classes and everyone is fucking things up. The funniest visual is when your target is placed in front of you on a silver platter at the start of the mission and everyone is just going full barrage, creating constant, ridiculous explosions and hits to the frame rate.
Why don't ants ever get boring to kill? I don't know.
NoirVisage
Banned
I like the cut of your jib, I need powerful swords though, that's my plan for my online playthrough.
...Kinda? If your friends are using explosive, nope, bad idea, back up NAO.
But being able to slash, boost, cancel into another slash, boost, is a great way to fight.
my preferences are Pile Bunker + QUAKE HAKEN ATM, because the Haken is "broken" amounts of crowd control. The generic attack is just ok, maybe to cause a stagger... the first charge has you jump forward, and pound the ground, causing POWER GYZAs to pop up in a cone like formation before you. Great as a Dash to pick up health / outpace enemies. And then the 3rd charge shoots the GYZA's out behind you, without any movement.
This is great because you can "pull" for your team by walking slowly with your back to the enemy, and messing up the group with max charges. Then once they've thinned the group, you jump in with weapons blazing, and 1-on-1 everything to death in a style of your choice.
One last note is that you have damage resist (Varies, I've seen up to 80%) while unleashing a charge move. So you really can just stand in a group and unleash something chaotic. Afterwards you'll probably die, but you'll feel like a BOSS for that brief second of kingly power.
Or a Virtualoid. I'm fine with either. It really is pretty AC like in the Melee / shot feel, especially with the shoulder launchers. But the scope of the attacks reminds me more of Virtua On, and even melee feels like it sets at double lock-on range from that series.
Seraphis Cain
bad gameplay lol
Gaaaaaaaah Fencer's low-level equipment is such garbage. Too garbage for me to be able to solo any stage that has any hope of giving me something higher than Lv. 2.
natsuyasumi
Member
Your first gatling can take you fairly far.
My current favorite combo is Twin Spears & Haken - I rarely use max charges, if you time it right you can have 2 boosts backward & a level 2 forward charge, so I constantly back out of the masses & dash right back in with a powerful blast. When in need to get away / pick up health the twin spears come in handy for dual boosts. Needs enough health to survive (and no buddies that blast into the horde ^^), but nothing I've seen yet compares to smashing hordes of ants into bits within seconds..
Oh that's crap. I went into Jb last week and they said it would be in on Thursday
hikarutilmitt
Member
Farming Stage 1 on Hard to get some better weapons for continuing on Normal, apparently they really, really want to impress on you that the bugs have been gone for 7 years.
7 years.
SEVEN YEARS
7 years.
SEVEN YEARS
natsuyasumi
Member
What "bugs" are you talking about? Don't recall any. Do you mean Giant Insects?
In that time the insects have become harder, but our weapons have also become stronger.
Did you also know that Wing Divers are the natural enemy of insects?
Oh that's crap. I went into Jb last week and they said it would be in on Thursday
Up until yesterday their webpage had it listed as the 28th of Feb. Looking around I can't see anything about the delay apart from an EB Games post on their Facebook page saying that the vendor cancelled it.
I assume this means JB are importing their own stock, which has been delayed...
eastx
Member
Nice comment. Yes, they mostly got the dialogue and camp right, but I don't know what the writer was thinking by avoiding the word bugs. Nobody would say giant insects every time, so it makes the dialogue needlessly artificial and repetitive.
Trick is to play with two controllers and have the Fencer be the second guy. Just beat most of the stage with the first guy, and have the Fencer pick up weapons before the level ends.
You could also farm level 11 on higher difficulties offline, since the AI teammates will generally kill all the enemies for you. Hide under the bridge for some cover. Farming that level online is a lot harder though.
Riposte
Member
I'm so hooked on this game right now.
Going back and doing Mission 15 (the spawn tunnel one) on Hardest has been the toughest thing so far (maybe it was intentionally skipped over by the group I initially did 10-20 with). Took me like 3 hours to get it down with people coming in and out and some staying for most of that impressively enough - a true credit to the EDF.
I just got a gun that shoots 30 powerful grenades at once. Did a test drive through mission 1 solo and it delivers exactly what I'd hope. Usually not into loot, but this game is an exception to that. The way it has level caps for lower difficulties prevents me from just forgetting about the lower level items. In any case, I like to stick to Hard and Hardest.
Going back and doing Mission 15 (the spawn tunnel one) on Hardest has been the toughest thing so far (maybe it was intentionally skipped over by the group I initially did 10-20 with). Took me like 3 hours to get it down with people coming in and out and some staying for most of that impressively enough - a true credit to the EDF.
I just got a gun that shoots 30 powerful grenades at once. Did a test drive through mission 1 solo and it delivers exactly what I'd hope. Usually not into loot, but this game is an exception to that. The way it has level caps for lower difficulties prevents me from just forgetting about the lower level items. In any case, I like to stick to Hard and Hardest.
Seraphis Cain
bad gameplay lol
Oh man, dual wielding Force Blades with the Fencer is SO AMAZING.