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Elminage Original |OT| - The Priestess of Darkness and The Ring of Gods

cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
eOhRi.jpg


Developer: Starfish

Publisher: UFO Interactive

Music By: Hitoshi Sakimoto & Baslscape [!]

Platform: PSP/Vita, via PSN (Yes, VITA COMPATIBLE ON DAY 1!)

Genre: Masochism Dungeon Crawler

Originally made in: 2008(!) [PS2]

US Release Date: 11/20/12 [PSP Remake]
Pricing: TBA(Probably $15 or so)


It's a miracle this game's coming out at all. The PSP's going out with guns blazing, and in its death throes, we're getting the first game in a surprisingly long, storied series.


Elminage Original is a PSP remake/port of 2008's "The Priestess of Darkness and The Ring of Gods".

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It was also remade for the DS, which odder still, has not been localized.

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Then there's Elminage II,

1102173-elminage2boxart_large.jpg


III,

1742792-elminage_iii_box_art_large.jpg


and the latest, Gothic.

661918_251628_front.jpg



So yeah, uh, WTF is Elminage?

I'm glad you asked!


So like with most Japanese dungeon crawlers, the guys at Starfish love them some Wizardry.

That's kind of a pricey license though, so...


They just made their own game with Wizardry mechanics and slapped a different name on it. Easy money.


Either it's really popular, or Starfish are really stubborn, but who's complaining?

Story

In the world of Elminage Original, six rings harbor the powers of the gods. The world has been protected by a barrier created by 5 of the rings since before anyone remembers. When a dark priestess shatters the barrier and scatters the rings, the once peaceful world is now threatened by the dark creatures emerging as the barrier fades.

Word spread among adventurers that a monumental reward was in store for the ones that can gather all the rings and call forth the barrier once again. So the adventure begins…

Screens

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Trailer


Reviews

Pocketgamer: 6/10
Digitally Downloaded: 3.5/10
 
G

Green Card

Member
I think I'm going to grab this for my vita. I have never played a dungeon crawler before and this looks good. I haven't been a fan of the art for most of the dungeon crawlers on DS/PSP.
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DUNGEON CRAWLERS. I should pick this up and finish it before EO4 comes out.

Green Card said:
I think I'm going to grab this for my vita. I have never played a dungeon crawler before and this looks good. I haven't been a fan of the art for most of the dungeon crawlers on DS/PSP.
Click to expand...

Fair warning: this has been said to be one of those DCs that is very indifferent to your setbacks and punishes death mercilessly.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
It is a traditional Wizardry-like, at least. Unchained Blades tries a LOT of new things, and feels all the harder for it. (Monster supports, multi-screen fights, enormous bosses with multiple segments, skill trees, etc.)
 
K

krYlon

Member
Love the art. Looks really dark and atmospheric. Great enemy design.

But yeah, need to get through my backlog too. I'll still buy it and throw it on the pile (so to speak).
 
creid

creid

Member
I remember hearing good things about this series on WAHP, but I don't remember if this entry was the one being discussed. Might check it out.
 
D

Deleted member 57681

Unconfirmed Member
Ouuuuuh snap. So I can play this on PS3 too? And will it come to EU PSN?
 
D

Deleted member 57681

Unconfirmed Member
cj_iwakura said:
PSP games aren't PS3 playable to my knowledge, and probably won't ever be.
Click to expand...
Yeah I know that, I just made the false assumption that this is a PSN game that also happens to be playable on PSP. :(
 
K

krYlon

Member
I think maybe "Platform: PSP/PSN/Vita" is a little confusing. You could take it to mean PSN in general as it is separated from PSP and Vita.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
krYlon said:
I think maybe "Platform: PSP/PSN/Vita" is a little confusing. You could take it to mean PSN in general as it is separated from PSP and Vita.
Click to expand...

True. Clarified. But hey, maybe more people would've bought it!

There's a slim chance this could wind up being $10. Hopefully a bunch of us have to collaborate on figuring the game out like we did with Wizardry LoLS, but that wasn't a four year old game.



And almost no one bought Unchained Blades. :(
 
A

archnemesis

Member
Unchained Blades is still not available in Europe and it's not an important enough title that I'm going to bother with account switching and importing PSN cards. The same goes for this game. I noticed that there is only an ESRB rating on UFO's website, so that might mean they're not releasing it here.
 
K

krYlon

Member
The style of Unchained Blades really put me off. Maybe if it goes on sale.

This is much more appealing though and $10 (or even $15) is very enticing :)
And I have $20 to use from that October promotion...
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
archnemesis said:
Unchained Blades is still not available in Europe and it's not an important enough title that I'm going to bother with account switching and importing PSN cards. The same goes for this game. I noticed that there is only an ESRB rating on UFO's website, so that might mean they're not releasing it here.
Click to expand...

Insult to injury was that most people who were interested in UB are waiting on the non-existent 3DS version.
 
A

Augemitbutter

Member
this will be mine.

Unchained Blades is very good, i can vouch for it. maybe a bit on the easy side once you get your full party, but otherwise a very solid dungeon crawler with a competent crew behind it and a good deal of voice acting and good music.
 
R

RedBoot

Member
Does this one let you add your own character pics to the game, or is that only in the later games?

At any rate, I will always buy first-person dungeon crawlers (Always!), so this one is bought. Even though it's coming out on the same day as like 3 other things I want to play.
 
G

Green Card

Member
RedBoot said:
Does this one let you add your own character pics to the game, or is that only in the later games?

At any rate, I will always buy first-person dungeon crawlers (Always!), so this one is bought. Even though it's coming out on the same day as like 3 other things I want to play.
Click to expand...

I think you can.
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
Green Card said:
I think you can.
Click to expand...

I guess that won't work on the Vita, though?


edit: Or maybe it will. PSP games that can take screenshots work on the Vita, but I have no idea how to access them on the Vita. But clearly somehow PSP games can still access a picture folder.
 
D

dragonlife

Member
Never finished Dark Spire.

Never finished a single Etrian Odyssey.

Haven't finished Legend of Grimrock.

Haven't bought Wizardry on PSN.

Will probably buy this a good while from now and never beat it. Probably. Music from Hitoshi Sakimoto/Basiscape? Cherry on top.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
No confidence that this will be any good, but I'm so there day one.
Mostly as a "pinch me" kind of response because I still don't really understand how this is real.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Mejilan said:
No confidence that this will be any good, but I'm so there day one.
Mostly as a "pinch me" kind of response because I still don't really understand how this is real.
Click to expand...

The Elminage games have a devout niche following. They're straight forward hardcore, but solid.
 
T

tomasdk

Member
I'm pleasantly surprised this is coming out already. Didn't know it's like Wizardry, the last Wizardry-like game I played was Class of Heroes last year. I hope they will bring over the sequels also.

Edit: According to the UFO Interactive website, it will cost $14.99, most pleasing.
 
G

Green Card

Member
tomasdk said:
I'm pleasantly surprised this is coming out already. Didn't know it's like Wizardry, the last Wizardry-like game I played was Class of Heroes last year. I hope they will bring over the sequels also.

Edit: According to the UFO Interactive website, it will cost $14.99, most pleasing.
Click to expand...

$14.99? Not bad. I'll buy it tonight.
 
S

Schopenhauer

Member
$14.99 is doable. Already spent too much money this month and it isn't even Black Friday yet.

Hopefully that price point will help fuel some extra sales. Ah, who am I kidding.
 
B

Bento

Member
Grrrr! Getting error messages when I try to download it, anyone else having issues?

EDIT: Ah right fuck, need to get PSN point card things >_>
 
T

Torraz

Member
This game would put me over the 60 bucks for 10 bucks back promotion. Thus I'm kinda tempted.

How hard is it?
 
S

Schopenhauer

Member
The localization seems to be pretty rough. The option to add members to your party is labeled Friend is call in the bar and I have noticed a bunch of missing words/bad grammar right off the bat.

There doesn't appear to be any kind of digital manual included either. Might make it hard to get started for people who have never played this type of game before.
 
J

Jucksalbe

Banned
"Rough" is probably way too nice. The item menu is a complete mess, some stuff doesn't make sense, sometimes explanations scroll so slow that they reset before they're complete, etc.
Game seems okay (played about an hour), but the localization is pretty bad. I would definitely not recommend this to anyone who never played a game like this before.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Jucksalbe said:
"Rough" is probably way too nice. The item menu is a complete mess, some stuff doesn't make sense, sometimes explanations scroll so slow that they reset before they're complete, etc.
Game seems okay (played about an hour), but the localization is pretty bad. I would definitely not recommend this to anyone who never played a game like this before.
Click to expand...

I should have it soon, but to be fair, I doubt anyone who hasn't played a game like this would start with this of all games.
 
K

Kid_Compile

Neo Member
Jucksalbe said:
What does "age" do? It seems to give you a higher bonus with higher age, but there has to be some kind of catch here.
Click to expand...

In older Wizardry titles, you could die of old age. You could kind of work around this a bit by sleeping in the stables to replenish magic, and then just use magic to heal. Wash, rinse, repeat. Stables were cheaper and consumed fewer rest days.

I assume there must be something along the same lines at work here; hence the tradeoff.

cj_iwakura said:
I should have it soon, but to be fair, I doubt anyone who hasn't played a game like this would start with this of all games.
Click to expand...

The localization sucks regardless of if people have experience with similar titles. I am grateful to see Elminage make it to North America, but there is some wonky shit early on. I am wondering if a few of the races were flip-flopped - dwarves and gnomes? Quite a few early issues with text formatting too.

Also, isn't Elminage Ibun actually the latest title in the series?
 
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