So, I beat the game last night! I enjoyed the Endgame. Reminded me of Zone of Enders 1, haha.
Then went back, completed "Time Travelers", and killed all 3 rare monsters. Only have challenges (and DLC, when I get around to it) left to do, now!
Overall impressions (warning, some unmarked spoilers):
- Quite impressed with how far they stretched the ideas of the game. No story missions were exactly the same, and generally all took place in different environments, and with different gameplay mutations. I really enjoyed this aspect of it; I'm glad the game wasn't any longer for now, it was great to see everything kept fresh.
- That doesn't mean I can't see what they could pull off for a sequel. Raven, Yunica, even Cyanea could all offer some unique gameplay variations as player characters, maybe even missions with a normal human like Syd. But it's great they didn't jam any half-hearted, half-baked stuff in there, leave it out until you can it right.
- I love the visual feedback to leveling up your skills. The rock-throwing super power got to a much bigger, more chaotic level of destruction than I ever expected for it to. Unique animations for each upgrade of your basic kick, flames appearing around gravity kick, even the hit effects on the enemies grew larger as the levels progressed.
- People kept complaining about wanting to have a lock-on, and wanting to be able to fly freely. I hope Kat herself never gets either of those, really. I like the fact Gravity kick gains a greater lock-on potential as it levels up. I like the fact her gravity power ISN'T flight, leave that to someone like the "Sea Wasp". This really helps to give the controls their unique charm. Rapid fire Gravity Kicks are so fighting game like too, lol. (Flying kick -> Cancel Flight -> Re-flight, Kick again, repeat!)
- I didn't find the ground combo useless at all, as some have said. It staggers and stuns enemies, lowering their attack frequency, and dodging out of a kick combo is much easier than doing it out of gravity kick. Ground evasion also allows you to get back into dealing damage much faster (aside from GravKickCancel, which can be more risky). Also like the hopping drop-kick, and the fact you can stagger enemies with it. It's a pretty well-done system, that feels like a solid 3D version of a 2D brawler. The only things I'd personally want added, are maybe "charge" attacks from holding a button, or an enemey grapple. Delayed-press attacks would be ok too, but not a necessity.
- The game really IS set up to DEMAND a sequel, but this particular ending didn't bother me. Seems like a season finale of a TV series. I like how much stuff they left ambiguous, or up to investigation. All too often, I feel like games go wayyyy out of their way to explain things. This game lets you figure a lot of it out, and does a good job of setting up it's own lore while doing such. In that way, it doesn't insult your intelligence, and I find that refreshing.
- Love all the personality in the animation, too. They really express themselves well. Kat's HARD landing from a huge fall, or the way you slowly glide for a second, after turing off gravity from an air dash, and just gently nudge into the falling animation... even the extra slap-of-the lid she gives to the gem machines that are fed to enable challenges... I love this kind of personality in games. So many modern games get away with boring, robotic motions for so many things, it's just great to see a game try so hard to give a character... well, character! Even the secondary characters on the save screens cycle through some nice motions, and they all have pretty well-done facial animation.
- The game could have used a cinematic viewer, seriously. Such solid, dynamic pages! The art was nice throughout, even the less-significant NPCs had some great emotive shots. It was also too easy to skip cinematics by mistake, while trying to take screenshots of memorable moments...
- I was actually mildly surprised at the semi-fanservicey nature with Kat in some of the cinematics. Shower scenes, waking up apparently naked in bed... nothing too terribly bad in a way (well, Syd got an eyeful...), but given the fact her default outfit is an overly-modest one-piece semi-swimsuit, it was funny to see nearly the other end of the spectrum. Cyanea's outfit would probably also be a bit risque in a real world situation, with all those holes in it...
- What great music all throughout! Listening to the entire title theme is a great thing, the ending them was nice to listen to, and the in-game music left a stronger impact on me than I'd have expected going in. I was taken aback when I entered downtown Pleajeune for the first time. Felt like I was hearing a jazzy theme from an old Warner Bros. animation, rather than a modern day game.
This might not be a game for everyone, but for me, this contains so much of what I love about gaming in the first place. It didn't overstay it's welcome, it established and fleshed out it's core gameplay systems, it hides depth behind simplicity, and it doesn't pander so hard to modern-day desires for violence or other over-used tropes. (It feels so good NOT to use a gun in an open world game...) It was mentioned that Kat was made with western audiences in mind somewhere, and I think this is a much better job of making someone with the japanese "cute", and western "attitude", without trying way too hard, as most companies do.
If they maintain this level of quality and attention to detail, and expand on it, I'll easily be there day 1 for a sequel. I'd even possibly finally get a PS3 for it, if need be. (I'd prefer not to, though, lol.)
