PepsimanVsJoe
Member
This is the official thread for all things Guardian Heroes on Xbox Live Arcade.
Watch this trailer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdEzdvp95-I
Opening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5mQKyAPwkc&feature=related
What's the deal?
Guardian Heroes is a beatemup/arena fighting game that supports two player coop in the Story mode or up to a whopping 12 players in the Versus mode. Anyone who is familiar with the Saturn original knows how chaotic this can get.
What's the story?
The story involves a bunch of RPG characters finding a rad sword. The empire isn't down for that sort of thing so a lot of fighting happens, a robot attacks, and an Undead Hero rises from his grave to bust heads. There are multiple paths, over 50 characters to interact with(bludgeon), a bunch of endings, and a horribly long cutscene that will make you hate life.
This is the story.
What makes this so different from other beatemups?
Guardian Heroes employs a leveling system where in-between stages players can use accumulated points to raise their stats. Obviously for a bruiser like Han you want to focus on strength, while with a Mage like Randy you want lots of smartiness. Also jump is relegated to up on the d-pad/stick instead of a button, since the game is divided into three planes that can be jumped between. Basically if you've played the Bleach DS games(also by Treasure) you'll have a general idea as to how this works. Also most of the characters have access to spells. Some are pitiful like a homing fireball but other characters can summon lightning, perform some Dragon Ball Z crap, and so on. Spells cost MP which is replenished by doing combos. These spells also become more powerful when their pertinent stats are raised.
What's new?
Aside from offering the usual XBLA goodies like enhanced graphics and online-play this edition also promises a balanced mode that pares down the ridiculous-brokeness that Guardian Heroes is known for. Also the versus mode as mentioned before is now capable of supporting up to 12 players. This is like sticking 256 players in the average Call of Duty map but whatever.
Note: A lot of the playable characters suck eggs. Like those five toolkits on the bottom right.
As far as the balancing is concerned I've noticed that the MP is capped at 100 for everyone in the story and versus modes, instead of being somewhat close to the the player's HP(which can get well into the 2000s).
There is also a rule-edit mode that allows for tons of parameters and options to be changed. Seriously this is crazy in-depth.
Credit to SixFortyFive
(The red text on the bottom basically states that some character combinations can result in stalemates or other issues, this comes up if you're using any of the weaker characters)
Look at this absurdity.
Who cares?
If you have a pulse you should be all about getting this game. There's a ton of content to go around, an excellent fighting system, and the versus mode will last you a long while just poking around at all of the insanity you can put together.
How much?
800 points
When?
October 12, 2011
http://www.next-gen.biz/news/guardian-heroes-remake-out-next-month
The Heroes
Han (big blonde) - Hits stuff with his big sword. Has excellent reach, great power, next to no magic. He's the best choice for players new to the game.
Serena (Green hair and red armor) - Has a good selection of magic, tons of moves, not as good reach or strength. Tons of multi-hit stuff so expect to use lots of spells.
Randy(Kid with karate rabbit on head) - Tons of multi-hit stuff, short range, excellent spells. A beast in the right hands.
Nicole(Pink hair and silly hat) - Lousy reach and range, trips when she runs, can cast healing spells, destroys everyone with her broken as heck barrier spell. You get her and you win. Bonus: Healing spells damage the undead.
Ginjirou(Crossed arms) - Moves quickly, has tons of multi-hit and high-mobility attacks. Sweet magic as well.
The Undead Hero
Your allly for nearly the entirety of the story mode is this monster. This dude helps in battle by beating up on enemies and making a very nice boneshield(he's invincible). Commands can be issued so that he'll seek the enemy out, defend you, do nothing at all, or go berserk. When he goes berserk he starts flinging huge trails of fire everywhere and can even summon a huge explosion that wipes the screen clean of life(provided he doesn't get punched out of it).
Battle-system features
While Guardian Heroes is basically a beatemup the game employs many facets of the average fighting game. For example only a couple of the characters have what can be considered a button string combo(the type where you just mash the attack button repeatedly and go into a series of different moves). Instead you have to learn to combo weak & heavy attacks into special moves or spells.
There are three different fields in every stage. Essentially they work as the foreground, background, and the middleground. You can jump between these fields with a button press and your opponents can respond in kind. Most attacks can only affect the field they are performed in. This doesn't include many of the spells, since even a basic homing fire spell can go anywhere in the fields.
Special moves are very easy to perform, since most of them consist of simple motions or double-taps. They have different strengths and properties depending on the button you press. For example Han has a diving attack that when used with the weak attack will bounce off the enemy and can be repeated. With the strong attack however Han will charge up in a fiery rage and slam the ground, burning everything in his way.
The elements are at work in this game and can affect battles. Burning, freezing, and shocking enemies is expected when using certain moves or spells. This can work against you at times however since making contact with an enemy when they are under some elemental effect will cause the effect to spread, which will do damage. There are ways to use this to your advantage. Enemies can actually damage each other if one of them is under an elemental effect and the other makes contact with an attack.
Almost every character can block(both on the ground and in the air), perform a backdash/backstep, dodge(as in they will move so that the attack misses entirely...hard to time), perform throws, and jump between fields. Some have access to multiple jumps and even the ability to fly. Considering the varying sizes of the characters don't be surprised if some throws miss the enemy entirely. I'm sure the balanced version will fix these oddities.
Spells are pretty much the super moves of Guardian Heroes. You can perform one by merely pressing a button and selecting it but this leaves you open to attack and isn't viable for combos. The spells will usually be performed with command motions. Most are just as easy as special moves while others require a bit of fenaggling to pull off effectively.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that at least as far as the original version is concerned, Guardian Heroes is a very broken game. There are quite a few infinities, overpowered moves, and a lot of situations where the enemy can be hopelessly locked down if the player knows what they're doing. If you're having trouble the easiest stick is to jump to one field, wait for the enemy to follow, and then score a free hit when they land. There's really nothing they can do to counter this(although there are several enemies that can make it difficult for you).
There are many other aspects of the battle system to account for as well. There is a feeling of weight to everything and as the player's strength builds up their attacks will send smaller enemies flying higher into the air and/or farther away. This can work against characters like Randy who need to be able to get tons of hits in to keep using spells. Be sure to pay attention to how you divide your level-up points so you're not screwing yourself over. Nicole for example can get by without a single point in strength.
New Battle System Features!
A detailed post by SAB CA can be found right here.
More talk.
Achievements:
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/guardian-heroes/achievements/
Bark Like a Dog! 5 Give the Undead Hero a command in Story Mode.
Align with the Sign 5 Find the Coliseum in Story Mode.
Vendetta's End 10 Defeat Kanon in Story Mode.
Knighty Nite 20 Defeat Valgar in Story Mode.
Yep, Clowns Are Scary 20 Defeat Super Zur in Story Mode.
He Just Got Bronzed 20 Defeat Golden Silver in Story Mode.
The Sky is Fallen 20 Defeat the Sky Spirit in Story Mode.
Dirty Schemer 20 Defeat the Great Earth Spirit in Story Mode.
Or So the Tale Goes 5 Finish Story Mode in any difficulty.
The Hero That Heroes Call 15 Finish Story Mode in Hard Mode without using any continues
Another World Saves 30 Watch all the endings in Story Mode.
Guardian Heroes 30 Unlock all characters in Story Mode.
Verdict: Easy peasy aside from that Hard mode one. Actually that one isn't bad at all if you abuse Nicole and I'm sure it's do-able in coop. Also I'll say it can done with every character. Trying to do this achievement in remix mode is going to be a serious pain however.
Balanced mode changes
Well. I'm not sure I can call this mode "balanced". Yes it makes certain characters more viable and others less overpowered, but it's not doing anything like making the civilian characters tourney-worthy. It's a remix mode first and foremost, a different way to play the game.
Online-play talk
There's some word about it over here. Hopefully Treasure/Sega are looking at this. It'd explain the wait at least.
Karma system
By doing mean things like destroying property, juggling corpses, and beating up the innocent you will be awarded negative karma. This can affect the endings you get. It is something to look out for if you want all of the endings/achievements.
More info here
Avatar Awards.
Yep there are a few. One shirt for the male, one for the female, and a spiffy Undead Hero helmet.
You can win the shirt by...playing the game?! I forget exactly.
The helmet is won by getting 360(haha) kills in arcade mode.
There are also a couple of gamerpic awards, just keep playing the game to get them I think.
Other media
Look guys this game has been around for fifteen years. Five seconds on youtube will point you in the direction of countless videos, playthroughs, and all sorts of other fun stuff. I'll see what I can do about pulling up the best of the best.
Until then here are some videos of the new edition in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByxHeJSkv54
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/co-op-gameplay-guardian-heroes/714049
New trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h25fQNtmGks
Random battle arena vids:
Three Kanons Vs Three Super Zurs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg1WCryoPdY&feature=related
Sky Spirits Vs 5 Rabbits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5D4lLIQymw&feature=related
All randoms is the best.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkP_p1X8IdE&feature=related
The Heroes throw down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5a9HVUvBOA&feature=related
Story mode vids:
A coop play with Gin and Nicole.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55qO0DZKis0
Reviews
The-Nextlevel - 4.5 stars out of 5
Extraguy - A+ (My review)
EGM - 9
Other thread
Guardian Heroes announcement thread - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=429344 (all sorts of info in here)
Gamertags (for organizing coop runs and multiplayer bouts):
PepsimanVsJoe
RoryDropkick
Daigoro
More images
http://www.andriasang.com/e/galleries/2011/05/12/guardian_heroes_screens/2132447664/
The music
I'll post the best track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRPGrFKkcZI&feature=related
Guides and strategies
I'll post links to all of the useful posts in this thread that explain how the game works and whatever else.
