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[RevenantKioku]

Guess who forgot to update hid psp!

 

[duckroll]

Looking forward to impressions from Oichi, rk, and Shouta. Play-Asia still hasn't shipped my copy!

 

[RevenantKioku]

Hmmmmm. I get Error 80111900 if I try to install it. I run the CFW so I'm guessing that is what's fucking with me?

 

[-Oath]

Hmmmmm. I get Error 80111900 if I try to install it. I run the CFW so I'm guessing that is what's fucking with me?

Probably.
Run a CFW the LR is compatible with.
I hear 5.50 prometheus works.

 

[RevenantKioku]

That's what I'm running.

 

[jj984jj]

Man, that guy on Last Ranker TV really sucked at the game. :lol

It looks like a lot of fun, I'm still curious about the balance but at least it doesn't look boring.

 

[faridmon]

You got me at Breath of Fire, Duckroll. You bloody stopped me and got me there...
However, oh boy does the game and the art look as generic as crap, hopefully it will have other redeeming features.

Is it annouced if its going to be released outside Japan?

sorry, i haven't read the thread.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Well, regarding "generic as crap" it does feel a lot like a late PS1 / early PS2 game for what it's worth. I'm liking that, though!

 

[faridmon]

Well, regarding "generic as crap" it does feel a lot like a late PS1 / early PS2 game for what it's worth. I'm liking that, though!

Now that you mentioned, we don;t have some of those ''generic as crap'' gammes these days and age, so maybe, just maybe, this has the PS1/PS2 quality from the get go.

But again, Tales of Symphonia looked ''generic as crap'', and I really likes that one...

 

[Spiegel]

Is it annouced if its going to be released outside Japan?

sorry, i haven't read the thread.

The game was trademarked for NA and Europe last September but Capcom still hasn't announced a western release.

 

[Urban Scholar]

My order shipped and should be at work for me come tomorrow morning. By the way I didn't know that play-asia was located near a fedex hub.

 

[RevenantKioku]

I spent too much time trying to get my blog fixed to do a diary style update post for this game. It's still not working perfectly, but I can finally get back to playing this game. It's fun. :S

 

[Shouta]

Got my copy while my friends were over tonight. Game very nicely wrapped in the packaging so perfect condition. The production note seems to be pretty nice quality from just the cover but I haven't looked inside yet.

 

[KTallguy]

Fun! Great! A positive impression!

 

[Oichi]

I'm about 5 and a half hours into the game (

Spoiler

I just arrived in Tylone's area

) right now... and I'm really enjoying the game.

What I really like
- Like I said before, super fast loading times, even when you use the fast travel option (you can press Select and then warp anywhere that you've discovered and explored). Loading times are seriously like 1 - 2 seconds max with media install.

- Advancing text with the L/R buttons woo! It's like the Dragon Quest DS remakes I love this feature because I play on the train sometimes and I need to grab onto something if I'm standing up, so being able to grip the PSP over the shoulder buttons feels more secure.

- Battle system seems great so far. It really feels like a mix between turn-based and real-time action. I often found myself taking too much damage because guarding one attack takes one block of your SP gauge and enemies will sometimes attack multiple times, or their single attack will hit more than once, so you need to keep in mind what kind of attacks enemies can do. On the other hand you can interrupt enemies when they are charging for their special attacks with an attack of your own.

- The battles against the Rankers are great. They all have their own special abilities that you'll need to adjust to, and with all of the Rankers i've faced so far (I've downed 15 of them?), I haven't faced many duplicate strategies. It's cool how the ranking system works, as people who are way below you will refuse to fight you, but those who are way above you will shrug you off until you are closer to their level. The ones that you do beat can't be fought again though, it seems.

- Graphics are great, the main city that I've been in for the past 5 hours looks fantastic. The surrounding areas are kind of boring though but they seem to be random field dungeons so I don't really care too much.

- Music is pretty good, not amazing but it's not bad.

I don't like
- You can't equip/unequip while shopping which is a pain in the ass. Even if you purchase something new there isn't an equip/sell old item option.

- Main character can't run. :/ It's annoying in dungeons but at least when going from area to area you can just fast travel.

- The main thing I've been doing to advance the main story has been job board sidequests but none of them have been too interesting from a gameplay perspective. Most are of the "hunt/kill this enemy" type of deal.

- Lip syncing for some cutscenes seems a bit off in places

- Main female character seems a bit meh right now. She's not mind-blowingly annoying but she's not interesting either. Your character has a bit of personality but has an annoying catch phrase and comes off as a clueless dick sometimes.:lol

 

[duckroll]

I'm about 5 and a half hours into the game

You played over 5 hours of a PSP game on the first day? Wow, I'm impressed! :lol

 

[faridmon]

The game was trademarked for NA and Europe last September but Capcom still hasn't announced a western release.

Cheers!

can't wait.

 

[Aeana]

- Battle system seems great so far. It really feels like a mix between turn-based and real-time action. I often found myself taking too much damage because guarding one attack takes one block of your SP gauge and enemies will sometimes attack multiple times, or their single attack will hit more than once, so you need to keep in mind what kind of attacks enemies can do. On the other hand you can interrupt enemies when they are charging for their special attacks with an attack of your own.

Yay; awesome.

My game shipped. I think I'm getting the bonus piano CD, also, but I'm not sure. Fingers crossed.

 

[Shouta]

Got about two an hour-ish in so far and I'm really digging it! The music is fantastic and the graphics are impressive, the design and look of the areas is great. Had my first two Ranker battles and won.

I like how this incorporates two BoF elements. D-rank from Dragon Quarter and Learning techniques from opponents like in BOF3 (though without the look command). Fits in with those games :lol

 

[KTallguy]

It has a D-rank like system ? Maybe I'm confusing it with the percentage thing

It would be kind of cool if you could run it up and spontaneously combust and die, like in BoFV

 

[Shouta]

It has a D-rank like system ? Maybe I'm confusing it with the percentage thing

It would be kind of cool if you could run it up and spontaneously combust and die, like in BoFV

It's not really all that similar to a D-rank 'cept that it changes throughout the game and it seems to have various benefits. DQ's was story though, this is "zomg, I'm awesome" and maybe story.

 

[Oichi]

Finally got my

Spoiler

counter attack

command option, yay. The timing for it is a bit weird right now but I think after some practice it'll be okay. I ran up against one Ranker I cannot defeat all! She's either countering or guarding every attack that I do, and none of my special skill attacks (even the ougi attack I have) does a lot of damage on her.

I'm kind of stuck on one of the quests because it seems like it requires you to get your rank up to a certain level before it triggers but all of the rankers I've come across I've either defeated, refuse to fight, or destroy me completely :/

 

[thetrin]

I might hop on this once I finish Xenoblade. 87 hours and counting...so close to the end.

How long is Last Ranker supposed to be?

 

[KTallguy]

Does D-Rank dictate where you can go in the game, or maybe areas you can access?
It really sounds like an offline MMO in that respect.

 

[Oichi]

Yes, there are areas that you are not allowed to access due to rank.

Edit: I really have to say that I'm enjoying the battle system a lot. There seems to be a lot of depth not only in the customization of your skills/bonuses but in the actual battle itself.

 

[Urban Scholar]

I was pleasantly surprised that it came with the CD preorder bonus this morning.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Nothing too specific to say, but I am still playing and enjoying it, which is more than I can say on day 2 for the past few PSP games I bought.

 

[Urban Scholar]

Nothing too specific to say, but I am still playing and enjoying it, which is more than I can say on day 2 for the past few PSP games I bought.

I do like the Suikoden fast/faster(?) battle speed that much I can say right now.

 

[-Oath]

Wow, I am in love with this battle theme from the game.
You may remember it from one of the trailers.
Simply beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM-uWi6vTAs

 

[RevenantKioku]

I do like the Suikoden fast/faster(?) battle speed that much I can say right now.

Funny you mention Suikoden. The Ranker battles remind me of Suikoden's duels for some reason.
Wish the weapon shop actually had some items. Not having any customization options is less frustrating than having the options there but nothing to actually work with. :lol I know that it should happen soon, but still!

Edit: Lol, English vocals!

 

[-Oath]

Started playing a little bit ago.
The graphics are top notch, the battles are loads of fun and the environments/towns are well designed. No complaints so far.

EDIT: My PSP has been glued to my hands for hours, I cant put it down.
Im rank 66852 right now and Im loving every minute of this game. Its getting tougher though.

 

[jj984jj]

The credits are up on YouTube (I think they're spoiler free, I recognized most of the people in the stills):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlkDC_3QJ9Q

Image Epoch definitely made this game. As usual with Image Epoch games a lot of the planners left me scratching my head with random connections that made me wonder if those people are the same as those I found game credits for. I saw that Dai Oba was the lead battle planner, and someone with the same name worked as a planner on Okami, but was also a level design planner on Arc Rise Fantasia so I don't know if he's the same person or which company he came from. Aside from people I don't recognize a fair amount of the non-planning staff worked on Arc Rise Fantasia too though, so this is definitely an Image Epoch game.

 

[GhaleonQ]

The credits are up on YouTube (I think they're spoiler free, I recognized most of the people in the stills):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlkDC_3QJ9Q

Yoko Shimomura officially did all of the music, then. Great.

 

[jj984jj]

Yoko Shimomura officially did all of the music, then. Great.

Oh definitely, the music for this game is godly. I love it all, though I didn't listen to a few of the later tracks I doubt she lets up there.

 

[Aeana]

Everyone has such huge hands in this game. So weird.

I can't stop taking screenshots, though. It's very pretty.

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

Sorry to ask such a boring question but for those that have the game, how easy/hard is it to follow the game without knowing Japanese? I've played through many RPGs in Japanese so have experience but is it easy to know what to do/where to go next etc?

Also, how is the difficulty?

 

[duckroll]

The credits are up on YouTube (I think they're spoiler free, I recognized most of the people in the stills):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlkDC_3QJ9Q

Image Epoch definitely made this game. As usual with Image Epoch games a lot of the planners left me scratching my head with random connections that made me wonder if those people are the same as those I found game credits for. I saw that Dai Oba was the lead battle planner, and someone with the same name worked as a planner on Okami, but was also a level design planner on Arc Rise Fantasia so I don't know if he's the same person or which company he came from. Aside from people I don't recognize a fair amount of the non-planning staff worked on Arc Rise Fantasia too though, so this is definitely an Image Epoch game.

I'm not sure what else you were expecting though. It says an Image Epoch game in the trailers, Image Epoch has it on their site, Niinou works at Image Epoch, Mikage has talked about the game on his blog many times. Why would it... not be an Image Epoch game? Dai Oba is an Image Epoch employee. He could be the same planner which was at Clover, but he's also worked on both 7th Dragon and ARF.

 

[Tailzo]

I really hope this game makes it outsiden of Japan. I've watched a few new youtube vids today. Looks really fun and with a lot of personality.

 

[jj984jj]

I'm not sure what else you were expecting though. It says an Image Epoch game in the traielrs, Image Epoch has it on their site, Niinou works at Image Epoch, Mikage has talked about the game on his blog many times. Why would it... not be an Image Epoch game? Dai Oba is an Image Epoch employee. He could be the same planner which was at Clover, but he's also worked on both 7th Dragon and ARF.

I knew from the credits we had they were the primary developer, but I was wondering if there was anything more to the Image Epoch/Capcom credit for the development on the official website. Guess not, but I don't have a problem with it or anything.

 

[duckroll]

Last Ranker credits below (I'll denote the Capcom staff with a C, and other non-Image Epoch staff as required).

As you can see, Capcom was heavily involved in the character modeling, cutscene storyboarding and motion capturing, and the entire sound department in the game. Image Epoch developed the game, handling all planning, programming, and the rest of the art assets.

It certainly explains why the game looks and feels much more polished than other Image Epoch 3D games (ARF and Fate/Extra), especially when it comes to the characters and the cutscenes.

Director - Kazuya Niinou
Scenario - Kazushige Nojima (freelance)
Character Designer - Tatsuya Yoshikawa (C)
Music - Yoko Shimomura (freelance)

Production Manager
Ryouei Mikage
Makoto Kadono (C)
Kentaro Nihei (C)

Game System Design

Lead Planner
Hiroyuki Kanemaru

Atsushi Sasaki
Arito Hirobe
Natsuko Ishikawa
Tetsuro Oda
Kohei Kawazoe


Battle System Design

Lead Planner
Dai Oba

Kenji Sudo
Yoshikazu Suzuki
Sayuri Aramaki


Design

Lead Designer/Design Manager
Jyu Ikeda


Interface Design

Lead Designer
Meri Matsumoto

Nozomi Fujii
Megumi Kodachi


Visual Effects

Lead Designer
Chiaki Asakura

Tayzo Inukai
Yukana Abe
Ai Yamamoto


2D Art Design

Lead Designer
Naoki Ikushima

Nozomi Kobayashi
Ayumi Iino
Tatsuaki Urushihara

Evinos Designer
Shin Nagasawa (freelance)

NPC Designer
Ryoko Wada


Background Design

Lead Designer/System Tools
Yoshitaka Yamano

So Segoe
Masahiro Yaegashi
Hiroaki Uchiumi
Ayumi Banse
Chisa Okamoto
Tetsuro Abe
Keihan Fujii
Satoko Kojima
Daisuke Sato


Character Model Design

Lead Designer
Hajime Kato
Hiroko Koike (C)

Yuki Hirohara
Hirofumi Nakaoka (C)
Kazuhisa Inuzuka (C)
Haruka Kawabata (C)
Yasuhiro Tashima
Kenji Tanaka
Tomoyuki Nishijima
Masatoshi Fujita
Tetsuya Enomoto (C)
Hiromitsu Kawashima (C)
Yu Yamamoto


Character Animation

Lead Designer
Hiroki Maekawa

Fumihiro Maruno
Kazuya Satoh
Isao Takeuchi

Special Attack Designer
Yuji Satoh


Programming

Lead Programmer
Takashi Kawamoto

Lead Field Programmer
Masakazu Sasaki

Lead Battle Programmer
Motohiko Hayashi

Lead UI Programmer
Takafumi Nishida

Lead Effects Programmer
Isao Nakajima

Asami Aoike
Masashi Fujimoto
Kazuki Yamada
Toru Kamiyama
Motoi Hasegawa


Cinematics

Cutscene Producer/Director
Yasutaka Kaneshige

Modeling Lead
Shun Manabe

In-Game Event Lead
Koji Saito

Storyboards
Kosuke Nasu (C)

Motion Capture Technician
Yoshio Misaki (C)
Yoshiaki Yuasa (C)

Motion Capture Actor
Naomi Taniyama
Ryoji Okamoto
Yoshio Miyaki
Wataru Koga
Tomohiko Akiyama

Performance Advisor
Hiroshi Kamiya


Cinematic CG

Visual Effects Producer
Yuuji Hikosaka (Shirogumi)

Visual Effects Director
Hirotaka Naitou (Shirogumi)
Gou Torii (Shirogumi)
Kunihiko Suzuki (Shirogumi)

CGI Supervisor
Kentarou Taguchi (Shirogumi)


Sound

Sound Manager
Masayuki Tanaka (C)
Naoya Yamanaka (C)

Mixing Engineer
Kazuya Takimoto (C)
Takashi Moriguchi (C)

Mixing Studio
bit MASTER studio

Studio Manager
Setsuo Yamamoto (C)


Sound Effects

Sound Effects Director
Bungo Fujiwara (TwoFive)
Tomokazu Ushiyama (TwoFive)


Movie Sound Section

Sound Designer
Hirokazu Nishida (C)
Arata Iwashina (C)
Masatomo Tajima (C)
Gaku Komura (C)

 

[C-Jo]

Jesus, how have I slept on this game? It looks freakin' amazing. I hope a US release isn't too far away.

 

[-Oath]

Sorry to ask such a boring question but for those that have the game, how easy/hard is it to follow the game without knowing Japanese? I've played through many RPGs in Japanese so have experience but is it easy to know what to do/where to go next etc?

Also, how is the difficulty?

Playing this game without understanding Japanese is pretty frustrating.
Ive done it before aswell with other games but Last Ranker has mandatory quests that will make you look all around the overworld for what ever it is you have to do if you dont understand some Japanese.
If you plan to play it, you'll need the Nicovideo walkthrough or some other FAQ.
Oh, and its not that hard a game. Things will get tougher over time but the games learning curve isnt steep.

 

[duckroll]

Food for thought: There are more names listed in the Last Ranker credits than Arc Rise Fantasia.

 

[Urban Scholar]

Food for thought: There are more names listed in the Last Ranker credits than Arc Rise Fantasia.

Not surprising, in the nearly 12 hours I have poured in I've heard tons of voiced dialogue. I ran my PSP batteries dead playing this, which I haven't done in ages.

 

[Shouta]

Game is awesome so far. Don't have much time to write impressions now, heading to Tokyo.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Aw man. I just fought Yoa to go to 81244 and that was an intense fight. Ended with 29 HP. I do like that breaking doesn't guarantee you the win. It helped but she wasn't finshed and had me almost broken (not like it would have mattered with me being at 29 HP) and I took her out. The Ranker battles are so fun in this game.

 

[Bebpo]

Got mine and played an hour. First impressions are not so hot. Lots of little annoyances that show the game is made by Image Epoch and not an AAA jrpg dev.

The dialogue is SCRATCHY AND NOISY when played with good headphones. It sounds compressed to junk. Awful awful awful awful. When the white haired dude yelled in the intro it was all static and crackling. smh.

Is there no way to run on the overworld or am I dumb?

After Xenoblade, having to hit O to advance every 1-5 word voiced dialogue bubble feels lame.

The cutscene direction is pretty bad at the start. The scenes are like 5 seconds long and then cut. Feels weird.

Graphics are great. Music seems good. Battle system could be neat.

 

[-Oath]

Bah, I havent grinded or anything and the ranking battles are now a breeze. With the right skills I can deal 3000-3500 in a single combo, nearly killing them. Hope the difficulty makes a sharp increase. Oh, and the gun style sucks.

 

[Josh7289]

I love the visual style of this game, from the character designs to the graphics to the UI style to the box art and everything else (is there even anything I didn't cover there?). The story sounds great as I'm a big fan of shonen manga, and the music sounds good from what I've heard so far (Yoko Shimomura is excellent as always).

I haven't been reading/watching nearly enough of this game to know much about what the actual gameplay is like, but if I knew more Japanese... and if I had a PSP... Man I'd buy this so fast. I hate having to miss out on it, at least for now.

 

[GhaleonQ]

Oh definitely, the music for this game is godly. I love it all, though I didn't listen to a few of the later tracks I doubt she lets up there.

Yeah, there's a gamerip out there and the arranged album, but I'm going to refrain until the actual soundtrack's released.