Late to the party: P.N.03 - What a boring game

L

Laurent

Member
I've recently bought a used copy of PN:03, a game I've been waiting for playing since Capcom's Production 4 famous announcement of the "exclusives" titles "for the industry, for GameCube". I've been playing a mission outside. Then inside. Then inside. Then outside. As I am preparing myself for my 5th mission, I realize that I was hoping for something that this game cannot offer me: Different outdoor environment. Different indoor environment. Different challenge. Fun.

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I seriously thought that this game was judge too severly by the majority of gamers online — the kind of cold welcome that Super Mario Sunshine, a game I liked, received — it turns out I was wrong.

What's the point of this game? Is Capcom SERIOUS about this?

Maybe I shouldn't had played Resident Evil 4 a month before trying PN:03 for the first time...
 
The point of this game? To achieve a high combo without getting hit. I liked the game, but I agree that the game could use different environments. But I don't care cause I actually like the core gameplay
 
I liked it a good bit. It's just "fun to play" for some reason to me. The powerups and combos are fun to pull off.

But it's certainly not for most people, and I'm glad I got it relatively cheaply.
 
It's a fantastic game that does take a little getting used to and a little getting into. You're going to see variety in room layout and occasionally variety in overall look. It will all be futuristic whites, greys, and browns, but there will be enough to make you realize it's very different from the last area.

The goal of the game is to connect combos and get a high score. Sure you're supposed to progress the lackluster story, but the main point of the game is to assess each room and then take out the enemies present in the most effeciant way while not getting hit. The game's core gameplay becomes more apparent once you've unlocked the Papillon Suit; the suit that makes the game more like an overhead shooter. 1 Hit kills and all the power you'll need.

I say keep going. Make it through once and see if you can get a nice suit with both automatic tanks filled. Play through again on hard and unlock the papillon suit.
 
I think I have potential in being that kind of gamer. I did enjoy Rez alot, but this has nothing to do with it. Maybe I am traumatised by the absence of diversity in environments... I was, and am hoping that somebody could tell me something I am not aware of...

EDIT: Wel... I shall buy more suits!
 
I enjoyed it. And it *IS* a "3D Schmup." I like how the challenge level goes up after you've unlocked the bonus suits, too. With the Papillion Suit, it's one hit and you're dead. :)
 
i imported this back when no one had any idea how it would turn out.

man did i get burned.

i did enjoy it, but it was not worth the 65 bucks i spent getting it.
 
I thought it was cool how most rooms had a different details than the last. And here's some of the variety in the game. I feel that each level is pretty different.

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I'm gonna check this out since its cheap. I have a liking for Capcom again. :lol

Probably get Viewtiful Joe too.
 
Laurent said:
Well I don't see obvious diversity in the pictures above...
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What do you want from that kind of futuristic style? Forest? Lava? Snow?
I think given the theme, there's plenty of diversity.

Anyhow... If you keep playing you can look forward to this.
papillon.jpg
 
Don't worry, I will pursue... It's just that the indoor architecture are quite similar, although there are obvious diversity in the lightning of those rooms. I am not looking for amazing contrast like Super Mario 64.
Maybe knowing that my "client" is in fact the robot / organization that killed her family long time ago spoiled the storyside of the game? Game stories are usually something important to me.
I'll try to get better performance next time I'll go through the game...
 
"Hated it when I first got it, but one day it just clicked... and now it's one of my fav GC games. Just give it a chance."
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same here.

I played it for an hour or so and then just put it away for a week thinking "what a load of crap that is! I can't even control the woman properly"

then i , for whatever reason, played it again - started digging the music, so gave it more of a chance and then something just clicks. It's weird... it's like a "OOOO! Right! That's what i'm supposed to do!" moment and from that point on, it kicks ass.
 
It's a love/hate game.

Personally I loved it. It helps if you grew up on shooters though, as it's definitely an oldskool highscore game.
 
I'm in the same boat as Laurent. I bought the game wanting to like it, but I played it once and thought 'what a load of shit' and then put it back in its box. I intended to take it back to the shop for a refund (even though it was only about £10!), I really wasn't impressed, and I was gutted that I wasn't able to go back into town until my return option had expired. Damn.

I'm curious about the 'it's a 3D shmup' comments. I love shmups, I really enjoy parodius, mars matrix, radiant silvergun, ikaruga and plenty of others, and I love score-oriented titles such as NiGHTS so I don't really see why people are trying to pass this off as being old-school or not.

At some point I might give this another shot, but it seemed too much like tits'n'ass (mostly ass) with clunky controls.
 
I love the shit out of this game. Looks pretty nice in motion, and the combo mechanic keeps me playing in spite of myself like any good shooter does.

...I just wish there was a better way to to bring the core gameplay out than with those controls. They're unnaturally stiff for a shooter. Meh...doesn't hurt the game anyway. :)
 
Nash said:
It's a love/hate game.

Personally I loved it. It helps if you grew up on shooters though, as it's definitely an oldskool highscore game.
Click to expand...

That sums the whole game perfectly. I'm a shooter fanatic myself, so you can guess how I feel about the game.
 
I grew up playing old-school shooters, but I didn't like PN03. The level design is one cookie-cutter room after another, and the controls are broken. I tried to accept the GAF argument that they're deliberately restrictive, but the hardest rooms to pass in the game aren't the ones with enemies--they're the ones in which Vanessa has to creep at a snail's pace along narrow curved pathways suspended above the ground, because she can't move forward and turn at the same time.

Difficulty in old-school games should come from a combination of ingenious level design and butter-smooth controls (see Ikaruga and Gradius V), not sub-par level design and controls you have to wrestle with.
 
Prospero said:
I grew up playing old-school shooters, but I didn't like PN03. The level design is one cookie-cutter room after another, and the controls are broken. I tried to accept the GAF argument that they're deliberately restrictive, but the hardest rooms to pass in the game aren't the ones with enemies--they're the ones in which Vanessa has to creep at a snail's pace along narrow curved pathways suspended above the ground, because she can't move forward and turn at the same time.

Difficulty in old-school games should come from a combination of ingenious level design and butter-smooth controls (see Ikaruga and Gradius V), not sub-par level design and controls you have to wrestle with.
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The level design isn't what makes it a good shooter, it the enemy variety and layout. You have to see which enemies are in the room and you have to know which to take out first and how to avoid the others while doing it. That's where the depth of the game is, not in level design.
 
dock UK said:
I'm curious about the 'it's a 3D shmup' comments. I love shmups, I really enjoy parodius, mars matrix, radiant silvergun, ikaruga and plenty of others, and I love score-oriented titles such as NiGHTS so I don't really see why people are trying to pass this off as being old-school or not.
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Well it's pattern-based for a start. And like any good shooter, how much you get out of PN:03 depends on how much you put into it. If you play for combos and score, the appeal is in working out the best strategy and perfecting it.

It's a hard game to pigeon-hole, but it's closer to a shooter than anything else.
 
Prospero said:
Difficulty in old-school games should come from a combination of ingenious level design and butter-smooth controls (see Ikaruga and Gradius V), not sub-par level design and controls you have to wrestle with.
Click to expand...

Any shooter in 3D is a tricky thing to pull off. PN:03 offers a different take on shooters, flawed in some ways but interesting in a lot of other ways. It's obviously not for everyone, but to complain it doesn't play as well as 2D shooters by arguably the masters of the genre is a bit unfair.
 
I'll never understand the hate this game generated, its a good, solid game with lots of things to shoot and string into combos. People looking for a story or sidequests in what is essentially a straight-up, no BS, third-person shooter are looking for the wrong game here.

Maybe it was the lack of bleeding people, that the only character there was female or the fact that most people whine like a little girl with a skinned knee when there isn't an option to strafe. It was a great game, marred by many incompetant reviewers like Matt Cassamassina
 
I will repeat what I once said before.

This game with all of it's repetitive backgrounds and level layouts has a great sense of style about it. It's one of those games like Jet Set Radio that just makes you feel like a badass when you're doing well at it.

I also concur with the whole P.N.03 = 3D Shmup concept. I was fortunate enough to have the concept click with me by the second or third mission. The concept of bonuses that actually make the game harder instead of easier (the Papillon suit) is also golden, and is a big reason why I still play through the game from time to time.
 
Nash said:
Personally I loved it. It helps if you grew up on shooters though, as it's definitely an oldskool highscore game.
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I don't remember it keeping highscores, though I could definitely be wrong about that. It's been a little while. I just remember collecting points to buy "sexy" outfits. It doesn't control as precise as a classic shooter, it doesn't look good like shooters, it has lousy bosses, etc. I guess it really is a love/hate sort of game. Play magazine adored it, Gamespot/IGN trashed it, etc.
 
I like the game but then I tried to get the blakc butterfly outfit and even though I cleared every room and every stage, I didn't get it. Played through it a couple of times (all the time, clearing all rooms, every stage). Still no final outfit. So sick of it at the end. I think I might have unlocked it but now I have no desire to replay> That's one of PNO3' greatest flaw too. Repetiveness makes replay awful.

The game is average at best. The play mechanics are okay but its biggest problem is the sameness - you feel like you've been through the countless corridors before (and I thought that PSO was bad)... this is worse. At the end of it... I just hated it. Went from liking to not caring too much about it. Capcom could do better than this but oh well... this is what we got.

A odd almagamate game. If you think you want to pick it up. Go in thinking you will hate it and it should come off better. Its a tough one to love.
 
I enjoyed P.N.03, but the character movement could have used some tweaking. It wasn't horrible, but there were some instances in which Vanessa would do something other than what I had intended due to the control design.

I also can't stand the moon octopus threw up on a boomerang design of the Gamecube controller. Those massive shoulder buttons don't easily accomodate quick double tapping motions.

Would have been a nice PS2 port, if only to play with a proper game pad.
 
The Take Out Bandit said:
Would have been a nice PS2 port, if only to play with a proper game pad.
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You could probably use an adapter if you think it would make that much a difference. It's jaggy like an early PS2 game ;)
 
The Take Out Bandit said:
I also can't stand the moon octopus threw up on a boomerang design of the Gamecube controller. Those massive shoulder buttons don't easily accomodate quick double tapping motions.
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Have you tried playing it with Type B controls? It's much, much better than the default setup. But for Type B, you'll have to put your right hand on the face buttons instead of gripping the controller with both hands
 
I got this about a week ago. I just finished level 6 (or so), and it's not doing much for me, either. I understand, and am using, the combo system, but it just doesn't seem very rewarding for whatever reason.

I've played the hell out of games like Shinobi, Gunvalkyrie, and Gungrave: OD (not to mention innumerable 2-D shooters like Ikaruga and Castle Shikigami 2), so I figured I'd like this one based on the buzz. It doesn't seem particularly "oldschool" to me, except maybe insofar as it has that stripped-down feel to it, and neither does it seem in any way as "hardcore" as any of the aforementioned titles (or Ninja Gaiden, or DMC, or even Viewtiful Joe, for that matter). Maybe I'm missing something, but frankly, I don't think there's much there. Stylish in a fruity sort of way, but empty.
 
Wario64 said:
Have you tried playing it with Type B controls? It's much, much better than the default setup. But for Type B, you'll have to put your right hand on the face buttons instead of gripping the controller with both hands
Click to expand...

Exactly Type B is a lot more responsive.
I still play this game, it's awesome if you like old school shooters.
Kinda reminds me of "G.I. Joe" Arcade version by Konami, excpet you're not on rails.
 
PN03 ended up playing almost like a rhythmn action game after a while. It's about dancing the right dance to avoid being hit, whilst comboing up the enemy kills.

I think people expect it to play like a 3d Contra game but it doesn't. Once you get over that fact, it makes more sense.
 
I enjoyed it. The music is pretty cool and the graphics are enough good. The gameplay is different but challenging and rewarding.
Only thing that sucks is the story/ending.
 
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