Well, I finally had the chance to play it (a friend lend me his copy for some weeks) and here come my impressions about the game.
Gameplay
As you probably know MGA is a bit different from your typical MG game. The gameplay was totally changed from tactical to strategical. Is this good or bad ? Well, I really don't know but I sure prefer MG as it has always been. That said you have cards that keep changing and you can use them or exchange them by movement. It's pretty interesting the fact that even being a strategic game, the engine allows you to switch the camera and you can see the environment. So far it seems interesting but I am sure that it can become a trial and error exercise as the game progresses as it usually happens with that kind of games.
Don't ask me about the story because I don't understand a fuck...But well, the gameplay is easy as hell.
Graphics
Really good. This game looks pretty good on the PSP. The characters have cool animations and are really well modeled. They are not PS2 level but they sure surpass the original Metal Gear Solid for the PSX, overall they are really nice to see. The environments look also very good although sometimes you'll notice very low res textures...even for a PSP game. Just one major flaw: Dithering.
This is probably the game where dithering is more easily noticed. You'll notice that characteristic dithering look on MGA all around, specially outdoors where the color palette is more varied. This is quite surprising considering the reduced palette the game uses but well, I have a solution and that's called turn the bright to the minimum.
As I said in-battle animations are really good and so they are the camera movements (not yours but the ones performed by the engine).
There is another cool thing on the game and that's the cool cutescenes. They will remind you of the Ace Combat 4 ones although they are not FMV but static images. Simply awesome. They feature that cool artwork from Yoji Shinkawa that we all love although this time the trace is more defined and clear that it ever used to be.
Sound
Awesome soundtrack. A really good one filled with musical pieces with style similar to MGS2...I would have prefered the original kind of sound from MGS...you know that metalic feeling it gave...Anyways I am probably in minority.
The game is pretty cool so far but if someone came from the future and told me I only lasted a week with it I would believe him. MGA is very different from the MG games and has the major flaws that kind of games (strategic ones) have. That said I guess the US copy could be a better game...Not by the added content but because we will understand WTF is going on story-wise and I am sure the game will benefit a lot from it.
Gameplay
As you probably know MGA is a bit different from your typical MG game. The gameplay was totally changed from tactical to strategical. Is this good or bad ? Well, I really don't know but I sure prefer MG as it has always been. That said you have cards that keep changing and you can use them or exchange them by movement. It's pretty interesting the fact that even being a strategic game, the engine allows you to switch the camera and you can see the environment. So far it seems interesting but I am sure that it can become a trial and error exercise as the game progresses as it usually happens with that kind of games.
Don't ask me about the story because I don't understand a fuck...But well, the gameplay is easy as hell.
Graphics
Really good. This game looks pretty good on the PSP. The characters have cool animations and are really well modeled. They are not PS2 level but they sure surpass the original Metal Gear Solid for the PSX, overall they are really nice to see. The environments look also very good although sometimes you'll notice very low res textures...even for a PSP game. Just one major flaw: Dithering.
This is probably the game where dithering is more easily noticed. You'll notice that characteristic dithering look on MGA all around, specially outdoors where the color palette is more varied. This is quite surprising considering the reduced palette the game uses but well, I have a solution and that's called turn the bright to the minimum.
As I said in-battle animations are really good and so they are the camera movements (not yours but the ones performed by the engine).There is another cool thing on the game and that's the cool cutescenes. They will remind you of the Ace Combat 4 ones although they are not FMV but static images. Simply awesome. They feature that cool artwork from Yoji Shinkawa that we all love although this time the trace is more defined and clear that it ever used to be.
Sound
Awesome soundtrack. A really good one filled with musical pieces with style similar to MGS2...I would have prefered the original kind of sound from MGS...you know that metalic feeling it gave...Anyways I am probably in minority.
The game is pretty cool so far but if someone came from the future and told me I only lasted a week with it I would believe him. MGA is very different from the MG games and has the major flaws that kind of games (strategic ones) have. That said I guess the US copy could be a better game...Not by the added content but because we will understand WTF is going on story-wise and I am sure the game will benefit a lot from it.