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[zeopower6]

Developer: Zerodiv
Publisher: Acquire
Genre: Dark Stylish RPG
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Release Date: August 1, 2013 (Japan & Asia), ? (Elsewhere)
MSRP: 6279yen/$50~ in Asia (retail), 5300yen/$45 in Asia (digital)
CERO: C (15 and up)

Character Design: kyo
Scenario: Minato Kushimachi
Sound: ZIZZ STUDIO
Theme Song: 'Bousou Machine' MIND≒0 Version by yucat

Website: http://www.mind0.net

Regular Retail Edition

Limited First Press Goods (MT Secret File, includes book with commentary/artwork and a 50 minute CD with a soundtrack sampler, theme song, and cast commentary)

- 3D turn based battle system reminiscent of recent Persona games or Acquire/Zerodiv's latest Totomono/Class of Heroes games
- First person dungeon crawling
- Fight in battles with the help of MINDs or "Mental Inside Nobody Dolls"
- 2D 'visual novel' style conversation scenes
- Fully voiced (clarified in an impressions article that it is not 100% voiced in some conversations...)
- A 50 floor post-game dungeon filled with rare items and difficult enemies

PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
Kei Takanashi voiced by Tomokazu Sugita
A cool and caring protagonist.

Sana Chikage voiced by Rina Sato
She enjoys physical activity, is loyal, quick to act, and relied on by everyone. Her MIND is an elf-like character.

Leo Asahina voiced by Yuichi Nakamura
An endlessly cheerful dope. His MIND is a demon-looking character.

Yoichi Ogata voiced by Takehito Koyasu
A detective. His MIND is a Japanese doll-like character.

Kotone Shiragiku voiced by Minori Chihara
A mysterious girl who appears before Kei (the protagonist). She lacks self confidence and does not get along well with others. While she is aware of this, she can’t take a step towards conquering it.

Lina Albertine voiced by Iori Nomizu
A young lady mature for her age, and somehow old-fashioned. She is not fond of crowds, so she lives in a western-style house removed from the city. Her sense of values deviates from the norm to some extent, and she has an interest in ordinary things.

IMPORTANT CHARACTERS
Togetsu Saionji voiced by Kenjiro Tsuda
A mysterious man who appears before the group. Smart and calm with long silver hair. His intentions are not clear...

???? voiced by ????
A mysterious woman with a serene smile. She has long silver hair and glowing features.

Kanade Sakyo voiced by Yuki Kaji
A boy who who bewilders the crew with his words, which could be taken as either advice or prophecy.

Reika Kisaki voiced by Yuu Asakawa
She is 26 years old and disappears from time to time. She is very strong in her mind and body and seems to be keeping secrets from the group.

Yukito Kujo voiced by Asami Shimoda
An innocent boy who is obedient and doesn’t require much discipline. Even his parents tended to leave Yukito alone. Because Yukito is childish and sees this as rejection, he runs away from home on his own. What sort of fate will befall him…?

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
Shizuku Kamina voiced by Asuka Ogame
Kei's childhood friend. Loves stuffed animals and has a strange power to see the MINDs...

Hiroaki Kamata voiced by Masaki Terasoma
50 years old. Veteran detective who is a part of the police force's MIND division.

Nobuhiko Watanabe voiced by Tarusuke Shingaki
Kamata's subordinate. Very low on the totem pole in the force and has trouble following orders. Laidback and lives at his own pace.

Undertaker voiced by Satomi Arai
A mysterious woman who runs the shop located between the spiritual and 'real' worlds. She is in possession of the items necessary to create contracts with MINDs.

Click above to open an album. (Some older concept-y images in there too)

 

[Dwayne]

Great op Is there a famitsu review score yet?

 

[zeopower6]

http://game.girldoll.org/consumer/mind0/20531/

Someone's posted their initial impressions on the game. Seems like they like it but the loading times are a bit long.

I can't believe they haven't released all of the info yet even though the game is technically out today in Japan. :< I wanted to add some story elements in here but I could never find anything concrete about the game's story. D:

Great op Is there a famitsu review score yet?

It got a 30/40 which isn't that great but it's not that bad either. Straight 8s and 7s.

 

[dakkumauji]

Very nice OT.

I am looking forward to hearing impressions for this game.

 

[zeopower6]

Very nice OT.

I am looking forward to hearing impressions for this game.

Copies just shipped today for a lot of people. Hope to see some impressions as well! I hope the battle SFX aren't as bad as they seem in the videos...

The packaged copy of the game from Acquire's Facebook:

I wanted to preorder this and the "COMPLETE GUIDE" so I could get the preorder bonuses and stuff but aghh, I'm not sure. Wonder how long they'll be available now that the release date has come.

A series of hype images were posted in the last week or so leading up to the release date. Some are quite nice!


Click to see the images.

The character designer 'kyo' also drew a really nice special wallpaper to commemorate the release date~

1920x1080
1600x1200
960x544

 

[Parakeetman]

Got mine sitting here on the desk but need to take care of a ton of stuff first this morn before cracking it open.

*My pic, but this version with the preorder bonus is going out to someone else. Mine is just the game alone.

 

[injurai]

Whoa where did this game come from? I needed a new vita game.

So its like persona battles, Etrian Odyssey dungeons, and visual novel story? Seems pretty awesome if done well.

 

[zeopower6]

Whoa where did this game come from? I needed a new vita game.

So its like persona battles, Etrian Odyssey dungeons, and visual novel story? Seems pretty awesome if done well.

Kinda. I'd think of it as a Persona-esque version of the newer Class of Heroes games. (with first person dungeons instead of what you'd expect from Persona)

It was teased early this year with a site saying things like "ARE YOU ALIVE? 80655 2010"

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=50222517

Was pretty weird, honestly. I wonder if that number was supposed to refer to a Persona games' sales, lol.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

What the heck is a ''&#8786;''

 

[bigkrev]

What are the odds we get a localized version?

 

[Napalm_Frank]

What are the odds we get a localized version?

&#8786;0

 

[mrjohill]

What are the odds we get a localized version?

Gung ho has been pretty good on the localization front haven't they?

 

[zeopower6]

What the heck is a ''&#8786;''

I honestly don't know.

What are the odds we get a localized version?

I think they're kind of -shakes hand a bit-. It seems that GungHo will have first dibs on this since they own Acquire and have their US publishing arm in California. (recently all they've done is release PS1 imports and promise us Picotto Knights WHICH STILL HASN'T COME OUT YET)

If GungHo doesn't bring it over though, XSEED/Aksys/NISA/Atlus are likely in that order imo. (lol Atlus...)

 

[djplaeskool]

What the heck is a ''&#8786;''

"is approximately equal to or the image of"

 

[Trigger]

The MIND designs are mostly awful, but in the absence of Persona 5 I find myself morbidly curious about this game.

 

[djplaeskool]

Should have a copy by the end of the week.

ZeroDiv has been the source of much gaming this year, hopefully I enjoy it as much as I did Seimado Monogatari and Class of Heroes 2.

 

[Fandangox]

Well this looks interesting. Nice OP too.

 

[zeopower6]

The MIND designs are mostly awful, but in the absence of Persona 5 I find myself morbidly curious about this game.

Interesting... most people shrugged off the pretty bad character design but praised the MIND's designs at the very least when the screenshots/art came out initially because they were pretty interesting.

Too many parallels with P4 that are hard to unsee. I mean they have a detective working on cases involving the MIND (murders in the alternate world probably?) with a flaky subordinate, some mysterious exchange students, an annoying dunce for your sidekick, a 'classy Japanese-y' girl in a very similar-ish outfit, a powerful female character who wields tonfas and likes martial arts...

It's too much! :| lol

 

[Gintoki313]

I'm so glad you made this OT and this game had such a weird name, because I've never heard of this game until now.

I'm guessing this game doesn't have a western release yet, but I'm hoping it gets one because it looks amazing.

 

[Salsa]

this game's title is too edgy for me to handle

 

[Laughing Banana]

Holy crap that retail cover.

That is so P3's protagonist, hahaha.

Any chance this will get translated?

 

[Perfect Cha0s]

The MIND designs are mostly awful, but in the absence of Persona 5 I find myself morbidly curious about this game.

.

But after watching some of those videos: Oh my GOD are those sound effects awful. Ditto for some of the battle effects.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Was interested when the game was announced because of the similarities it had to Persona, but everything about it looks crummy to me.

Still, interested in hearing some impressions.

 

[zeopower6]

.

But after watching some of those videos: Oh my GOD are those sound effects awful. Ditto for some of the battle effects.

One of my major peeves about the game and I'm really enthused about it!

The battle SFX... soooo bad. Even the voices are just as muffled as the different attack sounds so it sounds especially jarring after you hear the clear cutscene voices.

 

[SteeloDMZ]

I see human Teddy.

 

[Trigger]

Interesting... most people shrugged off the pretty bad character design but praised the MIND's designs at the very least when the screenshots/art came out initially because they were pretty interesting.

Too many parallels with P4 that are hard to unsee. I mean they have a detective working on cases involving the MIND (murders in the alternate world probably?) with a flaky subordinate, some mysterious exchange students, an annoying dunce for your sidekick, a 'classy Japanese-y' girl in a very similar-ish outfit, a powerful female character who wields tonfas and likes martial arts...

It's too much! :| lol

In Persona (and arguably SMT as a whole) the designs tell a story. When I look at designs for the personae in P3 like Orpheus or Io you can get an idea of what aspect of this person a persona represents. Most of the MIND designs just look like rejected monster ideas from a generic RPG. The character designs are plain, but not awful in comparison.

 

[zeopower6]

In Persona (and arguably SMT as a whole) the designs tell a story. When I look at designs for the personae in P3 like Orpheus or Io you can get an idea of what aspect of this person a persona represents. Most of the MIND designs just look like rejected monster ideas from a generic RPG. The character designs are plain, but not awful.

True. I think they at least look better than the human character designs here though. With the humans, they went with a "make them kinda look like they come from Persona but not really, okay?" deal.

Who knows, maybe there are some stories behind each of the MINDs. I'd like to know just how they got them honestly. They're pretty varied too... (little kid has a big sphere-body tech-y MIND... I assume he's a tech geek since he's been shown with a smartphone, rich bitch has an elf, Japanese sword girl has a creepy suit of armor, the old man's might represent his daughter or something) I'm gonna wait until we see more to say that the MINDs are 'rejects'.

 

[Tohsaka]

The game caught my eye back when it was announced, here's hoping someone will pick it up for localization.

 

[zeopower6]

Finally, the last character got revealed on the day of the game's release. Jeez, talk about cutting it close.

The last "supporting character/Another" is the Undertaker voiced by Satomi Arai. (Seiko from Corpse Party).

A day 1 version 1.01 patch was also released.
Summary of changes/additions:
- Ability to completely skip scenes
- Ability to play battle voice clips in status menu
- Item/skill menu shortcuts added during play
- Load time reduced
- Bug fixes

Time to update some images.

 

[javac]

What the heck is a ''&#8786;''

How did he even type that 0_o

 

[OniBarubary]

To be frank, I have a fetish for mediocre or decent RPGs so I eagerly hope this gets localized.

I mean, hell, I have a backlog of games out my wazoo and I'm playing fucking Hexyz Force a second time.

...maybe I didn't mean fetish. Maybe I meant problem.

 

[zeopower6]

How did he even type that 0_o

You just copy it from the Japanese site...

To be frank, I have a fetish for mediocre or decent RPGs so I eagerly hope this gets localized.

I mean, hell, I have a backlog of games out my wazoo and I'm playing fucking Hexyz Force a second time.

...maybe I didn't mean fetish. Maybe I meant problem.

Gonna start a Levant playthrough soon. :x Hexyz wasn't that bad... I just wish it had a different name. Hexyz Force is really a terrible title.

 

[Dark Schala]

Looking forward to impressions from Parakeetman, djplaeskool, and anyone else who managed to pick it up in this thread. I've had on my eye on this for a while since they announced it.

I'm hoping it's well-balanced, to be honest.

 

[Parakeetman]

Looking forward to impressions from Parakeetman, djplaeskool, and anyone else who managed to pick it up in this thread. I've had on my eye on this for a while since they announced it.

I'm hoping it's well-balanced, to be honest.

Gonna hop into it now from the start. So will give it a few hours before I write something bout initial thoughts here.

Finally got everything else out of the way so am free to be totally unproductive yet once again lol

 

[WrenchNinja]

I was interested until I read first person dungeon crawling.

 

[zeopower6]

I was interested until I read first person dungeon crawling.

It's probably not that bad. :< Plus isn't that sort of SMT (and Persona)'s original style of gameplay before they switched to the third person adventuring?

Damn it, Amiami sold out of both versions of the game they were carrying AND the complete guide. Time to look elsewhere, lol.

Weird though... seems there'll be an Asian version released soon that's a few dollars cheaper.

 

[OniBarubary]

Gonna start a Levant playthrough soon. :x Hexyz wasn't that bad... I just wish it had a different name. Hexyz Force is really a terrible title.

I think it's quite under-rated myself.

I'm sorta waiting for that time when it becomes super easy for translators to just release a damn patch or something for these games so we could just buy 'em on the Japanese store and patch 'em. Doubt it'll ever be that easy, unfortunately.

 

[WrenchNinja]

It's probably not that bad. :< Plus isn't that sort of SMT (and Persona)'s original style of gameplay before they switched to the third person adventuring?

Yeah, it was. I hate the gameplay of the original SMTs and Persona.

 

[B.K.]

I've had on my eye on this for a while since they announced it.

Same. I hope someone localizes it.

 

[zeopower6]

Seems that the 2ch trolls have started attacking the Amazon.co.jp page for this. It has two one star reviews now because it's a ~total ripoff~ of Persona. :/

 

[FluxWaveZ]

I'd be fine with a Persona rip-off... as long as it was a good one.

 

[Superflat]

I'd be fine with a Persona rip-off... as long as it was a good one.

Pretty much. It's definitely a Persona clone but as long as it's a good game, it can slowly turn into its own thing in a couple sequels, like Saints Row.

 

[zeopower6]

Pretty much. It's definitely a Persona clone but as long as it's a good game, it can slowly turn into its own thing in a couple sequels, like Saints Row.

I think it's still kind of surprising that this is probably one of the only (blatant?) Persona clones out there... unless I've missed some of them.

http://ruliweb.daum.net/news/523/view/RN20130723153151000-53507.daum

dat Korean version + Korean boxart....

 

[nampad]

Eagerly awaiting your guys impressions. Want to know how good of a persona substitute this is.

 

[Parakeetman]

Eagerly awaiting your guys impressions. Want to know how good of a persona substitute this is.

I wouldnt really put it in the same category as Persona is truthfully on a whole nother bracket when it comes to quality of overall product.

This really does feel like a budget title so far.

Folks will really need to shut out the mentality of X being like Y. If not you will just wind up being more put off than what you might have. Sure there may be some similarities, one of the most glaring ones is an old gruff detective and his awkward younger partner. (Dojima + Adachi). Asides from what appears to be personas. As much as I didnt want to make the whole comparison to Dojima & Adachi you just cant help it from the conversation and personalities shown by them at the start of the game.

The term "MIND" in this particular game refers to a new type of drug that has become a problem within the city. So it seems that might be playing a major part of the plot with how its starting off anyways. Also as others know its the term which refers to the summons the characters have.

Am playing it as I type here.

Moving around the map is done similar to the system of selecting points on a map to enter the next story event or area. At least the voice work seems to not be terrible, which is a huge plus considering this seems to be fully voiced so far anyways.

 

[zeopower6]

http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv147206433

Someone is playing the game live on Nico if anyone is interested. Sound effects are as bad as in the videos, eep.

And Parakeetman, sounds about right, honestly. :/ But I think for this game, story/voices are probably why anyone would get it.

I'm not really expecting anything like Persona tbh... I just think it looks like an interesting story/game that kinda happens to have some of the sameish elements as Persona.

 

[Superflat]

And parakeetman, sounds about right... totally different league, presentation-wise.

 

[zeopower6]

Yeah, after revisiting the trailer and now seeing some gameplay segments, it really does put Persona in a totally different league, presentation-wise.

Well, it's also Zerodiv/Acquire compared to Atlus. Both of them don't really ever create anything that lives up to Atlus so hopefully no one expects that this game is going to blow them away.

 

[Parakeetman]

Well, it's also Zerodiv/Acquire compared to Atlus. Both of them don't really ever create anything that lives up to Atlus so hopefully no one expects that this game is going to blow them away.

I actually like both of those companies which was the main reasoning as to picking this up. Pretty much own a good amount of games by / published by them. All of the totomono series titles makes up a majority of it. Also got that Seimadou Monogatari though that was published by compile heart I think

Though the last totomono the one that changed the battles to team of 3 with 3d characters was pretty terrible. That was a purchase I regret...

Lets not hope this game turns out that way.

Though am a bit let down that the party only seems to be a 3 character maximum. Really do hate JRPGs like that as it cuts down on viable battle options for the most part. At the least 4 should be the minimum standard.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Sweet Persona -3.5