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MIND0 |OT| Not Persona

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Well wish the best for the localization in general, since the one thing the VITA in the US needs is more titles thats for sure.

Im curious with the west how digital vs physical sales do on the VITA? Though the downside which holds back the VITA a bit with folks downloading a ton of things Id have to say is the expensive mem cards. Its too bad sony went with those instead of just sticking with the memstick pro duo.

Whats nice to see is that the main character actually has a personality of his own, rather than being mute as in the Persona games for example (due to what this game will be held up against the most). Granted at this point in time it doesnt seem like there are any dialog choices to be made, some of the dialog between the characters is pretty damned amusing. Esp with the general personality differences between the main and supporting characters. In a lot of ways always preferred main characters who actually spoke as it brings life to the character and you dont feel as much like you are playing as a cardboard cutout just watching whats going on around you in the game world.
 

zeopower6

Member
Well wish the best for the localization in general, since the one thing the VITA in the US needs is more titles thats for sure.

Im curious with the west how digital vs physical sales do on the VITA? Though the downside which holds back the VITA a bit with folks downloading a ton of things Id have to say is the expensive mem cards. Its too bad sony went with those instead of just sticking with the memstick pro duo.

I feel like I've heard that digital sales are doing pretty well for the Vita in the West. Never really heard any concrete numbers though. I feel like people are more likely to buy digital just 'cause those cards are so darn tiny... but if you import, it makes things super easy to play since you just stick it in and you can play.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
I feel like I've heard that digital sales are doing pretty well for the Vita in the West. Never really heard any concrete numbers though. I feel like people are more likely to buy digital just 'cause those cards are so darn tiny... but if you import, it makes things super easy to play since you just stick it in and you can play.

Yeah, plus not having to swap out all the time too is a huge plus. Agreed the game carts are so small I feel like Im gonna lose the damned thing if I sneeze.

Though its a shame that they didnt allow for multiple region accounts on a single VITA unit as makes buying from one store or another "impossible" to do. Which is why I switched mine just to the japanese one for my main as thats where Im at most of the time anyways, but there are occasions when Id like US stuff also... :/

That was the biggest step backwards I think that Sony did with the VITA which I hope will not carry over to the PS4.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!

The patch seriously is a must as it does help the loading time. Its still pretty long when loading into a dungeon but not horrible like when its not patched.

You know what this game is? Its something that you play when you have nothing else better to do so. Playing this while you have other better games on the backlog is what adds to the stress of not wanting to play it knowing you have other better titles to go to.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Guys sorry totally lost interest in the title and put it down to go back to Danball Senki Baku Boost. D:

Cant keep the concentration / willpower on when I know there's more enjoyable titles to spend my free time with. D:
 

RpgN

Junior Member
That doesn't sound good.

Is the game really that bad? I can stomach low production values and slow battle system if that's what bothers you the most.
 

zeopower6

Member
It is probably not that bad if you don't have like half a dozen other games to play. :p It seems like it definitely isn't a game you would put everything down for to keep playing though honestly, the real appeal so far seems to be what can usually be found in good visual novels. (Good voices. Kind of interesting story. Good music. Goodish art....)

If anyone's interested, here is a Japanese player's first 40 minutes or so of their game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqZaxmaOfw
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
It is probably not that bad if you don't have like half a dozen other games to play. :p

Its the poor quality of the battles that just make it feel literally like mindless busywork, which considering how its a good portion of the game to get at the story its no wonder why one would lose interest so fast in it.

The difficulty does get ramped up slightly too which means having to go through more battles to get yourself to a decent level to dish out more damage to the enemies and with how the skill system works, try to get drops from the enemies for new skills that are either offensive or defensive. So that means more fighting on top of leveling.

That doesn't sound good.

Is the game really that bad? I can stomach low production values and slow battle system if that's what bothers you the most.

Battle system isnt all that slow since you can "auto pilot" it and hold down the R1 trigger to speed it up. Its just knowing that you will have to constantly go through that just to see the story really does kinda take away any sort of will to play the game for long periods of time. Nothing to see, nothing to hear with how bad the animations and sounds are in the battles themselves. As zeopower6 said, the game might have been better off just being a visual novel or something lol
 

zeopower6

Member
Its the poor quality of the battles that just make it feel literally like mindless busywork, which considering how its a good portion of the game to get at the story its no wonder why one would lose interest so fast in it.

The difficulty does get ramped up slightly too which means having to go through more battles to get yourself to a decent level to dish out more damage to the enemies and with how the skill system works, try to get drops from the enemies for new skills that are either offensive or defensive. So that means more fighting on top of leveling.

Sounds like the battles and gameplay oriented stuff was all an afterthought. :(

Also, any idea what the differences between difficulties are?
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Sounds like the battles and gameplay oriented stuff was all an afterthought. :(

It would have worked out better if they actually took time to make some real animations and sound effects. I know I keep hammering those points over and over but as you all saw with the videos its pretty terrible.

The battle system itself is sort of interesting considering its managing your life points, mana points and TP points. Using the MIND takes up MP per turn and all damage to the MIND is subtracted from your mana pool.

Skills that the MIND uses run off of either TP (which is gained when you perform a standard attack) and or TP & Life Points. Which leaves you to having to also pay attention to how much you use your skills, TP stock and MP reserves.

If you lose all MP and get stuck in the human form after having used too many skills it puts you at a disadvantage as you will now take damage directly to your HP from enemies and unable to summon your MIND for a while.

But this is all put to waste thanks to them halfassing the production quality of visuals and sounds... :/

Sounds like the battles and gameplay oriented stuff was all an afterthought. :(

Also, any idea what the differences between difficulties are?

My guess would be like most RPGs that have a difficulty setting and must just be enemy stats are lowered.
 

zeopower6

Member
But this is all put to waste thanks to them halfassing the production quality of visuals and sounds... :/

Maybe the budget wasn't that high to begin with? Or the allocation towards art/voices took up so much that they had nada for any other sort of development? :(

I still want to play this title, though I kind of already knew what to expect.

Oh, checked the Amazon page again. Looks like it is sitting at 2.7/5 ish... But that includes a handful of bogus 1-star reviews and a mix of 5/4/3/2-stars. Surprised anyone gave it 5... Must have gotten it for the seiyuu. :p
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Maybe the budget wasn't that high to begin with? Or the allocation towards art/voices took up so much that they had nada for any other sort of development? :(

I still want to play this title, though I kind of already knew what to expect.

Oh, checked the Amazon page again. Looks like it is sitting at 2.7/5 ish... But that includes a handful of bogus 1-star reviews and a mix of 5/4/3/2-stars. Surprised anyone gave it 5... Must have gotten it for the seiyuu. :p

Id say never write off one star reviews. Since the very first one that kinda long one some of the stuff the guy was saying is correct, so do think he must have blown through the game.
The shorter stupid posts that sounds like a kid wrote it or just have nothing useful then yeah we can ignore those.
If anything Id say this game hovers around a 50-60 / 100.
Even to the slightly higher reviews of folks who say try not to think of it like persona, while they are right, it still doesnt help with the low production quality of the gameplay aspects which is a big problem as its a large part of the game itself. :/

One person said why is this even on the VITA and Id have to agree with him. Since the forced touch controls for when you find a switch or tapping down a gate is just plain stupid. I mean hell we could say the same about the Meikyu Cross Blood Infinity also, but thats another topic. Also its a better game than this one gameplay wise anyways lol

---

One thing I found amusing was this game goes off of the old school principle of everyone in paralyze status = game over lol. Though its a bit more dangerous in this game since you only have 3 party members active.
 

zeopower6

Member
Id say never write off one star reviews. Since the very first one that kinda long one some of the stuff the guy was saying is correct, so do think he must have blown through the game.

Well, I was talking more about the one by the reviewer who just 1-starred everything coming out this/last week, lol.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Well, I was talking more about the one by the reviewer who just 1-starred everything coming out this/last week, lol.

lol yeah even the early 1 stars you could tell it had to be 2ch kids or something. Its too bad amazon doesnt have some sort of actual guideline for reviews to help stop that sort of stupid. :/

I remember people trying to bomb DQIX also back when that came out.

---

People might wonder why I sound so harsh about the game. For one thing its because I like gaming and praise whats good and call whats shit well shit. Am not going to sit around and shine a turd in hopes of looking like a good guy. Other people who are going to spend their hard earned money need to know what to expect from a title. Even more so if its importing since it costs more depending on ones location. Hell even some of my most favorite games I have some pretty unkind things to say about certain aspects of them.

Really do not think that developers who half ass their own products deserve @ launch revenue is how I see it anyways. Which is why its important to just say it like it is. One thing that compounds the irritation for me personally is that I like both Acquire and Zerodiv. :/
 

RpgN

Junior Member
It is probably not that bad if you don't have like half a dozen other games to play. :p It seems like it definitely isn't a game you would put everything down for to keep playing though honestly, the real appeal so far seems to be what can usually be found in good visual novels. (Good voices. Kind of interesting story. Good music. Goodish art....)

If anyone's interested, here is a Japanese player's first 40 minutes or so of their game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqZaxmaOfw

It's an Acquire game, which I seem to like their games a lot even while they're getting mediocre reviews and negative fan reception. I feel like it really is a case of playing the game for myself and deciding wether it's bad. The negatives don't sound terrible so far.

Thanks for the link, will watch it in a minute.

Its the poor quality of the battles that just make it feel literally like mindless busywork, which considering how its a good portion of the game to get at the story its no wonder why one would lose interest so fast in it.

Battle system isnt all that slow since you can "auto pilot" it and hold down the R1 trigger to speed it up. Its just knowing that you will have to constantly go through that just to see the story really does kinda take away any sort of will to play the game for long periods of time. Nothing to see, nothing to hear with how bad the animations and sounds are in the battles themselves. As zeopower6 said, the game might have been better off just being a visual novel or something lol

So it's the animations and sounds in battles along with the battles being too frequent (high random encounters)? The first 2 negatives don't bother me much but the last one might if the game has high random encounters. What else did you dislike about the game?
 
One person said why is this even on the VITA and Id have to agree with him. Since the forced touch controls for when you find a switch or tapping down a gate is just plain stupid. I mean hell we could say the same about the Meikyu Cross Blood Infinity also, but thats another topic. Also its a better game than this one gameplay wise anyways lol
Though Meikyu Cross Blood was originally a PC game, and had lots of high resolution artwork that takes advantage of the Vita's screen.
 

mrjohill

Member
I was wondering something...could this game have started out as just a visual novel and then acquire decided to add the rpg stuff after the game was already in development?
 

zeopower6

Member
How do you guys pronounce the name of this game? Mind zero? Mind equals zero?

The Japanese next to the title in most articles reads "maindo zehroh" so it's just like MIND ZERO, lol.

Also, I think they were going for a Persona-ish feel, but without Social Links and a less polished battle system. (Persona's nowadays at least has years of previous systems behind it) If you strip away the battles from Persona, all it is imo is an interactive visual novel where you can move around and talk to people... like a 3D Cherry Tree High Comedy Club.

I don't think this game started out as a visual novel at all, but it has the feel of one that had dungeon crawling/battles shoehorned in from what I've read and seen.

They spent all of the budget on the theme song...hahaha

The theme song is actually an old song that released MONTHS before this came out, lol... so it was just remixed/resung.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acSqCGuLmDw - The original version of Bousou Machine released in December 2012 (a new CD with the MIND 0 version is coming out next January though)

They likely spent the most hiring the big name voice actors they did for this.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Though Meikyu Cross Blood was originally a PC game, and had lots of high resolution artwork that takes advantage of the Vita's screen.

Yeah I know, considering I have all the titles by exp for the PC / 360 / PSP

Older games in the history are Wizardry Xth series on the PS2. Which I also have, but as mentioned below, packed up.

Picture of all the ones I could get out easily which isnt packed up in boxes, that I took a while back and posted in one of CJs threads. I think missing from the pic is 2 or 3 titles which are in a box somewhere here.
yDafROg.jpg
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
That's a null ( ∅ ), not a zero. And even the game title has it. :/

Care to explain why on the official HP its actually called マインド/ゼロ (Mind / Zero)?

http://mind0.net/

While not everyone would think of it being null as you mentioned zero is also represented by folks as the 0 with the line in it.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
After reading the more recent reviews on amazon by folks who cleared the game hilarious to see the things typed up. Am not going to say what as its spoilers but all I can say is Im glad that I didint go out of my way to clear the game like I had originally planned.

Maybe I should go sell the game and see what kind of small return I can get back...
 

Arthos

Member
I'm guessing the embargo is lifted tomorrow. The game seems... interesting. The audio quality, at least from the youtube videos I've watched, seems pretty crappy. Is this the case in the actual game?
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
So, any impressions yet? I'm curious about maybe getting it.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
No reviews, no impressions... Most people probably don't know it's already been released. Practically no media surrounding it.

Sounds about right.
 

Dr. Ecco

Neo Member
Also interested despite the issues with the ending. I will probably pick it up tonight.

You'd be doing all of us a favor by posting impressions if you get it. It's like nobody bought it in the entire internet.

I'm on the fence, especially at the $27 pricepoint, but I don't have a lot of time in my hands to play it honestly.
 

Mr.Towel

Member
Gamestop here in Canada is still listing this as a preorder. I hope the translation is atleast mediocre, I need something stupid to play on the bus
 

LX_Theo

Banned
No reviews, no impressions... Most people probably don't know it's already been released. Practically no media surrounding it.

Sounds about right.

As a person who was actually very interested in this (mind you, I've also not looked at many of the impressions outside of the idea that it has a good chance of being quite bad), I'm on the fence with this sale alone. I can see why they did the sale. Interest just took a nose dive.
 

zeopower6

Member
Do they often do sales due to lack of interest? I suppose it is a bit odd to see a game discounted so quickly :/

Playing my physical copy atm in English. The dub is really well done imo.

So far, it seems like people are pretty okay with the game out of those who have played it. It's not horrible, but there are a lot of things that prevent it from being better than it is.

Some voice guesses so far from other players:
Kei - Matt Mercer
Shizuku - Cindy Robinson
Sana - Erin Fitzgerald
Leo - Yuri Lowenthal
Yoichi - Kirk Thornton (...maybe. Not 100% certain on that one.)
 

Phototropic

Neo Member
I played for about an hour and a half or so and made it through the tutorial dungeon. Overall I am having a good time with it and interested in playing some more.

As mentioned throughout this thread some of the negatives are:

  • Poor sound effects
  • In battle graphics are pretty ugly
  • The opening of the game was a bit slow for me
There is a lot of dialogue which I enjoy, but I could see it being overkill for some people. I'd put it at about 85%/15% conversation versus dungeon time to this point.

On the positive side I am really enjoying the characters (specifically the main character) and English VA although there is a distinct Chie/Yosuke vibe to the initial party members (not a bad thing but it's there.) The character interactions on the map have been well done and are a lot like the Tales skits.

I haven't fought too many battles yet, maybe 10-15, but managing MP and TP with the MINDs has been alright and required a little bit of planning. I had to use a small amount of strategy to get by the first boss. Playing on expert he was taking me down pretty easily initially.

I like that the dungeon map tells you the completion percentage. Probably a minor thing since you can see what areas you have uncovered, but I like it.

So overall I am pretty happy with it for $27. We'll see as I get further into it.
 

RedBoot

Member
there is a distinct Chie/Yosuke vibe to the initial party members (not a bad thing but it's there.)

Doesn't help that they're actually voiced by Chie and Yosuke. :) Seriously though, this game is totally Persona. Actually, it feels more like Persona 1 to me, with just the general character design and banter being more like P3/4.

But yeah, I'm enjoying it so far. Only a couple hours in (cleared all four floors of the first dungeon), and I can see some of the criticisms, but it's not really bothering me so far. But then, I love dungeon crawlers and turn-based combat, so I might have a higher tolerance for a bland battle system than most. The MIND/MP and HP management is interesting when you actually come across a fight tough enough to require it, which has only happened a couple times so far. I like that I can switch Skills in and out at will, though I haven't gotten far enough to be able to level them yet. Not a fan of the fact that inactive party members don't level as fast, they get something like 25% of the EXP of the active members. Gonna make it hard to use anyone past a core trio.

The localization is really good so far. Some funny lines, and the English VO is solid. The main character in particular comes off really well. I'm actually curious if the Japanese script had this much punch and character in it.

The game is pretty slow at first, it takes a while to actually get to a dungeon. It's probably not much longer of a start than P3 or 4 was, but the text-heavy VN presentation here makes it feel like more of a slog.
 

zeopower6

Member
About a quarter way through the game. I need to learn how to save more often, lol. It's still really good! But losing progress after an hour or two due to forgetting to save is really unmotivating.

A shame that this isn't really getting many impressions... it's really quite good. It's not like it doesn't have issues, but it's fun at least.

I'll have to play through the game all over again due to not starting with EXPERT difficult if I want the platinum. :(
 
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