I got the new issue of Famitsu Xbox from a bud over there which just so happens to include a demo of Phantom Dust which can be played on ANY Xbox (region free) complete with Live capability. I Played both off and online for a good while last night and like very much what I've played so far. I'll smack MS if they dont bring this over here and am now on the official bandwagon of this game
The gameplay is seemingly pretty deep due to the amount of available skills and the way the game has you utilize them. I cant really compare the gameplay to anything else out there. I dont understand jackshit about Japansese as all of the menus are totally beyond my comprehension so i'm hoping someone else out there with the demo will do some translating. The only things in English that I can remember are "Press Start Button", "Xbox Live", & the categories of each skill which include "Attack" (Red), "Defense" (Blue), "Special" (Yellow) among others. The demo includes 100 of the 300 or so skills that'll be in the final game and even with just 100 the game is pretty deep so I can only imagine what the final game will be like.
Controls:
Right Trigger locks on to closest enemy
Left trigger cycle through other targets
Left Stick: move your character
Right Stick: rotate camera
Left Stick Button: Jump
Right Stick Button: center camera
All buttons are used to allocate/use skills in the HUD skill slot display.
The basic premise of the game is that you build an "Arsenal" of 30 (out of the 100 in the demo) skills to use in battle before going into a game. Out of the skills you select, these appear randomly as "orbs" on a certain area of the map. I think each player has a certain area where their orbs appear but i'm not sure about this. When the orbs appear you can see a discreption of what it does, how much it costs to use, etc. when you hover over it. To allocate a skill to use you press the button of the slot you want to allocate it to while standing over the orb. Each skills costs a certain amount of skill points to cast during a battle. You gain skill points by collecting white orbs. Each white orb adds another point to your skill point total. Whenever you use a skill, the amount of points it costs is subtracted from your total and your skill points will regen automatically. Some skills are one time use only, some are infinite so as long as you have skill points you can continue to use that skill.
So far i've only played with Japan players but there was no lag at all during four player games. The action can get pretty hectic so I see why there's only 4. The destructable environmets are pretty slick as you can use that to your advantage to cause more damage to other players (throwing a fireball to drop a pillar on his head, knocking him into a wall that breaks and cause more damage, etc.). I was getting my ass kicked all over the place until I figured out that just running up to people and trying to use skills as a method of beatdown aint gonna work. There are counter skills, counter counter skills, skills to avoid skills, skills that can wipe out all of the skills you have allocated, etc.
There plenty of strategy and some luck invloved as well since you cant control when the skills you have in your arsenal will appear on the map.
Lovin it so far. My only fear is that there's gonna be some uber skill out of the 300 that dumbs the game down. If yall got any questions, shoot and i'll try answer.
The gameplay is seemingly pretty deep due to the amount of available skills and the way the game has you utilize them. I cant really compare the gameplay to anything else out there. I dont understand jackshit about Japansese as all of the menus are totally beyond my comprehension so i'm hoping someone else out there with the demo will do some translating. The only things in English that I can remember are "Press Start Button", "Xbox Live", & the categories of each skill which include "Attack" (Red), "Defense" (Blue), "Special" (Yellow) among others. The demo includes 100 of the 300 or so skills that'll be in the final game and even with just 100 the game is pretty deep so I can only imagine what the final game will be like.
Controls:
Right Trigger locks on to closest enemy
Left trigger cycle through other targets
Left Stick: move your character
Right Stick: rotate camera
Left Stick Button: Jump
Right Stick Button: center camera
All buttons are used to allocate/use skills in the HUD skill slot display.
The basic premise of the game is that you build an "Arsenal" of 30 (out of the 100 in the demo) skills to use in battle before going into a game. Out of the skills you select, these appear randomly as "orbs" on a certain area of the map. I think each player has a certain area where their orbs appear but i'm not sure about this. When the orbs appear you can see a discreption of what it does, how much it costs to use, etc. when you hover over it. To allocate a skill to use you press the button of the slot you want to allocate it to while standing over the orb. Each skills costs a certain amount of skill points to cast during a battle. You gain skill points by collecting white orbs. Each white orb adds another point to your skill point total. Whenever you use a skill, the amount of points it costs is subtracted from your total and your skill points will regen automatically. Some skills are one time use only, some are infinite so as long as you have skill points you can continue to use that skill.
So far i've only played with Japan players but there was no lag at all during four player games. The action can get pretty hectic so I see why there's only 4. The destructable environmets are pretty slick as you can use that to your advantage to cause more damage to other players (throwing a fireball to drop a pillar on his head, knocking him into a wall that breaks and cause more damage, etc.). I was getting my ass kicked all over the place until I figured out that just running up to people and trying to use skills as a method of beatdown aint gonna work. There are counter skills, counter counter skills, skills to avoid skills, skills that can wipe out all of the skills you have allocated, etc.
There plenty of strategy and some luck invloved as well since you cant control when the skills you have in your arsenal will appear on the map.
Lovin it so far. My only fear is that there's gonna be some uber skill out of the 300 that dumbs the game down. If yall got any questions, shoot and i'll try answer.
