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[Weltall Zero]

If anyone is not buying Z3-2 anytime soon, but interested in playing Rengoku-hen, I have an extra PS3/Vita combo code for the 8-10 hour 15 map OG-only mini-SRW.

If nobody else wants it, or there's extra ones or whatever, I'll gladly take it. I've been playing SRW games since before Alpha 1, but I've skipped Z3.1 since I can't commit the money and time (considering getting Z3.2 when it drops a bit in price, though).

 

[Bebpo]

Sorry guys, code's been taken at this point.

 

[Devilgunman]

Just got my game. Very tempted to open but I want to complete all route in Z3-1 first...... arghhhh

 

[Shouta]

I've got like 2-3 maps left in Rengoku-hen. It's really nice and speedy. The focus on just the OGs really gives them all time to shine a bit. Setsuko, Rand, and Crowe make a decent traveling trio too.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

So is Rengoku-hen kind of like an in-between to Tengoku-hen?

I'm playing on a CA Vita account so I guess I won't have any use for my code (when I get it).

 

[Bebpo]

So is Rengoku-hen kind of like an in-between to Tengoku-hen?

I'm playing on a CA Vita account so I guess I won't have any use for my code (when I get it).

It's a prelude to Z3-2's OG story. Nothing gets finished, it just sets up some subplots for the main game.

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

So is Rengoku-hen kind of like an in-between to Tengoku-hen?

I'm playing on a CA Vita account so I guess I won't have any use for my code (when I get it).

Do you have a PS3? You get it for both, my copy came today and I've been playing Rengoku-hen on my PS3 since I don't want to convert a Vita memory card.

It's a fun little campaign so far, and it's the first time I'm seeing SRW in HD on a big screen so that's been cool.

 

[Pureauthor]

Rengoku-hen has lots of Crowe being Crowe, so it's awesome.

 

[fatgamecat]

Playing the early route splits, as usual the real routes are more difficult than the super routes.

 

[Absol]

My copy is now at the post office and ready for pick up. But in Cali. right now and won't be home till Thursday midnight lol.

 

[Pureauthor]

Playing the early route splits, as usual the real routes are more difficult than the super routes.

At least you don't have a roster full of gimped units early like in Z3-1.

 

[Lostconfused]

Playing the early route splits, as usual the real routes are more difficult than the super routes.

It's ok, in later stages it doesn't matter if you went with real or super. It's going to break you no matter what.

I am actually really glad that Banpresto threw something a bit more challenging than Gadlight at you third of the way into the game.

Damn them for putting a cap on max experience though. I want to go from level 20 to 60 in one go.

 

[Shouta]

Finished Rengoku, starting up the main game now.

Tomorrow in Sight is so good, as always. That and Close Game Life are in the running for my favorite SRW themes.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

It's a prelude to Z3-2's OG story. Nothing gets finished, it just sets up some subplots for the main game.

Do you have a PS3? You get it for both, my copy came today and I've been playing Rengoku-hen on my PS3 since I don't want to convert a Vita memory card.

It's a fun little campaign so far, and it's the first time I'm seen SRW in HD on a big screen so that's been cool.

I didn't know it worked for both. I have my PS3 so I guess I'll use it there so I don't have to switch my Vita over (it's a pain in the ass ).

 

[Lostconfused]

Welp, this was a really fun stage. Getting 15 levels in a single stage and finally unlocking courage/soul, I guess that's what you call turning despair into hope.

 

[Keylow415]

does anyone know if you can change the maximum break bgm for each unit?

 

[Shouta]

does anyone know if you can change the maximum break bgm for each unit?

You can change it so that it's unit music or the unit's individual music in the menu's.

 

[Keylow415]

You can change it so that it's unit music or the unit's individual music in the menu's.

which option is that?

 

[Shouta]

which option is that?

システム設定２ -> マキシマムブレイクBGM設定

専用曲 = Maximum Break Music
部隊曲 = Squad Music
機体設定曲 = Unit Set Music

 

[Keylow415]

システム設定２ -> マキシマムブレイクBGM設定

専用曲 = Maximum Break Music
部隊曲 = Squad Music
機体設定曲 = Unit Set Music

thanks alot. dont care for the maximum break music

 

[Jubern]

I didn't know you could download both versions of Rengoku-hen with one code... Thanks for the tip!

I played Z3-1 on PS Vita and plan on doing the same with Z3-2 out of necessity (too little couch time), but I want to see how it looks in the living room... Might double dip on a used PS3 version, who knows.

 

[Bebpo]

I'm already going back and forth between being burnt out and being excited to see what the next stage brings. Hoping when I hit the merged path that it cures the burnout. Between Rengoku & the DLC, I've done about 40 maps in a week and I'm only at stage 12 lol.
May end up taking a few breaks and going through this one more slowly. Depends on how exciting the story gets. I loved Z1, but it still took me a few months to get through taking breaks along the way.

I hate the Vita versions of the Z3 games. Yeah, portability is really, really nice (looking forward to PS4 SRW w/free remote play Vita copy), but the sprites look a hell of a lot worse and the music and voices are way worse and on top of that it's straining on the eyes to read all the dialogue boxes since they're freaking tiny on the Vita and only take up like 35% of the screen when two people are talking. Glad to be mainly playing it on the PS3/big screen TV at this point. Vita is still nice for taking a stage to bed though.

 

[Lostconfused]

but the sprites look a hell of a lot worse and the music and voices are way worse

Imagination is a hell of a thing.

 

[muteki]

I was struggling with Stage 6, Green Earth last night:

Spoiler

Could not keep enemy away from the defense line. I thought that they would be baited and attack me first but they had their priorities straight and went right by me.

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

I didn't know it worked for both. I have my PS3 so I guess I'll use it there so I don't have to switch my Vita over (it's a pain in the ass ).

Yeah, you get both when you use the code. I agree, it's a complete pain and I was glad I was able to avoid it haha.

 

[Lostconfused]

I was struggling with Stage 6, Green Earth last night:

Spoiler

Could not keep enemy away from the defense line. I thought that they would be baited and attack me first but they had their priorities straight and went right by me.

Yeah I had to redo that stage a few times because the game refused to co-operate with my have everyone line up to die by sat cannon plan.

 

[Shouta]

Imagination is a hell of a thing.

Well, the sprites look a little worse like they did an automated rescaling instead of doing it manually, at least to me. The Askelpios in Rengoku seemed a lot more jaggy around the edges and all that.

I got to Stage 6 on the Gargantia path too. Haven't done it yet but did read the story sections before I went to bed. I really like it so far, the integration into the Z3 universe makes sense and they explained away the possible plot holes as well. Despite the break between Jigoku and Tengoku-hen, the story really picked up smoothly and did a decent job of explaining the loss of power-ups, lol. The character interaction feels like it's settled and having some of the additional cast members in seems to work out decently well. Hibiki and Garrod's interaction after the DX introduction stage was nice.

Also, I had to laugh a little at how souped up the DX was ala Gundam Build FIghters. Lots of energy condensers on the DX and additional reflective satellites to make the charge time so low for it. It's awesome that the unit now is as powerful as it should be.

 

[Lostconfused]

Well, the sprites look a little worse like they did an automated rescaling instead of doing it manually, at least to me. The Askelpios in Rengoku seemed a lot more jaggy around the edges and all that.

Yeah the aliasing stands out sometimes, the side benefit is that I never want to see Dancouga's old sprite on a big screen. I think I was more bothered by the mention of sound, which is unfortunately terrible on both platforms. Unless things have changed since Jigoku-Hen.

 

[Bebpo]

The sprites lose a ton of detail and instead of a nice smooth detailed look, they get this weird almost jaggy look because they're consdensing a huge amount of detail into a lower resolution which is fine for 3d games, but for sprites it looks ugly.

The music and voices are highly compressed. There's a reason the game size is half what it is on PS3 on Vita. It's ok until you play the PS3 version and then holy shit it sounds so much better. Great music on PS3, clear voices.


Vita version is what it is, but this is not a game where both versions are identical. The PS3 version is much nicer to play if you don't mind sitting in front of a TV.

 

[Beckx]

The PS3 version is much nicer to play if you don't mind sitting in front of a TV.

That's the thing for me. Instant suspend-resume and portability are huge when you can only get a turn in here and there.

 

[Jaeger]

Just a few more.

 

[Lostconfused]

The music and voices are highly compressed. There's a reason the game size is half what it is on PS3 on Vita. It's ok until you play the PS3 version and then holy shit it sounds so much better. Great music on PS3, clear voices.

Yeah you are wrong. Get a pair of headphones that aren't crap. Unless they actually didn't fuck up Tengoku-Hen, the worst audio in Vita will sound just as bad in the PS3 version.

 

[Devilgunman]

My PS3 is an ancient artifact now and I don't really want to play anything on it. The last main SRW I played on console was Z1 on PS2 (don't ask me about those shitty SRW on the Wii....) so I've been playing SRW mainly on handheld for half a decade now and I feel like that's where it belongs. The convenience of playing SRW during lunch break, on a train, in a park etc is a huge plus over sitting in front of TV.

 

[Bebpo]

Yeah you are wrong. Get a pair of headphones that aren't crap. Unless they actually didn't fuck up Tengoku-Hen, the worst audio in Vita will sound just as bad in the PS3 version.

Believe what you will but I'm playing them side by side and the voices are clear as day on the PS3 version and highly compressed crispy on the Vita version. Music is a little better on PS3 too.

 

[Lostconfused]

I'll just stick with bad audio equipment then.

 

[DangerMouse]

Help me, I can't stop using the Satellite Cannon.

I am only 9 stages in and Garrod already hit 90 kills.

Haha

 

[SolicitorPirate]

If you were still holding onto any hope that they would be redoing sprites/animations in this game, yeah you're gonna be disappointed. The new stuff is pretty good, but about the only thing I've noticed from older animations that's been changed/touched up is FMP Submarine getting new cut-ins for space. That's it. Everything else is identical as far as I can tell. So use the new attacks and new units if you want new nice looking stuff

The new stuff is absolutely amazing! Which is also why I'm so bummed by how crap some of the old stuff still is. It reminds me of that one SRW on the PSP where half the units had new animation and the other half had old sprites from many years ago that were obviously outdated compared to the new units.

Edit: I think I'm taking this particularly badly because of how Dancouga Nova has been treated like a joke in Z3. It still has sprites from a fucking PSP game, has one of the most underwhelming finishing attacks in the game (especially compared to L and UX) and they didn't even bother making up for the lack of team up attack with Dancouga, which was like the only thing that Dancouga Nova had that didn't disappoint, animation-wise.

 

[Sinople]

Sorry guys, code's been taken at this point.

Okay, np.

 

[Keylow415]

i have a extra code if someone wants it. just pm me

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

Don't fight guys.

I'm getting my game tomorrow!

 

[Hasemo]

Hm, I might try jumping into SRW again... But this is a direct sequel to 3-1, so finishing that one first would be the smart thing to do, right?
Thinking of grabbing the best price copy and hopefully I still have my save in the cloud...

 

[Bebpo]

The new stuff is absolutely amazing! Which is also why I'm so bummed by how crap some of the old stuff still is. It reminds me of that one SRW on the PSP where half the units had new animation and the other half had old sprites from many years ago that were obviously outdated compared to the new units.

Edit: I think I'm taking this particularly badly because of how Dancouga Nova has been treated like a joke in Z3. It still has sprites from a fucking PSP game, has one of the most underwhelming finishing attacks in the game (especially compared to L and UX) and they didn't even bother making up for the lack of team up attack with Dancouga, which was like the only thing that Dancouga Nova had that didn't disappoint, animation-wise.

The removal of Dancouga makes absolutely no sense to the point where I wonder if there was a weird license thing. It's a new sprite, probably would look better than Nova even if they no effort just ported it in and blew up the size, and it'd at least give them the combination attack. Plus Dancouga is way cooler than Dancouga Nova. It's the only "new sprite" series from Z2 missing, so there must've been something weird that happened in the process.

 

[Bebpo]

Hm, I might try jumping into SRW again... But this is a direct sequel to 3-1, so finishing that one first would be the smart thing to do, right?
Thinking of grabbing the best price copy and hopefully I still have my save in the cloud...

Nah, don't bother. Z3-1 is kind of weak for a mainline SRW, Z3-2 has almost all the animations/units from Z3-1 and almost nothing story-wise happens in Z3-1 to the point where you can read a full game story synopsis in like 3 paragraphs. Just jump in at Z3-2 or Rengoku after reading a quick summary of Z3-1 events.

 

[Shouta]

3-1 has a lot of background stuff for Jigoku-hen if you're interested. like Why did this occur, what points are important, etc. You can read a 3 paragraph summary but you'd lose out on some of the cooler stuff.

 

[Hasemo]

Now I'm confused. My coworker who beat both Jigoku and Tengoku told me that I should definitely complete Jigoku first, but if reading the story bit in the op really is enough to enjoy the story in. Z-2 I might not bother with Z-1 after all...

 

[Shouta]

Do you care about the full story like the interactions and events that make it up or just the general, big picture in the story? That's the question.

 

[Hasemo]

Do you care about the full story like the interactions and events that make it up or just the general, big picture in the story? That's the question.

Just the big picture, I guess. If I cared for every little thing I'd start with Z1.

 

[Shouta]

Then go with Tengoku. Or Jigoku if you do want to go back just a bit but not several games worth.

 

[Pehesse]

Now I'm confused. My coworker who beat both Jigoku and Tengoku told me that I should definitely complete Jigoku first, but if reading the story bit in the op really is enough to enjoy the story in. Z-2 I might not bother with Z-1 after all...

Well, I'd say it really depends on how fluent in japanese you are. If you can read the details of the plot yourself, then Jigoku is indeed worth it, as I also feel its best strength are in its plot details/character interactions, which you won't get from a general overview.

If, however, like many of us, you get a general gist of it either through fan translations, rudimentary japanese knowledge, or just looking at how the scenes play out, and mainly enjoy the animations, then I'd suggest skipping it and going straight for Z3.2 after reading a summary (though since you'll probably have it, consider playing Rengoku first to get introduced to the originals if you have played no other Z games).

EDIT: yup, based on what you said above while I was typing, I'd say go for Tengoku, and play Rengoku to get caught up on some important units/characters! And if you ever decide to go back, the other Z's are well worth playing, too!

In other news: Stage 41, we're now tossing

Spoiler

planets

around casually, I see. I like! Also, Stage 42 was surprisingly tough, what with the grunts

Spoiler

having 3500 armor or something. Seriously?!

. Picked Crowe for that, too, not sure what changes if you pick any of the others. Currently playing through Unicorn's plot now, seems like I didn't get the secrets... though that was expected since I went all Super Routes :-3

 

[Hasemo]

Well, I'd say it really depends on how fluent in japanese you are. If you can read the details of the plot yourself, then Jigoku is indeed worth it, as I also feel its best strength are in its plot details/character interactions, which you won't get from a general overview.

If, however, like many of us, you get a general gist of it either through fan translations, rudimentary japanese knowledge, or just looking at how the scenes play out, and mainly enjoy the animations, then I'd suggest skipping it and going straight for Z3.2 after reading a summary (though since you'll probably have it, consider playing Rengoku first to get introduced to the originals if you have played no other Z games).

In other news: Stage 41, we're now tossing

Spoiler

planets

around casually, I see. I like!

I have no problems with Japanese, so I guess I'll jump into Z1. If I don't like it at least it'll cost me less money.