The Guided Fate Paradox is an extremely approachable roguelike RPG with a memorable cast of characters and story, tons of customization, and seemingly infinite replayability. Players take on the role of high school student Renya Kagurazaka who has become a god by winning a lottery in a mall! Renya must travel through the Copy World in order to affect changes in the Original World and make peoples wishes come true. But is there some other force at work?
PRODUCT SPECIFICS
PLATFORM: PlayStation 3
PLAYERS: 1
GENRE: Roguelike RPG
DEVELOPER: NIPPON ICHI SOFTWARE
PUBLISHER: NIS America
CHARACTER DEIGNER: Noizo Ito
ESRB: Teen
PRICE: $49.99
RELEASE DATE: October 25 (EU), November 5 (NA)
LIMITED EDITION
The Limited Edition includes:
Full-colour hardcover artbook
Two-disc original soundtrack in jewel case
Exclusive mat-framed art print from character designer Noizo Ito
FATE REVOLUTION CIRCUIT: The Fate Revolution Circuit duplicates the real world that the believer - who wishes for a change in their life - exists in. This reproduction is called the Copy World. God must guide their fate by clearing the Copy World. The enemies and traps that await him are the physical manifestations of the believer's subconscious resistance to change.
ANGEL SUPPORT: Seven angels live in Celestia solely to provide powerful support to their new God. Each Angel has unique abilities to back you up as best they can. By challenging a dungeon together with an angel, you can experiment with various battle strategies.
OMNIPOTENT CUSTOMIZATION: Even if you are God, fighting without any equipment is a bad idea. Strengthen your defense with "Divine Equipment" and raise your stats. These will change your appearance and let you access special skills and abilities unique to those pieces of equipment. By giving Divine Equipment to your angel partner, you will be able to customize their appearance and abilities as well.
Though The Guided Fate Paradox is a very difficult game, with the danger of being overwhelmed and losing everything you've worked for constantly looming overhead, I cant get over how streamlined, easy to understand, and enjoyable this particular adventure is.
The Guided Fate Paradox may not have the most engrossing story, and at times, it can roll at a snails pace when in full swing, but its overall attention to the little things is what makes it one of this year's surprises.
The Guided Fate Paradox might be a bit frustrating and unfair, but it's still a very well designed tactical jRPG which will delight especially the most hardcore fans of the genre.
NIS does what NIS does better: a great mix of strategy and RPG. This is not their best game, but it still is a solid adventure you should try if you are interested in what it has to offer.
No offense to the OP of the previous OT, but this one is a lot better.
Also, I preordered the game a few days ago from GameStop, but I never got a call saying it'd be in tomorrow...I hope this doesn't mean I preordered too late to get it on release day. Hopefully it's just too damn niche for GameStop to bother with the automated calls.
So the game's good? I remember looking at it when it came out over there. It looked good enough but I couldn't tell if it would be actually good, like Toki to Towa wasn't.
ZHP was ridiculously under-rated and may be one of Nippon Ichi's best games. As it's spiritual successor, I fully expect to spend way too much time on this.
ZHP was ridiculously under-rated and may be one of Nippon Ichi's best games. As it's spiritual successor, I fully expect to spend way too much time on this.
I freaking LOVED that game. ZHP is seriously up there for top PSP game for me. If this game is anything like that I'll definitely take a closer look at it. (Been kinda weary at other NISA offerings as of late so this wasn't really on my radar)
I freaking LOVED that game. ZHP is seriously up there for top PSP game for me. If this game is anything like that I'll definitely take a closer look at it. (Been kinda weary at other NISA offerings as of late so this wasn't really on my radar)
Did anyone ever play Legasista, the DLable Dungeon Crawler on PS3? It strangely reminds me of that too (another overlooked game). Not real-time dungeon crawling obviously.
Got my copy. Only played the tutorial and looked around the hub a bit and it definitely has more Disgaea influences in it than Z.H.P. does. Suspend Mode is a feature I'm not entirely sure would be in the game if it were a handheld title. There's also an Exit just like the Gency Exits to let you out of the dungeon your in.
Wasn't digging the music at first but now I really like it (the voice acting is decent as well), and while I don't think Noizo Ito's art is bad, it doesn't really suit a game of this type. The overall presentation is good, though, but just like with Disgaea D2 it feels like a step back from Disgaea 4, especially with in terms of sprite quality.
As I'm writing my review for this, I can tell you it suffers from the exact same things as Z.H.P.
Even though the concept is fun, it's really too punishing IMO. Even though you can save equipment, dying is just brutal, you'll lose ALL your items. It's a very niche game, the grind is a pain and the story, man the story SUCKS. It's another "i'm-a-stupid-teen-and-can-only-think-of-boobs" type of scenario, which is grating. Doesn't help that the other characters are either hypersexualized or just plain dumb/uninteresting.
It's a better Z.H.P. for sure, but I can't see anyone enjoying the game except from hardcore fans. I love Disgaea and I kinda hate The Guided Fate Paradox to put my feelings into perspective. Still the game has a great soundtrack and the levels are petty varied so it's not like there are no redeeming values about it.
Rouge-likes are always brutal. Binding of Isaac comes to mind. It also helps to abuse your special attacks instead of basic attacking. Also, the Bat Wings are the BEST Equip to carry you into the first two chapters, they drop from the common and weak bat enemies.
And only one of the characters is hyper-sexualized(the red head angel), I have to skip through her dialogue because I'm cringing so hard, every word out of her mouth is a sexual comment or pun. But, I think it's because *SPOILER*
she's an ex-demon or something, from the hints they've been dropping, so she could have been a Succubus.
Kuroiel and Lilliel are the best two, I think. Lilliel's MWAHAHA and Kuroiel's tomboyish personality are awesome.
And the 2nd chapter of the game had me in stitches.
That weakling zombie was hilarious. And all of the jabs at today's depictions of zombies and horror movies was funny, too.
And I'm at the beginning of Chapter 3, haven't died once. It's actually pretty easy so far. As long as you use the Divinigram correctly and don't equip things that have crappy abilities. Plus, Lilliel can heal you with her spells.
Rouge-likes are always brutal. Binding of Isaac comes to mind. It also helps to abuse your special attacks instead of basic attacking. Also, the Bat Wings are the BEST Equip to carry you into the first two chapters, they drop from the common and weak bat enemies.
And only one of the characters is hyper-sexualized(the red head angel), I have to skip through her dialogue because I'm cringing so hard, every word out of her mouth is a sexual comment or pun. But, I think it's because *SPOILER*
she's an ex-demon or something, from the hints they've been dropping, so she could have been a Succubus.
Kuroiel and Lilliel are the best two, I think. Lilliel's MWAHAHA and Kuroiel's tomboyish personality are awesome.
And the 2nd chapter of the game had me in stitches.
That weakling zombie was hilarious. And all of the jabs at today's depictions of zombies and horror movies was funny, too.
And I'm at the beginning of Chapter 3, haven't died once. It's actually pretty easy so far. As long as you use the Divinigram correctly and don't equip things that have crappy abilities. Plus, Lilliel can heal you with her spells.
I died for the first time on the 10th floor of Chapter 3 (the boss). It's a bit tough I guess. Though the second time I went in, I cleared it with no problems whatsoever. I know I'm still in the early game, but thus far it's been surprisingly easy for a roguelike. Definitely not as brutal as something like Shiren. One thing I've noticed though is that food seems to drop somewhat more rarely than I'd expect.
I'd say I don't like the plot as much as ZHP, but I'm not hating it at all. For one, having an MC that actually is a character is a bit nice. Don't really care about the sexual comments or shit since "Those tits are Old Testament huge!" got a good laugh out of me. Only thing that bugs me is I'd rather a number of the other angels be the main heroine instead of the one we got. She's funny a lot of the time, but I much prefer the tomboy.
It's ZHP II which means more goodness as far as that goes. No complaints from me, I love this shit.
Only thing is, as someone else said, the graphics are pretty blorf. Nice sprites and details and yadda yadda but playing them on my 47" holy crap is it noticeable. Not that I care an enormous amount but it's still something that is pretty glaring.
I'd say I don't like the plot as much as ZHP, but I'm not hating it at all. For one, having an MC that actually is a character is a bit nice. Don't really care about the sexual comments or shit since "Those tits are Old Testament huge!" got a good laugh out of me. Only thing that bugs me is I'd rather a number of the other angels be the main heroine instead of the one we got. She's funny a lot of the time, but I much prefer the tomboy.
It's ZHP II which means more goodness as far as that goes. No complaints from me, I love this shit.
Only thing is, as someone else said, the graphics are pretty blorf. Nice sprites and details and yadda yadda but playing them on my 47" holy crap is it noticeable. Not that I care an enormous amount but it's still something that is pretty glaring.
Score. I figured, since it was a menu option. But sorta wish maybe it...impacted the story. Whatevs.
That being said, the voice acting is decent enough. People are mediocre at worse, with Neliel and Kuroiel the big stand outs. Seriously, Neliel is the first time a dub has ever gotten the sorta...monotone-ish girl right as she has very subtle inflection and her speech pattern sounds like a normal person's.
Still having a ton of fun with this. Stupid Bursting is starting to mess up my grinding though...
Finished Chapter 5, unlocked the Martial Arts dungeon, and I'm loving this game even more now. Honestly I was getting a bit tired of the "gimmick" dungeons in the main story, so having a nice traditional roguelike dungeon I can go to at any time is super nice.
I've maybe gone through a dungeon section twice or thrice now, at most, to burst some weapons and have managed to beat all bosses up to 5th dungeon now with only small complications and no deaths. Clearing dungeons repeatedly and "grinding" is not needed at all, and even if it was, it takes like...5 minutes tops.
I like the gimmick dungeons =[
Main character's voice acting is good save for the fact that he never raises his voice ever, His sprite will be shouting and his lines in caps and super furious and he'll just...talk the lines. Real weird.
Only thing kinda annoying me is the burst mechanic. Good for making me use lots of stuff, bad for making me...cram fucking everything into storage cause I don't have the money to strengthen all of it and then promptly forget about it all.
The only time I really had to "grind" was in Chapter 4, and that was less because it was too "hard" and more because the boss fight for that chapter is kinda bullshit until you figure it out. :lol
But it's nothing compared to the boss of Chapter 8. I can't believe I did that shit on the first try. Was at around 100 HP at one point, too. Was THIS close to using an Exit to get the hell out, but for some reason I felt like I still had a chance so I kept going. Half an hour later I finally cleared it. What a ridiculous boss fight. :lol I'm really interested to hear how others handled it.
30 hours in and I'm pretty much positive this is going to be #2 on my GOTY list, right under Dragon's Crown.
Luckily, god mode saved the day. I found myself being overwhelmed, as the game generates random monsters to assault the castle, and 70% of the final wave were Minotaurs and Knights. A Minotaur knocked me off the very top down a floor, I ran up with the NPC at 20% HP, and killed 2 Minotaurs with a critical Shotgun, and earned god mode, which saved me.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one to have problems with the Chapter 4 boss. And I beat it in the dumbest way possible, too. :lol I had to do it over so many times that I eventually got strong enough to go God Mode and use the full-stage super to kill the boss from all the way at the top of the tower. It was kinda ridiculous.
Man, dying on Floor 49 of a 50 floor dungeon is pretty painful. :lol But at least next time I can take what I learned in this run and hopefully do a better job.
I hate to triple post, but it's been nearly two days since anyone but me posted in here. Is nobody playing this? It's so good, and I hate having to resort to the GameFAQs forum just to talk about it.
I'm about 40 hours in, up to what I assume is the last stage, unless NIS throws a curveball and there ends up being more story after it.
Non-story spoilers below:
I've unlocked the second Martial Arts dungeon as well. Got to the end of the first one only to realize that I had no chance in hell against the boss, so I used an Exit and got the hell out. :lol Got a ton of great equipment out of it, though. So much so that the main story is a bit easy now. Seriously, I've got some +8 and +17 3* equipment at this point, which I've set as my Divine Summon so I won't permanently lose it if shit goes bad. I like that you can strengthen Burst'ed items multiple times for cheaper during the MA dungeons. But it does make the blacksmith in the normal base seem kinda useless now, haha. I tried out the second MA dungeon as well, but I only went 10 floors in (there's 100 floors instead of 50), but just in those 10 floors I found a bunch of 3* equipment. There's so much to do in this game, I love it. Definitely the most fun I've ever had with a NIS game.
Secret unlockable spoiler below:
I can't wait to get the Survival Dungeon, since apparently once you hit the 31st floor you unlock Minamo (Renya's sister) as a partner for the dungeons.
Sorry sorry! I've been a bit busy and most of my time got consumed playing Risk of Rain... >_____>
I'm also just sorta meandering through the Martial Arts dungeon and trying to figure out what items I wanna make my mainstays. Wiping on the 35th floor due to an awful decision on my part also made me turn to other games for a little bit. Still liking the game a ton, just taking it at a slower pace now than before.
I will say that the plot is ramping up fairly well. It does a good job of making each wish progressively less black and white or more messed up as shit starts to get revealed little by little. The plot is actually pretty decent, though I wouldn't say as good as ZHP.
And after playing for a while, as much as I like the general designs of the characters their outfits are starting to grate on me. Just very...uncreative and drab. Except the neon school uniforms. And since everyone wears a similar style, it makes scenes with the angels look pretty meh since it's all the same shit.
Love the dungeon designs though. I'm a gimmick lover so that kinda shit is right up my alley.
Finished the game. Took around 50 hours. Final dungeon took me three tries to get through, but the last boss wasn't too bad. Of course, I only say this because I was using ridiculously powerful equipment (anywhere from +11 to +19) and my total level was around 1,000. I guess if you didn't do a bunch of grinding like I did, you'd probably have quite a hard time with him.
Moved on to New Game+, but I'm kinda wishing I'd stuck around and farmed the last dungeon for money for a while, since you can easily get 150,000 gold in one run. But now that I'm in NG+ I'm gonna have to unlock all the stages again if I want to do that. Ah well, at least I can blaze through them this time around. You do unlock stuff in NG+ though, so it's definitely worth playing through again.
I've gone through the first ten floors to the martial arts dungeon about 7 times now and every time I've had to exit out at floor 10 because I was full of new items :O really hoping I find some way of massively increasing my pouch size soon
I've gone through the first ten floors to the martial arts dungeon about 7 times now and every time I've had to exit out at floor 10 because I was full of new items :O really hoping I find some way of massively increasing my pouch size soon
If you're trying to clear the MA dungeon, you're going to have to get used to the idea that you're not going to be taking most of what you find out with you. What you should be doing is bursting every piece of equipment you can find, then selling everything but the best stuff in order to fund the strengthening of whatever you decide is going to be your "main" equipment. Bursted items sell for roughly twice the amount that un-bursted equipment sells for. Plus, in the MA dungeon, you can strengthen stuff faster and cheaper, since the blacksmith will upgrade things multiple levels for a lower cost. Like, you can upgrade something from +0 to +2 for the same cost as upgrading from +0 to +1 outside the dungeon. And in later floors, this number grows much higher. Like, you could go from +4 to +9, five upgrades, for the cost of three or four (I forget which). It's gotten to the point where I rarely ever use the blacksmith outside of the MA dungeon now.
The paralyze shrooms are just unfair here, same with the Harpies that jump a bunch of spaces. Accelerator is my best friend, though. Best equip for this dungeon.
Which angel are you guys using the most? I know Kuroiel is generally the weakest, but I'm doing that thing where I pick my favorite characters to put in my party regardless of how good they are.
Which angel are you guys using the most? I know Kuroiel is generally the weakest, but I'm doing that thing where I pick my favorite characters to put in my party regardless of how good they are.
I've just been using Lilliel, since I have her Divinigram filled out the most. Used Neliel and Kuroiel a couple times though. You also unlock another one when you beat the game (won't say who), and I'll probably start using them soon as well.
And man, fuck the
Survival Dungeon
. Shit's hard. But you have to do it for the Platinum, and also to unlock
If you're trying to clear the MA dungeon, you're going to have to get used to the idea that you're not going to be taking most of what you find out with you. What you should be doing is bursting every piece of equipment you can find, then selling everything but the best stuff in order to fund the strengthening of whatever you decide is going to be your "main" equipment. Bursted items sell for roughly twice the amount that un-bursted equipment sells for. Plus, in the MA dungeon, you can strengthen stuff faster and cheaper, since the blacksmith will upgrade things multiple levels for a lower cost. Like, you can upgrade something from +0 to +2 for the same cost as upgrading from +0 to +1 outside the dungeon. And in later floors, this number grows much higher. Like, you could go from +4 to +9, five upgrades, for the cost of three or four (I forget which). It's gotten to the point where I rarely ever use the blacksmith outside of the MA dungeon now.
Yeah. I like the options of using others, but it's just...so much work to change their Divinigrams each and every time I use them since removing and replacing holy implants is so tedious. So I used Lilliel until I could use the best angel.
I just wish games had their gameplay reflect their story sometimes. I know it's silly, but if I use another angel the whole damn time then...maybe change the story to reflect that? It's like my love of optional bosses affecting the plot of the game. Looking at you, Tales of the Abyss you beautiful creature you.
No boss has really given me trouble yet if I sat and thought it through, but you're right, that fucking wall of death dungeon can go eat a dick.
