Counterpoint, I got really good keeping track of every single person when I'm running around with 10. Operation 007-A does that to you. It's the one operation where you can zoom in for much of it and focus on every single little guy. And because of that it upped my later survival skills for whenever I lose a bunch of guys and need to go on the defensive with just a few.
Basically, in the sense that the first playthrough is the tutorial, most of 007-A is the game's method of teaching you everything you need to know about low man situations.
Ehhh. I guess...
I guess my counterpoint to that is that it isn't really fun and it doesn't seem like the game is focused around that kind of micromanagement. So it seems kind of weird that that kind of stuff is going on under the hood.
I just wish there was more player feedback on that kind of stuff because I don't really want to work that hard to keep track of it visually when I'm focusing on the core combat which is the draw of the experience.
The leader and ammo issue bothers me because I only learned those early on from paying extra attention when something went wrong. Although maybe I learned the leader thing specifically from GAF, in both cases figuring it out made me think "that makes sense". But there's an issue in figuring it out in the first place. The game takes a lot of things to their logical conclusion, but gamers don't seem to expect that.
My problem isn't that it doesn't make sense, because it absolutely does make sense.
My problem is that the developers didn't think to communicate that information to the players. It's almost like it's just how the game works and they didn't think of it to be that way.
and that's pretty much what my criticism of the 101 boils down to. It's easily my favorite game of the year and is remarkably well made for a first attempt at this kind of game, but unlike Bayonetta there's nothing about it's design that really wows me and makes me think "They really thought of everything". There's alot of things that I think they just overlooked, probably as a result of playing the game so much that things just seem obvious and intuitive to them, and I think the reviews and reception of the game sort of reflect that.
Like if there was a sequel I'd like that stuff to just be communicated through the U.I. Where it lists the number of units, just have a number over top of that number that keeps track of how many active units you have to play with. That way you can judge at a glance "oh I can't guts this".
When you're doing wonder liner it'd also be nice if a number appeared overhead showing you how many units are in the line you've drawn. Allowing players to more easily keep track of what tier morph they will be using without taking their eyes off of the action.(right now you just kind of have to eyeball the battery gauge.)
If I currently don't have a unit that can perform a morph, just signal to me that I can't draw that morph currently when I try. Or maybe have a miniature icon of that morph appear under the health bar with an X over it. Don't let me draw it and get something else and think I'm the one messing up.
