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[UncleSporky]

Thanks, this is reassuring. I mostly dislike all the micromanagement for characters that I am not attached to in monster raising games, and it doesn't sound like this game has that. I did some additional reading and found that you still have to weaken and catch the monsters. That's a little annoying to me but I can deal with it.

I'll pick this up when I get off work.

Since I have gotten a little further I have discovered that there is a bit more micromanaging than I thought, but at the same time it's no Pokemon or anything.

They level up and have stats of their own including HP that can be lost when they jump in to take damage for you.

They also will pop up and say things to you after battles, to which you can choose from four responses. Some increase their morale, some decrease it, sometimes you can get a free item from them for saying the right thing.

There's a whole page on it here, you can ctrl+F and search for what they say to you so you know what response is the right one. But it also seems fairly ignorable like you could pick the default option a lot and just forget about it.

They also provide anima points that enable skills for you to use. Honestly it seems like you could consider them equipment in this respect, like "oh this sword gives me one fire point so now I can cast this fire spell."

Overall they still seem like just a game mechanic and not actual characters I'm supposed to worry about.

 

[Velcro Fly]

So how does the skill system work? Is it like FFX's sphere grid where it's the same every time, or could you on a subsequent playthrough make a character into something else by following a different path?

 

[RedBoot]

So how does the skill system work? Is it like FFX's sphere grid where it's the same every time, or could you on a subsequent playthrough make a character into something else by following a different path?

There seems to be a decent amount of variety. Fang, for instance, has one path that lets him use spears and teaches some spear skills, while another path builds up his sword skills as well as teaching some charisma skills (helps with monster servants). He has some spells and claw skills scattered throughout.

Out of the three characters I have so far, it looks like they have a few major "paths," though there's lots of middle ground as well. Each section is circular, with a skill in the middle and nodes surrounding it. Sections will connect to each other, so you could wait and get all the skills in one, or move along to a different one to try and get specific skills. You can go back to get skipped stuff though, it doesn't move you along like FFX (assuming I'm remembering the Sphere Grid correctly). I'm not sure how much total SP you'll get through the game, so I can't tell if you can learn everything or have to pick and choose.

Enjoying the game so far, there's a lot of systems in play here so the first hour or so will be bogged down with tutorials, but once you get past that, it picks up. My only major complaint is that the game looks kind of blurry/low-res...it's like hooking up an SD console to an HDTV or something. I'm on a 3DSXL, so that might be part of it, but none of the other 3DS games I've played look worse on the XL (I'd test it on my old 3DS, but, you know, digital game ).

 

[Paranerd]

I'm only about two hours into this game. I lost a couple characters in a new dungeon, so I had to retreat to an inn. I can see this becoming pretty grindy. I'm not great at Unchaining monsters, either.

 

[massoluk]

I'm always accidentally killing monster that was unchainable.... any tips here?

It's always like this.

Fang attacked. Unchained circle come up.
"Cool! I can unchain this guy"
Hector attacked. Monster killed.
"FUCK"

Also... so very grindy. Party's so vulnerable. Reminds me why I never played any Etrian Odyssey more than a few hours.

 

[scy]

Reminds me why I never played any Etrian Odyssey more than a few hours.

To be fair, EO games are only really "grindy" in the first few hours. Making a good group with focused skill selection more-or-less trivializes the game once they get their skills operational (~end of the 1st Stratum).

They derive their difficulty primarily from the start of the game; once you get some skills and equipment down, things get a lot simpler from there.

 

[kunonabi]

There seems to be a decent amount of variety. Fang, for instance, has one path that lets him use spears and teaches some spear skills, while another path builds up his sword skills as well as teaching some charisma skills (helps with monster servants). He has some spells and claw skills scattered throughout.

Out of the three characters I have so far, it looks like they have a few major "paths," though there's lots of middle ground as well. Each section is circular, with a skill in the middle and nodes surrounding it. Sections will connect to each other, so you could wait and get all the skills in one, or move along to a different one to try and get specific skills. You can go back to get skipped stuff though, it doesn't move you along like FFX (assuming I'm remembering the Sphere Grid correctly). I'm not sure how much total SP you'll get through the game, so I can't tell if you can learn everything or have to pick and choose.

Enjoying the game so far, there's a lot of systems in play here so the first hour or so will be bogged down with tutorials, but once you get past that, it picks up. My only major complaint is that the game looks kind of blurry/low-res...it's like hooking up an SD console to an HDTV or something. I'm on a 3DSXL, so that might be part of it, but none of the other 3DS games I've played look worse on the XL (I'd test it on my old 3DS, but, you know, digital game ).

Can you see what all the skills are or is it like FFXII where they're hidden until you learn an adjacent one?

 

[ForteanMan]

Can you see what all the skills are or is it like FFXII where they're hidden until you learn an adjacent one?

I'm pretty sure you are able to read them just by moving the cursor over and reading a description of what the skills give you/unlock for you. Let me double check in game..




EDIT: Yeah, you can go to the Skill Map option and view every available upgrade. From little stuff like HP +5 to actual abilities or powers.

 

[Z3M0G]

I'm always accidentally killing monster that was unchainable.... any tips here?

It's always like this.

Fang attacked. Unchained circle come up.
"Cool! I can unchain this guy"
Hector attacked. Monster killed.
"FUCK"

When a monster appears that you want to try to capture, only target it with your heavy hitters at first to bring it to about 30% health... after that, only attack it with your very weakest attacks to gain an Unchain opportunity.

You really need to pick/choose who attacks what to avoid killing monsters you want to capture... and don't be afraid to make party members "block" in order to avoid them killing monsters.

 

[kunonabi]

I'm pretty sure you are able to read them just by moving the cursor over and reading a description of what the skills give you/unlock for you. Let me double check in game..




EDIT: Yeah, you can go to the Skill Map option and view every available upgrade. From little stuff like HP +5 to actual abilities or powers.

awesome. might just pick it up today.

 

[ColonelSkills]

Man, I picked this up yesterday but only got to play about an hour of it.

All I can say is Troy Baker is a bizarre choice for Fang. Very offputting and very generic tough guy BS at first. It's really distracting.

I saw an option to turn down voices but had to bail on the game for the evening.

At the lowest setting, does that mute the voices or just makes them quiet?

 

[gunstarhero]

Sorry if this has been discussed already - but what's the consensus on which version to buy?

PSN/Vita or 3DS?

Edit:
Nevermind - I see this has been talked about a bit on page 2. Still, the convenience of a second screen on the 3DS seems like it would outweigh the better looking screen of the vita...

 

[Alexios]

Still, the convenience of a second screen on the 3DS seems like it would outweigh the better looking screen of the vita...

I would think so, since it's a PSP game so not native Vita res (or is it?).

 

[Eusis]

I would think so, since it's a PSP game so not native Vita res (or is it?).

The Vita screen's an exact duplicate, and the 3DS DOES have low quality screens so the native resolution advantage can be very easily canceled out just by the game looking washed out on 3DS.

Plus that button switching! I'm used to that on Playstation and Xbox stuff, but not Nintendo stuff.

 

[massoluk]

Nevermind - I see this has been talked about a bit on page 2. Still, the convenience of a second screen on the 3DS seems like it would outweigh the better looking screen of the vita...

Spent 2:30 Hours on it so far. The map is the little thing but I don't think I'll trade this convenience for better resolution. It's not like I play rpg for graphics. If it's good enough, it's good enough.

 

[Alexios]

The Vita screen's an exact duplicate

I don't see how this argues against what I said, I'm aware of that. Pixel doubling doesn't somehow negate that. Hence why games like Uncharted which aren't native resolution don't downgrade down to half resolution just to get that perceived benefit, they end up better by using as high resolution as they can, even if it's somewhere between native and half resolution. I didn't imply equal to 3DS either, just that it's by no means going to look amazing so one may prefer the subtle 3D and second screen.

 

[Eusis]

I don't see how this argues against what I said, I'm aware of that. Pixel doubling doesn't somehow negate that. Hence why games like Uncharted which aren't native resolution don't downgrade down to half resolution just to get that perceived benefit, they end up better by using as high resolution as they can, even if it's somewhere between native and half resolution. I didn't imply equal to 3DS either, just that it's by no means going to look amazing so one may prefer the subtle 3D and second screen.

True, but the scaling won't look as bad as the 3DS doing DS games whether you put filtering on or not, and you can't underestimate how nice the vibrant Vita screen can be. Second screen's a good point, but the 3D... I think if I want that itch scratched EOIV and maybe Soul Hackers will do a better job of it.

There does seem to be some dithering on PSP however that isn't on 3DS though, which is worth keeping in mind if you're absolutely intolerant of it.

 

[ForteanMan]

Grrr! I really dislike the silly Follower DDR-esque challenge things. I'm about 12 and half hours into the game and I'm still only in the first Titan. Is anyone else already sick of this gameplay feature or is it just me?

I'm enjoying the game overall otherwise, except that the items seem way too expensive when compared to the abysmal amount of gold the enemies are dropping. Or am I just not playing the right way? This isn't my first RPG/Dungeon Crawler, but I feel like I must not be doing something right. Or I suppose it's equally as likely that the game just isn't any good and I'm in denial so as to avoid buyer's remorse.


Thoughts?

 

[cj_iwakura]

Grrr! I really dislike the silly Follower DDR-esque challenge things. I'm about 12 and half hours into the game and I'm still only in the first Titan. Is anyone else already sick of this gameplay feature or is it just me?

I'm enjoying the game overall otherwise, except that the items seem way too expensive when compared to the abysmal amount of gold the enemies are dropping. Or am I just not playing the right way? This isn't my first RPG/Dungeon Crawler, but I feel like I must not be doing something right. Or I suppose it's equally as likely that the game just isn't any good and I'm in denial so as to avoid buyer's remorse.


Thoughts?

Enemies never drop much money. You get cash from selling drops.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

I've put 21 hours in to this game so far. I said I wouldn't download it but I had some eShop credit to blow.

I like it well enough but the DDR Monster stuff is shitty. I wouldn't mind if it werent completely forced. If gaining followers just lead to extra drops, I would just toy with it when I felt the urge but forcing a battle near the end of a Titan in the Arc is fucking bullshit. This is such a shitty mechanic-how any fun could be had from this derivative crap is beyond me.

 

[ForteanMan]

Enemies never drop much money. You get cash from selling drops.

Yeah, I've noticed that doing that has helped a bit. It still feels like I'm not getting enough money somehow.

 

[Augemitbutter]

DDR stuff is only annoying at the beginning. you can overcome most of those barriers on the first try later on.

 

[PixyJunket]

I am finally starting my game and I'm enjoying it so far.

The reversed Confirm/Cancel buttons thing is driving me right batty though! After being delayed, what, about six months (?), they still let that go through?

Well, I just started, I am going to lunch and then spend the rest of the afternoon in dungeons!

 

[Rebel Leader]

Unchained Blades is a dungeon-crawling title made by FuRyu; a large compilation of many creative minds (including Takashi Hino (Grandia) as the scenario designer, Toshio Akashi (Lunar) as the director, and a soundtrack composed by Tsutomu Narita (Xenoblade Chronicles) with Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) contributing the theme song) to bring the PSP and the 3DS one heck of an RPG.

SOLD

 

[PixyJunket]

SOLD

Go buy it now; more copies sold means getting closer to having the sequel localized.

 

[Rebel Leader]

Go buy it now; more copies sold means getting closer to having the sequel localized.

But I can't yet

Even though I have a job(1 month now) and I bought myself a 3dsXl
But on the agreement I can't open it until my birthday February 6th

 

[PixyJunket]

Am I missing something obvious in terms of follower anima and anima based link skills?

 

[Zee_truly evil]

Am I missing something obvious in terms of follower anima and anima based link skills?

Yea me too, no matter what combination I try theResults hardy differ, so far it feels pretty useless, somebody please shed some light

 

[PixyJunket]

Yea me too, no matter what combination I try theResults hardy differ, so far it feels pretty useless, somebody please shed some light

I figured it out; you have to go to the skill tree to see which animas a skill requires (as far as I know, there's nowhere else to see this valuable information, dumb); they will usually require A LOT and a specific combination, just make sure that character has all of the requirements. To be honest, the whole thing seems useless given how much effort it takes!

 

[Saint Gregory]

I figured it out; you have to go to the skill tree to see which animas a skill requires (as far as I know, there's nowhere else to see this valuable information, dumb); they will usually require A LOT and a specific combination, just make sure that character has all of the requirements. To be honest, the whole thing seems useless given how much effort it takes!

I really don't think that it's possible, at least early in the game, to give your characters combos that unlock all of their skills. You do start to get higher level monsters with multiple animas later on but it seems like part of the strategy is deciding what abilities you want you characters to have and how many followers you want them to have and creating sets accordingly.

It is really confusing the way the game presents it but once you understand how it works it gets easier from there. It would be really helpful if the game showed you what anima the enemy creatures have in battle so you could hunt more effectively but it is what it is. I'm pretty sure that after you encounter a specific creature that info gets buried in one of the system logs but I couldn't find it the other night when I was playing.

This is the first time that I've played one of these types of dungeon crawlers but I'm loving it so far. The chapter I'm on now (3) has raised the difficulty pretty brutally but I'm still invested in playing on. It's definitely my favorite 3DS RPG so far, although the US hasn't gotten very many

 

[cj_iwakura]

Phew. Finally got past Titan Darius and started Chapter 2.

Boss fight was down to the wire.


(PSP version, but ah well.)

Spoiler

Does the game keep up the 'new dungeon, new party' theme? Not a bad thing, but I want Fang back, not to mention the best 'unchain' speaker. (Mari)

 

[vctor182]

Just started playing this 2 days ago, I've liking what I'm seeing so far. The change of buttons is not a deal breaker. Voice acting is good so far not like Arc Rise Fantasia which made me turn off the game 15 minutes in. I've just entered the first titan and while I'm able to win I end up badly hurt. Need to grind some more.

 

[daxy]

Game looks amazing. Why isn't it available in Europe yet ;___;

 

[Augemitbutter]

Phew. Finally got past Titan Darius and started Chapter 2.

Boss fight was down to the wire.


(PSP version, but ah well.)

Spoiler

Does the game keep up the 'new dungeon, new party' theme? Not a bad thing, but I want Fang back, not to mention the best 'unchain' speaker. (Mari)

man, you're slow.

it goes that way for a while, but keep on playing.

 

[cj_iwakura]

man, you're slow.

it goes that way for a while, but keep on playing.

Growlanser IV stole me away from it, and from then on things kept coming out.

 

[PixyJunket]

I'm at the end of the first dungeon (or so I think), but I got REALLY distracted by Wrath of the Lamb in the last week or so.

 

[vctor182]

Man, the 2nd floor of the first titan dungeon you start getting multiple enemies screens...

 

[Augemitbutter]

better get used to that. sometimes you will curse them, but they're fun!

 

[EDarkness]

After reading the new replies in this thread I've decided to avoid getting the game. I'll get Soul Hackers when it comes out later this year. Dealing with monster collecting just isn't my thing.

 

[vctor182]

After reading the new replies in this thread I've decided to avoid getting the game. I'll get Soul Hackers when it comes out later this year. Dealing with monster collecting just isn't my thing.

Don't you do the same thing in Soul Hackers? It's pretty easy unchaining monsters here

 

[cj_iwakura]

Don't you do the same thing in Soul Hackers? It's pretty easy unchaining monsters here

Soul Hackers doesn't require you to play DDR with a rudimentary amount of monsters to progress.

 

[Augemitbutter]

that DDR game is 10-15 min. for the whole game. it is a non-issue.

 

[PixyJunket]

that DDR game is 10-15 min. for the whole game. it is a non-issue.

My issue with that mini-game is that you have to pay too much attention to collecting and leveling up dozens of otherwise useless helper characters.

 

[EDarkness]

that DDR game is 10-15 min. for the whole game. it is a non-issue.

That's pretty huge for me. I just don't have any desire to do that, even for 15 minutes. I'll take my chances with Soul Hackers and if that offers the same monster collecting type gameplay, then I'll avoid that, too. I'm just not a fan of that type of stuff and I'm glad this thread existed, because I would have purchased the game and been mad. No point in wasting money when there's no need to.

 

[cj_iwakura]

that DDR game is 10-15 min. for the whole game. it is a non-issue.

Preparing for it takes way longer than that.

Don't get me wrong, I like the core of the game, but that stuff is blech.

Also, Chapter 2:

Spoiler

even in dungeons, hot spring scene. Stay classy, Japan.

 

[Augemitbutter]

That's pretty huge for me. I just don't have any desire to do that, even for 15 minutes. I'll take my chances with Soul Hackers and if that offers the same monster collecting type gameplay, then I'll avoid that, too. I'm just not a fan of that type of stuff and I'm glad this thread existed, because I would have purchased the game and been mad. No point in wasting money when there's no need to.

it's up to you. i encounter sections in games i don't like almost every day, and they're usually far longer than that. i'd never get anything done if i backed off at the slightest inconvenience.

 

[vctor182]

Finally finished chapter 1! It only took me 10 hours lol

Chapter 2 spoilers:

Spoiler

WTF? I grinded my ass off just to start with new characters? it better not be this way for the whole chapter

 

[whiterabbit]

So is this worth a digital download? The main thing I'm worried about is difficulty... Although the button switch sounds kind of annoying too. I like the art I've seen.