First impressions
#1
Posted 30 November 2010 - 11:51 AM
The opening narrative is pretty dull.
Garet and Isaac give off a whole 'my two gay dads' vibe. There hasn't been a mention of a spouse or a girlfriend yet, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Terrell is basically Garet 2.0 and he's Matthew's best friend...big shocker there. Oh, and he does something stupid early on in the game.
Just like in the two first games, there isn't a stat that determines the damage Psynergy does.
Just like in the two first games, impending danger doesn't stop the characters from entering into long conversations about things that could probably be said in a few sentences.
You are forced to go through the Djinn tutorial AGAIN.
Early on in the game (that means after little battle and lots of dialogue) you get to borrow 3 Mars and 3 Venus Djinn from Garet and Isaac.
Lots of things work better/easier, like Djinn swapping. And there's a hotkey for Psynergy.
#2
Posted 30 November 2010 - 02:56 PM
#4
Posted 30 November 2010 - 04:27 PM
#5
Posted 30 November 2010 - 11:46 PM
#7
Posted 01 December 2010 - 07:40 AM
The puzzles are way too easy...
Hope this is just a restart of the series with bigger stuff to come xD
Having 8 characters felt too many for me. Especially how you get the other 4 so far from each other into the game. They're never a suiting level for the ones you already have lol.
Oh and I totally don't like that there's several one way parts of the game, as in you can't go to places you've been before several spots...Missed the first mercury djinn and thought, oh well it's not like I won't be able to get back there (since there was a freakin broken bridge you can't pass and there is a path leading somewhere from the other side, wtf).
And there is one contradiction I found, which is not talked about in the game.
When I heard about Dark Dawn, one my first speculative thoughts was, would we visit the Anemos?
When the Luna Tower rises and the eclipse occurs, where did that moon come from? It says even in the Encyclopedia under Anemos that their home is what can be seen as the moon on the sky. Unless they revolve around the earth?
But then this tower wouldn't have been constructed since eclipses couldn't happen without the Anemos rising into the sky. o_o
Anyways... is Weyard located on a round planet after all? Meteors animation shows it hitting an earth-like planet...
#8
Posted 01 December 2010 - 03:35 PM
What's worse, whenever the game presents a tutorial, it forces it on you. Even if you say "Yeah, I know how to do that" it turns around and says "Really? Well, let's just be SURE that you do." Not only that, but they take longer than the other two games as well. Pretty annoying.
As far as overworld psyenergy is concerned, while I'm glad Camelot is making use of touch controls, it occasionally gets annoying. It seems more gimmicky than anything, though I understand that you kind of need to yous touch controls for some things, like fireball for example. Moving around with the stylus is painfully imprecise when doing time-trial like events.
Battles are way too easy. The first boss you fight in the first game was either Saturos or Tret (you got to choose, which was nice). The first battle in DD is a mutated plant thing, and of course Isaac and Garet land the finishing blows for you. The second boss is a mechanical wooden boxcar thing with the doom dragon painted on it. That battle was a bit more difficult, but it was still easy. I only had to heal one character once, and the battle just dragged on because my characters didn't have a lot of attack. It's not necessarily a bad thing for a battle to drag on, but it just gets boring when you don't even need to worry about healing. I can only hope future battles will be tougher.
The psyenergy animations are pretty cool, as are the summons. That's definitely a highlight of the game. I'm looking forward to some of the weapon unleashes. I'm also curious about how we'll obtain the advanced summons (mixing elements). Are they readily available once you obtain enough djinni, or must you find tablets again? Because I've got one venus and one mars, and I don't have the option of summoning Zagan. I really hope the game doesn't just hand them to you.
The 3D models are also pretty good (both character and building/landscape models). I especially like how in some spots, the camera will pan down and give you a nice view of the landscape. So far, I don't have any gripes about the camera.
As for the characters however, even though Garet was a doofus in the first two games, he was at least a likeable doofus. Tyrell is just a retarded asshole most of the time. Though I guess that's to be expected as the main characters are all 14, instead of 17 like in the previous two games. Karis is also an emotional wreck on occasion for seemingly no reason (like when you get to Patcher's Place. I never quite understood the reason for why she started bawling, when she acted so brash before. Bipolar much?). Kind of goes against the personality type the game portrays her as in the beginning (i.e. more like Jenna, being brash and straightforward most of the time, which is a good thing imo).
I like the fact that you can present different emotions to situations that arise in the game though.
Don't get me wrong, I've been thoroughly enjoying the game thus far (playing through a ROM to get screenshots for site content), but it's got some flaws. However, I have every reason to believe I'll enjoy this game just as much as the other two.
#9
Posted 01 December 2010 - 05:05 PM
The tablets are in caves all over the world again. And there is one new, a 3 venus 2 mercury one. Expected it to be 3 mercury, since Haures is already a 3/2 that focuses on venus...
Collecting the final tablets now that I got the item I need to get to those. They picked the best GS music for the uber tablet guardians :DD
And wow, the one guarding Catastrophe was an interesting battle! (I had to try 4 different battle styles to get him down hahaha)
At the Daedalus one now I think... LOL the boss reminds me of those russian dolls for a reason XD
Oh and, yay for Dark element Adepts and Psynergy o_o
Guess we'll see Light in a sequel O:!
I didn't think there was THAT much talking o_o
There was maybe 2 occasions when I thought "we get it, continue..."
#10
Posted 01 December 2010 - 06:53 PM
Saiph Charon, on 01 December 2010 - 05:05 PM, said:
Guess we'll see Light in a sequel O:!
After Isaac said some stuff in tanglewood forest I thought to myself "hmmm....are we gonna see light and dark elements too?" Apparently I totally called it. :P
And my first impressions may change as I progress. I've only gotten to Patcher's Place so far. =/
#11
Posted 01 December 2010 - 08:47 PM
An example of a gimmick would be if they made you draw a pattern or something in order to summon a Dijinn. It would add nothing to the gameplay experience while bogging it down.
#12
Posted 02 December 2010 - 03:08 AM
I expect to have a more enjoyable experience once I actually play it on a DS.
#13
Posted 02 December 2010 - 03:05 PM
The end is pretty unamazing and lame. And it basically writes it in your face THERE IS GONNA BE A SEQUEL
:/
So my impression after having finished it (well i gotta pwn dullahan still( but u have to finish the game before you can), btw crossbone island puzzles were kinda boring)
it feels uncomplete.
It has the golden sun feeling, nice places, music and all of course. But not enough new stuff, summon, equipment and class wise IMO.
And there is no good puzzles. I don't remember one where I couldn't just go
"lets move everything that can be moved and crush all the rocks here...oh i can now go to the next map"
xD
But hey, TBS had easier puzzles than TLA, but still, I want at least Venus lighthouse difficulty somewhere in a GS game LOL
#14
Posted 02 December 2010 - 03:38 PM
What bothers me about getting extra party members is that they're already loaded with Djinn.
#15
Posted 02 December 2010 - 04:14 PM
I'm the kind of person who in TBS and TLA made sure everyone in the team has the same exp, thats why.
#16
Posted 09 December 2010 - 10:38 PM
I do enjoy the fact that they let you play the saved file after you beat it, but sorta curious about the data transfer when the new one comes out, since they did make it blatantly obvious there would be a new one.
#17
Posted 10 December 2010 - 08:49 AM
This would be quite hard to do on the real games, but is trivial using an emulator or specialized (and mostly illegal) DS homebrew kits. But it should make data transfer to a new game interesting, as they could theoretically import from any localized version to any other localized version.
#18
Posted 10 December 2010 - 02:48 PM
#19
Posted 21 December 2010 - 04:21 PM
Toasty, on 01 December 2010 - 03:35 PM, said:
What's worse, whenever the game presents a tutorial, it forces it on you. Even if you say "Yeah, I know how to do that" it turns around and says "Really? Well, let's just be SURE that you do." Not only that, but they take longer than the other two games as well. Pretty annoying.
As far as overworld psyenergy is concerned, while I'm glad Camelot is making use of touch controls, it occasionally gets annoying. It seems more gimmicky than anything, though I understand that you kind of need to yous touch controls for some things, like fireball for example. Moving around with the stylus is painfully imprecise when doing time-trial like events.
Battles are way too easy. The first boss you fight in the first game was either Saturos or Tret (you got to choose, which was nice). The first battle in DD is a mutated plant thing, and of course Isaac and Garet land the finishing blows for you. The second boss is a mechanical wooden boxcar thing with the doom dragon painted on it. That battle was a bit more difficult, but it was still easy. I only had to heal one character once, and the battle just dragged on because my characters didn't have a lot of attack. It's not necessarily a bad thing for a battle to drag on, but it just gets boring when you don't even need to worry about healing. I can only hope future battles will be tougher.
The psyenergy animations are pretty cool, as are the summons. That's definitely a highlight of the game. I'm looking forward to some of the weapon unleashes. I'm also curious about how we'll obtain the advanced summons (mixing elements). Are they readily available once you obtain enough djinni, or must you find tablets again? Because I've got one venus and one mars, and I don't have the option of summoning Zagan. I really hope the game doesn't just hand them to you.
The 3D models are also pretty good (both character and building/landscape models). I especially like how in some spots, the camera will pan down and give you a nice view of the landscape. So far, I don't have any gripes about the camera.
As for the characters however, even though Garet was a doofus in the first two games, he was at least a likeable doofus. Tyrell is just a retarded asshole most of the time. Though I guess that's to be expected as the main characters are all 14, instead of 17 like in the previous two games. Karis is also an emotional wreck on occasion for seemingly no reason (like when you get to Patcher's Place. I never quite understood the reason for why she started bawling, when she acted so brash before. Bipolar much?). Kind of goes against the personality type the game portrays her as in the beginning (i.e. more like Jenna, being brash and straightforward most of the time, which is a good thing imo).
I like the fact that you can present different emotions to situations that arise in the game though.
Don't get me wrong, I've been thoroughly enjoying the game thus far (playing through a ROM to get screenshots for site content), but it's got some flaws. However, I have every reason to believe I'll enjoy this game just as much as the other two.
Matthew, Karis, and Tyrell are all 16. -_-
#20
Posted 27 December 2010 - 11:40 AM
I now have absolutely 0 motivation to play this game because either I start again and reset 6 hours of gameplay or carry on knowing that I've permanently missed a crucial element of the game. COMPLETELY ruined the game for me.
#21
Posted 27 December 2010 - 12:01 PM
think i missed 4 djinn and most of the summon tablets thanks to the wonders of roadblocking, i even took the time to 'fully explore' many of the places as i played through the game to no avail >__>
#22
Posted 27 December 2010 - 02:41 PM
Laharl, on 27 December 2010 - 12:01 PM, said:
think i missed 4 djinn and most of the summon tablets thanks to the wonders of roadblocking, i even took the time to 'fully explore' many of the places as i played through the game to no avail >__>
In the past 2 games, roadblocking was only temporary in all cases so why did Camelot decide to make them permanent this time around? Stupid decision.
And yeah, I've had more cutscenes than I have fights so far. Ridiculous.
#23
Posted 29 December 2010 - 09:27 AM
Well, I'm not gonna lie. Camelot did trip me up. Once. The first time in Belinsk, I searched that damn city for three hours and then did a Google search... Only to find out I was supposed to leave. But that's not much of a puzzle, rather than just fucking with everybody.
#24
Posted 03 January 2011 - 05:09 PM
That said, exposition is painfully slow in this game. The other GS's were slow with dialogue but this one's even worse. I felt like I was doing the stuff around the lookout cabin for ages.
Basically I'm really enjoying it so far, but I'm aware of it's flaws.
#25
Posted 04 January 2011 - 06:48 AM
Some roadblocks are made obvious which makes it easier to turn around and collect everything but some put you in a position where you cant go back anyway and then the game tells you "oh by the way we're stuck here now" which is irritating.
Also starting to feel quite rushed, for whatever reason. Himi joined pretty much instantly, with the excuse of "its my destiny" which is poor, considering the usual standard of writing. Very much liking Sveta's character though, both plot wise and combat wise. In combat she's a beast (excuse the pun), doing 3-4 times everyone elses average damage and plot wise she's angsty but justified.
#26
Posted 04 January 2011 - 03:20 PM
#27
Posted 06 January 2011 - 09:38 AM
Also, there is and always has been a stat that indicates Psynergy damage. It's called elemental power and it's displayed rather prominently on each character's main status page.
#28
Posted 06 January 2011 - 06:52 PM
By the way, the word should appear in your encyclopedia regardless of whether or not you tap the red words in the dialog. I noticed that if I missed any words, they'd show up in my encyclopedia as new words.
I could be wrong though. Maybe there's instances where that doesn't happen?
#29
Posted 07 January 2011 - 08:12 AM
in other news i find it highly amusing the best place to train in the game can actually can be missed completely if you're unlucky (you can go back but if you dont know its there you have reason to do so). Only 1 type of enemy, they have 100% drop rate and their drop is Water of Life, i had close to 200 water of life when i got to level 99, which took about 4-5 hours
#30
Posted 09 January 2011 - 06:11 PM
Yes I agree fully the battles are too easy at times, more specifically boss battles. The last boss on the other hand was just 'Oh hey, I just won't die.' Same with the optional bosses like Warlock and Dullahan. As a matter of fact, I never beat Dullahan. I had fun with warlock when I messed up and he took over Sveta while in beast form.
THAT. WAS. FUN. Anyways, I agree that camelot messed up, but it wasn't so bad like other games*cough*dawnofsorrow*uncough*. I still enjoyed it mostly. Except for the fact you don't fight Alex. Again. For the third time.
#31
Posted 10 January 2011 - 03:32 AM
Anyway, other than that, though the cutscenes do seem to contain a fair amount of interesting/useful information, I can't help but feel overwhelmed with them. There's literally at least one cutscene between each dungeon (so far), and they're rarely short. Often times there's more than one. I liked it in TLA when I could go through three dungeons and only have to read a few lines of text from a party member every now and then (i.e. maybe once or twice per dungeon, if that).
I realize they need to push the story forward, as I have a feeling that DD isn't anywhere near as massive as TLA was, but still. Less text, and more gameplay. Which brings me to my next point:
The dungeons are pathetic. They're small, and hardly have any challenges at all. The hardest one thus far was the water temple in Ayuthay (sp?), and that really wasn't much to write home about. Granted, I'm only part way through the game, but if this is any indication of what's to come, I don't have my hopes up.
The game also feels much more linear than the first GS (which wasn't bad, but it wasn't on par with TLA either).
However, I'm loving the weapons system, and I'm impressed with the detail that's been put into the artifacts. It'd be great if the character's in-battle outfits changed to match their armor, but I'm glad to see that each weapon has it's own model, at least. Having to master a weapon to bring out it's full potential actually makes it worth it to use regular attacks outside of battles with typical cannon-fodder (i.e. pixies and such). I'm also glad that they finally decided to include an item for restoring PP other than the psy crystal.
Anyway, despite all of this, I am enjoying the game. It may be easy, and I may dread the cutscenes somewhat, but I still like it. I just probably won't replay it as much as I did the first two.
Oh yeah, the lack of backtracking (to an extent), and multiplayer (online or even local) is disappointing. Infact, it's just plain stupid. Who thought of that? (or didn't think of it, in the latter's case).
#32
Posted 24 January 2011 - 12:56 AM
TheEnglishman, on 03 January 2011 - 05:09 PM, said:
I'd change it (for myself) to enjoyed, rather than enjoying, but this sentence alone sums up the game perfectly.
Toasty said:
YES. I thought the EXACT same thing.
I plan on writing a full review, hopefully tomorrow.
#33
Posted 26 February 2011 - 09:38 AM
Seriously, if you use weapon grace on Sveta when she's on the rag in battle her attack goes up by like 400 and she splits the world in half with her cataclysmic rage right before choking your opponent with his own shredded intestines. I mean, don't get me wrong, that's totally awesome. That technique had me putting my DS down so that I could do DBZ charging sequences before painting the wall with some loser boss' brains, complete with Soul Calibre victory poses afterwords. It just breaks the game. Hard. Knowing that you can do that is the combat equivalent of a spoiler. You know how the battle ends. Crazed mutant Sveta briefly looks down at her bloodstained claws as if momentarily realizing the horrifying devastation that she has wrought before her insatiable bloodlust drives her on to find new victims.
I think that will be my next challenge. Go through the game with just Himi and Sveta. If that little bitch can survive long enough to cast 'incite psychotic feral rage' on my trained attack werewolf she could probably conquer the world by herself. I wouldn't have to worry about cutscenes either. NPCs would be all "I gotta talk to this old man for like five hours." And Sveta would be like "Shut up bitch, I'm queen of the werewolves!" and backhand them into next Thursday. That game would probably have a happy ending too. Her brother would be all "Oh snap, I'm dead..." and she'd be like "Shut up, no you're not. Now get the hell up. I haven't eaten anyone in like five minutes and I'm getting antsy."
Okay, I may have exaggerated slightly, but I was still a bit put off.
"I wonder why spirit sense on these mangled corpses always says: 'Shouldn't have asked what happened to her friends...'"