I watched this one (of course, else I wouldn't be commenting), and I have to say...
While I enjoyed WEWY (I refuse to add the definite article to game titles unless I have to), Yahtzee (I got it right again! \o/) brings up some good points, which I shall now commence to refute and/or agree with.
To start with, a disclaimer: I am an RPG fan, and if it has RPG elements I'll usually happily pooter around for hours playing it. And yes, that includes Oblivion, though the NPC levelling seemed off to me (playing an Assassin, levelling up Blade slowly, I was always at a disadvantage). As a result, I was engrossed in the story, rather than my own involvement in it. 'Course, some more choice, a la Torment, would have been nice.
When I started, I kept switching clothes and pins to work better. Then... I gave up. Said "eh" and never looked back. This is especially true in the final stages of the game (no spoilers...), since some of the pins your find near the end do colossal amounts of damage, wether weakened or no.
The problem with the trends isn't that it's there. It's an original mechanic. The problem is that the charts only track four brands, and there are about 15 brands. If there were, maybe, 8 brands, and the charts tracked five brands, THEN it would be of more use, since you'd have to carefully consider your deck and your clothing on entering an area.
The combat... To be frank, I never bothered with the top screen till AFTER the game ended. Yes, that's right, AFTER.
... Oh, and during the last boss battle.
Someone commented that the partner gets in the way. And this, I've realised, is completely true. In most cases, the health bar will drop from the top (unless my partner's fighting bats or something, and I'm fighting the big horrible monster). If you don't have some restoratives, you're screwed unless you can pull off fusion.
And this is the incentive to learn how to control both screens. If you don't, there's a very slim chance that the AI will get enough stars for a fusion: it just attacks as necessary. If you take control, however, then there's a greater chance of getting fusion. It's also important in harder difficulty levels, since the enemy becomes much tougher.
The pattern recognition... I have to say, unless you use Sub-Slots, you're going to suffer from that a lot. The reason is that some pins have "slash across an enemy", some have "slash down on an enemy". Doing the second is the same as doing the first. Thus, you assign one to the Sub-Slots, and don't have to worry. In fact, the manual mentions this, as does the game at one point, saying that, if a pin has a similar activation to another, the pin on the left goes first.
I was impressed by the fact that the game didn't treat the touch screen like an optional third limb, like Advance Wars Dual Strike, and instead made using it integral to actually PLAY the game, ie the game used ALL of the DS's... I'll call them "features", some may call them "gimmicks". Although, to be perfectly honest, I never used any pins requiring blowing or shouting in public, no matter HOW powerful (and they're pretty damn powerful).
I enjoyed the game. It had a decent story. Of course, it IS the only JRPG I've ever played to the end. Every other one, I started, enjoyed, then had to shelve due to college. This one, I played on the way into college, so score one for the DS.
Overall, Yahtzee brings up some some good points, which I've commented on above. It is an excellent game for JRPG fans tired of same old, same old (as an aside, a number of western RPGs do the whole "turn-based" thing as well, notable examples being DnD RPGs. Of course, the turn-based stuff is hidden, but it's there), and is a good jumping-off point for those interested in this "JRPG" stuff some people keep harping on about.
And yes, discussing the same JRPGs with someone else can quickly get confusing to outside parties. Once, I was confused by discussions on the benefits of some materia over others and which enemies are more dangerous and why, among other things (less confused by the former now, but still confused by the latter, and everything else). When talking to a friend about this game, I suddenly realised that we were using terms no-one who hadn't played the game would understand, such as "mingle" (which is faaaaar too close to "Tingle" for my tastes...) and "Shutdown PPs" and "light puck" and "Noise" and "drop rate" (well, maybe not so much for the last). So, it's endemic to JRPGs: people talking about them are harder to understand than people talking about most other games.
And now, I'm off to resume study, and thence to get back to beating Another Day.
As an afterword, I loved the soundtrack as well.
PS: Happy Birthday, Yahtzee, you respectibly-hatted paragon of all that is wonderful about the internet.
While I enjoyed WEWY (I refuse to add the definite article to game titles unless I have to), Yahtzee (I got it right again! \o/) brings up some good points, which I shall now commence to refute and/or agree with.
To start with, a disclaimer: I am an RPG fan, and if it has RPG elements I'll usually happily pooter around for hours playing it. And yes, that includes Oblivion, though the NPC levelling seemed off to me (playing an Assassin, levelling up Blade slowly, I was always at a disadvantage). As a result, I was engrossed in the story, rather than my own involvement in it. 'Course, some more choice, a la Torment, would have been nice.
When I started, I kept switching clothes and pins to work better. Then... I gave up. Said "eh" and never looked back. This is especially true in the final stages of the game (no spoilers...), since some of the pins your find near the end do colossal amounts of damage, wether weakened or no.
The problem with the trends isn't that it's there. It's an original mechanic. The problem is that the charts only track four brands, and there are about 15 brands. If there were, maybe, 8 brands, and the charts tracked five brands, THEN it would be of more use, since you'd have to carefully consider your deck and your clothing on entering an area.
The combat... To be frank, I never bothered with the top screen till AFTER the game ended. Yes, that's right, AFTER.
... Oh, and during the last boss battle.
Someone commented that the partner gets in the way. And this, I've realised, is completely true. In most cases, the health bar will drop from the top (unless my partner's fighting bats or something, and I'm fighting the big horrible monster). If you don't have some restoratives, you're screwed unless you can pull off fusion.
And this is the incentive to learn how to control both screens. If you don't, there's a very slim chance that the AI will get enough stars for a fusion: it just attacks as necessary. If you take control, however, then there's a greater chance of getting fusion. It's also important in harder difficulty levels, since the enemy becomes much tougher.
The pattern recognition... I have to say, unless you use Sub-Slots, you're going to suffer from that a lot. The reason is that some pins have "slash across an enemy", some have "slash down on an enemy". Doing the second is the same as doing the first. Thus, you assign one to the Sub-Slots, and don't have to worry. In fact, the manual mentions this, as does the game at one point, saying that, if a pin has a similar activation to another, the pin on the left goes first.
I was impressed by the fact that the game didn't treat the touch screen like an optional third limb, like Advance Wars Dual Strike, and instead made using it integral to actually PLAY the game, ie the game used ALL of the DS's... I'll call them "features", some may call them "gimmicks". Although, to be perfectly honest, I never used any pins requiring blowing or shouting in public, no matter HOW powerful (and they're pretty damn powerful).
I enjoyed the game. It had a decent story. Of course, it IS the only JRPG I've ever played to the end. Every other one, I started, enjoyed, then had to shelve due to college. This one, I played on the way into college, so score one for the DS.
Overall, Yahtzee brings up some some good points, which I've commented on above. It is an excellent game for JRPG fans tired of same old, same old (as an aside, a number of western RPGs do the whole "turn-based" thing as well, notable examples being DnD RPGs. Of course, the turn-based stuff is hidden, but it's there), and is a good jumping-off point for those interested in this "JRPG" stuff some people keep harping on about.
And yes, discussing the same JRPGs with someone else can quickly get confusing to outside parties. Once, I was confused by discussions on the benefits of some materia over others and which enemies are more dangerous and why, among other things (less confused by the former now, but still confused by the latter, and everything else). When talking to a friend about this game, I suddenly realised that we were using terms no-one who hadn't played the game would understand, such as "mingle" (which is faaaaar too close to "Tingle" for my tastes...) and "Shutdown PPs" and "light puck" and "Noise" and "drop rate" (well, maybe not so much for the last). So, it's endemic to JRPGs: people talking about them are harder to understand than people talking about most other games.
And now, I'm off to resume study, and thence to get back to beating Another Day.
As an afterword, I loved the soundtrack as well.
PS: Happy Birthday, Yahtzee, you respectibly-hatted paragon of all that is wonderful about the internet.
