Zone of the Enders HD Collection Includes Metal Gear Rising Demo

[The Wooster]

Zone of the Enders HD Collection Includes Metal Gear Rising Demo

History repeats itself on October 30th.

Zone of the Enders HD Collection arrives on PS3 and 360 on October 30th. In a cute nod to the original PS2 release of the Kohima-helmed mecha game, the HD collection includes a demo of Platnium Games' upcoming Metal Gear Rising. PS2 era gamers will remember that Konami promoted the then-unknown franchise by including a demo for the long-awaited Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

While neither of the Zone of the Enders games sold especially well, they did develop enough of a cult following to warrant a HD re-release. The HD collection includes the original Zone of the Enders and the European special edition version of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner.

Konami's most recent entry into the HD re-release market didn't go particularly well. Silent Hill HD Collection suffered from a slew of technical problems which eventually resulted in the publisher offering exchanges to customers who bought the 360 version. While that collection was ported by a third party, Zone of the Enders HD Collection was developed in-house at Kojima Productions.

According to an announcement from back in May, a new Zone of the Enders game is in early development.




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[Mahorfeus]

I've honestly never played Zone of the Enders before. This sounds like a good way to start.

 

[Spinozaad]

I remember that game. Fun, if a bit repetitive. I also remember vaguely that once you got the Lance/Lancer/whatever secondary weapon, you didn't need anything else.

And I actually bought it for the Sons of Liberty demo, haha! Good times, good times.

 

[Frybird]

Don't care much, given that the ZoE HD Collection also includes Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner, a game wich i always wanted to play, but never got to due to various reasons.

 

[JdaS]

Looking forward to this. ZoE2 was one of my favorite games on the PS2. As always, I have to express my undying wish for a Japanese VA option, as the English dub is some of the most god-awful "acting" I have ever had to witness.

 

[JdaS]

Looking forward to this. ZoE2 was one of my favorite games on the PS2. As always, I have to express my undying wish for a Japanese VA option, as the English dub is some of the most god-awful "acting" I have ever had to witness.

I think any game where the main character is named "Dingo Egret" is gonna have sound issues regardless of the language. That said, Peter Barto is not one of my favorite VAs.

OT: Want it... but a gameplay issue in 2 bugged the crap out of me.

True that. But if you've seen the cast (Dingo's JP VA especially), you know what I'm talking about.

Also, what gameplay issue was that, just out of curiosity.

 

[GenGenners]

EUROPEAN SPECIAL EDITION, FUCK YEAH!!!

Also, glad to see this is being done in-house.

 

[Suijen]

Looking forward to this. ZoE2 was one of my favorite games on the PS2. As always, I have to express my undying wish for a Japanese VA option, as the English dub is some of the most god-awful "acting" I have ever had to witness.

Same here. I never played the first ZOE, but ZOE2 is an under-appreciated gem. Now that game was an excellent experience with awesome graphics. I thought the VA was pretty good, but suffered from some cheesy dialogue.

What's special about the European special edition?

 

[RJ 17]

I don't remember much about Zone of the Enders, but I do remember enjoying it, something about conjuring up a big ball of energy and spiking it at your enemies. Never got a chance to play the 2nd game so this'll give me that chance.

 

[JdaS]

Looking forward to this. ZoE2 was one of my favorite games on the PS2. As always, I have to express my undying wish for a Japanese VA option, as the English dub is some of the most god-awful "acting" I have ever had to witness.

Same here. I never played the first ZOE, but ZOE2 is an under-appreciated gem. Now that game was an excellent experience with awesome graphics. I thought the VA was pretty good, but suffered from some cheesy dialogue.

What's special about the European special edition?

There was also a lot of trouble with some characters' delivery. In my opinion anyway. I think I own the European Special Edition, and there's nothing special as far as I can tell. Some sort of mission mode, a VS mode where you can fight with another player using all the frames from story mode. There were some other things too but nothing to write home about.

EDIT: Also I've never been a fan of English dubbing to begin with, so consider me biased.

 

[Suijen]

True, there was a problem with the delivery, but I attributed it to technical issues or editing rather than VA. I think the same applies to Far Cry 2 when someone must have edited the voices to increase talk rate by 50%.

The US version (the one I had) also had a VS mode though.

 

[Zero=Interrupt]

Both fantastic games, particularly the second one. I haaaaated not being able to pummel AI Viola directly. Did anyone else get stuck on that stage in the circular industrial area where she chased you around, and you had to grab one of those floating enemies to smack her with?

I wish they'd do some HD releases of PS2 games I never got to, like Persona 3 and 4. Having them on the small screen is nice, but.....

 

[Moontouched-Moogle]

Looking forward to this. ZoE2 was one of my favorite games on the PS2. As always, I have to express my undying wish for a Japanese VA option, as the English dub is some of the most god-awful "acting" I have ever had to witness.

I think any game where the main character is named "Dingo Egret" is gonna have sound issues regardless of the language. That said, Peter Barto is not one of my favorite VAs.

OT: Want it... but a gameplay issue in 2 bugged the crap out of me.

True that. But if you've seen the cast (Dingo's JP VA especially), you know what I'm talking about.

Also, what gameplay issue was that, just out of curiosity.

In New Game+, several objectives are difficult if not impossible because of how powerful the Jehuty V3 is. Like syphoning the virus, or losing the first fight to Anubis.

Said issues are easily rectified by not playing with Jehuty V2 or Naked Jehuty, especially since the option to choose which form of Jehuty you want and the option to start with all the subweapons are mutually exclusive. This means you could just play with standard Jehuty, but have all the weapons earlier so that you could find the bonus stuff. For instance, I believe you needed the Vector Cannon far earlier in the game than normal in order to destroy a wall and find a bonus boss fight, unlocking another Orbital Frame for VS mode. Also, since you could play on a different difficulty in New Game+, you could set it to Hard Mode to compensate for the increase in Jehuty's power.

Plus, if you're careful, you can delete the Viola virus from Ardjet without actually harming Ardjet, which is kind of the point anyway, since the virus already does enough damage to the frame as it is. I'll admit that an accidental hit with Jehuty V2 or Naked Jehuty is a lot more frustrating than one with the normal Jehuty, though. As for losing to Anubis, just stand still while he goes to town on you. Maybe make a sandwich while you wait.

Anyway, I'm cautiously excited for this. I gave the MGS HD Collection a pass since I'd already gotten the Essential Collection and then went and got another copy of Subsistence separately for the second disc, so the HD Collection didn't bring much of anything new to the table for me. This, on the other hand, has the bonus stuff from the European Special Edition of The Second Runner, which is cool, and the Revengeance demo is a nice bonus. If it isn't a catastrophe like Silent Hill HD was, then there may be enough here for me to justify buying it, despite already owning Z.O.E. and The Second Runner.