The World Ends With You and Crisis Core

Visual Novel Community Anime/Otaku Discussions
#1

I picked this title up for DS not expecting much. I was very pleasantly surprised! The game has a good soundtrack (on iTunes if you want samples) and so far the game is pretty entertaining. I believe it was made by the same team that made Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, but it’s nowhere near as insanely difficult. The only gripe I have is how they implemented the main characters attacks. Basically you use the stylus to perform various psionic assaults on your foes – everything from pyrokinesis, to mind daggers, to telekinesis. This isn’t bad, however some of the move sets are so similar that you can accidentally use one instead of another. Setting up combo’s with your partner is challenging to master, but unnecessary since your partner will auto-attack if you leave her alone for a second or so.

Just thought I’d pimp this one out since it was better than I expected.

Crisis Core likewise surprised me with it’s non-suckyness. I expected an FF7 prequel to completely miss the mark in the same vein of Dirge of Cerberus, but the movie quality is excellent and the game produces better graphics than I thought the PSP capable of producing. The plot is okay, not great, but not bad. Anyone who played FF7 knows what happened to the hero of this story, Zack. So they can’t really pull many plot twists out of nowhere. Controls are intuitive, no slip ups so far. Materia fusion kind of reminds me of the Mana Egg combining that was so prevalent in Grandia Xtreme and Grandia 3. In fact it’s almost exactly the same thing. Between stories missions, you have the option of going on side missions to level up and get items/materia. These missions range from “That was it??” to “Ow! Preparation H time!”

Thought I’d share my ideas on these games. Anyone else have any thoughts on them?

Next up (when I get to them) Wild Arms XF and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness… maybe.

#2

The L-man convinced me to get Crisis Core… which I enjoyed.

I’ve heard a lot (and I mean a LOT) of good things for The World Ends With You, but my money is on hold for DQ4 and FF4 on DS. First I get those. :slight_smile:

#3

currently going retro and playing rockman dash and dash2 (since its dirt cheap now :P)…damn they totally redid the kanji quizzes…

and i didnt know until now that rock and roll’s voices are performed by the same talents who did basu and shita in laputa :stuck_out_tongue: (correct me if i am wrong on this one)

#4

It’s decent. Would have been better if you could interact with the people you scanned more, ie the world was a bit more open than what it is now with hidden sidequests by scanning non-scenerio essential people.

DQ4 and FF4 are better bets though. Maybe a sequel will be better. It’s a good game if you can wait around till it goes on discount rack Narg.

#5

Yeah, it’s pretty linear. But still some decent fun. Lots of things to collect and do, but light on side quests.

#6

i personally was a bit disappointed with FF4 NDS version…game balance is really off in my opinion; too challenging (especially for non-FF4 veterans) at the beginning, then considerably cruising in the middle, and then the end becomes too challenging because whoever programmed the game decided to put a bigtime cap on HP growth when u level up beyond say level70, and sometimes it gets really unfair

but that said if u want a challenging rpg then FF4DS would be your choice

#7

i’m glad…though why they made the middle easy and not the beginning i don’t know…

Personally i had no trouble with FFIV when i played it. No deaths until i fought Bahamut and the giant (whatever it’s called) core in the original us version. In the ps1 version no deaths until i fought bahamut once a bit too early, plus a random death when i fought the golbez in the dwarf’s crystal room once and the dark elf once.

#8

thats because the SNES one you played decades ago is most likely the easy version of FF4 :stuck_out_tongue:

…and the only reason why i was able to cruise through the middle was because i spent days doing massive level up for cecil and rosa…and plus i gave up heavy armor in favor of lighter and higher evade% clothing for cecil :stuck_out_tongue:

and the reason why the beginning will appear to be challenging is because enemies at the very beginning (as in just outside the baron castle and the mist cave) are already capable of spamming status effects on you such as slow, blindness…and instant stone :stuck_out_tongue:

#9

Indeed, but not the PS1 version.

Well except in games like FF8 or Oblivion powerleveling generally makes even the hardest game easy.

slow and blindess never bothered me in FF games. Stone…that’s another story.

Anyway my impression of The World Ends With You:

A game with so much potential that squandered it on an extremely linear storyline and brought itself probably from potentially one of the most innovative games of the genre in years to just another medicore game with some interesting dynamics.

#10

You might be interested to know that a Zero Punctuation review of The World Ends With You has been posted. As with most of these reviews, it is quite amusing. Eroge is even mentioned in the review! In any case, here is the link: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ … s-With-You

#11

Hehe, I saw that. It has some valid points, but it’s important to remember that Yahtzee HATES JRPGs and a lot of his criticisms about TWEWU are actually criticisms about the genre rather than the game. I’m not far enough to know that his criticism of the fashion system is valid though.

As a side note, I turned on Digital Devil Saga in yet another attempt to play it. Made some headway, but I hate how you can get instantly and thoroughly screwed in battle. Made me lose an hour or two of progress because there was no karma terminal. GRR. I’ll be happier when PCSX2 is fast enough to run DDS (looks okay and movies work now, but slooooow). Then I can use save states – which I hear some people consider akin to cheating.

#12

His fashion statements aren’t valid exactly…except finding the store to tell the right clothes.

There is a map, but it’s not interactive as it’s on the top screen.

BAD MOVE!!!

It should have been on the bottom screen where players could click on certain sections and see what was fashionable in each area and more importantly have a list of stores there, even if you had to visit them once that’s understandable.

The only real problem with the fashion thing is if you’re like most people you don’t read the manual and don’t find out about this fashion sense until almost 1/3 through the story despite it’s major importance…

Although really as long as you’re not wearing #13 i saw no major difference…they probably should have made things more extreme and told you how it works earlier.

#13

It’s not “akin to” cheating, it IS cheating. If they’d wanted you to be able to save anytime, they’d’ve done it. Now, it’s a single player game; cheating only really means anything if there are other people involved – if it’s multiplayer, if it’s part of some kinda contest, etc. If you’re just playing for yourself, then as long as you don’t feel like it’s detracting from your enjoyment of the game … Who cares?

And DDS isn’t that hard, if you play smart. (Then again FFT wasn’t either, but I had a terrible time with it at first.) Learn how to use the battle system; learn how to use enemies’ weaknesses, cover your own, etc. You have to work at developing a proper strategy for the area you’re fighting in, or you’re going to get pwned.

Or you just grind for the extremely large amount of time required to unlock the insane Null Attack and Auto Soma skills, then massacre everything in your path.

#14

In general, I side with Raigan about save states. Historically, “save points” in most console games were more because of hardware limitations than the developers thinking that a game would be too easy if you were able to save anywhere. I think that now it’s more because of tradition that this practice still endures. This is part of why I’m a dedicated computer gamer; games that have “save points” are, for the most part, highly irritating to me. If save points aren’t done right, the game gets extremely repetitive.

#15

Traditionally that was the case, however now that’s not the case. In some cases it’s more tradition, but in many it’s more to do with game balance. Games like WA3 & RE clearly did not intend it for tradition but game balance.

After all, it it easier to walk 10 steps and survive or go through an entire level?

#16

I’m gonna say that clearly it is NOT merely a matter of tradition, if you’re talking about Megami Tensei. MegaTen has a legendary reputation for being punishing.

Besides, many games have kept save points around on purpose. Look at the whole concept of a quicksave: a save that quits the game when you make it, and is deleted when you load it. This was invented for the express purpose of allowing save points to be used to permit people to save-and-quit without also allowing save-and-cheat.

#17

I’ll never understand the mindset of people that consider the ability to save anytime as cheating. I guess that’s part of why I’m a devoted computer gamer.

Small fact:The most recent console I have is a Super Nintendo, unless you count the Playstation emulator I have so I can play a few of my friend’s games occasionally. (i.e. FF VII, which I have for PC, but the discs are ruined. Besides, the control scheme for the PC version blows.)

#18

Kimuzukashii MEIJI:

Besides Bishoujo games, what computer games do you play? Some games lend themselves to being okay with the save-anytime/anywhere concept, such as strategy games, especially real-time which could not work without such a system. FPS games are generally made on a level-basis (when they’re not mutli-player ffa or team). RPGs, with exception of computer games, are all restricted to save points because walking 10 steps and surviving is a lot easier than walking 1000, and yes there are people who walk 10 steps, save, walk 10 steps, save, walk 10 steps, save… It changes a game from being a challenge to being easy and destorys any concept the desginer might have had for suspense, random monster generation, etc (which prebuffing for a fight that is suppose to be a “random encounter” or “you don’t know the enemies weakness ICly” is also cheating, but that’s another story.

#19

The majority of the games I play on computer are first and third person action and/or stealth titles. Some of them contain elements of other genres. I have a few games that are primarily RPG (all of the Baldur’s Gate series, all of the Neverwinter Nights series except Mask of the Betrayer, all of Knights of the Old Republic series). The only strategy game I have currently is Civilization IV (without any expansions yet). Occasionally I play casual games when I crave something very simple. In the past, I played combat flight sims and space sims (i.e. X-wing), as well as adventure games (probably the oldest one I remember playing is Mystery House).

#20

Well all of those games lose their difficulty because of the save anywhere (except a few in battle). I know because i played many of those games and i have seen people post how the pwn them and then go on to tell how they save like every minute or so.