Never has hitting X repeatedly looked so cool. That's most of what you do in the new Japanese demo of End of Eternity, or Resonance of Fate here in North America. Sega's gun-happy RPG demo doesn't show me any of the loveliness that I saw at Tokyo Game Show last year. It's all battles here, though that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Jump, flip, shoot, lather, rinse, repeat. X, X, X. Make sure to hit R2 and L2 to change weapons, so you can blow sh*t up with Reanbell's grenades. Hit Square to set a course for an invincible attack. You'll run, hit square again to jump, and hit X to your heart's content, even in mid-air. The visual effect is really cool.
It doesn't sound that deep, but strategy definitely comes into play when you start playing with crossing paths, using Resonance Attacks and the like. Also, you'll need to actually take cover and not run out in the open, like you'll see me doing in the video.
For those not impressed by this demo, I ask that you do not write this off yet. It's just a bad demo. It gives you almost nothing to go on or look forward to.
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Loved this demo, couldnt beat it on 'normal' though, not sure if im missing something but it seems really hard since your people start pussing out after like the 4th turn on the boss!
I do want to point out that there's a big difference between Newcomer Mode and Normal Mode. Newcomer gives you virtually infinite invincible attacks and since you have such a huge resonance... meter... thing, it's almost impossible to lose. Normal Mode only has three slots in its meter. If it runs out or is fully "broken", you go into danger status where all damage is permanent and immediate. Your special attack meter doubling as a kind of... shield for your health, I suppose, makes gameplay infinitely more tense and strategic.
Also a tip! - Pressing select allows Vashyron to equip elemental bullets and for Reanbell to switch grenades for molotovs or the frost grenades you can pick up.
I'm interested if sheerly because it looks really awesome in all the videos. If all the battles look that cool, I can only hope that means the inevitable grinding won't be boring.
Also, people who dress somewhat normally? And guns instead of overly ornate swords? And John Woo gun acrobatics? Count me in!
I initially thought the crossing paths thing would let you do combination shooting... does that not happen? Does the path crossing just give you a plus to damage or something?
Thanks for the write up on this. I might have to give it a second shot. My initial impression was that it was flashy but I don't think I gave it the attention it deserved.
Marllone is absolutely right. I didn't really understand the game until I played on Normal rather than Newcomer. If you start with Newcomer in Japanese then, from my perspective, you decide that using the square actions are the only way to really attack the enemy. Instead the basic attack is just using the X, which doesn't use up one of the red bars of which you only have 3 on Normal (It looks like you get a fragment for each leader destroyed? Maybe?).
In that regard, you have to play up a balance between heavy damage dealing Invincible Actions and the free basic attacks which allow enemies to damage and interrupt you mid attack.
RPG demos are always confusing, especially in another language. However like Marllone I would seriously recommend Normal mode, as it really challenges what you understand to be the basic concepts of combat in the game which really aren't the whole story. Also you seem to unlock extra difficulties of Normal Mode and new outfits each time you manage to clear it. And Reanbelle said Merry Christmas when I played today.
I beat the 360 demo the other day. I'm pretty interested in the game, even if the combat system was, as you said, A, A, A (X, X, X). It's fun to hit buttons when flashy, infeasable acts are being depicted on screen.
Thats why I played Ninja Blade.
Can't wait to play it in english though so I actually know what I'm doing.
I've actually played a lot of the demo today, getting up to third level normal mode. This game seems to have a lot of depth to it. I've noticed individual bars for region specific damage, including areal resistance, and a lot of need for strategy in positioning of your characters, and the lines you have to run. Stuff like make run guy run past an enemy to draw it's attention, then run another guy up from behind to hit the unarmored section of the enemy.
I-I like it. Seems like it could be big for the genre in the same way I think Valkyria Chronicles was.
Also: see what happens when SquareEnix doesn't publish? We get nice, well made games that don't slap a fresh coat of paint on an old system DX.
The demo was pretty bad, I understood how to play but it just wasn't very fun. I won't write it off just yet myself but it doesn't look too promising. Graphics are ok, but look decidedly grainy and aliased on the PS3 version in comparison to other games I have played.
I knew what I was doing in the demo, but I couldn't tell what my life bar was, why it was green and blue, didn't know how to change weapons... I can't play anything unless it's English.
The game was incredibly confusing the first time I tried it, but after spending some time with it and playing through it a number of times I'm starting to figure out the intricacies of the system and it's pretty fun. It seems like there is a good amount of depth in the system, it just takes awhile to get a hang of it. (I enjoy juggling enemies by popping them into the air and the jumping and shooting them to smack them back into the ground. Also the scratch damage vs. permanent damage system is pretty cool.)
If the rest of the game is any good I'll probably pick it up.
This game is 1) Going to be sucked up by all of the lovers of everything Japan; and 2) Going to bomb hard.
Most players are goin to be put off by the combat's lack of fluidness. If the camera's wouldn't change every five seconds I could see it selling a little better for the crazy-flipping gun play.
Another thing that's going to turn off a lot of people is the numbers popping up from hits RPG style. Westerners don't want numbers, they'll except an HP bar or nothing at all. They want -blood-. If you through in gobs of blood instead of the numbers, then it'd sell a little more...especially once you make everything a little more fluid.
Granted, I don't even know if they care about the western audience playing this. Still, one would think it wouldn't hurt to have a little extra cash in one's pocket, right?
Atleast it looks pretty. But so does most everything else that bombs.
Ah, Sega...king of trying to hard while failing so miserably.
This looks just as fantastic as I was expecting it to. Looks like a battle system I might have to practice at to be any good with, but I can handle that.
I'm still excited to pre-order this bad boy, but I just hope the storyline and non-battle stuff are just as fun as this.
"Another thing that's going to turn off a lot of people is the numbers popping up from hits RPG style. Westerners don't want numbers, they'll except an HP bar or nothing at all. They want -blood-. If you through in gobs of blood instead of the numbers, then it'd sell a little more...especially once you make everything a little more fluid."
I'm glad they aren't specifically trying to appeal to Westerners then. Excessive blood is exactly what's wrong with most western developed games. And anyone who would not buy a game just because of numbers is a fucking moron.
The gameplay mechanics are deep and has very easy learning curve. Its a strategy game so positioning your self is key and if you don't strategize you loose. I just hope they will remove that crapy animation when your party is in DANGER MODe. It just takes away the COOL out of this game.
I noticed there are some humor elements wrongly placed in this game examples are plenty of awkward animations while running , and bumping into walls, or the DANGER MODE animations, its not funny for a game like this.
I gotta say this looks pretty cool, if I'm seeing it right it's an interesting twist on whole real-time turn based thing. it forces you to think about your actions rather than running around like a headless chicken hitting everything in sight.
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Contest:
5:00 PM on 12.23.2009
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Flashy, but confusing as hell...
Also a tip! - Pressing select allows Vashyron to equip elemental bullets and for Reanbell to switch grenades for molotovs or the frost grenades you can pick up.
Also, people who dress somewhat normally? And guns instead of overly ornate swords? And John Woo gun acrobatics? Count me in!
In that regard, you have to play up a balance between heavy damage dealing Invincible Actions and the free basic attacks which allow enemies to damage and interrupt you mid attack.
RPG demos are always confusing, especially in another language. However like Marllone I would seriously recommend Normal mode, as it really challenges what you understand to be the basic concepts of combat in the game which really aren't the whole story. Also you seem to unlock extra difficulties of Normal Mode and new outfits each time you manage to clear it. And Reanbelle said Merry Christmas when I played today.
Thats why I played Ninja Blade.
Can't wait to play it in english though so I actually know what I'm doing.
I-I like it. Seems like it could be big for the genre in the same way I think Valkyria Chronicles was.
Also: see what happens when SquareEnix doesn't publish? We get nice, well made games that don't slap a fresh coat of paint on an old system DX.
If the rest of the game is any good I'll probably pick it up.
Most players are goin to be put off by the combat's lack of fluidness. If the camera's wouldn't change every five seconds I could see it selling a little better for the crazy-flipping gun play.
Another thing that's going to turn off a lot of people is the numbers popping up from hits RPG style. Westerners don't want numbers, they'll except an HP bar or nothing at all. They want -blood-. If you through in gobs of blood instead of the numbers, then it'd sell a little more...especially once you make everything a little more fluid.
Granted, I don't even know if they care about the western audience playing this. Still, one would think it wouldn't hurt to have a little extra cash in one's pocket, right?
Atleast it looks pretty. But so does most everything else that bombs.
Ah, Sega...king of trying to hard while failing so miserably.
I'm still excited to pre-order this bad boy, but I just hope the storyline and non-battle stuff are just as fun as this.
I'm glad they aren't specifically trying to appeal to Westerners then. Excessive blood is exactly what's wrong with most western developed games. And anyone who would not buy a game just because of numbers is a fucking moron.