Homeland Jpn GC

[importaku]

Been playing this all weekend & wow what a game.

When i first started i was ovewhelmed by the amount of japanese text but i have worked out about 90% of the menus. Best thing is it's all in kana theres not a single kanji in site which makes it a lot easier to read. Its very easy to fight once you work out the menu system.

While playing you will come across enemys, they will run over to you to fight. Instead of going to a separate battle screen like most rpg's you will stay on the same screen. A circular menu will surround you with all your available choices such as fight, run, item, magic ect...

A amusing thing with battling is once you become strong enough to kill an enemy in that area with 1 hit they will no longer run after you. The word will spread around that your no easy target anymore (hehe) and instead they will flee when they spot you which makes travelling through areas much more fun without stopping ever 5 seconds to fight. You can still chase them down & beat the **** out of them if you want though.

There is a main hub where you start off & from there you can explore many different areas, the graphics are a simplistic cel shaded type. The enviroments are beautiful they are pastel shaded masterpieces. The music is excellent too with music that fits each area nicely.

During the game you will come across characters that you can add to your group, they are stored in your collection box in your bedroom & can be summoned to the world hub for a price. Once a character is summoned to the game world you can either choose to let them free roam & have the computer control them, or you can link hands with them. The cpu ai seems to be pretty good if your running low on health the cpu character will cast heal ect....

The other method is to hold hands to form a chain, when linked you become stronger as their health & magic combine with yours & you obtain all the abilities of everyone in the chain. However only the person at the front can attack.

You can also play online but so far i havent worked out how to do it.

All in all a fantastic unique looking game that has now taken pride of place next to giftpia as another excellent rpg for the gamecube collection. Its a real shame that so few people outside of japan will ever see this game as i very much doubt it will ever make it to the west.

[highlandcattle]

Oh man you got me hungry for this game now

[corpsicle]

Damnit ... this sounds awesome, go on, translate it, send the translation to nintendo and tell them to release a patched version ...

[importaku]

Screenshots can be found here......

http://www.samurainintendo.com/gamecube/homeland.html

But they dont really do them justice, each area is a joy to explore

(^_^)/\(O_O)/\('_')/\(-_-)\ (go on join the chain hehe)

[importaku]

movies can be found here..... take a look you'll see how beautiful it really is.

http://www.chunsoft.co.jp/game/homeland/movie.html

[zeroboo]

A amusing thing with battling is once you become strong enough to kill an enemy in that area with 1 hit they will no longer run after you. The word will spread around that your no easy target anymore (hehe) and instead they will flee when they spot you which makes travelling through areas much more fun without stopping ever 5 seconds to fight. You can still chase them down & beat the **** out of them if you want though.

that is so cool, they shld implement that in all future RPG's. haha, running after the little guy and beating the hell out of him.. haha i can just imagine a little enemy spotting you then he jumps up going *holy fu*k* then he legs it...

[importaku]

Hehe the enemies have little dialogue boxes above their heads with words like aagh & gyaaaa when they run off. Its quality.

Im quite tempted to plow the time in & maybe do a walkthrough for this game. The only thing putting me off is if it gets a western release then i will have done it all for nothing.

I think i'll see how far i can get through the game before i decide wether to do it or not as there is nothing worse than a walkthrough that only goes halfway into the game then stops.

[importaku]

Im 12 hous in & still loving it, got stuck a few times but the RPG standby of talking to everyone helped. A good thing is when people talk anything interesting that they mention like an item or place, are highlighted in red giving you a better clue on what your doing & where you need to go.

So far the story has taken an interesting twist, a mysterious black cloaked figure has just made off with the sacred flute & has put a spell over all the towns so now everone is asleep. You have to enter the dream world to try & find the person who stole the flute. You need to somehow enter the dream world which is done by summoning the dream temple. Hehe yes its a flying temple (^_^)

The temple itself is amazing to look at, as its on the back of a gigantic flying whale, seeing the whale flying through the sky with an entire temple built on its back was stunning. The music is amazing it really fits the game so well. Once inside the dream world i managed to open more portals to get further in & this is where it gets really weird.

I somehow end up on a floating cube shaped planet just sat there in misty limbo with a maze on it, you have to make your way through the maze to the portal on the other side but as you go over one side of the cube, the entire thing rotates as you move across it, very weird but cool.

I finally tracked down the cloaked guy but he used the flute again to summon an ancient gurdian robot & now i am getting my ass kicked. I might need to level up a bit & come back as he is very strong.

One good bit is you can tell how much health they have left by the colour of the speech bubble. Just as an enemy is going to attack they say somthing so this is your clue on how much health they have left. If it's white they are pretty much unhurt, then it goes to yellow & then finally red which means they are a few hits away from dying.

Well thats it. I'll update more when i get further in.

[importaku]

Well i defeated that boss & what do you know i finished the game. Hehe just kidding i finished the very first quest.

When i completed the quest i was taken to the god of homeland and he gave me some items. And now i can play online as it has unlocked the options in the menu before you enter homeland.

Now when you start out for the second time you have the oppertunity to buy mascots, these are the characters that follow you round & you link hands with. They cost quest points which are obtained in the main game by doing certain tasks or by helping people out.

When you start the next quest after finishing the previous one, everything you had accumilated in the last game vanishes along with your exp so your right back at level 1.

Right now to online mode theres 2 kinds of online game. Theres god mode & theres net mode.

When you play net mode you play in the same area just like in the 1 player game but there are other questers inhabiting the same world as you so you can trade items & chat to each other and form chains to become really strong.

The other mode is god mode but to get god mode you have to buy the god mascot. Once you have met the requirements you can host a god game. During god mode you oversee the entire world & can affect the enviroment by casting spells. However these spells have to be bought from the main game menu. Needs to try out god online mode fully to get all the details.

Before you go online you see a matching screen where you can search for certain kinds of game. You can create your own games & lock them with a password to keep people out.

Best thing is it works online outside of japan so thats a major bonus. Im using ntl bog standard broadband with a stand alone cable modem & an ethernet cable. Just incase theres people who are thinking of getting this (doubtful i know, it seems like im the only one on here playing)

[zeroboo]

any update on your faq??

[importaku]

I can probably do a beginners guide to get people started but this game is massive so far the first quest took 10 hours+ to do. Due to the sheer number of items & stats, im really gonna need the help of a japanese reader if i want evey item/weapon & secret documented as theres far too much for 1 person to do.

Im really tempted to go for it though as i think a lot of people would benifit from playing this amazing game. Theres already a japanese help site on it but its all in japanese.

http://dungeon.jp/x/homeland/index.php

One thing i forgot to mention when playing online is the chatting system. Its very basic & takes ages to say anything as you have to select letters from a menu like animal crossing, the only snag is you can only type in kana as there is no roman alphabet so its either memorize a few set phrases or keep silent in multiplayer online (^_^)

[Cornflakes]

Its very basic & takes ages to say anything as you have to select letters from a menu like animal crossing, the only snag is you can only type in kana as there is no roman alphabet so its either memorize a few set phrases or keep silent in multiplayer online (^_^)

Are you sure ?
Have you tried going to "123" and pressed the x button ?
I am pretty sure it changes to ABC then to abc and then back to 123.
But it only work for chatting not for your name.

[importaku]

Hey your right, hehe never noticed that before (^_^)

At least that makes online easier.

[Roddie]

lol i can't even get out of the first room

[importaku]

Yaay another fellow homelander.

You cant leave the room till you have read the book on the bed (its the top option in the circle menu to examine an item or talk to someone). You are then given a multiple choice quiz that generates your quester character depending on the answers you give. Then goto the closet & try to open it you should meet Tenshi.

After a bit of chatting go over to the chest of draws & select the character that was generated, you should transform into that character. You cannot enter homeland in your original form. Then talk to tenshi again.

Dont worry about the menus im going to translate as much as i can with pics.

Oops i forgot you might have to do your homework on the table before it will let you read the book on your bed, its been a while since i did it so i cant remember the xact order.