Probably going to regret this, but I still read this forum pretty frequently even if I don't post here, and it seems a bit surprising - collectively you lot seem to cover everything on every system a matter of days after it's released, yet apparently no-one's bought this on import or felt strongly enough to comment on it. And I felt very curious about that, since, well...
I picked up CoM on import and while I ultimately got tired of that very quickly I had no problems with not being able to understand a word (it was the lacklustre gameplay and tiresome, generic game design that did for me), so I thought I'd take the plunge with Dawn... According to Gamebrink I enjoy pain and suffering, since, well... I pretty much liked it. <_<
First things first; yes, it is a 3D Children of Mana with added emphasis on the bouncy physics and less customisation; yes, the camera's nasty, nasty, nasty; yes, the controls are a sometime thing, failing to respond anything like as fast as they ought to; and yes, it's really not much of a challenge until the final levels. And fanboy whining aside, it does seem somewhat... wrong? that there's no multiplay in the latest iteration of one of the franchises that arguably did the most to popularise the idea of co-operative gaming.
But Jesus, when it gets going - when you're used to the grappling hook and you're in the thick of combat, five, ten, fifteen, twenty enemies swarming you and you're flicking objects left and right, bashing enemies around, down to your last sliver of health, desperately milking the panic system as you smack their heads against each other, praying one's going to drop a health pickup - when you're messing around with the physics, setting logs alight, throwing them skywards and giggling as they set flying enemies on fire and drop them out of the sky - when you're just chilling, having a laugh, admiring the scenery, seeing how far you can roll a boulder up the level or ride one of the boats downstream - when you're level grinding for the pleasure of it - I find it really ****ing fun.
The graphics engine is nice; nothing spectacular, though the design work is (if you like the World of Mana stuff) predictably gorgeous and the cutscenes up to Square's usual standards. The sound is magnificent; the score's tremendous, plus the voice work is pretty good (though bear in mind I know very, very little Japanese) - the US dub's probably going to crucify much of the atmosphere, but eh, what can you do?
The camera is pretty bad, though it is controllable, and you do get used to its (admittedly fairly big) flaws. The controls are sloppy, but only really when you're in the heat of combat; the auto-lockon is annoying and seems to lag a second behind what you expect, and the system of hurling things with the grappling hook doesn't seem to make much sense, but it is workable. Flooring one of the huge enemies and beating ten of them to death with him on the end of the grapple is some of the most fun I've had with a videogame in ages.
The main thing is it presents very little challenge once you've got the hang of the mechanics. It's certainly not going to give hardcore players pause until the last few levels, if that; there were only a couple of times where a boss or enemy grouping had me screaming at the screen, and no boss took me any more than two tries - all you in the Lost Planet thread are out of luck here, I think. But it's... fun, as far as I'm concerned. It's not a great game, and it's fairly flawed, but I found myself playing it for the pleasure of playing it as much as to see the next cutscene/level tileset/whatever, which given the lack of any response on the intertubes other than boredom or outright screaming in wounded pride means either Secret of Mana fanboys are a load of whining brats who flat out refuse to recognise anything as any good if it's not a carbon copy of their beloved SNES title, or I'm out of my mind.
Okay, perhaps there's something in between, but damn if I know what it is. Anyone else played this care to offer me any opinions?
I picked up CoM on import and while I ultimately got tired of that very quickly I had no problems with not being able to understand a word (it was the lacklustre gameplay and tiresome, generic game design that did for me), so I thought I'd take the plunge with Dawn... According to Gamebrink I enjoy pain and suffering, since, well... I pretty much liked it. <_<
First things first; yes, it is a 3D Children of Mana with added emphasis on the bouncy physics and less customisation; yes, the camera's nasty, nasty, nasty; yes, the controls are a sometime thing, failing to respond anything like as fast as they ought to; and yes, it's really not much of a challenge until the final levels. And fanboy whining aside, it does seem somewhat... wrong? that there's no multiplay in the latest iteration of one of the franchises that arguably did the most to popularise the idea of co-operative gaming.
But Jesus, when it gets going - when you're used to the grappling hook and you're in the thick of combat, five, ten, fifteen, twenty enemies swarming you and you're flicking objects left and right, bashing enemies around, down to your last sliver of health, desperately milking the panic system as you smack their heads against each other, praying one's going to drop a health pickup - when you're messing around with the physics, setting logs alight, throwing them skywards and giggling as they set flying enemies on fire and drop them out of the sky - when you're just chilling, having a laugh, admiring the scenery, seeing how far you can roll a boulder up the level or ride one of the boats downstream - when you're level grinding for the pleasure of it - I find it really ****ing fun.
The graphics engine is nice; nothing spectacular, though the design work is (if you like the World of Mana stuff) predictably gorgeous and the cutscenes up to Square's usual standards. The sound is magnificent; the score's tremendous, plus the voice work is pretty good (though bear in mind I know very, very little Japanese) - the US dub's probably going to crucify much of the atmosphere, but eh, what can you do?
The camera is pretty bad, though it is controllable, and you do get used to its (admittedly fairly big) flaws. The controls are sloppy, but only really when you're in the heat of combat; the auto-lockon is annoying and seems to lag a second behind what you expect, and the system of hurling things with the grappling hook doesn't seem to make much sense, but it is workable. Flooring one of the huge enemies and beating ten of them to death with him on the end of the grapple is some of the most fun I've had with a videogame in ages.
The main thing is it presents very little challenge once you've got the hang of the mechanics. It's certainly not going to give hardcore players pause until the last few levels, if that; there were only a couple of times where a boss or enemy grouping had me screaming at the screen, and no boss took me any more than two tries - all you in the Lost Planet thread are out of luck here, I think. But it's... fun, as far as I'm concerned. It's not a great game, and it's fairly flawed, but I found myself playing it for the pleasure of playing it as much as to see the next cutscene/level tileset/whatever, which given the lack of any response on the intertubes other than boredom or outright screaming in wounded pride means either Secret of Mana fanboys are a load of whining brats who flat out refuse to recognise anything as any good if it's not a carbon copy of their beloved SNES title, or I'm out of my mind.
Okay, perhaps there's something in between, but damn if I know what it is. Anyone else played this care to offer me any opinions?
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