Surprised there isn't a first play thread for this yet. My copy arrived from playasia yesterday. After booting it up, and watching the first cutscene, my wife went into labour. 12 hours later my third child was born, 24 hours later I continued from where I left off.
I am hardcore gaming personified.
Firstly, I was very pleased that it came in one of those large chunky boxes, with oodles of plastic inside it to hold the large manual and 3 disks. You can't beat a big box. It just feels and looks so right.
The actual game so far has been very JRPG-y. I'd been playing Tales of Vesperia recently as well, and while I loved the combat mechanics and the lead character, the rest of it was so badly voice acted, and contained so many objectionable characters I wanted to punch, that Star Ocean didn't need to do much to make me a convert. So far, the characters have indeed been JRPG staples, and feature some astonishingly bad lip sync, but they haven't strayed into face-punch territory. As for the story, I don't know. So far it reminds me of Crimson Sea, for no other reason than it is quite odd, and set in space. I guess at times it reminds me of a sort of deranged Japanese Mass Effect as well. I'm not that far into it, so I'll reserve judgement on that score, but we've all played JRPGs right? - I imagine it'll contain all the staples. The fact I'm a blonde, floppy haired main protagonist is a good start.
The main thing of note I guess is the combat. Which is the real time flava, which seems to be the preferred option these days in JRPGs. Like Infinite Undiscovery Tri Ace use the time honoured development technique of putting all the buttons, triggers and sticks on the pad, and all the control assignments you need to play the game in a big bag, shaking it for half an hour, and then pouring it out onto the game design document. But that said, the fights are entertaining, involving all sorts of nifty little mechanics to stop you dozing off. The "Blindside" attack is quite fun, involving a timed button press to go around behind an enemy and give them a whack on the arse for critical damage points. I was too tired to really take in the fact that it is possible for some enemies to counter this, and double blindside you (noticing which enemies can do this, and reacting accordingly was beyond my 34 year old fingers and sleep deprived brain) but it all seemed rather complicated and entertaining.
I can't really think of anything else to say. I mean, it's pretty much what you expect it to be. Which is possibly why there isn't a First Play on it....
I am hardcore gaming personified.
Firstly, I was very pleased that it came in one of those large chunky boxes, with oodles of plastic inside it to hold the large manual and 3 disks. You can't beat a big box. It just feels and looks so right.
The actual game so far has been very JRPG-y. I'd been playing Tales of Vesperia recently as well, and while I loved the combat mechanics and the lead character, the rest of it was so badly voice acted, and contained so many objectionable characters I wanted to punch, that Star Ocean didn't need to do much to make me a convert. So far, the characters have indeed been JRPG staples, and feature some astonishingly bad lip sync, but they haven't strayed into face-punch territory. As for the story, I don't know. So far it reminds me of Crimson Sea, for no other reason than it is quite odd, and set in space. I guess at times it reminds me of a sort of deranged Japanese Mass Effect as well. I'm not that far into it, so I'll reserve judgement on that score, but we've all played JRPGs right? - I imagine it'll contain all the staples. The fact I'm a blonde, floppy haired main protagonist is a good start.
The main thing of note I guess is the combat. Which is the real time flava, which seems to be the preferred option these days in JRPGs. Like Infinite Undiscovery Tri Ace use the time honoured development technique of putting all the buttons, triggers and sticks on the pad, and all the control assignments you need to play the game in a big bag, shaking it for half an hour, and then pouring it out onto the game design document. But that said, the fights are entertaining, involving all sorts of nifty little mechanics to stop you dozing off. The "Blindside" attack is quite fun, involving a timed button press to go around behind an enemy and give them a whack on the arse for critical damage points. I was too tired to really take in the fact that it is possible for some enemies to counter this, and double blindside you (noticing which enemies can do this, and reacting accordingly was beyond my 34 year old fingers and sleep deprived brain) but it all seemed rather complicated and entertaining.
I can't really think of anything else to say. I mean, it's pretty much what you expect it to be. Which is possibly why there isn't a First Play on it....
. Anyway - congrats for the birth of your child!
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