Just one hour into this one and I'm surprised that I'm liking a SquareEnix game.
The game begins with a very short introduction and after a minute you're shooting purple four-winged monsters with a machine gun skydiving trying to defend a cruiser airship. And after that there's a cutscene and then again you're trying to pilot said airship in a narrow canyon.
After that you are left exploring the first city with basic tutorial on how to interact with people...or better, how to pick up and throw things around.
You can speak only with few NPCs around town but you can pick them up and throw them around for extra money; most objects can be manipulated this way and the environment reacts: pick up a civilian and guards will rush at you, knocking you down. Run toward people and they will stumble, changing their mood: kids will start crying, guards will be upset and as long you don't start bumping them/throwing them around girls will approach you with a big red heart icon over their heads. Rescue a guard crushed by a sperichal sculpture and he'll get happy. You'll get no rewards but you can still pick up things and throw them at other things, which is fun.
Combat is all about having things smash into monsters and while I had just one combat, I fear it might end in being too simplistic...but you're not staring at a menu with people gently waiting their turn to attack, so I guess it might be good if controls were less cumbersome that they are.
Controls work for the most part: analog stick to move around, Wiimote to point things at the screen, B to pick/throw them, A for context-sensitive actions, Z to reset the camera behind your character. Objects are thrown where you're pointing at, so attacking is quite intuitive; camera controls is where the game falls, with the camera fixed to a certain angle and your avatar, Leo, moving around. A simple press on the Z button brings it behind your shoulders, but sometimes you're asked to look around and the d-pad on the Wiimote is essentially not up to the task.
Neither the game nor the manual fully explain how the pick up mechanics work, so I ended up throwing treasure chests into bottomless pits due to a bad Wiimote motion: first you point the Wiimote toward an object, hold down B until the target is "locked" (heavier objects require more time) and then you can pick them up (flick Wiimote up), throw them aside (flick left or right) or knock them to the ground (flick down). It's a simple mechanic but it's not explained; the Wiimote is sensitive enough to correctly track all four directions and a simple flick is everything you need to perform theaction you want, if the Wiimote is shaken you'll get something you don't want.
The emphasis on manipulating objects and people is the center of the whole game, it seems, and right now I can't really fault developers for this. It's simple, it works and it's fun...plus it's not something you usually get in Final Fantasy games. Thumbs up for the effort, let's see how it evolves.
And thumbs up get the graphic engine, but you can't really fault SquareEnix on this side, on every console...they squeezed the DS for the FF remakes and Crystal Bearers looks good; there are few blotched textures on the largest environments but during the game everything looks great, if a bit repetitive in open fields. Character models are good and the game rarely slows down, although it's possible in larger and more crowded areas.
English voiceovers are good while music seems a bit downtone for a SE game.
A bit heavy on the minigame and QTE side too, with the first hour moving Leo between shooting monsters, piloting airships, breaking off chases and jumping from platform to platform with a simple button press, but at least keeps the game varied and doesn't slow down things.
The game begins with a very short introduction and after a minute you're shooting purple four-winged monsters with a machine gun skydiving trying to defend a cruiser airship. And after that there's a cutscene and then again you're trying to pilot said airship in a narrow canyon.
After that you are left exploring the first city with basic tutorial on how to interact with people...or better, how to pick up and throw things around.
You can speak only with few NPCs around town but you can pick them up and throw them around for extra money; most objects can be manipulated this way and the environment reacts: pick up a civilian and guards will rush at you, knocking you down. Run toward people and they will stumble, changing their mood: kids will start crying, guards will be upset and as long you don't start bumping them/throwing them around girls will approach you with a big red heart icon over their heads. Rescue a guard crushed by a sperichal sculpture and he'll get happy. You'll get no rewards but you can still pick up things and throw them at other things, which is fun.
Combat is all about having things smash into monsters and while I had just one combat, I fear it might end in being too simplistic...but you're not staring at a menu with people gently waiting their turn to attack, so I guess it might be good if controls were less cumbersome that they are.
Controls work for the most part: analog stick to move around, Wiimote to point things at the screen, B to pick/throw them, A for context-sensitive actions, Z to reset the camera behind your character. Objects are thrown where you're pointing at, so attacking is quite intuitive; camera controls is where the game falls, with the camera fixed to a certain angle and your avatar, Leo, moving around. A simple press on the Z button brings it behind your shoulders, but sometimes you're asked to look around and the d-pad on the Wiimote is essentially not up to the task.
Neither the game nor the manual fully explain how the pick up mechanics work, so I ended up throwing treasure chests into bottomless pits due to a bad Wiimote motion: first you point the Wiimote toward an object, hold down B until the target is "locked" (heavier objects require more time) and then you can pick them up (flick Wiimote up), throw them aside (flick left or right) or knock them to the ground (flick down). It's a simple mechanic but it's not explained; the Wiimote is sensitive enough to correctly track all four directions and a simple flick is everything you need to perform theaction you want, if the Wiimote is shaken you'll get something you don't want.
The emphasis on manipulating objects and people is the center of the whole game, it seems, and right now I can't really fault developers for this. It's simple, it works and it's fun...plus it's not something you usually get in Final Fantasy games. Thumbs up for the effort, let's see how it evolves.
And thumbs up get the graphic engine, but you can't really fault SquareEnix on this side, on every console...they squeezed the DS for the FF remakes and Crystal Bearers looks good; there are few blotched textures on the largest environments but during the game everything looks great, if a bit repetitive in open fields. Character models are good and the game rarely slows down, although it's possible in larger and more crowded areas.
English voiceovers are good while music seems a bit downtone for a SE game.
A bit heavy on the minigame and QTE side too, with the first hour moving Leo between shooting monsters, piloting airships, breaking off chases and jumping from platform to platform with a simple button press, but at least keeps the game varied and doesn't slow down things.
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