Magatama

[Ravon]

Just got hold of this Today, and well... don't really know what to make of it.

From the trailers i saw it looked like a cross between Onimushi and DMC. And on the whole it is. Its a 3D action adventure set in Medevil Japan.
The main character has 2 swords for the usuall hack and slash action and a little friend, in the form of what looks to be a spirit of some kind.

The intro sequence starts with you infront of what to me looked like a bunch of rocks, but the started talking so they must have been spirit elders setting out the story and goals...
Your then taken to a training mission basically showing you what buttons do what.
A= Jump.
B= Slash. (hold down for power attack)
X= Sends spirit to attack once locked on.
Y= Smart Bomb. (when charged fully)
L1= Block.
L thumbstick moves character.
R thumbstick moves camera.

Now i have only played it for abot 30 mins and can't give a detailed report on what i think, but for the most part it looks interesting. You slash on-comming enemy's, after this a little lock on target appears, this is so you spirt can continue the attack while you slash some other poor mug. When some enemy's die energy is passed onto the spirt and can be stored for a smart bomb effect (the screen goes all grainy- a strange but nice effect)
Have also found that if you press on the D-pad you start to see through this extra eye positioned on this head garment. From there it seems to me that your some how connected to the spirit....

Anyway thats about all i have found out so far...

I dont think its ganna be a DMC beater, but lets wait and see....

[Vaipon]

Hmm, sounds fairly unique. I was just expecting a straight DMC wannabe, but it sounds like they have tried to make it a bit more. Depending on how well these elements are integrated into the game, this could turn out to be great.

Question: What's the framerate like? Is it 30 or 60? Hope it's a DMC-riffic 60 tbh, as action games of this type really need that silky smooth feel to them. I hated Otogi's framerate for example.

[Geoff D]

Well I like the sound so far - seems like quite a nice take on the slash 'em up theme, & it'll be interesting to see how the technique pans out; whether it's just a showy effect or a necessary part of the game.

Sounding good though - more impressions when you've played a bit more please

[Ravon]

Looks like 30fps to me...

Anyway though i would edit this post as i have just started to play the actual game...

The levels seem to segmented up in to areas. For example level 1. You start off at one end, run a bit and enemys appear (hack/slash) you beat these and your vision is draw to a large bell in the air. A three level force field surrounds it, but as you have just smash the alien scum the 1st field disapears, this continues untill you reach the big bell. Now you can have access to it .. but its out of reach... You can use the eye thingy in your head to fire out a spirt of sorts to collect the bell. This then opens the door which untill now has been locked .... and on to the next area.

One thing that i have found out, Respawning enemys... man there a pain in the arse....

Anywayz back to the game...

[Leynos]

One thing that i have found out, Respawning enemys... man there a pain in the arse....

Damn. If there's one thing that can kill a game for me, that's it.

Thanks for the impressions.

[Chadruharazzeb]

Forget ye not, the enemies in DMC respawned up to a certain point. And it was disppointing if they didn't (just ask Saurian if he liked the spawning lizard brer's)

[Ravon]

The respawning enemys only seem to appear in an area you have to move out of.... like a kick in the right direction...

[Leynos]

Forget ye not, the enemies in DMC respawned up to a certain point. And it was disppointing if they didn't (just ask Saurian if he liked the spawning lizard brer's)

Of course, I was never a big fan of DMC either.

[BlimBlim]

Looks like 30fps to me...

This game is most definitely 60 fps, I did not detect any slowdown during the few hours I played it.
I've also posted my impressions, along with a 12 minutes video of the first level of the game on my site : http://www.xboxyde.com/news_260_en.html

I mostly agree with you, too bad I'm still stuck in the 2nd level :/

[Ravon]

Yeah i was wrong about the fps.... i must have spent to long playing PGR2.. But there ios slowdown, not to bad.. usually when you do your charge up move and theres quite a few enemys around you....

Just done the 3 boss.....

[marcus]

I have to say Ive found the respawning enemies to be insanely frustrating at some points, notably where i was trying to aim the "eye" at the bell on the second level.

[Vaipon]

I'll go along with the respawning enemies gripe too. Right pain in the arse. Maybe if the combat was a little more flexible like DMC's, but it's just boring ploughing through sword-fodder when you're trying to accomplish a goal.

That aside, it's a nice game. The scenery detail is so-so, although the draw distance is spectacular. Combat is fairly good fun although no DMC beater. I'm enjoying it so far.

It's definitely 60fps too.