Oh BandaiNamco. How much I loathe you. You surely did and published good videogames, but when it comes to anime tie-ins your logo is like having LJN's rainbow over a licenced game. Again, there are good anime tie-ins by BandaiNamco but their recent videogame adaptations of much-beloved series have been on a downward spiral, to put it mildly.
Girls Und Panzer is a well-made and fun anime series (and manga, and movies) that already received a game on the Vita. And that game sucked. I think my thread on that is still available somewhere. Now that Girls Und Panzer received his second movie BandaiNamco decided it's time for a second game, this time on the PS4. The Vita game was based on the anime series, so the second game, Dream Tank Match, is based on the first movie.
Long loading times on startup don't make the game any favour, especially when there's a 10 seconds loading screen between menus featuring text entries and some images. But on the other hand loading of actual 3D missions takes about the same time.
Girls Und Panzer Dream Tank Match starts with a brief introduction of what Senshadou is and three very short training missions on how to drive the tank, shoot, and handle the minimap. Why three missions instead of one? I don't know, but Dream Tank Match feels better than the previous game, tanks handle with the proper weight, the two analog sticks are completely independent (on the Vita the right analog stick would control the turret and would steer the tank, albeit at a lower rate than the left stick), there's a lock-on button, a lot of voice callouts for various situations (shell loading, new target, various reactions to hilly terrain or damage), and if you're not careful while traversing difficult terrain you can actually throw a track and not able to move for a short while.
There's a garage where you can change crew, colour, insignas, and even test your modifications.
Some options are greyed out until you reach level 10, and even training missions unlock new tanks (well, to be fair you start with no tanks at all).
Everything's good so far, I'm actually thinking this game might be good. Let's start the story campaign, that follows the events of the first movie. First up is the exhibition match between Oorai and the other schools, and the game actually takes the time to introduce it witha sequence I don't recall being in the movie. Cool. But after 15 minutes of characters talking I wanted to actually drive a tank in a mission, so I skipped the remaining part.
And so I found myself on the story campaign's main menu, unable to select the second entry. Have I done something wrong? Is what I selected just a story recap, no actual connection to the game? The game's main menu is still the same, and aside from options and garage I can't access anything else...
Do I have to watch everything to progress?
Yes I have to. The "skip" button is more of a "quit" button. Holding down any button kinda fast-forward through a cutscene, but you still have to sit through the whole thing if you want to get to actually drive a tank.
OK, I'm finally there and I can select between two commanders, in this case Miho and Darjeeling. I go for Darjeeling and as soon as I have control (of course the game has to stop to show characters talking) I start firing at the first enemy tank, and...almost no damage. Switch target, nothing. I notice a tank labelled "target" and it's down in two shots. Mission Completed.
I want to play as Miho in the same mission and...can't skip the cutscene I've already seen. Is this some kind of joke? Back to the mission I once again start firing and once again no damage. But I can damage a tank labelled "target", and once destroyed the mission is over. Again.
Back to the story campaign menu, one more lenghty cutscene you can't skip and you're driving a tank through a city, following a series of checkpoints. Some enemy tanks follow you but are almost invincible. After 2 minutes of driving down through streets the mission is over. Next.
Other cutscene, I start exactly in the same spot where I completed the previous mission, and told to drive down another series of checkpoints. An enemy tank emerges from the sea (yeah, it was in the movie and it was FUN), I try to fire at it and barely dent it. Then the enemy tank is put out of service as I reach the next checkpoint and the game announces that with a still from the movie. Oh joy. I continue to follow checkpoints until I reach a parking lot where enemy tanks are waiting, and FINALLY I can shoot tanks at will. That lasts about two minutes and then the mission ends, my "victory" (the exhibition match ends in a loss for Oorai, and so does the game) announced by another still from the movie.
The friggin' Vita game had footage from the movie, now you're telling me that the PS4 can't handle some kind of video stream?
And so the story campaign still follows a heavily scripted structure where tanks aren't supposed to be destroyed if the movie doesn't show them going down, missions are 3 to 5 minutes long (there's a time limit), with cutscenes and loading times twice as long as that.
Wow.
At the very least loading times on the Vita where shorter and you could skip cutscenes.
But at least I'm level 10, meaning I can now access two more game modes: a proper skirmish battle (that I haven't played yet), and a recreation of some battles from the movie.
Wait.
Isn't that what story mode is about?
Well, I try one and the AI is still the same as in the Vita version, tanks just drive as close to each other as possible, stop, and start firing. I got destroyed in this mission, probably because I dared to use terrain as cover and flank tanks trying to score a side or rear hit, but apparently once again armour is the same on all sides and critical hits are based simply on distance to the target.
And thus The first hour with Dream Tank Match left me fuming. It's astonishing how not only developers didn't improve on the Vita original but actively made the game worse by absurd interface choices. Yes, it's only the first hour and maybe later missions will be better, but as a first impression Dream Tank Match was absolutely horible.
Girls Und Panzer is a well-made and fun anime series (and manga, and movies) that already received a game on the Vita. And that game sucked. I think my thread on that is still available somewhere. Now that Girls Und Panzer received his second movie BandaiNamco decided it's time for a second game, this time on the PS4. The Vita game was based on the anime series, so the second game, Dream Tank Match, is based on the first movie.
Long loading times on startup don't make the game any favour, especially when there's a 10 seconds loading screen between menus featuring text entries and some images. But on the other hand loading of actual 3D missions takes about the same time.
Girls Und Panzer Dream Tank Match starts with a brief introduction of what Senshadou is and three very short training missions on how to drive the tank, shoot, and handle the minimap. Why three missions instead of one? I don't know, but Dream Tank Match feels better than the previous game, tanks handle with the proper weight, the two analog sticks are completely independent (on the Vita the right analog stick would control the turret and would steer the tank, albeit at a lower rate than the left stick), there's a lock-on button, a lot of voice callouts for various situations (shell loading, new target, various reactions to hilly terrain or damage), and if you're not careful while traversing difficult terrain you can actually throw a track and not able to move for a short while.
There's a garage where you can change crew, colour, insignas, and even test your modifications.
Some options are greyed out until you reach level 10, and even training missions unlock new tanks (well, to be fair you start with no tanks at all).
Everything's good so far, I'm actually thinking this game might be good. Let's start the story campaign, that follows the events of the first movie. First up is the exhibition match between Oorai and the other schools, and the game actually takes the time to introduce it witha sequence I don't recall being in the movie. Cool. But after 15 minutes of characters talking I wanted to actually drive a tank in a mission, so I skipped the remaining part.
And so I found myself on the story campaign's main menu, unable to select the second entry. Have I done something wrong? Is what I selected just a story recap, no actual connection to the game? The game's main menu is still the same, and aside from options and garage I can't access anything else...
Do I have to watch everything to progress?
Yes I have to. The "skip" button is more of a "quit" button. Holding down any button kinda fast-forward through a cutscene, but you still have to sit through the whole thing if you want to get to actually drive a tank.
OK, I'm finally there and I can select between two commanders, in this case Miho and Darjeeling. I go for Darjeeling and as soon as I have control (of course the game has to stop to show characters talking) I start firing at the first enemy tank, and...almost no damage. Switch target, nothing. I notice a tank labelled "target" and it's down in two shots. Mission Completed.
I want to play as Miho in the same mission and...can't skip the cutscene I've already seen. Is this some kind of joke? Back to the mission I once again start firing and once again no damage. But I can damage a tank labelled "target", and once destroyed the mission is over. Again.
Back to the story campaign menu, one more lenghty cutscene you can't skip and you're driving a tank through a city, following a series of checkpoints. Some enemy tanks follow you but are almost invincible. After 2 minutes of driving down through streets the mission is over. Next.
Other cutscene, I start exactly in the same spot where I completed the previous mission, and told to drive down another series of checkpoints. An enemy tank emerges from the sea (yeah, it was in the movie and it was FUN), I try to fire at it and barely dent it. Then the enemy tank is put out of service as I reach the next checkpoint and the game announces that with a still from the movie. Oh joy. I continue to follow checkpoints until I reach a parking lot where enemy tanks are waiting, and FINALLY I can shoot tanks at will. That lasts about two minutes and then the mission ends, my "victory" (the exhibition match ends in a loss for Oorai, and so does the game) announced by another still from the movie.
The friggin' Vita game had footage from the movie, now you're telling me that the PS4 can't handle some kind of video stream?
And so the story campaign still follows a heavily scripted structure where tanks aren't supposed to be destroyed if the movie doesn't show them going down, missions are 3 to 5 minutes long (there's a time limit), with cutscenes and loading times twice as long as that.
Wow.
At the very least loading times on the Vita where shorter and you could skip cutscenes.
But at least I'm level 10, meaning I can now access two more game modes: a proper skirmish battle (that I haven't played yet), and a recreation of some battles from the movie.
Wait.
Isn't that what story mode is about?
Well, I try one and the AI is still the same as in the Vita version, tanks just drive as close to each other as possible, stop, and start firing. I got destroyed in this mission, probably because I dared to use terrain as cover and flank tanks trying to score a side or rear hit, but apparently once again armour is the same on all sides and critical hits are based simply on distance to the target.
And thus The first hour with Dream Tank Match left me fuming. It's astonishing how not only developers didn't improve on the Vita original but actively made the game worse by absurd interface choices. Yes, it's only the first hour and maybe later missions will be better, but as a first impression Dream Tank Match was absolutely horible.
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