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[hongcha]

My copy arrived yesterday, but I won't have a chance to play it until Tuesday at the earliest. Darn. Any impressions yet? Reviews on amazon japan are really positive thus far.

 

[hongcha]

I finally had a chance to open up my copy, I was quite surprised to see it comes with a beautiful 60 page color manual! Reminds me of the good old days. Now, to dive into the game...

 

[Black Republican]

needs scratch and sniff

 

[hongcha]

First impressions (2 hours played):

-Lovely graphics, quick loads, intuitive interface, nice encounter rate, snappy battle system.
-Demon summon system is really cool.
-Really nicely done intro/prologue.
-Interesting story thus far.
-Character choices are quite varied, you can start as any one of 45 different characters. Artwork on each of them is fantastic.
-Music is great, the theme at the mansion sounds a lot like the ending credit music in Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Ver 1.5 (Xbox 360 shooting game by Cave).
-The innkeeper lady Fran looks curiously similar to the elemental doll Maria from Dodonpachi Saidaioujou (another Cave shooting game - see a pattern here?). Compare:

Fran (this game):

Maria (Dodonpachi Saidaioujou):

That's all for now. I'm really enjoying this. I think it's a lot better than Etrian Odyssey 4.

 

[FoxSpirit]

Well, at least they have a little bit for everyone.

 

[hongcha]

I finally finished this game last night, with about 50 hours of playtime on my game clock.
Overall I loved it, it's a really well designed dungeon RPG with a decent story. However, the last three bosses are a huge pain in the ass that required nearly 10 hours of leveling and equipment and item farming to beat. Even after that you're pretty much forced to use one specific method to beat them.

There is more stuff to do after you beat it and the credits roll, but I won't get into that because I don't want to include any spoilers.

Anyway, despite the problem mentioned above I enjoyed this more than Ys Celceta and Persona 4. Actually, I'd say it's my favorite game on the Vita so far.

 

[Ingueferroque]

If this ever gets localized I'm on it. Beautiful enemy and level art.

Thank you for your detailed impressions hongcha, you are awesome for playing (and finishing) an obscure dungeon crawler like this! Wish I read Japanese.

 

[Noirulus]

Screenshots look pretty unimpressive for a Vita title. I do hope the game turns out well, though.

Edit: Hongcha's impressions makes it sound a lot more tasty. It'd be nice if it gets localized.

 

[Ravage]

I finally finished this game last night, with about 50 hours of playtime on my game clock.
Overall I loved it, it's a really well designed dungeon RPG with a decent story. However, the last three bosses are a huge pain in the ass that required nearly 10 hours of leveling and equipment and item farming to beat. Even after that you're pretty much forced to use one specific method to beat them.

There is more stuff to do after you beat it and the credits roll, but I won't get into that because I don't want to include any spoilers.

This is the reason why i absolutely hate fighting final bosses in RPGs.

Anyway, despite the problem mentioned above I enjoyed this more than Ys Celceta and Persona 4. Actually, I'd say it's my favorite game on the Vita so far.

Woah that's some high praise there.

 

[hongcha]

Woah that's some high praise there.

Everything about it is so well-designed (music, graphics, customization, gameplay, characters, writing, etc) and the pacing, up until the end, is wonderful. The Demons you recruit are really, really awesome as well. So, the end result is it's a really fun, addictive game. I don't normally enjoy Dungeon RPGs, but I loved this. So I think that says a lot.

There's also very little sexual/erotic stuff in this, which may be contrary to what some were expecting. The story has some abrupt, unpredictable shifts as well (which I thought were great).

 

[polyh3dron]

Sorry but graphics look like poo.

.

 

[outunderthestars]

I finally finished this game last night, with about 50 hours of playtime on my game clock.
Overall I loved it, it's a really well designed dungeon RPG with a decent story. However, the last three bosses are a huge pain in the ass that required nearly 10 hours of leveling and equipment and item farming to beat. Even after that you're pretty much forced to use one specific method to beat them.

There is more stuff to do after you beat it and the credits roll, but I won't get into that because I don't want to include any spoilers.

Anyway, despite the problem mentioned above I enjoyed this more than Ys Celceta and Persona 4. Actually, I'd say it's my favorite game on the Vita so far.

First, thanks for posting impressions.

Also, I hope whoever localizes it dials down the difficulty a bit for those final bosses.

 

[Ravage]

Everything about it is so well-designed (music, graphics, customization, gameplay, characters, writing, etc) and the pacing, up until the end, is wonderful. The Demons you recruit are really, really awesome as well. So, the end result is it's a really fun, addictive game. I don't normally enjoy Dungeon RPGs, but I loved this. So I think that says a lot.

Dungeon crawler isn't exactly my favourite genre too, so that's quite relevant to me.

Will buy if it ever comes over.

 

[3Kaze]

Is the game import friendly?

 

[hongcha]

Is the game import friendly?

I think it would be nearly impossible to get through unless you can read some Japanese at at least an intermediate level. If you can't read the skills or understand what the items do, I can't see how you'd get through it. The story is pretty linear, though.

With that said, I'd be happy to help anyone playing if they have questions. Some of the bosses are very tricky and require specific strategies which are usually not very apparent. You also have to add stat bonuses to your weapons/armor regularly or you'll get creamed. Even on "easy" the game is quite challenging (but, from what I've read, not as challenging as the Wizardry games or many other games in the genre).