Patch
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Posts posted by Patch
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I understand what everyone's saying about the more subtle points of the story and the emotional impact for those who are big fans of the series. I felt the same was true in the GC/Wii Fire Emblem games where your save game carried over. Essentially, anyone playing just the Wii version would miss out on so much from the previous game.
But saying that, if the person hadn't played the GC version they wouldn't know about all that to miss it, hence they would just have a great time with the game and enjoy it for what it is as a standalone title.
I'm sure the same would be true for ME3, which when I see it for peanuts do intend to pick up. Whilst I'm sure I'll miss out on certain things, I won't know I'm missing them. What's more I'll still have an experience that is shaped by my decisions (albeit not as deep as those that played the whole trilogy). What's more the game play will still be the same.
I can understand fans of the series showing their disdain for this version, but I'm sure there's still a lot of fun to be had with it - and the Wii U version has got some good review scores!
Nicely put. I do agree that there is no point in buying it if you own another console / PC. Currently, the only way I can play a Mass Effect game without buying new hardware is to play this one. And surely experiencing one game is better than experiencing none.
Fans of the series have pointed out the emotional and continuity flaws of playing only the third game, but I think they would also be glad that such a stellar game, even in isolation, is being made available to a wider audience.
For what it's worth, I have been playing it steadily since launch and I have to say I have been continually blown away by it. The amount of detailed content has left me totally absorbed in what feels like a vast, living, breathing, fully realised universe. Having only owned a Wii last gen, the HD visuals have augmented my experience somewhat, but there is clearly more to the game than just sweet looks.
Do I feel like I have missed out by not playing the first two? Not at all. The story is still very powerful with some difficult decisions to make, and this feels very natural. I've accepted that Shepard has a history with some of the characters and while I may not fully appreciate the emotional connections he may have had with them, to me it feels like a small part of what is a colossal game. To series fans, it will perhaps feel like a large part, but that comes back to the point that Zechs raised: I don't really know or understand what I'm missing and therefore I don't feel cheated or short-changed.
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So . . . anyone playing this? I haven't read the whole thread, but it seems there isn't much love for what is probably the most critically acclaimed Wii U game so far.
Are people that upset about the trilogy snub? Or has everyone played it already?
Ok, after reading more of the thread, it seems there are a multitude of reasons, some voiced with passionate disapproval.
Oh well, it just seems odd that one of the highest rated Wii U games is selling so abysmally.
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If Nintendoland is only like, 302MB, it's a respectable size and yeah, swapping discs can go to hell.
Aw crap, got confused there. It's a 3GB download for the entire game. The *update* is 302MB. Which leaves me with 24GB of storage.
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I got the same email. I'd prefer the disc, but I think I'm happy downloading it. It's a 3GB download though, which leaves 24GB to spare, I suppose it's not a big issue and it's kind of useful not to have to swap discs to play it.
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Nah, just the Nintendoland I meant there. Screw the e-mail, get on a live chat or phone them! First person I spoke too pretty much said contact Nintendo all the time, wouldn't be good if you kept getting that, especially from e-mail. Keep on them!
I've just got off the phone and they said it's an issue with many customers that have ordered the Premium bundle. "Expect an email in less than 24 hours detailing what the resolution will be."
Hmmm.
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This happened to me too, have you guys contacted amazon yet? Im getting a replacement for it soon.
I've contacted them, but heard nothing back yet. By 'replacement', surely you don't mean sending the whole Wii U box back to them for one that has Nintendo Land included?
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All Amazon deluxe packs are missing the Nintendo Land game which is supposed to be in the box. Including mine. Sigh.
Ah, not just me then. That quashes my theory about a rogue Amazon despatcher rifling through boxes for stuff to sell on ebay. Still annoying though.
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By the way, remember to visit the tree before rejoining in Altamira...
Thanks! I did do that - apparently the scene is extended on the second playthrough. Are there any other incentives to play a second time?
I did miss the Communion Spring scene though. Didn't even notice it had appeared as a location until it was too late.
Hope you enjoy the compression quality of the latter cutscenes.? Were they bad? I didn't notice. Actually, do you mean the odd blurring effect that was so prevalent in the first game? It was certainly better in this one. It seemed to happen mainly when a cutscene was ending.
I've finished the game now.
The final dungeon was disappointingly short and trivial. The boss encounters were bizarre to say the least. The duo that you come across at the bottom of the lift was extremely difficult. I felt I needed to level up and finally beat them while at level 57. The next three boss encounters were laughably easy (with the exception of the one where you fight alone against two people where I died in a matter of seconds, though this was the preferred outcome as I understand it).
Very odd, but kinda epic too. Funny that the whole gang felt the need to be there, then needed to be rescued after disappearing and ultimately made no difference to the gameplay or story at all.
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Ginnungagap!
Progress has been slow and steady. I'm on the 8th chapter; Emil is wrestling with himself and all the characters have all gone their separate ways, to regroup later in Altamira for what is presumably the final showdown.
I'm enjoying it, but I'm not sad to be near the end.
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Oh yeah, a few letters got away from me there! Proper nouns is what I meant.
I always say Fla-noir, as in the French noir, with a 'nw' sound. But the game doesn't. Really bugs me.
Forcystus, yes! Yggdrasil being another imposing name.
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I'm up to Chapter 5 now and have come across all of the original Tales of Symphonia characters except
Presea.
The team have now come up with a theory as to why Lloyd is being an absolute git, and I suppose it's plausible. If this is the case, then the story has now essentially become 'Save Lloyd from his Centurion-core madness'.
I'm still bothered by the way the writers seem bent on inserting as many oddly-pronounced pronouns as possible into the story.
Flanoir (Flan-oy-er)
Cruxis (Crew-shiss)
Desian (Dez-i-an)
Undine (Un-dee-nee)
Noishe (???)
Any others?
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Is it my imagination or is the writing and voice acting better in the skits than the actual cutscenes? It all seems so much more natural and fluid when they are talking. They seem to exhibit a wider range of emotion and more depth of personality than any of the stuff they say during the regular play.
Anyone else feel this way?
Absolutely. I suppose the skits offer more social and 'fun' conversations to take place, allowing a bit more scope and freedom. That sort of light-hearted dialogue would probably seem out of place in the main story. Having said that, the 'It's nazdrovie' scene worked well, as did almost any scene with Raine and they were part of the main story.
I'm on Chapter 4, having just defeated the Light Frog and arrived at Flanoir. That light frog was one mean fight. I'd just put two level 1 monsters on my team and they died every time they were brought back to life. Between me and Marta, we managed to get it down to almost zero health a bunch of times, but he would heal himself, which brings me on to one irksome thing: Hit any of my team members while they are casting and the arte is then cancelled. Hit the light frog with a 5 hit combo and he carries on as if he was being bothered by a butterfly! Grr. That fight took a long time...
The fixed pacing also helps immensely, since you really feel like the dialogue meshes naturally (like characters interrupting each other realistically), whereas with the main dialogue, you're just hearing isolated lines glued together with the A Button.I have the fastest text setting, which displays the text instantly. Because of this, I tend to skip a speech bubble when I've read it, so I miss a lot of the spoken dialogue. You can't skip the skits (that I know of), but I don't mind. I'd be more annoyed if I couldn't skip the main story dialogue.
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Like a rollover evolution? That is weird indeed. Though you never know. Perhaps one day we'll evolve back into primordeal slime.
Jonnas, after reading your comment, I checked the GameFAQs Monster Breeding FAQ and you're right. I've clearly forgotten you can feed your monsters at any time to give them stat increases (restricted to once per level). Might have to start doing that then. And buying a lot more food.
One thing that bothers me is the FAQ says that evolved monsters keep their book-learned arts, and I'm pretty sure that one of mine forgot the First Aid that it learnt. Put me right off buying that book again, but maybe I'll try again.
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I've evolved a few monsters, which by the way, is a far better use of cooking than in the original game IMO. I haven't seen anything to hint at what it will evolve into, as you say. Perhaps the type of dish you make can also affect it, since the monster shows different levels of er, excitement, when different dishes are selected? Or perhaps that only affects the stat increases they receive.
Some monsters can evolve when given certain items, but this seems pretty vague to me so I haven't experimented with this at all.
What's annoying is that I can't find a quick way to see if the monster in my team is an evolved monster or not, without checking the 'Synch' attribute which is non-zero for evolved monsters it seems. Might be missing something there.
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Thanks for the incredibly detailed reply, CF.
Very useful to know. I did wonder why monsters would sometimes join in the unison attacks and sometimes not.So far, I haven't been sufficiently motivated to manage or observe my monsters too much, other than equipping new skills as they become available, but I will definitely be investigating the elemental grid the next time I play.
From what's been said, it seems there are different benefits to two different approaches:
1. You can try to make the minor elements the same in the hope of forming new pacts at the end of battles.
2. You can try to vary the minor elements as much as possible to allow more team members to take part in unison attacks, assuming your party consists of members whose elemental attributes are varied themselves.
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@Patch, status report if you please.
Emil is really annoying to begin with but does have a decent character progression arc over the course of the game. Don't let his whinging put you off yet.
Thank you. Interesting how his being possessed by Ratatosk actually makes him just as annoying but for the opposite reasons.
I've now completed Chapter 2 and thankfully Emil is getting more bearable. I always thought the skits were fairly unnecessary, but this time I think they go some way to connecting the player to the characters. That they're all fully voiced helps too. Some are quite amusing.
Seeing Colette again was a blast. Pretty clever to give Emil and Marta negative experiences of Lloyd and Colette. Maybe those of us who have played the first game and have therefore played as Lloyd and Colette can empathise with this, but their hatred feels somewhat directed at me! I am Lloyd! It's definitely stirred me to want to learn the truth of what happened. Great story device.
IMO, some of the boss fights (particularly the garuda on top of the wind pedestal) haven't been pitched too well, difficulty-wise, but the dungeons are faithful to the original, enjoyable enough and I'm starting to get the hang of the monsters. Which leads me to a couple of questions, if anyone has the answer.
1. What are the conditions for a pact being available after a fight? So far, it just seems to be random when this occurs.
2. What are the elemental circles for in the bottom left corner of the screen during battles? It was mentioned once, but I've forgotten.
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A thank you to those who mentioned Another Code R.
I've officially put it on my backlog list, and am quite intrigued.
Tell me, does it resemble Hotel Dusk in anyway?
You're welcome. I've completed both games and here is a brief comparison:
Similarities
- Very story-driven with a lot of exposition and some nice plot twists.
- Some basic puzzles to complete every now and then.
- Items must be used or given to people to advance the story.
- Interesting mix of characters to interact with.
- Lots of things to click for examination, with 98% of them being merely scenery with banal descriptions ("It's an empty box. I wonder if it used to have something inside?").
- Nice build up of tension towards the end of both games.
Differences
- I don't think there is a Game Over screen in Another Code R. In Hotel Dusk, the game can end suddenly if you choose the wrong option.
- Third person exploration in Another Code R, first person in Hotel Dusk.
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I wrote a loooooong post about how much I loved Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories some time ago, but I can't find it... *sigh*
Great to hear such fondness for this game! It's a simple adventure, it won't get your blood pumping and there are unashamed trivialities thrown in constantly, but it's endearingly charming, down to earth and compulsive. It was almost like reading an Enid Blyton adventure, and comparing it to a novel is pretty apt since it feels more like interactive fiction than a videogame (the box cover even warns you that there is a heavy amount of text IIRC).
Very relaxing to play, one of my favourite Wii games, so it certainly stood out to me.
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OK, cool, so daftada - COMPLETED!
I was toying with the idea of getting Abyss. I'm not 100% sold just yet. Maybe I'll wait until after finishing this to decide.
Some progress:
I've finished Chapter 1, and while I am enjoying the revisit to Sylvarant and the great music, it feels slightly lacklustre so far. It accomplishes the impressive feat of making me want to play the first game all over again, while at the same time making me want to see something new and different.
The battles are as great as usual, albeit without the same sense of companionship, given that your team members are nearly all monsters. The menu system is slick and the skits are entertaining enough. Despite the awful character of Emil and the even-worse townsfolk I've met so far, I'm enjoying it enough to keep playing for the moment. Let's see what Chapter 2 brings.
Oh, one other thing which darksnowman's motion capture comment made me recall. I always thought the Sorceror's Ring felt a bit, well, you know . . . a bit crap. The sudden halting of the character, the stiff arm-raising, the weedy sound effect, the retry after retry to get the thing lined up to where I want to send the damn blast of whatever it is. And while they have improved the aiming (now done by aiming with the Wii Remote) - YAY! - they've removed the visual effect completely - GAH!
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Thanks for the summary Jonnas! I have no expectations of the game being better than the original, but I am hoping that my love of the first game will see me through the negative parts.
It's been interesting to read about the monster mechanic though. It does sound like something I could get obsessed about completing 100%, but from the sound of it, there is little or no reason to do so, so I may very well leave that alone. Glad I set that straight before playing it.
I liked getting a bonus for using an old Gamecube save slot containing completed ToS data. I got the Jewel set for doing so:
JEWEL SET: mana mark (recover 3%TP on enemy defeat); spirit mark (restore 1%TP); mystic mark (reduce casting time); holy mark (recover 3% HP on enemy defeat); sapphire (ice element, resist wind 1); aquamarine (water element; resist fire 1); orange gel (15); apple gel (15); life bottle (13); 200 gald
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Life Bottle *USE*!
I've had this game on the shelf for ages, but I've only just started playing it.
So judging from the last few posts, the people who have most recently played it are:
-UPDATED!-
darksnowman -COMPLETED-
Tales -COMPLETED-
daftada -COMPLETED-
Captain Falcon -COMPLETED-
Emasher -PROBABLY COMPLETED-
Dyson -STARTED-
Jonnas -COMPLETED-
-UPDATED!-
Anyone I missed who wants a mention? ;-)
Dyson, Jonnas, did you get round to finishing the game? If not, why not?
Thanks for the summary, darksnowman. After the marathon RPG known as Xenoblade Chronicles, I'm actually looking forward to playing a standard ~40 hour RPG game.
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Hmmm, I may just have to start my Christmas list a little earlier than usual this year...
I was hyped to read about co-op mode, though I think we should start a massive online petition to replace Oswald the Lucky Rabbit with Donald Duck. Who's with me?
Anyone?
Oh.
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Yup, I've just checked the Japanese boards, and they're all filled with comments like:
Wait, Banjo-Tooie (N64) makes it into the list, but Tennis (NES) doesn't? WTF?
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Massive bump to say I completed this today, it didn't take long.
Congrats! I remember you buying this years and years ago and at the time, I asked you for some impressions of the game. I'm glad you finally got around to replying to me!
It doesn't sound like it was that good, so your perseverance in finishing it has to be admired. I probably won't bother looking into playing it now.
The thing that worries me most is I've had Sam & Max: Season One in my backlog for donkies. I've never played Sam & Max before but after Secret Files, I'm really hoping Telltale employed a more sensible approach to their puzzles.
I haven't played the new Sam & Max, but I've played all five chapters of Tales of Monkey Island (also by Telltale) and I have to say they were some of the wittiest and cleverest* point and click adventures I have played. The puzzles did make sense to me. That's not to say I never got stuck, though it's rare to get through any game of this sort without a little help.
*the insult swordfighting scene at the Crossroads (Chapter 5) - which had you delivering lines that simultaneously insulted the swordmaster and encouraged Morgan - was absolute genius.
Super Smash No's : Stock issues
in Nintendo Gaming
Posted · Edited by Patch
I got the same email. Oh well. Looks like at our house we'll have to have pre-Smash actual fights to decide who gets the Wii remote / Pro controller / Gamepad.
Surely more adapters are coming though. Someone in the biz must be able to get an answer out of Nintendo on this?
EDIT: Reddit user SSB4 seems to think so:
EDIT 2: Just had another email from Amazon with a voucher worth £3 off my next order.