~ Action RPG... ~ Assign attacks to face buttons... ~ ‘Break System’ used to consecutively attack. Timing is important... ~ You control one character, AI controls two other party members... ~ Customizable characters (upgradeable and visible equipment changes!) ~ Three player wireless cooperative play ~ Story/script: Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga (Xenosaga) ~ Character design: Tadahiro Usuda ~ Soundtrack: Yasunori Mitsuda ~ Multiplayer: Explore the game world at your own will, all players do not have to be on the same screen at the same time... ~ And the first trailer! (http://touch-ds.jp/mfs/st86/special.html) ~ Japanese TV Spot! (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/30567.html) (For the curious, the young lady narrating says "Recollection...Oneself...Betrayal...Bonds...My consciousness will clear the way...[lit.: cut in front of me]) ~ Trailer 2! (http://touch-ds.jp/mfs/st86/intro.html) ~ Official Japanese Website! (http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/ybsj/index.html)
This will be MonolithSoft's first game since their acquisition by Nintendo...The music is fantastic, and the game looks really sharp, and early impressions seem to point towards a fun battle system, so hopefully the end product is good (and localized!)
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Darkheart on February 14, 2008, 08:05:54 AM
Color me interested but I will need more video and impressions before I start my own personal hype train. I still dont know what to think about the character designs. . . love the music and the colorful art though.
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Deguello on February 14, 2008, 08:06:37 AM
What an eclectic bunch on the cover.
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Bloodworth on February 14, 2008, 08:48:49 AM
We have another trailer on the way tomorrow with more gameplay details. So keep your eyes open.
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Bill Aurion on February 14, 2008, 03:07:40 PM
Color me interested but I will need more video and impressions before I start my own personal hype train. I still dont know what to think about the character designs. . . love the music and the colorful art though.
Let's start with another video that shows a bunch of awesome gameplay! http://touch-ds.jp/mfs/st86/intro.html (http://touch-ds.jp/mfs/st86/intro.html)
This game is starting to look like Secret of Mana done right...
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Infernal Monkey on February 14, 2008, 04:03:53 PM
The Western release will be renamed Summer Bringer and have the stern dude from the top of the box in a two piece. :o
ACTION RPG YES!~
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Toruresu on February 14, 2008, 06:50:25 PM
Wow! Seems like a good game!
We'll see how the reviews go.
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Darkheart on February 14, 2008, 07:48:52 PM
WHOA is this multiplayer!? If so then you got me on the hype train WOO WOO~!
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Toruresu on February 14, 2008, 08:01:02 PM
Yeah, its multiplayer. Question is, why only three players and not four? I don't think its the DS's fault, the video that I saw had nine characters on screen. Also, why no online and why isn't this on Wii?!
Maybe Nintendo is testing Monolith?
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Bill Aurion on February 14, 2008, 08:06:29 PM
Yeah, its multiplayer. Question is, why only three players and not four? I don't think its the DS's fault, the video that I saw had nine characters on screen. Also, why no online and why isn't this on Wii?
Because in single player you only have 3-person parties...It's just the way they designed the game (very Secret of Mana-ish, which is what I believe was intended...)
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: nitsu niflheim on February 14, 2008, 09:43:54 PM
looks like fun, but looks are very deceiving... but I'm going to get it anyways, rite Bill?
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Bill Aurion on February 15, 2008, 01:12:30 AM
looks like fun, but looks are very deceiving... but I'm going to get it anyways, rite Bill?
Hey, I have absolutely no qualms with you getting ACTION RPGS... =3
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: KDR_11k on February 16, 2008, 11:59:17 AM
I hope they don't give you more than three characters then (or make sure dormant chars still get exp), I hate having to make sure all characters level equally or having useless characters later on.
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Bill Aurion on February 16, 2008, 11:18:19 PM
It looks like you will have a large party throughout the entire game, so I'm sure they'd have to have a "sharing of experience" system implemented...
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: KDR_11k on February 17, 2008, 01:47:20 PM
I don't trust japanese devs on things like that.
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 17, 2008, 01:57:59 PM
This sounds good, and the fact that Nintendo bought the company after seeing their work on this gives me high hopes (and the same goes for Disaster: Day of Crisis). And it's another good DS game in what looks to be a lighter year than the past few.
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on February 18, 2008, 08:29:01 AM
ahahahahaha the non-news on Disaster is not giving me hope.
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Bill Aurion on February 19, 2008, 03:25:52 AM
More info:
Quote
~Prologue~ (Story tidbits)
A huge ring that wraps around the world--- The people underneath its warmth sleeping, waking, living covered by "Soma", a power that fills the atmosphere
A world where an energy called "Soma" governs all...
However, in recent years, due to the balance of Soma crumbling, mysterious life-forms, "Visitors", have appeared, which has caused all the people who dwell there to live everyday in fear.
In order to subdue those Visitors, a militant organization called "Pharzuph"was established
On an investigation deep in the heart of the large forest Junel, a member of the Pharzuph 7th troupe met a girl who had lost her memory, and---
And impressions from a retailer who has played through some of the game:
Quote
- He likes the direction of the events and story very much. The locations and events do a good job of drawing you into the game.
- The Pharzuph are kinda like the Jedi knights of the Soma Bringer world. As part of an entire unit, the game does a good job of making your character feel like you're part of an organization. Getting missions from HQ in towns, and interacting with the support staff, etc.
- Each character have their own personalities and quirks, and the game does a good job of showcasing it.
- For battles you can actually toggle the Camera Zoom option on or off. There's another setting for Area Cursor which determines if the "starting position of the area cursor for ranged attacks" is near or far. He has no idea what the setting actually does based on the demo they got to play though.
- He also says that while the game is probably going to take 20-30 hours for a single play (this is based on what was briefed by Nintendo probably, since he isn't actually playing the full game), the game isn't really about just playing once through.
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Infernal Monkey on February 19, 2008, 09:26:54 AM
Quote
Each character have their own personalities and quirks, and the game does a good job of showcasing it.
An RPG with characters that actually have personality? This must surely be some kind of lie!
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: KDR_11k on February 19, 2008, 01:34:53 PM
Quote
On an investigation deep in the heart of the large forest Junel, a member of the Pharzuph 7th troupe met a girl who had lost her memory, and---
Quote
- Each character have their own personalities and quirks, and the game does a good job of showcasing it.
OBJECTION!! Your honor, the witness is clearly contradicting himself!
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Bill Aurion on February 19, 2008, 05:16:42 PM
Having amnesia doesn't mean having a lack of personality... =)
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Bill Aurion on February 20, 2008, 05:37:04 AM
I like how I'm the only one who will get this game...It's my very own niche game! :heart;
Anyways, more info from here (http://touch-ds.jp/crv/vol9/001.html)! (translated by duckroll at GAF)
Quote
- Takahashi is producing the game, and it's his project from the start
- Right from the beginning Mitsuda was involved, Takahashi didn't want to make a game without Mitsuda's music
- Mitsuda would never turn down a friend who worked with him on Xenogears and Xenosaga, in a way it feels like a reunion
- Originally this was planned as a normal RPG, but then they realized that RPGs aren't ideally suited for handhelds and tried to make it an action RPG
- When it turned out really well they decided that this was the way to go, because now you can have both the story of a RPG as well as the ability to just play short bursts on the go
- The scenario in Soma Bringer differs from his previous works in the sense that previously the scenario was written first and the gameplay was made to fit into the scenario. This time they worked on the gameplay first, and based on what kind of dungeons, locations and stuff they wanted the player to experience as part of the gameplay, the scenario was then developed to maximize the gameplay and locations as well as expand the worldview and characters
- The worldview is focused on the fact that Soma is the ultimate energy of the planet and used for everything. This energy source is a completely normal thing on this planet and part of their daily lives. The ring that surrounds the entire planet is also a key point that the story will revolve around
- There will be over 300 different weapons in the game, and you won't be able to get them all or even see them all in a single playthrough
- Lots of customization and freedom for the player to build the character however he wants in terms of stats, skills, etc
- Mitsuda says that this game will feature the highest quality possible yet on the DS. There will be two completely different mixes of the sound in the game depending if you select speaker or headphone output in the settings. This is because the speakers on the DS lack bass, and the output levels are different. Hence to produce the optimum sound on either speaker or headphone, two different mixes are needed
- Takahashi plays Soma Bringer with his young son and older daughter. It's lots of fun and he hopes that with the wifi multiplayer mode friends and family can get together and play the game together, fighting over loot and defeating bosses together. It'll be different for everyone but the social aspect definitely makes it more fun
- When you clear the main story, 3 randomly generated dungeons will open up. Not only will they offer tons of gameplay content, but there will be added story episodes as well
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 20, 2008, 05:53:52 AM
Quote
- The scenario in Soma Bringer differs from his previous works in the sense that previously the scenario was written first and the gameplay was made to fit into the scenario. This time they worked on the gameplay first, and based on what kind of dungeons, locations and stuff they wanted the player to experience as part of the gameplay, the scenario was then developed to maximize the gameplay and locations as well as expand the worldview and characters
That is what I like to hear. It's a very Nintendo, very Miyamoto way of designing the game, and it's making me more and more interested in this game.
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Darkheart on February 20, 2008, 07:43:03 AM
How do you not own a DS yet? What is wrong with you?
miscarriage return
Title: Re: Soma Bringer: MonolithSoft's Latest RPG
Post by: Terranigma Freak on March 08, 2008, 09:09:24 PM
Quote
Soma Bringer has arrived and I was able to play a good 2 hours of the game. I guess that should be enough for a quick little hands-on preview. I stayed away from all information so I could experience a minty fresh game. Despite the short playtime, the game’s focus on customization was immediately apparent.
To begin, you choose from a selection of characters. All of them will be a part of your team, so you’re just picking who you’d like to control. The characters are Crono, Sephiroth Jr, Jay Leno on steroids, and a couple of other characters. They look rather uninspired, so I didn’t bother naming them. There’s suppose to be another girl too, but for some reason, she’s greyed out. Oh well, I wanted to play as Crono anyway. Once you pick your character, you get to pick their class, weapons, and even adjust their starting stats a bit. After that, I was treated to some beautiful music while watching a meteor crash into the forest.
Sephiropth Jr wants to hold a big orgy party, but the team has an uneven male/female ratio, so they decided to go into the woods and hunt for an extra female. It is here that a morbidly obese sabre-toothed Care Bear appeared to explain the game. Most of it was pretty basic — except for the “Break” function in combat. I know what it does, but I don’t know how to do it, or the intricacies involving this function. The combat plays like Secret of Mana. You only control whomever you picked, while the computer controls the other two members. At least they aren’t as brain-dead as the idiots of Mana. The camera zooms in whenever you swing your weapon at an enemy. My only concern right now is the speed of my swing. There’s a delay after every swing. Luckily, there appears to be skills that’ll increase the speed of each swing, but by how much, I still don’t know.
So far, I haven’t seen any unique uses for the touch-screen. You play on the top, while the bottom displays a map and your custom moves (more on this later). The map itself is very useful and detailed, so it’s very handy. I don’t know if there are other uses for the touch-screen, but I suspect this map is there for Wi-Fi multiplayer co-op (don’t know if this is actually a feature, it‘s just my guess).
As I said from the beginning, this game focuses heavily on customization, and boy, did they ever load up on options. When you level up, you’re given stats, but it’s up to you distribute them. Not only that, but you also get points to level up your combat skills and magic. Increasing them to level 1 will allow you to assign some combat skills to the Y, X, and B buttons. Right now, I only have the low ranking skills available for level up, but I also saw plenty of high rank skills available for me later. They were also organized by weapon type giving me a total of 64 different skills — although some of the skill slots are empty.
After much exploring, we finally found a huge glass container. Our heroes ponders the possibility of a naked girl confined in there. As if the heavens heard their cries, it unleashed a power with the might of a hundred sumo wrestlers after gouging on pork and beans. The mighty explosion shattered the glass tube, releasing a nude maiden a la Ace Ventura When Nature Calls. “It’s orgy time,” exclaimed Jay Leno on steroids, as they all gathered around to celebrate.
When I finally reached the first chapter, I am given the freedom to explore. My first order of business was to kick the crap out of the local flora and fauna. I have a hunch there is no over world to travel through in this game. I saw what I suspect to be a teleporter/travel point on the bridge of the ship. It could be there just for quick travels, though. It’s only a hunch, so I could be very wrong about this. I know there are teleporters that allow you to go to town and other areas quickly. By the way, it seems that all the villagers have a habit of locking their doors to keep you out. So no pillaging homes for treasure. You buy items from vendors in a marketplace, or in your ship.
After adding a mondo penguin into the endangered species list, I happened upon some mortally wounded people, and I processed to pilfer their wallets. Or at least I wish I could have done that, but my stuffed up nose was bothering me, so I decided to stop playing for the day. What I’ve played so far seems to be a fairly decent game. It has good atmosphere with a nice soundtrack, and sweet graphics. I don’t know if there is more to the customization, but what I saw was already fairly extensive. All this game needs now is an engaging plot, and the skill level ups to not turn this into a monotonous grind-fest. Oh, and in case you still haven’t figured it out, I was making the plot up as I go along.
