Here's some digest info compiled by Neogaf.com
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins - 7.0
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest - 5.0
The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity - 5.0
Nascar Kart Racing - 6.0
Fishing Master: World Tour - 7.5
Legacy of YS: Books I & II - 7.5
* Phantasy Star 0
- "the most ambitious, compelling, and robust online offering on the handheld to date."
- "true spiritual successor to the original Phantasy Star Online."
- fully realized single-player campaign, but the multiplayer modes are the big draw.
- Online or local play with up to four players. Free. No territory restrictions. Friend codes or random party assignment.
- Lobby area. Random map variations and cannot move from one level to another without going back to the lobby.
- "multiplayer modes have no overarching narrative"
- "remarkable graphics engine"
- can map actions to Y, B, or A, and to R+ Y, B, or A.
- "accuracy increases with each successful hit during a combo, making it easier to land heavy attacks (by going light-light-heavy, for instance)."
- "(Ardent fans of the series will be delighted to know that Phantasy Star Universe's miguided linkage of Technics to certain weapons has been discarded.)"
- Visual Chat - Draw any type of message you want, like "Heal me!" Up to 20 messages can be saved to shortcuts. Friends-only. Random teams are limited to keyboard chat and premade symbols.
- Added the ability to dodge.
- Camera control could be an issue with the lack of an analog stick.
- "more than 350 unique weapons, the majority of which are brand-new."
- Character designs are by Toshiyuki Kubooka, from the Lunar series.
- Mags are present.
- Can use same character in multiplayer and singleplayer, and experience/items carry over between the two modes.
- No comment on downloadable content/updates.
The major articles are on:
* Phantasy Star 0
* Valkyrie Profile
- Interview with Shunsuke Katsumata
* Sands of Destruction (World Destruction in Japan)
- Interview with Masato Kato
* Dragon Quest V
- Interview with Yuji Horii
* Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii)
* Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
* Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Wii/DS)
News:
* Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days coming to U.S.
* Dragon Quest X coming to the Wii.
* The Dark Spire (RPG from Atlus, Genmu no Tou to Tsurugi no Okite in Japan)
* Pokemon Platinum in March
VC RPGs
Previews:
* Suikoden: Tierkreis
* Mario & Luigi RPG 3
* Zubo (DS RPG from EA)
* Avalon Code (coming in February)
* Valkyrie Profile
- "It's a strategy-RPG, with a much bigger emphasis on combat than before."
- Control of when each character attacks is still in.
- Hit gauge at the bottom fills up with successful strikes. When full, a character can do a "Soul Crush" which also feeds back into the Hit gauge.
- Bonus when two characters are flanking an opponent.
- Grid movement in an isometric view.
- Doesn't have a traditional overworld or dungeons to explore. The game is mainly about the combat.
- "What may be harder to take as the game goes on are the story's darkness and the ruthless gameplay that grows out of it. ... Wylfred is very much the anti-hero, and it's hard to say whether players will sympathize with what he does and why he does it." (Wylfred wants to kill the Valkyrie to get revenge for losing his father. He's helped by Hel (from Viking Hell) who is using Wylfred for her own ends, thus the "Covenant" part of the title.)
Interview:
- Former Quest Corporations staff helped the team (already a lot of strategy-RPG fans among them) with the shift in gameplay to a strategy-RPG.
- "Where in other games it has always been in players' best interests to defend the lives of their allies, Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume forces palyers to ponder the value of sacrifice in view of the greater goal."
- "we really wanted to recapture the gravitas of the original Valkyrie Profile and tell the tale through the eyes of a dark hero who opposed the Valkyrie ... I think those who see the full story will ultimately find the message to be an uplifting one, so I hope they'll play it all the way through."
- Just under 30 tracks from the original VP and 20 new tracks.
Sands of Destruction (World Destruction in Japan)
- Ferals (race of beastmen) use humans as slaves. "It seems like the only escape of the humans in Sands of Destruction is to end it all, and that's where the story kicks off ..."
- The World Annihilation Front is led by a 16-year old girl named Morte.
- Duel-screen boss fights with multiple attack points, some more vulnerable than others.
- Random, turn-based battles. Attacks can be upgraded.
- You are Kyrie who's just out trying to find Mushrooms for his uncle. He's then summoned to the Feral mayor's house, placed under arrest, and then a power inside him wells up and melts all the bad guys.
- Travel the sand covered world on sand ships. Fight sand whales. Team up with a Feral who looks like a cuddly Teddby Bear, but is actually a veteran bounty hunter who would kill anyone for the right price.
- Learning catch-phrases gives you status boosts.
- Fully voiced cut-scenes. 50 tracks from Procyon Studio with 20 by Mitsuda himself.
* Dragon Quest V
- "What luck! The crown jewel of the Dragon Quest series is finally coming to Western shores."
- "[Dragon Quest V] quickly became Horii's favorite game in the series, and it holds that distinction still. Too bad Horii's enthusiasm didn't rub off on his coworkers at Enix America, who decided to stop localizing Dragon Quest jsut as the series hit its creative peak."
- "Hand of the Heavenly Bride begins with the hero as a young boy ... But the hero's happy childhood cannot last forever, and his path to adulthood will be marked with both triumphs and tragedies."
- "Horii has a gift for brevity that is rare among his peers, and he doesn't need cut-scenes or lengthy conversations to tell an emotionally involving story. Nor does he need to pile on the pathos to make you feel something - the handful of dark and tragic moments in Dragon Quest V hit hard because of the many lighter moments that have drawn you into the quest and made you attached to its likeable cast. Dragon Quest V may lack the sophistication of more-modern titles, abut few RPGs since have matched the warmth of its soul." (The article was written by Casey Loe, and I think that's a fine piece of writing right there.)
- There is a monster catching aspect (60+ in this version of DQV) that the article says was part of the inspiration for Pokemon. (probably DQMonsters, too
) After capture, they fight for you as regular party members. They have level caps, though, so they'll have to be rotated out for later captured monsters.
- Uses DQIV engine, but uses more color to diversify the towns.
- "The battles remain fast-paced and richly animated, with weapons that can hit entire groups (or the entire battlefield) adding a bit of spice to the otherwise-straightforward, hammer-on-the-attach-button battle system that has long been the series' trademark (Expect that to change a bit in the upcoming remake of the more tactical Dragon Quest VI)"
Topic: Nintendo Power Thread! March 09 issue (Read 13476 times)
