Record of Agarest War - Opinions?

Valleo

I'm a big SRPG fan, and I've been itching for a new one to play. This game kind of looked interesting, in that the gameplay seems pretty deep, and they have what looks like a fun Phantasy Star 3 like mechanic (you pick a bride from a selection of girls, and get a child from said union).

Of course I'm basing this on what little information I've been able to find. Still, I'm a little wary of buying it.

I'm not overly concerned with the whole dating sim thing, or (what looks like) a very anime style story. My main concern is that I won't like the battles. From what I understand, the movement and action phases are separate, and it looks like battles go down by positioning your guys in such a way that they can execute super combos, and destroy people in one drawn out bludgeon fest. To me that seems kind of boring.

Since I'm having a hard time getting any opinions, I figured I'd ask here. How do the battles play out? Is the gameplay as deep as I'm lead to believe? Is it very different from other SRPGs (so much so that I won't enjoy it)?

For reference, the last SRPGs that I enjoyed and played to death were Valkyria Chronicles, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and anything from the Final Fantasy Tactics series.

Lucascraft

I have no info about the gameplay. The only thing I know about this game is that the limited edition comes with a boobie mousepad.

Gaming-Freak

Valleo wrote: »

I'm a big SRPG fan, and I've been itching for a new one to play. This game kind of looked interesting, in that the gameplay seems pretty deep, and they have what looks like a fun Phantasy Star 3 like mechanic (you pick a bride from a selection of girls, and get a child from said union).

Of course I'm basing this on what little information I've been able to find. Still, I'm a little wary of buying it.

I'm not overly concerned with the whole dating sim thing, or (what looks like) a very anime style story. My main concern is that I won't like the battles. From what I understand, the movement and action phases are separate, and it looks like battles go down by positioning your guys in such a way that they can execute super combos, and destroy people in one drawn out bludgeon fest. To me that seems kind of boring.

Since I'm having a hard time getting any opinions, I figured I'd ask here. How do the battles play out? Is the gameplay as deep as I'm lead to believe? Is it very different from other SRPGs (so much so that I won't enjoy it)?

For reference, the last SRPGs that I enjoyed and played to death were Valkyria Chronicles, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and anything from the Final Fantasy Tactics series.

From what I've played this morning (downloaded it last night), It's a fun game, a bit challenging to get the hang of at first, but it has a smooth battle system, and separating the Move and Action phases just adds to the strategy needed.

The game's only real challenge is the fact that enemies can deal some hefty damage over the course of one turn, and bosses can one shot a group of allies if you're not careful. The combo system helps a lot, and the game emphasizes on bullying one enemy at a time, as well as planning which attacks you should make (it runs on an AP system, moving during the Move phase, as well as the various attacks and abilities, all use AP, which regenerates at the beginning of each character's turn).

Would I reccomend it? I'd certainly say it's worth playing, but the game is 5 generations long (a new hero per generation), which sums up to the main story taking up 100+ hours.

Beltaine

It's very PS2-ish.

I'm not sure I like it just yet, but I'm still in the tutorial I guess.

NailbunnyPD

Lucascraft wrote: »

I have no info about the gameplay. The only thing I know about this game is that the limited edition comes with a boobie mousepad.

And a pillow case. :?:

Elvenshae

That's ... um. That sure is a mouse pad right there.

Yep.

What's this game about, anyway?

Fiaryn

I don't know but it looks preeeetty sleazy based on the mousepad and the screenshots in the SA thread.

Shady3011

Fiaryn wrote: »

I don't know but it looks preeeetty sleazy based on the mousepad and the screenshots in the SA thread.

It's Japan. What did you expect?

LordOfTheCheese

Its looking pretty promising so far, have not had the chance to get too far in though. I can see myself dumping a lot of time into this game from what I have seen so far. Only thing that I would give it a thumbs down for is all the voice is in japanese, but I can deal with reading all the story.

Lionel-Richie

You guys need to check out the box art as well. When I opened up our freight and saw this I almost shat brix. It was hilarious and disappointing at the same time.

The best part was the marketing for the game...almost NOTHING about the SRPG part of it...the ad even said "Hot pix included." That's right, pix. With an x. Nice.

Gamestop corporate told us to basically keep this game behind the counter unless asked for...which is probably good, since having a GIANT box with naked girls eating bananas and having cream on their faces was going to draw some...unwanted attention.

LordOfTheCheese

A friend of mine bought it while the store was packed with people, all heads turned his way and kind of just stared for a while. I think this is one marketing gimmick that has backfired since a lot of people will never see the game. The gamestop employee I purchesed mine from had never even heard of the game until they got it in stock and his manager told them to keep it in back. I actually almost left without buying it because I thought they didnt have any before I asked him.

Variable

I saw it behind the desk at a gamestop today, all I registered was the picture and the word 'naughty'

Cade

What you need to know is here

Trailer!

Limited Edition trailer

BTW the trailer music in the second half was so popular they added it to the music CD with the game.

Elvenshae

... Is clickin' on either of those links gonna get me fired?

Cade

If your at work....it might not be the best idea.

TheStig

Elvenshae wrote: »

... Is clickin' on either of those links gonna get me fired?

Well they put mosiacs over most of the bad stuff... and I'm pretty sure that's vanilla icecream all over the 12 year old anime girl's face.. but yeah, you should probably avoid it.

CorriganX

I'm actually interested in this game as well (Huge fan of FFT, Ogre Battle, Disgaea, boobies, etc.) and was wondering if theres any interesting gameplay videos besides this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzgA_mBOOh4

I don't read Japanese, so most of that went over my head. Good to know I can use my fightstick to play, though.

Valleo

Thanks for the info Gaming-Freak, I think I'm kind of leaning towards yes at this point.

Also, I can't really click on those links for the trailers since I'm at work till 6, but I have seen a few trailers already (Gamespot, YouTube) that didn't really help me make up my mind. As for the whole "Naughty limited edition" thing, I think they kind of overplayed that whole aspect of the game in the marketing, as previosuly mentioned. I didn't really get the same pervy vibe from the trailers as I did from the box art and the lol-bewbs mouse pad. Anyhow.

LordOfTheCheese

Everyone who has seen the mouse pad (took a pic of it to show the guys at work) has busted up laughing. No idea what I am going to end up doing with the pillow case. No way I can have something like that on my bed.

vagrant_winds

Already bought the game on the PSN (hey, free DLC). I've been mostly interested because I like SRPGs, I like Compile Heart (for the most part), and I'm very interested in the 5 generations game. The last time I played a multi-generational game was Saga Fronter II and the whole idea of it kicks ass.

Gaming-Freak

Ugh. I still have no idea why Aksys would try to market it based on its minor sexual themes. Judging from the trailers, you'd think that it was the main highlight of the game (it's not). Yes, there are in fact, sexual inuendos (like a girl trying to eat a giant sausage) and girls barely wearing anything (usually in the Hot Springs and Wedding cutscenes) at certain points of the game, but to put that on the cover of the limited edition is like telling mainstream customers to stay away from it.

EDIT: Oh, and you're welcome, valleo.

tpg0007

Now I'm thankful they made it digital only for the PS3. My shame can stay secret.

But honestly the game doesn't seem to be all that risque when you get into it, no more than your average anime SRPG. Most of the mechanics seem pretty solid. You can even play Pokemon/Persona by capturing and fusing monsters to fight for you.

Cade

It was a smart marketing ploy and nothing more, no one at this point would really give a damn about some PS2 looking RPG released now, so they looked for something they could use and that was the sexual over tones which they pumped up and exploited.

It's no difference then how some games promote the violence in their games.

Zxerol

LordOfTheCheese wrote: »

Everyone who has seen the mouse pad (took a pic of it to show the guys at work) has busted up laughing. No idea what I am going to end up doing with the pillow case. No way I can have something like that on my bed.

Someone I know has an exact pad like that, except a Kasumi (Dead or Alive) patterned one, which leads me to guess there's a whole collection of these things out there.

It does support your wrist pretty well, though.

Vincent Grayson

Gaming-Freak wrote: »

Ugh. I still have no idea why Aksys would try to market it based on its minor sexual themes. Judging from the trailers, you'd think that it was the main highlight of the game (it's not). Yes, there are in fact, sexual inuendos (like a girl trying to eat a giant sausage) and girls barely wearing anything (usually in the Hot Springs and Wedding cutscenes) at certain points of the game, but to put that on the cover of the limited edition is like telling mainstream customers to stay away from it.

EDIT: Oh, and you're welcome, valleo.

I was kind of wondering about that. The ads made it look like the kind of game I shouldn't even bother buying given that my consoles are in a shared room. Then I saw that it was rated T rather than M and I'm wondering...is there really no inappropriate content? Is it pretty much just the kind of thing you might expect in anime normally?

Lionel-Richie

The ESRB rating on the back of the box had "partial nudity" as the worst thing. All the mosaic'd out crap was likely to be just panties or sideboobage. That and there was nothing about "sexual content" which is weird, just "Suggestive Themes."

Gilder

I just wanted to say that if I ever purchased this game my shame would be minimal compared to what I'll feel buying Ar Tonelico 3. You people ain't seen nothin' until you've seen the outfit changing in that game. I refuse to believe Agharest could be worse than AT. At least Agharest knows what it's doing. AT does, but then at the same time they purposefully try to make it as weird as possible for anyone playing it.

Juc

I actually know a lot of people who want to buy this game, but due to its packaging are shying away.

Someone I work with preordered the game and got laughed at when he went to the store to pick it up.

Maybe I can buy it over amazon without people thinking I'm a pedo.

Gaming-Freak

Gilder wrote: »

I just wanted to say that if I ever purchased this game my shame would be minimal compared to what I'll feel buying Ar Tonelico 3. You people ain't seen nothin' until you've seen the outfit changing in that game. I refuse to believe Agharest could be worse than AT. At least Agharest knows what it's doing. AT does, but then at the same time they purposefully try to make it as weird as possible for anyone playing it.

Lol at Luca's dominatrix outfit, and Cloche's bondage outfit...

*ahem* anyway, yeah, this game is getting way too much crap from the public and retailers. Hell, Gamestop refuses to shelve it, saying that the customer must inquire about it before they show it and sell it.

Lionel-Richie

Do you honestly blame them? I'm not putting that box on the shelves. Maybe if it was normal box sized...MAYBE. Though unlikely.

Fiaryn

Social norms exist. Thinking they're stupid does not make them any less real, nor make them have any less of an impact on your life.

This is why retailers are not putting Anime Porno Edition on the shelves, it's common sense.

Gilder

Does Agharest War have anything terrible right on the front of the box? Like does it just show the boob mousepad right in the center or something? Because if so then yeah I could understand not displaying it, but if not then come on. They're only hurting themselves really, because nobody will know they have it unless they go in and specifically ask for it. They won't even be able to get rid of the damn thing if nobody knows it's there.

Lionel-Richie

It's got the two naked typical pre-pubescent anime girls on it, but the front of the box isn't the problem.

It's the side pictures with the hentai-esque innuendo that are the problem.

Blackjack

Gilder wrote: »

Does Agharest War have anything terrible right on the front of the box? Like does it just show the boob mousepad right in the center or something? Because if so then yeah I could understand not displaying it, but if not then come on. They're only hurting themselves really, because nobody will know they have it unless they go in and specifically ask for it. They won't even be able to get rid of the damn thing if nobody knows it's there.

I just googled it because I hate myself, and it appears to be a collector's box with two naked ladies in sheets with the proclamation that this is the "really naughty limited edition"

Also, among other ridiculous "hrr hrr girls have boobs" pictures, the side includes a shot of a small girl deep throating a sausage.

An actual sausage.

Gilder

Haha, okay then yeah I can see not putting that box up on display. I guess gamestops are just stuck with the game until someone randomly comes in and asks for it.

At least Ar Tonelico has a normal box, so nobody knows the truth. And if they do, then you can just smile smugly and say "Trap sprung."

Beltaine

The difference is, Ar Tonelico won't have any indication of what lies inside on the cover.

Agarest is exactly opposite. On the outside it looks like porn, in the actual game there's nothing remotely resembling porn.

vagrant_winds

Or you could avoid all that and just... download it over the PSN (and get all your DLC with it free to boot). :P

Juc

So I picked this game up this morning.

I like it thus far.

The only weird parts came prior to playing.
Had to explain to the girls at gamestop that I wasn't joking and I really did want to buy the game, despite the box art.
Had to carry that box around for a little bit in a clear bag, sadly gamestop doesn't look like they carry brown paper bags with "THIS IS NOT PORN" stamped all over it.
Then unpacked the stuff just to find out that the boobs on the mouse pad were bigger than I thought they were from the pictures.

Then I played the game for a few hours.


But now I need to decide, should I bring this mouse pad to work since I could use a new mouse pad there, or do I keep it at home to horrify guests.

Oh yeah, and as an aside, when the gamestop girls asked me if I wanted to buy a warranty for the game, I asked them if that includes replacement mouse pads ya know, for wear and tear, turns out, it does not. Also that's a good way to get them to stop asking about the game waranty.

cj iwakura

The game was developed by Idea Factory.

Look up Chaos Wars.


It's almost certainly going to be garbage. They couldn't make a game fun if their lives depended on it, so they throw in pandering fan service.

Djiem

Actually I'm enjoying it so far.

sinky

Just got it a couple of hours back. Looks kinda good so far.