[Wonderful 101] PA Team! Unite Morph Wang!

Viskod

Well I don't know all of the tells off of the top of my head, so I couldn't offer him any more advice than going to a source where he can watch all of them in action.

But I'm just going to have to substantially disagree with just about everything you said.

The tells are obvious, its not hard, the attacks don't do a substantial amount of damage on normal difficulty.

There is always a tell for when an attack is coming, and 90% of the time the side the tell comes from, is the side the attack is coming from, if it's not, it's part of a pattern that can be predicted.

You are right about it not giving you a lot of time to dodge, but that's what the tells are for.

Your argument is that those segments mechanically don't work, but they do. They work just fine, and they are a lot of fun.

Care Free Bomb

When you're right you're right, my issue is more with the game design than pure mechanics. "Oh hey, you're doing this now, here's an image with the controls now go do it oh he's punching you, I dunno figure it out" It was mostly a thing I had recently done and took umbrage with.

I wouldn't call it all that fun though it was pretty cool the first time when it was a one-off nod to Punch-Out despite my issues with it.

The second time did make the story lose a whole bunch of momentum because you suddenly have this huge robot that's super powerful and awesome and then you go into completely reactionary and slow gameplay where I personally got wailed on for a fair bit of the fight in what's supposed to be a huge climactic moment of victory

The shmup segments though, they're slow, wonky, and are way too long. I frequently died in them and I have no idea what I would do differently because I couldn't see the shot, once I saw it it was too late because of how slow you move, or I thought I was clear but because of the camera moving how I didn't expect or hitboxes not being how I expected them to be I got hit. I mean, I could absolutely replay the levels and get a real sense for those things and get better at them but at all points I felt like I was struggling with it.

Mblackwell

Cross posting from the Wii U thread:

---

I just started playing TW101 again and wow do I suck. There's certain enemies that I just can't fight well after the long break...

1) Gedie Dough-Goo: just can't get the spike armor off quickly for some reason.
2) Hah-Gonay: These guys are a pain. I can't keep up a steady stream of damage, but maybe my timing just sucks.
3) Tumeekey/Koh-Tumeekey: I seriously beat the crap out of these things but they just don't die!
4) Vorkken: How do I not get so horribly damaged all of the time?

I feel like these are all problems I solved in the past but completely forgot how.

Also playing as

wonder red emeritus

I got my butt handed to me. Mostly because there were no large AOE attacks so the little minions/dough-goo kept pegging me in the middle of a combo.

Vyolynce

By far my least favorite part of this game is the utterly ridiculous names the enemies have. The fact that you mentioned "spike armor" is the only reason I know what a Gedie Dough-Goo is, and I still have no idea what 2 and 3 are.

BronzeKoopa

Little robot dudes, big robot dudes, huge robot dudes, huge spiky robot dudes...transforming t-rex robot, that snake thing, that amoeba thing, that huge crab monster...

Mblackwell

The spiky big robot dudes... the dragon guys with the wings for armor, the weird cube pyramid guys, and the guy that has your same abilities.

BronzeKoopa

Also I don't think I'll ever unlock any of the secret characters to use. I like this game but I suck at getting high scores.

Vyolynce

Mblackwell wrote: »

The spiky big robot dudes... the dragon guys with the wings for armor, the weird cube pyramid guys, and the guy that has your same abilities.

Hey I remembered Vorkkie.

And yeah, I remember the dragons and cubes/pyramids being giant nuisances. Dragons change up their tactics a lot, and I always seemed to have trouble getting Unite Claw to happen reliably when I needed to pry them open.

Enlong

Oh man. The special skill you get for mastering every Gun user is so cool.

Mblackwell

Holy shit that ending. Two hours.

Fuck.

I couldn't go to bed last night until I was done. No idea how I'm supposed to get better scores on all of those flying parts though. Seemed like I was getting shot/hit by things that were completely out of view in the distance.

Definitely need to replay each area on normal and try to find all of the secrets and get platinum or pure platinum trophies. Most operations seem longer than they actually are... but then they throw in a few that are ridiculously long (like that last one).

skeldare

Who wants a Wonderful 101 Soundtrack?

http://platinumgames.com/2014/09/09/happy-anniversary/

Hi everyone, The Wonderful 101 director Kamiya here. A full year has passed since the game was released, but I imagine many of you in Europe and Japan were able to give it a try thanks to the recent Mario Kart 8 promotion.

August 24th was the 1-year anniversary of the release of The Wonderful 101 in Japan but, to be honest, since I still receive messages of encouragement from fans around the world on a daily basis, it really doesn’t feel like that much time has passed. I am truly thankful that so many of you hold the game so dearly.

Now that we have the corny introduction out of the way, let’s get down to business. I have some exciting news to bring you today. We’ve been working behind the scenes, trying to find a way to release something many fans have been asking for, and today I can finally announce it: The Wonderful 101 Official Soundtrack is going to get a digital release! It clocks in at a whopping 127 tracks! This would fill 5 CDs, but we are splitting it up into two tidy volumes, each of which you can download for just $10 a piece. With this you can enjoy every track from the game wherever you are.

The sound quality is a step up from the music in the game itself, so even those of you who spent hours in the Sound Test are in for a treat. The theme song for the game, “The Won-Stoppable Wonderful 100”, has also been remastered. The game version of the track was edited to loop endlessly, so we got Hiroshi (lead BGM composer) to go back and give the song a fitting conclusion. The soundtrack is the only place you’ll find this version.

To give you some background on the music direction from my perspective as director, I began by explaining to Hiroshi that I wanted to use an orchestral style to capture the feeling of an epic battle. I imagine the initial impression many people have of the game is a bunch of cute characters frolicking around a colorful world. However, my plan from the start was to create a unique feel by having this light-hearted world juxtaposed with the daunting threat of a massive alien invasion. To do this heroic ballad justice, we needed an equally grand orchestra. A cute exterior with an epic and dark heart; you could almost call the game “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”. Of course, having this ferocity extend to the game’s difficulty may have deviated a bit from the plan…

Another episode that deserves mention is the kerfuffle was had making the theme song. Of course, it was mostly my decision to throw out the near-complete version of the song and start from scratch right before the game went gold that put us in that situation in the first place.
I had decided from the start that the song needed to have vocals, but I just couldn’t seem to settle on an overall style. Near the end of the game’s production, we had PG staff lay vocals over some modern anime style tracks, and the song was coming along nicely when, all of a sudden, it hit me: The song had to be in the style of 60s anime / special effect-filled hero TV shows! The music from “Captain Ultra”, “Captain Scarlet” (the original American version), and “Stingray”, the so-called “supermarionation” series, as well as Japanese TV shows like “Pirate Prince”, “Super Jetter”, and “Ultraman”, while classical, somehow manages to seem fresh when you listen to it nowadays. These songs effortless convey the coolness of the hero, and the more you listen to them, the more you feel your own heroic heart begin to stir. This style perfectly captures what The Wonderful 101 is all about! There was no doubt in my mind when I came to this realization…right before the end of production. I went over to Hiroshi, he looked at me, said I was crazy to ask for such a radical change so late in production, and told me it was impossible.
Just kidding, he totally made it happen!

It goes without saying, the subsequent process of finding professional vocalists (in both English and Japanese), getting a handle on the 60s anime / supermarionation style, and arranging the song in the time remaining put quite a load on the already-busy Hiroshi. It was crucial to capture that 1960s flair. As I am sure you can imagine, for Hiroshi, born in 1979, grasping the subtle distinction of 60s shows as opposed to those from the 70s (or even recent ones for that matter), was quite the challenge (and time was short, remember.) But this is Hiroshi we are talking about. Having survived many of my selfish requests in the past, I gave him my absolute faith, hardened my heart, and turned down his submissions one after another. The fruit of our labor: an epic song that, I’m sure all who have heard it will agree, truly burns with the passionate soul of a hero.

Despite all this work on a single track, the soundtrack for The Wonderful 101 managed to reach 5 CDs worth of music. I feel this with each project, but there are really not enough words to express my gratitude to my sound staff. Hiroshi has been with me over many years, and I’m sure many of you would recognize his music, but I cannot forget Takizawa, who backed up Hiroshi in his many hours of need, and quickly adapted to a development schedule filled with curveballs to make all kinds of wonderful tunes. I also want to give a shout out to Ms. Kurokawa, the lone women in our mostly-male sound team, whose deep understanding of hero TV shows and powerful compositions betray her outward kitten-like appearance. Some friends also came from outside the company to lend us their strength over the long development period: Mr. Kondo (whose work many of you may recognize from Ōkami ), Mr. Norihiko Hibino (who I’ve worked with since Bayonetta), and Masato Kouda (an old friend who joined Capcom the same year as me and worked with me on Devil May Cry.) Thank you for putting up with my outlandish requests; I couldn’t have done it without you.
The massive number of tracks in this collection, the music that allows the game to reach its full potential, is a testament to the sound team’s hard work and their desire to give players an unforgettable experience. Everyone, please enjoy listening to these songs as you picture each level in your mind’s eye, and when nobody’s looking, I hope you whisper: “Unite Up!”
The soundtrack will be available for download starting September 15th. If you have any messages, please send them to my twitter:

@PG_Kamiya

Until next time!

Download on iTunes / Sumting.com. The price per volume is $9.99, with individual tracks available for $0.99.

Andy Joe

At last, I can have "Tables Turn" on my mobile devices.

Mblackwell

iTunes eh? Well I guess nevermind then.

At least it was released.

skeldare

Platinum Blog - W101: Super Secret Codes

Dark Raven X

Finally got a Wii U so I finally got this, natch.

I am the biggest Platinum fanboy except maybe @Morninglord‌ but holy shit do I not get this at all. It's the first time since I was babby DRX playing DMC1 for the first time that I'm considering dropping to Easy mode.

Anyone got advice for gettin' good? I am playing on the gamepad at the moment, mostly using the R stick to try and draw forms, since it seems like using the screen would break flow later on. If I am understanding it right, X is light attack, A is heavy (which changes with each Unite form?) but it seems like I have no crowd control, and the camera is so far out that I have no chance of doing the usual Platinum last second dodge or parry. Is there even a parry in this one? HOW COULD THERE NOT BE A PARRY!?

I am gonna tough it out, because Platinum deserve it, and I know damn near everyone who beat it called it their favourite game for a while, but man oh man do I understand how it reviewed poorly. It's not just hard, it's got a way heavier learning curve than usual.

Polaritie

As I recall, dodge and parry and such are in the shop. Maybe not the best move. They are basically ASAP purchases after all.

And yeah, there's not really any crowd control (at least not until much further in).

Enlong

Dodge (Spring) and block (Guts) are available for purchase right at the start. Parry (Hero Counter) can be bought later.

Crowd control gets easier when you upgrade the sword users enough to learn Wonderful Cyclone.

Mblackwell

Dark Raven X wrote: »

Finally got a Wii U so I finally got this, natch.

I am the biggest Platinum fanboy except maybe @Morninglord‌ but holy shit do I not get this at all. It's the first time since I was babby DRX playing DMC1 for the first time that I'm considering dropping to Easy mode.

Anyone got advice for gettin' good? I am playing on the gamepad at the moment, mostly using the R stick to try and draw forms, since it seems like using the screen would break flow later on. If I am understanding it right, X is light attack, A is heavy (which changes with each Unite form?) but it seems like I have no crowd control, and the camera is so far out that I have no chance of doing the usual Platinum last second dodge or parry. Is there even a parry in this one? HOW COULD THERE NOT BE A PARRY!?

I am gonna tough it out, because Platinum deserve it, and I know damn near everyone who beat it called it their favourite game for a while, but man oh man do I understand how it reviewed poorly. It's not just hard, it's got a way heavier learning curve than usual.

Your crowd control is drawing a large Sword. I usually initiate with it and then kill most of the little mobs in a few swipes. Then using Team Attack (x) you can latch on/lock on to the remaining monsters and use Team Unite Morphs on them (they will launch toward locked on targets). To do this draw a Unite Morph and then hit X.

Polaritie

Mblackwell wrote: »

Dark Raven X wrote: »

Finally got a Wii U so I finally got this, natch.

I am the biggest Platinum fanboy except maybe @Morninglord‌ but holy shit do I not get this at all. It's the first time since I was babby DRX playing DMC1 for the first time that I'm considering dropping to Easy mode.

Anyone got advice for gettin' good? I am playing on the gamepad at the moment, mostly using the R stick to try and draw forms, since it seems like using the screen would break flow later on. If I am understanding it right, X is light attack, A is heavy (which changes with each Unite form?) but it seems like I have no crowd control, and the camera is so far out that I have no chance of doing the usual Platinum last second dodge or parry. Is there even a parry in this one? HOW COULD THERE NOT BE A PARRY!?

I am gonna tough it out, because Platinum deserve it, and I know damn near everyone who beat it called it their favourite game for a while, but man oh man do I understand how it reviewed poorly. It's not just hard, it's got a way heavier learning curve than usual.

Your crowd control is drawing a large Sword. I usually initiate with it and then kill most of the little mobs in a few swipes. Then using Team Attack (x) you can latch on/lock on to the remaining monsters and use Team Unite Morphs on them (they will launch toward locked on targets). To do this draw a Unite Morph and then hit X.

Unite Bomb and Unite Claw both have control aspects too - Bomb freezes time for enemies inside the radius, and Claw (depending on user) will freeze enemies you're slicing apart.

You do get launcher moves eventually for both fist and sword.

The big thing in fights though is usually countering the enemy attacks to make them vulnerable (like using Guts on blunt attacks).

Mblackwell

Yeah once you are further in and have a large unite gauge part of the fun is treating it like a really chaotic strategy game. Team Attack everything, hit them with sword and bomb pretty much simultaneously, and then unite morph yourself into something more situation specific. And then once everything is toppled pummel the shit out of the world with streams of Unite Hand.

Since you can use the Team morphs you can initially focus on dodging and Unite Guts deflections and think for a moment about the best Unite Morph to main (or the sequence to morph through). In the mean time you'll spend the game learning the enemy tells and timing and what morphs can defeat what attacks.

Kriegaffe

I like the Unite Charge component thing where holding down attack charges up the weapon size. So if I do need crowd control, just charge up a large sword and go crazy. That or send off mini-sword teams to multi task.

But as for getting good/started, go check out the Saur videos on YouTube that explains weapon switching, etc

Edit:
http://youtu.be/sdHbPXNJvVE

... and ...
http://youtu.be/RSAbLRnGiWg

Mblackwell

Agreed, I used Unite Charge constantly once I had it.

Morninglord

At this point in time you are much better off lighting the @Wyborn signal than asking me anything because I don't have this game yet. Still busy with the bayo games.

Wyborn

Saur's system breakdown videos are everything you want and nothing you don't

Dark Raven X

I'm struggling because it's fundamental basics are so different from what I was expecting. DMC, MGR:R, Bayo and Korra had huge differences in their toolsets, but there is that set of basic principles for doing good that they all shared, and W101 does it's best to throw them out. The perspective, combat, everything about it seems built to provide a new kind of challenge, and I appreciate that. It just threw me hard. I am gonna git good at this.

Kriegaffe

Yay! I bought this for a third time!

(Original Wii U copy -> stolen -> re-purchased -> backed Kickstarter)

PMAvers

I wonder if they'll make it so you can't accidentally miss buying the block/parry at the start this time around.

DeMoN

You had to buy the dodge move in revengeance

It's a platinum tradition

LBD_Nytetrayn

I played Bayonetta 1 & 2, Transformers: Devastation, and TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan before I played Wonderful 101 to the point where the dodge was needed.

Based on my admittedly small sampling, it came as a surprise more than a seeming tradition that there would be a dodge that wasn't standard.

Enlong

DeMoN wrote: »

You had to buy the dodge move in revengeance

It's a platinum tradition

Not really. You start with your dodge in Bayonetta, and it’s automatic with your various styles in Korra.

Warlock82

So in light of the recent kickstarter thing, I went and checked. Apparently at some point I was blocked by Kamiya?? I don't think I've ever interacted with him in any way XD

(edit: Though I did retweet that thingy for the kickstarter campaign... I wonder if he's blocking everyone who does for fun)

l_g

If they need to make you buy some of the defensive techniques, I think they should make dodge and pudding cost like a token amount and have buying one of them be part of the shop tutorial

Enlong

l_g wrote: »

If they need to make you buy some of the defensive techniques, I think they should make dodge and pudding cost like a token amount and have buying one of them be part of the shop tutorial

They already cost little enough that finishing mission 000 should always get you enough. So we just need that second thing.

Sterica

There is no way in hell this is coming out in two months. The Switch version at the very least already had the funding and has been in development for some time. That or this is going to be one of the more hilarious game kickstarters.

DeMoN

Enlong wrote: »

DeMoN wrote: »

You had to buy the dodge move in revengeance

It's a platinum tradition

Not really. You start with your dodge in Bayonetta, and it’s automatic with your various styles in Korra.

Yeah I was kind of kidding

I think the reason both abilities are things you purchase in their respective games is because they want you to learn the ability you do have first.

So in Revengeance the parry is super important and they want you to use that as your main defensive mechanic, so dodge is in the shop so you don't just dodge all the time and ignore parrying.

In Wonderful 101 dodging is real important, but I think the reason the parry is in the shop is so you don't end up favoring one or the other? Like you play through the first mission, probably figure out how to dodge, check the shop, see the parry and how it works, try it out. If the game just started you with both many people might not even try to parry.

And all of this could probably be alleviated by platinum just making tutorials and having the game stop and tell you what each thing is good for and how it works but they seem very against that from a design perspective. Generally they just throw you in and hope you mess around with mechanics and figure stuff out yourself, or do what I do and go online and learn everything from people who are smarter than me.

edit: Oh yeah, and the Bayonetta games start you with dodge and you can buy a parry as an unlockable locket thingy. Forgot about that.

Polaritie

DeMoN wrote: »

Enlong wrote: »

DeMoN wrote: »

You had to buy the dodge move in revengeance

It's a platinum tradition

Not really. You start with your dodge in Bayonetta, and it’s automatic with your various styles in Korra.

Yeah I was kind of kidding

I think the reason both abilities are things you purchase in their respective games is because they want you to learn the ability you do have first.

So in Revengeance the parry is super important and they want you to use that as your main defensive mechanic, so dodge is in the shop so you don't just dodge all the time and ignore parrying.

In Wonderful 101 dodging is real important, but I think the reason the parry is in the shop is so you don't end up favoring one or the other? Like you play through the first mission, probably figure out how to dodge, check the shop, see the parry and how it works, try it out. If the game just started you with both many people might not even try to parry.

And all of this could probably be alleviated by platinum just making tutorials and having the game stop and tell you what each thing is good for and how it works but they seem very against that from a design perspective. Generally they just throw you in and hope you mess around with mechanics and figure stuff out yourself, or do what I do and go online and learn everything from people who are smarter than me.

edit: Oh yeah, and the Bayonetta games start you with dodge and you can buy a parry as an unlockable locket thingy. Forgot about that.

But Bayo games are all about that dodge really. Parry is just risk/reward mode.

DeMoN

Yeah the Bayonetta parry is more of an optional fun thing than a core ability. Makes sense that it's sold with the other goofy stuff. The "lockets" or whatever they were called. I never messed with any of them.

Tcheldor

DeMoN wrote: »

Yeah the Bayonetta parry is more of an optional fun thing than a core ability. Makes sense that it's sold with the other goofy stuff. The "lockets" or whatever they were called. I never messed with any of them.

And yet at high difficulties its your only witch time source if I remember.

By contrast, Astral Chain goes much much heavier into tutorials so you learn how to play the game.

Warlock82

Sterica wrote: »

There is no way in hell this is coming out in two months. The Switch version at the very least already had the funding and has been in development for some time. That or this is going to be one of the more hilarious game kickstarters.

I mean, 100% this was already done. I think it's been done and they've been shopping it around unsuccessfully to publishers. This kickstarter is almost certainly for additional platforms and DLC funding.

l_g

Warlock82 wrote: »

Sterica wrote: »

There is no way in hell this is coming out in two months. The Switch version at the very least already had the funding and has been in development for some time. That or this is going to be one of the more hilarious game kickstarters.

I mean, 100% this was already done. I think it's been done and they've been shopping it around unsuccessfully to publishers. This kickstarter is almost certainly for marketing

Consider that if they merely met the initial goal, they'd have $50,000 US. That is far below the standard salary of a single regular software engineer in any major city. So if the game had merely one... well software engineering intern I guess, working on it, you'd be able to get that for $50k. There's no way that initial goal has any relevance to the reality of the development of the port.