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PSO + FF:CC = Dungeon Explorer on the PSP
Magic Pink
Tur-Boner-FedRegistered User regular
Tur-Boner-FedRegistered User regular
My initial time with this game ended with a resounding meh. Happily, my friend lorded over the 360 all weekend so I went back to it and found one heck of a game.
Pics and info here: http://www.psphyper.com/psp/more-about-dungeon-explorer/
Dungeon Explorer is, as it sounds, a dungeon hack and slash similar to Diablo or Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. However, it plays and feels almost exactly like Phantasy Star Online with a healthy dash of the mechanics from Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.
In the game, you make a character from one of three races (the Ist, magic strong elf like smurfy folk, the Olff, green skinned, super strong ork-alikes or the Izark, humans.), either sex and one of six jobs. The jobs include Fighter and Monk, the close combat guys, Hunter and Thief, the weird ranged combat plus "miscellaneous" guys, and Shaman or Bishop, magic users and clerics respectively. There's also six "advanced" jobs that I haven't found any info on at all, but I've heard rumours of Knights and Ninjas at least. Depending on which race you pick, the story starts out differently (you begin in one of 3 different cities) and possibly continues differently; I'm not that far yet as to say for sure.
You level up with Xp as usual but you level up your Job Class by using your Job Arts. So magic horders (like I'm) need to get out of their shells. Job Class is rated S,A,B,C,D, and E with higher ratings unlocking the Advanced Classes and more items, quests and things to do.
You also unlock Weapon Arts, flashy attacks that are used with whatever type of weapon you use. The more you use one type of weapon, the more Arts you unlock for it. I believe there's six classes of weapons, one for each Job as well as Knives which every Job can use. As you change up Jobs, you can change up Job Arts and Weapon Arts as you like. I haven't seen many of either but Bishops have some healing arts, Shaman has some darkness based big explodey attacks and thieves are supposed to get some sorts of weird support abilities hinted at in the manual.
Then you have Big Bang Arts which work a lot like the uber spells in FF:CC. You bring up your Job Art target circle, then someone else does the same, you put them in the same spot, a little dial spins and you have to hit the button in the right place and BOOM you just did a Big Bang. The power of the attack is dependant on how close you get to the sweet spot on the dial but they tend to do a heck of a lot of damage no matter what.
You also have Alchemy. Like in FF:CC there's lots of materials to find in the game. You can take those to the Alchemist to make into more materials or items, such as potions. Or you can use the materials to Temper your weapons and armor giving them different abilities and elemental affinities.
AND there's a weird little Soul Crystal mechanic. When you kill monsters, they leave behind little soul blobs of energy. If you touch them in time, it fills a bar on the left of the screen. Whenever anyone is afflicted with a staus ailment, or even gets killled, they can ask the party to use some of the energy in the Crystal to cure it. They hit the L button and everyone else can as well as long as they agree to it.
Then we have the dungeon itself. I'm not going to try to explain the storyline because it's making ZERO sense to me right now but there's a dungeon, there's monster generators in the dungeon and the dungeon is sealed so anyone can go in but never come out even tho you do it like 5 times within the first 15 minutes of the game and there's 2 guys who've been trapped in there for 2 years and blah blah blah.
Anyway it's a dungeon. There's multiple parts of it that correspond to the game's elements which are based on seven planets; no earth, wind, fire, water this time. This dungeon is based off Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus etc. You can also add those elements to your weapons and armor. The dungeon itself is pretty simplistic and while the layout isn't random, the contents (monster generators, treasure chests, material bits) usually move around a bit whenever you go in. You can just go in and whack critters or you can go to the guild and get a quest the usually gets you some cash and plays out and feels almost exactly like the old PSO hunter quests and I mean that in the goofy, happy way. The bosses are VERY PSO; big, weird and you actually need some planning to get through. Spamming your Rod of Ruin won't get you very far.
http://www.psphyper.com/psp/dungeon-explorer-previewed/
This is a picture of the locking mechnism in the dungeon. I haven't the foggiest idea how it works right now but you need to find and/or make jewels and slates to unlock the various floors of the various parts of the dungeon.
The best thing so far is that the Big Bang Arts and the Soul Crystal seem to work just fine in single player as well as multi. I'm DYING to play this in multi as I think it would really shine then but it's not likely to happen. I imagine it could be done online in the same way Monster Hunter Freedom currently is being played.
There are some weird control issues, you never seem to be able to move in the exact correct direction and there's some weird auto targetting that kicks in every so often but all in all the game is turning out to be a blast and a LOT deeper then I ever would have guessed.
Here's a youtube of the entire beginning of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCu2BYus78w
Pics and info here: http://www.psphyper.com/psp/more-about-dungeon-explorer/
Dungeon Explorer is, as it sounds, a dungeon hack and slash similar to Diablo or Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. However, it plays and feels almost exactly like Phantasy Star Online with a healthy dash of the mechanics from Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.
In the game, you make a character from one of three races (the Ist, magic strong elf like smurfy folk, the Olff, green skinned, super strong ork-alikes or the Izark, humans.), either sex and one of six jobs. The jobs include Fighter and Monk, the close combat guys, Hunter and Thief, the weird ranged combat plus "miscellaneous" guys, and Shaman or Bishop, magic users and clerics respectively. There's also six "advanced" jobs that I haven't found any info on at all, but I've heard rumours of Knights and Ninjas at least. Depending on which race you pick, the story starts out differently (you begin in one of 3 different cities) and possibly continues differently; I'm not that far yet as to say for sure.
You level up with Xp as usual but you level up your Job Class by using your Job Arts. So magic horders (like I'm) need to get out of their shells. Job Class is rated S,A,B,C,D, and E with higher ratings unlocking the Advanced Classes and more items, quests and things to do.
You also unlock Weapon Arts, flashy attacks that are used with whatever type of weapon you use. The more you use one type of weapon, the more Arts you unlock for it. I believe there's six classes of weapons, one for each Job as well as Knives which every Job can use. As you change up Jobs, you can change up Job Arts and Weapon Arts as you like. I haven't seen many of either but Bishops have some healing arts, Shaman has some darkness based big explodey attacks and thieves are supposed to get some sorts of weird support abilities hinted at in the manual.
Then you have Big Bang Arts which work a lot like the uber spells in FF:CC. You bring up your Job Art target circle, then someone else does the same, you put them in the same spot, a little dial spins and you have to hit the button in the right place and BOOM you just did a Big Bang. The power of the attack is dependant on how close you get to the sweet spot on the dial but they tend to do a heck of a lot of damage no matter what.
You also have Alchemy. Like in FF:CC there's lots of materials to find in the game. You can take those to the Alchemist to make into more materials or items, such as potions. Or you can use the materials to Temper your weapons and armor giving them different abilities and elemental affinities.
AND there's a weird little Soul Crystal mechanic. When you kill monsters, they leave behind little soul blobs of energy. If you touch them in time, it fills a bar on the left of the screen. Whenever anyone is afflicted with a staus ailment, or even gets killled, they can ask the party to use some of the energy in the Crystal to cure it. They hit the L button and everyone else can as well as long as they agree to it.
Then we have the dungeon itself. I'm not going to try to explain the storyline because it's making ZERO sense to me right now but there's a dungeon, there's monster generators in the dungeon and the dungeon is sealed so anyone can go in but never come out even tho you do it like 5 times within the first 15 minutes of the game and there's 2 guys who've been trapped in there for 2 years and blah blah blah.
Anyway it's a dungeon. There's multiple parts of it that correspond to the game's elements which are based on seven planets; no earth, wind, fire, water this time. This dungeon is based off Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus etc. You can also add those elements to your weapons and armor. The dungeon itself is pretty simplistic and while the layout isn't random, the contents (monster generators, treasure chests, material bits) usually move around a bit whenever you go in. You can just go in and whack critters or you can go to the guild and get a quest the usually gets you some cash and plays out and feels almost exactly like the old PSO hunter quests and I mean that in the goofy, happy way. The bosses are VERY PSO; big, weird and you actually need some planning to get through. Spamming your Rod of Ruin won't get you very far.
http://www.psphyper.com/psp/dungeon-explorer-previewed/
This is a picture of the locking mechnism in the dungeon. I haven't the foggiest idea how it works right now but you need to find and/or make jewels and slates to unlock the various floors of the various parts of the dungeon.
The best thing so far is that the Big Bang Arts and the Soul Crystal seem to work just fine in single player as well as multi. I'm DYING to play this in multi as I think it would really shine then but it's not likely to happen. I imagine it could be done online in the same way Monster Hunter Freedom currently is being played.
There are some weird control issues, you never seem to be able to move in the exact correct direction and there's some weird auto targetting that kicks in every so often but all in all the game is turning out to be a blast and a LOT deeper then I ever would have guessed.
Here's a youtube of the entire beginning of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCu2BYus78w
Magic Pink on
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How is the interface? I haven't played Crystal Chronicles; D&D Tactics had the worst UI I've ever played. I prefer turn-based menu-driven, but without excessive combat micromanagement.
Well, it's real time, not turn based for starters.
Otherwise the interface is fine. You can't pause the game; like a lot of multi games you have to find a safe spot to sit in and then change stuff up. Safe areas are pretty easy to find tho; monsters don't follow you much at all. It would be problamatic during boss fights tho I would imagine.
Otherwise, the UI is pretty simple. You have Jobs Arts bound to R+Xand R+[] so you don't see them and there's a bar to the right with whatever you have bound to the Square, Triangle and Circle buttons. Square is for Weapon Arts only, X is default attack and the other two are for whatever Job Arts you want on them. You can see a shot of the UI in the first link.
I can't really look at links from work easily, but I'll check it out later. Is it heavy button-mashing combo-based at all?
Something to note: This game was REALLY hard to find for me. The only place I found that had it in stock was Amazon.
The combo thing was my least favorite part of Valkyrie Profile: in order to do any significant damage, you had to string together attacks from your group members via button mashing. As long as Big Bang Arts are more Shadow Hearts-style radial timing than Valk Prof timing, I'd be okay. Still not too keen on real time, though.
Does armor and weapons change the look of your character?
Are there a lot of armor and weapon varieties? As in are there a shit ton of swords, axes, etc.
From what I see there appears to be a set weapon for each Job Class and Advanced Job Class plus Knives, which any Class can use. Hunters have Bows, Shamans have Rods etc. My character has made it to the second town about 3 hours into the game and so far she has 3 different weapons to choose from, all are just slightly stronger then the last. The tempering, when I unlock it, will make whatever weapon I have much more unique but right now there doesn't seem to be a lot of either weapons or armor. I've never found either in a dungeon, just materials for them.
So you won't be getting equipment hand over fist like Diablo II. You WILL be carefully crafting your weapon and armour to do exactly what you want it to do instead and then choosing what Job Arts you need to use to be most effective. But keep in mind I'm still very early in-game. I'm hoping for uber rare cool weapons and armor like in PSO.
The weird thing is parties can go up to four people but only 3 of them can be actual human players. The fourth has to be hired from the guild.
In multiplayer, you don't get any experience points but your chances of finding rare items goes through the roof, apparently.
Never played PSO or Monster Hunter; I liked Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on the PS2, though, if that's what you're referencing.
Oh, well, for some reason I thought you had to control a party in this one; controlling multiple characters in real time is a bit more than I can handle. :P I guess I didn't read carefully. If it's just one character that changes classes over time, then that's much better.
I liked all the games with the Dark Alliance engine, including Champions of Norrath and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (and I'm probably the only one here that liked that one...).
Ah, the Persona 3 effect.
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
Monster Hunter Freedom is better then ANYTHING.
But this isn't as hard.
Stat increases works thusly: You pick the forge to use; the racial forge of the town you're in, which increases Attck, the Fire forge, which increases Atk (just less) and Crit, or the Ice Forge, which increases Atk and Hit%; give up the required materials and pay a fee.
The problem is it increases them randomly. Atk goes up 1-5 points if just using the racial forge, 1-3 if using the others along with the chance for the secondary attribute to go up 0-2 points. You;re right next to your Quarters so you can save as you like and just keep reloading but MAN that's a pain in the butt.
Increasing planetary elements makes your weapon do more damage to the opposing element's monsters and gives the weapon a chance to cause status ailments. Putting elements on armor makes those same ailments less likely to happen. Putting Saturn on you weapon makes monsters Slow (if I remember correctly), putting Uranus on your weapon Poisons them (appropriately enough :P).
Each weapon and armor also has a Tempering score, how many times you can temper it, so you'll end up making several element-themed weapons for the various dungeons.
Dungeons are unlocked from doing Special Quests, which give you a Slate. You slide the Slate in the master dungeon door in a place between worlds called the Rift. Once it's in the door, you can go to level 1 of that element's dungeon, usually one random level and the boss level. As you grind the first level, whenever you destroy a monster generator there's a chance they'll drop elemental Jewels, most likely the element of the dungeon you're in but not always. Collect enough jewels, put them in the Slate and you'll unlock the deeper levels of the dungeon.
There's also some tempering that involves the Jewels themselves but I haven't unlocked that yet.
All in all the game is turning out GREAT. I highly reccomend it.
The game is pretty much a mix of Diablo 2, Phantasy Star Universe, and FF:CC, as the OP says.
The story is coming together, but it starts out a bit rough with bits thrown in that really have no apparent relevance to what's going on.
You end up going with some fellows from the Izark kingdom to form a truce with the Ist but the so-called Premier goes missing because he wanders off like a dumbass, which makes things look pretty bad.
After that goes on, you find out that demonic runes in the dungeon have been showing up more frequently, which means bigger monsters, and of course, the Premier is nowhere to be found.
Advancing a bit, you find out that an Izark and an Olff had a child which I'm going to assume comes into the story later (and I also assume that's what the child in the beginning cinema was all about)
Now, at the beginning of the game, you have to run out to the dungeon each time you start a quest which can get quickly, especially if you really dislike the sound of those snails dying who sound like fucking eagles or some shit. Later, you get into an area that lets you go between all the major cities along with having other neat things.
As you progress deeper into the dungeons, they start to become more complex, have phatter loots, and bigger baddies. Sometimes, for example, you won't be able to see any of the map, or you'll end up in an arena-type area that either has two giant gates or a bunch of treasure chests (hell yes).
The dungeons themselves start out really bland, but as you get farther in them, they become more detailed and you find them all really looking quite different from each other, which is fantastic.
Gameplay also speeds up the farther you go, specifically when you increase your Speed stat, you can start running amazingly fast along with attacking at crazy speeds which is extremely satisfying to bash in monster faces at a jackhammer pace.
Missions are definitely enjoyable and I've almost never had to just go and grind dungeons for the sake of leveling or whatever else, except for when I needed a few gems to unlock the next level of said dungeon.
One of my favorite things is that you can recruit people from the guilds to join you on your adventure, and you can pretty much customize them in any way you like; you can change their class, tweak all of their AI from things such as how often they will use healing items, how likely they are to attack monsters or gates, how closely they follow you, et cetera. This combined with the soul energy makes for a very fun single-player party that, with a good imagination, can give you the feeling that you're not just playing with a computer at times.
My biggest complaints with the game are: 1) the sound isn't very well done at times, and others it sounds very good. That eagle screech... 2) the story starts too quickly/blandly, and doesn't feel very full until you progress farther, but that's a pretty weak complaint anyway.
I would highly recommend this game to someone who enjoys these types of RPGs because the customization is huge, the dungeon exploring can be very, very fun, and the party/quest systems are great. The difficulty is also not nearly as high as MHF2.
Perhaps Pink could spruce up the OP and thread title a bit, as this game really deserves a bit more attention.
Nope, but the advanced classes look pretty badass compared to the basic ones, and weapons/shields get fancier, along with being able to have a glow due to element alchemy.
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
Not really, you end up with a crapload of materials anyway, and they're pretty much either for putting together usable items like potions, other materials, or enchants/forging.
But those are pretty minor, because this is a great dungeon crawler.
Just wait until you get farther, it gets better and better.