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[CATGIRL & PSP ON] Brave Story: New Traveler (7/31)
Tw4win
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Synopsis (Taken from another site):
Screenshots:
Catgirl Goodness
Classic RPG Gameplay
Features:
Courage – Use “brave power” (BP) to unleash powerful special abilities.
Growth – The hero’s weapon will evolve as he collects gemstones.
Related Media:
The game is actually based on a book by Japanese author, Miyuki Miyabe. It will be published here in the US on 08/14/07:
Amazon Page
Book Cover
There is also a major motion picture (i.e. like Spirited Away) currently released in Japan.
My Thoughts:
The game looks interesting, especially given the fact that there aren't that many "great" RPGs on the PSP right now. The game has gotten decent reviews in Japan and I think that the game's story will be better than the average JRPG story. In fact, some of the stuff I read about the book seems to suggest that the author wrote it to mirror a JRPG or at the very least to be easily translated into a story for a game. Gameplay also seems interesting and the graphics look great for PSP. I'm looking forward to playing this game until Persona 3 and Blue Dragon are released later this month.
Anyone else looking forward to this game?
On a day that starts like any other, a boy’s life is changed forever. As the main character and his friend Miki pass a leisurely afternoon, Miki suddenly collapses from an unknown illness. When the girl shows no sign of waking, the main character grows distraught over not being a better friend and not having the means to save her.
Suddenly, a strange voice offers him a second chance: “Beyond the door you can change your destiny!” He soon leaves the real world and journeys to the world of Vision, where, as a novice “Traveler,” he will surmount myriad ordeals in hopes of ultimately meeting with the Goddess of Fortune to have a single wish granted.
Screenshots:
Catgirl Goodness
Classic RPG Gameplay
Features:
- Traditional turn-based battle system enhanced by innovative features:
Courage – Use “brave power” (BP) to unleash powerful special abilities.
Growth – The hero’s weapon will evolve as he collects gemstones.
- New accessories can be forged by collecting and combining materials. Each character can also unlock a one-of-a-kind innate ability.
- No load time between battles.
- Beautifully rendered 3D graphics with a distinct visual style, highlighted by polished character and enemy movement, and a unique animation for each special ability.
- Collect special birds which you can use for mini-games or trade for rare items.
- Network with friends to trade your birds, or game-share a mini-game to have friends assist in capturing rare birds.
Related Media:
The game is actually based on a book by Japanese author, Miyuki Miyabe. It will be published here in the US on 08/14/07:
Amazon Page
Book Cover
There is also a major motion picture (i.e. like Spirited Away) currently released in Japan.
My Thoughts:
The game looks interesting, especially given the fact that there aren't that many "great" RPGs on the PSP right now. The game has gotten decent reviews in Japan and I think that the game's story will be better than the average JRPG story. In fact, some of the stuff I read about the book seems to suggest that the author wrote it to mirror a JRPG or at the very least to be easily translated into a story for a game. Gameplay also seems interesting and the graphics look great for PSP. I'm looking forward to playing this game until Persona 3 and Blue Dragon are released later this month.
Anyone else looking forward to this game?
Tw4win on
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Posts
I've played for about 30 minutes.
Graphics are great for a PSP and the plot moves along at a fairly brisk pace.
Review from 1UP HERE
They give it a 9/10 and call it the best RPG on the PSP.
(What firmware does it use by the way)
I'm not sure. I'm running 3.51
I don't know when I'll get around to playing it, but it does look very promising.
Also, load times are pretty small which is good because the game does have random battles.
From what I've read the playtime clocks in somewhere around the 30-40 hour mark which is decent for a portable RPG.
I think another reason it registers zero buzz is because the PSP library is awash in mediocre RPGs.
Thanks for the bump.
I think it's probably the most polished "classic" JRPG since DQVIII. Combat is pretty straightforward, with the exception of unity attacks which are basically attacks that more than one person can participate in.
Graphics are great.
The story so far (I'm about 2-3 hours in) is mediocre but it's the beginning of the game and the story is based on a book so it's not entirely the game's fault that the story is somewhat cliche.
The game moves not just the plot but also the lack of load times (even using UMD) means that there isn't a lot of waiting around which is good.
Random Battles - they do happen in both dungeons and the world map. However, they aren't too frequent. The game seems to strike the right balance with the random battles. Also, once you enter a dungeon the random battles get a bit harder so you have to really think about what you are doing.
I'd say buy the game, don't rent it. You're not going to be able to finish it in a rental session (it's ~25 hours for the main plot ~30-40 if you do all of the sidequests). From what I've heard most places are only getting 1-2 copies of the game so it could be pretty hard to find after a couple of weeks. I see it being like Puzzle Quest or an Atlus title - not much press but word of mouth will mean the game gets pretty hard to find.
As of right now this is the best standard RPG on the PSP, hands down.
By "rental" I meant GameFly, so I can take as long or short with it as I want.
Battles are quick and the graphics make them fun to watch. They aren't just "attack, attack, heal, attack" either. Both the unity moves and special individual moves take BP (think skill or magic points). You earn BP by attacking monsters (more if you strike the final blow) so you have to find the right balance between special moves and normal attacks.
Encounters on the over world map are fairly easy but once you enter a dungeon they become harder. You really need to think about how you're going to use your BP. I'm still at the beginning of the game (just killed the first boss) so nothing has been too hard up to this point but I can see where there is potential for things to get difficult.
I haven't done any grinding so far but there was a point when I first entered the dungeon for the first boss where I started to wonder if I needed to level some. My general view on grinding is that very few RPGs actually require it if you play the game the way it's meant to be played. I suspect that if you do sidequests when you encounter them in Brave Story there won't be much need to grind.
By the way, there is a crafting/item making system that allows you to make accessories to improve your stats, etc... It requires finding materials dropped by monsters and then following a recipe. So far it has been optional but I can see where you might need to grind a bit to find the materials you need for complex items.
Sadly, I've never played Chrono Trigger so I'm not sure how it compares.
Zeromus - I wouldn't say that it's generic. Possibly a bit cliche, but not generic.
Bottom line, if you like Dragon Quest you'll probably really, really like this game.
it might be in direct competition with some of NIS's games, but i cant recommend it enough if you at all enjoy JRPGs.
Agreed on battles. I used to really play RPGs for the story and characters but honestly to me now they take a backseat to a fun, challenging battle engine and interesting ways characters level up and build in power. Something like Grandia II or the Materia system from FF7. I can deal with a flimsy/run-of-the-mill plot, so long as it's told well -- the fine line between "cliche" and "classic," I guess.
I forgot to mention the overkill function. Basically there are times when you kill an enemy you are given an extra attack on another foe. I'm not sure how it's calculated because it doesn't happen other times.
Houk - reading your blog you don't seem to know Japanese but were able to play this game? Can you read it and just not speak it?
i will freely admit that most of the details of the story were lost on me.
I'm sort of in the same boat with my Japanese. I can read and understand kana fine and I know some Kanji. Unfortunately, do to the nature of the work I do most of the Kanji I know is sort of random - medical terms, manufacturing terms, recently I was able to pick up some words from an "anti- baby shaking" campaign I did the layout for. Anyway, I always thought that using a game to help with my reading comprehension would be fun. Any suggestions for games written in mostly Kana? I think the JPN version of Final Fantasy 1 PSP has a kana only option but I haven't looked into it.
This is what PSP is all about.
i imagine any games designed for kids, or casual games would be good with either using few kanji or putting the kana above it (what's that called? furigana?).
I imported Pokemon Pearl when it first came out, and I was able to at the very least figure out what I needed to do to continue the story.
Everything was Hiragana/Katakana.
Agreed. I suspect I'll be picking up the book when it's released on the 14th...
I've only played an hour, but I'd say this is an incredibly solid RPG, regardless of platform. It's not terribly innovative thus far, but it is a good time. And the good visuals/lack of load times make it easy to get into.
Although it's coming late this month, Wild Arms 5 has furigana in it. In fact, the whole series does.
NNID: Glenn565
I just got this sent to me from GameFly after having to wait forever, so I'll be trying this out in a few days. On the plus side, if I decide to keep it it's only $30 from GF, which is pretty keen. I've been hankering for a somewhat old-schooly RPG, so I hope this scratches my itch. Anyone else playing it with updated impressions?
I'm at the
I've found the birdfighting to be somewhat annoying so I've decided to ignore that aspect of the game. I'm not really one for mini-games anyway. In theory I'd like to be done by Wednesday when Persona 3 comes out.
Overall I'm still enjoying the hell out of the game and I'm surprised more people here haven't shown interest in it. By all accounts it's going to be the sleeper hit of the year for the PSP. Let me know what you think when you've spent some time with it.
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
My only complaints about the game is the enemy encounter rate and the battle system.
My goodness, this game has an absurd enemy encounter rate. It seemed that every 5-10 steps was a battle, which leads to my biggest complaint about the game.
My biggest complaint about this game was that it was to easy because the battle system wasn't very solid and had way to many holes to exploit.
Early on in the game I found myself just slaughtering all the monsters including the bosses with very little worry or effort at all. I won't go into details unless somebody wants me to.
Besides that, solid game. Hopefully we a sequel or another series from the same developer in the future.
PS. The Music in this game, especially the boss battle rocks.
I didn't bother with the birdfighting either. It's too much of a choir for me.
How exactly do you have your team set up? I found the battle with the
I think people aren't showing much interest in this game because it's being overshadowed by Tales of Destiny. It's not surprising since people recognize the Tales franchise and would naturally flock toward it.
Huh. I got to shelve this book at work on Friday. They labeled it as General Manga, but it's actually a novel. It sounds pretty interesting, a bit less "kiddy" than I was expecting. The main character's father is a deadbeat and his mom attempts suicide, so he goes to this fantasy world to find a goddess of fate. The adventure sounds cliche, but the motivations are pretty dark.
eToy - Read your impressions and I mostly agree with them. The only thing that I don't like about the game so far is the bird catching/cockfighting. It just seems tacked on, with no real connection to the main plot of the game. I don't mind mini-games but I do like for them to have some effect on the main plot, even if it's minor...
That sounds similar to another recent movie that got developed from a book....
I actually got wrapped up in the cockfighting for a short while. I'll admit that it is somewhat tacked on, it didn't bother me all that much.
I was going to say that I enjoy a good cockfight as much as the next guy but then I realized that the statement would end up taken out of context as someone's sig so I thought better of it.
I think once I'm done with the game or at least close to done with the game, I'll spend some more time with the collecting/fighting aspect of the game, especially since you can challenge people over Wifi. Right now I'm just trying to complete the main quest and most of the sidequests. What I'd really like to do is get to the point where you can go back to the older dungeons and get the treasure(s) you couldn't get before.
Also, I'm headed out this afternoon to try and find the book...
A great read -- I'm excited to sink my teeth into the game. Your mention of Wild ARMs excites me; at the time, the original WA was just what I wanted and needed on the PS1. Sort of a right place, right time kind of thing -- now I likely wouldn't go back to it, but back then it was manna from heaven.
I got it from GameFly last night but only got to "play" about 10 minutes of it so far. The only observation I have so far is that the character models are really pretty.
Now, if I can just tear myself away from the Bioshock demo and play this a little more...
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
Funny you mention my mention of Wild Arms. I have been playing Wild Arms 5 for a few weeks now, and have a blog going up in the next day or two on the current state of Filgaia. As for the original, you should consider visiting Alter Code F. Not a perfect game, but it's a good remake.