Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy -- Heroism is in the Blood

KiTA · June 2015

http://nisamerica.com/games/operation-abyss-new-tokyo-legacy/

Title: Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy
Release Date: 06-09-2015 (US) / 06-05-2015 (EU)
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Genre: Dungeon RPG
ESRB: M Mature 17+
Price:
Standard 39.99 USD / Limited Edition 54.99 USD

What is this?

Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy is a remake of two RPGs from the GENERATION XTH series -- CODE BREAKER and CODE HAZARD, by Team Muramasa, the same developers that created the recently localized Demon Gaze. This being a remake of their first two games, it's mechanics are slightly older than Demon Gaze and Students of the Round, but the game does have enhancements added that later games added.

More to the point, Operation Abyss is a grid based first person dungeon crawler in the vein of the genre defining Wizardry. Indeed, CODE BREAKER could be considered a remake of Wizardry XTH, the game they made with the Class of Heroes team back when they were both part of Michaelsoft.

TL;DR: It's a Sci-Fi Wizardry game by the Japanese team that took over the series after it died in the US.

Sci-Fi?

Yup. The game takes place in the Near Future (tm). The plot conceit is that the characters are using powers absorbed from the DNA of ancient heroes -- Blood Codes. For example, the Archer class contains the DNA of Ghengis Khan, whereas the Knight is based on Jeanne' d'Arc.

Wait, the Demon Gaze team? Is this full of Fanservice?

No. There's a scene or two, but nothing near like Demon Gaze.

This is related to Class of Heroes?

Yes! History lesson time!

Originally there was a company called Michaelsoft, which made modern day based open world Wizardry Games -- Wizardry XTH and XTH 2. This company folded, as they are wont to do, and the people working for it went on to found three serieses:

Etrian Odyssey
Class of Heroes
Generation XTH

It's all a bit fuzzy to me, but to my knowledge Etrain Odyssey had the fewest people working on it from the original team (and IIRC that guy left after EO1 or 2), whereas Class of Heroes 1 has elements that suggest they literally started with the Wizardry XTH Generation 2 codebase (IIRC, something in the library doesn't work in Class of Heroes and exists only because it was in XTH2). Generation XTH also started with this game in mind.

Class of Heroes could be called a remake of Wizardry XTH with the scifi elements turned into fantasy elements. Generation XTH, and thus Operation Abyss, could be considered a more direct remake.

Limited Edition?

Oh yeah.

DLC?

There are three -- 1 is $0.99, the other are free for the first week.

Swim Team Xth Squad Portraits

Content: 6 additional female characters in swim suits and each with 3 different color variations.
Price: $0.99/€0.99

Ok, not MUCH fanservice.... and it's optional.

Bonus Content
Dark Hero Portraits
Content: 6 additional characters and each with 3 different color variations.
Price: Free until July 9 (July 5 EU), $0.99/€0.99 thereafter

Content: 2 type of items that will help the players to start off the game.
Power Recorders (x3) – Let’s player save anywhere inside the Abyss.
Hachi’s Workout Pack – Raises all enemy levels by 5.
Price: Free until July 9 (July 5 EU), $0.99/€0.99 thereafter

More character portraits and a few consumables that are available in game.

Video Footage (by Dorarnae)
JP Version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTWoNONWZBI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwS2RPhFfik

Axen · June 2015

You had me at "grid based first person dungeon crawler". :heartbeat:

PLA · June 2015

As usual, many basic questions about classes, stats and equipment can be answered with "like Wizardry." Samurai gonna samurai, base + 20, et c.

vagrant_winds · June 2015

Character creation in Classic mode has in-depth customization for all your party members. In stead of picking a portrait, you decide their eyes, face, hair, facial features, and the like... there's a lot of options.

So you have the option of "Basic" (High Quality Portraits) or "Classic" (Old School less awesome looking, but customized portraits that show your gear). You can't change outside of starting the game over.

PLA · June 2015

The overall soundscape is pretty nice.

KiTA · June 2015

vagrant_winds wrote: »

Character creation in Classic mode has in-depth customization for all your party members. In stead of picking a portrait, you decide their eyes, face, hair, facial features, and the like... there's a lot of options.

So you have the option of "Basic" (High Quality Portraits) or "Classic" (Old School less awesome looking, but customized portraits that show your gear). You can't change outside of starting the game over.

Yeah, I'm kinda choice locked on it. Apparently some of the Classic portraits are absurd, especially if you equip the "Pasties" armor.

vagrant_winds · June 2015

KiTA wrote: »

vagrant_winds wrote: »

Character creation in Classic mode has in-depth customization for all your party members. In stead of picking a portrait, you decide their eyes, face, hair, facial features, and the like... there's a lot of options.

So you have the option of "Basic" (High Quality Portraits) or "Classic" (Old School less awesome looking, but customized portraits that show your gear). You can't change outside of starting the game over.

Yeah, I'm kinda choice locked on it. Apparently some of the Classic portraits are absurd, especially if you equip the "Pasties" armor.

On the other hand, unlike Demon Gaze, we have less choice in Basic Portraits. There's only one per class per gender + the DLC portraits (1 free pack and 1 $1 pack). They're good looking, but the verity sucks. The DLC are 6 stupid looking 'wearing swim gear' portraits and 6 very good looking 'evil/anti-hero' portraits.

I mean, they have color variations, but it's still the same portraits.

PLA · June 2015

Apparently the translation skipped about half of the japanese digital manual.

vagrant_winds · June 2015

PLA wrote: »

Apparently the translation skipped about half of the japanese digital manual.

The Live Area one? Or the in-game one you get by pressing Start and then selecting Squad Handbook?

PLA · June 2015

The, uh, regular one. Live Area, I guess.

vagrant_winds · June 2015

PLA wrote: »

The, uh, regular one. Live Area, I guess.

Yeah. Just looked at it. The Live Area manual is pretty useless.

Thankfully there's a decent in-game one.

PLA · June 2015

Does it cover the skills, too?

Magic Pink · June 2015

Wait a sec. You're forced to have an all female team and with armor being swimsuits and pasties and you're trying to say there's not much fanservice??

vagrant_winds · June 2015

There's also the Information Terminal which gives you class/skill/etc info.

Levels are apparently capped by story progress. 15 at first. Then 40. Then 99 after you do a quest or something to unlock it post-game.

vagrant_winds · June 2015

Magic Pink wrote: »

Wait a sec. You're forced to have an all female team and with armor being swimsuits and pasties and you're trying to say there's not much fanservice??

No and no. Where are you getting this misinformation?

Your squad can have any genders they want, be it all dudes, all women, or any mix you want. Then you have two options for looks: "Basic" for static portraits Etrian Odyssey and Demon Gaze style or "Classic" where you go through a character creator and your equipped armor and accessories show up on your character.

Skull2185 · June 2015

I probably should've looked at the information terminal for the classes before I spent an hour and a half making a custom team... I think I made a team similar to my Demon Gaze squad, so I should be ok. On the front row, I have a Warrior(?) the good all rounder, a Samurai(?) the two sword user, and a Knight I think. K stands for Knight I assume? Back row is a Wizard, Archer, and a Healer.

Haven't actually done any dungeon crawling yet, though, so we'll see how they do.

vagrant_winds · June 2015

Classes are basically Knight, Warrior, and Samurai for front-liners. Assassin for either. And Magician, Healer, Academic, and Archer for back row.

Single-hitters will need STR. Multi-hitters and dual wielders will need SPD (also helps with dodging physical attacks). Tanks need PHY. Magicians want WIS. Healers want SPI. Luck is for status effects and Identifying items which both Assassins and Academics will appreciate.

I like the idea of Academics. They have support spells and multi-item-use abilities. They're basically a combination Bard and Alchemist. Note that I haven't been able to get clear information if WIS, SPI, or Luck affects their spells and Identification because of conflicting sources at this time.

PLA · June 2015

One more front-class and one more back-class later.

vagrant_winds · June 2015

Also, there's no cross-classing in this game. Changing your Code/Class just starts you as lvl1 in that class and you gain no abilities. Furthermore you get no stat bonuses on leveling up until you surpass your original level. It's... completely pointless.

PLA wrote: »

One more front-class and one more back-class later.

Do tell.

PLA · June 2015

You get a couple of bonuspoints for maxing one, I think.

vagrant_winds · June 2015

The GAF OP answers a lot of newbie questions and is decently informative.

Also looks like Academics benefit from both/either of the spell casting stats. Luck is used for instant-kills, criticals, and non-elemental damage.

Also, note that your Type (your "Race") effects what equipment you can use, not your Code (your "Class").

PLA · June 2015

Race usually only affects a few pieces of equipment. It's still mostly class.

KiTA · June 2015

No stat respeccing in this, apparently? Which adds a "what's the perfect stat build" to the whole equation.

So who all is going Classic instead of Basic?

KiTA · June 2015

Magic Pink wrote: »

Wait a sec. You're forced to have an all female team and with armor being swimsuits and pasties and you're trying to say there's not much fanservice??

... What?

You're not forced to have an all female team.

The Swimsuit armor is a Joke Cosmetic DLC, and the only DLC that actually costs money at launch.

Pasties is a joke armor that only affects "Classic" mode where your characters are paper dolls, armor is not shown on the "Basic" mode which the game defaults to.

KiTA · June 2015

vagrant_winds wrote: »

PLA wrote: »

One more front-class and one more back-class later.

Do tell.

Monk - high single target DPs. Sounds like its the same as Brawler from Elminage/Class of Heroes.
Conjurer - summon monsters. Likely the same as in Elminage/COH.

vagrant_winds · June 2015

KiTA wrote: »

No stat respeccing in this, apparently? Which adds a "what's the perfect stat build" to the whole equation.

So who all is going Classic instead of Basic?

I've been debating going Classic, as tempting as the pretty artworks are, for the full character creation experience.

Really, I think I'm waiting till we have more information on stats/skills/etc so I don't fuck up a party.

KiTA · June 2015

PLA wrote: »

Race usually only affects a few pieces of equipment. It's still mostly class.

Has anyone made a "Type" to ™Wizardry race" chart yet? Some are obvious, but there's more than I remember being in the classic Wizardry games that the Japanese Wizardry tree forked from.

Also, I like how the game has two "versions" of each class based on a different hero/heroine, each with different bonus stats.

Also: heard a rumor that if you class change after level 99 you keep the L99 bonus stats? Is that true?

PLA · June 2015

I seem to remember that being true. Not that much of an incentive, though.

Penny Arcade

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