Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra :: Short-reviewify that

[quote name="Entropy Stew"][quote name="FABIO"]It gets the award for best dialogue out of any console RPG though, but that's IT.[/quote] Yeah, the small bit I was exposed to sounded really good, like they had an AMERICAN writing it. There was this one part where the big baddy's #2 guy was freaking out because the PC made it past some rather nasty things that no normal human would be able to deal with. In other words, <i>an incredibly logical way for a guy to act</i>, which I am unaccustomed to. The the gay main menace consoles him say that the PC is "Just a vessel partaking of the power that surrounds him." Something like that, though better worded. It was the single best piece of dialogue I read (heard?) outside of PS:T. [quote]Each piece of equipment you have has like a billion different stats that are used against different enemies. The more a piece of equipment is used against that kind of enemy, the more useful it becomes against them and the weaker it gets against others. Thing is you're only allowed like 4 different weapons, and since there's about 8 different monster types combined with 8 different possible element types for each monster, there's no way you're going to be able to have decent weapons against every monster you find. Imagine a typical D&D game where you need to haul around a dozen different swords for specific monsters you might encounter, yet the game limites you to 3. Gay. Also gay is the fact that the different types are so non-intuitive. Sure I can tell that wolves fall under the beast catagory and knights under humans, but what about shadow, fire, earth, etc? These bats are earth, but these wolves are fire? If you want to increase your weapon in one particular area, you have to remember where that type of enemy roamed and go beat on them for an hour or two. Boring.[/quote] Actually, its seven weapons, but who cares? Just means more swapping. [quote]Not that I never noticed the stats making much of a difference. You're going to do no damage to the early bosses with it anyways. I'd run into a beast monster boss and break out my weapon that was (theoretically) strong against beasts...and proceed to do zero damage per strike. There's some ability where if you hit the button just before the enemy strikes you you'll deal out half of that damage back to him. That was the only way I was able to damage and kill the first 7 or so bosses, and then the last few bosses later on. My weapon sttats said they were strong against those enemies, they weren't. So you'll be flipping through the menu every few seconds looking for the right weapon and skill/spell to select. I'm not fucking kidding when I say you'll be spending about three times longer going through the menus than actually fighting, and these aren't your typical FF style in-battle menus, these are the "hit start to bring up a different screen" menus. Hack at an enemy, hit start to change something in the menu. Blow your nose, hit start to select a differect spell. [/quote] Yeah, this is total BS. I could only do like 2 points of damage per hit on the Earth Elemental boss I faced, so I kept reflecting the shit back at him. [quote]Some gay stat called "risk" goes up every time you attack or use an ability (having high risk is bad). It goes down if you sheath your weapon and dont attack. This translates to attacking then sheating your weapon and running around like a retard dodging for most of the fight. Remember Parasite Eve where you did the same thing while your action meter filled up? Only you spend about five times longer doing it in VS.[/quote] Actually, I thought risk was the only thing done well. Having high risk decreases your accuracy, increases your crit %, increases your damage taken, and increases your health restored from healing. If there were no risk, you could chain attack infinitely. There are also risk-reduction items, whch I find you only really need during boss battles. I would end up chaining the elemental till my risk was high, reflecting back his attack for greater damage, healing myself, then popping a risk pill or running around without weapons drawn for a bit. All in all, pretty gay. [quote]Reviewers made this game out to be a midieval Metal Gear Solid RPG. You might even be convinced of that during the first 10 minutes, but it's not. The GIA gave it a 5 out of 5, a virtual guarentee that it's medicore at best, but more likely sucks. Here's another warning, every single person who I've heard say this game is great also loved FF8. Every...single...one. Think about that. It also has THE FUCKING WORST maze ever seen in a console RPG; it even gives some older PC ones a run for their money. Some gay ass maze that warps you around all over the place, is fully stocked with annoying enemies that are pounding you (they get an attack that can hit you no matter how far away you are, and they're often hidden behind a tree where you cant see them) while you're trying to figure out which way to go. Right before the maze you're given a clue which turns out to be total red herring bullshit. You're told to follow some flies that look like flakes of snow falling EVERYWHERE. So I spent hours heading in the direction I thought I saw the "snowflakes" falling in. Finally I busted out a walkthrough that told me I had to go teleport and warp around all over the place (crappy in-game map) and reach the end via a path that had nothing to do with the damn flies at all. Fuck that game, and yes there are lots and LOTS of block puzzles. <a href="http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=198">Here</a> is an accurate review of it on Something Awful. I know their reviews are usually exaggerated so they can say "i'd rather gouge my eyes out with a red hot poker while killer ants crawl over my honey-slathered nutsacks while I'm plopped in front of an I-Max screen playing <u>The English Patient</u>", but this one is dead on.[/quote] -/ES/-[/quote]