Atlus's Operation Darkness and Spectral Force 3

j.elles

j.elles

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Didn't see an official thread so I started this.

I just got both today after price matching the Toys R Us sale of Buy 1 get one 50% off. I recomend everyone here to take advantage of this 360 sale or price match like I did, since Toys R Us's game selection can be very hit or miss.

Anyway i'm on mission 3 of Operation Darkness and 2 of Spectral Force 3.
Overall the only think I think I should say is to the people who played the demo of Operation Darkness.

I feel that the camera is a little better in the full game and combined with hitting Y at anytime to see the battlefield map, which stays on screen, makes it much easier to use.

The voice acting is also surprisingly good so far and I think it's above average.

(Spoilers)



For anyone curious about the first bit of the game and the Werewolf thing the commander of a British special forces unit gives the main character a blood transfusion, and shortly after Edward makes a quick recovery due to Werewolf healing, unbenownst to him. He is than transfered at the commander's request and things proceed.

(end spoilers)


Overall the game is paced pretty well and has good voice acting. Overall I'd say it would have been nice for more cut scenes instead of the portait style used but this is Atlus and not big budget.

To go a bit into the SRPG's i've played and beaten Stella Deus, Fire Emblem on all systems, Disgea 1, 2, Heroed of Might and Magic 5, La Pucelle : Tactics, Makai Kingdom, Front Mission on all systems, and Phantom Brave. Some of the bad ones though like Phantom brave, and Stella Deus I used an action replay on to just see the story and go through it quickly.

In conclusion, from what i've played so far I recomend this game fully as at least a rental to anyone curious and a must buy for fans. I think the WW2 setting adds a lot to this game and it is so far really well paced and interesting.

P.S. I think as I play more of this and Spectral Force 3 i'll post my thoughts and eventually try to do a sort of review. This is the kind of game that makes me glad I own a 360. In the end I hope more people pay attention to these games on the 360 so more of these are brought over from japan.
Anyone else's thoughts on the full version of these games whose played them?
 
The Operation Darkness demo was pretty good I thought, but I'm waiting for it to go down in price a bit before I play.

I loved the strategy and the customization of weapons and supplies.
 
Both of these games got pretty poor reviews all around. I would definitely rent or wait for inevitable price drops on these.
 
On Phantom Brave it wasn't bad just didn't grab me. The story that is.

As for reviews I wouldnt trust reviews for genres like this. It's way to niche and a lot of people don't give games like this the time and patience they deserve to get good.

Overall with how rare Atlus games get and the really good 50% sale that can be price matched i'd advise getting it now if interested. Now i'm going to get back to playing operation Darkness.

And if VGChartz is correct with sales of this I think the initial printing of this will be the last so this will be rare since it sold so poorly.
 
[quote name='j.elles']On Phantom Brave it wasn't bad just didn't grab me. The story that is.

As for reviews I wouldnt trust reviews for genres like this. It's way to niche and a lot of people don't give games like this the time and patience they deserve to get good.

[/QUOTE]

They're niche for a reason honestly. After playing the Operation Darkness demo, that's about all the time I think I want to spend with the game and all it did was make me wanna play Front Mission 3 or Tactics Ogre for the umpteenth time.
 
The Operation Darkness camera killed it for me, otherwise I might have been interested for $20. Atlus just needs to start putting Shin Megami Tensei games on the 360.

How is Spectral Force 3 anyways? Is there a demo? I'll download it when i get my 360 back.
 
$20 for an Atlus game is pretty rare. Anyway, the camera is a lot better then the demo if that was a major problem.

And Spectral Force 3 doesn't have a demo so far. Haven't played enough to give a good opinion but I think it's alright so far.

In the end though I think Operation Darkness is actually a really good game for people who are new to SRPG's. Games like Makai Kingdom, Disgea, and some others are a little strange and too complex.

This game seems to pace things a lot better then other SRPG's i've played and doesn't seem to kill you with to many things to do all at once. I need to beat it though or at least get a lot more gameplay to say anything concrete though.

But I agree with Philip Kohler formelly of Evil Avatar and now on 1up on this game though so far. It's not great but it is a good SRPG.


The WW2 setting really does make it seem different and the demo was pretty horrible and didn't highlight any of the games real strengths so I recomend renting it. I think it's got some pretty solid ideas and a decent enough presentation to warrent a second look.
 
I have Spectral Force 3 at home from Gamefly right now, and it's pretty decent. The graphics are very, very dated but other than that it's solid. It's on the easy side (as opposed to Operation Darkness which tends to veer towards the ridiculously hard side), but it's good for play through or two. You'll spend a fair amount of time level/item grinding, but that's about the biggest complaint I can throw at it (the graphics mean nothing to me -- YMMV)

The camera is fine and the missions do a decent job of warning you in advance what's going to be too hard and what isn't (once you figure out what each rank corresponds to in terms of levels, that takes a little bit of trial and error). There's no tutorial or explanation of controls, but if you've played an SRPG before you'll be right at home -- if you haven't expect to spend about half an hour or so tinkering with the options. Expect to spend a lot of time re-running lower-tier jobs to earn enough cash to get all the upgrades and items you want, or simply to earn enough experience to keep up with the level curve. It's far more forgiving than Operation Darkness though, as characters stick with you even if they're defeated in battle and you can re-run levels as many times as you want without fear of running out of supplies (Hired Jobs only, Contract Missions are one time only deals)

I'll probably pick it up if I can ever find it in the $25 range.
 
[quote name='Suraph']I have Spectral Force 3 at home from Gamefly right now, and it's pretty decent. The graphics are very, very dated but other than that it's solid. It's on the easy side (as opposed to Operation Darkness which tends to veer towards the ridiculously hard side), but it's good for play through or two. You'll spend a fair amount of time level/item grinding, but that's about the biggest complaint I can throw at it (the graphics mean nothing to me -- YMMV)

The camera is fine and the missions do a decent job of warning you in advance what's going to be too hard and what isn't (once you figure out what each rank corresponds to in terms of levels, that takes a little bit of trial and error). There's no tutorial or explanation of controls, but if you've played an SRPG before you'll be right at home -- if you haven't expect to spend about half an hour or so tinkering with the options. Expect to spend a lot of time re-running lower-tier jobs to earn enough cash to get all the upgrades and items you want, or simply to earn enough experience to keep up with the level curve. It's far more forgiving than Operation Darkness though, as characters stick with you even if they're defeated in battle and you can re-run levels as many times as you want without fear of running out of supplies (Hired Jobs only, Contract Missions are one time only deals)

I'll probably pick it up if I can ever find it in the $25 range.[/QUOTE]

Basically everything I was going to say about Spectral Force 3 before i could say it. Though, I am probably going to get it before it hits $25. And I think Operation Darkness got a bum deal with the reviewers. The camera does have problems, but not as bad as some of the reviews make it out to be.
 
[quote name='j.elles']$20 for an Atlus game is pretty rare. .[/QUOTE]

But It has occurred: Rule of Rose (crap), Devil Summoner,Metal Saga, Magna Carte, Draglade $10 or less, (which is crap), Stella Deus (Uber Crap) and Hard Hitting Tennis (crap). Of course I'm talking used quality, and obviously Devil Summoner was the only remotely decent title. Baroque is on It's way to becoming $20 new, but right now it still stands at $30.

According to vgchartz Operation Darkness has sold UNDER 5k copies US wide, and Spectral Force 3 has only done about 20k. If anything, there should be a sale on these games down the road pending units produced.

Thanks for letting me know about the demo, if a demo gets out for Spectral Force I'd love to give it a try as it sounds decent enough.
 
I'm interested in Spectral Force 3 myself. What game is it most similar to? Fire Emblem was my favorite, and Disgaea was my least favorite.
 
[quote name='Dezuria']I'm interested in Spectral Force 3 myself. What game is it most similar to? Fire Emblem was my favorite, and Disgaea was my least favorite.[/quote]
It's actually kind of hard to say as it borrows from a lot of previous SRPGs. It's closer to Fire Emblem than Disgaea in most regards, although far more forgiving than the Emblem games (no permanent death and the ability to repeat missions for more exp cash, for example). The combat is a bit closer to Disgaea though, since it doesn't have the weapon/elemental triangles that Emblem has in favor of a more generalized approach where everything equals everything else and it's just how you build the character that determines individual battle results.

Honestly the game it reminds me of most is Shining Force 3 on the Sega Saturn, but that may just be because of the similarity in art/graphics style. (Yes, I am honestly comparing Xbox360 graphics to Sega Saturn graphics >.>;; )
 
I'd say closer to Fire Emblem as well. That might be because I just beat the Wii version about a month ago though.

Oddly enough Suraph I was reminded of Shining Force as well but I couldnt remember which one since it's been so long since I played those.

Anyway, I'm into Operation Darkness right now so I think i'll wait on Spectral Force 3 to get really into it especially since i'm already on mission 6 and getting really into Operation Darkness right now.
 
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