A
Apossum
Guest
Okay, so I went to the usual places and got my hands on a Japanese version for the PS2 and just played for about an hour and a half.(disclaimer: yes, I'm still buying it the day it comes out or soon after.)
First, the gameplay. I'll try to demystify this as much as possible. as you know by now, you hold a button to walk and when you see an NPC or have a split path, choices pop up, you point with the analog stick, and press a button to go. It's not intrusive at all, it takes a second. so you're walking down a hall and you hear "the laugh." you'll hold R1 to go into First person mode and you'll see outlines of enemies. You press L1 to scan and the enemies will materialize so you can shoot them. The skill lies in aiming for weak points so you can power up your special shots and there are some parts where you'll have to switch back and forth with L1 to kill various enemies. It's really simple, but it's a lot of fun. "Rail shooter" is a pretty bad way to describe it, because it doesn't feel like Operation Wolf or House of the Dead or anything like that. There are also some special shots and items to collect, but I don't know how to do any of that yet-- all the text is in japanese! I think there is also some sort of power up system for collecting blood.
So you have to take a few hits before you die, depending on which persona you use. I haven't seen an enemy use a projectile yet. most of them just attack by walking to you and blowing up. When you die, you drop where you are and turn into a lunch bag filled with blood. After that it switches to the TV, where you choose personas, and you have the option of using the Cleaner, who is the only character that can recover the lunch bag from the spot where your other character died(afaik.) It switches back to the TV and you can resurrect your character by rapidly pressing a button to raise their life meter(ala track and field.)
I haven't run into any boss fights yet, but according to the GI review, they are excellent.
Graphics/ sound: To do it justice, it has to be seen in motion and heard. It's weirder than you think, trust me! The cel-shading looks awesome and the character designs fit the mood perfectly. The music is mostly suspenseful, dark and ambient, with spooky melodies and echoed hip hop-esque beats. NPCs have
ed up voices for the most part and are quite hard to understand and since the subs are in japanese, I have no idea what is happening in the game. The few NPCs I have met so far are like characters straight out of a David Lynch movie. Overall, the game is oozing with artistic flair and is quite possibly the most refreshing design I have seen in years.
Story: The monsters I'm shooting are part of the Heaven smile...and I have no idea what else is happening because the subs are in japanese and the NPCs voices have some weird filters on them. All I can say is that I am really really intrigued and cannot wait to get my hands on the Gamecube version.
Overall: Can't wait to get home from work and play some more tonight. Even though I have no clue what's going on, it's a lot of fun to play. I cantell this is going to be one of those games that people will either love or hate and it probably won't sell that well. It's highly stylized and extremely bizarre and is really unlike anything I have experienced(games or otherwise.) The whole time i was thinking that it was similar to a David Lynch movie(directed Blue Velvet, Mullholland Drive, the Twin Peaks series.) so if that means anything to you, then you have a decent idea of what to expect.
If anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
First, the gameplay. I'll try to demystify this as much as possible. as you know by now, you hold a button to walk and when you see an NPC or have a split path, choices pop up, you point with the analog stick, and press a button to go. It's not intrusive at all, it takes a second. so you're walking down a hall and you hear "the laugh." you'll hold R1 to go into First person mode and you'll see outlines of enemies. You press L1 to scan and the enemies will materialize so you can shoot them. The skill lies in aiming for weak points so you can power up your special shots and there are some parts where you'll have to switch back and forth with L1 to kill various enemies. It's really simple, but it's a lot of fun. "Rail shooter" is a pretty bad way to describe it, because it doesn't feel like Operation Wolf or House of the Dead or anything like that. There are also some special shots and items to collect, but I don't know how to do any of that yet-- all the text is in japanese! I think there is also some sort of power up system for collecting blood.
So you have to take a few hits before you die, depending on which persona you use. I haven't seen an enemy use a projectile yet. most of them just attack by walking to you and blowing up. When you die, you drop where you are and turn into a lunch bag filled with blood. After that it switches to the TV, where you choose personas, and you have the option of using the Cleaner, who is the only character that can recover the lunch bag from the spot where your other character died(afaik.) It switches back to the TV and you can resurrect your character by rapidly pressing a button to raise their life meter(ala track and field.)
I haven't run into any boss fights yet, but according to the GI review, they are excellent.
Graphics/ sound: To do it justice, it has to be seen in motion and heard. It's weirder than you think, trust me! The cel-shading looks awesome and the character designs fit the mood perfectly. The music is mostly suspenseful, dark and ambient, with spooky melodies and echoed hip hop-esque beats. NPCs have
ed up voices for the most part and are quite hard to understand and since the subs are in japanese, I have no idea what is happening in the game. The few NPCs I have met so far are like characters straight out of a David Lynch movie. Overall, the game is oozing with artistic flair and is quite possibly the most refreshing design I have seen in years. Story: The monsters I'm shooting are part of the Heaven smile...and I have no idea what else is happening because the subs are in japanese and the NPCs voices have some weird filters on them. All I can say is that I am really really intrigued and cannot wait to get my hands on the Gamecube version.
Overall: Can't wait to get home from work and play some more tonight. Even though I have no clue what's going on, it's a lot of fun to play. I cantell this is going to be one of those games that people will either love or hate and it probably won't sell that well. It's highly stylized and extremely bizarre and is really unlike anything I have experienced(games or otherwise.) The whole time i was thinking that it was similar to a David Lynch movie(directed Blue Velvet, Mullholland Drive, the Twin Peaks series.) so if that means anything to you, then you have a decent idea of what to expect.
If anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
