Minus half a star for the choppy framerate and Gamecube graphics. That aside, this is fantastic. This is about as deep as monster collectors get but it still seems pretty newbie friendly: the number of permutations between monsters (who all have multiple innate passives) and the fact you can graft any 3 skill paths onto anyone is insane but you can't really screw up too bad: rescouting becomes super easy as you progress and you have 1000 monster slots to work with, so getting the right skills on the right monster isn't too tough. Monsterpedia is excellent: if you're worried you need a synthesis guide they really give you a lot of recommended combos, you can check family trees in case you've forgotten past synthesis, etc. Really user-friendly without being handholdy. As long as people play ladder (and it's never been easier to make great, unique monsters), it'll never get stale.
This is a BIG game too: my memory may be foggy but I feel like the campaign is about twice as long as past entries. The story strikes a nice balance between telling a solid isolated narrative and being a geeky fanservice what-if prequel for the Zenithian trilogy freaks (Why is Toilen Trubble a main character here? I dunno man but he's a piece of shit and I'm happy he's here to rob everyone in the name of science).
Localization slaps. Took a screenshot every time they announced a new arena fighter, dialogue is insanely dumb in the best way. Anyways eat your damn heart out, Pokemon.
This is a BIG game too: my memory may be foggy but I feel like the campaign is about twice as long as past entries. The story strikes a nice balance between telling a solid isolated narrative and being a geeky fanservice what-if prequel for the Zenithian trilogy freaks (Why is Toilen Trubble a main character here? I dunno man but he's a piece of shit and I'm happy he's here to rob everyone in the name of science).
Localization slaps. Took a screenshot every time they announced a new arena fighter, dialogue is insanely dumb in the best way. Anyways eat your damn heart out, Pokemon.
3 Comments
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Maybe about as grindy but less repetitive? Hard to say.
Scouting is harder, but making perfects is easier. There's a consistent sense of progression due to how inheriting skill points works. You get half from each parent every time, so the skill points just keep snowballing as long as you keep synthesizing, plus you can always just sack a monster with a skill path you want to slap it onto a copy of the parent. I think making perfects is probably less complicated but still takes time (unless you get Mole Hole because Mole Hole is cracked: would not recommend until post-game because it makes synthesizing S-ranks early too easy).
The campaign itself doesn't have a bunch of bland side quests and stays focused on the main story. You essentially have 18 areas to explore and each has a story quest, a bunch of monsters, a big open area, and a smaller dungeon with a boss at the end. It's formulaic but smaller plot threads bulid into bigger ones and no individual section takes too much time and the seasonal changes make exploring way more interesting than in Cyber Sleuth imo.
Scouting is harder, but making perfects is easier. There's a consistent sense of progression due to how inheriting skill points works. You get half from each parent every time, so the skill points just keep snowballing as long as you keep synthesizing, plus you can always just sack a monster with a skill path you want to slap it onto a copy of the parent. I think making perfects is probably less complicated but still takes time (unless you get Mole Hole because Mole Hole is cracked: would not recommend until post-game because it makes synthesizing S-ranks early too easy).
The campaign itself doesn't have a bunch of bland side quests and stays focused on the main story. You essentially have 18 areas to explore and each has a story quest, a bunch of monsters, a big open area, and a smaller dungeon with a boss at the end. It's formulaic but smaller plot threads bulid into bigger ones and no individual section takes too much time and the seasonal changes make exploring way more interesting than in Cyber Sleuth imo.
You've quelled a few worries, thanks.
stovetop
4 months ago