Pierre said:
Haha I did see that video the other day. Don't want to read too much into it though. I haven't looked further into it to see if there's anything else to justify the rumours but it could be anything, a revamped playstation network perhaps?!
I just don't want to build myself up for a disappointment :lol:
It was pretty much confirmed by somebody the other day. Erm...
Yep, Wall Street Journal "confirmed" it:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 65276.html
Pierre said:
I've never heard of this ni no kuni until this topic now it's been released everyone's talking about it. What's the big fuss? Also lol at the people who pre-ordered online, there was a problem with the item on the store apparently so it took even longer for them to get it
It's so funny all those people paying over the odds for online pre-order and then expecting Sony Europe to get it right. Fools :lol:
Anyway, I don't know if you've heard of Studio Ghibli? They're kind of the Japanese Disney (in fact, Disney distribute their films in the West (or some of them at least)). Only being Japanese and everyone over there understanding that cartoons don't just have to be sappy, sentimental, with characters designed purely as merchandise for kid enticing pap - they tend to be quite "grown up". So while it may be a cartoon about little cat type creatures who live in a hedge and visit at night (awwww, Totor), it's actually about coping with sickness, disease and the possible death of a loved one. They're quite deep, and not just in the typical lip service way Disney do. Imagine the opening sequence to Up made into an entire film, and that's how poignant and emotional the films are - though it's not always about death, but it's that kind of emotional presentation through the film.
So yeah, Ghibli are real artisans and a very special animation studio, huge in Japan and the people in the West who have seen the stuff tend to become immediate fans.
So that kind of gives you some idea of how important the first game to come from their minds is. It is essentially like getting Pixar to write the story and produce animations for the first ever Disney game - that's why people are so excited. It's a full Ghibli story, with the game made by some of the best creative Japanese developers.
So yeah, it's a big deal.
the game itself will still come down to personal preference. There's a huge amount of sitting watching cut-scenes, with an annoying mix of brilliant voice-over and text to read. The animated sections are pure Ghibli and if you love their stuff, then you love those parts. Then the in-game engine cut-scenes are this odd mix of spoken or read with seemingly no real reason for why it will be one or the other.
So you do tend to find that you can easily go five-ten minutes without touching the controller, and when you do touch it, it's for a minute to get you to the next five-ten minute cut scene. Though as the game progresses, you find this happens less and less and it opens up to more exploration.
If that kind of stop start winds you up, you're not going to like the game :lol:
The actual game is a mix of adventuring (walking around towns finding items, or the countryside finding new places) and battles. The battles are a bit of a grind fest really. They're almost a real-time Pokemon battle. You you have your team against all the baddies, and you run around a small area and pick which attacks to make on which enemies. You can switch between team members to maximise the range of attacks and magic you can use.
It's not as strategic as a turn based system, as you're busy trying to move, pick and select an attack all at the same time, you don't have a lot of time to develop deep strategies as you normally would in these kind of games. So if you like turn based battles in your Role Playing Game - tough again.
So really, it's a pretty niche game, but one which does justice to the source (Ghibli fans will adore the mix of real animation, wonderful story and sympathetic and breath taking game graphics/animation) and tries a new take on the standard JRPG formula to make it interesting for new comers and a new challenge for regular players.
It's a game like Metal Gear Solid where people will talk about it for years to come as a something completely fantastic. Those who get it will all nod and get excited, those who don't (I don't with MGS, sorry all MGS fans) will just look confused.
It's not the most important game ever, but it's a very important game in that it treats everything so reverently and the work and detail that has gone into it is incredible. It's respectful to all the fans it is aimed at, and is probably one of the best looking and produced games on the PS3 to date.
I hope that enlightens you?
spicy said:
Anyone want to buy a Wii U? What a load of crap. ZombiU is awful, Mario is same old, Nintendoland is wtf and Tekken is the only decent game I have on it which is saying something.
It's now going to gather dust with my Wii because if I ever get a chance to do some gaming there's no way I'd use it over my PS3.
Either that or get raped on the trade-in value probably!
And you're shocked about this?
Just give it three months and you'll be able to play all the games you've been able to play on the PS3 and 360 for 12 months on it too. You can add that to the majority of "games you've already played on a previous Nintendo console" and it's a great reason to own new hardware
ZombiU and Nintendoland look like typical "fun, but shallow" release titles to be fair. Things that show off the new hardware and try to do something a little different. They're not meant to be keepers, but things you dip into and have fun with to show off the new system for a few weeks after you bought it.
I think, as with the Wii, the 3rd party support once again looks awful. It's trash, or just not there. I know Nintendo are now working with developers though to try and bring a lot more Japanese games to the West that don't usually make it over. They've realised that three-four months (at times) of no new releases for a console is a very bad thing. Though it's good for my pocket, pick up a 3DS game once every 3-6 months and it makes it a very cheap console to own, even if I do only play on it for a couple of weeks every 3-6 months of the year
