Infinite Space

The Core Video Games Forum
1

Perhaps the best way to describe the game would be to say it’s “every broken promise of Space RPG combat that Star Ocean failed to deliver”. Okay, I am exaggerating, the game is hardly an RPG to begin with and it isn’t quite absolutely stellar, but it IS a pretty nice change of pace.

Basic plot is that you are Yuri, a dude who lives in a planet where the residents are forbidden by the local feudal lord to go into space, so he hires a Launcher (Basically, a smuggler) to get him out. He wants to go to space to figure out what the hell’s the deal with his Epitaph, a cube of supposedly huge value that his dead father left him. Stuff happens, he gets a ship and thus becomes a Zero-G Dog, a space cowboy, so to speak.

Not very original premise, huh? Well, let me just get all the bad stuff I’ve encountered so far out of the way:
-The game makes extensive use of the DS’ capability to render fully 3D polygons and environments. Which is to say, it kinda looks like ass.
-Ship battles are pretty simplistic. There’s some wit to it involved, but things are really decided by how well you built/modified/positioned your ship/assigned your crew. Once you are actually fighting, it’s 20% strategy, 70% preparation, 10% hoping the enemy barrages you while you use dodge. I DO admit I have not tried boarding, which supposedly brings up melee combat, but from what I’ve read, that one’s a glorified rock-paper-scissors. STILL MORE INTERACTIVE THAN FINAL FANTASY THOUGH OH SNAP ZING.
-On that note, while I have not actually seen it being used yet, Yuri is handed a weapon for melee. After demonstrating the clear superiority of laser guns over close-quarter weaponry, your smuggler/guide/crewmate Nia hands Yuri… a fucking sword. Okay, BEAM sword, big fucking whoop.
-By GOD, read the fucking manual, because the game really doesn’t go out of its way to explain anything at all to you regarding mechanics.

With THAT out of the way, some vindication:

-Yuri is… actually fairly nice. He’s, despite the setting, not an overenthusiastic greenhorn setting out on adventure to be the very best, like no one ever was, to catch them as his test and train them as his task. He just wants out of his shithole planet and to figure out what the hell’s the deal with the mystery rubix cube. He’s very good at not pulling the typical hyperactive teenager shit I loathe so much in many recent games.
-Ship and crew customisation are extensive as bloody hell, so it makes up for the relative simplicity of combat.
-Holy FUCK this game is huge. Don’t get fooled by the somewhat fast way in which things are resolved in the first chapter, this thing is gigantic.
-While the plot is still linear, there’s some freedom as to what and when to do a lot of stuff or whether to do it at all, and there’s some important choices along the way… or so I’m told.

Overall, while it doesn’t blow my mind, it’s still pretty fun to play, especially in spurts so combat doesn’t turn too repetitive.

By the way, tiny curious detail… Yuri’s romantic interest appears to be… his sister. No, not in the “Ramza never has a romantic subplot, but a lot of the game is about saving his sister so let’s make jokes about that”, it’s painfully obvious to everyone that his sister has feelings for him. If there’s a “non-blood related” twist along the way, I haven’t seen yet. It’s not like the game’s subtle about it, literally the first scene between them has an astonished Nia asking if they are seriously blood siblings.

2

It’s interesting, since I’ve been reading up on this game for about the last week or so trying to get a good grasp of it. I do think SE has hit the major points though, with it supposedly being pretty massive and a lot of customization with the ship and crew. Ironically, I do have the manual for the game (in a very nice PDF file) and have read it. And yeah, melee follows a weird paper-rock-scissors formula (put in Leader-Shoot-Slash).

I do want to play it though, so I may try it out after I finish up with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

3

The only reason I haven’t bought this game is because I’ve heard that it’s EXTREMELY long. Even if it is just moderately long, it doesn’t sound like a premise that would entertain me past the twenty-hour mark.

4

I’m on chapter 4 already, and I’m really having a lot of fun with this.

Pretty much everything I said still stands and I won’t lie about the whole thing being fairly monotonous gameplay-wise, but it’s still pretty fun and the whole narrative is entertaining enough. It’s a space opera, essentially, and I do have to emphasize that the characters are very nice (Yuri’s interrogation methods just earned a good deal of points on my book). I just wish the game weren’t in a handheld, the ship battles would have looked awesome on a console. Not to mention everything’s so dark you can’t quite see the shape of the ships. This could really use a port, Rune Factory Frontier-style.

Ship creation/modification gets considerably more complex as you go. I just encountered carriers for the first time, which makes fleet configurations a lot trickier.

Something I liked is that the game aknowledges all your randomly recruited crew during casual conversations, so it really does feel like you’ve got a team going instead of a couple protagonists and a horde of faceless drones.

And I finally did try melee. Holy shit, I hate melee. I don’t think it’s coincidence that the game forces you into melee once or twice, they must have known you wouldn’t pay attention to it otherwise. It’s basically like the war battles in Suikoden 1, only the computer’s chaotic behavior makes it really hard to get the upper hand unless your stats are naturally higher.

5

Random update in case anybody still cares: The second half of the game gets massively epic story-wise. It’s good, really good. It’s a real goddamn space opera like I haven’t seen since Legend of the Galactic Heroes, only with some Harlock mixed in.

And at the pace this is going, the sheer mass of Yuri’s testicles will end collapsing in on itself and creating a black hole. I haven’t been so pleased with a protagonist in a long while.

6

I just want to know how long the game is, and whether or not the combat is actually fun the entire time. I’m really suspicious of long games.

7

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN STAR WARS.

8

Combat varies on fun value. I’m in Act2 Chap6 and ever since I started fielding Carriers, things have gotten smoother. But a poor formation/bad guess on if the enemy is gonna Barrage me and I can be game-overed freaking fast. Strongly suggest you leave your flagship somewhere mid-row or back row, as much as possible. <_<

Carriers however cost a metric fuckload to field, since you gotta buy the ship, the modules, and a metric asston of fighters. My current one can load 48, 500g a fighter, multirole types. But it hits enemy ships for 150 dmg every 2 seconds for around 20 secs? 30? And fighters cannot miss. So I’m thinking if I get a 2nd carrier deployed at some point with MORE fighters in it…

(I kind of hate how hitting can be such a pain lately, I’ve seen full Barrages miss every shot, and not due to Dodge, but one of my BShips is really underwhelming in performance.)

Too bad my 7k HP Flagship got 2-shotted in my daring advance to fire a barrage, QQ.

So far I’m about 25 hours in. I also totally intend to have some sort of 2 BShip/1 Destroyer/2 Carriers at the end of this or a similar formation.

Melee goes between ‘lol easy’ to ‘OH MY GOD WHAT’. I’ve had fights I had to time my presses to the second to swap tactics 1 bar behind the AI. And this is KNOWING what the AI was doing given it’s Rock Paper Scissors and he doesn’t feint/fake out. One mistake costed me over 600 troops out of 1400.

I also need a money making approach…so broke.

9

No, no mid. Back row. ALWAYS back row.

This is seriously odd, I can’t imagine what might cause that. Are you remembering to attack only the front row, and to get within range of all/most of your weapons? Have you equipped fire control modules? The only time I ever saw a barrage miss that much was while trying to attack the Escondido Battleship on the last row while ignoring the shield ships (Didn’t have Gen with me).

Destroyers are shit, get a cruiser instead. Even if it’s just a Junkyard class.

Stick the HELP girl as chief of security and you pretty much never have to worry about melee again.

10

I’ve had it midrow at times in the early game when I only had 2 ships, damage output seemed better. Had it backrow after I had 3 ships.

This is seriously odd, I can’t imagine what might cause that. Are you remembering to attack only the front row, and to get within range of all/most of your weapons? Have you equipped fire control modules? The only time I ever saw a barrage miss that much was while trying to attack the Escondido Battleship on the last row while ignoring the shield ships (Didn’t have Gen with me).

Welll, I have that ship in my formation, and as cool as railguns were at first they’re becoming underwhelming fast. I do have all of the above, so I’m banking that I just have shit luck sometimes.

Destroyers are shit, get a cruiser instead. Even if it’s just a Junkyard class.

Destroyers are supposed to make the gauge go faster however, although I haven’t quite grasped that entirely. I currently do have a Junkie in my formation, a destroyer, a carrier and 2 BShips. Was planning to dump the junkie for the 2nd carrier eventually, but I can go either way.

Stick the HELP girl as chief of security and you pretty much never have to worry about melee again.

I have her as the assistant to the chief actually, I found the special ability of the old man who’s a friend of Nia (Deathblow) too handy to pass. But that smuggler base in Chapter 5, the boss was tough. 130 power…jeez.

11

Damage output is not altered by position at all. There MAY be a slight modification to attack range (MAY, just guessing here, and it’s gotta be minor) but provided your flagship has some good long-range guns (Which is why it should be a Battleship) that’s a total non-issue. I got a Fellowship at the start of the second half that I kept for a long while, and it was always the first to get in range even from the back row.

Escondido ships have cool armor, but are mostly shit in every other regard. Like you said, railguns get old fast. Better load up some heavy beam cannons and equip an amplifier and fire control modules.

Destroyers DO raise the gauge quicker, but I’ve found that’s vastly outclassed by how damn brittle they are and the underwhelming module space.

I suggest keeping the Junkie for a while. If you need more fighters, switch whatever you are using as Carrier for an Eberlin class, and if it’s already one of those, just load up as many hangars as you can. I got one with 60 Intrigo fighters, and they’re extremely effective.

12

just so u know… it took me about 30 or so hours to complete :smiley: and now im on my third run with 74 hours playing time… didnt get bored so far… but try to get 30k fame! OMFG u get awesome ships :slight_smile: (this is easyer to get when u go to config at system… and then put encounter rate at “up”.) have fun.