… since I didn’t feel like typing the entire title…
I’m picking up my copy tomorrow. Has anyone else played this yet?
From what I hear, you should invest your money elsewhere. Apparently the game is not very good. I suggest getting Ninjatown. Have faith in Sin.
If there’s a Wal-Mart in your area, I suggest Chibi Robo! Park Patrol.
Yeah, I also heard it’s pretty mediocre. I’m giving it a pass.
On the one hand I’d like to believe that Tri-ace can still make a decent VP game.
On the other hand Star Ocean 4.
In my opinion you’re better off playing it safe and waiting for the price to drop (or get one of the hundreds of other RPGs that came out in the last month).
I hate tri-Ace. It’s not like they’re bad, no. If they were bad I wouldn’t hate them. They have such good ideas, and then every single time they scuttle them with a rusty pitchfork.
That’s pretty much how I feel about Tri-Ace. Ideas that could probably be good, but overall, it’s like the worst possible execution and style ever. I kind of feel the same way about the Tales studio too, but I think they’re a lot better at going “oh wow, this kind of sucked, let’s make it better” than Tri-Ace.
Anyhow, bottom line is, there’s a few brand names that make me instantly go ‘no’, and Tri-Ace is right up there with Atlus and NIS.
Valkyrie Profile: Goes excellently… until Lenneth pulls a Deus Ex with the Dragon Ball. Seriously, THAT was the best they could make for the ending?
Star Ocean 2: “We didn’t really plan what to do in the second half, so go fight a universal threat that only you can beat, for no particular reason. Also, check out how big we can make the numbers when we speak about how old these guys are.”
Star Ocean 3: “WHAT A TWEEEEST, now go dungeon crawling for the rest of the game. No interaction allowed.”
Radiata Stories: “So we’ve got this really fun satiric medieval setti-MAGICAL DARKNESS AIDS, WAR, RACIAL GENOCIDE, THE END OF THE WORLD!! Uh, characterization? Where did that go?”
I’m not even talking about gameplay here. I fucking loathe tri-Ace. I would hate them less if they just made plainly shitty games, but they make great concepts that lure you in with promises of enjoyment and then just strangle all the joy outta you.
The first VP was probably the most solid game they ever made. All the rest are equal parts awesome and terrible.
Hey, I had a coupon and Beavis and Butt-head DVDs that I got as a “gag” gift to exchange for store credit - with that I was only paying around $11. Since those were gathering dust, whatever. I figure I can trade it in if it REALLY sucks and recoup more than I actually paid. It’s okay so far, but I only started playing late last night. I do miss voice acting outside of battle, as cheesy as it usually is.
edit - What else HAS come out in the last month for DS RPG-wise that’s not complete strategy-style?
Avalon Code looks to be not bad.
I’m waiting until next month, for an RPG called Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled.
RS is good if you take it for what it is. I’ve logged over 300 hours in it, which is more than I can say for a lot of games. The story and characterization are abysmally bad though. The fun is in the goofy atmosphere created by the cartoon graphics and jazzy music, and in character recruitment. In some games, the recruitment alone makes a good game in itself. Like some kind of twisted dating/exploration RPG.
Was the PSX VP good? I think I remember it being a lot like Saga Frontier in that it was fairly aimless and never explained anything to you, ever. It’s a game I feel like I should pay, though. For more than 30 minutes, I mean.
I’ve been curious about this one. I keep hoping SG will pick it up and play it, but I guess he’s just too busy with games like Blue Dragon Plus. 
Avalon Code looks 100% uninteresting to me. I usually only buy a game for three reasons:
- I think it looks like it will be really good
- The game is part of a series/made by developers that I like, or
- The game looks like it will be hysterically bad.
Avalon Code looks like neither 1 nor 3, and as for 2, it’s made by the dudes that did the Final Fantasy 3 and 4 DS ports, and…well, you can just go back and read my reviews on those. 
Although, I am gunning for a review editor job at RPGamer.com right now, so if I get the job…well, maybe I’ll have no choice but to play games that look terribly boring to me.
I’d pass on it. I played through most of it, and I got sick of it. The handling of codes is just awful, and you have to flip through a buttload of pages just to find the right code. Kinda annoying mid-battle, and a pain vs. invincible enemies. So unless you organize your codes, finding the right ones can be a pain.
It looks pretty good, but it just seems to lack depth to me. And if you’re a perfectionist, the dungeons and metalizes (re: recipe tablets) will drive you batshit insane. Dungeons in Avalon Code pretty much amount to a crapload of rooms with 1 of a few objectives (Kill all monsters, Flip all switches, Beat Boss, Destroy Stuff, etc.). Dungeon crawling in this game is very tedious.
As for the tablets, there’s a crapload of those, but in order to get some of the better ones, you have to: a) get gold medals for objectives in dungeons, or b) mash A to find search points on the maps and get lucky. This gets 100x more annoying when you get Judgment Link, since you have to listen to your character yell when searching for something. And later tablets are broken up, so you have do a slider puzzle (from 3x3 to 6x6) in order to use it. Very tedious to do for me.
Some cool points in the game: Plenty of weapons to go around. Swords, Bombs, Guns/Projectiles, Shields, and so on. Also cool when you finally get fists. You get to shoot Ki Blasts from your palms! Shame it’s outclassed by most other stuff. You can also get armor and such, but the majority of it isn’t all that useful. And manipulating enemies is pretty fun early on, but gets to be annoying when there’s a lot of 'em to go through.
As such, I haven’t felt motivated to go and finish it up. Has a good premise, but it kinda ran on me, and I was sick at the time, so I may go back and finish it sometime. Unless you know what you’re getting into, I’d be hard-pressed to recommend it.
As for tri-Ace, I feel that they really haven’t made a decent game since SO3, but even that’s saying a lot. Hell, their recent stuff really hasn’t been that great. The SO remakes were pretty decent, but everything else is sorely lacking.
I’m surprised to see this game mentioned since it seems to have a very small amount of hype considering how promising the gameplay videos look.
I’m seconding this.
And as for Tri-Ace? I really think they need to fire their writers.
Gah, I picked Avalon Code after that thread made by Ultratech. Anyway, if it turns out to be frustrating I can play puzzles till the cows come home (Lockjaw, customisable Tetris, roxxorz!).
Yeah, Avalon Code doesn’t look amazing, but it looks okay.
Black Sigil… I dunno, it could go either way. I’d really like it to succeed, but that depends on whether it’s as good as it could be.
Yes, the first VP was really a lot of fun. I’m not going to say it’s for absolutely everybody, and it does tend to drag here and there, but it and SO2 are tri-Ace’s strongest offerings.
SG: Good luck with the review position. 
Honestly I spend more time at RPGamer than at RPGC these days. Their reviews are one thing I really like about them; they’re brutally honest and do a great job of being objective. Vicki, maybe check it out if you’re unsure about whether to buy something.