Gods of Arcana, played the demo yet? Options

[grif11]

for those of you who dont know this game, its an RPG for the psp that is like a cross between monster hunter and crisis core: final fantasy VII.

play the demo and please share your thoughts and ideas!

[jack cloudy]

Probably bit late for a reply but whatever. Also, it's been months since I last played it so my memory might be a bit hazy.

I tried it out because the monster hunter style of gameplay has intrigued me for a couple of years but I never tried it. That said, I came out of it decidedly unimpressed. Graphicswise, it looks neato and the controls were easy enough to get used to though I always felt a bit clumsy, like a truck that once it gets moving, won't change direction all that easily. That aside, there were a few things that just bothered me.

1: The limit of one weapon at a time. I realize that this is meant to make planning and adapting one's combat style to the situation more important. But still, I like to be able to do both melee and range at the same time. Speaking of which, melee had plenty of varieties, but I only saw one rather underwhelming option for long range.

2: Lack of story. There is a story somewhere, something about restoring the world or somesuch, but up to the point where I played it just didn't show. Same thing with the setting. There are a bunch of people in a generic fantasy hutvillage, but I never found out who they were, why they were there etc. I couldn't even find a link between regular missions and the plot mission that opens a new area. One moment you're beating down goblins, the next you get a message that pretty much goes 'plot is happening, get your behind to the temple!'. I'd just rather know what's going on and feel like I'm actually actively making the plot (what little there is of it) proceed rather than it happening on its own.

3: The combat arena. The game gave you a few areas to run through. They didn't look spectacular, but not too bad either. When you run into an enemy however, it teleports you to a circular fighting zone while the lone enemy turns into a group of baddies. I don't like that. Make me fight in the same area I explore, so I can use its nooks and crannies for cover and stuff. Don't put me in the magical equivalent of a cagefight.

4: The tilting camera. I get disorientated when the camera suddenly goes sideways. If an enemy is near dead, they should have picked a different option to show it, like the limping and bleeding they use on the bosses. Don't suddenly force me to twist my head off to keep my orientation.

5: The QTEs. I'm the kind of person who dislikes QTEs in general, so this is purely a personal irritation. The single button QTEs they use on random enemies are fine. There it is just a slightly more flashy and optional way of reducing their last sliver of health to zero. It's with the bosses that it began to piss me off. Suddenly my character is sliding around like he's on ice, pulling acrobatics out of his sleeve that make the character look like an immobile statue when he's under my control. Oh, and if I mess up, the boss regains health and I can start all over again because the QTE is mandatory this time around.

I don't like that. I want to be able to make my character as much of a badass as is possible through direct control. I don't want to press 'play' on a cutscene that makes a mockery of my own efforts. 'Yeah, all that graceless hacking and desperate dodging you did before? Meh, that's amateur stuff. Watch me leap thirty metres and put my sword in its face, then effortlessly somersault out of the way and look cool.' Sorry, but no.

6: The combat system. The combos where a bit rough. If I remember correctly, you had to press the button as many times as you wanted to strike at the beginning of the combo, as opposed to extending it after each blow by another press. This meant that often I was stuck halfway through an unstoppable combo when whatever I was fighting decided now was a good idea to wind up for a big hit of its own, leaving me no option to evade.

Long rant short, I didn't like the game much. I had more fun with Gods Eater which is somewhat similar and came out at about the same time, but just more fun as far as I'm concerned.