From the top
So, due to a sudden influx of money (a highly rare occurrence in these parts), my brother recently purchased Blazing Souls Accelate (no, that's not supposed to be 'accelerate'), a tactical rpg for the PSP I've never heard of. Since I'm the one who has a Psp (and he's kinda averse to playing games anyway), I'm the one trying it out for the first time. I've been wanting to do a liveblog for a while now and, being a cynic and a pessimist, I'm not especially thrilled to be trying this game out, so I thought I'd make things more interesting by posting this. So, without further ado:
- peruse cover>> It's got three girls, a guy, and a very girly guy, all dressed in cosply style pseudo sci-fi/fantasy outfits, wielding an anachronistic array of guns and swords. Pretty standard JRPG stuff, basically.
- watch opening cinematic>> Generic J-Pop soundtrack, maps and labyrinths rushing b y, a bunch of wantded posters showing the main cast, followed by more spam portraits. Lots of maze, dungeon, treasure chest imagery. Guessing this is gonna be some kind of dungeon crawler? Big silver tower exploding in blue light, yeah, yeah. Nothing that suggests a plot so far.
- select New Game>> Neverland- After a tumultuous history stained with strife and bloodshed, EXPOSITION. Apparently there was a big war that somehow lasted a thousand years that nearly destroyed the world (of course), and now a new race of humans has arrived to supplant humanity. We don't want that I'd guess.
And perspective shifts to a dungeony looking place, where a mysterious figure appropriatly named ???? is speaking to herself. Another mysterious figure, ALSO named ???? appears! It's a little odd that the camera is positioned so that I can see only a single FOOT of one of the people talking. ???? NO 1 seems wise and benevolent, trying to help the world to 'regenerate.' ???? No 2 seems stereotypically evil, but they seem to be on the same side? ???? NO 2 states he's going to 'punish those who interrupted his sleep' and they split up.
- advance to next scene>> We switch to a scene involving a swordsman named Zelos, who appears to be meeting up with a werewolf and several LANDFISH, whom he clearly has been hoping to meet for some time. Hm, it appears what I thought was a sword was actually a large gun. It also appears that Zelos is basically Ragna the Bloodedge from Blaz Blue, both in personality, fashion sense, and voice actor.
- begin battle, despite total lack of context>> AND it appears I have been thrust into battle with a full assortment of skills and abilities without any sort of tutorial. Options are:
- Move
- Skill
- Charge
- Item
- Summon
- Status
- Standby
- take them all out at once>> Um.. never mind. I can't figure out how to do that. I'll just slaughter this lame fish. Nope, the fish wins this round. Wow, this game has a very complex and unique combat system. Sure could use a tutorial over here, game!
- try and figure out complex battle system>> Nope, didn't figure it out, but I killed everything so on to the plot. Our hero (i guess) enters a building full of what are obviously bad ass adventuring types and declares that he is done. Oh no, this is a Guild. I hate Guild based random mission tactical rpgs. Lets hope this place gets blown up soon. We meet three new party members: some blonde guy that sounds like CRISPIN FREEMAN, a purple haired girl who sounds like Rachel from Blaz Blue, and a white haired guy who has a tattoo and no apparent personality. Irritatingly, all three male characters speak the EXACT SAME WAY. I mean, I can tell their different actors if I pay attention, but that's not something you should really need to pay attention to notice. Each character introducess themselves with about 1 line of dialouge and we're off to kill monsters! That appears to be the plot!
- check party profiles>> Alright, first up is Zelos, who has already been established as a gunman, but his class is apparently CONTRACTOR. He's my best damage dealer. Then there is purple haired girl, Addelle, who surprisingly is NOT a magician, but actually a SWORDMASTER. She appears to be a speedster. Next up is Duja, the silver haired tattooed guy, a MERCENARY, which is not really a very descriptive class. His weapon is an Iron Break... whatever that means. He has as much Strength as Zelos but abysmal Luck. His points are much lower than everyone else, despite being on the same level. That doesn't bode well. Oh, and unlike everyone else, he has no LATENT ABILITIES. Last up is Nguyen Le, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be spelled either Li or Lee, but whatever. He also has a lack of ABILLITIES and low stats. His class is MIGRATORY BIRD, which is rather poetic but also rather vague, and he fights with a knife.
Comments
EndarkCuli
Since: Dec, 1969
Apr 7th 2011 at 10:09:13 PM
Developed by Neverland, eh? The only game I own that was developed by them is Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos. Fairly stereotypical characters, but their designs were good, and I enjoyed multiple aspects of its battle system (though it sounds like this game's completely different in this regard). I've got a good feeling about this Liveblog, and wish you the best of luck.
Bluespade
Since: Dec, 1969
Apr 7th 2011 at 10:58:11 PM
Actually, the world of the game is called Neverland. Its actually made by Idea Factory, who have made a whole bunch of other games I've never heard of. I guess I didn't make that very clear.
nightfool
Since: Dec, 1969
May 21st 2011 at 4:28:57 PM
I'm actually playing this game. It's addicting, but very hard with the puzzles and grinding you have to do. The only thing I kinda dislike is the lack of story, but then I'm not that far in the story so it might get better.
