Sakura Wars news & views thread

[odinfan]

Haha, I knew you were going to say that. Anyway, the reason I feel so strongly about it is because I don't really feel like the SRPG section really added much to the meat of the game. A simple distraction from the courting. The difficulty level is clearly lacking. What I would have considered to be the last boss was nothing more than an excuse for an extended health bar, offering nary a challenge.

Like my ST3 example, which I feel is paramount to my quirk. The end battle ended up being nothing more than a series of smaller stages with the big baddie, with no notice-able change in attack patterns. In all honesty, I was expecting an epic final fight(read: ONE BATTLE) with it, but that ended up being a pretty poor substitute. So from my experiences, that would definitely take a back seat to the real allure of the game.

I guess we'll agree to disagree from this point forward. We can still argue on Gamefaqs, anyway.

[RedCoKid]

The one NISA is publishing ups the difficulty a bit, though I don't think difficulty is really the point. Actually, I don't like difficult games at all. I play everything on easy given the chance.

[odinfan]

I guess that really depends on the person and what kinds of games they grew up with.... but honestly, I don't even think a complete newbie would find the game difficult. Maybe they had the Japanese in mind when they developed the game, but that really isn't going to fly with most Western gamers, if they've played anything in the past few years. There's just no hint of it here.

I wouldn't try to use that as an argument though, unless it's on a Persona level of difficulty(and even then that would be considered "normal" at best). I feel like that's going to be a real turn off. I'm not scared for the fans, but the big review sites and magazines. They might not share the same view as I do.

[RedCoKid]

Yeah, sorry, I'm not gonna agree with you on this. Life is difficult enough, especially when you have a job like mine, to want to come home and see game over after game over screen. Hours down the drain. I don't care for it.

As I said, I don't think difficulty is the point in Sakura Wars, and lack of said difficulty doesn't reduce it to a pure dating sim. If any reviewer wants to make challenge THE issue, then I will gladly reply with a nice letter.

Edit: see next post

[odinfan]

I'm not talking about a punishing level of difficulty. There's NO difficulty whatsoever. It's like they created the maps and just put your overpowered units inside and disregarded the enemy intelligence. If you were going to do it that way, then you might as well not play the game to begin with, right? Those sections wouldn't have any meaning outside of being a simple break from the other portion.

If they wanted to make it a decent balance between the two, they could have at least upped the difficulty, if even a little.

[RedCoKid]

http://blogs.ign.com/SCE_HeavyRain/2010/02/17/137923/

Another strange comment: everybody thought the game was easy, even those who failed in all the action scenes. It took me a few days to understand what had happened. There are no game overs or lives in HR. The player never starts a scene all over again because he failed, failing in a chase scene results in the fact that he doesn't catch the suspect, but you don't start the sequence all over again. And the story continues. As a result, some players didn't even realize that they'd failed in a chase because the game didn't stop and so they thought the suspect couldn't be caught.

It's weird how deep-rooted certain video game codes can be.

I could argue SW is the same way, such that you rarely see a game over screen but make it more difficult for yourself to unlock the path you want if you make a wrong choice or fail to keep a teammate alive in battle. Why do you have to risk losing your time & progress in order to feel challenge?

[odinfan]

Because it gives me a sense of accomplishment once I've actually beaten a tough boss? I mean, your view is that there shouldn't ever be challenge in the game. What's the worth in playing something that takes no effort?

[RedCoKid]

I mean, your view is that there shouldn't ever be challenge in the game.

No, it's that the game over screen doesn't have to be the only means to present tension to the player.

To me, the point of Sakura Wars isn't to beat the game; it's to fully experience what each path has to offer. Doing that actually takes time and effort.

[shymel94]

So, am I just stupid, or did nothing get announced on Friday? Did NISA mean next Friday?

[odinfan]

You weren't the only one.... I checked non-stop yesterday(From the looks of their schedule, they would usually update at around 2PM Eastern Time). Nothing showed up.

[noexcusepunk]

With our luck they took the day off after the interview, and plan on posting it next business day.
You know, Monday.

[odinfan]

That's a good possibility, but it still isn't fair. Everyone was excited and waiting for it.

[shymel94]

Well, as long as we get an announcement, I'm happy, since I don't think they would want to highlight something negative happening, right?

Edit: So far this Friday we still don't have the announcement.

[RedCoKid]

Interviews

Vandal (posted Mar 1 2010; for English, click here)

[odinfan]

Nothing we don't already know, but it was interesting to get a bit more background on Sato and the rest of the localization team, always a pleasure to read....

Anyway, the Google Spanish translation is surprising accurate and was easy to understand(which can't really be said for the other languages)....