Getting psyched for Gungnir

[Aeolus]

As far as I know, Riviera is the one at the end of the timeline. Riviera's final villain is the total villain of the series as a whole.

I believe it's the first actually, otherwise the only way their numbering schemes make any sense is if they are something like "we've had X numbers of ideas, and each installment is numbered for which idea it is". But, yeah, they're related but it matters about as much as which order you see Star Trek series or whatever, at best.

That's actually how most of these pre-numbering schemes work. This weirdly idiotic suicide run down this trench will be the cornerstone to a series that involves conspiracies leading up to this out the ass, a sudden and dramatic loss in overall technological achievement to match the level used in said battle, and a once whimpering pretty boy who falls to evil due to hormones and accomplishes nothing of import suddenly turns into an imposing and badass villainous leader and all around shitkicker who singlehandedly wiped out almost an entire order of techno-spacewizards and just as suddenly becomes the father to first the main character and then his former love interest.

At least in this series it's limited to

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the main antagonist of the first game spending more time conceiving his ill-conceived plan of freeing and merging with a catgirl and maybe a tutorial hosted by the previous game's protagonist or an appearance by some rock obsessed clown and his silly color-coded harem.

[mjrpgfan]

It's always confused me why people promote "Dept Heaven" as some kind of major marketing bullet point when it's an obscure trivia reference at best, and it takes several pages of forum discussion just to describe what it is or how the games are connected to one another.

Anyways, yes I'm hyped for Gungnir. It's a good game.

[Andrew]

It's always confused me why people promote "Dept Heaven" as some kind of major marketing bullet point when it's an obscure trivia reference at best, and it takes several pages of forum discussion just to describe what it is or how the games are connected to one another.

Because those of us who already know what Dept. Heaven is get excited. Not that I wouldn't be excited for a Sting game anyway, mind you.

[Aeolus]

It's always confused me why people promote "Dept Heaven" as some kind of major marketing bullet point when it's an obscure trivia reference at best, and it takes several pages of forum discussion just to describe what it is or how the games are connected to one another.

Anyways, yes I'm hyped for Gungnir. It's a good game.

It's more due to the fact that all of the Dept. Heaven games thus far have implemented unconventional design choices that usually work for the game more often than not. Riviera for instance, would be an otherwise standard turn based RPG if not for the massive limits placed upon your inventory, the method of navigation and exploration being tied to battle performance, an unconventional method of leveling through weapon and item mastery (which ties into inventory limits), and dating sim elements. Meanwhile Yggra Union would be a standard SRPG if not for the fact that your whole team is limited to one action per turn and requires efficient placement along with an understanding of the use of the game's other unconventional systems. And KitN is of course a Bullet Hell SRPG and who the hell else has even attempted to mash such genres together?

If anything Gungnir is probably going to be the odd duck in this series for being the straightest execution of the SRPG genre.

[Lard]

Anyone grabbed this yet? I probably will tomorrow.

The two reviews I read were mixed. :/

[Klyde Chroma]

i pre-ordered and was very excited but I'm sort of on the fence now.... I did myself the injustice of reading a bit too much about the title and can't say I'm near as excited as I was...... I'm starting to think Agarest Wars 2 is gonna fill the role of "tide me over", in place of gungnir, til Growlanser IV. Chances are I'll probably pick it up anyhow though.

[Kevadu]

Really?  The reviews I've read sound like pretty much what I would expect from a Sting title: obtuse but rewarding.

[John]

I really don't think you're ever going to see anything resembling universal love for a Sting title.  I'm working on my review for tomorrow.

It's a Sting game.

[Alisha]

i really enjoyed hexyz force so ill be checking this one.
i no longer trust reviews and do my own research.

[mjrpgfan]

Even on Normal difficulty it's going to be tough for most gamers that have only played FFT/TO. It's rather punishing of mistakes and the RNG can cause some decidedly bad situations. Two additional factors that will push scores down are the lack of mid-battle saving and lack of random encounter grinding. I can see a lot of 70s and 80s scores arising out of that.

They should have allowed mid-battle saving on normal mode, at least.

[Kevadu]

Do the battles take that much longer than Yggdra Union or something?  That didn't have mid-battle saving either but it never bothered me...

Edit: The Classic Game Room guy loved it, though I don't know if that means much since he seems to like everything.

[Aeolus]

I'll get it once I get some wheels under me or my sleep schedule stops being stupid.

I too, expect this to be a Sting game, but that's why I'm getting it in the first place.

[cj_iwakura]

Haven't loved a Sting game since Riviera, but admittedly, I didn't play KitN.

Yggdra just felt kind of generic. Riviera was brilliant.

[Klyde Chroma]

Well I got the game on release... and as a quick aside.... you know the state of JRPG's is in critical condition when the ONLY copy at your local gamestore is the one you pre-orderred.... literally not one shelf copy or one other pre-order aside from mine... quite sad.... anyhow... onto my brief first impressions...

I was quite skeptical going into this one for a number of reasons but, to my surprise, Gungnir has proven satisfying in a number of ways. The writing and plot (although I am not far in at all) is really decent. Not exactly original by any stretch, but well done. The mood and tone is very FFTactics to me which is a good thing. The art style is simply awesome if you like the sprite-based fare..... absolutely pays homage to the visual sprite based style of yesteryear whilst being polished enough to feel very modern. But these are all things everyone knew already/expected I am sure... What I really want to touch upon is the gameplay....

Because of how "out there" the dept. heaven games are known to be and how complex some people were making this sound in reviews I really thought I was going to be overwhelmed with a very "difficult to balance and play-but really pretty to look at" game. This is not the case. While yes there is quite a bit going on in terms of how to manage the various gameplay elements, I didn't find it in any sense overwhelming once you get your feet wet. Characters and new recruits are far more balanced than I expected, and ultimately the experience is a very familiar one gameplay-wise to your standard  SRPG with enough "sting-pizazz" to feel very refreshing. One thing I do not like however is how I sort of feel "forced" to play a certain way due to the games strange time-flow/ restrictions.

Lastly, my biggest concern was the lack of any other gameplay interface aside from battles. I like being about to travel, grind, et cetera.... in my SRPGs and there is none of that here. However the narrative and degree of attention micromanagement requires in between battles feels plenty satisfying enough to be all but more then happy and satisfied to move on to the next new confrontation.

I am totally giving this title the time of day for a full play-through, though not immediately as my backlog coupled with the fact that Agarest 2 is coming out demands my attention... but I'll tell you what, I'm really fighting a strong desire to say "screw the other playthroughs" I've got going on and pour my time into this one, which is saying something...... But something tells me if I turn this back on and then agarest 2 comes out, the resolve I've found to pick up atelier rorona and move on with the arland trilogy will fizzle out entirely.....

[Bytor]

Klyde, you and I seem to have some similar taste in games, you may have just put me over the fence on this one my friend.


PS I know the feeling BTW. I was the ONLY person at my local GS to pre-order Tales of Graces f, lol