Unchained Blades story & gameplay discussion

[Wyrdwad]

I moved and renamed the "is it an eShop download?" topic to this board, but figured it might be nice to start another topic specifically to discuss the story and gameplay of Unchained Blades, too.

So... let's get discussin'! How's about we start with the trailer, for those who haven't seen it yet?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OcU7AZUn0Y

-Tom

[Shizuka]

What's the story all about?

[Wander]

Ohh I liked the voices that were heard in the trailer xD. Hector reminded me of Steve from Rouge Galaxy since they have the same Voice Actor.

[Dogi]

All I know about the gameplay is that it's a first person dungeon crawler.

I'm not expecting SMT depth or anything, but would you say it's very challenging or allows customization of the characters?

[none123]

Is there going to be a full gamplay video out? I like to see everything in the game before I decide to buy it or not.

[conurebleu]

You could still search youtube for japanese videos?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHVzw5Tfv5Y&feature=related

[commodorewheeler]

Is the 3DS version in 3D? I've read some about this game but haven't heard about 3D on it yet.

[none123]

You could still search youtube for japanese videos?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHVzw5Tfv5Y&feature=related

Too many cuts to see whats going on.

[Wyrdwad]

All I know about the gameplay is that it's a first person dungeon crawler.

I'm not expecting SMT depth or anything, but would you say it's very challenging or allows customization of the characters?

Actually, I think this game will appeal to fans of Shin Megami Tensei quite a bit. The unchain system is quite similar to the demon negotiation from the early Persona titles, and the combat itself is quite deep, with a sphere grid-like system for ability enhancement.

For me, the cool part of combat is the ability to get attacked by enemies from multiple sides at once. Take a look at this screenshot from Siliconera:

http://www.siliconera.com/postgallery/?p_gal=201744|3

Note the three little boxes with 5 pips each at the top of the screen. Each of those pips represents an enemy. In this battle, your party is literally up against 15 enemies at once -- 5 attacking from the front, 5 from the left and 5 from the right. During battle, your party will constantly be turning to face different groups of enemies, and you're able to target anyone from any of these groups -- but when you're using, say, a multi-attack spell, it'll only affect enemies in one direction.

It's pretty robust and pretty intense, and really gives the game a hardcore, in-your-face sort of feel, slightly belied by the anime art.

The dungeons are also MASSIVE -- we claim this is a 60+ hour game in our press release, but honestly, there's a good chance it'll take over 80 hours for the average player to get through it. And while there is a pretty intricate storyline, the vast majority of that time is spent on dungeon exploration and battle.

Regarding the story, here's the premise in a nutshell:

This is a world where everyone is born looking like a human, but once they reach adulthood, they "fledge" into their individual animal/creature forms. Presiding over this world is a goddess named Clunea, who will grant one wish (any wish!) to anyone who overcomes a trial and appears before her to make it. The catch is, each person may only ever have one wish granted during his/her lifetime -- so it's gotta count!

The story opens with a dragon named Fang and his dragon lord buddies storming Clunea's temple. They start killing angels left and right (!), eventually confronting Clunea directly. Fang DEMANDS Clunea give him the name of the strongest person in the world (so he can go kill that person and take the title for himself!)... and Clunea is more than willing to oblige, as long as Fang accepts that this will be his one wish.

But of course, Fang does NOT accept this. He doesn't want to use his wish on something so frivolous! He just figured he'd force his way into Clunea's chambers and pry the information out of her -- I mean, she is the goddess who governs the whole world, after all, so she's gotta know the answer, right? ;)

Clunea is understandably upset and uses her godly powers to cast Fang back down to earth, reversing his fledging and reverting him back to his weak "prepubescent" human state in an effort to humble him.

This, however, just pisses Fang off. He swears revenge, and begins the long process of regaining his strength, re-fledging into a dragon and working his way back up to Clunea's temple in the heavens for a rematch. Along the way, he picks up several like-minded individuals who all are dissatisfied with their lives in some fashion and either want to meet with Clunea and use their one wish, or join Fang in challenging Clunea's authority.

Thus, the game is kind of like the anime Bas+ard!! + Shin Megami Tensei + The Wizard of Oz, all mixed in a blender with Wizardry and FFX. ;)

-Tom

[SilverCitizen]

I was never really into first person dungeon crawlers but the character designs and character designers attracted me. I hope the characters are to my liking and the story not too shallow. I'm glad I won't have to rush out and pre-order either. :D

[Eon]

I am very interested in this game. I am going to download it as soon as it is ready.

[Guardian Of Darkness]

Wyrdwad plz work on including the Japanese voices as an additional option in the game otherwise i won't buy it -_- original voices are always much better for the experience

[Shizuka]

He said it won't happen, that they tried to but couldn't.

[perrandy]

Actually, I think this game will appeal to fans of Shin Megami Tensei quite a bit. The unchain system is quite similar to the demon negotiation from the early Persona titles, and the combat itself is quite deep, with a sphere grid-like system for ability enhancement.

For me, the cool part of combat is the ability to get attacked by enemies from multiple sides at once. Take a look at this screenshot from Siliconera:

http://www.siliconera.com/postgallery/?p_gal=201744|3

Note the three little boxes with 5 pips each at the top of the screen. Each of those pips represents an enemy. In this battle, your party is literally up against 15 enemies at once -- 5 attacking from the front, 5 from the left and 5 from the right. During battle, your party will constantly be turning to face different groups of enemies, and you're able to target anyone from any of these groups -- but when you're using, say, a multi-attack spell, it'll only affect enemies in one direction.

It's pretty robust and pretty intense, and really gives the game a hardcore, in-your-face sort of feel, slightly belied by the anime art.

The dungeons are also MASSIVE -- we claim this is a 60+ hour game in our press release, but honestly, there's a good chance it'll take over 80 hours for the average player to get through it. And while there is a pretty intricate storyline, the vast majority of that time is spent on dungeon exploration and battle.

Regarding the story, here's the premise in a nutshell:

This is a world where everyone is born looking like a human, but once they reach adulthood, they "fledge" into their individual animal/creature forms. Presiding over this world is a goddess named Clunea, who will grant one wish (any wish!) to anyone who overcomes a trial and appears before her to make it. The catch is, each person may only ever have one wish granted during his/her lifetime -- so it's gotta count!

The story opens with a dragon named Fang and his dragon lord buddies storming Clunea's temple. They start killing angels left and right (!), eventually confronting Clunea directly. Fang DEMANDS Clunea give him the name of the strongest person in the world (so he can go kill that person and take the title for himself!)... and Clunea is more than willing to oblige, as long as Fang accepts that this will be his one wish.

But of course, Fang does NOT accept this. He doesn't want to use his wish on something so frivolous! He just figured he'd force his way into Clunea's chambers and pry the information out of her -- I mean, she is the goddess who governs the whole world, after all, so she's gotta know the answer, right? ;)

Clunea is understandably upset and uses her godly powers to cast Fang back down to earth, reversing his fledging and reverting him back to his weak "prepubescent" human state in an effort to humble him.

This, however, just pisses Fang off. He swears revenge, and begins the long process of regaining his strength, re-fledging into a dragon and working his way back up to Clunea's temple in the heavens for a rematch. Along the way, he picks up several like-minded individuals who all are dissatisfied with their lives in some fashion and either want to meet with Clunea and use their one wish, or join Fang in challenging Clunea's authority.

Thus, the game is kind of like the anime Bas+ard!! + Shin Megami Tensei + The Wizard of Oz, all mixed in a blender with Wizardry and FFX. ;)

-Tomlike shin megami without the demonica? if so then i'm very interested :o

[Wyrdwad]

Wyrdwad plz work on including the Japanese voices as an additional option in the game otherwise i won't buy it -_- original voices are always much better for the experience

I didn't think we could actually give a reason for this, but it seems we can, so... yeah, we couldn't get the license for the game's Japanese voices. They were recorded for Japan only, so we're not actually allowed to include them in the game. Sorry!

-Tom

[Ryos]

I didn't think we could actually give a reason for this, but it seems we can, so... yeah, we couldn't get the license for the game's Japanese voices. They were recorded for Japan only, so we're not actually allowed to include them in the game. Sorry!

Voice licensing is serious business. I kind of figured with some of the folks in that cast that we were unlikely to get that track anyway. :( You never mentioned though, is there a separate volume or on/off switch for voices? With as awesome as the soundtrack is I really don't want to turn the volume off altogether, but...well, it might be nice is all.

[jazpery]

wow 80 hours :D

[Dogi]

Demon conversation like Persona or SMT? Persona was pretty clear cut "This demon likes this thing for this result of the 4 things you can pick" while Nocturne and Strange Journey are more about actually appealing to the demon as the conversation goes on. Not gonna bother with SMT1 and 2 negotiation because it was somewhat nonsensical and the patches sure didn't help; "What is the meaning of man?" yes/no

Still is there much skill customization? I'm assuming the 14? characters are all preset

[Wyrdwad]

Skill customization is done via an individual sphere grid-like (or if you'd prefer, orbment-like) system for each character. It's pretty robust, and should prove entertaining for those of you who really, really like to tweak things. ;)

And the demon conversation is very much a Persona-style multiple-choice thing.

-Tom

[perrandy]

Skill customization is done via an individual sphere grid-like (or if you'd prefer, orbment-like) system for each character. It's pretty robust, and should prove entertaining for those of you who really, really like to tweak things. ;)

And the demon conversation is very much a Persona-style multiple-choice thing.

-Tomohhh so it has demonica after all..<sigh>
cant the japanese make an rpg that is devoid of this stuff.i mean i have played the disgaea series before and i tolerated it because of the humor and tried to play couple of persona games for the ps2 but it was too much for me.i dont care if i have to fight "the monster of the week" but i'm really tired of all the demonica games.its not that i'm religious but it does bothers me :eek:

[Fabrizo]

Skill customization is done via an individual sphere grid-like system

Now you have my attention; I loved the sphere grid system. Are there any pics of the menus (can't believe I'm asking that)?

[Dogi]

ohhh so it has demonica after all..

You know Demonica was the name of the suit in SJ. What do you mean when you use it?

And I just hope the "sphere grid" is like DDS where you can set whatever skills you want. Or I imagine you'll just have all of them available at once

[Eon]

Skill customization is done via an individual sphere grid-like (or if you'd prefer, orbment-like) system for each character. It's pretty robust, and should prove entertaining for those of you who really, really like to tweak things. ;)

And the demon conversation is very much a Persona-style multiple-choice thing.

-Tom

Excellent. Again, thanks for bringing this game to us dungeon crawler starved fans.

[WaltherFeng]

How "hardcore" is this title compared to typical dungeon crawlers? Does it punish you mercilessly for slightest mistakes? Is navigating still a pain in the BACONBACONBACON? :P

I never been a fan of Wizardry due to lack of narrative and how you have to build up your entire cast of generic nameless heroes entirely from scratch. I'm looking for something that resembles a more typical JRPG, though I've always been a big fan of FFXII, which had loads of dungeon crawling and exploration.

And this is coming to EU too, right? :p

[Wyrdwad]

How "hardcore" is this title compared to typical dungeon crawlers? Does it punish you mercilessly for slightest mistakes? Is navigating still a pain in the BACONBACONBACON? :P

Yes, and yes. For better or for worse. ;)


And this is coming to EU too, right?

Probably. Don't think anything's been finalized in that regard just yet, but we always do our best to make sure not to forget our European fans.

(Though we've never released a 3DS game in Europe before, so I have no idea how feasible that is...)

-Tom

[MPHavoc]

Any chance of disclosing a release date (or a rough estimate)?

[none123]

Any chance of disclosing a release date (or a rough estimate)?

They will when they are ready.

[WaltherFeng]

Yes, and yes. For better or for worse. ;)

-Tom

Not exactly the answer I was hoping for, but I'm more than happy to purchase the PSP version if it ever lands on the European shores, if only to show my appreciation.

[SIN]

I'm really not into dungeon crawlers (aka I suck at them!) But this is an Xseed title and it does look relatively interesting in terms of artwork, and the fact that it seems to be story-driven. I'll see what the price is, depending on if it releases around the time of other titles, it might not be a day 1. (The Way of The Samurai 4 is looking like it'll be more enjoyable by me personally)

[machinemaiden]

I'm also wondering what the price is going to be (if decided) and how many blocks this will take on the system/SD card.

[Davar]

How "hardcore" is this title compared to typical dungeon crawlers? Does it punish you mercilessly for slightest mistakes? Is navigating still a pain in the BACONBACONBACON? :P


Yes, and yes. For better or for worse. ;)

Bring it! Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games are fun and all... but seriously, most mainstream stuff after the SNES era just doesn't seem to have the same grit that the classics did. Bring back the pain!

[Kovaelin]

Back when I was in elementary school, only the deserving got to see the end of a game. Somewhere between high school and undergrad, I stopped witnessing people asking other players for help. Nowadays, online tutorials and devs yielding to people's needs for "easy modes" have somewhat deprived players of a true punishing experience.

[Adrian-kun]

Back when I was in elementary school, only the deserving got to see the end of a game. Somewhere between high school and undergrad, I stopped witnessing people asking other players for help. Nowadays, online tutorials and devs yielding to people's needs for "easy modes" have somewhat deprived players of a true punishing experience.

Yeah, but let's not forget that so-called 'punishing experiences' were first devised for arcade games so they could squeeze every quarter you had in your pocket.