[Mini-Reviews] 3DS RPG Demos · 3:45am May 29th, 2017
Hi! I'm some loser you read every now and then! Here's a blog!
No, but in all seriousness, I recently downloaded four RPG demos from the 3DS E-shop to broaden my horizons on RPGs. Now I want to talk about them. The games I have for you here today in the order I played them are Stella Glow, Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight, Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars and 7th Dragon 3 Code:VFD. These are my opinions on these games, but feel free to criticize my opinions anyway because that warning never stopped anyone.
What you CAN'T criticize me on is how I perceive the games based on the demos. They're demos so I'm only going by what I learned in the game, meaning you can't tell me I'm wrong about certain things and argue to me about plot points in the full game when I don't have the full game. Fair? Fair.
Stella Glow
Goddammit I tried with this one.
I know a certain friend of mine said I was in for a treat playing this game but all I was met with was sadness and boredom. The combat tries to be like a combination between Fire Emblem and Pokemon Conquest with objectives to clear a map, deep characters to bond with, advantages and weaknesses depending on which direction you're facing and so on and so forth. But it falls JUST SHORT of something that I would otherwise find enjoyable.
You can only move one character at a time in a set turn order and no one else until you've moved that character. Now, now, this is actually my last concern as being able to form strategies in advance with only the resources you've been given is in theory a good mechanic and for the most part it's handled quite well. But immediately it will take away the sense of freedom the Fire Emblem games and even games like Pokemon Conquest had because you have to follow the game's rules for making strategies and not your own. It isn't horrible, it's just a slight misstep.
What is horrible is the story. No one in the land except kinky witches can sing and it's up to you, [insert anime protagonist boy here] to solve the issue and bring peace to the land or whatever. Okay, so what if people can't sing? Is it like a curse or something? Why can only witches sing? Oh BTW the witch you thought was on your side is actually evil and wants to crystallize the world or something. Whoopee. Look, I don't know much about the story and quite frankly with how slow it moved I didn't care.
Not exactly my favorite game.
6/10
Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight
Yaaawwwwnnnn... Boring.
I once asked Kirito-Persona, a really cool dude who you should totally check out, about Persona Q whilst talking about our fanfiction. He said it was more like Etrian Odyssey than Persona, so to get a feel for what Persona Q was like I decided to get the first Etrian Odyssey demo that caught my eye since I assumed they were all the same. And boy if they ARE all the same, I don't want to be anywhere near this series again, sorry to say.
This is the only demo I didn't complete because I was so utterly bored with it. I have played dungeon crawlers before but a crawler with random encounters should never go together; it makes bad times for everyone. I prefer my crawlers to have enemies I can see so I can plan out how to attack them. So there's already a first and good problem with the game. Next comes difficulty; I'm all for blisteringly hard games like Dark Souls, but the difference here is that Dark Souls uses your skill as a player to dodge hard-hitting attacks and whatnot. Even the simplest of enemies can tear off your ass at level one where they can easily 2HKO you if you're not careful. You have to rely on luck that you can get out of tricky situations.
I can't complain about the story however. It's cute and sweet and I actually find the characters you spend time with endearing. But let's talk about the actual dungeon crawling aspect of the game instead. You must draw your own maps when going through a dungeon; a cool idea on paper but it slows the game WAY down when you have to mark down every single area and dead end you come across. And speaking of slowing down, you move so slowly in this game. Like there isn't even a run button! So much for speed-running.
Again, not terrible just not my cup of tea.
5/10
Conception 2: Children of the Seven Stars
I'm so, so sorry ATLUS. I love you, but you keep publishing bad games.
You know your game is bad when you are able to easily joke about it with your friends on Discord about how really, REALLY suggestive it is. We laughed for ages, let me tell you. Just the very premise of this game makes me question what the fuck went on in the heads of the developers when they made this game. What is this premise, you ask? Oh, the usual: bonding with high school girls so you can sensually touch them in a church and birth your own personal army to fight darkness. Nothing unusual here!
I find the premise a little degrading, actually. Look, I'll be real with you for a second: I love my fetishes as MUCH as the next guy, but I draw the line when it comes to high school students. Girls no less, all of which are put in scanty clothing and bikinis and-- DID I MENTION THESE ARE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT?!?! Just the very fact this game was created to appeal to the male demographic and whatever fetishes they may or may not have makes me question if I really like Japan or if I only really like certain people in Japan. You can bond with a couple of girls each with their own personality, but that doesn't matter once you realize the protagonist is only solving their issues to get that sweet, sweet ass tonight. And yes, during some cutscenes there are in fact jiggle physics.
But the worst part is the gameplay itself. With the combination of a dating simulator and an RPG, this game tries to be Persona but just fails in every sense of the word. The gameplay and battle system is beyond confusing, and this is coming from a guy who doesn't have a problem with Xenoblade X's menu! There's some spinning and extra enemies behind you that you can't hit until you beat the first enemy and the numbers are WAY too high for me to follow and it's just a big clusterfuck I can't understand. Oh, and the levels are boring and repetitive. Yay!
Fuck this game and no one ever buy it. But I like Torri. Her color pallet reminds me of Oreonna.
2/10
7th Dragon 3 Code:VFD
Y'know what? I thought this was really fucking good!
The difference between this demo and the others is how well it drew me in. Instead of giving be a lot of dialogue first and gameplay later, it gave me gameplay almost immediately after booting the game up. Sure there were a few plot-centered cutscenes here and there, but after they were done I was already exploring the dungeon the demo allowed me to play. I picked my characters (Samurai, Agent, Duelist) and went in not expecting anything and was pleasantly surprised to see it having a combination of first person RPGs and Bravely Default with a DASH of Persona.
The gameplay is so simple babies could learn it, but it's how each class works is what truly makes this game special. They each have different skills and gimmicks, easily making up for the fact there are only four classes. Actually, only four in the demo, meaning I have so much more fun to have later! The Samurai hits hard, the Agent messes with enemies, the Duelist is the summoner and totally not a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh, and the God-hand... well, I don't know; I haven't tried it out yet. But all the classes you get are beyond fun to toy with. And knowing you can customize characters means I can put myself and my friends in the game which only makes me want the game more!
The story is alright and serves its purpose. You were monitored by a
totally not evilvulgar stuffed rabbit who wants you to kill the 7 powerful dragons that terrorized the world in the past... in the past. Yes, there is time travel in this game and I don't know how well implemented it is in the game since I still have yet to experience the full game. What I CAN tell you is that this game's soundtrack is BITCHIN' GOOD! Even now as I write this I'm jamming to the normal battle theme.If you want a fresh RPG to toy with, this is the game for you. I certainly liked it!
8/10
Thanks for reading! Hopefully I can play more demos later to tell you my thoughts on them and whether or not based off the demo you should buy the game. And seriously, stay away from Conception. Even if you find high school girls hot and want to believe they're 18 (which they probably are, but still), you won't like or even understand the combat or story.
But if you see it, be sure to pick up 7th Dragon 3. It's really good and you don't need to play the other games to understand it's story!
I mean, people not being able to sing means one less form of expression....
Eh, so Stella Glow isn't your thing. I still thank you for taking your time playing it
Some thoughts on you're thoughts.
-i do remember Stella's early gameplay being quite boring. But I remember the story picking up later on as some interesting plot twist get thrown you're way. But it is kinda generic.
-Etrian definitely has it's audience, it's just clear you and I aren't part of that audience.
-i tried, I TRIED to warn you about Conception 2. I enjoyed it back when I first played it, but certainly not for the gameplay. I think for me it's one of those games where the premise is so absurd, you just gotta sit and laugh at it. A drinking game, of sorts. I played it years ago, and it's certainly not something I plan to replay again.
-7ths class system is pretty fun. And that demonic rabbit overlord is a fun character. Haven't played it myself, but I do remember the demo quite fondly.
And as for Atlus games. I keep telling ya man, Devil Survivor!
4550571
But they can still talk, wave hands and write novels about sparkling vampires; I think people are good in the expression department.
4550606
Yep! Thanks for understanding too. You can't love everything!
4550626
- It was super boring. Luckily I completed the demo for this.
- You don't like Etrian Odyssey either? Ugh, I don't want to hate ATLUS, dude...
- I think it might be fun to play with my friends. I wasn't joking about that Discord part.
- Nagamimi is a cutie! I love how vulgar she is all the time. Just... Yes.
4550666 You should try the Fate Visual novels
4550666
at this point, now I'm terrified to recommend anything to you dude. Well, beyond Rune Factory 4, and Devil Survivor. Those two are 3ds RPGs I can always recommend.
I will say her unique vulgarity was a big draw when I first played the game.
4550664 Exacltly