duckroll said:
Hey thanks a lot. How's the SH3 demo anyway? Actual impressions would be nice, besides just media! Maskrider = rocks!
The demo includes 2 short quests, one for Johnny in New York and the other for Shania in the tribe's sacred place at Grand Canyon.
The Johnny quest starts with Lenny and Johnny at the entrance of an avenue, which leads to a opera theatre where a man (Malow Brown) stays. Only Johnny is playable during the start, Shania will be playable at the final battle.
The aim of Shania quest is an investigation of an evil thing at the sacred place. Johnny, Shania, Ricard and Natan are playable.
The demo is much easier than SH2, the ring is much bigger, even bigger than DC version
The above image is direct comparison at exactly the same screen capture resolution.
The pattern of the judgement ring is also a little different.
The new double attack is pretty slick, and there is double combo, too. There is a stock bar under HP and MP, which decides whether you can double or combo.
Other than the new skills, the game play like SH2, I haven't seen Ring Customization yet, may be not in the demo.
The graphics in the demo is a little blurrier comparing to SH2.
And the combo system depends on the stock value, no longer depends on just the action priority.
More on the stock gauge and how stock value works
1. The stock gauge increases by the amount of damage you did on the enemies
2. When the stock gauge overflows, stock value increases by 1, max stock value is 2
3. If your SP is 0 or if you become or are in berserk state, your stock value & stock gauge will be 0
4. If you are attacked by enemies with Hard Hit, stock value decreases by 1
5. If your stock value is 1, you can choose Double or Combo, if it is 2, you can choose double combo
6. Double decreases stock by 1, you act twice but the actions in both rounds cannot be the same, you will have to hit a combined judgement ring
7. Combo decreases stock by 1, you can select any battle member regardless of turn priority
8. Double Combo (D Combo) decreases stock by 2, it is essentially a combination of #6 and #7
9. Combo magic is like SH2/C, for 4 (or max members in some situations, I suppose) battle members combo, it decreases stock by 2
Not sure about the determination of the max of stock gauge, nor know whether the max of the stock gauges are the same, yet.
All videos are available at
http://z-o-g.org/shadowhearts/shftnw.html
