I spent Ample time with Genji, Oz, Gundam True Oddessey, Bumpy Trot, Kagero II, and Ys Oath in Fleghana. So here are my early impressions (written between 2-3am mind you so please excuse my errors):
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Genji (Playtime = 2 hours)
Genji is fun. I don't know if it's an Onimusha killer, but it's a huge Onimusha copier ^^;
You have one attack button which does a single string of the same attacks (though you can mix it up mid-combo by pressing the analogue in various directions) and a hard attack button which does a single stronger move that takes a few secs to charge. At first the game seems kinda thin on battle depth, not unlike Onimusha IMO, as you are pretty limited in what you can do during battles. But then you realize that the game is not based around attacking enemies...in fact you won't really be attacking anyone much once you figure out how to play. See when you hit L1 you go into Kamui mode which makes everything go in slow motion and if you hit the square button right before being attacked you'll kill the enemy in one hit. Now you can't mash square or the slow-motion stops, and you can't miss or you get the same result. But if you hit square correctly, the slow motion will keep going as the next enemy will attack you, get that right and the next comes at you, this keeps going until you mess up or kill the last enemy in the area. Killing everyone in slow motion gets you a cool Shinobi style tate ending where it's flashy and it also gives you a ton of bonus exp (you get exp from killing enemies and level up like an action rpg). So basically you're going to want to walk into each area and when the enemies appear you hit L1 and tap square at the right times. Bosses are pretty much the same thing as you do very little damage normally and sometimes you need to hit the slow motion Kamui counters on a boss to break their armor letting normal attacks do a little damage. So during boss battles you're mainly dodging attacks until your Kamui meter fills (it fills on its own, but goes faster when you're attacking) and then you go into Kamui state and try to hit square at the right time. This could sound like a really easy game if it wasn't that the frame window where you can hit square can be really really short. Every enemy and boss has their own specific 1/2 sec during an attack where you can hit square and a little hint pop-up will appear when you can do it. Still, being able to do it flawlessly on bosses takes some practice of getting the timing down just right or you end up dead. So it's kinda weird because it's not deep, yet it takes a good amount of skill. Once you start getting the timings down it is a pretty fun battle system though. My only complaint about the controls are that they feel a little floaty and once you attack you are basically commited to that attack and the attack frames are pretty long. Still the game gives double jump and even lets you jump on people's heads like Chun-Li so it's pretty fun.
Other things about the game are buying equipment like weapons/armor/accessories; forging upgrades to current equipment (the items needed can often only be found by doing the 'issen' type attacks on bosses and strong enemies, breaking off a piece of their armor/body which you can use later to forge onto your own weapon); and playing as two characters (you talk to the other guy [usually at the start of a dungeon] to switch over and in the dungeon there will be chests and sections that only one person can access). The actually plot setup is pretty good (reminds me of Azumi), but the actual in-game dialogue is pretty hokey and typical "OH NO HE IS RUNNING TO THE ROOF, WE MUST FOLLOW NOW" dialogue. Graphics are pretty good; backgrounds look great but the characters are pretty low polygon. Still the game holds a consistent 60fps and has some nice effects so it's fine in the visuals. Music is good but not great.
So like Onimusha (3 especially) the game is based around doing 1 hit kills with perfect timing before the enemy hits you. Here it's a little easier since they give you some indication of when you should do it; but on the other hand the bosses do pretty hard damage and there aren't always save points right before them so the game makes you practice and get your skill to par since it's a risky battle.
small note: The Japanese version is a bit censored. Before the game came out Okamoto told people it wouldn't have people being cut in half like in the US E3 demo. In the Japanese version they just spray blood and turn dark and fall down. Since the US version will include both Japanese and English voices, it will be the superior version.
Early impression grade: B
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Oz (Playtime = 2 hours+)
First of all, Sony is batshit insane for not letting this game come to the US. Whatever their actual 'complaints' were with the game they must've been BS and Sony must have an another motive (such as reducing competition for Genji which they are publishing), because Oz is excellent.
Oz is by the Suikoden III team. But it seems like they took the good parts of Suikoden III (character designs, interesting plot) and fixed most of the development team's faults and then made an action rpg. Oz is an action rpg setup in a way not unlike Chaos Legion where it's broken into episodes(levels). But unlike CL and more like a real A-Rpg, the game is filled with story that's told through 2d dialogue boxes featuring tons of gorgeous artwork (each character has many expressions) and pretty nice in-game cutscenes with full voice acting. The plot is more like one of an rpg, very interesting and epic with some mild connections to the wizard of Oz. The dialogue is pretty solid too, which is not too much of a surprise as Suikoden III had some pretty good dialogue. You can buy items and equip them between stages which also adds to the rpg feeling. The menus and overall polish of the game is really good. Music is excellent (done by the Castlevania composer), and the graphics look pretty good for the most part (excellent character designs, but framerate is somewhere in the 30fps or slightly below area [still better than SIII's 15fps ^^;]).
Gameplay is interesting. The game is described as a rythmetic action game. Basically the entire premise is that you play along with 2 AI characters and you're supposed to dizzy an enemy -> knock him in the air to a friendly AI -> they'll knock the enemy around between each other -> they'll call your name and then send it flying back to you -> you try to keep up the volley. The longer you juggle an enemy the more your super meter fills up. When it's lvl.1 or higher you can do super moves that do high damage and dizzy even huge enemies allowing you to start juggling them. Some bosses can't even be hit by normal attacks, so the goal is to juggle other things filling up your super meter and then attacking with supers. The controls are actually pretty darn good with R1 lock-on, L1 reseting the camera to what you're locked on, R2 changing targets, good dodge strafing with R1+X. O calls your AI guys to beatup whatever you have targetted and send it flying at you if possible. This is great because some enemies can only be hit in the back so you call your friends to distract the enemy while you run up behind him and take him out. The gameplay definitely takes some real time getting used to as you really got get the timing and physics down for the juggling; but once you do it's a pretty original and fun battle system. Camera is fine as you get full control...but since you'll have people volleying an enemy at you from off-screen a lot of the times, it is a bit hectic. Only way they could've improved it IMO is if they zoomed the camera out further so you could see more of the field.
So yea, heavy in story; draped in style; filled with beautiful 2d art and great music...Oz is really cool so far. If the story and gameplay pays off in the end, this could be the action-rpg of the generation and Sony are evil bastards if they don't allow it into the US.
Early impressions grade: A-
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Gundam True Odyssey (Playtime = 1:20)
Gundam TO is a traditional rpg done in a world of Gundam. You fight in various mechs and you even put your own together from various parts. So how did Bandai do on their first rpg attempt? Not too bad...
Gundam TO definitely has a very low budget feel. While the visuals are actually quite nice due in part to the great character designs and character models (surprisingly the game was made on renderware according to the box), the rest of the game has a strong lack of polish and feels more akin to a 16 or 32bit rpg than anything this generation. The characters run around towns/rooms at speed beyond human ability, the "probably should move slow" mecha all move super fast too in dungeons. While this might take away some realism, it's nice for the player because you move really fast
Also there is no voice acting at all, and the fonts and menus could easily be seen in a SFC/SNES rpg. This gives it kinda an old-school feel like Dragon Quest, which isn't really that bad of a thing. Heck the post-battle exp screen has NO SOUND and NO ANIMATION (like exp numbers moving/scrolling/something). You just have to look at the exp gained and your total exp and make a note of how much you gained.
The battle system is pretty traditional. You have an energy meter that fills up 2 each round. Your various attacks cost a certain amount of energy, and your super boost attacks cost even more energy. So the idea is you either save up for a boost attack by using low-energy normal attacks or you just use high-energy strong normals. Also physical attacks are always countered unless the enemy is guarding or charging their energy (you get +1 energy if you choose to charge). Luckily the battle system tells you what move your enemy will be doing next turn ^^; This kinda makes the battles a bit easier since you can plan around what the enemy is doing but oh well...it's fun. Battles are pretty fast and the loading while not great isn't anyworse than say Xenosaga. Loading in towns is super-fast and the only real loading drag is coming out of battle because you stare at that black screen for a few secs.
You can equip your mecha/characters with any weapon as long as it fits in their equip box. Think the RE4 style suitcase or Western rpg equipment screens. You have a box area and you can put in guns/axes/swords/shields. Whatever you put in not only physically shows up on the unit in battle, but adding weapons adds new attacks under "attack".
Then you have the parts system. In my playtime I haven't gotten a chance to explore this yet, but it seems like you get pieces from beating bosses and probably through other ways and then you put them together like building a toy. For instance when I beat a boss I got a Zaku right shoulder that added some def and took away some speed. Supposedly there are about 39 Moblie Suits total that were ripped into 5 pieces each, giving around 200 individual pieces to create your own Gundam.
The game will mainly appeal to Gundam fans, and as one myself it's hard to make an objective opinion about the game. I think despite feeling rough and like a 1st generation PS2 game, it's pretty fun and player-friendly so I'm looking forward to the rest of the ride.
Early impressions grade: B+
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Kagero II (Playtime = 30 mins)
Going to keep this short because there isn't much too say about the game and I didn't play it that long.
Basically Kagero II is just like Kagero on PS but with pretty nice graphics running at a smooth 60fps. Character models are good, everything is fully voiced and overacted to be kind of hilarious in a dark way. Running around killing people with combo traps is still as fun as ever, and if you're a fan of the series or just like to torture people it'll definitely be worth picking up when it gets a US release.
Early impression grade: B+
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Bumpy Trot (Playtime = 20 mins)
I don't even know what to say about this game. Straight from the start you are dressing/customizing your characters looks; choosing how he talks to people; picking up on a girl if you want; piloting a robot (with VO style dual-analogue controls); fighting other people in robots; breaking into houses; playing your harmonica (with a system straight out of amplitude); talking to people walking around a shenmue-ish live world, and umm trying to remember your name. That was only in the first 20 mins. Later on the game promises to be filled with bus and train taking, bicycle riding, piano playing, robot arenas, and possible dating. Irem seems to have done a really cool job at making an open ended non-linear game; though this will be something that I'll have to put some real effort and time into before I can get some feelings on it. It certainly doesn't seem bad (though the game sloooowwwws down at times; I think it's still using a modifeid Zettai Zetsumei [disaster report] engine).
Early impression grade: unknown.
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Ys III remake, Oath in Felghana (playtime = 2 hours)
This game is awesome. It's gorgeous looking, runs on even the weakest computers, has a fantastic soundtrack and the upgraded battle system is just straight out awesome and fun.
You're basic attack string is now 6 hits long, and you are a FAST MAN. So when you enter an area with 10 enemies you can run from one to another chopping them all up in something like 4-5 secs. The magic attacks rock, the jumping attacks rock. The dungeons are great and towns wonderful. Really the only thing even slightly negative about this new Falcom game is that the game balance is really screwed up. Normal enemies are a piece of cake and then bosses are downright brutal. I'm actually playing two games of it side by side in Easy and Normal mode in case I get completely stuck (boss of the first dungeon in normal probably took me about 50+ retries, mini-boss took about 20 attempts). Also there's no voice acting but it's not really a big deal. Loading is ZERO seconds too which is nice.
Anyhow, I've never played the original but this game just kicks so much ass it feels worth every penny that they charge for PC games in Japan. Tons of non-stop fluid action and tough cool boss fights. Awesome, just awesome.
Early impressions grade: A-
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Ok impressions over. Yay I can finally sleep and wake up in 4 hours for work >_<
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Genji (Playtime = 2 hours)
Genji is fun. I don't know if it's an Onimusha killer, but it's a huge Onimusha copier ^^;
You have one attack button which does a single string of the same attacks (though you can mix it up mid-combo by pressing the analogue in various directions) and a hard attack button which does a single stronger move that takes a few secs to charge. At first the game seems kinda thin on battle depth, not unlike Onimusha IMO, as you are pretty limited in what you can do during battles. But then you realize that the game is not based around attacking enemies...in fact you won't really be attacking anyone much once you figure out how to play. See when you hit L1 you go into Kamui mode which makes everything go in slow motion and if you hit the square button right before being attacked you'll kill the enemy in one hit. Now you can't mash square or the slow-motion stops, and you can't miss or you get the same result. But if you hit square correctly, the slow motion will keep going as the next enemy will attack you, get that right and the next comes at you, this keeps going until you mess up or kill the last enemy in the area. Killing everyone in slow motion gets you a cool Shinobi style tate ending where it's flashy and it also gives you a ton of bonus exp (you get exp from killing enemies and level up like an action rpg). So basically you're going to want to walk into each area and when the enemies appear you hit L1 and tap square at the right times. Bosses are pretty much the same thing as you do very little damage normally and sometimes you need to hit the slow motion Kamui counters on a boss to break their armor letting normal attacks do a little damage. So during boss battles you're mainly dodging attacks until your Kamui meter fills (it fills on its own, but goes faster when you're attacking) and then you go into Kamui state and try to hit square at the right time. This could sound like a really easy game if it wasn't that the frame window where you can hit square can be really really short. Every enemy and boss has their own specific 1/2 sec during an attack where you can hit square and a little hint pop-up will appear when you can do it. Still, being able to do it flawlessly on bosses takes some practice of getting the timing down just right or you end up dead. So it's kinda weird because it's not deep, yet it takes a good amount of skill. Once you start getting the timings down it is a pretty fun battle system though. My only complaint about the controls are that they feel a little floaty and once you attack you are basically commited to that attack and the attack frames are pretty long. Still the game gives double jump and even lets you jump on people's heads like Chun-Li so it's pretty fun.
Other things about the game are buying equipment like weapons/armor/accessories; forging upgrades to current equipment (the items needed can often only be found by doing the 'issen' type attacks on bosses and strong enemies, breaking off a piece of their armor/body which you can use later to forge onto your own weapon); and playing as two characters (you talk to the other guy [usually at the start of a dungeon] to switch over and in the dungeon there will be chests and sections that only one person can access). The actually plot setup is pretty good (reminds me of Azumi), but the actual in-game dialogue is pretty hokey and typical "OH NO HE IS RUNNING TO THE ROOF, WE MUST FOLLOW NOW" dialogue. Graphics are pretty good; backgrounds look great but the characters are pretty low polygon. Still the game holds a consistent 60fps and has some nice effects so it's fine in the visuals. Music is good but not great.
So like Onimusha (3 especially) the game is based around doing 1 hit kills with perfect timing before the enemy hits you. Here it's a little easier since they give you some indication of when you should do it; but on the other hand the bosses do pretty hard damage and there aren't always save points right before them so the game makes you practice and get your skill to par since it's a risky battle.
small note: The Japanese version is a bit censored. Before the game came out Okamoto told people it wouldn't have people being cut in half like in the US E3 demo. In the Japanese version they just spray blood and turn dark and fall down. Since the US version will include both Japanese and English voices, it will be the superior version.
Early impression grade: B
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Oz (Playtime = 2 hours+)
First of all, Sony is batshit insane for not letting this game come to the US. Whatever their actual 'complaints' were with the game they must've been BS and Sony must have an another motive (such as reducing competition for Genji which they are publishing), because Oz is excellent.
Oz is by the Suikoden III team. But it seems like they took the good parts of Suikoden III (character designs, interesting plot) and fixed most of the development team's faults and then made an action rpg. Oz is an action rpg setup in a way not unlike Chaos Legion where it's broken into episodes(levels). But unlike CL and more like a real A-Rpg, the game is filled with story that's told through 2d dialogue boxes featuring tons of gorgeous artwork (each character has many expressions) and pretty nice in-game cutscenes with full voice acting. The plot is more like one of an rpg, very interesting and epic with some mild connections to the wizard of Oz. The dialogue is pretty solid too, which is not too much of a surprise as Suikoden III had some pretty good dialogue. You can buy items and equip them between stages which also adds to the rpg feeling. The menus and overall polish of the game is really good. Music is excellent (done by the Castlevania composer), and the graphics look pretty good for the most part (excellent character designs, but framerate is somewhere in the 30fps or slightly below area [still better than SIII's 15fps ^^;]).
Gameplay is interesting. The game is described as a rythmetic action game. Basically the entire premise is that you play along with 2 AI characters and you're supposed to dizzy an enemy -> knock him in the air to a friendly AI -> they'll knock the enemy around between each other -> they'll call your name and then send it flying back to you -> you try to keep up the volley. The longer you juggle an enemy the more your super meter fills up. When it's lvl.1 or higher you can do super moves that do high damage and dizzy even huge enemies allowing you to start juggling them. Some bosses can't even be hit by normal attacks, so the goal is to juggle other things filling up your super meter and then attacking with supers. The controls are actually pretty darn good with R1 lock-on, L1 reseting the camera to what you're locked on, R2 changing targets, good dodge strafing with R1+X. O calls your AI guys to beatup whatever you have targetted and send it flying at you if possible. This is great because some enemies can only be hit in the back so you call your friends to distract the enemy while you run up behind him and take him out. The gameplay definitely takes some real time getting used to as you really got get the timing and physics down for the juggling; but once you do it's a pretty original and fun battle system. Camera is fine as you get full control...but since you'll have people volleying an enemy at you from off-screen a lot of the times, it is a bit hectic. Only way they could've improved it IMO is if they zoomed the camera out further so you could see more of the field.
So yea, heavy in story; draped in style; filled with beautiful 2d art and great music...Oz is really cool so far. If the story and gameplay pays off in the end, this could be the action-rpg of the generation and Sony are evil bastards if they don't allow it into the US.
Early impressions grade: A-
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Gundam True Odyssey (Playtime = 1:20)
Gundam TO is a traditional rpg done in a world of Gundam. You fight in various mechs and you even put your own together from various parts. So how did Bandai do on their first rpg attempt? Not too bad...
Gundam TO definitely has a very low budget feel. While the visuals are actually quite nice due in part to the great character designs and character models (surprisingly the game was made on renderware according to the box), the rest of the game has a strong lack of polish and feels more akin to a 16 or 32bit rpg than anything this generation. The characters run around towns/rooms at speed beyond human ability, the "probably should move slow" mecha all move super fast too in dungeons. While this might take away some realism, it's nice for the player because you move really fast
Also there is no voice acting at all, and the fonts and menus could easily be seen in a SFC/SNES rpg. This gives it kinda an old-school feel like Dragon Quest, which isn't really that bad of a thing. Heck the post-battle exp screen has NO SOUND and NO ANIMATION (like exp numbers moving/scrolling/something). You just have to look at the exp gained and your total exp and make a note of how much you gained.The battle system is pretty traditional. You have an energy meter that fills up 2 each round. Your various attacks cost a certain amount of energy, and your super boost attacks cost even more energy. So the idea is you either save up for a boost attack by using low-energy normal attacks or you just use high-energy strong normals. Also physical attacks are always countered unless the enemy is guarding or charging their energy (you get +1 energy if you choose to charge). Luckily the battle system tells you what move your enemy will be doing next turn ^^; This kinda makes the battles a bit easier since you can plan around what the enemy is doing but oh well...it's fun. Battles are pretty fast and the loading while not great isn't anyworse than say Xenosaga. Loading in towns is super-fast and the only real loading drag is coming out of battle because you stare at that black screen for a few secs.
You can equip your mecha/characters with any weapon as long as it fits in their equip box. Think the RE4 style suitcase or Western rpg equipment screens. You have a box area and you can put in guns/axes/swords/shields. Whatever you put in not only physically shows up on the unit in battle, but adding weapons adds new attacks under "attack".
Then you have the parts system. In my playtime I haven't gotten a chance to explore this yet, but it seems like you get pieces from beating bosses and probably through other ways and then you put them together like building a toy. For instance when I beat a boss I got a Zaku right shoulder that added some def and took away some speed. Supposedly there are about 39 Moblie Suits total that were ripped into 5 pieces each, giving around 200 individual pieces to create your own Gundam.
The game will mainly appeal to Gundam fans, and as one myself it's hard to make an objective opinion about the game. I think despite feeling rough and like a 1st generation PS2 game, it's pretty fun and player-friendly so I'm looking forward to the rest of the ride.
Early impressions grade: B+
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Kagero II (Playtime = 30 mins)
Going to keep this short because there isn't much too say about the game and I didn't play it that long.
Basically Kagero II is just like Kagero on PS but with pretty nice graphics running at a smooth 60fps. Character models are good, everything is fully voiced and overacted to be kind of hilarious in a dark way. Running around killing people with combo traps is still as fun as ever, and if you're a fan of the series or just like to torture people it'll definitely be worth picking up when it gets a US release.
Early impression grade: B+
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Bumpy Trot (Playtime = 20 mins)
I don't even know what to say about this game. Straight from the start you are dressing/customizing your characters looks; choosing how he talks to people; picking up on a girl if you want; piloting a robot (with VO style dual-analogue controls); fighting other people in robots; breaking into houses; playing your harmonica (with a system straight out of amplitude); talking to people walking around a shenmue-ish live world, and umm trying to remember your name. That was only in the first 20 mins. Later on the game promises to be filled with bus and train taking, bicycle riding, piano playing, robot arenas, and possible dating. Irem seems to have done a really cool job at making an open ended non-linear game; though this will be something that I'll have to put some real effort and time into before I can get some feelings on it. It certainly doesn't seem bad (though the game sloooowwwws down at times; I think it's still using a modifeid Zettai Zetsumei [disaster report] engine).
Early impression grade: unknown.
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Ys III remake, Oath in Felghana (playtime = 2 hours)
This game is awesome. It's gorgeous looking, runs on even the weakest computers, has a fantastic soundtrack and the upgraded battle system is just straight out awesome and fun.
You're basic attack string is now 6 hits long, and you are a FAST MAN. So when you enter an area with 10 enemies you can run from one to another chopping them all up in something like 4-5 secs. The magic attacks rock, the jumping attacks rock. The dungeons are great and towns wonderful. Really the only thing even slightly negative about this new Falcom game is that the game balance is really screwed up. Normal enemies are a piece of cake and then bosses are downright brutal. I'm actually playing two games of it side by side in Easy and Normal mode in case I get completely stuck (boss of the first dungeon in normal probably took me about 50+ retries, mini-boss took about 20 attempts). Also there's no voice acting but it's not really a big deal. Loading is ZERO seconds too which is nice.
Anyhow, I've never played the original but this game just kicks so much ass it feels worth every penny that they charge for PC games in Japan. Tons of non-stop fluid action and tough cool boss fights. Awesome, just awesome.
Early impressions grade: A-
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Ok impressions over. Yay I can finally sleep and wake up in 4 hours for work >_<
