Lastly completed Growlanser. General it was sport; most likely the sport I’ve loved probably the most within the 1999 set. It’s not the commonest SRPG, although. Most likely 2/3 of the sport is dialogue (in the event you hearken to all of the voiced strains), and the battles themselves are pretty quick due to the real-time nature of the system.
For the evaluation I’m going to again to classes that I made some time again, though I gained’t assign a degree worth to them. On the finish of the publish I’ll go over the ultimate battle.
General the graphics are good. The designers fortunately didn’t attempt to go together with the 3D fashions that so many firms had been attempting, and each the character visuals and the world graphics are effective. You possibly can say they don’t exploit the total potential of the PS1 I assume, however I feel the sprites I feel are large enough that they’re distinctive however sufficiently small that the seen space of the map is first rate.
The music was not very memorable to me (good or unhealthy). The sound will get excessive marks for the massive quantity of voiced dialogue, even in facet scenes.
The story is expansive and attention-grabbing. There are loads of twists and turns, and alternate components of the story that each one get wrapped up in the long run. Apparently Growlanser II takes place in the identical time, and III is 1000 years earlier than, so the entire thing will get fleshed out extra in these video games.
The system, which I described within the earlier posts, works rather well for probably the most half. I mentioned earlier than that I didn’t like most of those real-time “concern orders” SRPGs which have come up up to now, however Growlanser handled the issues of these video games. I by no means felt just like the characters weren’t doing what I wished them to do, or that I used to be having to mash buttons to get the menus to return up. There’s combine between magic and combating, with each being helpful in their very own methods. Maybe the one concern is that the magic utilizing characters are usually not as clearly distinguished as they might be, with most having the ability to study kind of the identical inventory of spells.
The map design is sweet as nicely. Of the 70 or so story/occasion battles, not very might of them are simply “beat the enemies.” Normally there’s some sort of separate process you must do (usually defending NPCs). One potential disadvantage is that lots of the maps would not have a lot in the way in which of strategic chokepoints or different such obstacles. That is most likely factor as a result of the pathfinding not often turns into a difficulty, nevertheless it does imply that typically the battles are simply “ship your guys in direction of the enemies” with none actual obstacles blocking you.
The steadiness is OK. I feel I tipped the size through the use of a walkthrough to get beginning participant construct for the MC — I didn’t fairly notice that this was setting stat growths fairly than simply preliminary stats, which meant that the MC was considerably higher than each different character. I feel the steadiness additionally relies upon rather a lot on which abilities you study on your characters, as some are higher than others. However, you may nearly at all times discover a place to grind some further ranges and cash. (The exception right here is the ultimate battle, which is an unwelcome enormous issue spike, however I’ll cowl this on the finish of the publish)
No actual complaints concerning the interface. I hope sooner or later we’ll attain the time when interface is taken as a right and doesn’t should be specified. However I do need to reiterate the 2 issues that I actually appreciated concerning the battle interface — it mechanically brings up the command window for individuals who have accomplished their transfer or spell, and you may press the menu button throughout an assault animation to mechanically convey up the orders window after the animation ends. I discovered that this was not at all times foolproof, nevertheless it labored more often than not.
The principle extras are one non-obligatory dungeon, some non-obligatory coliseum battles, and totally different ending sequences relying on what character you may have the very best friendship with on the finish.
And now the ultimate battle, which aggravated me.
First off, you must undergo an occasion battle plus a number of grunt enemy battles and a bunch of story sequences to succeed in this remaining battle — happily on an emulator you may simply save state firstly of the battle in order that’s not a difficulty, however on condition that the battle took me round 15 tries to win that may have been fairly irritating on an actual console.
The issue with this battle is that as you may see, you begin with all of your guys clustered in a bunch with 11 enemies. All of them assault, and the principle one you must destroy has a really excessive harm magic assault. You solely should beat the principle head to win, nevertheless it begins with very excessive protection that goes down as you destroy the components. I usually had a tough time simply getting my characters to outlive to take a couple of flip, particularly the spellcasters. I attempted utilizing buff spells however I discovered I couldn’t get these off after which additionally do therapeutic. Apparently you may get monsters within the remaining dungeon to drop objects that heal everybody to full HP, you probably have a few of these it could be simpler.
What lastly labored for me was to start out off by switching equipment — MC outfitted a Pegasus factor that elevated his casting time, and Ariost and Ruise each outfitted those that scale back magic harm. They then targeted solely on utilizing Therapeutic (and Superb to repair stone/paralysis if mandatory) whereas MC casts Twister. The twister hits 10 of the 11 enemies, however the one out of his vary absorbs twister harm anyway. The opposite two characters assault the encompassing enemies.
With this technique and a few luck, I used to be in a position to get sufficient of the enemies defeated that I felt i might change MC to utilizing Soul Power on the pinnacle, and from right here he went down fairly shortly.
There’s additionally a time restrict for not simply this battle however the grunt enemies beforehand — I wasn’t even near hitting the restrict, although, so I’m undecided that issues all that a lot.
I don’t very similar to these sudden issue spikes on remaining battles. Normally once I attain the ultimate battle I’m prepared to complete that sport and transfer on to a different one. It’s most likely not good to have a battle you simply mash buttons and win it doesn’t matter what, nevertheless it’s most likely clear from the variety of video games I’ve dropped on the remaining battle that I’m not within the temper for attempting a remaining battle a ton of occasions or doing a bunch of grinding. However which may simply be my very own bizarre feeling.
Anyway, Growlanser took me a month however I’m lastly completed. 7 extra video games for 1999.
