3DS Catch-all

I'm not sure at this point whether I found Theatrhythm worth the $40 based on nostalgia, gameplay, or a combination of the two. I've already shared my thoughts on the mechanics, both good and bad, and indeed find them to really keep the game interesting towards the latter aspects of the Chaos Temple.

But I can understand how some will not find $40 worth of game there. I just think that is a matter of taste rather than pointing out how "empty" the game is, as for me it has paid for itself quite a bit and I haven't even explored some of its deeper depths.

That's what an iPad stylus is for >_>

A what?!

Learn something new every day.

Friendly reminder: Crimson Shroud is out on the eShop tomorrow, created by Yasumi Matsuno. His other works include Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII, Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together, Ogre Battle 64, and MadWorld.

Here's a review by Jeremy Parish. If I hadn't already known I was buying the game, it would have piqued my interest. It's apparently a game you'll either love or hate.

I'm hearing it'll be $8.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

If you missed Theatrhythm on the 3DS or just really, really like microtransactions, it's going to be released shortly on iOS devices as a free-to-download game with for-pay characters and songs.

Oooooooooooooooooor, you can get it for $19.99 + free shipping on the Squeenix store right now.

Not sure how long the deal lasts.

Dyni wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

If you missed Theatrhythm on the 3DS or just really, really like microtransactions, it's going to be released shortly on iOS devices as a free-to-download game with for-pay characters and songs.

Oooooooooooooooooor, you can get it for $19.99 + free shipping on the Squeenix store right now.

Not sure how long the deal lasts.

Why play it on a dead handheld when you could play it on a ZOMG iOS DEVICE?

In other news: Crimson Shroud isn't available in the eShop, yet. Come on, Nintendo!

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Dyni wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

If you missed Theatrhythm on the 3DS or just really, really like microtransactions, it's going to be released shortly on iOS devices as a free-to-download game with for-pay characters and songs.

Oooooooooooooooooor, you can get it for $19.99 + free shipping on the Squeenix store right now.

Not sure how long the deal lasts.

Why play it on a dead handheld when you could play it on a ZOMG iOS DEVICE?

In other news: Crimson Shroud isn't available in the eShop, yet. Come on, Nintendo!

Wait... the 3DS is dead? But I just got one less than a week ago %$#&

/snark

The 3DS was stillborn by virtue of being a handheld in a world of ZOMG iOS DEVICES.

Anyway, downloaded my copy of Crimson Shroud. It's essentially a visual novel with an old school AD&D-style combat system attached. They even went so far as to make the characters and enemies look like miniatures placed in little dioramas. I haven't made it too far in, yet, but I like what I've played so far.

Cross-posted from the JRPG thread:

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Finally! Unchained Blades will be available for the 3DS on January 3rd. It'll be an eShop-only release for $29.99.

Mega Man 1-6 are going to be released on the 3DS Virtual Console, starting with Mega Man 1 on December 27th and Mega Man 2 on February 7th 2013. (Source)

Eh, it's not ideal, and they'll be releasing at a snail's pace, but I'll take it.

Which ones are the good ones?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Which ones are the good ones?

I prefer 2 and 3. Hard to say if they're better than the later ones, since nostalgia is a key factor. I've always thought 1 was too hard.

I was actually able to beat 6, which is the only one I actually owned. I played through 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 all at a friend's house one weekend as a kid, but I can't for the life of me recall if any seemed particularly better. I just recall them becoming easier as the numbers went higher.

Mega Man 2 and 3 are the best ones. Mega Man 1 is also very good but after playing 2 & 3, it's really hard to revisit 1. The series goes downhill after 3. MM4 is merely decent with 5+6 being borderline terrible in comparison to the earlier titles.

You can't go wrong with MM 1-3. MM 4-6 is on you.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

The 3DS was stillborn by virtue of being a handheld in a world of ZOMG iOS DEVICES.

Anyway, downloaded my copy of Crimson Shroud. It's essentially a visual novel with an old school AD&D-style combat system attached. They even went so far as to make the characters and enemies look like miniatures placed in little dioramas. I haven't made it too far in, yet, but I like what I've played so far.

REALLY quite enjoying this as well. I wish there were a few more little areas to explore on each map, but I'm only in chapter 2 at the moment so for all I know it opens up a bit later.

stevenmack wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

The 3DS was stillborn by virtue of being a handheld in a world of ZOMG iOS DEVICES.

Anyway, downloaded my copy of Crimson Shroud. It's essentially a visual novel with an old school AD&D-style combat system attached. They even went so far as to make the characters and enemies look like miniatures placed in little dioramas. I haven't made it too far in, yet, but I like what I've played so far.

REALLY quite enjoying this as well. I wish there were a few more little areas to explore on each map, but I'm only in chapter 2 at the moment so for all I know it opens up a bit later.

What he said. The style of this game made me buy it.... I've only purchased two other 3DS titles, so that's saying something. So far, so good!

If either of you get stuck in Chapter Two...

Spoiler:

You'll hit a point where you can't unlock a door in Walk in Reverie and The Confessional is too dark to explore. To progress, you'll need to go grind skeleton encounters in Gerseym Waterway.

Not too crazy about that bit, myself.

Edit: Gah! More specifically:

Spoiler:

You need to kill the skeletal archers first to summon a skeletal mage. Only the skeletal mages drop the item you need.

Okay, I'm officially fed up with grinding in Chapter Two of Crimson Shroud. stevenmack, your Backloggery says you're into Chapter Three. How long did it take you to grind for what you needed to get there?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Okay, I'm officially fed up with grinding in Chapter Two of Crimson Shroud. stevenmack, your Backloggery says you're into Chapter Three. How long did it take you to grind for what you needed to get there?

Er...I must have completely fluked my way through it because the second time I returned to the dark room, I had some item I never noticed picking up which lit up the place.

If memory serves it was just the two - maybe three - fights I had in the waterway. Have you returned to the dark room at all to see if you maybe already have it and didn't notice collecting it? Until you mentioned it above I had no idea it was even looking for an item drop, I thought it was just some story thing I accidentally skipped through or something!?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Okay, I'm officially fed up with grinding in Chapter Two of Crimson Shroud. stevenmack, your Backloggery says you're into Chapter Three. How long did it take you to grind for what you needed to get there?

It took me about an hour, and frankly unless the plot has some kind of Bioshock level twist at the end to make up for it, chapter two may have cost this game a spot on my game of the year list. Which is a shame as I'm really liking the mechanics of the game, and the story is enjoyable even if the scope of it is much smaller then Matsuno's previous work.

Soul Hackers for 3DS has been confirmed for a U.S. release. (Link) I don't know much about the game but I've had it called the best of the pre-Nocturne SMT games. Based on the site, the closest comparison we have to it would probably be Strange Journey as it looks like its the same kind of first person dungeon crawler.

IHateDRM wrote:

[U]nless the plot has some kind of Bioshock level twist at the end to make up for it, chapter two may have cost this game a spot on my game of the year list. Which is a shame as I'm really liking the mechanics of the game, and the story is enjoyable even if the scope of it is much smaller then Matsuno's previous work.

Likewise. Two freaking hours of grinding skeletons before I got what I needed. >:|

ClockworkHouse wrote:
IHateDRM wrote:

[U]nless the plot has some kind of Bioshock level twist at the end to make up for it, chapter two may have cost this game a spot on my game of the year list. Which is a shame as I'm really liking the mechanics of the game, and the story is enjoyable even if the scope of it is much smaller then Matsuno's previous work.

Likewise. Two freaking hours of grinding skeletons before I got what I needed. >:|

I just noticed you're over 7 hours going into chapter 3!?

I think I must have dodged a grind-bullet somewhere along the way as I just started Chapter 4 and I'm somewhere around the 4 and a half hour mark.

So in the end where did most people land on Kid Icarus? In terms of whether it was a must-play game, etc. I have some credit and looking at the spectrum of 3DS games available that's the most attractive one to me that I don't own or haven't played. Mostly because it's something completely new.

DSGamer wrote:

So in the end where did most people land on Kid Icarus?

I think it s a fantastic game. There is genuine humor, a sliding challenge scale and a crazy amount of content. The controls take a little getting used to but once I "got it" they were great. In your case (well-documented problem with comfort on handhelds) I would steer clear.

Yeah, I'm not sure how to recommend Kid Icarus. Then again, it's not all that different from any other Stylus-Heavy DS game when you get right down to it. So if you could play a game like, say, Phantom Hourglass I imagine (don't own that one myself), then you should be able to play Kid Icarus fine enough.

Atras wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

So in the end where did most people land on Kid Icarus?

I think it s a fantastic game. There is genuine humor, a sliding challenge scale and a crazy amount of content. The controls take a little getting used to but once I "got it" they were great. In your case (well-documented problem with comfort on handhelds) I would steer clear.

I'm doing better with the 3DS XL, actually. Maybe it's hubris, but between the XL and the Vita I find current handhelds to be very comfortable overall. Once I got used to the 3DS XL, at least. The only thing that bothers me these days is that I get a little bit of pain bending to reach the D-Pad on the XL. And even with that I've found a grip that works and I'm still playing NSMB and a number of Gameboy games that are pretty action heavy. So it's not inconceivable these days that I could play it. I just wasn't sure how it was as a video game.

I'd still advise that you stay away. It's the only game that has ever given me hand pain on the XL, and it happened pretty fast. I struggle to play for more than about 15 minutes without the pain being distracting.

Kid Icarus: Uprising is my favorite 3DS game without question and one of the best games I've played in years. But seriously, DSGamer, given your history of ergonomics issues with handhelds, I'd avoid this one, even on an XL.

Kid Icarus is the only handheld game that's ever given me hand cramps. I made it halfway through the game before I decided the pain wasn't worth finishing it. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone simply because of the way players have hold the 3DS due to forced touch screen controls.

Y'know, I KNOW I've played other DS games that require stylus controls only, yet never has it been a problem until Kid Icarus.

stevenmack wrote:

I just noticed you're over 7 hours going into chapter 3!?

I think I must have dodged a grind-bullet somewhere along the way as I just started Chapter 4 and I'm somewhere around the 4 and a half hour mark.

Yep. And then Chapter Three took me just 45 minutes. I lost a bit of time when I died in combat and hadn't saved in awhile, but there was definitely a lot of time spent grinding skeletons in there.

spider_j wrote:

It's the only game that has ever given me hand pain on the XL.

Mystic Violet wrote:

Kid Icarus is the only handheld game that's ever given me hand cramps.

I didn't have any kind of hand pain while playing it for 20-odd hours, but it is interesting that so many people who normally don't have any problems with handheld games had a problem with this one. Out of curiosity, did either of you try the game with the stand? I never bothered with it, but, like I said, I didn't have any problems with the controls, either.