I would like you to post your first impressions. The game looks unique. I am hesitant on getting because of the totally different battle system as well as the increased price tag.
Well since you asked I'll tell you my thoughts then.
At first I did not like this game one bit... I'm going to post what I wrote on Hadaway then give you my further thoughts.
First play through
I know that many have been wondering about this game and trying to decided whether or not to get it. So mind you I'm only on Day 2 and have only played for about 1 hour so my impression is really a complete first impression.
First turning on the game you get an intro with some nice voice acting. However, the intro is VERY short and if you didn't read the information on this game you would have no idea what the deal is with Neku (main character) or what's going on. As you go on to play into the game some there are WAY to many help menus and information to read though. The first day to the game is WAY to fast all you do is meet the girl become partners beat 3 monsters and it's the end.
Controls are rather annoying to some extent. When it battle you have these pins that you use and these produce attacks. You just happen to randomly have some with no clue how they got in your pocket and all attacks are controlled on the touch screen. Some of which are hard to control. There is no way to defend yourself. You run from one side of the screen to the other and hope your attacks hit. One thing that's really confusing is that in some battles your partner is on the top screen so you have to fight on both the top and bottom at the time. Using the control pad to hit combos on the top and the styles to hit monsters on the bottom it's quite challenging.
Needless to say my first impressions of this game aren't the greatest. The one thing I do really like is the artwork. With a comic book style of art it gives a nice crisp different feel that you just don't get in many games. I say that I deffinetly need more time with this game to give a better impression.
Second play through
I've now played for about 4 hours and it's a VERY complex game. I plan to continue, but I'm afraid I'll never get the hang of a dual battle system. Especially when it comes to combo fusion attacks. Controlling two battles on the top and bottom screen is enough, but then you have to do a match game on the top with the game pad while using the stylus on the bottom to battle on both screens at the same time. It's freaking NUTS!
So far also the storyline still sucks. So at this point 4 hours in I would not recommend this game to anyone for a buy. Only if you could get it used for like $10 it's a bargain bin game right now in my mind. I'll push forward and as I learn more I'll post and once I'm done with the game I'll write a review.
Third play through
Okay a little more info on this. You can just set the top player as auto and you'll still be able to get the fusion attacks. Though it's a LOT slow but still it works. If you do get skilled enough though when you are battling a puck gets passed from the top and bottom screen. This is how you boost your attack. The faster you can pass the puck the stronger your attack will be. I've heard that some people have gotten their attack to x9 o_O. I've only managed a x3 and that's on auto.
Anyways I thought I'd give a little more detail about the battle system too. You get what's called pins at that beginning of the game. These have different attacks such as fire, throwing, psychic balls and so forth. You get more pins from random people and from winning key battles. Each Pin has a certain way to use it and they level up with PP (pin points). Like the fire you just run the stylus over empty space and you'll get a strip of fire. Lightening you have to just tap the monster. There is a pin that lets you through anything lying around at monsters and you just run the stylus over it then lift it up in the direction you want to throw stuff.
At the start you can only wear 2 pins into battle. As you progress the max you can wear is 6. Pins are set into what's called decks and you can have 3 at a time. You can set them as sub pins too that when you hold down the L button then the Pin shows on the top of the screen. One cool thing is that your pins will gain PP even when the game is turned off. You don't get this ability till day 2, but it's cool because there are some pins early on that you might not care for so you can just assign them when you're not playing and they will level up.
The reason I say there are some you might not care for is because I personally don't like how all of them work, but different areas the monsters might not be affected by some attacks. Just like in other RPG games monsters can be weak to one element and absorb another. So you need to be careful of what you use and when.
Anyways I'm still not far into the game just on Chapter 1 Day 3, and I'm not liking it all that much. I'll be plugging away at it as the week progresses. But I hope now those that asked me for information on the game have enough to make their decision on.
I was told by noodle that the board in the game is not a Quija board and you only use it 2 maybe 3 times in the entire game. It's called something like a reaper board and it only has yes, no or maybe as answers on it when you answer a few questions. It's much later in the game apparently.
What I think about it now after giving it more of a chance:
I'm finding the game to be quite complex, but even with the second player as auto in battle you can still get all that you can doing it yourself. It's just a bit slower. There is so much you can customize in the game from the items you can wear the pins you use in battle and even food you can eat. When you have food it takes bites to consume and these are done with each battle. The food you raises stats permenetly and also increases your sync rate which is great for auto battle gamers.
If I explained everything it would seem over whelming, but the game is easy to get use to and you catch on quick. To some it still wouldn't be worth the full price ticket, but to others it really is. For me I think it's still to soon to say, but I do play it every night before I go to bed. ^_^
