Checked a few 3DS demos to make sure they could be played with my wonky Y (and L?) buttons and half-broken circle pad. The results are as follows:
7th Dragon III Code: VFD – Works like a charm. I can run with either the circle pad or the direction pad and the Y button doesn’t seem to be used for anything too significant. Control issues aside, me playing the demo was just a formality. “Whether” I would play 7th Dragon III was never the question, it was always a matter of “when.” Still I was a bit worried when that mascot character started bossing my team around, seeing as I have bad memories of being ordered around by bureacrats from 7th Dragon 2020. But it seems like Nodens is just going to toss me into various time periods and leave me to fend for myself, which is just peachy. As a bonus I even get some rewards for carrying over my demo save data. Sweet!
Yo-kai Watch – Very cute and colorful, I really like the look of it and the small-town feel. The Y button is used for a radar, but you can use your stylus to tap on the option instead so there was no problem as long as I consciously avoided touching that button. The problem was the battle system – it is seriously messy. It’s just all over the place: you have your yokai attacking at the top, then you have to be spinning wheels and drawing symbols and tapping balls and doing all manner of things on the bottom screen while the enemies are having a field day with your party.
I scraped through the three demo fights and thought I was getting the hang of it, then the demo boss wiped me out completely orz. I hear Yo-kai Watch is the premier kids’ franchise in Japan today, but I can’t imagine myself as a kid begging my parents for this. “Please Daddy, make it stop!” is more like it. Still I like the aesthetics enough that I’m up to trying one of the later games with hopefully better gameplay. Very cute stuff.
Stella Glow – The prologue is kinda of talky but… ah, who am I kidding, I LOVE IT! And I love the meatiness of the demo, which is only brought down by the fact that I can’t carry over any save data to the real game. As long as they let me skip the prologue I’ll be very, very happy. In fact I’m very happy already. Bright happy colors, quick snappy gameplay and both Hilda and Lisette are potentially good waifus. If only they would talk a little less… but it’s that kind of game so I’ll roll with it. As a bonus Stella Glow makes me feel better about not liking Summon Night 5. It’s not me, it’s them for sure!
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity – The only failure on this list. I’m not really into Pokemon but I am into easy roguelikes, and I liked the relatively brighter, lighter atmosphere in this one. I would seriously consider playing it but the controls let me down. I got into the first cave and Pikachu would not, could not move. Oh he could turn in place all right, he could try to use moves, he could point diagonally but he just could not move forward. As far as I can tell, the Y button isn’t used for moving but instead the B + Directional Pad, but no amount of pressing and cajoling could make him take a single step forward. ;____; Oh well, there are always the earlier installments. And 3 out of 4 demos ain’t bad.
Now back to the games I should be playing instead of thinking about my next moves.
I’m pretty sure the Pokemon Mystery Dungeons have an option where, if you hold down a button, all the directions let you just turn that way instead of move to the next tile. You know, so you can face a different enemy to attack without having actually move around and let them get a hit in. That’s probs what’s wrong, your broken 3DS registering that button as being held down.
7th Dragon III uses the Y button for the field skills. You know, those quick exit/healing kind of party skills that don’t cost a characters MP and instead have charges, refreshed by resting at HQ. More a crutch for higher difficulties than a necessity.
The demo for Yo-kai Watch is outright terrible. I think the main game is still kind of boring and meh, cute designs for the critters nonwithstanding, but the demo makes it out to be even worse. As for the battles, just imagine them being on real time auto-play as far as normal attacking goes, all the touch screen minigame stuff – and thus you as a player having to participate in the ongoings – simply comes in for activating special skills and such. It feels a lot less hectik after a while of getting used to it, even if there’s still too much annoying minigame-touchscreening for my taste.
I’ll pass on Yo-kai Watch for now. I’m not that hard up for games yet and I really didn’t enjoy it.
I like how Hilda is just the purple witch from Luminous Arc 2 except… smaller
Nothing wrong with recycling a good waifu. Lisette’s attitude and skillset also remind me of Eruru in Luminous Arc 3.
(Long time no see, Davzz. I thought for sure Granblue had swallowed you alive :p)
Been a bit busy, I should go and comment on the more recent posts one day
No need to go that far ^^;; I’m just glad to know you’re still alive.
Btw, if I may ask, since I believe to remember you playing Criminal Girls, and saw Invite Only is on Steam:
Does the game have any merit when it comes to the actual Dungeon Crawler part? Discussion seems to usuall be about… different aspects of the experience.
I loved Criminal Girls. Loved, loved, loved it. Except for the “different aspects of the experience” bit. As a dungeon crawler it was excellent. Not too long, not too short, not too easy, not too hard, no need to grind but it’s easy to grind if you want to, there’s good differentiation in the characters and their abilities and you can use just about any party to good effect and the girls all grow and develop and grow on you and grow to like you and it’s all so much fun ^_____________^
I especially liked the suggestion-based combat, though it seems to be hit-or-miss with most people. I thought the character AI was very good about coming up with useful suggestions in almost all situations, and you could do a suggestion refresh if you didn’t like their ideas.
Downsides: the torture gimmick is really vile. The dungeons are a little too short, straightforward and easy to navigate. The story is kinda unbelievable, even for a game. Some bosses are just cheats. Some characters (Alice in particular) are overpowered. Game is short compared to most dungeon crawlers and lacks replay value.
Overall: highly recommended as long as you’re not looking for anything too meaty or challenging. And as long as you don’t have a problem with torture.