Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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cj iwakura
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by cj iwakura »

I was never skeptical, VW do no wrong.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by Dawn111 »

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is easily one of my favorite games I've played. Leifthrasir is an incredible remake of Odin Sphere.
It recreates & enhances everything I liked about the original, & it even adds tons of new skills that make the game so fun.
I had alot of fun playing all of the characters. My personal favorite character is Velvet because she's really sexy & badass.
I even streamed the game this year. I'll be uploading my Odin Sphere Leifthrasir playthough on my secondary YT channel.
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https://youtube.com/DawnHibiki
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by BulletMagnet »

Aforementioned remaster confirmed as coming west in the spring.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by Air Master Burst »

Oh dope, GrimGrimoire might be my favorite console RTS of that generation.

Not that it matters much to me personally, none of the cool Japanese releases I want ever come to PC anyway.
King's Field IV is the best Souls game.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by Necronopticous »

Instant pre-order on that Collector’s Edition.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by cj iwakura »

Air Master Burst wrote:Oh dope, GrimGrimoire might be my favorite console RTS of that generation.

Not that it matters much to me personally, none of the cool Japanese releases I want ever come to PC anyway.
Isn't it the only one? :P But yeah, it's a great game, dearly loved the PS2 version.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by Air Master Burst »

There's also the Kessen and Pikmin games, as well as Goblin Commander and probably a few others I'm forgetting.
King's Field IV is the best Souls game.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by BulletMagnet »

Western release dates for the GrimGrimoire remaster; April 4th for NA, April 7th for Europe.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by BulletMagnet »

Want some 20th anniversary merch? 'Course ya do.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by kid aphex »

Also, the GrimGrimoire demo is out for those who want to try it.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

So, you guys seen the trailer for Unicorn Overlord? Terrible name, but it looks up my alley.
However, I can't quite tell what kind of strategy game it will be (similar to Ogre Battle, perhaps?). I hope you have a bit more control over the combat,
as I remember thinking the Ogre Battle games felt too "off hand". There was a game that Nippon Ichi made a game called "Soul Nomad" that was similar to Ogre Battle, but
it was more complex and kept my interest. The story was bad, so that hurt it. So, maybe VN can make that formula work for me (I know the story will be better than NIS, as they
couldn't really write anything but weird comedy).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bmh1B-sglo

I'm almost tempted to give 13 Sentinels a look, despite vowing to never purchase a VN. I'm guessing it's one and done? Is it an interesting experience?
Any repetition problems that some older VW games had? I felt they cleared that up decently with DC and the remake of OS (if you don't count going thru the game
multiple times).
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by guigui »

evil_ash_xero wrote: Thu Sep 21, 2023 1:28 pm I'm almost tempted to give 13 Sentinels a look, despite vowing to never purchase a VN. I'm guessing it's one and done? Is it an interesting experience?
Any repetition problems that some older VW games had? I felt they cleared that up decently with DC and the remake of OS (if you don't count going thru the game
multiple times).
I'm also interested in hearing this community return on 13 sentinels. Please give opinions if you played it.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by ZellSF »

Unicorn Overlord gives me Grand Knights History / GrimGrimoire vibes. Not to say it won't be a good game (GrimGrimoire is fun), but it looks a bit like a lower budget Vanillaware title. Still there day one of course and glad Vanillaware isn't listening to the people who want them to only make action RPGs.

13 Sentinels is pretty great, but I'm not sure anyone who doesn't like VNs should try it. Anime and Sci-fi references is pretty much what it is. That and the strategy game thing, which I did find fun, but I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone buy 13 Sentinels for it. 13 Sentinels is all about the art, music and story. It does all of those pretty well, but how much you like the story is as mentioned is entirely dependent on how much you like Anime and Sci-fi.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

ZellSF wrote: Fri Sep 22, 2023 1:21 pm Unicorn Overlord gives me Grand Knights History / GrimGrimoire vibes. Not to say it won't be a good game (GrimGrimoire is fun), but it looks a bit like a lower budget Vanillaware title. Still there day one of course and glad Vanillaware isn't listening to the people who want them to only make action RPGs.

13 Sentinels is pretty great, but I'm not sure anyone who doesn't like VNs should try it. Anime and Sci-fi references is pretty much what it is. That and the strategy game thing, which I did find fun, but I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone buy 13 Sentinels for it. 13 Sentinels is all about the art, music and story. It does all of those pretty well, but how much you like the story is as mentioned is entirely dependent on how much you like Anime and Sci-fi.
Damn game is 60 bucks on PSN. I would be more open to experimenting if it still didn't have it's day one price.
You can get it under 30 dollars, physically though. However, I tend to play digitally, and buy the physical version if I really like it.
I'm not big into changing discs anymore. :lol:
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by cfx »

I don't think Unicorn Overlord is my type of strategy game, but nothing about it looks low budget to me.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by cj iwakura »

Yeah, it gives me a Vanillaware "b-team" vibe to it. I'm sure a lot of love went into it, but it's not going to be as grandiose in scope as, say, 13 Sentinels or Odin Sphere, it's more like a brisk experiment a la Grand Knights History.

Still interested, of course(and the name's awesome).
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

Scrolling thru it's wiki, it's not directed by George, but it took 10 years to make. It's also touted as their biggest game.

The trailer certainly seems a bit full of itself with the "rebirth of tactical fantasy RPGs". Which isn't bad, but I don't think they would hype it up if
it was just some sort of experiment.

Time will tell.

EDIT: Looking more into, it seems to be a large affair, with a very expensive collector's edition. I don't know what the quality will be, but I don't think it will be a "brisk experiment".
Honestly, I would say 13 Sentinels is FAR more experimental (certainly not brisk, though).

The production doesn't seem as amazing as on 13 Sentinels. But it seems to be going for a bit of that "Octopath Traveler" thing. So, it looks A-OK compared to those. Especially with the story and battle sequences being rendered in VW imagery.
Last edited by evil_ash_xero on Wed Sep 27, 2023 6:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

I downloaded 13 Sentinels.

It's not really a game. It's software... But I knew this going in. It's a visual novel, with some light strat elements.
I'll have to see how the overall experience affects me. The story and characters will be the savior or downfall of this game. And I hear
they're pretty good.

The presentation is GORGEOUS. I mean, wow. You can tell they put so much effort into this. I can see why it took so long.
The story is very unusual. I'm like "OK OK... what?". So, that's kind of good, keeps me surprised.

Can you make choices in this game, or anything like that? It seems like I just interact and follow along. I don't know if I really ever get to change the plot
a bit.

As one poster said, if you don't like Visual Novels, this isn't for you. Unless you're in love with Vanillaware's presentation, and are open minded to basically an interactive story.
Which I was. We'll see how it pans out. I still can't get over the presentation though... wow. Makes me wish they would do more sci-fi.

I still have to say, this is one of the strangest follow ups I have ever seen. They reached a peak of sales and notoriety with Dragon's Crown (my favorite game of theirs), and they followed it up with
a VN. So bizarre. Most VNs I have seen are low budget Japanese efforts, that are either kinda dating things or pervy. Static images and all that too. This game you can move around and whatnot.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by cj iwakura »

It's not just a VN, it's also an RTS. You'll see.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by guigui »

Definitely looking forward to hearing more from your run of 13 sentinels. Keep us posted.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

guigui wrote: Thu Sep 28, 2023 7:53 am Definitely looking forward to hearing more from your run of 13 sentinels. Keep us posted.
Since you requested.

I'm still pretty early on. Maybe 6 or so hours in? It's basically an interactive comic book. You walk around and talk to people, and pick things up and whatnot. The story is front and center. It's also
pretty linear, as you can't choose too much. Not much decision making. There is a little, to where you can 100 percent the game, but I haven't come across any "are they gonna die" kind of moments.
The strategy part is very simplistic. It's strangely minimalistic and confusing at the same time. You'd know if you saw it. You can crank the difficulty up on the RTS sections, if you want more of a challenge (it's pretty breezy, otherwise).

That being said, I am enjoying it. It's an interesting anomaly in my collection. If it wasn't Vanillaware doing the art, I wouldn't have gotten it though. Their artwork goes a LONG way. And I really can't express how lovely it is in this game. It's probably my favorite looking game of theirs. The shading and lighting really take it to another level. The story in this
is entertaining, thus far. Very anime, but it has a lot of likeable characters and a strange plot that keeps me interested. Good sense of humor as well (it works really well for this game).

I play for about 1 or so hours a day in between action gaming. I think you can get this for around 25-30 bucks on EBay, new, so that's a good "try it and see" price. I bought it digitally, so I had to shell
out the whole 60 (I then bought the physical :lol:). I don't really regret it, though. I look forward to more "normal" gaming stuff from VW, that being said. Really risky move to make a game like this, I'd say. Definitely a "labor of love".
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by guigui »

^ thanks for the follow up, nice read.

I think this can be a game I'm interested in : Visual Novel with gorgeous artwork, nice plot, a little gameplay twist for a VN.
Also it recently went on sale digital on Switch for less than $20, so the plunge will be taken next time this happens I guess.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

A bit of an update. I finished 13 Sentinels today.
My comments about it being an interactive comic book with some light strategy elements still sticks.
However, I found the story to be quite engrossing, and I was very into it by the end. I feel like if it was a manga, it would be a good read.
I say that because I don't feel like most video game stories are written very well, and can't really stand outside the medium. Personal opinion.
If you're up for something like this, I'd recommend it. I found myself thinking about the story when I'd wake up wondering "well what did that mean?!".
It was a good time.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by ZellSF »

If you liked 13 Sentinels, you really shouldn't be actively trying to avoid visual novels, they're very similar things.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

There's some new footage out that looks great, but it's in Japanese.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkVZnNc2gPI
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

The demo's out on all platforms now.

For the record, I found it to be very fun. Unless the full game screws something up, this should be a good one.
ZellSF wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2023 1:25 pm If you liked 13 Sentinels, you really shouldn't be actively trying to avoid visual novels, they're very similar things.
Well, my main issue is that I'll probably never play them again. I feel that if you have a story to tell, you should use another medium. Like graphic novels or something.
I can respect VW wanting to make something like that, and they had a heck of a story to tell. But other than playing around with infinite strategy stuff, I'll never play it again.
I did buy a friend's weeb daughter a copy, but I don't think she's played much of it at all. Shame.

I do find it to be a work of art. But visual novels aren't really games to me, and I doubt many of them have a story like that one. I got really into it. I was telling my mom about it, and she just
nodded off. :lol:

On a side note, I tried out the Grim Grimoire Again demo, and I'm really not into it. I'm surprised that VW didn't add more backgrounds to the remake. Still, I don't know if it would
have really helped it a ton, for me. I might mess around with it again.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

So, no one is playing this? Not much of a love-in. It's causing quite the stir, elsewhere.
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by cfx »

Being discussed in the 'sarpig' thread...
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Re: Vanillaware love-in (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, etc.)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

Ah, never saw that thread before.
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