3D Dot Game Heroes - PS3

[Cthulhu]

I'm a sucker for the "nouveau retro" style so I preordered it. Hope it's good. Did the same for Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaiki da! and it was blase at best. From totally wowed me with Demons' Souls though (I think this is a different internal group at From though) so I'm hoping for the best. I'd say I have a 70% or so success rate with on-a-whim imports.

Anyone else interested in this and (possibly) planning to get it?

[dcharlie]

been pimping 3D Dot Game Heroes to everyone.

From Software have put out two of the best games this gen (Chromehounds on X360, Demon's Souls on PS3) and this looks amazing. The art style is fantastic and it looks as, erm, "legally close" to Zelda as it could possibly be.

The ability to model your own character is going to be awesome and the action looks firmly rooted in old-skool SNES Zelda land.

Can't wait - will be picking up day 1 for sure.

[E. Randy Dupre]

I really want it, but I suspect that the language barrier will prove too much, given that it's an RPG. Fingers crossed for an Asian English language version.

[BulletMagnet]

I'm quite tempted to snag this if they localize it, though from the videos I've seen I'm not in love with the camera perspective, it looks like it could be a bit of a pain. Will wait for some impressions once they arrive.

[ZOM]

been pimping 3D Dot Game Heroes to everyone.

Same Here
Already preordered.

@Cthulhu
It's made by Silicon Studio, devs of this very interesting middleware: http://www.siliconstudio.co.jp/middlewa ... ml#daikoku. Be sure to check out "sample movie 2"!
Also, the 3D dot editor is ace; you can practically draw anything you want in a 16x16x16 "dots" cube and use it as your character.


@BulletMagnet
The in-game camera should be classic overhead for the most part of the game like these screens show:



About the trailer's perspective, I spotted an option called "Album" at the game's title screen; I assume you can change the perspective to something more "cinematic" and take snapshots for the album. Might be what they used for the trailer...

[Cthulhu]

Glad to hear others are looking forward to it. I didn't realize it was Zelda-ish, I figured it would be more traditional RPG-... um, ish. Haven't played a good Zelda-alike in a while though, so that sounds really good actually.

I'm on a limited-ish budget these days, but I just can't help but import this and Mushihimesama Futari in November...

[Elixir]

Looks like fun, although it does borrow a disgustingly large number of things from Zelda. From music to gameplay elements. I'll still order it if there's an Asian English release.

[Cthulhu]

Looks like fun, although it does borrow a disgustingly large number of things from Zelda. From music to gameplay elements. I'll still order it if there's an Asian English release.

It's been long enough since there's been good Zelda "inspired" games that I could care less how much they wholesale lift from it. The last one was ... what, Okami?

[ZOM]

Yay gameplay videos!
http://remoon.blog15.fc2.com/blog-entry-10092.html

Gotta love the huge ass swords and spelunker hardcore mode.

@Elixir
It not only borrows a disgusting amount of Zelda, it's a total rip-off of Zelda. And that's the whole point; one of the big selling points of 3D Dot Heroes is it being a parody of 8 bit action-RPGs. I mean, check out the story of the game, it's hilarious.



EDIT: Just found some info on the different view-types, some of you might find the following interesting:

3D Dot Game Heroes has 4 different view types

Type A


Type B


Type C


Type D

[BulletMagnet]

3D Dot Game Heroes has 4 different view types

"Some of us" might be interested, eh? Still, it's good to know that you can switch to the classic top-down view (or close to it) if you'd prefer; definitely one I'll keep my eye on if it gets localized.

[ZOM]

3D Dot Game Heroes has 4 different view types

"Some of us" might be interested, eh?

Haha, sorry I guess I just want that they sell enough copies because I love the idea and they deserve healthy sales for taking on such a...uhm..."risky" project.

[BulletMagnet]

Heh, no problem, always glad to hear more - if it turns out well I'll definitely try to pick it up...though one of these days I really should actually get a PS3 to play my PS3 games on.

[dcharlie]

Bumping to pimp more :

Nov 5th can't come quick enough :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78ctUr1Tnzg

[ZOM]

I'll give it another bump with the (angry)bee boss battle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmiwPM6Oi68
The framerate seems pretty nice.

[BulletMagnet]

Some of you might have already seen this, but apparently all of the game's loading screens feature parodies of older games' cover art - if the game ends up being localized, I wonder if the developers would go the extra mile and change these screens to spoof Western box art instead?

[Elixir]

I'll give it another bump with the (angry)bee boss battle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmiwPM6Oi68
The framerate seems pretty nice.

Is that really a tribute to Hibachi, or just a coincidence?

[BulletMagnet]

Not sure how "official" this is, but there certainly appear to be indications that this one's in the pipeline for localization.

[Cthulhu]

Now that I've been able to put ~3 hours into this, I figured it was time to dredge up the topic and give some opinions.

The game is great. I love the style, the retro-ness, the music, the gameplay... it's pretty much just what I wanted when I heard it was like Zelda. And like Zelda it is. Call it an homage or call it blatant thievery, but the game plays like Zelda 1 but with some elements of Link to the Past tossed in. The overworld map and dungeons look and feel like Zelda 1 (the dungeons are rectangular rooms only for crying out loud ), but you have a magic meter and spells, the ability to dash, and the towns have people you can talk to in them. I'm not far enough to say for sure yet, but I believe there are more usable items in it than in Zelda 1 as well.

The game loves to poke fun at itself and at gaming in general. It also has some references to other From games, like Armored Core and - this one I loved - Demons' Souls. You find the "I'm suffering. Please rate this." stuff on the floor in one place (I played Demons' Souls in Japanese, so I don't know what the actual English translation was), and if you say yes, the game tells you that "you feel as though someone out there has been healed." I actually laughed out loud at that one.

Despite playing so much like Zelda, the characters are mostly styled after Dragon Quest. I'm guessing they figured that if they made them look like Link they might actually get sued. There is a character editor, so you could make Link if you really wanted, however.

Overall, great game and well worth the money. I believe a US release has been confirmed, so there's not that much reason to import, but definitely give the game a go when it comes out here.

Oh, there is one negative thing about the game: lots of loading screens and no option to install the game to the HD to reduce them. Most of them are short, but they pop up a lot. There are a lot of different scenes they show while the game is loading, which is cute, but I'd rather just be able to install. Not a deal breaker by any means, but annoying. Ahh well.

[ZOM]

Yup, I'm just about to enter the last dungeon now and I'm loving it - from the gameplay to the hilarious references. Gotta love how all the sages, the King and the Princess are named after Silicon Graphics workstations

And don't forget about the sticky white stuff and unknown soldier's soul demon's souls references...

Also, this might seem a blatant Zelda rip-off but tell me what you want; 3D dot heroes is better than Zelda - Link can go die in a fire for all I care.

I don't really mind the loading screens because I love 'em

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Hmmm, I saw the huge customized swords. Don't they completely eliminate all challenge?

[ZOM]

Hmmm, I saw the huge customized swords. Don't they completely eliminate all challenge?

Well, yes and no: First things first, they're only huge if you have max HP. Second, the very super huge ones are end game stuff and only if you really go after them and also upgrade to such sizes. Personally, I haven't touched the length & width mods at blacksmith even once, indeed for the same concerns you have. But... I have to admit that getting past the later dungeons untouched is not exactly easy so you're pretty much bound to fight your way through them with normal sword size and only occasionally completely waste the enemy with a ginormous sword. (BTW the biggest sword in the game is called Ginormo Sword)

It's up to the player really, if you want a challenge you can just fight your way through with a giant tuna as weapon(I'm not kidding) or one of the two available baseball bats. Also, the plain normal sword is not upgradable - it's also an option for a bit a more challenging run.

That being said, the huge sword mechanic is fun enough to don't give a damn about difficulty level in this game. On the other hand you could also ramp up the difficulty level to "almost impossible" by playing with Spelunker(just one heart) in FROM mode(hard mode).

[Cthulhu]

Totally agree with ZOM on the swords. They do make the game easier, but as he said, it's hard to keep them at super-large size for very long. I might keep mine rather small-ish to keep the game tougher.

[Thunder Force]

I'm loving it - from the gameplay to the hilarious references. Gotta love how all the sages, the King and the Princess are named after Silicon Graphics workstations

I wonder what From Software were thinking, putting such obscure references into the game, that probably less than 1% of their customers would notice.

[Elixir]

Just got this email: "Atlus links to legends past, announces 3D Dot Game Heroes for PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system"

[ZOM]

Yeah, they just opened the 3ddotgameheroes.com page; coming to the West May 2010 for only $39.99
Looks like this'll be already the 2nd game this year that goes into my collection twice...

[CMoon]

Great news! Now if they'd just get Yakuza 3 out...

[Cthulhu]

Atlus is awesome, this game is awesome. Perfect pairing.

[ZOM]

Final boss battle is very good
Beat the game but I still have to get some swords, especially the Moonlight Sword but I just can't figure out the conditions to obtain it. Now there's "FROM mode" selectable from the start new game menu; Good opportunity to find out if the different classes actually do something...

As for the trophies... well, some of them are quite something: To even get boss related trophies, you have to beat them without getting hit. o_O
Also, there's a no miss trophy (clear game without dying)

[Cthulhu]

Only thing I'm really wishing the game had - some sort of quest log. It'd be really handy since these days I have to skip playing for big chunks of time on occasion. Not a huge problem, but it would have been very nice.

[Cthulhu]

Just got the fish "sword" and I laughed out loud. Totally hilarious, totally awesome. Yeah, fish-as-a-weapon has been done as a gag in games many a time, but the one in this game is just especially hilarious.

I think I'm about 50% done now and I'm totally loving this game. The farther I get, the better it gets.