This is actually more of a 'first impressions' thread as I am only four hours in, but the idea behind the topic's title can be ascertained prior to even getting halfway through. When I first started this game I was greeted by a very standard religious people telling me what to do, me having trained blah blah omg another Atlus published RPG OH SHITS. Then I had my first fight and discovered that it was a pretty by the numbers Strategy RPG title. I turned the game off and played some Halo 2.
I did some thinking this morning and decided to just take it for what it was and plow through the first few chapters. By chapter 4 the characters were much more entertaining and the combat, while basic strat-rpg, isn't trying to do something weird, so the overall experience is umm, well smooth at least.
The game dishes out challenge with sheer numbers. Lots of enemies all taking turns to punch you in the face by the 4th battlefield. This might make the game sound tough, but its not. The game gives you so many opportunities to save and earn gold...not only that but when you level on a map all your stats are maxed, and the time between battles refills your party's stats to full and heals killed characters to full.
So as long as you grind once or twice on a particularly populated battleground spot youre pretty much set. Note that enemy placement and variety never change on battleground spots, so don't expect endless variety. Since the game is also highly character driven I havent seen any indication of being able to mess with classes and what not. The class variety is neat, but nothing too thought provoking in terms of tactics made available by class combinations. You do get some 'overdrive' type moves which are handy.
Again, the characters improved and the game does a good job turning initial perceptions of characters from side-to-side to kind of keep things fun and interesting. There's a solid amount of story and while some of the themes are REALLY tired at this point, the dialogue and asides always make me chuckle. There's also a bit of voiced dialogue which is really well done, but when and where it appears is kinda inconsistent. When it is there the characters are presented at their best.
I'd also like to add that the game offers both d-pad and stylus controls. The stylus controls were neat at first, but unlike Mega Man StarForce's HUGE ASS BUTTONS, I have to use the stylus to make precision tile selections. There's some weird shit sometimes where I can't for the LIFE of me select certain tiles, or even get a tap from the stylus to register anywhere on the screen except the cancel move button. Ill probably switch to d-pad soon but that things so tiny it pisses me off too. Still, I won't be making diagonal movements so it should be fine.
This definately isn't a purchase for everyone. I feel dirty granting credit for a game sticking to a path thats been worn 3-feet straight down, but sometimes keeping the nuts n boltss to a simple formula allows you to pay attention to some of the other things. As I stated in my Brave Story thread that im a sucker for fun ensemble groups of characters, and again this, and the generally light atmosphere of Luminous Arc is keeping me playing. It helps that the chance of upsetting defeats are relatively slim and I have almost complete control over character progression.
I traded in Hoshigami Remix today almost precisely because it lacked that sort of fun spirit that Luminous Arc has in spades. Sure, Hoshigami has a much better gameplay system, but sometimes that just isn't inviting.
If youre looking for a quick fun run through a strategy RPG on the DS this is probably your best bet. This won't make you furrow your brow but it will probably make ya grin a couple times.
