I noticed a thread on good GBA Strategy games and I figured…why not a SRW game? :)
http://www3.emu-zone.org/NewsUpload/video/20050830/srw_j.rar
*PS:Yes, you can turn off the long battle scenes in the game
**PPS:The actual game engine is actually pretty solid…but the default difficulty tends to be rather low in almost all SRW games
Is there any gameplay in that video? It just looked like one really long, boring cutscene to me.
Ouch.
Its core is the same as games like Fire Emblem , Shining Force and Langrisser…it’s just that the main focus/appeal is the use of mecha and elaborate battle scenes.
Imagine FE +mecha +long battle scenes -permadeath -difficulty and you pretty much have a SRW game.
Okay, despite the lack of permadeath I’m interested, but again… was that a cutscene, or was there gameplay shown in that video?
Hmm? Everything there are the battle scenes for each unit/character.
Its FE equivalent(since FE seems to be the main GBA strat game) would be the short 5-10 second scenes that has units attacking with swords and axes and whatnot…it’s just that SRW has more elaborate ones…and it also changes depending on what attack that you’re doing.
Given the length of some of these though, I suppose some people would consider them to be cutscenes…
Oh, the official site should have other screen shots that shows how the game looks like outside of the battle scenes if you’re interested:
http://www.suparobo.jp/srw_lineup/srw_j/index.html
…actually, that part of the page looks incomplete. Try the systems section of one of their previous GBA games, like:
So you have to sit through a generic anime mecha minimovie for every attack, and that’s supposed to be a good thing.
I like you John, so if this sounds snippy, well that’s because it is, but not out of general derision in your direction. Its just this type of thing really annoys me.
Let’s play the Teacher, Teach Me Reading Comprehension:
Selection #1: “For the five people who would be interested…Super Robot Wars J!”
A Student: He’s implying through hyperbole that only a small amount of people would be interested in reading a thread about the game Super Robot Wars J.
B Student: He’s recommending a game to everyone and calling it great.
C Student: There’s a game he’s going to talk about called Robot Wars and its concerns robots.
D Student: This guy is interested in fiv people who are all super Robots and is posting a personal add in the paper.
Jose Liz Student: He’s ranking Super Robot Wars, which are Yale acceptees and J comes fifth, so he only goes to Harvard.
Selection #2: “Yes, you can turn off the long battle scenes in the game”
A Student: The author is anticipating the audience will find fault in the long battle scenes and thus notifying them that such scenes are optional.
B Student: He’s telling us that you can turn off the battle animations.
C Student: The author says the battle scenes are long.
D Student: The battles are obscenes and a real turn off, too bad you can’t scip them.
jpinard Student: Cutscenes (and consoles) must die, but not before I do and take PC gaming to the grave with me!
Selection #3: "’…was that a cutscene, or was there gameplay shown in that video?’
'Hmm? Everything there are the battle scenes for each unit/character.
Its FE equivalent(since FE seems to be the main GBA strat game) would be the short 5-10 second scenes that has units attacking with swords and axes and whatnot…it’s just that SRW has more elaborate ones…and it also changes depending on what attack that you’re doing.
Given the length of some of these though, I suppose some people would consider them to be cutscenes… '"
A Student: In this selection the first speaker is still confused as to whether the footage he saw were skippable battle scenes or cutscenes showing story. The second speaker clarifies his position that everything in the clips are gameplay and the animations we see for said gameplay are similar to others of its type, but longer and more detailed. He is admitting to the first speaker that you could call it either a cutscene or a battle scene, but they’re basically long animations for actions. Since the speaker had previously warned that they were optional, it would be logical to assume the ones referenced here are optional as well.
B Student: What he said, but let me look at your notes a little more, I don’t think I got the last part.
C Student: Damn, I wish I was smart enough to copy off of other people.
D Student: They’re talking about…cutting scenes out of a battle moovie? How many time do we has left before class ends?
Ben Student: He supports nazis and the complete genocide of the Muslim people, which is obviously wrong because blue isn’t monochrome and thus Bush is of rather average weight. How could you be so stupid?
Selection #4: “…it’s just that the main focus/appeal is the use of mecha and elaborate battle scenes.”
A Student: The author is explaining that the appeal in these games and the thing they put most of their concentration and emphasis on are tying them into the anime they come from, whether that stems from how mecha are implemented or from the previously discussed animations. We can infer that from the word mecha and the need for translation from Japanese that this might have to do with anime and we can infer from the word anime, that animation might be important to the people who buy the game.
B Student: I think the teacher is looking at us, so I’ll catch up tonight at your house.
C Student: Why is B Student leaning over A Student’s paper? Huh? Hmmm?
D Student: God, I’d like some donuts right about now…umm yeah, “The awther focuses on laboratory work for Movimento Estudiantil Chicano de Aslan, or MEChA, a groop which wur ships the holy lion.”
Mach5 Student: (Furiously scribbling while looking over D Student’s shoulder) Maybe I should change my name to MEChA. Teacher’s comments on Mach5’s answer: Why is this written on a business card for razor blades?
Which is all to say, this: “So you have to sit through a generic anime mecha minimovie for every attack, and that’s supposed to be a good thing.”
has already been answered, is not an accurate description and well known already. Its only possible point is to rib the author or the game in question. I deem this not very nice, especially when the author is new, he has clearly seen what people like here and is offering to help with broadening what slim horizons there are on that account, and seems nice, the person who asks probably has never played one of these games and it doesn’t really add anything to the essay.
Class dismissed.
-Kitsune
P.S. I wouldn’t recommend Super Robot Wars, but that’s because:
There are approximately three billion versions. Many of subtle gameplay differences. Finding the one right for you could take ages and none of them are officially in English, very few unofficially.
There’s a difference between having the same structure as the games it apes and having the same design. SRW is similar in structure, but the design of the missions, units and unique mechanics don’t really mirror the other games if you ask me.
I know OF the series these come from, though I haven’t watched most of them. I find myself lost as to what’s going on quite a bit in these games (though in their defense, as time has gone on, they’ve gotten more user friendly in this area). I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if you’d not seen even one.
Thanks, Teach! I’m afraid the problem lay not with reading comprehension, but with incredulity. The narrow Western mind rules out the possibility that these endless exchanges of shouts and mech-fu across billowing color backgrounds could be the results of a turn in a strategy game.
As I skipped ahead in the file, trying in vain to find the strategy gameplay, I thought, “Isn’t it strange how companies try to market games by posting their cutscenes?” And then I thought, “Is this all the same cutscene?” And then I thought, “This must be an action RPG or something,” and clicked off.
Yep, long battle scenes had been mentioned. But notice that even after Jason was told that this was FE with mecha and very long battle animations — that these are, in fact, the focus and appeal of the game — he asked again whether he’d just watched a file of cutscenes.
This wasn’t a reading comprehension problem for him, either, I’d wager. It simply seems impossible that a strategy gamer would enjoy such an overextended payoff for his move. Yes, there were disclaimers about this game’s appeal, and yes, tastes vary. But this…this? No, not this.
Hmm…don’t most people play the FE games with the battle animations turned off anyway? At least, that’s what I always assumed :wink:
Nope, I like 'em. They create tension, and the weapon flourish before a killing strike is a fun little reward. It would be nice if you could turn off just the healing/dancing/lyre animations, though.
I believe there is an option for turning off the animations on a chara by chara basis (at least, there is in the newest GC one). You can try that to turn off the wands and such.
…and to get back to the origial topic, I think it’s safe to say that you’re not the target audience for a SRW game. :)
Thanks, Teach! I’m afraid the problem lay not with reading comprehension, but with incredulity.
Psssh, psssh, I figured as much. The whole reading comprehension was me putting the way I interpreted the language in the A Student’s part and showing increasingly how I don’t understand how other people could interpret it differently (why would you react that way, especially if someone’s doing you a favor?) in the other student parts and/or just messing around/trying to be funny. Not a dig on your reading comprehension, but a metaphor for my thought process that was hopefully less a chore to read than something usual.
My annoyance is that when there’s obviously something not connecting between two viewpoints, a reply like your second one is so much more insightful than the first. My reaction to the first is I’ll never try this again, my reaction to the second is I never would have thought other people had the opposite perception of appropriateness of cutscenes: WHY NOT make them super elaborate in a strategy game if you can turn them off at any time?
I haven’t the foggiest idea what provoked the 1st. The 2nd provides me with a simple joy: clearing up something by talking about the standards of gaming on a gaming message board.
I think that in part sums up a bit of the difference in Western vs. Eastern game design, I see a lot of, “Where can we go and how can we do it?” in Western game design, whereas I feel Japanese is more, “Why not try this?” so that the typical criticism from the J–>W side, “Why didn’t you go HERE?” and the W—>J “Why is this some place we would want to go?”
-Kitsune
This goes back to my original point. According to Woo here, and as far as I can discern from watching, the video is a strung-together compilation of the various characters’ battle animations. If they are in fact equivalent to the FE scenes, I assume the player offers no input during these animations; I submit, therefore, that the video in question is only marginally different from one long cutscene in that it’s a series of really short cutscenes strung together.
After hearing it described as akin to FE or Shining Force, I was looking for some indication of the other parts of the game – you know, the “game” parts, Where you push buttons and make decisions and stuff. An anthology of special move animations does not gameplay footage make.
And I’m not criticizing Woo’s starting of this thread or posting of the video, I’m just responding to the video itself. Despite all the noise and smoke, I couldn’t find anything in the video that is of interest from a strategy/tactics point of view. That’s all.
The movie is meant to an in-store demo…and let’s admit it, looking at the overworld map and seeing little icons of units isn’t going to sell units. I mean, don’t you remember ads for games like FFVII that showed only the FMV sequences? It’s very similar in that respect :)
…and my previous post with the links should’ve had some screen shots for the info that you wanted… like
Is this coming out in the US?
Kitsune I give your joke a C-.