Tuesday 3 April 2012

Completed: Ys vs Sora no Kiseki: Alternative saga

now i'm using the term completed very loosely here.... because it's a fighting game and not really something you can beat.... but i want to talk about it so it counts.

Ys vs Legend of Heroes (not a direct translation but it gets the point across)  is a Falcom fighting game in the style of Super smash brothers and powerstone.

There is a story mode, an arcade mode, a free mode, a shop and an area where you can see all your collectables.

so i'll talk about each section briefly.

Story mode
if you didn't gather from the title this is an import game, other then the menu and a few other spaces it's all in Japanese.... that makes story mode difficult... luckily it's all voiced so i was able to get the gist of the story.

So there's something going around controlling all your friends and you have to beat some sense into them... eventually you come across the information that the big bad can be defeated by the "dragon slayer" so then you go searching for that... still kicking the ass of everyone you come across eventually you find the blade but on no it breaks... but through the power of glowing light you find out that whomever your playing is the REAL dragon slayer.... as you proceed to slay a dragon.... yay you win, learn new summon unlock new character rinse and repeat but on a higher level or with a different character.

so essentially the plot is: fight people till you get to final boss.... yay

i've only played three of the stories so far and there only seems to be a slight difference.
When played as Adol you are prompted with an option of two dialogues.... i can't read japanese so unless i recognized the characters i always picked the top one...

Estelle had a few choices but i mean only a few...

Gies has not had any, probably because unlike Estelle and Adol he's not really the main character of his series.

also i should note (though this probably changes when you beat all their stories) there are only 5 characters to choose from, once you beat their story once you can try again but starting at level 41 instead of level 1....

oh.... i haven't mentioned this yet.... this is a fighting game where you level up.... and equip yourself.... even if you lose the match you get a little bit of experience and money... and yes.... theres money but i'll talk about that more when we get to the shop.

Arcade mode
You pick any of the available characters and fight for as long as you can.... there may be an end to this, i don't know cause no matter how hard i try i can't get past level 10.... cause it's 2 against one : (

still this is the perfect way to grind your character or earn some cash if they aren't high enough level for the story mode... unfortunately computer uses characters with the items you have equipped as well as raisign there level to meet yours.... so yeah it's not an easy mode but very fun.

Free Mode
this you can pick who you fight, you can even use alternative colouring or team battles.
i believe you find network mode in this vein too where you can fight against others with the game.... unfortunately being an import game i have not tried out network mode yet... i do know someone else who owns the game but i haven't seen him yet so yeah...

Shop
after a fight you are awarded money which you can use in the shop... here you can upgrade you characters weapon, buy them accessories to make them more powerful or even buy more skills for them....
The shop had levels and the more you buy the more things you get as a reward, soon enough you'll be able to buy music for the game, stills that are shown as loading screens, themes for your psp or videos that are intros of pretty much every Falcom game. Most of these things i believe can be unlocked through game play but if your impatient and want to listen to Innocent Primeval Breaker now then just buy it.... but i tend to spend most of the money on upgrading characters so they do a stupid amount of damage early on in story mode.

Collectables
This is where you see everything you got.... either from playing the game or buying it.... you can take the anime stills an use them as a background, the themes can be applied to your psp here and you can listen to a TON of music of watch some of those videos.... i think all games need something like this cause this bonus stuff really adds to playability.... and i've only ever seen these kinds of collectable areas on my other import psp game Project Diva and Ys 3 Oath in Felghana... another Falcom game...

So how does the fighting work? 

it's pretty easy to pick up, it's for the psp so the buttons are in a nice layout.
Circle attacks
X dodges or makes you recover in midair
Triangle jumps
Square blocks.

If you hold R and hit any of those buttons it'll preform the special move programmed to it but this use SP so you can't just spam these moves.
you can move with the analogue stick or directional pad.
L and R together brings in your support character who will buff you for a short time.
if your all charged up for a super special attack then you have to hit L  and that's pretty much it.
there's a hit point system so when your life hits 0 you are out.... you can also be poisoned, burned, froze, paralyzed, turned to stone and many other status ailments.

so yeah despite the language barrier it's really easy to play.. i wish i could read what some of the accessories do but i figure more of them wont hurt me if i equip it.

if you own a PSP and like (or have even heard of) Falcom games then you should pick this up... due to the fact it has sooo much info about their Japan only games it'll probably never be translated. Luckily PSP doesn't have region coding issues so anyone outside of Japan can play...

alright i'm going to go back to playing now cause it's so much fun

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