Infinite Undiscovery, X360 RPG by Tri-Ace

[Rocca]

I think this and Vesperia hit on the same day, so there's no waiting involved

I wonder which one I'll be picking up. Ahh, choices. :O

[Seik]

I picked this game up from Amazon for $18 when it was on sale and tried it out for the first time yesterday.

This game couldn't be more average if it tried. I played it for 4 hours yesterday because I didn't have anything better to do and it was cold out. After playing it for 4 hours I realized once again that videogames are the one hobby where, no matter how long you do it, you receive no tangible beneficial real life results. They trick your brain into thinking you're doing something worthwhile. After playing it for 4 hours, I didn't exactly feel like I wasted my time, but I didn't feel like I got anything out of it. At least when the game is good, I don't feel that way.

This game begins in the worst way too, it starts off with a retarded chase scene (where after a few hits you die and restart), then goes to a terrible sneaking scene, then another chase scene, and then an escort mission. It gets a little bit better after that first hour and a half, but it still hasn't gotten good so far.

Graphics are pretty mundane too. The character models are decent, but the environments are terrible. They're huge, sprawling flat areas with repeating ground textures. Dungeons are huge, and it's easy to get lost because everything looks the same, and the map system sucks.

The battle system is fun though, and you can have up to 8-12 people on your team all fighting together in real time.

I hope the new Star Ocean is better than this.

Anyone else pick this one up for cheap? What do you think?

[haohmaru]

I picked it up a while ago but it can't crack the rotation with Fable 2 and Fallout 3 in the same house.

[AaronChance]

The game gets better after you get past the dragon temple and reach the next town, but it never becomes great. It's saving grace remains the combat.

[RedCoKid]

I'm guessing I was about 3-5 hours away from reaching the ending before I sold IU. The controls felt clunky throughout, and the added combat elements in latter stages ruined everything. Too many times you have to punch a few buttons to do what could've been accomplished easier with just one.

For example, you're running in the open and see an enemy whom you cannot hit but your teammates can defeat. You have to sheath your sword, pull out your flute, play a tune while not getting struck, then put away your flute, and type a command to have your allies attack. After a few moments, the enemy becomes invulnerable again, rinse and repeat.

Another example, your allies develop a status effect that intensifies as time passes in a stage. Eventually, they'll try to kill you and each other. You possess limited antidote unless you have leveled up an ally's synthesis ability by making items you don't need and then acquired items to synth the scroll to learn the antidote spell (not available for hours later). I forget how that effect reset itself in the meantime, but it wasn't by entering the next town. I know, that's a shitty explanation, but believe me, playing it is shittier than reading about it.

IU is a hack 'n slash action RPG that was afraid of becoming (and tried hard not to be) a hack 'n slash. Not necessarily challenging, just too much needless complexity. The characters were the only redeeming aspect. Overall not fun.

[Seik]

Nice impresions everybody. Pretty much just how I feel.

Yeah I forgot to mention the added combat elements. Those suck. Even the whole 'combination attack' system is horrible. It requires 3 button presses to select another team mate and then have them do something?! WTF, it should have been a single button press. And those elements you described Redco make me sure that I won't be beating this game, but I'll see how far I get.

I didn't go into this game wanting to dislike it, I definitely wanted to give it a chance. Especially because I heard the story and characters were by the guy that made The Record Of Loddoss War anime, and I really thought that series was great.

Voice acting is another thing this game fails at. JRPGs always used to have crappy english voice actors, but recently that's changed. Lost Odyssey was good, Valkyria Chronicles had good english voice actors, Tales of Vesperia, etc....this game not so much. And when, for once, I want to switch it to Japanese voices - turns out I cant, they don't include that option.

I'll probably keep playin it just for the heck of it until I get turned off by those battle elements Redco described.

[RedCoKid]

Seik - Yeah, I really, really wanted to finish this game. I loved the character designs and their personalities. And even though they all look like ventriloquist puppets when they talk, the main girl still is hot. The ally homicide thing is something that can be corrected in a couple stages after it appears, so you if you can stomach that it's fine. You just have to end up skipping enemies or using rare items to survive til you learn a new song. (Synthesis is an excuse to force you into item fetchquests and therefore is one of my top gaming pet peeves.)

The invisible enemy thing was the deal breaker because it came not long after I tried to get over the previous hurdle learning the antidote song. I actually like mindless anime-styled button-masher action-RPGs (Phantasy Star Universe, Tales of, Star Ocean, etc). Using the flute 2+ times per enemy brought the pacing to a halt. I felt crushed. I don't have a lot of free time for RPGs anymore and decided to give up & move on to something else. A friend of mine finished his, though, and ended up liking it enough to go for the extras.

[AaronChance]

I didn't mind using the flute on the invisible enemies. I thought it was one of the few things that changed the feel of combat. What I did mind is the final overly long story dungeon... WITH ONE FUCKING SAVE POINT! There could have been more, but it's a seriously long time between saves against some seriously hardass enemies. I didn't bother with the bonus dungeon. I was burned out.

[Beefy Hits]

I picked this up at the Amazon sale too, but haven't ripped the hymen on it just yet and won't with DQ5 on the horizon.

Impressions don't sound good, but for $18, I thought why the fuck not?

I was gonna go day 1 on SO4, but this game and the twist 3 had will have me reading impressions and reviews before I pick it up.

[Seik]

I picked this up at the Amazon sale too, but haven't ripped the hymen on it just yet and won't with DQ5 on the horizon.

Impressions don't sound good, but for $18, I thought why the fuck not?

I was gonna go day 1 on SO4, but this game and the twist 3 had will have me reading impressions and reviews before I pick it up.

Yeah that twist in 3 sucked. Hey you know that stuff you did in the previous 30 hours? Yeah, it's all meaningless now. Turns out it was all a giant MMORPG! What a head trip! Whoaah. No.

Truthfully, I still have been playing this game, and now I am on disc 2, and it HAS gotten better since the craptastic first couple hours. The story has picked up a little, and I think one reason I'm still playing it is because I haven't gotten stuck on anything yet. As soon as I have to grind to beat a boss or reach an irritating combat scenario I'm gonna call it quits. Right now the game isn't good or bad, it just sort of [i]is[/is].

And I was thinking about Tri-Ace, and really, I think I've only ever liked three of their games. Valkyrie Profile and the first two Star Oceans. Unless I'm missing something, have they made a GREAT game recently?