Infinite Undiscovery coming September 2!

[EddieA]

Gamestop/EB is now listing 8/29 as the release date.  Other retailers still have the 9/2 date, so this is probably just an error.  However, Square Enix is releasing The Last Remnant on a Thursday for some reason, so it's possible the date has been moved up.

[Dreamshadow]

Woohoo...will be checking with my FLGS tonight when I go pick up Too Human!  I'm reasonably stoked on this title too...And Vesperia...and Mercs 2... *sigh*

[EddieA]

There's a new interview at IGN regarding the battle system.

[Kevin Grey]

IGN review:  7.1

I'm not a fan of IGN and I think most major review sites generally do a poor job reviewing JRPGs.  That said, lots of serious red flags in that review to me.  The comments about excessive slowdown and middling graphics are especially concerning since this is Tri-Ace.  It kind of sounds like Tri-Ace just didn't feel like putting in much effort in on this one. 

[StitchJones]

Yeah, that review is disappointing.  I was considering getting this first over Tales of Vesperia, but now I might be picking up Tales this weekend.

[jersoc]

IGN reviews is to what katoku is to news.

the slowdowns have been evident, but was hoping they would be fixed or made better. i'll still play it, looks good. i hear 25-30 hours, which is good too. should be able to finish before rb2 and warhammer hits.

[The Grue]

Not sure if this matters, but Shane on 1Up said if you had to only buy one JRPG on the 360, it should be Tales and not this one.

[Destructor]

While I don't exactly trust IGN anymore either, they do raise a few red flags with the slowdown notice and the fact that you have so many characters in your party over a relatively 'short' game. It's like the Suidoken of action-RPGs.

[jersoc]

Not sure if this matters, but Shane on 1Up said if you had to only buy one JRPG on the 360, it should be Tales and not this one.

well they're review is going up later. maybe i'll have to change my mind then on which waits. 1up is pretty good on reviews.

[EddieA]

I wish it had scored higher, but none of the things they mention really bother me.  The game looks fantastic to me, and even RPGs with only a handful of characters usually only focus on a 2 or 3 main characters.  It sounds like the story's a good one, and there has yet to be a tri-Ace game I haven't liked.

[EddieA]

There's a thread at GameFAQs where someone who is playing and reviewing the game is answering questions about it.  There's some new information there that I hadn't read elsewhere.

[jersoc]

ugh, lots of time in between save points? guess i wont be playing that if i only have 2 hours.

[Gratch]

From Eddie's thread:

Secondly it's more than once (now I'm about 3 hours into the game) that you don't exactly know where you're supposed to go.  You've got a number of vast areas that you can check out and if you start off in the wrong direction... ah well. It feels a bit like in FFXI when you had to run from A to B for hours.

AND THE GODDAMN LACK OF SAVEPOINTS! It's seriously annoying that games these days still rarely have on on-the-go saving option.

As for the battle system...it's highly chaotic.

All three of those are dealbreakers, imo.   Sucks, as I was really hoping for this one to be good. 

[Kevin Grey]

Something really concerning in IGN's video review was that it's a hassle to constantly outfit 12 or more players in the latest gear.  That's often a big issue for me in almost any game with an excessively large cast.  So one of the things I'm most anxious to find out about is whether you have to use most of the 18 characters or if you can stick with a core group for the entire game and practically ignore everyone else. 

[jersoc]

combat system really looks no different the the usual Tri-Ace affair. not really sure what people were expecting there.

[Gratch]

Something really concerning in IGN's video review was that it's a hassle to constantly outfit 12 or more players in the latest gear.  That's often a big issue for me in almost any game with an excessively large cast.  So one of the things I'm most anxious to find out about is whether you have to use most of the 18 characters or if you can stick with a core group for the entire game and practically ignore everyone else. 

Their written review said it's a big challenge to keep every character well-equipped, since you're never sure when you'll need them in context of the story.

[Kevin Grey]

Ah, so the story does force different characters?  It's a personal preference but I generally don't prefer games that offer a large number of playable characters, especially if they periodically force someone on your for story reasons that you haven't touched in the rest of the game.

I'll be very interested in further reviews and impressions but IU is sounding like a bargain purchase (if that) for me right now.

[Turtle]

Any co-op?

[jersoc]

Any co-op?

pretty sure there isn't. where's all the other reviews anyways? i thought they were to be put up on wednesday.

[Kevin Grey]

Any co-op?

pretty sure there isn't. where's all the other reviews anyways? i thought they were to be put up on wednesday.

I heard that IGN had the exclusive and the embargo for everyone else was today so hopefully we'll see some more soon. 

[CeeKay]

I'll be very interested in further reviews and impressions but IU is sounding like a bargain purchase (if that) for me right now.

I'm thinking the same thing.  I guess I'll be picking up Vesperia instead, and hopefully it does well enough to get more games like it brought over.

[EddieA]

The person who was giving out impressions of the game at GameFAQs has posted a review.

[Kevin Grey]

1Up review:  B

Made it sound a bit better though I'm still leery of managing too many playable characters. 

[jersoc]

The resulting combat feels a bit like a Tales game crossed with Final Fantasy XII -- a very good thing, as I love Tales' stylish swordplay and appreciated FFXII's lack of random battles, though I never did care for the latter's hands-off approach to combat. For the most part, party members follow commands pretty well -- my only complaint is that it takes a few too many button presses to sync up with them

awesome. Tales + FF12=win

[CeeKay]

Made it sound a bit better though I'm still leery of managing too many playable characters. 

the part that does sound cool is that you need to make up secondary teams at some point.  From the IGN article:

Along the way, Capell runs into a considerable number of allies. In fact, there are 18 characters you'll be micromanaging during the course of this fairly brief adventure. Capell can only take three other characters into his own personal party, but often you can form two subsidiary parties of four members a piece. These other parties will have their own goals, though your paths may intersect while hacking and slashing through a dungeon. This means that you have to try and keep everyone's armor and weapons as updated as possible, because you can never be sure when one of the 17 other characters will be required to assist Capell or when you'll break out into multiple groups.

at least the other characters are used for something for a change.

[Destructor]

I still remember the last time (that I can remember) a game tried to do that (suddenly forcing you to use party members you haven't leveled in ages) - it was Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES. To say that my other party was underpowered was an understatement. I split up my 'main crew' in the end, and that worked, but to say that it wasn't a fun time is putting it bluntly.

[Kevin Grey]

I still remember the last time (that I can remember) a game tried to do that (suddenly forcing you to use party members you haven't leveled in ages) - it was Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES. To say that my other party was underpowered was an understatement. I split up my 'main crew' in the end, and that worked, but to say that it wasn't a fun time is putting it bluntly.

Yeah, it's kind of a pet peeve of mine- RPGs that suddenly force you late in the game to use certain characters or more of your party that you may not have been leveling before.  Final Fantasy games are pretty notorious for this though I didn't mind it so much in FF9 because the game rotated the characters itself for the most part so I wasn't forced to make the decision. 

[Gratch]

I still remember the last time (that I can remember) a game tried to do that (suddenly forcing you to use party members you haven't leveled in ages) - it was Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES. To say that my other party was underpowered was an understatement. I split up my 'main crew' in the end, and that worked, but to say that it wasn't a fun time is putting it bluntly.

FF VII did it as well, and each underpowered group had to try and fight the final boss.  I spent probably 6-7 hours leveling up my 2nd team in order to beat it.   

[Destructor]

FF VII did it as well, and each underpowered group had to try and fight the final boss.  I spent probably 6-7 hours leveling up my 2nd team in order to beat it.   

As long as your characters didn't croak (or you revived them quick enough), you didn't run into that problem. I know I kept a core group of 3 pretty much the entire game. In my case though...wow, that would've been bad.

[jersoc]

http://www.gamersyde.com/news_7062_en.html
videos from the start. watched the first only since i saw most of it already. can't wait.

[EddieA]

There are still conflicting reports on when stores will be getting the game.  Some people got it from Gamestop already, some Gamestops say they have the game already and will start selling it Tuesday, but the game is still listed as not having shipped yet.  I didn't get the call about picking up my preorder last night, but I intend to call Gamestop this afternoon to see if it's in yet.

[Turtle]

That whole non-used party members going off on their own missions thing actually sounds cool, except that I know they'll handle it in a way that'll require some grinding and micromanagement of the party.  But, at least the feature is in.

[Misguided]

There are still conflicting reports on when stores will be getting the game.  Some people got it from Gamestop already, some Gamestops say they have the game already and will start selling it Tuesday, but the game is still listed as not having shipped yet.  I didn't get the call about picking up my preorder last night, but I intend to call Gamestop this afternoon to see if it's in yet.

That's weird. It shipped overnight on Friday so should be in today (Tuesday).
I don't see how any stores could have gotten it yet. And if they did have it,
I don't recall the game being street dated, but I could be wrong. Normally
a street dated game would have been received early.

[CeeKay]

I still remember the last time (that I can remember) a game tried to do that (suddenly forcing you to use party members you haven't leveled in ages) - it was Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES. To say that my other party was underpowered was an understatement. I split up my 'main crew' in the end, and that worked, but to say that it wasn't a fun time is putting it bluntly.

FF VII did it as well, and each underpowered group had to try and fight the final boss.  I spent probably 6-7 hours leveling up my 2nd team in order to beat it.   

maybe they learned from Bioware and have every party member gain experience even when they are not being used.

[Gratch]

I still remember the last time (that I can remember) a game tried to do that (suddenly forcing you to use party members you haven't leveled in ages) - it was Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES. To say that my other party was underpowered was an understatement. I split up my 'main crew' in the end, and that worked, but to say that it wasn't a fun time is putting it bluntly.

FF VII did it as well, and each underpowered group had to try and fight the final boss.  I spent probably 6-7 hours leveling up my 2nd team in order to beat it.   

maybe they learned from Bioware and have every party member gain experience even when they are not being used.

One of the things I like most about Tales of Vesperia.   

[Destructor]

Well, I got the phone call from coke-loaded Ashley, but as I stated in my 'what are you buying' post, I won't be getting it anytime soon. Too many other fantastic games to play right now (Tales of Vesperia, Mercs 2) to grab yet another RPG that may have some questionable design decisions inside.

[jersoc]

Well, I got the phone call from coke-loaded Ashley, but as I stated in my 'what are you buying' post, I won't be getting it anytime soon. Too many other fantastic games to play right now (Tales of Vesperia, Mercs 2) to grab yet another RPG that may have some questionable design decisions inside.

you are a deamn HEATHEN, sir.

[Kevin Grey]

Picked it up today at Best Buy though I may wait for more impressions/reviews before opening it. 

[EddieA]

GameInformer has posted their review, giving it two 8/10s.  They say the battle system is great, but the story is only average, although I don't put much stock in GI's RPG reviews.  There's also something that might be a spoiler in the first paragraph.

[Kevin Grey]

Agreed about the casual dropping of the spoiler.  Maybe it would be obvious but it was still unnecessary.