Games

[icycalm]

http://insomnia.ac/news/spectral-force-genesis/

[zer0kage]

How long have you been catching up to Idea Factory's Neverland games?

I started off with Spectral Souls 2 which is one of their best works then to the first Spectral Force series which do have a good plot and especially the charaters/world but it can get monotonous. Generation of Chaos added alot of depth to Spectral Force's system making it like another RoTK game. There's so many things that can be done there. Generation of Chaos IV onwards eased the learning curve but it's still fun. Infact the game flows more smoothly. Spectral Force 3 from what little I've played of it is simply epic and it greatly impoves on SF Chronicles engine..

Right now I'm playing Spectral Souls 1 and Spectral Blade. The former is good but not as outstanding as it's sequal just a simple 'SRPG.' The plot also takes a twist because it doesn't take place during a war like most Neverland games do. The main feature about this is the world and characters make it feel good. As for Spectral Blade the plot is it's strength but the game design is either just weird or flawed but I have to see when I get further in to it.

Excuse my rambling above but the thing is how much of a hit is Idea Factory's Neverland series? A majority of their games especially outside of the ones in my earlier paragraphs are just... not so well made. It's like they're trying to go for originality with gimmick systems. Example Spectral Tower 2 is like a survival game but you have to rely on random factors to help progress further especially in character build. I heard Vara Noir has your characters levels resetting as you leave a dungeon for no apparent reason. Based on this it seems the main gist for IF's Neverland series lies in their characters and the 'world' in the game.

The upcoming Spectral Force Genesis sounds good in concept and hopefully it is implemented well.. What's your thoughts regarding this series?

[icycalm]

What's your thoughts regarding this series?

Keep watching the frontpage and one day perhaps you'll find out. Also read this.

As for the rest of your post... it's not really the kind of post we are looking for in this forum, especially from newcomers whose opinion we can't take seriously until they've proven that they know what they are talking about. So I'd rather you posted your opinion on A SINGLE game, in detail, explaining why you think it's good or bad or mediocre based on a deep knowledge of its design, than passing judgement on a bunch of games wholesale without giving any reasons. (And no, comments like "In fact the game flows more smoothly" are not reasons; they are useless, because they could mean anything.)

Oh, and this is useless too:

The upcoming Spectral Force Genesis sounds good in concept and hopefully it is implemented well...

How does it sound good in concept? What's the concept? The scan is too low-res to be able to read anything. If you've read details elsewhere, where's the link?

Try to be useful when posting here. We are being useful to you, so it's only fair.

[zer0kage]

Alright I apologize with the nature of my post and will do my best to not post like that again.

In the official site under system the gist of the gameplay can be seen.

http://ideaf.co.jp/spectral/force/genesis.html

This installment is a sequal to the psx Spectral Force series (Spectral Force, Spectral Force 2, Spectral Force Itooshi Jaaku, Spectral Force:-Meymai Knights) in terms of lameplay. I won't break it down too much but here's some things I'd like to point out regarding this series which is the basis for my speculation in Spectral Force Genesis.

First off, the gameplay compromises of 2 parts, kingdom overview and battle. In kingdom overview mode, they retained the aspect that the actions you do will depend on the months. You can plan ahead before your actions take place every 12 turns because there will be a bar that predefines your actions in each of these 12 months. The actions in these 12 months are randomized between 5 possible phases from market, war, foreign matters, fortifying and 'staff.' In each of these phases you do a set of actions like in market you can buy soldiers for your officer using funds and use one of your generals to barter (different countries have a different source for funds and their rates fluctuate every year) and in the 'staff' phase allows you to assign some of your officers to be your general, or, politician and change who goes to the front lines.

Based on what's in the official website for Spectral Force Genesis, the 5 phases are still there and they randomize across 12 months and reshuffle every year. IF might add more actions to each phase but that information is nowhere to be seen, so it's unlikely.

The biggest change from the series, as in Spectral Force, is pretty much it's the battle system.

In the old series, battles are done like this. Pick an officer and play a fancy rock, paper, scissors game with the enemy's officer selected general. An ally will randomly send one of their officers to aid you, and they're mostly useful for cannon fodder. After selection you'll be at the battle screen,.

In the battle screen, you will pick a formation to attack and the enemy randomly picks a formation for the turn. There is also a 'special' bar which fills after each turn at an amount depending on your general's magic stat. There's also a morale bar which is important as it grants you more devastating formations (can't be countered) at high amounts or gives you a free win when it's low because if it's too low the enemy general flees and they're done for the turn. When at least a 1/3 of the special bar is filled a special attack can be unleashed which eats a fraction of the opposing army in huge chunks, change weather (some units get a boost/nerf depending on weather and terrain) or heal your armies. There is a formation that protects your troops from magic but only offensive ones. It's said that Dragon Force for Sega Saturn has a similar battle system as well.

In the end, there isn't much of a challenge in this series to be honest. There's 1-2 molds of a playstyle (if picking menus is one lol) that will make every kingdom's scenario easy to complete (even easier if you happened to have or recruit a powerful officer like Hiro) and make it some what daunting. Outside of battles it's just a matter of buy low, sell high and use your funds to top up your generals with troops along with fortifications. Like in Romance Of the 3 Kingdom at certain months some random event happens and any negative one doesn't do enough 'damage' to your economy and the like. So you just adapt this gameplan (if picking menus correctly is one) and that's it all is good in that part.

The thing about battles is that they lack challenge. The enemy will 99% pick that one formation (offensive formation looks like a spike) which you can almost always beat out with defensive formation (looks like a wedge) or even better 3 line formation (high morale it's the end all). When the opposing force has a decent amount of morale and you have a filled up special bar you know it's going to 99% pick anti magic formation which you can counter with any formation preferably attack or 3 line for max damage. When the enemy has a special bar ready to be used in any amount it's 99.9% going to use magic which you're only fucked if you have insufficient morale for antimagic or it happened to changed the weather to favour his/her units and that backfires as well. It's just that in the end this is pretty much how the game is played.

The main charm is basically that the most of the kingdoms and the characters have a nice backstory. Over the course of replaying in different kingdoms you'll see how the massive cast interact with each other during conflict. This is pretty much the reason why someone is likely to be replaying this game and stick to this part of the series.

Spectral Force Genesis on the other hand uses the DS stylus to guide it's battles. It can be seen based on the official website that it will be realtime (somewhat) as you can use the stylus to direct your troops around. This isn't exactly new in IF's Neverland series as you can do something similar in GoC1 but in that game you're better off picking one of the premade (there's that 1 swiss army knife of formations) formations ala in SForce to make quick work of your enemy. In SF Genesis it can be seen that with the stylus, the player seems to have a greater degree of flexibility regarding setting pathways to soldiers.

Overall, this is pretty much speculation based on comparison with a previous iteration of a similar concept. The real time battle system isn't exactly new but it can be good stuff if it's implemented well. Like provided that the touch screen sprites are easy to select and direct, and that they're well programmed. What I mean by the latter case is that if I am to direct that squad of mine to the enemy's sprite they should be moving to the target and tracking it down. In GoC1, the reason why manual mode is hardly any useful is simply because they don't attack unless the enemy squad touches first. It is disastrous in the sense because when you direct your squad to the enemy's in GoC1. That squad will just move to that spot where the enemy's one was and won't do anything till the next order, enemy squad gets in the pathway and attacks or you use a preset formation.

As much as I'm looking forward to this installment for the plot, I hope that IF concentrates on the battle aspect of the game which is the most noticeable change from it's roots. Outside of battles, random events will hopefully create a stronger impact so there can be some deviation from the 'ideal gameplan,' making each playthrough a somewhat different experience. In the end it's still go conquer the world, A to B but at least adding a twist here and then might make things seem better.

The reason I made the comparison with psx Spectral Force series is just that SF Genesis resembles closest to that series. GoC1/2 are used for comparisons as well because that's pretty much one of IF's attempts to implement a realtime battle system.

[icycalm]

That's more like it! Welcome to Insomnia.

The only thing is that you need to put a little more effort in your writing. Many of your sentences do not really make sense. Here are some examples:

There's also a morale bar which is important as it grants you more devastating formations (can't be countered) at high amounts or gives you a free win when it's low because if it's too low the enemy general flees and they're done for the turn.

The above sentence, for example, tells us that if your morale bar is low you get a free win, which obviously doesn't make sense.

There is a formation that protects your troops from magic but only offensive ones.

This also makes no sense. "Offensive ones" what? Offensive magic? Offensive formations?

I know what you are trying to say, but it is important that whatever you post in this forum is well-written, because other people have not played these games and they know nothing about them.

In general, you need to break down your sentences more, use more commas and periods, reread each paragraph slowly to make sure it makes sense, and never use the word gameplay.

I'll see if I can tidy up your post and throw it on the frontpage. In the meantime, why are you saying this:

This installment is a sequal to the PS Spectral Force series (Spectral Force, Spectral Force 2, Spectral Force: Itooshi Jaaku, Spectral Force: Meymai Knights) in terms of gameplay.

Isn't Genesis also a sequel to the PS2 and 360 Spectral Force games?

[zer0kage]

Isn't Genesis also a sequel to the PS2 and 360 Spectral Force games?

That is correct. However, it isn't really an overhaul in the system, such as the change from Spectral Force to Generation of Chaos or Spectral Souls. Spectral Force: Genesis' system seems to be more like an update of the first system that was used for the PS Spectral Force series.

Thanks a lot, icycalm. :) I do appreciate the push you've given me to put some thought into providing information. Next time I'll put more effort in my writing to deliver information as precisely as I intend it to be.

Edit: Release date delayed to June 19, 2008:

http://ideaf.co.jp/spectral/force/genesis.html

Lower right section.