Scrobbs

PS Vita

Recommended Posts

Cecking in for a Vita update, and my time has been heavily visal novelly / rpg-ish so far!

 

I've completed Danganronpa 1 and 2, and really enjoyed them. They have strong and consistent stories, albeit very odd, memorable characters, and deceptively good sound design.  

 

I've also been playing Zero Escape: virtue's Last reward, and been having fun with that too. This is more puzzly than Danganronpa, and has more meaningful choices to be made; as a result, the game includes a narrative map of all of the branches, allowing you to retrace your steps to wherever. I've died once, and been trapped forever. In my current playthrough, I thought I was doing really well, but there are only 3 of us left! I'm happy to try different sets of puzzle rooms in various branches, but I'm not sure I like the idea of doing the same puzzle multiple times.

 

I've made a fair amount of progress in Persona 4; I think I've rescued 4 people now. I've not played it in a while, but I think it will be easy to go back to. 

 

I have a burning question about both the Danganronpa and Zero Escape series: how scary and gory are they?

 

I'm a big fan of the type of games these two are, but I'm slightly put off as they seem quite creepy and I wasn't sure how much gore/blood they show. It's be a shame for me to purchase them and not feel like playing them if they creep/gross me out too much.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Re: Danganronpa, they are moderately bloody in very short segments but the art style really does not convey any convincing or oppressive level of gore.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I really want to finish Danganronpa, but it seems like the kind of game I would be better suited to just sitting down and playing through in one or two really long sessions. It doesn't lend itself well to playing while watching TV, or playing before bed (then forgetting everything instantly).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have a burning question about both the Danganronpa and Zero Escape series: how scary and gory are they?

 

I'm a big fan of the type of games these two are, but I'm slightly put off as they seem quite creepy and I wasn't sure how much gore/blood they show. It's be a shame for me to purchase them and not feel like playing them if they creep/gross me out too much.

It really depends on whether you're more bothered about what you actually see or what that implies. As said above, neither game is particularly gory, and the blood in Danganronpa is hot pink.

However, the whole premise of the Danganronpa series is that you are stuck in a situation where the only way to leave is to murder one of your classmates and get away with it after a trial; if the murderer is found then they will be executed. All the while, you are working together with these people looking for a way out, and getting to know them. I got invested in the characters, making me almost constantly anxious between murders, and I seemed pretty adept in the early game of choosing to hang out with murderers or victims :P! Hope and despair are very important themes in both Danganronpa games, making them very intense.

Zero Escape doesn't require death to progress, and it might even be possible to get everyone out. There are situations where death is inevitable, but most have been surprises so far. As a result there has been no pervading sense of dread for me, but more shocks.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Zero Escape is sort of a many-worlds situation. People die, but then you start over and try again and do things differenly, and the next time they don't. So, there's no real pain of losing characters you're attached to.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Imported a couple of games along with my 64GB card this week and a sleepless night of toothache has given me a good chance to get into them.

 

Sayonara Umihara Kawase Chirari - Excellent, but I knew it was. I had the Super Famicom original, I still own the DS version and I bought the 3DS release of this but I wanted to play it on that lovely screen and my PSTV too. It's so sad from looking at the leaderboards to see that basically nobody in the West bought this as it's a wonderfully challenging 2D platformer with a huge amount of depth to it, I remember the 3DS European release price was a ludicrous £20 though so that probably never helped. Also it doesn't look great in stills, but holy shit what a game.

 

Persona 4: Dancing All Night - Easily my favourite rhythm game since Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. I loved Persona 4 and its soundtrack anyway so I expected to be into this but I'm surprised just how much I am. Good number of songs, plenty of characters and references for the P4 fans and the core mechanics are simple and fit the format perfectly while enabling enough complexity for the harder levels to be an enjoyable challenge. Unexpected highlight so far - the jazzier numbers:

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The popping when the correct input is pressed is really irritating. Please tell me there's a way to turn that off!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm not sure but there are at least half a dozen options for that and the scratch sounds so there might be a silent one, I don't mind it! It's one of those things that's much less of an issue during play.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Fair enough. It really masks me music when I'm watching but I could totally see how you don't nltice during play. I'm excited for the western release. I hope it comes with a sound track too. That'd be amazing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I just splashed on Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, which takes place between 1 and 2, and involves completely different mechanics. There's still a lot (A LOT) of crazy story though! This time round you play as the sister to the protagonist from the first game (I think), and in the prologue / Chapter 1 there have been some good cameos from other games, as well as another larger than life bunch of characters. Rather than murder mystery, it's now a shooter/brawler, with stealth sections so far. 

 

I would say that even though the mechanics are completely different, it's probably not a great place to dip into the series, since if you had no idea what was going on, the story wouldn't make much sense, and the action isn't really that strong. As someone who loved the first two games, I'm having a lot of fun though :).

 

They made a weird audio choice for English speaking territories: the game comes with English only by default, and you need to download Japanese voice over if you want it. Furthermore, you can only switch language at the start of a new game. As a result, I've played the first hour or so twice. 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've now finished Chapter 1, and the gameplay is a lot more interesting now. I have a bunch of special abilities, some of which are particularly effective against certain enemy types, and other abilities solve puzzles. I'm not sure that a non fan would get this far though, as there is a heck of a lot of non interactive story, which would be really confusing

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I like how the indie scene and of course Japanese devs still support Vita. There are lots of great ports and of course old exclusives that are really nice on Vita. Shame it's quite horrible to hold in hands to play. My hands cramp so much more than on any Nintendo portable. And my fingers are always somehow on top of the speakers. Pretty much always need headphones to properly hear the sounds and music.

 

I laughed today when I heard about SD2VITA, fans found out a use for the mystery port on top of the Vita and made it to use microSD card module so you can have much more space on the device because the Vita memory cards are crazy expensive. Needs HENkaku and version 3.60 and I have neither since I always keep my devices updated to latest versions.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'd love to get more more space on my Vita, but I don't like the ice of cracking a system that's still "alive"? Then again, I've never cracked any system and have no idea how it works? Can you still access the store and everything normally?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No, the PSN store access definitely doesn't work if you would still have 3.60 OS version. PSN checks that you need to have the latest version and asks you to download it. I remember this because of some past system update I didn't immediately download it and tried to access the store.

 

The Vita memory cards are really stupid creation from Sony. Always crazy expensive. I bought a 64gb card from Japan when I bought the Vita and it was crazy expensive even there.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now