Vita game general discussion

That might be the most pornographic thing I've seen that wasn't literally pornography.

I've noticed an issue with my Vita, specifically the analogue sticks, in that they're both starting to peel. The outer edges of both sticks have started to lift off, and they both look and feel a little ugly. It's especially ugly as they rest of the unit is in pristine condition (I look after my toys). The unit is still under 12 month guarantee, but I suspect any attempted claim would be knocked back as wear-and-tear.

Anyone else experienced anything similar?

I think my right stick is just starting to do that. MY PS2 controllers did that too. But I've had my Vita since launch and it's still pretty much in perfect shape.

If it were two or three years old, I'd put it down to wear-and-tear. But it isn't, it's only just over six months old. I won't deny I've used the system a lot in that time, but would argue that if the sticks can be affected so quickly merely by using them as intended, then they're not fit for purpose.

I've actually just checked the warranty terms, and I need to e-mail someone first and foremost, so Ill be doing that shortly.

I didn't have that problem, are you talking about the innercircly bit on the top?

The centre part of the analogue sticks is rubber, that's starting to peel at the edges on both sticks. I have e-mailed to see if guarantee will cover repair or replacement, hopefully the former.

On an unrelated note, I was looking on the PSN store earlier in the week, and FFX/X-2 and Persona 3 Portable were on offer for fifteen and eight quid respectively, with the offer price allegedly lasting until 27th July. Great, after payday, I thought. Thing is, I checked again last night and they're both full price again, thirty and twenty five quid and it was only 18th. Boo!

Proteus is really short and weird.

Anyway Freedom Wars is coming out at like £22, I think its a day one buy for me, so I'm going to buy crap load of vita games this year.

Didn't the Japanese shit all over Freedom Wars? I saw videos of players getting stun locked to death by grunts, it didn't look very fun.

Neo wrote:

Didn't the Japanese shit all over Freedom Wars? I saw videos of players getting stun locked to death by grunts, it didn't look very fun.

Japanese players said the game got too hard because of mooks. So they patched the game to change enemy spawn rates/damage and added in online coop in addition to the existing ad hoc.  They're adding in new modes with the next patch to.

General consensus was the  game was great but in the second half they came across difficulty problems.

Not sure if I'll be interested if we don't have the fixes in the game right off the bat though.

Mortal Kombat 9 on Vita is 10.79 for PS+ EU players.  Well worth a punt.

Just having a quick scan through my rather large Vita software library.  Some of them I've not even played, granted, but just thought I'd share a few thoughts on those I have.

Persona 4 Golden

Got to start with the closest thing the Vita has to a killer-app.  Yes, it's a remake of a now six year old game, but it's a very thorough re-working, featuring faster gameplay, revised graphics, new characters, scenes, dungeons, social links and new endings.  It's one of those game that seems to attract a lot of hate simply for being popular, but in truth I honestly think it's worth the price of the Vita on it's own.  Is it perfect?  No.  Would I still give it ten out of ten?  Too bloody right.

Soul Sacrifice/Soul Sacrifice Delta

Vanilla SS was on Plus for a while, but never got its hooks into me.  Delta though, is a differnet animal entirely.  As with P4G, it features numerous enhancements over and above the base game, it's got tons of depth, a very solid combat system, a very interesting story presented in a rather novel way and characters you genuinely give a shit about in a very convincing fantasy world.  A very solid nine out of ten.

Ragnarok Odyssey Ace
Mediocrity personified really.  Purchased because I'd had fun with Toukiden, and they're roughly the same kind of game, but ROA has a weird floaty combat system with little weight to any attack and a rather unappealing generic anime-esque visual style.  It's competent but  no fun at all.  I could make a case for a five out of ten, but the whole thing is so utterly uninspiring I'll go with a four.

Mortal Kombat

A commendable stab - pun not intended - at bringing MK9 to Vita.  The basic game is identical to its PS3 brethren, though there are notable compromises; character models are ugly, loading times poor and the online mode is no longer functioning.  Lots of single-player content to keep you occupied, including several modes that make excellent use of Vita's varied hardware features, and it feels as pleasingly brutal as on any other format.  Seven out of ten for the Vita.

Toukiden

Now overshadowed by Soul Sacrifice Delta, this is nonetheless an attractive looking title with decent combat mechanics, great online play and monstrous bosses.  Does suffer a little - as all hunting games do - from excess grinding in the late game, but I had a lot of fun with it and am really looking forward to extreme.  Eight out of ten.

Dragon's Crown

Almost identical in every way to the PS3 game, which means it looks beautiful, plays equally as well and has a ton of content to keep even singly players busy.  Add a second player, and you could be at it for weeks.  I haven't played it much to be honest, only around twenty hours, but that's because I put over a hundred hours into its PS3 equivalent, both of which are worthy of nine out of ten.

The Walking Dead: Season One

Yes, I'm sure almost everyone and his dog has played some version of this by now, and I thought Vita would make a perfect home for it.   In theory, it should have, but something isn't quite right as the game stutters and stops before every single scene change which absolutely kills any tension it might have otherwise built up.  The touchscreen controls do work wonderfully, and the game underneath is still great but the performance definitely takes the shine off it, and it limps over the line with a seven out of ten.

Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars

Very niche dungeon-crawler cum dating-sim, featuring one of the most potentially awkward game mechanics ever in the form of classmating.  Graphically, it looks wonderful in some places; the POV scenes features excellent character models, some of the dialogue scenes featuring 2d sprites are equally great, but the dungeons themselves are really quite bland.  As above, it's a very niche title that in truth does start to wear a little thin by the end of the game but there's enough in the basic mechanics and in the well written characters to keep you going.  Not for everyone, but I'd go with a seven.

Deception IV: Blood Ties

Bizarre strategy / tower defence hybrid, that happens to be good fun in short bursts.  Graphically it's weak, but it does reward ingenuity and allows plenty of improvisation in both placement and type of traps as you try to lure poor saps into a network of carefully placed toys of death.  Struggles a little to keep its appeal once you've gotten through the ten hour or so mark, and this means I'll stick it with a six.

Hotline Miami

Overhead retro shooter, graphic violence and a very surreal sense of occasion.  Thing is, I simply didn't get on with the Vita's control system, it just worked better on PS3.  A disappointing six.

Monsters Ultimate HD

Entertaining but lightweight tower defence that feels like it belongs on a smartphone.  Six out of ten.

Muramasa Rebirth
Much like Dragon's Crown, it looks amazing but unlike that title it is lacking a little... something.  It plays like a samurai version of something like Super Metroid, but lacking a little bit of that classic title's invention and genius level design.  It's not bad, but if that's the bets you can say about something then you know it's not going to be a high score.  You'd be right, of course, being a six in this case.

Soul Sacrifice Delta is honestly my favourite RPG ever. I'm shocked just how much better a game a so called expansion could be (so glad I didn't listen to moose). I'm certain i'll end up playing this more than any game I've ever played before the fact there's enough missions and nothing akes too long is definitely a further reason why its the best game on the vita.

I'm pretty sure I've sunk more time into this then Demon Souls, which was my fave RPG this gen.

Other vita game I thought were great:

Guacamelee, Hotline Miami, Velocity Ultra. I'm really looking forward to Velocity 2X.

I did like Muramasa Rebirth a lot, but i think it suffered from me playing Dragons crown first which i thought was a lot better.

Muramasa rebirth would likely be up there as my favorite vita game. As I like juggling my foes in the air and feeling like a bad ass. The game looks much better than dragons crown to me aswell. Like both games alot but rebirths dlc is just too good it triples the entire game experience.

Games I liked were the above, terraria because it stole many hours from me even when I just wanted to try it. Persona 4 golden was ok but overrated to high hell. Borderlands 2 is fun but has glaring technical issues but you can get past them its a current gen game on a handheld and that is pretty sweet.

Final fantasy X2 never played x2 but this is the best looking game on my vita. Enjoying that and op unlimited world red and a number of ps1 and psp games.

New Vita announcements:

God Eater 2: Rage Burst (also on PS4 and sounds like an enhanced Burst 2)
Way of the Samurai Vita
Luminous Arc Infinity
Samurai Warriors 3rd Chronicles
Ys (also on PS4)
Senran Kagura : Estival Versus (Also on PS4)

We're also getting custom themes

Virtue's Last Reward is £8.25 at the moment. Worth a punt, surely?

Yes, play 999 first though.

Or don't. I didn't. But you probably should. But you don't have to. I liked it a lot anyway.

SimianWonder wrote:

Virtue's Last Reward is £8.25 at the moment.  Worth a punt, surely?

Buy it

I wrote a thorough synopsis of 999 here:

https://razielsdomain.forumotion.net/t15041-buu-plays-9-hours-9-persons-9-doors-aka-999-completed?highlight=persons

I don't think 999 was part of the sale sadly!

EDIT; Found a copy of 999 on eBay. It's pretty rare, given there was only one other copy on there. Is it still worth playing at nearly fifteen quid? Seems a lot for a DS game.

Won an auction for 999 for thirteen quid. Still a little more than I'd ideally like to have paid, but given its scarcity, I reckon I can beat it and then sell it for the same kind of money so shouldn't lose anything on it. Bought VLR as well, so I'll tackle 999 then move on to that afterwards.

The Atelier games are in the sale too; anyone played those?

Joe Danger is pretty good.

SimianWonder wrote:

Won an auction for 999 for thirteen quid.  Still a little more than I'd ideally like to have paid, but given its scarcity, I reckon I can beat it and then sell it for the same kind of money so shouldn't lose anything on it.  Bought VLR as well, so I'll tackle 999 then move on to that afterwards.

The Atelier games are in the sale too; anyone played those?

999 is the kind of game you'll likely only play once (well after you've seen the multiple endings).

I played Atelier Ayesha which is the start of a newer trilogy, the ones on sale are the other trilogy.

I didn't buy that trilogy as the girls look all small and I wasn't sure if they'd piss me off, with high squeaky voices and the one I played I was told was slightly differnt.

General gist from what I played was a RPG presented in a much more day to day basis, there's still the massive quest if you want to do it. Combat system is turn based and decent. Alchemy system is insanely deep and you could probably write an encyclopedia on it. You have a set number of days to do things and you have to finish those before the end of the game. There's also new game plus.

While Neo wasa being racist and telling me to play Curry saga (thats not its actual name, its 'sorcery saga: curse of the curry god) I decided to grab it. Its a rogue like its pretty simple. Gameplay is alright I'm getting a huge New Little King's Story vibe off this, one its music is similar in parts, and secondly the chareacter model design (although this might just be a staple of a JRPG in this day i'm not sure).

Main draw for me is the dialogue, the MC goes out of her way to make everyone sound like a complete dick. I like to think its deliberate rather then accidental, becaue that makes her more of a bitch and considerably more funny. BD would probably love this as the dialogue is hilariously innuendo filled in places. I've seen comparisons to 999 in the funny dialogue sense although nothing will top the elevator scene in that game.

You basically get random loot while going through dungeons, but each dungeon you restart at level 1 and if you die you lose your whole inventory, you can store stuff in your house and equipment can be levelled up insanely, meaning thats really your way of coping through harder dungeons. Although some monster can steal your equipment/destroy it if you get it knocked out of hand and its left on the floor/and delevel it (I think) so basically this game will fuck you over royally when it feels like it.

Overall its an enjoyable game, not for everyone. I think i'm way more openminded about games like this post Atelier Ayesha, which TBH I enjoyed more than most RPGs (still Demon Souls and Soul Sacrifice Delta are still the best).

Freedom Wars is only £20. Slightly tempted, but I'll wait for people to play it a bit and see if it's any good.