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Freeloading With Tactical RPG Vantage Master
Thanks to 1UP for its 'Freeloading' article discussing Falcom's freely downloadable PC tactical RPG Vantage Master Online. According to the author, the title "surprising balance and depth of play", even though it "took rather a while to make, and by the time things were nearing completion it was showing its age pretty badly and was practically unmarketable. The usual course of action in that situation is to just ditch the project and cut one's losses. In Falcom's case, they wrapped it up, put it up for free download at their own expense, and even went so far as to make an English (sort of) translation."
I've actually posted about a game in this series, VM Japan, before on /. When I was trying to find information on VM Japan I stumbled across the free version of VMO and downloaded it. Though the English translation is pretty bad (and the cutscenes aren't even trasnlated), it's a fun game. It's a tactical RPG (along the lines of Final Fantasy Tatics, Tatics Ogre, and it seems to share a lot with the upcoming Phantom Brave). However, you control it with the mouse and it runs as a miniziable windows app (more on that in a sec).
The graphics are dated but its a lot of fun. The system is simple; you control (via mouse, which is a new experience for me, but works real well) a main character who can summon magical familars. The nautiauls have various elemental attributes and one is weak against one other and strong against one other. Your objective is to kill off the enemy boss (by getting through his nautiauls). On the board there are power stones that you can claim for yourself (or your enemy can too) by standing on them. Stones add to your magical power, a big help. Every time you win a battle you win a new summon.
Simple yet fun. And since it runs as without going full screen as a normal Win32 app, you can run Winamp and AOL IM while playing, in and of itself a GREAT feature.
It even has network/internet play, which I haven't fooled around with much yet.
It's a great good will gesture for Falcom to put this out. It's a great download and if you enjoyed games like FFTA or Disgaea, it's defintely worth a download. I'm having a lot of fun with it.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
*dodges rotten tomatoes*
:P
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You could show your them your sympathy and good heart by donating some pocket change to them... so maybe some other companies will do the same with their unfinished/obsolete games (sam & max anyone?)
The only problem is that their site is in japanese, and although "the fish" does a pretty good job, I can only make out their street address; (bottom of their site)
Time is the only precious thing I've got left; Don't waste it
From the readme:
The characters in the game might be garbaged depending on the kind of computer you use.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
The usual course of action in that situation is to just ditch the project and cut one's losses.
In my career I have encountered more than one colleague who has several years in the games industry behind them without a single published game to their name, so sadly this situation is as the article says, all too common. Developers and publishers get cold feet for the most spurious of reasons and seem to abandon projects on a whim. Which is a shame, because some of the dross that got published by former employers of mine would have been better canned in favour of the projects they did let fall by the wayside.
Power to this developer for letting the game live!
Oxford Dictionaries Online
wanna battle? :-)
Actually, you gotta give me some pointers on getting started.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
but I've played at least three of their games, and I've never heard of Falcom before this.
In the cutscenes? Who's that little girl and her dog???
Hehehe... so, I'm a LV3 knight... how about you
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
I've just spent the past few hours playing this game, and is it just me or is this the most obvious CPU cheating you've ever encountered in a game or what?
After you learn the paper-rock-scissors combos between the units it doesn't seem hard, but at one point in the "easy" game level, it gets ridiculous. My chacter is 5 TIMES the level of any of my opponents, but ALL of them, regardless of class, gain MP faster and have units which attack harder. It's outrageous. Might as well give my units a one-sided die for their attack damage.
Thanks but no thanks, Falcom.
-Grym
I'm having a SERIOUSLY hard time beating the "Savage" on normal mode with two different characters so far. Am I just some kind of moron or what? The only thing I haven't tried is fooling around with that mermaid naiad...
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Damage is determined by the natial stats, the element counter system, the direction from which the attacker strikes, and the defensive value of the terrain the defender is standing on. There are no dice rolling or random elements involved at all.
There is quite a learning curve to the game, but the lack of chance in the game makes it more satisfying and challenging.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON