sciteach
The PS Vita version is finally coming to the PS Store on December 3rd. How does the handheld hold up?
You're looking at a top down classic turned based RPG, with plenty of quests, skills, spells, crafting, leveling up... all the stuff you'd expect from a title like this. So what makes this stand out among other titles of the same genre?
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| You character is trapped... on Rainbow Moon! |
The story line is pretty fun, but not uber-engrossing. You are a hero trapped in a world, Rainbow Moon, and you try to find a way out to defeat your nemesis. You'll want to play this for the skill growth, strategic boss battles, and questing anyway, which is a lot fun. Those of you who want a real challenge will up the initial difficulty level to Hard... although "Normal Adventuresome" is a real bear, too.
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| Pretty visuals pop from your OLED screen. |
The first thing anyone will tell you when you look at this game is how pretty the screens are. The amount of care and detail the artists put into the maps and backgrounds is just perfect. Little details like the swaying of the trees as you walk past on your quest really make the world a fun place to explore.
The game boasts a 60 FPS and very short load times. That was a plus on the Vita. When I'm picking up the system to play a game I generally want to play a game immediately, not wait for some loading screen to get done. This game had less than 5 second wait times for me; really nice.
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| Dungeon crawling! |
Another thing you're going to notice is that for a $15 game, you're going to get a ton of gameplay. The developer says about 40 hours if you want to get everything out of it, including a platinum trophy, a great touch for a downloadable game.
Of course, you better like grinding because you'll be doing that a lot to improve your skills and meet the difficult enemies and bosses. After a fight, you earn XP of course, but also coins and pearls. Coins are for purchasing items, pearls are for improving your stats (attack, defense, speed, luck, HP and MP). Fights are fun and strategic. At first you have one person, then you get an archers, and a few more. Figuring out where to put your characters so they are in the best spots to attack is a lot of fun.
Like the original, you get six playable main characters with upgradeable weapons, armor and accessories; about 100 special skills and more than 20 challenging dungeons. But what improvements did the developers make over the PS3 version?
The biggest new addition is cross save, meaning that any progress you make on your Vita can be continued on PS3, and vice-versa. This also applies to existing Rainbow Moon saves, so you don’t have to worry about losing any progress!
Additionally, XP counters in the victory screen can now be skipped, items can be used directly from the quest vendor, and left-stick control has been improved, reducing the chance of walking in unintended directions while in battle mode. (more than 30 improvements will be included in a patch for the PS3 on launch day).
Price point? The game is $14.99 (12.99 Euro, 9.99 Pound). If you own Rainbow Moon on PS3, you can buy the Vita version at a 50% discount. There will also be a PS+ launch discount, but that is yet to be determined. Probably 20%.
Verdict:
8/10 A great turn based RPG is now even better for the PS Vita. Get ready to invest a lot of time in this beautiful title.
You will like this game if you:
- like strategic turned based RPG games
- like value for your money... you'll get a whole heck of a lot of gaming for 15 bucks.
- enjoy a beautifully crafted world with a bunch of improvements over the original version
You might not like:
- The steep difficulty curve (just set it for lower if you feel you don't want a big challenge)
Thank you eastasiasoft for the review copy of the game! I'm looking forward to see what Rainbow Skies has in store next year...!
Tell us what you think of this game below. Did you play the PS3 version? Do you enjoy games like this?
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