ZHP: The Unlosing Ranger vs Darkdeath Evilman

[Kaelan?]

I'll just leave this here.

[Riposte]

Trailer reveals too much

[MisterBob]

Uh, no it doesn't. The real plot of the game is quite different.

[Kaisha]

So a Mystery Dungeon style game utilizing what looks like a repurposed Disgaea engine? Looks to have potential as long as it doesn't do the death-bullshit Shiren the Wanderer has.

At least NIS is honest about the game being a grindfest >.> .

[-Zer0-]

AND YOU STILL DIE!!!

[Maguspk]

I don't get it, everytime you die you get stronger? Sounds simple? Can anyone explain for those of us who don't know what Disgaea is.

[Insanecyclone]

I don't get it, everytime you die you get stronger? Sounds simple? Can anyone explain for those of us who don't know what Disgaea is.

9999 max level and crazy/funny dialogue dood.

Disgaea 4(new) trailer should give you an example of the crazy shit in the series.

[MisterBob]

Of course it has the death "bullshit". It's a Roguelike, you get punished for dying. Most older Roguelikes deleted your character when you failed. The whole point of the game is to carefully navigate very difficult areas and situations. You're supposed to be sweating every step and carefully considering every action, along with how to use your items effectively. I can understand that standard JRPG players will hate this, because they're used to just hording their crap and never actually being challenged. If you're one of those, don't play. There's enough of them whining on various ZHP forums already, lol.

The "The more you die, the stronger you get thing" in the trailer isn't entirely accurate. Essentially, you have two "levels". When you start a dungeon, your main "level" is always started at 1. When you either clear, escape, or die in the dungeon, your main level count is added to your total level count. As your total level rises, your stat growth increases. Thus, the next time you enter the dungeon and level up, you will be more powerful than you were before.

[Maguspk]

Sounds awesome. So these games are for PS3? The graphics made me think it was DS or PSP but if it's PS3 I'll definitely have to pick these up. Disgaea 4 and this ZHP are basically both 'Roguelikes?' The genre sounds awesome, almost like hardcore D2 or something, I love that feeling that makes me sweat when I play a game.

Are there any good Roguelikes I can get for my PS3 in the mean time?

[Kaisha]

Disgaea series is on a variety of platforms. 1/2 originally for PS2, been ported to PSP since (first one also on DS, but it's the worst of the bunch thanks to stripped voice-clips), 3 is PS3-only.

ZHP is the rogue-like, Disgaea series are SRPGs, like a fast-paced version of FFT. Only reason I mentioned Disgaea earlier is because it looks like NIS adapted the same engine from the PSP Disgaeas for use in it, rather than wasting resources developing a new one from scratch.
(which makes sense given their economic state)

[MisterBob]

Yeah, it's definitely the Disgaea engine. A lot of the menus will be very familiar if you've played D1-3.

Overall, ZHP is quite good. It's notably less difficult than the other console roguelikes, like Shiren, Nightmare of Druaga, Azure Dreams, etc. This is primarily because you can grind your way past difficult dungeons if you really want to. However, it's also a very good way to introduce yourself to the genre, for this very reason.

I also like the Chrono Trigger-style NG+. Killing Darkdeath Evilman in the various chapters instead of losing to him like you're supposed to results in a number of rather goofy endings.

[Kiarax]

I played this for a little while and didn't think much it. Shortly before I got bored (8-10 hours or so) stuff did start to pick up in difficulty a bit, but it was still extremely easy if you bothered to kill most everything on each floor. The AI is also absolutely retarded and it is very easy to get enemies stuck in terrain where you can continuously pelt them, if they don't have a ranged attack/special you've basically automatically won. Despite having more fluff to the system than most bare-bones roguelikes I still found it got boring very fast. Most roguelikes rely on good item management and conserving yourself whereas this one throws endless amounts of items at you leaving no reason not to just kill everything (despite the game telling you otherwise). Really only worth playing for the humour imo, the best parts of the game are the (normally unwinnable) fights against Darkdeath Evilman which play absolutely nothing like the actual game itself. It's pretty clear their intended audience wasn't hardcore roguelike players, but in my eyes they absolutely failed at capturing why people play the genre.

[Rokku]

The game does start to get (albeit slightly) harder around dungeon 7, but yeah, the AI is absolutely retarded sometimes. I beat so much shit in the dungeon with the balloons just by throwing a balloon inbetween myself and an enemy, and just wailing on them with a spear while they stood there continuously trying to walk through it. All and all it's a pretty decent title, but it's definitely not a hardcore roguelike.