Class of Heroes 2 (PSP)

[Gabriel]

Has anyone bought this off the PSN or pre-ordered the physical release?

 

It looks like something I'd enjoy, but this style of game takes even longer to play and more involvement than standard RPGs. Plus, I've barely been able to play most of the other dungeon crawlers from the past couple of years.

 

What put me off in regards to the first Class of Heroes was the random dungeons. Are dungeons still randomly generated? For me, the random generation kills the joy of exploration. Instead of future expeditions exploring deeper into the maze, each expedition is just a disposable foray into the random number generator.

 

Has anyone ordered from Videogames Plus? They're the only store offering the physical release. They seem to have good feedback, but they apparrently got hacked last year.

[cimerians]

I was lucky enough to pre-order it directly through http://www.gaijinworks.com.

 

They have given me the PSN code to download it and I did. I just need to xfer it over to the PSP and try it out. (I'd love to try it on a Vita cause the screen just looks better).

 

When I do I can let you know if dungeons are random or not etc. If I forget just shoot me a PM or something.

 

(Physical copy is on the way but not yet for me).

[onmode-ky]

I wasn't a backer of the game during the failed Kickstarter, but I did preorder a UMD (with the non-backer's cover) + download copy during the period Gaijinworks was taking orders in early May. The ~2700 of us who did so got our PSN download voucher codes e-mailed to us Monday night; it was one of the few times I've gotten a video game before official release. Although I installed it that night, I didn't actually try it out until a day or two later, and then not for very long. Didn't really know what I was doing. . . . A party member got killed in my very first battle, and he wasn't even a weak guy.

 

What put me off in regards to the first Class of Heroes was the random dungeons. Are dungeons still randomly generated?

 

No, and the labyrinth maps are in fact available from this page at Gaijinworks.com. A PDF file of the manual is also there, which answers a question I had, "Is there really no software manual?" The game download itself does not include a software manual, so anyone getting just the download version will need this PDF (the game isn't much of a hand-holder at all, kind of just tossing you in at the start).

 

Has anyone ordered from Videogames Plus? They're the only store offering the physical release. They seem to have good feedback, but they apparrently got hacked last year.

 

I've never even heard of them, sorry.

 

(Physical copy is on the way but not yet for me).

 

If you're talking about the Amazon Payments e-mail that said your order shipped, that's not really true. What "shipped" was your lock for getting a physical and download copy of the game. The UMDs won't be shipped for several more weeks, and I don't think they're even ready for pressing yet, based on some comments by Monkey Paw Games' Twitter user.

 

While we're talking about recent PSP releases, did you get Black Rock Shooter? That really lit up the PSP charts when it hit the North American PS Store, and it was still the #5 PSP seller in the Store for May, according to a recent PS Blog post. I bought it, after clearing out the massive amount of required space on a Memory Stick, shortly after release and played through the very beginning. Looks like fun! Pretty good graphics, too, I think.

 

There was also an anomaly of a release for the PSP recently, the first Western-developed non-Minis PSP release in a very, very long time: T.A.C. Heroes: Big Red One, a port from a 2010 DS WWII strategy game. Did anyone get that? It's a hard sell, $20 for a ~20-MB, nearly straight port of a DS cartridge that was $20 when it released 3 years ago. I didn't bite, and the 0 ratings 1.5 months later seems to say very few people did.

 

onmode-ky

[cimerians]

Wow thanks for all the info. I guess for me I should ignore the Amazon shipping then.

 

I don't mind waiting for the physical copy as I downloaded the game though.

 

I have Black Rock Shooter on my own wishlist. I didn't know about the T.A.C game either but that is a bit much I agree.

 

I also picked up the sequel to Corpse Party last week.

[Gabriel]

If the dungeons aren't random anymore, then that removes my main complaint with the predecessor.

 

As for the TAC game, I saw it on PSN some time back. I checked out the screenshots. I think I researched it a bit online. Despite how I normally go gah-gah over anything with turn based combat and a grid, this game looked really Bleh. I'm a bit surprised to see it was a DS game (where it looks like a somewhat better and more polished game, BTW). It looks like a port of a Newgrounds flash game. It might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I sincerely doubt it.

 

Black Rock Shooter The Game is one that I took note of, but didn't really look into. This thread made me pull up a few videos and check it out. It actually looks pretty good. In all honesty, it looks far more appealing than I thought it would. It reminds me of Bullet Witch in RPG form, and since I liked Bullet Witch that's a good thing. Now the only question is should I take a chance on it at $20 or wait until it goes on sale? Hmmm.

[MagitekAngel]

A game where the publisher is going out of their way to give you the satisfaction of ownership? I... don't... understand.

[Gabriel]

A game where the publisher is going out of their way to give you the satisfaction of ownership? I... don't... understand.

 

It's a radical new concept. I doubt it will catch on.

[onmode-ky]

I also picked up the sequel to Corpse Party last week.

 

Heh, I'm too chicken to play either of those games, especially given the 3D audio mix.

 

I'm a bit surprised to see it was a DS game (where it looks like a somewhat better and more polished game, BTW). It looks like a port of a Newgrounds flash game.

 

If you look carefully at the T.A.C. Heroes screenshots, you'll notice there's a mouse cursor on a specific area of the screen. That's the clue--that part of the screen was the DS' touchscreen, and I think it's the same exact size as the 256 x192 resolution of the DS screen. The other parts of the PSP screen were what was displayed on the DS' top screen, just split up. So as far as ports go, this one was pretty direct, as it doesn't even use a larger screen area for gameplay.

 

A weird bit of trivia: the head of the game's developer, according to his LinkedIn page, was previously a director of development at Sega of America during the Saturn years.

 

Now the only question is should I take a chance on it at $20 or wait until it goes on sale? Hmmm.

 

Before Black Rock Shooter released, I had assumed I wouldn't be getting it for a while because I figured it would be $30. So, it releasing at just $20 (along with my having $10 of credit from the March PSN promo) came across to me as sort of an immediate discount. Especially considering how much the game cost in Japan.

 

If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to go into the PS3's PS Store and take a look at Class of Heroes 2's splash image on the front page of the PSP channel. It is, shall we say, unique in the history of the channel's splash imagery.

 

onmode-ky

[Gabriel]

If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to go into the PS3's PS Store and take a look at Class of Heroes 2's splash image on the front page of the PSP channel. It is, shall we say, unique in the history of the channel's splash imagery.

 

Positively FAHBULOUS.

[onmode-ky]

My UMD copy of this arrived a week ago. For the most part, it looks like a typical UMD case, but the back cover has no description text whatsoever; it's just the wraparound of the front cover's background image, with the required legal and logo stuff at the bottom. On the plastic wrap (which is just a vacuum seal, not a Y-fold), there is a holographic Gaijinworks sticker in the upper left corner of the back cover, a sticker which is also on a Certificate of Perspicacity that came packaged with the UMD. The sticker is individually numbered (identical between the UMD case one and the one on the certificate, of course) for each of the ~3000 copies of the game.

 

The certificate reads:

 

This certificate hereby verifies your impeccable taste in Japanese Role-Playing Games, hinting at a pattern of boundless philanthropy and possibly a bit of mania in support of the genre. It proves that your taste in jRPGs is without peer or reproach. Your enthusiastic support of Class of Heroes 2 will allow more virtual academic institutions for young adventurers to spring up, ensuring the advent of more engrossing quests for gamers who savor the flavor of digital danger.

Also, there are sprinklings of Latin at the borders. The lower left corner has "Anno Domini MMXIII" ("In the Year of the Lord 2013," of course). The left side has "Fac fortia et patere" (I had to look this up: "Do brave deeds and endure"). The right side says, "Vincit omnia veritas" ("Truth conquers all"). The bottom is where the fun stuff is. Across the bottom, there's "Quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur"; my amateur translation for this is "That which is said in Latin is viewed highly." The phrase is split a bit oddly, between "dictum" and "sit" (the latter being the verb for everything prior to it), and what is it that splits them? "MMMDCXCIX." That's the price of the UMD, 3699 cents. The bottom right seems to have a picture of a ninjutsu hand position. Someone was having fun.

 

Incidentally, while this is the lowest North American UMD print run (not including that Hilton training UMD), the lowest UMD print run in the world seems to be the 300 copies of Elminage Original published by Ghostlight recently over in Europe.

 

onmode-ky

Edited October 29, 2013 by onmode-ky

[cimerians]

I got mine too with the certificate. I haven't opened it and probably will leave it sealed since I have the digital copy.