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| Lester? |
| Sprawl. |
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20% |
[ 3 ] |
| , Klarth F. |
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80% |
[ 12 ] |
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| Total Votes : 15 |
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 Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:01 am
Hi guys! This is my first review, yay! Anyway!
Name: Contact
Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Grasshopper [apparently the Killer 7 guys. Not that I know what Killer 7 is...]
US Distributor: Atlus Co.
Contact is the weirdest game I have ever played. This is the blurb:
Thigns you WON'T find in Contact:
A dull moment. Normalcy. A guy with spikey hair and/or amnesia. Dramatic monologues. The same battles you've been fighting since the 16-bit era.
Things you WILL find in Contact:
Monkey. Comic terrorists. Powerful attack stickers. Fishing. Cooking. Humor. Fun with Nintendo Wi-Fi. Deeper meaning in life.* Costumes that increase your power and make you more fun to be around.
*Results may vary.
[The professor is going "Psst! Buy the game - I need your help!" in the corner]
Ookie! First I will talk about the plot. I was very impressed by the packaging and it was the blurb and the picture of Terry that seduced me completely. And the whole that looked like a bullet hole BUT I AM DIGRESSING. YEAH.
When you switch it on the intro screen is a keyboard which is damn cool. Start a new game, obligatory plot... You meet this Professor dude and his ship and his space dog who wants to become a cat, Mochi. They are all pixelled in really big pixels, like in FFVI but less drastic. It's still old-style though. After some talk someone attacks! Apparently space terrorists are attacking the Professor and he starts to flee!
He then makes a crash landing on some planet for a reason which I do not know, and it was probably the game's excuse to enable the Professor to meet Terry, who is pixelled very detailed-ly and in a completely different style from the Prof. I liked that detail. Anyway, the aliens come attacking and the Prof. drags Terry onto the ship and flees again. Unfortunately his ship gets shot and he has to make a crash landing...
Now you start your adventure. You actually play as yourself, as a sort of middle-man between the Prof. and Terry. Terry is drifting on the shore so you have to poke him to wake him up, but basically the game is about looking for the lost power cells of the ship that were scattered all over the planet after the crash. Kinda like Tsubasa now that I think about it. Hm. Anyway, the space shuttle has been somehow converted into a galleon and after retrieving the first cell you have to sail around the world to retrieve the other cells. Unfortunately you have to wait ages or just save to get from one place to the other which is the most annoying part of the game -_- Also, as the game progresses you find out just why those terrorists were chasing the Prof. in the first place.
The combat system is promising with the obligatory stuff like Strength, Defense, Dexterity [hit ratio], Agility [dodge ratio], Wisdom [magic stuff], Speed [when walking] and Stamina [HP]. But there's stuff like skills with bladed weapons, blunt hitting weapons and your fists. Skill with elemental magic. And there's also another submenu that you can access with stuff like Fame, Courage and Karma. Karma increases when you kill things that attacked you and decreases when you kill things that didn't. Like humans. [Also when you steal stuff] If your Karma is too low things that don't normally attack you will attack you. If your Fame is high weak monsters will not attack you.
Also, there are Techs which are just magic techniques. But they are costume-exclusive, and there's fishing techniques and cooking techniques too, like Gut which gives you a high chance of getting food out of something.
There's also skill with cooking, fishing, thievery and resistance against elements but yeah. Also, there's no EXP, instead when you get hit you gain Defense and Stamina, and when you hit you gain Dexterity and Strength, use magic and gain Wisdom, etc. etc. All those stats can be leveled up to L100.
However for those used to incredibly complicated systems like in Tales of Symphonia you will be disappointed. There is no controlling, you just go into battle mode and watch Terry hack away every once in a while. In fact it's what gave Contact a bad reputation. I personally don't mind it but I'd suppose other people do. However before you groan there are a lot of choice for weapons.
Also, there are costumes and things called 'decals', which are basically stickers. The costumes thing is pretty obvious, you wear costumes and gain stat enhances or drops based on the costume, like Aqua Type or Mud Digger or something. [basically job class] Also, you can only cook in the Mr. Cuisine costume and fish in the Fisher King costume.
Moving onto decals, the game uses the Touch Screen to great effect for those methinks. There are two types of decals, battle and Trick Decals. After fighting enemies might drop ? Decals and basically you peel them to find out what they are, then decide whether to stick them in your book or on you or something to increase that stat. Otherwise you'll have to dump it. Trick Decals are decals that stay with you permanently but are only one-use [you refill by going back to the Prof.] There are decals like the Ship Decal [like Escape Rope, go back to the Ship], Mochi Decal [summons Mochi! The Prof's pet] etc. You use decals by selecting them, peeling them off, then sticking them on the screen with the stylus.
On to cooking. It is kinda like Harvest Moon except you only have one utensil, the Frying Pan. Apparently you can create Fruit Juice by mixing Fruit, Water and frying it up but whatever... The cooking is okay but something that annoys me is that you have to be wearing the appropriate costume to cook -_- But it's all part of the game! You can also fry up your own potions if you have the patience 3nodding
Also, there is one cool aspect that is challenging to me. To prevent over-using of healing items, the game puts a limit on how much you can eat. Terry has a stomach which you can see fill up. Steak and meats obviously fill up more than veggies, even if they heal more you won't be able to heal again until you get hungry. Also, foods can raise your stats temporarily until you digest them. So you might get extra Strength until your Steak digests.
And about fishing... I have not gotten there yet. o_O I am sorry!
The plot is cool and weird. After you retrieve your first power cell and finish the whole naked chef thing, you go to this place called Caldoaxa where you meet this guy called Lester Sprawl, who is also after the cell. His group has shadowy motives regarding the cells so I'm thinking you'll have to fight them or something. They have a blog page at the last page of the manual 3nodding
Unfortunately I am only up to Level 3. -_- Which looks promising, by the way. Invading a military base! whee But as you can obviously tell I wholeheartedly recommend this game. I have heard that the main plot is a tad short [well not a tad... 10 hours is pretty short -_-] but there are a lot of side quests to keep you occupied. [Apparently they go up to the 50 odd hours line]
The game's tone is not serious at all, it doesn't take itself seriously which is good this time. The Professor is like 'You can even treat it like you're playing a game!' after you agree to help him, having been able to somehow receive his signals with your 'DS'. Also, when you save you are able to play with Mochi, making him stronger! Also, Mochi is incredibly cute!! If you poke the Prof. during Save time he also says weird things. One things that also impressed me was that the manual was set out like a blog, not like those normal 'how to' manuals. And the Professor is so cute!!
Also, before I forget sometimes you get missions like SOS'es which are alarming to me but might be fun for someone else. There was one that had a time limit that I hated, even if the solution was pretty obvious. Lol. I just hate things with time limits.
The graphics are pretty. The plot intro graphics are beautiful but sometimes the graphics get kinda overused. Like, each cave looks the same. Also I think that they could have made Terry-sprite look WAY better... he looks so cute on the title!
Sound is great. It suits the theme and sometimes I find myself humming the combat music -_- Might be just me. When each character talks a sound unique to them plays every time they skip to a new line.
The battle system may not be that interesting but as the game implies you are the middle man and so you just influence Terry to walk whichever way and leave the fighting to him.
Basically, if you like fighting and revel in tactical battle systems don't get this game. If you dislike training to customize [I mean if you want Terry to be exceptionally fast and strong you'll have to train by jogging and fighting] don't get this game. If you want a weird, humorous, almost parody-ish experience GET IT!!! I COMMAND YOU!!!
Overall rating: 9.5/10 ONLY because of the saving -_-;
Oh and if you don't wish to read this or got bored or something... just read these review which are so much better than mind:
http://www.gamespot.com/ds/rpg/contact/player_review.html?id=379418
http://www.gamespot.com/ds/rpg/contact/player_review.html?id=377001
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:56 am
Sounds cute. I'd been debating whether or not to get it ... now I might. 3nodding
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 4:27 pm
Sounds good. I'm glad I bought it. 3nodding
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:46 pm
Woop! Contact players unite!
Unfortunately I forgot to mention that Wifi capabilities are not that good [well you get bonus items and get stronger...]. I think you can Contact someone and just live on WifiLand or something. I don't fully get it.
But I never use WiFi anyway. :3
And everyone voted for Klarth! whee Yay!
-is a not so secret fangirl of Klarth-
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Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:38 pm
Apparently there is going to be a Contact 2. surprised
-is up to the pyramids, having beaten the ft. eagle level-
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