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- 30 März 2002
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Hands-On: Tales of Eternia Move a character left; move a character right. We venture out to play the only officially playable game of the show. Of all the playable games we would have liked to have been our first experience on the PlayStation Portable pocket monolith -- and, as you've been seeing, there are already many -- last on our list would probably be a game like Namco's Tales of Eternia. No offense to Namco and the creators of its celebrated RPG series, it's just that RPGs don't make for great gameplay demos when you only have 30 seconds to play and can't engage in a battle sequence. You move a character left, you move a character right, you enter a door ... even if there were battles, you would mostly only be choosing menu commands and watching battle cinematics, only guessing that the gameplay is good since you have no time to actually get a feel for the RPG gameplay balance dynamics.
O.K., let's back up and stop playing jaded journalist ... we have played our very first game on PSP. Exclamation point.
The only playable demo at this year's event (Metal Gear: Acid was a rolling, semi-interactive demo where you could only move the camera on an in-system locked gameplay demo) was an early version of the next edition of the Tales franchise (each game is a new Tale with a new name.) This is Namco's beloved (for importers, at least) RPG series, and is a port of the PlayStation game that came out in the US as Tales of Destiny II (thus wrecking the series naming continuity when Namco later released the actual sequel to T.O.D.)
The demo was so early, analog control wasn't even operable -- Sony's SliderShock (our name for the unique, flush-to-the-unit analog stick, and since the system doesn't have rumble features, we'll already say that it's a misnomer) was not operable in the game, so play was only available utilizing the comfortable new PSP D-Pad. The hero character could run when a button is pushed, and was free to roam the game's small map and enter houses.
That was about it for the demo's gameplay, unfortunately (as we said, RPGs don't make for good demos, or good Hands-On articles.) However, the game looked quite nice. The PlayStation edition was one of the PlayStation's few beautiful 2D RPGs to make it over here, so Namco fans will know right away that, with the power of the PSP's bright-as-day screen, the screen images look so, so sweet. GBA is known as the portable 2D machine, but if SCEA listens to reason (SCE Japan is already hip to the glories of sprites and bitmaps), this system will pretty clearly trounce it when it comes to detail of characters. Pixels, you could sometimes spot peeping out of the occasional bad texture or edge shimmer on some of the other 3D PSP demos (though 480 pixels across a 4.3" screen is just about plenty for us so far), but the Tales of Eternia 2D demo was smooth as a picture lit by the sun. The level of detail also helped characters pop right off the screen in such detail that, with the 3D-style sprite layering effects that T.O.E. / T.O.D.II uses for buildings, it almost gave you the illusion of looking into the screen rather than at it. The yummy contrast ratio of the screen also meant that interiors, with simple transparencies and other lighting effects, were suitably subdued and dark while still lighting up in crisp detail.
For all the flack that Sony Computer Entertainment has caught over here for its 'stance' on 2D (an unofficial but semi-documented kibosh against traditional and often inferior 2D techniques on a system meant to always provide players with the cutting-edge new technology experience that the main audience demands,) it was in many ways a treat that Sony allowed the only playable game on the show floor, in a show controlled and run by its American office, was a traditional 2D game. Already, Japan is seeing a good number of 2D and 2D-hybrid games (and, after playing the say-it-ain't-so 3D version of Fatal Fury, we're ready to speak for hours to even the 3D snobs that), and although this didn't make for the best gameplay, it was still quite the experience.
Video:
http://c.streamingmovies.ign.com/psp/article/515/515419/PSPJapan_05_13_2004_16_wmvlow.wmv
Quelle: ign
O.K., let's back up and stop playing jaded journalist ... we have played our very first game on PSP. Exclamation point.
The only playable demo at this year's event (Metal Gear: Acid was a rolling, semi-interactive demo where you could only move the camera on an in-system locked gameplay demo) was an early version of the next edition of the Tales franchise (each game is a new Tale with a new name.) This is Namco's beloved (for importers, at least) RPG series, and is a port of the PlayStation game that came out in the US as Tales of Destiny II (thus wrecking the series naming continuity when Namco later released the actual sequel to T.O.D.)
The demo was so early, analog control wasn't even operable -- Sony's SliderShock (our name for the unique, flush-to-the-unit analog stick, and since the system doesn't have rumble features, we'll already say that it's a misnomer) was not operable in the game, so play was only available utilizing the comfortable new PSP D-Pad. The hero character could run when a button is pushed, and was free to roam the game's small map and enter houses.
That was about it for the demo's gameplay, unfortunately (as we said, RPGs don't make for good demos, or good Hands-On articles.) However, the game looked quite nice. The PlayStation edition was one of the PlayStation's few beautiful 2D RPGs to make it over here, so Namco fans will know right away that, with the power of the PSP's bright-as-day screen, the screen images look so, so sweet. GBA is known as the portable 2D machine, but if SCEA listens to reason (SCE Japan is already hip to the glories of sprites and bitmaps), this system will pretty clearly trounce it when it comes to detail of characters. Pixels, you could sometimes spot peeping out of the occasional bad texture or edge shimmer on some of the other 3D PSP demos (though 480 pixels across a 4.3" screen is just about plenty for us so far), but the Tales of Eternia 2D demo was smooth as a picture lit by the sun. The level of detail also helped characters pop right off the screen in such detail that, with the 3D-style sprite layering effects that T.O.E. / T.O.D.II uses for buildings, it almost gave you the illusion of looking into the screen rather than at it. The yummy contrast ratio of the screen also meant that interiors, with simple transparencies and other lighting effects, were suitably subdued and dark while still lighting up in crisp detail.
For all the flack that Sony Computer Entertainment has caught over here for its 'stance' on 2D (an unofficial but semi-documented kibosh against traditional and often inferior 2D techniques on a system meant to always provide players with the cutting-edge new technology experience that the main audience demands,) it was in many ways a treat that Sony allowed the only playable game on the show floor, in a show controlled and run by its American office, was a traditional 2D game. Already, Japan is seeing a good number of 2D and 2D-hybrid games (and, after playing the say-it-ain't-so 3D version of Fatal Fury, we're ready to speak for hours to even the 3D snobs that), and although this didn't make for the best gameplay, it was still quite the experience.
Video:
http://c.streamingmovies.ign.com/psp/article/515/515419/PSPJapan_05_13_2004_16_wmvlow.wmv
Quelle: ign
) sehe ich das eher kritisch aber ich gönne all denen die es noch nie gespielt haben und ein bisschen interesse an die Tales of Spiele zeigen.
