So the Zero Shiki/Type 0 demo came out last Thursday, which I promptly downloaded off the Japanese PSN when I came home. As usual, the graphics are beautiful but the in-game polygons leave much to be desired. Now the demo feels like an improved Crisis Core with some changes
1. The ability to summon and unsummon weapons affects healing speed. HP is healed when characters stand around. Beats using cure magic or potions
2. MP can be restored from absorbing dead enemies. You gain colored Fantomas based on the final hit the enemy takes which can be used to upgrade your magic (more damage, less mp cost, faster casting etc) through the Altocrystarium menu. Another way is taking ether related potions
3. Kill Sight and Break Sight. A kind of Issen system from Onimusha where when damage is dealt before the enemy hits or when it's attack leaves it wide open, you deal major damage. A yellow (break sight) or red (kill sight) targeting icon will appear when the timing is right. Only possible when locked on to enemies
4. Special order. Tasks/trials that show up during missions. Some can be hard and rather annoying to do. It can range from not getting hit during the time limit, surving to x minutes, killing x enemies, do x kill sights. The good thing is that you can get items and buffs from completing it. Fail and your character dies
5. Summons. Sacrificing your character allows you to use your summon. Demo only allows Golem and Shiva. Having high HP and damage, they make the fights easy, but are only able to fight during a specified time. Only 40 seconds for you to get Shiva to freeze and dance your way while eliminating your enemies. EXP is only gained while summons kill things. Confirmed summons are Ifrit, Golem, Odin and Shiva
6. The team of Class Zero playable. The demo has 7 playable characters: Ace, Queen, Nine, Sice, King, Rem and Machina. Each character plays and fight differently, with their own skill tree abilities
I'm usually using Rem or Ace mostly, Rem's high magic ability makes taking out the robots a piece of cake. One of the main highlights of the demo is the ability to collect the summer outfits of the playable cast. I've collected 14 costumes that can be used in the main game once it comes out. Now the worst thing about this game without a doubt that many will agree with me, the camera angle need work. Not the normal camera angle but when your locked on and fighting a big enemy. Not seeing the floor and the area around you, you usually trying to evade evade out of harms way only to find yourself moving to a corner. 50% of my deaths are from the lock on camera. Word is the staff knows about it and are improving it for the game. Without that it's a pretty engaging game. War does make games big scale, but students at a magic academy fighting back against an empire that uses technology. From what I've seen, it looks like the country of Suzaku (where the crystal of Suzaku [magic] is housed) is getting beaten up pretty bad, only Class Zero is able to fend off against the enemy
Ace and Rem in their new costumes. Instead of the black, red and gold shoulders on their uniforms, the new one is black and white. i think I'm done with the demo now, all chars at lvl 20 (Rem, Ace and Queen at 24) Shiva at lvl 24, all skills that can be unlocked learned, about 20k gil. Now back to Queen's Gate i suppose. Darn, Chou Jigen game Neptune Mk2/ Hyper Dimension Neptune MK2 is coming out next week, with Black * Rock Shooter The Game coming out the week after
