8 replies to this topic

[Strum la Frantique]

All three are fucking tops, Xenoblade is a major offender here though because I had all but written off my Wii till Skyward Sword's release. Thankfully Nintendo Europe decided to localise it themselves, complete with British voice cast, and the results are excellent. I understand Nintendo America's stance on not releasing this game in the States, they can't release this version, they would have to get new voice acting done because the Yanks are notorious for not understanding a different accent. Still on the plus side the voice acting is a campy British comedy style where nothing is taken too seriously, and hits the serious notes when needed. I've heard better, I've certainly heard worse.

Niche Jap titles are still some of the best gaming experiences around, hopefully these three aren't overlooked like so many others.

[CrossFan]

Just ordered Catherine on PS3 from Amazon. The game had been in my sights for quite some time and after playing the demo sealed it for me. I would like to point out that playing with the 360 dpad was awful.

Still dissappointed that Xenoblade hasn't made it to the states yet. Never even heard of El Shaddai is there a demo for it?

[Strum la Frantique]

Yeah good point on Catherine, I got it on PS3 too because the 360 D-Pad is utter shit in plastic form.

There is a demo of El Shaddai available on both 360 and PS3. On the Xenoblade front, the other two titles people were asking for, Pandora's Tower and The Last Story have also been confirmed for a PAL release. So I'd expect a similar localisation with British voice actors and such, also impeding a USA release. Maybe this is Nintendo's apology for mistreating the PAL regions for two decades.

[Smacktalks]

Nice tip on the D-Pad, the review I watched never mentioned using it so I would have gone with the 360 version.

[ALL STAR]

Catherine seems interesting but the thing that puts me off is the gameplay of actuallly climbing the towers. I've heard mixed things about the story ike it could end at a perfect point but it doesn't and goes down the whole JRPG route.

[Strum la Frantique]

The game is about block puzzles, yes. It is not the first, and certainly not the last game to focus on block puzzles. There are anime cutscenes, and a bit of RPG'ing to do in a pub, but yes the game is most certainly about puzzles of the block variety. If you don't want to puzzles with blocks, and no not everyone does, then no this game is not for you. If however you don't mind solving puzzles mainly concerned with blocks, then I would suggest this game may be up your alley because the accompaniments around the block puzzles are fine trimmings indeed and only enhance the puzzles of block.

I only spell out that the game is mainly concerned with blocks placed on top of other blocks to form functioning stairs to climb the towers in a guy's nightmare (a real nightmare for some people, safe to say if you own Gears of War, Catherine may not be your cup of tea), because on one of my weekly trolls of the gamefaqs messageboards (funnier and more curse word filled than an episode of Inbetweeners) I read a few Catherine topics that were mainly focused around:

a. "So this game is just puzzles!?!?!"
b. "I thought this was an rpg but it's just block puzzles"
c. "This game is gay why all the good reviews it just a bunch of puzzles"

This wasn't a shock really because I know people are stupid. I was doing some training for work the other week and heard a worker from another company say to another guy "Have you played this game called Hard Rain? It's fucking shit". I kept quiet, I didn't want to get into a fucking debate about the merits of Heavy Rain, against the mainstream fare of Halo and Gears (both series of which I have installed one instalment in).

Yes it's block puzzles, this is why you need a decent D-Pad, this is why people should buy it on PS3.

[CrossFan]

Heavy Rain does suck while playing with the move though. Otherwise awesome game!

I like Gears and still play games like Catherine. I've even preordered the 3rd Gears. Of course I've always been a fan of JRPG type games.

[Strum la Frantique]

So you own the Move? Well I suppose one had to turn up eventually...

[CrossFan]

Bought it with the 320 gb PS3. I think i've used it twice and is currently covered in dust.