Since I started playing the game yesterday, I'd like to write down my first impressions on it. I'm still not sure wether I like the game's characters and story tho.
I'm pretty sure I can't stand Daichi by now. He's a wuss and if there's one thing about Japanese video games and anime series that I can't stand it's their wussy main characters. One Shinji was enough for my whole life time. Well, Daichi is not that awful, but he's just not the cool best buddy you'd wish for in a video game. He's utterly useless, pretty dumb and has no special talents at all (mind you, I'm still at the first day, things could totally change but I don't expect it) - I'd totally prefer Atsuro any day over this wuss. Io on the other hand is quite more likable than Yuzu, at least for me. Besides her weird large breasts (seriously, what's up with the breasts in this game!?) she is pretty cute and very calm and smart.
And Joe.. oh sexy Joe, I had high hopes in you. But you seem to disappoint.. sexy Joe, or Yuzuru Akie as his real name is, is a totally carefree dude who doesn't seem to take anything seriously (so far) - he als has pretty low vit, which makes him quite easy to lose in a battle. :( So far I'm not impressed by him... pity, since he's so hot in his striped suit.
But let's start from the beginning, shall we?
So, the game starts off with the me (as in me identifying myself with the MC of the game) at school just having finished my exams and Daichi arrives just in time so the both of us leave school together. Daichi tells me about Nicaea, a weird website where you can see a video clip of your friends dying. Of course Daichi believes it's just fake, but I sign up anyways and get to name the MC... I've decided on Jun Owari for his name.
Of course I chose the male Tico when prompted to make a decision, because who could resist his sexyness, huh?
It doesn't really make much of a difference tho and if you prefer scantily clad big breasted bunny girls you should definitely choose the female Tico. ;> She's rather cute as well so IF I should do a second playthrough I'll most likely choose her as well.. :>
Anyways, at the train station the we meet Io and suddenly all our phones ring and we see one of the infamous Nicea death clips... sadly it shows all three of us dying so yeaaah, not cool!
Things happen quickly, train crashes, we survive but suddenly demons appear and attack us. So we have our first battle!
Daichi is all "Oh my god, what should we do? This is crazy, we need to get away!" while I'm trying to tell him to man up and fight, but he's like totally not listening and for a minute I was wondering if I could maybe attack and kill him so he won't annoy me all game long. I can see him doing lots of shit stuff that will get us into trouble for some reason...
Io on the other hand, while scared, is much calmer and I take an instant liking to her. We finish the battle, everyone gets their first contract with a demon and we leave the destroyed train station in a hurry, only to see that the train station has not been the only place that had taken damage.
We meet a blue haired woman who asks us to show her our cell phones and I would have liked to (there was a dialogue choice) but Daichi goes all "OMG THIS WOMAN IS SCARY LET'S RUN!" so the three of us run off... damn you Daichi, I wanted to get this hot chick's number!! We also get to see Joe for a brief moment, should we chose to, but he doesn't introduce himself to us yet.
Soooo... at this point I was a little confused at Daichi panicking at almost everything but not at the fact that parts of the city were completely destroyed, no trains or buses were operating and many roads blocked by rubble and also all shelters seemingly being full of people. Well, it's not rare for earthquakes to happen in Japan and at this point they all think this was caused by an earthquake, but still... it's a little unbelievable to me that neither he nor Io aren't more freaked out by the disaster.
Well, they decide to go to Io's house which is quite a bit away and on their way there they run into a weird thing that fell from the sky and starts exploding around killing anyone near.
Their demon summon app informs them that it's called "Budhe" and they run off to escape from it. Successfully so, but they get split up and when I find Io again our cellphones ring and we receive another mail with a death clip. This time Daichi is doomed (and oh how I wish I could have just let him die.) and we need to save him. So we hurry off to the shrine where he's at and the mysterious blue haired hot chick joins us in a battle against a stronger demon.
Afterwards she takes us to the JP's HQ to nurse Io who sprained her ankle. She finally introduces herself to us as Makoto Sako and we learn that JP's is pronounced "Jips" and some sort of special unit for the Government. We also get to meet her boss, who's also one hell of a sexy dude, called Yamato Hotsuin, he doesn't really seem that friendly tho.
After Io's ankle is fixed up Daichi needs to pee badly, so I accompany him on his search for a bathroom. We hear Makoto and Yamato talking about us and they seem to wanna throw us in prison cells, since we don't really like that idea we run back to Io and get the hell out of JP's HQ. Which is a pity, since it's an awesome secret underground HQ with lots of space and stylish furniture. I bet their prison cells would have been cool as well. :>
Well, we flee successfully and continue to make our way to Io's place and we meet Joe again. He's being followed by demons who came out of his cellphone and since he's too useless to fight them, we do it for him he afterwards thanks us and is all chipper about now being able to summon demons. He also tells us that we can't continue the way we intended to as there's lots of demons roaming around in that direction.
The dialogue failed a little here, while we explained the functions of the summoning app to Joe, at this point of the story neither the MC nor any of the other characters should know about demons being freed if the owner of the summoning app dies - it wasn't mentioned at all but still, after we explained the app to Joe he said something along the lines of: "So these demons I've seen must have killed their owners to free themselves, according to your explanation" Well, while I know that's true since I played the first game, the others should not be aware of this fact. There's lots of more illogical stuff in the dialogue that I came across...
For example, Io and the MC talk a little after they ran away from the rainbow bubblegum alien thinger and there's a dialogue choice for the MC, I chose to ask Io "What's the problem?" as she seemed to be pondering about something. Her reply was: "Ahaha.. haha, you're a funny guy. Thank you." what the? There where other dialogue choices where Io's or Daichi's answers to my choice made very little sense as well... huge, huge minus Atlus.
Gameplay wise the game is pretty much like the first one, just a tad more difficult imo. At least at first, I'm sure as soon as you unlock the special skills via the friendship system and other stuff (I haven't even unlocked demon fusion yet, tho that should be unlocking soon.) the game should become a little more fair. But be prepared for a handful of grinding if you intend to play the game. And lots of dying. It's easy to die there. ;_;
Well, I hope the story telling gets a little better, since I really dig the story line a lot, badass aliens invading earth, a bunch of young adults fighting them off with the help of demon summoning and a super awesome secret HQ with stylish interior. This better turn into something badass. And hopefully this time around there will be real endings, with real conclusions and satisfying enough make me want see the other endings as well!
But to find out about all that I'd need to continue playing and I shall do so now. :>
Corpse Party will be on hold for a few days now, since I'm craving for some good old turn-based strategy love right now. :>
