Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Gods Eater Burst early impressions.

when I see this game on the internet, nearly everyone says "Monster Hunter with plot" while this is a serviceable explanation, it does not fit the bill exactly, though the plot of Monster Hunter literally boils down to just doing your job (except Tri, which has some trappings of a plot, though it is paper thin) Gods Eater (which in game is said just God Eater) has actual characters and development, and while so far they are all cookie cutter stereotypes (bubbly, crazy girl, Loner with a big sword, Awesome Leader, Silent Protagonist, scientist that just screams "Evil Agenda") its more then you would get in MH, the concept is also rather interesting, in the future (when else?) a race of ambiguously alien beings with a unique cell system came down and started eating the earth's ecosystem, so the God Eaters were formed, the only weapons that hurt the creatures (Aragami) are their own matter, the so called "Oracle Cells" so the core of an Ara' is taken and refined into a weapon, A "God Arc" and the Gods Eaters have a special bracelet that keeps the Arc from eating them, sadly, the weapons themselves don't have a personality to speak of despite being alive. when it comes to gearing up for battle, the biggest differences from MH arise, there are 3 pieces of gear with 3 variations each, along with a passive control unit and two passive upgrades, you equip a gun mod (Sniper, Assault, or Cannon) a Blade mod (Short, Long, Buster) and a Shield mod (Buckler, Normal, Tower) each piece has unique stats of course, and most bestow abilities to your character, the passive Items also give upgrades, with the control units giving enough power to almost define classes. the combat holds many differences as well, control is fairly different, and combat must be balanced by appropriately switching between sword and gun mode, the blade combat reminds me of MH, with each blade almost being a fold of two classes in MH, (short is like Sword and Lance, Long is like Longsword and Gunlance, Buster is Hammer and Greatsword, all somewhat vaguely) each slash will generate energy for your gun, different bullets in the gun (which I will get to later) cost differing amounts of points. each blade also has unique functions, short is obviously agile, with good dodging and combo cancels, along with great aerial control, Long has average speed and power, with its fierce attack being a dash that can both deal damage and dodge, on top of that, the Long blade has the "Impulse Edge" attack, each blade has a pre-set ammo type (as far as I have seen, all close range) that can be fired very easily without having to switch. and of course the Buster is slower (though still not sluggish) with long range, that only increases when you use the obligatory chargeable slash. all close combat weapons have the powerful devour attack, by holding the triangle button, it is slow, and the range isn't great, but if you pull it off, you get a special limited ammo type, unique to each monster, and enter Burst Mode. Burst increases your attack power, speed, and stamina recovery, also, every weapon can change the end of a combo into a quick devour that only gives one Aragami bullet and half the burst bar.

The second part of your arc is the shield, I have actually not used mine for anything but stat tweaking yet, I dodge too much, in fact, my current shield has dodge up and dodge master, so I don't know that much, shielding is probably more useful with Buster blades, but I favor the Long.

Guns deserve a section all their own, this is the single most complicated ranged combat I have ever seen. from what I've seen so far, there are 5 elements, fire, Ice, Lightning, Divine, and Healing, along with multiple bullet types, I can't even count, but the basics are regular round, explosive, and laser, with plenty of variations for each, each bullet can be customized with up to 64 "chips" for example, the lightning laser takes up four, from there, you could add one laser of all the other elements, (though that would bump up the energy cost significantly) or make it stop in midair, turn to face the nearest foe, and fire another laser, fire 3 orbs in a midair triangle that fire off lasers at regular intervals, make a machine gun. anything. The three gun classes are fairly simple, Sniper has good range and bonus to lasers, Assault has a high fire rate, and Cannons get a bonus to explosive rounds.

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