[witness_sixdays]

talk about this game

it looks good?

I'm excited

[v84j3gs2uc7ns4]

[Lestrade]

Yes, I haven't bought a DS game in months, and this is the one I've been waiting for. I don't know what to like more; the fact that you hold it like a book; the art style; or the ability to jot note down using the DS as a notebook. Wow. What a great example of doing something in a game most people would never even think of, yet will probably be indispensable.
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Illustration Portfolio | The Gamer's Quarter

[firenze]

[Lestrade]

No, I think it is, Firenze. It is because it (a) removes a level of abstraction that's prevalent in most similar games (e.g. a "notes" page in a sub-menu) while simultaneously immersing you more into the game (by giving you an in-character way to play detective without having to actually keep notes somewhere else).

It sounds odd, but the game is using "keeping notes" as a gameplay device, a bullet-point. All the literature I see on the game positions it as a mainstream-friendly title. Think about it: just as Trauma Centre is "a surgery game," and Phoenix Wright is "a lawyer game," Hotel Dusk is "a detective game." What do detectives do? They talk to people and take notes to solve crimes! And now you literally can do that!

It sounds so silly to discuss, but I am more excited about digital note-taking than the entire 2006-2007 PS3 lineup.
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Illustration Portfolio | The Gamer's Quarter

[SuperWes]

[Lestrade]

I hear you on that. Really, they should be marketing the hell out of stuff like this; they obviously realize it's very mainstream-friendly, so why not capitalize?

I'm too sleepy after lunch to think of anything helpful right now...
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Illustration Portfolio | The Gamer's Quarter

[remote]

I just bought The Longest Journey for $10 and frankly I'm more excited about playing that right now, but I feel like I should buy this anyway, if only to show my ongoing support for the GRAPHIC ADVENTURE.

The note-taking thing does seem pretty novel, too.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[dongle]

I did not like the Longest Journey. I didn't get that far in it, so maybe it redeems itself through plot after the first couple of chapters, but it did absolutely nothing to fix problems with late-era adventure games. Phoenix Wright and, to a degree, Trace Memory fixed a lot of issues regarding backtracking and items of ambiguous importance.

[aderack]

[aderack]

[firenze]

[sethsez]

I'm really excited for this, but I do hope it's less overtly linear than Trace Memory. I mean, obviously an adventure game is going to be linear, but Trace Memory's mansion was basically a single literal path with some rooms branching off of it.

I also hope this is a bit longer.

[remote]

[dongle]

I agree with your assessment of Trace memory as diluted, and you're right that I'm a bit reactionary since I played too many shitty adventure games. However, I would call it bad design if your character examines an object early in the game and says something like "what would I need that for?" and refuses to pick it up, when that object is needed several hours later into the game, with 5+ minutes of clicking on area hotspots and watching the walking animation necessary to fetch the object. That is, if you even remember the object, which, at least in my case, is unlikely since the game previously stated it was useless. And, yeah, the first couple of hours are pretty self explanatory, but I found that it started getting more obscure after the candy puzzle outside the theatre. I don't mind engaging problems, but I have a low tolerance for shenanigans as outlined in the Old Man Murray article on the death of adventure games.

It's true that the girl's responses are in character, but if we're playing by arbitrary rules solving not entirely sensical arbitrary puzzles, I think it's ok to help the player at least have the tools necessary to solve said puzzles.

The reason that I like Phoenix Wright so much is that its streamlined format means that the bulk of the play time is spent in dialogue and actually solving puzzles which are arguably the reasons that people play adventure games.

[Levi]

The idea of note taking reminds me of all the network addresses you had to remember in Neuromancer.

That game might make for an interesting revival on the DS.

[Corinth]

[klikbeep]

[Churippu]

I liked Trace Memory. So I can't wait for this game! It looks classy.

[Koji]

Indeed, his game looks absolutely gorgeous. And moody. I really liked Trace Memory, though I know that it's a flawed game. I do hope that this one will fix its issues, but I'm not worried, I know these guys can do it.

[alice]

I don't have a DS.

The game looks nice though, I love they way they make innovative use of the dual screens.

[sethsez]

IGN has some new videos up. They're quite gorgeous.

And considering EGM's reviews don't complain about the length at all, I expect this has been significantly lengthened from Trace Memory. EGM isn't a magazine likely to pass on a chance to bitch about length, and sure as hell doesn't give two 8s and a 10 to a game that's "too short."

[Koji]

Wow. Beautiful.

[aderack]

Either someone paid Famitsu a lot of money, or they really like the game.

9, 7, 9, 8

[firenze]

[Deets]

That's interesting firenze. The only games I can stand being fairly long any more are portable games. I mean, at least I can play them anywhere.

[oneEIGHTkevin]

Some stores already have the game according to GAF.


It's gonna be hard to split time between this and Phoenix Wright 2 if they both feature lovable characters.
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[gooktime]

Gross, my usual importer have closed their pre-order list on this one!

[sethsez]

[Mr Mustache]

I wish the protagonist had better hair and no shitty looking goatee.
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The people are like wool to me

[shnozlak]

[BotageL]

The movement of the characters in the footage I saw kind of reminds me of a more fluid version of The Last Express. I really need to finish that game since it's on Gametap and everything. It's pretty rad. Like I hope this game is.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[Martial Loh]

I'm sure someone's mentioned it already, but the animation is very reminiscent of the Ah-hah Take on Me music vid.

I caved in and preordered earlier today.. with any luck I'll have it before my ski trip. Somewhat offtopic, but has anyone tried out Touch Detective yet ?(the other DS adventure game..)

[parkbench]

[RecessRapist]

This reminds me I have to finish Elite Beat agents before I can even touch this game.

And that I have to sell Kirby Squeak Squad and Yoshi's island DS.

[oneEIGHTkevin]

Apparently this is one of those games that's gonna be hard as fuck to buy until they eventually print more. I tried to buy it at EB today because it supposedly shipped yesterday and they said they don't know when or if they will ever get it in. Then they said something about it being a "Class C" game so they didn't even let people pre-order it.

I mean this is EB we're talking about. And they're not letting people PRE-ORDER a game!? If I had a dime everytime an EB employee asked me to pre-order a game... blah blah
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[sethsez]

Try Target. I've heard that a lot of people have been having good luck with it. That's where I got my copy.

[luvcraft]

[Mikey]

I actually had no interest in this until today. I guess it's a good thing it's already out, considering it'll be a while before anything for the DS comes out that I'll be interested in.

[newave]

[SuperWes]

Hey guys. Can we turn this into a "fuck GameStop" thread? I'm pretty pissed that they're only selling it online. They're so big at this point that they alone have the power to totally screw a game's sales potential.

-Wes
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