[Sketch]

Official game website:
http://www.mmv.co.jp/special/game/30/

I’m cross-posting this because “Yuusha 30” on the PSP might be the most amazing thing I’ve seen so far in 2009. And since there’s a free demo available, which is NOT locked to your system account, everyone can download it and see for themselves.



Official trailer

It’s a series of 30-second long RPGs which, according to the trailer, will involve RPG, action, strategy and shooter gameplay (the demo covers the RPG and action bits). And it’s ridiculously good fun for a concept which shouldn’t work (an RPG, only 30 seconds long!).

You start off on a smallish map and need to make your way through towns and map areas, towards the demon king castle and defeat him. Random battles take the form of side-scrolling levels where you simply have to keep pushing into the enemy to attack. Winning battles raises levels and earns gold (in about 20 seconds I went up 5 levels and earned about 400 gold). Each area except for towns, the clock ticks down. In towns you can speak with people, buy equipment, heal, and in later levels, use a goddess statue to reset the clock back to 30 seconds, so some adventures will probably last a few minutes.

Imagine everything that defines a traditional RPG boiled down and concentrated, remove all the crappy annoying things, and then imagine 30 seconds of that injected into your brain. That’s Yuusha 30. Random battles, which are normally the bane of most RPGs, are awesome. They’re fun, and quick, and so painless and fluid that you end up loving them. Although they lack the complexity of other RPGs, it’s not a problem since the game is more about beating the clock and streamlining things. If you get low on health you tap Square Button to use a healing item, and everything zips along nicely.



The demo contains two levels, and in the second one I levelled up a bit, and then spent maybe 20 seconds hunting tigers in the woods to earn gold to reset the clock (which increases in price 100g each time you do it).

Gameplay video (not me)

I think the big problem with most JRPGs is that they’re 80-hours long and filled with padding, and maybe inventory management, random battles and overworld exploring would be fun, if it wasn’t so tedious. This takes all the good things and stuffs it down your throat in one go.

Oh, and it has some of the nicest, traditional, 2D sprite graphics I’ve seen. Just look at them!

My only disappointment is that this doesn’t seem likely to get a localisation. It’s just too weird. And everyone seems to be obsessed with stuff like Resistance and Phantasy Star at the moment. If you can, send emails to publishers, who knows, if enough people some interest this might be picked up.

Oh, and quick, get the demo NOW:
PSP demo
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GAMES OF THE WORLD: covering everything from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe

[Mr Peckerston]

That gameplay video looks terrible! Taking the JRPG template then removing everything that makes it an actual game (along with the story/dialogue) doesn't somehow solve the genre's 'big problem' and make it fun; it just turns it into Progress Quest with pretty sprites. Or Xenoraider, but with less thought involved.

[dessgeega]

it almost makes it look like a game!
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[Sketch]

[Takashi]

What Sony won't tell you is that this was originally a indie game by UUE.
EDIT: The indie game is just a simplified version of the RPG bit, however.
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[dessgeega]

i think the gameplay video looks incredible, actually.
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[Mr Peckerston]

The videos make it look more like how Outrun would be if it did all the steering for you. Then again I don't know anyone with a PSP so I'll have to trust you; I don't want to be one of those guys who sits on a forum bitching about games he hasn't played.

[Sketch]

Based on an inide game? Very interesting!

Also, you've not got a PSP Peckerston? You of all people I thought would actually enjoy playing this game - find a PSP-owning friend and put the demo on for them.

Having played both levels quite a bit today, I'd compare maybe a bit to a puzzler as well. It's not easy to coherently explain (especially since these early levels are really simple). But it's like when in a puzzler you work to set up a massive chain and then it all comes crashing down on the enemy. The reducing time is like a bunch of blocks piling up on you, and then you hit your stride and get your time back.

There's also a fair bit of NPC dialogue and an introductory person talking. No idea what they're saying - it could be pun-tastic hilarity.

A new demo is due out each month I hear, either way, I stand by my first post. It's astoundingly more fun than it should be.
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GAMES OF THE WORLD: covering everything from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe

[schild]

This thing looks freaking awesome.

[MOAI]

This actually looks kind of great to me. The RPG segment's a neat concept, it brings to the forefront the kind of subtle strategy of JRPGs that's always intrigued me (but not enough to play most of them) and makes a game out of it. I could see a longer and more challenging version of it being very fun.

[schild]

This seems like something XSeed would localize, unfortunately they haven't done the other Yuusha game either (which of course, has no relation to this).

[New IP]

That looks FUCKING AWESOME!

[Takashi]

For the people that were unable to figure it out here's the automatic download link for the original RPG game. I've been playing it a bit, and i think it captures the idea of the PSP gameplay except time doesn't stop in a town and you can only get 10 seconds instead of the full 30 in there, so it's a bit more hardcore.

EDIT: I finished it! 4'63 seconds left. The need to make literally split-second decisions works fine here. A bit of luck helps, too.
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[New IP]

Well I don't have 5.02 and the CFWs for it suck so I guess I'll try the computer version.

[Mr Peckerston]

[Sketch]

Well, I knew you liked indie games...

As for the PSP, Lordnikon I believe uses his PSP connected to a 480p computer monitor and... I think he said he'd wired up a decent control pad to it, effectively turning it into a kind of home console. Which sounded neat.
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GAMES OF THE WORLD: covering everything from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe

[Ratoslov]

Looks awesome.

[internisus]

Yeah, I've been watching every video of this on gametrailers, and I'm very excited about it. It's role-playing: the arcade game. It's brilliant.

[Rya.Reisender]

Obligatory "Another good game only available for handhelds" post.


Also this looks really awesome.
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Select Button
Push Eject.

[Talbain]

[internisus]

It's just a silly, funny parody--that also happens to seem rather brilliant because it works in its own right. As such, it's a good parody and actually has something to say about jRPGs.

[Talbain]

[Sketch]

Well, it's kinda not really an RPG at all, when you think about it. I know I said (lied) in the topic title, but I'm going to stick with puzzle-racer for the genre.
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GAMES OF THE WORLD: covering everything from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe

[internisus]

[Talbain]

[Zebadayus]

They look like RPG maker graphics.

And I don't mean just having a similar style. I mean they look like the graphics from RPG Maker.

[MOAI]

[Talbain]

[niitaka]

Talbain, this game is to RPGs the way WarioWare is to Nintendo games.

[Talbain]

[haze]

[niitaka]

[internisus]

[dessgeega]

yeah, watching the video there are clearly a lot of choices being made, often very quickly, and there are some pretty close shaves. did you try the original, freeware game? it's super hard.
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[CubaLibre]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

by "cynical" you mean "stupid", right?
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[glossolalia]

boy most jrpgs sure do suck huh what a fascinating and underexplored branch of serious videogames discussion this is.
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[Lymojo]

I tend to agree with the camp that says that this is more of an RPG-themed speed puzzle, and might be fun if it realizes this. There's certainly "game" happening here; the question is if it's fun.

I'd definitely play it provided a) it cost 20 USD or less b) there were many, many different scenarios to play through. If this is like the freeware version and there's only one "game" to play, with only one set of challenges, then it will get boring after five minutes.

This reminds me of that 1-D First Person Shooter someone made a few years back. Did anyone else ever play that? I can't seem to find a link.

[Talbain]

[manmachine plays jazz]

what?

[oepn]