The Guided Fate Paradox EU Box Art

Three years after Nippon Ichi Software released Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman, a spiritual successor has arrived to continue the NISA brand of rogue-likes. The Guided Fate Paradox is a PlayStation 3 improvement of the original, much like Legasista was a console version of the PSP game Cladun. While Legasista tried to change as little as possible for the move to console, The Guided Fate Paradox has had a number of improvements made to the game while sticking close to the formula that worked for Z.H.P.

So, the question is; why did NISA change up the setting of The Guided Fate Paradox? Well, Z.H.P.‘s story was based on 1980′s superheroes, something that in Japan is quite niche. It is doubtful that even outside Japan, even with the cult status that some of the older movies have, the appeal just may not have been there for another run at a similar story. Instead, what we have is a story about a boy who has the power to change the fate of people who have a wish that needs granting.

Renya Kagurazaka was a student with no real luck in life, until the day he won a lottery held in a shopping hall. His prize? He became God. This is no Jim Carrey movie where the protagonist can get up to random hijinx, instead Renya must fulfill God’s duties. This is far easier than it sounds though, as the main task is listening to and helping the millions of wishes that are made across the world. To speed up this process, the Fate Revolution Circuit is used to find wishes that are suitable for the amount of job experience the current God has. The current God? Yes, there have been others before Renya, because if he cannot complete a wish, he will be consumed.

This tame compared to other quotes I could have taken.

Joining Renya in his new role are a cast of wacky characters including the new angel who inadvertently speaks a lot of innuendo, a veteran angel who would like nothing more that to perform carnal acts on the new God’s body, and other servants who seem to know more than they let on. The people Renya must help have a uniqueness to them as well. The first person requiring assistance is none other that Cinderella herself, and Renya faces a tough choice; will helping Cinderella forever change her story? NISA needed a strong first mission like this or else they may have had trouble convincing people to carry on the game. How can you convince an audience that somebodies fate has been changed unless they already know what the outcome should be?

The Guided Fate Paradox is a rogue-like, but there is some character progression the carries between trips in the Fate Revolution Circuit. Much like Azure Dreams, any items held when exiting a dungeon can be kept and sold, or stored and used later, and death removes all items from the held inventory. Each trip into a dungeon starts the player back at level one. At the end of a dungeon the player’s base stats increase based on the amount of levels gained while in the dungeon, making them slightly more powerful on subsequent runs. Rather than adding a set number of stats to a character, equipment increases certain stats by a percentage.

Equipment has a form of experience as well, except that exiting a dungeon does not wipe that progress. When an item reaches maximum experience it gets worse, but a blacksmith can improve any equipment at max experience so that it is better than before. This can be repeated over and over, at least until a player dies and loses everything they are carrying. Each time a piece of equipment is improved, the player gains a tile to place on a board called the Divinagram. The tile further increases a stat, which stat depends of the type of gear that was improved. Later on, holy symbols can be placed on the Divinagram that give the player new skills and abilities.

Enemies respawn as time passes.

Dungeon runs are usually quick affairs that find the player searching for the exit on each floor. Dungeons are not very large, and each floor only takes a few minutes to clear. Enemies an not very varied in the dungeons, but even early on can cause some nasty status effects. Health and skill points restore naturally over time as the player walks around, though endurance diminishes over time as well. Time can be forced to move while a player stands still so that they can heal, but doing so will mean a player will need to find food. Starvation costs health each ‘turn’ and can bring an otherwise successful run to an abrupt end.

The graphics in The Guided Fate Paradox look like they could have come out of Disgaea D2. This is not surprising considering the same team worked on both games. The results show in the way characters move, and also their facial expressions. The animators have had to be little more restrained this time around though, as The Guided Fate Paradox does not have the crazy over-the-top moves usually seen in the Disgaea series. The musical is still quite catchy, but does not have many memorable pieces to it. A nice feature is that the music in the base can be changed, and new tracks can be unlocked later on.

The Guided Fate Paradox is a game that would seem more at home on the Vita or similar mobile devices. The ability to suspend the game between dungeon floors is useful, but can break up the story a little if the game is not resumed soon after. Despite all the angels and the player taking on the role of God, there are very few overtly religious themes in the game, much like in the Disgaea series. Fans of Z.H.P. will find themselves at home with familiar mechanics, as will enthusiasts of NIS’s other works. Newcomers may think the game is rather simple on the surface, but would need to stick around to find the depth in the games systems.

Legasista

Released on PSN in August, Legasista is the latest offering from Nippon Ichi Software in their survival action RPG series to be brought to a western audience. Published by NIS America, Legasista brings the gameplay found in the PSP based Cladun games to the PS3.

The game game opens with the protagonist, Alto, arriving at the Ivy Tower in search of a relic that will break the curse that turned his sister into a crystal. Alto is not alone though, as other characters are also searching the tower for relics. Voice acting is provided for all the story scenes, though sadly it is Japanese only.

The story provided in Legasista is not very deep, and seems to serve only to unlock additional features early on, but does eventually flesh out each character’s reason for being in the tower. Nor is it very long, as the story can be completed in less than twenty hours if the rest of the content is ignored. Some diving into dungeons will be required however, as after Ran-Geons (as the randomly generated dungeons are known) become available, enemies become harder fairly quickly.

Running through Ran-Geons is where the bulk of the gameplay comes from. As well as earning experience, loot is obtained more frequently, and could be of better quality, than that found in the story dungeons. Ran-Geons come in multiple difficulties, with the number of item drops and base monster level increasing with the difficulty. Harder dungeons also have fewer exits, which are important because items are lost when a character dies. Thankfully this does not include items brought into the dungeon, as much time and effort can be put into making decent equipment.

Accessing random dungeons involves digging holes in the ground.

Equipment found in dungeons often has a ‘+X’ after its name, where ‘X’ is the number of titles and sub-titles that piece of gear has. Titles affect any associated sub-title, whereas sub-titles affect the gear itself. An example of this would be the title ‘Mana use +5′, which would increase the mana cost of associated sub-titles by five. The sub-title ‘ATK Up S’ which would normally cost three mana, now costs eight. Destroying a piece of gear will retain any sub-titles from the gear, which can then be used to overwrite existing sub-titles on another piece of equipment, allowing for rather powerful weapons and armor to be created.

Mana costs are what keep characters from quickly becoming overpowered. There are six character classes in the game, with each having access to multiple energy frames. Each frame is a unique way of allocating equipment slots to a given class, possibly with some drawbacks. Equipment slots limit the amount of mana that can be used to equip gear in that slot. Leveling up increases the amount of mana that can be spent in all gear slots, as well as increasing all HP bars and potentially some stats.

Levels gained only apply to the current job a character has. Leveling a job gives that character job points which can then be spent on abilities for any job that character has. Job abilities are the other way to improve characters. Most abilities give a flat bonus like ‘+5% to lead health bar’, and others are helpful while exploring dungeons. Job changes are available as long as characters are level twenty or above in their current job.

Legasista Art

After a some of the story has been completed, players are able to send sentient bean sprouts out to explore. This can lead to the discovery of additional BGMs becoming available in the jukebox, or the availability dungeons that are otherwise unavailable. New beans sprout overtime and gain ability (a stat which determines their potential to explore) time goes on, though they can be lost while exploring or through lack of use.

The graphics in Legasista are sharp. It looks very much like NIS took Cladun and made an HD version of it. It is sad though, that many enemies look like they have been copied over from Cladun as well. All character models have some animation to them, as do character portraits during story scenes. The male characters look fantastic, although most of the female cast are either ridiculously top-heavy, or barely-clothed young girls.

The music in the game is a joy to listen to. The majority of tracks can be heard once the jukebox has been unlocked, with additional tracks being added as they are found through exploration. The jukebox lets the player select what music is played in the different areas of the game, meaning that the same dungeon tune can be swapped out for something else to encourage players not to mute the sound when exploring dungeons for hours on end.

In conclusion, Legasista excels on gameplay, while lacking story. It clocks in at roughly fifteen hours when doing the bare minimum, but keeps players hooked with Diablo-esque loot drops. People who enjoyed Cladun Should check this out, while keeping in mind that many enemies have been reused for this game.

This is how these situations come about.

Produced 2011.04.10

The site hires three new staff members, but Nate fails to show up for the customary hazing ritual. RPGamer’s Chris Privitere tries to fill Nate’s shoes, but without a HD fart app. for his new iPad2, his performance remains ultimately unconvincing.

It's Disgaea, dood!

Character design and development is truly where this game shines. Every character is brilliantly faceted, memorable, and generally hilarious. Captain Gordon is the typical cheesy 1930s comic hero, right down to his campy, bravado-riddled voice. Etna and Laharl are so unabashedly evil, and serve as wonderful foils for the love-obsessed, sweeter-than-sugar Flonne. Meanwhile, the denizens of the Netherworld are surrounded by Prinnies: essentially peg-legged penguins who scream “dood!” and explode at the slightest provocation.

Another selling point of the game is its battle system. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is a turn-based tactical RPG. Characters move or throw each other across a map and attack enemies using an assortment of physical, magical, and otherwise ‘special’ attacks. A key element to the battle system, this game’s je ne c’est quoi is the Geo Panel system. The map may contain Geo Symbols, items that add certain extra effects to map panels that are the same colour as the panel the Geo Symbol is on. There are a wide variety of positive and negative effects available, and generally affect both friendly and unfriendly units. Some examples of possible effects are immunity, silence, and increased damage. Strategic players can move or destroy Geo Symbols to give themselves an advantage.

There is so much to this game. There is truly an overabundance of job classes to choose from for players, as well as playable monster races to choose from. Disgaea is also rich with side content, though as one NPC reassuringly tells the player, the game actually can be completed with minimal knowledge and exploration. It is simply more interesting to explore things like the Item World, and the Dark Assembly.

Worst. Assassin. Ever.

If anyone has not taken the time to explore this series, kindly remove thyself from beneath yonder rock, and give it a chance. As any gamer familiar with this or other NISA work can attest, a short review can really only scratch at the surface of what these games offer.