Continuing on deeper into Gamania Game Show the second game I took a
look at was
style="font-style: italic;">Langrisser Schwarz.
From the brief game descriptions we received prior to the game show,
this one sounded like one that could really hit a chord with North
American audiences. Having gotten some hands-on time with the game, I
was able to establish my thoughts and opinions of the game.
The game is a spiritual descendent of the console series of
’91,
style="font-style: italic;">Langrisser.
Although I hadn’t tried out the console games earlier, I was
told that it holds true to the spirit and feel of the original, and
that was a focus area for the developers at Gamania.
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alt="Langrisser Schwarz"
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alt="Langrisser Schwarz"
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To determine which class and faction you will be playing as, the
Goddess Lushiris will ask you a series of questions at the beginning of
the game. Based upon your answers, you will end up as one of six
classes in one of the three factions of light, dark, and
empire. After the class and faction are decided, players will
begin the game and choose their specializations which will lead to one
of 72 available sub classes, or jobs. That’s a lot of
variety. The boon here, too, is that players can switch between these
classes if they decide they don’t enjoy the playstyle.
Getting into the game, players earn mercenaries that will aid them in
battle. Which type of mercenary is up to the player. This becomes a bit
of a tactical mini game as with three types of units available, it
becomes sort of a mini-game of rock, paper, and scissors as each unit
type can only defeat one of the other two types, and be defeated by the
other one. The units’ behaviour can be controlled in game and
switched between various modes, such as follow and passive modes.
Finally, players can unlock hundreds of “cards”
which grant the players special powers in combat.
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style="border: 0px solid ; width: 300px; height: 169px;"
alt="Langrisser Schwarz"
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For the demo, we sat down and played through the Marsh of Despair map
in the mission “Ominous Eyes.” The idea was to work
our way through the instance and destroy an altar and all the demons
inside the Magic Portal. This consisted of five stages, each with their
own mini-boss climaxing at the end with a battle against the
“Evil Gaze,” which, as I’m sure you
guessed, was a giant monster with many eyes and tentacles.
Langrisser
Schwarz is set up as a hub
style instance-based MMOG, meaning there is a central zone where you
can gather your party to go do an instance. The concept is simple
enough and familiar.
Getting into the instance, I immediately noticed an advantage while
playing with a controller instead of the mouse and keyboard. The basic
controls were simple enough to master, but things started becoming a
little more complicated when I wanted to switch abilities or use cards.
The D-pad controlled my mercs behaviours while the R1 and R2 cycled
through my different abilities. The select button chose my card, and
the start button executed the card. The left analog was movement and
the right was the camera controls. Standard and special attacks were
assigned to the X and Y buttons.
Sounds simple enough, but in reality I found the whole set up a bit
complex. I enjoyed the ease of the controller movement and basic
attacks but I started getting confused while trying to cycle through my
various abilities or playing my cards, or selecting my mercenaries'
actions. It was a lot to keep track of.
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alt="Langrisser Schwarz"
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The game looked fantastic. The visuals were very crisp and detailed
with wonderful coloring and animations. There’s no shortage
of eye candy in
style="font-style: italic;">Langrisser Schwarz
and I have to tip my hat to the art team for creating such a vivid
world.
So it comes down to the question once again: “Can
style="font-style: italic;">Langrisser Schwarz
make it in North America?” If the game were available on a
console system for download I think it would make a much larger impact
than PC-only. It just has that console feel to it, and that’s
not just attributed to the controller support. It’s much more
action oriented and has quick play sessions that would make it a joy to
play with feet kicked up on the sofa, playing on the big screen.
That’s not to say it’s not enjoyable on the PC. But
as far as PC MMOG audiences go, I’m not sure where
they’d place
style="font-style: italic;">Langrisser Schwarz
in their gaming schedule. It plays well and smooth, but I stick by my
thoughts that the larger audience could likely be found on the console
through DLC than on the PC itself.
More information about
style="font-style: italic;">Langrisser Schwarz
can be found on the official site at
href="http://corp.gamania.com/products/langrisserschwarz/en/index1.htm">lgsonline.net.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Langrisser Schwarz Game Page.
