Idea Factory Games
 

Has anyone played any games by this company? They seem to vary in quality, but I really like a lot of the ideas in them, and some of their games are really good, in my opinion.

They mostly make anime-ish SRPGs, only like 10% of which get a U.S. release.

I've played Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires, Blazing Souls: Accelate, Cross Edge, Spectral Force 3, and Aedis Eclipse (though I didn't like its battle system and never got very far in it).

They're sort of like Nippon Ichi's Disgaea games, in that there's a really long postgame and you can get to crazy high level (usually either unlimited or 999).

They tend to have really in-depth equipment synthesis systems that are very fun and rewarding, though the games also have a huge learning curve, usually.

They also made Chaos Wars, which... is a black mark on their name, being the game with the *worst* voice acting in history, but still, they make some awesome, yet underrated products.

I don't think I'm familiar with that company. I'll have to look them up and see. My friend had a ton of games that we all perused while he was deciding what to keep and what to toss and some might show up there. I certainly haven't heard of many.

Is Chaos Wars the one where it sounds like the creator was testing the dialogue with kids sitting in front of the tv with scripts? Ie. high school play auditions?

Yes. Actually, in the manual, his children are credited for voice acting. It's at once both hilarious and sad.

And I think I mentioned Spectral Souls to you before, when I was telling you how one of the main characters (Meu, smiley 16-year-old girl) is a sociopathic killing machine at odds with her blissful demeanor.

Yeah, though, the company isn't that well known for a few different reasons. For one thing, their games are really hit and miss, some are great, so are... awful. For another, only a few get localized, as I mention. And also, you in particular probably wouldn't be familiar as most of them have been released on the PSP or PS3.

Some of their games are good and some are bad. I like the ideas they have just some of them aren't executed well, like Chaos Wars...
But for the most part I get more excited about a game when I see their name on it :3

You know, I was determined to play Chaos Wars. I mean, I payed like 40 dollars for it and I wanted to like it and all... so I was giving it leeway, right up until Hiro joined. As soon as I heard her voice, that was it. You don't *do* that to a character that badass. I nearly snapped the disk in half I was so disgusted with it. I think it's packed away in a box in my closet, at the moment, so... it's safe, for now. :p

Luckily, they made Cross Edge afterward, though, which is how a crossover game *should* be done. The difference is so staggering it's baffling to think those were made by the same company.

Now I'm really going to have to get Cross Edge >< I wanted to get it when it came out but I repeatedly have lack of funds :x

One of the best things about it was that it came with tons of free and really cheap DLC on the PSN (though given the trouble they're having, maybe that isn't such a selling point anymore...), though, I'm not sure if it's still for sale after so long.

It would be great if it still was, maybe I'll be able to find it cheap somewhere and check when PSN is back up :P

Probably the best thing about Cross Edge is its combat engine. It's kind of hard to describe, but it's just fantastic once you the hang of it. Battles are frenzied and fun, with an intricate combo system and several dozen characters to try out. It's easily one of the best fighting systems in an RPG I've ever experienced.

And whilst looking it up on Amazon (price seems to be 20 to 40 dollars, depending on if you want used), I came across an IF crossover game called Trinity Universe that sounds like it might be promising. I'm going to have to do some more research, as it's rare and really expensive, so not spending that kind of money unless it's one of the *good* IF games, and not in the Chaos Wars category.

Ooo let me know, though I should probably be making a list or something :P

Well, I looked into it a little more. The battle system seems similar to Cross Edge, but Trinity Universe is in full 3d, and looks fairly good, going by the videos on Youtube.

It seems like less of crossover game than Cross Edge was, with more original characters. The only guests are from Disgaea and Aterlier.

Overall, it seems to get fairly high reviews, and it's on Amazon used for $35.00, so I'm going to pick it up. It's a shame, Gamestop lists it for $29.00 new, but it's out of stock online and in every store around me.

Aww that's too bad :x Let me know, now I'm really curious :3

Well, it should be here within a week, so, we'll see. The reviews I've read have all been pretty favorable, so I'm expecting to enjoy it. I just wish it had a few other crossover characters in it. Hiro would have been nice.

Well, Trinity Universe just got here, so I'll have some comments soon. Hopefully it was worth the purchase.

Oh my, I haven't been here in a while, sorry Suzerain >< So, how was Trinity Universe?

Well, for one thing, it isn't quite what I expected. It doesn't actually feel like an IF game that much. But I'll get to that later.

The first thing to note is... excuse plot. Seriously. At least Cross Edge had a story you could somewhat get into. This... doesn't really have a story at all. There are two different storylines, so I can't speak for the other, but the one I'm playing now has your main character (the lord of the Netheruniverse) and his fox-girl companion wandering around random dungeons and insulting each other at every opportunity.

Granted, I'm not terribly far into the game, Etna and Prinny just joined my party, but I don't see the story improving.

The gameplay is... a bit complicated to explain.

Basically, there are "objects" drifting in and out of the Netheruniverse, and you don't want them to crash into the main character's city, so you have to destabilize their gravity cores and send them drifting off into space.

You do this by going into them via random dungeons and fighting your way through to the boss. Which is actually pretty well-designed, on the whole. This is the meat of the gameplay.

First thing to note, there are items everywhere in these dungeons, just littering the rooms and hallways, and there's always more spawning while you explore. Not to mention, once you succeed in destabilizing the gravity core, you have 100 seconds to escape the dungeon, during which rare items start spawning.

Secondly, the dungeons are short, no more than a half-hour each so far, which is great for breaking up playtime into little chunks.

Third, you level up fast. My characters gain a level once every two to three random battles. I'm assuming the level cap is at least 999 because of this, since I'm level 30 already and only just finished the second chapter.

Battles are sort of like Cross Edge, though in full 3d, and you can't customize your attacks. Square is your Rush attack for multiple hits, X does a Power attack, Triangle does a Magic attack that hits all enemies, and Circle uses the special skills you equip. There are all sorts of combos and you can link chains between party members, getting special bonuses if you switch members at the right time.

It uses the AP system, and you can skip your turn to build AP for big combos, just like in Cross Edge. There's no Overkill (that I've seen so far) which I honestly prefer, just because Overkill can be stressful when you're fighting postgame bosses and need their drops.

Outside the dungeons, you have your standard shop and synthesis routine, but the synthesis seems unique to this game and I don't recognize any of the items, unlike in all of Idea Factory's other games which seem to use the same item list, more or less. It still works pretty much the same, though, and most of the stuff you pick up in dungeons are synthesis ingredients.

In addition to that, you can make Managraphics for your weapons, which add AP and give the weapon elemental properties, as well as a unique special skill.

There's also a monster fusion system that I haven't really got into yet, but at a glance, it looks like you can breed rare monsters to challenge for high-grade items.

Anyway, looking at the game on a whole, it's different than what I expected, but I'm convinced it's actually a good game, if you like this sort of thing. It's a dungeon crawler, not a story-based RPG. The crossover element is way downplayed in comparison to Cross Edge.

The basic flow of gameplay is as follows:

[Begin Chapter] > [View Event] > [Random Dungeon] > [Upgrade in town] (repeat these two as much as desired) > [Event Dungeon] > [Chapter boss fight] > [End chapter]

It's simple, but it's fun and fast-paced, and you always feel like you're getting stronger. If you like quirky anime humor, than there's really nothing bringing this game down. That's the only thing I don't like about it.

Oh, that reminds me, one other thing: the menu music. It's a J-pop song that restarts every time you open the menu. It can get kind of annoying. Again, though, if you don't mind J-pop, this probably won't be an issue. I find it easy to ignore, though.

Overall, while I'm not as blown away as I was by Cross Edge, and while i wish there were more crossover characters besides Disgaea and Aterlier people, it's still a solid game that's different from this company's other offerings.

Recommended, if you can find it for a decent price.

Good to know, I think I need to start making a list of stuff I want ><

Oh, I forgot to mention in my review, one other thing you can do in dungeons is find some sort of dark aura (forget what it's called) that lets you fight a bunch of random enemies in a row to win a rare treasure and shut off random battles for the rest of the dungeon. Which is cool, since it's optional, and there are pros and cons to doing it.

The only thing is, once you do it, there's a chance that a Lurker, an enemies ~20 levels above the rest of the dungeon will show up to punish you. I imagine this is a blessing in disguise once you get stronger and can kill them, but where I am now, I'm too weak to do anything but run away.

It sounds like the item world in Disgaea... That just makes me drool more over this game regardless of the storyline or lack thereof xD

Actually, that's probably a pretty good comparison, just overall. The game feels sort of like the postgame for Disgaea right of the bat. Silly plot that makes no sense and awesome, enjoyable, seemingly endless progression with greater and greater challenges. I haven't heard if TU has a postgame or not, but I'd be surprised if it didn't.

I love games with a silly level cap and fun gameplay. Don't ask how many hours I have spent on the various Disgaea games...

I think I had about 300 hours on each of the ones I played. Which is probably around 2,000 hours overall. So, not that much by Nippon Ichi standards. :D

Haha, sounds similar for me xD It was always the most work for me to get my "training gear" ready, then I solo the item world from 1-100 with one character at a time xD Didn't work perfectly in the second one but the first and third it worked pretty well lol

Disgaea 3 was just insane with all the ways you could train, I remember being able to grind from 1 to 9999 in like 10 minutes with the training items on. That Puppy Paw Stick in the Class World was just beyond broken.

I don't think I ever beat Baal's last form, though. My old PS3 broke when I was training for it and I never got back into the game.

I didn't "complete" Disgaea 3 like I did the first 2 :x I spent too much time in the Class World, and YES, the Puppy Paw Stick was totally broken xD I remember with one of the patches they did your alt appeared every floor on the class world and I'm pretty sure I farmed enough residents to keep me set forever even if I used a full party.

One thing I didn't like about 3 was how many special characters they gave you, especially with the DLC. I never could decide who to use.

Oh, wow, yes >< I got a few of them, like the original Nekomata and the heroine from Soul Nomad, but I tried not to go crazy with them :P

Mm, yeah, but they were all so cheap, I just couldn't help myself. :D

Oh I know >< If I had extra money I'd probably just go buy them all just to have them xD

Come to think of it, I haven't even checked if Trinity Universe has any DLC. I'm kind of hesitant to, honestly, since the DLC for Cross Edge made the game a bit too easy (especially the weapons pack.)

With the PSN store being down still (at least when I checked on my PSP today) I think that's a moot point for now. I still waaaant stuff though D: I'm tired of being poor :P

Well, a lot of Cross Edge's DLC was free, which made it that much harder to resist. :p

I remember you saying that xD I think I'll have to just pick it up when I can ><

Oh, speaking of Disgaea, is Disgaea 4 in the works did I hear? I haven't checked in a while. Seems like it's been long enough, though.

Oh, and ever play Yggdra Union? Can't remember if that game was from IF or not, but that was... interesting.

I loved Yggdra Union, it's from... Well Atlus released it here but it was released by Sting, who also made Riviera. I have both the GBA and PSP version too, I was in the middle of playing it on the PSP when I got distracted by another game >>

I don't think I ever quite understood Yggdra Union. I was so worried about making a mistake or missing an item that I used guides obsessively and just got burned out eventually. It was a cool game, but I found it a tad unforgiving and I don't think I ever quite got over the learning curve.

Riviera on the other hand I loved. One of my favorite games of all time. I think I beat that at least five times on the GBA. Never got it for the PSP, though.

I had Riviera for both systems, it was funny on the PSP, they voiced EVERY line, even in the tutorial xD I got a bit obsessive in a couple spots, they made the bath scene events MUCH harder in the PSP version but I'm a perv so...I made sure I got them anyways >>

Yggdra Union was heavily unforgiving, I remember several fights where it was impossible to not lose morale, and don't get me started on the next fight having some OP thing to fight -.- But it had a very rewarding ending, I want to finish it on the PSP again just to see the cutscene.

The thing I liked about Riviera was how unique it was. All of it's mechanics, and even it story felt... new. Different, in a good way.

And it seemed like YU had an interesting story, I wish I could have stuck it out to the end to see it.

It was an on-off relationship with YU and it took me a while to actually finish it. Every time I thought I was past the "worst" of it I hit another hard fight and I put it away for another month :P

Oh, wow, I just checked on a whim and Disgaea 4 is coming out on September 6th.

It looks like it's going to basically build of off the third game, mechanics-wise, though I can't find a whole lot of info on it, despite the fact that it's been out in Japan since February.