Thanks SV! Edit: reading up a bit on ZHP and any game with a "Super Baby" saviour to save sounds awesome!
My guess is it'll take a while before it becomes the 'standard'. Kinda like when retina screens became available... And even now, there's plenty of games that don't utilize it...
It's a Wii port. Considering the budget of the typical iPhone game, I doubt that they could afford to redo the graphics for 16:9 proportions. You may not like it, but I think it's easy to understand why they didn't release an iPhone 5 version.
Not just a Wii port, they've been kicking this game around since the PS1 with pretty slight modifications with each system re-release.
As someone that has played the PS2/Wii versions to death, and can completely beat Hard mode (on the PS2/Wii versions) without dying even once, I cannot completely recommend this port, unfortunately. Mostly, the controls.... ugh. They're so.... bad. The main problem is that there's simply no way to quickly respond to whatever is going on. In the PS2/Wii versions, actually dodging enemy attacks is important; enemy patterns are designed around this fact, which is something you figure out pretty fast as you go through the game (and this is why enemy attacks are so varied as they are). Learning enemy attacks and patterns, dodging, *and* good item and equipment usage, very important. In the PS2/Wii version, the camera doesnt work the way it does in this one. It controls more like an action game in 3rd person, in that you can move in any direction very freely, and your movement speed isnt hampered, and the camera is completely seperate. It's not COMPLETELY unplayable.... I *can* dodge many things, but I have to do incredibly bizarre movements with the touchscreen to do this. Making this worse is the fact that while the character control is analog, the CAMERA control is not. Turning around 180 degrees, even on max sensitivity, requires MULTIPLE swipes to do; this is a big no-no with any game with this sort of camera, really, and it's just baffling as to why it even functions like that. The target lock can be used to turn around fast, but it depends on WHERE enemies are.... you can very easily be pointed in exactly the wrong direction with this. Mostly, as with the console versions, I just avoid using the targeting. On top of all of this, the controls are also extremely glitchy. I've had the left-side character control suddenly become camera control (while the right side is STILL also camera control), I've had the left-side analog lock in place with nothing I can do to change it (so I got stuck forever running forward), I've had the camera control abruptly stop working entirely (and not in lock on mode there, or even any enemies around), requiring a complete restart in order to continue. Among other glitches. And trying to attack sometimes fails to work, particularly if you're trying to do the heavy "stun" attack. Sound randomly turning off entirely. Stuff like that. Glitches at least though are likely to be fixed later. On the plus side, some changes seem to have been made to account for some of this. Enemy HP values for instance have DEFINITELY been changed; playing on Hard mode for example, in the PS2/wii version even early enemies often take numerous 3-hit combos to kill with an Atonement sword when using just basic swipes on them; in this version, same monsters and same or weaker sword, most of them die in just two hits, sometimes one, not even requiring a full 3-hit combo. Like those little rolling face dudes.... in the console versions, after you'd smacked them a number of times, they'd often go into self-destruct mode, dashing at you and then exploding, doing heavy damage. In this version though, they die long before they have a chance to do this. This isnt a very good port, as these things go, due to the incredible wackiness of the controls, and the aggravating camera from hell, but if you can get the hang of the insane controls, the good gameplay remains the same. Despite my negativity, I still love this game, always have, and it IS nice to have it on my iPad.
Controls on touchscreens are very subjective, so I won't argue with your impressions (they haven't been a problem for me, and I would certainly not describe them as "insane"). But as a point of fact, many games require multiple swipes to rotate the camera, as one-to-one controls can feel way too jittery for many people. That's why some games incorporate a double tap to turn quickly around. Perhaps Baroque could use something like that.
I can compensate a little bit on controls as i accept the fact that the game isnt perfect, but it doesnt break the game for me at all. I am enjoying this title as much as I did the PS2 version. I am actually very happy that Sting took on this type of pricing model so everyone can try it and can toss in the cash to buy the whole thing if the game clicks with them.
Aye, having at least the option of changing the controls around would be a huge help, beyond just "sensitivity", which isnt of much use at all. I'm enjoying it well enough overall, but.... it still doesnt compare to the smooth gameplay of the console versions. Mostly, the forced bad camera angle (when the original didnt even require that you use such a perspective whatsoever) is the main issue. Heck, turning corners in those hallways is a nightmare, because the camera *will* attempt to go into the main character's head, so there's a moment of "cant see a damn thing!" whenever doing this. I did try FPS view mode for awhile.... wont do THAT again. 3rd person is the one to use for me, screwy though it is. The game is playable, it's just.... another iOS game where the controls seriously COULD be better (and indeed have been in similar games), but simply arent. I'm still glad to have it though. To me, it's that good of a game that even with controls I hate, I can still enjoy it. ....now if only it wasnt so glitchy. Hoping those get fixed soonish. The random and sudden loss of all sound in particular is distracting. None of the bugs seem to actually wreck the gameplay though (unless the controls go nuts, but that seems rare so far), so that's good. Also, is there a way to do a charged slash? If there is, I havent figured out how. Got normal slash, heavy slash, but so far no charged attack.
Game Impressions I just tried the free game and it seems great, just two things I notice and really think it might help for the success of this port: the camera angle seems a little annoying for the third person angle, maybe putting the camera a little away from the character the game would be better, and the framerate seems a little slow, but I don't know if this is general, I'm on iPhone 4 6.0.1. Just those two things I wanted to notice, however, the game seems very fun and maybe later I'll try more deeply.
My feelings exactly, im garbage on it as I cant seem to be capable of surviving vey long but after tweaking the sensibility on the controls it is a rather enjoyable yet brutal roguelike.
That's true, after play with 10 and 10 in sensibility controls and adding Lock option for fighting the game it's really better controlable.
I haven't finished reading this thread, and while I'm not familiar with this particular game, everyone has there own taste in games. The art style (judging from the screenshots; I haven't yet dl'ed this and didn't watch the video) reminds me of a game and it's sequel for the original Playstation that I more than willingly spent full price for: Techmo's Deception and...I think the 2nd installment was named Kagero's Deception or something like that. Those games probably sold a paltry number of copies. I know that Robotic Alchemic Drive (R.A.D.), a very Japanese game that is one of my favorite PS2 releases, sold, at most, a couple tens-of-thousands in the US. I'm damn happy I still have my copy . Ok, enough rambling, I guess I'll take this for a spin. It does seem to have that old Deception/Fatal Frame vibe going on, judging by the screenshots at least.
