Universal Spiral Episode 1 - (by Pixel Hero Games)

Time to upgrade my phone.

 

Hell yeah! Live on the PH appstore!

 

It's so mean to nail down people when they just say that the game is available.

 

I've been following this game for a while and I am super excited to see it coming out today! However, I understand that this game was in developement for over a year. Based on the time it took you to create episode 1, when can we expect to see the release of episode 2? Thank you very much and I will be eagerly waiting for Spiral to hit the US AppStore later today!

 

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What kind of game is this anyway? Can someone tell me what other games its similar to?

 

Is there any indication of how long this game will take to finish for the adventure mode? I'm not interested in Arena. I really like the look of it but if it's going to take less than a few hours I think I'll wait until the next episode is out.

 

@Sanuku or EP, what's the upgrading system like? I know you can upgrade to unlock counters, but what other things can be upgraded?

 

I've heard that the testers have been taking about 4 and a half hours on their first run through of the first episode if that helps

 

Sorry guys. Was waiting for Sanuku's video to go up before i put in imps. Didnt want to put in imps too far ahead when i've gotten to play the game pre-release.

Here goes...

Do any of you guys know Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core for the PSP? Coz that is what i was reminded of when i first loaded up Spiral.

This game is polish galore. From the main menu screen, to the GUI, to the gorgeous visuals, to all the voice acting and sounds.

Visuals-wise, as you can see in Sanuku's video, it's gorgeous. Great art-style, stylish animations, huge areas/towns, all look great.

Sound effects are all well done... Nothing comes out annoying, and everything seems to be in place. Some of the voice acting can sometimes sound a little, scripted, but it's still much better than most voice acting attempts.

Controls. While out of combat, tapping anywhere on the map makes your character walk there. Double tapping a spot makes you run there. Tapping on your avatar will make him stop moving. Tapping and holding changes the spot you touch into a vstick. Double tapping and holding changes it to a vstick while running. Swiping around is camera controls.

In combat, double tapping a spot makes you dodge into that spot. Tapping on yourself defends, and tap and holding on yourself charges a shield that will create a defensive blast to knockaway enemies close to you. Tapping and swiping enemies unleash various attacks and maneuvers. This is a pretty interesting and quite intricate mechanic.

There's a stamina meter that can limit your attacking and defending ability so some minor strategy has to be included in your arsenal to take advantage of what you can and cant do.

Around your character, there's 2 rings separating each of the range zones (near, far, ranged).

If you attack an enemy from the innermost circle (near), Tempus (main character's name) attacks with fast dual wield style and more combo oriented manner.

Attack an enemy standing in between the first and second circle (far), Tempus uses a spear which is a little slower than dual wielding, but makes up for it a little by having a bit more range.

Attackng enemies outside the outer circle (ranged) and Tempus shoots enemies with a pistol.

Well, that's just the basic moves as levelling up your character can change your moves a bit.

Gameplay... I'll say, it can be the Devil May Cry of iOS. The exploration is almost the same way, and the combat areas are also kind of similar. But, this is more RPG than it is action, but it is still pretty action-packed.

There are different ways to level up. Havent tried all of them, but i think the default system works fine for me.

First, the default. Auto-level up. Your stat distribution depends on how you play the game. Second is Balanced, which i havent tried, but i think it just distributes you stats evenly. Third one is manual, where you get to allocate your stat points around.

Towns are huge. There's a few places to visit, but there's some exploration to do if you want to get some extra xp. Other than running, there are spots where you can hook and grapple onto to get to hard to reach places. The town looks really good.

There are different town sections in which quests, dialogues or even battles occur in.

Story isnt too generic, which makes it good. Im not sure how the game will develop in to story-wise, but i like how they are presented.

There is only 1 flaw i can find and it isnt even too much of a bother, and the game itself has a remedy. Sometimes, when exploring, tapping on areas to move into can become a hassle, and you have to consistently change camera views to easily move to a spot. This is easily fixed by using the vstick option in which you have to tap/doubletap and hold to change your touch-spot into a vstick.

Other than that, this game is easily among my favorite games on iOS. Easily worth $5, and I cant wait for the rest of the episodes to get released.

 

Basically, you upgrade your stats. When each of the stats reach a certain point, it can unlock more moves for your character. It can be counters, improved charged attacks, learn grabs and force push, or increased combo count.

If Devil May Cry and Crisis Core had a baby, this would be it.

 

If that's right, then that'll be perfect. Really looking forward to this now, thank you.

Another question: Can anyone tell me the installed file size? I've already got a headache from choosing which games to delete for Gloomy Hollow.. (I had 0 bytes heh)

 

Thanks for the first impressions and answering so many questions already for me Exact-Psience!!

Really glad you're enjoying it too, and I'm probably going to have to steal the "DMC + Crisis Core baby" quote!

Also to the gentleman that asked, we are looking to release episode 2 before the end of the year. This first episode is quite a bit of content, and we'd like to match and improve on it now that we have a solid base.

 

looks like this will be my only purchase of the night and almost 15 min to be out in my store

Nader hopefully for the rest of the episodes if you go in the way of separate apps you could include something to unlock for free the first episode in the second episode if you own the first one or if the game could detect if you have the first episode installed kinda like what fishlabs did with the expasion for galaxy on fire 2 HD to be honest i would like to have all the episodes in a single app

 

Cheers for the imps again E-P. Sounds awesome!! Installing now

 

That's an interesting concept! we'll look into it

 

On the front it says 339 MB, I'm guessing that's the installment size, it will probably grow more once you start playing the game.

 

It's about 750 MB when installed