I thought that among the whole ToV Demo thread that was put up earlier, it contained very little substance from VGC users, and a ton of fanboy bias from both sides of the fence (plus got derailed).
So I figured that creating this thread might be helpful for Xbox 360 users to post their impressions, and information on how to get the demo if you live in the US or PAL regions.
First off: how to get the demo if your in America.
Use this link to get a consice answer, as this was the article I referenced to get my account: http://www.destructoid.com/eternal-sonata-demo-hits-japanese-xbl-make-your-japanese-account-now--31512.phtml
Follow their instructions. Once you create your Japanese Hotmail account, and create a new, fake Japanese XBL Gamertag, simply go over to the marketplace (which is half in english, atleast for me), and download the ToV demo. It was oh-so easy to get to. The entire Japanese XBL experience lasted me 10 minutes from the time I began creating my account, to the time it took to boot up the ToV demo.
So, my personal impression. First notes: I'm not a big Tales player. I never got in on the whole PS1/PS2 era of Tales games, and ToP was never ported to the US as far as I know (but I've nearly beat the DeJap Emu version for SNES). I've also played a bit of Legendia, as I was able to buy it not too long ago. Never played ToS, or ToA.
To compare ToV to anything, remember: it's a demo. For JRPG demos, I've played Blue Dragon, Final Fantasy XII, and Eternal Sonata, as well as the FFVII, and FFVIII demos back in the day.
Demo Notes:
- Graphics were very good...Atleast for a SDTV. It's hard to compare them to Eternal Sonata, despite both being cell shaded. ES had more detail for any given character, but it doesn't seem that ToV really was lacking, but was an art choice. The game had no lag, no clipping, or anything that was an issue. The demo was very. VERY smooth. Also, as seen in the cutscenes (via Gamersyde, or any other site that has streaming gameplay footage), atleast to me, seem a bit better than Eternal Sonata. It's not nearly as corny, and the animations seem a bit better from a maturity standpoint (no doll-like arms at your side). Not a be-all-end-all game, graphically, but good. Backgrounds were around ES level. Some argue that they're worse than ES, but if they are, I didn't notice. However, there might be some lacking in style/art pallete used, but ES, and it's demo had much more to offer for the area picked.
- Music and Voice acting were good....Not great, but servicible. VA was/is better than Blue Dragon, and a little bit better than ES for English.
- Battle system was far superior (in my opinion) than Eternal Sonata...LEAPS ahead. I've only played Legendia, and Phantasia, as well as ES, but ToV was much better. I wasn't "getting" the combo system early on in the demo, but once I learned that you can string together combos depending on your left joystick...I did pretty well. Better battle system than ToL, IMO. Now, the system could collapse like ES did later on, but from what I saw, it was alot better for where I was.
- Demo itself....For what you could do....Was awful. It was better than Blue Dragon, and FFXII, but that was about it. I got to the boss, with fighting all possible battles in under 10 minutes. The demo is an area lifted from some random part in the game. I liked the section they picked, but without any real reference to ANYTHING, it's hard to judge any part of the game with a real critique.
Overall, the game seems to be a step above ToL in most every way from what I see, but it's still a Tales game, and isn't trying to do anything groundbreaking for a Tales game. It's Tales of the Abyss HD, or something like that...In other words, a very good Tales game, but it's still a Tales game. The LIMBS system of fighting, I really liked (much moreso than Legendia), as theres more deth, and tactic to how you do things. I can only hope that it gets better, but still was vastly better than ES or ToL.
Also, you can supposedly play the game in 3-player co-op throughout...Like Eternal Sonata but with realtime battles. If this really does pan out for the full game, color me impressed. That was a great feature from ES, and I can only imagine how awesome battles will be.
Overall, I'd give the content (what's actually there, from what I can judge on), a 8.5 out of 10 (I'd give Blue Dragon a 8.75, Odyssey a 9.0, and ES a 8.0). However, I'd give the demo composition a 6.0 (Blue Dragon a 4.0, FFXII a 5.5, and ES a 8.5).
Overall, I'd say that if your a Tales fan, this should be a game you want to buy, expecially if your a current 360 owner. Fans of Eternal Sonata, but newbies to the Tales series should really, really enjoy their take, as it looks like it's going to get rid of my major gripes about ES (story, cutscene quality, and character interaction). But if you hate other Tales games, I don't see this one changing your mind. I, for one, will buy this day-1, and the demo only cemented the fact that I should get what I pay for it.
Any other comments from players of the demo?
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
