Growlanser V Genarations

[MagicEmperor]

Hey guys did you hear they might have atlus bring growlanser v genarations over. Does anyone know anything about the game and what its about

[Imperial Knight]

Growlanser happens to be my favorite RPG series (as one might be able to guess, given my username and avatar), so I've been following Growlanser V since it was first announced, though I haven't yet had a chance to play it.

Growlanser V makes some significant changes to series tradition. The most obvious being that the character models are now 3D. Another change is the addition of animated sequences in game (some of the earlier games in the series have had animated openings and used still pictures in game, but no in game animation). The battle system has been tweaked. While the player still issues commands to party members other than the main character as before, the main character is controlled directly with the joystick (instead of setting waypoints for him to follow, you just press in the direction you want him to go and he'll move). The learning of skills is now handled by something called the "plate system" which I don't understand all that way. It also seems as though the ring weapon system (presented in GL2 through GL4) has been abandoned. Like GL1 and GL4, movement between towns and dungeons is handled on field maps that are at approximately the same scale as the town maps.

As far as I know, the story does not connect with any of the previous Growlanser games, but this isn't that surprising given that Growlanser IV didn't, either (the first three games in the series have connected stories). The flow of the storytelling has also been altered. The story is now broken into chapters, with some of the chapters focusing on people other than the main character, and some even apparently taking place several years before the main story.

I know a few people who have played the import version (which was released around the beginning of this month). Reactions have been favorable. The battle system apparently takes some getting used to but is supposedly really good once one gets the hang of it. People also seem to like the chapter system as well as the story itself. Overall, people I've talked to regard it as one of the better entries in the series. For the record, most fans of the series regard GL1, GL4 and now GL5 as significantly better games than GL2 and GL3. Though I like both GL2 and GL3, I do agree that GL1 and GL4 are quite a bit better (as I said before, I haven't had a chance to play GL5 yet).

As for a North American release, there are some indications that it might happen, but nothing definite so far. The two main things that suggest it are that Atlus USA registered the Growlanser trademark a few months back, and that a Growlanser game from Atlus USA has showed up in a couple of retailer databases (most notably Wal-Mart's) as an early 2007 release. However, there's been no official announcement from Atlus regarding the game. Atlus representatives apparently declined to comment when asked about the presence of Growlanser in retailer databases. It's hard to say whether or not Atlus will pick the game up, but hopefully they will. For now I'm going to wait and see if they make any announcements. I'll be very happy if they do, but if they don't I'll go ahead and import Growlanser V, just as I did with Growlanser and Growlanser IV.

[Sonic#]

I know a few people who have played the import version (which was released around the beginning of this month). Reactions have been favorable. The battle system apparently takes some getting used to but is supposedly really good once one gets the hang of it. People also seem to like the chapter system as well as the story itself. Overall, people I've talked to regard it as one of the better entries in the series. For the record, most fans of the series regard GL1, GL4 and now GL5 as significantly better games than GL2 and GL3. Though I like both GL2 and GL3, I do agree that GL1 and GL4 are quite a bit better (as I said before, I haven't had a chance to play GL5 yet).

Wait, so you're saying that two games really high on my list... are the (comparatively) worst two in a series? O_O

Anyway, if they are releasing it, I can hardly wait.

And I'm moving this to the games board, because... well, that's what it is.

[Imperial Knight]

Wait, so you're saying that two games really high on my list... are the (comparatively) worst two in a series? O_O

Yes. Personally, I'm of the opinion that it says more about the rest of the series than anything else.

For the record, here are some of the often cited reasons for prefering the other games in the series over GL2 and GL3:

-Many fans were disappointed in GL2's story, particularily as a direct sequel to GL1. I tend to think that the problem here was that GL1 wasn't made with the intent of having a sequel take place immediately afterwards. Originally Career Soft was going to follow up GL1 with a game based on the story of what eventually became GL3; the idea to make GL2 only came about because of the popularity of GL1's characters. Because of this, the ways in which situations and characters from GL1 are reintroduced can be somewhat contrived, and the plot lacks cohesion. Personally, I don't hate the story, and I even think the characters are quite good overall, but the plot is a little weak (and why can't they have done more with Julia? )

-The short length of the games was also a disappointment. GL1 took upwards of 60 hours to complete, wheras GL2 and GL3 are less than half that long (though GL2 does have that second plot branch).

-Most people dislike the ring weapon system for two reasons. One is that it eliminated the aspect of choosing which type of weapon to give each character. In GL1, each character could equip two kinds of weapons (e.g. Elliotte could use either a sword or a crossbow, Misha could use either a staff or a hammer), and one could choose a weapon situationally (one may have to choose between a short range weapon that can attack quickly, or a long range weapon which attacks slowly), and one could even change weapons in the middle of battle if the situation changed. The other (and, IMO, more serious) complaint against the ring weapon system is that it essentially allows characters to equip three accessories each. Since some of the gems have such powerful effects, it's really easy to create an overpowered character using the system. GL4 alleviates this second problem by having the gems used to learn ability (wear a gem for so long and it'll teach you a level 1 ability, longer and you'll learn it to level 2, etc.) which makes it so that the player can't just keep the most powerful gems equipped all the time or their characters will be severely deficient in abilities.

-Most people prefer GL1's to-scale field maps to GL2's "point and click" map and GL3's overworld. This gave a better sense of exploration, and allowed for visible encounters which work somewhat similar to GL3's dungeon encounters. If you get close to an enemy, battle begins between your party and any enemy on the screen in the starting positions given by where everybody was when the battle started. GL4 returns to this system.

-Pretty much nobody was satisfied by GL3's random dungeons. The dungeons in GL1 and GL4 are preplanned and therefore, not surprisingly, their layouts are a lot more interesting than just a big collection of identical-looking rectangular rooms.

Don't get the wrong impression here. It's not that I don't like GL2 and GL3. I like both of them a lot. It's just that GL1 and GL4 are even better.

[MagicEmperor]

well sice they are the only growlanser games i played i like em but i would like to play 1 4

[Imperial Knight]

Old topic but I figured I'd mention that Atlus has now officially announced that they'll release the game under the title Growlanser: Heritage of War this summer. I suppose the title change was pretty much inevitable given that otherwise it would've been much too similar to "Growlanser Generations" which was the title of Working Designs' release of GL2 and GL3.

In any case I'm quite glad to hear that it'll be coming over here.

[Alunissage]

Cool, that's good news. I haven't gotten anything Growlanser since the LE of IV, which I only played an hour of, but maybe this will give me an incentive to get back to the series. Refresh my memory, are 4, 5, and 6 all standalone games rather than part of the 3-1-2 storyline? Is 4 Return a gaiden to 4? Oh, and how's that translation of 1 going?

[Imperial Knight]

Refresh my memory, are 4, 5, and 6 all standalone games rather than part of the 3-1-2 storyline? Is 4 Return a gaiden to 4? Oh, and how's that translation of 1 going?

Yes, Growlanser IV and Growlanser V have stories that are independent of the first three (I would guess that GL6 is going to be the same way, but I've yet to hear much of anything about its story). I seem to recall hearing once that Career Soft was originally going to have the story for GL4 take place some time after GL2, but couldn't come up with something that would work out so they decided to instead do an original story. It does seem kind of weird the way they had a series going based on a continuing story and then all of a sudden decided to make the rest of the games in the series standalone.

Growlanser IV Return is a text-adventure gaiden to GL4. I don't know a whole lot about it beyond that. I doubt I'd really get much out of trying to play it.

The Growlanser translation is posted up through the end of the first disc, though the latter part of it is a bit rough since I haven't edited it yet. I'll probably start going through and doing the edits next weekend, and borgor has said that he'd probably get started on the second disc this summer.

[Imperial Knight]

Anybody else getting/have Growlanser: Heritage of War? I just got my copy the other day and have played a little bit of it. It definitely takes a bit of getting used to since the new battle system is quite a bit faster than the old Growlanser system. I'm still early on, but the game seems plenty fun even if it is unpolished.

[Alunissage]

I had forgotten it was coming out but I'll pick it up, though not right away; no time right now to play. (And yes, I still have a poster to send you. Argh.)

[Sonic#]

I will be getting it eventually, probably as a birthday (1 week!) or Christmas present. Right now I'm slogging through FFIV and have no time for anything else game-wise. ^^;;;

[Imperial Knight]

Now that I'm further into the game, I'll go ahead and give some updated impressions.

So far I'd probably place this into the "second tier" of Growlanser games along with the second and third installments. Which is to say I like it quite a bit but there are a few too many problems for it to rank up there with the first and fourth games in the series.

Most of the flaws just come from an overall lack of polish. This is probably most noticeable in the low production values (which I don't really care about all that much), but it also shows up in somewhat hard to navigate menus, controls that aren't always as responsive as I'd like, objectives that are sometimes unclear, etc. Once you do get all of these issues figured out it's a lot of fun, but it takes a little work to get there.

The battle system is at once familiar and completely different, largely because there's essentially two ways to play. One can use the menus to give everyone in your party commands as in previous Growlanser games, or one can control the main character directly with the analog stick while letting the rest of the party run on auto. I generally find that I use the first method during the event battles where I want to plan my strategy a little more carefully, while using the second method while travelling across the fields. Either way the battle system is certainly faster than the old Growlanser system because the game no longer pauses whenever an action is performed. To be honest I prefer the old system since it's more suited to a methodical style of play, but the new system is also fun and does have its advantages (one often encounters large groups of enemies while wandering about, and those kinds of battles would simply take too long under the old system).

The game starts off with a couple of prologue scenarios before actually getting to the main part. Each scenario stars a different character and shows how the current situation came about as well as how it affects various people. At the time I was somewhat impatient to get started with the "real game" but looking back it's given me some additional insight into the story and in particular the motivations of various characters.

Overall I'd say the game isn't great, but it is very good. It's not for everybody, but if you're willing to look beyond some of the rough patches, there's plenty to like in there.

[Nobiyuki77]

I've heard from a couple of people that the Atlus translation is horribly stilted and very unpolished. What's your take on the translation?

[Imperial Knight]

I can't say I've found much very notable about the translation. There are a few lines of dialog that are really bad, but most of it seems decent if unremarkable.

[cj iwakura]

I finished it a few weeks ago.

I'm glad Atlus is finally giving one of their parent company's creations some attention, but I'd have much rather they brought over IV.

V isn't bad, the story was interesting, it just didn't completely absorb me like II & III did.

Also, the ending was kind of meh.

Maybe we'll get VI next. Not sure if that's any better of a game, but I wouldn't mind trying it out.

If nothing else, this game is worth getting for the artbook. Atlus USA really outdid themselves on it.

[Imperial Knight]

I finished it a few weeks ago.

I'm glad Atlus is finally giving one of their parent company's creations some attention, but I'd have much rather they brought over IV.

Yeah, it really is too bad that GL4 didn't make it over, seeing as it's one of the better entries in the series. It sometimes seems like the Growlanser series is cursed so that only its lesser entries get released over here.

Maybe we'll get VI next. Not sure if that's any better of a game, but I wouldn't mind trying it out.

Well, I haven't played GL6, but for what it's worth people I know who have played it did like it a bit better than GL5. It's a direct sequel to GL5, and also uses a similar gameplay engine.