2011-09-01, 11:29 AM
Got my hands on Cladun x2. My impressions so far.
Let me get the dissapointment out of the way first: No multiplayer dungeon running in this one. Only can invite players to your tavern ala animal crossing. Lame. Also, a minor factor... the music, I loved the soundtrack of the first, but 5 hours in I've only liked 1/6 of the new bgms. normally I don't really care *that* much... but i really adored the music style of the first and was looking forward to more of that. I might find a few more winners though.
GOOD STUFF: In true NIS fashion, the first game had a lot of annoying elements, but they addressed them well in the sequel. Kinda like how Item world was a pain in Disgaea but was improved dramatically in 2 (among other things).
Jumping is no longer animation locked, you can now short-hop and control direction a bit. max jump distance is also dramatically improved making jumping over fires/traps much less of a horrible pain. Also, the severely limiting SP/skill system got a huge overhaul: instead of needing to use artifacts to level skills, the skills now level up as your character does. The main artifacts now reduce the level by a certain % (to make it more spammable yet weaker) or increase it for the opposite effect. Monsters now drop Sp orbs when killed, so you no longer feel crippled when you decide to use anything higher than a level 1 skill and run out of SP too quick. Also there's a SP debt artifact that lets you borrow a sub unit's SP till you reach a limit and go into a forced cooldown. All in all skills are much more user friendly <3
There's 3 new weapons now too, spear, bow and dagger. Spear is absolutely amazing when it comes to attack speed. It can hit things slightly diagonal to your position and a space away on the first hit. but not directly in front of you until the second hit. Be careful with mobs that like to get in your face. Bows are just what you'd expect: rapid tap shots or charge a half second and shoot for real damage. They're fun and boost speed too (no shield use obviously)
The make your own character feature got expanded a great deal, including the ability to make 3 step animations for various parts for walking, running and idling, even death pose. (think wings, waving hair and the like) We can finally make our own weapons/armor now to overlay existing gear. It's really amazing now. The funniest addition is the ability to use MML to make your own 8-bit dungeon tracks to grind to. I kinda wanna give it a shot, looks capable, i might have to practice and study a bit though.
Ok done gushing about this game now.
Let me get the dissapointment out of the way first: No multiplayer dungeon running in this one. Only can invite players to your tavern ala animal crossing. Lame. Also, a minor factor... the music, I loved the soundtrack of the first, but 5 hours in I've only liked 1/6 of the new bgms. normally I don't really care *that* much... but i really adored the music style of the first and was looking forward to more of that. I might find a few more winners though.
GOOD STUFF: In true NIS fashion, the first game had a lot of annoying elements, but they addressed them well in the sequel. Kinda like how Item world was a pain in Disgaea but was improved dramatically in 2 (among other things).
Jumping is no longer animation locked, you can now short-hop and control direction a bit. max jump distance is also dramatically improved making jumping over fires/traps much less of a horrible pain. Also, the severely limiting SP/skill system got a huge overhaul: instead of needing to use artifacts to level skills, the skills now level up as your character does. The main artifacts now reduce the level by a certain % (to make it more spammable yet weaker) or increase it for the opposite effect. Monsters now drop Sp orbs when killed, so you no longer feel crippled when you decide to use anything higher than a level 1 skill and run out of SP too quick. Also there's a SP debt artifact that lets you borrow a sub unit's SP till you reach a limit and go into a forced cooldown. All in all skills are much more user friendly <3
There's 3 new weapons now too, spear, bow and dagger. Spear is absolutely amazing when it comes to attack speed. It can hit things slightly diagonal to your position and a space away on the first hit. but not directly in front of you until the second hit. Be careful with mobs that like to get in your face. Bows are just what you'd expect: rapid tap shots or charge a half second and shoot for real damage. They're fun and boost speed too (no shield use obviously)
The make your own character feature got expanded a great deal, including the ability to make 3 step animations for various parts for walking, running and idling, even death pose. (think wings, waving hair and the like) We can finally make our own weapons/armor now to overlay existing gear. It's really amazing now. The funniest addition is the ability to use MML to make your own 8-bit dungeon tracks to grind to. I kinda wanna give it a shot, looks capable, i might have to practice and study a bit though.
Ok done gushing about this game now.