Topic: Anima: Ark of Sinners

@ the two people from Anima Game Studio:

The game seems to be flawed in a few important aspects, but some people still want to overlook these flaws and want to buy your game, because the game looks good enough for them. It's not like it's unplayable, or ugly, or glitchy or something. You still have an intriguing setting, a goodlooking heroine and neat audiovisuals to concentrate your advertising on. These things you've done right, and their importance is not to underestimate.

But man, that drama over the opinion of one single amateur reviewer!! Instead of just ignoring it, go on with life, and believe in your own game, you elevated this to greater heights than neccessary. Instead of posting such garbage reply videos (good you have taken it down), it would help if you finally post some videos of Celia zoomed-in and do a gothic dance, performing some of her moves, killing monsters and just looking sexy. Put in lots of animated artwork of her and the Anima universe - before everything is lost.

I feel sorry for the rest of Anima Game Studio. There were more people than you two involved in producing the game. It's a shame they now must all suffer. We know you were frightened and excited about your first WiiWare title, but this kind of overreaction is not professional enough in a video game business.
You make a game for the people, and you release it when you decide it's ready, SO let the people decide if they like it!

My point exactly @SKTTR

@SKTTR, you're right from my POW. It's up to the gamer comunity to decide about the game. Gaming comunity sales and users as well as other reviews (like the one in Nintendolife) will speak enough.
As I said, I just did some minor work (it's up to you to believe it or not) and I'm by no means any representative of Anima, and the hard working guys involved in it shouldn't be associated with my posts, cause I'm just an individual.
Wow video was a rant after being shut up. It was my personal drama!!

Cheers

@WiiAboutIU: I never said he lied. I just said that he was complaining about Demon212 not being objective by blocking those who flamed him and spammed his review while clearly they are not objective since they have worked on the game. That's like a parent choosing their own kids art over an other kids art. And judging from the unprofessional behaviour on here like making a sad video or just acting to be a regular user and praising the game while they actually own the company, I don't even find it that hard to believe.

What Luchen did is just a bad way to promote your game and trick people into actually buying the game. Sure, not many people would get a game just from one persons impression. But that's what this forum is for. Omega did open this thread to get some genuine thoughts on the game before buying it and now because of his actions, he is not going to get it at all (even though he stated that he was going to get it, despite it flaws).

I'm glad when developers come to this forum and talk about their games. Like you said, Shin'en is a great example. Just like Legendo and Digital Leisure. But they actually talked and listened to the players, show trailers, artwork, screenshots and other stuff and try to use the information from players to improve their next title. That is what Anima Game Studio should have done instead of the sad, unprofessional things they've done now.

Looks like this is coming out here in the US tomorrow. Would be cool if they actually released s demo. I wonder if they changed anything about the controls since this came out in Europe?

They did. I saw a post on Fantasy Flight Games home page about it the other day (they make a miniatures game and a card game based on Anima — maybe the RPG, too, I don't follow RPGs). What they changed about the controls, I don't know. Would be nice if NL covered the US version in some form, even though they already reviewed it.

@Adam: Thanks for the info. (when you said they did, at first I didn't know if you were talking about the demo or controls. Though I found out when I checked that site you mentioned.)
I'm really happy that they actually went back and tried to improve it.

Maybe NL might add something about the changes to the original review. I think that would be nice considering they listened to people and tried to make it better.
If it is actually decent now, then I hope they patch Europes version.

Anyone try the US version yet? I'm thinking of getting it, as they apparently made some changes to improve this.

be cool if they came back and review the US version, yeah its their own game but didn't stop them reviewing the pal release, wonder if they now feel their own game is worthy of more than a 8/10

I was really hoping this game would've turned out well.
Then I saw Nintendolife's 4/10 review and I never gave it another glance.
It would probably take more than a few minor changes for me to even think about buying it.

So anyone got this revised version yet?
Also,@mods: Is anyone going to try out the american version and see how it plays now with the improvements?
It sounded like there were some good things about this when it came out in Europe, except for the controls. Do you think it would be worth getting if they solved the control issues?

In a new review, IGN gave this a 5.5. The reviewer thought it was mediocre and not much fun.
Now if only someone else will put up a new review or opinion on this, that'd be good.

I guess the review of the European version scared everyone away, even though this one was supposidly fixed. Too bad. I was really hoping to hear more about this, as it is now, from someone else other than IGN. Everyone else seems to be linking to IGN's article, when I look to find other new reviews or impressions.

I was going to give it a try but then I saw the first page of this thread. The shameless attempt to trick people into buying the earlier flawed version by posting an overly positive biased review was enough to make me change my mind. I'm not giving underhanded developers my money.

Just found someone else who recently played this: http://www.handheldheroes.net/2011/10/anima-ark-of-sinners/
He doesn't give it a score (that I see), but does a review of his own.

Neat.
That's some professional review adressing all flaws and good things about the game. It makes really clear if that game is for you or not.

Despite all the negative reviews I took a chance and downloaded this game, and I'm kinda glad I did.

I was playing on NORMAL, beat it in 10h30m, and found 17/18 monoliths.

The controls aren't broken, just not streamlined. They are different, and need practise to get used to. Yeah, they could be better, faster, but after playing some time they're easily managable imo.
I had no problems with the platforming in the game. There are only 2 or 3 short sections in the whole game where precise jumping is needed.

Clearly the game is unforgiving at times, throwing brutal waves of enemies at you (especially the final boss section), but this is what made the game for me. Strategically timed attacks and evade moves got me through, but I lost hundreds of lives on my way.
If you like a real oldschool platformer/beat'em up in a metroidvania-style open world and up for a real challenge there's a chance you like this game. The atmosphere is great and the story is interesting and good as well.
I suggest playing this on EASY though, because beating NORMAL was extremely punishing.

The american version was updated but the european version not!

• It has better controls (button mapping of Classic Controller changed, few more moves).
• The character doesn't slip like walking on ice.
• The color of energy and KI orbs has been changed to better fit to the bars on screen.
• The names of difficulty levels (and difficulties themselves?) have been changed:
  After: (Normal, Hard, Extreme, [Zen]) Before: (Easy, Normal, Hard, [Extreme])
• some minor bug fixes

Bad thing is that the european demo version (!!!) also has all these updates. But the full version was not updated in europe. So after trying the demo version I thought: "Man, this is a great game, nearly perfect and all." But then, after spending 1000 Points, I realized that the full version I have downloaded is something different.

Come on people at Anima Game Studios. The demo pretends it to be a better game than you get at the end. That sucks. Give us the update, too! (Or at least don't release sugarcoated demo versions in the future. )

~Despite everything, I love this game. Otherwise I wouldn't be interested at all.~

I don't think the difficulties themselves have changed. Only the names. After the update they now tell the truth. In the old version it was a lie.
I have the old version and I skipped EASY (which is now called NORMAL) and played on NORMAL (which is now called HARD) and it was hard, damn right.
I know I warned people that they should play on EASY because beating NORMAL was an extreme accomplishment for me.

And yes, I too want the update. However, I got around those control issues with a bit of practice and actually got good at them and I never encountered bugs. The orb/bar colors were odd but no biggie for me as well, as there were only 2 in the whole game (health and magic). I want the update for one sole reason, so I can say i beat the game on HARD