Topic: Legends of Exidea First impressions

The service's first RPG is here! It's developed by gameloft, so I'm not expecting too much. If you get it, post your thoughts here for others!

It's an action RPG - so I'm putting money that it will be a somewhat competent technically, but cheap and soulless knock-off of Secret of Mana.

Like all Gameloft's other games, it'll look and feel like it was put together by a competent hobbiest, rather than a professional game studio.

Anyway, I'm downloading it - I don't know why I keep giving GL a chance, I hate them, but I'm not expecting much.

I don't have a high opinion of Gameloft, but I know for a fact that you are VERY biased against them, Waltz. I still trust your opinion, but I will be very suprised if you really like it.
BTW, just a quick side note, the loading times on UNO dsiware aren't that bad at all

Yeah, I'll be the first to admit I'm biased against them, but in my defence:

• If you've played any of the recent Fifa Games, just try and enjoy Real Soccer. Just try.
• If you've played any of the better Need for Speed games, play Ashphalt 4 and tell me that it isn't a cheap knock off.
• THAT PUPPY GAME, OH MY GOD. I was honestly ready to give this one a chance after I booted it up. It actually had decent presentation, and the puppies were genuinely cute. I though it was running along pretty well to be a cheaper, but still entertaining homage to Nintendogs. But I had done everything in the game within 20 minutes. 20 minutes.
• Guitar Tour or whatever it was uses Midis. Midis for a music game is insanely dumb in an era when we have Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
• Uno's loading times frustrated me, and the graphics and interface where nowhere near as clean as clubhouse games. And Uno was one game. That said it is one of the better Gameloft games (though still sub-6/10)
• Pop Superstar is the closest Gameloft has come to quality. It is a cute little Sims knock-off, with some amusing minigames, and a solid few hours story. That one I still play every once in a while.
• Castle of Magic has the wonderful distinction of being the worst of the DSiWare platformers. Incredibly generic, boring enemies, cheap graphics, and terribly uninspired level designs.

So Gameloft really doesn't have a great track record.

Here's some interesting news.

http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=112499

So I have it a hour's whirl, and I can already tell, based on its technical merits, this game is in the running to be the worst-ever on the DSiWare.

Why?

1) The plot is terrible - it's a generic "there's an evil army and you rescue this princess and so on and so forth" tripe - which, in itself is bad, but not unbearable. The quest structure is actually embarrasing, though. I physically cringed when the following exchange happened early on:

The hero approaches the Witch
Witch: "Ok, I'll brew you a potion, but first I need a RARE insect. Go speak to the treasure hunter."
So you find the treasure hunter.
Treasure hunter: "Oh no, I lost my RARE insect. Find it, and you can keep it"

I kid you not - that's the "quality" of the plot.

2)the graphics are cheap, mobile phone style,

This is typical from Gameloft, so I expected it, but there's frames of animation missing, backgrounds and character portraits look like B-grade SNES characters, and interfaces are ugly.

Oh, and there's loading times. Quite long loading times. Intolerable for a game SITTING ON THE CONSOLE'S MEMORY.

3)the collision detection when it comes to melee is poor, it's impossible to cast magic with any accuracy

There's a huge lag when pressing the spell button to when the spell is cast. Because of the screen size, - it means you're hit numerous times before the spell is cast, or the enemy's long moved out of the spell's target line. Sword swings are also laggy - if the game even chooses to recognise you're mashing the attack button.

4) Level design is terrible. Can't reach the top of a cliff? Stand on a block and another block will fall FROM THE SKY to let you climb up higher. Terrible.

Music is cheap, and so on and so forth.

Basically it plays like a very cheap, very poor Secret of Mana knockoff. It's seriously terrible.

If the DS itself didn't have a few million really good RPGs already, this would be forgivable, as we'd have something to play, but as it is, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to get this game, especially considering you can get DS RPGs second hand or on discount for the price of this.

http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=112499

It's aparently a cellphone Might and Magic game minus the M&M license.

I've played far better mobile phone RPGs than this one.

I was looking forward to this game but after what I read here I think I'm going to stay far away from this one. Thank you for all the information everyone.

Good move. There are better ways to spend 800 points.

This is where Nintendo's pricing structure fails. This game was made in 2007 for cell phones prices at 4.99, and is not, in 2010, on DSiWare for 8.00.

It's the only service I know of where games seem to "appreciate" in value instead of go down.

If the game was 200 points, it still wouldn't be worth downloading. A quality game is a quality game, regardless of how much it costs. If Legends was a good game, or even a reasonable game, I would recommend it for $8. But it's not.

Also, is a $3 difference really that much to you? There are bigger problems with this game than a $3 price hike.

3 dollars may not sound like much, but it's a 3 dollar hike for a game that's 3 years old and of questionable quality. How is that not an issue?
Am I cheap? Yes and no, but I just have to compare to App store and even PSN prices. I mean for the PSP for 8 bucks I can get Final Fantasy 7 or 8, or this game... Really? Or on the app store I can get 8 games that are probably each better than this game as a whole.
3 dollars in the short run is nothing, but it's an underlying issue with Nintendo's online services and pricing structure as a whole.

As far as I'm concerned for anything under $10, the pricing is insignificant. The quality is more important - there are plenty of DSiWare games, even those at 800 points, that I haven't regretted buying in the slightest.

But then, I work full time, so $10 to me is probably less significant to $10 for school kids or university students. Beyond that, I don't even buy half my points, they're provided to me by Nintendo, so those times I do buy DSiWare games mean I find the price even less of an issue.

@ cheapogamer4life - I say this every time I download a Gameloft game, and I get suckered into it every time - I will never touch another Gameloft title. They're just terrible.

@WaltzElf: After the cheapness that was Castle of Magic, I decided to never touch another Gameloft title either. If I want cell phone games (regardless of quality), I will get them on my cell phone. I don't really care about tacked on camera functionality. Currently, Gameloft is responsible for about half of the 800 point games released in America and Europe. No wonder the 500 point category is far and away the best on DSiWare.

It's 800 points?! I thought it was only 200
Anyways, I won't be getting this probably. Thanks, Waltz!
OH, and just think, you could get 5 or 6 crappy gameloft games, OR you could get a game like Bowser's inside story, Mario Kart DS, or any DS game.

I guess I understand the hatred for Gameloft here, but I think it's a little ridiculous. Yes, their games are all obvious rip-offs of bigger-name titles. But unlike the entire rest of the DSiWare store, they've made or in the very least ported over games that aren't puzzlers and that are half-decent. Castle of Magic was generic, yes, but not hugely flawed in any way. Oregon Trail was lots of fun, even if there was a heavy emphasis on minigames.

Perhaps you people would be a bit more accepting if you played their iPhone games. Which are ironically cheaper, and genuinely good, if not groundbreaking. (NOVA, for example.)

I feel that actually liking Gameloft is going to get my kneecaps broken.....

I actually hate Gameloft too. After seeing the atrocity that is Castle of Magic (holy hell.. the graphics were disgusting, the gameplay was horrible, camera functionality was tacked on and stupid, and 5$ for a game that is 1$ on the App Store? Really?) I am not ever buying another game. It is just absolutely horrific that you can sell that kind of #### on the DSi Shop and get away with it.