It lives!
As far as I know, this might very well make it the last printed Vita release. Vita means life!
As far as I know, this might very well make it the last printed Vita release. Vita means life!
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Labyrinth of Galleria (Labyrinth of Refrain Sequel) Dated for November 26th in Japan
- Thread starter Theswweet
- Start date
How's the first? I've been meaning to check out the demo myself, but those who played the whole game, did you enjoy it?
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If I didn't have a backlog, I'd probably buy it while it's on sale now just to have a solid dungeon crawler on my switch. But holy shit, it's long. It's on the wishlist, though, so one day...
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Bumping to let folks know that it's now out! I'm waiting for my copy - anyone else picking it up?
I'm giving it ~2-3 months to see if there's a localisation announcement. If not, I'll grab the JP version.
... Mind you, I'll probably cave the instant I see some positive impressions.
If I read japanese, maybe. Finishing Labyrinth earlier this year was my surprise hit of 2020, so I'm eagerly awaiting this release.
Hopefully they dub it again.
FW Famitsu sales
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Famitsu Sales: 11/23/20 – 11/29/20 [Update]
Famitsu has published its estimated physical game software and hardware sales data for Japan for the week of November 23, 2020 to November 29, 2020.
www.gematsu.com
15. [PS4] Labyrinth of Galleria: Coven of Dusk (Nippon Ichi Software, 11/26/20) – 8,590 (New)
Vita didn't even chart, so less than 2.9k sold physically. Likely less than 3k all together.
The game is expected to be done in 120-150 hours. I just finished the first big chapter today which took me around 40 hours and have ventured in the second part for a few hours.
The game now plays almost like a metroidvania game, with added map abilities it is definitely a step-up from Refrain.
However the environments look very monotonous, not as varied as they were in Refrain. Story so far has also been very sparse and there is no vignette which I liked a lot in the last one. But I'm fine with that, as it's meant to be the more gameplay-heavy chapter and only a setup for the main story.
If the story doesn't disappoint (and I've seen lots of praise for it already), this will beat FF7R, 13 Sentinels, and Demon's Souls to be my GOTY on the Japan side.
The game now plays almost like a metroidvania game, with added map abilities it is definitely a step-up from Refrain.
However the environments look very monotonous, not as varied as they were in Refrain. Story so far has also been very sparse and there is no vignette which I liked a lot in the last one. But I'm fine with that, as it's meant to be the more gameplay-heavy chapter and only a setup for the main story.
Game turned into a rogue-like in the second half and it's super long, which I have no problem with but it might be a turnoff to many.
And the game starts to lean more story heavy from here. I'm starting to get sense of what is going on with the world(s), but I still expect more surprises. Also, ナチル is a hell of a character.
And the game starts to lean more story heavy from here. I'm starting to get sense of what is going on with the world(s), but I still expect more surprises. Also, ナチル is a hell of a character.
If the story doesn't disappoint (and I've seen lots of praise for it already), this will beat FF7R, 13 Sentinels, and Demon's Souls to be my GOTY on the Japan side.
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Oh hey, you're farther than me! I was going to make an actual thread for this once I got to what I anticipated was a turning point in the story (I noticed that there was a huge drop-off in the item collection for the story trophies and the actual completion trophy on PSNProfiles, and collecting the 7 treasures has been happening a *lot* faster than I was really anticipating)
I've been enjoying it a lot, too - while the story takes a while to get going, I'm still quite enjoying it, and I think it does a better job to get me invested in the characters than Refrain did. I just had the cutscene where
ナチル had a breakdown from being touched by the sleazy dude in the village, very clearly alluding to some PTSD probably related to sexual assault... it's dark, but Refrain handled this sort of stuff well, and it didn't seem like it was handled poorly here so far, so we'll see where things head in the story
Not reading the story spoilers as Refrain was a surprisingly poignant hit in that regard, so I wanna be clean for this one if/when it's localized, but how does the gameplay feel in this one compared to the first? Any noticeable changes or is it largely more of the same a-la the first game, where the majority of the setup came down to setting up character and weapon passives?
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There's a few new wrinkles added - there's a new feature called "Liberations", which is basically an additional super-powerful skill attached to each Pact, that only allows you to activate it once the gauge is filled up that particular coven. There are also some new facets, new skills, a new summoning ability that I'm still getting to grips with that seems interesting, etc.
I would say that dungeon exploration has seen much more of a drastic change than combat, but that's not to say that combat hasn't had its fair share of additions and changes.
That's good to hear, even if you don't have a good grip on it all yet. Interested to see how the new facets and abilities come into play for the combat, as a little more depth/variety would be much appreciated.
The Exploration changes being even more drastic sounds interesting. I've already seen myself missing the wall-break feature when attempting other DCrawlers, so I'm curious what other potentially useful tweaks they came up with.
Yeah things get messed up very soon, and it's pretty dark. Though I'm not sure how I feel about the way they handle one certain theme (not the one you mentioned).
Traversing dungeons is much more interesting than Refrain. You are gradually given more abilities to unvail secrets and tread on new areas.
As I've mentioned, it in some way reminds me of Zelda or Metroidvania.
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I will say, it's annoying when you're asked to find specific ingredients for Madame Marta and you aren't exactly given any direction for where to look for them. I've been exploring the lower regions of the 2nd dungeon for 'em, but I don't know if they're actually supposed to be in this other dungeon I just unlocked. I guess that's a downside to having exploration be much more open-ended!
I remember those can only be found in fixed treasure chests, so just keep exploring where you haven't been yet.
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Haha, I actually managed to get everything rounded up earlier - figured that bit out. Thanks though!
Very close to reach the normal ending, I genuinely consider this the best story(telling) of any JRPG this gen.
Or at least the devs put some real effort to tell a compelling story in this and Refrain. Nothing else even comes close IMO.
Or at least the devs put some real effort to tell a compelling story in this and Refrain. Nothing else even comes close IMO.
english version won't happen until 2022. gotta localize it and port it, and by then it'll be pc, ps5, and switch - all platforms the game currently is not on. this is similar to what happened with refrain, which was vita-only in japan in 2016 but out on living platforms in 2018.
refrain is pretty good. there is this epilogue segment that i don't think does the trick though. so if you feel like you're missing out on that... maybe don't feel so bad about it.
refrain was on pc and ps4. this should be on pc and ps5 as well. even though the switch sku was the most popular one, it did well on the other platforms.
After Mary Skelter 2 and Disgea 6 I learned not to expect anything for RPGs I'm looking forward to.
Both games are PS4/Switch in Japan, but here it's going to be Switch only. Wouldn't surprise me if they'd rather port it to Switch than release a PS4 (or PS5) version in english.
It's just a safe guesstimate. These games are text and voice heavy so, if they go about it the same way they did Refrain, expecting it to come out in 2021, especially right after the first Covid year, is setting expectations a little high. I'd like it sooner too, but it's easier to not be disappointed if you over-estimate the wait time.
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2022 is a shame, if that's the case! The game is very, very good. Going to agree with Aestivalis here - it's different from Refrain, but Galleria's story is a lot more personal. It's just a fantastic game all around.
That's some high praise, considering I felt like Refrain was already an incredibly personal story, especially the more you got into it.
as soon as switch released, these niche japanese games did about half as well on ps4. they had never really done great either - the ps vita was sometimes a strong second place for those ps3/psv and psv/ps4 games. switch just had that market built in due to the 3ds audience coming over, the vita fanbase coming over, and nintendo doing work themselves to build a japanse rpg audience. it's only gotten worse from there. i think the hope is that the ps5 will pick up the ps4's slack and that the audience there will be more engaged in those games than the late ps4 audience. i can't see companies like ifi or nis (or nisa) abandoning playstation unless it pulls wii u numbers even with supply.
refrain came out only after a pc, ps4, and switch port were made, which was about two years after launch. an early or mid 2022 release feels about right.
I dunno, all NIS have announced for PS5 is of all things a port of Void Terrarium that's bundled with upcoming DLC (which is paid on Switch and PS4).
NIS definitely don't seem to be gaga for PS5, which is a first ever for a Sony system for them, no? You'd think a PS5 version of Disgaea 6 would be priority #1. Five years ago, that would've been the case, but there's been a change at NIS since Disgaea 5 Complete blew up on Switch (in the west at least). With now Disgaea 6 actually being Switch-exclusive in the west, feels like the culmination of that effort and path that began with Disgaea 5 Complete. Something anyone 5 years ago would've passed out laughing at being a mere thought.
NIS definitely don't seem to be gaga for PS5, which is a first ever for a Sony system for them, no? You'd think a PS5 version of Disgaea 6 would be priority #1. Five years ago, that would've been the case, but there's been a change at NIS since Disgaea 5 Complete blew up on Switch (in the west at least). With now Disgaea 6 actually being Switch-exclusive in the west, feels like the culmination of that effort and path that began with Disgaea 5 Complete. Something anyone 5 years ago would've passed out laughing at being a mere thought.
I wonder what localization comes first, Galleria or Yomi wo Saku Hana.
Well, Mary Skelter 2 skipped PS4 in the west because of Sony's censorship policies. They had to patch out the rubbing minigame in the Chinese version and it broke the game because it was a quick thing they had to do and the game wasn't programmed around it not being there. It was probably too much of a hassle to bother with doing it properly for the western release so I don't blame them honestly. I don't know if Finale even has the mechanic or not but I'm hoping it doesn't because it was tedious and I pretty much just skipped it.
Since Saviors is coming in March, I was personally hoping to see Yomi wo Saku Hana hit late 2021. Might be possible since it's already ported to everything. Though there's no guarantee it'll actually come out on those platforms in the west. Switch seems like a given, at least.