Rainbow Moon Is Here, Old-School Fans Cry Tears Of Joy

I've seen some 8's and 9's already for this. I read one review that even said this game is complex enough to be a full boxed game.

I've been watching this game for most of this past year, so it's a no-brainer for me.

I didn't get a chance to turn the PS3 on yesterday, so I haven't taken a spin around the PSN after the last update yet. Will do so tonight!

I'll be picking this up for play, not sure when I'll be able to get to it. WKC2 still occupies my time – such is the risk of founding and leading a guild.

Oh, for people interested in this game, there is another game coming soon that should perk up your interest. NIS America is releasing Legasista this summer. It's a traditional dungeon crawler experience bright up to date. I'll post a link in a reply to this comment.

This looks like an SRPG, not what I would expect from a JRPG, can't say I'm to fussed about it.

Granted it's not Final Fantasy VII/VIII, but it is very old school in concept and execution. It's at least worth the PS Plus price of admission.

Last edited by TheHighlander on 7/11/2012 10:50:05 AM

I have it since last week and old school fans of this type of game will enjoy it, but it does have it's flaws.

The level difficulty, especially at the start, almost forces you do go buy one of the booster packs off the PSN (There is a free starter pack on PSN) or you're gonna struggle big time. The small DLC is actually quite good for what you'll pay for it (€0.99c) and although you're under no obligation to buy it, you'll feel like you never really had a choice. (NB: I chose the hard difficulty, it was either that or normal which in the description reads as what you'd expect 'easy' to be on most other games').

If you're really into grinding through a game, you'll love this. Or you think you will until the combat just starts to feel way, way too repetitive. You can put it down to it's old school style if you like but you will find after an hour or two the repetition starts to weigh heavy on you.

The combat too is what you'd expect from this style of RPG but the controls could of been executed better. You can use the D-Pad or the left analog stick to move your character around but sometimes you try move one way and end up moving the other. Which in games like Disgaea is not a big deal because until you end your turn, you can move your character back and then move where you want it to go. In Rainbow Moon however, you move your character even by accident and there's no waiting for confirmation from you that you meant to move where you moved to. Nor any way to move back without it counting as another move. It's frustrating and not in anyway 'retro'.

Also the actual 'attack' or 'defend' options aren't separate from you moving your character. You either move or attack. Best I give an example, on your turn you may be allowed two moves. You attack an enemy but don't actually 'move' your character on the map, doesn't matter the attack counts as a 'move'. But you get used to playing like this so I'm maybe being too harsh on that last point.

Now I'm making the game sound bad, but if you can push yourself through the monotony for the first few hours, you'll start taking on companions to fight with you. It's then the game starts to become more enjoyable and the combat less boring. But for the first few hours, when you're on your own, there's no strategy.

It's a good looking game and has alot of customisation of weapons and armor for your companions and your main character. The quests are decent enough, some more challenging than others and if you've grinded a lot, prepare to do it all again when you take on a companion because they'll keep dying. Not a bad thing in games like Disgaea because the combat is interesting enough but I hark back to the repetition again.

Yeah, so I believe although I'll admit it's my first time feeling like I'd no other option.

One good thing about the booster packs though that I should of mentioned is that when you purchase one, it's always available for you if you start over a new game. You don't have to go buy it again.

I said you're under no obligation to buy it but you'll feel like you didn't really get a choice. I also purposely pointed out that I chose to play on Hard for just that same reason you pointed out. If I played it on Normal maybe I wouldn't of felt the need to buy a booster pack. I guess I'm agreeing with you. But maybe you didn't pick up on that?

(btw in case anyone missed it, I also said there's a free 'starter' pack on PSN. You can never talk to much about free stuff)

Yeah, probably not worth mentioning in the review. I'd agree with that. 🙂

There are very many *good* JRPGs already available that have not gained good sales. That's not due to art style it's due to the JRPG genre having picked up a stigma thanks to years of negativity. That negativity has come through reviews and other coverage that has not been kind to JRPGs, even good ones. Gamers pick up on that, and don't even give the games a chance. I can't begin to tell you how many user reviews I have read of games at places like Amazon where people have poured scorn on a JRPG that either hasn't been released yet, or that they haven't actually played. The JRPG genre is widely pre-judged in a negative manner today. That creates a certain amount of peer pressure that simply reinforces the problem. That is in some ways due to human nature, people don't want to stand out, they don't want to differ from their friends. So as more people accept the negative mindset regarding JRPGs, it becomes ever more difficult for others to avoid it, and avoid becoming part of it.

Last edited by TheHighlander on 7/11/2012 11:46:50 AM

Beamboom: I agree that the vast majority of user reviews are worthless.

HOWEVER, that being said, those who write user reviews for this particular genre are almost always, ALWAYS in the know. This is a very hardcore niche group and very few are going to write something like, "This game sucks because I can't blow things up" or even "This game rules because I love old-school RPGs."

User reviews for this extremely niche sub-genre are probably the only ones worth reading on the Internet. They're all likely older individuals and they're all likely better spoken than the average CoD fanatic.

Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 7/11/2012 12:12:33 PM

User reviews in general on the internets are troublesome, but what Ben posts on this site (which happens to cater to non-dumbfarks) are pretty good.

Beanboom, I think Ben and I are talking about different types of user review. But I have to say that as a hardcore JRPG fan I can see immediately when looking at user reviews whether the user review is written by a hardcore JRPG person, or a casual gamer, or someone with an axe to grind, or simply someone who is trolling. User reviews submitted here, and at some other sites do go through some level of scrutiny and people don't typically write stuff like "This game sucks because the main character looks like a girl and has a sword taller than he is." or "This game is crap because the graphics look so sh1tty and dated.".

Ben, I see where you are coming from, but if you ever read the user reviews at major retailers that do not scrutinize their user comments or reviews, you will find that there are innumerable people that post comments or 'reviews' trashing a game simply to trash it, whether or not they have even played it. You used to see a lot of 360 gamers doing this to every PS3 game that was released, regardless of how good it was. Hell, I still saw legions of Forza fans trashing GT5 simply because it was a) a PS3 game, and b) not Forza.

Beamboom, whether the comments and 'reviews' I am talking about are particularly well reasoned or considered authoritative, lots of people read them and they form part of the context around a game or genre. Once the snowball starts rolling downhill and gathering mass and momentum, it becomes more and more difficult to avoid or stop.

Ben, how CAN you say such a thing! You, you… you…

… That is of course my conclusion too. 😀

Oh nooo! Fane1024, my good man, my island of sanity in the sea of madness, my safe haven when crazy thoughts are blowing too hard across the gaming land, don't you TOO contribute to the conspiracy theory wildfire! Not… Not YOU!

While it's true that companies can be hired for "guerilla marketing" on the internet and that includes creating fake user reviews and forum posts, it's unlikely that the fake user game reviews out there are paid for by Microsoft. If anyone, try the different distributors instead.
And unless it is a really, really mean competing title (that bombing of the last COD over at metacritic last time was really, really suspicious) I bet most use their money on favourable reviews of their own products instead.
But how large share of the total amount of user reivews are in fact marketing? Noone knows but I logically it must be marginal.

Last edited by Beamboom on 7/12/2012 12:55:37 AM

I would comment in my own thread lol but it's too quiet in there.

Yup you are very welcome back to the forums. I may not always agree with what you say but I will defend your right to say it! 😉

Last edited by Beamboom on 7/11/2012 1:03:01 PM

I still see the SRPG pigeonhole here and i guess that can be blamed on the grid battle system.

I'm 48hrs in and i can tell you this…

It is SRPG in battle only, everywhere else is traditional Jrpg and that was the developer's aim. To get that blend of all our favourite Jrpgs into one. The game overall is like a lost Dragon Quest, i kid you not. The world map is huge! The 1st 40hrs are fairly straight forward, but after that, something big happens and it pulls a FFVll Midgar-to-World map-like twist and now i'm just ravishing this nostalgia trip. I could go on for too long at how spot on they got this game, it is classic, golden age Jrpg all over and probably the best Jrpg i have played in a few years.

The exploration is so nostalgic.

My complaints are minimal and they're that it lacks a plot beyond it's synopsis and that the Normal difficulty is a bit too easy and it's not hard to get ahead of the game whereas Hard mode is too hard, unless you're a grind head.

Other than that, my "complaints" would be a wish list i.e. more mini games.

Seriously, Sidequest Studios have pulled something special. It's spot on like a golden age Jrpg. Anyone that still complains that it isn't has lost all rights to complain about those kinds of Jrpgs anymore, especially as we have multiple return-to-forms coming, peaking at Ni No Kuni.

Sidequest Studios are overwhelmed with the response. They're already considering a sequel or new RPG and taking constructive criticism onboard and listening to wish lists for such projects. The main designer also wants to make a Zelda esq game too which i fully support.

Oh one more thing i must mention, Rafael Dyll has done an absolutely superb job at the soundtrack, not only will it fill you with nostalgia due to the fact they sound spot on golden age, but some tracks are just a joy to listen to on their own merit. The OST will be on the store in September.

I`ll pass the review here over to the Devs when it goes up, regardless.

Last edited by Lotusflow3r on 7/11/2012 12:39:09 PM

Saying that, the battle system can certainly make the difference within a game. Take Resonance of Fate, that game has a hideous battle system, I really liked the setting and th3 characters, but the battle system was just so overly complex I have not touched it again 2 years later.

If it has an SRPG battle system then it's an SRPG in my eye.

You make a point, Ben, although i have to tell you that puzzles are present, they come later.

However, the game is too versatile to be a strict SRPG as i originally say. An SRPG doesn't have traditional features like huge world maps and towns etc, etc. They're traditional features.

For example, i felt exactly how i did playing through early traditional Jrpgs as i do playing through Rainbow Moon, not how i felt when playing through Tactics Orge.

When things open up fully, you'll see Rainbow Moon is traditional in every sense of the word. There's so much to do and so many hidden areas and secrets or towns to discover, all optional. One of the games main focuses is exploration.

I spent the same amount of time battling on FFVll as i do Rainbow Moon, the only difference is that i can move about on the battle screen and that doesn't morph a game into something else over all the other, bigger traditional features….also, a chess inspired turn-based battle system is better than the other turn-based battle systems in my opinion. It's more mentally challenging.

But the biggest point is that the developers said themselves that they aimed to make a traditional Jrpg, a mix of all the classics. They said that if you enjoyed early FFs or DQs, then Rainbow Moon is for you.

We moan too much about those days being gone and yearn for this return, that we can't be picky when something so close actually arrives.

@frost
Mate, you 100% should of put it on normal. You've punished yourself doing it, it's not the games fault you opted for that.

Last edited by Lotusflow3r on 7/11/2012 5:18:24 PM

I completely agree that we shouldn't be picky when a developer goes out of its way to satisfy us.

And I know it certainly has plenty of elements that aren't part of the SRPG world. I'm just saying, when people see the combat, they're automatically going to associate it with strategy. It is, after all.

But the blend of strategy and traditional RPG elements is great, I think.

My only question is why isn't this playable on vita too? This would have been a great game to make cross platform for ps3/vita.

Then I could play it all the time no matter where I was at.

Well that's good to know. Would love it.

I want it! Plus there's a platinum trophy! (53 trophies total!)

I can't do more than a couple hours at a sitting, either. Three is my max these days.

And I too remember the days when I could do 8-10 hours of FFT or something, go to bed and go, "THAT was a good day." 😉

Great game so far. I wish I would have played hard mode, but Im told that the last bosses on hard you better be extremely high in levels.