Boredom Inspired, Evil Approved

Got the game the instant it popped up on Good Old Games, since I'm an RPG fan, and a fan of shooters with RPG elements, see Sigma Star Saga for the GBA and Fusion: Genesis for Xbox Live Arcade. Because of this, I've seen what this one is trying to do before, so I've had some experience with them. I will admit, the basic premise alone, and the sense of humor my AI buddy has has been enough to carry the plot so far, since actual story has been a bit bland.

Mind, I'm not past the tutorial yet, just did the Gambling mission(I won the bet), and about to do another 'job' for the trash king. I do get that you're introducing every mechanic of the game, one at a time, so we get used to them, but I must say, pacing in this thing is rather poor because of it. The arena especially felt like it dragged a bit, and I found most of the bonus objectives annoying, rather than fulfilling, which I had before.

Characters have been....light, but then, so far, I've only had 4 introduced to me. Mugen, Trash King, my AI partner, and myself. Mugen was awesome, if a bit cliche, as he reminded me of a really good Star Trek episode. Trash King is someone I want to see dead, and I think that's the point, so good job there. The AI is a snark master, and I just love him. Wondering if he ever gets to auto control something in later fights. Hoping for a whole AI squad with me, which seems to be where certain mechanics are leading. Also, I like me. I'm a bit of a hopeless dud, but I can pilot well, and I do have morals. That should serve me well.

Anyway, just wanted to give a first impressions from an old hand at these. Overall, it's inspired me to keep playing, though hoping for a bit more freedom after all the mechanics are introduced.

Hi and welcome to the forums Star Sage.

Thanks for the feedback. We did struggle quite a bit with the pacing of the intro/tutorial, it is basically not possible to please everyone.  Some people think the mechanics are introduced to slowly, others are overwhelmed.

Once you leave the intro galaxy the game quickly opens up. You will be introduced to ship customization, and begin traveling the universe. The game becomes non-linear about half way through.

Once you have all the hulls and equipment unlocked, there are truly almost limitless builds to play with. I'm still coming up with new ones after playing for several years.

Star Sage wrote: Wondering if he ever gets to auto control something in later fights. Hoping for a whole AI squad with me, which seems to be where certain mechanics are leading.

I'd tell you, but it'd be spoilers. Keep playing.

Star Sage wrote:Anyway, just wanted to give a first impressions from an old hand at these. Overall, it's inspired me to keep playing, though hoping for a bit more freedom after all the mechanics are introduced.

Yes. There will be high-grade freedom later on, though [Spoiler removed]. Anyway, expect customization, non-linear story, and other stuff.

Okay, wow, what the heck happened? The game was proceeding at a good clip, and then, bam. Slow Down. The first bit with the Inside Your head was a little laggy, but nothing too bad, and since there's no enemies, I figured it was just that grid in the background. Then the next mission, about slowing down time, it just....WHAM!!!, even the text doesn't load right. Is it my system? I don't think it is, but I went and turned down all the graphics and stuff, and still had the same problem, though the menu screen did speed up a bit. Any help with this?

Also, thanks for the spoiler free replies, despite this set back, I'm really enjoying this, especially now that I have weapons again.

:EDIT:

Got past it, it's the mission where you're defending yourself from the orbs. It's still slow no matter what I do, even overclocking. Currently, just past the part where you learn the Rain of Destruction move, and using that to defend the cruiser. Not a bad mission. Really enjoying the character bits too. Mind, I smell a rat.

Would you mind posting your system specs Star Sage? I'll try and look into the cause of the slowdown, though it is almost certainly the grid. The grid is all handled by the GPU, so it would likely be the graphics card that is the issue.

HOW LONG DOES THIS GO ON!?! Seriously, I've been stuck at the mission Turret Defense since my last post. This is getting frustrating. I've done everything I can think of to try and win, but I'm told I can only lay down 1 of most turret types, and they don't do much against the SKUM, who just flit on by, even with the Gravity Mine thing laid(It seems to only affect one at a time, and they come in waves of 3 from both sides) I'm usually about 10 mins in each time I lose, and have destroyed at least ten waves, I think, it's easy to lose track. Am I doing something wrong?

You should be able to drop about 6 of each turret type. If you can't then it is a glitch. What version of the game are you running? The version can be found at the bottom left of the main menu.

Just make sure to move around a bit, as you can't deploy turrets on top of each other.

Ah! That's the trick. I never tried to deploy more than one at a time, since the Binding info on that move says only one of each turret type active at a time for all but the Gravity Mine thing, which says 2. Might want to reword that sometime.

Yeah, that is the base max you can have active for that ability. There are pieces of equipment that increase the max active count for deployable abilities. In that mission you have some extra buffs to further increase your max active counts.

Okay, went back to that mission to view the opening, the fact that you can lay down multiple turrets isn't mentioned anywhere, and the only passive bonus I see is fortification. Either I'm missing it, or you might want to mention that somewhere in the dialogue.

There is a bit where Nero mentions the abilities in the bottom left of your HUD, he says that the numbers over the icon denote how many more of that ability you can have deployed.