As you've probably guessed, I've spent a lot of time since they announced Culdcept 3DS examining the trailer and screenshots posted around the web (see the link thread at the top of this forum). While there isn't a ton of info to be had yet, I've gained a lot of insight already, and turned up quite a few surprises. Here's a run-down of what I see, followed by my thoughts on some parts of the game they haven't shown much/any of yet:
What I see:
Creatures:
Being based on Culdcept II (PlayStation 2 / Dreamcast), I see a whole lot of creatures from the PS2/DC game, including many that
didn't make it into Culdcept Saga: Son Ascetic, Cornfolk, Vodyanoi, Valkyria, Merfolk, Gnome, Will-o'-the-Wisp, Larvae, Ninja, Green Mold, Shell Creeper, Leviathan, Gooba Queen, Hurricane, Chonchon, Golden Totem, and Dragon.
I've also spotted some creatures from Culdcept Saga in it: Tengu and Aspidochelone.
Most interestingly, I've spotted a few creatures that I haven't seen in
any other Culdcept game:
- Screenshot #2 shows an ST:50 HP:20 G:80+R flying Fire squid (!!) that can't use Tools or Scrolls, but that appears to have a Valkyria-like Upon Victory ST-boosting ability.
-
This screenshot and the trailer show a circular Air snake (very similar to the mythical
Ouroboros), and I'm very curious to see what its ability(ies) are!
-
This screenshot shows an odd troll (or maybe hill giant)-like Air creature surviving a hit from a Colossus without using an item! Pretty impressive.
They've also done some stat-tweaking:
- Raksas now costs 80G with no req, instead of 70G + an Earth req.
- Giant Amoeba has lost its frustrating Armor limit, but now costs 60G (10G more than in PS2/DC and Saga)
Items:
Not much shown here, only a few items we know from the PS2/DC game: Water Shield, Chain Mail, Petrify Stone.
Spells:
Same as the items, just PS2/DC spells shown: Peace and Chaos Panic (at least, I think that's the animation in screenshot #6)
Artwork/Animation:
OmiyaSoft's visual designers have obviously been working hard. Many, many things have changed, and overall the changes look like a pretty big improvement to me. Here's some of what I notice:
- Totally redrawn Story character artwork and player avatars
- New and more lively battle animations
- Some existing creature cards redrawn (I noticed Nymph and Leviathan, and there are probably many more)
- Much better-looking world map, paths, and points on the world map
Maps:
The trailer and screenshots didn't show a lot in this area, but I did spot Dunnan, Malthessburg, Kazatega, and Mt. Atla from the PS2/DC game.
Music:
Hard to read anything into what was played during the trailer, but it sounded a lot like the PS2/DC's music, tweaked a bit.
What I'm thinking (and/or predicting):
1) Nintendo 3DS cartridges can apparently be a lot larger than Nintendo DS/DSi cartridges (I know of at least one 3DS game already out that is a 512MB cartridge), so they'll probably able to cram virtually all of the PS2/DC game in there (hopefully including all 40 maps!) and much more.
2) The online play for Culdcept DS worked really well (arguably better than Saga's, and definitely much more stable), so they'll probably keep its overall structure and enhance it. This means that they'll probably also keep the DS's emote-chat system, which enabled good communication across language barriers. Ranked play on the DS actually meant something (where Saga's leaderboards are a joke), so they'll probably keep that setup as well. Playing vs. friends will probably be handled via Friend Codes, but since I have no 3DS yet, I could be way off on that.
3) The 3DS has an SD card slot and comes with a 2GB SD card. I'm not sure if the system puts the game saves to that card, but if it does, conceivably we could be trading game saves here on Culdcept Central.
4) The SD card slot also means that Culdcept 3DS will probably have at least as much DLC as Culdcept DS did, if not more. Here's hoping that it stays free as well.
5) I cannot wait to see if/how Culdcept 3DS takes advantage of the system's 3D capabilities. Will it look similar to the
scene in Star Wars where R2D2 plays against Chewbacca? Or maybe closer to how
Paper Mario looks? No telling, but I bet it'll look pretty cool in any event!
6) Finally, the big question. (The one we all want to know).
Will it come here? Culdcept PS2 and Culdcept Saga did; the rest didn't. I think it
will come here, and here's why:
Nintendo themselves are publishing Culdcept 3DS. You've probably heard that the 3DS isn't doing nearly as well in the marketplace here in the West as expected. It also doesn't have nearly enough games, despite being out nearly 6 months now. Nintendo wants the 3DS to be a success; Culdcept will help that. A lot. Also, Nintendo stands to profit on both fronts as the system's manufacturer and as game's publisher. It seems almost a no-brainer to me that they'd bring it here, but I was wrong about Culdcept DS.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this as well. I'm sure there's some cool stuff I missed, and we all want to know what you think about this
HUGE announcement!
So... weigh in on it already!