Now things are getting interesting.��
Listed on Nintendos japanese site
IGN eyes on trailer and screens
A lone warrior chopping through an army of robotic warriors with an outsized Cloud Strife-like energy sword. Colossal war machines advancing though a misty canyon, shooting anything that moves. The few remaining human defenders hiding behind simple wooden shields that are no match for high-energy weapons. Welcome to the world of Monado.��
The debut trailer for Monado: Beginning of the World premiered today at E3: 2009, and first impressions for the new Wii RPG are that the beginning is going to be pretty exciting. Things kick off with that canyon-set battle, revealing more and bigger enemies with an interesting steampunk design. Things likely don't end well for our lone warrior, as we soon segue to a young blonde hero discovering that energy sword - now inert - only to see it flash blindingly to life the moment he picks it up. Your standard JRPG Hero's Journey (tm) is definitely in full effect here, with just a dash of King Arthur.��
Gameplay appears to be open-world, where you'll traverse lush jungles, glowing forests, climb sheer walls, and encounter the crumbling remains of a conquered people. It looks nicely textured and details pop, animating at what looks like a smooth 30 fps.��
Players will pick up two partners in their travels, and while combat initially looks turn-based, we saw all three party members attacking simultaneously. Transitions into combat are completely seamless; characters approach enemies, draw weapons, and it's on. One scene showed your team (wielding much smaller edged weaponry) surrounding a lizard-man enemy, who didn't make much of a dent in their lifebars before it was downed. A much larger lizard-man (a good twenty feet tall) and giant mutant crab monster probably fared better.
(back up link - check the japanese site first link in post for proper quality trailer)
Hit the HQ option.
Do everything in Sword Valley while you are there, otherwise they will lock out the area once you get to a certain point.
Depends if you just want to plow through the story or if you want to explore and do all the quests. You've still got a lot of stuff to see, you're nowhere near the end yet, so don't worry. I thought that Eryth Sea was near the end, boy was I wrong. This game is like a Duracell battery, it goes on and on. But in a good way.
Just had a huge HOLY SHIT moment:
I was swimming around the Eryth Sea, trying to find all of the Landmarks. I was just noticing how huge, open and vast the sea is. It was taking me several minutes just to swim from the shore to an island. I swung the camera to the north and was looking at this strange, curved mountain formation behind the Prison Tower. The mountain came to a point at what seemed to be a huge horn-like formation...
...and then I realized: I was looking at the HEAD of the Bionis! As huge and VAST as the sea was, It looked like a PUDDLE beneath the head of the Bionis! Then I realized: THAT IS JUST THE HEAD!? It just put into graphical form the scale and scope of what the developers were imagining WHERE exactly this game is taking place. When not blatantly looking at the Map screen they show when they chart your progress, you tend to forget the game is taking place on the body of a "fallen god!"
Some crazy major stuff just happened and I got the 7th member of my party.
But I am worn out, I need a break from this game. So I think I am going to stop here and come back to it later.