Ragnar has become the GS abassador of Demon Soul's, he has done a great job covering that game. Well I will cover the actual best FROM software game to come out this year...

3D DOT GAME HEROES!!

THE PREMISE

What happens when a 2D fantasy world like this one

Gets magically transformed into the 3rd dimension.

A hero must go on a quest to save the world and probably some princess from some evil wizard. To do so he will go on a quest that resembles a 2D Zelda game, because that is what this is, it is a 3D take on 2D Zelda!

Info

Official Website

3D Dot Game Heroes is a PS3 exclusive developed by FROM software. It is currently only coming out to Japan, it releases on Nov. 5th. This game MUST come out to America or it will be the biggest travesty this industry has ever seen.

Clearly its a Zelda clone but it has many new features to go along with the basic Zelda gameplay. Below are snippets of info from various sources:

Each of the three character types, Prince, Hero, and Scholar have a female equivalent. In the Prince's case, the female version is called a Princess. The other ****s keep the same name.

The character ****s in 3D Dot Game Heroes have different strengths. The Prince ****is well balanced, offering average physical and magic attack strength. The Hero has strong physical and magic strength. The Scholar ****isn't particularly strong, but does have great magic power. For all three ****s, the female version of the character has weaker physical attacks.

In addition to the world map, From's latest update on the game revealed a fourth playable character. Joinng the Hero, Prince, and Scholar types comes the Ancient Hero. In the game's story, this is the hero of legend who, long ago, sealed away the devil demon Onikis. This was back when Dotnia Kingdom was still 2D.

And closing off today's update, some details on the game's magic system. As you progress in the game, you'll earn the ability to cast "Shader Magic." The examples shared by From today have rendering-themed names like Parallax Map, Reflection, Normal Map and Frozen Shader. You'll have to use these both to combat enemies and as a means of solving puzzles.

confirmation that the game has screenshot feature
4 camera angles
custom character can only have 7 colors max

After you make a short trip back to the northern forest where the ancient hero placed his sword, the king asks you to go about collecting six orbs by heading out to a series of shrines in succession. The world opens up here, allowing you to freely explore, to a certain extent. Some parts of the world are closed off early on in the game. There was a large tree blocking me from exploring to the East of the castle. While I was able to freely trek to the first shrine, the second shrine lay beyond a forest which, when entered would spit me back out saying that I'd gotten hopelessly lost. These barriers will presumably be cleared once you've progressed further in the game and gotten the requisite items or magic.

A run through of the 3D Dot Game Heroes world cleared up a misconception I'd had about the game. I previously thought the game would be a clone of the original Zelda. A more accurate comparison, at least for the overworld, is to Super Nintendo's Zelda: A Link to the Past. The overworld has a similar scrolling system -- properly scrolling in some areas while pulling a Zelda 1-****stop and scroll in other areas (I'm not sure if there's a technical term for that). The overworld also has towns and townfolk scattered here and there. And, of course, chickens.

Upon entering the first dungeon, I was reminded mostly of the original Zelda. The dungeons scroll room to room and have you solve puzzles that involve pushing rocks and blocks around to open new paths, using your boomerang to flip inaccessible switches, and killing all enemies to unlock doors. I didn't have to use bombs to tear holes in walls, but I have no doubt that this will pop up in a future dungeon.

The big difference from the original Zelda is that the dungeons have multiple floors. When you open up the dungeon map, a section of the map is reserved for selecting between floors. The first dungeon -- the only one that I tried -- is single floored, so it remains to be seen if the game puts its multiple floors to good use.

Progression through the first dungeon felt like it was pulled straight from the action RPG book that Nintendo wrote. The door leading to the boss is actually near the dungeon entrance. However, to get to the room with the door, you have to first flip a switch, which you can only do so with a boomerang, which can only be obtained by venturing deep into the dungeon.

This preview of a fully decked out hero gave me a much more positive opinion about 3D Dot Game Heroes' gameplay. There's clearly a lot of depth to the action, much of which you'll only see by advancing in the game.

Despite all the similarities to Zelda, 3D Dot Game Heroes doesn't actually doesn't really "feel" like the ****c Zelda in its action and combat mechanics. The way you swing your sword is different. After pressing the attack button, you can rotate the d-pad or analogue stick (depending on which one you're using to control your character) to swing the sword attack around. This allows you to take out surrounding enemies. It took me a bit to get used to this system, but it eventually started to feel natural.

My overall impression of 3D Dot Game Heroes' combat is that it's more skill-based than your typical action RPG. In addition to the sword swinging maneuver, you can also lock your character into facing one direction, allowing you to strafe around and block incoming attacks with your shield. The game also lets you cycle through subweapons and magic quickly, without going into the main menu, allowing you to easily switch off between boomerangs to stun enemies, bombs to blast holes in walls, and arrows to strike at distant foes.

Having all this power could come in handy, as I got the feeling that 3D Dot Game Heroes is going to be a tough game. The enemies can be a bit aggressive, and the couple of bosses that I tried were not easy kills. The game supposedly has difficulty settings, so those wanting a challenge will presumably find it here.

Outside of the main menu, there's a system menu. This lets you save (at any time), load, view your photo album, take a picture of the current scene, and change the camera angle. See this article for some leaked images of the angles. I prefer the three-fourths view personally.

Regarding the photo mode, one option you have is to switch the game into a first person viewing mode. Here, you can move the camera freely around the world. It's like an FPS, except your character doesn't move. This is presumably designed to allow you to put your character in your shots.

First up is an extreme difficulty mode. Titled "From" mode, this becomes selectable once you've cleared certain unspecified conditions in the game's standard difficulty mode.

There's more to the extreme difficult mode than just increased difficulty. A screenshot show the king saying "Your goal is the same as in your last adventure. Here's a simple recap." Yes, the characters in the game appear to be conscious about the tougher mode of play, and some will praise you for your bravery.

During a Q&A a while back, From mentioned that 3D Dot Game Heroes would have some mini-games. Today, it gave a look at a couple of these:

Dash Race
Use your character's dash move to race through a course. Get the fastest time, and you'll earn rewards.

Block Defense
A 3D Dot Game Heroes twist on tower defense. You position blocks of such form as "Arrow Block," "Air Block," "Missile Block," and "Fire Block." These blocks attack incoming enemies formations. It seems like you can also lend a helping hand and directly attack the enemy.

I know that is a lot of info so to summarize:

• Zelda stylle gameplay with more freedom in combat
• Screenshot mode
• Character creation tools (create Link), only for main character
• Mini games like races and a tower defense game
• Multiple difficulty modes
• Multiple character clases to choose from
• Magic attacks represent 3D graphic tools

Videos

BRAND NEW TRAILER!!!!- 10/19

7 gameplay videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYxtqct0USI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVm5K2wX7i4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzLlfU_xIFs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_qqNUKyTNA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLUEGbnIeaY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDD4Lp0sMXI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYYP8ETbf8U

Original trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoFYEtj2tDw&feature=related

10 minutes of gameplay - http://www.zshare.net/video/6676314683bb1ed2/

Music

Visit the official site and listen to the four tracks they have. INCREDIBLE. One sounds very Zeldaish, another sounds like a Castlevania game, one like a Mega Man game. Its all clasicstylle 8-bit tunes!

Looks absolutely beautiful!

Graphics are muhc better than Uncharted 2.

Iga_Bobovic said:

So they are making a love letter to Zelda fans, on a Sony console? 

Great thread, are those impressions your own Vader?

A game like this really makes me wonder about how close you can emulate other games or even if they need permission from companies like capcom to put their boxart and characters on loading screens.

Archangel3371 said:

Iga_Bobovic said:

So they are making a love letter to Zelda fans, on a Sony console? 

 

Yes, because the Wii lacks the power to bring the game as they envision it to fruition.

But on a more serious note! It does not make economic sense to put a game that is supposed to draw in Zelda fans on a PS3. If you are a Zelda fan, then it is almost certain you you own a Wii and/or a DS. I question their choice of making it a homage to Zelda, maybe they should try to mix it up more. Like final fantasy, dragon quest homage.

gamingeek said:

Interesting. I guess this is why game clones can exist so readily. What about using not only rules but objects and similar sound effects? Overworlds etc?

When you start copying physical aspects -- visual and audio designs -- it gets trickier.  With any game, you'll often see a disclaimer along the lines of "all assets copyright Nintendo 2009" and anything created even if not specifically filed does have an implicit copyright protection.

In terms of overworlds and sound effects it would come down to whether or not it can be assigned a copyright.  For example, a forest of fir trees cannot be claimed ownership even if used in a game, whereas arguably the first level of Super Mario Bros. can be.  It's a bit ambiguous and you'd probably need actual legal advise to sort it out from there.

Dvader said:

I posted this on GS first cause they need it more than here. We know about this game, we are educated. Most of the GGD are lost souls that dont know much, so I must guide them.

So what are the legal ramifications of thread cloning?

gamingeek said:

So I think Famitsu scored this 8/8/7/7

Still hyped for it? Its a decent score, but seems like a niche game. Not like a Bayonetta 10/10

 Shame on you, GG. You used to be all about the niche!

Dvader said:

gamingeek said:

So I think Famitsu scored this 8/8/7/7

Still hyped for it? Its a decent score, but seems like a niche game. Not like a Bayonetta 10/10

Clearly Famitsu sucks this week. Last week they were good.

Oh no I have been replaced in Foolz's sig.

You had a good run