gmw
Mai's Apprentice
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2003
- Posts
- 1,811
I received my JPN AES copy of Matrimelee from the Neo Store two days ago, and have now played it enough that I've formed some thoughts on it, which I thought I'd post, since there really aren't enough threads about this amazing game.
1) The music - plenty said about it already so I'll keep it short, but it's completely amazing (even on my unmolested JPN AES system's mono). The first time I fought on the "Debu" stage complete with a sort of Ramones-looking debu band and the sumo cheerleaders, I laughed my ass off.
I'm really partial to certain songs - I think "Binbo ningen kane nai ja" is hilarious, especially the breakdown in the middle of it: "Okane wa nai kedo, shakkin wa aru zo!" ("I've got no money, but I've sure got loans!") Obviously, "Chisana shiawase" and "Subarashiki intaanetto" are fine, fine things. And I love the enka-ish duet on the lounge stage.
2) The gameplay - tons of fun. Not deep like a KOF game, but that's not the point. As far as I'm concerned, the control is much better than ROTD, which I didn't like all that much. The DMs, combo system, and general feel aren't shallow, but they are easy to jump into. I don't have a problem with this, in fact, it makes the game all the more enjoyable because you can take in the whole atmosphere of goofiness that pervades the game casually.
The power meter "flash" that knocks the opponent back is really not a problem when you get used to it. It's still highly possible (on lower difficult settings) to basically corner the opponent and bludgeon them continually. You'll see their power meter getting higher and higher - there's a few second gap between the blast and the point when you see it coming - in other words, more than enough time to roll or jump back. Then wade back in.
I still haven't played with every character yet, though I like Keith quite a bit. He can be played quite cheaply with his fast ground projectile and the fact that his rushing 3-hit charge move ducks oncoming projectiles if timed right. He's a bit simple though. I like Hikaru as well - the hcb+K move is quite cool - a faster backwards roll, followed by a roll forward and a two-hitter. The timing's weird, but that's what makes it interesting. Reiji seems a bit boring to me, although I found him easy to just jump in and play with, probably because he can be played in an obvious projectile/anti-air sort of way. Poochy is lots of fun, but I'm not a huge fan. Buntarou I didn't really like playing with - maybe the style of play just isn't for me. Love the yankii thing though! Olof is great although I haven't played him much. I'm going to be going through and playing everyone this weekend.
My only complaints would be that a) it seems to me that there's a slightly strange timing necessary when pulling off certain moves, that one has to make slower joystick motions than one would with a KOF/MOTW/etc, so it took me some time to get with the "feel" of the play. Complaint b) many of the computer opponents have highly uninteresting AI - I must have seen Tane use the same exact pattern (retreat, send out two of the "face" projectiles, followed by the teeth) almost every time, on a wide range of difficulty levels.
Sissy is cheap as shit, and I've only beaten her once (helped a lot by the FAQ that Average Joe posted on here). Her insane cheapness is all the more obvious because it's so radically out of proportion to the level you play the game on. I was fine going through the game on level 4 difficulty the first and second times through, but got completely schooled by Sissy. So I reset, put the game on level 1, breezed through it playing with Keith, got to Sissy, and got taken right back to school. On level 1. She's a real pain in the ass to fight, although she uses very obvious set patterns. It's just a case of memorizing the patterns and chipping away. Still hard as hell though. The frogs are just completely irritating, and the buzz-saw move has insane priority.
3) Graphics/BG's - the graphics are solid - it's not LB 1, but they suit the game. The animation is fine to me - again, it isn't MOTW, but it's well above many other recent Neo efforts.
The BG's are in a word, amazing. Although people have mentioned that there are really only four BG's, this really isn't accurate. The ring is clearly multiple different BG's with huge amounts of stuff going on on the inset screen depending on whether it's the ring with "Chisana shiawase," "Bokura no himitsu," "Binbo nigen kane nai ja," "Subarashiki intaanetto," or "Debu" - all these really should be considered separate BG's - they look, feel, and sound like completely different spaces. Fighting in the rooms is a little less striking, mainly because the music isn't the overall theme, but these BG's work fine too. The sale store stage (where I think I've only fought Shintarou) is good but a bit bland compared to the best ring stages, and Chinnen's stage (the wooded shrine) is quite cool, but I absolutely love the stage with the dinner duet (I've only ever fought either Saizo or Kanji here) - it's a sort of lame lounge set-up with an enka-ish pair singing a ridiculous duet about the Gouketsuji family gathering.
Two complaints in this department are: 1) I do wish that Chinnen's stage showed up more often. I get Shintarou and Saizo's stages relatively regularly but in the 4 or 5 hours I've logged so far, I've seen Chinnen's stage only twice.
2) I really don't like the little interim shot of the played character kicking open the doors to the backstage rooms. The use of the same battle sprite and the ugly background just seem like a waste to me.
Bottom line - it's an astonishing product. The only worry I have is that it's too niche to get a fair hearing stateside. It's absolutely designed with the Japanese speaker in mind. I love it, and from the sound of what other Japanese speaking people on these boards have said, they love it too - why? Because the presentation is so nuts and so internally referential to all kinds of bits and pieces of Japanese pop culture that half of the fun is just watching and listening to it in action, and being blown away by how weird it is but how complete it feels. I hope that folks here in the States give it a good chance, though, because it's tons of fun.
Final point on a question that's been bandied about: is it worth 40,000JPY/325USD+shipping? Well, the problem is that it's a bad question. I suppose I'd probably say that few games are worth as much as new Neo games, but here's the way I'm really thinking about it: I got it. It's in my house and in my AES system. Now that that's the case, well, it's a damn fine thing. I love the game. So I'm not really thinking about how much it was anymore. All I can say is that it's a truly unique fighting game experience that is way beyond most "quirky" fighters in the sophistication of its presentation and polish. If you only live for dialing the most extreme technical combos, forget it. This is a niche product and an absolutely great one, at that.
And one question to other folks with the game: I've played this for at least 5 hrs and I don't think I've ever seen White Buffalo's BG - what is it?
1) The music - plenty said about it already so I'll keep it short, but it's completely amazing (even on my unmolested JPN AES system's mono). The first time I fought on the "Debu" stage complete with a sort of Ramones-looking debu band and the sumo cheerleaders, I laughed my ass off.
I'm really partial to certain songs - I think "Binbo ningen kane nai ja" is hilarious, especially the breakdown in the middle of it: "Okane wa nai kedo, shakkin wa aru zo!" ("I've got no money, but I've sure got loans!") Obviously, "Chisana shiawase" and "Subarashiki intaanetto" are fine, fine things. And I love the enka-ish duet on the lounge stage.
2) The gameplay - tons of fun. Not deep like a KOF game, but that's not the point. As far as I'm concerned, the control is much better than ROTD, which I didn't like all that much. The DMs, combo system, and general feel aren't shallow, but they are easy to jump into. I don't have a problem with this, in fact, it makes the game all the more enjoyable because you can take in the whole atmosphere of goofiness that pervades the game casually.
The power meter "flash" that knocks the opponent back is really not a problem when you get used to it. It's still highly possible (on lower difficult settings) to basically corner the opponent and bludgeon them continually. You'll see their power meter getting higher and higher - there's a few second gap between the blast and the point when you see it coming - in other words, more than enough time to roll or jump back. Then wade back in.
I still haven't played with every character yet, though I like Keith quite a bit. He can be played quite cheaply with his fast ground projectile and the fact that his rushing 3-hit charge move ducks oncoming projectiles if timed right. He's a bit simple though. I like Hikaru as well - the hcb+K move is quite cool - a faster backwards roll, followed by a roll forward and a two-hitter. The timing's weird, but that's what makes it interesting. Reiji seems a bit boring to me, although I found him easy to just jump in and play with, probably because he can be played in an obvious projectile/anti-air sort of way. Poochy is lots of fun, but I'm not a huge fan. Buntarou I didn't really like playing with - maybe the style of play just isn't for me. Love the yankii thing though! Olof is great although I haven't played him much. I'm going to be going through and playing everyone this weekend.
My only complaints would be that a) it seems to me that there's a slightly strange timing necessary when pulling off certain moves, that one has to make slower joystick motions than one would with a KOF/MOTW/etc, so it took me some time to get with the "feel" of the play. Complaint b) many of the computer opponents have highly uninteresting AI - I must have seen Tane use the same exact pattern (retreat, send out two of the "face" projectiles, followed by the teeth) almost every time, on a wide range of difficulty levels.
Sissy is cheap as shit, and I've only beaten her once (helped a lot by the FAQ that Average Joe posted on here). Her insane cheapness is all the more obvious because it's so radically out of proportion to the level you play the game on. I was fine going through the game on level 4 difficulty the first and second times through, but got completely schooled by Sissy. So I reset, put the game on level 1, breezed through it playing with Keith, got to Sissy, and got taken right back to school. On level 1. She's a real pain in the ass to fight, although she uses very obvious set patterns. It's just a case of memorizing the patterns and chipping away. Still hard as hell though. The frogs are just completely irritating, and the buzz-saw move has insane priority.
3) Graphics/BG's - the graphics are solid - it's not LB 1, but they suit the game. The animation is fine to me - again, it isn't MOTW, but it's well above many other recent Neo efforts.
The BG's are in a word, amazing. Although people have mentioned that there are really only four BG's, this really isn't accurate. The ring is clearly multiple different BG's with huge amounts of stuff going on on the inset screen depending on whether it's the ring with "Chisana shiawase," "Bokura no himitsu," "Binbo nigen kane nai ja," "Subarashiki intaanetto," or "Debu" - all these really should be considered separate BG's - they look, feel, and sound like completely different spaces. Fighting in the rooms is a little less striking, mainly because the music isn't the overall theme, but these BG's work fine too. The sale store stage (where I think I've only fought Shintarou) is good but a bit bland compared to the best ring stages, and Chinnen's stage (the wooded shrine) is quite cool, but I absolutely love the stage with the dinner duet (I've only ever fought either Saizo or Kanji here) - it's a sort of lame lounge set-up with an enka-ish pair singing a ridiculous duet about the Gouketsuji family gathering.
Two complaints in this department are: 1) I do wish that Chinnen's stage showed up more often. I get Shintarou and Saizo's stages relatively regularly but in the 4 or 5 hours I've logged so far, I've seen Chinnen's stage only twice.
2) I really don't like the little interim shot of the played character kicking open the doors to the backstage rooms. The use of the same battle sprite and the ugly background just seem like a waste to me.
Bottom line - it's an astonishing product. The only worry I have is that it's too niche to get a fair hearing stateside. It's absolutely designed with the Japanese speaker in mind. I love it, and from the sound of what other Japanese speaking people on these boards have said, they love it too - why? Because the presentation is so nuts and so internally referential to all kinds of bits and pieces of Japanese pop culture that half of the fun is just watching and listening to it in action, and being blown away by how weird it is but how complete it feels. I hope that folks here in the States give it a good chance, though, because it's tons of fun.
Final point on a question that's been bandied about: is it worth 40,000JPY/325USD+shipping? Well, the problem is that it's a bad question. I suppose I'd probably say that few games are worth as much as new Neo games, but here's the way I'm really thinking about it: I got it. It's in my house and in my AES system. Now that that's the case, well, it's a damn fine thing. I love the game. So I'm not really thinking about how much it was anymore. All I can say is that it's a truly unique fighting game experience that is way beyond most "quirky" fighters in the sophistication of its presentation and polish. If you only live for dialing the most extreme technical combos, forget it. This is a niche product and an absolutely great one, at that.
And one question to other folks with the game: I've played this for at least 5 hrs and I don't think I've ever seen White Buffalo's BG - what is it?
