Gaming "A box of K-Bups will completely restore your energy.": Beyond Good & Evil

Figured I'd make this into it's own thread instead of keeping it in my backlog thread.

BG&E HD announced.

Screenshots

Just started playing the first game and it's very good. #2 is in the works (which is neat, as BG&E's story was supposedly concieved as a trilogy).

 

You're joking right? SOT was a big hit, had great reviews and several game of the year/(insert) choice awards.

The problem in relation to BG&E was they were unsure how to market it and pretty much all their marketing at the time went into POP instead.

 

Well, I think the "dark" anti-hero approach is something franchises will do regardless of success- POP/WW wouldn't be the first and it won't be the last. I think Warrior's increased success stems more from POP's success- everyone who eventually played it due to the awards and word of mouth chipped in when the sequel hit.

 

Either way it'll probably end up being a pretty good value- apparently, up until recently, the game apparently had a very high resale value (particularly the GCN version). Thankfully I got mine, new, for $20 back when it was still on shelves.

 

I'm assuming the new HD version will have it's own built-in XBL/PSN rankings system, but how was the original Internet Code-based system? I tried entering one in at the site, and while you can still register for it, the actual code entering program doesn't seem to work anymore, alas.

 

The game has some interesting interface concepts- on one hand, the spiral code entering system is the best I've seen for a game, on the other the map could have been refined a bit more (why do I need to hold down a button to zoom?) and the item dispensing units need to have optional speaking capacity (as in "Oh, I forgot what a Starkos does, please refresh my memory") and not be annoyingly automatic ("A Starkos will restore-" click "A Starkos will re-" click "A Starkos-" CLICK "A Stark-" CLICK!).

The circular menu system works pretty well too, but, again, I wish you didn't have to always hold down a direction to access stuff on it- especially when applying items to other characters.

Hopefully they'll iron that out for the sequel.

 

Well, here I am almost a year and one Zelda later and I believe I'm heading into the end game now. I've collected all but two of the pearls.

My earlier comments still stand, though: the menu system and code-entering system is great, as is the combat, but some of the interface (like the map and certain menu button mappings) are terrible.

It's a game with a lot of ideas, but a lot of them are not fully developed (for example, you get the impression the races were meant to be a more fully developed component of the game, with the different characters, times, etc; and the ship-based exploration only really provides 1 (non-moon) related element on Hillys).

The pearl quest briefly seems to artificially extend the endgame as well (when you need to get a combined 50 extra pearls to get the stabilizer and jet engine), though the large multi-pearl caches (like the volcano) help minimize this negative effect.

Initially I was kinda pissed that I had to go pearl hunting instead of being able to go to the moon relatively soon, however, the actual searching for the pearls led to some great mini-areas that I rather wish had been integrated more thoroughly with the main areas/goals (in particular are the fantastic "chase scenes" which REALLY should have been used much earlier in the game- I have no idea why they'd essentially wait until before the final "dungeon" to start implementing those).

As such, I ended up enjoying that quest despite my initial disappointment in having to do so.

The game's "test run" feel basically has me really hoping that BG&E2 does happen, because the concepts and mechanics in the game, if more fully expanded upon and better integrated, could be something really spectacular if applied properly.

 

Now that I've completed the game... I must say the endgame portion feels more whole than the first 85% of the game. In fact, everything from when you get the ship onwards almost feels like a different game than what came before it (nor does Jade's magic powers/destiny coming out of left field doesn't help this). Very epic stuff going on and a very satisfying final boss battles.

Anyone who hasn't played it, it's a pretty good Zelda inspired-game (without being a Zelda clone like Starfox Adventures was), just more sci-fi than fantasy. The first 2/3rds of the game have their highs and lows, but if you hit a point where you're thinking about giving up, don't- that backthird is worth getting to.


Also, I came across a significant bug towards the end of the game (though I haven't tried to recreate it yet)- when you land on the final platform towards the end don't rush down the platform right away for the triple button platform, otherwise your companions won't materialize/disembark from the ship (even though they'll still talk initially) and you won't be able to proceed (worse yet, since it's an "action" sequence, you can't pause to reload the game, you have to restart the system; plus you can't go back onto the ship to try and disembark everyone again). Wait for them to come down first before you move on.