well, I don't really excuse it, but strategy games in general, the best ones at least, tend to have a really awful learning curve....to name a few, StarCraft, Fire Emblem, Advance Wars...

That's true. A lot of the people I talked to thought this would have more of a casual angle to it, with the stylized graphics and low difficulty of the demo. I think that's where the confusion came in - it wasn't the button presses during normal mode that stumped people, but rather the required jump in accuracy once you have to keep fever going - something that wasn't really portrayed well in the demo. Personally, I loved the RPG-ish aspects of it, so the sequel will be a definite buy for me.

I dunno if I'd agree. You either have rhythm or you don't. I didn't notice a huge jump in difficulty. In fact, I thought the difficulty plateaued rather early. I mean, all you do is keep rhythm. That's it. I thought we'd have to memorize a whole bunch of command sets, but they remained few (thank goodness). So how could attaining and maintaining Fever be considered such a challenge?

In most missions, I could get Fever in 6 or 7 commands and maintain it throughout. The only exception was after a miracle. I don't think anyone ever figured out how to maintain fever after a miracle. But even that proved only a minor obstacle.

For the record, I don't play any other rhythm games, so it's not like I'm a zen master. LOL

...at a parabolic rate? So it got hard in the middle, then got easy at the end?

I wouldn't really call the game hard at all. And my rhythm is terrible. Wanna see a challenge? Go play some old classics like Mega Man and Ghosts & Goblins.



Oh and "four player multiplayer" ... wow, hell yes please!

Seriously, I don't care how hard anyone on this site thinks it is. If it's only a niche game for hardcore players on a Fanboy site, then it's not going to make money. It sucks, but it's true (I played Megaman 1, and this, sir, is no Megaman 1). And really, anecdotal evidence trotted out as being a measure for everyone is crap. If I said I could make it through "Through the Fury and Flames" on Expert, it doesn't mean everyone can. I encountered a lot of people returning the game because it was too hard. Sorry that hurts your feelings.

LOL. You sound like the only one with hurt feelings, bro.

The mechanic is to maintain Fever. That means repeating drum beats. And it's not like the game gets pickier about it as you go. You either can do it from the start or you can't. It doesn't get more difficult. Which is why we're offering other opinions.

I'll also point the whopping 86 score on Metacritic. "Niche" games or ones with unfair difficulty don't get glowing reviews from that many game sites.

Give it a rest. Sheesh.

Reviews scores don't indicate audience. Disgaea is a niche game (my favorite, in fact), but it got an 87. My point was that you have to be more accurate in Fever with your presses than during the rest of the game or it ends (and sometimes you die), and that wasn't represented in the demo. I'm not upset about it, as I just went through it till I got it. However, I know plenty of people who sent it packing because of this. I thought it sucked, 'cause it was one of the few games I got a lot of people excited about on the PSP. It should have either had an easier setting for casual gamers, or made the flashing square around the edge a bit brighter, or whatever. It had a lot of potential, and the difficulty hurt that. So you can dislike me saying it or whatever, but that's my opinion.