DS Sigma Harmonics (Square-Enix)

I_Eat_All

Plasma Beam!
Sigma Harmonics, é um RPG de aventura a ser desenvolvido pela Square Enix e com lançamento previsto no Japão para o Verão de 2008.

Embora a ideia inicial fosse recriar um Japão feudal, acabou-se com um setting completamente diferente; sendo que agora o jogo toma lugar num mundo paralelo ao do actual Japão. Ainda assim, a direcção artística do jogo é inspirada pela era Showa do Japão (seculo XX, anos 50/60).

A história em Sigma Harmonics começa quando uma figura misteriosa re-escreve o passado. Como resultado Tokyo do presente torna-se numa cidade em ruínas. Confrontados com isto, a personagem principal Sigma Kurokami e o seu ajudante Neon Tsukiyumi terão de resolver vários assassinatos misteriosos no passado para que tudo volte ao normal.

Referente aos mistérios do jogo, não há respostas certas ou erradas, apenas respostas mais perto, ou mais longe da verdade.

De forma a resolver mistérios o jogador irá coleccionar Sound Stones, pedras similares a pedras de jogar Go. Cada pedra representa uma pista e pode ser metida num tabuleiro de Go onde diferentes posições irão resultar em diferentes pistas.

À medida que os jogadores desvendam os mistérios vão haver batalhas RPG tradicionais, incluindo level-up e items especiais para serem usados em batalha. Os monstros defrontados encontram-se em intervalos de tempo, dado que a sua presença excede aquela do tempo e do espaço.

Sigma não pode lutar directamente contra monstros, mas através de musica, determina a maneira que Neon e o Deus residente dentro do seu corpo lutam (inner Persona :rolleyes:).


Tidbits:

- Criado especificamente para a DS
- Jogado na horizontal, como um livro
- O publico alvo é definido como "todos os fãs de RPGs"
- Está 60% completo.
- História dividida em capítulos, cada capitulo tem um mistério que tem de ser resolvido de forma a progredir
- A maior parte dos mistérios são assassinatos
- O homem misterioso com roupas pretas só será explicado a meio do jogo
- Equipa inclui Hiroki Chiba como director, Yusaku Nakaaki como character designer e Kitase como produtor
- Frequentemente definido como o "Persona da Square-Enix" pelos media e publico

Imagens:

080328sigma01.jpg


080328sigma02.jpg


080328sigma03.jpg


080328sigma04.jpg


080328sigma05.jpg


080328sigma06.jpg


kouho04384.jpg
 
Parece-se bastante com o Ninja Gaiden na forma de jogar, bastante intuitivo e com graficos bastante bons.

A NDS continua a espantar pela positiva, assim que houver novidades diz :D

Keep up the AWESOME work :victory:
 
De facto está um trabalho muito fixe... Só queria 1/4 dos rpgs que há para a DS na Wii... não pedia mais.

Mas eles virão...
 
:wow: se o anime tivesse ai tinha potencial! Este trailer dá uma excelente sensação! Parece que vou ter de ganhar uns trocos no Natal para comprar estes jogos todos :/
 
Sei que deve sair por esta altura no Japao e ca na europa ou pelo menos nos EUA ja ha alguma data de lançamento?
Não, mas o próximo evento da Square, o DKΣ3713 é capaz de dar mais detalhes sobre isso. (o Σ ali no meio é o símbolo de Sigma, pelo que se refere a este jogo); vai haver um blowout de informação basicamente.

Seria bom que não se demorassem muito de facto.


EDIT: Imagens:

080718sigma01.jpg
080718sigma02.jpg


080718sigma03.jpg
080718sigma05.jpg


 
Última edição:
Não, mas o próximo evento da Square, o DKΣ3713 é capaz de dar mais detalhes sobre isso. (o Σ ali no meio é o símbolo de Sigma, pelo que se refere a este jogo); vai haver um blowout de informação basicamente.

Seria bom que não se demorassem muito de facto.

[/CENTER]

Inicios de Agosto não é? Já falta pouco então? Presumo que não haverá nada em directo/live-feed nem algum tipo de blog, só teremos a informação quando a acabar provavelmente?

Quanto ao jogo, nada a dizer, está original pelo que já apresentou... com tanto jogo é dificil jogar até metade :005:
 
Mais imagens:

04.jpg
05.jpg


02.jpg
01.jpg


Preview do 1Up:

Preview: Sigma Harmonics
We battle demonic creatures from the edges of reality.

For all that people bag on Square Enix for rehashing old ideas and rereleasing old games -- and not without some justification! -- the company has never been afraid to attempt unconventional spins on the role-playing genre. From Famicom's racist Tom Sawyer to the vignette-based Live A Live for Super Famicom to the utterly inscrutable Unlimited Saga for PlayStation 2, Square doesn't mind taking the path less traveled, even if the results are less than ideal.

In fact, the company's already made waves once this year with its sleeper hit The World Ends With You, a stylus-driven RPG with daunting layers of complexity that, once mastered, turned out to be one of the freshest role-playing experiences in years. And there's little doubt that the company would love for its upcoming Sigma Harmonics for DS to follow in TWEWY's hip-hop footsteps. The two have some very obvious connections: They're both RPG-tinged adventures with a heavy emphasis on music. They both have some of the most ludicrous character designs to come down the pipeline in quite a while. They both deal with themes of death and battling demonic creatures from the edges of reality. And at first glance, their gameplay systems are utterly obtuse.

But don't go thinking that they're somehow connected. Despite Square's TWEWY-heavy theme at the DKS3713 event in Tokyo this weekend, where Harmonics made its playable debut, there's no apparent connection between the two; TWEWY developer Jupiter has nothing to do with the upcoming title. All the two games really share is a certain thematic commonality -- and even that doesn't go too far beyond the superficial parallels.

Sigma Harmonics is very much a game in the PlayStation-RPG mold, with static, prerendered backgrounds through which the hero Sigma travels, occasionally being accosted by random encounters with demonic foes. But these battles are hardly your typical 32-bit combat fodder. Here, Sigma steps back and lets his pal Neon (who looks like a Shinto priestess, aside from her leather skirt and cutesy knit cat-ear beanie) do the dirty work, exorcising demons with a collection of cards.

Neon's battle sequences play out on the upper screen (which becomes the left screen in this case, as Sigma Harmonics is played with the DS held book-style). She stands in the center of the battlefield, and enemies flank her in any of the four cardinal directions. A small radar display indicates the direction in which Neon is facing and the relative position of the current enemy combatants. Combat is entirely controlled through the touch screen, and players have no direct control over Neon herself; rather, their card selections determine how she attacks and which enemies are targeted.

The touch screen features three active cards, a command slot in which cards are placed, and a meter over each card to indicate its combat readiness. A card can only be placed in the active command area when its meter is full, and the speed with which each card recharges is determined by the current song. It's possible to change the active battle tune in the middle of combat, and each selectable song has a different "equalizer" rating which determines its recharge value for each card. For instance, one song might have an even EQ, which recharges all cards at an equal rate, while the EQ for another might be higher on the right channel, causing the third card on the touch screen to refill more quickly.

Once a card has a full meter, players can drag it to its active command space with the stylus, causing Neon to perform the corresponding action. Each action has a direction value associated with it, which causes Neon to act in that direction. If an enemy is to her right, an action facing directly forward will result in a failed attack; instead, players need to choose an action that causes her to pivot right before acting. It's a bit unwieldy in concept, but it works well in execution. In the event that none of Neon's currently queued cards will allow her to attack a foe, it's possible to swap to a card beneath the active selections by dragging the top card to the bottom of the screen.

There's more to Sigma Harmonics than just battling, though; Sigma pulls his own weight in the investigation sequences. Here, it takes on more of an adventure-game feel, with Sigma talking to other characters to unravel clues and keywords before searching the harmonics of reality for disturbances. Once these ripples are located, Sigma must literally piece together clues like a puzzle: The player receives a grid featuring a number of black spheres, each of which corresponds to one or more key elements of the plot. By properly arranging these concepts, Sigma can unlock visions of the past and solve the mystery at hand. His first case involves unraveling a murder, which he accomplishes by properly assembling the following elements into order: an event, a memento, and a murderess. It's difficult to explain, especially given the dense dialogue and heavy emphasis on complex Japanese, but it isn't too far removed from, say, the investigation portions of Phoenix Wright.

This combination of RPG and adventure gives Harmonics a distinctly unique feel. While the game hasn't been confirmed for U.S. release, there's nothing in particular that would make it unsuitable for translation. Hopefully, Square will fix up the character designs if Sigma Harmonics makes its way West, though -- they're a real eyesore in an otherwise intriguing game.
Fonte: http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3169141&p=39

Anúncios na TV:

-> http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37953.html (anúncio 1)
-> http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37954.html (anúncio 2)
-> http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37955.html (anúncio 3)
 
Análise Siliconera:

Sigma Harmonics: A journey of songs, cards, and time traveling homicides

Sigma Harmonics is a new property from Square Enix, but this isn’t an RPG. Sigma Harmonics is better explained as a mystery game with random battles. You take control of Sigma Kurogami a snappy dresser that lives in a luxurious mansion somewhere outside of Tokyo. He goes to school, but Sigma has a more important job, keeping demons sealed inside the giant clock seated in his house. Neon, a card user who has the power to attack the demons, is one of Sigma’s friends and classmates. On a seemingly ordinary day Sigma meets a man wrapped with a black face mask and returns to a ruined house. The two surmise, through a substantial amount of voice acting, that they can fix the future by figuring out what changed in the past.

Someone traveled through time and murdered an elderly woman during dinner. This scene is told by touching a black icon that looks similar to a Xenogears save point. These frozen moments in time, shadows of souls as described by the game, explain what happened to Sigma and Neon.

(...)

During exploration the demons sealed in Sigma’s home attack the duo. You know you’re about to enter combat when you hear a single clock tick sound followed by a screen shattering effect on the right screen. Sigma doesn’t actually fight in battle. He plays the role of a composer while Neon does all of the dirty work. She attacks with the three cards shown on the right side of the screen. Each card refills at a different rate and when the meter is full you drag a card to the open slot to attack.

(...)

Battles get trickier in the later chapters when Neon gets the ability to change jobs. In battle Neon can transform from her shrine clothes to a gothic lolita outfit with a skirt made of blades. The costume change gives Neon a new set of cards like the tiger which deals 360 degrees of explosive damage. Sigma gains a new skill too, the ability to change the background music and affect the recast time of Neon’s cards. Each song has a different set of advantages and disadvantages depending on Neon’s job and card layout.

(...)

Sigma asks questions, you answer them by placing the sound moments on the board. Sometimes he asks yes or no questions. Other times he asks players to point out contradictions. Each answer opens a path, but Sigma doesn’t have to be right. Sigma can reason everything incorrectly and similar to Freddy from Scooby Doo he will proudly proclaim a conclusion. The game will tell you if you’re right or wrong, but you’re not immediately penalized for an incorrect solution.

If you solve the murder with incongruent logic the boss fight becomes more difficult. I ran a little experiment with this and compared the correct answer against purposely horrible reasoning. If you have an incorrect solution the boss monster, a demonic horse wearing a spinning ring, deals more damage to Neon and you deal less in return. During the fight the boss monster seals your ability to heal too. In addition to the boss you have to face seven butterflies. Get the perfect solution and Neon deals substantially more damage to the boss, its attacks are weaker, and you only have to face three butterflies. It’s possible to win both ways, but you need to level up to beat the boss with flawed logic. Basically, you get to choose how you want to play Sigma Harmonics. If you like fighting, build Neon’s stats and punch your way through the game. If you like the murder mystery element you can spend time searching for clues and solving the mystery to breeze through the boss fight.

One style of play requires less Japanese knowledge, but I can’t imagine Sigma Harmonics being a fun game to play if you aren’t well versed in the language. The game is mostly text filled event scenes, not combat. Even though the menus have English subtitles, a huge surprise, Sigma Harmonics is not import friendly. I wouldn’t be too worried though. Square Enix is at least considering the game for an international release since they trademarked Sigma Harmonics and the logo in the USA. Chances are very likely we’ll see it, but it might be a bit of a wait. Sigma Harmonics has a significant amount of voice acting and the text bubbles are optimized to be read from top to bottom. Localization work will take time, but Square Enix can pull it off by next summer.
Fonte: http://www.siliconera.com/2008/08/2...-of-songs-cards-and-time-traveling-homicides/

QUERO :D
 
Parece e ouve-se que será um bom jogo de jogar. Quando houver versão inglesa falamos ;)
Temos de combinar ai umas compras em grupo para sair mais barato ao pessoal, a partir de Dezembro :P
 
Sigma Harmonics' Religious Sales Tactics

sigma_harmonics_cross.jpg

It hasn't been reported yet, but I've figured out why Square Enix's Sigma Harmonics isn't selling well.

Pictured, a display for the Nintendo DS adventure title at Sofmap in Akihabara.

It's one thing to put up big displays for an anticipated title, but there's something about this cross that just doesn't feel right. Then again, maybe it's an effort by Sofmap or Square Enix to do some good old fashioned converting to the Sigma faith.

As last week's sales charts in Japan showed, it was a failed attempt.

8. [NDS] Sigma Harmonics (Square Enix) 23,000 / NEW
Fonte: http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/09/sigma-harmonics.html

Parece que não está a voar das prateleiras :( A ver se ao menos tem pernas.
 
Back
Topo