Record of Agarest War Limited Edition | 
| From: Aksys
Category: Video Games
List Price: $59.99
Buy New: $50.00
as of 7/30/2010 16:18 CDT details
You Save: $9.99 (17%)
New (21) Used (7) from $50.00
Seller: Splendid Suns
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 1029
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: role_playing_games
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Edition: Limited
Number Of Items: 1
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Xbox 360
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 7.1 x 3.6
MPN: 00128
Model: 360-5
UPC: 893610001280
EAN: 0893610001280
ASIN: B00354NBF4
Publication Date: April 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | The fate of Agarest is in your hands, as well as your reputation with the ladies. Use the Link Gauge to track how your actions may alter the future world and Affection Rating to monitor how the female characters of the game feel about you. | | • | Limited edition bonus items include: Limited Edition packaging, soundtrack CD, 26" x 20" Yearning Ellis pillowcase, 8.5" x 10.5" Sensual 3D Vira-Lorr mouse pad. | | • | An epic strategic RPG with ginormous gameplay time, Record of Agarest War spans over 100 hours of gameplay, not including side/bonus missions. | | • | Tired of just living through one lifetime in typical RPG titles? Then witness the Soul Breed system. Choose a bride at the end of your adventure and give birth to the hero of the next generation. | | • | Perfect collaborative attacks by positioning your forces on the battlefield and wait for the right moment to string together massive combo attacks using multiple party members?both in melee and at ranged attacks. |
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
War darkened the skies of Agarest. Not a simple war between mortals, easily ended by divine intervention, but a war that split the gods themselves. Armies such as the world had never seen before, and would never see again, clashed in the skies of Agarest, across its surface, and even in the caverns that wound their way through its interior.
As is the way in war, many died on both sides, gods and mortals alike, and the war left Agarest broken, blackened, and dead. The gods wept for their paradise, and in a final act of creation, sacrificed themselves to bring life back to its charred and twisted surface.
Although the gods are long dead, the withering darkness that began and fueled their war is not. Imprisoned for millennia, its bonds have begun to weaken, and as they do, a shadow once again spreads across the surface of the world.
Born into this world perched unknowingly on the brink of the apocalypse, a young man by the name of Leonhardt and his descendants are the last, best hope for Agarest. Their journey will span generations and continents as they strive to once again bring peace to their beleaguered world, even as the cost of their own souls.
Amazon.com Product Description
Record of Agarest War is a strategic turn-based RPG for play on Xbox 360 that uniquely incorporates date simulation with traditional RPG combat gameplay to create an ever-evolving story played out along in-game generational lines and that is completely dependent on the decisions and actions of the player. The game features AI party combat, character-specific as well as combined attacks, and HUD monitoring systems that keep the player apprised of both the quality of decisions and how these affect the romantic feelings of the female characters towards the player. In addition this Limited Edition releases contains a wealth of bonus items. See the full contents below. Literally hundreds of battle abilities.
View larger. | The ability to combine turn-based attacks.
View larger. | Find love through the Soul Breed system.
View larger. | Traditional RPG upgrading and leveling.
View larger. | Story
At the dawn of time, a terrible war raged between the forces of good and evil, ending in the destruction of the world of Agarest. After their victory, the Gods of Light unified the decaying bodies of the Gods of Darkness and created a new world. Now, the forces of darkness are awakening once again... Choose the path of Darkness or Light through a truly epic story, spanning multiple generations. Battle hundreds of different creatures using an array of character abilities, in a compelling and innovative turn-based combat system. Build your ultimate army of warriors and master Extra Skills, Special Arts and Over Kills to defeat colossal enemies. Unite with your chosen heroine and use the "Soul Breed" system to shape the fate of the next generation of heroes. Gameplay
Record of Agarest War is a strategic RPG combined with dating simulation gameplay. As the name of the game might imply, action plays out in sections or records, referred to as generations. The possibilities within each of these is formed in cause and effect scenarios determined by the actions of your character in the previous generation. These actions are tied to locations visited on the map, where battles, interactions, quests and the blossoming of relationships with female characters take place. Turn-based battles are fought as a group by the player and her/his party of AI companions where each acts in turn, before enemy units take their turn. Each of the possible characters in your party has her/his own strengths and weaknesses, which can be maximized or minimized in each combat situation by adopting particular strategies. These can be as simple as placing stronger characters in front where they can do the heavy fighting and weaker characters in the rear where they can provide healing, or more advanced tactics like precise spacing of characters which will allow for joint attacks, or choice of specific battle areas to magnify character abilities. Regardless, victory in battle earns the party points which can be used to level up all members of the party, purchase weapons and items, etc. As events unfold players will also develop potential relations with female members of their party via the Soul Breed system. Like real relationships these are filled with ups and downs and unfold entirely dependent on your actions. All sorts of decisions affect the way possible mates will feel about you. This can be tracked, and thus possibly influenced, via the Link/Affection Gauge tool which is a graphical representation of decisions and how the female characters in the game feel about you in relation to them. In the end, if you are not rejected, you build a serious relationship with one of these characters and eventually have a child. That child will serve as the protagonist in the next generation of action, possess abilities which the union of the two character's skills and abilities equates to and proceed with new adventures and relationships. Limited Edition for Xbox 360 Release Contents
| | - Record of Agarest War Limited Edition game for Xbox 360
- Soundtrack CD
- 26" x 20" Yearning Ellis pillowcase
- 8½" x 10½" Sensual 3D Vira-Lorr mouse pad
|
Key Game Features - Limited Edition Bonus Items - Items include: Limited Edition packaging, soundtrack CD, 26" x 20" Yearning Ellis pillowcase, 8½" x 10½" Sensual 3D Vira-Lorr mouse pad.
- Epic Strategic RPG with Ginormous Game Time - Record of Agarest War spans over 100 hours of gameplay, not including side/bonus missions.
- Soul Breed System - Tired of just living through one lifetime in typical RPG titles? Then witness the Soul Breed system. Choose a bride at the end of your adventure and give birth to the hero of the next generation.
- Collaborative Attacks - Position your forces on the battlefield and wait for the right moment to string together massive combo attacks using multiple party members—both in melee and at range.
- Link Gauge System - The fate of Agarest is in your hands as the Link Gauge tracks your actions and alters the future world based on how you play.
- Affection Rating - Curious how one of Agarest's lovely ladies feels about you? Look no further than the Affection Gauge, which gives you a quick and easy visual representation of her opinions. Is she smiling? You must be doing something right! Frowning? Uh oh ... If only real relationships were this easy.
- Newly Engorged with Content - Enjoy an enhanced version of the game based on the Japanese release of Record of Agarest War.
|
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Great Game!!!! July 11, 2010
Elle Rogue
I no longer buy games at Gamestop and unfortunately they carry the ones that Target and Best Buy don't carry. So I get all my games on Amazon. The arriving was timely. I thought the box was bigger but it's what in the box that counts. The pillow case and mouse pad are awesome!!! I definitely recommend this to fans out there!!!!
It Delivers what it Promises July 9, 2010
Alexander D. Grant
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ok, this game definitely has a target demographic. For you to find this review helpful, you probably should fall into most of these categories:
-You like LONG games (50 hrs minimum)
-You like STRATEGY RPGs (moving around on squares, turn-based)
-You like JAPANESE RPGs (anime style)
-You like JAPANESE styled stories (sometimes corny, slighty perverted romance-type)
-You DONT ABSOLUTELY NEED English dialogue (its all japanese, subtitled)
-You like VARYING ENDINGS based on your decisions throughout the game
Alright. So if you satisfy 4 of those traits, you don't want to miss this game.
Before getting into the specifics of the game, I'll say that Xbox360 doesnt have enough RPGs in the first place, so if you are like me, you will feel like you HAVE to at least try it. I don't think you will be dissappointed in most cases.
GRAPHICS/AUDIO/ETC
It's all anime style drawings. The graphics aren't impressive. The audio isn't impressive. It's all gameplay focused, and looks like you are basically playing Final Fantasy Tactics on a nintendo DS. The 'cutscences' are basically just a visual novel. You have to read a bunch to get the story.
THE STORY
It is what you expect from a Japanese RPG. One defining factor, though, is that you aren't the same hero the entire game. The story spans over several generations. Each new generation present a new hero. He is NOT the same guy as the previous one. You will like some of them and you won't like others. The story is DEFINITELY good enough for most people to get over the fact that its all text instead of cutscenes.
I am the kind of guy who hates the play through a game twice. I pretty much lose enough interest to play another 40 hours if I already know the story. But there is even enough variety in this game's story for me to play again. Thats saying alot for me.
Overall, you have to like the Japanese tyle of storytelling to really get into it. As long as you aren't taking it too seriously, you will love it.
THE BATTLE SYSTEM
With enemies constantly changing from area to area, the battle system delivers the diversity necessary to play a game for 100 hours. STRATEGY is extremely important, more so than brute strength. This is a very good thing, as it eliminates the necessity to grind levels before moving on. You can grind if you want to, and end up powering through your next few enemies, but it isnt at all necessary on easy or normal difficulty. That is even more important, for reasons I will get to later.
Basically, you are on a big field of squares, where you use action points(AP) to move and attack. Each turn is divided into a movement stage and an action stage. You have to use AP to move, and to perform attack skills. The amount of AP a character has is determined by their agility, weapons, armor, *and* the location of their teammates. Each character has a unique set of "extended areas," which give them more AP if one of their teammates is located in them. It is the main reason you must strateically think out every movement you make. In addition, you can do combination attacks with the teammates that are in your extended area. These are the most important attacks, and are absolutely necessary to defeat powerful enemies. In some cases, you will have to risk recieving greater damage by turning your back on the enemy in order to link up with your teammates. All things must be considered.
Throughout the game, you will even uncover new battle formations and fields, allowing you to choose a differently-shaped 'field of squares' that best compliments your battle style.
Overall, if you appreciate the strategic elements of the battle system, and don't mind that it looks so old-school, you will never get bored with the fighting.
THE OVERALL GAME SYSTEM
Your decisions are important. Some decisions that dont seem important end up affecting you later in the game in ways you didn't expect. You can make decisions that move you between the "dark" and "light" side of the guage. Unfortunately, sometimes you cant really tell which way a decision will send you. There are even some decisions that you must make during actual battles, such as not attacking a certain person. I did not fully comprehend the consequences of alot of actions until it was too late, but that is a good sign that you have to be thinking about more than battles to get the results you want.
Your actions affect how the female characters in the game like you. This is important because at the end of every generation, you have to choose a bride to make the hero of the next generation! You will choose your bride based on her strengths and yours, and that will determin the strength of the next hero. So if you like to use physical attacks, it is better for you to do the things the more physical heroine likes. If you want a magic user, then you need to get on the good side of the more mage-like females. It is more in-depth than it seems: That bride's level of affection for you also determines how strong the next hero will be, so you can't just ride the middle fence the whole time, or your son will not be as powerful.
Each generation, you have 3 brides to choose from, leading to 3 different next-generation heroes. The bride from the 1st generation, though, also affects your options for EVERY generation after that. The variety of possible end-game heroes, therefore, is unprecedented.
Throughout the game, you collect items, weapons, armor, and even monsters that can be upgraded, augmented, and converted into new items, with which you can create more powerful ones. The amount of customization in this game is impressive.
Back to the grinding issue. Every battle and even in the story consumes "1 turn." The game keeps track of how many turns you use. If you spend a bunch of turns grinding levels, you will miss some big events, and eventually change the ending of the entire game! Getting to a certain point in the game too late may cause you to miss a new partner, or a variety of other events. If you skip too many optional battles, you will find yourself underpowered in the next boss battle, or you may miss some powerful items. You have to consider all of these things with every move you make.
The story is not presented in a very interesting way. Basically, you just move from battle to battle, with various events mixed in between.
It's a stragy game, and RPG, a great story, and partially a dating sim. None of these elements are ground-breaking in themselves. But when you combine all of them in this manner, you have something that hasn't quite been achieved before.
THE GOOD
-Strategy based battles emphasize your decision-making instead of brute strength. (no grinding required)
-Decision system makes your decisions from every generation important for the entire game
-Immersive storyline holds the player's interest for the duration, and is interesting enough to play through multiple times
-HP is restored after battles, preventing the need to use recovery items outside of battle
-Plenty of different characters to team up with, allowing you to choose how to fight your battles
THE BAD
-All japanese dialogue, and no subtitles during battles. Archaic system of story-telling that you expect more on a handheld game without cutscenes.
-Sometimes hard to figure out whether your choice is going to be considered 'dark' or 'light'
-Characters have limited amount of slots to assign skills to, causing you to use the same attacks over and over again.
-Graphics and audio quality are mediocre compared to the console games of this era
-Relatively limited selection of the most powerful move combinations in battle
CONCLUSION
This is a game that requires alot of strategic thought and patience. And there is no focus on impressive visual/audio effects. You definitely have to really commit to playing it, but if you do, you WILL NOT be dissapointed. You will be immersed, challeged, and satisfied.
100+ hours played later May 29, 2010
JSusie
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Record of Agarest War. A game I had my eye on for while now, because I'm a big fan of strategy rpg. So when I finally got this game, I had pretty high hopes for it.
First is the actual gameplay. It's fun! They stressed FAR too much that this was a game focused on dating elements, because frankly the dating aspect is very shallow, with the combat taking the driver's seat early on and never looking back. Throughout the course of your adventures, you'll periodically come across some cutscenes and gameplay choices that affect your standing with up to three girls, some of them rewarding you with a cg viewable through a menu. However the majority of these cg can also be unlocked by completing various combat based titles. At the end of each generation (there's 5 total) you have to make the choice which of the three you wish to marry. That's pretty much it for the dating.
Second is the packaging and marketing. This game is marketed as a "dating sim" with rpg elements. While maybe in other gaming markets this is a valid marketing option, here in the states it is not. Alot of stores could not even have the box on the shelves of their business, for fear it was too racy. The packaging has two scantly clad characters from the game in an extra large box. A self described "sensual" mousepad and a "yearning" pillowcase are included. Quite odd, to say the least. Neither of those have made it outside of the box for more than 5 minutes. One odd side note though, was the mousepad smelled really weird, to the point I had to move the box farther away from me.
In conclusion, I'd recommend Legend of Agarest War. It's a long game, lasting many, many hours that you'll definitely get your money's worth out of. The extra items included are nice if you're into that, but will put off the average gamer. This really is a great game, that got severely hampered by having bad marketing.
Remember Cross Edge? Like that, but done right. May 3, 2010
M.D.C. (San Diego, CA)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Let me explain that title. Put the pitchfork down.
Record of Agarest War is an interesting game. It tries very hard to be something that it's not, while at the same time managing to surpass other games in the same vein. You are "Golden Leo", a high ranking official in a local kingdom that has recently been discovered taking over other lands and terrorizing the citizens of the lands in search of something. During one of your missions, you decide to take up arms against your comrades to protect a young Elven girl, and are later killed. A young lady revives you, with the condition that you and your progeny become Spirit Vessels, essentially giving your soul(s) to her.
The way you meet your characters is almost identical to the method in Cross Edge. Even the general storyline has slight similarities to that game, with the exception that you aren't in another world; just another land separate from your own. You'll meet characters with different skillsets as you attempt to find out what's going on with your kingdom. Branded a traitor, you will face some of your former allies on the field of battle.
All of this sounds good. But the game has its issues. For example, the packaging boasts anime scenes, but these are just still images with voices and text for the most part. Given this is a 360 game, I find this quite inexcusable, especially when compared to games like Sakura Wars where anime cutscenes are the norm rather than the exception to the rule. Also, the still scenes bounce hilariously between characters as it comes their turn to talk - unlike other games where the inactive characters just fade out or swap to the active characters, Agarest just decided to swap left and right between characters as conversation takes place. It gets even more silly when each character has only one sentence (which happens quite frequently, mind).
The sprite-based battle engine is a derivative of that found in games such as Enchanted Arms, Final Fantasy Tactics, and other strategy games. Your characters are positioned on a board, facing in given directions, as are your enemies. Depending on how you place your characters, you'll use various Skills to attack the enemy and vice versa; certain tiles and certain placements will give you linked abilities, giving you the ability to combo attacks against enemies for an easier fight. Single characters can also combine two or more skills to create stronger attacks; these can also be combined with other strong attacks. Later in the game, as you get better at linking, your characters will do increased damage with their team attacks, allowing damage into the millions. This is vintage Cross Edge, vintage Disgaea, so if you like that style of battle, this is the game for you.
One major complaint I have is the rather uninspired overworld map. Instead of free roam, you're forced along a given path, which generally consists of two event points (a town and a cave, for example), with 2-5 generic fight stops in between. This wouldn't normally be so bad, were it not for the fact that each battle area looks the exact same as the others. Even worse, the enemy AI fits into one of three categories: cowardly (certain fairies who use spells and run away when chased), bold (werewolves and other creatures of those types) and stupid (everyone else who puts themselves in open position to get attacked). This ends up with you generally usinge the same strategy every battle with a few alterations. Not too bad of an issue, but I had to note it as a complaint of mine.
When you first start the game, you'll find that it's just not easy. Not enough experience or party points, definitely not enough gold (the only real gold you get is from defeating a boss or a major enemy). You could easily find yourself tired of this game in short order if you're not the patient type. Once you get past hour 8, assuming you're following the storyline, then it starts to get a little easier to manage, and you'll be able to take full advantage of the game's additional features such as blacksmithing, alchemy, and the adventuring quests. This is also the time that the branching relationship system starts to come into play. Each action you take falls into one of three categories: Dark, Light, and Neutral. These speak for themselves, but what you don't know is how they pertain to the relationships in the game. Certain girls are tuned to one alignment or another, so the choices you make will not only affect your alignment, but also the affection level of the girls you meet. Near the end of each game section, you'll then be presented with the choice of which girl you want to procreate with, and your children will continue the quest in the next generation.
Those in the older generation of gamers may find this to be a familiar feature. That's because if you played Phantasy Star III, it's essentially the same concept. It keeps the game somewhat fresh by allowing numerous options for gameplay, with different heroes and skillsets. For some though, this might be more of a burden than a blessing: the same challenges as far as the sectioned off paths persists here, and to put things in perspective, I beat Sakura Wars in 15 hours, with sidequests and all; in Agarest, I got my seventh character in the same time period, and that's without grinding. If you are a fan of lengthy, detailed games with challenge, this is definitely a game that you should try out.
So....do I recommend it? Maybe. I will say that it's an acquired taste; it's not for everyone, to be sure. It's worth a try, but buying it is hard to recommend unless you're a general fan of strategy RPGs or anime-based games. It's a good game, but it's not going to go down in any history books, except for the most flagrantly bold packaging in history.
 The audio in this game is ALL Japanese!!! May 1, 2010
S. Meyer
12 out of 52 found this review helpful
Did you see the title? I hope so. All of the audio in this game is in Japanese. Sure there are subtitles in English but there are parts in the game (like battles) where things are said in Japanese and there is no accompanying text. So unless you know Japanese, you will not know what they are saying. There is just this odd pause when the pixels flail around a little bit and then disappear.
I could go on and on about what the game features but there are plenty of other reviews here for you to see about that. I'm going to focus on the negative parts of the game after playing it for 1 hour because I I find that some of these flaws (with the exception of the wrong menu text)are dealbreakers.
Combat is made up into two phases... move and attack. See, those are two separate stages. It is pointless because you move, then wait for your opponent to move. Then you attack and your opponent attacks. That eliminates a great deal of the 'strategy' because all the enemies always just pile up on your healers after you have moved. There is no point in say, moving behind an enemy, because they will just move away from you or kill your healer on their next turn. Now that I think about it, it's kind of hilariously bad. The game becomes a race to kill the enemies before they kill your healers.
So after about 6 battles all on the same field of grass (lol, lame) I finally got to the next part where I had an epic battle with a rock. Yep, a rock. A big, giant rock that doesn't do anything. It's just in the way, and you have to take the time to "attack it" until it breaks. Don't forget to strategize during your move phase!
As like everything else that doesn't make sense in this game, when it your character's turn to attack, you first highlight your enemy you wish to attack and then highlight your character to execute the attack. Why do you have to choose yourself, when it's your turn? Hey beats me, but I also just fought a giant rock so what do I know?
Battle music consists of AWESOME HARD ROCK JAMS!!! LOL! It so terrible.... swords, sorcery and electric guitars. You know what is pretty sweet is that if you don't like the Japanese voices you can turn them off. And you can also turn off the music. So you can sit in silence and listen to sound effects. Audio fail.
Speaking of audio fail, the menu has incorrect listings on it. So when you want to lower the 'voice' slider, the info on in the game says 'use this to lower the background sounds' or something like that. Hahaha, so great.
The limited edition is cool because it contains a soundtrack that you will never listen to more than once unless you love the J-Rock and J-pop. The mousepad smells like it was dumped in a vat of chemicals and the pillow case is, well... I have no issues with the pillow case I guess.
Look, I know what you are thinking... you loved Disgaea, La Pucelle, Makai, Vandal Hearts, Shining Force, etc and this looks like it. It's not. The controls are clunky (moving around the hex is a nightmare with the L-stick)and the characters have no personality (unless you understand Japanese). I also find it laughable that your enemies drop 'grass'. Hey, let's eat a mouthful of grass to gain skill points!
|
|
|
