Elite Beat Agents
Angelina recently saw Elite Beat Agents in a store in the shotengai - imported games! Crazy, right? Anyways, I also just cleared the normal mode, and I thought I'd share my impressions. The game is, as most people probably know, basically the same as Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. But there are some differences, too, of course, and it's something of a mixed bag.
The basics are identical - you control a group of three agents whose mission it is to help those in need. You choose a mission on the main map, watch a short introduction that explains their situation (or skip it), and then the game proper begins. A song will play, and it is your job to tap buttons and drag across tracks with the stylus to the beat. It looks simple, but later stages and difficulty drastically ramp up the number of buttons you'll need to hit and the speed at which you'll have to dart back and forth across the screen. The final stages are simply devilish, but the difficulty ramps up steadily enough that most players will be able to start at a level they're comfortable with.
Just like Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, the songs are mostly big hits, and you should recognize all but a few of them. They're cover versions, presumably for licensing reasons and also so they'll fit the game better. Ouendan had Japanese songs, obviously, and every track in Elite Beat Agents is new and different. For this reason, gamers that really love the game might want to pick up both titles (if they can find them).
There were a few changes made along the way, though: first, your characters are now Elite Beat Agents, and have smooth black suits, ties, and crazy western hair-dos to match, where the Ouendan had their trademark long coats (gakuran) and headbands. You may have a preference, but I think that the EBA models are just as good or slightly better. The motions are a little different, too - Ouendan has a lot more punching (which is apropriate for the premise), and EBA has a lot more dancing and posing. Here, I really think EBA has the edge. It's not that Ouendan's animations were bad, but EBA is much more fluid, smooth, and fun. The animators really got to strut their stuff with EBA, whereas Ouendan had to be a little stiffer.
In terms of gameplay, there's not really anything new in the mechanics, but the interface and level design have been tweaked. EBA makes use of the full suite of game elements pretty fast - double, triple, and quadruple taps in particular show up quickly, but in Ouendan you only really saw them in hard mode.
The interface has been improved, there's no doubt of that. More of the scoring and intro scenes can be skipped, and even the intro to songs can be skipped when you want to get right back into a stage (after you've failed). This is a godsend - in Ouendan, the final song had a 1-minute plus intro that you couldn't skip; it's a punishment for failing, nothing less. The overworld map is now a 3D globe, instead of a scrollable 2D picture.
Unfortunately, I have to say I'm a little disappointed with the stages. Elite Beat Agents casts further for its songs, and it has more of them than the original Ouendan. It sounds like a good thing, but while it guarantees that everybody will have at least a couple songs they like, it also means you'll have more that you don't. You'll have to clear every stage to progress, so just hope you can clear the songs you don't like on the first try.
Also, I was a little disappointed with the covers they used. I may simply have been less familiar with the songs used in Ouendan, but to my ears the covers sounded better. The covers used in EBA don't really do a good job of approximating the originals, so you'll have to learn the included versions for sections with tricky timing.
It's kind of a minor point, but I also found the stories used for the stages to be a little less compelling. It's the same artists as the original game, but I guess they told them to 'American-fy' it, because the game is now populated with a slug of blondes and sports stars. It's pretty easy to ignore, but overall I preferred Ouendan here. It's a personal choice, though - Kid Studying for Test vs. Weather Woman Clearing the Sky? Man Proposing to Girlfriend vs. Man Getting Rich to Reclaim Gold-Digger Wife? Boy Impressing Classmate in Dodgeball Match vs. Man Something Something? Cleopatra Uses Pyramid for Diet vs. Bimbos Seduce Animals on a Deserted Island? If there's a pattern, it seems that EBA focuses more on rich people and sports stars, whereas Ouendan focused entirely on 'everyday' sorts.
Also, the continual 'aura burning with motivation' has been replaced with continual arms-in-the-air, Azumanga-style 'hyuu hyuu' back-and-forth waving to fill all the non-descript sections of songs.
Pros:
* Classic rhythm game mechanics
* Wide field of songs
* The agents are cool and smooth
* Difficulties should accomodate just about anyone
* You can finally skip song intros!
Cons:
* You'll have to play songs you don't like
* Story-lines are meh.
* Song covers are a mixed bag.
The basics are identical - you control a group of three agents whose mission it is to help those in need. You choose a mission on the main map, watch a short introduction that explains their situation (or skip it), and then the game proper begins. A song will play, and it is your job to tap buttons and drag across tracks with the stylus to the beat. It looks simple, but later stages and difficulty drastically ramp up the number of buttons you'll need to hit and the speed at which you'll have to dart back and forth across the screen. The final stages are simply devilish, but the difficulty ramps up steadily enough that most players will be able to start at a level they're comfortable with.
Just like Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, the songs are mostly big hits, and you should recognize all but a few of them. They're cover versions, presumably for licensing reasons and also so they'll fit the game better. Ouendan had Japanese songs, obviously, and every track in Elite Beat Agents is new and different. For this reason, gamers that really love the game might want to pick up both titles (if they can find them).
There were a few changes made along the way, though: first, your characters are now Elite Beat Agents, and have smooth black suits, ties, and crazy western hair-dos to match, where the Ouendan had their trademark long coats (gakuran) and headbands. You may have a preference, but I think that the EBA models are just as good or slightly better. The motions are a little different, too - Ouendan has a lot more punching (which is apropriate for the premise), and EBA has a lot more dancing and posing. Here, I really think EBA has the edge. It's not that Ouendan's animations were bad, but EBA is much more fluid, smooth, and fun. The animators really got to strut their stuff with EBA, whereas Ouendan had to be a little stiffer.
In terms of gameplay, there's not really anything new in the mechanics, but the interface and level design have been tweaked. EBA makes use of the full suite of game elements pretty fast - double, triple, and quadruple taps in particular show up quickly, but in Ouendan you only really saw them in hard mode.
The interface has been improved, there's no doubt of that. More of the scoring and intro scenes can be skipped, and even the intro to songs can be skipped when you want to get right back into a stage (after you've failed). This is a godsend - in Ouendan, the final song had a 1-minute plus intro that you couldn't skip; it's a punishment for failing, nothing less. The overworld map is now a 3D globe, instead of a scrollable 2D picture.
Unfortunately, I have to say I'm a little disappointed with the stages. Elite Beat Agents casts further for its songs, and it has more of them than the original Ouendan. It sounds like a good thing, but while it guarantees that everybody will have at least a couple songs they like, it also means you'll have more that you don't. You'll have to clear every stage to progress, so just hope you can clear the songs you don't like on the first try.
Also, I was a little disappointed with the covers they used. I may simply have been less familiar with the songs used in Ouendan, but to my ears the covers sounded better. The covers used in EBA don't really do a good job of approximating the originals, so you'll have to learn the included versions for sections with tricky timing.
It's kind of a minor point, but I also found the stories used for the stages to be a little less compelling. It's the same artists as the original game, but I guess they told them to 'American-fy' it, because the game is now populated with a slug of blondes and sports stars. It's pretty easy to ignore, but overall I preferred Ouendan here. It's a personal choice, though - Kid Studying for Test vs. Weather Woman Clearing the Sky? Man Proposing to Girlfriend vs. Man Getting Rich to Reclaim Gold-Digger Wife? Boy Impressing Classmate in Dodgeball Match vs. Man Something Something? Cleopatra Uses Pyramid for Diet vs. Bimbos Seduce Animals on a Deserted Island? If there's a pattern, it seems that EBA focuses more on rich people and sports stars, whereas Ouendan focused entirely on 'everyday' sorts.
Also, the continual 'aura burning with motivation' has been replaced with continual arms-in-the-air, Azumanga-style 'hyuu hyuu' back-and-forth waving to fill all the non-descript sections of songs.
Pros:
* Classic rhythm game mechanics
* Wide field of songs
* The agents are cool and smooth
* Difficulties should accomodate just about anyone
* You can finally skip song intros!
Cons:
* You'll have to play songs you don't like
* Story-lines are meh.
* Song covers are a mixed bag.