The Absolute Victory Unlosing Ranger!
I finally beaten the Zettai Hero Project main storyline dungeons... after hours and days of grinding on dungeons that are not related to the main storyline. Especially Masteries! It was like Disgaea all over again, except ZHP is a dungeon crawler with Disgaea elements in it. Like that time I spent hours on the player-friendly Mystery Dungeon games for Pokemon.
When I first heard of the longass title, I was kinda skeptical about the gameplay. Lol, "Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman," it sounded silly and lame. Unlosing Ranger? Darkdeath Evilman? The cover art made it looked like a Power Rangers game.
But since I browse gaming forums often, I came to know it was developed by NIS, whom is also responsible for the Disgaea series Tactical-RPG. Disgaea earned the distinction of level and stats going "IT'S OVER 9000!!" And the trademark snarky humor. Speaking of humor, there's tons of it in this game. The most epic line has to be this, SPOILER FOR LAST EPISODE:
Pirohiko: Those tits are fake! You got the equipment made for men dangling between your legs! Tripod Ranger!
I almost choked when I heard him said that, seriously. Then again, I've been laughing throughout the scenes leading to that line. The line below isn't really that funny, but I laughed nonetheless. Well, we know who he'll turn to if he really swing that way, LOL. Spoilers for Baccano! dungeon, probably:
Pirohiko: I'd rather marry MC than to go on a date with her!
Etranger: I-I knew you were a bit odd, but you really play for the other team!
Pirohiko: What do you mean by that?! It's just an example!
Firo: I see. So you really are THAT way...
The game uses all sorts of cliches from the Rangers(senshi in japanese), videogames, real life personas and countries (lol, America and Oldllama), and memes. The term "boss" is so common in the game plus the fourth wall breakinging comments. When I fought Darkdeath Evilam for the first time, the battle screen uses the 8-bit version from the earlier RPG games like FF or DQ. The same for the music for the battle. Then, as your hero grows stronger in each episode, the battle screen evolves to the ones used in FF3 and FF4. The music also turned into a better version of the final boss theme.
The songs and BGMs are awesome and memorable as well. For those who grind in the Mastery dungeons, the default track, Unlosing Hero's Theme song will probably be stuck in their head. The lyrics and vocals are different based on your current equipment. There's various combination of the theme, so I can't decide which one I like more. All of them are pretty catchy and I'm still figuring out which equip uses which track.
After clearing the main storyline and moving onto New Game+, the alternative ending routes are now unlocked. This is a NIS game, after all. The player can check for the list of endings they have and can unlock at the Record Hut. So far, I've seen the Super Baby ending (prologue) and the Ultimate Reward ending (level-1, defeat Maria instead of Francoise). They are pretty much crack but fully-voiced.
The main challenge in the game was not the main stroyline dungeons but the Mastery level and Dengeki dungeons. The first Mastery one has 60 floors and I had the shock of my life when I got raeped by the Love Freak from Disgaea. Her level is ten times the number of floors in this dungeon! And she has minions around the same level range as hers. Unprepared players would probably just be around level 60-ish (like I do, each floor with an average of one level-up) when they reached floor 60. I have an idea what lies in the next few mastery dungeons so I usually just escape after farming for items using the caravan when reaching certain floors. Etna and Laharl's level are probably over one thousand...
I'll probably waste more playtime on the game later... So many things-to-do piling up on the list now, but I can't multi-task when you get the time to enjoy yourself! I mean, I definitely can't read fanfics/news, watch videos, listening to music, and play the game at the same time!
Plus, I'm lazy. Lazy Ranger!
When I first heard of the longass title, I was kinda skeptical about the gameplay. Lol, "Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman," it sounded silly and lame. Unlosing Ranger? Darkdeath Evilman? The cover art made it looked like a Power Rangers game.
But since I browse gaming forums often, I came to know it was developed by NIS, whom is also responsible for the Disgaea series Tactical-RPG. Disgaea earned the distinction of level and stats going "IT'S OVER 9000!!" And the trademark snarky humor. Speaking of humor, there's tons of it in this game. The most epic line has to be this, SPOILER FOR LAST EPISODE:
Pirohiko: Those tits are fake! You got the equipment made for men dangling between your legs! Tripod Ranger!
I almost choked when I heard him said that, seriously. Then again, I've been laughing throughout the scenes leading to that line. The line below isn't really that funny, but I laughed nonetheless. Well, we know who he'll turn to if he really swing that way, LOL. Spoilers for Baccano! dungeon, probably:
Pirohiko: I'd rather marry MC than to go on a date with her!
Etranger: I-I knew you were a bit odd, but you really play for the other team!
Pirohiko: What do you mean by that?! It's just an example!
Firo: I see. So you really are THAT way...
The game uses all sorts of cliches from the Rangers(senshi in japanese), videogames, real life personas and countries (lol, America and Oldllama), and memes. The term "boss" is so common in the game plus the fourth wall breakinging comments. When I fought Darkdeath Evilam for the first time, the battle screen uses the 8-bit version from the earlier RPG games like FF or DQ. The same for the music for the battle. Then, as your hero grows stronger in each episode, the battle screen evolves to the ones used in FF3 and FF4. The music also turned into a better version of the final boss theme.
The songs and BGMs are awesome and memorable as well. For those who grind in the Mastery dungeons, the default track, Unlosing Hero's Theme song will probably be stuck in their head. The lyrics and vocals are different based on your current equipment. There's various combination of the theme, so I can't decide which one I like more. All of them are pretty catchy and I'm still figuring out which equip uses which track.
After clearing the main storyline and moving onto New Game+, the alternative ending routes are now unlocked. This is a NIS game, after all. The player can check for the list of endings they have and can unlock at the Record Hut. So far, I've seen the Super Baby ending (prologue) and the Ultimate Reward ending (level-1, defeat Maria instead of Francoise). They are pretty much crack but fully-voiced.
The main challenge in the game was not the main stroyline dungeons but the Mastery level and Dengeki dungeons. The first Mastery one has 60 floors and I had the shock of my life when I got raeped by the Love Freak from Disgaea. Her level is ten times the number of floors in this dungeon! And she has minions around the same level range as hers. Unprepared players would probably just be around level 60-ish (like I do, each floor with an average of one level-up) when they reached floor 60. I have an idea what lies in the next few mastery dungeons so I usually just escape after farming for items using the caravan when reaching certain floors. Etna and Laharl's level are probably over one thousand...
I'll probably waste more playtime on the game later... So many things-to-do piling up on the list now, but I can't multi-task when you get the time to enjoy yourself! I mean, I definitely can't read fanfics/news, watch videos, listening to music, and play the game at the same time!
Plus, I'm lazy. Lazy Ranger!