Thursday, November 6, 2008

DJ Max Portable Clazziquai Edition

Named after the Korean fusion band who contributed to this game, the latest game of the DJ Max Portable Series, the 'DJ MAX Clazziquai Edition' promises to appeal to the more casual players.

My first impression upon starting the game was its new cleaner-looking interface, and sharper graphics. Colours used were much brighter, compared to its multi-coloured counterparts, the DJ MAX Portable 1 and 2, majority being yellow-ish.

The '49 unique songs', including some songs from Clazziquai's mini album Metrotronics, were sadly a disappointment. There are less than 10 songs that I can honestly say I enjoyed, compared to let's say DJ Max 1's long list including Chrono Breakers, Blythe, Lighthouse, or DJ Max 2's list including Seeker, White Blue, etc.

Video-wise, it has been much improved, but since the main point of the game is the pressing of buttons itself, I didn't pay heavy attention to this.

Gameplay itself has been changed dramatically too. Only X3 fever is available in the beginning, and has to be slowly unlocked, other modes being X5, X3 auto and X5 auto. The 'Auto' allows you to automatically activate 'fever' when the bar (which is now located on the left of your gear) reaches maximum. Also, another change is that when you go towards x4 and x5 fever, you speed does NOT increase by 1 level. For example, it doesn't jump from x3.5 to x4, etc.

Speed can now be adjusted to 7x, which is kind of ridiculous, considering how I can barely play any songs with that speed.

Items, comprising of avatar, gear, notes and the new 'effectors' are now available for free, but can only be unlocked after completing certain 'club missions'. The stats that were in the gears, avatars and notes in DJ Max Portable 2 are now the 'effectors', which too can only be unlocked by completing club missions. There is now no gold.

Missions have been changed to a DJ Max 1-ish format, where you clear clubs to unlock the next club, or mission, unlocking content along the way. Most of the requirements are standard, with the only few I've seen so far being the 'Judgement', 'Score' and 'Fever' type. Missions are much too easy to complete if you had no trouble with DJ Max 1 or 2, and you should be clearing them as though it's a walk in a park.

The new button modes introduced are the 2-button and the 4-button FX. 2-button is well.. two buttons + analog. Left/Up button is the first button, while the Triangle and Circle are the second one. Maybe Pentavision thought 4-button was too tough.
4b-FX is the 4B + 8B hybrid. It's 4-button mode + L and R buttons. Not much difficulty here, except regular players of the 8B mode will fumble, trying not to press the Square or Right buttons the first few tries. 8-button in this game can only be unlocked (supposedly) by going through Link Disc with the upcoming hardcore version, the 'DJ Max Portable Black Square'.

Arcade is similar to DJ Max Portable 2, except now you swap between different button modes using the 'select button', as the L and R buttons automatically adjust the speed, while Triangle changes the effectors, and Square goes to 'item menu'. And so far from what I've played, you don't have to complete the song in Stage Mode to enter it into the 'Freestyle' mode.

Media content such as O.S.Ts, Music Videos and Images are now compiled under 'Albums'. Nothing special here.

Lastly, it lags horrible when playing on the Network mode. Network mode has two different modes, which I forgot what they are. But the lag is so horrible I don't think I really want to try.

For you casual gamers who love rhythm-based music, this is my best recommendation. For hardcore DJ Max-ers, wait until the end of November to get your Black Square.

Edit: THEY REMOVED THE VOCALS FOR 'YOUR OWN MIRACLE'!!! RAGEEEEEEEE~
Edit 2: THEY HAVE RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF ANALOG SPINNING D:

by konadora at 10:40 PM |

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