|
PS2
Grim Grimoire + Bonuses
- New Import, Partial Shipment |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
NCS
Game Synopsis
«©NCS» Millet
Blaw has been accepted to the Magic Academy and she
wings her way to Silver Star Tower atop a dragon.
When Ms Blaw arrives, she's greeted by Gammel Drask,
the head wizard, who takes her under his tutelage.
Once inducted into the academy, Millet listens to
Gammel's lectures and then engages in exercises
where familiar forces are used to gather mana and
battle enemy imps. At the outset of the game, the
skirmishes are relatively simple affairs which are
designed to teach proper movement techniques and
battle tactics. The game tactfully nudges the player
into the framework of the game with easy missions
and training but later stages require an adept mix
of planning, forethought, and quick action.
For gamers who need a reference point for the game play in Grim
Grimoire, it can be compared to Warcraft where units
are sent to explore and gather resources while other
units are cobbled together into strike cadres that
either defend the home "base" or are sent into enemy
territory to conquer. When a unit is selected, it'll
cheerfully acknowledge its commission and vocalize
its pleasure when commanded. Games such as Grimoire
are highly addictive and if you're immersed in
mission after mission, it might be 7:00PM when you
start playing but the next time you look up at the
clock, it'll be 3:00AM in the dead of night. Time
flies when you're that engrossed.
Split Shipments
Please note that one carton of Grim Grimoire was misrouted all
the way to France last night. Due to this error,
please be aware that we will not be able to fill all
of our preorders today but we expect the shipment to
be routed properly and sent back to us by
Monday-Wednesday of next week. Sadly, this sort of
thing happens from time to time.
Bonus Schwagula
Every copy of Grim Grimoire shipping today will include a bonus
music CD and a 20-page postcard booklet which
features beautiful artwork of the main characters
and familiars from the game. Please note that the
split shipment that was misrouted should also
contain the bonuses.
Jan Code: 4995506001285
|
|
|
NCS
Game Notes & Spoilers
» Vanillaware developed the game for Nippon Ichi
Software.
» Press START and you'll be able to choose "NEW
GAME" and "LOAD GAME."
» In the intro to the game, two drops of water
join together and move across a leaf and drip off
while a light streams in from the right. The camera
pans out to take in a forest scene with light
steaming in from the background while a blue tinged
fairy flits across. Scene change again to a thick
forest with a mountainous backdrop with parallax
scrolling in full effect. A mass of sparkling blue
fairies rise in the backdrop. After that, the
characters appear in sequence as follows with
English names on top and Japanese names below:
Lillet Blaw
Margarita Frozen
Batido Ballantine
Hiram Green
Amaretto Vergine
Advocaat
Opalnera Rain
Chartreuse Grande
Gammel Drask
After the character introductions, the shadow of a
dragon flies over an expanse of treetops and a stone
gargoyle may be seen perched on a ledge against a
backdrop of clouds. An image of the school is shown
as the camera slowly pans away followed by a quick
shot on the front of the Silver Star Tower that
serves as the Magic School.
» The voice of Lillet provides the introduction to
the game and she talks about Grimoires and her first
visit to Silver Star Tower where she flies in on a
blue dragon. The camera slowly moves up the tower
and the voice acting ends. The head wizard Gammel
Drask appears and he welcomes Lillet who's holding a
red tome and wearing a purple/black "witch" costume.
Lillet is a new student at the Magic Academy and she
shows her enthusiasm for the curriculum. If you
check out the background while the two are talking,
you'll see neon-outlines of a goose and a unicorn
move from right to left.
» If you stare at either Lillet or Gammel, you'll
notice that they're not static character drawings.
They're actually rendered models and they breathe
realistically in that their bodies slowly and almost
imperceptibly undulate with each breath drawn. Both
figures also blink as they stand there talking.
After their conversation is over, a little munchkin
named Gafu appears holding an upside down straw
broom. He's also breathing. When Lillet sees him,
she thinks he's adorable but he scoffs at such an
assignation.
» Afterwards, Lillet meets Margarita Frozen who
wears a brown corseted dress and a matching bonnet.
A green frog with yellow blinking eyes may be seen
sitting on top of her head. After their
conversation, a sequence entitled "The Night Before"
plays where Lillet is in her pajamas and talking to
Gafu when they're eventually joined by Margarita.
Afterwards, you'll be prompted to save your progress
to memory card. Each 8M memory card can hold 4 data
save slots for Grimoire.
» After saving, a DIARY screen appears where you may
revisit the Prologue of the game, the Night Before,
or continue onwards to the First Day at Silver Star
Tower. The music on the Diary screen is strangely
reminiscent of Harry Potter movie music. You may
select three levels of difficulty for every mission
- Sweet, Easy and Normal.
» The First Day scenario begins with Gammel
lecturing to Lillet from a book while she follows
along from her opened grimoire. In the next scene, a
practice battle ensues where Gammel teaches the ways
of Grimoire troop movement. A group of elves with a
flower stuck to their pointy green caps serve as the
grunts in the mission where they gather mana.
» After the introduction, the playfield appears with
a base spinning slowly on the lower-left corner of
the screen and your first elf gleefully bopping in
place on the lower platform a few steps away from
the base. A Mickey Mouse-style glove serves as your
pointing cursor which is moved with the L-analog
pad. The d-pad cannot be used. To select the elf,
move the glove over him and the hand quickly holds a
magnifying glass. Once hovering over the elf, press
the SQUARE button to activate him and he'll exclaim
his acknowledgement. Move him to the right towards
the area indicated by the blue arrow by moving the
hand over the arrow and pressing the O button. He'll
agree and mosey on over. You've reached a
crystal-laden area and the elf will immediately
begin hauling mana (looks like crystal shards) back
to the base of operations.
» To create more elves to help haul mana, move the
glove over the spinning green circle base and press
SQUARE. A little elf icon will appear on the
lower-right corner of the screen. Press "O" on the
icon and wait about a minute for the elf to
magically appear and immediately send him to work.
Each new elf costs 50 mana crystals to create. To
complete the mission objective, create 10 elves and
send them to work. After each mission, your Units
Produced, Units Lost, Units Killed, Mana Mined,
Elapsed Time, and Total Score is shown while
colorful radiating fireworks burst in the
background.
» In the next scene on Day 1, Batido Ballantine and
Hiram Green are chatting when Lillet enters the
scene. After Hiram introduces himself and Batido
haughtily dismisses Lillet, Hiram reprimands him.
After this scene, you're prompted to save your
progress again to memory card. Day 2 starts
afterwards.
» Day 2 starts a lot like Day 1 with Gammel
lecturing while Lillet follows along. A floating
blonde fairy girl appears between them with both
arms and legs crossed while gossamer wings beat
gently behind her back. The second practice session
starts where the blonde fairy girl and her identical
friends are the attackers in a simple skirmish. The
elves from the first practice level are also present
to perform grunt work to retrieve mana. The first
function to perform is to press and hold the SQUARE
button and then hover the cursor over all four of
the fairies to select them and move them as a group
towards the south. In the next sequence, the game
will show a jester-like imp on a lower level who'll
scale the stairs and attack one of your fairies.
Watch as the two attack each other automatically
when they're in range of each other. After a few
blows, the fairy defeats it and the tutorial
continues with more movement exercises and a short
lesson on how to get the elves in your party to
prepare a crystal shard so that mana can be
harvested from it. After defeating two more groups
of enemy imps, the lesson is over and the second day
continues with a conversation between Lillet and
Amaretto Vergine that's disturbed by the lecherous
Advocaat. You'll be prompted to save your progress
and the 3rd Day starts.
» The third day starts with Gammel and Lillet
interacting instead of Gammel just lecturing.
Afterwards a "Grimoire Data" screen appears with
four types of magic listed on the right portion of
the screen as follows:
Glamour
Alchemy
Sorcery
Necromancy
Each section contains three spaces but only the
Glamour section has two tomes that are available.
The other spaces are all blank. If you check out the
first tome under Glamour, you'll see the elf and
fairy icons are unlocked and available but the
third, fourth and fifth levels are not available
yet. The third level features a "HEAL" icon while
the fourth features what appears to be a spirit. The
fifth level icon shows two arrows arcing from the
left to the right. The second tome under Glamour
only has the first level unlocked - the chamber
creation talisman utilized by elves so that they can
harvest mana from a crystal shard. A bar below the
tomes titled "Characters" shows the different
creatures available in the game including Unicorn,
Blob, Homunculus, Golem, Chimera, Gargoyle, Imp,
Grimalkin, Demon, Dragon, Guardian, Ghost, Phantom,
Skull Image, and Charon. The correlation of each
creature to the type of magic that it is governed
under is also shown by way of an icon system.
» The practice level on the 3rd Day starts with a
tutorial on switching between grimoires to access
different spells and magic by pressing either the L1
or R2 trigger. The lesson goes on to show how to use
an elf to create defensive guard towers which
automatically shoot out eldritch attacks whenever
enemies draw near. Think of them as automatic
defensive measures when soldiers aren't stationed at
a certain spot. The goal in this level is to collect
mana to create at least five fairies and then send
them to destroy at least one of the demons stationed
near the bottom of the level and the demon portal.
After successfully completing the assignment,
Chartreuse Grande elicits a yelp from Lillet before
the two get to their introductions and consequent
interaction. Opalnera Rain walks in and contributes
to the conversation.
» Day 4 is another day of learning for Lillet but
her teacher on this day is Opalnera which has an
impossibly thin waist to accentuate her hourglass
figure and heaving bosom. She dresses sort of like
Elvira. At the outset of the practice level on Day
4, the first grimoire of Necromancy becomes
available and the Ghost and Phantom are available
for use. After the practice level opens up, select
all five ghosts and then send them upwards to the
crystal shard and they'll prep it for cultivation.
After the structure is built, they'll automatically
move mana to the base of operations below. Next,
level up the base so that Phantoms may be produced.
Phantoms are the warrior class in Necromancy and
they're powerful creatures who destroy the
jester-like fire creatures with two hits each. One
Phantom basically does the damage of three fairies
acting in concert and are a relative bargain at only
75 mana per Phantom. In addition to attack
capabilities, Phantoms may also be commanded to
perform patrol duty by highlighting the EYE icon and
then selecting a target area on the level. Once
triggered, it'll continually move back and forth
between its origin point and the target destination.
The aim in this level is to destroy the demon
portals on the upper levels of the stage.
» Day 5 starts with Lillet by herself while winds
howl in the background. Batido joins her but
something dire and deadly has happened. The practice
level features the tutorial stylings of Margarita.
The goal in this level is to withstand the attacks
of the enemies without losing any of your guard
towers or structures. The enemies try to mount
concerted attacks but as long as you generate new
Phantoms and Fairies to fend off the attacks, you'll
be fine. Although the Phantoms are strong attackers,
they have low HP and are slow. So, the fairies have
an advantage in that they are fast and have higher
HP. After the level is over, Lillet is by herself
again for a few seconds when she's joined by an
armored demon with white hair a blue complexion and
a crown on his head. Everyone is gone. Kaput. Lillet
is shocked at the revelation but before she can do
anything, a time warp of sorts sends her all the way
back to the beginning of her stay at the Magic
Academy. After this scene, a revisiting of the Night
Before scene is played where Lillet is speaking to
Gafu when Margarita joins the conversation. From
this point fourth, all five days will repeat again
where Lillet has to discover what caused the tragic
circumstances that befell nearly everyone at the
school. Each day is prefaced by a "SECOND"
designation - for example SECOND DAY 1 to let you
know that you're on the second go-around for the
five days of Grim Grimoire. Although the days are
similar, there are different circumstances and
character interactions that occur. For example, on
day one, Advocaat appears during Gammel's lecture.
He wasn't there on the first day one. The battle in
the Second Day 1 pits the player's contingent of
fairies against demons and some imposing beasts
which do a lot of damage. We played this level on
the EASY setting which wasn't difficult but we're
guessing the NORMAL setting is a lot more
challenging. After completing the stage, the first
book of Sorcery is unlocked which gives players the
ability to control Imps.
» The SECOND Day 2 features Lillet and Advocaat who
gives her the second book of Sorcery with two spells
available at the outset - Grimalkin for Level 1 and
Egg for Level 2. The action in this level gives you
four Imps to use to collect mana and two Grimalkins.
Soon after the level starts, the Dual Shock 2
controller will start rumbling and the screen will
shake. A mighty wyrm is making its way towards your
little encampment and the only way to stop it with
your little crew is to send the Grimalkins to meet
it and cast a sleep spell so that it dozes off and
stops its rampage. The key to this level is to
generate an egg and then incubate it. A mighty wyrm
will hatch from the egg and counter the enemy wyrm
as well as the first wave of enemy attackers who
will run roughshod over your entire encampment if
you're not quick on the draw. Wyrms cost 500 mana
each and take time to grow so you'll have to act
quickly since the Imps are slow at gathering mana.
If you have two wyrms attacking the enemy at once,
you're nigh unstoppable. Slow but unstoppable. The
enemy will be able to generate two more wyrms of
their own to counter your forces but by the time
they're operational, you'll have another two wyrms
of your own to meet them head on. After completing
this level, the third book of Necromancy is unlocked
which adds Obelisk and Skull Image to your
repertoire.
»
Battles are fairly straightforward where familiars
are marshaled into direct conflict against enemies
on a playfield which is more vertical than
horizontal.
» The voice actress for Lillet in the Japanese
version speaks more naturally than the actress who
does Lillet's voice in the North American version of
the game.
» The dialogue in the cut scenes is voiced entirely
by actors while the text of the dialogue scrolls on
the lower portion of the interaction scene.
» Enemies include red suited jester-like imps,
grim-reaper-like beings that serve as the front of a
ship, stone golem-like beings with burning fire
within, basilisks, and other exotic creatures. The
artwork is excellent and the creatures animate
fluidly as they ramble around. Some creatures such
as the wyrm take up nearly half the entire screen as
they crawl into view and attack with billowing
blasts of fire.
» Despite having the massive head of a lion,
Chartreuse is soft-spoken and somewhat effete in his
mannerisms.
» When a unit is selected, its available functions
are shown on the icons located on the lower-right
portion of the screen. For example, the elves can
only move to collect mana and build structures. As
you level up, the elves will gain the ability to
heal units. The fairies on the other hand can move,
attack, and defend. They cannot perform grunt work
however.
» When units are attacking an enemy, they can be
moved or made to stand at a position and defend by
highlighting the discs on the lower portion of the
screen for MOVEMENT, ATTACK, and DEFEND. Toggle
between the options by tapping the L1 or R2 trigger
and then activate by pressing the O button on the
desired action.
» To bring up the MASTER MENU at any time, press the
START button and the following options will appear
End Game
Grimoire Data
Practice Content
Options
Return to Game.
» Grim Grimoire is very much our type of game. The
missions are enjoyable and later levels are
challenging but it would have been nice to have a
speed-up cursor command so that we can zip around
the battlefield quickly. As it is, you have to push
the L-analog and travel around the screen at normal
speed to check out your troops and forces and issue
commands. When multiple campaigns are afoot, this
can cause a bit of frustration and perhaps
consternation. As it is however, this will be one of
the few games that NCS staffers will play from start
to finish.
|
|
This document and photos are ©NCSX 2007. All rights
reserved. No reproduction in whole or in part of
this document may be made without express written
consent of National Console Support, Inc. |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
