[GBA] Sigma Star Saga - RPG/Shooter? from developers of Shantae
05-09-05, 10:13 PM
#1
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[GBA] Sigma Star Saga - RPG/Shooter? from developers of Shantae
http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/609/609264p1.html
May 9, 2005 - If there is an idea that has not been explored in development of Namco's new shooter-RPG, Sigma Star Saga, we can't think of it. This game, developed by the GBA buffs at WayForward, combines every concept under the sun, including randomized mini-levels, branching story paths, weapon combining and re-combining, and so much more. It's clearly influenced by the classics of the shooter and RPG genre, and while the version playable at Namco's Pre-E3 event wasn't complete enough to determine whether it will stand in those ranks, its unique gameplay blend is clearly promising.
Sigma Star Saga is first and foremost an RPG, with semi-traditional action-RPG gameplay out of the Zelda mold. You are a space pilot who became a key component of a decisive battle against the Krill army. Your superiors have taken notice of this, and have enlisted you into a dangerous mission: become a Krill double-agent and discover the secrets of a special super-weapon that they are preparing. Once inside the hive, the Krill will send you on missions to far-away planets, which you will explore on foot in 3/4 top-down action sequences. Your pilot will be able to wield weapons and attack enemies in this mode, much like Gauntlet or other action/adventure games.
The difference is, many encounters take the action off the planet surface. In enemy encounters and boss battles, the action may switch to a side-scrolling shooter engine where you blast away enemies inside a ship. These shooter components still retain the RPG play in their own way -- you will be collecting bubbles for experience points as you shoot down enemy aircraft, and you can customize your weapon load-out out of multiple styles of guns and weapon upgrades that you have collected. These shooter battles are meant to be short and random -- in fact, the stages of the smaller enemy encounters are built out of random blocks of level design for unexpected twists and turns in each battle (the boss levels still feature fully-formed shooter stage challenges.) There are several hundred chunks of map that can be combined to form these mini-battles, with sequences as simple as a wave of bad guys to shoot down to sequences as complicated as moving obstacles blocking your way.
Between those two game concepts, there's plenty to play with. The shooter stages feature a weapon system that allows something to the tune of 27,000 combinations -- you can assign four weapons in a stage, and each weapon is built out of a foundation and two suffixes. A spread shot can shoot either lasers or bullets; a surrounding sub-ship can fire, or be made of fire. Meanwhile, back down on the planet, your suit (which is a Krill army uniform that is actually a living, armored parasite clamped onto your body) has features such as the ability to turn you into a rolling puddle of goo, zip around with super-speedy shoes, or take off in flight with the Flutterpack unit. There is also an X-Ray tool that is equipped much later in the game which allows you to see underneath the ground -- if you need some extra goods, return to previous stages and find all the hidden stuff.
Namco's producer was reluctant to identify specific influences on this project for fear of the game being marked out as a melting pot of other games rather than a unique final product, but particularly in the space sequences, shooter fans can easily catch many an homage to classic shooters. The opening boss battle for instance, pays dues to the cult classic, The Guardian Legend: you shoots in at incredible speed over a planet surface, with your ship just barely dodging obstacles and enemies before finally slowing down and engaging in more technical blasting action. Little touches also reminded us of the Panzer Dragoon series and Gradius franchise. Developer WayForward knows its sources well (this is, after all, the company that gave props to the little-known Metal Storm with a simple kids' game based on the Wendy comic books), and there is clearly a lot of love being poured into the specifics of the game's design.
All of this plays across a grand story that's comical but epic as you continue to learn more about the Krill army and your own government's political agenda. You will also make friends with a brash girl named Psyme, who becomes your love interest in the midst of it all (yes, your character looks feminine, but that's the flowing tentacles and bizarre plating of your parasitic armor.) Depending on how your winning personality works on the brassy Psyme (who looks an awful lot like Capt. Boots of Shantae) in the middle of what becomes a messy love triangle in the middle of an intergalactic war, you may play through to one of four possible endings to the game.
The depth of the game seems to be fairly startling, so much so that the playable version of the game at Namco's event still had not figured out how to manage it all. Tuning is the current priority, managing all of these thousands of weapon combinations into a balanced shooter experience. Your ship has multiple hit points in action sequences, as well as multiple lives to get you through the biggest battles, which should make for a shooter less frustrating to regular players just aiming to get through it all (newbies can also hang out and level up until they're ready to handle the tricky shooter stages.) Each of the multiple ships and weapons you earn and develop in the game have their own strengths and flaws, which we quickly found out in a digger-style shooter stage (where the forced scrolling pushed into a wall of blocks that you are blasting away at, with obstructing blocks sometimes blocking the straight path you have dug out.) There are also boss encounters that depend more on skill than upgrade status -- one battle, nicknamed the "Concentration Boss" had you blasting hidden like-colored triggers to disarm the boss. We did not have a chance to see how all of the planetary action is working out, but we were able to explore the planet with our Flutterpacks and goo puddles, and also fight the Krill's man-testing brute in an arena with our pea shooter pistol (which is intentionally underpowered, and so weak that characters will often make fun of you in the game.) These sequences will also have upgrades for your skills, and you will be able to collect weapons such as kick mines to supplement your low-caliber firepower.
Developer WayForward has made a name for itself with its own particular brand of hand-made game art, and the style is in full effect here now that the team has an entirely-original project to create. The squat character designs owe a lot to Japanese anime influence, with bright colors and super-deformed figures. Detailed animation on the hair tentacles is particularly distinguishing for your hero, and figures take up a good deal of the GBA's small screen. Fans of Shantae and WayForward's other creations will easily find these new characters kin. On the opposite side of the world, the shooting stages are decked out with tons of effects -- parallax backgrounds, swirling effects, moving background obstacles and multi-scrolling action, this game goes off with shooter styling. The hand-made ship designs and backgrounds aren't as minutely detailed as modern 2D shooters pull off, but there's certainly charm in how the whole game holds together in that cartoon style at the game's root level.
Sigma Star Saga is being readied for its June release, with all the components in place and just balancing needed to put it all in one cohesive package. Look for further impressions of the action-RPG from further preview editions as the release date nears.
May 9, 2005 - If there is an idea that has not been explored in development of Namco's new shooter-RPG, Sigma Star Saga, we can't think of it. This game, developed by the GBA buffs at WayForward, combines every concept under the sun, including randomized mini-levels, branching story paths, weapon combining and re-combining, and so much more. It's clearly influenced by the classics of the shooter and RPG genre, and while the version playable at Namco's Pre-E3 event wasn't complete enough to determine whether it will stand in those ranks, its unique gameplay blend is clearly promising.
Sigma Star Saga is first and foremost an RPG, with semi-traditional action-RPG gameplay out of the Zelda mold. You are a space pilot who became a key component of a decisive battle against the Krill army. Your superiors have taken notice of this, and have enlisted you into a dangerous mission: become a Krill double-agent and discover the secrets of a special super-weapon that they are preparing. Once inside the hive, the Krill will send you on missions to far-away planets, which you will explore on foot in 3/4 top-down action sequences. Your pilot will be able to wield weapons and attack enemies in this mode, much like Gauntlet or other action/adventure games.
The difference is, many encounters take the action off the planet surface. In enemy encounters and boss battles, the action may switch to a side-scrolling shooter engine where you blast away enemies inside a ship. These shooter components still retain the RPG play in their own way -- you will be collecting bubbles for experience points as you shoot down enemy aircraft, and you can customize your weapon load-out out of multiple styles of guns and weapon upgrades that you have collected. These shooter battles are meant to be short and random -- in fact, the stages of the smaller enemy encounters are built out of random blocks of level design for unexpected twists and turns in each battle (the boss levels still feature fully-formed shooter stage challenges.) There are several hundred chunks of map that can be combined to form these mini-battles, with sequences as simple as a wave of bad guys to shoot down to sequences as complicated as moving obstacles blocking your way.
Between those two game concepts, there's plenty to play with. The shooter stages feature a weapon system that allows something to the tune of 27,000 combinations -- you can assign four weapons in a stage, and each weapon is built out of a foundation and two suffixes. A spread shot can shoot either lasers or bullets; a surrounding sub-ship can fire, or be made of fire. Meanwhile, back down on the planet, your suit (which is a Krill army uniform that is actually a living, armored parasite clamped onto your body) has features such as the ability to turn you into a rolling puddle of goo, zip around with super-speedy shoes, or take off in flight with the Flutterpack unit. There is also an X-Ray tool that is equipped much later in the game which allows you to see underneath the ground -- if you need some extra goods, return to previous stages and find all the hidden stuff.
Namco's producer was reluctant to identify specific influences on this project for fear of the game being marked out as a melting pot of other games rather than a unique final product, but particularly in the space sequences, shooter fans can easily catch many an homage to classic shooters. The opening boss battle for instance, pays dues to the cult classic, The Guardian Legend: you shoots in at incredible speed over a planet surface, with your ship just barely dodging obstacles and enemies before finally slowing down and engaging in more technical blasting action. Little touches also reminded us of the Panzer Dragoon series and Gradius franchise. Developer WayForward knows its sources well (this is, after all, the company that gave props to the little-known Metal Storm with a simple kids' game based on the Wendy comic books), and there is clearly a lot of love being poured into the specifics of the game's design.
All of this plays across a grand story that's comical but epic as you continue to learn more about the Krill army and your own government's political agenda. You will also make friends with a brash girl named Psyme, who becomes your love interest in the midst of it all (yes, your character looks feminine, but that's the flowing tentacles and bizarre plating of your parasitic armor.) Depending on how your winning personality works on the brassy Psyme (who looks an awful lot like Capt. Boots of Shantae) in the middle of what becomes a messy love triangle in the middle of an intergalactic war, you may play through to one of four possible endings to the game.
The depth of the game seems to be fairly startling, so much so that the playable version of the game at Namco's event still had not figured out how to manage it all. Tuning is the current priority, managing all of these thousands of weapon combinations into a balanced shooter experience. Your ship has multiple hit points in action sequences, as well as multiple lives to get you through the biggest battles, which should make for a shooter less frustrating to regular players just aiming to get through it all (newbies can also hang out and level up until they're ready to handle the tricky shooter stages.) Each of the multiple ships and weapons you earn and develop in the game have their own strengths and flaws, which we quickly found out in a digger-style shooter stage (where the forced scrolling pushed into a wall of blocks that you are blasting away at, with obstructing blocks sometimes blocking the straight path you have dug out.) There are also boss encounters that depend more on skill than upgrade status -- one battle, nicknamed the "Concentration Boss" had you blasting hidden like-colored triggers to disarm the boss. We did not have a chance to see how all of the planetary action is working out, but we were able to explore the planet with our Flutterpacks and goo puddles, and also fight the Krill's man-testing brute in an arena with our pea shooter pistol (which is intentionally underpowered, and so weak that characters will often make fun of you in the game.) These sequences will also have upgrades for your skills, and you will be able to collect weapons such as kick mines to supplement your low-caliber firepower.
Developer WayForward has made a name for itself with its own particular brand of hand-made game art, and the style is in full effect here now that the team has an entirely-original project to create. The squat character designs owe a lot to Japanese anime influence, with bright colors and super-deformed figures. Detailed animation on the hair tentacles is particularly distinguishing for your hero, and figures take up a good deal of the GBA's small screen. Fans of Shantae and WayForward's other creations will easily find these new characters kin. On the opposite side of the world, the shooting stages are decked out with tons of effects -- parallax backgrounds, swirling effects, moving background obstacles and multi-scrolling action, this game goes off with shooter styling. The hand-made ship designs and backgrounds aren't as minutely detailed as modern 2D shooters pull off, but there's certainly charm in how the whole game holds together in that cartoon style at the game's root level.
Sigma Star Saga is being readied for its June release, with all the components in place and just balancing needed to put it all in one cohesive package. Look for further impressions of the action-RPG from further preview editions as the release date nears.
05-10-05, 07:55 PM
#2
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Wow that game sounds incredible. I doubt that it will ever make it to the US though.
It's good to know that innovative GBA games are still being produced.
It's good to know that innovative GBA games are still being produced.
05-10-05, 08:32 PM
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The U.S. release date is on June 14th! Notice the text on the screenshots is in english 
.
This game sounds like a neat idea, I love these kinds of games that cross over genres. Never did play shantae.
.This game sounds like a neat idea, I love these kinds of games that cross over genres. Never did play shantae.
05-11-05, 08:06 AM
#4
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Thread Starter
Yup, being developed in the US.
Outlaw, Shantae is great. It was forgotten about since it came out after the GBA came out (it's GBC). If you enjoy platform/adventure games likes the old Wonderboy series, you'd enjoy it.
Outlaw, Shantae is great. It was forgotten about since it came out after the GBA came out (it's GBC). If you enjoy platform/adventure games likes the old Wonderboy series, you'd enjoy it.
05-11-05, 08:41 AM
#6
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
Guardian Legend is mentioned in the preview. Man this game sounds like its going to be one of those sleeper hits that ends up a cult classic. It was obvious playing Shantae that the guys making this love video games. This also sounds a lot like a game I made many, many years ago on my Commodore 64 which was an RPG/Shooter hybrid. Of course, my game had Dragon Warrior style battles and the shooter levels were when you traveled from planet to planet. Hopefully once production wraps up on this game they can get back to Shantae Advance.
05-23-05, 02:04 PM
#7
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Thread Starter
A friend of mine who went to E3 gave me a call last night and said Sigma Star Saga was his favorite game at the show. Apparently the game hit its budget limit at one point and the developer (Way Forward) paid out of their own pocket to keep going with all they wanted to put in the game. I'm even more excited about this now!
05-23-05, 03:54 PM
#8
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by PixyJunket
A friend of mine who went to E3 gave me a call last night and said Sigma Star Saga was his favorite game at the show. Apparently the game hit its budget limit at one point and the developer (Way Forward) paid out of their own pocket to keep going with all they wanted to put in the game. I'm even more excited about this now!
08-16-05, 12:04 PM
#10
DVD Talk Legend
Man, just what I needed. More money to spend this month on games.
It has an 81% ranking so far on game rankings for the reviews that have come in. Thats pretty darn good for a GBA game. Looks like I will have to wedge this one into the budget.
It has an 81% ranking so far on game rankings for the reviews that have come in. Thats pretty darn good for a GBA game. Looks like I will have to wedge this one into the budget.
Last edited by darkside; 08-16-05 at 06:29 PM.
08-16-05, 08:20 PM
#11
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Hopefully the 10000 weapon thing is a bit of an exageration as I'd rather they playtest and make tight say 100 weapons, than 10000 unbalanced weapons.
Still could be a must have GBA game.
Still could be a must have GBA game.
08-17-05, 12:23 AM
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Fairly positive review from gamespot:
http://www.gamespot.com/gba/rpg/sigm...aga/index.html
This will be my next gba purchase.
http://www.gamespot.com/gba/rpg/sigm...aga/index.html
This will be my next gba purchase.
08-21-05, 01:24 PM
#14
DVD Talk Legend
I just got this today, played it for an hour, and I have to say, I'm not impressed.
it's a cool concept, but it seems like they went out of there way to screw it up everywhere they could.
The Overworld
*Talking is a chore. There doesn't seem to be an option to speed up the text. You have to HOLD DOWN the B (or was it A?) button to get the text to go fast. Then you have to press the button again to get the next chunk of text. Then HOLD the button down again, etc... ugh...
*This guy walks too damn slow. B is the run button, and you might as well put some masking tape over it, because there's no reason not to run.
*For god's sake, ZOOM OUT! You can't see very much of your surroundings, because they chose to zoom in so damn much (probably so you can get a nice view of their great big character graphics). This makes fighting a chore, which you'll see in your very first fight. The bad guy keeps wandering off your view of the screen, so you have to wander around to find him.
Shooting
*The random shooting levels are beyond dull. I mean, tear you hair out dull.
*When you are whisked away to one of these random levels, you also get a random type of ship. Which is kind of cool, except the majority of these ships move too slow. WAY too slow. Luckily, there is a speed up button, but it's B. So good luck holding down the B button the entire time you're raping the A button trying to shoot the bad guys. Gee, I wonder if making the L button speed up would have been a better idea?
*The customized weapons are cool, but you only get once choice of weapons, and you pick that before your battle. So, once you're shooting, there are no powerups. You get the weapon you configured, and the generic base weapon throughout the whole level. And that's it.
*I did make it to the first non-random shooter level (boss level, I guess) and it just didn't feel right. Part of it is the molasses slow controls, but there was just something about it that didn't click for me.
Maybe the story picks up a lot and gets really interesting, but right now, I'm going to have a hard time convincing myself to even play this again.
it's a cool concept, but it seems like they went out of there way to screw it up everywhere they could.
The Overworld
*Talking is a chore. There doesn't seem to be an option to speed up the text. You have to HOLD DOWN the B (or was it A?) button to get the text to go fast. Then you have to press the button again to get the next chunk of text. Then HOLD the button down again, etc... ugh...
*This guy walks too damn slow. B is the run button, and you might as well put some masking tape over it, because there's no reason not to run.
*For god's sake, ZOOM OUT! You can't see very much of your surroundings, because they chose to zoom in so damn much (probably so you can get a nice view of their great big character graphics). This makes fighting a chore, which you'll see in your very first fight. The bad guy keeps wandering off your view of the screen, so you have to wander around to find him.
Shooting
*The random shooting levels are beyond dull. I mean, tear you hair out dull.
*When you are whisked away to one of these random levels, you also get a random type of ship. Which is kind of cool, except the majority of these ships move too slow. WAY too slow. Luckily, there is a speed up button, but it's B. So good luck holding down the B button the entire time you're raping the A button trying to shoot the bad guys. Gee, I wonder if making the L button speed up would have been a better idea?
*The customized weapons are cool, but you only get once choice of weapons, and you pick that before your battle. So, once you're shooting, there are no powerups. You get the weapon you configured, and the generic base weapon throughout the whole level. And that's it.
*I did make it to the first non-random shooter level (boss level, I guess) and it just didn't feel right. Part of it is the molasses slow controls, but there was just something about it that didn't click for me.
Maybe the story picks up a lot and gets really interesting, but right now, I'm going to have a hard time convincing myself to even play this again.
08-22-05, 10:44 PM
#16
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Originally Posted by joeblow69
I just got this today, played it for an hour, and I have to say, I'm not impressed.
it's a cool concept, but it seems like they went out of there way to screw it up everywhere they could.
The Overworld
*Talking is a chore. There doesn't seem to be an option to speed up the text. You have to HOLD DOWN the B (or was it A?) button to get the text to go fast. Then you have to press the button again to get the next chunk of text. Then HOLD the button down again, etc... ugh...
*This guy walks too damn slow. B is the run button, and you might as well put some masking tape over it, because there's no reason not to run.
*For god's sake, ZOOM OUT! You can't see very much of your surroundings, because they chose to zoom in so damn much (probably so you can get a nice view of their great big character graphics). This makes fighting a chore, which you'll see in your very first fight. The bad guy keeps wandering off your view of the screen, so you have to wander around to find him.
Shooting
*The random shooting levels are beyond dull. I mean, tear you hair out dull.
*When you are whisked away to one of these random levels, you also get a random type of ship. Which is kind of cool, except the majority of these ships move too slow. WAY too slow. Luckily, there is a speed up button, but it's B. So good luck holding down the B button the entire time you're raping the A button trying to shoot the bad guys. Gee, I wonder if making the L button speed up would have been a better idea?
*The customized weapons are cool, but you only get once choice of weapons, and you pick that before your battle. So, once you're shooting, there are no powerups. You get the weapon you configured, and the generic base weapon throughout the whole level. And that's it.
*I did make it to the first non-random shooter level (boss level, I guess) and it just didn't feel right. Part of it is the molasses slow controls, but there was just something about it that didn't click for me.
Maybe the story picks up a lot and gets really interesting, but right now, I'm going to have a hard time convincing myself to even play this again.
it's a cool concept, but it seems like they went out of there way to screw it up everywhere they could.
The Overworld
*Talking is a chore. There doesn't seem to be an option to speed up the text. You have to HOLD DOWN the B (or was it A?) button to get the text to go fast. Then you have to press the button again to get the next chunk of text. Then HOLD the button down again, etc... ugh...
*This guy walks too damn slow. B is the run button, and you might as well put some masking tape over it, because there's no reason not to run.
*For god's sake, ZOOM OUT! You can't see very much of your surroundings, because they chose to zoom in so damn much (probably so you can get a nice view of their great big character graphics). This makes fighting a chore, which you'll see in your very first fight. The bad guy keeps wandering off your view of the screen, so you have to wander around to find him.
Shooting
*The random shooting levels are beyond dull. I mean, tear you hair out dull.
*When you are whisked away to one of these random levels, you also get a random type of ship. Which is kind of cool, except the majority of these ships move too slow. WAY too slow. Luckily, there is a speed up button, but it's B. So good luck holding down the B button the entire time you're raping the A button trying to shoot the bad guys. Gee, I wonder if making the L button speed up would have been a better idea?
*The customized weapons are cool, but you only get once choice of weapons, and you pick that before your battle. So, once you're shooting, there are no powerups. You get the weapon you configured, and the generic base weapon throughout the whole level. And that's it.
*I did make it to the first non-random shooter level (boss level, I guess) and it just didn't feel right. Part of it is the molasses slow controls, but there was just something about it that didn't click for me.
Maybe the story picks up a lot and gets really interesting, but right now, I'm going to have a hard time convincing myself to even play this again.
08-23-05, 09:05 AM
#18
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by outer-edge
Sad to hear. I bought this but haven't opened it yet. Now I am wondering if I should return it and maybe reconsider at a later date when there is a cheaper price. That money could always go towards one of the other titles coming out that I want.
The thing that is the game killer for me is this whole "Hold down the B button to move your ship at a reasonable speed" thing. It's not a big deal in random levels, because you can practically do those with your eyes closed.
But you'll need to do this on the non-random levels, which just annoyed me all to hell. If you use your thumb for both the A and B buttons (like me) you're going to have a tough time. If you use your index finger for A and your middle finger for B, you might have better luck.
08-23-05, 09:51 AM
#19
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
That's pretty much it for me as well. Going into this game was all about the shooter aspect and that it's so poorly done is a fierce kick to the nuts. The shooter levels are so slow and dull it hurts. This is up there with some of the worst first-gen NES shooters in its ineptitude and at least those had the excuse of being somewhat pioneers in their genre.
08-25-05, 02:05 PM
#20
DVD Talk Legend
Pixy, have you gone back and given this another chance yet? I can't help feel I should, but am having a hard time motivating. Maybe it gets better as you get further into it?
08-25-05, 02:23 PM
#21
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
Yeah, I played a bit while I took a dump last night. 
Get this, the first boss.. just moves around randomly, it does not fire back. I laughed. It was pathetic. The boss level itself was annoying, basically it moves really fast and you just dodge stuff, not really much shooting. I really, really want to try and get a few more weapons to see if that helps but the damn random ship thing is so stupid and the weapon assortment is pretty boring so far. I also hate that if you hit something, you blow up and respawn instead of just taking damage.
Get this, the first boss.. just moves around randomly, it does not fire back. I laughed. It was pathetic. The boss level itself was annoying, basically it moves really fast and you just dodge stuff, not really much shooting. I really, really want to try and get a few more weapons to see if that helps but the damn random ship thing is so stupid and the weapon assortment is pretty boring so far. I also hate that if you hit something, you blow up and respawn instead of just taking damage.
08-26-05, 08:20 AM
#23
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
I'd say give it a try. If you're not a hardcore shmup guy like myself you may be able to really enjoy the game. It's just that I've been importing some new-age Japanese shmups like Shikigami no Shiro and Espgaluda and going back and playing all the NES/SNES/PC-Engine Compile shmups (not to mention Gradius mother-fucking V) so I'm just expecting a little more out of my shooter.
