Reprise wrote:There is a translation guide and walkthrough online (I think there might be a couple) and it will get you through the game. The only problem is during the 'simulation' parts where you must work on new games. They're so random that there's no translations out there for those parts and I can't work out really what I'm supposed to be doing. I've literally got through them often by just randomly pressing buttons and guessing my way through it... Otherwise, it's easy to follow the main gameplay parts.
Those simulation parts are exceedingly difficult, even with an understanding of the language. I kind of liked that they sort of give a sense of corporate game development, on a small scale, but I dropped the game for a long while once the simulation sections became mandatory for progression. I never really understood how to combat the game releases from Dogma with my own, but I got a handle on the mechanics toward the end of the game, and was able to jump up to nearly 60% market share. Unfortunately that locked me out of the last chapter, which I believe requires 100% market share.
One thing that's a bit important to remember is that the directors each have a limited number of titles they can develop (usually three). It's also really important to get the amenities for each block as high as possible (or at least one main facility you might be focusing on) in order to work at any reasonable pace. Managing the coffers is the other major task, that makes it difficult to keep all of the employees happy while advertising the games, and meeting the release schedule. This is sounding more and more like real work the more I type. I think people who are really into management simulation games would be right at home with these sections, but for me, they were a bit more of a chore than fun. I wish I didn't have to play through the game again in order to actually play the final chapter.
Anyway, it's pretty easy to tell what kind of game you're going to get out of the director based on how quickly development goes: If it's rocketing up a percentage point or more per day, it's not going to be a heavy hitter, for instance. That also helps to determine how much money to throw into the advertising for each game. The gains for getting anticipation up can be substantial. Toward the end of the game, I just threw money at each of the development blocks to get them all outfitted with the top of the line tech, put the teams' noses to the grind stone, and hoped for the best with the random occurrences, and waited for the inevitable crashes with a handful of vacation tickets--with some minor adjustments in between. Also helps to get rock-Yu-Suzuki-lobster.
The game also won't allow individual wages to be kept too low, as recruiters will be banging down the doors to pull that talent away. They get a lot more mopey, too.
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Also, on Light Crusader: I had never played it until a couple years ago, and it's probably my favorite game by Treasure; definitely one of my favorite games of the generation.
