RT: battlecry

[Feyd-Rautha]

Soooo, what's the word on this title...is it decent?

>>>worth ten bucks??

......................thanks for any imput!

[Mechamaniac]

Ten bucks is pushing it, but the game is OK, and worth that much.

[jardann]

A lot of people here don't like it, but I would say it's easily worth ten bucks.

[Feyd-Rautha]

..cool

[Agent ONE]

No, not worth more than 2.

You will be SO annoyed.

Missions are slow moving and the fighting is not fun at all. 75% of the game you are protecting something, usually the Catseye recon plane... Which blows up for no reason most of the time. You have to kill thousands of totally unchallenging enemies to hear some retarted storyline stuff. It just sucks. Some of the visuals are cool, but not cool enough to put up with this game.

[ewilen]

It has several missions that are either too difficult or which require you to do stuff which isn't at all enjoyable.

I agree it's worth somewhere between $2 and $10 but double figures is pushing it considering how old this game is.

[Blaine23]

Eh. I'd say $10 is pretty fair.

For that some money you could get like 2 or 3 magazines, one book and a Coke, or a discount CD like the best of Steppenwolf or Foghat.

When it comes down to Slow Ride or playing Battlecry - It's really neck and neck.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Battlecry = Steppenwolf? Foghat?

More like Air Supply.

[areaseven]

Witn $10, you can buy two copies of Ace Combat 04, which is a superior game.

[Feyd-Rautha]

Battlecry = Steppenwolf? Foghat?

More like Air Supply.

or perhaps MEATLOAF??

[JsARCLIGHT]

Big... Fat... Stupid... wanna shoot him...

Yeah, I'll give you Meatloaf.

[Hikuro]

Atleast you can get it in the states and play it without having to mod your PS2.

The games just fine, its not perfect but it'll atleast give you an idea of what NOT to do when making a video game

The perks is simple, you get the pilot a wide array of VF-1's, from the A Cannon Fodder, to Skull One, to the YF-1R prototype variant. You got a medal system in which if you kill a certain number of enemy units or complete a mission in a specific manner, you get special deals like paint schemes or Veritech fighters or Behind the Scenes interviews with the cast and crew....(Reba West is OOOOLLLLLD)

There's also a cheat, if you get the Fast pack system, and go back to a space battle where you can equip it, you can continue USING that pack as long as you don't save and quit.

I use to just play the first two missions over and over and over till I had over 500 kills of both Regult and Fighter pods. It also allows you to practice your snipping abilities so you can get the stealth armor after killing 50 Power Armors.

The downsides is like mentioned, you do alot of guard duty, be it Copters, Recon planes, Destroids, citizens etc....its all part of being a Robotech Defender

Some game mistakes which are very easy to spot, lack of SFX was a big issue, Regults would be walking around, and there'd be no sound of their legs stomping about, or late SFX's from cannon firing, to walking, to even having some storyline pieces cut out.

There's a transformation error where when going to any form and into Battloid, the wings will dissappear completely.

But it has it's up times when your sliding down a hill with a few Zentradie targets firing at you and all you do is just slide from one end to another shootin at them....that was something I liked was the sliding and strafing around.

Worth 10 bucks easily, but myself, I paid 60 bucks I think cause I went collectors edition thinking the game was gonna turn out really nice.

Also if you notice, there seems to be a Jack Archor following of fans, believe it or not, its odd, but I can't say I'm a Jack Archor fan, I did like his color scheme for his Veritechs.

[Dangaioh]

For $10.00 it is not a bad game... I might be the only who actually enjoyed the cell shading. It does served it's purpose in trying to make it a cartoon... I do believe that's what's the developers and Harmony Crap is trying to do.

[/please don't throw sharp things at the fool making this reply... namely me, you can throw money, just not sharp things].

Controls are not bad, SFX does suck at times and the downer is all those escort missions... those blasted escort missions.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Personally, I liked it. Sure, the ceiling sucked as it was too low at times. All the "protect" missions were damn near impossible, and I still haven't gotten one medal when I've greatly exceeded requirements. I found no use for Battroid mode, sticking mostly to GERWALK. Still, It's easy to ignore the Robotech timeline, has a lot of play time, and fun missions, and can be played as a Macross game, so that's a plus. For ten bucks, I say go for it.

[Hikuro]

The big point of the game even theh developers mentioned this "There is a use for all 3 modes, and you gotta use them to each his own during certain times"

When I had to protect Graystone, I would be in one area and would have to go clear cross another and attack a hord of pods. So I would use Battloid during my attacks and keep them spread, than I would use my after burners in fighter mode, launch as many missiles as possible and during the explosions I'd transform and let out all the ammo I could while my missiles came back up, than do it all over again.

When you have to destroy the recon ships with the protoculture and can't let one of them escape, you gotta do the same thing, let it all go and barrel roll from pods. If you use that cheat I mentioned, it helps ALOT more.

[wolfx]

I couldn't have won the game if not for the "fast pack cheat". Its ridiculously hard and frustrating. The final mission just before the final boss fight especially. I'm not sure if there is a good ending, but I got a pretty sucky ending for all my hard work.

[JB0]

I like the game.

Yes, the flight ceiling is low.

Battroid mode is incredibly under-rated. You can turn VERY fast as a battroid. And shooting down missiles is possibly THE most valuable move in the game.

Escort missions ... the only one I HATED was "Trial By Fire".

Defense missions... I cheated through 2 of them.

Next-to-last level... you will redo it many many times.

I can beat it without cheating... in a VF-1A(heaviest armor)... barely.

Sniper mode is your friend. Shoot everything you can from under cover, where it can't shoot back. This level's all about memorization.

[Gabe Q]

Soooo, what's the word on this title...is it decent?

  >>>worth ten bucks??

Pretty decent game, it is.

Yup, it's worth ten bucks.

I got ripped off and paid fifteen.

As mentioned above, the difficulty varies wildly. You'll tear your hair out as you're stomping on the controller. It's so damn frustrating when you have to repeat earlier parts of a mission just to get to the last part of a mission. Only for the skilled and patient gamer.

Pretty much the only game in town (featuring valks) for American PS2 systems.

Edited November 19, 2004 by Gabe Q

[Druna Skass]

Mediocre game, didn't like it a lot but didn't hate it all that much either.

I don't know why people have a hard time with the escort missions. Only the fighter pods go after the escortee as long as you kill them asap and drops some decoys around the escortee, you'll be fine.

[JB0]

Mediocre game, didn't like it a lot but didn't hate it all that much either.

I don't know why people have a hard time with the escort missions. Only the fighter pods go after the escortee as long as you kill them asap and drops some decoys around the escortee, you'll be fine.

Chaff is for wusses.

I dropped into battroid and gunned the missiles down. More reliable for me, and doesn't use a missile slot.

But yah, that was more or less how I got through Trial By Fire. Hang back far enough to see the Cat's Eye and the area around it, and shoot every "fighter pod" that got near the Cat's Eye. If the immediate vicinity is empty, go get a few NosGer, excuse me, "male powered armors" off your back, watching the radar for the next "fighter pod" to make for the Cat's Eye.

Personally, I found fetch & carry missions more annoying than escort missions.

Property defense was a mixed bag. Some of them were a blast, others were... less so(Cheated through the last 2 of 'em. One-shot kills are FUN, if you can avoid shooting the bridge you're standing on...).

The terrestrial shuttle destruction missions were my least favorites, though(the one shuttle level in space was a blast, if for no other reaosn than I could exact sweet revenge upon the shuttles for all those canyon chases).

[ewilen]

Next-to-last level is okay, but I got really sick of it since it's one of the few that offers lots of sniping opportunities, and you need to snipe a lot to get one of the medals/paint schemes. I think a VF-1D is even better for the level, by the way--even heavier armor than the 1A, and you really don't need speed or lots of missiles, just patience.

Don't misunderstand me, I enjoyed much of this game, probably including some of the levels that people bitch about (such as the couple where you have to protect a theater/arena, and the helicopter escort missions). But the first part of the catseye mission, the first mission where you have to stop the protoculture transports, and this one mission where you have to rescue Hiro are all horrible. As well there's at least one mission that you simply can't complete without knowing in advance EXACTLY what you have to do--more like a Pac Man or Super Mario level than an immersive combat game.

And while I realize it's not entirely appropriate to compare the game to SDF Macross for PS2, playing the latter really makes you realize that BC did a second-rate job of capturing the sweep and fluidity of VF movement and combat. (One thing I'll give BC, though, is that the gun is useful in fighter mode; in SDF Macross, it's really only useful in battroid.)

The main reason why I wouldn't pay more than $10 for it now is that the market is swimming with used copies of the game.

[JB0]

Next-to-last level is okay, but I got really sick of it since it's one of the few that offers lots of sniping opportunities, and you need to snipe a lot to get one of the medals/paint schemes. I think a VF-1D is even better for the level, by the way--even heavier armor than the 1A, and you really don't need speed or lots of missiles, just patience.

I got sick of it because I kept having to redo it...

And I forgot about the 1D. I can clear it in that. With some life left afterwards, no less.

Don't misunderstand me, I enjoyed much of this game, probably including some of the levels that people bitch about (such as the couple where you have to protect a theater/arena, and the helicopter escort missions).

I like the theater defense stages. But not the bridge defense stage, or twin Monster defense stage.

And while I realize it's not entirely appropriate to compare the game to SDF Macross for PS2, playing the latter really makes you realize that BC did a second-rate job of capturing the sweep and fluidity of VF movement and combat. (One thing I'll give BC, though, is that the gun is useful in fighter mode; in SDF Macross, it's really only useful in battroid.)

BUT the cel-shaded graphics in Battlecry look so much more like the show than the shiny realistic-ish PS2 game.

Personally, I'm sick of attempted realism. IT's like the peopel taht want tosee their favorite cartoons redone as live-action movies. There's room in the world for other stuff, and other stuff works better for some things than hyper-realism.

[ewilen]

I still haven't gotten one medal when I've greatly exceeded requirements.

If this is the problem I'm thinking of, it's mentioned in one of the online FAQs. Something like you need to kill a bunch of Scouts but there's one level with a lot of them, yet they don't count toward your score. You need to avoid that level and kill the Scouts in other levels.

[Gwynne]

Game is ok, still playing it on Xbox

Pros:

-Lots of Valks and color schemes

-graphics look nice, I like the Cartoon look

-Lots of cheats to unlock valks/colors/missions( this way if you get stuck you can play another )

-Lots of missions

Cons:

-Protecting things sucks

-Movement is bad(turning)

-controls(trying to fly, shoot, and select a target may require a 3rd thumb)

-Game is almost TOO DAMN HARD

-even with the 1 shot kill cheat I was still not able to complete the first 'protect the cats eye mission'

-Did I mention this is really hard?

My favorite mission so far has been the 'party crashers' mission where you help Mr Hunter and save Ms Minmay. If your a macross/tech fan you will enjoy the game

Edited November 19, 2004 by Gwynne

[CoryHolmes]

One thing I really love Battlecry for is the number of paint schemes and other goodies they included in it, especially the interviews with the original Robotech VAs. Those were a real treat to watch.

But the paintschemes were just so damned cool. Seeing a VF-1S in the -1D paintscheme was far more entertaining than it should have been

[eugimon]

I didn't like the game very much... I played the xbox and PS2 versions

controls were really cumbersome, changing modes was not very intuitive for me, and I found I took a lot of hits whilst cycling through the modes. Also, the flight model I found to be pretty unconvincing and gerwalk mode just kinda sucked, imo.

The missions, I thought were needlessly difficult, more frustrating than challenging.

Graphics were decent, the cell shading was a nice touch.

After a few missions, I just stopped playing all together.

[JB0]

My favorite mission so far has been the 'party crashers' mission where you help Mr Hunter and save Ms Minmay. If your a macross/tech fan you will enjoy the game

Which reminds me... the game won't let you assassinate Minmay in the next level(when "Rick Hunter" orders you to fly her to her concert). She's $#@%ing bullet-proof.

[Hikuro]

Which reminds me... the game won't let you assassinate Minmay in the next level(when "Rick Hunter" orders you to fly her to her concert). She's $#@%ing bullet-proof.

Yeah.....the moment I heard her voice I fired a few missiles at her....she's like this tiny lil tan colored blip o nthe screen and said "SHE'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!" .......but like the legend says, you can't kill minmay......ESPICALLY the American Minmay....oh god......that's like Godzilla and Mothra having a baby....its super invicible and annoying.

Edited November 19, 2004 by Hikuro

[lt.actionjackson]

As much as I enjoyed flying around in my Valk/VT, this game made me realize how much I hate escort missions! The game progammer who thought any escort missions would be fun for gamers should have their head examined.

[RTShark]

Which reminds me... the game won't let you assassinate Minmay in the next level(when "Rick Hunter" orders you to fly her to her concert). She's $#@%ing bullet-proof.

I thought I was the only one who tried that...

[Gwynne]

My favorite mission so far has been the 'party crashers' mission where you help Mr Hunter and save Ms Minmay.  If your a macross/tech fan you will enjoy the game

Which reminds me... the game won't let you assassinate Minmay in the next level(when "Rick Hunter" orders you to fly her to her concert). She's $#@%ing bullet-proof.

HA! never tried it.

Another mission that drove me nuts was the 'deadly stom' one where you have to save the green valk girl. I dont remember her name so im going to call her missy. The bitch you have to fight is hard so much transforming and button pushing for like 20 minutes, only to die and do it again, hurts my hands. Still have not beaten it

[Prime]

I just got Battlecry a little while ago and I'm one of those who like it quite a bit. I had heard that many people (especially around here) didn't like the game very much, so I guess I went in with low expectations. But in the end I was pleasantly surprised, and found that it provided a fun experience despite its flaws.

On the good side, all the versions of the VF-1 are included as well as one custom one. It is nice having all the different paint schemes, which include most of the famous ones from the show. Flying around in a VF-1S with Skull 1 colours is a lot of fun. IMO it does a pretty good job of providing an arcade experience of flying a Valkyrie. Especially the air/space missions were fun for just flying around and blowing stuff up (like in the Party Crashers mission). The franetic pace of battles from the show are captured well.

There is a bit of a learning curve, but overall I found the controls to be pretty good and they soon become second nature, as is switching between modes. Also the "HUD" is pretty simple and straight foward and doesn't overwhelm you with information like Macross VO did for me. I like the cell shaded look a lot and it made the game look like the show, although I may be in the minority. You will have to decide for yourself if a real-life looking game is important to you. There are tons of missions, and lots of things to unlock like medals, VFs, bonus versus missions, and paint schemes. So as far as content goes, there is a lot there.

I found the animations of the Valkyries to be very well done, and in the XBox version at least they were very smooth. The animations for the other mecha like destroids and pods seem adequate at least, and aren't particularly noticable either way due to the frantic pace of the game.

On the down side, the biggest complaint I had was the real seperation between the air and ground missions. The artifical ceiling is pretty annoying and more or less eliminates fighter mode in most ground missions. There are also invisible walls where in some cases you'll turn to go down a street and you find you can't. Why not just put a wall there?

Like others have said the difficulty of the missions varies wildly with no descernable order. Personally I found the ground missions to often be tougher than the air missions, but this might be because most escort missions tended to be on the ground. It would have been nice if there was an option to skip a couple of missions, so that you wouldn't get stuck if you couldn't complete a certain one. And yes, the Valkyrie is missing its wings in battroid mode, but I hadn't noticed this until someone pointed it out to me.

As for the story, of course it would have been nice if it was Macross, but it is also nice to have a game in English. Really the story is fairly neglegable and only serves to bridge the missions together. So it is quite easy to imagine that you are in the Macross universe. Besides, my first introduction was through Robotech and I liked it as a kid, so the trip down memory lane wasn't all bad to me.

I think it is worth making a few points about the difficulty of certain missions. There are certain things to remember that can make life much easier. A lot of missions have tricks. For example, with escort missions usually only certain units go for your protectee. In aerial ones, only fighter pods attack the target and the rest go after you. In ground missions, only pods go after the target and things like the male power armour and fighter pods go after you. So if you can prioritize your targets it makes it much easier to complete these types of missions. Other missions have tricks that could almost be considered glitches. Many people complain about the Cat's Eye mission, but if you just fly around it releasing flares/chaff, you can complete the mission without firing a single shot.

Also, I find that the different modes can be more useful than people give them credit for. Often people complain that battroid is useless in aerial missions. I don't find this at all. It is very useful when an enemy flies by at close range. In this case you can quickly switch to battroid, turn quickly, and blast them with the gunpod. However, it is important to remember that by default the battroid hovers in the air. Thus it is very important to hit the boosters so that you move around, otherwise you will get blasted.

Whew, I wrote way more than I intended. So in a nutshell, I think the game is a bargain at $10.

[Jasonc]

Honestly, I thought this game was pretty good. There, of course, were those few missions that just irritated me to no end trying to beat, but who wants to run right through a game anyways? I think it was better than the new Robotech game, that is just another push through the game and get it over with type game. They had a lot of opportunity to make a great online game and create a huge fanbase for that and blew it. Is BC worth the $10??? Absolutely. Have fun with it.

[ewilen]

Another mission that drove me nuts was the 'deadly stom' one where you have to save the green valk girl.  I dont remember her name so im going to call her missy.  The bitch you have to fight is hard    so much transforming and button pushing for like 20 minutes, only to die and do it again, hurts my hands.  Still have not beaten it 

After saving Izzy, find a big piece of debris at one of end of the battlefield and hunker down. The Zentradi won't follow you. Instead, she'll just buzz around the opposite end of the battlefield. Wait for the Zentradi to fly out into the center of your view, pop up in Gerwalk, fire all your missiles, transform to battroid, and drop back down behind cover. Repeat until she's dead.

If this doesn't do the trick fast enough, then instead of firing all your missiles in Gerwalk, transform to fighter after popping up and use the heavier fighter missiles while flying at the Zentradi. After expending all missiles, hightail it back to cover, drop down, and replenish your missiles.

This is also essentially how to deal with her in a later mission she appears in. Needless to say, if they'd designed the AI with enough intelligence to actively press an attack, I wouldn't be able to do this.

You might instead be able to use the tactic that I used on the Power Armor bad guy and the final boss, but for those you need a lot of room. Essentially, stay in fighter, boost constantly while rolling and turning, and whenever you get a clear shot, let loose with missiles.

Edit: This basically illustrates the problem with the design of many missions. They are extremely difficult if not impossible to beat if you use "fair" tactics, let alone enjoyable ones (similar to the actual cartoon), but relatively easy to beat if you just patiently dork it out.

Edited November 19, 2004 by ewilen

[Panzer]

there are some VERY nice moments in this game, I wish there were more outer space missions where you fly around inside the armada. i think space armadas are my favorite thing in the world. the Gundam games for PS2 do this SOO well. battling in space with the huge glowing earth below you.. now THATS what i call a game.

but yeah, its mad hard/frustrating and the story would make any macross fan vomit blood.