Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy gameplay

[Moeflyer]

I got the game yesterday, it is the normal edition because of my budget and I don't need the extra contents in the LE.

I am experienced with the PSP Macross Ace Frontier series, I didn't play the Trial Frontier and Last Frontier two games. Actually, the controls in this game has not much difference from the PSP series. I can still adapt to the PS3 configurations.

So here is my first playthrough:

2nd Lt. Leon Sakaki, a mercenary Valkyrie pilot from S.M.S. Sepheela HQ. He's working on an assignment to turn in the YF-25 Prophecy to S.M.S. Ouroburos HQ. When he arrived the orbit, some unknown hostile Ghost UCAVs attacked him.

The Ghosts are easy targets, just use missiles to take them down.

After all the Ghosts were splashed, a deep blue YF-29 come to challenge Leon. It is definitely Leon's nemesis - Rod Baltmer.

This enemy has a good evasion ability, and invincibility. Though you hit him, his HP gauge won't bulge a bit.

Rod managed to damage Leon's Valk, but he spare Leon's life. The Valk lost control and fall down to the planet.

(Intro movie, opening song: Planet Cradle by Haruka Chisuga)

Leon had a nightmare, it is the unpleasant memory during he was in NUN Spacy duty.

He suddenly wake up, and see a Zentradi girl stands right next to him. Meet Aisha Blanchette, the chief director of S.M.S. Ouroburos HQ.

Aisha rescued Leon and recovered the Prophecy Valk. She persuaded him to run some errands in return the favor of saving his life.

First, she gives you a VF-0D Phoenix (2-seater variant), the first Valk in the game. But you can only use it in Battroid mode. The quest is to retrieve 4 containers, return to the carrier when the job is done.

When you on the field, you will see some golden yellow auras on the ground, these are the retrievable items like money, parts, crafting items, recovery items and ammo.

And then Aisha fixed the VF-0D can be transformed into GERWALK mode. Same thing as the first job did, retrieve four containers again. However, a flight of Bandit VFs will show up and you have to fight them off. According to Aisha, those Bandits are goons of a "stupid" Bandit boss named "Ganeth".

After the job is done, Aisha finally makes the VF-0D transform into fighter mode. Leon supposed to return to his home planet, but Aisha said the "Ouroburos Aurora" anomaly barred the planet to the outer space. It is suicidal to perform Fold Space jump. Therefore, Leon stays in Ouroburos HQ as temporary employee until the anomaly is gone.

That's all I played yesterday.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Moeflyer

[aceoftherebellion]

My biggest question about this game is how dialogue and story are handled. How much of the dialogue is actually voiced, and how much is just text? I can understand spoken moon just fine, but I can't read all of the Kanji, so this is the single biggest factor on how accessible this game is going to end up being for me...

[Tochiro]

Moeflyer - great impressions! Any chance you could post them in this thread?

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=38612

ace: Will reply to you in the above thread.

[VF-15 Banshee]

I guess this technically counts as gameplay, I guess.

You guys ever sen this image?

Well, it seems that configuration is entirely allowed in the game. YYYYYEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!

Edited March 1, 2013 by VF-15 Banshee

[Moeflyer]

I guess this technically counts as gameplay, I guess.

You guys ever sen this image?

Well, it seems that configuration is entirely allowed in the game. YYYYYEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!

VF-1 Valkyrie Laser Artillery Pack!

[LOW_ALT]

Hmm, I wonder if that means we can put dual laser cannons on the VF-171EX (?)

[MikeRoz]

Is this game going to be any fun at all for someone who does not speak or read Japanese?

Muxing in subtitles from readily available sources is one thing, this is another thing entirely..

[VF-15 Banshee]

Is this game going to be any fun at all for someone who does not speak or read Japanese?

Muxing in subtitles from readily available sources is one thing, this is another thing entirely..

GameFAQs is your friend. Plus, I'm sure some of the other members here will be coming up with the odd translation or two.

I also saw a specially-colored Lucifer on the loading screens designated the VF-27 M.R. Custom. Wonder who it belongs too?

Oh and MAJOR SPOILER:

Ushio Todo is actually Broly from Dragon Ball Z!!! KAKAROTTOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Edited March 1, 2013 by VF-15 Banshee

[VF-15 Banshee]

Hmm, looks like the Gefion has a few extra guns that your standard Northhampton-class doesn't have.

[Graham]

I guess this technically counts as gameplay, I guess.

You guys ever sen this image?

Well, it seems that configuration is entirely allowed in the game. YYYYYEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!

Boo...... black skull on the FAST Pack, needs recolouring to red.

Graham

[VF-15 Banshee]

Hmmm, when you and Aisha encounter Ganeth for the first time, is it just me, or does Leon say that Ganeth had something to do with his sister, Mira?

[Tochiro]

No, there's no direct connection. It's Ganeths way of living an attitude that spark the connection.

[SaitouSad]

I got my game 2 days back, but have not found the time to play it yet

Are there any incentives to do the higher difficulties?

Also some other questions in mind:-
Wanted to know how New Game + works (Is it essentially free play mode where you only do side missions? Or is there some kind of plot element?)

Also, anybody care to share the songs available in game? Some of the boss encounter music I've heard on the streams sound terribly generic.
I heard that the customized track only applies to "Events" only, what situations are those?

[VF-15 Banshee]

I just ran into Isamu. I have all the feels. And DYRL as well.

Edited March 8, 2013 by VF-15 Banshee

[Chronocidal]

I got my game 2 days back, but have not found the time to play it yet

Are there any incentives to do the higher difficulties?

Also some other questions in mind:-

Wanted to know how New Game + works (Is it essentially free play mode where you only do side missions? Or is there some kind of plot element?)

Also, anybody care to share the songs available in game? Some of the boss encounter music I've heard on the streams sound terribly generic.

I heard that the customized track only applies to "Events" only, what situations are those?

Can't speak to any details about difficulty, since I've been learning how to play the game on easy mode for the time being.

I broke a lot of details down about the new game plus system down in the hints and tips thread, so you may want to look there for more, but to put it really simply, it's not a free play mode. All it does it let you replay the story from chapter 1, while letting you keep all your items, stats, and valks.

The real downside to this is that while it also unlocks a TON of new blueprints to make new aircraft, you can't possibly build the higher level ones until you get back to near the end of the game again, because you need the higher level building materials to make them.

As far as the music goes, I finally fiddled with the custom soundtrack options last night, and was a bit disappointed, but I'm glad they included the option regardless. The only tracks they let you replace are the various singer's plot-relevant songs (the ones that they sing for plot points, and for special attack combos).

I was really looking forward to using some tracks from the various series to replace the background or battle tracks, but those appear to be locked. Doesn't stop me from just turning the music volume down, and playing different stuff through my stereo, but yeah. Maybe they'll get huge requests for such an option, and they'll patch it. Or, there's always the possibility of another game.

[VF-15 Banshee]

There's a great fanboy moment in the game where Isamu and Guld get into a fight and some familiar lines are said.

Isamu: I bought you lunch two times in high school!!
Guld: I bought you lunch thirteen times!!


There is one truly WTF moment that I've run into and that is

how in the frak did Isamu get into that Vajra mothership, unconcious, in his custom YF-29?! When did this happen?

Also, hearing Mari Iijima say "Hikaru!" brings back warm DYRL fuzzies.

[Chronocidal]

There is one truly WTF moment that I've run into and that is

how in the frak did Isamu get into that Vajra mothership, unconcious, in his custom YF-29?! When did this happen?

You haven't experienced WTF until you get to the ending. Granted, it's partially due to not knowing the language, but even then.. I have no idea what explanation could possibly be given for what happens.

[VF-15 Banshee]

OK, here's what i understand of the overall plot given my limited understanding of Japanese. Spoilers ahoy.

Basically, the HAVAMAL taskforce is searching for and wanting to revive (?) the Protoculture superweapon Oerba Arga, an EVIL-series weapon of the sort that the Protodeviln possessed. I gather that Oerba Arga is Bad News. There seems to be some sort of system in place on the planet to either revive or seal Oerba Arga and uses what I presume to be the Anima Spiritia of the songstresses to do it. That's why HAVAMAL have kidnapped Minmay, Myung and Ranka and why they tried to have Kamjin and Ganeth kidnap Mylene and Mao. At the point where I am, right before the final chapter, the crew of the Gefion and their allies have succeeded in sealing Oerba Arga.... or so they think.

Also, a great character moment between Alto and the SMS Frontier crew:

Ozma: Alto, I heard that Basara Nekki has finally turned up...?

Alto: Uh yeah, that was him singing while we were fighting.

Ozma: WHAT?! And I missed it?!! I think I'm gonna go after him...

Michel: Taichou, I think we have more important things to be worrying about right now.

Ozma: Uh, yeah... right. Important things. Right.

[VF-15 Banshee]

Well, now that I've beaten the game, I have to wonder, what conditions are set on the multiple endings? The difficulty level you play? How much time you spend with Aisha or Mina? I wonder...

Well, New Game+, here I come!

Oh and when you beat the game, you unlock ULTIMATE difficulty mode. I don't even want to know...

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, I've taken the time on easy to unlock everything I wanted, and to max out Isamu's YF-29 and packs, and I've got everyone flying it now just for added offense/defense stats.

I'll probably take a run at normal, then hard, and ultimate in succession. I expect things to get MUCH harder, due to the fact that really.. well, in easy mode, you don't ever need to really put out any effort to avoid enemy fire, because the missiles barely track, and you have to be standing still for gun shots to hit you. I expect this to change with a vengeance on later difficulty levels. I mean, I've barely had to use the dodging skills or anti-missile actions at all so far.

Also, given how twitchy flight controls can be, I'm wondering if the other difficulty levels damage you when you bump into things. It's really easy to bounce off the scenery while flying, or walls/ceiling in those bases and caves.

[Duymon]

Normal is not that challenging at all to be honest. As long as your valk is leveled properly it's easy-sauce.

Funnily enough I don't even bother using missiles or any secondary guns anymore. I just put all the point into the main gun and run around in gerwalk since it's like the only effective weapon in the game

Edited March 12, 2013 by Duymon

[LOW_ALT]

Normal is not that challenging at all to be honest. As long as your valk is leveled properly it's easy-sauce.

Funnily enough I don't even bother using missiles or any secondary guns anymore. I just put all the point into the main gun and run around in gerwalk since it's like the only effective weapon in the game

Really? I find the rapid-fire missiles to always guarantee a kill. The guns are effective but I notice that even if your target isn't moving much, the target lock will stray, then you're just shooting air. However I did find a good strategy to barrage the target with gunpod+head laser that will wear down just about any target in a few seconds: While holding lock-on (L1 for Type-C controls) quickly release, then hold L1 again every second or so to reset your lock, then repeat. I notice that this ensures you are always working with a perfectly aligned lock-on. It's an easy way to stun your enemy and/or get critical hits.

Edited March 12, 2013 by LOW_ALT

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, actually I love how they included a little bit of drift in the lock mechanism, just because it adds to the challenge. It'll also let you aim for cockpit/head shots when you're locked on, or manually lead the target when the lock can't keep up.

Really, once you level up all your weapons to maximum, everything will kill targets pretty quickly. I'm sure it's partly because I'm still playing on the easy difficulty level, but generally if I fly by a formation of enemies, and let loose a full salvo of missiles at them, I rarely have to turn around to finish off any survivors.

I think I've actually spent far more time in fighter mode than anything else in the game. Someone in one of the threads was asking what the point of fighter mode is, besides faster travel. I'd say it's basically your best defensive and evasion tool in the game. You get a lot harder to hit when you're moving fast.

What I actually find fun though is sticking entirely to guns in fighter mode. Missiles make stuff die so fast battles are over before they start, but having to line up a gunpod shot while flipping and rolling all over the sky is a blast. It also really makes you appreciate some of the flying tricks that a valk can do, and the way the game treats physics in some ways.

For instance, it's entirely possible to stall the plane if you mash the brake button too hard, but since it also kills your engines, you can actually coast on momentum while flipping around, and basically pull off drift turns in mid-air. Boost into a climb, then slam on the brakes and point your nose the other way, and you'll keep ascending for a few seconds. It's a nice trick to draw a bead on targets, because it flips you around faster than a controlled turn.

Edited March 12, 2013 by Chronocidal

[shadow3393]

Even in hard mode, a solely damage upgraded gunpod kills everything very fast, especially in the yf21 and vf22, dual gun pods . Once you get the double tap square to reload down, you can rip through entire formations before they even get into missile range. The only parts I had trouble was when they swarmed you with ace pilots or when the story decides to give the enemy temporary invincibility.

[Chronocidal]

Key to the temporary invincibility attcks is to just save your special combos for those moments. The invincibility works both ways, so if you trigger yours when you hear that "CHING" sound of someone starting one, you'll usually be fine. It works especially well with some of the valks, because they've got longer lasting combos, and you'll keep spamming missiles at the enemies once their combos end, and their invincibility wears off.

Also, a lot of the combos seem to be melee attack based, so if you're outdoors and can switch to fighter mode, they can be pretty easily evaded sometimes. You'll just see this glowy outline of a valk rushing toward you punching empty air while he chokes on your afterburners.

[Duymon]

There's also a block button lol. IN all the artdink games blocking supers is the easiest way to get mad points for defense :0

[shadow3393]

Key to the temporary invincibility attcks is to just save your special combos for those moments. The invincibility works both ways, so if you trigger yours when you hear that "CHING" sound of someone starting one, you'll usually be fine. It works especially well with some of the valks, because they've got longer lasting combos, and you'll keep spamming missiles at the enemies once their combos end, and their invincibility wears off.

Also, a lot of the combos seem to be melee attack based, so if you're outdoors and can switch to fighter mode, they can be pretty easily evaded sometimes. You'll just see this glowy outline of a valk rushing toward you punching empty air while he chokes on your afterburners.

I meant when the game doesn't let you hurt the enemy untill after a story event finishes...ie

Start of the Macross Quarter battle. Man that 10- 15 secs for the them to start the song was really frustrating.

[Duymon]

So guys, what do you think the best valkyrie is?

In terms of easy to play, believe it or not anything based off the YF-21 chassis is totally overpowered due to having dual Main-guns with a very high rate of fire.

Ever since switching to it from the Macross frontier valks, even ultimate mode feels like a joke lol.

[Chronocidal]

I think once you unlock all of the rank 3 valks, it just comes down to personal preference, because unless I'm mistaken, maxing out any valk to 999,999 will result in identical base stats. It just comes down to preferences for what weapons you want to use.

Personally, I like having reaction weapons around for area of effect shots on bigger targets, but the number of things that they're useful on is pretty limited. I do prefer using multi-missiles to the rapid fire ones though, just for coverage.

As far as looks, I just love using Isamu's YF-29. The beam gun turret packs a lot more punch than any head laser, and you can pretty much fire it from any direction as long as your target is above you.

[Duymon]

I think once you unlock all of the rank 3 valks, it just comes down to personal preference, because unless I'm mistaken, maxing out any valk to 999,999 will result in identical base stats. It just comes down to preferences for what weapons you want to use.

Personally, I like having reaction weapons around for area of effect shots on bigger targets, but the number of things that they're useful on is pretty limited. I do prefer using multi-missiles to the rapid fire ones though, just for coverage.

As far as looks, I just love using Isamu's YF-29. The beam gun turret packs a lot more punch than any head laser, and you can pretty much fire it from any direction as long as your target is above you.

Actually this isn't the case. Just like in the other artdink games the more advanced valks are more powerful even when maxxed out.

VF-1 main gun maxxes out around 1500-ish while the vf-22 hits around 1300, but the VF-22 fires at about double the ROF for mad DPS

on a totally unrelated note....

I think the one thing that nearly gets me killed more than anything is trying to pick up all the blue loot in the middle of battle before it disappears

Edited March 16, 2013 by Duymon

[VF-15 Banshee]

AAAAAWWWWWWW YYYEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!! Finally got my VF-1 Strike Pack and Double Strike Pack. BWAHAHA!! Beware fools! Death comes from above!!

[Hikuro]

Hm......so far I've done maybe 3 or 4 quests and honestly, it's boring me to tears. like some of the sound effects though!

[VF-15 Banshee]

OK it's probably about time I recorded down my first impressions of Macross 30, now that I'm half-way through my second playthrough and I understand some more things about the game.

First off, the game is gorgeous. For Artdink's first venture on the PS3 it doesn't look too bad and the Valks... oh the Valks! Yes, the game has a bad habit of slowing down when there's lots of planes and missiles flying about but since I've run into some slowdown on Western titles like Mass Effect 3, I'll let it slide this time. Hopefully if Artdink does another PS3 Macross game, they'll learn from this.

Flying around takes a little getting used to, but once you do, it's fun as everything. Yeah, I wish the flight cieling could have been a little higher and there were some actual towns and cities to fly around in, but it works for this game and works well. Probably the most interesting areas to fly around are the Sierra Desert and the glacier, especially because of the various enviornmental features (canyons and arches and such).

As for the dogfighting and such, it's pretty fun and challenging, in it's way, although the difficulty could be ratcheted up slightly. The VB-06 is kinda broken as even a rank 1's Autocannons can shred most planes and even sub-bosses. On New Game + more powerful planes like a VF-25 with Armor Pack or the Durandal or Chronos can blow most enemies outta the sky without much effort, especially near the beginning of the game. Guess you need to play on Ultimate difficulty.

I'm not really fussed about multiplayer, too many games include unnessesary multiplayer that becomes a ghost town just a few months after the game is released. Would mulitplayer be good for M30? I don't know.

Now for the story and character interactions which is the real meat and potatoes of this game. I found myself quite liking the new characters like Aisha, Leon and Mina. Mina is quite cute as the new songstress and the songs Planet Cradle and Wandering are great new additions to the Macross discography. The only thing I would have preferred that had been added to are the character interactions. They do a great job but I would have liked to have seen a few more such as a bit more interaction between Hikaru, Max, Milia and Misa.

I got the general gist of the plot, though I was a little fuzzy on Ushio Todo's reasons for doing what he was doing. Also...

As much as I want Mina to be a last living member of the Protoculture, I think the actual explanation, from my limited understanding of Japanese, is that her family were some of the first settlers on Ouroboros and that her father, a researcher, found the ancient Protoculture weapon Yurva Arga. This is one of the Evil-series weapons of the same kind that the Protodeviln possessed during the events of Macross 7. He also discovered a system to seal away(?) Yurva Arga using Anima Spiritia, otherwise known as Song Energy. I'm thinking that Mina might have got trapped in stasis as a result of messing with this system in some fashion. HAVAMAL wants the songstresses to reverse this system or turn it to their own purposes. Like I said, I'm a bit fuzzy on Todo's purposes, since he seems to be Zentradi but wants to stop Bodole Zer's Rain of Death on Earth?

There were only a couple of things I didn't like.

There is a WTF moment where Isamu literally pops out of nowhere in his custom YF-29 inside a Vajra mothership. Not sure what happened there.

I don't like how the ending works. As soon as you land the final hit on Yurva Arga, the screen fades to white and Mina says, "Arigatou, Leon. Arigatou... minna!" and then the credits start rolling.

The credits are nice with that little CGI render of Aisha's desk and is wonderful callback to the credits of SDF Macross.

You get two final images at the end of the credits, a picture of Mina, Aisha, Sheryl and Ranka goofing around and one of Alto and Leon shaking hands on the flight deck of the Macross Quarter.

I guess I got the ending where Leon ends up with Mina, as there is a final dialogue scene where I believe the two of them promise to be together even after the Ouroboros Aura lifts. BUT! Then there is a long dialogue scene between Aisha and Mina. I can't spoil it for you as I don't know what they say. It is the ONLY piece of COMPLETELY unvoiced dialogue in the entire game! So if someone who can read kanji gets to this point in the game, please let the rest of us know what Aisha and Mina are talking about!

[Zoroastres]

Well, my impression of the game is nearly the complete opposite. I did like the character interaction that was funny/humorous/amusing, but there wasn't much of it, and I found the new cast & new music & new story to be very tedious and dull. Every time Mina or Aisha or Leon was on screen, I was pressing that R1 button.

So I could be wrong, considering I was skipping through a lot of that nonsense at the end, but I'm pretty sure the unvoiced post-credits bit was an explanation of NG+.

[VF-15 Banshee]

Explanation of NG+? That was a long frakin' explanation!