Has anyone played Sunrider: Liberation Day

[solidbatman]

Apparently the game is getting a very negative reception. It has been bad enough that Love in Space has promised a large, free update in the near future to add content to the game. Many of the complaints include a rushed, linear story, a bad ending, sloppy writing, changed character personalities, and the length of the VN. 

 

So has anyone played this, and what are your impressions?

[Yuuko]

According to the screenshots the girls don't have nipples 

[Darklord Rooke]

The original combined absorbing and challenging gameplay with a pretty sub-par story/writing. That suddenly people have started complaining about the writing considering the original was pretty ordinary, means they're not actually complaining about the writing as a whole, but other aspects.

And if you check the review they complain about 'too short', 'too linear', 'ending rushed.' So, eh, whatever. Apparently the dude paid for VAs from Japan, and it looks like it cut into his content budget. Imo, the game was always about the difficult and solid gameplay challenge, though.

Apparently there will be a content patch to fix the issues, however the patch notes on Steam never said they'd 'fix content', merely 'add more content after the ending' so I don't see how that'd fix complaints about 'linearity' and 'rushed aspects of the story' but that seemed to make the fanbase happy in any case.

You gonna be reviewing it? :3

[solidbatman]

2 minutes ago, Rooke said:

The original combined absorbing and challenging gameplay with a pretty sub-par story/writing. That suddenly people have started complaining about the writing considering the original was pretty ordinary, means they're not actually complaining about the writing as a whole, but other aspects.

And if you check the review they complain about 'too short', 'too linear', 'ending rushed.' So, eh, whatever. Apparently the dude paid for VAs from Japan, and it looks like it cut into his content budget. Imo, the game was always about the difficult and solid gameplay challenge, though.

Apparently there will be a content patch to fix the issues, however the patch notes on Steam never said they'd 'fix content', merely 'add more content after the ending' so I don't see how that'd fix complaints about 'linearity' and 'rushed aspects of the story' but that seemed to make the fanbase happy in any case.

You gonna be reviewing it? :3

Nah, not until I review the first two games. 

[VirginSmasher]

4 minutes ago, Kiriririri said:

According to the screenshots the girls don't have nipples 

Sounds like Sakura Spirit all over again. 

[Dergonu]

I personally haven't gotten around to playing it yet.

Sucks that its getting a negative reception, I enjoyed Sunrider Academy, (though I guess Liberation day is a follow up to mask of Arcadius and not really linked to sunrider academy, which is a spin-off of sorts.)

[Darklord Rooke]

9 minutes ago, solidbatman said:

Nah, not until I review the first two games. 

I went into the first game expecting a cakewalk, and got my arse handed to me over and over again. It's a pretty serious little strategy game.

[Mr Poltroon]

I've been meaning to make a thread like this for a couple of days, but never found a good way to make it.

Although, seriously, I really liked the first two games, I don't know what's going through the creator's heads. It's one of the few times I feel frustrated about the decisions that went into a game.

[Nosebleed]

22 dollars for a game that's less than 5 hours long (on the easiest difficulty)? It took me longer to finish Lucy (which was awesome btw) and that only cost me 10 bucks.

I think the bigger issue here is really the price tag which doesn't justify itself when you have so little content.

Japanese voice acting is probably what killed this.

[solidbatman]

A victim of feature creep maybe? I was a little surprised by the decision to make this entry paid after the first two were free. 

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

6 minutes ago, solidbatman said:

A victim of feature creep maybe? I was a little surprised by the decision to make this entry paid after the first two were free. 

Eh? Only one was free.

Well, I haven't looked into myself but someone was saying they had one KS for a whole trilogy? I think they just didn't do a good job estimating the costs or budgeting in the first place.

[Mr Poltroon]

4 minutes ago, EdwardWongHPTIV said:

Eh? Only one was free.

Well, I haven't looked into myself but someone was saying they had one KS for a whole trilogy? I think they just didn't do a good job estimating the costs or budgeting in the first place.

The first two chapters were free. I propose that's what he was referring to.
Indeed, that is one of the reasons I feel wholly annoyed at the situation. It's not like I can fully blame them for everything, but although I love the concept of their spin-off game, I can't see it as anything but a waste of time and budget that could have gone to the final chapter.

[Diamon]

What's even worse from what I gathered :
- You cannot import your save properly (which means that all the cool enhancements you bought for your ship and mech are not here anymore), hopefully its a bug that will be fixed in the future.
- Some features from the previous games are missing (like the side quests, or even being able to talk to your ship members in between missions)
- Not sure, but it seemed that the gameplay worsened, especially regarding how shields are handled.
- Forced romance despite the fact you had choices that seemingly prepared for heroine routes in Mask of Arcadius.
- Choices are basically useless in this episode.

It's inferior to his predecessors in nearly every way, and when you know that the sequels were free, you can't help but feel bitter. And the (amateur?) japanese voice acting is not enough to compensate all the flaws I feel, even for the people that might be interested by that.

[BookwormOtaku]

So does that make this the VN equivalent of the Mass Effect 3 debacle?

[DarkZedge]

2 hours ago, VirginSmasher said:

Sounds like Sakura Spirit all over again. 

Ah good ol' Sakura Spirit such "fond" memories 

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

Just now, Loodee said:

Somewhat unrelated question since I couldn't easily find the answer:
How do Mask of Arcadius and Liberation tie in with Academy? Since I've only played the latter, I'm kind of curious to how they are linked. Do the former two games play out some years after Academy? Or are they the same characters, but in some kind of parallel universe?

Topic-wise, I don't have much to add, since I haven't played the game. It seems like a shame that the game is that flawed though, feels like a game I could get into.

Afaik they share characters and nothing else.

[Decay]

The number I've seen floating around is 4 hours. That's a pretty freaking slim experience for a $25 strategy game. So they're going to do a free content patch? With what, an extra couple hours of gameplay? Eh, they need another.... 20. Well, probably not, but as someone who enjoys strategy games, I don't want to play something with such a short life and little replayability. Strategy games are meant to be replayable and engaging for dozens of hours. -OR- if you can't provide that, at least provide an interesting experience outside the strategy side of things. And apparently they fall short on that with mediocre writing. 

[Katatsumuri]

So... it seems like Liberation Day is mask of Arcadius except even worse? I mean, the gameplay and music in that one were pretty fun (albeit buggy), but on every other point was pretty bad. If not even the gameplay or music is worth it in Liberation day, then I say that it's simply not worth bothering.

[Soulless Watcher]

Holly shit that was a fucking disaster, I just managed to speed through the game on the easiest difficulty setting just now..... and my god. That was a colossal train wreck. It really feels like they realized how out of their depth they were and gave up after watching the first season of code geass. 

If the japanese voice acting is really what killed this (which is funny as hell because I played it with the audio muted) I genuinely hope lovenspace goes the same way as dischan media.

 

[br4zil]

Good to know this is the VN version of ME3.

My enjoyment of ME3 mostly came from the multiplayer and the community memes/"rallies"/rage over the ending. I hated the ending, but at least the community provided enough ME-related fun that the whole thing was worth it in the end (the charity campaign, the "He lived as marauder shields, he died as marauder health" memes, etc).

As for Liberation Day, its already at "mixed" ratings on Steam, the game bombed and sadly the community isnt nearly 1% as entertaining as the Mass Effect one.

Gonna stay away from that one.

[Darklord Rooke]

ME3 gets a bum rap. People were angered over the ending, but take that issue away and it was a pretty solid instalment.

It had more RPG mechanics than ME2. It had just as much story as ME2 (which was one big recruitment drive, really. Head writer left after ME1.) Shooter mechanics were better than both of the previous games. It wasn’t nearly as buggy as ME1. Choices didn’t change much but it did change your experience through the game.

All in all, ME3 is a better RPG than ME2, and a better game than ME1 (ME1 was the best RPG.) In comparison, Sunrider Liberation made hardly any improvements. Situations are completely different, tbh.

[Arcadeotic]

Well, from what I've seen from Steam, it's got about 50% rating, which isn't good in any stretch of imagination

A lot of people there are complaining about it's length, it's inferiority and overall lack of effort.

It's also somehow listed s 10-30 hours on VNDB but that might be fixed by now

[Dergonu]

The bulk of the game's VNDB ratings still sits in 9's and 10's.

#VNDB people.

Really hope this doesn't give too much of a bad rep to Love in Space. I really do think they did quite the good job on Sunrider Academy, and that game had a good 30+ hours in it, easy.

[Arcadeotic]

1 minute ago, Dergonu said:

I really do think they did quite the good job on Sunrider Academy, and that game had a good 30+ hours in it, easy.

Except the grinding and luck aspects.

Honestly, it's fine, but those aspects make it not fun at all

[Decay]

3 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

The bulk of the game's VNDB ratings still sits in 9's and 10's.

#VNDB people.

Really hope this doesn't give too much of a bad rep to Love in Space. I really do think they did quite the good job on Sunrider Academy, and that game had a good 30+ hours in it, easy.

You rate games on VNDB too, so what does that say about you?

There's no crowd specific to VNDB, the entire western VN community contribute to the ratings there. So blame all of us, not just VNDB.