Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Katamari on the Web. A one stop shop for all your Katamari needs. If you can't or don't want to register, feel free to use the guest forum if you need game help. Registering obviously gives you deeper access to the board and to more features such as access to scoreboards, profile customization, clubs, and polls to name a few. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. A valid e-mail is required to register.

Roll with us? Join here!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features.

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
My early impressions ... (lots of SPOILERS)
Topic Started: Jan 14 2006, 08:06 PM (619 Views)
slowbro
Member Avatar
way too silly :S

Well, I've had this game for a couple days, I'm not jumping over backwards excited about it but I do like it. The game has Eternal levels! You can't make islands in Eternal levels, but the items you get are included in the master item list. And yes, you are shot dangerously close to the King's package when you enter a level. (Heh, that's the first time I've ever mentioned the King's package on this message board.)


There aren't as many strange concepts going on in levels as there are in WLK, like snowballs that collect snow, fireballs that go out in water and sumo wrestlers, but the game has at least five themed levels, all of which are convoluted and fun. And the 2D old-school level is quite a laugh and a blast (I like it very much).


It looks like the way the game is layed out into regions was changed, probably because the PSP can't handle as much stuff in a level at one time as the PS2 can. I'm going to talk about the regions. But note that this is pretty dry; anybody who likes this game will understand all this regions carp but will see the game in much more colorful terms.

Not counting the themed levels and the 2D, the ordinary levels take place in 16 regions. There are 3 regions where you go from 5cm to 20cm (or 5cm-15cm in the first stage), 3 where you go from 20cm to 1m50cm, 3 where you go from 1m50cm to 10m (one of which has a racetrack and plays Poofy Love (!) ), 3 where you go from 10m to 70m, 3 where you go from 70m to 500m, and one special one where you go from 70m to thousands of meters, that includes the territory in all three 70m-500m regions and then some. The three regions of a given size are similar; their layout is basically the same but they have different item layouts, and they have differences like some of them are snowy etc.

Each of the 16 regions has its own BGM I think. In some of the regions you can see a smaller region as a little part of the bigger region. Many, maybe all of the 20cm-1m50cm regions and the 1m50cm-10m regions have doors you can enter; parts of the region take place indoors. All the regions except the 5cm-20cm regions and the 70m-500m regions have a load screen in the middle of them at a set size, at which time you can reach new places, and A LOT of the smaller objects disappear, and you can no longer get into doors etc.

Each of the ordinary stages takes you through one or more regions. The first four stages only include one region (and by the fourth stage your goal is already 70m (!) ). Then the stages start to include two regions each, then three, then four ... The last stage takes you all the way from 5cm up to over 1000m! (I don't know and won't say exactly how big you can get, but it's bigger than the biggest in WLK.) Within a stage each region has its own BGM and time limit, and the time you have left in one region does not carry over to the next (though the game does keep track of your overall time through all regions of a given stage). I don't know what determines which region of a given size you go to (for example sometimes in a given stage you go to the racetrack/Poofy Love region and sometimes you go to one of the other 1m50cm-10ms), it's probably completely random, but it may be according to how fast you complete the region, or where you are when you complete the region, or something else.

At each region's load screen something changes, like day changes to night or vice versa, and sometimes I think stages may even get snowier.

Not counting the 70m region-switches, the moment you reach the goal size of a region that is not the last region of the stage, you warp to the next region. That presents an interesting new challenge for item collection - it can be difficult even in Eternal levels to be just in the right place to get a rare item after you are big enough to get it but before you warp to the next region. Once you are in the last region of a stage the game does let you get as big as you have time for.

The Cousin and Present placements are based on region rather than stage, meaning that you can get a given cousin in a number of different stages - get Dipp in any one of the stages that include a 10m-70m region for example. The themed stages have their own unique cousin(s) and present(s).


This game likes to give you numerical scores, in addition to the amount of time you took and the final size you reached. In fact, as far as I can tell the game doesn't even save the overall clear time you took to reach a level's goal, although it does tell you how long it took after the level. After every ordinary level the game tells you how long it took, how big you got, and it gives you two scores. One of them can go into the hundreds of thousands. The other one is a number from 1 to 100, and seems to determine whether you earn the stage's Eternal level though I am not sure of this.

Also there is a strange scoreboard on your island. It lists the 5 biggest sizes your katamari has reached (including ones from Eternal levels), then it gets weird. It lists top 5 scores, and stats about the scores, in something like 48 different categories; there are 48 different lists of scores. I have no idea what they mean.


The items can be listed by item type, by region, by size, or in another way that I don't understand. Plus there are named items, but they might not be as formidable as they were to collect in KD because a lot of special things, like the King and the Cousins, count as named items.


It's interesting that the game places some of the theme items from the earlier games just out in the open in this game. I have picked up Yokozunas, campfires like the ones that end the WLK stage, and Holy Cows. (But I haven't found and don't know if there is a Cowbear.)


When you reach 300m there is a spot where you can get tons bigger just by getting all the forest around a mountain. That REALLY reminds me of getting the desert in WLK. Me like.


There's a new cousin that looks disturbingly like ... A HUMAN! Now that's creepy.


As was already known the game uses many of the songs from earlier games and a few new ones; I think that every region except the big 70m-x000 BIG one use old music from the first two games. That's definitely alright with me. Most of the new songs are used in menus and cinemas and things. Speaking of cinemas, there aren't nearly as many of them as there were in WLK.


Well, that's all I can think of right now. I will post more if more pops into my head.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
slowbro
Member Avatar
way too silly :S

The normal stages follow an interesting pattern:

Stage 1 - Turtle: 5cm-20cm in 5 minutes (I will call this 5-20)
Stage 2 - Bird: 20cm-1m50cm in 6 minutes (20-150)
Stage 3 - Yellow Bug: 1m50cm-10m in 5 minutes (150-10)
Stage 4 - Fly: 10m-70m in 5 minutes (10-70)
Stage 5 - Red Bug: 10-70

(Judging by the order of stages, I suspect that Stage 5 was originally planned to be a 70m-500m stage, but was changed because the game designers didn't want to give a stage that large that early in the game.)

Stage 6 - Octopus: 5-20, 20-150
Stage 7 - Cat: 20-150, 150-10
Stage 8 - Crab: 150-10, 10-70
Stage 9 - Peacock: 10-70, 70m-500m in 3 or 4 minutes (70-500)

Stage 10 - Panda: 5-20, 20-150, 150-10
Stage 11 - Tiger (or Jaguar): 20-150, 150-10, 10-70
Stage 12 - Dolphin: 150-10, 10-70, 70-500

Stage 13 - Polar Bear: 5-20, 20-150, 150-10, 10-70
Stage 14 - 2 Whales: 20-150, 150-10, 10-70, 70-500

Stage 15 - Elephant: 5-20, 20-150, 150-10, 10-70, 70-500

Stage 16 - King Statue: 5-20, 20-150, 150-10, 10-70, 70m to 1500m in 5 or 6 minutes
(That's all the way from 5 centimeters to 1500+ meters!)




If you're in a building in a 20cm-1m50cm or 1m50cm-10m region and your size is near but not too near to the load-screen size (75cm or 4m), the items you get do very little to increase your size, like if you're near the cap in Underwater in WLK. The game doesn't want you to be in the building at the load screen, since it does not allow you to go in the building after the load screen. If you are in the building when you reach the load screen the game warps you outside. I could be wrong about all this.

There's a Sumo Bout item where one sumo is holding the other sumo by (and stretching) his loincloth :eek Thankfully you can't see anything.

I suspect that a given stage always starts in the same region (out of the three of the same size). But later in the stage it definitely sometimes gives you one region and sometimes another.

Slowdown rocks! It seems like when there's slowdown the clock slows way down but you only slow down slightly. I could be wrong.

Strangely it has become much more difficult to roll the ball up a steep, rounded hill. I usually slip to the side and fall down the hill.

A new phenomenon is sliding to the side or backwards without the katamari even spinning. This mainly happens when you're big, either when you're stuck or when you are blocked from moving forward.

KD and WLK both came up with great hiding places for the Picture Story Show. But in this game it's just out in the open :crybaby

The whole region/item&present&cousin placement thing is more convoluted than I thought. You can pause & restart (Triangle button) a stage, and the stage will then have the same season/BGM as it had but different item/cousin/present placements. At least I think it can. I haven't tested this much, I could be all wrong.

After reaching the goal diameter I haven't found a way to pause and cancel out of the stage to a results screen like you could in KD or WLK.

When you're on the island with the cousins, press X or Triangle to see more cousins.

At least a couple old songs have been altered. Some, like Angel Rain, have been modified so the words start after a longer instrumental beginning.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
slowbro
Member Avatar
way too silly :S

I found a stage that definitely has something of a cap, the way that items in Make A Star 4 and Underwater ALAP stopped making your katamari much bigger when you got very big. It is very easy to see it happen in Eternal mode. In any of the 20cm-1m50cm regions you can hit 3m42cm fairly quickly. But then, it takes an absolutely huge number of items just to get your size up ONE millimeter. I mean huge, like a fifth of the items in the whole stage or so. I've gotten to 3m42cm with half the stage still full of items, and the biggest I got after getting basically all the items I think was 3m42cm2mm.

Like in WLK you can move while the King talks before the clock starts. But if you pick up an item, "Whao!" the King says and the clock starts.

You do warp suddenly from one region to another as you get bigger, but at least the regions are very interconnected. From where you start in the 10m-70m region that begins at night, a 1m50cm-10m region is right behind you and around a bend, a 20cm-1m50m region is right up a hill to your left, and a 70m-500m region is all around you in the far distance. So they all work like little parts of the same big map. I don't know where the 5cm-20cm region (inside a house) is from that vantage point, but I suspect it is up on the hill in one of the buildings of the 20cm-1m50cm region. In fact, in that stage I was talking about, within the 10m-70m region, Dipp is standing on top of one of the buildings in the 20cm-1m50m region! (though you can't see him when you're only a meter tall, too bad.)

Speaking of regions, I'm beginning to think that that might not have been the best word for me to use to describe each area of a stage. All the "regions" of the same size seem to cover the exact same territory, only with different items in different places (including different presents and cousins), and at different times of day. At each size I think there is one that goes from day to evening, one from evening to night, and one from night to day. So instead of "region" you might call them, say, 10m-70m night-day, or the 1m50cm-10m with the racetrack, or the 5cm-20m where Havana is. That last naming method might work, since in almost every region there is at least one cousin who is out in the open, so you could name the "regions" by which cousin(s) you find there.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
slowbro
Member Avatar
way too silly :S

Just got a few more observations, this is probably the last time I'll post in this thread.


I am almost sure now that the second score, the 1-100 one, determines whether you earn an Eternal stage. Get 79 or less and you don't, get 80 or more and you do.

Also, after you've completed a lot of stages, stages become flexible as to which "region" you go to in the Eternal mode. Once you're in the Eternal mode, pause and press Triangle to switch to a different "region" of the same size. Use this to find all the cousins, presents and items. The "region" will change but the music won't.

It was very fun in KD to search for each and every crayon and step of the vaulting horse. Butr here, like in WLK, they're all just kind of sitting in the same place :crybaby

In this game the size barriers themselves are big pick-ups that add a lot to your size. I'm still not used to that change.

Things you knock over don't fly as far in this game.

I'll be very interested if an when somebody makes a FAQ for the Crane stage, just to see everybody's ages and all. I've found two old things so far, an easy-to-find 1000 year old fish and 300-year old King Kongs.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
vix
Member Avatar
Run you clever boy and remember...

now that you put a few days into it, are you still just meh about it? or is it getting better?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
slowbro
Member Avatar
way too silly :S

Yeah, good question. I think I am getting to like it more. It no longer bothers me that the stages are divided into segments in that weird way, and the control method doesn't bother me at all. It has become the game I play the most at this point, but I don't like it as much as I did WLK after having it this long, which was literally the only video game I played for a whole three weeks.

I hate to say it but it is my least favorite katamari game so far. My least favorite out of three games all of which I like very much that is. I say it is worth the purchase of the system and the game.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
vix
Member Avatar
Run you clever boy and remember...

Maybe if it wasn't on such a small screen and what not....lol....

You think it's worth getting a psp for? Really?

I mean, I want it and all, I want it when it gets released here so I can understand it but the psp is so $$$. :doh
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
slowbro
Member Avatar
way too silly :S

I guess it's only worth it if you can afford it. To be honest I went farther into debt by buying it.

For my uses the most basic PSP package of PSP, AC adapter and 32k memory card is plenty sufficient, so the PSP did ""only"" cost $200 on Ebay. Still, $250 to play this versus $20 and $30 for the other two?! This one is SO much more expensive. But for me it's worth it.

I just personally like Katamari games so very much more than almost any other game that they are in a whole different category of entertainment for me, and this Katamari is only slightly less interesting to me than the first two. I don't think I'll ever regret buying a PSP for only this game.

edit: For my tastes the small screen doesn't bother me. I actually rather like the look of well-done 3D games on a small screen. I think that's why I liked Mario 64 DS so much :)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
vix
Member Avatar
Run you clever boy and remember...

yeah, i can't see justifying it but at the same time i could, lol....maybe if i had a job, i wouldn't mind as much...
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Arctic Phoenix
Azure Dragoon

So it's not your favorite katamari game in the series, but is it still good on its own? I got a PSP already, so I don't need to worry about getting a new system.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
slowbro
Member Avatar
way too silly :S

If you have a PSP, if you like Katamari games I'd say by all means get it. Even though I like KD and WLK a little better. (that fact might change, I am getting to like the new one a lot)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
slowbro
Member Avatar
way too silly :S

It's finally happened ...

I was sitting down in the bathroom playing Katamari, when I entered the area with the music that sounds like it says "Take a dump!"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
vix
Member Avatar
Run you clever boy and remember...

:eek!

:lol :lol
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
aaron
fastidious planet

That would be
"check it up, funk it up" :P
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Tea with the King · Next Topic »
Add Reply

This page has been viewed times.
KotW was created on March 8th, 2005 and the above counter has been tracking stats since November 22nd, 2005.
Katamari is a copyright of Namco, we don't own it or claim to own it. Fanart, smilies, etc. are copyright of it's respective members, unless given permission by the
author, usage is prohibited. This website is used for entertainment purposes only.