My friend got this last week, and we’ve been playing it pretty constantly. In my opinion, it’s one of the best co-op games short of Halo I’ve played. The gameplay is pretty smooth, but the subject matter is one that has failed in the past (for some reason), and they nailed it this time around. We’ve had some pretty hard times character-building, and wondering if anyone has some insight. Looking on gamefaqs.com doesn’t turn much up, other than Jean Grey turns into an uber-melee character, quite by accident it seems.
I played the game a lot with my wife this past weekend and we’re really enjoying it.
Can you specify what kind of problems you’re having with character building? We seem to be doing fine, but I dunno that we’re doing anything special character-building wise. I guess we lean towards improving Strike and Agility most; we don’t have much problem with health because of health packs (Body) and energy regenerates fast enough for us with a little equipment help (Focus). I also think we tend to max abilities we use the most instead of spreading them out, especially for the “backup” team members the AI controls and only uses one ability at a time anyway.
Well, we’ve just typically used the auto-build option, to see how the computer is building them. But I’m more of a max-min player, and he spreads things out a little too much for my liking. It’s his game, so I don’t want to press it, but if anyone has any particular build suggestions, or skills to avoid, that’d be great.
(For instance, is Cyclops’ Leadership skill a 1-point wonder? How many points in Wolvie’s Regen? Beast’s Acrobatics?)
Also, any idea what the max skill level is? My initial guess is 20, but that seems awefully low - we’re at level 8 or 9, and we’re still at the very end of the first team level. Maybe 40? That’d give a lot more leeway for skills.
I am seriously considering getting a PS2 for only this game (okay, and maybe RAW Vs SD!). From what I’ve seen, it looks pretty similar to Secret of Mana and Secret of Evermore from the SNES… anyone familiar enough with the games to tell me if I’m right or not?
How much of an RPG is it?
That’s my question too.
It sounds like a mix between Gauntlet and KotOR, but what’s the ratio?
It’s more Gauntlet than KOTOR - but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Real time fights are a blast and a big improvement over turn-based (IMO); there’s fewer dialogue choices and what seems like a lack of plot branches. But there’s a lot of depth for what is essentially an action game.
Additionally, we unlocked some “classic” fights last night:
Nightstalker, Cyclops, Wolvie & Jean Grey v. The Sentinels (about 12 of them)
-and-
Iceman, Jean Grey, Cyclops and Beast v. Juggernaut
The character buildings are coming along wonderfully. Beast seems like a bit of a puzzle, but everyone else is doing well. TONS of fun. I highly recommend it.
I’m mostly enjoying it so far, though it does have some pretty egregious bugs for a console game. For example, whenever you fight a supervillain and they use their ultimate attack, it drains one of your ultimate attack items. And while I like that they re-use some of the villains from early in the game later on, except leveled up, they apparently forgot to increase the amount of experience you get from them, leaving you with whole missions where you gain negligible exp.
Some of what I’ve discovered so far in character building is that Jean is ridiculously awesome, due to the power that increases all psychic damage she does. I generally haven’t increased Strike much, because I figure when powers give you 80-100 extra melee damage, one point from it doesn’t amount to much, but I could be interpreting it wrong. I do tend to push it when characters have a power that increases their melee damage by 15%, though (Rogue, Beast, and Colossus, I think). Most of my characters are primarily focused on Focus, without neglecting Body due to how damaging attacks can get.
Cyclops, Jubilee, and Nightcrawler don’t have a power that increases their melee damage. With the first two I can rely on just their active powers, but I’m really at a loss as to what to do with Nightcrawler. I’ve managed to get good effectiveness out of everyone else. For Beast I concentrated on his area attack and super strength and ignored his personal buff and acrobatics after the first point, and that seemed to work out well.
Leadership is great if you’re good at pulling off combos. The extra damage really adds up, especially if you have characters it’s easy to combo with like Iceman and Jean. And I just discovered that if you have both Cyclops and Storm in the active party, it stacks. :eek:
Some information that might come in handy- the buffs that eventually affect your entire team come from: Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Iceman, Gambit, and Psylocke. All of the other buffs remain self-only as far as I can tell.
I’m approaching endgame, having just unlocked the 600 level of Danger Room missions, and am around level 32, so I’d wager the game goes up to 40.
Whatsa “buff”?
Sorry. You know it’s bad when you’ve been using jargon for so long you forget it’s jargon. A buff is any ability that increases your power, usually for a limited time. In this case it’s almost always the X-button ability.
I’m unfamiliar with the other games you guys are comparing it to. Is it anything like Kingdom Hearts?
OK, so the costumes I’ve seen in the TV commercials make it clear that the look of the characters come from the Ultimate X-Men line. Does the plot and characterizations also come from UXM, or do they use UXM looks and mainline title plots and personalities?
Yes and no. Jean Grey and Cyclops seem older than the UXM, Drake and Beast seems the same. Nightcrawler is pure original X-Men, as are Rogue, Jubilee and Remy. There are flashbacks to classic X-Men fights, and they fight in their old-school costumes.
Pretty similar, except that you can change the character you’re controlling at any time. I think that’s actually a closer analogy than the games mentioned above.
Compared to Secret of Mana, it has less spell and equipment management but more character management. I’d say it’s about even.
That sounds about perfect. Thanks, Mind gamer.
I ***need ***this game.
Woo hoo! We just got back from the store. We bought X-Men Legends! I can’t wait to get started, but I don’t if I have room on my memory card. Gah!
I’ve heard it described as an action RPG that’s heavier on the action. It’s been likened to Baldur’s Gate console series.
Oh. That’s what that button is for. How’s it working for you? I’ve been building things myself. I want to max out the abilities my AI teammates use the most.
So have you maxed out at 40 yet? Most of my characters are still in the low twenties. Can you max out everything before endgame?
I’m not sure I fully understand the Danger Room. I’ve completed the Freshman level stuff. Should I be completing all the Danger Room stuff as soon as I can? Does that benefit you on your regular missions?
Also, if you miss finding some goodies during the missions, can you buy them from Forge, or have you missed them forever?
Horrendously. It wants to evenly spread everything out, which isn’t a good idea. You want to focus on a few things, and get support from the passives. We shifted our strategies this weekend.
Not even close. We just finished the Arbiter mission, so we’re not higher than 18 on anyone.
Absolutely. Particularly, you want to find as many of the Challenge discs that you can - you can’t buy those from the Healer (although, they may be Grab Bag-able, but we haven’t tested that out). The challenges for each player reward you with a character specific item, which is huge.
Danger Room strategy: Leave at least one Danger mission incomplete, as you don’t receive items and potions from completed levels. Forge buys potions from you at a pretty good price, and sometimes you need to go back for health potions late in a mission. Teamwork 101 or 201 is pretty good, as you need to press L1 for it to work.
You can buy the other discs (non-Challenge) from the Healer (he appears after the Morlocks mission).
I’m going to have to spend more time in the Danger Room. It seems to me you have to complete the entire Freshman level to get access to Sophomore levels. But as you say, you also want to leave the level incomplete so you can come back & get some health & energy potions. So it’s a toss up. Complete the level so you can do more advanced missions and get some specific power ups for your characters, or leave the level incomplete so you can collect energy & health.
Here’s a little trick I’ve learned. You may have already noticed it, but you can cover ground a lot faster with your flying characters. For instance, you’re on a level with lots of staircases & elevators and you’ve decided you want to go back to the last extraction point. Just have your flying character fly down the long corridors and up or down the staircases & elevators. Your walking characters will magically appear next to your flying character when she lands. Now how did they get there so fast? 