10 replies to this topic

[Mendon]

Has anyone played this game or know much about it? I hadn't heard of it but saw it at a Play n' Trade the other day and it sounded interesting. I asked the clerk if he knew anything about the game and he said he wasn't into RPG's so he hadn't played it nor talked to anyone who has.

I looked on Amazon and read a few reviews there..... some praised the game, some went Ho-Hum. CLICK HERE for the Amazon page.

Just curious if anyone here has played it and any thoughts.


Mendon

[cimerians]

I don't have it but my buddy does. He emailed me back when I asked him about it a while ago. Here it is:

"Rorona I played a little but I liked it. Here’s the gist…You play Rorona, a young girl and end up taking over an Alchemy Shop. The shop is ordered to be closed down, but you get an order from the kingdom you need to fulfill every month to keep the shop open. The game happens over the span of three years. Once those three years are up, the game ends and you get an ending.

During the course of the game, you need to go out and get items and recipes for orders and whatnot, and there are people you can befriend. It has a lot to do with crafting and managing your time. All the recipes/crafting cost you x time per item. Combat when you are out and about gathering items and such is turn based and pretty simple (as in not complicated) There is no MP or anything like that. Everything is HP. Wanna do a special attack, it will cost x hp. They try and keep things fairly simple that way.

The playtime for one playthrough of Rorona (from what I’ve heard) is 15-20ish hours or so."


15 to 20 hours isn't bad for me but I'm not a big crafting freak. My friend likes those crafting alchemy type games but I don't seem to have the time or knack for it. The good thing for me if I did play this game is that at least the game will force you to end when the 3 years are over. Some people may not like that though.

[Mendon]

Thanks for the reply and info!!

I enjoy a game with strategy and management, like a Civilization or StarCraft or Sim City or the original Warcraft, and when I played Everquest, I spent a lot of time on crafting as I enjoyed that. From what you wrote, Rorona sounds like its got some action plus management & strategy invovled.

Maybe I should give GameFly another try so that I can really check out games like this.


Mendon

Edited by Mendon, Fri Mar 4, 2011 9:23 AM.

[moycon]

Wow never heard of this game but it A.) Looks awesome and B.) Sounds right up my ally!
Games like Civilization or Sim City were great fun, I'll add Viva Pinata 1 & 2 as well as Kingdom of Kelflings to the mix....all great.
Once again, thanks to Mendon for bringing these obscure games to people attention.
I'm ordering a copy now!

[Mendon]

I took the plunge and just ordered a used copy from GameFly for $32 (Amazon new price is $46). I'll post a follow-up when the game arrives and I've had a chance to play some.

If you get the game, Moycon, post your thoughts as well, please!


Mendon

[cimerians]

Definitely post what you guys think.

You guys will kill my wallet!!

[Arkhan]

Mendon, on Fri Mar 4, 2011 8:10 AM, said:

Has anyone played this game or know much about it? I hadn't heard of it but saw it at a Play n' Trade the other day and it sounded interesting. I asked the clerk if he knew anything about the game and he said he wasn't into RPG's so he hadn't played it nor talked to anyone who has.

I looked on Amazon and read a few reviews there..... some praised the game, some went Ho-Hum. CLICK HERE for the Amazon page.

Just curious if anyone here has played it and any thoughts.


Mendon

I really like it. Its a colorful, cheerful, easy going RPG. like the other Atelier games. You really have to like cutesy Anime stuff. It has enough non-linearity to make it more than just your standard point A to point B RPG (FF13)

Also, not trying to be a dick here, I have a sealed one I would be willing to sell since I accidentally ended up with two of them... >_>

So if you were interested in purchasing the game! I have a brand new one that I would sell for whatever used ones are going for, like 35$?

[moycon]

Arkhan, on Mon Mar 7, 2011 4:50 PM, said:

So if you were interested in purchasing the game! I have a brand new one that I would sell for whatever used ones are going for, like 35$?

The copy I snagged was off the Gamestop site and it was $32, once you add in tax though $35 sounds like a GREAT deal for a new copy!
I picked three day shipping so I'm hoping my copy will be here tomorrow! Looking forward to it for sure. Some of the reviews I've read haven't all been kind, but the video's I've watched look decent enough.

I also snagged Heavy Rain for $29.99, I have a feeling I'm going to be busy in the coming days.

Oh and I'll be sure and give my opinion after I've played it for awhile.

[onmode-ky]

I sold a sealed copy of Rorona, the GameStop premium edition with the art book, a couple of months ago for nearly twice the price I paid for it. Then, I used that unexpectedly high profit toward the cost of a new copy for myself. I've played a little of it, basically just the tutorial portion, and like it so far. Charming art direction (the art book is lovely, FYI), silly dialogue, and it looks like it will be an interesting exercise in resource management to complete the alchemy assignments. Regarding the dialogue, I note that certain parts that are voiced in the Japanese audio are silent on the English side, which also applies to other localizations from NIS America.

Speaking of their localizations, most of the assorted game industry jokes that are in Neptunia, like "Neptune does what you all don't" and "People say I only do everything," are unique to the English script. The Japanese dialogue is plenty funny, too, but those references were added for the localization and really make it stand out. The game allows you to replay those event scenes from the menu, too, so you can revisit the wackiness. I don't think that capability is available in Rorona, though, nor fellow NIS America release Trinity Universe.

onmode-ky

[moycon]

Ok I've spent a good bit of time with this game now. Completed my first assignment which took like a month and a half. (the entire game is over the span of three years) That first assignment probably took me an hour and a half, although now that I really know how to play, I may start over and really try and get 100% on the assignments, something I didn't do on this first one.

The game starts off slow. Reminded me of Final Fantasy X where you sit around watching more than playing in parts. The first hour is a bunch of story telling and tutorials and is quite yawn inducing, or it was to me anyways. This game is also VERY childish and maybe even a bit feminine. If you had no problem with a game like Eternal Sonata then you won't mind, but playing this is kind of like riding a moped when you're older (like most of us are), it is pretty fun, but you don't want any of your friend seeing you do it. That feeling went away when I got to the meat of the game, but be prepared to feel uncomfortable when you first boot it up!! LOL I will say this, this game doesn't hold a candle to Eternal Sonata in terms of graphics, they are colorful and sharp, but maybe a bit fugly. The back grounds kind of remind me of a high def PS2 game. I'm not like totally disappointed, but not blown away like I was while playing Eternal Sonata or Tales of Vesperia.

As far as the game play, if you enjoy exploring area's, fighting monster in simplistic turn based combat, collecting ingredients and crafting items as your quests. You will like this. The story is interesting so far and the sense of accomplishment and getting rewarded has kept me hooked since getting past all those pesky tutorials. In fact I just ended a probably 2 hour play session and I'm considering booting it back up now that I've written down my thoughts!

[Mendon]

I still haven't finished this game but just noticed that a new one, "Adventurer of Arland" is being released on Sept. 27th. The game is being offered as a standard version ($49) and a Collectors Edition ($59) that includes a soundtrack CD and art book.

Adventurer of Arland from Amazon

I have enjoyed what I've played of Alchemists and now I'm highly interested in this new release. I'm going to get back to finishing Alchemists and between finishing that along with the upcoming releases of "Adventurer of Arland" and "White Knight Chronicles II", it looks like I'm going to be playing some RPG's over the next couple of months!!

Here is a link to WKC2 if anyone is interested: White Knight Chronicles II on Amazon


Mendon