Soma Bringer
| Soma Bringer | |
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| Developer(s) | Monolith Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Director(s) | Shingo Kawabata |
| Producer(s) | Tetsuya Takahashi |
| Artist(s) | Tonny Waiman Koo |
| Writer(s) | Soraya Saga |
| Composer(s) | Yasunori Mitsuda |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Cooperation action RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
Soma Bringer (ソーマブリンガー Sōma Buringā) is a video game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. It was released in Japan on February 28, 2008.
Gameplay
The player's party consists of three members. Combat is in real time and takes place on the same map as exploration. There are six different classes for players to choose. Each class has their own unique abilities. Each class has its own limitations on what weapons can be equipped. At the start of the game you will pick one of those weapon specialities to start with, which determines your starting equipment. Each weapon speciality has its own skills that can be learned. They are divided into ranks, and once you reach the required rank in that class, you will be able to learn the skills in that rank for the weapon specialities available to that class. As you level up in the game you will gain AP (Ability Points), and you will use these points to learn and enhance the skills available to you. It only takes 1 point to learn a skill, but the more points you put into a skill, the more effective it is. Each skill has a maximum of 20 levels. The different weapon specialities are One-handed Weapons, Two-handed Weapons, Dual Wielding, Spears, Bows, Guns, Hand-to-hand, Two-handed Polearms, and Staves.
Besides gaining AP as you level up, you also gain CP (Character Points), which can be used to increase the character's four base statistics. These base statistics determine the strength of physical and magical attacks, as well as maximum HP/SP, defensive power and so on. The statistics that can be boosted are Strength, Magic, Health and Skillfulness. Stats are maxed at 255, life and SP at 9999, attack speed at 170%, run speed at 180%. Any equipment that has extra stats does not go over 255. You will lose out if you put 255 in that stat and are wearing an item that adds +10 to the stat as an example.
The combat in Soma Bringer is meant to be simple to execute yet extremely customizable and strategic for the player. This action can be a normal attack, an attack skill, a non-attack ability or a spell. Up to five sets of actions can be customized, and the player can switch between the five sets, though any set not having something allocated will be skipped. While you can bring up the menu to change mapped actions at any time, the game does not pause when you access the menu, so it would not be wise to do so while in the middle of combat.
When combos and consecutive attacks are pulled off on a single enemy, an exclamation mark will appear over the enemy. Certain forms of attack and timed combos can more effectively bring an enemy into break state than others. Although, just as enemies can be put into break states, so can the player.
Story
In a world where the a magical energy source known as Soma drives the technology and daily lives of all its inhabitants, there lies a huge continent named Barnea. In recent years, the natural balance of Soma has been disrupted by the arrival of mysterious beings called Visitors. To investigate these occurrences, Secundady - the organization that regulates Soma in the world, creates a military division to deal with these Visitors - the Pharzuph. The story follows the seven members of the 7th Division of the Pharzuph. What they discover on one of their missions will determine the fate of the world...
Reception
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Soma Bringer has received largely positive critical reception since release. Mike Moehnke of RPGamer scored the game a 4.0 out of 5, praising the combat elements featured as well as the music, and Games Radar praised the deep customization available in both the combat and character development.[3][2] Lucas Thomas of IGN featured Soma Bringer in an article listing top eleven games that Nintendo should translate for the North American market, and in the article he described the game as "visually stunning", and also praised the game's customization options.[4]
In its first week of release, Soma Bringer sold approximately 50,844 units.[5]
References
- ↑ "Soma Bringer - GameRankings". GameRankings. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- 1 2 NGamer UK (March 26, 2008). "Soma Bringer Import Review (Games Radar)". Games Radar. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- 1 2 Moehnke, Mike JuMeSyn. "RPGamer Staff Retroview Soma Bringer". RPGamer. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- ↑ Thomas, Lucas (December 21, 2010). "Only a Translation Away". IGN. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- ↑ Savino, Candice (March 7, 2008). "Another Week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 2/25-3/2". Joystiq. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
External links
- Official Nintendo website (Japanese)