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Re: My review of Bugsite.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:32 am
by Kimbles(imported)
Well, since the game now has its own shiny new section here and probably not many of you know that much about it, I figured I would give an overview of the game. I've been playing it quite a bit lately and it appears to be awesome. *nod*

Story:
The game takes place in the not-so-distant future, where people have created a massive online virtual reality called Bugsite, which anyone can access using a fancy 3D visor and a computer with an internet connection. Its creation was a joint effort between 4 major companies: FE, Sting, Ruger, and Tahiro, each of whom govern a section of the virtual world. These companies also make Bugs, which are the main focus of Bugsite. Bugs are "program lifeforms" that can be treated as virtual pets, or controlled by people known as Hackers, who are able to use bugs to keep computer systems working properly.
Your main character (named Daichi) is an ordinary student who lives in Nanohana town. His dad works for Guardian, a group of Hackers who serve as a sort of police force for Bugsite, investigating illegal activity and the like. D: One day he decides its about time Daichi got into Bugsite (all of other kids have been raving about it), and gets him a visor and all of the necessary equipment and shows him around. Daichi's been hearing a mysterious voice calling him in his dreams, though, and once he gets to Bugsite he find the source: a mysterious bug named Spiral (who has some sort of connection to Daichi) is trapped in a bug shop and needs his help to escape. He befriends Spiral and the two of them make a break for it, fighting off the store employees on the way. Afterwords, Daichi's dad informs him that Spiral is a new, undiscovered species of bug and is so impressed that he offers to let Daichi become a member of Guardian, and with it a full-fledged Hacker. :O He explains that an evil organization called Weldehide(?) has released a virus into Bugsite that's making bugs turn violent, and that Guardian needs as much help as it can get. Daichi accepts, and his new adventure as a Hacker begins!!


Bugsite itself is split into 4 sections for the companies that run them, and then further into a main area, a techno area filled with shops, and a safari area where you can catch wild (viral) bugs. You start out in Amiland, which is land-themed and run by FE. *nod*
The battle system is 3 vs. 3 like Telefang, but the battles are displayed on a single screen that shows everyone at the same time. Each bug has 4 attacks, with some that only affect the user, an ally, the whole enemy team, etc. There's a nice amount of variety. :O
The company that made the bug is what's mostly used for type advantages (FE>Sting>Tahiro>Ruger>FE), but there's also weaknesses and resistances to different types of attacks (cutting, bashing, fire/wind/water/etc.) That are different for every single bug. You can carry 6 bugs with you at a time (3 in battle, 3 out), but in order for a bug to take part in battle is has to be equipped with a chip, which you can buy in towns. Chips also increase bugs' stats significantly, with different chips increasing different stats and stronger chips becoming available as the game progresses. *nod* Overall, it's a very nice system with a lot of room for customization. :D
Bugs will "version up" once they get enough experience, eventually learning new attacks and evolving. Surprisingly, your main character also gets experience from battles and levels up along with their bugs, though it's still not clear what it does. You can also set your bugs to the front, middle, or back rows in battle, and I'm not sure what that does either. :/

You can use items in battle, but only on your character's turn which only comes around once every couple of bug turns. That's also where you can choose to run from battles (though it also lets you at the start of each battle) and switch different bugs into the battle (like pokemon!). In order to catch viral bugs, you use items called vaccines which come in various strengths and varieties (also like pokemon). There's also items for recovering your bugs' HP (which carries between battles), raising/lowering stats, and healing/inflicting status ailments. You can't use items or run away in battles against other Hackers, though. *nod*

You can heal your bugs for free at Guardian HQs, which are always located in the main areas. It's basically like a pokemon center with extremely ominous music where you can heal, trade, link battle, and save. *nod* The game indeed uses save points (called access points), but they're generally well placed enough even in dungeons for it not to be a problem. XD Access points are also where you go to reach your bug storage and the bug encyclopedia, which is filled from the beginning of the game.

As for appearances, the graphics are fairly good for the GBC... All of the real-world locations in the game have very detailed side-view backgrounds which are quite impressive, but once you get inside Bugsite (which is apparently very dark and full of see-through buildings) it starts to look more like a normal top-down game. XD The bug sprites also have a nice amount of detail, but are limited to a single color palette. D: I think that the game has a great art style and monster design, but it seems to be really limited by what the GBC is capable of. ): Aww. The sound can be somewhat grating, too... There's some extremely nasty beeping sound effects, but most of the music tracks still manage to be catchy, so I can forgive it for the most part. *shrug*

The biggest issue for the game that I've found is the odd lag is has between menu screens. It's kind of hard to ignore and makes it pretty clunky, especially when you're first trying to sort out the status screens and such. :/ Another issue (though it probably won't affect you guys) is the text system they've used, which has fixed-width letters and instead of having modified letters (ta with a " next to it becomes da, ka becomes ga, etc) as seperate letters like every other game, they just have the modifying " as a seperate letter that you type in after, putting weird blank spaces in the middle of normal words. -_-; On the upside, if anyone would ever want to make a translation patch for the game, everything already has twice as much room for text to accomodate this. *sigh*
The game is pretty english-happy by the way, with all of the location and shop names written in english somewhere on them. XD Every screen inside Bugsite also has its version number and copyright date in a corner somewhere, which is a nice touch. XD

Overall, despite its flaws, the combination of a cool setting and great monster design and satisfyingly complex gameplay make me really, really like this game. XD Compared to a lot of other monster raising games, it seems that this one isn't afraid to do things that pokemon did right, and The 3 vs. 3 and depth of the battle system definitely set the game apart from the rest. XD Aw man Smilesoft, good job. XD

...Well, that was longer than I expected, but I hope that rather inspires you guys to give the game a try. I'll be making a translation topic for this game too, so not even the language barrier should hold you back..!! XD

Re: My review of Bugsite.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:36 pm
by Milnivri(imported)
Wow. Okay I didn't bother to find out what was happening in the story xD. I've played it for a while before I got stuck. Some parts can go into the wiki, I guess.

By the way my head was spinning and I feel groggy while reading it. Must be because of too much text and the contrast from the background :o (ow) Lol.

Re: My review of Bugsite.

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:25 pm
by Dino DragonX(imported)
Game is kind of good. It is kind like pokemon?