Contact is a role-playing video game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It was published by Marvelous Entertainment in Japan on March 30, 2006, by Atlus in North America on October 19, 2006, and by Rising Star Games in Australasia and Europe on January 25, 2007 and February 6, 2007 respectively.
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The gameplay sure is weird and very cadenced, but once you insist and get the hang of it, the game can be fun. Not very good, but the story is interesting and it's a very ambitious game for its time. Surely might've inspired the later "survival open world craft" games that came out 5ish years later
This game is an ikea manual
Supremely weird game. I don't know if I'd call it "good," but it isn't exactly bad either. It's that Love-de-Lic phenotype mixed with some GHM sensibilites. Surprisingly great soundtrack (though not a surprise coming from Masafumi Takada)!
Combat system is semi turn based but also not really. Leveling up stats requires grinding for that specific stat (ie. getting hit by a physical attack to level physical defense), which takes about as long as you would expect (very). Using skills depletes an SP bar that is only occasionally refilled after defeating enemies. This makes them impractical for most situations you'd want to use them in.
There are a number of outfits the protagonist can wear, each with specific skillsets and statistical advantages. This is a fun idea, but stupefyingly there is only one location in the entire game where you can change between them, meaning you can't actually strategize around having access to more than one at a time. As you can imagine this also makes grinding even worse.
You can cook different foods for use as HP recovery items, but most of them don't restore a lot, and you'll eventually end up just relying on the out of place generic video game potions anyways. Some better dishes can be made at cooking level 55 (fifty five), which requires grinding (with the chef outfit only, of course) for who knows how long. At the end of my playthrough I had this stat leveled to 27. Most other skills have similarly high barriers, why? Well, at least they aren't terribly useful in the first place.
On another topic, the story is beyond explanation partially because there isn't really much of an explanation given. Rather it seems like the product of the devs fucking around and making something they like, which I heavily respect. At one point you travel to Akihabara and some of the televisions there seem to be showing ads for Killer7. In the depths of a(n implied) US Military base you can find images of the GHM devs and some cats (presumably theirs). Playing reminded me of playing games as a young kid because there's so little information about the game both in it and online that it feels like anything can happen.
For as frankly low quality as it feels, there's as much of an unshakeable feeling that it was a human project. That doesn't necessarily redeem it's faults but tinges my experience of it with a strange joy.
Idk man just listen to this
Combat system is semi turn based but also not really. Leveling up stats requires grinding for that specific stat (ie. getting hit by a physical attack to level physical defense), which takes about as long as you would expect (very). Using skills depletes an SP bar that is only occasionally refilled after defeating enemies. This makes them impractical for most situations you'd want to use them in.
There are a number of outfits the protagonist can wear, each with specific skillsets and statistical advantages. This is a fun idea, but stupefyingly there is only one location in the entire game where you can change between them, meaning you can't actually strategize around having access to more than one at a time. As you can imagine this also makes grinding even worse.
You can cook different foods for use as HP recovery items, but most of them don't restore a lot, and you'll eventually end up just relying on the out of place generic video game potions anyways. Some better dishes can be made at cooking level 55 (fifty five), which requires grinding (with the chef outfit only, of course) for who knows how long. At the end of my playthrough I had this stat leveled to 27. Most other skills have similarly high barriers, why? Well, at least they aren't terribly useful in the first place.
On another topic, the story is beyond explanation partially because there isn't really much of an explanation given. Rather it seems like the product of the devs fucking around and making something they like, which I heavily respect. At one point you travel to Akihabara and some of the televisions there seem to be showing ads for Killer7. In the depths of a(n implied) US Military base you can find images of the GHM devs and some cats (presumably theirs). Playing reminded me of playing games as a young kid because there's so little information about the game both in it and online that it feels like anything can happen.
For as frankly low quality as it feels, there's as much of an unshakeable feeling that it was a human project. That doesn't necessarily redeem it's faults but tinges my experience of it with a strange joy.
Idk man just listen to this
the most video gamey video game of all time. yes it fucking sucks. no it doesnt and youre wrong and i hate you.
Great concept, horrible game play. Love the art hate the combat.
The poster child for "Just because your game is unique, it doesn't mean it is good"