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~Brave Story: New Traveler Information Thread~ The game starts off with the player as the main protagonist, called Tatsuya as the default name, and introduces us to his best friend, whose default name is Miki. The story kicks off with Tatsuya and Miki sitting on a bench. Tatsuya is too immersed in the game he is playing on his PSP to notice that Miki is missing. Kratos, Miki's dog, barks and shows Tatsuya where Miki is and thus he finds her unconscious on the ground, sick by some unknown illness. He wishes for her to become better, and suddenly, a voice magically appears and asks Tatsuya if he wants to save his friend and make her healthy again. He agrees and thus the adventure begins in an unknown land separated from the rest of the world in order to seize 5 different gems for the Traveler's Sword he holds so he can return to his old world and restore Miki back to good health. General Information: Published By: SCEI & XSEED Games
Developed By: Game Republic
Genre: Turn Based RPG
Release Date: America: July 31, 2007
Japan: July 6, 2006 ESRB: "E 10+" for "Everyone 10 and over" Price: $19.99at most stores
Platform: PSP (Playstation Portable) Media: UMD (Universal Media Disk) Online: 1 Player, 2 via Ad-Hoc mode Box Art: US Version and Japan Version   Characters: Will not show other characters since they are either unlocked or not needed to be showed.  Tatsuya - a young 11-year-old human boy from the real world with an intense love of playing video games on his PSP; he embarks on a quest to save Miki's life by journeying to the world of Vision as a Traveler. He is given a powerful blade called the Traveler's Sword by a mysterious elderly man named Lau. Despite being so young, he wields the sword quite well in battle and the sword's own strength grows as he locates the mysterious five gemstones. Tatsuya fills the role of the typical silent protagonist in the game and only speaks when prompted by questions or decisions.
 Yuno - a 15-year-old half ankhakin half kitkin girl who Tatsuya meets shortly after arriving in Vision. She takes an immediate interest in him after he helps save her life from monsters and remains a close ally throughout their journey together. She tends to be a bit high-spirited and bossy (a comparison Tatsuya makes to Miki) as well as curious about the many unseen sights of the world. She wields a bow in combat as well as useful healing songs.
 Sogreth - a 30-year-old waterkin warrior who befriends Tatsuya and Yuno when they help to save his son from trouble. He is bent on training his 4-year-old son Minos to be a man, but his methods borderline on extreme and everyone in his town knows what his son goes through daily. Despite his tough exterior and gruff manner, he is actually quite kind and empathetic to even the least disheartening of situations. In battle, he fills the role of strongman and wields an axe with great power.
 Meladee - the newly appointed leader of the Highlanders in the desert branch who requires the assistance of Tatsuya and his friends at the request of her sister. She is both kind and tough as well as beautiful and skilled. Yuno also idolizes her as the kind of woman she wants to grow up to be. Meladee fights with twin short swords and wields numerous healing spells.
 Mitsuru - a mysterious young mage Traveler with a rather cold and condescending tone toward Tatsuya, whom he meets early on. Though he assists Tatsuya for a brief time, he has no intention of being his friend or ally as he has his own agenda regarding the gemstones. In the original novel, Mitsuru is Wataru's friend and rival. He fights using a staff and powerful attack spells.
 Ropple - a pankin starseer Tatsuya and co. meet in Gasara. He is working on a school assignment to receive credit and the party agrees to help him. He is knowledgeable in regards to magical lore but very oblivious to people's feelings. His professor wants him to better understand the people around him and help them selflessly. Ropple has an unusual tendency to say "and/or" in his sentences. He wields a staff and attack spells much like Mitsuru.
 Leynart - a beastkin Knight of Stengel who is responsible for dealing with many lawbreakers at borders and checkpoints. When the team first meets him, Leynart mistakes Yuno and Sogreth for criminals, but after a short quest he releases them from his custody. He eventually joins the party in order to continue to fight for justice and find some way of helping his lover, who has fallen into a state of amnesia. He fights using a lance and shield, and can cast a few offensive and defensive spells.
 Kutz - the Highlander leader at the town of Gasara who is close friends (and rivals) with Meladee. She tends to be overly brazen when it comes to letting people hear what she has to say and does not tolerate people breaking the law (even the smallest infraction sets her off). She joins the party for a short time. Kutz uses a whip in battle.
 Wataru - the hero from the previous Brave Story and the protagonist of the original novel that inspired the games. He first appears to assist Tatsuya with clearing his friends' names. Like Tatsuya, he wields a special blade (called the Brave's Sword) in battle and fights with essentially the same Bravura techniques.
 Meena - a kitkin girl who traveled alongside Wataru in the previous game and original story. She is spritely and kind, and willing to help Wataru no matter what. She wields throwing knives in battle and uses healing songs like Yuno.
 Kee Keema - a waterkin merchant who traveled with Wataru and Meena in the original novel and game. He teams up with Tatsuya and Yuno to save Sogreth's son early on. He also seems to be have many connections with many important people in Vision. He wields an axe in battles.
Races: Ankhakin - the term for humans in Vision. Meladee and Kutz are examples of ankhakin. Kitkin - a race of beastman people that could include any smaller animal such as a housecat; Yuno (though only half) and Meena are examples of kitkin.
Waterkin - a race of beings that can include any type of aquatic animal ranging from reptiles to sharks; Sogreth and Kee Keema are examples of waterkin (Sogreth somewhat resembles a crocodile while Kee Keema is a kind of generic lizard).
Pankin - a race of rather short beings that resemble ankhakin to some degree. They immerse themselves in knowledge and ancient lore and as a result, take up starseeing as professions; Ropple and his professor are examples of pankin.
Beastkin - a race of beastman people that include some of the larger animals, such as tigers and lions. Leynart is an example of beastkin.
Demonkin - a race of demonic monsters that are from another world called The Dark. The Goddess created the firewyrms to protect Vision from them.
Firewyrms - heroic and noble dragons who were created by Vision's Goddess to protect the world from demonkin, the antagonistic race of Vision. Firewyrms are in the classic Western dragon image. Glitches: An unusual glitch occurs when you equip any of the guest characters with accessories during the Epilogue. Saving the game when Wataru and the other guests are wearing accessories causes the items to vanish permanently. The player should be advised to keep rare or one-of-a-kind accessories off the guest heroes. Images: Articles: Brave Story Import Playtest IGN
We try out Game Republic's first portable title. by Anoop Gantayat July 6, 2006 - Games based off anime movies tend to suck (much like many anime movies themselves of late). Game Republic games... well, there's the studio's debut title Genji, which wasn't all that impressive, and Every Party, which caused massive damage at the Xbox 360 launch. You could reasonably say that Game Republic games tend to suck too.
So now we have Brave Story, which may or may not suck (the movie is set for Japanese release on 7/8), and a series of games based off the animated feature. Sony Computer Entertainment has brought us PSP and PS2 titles, with Bandai Namco Games delivering a DS game. Of the three titles, the PSP one has drawn most attention from gamers as it happens to be Game Republic's third game.
After a couple of hours play time, the PSP version, Brave Story: Aratanaru Tabibito (New Traveler), like its film counterpart, may or may not suck. From a strictly technical point of view, Game Republic seems to have mastered the PSP with the title. The game's visuals are more detailed than any PSP RPG to date, with polished character and enemy models. It's like playing a mid-level PS2 RPG (I'm looking at you, Wild Arms!).
Surprisingly, the game's detailed visuals do not come at the expense of load times. Brave Story jumps between dungeons and battles immediately -- so fast, in fact, that you get the feeling the programmers wanted to show off. I've yet to spot a single load screen in the game. Namco pulled this trick with Tales of Eternia early in the PSP's life, but that game looked closer to a PlayStation game than a PS2 title, making Game Republic's work all the more impressive.
Looking beyond its technical mastery, the picture's a little darker for Brave Story at this point. The biggest problem with the game is pacing. The first two hours are filled with grueling tutorials and explanations. You get to the first town, and you're forced to go around and get an explanation on every shop in town. I got the whole "inn" and "tool shop" thing down a few generations ago, guys! The game explains so many peculiar gameplay systems to you all at once that the lessons are pretty much meaningless.
Now two hours in, with the explanations out of the way, and the game seems to be picking up some. Brave Story offers a traditional RPG experience, with towns, dungeons, a large world to explore and a simple turn-based battle system.
You play as a nameless character from the real world (he's actually from Japan, although he has a western look about him). You're playing videogames on your portable game system one day, completely ignoring your friend Miki, with whom you're supposed to be walking your dog. Miki gets struck with a mysterious disease and goes unconscious, making you realize just how much you need her. Enter talking frog. The frog gives you the chance to revive Miki by crossing a door into a strange new world and undertaking a quest to speak to a goddess who grants a single wish to those brave enough to complete the journey to her side.
Those who have been paying attention to the Brave Story movie will note that this is an original story with an original main character. The movie tells the story of Wataru, who, much like the game's main character, travels through a door and into a new world in order to get a single wish granted. The worlds on the opposite sides of the doors of both the game and the movie are meant to be the same.
In the game, to get your wish granted, you must first power up your character by collecting five gems. It's a pretty traditional set up, and the gameplay reflects this. Towns have all the typical elements, from inns to tool, weapon and item shops. The game's overworld map and dungeons feature invisible enemies that assault you a bit too often for my personal liking, although the quick load times mean that this isn't a big problem. The only big change seems to be part of a recent trend: enemies don't leave behind gold, so if you want to get money, you need to trade in items at the item shop.
The battle system also offers traditional turn-based mechanics, although with a few twists. In addition to standard attacks and special skills that drain your characters' Brave Points meter, you can make your party of three team up for combo attacks. I also noticed the enemies teaming up as an eagle enemy picked up a rabbit enemy and brought it in for a close attack.
And all those gameplay systems whose explanations slow down the game's start? Mostly, it all amounts to an accessory creation system where you create accessories by gathering and combining ingredients. Oh, and there's a **bleep**fight mini game. You can collect chickens on your quest and raise them to do battle with other chickens. This wasn't particularly interesting during the lengthy explanation, so I'm not sure how interesting it will be during the main game. Those looking for multiplayer play will be pleased to learn that the **bleep**fight mini game can be shared with other players through game sharing.
Brave Story takes a while to kick off, but, **bleep**fighting aside, it seems to be doing just that right now. With slick technical presentation and traditional RPG gameplay, Game Republic's third game has the potential to be its best title yet. Stay tuned for more, including videos and further impressions, as we work through the title in anticipation of the movie's weekend release.
 1UP
Previews: Brave Story First look at the next RPG by the makers of Genji.
What does it feel like to walk into a door to another world, knowing it's your only choice? Better ask Tatsuya, the hero of Brave Story: New Traveler, because instead of feeling helpless while his friend Miki suffers at the hospital, he takes it upon himself to visit the Goddess of Destiny in the Land of Vision. Before he's allowed to see her, though, he'll need to prove himself by collecting five gem stones.If you've been longing for some traditional turn-based RPG action on your PSP, then Brave Story should see you pretty excited. During the first play-through you meet five other characters (rounding out to 12 total playable characters one you beat the game) and depending on who you take with you, your party will learn different Unity moves to perform together a lá Chrono Trigger's Dual Techs, except each Unity doesn't take up the partner's turn. Instead of magic, each character has a bar for Brave Points, which are used for Bravura moves (skilled attacks) in addition to the Unity attacks.
SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Brave Story: New Traveler screens. On the battle screen, the size of the monster represents its strength; there may be two of the same type, but if one is bigger, you'll know it has more HP. The experience and leveling system is pretty friendly, giving points per monster instead of per battle, so it's actually possible to level up mid-fight. If a character dies, she'll still get the xp for the monsters that collapsed up to that point, rather than having the whole battle become a frustrating waste.A less than traditional feature is the Batman-styled visual "sound-effects" that appear when you hit. "KERPLOW!" is definitely a good one, but the bright comic book effects overlaid on the detailed game world is a bit harsh-looking. Besides the onomatopoeias, the word "TRIBAL!" will pop up to announce that you've exploited an elemental weakness and achieved a critical hit. Brave Story looks to be a huge game, taking about 120 hours if you complete the game with all the sidequests, as there is plenty to do after you power up your sword to the max with the gems and complete the main plot, including consulting your Monster Guide to learn how to Craze all of your enemies. Each monster has a specific (and sometimes complex) trigger -- like using a certain item or leaving it as your last kill -- that will send it into Craze mode. Crazed enemies will be tougher to fight, but it will hopefully be worth the effort to get those special drops. If you can't wait until the end of July for the Brave Story video game, the first volume of the related manga will be in stores this month.
Thanks for reading my thread.
Thanks to Wikipedia Brave Story Page Brave Story New Traveler Official Website Message Edited by yigytugd on 06-17-2008 07:49 PM Message Edited by yigytugd on 06-17-2008 07:49 PM
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