As an Ultraman fan, learning that a game was going to be released excited me. Many of my favourite Ultras would be in my control, and I would get to fight a wide variety of familiar monsters from the Ultra series. Unfortunately, I can't read Japanese, so some value of playing the game is lost to me. Especially the plot. There seems to be a lot of story telling, but I had to skip them all because I couldn't decipher them. However, I
did manage to figure out the basics of this game, and I decided to write this short guide to help all fans who can't read Japanese but want to give this game a try! What I show isn't a direct, proper translation of the game wordings, but more of what I figure them out to be from playing the game!
Menu Navigation
After you choose a new game or to continue a saved game, the main menu would appear as shown.
Chronicle mode - basically story mode. You either: 1) move on with the story, or 2) look through your characters.
Extra mode - In a way, they are special missions you can unlock to grind EXP or earn more spirits.
Gallery - Data and story plots unlocked by you of Ultras and monsters. The options are as follows: Ultraman data, Monsters data, Ultraman story part in game, back to main menu.
Options - save data, load data, settings, back to main menu
Spirits
I mentioned spirits, which I'll touch on now. As you go on, you will get to unlock more Ultras to use on your team. However, there's a catch. If you recall the "Your Characters" section mentioned earlier, this is how it looks like:
Ultraman Gaia requires me to use 10 spirits to unlock, and I only have 1 spirit to spend. By playing through battles in Chronicle mode and Extra mode, you can increase your spirits for spending.
In battle, you will notice 3-4 orbs scattered across the map. Apart from having effects in-battle upon collection, they also add up to be the spirits you earned to spend with. Simply end your turn while standing on the spot of the spirit, and it will be collected, with the effects kicking in. The spirit colours are:
Yellow - boost stats
Green - Time extension (usually by 5 rounds)
Blue - recover HP and SP. usually applies to the character that collects it, but I've encountered situations when it healed my entire team.
After every battle, the number of spirits you collected during the battle will be shown like above (in this case, I got all 3 out of 3 for the battle). Do take note that as you progress in Chronicle mode, you cannot redo previous missions; once you miss the chance to collect the spirits in battle, you can't go back to try to collect them again.
In Extra mode, the game shows you how many spirits you can earn in each special mission. In this case, the mission here has 3 spirits to collect. However, grinding the same mission does not let you earn more spirits. Each mission's spirits are capped at the number given.
Once you've enough spirits, you can spend them on the Ultra you want. In this case, I unlocked Ultraman 80 for my use.
Classes
Different Ultra has a different "class", and while I don't know what they're called, for the purpose of my guide, I'll label them as I see them (from left to right):
Runner: The foot icon. Basically this guy can move the furthest (read next section), but their health is generally lower.
Bruiser: The fist icon. More powerful hits and a tougher nut to crack, but range of the special attacks are shorter. Their SP regenerates slower than average.
All-round: The posing icon. They're just well-balanced heroes to me, with average movement range and attack range.
Caster: The guy shooting a beam icon. I'm not too sure what the class do, I assume it involves using powers to boost/debuff others. So far the Ultras I have of this class have the healing skill which I use a lot, hence I tend to label this class as casters.
Of course, there are certain Ultras who can change mode, such as Ultraman Dyna. These characters change their class in battle, allowing you to change them to the necessary class according to the situation.
Battle
Before every battle, you choose your team, depending on the conditions and team size allowed. Choosing your team in simple enough. You'll be then given an area(s) to position your team members. Once you're prepared, let the battle commence (press START button)!
Round Timer - in most/all Ultra series, Ultras has a time limit on Earth. To give the game a bit more of a challenge,each battle has a countdown, that decreases by 1 bar after each round.
Order Sequence - Self-explanatory, it's just the order for you to see who comes next, for you to plan your move wisely.
Boosts - in game, there might be boosts applied to your characters, which are indicated as shown.
HP and SP - SP regenerates every turn, and usually starts at a low amount. So if you go about a couple of rounds without using any powers, you can save up enough SP for powerful special attacks.
Let me explain the actions you can take for each character during each turn. You can basically only move your character, followed by anything from options 2-5, or simply choose 6 to end the turn (of the character). If you do anything from 2-5 before moving, you would end your turn after the thing you did, missing the chance to move your character.
1. Move
When you choose to move, the blue area indicates where you can move to. Different classes of Ultras have different distances they can travel, with the runner class able to move the furthest. Do note that you can move through your characters, but opposing team characters block your path. Hence, you can actually send a character to stand in a small gap, preventing enemies from walking through. Or building a wall of Ultras to stop enemies from reaching something you're defending.
2. Basic Attack
Basic attacks are mainly melee punches and kicks your Ultra will throw at your enemy. These attacks are hence short range, only able to hit targets adjacent to you (diagonal is not allowed). There are certain exceptions though, like Ultraman 80, who can actually use basic attack on diagonally adjacent enemies or those 1 step away from him. There is a chance for basic attacks to miss.
Whenever you engage the enemy, this screen will appear. Simply select the first option to carry out the attack, or use the second option if you change your mind. Here, you can see the amount of damage you will deal to the enemy (the yellow part of his HP), and how much SP you will expend on this move (yellow part of your SP). The interface will show what boosts you have on you that would affect your damage output, shows how much SP will be used (in this case 80), and the hit rate (100% chance to hit, if i'm not wrong).
3. Special Attack
Requiring SP, you can use special attacks on your enemies to deal larger
amounts of damage to them.The amount of SP needed is stated there,
along with the damage level (中 for average damage, 大 for heavy damage).
I'm not too sure what the 2~3 means though.
Most special attacks cannot be used on enemies directly adjacent to you, and you need to be 1 step away from them or at least diagonal to them to use it on them. For bruiser class, their special attacks require them to be close range, the opposite of what I just mentioned. The sad thing is, special attacks also have a chance to miss, so it sucks when you use a Spectrum beam that would kill the enemy but it misses.
4. Powers
Powers also use SP, but instead of dealing damage, these skills help to turn the tide of the battle. In this picture, the skill I highlighted is my most commonly used one, which is the heal. Like special attacks, these powers have range. You can cast these on adjacent characters too, in most cases.
If the character can change his type, the skill is usually found under "Powers", being the first skill. I can't really differentiate for you the modes, but here's how I tell: the mode my second pic is highlighting is Dyna's Miracle-type. Notice the ミ? I use that to indicate that it is his Miracle-type(runner class). The second option is his Strong-type. When you're in either Miracle-type or Strong-type, the first option is usually the normal type, in Dyna's case is the Flash-type.
Same concept applies to Ultraman Max. His two options would be ルナミラクルゼロ (LunaMiracle) which is a runner class, and ストロングコロナゼロ(StrongCorona), a bruiser class. When he is in either type, the options would be arranged such that his normal type is the first option on top.
5. Defend
There are times when you cannot attack (due to the enemy's distance), but you know that when it comes to his turn next, he can narrow the distance and make an attack. This is when you can use the defend option if you want. As it uses some SP, you may want to consider if you want to use it. It's whether you have enough SP to spare for this skill, and if you have enough HP to not use it and take the blow instead.
6. End Turn
If you moved and decided not to do anything else from options 2-5, you can choose to end your turn. Any action done from 2-5 would result in the end of turn once it resolves.
End of battle
After you clear a stage/battle, this screen appears to show how many spirits you collected and the grade of your battle.
The more interesting part to check is the EXP your Ultra gained from the battle. In this case, Ultraman 80's EXP moved up from 4 to 11, increasing by 7 points. He still needs 39 points to level up. When an Ultra levels up, his grade increases, along with his stats. New powers might also be unlocked when they level up.
Conclusion
Being a strategy game, instead of a simple button-mashing fighting game, the cut scenes may get repetitive after a while. However, it does satisfy the Ultraman fan in me, and to be able to unlock more Ultras to use keeps me going. Every Ultra have their own trademark skills at your disposal, and the time limit makes you feel like Ultraman, working under the time pressure of 3 mins to defeat the monsters. I hope this small guide helps you with getting familiar to the game! Feel free to comment if you have any comments/suggestions/corrections/additional information you'd like to share with me!
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