NCS Product Synopsis
Update: April 27, 2007
«©NCSX» Whilst exploring the school library, students from class 3-A find an old and mysterious tome. After flipping the volume open, strange rays of light emanate from the pages and the pupils are enchanted and eventually fall asleep. Deep in slumber in the physical world, the girls are trapped in a dreamland and must escape from their predicament by way of tactical battles and interaction. A total of eight missions must be conquered before the gals are free to escape. The first mission is based on the Cinderella fairy tale complete with a stepmother and stepsisters and the second mission is based on Little Red Riding Hood.
Units are moved on a grid-based map to confront enemy units and attacks are triggered by selecting them from a menu. The basic command set is "Movement," "Attack," "Use Item," and something called "Special Technique" which is the use of a skill to heal a character, bolster defenses, or perform a special attack. Negi Springfield can help his students in dreamland by casting magic spells such as "Recovery" which heals his students, "Sneeze" which blows a strong wind against enemies, "Shield" which raises the defensive power of a student, and more.
The Utahime (Diva) version of Negima!? Dream Tactic includes a bonus CD which contains two music tracks.
Altenate SKU: VW344-J1
Jan Code: 4988602134797
View the back cover and screenshots on the main NCSX website.
NCS Game Notes
» Intro: The gals of Class 3-A perform magic, stand around, clown, and wear swimsuits. Negima makes an appearance midway during the course of the intro to do some gesticulating. The intro ends with fireworks and an image of the school as the logo rushes into view.
» The selections on the title screen are:
NEW GAME: Start a new game
LOAD GAME: Resume a game from memory card save data
OPTIONS: Toggle voices, set sound volumes, toggle Dual Shock, etc
GALLERY: Artwork, BGM, and cinemas are all locked up into three sections
» One of the galleries features 47 images but all are locked and blocked by question marks.
» Start a new game and a front image of the school is shown followed by other views of the structure until we reach a darkened library. A girl with glasses named Haruna Saotome appears and greets the player. A felllow student with blue-hair and blue eyes named Yue Ayase joins the interaction followed by the purple-tressed book lover known as Nodoka Miyazaki. How does she see through those long bangs? All of the dialogue is accompanied by voice acting which is performed by the actresses from the animation series. There's some spot animation when the girls blink and talk but the images of trio are essentially static. If you look at the top of each girl's head, you'll notice that a sprig of hair sticks out in different directions.
» The next day, the girls are in class and Asuna Kagurazaka is joined by Konoka Konoe, Setsuna Sakurazaki, and Haruna Saotome. They speak to the player and are later joined by Yue Ayase and Nodoka Miyazaki. The girls reflect on opening up a book that they found the other night at the library as it floats in the middle of the room and bathes the girls standing around it in bright light. Evangeline Athanasia Katherine McDowell appears followed by Mana Tatsumiya, Zazie Rainyday, and Sayo Aisaka who all make curt sounds and comment on the event.
» Later that night, the girls are in their crisp pajamas and getting ready for bed at the dorm. The lights go out but Asuna and Konoka continue to talk to each other and to a white-furred ermine named Albert Chamomile who is Negima's panty-stealing familiar. The next day starts off with Ayaka Yukihiro, Makie Sasaki, Sakurako Shiina, and Fuka Narutaki providing interaction. Looking at the four, it's like three non-blondes (well, three orange-haired moppets) and a Nordic goddess to the left. Kazumi Asakura pops in later to add her two cents to the conversation. Even more interaction commences between the students and Albert Chamomile.
» After the talking is done, a character selection screen appears with six girls shown as follows:
First Row: Sayo Aisaka, Kazumi Asakura, Asuna Kagurazaka
Second Row: Haruna Saotome, Mana Tatsumiya, Zazie Rainyday
» We chose Asuna to be leader and a cinema sequence featuring the enchanted tome plays. The next day, the girls are assembled into a team which stands on a grid-based isometric map. A blue square is the selection cursor which moves the girls and sends them attacking the orange-haired enemies. Movement and attacks are controlled entirely through a menu system which pops up on the left side of the screen when a character is selected. Each girl utters a little sound or saying before each attack.
» The rules of battle follow basic tactical action conventions where attacking an enemy from behind gives you a near 100% hit rate while attacking from the side cuts it to 75%. Attacking head-on is granted a lower percentage success rate since the enemy sees the blow coming. Every attack is met by a counterattack. When a girl on your team is defeated, she's stripped down to her bikini before falling down on the ground and disappearing. The team is outnumbered in the first mission but with Negima's help, they can prevail by concentrating their attacks on individual enemies to deplete their ranks before they can gang up on the girls.
» After each movement phase, Negima appears like a deity on the screen and can cast one spell to help the girls out. The health recovery spell (second one from the top) is a good one to use to make sure everyone stays healthy as they weather enemy attacks and lose HP.
Region Lock-out
Please note Japanese Playstation 2 games will not boot on USA or European PS2 consoles due to the inherent region-lockout on Playstation 2 game discs.
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