Ugly, but cool strategy RPG

The m??usic goes from weird rock to just weird to typical RPG orchestral sou?nding. And still sounds alright. 

Natty Doc (Natural Doctrine), the brutal, sort of ugly turn-based strategy game, also has mutliplayer with card-based units, which is on display in thi?s trailer. Also worth noting that being able to play between PS3, PS4, and Vita is pretty neat and doesn't leave the six people who own a ??Vita out in the cold with no one to play with.

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Hmm...how about we go with 'homely'

Sure, Natural Doctrine doesn't look great (well, the environments; it does look better in miniature on the Vita). It's a far cry from director Atsushi Ii's gorgeous minimalism in Patapon.

But Kadokawa Games' first internal venture can get a pass for looking a bit dated if the core gameplay can hold up, and it just might. Producer Kensuke Tanaka felt that JRPGs were "lacking in difficulty," that they didn't "make you think," NIS America representatives explained. Natural Doctrine is an answer to that.

However, NIS America was ?not able to answer why exactly the lead in a fantasy RPG of orcs, magic and lizard men is named Jeff. 

Natural Doctrine (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita)
Developer: Kadokawa Games
Publisher: NIS America
Release Date: September 16, 2014

Natural Doctrine's UI has been an illegible clutter in what we've seen so far (which is sort of extensive, as it's been out in Japan for months), so I was glad to finally get some clarification, though nothing ?will beat playing it for a few hours to figure everything out.&nb??sp;

First, it's like a cross between Valkyria Chronicles and a grid-based SRPG. Though large, outlined, adjacent squares? You can move anywhere within one -- moving into a new square, crossing a boundary, is what counts as a movement. And your free ??positioning within squares is act?ually meaningful.

The first map shown invol?ved catching up to protecting a character who will essentially be your fi?rst mage, if you succeed. If you don't succeed and he dies, you should probably start over. I'm told that's the case with any character, really. "You come in with a team, you better leave with that team." And so part of defending this mage involved getting your troops to his square and actually setting up a defense wall around him because enemies will need line of sight to hit (I saw a lot of shots from a ranged gunman bounce ineptly off of a piece of wall later in the demo -- third person view is helpful to avoid that).

As for the messy top of the UI, that's the turn order, but it's fungible. Doing an action with in the same square (or an adjacent square) as one of your units activates Linking, which changes up the turn order. While the Initiative above may alternate you, enemy, you could theoretically link everyone and get all your turns in ??-- though you've opened up for your enemy to do the same.

Also key are same square Link attacks which get stronger as you move your linked characters away from each other, which is great for extra offense but could compromise ??any defensive positioning you were working with. Grouping is also useful because everyone in an attacked square will counter. An adjacent, ranged fighter can also counter without being attacked if close enough. 

Things like terrain and positioning also matter (for line of ?sight). You can even ??friendly fire your own units if you're not careful. Killing an enemy also makes the attacking unit move into the adjacent section (provided it isn't filled with further enemies), which can sometimes screw you over, as I saw in a later level. 

You could spend three turns trying to close a gate, requiring e??nemies to flank around (and giving you more turns to pick them off slowly) or brute force your way through. Our demoer took Jeff and set him up with some buffs and set him to guard the space right behind the gate. This prevented enemy troops from moving up and allowed him to counterattack while ranged units als??o attacked. But our demoer fell a few times, once when a successful attack forced Jeff to move up a square, into the open, where he was unceremoniously wrecked.

After finally making it through, more, stronger enemies showed up. Thankfully, someone asked Kadokawa to throw some checkpoints in so some of the longer stanges wouldn't need to be fully replayed (especially since you're advised to restart upon character death). This is more of an XCOM situation than other SRPGs. There's no grinding, just the main missions. And you're given the soldiers you have to use for each mission, though you can respec characters at the onset to some degree. They have specialties, of course, and you'll want to keep your mages for their invaluable healing and strong offensive magic -- if you conserve enough Pluton, the MP source, which doesn't a?lways replenish between stages. 

It all seems as if Natural Doctrine is a bit antagonistic. It is. But at least you can hold down a button to fast forward enemy turn??s. 

It won't be cross-buy, but the PS3, PS4, and Vita versions will be cross-save and cross-play -- there's also a multiplayer component where you play with units of all four in-game races (in the story, you only play as humans) that you earn by playing multiplayer and getting trading cards. Each unit car??d has a cost to play, so you will hopefully not get steam rolled by someone just because they have stronge??????????????????????????r units than you. 

And I forgot to only refer to the game as Natty Doc. Shoot. 

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Strategy RPG coming to all the PlayStations

NIS America will release strategy role-playing game Natural Doctrine in Europe and North America this September, t??he company announced this wee?k.

Natural Doctrine is the inaugural project from Kadokawa Corporation's new internal studio. The title features cross-play and cross-save functionality across PlayStation 4, PS3, and PS Vita. It will b??e available in North America on September 16 and in European markets starting September 19.

September figures to be a good month for RPG fans, as NIS America is also publishing Compile Heart's Fairy Fencer F in the West around the autumnal equinox.

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A new series mingles with sequels at NIS' E3 preview

NIS was a bit of a hidden treasure at E3.

The publisher shared a booth with Atlus and it took me stopping and actually looking at what was on display at the demo station to put two and two together. The search was well worth it because I was rewarded with a closer look at three upcoming titles: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited, and Natural Doctrine.

Out of the titles I saw, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair intrigued me the most. This time around, you find yourself stranded on a tropical island during a field trip arranged by your rabbit teacher, Monomi. For series veterans, there will be some returning char??acters from the original game. A big part of the core experience -- the emphasis on relationships?? and the ability to give gifts --also remains. And of course, Monokuma appears again, being his creepy self. 

But there are also plenty of new additions to Danganronpa 2 that keep it feeling fresh. One cool aspect was the "Dive Logic" minigame that takes place during the "court" portions of the game. During the minigame, you move through a tunnel on a holographic skateboard (the whole thing reminded me of Rez) with each branch of the path representin??g a piece of evidenc??e.

It sounds like an interesting idea and is certainly pretty to look at. I mean, I love the typical art style of the game but the small break you get from Dive Logic feels just right. In New Game Plus, you can play as Monomi and uncover more of the story's secrets.?? It sounded like one of those titles that you need to play through at least three times to get the best idea ?of what the heck was going on. And from the looks of things, I am totally okay with that.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair comes to PlayStation Vita on ??September 2, 2014.

Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited returns us again to the world and the story of Disgaea 4. This is no mere port of the PS3 title, however. By taking on the role of Nagi Clockwork, you gain the ability to travel back and forth through Disgaea 4's storyline via her "Time Leap" ability.

We'll get to see the characters at different points of their lives that we we??re previously not privy to, both before and after the events of the original game. It sounds like a great way to expand on the game and honestly, I think some of the characters could use an extra bit of fleshing out.

All the time-sink elements that fans know and obsess over are still there, like the Cheat Shop (You want the max level to be 9999? Sure, why not?) and the Item World. Plus, al?l of the PS3 version's DLC is included. There is even a new ??spell-tier, Peta. Before you ask, there is indeed a spell called Peta-fire. Get your chuckles out now.

Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited releases in August 2014 for the PlayStation Vita.

From what I saw of Natural Doctrine,  it looks like character death will be a re????????????????????????????gular in-game occurrence. I was also told that the player will "enjoy" dying. Oh, and if one character dies in a battle, it is game over.

But here's the thing: It actually looks pretty forgiving in terms of re-strategizing. For example, you can redistribute skill points that have been used on the skill tree. Let's say on a previou??s (failed) attempt, you placed your points a ce??rtain way that clearly wasn't working. All you have to do is remove them and arrange them as you see fit.

Natural Doctrine plays like X-Com meets Dark Souls. The turn-based battles take place on a grid across a medieval era-like backdrop. You'll have the option to link your characters' actions ?so they occur in immediate succession. The downside is that doing so enables your enemies to act twice in a row afterwards. It will be interesting to see how this feature plays into gamers' s??trategies.

The online multiplayer will ?have cross-platform and cross-save features across all three s?ystems: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita.

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Plus a brand new trailer

Kadokawa Game Studio's inaugural title, Natural Doctrine, is coming to the west thanks to NIS. The SRPG from Patapon director Atsushi li looks pretty interesting, though you can't really judge the game based on a CG trailer. Still it's something new and shiny to watch, and the Internet sure loves new and shiny.  Here's some actual gameplay for those of you rea??lly interested in seeing what it's all about.

Not much else to say as everything else is old ?info. Even the fact that it has cross-play and cross-save was covered before, but we never?? wrote it in a headline and I figure cross-play in a story title would turn some heads. What do you want from me? There's not much to write about at 1:00AM when you can't sleep.

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Do want!

Kadokawa Games is vaunting its new internal studio's artistic prowess in the latest trailer for Natural Doctrine. The ??video for the upcoming role-playing game shows off some pretty cinematics and concept art whilst introducing the title's colorful cast of characters and a few of the enemi?es players will need to vanquish along the way.

Natural Doctrine will arrive f??or PlayStation 3, PS4, and PS Vita on February 22 in Japan. Any potential plans for an international release have yet to be announced.

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I don't need no doctrine

Kadokawa Games (publisher of recent Grasshopper games Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer is Dead) has a new strategy RPG from Patapon director Atsushi Ii coming to PS3, PS Vita, and PS4. Though no Western release has been announced, Natural Doctrine is hitting Japan February 22.

This is both the Japanese PS4 launch date and increas?ingly nearer as time does that thing where it moves at a constant rate, but feels like it's moving too quickly. "Can you believe it's already December?" the Facebook posts read.

Supplementing the trailer from a couple months ago, we finally have a flood of screenshots, which raises more questions than provides answers. We knew Natural Doctrine would eschew grids, but I expected a free-moving style similar to Valkyria Chronicles, rather than these portioned red and blue segments. I'm really curi?ous how that's going to work. It looks different, for sure. Also a little blan??d and ugly, but hopefully playing on the Vita will eliminate some of that.

Also might start calling it Natty D.

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Kadokawa Games teases with extended look at PS4 launch title

Kadokawa Games has released a new trailer for their upcoming strategy role-playing game, Natural Doctrine. The project will be the debut game from the Killer is Dead publisher's new internal studio and is helmed by Patapon director Atsushi Ii.

Natural Doctrine will arrive alongside the PlayStation 4 in Japan on Febru??ary 22. The title is also coming to PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. An international release has yet to be announced.

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And more on Kadokawa Games' Sony-exclusive SRPG

At a Sony Japan press conference earlier this month, Kadokawa Games, known recently for its publishing efforts on Grasshopper titles Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer is Dead, announced Natural Doctrine for PS3, PS Vita, and PS4.

In the latest Weekly Famitsu, Kadokawa president Yoshimi Yasuda noted, "the need to create and nurture a flagship title" and "the need to build a team that has all the collected know-how needed to help the company set and meet their loftier goals." That's where the idea to make a SRPG came from. Producer Kensuke Tanaka noted, "With this genre, you tend to see someone build up a gameplay system, then use the same one for many years to come.... The legacy of? these well-made systems has created what's considered the standards for the genre. I thought that, if I ever tackled this genre, then even if I didn't come near all these great titles, I wanted to try creating a new standard."

I'm more confident in Natural Doctrine's chances after a Gematsu report that Patapon director Atsushi Ii would be directing this game. Patapon was a fantastic, wildly original and inventive strategy game. Natural Doctrine makes its home in a se?emingly typical fantasy world wherein different races live tenuously side by side. You play as protagonist Jeff and party members Vasilisa and Anca.

Early explanations of the turn-based system read a bit like Valkyria Chronicles, eschewing a grid. Tanaka emphasized the "size of the areas" you do battle in, noting "you can move around anywhere you like within the area, which makes positioning important." There also appears to be uni?t-specific skill trees.

Still no word on a Western release, but Natural Doctrine will come to PS3, PS Vita, and PS4 when the latter releases in Japan, February 22. Here's hoping ??it comes? over. Sounds promising.

Kadokawa Games on Natural Doctrine and making a "new sta??ndard" for strategy RPGs [Polygon]
Natural Doctrine directed b?y Patapo??n series director [VG24/7]

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