Danball Senki W [Japan Import]

Really fun game, and you don't need much japanese knowledge to play it. Even though its an RPG it always has an arrow on your map pointing to where you need to go next, so even if you don't understand anything it tells you you can still advance through the story without any problems.

I bought this Danball Senki W partly because it looked cool (who doesn't love robots?) and because I wanted to practice Japanese with a game. Overall it's really fun. The basic gist of the story seems to be in the not-too-distant future a super-strong type of cardboard is invented. It's eventually used to make LBXes, tiny customizable robots. LBXes become super popular and people enjoy fighting in matched against each other using them. A terrorist organization named Detector "brainjacks" LBXes, bypassing their safety mechanisms and using them to attack people, and well as kidnapping several players. You play as a band of teenagers who have been entrusted with the task of traveling around the world and stopping Detector's evil plots. This is a sequel to a previous game. The stories don't seem to be connected, however. Usually characters will briefly explain who so-and-so returning character is when they pop up, so I haven't felt lost yet.The graphics are colorful. Level Five usually excels at presentation, and they didn't disappoint here. So far the locations aren't too exotic; you're mostly going to towns, towers, office building, shopping malls, etc. The battle fields are more varied and seem to be somewhat randomized. So far I've seen warehouse docks, scenic waterfalls, dense forests, a few castle settings, ruins, pyramids, etc. The music is nice enough, although nothing really sticks with me once I start playing. A couple of the battle themes are pretty catchy, but overall the composition feels very "safe" and a little generic. There are occasional anime cutscenes, which are a nice treat.Battles are action based, and there isn't much strategy involved. You basically target an enemy LBX and go to town. You can switch between two sets of weapons (typically a melee weapon like sword, hammer etc and a gun of some type). You also have Hissatsu Functions, or special skills. The AI partners aren't really that useful. Sometimes I've finished off all but one enemy and sat back to watch them stand around basically taking turns. Meh. You can change their AI settings, however, so if that bothers you too much you can make them more aggressive, more prone to defensive/healing actions, etc. The game is very easy (I docked a point partly because there's little to no challenge). The enemies are getting a little better about dodging and defending the further I go into the game, but it's still not enough to prevent me from button mashing my way past everything. You can customize a few of the LBX you're given with different body parts, but I haven't messed around with this feature, so I'm unsure how much of this is merely cosmetic and how much of it affects the function and abilities of the LBX.Occasionally the game gives you little side-scroller segments. The controls in these sections are a little clunky, and the enemies respawn so sometimes you're stuck trying to make a difficult jump, falling, climbing up and triggering the enemy respawn again. Typically they're not that bad, but a little annoying.I'd place myself as a lower intermediate learned of Japanese, and the game presented few problems with figuring out where to go or what to do. The minimap uses an arrow to mark your next objective, and relevant people and spots tend to be marked with "!" bubbles. The game does have furigana, which makes it so much easier to look up words I don't know.So overall I'm having a great time. I am on chapter 7/10, so I will update if anything changes my opinion much in either direction from here until the end of the game, but I'm assuming it's not going to throw anything crazy at me.

Fast and as described

Excellent!

Great game