News: Oratan 5.66 on XBLA is a bit broken

April 29, 2009, 02:04 AM

by ollie, via SEGA -
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oratan_why.jpgVirtual On Oratorio Tangram M.S.B.S. 5.66 was released today on Xbox LIVE Arcade and the rumours of a possible problem (bar the pad controls) have turned out to be true. The functionality for initiating a quick step in close combat range is very difficult to use now due to very stringent timing. Originally, any kind of lateral move in close combat range combined with a turbo button press would produce a quick step. Using this with a weapon trigger would allow the player to use circle slashes, a basic and fundamental part of how close combat worked in the game. Now, the timing for a lateral move has to be almost exactly in sync with the turbo button press. So just pulling off a quick step is much more difficult, rendering the additional aspect of circle slashes unwieldy.

It's worth clarifying that you can pull of quick steps if you get the timing just right but it's made a previously basic feature much more exclusive (something that 5.66 in the arcades went to great lengths to make more accessible over 5.45 on the Dreamcast).

Here's hoping a fix is on the way.

Update: After further testing with a pair of modded Dreamcast sticks, it's clear that the quick stepping issue is down to the deadzone on the analogue sticks. As the game responds to digital inputs so the player has to gauge where the deadzone ends and the input begins. This is why finding the timing is so awkward to nail a quick step, as you're having to guess where the motion starts in order to link that with a turbo button press. The sticks do negate this issue entirely but that's down to the leverage of the stick itself coupled with the purely digital inputs, though this hardly helps many people as the bulk of players will be forced to used the pad anyway. With practice you can pull a quick step off on the pad but not very consistently and that's where the problems start against human players. As it leaves you wide open for traditional dash attacks at close range (amongst many other things). At present, this issue will just alienate newer players as it makes a large section of the game unwieldy.