Spectrobes: Origins



Spectrobes: Origins is the third game in the Spectrobes series.

= Monster Battle. Evolved. = Danny Koo Manager, Technology Disney Interactive Studios, Glendale I’m going to talk about the idea of “Monster Battle. Evolved.” and what it means for the Spectrobes: Origins. When we describe Spectrobes: Origins as “Monster Battle. Evolved.”, we want you to think of real-time, fast-paced action -- a variety of combat strategies, easy-to-use controls, and most importantly … fun gameplay. I will be touching on subjects such as the Spectrobes: Origins’ command system, artificial intelligence (A.I.) system, weapons and status effects, and battle strategy.

Combat
Spectrobes: Origins has a new combat system. The system is designed to enable you to quickly summon any one of the six Spectrobes in your line-up. By holding down the Z-button on the Nunchuk, you can use the Left and Right buttons on the D-Pad of the Wii Remote to select the Spectrobe you want. Once you have the Spectrobe you want highlighted, you will then release the Z-button to summon that Spectrobe. Also, at the onset of any battle, the game will auto-summon the most recent Spectrobe you used in a previous battle … so you never fight alone.

Summoning
To command your Spectrobe to attack the nearest targeted enemy, swing your Wii Remote vertically forward. Swing your Wii Remote horizontally inwards to command your Spectrobe to return to your side. Since Spectrobes are inherently creatures of light, they will take no time to engage the enemy or come back to defend you.

Spectrobe A.I. Behavior
During battle, when you’re not commanding a Spectrobe, it will automatically attack and defend itself. If you study the behavior of your Spectrobe, you will notice that it will find a way to attack an enemy, cleverly going around obstacles. Once your Spectrobe has defeated its targeted enemy, it will move on to the next target automatically and attack. Of course you can command your Spectrobe manually at any time using your Wii Remote. Depending on the situation, a Spectrobe will initiate a different attack. For example, if your enemy is in the air and you are using a Spectrobe with ranged capability, it will automatically switch to a projectile attack. Then, once you have knocked that enemy out of the sky and onto the ground, the same Spectrobe can move next to the fallen enemy and use a close combat attack instead. The A.I. system handles all these behaviors automatically, so you will not have to manually tell your Spectrobe what to do.

Elemental Properties
Every Spectrobe, and most other monsters in the Spectrobes’ universe, are associated with a specific elemental-based property. This time around, we increased the number of elements from three to five. We now have Fire, Plant, Earth, Sky, and Water elemental types. Knowing these elemental types is the key to victory, because this game follows a rock/paper/scissors method in which Fire is strong against Plant; Plant is strong against Earth; Earth is strong against Sky; Sky is strong against Water; and Water is strong against Fire. If you are using a Spectrobe with an elemental type, which is strong against an enemy, your Spectrobe will deal a critical attack that will severely damage the enemy. However, if you use a Spectrobe with an elemental type that is weak against an enemy, your Spectrobe will deal almost no damage. For any other type of match-up, the attack will be neither strong nor weak and will result in normal damage.

Weapons
Once you have practiced using the different elemental types in combat, your next step towards combat mastery will be to investigate the various weapon types available in Spectrobes, such as a Sword, Lance, Axe, Gloves and Blaster. Each weapon has its own unique property. Some weapons, like the Lance, can damage multiple enemies at once; whereas other weapons, such as the Gloves, can “juggle” opponents in the air or knock them prone. There are also some weapons which allow you to do multiple hits consecutively, strung together as a combo. The only piece of equipment that is not used to attack is the Shield -- it allows you to defend yourself. It is important to note that your character can have both a combat weapon and a shield equipped at the same time, so you don’t have to choose to focus on only attack or defense. In addition to the weapons’ basic properties, there are also status effects associated with each Spectrobe / weapon type. They are Burn effect (Fire), Freeze effect (Water), Poison effect (Plant), Stun effect (Sky) and Slow effect (Earth). These effects add yet another layer of depth. For example, using the Flora Blaster (Plant type), you can poison the enemy, slowly draining away its health, while the Ryza sword can freeze enemies in their tracks. Also, you should notice that some weapon and Spectrobe attacks take more time to execute than others. Here are some hints: You will want to have the right mix of speed and power between your weapon and Spectrobe choice. If you know you are going to use a slow but powerful weapon, then you may be better off summoning a faster Spectrobe so they can help manage the enemies while you are preparing to plow into them with a devastating attack. While you could solely use your weapon and attack the enemy while letting the Spectrobe automatically attack, mixing and matching certain Spectrobes and weapons together in order to perform more effective combos is highly encouraged. One combo you should try involves using the Cosmo sword and a Komanoto. In combat, executing the Cosmo sword’s three-hit combo will send an enemy flying into the air. Then, if you have a Komanoto ready, you can launch its strong attack (multiple fireballs) to continue “juggling” the enemy. Imagine if you had 6 Komanotos in your line-up – you could continually switch among them and keep the enemy in the air taking damage. Spectrobes’ Attacks Each Spectrobe has a normal attack, a strong attack, a special attack, and sometimes a special bonus ability (these are listed on your Spectrobe’s profile). As your Spectrobe attacks, it will fill up the special attack gauge (only for level 10 Spectrobes and above). Once the special attack gauge is full, press the B-button on the Wii Remote to activate its special attack sequence. When prompted on-screen, charge up the attack by crossing your arms and once it is fully charged, raise your arms outwards to unleash a destructive special attack. One of my favorite strategies is to power each Spectrobes special attack gauge to fully charged, then swap it out for another Spectrobe. The special attack gauge will stay charged until I summon the Spectrobe again, allowing me to store up special attacks and save them for later. Then in a pinch, I can unleash each Spectrobe’s special attack systematically; even a boss enemy will find this devastating. Hope I have helped your understanding of the battle in Spectrobes: Origins. Thanks for reading this.