Further hints come through text messages on the main character’s phone. You learn the game’s advanced techniques by talking to a recurring group of characters, and the act becomes a central plot point of its own. It actually took me a few hours before I realized that was a loading screen. In-between areas the game displays a rapidly moving clock that settles on the current time. Most Japanese console games I’ve played this generation have tried to do one or both of the following: have really nice loading screen art to take your mind off the fact that the game is loading, and find more intuitive ways of giving you the same hints.Ĭatherine does both of these things very well. It’s gotten to the point where every time I play a Japanese game now I remark at how stylish the loading screens look. One thing I’ve noticed is that Japanese games haven’t started doing this, and I hope they never do. Worst of all it breaks a game’s sense of immersion. Honestly, in my opinion if a game has to spell out how to do something in straight text lest players will never learn it, then it’s already failed at being intuitive. I wish I could turn off loading screen hints. It’s gotten to the point now where whenever a game let’s me turn off hints, I’ll do it immediately, even on my first run through a game. It’s the most visible method by which games yell in the player’s face all the time these days. I’m not against helping people – we all have different skill levels and learning ability after all, but this is just a really tacky way to do it.

3d dot game heroes loading art