Awesome, about the translation, sucks for the earlier Secondary riders though. Love Birth though. So with the translation happening that is the main thing I needed. Any problems with the battle system? and is it easy?

I have a question for you guys who have it. Better or worse than Climax Heroes?

Having only played Climax Heroes.
I can tell you it's better.

Climax Heroes is a train wreck of a fighter.

I love the battle system--It doesn't feel hatefully unfair like Dynasty Warriors Gundam sometime did, wherein bad guys would just block you non-stop then pop out some grossly overpowered special the minute you ran up to them. Thankfully you can usually guard-break them, which gives you a pretty big opening for attacks.

As to the Riders' various gimmicks--they're implemented pretty smoothly, and give you a lot of option. Plus, by teasing out the different forms, it encourages you to keep on leveling up without it feeling like pointless grinding for no benefit save higher numbers.

Haven't played Climax Heroes, so I can't speak to that, but this game is awesome. :) Can't wait to get back to it today--I've found a place that makes grinding a lot easier (The Kuuga mission is ideal for that--not the battle with N-Daguva-Zeba, but the one just before that) I've been posting 500-700+ hit combos in that stage.

Gently bumping this thread back up with some impressions of the Riders thus far, starting with . . .

Wizard: You start with him, and once you find a form-change that works best for clearing out a lot of enemies quickly (I personally go in for Hurricane--slash strike and triangle are effective crowd control moves) you're in business.

Initially he starts out with specific ring effects keyed to each Style. The Square button in each style has the same effect--he fires the WizardSwordGun a few times (breaking the bullets to create a spread of fire)

Flame:
Triangle activates the Big Ring, which slams the enemies, then sweeps them away. It's OK for mooks but wayyyy too slow for bosses.

Circle activates Kick Strike (which at your initial level is also keyed to the Triangle + Circle Finishing movie--this later gets replaced with Flame Dragon's final attack) As with your early non-super mode finishers, it's very flippy-floppy and it's very easy to flip past your target if you're too close.

Hurricane's Triangle attack is Extend, which is a golden movie--Wizard spin around and sucks up anything in the immediate vicinity. It's a great move against bosses and easily spammable because the start-up time is so short. Circle activated Slash Strike, which is like Extend, except it hits harder, hits up activation, travels out, and hits even more. These two moves with be your best friends in the early levels of the game.

When he gets Hurricane Dragon, he activates the Thunder ring, which is a field-wide assault that multi-hits and can clear out a area of mooks pretty easily. It's not as good for destroying hourglasses or bosses (Flame Dragon or Land Dragon are your point guys there) but good in a pinch

Land gets the Defend ring as his Triangle attack, which is . . .well, it hits when the walls pop up, but doesn't really . . .defend that much. Circle is Drill, which hits hard, pops out quick, and multi-hits. It's decent.

The big winner is Land Dragon's Gravity attack, which goes over a wider area than Thunder and hits very hard multiple times. It's a good happy medium between Flame Dragon's power and Hurricane Dragon's range.

I left Water for last because . . .uhm . . .Water is very disappointing. Water has the Bind ring, which does just that--immobilizes enemies for a few second, and the Bright right, which flashes a big light and stuns everyone.

I don't use Water that much. Water Dragon's Blizzard attack is really nifty--he freezes the field and smashes it with his tail, but PuToTyra's attack is a much better version of the same thing and Wizard has much more effective attacks.

Wizard's super mode, All Dragon, is a friggn' monster. You can attack omnidirectionally with any of the Dragon powers (Flame, Blizzard, Thunder, Gravity) they all do sick damage and fill the entire battlefield. It's a pretty effective boss-killer.

How are y'all finding it? Have any favourite Riders thus far?

For those of you with Japanese PSN accounts, Infinity Styles has been released.

He is miiiighty awesome. :D

Can you get a Japanese PSN Account and PSN Store on an American PS3?

http://youcanplaythis.com/ycpt-importing-101-part-2/

Watch them starting with the second video. The top video has some updates to it from the PSN redesign.

Sure can! Blade Riader's video is good, and there's also this, which is what I went by when I built mine

Have fun! He costs nothing and you can level him up pretty damn fast (especially with the G3-X or All Dragon figure) I've gone 5000 hit combos with him already. He's very different to the standard Wizard but quite cool. :)

Just beat the game.

Oh man. That final battle was EPIC. :)

Hoping to import the game sometime soon. Where would be the best place, Play-Asia has it at $75 with free shipping.

I shouldn't have to worry about this getting hard to find right?

I got mine from CDJapan, but I've had good experiences with Play-Asia, so I think both of them would be good.

I think you oughta be OK in regards to scarcity--I don't think there'll be a run on these at the moment (though apparently it sold very well!)

EDIT: Someone's subtitling the game--spoilers ahead: Part 1 of Chronicle Mode is here!

Someone started subbing Chronicle Mode!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-89ld15S25g

Must resist watching till I get to play my copy...

Just finished Rider Road mode (the extra-hard bonus missions) and am very close to plat'ing this game (just need the "all figures" trophy, which I'm one away from and the 555KM trophy, which could take some time)

I've got a lot of impressions about this game thus far, and if you guys would like me to write up about a specific character, I'm more than happy to do so.

It's lunchtime, guys! Kamen Rider Beast Hyper is available for download now!

Hyper's a lot of fun, and like Infinity, completely different than the base form (even if he STILL doesn't get a motorcycle) He's like a perfect distillation of all the shooting-type forms in the game, but with some cool melee moves as well (I'm quite fond of kicking the guy into the air and then shooting him)