The Trainer's Pastimes.: Ex Troopers review/thoughts on

I wish the actual title screen looked like this

I talked about this game alot in the past,and after weeks of waiting to see if Capcom USA would renew that Ex Troopers trademark and actually do anything with it,but they did not.
The game bombed in Japan,Capcom said that they didn't want to bring it over here because there was too much text to change,and an English release was pretty much not going to happen.

I made a Japanese PSN account just to play the demo.I loved it.
I decided I would import it at some point,but would play the waiting game since the import prices were high.Finally,Play-Asia (plug #3 on this blog) had it for 40 bucks.Hell...YES!

Anyway,Ex Troopers is a very heavily manga inspired Lost Planet spin-off.I liked the first Lost Planet,but haven't played Lost Planet 2 yet and I don't care about Lost Planet 3 due to the direction it's going.

I can't read Japanese but I don't think you should have too much trouble with the menus,at least I didn't.Then again,I played Jump Super Stars and Dragon Ball Kai Ultimate Budoden,so this isn't my first japanese game.

There's an exclamation point on the map that tells you where the next mission is,and that helps alot,don't be scared away from the language barrier,you should be fine.
Needless to say,you don't need to play the Lost Planet games to enjoy this but it adds to the experience,seeing the realistic looking world and enemies in a new light.

The game looks pretty good,the manga presentation is rarely done in video games and Ex Troopers really runs with the idea.The cutscenes,while I didn't know what the hell was going on,were still fun to look at because it was like "watching" a manga.
The cel shading gets the job done,while it won't push any boundaries,it's at the very least,different.

The music is ok,more noticable than LP1's music,that's for sure.
I'm bad with describing music,but it's basically futuristic techno with like 2 J-Pop songs thrown in there,so again,different from your average shooter

Gameplay is day and night between this game and LP1.Lost Planet was more realistic,since there was snow everywhere,you would naturally move slower.In EX Troopers,our hot-blooded hero wouldn't look cool slowly walking,so screw real world physics and let's give him a jetpack for good measure.
It's a third-person shooter similar to the ground stages in Kid Icarus Uprising,except it uses buttons and has a lock on feature.I LOVE this style of gameplay,it's so much fun.
I think I remember that Capcom said that Ex Troopers uses the same engine as Megaman Legends 3 or at least the same gameplay,so in a weird way,MML3 lives on.

When not in combat,you're in bases,giving you the chance to interact and take on sidequests.
You can do VR missions,which are just extra missions where you kill stuff or reach the end of a stage.
There's also multiplayer,which can be fun provided you get lucky and someone is actually playing the game.

I'm sure the story was above average but I haven't found a translation for the story,so I can't comment on the writing or anything in depth.
Let's put it this way,I enjoyed the story a lot more than Lost Planet 1's story,because of the more interesting characters.Even if the characters are just archetypes (Hot-blooded hero,calm/cool rival,mysterious girl,etc.) I liked it more because I just like anime.

This was a really enjoyable game,I recommend importing since Capcom USA let us down,but given how Japanese this game is to begin with,I'm sure the developers had no intention of Western release.
Anyway,I'm glad I have this game,it was pretty fun.
I have the PS3 version,and it's the superior version because it has online play unlike the 3DS version.

Took me 17 hr 59 mins 07 sec to beat it,but I did a lot of side stuff.