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Author Topic: What Games are you Playing 2017?  (Read 49470 times)

LordDirtyBrit

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #225 on: February 26, 2017, 01:21:16 AM »
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: Beaten the final boss. This has easily become my favourite game in the series as it takes pretty much all of ALttP's assets and makes them into something fresh, 3D Zelda take notes. I don't know if I'll play BotW, maybe I'll wait it out until the hype culture has died down. Even then, I'm not sure if I'm ready to return to the sluggish nature of 3D Zelda.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Unlocked Mia. Unlocking her means I've now unlocked all the characters. I'm tempted to give my two cents on the cast in terms of battle prowess, but I'm not sure how many other people on the forum have played XBX so I don't know if it will be to anyone's interest.

Fenrir

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #226 on: February 26, 2017, 01:38:45 PM »
SMT Apocalypse: I got my save to work again.
Currently level 94 vs Vishnu

The renegade path is some Soul Nomad evil path shit. Holy craaaaap






DQ5 Monster only:

Got to gen 3. The game was really cute as a kid, but it's not very impressive right now. Choose your wife! Become king! Now your wife is kidnapped and you need to save her!
Then everybody is turned into stone and it doesn't make sense for a number of reasons.

Let me rate all the monsters I got:

- Slime: Has a boomerang. Has Kabuff. Has shit stats. I kept him around because he has a lot of good unique equipments + maybe I can make it big by doing SLIME RACES with him.
- Drake: Drake doesn't have any of the nifty things Slime has, but at least he does more damage with a boomerang. I kept him around all the time too. And he has Tick Tock, which is midly useful. 
- Fungus: Jeigan! Really good stats + Boomerang, unfortunately he caps at really low levels.
- Ticking Timeburrrrrm: Jeigan mark 2. See above.
- Rotten Apple: Jeigan mark 3. No boomerang, but super high speed + super damaging physicals. And even Swoosh!
- Sabrecat: Didn't use.
- Brownie: Slow, unimpressive
- Walking corpse: Slow, unimpressive
- Slime Knight: My only healer, so an absolute must. He does pretty good damage with physicals too.
- Hulagan: I kept around to see if she was getting good. No.
- Goodybag: Interesting stats, but it doesn't ever reach 20 wisdom so it won't listen to you ever
- Orc King: Only monster with Zing. He can use it 3 times. I had it fail 3 times in a row.
- Minidemon: Seems weird but I never gave him much of a chance.
- Magic marionette: Garbage
- Drag-goof: Seems strong but I never gave him much of a chance.
- Prestidigator: Starts really bad, eventually gets Sizzle for groups + Frizzle for bosses. Main damage dealer for the last part


Fenrir

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #227 on: February 26, 2017, 10:44:40 PM »
SMT4A: I'm up to the final boss. Spent like 6 hours in the final dungeon.


The stakes are so high in this game that I'm fighting hordes of Metatrons in random battles.
Weird how the SMT with the highest stakes is just a spinoff. I think this game literally ends with the hero literally killing the literal judeo-christian God for good.

Hey why is Satan my pal now? Ok whatever I'm not complaining.

Grefter

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #228 on: February 26, 2017, 11:13:57 PM »
Because fundamentally the Neutral path of SMT games is not so philosophically divergent from the Chaos path as they like to pretend.

Tyranny - I didn't do a post here to say I started it, just talked about it in chat places.  I am 1/3 of the way through in a single 10 hour play session which has made it hard to get back to because I don't really have 10 hours to play stuff outside of weekends where I am trying to be social.

Holy shit you guys this game is good though.   This isn't to compare quality or anything, but this is Pillars of Eternity's Planescape: Torment style sibling in the same way Pillars of Eternity hearkens back to Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment was a huge swerve away from the combat system and all about words.

This game is so wordy you guys and it is full of narrative branches in story telling that puts you through similar scenarios (so the same stuff that gets neckbeards crying about Illusion of Choice as if the presentation didn't matter).  There is choices you make during character creation that effect story beats throughout the entire game essentially. The culmination of Chapter 1 you effectively pick from three different ways that you are going to go through the next 2 chapters based on factions you side with.  Even within the one of those three paths I went with there is still tons of room for different flavour on why you are doing what you are doing.

It is really a master class in how you can do multiple stories without actually having to reuse assets or make whole new areas to cater for a branching path, provided you have enough layers of script and scripting in your dialogue trees.

It also does that neat thing of Pillars of Eternity of breadcrumbing checks you can't make based on things like Background to let you know there was an articulation point here, but you were locked out.  It breaks the immersion technically and shows behind the curtain a little bit, but I think that helps educate the player on what is actually going on and is part of that "the dialogue is the actual gameplay here" part that Torment has as well.

Oh and the setting and magic system feel like they take a deep inspiration from Brandon Sanderson with deep overlapping themes as Mistborn.  The core world concept is very much a Lord Ruleresque Overlord conquered, here is the story after.  It is set in a post apocalypse where everyone is back to the Bronze Age.  Iron is rare and whole chunks of the society are based around it's collection and manufacturing.  The Magic system is effectively you construct spells for yourself made up of key functions you find in the world from individual parts and can buff via more complex parts.  So you know, a codified set of rules.  Of course the Overlord breaks all those rules and somehow getting that kind of power is the PC's main shtick.  So yeah, Sanderson AF.

Not finished or anything yet, but based on the first third it gets a high recommendation if you have a stomach for a pretty bleak dark fantasy setting.
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MasterLemon

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #229 on: February 27, 2017, 12:05:16 AM »
I've just beaten the game and I really wish I thought about using the charged Rolling Shield against that damn platform climb. What I did ending doing with the charged Rolling Shield was using it to farm spare lives for Sigma, even though I didn't end up finding him too difficult.

NotMiki

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #230 on: February 27, 2017, 04:57:06 AM »
Hollow Knight: started playing this. thoughts later. this is just a PSA that if you like metroidvanias you should check this game out. 5 hours in, and it's 9/10 or 10/10 territory so far. thoughtful level design. controls like a dream. insanely pretty. elegant handling of health/life/special abilities. hints of an interesting plot unfolding. I have high hopes.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2017, 04:58:47 AM by NotMiki »
Rocky: you do know what an A-bomb is, right?
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Fenrir

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #231 on: February 27, 2017, 10:02:23 AM »
It's stranger than this Gref, and doesn't really respect SMT2's continuity

Spoiler incoming, I write on a phone and a too lazy to spoilertext

In SMT2 Satan was totally Lawful evil, ultimately he was YHVH's tool to use to punish people and get them to his side. Michael and Satan have this Good Cop/Bad Cop routine?
Lucifer was a fallen angel who went against this entirely.

In this one Merkabah and Lucifer fuse to become Satan? Then you fight Satan and he takes you to YHVH? Then he goes all "oh fuck it I'll help for no reason"?
Yeah

Anyway the Apocalypse final boss was one of the best final bosses in an RPG, absolutely intense and exhausting. On paper he's not very durable, but he puts so much pressure on your team that you spend almost all your time on the defensive and have almost no time to attack.
Unfortunately I lost twice and really don't feel like trying again a third time. :(

« Last Edit: February 27, 2017, 10:06:38 AM by Fenrir »

SnowFire

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #232 on: February 27, 2017, 05:08:11 PM »
yo dawg i heard u like fusions so i took 2 fusions and fused them?

(SMT4 Merkabah was already a fusion of 4-5 entities, and Lucifer might possibly be a fusion of 2 entities as well, it was kinda vague - definitely one person powering up another person, at least.)

Fenrir

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #233 on: February 27, 2017, 05:42:48 PM »
Yes

Hey, how about

The new main antagonist from SMT Apocalypse fusing with the SMT4 protagonist to become......... Vishnu??

That's a thing too

Niu

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #234 on: February 27, 2017, 10:34:11 PM »
SMT4 is in totlly different continuity from SMT2... or should I say rest of the SMT.

The Lucifer in SMT4 is not even the same Excellency we use to know.
SMT4 Lucifer's ideology is not remotely close to what his Excellency is trying to achieve.
(And... I think this is the first SMT game ever since Majin Tensei series where Lucifer is not the same person as the Excellency).

Even Stephen is a different person too. I pretty much spit drink when he goes "I am the avatar of cosmic will."


...Wait, Fenrir, why have you not talk about male pregnancy in this game?

Fenrir

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #235 on: February 27, 2017, 10:41:29 PM »
I have no idea what you're talking about re: male pregnancy!
................... go on

I thought all SMT games including this one happened in the same overall universe with alternate timelines or something. Whatever they were talking about during the rad SMT Nocturne theater cutscenes.

Niu

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #236 on: February 27, 2017, 11:33:43 PM »
Supposedly, yes.

But even you consider that, it doesn't explain Majin Tensei from way back then.
Same to SMT4. There is no way you can say the Lucifer here is the same person as his Excellency.
In SMT4, Lucifer is trying to prolong the Armageddon indefinitely because he is a being dependent on the Judaeo Christian theology. Thus if YHVH dies and Judaeo Christianity ends, he dies too
But in SMT2, we see his Excellency alive and well even we have beaten YHVH to death.
More importantly, his Excellency is a completely separate entity from Satan. Not like the Lucifer here who is half of it.

And let's not even get into Stephen is the avatar of cosmic will bull crap. How is anyone going to be able to rationalize that?

Male pregnancy? You are on the genocide route right? Just pick a guy to be your consort, the guy is going to bear your children anyway.

SnowFire

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #237 on: February 28, 2017, 12:32:51 AM »
Trails of Cold Steel

Fenrir

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #238 on: February 28, 2017, 11:12:25 AM »
Uuuuuh I picked Navarre for best bud. Is ghost pregnancy a thing?

Hunter Sopko

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #239 on: March 02, 2017, 05:26:56 AM »
Pokémon Moon: Completed the second island, visited the Aether HQ, dropped off on the third island. After the first part was more of the same, the game started holding your hand less and doing more, so it's been more enjoyable. As said before, some of the regular trainer battles have been actually good, and the way they switched up the game progression from Gyms has been interesting. I want more Red Card battles though. There's only been the one, and all the other Route Masters (I guess we'll call the ones you can only fight after beating everyone else on a Route that?) haven't been as good as it.

My First Plot is amusing, but they're telegraphing the story beats pretty hard. Lookin at you, Lusamine. Oh well.

Current team:


Oricorio ended up being key to winning the Fire Totem, since Air Cutter hit both it and its support. Still, mostly unimpressive and I had two Flying already. It got booted when I found an Oranguru, whose design still amuses me. It also proved pretty underwhelming, so I kicked it for Sandcastlemon, which should last due to Ground. Grass Starter switching to Ghost in final form means some overlap, but oh well. I might actually keep Grimer-A on my team, since it's proven pretty tanky and useful. Tossed Growlithe for Salandit cause New Pokes, will probably also stay for a while. Poison's kinda come into its own in this game, I feel. Charjabug remains solid, good for Water AND Grass Trial, but haven't needed to break it out in a bit. Toucannon is now only Flying, but Flying isn't necessary anymore with Rides. Will probably be the next shuffled out.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2017, 05:29:25 AM by Hunter Sopko »

Fenrir

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #240 on: March 02, 2017, 06:39:18 AM »
DQ5 monsters only: I'm well into Gen 3 now, just beat the queen

My team changed to : Golem, Slime Knight, Mini Demon, Slime
Golem is an unkillable force of nature
Slime Knight heals
Mini Demon is a mage with a whip. He has been very useful against some threats (Bjorn) but he's lagging now. Hope he learns something better than Boom eventually
Slime blows now but he has Kabuff/Kasap and I gave him all the itemcasts items. Unfortunately, my get rich quick through slime races scheme has not been practical

The caravan is such a half assed mechanic in DQ4/5/6. Either give me 4 or 8 party members. Don't randomly allow me to have 4 or 8 party members. Especially in a game with expensive items. Obviously the 4 left are eventually going to be rubbish.

The Knick Knack museum has yielded no rewards yet but has been massively addicting

SnowFire

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #241 on: March 02, 2017, 07:46:36 AM »
AM2R - Finished.  4:48 with 68% item collection.  Good times, recommended, see jsh & Shale, etc.

Difficulty curve was wacky.  Early game is EZ, then it gets hard, then you get Varia Suit and it lets up for a bit, then it gets hard again, then you get more than 2-4 super missiles and the Gravity Suit and Screw Attack and the game is back to EZ (if you play safe and aren't speedrunning).  I think they could have nerfed Super Missiles from their OP Super Metroid incarnation some considering they weren't in the original M2 nor do enemies seem to be balanced around them, maybe make it 3x damage of Missiles, or even more harshly restrict how many are in the game (say, 5 maximum forever).  I "only" had 10 by the end and it was still enough to make the Omega Metroids a lot more frail than I think they were intended.  Metroid Queen was also a tad disappointing in fight design, think they could have upped her damage and reduced her durability to make the fight a bit more exciting.  Also, no reason to go back to the huge water cavern they made you walk through?  Tsk tsk, horror logic says you only walk through an empty room if you're going to be chased by monsters when retreating through it later.

--
Random comments to others:
Lemon, pretty cool you liked LBW.  I still think we got slightly gypped by no Hilda fight, but whatever, it's pretty great.  Good point that the overhead Zeldas just plain feel a lot faster than the 3D ones, even if they give up some of the sense of scale.  Yes, I can race from one end of the map to the other with my runner rival in 2 minutes, yes this makes perfect sense, what.

SMT4 - Fenrir, I'm not an SMT expert, but I think Niu's logic on SMT4's connection with the other games is a little questionable.  Like, I have a friend who really liked Valkyrie Profile, and basically decided that Valkyrie Profile 2 was its own weird alternate universe due to its character assassinations on some of VP1's characters.  This is fair enough for fanfiction, but....  Niu's right that Lucifer's plot in SMT4 is pants, but I'm not sure that's really a good signal for how alternate a universe it is.  (Notably, SMT4 seems to be a continuation of SMT1, as best I can tell - Flynn is the reincarnation of the hero in SMT1, and the 2 alternate universe you visit in-game are the Law & Chaos endings to SMT1, ~25 years later.  If Lucifer sucks, it's due to bad writing, not due to creating an alternate alternate universe where Lucifer is not up to all that much.)

Fenrir

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #242 on: March 02, 2017, 05:59:13 PM »
Yeah I agree.
Akira as the SMT1 main makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons and I'm buying it.
I also think the SMT2 and Apocalypse are a whole lot different, in 2 YHVH loses the war but retreats, so he can curse and eternally torment the SMT2 protagonist forever afterwards (like he does in Nocturne)
In Apocalypse he gets godslayer'd, so the protagonist goes free.
Lucifer being some part of YHVH and disappearing when he dies makes some kind of sense even for old SMT, in a way


DQ5: beat the king, got an archdemon. (1/64 chance only) he replaces the slime now.
T'n'T is completely awesome. I don't think I've mentioned it yet? I love it

LordDirtyBrit

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #243 on: March 02, 2017, 07:27:50 PM »
Random comments to others:
Lemon, pretty cool you liked LBW.  I still think we got slightly gypped by no Hilda fight, but whatever, it's pretty great.  Good point that the overhead Zeldas just plain feel a lot faster than the 3D ones, even if they give up some of the sense of scale.  Yes, I can race from one end of the map to the other with my runner rival in 2 minutes, yes this makes perfect sense, what.

I'm not Lemon :P

Seriously though, I'm glad we're in agreement that 2D Zelda feels faster. Breath of the Wild is being showered with praise, but if the game is still sluggish, then I would probably pass up on the game.

SnowFire

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #244 on: March 02, 2017, 07:58:26 PM »
You've got a roundish yellow avatar I saw out of the corner of my eye.  Case closed.

Grefter

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #245 on: March 02, 2017, 09:26:27 PM »
Tyranny - another solid play session in, I have set myself on a path through the game I wasn't actually angling for, but I think I will stick with it, I was hoping to go independent but am actually just all in on the locals.  I had an option of forcing myself onto the independent route but eh, let's stick with it.   The replay value is high enough that I will stick with it and redo Independent route later, probably as a bid heavy armour 2 handed guy on turbo easy.
NO MORE POKEMON - Meeplelard.
The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
Don't worry, just jam it in anyway. - SirAlex
Gravellers are like, G-Unit - Trancey.

LordDirtyBrit

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #246 on: March 02, 2017, 10:53:46 PM »
You've got a roundish yellow avatar I saw out of the corner of my eye.  Case closed.

If you have trouble differentiating us by avatar, you would have even more trouble if you met us IRL.

Niu

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #247 on: March 03, 2017, 08:26:24 AM »
SMT4 - Fenrir, I'm not an SMT expert, but I think Niu's logic on SMT4's connection with the other games is a little questionable.  Like, I have a friend who really liked Valkyrie Profile, and basically decided that Valkyrie Profile 2 was its own weird alternate universe due to its character assassinations on some of VP1's characters.  This is fair enough for fanfiction, but....  Niu's right that Lucifer's plot in SMT4 is pants, but I'm not sure that's really a good signal for how alternate a universe it is.  (Notably, SMT4 seems to be a continuation of SMT1, as best I can tell - Flynn is the reincarnation of the hero in SMT1, and the 2 alternate universe you visit in-game are the Law & Chaos endings to SMT1, ~25 years later.  If Lucifer sucks, it's due to bad writing, not due to creating an alternate alternate universe where Lucifer is not up to all that much.)

SMT4 does not continue from SMT1.
To be more specific, SMT4's time line is different from the SMT1 due to Masakado and Stephen being completely different from their SMT1 counter part.
Also, this is not a problem that Lucifer sucks. Rather, Devil Summoner series has pretty much told us that Lucifer is the same person in every game post SMT3.
That's the real problem here. As the SMT4 Lucifer is different from the original Lucifer, and literally causing huge contradiction within the continuity.

Also, 25 years ago, Flynn is actually one of the demonica troops. I seriously don't recall SMT1 main being a demonica troop.
Oh, on top of that,l if SMT4 is a continuation of SMT1, then there is a huge pile of continuity mass that you have to work out from SMT Imagine and SMT Nine, which happens 10 years after SMT1.

You also missed the biggest plot contradiction that SMT4 has brought to the entire SMT cosmology.
They kill off YHVH, and by that I mean ALL YHVH across the multiverse.
And not just kill it, the entire monotheism concept that made YHVH into being has been removed by the law of observation.
In other words, YHVH can no longer exist in the SMT cosmology anymore, be it past, future, or alternate universe.
And... do I have to continue why this is a problem and what problem it cause to the SMT cosmology as a whole?
For starter, this alone destroys the SMT4 is an alternate SMT2 clause. Because SMT2 YHVH is trying to make a come back through the cosmic will. But wait, didn't SMT4 denied YHVH from that somic will entirely across the entire SMT multiverse? So if SMT4 happened, SMT2 YHVH wouldn't be able to do that right? So how can SMT2 and SMT4 both happens?
This some glaring self contradiction that cannot be worked around.


BTW, VP2 is it own alternate universe. Whne Lezard traveled to the past, VP2 already branched into its own timeline. That is why VP1 Lenneth didn't give an damn to what Lezard is plotting until the very end game. It is when Lezard transformed his tower into the new Yggdrasil and begin to erode other realities that VP1 Lenneth has to take action.


Yeah I agree.
Akira as the SMT1 main makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons and I'm buying it.
I also think the SMT2 and Apocalypse are a whole lot different, in 2 YHVH loses the war but retreats, so he can curse and eternally torment the SMT2 protagonist forever afterwards (like he does in Nocturne)
In Apocalypse he gets godslayer'd, so the protagonist goes free.
Lucifer being some part of YHVH and disappearing when he dies makes some kind of sense even for old SMT, in a way

Did you play SMT2 for real? YHVH died in SMT2.
But the cosmic will that supported his existence still exists. In other wards, new YHVH can still be born from new monotheistic faith.
Also, it is Satan who is a part of YHVH in SMT2, and he can't exist without YHVH, not Lucifer.
This is why Satan's race is Divine Spirit, the same race as YHVH and the Holy Ghosts. In SMT2, YHVH, Satan, and Holy Ghosts are the same being fundamentally. If YHVH is gone, so are the others.

BTW, Akira is Nanshi.
In other words. Flynn=SMT1 main and Akira=SMT1 cannot co-exist.

SnowFire

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #248 on: March 03, 2017, 10:20:05 AM »
Trails of Cold Steel

No Reanblog today, it'd be along the lines of "What the f%^&ing f*&$, weird shit is going on these days."  See Jusis picture from before.

I was actually pretty annoyed at how they did the Elise visit plot. 
Aside from siscon woes...  was Elise being hypnotized or something to go into the Old Schoolhouse?!  There's lots of excuses for unauthorized people to go exploring there, and people in emotional shambles aren't necessarily super-rational, but it was still really forced.  But okay, fine, whatever.  The actual showdown was fine, although we got robbed of PC Patrick.  The narrative AFTER didn't ring true, and badly, though.  Okay, we are in an alternate universe where sending kids to go fight dangerous monsters is a perfectly rational normal activity, but even given that...  this was worse than a screw-up.  This was more like a fuck-up.  You nearly got a non-student killed down there!  Holy shit!  This is, like, major scandal level event.  Yes, I know as a player that the plot can't ACTUALLY stop Our Heroes from doing more Schoolhouse Exploration in the future, but it's easy enough to ensure that can still happen while respecting the gravity of the situation - especially since the plot itself wants to super-hype the gravity of it, with like half the school running around searching for Elise.  It's also a chance to darken the narrative a tad and bring up the mysterious unlocking that happened (Celine, yes, pretty obvious to the player, but not to the students).  Fine, schoolhouse exploration is just like training, and like training, you gotta do it safe.  If Machias left a bunch of loaded shotguns on the floor of the shooting range, and a janitor bumped into them at night, he'd get chewed out and lose his privileges to go there.  They get a lame brief bit of dialogue where Sara indicates that Vandyck wants to stop the explorations entirely, but that she'll fight against it, move on.  But nobody talked about how the hell this extremely dangerous old schoolhouse got unlocked to begin with, when random Trista kids or jealous non-Class VIIers could easily go poking there and bite off more than they can chew!  They needed a scene with Sara going all "Look, Rean, I know I'm not the greatest role model always, but we entrusted that key to you on the condition that you lock up afterward.  I don't mean to kick you when you're down, but your failure to do this endangered someone's life - it's just a cruel irony it was your own sister, but it could have been anyone."  And that can go in some interesting ways - Rean being very mopey if he improperly thinks he's at fault for endangering Elise's life, or others (Emma?) standing up for Rean and saying no, I saw him lock that thing, but then that raises the question (to the PCs) of who did unlock it, and WTF is going on if others can get in there too.  Big investigation.  Maybe even have an excuse for Our Heroes to have to sneak into the Old Schoolhouse at 2 AM after being forbidden by the Principal or some such.

The Fie-Laura split was a tad forced but mostly worked.  Chatted with Sopko on it, and while on one hand I kinda respect the game for not going for JAEGERS KILLED MY MOTHER IN FRONT OF ME or some such, but because they didn't opt for something melodramatic, it also makes the split a little harder to explain in retrospect.  Oh well.  (I did like that Fie's reveal on this was from basically a plot task, not some kind of shonen we-are-all-defeated oh-wait-Fie-unleashed-her-secret-technique confrontation a la the Rean-Elise-Robot one.)


I wonder if there was a dropped plot line somewhere with the Music Academy kids that Elliot knew.  The bad guy plays a demonic flute.  We have our hometown hero musician out to prove himself.  No concert-of-the-goddess or some holy music or such to counter him?  Well aside from the usual musical beatdown in battle, I guess.

I was amused at CS sneaking Amber Amour from Skies into this game.  Also, Olivert was raised as a non-noble in a random one-off statement from a townsperson?  I dunno if that fits that much, this is the guy who drinks the most expensive wine in the house without particularly paying for it.  He figured out some of the noble lifestyle well enough, it seems.

The bonding events often have the good taste for Rean to just sit back and watch the fireworks as other people settle their own little plotlines, but all the swimming ones after were a little weird - like, Rean was having to pile into the pool for both Laura's event and Sara's training?  With very unclear third wheel responsibilities in both?  Followed by some sort of tasteful fade-to-black fanservice of pool tag in swimsuits and inappropriate touching that you can't see.  I'm not sure what they were trying to go for with that, but sure whatever game.

Nobody in this game particularly wants to comment on the ethics of Millium, which mildly annoys me vs. Sky FC & SC.  Sky was always a tad apologetic about Tita coming along, and usually featured everyone else saying no don't come, but she would either insist or be needed for some engineering fix-up.  Tita was more of a mechanic that happened to be able to defend herself as far as general role in the plot.  The other cute preteen, on the other hand, definitely has more of a warrior role, but Estelle also thinks this is completely crazy and fucked up to have tiny assassins, and puts considerable effort into trying to convince her to stop doing this, so sure.  Nobody in Cold Steel seems to be saying "wait WTF why is a 13-year old working with the Homeland Security Department of beating up people who oppose the Chancellor, this is screwed up."  We'll see, I guess.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2017, 10:36:24 AM by SnowFire »

SnowFire

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #249 on: March 03, 2017, 10:34:41 AM »
SMT4 does not continue from SMT1.
To be more specific, SMT4's time line is different from the SMT1 due to Masakado and Stephen being completely different from their SMT1 counter part.
I rest my case.  Welcome to retcons, and sometimes crappy writing.  Exhibit #1: comic books.  One author might write Bruce Wayne as a paranoid crazy person one step away from madness; another might write him as a canny corporate executive who resorts to vigilanteism as a bit of side public charity; another might see him as a genteel playboy.  Comic books routinely say "yeah, this bit of past history?  In my work, that part is totally true.  I'm going to totally ignore this other story, and reinterpret a third story in a crazy plot twisty way that was clearly never intended at the time.  Yeah his wife was totally a robot clone!  Cool!"  SMT4 draws enough from SMT1 that it really feels like a sequel to it, and the plot points that don't line up are creative license, and characters that don't line up are either intentional robot clone plot twists, or just totally ignoring the source material on that element and doing what that author thought was cool.  These are big, grand characters from mythology; they can support many interpretations.

We've had three different Sherlock Holmes recently: the movie version, the BBC version, and the US version.  All pretty radically different takes on the same character.  Well, Lucifer & Masakado are the same as Holmes, pretty much.  I wouldn't expect them to be portrayed identically in every SMT, and if they were, it might actually get a tad boring and not surprising enough.