What Games are You Playing 2018?

[Tide]

FFVII: You are a poor scientist, Mr. Hojo.

Hojo's qualifications as a scientist involve smashing things together and hoping they work. He's like South Park's Mephesto. Just that instead of creating a 4-assed monkey, he decided to get a lion to screw a woman, injected himself with cells that can cause insanity and murdering his colleagues for being more successful. So, y'know, about the same.

I wiped twice to Carry Armor and there was nothing I could do in either instance. Lapis Laser 2HKOs the entire party and he used it twice before anyone in the party could even get a turn. I fiddle around with equipment, is it water or ice maybe? I mean, it's blue. Turns out not, but it doesn't matter because he only opens with it once on the third attempt, then he gets clobbered with Haste + Slow.

FYI, Carry Armor has a built in Sneak Attack - Lapis Laser programmed in his algorithm. I don't know it's chance of procing, but when it does, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose because he will hit you for 2x Lapis for about 3k damage. Unless you have a ton of HP Plus Materia and know it's coming, it's pretty fatal. You can also circumvent this by being faster than him, but ATB can be finnicky.

Maybe worth noting that I didn't bother to get Big Guard and somehow seem to have avoided ever even finding a Barrier materia. Possibly this is why PC durability is getting worse in lategame than I remember (I had one gameover to the Turks in Midgar that went largely along the same lines as Carry Armor KOs, lose init -> Tifa gets overkilled -> all downhill from there). Most everything in the Gelnika was a horrifying OHKO machine that I instantly ran from (the "boss" fight in that area is vastly less threatening than the randoms).

Big Guard can be found from the weird shellfish enemies near a beach in Gogonga. Barrier materia can be found in Rocket Town for 9000 Gil. They are good ways for damage reduction, but for all the late game bosses in FF7, I found that Barrier doesn't matter that much because you can have other seriously OP type builds. Really depends on how you go about it though. For the record, if you stack a char with 2x HP Plus Materias, at about this time, they will have about 80-100% more HP which lets you pretty much absorb all the damage you take pretty easily. Midgar Turks for the most part are pretty mild since they hover within the 700-1000 damage range. Rude is the exception since he can crit for close to 4k. Backlining your team pretty much solves this problem though.

[Captain K]

Yep, it's a Tide post.

[Tide]

I'm confused. Are you implying that its a good thing or a bad thing?

[Captain K]

I guess you didn't watch the Superbowl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gGXnE1Dbh0

[DjinnAndTonic]

Nope, too busy with the superb owl. What's the dad from Stranger Things got to do with Tide?

[Sierra]

FFVII: See "Supernova" tag appear on screen -> order Tifa to use Megalixir -> Tifa gets confused somehow -> Tifa uses Megalixir on Sephiroth. Oh come on! Status hax only made the fight longer and scarier in the end, but there's another log entry for the RNG-screwed run. I still have no idea what is happening in Sephiroth phase 1 or why I should need to bother with the second team, but I had cost-free Ultima so it hardly mattered. Phase 2 could still be decently scary when it wasn't using shit like DEEN. I didn't build for status protection, so someone getting confused could be lethal (especially if it was Tifa, because that only meant she would status someone else out in turn). 2x Mystile blunts a lot just through evasion, at least.

"Excerpt from 'The Creation' by Joseph Haydn." I remembered this being in the credits, but I still have no idea where in the game it--oh wait, is this playing in the background when Rufus gets blown up?

Final time was about thirty hours, final levels for main party were low/mid-sixties. Main party Cloud/Tifa/Yuffie for the endgame (and it took a couple hours of grinding just to get all the limits--sans Omnislash, because fuck the Gold Saucer--unlocked for those three, so I don't see any way upper tier limits unlock in normal gameplay without forced grind).

Cloud: I went with attack mage since he had the highest base MAG stat. All the Bahamuts were stacked up in his inventory but none of them mattered because MP Absorb + Ultima. I have no idea of the mechanics behind MP Absorb materia, because the amount restored fluctuated wildly. I had long stretches where he got more than the spell cost back! Free Ultimas! Just what, game. Anyway. Maybe should've been the designated attacker because Ultima Weapon + my obsessive need to have people at max HP all the time, but Ultima spam wrecked faces enough as it was.

Tifa: Party brute squad. Cover + Counter + Add Effect & Hades + all the Luck-boosting materia. Also 2X Attack, but that doesn't trigger on counters. Minimal magic materia so she had more HP to soak all the hits (Sephiroth wing slash was still close to a OHKO). Add Effect + Hades is amazingly satisfying to watch in action, counter every physical attack against the party for breakdancing dragons, woo. Maybe not the best choice for the physical build in the end since her ultimate weapon appears to work off of Maximum Risk rules and I'm rarely comfortable letting people sit at low HP, but it did mean Sephiroth ate 18k damage to the face after Supernova, so I'll take it.

Yuffie: Party healbot. Regen is great in FFVII. Wall unlocked only after Jenova Synthesis, but it was nice for Sephiroth. Also maybe would've been a better physical slugger since Conformer hits were at the damage cap vs. Sephiroth and I have no idea why, but oh well.

Very good game, glad I replayed it. Validated my old impression that it was an extremely important thing for its time, and while aspects of it very much deserve that "for its time" disclaimer (notably the FMVs), the core party dynamics and plot scenes are still solid and worthy of esteem. FF7r still seems like a dubious venture to me. Not that there's anything innately wrong with giving a twenty-year-old game a facelift, because I concede that it could use one, but I'm highly skeptical that any remaining staff at Squeenix have the directorial sense to do it right. FFVII needs a better translation; it doesn't need more over-the-top action sequences a la Advent Children. But I'm pretty sure the latter is what it'll actually get (assuming it isn't just vaporware like I tend to think it is).

[DragonKnight Zero]

MP Absorb gives MP equal to 1% of damage dealt as long as the target has MP > 0

[Dark Holy Elf]

Significantly, MP Absorb's healing is based on total damage dealt, across all targets. So if you hit three enemies with Ultima for 5000 apiece, that's 150 MP healing. Against a single target, it won't be free, though it'll be inexpensive enough.

[Grefter]

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - So I beat this finally, its only 12 months or so after release?  Cool.  I don't really know how to recommend the game, but I do see exactly why it got all the accolades it did, it is exactly the kind of thing that mainstream games media and gamer opinions in aggregate latch on to.( I think I already made these points back when I started but I will reiterate anyway)  The obvious one is of course Brand, Nintendo brand value is a monster in the market space and Zelda is enormous within Nintendo.  Not to say it got 10/10 goty every year awards BECAUSE it was Zelda, but a shoe in the door goes a long way.  The controls generally feel good, they are a bit loose because of the scope of the game, but generally when you want to do X you do a close facsimile of X, it is only in some of the finer points of platforming or when you are trying to fight in an area where there is a bit too much context sensitive stuff going on (like hey let me sprint out of the way of this attack, oh no now I am climbing that tree and got trampled by that Lynel).  That minor bit of slack on the controls is pretty much completely justified and overlooked because the thing it brings is the level of detail in the world.  It is huge and there isn't really anything in there that you are not interacting with in some way.  If it isn't something you can pick up and throw/knock around/set on fire then it is probably something you can climb on to get somewhere to throw/set on fire/knock around and get one of the miniscule collectables or crafting materials that you can use to upgrade your pretty big wardrobe of rubber underwear and tiaras.

Other things it does well that you have heard before, it really is pretty damn good at capturing my understanding of what "Classic Zelda" was in a big explorable world with secret hidden nooks to find tree man poop in, but presenting it in a more modern style.  It also does that reboot on the gameplay formula that people have been saying they need to do for forever, since OoT set the formula back like 20 fucking years ago it was time for a fresh start (that is without having a discussion about how much OoT is just LttP in 3D).  There is some things in there that sort of make me struggle with recommending it, but that might just be because when I am thinking of recommending games to the DL I am actually thinking of "Would Elfboy like this?" instead of the rest of the DL.  The crafting is a bit of a drag, cooking is really strong and powerful and simultaneously incredibly simple with 0 useful tutorials in game.  Armour upgrades are generally worth doing, but take a big Rupee investment and specifically targetting an upgrade you want is really grindy.  The weapon durability really is only a problem for the first 6 or so hours until you start getting some weapons with actual durability AND weapon slots from tree poops.  That scaling up exponentially is probably a serious misstep, but the Master Sword being something you can get that really reduces concerns about durability is another misstep.  It should have been tied to either a mix of Stamina/Hearts or taken  Shrine Count into account for it rather than raw base heart value.  Effectively you get punished for taking Stamina with your Spirit Orbs, which you presumably prioritise if you are into exploring.  You are only really likely to find the Master Sword early on before you get the quest breadcrumbs to it if you go exploring.   So it is something the game does well competing with the less interesting rewards.

It is another Zelda with plot!  There is less of it than even Ocarina, let alone Skyward Sword or Wind Waker, but that isn't to say what is there isn't good.  I think it is probably the best they have done because of how much they do with what there is and letting you nearly completely opt into it.  Most of the cutscenes you are forced into are front loaded or are in the main quest stuff (which is optional of course) so you really only engage with them when you actively seek it out.  If you want to just go mountain climbing for a new pair of shoes so you can walk in the sand better then knock yourself out.  You are looking at an active cast of 6 people and Link still doesn't talk, so its only 5 people actively speaking.  The 4 guardians are in maybe 3 scenes each.  Every other scene is pretty much all Zelda all the time and that is a damn good thing, because even though it is a cliche story I LIKE this story about Zelda.  Essentially it is about accepting/rejecting destiny at its core, but I like that even though Destiny happens to Zelda no matter what in spite of her efforts, it really was just because it was going to happen and had nothing to do with her choices.  Her choices were not only valid but ultimately do help with the inevitable victory.

There is that unfortunate part though where they use a flower for symbolism of a teen girl even though it is about resilience and surviving, it is still an unfortunate trope to lean on.

I didn't do the Ballad of Champions DLC yet, but sometime probably.   Trial of the Master Sword kind of fucking blew.  I started them up and got fed up with them because they are long and you can't save.  Presumably to make them harder and a longer trial and you can't cheese them with saving, but fuck that I would have accepted the option to cheese it if you would just let me stop playing.  It is the only thing in the game that didn't let you pick it up and put it back down on a whim.  That was very off putting and frustrating.  The reward in general wasn't even going to be worth.

But I am a negative mofo.  It isn't my favourite or the best game of last year to me personally, but I can see exactly why people liked it.  It is a really polished gigantic game that never really felt like it was something I wasn't having fun with.  So... not exactly what I look for in games that I love, but definitely stuff I don't mind playing.  Not best game of the year, but definitely high up on a list if I did one and worth a look if you somehow were waiting for my dumb opinion on it.

[DragonKnight Zero]

Mega Man Anniversary Collection:

  Will come back and do a bigger writeup later but this little thoughtdump stuck out about Mega Man 8.

"Jump, jump"  "Slide, slide"  "What is the Turbo Tunnel doing here, fuck you?"  (I died a lot there)

[SnowFire]

Celeste
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RFUyxoG9n38RbCHx1
Think I'm just about done here.  I thought I clearly sucked at first, and then I saw that the YouTube video I used as an occasional reference had 745 deaths for C6-B, so I didn't feel so bad.  That said, the later chapter B-sides are clearly approaching "frustrating" over challenging, so I dunno if I'm gonna bother with the C7 B-Side.  Balance of the B-sides feels (understandably!) more tilted for "can you perform the one sequence that might get you through this impossible room" rather than creativity / adaptation.  (i.e. I recall watching NotMiki grab a chapter 4 winged strawberry in totally the wrong way then I did it / was 'intended', but hey, it worked!  a lot less of that here where the margins are so tight.)  I wouldn't have minded nerfing some of the more pixel-perfect feather corridors in C6-B a little just for sanity's sake here.
 
Edit: Also in the realm of trivia.  The music in the last section of the Mirror Temple is the first section played backwards with spooky backwards speech.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE8diav5I1k 

[NotMiki]

Chapter 7 B-side's hardest bits are not quite as hard as Chapter 6 B-side's hardest bits.  I still died more getting through it, but it's a little longer so no big surprise.  Definitely a lot of rooms where there's One True Way tho.  I liked it a lot better than 6, fwiw.  Haven't braved Chapter 8 B-side yet because it scares me.

[SnowFire]

Also, since I think PS4 is still unpatched...  one alarming looking change upcoming:

http://www.celestegame.com/changelog.html

Changes to explode-launching Madeline (caused by Bumpers and Seeker respawn shockwaves):
Previously, Madeline’s x-axis launch speed was multiplied by 1.2 if her x-axis input was neutral or in the same direction as the launch at the moment of impact.
Neutral inputs will no longer grant the launch speed bonus. X-axis input must now be in the same direction as the launch at the moment of impact.

What the #$%^ is this.  Smashing yourself into bumpers often happens when you WANT to go in the "opposite" direction, e.g. dashing to the left to get to a bumper to send yourself soaring right & upward.  Those bastards move back and forth too.  So rather than, say, directly dropping down to the right edge to send yourself either right or right & up, you won't get the boost unless you start veering right at the last second - which very easily can cause you to plain miss the bumper and fall to your doom.  Don't think I like this change, if I don't want the speed boost I'll just hold the reverse direction rahter than neutraling into it.

[NotMiki]

I played through a bunch of stuff on this patch. it's not a big deal at least as far as I've played.

[Fenrir]

Ys 8: I am apprently 90% of the way through, ready to jump to Ys Origin afterwards
Man this is huge. So huge that I am starting to nitpick about every little thing. Why is flash guard so luch worse than Flash Evade, as it’s higher risk? Nevermind. Great game.
There is STILL no antagonist! Just imagine an RPG without an antagonist. Every cutscene I’m like « oh, I guess this mysterious guy in draped robes is going to be an antagonist » but no.I think the only real boss in here is going to be Darwin.
The boys continue to dominate the game, though i reckon that I could get a good use out of Dana’s Dragon Power outside her solo sections too.


Cheono Trigger: I am playing this on the phone for the first time in 10 years, avoiding most enemies. The game is still very breezy, i am OHKOing everything with multi techs and never run out of MP.
Robo is more dominant than I remember, the Robo + Crono full MT ultra early multitech is extremely sweet. Lucca is way worse, she doesn’t have much beyond Firewhirl up to this point. Generally lacking in MT, and trash tier if walled (which happens often) unlike every other character
 I put a Berserk Ring on Ayla in her chapter and she basically soloed everything but Nizbel. I then put a berserk ring on Frog in his chapter but he’s still garbage
I just lost two times to Flea. How did that happen? I even used Marle for Aura Whirl. My god.

[NotMiki]

Ys 8: I am apprently 90% of the way through, ready to jump to Ys Origin afterwards
Man this is huge. So huge that I am starting to nitpick about every little thing. Why is flash guard so luch worse than Flash Evade, as it’s higher risk? Nevermind. Great game.
There is STILL no antagonist! Just imagine an RPG without an antagonist. Every cutscene I’m like « oh, I guess this mysterious guy in draped robes is going to be an antagonist » but no.I think the only real boss in here is going to be Darwin.
The boys continue to dominate the game, though i reckon that I could get a good use out of Dana’s Dragon Power outside her solo sections too.

It's really funny how backended the Ys 8 plot is.  Looks like you're most of the way there now, at least.  As for flash guard, I think the olny good part about it is how you can accidentally trigger it when you use a skill <_<

Hope you enjoy Ys Origin when you get there!  Have you played Oath in Felghana?

p.s. have you been helping out the villagers?  You need to do a large amount of that in order to get the true ending.

[Fenrir]

I’m helping all the villagers ASAP. I’m playing on nightmare so the rewards actually matter. After every micro advancement in the plot I scan the quest board + map for new points of interests like a predator. Every new recipe book I imlediately go back to the village to cook it then to Gendarme to give it to the weird ass mascot cat.  I hauntingly check Adol’s big book every now and then to see if I didn’t miss a fish for Shoebill. I crave new village blood to finally destroy those pesky blockades.

Man, even on easy mode, who would ignore the sidequests in Ys 8?


I’ve played Oath and enjoyed it enough, and Origin sounds better to me. I am unreasonably hyped for this.  Just a big ass tower to climb. I like it.

[NotMiki]

I enjoyed Oath a lot more when I went back to play it on higher difficulties fwiw.  Its slate of bosses is a ton of fun to really try and get good at.  In terms of a casual playthrough, though, Origin is a lot better.

[DragonKnight Zero]

Mega Man 6:

  I've dabbled in it via emulation; this is my first playthrough with a controller.  Feels good buster killing Flame Man, fire pillars always got me before.  Got a game over on Plant Man stage; there's one jump near the end that's rather tight with a fish to dodge as well.  Plant Man is a chump though getting pinned does happen if misreading his jump arc.  Had trouble with Centuar Man's pattern, lost a few times and resorted to an E-tank to avoid playing the stage again.  The game is rather generous with them though they're scattered through the stages and aren't saved on quitting a session.  So may as well use them on the first 8 stages.

  For the first time ever, I access the alternate path through Mr. X 1 using a strat I saw on the LP archive.  Was more difficult than I recall to go through the fortress levels though I somehow make it without a game over.  Run into weapon energy issues and then I lose my last life on Wily 3 to a spike wall.  Um, weapons situation solved I guess.  Blow through the rest of the game and Wily is behind bars.  Not really a spoiler to say it doesn't last but still satisfying to see Megaman had enough of Wily's begging here.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Fire Emblem Fates - Lunatic Conquest beaten.

Rundown of the lategame maps, spoilers I guess.

-Takumi's map now has two of the four stairwells blocked, which basically forces you to come up in an extremely dangerous area. Managed to get a Xander who could survive one turn there then run to safety and engage with a big ol' set of dual strikes to deal with Oboro's gang. I beat this map first try but I lost Jakob.
-Hinoka's map is basically the same except that there are more reinforcements and Azama now carries multiple Hexing Rods just in case you thought waiting him out was a good idea. I beat this map first try but it involved diciness at the very end duelling Hinoka where a bad miss or two would have left me completely overwhelmed by the last reinforcement wave.

-Ryoma's map is brutal, possibly the hardest in the game. It introduces an all-new skill called Inevitable End which makes stat-downs stack. No tank is safe for long. Worse, the big two existing traps are still in play - a chain of Lunge Spy Yumi puppets all with Seal Defence which will destroy anyone (freezing/entrapping one of them makes the chain manageable) on Saizo's side, and a ninja death trap hallway on Kagero's side. Worse, there are even more ninjas than ever with Spy Shuriken and those are just horrific. After several tries I finally get down effective strategies for both sides, which I take one at a time (making this also the longest map in the game) but I make a costly error and lose Azura during the second. I decide to accept this since I had already had like 10+ resets at this point getting everything down right.

-Iago's map now features more Maids and all the Maids have Staff Savant (mostly with Freeze or Enfeeble, though a couple have Entrap; one will entrap you right into Stoneborn range but fortunately that one can be kited). One maid in the hero room also has Hex, so I silence her the turn I open the doors and kill her the next. Iago also has a Hexing Rod now, but still runs a predictable pattern so it's possible to keep him from hexing anyone important. As I usually do I only take down the right side, with a wave of attack stances overwhelming the mages. The bottom of the map proves fearsome indeed, as now every single enemy has a Beastkiller or a Hammer (some both) so it's slim pickings for good tanks here, with axe-users like Camilla and Percy (both with defensive pairups and rallies) being who I turn to. Takes a couple tries to get right but oh-so-satisfying when I do. Oh yeah and I remember someone here (Eph?) hyping using Entrap on Hans. On Lunatic at least, this is a terrible idea, as it summons a huge wave of reinforcements to the bottom of the map making it even nastier. Much better to open the doors and bait out the first wave, THEN aggro Hans (by baiting his minions) and face the second.

-Garon's map is basically unchanged. As tricky as I found this on my first playthrough it's now trivial: solid pairups can deal with the turn 1 Entraps, and then it's a matter of baiting down the lancer/merchant brigade (which is improved with an extra member, new skills, and more gold bars to spend) then sneaking through the stairs for an assassination.

-The final battle... MAIDS. RUIN. EVERYTHING. There are now SEVEN staff users, four near the middle of the map surrounding by the main group of enemies, and three more down near the boss. None move (so none can be Entrapped). All have Staff Savant. Five have Enfeeble (the others have Freeze and Hex), and like Ryoma's map, both they and the ninjas have Inevitable End. They can and will ruin your day with Enfeeble spam. Oh yeah and the boss himself now fires his Skadi death beam every two turns, instead of every three; dragon veins still help of course). It's often recommended to use some cheesy combination of Azura, Rescue Staff, and Pass to blitz the boss, but I don't have those (aside from one shot of Rescue) so we're doing this legit. Silence Staff can control one Maid, though I only have three uses of that (out of the 4 total you get). The turn you actually engage the maids almost has to be scary as hell since it puts people in range of the second wave of staves AND loads of enemies. I tap Camilla for the job and she bravely OHKOs the mage and three ninjas who attack her, but eventually falls between them, the generals, and the Enfeeble. At this point the horses near the bottom also get aggroed (a turn earlier than Hard, which I wasn't counting on). I throw all my efforts into killing the most dangerous enemies and ensuring that Corrin and Xander live long enough to reach the boss. A rescue to bring one of them forward helps. My army falls like flies as I bravely use them as bait to try to keep pressure off the units who will matter before Corrin, who has been twinked specifically for this, can reach the boss and take off most of his health in one attack. Unfortunately due to shenanigans involving status I'm not able to engage in the order I'd like and it takes two turns to get the job done, and in the process even more units die, but I win.

In total 11 units died in that fight, but I wasn't going for a pretty victory, just a victory.

Great stuff. Wouldn't want to do that often as it's rather gruelling.

Due to greater enemy density, I had three units (Corrin, Effie, and Camilla) who had more kills than any unit on any previous Fates file. Detailed unit notes:



Corrin (140) - +Str -Luck. Paladin talent (switched after getting Draconic Hex) which is a fine idea, but I ended up marrying her to Silas so whoops, not so much. Generally built for OHKOs on frailer enemies (Gunter + Elbow Room helps) including notably Hayato. Monopolized the Kodachi.

Effie (135) - General until Wary Fighter, then Great Knight. Often had the highest Def which has its place though is far from unbreakable. High Str too of course, as usual. MVP of the ninja cave (chapter 17) where enemies basically couldn't damage her if she kept a javelin out.

Camilla (119) - Best unit in the game as usual, did a Berserker build with Trample/Axefaire for the "OHKO all the goddamn ninjas" build. Not much else to say.

Peri (85) - Great Knight. Had generically good offence and mobility. Fell off a bit towards the end as the good str/spd just weren't quite good enough but was never bad.

Ophelia (78) - Sorcerer. Great offensive stats and good enough Res, so she had dual use both for surviving mages and carving through many other enemy types (Calamity Gate / Horse Spirit are both huge helps as always). Nosferatu wasn't really worth it on her much so maybe I should have gone with another class, but Sorc stats are good anyway.

Xander (74) - Vanilla, did his usual tanking business. Charlotte support actually gave him pretty good offence.

Odin (65) - Favoured him a lot early with Nosfeatu and a dip in Myrmidon for Vantage, which let him tank in places that nobody else could sometimes (the reverse is also true; others could tank where he couldn't). Also let him pass Vantage to Ophelia, more importantly. That said eventually his bad stats caught up with him; once most enemies doubled him it wasn't really worth trying to find ways to prop him up, especially with two other magic attackers, so he got dropped around the start of Hoshido.

Charlotte (64) - Kills stuff dead. Could probably be more accurate, but Dual Club (which she used most although Camilla had it sometimes too) is a big help as always. Made a good team with Xander since if one wasn't useful, the other sure as hell would be (unless I needed to tank a big group of mages).

Elise (61) - Maligknight! New build. Works pretty well though would be better if Elise had more skill. Her Bolt Axe hits super-hard and quite fast, and tomes give her some weapon triangle control. Ground her axe rank from E to D (mostly on the ninja map, where even lowish-str axes do good work) then Arms Scrolled her. It worked. I had enough staff users.

Percy (53) - Wyvern -> Berserker after L5. Provided a dual rally and his usual dodge support. Got speed-screwed but was very tanky. Low offence left him underlevelled (he never got Axefaire) but he was still very useful.

Jakob (50) - Switched to Strategist for Inspiration. The usual healer/buff-bot with combat that starts decent then later stinks who died in some lategame map, feels like most of my Jakobs.

Niles (47) - Died on the boat map which was hard. It's a pity because there are actually a lot of really useful units to capture late - maids with S ranks, units with 2-4 rally skills, etc.

Silas (31) - Quite good at first with Vow of Friendship sometimes giving him a nice extra push as a tank, but falls off when compared to say Effie, so got dropped midgame.

Shura (26), Dwyer (5), Izana (4), Flora (3) - The lategame staff brigade. Shura joins the earliest and has the best combat + thief utility, Dwyer provides Inspiration from dad, Izana has rally magic/luck, and Flora has the best skl/mag for status staves (along with dogshit durability), also picking up Inspiration late as a Strategist. Conquest Lunatic definitely makes those status staves feel really useful.

Siegbert (22), Kana (4) - Random kids picked up midlate and late. They had passable combat but were largely filler.

Gunter (18) - Great support buddy for an atk-oriented Corrin. When Corrin got speed-screwed I switched him to Hero to help her with that. Combat is obviously useless but he could draw staves before hiding in pairup!

Azura (9) - Dances.

I only actually lost three units before the final battle but all took some very valuable utility with them. Oh well~

[Pyro]

Good lord. I have enoigh frustration with simple FEH grand hero battles.

Reading NEB challenge run logs makes me feel I am missing several layers to game strategy. Still fun to look at someone else suffering!

[Grefter]

NEB is his own level of the Meta.

[Grefter]

FFD2 - Holy damn you were right about Chapter 6-3 Djinn.   That shit is really egregious.


Vermintide 2 - I only played a few maps, but a friend that was manning Dwarf let me play him.   Still feels good as Ranger.  Look forward to unlocking tank though because I live and die by my shield.

A little miffed they cut out to bottom tier difficulties, Recruit plays about at old Normal levels in terms of Specials.   Everything else I am super positive on.   I think the engine even is better optimised.


Edit - I say that about FFD2 and then like immediately after the worst the game has been it kicks into gear and actually gets really damn good again.  Like some of the best time travel stuff Square have done.

Sorgue is also the fucking best.   It is straight up Magus copy paste, but they really really extend it way beyond what Magus was being painted as.   I would nearly recommend it just on how neat that bit of character work is, but it is a big time investment just for a cool execution of story telling.

[Luther Lansfeld]

AA6 – Finished, finally. Still processing my thoughts somewhat on the game, but here’s kind some general thoughts.

Case 1 is the worst case 1 in the series. I know it’s supposed to introduce us to the setting, but just doesn’t really work? Ahlbi is boring, the villain is kinda boring, and the murder mystery is boring. It’s probably the longest case 1 in the series besides AAI2, but unlike AAI2, the case has no meat and is just too much blather. In addition, Phoenix as a character is increasingly boring on his own; either you have to make him ‘too good’ or make him uncharacteristically derpy. They chose the latter. Not a great look.

Case 2 is better. It features Apollo and Athena, which is now the dynamic duo of this series. This case is very fun even if it is super contrived. I think Roger oozes charisma and Apollo and Athena have such fantastic chemistry that this case is generally great. Nahyuta seems kinda wanky at first glance, which sadly is not wrong. Can’t win ‘em all.

Case 3 is weird. Trial Day 1 might be the worst trial day in AA history? Just terrible and pointless. And makes the prosecutor look like a huge fucking idiot. And the weird weird twist at the end. The investigation of this case is great, o nthe other hand. Rayfa as an assistant/antagonist works pretty well and much hilarity ensues. Day 2 trial is decent, the showdown with the villain is pretty cool and interesting, but the ultimate resolution to the crime is so over the top unbelievable. It’s a decent case, but not great.

Case 4 is a pretty good case, it feels like the old style Case 3’s from the first three games without the investigation. They all share this irreverence and goofiness that this overdramatic, serious game really needed. I don’t think it’s as good as the old style Case 3’s, partially because the investigations are a good chance for those goofy characters to shine outside of the courtroom, but it was good fun. Bonus points for Simon being utterly magnificent in this case.  I missed you, Simon. Can we call Athena and Simon the dynamic duo of the games now?

Case 5… let’s split this baby into two parts, since it should have been anyway.

Case 5 Part 1 – Weird case. I think this game is very weird in that there are multiple cases (3, 5) that the investigation is more enjoyable than the trial, straight up, which is not necessarily an opinion I normally hold about Phoenix Wright games. Dhurke is shockingly fantastic as a character, featuring both humor and character depth in a way I wasn’t expecting. He is an endearing rogue. Sarge is the hilarious case-specific investigation character that I’ve been waiting for the whole game. Paul is funny and poignant in these dark times.

However, the trial of this case is a little… problematic. The contrived reason for your opponent being who it is ends up being really silly, especially since a bit of communication would have solved the problem relatively easily. I still think the trial’s pretty good, but the murder mystery is pretty damn abrupt and seems pretty simple. There is so much fake drama in this part of the case.

Case 5 (Part 2) – This feels like the true final case – all of the mysteries of the previous cases end up being wrapped up and the primary players are very vital. Apollo is very kickass in this case and I love it. Dhurke continues to be amazing, and the final plot twist involving him is shocking and totally hinted at. Great twist. The ultimate resolution is a little too obvious and requires some stupidity on the part of multiple people so I didn’t like that so much. Nahyuta decides to be something besides a useless shitstain ultimately, but it’s too late.

The game is very slow paced compared to some earlier games. It seems like it takes too long to do everything, and often likes to make things longer and more dramatic than it has to. DD has this problem as well, but it seems to get worse with each game.

Overall? Not a wonderful game, but not bad. Probably my second lowest AA game.  Case 4 and Case 5 really save it.

[074]

Monster Hunter World: I have decided to branch out into the wide world of music.  And by music, I mean murdering monsters with a musical instrument.  And by that, I mean using the Hunting Horn.

Weapon is badass.  It goes without saying that all Hunting Horn users can self-buff to ignore deflection entirely, which is Gunlance levels of "fuck your shit", but it's also a really hard-hitting weapon in its own right.  Also it gives monsters concussions.

...in fact, it's so good that I find myself accidentally killing monsters that I intend or have to capture.  rip.