The RPG Duelling League

Social Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: Grefter on December 31, 2012, 03:22:53 PM

Title: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 31, 2012, 03:22:53 PM
FF Dimensions - Got Ifrit then proceeded into a Volcano.  Good thing my White Mage doesn't have high enough Summon to use Ifrit yet otherwise I would have wasted a bunch of time.  My Monk on the other hand I really wish could move back to something else, but Ice Knuckles are wayyyyy better than any of the other melee options.  I could probably dump him into Ranger with the other Ranger and give them both Ice Bows since you want all the Rangers and have everyone Back Row, but eh that is boring.

I have really come to hate chests in FF games.  Opening up a chest you have done 3 encounters and walked through a damage panel or two to get to and getting "Echo Grass" makes me want to punch a designer in the face.

Persona 4 - Up to Kanji dungeon.  Was going to swear about Contrarian King but realised Rampage was a limit move.  Then the time I Defended after Diamond Shield to survive it Chie dodge like both hits of it and lived as well, so hey, that was nice.  Then nearly missed the Suzaku Feather afterwards because the game assumes you know something will have appeared to search.  Because just making the boss drop the special item would be fucking lame.  Getting it with SOS feature is silly though.  200+ SP pool for Yukiko.  Okay she can regen 7 SP minimum each fight.  Seems fair (no it isn't).

Kind of not digging Normal mode.  It is making the dungeon parts the least fun parts of the game.  Not because they are hard but because it makes me want to fuck around and regen SP to save up money which is probably making my OCD brain make the game way grindier than it should be.  I have a problem and it kind of ruins these games.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on December 31, 2012, 03:26:23 PM
FF13 AKA ROGUE BELLPEPPER INVASION - Just began C6, where I take a look at Vanille's enormous penis my controllable Saboteur and get the feeling of a sunshiny day. This game is actually a ton of fun, guys!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on December 31, 2012, 05:23:33 PM
Gref, you would agree that Handsome Jack in BL2 is a complex reference to Diamond Dogs, right? It makes a lot of sense.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on December 31, 2012, 07:22:23 PM
Persona 4 - Up to Kanji dungeon.  Was going to swear about Contrarian King but realised Rampage was a limit move.  Then the time I Defended after Diamond Shield to survive it Chie dodge like both hits of it and lived as well, so hey, that was nice.  Then nearly missed the Suzaku Feather afterwards because the game assumes you know something will have appeared to search.  Because just making the boss drop the special item would be fucking lame.  Getting it with SOS feature is silly though.  200+ SP pool for Yukiko.  Okay she can regen 7 SP minimum each fight.  Seems fair (no it isn't).

Kind of not digging Normal mode.  It is making the dungeon parts the least fun parts of the game.  Not because they are hard but because it makes me want to fuck around and regen SP to save up money which is probably making my OCD brain make the game way grindier than it should be.  I have a problem and it kind of ruins these games.

That problem tends to happen only in the early game though. I got through the entire save SP phase a bit easier by using more physical attacks between Yu, Yosuke and Chie. Rampage is good for random sweeping, and Yu can pick it up on some early personas as well. It's also easier now to get surprise attacks on enemies and that extra free turn helps to save SP too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 31, 2012, 07:36:46 PM
Devil May Cry - Beat Nelo Angelo 2 (not too bad thanks to two green orbs in the arena, thanks game!), now on Griffon 2 who at least is kinda fragile for a DMD boss. When you can hit him.

KIU - Still knocking down achievements and trying to get better at the game so I can tackle the really high intensities. I've beaten most stages on 6 or 7 now, and everything on 5, but 9 crushes me into fine powder.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 31, 2012, 07:49:15 PM
OMD2- Five skulled all but the last two DLC stages in the Yeti pack. Those... those will be a problem. I hate goblin sappers on levels normally reserved for Shion.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on December 31, 2012, 07:52:14 PM
Theatrhythm:  Unlocked Aerith, Ashe, and Minwe.  Grinding FMS in Challenge mode to speed-level people because Bartz is stupidly good at FMS

Find Mii:  Slowly working my way through this, mostly with play coins.  Did manage to tag 3 people at the movie theater.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 31, 2012, 09:42:50 PM
You are a crazy man Rob but Imcan totally see it.

Lke I said Tide it is a problem eith me and not the game.. I know enough in advance to have like 20 TaP Soda in my inventory and some Soul tomatoes as well.  Not to mention the unnecessary grinding leads to a healthier supply of Soul items from chests.. If i would ju st spend the resources I was given i would be having more fun.

I would note that the arbitrary nature of Soul Soda and the tomatoes can fuck right off, but that is the shit Persona 3 pulled as well soqq more Grefter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on December 31, 2012, 10:39:27 PM
FF13 - Middle of chapter 7. I never thought I'd say this, but there is -one- thing I hate about Snow, and it's called his gameplay. Argh, hate controlling him so much.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on December 31, 2012, 10:46:35 PM
Quote
KIU - Still knocking down achievements and trying to get better at the game so I can tackle the really high intensities. I've beaten most stages on 6 or 7 now, and everything on 5, but 9 crushes me into fine powder.

This makes me feel alot better about my ability at the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on December 31, 2012, 10:52:10 PM
The 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation EPISODE 3 THE GAIA SAVIOR (Cool Popped Collar Bro): People came back from demon golem land, sans Masaki and crew, so now Excellen is the only one with over 50 kills because I make good life decisions or something.  Some very rude guests showed up, then the game decided now for something different again so a manloli decided he wanted to be overpowered and then a couple dudes decided to go to the Antarctic.

Oh yeah Kusuha decided she wanted to spam ALL attacks all day but who cares about her.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on December 31, 2012, 11:49:26 PM
Bastion: Replayed a little of this on a whim based off something Grefter said in chat. This game is still Fucking Awesome.

I somehow managed to miss parts of the narration before (volume problems before?) so it's even better now.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 01, 2013, 01:16:31 AM
Quote
KIU - Still knocking down achievements and trying to get better at the game so I can tackle the really high intensities. I've beaten most stages on 6 or 7 now, and everything on 5, but 9 crushes me into fine powder.

This makes me feel alot better about my ability at the game.

It was a great victory when I reached the intensity 9 gate (only one in the game) in Thanatos' stage. It's riiight after the air battle section, and I died as soon as I opened the gate and walked in, but I reached it, damnit! (And yes, the game gives you credit for this.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 01, 2013, 03:06:09 AM
2nd OGs: Finished up EX, and not a moment too soon. Not that the Masoukishin segments were terrible, but they were definitely starting to get old. And now I have Garmraid and Aile Chevalier (<3 Drumfire), which are awesome. On a gameplay note, holy crap Maximum Break is brutal when you've got three good supporters to use it with.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 01, 2013, 04:46:49 AM
Devil Survivor 2: Finished.
I have unlocked achievements.

I liked the general approach of the game: A lot of enemies hide a few tricks, but winning without knowing about them is entirely possible, and they're not nearly as unfair as FE's reinforcements. Lose the battle, and you have some more knowledge the next time you play, and have a higher chance of success. I think Devil Survivor 1 did some of that too but it was more annoying than anything?

The communism vs liberals thing was cute but got absolutely nowhere in my ending. I think most people would avoid Yamato or Ricardo on their own the first time? Nice roleplaying guys choose Daichi, other people choose Al. I appreciate the idea of introducing kids to the concept though.
It was very similar (same battle system, engine, graphics) but different from Devil Survivor 1, like Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment. I like both games. Modern SMT hasn't failed me yet. (EDIT: EXCEPT THAT MMORPG)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on January 01, 2013, 07:22:12 AM
The communism vs liberals thing was cute but got absolutely nowhere in my ending. I think most people would avoid Yamato or Ricardo on their own the first time? Nice roleplaying guys choose Daichi, other people choose Al. I appreciate the idea of introducing kids to the concept though.

That's my kneejerk as well. Yamato felt clearly to me as the Law aligned choice, while Ricardo was the Chaos aligned choice with Daichi being Neutral. So to implement that alignment, I think they went towards the extreme ends to portray those characters, which really doesn't sit well I think with most people. Yamato was an asshole and Ricardo wasn't much better. I chose Daichi's so I could get all the PCs recruited at the end, but I know CK chose Al as well.

Glad to know that you enjoyed it. It's a fun little game. Not perfect, but I think the game play is surprisingly closely knit. Story telling could use a little work, but I think they got across what they needed to.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on January 01, 2013, 08:59:49 AM
The communism vs liberals thing was cute but got absolutely nowhere in my ending. I think most people would avoid Yamato or Ricardo on their own the first time? Nice roleplaying guys choose Daichi, other people choose Al. I appreciate the idea of introducing kids to the concept though.

Instead of the whole Yamato vs. Ricardo, I am more surprised at the Al route. When is the last time we see a benign deity in a SMT?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 01, 2013, 10:12:37 AM
Have there ever been benign deities in SMT? The Velvet Room people maybe? If they count as deities...

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon: Beat this. Final team was Marth, Merric, and a bevy of pegasi. Caeda was MVP for the whole frickin' game. Triangle Attack saw a lot of use. Grounded all my pegasi for the ballista chapters. Est made a surprisingly effective mage in my run. Lost a few units but didn't care enough to reset. Also didn't care enough to kill off half the team to get any of the Gaiden chapters, though they look boring anyway.

Game is literally the worst Fire Emblem game ever, losing a lot of the polish of FE9/10 and instead adding reclassing as its only redeeming feature. Unfortunately, even reclassing doesn't save it because it's terribly implemented, even if conceptually sound.

I may give FE2 a whorl next, since apparently it actually takes place in the same continuity and has some crossover characters (at least the Pegasus Sisters and Camus, there may be others?). It's apparently horrible, but there's always hacking~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Idun on January 01, 2013, 02:37:22 PM
So this may OHKO chatters accustomed to my 97% non-game chat, but I am playing:

Code Princess, almost done with three characters at this point. Game loses major points for a sucky framerate and too much lag, though it doesn't put you in a bad position when fighting characters during normal plot events. 3DS

Kingdom Hearts 358/2, replaying the last few days (mmm, maybe 5 hours or so), since I popped DDD in and needed a refresher. Opted to not just read a wiki.

Kingdom Hearts DDD, just started, assuming pokéhearts'll get wacked out stats.

Xenoblade, about 16 hours in, liking the game so far, still getting very overwhelmed with quests. They bring in a lot of dough, but I just don't have time. Wondering now if the game is easily playable without doing such now. Anyone?

Resonance of Fate, 8 hours in. OK. So, I .. I think I'll leave the rant for this game later, but someone explain to me how fucking -dumb- it is to have a CHARACTER THAT CAN'T KILL ANYONE, even at the beginning despite battles going by swiftly. I'm recalling a pretty annoying mech battle that meant having him take shelter, Hero action, take shelter, Hero action, take shelter, and then put my two characters in and out. Sort of lame, waiting on an attachment that lets his damage actually turn into real damage and not scratch. . . I'm hoping. I could just google it. I DO like the hex exploration for maps though, perdy cool.

I haven't picked up TLS since I picked up Xenoblade. ]=

I have to get my gaming in before Janaury 14, then my life is over again. I may try to do the portable gaming, since it's cold and I refuse to bike on ice.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on January 01, 2013, 05:30:20 PM
Most of the DL seems to like Resonance of Fate for some reason; I think it's the worst thing tri-Ace has ever created.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on January 02, 2013, 05:17:29 AM
Darksiders: this game is literally western Wind Waker, except better because Wind Waker isn't very good
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on January 02, 2013, 06:47:11 AM
Most of the DL seems to like Resonance of Fate for some reason; I think it's the worst thing tri-Ace has ever created.

They created Pedophile Pandering Girl and the Underage Thai Prostitute Cat.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on January 02, 2013, 07:00:17 AM
Darksiders: this game is literally western Wind Waker, except better because Wind Waker isn't very good

So what replaces the sailing?

Re: RoF - there were a lot of DL people that liked this? Really? As far as I can count, it's mainly me and Eph. Eph liked it because he could play as Rob. I liked it because I got to shoot some dudes. Everyone else I haven't heard from. Oh well, I guess Rob found it okay too I guess? That hardly constitutes to "everyone" though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 02, 2013, 07:04:58 AM
I stopped playing it because it was clunky as fuck and had no idea of pacing or what curves looked like when designing difficulty.  Still better than SO4 though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on January 02, 2013, 07:23:37 AM
It was pretty uneven but it did some interesting things. Armor as an extra health bar with sectional facings is an interesting idea that more ARPGs should look at. The basic ideas, by and large, were pretty good, they just needed to be executed wih more finesse. Also I made a gun with five barrels that all pointed straight up.

I don't really remember anything about the plot because I didn't get to the end and havent played in forever but I liked how it's plot wasn't all up its own ass. Like Gref said, it's streets ahead of SO4.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on January 02, 2013, 02:55:11 PM
OMD2- Five skulled Chilled caverns on Nightmare.  Finesse? Planning? Hell naw. I used a Paladin zerg rush, stone, and boom barrels at the start of each enemy spawn point, with a few archers to handle fliers/Kobolds.  What made this level so insane was the tough par time (13 minutes, it is the only time in OMD I have felt the par time was very difficult to reach) and the Goblin sappers making a normal kill box worthless. I loved the new trinkets that game with the Yeti DLC, but the stages were too hard.  I have yet to five skull the hive, and am not too interested in doing so. Fuck I hate goblin sappers so much.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 02, 2013, 03:39:19 PM
Chiming in with some love for RoF. It's not the best thing ever, but it was certainly -different-, and bullet-time was fun. The characters were pretty funny when PLOT wasn't going on. The PLOT is kind of a trainwreck, not so much because the actual events are bad, but said events are not linked together in a coherent manner and you have to infer what happens between everything... and there's some pretty big gaps. Not really plot holes, more like "Wait, did I miss an episode?" moments.

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade: Found out this came out on iPhone last month. It is free to download. It is a facebook game basically. It's the first facebook game I've ever played for more than 10 minutes, so I suppose it's pretty good?

Running a Red Mage, and I finally got a Super Rare Weapon. Unfortunately, it is one of FF13-2 Noel's Sora's weapons.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on January 02, 2013, 04:05:52 PM
Also I made a gun with five barrels that all pointed straight up.

I spent more time adding barrels, scopes, and mags on my guns than actually playing the game.

Even after playing Resonance of Fate and Star Ocean 4, Valkyrie Profile is still the worst tri-ace game.  I never played Star Ocean SNES, but I'm guessing it would take the title.

Oh yeah, games.

Finished FE12.  It's better than Shadow Dragon because you can put hats on your self insert character.   I don't remember who I used in my party.  Marth, My Unit, and bunch of flying units.  I got bored with the last few chapters I used the Warp staff to finish the map in one turn.  I think I gave up recruiting people after Tiki.  I think I know why Shadow Dragon made you kill off your own units,  you just don't care about them in the end.

Toyko Jungle was on sale, so I had to get it.  I feel bad that I didn't play it sooner but it wasn't worth dusting off the PS3.   No wait, it was.  Pomeranian best protagonist 2012.  Although I do not understand why you would not play a predator.  I tried the deer but I died to rabbits.  Dogs 2 shot rabbits. Unlock more dogs.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 02, 2013, 04:10:48 PM
So what replaces the sailing?

Punching treasure chests.

2nd OGs: Ran around fighting random enemy grunts, got Trombe back, Jesus Christ that thing is unfair, and now I've got most of the team back together. On a water level with a time-limited SR point, because this game is nothing if not incredibly trollish.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 02, 2013, 04:13:21 PM
Darksiders: this game is literally western Wind Waker, except better because Wind Waker isn't very good

So what replaces the sailing?

Flying on a Griffon, shooting down some angels.


...yes, you only do this once, but that's more than is necessary!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on January 02, 2013, 07:36:19 PM
Star Ocean 1 is less "bad" than it is "just totally broken."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 03, 2013, 12:35:38 AM
FF13 AKA WHAT THE HELL ARE US WRITERS SUPPOSED TO - *Boom.* - Yeah, so it all went to hell for good. C11, killing beasts in the Calm Lands Ashlyte Steppe for shiny CP because 6000 CP per ability is fucking overpriced, mang. I really like this game, but goddamn I haven't seen writing this bad at least since Grandia 3. And I'm pretty sure this is worse. It's fun to go "what the flying fuck" at, at least.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on January 03, 2013, 01:40:12 AM
Did Grandia 3 expect you to discover plot-relevant information by reading an in-game glossary?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 03, 2013, 01:50:16 AM
Grandia 3 had information?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on January 03, 2013, 01:51:23 AM
No, but it did expect you to take a villain whose biggest claim to fame is hawking a loogie on a camera as a serious threat to your well being.  I'm torn as to whether anything in FFXIII did quite so much to stretch credulity.  Probably did, but I can't say I can place such a moment.  Speechifying on the 'symbolism' of Hope's name doesn't quite get there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 03, 2013, 01:56:57 AM
Fake out suicide of the best character in the cast half way through the game for no goddamned reason at all that never gets addressed or explained what the shit.

Teleporting planes around because ?!?!??!?!?!?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on January 03, 2013, 02:00:29 AM
Fake out suicide of the best character in the cast half way through the game for no goddamned reason at all that never gets addressed or explained what the shit.

That goes past normal failure into actually offensive, so yeah I'd agree with that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on January 03, 2013, 05:12:53 AM
Final Fantasy IV -Interlude- Yeah meeple's year end got me thinking this was shorter than I thought, so hacked through it just to clear it off the backlog.  Not really worth mentioning in any respect, although I gotta say Cecil/Edge/Porom/Palom/Rydia is a fun last party at least.  But figured I'd leave a record of it for future reference or something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on January 03, 2013, 06:02:54 AM
So what replaces the sailing?

Punching treasure chests.

2nd OGs: Ran around fighting random enemy grunts, got Trombe back, Jesus Christ that thing is unfair, and now I've got most of the team back together. On a water level with a time-limited SR point, because this game is nothing if not incredibly trollish.

Well, they need a reason to make terrain accessories not useless.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 03, 2013, 08:48:12 AM
Fake out suicide of the best character in the cast half way through the game for no goddamned reason at all that never gets addressed or explained what the shit.

That definitely is one of the biggest, stupidest things in the game. But if I started going off on how deeply FF13 fails in amazingly inventive and mind-boggling ways, I'd need a bottle of whiskey and an actual desktop to begin.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 03, 2013, 10:47:16 AM
Persona 4 - "We weren't able to stop the kidnapping even knowing who the vitcim was and that detective was no help at all."

(http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/characters/13/89632.jpg)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on January 03, 2013, 11:24:14 AM
Fake out suicide of the best character in the cast half way through the game for no goddamned reason at all that never gets addressed or explained what the shit.

That definitely is one of the biggest, stupidest things in the game. But if I started going off on how deeply FF13 fails in amazingly inventive and mind-boggling ways, I'd need a bottle of whiskey and an actual desktop to begin.

There's also that his suicidal ideation was cured by giving him a low-rider he could do donuts in.  If he'd found a bucket of fried chicken he could smoke crack out of, it would have been like a totally straight-faced version of Eat Dat Watermelon (http://youtu.be/b7nQ4_1VW9s).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on January 03, 2013, 11:04:34 PM
Darksiders: that dragon is the wussiest thing ever, one horseback slash and he falls over entirely. Well it's better than Wind Waker since it doesn't take forever and has enemies who do more than 5% damage. New Zelda tier list is

Okami > Zelda LttP > Zelda Link's Awakening =~ Darksiders > Zelda OoT > Okamiden > Zelda Wind Waker

Trine 2: The prettiest physics platformer ever, let's get rid of the rest and keep this one
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on January 03, 2013, 11:39:19 PM
The 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation EPISODE 3 THE GAIA SAVIOR (Welp We've Stepped In It Now Havent We): Suddenly, an army of pilotless ninja robots.  This game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on January 04, 2013, 06:02:25 AM
Orcs Must Die 2- Nightmare, manaless run. Rules are straight forward: I can't use mana.  I am resetting if I lose any rift points, though I am not if I go over on par time. This is much harder than it sounds. No thunder storm to control crowds, no wind belt/void wall action, no guardian revival (This one hurts, it'd be easy to spam guardians and just revive them after every wave otherwise). The only trinket I can use the active skill on is the rift defender trinket, which has been very useful.  I'm a little over halfway through.  I am using the Warmage, as he is very well suited to this. Oh man is Tar godlike. Anyway.  Notable levels:

Big Valleys- Had a couple of resets here. Kobold sappers are extremely dangerous here due to sniping guardians. I end up using a lot of dwarves to handle the earth lords.


Hidden gulch-
Loadout: Crossbow,  Spore Mushrooms, Archers, Rift Defender Trinket, Arrow Wall, Guardian Trinket, Tar, Barricades, Healing Trinket, Coin Forge
 
 Waves 2 and 3 are extremely difficult here. Why? Fliers. You have to assign some archers early on to deal with the fliers, which means you have to choose between damage traps and barricades to prevent enemies from escaping. The Armored Ogre in waves 2 and 3 kept kicking my ass. I tried duelling him down- it took forever, and I wasn't good enough with the war hammer to take him down with it. I ended up using a spore mushroom to ID him, then selling it before the next wave.  Once I got past wave 3, it was pretty trivial. I just had to rush forward and kill the Gnoll bombers before they sniped my archers.

Precipice- Loadout: Crossbow, Tar, Archers, Barricades, Flame Scorcher, Guardian Trinket, Arrow Wall, Boom Barrels, Healing Trinket,  Rift Defender Trinket

This fucking level. >_<  Three things are killing me in this challenge:  Gnolls, Fliers, and Kobold Sappers.  Fliers cannot be reasonably killed with traps and physical attacks. So you have to use Archers. Archers get vaporized by Gnolls, so you have to figure out a way to deal with them. Wave 3 has a lot of Gnolls. But wait! You can't ice or wind them, you can't charm them and you sure as hell can't revive your archers. Argh. I got past the Gnolls with a cute spring/void wall setup, and promptly got slaughtered by the heavies in wave 4.  I scrap the void wall setup, and go with what got me through the yeti DLC. Clearing Chilled Caverns required heavy use of boom barrels. Boom Barrels also more or less kill Gnolls in a single attack. Four of them will kill even a Mountain Troll. They replace magic as your crowd control/heavy killer in this run.  I take out the fliers in wave 2 without archers on the left side, boom barrel the gnolls in wave 3, and use boom barrels to snipe heavies as need be. The run is pretty easy once you get past the gnoll threat, just getting to that point sucked.

Passages- I had about a dozen resets. It was just a matter of finding the right mix of flame traps/archers/tar/arrows for the first few waves.  The insane number of sappers on the level means that barricades are out. I end up going heavier on the flame traps than archers early. Boom barrels kill any gnolls that get to close (And the rift defender trinket can buy me a few seconds if the horde is closing in on my guardians)

I am getting much higher scores than normal, since I am comboing instead of smashing things with magic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 04, 2013, 06:20:25 AM
Romancing Saga 3: Been a while! It's great to see this game now. I understand why I was really frustrated with it before; it feels unfinished as hell. (with an unfinished translation to go along with it) Too many damn cities, not enough dungeons, not enough mages early game. I've already missed two quests, checking a faq. Still awesome.

Party is:
Harid. Black main in a JRPG. Also, the man.
Ellen: Of all the people in the classic band of teenagers you see earlygame, Ellen stands out by having 4 times more damage with her giant goddamn axe than anyone else (including the official generic main character with green hair and a sword) Ellen rocks.
Fat Robin: Screwdriver is terrifying (very effective on women), I almost feel bad about using him. Best damage though. I gave him the badass rapier I stole from Mikhail.
Thomas: I can pretend I have a mage in the team!! (Also: Business minigame. AKA: Hostile takeover minigame)
Poet: He's a level 99 Bard. LVP.



Strange Journey No Fusion: Went back to this. Fifth stratum. After something like Devil Survivor 2, I can definitely say that this is the real deal.
Anyway I haven't had a demon with healing in a while... I don't know how I'm going to deal with the boss here. Might have to relegate the main character to a healing role and stock up on items.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 04, 2013, 05:15:54 PM
2nd OGs: Acquired Blanche Neige, Flickerei Geist, Exbein Ashe, and RyuJinKi, reunited the team after beating up some Ruina. The cast of the game is looking a lot fresher now. Actually had a reset against Kukuru and her cronies on the first half of the RyuJinKi stage, after it proved somewhere between PITA and impossible to kill everything in three turns without splitting up my twins. (My precious PP! Gone!)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 05, 2013, 01:11:07 AM
Final Fantasy 13, AKA Ciatos The Ice Cream Pope Chews On Scenery - There was a lot of running, screaming, bullets, tortoises and absolutely nonsensical single bullet shooting with a Gatling Gun. Then Lightning started jammin' with a keytar sword.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 05, 2013, 04:46:55 AM
The Ice Cream Pope approves.

SO4 - My gay elf friend is wearing a black cloak, I fear for the survival of the obnoxious child character who hates him. That would be the best.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on January 05, 2013, 09:36:05 AM
Oh she doesn't really hate him. Neither does he her. It's just ... well you'll see.

Snow you can get 40'000+ CPs if you kill the larger tortoise via summon + debuff spam + Vanille's Death  :) Shiiiiiiny~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on January 05, 2013, 09:57:35 AM
Virtue's Last Reward - played through, completely

Highly enjoyable, albeit a little too convoluted towards the end.

Issues:
- Game crashed with an error window and returned to desktop at one point. Fortuitously this happened shortly after saving, so not much was lost. The same thing happened once while I was playing Paper Mario so maybe there's a problem with the 3DS itself, which would be an unhappy situation.
- Game locked up once during the Archives, and had to be killed manually. I had saved at the start of that area so didn't need to replay too much, but still galling.
- Text layout is broken in several areas. Sometimes this is just a case of text seeming to have a manual newline one word after an automatic newline, so
you
get sentences that display like this; sometimes this is just a case of the text overrunning the bottom of the dialogue box. Both of those look bad but have no functional problems - but a couple of times (only remember this happening in secret files) you get text which runs off the bottom of the screen, and I wasn't able to find any way of scrolling it or anything, so you just can't see the rest of it.
- Sigma is much more of a dick on some paths than he is on others (disregarding the pathsplitting mechanism in itself). The most obvious being the Archives path. I found it fairly aggravating, especially since I seemed to get all the problem paths after having played most of the non-problem paths.

They need to bring 999 out on the eShop or something now, seeing as how we didn't get it over here.



Little Inferno - played through

Fairly enjoyable, although it gets a bit slow later on. Sure, you can use stamps to speed things up, but there are only so many and they don't last that long when you're using them on things which require 6-8 of them. I want to say that I had been capped on stamps for a while before that point so it would have been a little better if they allowed for hundreds of stamps instead of tens of them.

Ended up missing four combos, which were TIMBER, Diseased, Yellow Brick Road, and I forget the other one. It was some other three-item combo. Anyway, I was out of stamps and couldn't be bothered dealing with the delays any more.

I don't really have an opinion on the game's message. Too oblivious for that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on January 05, 2013, 12:40:33 PM
Important query to those who know a lot about the lands of Marios - am I more a Daisy or a Peach? Or just <(^^)>

I will be playing it this weekend Idun once I find my DS/DS charger (I have a vague idea where the DS is, will probably have to hunt for the charger and stylus if I need it though) *randomtackleglomphugs*  :)

Thank you and Ciatos for the gift (=, I still have to post in the Christmas thread about it and all the other wonderful gifts I received from peeps ^_^ Also I posted a picture of myself holding it and other stuffs earlier in the week because I'm a goof~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on January 05, 2013, 02:55:25 PM
Disgaea 4 end game. That bad ass overlord is 1HKO'ing my max leveled peoples! Perhaps I should get multiple thieves so steal from him quicker. Up until his figt, I have not had much of a problem with the post game battles. I want to try and get all the titles for this game, but after beating it and pumping upteen hours into the game I only have around 20% of them unlocked. Le'sigh~

Pokemon Conquest - Fun, but game has issues.

Seriously the game has a lot of strong points, but man is the lay out frustrating. Accessing the menus, equipment, and team management could have been a lot easier. I'm in the post game and just got my first legendary! I am in a story where the last remaining country has never attempted to take over any of my countries, so that allows me the freedom to grind! Currently I am trying to find as many perfect matches with everyone possible and get some warlord evolutions in the process as well.

It's also a shame that some of the last evolutions for some of my favorite pokemon have serious range issues!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 05, 2013, 06:54:45 PM
SO4 - I've seen this plot twist before... in SO3...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on January 06, 2013, 12:38:50 AM
The 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation EPISODE 3 THE GAIA SAVIOR (Now With More Juvenile Delinquents): Midgame pathsplit done with, I am now apparently on the long slow path to acquiring swag.  Also apparently I cocked up getting a secret that I don't actually care about at all.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 06, 2013, 01:21:45 AM
DMC DMD mode - Beat my head against all three of Griffon's appearances (the third being the hardest boss in the game yet), but they've all fallen. Grenades solve everything. Next up, the long reacquainting process with my dear friend Nightmare, now more badass than on other difficulties. someone kill me now
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 06, 2013, 05:25:33 AM
Romancing SaGa 3: Bought every company in the world except two in Yamas.
I believe I have about 25 000 000 000 SaGa dollars.

I completed the treasure caves, looted the Harid only dungeon while running the hell away from the boss, and went to the Moses well. The necromancer guarding the Devil King Shield was an intense fight:
- He summons around one enemy per turn and most couldn't even be killed in one turn by my team.
- My only long range options were terribad Thomas with Squall, Spirit Stone items and Ellen tomahawking.
I barely won (I had 10 Spirit Stones lying around, and Ellen > The rest), and then fought Volcano & Undine who were completely out of my league. Undine 2HKOed most of the team with freaking Squall.
Fortunately Ellen just used Dimensional Cut and they both died. lol
Ellen. rocks.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/01/1357450279-elencarson.png)

This isn't red eyeshadow. This is blood.

Anyway I replaced Thomas with Undine and she's overpowered right now. Best HP too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 06, 2013, 04:51:05 PM
Lego Batman 2: Completed the main game!

Ok, so the whole "play as other DC heroes!" thing barely applies to the main game, which I guess explains why it's specifically "Lego Batman 2" and not like "Lego Justice League."  First half of the game is pretty much entirely Batman/Robin, Superman pops up and you get to use him for a while, and only in the final stage do Green Lantern AND Cyborg show up, with just enough time to get use to what they can do!

Final boss gives you Flash and Wonder Woman too, and they're pretty much useless because you have no clue what their controls are (turns out Flash is just "runs fast" and Wonder Woman is basically Batman with Flight and Super Strength...yeah, lazy done character there), and fight just asks for...everyone else you're using (well, ok, Flash has best mobility so good at evading final bosses attacks, but he's never necessary.)

THANKFULLY, there's a lot of aftergame content to mess around with it seems, and you get a lot of characters to use there, so I guess all is good.


I did get a chance to see, in a brief glimpse of one of the new features, what Hawkman and Green Arrow can do.  Both...are kind of meh.  Hawkman seems identical to Wonder Woman (for combat anyway), Green Arrow is just kind of really bad though maybe that has to do wtih the fight he was set up for being bad (plus solo stuff, game is usually you + ally, so maybe he works better with a partner.)


That said, nice simple fun game, gets better when Superman pops in because before that it's "keep doing stuff until can't progress, find new suit for Batman/Robin, use new suit, move on."  Superman of course is kind of overpowered; this doesn't shock me, but I didn't expect them to make him literally unkillabe to everything if Kryptonite doesn't exist; I figured that would be one power they'd have left out just because it's silly, but nope, it's there!  So yes, this is probably the most accurate representation of Superman in a video game yet!  Cyborg was kind of disappointing but I guess I was expecting a little too much there; Green Lantern was disappointing at first because his Ring is just "quick beam shot" but then I saw the Green Block Manipulation thing and how creative the game got there and all was good.

I think the game's strongest point, really, beyond it's content, is just the way it handles the plot.  It's got a straight faced "Lex Luthor and Joker try to take over the world!" style plot, only at the same time, played tongue and cheek.  Of course, Mark Hamil's Joker never hurts the situation, the way Batman basically handles the plot all Super Serious while everyone else gives a sense of having fun with it is a hilarious contrast and somehow extremely fitting of Batman.  This game would definitely not have worked with the old style "mumble dialog" that Lego Indiana Jones used, because original story using established characters instead of parodying well known stories.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 06, 2013, 09:53:25 PM
ELLEN SMASH

Axe skills are the terror of the early-midgame indeed. Ellen is good for being capable enough at axes and, if you care? Build her as a martial artist too for amazing endgame smash. She's quietly one of the most solid PCs in the game and requires no fancies to make work. Grab her, use her, love her. She's like my second-most used PC.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 07, 2013, 12:12:32 AM
FF13 - THE QUEEN IS DEAD LONG LIVE THE LESBIANS HOT SKITTY ON WAILORD ACTION

So, yeah, beaten. An amazingly tight battle design with excellent fights and great pacing in battles marred by egregious plot-gameplay integration done sketchily and egregious, EGREGIOUS writing. Still, holy fuck the gameplay was so cool in spite of the auto-piloting. Probably a 7/10.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 07, 2013, 03:28:48 AM
Who's your most used RS3 character?

I don't know endgame that much since I've started the game 176 times and finished it once. I can't see Ellen getting uncool though. She just surpassed Undine's damage by learning Dynamic Hit in Muse's dream, she deals 1200 damage with it.
Fat Robin hasn't learned anything better than Screwdriver (which is still pretty good) and Poet has been nothing but a disappointment. I'd replace him with Sharl but he is worse than Tatyana about leaving. (and I don't want him to permanently die or anything)

I never really used Sharl before because he can't learn crowns, but now I realize that crowns really aren't anything special. He looks really cool but I don't want to leave Fat robin yet!

I'm using the Desert Lance formation and putting tank Harid on the front. It's working well.

Edit: Couldn't they make the aurora path slightly more obscure? I've changed my mind and have replaced Fat Robin with Snowman. Oh yeah. Poet is not longer the LVP.
Also Undine just soloed the entire Zweig tournament. Um.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 07, 2013, 04:52:36 AM
Fenrir doing games like a good Statistician.  Don't like the results?  Skew the scale with transformation of data or pollute the source data.

Middle Manager of Justice - Double Fine made a free mobile casual game.  Has all the normal trappings of things take time, you can speed them up by spending currency you earn in game or pay2win.  Also has the cheap buy me if you want to play the game balanced better like we were making a $2 game item.

I bought the $2 item because Diuble Fine can take my money (greftarispay2winloser).  It doubles the secondary currency you earn, so is kind of nust grind reducing.  The game is silly but fun way to piss away some time.  Certainly better than the Square Enix one I tried that played itself and pretty much blatantly is pay to even be worth bothering with.

If the idea of franchised Super Hero teams in a comedy setting interests you and you play casual portable games it is worth a look.

Edit - Just realized the DL might not widely know that is a trope.  Well it is. Think Incredibles where it was their day jobs to be heroes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 07, 2013, 06:47:04 PM
SO4 - There's trouble in paradise. Just killed Tamil, who was a respectable boss. Last dungeon was pretty fun with its cute little puzzles.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on January 07, 2013, 07:49:57 PM
Map: Crunch
Loadout: Blunderbuss, Boom barrel, Archers, Decoy, trap trinket, guardian trinket, Tar trap, arrows, coin forge, flame scorcher

Strategy: I had a fuck of a lot of resets on this map, most I had in the game. There are two immediate problems here. A: The sheer number of heavies on the map will overwhelm even Paladins in seconds. B: There are four rifts and no central choke point until the rifts. I tried various setups and got overwhelmed by wave 4 every time. You have no magic ot control the horde and that really hurts.

I used Decoys on a lark and cleared it fairly quickly. The trick is to set up a Coin Forge/trap section in the long hallways that your archers can reach. This slows down the waves starting from the top of the level nicely. You can set up a similiar trick near the acid pits by the rifts for the other two gates. The trick is to invest a lot of coins in the decoys and make sure each one has a decoy up by the start of each wave. The decoys massively slow down the waves, that gives your archers more time to handle the heavies. Boom barrels were as usual invaluable for handling heavies that got close to the rift. I three skulled this map and was happy with it. At this point in the challenge I dropped the five skull requirement, since I was getting quite enough challenge just surviving.

This and upstairs downstairs were *extremely* unpleasant. More than anything else, lots of ways for the enemy to go is bad news. Whoof.

Map: Mirror Image

Loadout: Crossbow (Fire), Boom Barrel, Archers, Decoy, Guardian Trinket, Rift Trinket, Spore Mushrooms, Dart Spitter, Coin Forge, Floor Scorcher

Strategy: Pretty standard. The first few waves were hell thanks to no magic, but spore decoys handled the fucking trolls and the decoy/coin forge/dart spitter kill box more or less made the  main sections managable. I lost a few rift points here, but mostly managed the map okay. The lack of heavies here was a nice change of pace!

Map:  Wind up

Loadout: Crossbow (Fire), Boom Barrel, Barricade, Guardian Trinket, Rift Trinket, Dwarves, Dart Spitter, Tar, Floor Scorcher, Arrow Wall

Strategy: This is as easy as lategame maps get. I barricaded up the rift, set up one kill box with dwarves on the bottom. I set up a bunch of traps upstairs as well, since the majority of enemies come from that way. I three skulled this due to a glitchy barricade, but five skulling it would be pretty doable otherwise. I high recommend throwaway barricades on the last few waves for the sappers.

Map: Twisted halls
Loadout: Crossbow, Boom Barrel, Archers, Guardian Trinket, Rift Trinket, Haymakers, Tar, Grinder, Floor Scorcher, Barricade

I set up a grinder killbox near the first set of stairs, then just spammed flame traps and tar near the main ones. I hit the guardian limit here- my archers kept getting sniped by cyclops and Gnoll hunters. Wave 12 involved jumping down to where the cyclops come out and spamming boom barrels to kill them and the goblin shamans- so worth it, those fucking assholes would have killed the Archers I had set up to deal with the fliers. I barely five skulled this- I was seven seconds from the par time and barely killed the last few enemies with boom barrels before they hit the rift. Oh yeah. Haymakers near where the fliers spawn? A good idea for the last few waves ,since thunder bats are very good at killing archers.

This challenge was frustrating at points, but was still fun. It says something that the hardest, most obnoxious level (Upstairs downstairs) is one that is cake normally on nightmare, and that one was still easier than Chilled caverns. Fuck Chilled caverns so much.

I may run the classic levels with this setup, but I strongly suspect that only the finale and the squeeze (oh god, tons of heavies and fliers) would be challenging.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 07, 2013, 10:46:37 PM
Who's your most used RS3 character?

Katrina. <_____________< I always use her as my main, the offensive stat spread is just too good and she's the only speedster who has proficiency in greatswords, making her the prime candidate for the Ice Sword.

Quote from: Fenrir
I don't know endgame that much since I've started the game 176 times and finished it once. I can't see Ellen getting uncool though. She just surpassed Undine's damage by learning Dynamic Hit in Muse's dream, she deals 1200 damage with it.

Endgame techs for axes aren't so much about the damage (Sky Diver is very useful for the stat busting, though), and the weapon type's best damage skill is on a midgame weapon (Yo-yo on the Francisca. Spam that Tomahawk! You could try Orbit Borer too, but that's crazy hard to learn on a lategame weapon), mitigating the offensive potential some. But they're still plenty viable at the end - I've used Ellen a lot as a pure axewoman and she doesn't disappoint. It's just that holy crap the midgame gamut of axe skills is just amazing. Blade Roll, Dimension Chop and Accel Buster are excellent for the time you learn them.

Quote from: Fenrir
Fat Robin hasn't learned anything better than Screwdriver (which is still pretty good) and Poet has been nothing but a disappointment. I'd replace him with Sharl but he is worse than Tatyana about leaving. (and I don't want him to permanently die or anything)

Kill an Abyss Guardian and then take Poet to a bar and ask him to leave if you don't want to deplete his LP. Meanwhile, Epee techs have issues - after Screwdriver, the first thing better than it you'll learn is Southern Cross, which is quite disappointing. The very last skill, Final Letter, is indeed very good and up to par with stuff like Dragon Inferno, but it's near-impossible to learn. Epee techs are really crap about offense outside it to boot and will be very disappointing at the end.

Quote from: Fenrir
I never really used Sharl before because he can't learn crowns, but now I realize that crowns really aren't anything special. He looks really cool but I don't want to leave Fat robin yet!

I'm using the Desert Lance formation and putting tank Harid on the front. It's working well.

Edit: Couldn't they make the aurora path slightly more obscure? I've changed my mind and have replaced Fat Robin with Snowman. Oh yeah. Poet is not longer the LVP.
Also Undine just soloed the entire Zweig tournament. Um.

You're the bestest. USE SNOWMAN TO KILL AVNAS AW YEAH (kinda serious here)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 07, 2013, 11:46:32 PM
Tierkreis - the characters in this game need to lay off the speed
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on January 07, 2013, 11:59:26 PM
The 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation EPISODE 3 THE GAIA SAVIOR (The Comedy Tour Returns): Mio's back~.  Also Ibis became broken and it's a testament to something that Masaki is still #2 in kills despite missing 27 stages.  On the downside noooo my lightning buzzsaw mech why plot why :(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 08, 2013, 01:35:45 AM
I was warned about this and as a result every time Hugo is set to auto-deploy I swap him to Cerberus just to be safe.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 08, 2013, 02:37:10 AM
Quote from: Fenrir
I never really used Sharl before because he can't learn crowns, but now I realize that crowns really aren't anything special. He looks really cool but I don't want to leave Fat robin yet!

Sharl with the Silver Hand is ridiculously powerful and it's still pretty easy to learn his Spear skills despite his Fire Magic levels. (Also, any excuse to give someone Reviver is a good one!)

Poet needs to Level up his FISTS so his Singing can improve. (I'm 100% serious about this, Everyone's Song buffs more based solely on how strong Poet's Fist Level is.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 08, 2013, 02:42:17 AM
Katrina?? The best and worst answer. Congrats Snow.

Okay, I gave Snowman an epee (Because just about anything sounded better than making this snowman learn kung fu) but I guess a spear would be better.
I assume maces suck too. Half the skills seem to inflict status. No one cares.

Oh and yeah. Blade roll was really nice for the car battle (just not as much as Undine's Thunder Clap) I still haven't learnt that last tech though.


I'm half tempted to try a solo playthrough of this game next, which is largely uncharted territory and doesn't sound at all like a good idea. I guess I'll need sun and... water magic for water ball? Or fire for berserk and reviver? I don't know.
... Mikhail as a main? With uh... Kung fu? Spears?
Terrible idea.


Djinn edit: Woah. It's... still too late for the bard for me. I have lobsters and vampires and elephants waiting in line to potentially replace a bard.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 08, 2013, 07:09:20 AM
Star Ocean 4 - Almost died by being ambushed by zombies and then watched an extremely long scene. This game seems to be fond of its very long scenes. Almost done with Disc 2, it looks like!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Talaysen on January 08, 2013, 07:36:09 PM
Star Ocean 4 - Almost died by being ambushed by zombies and then watched an extremely long scene. This game seems to be fond of its very long scenes. Almost done with Disc 2, it looks like!

At one point my controller turned off so it paused the scene and I thought the game froze.  True story.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 08, 2013, 08:21:53 PM
Same. It has happened twice actually!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 08, 2013, 09:16:08 PM
I'm thoroughly impressed.

EDIT:

Wild ARMs XF - Big screen replay! Gonna try actually using a Sentinel maybe this time around - or at least anti-ZOC. Act 1-16, where the streets have no zombies name.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 08, 2013, 09:59:39 PM
Happened in my play-through too!  star Ocean 4 Abridged pinpoints the exact moment in dialog it happened even!

Playstation All stars: Beat the game with Nathan Drake, and both Coles.

Nathan has good normals but his level 1 super is awkward, and level 2 seems underwhelming.  LEvel 3...SUMMON ANCIENT AZTEC CURSE ON EVERYONE ok, that was fun.

Cole was pretty good overall, Evil Cole was...similar and the things that were different felt universally better.  Uh, yeah, this made me LESS convinced that having 2 Coles was necessary, seeing as their movesets were more similar than I was led to believe, and Evil Cole just felt straight up better for the most part.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on January 08, 2013, 10:40:23 PM
It happened to me a few times especially since for some parts my old XB360 kept causing the game to freeze/crash as well >_> Also happened with Blue Dragon. Then yeah it just does that some bits anyway for S04~

Mario Kart 7- Yaay. There is no Daisy or Kirby in the game so apparently I'm a Peach by default~ Have tried the Balloon pop, coin collect and time trials modes so far, I did the best/had the most fun with at the coin collect ^-^ Having fun though I still have to figure out how to get across gaps and other stuffs~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 08, 2013, 11:55:39 PM
Happened with me in Lost Odyssey too. Possibly FFXIII, I forget. It's fine, just a bit of a "whoa" moment the first time it happens and you're all "oh god did it freeze, wtf no games freeze mid-cutscene".

Yesss another MK7 convert.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on January 09, 2013, 12:29:37 AM
Cole was pretty good overall, Evil Cole was...similar and the things that were different felt universally better.  Uh, yeah, this made me LESS convinced that having 2 Coles was necessary, seeing as their movesets were more similar than I was led to believe, and Evil Cole just felt straight up better for the most part.

Sounds like inFamous 1
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on January 09, 2013, 01:17:43 AM
Star Ocean 4 - Almost died by being ambushed by zombies and then watched an extremely long scene. This game seems to be fond of its very long scenes. Almost done with Disc 2, it looks like!

At one point my controller turned off so it paused the scene and I thought the game froze.  True story.

in any game made to be halfway decent, that would be a sign that your scene needs to be cut down. Fortunately you are playing SO4!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on January 09, 2013, 04:56:23 AM
Soul Nomad - right I play things that aren't robots.  Finished up normal route.  Game rates about a 6 or 7?  Room setup really needed to be handled better and the game could've stood to allow for setting targetting priorities when it was busy deciding it wanted to copy OB combat but still considerably more my thing than Disgaea.  Also has Gig, who makes things better.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NARFNra on January 09, 2013, 06:22:10 AM
FFTA2 - Replaying it after finding it a few months ago. I'm taking missions a bit slower because I like to replay my old favorites, just reached the Three-Way attack from Duelhorn. Considering a challenge of some sort for my next playthrough, 'cuz the game really is too easy.

Kirby Mass Attack - Beat World 4 boss, discovered to my chagrin that in order to enter the final world I need to collect more medals. Thus, procrastination time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 09, 2013, 01:10:02 PM
@Random: Yay! Soul Nomad is good times. Are you going to play Demon Path? It's about a quarter as long as Normal Path.

Wild ARMS XF w/ Snow:
"I don't care if the wind's in my face!" "There's no justice on the battlefield, only in the soldiers' hearts!" "I'm a very capable woman you know!" "I hate lying..."
 * Take one drink every time you hear one of these lines
 * One drink for every time the council is outright being evil in front of the whole world and getting away with it
 * Chug/Finish your drink every time Felius flashbacks remind you that there were spaceships in the Wild wild west
 * Take a very small sip every time someone uses Turn Shift or Rush...

Man guysh, this ish like... teh greatest games evar~! ^_^
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 09, 2013, 06:04:18 PM
SO4 - Dungeons really aren't this game's strong point. Doing Arumat's first dungeon and it is trainwreck city.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 09, 2013, 08:19:02 PM
XF - Late Act 2, where everything turns into rochefort cheese and never lets up. Teaching Djinn the joys of Rush+Devastate is one of the simplest, yet most fulfilling deeds I could possibly do in 2013.

EDIT: Also, I like this game every bit as much as I remembered liking. Did you know Striders with axes actually wipe faces clean? Yeah, neither did I.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 09, 2013, 08:34:28 PM
@Random: Yay! Soul Nomad is good times. Are you going to play Demon Path? It's about a quarter as long as Normal Path.

Yeah, this is highly recommended if you enjoyed the game at all. Soul Nomad's demon path contains some of the most fucked up stuff I've ever seen in a game. When the voice of reason in your party is the child-stealing slaver, something has gone horribly wrong.

Also Prism Beige.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 09, 2013, 08:48:28 PM
And Penn. Just... Penn.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 10, 2013, 01:29:57 AM
Wild Arms XF: Just got to chapter 3, still waiting for the "Ragnar sucks" bomb to drop. So far, his biggest issue is that he's just kinda dull-witted. He (and everyone he talks to by proxy) throws the phrase "Destroy the country" around like it's going out of style. The problem is that they take this phrase to mean something completely different than its standard meaning all the time. Sometimes switching up the intended meaning of the same phrase in the same sentence! Kind of aggravating, but Wild Arms is full of cheesy linguistics like this.

He's also a little slow to let go of his anger, which is a little annoying, but understandable. And at least he doesn't spend too many words actually talking about how emo he is over (death of his family/death of his friends/death of his revenge target/loss of motivation/pick 3). Unlike a certain character from FF13 who I hate with a fiery passion. Conversely, I kind of loved his scene with King Hrathnir, where he gets verbally owned for not understanding his own motivations. It was clearly a growth moment for Ragnar and I liked how it was handled. (Of course, the following scene shows Ragnar being indecisive, but at least that's a change from the single-minded stupidity from before.)

The only thing that I can really see as potentially egregious are his few-and-far-between scenes with Levin talking about women? He's kind of a playboy/jerk, I guess. Honestly, I found it funny. And Levin calls him out on it, so it's not like the game is framing it as a good thing?

Still haven't seen his interactions with Chelle yet, though. So maybe -that's- the big deal?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on January 10, 2013, 01:57:31 AM
I thought Ragnar / Chelle was fine myself.  It was more Ragnar's early scenes that annoyed me, and even then I don't blame him so much as I'll hate on dumb writing + plot hammers.  Ragnar can't be allowed to just explain about the Black Arms; he must storm off in a huff because otherwise we miss out on our chance for TRAGIC FALLEN HEROES or something.  This is blatantly to set the mission up, and I'm willing to cut characters a wee bit of slack when it's obvious that this is a plot-driven rather than character-driven moment.  (This is another case where I'd rather the writers write the heroes as intelligent and perceptive and then come up with a villainous plan that works anyway, which makes me respect both sides more, rather than a rather flimsy plan that works because the writers make them grab the idiot ball.)

This is also where I mention again that the only way that whole plotline makes even a SHRED of sense is for everyone at the fort to try on their sweet new Black Arms simultaneously, since the transformation is instant and the undead aren't really subtle.  If one or two people found some in the rubble, at worst they attempt to go on a berserk killing spree, and everyone else stops and wonders what could have caused that as patients 0 & 1 get beaten down.  They at least show the simultaneousness in the town and own the stupidity, for all that this makes little sense as well!  (Even if Ragnar totally failed to convince them, and Our Heroes couldn't convince the drifters to just let one brave volunteer try it on first, it's still some pretty epic dance coordination - given an extra 2 seconds, it'd be pretty obvious that your comrades had just gone crazy...)  Of course all this could have easily been resolved by simply having the Black Arms work on a time delay, but whatevs gamers are impatient or something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 10, 2013, 02:03:08 AM
Quote
* Chug/Finish your drink every time Felius flashbacks remind you that there were spaceships in the Wild wild west

You're far enough in the game to know that Felius isn't from the wild wild west setting... in fact the very first such flashback should have made it obvious.

Ragnar is terrible because he's so utterly clueless and blathers non-stop about destroying Elesius. His plan to kill a king who has for literally 20 years dedicated his life to stopping the Elesius war machine borders on braindead. "Emo" is in fact the most positive label you could place on Ragnar; I could kinda buy him acting like a moron out of some revenge-twisted rage. Unfortunately the game generally plays him up as not this; we're supposed to believe his passions have reasonably cooled and he legitimately thinks this is the best course of action for ensuring that nobody has to suffer like his friends did. I also completely disagree with you and I thought he spent some crazy number of words reminding us that he lost his family and friends to war. (He also doesn't have any excuse for this behaviour, unlike some similar characters... he's not a teenager, this happened to him years ago, he's not currently in a state of great stress, etc.)

He's not sooo bad after Hrathnir completely destroys him, yes, except when he talks to the Zortroa. Unfortunately he does that quite a bit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on January 10, 2013, 02:50:36 AM
And oh yes.  If I took Ragnar's blathering about destroying Elesius even remotely seriously then yes he'd be (even more?) terrible as per Elf.   (I basically always treated it as Mr. Good At Heart lashing out and whining teenager bad-boy style for why I'm not hating on him so much, makes him pathetic rather than crazy.  But yes, it's entirely reasonable to read the plot wherein he's actually serious this whole time and then genuinely changes his mind after talking with Hrathnir, which is idiotic, if he really was that crazy it should have shown in other ways.  It was really obvious that regardless of what they meant to do with him, he wasn't going to be a regicide anyway, so.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 10, 2013, 03:01:17 AM
Okay, so I totally read the Hrathnir/Elesius thing as Hrathnir basically not being good enough at his job of keeping peace that Ragnar assumed that Elesius hadn't changed that much. This is probably entirely the Council's fault, and Ragnar's anger at the King is simply misdirected. Also understandable, it's not like he's familiar with the supposedly unknown  backdoor dealings that the Council engages in, he's just seeing the broken Elesius. Notably, he said he joined the Martial Guard to tear apart Elesius, but then quit when they didn't seem to be doing that. I took this as he must be new to the country, only now seeing what kind of place it is. Even if Elesius hadn't been actively at war for twenty years, there's no telling how damaged the other countries where people like Ragnar came from are. If they're still feeling the effects of Warlike Elesius (and judging from the number of dead mercenary friends Ragnar has, that's possible), then Ragnar's feelings aren't just 20 years old and in a vaccuum. He's still feeling the effects of it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 10, 2013, 03:15:25 AM
It would be character development if he actually changed!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 10, 2013, 03:24:24 AM
Hrathnir being a big proponent of peace and dismantling the Elesius war machine isn't some obscure fact known only to shady elites, though... he's been doing it since Ragnar was a child and random townsfolk throughout Elesius talk about it. Even if we could believe Ragnar has somehow lived under a rock and chooses to be purposefully ignorant of the politics of the country whose course he seeks to change (which makes him an idiot), Labyrinthia and Levin, among others, articulate this quite clearly to him. Yet still Ragnar clings to the symbolism of killing the country's king (which would only give the hawks in the Elesius government more power!). "Whining teenager bad-boy style" really does some it up well. (I'd have... remarkably less problem with Ragnar if he were a decade younger, now that I think about it. He'd still need a good slap but at least I could buy him being that dense.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on January 10, 2013, 03:25:15 AM
(Ninja'd by Elf.  Well.  Similar thoughts.)

Well except that absolutely everyone you talk to gives the timeless Great Lie: the King is perfectly good and wants the best for all his people, and everything bad that the government ever does is the fault of the chief vizier / prime minister / advisor / whatever who occasionally gives the king bad advice.  (It is actually true in XF of course, but in history it usually isn't.)  XF certainly doesn't portray Charlton as trying to ruin the King's name, but rather leech off the legitimacy that the royal family has.

Now.  In fairness, the King being respected by Elesians might be worthless in Ragnar's eyes, so if he started the game thinking that the king must go (and presumably his government, too, Charlton doesn't hide he's a militarist), fine.  But he's working with the "princess" and the king's friggin' chief wizard.  He can ASK them and find out more about what the king has actually done, or he can be so infused with rage against the machine that he'd refuse to work with evil Elesian government types like them and be some kind of dark horse NPC.  Working with the "princess" and being all "yo imma kill ur daddy" is...  okay it's silly enough that I can only presume Labrynthia didn't take Ragnar seriously either, this is just a scene that doesn't work without ending in a fight if done seriously.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 10, 2013, 05:23:01 AM
I mostly agree with SnowFire's assessment. Ragnar's not perfect, but I just don't see the egregious failure that NEB's espousing. He's not really a character to take seriously, but from the venom, I was expecting Shion-level misframing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 10, 2013, 05:37:05 AM
Funny, I mostly agree with Snowfire as well...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 10, 2013, 08:52:26 AM
Well, at any rate, I am enjoying the game immensely, and Ragnar has little impact on that.

It seems the game has some pretty favored classes. A good 5/6 of my party all have the same sort of setups involving Fantastica/Elementalist/Sacred Slayer/Enigmancer OCs and support abilities. If it weren't for the Story PCs having unique classes, they'd all be almost literally the same. Still, there's some pretty good class balance once the rest of the classes show up. Strider in particular FINALLY makes physical builds work.

Got to Clarissa's third outfit. Ugh. Now normally, I like pigtails for adding an interesting shape to character design and being cute and such, but holy crap these are terrible and do NOT suit her at all. Particularly with the artstyle, which already draws Clarissa as stick-figure-skinny and gives her this massive clump of hair... it's bad. Really bad. You win this round, Andy.

OH, and a list of Generic DLers that make up our Chevalet Blanc army. Snow and Hatbot chose the classes mostly at random, which makes it funnier to me. Some male DLers were made female to get a more even gender ratio so there'd be less overlap. (Some DLers were made girls because Snow and I thought it was funny har har)

Battle units:
Grefter - Enigmancer w/ time spent in Elementalist, Sacred Slayer, Fantastica
Djinn - Strider, w/ time spent in Secutor, Geomancer, Sacred Slayer
CT - Gadgeteer w/ time spent in Fantastica, Elementalist, Sacred Slayer

Search units:
Ciato - Sentinel
Idun - Nightstalker
Random - Berserker
Trancey - Female Fantastica
VSM - Female Excavator
Zenny - Female Grappler
Pyro - Gadgeteer
Aiel - Female Geomancer
Dhyer - Fantastica
Glen - Female Sacred Slayer
Sage - Elementalist
Elfboy - Female Enigmancer
Reiska - Female Excavator
Snow - Enigmancer
Celdia - Strider
Magic - Geomancer
SnowFire - Secutor
CK - Female Extremists
Laggy - Excavator
Nitori - Female Gadgeteer
Tonfa - High Cavalier
Tide - Grappler
Tally - Female High Cavalier
Soppy - Strider
Alex - Female Elementalist
Shale - Extremist
Cid - Sacred Slayer
Andy - Female Berserker
Ashley - Secutor
Fenrir - High Cavalier
Ephraim - Grappler
Excal - Emulator
metroids - Female Emulator
Gate - Sentinel
OK - Emulator
Neph - High Cavalier
Niu - Female Extremist
Meeple - Nightstalker

Dismissed units:
**Magey - Male Fantastica
**Eternal - Male Grappler
**dn - Female Fantastica
**Kurosu - Female Berserker
**Dune - Female Geomancer
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 10, 2013, 11:30:15 PM
They're all in plurals, by the way.

Also, we're on 3-9 or something. POWER THROUGH EVERYTHING EVER
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 11, 2013, 12:06:02 AM
Quote
Shale - Extremist

I was going to object to being linked to XF at all, but this strikes me as appropriate.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on January 11, 2013, 12:17:32 AM
The 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation EPISODE 3 THE GAIA SAVIOR (Now With Even More Oversized Fruit) - Well the MX upgrades are hilarious.  Not as hilarious as the D upgrades though.  Getting stuff like a 4600 base power 110 Will 3-10 range ALL on top of other stuff certainly tries though.  Snipe?  Who needs Snipe?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 11, 2013, 04:50:59 AM
Strange Journey No Fusion: Kay, Ourobouros (the second fight) is impossible without a lot of grinding so the challenge's over. This was cool while it lasted.


Romancing SaGa 3: Yes. It's great. But.

Romancing SaGa 3 Yattaf solo.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878256-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00040.png)

Deep down I knew this would happen. Yattaf is Fighter Ellen w/ spears. (but she's never going to use spears) 20 strength, 15 dex, 20 speed, 15 Con, 16 Vit, 16 Int, 16 Charisma. Everything you'd ever want. Weapons of choices are axes and kung fu, probably with a touch of water (Fire? Earth?) and sun magic later on.

Anyway:

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878138-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00000.png)

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878212-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00015.png)

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878219-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00016.png)

Yattaf is ice burning dudes left and right before even the first battle.
Eventually this happens:

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878371-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00096.png)

Let's see how far they go without any equipment. HAH.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878314-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00082.png)

First boss? Yattaf has Focus. Try breaking 60-100 healing with 0-5 damage hits.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878335-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00090.png)

Second boss? He's optional. RUN


Nora?

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878401-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00099.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878420-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00101.png)

Zzzzzzz

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878444-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00105.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878451-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00106.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878455-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00107.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357878567-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00027.png)

Go back to the forge, woman
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 11, 2013, 01:04:28 PM
P4:G - Brosuke on cooking after Void Quest.

"Help us Master Pimp, you're our only hope."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 12, 2013, 05:03:23 AM
RS3 Yattaf solo: Frameskip allowed edition

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357965637-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00000.png)

Stats:
HP: 485
TP: 97 (no crowns)
MP: 7
Axes: 18
Spears: 19
Fists: 18
Water Magic: 5
Sw4g: 65535

I doubt the character build choice at the beginning only affects stats and silly weapon levels, since Yattaf seriously doesn't care about that axe at all. She hasn't learned any of the amazing skills she learned last time.

Hard bosses beaten:

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357965643-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00002.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357965648-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00003.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357965659-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00008.png)

There's a pattern here... Great Wheel. Full MT damage, that also manages to be my the best singletarget damage. Costs 6 TPs. I use it against everything. In fact it's the only reason I've managed to go that far.
Water ball is decent. Not sure it deserved losing that weapon crown. I wonder if I'll ever get that back.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1357965654-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00005.png)
RUN.


One thing everyone always forget to mention about RS3 is how great the enemy sprites are. Just look at these things. Pixel art is all the rage these days but I don't think I've seen anything better than the last Snes Square RPGs (I'm thinking about RS3, Rudra's treasure. + FF6 and Bahamut Lagoon to a way lesser extent)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 12, 2013, 05:12:59 AM
The weapon choice at the beginning affects your skill learning type - so, yeah. You stumbled Ellen away from axe proficiency. <_< ANYHOW, some specific class and weapon combos for certain characters also lead to special learning builds that are usually very good - Ellen and Sara actually can get a unique learn list that includes damn near every tech in the game.

EDIT: And yes, Big Wheel is fucking -nuts- for when you get it and it stays as good MT until the end - and very cost-efficient at that. For full MT, I think only Million Dollars is superior, and that's endgame class rank if you want to learn it. Also, Water Pole? You realize the effect only works if a water field is active, right? I mean, it's not a big deal considering you inevitably have ways to activate it. But keep that in mind, you may need it for that crazy Yattaf challenge. Also, no Moon Magic? Moonshine is pretty much the best healing you can get until the Xuan Castle quests, and in a solo, Moonglow's speed buffing may actually come in handy (also boosts MDef! And I can't begin to tell you how big straight defense/magic defense are in the formula. The fucking game factors the stats twice in its damage calculations).

EDIT2: And -YES-. Romancing SaGa 3 and Treasure of the Rudras both have incredible pixel art direction. The level of detail and artistry amazes me to this day.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 12, 2013, 05:24:18 AM
NO...


Oh well. I need a lategame weapon more than an earlygame weapon, and Megahawk <<<<< Great Wheel.
(Seriously, axe, please give me Dimension Cut anyway)

Hmm. Looks like being able to learn every tech involves picking the epee for Ellen, and I'm not sure the worse stats overall are worth it.
I'll probably regret this once I try using the Ice Sword.

Edit: About Water Pole, I had noticed the regen only worked with a water field, but not the "block attacks" effect. This explains a lot. >_> Thanks.
I haven't picked moon magic yet because I'm still trying to get that weapon crown back (and can rely on Focus + Salve 2 so far. At least as long as I don't touch bosses) I'm probably going to change that, I even said crowns didn't matter like 3 posts ago.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 12, 2013, 05:32:05 AM
In all fairness, spears are very good and the only thing keeping them from being the best weapon type no questions asked is high pierce resistance being as goddamn widespread as it is. You're roughly set for life with spears - until you run into the nasty-ass skeleton honey badgers. <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 12, 2013, 06:03:15 AM
SO4 - The cult of Crowesexualism continues to dominate the game. I am in a final dungeonish seeming thing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 12, 2013, 06:06:05 AM
List of people in SO4 who don't want to jump Crowe:

-children
-people with mental capacity inferior to that of children
-people whose genitals are replaced by metal joints
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on January 12, 2013, 06:13:35 AM
SO4 sez "We think Crowe is so cool.   He's just unbelievably awesome.  That's why you'll never get to play as him.  We made sure to take the time to make all our characters really shitty for this game and he'd throw everything off."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 12, 2013, 06:41:29 AM
I thought Crowe was playable in the aftergame or new game + or something?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 12, 2013, 06:44:06 AM
I think it might be the aftergame of the PS3 version?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 12, 2013, 10:06:52 PM
Mario Kart 7 - YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS. Unlocked all racing courses, methinks. I love this game so much. And blue shells are the worst thing ever forever.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 13, 2013, 01:48:13 AM
Snow: Def and Mdef do matter a lot, but Moonglow's pretty worthless. I guess this scales with magic level...
Lack of common SaGa knowledge is being a problem yet again. If stat buffs scale with magic level and last for an entire battle (even extra long battles), I should choose moon (Moon Shine, Moon Glow) and earth (Berserk, Stone Skin) magic as my final choice. If they don't, I should choose fire (Self Burning + Fire Wall + Reviver) and sun. (Illusion Sun + Rebirth Wind + Day Break (?))
Water Block is completely amazing, but the restriction bothers me too much in too many battles. I'll have to remove it for the crazy waterfall dragon anyway. (Unless I choose to let lobsters die anyway)

111 TP, 7 MP, still no crown back. I'm probably screwed there. I really should forget about it...
Edit: I got the crown back, but I don't think I can even get one MP for every 10 TPs if I want to keep it. Goodbye, crown.

Bosses today:

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040550-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00004.png)

The necromancer can summon awful enemies, but the 4 starting ones are really weak. Solution: Hit him with the Tomahawk. Axes being useful for once.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040578-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00006.png)

Undine and Volcano are FF5 bosses in a challenge, high stats but vulnerable to all kinds of status.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040584-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00007.png)

And I just learned POIZN

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040596-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00009.png)

That's the damage lost per round.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040667-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00026.png)

Even late, this guy is a real pain. Since I gave Sharl the dream gem to get it back in the real world (Cheap as hell, but I don't care) I had no sleep protection. I decided to instead grind on the nurses for a while to get the sleep dodge. Fortunately, the boss doesn't use his other status that often, and I don't think his damage even broke 20HKO.
For the record, Wing Charm's status protection? Terrible.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040635-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00016.png)

Easy-ish with the dream gem and Billy/Jimmy.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040688-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00012.png)

This guy gets owned by Water Ball. Unfortunately, I get owned by his regen. This battle is a stalemate. At least I don't lose... Right? Right??? :(


SaGa NSFW (Pretend there's Barry White music):

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040716-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00001.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040733-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00014.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040745-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00017.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040754-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00018.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040773-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00019.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040777-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00020.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/02/1358040782-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00022.png)
AUGH
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on January 13, 2013, 02:47:55 AM
Dust an Elysian Tale:

-Gorgeous 2D backgrounds
-Fast, slick combat reminiscent of Muramasa: The Demon Blade with some Metroidvania style exploration
-Excellent music
-Character designs that looked like they picked random artists after searching for "furries" on deviant art.

I don't understand.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 13, 2013, 06:21:23 AM
Romancing SaGa 3 buffs are laughably bad on duration.
All Buffs (except Stoneskin) decrease every turn after the first by "Current additional stat boost"/4, rounded up
Example : Accel Turn increases Spd by 9, on turn 2, the bonus is now 9-(9/4)=6. Turn 3, the bonus is 4. But Buffs can stack! If you cast Accel Turn again on Turn 3, the Spd bonus is 4+9=13. However, by turn 2, the decrease is more noticeable 13-(13/4)=9 (lost 4 points of bonus Spd).

Conversely, Debuffs last til the end of battle.

Fire Magic is my personal favorite because spammable Reraise is awesome. Sun magic -also- has a Magic Shield effect in Illusion Sun. It's half as effective as Water Pole and Dancing Leaf, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on January 13, 2013, 06:56:44 AM
The Journey Down: Chapter One - played through

I like the character design style, but the gameplay isn't anything to write home about. Also a bit short - to be fair, it does seem like they want to be running episodically, but even keeping that in mind it feels short, or at least doesn't feel as dense as other episodic adventures I can think of.

Comparatively little dialogue, no way to jump-cut to the next area that I could find, no way to highlight objects that I could find, some things are more contrived than I prefer (such as the item in the nest)... Also some amount of Bwana refusing to pick items up which he doesn't need yet, which I thought that everyone had discarded as a bad idea a long time ago. I was thinking that there could be an exception made in the case of the Chervil, but on second thoughts he should just be able to pick up the whole book. He certainly doesn't have any problem picking up an entire pitcher of coffee later after asking if he could have a cup of it (and there is a mug elsewhere in the game which he refuses to pick up that could have been used for this purpose :S).



Super Robot Academy - played halfish of?

At least, I'm close to having half of the possible simulations (old plot battles) available, so I'm assuming I'm similarly distant into the game. Always possible that there is a bunch of long stretches without any plot battles or so forth, but do sections like that really count as content anyway?

It isn't very good. But it compels me to play it anyway, which is kind of annoying.

I think that the posture system could have been done without - you can slightly increase your chances of picking a winning posture if you can remember what the opponent's last posture was (so there isn't much point in picking a posture which is advantageous against it as they can't pick it again straight away), but it's still generally luck-based, and it's particularly galling when they take the advantage several turns in a row and you aren't left with much chance to set up any defence as their units all get to act before the timers for your units have even started. Just the timer changes based on your leftover time should have been enough.

It's annoying that the plotless generic enemies still have garbage units at this point, so when you end up accidentally running into one you get an intensely uninteresting battle. Of course the flipside of that would be accidentally running into them and having to deal with a complete battle every time. Solution: Give them better teams as the game progresses and also remove their ability to initiate battles with you. (Presumably they can't be removed wholesale to allow for people who are so inclined to grind coins.)

I am not a fan of the character designs.

My current main team is: Mark Nicht, Akito's Aestevalis Custom, Dearka's Blaze ZAKU Phantom, Melissa's M9 Gernsback, and a Cerberus BuCUE Hound. I've been using that for the majority of the game by now. I also have a separate team for water battles made up of: Tru Getta 3, Nelly Brain, and the Archangel. The water team has actually fared significantly better as I've never even needed to field the Archangel, whereas I've managed to lose several times in plot battles with the main team, but to be fair there have been comparatively few water battles.

The main team probably needs an overhaul as most of the units outside of Mark Nicht are severely underwhelming, but who can be bothered doing that. Especially since the game makes dealing with it so tedious.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 13, 2013, 12:57:53 PM
EDIT2: And -YES-. Romancing SaGa 3 and Treasure of the Rudras both have incredible pixel art direction. The level of detail and artistry amazes me to this day.

No kidding. That alone is making me want to play this (that and Fenrir tends to make all sorts of crazy things sound fun).

God Hand: A poison chihuahua?!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 13, 2013, 04:31:17 PM
Yes, a poison chihuahua.


DMC Dante Must Die! - I'm up to Nightmare 3. I've generally fought Nelo Angelo with Alastor before but I ended up switching to Ifrit primarily so I could Meteor-interrupt his phantom sword attacks which are arrrgh. Ifrit has a bunch of advantages in the fight anyway, and is probably better overall. Nightmare meanwhile just continues to live up to its name, what a jerk. Also died underwater for the first time ever! Enemies being able to devil trigger there even though I can't makes me a sad half-demon. So yeah, I'm on track to beat this soon after a hundred or so resets to Mundus probably.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on January 13, 2013, 09:16:55 PM
Dawn of Sorrow - this is the worst new art, Julius looks hilariously angry and Soma far less fabulous. I guess Mina is fine but no one cares about Mina.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 14, 2013, 12:50:30 AM
God Hand: This game is war on my thumbs. This kind of enforces short play sessions (which is probably a good thing). Anyway, beat up a fat Mexican Elvis.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 14, 2013, 01:20:57 AM
Heh, thanks Cid. Expect nothing but SaGa from this game though. It's the SaGaest game of all.

Djinn: Hahahah who balanced this?
To be fair, I got Self Burning and it is even worse.


I didn't really want to go to the desert yet and all the bosses left (Forneus, Water Dragon, Dragon Ruler, Algernon) looked completely impossible.
So I grabbed some fire and sun magic and leveled that up. Day Break is completely amazing. In my game every skeleton has upgraded to DEATH EXCEPT WITH EIGHT ARMS and every serpent has upgraded to MEGA HYDRA and every goblin has upgraded to GOBLIN LORD GOD. Every random battle is difficult and every random enemy has too many HPs. So, accurate MT death is a godsend. It even looks cool. Two giant red lasers literally eating enemies.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125052-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00000.png)

Then I looted every dungeon available to me because there might be better equipment there? And there was. The Sea Tortoise armor at the end of Forneu's dungeon is amazing.
As much defense as the protect suit, but Yattaf can equip a glove and helmet with it.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125283-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00003.png)

The dragon ruler attacks three times per round, but he always uses two physical skills at the beginning of the round, then either another physical skill or *rarely* an ice spell that does around 200-400 damage.
Stacking up enough defense with the Sea Tortoise armor, E. Martial shirt, Close helmet + Vambrace glove = The dragon barely does any damage most of the turns.

Behind the dragon ruler, the ice sword!

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125279-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00004.png)

It is the absolute worst possible weapon in this solo!! Hurray!!!

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125441-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00006.png)

I also beat the Water Dragon. A Fire Wall at the beginning of this battle shifts the tendency to fire and removes his healing. He'll try to get back to water tendency with Squall, but the sea tortoise armor grants squall immunity and Yattaf could cast Fire Wall a few times, so he's only wasting time with that. With a mainly mdef build (Sea Tortoise, E. Martial, Plastic boots and Dream Gem), strategic use of Focus, Fire Wall and double dragons, he dies.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125201-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00015.png)

For a very early boss, the rats were as deadly as before (!), but died in two hits.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125198-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00018.png)

I took 20 damage there.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125174-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00023.png)

This guy's only action is summoning crappy enemies. lol Double Dragon. The first battle in the desert agains the three plants was harder. In fact, the only reason I beat that one was Day Break.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125180-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00020.png)

With Illusion Sun, Revival Light and Titan Armor (And Triple Thrust), I actually could challenge and beat Gwayne. (This is a terrible, terrible idea in this solo, so I reloaded an earlier save)

I was almost sure I could never beat this challenge earlier, but things are looking good now. I might actually kill everything!!

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125204-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00014.png)

Except this guy.



Strange Journey no Fusion challenge: Stopping at Ourobouros was frustrating, so I looked for an alternate strategy.
Ourobouros deals a hell of a lot of MT damage (Demon healing can't possibly keep up), has MT expel and a buff/debuff cancel on everything move.
Fortunately he only uses that last skill if 4 buffs of the same kind (the max) have been stacked on him.
Strategy:
1st phase: Try stacking three buffs of kinds with demons, use healing items with the main character, until every demon is dead. Use the crow from the second dungeon because he's the only one with -kajas.
2nd phase: Spam Fire Shot, heal with Beads.

Yay!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 14, 2013, 01:27:42 AM
Honey Yami don't care, he don't give a shit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 14, 2013, 03:20:18 AM
Honey

I need to send you a link to Needs More Gay when you get home (or send to Djinn now I guess?)

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125198-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00018.png)

You know I have played this game and had swore to never play it again no matter how good Fenrir makes everything look by standing next to it (Devil Survivor coming up after I finish P4:G).  I had forgot this was a thing that happens.  SaGaEsT SaGa GaMe EvEr.

Still not gonna play, but I am happier that this is a thing that is happening than I expected to be.  You need to spend more time hanging around David Bowie albums.  They are strange weird creatures and I think you might cause the Rapture.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 14, 2013, 04:09:27 AM
I like the SaGa posts! :)

SO4 - Finished! Final dungeon seemed to distribute its savepoints in a strange way; frontloadedly. I had fun, the gameplay kept me engaged most of the game. Boss design is pretty bad, the worst being the ant lady and the angel in the middle of the game, and the dungeons are weird about save points/weird in general, but otherwise pretty cool stuff. I controlled Myuria for the most part, with a bit of Edge/Bacchus and a tiny amount of Reimi on the final boss. Myuria likes to zap the shit out of things Palpatine style, I had to control her~ Going to move focus to Tierkreis playing now.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 14, 2013, 02:41:56 PM
Oh man, keep up those SaGa posts, it is seriously inspiring. I have almost finished the Battle Mechanics Guide I've been working on with Snow for about 6 months thanks to these posts and Snow's visit.

Actually, if you or anyone else wants to look over what I've got for readability or if there's something you've noticed that I missed, it'd be helpful. Particularly before I submit it to gameFAQs or anything.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 14, 2013, 05:48:39 PM
Thanks a lot all!
I'm unfortunately already near the end of the challenge and have no idea what I could do next.


I'm glad Gref. You're trying Devil Survivor 2 for the Ayn Rand vs Karl Marx fight? Don't expect this to not be anime as fuck.


Djinn: I seriously just read all of it. I guess "in a SaGa game" is where numbers go after their death, if they have sinned.

Few things:

- Gengis Khan is a viking now?
Squaresoft

- You wrote Great Whell instead of Great Wheel

- "SPD: Determines turn order, involved in accuracy/evasion, involved in damage for certain skills. Decreased by a hidden Weight stat on equipment."
I had understood that the blue bar under the equipment screen is the speed of the character so it's not really hidden? (The green bar being overall defense and red... overall offense?)

- Does the basic spear attack really use the axe formula or is it a mistake?

- "DETERMINING STARTING STATS PER CHARACTER
Joining WP = HighestWpnLV*15 + (Sum of all other WpnLvs)
Joining JP = HighestMagLV*15 + (Sum of all other MagLvs)"
I think that's *3 instead of 15. And it's rounded up to 5 if magic level is 1.

- Herman's growths: Awesome
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 14, 2013, 06:08:16 PM
Time to answer a few questions:

- For speed, the alterations brought by armor are visualized, albeit obtusely. The weight of -weapons-? Entirely unaccounted for in that. :sagamechanicstransparency:

- I -do- believe spears use the axe formula for basic attacks - it sounds sensical, at least, and the guide -does- indicate it's the case. Also explains why Sharl's damage with basic physicals sans Silver Hand is even worse than Str alone would point out.

- And... huh, that actually sounds right for joining formula. *15 would mean Bai Mei Niang ramming the JP cap on join all the way to Sunday and that's clearly not what happens.

I'll do another read through the newest version of the BMG to spot more thingies and clean out some stuff.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Yoshiken on January 14, 2013, 07:34:16 PM
Started trying to speedrun glitchless Pokemon Blue a few weeks back. I'm through about 15 attempts, most of which I've reset in the first 20 minutes. Twice, I've got to the Elite Four... and lost. One was because of a lack of PP restoration (missed the Elixir in Silph Co.) and the other was having the wrong moveset - I had Mega Kick instead of Ice Beam. Fuck Alakazam and Gyarados, those things are evil. I reaaally want to find a route that skips Mega Kick, it seems so very sub-optimal.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 14, 2013, 07:36:17 PM
2nd OG: Stage 35. Ibis gets Maneuver GRaMXs! Again! For reals this time though! And man, this routesplit is too damn long. I have basically forgotten what the space team even looks like.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on January 14, 2013, 07:55:59 PM
Hey at least you're almost done with it.

The 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation EPISODE 3 THE GAIA SAVIOR (Feeding People These Pears) - Finished Stage 58.  Comparatively minor villains died, maybe they'll stay dead, though given the present track record of people not dying when killed in this series I'm sure we'll get to look forward to Professor Asschin McFuntimes With Nanites *again*.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 14, 2013, 07:57:41 PM
No Niu? =(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on January 14, 2013, 08:05:06 PM
Maximum :eldy: hasn't happened yet!  I'm sure it will though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 14, 2013, 10:00:17 PM
Thanks a lot all!
I'm unfortunately already near the end of the challenge and have no idea what I could do next.

Monica mage solo. You know the yearning in your heart.

Did you finish that non-challenge playthrough? Also, using not spears. Big Wheel was CHEATING
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 14, 2013, 11:06:18 PM
Something as simple as a Great Greed replay (SSCC obviously) would suffice.

P4:G - Done Secret Lab.  Not sure how I feel about Naoto's handling of Transgender.  Like it is fairly soft and light honestly.  I don't think it is necessarily badly done so much as it gives a possible nice easy out to both her own problem and Kanji's sexuality as well (OH IT WAS OKAY GUYS THE DUDE HE LIKED WAS A GIRL AFTER ALL).  See how it plays out I guess.  It might just be me expecting them to push envelopes and they might not in the end.

Still more uh sensitive take on both issues than Makoto of Enchanted Arms (who is STILL FABULOUS even if he is Stereotypes the Character), so I don't have much room to complain.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 14, 2013, 11:16:33 PM
Bayonetta Hard Mode: This game deserves better than me starting Hard Mode only NOW!

Finished the Prologue.  Ok, I can deal with the elemental dog things in the first area; cruel as that is, that's about what I'd expect truth be told.

Having to deal with them again, infinitely spawning, right after for the Torture Attack Tutorial (WHY IS THAT STILL HERE?!), though?  That's just wrong and unfun!

THANKFULLY, I seem to recall that's the last time Bayonetta does this outside of Alfenheims, so it'll probably be more typical "enemies kill you, have fun" style pain from here on in.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on January 15, 2013, 02:37:23 AM
Fenrir, would you mind linking to wherever you got the english patch for RS3? I may give it a shot, especially if I can bug Snow/Djinn for gameplay tips on IRC~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 15, 2013, 04:12:56 AM
http://www.romhacking.net/ is the best source for translation patches I've seen overall. I use it all the time.
I used Manasword's translation: http://www.romhacking.net/translations/416/ It's not really... good or anything, but it's the best one available. (and it was made in 2000)


Snow: I didn't use Big Wheel that much actually, Double Dragon replaced it.
Monica magic solo: NO

I'd gladly play the japanese RS3 hack floating around (with bosses from most SaGa games) but it only works with Snes9X and I can't stand Snes 9x.


Badass as hell bosses this time

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221252-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00002.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221247-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00001.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221274-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00003.png)

What happens if you stack defense against physical bosses on Yattaf though?

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221276-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00005.png)

2 damage. Yes.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221315-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00017.png)

OMG

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221313-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00019.png)

Seriously can anyone explain what's happening here

Thanks for that battle Gwayne. This really helped.
Gwayne I have some good news and bad news. The good news: You're still going to help me beat demons! The bad news: You're going to help me beat demons as a corpse I'll cut up to build a hideous weapon made from your scales.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358125180-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00020.png)

PS: Eat a dragon inferno

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221306-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00031.png)

Yattaf had to kill an innocent poet to get back to this dragon, too. Really. She just lost 70 karma points.
(Karma is a hidden stat that can go up or down for every major choice you make. The only effect it has is changing the type of fruit your character eats during the ending)
(I was kidding about karma but seriously this game has the equally dumb greed system. Each character starts with a particular hidden greed counter, and it can go up when you make a greedy choice like selling pets instead of giving them to their owner. If the counter is too high, one hippy won't give you an early game sidequest. That's all the hidden greed stat does)

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221296-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00010.png)

Remember the Magma Slimes (?) from Riki's playthrough in SaGa Frontier? That's this skeleton, in RS3. He multihits for 1 LP damage each time. I don't think Riki could do his battle alone, but this guy? He dies in three hits.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221285-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00011.png)

These dancers spammed Charm but it never really worked. Yattaf yuri is officially non-canon.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221306-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00014.png)

Yattaf realizes elephants are just like everybody else. They even use tiny chairs for humans.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221295-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00024.png)

The ultimate fire magic is coming... I can feel it... Trivializing every boss from then on...

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221315-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00025.png)

Since this is a solo game, Yattaf does her best to get every damn item that can be forged by Nora. That means farming hydras for materials and getting the Hidora Armor. (which pretty much nulls fire damage)
These Meteor frags in the earth dungeon got her the Kris Knife too, for near status immunity.
+ the royal ring for ID protection
+ good defense
Sorry Aunas. Your 300 damage counter is still badass.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221294-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00028.png)

Forneus, Cheap Bastard
This playthrough I've run up to Forneus then had to backtrack 6 times, just because I kept losing. 6 times. This might as well be the final boss.
Like the Water Dragon, Forneus regens 999 HPs when the background has a "water" tendency. (casting water spells shifts the battlefield towards that, it's similar to Chrono Cross) Yattaf still has Fire Wall to cancel that, but it has nearly no effect on the battlefield compared to Forneus' spells if I don't use it all the time.
Forneus also has the most max Hp of any boss to date.
Yattaf could resist for a lot of turns with this and only this setup:
Fort
E. Martial
Kris Knife
Royal Ring
Strategy was: Illusion Sun, Reviver, Fire Wall until the field is fiery (this lets her buy some time until Forneus casts enough spells to regen) then go Psycho Cyan on him with Triple Thrust.
But Yattaf straight up didn't have enough juice to win this battle. She ran away -again- from the dungeon to train on Asuras and get various ultimate techniques. Then ran all the way back to Forneus. Those ultimate techniques ended up completely useless. Fortunately the 20 max TPs won on the trip there allowed Yattaf to beat Forneus with the good old Triple Thrust strategy anyway.


I believe there's only Maximum, Yami and whatever that thing in the ancient ruins is, before the endgame.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 15, 2013, 04:39:11 AM
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221315-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00017.png)

OMG

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358221313-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00019.png)

Seriously can anyone explain what's happening here

A horned dragon lady became a horny middle aged woman dragon lady.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on January 15, 2013, 12:34:44 PM
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare: this is the best fire emblem game
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 15, 2013, 12:40:32 PM
P4:G - Cut scene where party form a band a week before an event to play something.  Chie says "What is something that looks easy" after turning down singing chorus for herself and Yukiko.  Chie plays trumpet and Yukiko gets saxophone.

This is the point where everyone that ever played a wind instrument at school palms all of the face.

Edit - And then one day after practice they put in some singing and then are all like "Oh wow now it sounds like real music."
FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK YYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 15, 2013, 02:11:21 PM
2nd OG: Gantetsu Banchou G-BANKURAN. SRW featuring a Cromartie High character. Some things are so unthinkably brilliant that you don't realize how empty your life was without them until they arrive.

Edit: And now I've noticed that it's a resupply unit, which makes it crystal clear: this is the OG Boss Borot. Best game ever? Best game ever.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on January 15, 2013, 05:26:05 PM
P4:G - Cut scene where party form a band a week before an event to play something.  Chie says "What is something that looks easy" after turning down singing chorus for herself and Yukiko.  Chie plays trumpet and Yukiko gets saxophone.

This is the point where everyone that ever played a wind instrument at school palms all of the face.

Edit - And then one day after practice they put in some singing and then are all like "Oh wow now it sounds like real music."
FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK YYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Yeaaaaah. That scene is the new absolute low point of the game. It's new, corny, and utterly pointless and boring.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on January 15, 2013, 09:27:17 PM
The 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation EPISODE 3 THE GAIA SAVIOR (More Villians With Bad Table Manners) - Things happened.  Things involving crossgates, vomitting, and maximum :eldy:.  Then a douchebag in a white suit showed up with a couple of wizards, which is probably the most normal thing to have occured in this span of time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 16, 2013, 02:59:55 AM
Knytt Underground: Nifflas games, on my PSN? It could be more likely than you think! Was poking around on PSN a couple days ago for avatars and wound up with this instead. Quite a pleasant surprise.

It is pretty much what you'd expect from a Nifflas game, which is to say: beautiful aesthetics, excellent ambient soundtrack, and plenty to explore. The world map is huge (30x50? 1500 rooms. The automapper lends somewhat the feel of a Metroidvania to the proceedings), and though admittedly plenty of the rooms are just places you dash through in between more important locations, even the filler rooms are pretty. While obviously aiming to pick up from Knytt itself, the game is also a stealth sequel to Within a Deep Forest and fuses the mechanics of each (you alternate between modes by hitting a button on the controller, and you will have to cycle back and forth with some rapidity for the meaner physics puzzles). I only have two notable gripes: ricocheting off of diagonal surfaces (often a requirement for the trickier rooms) is unpredictable and difficult to control; the NPC companions have a tendency to start talking out of the blue at times when I'm hitting the jump button, which results in some occasional missed dialogue. Former is mitigated by the extremely minor penalty for death, at least.

Game is absolutely loaded with secrets--among them, apparently, a more genuine ending (the one I got, while satisfying in some of its dialogue, also included an intrusion from Word of God basically admitting This Is Not a True Ending)--so I'm not quite done yet. Somewhat surprised at the M rating, but I guess that's what happens when one of your traveling companions is a foulmouthed lesbian fairy that threatens to stab people in their sleep. Also: "No matter what, never trust the Internet." Sage advice.

If you liked previous Nifflas games, you should be playing this right now. Or if you just like good games. Or if you're just not a bad person.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on January 17, 2013, 08:18:52 AM
*Look at Fenrir's equip for fighting Forneus.
No wonder.... but this has to be blamed on SaGa transparent states....

The 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation EPISODE 3 THE GAIA SAVIOR (More Villians With Bad Table Manners) - Things happened.  Things involving crossgates, vomitting, and maximum :eldy:.  Then a douchebag in a white suit showed up with a couple of wizards, which is probably the most normal thing to have occured in this span of time.

Dr. Mitte showed up with her precious baby and that's all you say?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 17, 2013, 01:19:45 PM
2nd OG: Oh god school plot it's everywhere get it off me
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on January 17, 2013, 03:21:17 PM
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition - Finally getting around to this.

Improvements are fairly noticable from the get go (yay BG2 engine). Playing a CG Swashbuckler.

New opening cinematic could use a tweak or two, but everyone whining about it is silly cakes. Option for the ultra doofy original would have been nice I guess, but so it goes.

New VA sets are solid. Portraits are out of place but look great.

You can tell when new recordings for voice clips are being used, but it isn't too bad. New stuff sounds very in-line with everything else.

Neera is pretty rawk so far.

Low level DnD PCs suck so fucking bad.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 17, 2013, 04:26:49 PM
What do you mean Niu?


I was pretty sure I was going to use roughly the same equipment and strategy against every boss from now on: Illusion Sun to evade a few attacks, Reviver for a Reraise effect (this is the only healing I use), then Dragon Inferno/Triple Thrust until the enemy's dead. Reviver and Dragon Inferno being broken enough that I shouldn't have much problem.

I was completely wrong, the endgame is going to be the worst part.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358439867-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00047.png)

Fuck youuuuu
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on January 17, 2013, 08:26:40 PM
Dr. Mitte showed up with her precious baby and that's all you say?

Sometimes a fake emoticon says enough.

The 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation EPISODE 3 THE GAIA SAVIOR (Using Endbosses As Tennis Balls) - And so fell Evil Ultraman, unable to deal Attack Again abuse.

Anyways uh ability slot system needs to be less kludgy but otherwise 10/10 would trainwreck again.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on January 17, 2013, 10:37:40 PM
Disgaea 4

I WILL make it to the Land of Carnage dag nabbit! Something has always come along (like the upcoming FE 3DS game!) to distract me from ever reaching this gawd forsaken place in the previous Disgaea titles. I will make it there for the first time this time! I hope! I have everything I need except some of the maps and the gawd damn Meokin Pirates to show up. IT WILL HAPPEN!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 18, 2013, 01:30:11 AM
At this point the strategy is the same against every boss: Illusion Sun to evade a few attacks, Reviver for a Reraise effect (this is the only healing I use), then Dragon Inferno/Triple Thrust until the enemy's dead. This kills everything. Or so I thought.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471563-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00026.png)
I had never seen this enemy before. Nice.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471493-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00004.png)
Yattaf decides to take on evil Jesus and destroy his cult.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471492-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00002.png)
Unfortunately she needs to leave party members behind through all the dungeon. ...
And apparently Herman is permanently dead.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471491-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00003.png)
Yattaf grabs Sharl, Muse, Wood, Mille Feuilles and Thomas to use them as... pretty much boulders in a block puzzle
I wanted Harid instead of Mille Feuilles, but he just didn't give a fuck about this quest.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471493-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00000.png)
It is all very epic.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471563-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00007.png)
Unfortunately Jackal is completely pathetic. The End.



(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471529-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00009.png)
Is Dragon Inferno enough to kill that bastard?

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471549-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00010.png)
... Yes. Yes it is.



(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471512-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00025.png)
This monstrosity probably has the best defense in the game, regens 999 every round, knows a bunch of status including petrification (which it loves)
The damage isn't that high, so Yattaf can afford losing a bit of defense.
Dream Gem for sleep protection, Feather Boots for Stone+Earth protection (I think), Kris Knife for overall status protection. Grab Dragon Inferno and spam it.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471541-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00015.png)
Abyss Naga just LOVES status. Forsake all defense for status protection (sleep & poison immunity + overall status resistance), then the usual strategy applies.


Hey! Let's try killing the final boss with his limiter off!!

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471502-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00027.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471558-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00029.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471530-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00032.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471531-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00030.png)
Er...

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471542-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00034.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471532-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00036.png)
Ok, ok. I get it.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471521-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00038.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471501-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00039.png)
Fine! I lost, I know!


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471522-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00041.png)
Aunas mk2 is pissed. His counter has been upgraded to 600 or so damage (fire protection doesn't help), and he has monster HP + status. (ID, Charm, Stun, Stone) His non counter damage is fairly manageable with fire protection, but there's no way to be protected against every status, so Yattaf needs some luck to win this.
200 TPs wasn't enough, I had to use a few physical attacks to finish him off.
For some weird reason, he regens 999 HPs per round... Until he gets hit once. I guess he has a fire mantle effect that auto counters and regens HPs; with the auto regen disappearing after one counter.
... I should have used Double Dragon, right? I'm an idiot.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471539-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00043.png)
Byunei mk2 rocks with Stun. And I left the stun immunity boots back home.
She does good enough damage that the 3-6 turns lost because of Stun mean a game over 50% of the time, even with Auto resurrection on. And she has Charm and Poison too! Yay!
Aunas was hard enough, Byunei looks even worse. I really didn't plan this enough. No choice but to reload an earlier save.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471511-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00045.png)
First, training on the strongest regular enemy in the game, Asura.

Final stats:
999 HP
250 TP
147 MP
Sword: 38
Axes: 39
Spears: 39
Bows: 32
Fists: 43
Fire: 36
Sun: 36
Um... I -might- have sometimes reloaded before defeating an Asura to get more stat boosts.  >_>


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471522-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00041.png)
Aunas still killed me 6 times, even with Double Dragon.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471539-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00043.png)
Goddamn Byunei took me 20 tries. The stun immunity boots don't even work. Either there's a mistake in the code, or it's not immunity just 90% resistance except Byunei has 170% hit rate or something.
Setup: Hidora Leather (poison immunity), E. Martial, Kris Knife (status protection), Death Ring. All in all, it seems like the best compromise between stat protection and defense, but it doesn't guarantee a win at all.


Forneus mark 2? .........

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/03/1358471559-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00049.png)
NOOOOOOO!
Ok. Now that I know how it works, I'm coming back with the Silver Hand. I'm not sure it will be enough to kill Forneus, but I might as well try. I don't think I can afford leaving one of the four abyss devils alive.

Edit: I tried the Silver Hand and even the Silver Hand + savestate abuse, but I didn't beat him. 16 full rounds of Dragon Scale Sword physical + Dragon Inferno aren't enough. I think that's it for this challenge, unless Destroyer is manageable even with Forneus alive.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 18, 2013, 02:30:47 AM
So I started up RS3 as Katrina, because if a game gives me the chance to play as Utena then dammit that's what I'm going to do. Game told me to go to Pidona. Manifestly failed to find any trace of Katrina's plot or any plot there, so now I'm just wandering around doing random shit. SaGa games. Currently beating my head against the rats, the rats in the walls. fft

Poet wouldn't leave my party so I let monsters kill him (this took more effort than one might guess). I hope he doesn't come back. Shoulda listened when I told you to hit the road, asshole!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 18, 2013, 04:23:18 AM
The rats? You either need MT to deal with Algernon or to get the poison from the professor in the forest to know which rat to hit every round (it's the one that doesn't take damage from the poizn). The thing is pretty danged frail (like 3000 HP? Um yeah), but its offense can easily mangle even parties nearing the 400s due to being so heavily gravity-based. Of course, if you learn Great Wheel with someone, the fight completely fails. Also, Katrina's plot is just killing Maximus, which is pretty much the blunt of Herman's quest. :saga:

EDIT: IN FAIRNESS, if you're doing random shit, you're doin' it rite.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Ranmilia on January 18, 2013, 08:08:56 AM
Knytt Underground:  broke down and got it after Cid's post.  Plotstuff/characters are fine, the gameplay feels like a bit of a step back so far, but I'm only through Chapter 1.  At least sliding down walls is gone.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 18, 2013, 11:11:09 AM
Chapter 1&2 are quite short and basically mechanical introductions (1: you can climb walls; 2: you can bounce around). Chapter 3 is where they cut you loose for free exploration and is really the bulk of the game.

They definitely do less with ball mode here than they did in WaDF (there aren't multiple ball types this time); the design focus was clearly to provide challenges that require you to utilize both modes and the new, temporary movement powerups you find in some rooms (I can't recall whether these exist in chapter 1, but the glowing flower things). It doesn't always work as well as it possibly could, but I think they were very creative with the simple mechanics involved. Once you hit chapter 3 you can go literally anywhere if you're inventive enough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Ranmilia on January 18, 2013, 11:27:05 AM
Yeah, I see that now that I finished chapter 2.  Feels like I'm missing a ton of secrets though - the only two I've gotten are Knytt Stories and Fireworks, despite spending a fair bit of time checking places.  I even found a secret room at the start of C2, but couldn't find anything to actually do in it...  We'll see.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 18, 2013, 08:26:34 PM
The game is loaded with secrets. The only actual trophy I got was indeed Fireworks. Apparently there's a whole bonus area of a couple hundred extra rooms that I totally overlooked. Will have to knock that out over the weekend. Good news is I don't think much of anything is permanently missable (there is apparently one trophy that I can't see anyone getting without considerable advance knowledge of the map...but whatever, trophies, I'm more interested in seeing every cool thing on the map).

Shortcuts are absolutely everywhere, so it generally pays to check out any random empty space that looks suspiciously close to Mi's height.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 18, 2013, 09:12:32 PM
Is that PCable?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 18, 2013, 09:45:08 PM
It is not currently on Steam, but I believe Nifflas's site has links for purchase elsewhere.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 18, 2013, 09:48:30 PM
Yeah, Irotins just provided. Though I may buy it when I swap to wi-fi anyway (now that I have a PS3).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 19, 2013, 12:27:36 AM
The rats? You either need MT to deal with Algernon or to get the poison from the professor in the forest to know which rat to hit every round (it's the one that doesn't take damage from the poizn). The thing is pretty danged frail (like 3000 HP? Um yeah)

It didn't live through two whole turns when I came back with the poison.

Killed Volcano and recruited Undine because magegirl. She does something like 2x average PC damage and she does it MT. Uh.

Went to Vanguard. They have a fishman problem. Their solution is to move the town. No one's real clear on how to do this, but they're giving me money for it anyway.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on January 19, 2013, 05:29:42 AM
Wait, so you give up on the shield?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on January 19, 2013, 05:43:12 AM
Super Robot Academy - finished with

Finished all the subscenarios. The reward was being able to re-view all the in-game images in a roundabout fashion. Great.

Ended up on 80% collection. Most of the missing ones are alternate versions - I only seem to be missing two units completely, both VirtualOn ones. Pretty sure one of them is Tangram, not sure about the other but who cares about VirtualOn anyway.

Things got a bit annoying to handle with my regular team once the opponents started flagrantly violating the team cost limit, so I threw together a new team which I ended up using most of the endgame, which was Tru Getta 1, J-Ark, Boss Borot, Big Shooter (new), Big Shooter (old). Latter three were originally intended mostly for EN regen purposes but because TG is bizarrely horrible at staying alive they ended up being used in combat a lot more than expected.

I'm pretty annoyed about how they put in far too many ZAKU variants (1 ZAKU Warrior, 2 Gunner ZAKU Warriors, 3 Blaze ZAKU Phantoms, 1 Slash ZAKU Phantom, 3 GOUF Igniteds) and un-improved Zoids units (Lanstag & Lanstag Break, etc) and so forth, and meanwhile didn't put in any Tekkaman Blade units. Also had barely any representation from several J-era serieses which to be fair they would probably have needed to do new sprite work for. Only (Reinforced?) Layzner from Layzner, only Zeorhymer from Zeorhymer... also only Orgun from Detonator Orgun, which is a bit odd seeing as it's W-era. Also no Voltron, unless it's the second unit I'm missing that I thought was VirtualOn (it is at the break between VirtualOn and Endless Waltz so could conceivably be another one-off). Also only the title units representing Combattler V/Voltes V/Dancougar, but that was the case in J/W/K anyway so I can't get too angry about it (YES I CAN).

EDIT: Okay, Voltron's actually on the front of the box, so it has to be it and Tangram that I missed. I can say that I never saw any opponents use it against me either though.

Anyway it isn't very good all up. I turned all the animations off after a handful of battles and it was still annoyingly slow. There's a small delay between the battle menu coming up and the cursor being movable which resulted in me going into the wrong menu a noticeable number of times because I tried to move too early and it didn't. Selecting to attack fades the battle podium scene out then fades the weapon list in, picking a weapon fades the weapon list out then fades the podium scene back in, and it's aggravatingly slow. Cancelling the weapon fades out/in to the weapon list again, and so on. You can't see your tick counter while you're choosing a weapon (or an enemy to attack), so if you need to recheck it you need to fade/fade back (twice) and the fade/fade forward again (twice). Similar problems with the spirit screen and some others.




My brother bought All The Bravest and I played a little of it. It's definitely pretty mindless, but I don't mind it? Going to agree that some of the 'premium' charges are dumb, but from what I played I'd consider getting it if they brought out a 3DS version (that wasn't crippled in some way).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 19, 2013, 08:33:28 AM
So they have Voltron on the box and it is missable?  I would be so mad.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on January 19, 2013, 10:35:56 AM
If you weren't already aware, SRAcademy is only vaguely related to SRW and doesn't play very similarly. Units are just pieces, the pilots aren't characters, and they're essentially all gotten from a capsule machine. (Sometimes you can get units after winning a match but this is rare, and even then half the time the units are common ones anyway. Something I forgot to complain about.) So just poor luck on my part.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 19, 2013, 11:56:06 AM
Wait, so you give up on the shield?

Bwuh? Dude, I have no idea what anything is/where anything is in this game, I'm just going with whatever I blunder across. Don't assume I know what the optimal course of action might be.

Anyway I'm in a village of lobster people that live in igloos made from starfish. This game!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 19, 2013, 10:03:01 PM
Fire Emblem 10 - Doing a no reset playthrough (aside from Lord death). Lost Meg and Edward fairly early, and leaned on Volug and Sothe and Naliah to coast me through the rest of the chapter. Leo gained 5 speed! He might be the best Leo I've ever had (not that that says much, he usually dies).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 20, 2013, 12:35:28 AM
Wait, so you give up on the shield?

Bwuh? Dude, I have no idea what anything is/where anything is in this game, I'm just going with whatever I blunder across. Don't assume I know what the optimal course of action might be.

Anyway I'm in a village of lobster people that live in igloos made from starfish. This game!

Are you going to recruit Boston? He's surprisingly solid aside from his crappy armor, dumping his durability a fair deal. HIS WATER MAGIC GETS A 1.25x DAMAGE BONUS TOO (why wouldn't you use his MA instead)

EDIT: Also, the shield isn't that hot. The damage resistances are pretty amazing (and a solid rate for the activation), but eeeeeeeeeeeeeew doubled costs for all techs and magic. But anyhow, if this is relevant for future playthroughs, to get the shield, you agree to kill both Undine and Volcano, but then instead of killing either, you talk to the guys guarding the wells in-between North and South Moses. They'll leave and let you enter the Dead Man's Well, which is where you get the shield. Scour the dungeon, get the goody and then you'll get into a boss fight with both Undine and Volcano (psssssst use ID on them). Beat them up and neither dies while you keep the shield, then you can recruit Undine as well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 20, 2013, 05:17:08 AM
I would so not use anything that doubled skill costs.

I don't know if I could bring myself to run with a lobster person in the party. There's only so much ridiculous I can take. I mean, I know I just beat up a demon car while riding on another demon car, but come on, I've got limits.

So I've just now noticed that mastering a tech doesn't only just make it a permanent part of the user's skill list. It makes it a part of everyone's skill list. This means that instead of just having a Nora with Great Wheel, I have an entire party that knows Great Wheel. This poor game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on January 20, 2013, 12:27:55 PM
Rune Factory 3: one day in and everyone is fucking insane
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on January 20, 2013, 11:34:40 PM
Quote
Lost Edward fairly early

And nothing of value was lost.

Oh right, games. Playing Pokeymanz because I can't practice WA4. I've been meaning to go back to my run >_>
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 21, 2013, 12:46:03 AM
Street Fighter x Mega Man - Beat this. Short little game, no shock there. The version I've played didn't have any sort of save files or password system (apparently a newer version has changed this), so I ended up playing it the way I did old NES games: just getting good enough to beat it in one sitting. Worked out pretty well. Anyway, it's a decent enough game. Boss design is where it shines... you can tell they put a lot of love into translating the Street Fighter bosses into Mega Man opponents. Most of them are great. I found Rose the hardest of the robot masters and Vega the hardest overall. Stage design is... less good. It has its moments certainly but overall it's kinda iffy with a couple outright bad stages (Chun Li's is the most boring), and is hurt by a few glitches at points (elevators crushing you against top of the screen, ugh). Weapons are middle-of-the-road in terms of design.

Dante Must Die - Up to Mundus. He's a really, really big jerk. Just FYI.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 21, 2013, 01:08:59 AM
Rune Factory 3: one day in and everyone is fucking insane

Gust game?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on January 21, 2013, 01:54:41 AM
Defense Grid- Been playing the Containment beta. They actually bothered to put a storyline into the game this time. It's minimalist enough to work. The levels are fairly tough. You don't have the orbital laser for the last few maps, and oh *god* do you feel it on Auger.

Tales of Maj'eyal- Jim showed this off at he last minimeet, and I was interested enough to give it a spin. I'm running an Alchemist. It's clear a lot of love and thought was put into the main game, with a hugely diverse cast and a lot of balance. That said, I found the game to be vastly improved with an Alchemist, since it has a second PC with him. I really wish this were turned more into a traditional RPG.  Having a party of three or four characters would be amazing with the depth of the system.  I also really dislike permadeath as a mechanic (one reason I don't care for rougelikes).  The gameplay is good enough to get me to overlook that, but blah.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 21, 2013, 02:11:33 AM
I am bad and should feel bad.

Permadeath is fine, it is just a question of balancing it right.  Roguelikes do it well from the direction of it generally being the loss condition (ToME is different but it still works there).  X-Com does it well by making it punishing but recoverable with nameless faceless entities.

Persona 4 - I have just got through Heaven and got to the climax after that.  Just before choice for FRUE ENDING my Vita ran out of power.  So I am going to probably spend all afternoon quoting saying PREVIOUSLY ON X-MEN since I will be picking it back up on a majour cliff hanger.

Like so many other games, spoiling the mystery gives me far more enjoyment out of it.  You get to notice the finer art of the story telling on your first time through with foreshadowing and knowing red herrings for what they are.

Sure I could appreciate it on a replay, but when it is 50 hours plus I am less enamoured with that as an argument.  Enjoying Momento watching it the second time only sinks 3 hours out of your life (watching it twice back to back).  What could end up being 100+ hours of gameplay on the other hand that is less enjoyable.

Especially when the solution is one you couldn't really see coming.  Also watching the execution is so much more fun without knowing the finer details which spoilers tends to never sufficiently do.  Like at this point?  I don't quite fully get Adachi, but he is a real piece of work if he is consciously driving the entire thing.  Him doing so would honestly be a little disappointing in a Persona game though.

What I would love to see the execution being is that by this point he isn't really on board with it, but his Id is in full swing and he doesn't have the finer control he did when he was kidnapping Saki/Yukiko etc.  Things like Jester ranking up when you rescue Nanako really kind of hint at this.


I honestly don't expect that finer level of execution from Atlus though, they are very much style over substance even at their best (which P4 really is to the point I would even recommend it to people who weren't really on board with P3).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on January 21, 2013, 03:48:05 AM
Permadeath is an atrocious mechanic in single person games and I never find it to be acceptable. I am less and less tolerant of that as I get older. It's just another way to waste the player's time and artificially make the game longer. ToM does a fantastic job with fast, compelling gameplay otherwise, which is why I am sticking with it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on January 21, 2013, 04:38:13 AM
Permadeath is an atrocious mechanic in single person games and I never find it to be acceptable.

There's tons of games where permanent unit death is acceptable.  You just need to be able to procure more units.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 21, 2013, 04:41:45 AM
I assume you mean like single player stuff, then even then it really depends on implementation.

I kind of want to keep talking about this because it is a fascinating gameplay topic really, especially with the sides we fall on Super in that you tend to like your games a touch harder than I do (and like FE well enough) where I tend to be a pretty soft touch when wanting to be engaged as an entry level player.  I don't want to really bog down WGAYP with big rants etc though, going to post a short bit in my discussion topic http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,5699.msg151670.html#msg151670 if you want to rabble about it.

Edit - Do want to of course note, the design for permadeath in solo games vs multiple unit games does need to be approached from different directions (although can be worked around with readily available replacements in both cases).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 21, 2013, 05:45:36 PM
I'll chime in and say that Perma-deaths being an actual flaw is an execution thing and all that.

FE games, at least more modern ones, handle it well for example (especially since the addition of Casual mode, for entry level players.  With the exception of "Bullshit Crits", FE games give you a sense of control.  You can see enemy stats, see who will live, position characters to avoid it, heck, you can even see enemies Attack Radius, so you legitimately find out safe spots, and not get gimped unexpected terrain nonsense.  It's not perfect, but often when you die in FE, it's your fault, not the game's; I say "often" because, again, there are some random factors that you can't help.  I suppose you could argue "You shouldn't have changed that 1% Crit with someone who couldn't survive the blow!" but then there are cases where no one CAN legitimately survive it even at full HP (this is a rare, exceptional circumstance, I'm aware.)

X-Com, as noted, is another good case.  Since everyone is a generic of sorts, that means every character you lose is replace-able to some degree.  Losing a high level unit of course sucks, but not only are higher level units more durable in nature, there's nothing inherently special about them (besides Psychic y/n?), so it's lost ground that can be made up.  It's a set back, depending on how many units you have, but a recover-able one.

Then we have FFT and TOPSP, where perma-death's exist, but there's a grace phase.  Given the nature of the games, that's fine; sometimes you can't avoid taking loads of damage, and trying to 2nd guess the AI without being a complete nerd at the game isn't realistic, so at least when you hit 0 HP, you can still save the unit via Resurrection (also resets the gauge) or finishing the fight fast.

Tactics Ogre (original) and Hoshi, meanwhile?  Examples of games pulling it off badly, and it detracting from the game.  No real way to prevent it, if enemies bum rush one character, they can be dead, lots of praying the RNG doesn't screw you over, etc.  They're clear cases where Perma-death was a very bad design decision (TO at least acknowledged it with the remake, as addressed above.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on January 21, 2013, 07:53:28 PM
Suiko series permadeath is best permadeath.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 21, 2013, 08:37:41 PM
Suiko Tactics actually has regular kind of SRPG permadeath but is wonky as fuck and really strange.  Random chance for permanent death when characters die.  Unless you are a plot character.  From anywhere like 20% chance to 50% chance to die from memory.  It is weeeeeird.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 21, 2013, 08:53:09 PM
Suikoden Tactics's is goofy because it just makes you use people who can't die.

Speaking of permadeath...

Fire Emblem 10, no resets: Boyd and Shinon have been added to the list of the deceased, now I get to tackle another Dawn Brigade map~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on January 21, 2013, 09:45:06 PM
Oh, no. I didn't mean SuikoTactics. That is shitty permadeath.

I meant the maingame Suikoden version of permadeath.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 21, 2013, 10:28:17 PM
Oh, no. I didn't mean SuikoTactics. That is shitty permadeath.

I meant the maingame Suikoden version of permadeath.

Where characters can spontaneously perma-die in strategy battles because "Fuck you"?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 21, 2013, 10:45:46 PM
Or specific character didn't have enough of a certain stat (maybe) or equipment (maybe) or you did t pick the right dialogue option fast enough (maybe) during a plot event.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on January 21, 2013, 11:29:21 PM
Yep. Better simulates the harsh mysteries of life and death in the world.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on January 22, 2013, 02:03:53 AM
In fairness to Suikoden Tactics though, the main characters are overall great characters you should be using anyway.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 22, 2013, 02:10:53 AM
Which just means the game ends up with shitty character balance, I guess.


Replayed MM3 on a whim after beating SFxMM, have moved onto playing F-Zero X on my old games kick. I'm kinda waiting around for Awakening at this point. Also, set a new record against DMD Mundus 2: 50% of his health! Go me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on January 22, 2013, 02:21:42 AM
It's a suikoden game.  You don't expect it to have character balance.

Well you could.  But it would only end in disappointment.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 22, 2013, 02:58:18 AM
Well, that mechanic makes it sound like it has bad character balance by the standards of the series!


Wait. I take that back. One does not simply design a cast more unbalanced than Suikoden 1's.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 22, 2013, 03:16:03 AM
Somehow, they make a few permakillable characters (I think more than a few, even) worth using anyway. Nalleo, tiny destroyer of worlds, come forth.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Ranmilia on January 22, 2013, 03:24:06 AM
Knytt Underground.

Still playing this, bits at a time.  After about 15 hours of messing around in the intro chapters and every secret bonus area I could find, I finally managed to put off my completionist tendencies enough to start getting into the meat of the game and exploring Chapter 3.  My completionist tendencies were immediately punched in the gonads.  This map is HOW big?  For every quest, you have to choose only one of the fairies to handle it?!  There's a Dark World with no map, no vision, time limits, and you have to spend limited consumables just to enter it?!?!  Oh god oh god I don't dare do ANYTHING-

- but, the game is a lot more fun and engaging than I originally gave it credit for.  I forgot to post yesterday but I was going to say "Ehn this game's all right but I'm not sure it's worth the price".  Today I'm convinced it is. 

The flaws that were bugging me are still there - bad physics on ball stuff, samey environments due to all the terrain being undetailed black, and no manual saves or suicide button making for long backtracks when you screw something up.  But the world is designed so that they don't matter all that much.  The puzzles are still clever and don't make you fight the controls (except in sadistic secret areas), the environments are a pleasure to experience even if a lot of them feel similar, and... okay, well, I hope there's going to be some sort of fast travel introduced at some point because this map is GIGANTIC, but it hasn't been too much of a pain to navigate yet.  The music and ambiance is amazing and the game is just really, really fun to play.

So yeah, seconding Cid's recommendation, people should pick this up and give it a go. (http://nifflas.ni2.se/?page=Knytt+Underground)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on January 22, 2013, 03:40:17 AM
It's not really that the story characters are necessarily the best ones in the game (Lazlo excepted.  He is pretty much inarguably the best character in the game, but that's why he's an optional secret character), so much as they're all very good and using a team composed entirely of them will still give you a balanced party.  Some of the non-story characters do bring unique stuff to the table (Wendel's got ridiculous stats, Mitusba's variable innate is handy and she's far better than the story 2H sword user), but usually they're similar.  Maybe a llittel better or a little worse, but not really too much different, except the story characters all join earlier so... you're probably already using someone in that role, excepting Lino who joins way late.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 22, 2013, 03:43:03 AM
Also, all of the archers except the endgame nameless non-star filler are unkillable. Because ST archers WEREN'T GOOD ENOUGH.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 22, 2013, 11:05:58 AM
Alex: I told you you were playing it backwards, dammit! Also, I'm convinced it makes no difference which fairy you let talk aside from seeing different dialogue (but then again, there are still three blank quest slots in my menu and I've explored the entire map aside from this one five-square line I can't open up).

The Disorder is actually your means of fast travel, though it's kind of bewildering figuring out exactly where it's taking you. There is a map of sorts for the place (it's on the wall in a secret room) but you can't check it while you're in there and anyway it's kind of hard to know exactly where you are when entering the Disorder until you've spent some time wandering around in there. You can mostly just skip the place if it's too confusing. Fortunately, the only thing the place is actually required for (the secret ending) isn't too much of a problem--I managed to blunder through with just a vague notion that there were secret passages in the N/S/E/W walls I needed to find. Took maybe a third of my crystal stock? The game gives you a ton of those things over the course of the game.

The physics are imperfect, yeah, but it's fun anyway. And so goddamn pretty, aurally and visually.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on January 22, 2013, 11:25:30 AM
RF3: MC ATK with axe and 21 axe levels: 25

random little girl with oversized lollipop ATK: 192

I'm on the losing team
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on January 22, 2013, 07:47:01 PM
Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3- Finished.  There's still the bonus campaign which I'll probably sit down and play in the next couple days but yeah.

This is a pretty natural evolution of Zeboyd's work, and putting PA's creative team behind the core story shores up the weakness both earlier games had nicely- the story actually ramps up rather than petering out as you go.  Not so much that the story or humor has changed or improved drastically as it's more consistent; like, that thing where after the first couple dungeons in Cthulhu where it becomes a straight dungeon crawler and you stop really having party interaction.  That's what's changed.

Gameplay of course is where you see the real evolution.  Where BoDVII is Dragon Quest++++, and Cthulhu is PSIV with modern sensibilities, PA3 is Grandia with actual enemy design.  Items are refined in a new way, where they regenerate after every battle but how many you can use and how powerful they are is influenced by findable/purchasable upgrades.  The class system has potential but is held back a bit by the usual menu issues.  While you can go into the menu and look at what class skills do, you have to have a class equipped to do it.  So if a class you're not using gets a skill you either let it slide or fuck about with equipment to take a look.  Nothing gamebreaking, just needless tedium to prove Zeboyd still has weird struggles with menus.

Looking at high 7, low 8 range.  Will have to pull out the list to get a better feel for that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 22, 2013, 09:06:34 PM
Romancing Saga 3: Trucking through Leonid's castle, goddamn this place is long, already burned through half my party resources and there's miniboss after miniboss and argh, another one? Well, the last couple weren't too hard, this shouldn't be--

*Yami almost completely massacres the party in a single round*

...You know, game, if you didn't want me to be here right now, you could've told me at the door.

So I went and did other stuff:

-Fishman is down. Holy hell plot bosses have a truckload of health in this game. He wasn't real threatening, mostly just a wall of HP. If he felt like spamming MT it could've been a problem, but fortunately he didn't. I've yet to find any castable MT healing, if such a thing exists in this game, so competent MT damage is automatically terrifying. This is kind of why I gave up on Aunas when I tried him first, much earlier in the game.

-Apparently Not!China is run by humorless authoritarians. Who would've guessed?

-Maximus was laughably feeble. Apparently he gets support once your whole party rejoins? He did not live long enough for that to occur. And wow that was a ridiculous haul for the most pathetic boss I've encountered so far. I'm guessing there's some gimmick to the Masquerade? Because 9 attack power is pretty uh. (I haven't trained anyone in epees anyway, so it hardly matters.) The Divine Tower is the architectural embodiment of futility, incidentally. I had to laugh. Supposed to be the center of a religious movement, filled with people wandering aimlessly around an endless series of unfurnished dead-end rooms. Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.

-Jesus, you guys weren't exaggerating, Ellen's a beast.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 23, 2013, 02:30:46 AM
Romancing Saga 3: Trucking through Leonid's castle, goddamn this place is long, already burned through half my party resources and there's miniboss after miniboss and argh, another one? Well, the last couple weren't too hard, this shouldn't be--

*Yami almost completely massacres the party in a single round*

...You know, game, if you didn't want me to be here right now, you could've told me at the door.

^_^

Quote from: Ciddy-kins
So I went and did other stuff:

-Fishman is down. Holy hell plot bosses have a truckload of health in this game. He wasn't real threatening, mostly just a wall of HP. If he felt like spamming MT it could've been a problem, but fortunately he didn't. I've yet to find any castable MT healing, if such a thing exists in this game, so competent MT damage is automatically terrifying. This is kind of why I gave up on Aunas when I tried him first, much earlier in the game.

The only MT healing you ever get is Shatter Staff from the Life Cane and Rune Staff, which, guess what, shatters it. Life Canes are also incredibly limited in amount. So um yeah. Also, the deal with Forneus is that Maelstrom is such a -dick- move. MT ID that deals considerable damage in a game where you have four-five shots -per playthrough- of MT healing? Seriously, game?

Quote from: Ciddy-kins
-Apparently Not!China is run by humorless authoritarians. Who would've guessed?

Bai Mei Niang isn't humorless!

Quote from: Ciddy-kins
-Maximus was laughably feeble. Apparently he gets support once your whole party rejoins? He did not live long enough for that to occur. And wow that was a ridiculous haul for the most pathetic boss I've encountered so far. I'm guessing there's some gimmick to the Masquerade? Because 9 attack power is pretty uh. (I haven't trained anyone in epees anyway, so it hardly matters.) The Divine Tower is the architectural embodiment of futility, incidentally. I had to laugh. Supposed to be the center of a religious movement, filled with people wandering aimlessly around an endless series of unfurnished dead-end rooms. Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.

Maximus is a -wuss-. OHNOES 4-5HKO PHYSICAL DAMAGE and his support is hilariously vulnerable to ID. Dimension Chop/Day Break make short work of it. Really, the true boss of that gauntlet is that fucking Red Dragon they drop on you when you reach the top of the tower.

Also, the Masquerade has the Awakening skill, which turns it into a 35 power greatsword, so it's a weapon you can use to quickly raise Epee levels (garnering considerable extra WP in the process, since WP growth depends entirely on your total weapon levels) and still get proper damage with great swords. It's nothing -impressive-, but it's there. Also, cookie points for the Talking Heads reference.

Quote from: Ciddy-kins
-Jesus, you guys weren't exaggerating, Ellen's a beast.

She's just quietly awesome like that. Are you raising her on Axes, Martial Arts or both?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 23, 2013, 11:03:09 AM
Just axes. Occasionally hammers because hey same proficiency, but eh, mostly axes. Haven't really messed with martial arts. Should probably try anything that boosts her TP because Demon King Axe. I don't want to use anything that doubles tech costs but shiny shiny numbers.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 23, 2013, 12:18:54 PM
MA is a good bet for her because her learning type specializes in it (also happening to get a gamut of good axe techs) and she has a +3 growth on martial arts as well. Also, her speed and strength combo lends well to it, since the formula for MA runs off both stats and some of the lategame MA techs are utterly -nuts- (Tiger Break, I'm looking at YOU. Pity it's a bitch to learn, but maaaaaaaaaaaaan. ITD damage running off the MA formula that boosts strength with each casting? That's in the running for best attack in the game -period-. In order to learn it: first, learn Instant Power. Earlyish game tech, can be learned from a basic punch, 4 WP. Then, spam Instant Power to learn Evil Breaker. THEN you spam Evil Breaker until you spark Tiger Break. Good luck).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 23, 2013, 12:35:45 PM
<Snow> Breaking the game in half with my dick is my second favourite feeling.  You will never guess the first you guys.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 23, 2013, 12:39:31 PM
It also involves dicks. :thejoke:
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on January 23, 2013, 04:37:41 PM
ToM: Just beat the boss on tempest peak. Talk about a bitch of a fight- he had crazy offense and durability.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on January 23, 2013, 08:25:18 PM
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

Swashbuckler main. Neera. Branwen. Rest of the party is kind of ambiguous, but trying to vary from my common PCs. Currently hanging out with Xan and Kagain. Still angling for Good/Neutral. Considering adding Viconia/Kivan/Yeslick? Might just shuffle PCs a bunch.

Cleared Nashkal Mines. Forgot how goddamn fragile earlygame PCs are. Holy hell have I reset way too many times.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on January 23, 2013, 11:21:49 PM
In order to learn it: first, learn Instant Power. Earlyish game tech, can be learned from a basic punch, 4 WP. Then, spam Instant Power to learn Evil Breaker. THEN you spam Evil Breaker until you spark Tiger Break. Good luck).

Saga games: Still sound like complete and total awful ass.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 24, 2013, 12:05:51 AM
Nearly no net right now, but:

- Damn I didn't even get Tiger Break. It's better than Dragon Power? I'll try learning it on an Asura.
- Cid: Awesome. Also, don't forget that weapon power matters less and less as you get levels. Yattaf doing Golden Dragon with the starting sword = 2600 damage. Yattaf doing Golden Dragon with the best smithing sword: 3000 damage
- Zenny: Did you know that the FF12 Zodiac Spear guy is the SaGa guy?
(I really like the guy)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 24, 2013, 12:13:40 AM
Tiger Break deals roughly equal damage to Dragon Inferno first cast, but ignores defense, buffs Strength when you cast it and it's cheaper.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 24, 2013, 12:36:31 AM
Sounds awesome, and maybe enough to beat Forneus.
But I can't learn it. I am frameskipping the hell out of Asura and can't learn it. Are you sure Evil Breaker is the tech i need to use?

There's also a special anti Forneus martial arts tech too, but I don't know how to learn it either.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 24, 2013, 12:38:32 AM
Niagara Buster? That thing has accuracy issues. You can learn it from Giant Swing or Air Throw, if I'm not off. Also, keep in mind Tiger Break has one of the highest difficulty spark levels in the GAME, and Spears aren't a type that gets a lot of MA techs either. You're gonna need a lot of patience, I only got it once myself.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 24, 2013, 01:02:02 AM
And "fish slaying" apparently means "300 more damage"

Tiger Break just looks impossible to learn right now. The amout of frameskipping against Asuras I've just done now amounts to what, 10 real life hours of grinding just to learn Tiger Break?
I'm almost more tempted to restart, picking martial arts as my main weapon or something.

(I ask because some guy said you need to use Powerup Fist instead of Evil Breaker)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 24, 2013, 02:00:19 AM
RS3: Cool BGM remix in the lower levels of the Devil Palace. Boss was a wuss, but I guess it's kind of inevitable I'd be overpowered for the last one I fought. So that's all the four fiends abyss lords down, I guess now I just have to track down the local Temple of Fiends analogue and--

--wait, game, did you just take away my main healer? And replace her with some random kid who has ass for weapon levels? Get out of my party, kid! No, I don't care where you're gonna go! Goddammit.

(Does it pick someone random for that, or what?)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 24, 2013, 02:28:29 AM
I don't remember the details, but I suggest only having the 5 main people in the party for the endgame just because of that prick. (And I suggest reseting and doing the last China arc all over again unless someone in the team has Reviver + lots of MP, since you're not getting that healer back)

So it turns out Tiger Break can only be learnt with Powerup fist.
List of techniques Yattaf needs from now on:
- Tiger Break

It actually does deal a good 300 or so more damage than Dragon Inferno right now, for a smaller cost. And the damage boost is noticeable too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 24, 2013, 02:37:13 AM
EDIT: OH WAIT yes the reason why the game hates you if you play Commander Mode. I don't remember the specifics myself.

EDIT2: Were you using Sara?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 24, 2013, 02:40:42 AM
Yeeeeeeep. I mean, I still have Undine, but this game frequently makes me feel two healers are necessary just because MT healing does not exist (and anyway I'd rather have Undine chucking lightning bolts at people given opportunity).

And no one has Reviver because I have never even used fire magic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 24, 2013, 03:01:22 AM
Man, my condolences. Sara gets taken from you forever after the abyss lords are dead if she's not a main, which is a kick in the balls. Your backup bet is pretty much handing Sun/Moon/Earth/Water to someone else or just recruit a PC who starts with one of those spell schools. Or have someone with high Mace levels with a Life Cane handy if you're desperate. If you need a Fire user, Sharl is probably where you want to go if you wanna use Reviver (protip: you probably do). The last recruitable PC, Yan Fan, also starts with Moon Magic and may be less painful to raise if you just want a healer. I'd probably grab him and hand Ellen a Life Cane for dire emergencies, since revival is the biggest deal about RS3 healing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on January 24, 2013, 03:16:34 AM
- Zenny: Did you know that moregamesthatareawfulandbad
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on January 24, 2013, 11:47:03 AM
A.R.E.S. - played through

Fine but short. Also turns out that I'm still no good at mouseaiming in platformers.

I replayed the first half of the game to pick up 'cubes that I'd missed the first time around, but there didn't seem to be any point in playing any further once I'd gotten the last one. So I didn't. Not planning on playing hard mode either.



Stealth Bastard Deluxe - played through the first world

Seems fairly good so far outside of some technical issues.

The equipment system seems a little off given that you need to beat each level multiple times to unlock use of it on the same level, and as far as I'm aware times you get while using any don't count for S-ranking, so... what's the point of it?

Unsure if I'm going to try to S-rank every level or not. Already pretty sure I'm not going to try for the helix in every level, seeing as I played a couple first world levels multiple times without getting any ideas to where it was in any of them.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on January 24, 2013, 08:16:11 PM
Romancing SaGa 3 - Just started, picked Thomas as my main via Hatbot. So far he and Ellen are p.good and the other three are kinda bad.

Thomas using Spears because I like spears. Ellen punching things because I noticed she has more punching things skill then axe skill. And also because I like punching.

Supposed to escort the princess to some vampire lord dude, but not let him turn her into a vampire. I can already see how this is going to go badly.

ALso, quick question for folks more familiar with the game. When do I become able to get magic, and what kind of magic is there to get?

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 24, 2013, 08:36:25 PM
You can get magic just by talking to the robed guys inside any city and buying spells. At Podolui, city of the vampire guy,there's a guy selling Moon Magic at the bar. You can give any given character one of Fire/Water/Earth/Wind and one of Sun/Moon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 24, 2013, 09:25:30 PM
Vampire guy is basically the worst vampire ever, incidentally.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 24, 2013, 10:03:28 PM
He's a pretty good PC, though!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 24, 2013, 11:14:25 PM
I still cracked up when his response to an innocent princess staying a night in his haunted castle with some low-level, ineffectual bodyguards was "Sure, whatever. Just clear out in the morning."

EDIT: SRW OGs2. Holy god this is amazing.

There's a weapon called the Free Electron Cannon that shows up in Special Mode as one of the free items. Since the game came out it's been generally assumed that you can't get it normally - maxing out kill counts, killing bosses with their rivals, all produced nothing. Well, now we know differently. It is...drumroll please...A RUSSEL SECRET.

Free Electron Canon
- By the end of Stage 47, Russel's kill count must be 50 or higher
- On stage 48, have Russel shoot down at least 15 enemies
- On the same stage by the end of turn 4, have Russel shoot down Umbra as the main pilot of a twin.

Umbra retreats at 18,000 HP. Russel does not learn Valor. He also does not learn Accel, which is all but necessary to get close enough to Umbra to even be in attacking range of him/her (it's not entirely clear what Umbra is) in four turns.

This has (supposedly) been tested. Screenshots have been posted.
YESZ.jpg
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: MC50 on January 25, 2013, 01:05:28 AM
Super Robot Wars OGs 2: Played through. A lot of fun! Played on EX Hard, as my roommate beat the game before me. Got about 52 skill points. Wasn't trying for them all, just enough to get the final level.

Granzon was my top ace, with nearly 200 kills. He's clearly the strongest unit in the game - even on EX hard with no upgrades he's practically invincible.
Second top ace was... Ryoto, in the Armorlion, with 180 kills. He was also one of my best units, and he joins very early. The strongest twin I had for the whole game was Yuuki (Main) (Rathgrith Raven) and Ryoto (Sub) (Armorlion)

I think the Rathgrith Raven is the single most useful mech in the game. It got me basically every skill point in the EX portion of the game with Yuuki's twin spirit, it's as durable as a Grungust, but very dodgy. It's got a lot of power against everything but bosses... But that's why you have your other 30 units. And he joins incredibly early. Sure, mechs like Exexbein or Geant Chevalier (probably the #2 and #3 strongest mechs that I found) are better, but him and Ryoto were useful the whole game - I had them cover the entire left side in the final level! And I wouldn't dare send mechs like Aussenseiter, Vysaga, or Compatible Kaiser anywhere near those guys, or they'd get torn apart.

Anyway, the game was fun. Honestly, with a few exceptions (Guests, lategame plane enemies) the grunts were actually pretty tame. And your guys get way more accurate as you go on, which kind of surprised me considering earlygame hit rates. SP was also never a concern outside of a couple of lategame levels (The last Earth Route split level was tough, as I wasn't expecting the Air Christmas to show up, and I had blown all my SP earlier.)

Still, it was a lot of fun. And the last boss was tough, hitting half my guys with his spirit lock, including both people that have the cure status spirit, leaving half my guys unable to attack for the first turn.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on January 25, 2013, 01:34:38 AM
A RUSSEL SECRET.

...YESZ
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 25, 2013, 02:56:09 AM
RS3: What do you mean I can't suplex Gwayne?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 25, 2013, 02:57:21 AM
Some enemies have that tag! Like dragons! Some others don't, but throws have accuracy issues anyway.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 25, 2013, 03:05:32 AM
Incidentally, is there anything at the bottom of the Ancient Cave worth caring about? That's about all there is left to do other than endgame (well, and Yami. Fuck Yami.) I went in and tooled around for a while until I ran out of resources, place did not seem in a great hurry to end.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on January 25, 2013, 03:12:46 AM
Ni no Kuni:

Pretty game. Pleasant OST. An earlygame bird killed me because I was overconfident from playing the demo.

Got to just where the demo would leave off. It's too early to comment, but the system DOES look promising. You fight ARPG style with fast-casting spells. You can send out monsters to fight in your stead who have their own Atk/Def/MAtk/MDef/Acc/Eva, but they share your HP/MP. It feels vaguely like an ARPG Pokemon. Good so far but we'll see how it's executed...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 25, 2013, 03:16:39 AM
Playstation All Stars Battle Royale: So...I beat the game with every character.  THOUGHTS ON THE OTHER HALF OF THE CAST!!!

Ratchet and Klank:  Did I talk about him yet?  I seriously can't remember.  Whatever, he's essentially a combination of Fox and Rocket Raccoon.  Also gets a theme song when he uses his level 1 which is pretty good.

Jak and Daxter:  A far more gimmicky and less intuitive version of the above, as well as weird supers.  I don't think they're necessarily worse, just R&K are way more straight forward and user friendly than J&D, I feel.

Big Daddy: He's about what you expect out of a bruiser.  Level 1 is awkward, great level 2 though, and seems to build up fast.  STill has all the typical Bowser-problems, in a game where being Heavy doesn't help as much because kill condition doesn't really care.

Dante: Weird one.  They captured the DmC Free Flow combos thing well, and if you're good at that, you can work him pretty well, if you can't, you'll suck with him.  This is similar to his MvC3 self really.  That said, one major flaw he has is that he's a huge liability in an FFA, because those long combos only work on one enemy for the most part, leading to opponents gimping you, seems like he's amazing in 1v1 or Teams 2v2 though.

Heihachi:  MANLINESS ABOUND!  Level 3 is worthless but the earlier Supers are good, so I guess he's fine.  He's...a well converted character from Tekken to Smash-like game, so really nothing to complain about, similar to Dante being well converted from his series.

Nariko:  Feels like some weird cross between Dante, Kratos, and Heihachi with a less versatile version of Nathan Drake's awkward level 1.  I can see why people say she's not really good.  BUT SHE HAS AN ABSURD LEVEL 3 THAT CAN KILL 9 TIMES ON THE DOJO LEVEL!!! ...because DOJO IS ONE STAGE AND NOT MEANT TO BE THE ONLY PLAYED, so that argument is ludicrous. 

Raiden: Holy mother of what the hell is OVERPOWERED GEEZ.  Unlike Kratos, though, he's not overpowered because "one move spam lol" there by promoting poor play tactics, it's more he has an answer to everything, and it's all kind of straight forward, with easy hit confirms into a level 1.  There was bound to be a character like this in the cast...there always is...and he might not be overpowered in higher level play where things equalize out a bit, so it's possible he's just the UMvC3 Wesker of this game, but still...damn does he stand out as really good.

Sackboy: ...extremely weird character...then again IT'S SACKBOY.  He seems to be actually pretty good at most things...except AP building.  Getting a kill with him is a pain for this reason, just because building up to level 1 feels like a chore.  I figured out a few a combos with him at least that helped a bit.

Sir Daniel Fortesque: I've seen people hype him as the worst character in the game, or at least running for it.  Honestly...I can see why.  He's got ok AP gains, but that level 1 is just kind of unforgivably bad; this game has a lot of small characters that it will flat out miss against, and it'll only hit normal sized opponents if he's at point blank, so really it's just going to hit Big Daddy at range.  Plus it's not that fast or anything.  His level 2 looks alright, but merely "alright" doesn't make up for a shoddy level 1 when a  number of characters have really good level 2's, and his level 3 is just weird and takes too long to kill things...yeah, not a very well designed character at all.

Zack: More straight forward than I was expecting, and kind of fun.  The only problem is cinematic level 3 meaning it's kind of useless unless you need unavoidable damage.  His level 2 was awkward, though more in how it killed than the actual move itself; instead of enemies dying on the spot, they'd actually freeze for a second, be stunned, THEN die.  Why they do this, I dunno; I'm guessing it's some reference to an Ape Escape move.

Toro: Why is the guy with multiple styles the game's shoto?  And why does his Shoto-style moveset NOT the Ryu outfit he comes with?  I don't think it's best I question him, since I don't think Toro actually comes from a game at all (unless SFxT counts!), and is only in because "Playstation Mascot in Japan" or something (which, don't get me wrong, is totally acceptable as a reason for him to be in, and hell, his story actually plays to this factor, so it's self aware in this regard), so they were probably just throwing stuff together for a unique moveset on OMG CUTE KITTY!!! or something. 

So overall, the cast is diverse and most are fun to play as, pity about the fact that the cast isn't exactly a bunch of characters people care about though...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 25, 2013, 03:20:16 AM
Ciddy: Ancient Cave nets you the only Death Fragment in the game so you can make either a Death Bow or a Death Ring, but those make you undead - i.e. no healing for you. You can also fight Asuras (strongest enemy in the game, highest spark level) there. Did you fart around the Dead Sea? It has a nifty axe that you need to learn the strongest axe tech and the best bangle in the game.

Also, how are your techs looking like? For Katrina, you probably want Nature Dance (SaGa Frontier's Tres Flores), which you spark from Reverse Wind, which is sparked from Sweep Draw. Greatsword techs hit a rut if you don't know the spark chains you need for its strongest stuff (I imagine you're probably stuck with Bull Crush right now? Yeah). Fortunately, Tres Flores' spark level is relatively low. The other strongest tech for them, Harvest Moon, you get from Earth Run, but it's pretty much on par with Tres Flores for damage for only slightly less WP and it's a nightmare to learn.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on January 25, 2013, 05:23:51 AM
For Katrina, you probably want Nature Dance (SaGa Frontier's Tres Flores)

Tres Flores is only 1/3 of it. I still don't understand why they break that move up..... and still doing in MS....
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 25, 2013, 07:32:55 AM
Thanks for making me incredibly disappointed Pyro.  About to have a Long weekend and finding out that Ni No Kuni isn't out down here yet.  Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu.   I guess I will actually have to finish P4.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on January 25, 2013, 08:00:26 AM
The Unfinished Swan- A bunch of games are half off on PSN this week, was interested in this game so I downloaded the demo. Loved it, grabbed the game. Fantastic so far. Very artsy fartsy, but so very well done. Seems to be a puzzle game, but the first chapter is all about exploration. To start off the game, the entire world is white canvas and you have to find your way through it by uncovering the path using paint splotches to add depth and definition to the world. Eventually, the world added shadows, and it seems color is around the corner. It has a very simple, storybook structure to its story and world, so it's just plain simple fun. Recommend checking out the demo to anyone who has PSN.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 25, 2013, 12:14:36 PM
I didn't really see you as the Ni No Kuni type Grefter.

Leonid rocks. The party is all "omgomg we're going to die" and he's all "meh, I already have human sacrifices regularly, I don't need to drink that much. Kthnxbye. End of this plot line."
By the way the ending show him getting a human sacrifice. I still don't get why the "trapped sacrifice" sidequest was centered around... a genius rat... and not this guy. The rat can't even talk.

Anyway. Tiger Break. Broken.
Let's see what it does vs Forneus. (Warning, final boss spoilers in this post)

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359114303-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00049.png)

......

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359114330-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00052.png)

YES

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359114394-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00057.png)
Arakes is still one dimensional; huge damage but weak status and weak magical damage = Dead meat if you stack as much pdef as possible

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359114330-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00058.png)
Destroyer is VERY easy at first, with only one 4HKOing attack per round, at most.
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359114396-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00061.png)
Then she turns on total eclipse of the heart mode
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359114355-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00066.png)
Crap

All in all though, her status is rather lackluster and her physical attacks are rare and can be avoided most of the time with a shield/Illusion Sun. So Yattaf stacks mdef: Gold Dragon Armor, Feather Boots, E. Martial, Dream Gem.
Very close, but after an intense and grueling battle (and five tries), Yattaf wins.

And she gets quite possibly the lamest personal ending possible
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359114374-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00072.png)

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359114348-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00073.png)

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359114397-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00074.png)
"- Yattaf: No"

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115149-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00077.png)
"Throw this filth, it only does like 3000 damage"

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115159-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00078.png)
Yattaf relives the Titanic movie.
She's the iceberg.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115150-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00083.png)
Yattaf's team? The heroes? Who the hell wrote this?
... Oh right, the Minstrel. I hate this guy.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115345-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00095.png)
Apparently this is the final team. Why are Young Boy and Sara here again?
Let's compare stats.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115141-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00084.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115140-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00085.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115150-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00086.png)
"lol"

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115140-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00080.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115159-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00081.png)
Maybe there's some deep metaphor here, or maybe only cool Snes graphics

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115160-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00094.png)
Z for... Robin.

"And now, look at monsters that might not even be in the game!!"
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115159-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00091.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115345-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00098.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115140-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00093.png)
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115140-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00088.png)

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/04/1359115150-romancing-saga-3-japan-en-by-mana-sword-v0-30-00090.png)
Rad


Fun challenge, only tolerable with frameskip (and some savestate abuse to learn Tiger Break later on, I admit), but fun.
It would probably have been overall way easier with Mikhail, but then I'd never have been prepared for the endgame.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 25, 2013, 12:38:56 PM
Next, Sara solo, of course.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 25, 2013, 04:19:07 PM
DmC: Ok, time to stop being lazy and finally post this up.  Yes, that's the only reason I haven't...I was lazy...

Let's get this out of the way:  The game is decent.  It's not amazing or ground breaking or anything, but frankly, I think it succeeds exactly at what it set out to be.  The game maintains DMC level gameplay to some degree, but streamlines it a bit to try and let newer players catch on.  Given it's a reboot, and all that, it makes sense to take this angle.  It doesn't completely butcher the gameplay like some claim, but there's definitely less depth due to lack of styles, and individual weapons aren't as varied as DMC3/4's are, though made up for a bit by how you have access to all 5 Devils Arms and all 3 Guns at all given times, as well as the Angel Life/Demon Pull option being something that Dante never really had comparable (Nero's Buster is the closest thing)

So lets get one of the more controversial things out of the way: The fact that it's a reboot.

Honestly, the Amazing Spider-man Parallels are a little too perfect here.  You have to go in with a mindset of "this is a different take on the concept."  As such, don't compare it directly to previous iterations, at least in terms of aesthetics, plot, etc.  Gameplay...I'll get to that later, touched upon it a little already.

Dante's new look is...well, he's not intolerable to look at like he was in the first trailer (emo twilight rip off Dante, IOWs), but still not convinced it's a change for the better relative to the white haired bishie he use to be.  I think the White Wig nod was a little overdoing it too, as it's completely out of nowhere and easily viewed as a slap in the face (especially with the "Not in a million years" line.  HIm simply taking the wig off would have gotten the point across without feeling like "SCREW YOU OLD FANS!")  His personality is some cross between Nero and DMC3 Dante.  Immature Punk whose more about having fun than taking things seriously.  He does swear way too much though, something I feel that needs toning down (actually, they went overboard on the swearing in this game, but I'll hopefully touch upon that later.)  One thing he does have on Classic!Dante though is actual development and a legitimate character arc.  DMC3 is the only time we see Dante actually go through any sort of development, and it feels kind of rushed there.  To illustrate:

Beginning: My Brother Vergil wants me? Ok, I'll play his game!
Vergil fight #1: Father? I don't have a father! I just don't like you! </actual line of dialog>
Vergil fight #2: Hey, dad's plan was smart...but now to get back at you, brother, for stabbing me in the chest!
Lady Fight: Thanks to you, I know what's important!
Vergil Fight #3: WE ARE THE SONS OF SPARDA! IT IS MY DUTY TO STOP YOU EVEN IF MEANS KILLING YOU!

Yes, that's development but none of it really makes SENSE because Dante doesn't actually go through any sort of events that would make him get from beginning to end, just kind of goes "ok, we need Dante to act differently, press the Character Development Button."

DmC, his progression feels actually natural.  He starts off not giving a shit about anything, just likes booze, sleeping with women, and busting demons heads.  Then he meets Kat, who drags his ass to Vergil, despite him wantnig otherwise.  Note that Dante is a little emo here with the "I didn't ask for your help!" claims and all that, and being all "I'm a loner, I work alone!" when he meets Vergil.  Then he learns of his past, and gets insight on who he is and the truth of his amnesia, etc.  Now suddenly he has a reason to care about doing things; the parents he had forgotten about and childhood memories with them have come back, he's reunited with his twin brother, etc. 
From here, it's a case of getting an insight and interacting with Vergil and Kat that we get a better sense of "Working with others isn't so bad, actually having friends is cool!"  By the end of the game, there's definitely a sense of him being a potentially likable, grown up hero. 

So I guess what I'm saying is New!Dante is an OK character.  Definite room for improvement, and not as fun as the original, but at least they gave him a legitimate character arc and development, and could easily be a cool character if they make a sequel to this game.


Kat...isn't that good.  She shows promise at first, but then basically becomes mostly just a female lead for purpose of being a female lead.  They let her at least do useful stuff with her medium powers, and all that, but then she gets kidnapped, requires saving, blah blah blah...yeah, she's not as good as Trish or Lady, the badass girls who could somehow keep up with Dante in a fight.  Better than Lucia because Kat has a personality, and better than Kyrie because Kat at least does things other than being Princess Peach.

Vergil, now, I find the most intriguing, mostly because he's literally the COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF HIS DMC3 SELF.  DMC3, he's a major douche with a sense of honor.  Here, Vergil's some awkward heroic figure with no honor whatsoever.  The fact that Vergil was really in it to take control of humanity because he thinks they are weak and need a strong ruler to insure their survival doesn't really shock me.  He showed signs of having little respect for humans before, and seemed clearly just in it to kill Mundus whose a scumbag.  Killing Mundus' child further showed just how far he will go for his motives.  At the same time, it's easy to see how Dante and Kat wouldn't pick up on it.  I think the one thing this game got right in terms of actual writing is the interaction between Dante and Vergil.  The two do have some amusing moments of brotherly conversations.  Heck, I got a little chuckle out of this sequence:

Vergil: Wait, Dante, let me go in first.
Dante: Why? I'm stronger than you!
Vergil: Yeah, well I'm smarter than you!
Dante: I'm better looking!
Vergil: ...really?  Well ok then, we'll go together then...and I have a bigger dick.

A little juvenile? Sure, but it was still garnered a bit of a chuckle.  Also, while Dante's design I feel is a downgrade, I actually like Vergil's new design a fair amount.   It's a good job of changing the design, while still using elements of the old to not feel totally alien.  White Haired (or at least pale blonde), black trench-coat with obvious blue designs on it, etc.  Looks quite good if you ask me.  Also, he wears a fedora from time to time, how can you argue!?

Mundus...is one of the better villains in the series, actually.  Oh sure, he's not DMC3 Jester whose...well, Jester, but they did more with him here than just "demon king, DEAL WITH IT!"   He worked at his role, and they gave him actual scenes too, despite his practically never interacting with the heroes until the end.  Not deep or anything, but at least he's more than just a statue who created a clone of Dante's mother of which to screw with his mind, and said clone ended up betraying him so Dante could fill her DARK SOUL WITH LIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!

Lillith...umm...er...I get that she's a demon but my god was she just ungodly ugly to look at.  She's like a 65 year old woman trying to look like a super model.  Beyond that, she's just Mundus' female henchman/lover.

Bob Barbas...just doing Gods work!  For those who don't know, he's basically the demon version of Bill O'reilly.  Do I really need to say anything else?

Succubus...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPdEzyKtgas

That is all.

SINCE WE'RE DONE WITH THE CAST, ONTO THE PLOT!


Let's make one thing clear: This game's plot IS an upgrade from the previous series.  This is a good deal because DMC games have never been good on plot.  DMC1 has barely any plot scenes until like the last 20 minutes of the game (though has the best scene in the series arguably...you know the one!), DMC2 doesn't understand basic story structure at all, and DMC3 was clearly Style >>>>> Substance, just kind of having serious plot intermingled because it's sort of a requirement.  DMC4 tried at serious plot, and ended up just being "DASHING KNIGHT TRYING TO SAVE THE NOT!PRINCESS FROM THE EVIL GUY!"  it did give us a DEMONIC POPE though, as well as this scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfdzyIrd89U) though!

This game had several things on it that the others games didn't have.  First off, full flexibility; so long as there are demons, and Dante/Vergil are half demons, they could do what they wanted.  They just tried to actually DO SOMETHING with it, and as I said, the characters have legitimate character arcs, backstory, etc.  I wouldn't say the plot is good, just better than the rest of the series, so...uhh...minor success <_<? 

Though, one thing this game does well with is setting.  The Limbo idea was just really neat and pulled off nicely, and has all the right visuals to compliment it (having a game where the world itself tries to kill you comes to mind.)  Yes, they took Bayonetta's idea of Purgatory, but tehy basically amped it up to be something other than just "dimension that exists between all dimensions, where Bayonetta can fight Angels without noticing her."  Still has that concept, only the entire world of limbo is out to get him.  Mundus' "control the world through subtle means" was actually well handled.  They actually legitimately explained how each thing he controls plays a purpose in his scheme, rather than just saying "conspiracy, deal with it!"  Oh, and I have to make this clear:

DmC handles it in a way that does NOT make it sound like it's trying to be a conspiracy.  Comes off as more of a fun "Hey, what if all these things were controlled by demons?" and goes from there.  It's not saying these are evil...actually, having seen the developers reasonings, it was "modern people view THESE as evils of reality, as opposed to the old classic definition of Fire and Brimstone Demons, so we decided to merge the two and see what happened."


That said, ONTO GAMEPLAY!  Mook Combat is quite good, for the most part.  Yes, it has the OMG WEAK POINT ENEMIES! and ENEMIES CAN ONLY BE HURT BY CERTAIN WEAPONS but people blow these out of proportion.  God forbid the game encourages you to keep swapping up your approaches, and makes you fight each enemy differently.  It isn't like the other games ever did this...

*looks at Shadows*
*looks at Death Scythes*
*looks at Frosts*
*looks at Plasmas*

...OH WAIT THEY'VE BEEN DOING THIS SINCE DMC1.  Yeah, see, that's kind of what's going on with this game; the other DMC games had this stuff but were a little more subtle about it.  Not saying it's worse that they're more obvious, just that because it's more obvious, whiners use it to snipe at something.  If you don't like the idea, that's cool, opinions, but for the love of shit, HOLD IT AGAINST THE OTHER GAMES TOO.  They did this as well, except DMC2, and it only didn't do that because DMC2 has a total lack of variety in combat to actually be exploited.  And there aren't even that many enemies who function like this.  Maybe on higher difficulties, they over abuse this, but it didn't feel abused here.

The game does have some flaws in combat, the big one being Auto Lock On.  Now, I don't mind this too much, as I can get use to it, but what I do mind is lack of manual targeting, and no target prompt like other games had.  In DMC2/3/4 you could change your target with the R3 button, which was handy.  Here, you're at mercy of the game; it's rarely a deal breaker mind, but still a legitimate flaw that should have been programmed around.  Again, I understand having auto-lock on in general, but a manual target switch should have been implemented.  Also no health gauges, something we haven't seen since DMC1 (DMC2, of all things, did this best by having a simple health bar.  DMC3/4 had Health Gauges but in a more subtle way) but whatever, Tyrants and Butchers aside, enemies never felt TOO durable that a health gauge felt necessary, and it's a bigger deal when bosses don't have it...

Which, thankfully, they do.  Speaking of which, bosses in this game are...all over the place.  I might as well go through each one:

Hunter: Tutorial style boss.  DMC4 did this with Dante, they did this here; don't mind this since it's Mission 1 and an attempt to get you use to the game, so whatever.

Succubus: A neat concept but a bit repetitive.  I like the usage of grappling to get around the field and evade her, but I feel they could have made the fight a little more dynamic as well, rather than being a little too much "hit it until it dies."

Bob Barbas: Ok, THIS is how you do an original fight.  Stylish, uniquely done and a dynamic fight.

Mundus' Spawn: ...feels like a Ninja Gaiden reject.  too animated for it's own good so you can't tell what's going to be an attack and what's merely walking, weak points tend to be traps, etc.  I eventually beat it when I found an exploit with charged shot gun shots.

Mundus: ...did they just...reuse Succubus' fight and make it LESS INTERESTING?  Seriously, his moves are more telegraphed, he has less attacks, Guns actually do damage to him (Poison, you'll auto target with guns to a bullet immune spot, which given Sit Back and Shoot would be an Auto Win against her, I have no problems with, so they did work around DMC2 syndrom there)...yeah, I feel like they used up all their creativity on his boss design here, which is, I'll admit, quite good.

Final Boss: Pretty much shoe-horned in because they needed a fight like this, but honestly I can't complain because it's a great way to end the game, gameplay wise.  One complaint is how you need to finish with a DT hit and there's little hints to this, but that wasn't too bad...

Speaking of DT, mixed feelings about it.  On one hand, it's effective at what it does.  Regen is notice-able, slows down time obviously has uses, damage and defense make a notable upgrade, and best part is that any enemy defensive gimmicks (bosses not withstanding) go completely wayside, so it's really an effective Trump Card.
Downside is that it takes a while to build up (though, I hear White Orbs, normally used for upgrades, become DT building after you get them all, so that might help some), and barely lasts anytime and a little too easy to DT out of and blow gauge as a result.  Also, it launches enemies a little TOO high though this might be my fault for not trying Angel Lift to catch up to them.

Speaking of Angel Lift, and Demon Pull, PLATFORMING!  It's...actually not bad in this game.  They punted the Artifacts and Puzzles of previous games in favor of streamlined platforming.  Due to this, Missions are more like Stages than missions, so every level is uniquely designed and actually new, and there isn't much in the way of backtracking at all, which is a series standards.  Penalty for failing platforming is merely some loss of health, just like Bayonetta, though it's potentially lethal, unlike Bayonetta, don't mind this though as it's forgiving enough, as opposed to stuff like God of War where a slight mistep = YOU DIE! WOULD YOU LIKE TO LOWER THE DIFFICULTY LEVEL!? even though your constant deaths had nothing to do with combat -_-

The weapon variety is nice, though individual weapons are, again, not as varied as in previous iterations.  Rebellion is Rebellion, it's about what you'd expect.  Eryx is the DMC fist weapon, it's about what you expect.  Osiris is a good crowd control variation of Rebellion; straight forward moves but hit a wide area for little damage.  Aquilla is hilariously fun to mess around with and decimates groups and probably the most practical use of Round Trip the series has to offer, partially because you can actually use it to lock down one enemy while still use your melee weapons on the others.  Arbiter is a good guard break weapon that hits hard, and has an actual ranged attack unlike Eryx.

Guns...E&I are pure lock down, plain and simple, don't do much on damage,  ricochet shot is cool conceptually, but not useful.   Shotgun is amazing at blasting enemies back, and the charged shot is really good at holding enemies off (it's basically a Brawl Sticky Bomb), and Fireworks is the best it's ever been, being legitimately useful "GET OFF ME!"  move instead of only kind of sort so.  Kablooey is...a weird way to handle the token explosive weapon though given the SHotgun's charged shot, guess it had to be to avoid redundancy.  Kablooey works that you implant the guy with a dart (up to 6 when fully upgraded), then you choose to detonate them whenever you want.  So basically, shoot an enemy, bait them into a group, detonate, watch fireworks!  Also can blow up Tyrants armors and stun them.  Cute weapon with gimmick uses, I approve.

As far as Demon/Angel Dodges go...eh, indifferent to them.  Game never asks you to rely on them too much, so I can't hate it for that, but the timing on Demon Dodge is a little too sensitive, and you can end up dodging into an attack anyway, so kind of annoying there.  Angel Dodge just felt like a watered down Trickster.


So overall, this game is decent.  Don't go into it expecting typical DMC style, nor an evolution of the gameplay.  It is what it is.  It's fun enough and frankly, I would like to see an actual sequel that takes this games ideas, and enhances them, as well as actually makes good on Dante's development of this game.  It's not as good as DMC1/3/4, but leagues ahead of DMC2, as it actually plays like a DMC game and doesn't feel lazily made.  The target audience of this game is, as I said, more people who haven't been into the series all this time, but it tried to keep some elements in tact to not alienate the fans entirely.  personally, I think it does a good job overall, if there are obvious areas of improvement.  Call it a 7/10 game, and frankly, I wouldn't fault someone for saying they like this more than the others, because there are legitimate things this game does have over the other games, and some stylistic choices that could easily be in someone else's favor (as opposed to DMC2 where saying you like it more is pretty clearly trolling.)


Oh, and one last thing:
Game does a good job of at least paying homage to the original series.  The White Hair thing was the only case where the game felt like it was twisting a knife per se (exaggeration, etc.)  The rest of it felt like "Fans of the series will get this!" style nods, like Sparda's Mansion looks a lot like the castle in DMC1, or the fact that ALL of the Achievements are named after lines  in the previous games.   If you're curious...

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/dmc-devil-may-cry/achievements/


Looking forward to Vergil's Downfall DLC, as well as the DMC3 Costume to be released on Tuesday.  Also, while I want to see a sequel of this, I do hope they still continue the main series, in particular I'd like to see DMC5 be about Nero so we can actually learn a damned thing about him.


I feel like I'm missing stuff but whatever, this should give you a good idea!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on January 25, 2013, 04:58:17 PM
Pyro doesn't mention the biggest part of Ni No Kuni: the puns.  Oh man the puns-per-minute is far greater than any game I've played, and yes I did play Rocket Slime.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 25, 2013, 05:06:37 PM
Okay okay I'll download the demo.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 25, 2013, 05:13:23 PM
<Shale> I'm Sage's long-lost soul brother. :)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 25, 2013, 06:24:04 PM
:( never playing/10
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 25, 2013, 09:24:51 PM
Ciddy: Ancient Cave nets you the only Death Fragment in the game so you can make either a Death Bow or a Death Ring, but those make you undead - i.e. no healing for you. You can also fight Asuras (strongest enemy in the game, highest spark level) there. Did you fart around the Dead Sea? It has a nifty axe that you need to learn the strongest axe tech and the best bangle in the game.

Also, how are your techs looking like? For Katrina, you probably want Nature Dance (SaGa Frontier's Tres Flores), which you spark from Reverse Wind, which is sparked from Sweep Draw. Greatsword techs hit a rut if you don't know the spark chains you need for its strongest stuff (I imagine you're probably stuck with Bull Crush right now? Yeah). Fortunately, Tres Flores' spark level is relatively low. The other strongest tech for them, Harvest Moon, you get from Earth Run, but it's pretty much on par with Tres Flores for damage for only slightly less WP and it's a nightmare to learn.

Dead Sea what. I think this is one of those places I must have locked myself out of (along with Aurora and Crystal Ruins, apparently). Anyway:

-The only sword type I really use is regular swords. Katrina mostly relies on Satsuki Rain for bosses. It is good, but only 2/3 as good as a fairy spamming Triple Thrust (the fairy is terrifying, last person I recruited and he/she/it wasted no time overtaking everyone in weapon levels).
-For spears I have Great Wheel/Double Dragon/Triple Thrust and I can't imagine needing anything more.
-Axes have lagged pretty badly. Best thing I have is Axle Turn/Blade Roll? Yeah. I suspect I've missed a bunch of good stuff by ignoring early techs that looked unremarkable but are needed to spark new ones.
-Bows seem pretty meh and with Sara gone the only one trained in them is the fairy, who doesn't need them because spears.
-Niagara Break is the best MA tech I have. It does solid damage but unfortunately fails on things the game thinks would just be too cool to suplex.

Otherwise, Undine zaps people/uses sun magic for heals. Considering training Muse as backup healer, since judging by the chart in Djinn's BMG I should've made her a mage in the first place. Probably better to just recruit someone new who will actually have existing ranks in magic in the first place, but I'm not real inclined to toss out someone who has over 100 WP and a pile of spear levels. Sucks to lose the tech crown, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 25, 2013, 10:19:46 PM
Actually, not Dead Sea, Rotten Sea. Just talk to all the elephants in Rashkuta, one of them will tell you about it and you'll be able to find it on the area full of water not far from Rashkuta (about a screen away) on the world map. Also, you can't really lock yourself out of Crystal Ruins unless you're already in Huang Castle.

- For Katrina, if you made normal sword her type, keeping it that way is fine (otherwise, you might want branch back to the bigass ones and learn the stuff for endgame). If you haven't learned Split Body and are over 30 for Slash levels, though, you shouldn't be far from getting it, and it gets completely nuts. You'll get it just by using normal attacks. Golden Dragon, which is also endgame-level, also comes from the normal attack.
- Spears, only thing left for you is Meteor Thrust, and Triple Thrust itself is pretty much endgame-worthy as is. Meteor Thrust is very late too.
- Axes... well, they require specific weapons -and- techs. Yo-yo is roughly the best you'll get, and you have to use Tomahawk with the Francisca in order to learn it. Worth the trouble, though. Other endgame skills like Sky Dive are also learned from Tomahawk.
- Bows... once again, requiring specific techs to learn its really good stuff. Continuous Shot is amazing, but you only learn it from Quick Arrow. Million Dollars is also game-best MT bar none, but it's very hard to learn and requires spamming Random Arrow.
- For MA, Dragon Inferno is very good, but fairly late - on the other hand, you get it just from the basic punch. Eventually, you can get it.

EDIT:

RS3 - It's Friday night and I have nothing to do, so naturally I'm dating pigeons doing math. Currently setting up calcs for the stat topic, started doing Weapon Levels and HP. And mathematics are totally playing games, FFT and FE said so.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 25, 2013, 11:02:29 PM
I am on board for Ni No Kuni because Studio Ghibli holds a special place for me.  Not because I consider their stuff the best anime ever (not Satoshi Kon, not best ever), but the art is appealing and the movies are always something I can watch with my mother.  I love sharing cinematic experience with mum.

Part of me was hoping it would be something she might enjoy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on January 26, 2013, 01:32:46 PM
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn: Playing through this on hard mode up to the mission in the swamp with Michaiah. It turns out that for some reason I am better at Fire Emblem when I am drunk. It took some time to get used to some of the differences from normal but I've been doing pretty well on the last few maps. It helps that the Dawn Brigade scales up faster than the enemies. So far my streak of good Michaiah's has continued. She's got great speed and her defense is surprisingly high as well. She got a perfect level up early on and then got a level up with everything but strength a bit later.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Ranmilia on January 27, 2013, 03:34:00 AM
Knytt Underground:  Finished the main plot and 100% on the main map and item collection.  Excellent, excellent, excellent game.  The first two chapters (which are really just extended tutorials) drag but then Chapter 3 (the actual game) makes up for it.  Explored quite a few secrets and yet I only have like five achievements out of twenty or thirty.  A wonderful experience that keeps on giving.  Easily the best game I've played in, oh the last year or more.  Posting here to hype it.

Mad Father:  Also finished.  The latest entry in the genre of translated Japanese RPGmaker-ish indie horrors.  You play the usual little girl stuck in a mansion full of ghosts and zombies.  Your eccentric father's been up to one too many nefarious experiments, and now all his mangled victims have risen to clamor for revenge, oh and killing everyone else in the house too.  The twist here is that you already know what daddy does in the basement, and, well, you're family, so you love him regardless, and will save him from the monsters!  With your chainsaw!  Yeah.

Good atmosphere.  Reasonably entertaining story.  Good solid gameplay, although puzzles can be frustrating sometimes.  Pretty decent.  Still not as good as Ib, but around The Witch's House.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on January 27, 2013, 10:14:41 PM
RS 3 Hack - I blame everyone in this thread discussing RS3 making me want to boot up this again.

Cleared all early game quest up to Muse's Dream.
Choose Sara as my main, as I need someone with low HP growth but I don't want to use Monica.
The enemies in the Robin's event got a boost due to involving Bokhon from RS2, the end result is that I blink a quite few  med game tech when I am just in the early game.

Current team is Sara, Grey, Red, Gustaf, Asellus.

Asellus will be a temporary leave as her quest demand. I am wondering should I use Volcano or Ruby to fill that spot.
Hm? The Kinshintou quest requires only the katana, not Grey himself in this patch? Good, I can throw him out too. That spot is now reserved for Gerald.

Current set up as follow:

Sara: Gun+Wind. Triple Shot is good enough to carry her over the med game, and sleep is oddly useful thus far.
Grey: Katana+Water. Has Dragon Tail for damage, and tagged water magic on him as temporary healer.
Red: Martial Art+Rod, All of Alkaiser's tech is martial art based so there goes that. And since Red starts with Rod/Axe levels, I toss the Rod to him. AOE is good, and I need someone to learn the debuff move too.
Gustaf: Great Sword+Sword+Fire, Fire Brand can use both great sword and sword move yeah. And his Str and Mag are both high so he does well on damage in both front. I'll try to blink Fire Whip using the dream demon. Better if I can blink Hell Fire or Holy Song.
Asellus: Dagger+Rapier+Martial Art+Fire, is going to be my final team member. Will be building her as a pure physical fighter by mystic absorb Dantarg's Grand Cross. Which well be boosting her DEX and SPD to obscene level. Which makes her a monster in using a lot of weapon. Then tag fire magic on her so she can do some buffing on the side.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 27, 2013, 10:55:06 PM
FE12: Just beat Chap 4!  Congrats, Arran, you are now completely useless since Sirius can do anything you can do but better.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on January 28, 2013, 03:04:31 AM
Path of Exiles:  started.  Playing as a Templar, focusing on elemental damage so far.  Currently level 8.

Theatrhythm:  Remember how I said my kid was good at this game?  He's now getting SSS ranks on Ultimate.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 28, 2013, 04:23:48 AM
2nd OG: stage 44 gets the "toughest skill point in the game thus far" award. Took equal parts planning, luck and save-scumming, plus the awesomeness of the secret Masoukishin attacks. Also, o_O at the plot twist re: Granzon. to wit, the Guests helped build Granzon as part of a deal with Earth's military to hand over control of the planet before the Balmar could arrive and take over, but Brian and the OG heroes interrupted. That was the Antarctica incident in the first game. Anyway, when they designed Granzon, the Guests built in a "singularity," which warps probability around itself. So the constant interdimensional alien monster attacks? Yeah, all Granzon's fault, ever since OG1. And now Shu blew it up, which may or may not actually have consequences. Also, ten to one this was all Euzeth's idea.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on January 28, 2013, 04:49:32 AM
Ni No Kuni:
Finished the first regions (Summerlands North) by kicking the crap out of a giant rat after a sewer dungeon. Some tropes never change. The game is incredibly pretty and there are lots of things to explore. Good times.

Got to the Desert area, which kicked random encounter power up a few (dozen) notches. Good, it needed it. Boss battles are a blast with constant switching. You can't heal with familiars, and Olie-boy is good but you want to conserve his MP to a degree and he takes hits like a girl.

Speaking of, Got a cute blonde in the team by beating "The Embodiment of Being a Total Dick". (Actually a "Void of Kindness", but you get the picture). This game features a lot of emotion moving, wherein you siphon off an excess of virtue in one person to give it to someone else who doesn't have enough of it. FUCKING COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA I SAY!

The plot and characters are nothing special. The individual scenes would have more simple emotional tug if they were voiced more often, but it looks like a lot of things were left out of VA after the first few hours. Sadness. Also the game doesn't leverage it's time too well building up non Oliver/Drippy characters, but I only just now got a second party member so we'll see. The plot does feel very Ghibli with the touchy feely goodness stuff. Little touches here and there (Drippy dancing around in the background with a silly hat during one otherwise over-the-top-emotional scene comes to mind).

PC thoughts so far... Understand that a Human and their familiars all share the same HP/MP. Switching still allows you to get better physical offense/defense/element abuse. Familiars can only fight for so many seconds before they must be switched out for a time. MP healing isn't falling off trees but enemies sometimes drop 'orbs' that restore MP or HP.

Oliver: Spells are powerful and let him keep a distance from physically damaging enemies. Which is good cause homeboy is frail. Also a go-to for HP healing and such via magic. Has POIZN healing which is... actually nice because poison does the G3 thing and interrupts you a bit, which can be fatal if you are trying to keep distance from enemies.

Mitey: Little sword familiar is a tank. Much more defense than anyone else, and puts it to good use taking hits in melee. Unfortunately some enemies smash even him if you try to go toe-to-toe with them.

Lemahl: MOnkey smash. Lacks the defense and offense stat is a bit lower than Mitery has, but makes up for it with attack speed. Not for tanking it out with enemies so much as putting in a bunch of fast/disrupting damage on them.

Forest Fairy: Water spell offers a better Damage/MP ratio than Oliver's stuff. Unfortunately the charge time is worse, so it leaves him more vulnerable. He zips across the battlefield otherwise though, and Evade is cool... Has a short window and a long cooldown, but time it right (not TOO hard) and you negate damage from those telegraphed enemy super-attacks. Defending vs. the things reduces damage by enough usually and is more forgiving on timing, so it's mostly novelty.

Esther's Familiar: Magic damage. Not durable and Esther herself has very little to offer.

Other comments:
Revival is expensive! 500 When your total shopping budget may be 1500 this early.
The Bounty hunts are pretty tough fights when they first show up.
What's with all the puns?
What do you mean the Index is only 10% completed?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on January 28, 2013, 03:25:14 PM
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition: I feel like I am leveling a lot slower then I ought to be. Sidequesting, because Tazok's buddies keeping kicking me in the fork.

Have I mentioned that low level D&D suuuuuucks? This game is currently reminding a lot about why I dislike low end DnD pre 4th. PCs are incredibly fragile, casters are pretty garbage after a very short time, bad luck is pretty much instantly fatal... Current party Main, Kagain, Brawen, Viconia, Neera, Xan. Still shuffling PCs. Might take Kivan for interactions with Viconia and Yeslick for interactions with Kagain? Dunno.

Bayonetta: Grace & Glory have caused me to throw my controller (metaphorically, I'm not paying to replace a controller) in frustration. Strictly speaking, I gave up on the third encounter with them, but after 10+ deaths to the second encounter, I was a little fed up with their bullshit. I am doing something wrong, obviously, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to blame the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 28, 2013, 03:41:33 PM
G&G are total assholes. Learn the (very brief) timing for when you can get a Witch Time dodge on them, and shamelessly abuse the claws/rocket launcher switching glitch.

Edit: Alternately, equip the accessory that gives you an automatic counter instead of Witch Time on a perfect dodge, because it's not affected by "no Witch Time for you, hahahahaha" bullshit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on January 28, 2013, 05:45:25 PM
Okay, so this wasn't just me completely sucking? Good to know. Also good to know that I apparently figured out correctly that attacking them without witch time active was pointless.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 28, 2013, 05:49:29 PM
It can help if you get good enough at dodging their inevitable counterattacks on reflex, but it doesn't have what I'd call a fun learning curve.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on January 28, 2013, 06:05:47 PM
The problem I have is that I inevitably can't tell when they're locked in a combo and when they are free of that combo and able to rape off 3/4's of my health.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 28, 2013, 06:08:14 PM
They key is to never lock yourself in a combo unless you're in Witch Time. A "properly" played G&G fight without WT includes a a lot of attacking and then dodging after one hit because oh holy fuck one of them moved.

Edit: And just wait until you meet Gracious & Glorious...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 28, 2013, 08:16:40 PM
Ah, yes, those two are easily the biggest middle fingers the game can give you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 28, 2013, 08:40:38 PM
Are those the white/silver variant that deny witch-time or something?

I dunno, it was always the dogs that pissed me off most.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on January 29, 2013, 12:46:17 AM
Also, o_O at the plot twist re: Granzon. to wit, the Guests helped build Granzon as part of a deal with Earth's military to hand over control of the planet before the Balmar could arrive and take over, but Brian and the OG heroes interrupted. That was the Antarctica incident in the first game. Anyway, when they designed Granzon, the Guests built in a "singularity," which warps probability around itself. So the constant interdimensional alien monster attacks? Yeah, all Granzon's fault, ever since OG1. And now Shu blew it up, which may or may not actually have consequences. Also, ten to one this was all Euzeth's idea.


It is not the Ultra Man's idea but Zezenan. And it is a scheme that fails in incredibel degree and Zezenan had his face slapped back in the days of SRW4 because of this. Just this time, Shu slapped Zezenan even harder, to our please, as no one likes Zezenan.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 29, 2013, 12:48:51 AM
Gold Grace and Glory are the bitchiest, I love them.

Related:

DMC1 Dante Must Die - Currently sitting at somewhere in the general area of 150 resets on Mundus. My good runs get me to 60-70% now, one all the way to 85% where he decided that he would throw meteors at me constantly while still peppering me with lasers. I feel loved.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 29, 2013, 01:00:27 AM
<Elfboy> Paeans to domestic abuse are like love, right
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on January 29, 2013, 02:54:34 AM
Reading some SRWK draft logs on Serenes Forest sparked some interest in me in dusting off the all-female run I had stalled on a few years back. Checking my save file, I was on stage 18A... which is to say, I was already past that scary Godannar base defense stage that always looked intimidating during the planning stages. What the heck, let's give this a shot. Note this is a replay (fourth run, in total), in case you're wondering why I'm not getting my ass kicked for having such a limited PC roster.

18A: It turns out that Festum grunts tink against the universal Fafner cast barrier, so Kanon could safely hold off the entire initial wave of enemies without Kazuki's help until the main team arrived, upholding the core principles of this playthrough. Core Gunner and Sayaka/Mazinger did about 95% of the work after they arrived because, well, they kick the crap out of the rest of my team to date. <_< Especially with Zoids on the other side of the routesplit.

19-1: Stargazer stage, ahoy. This would look insanely daunting if I didn't know from past experience that only the Windam grunts actually bother to go for the DSSD base. I'm rusty from several years' layoff and couldn't position Stargazer correctly to handle all the enemies near the bottom, but Rainbow Jerk helped it clean up everything with Kotona's L1 chain attack from a skill chip while the rest of my team rushed to handle all the enemies near the right side of screen. The bosses were little more than fodder and swiftly dealt with after the actual lose condition of the stage got settled.

19-2: Big stage for recruits, with pretty much the entire SEED cast joining up by the end and Daiku Maryu finally getting a female pilot so I can use it. Bad planning meant that it had zero upgrades and was badly underlevelled when it first showed up, but I managed to feed it kills on Destiny after it got pulled close on a plot event and later the Minerva, which pretty much got Lulu caught up on levels in two actions. ^_^ Legend Gundam's MAP was the only real enemy threat, but luckily I managed to kill it before it even got a chance to MAP anything.

20: I think this stage had 4 separate waves of reinforcements, which is J-level silly; Akatsuki's MAP got some good use on the one space/moon stage prior to endgame (;_;). I didn't manage to take out either fleeing boss on this stage due to lacking most of the game's heavy hitters, but as I still had 11 million+ after dumping a bunch on the SEED crew + Daiku Maryu + Fei Yen I don't really care much.

21-1: Stupid V-On corridor of tedium, oh how I loathe thee. Core Gunner somehow had 8 move after parts equipped so it did most of the grunt-cleaing on counterattacks, with an assist from Rainbow Jerk since Kotona picked up L2 A-combo sometime around here.

Gameplay on the whole isn't terribly interesting, since a lot of K's mechanics are fundamentally broken and I had enough carryover cash to make even the scrub units uber relative to a first playthrough. Carryover is needed to make scary stages like the base defense missions actually managable, but as a consequence I end up steamrollering the rest of the game. Still, there's some real comedy/novelty value in having the likes of Sayaka as my combat MVPs for once. Hopefully the game will pick up more now that I have something resembling a whole team of units with actual offense, as opposed to only 4 units who could outdamage Build Angel. At the least, it's something besides Picross to kill time while waiting for FE13's release.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 29, 2013, 02:56:16 AM
DMC1 Fresh Hard Mode: FUCK YOU GRIFFON AND YOUR STUPID LIGHTNING AND YOUR *insert more expletives for about 20 pages here*

*AHEM*  Yeah, he's finally gone, and finally beat Mission 9 which was long overdue.

You don't appreciate New Game + in DMC until you do a fresh run on a higher difficulty.  So many times I was wishing I had...well...anything from Ifrit beyond the basic stuff.  Inferno in particular as a "get off me" move.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 29, 2013, 04:46:21 PM
Suikoden Tactics: Woo-hoo, only getting around to this 3 years after I started it! Significantly better view of the Island Nations than Suikoden 4, no surprises there. I really like the Fire Emblem-ness of this game. Only instead of trading around breakable weapons, you're focusing on whether to equip a Rune skillset or a passive-effect Rune. I like how physical runes actually have skillsets now. Canto Extra Move is brokenly good in a game with this much emphasis on Terrain effects. And unlike every other SRPG in existence, the Terrain Effects are actually DL-legal, so it's kind of interesting to think how the PCs translate, despite the game not having enough players apparently.

Kind of surprising, considering just how Fire Emblem-ish the game is....
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 29, 2013, 05:02:12 PM
No mention on how ridiculous archers are, I see. If the range wasn't good enough, they more or less ignore height. There's a reason the game only hands you three of them ever.

EDIT: Also, the emphasis on decision-making regarding runes gradually shifts away as your rune slots open. IIRC, rune slots are opened by hitting Skill (Fighters) and Magic (mages) thresholds, which eventually translates into ridiculousness because you're toting both elemental and passive Runes to completely wreck everything. Also, for affinities, healing shifts the balance tides towards Wind and Water to an astounding degree, while Fire and Earth suck. Most of the really good characters also slant heavily towards the first two elements to boot -and- those runes provide ampler panel manipulation than their alternatives.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 29, 2013, 05:19:48 PM
2nd OGs: Okay, stage 44 was challenging, stage 45 is just a dick move. Accurate duel boss fighting a PC who gets one-shotted if hit, with a secret that requires you to go on the attack. And an escort mission where you're defending a battleship that responds to all incoming attacks by trying to dodge. Oy.

Finished the total PITA part, at least, which means EX-Exbein/Igzexbein/Excessbein is go! Now to let loose all the frustration from the first half of the level on Code: Evil.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 29, 2013, 05:27:24 PM
2nd OGs: Okay, stage 44 was challenging, stage 45 is just a dick move. Accurate duel boss fighting a PC who gets one-shotted if hit, with a secret that requires you to go on the attack. And an escort mission where you're defending a battleship that responds to all incoming attacks by trying to dodge. Oy.

That'd work if we were talking about the Mother Vanguard!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 29, 2013, 05:33:01 PM
It's a Ladybird.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 29, 2013, 05:36:34 PM
No mention on how ridiculous archers are, I see. If the range wasn't good enough, they more or less ignore height. There's no good reason the game only hands you three of them ever.

Only Three?  That's 4 too many for that game!  Archers are just too good for their own...good...


And to think Lazlo is even better, though he is an optional, data transfer only character, so he has a right to be.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 29, 2013, 05:49:35 PM
Well yeah. Then, archers also game the panel elements system to a ridiculous degree. Safely stand behind in a hard-to-reach terrain with a bevy of elemental panels of the right element and accrue nutsy numbers, all in a game where there's no restrictions on actions after moving (for all that the system is simple enough that it'd be generally hampering to impose that subtlety. Still, their threat range's still ridiculous, and their move isn't even typically problematic. Pair that up with owls and suddenly you have absurd sniping mobile monstrosities). AND the archers also have their stats in the right places. AND they're plot PCs. Um yeah. They just end up absurd from amassing subtle advantages that translate very well to the system and I even get why the devs didn't pick up on that during testing to a degree. Ignoring height entirely with their shots is absolutely inexcusable, though: shooting straight up a solid bridge and -hitting- is a gross violation of physics (Fire Emblem and shooting arrows through walls, I'm looking at you). Mages are balanced naturally by magic's resource and charging limitations at least, and having to worry more about manipulating panels the wrong way.

EDIT: come to think of it, a huge degree of what makes something good or not in ST comes from subtle synergies between kinks of its system and general characteristics of its given constructs in context (like rune skillset interaction with the panel system and whatnot). The game's balance may not be necessarily -good- (heck, even mediocre), but it's certainly interesting from an analytical standpoint. Maybe that's why I like the game more than it deserves.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 29, 2013, 06:05:46 PM
I'm trying a plot-mandated + mage-only playthrough. Maxine and Andarc are pretty awesome, despite Fire not being great. But dear god, PABLO! He's just so... terrible. Like Jogurt-terrible.

He's the only Earth Mage in the game apparently, so I'm babying him since I like the idea of painting the battlefield all kinds of colors with magics, but it's difficult. Mage resources are harsh. The playthrough would be pretty much impossible without Seneca and Lazlo (yes I'm using Lazlo, he has a unique magic rune, so he will count as a 'mage' here.)

I miss Kika, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 29, 2013, 06:13:29 PM
Elemental thing definitely does play a role.

For example, Fire kind of sucks specifically because it means you can't use, say, Kindness Drops on them or whatever, because OH CRAP, lowered stats and the Seizure effect from the element.  Flipside, Water rules specifically because using said spell yields a stat boost on top of that.


All 3 Archers of course are of workable elements.  Well, Earth is kind of Meh because you can't use Healing Wind, but that's not as detrimental as Fire's flaws because Healing Wind is a back up, not a primary source.  THEN AGAIN, Flare is Water, which is just silly!


And frankly, there's nothing wrong with a little ST hype. Game is good at what it is.  It's no FFT or anything, but it's certainly a decent spin off.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 29, 2013, 06:14:13 PM
I'm trying a plot-mandated + mage-only playthrough. Maxine and Andarc are pretty awesome, despite Fire not being great. But dear god, PABLO! He's just so... terrible. Like Jogurt-terrible.

He's the only Earth Mage in the game apparently, so I'm babying him since I like the idea of painting the battlefield all kinds of colors with magics, but it's difficult. Mage resources are harsh. The playthrough would be pretty much impossible without Seneca and Lazlo (yes I'm using Lazlo, he has a unique magic rune, so he will count as a 'mage' here.)

I miss Kika, though.

Wait, Kika is -optional-? I thought that only applied for her flunkies (Nalleo, Dario, Sigurd and Hervey)!

For your dynamics, though: at least elemental robes exist for affinity-swapping (though Andarc doesn't really need it: Thunder is pretty mediocre as an affinity, but he and Corselia honestly have little reason to run around together and he is quite capable himself. Thunder Runner is pretty much your best offense anyway until Breath of Ice kicks in). Earth magic is pretty much the boonies in ST, though: Earthquake is hopelessly bad and the rest of the skillset is useless. I also expect neverending Corselia hype eventually, because Water/Flowing Runes are just -loaded- (Breath of Ice is wtfffffffffffffff).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 29, 2013, 06:21:24 PM
Heh, apparently the SuikoTacticsLP agrees with my assessment of Pablo:
Quote
The Skeleton's on low health! Maybe with earth terrain and a side attack, Pablo could-
(http://lpix.org/856365/st-21-207.jpg)
-oh wait, it's Pablo we're talking about. Never mind.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 29, 2013, 06:26:36 PM
It's no secret Pablo's quite possibly the worst mage (and one of the least impressive units in context) in the whole game, because Earth Rune is just -that goddamn bad- and the only mage with physicals that register on curves anywhere is Andarc. You could hand him Fire/Water Runes, I guess, but then Andarc, Corselia and even the generic mages can do better, with superior stat spreads and a less shitty specialty rune (though Corselia and Andarc just rise above the competition with their unique niches - Corselia being a ridiculous physical wall with nigh-unbreakable evade and Andarc being balanced on durability and having a surprisingly solid physical game).

EDIT: Also, noticed this quite late, but:

And unlike every other SRPG in existence, the Terrain Effects are actually DL-legal, so it's kind of interesting to think how the PCs translate, despite the game not having enough players apparently.

Kind of surprising, considering just how Fire Emblem-ish the game is....

Sequel to Suikoden Literally Pro Drunken Fridge Steering Live Simulator 4. Surprise dispelled instantly.

That context aside, though, Suikofish is honestly about on par with the likes of Suikoden 2 to me. The game is a weird little thing that ends up better than the sum of its parts.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on January 29, 2013, 06:53:47 PM
I think Pablo actually has worse attack than Corseilla. 

Like, how do you do that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 29, 2013, 07:06:38 PM
By being a Warlock groupie, apparently.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on January 29, 2013, 07:09:01 PM
Pretty sure Kika is one of the plot immortal PCs, so she fits your criteria entirely!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on January 29, 2013, 08:28:07 PM
Pretty sure Kika is one of the plot immortal PCs, so she fits your criteria entirely!

And she's wind so she and Lazlo can wreck all things together.  And that wind-panel generating co-op she has with him.

WIND!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 29, 2013, 10:03:47 PM
Kika's immortal, but not plot-forced.

Bought Pablo a Cyclone Robe and a Wind Rune and turned him into a temporary Wind Mage. He's still not -good-, but at least he can toss out Wind Terrain and help Seneca and Lazlo tear it up!

...I can't wait until I get more Mages, I can't even field a full team at the moment: Kyril, Seneca, Andarc, Lazlo, Maxine, Pablo (plus the Ninjas for their forced battle). I think Katarina is coming up soon, but I'm not sure I really need another Fire Mage...


UNRELATED NEWS! I finished my Battle Mechanics Guide for Romancing SaGa 3 and I'm ready to submit it to GameFAQs. If any of you RS3 players would want to look it over for errors, formatting, and such, I'd appreciate some feedback.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 29, 2013, 10:04:25 PM
Suikoden Tactics is my fourth favorite Suikoden, which is actually fine considering that it is a sequel to drunken fridge. The plot makes more sense than DF but nothing to write home about. The gameplay is the second best in the series? Clap clap clap clap~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 29, 2013, 11:04:20 PM
Quote from:  Djinn and Snow
Balance in RPGs

You two of all people discussing balance with how much you both consume your RPGs on the Fun axis rather than the "quality" of design axis.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on January 29, 2013, 11:10:47 PM
Quote from:  Djinn and Snow
Balance in RPGs

You two of all people discussing balance with how much you both consume your RPGs on the Fun axis rather than the "quality" of design axis.

Leave me out of this, I actually -care- about balance and design. Doesn't mean I won't brutally abuse its absence, but I care.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on January 29, 2013, 11:18:31 PM
Not really that in-depth of a discussion on balance from me... I'm just kinda playing a challenge run of a game and making comments. Everyone else around me is discussing balance.

Can't wait for the next Disgaea game! Fun fun fun!

Suikofish: Got Katarina and... okay another Fire Mage is just fine with me after all. She also comes with a free Lightning Rune she shouldn't even have the unlocked slots to equip... So, yeah, she's not amazing, but she's a damage mage with Canto Extra Move, so she's certainly speeding up the maps considerably!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 29, 2013, 11:20:26 PM
I am sure Djinn cares as well, but that won't stop him from brutally abusing either.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on January 30, 2013, 12:45:30 AM
Penny Arcade OtRSPoD3: Played through this, it's a fun little game for fans of both PA and Zeboyd games. It plays like Grandia with time cards like MK and the result is a lot of fun despite being really easy to break later on. Figure I'll break down the team.

Gabe: Brute/Tube Samurai/Hobo Gabe was my main physical attacker and he was quite good at it. I ended up giving him the fork(MT) in his accessory slot which combined really nicely with the Hobo's passive ability to grant a cancel effect to basic physical attacks. Against bosses he would usually play support at first until he built up the mp for one of his stronger attacks. Brute itself is probably the best physical skillset class, but Hobo gives it some good competition with a decent array of attacks as well as good passives. The final class was just whatever gave him the best strength bonus so it shifted a bit.

Tycho: Scholar/Diva/Gentlemen I had a bit of trouble deciding what to do with Tycho as he's more moderate statwise than Gabe and Jim. I ended up setting him up as a healer/support character. There's a lot of overlap between Scholar and Gentlemen, but as a whole it wasn't too bad and I couldn't resist combining the two classes. Diva was mostly there for the speed boost. I originally envisioned using Diva to steal away MP from other characters because Tycho's MT healing is expensive, but it never really came up.

Jim: Necromancer/Elementalist/Gardener: Jim was the cannon in the group especially in random fights. Around endgame my typical random fight was Gabe attack, Moira MT Speed boost, Tycho give Jim an mp item, and Jim blow everything up with Dark Wave. Against bosses, Call Skeleton and later Bottled Fury are really really good and Dark Surge hits really hard. Elementalist was kind of redundant because I suspect that Jim does more damage with a boosted Dark Surge than a super effective Elementalist attack, but the magic boost was nice regardless. Gardener was surprisingly useful and the HP Regen/MP Regen/Attack Buffing/ and Magic Buffing all saw use.

Moira: Gumshoe/Cordwainer/Apocalypt: Moira took a bit to get going, but as the game goes on her speed game gets better and better until it gets completely ridiculous. She could shut down most bosses on her own just by cancelling them repeatedly and Stun was really helpful too once she got it. Cordwainer and Apocalypt have some nice synergy so you can boost your speed and then stack a bunch of Apocalypses on top of each other which was nice against bosses. Boils and Locusts are the big standouts from that skillset.

Overall a fun little game and I like the job system. If the playership goes up they could make a fun pick for the dungeon or something.   
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on January 30, 2013, 01:18:25 AM
2nd OGs: Okay, stage 44 was challenging, stage 45 is just a dick move. Accurate duel boss fighting a PC who gets one-shotted if hit, with a secret that requires you to go on the attack. And an escort mission where you're defending a battleship that responds to all incoming attacks by trying to dodge. Oy.

Finished the total PITA part, at least, which means EX-Exbein/Igzexbein/Excessbein is go! Now to let loose all the frustration from the first half of the level on Code: Evil.

The problem with that stage is more about foce deployed rather than actually being hard. Those grunts should not be too bad if you have about 5 upgrades on mobility and weaponry. Samething woth Ing vs. Urs, Ing isn't really dying if you have enough mobility upgrade.
Thankfully I main Ing and R-Gun, and has enough upgrade on Armorlion and Excellence to make that mao not cringe worthy. But that secret sucks, I regreat spending the time trying to get it.
On the other hand, Amala just have to tell the world who she is by that background music....


UNRELATED NEWS! I finished my Battle Mechanics Guide for Romancing SaGa 3 and I'm ready to submit it to GameFAQs. If any of you RS3 players would want to look it over for errors, formatting, and such, I'd appreciate some feedback.

I can take a look.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 30, 2013, 03:05:17 AM
On the other hand, Amala just have to tell the world who she is by that background music....

Background music nothing, the attack she hits Ing with is a Deadend Slash.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 30, 2013, 06:22:22 AM
DMC1 Dante Must Die - Mundus is dead, dark souls have been filled with light, game is beaten, fuck yes. That probably ranks as the most challenging boss fight outside of self-imposed challenges I've ever beaten, so I am pretty happy right now.

Just in time for Fire Emblem tomorrow!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on January 30, 2013, 09:12:30 AM
FFIV-2: Fin.

Is there anything meaningful to add really?  Well, it's worth saying that unlike a lot of the DL, I did appreciate things like Eddie's chapter.  A set of dungeons where Edward is legitimately your best character, despite the contrivances, tickle me a bit.  And if I'm being honest Palom is actually a pretty enjoyable character when he's getting real lines.  If every chapter had things on the level of his interaction with Leonara, and that level of attention to how these characters have grown and changed over the past 17 years, this game might be worth talking about in context of anything but being a dungeon crawler.

As one of those it's pretty cool.  I feel like the lowest levels of the main dungeon were a bit lackluster.  The random enemies skew too closely to their FFIV counterparts, all the loot is for a set of characters who are a) pretty boring and b) got a full set of good endgame gear in the previous layer of the dungeon.  Like, c'mon game, Crystal gear is still competitive with what everyone else got, don't give a straight upgrade to that then shaft everyone else.

For the record: Edge, Rydia, Palom, Ursula, Leonara.  Levels ~63.  I feel like if I hadn't got bored in the end there, what with the endless spam of Deathmasks which I just ran from because they are an amazingly boring and stupid enemy after the first half dozen you kill, I might have actually started to pay off that last.  But even then eh.  Takes way too long to learn Curaja, although I didn't notice that bad because it wasn't until well after she finally did that enemies could overwhelm Curaga backed by the occasional ninja pill.  PS: Edge is freakishly good in this game.  Far as I could tell legitimately the best in the game, albeit it's hard to account for "Golbez drags the corpses of teh party kicking and screaming through the void until they gain 10 levels".

For all the immense plot stupid at least they clearly put effort into rebuilding all those bosses into FFIV's system.  Granted, the fact that FFIV-2 ATB actually fucking works correctly (for the first time in the series since freaking VIII, as mind-numbing as that statement is) plays a part in that.

So anyway, s'alright.  6/10.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on January 30, 2013, 03:20:29 PM
Is there an intermediary game to actually use traditional ATB besides FF9? (FF9's may be part of the reason they scrapped it, of course.)

I didn't run from things and also ended up at 63 (dunno what's up there, I got lost less maybe?) so yeah I dunno about Leonora actually paying off.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on January 30, 2013, 05:01:08 PM
FF10-2 kind of did.  That's about the closest I can think of offhand.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 30, 2013, 05:04:17 PM
It's my favorite implementation of ATB because speed actually matters.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on January 30, 2013, 05:39:32 PM
Mario Karts 7- Just unlocked Honey Queen Umm, am I missing something? So far I've used Peach, Daisy, Shy Guy and now I'm trying out Honey Queen, but does it even matter? I'm having a harder time with Honey Queen so maybe it does~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on January 30, 2013, 06:03:04 PM
I think there is a weight component associated with different people. Do you want to play together sometime CTs? :)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on January 30, 2013, 06:55:32 PM
Well there were the three separate releases of FFIV that each managed to fuck it up in a new and exciting way.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on January 30, 2013, 07:34:00 PM
Tales of Maj'eyal- Beat the Master. He was a whore of a boss. Whoof. Running an Alchemist Cornac. Enjoying the game more now that I flipped permadeath off, though it does lead to such exciting things as me opening vaults in dredfell. I need to stop doing that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 30, 2013, 07:54:06 PM
Why are you ruining Roguelikes for everyone else that plays them by turning off permadeath?  Do you hate fun? Glad to hear you are enjoying it dude.  Obviously I had figured you would get a lot more out of it like this.  They really are a niche genre and hardcore fans sometimes miss that when they are ranting and raving about how things like that option ruin the games.  As if death is the only reason they like the games

P4 - I finished and there will be a big post when I have power back and am not typing on my phone.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on January 30, 2013, 08:18:42 PM
My laziness means that I am unable to respond to you in your topic, but yeah. I do like the gameplay and really love the auto search feature.  More games need that.


Still, fuck Dredfell Vaults.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 30, 2013, 08:36:42 PM
I figured it had run its course as a conversation so no worries.  But you should totes open the vaults and graveyard Zerg them for treasures.  Totally worth it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 31, 2013, 01:38:34 AM
Suikoden Tactics was remarkable for its unhealthy obsession with goats and fishes.


Strange Journey no Fusion challenge:

I love this game for making me use the three moira sisters as the best possible team configuration in a boss fight!
It's a shame randoms aren't as exciting as bosses at all, late in the game. I thought this challenge could change this... But nope.

(http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/4152/1679438molochlarge.jpg)

Moloch is the usual fireplace boss that's only there for Tonfa. He's weak against ice. OMG.

(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3614/1359595847tumblrm88qqut.jpg)

Orcus is cool. And terrible.


Jack's a bastard. He can use Pure Blue (remove debuffs+heals half of his max HPs) and badass gun attacks at will. He also joins with two buffed Pisaca, who can inflict Bomb, contender for one of the worst status ever. (One hit to a bombed PC = That PC dies and does mega damage to the whole team = Rocks fall, everyone dies)
I got a gun resist vest on MC, a Kaiwan with a fire spell (Pisacas being weak to fire), Ose with a pretty allright physical attack, and a very frail Halphas back from earlygame because he was the only guy with Tarukaja and Rakukaja.
Strategy: MC keeps Halphas alive with items / removes bomb status, Halphas spams Raku then Tarukajas, the two others focus on Picasas.
Even with the Pisacas dead, Jack remains an annoyance. He used Pure Blue 5 times in a row once. I didn't even use any debuffs on him. After all the demons were dead and only MC remained, Jack pretty much stopped using Pure Blue though. Gun resist vest by then = Easy win.

(http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/3/31815/1260599-asherah_thumb.jpg)

Asherah = Another battle where demons are dead meat. Here though, they're useless from the very beginning of the battle! Asherah loves to inflict MT rage on the team. This doubles attack and make PCs attack each other but not themselves. In 2 or 3 turns everybody but the main character is dead. (And by then getting hit by rage is actually a good thing for obvious reasons)
Fire resist vest + Bead spam = Obvious victory

(http://images.wikia.com/megamitensei/images/9/9f/Tiamat_%28Strange_Journey%29.jpg)

Tiamat (Spoiler: She's your mom) has:
1) Ice attack #1
2) Ice attack #2
3) Ice attack #3, MT, heals Tiamat according to how much damage was dealt
4) MT physical
5) Luster Candy, boosts all stats
6) Super mega awesome attack that replaces Luster Candy once all stats have been maxed.  (This should be avoided)
7) Pure Blue, which can here only be used if she has a debuff on (This really should be avoided)

So I used Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos there, not necessarily for their skills but mostly because they resist ice. Clotho also brought some healing, and Lachesis could use buffs. MC came with an ice resist vest and did all the damage. The key here is to not get stingy with items:
1) a few Bead Chains (Full MT healing) after MT physicals because Clotho's healing just doesn't cut it before buffs
2) a few Chakra Drops (MT restoration) because Tiamat is tanky as hell
3) A few Dekaja Stones to remove Luster Candy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 31, 2013, 09:40:06 AM
Luster Candy

Not sure if typo, mistranslation or legit.  Don't care.  10/10.

Persona 4: The Golden - Okay so after P3P I had high hopes for P4, but was close enough to the release of Golden that I held off on that.  Then I had like 1 billion games to play last year so I was slow to start this.  I don't regret waiting.  P4 Golden was a fantastic game for me to sit on until a stressful time at work.  It has its ups and downs, but the ups are well worth the downs I think. 

The only truly downs part of design it has left I think is main PC death = game over thing.  It really doesn't need to be there.  They go so far out of their way to make it a non-issue.  Sure it gives you a nice safety blanket reward for rank 9 S.Links, but it is just that; a safety blanket that doesn't really have much benefit in the grand scheme of things.  By the time you unlock it unless you made a direct attempt to get it on someone early game you only have a dungeon or two left.  Even then it really doesn't matter.  Between Homunculus and honestly straight up out leveling randoms if you redo dungeons for quests and bonus bosses it makes ID a not big deal and generally speaking I didn't find character death from normal sources much of a worry.

Outside of the first dungeon or two SP really isn't a big deal.  Especially once you get Hermit rolling.  Even by rank 3 or so in Golden I found Fox SP healing more than manageable in my budget.  It is Compendium that chews up your money.  Connecting your Vita to the net and using SOS system is a big part of that early on though.

Also honestly, dungeons just drag in general.  Cut them down to 6 or 7 floors and I think they would have hit a sweet spot lengthwise.  It is pretty aggravating if you get your side quests out of synch with areas that have bonus boss.  Going back to 3 or 4 dungeons in a run instead of 2 is just ergh.

Defaulting characters to automated control when they first join is stupid, but whatever, it isn't a systemic issue.

Otherwise, the character work is really good.  The dating sim aspect feels really pared back and it does feel more slice of life than creepy suicide pact pokemon like P3 does.  It helps that the characters are way stronger.

On that topic, generally the party characters are strong and Dojima and Nanako are both amazing.  So I will cover off party members who I liked most first I guess after noting that I have family members around Nanako's age so have a real soft spot for kids that age these days.

Best party member early game, definitely Chie.  Chie through and through would be my favourite if not for an ensemble darkhorse at the last minute.  Sopko insists she is Milhouse.  This is true.  I don't care.  She is a sweet kid and while her S.Link is weak as hell the arc there does tie into how they wrap up her character arc.  Without that S.Link OH NOW I WANT 2 B A COP would just be kind of flat.  Still in character, but no real impact.  Chie is pretty win.  Harem ending with Chie makes me bad and feel bad, so mission accomplished.

Then suddenly Naoto.  Last time I posted I had just recruited her and was saying I was worried that the whole Kanji crushing on her aspect would kind of kill the gender identity aspect of the character.  I still feel that it is a bit of a cop out just there so people who are giant pussies can do the mental gymnastics for Kanji and her if they aren't romancing Naoto (FUCK the choice to be all "Nah I like you as a girl").  That said, if you do the sane thing and just be all "Just be how you want to be, whatever mang you are banging whatever you want to be" is pretty bang on with my own feelings.  She is a strong intelligent well rounded character that genuinely struggles with her intelligence, her desire for maturity and to have a youth of her own.

Not to mention her taste in clothes is fucking awesome.  Argyle sweater vest?  Hell the fuck yes.  Tartan slacks?  All day long. 

But seriously, Naoto is fantastic and easily my favourite.  The moment that sealed it is the sequence where they throw the last red herring for who is the killer before they are all IT WAS ACTUALLY GODS IN YOUR BRAIN AT FAULT.  Just before Yosuke is picking Option 3 all the way she has like 1 line.  She is clearly on board with the whole scenario and she has one line.  She points out that there is a TV and if someone went in there they might not come out.  She leads the whole discussion there without telling anyone to do anything.  Fantastic.

Also did I mention that she is totes banging?

Yukiko is pretty good in scenes where she and Rise are being mega bitchy to each other.  Rise I think is okay in principle I guess?

Outside the party and main characters.  Devil, Moon and Death are all good.  Temperance needed way more Option 3 obv.  Devil is good because I know entirely about burning out over work, Moon is good because it does the "Be yourself!" special episode arc with a soft touch (But really shouldn't have had a romance branch to it, but definitely should have had the fake romance branch it did).  Death is good because while most of them are dead now, the women I knew from that generation were all pretty much crazy resilient and human like this and all get mad respect from me and I miss talking to them. 

Also now that I have a bit more distance.  I picked Drama Club for Sun link.  I hear Music club is even worse.  OH MY GODS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO to a romance plot Social Link with the option worse than Yumi.  This also didn't really need a Romance plot.

Kanji and Kou though both totally did need Romance routes though (I was Soccer, so was technically more Daisuke plot?).

So uh I haven't really talked about the game other than some niggling mechanics and I LIEK THESE POLTS.  It is hard to describe, but I guess I could say this as a kind of praise.  If you get a Vita, you should probably get and play this.  Some of you should only play it once (elves and ciatos), but I would recommend it to you even knowing your opinion of what you saw of P3.  P4:G does some of the same things, but it does them so much better.  Also isn't a fucking beta release like the original P3 version we saw and hate on so much.

P4.  It is pretty good.

Option 3 is always Put It In



While I had no power and no lights to read I played a ton of Magic 2013 on my iPaid.  Just played Chandra's deck the whole time.  It is kind of neat playing in a smaller pool of cards sometimes since the smaller microcosm of cards has a much tighter scale of power.  I would still love some of the features of the old Infrogames release though.  My little brother is always hating every new attempt at Magic on a PC because it doesn't have a big long quest mode where you build up your deck from battling and doing quests and shit; which don't get me wrong was hellas fun in Shandalar; but I don't think it is necessary in a $10 or $15 release.  For the price of 3 boosters you get a whole lot more Magic than you get out of 3 boosters.  Specifically what I would like to see (and would shell out for as DLC) is Sealed Deck tournaments or Draft of some kind (sealed deck I would prefer but know is not really a supported format any more).  That would probably muscle in on Magic Online's territory too much though and cost sales theoretically, so boo to that.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on January 31, 2013, 10:41:31 AM
Legit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on January 31, 2013, 10:45:39 AM
Paying the fox was a serious drain on my resources in P4 vanilla. Maybe they toned that down in P4:G?

Remind me who Temperance was? Was that the housewife you do daycare for or something? I didn't have time to do more than get started on that one.

Naoto owns.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on January 31, 2013, 12:57:32 PM
They did tone down fox is my understanding.  More discount with ranks.  Temperance is daycare.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on January 31, 2013, 07:21:56 PM
Enjoying the P4 posts  :)

Appreciate the Chie, Nanako, Dojima and Naoto hype. Needs more Brosuke though *makes a wild Gate call*~

**

Thanks Ciato~ I don't know if I would be any good online but I would love to try sometime :), I think I need to get a wireless hub or something though since the last time I connected my 3DS to the internets it disappeared from my laptop~

**

Star Ocean 3 - Thanks to Xer who linked me, and inspired by Withhelde's SO3 speedruns I am having a go at another casual blitz through of the game. I've done one before on Earth and on Galaxy too I think but my times weren't the best they could have been. Managed around four hours or so on Earth if I remember right but yeah. I've learned a lot from watching Withhelde. So this is a Galaxy casual speedrun, segmented this time~

Saved before Biwig at 3.23.56.

Notes -

*Created/loaded battle trophy data but I'm not sure if this is an absolute must do - might save some seconds not doing it.

*Saved at first save point.

*Used Sophia's long O/MP damage for the first of the Incapacitators fight, switched to Peppita for short O/counter spam vs the rest.

*Played around with save/reload/redid those fights for figuring out which way to turn to find the right rooms on the Evac ship.

*No problems on the Herle, saved upon reaching Vanguard.

*This is where I start to lose time while using save/reload trying to find the best way forward for completing the map to collect the bunny as quickly as possible, etc and since I lose the bonus gauge built up from the Incapacitator fights I have to spend extra time fighting randoms to build up the bonus gauge for the bully fight as well, so I mess around with save/reload here until I'm happy but even on my best run getting the bunny took a bit too much time I think.

*Get the Triple Exp bonus from the bullies, and run through Norton, the Inquisitor fight and Giant Crab no problem, the latter two thanks to getting Blazing Sword after Norton thanks to the Triple Exp bonus, I also picked up the Fresh Sage, Jewel of Refuge, Medecentra Pyroxene, Worm Eaten Tome and Warrior's Bracelet. I get the Ripe Berries from Airyglyph then go to the shop and sell all my stuffs - Medecentra Pyroxene, Worm Eaten Tome, Decrepit Tome, Ripe Berries, Map Bunny and finally the Beat Up Text Book which I really didn't want to sell since it teachs characters AAA Stun and if you sell it only Fayt, Cliff and Nel get to keep AAA Stun but oh well I needed the moniiies, giving up the Beat Up Text Book gave the final push needed to be able to buy the Holy Sword from Airyglyph, which I went ahead and did.

*Equipped Fayt with Holy Sword and Warrior's Bracelet.

*I pick up a random 500~ in monies from Kirlsa, talk to the guy who triggers Nel's appearance in the graveyard then head to the Kirlsa mines. Earth Smasher is a joke thanks to Fayt's shiny new Holy Sword + Warrior's Bracelet combo with Blazing Sword, fight is over really quick. Then of course I screw up on the Hauler beast section and have to redo it, manage to take the hauler to the end the second time.

*Pick up the Multi Flask in Arias while skipping the events there, get the Jewel of Refuge in Arias Hills, then head to the Kirlsa training facility, the soldiers there at the start are rapidly dispatched with short X > Aerials. Saved here.

*Played around with save/reload for making the best way through this place, there's always at least one random that seems to get me though. Picked up the 10'000 from the cell next to the kitchen on the way. Beat soldiers, Shelby, etc with more shiny Blazing Sword. Again I don't get to take advantage of the bonus gauge here due to save/reload.

*Pick up the Cherubic Bust and something else,  another Jewel of Refuge I think on the way to Peterny. Trigger/skip the Peterny events including for installing Item Creation with the Craftsman's Guild, then save at the inn.

*Set up for Engineering and Lines at the workshop next to the inn to make some Tricky Duck Bombs and Duck Duck Bombs at the inn. Play around with save/reload with this until I'm happy then save again at the inn once I have my stuffs. Buy some Fresh Sage, Basils and Sages from the Retail Rabbit on my way to Duggus Forest but -completely forget- to stock up on Blueberries and Blackberries.

*Complete Duggus Forest, picking up the Limited Edition Doll for Stanice on the way, and I use a Jewel of Refuge to help with avoiding randoms here. The forced fights are a breeze with your Tricky Duck Bombs, once each for the old trees, then two for the Mudman. Again no Triple Exp perks though.

*Find Ameena, return to Peterny, go to Aquios, lose time while completely failing at trying to use the short cut upstairs with the ladder in the castle, since game/Fayt hates me and Fayt refuses to climb it, so no ladder for me. I have to take the stairs. Trigger/skip events, etc, remember to pick up the monies from the room where Elena is. Head back to Arias.

*Legion Dragons/Cockatrice/Airyglyph soldiers/Demetrio/Albel and the Black Brigade sequence. Ok, so this part is quick tricky on my run since while Withhelde managed to keep bonus gauges going and thus had Sidekick for Fayt by this stage,  I didn't. Also didn't have Ice Blade/Berserk for Albel and his soldiers either. So here's what happened. Managed to get past the Legion Dragons with a combination of my remaining Tricky Duck Bombs and Aerials. Made it through the copper mines to the save point before Cockatrice ok except for losing some time on the forced randoms since the lizards kept disappearing. Picked up the 15'000~ monies on the way as well.  Blazing Sword hax again took care of Cockatrice. Saved after that. Now this is where the sequence became tricky. I have no Blueberries or Blackberries left since I forgot to stock up on them in Peterny, I'm down to four Fresh Sages for revives and I'm still without Sidekick/etc. The Airyglyph stunlock brigade soldiers bring the pain. I do manage to make it through to the Demetrio fight a couple of times only with no revives left. I think under my circumstances it might be possible to complete those two fights in a row with the right amount of luck, etc but I don't want to wait for it. So I decide to use the workshop before the ride back to the entrance here. Reload my save, picked up the 20'000~ monies from outside again, get the Synthesis Material, etc and set the workshop up for Compounding. I decide to make some Might Tablets, Fruity Potions and Resurrection Elixirs here. Used up about ten minutes or so on the IC but it made the soldiers and Demetrio much easier to handle, then I was able to breeze the Albel fight without having to backtrack to use a save point as well =)

*Trigger/skip events, etc, remember to get Blueberries/Blackberries from Peterny eventually, do the war. No Berserk for Vox either but still a relatively quick fight thanks to Might Tablets. 

*Maria get, aww yeah. She learns Power Up before the Crystal Cerberus fight. Even with Power Up + Might Tablet for Fayt though that fight isn't over as quick as it should've/could've been. I really want Berserk by this stage. Rest of Kaddan, Kadden Vendeeni went ok, think I screwed up on the moving blocks once though. Remembered to get the 54'000 monies, Book of Prophecies and Synthesis Materials from Kaddan. Recruit Mackwell with the book when back in the castle.

*Going to Mosel, the Roundtable, etc was an easy stretch, didn't screw up getting through the desert/running out of water at all, or on the chess puzzles, etc. Picked up the monies in here, the Aqua Veil, then the Alchemist's Stone, Synthesis Materials and Smithery Materials on the way back to Peterny.

*An Albel get and onwards to Barr. Power Up and Aerial spam takes care of Blue Dragon Zombie. Still no Berserk for Fayt! I get through the puzzles fine in the Barr Mountain ruins and remember to pick up the Spirit Stone. Save before Robinwind. Ok bye bye Fayt it's Maria time. She manages to take Robinwind out in less than thirty seconds with Charge spam from a Pulse Gun, Warrior's Bracelet, War God's Symbol, Berserk and Power Up set up, it's hilarious, she totally wrecks Robinwind's MP with her Charge.

*I make my way through the lava place to meeting up with Vanilla then recruit Misty Lear with the Spirit Stone and return to Airyglyph to get the Glowstone. Save here. This is the time where Withhelde makes the Maria gun with Orichalcum and stuff but after I play around for a while with this trying to find the workshop in Airyglyph and trying to make Orichalcum but the game refusing to hit on the right price for making it, I decided I'd already used up too much valuable time earlier in the game to bother with using more for doing IC now. I'd also completely forgot about recruiting Stanice for the Brooches of Footwork so yeah.

*Return to lava place/Vanilla, get disintegration ring, save before Crosell. Takes a bit of resetting to pull it off but I eventually nail the first fight in under thirty seconds and the second in around a minute with powered up Scatter Beam spams. Fayt does fall on the winning run and Maria/Cliff take the EXPs.

*Vendeeni soldiers at start of disc go down hilariously quickly as well to Aiming Device spam.

**

I've scouted around some trying to work out the best way of levelling up Peppita for Power Dance, etc. I played till the Arkives Security soldiers which Peppita one shotted with her long O + shoots balls of ice triggering from her Spike Shoes to take out the entire group at once, I'd levelled her to L11 on a sole Enforcer on the way beforehand and she gained Power Dance after the fight. I reset though since I'd spent extra time remembering my way around the Aqualie, Moonbase, etc as well as trying to find the healing lady and the workshop on Moonbase, but then I decided trying to make an Orichalcum weapon there might not be worth it either so again I decided not to~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on January 31, 2013, 07:43:44 PM
2nd OG: The game making life difficult is getting to be a trend. First the S44 SR Point, then Egretta in S45, now S46 has another skill point that demands more planning than almost anything else in the game so far (eight kills with Psychoblaster). But by the powers of save-scumming, friendship bonuses and twin spirits combined, I blew stuff up good and the rest of the level was cake. 50 kills for Russel, so I should be in line for the Best Secret Ever, too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 01, 2013, 12:41:48 AM
Har? That SR is fairly easy. The only problem you might having is that you killed the grunts with critical when countering, results in not enough grunts to be killed by Psycho Blaster.

Those grunts has enough movement, so having enough of them in range should not be a problem. The only thing you really need to do is to move Ryune on that small island on the right first
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on February 01, 2013, 08:05:54 AM
Picross e2 - played through

Was picross.

I am divided in my opinion on micross - it was an interesting idea, but in the end all you have is a lot of sections to fill out, and they're all pretty mindless. (Especially ones on the edge, which got as mindless as one section where all but two squares were auto-filled as empty, and both of the remaining squares needed to be filled in.) If the individual sections had been challenges in and of themselves, then the puzzles would have taken far too much time to fill out as a whole, and each section wouldn't really be worth the effort... feels like an intractable problem.



The Cave - played through x3

Didn't do any good endings, and I don't currently have any desire to play through again to start on them. I'm also currently missing two cave paintings for the hillbilly which I'm not going to be going after.

It's not that great of a game, sadly. The worst things are the sections you need to do on every run and ladder/rope handling. Ropes are worse than ladders because you can't jump up them at all, while you can normally jump up ladders unless there is something in the foreground for some reason (this also prevents you from jumping down them). This all adds up to the worst thing being the mine cart section which you have to do on every run and requires going up and down far too many ropes and ladders.

I think I would rank the character sections as follows: Knight > Twins > Monk > Hillbilly > Adventurer > Time Traveller > Scientist. With regards to character powers, I would put Time Traveller's as sometimes useful, Scientist's as occasionally useful, Monk's and Twins's as theoretically useful, and Knight's, Hillbilly's, and Adventurer's as not useful (outside of their own character sections).

Also needed sceneskip.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 01, 2013, 12:42:00 PM
RS3 - Stat topic work continues. Compiled all default equip notes, from which now I'm gathering effective durabilities. Fear Fairy's 1.44 pdur. Also, overrated badly how much worse the best storebought epee is than the game's best epee (which is limited) - a whopping two point difference (28 to 30). Which is, quite frankly, more of a testament on how much epees suck.

Also, a question for Niu: how are the elemental resistances/weaknesses tagged in armors tiered? It's pretty obvious that the levels of resistance are documented in-game, but I have no idea how much of a bonus/penalty they impart other than them obviously having different levels of effectiveness (Tatyana's Teddy Bear imparting mild Cold resistance, Snowman's Eternal Ice rendering him nearly impervious to the element, etc.). Can you shed some light here? Also, am I right in assuming the "anti-air" weakness tag on Fairy means anti-air skills have a Slayer effect on her, thus making that damage ignore defense?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 01, 2013, 04:12:56 PM
RS3 elemental equipment symbols:
Blue Star: Defense = 128
◎ Double Blue Circle: Defense × 3.0
○ + Blue Circle and Plus sign: Defense × 2.0
○ Blue Circle: Defense × 1.5
△ Red Triangle: Defense × 0.5
× Red Cross: Defense = 0

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 01, 2013, 04:25:52 PM
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssss

Also explains the instances of Leonid getting gloriously OHKOed by Sunshine.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on February 01, 2013, 04:32:08 PM
Har? That SR is fairly easy. The only problem you might having is that you killed the grunts with critical when countering, results in not enough grunts to be killed by Psycho Blaster.

Those grunts has enough movement, so having enough of them in range should not be a problem. The only thing you really need to do is to move Ryune on that small island on the right first

I went up instead of right, possibly because I miscounted how many grunts would be able to reach me if I went right. That in turn meant I had to hit both of the dodgier Guarlion types without Strike.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 01, 2013, 06:49:11 PM
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssss

Also explains the instances of Leonid getting gloriously OHKOed by Sunshine.

Another thing you mgiht want to know. 128 def=elemental immunity. It doesn't matter how you stack up to that 128, as long as you hit that number, you are immmuned to that element.

And yes, Fairy is airborn, so all anti air techs auto critical on her.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 01, 2013, 06:52:23 PM
That I also knew from bruteforcing Avnas testing, yes. One thing that I might want to clarify with Djinn/Niu, though: the multiplier applies to the -equip's- defense or to the -total- defense? That changes the effects substantially - an equip with 15 Defense and a x3 defense tag would yield 45 Def if it was just on the equip, but if it applies to the final defense value, counting all equips, it could lead to easy immunity to a certain element just by intelligently stacking armors. In-game experience wants to tell me it just applies to the equip itself, but I'd like a more informed decision than simple muscle memory.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 01, 2013, 06:58:16 PM
Yes, those tags applies to the specific equip they are tagged on really.
And honestly, they aren't really a multiplier at all.
It is just a sign telling you, hey, the actual defense value assigned is higher or lower than it looks on the surface because SaGa loves to keep everything invisible.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 01, 2013, 07:00:09 PM
FE13 - Designed the main character and then did Chapter 1. Trying not to play too much until I do the book reading I want to do. :p

MK7  - Just trying to complete 150cc. I miss the babies.

Double Dash - played a bit of this with friends, fun as always. :)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 01, 2013, 07:05:36 PM
Argh! I pre-ordered the FE13 special addition 3DS, but it's not arriving at my Gamestop until fucking TUESDAY! RAGE!!!

I guess it gives me time to finish SuikoEmblem, at least. :(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 01, 2013, 07:21:38 PM
bloo bloo the bloo blooest

At least you're not condemned to buy it imported for 4x the price tag or waiting until July.

Also, Niu: owns SaGa Frontier equip documentation. RS3 is so much cleaner in that regard.

EDIT:

Quote from: Baby Ciatos
I miss Baby Daisy.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on February 01, 2013, 08:35:02 PM
It's not that great of a game, sadly. The worst things are the sections you need to do on every run and ladder/rope handling. Ropes are worse than ladders because you can't jump up them at all, while you can normally jump up ladders unless there is something in the foreground for some reason (this also prevents you from jumping down them). This all adds up to the worst thing being the mine cart section which you have to do on every run and requires going up and down far too many ropes and ladders.

I started this last weekend and yeah, would second those complaints. It does have Ron Gilbert humor though, which doesn't always work for me but works often enough. I am actually surprised at the dysfunctional personalities hiding behind the goofy character designs. Definitely the case with the three I picked, guessing it extends to everyone.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 01, 2013, 11:54:13 PM
FE12: After trying to take a map slowly, the map decides to throw EVERYTHING AT ME when they were immobile for the first 8 turns or so.

...this leads me to just blitznig the end of it.  I manage to kill all the enemies I was hoping to kill anyway as a result of how I approached it, HUZZAH!

That said, Chapter 9, here I come or something!


DMC1 Fresh Hard Mode: Beat Griffon 3.  Only died once to him, and that was due to getting a little too cocky with meteors and such.  Second attempt, did what I did against Griffon 1 and worked for the most part.  Having fought Nevan a lot in DMC3, his new move in this form ended up being fairly routine to dodge <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 02, 2013, 12:21:50 AM
Bought a Vita with Assassin's Creed budnled. PSP catalog I've completely missed + maybe a few cool games? = Sold.
I need Gravity Rush and a less crappy memory card though.


Cladun: I've played one hour and writing is a bigger turn off than in FF13. I think I'll just skip any cutscene from a NIS game from now on.
Hmm. Gameplay isn't terrible but I expected something more RPG-ish. As of now it feels more like the easiest puzzle game, with numbers.
I really don't like how characters level up differently if they're a main or sub.

Patapon: On the other hand this is so good I'm probably going to buy the three games. The music is already forever stuck in my head.

Assassin's Creed Liberation: Great sightseeing game as always.
Multiplayer looks like an abomination.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 02, 2013, 12:41:46 AM
FE13 - I don't like that rescue is still gone, and I really don't like ninja reinforcements. Otherwise this game is a lot of fun. Despite some hype otherwise it's clearly more like FE12 than any other past FE game but it's considerably better (writing not a total joke for starters), so yay.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on February 02, 2013, 11:58:52 AM
Bought a Vita with Assassin's Creed budnled. PSP catalog I've completely missed + maybe a few cool games? = Sold.

How thorough is the backwards compatibility, anyway? I'm reading that Vita doesn't necessarily play every PSP title.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 02, 2013, 12:52:52 PM
If you can buy it on PSN you can play it on Vita I think.  No UMD reader on it obviously.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 02, 2013, 02:46:42 PM
Yes.
You get access to a large library of PSP titles on the PSP but not every one of them.
Apparently though, if you have a PS3, you can buy a not-Vita compatible PSP game on the PS3 store, transfer it on your Vita and play it anyway.
Sony.

Some but not many games aren't on the PSN store at all and can't be played for now. Mostly early PSP games, I guess. Crisis Core looks like the biggest one. There probably are already full PSP emulators on Vita to play them (but I already have too many games to play legally on this system before)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 02, 2013, 05:37:37 PM
Eh, as long as you can pick up Wild ARMs XF.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 02, 2013, 05:49:20 PM
Yep. And it's cheap.

P3P will come first though because you can have a social link with the dog.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on February 02, 2013, 09:21:03 PM
Quote from: Luther Lansfeld
FE13 -blah blah blah I'm Canadian blah blah blah

Quote from: Dark Holy Elf
FE13 -blah blah blah I'm Canadian blah blah blah

FUCK YOU

eeeeerrr ahem,  I got through Pig Pun Town in Ni No Kuni.  I think getting a teleport spell 50% though the game is a bit late but it's very welcomed since the major problem I have with the game right now is the huge amounts of silly backtracking just to trigger a 3 second cutscene.  My mvp pokemon is Kokoko the Cat Pirate and Irotin the sad flower mage.  Gref-dead the Boneknight is catching up as well.

So far the world is enchanting but the characters are boring and uninteresting.  It's kind of like Xenoblade, only with a cel-shaded anime feel instead of grainy Wii graphics.  Also it's one of those games with an great soundtrack but the theme you hear most, the battle music, is awful.  It stays the same thoughout the game.  The voice acting is too great with lovable british accients except Oliver sounds bored all the time.  I switched to Japanese for a little bit and it's.....different from other Japanese VA games.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on February 02, 2013, 10:14:56 PM
Re PSN & Vita:
There's some occasional weirdness.  Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time came out on PSN for PSP but waited a month and a half to come out on PSN for PSVita.  No, I'm not sure why, but I got the impression from Atlus's blog post that it involved Sony Fail.

I'm just about out of PSN games for PSVita I'm interested in, though.  The old Legend of Heroes games aren't on PSN over Vita, I already played Crisis Core and it isn't on Vita, Jeanne d' Arc is too meh.  So that leaves Alex hype (Knytt Underground PS Vita) or foul Nitori hype (Corpse Party).  Or replays of course.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on February 02, 2013, 11:02:27 PM
Ninja Gaiden's free on PS+ this month!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 03, 2013, 12:11:59 PM
Tales of Graces f - started.  Got up to Abel trying to solo a tank squad without a plan other than "cliffs must be their weakness!".

This is a game where the lead is a hypocritical little shit that uses other people's tragedies to justify choices he has already made and will lie and manipulate people just to make his life easier for 5 minutes.  Fuck that kid.  I have been actively using anyone else I can and then moment I get 4 other people so I can stop listening to his stupid voice in battle the happier I will be.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on February 03, 2013, 01:38:11 PM
You are fairly accurate in regard's to Albel's character early Gref. This is why Cheria got points from me for being an ice cold bitch to him.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on February 03, 2013, 02:57:32 PM
RS3: Decided to see if I could spare myself some grinding and just blast through the rest of the game. This illusion was quickly dispelled when the next mandatory boss (Red Dragon Ruler) demolished the party with two rounds of multitarget attacks. What happened game. We used to be be friends. So I resigned myself to smashing Ancient Ruins randoms to build up a backup healer and what the hell, let's see if we can nab all those top-tier techs while I'm at it. Cue grinding. A lot of grinding. This is what I do during dinner for a week grinding.

Eventually people just stop learning things and I say to hell with it, this is probably enough, sure Ellen absolutely refused to learn any axe techs better than Blade Roll, but at least I've got Dragon Inferno and Split Body, that'll probably be enough. So then we set out to avenge old wrongs: Yami dies in two turns. Red Dragon Ruler dies in two turns (didn't even use his breath attack this time). Abyss Naga dies in two turns.

I may have gone a little overboard with the grinding.

The final four posed relatively little threat after all that (except for Aunas, who is still a cheap bastard) though they did at least live a decent while. I like how their true forms are all somehow less monstrous. Their old battle theme was better, though. Also why does the wind fiend only cast earth spells, I don't understand. Final boss was tremendously sad until Eclipse mode when he/she/it goes all you know what I'm gonna spam MT damage multiple times a turn now, just because I can. I actually had to break out a life cane the last turn! Man, not even full healing on those things? Glad I took the time to train up a second healer.

The victory dance the party sprites do just before the credits is honestly very cute (except for you, you stupid kid. Get off my boat, dammit!)

Good game. SaGa, so obviously a strange mix of fun and complete nonsense, but it's very easy to just sit down and play for a variety of reasons:

-Visible random encounters.
-100% effective escape rate (even for boss fights).
-Fast travel anywhere outside dungeons (hit button, warp to world map).
-Reserve PCs level up alongside active PCs, new recruits scale up to party averages.
-Cursor memory, auto-healing after battles.

These are mostly things I think should be standard in an RPG, a little surprised to find them all in one place on a SNES game. I found this made it surprisingly user-friendly despite the complete lack of any kind of direction and the occasional dick move (dammit, Sara! Man, what happens if she's your MC?) I'm still not sure how I even got involved in the plot in the first place. I don't recall anyone genuinely asking or even suggesting that maybe it would be a good idea to embark on a trip to the Abyss to save the world. Maybe one random NPC in this hick town in Scandinavia mentioned it? It's like Katrina didn't have any leads on getting the sword back and figured let's save the world just for something to do.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 03, 2013, 07:42:05 PM
Speaking of RS3, I started damage calculations. So far, so good, though it's kinda slow-moving as I'm implanting the spreadsheet formulae as I go. However, there's yet -another- issue I rammed into: in all the info bonanza we've gathered, there's really no info so far on how the odds of countering with skills (like Justice Mete, Cut Down, Parry and Windmill) go. I know they're not perfect, but I can't even begin to think what would affect the odds of them triggering besides "against stuff they work on, at least 70%".
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on February 03, 2013, 08:52:44 PM
The Unfinished Swan- Finished. Adorable, little game. Really fun, if short. If you're looking for a relatively easy but clever puzzle game to waste a couple hours with, pick this up... though not at its full 15, I guess.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2- Wasn't feeling Persona, so I started this up (fuck you, Grefter). Looks like ass trying to look like KH on a DS screen. Not really far enough into the game to comment on gameplay, other than it feels slow and the D-Pad blows. Same comment with the story, really.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on February 04, 2013, 01:26:30 AM
2md OG: Forte Gigas, Geant Chevalier/Dear Blanche Neige, Garmraid Blaze/Cerberus Ignite, RaiOh acquired, game cries. Not that I needed any more broken - I'm pretty sure I will have every single pilot except Shine aced by the time this is over. Including Shouko and Sleigh.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 04, 2013, 02:09:39 AM
RS3 - Still slaving over damage numbers. Ellen's Tiger Break is disappointing, though ITD damage goes places. Current surprise is Sara, though: Million Dollars is fairly solid damage so far and hey look two crippling turn two statuses running off good speed and turn three ID in a pinch. Even the durability isn't particularly problematic! I'm interested in seeing how the averages pan out, though: there isn't a mass of failure like in SaGa Frontier, where all the monsters tug the damage averages down like a fat woman hanging on a branch.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 04, 2013, 02:11:08 AM
tug the damage averages down like a fat woman hanging on a branch.

Not the analogy I was expecting.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 04, 2013, 02:13:35 AM
Speaking of RS3, I started damage calculations. So far, so good, though it's kinda slow-moving as I'm implanting the spreadsheet formulae as I go. However, there's yet -another- issue I rammed into: in all the info bonanza we've gathered, there's really no info so far on how the odds of countering with skills (like Justice Mete, Cut Down, Parry and Windmill) go. I know they're not perfect, but I can't even begin to think what would affect the odds of them triggering besides "against stuff they work on, at least 70%".

I have these in my big spreadsheet of infodump, I just didn't have the time or inclination to add all the explanations to the BMG. You should have a copy of all the info if you've got that spreadsheet.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 04, 2013, 02:25:36 AM
FE13 - Up to the end of chapter 9! This game is a lot of fun. My best PCs are my lord, my avatar PC, my jeigan, and my two pegasus knights, in some order. This has never happened in Fire Emblem before.

I've also started Metroid Prime. Not sure what I think of it so far. It's pretty fun, but enemy/boss design is quite weak.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 04, 2013, 02:44:22 AM
Speaking of RS3, I started damage calculations. So far, so good, though it's kinda slow-moving as I'm implanting the spreadsheet formulae as I go. However, there's yet -another- issue I rammed into: in all the info bonanza we've gathered, there's really no info so far on how the odds of countering with skills (like Justice Mete, Cut Down, Parry and Windmill) go. I know they're not perfect, but I can't even begin to think what would affect the odds of them triggering besides "against stuff they work on, at least 70%".

I have these in my big spreadsheet of infodump, I just didn't have the time or inclination to add all the explanations to the BMG. You should have a copy of all the info if you've got that spreadsheet.

I'll try looking into it again, then - probably missed it while scouring that file. I keep it handy anyhow because it's crucial for stuff like Split Body Slash and Continuous Shot (where I need to look up the original tech's ID), as well as misc. stuff.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 04, 2013, 10:00:41 AM
I have the counter formula and all that.

Give me a day and I should be able to dig it out.


Tales of Graces f - started.  Got up to Abel trying to solo a tank squad without a plan other than "cliffs must be their weakness!".
You are fairly accurate in regard's to Albel's character early Gref. This is why Cheria got points from me for being an ice cold bitch to him.

His name is Asbel. I guess you guys really hate him a lot....


RS3 Hack- Lion Princess has become available for me to recruit. Knowing how broken her sword is, as in, the only sword that can use Godless, as in, hahaha bitch slap Hell Lord, Chaos Ruler, Saruin, and Savia if they dare to use Saber, Devastation Sword, or Sword Rain on me.
But the sword is locked on her on this patch, so I must keep her if I want to use Godless, and then..... I see that Mystic Armor.... that sucks so much as they always do.... UGHHHHH!! WHYYYYYYY!!!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 04, 2013, 10:51:10 AM
I have the counter formula and all that.

I've got the counter damage formula handy as well. The matter is mostly knowing the formula for the odds of activation. I'll dig into it as well once I'm back home.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 05, 2013, 12:30:27 AM
I'm not really surprised Ellen isn't doing crazy damage endgame compared to others.
Isn't Snowman a terrible damage dealer at least? What about Shonen?


Cladun: ... Yeaaah I have no desire to play this anymore.


Persona 1 PSP: Snow quest!!
The Snow quest is similar to the Master Quest in Zelda, a secret harder entirely different path through the game, with a new storyline and shit. The characters are better too (Ayase and Brown are hilarious. Yukino and Ellen are cool) It was entirely removed for the PS1 version because lazy.
They really tried to Persona3ize Persona1, for the better (slick menus, ridiculously faster speed. You have to see those dribbling shadow basketballers earlygame) and the worse (Battle theme with vocals)

So the Snow Quest has the first dungeon from the regular game, then it throws you into a massive eight floor dungeon you can't escape from, with a time limit and no savepoints and another small dungeon on top of it.
I still didn't really care because whatever, Persona isn't hard?
I did nearly die against the boss there though (Hypnos) I didn't heal before entering the boss room, then I used Auto on the first turn (everybody defends. Argh), and Escape (NOOO Why) on the second turn.
Everybody but Ellen and Yukari were dead at that point, thankfully they both had Dia plus a hell of a lot of defense from all the female only equipment, and won after a 15 minute battles.

Losing here would have meant losing 3-4 hours. At that point I started taking the game more seriously; gave Ellen a Persona with Mediarama and the main character a persona with Megidola. That's... about it really. But that's enough. Seriously. I'm expecting both to carry me through the rest of the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 05, 2013, 12:55:55 AM
Hey now, A Lone Prayer is way better  than Mass Destruction.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 05, 2013, 01:20:17 AM
I think I could lead a good life never listening to either again.

What each version of the Persona battle theme is conveying:

Original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRlUJEagleQ
"Welcome to Crazy Town. Population: You"

Psp port: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfltiuas1iw
"Turn off the music now"

Not that I'm a fan of the original at all but damn.

Anyway I might play P1/2IS/3/4 in order now that they're nearly all available for the Vita. I've already played IS but only in japanese, and 3 but without the P3P additions (good streamlining/ a badass female character/PC control but honestly I might solo) I'll do my very best to avoid bath scenes.
Um... I should probably check something out...
*listens to the P4 battle theme*
Noooooooo
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 05, 2013, 02:11:23 AM
I'm not really surprised Ellen isn't doing crazy damage endgame compared to others.
Isn't Snowman a terrible damage dealer at least? What about Shonen?

So far, I've got only Julian, Ellen, Sara, Thomas and Zhi Lin. The split in damage is like 2400/2200/2200/2100/1900, Ellen being the 2100 and Zhi Lin being the top damage dealer. <_< I expect Snowman to fail -utterly- because 8 Str+4 Speed is going to be -amazing- for his MA damage, since it runs on a square root multiplicative formula and his MA levels suck to boot (this is bad when the level factor for Martial Arts is already the lowest among physical weapon types. This hurts Ellen to a degree, too, since her MA level is below 30 - in fact, 30 is a rather important threshold for most weapon types). But nothing will surpass Muse of the "I only get basic weapon physicals as DL-legal damage", so she's probably hitting something like 300-400 RS3 damage. I don't think Ellen will end up bad, though - above 2000 damage may well be what someone needs for a 2HKO, and I expect literally nobody to go far beyond 2500 (although plenty well below 1800) just due to how RS3's formulas pan out. The damage averages will be a fair deal tighter than SaGa Frontier's.

At least Ellen sports high Strength and reasonable Speed, so her offense still pans out okay. Unless she ekes a 2HKO, she'll be mostly about quirks - turn 3 ID for healers, minor speed gaming with Accel Turn, ITD damage, shoddy healing that's free so owns people with very limited resources. She can buff her strength and con and also lower enemy stats, but the effect is pretty subtle because of how -dense- the formulas are and how they factor in hidden internal stats far more heavily than core stats - paired up with above average durability and speed.

EDIT: Also, scratch what I said about Sara, she ends up better than I thought. Resonance Weep is turn one charm and that's utter -evil- in a duel. Berserk is nice against mages, I guess, but holy damn Charm.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 05, 2013, 04:30:22 AM
Counter probability formula, it checks against mod 100 like everything else:

For every counter technique out side Counter and Weapon Grab
(technique's evade rate) + [Weapon LV ÷ 2] + (SPD - Weight × 4) - Enemy SPD > (mod 100)

For Counter and Weapon Grab:
(technique's evade rate) + [Weapon LV ÷ 2] + (SPD - Weight × 4) - (Enemy SPD ÷ 2)> (mod 100)

The (SPD - Weight x 4) will default to 0 if negative.
The ÷ 2 in the (Enemy SPD ÷ 2) does not apply to SPD boost from technique that provides SPD boost on the turn used. (This is NOT referring to the boost from buff spells or techniques).

Evade Rate of individual technique:

Purry: 50
Cut Down: 30
Formless: 60
Weapon Grab: 40
Just Meet: 30
Matador: 40
Windmill: 45
Counter: 35
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 05, 2013, 08:14:54 AM
Tales of Graces f - 10 more minute played and Asbel is all "if I hadn't gone off to be a knight my dad would still be alive.  So I will give up the thing I spent half my life working towards that doing kind of fucked up the lives of everyone I loved.  Then I will become Lord after my father and okay let's go on a raid on the enemy camp.  I will lead this suicide night raid and we will split up into small groups while we travel through a seaside cavern at night.

Tales of Graces FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 05, 2013, 12:48:23 PM
RS3 - Okay, I'll just do a second general runthrough through damage calculations once I'm finished with all PCs, otherwise I'm -never- finishing this thing. >_> Things I'm learning, though: sub-30 weapon levels kinda suck unless you have Bows and Million Dollars, and nobody wants to have Axes as their sole weapon type. Good thing there are no pure axemen in the game (Ellen gets Martial Arts and Black gets Wind Magic - Wind Magic being roflbroke).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on February 05, 2013, 04:47:38 PM
Gref vs Tales of Graces F sweetness~

You'll be enjoying it when the other characters are chewing Asbel out then (see Pyro, and there will be other stuff coming up in Lhant soon)~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 05, 2013, 04:52:02 PM
I'll be honest and say Grefter's ranting kinda makes me want to turn on the PS3 and play ToG just to see the stupid. But busy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 05, 2013, 06:18:53 PM
Maybe if Tales games weren't so long, we could play them for the lulz~

FE13 - Robin's goal is now to marry Chrom's sister so he can behold Chrom's beautiful body forever~

I'm up to C5 right now.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 05, 2013, 06:43:35 PM
RS3 Hack - I acquired Arcane magic and... what? Magician is the WHAT? Shadow Servant on whoever you like? Are you serious? Who cares about Tower anymore when you can have a spamable Shadow Servant!!

I am now conflicted in whether I should keep Asellus, or ditch her for Dr. Nusaken (better base states than Asellus and Mystic Cloth is awesome), or give up on mystics entirely for Young Bai Mei Nieng (One of game best char with ridiculous states on all front. Game hgihest MAG surpassing even Blue/Rouge).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on February 05, 2013, 06:52:16 PM
ToM- Beat it with an alchemist and an ocean of deaths. Final was tough but managable once I had sealed off the summoning portals. I basically abusing teleporting like crazy to survive the fight. Trying a skeleton archer for now, donno how far I will get.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 05, 2013, 07:25:11 PM
DMC1 Fresh Hard Mode: Completed!  Got all Blue Orbs sans one, which is storebought,and couldn't buy 2 upgrades (Vortex Level 2 and Kick 13 Level 2), as well as 2 Purple Orbs.

I also went to my DMD file where I was against Phantom and actually won!  Took me like 4 Yellow Orbs though <_<;

Also missing one Blue Orb Fragment in that playthrough, don't think it'll matter TOO much given how much damage you take on this difficulty.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 05, 2013, 09:10:24 PM
Tales of Graces f - This is update from last night's play.

So the splitting up and going through the caverns went well.  There is 3 sections you need to swim through with gear and supplies for a night raid with troops that are just coming off of a crushing defeat.  You of course bust into the enemy camp who obviously had scouts that could check the 2 km down the road and see that Asbel left the town with half it's troops.  Of course they are crushing Lhant under their boot heel.  The. :O Hubert turns up shock and awe amazement he grew up in 7 years and then omg he doesn't instantly fall in love with his brother!!!  You know that abndoned his parents and title at the drop of a hat; leaving his former homeland heirless.  Also the only family he may not have felt like had abandoned him I uncontactable (you know if maybe Asbel hadn't blatantly ignored the fact that Hubert was clearly feeling like shit when they see him in Barona as children and had asked what was up, the  I might buy that we are supposed to sympathize with Asbel).

Then Asbel gets beat up and I steal Hubert's fancy armour.  Blah blah blah.  I get RICHARD back in the party.  He has magic that is called Coercion Arts and moves like Unyielding Scorn and wears a lot of black and red velvet (also some crazy hooker boots).  Also he seems to get hurt when magical lolibot touches him.  I think RICHARD might be evil and a zombieghost you guys.  At least now I have a way to differentiate the two RICHARDs in the cast.

Of course I swap from controlling Sophie to RICHARD instantly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 05, 2013, 09:18:36 PM
The real lesson from all this is that the real villain of the game was Aston all along.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 05, 2013, 09:49:13 PM
What with his being a reasonable human being?  Expecting his kid to listen to him for 5 goddamned seconds when he tells him not to slam his dick in two cheese graters?

The only fault Aston had was having any respect or expectation of Asbel.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on February 05, 2013, 11:42:12 PM
Man I never even thought of swiping Hubert's armor in the fight.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on February 06, 2013, 12:57:15 AM
Gamestop sucks.

If anyone wants the Fe game and can't find it at gamestop, check target. That's where I found my copy.

I am currently one stage after the demo ends. loving it so far.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on February 06, 2013, 12:57:48 AM
Aston is a total DILF  :o I dig him~

If you ever get as far as F Arc/get the chance Gref check a shelf in the study in Lhant manor for some backstory on Aston and Kerri  :)

Yeah I think I'd unlocked Chaos or at least Evil Mode by Hubert (I spent a while training with the Cheria/Asbel duo on Lhant Hill) and was too busy trying to stay alive, don't think I thought of the armour either~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 06, 2013, 12:59:33 AM
Persona 1 PSP Snow Quest: In retrospect, I really should have expected the Thanatos tower boss to use Instant Death.
Still, losing 4 hours of progress hurts. Ellen had gone from level 25 to 45.
...
Did all the persona grinding I did in the tower outside, got a few levels and $$$$$ from it.
Bought 5786 beads and balms of rising.
Bought two submachine guns, a rifle, a pistol, a shotgun and ammo.
Went to the casino, straight up payed 300 000 yens for casino coins, to buy a fusion item that gives Megidolaon. Fused a Yatagarasu (level 41) with it, persona grinded it for a while.

The next Thanatos run is going to take 30 minutes and it will be a success (And MC's level will skyrocket)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 06, 2013, 02:05:31 AM
I was so busy hating that I forgot to talk about something that I really did like.

I am enjoying how completely themed individual countries are and how completely out of left field it is.  You spend so much time in the Childhood arc in Windor that you kind of expect the whole world to have that sort of soft Medieval not quite Renaissance level tech and feel to it (Soldiers in plate armour, there appears to be a decent standard of living with plumbing and disease mostly under control etc).

I am going to skip ahead and talk about the Strahtan's first because Fendelia is amazing.  You roll into town and the Strahtan army are all rocking out like Musketeers.  Big full body cloaks and pinned hats with feathers in them.  Absolutely amazing.  These are soldiers for a desert filled country (apparently?).   They are pretty fantastic.

I can only assume that each country in the world is from a different country in Europe in a different century.

Now the Fendelians.  Man.  They wear long coates and jackboots.  Have tanks.  Use giant rifles with hueg bayonets on them.  So you have German circa 1944 vs French Musketeers vs ghetto English Knights.  I really hope there is some Conquistadors.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 06, 2013, 07:18:54 AM
What with his being a reasonable human being?  Expecting his kid to listen to him for 5 goddamned seconds when he tells him not to slam his dick in two cheese graters?

The only fault Aston had was having any respect or expectation of Asbel.

Not really. He could have made Hubert his heir, and solve all problem. This way, Hubert don't have to be sent away, and Asbel can be left to do what he wants.
On top of that, Asbel was never an intelligent human being (and even as the story progress, did Asbel become more mature? maybe, but smater? Hell no). Aston has to be an idiot for even trying to make Asbel his heir in the first place.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 06, 2013, 07:49:00 AM
Niu has it.  Even assuming Aston was as much an idiot as his firstborn (and I do), paying any attention whatsoever to his children would have clued him in that maybe this plan he made before he even had children was doomed to failure and he should adjust his  plans to fit reality.  Send the dumbass off to military school to learn some discipline, groom the studious kid to be your heir, everyone gets to maintain a friendly relationship and a great deal of trauma is avoided all around.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 06, 2013, 08:00:26 AM
That isn't really how Royalty works.  I assume sending Hubert away was Aston seeing the inevitability of Hubert seeing the need to put Asbel to the sword for the good of the people if he was left with a legitimate claim to the line if Asbel was taken care of.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on February 06, 2013, 09:48:41 AM
Indeed. Yeah they had different realities back then! :)~

Sometimes we don't always get what we want.  Aston tried to reason with Asbel or otherwise show him no not good idea before finally snapping. I don't think it was so much he didn't know what his kids wanted, the diary event with Kerri, etc shows he was thinking about other people but more that we don't always get what we want. That's part of growing up. Besides a heir has a lot to deal with as well including military activities as is shown during the game. Hubert wasn't just smart and studious he was also shy and gentle and really didn't like fighting too much. If he hadn't went to military school and Lhant had been attacked he might not have really been able to deal with it. Aston was tough with Asbel because he had to be/because that's the kind of reaction his repeated behavior brought forth but I don't think Aston and Kerri would have found the heart to be that tough with Hubert to the extent of the kind of thing he'd find at military school because of the personal attachments involved. Also for what Gref said with Asbel. Besides Strata did a lot for Hubert in the end. He gets to live with some rich tosser with the high quality luxurious rich tosser life style, is a respected high rank officer in their army and is a close confidante of their President as well, plus the general populace adores him. They are impressed by him in Lhant too Strata brought other qualities out in Hubert for dealing with different situations though he's still also that same smart kid with a gentle side (brought out/maintained for Cheria, Sophie and later especially for a certain red and white haired wonder as well)  Anyway I've seen this at different places as well with the blame trying to get pegged entirely on Aston, Kerri, Cheria, Hubert, etc for stuff including the way Cheria and Hubert are to Asbel initially anything other than Asbel having to take responsibility for himself. Aston, etc are not responsible for the rest of Asbel's behavior and actions throughout the game, broken promises, failure to maintain contact and communicate with people, etc~ Mmm, I don't see why Asbel should get to go through life getting whatever he wants and completely oblivious to the thoughts/needs/feelings of others but yeah~

Perhaps I'm being too harsh but. So I feel like I should write something about how Asbel's not all bad, great with Sophie, solid in combat (my main three were Cheria/Sophie/Hubert but I winded up using Asbel to a fair good extent as one of my rotating fourths along with Malik, Pascal was used to a lesser extent but still enough that I had her in to have all her titles like everybody else while putting characters in for training and SPOILER! character who ended up winning the fourth position as a staple~ Still Asbel was solid, great as part of the stunlock brigade parade with Cheria/Hubert/Sophie especially with Cheria's Insight up on all~, etc but lazy. Maybe later~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on February 06, 2013, 12:18:52 PM
9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors - played through repeatedly, got all endings

Noticeably worse than Virtue. Mostly because of having to replay half the game all the time. Having fasttext isn't enough when it takes twenty minutes to get back to the final branch, most of which is painfully holding down the D-pad (why couldn't they at least have made it a shoulder button?) and the rest of which is repeating the same puzzles again.

That said it might have been a tad less annoying if I didn't start off with a Virtue mindset doing the same path outside the final branch for the first three playthroughs.

When it wasn't frittering my life away it was fairly entertaining. Well worth playing. Probably would have been better if they'd actually brought it out over here as I may have played it before Virtue then.



Metroid Fusion - replayed through

Replayed for the first time in forever, found that skills had atrophied fairly considerably (despite having replayed Zero Mission a couple months back). Died endlessly against Nightmare because I somehow thought that it was immune to missiles in the last stage and I couldn't dodge consistently enough to have enough time to destroy it with charge shots. Died less endlessly against several other things.

Still a great game. Got 58% in ~4 hours. No plans to improve those scores.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 06, 2013, 05:59:47 PM
FE13 - Sniff, I tried using the trainee but got annoyed. :\
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 06, 2013, 06:03:37 PM
It's FE8 all over again!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 06, 2013, 07:39:24 PM
I'd argue that Hubert's development was prompted moreso by having to fend for himself without his brother around than anything else, so Asbel leaving for the knight academy would have a fairly similar affect.  Though yes, the ties with the Strahtan military were crucial in the course of events.

Cheria now.  She made her a few mistakes here and there, but on the whole Asbel deserves all the shit she can heap on him.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on February 06, 2013, 08:47:28 PM
Aston's plan was brutal but it worked fairly well. Considering the problems there with his own brother, it is understandable why he went with that option. Cheria has her reasons to be angry with Asbel, but she also chose to define her life almost entirely through him. I think that's one reasons he fell so flat to me as a character. Once her major issues with Asbel are resolved, she is stuck with the wonderfully boring role of party mommy.  She interacts with other characters, but her only major conflict and development is with Asbel. 

Quote
Tales of Graces FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Asbel was an immature kid who was faced with death and how that death was because he was unable to take care of someone. Is it really any surprise he was fucked in the head by it and chose to ran? He made the wrong choice and has to deal with the fallout of those actions.  The death of his dad shocked him into realizing that he had duties besides to Richard, and needed to defend his homeland.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 06, 2013, 08:55:18 PM
Yeah that is cool, how about all the ways he is a complete and total shit before that though?  Or the way that regardless of how he fucks up it turns out to be for the best and just the right perfect thing to do because the plot demands it (Of course me trying to drop an entire tank squadron off a cliff was stupid, but it is okay Sophie teleported back into existence and now everything is fantastic ^_^  It was a good thing I went off and joined the Knights instead of not being a total bell end because that way I got to form close relationships with someone high up in the Knights who are going to betray the country  ^_^  It is a good thing Sophie died because that way it healed Cheria and I got special Magic Powers from it ^_^)  You can't try to humanize someone by making them a shit and then make their actions consistently have no consequence at all.  The gap in execution between Luke and Asbel is astounding.

Edit - which is the setup for Snow to come in and say <SNOW>  The gap in execution between my cheeks is aspounding.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on February 06, 2013, 09:08:49 PM
He was a total brat as a kid, yeah. No arguments.  I also totally disagree about the consquences part. Asbel completely destroyed the relationship with his family (Including Hubert) plus Cheria.  Richard is about the only person who he hadn't really fucked things up with at the point you're at, and he has a pretty bad blind spot there. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 06, 2013, 09:27:47 PM
Yeah I don't know why it is not blindingly obvious to him that Zombie Ghost RICHARD is actually Dracula.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 06, 2013, 09:55:42 PM
Considering the problems there with his own brother, it is understandable why he went with that option.

This is the part I can't stand Aston the most. Understandable or not. When parents reflects too much of themselves on to their children, from my own experience, the effect are mostly negative.
If anything, this is just telling me the parents couldn't properly distinguish the character of their children.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on February 06, 2013, 10:07:37 PM
Moms are tough!~

Your dreams shatter and burn! Punishing Blossoms! super~

Yeah Cheria is the game's Straight Guy but hey somebody has to do it and try to keep crap together. Actually in the original game before they added the F Arc I like how they left the ending kind of open ended where Cheria was off doing her relief work on the battle field where Richard was and even with the F Arc she didn't come back to Lhant immediately, she was off doing her own thing in Barona before meeting up with Asbel and she's off doing her relief work on battlefields, etc throughout the game like where she stays behind to help in Lhant instead of going with Asbel round about where Gref is at currently~ There's also the stuff with Bailey and Raymond and the Dream Chaser event/title where she fends off Bailey and Raymond, and Asbel there too at that time to follow/continue with her relief work at that time, I really liked that~ I also think Cheria grew up and matured a lot since childhood and through F Arc, more than Asbel anyway since just when you think Asbel is going places he pulls off some more fail, and I think if it hadn't been for Richard's words of encouragement and Sophie at the end of F Arc she'd have finally thrown in the towel for good, made a clean break and continued to progress with her relief work as she had been doing, and lived her life for her work, life, etc but that just might be me. Maybe found someone else. Like Malik  :P I would say Richard but yeah heheheh ^_^ Also I actually enjoyed Cheria's relationships with the other characters but yeah~ She gets some hilarious and nice stuff with Frederic, Malik and Richard mainly from the post game stuff though Ewww Grandpa!~ as well as the more traditonal sweet/caring looking after stuff with Sophie, Hubert and Pascal Oh the stuff with the latter and trying to get her to take a bath was hilarious as well. One of my most favourite duels in the game~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on February 06, 2013, 11:39:19 PM
FE:A

Donnel gets some lame level up stats considering his supposed boosted parameters skill. ARGH! He's still getting raped by mostly everything. You'd think I'd just place him on the shelf and be done with him...in the end it seems I am a glutton for punishment.

Oh, FE, how I've missed you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on February 06, 2013, 11:49:23 PM
Quote
Zombie Ghost RICHARD is actually Dracula

Grefter, is this your way of making me play this game? Because Zombie Ghost RICHARD sounds p.awesome
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 07, 2013, 12:09:34 AM
FE13 - At chapter 13 now. I can finally buy Master Seals so I should possibly just mass promote everyone now, but eh, will wait until 20. Game has been doing some pretty cool things with map design recently. Had a fair bit of trouble with chapter 11's boss fight, it's a bit reminiscent of HM Ashnard except there is support to worry about.

I've adjusted to the ninja reinforcements (which, to the game's credit, it always warns you about one way or another first) but it'll never be a good design choice.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on February 07, 2013, 12:13:56 AM
Cheria could have been a much more interesting character if they had played up her ice-cold bitch capabilities more often (She has them, as she demonstrated when she was dealing with Asbel early in the game).

I kind of figured that her defining her life through her relationship with Asbel as a child was a coping mechanism for dealing with the fear of her own (what was at the time) inevitable death.

Ni No Kuni: Esther and Oliver have some fun interaction. Esther finds out Oliver can magick up various kinds of food? "CANDY. CAKES. NOW." Finished a boss fight without soloing it last, and it was a decent slugfest between the boss and the 6 monsters I arrayed against it. Wish I could switch DIRECTLY to one of the other PC's mons, instead of like Oliver Mon->Esther->Esther Mon. Needing two switches slows it down a bit. For all that Esther's healing is fine if that is what I am switching for.

The genie who pulled out a flaming sword 50% of the time and a harmless parasol 50% of the time was pretty funny.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Monkeyfinger on February 07, 2013, 03:31:04 AM
Tried out Ni No Kuni for a few hours and hated it.

Both the main plot and the sidequests are filled with unskippable walls of sappy text that doesn't interest me at all, and the merit stamp awards you get for doing quests seem pretty important. There's tons of backtracking too. So far it feels like a really small RPG with tons of rote filler to pad it out.

Combat feels a lot like an infinity engine game - it's a real time system where your characters auto attack enemies by default, and you can pause the game to navigate menus and give out orders to your PCs. Each PC has a short cooldown on performing non-attack actions (like spell casting and item use), and spells have cast times. The strength of this kind of system lies running it in seamless areas with a top down view and lots of PCs to control. It feels just wrong with an over the shoulder camera, 1 or 2 people, and a separate combat screen.

At least the voice acting is top quality.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 07, 2013, 02:16:46 PM
FE13: 5 chapters + 1 paralogue down.

Veteran is every bit as broken a skill in practice as it is on paper. Avatar has a clear lead on the rest of my team in terms of levels and would be the runaway leader if I didn't intentionally hold her back. 14 speed at L9 means she can double pretty much every enemy on Normal, and any speed boost from Pair Up guarantees it. Magic is also definately the best weapon type thus far, which helps.  Chrom is a close second, with 13 speed himself and good all-around stats otherwise. He also has an A support with Avatar already, which seems crazy fast for only six maps thus far.

Sumia has outstanding speed (15 after skills) even at only L6, but her strength and defense are kinda shoddy due to some unimpressive level-ups. Frederick provides enough strength to one-round most every enemy, but even with +4 defense she's kinda squishy right now. Her evade's starting to pick up now which helps, but she could use some better level-ups soon or I'll drop her by the time I get my second Peg Knight.

Liz has definately gotten the short end of the stick as far as level-ups go, aside from Strength hilariously enough. Now that I've got Maribelle I'll probably bench her until I've beaten the game and am ready to grind up NUNSWITHAXES for the sake of awesomeness.

Stahl and the Vaike are the other PCs I'm feeding regular exp right now. They're both got nice strength, but need speed boosts from Pair Up to double things reliably. That's okay, Pair Up is there to be abused. Sully and Kellam I've mainly used as Pair Up support thus far, while Miriel and Virion haven't done much besides chip and occasionally providing some backup. Donnel and Ricken will be benched for the duration of the main plot this run.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 07, 2013, 03:36:10 PM
so much envy of people playing fe ksdfnldgh

/me checks prices on pre-ordering FE13 in Brazil out of spite.

...

Hey, it's actually not so bad! Yeah, gonna order it from here. Like hell I'm waiting nearly five months to play it.



Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 07, 2013, 04:06:52 PM
FE13 - Doing Paralogue 4 right now. Avatar has turned into a fast mage with a bit of STR, and Chrom is a death god. Somehow Sumia in 11 levels has gotten zero defense, so she is le glass cannon. Using Chrom/Robin/Fredrick/Lissa/Sully/Cordelia/Sumia/Miriel/Anna when she joins after this map but right now I have Gregor the Russian mercenary.

Stahl and Virion and Tharja and Lon'qu have deceased.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 07, 2013, 04:37:29 PM
Chrom and Avatar hit S rank support by the end of Paralogue 2. Geez, it's not even chapter 6 yet, and I haven't done a single skirmish or DLC chapter. Are all supports this fast?

The resulting dual strike activation rates are just ridiculous for this early in the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 07, 2013, 04:52:42 PM
I think it is really based on how much you use them together. Mine is at B in Chapter 9.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on February 08, 2013, 02:25:27 AM
KH3D:  Beaten.

First things first, I loathe the drop system.  Forced swapping of characters after a timer is a terrible idea.  When you get back to your other character you have no idea where your current location is or what you're doing.  Makes hunting for treasures obnoxious because you can't take the time to explore.  And if you're fighting a boss, the whole fight resets when you return.  WTF Square who thought this was a good idea?

You can mitigate this to an extent by just dropping the other character immediately when you take control of them.  But the game wants you to drop and you miss out on all the bonuses inherent with that.  And it still doesn't solve the problem of bosses resetting.  Also Riku's sections are notably shorter than Sora's so you end up force-dropping with Riku all the time just so Sora can finish a damn area.  Also needed a lot more save points.  It's a portable game, people want to stop playing after short intervals.

Beyond that, I liked the game.  Standard KH battle system, nothing too crazy added other than linking with spirits which was decent.  Story was good as KH stuff goes, although I had trouble remembering which silver-haired bishie was which.  Want to buy more distinct bad guys please.  Dialogue was good overall, especially everyone talking about how dumb Sora is.  Fantasia world was FABULOUS.

For most of the game, I went full mage with Sora and attack skills+healing items with Riku.  Sora being the more effective of the two because item healing sucks in KH.  Riku's chain battle with Ansem was a nightmare, no pun intended.  I tried several different configurations of skills/spirits but each one had weaknesses to one of the three battles.  I finally just dumped everything and went with Dark Splicer/Curaga/Curaga with Pricklemane for attack and hp boosts and the snail for defense boosts.

Now I have to find a copy of Fire Emblem Awakening, which apparently nobody realized was going to sell well.  There is a massive shortage of the game everywhere.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 08, 2013, 02:50:04 AM
I recall reading somewhere that Avatar F had a faster support with Chrom than Avatar M but I haven't seen support speed otherwise documented so not sure. But yeah it's of course based on how religiously you build support points.

I haven't abused pairing up (mostly use it when the extra stats will be crucial), the idea of doing FE with half as many people is ick. Put me down as one for whom Veteran is certainly less broken in practice than on paper, as such.

FE13 - Chapter 14, promoting people! Fun times. I have recruited one kid character so far (Kjelle), will get Morgan next. I have paired, without too much planning, Chrom with Sully, Avatar with Frederick, and am working on Cordelia/Libra. I am also using Henry and have to decide what poor, poor woman I will inflict him upon. Probably Cherche since she feels the biggest lock for the team among my other female PCs who can have kids. (Also using Tharja, Sumia, Anna, and Not!Marth.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 08, 2013, 03:07:50 AM
Tried out Ni No Kuni for a few hours and hated it.

Both the main plot and the sidequests are filled with unskippable walls of sappy text that doesn't interest me at all, and the merit stamp awards you get for doing quests seem pretty important. There's tons of backtracking too. So far it feels like a really small RPG with tons of rote filler to pad it out.

Combat feels a lot like an infinity engine game - it's a real time system where your characters auto attack enemies by default, and you can pause the game to navigate menus and give out orders to your PCs. Each PC has a short cooldown on performing non-attack actions (like spell casting and item use), and spells have cast times. The strength of this kind of system lies running it in seamless areas with a top down view and lots of PCs to control. It feels just wrong with an over the shoulder camera, 1 or 2 people, and a separate combat screen.

At least the voice acting is top quality.

I would ask how a modern RPG gets released without dialogue skip function but... Japan.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 08, 2013, 06:58:47 AM
I finally just dumped everything and went with Dark Splicer/Curaga/Curaga with Pricklemane for attack and hp boosts and the snail for defense boosts.
You could have used Dark Aura instead of Dark Splicer? Dark Aura is like the next best thing than spamming Balloonga, it completely rapes Ansem and Xehanort to the point of not funny.
Even you don't have enough Dark Aura, Dark Break is a good enough substitute after the initial Dark Aura.
And.... no comments on the awesome wall kicking? It really turned TWTNW from a drowsy map to almost the best map in the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on February 08, 2013, 12:51:43 PM
Monkey: I know there is a sceneskip option and you can speed though the text by mashing the accept button.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 08, 2013, 04:42:32 PM
Tried out Ni No Kuni for a few hours and hated it.

Both the main plot and the sidequests are filled with unskippable walls of sappy text that doesn't interest me at all, and the merit stamp awards you get for doing quests seem pretty important. There's tons of backtracking too. So far it feels like a really small RPG with tons of rote filler to pad it out.

Combat feels a lot like an infinity engine game - it's a real time system where your characters auto attack enemies by default, and you can pause the game to navigate menus and give out orders to your PCs. Each PC has a short cooldown on performing non-attack actions (like spell casting and item use), and spells have cast times. The strength of this kind of system lies running it in seamless areas with a top down view and lots of PCs to control. It feels just wrong with an over the shoulder camera, 1 or 2 people, and a separate combat screen.

At least the voice acting is top quality.

I would ask how a modern RPG gets released without dialogue skip function but... Japan.


It's called "being Dragon Quest 9" apparently.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 08, 2013, 05:39:16 PM
Dragon Quest games never count as modern RPGs, no matter what year they were published.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 08, 2013, 06:49:58 PM
Dragon Quest 8 begs to differ.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on February 08, 2013, 07:37:43 PM
Perhaps Pyro to a certain extent, but then if they had been too heavy handed the other way maybe she wouldn't have been interesting, she'd just be mean and nasty! ~

SO3- Casual segmented speedrun. Clocked in at 4.47.28 at the save point right before the final boss~
What I did with Peppita was rather go out of the way to level her up/spend any excess time on that was to level her up on the way while continuing with the plot. Did still get her Spike Shoes from the bar though. The strategy was to have Sophia and another low level character in as bait vs the Arkives Security soldiers while Peppita does her thing and hopefully triggers an attack with shoots powerful balls of ice off the Spike Shoes to take the entire group of soldiers out at once. I tinkered around with setups for this and saw a few resets before I finally came out with something that worked which was to set the Formation to Escape and to put Peppita in the third character slot in the menu set as Leader. Get a bit of distance to the right once the battle starts, make sure soldiers have started attacking other characters/they are drawing the enemy fire then run in with Long O, Sophia and the other character should go down while this happens, then hopefully Peppita will finish the fight off with ice ball triggers from her Long O. She'll get all the EXP and go from L1 to L18 this way, picking up Power Dance in the process~ Best place to save before trying is probably the save point on Styx. An alternate way of dealing with this would be to remember and keep/bring/make some extra Tricky Duck Duck bombs while doing the Peterny IC on disc one, this might save some time from getting the Spike Shoes as well.

Highlights of this run were the hilarious mocking of Azazer who went down well within thirty seconds to powerdanced Hammer of Might and Scatter Beams spams, some excellent synergy for rapid fire blitzing vs the Lesser and Dark Eyes with Power Dance > Magic Hook > Short O spam, Fists of Fury and Scatter Beam, same goes for Stone Golem and Battlecopter, how easy and quick the Spiral Tower sub/pseudo bosses were. Of course despite managing to get good times on the Kaddan fights I also manage to lose some getting hit by the moving blocks and going the wrong way/getting a bit lost on the way back out~

Anyway now that I know I don't need Orichalcum/Item Creation for disc two stuffs for next time I can probably save more time on disc one by leaving money chests alone except any in front of me and getting Sidekick by the Legion Dragons, instead of having to IC for that will probably save time as well~ I need to be less vigilant on saving/spend less time on that. I also need more stamina and concentration powers for playing any length of time without screwing up, it's hard/hungry work!~

Thanks again to Xer and Withhelde for the inspiration here~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 08, 2013, 09:18:00 PM
Dragon Quest 8 begs to differ.

It begs for a running over with my car.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on February 09, 2013, 12:16:49 AM
FE13 - oh god what is happening to these people's feet
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 09, 2013, 01:55:56 AM
Wait, they don't have feet?  A suspect decision.  Changing your art style to Rob Liefeld is one of the few things that isn't an upgrade from animu shit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on February 09, 2013, 02:28:09 AM
FE13:  Found what is quite literally the last copy in town.  Was going to make an UOM main with battle scars but couldn't resist streetpass tagging people with the name Yattaf so female main it is.  Went with older woman with cleavage but was tempted by loli with eyepatch.

Anyway I am playing on Hard mode Casual, because I am a pussy and fuck FE's version of permadeath.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on February 09, 2013, 10:42:13 AM
Dawn of Sorrow: Tell me about your day again, giant laser shooting penis
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 09, 2013, 11:35:29 AM
Wait, they don't have feet?  A suspect decision.  Changing your art style to Rob Liefeld is one of the few things that isn't an upgrade from animu shit.

That was pretty well documented on FE13's absurdly awful promotional art. The body proportions and absolute disregard for anatomy and physics are also quite Liefeldesque.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on February 09, 2013, 12:44:41 PM
Ni No Kuni has a sceneskip function and I was able to skip amy dialog I wanted except maybe at the very beginning?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 09, 2013, 01:13:45 PM
RS3 - Ellen has a speed game? Man, Accel Turn synergizes so well with Martial Arts.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 09, 2013, 03:11:32 PM
Wait, they don't have feet?  A suspect decision.  Changing your art style to Rob Liefeld is one of the few things that isn't an upgrade from animu shit.

That was pretty well documented on FE13's absurdly awful promotional art. The body proportions and absolute disregard for anatomy and physics are also quite Liefeldesque.

Let's just be glad FE's setting doesn't support Guns, lest we get DLC Marth wielding a 5 barrel, 4 foot long Revolver...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on February 09, 2013, 05:00:29 PM
FE:A

Things get sooo much easier when you start promoting units. Also, Donnel is a flat out BEAST if you have the patience to train him.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 09, 2013, 07:25:03 PM
FE13: Just got Morgan. ;_; My Wyvern Knight got OHKOed by a berserker.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 09, 2013, 10:24:54 PM
Wait, they don't have feet?  A suspect decision.  Changing your art style to Rob Liefeld is one of the few things that isn't an upgrade from animu shit.

That was pretty well documented on FE13's absurdly awful promotional art. The body proportions and absolute disregard for anatomy and physics are also quite Liefeldesque.

Let's just be glad FE's setting doesn't support Guns, lest we get DLC Marth wielding a 5 barrel, 4 foot long Revolver...

Too realistic for Liefeld.  A Liefeld gun is just a big chunk of metal with random doodads all over it and one or more holes at the end that may or may not glow.  Something like a Borderlands 2 gun, which can be about that over-the-top, is likewise way outside his wheelhouse.  There are a lot of ridiculous, over-the-top parts, like the ammo feed on the Jakobs ARs being a wagon wheel made of five interlocking magazines that is loaded into the bottom of the gun and feeds rounds in while rotating to each spoke in turn, but the team put a lot of work into animating all their weapons so that you can see how, even if the design is way impractical, the weapon works.  Liefeld doesn't do any of that.

Basically, that would be this (http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/902102996989541905/1A93BDD7F7685B9DF46609D7485CC1EA0A95D62D/) and Liefeld does this. (http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1070378/33.jpg)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on February 10, 2013, 04:31:10 PM
Mario Kart 7 Wow. Speed really does mean -nothing- Thanks to Tai and Gate for the hints/tips there~ Last 150 cc cups get. Mirror Class unlocked. I ended up using Toad with Egg 1, Roller and Peach Parasol. Before I had him with Mushroom which was good/won races/150cc cups for a while but then I switched to Roller even though it has less speed which didn't matter because wow speed really does mean nothing~

I am going to play as Lakitu now :)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 10, 2013, 09:46:55 PM
RS3 - Stat topic chugging along. I'm done with over half the cast, currently up to Tatyana now. It's pretty weird that Epees end up better on average than -Axes- do, but this is the foil of the endgame. Final Letter is very good and pretty much keeps the Epee users within 3HKO range in spite of the shoddy Level Factor and weapon power deal the weapon itself gets. Also, hooooooooooly shit mages got it worse than I first imagined. Tiberius struggles to break four-digit damage with the very best Sun Magic has to offer and 23 Intelligence.

EDIT: Annnnnnnnd in spite of the retardo mults on Dragon Inferno, the low hit rate and problematic spreads in one of speed or strength granted to all people who get it but Boston suddenly drop the damage averages -once- again. Oh well.

EDIT 2: For the Fennies: if Ellen got Dragon Inferno, she'd be dealing over 3000 damage a pop with that. Still some accuracy issues, but she'd average a 2HKO with it -anyway-. And, if it's any consolation, by turn two she starts dropping ITD 2HKOs just by virtue of Tiger Break spam. The cast has a goddamn lot of 3HKO machines, that's for sure.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 11, 2013, 02:03:08 AM
"Went with older woman with cleavage but was tempted by loli with eyepatch."
You did well.

Snow what about maces? I don't know why maces exist. I suspect they're only here to make sure people don't normally get magic crowns, for obscure SaGa reasons.


Persona 1 Snow Queen:
Finished this. The game has 67584 skills and I only ever used Mediarama, Megido, Megidola and Megidolaon.The main character had 5x more experience than everyone else because he just had h4x speed and spammed Megidolaon all the time. Since random battles can be skipped by talking to demons / SP regens by walking around / characters are fully healed every level up, no one ever runs out of SP. Ever.
I stopped the optional dungeon one fight before the end because it was incredibly boring.

Persona 2 Innocent Sin PSP:
Thinking about it, Persona 2 (the other one) is the one game that really made me want to live in a big city. The setting is the only one thing the game actually does amazingly well. There are dozens of stores, each has a shopkeeper with unique character art, unique music, and everybody inside says something different after every major event.
No one would probably have the time to talk to everybody after every major event in this game, but this might be a big part of the appeal, too.

I have no complaints about Eternal Punishment but Innocent Sin kinda ruins it with all the anime plot and most annoying Gary Stuest main in existence. He is a strong but silent loner that everybody in the world is madly in love with because he's hot and cool. Bella from Twilight has nothing on this guy.
Except he doesn't look like anything special? That haircut seriously ruins everything.
Anyway. Eternal Punishment doesn't have that shit.

Anyway I'm playing a solo of sort on hard mode (Every character revives after every battle so it's tricky. I just kill them right away during boss battles, don't give them any new equipment and never have them participate in conversations), and it's really easy so far. I got a Poltergeist and a Pixie for respectively Tarukaja and Dia, and both are overkill.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 11, 2013, 02:49:53 AM
DMC3 Fresh Hard (Dante): Just Beat Vergil 1.  I lost to him once due to getting a little overzealous and all that.

Jester 1 got me as well for similar reasons.  Gigapede got me because he's stupid.  Agni/Rudra killed me more times than I can count because they're jerks.  Cerberus got the DMC2 treatment and was cheesed out because I forgot to go in with Swordmaster, so this was the only really viable method!  I lost to a stray random with those big clubs here and there which is weird because I remember them being completely uninspiring outside of being more durable than they appear, ah well.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma: I beat Rachel's second chapter, got pissed at the targetting puzzle only to remember I forgot a secret room gauntlet thing as Ryu that I could go back to that I reset to 2 chapters earlier, and have to redo Rachel's chapter...

...which is annoying because Rachel is NOT well balanced for this game.  She has the worst weapon in the game (non-upgraded Wooden Sword not-withstanding), a fraction of Ryu's mobility, and a god awful ranged weapon.  I know they wanted to add variety, but adding it in the form of a character whose straight up worse than what you're use to?  Not smart...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 11, 2013, 05:17:36 AM
I have no complaints about Eternal Punishment but Innocent Sin kinda ruins it with all the anime plot and most annoying Gary Stuest main in existence. He is a strong but silent loner that everybody in the world is madly in love with because he's hot and cool. Bella from Twilight has nothing on this guy.
Except he doesn't look like anything special? That haircut seriously ruins everything.
Anyway. Eternal Punishment doesn't have that shit.


Duuuuuuuuude, now I want to see you play P3.  P3 is exactly that except you play as Edward instead of Bella.

Fantastic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 11, 2013, 06:00:45 AM
Calling P2 IS plot "Anime" tells me you haven't gotten very far in it yet...

P2 IS isn't "anime", it's more like... you know how when you're drunk and every sentence involving the word "Hitler" seems funny? It's that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 11, 2013, 07:09:57 AM
It is if every anime is either Satoshi Kon or Hetalia, which I assume is the case for Fenrir because that is how he rolls.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on February 11, 2013, 05:19:26 PM
FEA: Promoted my first unit, Lissa to War Cleric.  I figured the extra defense stats certainly wouldn't hurt, plus I needed an extra axe user since Vaike sucks so bad.  I think he's managed to die in every single fight so far.  Even got crit-killed by an enemy with 1% crit rate.  Thank Jeebus for Casual mode.

Got Florina and Prince Marth.  Tried to get Nino but her support had stats in the 50s.  Seriously wtf.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 11, 2013, 06:54:49 PM
FE13 - About to tackle the warlord guy's castle, he looks tough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 11, 2013, 06:55:55 PM
Snow what about maces? I don't know why maces exist. I suspect they're only here to make sure people don't normally get magic crowns, for obscure SaGa reasons.

In theory, they were supposed to cover the niche of blunt damage that doesn't have accuracy issues (Martial Arts accuracy formula is kinda crap along with erratic base hit rates and axe techs have low hit rates themselves) along with unique status and debuffs. In practice, they're horrible failure outside Draw Sword and Swallow Sword, which are both OPB and Training Cane-only. OF COURSE, in the DL, their suck doesn't matter because Golden Bat is cheese incarnate as a weapon with a Hide Rune clone that deals damage and Petrify. Poet has a case for Heavy due to that crap, and he's the worst mace user out of the three people who actually get the weapon type (Nora and particularly Mikhail have a fair deal of options for backup or alternate possibilities. Mikhail is just ridiculous with Sun Magic -and- Maces to cheese a whole lot of stuff).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 11, 2013, 08:02:27 PM
Tales of Graces f - I missed a few night's worth of play in updates because it is mostly the same thing over and over again.  Something happens, Asbel changes his mind at the last minute and then :O  Zombie Ghost RICHARD is actually a dracula.  Then some more stuff with Pimp RICHARD and :O Zombie Ghost Richard is actually a dracula.  Then some stuff with Hubert and :O Zombie Ghost Richard is actually a dracula.

So I head off to Desert France (where half the townsfolk wear berets all the time) and run around a bit.  Go off to a side area with level 1 billion enemies that curb stomp you, but you can get da loots.  Not really worth it, but whatever.  I play some Magic Carta which is an amazing activity in masturbation from Tales Studios.  I get to relive the ?!?!??!?! moment of Karyl from ToD saying "Some call me 'Blue Lightning'.  You can call me Karyl".  Then I rage at the minigame when I realise to win the shit you care about you need to not just win, but to completely sweep.  That is stupid.  Then I can't work out how to turn up the difficulty to get someone I actually like a costume so settle with beating it on Easy and unlocking something for Asbel.  Fucking woot.

When he was in the party I used Zombie Ghost RICHARD all the time because he is a dracula and that is fun.  Swapped to Pimp Richard and had The Worst Time Ever A Tales Game Other Than Trying To Control A Mage In The Older Games.  So I had pegged controlling mages as still pretty fucking shit.  Then I realised you could set the game to autocast off of O if you leave it blank.  This is so much better.  I don't know if the game picks a random spell at that CC rank or does a best fit for you.  I don't give any fucks this is awesome.  I can play a mage (kind of) in a Tales game and not be stuck watching the same 4 spells over and over and over.  It still is frustrating trying to use anything more than his neutral A-Artes line, but you get there.  It isn't as clunky as trying to chain different directional arts and then juggle to a different direction B arte (Fun fact, I don't actually enjoy that part of Tales control schemes and this is part of why I don't normally combo much).

This lets me focus way more on the state of the battle field and actually lets me do more than mindlessly mash on A or B and Guard.  Range Malik provides lets you actually realistically think about enemy positioning to dodge and stuff.  So thank you RICHARD your control scheme let me really appreciate a Tales combat system again.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 11, 2013, 08:38:24 PM
Be fair, that costume is the I'm Playing A Better Tales Game costume.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 11, 2013, 10:09:31 PM
It shows up in cutscenes?  If so it is worth it I guess.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 11, 2013, 11:56:22 PM

Got Florina and Prince Marth.  Tried to get Nino but her support had stats in the 50s.  Seriously wtf.

Nino's support consist of a high level Hero, Swordmaster, and Assassin, a lineup that might sound familiar to you.

Finished FE13 last night. I had 3 resets due to character deaths and 1 to realize how Tiki's paralogue worked. 21 was my favorite chapter to play on Normal, although the surprise reinforcements would've been an unpleasant surprise on any higher difficulty where reinforcements work FE6-style. More detailed writeup to come later, when I'm less tired from work.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 12, 2013, 12:38:20 AM
Disgaea 4 - So I did a quick map in the Item World to get acquainted with the game again after like a month of not touching anything ever. It was easy, but how the hell do panel combos -work-. The game finds the weirdest ways to be obtuse. I'll just move on to the story mode.

EDIT: And looking at D4, oh god wow I so can see how would I loathe Disgaea 1 with all my might.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 12, 2013, 03:01:17 AM
I did actually watch Perfect Blue, played P2 IS (in japanese with a giant word file of the english translation) and P3. The P3 main wasn't really as bad as Tasuya in IS, girls weren't totally all over him all the time. I bet he could be a player and eventually have a harem, but in my game he was too busy playing MMORPGs and hanging with Tanaka to notice.



Anyway, before I make myself forever look like Roger Ebert talking about videogames: Something can be "too anime" the same way something can be "too videogame" (dumb and loud) This doesn't mean all videogames or even most of them are dumb and loud.

That being said I have a grade system to measure the animeness of something. This depends on four factors that each get a score out of 5 points. Add all the points and you get the total animeness out of 20.
The media in question obviously needs at the very least relatively anime inspired character design, or it gets an automatic 0 (or else things like Transformer would get crazy scores like 8/20)

The factors:

      1) Storyline
- How ludicrous and convoluted the entire storyline is
- Pointless references to religions and authors

      2) Design
- Fanservice
- Lolis
- Mascots
- Badass swordsmen with long flowy hair

      3) Interaction
- Awkward interactions between men and women (Think Love Hina)
- Awkward interactions between younger and older people
- Dudes shouting at each other. A lot. (DBZ)

      4) J-Pop
- Seriously J Pop gets its own category
- Stuff like "Amazing" or "Tears of Blood" aren't J-Pop but they DEFINITELY get MASSIVE POINTS there
- I guess I'll add translated honorifics there. Seriously, honorifics??


Persona 2 Innocent Sin (PSP) gets:
- 5/5 in storyline. A band of teenagers fighting their principal, the student council president of a rival school then a resurrected sunglasses wearing Hitler.
- 0/5 in design
- 3/5 in interaction. Everything involving Tatsuya is awkward, and you get some lame forced humour out the Lisa/Heikichi relationship
- 3/5 in J-Pop. The opening song is tame but they had to add honorifics!!
For a total score of 11/20

Compare to Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (PS):
- 4/5 in storyline
- 0/5 in design
- 2/5 in interaction
- 0/5 in J-Pop
Total score: 6/20

Tales:
- 4/5 in storyline
- 5/5 in design
- 5/5 in interaction
- 3/5 in J-pop
Total score: 17/20

FFT:
- 1/5 in storyline
- 0/5 in design
- 0/5 in interaction
- 0/5 in J-Pop
Total score: 1/20

FF6:
- 2/5 in storyline
- 0/5 in design
- 2/5 in interaction
- 0/5 in J-Pop
Total score: 4/20

Kingdom Hearts:
- 5/5 in storyline
- 5/5 in design
- 5/5 in interaction
- 5/5 in J-Pop
Total score: 20/20

Fire Emblem:
- 1/5 in storyline
- 3/5 in design
- 2/5 in interaction
- 0/5 in J- pop
Total score: 6/20

Jin Roh, Grave of the Fireflies:
- 0/5 in storyline
- 0/5 in design
- 0/5 in interaction
- 0/5 in J-Pop
Total score: 0/20

Suikoden 2:
- 1/5 in storyline
- 0/5 in design
- 1/5 in interaction
- 0/5 in J-Pop
Total score: 2/20

Xenosaga:
- 7/5 in storyline
- 7/5 in design
- 4/5 in interaction
- 0/5 in J-Pop
Total score: 18/20

Yes I just made all that up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 12, 2013, 03:41:35 AM
I think that's sort of the point, in two ways.  First of course, Persona at its core is just about the trials of self-discovery and maturation, so teenage everyday drama taken to 11 (ie anime) is just going to be a part of that.  But Persona 2 in particular has something else going on.  The layers of hi-bye character appearances in IS for the Persona 1 cast, the EP PCs, and so on lead me to think that it was always planned to be two games, right?  So really, IS is an incomplete story told from the perspective of a teenager.  One where his give no shits, loner attitude has all the women falling over him, where he's the only one who can save teh world, where his friendships and happiness as equal to the whole rest of the world.  Then in Eternal Punishment, we see a more mature and objective perspective, a troubled kid flailing while trying to do the right thing and needing guidance to get through.  And similarly, we start out assaulted by the mundane concerns of the teenage cast, then move past that into more mature fears and tribulations, but unlike the last game, we move past that yet again into the real heart of the matter, the darkness in everyone's souls.

Or I'm reading way too much into it.  I dunno.  It's fun to talk Persona.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 12, 2013, 03:42:25 AM
Suikoden 2, 0 in design? Are you serious?

Snow what about maces? I don't know why maces exist. I suspect they're only here to make sure people don't normally get magic crowns, for obscure SaGa reasons.

In theory, they were supposed to cover the niche of blunt damage that doesn't have accuracy issues (Martial Arts accuracy formula is kinda crap along with erratic base hit rates and axe techs have low hit rates themselves) along with unique status and debuffs. In practice, they're horrible failure outside Draw Sword and Swallow Sword, which are both OPB and Training Cane-only. OF COURSE, in the DL, their suck doesn't matter because Golden Bat is cheese incarnate as a weapon with a Hide Rune clone that deals damage and Petrify. Poet has a case for Heavy due to that crap, and he's the worst mace user out of the three people who actually get the weapon type (Nora and particularly Mikhail have a fair deal of options for backup or alternate possibilities. Mikhail is just ridiculous with Sun Magic -and- Maces to cheese a whole lot of stuff).

How can you not mention Break Turtle and its awsome defense bust.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 12, 2013, 03:52:00 AM
Because it's not really that awesome. Halving Heat and Cold defenses would be cooler if those elements weren't attached to underwhelming attacks. Meteor Kick and Reverse Throw are superior in that regard, really.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 12, 2013, 03:56:52 AM
That's a really interesting perspective Cmdr and I'd have to agree.

(Getting thrown into the mind of an average teenager for an entire game is still a bore for me though)

Niu, I thought about each grade for about 5 seconds each.
Yes I guess I did forget about... Jeanne and Yuber. But most of the (huge) cast is tame.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 12, 2013, 04:09:34 AM
(Getting thrown into the mind of an average teenager for an entire game is still a bore for me though)

Truly a rare scenario for an RPG filled with unmined potential.

10/10 never change.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on February 12, 2013, 04:21:01 AM
10/10 for daring to do rankings at all, but other than Suiko2, FFT needs a score bump as well.  You've got manly bro rivalries, "Someone to Love" who is your sister who also is the vessel for a demon, and it turns out Judas was the good guy while Jesus Christ was actually Satan and the 12 Disciples were his/her/its demonlord buddies.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on February 12, 2013, 04:31:53 AM
Xenosaga getting a 0/5 on J Pop? I'm assuming you blocked the vocal tracks out of your memory, then...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 12, 2013, 04:32:04 AM
RS3 - And we get our first bonafide 2HKOer in Zhi Lin. Million Dollars off -that- Bow level and Dex for Godlike.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 12, 2013, 06:22:57 AM
Because it's not really that awesome. Halving Heat and Cold defenses would be cooler if those elements weren't attached to underwhelming attacks. Meteor Kick and Reverse Throw are superior in that regard, really.

Unless my memory has failed me, Break Turtle halves all physical defenses and heat. And if my memory serves me correctly, def debuff only work on a physical defenses and heat defense.


Niu, I thought about each grade for about 5 seconds each.
Yes I guess I did forget about... Jeanne and Yuber. But most of the (huge) cast is tame.

Even the squirrels? And how about all the hermaphroditic looking boys and girl.... say Kennison or Wakaba.


Xenosaga getting a 0/an5 on J Pop? I'm assuming you blocked the vocal tracks out of your memory, then...

Miracle and Pain kinda cancels on another out. And Kokoro isn't that J-popish.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 12, 2013, 06:58:41 AM
Because it's not really that awesome. Halving Heat and Cold defenses would be cooler if those elements weren't attached to underwhelming attacks. Meteor Kick and Reverse Throw are superior in that regard, really.

Unless my memory has failed me, Break Turtle halves all physical defenses and heat. And if my memory serves me correctly, def debuff only work on a physical defenses and heat defense.

The mechanics sources we scoured only note heat and cold res for Shell Split. Meteor Kick and Reverse Throw lower physical defenses and heat, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 12, 2013, 07:37:14 AM
Thank you for your scale. So awesome. <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Monkeyfinger on February 12, 2013, 10:41:31 AM
10/10 for daring to do rankings at all, but other than Suiko2, FFT needs a score bump as well.  You've got manly bro rivalries, "Someone to Love" who is your sister who also is the vessel for a demon, and it turns out Judas was the good guy while Jesus Christ was actually Satan and the 12 Disciples were his/her/its demonlord buddies.

I don't remember any "manly bro rivalries."

Fen gave FFT a 1/5 in story, which makes sense. The anime stuff you described is there, but it plays second fiddle to the main focus of the game, which is always warring nations and scheming politicians and starving commoners and shit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Yoshiken on February 12, 2013, 12:16:43 PM
Fenrir rankings best rankings

I have nothing else to post here, I don't play games that aren't online Triple Triad. I just wanted to praise that post. :)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on February 12, 2013, 02:36:21 PM
FE13 - Finished.  Classic/Hard.  Really tough early game, weak midgame, and decently tough lategame when every enemy unit comes promoted.  The final chapter was brutal.  Unlimited reinforcements that move same turn and you don't know where.  Extremely dangerous to use flying units when 38 speed Assassins spawn with forged Silver Bows.  I wanted to get all the character endings so I had to restart until I realized I hate to bench my fliers and pull out the Donny.  Damn hillbilly with 6 capped stats at level 20/16.  Easily my MVP in kills, then following my Avatar berserker and his family of axe wielding manaics.  The hardest chapters has to be Noire and Yarne's paralogues (assuming you fight both armies in the later) along with the final.  Of the entire cast of characters,  Cervantes is the best of the lot.  I need his portrait for avatar material.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on February 12, 2013, 03:44:05 PM
2nd OG: Finished the SRWF segment. Zazenan was pretty decent, but not to the point where he could actually kill anybody. Granzon is ridiculous. Anyway, I'm going back and doing the Earth route for those stages too, because I want to at least see the Rising Meteo stage. Finished S54 on that path, Shine is eight kills away from ace because I can.

10000000: Played on and off for a couple weeks, beat it Friday morning. Fun little time-waster. Manages to play differently enough from other match-three games that it stays fresh, and the grinding isn't too annoying. Wish there was some way to save up "extra" hits after killing something - it's kind of infuriating to beat an enemy and then get another five or six chains afterward that just go to waste - but I guess that would make it excessively easy to hit 10,000,000. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 12, 2013, 04:13:15 PM
http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Cervantes For the Ephs.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 12, 2013, 05:37:27 PM
Because it's not really that awesome. Halving Heat and Cold defenses would be cooler if those elements weren't attached to underwhelming attacks. Meteor Kick and Reverse Throw are superior in that regard, really.

Unless my memory has failed me, Break Turtle halves all physical defenses and heat. And if my memory serves me correctly, def debuff only work on a physical defenses and heat defense.

The mechanics sources we scoured only note heat and cold res for Shell Split. Meteor Kick and Reverse Throw lower physical defenses and heat, though.

Hmm... I think Niu may be right. I'll double check it, but it's possible I wrote the effects of Shell Split down wrong.
EDIT: Actually, it seems I just wrote it down wrong in one place. In the actual section on additional status effects, Shell Split is listed as reducing all Physical and Heat Defense by 50%.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on February 12, 2013, 05:59:26 PM
"I am a staunch believer in amelioration."
"Miriel's Wind broke."

Comedy gold.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 12, 2013, 07:09:51 PM
Because it's not really that awesome. Halving Heat and Cold defenses would be cooler if those elements weren't attached to underwhelming attacks. Meteor Kick and Reverse Throw are superior in that regard, really.

Unless my memory has failed me, Break Turtle halves all physical defenses and heat. And if my memory serves me correctly, def debuff only work on a physical defenses and heat defense.

The mechanics sources we scoured only note heat and cold res for Shell Split. Meteor Kick and Reverse Throw lower physical defenses and heat, though.

Hmm... I think Niu may be right. I'll double check it, but it's possible I wrote the effects of Shell Split down wrong.
EDIT: Actually, it seems I just wrote it down wrong in one place. In the actual section on additional status effects, Shell Split is listed as reducing all Physical and Heat Defense by 50%.

Okies. That's gonna be easy to fix anyhow, only two PCs get Shell Split in the DL. Not to mention the effect is neat, but given the defense averages, it only goes so far.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 12, 2013, 08:01:10 PM
2nd OG: Finished the SRWF segment. Zazenan was pretty decent, but not to the point where he could actually kill anybody. Granzon is ridiculous. Anyway, I'm going back and doing the Earth route for those stages too, because I want to at least see the Rising Meteo stage. Finished S54 on that path, Shine is eight kills away from ace because I can.

you might want to save it for the second cycle. You need two runs to unlock special mode anyway.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on February 12, 2013, 09:28:08 PM
With all the other PS3 games I have to play, a second run is months off, maybe a year. I'm not waiting that long for lightning facekicks!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 12, 2013, 11:27:01 PM
Suiko Tactics (Mages-only playthrough):

Whoo-hoo, Wind Mage GET! Not only is Roget sporting a very nice Cyclone Rune, but his Canadia-Cockney-Aussie-accent is adorable.

The party is now full up on Mages and the playthrough is a lot easier than earlier sections. Lazlo is still my game-breaker, but Andarc, Corselia, and Jeane are just damage machines. Maxine is also pretty awesome with Extra Move. I suspect Roget will probably outshine her soon enough since he's a faster mage with Extra Move and that kind of utility is so very necessary. Simeon is on heal-duty, and Pablo mostly just throws beads because what the fuck else is he going to do? Kyril and Seneca are also there because they are required often enough that I want to keep them levelled up. Seneca spends most of her time picking off anything the Mages don't one-shot. I'm having to baby Kyril at this point because he's my only melee range character and things keep getting killed before he reaches them.

Looking forward to seeing Iskas trolling. I hope he gets a battle form, because I -really- want to beat his face in. :3
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 12, 2013, 11:27:57 PM
Looking forward to seeing Iskas trolling. I hope he gets a battle form, because I -really- want to beat his face in. :3

Boy, do I have news for you! =D
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on February 12, 2013, 11:37:28 PM
FEA:  Chrom and Sumia had a child.  Tragically the child was born with no feet.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 12, 2013, 11:41:22 PM
Isn't that a trait inherent to all people in FE13?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on February 12, 2013, 11:47:14 PM
Chrom and Sumia were my pairing as well.

FE:A

Don't train Donnel if you like a challenge, because I have seen what a trained Donnel can do and it's not fair.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 13, 2013, 12:55:08 AM
Suiko Tactics:

Corselia has the worst parents, but dear god her mother is the most horrible human being in this game, and this game has ISKAS. At least it's intentional, unlike XS3-style terrible human beings.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 13, 2013, 03:07:42 AM
Add to my grading system:
- No feet
- Pink hair being completely normal
- A robot learning how to love

I remember now Zenny. Maybe Xenosaga beats KH in animeness. I'm sure there's some Nippon Ichi / Idea Factory game lurking somewhere that stomps them both though. I don't want to know.



Path of Exile: Beat the siren on cruel difficulty with masterful strategy. The strategy being creating a portal in the boss room then coming back over and over upon death.

P2 Innocent Sin pseudo solo: Fighting harpies in the music store.
Demons are doing 10HKO damage at most to all the other party members who have starting equipment / persona and a low level. I'm in the fifth or sixth dungeon, playing on hard mode. Just making other party members die might take a few minutes, and I'm always happy to see traps for that reason. Somehow there's an easy and a normal mode there for people wanting an easier experience?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 13, 2013, 03:34:34 AM
I would like to nominate physics-defying chest bounce for your grading system, Fenrir. That should be an instant +5 or so points.

Quote
Finished FE13 last night. I had 3 resets due to character deaths and 1 to realize how Tiki's paralogue worked. 21 was my favorite chapter to play on Normal, although the surprise reinforcements would've been an unpleasant surprise on any higher difficulty where reinforcements work FE6-style. More detailed writeup to come later, when I'm less tired from work.

More like over a day later. Clearly I have yet to learn to underestimate my own laziness.

Broadly speaking, Awakening is the Fire Emblem game that IntSys has stuffed full of the most content to date. The stage count matches Radiant Dawn's after you factor in all the paralogues, with even more available via DLC, including some crazy difficult de facto post game levels. The quantity of support conversations is absolutely massive, I think it outnames FE6-9 combined even after tossing out all the mostly generic father-child and sibling supports. Promoted classes are more diverse than ever, with cool weapon combinations like Lance+Staff Falcon Knight, Lance+Tome Dark Flier, and Sword+Staff Trickster (Thief promotion) that are either new or haven't been seen since the FE4. Radiant Dawn's third tier classes are not included, but reclassing via Second Seals serve a largely similar purpose and tier two class caps are higher across the board than FE10's third tier classes anyways. On Normal those caps are largely overkill but I've seen videos of postgame DLC/endgame Lunatic stages where generic enemies actually hit those caps, so they aren't for show. FE4's lover/inheritence system is back in heavily modified form, making it much less important to the overall game but also a million times less punishing for players who don't faq the whole system to avoid getting stuck with mages with 10% magic growth.

Between a world map with random battles for grinding (on lower difficulties at least), infinite levels via reclassing for skills/stats, the ability to toggle permadeath off and quasi-postgame stages this is definately the Fire Emblem that most resembles a conventional RPG/SRPG to date, which makes it more appealing and more accesible for people who aren't totally sold into the traditional Fire Emblem gameplay style of limited exp/resources (besides high risk arenas) and permadeath. There's still plenty to offer longtime fans so long as they can resist accessing some totally optional gameplay elements, which thankfully applies to pretty much all of the fanbase from what I've seen besides a few idiots on Gamefaqs. Some old gameplay mechanics that they didn't bring back will be missed by series veterans though, and with a lot of the new gameplay elements inapplicible to a "pure" FE experience isn't automatically the Best FE Ever for longtime veterans, despite the general internet reaction being largely that. Stages could've used a bit more variety overall, especially in terms of mission objectives, but the removal of Fog of War is a clear case of addition by subtraction for me. Seize missions to a lesser extent as well, since those are pretty much "kill boss" stages that then forced you to drag your lord over to the gate/throne at the end.

Rally was a really nice addition to FE gameplay, adding a bunch of buffs while still keeping the mechanics really simple; if anything, I'd like to see them get introduced earlier in the game, maybe with weaker versions to start with. Pair Up is a more complicated addition; it certainly complements the game's relationship system well and switching between two characters makes for interesting tactical decisions and flexibility, but the stat boosts in FE13 are so huge that they have huge ramifications on game balance. Normal difficulty just gets completely slaughtered by well-planned Pair Up usage since enemies can't handle your buffed stat gods; from what I've read, Hard gets pretty much defanged eventually while Lunatic is nearly impossible without proper Pairing Up. I enjoyed this well enough myself, but I'm also someone who's spent much of the past few years playing much easier SRPGs like modern SRWs not named A Portable; I can see how hardcore FE-diehards might have ambivalent feelings or even dislike this particular mechanic.

I also have some thoughts on all the PCs I used this run, but this post is pretty far in wall-of-text range as it is so I'll put them in a separate post later.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on February 13, 2013, 04:01:14 AM
I remember now Zenny. Maybe Xenosaga beats KH in animeness. I'm sure there's some Nippon Ichi / Idea Factory game lurking somewhere that stomps them both though. I don't want to know.

Sounds about right.

Quote
Path of Exile: Beat the siren on cruel difficulty with masterful strategy. The strategy being creating a portal in the boss room then coming back over and over upon death.

Yeah, that... sounds about right.  I just beat Cruel and my strategy was to die until I wore down the boss. I'm a little worried about this strategy on Cruel where you take an XP penalty.  I need some elemental resistance gear with good links stat.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on February 13, 2013, 06:08:21 AM
All of this talk of animeness and silent mains whom everyone is madly in love with has reminded me that I have been remiss in my duty to share the miseries of Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time, in a futile attempt to cleanse myself of the stink.  I already mentioned a few gems like the optional breast-groping "'sup you were dead but now you're alive" greeting, but there is much much more.  As noted before, perhaps the best summation is that LoH: Trails in the Sky is a very very anime tropey game but mostly with the good tropes, while G:WOT goes for the bad / creepy tropes. 

So, since Ephraim has shamefully let this forum down.  Let's talk Gary Stu.  The PSP version is an improved re-release of the game from the Japan-only PS2 version, and the main thing the re-release added was making sure that absolutely anyone with a heartbeat could be seduced by Our Hero.  Actually, no, that's wrong.  There are two to three different dead ladies you can seduce as well, along with your purely magical fairy familiar.  (Well.  Maybe, I assume she doesn't breath etc., but she did require some of your blood to make, so who knows.)  The way you're "supposed" to play through is presumably to finish about half the characters mini-plotlines (though it can be close to all if you FAQ heavily), then pick one to go on a romantic date with just before the endgame, which would be fine...  except that said mini-plotlines tend to involve the other side getting romantic thoughts fast, so it's not like you're just building friendships.  Definitely feels more like "whose heart won't you break you monster" to me, at least if I took these events seriously, which I don't because you have the inexplicably young princess whom everyone loves immediately getting all moony-eyed and spouting gibberish about how she's only really seen you now and can she just keep looking for a little longer practically immediately.  There's friendship meters as well, but since the game hands out Dandy Books which raise all the friendship gagues fairly liberally, it's not hard to max all of these for what little it matters.  Aside from making everyone admire him instantly when not outright falling for him, Gary Stu is a more general Stuy world savior as well.  For awhile he has to share the stage with two others with similar powers, but that eventually gets fixed by him taking all their powers unto himself because, um, okay even a character in-game says "WTF how was that even possible."  There are some tragic Stu consequences because using such power might KILL HIM but I wouldn't worry too much, if this power is too much for the human body to withstand, if we modify the power to be EVEN MORE POWERFUL then we'll be fine.  And so we are.

* Leona, our nekomimi.  Now there is nothing inherently wrong with catgirls.  Leona starts off as a rather uninspired one, bouncing her naked butt in front of the camera in the opening video, and being plotless aside from doing standard stupid "wild person being a moron" crap (you know, we need an excuse for all the robots to wake up and attack, so surprise catgirl smashes the controls 'cuz that's how she rolls).  Then she joins up for very unclear reasons and starts calling you "Master" because merely one character (your familiar) calling Gary Stu "Master" is not enough, Japanese shut-ins are really turned on by this or something.  (I think this is the appeal of the Fate/stay night series.)  Okay, whatever, she's never forced but it's harmless to have an extra warm body to mix up my party with, and you can see her hilariously misinterpreting people and saying "mrow" and whatever.  Then we get some stuff about her & her brother's backstory, where they're from another world, but humans who speak the same language are there too and RIP OFF poor catpeople but Leona believes in them or some crap, but they got dragged into our world 'cuz.  Then her brother gets all mad at her for calling Gary Stu "Master," because Leona is too young, and apparently this is a special term for, uh, sounds like husband pretty much.  Yes, because I am bad at telling catgirl ages, apparently Leona is young for her race, and she was just a tad lonely, which is why she latched onto Gary.  Of course, while disappointed, she still wants to keep up this Master thing...   yeah this is where I nuked that little miniplotline of keeping leading her on, by basically calling it off and letting her off easy.  (Props to the game for at least letting me to this rather than forcing me to be a cat pedo.)  Apparently I'm supposed to feed her acorns for doing tricks when she rends my enemies in twain or something to actually get the "I love my Master!" ending had I kept going.  Yeah no.

* On the note of people who call you "Master" all the time, I didn't realize until it was too late that I could romance my own fairy familiar.  I'd call it depraved, but on second thought this is some Time of Eve shit, as romancing a magical being made from your own blood whose literal reason for existence is to serve you is pretty much exactly analogous to romancing a robot programmed to love and obey you.  But yes, even from the parts of this plot I managed to get, she gets all apologetic about how she can't (serve?  I forget the verb) you "like other women, Master."  Apparently if I'd done it properly, this can be fixed via arranging her essence to be stuck inside a homunculus, which I could even adjust the weight & blood type of or something.  (This is actually not so bad, because the plot earlier does at least sort of recognize that fairies being psychotically devoted to one person, cheerfully trading their own lives for their master's, is a tad creepy.)  Also, before you even make her, you get to have silly conversations about how "Doll type familiars are the best" and hoping she turns out cute, etc.  After you get her, you have the "Dollhouse" for upgrading her, where you give her conversation or etiquette lessons or some such.  And can also change her dress to various options.  Yes I am secure in my manliness, what.  (Okay, I also gave her the respectable Edgeworth uniform + cravat the entire game which, rather than a swimsuit or the like.)

* Tricia.  So she's this character with wildly implausible breasts who seems to fall madly in love with Gary Stu faster than everyone else (although thankfully, the options allowed me to be fairly rude and uninterested and still recruit her anyway just from interaction!).  Fine.  But then you're separated for a long time, and she ends up in an army opposed to yours...  but yet her main thoughts, much later, are still along the lines of "Gee I hope I don't have to fight Gary."  Yes she can end up an ally by a many-months dormant unrequited love, not by any particular opposition to some bad things her side does.

* Maggie.  Yes, yes, Urushihara art, it is usually bad, but she's bad in a unique way.  Rather than having some kind of impossible breast-job-gone wrong, her clothing takes the cake for ridiculousness.  She's your engineer, and she runs around the entire game in some kind of flight suit with a trench coat over it - except the suit has been unzipped all the way to the waist, showing off her bikini.  Even when she's busy firing spellcannons or whatever.  It's like some kind of bizarre Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue at the Air Force base.  http://growlanser.neoseeker.com/wiki/Maggie for an idea (but the bare legs can't be seen in game, so it's easier to assume the green is everywhere else).

* Okay this isn't actually so bad, but I'd just like to say that the spoiled rich girl type you meet early on somehow ends up fighting you, and is higher level than you.  Humiliating.  (There's a reason for it, our villain has strange taste in allies to give superpowers to.)  Of course by the end she'll be all feeding you food she cooked while demanding you close your eyes and the like and talking about how she loves you as the ultimate big brother, but maybe something more, blah blah blah blah.

* Badass female knight commander type.  I'd presume she should be a tad too old for Our Hero, but no, if you play your cards right (I didn't, and am thankful), she apparently will get all weepy and break down and fall for you as well.  She gets all weepy eventually anyway, but at least it's to an old friend of hers in my playthrough, which makes a certain amount of sense.  (Even if said old friend is part of another trope I don't like: two silver-haired badass brothers, possibly meant for some yaoi, where one brother is the Responsible One and the other is the Irresponsible Unreliable Badass Playboy whom everyone loves almost as much as Gary Stu.)

* In the realm of spoilers, I'll be brief: Zombie adoptive sister.  Your lover if you want, since she certainly wants it.  And possibly if you don't want, merely doing her side plotline some gets you her demanding to sleep in your bed "like old times" or something.

Obligatory disclaimer: The game's plot otherwise has some rather good ideas.  I can only assume that there were at least 3 writers, 1 of whom was my type who writes some good politics & passable fantasy backstory, and another writer whose job was to come up with more tropes to "romance" with some bland flattery.

Gameplay wise, the game is still a bit too easy in that it doesn't appear to be balanced around the fact that you can walk into every fight with some ridiculous buffs already cast.  It does appear to be balanced around healing items being total hax when missions require you to keep NPCs alive, though.  That really hasn't been an issue lately, though.  There's also two awesome "exhibition matches" at the fighting arena that are fanservice done right, at least for members of the DL crowd: after you get your homunculus machine online, you get to fight the entire casts of Growlanser II & Growlanser III, both PC & villain.  These are pretty nasty fights too since you're badly outnumbered, and a stun lock can turn bad fairly fast.  Still, switching around my own equipment and using some broken lvl. 9 spellstones like "get two extra attacks", and entering the fight with Haste (Cycle Up) on, means I can reverse the who's-stunlocking-who as long as I can kill the groups fast enough before I get mobbed, so the fights were certainly winnable.  Nice design.  Enemy mages are entirely hosed by this point in the game, though, so it's not like Arieta or Riviera are going to scare me, but Wolfgang & Carmaine can certainly place a pile of hurt at good rate if they close.

Anyway, just have the final dungeon left, then maybe doing the alternate "join the bad guys" route (which thankfully has an option to immediately go "lol I just did this to kill you" upon arrival), then YouTubing other character endings.  We'll see.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on February 13, 2013, 04:31:15 PM
Orcs Must Die 2- Beaten the Fire and Water map pack on Nightmare with no mana.  The first map was the hardest by far. You have very limited resources and two rifts to guard, which can be tough. I used maces in the central hall which helped to control things.

Loadout for first map: Crossbow (Fire), Tar, Grinder, Flame Scorcher, Healing Trinket, Guardian Trinket, Dwarf Bomber, Boom Barrel,  Swinging Mace, rift trinket,. I didn't really used the guardians or dwarves, you just don't have enough money/too many of the flame guys coming after you.


Loadout for second map:  Crossbow, Tar, Grinder, Flame Scorcher, Healing trinket, Defense trinket,  Wall Arrows,  Boom Barrel, Push Trap, Rift trinket.

Only one reset on the second map. Push traps are wonderful here- they handle the majority of the problems on rift facing the cliffs. Flame scorchers handle the heavies and the few water lords you are left to deal with.


Third map (West wing): Crossbow, Tar, Grinder, Dwarf bombers, Guardian trinket, barricades,  Zapper, flame scorcher, Boom Barrel, Rift Trinket. This was cake. You can make one single chokepoint here. When you can stack said chokepoint with a bunch of grinder and dwarves, you get total slaughter.  The lack of gnolls means you can spam guardians with impunity as well.


I may go to the Robot forums and brainstorm some, but I don't see how I can complete this challenge on the Yeti pack, so I'll skip for now.  The first map of family ties was really easy under this challenge as well (one chokepoint). Last level of it should be cake too. Breakneck triad will be tough, lots of gnolls and sappers. Going to be tough to keep my guardians alive.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 13, 2013, 06:14:13 PM
Growlanser 4 :catstare:

I'm not sure I commend you for your bravery or just stare in awe of how horrifying your war logs about Growlanser 4 are. It's... impressive, that's for certain.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on February 13, 2013, 06:58:44 PM
Growlanser 5 :catstare:

I'm not sure I commend you for your bravery or just stare in awe of how horrifying your war logs about Growlanser 5 are. It's... impressive, that's for certain.

He's actually playing Growlanser 4
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 13, 2013, 07:01:37 PM
4, 5, Urushihara, #we'reallgonnadieanyway.

/me secretly edits the post.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 13, 2013, 07:20:17 PM
RS3 Hack - I honestly believed God only appears in tower in this hack. Yet, the truth turned out that he appears in both the tower and the tournament.

And then, there he is, in the semi finals. Then he spams God's Right Hand, and I was obliterated with only Bei Mei Nyung left.
And what's wrong with his agility? Anything not magic can barely hit him, thank god Bei Mei Nyung can tank with the Snowman spell that I barely pull that fight out.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 13, 2013, 11:30:33 PM
God in a tournament? That's cheating.


Ok Snowfire I take back everything I said when I implied that Tat being The Gary Stu. It's just the two main PC girls falling madly in love with him and a random NPC saying how smoking hot he is about every hour.
You win.


I forgot to say that I've tried FF4: The Complete Collection and went straight to the Interlude.
I'm actually some of those few people who does like some FF4 gameplay (I like the dungeons and the PC mages), but even I couldn't stand this. Going through the exact same old dungeons and fighting the same old bosses with slightly different characters. Except there are now new RPGMaker graphics that look even worse than the original and some fanfic story. WOW

I've also tried Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy. (Square games on sale)
The title alone gave 4 anime points to the game, and the intro 7 other ones.
Paralyzed with fear, I temporarily went back to Persona 2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 14, 2013, 12:10:30 AM
The notable difference being that Growlanser 5 actually has good characters -and- plot, whereas Growlanser 4 is a sesspit of hentai tropes.


Suikoden Tactics (Mages-only playthrough) :

Final Area, part 1. So... Iskas is immune to magic, eh? ...Fuck. Luckily Lazlo exists. I also threw Pablo at him because I don't care if he dies, and dammit, Pablo WILL make himself useful! So Pablo spammed Earth Force, terrain-damaging the main boss for more damage than any of my non-Lazlo mages could do. Fuck off, SuikoTactics, how dare you make the Earth Rune useful for -one- fight.

It seems this map has enough uneven terrain that my Jump-less mages (Jeane and Simeon, most notably) can't reach half the map.

So the map has basically become Roget and Maxine kill everything, Corselia heals, and Lazlo could probably solo this place, but I have him beeline for Iskas. (Pablo also beelines for Iskas because it's funny.) Fuck you, Pablo. Katarina, Jeane, and Simeon are just kinda there. Kyril is also there and I used him on my first reset, but decided that was cheating on a Mages-only playthrough.

Part 2 is a little more straightforward - Lazlo explodes his face with Double Edged Sword, map ends!

Fun game. Found a use for Pablo! That's gotta be worth something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 14, 2013, 12:12:00 AM
It is worth a dollar, like most of your whores.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on February 14, 2013, 02:36:17 AM
Pablo being useful is about as extreme a reaction to Iskas being magic immune one could manage.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on February 14, 2013, 03:28:11 AM
The Growlanser titles are pretty amusing, because they're a case where the US localizers had perfectly good reasons to change things around.  Growlanser 4 PS2 never came out in the states.  Growlanser 5 was "Growlanser Generations" in Japan, but that was already the titles of the G2-G3 combo pack (since Sony forced Working Designs to release G2 & G3 only together or something?!), so it became "Heritage of War."  Growlanser 4 PSP was "Growlanser 4 Over Reloaded" in Engrishy Japanese, and since there was nothing to over reload in the States, G4 PSP just fell back to the PS2 title of Wayfarer of Time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 14, 2013, 03:29:18 AM
One thing I forgot to mention about FE13 yesterday is that Nintendo did a great job with the localized script, with tons of great lines in both the main plot and the supports. The latter in particular read much better than the fan translated ones on Serenes Forest, with better characterization all-around and a lot of the dumber anime tropes toned down (or excised completely in the case of Cordelia's breast size insecurity, which made no goddamned sense in the first place). The good writing helps make up for the fact that the core plot is ultimately nothing special, as usual for Fire Emblem.

Now, stats and comments for my main team members. Wall o' text ahoy:

Chrom, L20 Lord/L15 Great Lord/L3 Paladin : 60 HP/33 Strength/7 Magic/33 Skill/29 Speed/32 Luck/27 Defense/16 Resistance
Skills: Dual Strike+, Charm, Aether, Rightful King

Comments: Good bases for a non-FE10 Ike Lord and solid growths make Chrom a pretty good Lord, though not an amazing one. Hit S rank with Avatar ludicrously fast, especially since I didn't even pair them together for every single earlygame map, which raised his Dual Strike rates into the stratosphere for the entire game. He primarily served as support for the gamebreaking Avatar, but still picked up plenty of exp along the ways.

Female Avatar, L15 Tactician/L15 Grandmaster/L15 Dark Flier: 59 HP/33 Strength/31 Magic/31 Skill/45 Speed/26 Luck/21 Defense/25 Resistance (Speed asset/Luck flaw, in case it wasn't obvious)
Skills: Veteran, Solidarity, Ignis, Rally Spectrum, Galeforce (Rally Movement dropped for half a stage, will be reset for the postgame)

Comments: +50% exp gain with Pair Up activated + support the entire cast + near-full reclass capabilities = game MVP by a mile. Good cheap range 1-2 attacks in a game with severely nerfed hand axes/javs is a huge perk, to the point where I almost never used swords despite the RNG handing her a significant lead in strength for most of the game. Only drawback was low move compared to my army of fliers, and even that went away once I reclassed her to Dark Flier.

Rally Spectrum was obscenely good at the cost of sacrificing my best/second best offensive unit's turn; I imagine it'll be more useful on higher difficulties. Galeforce was only picked up halfway through the penultimate stage so it didn't really do much, although flying across half the map in a single turn and mass slaughtering the enemies on enemy phase was suitably hilarious at least.

Sumia, L18 Pegasus Knight/L16 Falcon Knight/L2 Dark Flier: 47 HP/26(+5) Strength/15 Magic/29 Skill/35(+2) Speed/21 Luck/17 Defense/19 Resistance
Skills: Speed +2, Relief, Rally Speed, Lancefaire

Comments: Lowish strength was an issue up until she got Lancefaire near the end, and her HP/defense could use some work as well. I pretty much hotglued Frederick to her from the moment she showed up, and it worked well enough to last through the entire game. Not as dominant as the rest of my god-squads, but she still had enough damage to reliably one-round pretty much everything but knights/generals/bosses throughout the game and dodged non-axes reliably after some levels (even axes were <50%, they just hurt a lot when they got through).

Frederick, L12 Great Lord: 38 HP/28 Strength/3 Magic/19 Skill/17 Speed/11 Luck/20 Defense/8 Resistance
Skills: Discipline, Outdoor Battle, Luna

Comments: Blows chunk as a combat unit lategame, but he provides Sumia some desperately needed physical muscle via Pair Up. Considering her limited support options I didn't have much of an alternative, and Sumia was good enough to keep using otherwise.

The Vaike, L10 Fighter/L10 Barbarian/L15 Berserker: 67(+5) HP/37(+5) Strength/1 Magic/24 Skill/32 Speed/20 Luck/18 Defense/3 Resistance
Skills: HP +5, Zeal, Despoil, Gamble, Axefaire

Comments: I fed him both my first Second Seal and my second Master Seal so he could make a beeline to Berserker, and holy hell was it worth the effort. The only thing better than a Berserker's offensive stats are the offense that they provide to other units: with those stats above, he provides a minimum of +8 strength/+6 speed to anyone, up to +10 str/+6 spd with an A or S rank support. S-ranked with Cordelia, who provides enough of an evade boost to make up for his shoddy defenses when he took point.

He also had some great battle dialogue, which stood out on a run where I didn't use Henry, Owain, or Heavy Weapons Guy during the main game.

Cordelia, L18 Pegasus Knight/L15 Dark Flier/L3 Falcon Knight: 59 HP/32 Strength/11 Magic/30 Skill/39(+2) Speed/23 Luck/26 Defense/17 Resistance
Skills: Speed +2, Relief, Rally Movement, Galeforce

Comments: Cordelia got a lot of 6 and 7 stat level-ups, and boy does it show. Throw in those aforementioned S-rank with Vaike and she was killing stuff all day long with Bronce Lances and Javelins, backed by great evade and solid defenses. Hands down my best non-Veteran abusing PC, especially when she picked up the almighty Galeforce for the last stage and a half (excluding Endgame, which I finished in one offensive action).

Stahl, L10 Cavalier/L10 Myrmidon/L13 Swordmaster: 50 HP/27 Strength/5 Magic/30 Skill/32 Speed/27 Luck/22 Defense/10 Resistance
Skills: Discipline, Outdoor Battle, Avoid +10, Vantage, Astra

Comments: Reclassing Stahl gave me a Myrmidon with more balanced stats than Lon'qu would have. 32 speed's plenty for doubling on Normal, and that strength is great for a Swordmaster. S-ranked with Cherche, with him providing her much-needed speed via Pair Up while she boosts his strength/defense/move when he takes point.

Cherche, L18 Wyvern Rider/L16 Griffon Rider: 55 HP/31(+2) Strength/5 Magic/30 Skill/25 Speed/17 Luck/28 Defense/9 Resistance
Skills: Strength +2, Tantivy, Deliverer, Lancebreaker

Comments: So you can probably tell that I like fliers at this point. <_< Her levels were a bit lower thanks to joining a bit late, but she was still great on everything but speed and res, and pairing up with Stahl fixed the former. Deliverer is a great perk, one of the best L5 skills in the game.

Marth, L19 Lord/L15 Great Lord/L9 Swordmaster: 62 HP/36 Strength/11 Magic/38 Skill/42 Speed/39 Luck/25 Defense/18 Resistance
Skills: Veteran, Dual Strike+, Aether, Rightful King, Astra

Comments: Joined with Veteran thanks to some planning and, well, you can see the results. Those stats put even Avatar and RNG-blessed Cordelia to shame, and Aether procs enough that she's not dying ever. A unique infinite use 12 MT weapon was great, but limited range 1-2 options (and to a much lesser extent, no Galeforce yet) meant she was "only" my second/third best PC despite the dominant stats.

She also has nearly a 75% chance of OHKOing the final boss on Normal mode with that skill setup, which is overkill but amusing.

Gerome, L10 Wyvern Rider/L9 Griffon Rider: 50 HP/30(+2 Strength)/1 Magic/24 Skill/25 Speed/17 Luck/23 Defense/5 Resistance
Skills: Strength +2, Tantivy, Deliverer, Astra

Comments: I recruited him mainly to support Marth and provide some big juicy stat boosts. He's actually reasonably competent at combat despite the lowish levels unlike Frederick, but Marth is so broken that I switch to him much less often then I do with the Cordelia/Vaike and Cherche/Stahl combos.

Anna, L8 Trickster: 40 HP/14 Strength/22 Magic/29 Skill/24 Speed/31 Luck/11 Defense/13 Resistance
Skills: Lockpick, Move +1, Lucky Seven

Comments: Thief + staves is a fantastic combination for a pure utility unit, and Anna fills the role perfectly. She had good move and good magic power right off the bat, and could take a few hit even without training. Damage blows without a Levin Sword and still isn't great with it, but who cares. Her support options were really limited, but that's not a big drawback for a support unit.

Olivia, L18 Dancer: 42 HP/12 Strength/4 Magic/18 Skill/19 Speed/15(+4) Luck/10 Defense/8 Resistance
Skills: Luck +4, Lucky Dance

Comments: She had some close calls on her starting stage, so I ended up stuffing every single Angelic Robe onto her from then on. Swords are a pure comedy option without significant grinding/reclassing, but FE Dance is always good. She was limited somewhat by her inability to keep up with all my fliers and limited numbers to form defensive formations with everyone paired up. Eventually I learned to use Rescue staves (including from my Falcon Knight) aggressively on her, which made her a lot more useful.

Libra, L7 War Monk: 42 HP/16 Strength/18 Magic/17 Skill/15 Speed/12 Luck/13 Defense/17 Resistance
Skills: Healtouch, Miracle, Rally Luck

Comments: Secondary staffbot. Not nearly as good as Anna (he's slow enough to get doubled sometimes, most significantly), but I had the slot to spare most of the time and a second Staffbot with Physic and Rescue was definately makes for a good filler unit.

I used the various late joining high level units like Sairi and Tiki as filler when I had the deployment slots, but none of them got more than 4-5 kills tops.

Right now I'm slowing grinding up the rest of my team, pairing up the leftover units and getting ready for the postgame-caliber Spotpass/DLC maps to get released. I'm also making preliminary plans for my next playthrough, which'll be Hard mode with a male Avatar. ChromxSumia and TharjaxGregor are definates, and I think I'll give Panne a shot. The rest of the team is mostly up in the air, and I need to finalize which magic-boosting female I'll be using to support Avatar.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 14, 2013, 04:28:19 AM
The notable difference being that Growlanser 5 actually has good characters -and- plot, whereas Growlanser 4 is a sesspit of hentai tropes.

Uh what? Serious? Characters aside, GL4's plot is better than GL5 by miles.
GL5's plot spiral out of control by the point of Dragon Orb, and counting in GL6 as a collective whole, it just become one ridiculous mass.
Of course, if you mean GL4 by its newly added route, then yeah. That totally fails beyond belief.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 14, 2013, 05:08:16 AM
Fenrir, that post was glorious.

FE13 - I'm at the second to last chapter. At this point I'll just wait until I'm done for detailed thoughts. It has one big flaw which keeps it firmly out of the discussion for best game in the series to my mind (FE6-style reinforcements can burn), and I don't think they did a great job with Pair Up either. Otherwise I have basically nothing but good things to say about the game for what it is.

Metroid Prime - Hey, they made Metroid into a 3D game, and they did a pretty good job of translating it! Then, as with Mario, I learned that Metroid (both its combat and exploration) doesn't really mix well with 3D. Oh well. Just got the gravity suit, kinda feeling ho hum about all aspects of the game but figure it's an important enough game for me to finish, especially considering my high opinion of the series.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 14, 2013, 05:28:27 AM
You're still underrating Suikoden 2's cast in regards to design.  Things to consider:

-Flik, Jowy, and Luc, at very least, all  qualify very heavily under "Bishie" which is pretty much anime to a Tee (doesn't have to be a swordsmen, though 2 of those characters do use swords)
-Mascots: Suikoden has the 5 Squirrels and Gadget


Probably others, but there's no way Suikoden 2 earns a "0" in Design.


That said...

Fire Emblem 12: So I just took back Altea, got the A Rank Sword from a worthless Hero whose stats were worse than the minions aiding him, but I recruited anyway because extra PC for a map doesn't hurt or something.  Also got a Prepromo General!!! ...who has 15 Defense...umm...yeah, he got benched immediately after swiping his weapons.  What's with all these late game prepromos that just suck anyway?  I know I know, it's FE, but often those late game Prepromos show some level of competence!

...I'm aware Karla exists, yes.



DMC3 Fresh Hard: I was in the middle of the "HEY, PERMANENT DEVIL TRIGGER!" chapter until I was rudely interrupted with a Substitute Job Offer that I took, thus have to redo that mission!  Also, the "Race to the End" Secret Mission can bite me, mostly because of that one corner that looks like it's actually part of the stairwell, but really is an invisible wall or something, so I kept getting caught up on it *shakes fist*


Also, think I finally learned how to use Nevan properly <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on February 14, 2013, 06:49:36 AM
KH 358/2: Jesus CHRIST is the pacing in this game pisspoor. The game has more padding than shoulders in the 80's. Gameplay is a paltry shadow to BbS's too. This really needed to be 20ish hours tops, and they really needed to not have CoM's plot happen so early, fuck the canon timing. The variety was needed.

As usual, fuck you, Grefter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 14, 2013, 07:07:50 AM
How do you go into a KH game and not just assume there will be a metric fuckton of things you don't care about?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 14, 2013, 07:58:41 AM
The notable difference being that Growlanser 5 actually has good characters -and- plot, whereas Growlanser 4 is a sesspit of hentai tropes.

Uh what? Serious? Characters aside, GL4's plot is better than GL5 by miles.
GL5's plot spiral out of control by the point of Dragon Orb, and counting in GL6 as a collective whole, it just become one ridiculous mass.
Of course, if you mean GL4 by its newly added route, then yeah. That totally fails beyond belief.

Admittedly, the lategame revelations of GL5 were kinda silly, but the game did such an awesome job at presentation. The multiple viewpoint chapters and timeskips really gave the world a 'complete' feeling, and it really helped me buy into all the silliness (and really, with Urushihara designs, some silliness is required or I'd want my money back).


Suikoden Tactics: Beaten!

Cool ending, bro. Needs more Goat.

SuikoEmblem was p. cool and all. I think my favorite part was the FE-esque levelling. Although instead of growths being completely RNG-based whether they would increase by one or not, Suikoden Tactics seems to have a baseline of 1 for each stat for every level up, with 'good growth' being a +2 to a stat. It's a good method for keeping the variety of FE levelling without making everyone so prone being RNG-screwed. When the PCs are all-but-guaranteed to have base stats at least as high as their level, it makes basic levelling a viable strategy and doesn't encourage the resetting that an empty level would in an FE game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on February 14, 2013, 08:38:16 AM
How do you go into a KH game and not just assume there will be a metric fuckton of things you don't care about?

I actually liked 1. The rest barely skated by, really. Figured it'd be more of the same. Anyway, playing it due to putting it up to chat vote and Grefter ballot stuffing it.

Hey Grefbro, just letting you know.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 14, 2013, 09:31:34 AM
I've talked at length about how KH could have been a legitimately good game, but Square's gotta be Square.  Apparently there's not enough of a motivation to do things without critical mass of animu man-ladies.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 15, 2013, 08:02:41 PM
RS3 Hack - So I went off to do some old SaGa game quest and decide to fetch that Kusanagi... and ends up getting ambushed by King Sei for no particular reason. I mean hey, this Kusanagi is not even your sword!

And somehow this event eventually leads into Michael pulling off a Venus on Julian and Monica, with Julian end up beaten up by Michael and Monica snapping at her brother, then a pathetic boss fight against Michael.

And just when I feel this is riduclously silly and couldn't get any siller, Venus herself shows up too, with Paul and Nina as her victims. And unlike Michael, who is pathetic as a boss, Venus is strong with MT ID spell and Bloody Mary which hits 4 digit damage. On top of that, Paul and Nina is forced intot he team for this fight, and I did use them at all, resulting in me fighting effectively with only 3 people. Whcih is crap, and end up in a coupel of reset. Thank god venus has only 65536 HP, which is retty low for an end game boss. Managed to pull the fight off by relying on Light Sword's awesom deflect.

In the end, Duke Zveik is th ebiggest victim, none of his sons gets gto marry at all.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on February 15, 2013, 10:52:39 PM
FE:A

Going around trying to get as many people married as possible right now.

Donnel had a kid. The two prove to be nothing alike, since its Lissa's kid as well, Owain. Owain ended up with Lissa's end turn heal and now rivals his dad for MVP unit. Having two of these fother muckers running around by themselves is just silly. Shame Owain didn't inherit Donnel's weapon saving skill. Other then that he's a beast. The description for the Tree branch says it is ill suited for combat, well... they never saw Donnel smacking bitches with one apparently.

Gotta find more kids. I just recruited a dude (Gregor) with a Nightwing mask! He's going places.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 16, 2013, 03:43:08 AM
I expected people to complain about things but not that much about 0/5 in design for Suikoden?
Squirells are like Jogurt, they only appear in one game, they're easily missable and they suck tremendously. Their status as anime mascots is dubious.
Suikoden 1/2 have asian music/ town atmosphere but very european character designs. (Suikoden 3 is the opposite) Suikoden 2 Luc and Flik? Not bishie. (Seed's one though)

FF6 getting a 0/5 in design is more puzzling. In 10 minutes the following people join your team: Kupek, Kupop, Kumama, Kuku, Kutan, Kupan,
Kushu, Kurin, Kuru, and Kamog.
What the hell, Fenrir. What the hell.


Persona 2 Innocent Sin: Talking to flowers. Looks like it's not even worth the 3000 yen spent to spread the rumor.
Demon conversations at least aren't horribly messed up like in Persona 2 EP, and they can lead to amusing results. In retrospect, I've never really talked to demons in SMT just for fun, except in this one.
- Demon: Which language should I learn? (Japanese, English, Cantonese, Esperanto)
- Tatsuya: Esperanto
- Demon: *angry* NOBODY SPEAKS ESPERANTO


Gravity Rush: Fell in love with this game. I don't really know about gameplay yet, but simple movement in a videogame has very rarely felt better and more meaningful. Just Cause 2, with its grappling hook and parachute, is somewhat close I guess.
This is probably the most important aspect in a sandbox game, most other sandboxes being pretty much dead for me because of those two I guess.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 16, 2013, 03:44:55 AM
They do join you 10 minutes in but they also leave like five minutes after that, so there's that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 16, 2013, 04:00:20 AM
Probably gets the design to 1/5 though, especially since one of them does eventually rejoin.

You can also argue Relm to be a loli, but I don't think she's sexualised enough to impact the Fenrirscale. (Thankfully.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 16, 2013, 04:19:28 AM
Yeah, nothing wrong with Relm, she's just a little girl.
She somehow has that perfectly healthy relationship with an octopus. Amazing, Square.

If NIS had made the game the developer would 4th wall breaking - wink at you during the scene, and you would look back at him with nothing but disgust. He'd then hang his head in shame, citing having to pay the bill as an excuse. (This is pretty much what happens in Phantasy Star 0 for the DS)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 16, 2013, 04:44:23 AM
Despite being designed by Amano, FF6 designs generally avoid being really animu somehow. They're just usually fuckin weird looking instead.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 16, 2013, 12:17:28 PM
That's because Amano's art tends to look weird in general and not very reminiscent of generic anime/manga style. It's only after someone like Nomura goes through and redraws the Amano characters in a more conventional style that the characters start to look noticably animu.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 16, 2013, 04:28:05 PM
Honestly, the "Mascot' thing is not really anime, all things considered.  Western Media does it all the damn time too.  Some examples:

-He-man's Orco
-That little cat thing in Thunder Cats (haven't watched the show much)
-Yoda, R2-D2 and C3P0
-Pretty much everything Disney EVER
-Rocket Raccoon and Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy
-HERBIE in the 70s Fantastic Four
-Perry the Platepus
-Scooby Doo (probably by far the most blatant example like ever; the show is about 4 Meddling Kids and their dog, and the entire franchise is named after the dog...)

It's not an Anime specific thing in the slightest; they're all over the place.  You could argue some of the above aren't actually "mascots", but then a lot of those "Mascot Characters" in anime have the same thing. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 16, 2013, 07:52:13 PM
I was more specifically thinking of mascots as these weird cute fluffy things, like Poshul or whatever the heck that thing is in XS.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 16, 2013, 10:32:11 PM
Wouldn't it have to be more prominently featured in advertising and such to be considered a proper Mascot, though? I think Poshul qualifies the least of every example given so far...

I do agree that 90% of the design/plot stuff that people are squarely calling 'anime' is a misnomer, though. It's trivial to find examples of the exact same thing in Western media, particularly older 70s/80s Western media before "JAPAN" started becoming a big craze. I don't think most of these design elements are unique to any one country. It doesn't make them any less offensive or tired, but it's getting boring to see "ANIMU!" as an accepted argument for disliking something. At least articulate a real thought.


Oh hey, I play gaems:

Walking Dead: Got this for Christmas, and have finally gotten back to it. The first two chapters have been pretty amazing, but I lost my save since it can't be transferred from one PS3 to another with a memory stick (HATE!).

I decided to just replay the first chapters again since it's a short enough adventure game and I was digging the plot/characters. To mix it up, I tried performing all the wrong/opposite actions compared to my first playthrough. The result was really disappointing. The game is a LOT more linear than my first impression. There's a few instances where I expected that my dialog choices would actually result in a different story branch, but honestly all roads lead to the same place. So far, there has been exactly -one- choice that changed anything more significant than a friendship meter.

Stopped once I got up to Ch3, so at least I'll have fun playing new sections again, but I was still hoping for a more varied experience from an adventure game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 16, 2013, 11:57:05 PM
I think I agree with Djinn here.  The Fanservicey Female is another one.

Case in point, Comics.  There have been too many examples of females being oversexualized in comics, some comics even being specifically for the sake of just drawing the female in suggestive positions.  See here (http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/36281-at4w-catwoman-guardian-of-gotham-1) for an all too obvious example.

Western games aren't any better.  Just GIS for Mortal Kombat Kitana and you'll see what I mean.


Yeah, this is not an anime trend thing.  This is a general trend we see in developers worldwide.  It's very easy to go "Anime" and "Japan!" and I often do this, but in some cases, the west isn't any better about this (hell, in some cases it's worse.  As shameless a game as Bayonetta is, it never actually shows any of he naughty bits of the character, always conveniently censored by the special effects, etc.  Flipside, look at God of War, where the game has multiple cases of frontal topless torso shots of females, or the Athenian Oracle with her see-thru shirt showing very visible breasts and nipples.  To say nothing of Dante's Inferno's DEMO on top o that...)


Now, the STYLE of fanservice might be a different story.  I can't think of many western cases offhand that portray Underaged Female Panty Shots, on the otherhand...Xenosaga MOMO.


And like Djinn said, I agree it doesn't "excuse" it in any way, but this just means "chastise both" rather than "blame the easier target!"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 17, 2013, 12:05:00 AM
Well no one defends comics doing this shit; I just ignore the medium altogether because of its distasteful portrayal of women (when it has them at all).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 17, 2013, 12:12:46 AM
It has little to do with defending the source material and more sniping at one for having the quality when it's a running trend.

Can you really go "This game has fan-service females, ANIME TREND!" when a western developer is no better in this regard?

Doesn't defend anime for doing this, just means it's not a trait of the medium in question specifically.  Again, the angle of fan-service can determine whether it qualifies that or not; style over substance or something.  Like I said, as far as I know, Loli Panty Shots are an anime-only fan-service thing (and yes, anime deserves roasting for this alone!), and no, I'm not gonna research if there's enough western counter examples because seriously, what the hell guys?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 17, 2013, 12:32:17 AM
Generally, I'd say I associate Japanese-style stuff with lolis (it's just not really a NA thing) and the strange breast bouncing stuff that's in like Endless Frontier (and other SRW). The style of humor is different related to men/women interactions as well (this is mentioned). It's just different, it's not that it is horrible to have a lot of anime qualities, but trying to imply that there aren't certain styles that apply to Japan vs. NA is something I disagree with. It is just something you embrace as a stylistic quality of Japanese stuff.

I think advertising prominence disqualifies most mascot characters. <_< Chocobos!

That said, I think a silly list is being overanalyzed just a tad.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 17, 2013, 12:44:57 AM
I'm not actually analyzing Fenrir's list. I love Fenrir's list. I'm just responding to the responses, which all seem to espouse some seriously grating viewpoints.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 17, 2013, 12:51:41 AM
Isn't over-analyzing exactly what the DL does to EVERYTHING though!?

That said, that was what I tried to get across but failed; the style of fanservice is what determines "Anime!" or not, for example, not the actual fanservice itself.  The two examples you mentioned are indeed a lot more anime than anything else, so yeah.   Not just fanservice, it's all across.  Even for things like "Displaying a Gluttonous Appettite" would be done very different west vs. east, but they get the same trait across either way.


Hence why I said "style of Fan-service is what matters" as opposed to "Are there fanservice designed characters?" 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on February 17, 2013, 01:20:04 AM
the objectifying women thing isn't an east/west thing...it's an 'is our target audience teenage boys' thing.  It manifests itself in different ways in different regions, and it manifests itself in plenty of media (harlequin romance novels are aimed neither at teens nor males, for example) designed for other target audiences, but if you're judging it on sheer blatant wish-fulfillment and sexual objectification, it goes back to designing for that demographic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 17, 2013, 01:33:39 AM
Well, a large part of the gaming crowd in Japan is women too (including in particular the mainstream RPG titles, though I'd imagine certain specific niches such as SRW skew more male). So it's more than just "designing for a demographic". Might be a marketing thing in that there are certain levels of fanservice that will bring in young men without scaring off anyone else, might have something to do with the designers themselves, which skew very male indeed.

THAT SAID, I don't really care why it's done. I do care when it's done, and in particular when it's done in a way that is off-putting (though that is a bit of "well I know it when I see it"... definitely includes sexualised child characters though!). And I think there is a certain style of eyeroll-worthy fanservice which is very "anime", though yes, of course the west has its own. (And if anyone thinks I'm biased specifically against Japanese games you really haven't been paying attention.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on February 17, 2013, 01:37:31 AM
However, the point is that anime used to appeal to teenage males in a slightly awesome way, and now it seems to be more appealing to Japanese otaku.  (For all that I know there are still plenty of American fans of modern anime, grumble grumble, get off my lawn, etc.)

* 1980s & 90s anime stereotypes for teens: Rent this from the video store to get cursing, blood everywhere, characters actually dying unlike anything American, and nudity.
* 2010s anime stereotype: Less nudity & ridiculous fountains of blood, more underage sexualized lolis & shota.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 17, 2013, 01:46:24 AM
Isn't over-analyzing exactly what the DL does to EVERYTHING though!?

That said, that was what I tried to get across but failed; the style of fanservice is what determines "Anime!" or not, for example, not the actual fanservice itself.  The two examples you mentioned are indeed a lot more anime than anything else, so yeah.   Not just fanservice, it's all across.  Even for things like "Displaying a Gluttonous Appettite" would be done very different west vs. east, but they get the same trait across either way.


Hence why I said "style of Fan-service is what matters" as opposed to "Are there fanservice designed characters?"

Being animu as fuck is more than their horrifying fanservice.  It's also things like:

-Ridiculous character designs with a thousand zippers and you're not sure how they get in and out of them!
-Convoluted, overwrought storytelling where every character hides a dark secret so they can reveal it in their Very Own Part of the Story!
-Intergender interaction going on like it does in Japan, regardless of where the protagonists are supposed to be from!
-Everyone is 17!
-That fucking thing that they do when someone's supposed to be mad.
-Characters only having three facial features: jaw shape, hair, and eye color.

I could go on.  Saying "Animu as fuck" is a convenient shorthand for me listing off all the times one or more of these things shows up and makes me hate the thing I'm talking about. I'm sure that someone could write a firefox plugin for you that would replace the phrase "animu as fuck" with the list I just provided if it really makes you cry over it that much.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 17, 2013, 02:17:42 AM

Being animu as fuck is more than their horrifying fanservice.  It's also things like:

-Ridiculous character designs with a thousand zippers and you're not sure how they get in and out of them!
-Convoluted, overwrought storytelling where every character hides a dark secret so they can reveal it in their Very Own Part of the Story!
-Intergender interaction going on like it does in Japan, regardless of where the protagonists are supposed to be from!
-Everyone is 17!
-That fucking thing that they do when someone's supposed to be mad.
-Characters only having three facial features: jaw shape, hair, and eye color.

I could go on.  Saying "Animu as fuck" is a convenient shorthand for me listing off all the times one or more of these things shows up and makes me hate the thing I'm talking about. I'm sure that someone could write a firefox plugin for you that would replace the phrase "animu as fuck" with the list I just provided if it really makes you cry over it that much.

Honestly, if that's how you define "animu as fuck", then that's cool. Those are all (barring perhaps the second one*) valid complaints and I can see how they are more confined to Japanese media than Western media, particularly when taken together. But I don't think I've ever seen you actually articulate these thoughts before. When you do, there's actually something being communicated and now I understand what your problem with "ANIMU!" is.

*Probably repetitive at this point, but Overwrought Writing certainly isn't Japan-specific either. And it's hardly universal even through Japanese media, though there is a trend of it in anime/J-games targeted at specific age groups, so I can at least see where you're coming from.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on February 17, 2013, 06:16:31 AM
Finished Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time.

Djinn, did you actually play Growlanser 4?  It IS a cesspit of hentai tropes, but it also has some genuinely decent stuff in there, surprised how fast you are to dig at it considering your reputation for sticking up for games that indulge the animu too hard.  I've mostly been listing the worst parts because that's funnier, but the game's plot has some nice touches and well-done parts, too.  I'll give an example: the whole fate-change system, which is really basically just being explicit about some branching paths.  At times, you can (sometimes through obscure nonsense) be able to save and/or affect someone's fate, usually averting their death, but sometimes merely preventing them from going off on a fruitless lifelong quest for nonexistent revenge or the like.  Furthermore, they have at least some different dialogue for the choices, so it can feel like it did matter, and they have several fallback fate changes if you've screwed up the first, essentially making it more like 3 options than 2.  For example, if you let a "noble opponent" dude get killed (uh, by your own allies hand, so that was kind of the plan, but you're still not supposed to want this despite slaughtering hordes of other soldiers who don't have names, usual has-a-portrait bias) via not going shopping with his daughter earlier to get an accidentally life-saving gift, you can still change his daughter's fate by fessing up you helped kill daddy, for example.  Or letting one brother get killed means you have to worry about changing the fate of the other brother now to avoid him getting killed as well (the aforementioned NPC playboy Gary Stu, who is apparently the 2nd deadliest person in the world other than the final boss, and can fight off an army of 300 hundred guys single-handedly but still needs his medicine.  Right.).  Interesting stuff.  The political plot, while hamfisted (SUDDENLY WE MUST BACKSTAB OUR ALLY BECAUSE), is still passable largely because there's one character with a brain willing to make trenchant and realistic comments on it.  Aside from the above-mentioned branches, there's two major ways to run the endgame, a whole bunch of endings, and other nice extra features I appreciate.

Anyway.  I went for slight boringness and got the Frayne ending, as she's the most obvious love interest, and she isn't wearing hot pants / a miniminimini skirt like is so sadly common in the world of Growlanser 4.  Sadly they sure didn't think of much to actually have in that ending, mostly sappy i-wuv-u stuff.  Kind of odd in that one of the major bits of bonus content are unlocking portraits / art of this & previous Growlanser games, and Frayne ends up having an interest in art and wants to draw a picture of you on the docks with a sunset behind you or something, and....  then they don't show you the picture in the ending.  I see. 

Gameplay wise, the true final battle was the optional arena battle against the GL2 / GL3 squads.  Actual final battles got utterly stomped.  Brought Meline along so she could get the final blow against her sister, for all that it didn't appear to matter.  Anyway, why are the final battles EZ?  Because the game puts too much faith in enemy mages.  In Growlanser 2, some of the final battles are potentially quite deadly - both you and the enemy have pure-MT spells in a game with very large cast sizes on both sides of the battle, so we're talking a quick draw to who can resolve their Quakes first.  In Growlanser: WOT...  okay, first off, you can GL3 style buff up before most battles, which includes Attack Up / Protect / Resist, which do as yuo might expect.  But enemy mages get even further hosed.  All the elements have resistance gagues from 1-7 starting at 2- 1 is double damage (weakness), 2 is normal damage, 3-5 are 25%-50%-75% resistance, 6 is nulling (100% resistance), 7 is absorption.  By the endgame, most characters should be wearing armor with +1 to all resistances, possibly with a few resistances at +2.  So we start at 3.  There's another skill you can get pretty early in the game that's Magic Def Up, and there's no reason not to use it at the start of every set piece battle - it raises all resistances by 2.  So your 3 resistance is now at 5 for 75% damage reduction from all elements.  AND you have the spell Resist up.  And to add icing on the cake, there's yet another spell you can cast before battle, Magic Shell.  It does just that - all magic does 0 damage.  Doesn't fall off after it's nulled spells or anything, either.  The duration IS rather short on it, so it doesn't last forever, but it lasts long enough.  End result: enemy magic suxxxxxxx.  The final boss has a Seymour-esque "cast all 4 elemental spells at max level on one character", and each spell did like 25 damage, for 100 damage total.  To ~700 HP.  I'm shakin', especially in a game with fast-using items, and 9 Elixir Vitaes which restore the entire party's HP.  Owned.

Speaking of spells, that's one oddity about the endgame it doens't make entirely clear - there was supposed to be a heroic sacrifice of Our Hero and use of a Spell Nullifier, but the final boss did something nasty, and then in the epilogue both Our Hero and his familiar are just fine, so I guess they decided not to use the Spell Nullifier after all, or it got broke in the final engagement.  I see.

Anyway, despite the snark, GL:WOT is a good game, if too easy.  It just has to have repellent crap attached to it as well which makes it a qualified recommendation of "if you can ignore / actually like the cruddy dating sim part."  Sigh.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 17, 2013, 06:31:06 AM
For example, if you let a "noble opponent" dude get killed (uh, by your own allies hand, so that was kind of the plan, but you're still not supposed to want this despite slaughtering hordes of other soldiers who don't have names, usual has-a-portrait bias) via not going shopping with his daughter earlier to get an accidentally life-saving gift, you can still change his daughter's fate by fessing up you helped kill daddy, for example.  Or letting one brother get killed means you have to worry about changing the fate of the other brother now to avoid him getting killed as well (the aforementioned NPC playboy Gary Stu, who is apparently the 2nd deadliest person in the world other than the final boss, and can fight off an army of 300 hundred guys single-handedly but still needs his medicine.  Right.).  Interesting stuff.  The political plot, while hamfisted (SUDDENLY WE MUST BACKSTAB OUR ALLY BECAUSE), is still passable largely because there's one character with a brain willing to make trenchant and realistic comments on it.

Uhhh... what? Unless they greatly altered the script, I am not following some of the stuff you are saying here.


RS 3 Hack - Who in their right mind would put the possessed elemental kings AFTER Death and Sherah? Elemental kings sucks whether they are possessed or not, and they really aren't needed after fighting Death, who actually runs on intelligent AI that spams the over-killing Death Hand.

Oh, and the sprite is so good:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_000_zps42095294.png)

On the other hand, Saruin's AI seems to be pretty stupid. He could have put up a fight if he actually spams God Hand. But he is too busy spamming elemental MT that I effectively walled.

Then Saruin's quest somehow tied into the goddess and the Final Defense System, and end up beating that too. So all the SaGa2 related quests are finished by this point. The reward is one of the two most broken equipment in the game, which has 30 on all defense, blocks all status and attack types, +2 to all states, and auto regain on hp, wp, and jp. Oh, it allows you to use shield when using two handed weapons too and amplify all magics!!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 17, 2013, 06:49:59 AM
FE13 - Done! Finished in about 26 hours, pretty quick-paced. The game has fun supports, dialogue is above FE average (lol), the music/graphics/art is good, the map design is fun and quick-paced, and it gives you tons of options with regards to how you want to play the game. Biggest complaint is that on Hard the reinforcements appear and move on the same turn. I love them bringing back the multiple paths for promotion and I like that there are a lot of people who can use both magic and strength stat. I also like the skill system; it adds uniqueness without most of them being overpowered.

The final boss was a dick. Captain K's avatar was also a dick.

Final death count, because I am a horrible person: Nowi, Gregor, Ricken, Tharja, Henry, Olivia, Severa, Virion, Stahl, Lon'qu, Gaius, Anna, Cherche, Basilio, Flavia, Miriel, Sully, Sumia, and Laurent.

MVPs were Robin/Miriel/Morgan, the mage wrecking crew from hell. Say'ri and Tiki also did a lot of good work late, and Cordelia is excellent. Chrom is also quite good; around Ike9 level?

^_^
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on February 17, 2013, 06:56:19 AM
They probably greatly altered the script.  It was:
A) Muntzer / Latika - I didn't go shipping for daddy's gift because I didn't talk to Latika enough, so Muntzer died.
B) Alfonse / Christopher.  I did save Alfonse but you have to go do the medicine crap for Christopher if Alfonse dies.  Also  Saving Alfonse saves Christopher indirectly when he's guarding Ft. Eizenvant while you're fighting Bauer / Lumis / Ludwig inside.
C) The whole stupid excuse for Marquelay to fight Valkania.  Marquelay is allies with Valkania, Marquelay is attacked by Dulkheim, Valkania sends reinforcements to guard against another attack which appears to be *what Marquelay is requesting*, Marquelay gets pissy and forces you to go stab Valkania in the back (despite my attempting to refuse to do this).  This is sort of explained in that there's a line where Ludwig mentions that some dude in the Valkania army - the commander who went to Marquelay - "did his job" or something, which might mean that he knew the dude was a moron and would piss off the Marquelians, or that he was on Ludwig's payroll and intentionally stirring up bad feelings between allies, but it's still pretty hamfisted excuse to have a big 4-way war going on.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 17, 2013, 08:09:05 AM
A/ That I noticed, but where did the part of the protagonists not wanting Muntzer dead came from? I don't remember any one from our side try to avoid fighting him. You say there is some sort of bias over Muntzer, but the only person who knows Muntzer that well that is on our side is Alfonse, but those two shows no mercy whenever in battle.

B/ I also notice you are referring to Chris and Al, but where did Chris being a Gary Stu and being an overpowered monster came from? He became a womanizer and throw everything behind because he has already given up hope in treating his wounded heart, Alfonse has to serve as both as the Lord of Ordinale and as a Royal Guard because Chris dump everything on to him. And in truth, Chris could die any time, that wound on his heart is like a time bomb waiting to go off, so Chris and Munzter never pushed on the subject of Chris's life style. (and Chris also still feel guilty over causing that wound).
And in power hierarchy he is weaker to both Hien and Muntzer.
Alfonse's death (or near death) is what really wake Chris up that he should start to take his life seriously.
Oh, also, what Chris was taking is not medicine but really strong painkiller.

C/ Marquelay was never Valkania's ally, rather it is a country subordinated to Valkania. In other words, at the very least, to Valkanians, they believe they have the power over Marquelay. And in truth, what Valkania truly interested in is Marquelay's resources alone and it has been taken away those resources against Marquelay's will. That is what really ticked Marquelalian off. Unless so they cut off a lot of script, this is all well explained.
Alfonse is the minority in regards to Marquelay, not even Muntzer is that against exploiting Marquelay if he finds necessary.
What Rudvich did is simply give a push on the back of Valkanians, that's all.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 17, 2013, 09:34:30 AM
FE13- Did.

Mmm.  The plot is too straightforward, basically in the vein of FE1.  But supports are quality.  Broadly I feel like FE10 is clearly better, but FE13 comes out ahead of the rest of the series.  New/altered mechanics are fun to play with, all good stuff in general.  8/10.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on February 17, 2013, 01:52:19 PM
FE13 - Lunatic/Casual beaten.  I still reset if anyone dies.  I mostly used the battle saves over non-permadeath feature for good level ups.  The peak of difficulty was chapter 2.  Myrmidons with steel swords and A rank means they oneshot everyone not Frederick.  The open field makes it hard to protect everyone at once.  Chrom/Avatar had to get good level ups or risk them getting useless quick.  The rest of the game is just abusing DLC to grind and dark mage Avatar soloing 90% of the map.  Counter is a stupid skill that cost me a few deaths but otherwise the increased stats and forged weapons isn't enough for S supports and Nosferatu.  Basilo and Flavia are remarkably good on Lunatic and likewise Anna, who I deem the worst character on Hard/Normal.

I can't get past chapter 2 on Lunatic+.  You have to gamble dodging 60% hitrates three or four times.  Vaike, Stahl, and Miriel are fed to the crows.  It's literally dicksucking the RNG or die.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 17, 2013, 05:28:15 PM
Oh, the plot is pretty bad, very stock fare, but it has some good individual moments. I am a fan of Basilio of course. Worse than the last three non-remake games plotwise (no comment on 7).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 17, 2013, 11:26:50 PM
FE13 completed (Hard Classic). First playthrough is listed as about 36 hours in my game time, but I'm not sure what that counts (certainly doesn't count resets), actual time spent playing the game is probably in the 50-55 hour range. I hit 20/20 with most people right around the end, which felt deliberate.

The game was good fun overall. It certainly isn't perfect, but overall makes a strong case to be the second best game in the series, something I'll be weighing in the coming days.

Its story is overall usual FE, so not very impressive. It's at its strongest during the Plegia arc and then kinda loses its way thereafter, although the identity of the final boss was amusing. Characters are good though... the large majority are memorable and quirky. They don't lend themselves to serious writing too well, but it makes for some good interaction at least. Think a whole cast of people kinda like Kieran or Marcia or Matthew or Serra or L'Arachel. Frederick deserves note for being the best jeigan ever character-wise, too.

Aesthetics-wise, I'm not as big a fan of this game's art as some of the recent ones. But on the other hand, the music is better, and some of the other aesthetic work is good, such as the critical hit cut-ins/battle quotes.

New mechanics are hit and miss. I definitely approve of the multiple difficulty modes available, and the presence of casual mode even if I may not use it much myself. All of the actually good design decisions from 11-12 (inventory of dead PCs not being lost, enemy phase skip, mid-battle animation skip, weapon rank mattring) return. Branching promotions are great and good to see again. Reclassing is interesting, at least, for all that I didn't bother with it this playthrough. Not sure how I feel about the way this game does it compared to 11-12. For the game's actual new ideas, the new support / support attack system is neat. Made positioning more interesting for sure. Pair Up is less good... it's possibly a bit broken, and certainly strategically limiting as it reduces your number of units and "Separate" is a terrible command for action economy so once you're paired up you have no reason to stop unless there's a lull in battle. I definitely preferred rescue. Hands down the game's massive mechanical failure is the return of ninja reinforcements though. I could rant for a while about the negative effects these have on strategy. At least fog of war is gone.

Anyway, PC notes! More based on my general impressions of them than how mine turned out specifically, but here we go:

Robin (F, +Str -Res): Note that this is not a good build as Robin is more of a mage even with this, and res penalty also tanks speed a bit. Anyway she was still pretty cool. Veteran is evil on paper (I didn't really use it), Solidarity is nice, Rally Spectrum is super-awesome. Hitting both defences is nice, and at worst being a mage with good all-around stats (if unexceptional) is a good niche. Likely the best PC in the game.

Chrom: Solid lord. The comparison here is Ike9, they're quite similar. Chrom doesn't get the awesome avoid supports later, but he also has better unique weapons, promotes when he wants, and escapes the sword lock (and is in a game with better swords anyway).

Frederick: Jeigan, so best character for like the first ten maps. Falls off harder than most previous jeigans, but being effective pairup bait with whoever his A/S supports are saves him past that. Obviously great since this isn't 2004.

Lissa: I dunno, she heals and stuff. Staff exp is faster in this game and she doesn't die when sneezed upon, but her longterm potential isn't wonderful due to all her offensive options starting at E rank and shaky speed. Mine died very early.

Sully: Cavalier with decent overall stats. Solid.

Stahl: Sully with a worse overall growth set, meh at the lower speed. Kind of a Lowen/Kyle variant or something.

Virion: The archest archer. Those bases are a thing, channelling Wolt I see. He can avoid counters I guess, and there are a decent number of enemy flyers in this game and nobody else starts with bow rank until chapter 23, but still bad.

The Vaike: He's okay but feels like a bit of a return of the mediocre old fighter, str and HP and nothing else. Doesn't help that axes are kinda subpar due to -10/-20 hit, and none of his classes really appeal. Still better than the likes of Garcia and Dorcas/Bartre though.

Miriel: Yay, they fixed mages at last! Actual move stat! Lots of good tome options in this game, they aren't crippled by weight or terrible might, and Miriel's even moderately speedy! Def is bad but that's the only real complaint here.

Sumia: The physical durability is problematic, but the way she doubles everything in a game where this is often difficult (especially early) is wonderful.

Kellam: Serenes claims this guy was in the game but I have no idea who he is. I think he's an armour knight, at which point I'll say that Pair Up saves those more in this game than some previous. Past that, eh, armour knight, so didn't use much, I must have my biases.

Donnel: lol no. Ten levels of sucking, then you need a valuable item that could go to someone who doesn't suck, then you get an E rank in some unexceptional infantry class.

Lon'qu: Sumia minus pegasus. This is probably okay... swordmaster certainly ends up pretty solid. Didn't use too much, though.

Ricken: Miriel with like 5-6 less speed forever. Wait, this is kinda unimpressive.

Maribelle: Lissa who joins later but has a pony. Same flaws though. I was going to try to use her longterm but death happened to her too.

Panne: Somewhat myrmidonish. No 2 range, but decent speed and HP with nothing else terribly bad. Potential's kinda low without reclass. I'd like her more if she'd gained Beastbane before the cavalier swarm of C12 instead of right after. :(

Gaius: See Lon'qu with a rockier start but thief stuff! Unfortunately you have good prepromos for this role.

Cordelia: Kinda uber, looking at the stat topic nobody has that spd+str combo. More or less Chrom on a pegasus with different weapons. Being a pegasus isn't all win in this game (bows are more common and hurt) but overall still a positive, so Cordelia ranks as one of the best PCs in the game.

Gregor: Gregor is most fun character! Unfortunately Gregor is having forgettable base stats and not comparing well with Lon'qu who also got benched, so bench for Gregor too. (Nothing really wrong with him, but he didn't inspire.)

Nowi: Range 1-2 manakete, yay! Speed's kinda bad though, and like Panne the potential feels a bit limited. So she's mediocre. This saddens me oh so much given that design.

Libra: Prepromo healer the first. Very solid durability at join but this definitely decays. Still, he serves his purpose well enough. Unlike Lissa or Maribelle he can use the Bolt Axe with no grinding, which is a nice push lategame although by then his combat stats are too shaky to put it to great use.

Tharja: I do like dark magic in this game. Weightless Nosferatu is nerfed from 12 but still very good, Ruin is the long-awaited +crit tome, Waste has definite potential although my Tharja had trouble tapping it (speed- and skill-screwed). Tharja has above average def and speed to use with her magic, so good things to say about her generally here.

Anna: Prepromo healer the second, and very awesome. Also covers thiefy duties, has great evasion, and the Levin Sword is absolutely brutal (if limited) domination midgame. Lategame she falls off a lot like Fred/Libra but remains respectable, just have to watch out for her terribad def.

Olivia: Good work IS, you managed to make a dancer I couldn't be bothered to use. OHKOed by way too much (physical and magic alike), and in a game with ninja reinforcements.

Cherche: Haar! With a weakness which is a much larger concern. Amazing str, good def, speed is at least okay. Speed and the weakness keep her out of the "best units in the game" discussion but still very good.

Henry: Is awesome. And pretty good too, see Tharja and dark magic comments. Henry had the highest non-Tiki def in my army too, and this isn't even terribly unreasonable. Speed could be better though. His death was the most tragic. :(

Say'ri: I guess IS realised that sword-lock is a bit of a weakness, since SMs got a buff in this game. Innate avoid boost, Astra being the only skill besides Aether which gives a high damage boost (and only uses one weapon charge now, thank goodness), and an extremely powerful 1-2 range sword unique to the class. High offence and her durability manages to be acceptable. Lack of supports a weakness, but there is...

Tiki: Aside from not hitting weakness on the final boss like some, Tiki is an incredibly powerful manakete. Both defences are close to game-best, and she actually has some speed unlike Nowi. She was a PC I could put anywhere and never worry, while countering everything, and teamed with Say'ri they could kill lots of things, too. Offence isn't incredible at base besides being 2 range, though. Basically an armour knight on crack.

Basilio and Flavia: Basilio's another awesome character and Flavia's not bad herself. As PCs they have solid stats and Basilio's actual bow rank is certainly appreciated, though he's a bit fragile due to res. They join a bit underlevelled but not understatted, so they actually get notably better in their 3.5 maps.

NotMarth: Underlevelled but gets really good stats once she gets rolling, and having a nice weapon helps. Not sure what I think about her vs. Chrom; she starts out worse but ends up better.

Kids: My Morgan was decent but fought being underlevelled the entire game and never really closed the gap, though I can see how one would. The rest I used as promoted-at-10 terribly underlevelled filler. The one who inherited two rally skills at once by accident (Sevara) was the most useful until she met her untimely end. I only had four pairings so most of them I didn't even get, of course.


So yeah, good game. 9/10 almost certainly, just need to sort out where.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 17, 2013, 11:51:48 PM
FE12: Completed!  Got every PC, and full ending, etc.  Having to gimp my team for the final chapter to include the 4 characters I didn't use much wasn't as bad as I was expecting.  Julian was completely useless, mind but otherwise?

I used all my stat boosters on the other 3 I had been whoring for a while.  See, most of my team (like everyone but MU and Jeorge in my main team got to level 20...how MU didn't I'm not sure, she had no lack of combat...) and were capping stats left and right, so yeah, then there's all the "+2 for one Map!" items which I just shoved on those 3 (Julian's stats are too low to be salvage-able); with Drill Grounds work (and a promotion to Merric), him and Minerva got barely enough speed  this way to avoid being doubled by anything on the map sans the Final boss himself...then merric leveled a few times on said Map and could hit him!  I later moronically forgot to use Starlight and went with Excalibur due to Auto Pilot, but whatever, totally not relevant as I won that turn anyway.  this left Sirius who after all his boosts was left with 17 speed...so I turned him into a Swordmaster, and he was good to go.

Game was fun, and I can't put my finger on it, but I had notably more fun than FE11 for some reason, but whatever, there's a bunch of minor little things that make this game better.  I played on Hard Mode, so NINJA REINFORCEMENTS exist, though at least once I figured out how they work (usually based off Map Triggers, scarcely turn ones), I could at least find ways of working around this, but then it is Hard Mode, even if this aspect is fake difficulty middle finger level.


Game still has issues though, like so many worthless late game prepromos.  Midia having just enough speed to avoid being doubled despite not being very good was a godsend in the one chapter I used her, and Michaelis being legitimately decent was a shocker too! 

Final Team, ignoring final mission was (all using their default jobs):

Chris (Paladin): What's to say?  Pretty much good at everything unless a Rider's Bane was in the area.

Marth: Workable, and he used the Starsphere once I got it (and naturally Binding Emblem after that), that worked as a Pseudo-Promotion of sorts.  Mono Weapon, no ability to reclass, and stats being merely above average instead of downright good hold him back.  Also, the game retains the moronic "Only Marth can go to towns!" thing but damned if there aren't far fewer towns in this game than FE11, so it didn't feel like too bad of a design flaw, if still an obvious one.  Also he could open chests!

Caeda: Is OP.  Do I really have to explain this one?

Malicia: Healer, never got much in Magic because she was too busy using staves like everyturn unless I desperately needed the offensive push to kill something.

Navarre: Typical Swordmaster, things just don't hit him late game.
Barst: Holy shit, a Warrior that's legitimately good!  Great Strength, Good speed (Though the cap hurts, but doesn't really come up until late game when enemies start actually getting 21 speed), Skill, high HP, etc.  He was actually causing hell with an Iron Bow when I needed a rnaged attack in a pinch.

Ogma: Good Hero all around, not much else to say.

Linde: Blows stuff up with magic.  Nosferatu makes her capable of actually tanking against some enemy swarms.  She did probably cause me the largest number of resets due to forgetting to equip Nosferatu, and typical Mage Frailty, but that's my fault.   She also used Starlight to blow up Gharnef because no one else could, and she thought it'd be cute to Critical hit him <_<

Jeorge: Subpar.  Being able to use the Parthia was cool, and I really wanted a genuine Archer just in case there were flying units to deal with, but turns out not as much as I was expecting given what the early game implied.  Kind of regret using him as a result, and when Barst could start using Bows (let alone got that D so he could use Gordin's Bow and Steel Bows), he really didn't do much beyond snipe kills.  Not horrible, but definitely lagged.

Feena: FE Dancer, what else do I have tos ay?  Oh right, absurd evasion score letting her dodge things when she was in range by accident; a number of "OH GOD!" moments occurred followed by major sighs of relief when she dodged.

Tiki: Her main issue was lacking speed a large part of the game but she slowly worked that away, and frankly, she's rarely slow enough to be doubled.  Come the end of the game...she's amazing, because Divine Stones cause hell to like everything given how Dragon-Heavy the final levels are, and the kind of defensive boosts she gets from it.  I swear they put GLower in the game specifically to avoid her just being tossed at sections of the map and eating things up.  Never found the Ice, Wyvern or Magic stones that allegedly exist though.  Had neough Flame and Divine Stones to last her thankfully (especally since Nagi basically comes as a "Here's a free Divine Stone for Tiki!")

Xane: Was a second Ogma, Chris, Navarre, Caeda, or Barst depending on circumstance.  As a result, I handed him a decent weapon of each type and a Javelin.


Game was fun but probably wouldn't play it again.  Thinking 6/10 or 7/10?  Game is still lacking in a whole bunch of conventions that FE6-10 established that FE11 thought was a good idea to remove (no rescuing, lack of Canto of ANY kind, removing skills, etc.), and I'd probably get frustrated if I replayed the game which strikes me as not a good sign, so yeah.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on February 18, 2013, 03:24:25 AM
Niu:
* My familiar, in the before-the-final-battle-and-prelude-to-date scene, was all reminscient about all the probably good people we killed, and included Muntzer in the list.  Furthermore you get the cheery "Fate changed!" thing if you save him, so clearly the incentive is for the player to save him at the very least, even if in-game, as you note, there isn't much reason.  (Not really a huge complaint here anyway, this kind of thing is bog common in games.)

* Chris is such a Gary Stu.  When someone is a playboy, and everyone KNOWS this, and the women are still falling all over him because he's clearly such a warm and good person including a princess, that's pretty Stuish.  (It can happen, so I'm not necessarily complaining, and I kind of like that not all the badasses are military types and some just want to do something else.)  As for power levels, dunno, Chris is at the very least implied to be as good as Alfonse, Alfonse does defeat Muntzer (with your help), etc.  Hien is a giant question mark and his plot is horribly phoned in, so maybe, impossible to tell on him.  I was mostly going on, as noted, the fact that the final 2v2 Arena battle has homonculus versions of all the game characters attack you, and it goes something like Silverneil / Muntzer -> Lumis / Ludwig -> Vester / Christopher.  My recollection could be off on the first 4, but that was definitely the last 2.  (Although Hien obviously isn't on this scale since he's in your party.)  Even if he isn't the world's most unstoppable badass, he's clearly among them.

* Don't get me wrong, there are ways to sell the Marquelay vs. Valkania plot as working.  Just you hear, very specifically, complaints from the townspeople about Valkania not helping out vs. Dulkheim's attack, and then when Valkania does its duty as an ally and sends some reinforcements, they get pissy and attack.  It'd be like Scotland asked England for help against some foe of England that also attacked Scotland, England sends some troops, and Scotland immediately declares war on England - and so does Wales.  Now, for sure, plenty of "allied" troops have enraged their host nations before, they just ran this plotline at maximum speed.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 18, 2013, 03:48:59 AM
It'd be like Scotland asked England for help against some foe of England that also attacked Scotland, England sends some troops, and Scotland immediately declares war on England - and so does Wales. 

I did not get this far in GL4 yet, I was too turned off by the hentai tropes (yes yes, too ANIMU for Djinn). But this sentence is kinda hilarious and makes me want to see the trainwreck. Maybe after I've finished FE13, PA3, Endless Frontier, Xenoblade, BoF2, and ToG.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 18, 2013, 05:42:28 AM
SnowFire, it seems you are overlooking a lot of things when the Valkania vs. Marquelay. You are assuming that Valkanian is treating Marquleay as equals, which is completely not the case. Especially when the troops that suppose to protect them are robbing their resource to transport back to Valkania mainland. Serious, that is not how you do diplomacy.
Also, Dulkheim aimed for Marquelay because it is an ally with Valkania. If Valkania is not treating us well, and we are attacked because we are allied with them, what's the point of maintaining this alliance?
Remeber Marquelay is in alliance with Valkania because they have to not they want to. They would immediately dump that alliance if it is no longer doing them good.
Unless they cut off this part of plot too, but I refuse to believe the translators are that stupid.

Also, the power scale by story and setting alone, excluding Vester, is this: Hien>Muntzer>Chris>Diana>Alfonse.
I might add, Hien was the coach of the Royal Guards on sword art and war tactics when he was still serving Valkania.

And I do not see how becoming a womanizer using money and family name, and his closer associates are still treating him nice, including the princess you mentioned because they pity him for his short life is... Stuish? His lifestyle is clearly disused and dispirited.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 18, 2013, 06:51:06 AM
RS3 Hack - Decide to clean up all the SaGa Frontier 2 events, so I go ahead and fight these guys.

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_001_zps49b2fed7.png)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_002_zps18628a83.png)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_003_zps0d8f05b8.png)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_004_zpsb3dc9e2a.png)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_005_zps935c2d1e.png)

And they all suck, a lot. Being single element reliant means they are really easy to wall.
Stone is the only one that has has anything resemble to difficulty due to his immunity bypassing petrify. Outside that, none of the Edel Ritters lasted over 5 turns.

Then we get to the main dish:

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_006_zps429eb200.png)

This is a fight I cannot help but want to strangle the one who wrote the AI for Egg.
This is what happening repeatedly in the fight:

Dead Spore-Vortex-Ancient Curse-Deadly Driver-Vortex

So yeah, I was spammed by debuff and status only to get dispelled by Egg itself.
The stupidity continued until this:

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_007_zps8d0bd383.png)

Surprise, Shooting Star does not suck!! And Xenocide hurts, as expected. But I have Final Crusade behind me, so it is nothing that I can't handle. But eventually Murder Barrier (aka Fatal Mirror x 4) pops out.
And I literally went THE FUCK!?
Shouldn't only the SaGa 2 bosses have those? Why is Egg doing with that move!? So Rogue killed himself, so does Silver, and Sherah killed Bei Mei Nyung. Perfect, I did not tweak my speed and formation to deal with Murder Barrier, and Egg was spamming that for three consecutive turns.... I was forced to spam Final Crusade and Red almost ran out of LP. Lucky me that I pulled out that fight in one go without resets.

The reward for beating egg is less broken than the one from the SaGa2 quest. A full status and attack type blocker but only 18 MDEF.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 18, 2013, 05:52:55 PM
RS3 - Stat topic is -so close- to being done. Biggest surprise of the topic: all mages but Undine being at least solid and versatile Middles (and giving us two strong Heavies, to boot). "Ciddy is the fancy new gateway drug" moment: the lobster ranking as one of the cast's top five duellers. "How the fuck you manage to completely botch Martial Arts!?" awards: Elephant and Snowman. I mean, really? 6HKOing with Tiger Break? Dragon Inferno having accuracy issues also -hurts-. I also don't think I've ever seen such a large swath of 3HKO machines.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 18, 2013, 08:47:05 PM
FE13, Lunatic Casual - just beat Chapter 2. Fredrick, I am not worthy. *genuflects*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on February 19, 2013, 12:21:55 PM
2nd OG: Hah, they gave Gepelnich's durability to Perfectio. Had to have that fight in there somewhere, I guess.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on February 20, 2013, 02:21:23 AM
Ni No Kuni: About to challenge The Dark Djinn's castle.

The game's plot is actually rather bad all things considered. The world is gorgeous and decently fun to explore, but the characters don't grab you. Combat tends to be a drag for randoms but bosses mix it up by requiring some strategy.

The story of Oliver's travels falls into two major problems: The game does not do proper build-up and it does not do long term character development. It fails to build up events because it will bring up problems that are fairly quickly fixed, often by magic, in a frankly episodic fashion. The cheery nature of the game prevents it from visitting the truly dark circumstances that surround the plot except in marginal ways. For example there is a town late in the game that has citizens who are being turned one by one into semi-emotionless 'heartbroken' beings, believing that it will male them able to withstand the terror of the Big Bad. This is ENTIRELY fixed within 4 minutes or so, discounting the time spent fighting one boss.

Character work is also lacking, with the PCs having one 'fixed by magic' arcs followed by becoming static. The interaction is not horrible but it lacks genuine charm outside of Drippy the fairy. Oliver is WAY too much of a straight man to be interesting.

The world remains charming and beautiful. Did I mention beautiful? Because GOD DAMN is Ni No Kuni gorgeous. I sometimes find myself just stopping in a town, even one I have. visitted many times, and just gawking for a minute. The art direction and work that went into making it live is awe-inspirimg. Some games have vistas that make your jaw drop, NNK just keeps it on the floor all the damn time.

Combatting randoms is tedious but can sometimes prove challenging... especially if they pack ID. Bosses force you to fight defensively as the game actively rewards you for blocking their attacks with MP restoration and the occasional super move. Also switching to a fefensive pattern and not taking big damage from the MT move with a charge time is good practice by itself. Rhe first familiar served me really well through the whole game due to swords being awesome. I went through an entire arc where one cire sword smacked weakness on several major bosses and almost all randoms...

But now Oliver has his +100 stat sidequest bonus (think Ness), his crazy powerful wand, and a bevy of new MT element damages that can be strengthened with equips. And now a massive Holy ST damage move. Guess what most bosses are weak to lategame? Smash.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 20, 2013, 04:01:25 AM
RS 3 Hack- VENGEANCE VENGEANCE VENGEANCE!!!!


Ahahahaha, I have been waiting for this moment ever since God trampled me back in the tournament. This time, I am prepared!!

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_011_zps2b1bce1d.png)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_013_zpsdd7251b5.png)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Niu90/RomancingSaga3-Version11J_014_zps28760b03.png)

But damn, this fight is still ridiculous that God has 80 spd in this form.....
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 20, 2013, 11:16:13 AM
ToGf - Side questing.  Got up to Bryce underlevelled for him.  He killed me quite thoroughly and it was almost always because the AI likes to sit in melee range of his Instant Death attack  with a charge time and eat it.

Threw it on Easy because A) I don't feel like running around that much and B) Bryce is not fucking worthy of giving 2 fucks about.  Seeing the scene afterwards just solidified this lack of fucks being given.

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes - I played this on DS and liked it well enough.  It was cheap on the iPaid.  It is straight up port of the game with completely redone graphics.  It is pretty cool and I still quite like the game (even if I forget the finer points of playing it).

Walking Dead - My brothers and I played this out in the lounge on our media PC taking turns (I played the least).  No one is shocked that this is good at this point I hope.  It really did hammer home the fact that I am pretty Zombied out at this point, which is super disappointing because I still love the genre and when it is done well with thought it is still fantastic (as someone that likes Land of the Dead).  If there is another Romero movie I will watch it, but otherwise kind of done with them as a thing for a while.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 20, 2013, 09:03:40 PM
Walking Dead - My brothers and I played this out in the lounge on our media PC taking turns (I played the least).  No one is shocked that this is good at this point I hope.  It really did hammer home the fact that I am pretty Zombied out at this point, which is super disappointing because I still love the genre and when it is done well with thought it is still fantastic (as someone that likes Land of the Dead).  If there is another Romero movie I will watch it, but otherwise kind of done with them as a thing for a while.

Well at least you went out on top.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 21, 2013, 01:39:18 AM
Replaying FE13 on Hard mode now.

The game's resident blue-haired, holy blood inheriting Lord has just taken in a amnesiac mage as his new tactician, a redheaded fellow by the name of Julius with a mysterious mark on his hand. I'm sure this totally isn't going to cause any plot complications later on.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on February 21, 2013, 06:51:31 AM
KH 358/2: Day 277. I hope this isn't the plot I'm suddenly supposed to care about...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 21, 2013, 06:57:13 AM
KH 358/2: Day 277. I hope this isn't the plot I'm suddenly supposed to care about...

Does it have a bunch of ORIGINAL CHARACTERS DO NOT STEAL? If so, yes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 21, 2013, 07:18:40 AM
KH 358/2: Day 277. I hope this isn't the plot I'm suddenly supposed to care about...

Not exactly.  It's just when it first bothers to even show up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on February 21, 2013, 07:29:00 AM
KH 358/2: Day 277. I hope this isn't the plot I'm suddenly supposed to care about...

Not exactly.  It's just when it first bothers to even show up.

Nothing like a 25 hour intro before plot kicks in.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 21, 2013, 07:33:58 AM
In fairness, the game was advertised as being about Roxas, setter of previous records in the field of intro length.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 21, 2013, 07:43:43 AM
I know you know about Final Fantasy 13. Don't tell me you expected good pacing from square after that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 21, 2013, 01:41:39 PM
Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus (...that is a mouthful): Completed!  Final few boss fights weren't as bullshit; the Danmaku fight was a lot easier now that I knew how to dodge moves, the big skeleton demon thing was easy now that I knew "Spam every ranged weapon available" was a viable strategy from my first playthrough, and Final Boss...is a legitimately designed that doesn't rely on bullshit.  Weird that.


Compared to NGB...hmm...mixed, gonna say overall worse though.  While the addition of a new weapon (the dual swords) is neat, the game had enough variety as is, and the new weapon felt more like an extension of the Dragon Sword than legitimately new, and this game already had the Kitestu doing that as is.  Having the weapon of course isn't a bad thing by any stretch, just noting the appeal value is lower than it could have been.

No, the main thing that hurts NGS relative to NGB is Rachel.  Again, I like the idea of having chapters around another character, provided said character is legitimately different and fun to play as.  Rachel...is not that, at least not in a good way.  Here are her problems:

-One Melee weapon, which is the War Hammer, which is probably the worst "Real" Weapon in the game.  It's slow, awkward, and only good thing is it's UT, which is hard to pull off if essence isn't around (thankfully, Rachel doesn't use money much, so I guess that's a boon)
-A fraction of Ryu's mobility.  Ryu can run on walls, jump off enemies, gain extra height, etc.  Rachel has...a wall jump that offers no height boost, just changes the direction of her jump...in a game built heavily around Ryu's mobility being one of your main assets against certain kinds of enemies...joy...
-Useless ranged weapon.  I hit maybe once or twice with it, and all it does is knock the enemy away.  It's got no flexibility, the accuracy is abysmal, and it's kind of slow.  Contrast this to Ryu's Bows which can be used for hit and run, the Explosive Shurikens that are a nice quick 1-2 punch, or the general flexibility of the Windmill Shuriken, they genuinely compliment his style, and work for covering areas melee doesn't get entirely.

The enemies in this game are balanced to face Ryu, they are not balanced to face Rachel.  In the end, she's just a majorly gimped PC with 3 chapters dedicated to her and no attempt to adjust the game so she's better suited for it.  The fact that her missions are forced are why I consider this a straight up bad thing; if she was an added bonus campaign once you beat the game or something, I'd be fine with that.  TO BE FAIR, she has a good Ninpo when she finally gets it in Blades of Oroborus, which is kind of like Inazuma-lite, but only 2 shots by the end of her campaign...yeah...

Still, fun replay, and general thoughts of the game remain:

Awesome mook combat, poor boos combat, platforming segments are a bit "eh" and forced but inoffensive outside of maybe the final stage (which is short and no enemies besides the final boss, so it's not too offensive.)

Dunno if I'll get NGS+2; that one sounds like the extra characters are a little more well handled than Rachel was here at least. 


Oh, right, forgot to say that yes, the ADDED BOUNCE in this game is extremely notice-able.  The game does not do a damned thing to mask Rachel's cleavage physics, and in some cases, actually focuses on the "SEE WHAT WE DID WITH HER MODEL!? YOU KNOW YOU LIKE IT!"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on February 21, 2013, 08:57:21 PM
Ni No Kuni: Is the spiritual sequel to DQVIII in pretty much every way, good and bad.

Hope I'm reading that right.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on February 22, 2013, 01:42:15 AM
Fire Emblem: Awakening - Played Hard Casual. Done. Ninja reinforcements can suck it. Probably would've done Hard Classic otherwise >_>. Did a lot of bonus stuff and plan to still do more, so yeah, my timer's going up by the minute. Just doing what hinode is doing now and buffing up units/getting other kid characters.

All the kids sans Lissa's kid has been absolutely ridiculous. My Morgan joined the team with 2 capped stats at level 10. So she had the stats of a about a level 20/10 but being 20 levels under. This lead to hilarious situations at the end of the game, when she went around killing everything with Aether/Ignis or crit Ruins. Literally dropped her into a pack of enemies with a Paired up unit and watched her tear everything apart.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on February 22, 2013, 06:37:35 AM
FE13 - hard casual finished, top five were Miriel/Chrom/Robin/Sumia/Stahl.  7/10, ninja reinforcements being a thing needs to not be a thing like everyone else said but it still ranks as the third-best FE to me at any rate.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 22, 2013, 06:45:02 AM
They are only ninja on Hard yeah?

Also IMO all need to be replaced with Hardon Ninja reinforcements.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 22, 2013, 07:04:22 AM
Correct, they only ninja on Hard (and Lunatic obviously). Unfortunately Normal is too easy for an FE veteran, and bad design is bad design regardless of difficulty level.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on February 22, 2013, 08:31:14 AM
Having played on Normal, yeah, it is piss easy and the game is being honest when it says it is for people who don't know Fire Emblem. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on February 23, 2013, 01:42:32 AM
FEA:  Hard Casual beaten.  Good game, although I would have ragequit long ago if not for Casual mode.  Just echoing what others have said, ninja reinforcements are stupid, Counter sucks, characters/supports are good, story is bad.  I like the random Risen battles being available to level your lower level characters with.  Although I stopped doing them around Chapter 19 just so I could finish the game.  The game expects you to pair up, can't really imagine doing the later levels without it.

Characters!

The A-team:

Chrom (Lord 20/Great Lord 18)  HP57/Str37/Mag9/Skill33/Spd31/Lck28/Def27/Res8  Was a bit weak in the earlygame due to frailty.  Once he gets forced S support with Sumia he becomes considerably better.  Dual Strike+ pretty much guarantees two attacks on people leading to easy kills.  Still frail enough though that you don't want to just throw him out there though.  Married to Sumia.

Sumia (Pegasus Knight 20/Dark Flier 15) 44/24/18/32/40/26/13/22  Pegasus Knights are more usable here than in FE7 since weapon weight is removed.  Tons of archers in later levels made her somewhat less viable other than being support to Chrom.  Fast though!

Yattaf (Tactician 20/Grandmaster 13) 49/25/27/23/24/19/21/10  I made her + Mag - Res.  Turned her into a magic sword user with Levin Sword which wasn't half bad.  But pretty terrible stat gains left her in the realms of mediocrity.  Also didn't help that enemies go out of their way to target Yattaf and Chrom on hard difficulty, causing many game overs.  Married to Stahl.

Stahl (Cavalier 20/Great Knight 20) 66/41/5/26/23/23/36/6  Yeah, look at that strength and defense.  Had really good stat gains that made him very viable at endgame.

Lissa (Cleric 20/War Cleric 15) 51/19/22/26/23/31/17/20  Superfast leveling from healing early on helps immensely.  Later she became married to Donnel and raised a whole passel of younguns on the farm.

Donnel (Villager 30/Hero 17) 70/37/18/40/41*/48*/41*/24  Took him all the way to 30 on Villager, which was probably a mistake because he started capping stats around level 20 and was underwhelming when facing promoted enemies.  But then class change and it's like I NEED A HERO, HOO HOO!  Wow was he ever dominating at that point.  Never died after promoting, and could literally solo maps.  You know how it sucks having to start with weapon level E after class changing?  Not for Donnel, he was one-shotting people with bronze swords and axes.  Too awesome.

Miriel (Mage 20/Sage 20/Sorcerer 8) 57/9/31/38/39/22/18/27  And yet, I don't consider Donnel my MVP!  Miriel is just plain broken.  Huge Magic, Skill, and Speed on a mage?  Talk about someone on the design team making the perfect twink.  She was a critmonster, I actually felt bad about how much I was RNG screwing the enemies.  Married to Ricken.

Ricken (Mage 20/Dark Knight 16) 60/10/28/27/19/28/26/14  A more typical mage.  Useful but not overpowered.

Maribelle (Troubador 20/Valkyrie 14) 34/8/23/24/21/27/12/29  The usual worse-than-a-cleric healer, but tome use is a nice upgrade.  Married to Lon'qu.

Lon'qu (Myrmidon 20/Swordmaster 20) 54/28/8/40/44/24/20/8  A decent unit, he survived moderately well due to evasion.  Died quickly when he didn't evade.

Cordelia (Pegasus Knight 20/Falcon Knight 13) 52/29/4/27/32/20/22/19  Had great stat-ups.  Tanky pegasus knight what is this madness?  Married to Kellam.

Kellam (Knight 20/General 12) 57/29/4/17/21/14/36/14  Super pair-up partner.  Kept Donnel alive early on, made Cordelia even tankier later.  Had too many problems with accuracy when he himself was attacking.

Owain (Myrmidon 20/Swordmaster 20/Bow Knight 5)  80/40*/27/42*/41*/51*/33/27 What happens when Donnel has a child?  Even more brokenness ensues.  Yeah look at all those capped stats.  Skills were Miracle, Vantage, Aptitude, Astra, Swordfaire.  I thought Miracle+Vantage would be an awesome combination.  Turns out he never got to use it - enemies never lived long enough to hit him that hard.  Was also an amazing character.  Down, sword-hand!  Really surprised nobody has avatared him yet.

The B-team:

Cynthia (Pegasus Knight 14)  Existed solely to give Owain an S-rank Pair Up.

Anna (Trickster 7)  Trickster is a neat class, and she was usually my +1 on maps where an odd number of people were available.

Sully (Cavalier 20/Paladin 2)  Was actually quite good.  She only stopped being used because she didn't end up with a marriage partner.

Gaius (Thief 20/Assassin 1)  He was pretty sweet.  Bwa ha ha!

Virion (Archer 20/Sniper 4)  Strong but dies too much.

Vaike (Fighter 17)  My god he sucks.  He makes Dorcas look good.  Dies to a sneeze.

Didn't use the other characters enough to bother writing about them.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on February 23, 2013, 02:23:16 AM
FF4 Interlude: Finished. I was expecting something bigger, judging from the bestiary. Turns out the boss bestiary is 90% final boss.
The final boss was the only thing that wasn't utterly pointless... And it wasn't hard or anything. Just weird with no closure... yet. (The closure in TAY is likely to disappoint)
Rydia is already useless in the main game (Letting her die and not ever resurrecting her makes the whole game easier, I feel) and she was even more worthless there. Palom was GOD next to her.

Persona 2 IS Pseudo solo challenge: Yeaaaaah so this was basically the worst idea.
Having to wait 1+ turn at the start of every battle to have the enemies kill the other party members
Going through a one hour dungeon then dying because of ID
Taking 1 damage from everything otherwise
I'm dropping it.

Path of Exile: Lvl 49 witch, 1100 energy shield, 1 life.
Things have been easier as of late, but the pyramid's coming....
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 23, 2013, 03:51:31 AM
TAY doesn't actually follow up the Interlude much at all.  I think the only real connection is if you bring Rydia to a certain point, it says a plot point that is very "Wait what?" inducing, and the Interlude was suppose to explain that.

Of course, all the Interlude ended up being was just mucking around FF4 dungeons, so as you said, the ending is literally the only thing remotely significant, and it's kind of a stupid thing anyway. 

IN TRUTH, it was a cheap gimmick to get people to buy FF4PSP, to make the deal seem sweet.  Put minimal effort into an extra campaign and hype it up, in case people played both FF4a and FF4TAY; apparently having 2 games in the FF4 Equivalent of HD graphics, bug fixes, remixed music, all on one disc, on a portable console wasn't enough. 

(It probably took them all of like 2 hours to program the entirety of the interlude, since it's entirely made of re-used FF4 Assets.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 23, 2013, 04:20:09 AM
If I'd known, I would have just linked you to the LP. It's more entertaining than the actual Interlude and much quicker to get through.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on February 23, 2013, 04:25:28 PM
Fire Emblem Awakening:  Doing Normal Classic. It's actually harder than I expected because they made a whole bunch of balance changes so that relying on experience from past FE games can trip you up a bit like the first pegasus knight being healer level frail (they were never tanks, but she feels especially bad).  Also, I think my Avatar is getting a bit RNG screwed. Random battles can also be surprisingly difficult and I like how weapon choice feels like it matters a lot more in this game so far. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on February 24, 2013, 06:59:56 AM
KH 358/FUGrefter: Finished. Pretty much everyone knows how I feel at this point. A couple decent scenes at the end, but does not justify its running time. Would've rather mediocrity throughout than an unnecessary slog to something decent. The scenes do manage to put the game over BtB and PS1 though! SO2 and At1 still have a new game they can look down upon though.

Prolly will jump into GoC6 sometime soon. Not sure when. Midterms and MUN stuff this week.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 24, 2013, 01:02:13 PM
FE13: Chapter 18 completed on Hard Classic. Ninja reinforcements are conceptually lame, but at least playing through Normal meant I know what's coming beforehand and can take measures to mitigate them. I've been clearing a lot of stages quickly enough that either reinforcements never showed up or only on the last turn, when my team was well out of their immediate attack range. I wonder if encouraging aggressiveness was actually the design intention with a lot of the reinforcements in this game, though there are certainly less cheesy ways of doing so (see: Yen'fay stage). Definately not looking forward to facing them on Lunatic, in any case.

Tharja is pretty clearly my best PC right now, high defense+Nosferatu+Merc/Hero pair up boosts means she can reliably tank huge swarms of enemies that everyone else would need RNG luck to survive. Julius would probably be ahead if I reclassed him to Sorceror instead of Dark Knight after picking up Rally Spectrum, but I am shunning Dark magic on him for some mostly-frivolous flavor reasons.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 24, 2013, 10:48:38 PM
FE13 Lunatic Casual beaten. It was pretty ridiculous, relied on a small number of characters and crazy strats in general to get through the game without using randoms or other methods of grinding. One of the general themes of the playthrough was that money was a major issue due to missing almost all the chests, but I managed to snatch some Bullions here and there. Sold pretty much everything I owned that wasn't immediately useful, Silver Axes/Bows were a nice source of money late since only Basilio could use either. Robin was Speed+ Skill-.

Prologue - Mostly tried to grab Robin and Chrom a couple of levels by picking people off, otherwise Fredrickpremacy. Gave him Robin's Bronze Sword.

Chapter 1 - Around 20 resets. The guy with a Hammer was a real bitch and I spent most of the battle running from him. Sully insta-doubled and killed by myrms which was no fun. Turn 1 was my first real use of extending movement with Pair Up; having Fred pair with Robin and then Switch to kill some dudes on the left really helped.

Chapter 2 - Around 30 resets. A complete trainwreck of epic proportion. Turn 2/3 was a bloodbath, Sully/Stahl/Virion meeting demise, Miriel lives long enough to give Fredrick his Iron Axe, Vaike supports Chrom until his life is needed to save Chrom. Most of the resets were on the first half of the map, although I had two once I got to the second half. Keeping Lissa alive is very important for turn economy. Fred still got 3-4HKOed by the enemies on the map, so his death could definitely happen.

Chapter 3 - Around 7-8 resets. Earlygame is pretty douchey. Paired up Fredrick with Kellam and took his Javelin. Noticing a trend of Fred stealing everyone's shit? Swept the left side with Fred and friends, had non-Fred folks deal with the right so they could level, paired Chrom with Sumia so he could level, paired Robin with Miriel for ALL THE MAGICS. Sully/Stahl pairing as well, and Virion as always croaked.

Chapter 4 – 1 reset. Pretty easy, just have to bait the enemies at the right time. Worked on my Chrom/Robin pairing and levelling mostly. The main mistake I made was not deploying Lissa, who is needed to make Chrom/Robin usage easier. Everyone but Miriel lived.

Chapter 5 – 7-8 resets. Managing to get Elwind to Robin helps. Otherwise mostly Fredrick owning things and other party members dying at useful times. Think I paired Chrom with Sumia so he could double Wyverns with Falchion. Think I had Fredrick, Robin, Chrom, Sumia, Miriel, and Lon'qu alive.

Chapter 6 – 2 resets. Got a little lucky the time I won with a Chrom/Robin double attack to finish Vally and Validar going for Marth rather than me at an opportune time. He was right in the entranceway to Em's room but for some reason decided to go for Marth instead, buying me a couple of turns. He is very personally impressive on this mode, especially since Fredrick died before I engaged him. Only had the duo left of my PCs.

Chapter 7 – 0 resets. Very easy.

Chapter 8 – 0 resets. + points for Nowi being one-rounded and then Robin saying “Oh, she's a dragon? We could probably use her help more than she could use ours!” lulz. Otherwise Sumia/Robin/Chrom/Fred smash. At this point I Master Sealed Robin, who is now my best PC.

Chapter 9 – 3 resets. Unlike in Hard, the enemies move to pincer you in the same turn that the Wyverns from the top reappear. Pretty scary stuff, but Robin with Elwind manhandles Wyverns.

Chapter 10: 3 resets. Fairly obnoxious, missed the Seraph Robe but got the other Thief items (I missed every freaking Seraph Robe in the game.) Gregor managed to grab like five levels wielding a Killing Edge on a fort vs. Wyverns while Chrom/Robin/Fred fought the jerk boss. The introduction of Tharja, too, which is very important!

Chapter 11: 5 resets. I had a lot of trouble with the early-map mages. Robin is not very durable to magic at all and she was who I depended on to kill everything. A lot of my PCs (Sully, Fredrick, Sumia, Anna, Tharja) died fending off the various awful and rude reinforcements, especially that Hero. I hate that guy! Think Chrom reached 20 on this map.

Chapter 12: 5 resets. This is the point where the game generally changes dynamics; emphasis on swarms increases. This map has lots of knights and cavs, so the Beast Killer is Fred/Sumia's best friend. Believe I Second Sealed Fred into a Paladin at this point. My primary strategy was clogging holes, killing off the guys from the right and left, and just setting up a defensive position. Ended up slugging the boss with Libra, one of the last times Libra was a useful offensive unit. Robin/Chrom S support kept them alive for the most part. Promoted GREGOR after this battle.

Chapter 13: 10 resets. The fort reinforcements are very rude. Thought this map was borderline impossible until I realized it was Defeat Boss, so Gregor attacked him followed by double Levin Sword from Anna. Done!

Chapter 14: ~25 resets. Paired Robin with Anna, Lucina with Gregor, Panne as a Wyvern Knight with... someone, Sully maybe? Chrom with Gaius the speed granter, and had Fred and Sumia on Pegasus killing duty with Beast Killers. Had Robin in the range of about 10 Pegs on Turn 1 with Elwind out, killed them, followed by just trying to clogs holes and not bait those on the left. After heavy losses I ended up pairing Chrom and Robin and leaving Anna and Lucina together, those two died and then I survived the rest of the map alone. Robin got to Level 15 Grandmaster on this map so I Second Sealed her into a Swordmaster.

Chapter 15: 0 resets. Rescue staff Say'ri, feed Lucina kills to get her promoted. Levin Sword sadly deceased in this battle. Also got to train Chrom in Lances, which is pretty key for future strats.

Chapter 16: 15 resets or so. Mobile magic users and reinforcements out the ass. Used stealth to cart Chrom and Robin over with Cherche and Sumia while having Tharja and Anna pairing take on the world with Nosferatu.

Chapter 17: 15 resets. Too many open sides for my underlevelled as fuck party, tried a variety of strats, at first tried to just go through like Hard Mode, but the valkyrie reinforcements/the ones from the boss's room just come and wail on you in the hall. Turn 1 is rather crucial in making sure that you have minimal losses; I set it up where the right side was defended near Chrom, killed the guys from the center on Turn 3, while the left side of Lucina and Tharja and friends (Lucina paired with Anna, Fred paired with Sumia) trying to survive. Picked off the archer with Tharja/Anna as well. Ended up just having to blitz as fast as I could to the boss before the reinforcements blocked my path and having Tharja with Nos defend the door as Chrom and Robin tried to take down the over-evasive boss.

Chapter 18: 7 resets. Mostly realizing that, again, three pronged attacks don't work on this game. As with many other maps, just knowing what pace to move at helps a ton. Got a lot of mileage out of baiting mages with my Javelin out, and Chrom gained a lot of levels. Killed the boss with Lucina. Also, hey dawg, I know this is your brother's sword, but it's so shiny...

Chapter 19: 40-50 resets. Holy mother of god this map is hard. Finish as many enemies off as possible with the scrub brigade (Fred sadly is part of said scrub brigade, even if he can hit bitches with Beast Killer, thus making him better than most of his friends.)Mostly ended up with Chrom/Robin pairing with Chrom sporting a Javelin/Short Spear standing on a fort with Tharja/Say'ri with Nos(standing NEXT TO Robin is important, because Robin helps Tharja null the crit of the enemies on the map.) I used up 106 charges of Nos, good thing it is storebought. Used a lot of Amastu as well. Tharja hit her level cap on this map, so I had to Second Seal her back to Level 1. <_< Chrom is a Paladin now as well, and Robin is a Trickster after getting Swordfaire. Chrom also has an A in Lances now!

Chapter 20: 25 resets. Ended up not killing Cervantes for the Ephs. Turn 1 is holding a line (Chrom/Sumia, Robin/Say'ri, Lucina/Fred) in the middle, Tharja/Anna killing the right side, and having Hammer and Armorslayer users try to take out/distract the left. Trying to dash up the area (down the hallway to the right, since open spaces do not favor me) is imperative because I needed to book it before the 15 dudes come from the bottom on turn 4 or whatever, ended up having Lucina/Say'ri pairing after sacrificing Fred/Sumia, and had Tharja/Anna dash with Robin/Chrom to Valhart after Lucina valiantly fended off people. Valhart killed Tharja and Anna but left Robin/Chrom alive long enough to wail on him.

Chapter 21: 15 resets. Ended up doing this as slow as molasses, took 29 turns, just turtled out all of the stupid reinforcements, got all of the treasure! Noble Rapier ended up just being sell-bait since I classchanged Lucina into a Swordmaster. Hooray for Fortify though. Tharja/Anna Chrom/Robin Lucina/Say'ri only relevant people as always. :p

Chapter 22: 2 resets. Brave Sword Assassin/Valflame Valk was Turn 1 reset, had another on at some point. 51 speed swordmaster also killed me once, uguu. Pretty easy though.

Chapter 23: 3 resets. Not as hard as I had feared, due to Javelin hax and Chrom having the high move from Pally. Mostly ran around, positioning myself to be hit by the people I wanted to be hit by. At some point in the last few chaps Chrom passed Robin in awesomeness, which is amusing since he was the second wheel earlier.

Chapter 24: 1 reset. Once I realized that all the Wyverns had Swordbreaker, Tharja/Nos hax had to reappear.

Chapter 25: 25 resets. Dark Flier reinforcements for the big jerkfaces. >_< Realized that blitzing the boss with Chrom and Robin was the best strategy;  in particular, some nasty guys appear next to the boss on Turn 7. Mostly had Tharja/Anna tank the mages, Lucina/Say'ri tank the Griffons with Basilio/Flavia tanking the top with Hammer, used Rescue staff with Robin to summon Flavio/Basilio nearer to kill stuff on the right, moved quickly up the right while having my allies kill things/die, particularly Tharja on a fort killing Dark Fliers. Killed the boss on Turn 6.

End: 1 reset. Rescue staff abuse to get my peeps close to the boss, Turn 2 was Lucina and Chrom attacking the boss while the others tried to off enemies and EVERYONE DIES but Chrom, Turn 3 was Chrom Aether-critting the boss for 96 damage. Kind of lucky, but I'll take it.

Overall there was a lot of death. Many maps ended with only two-five people left.

Final levels:

A tier:

Chrom 20/20/11 Paladin (41 STR, 41 speed, 46 luck, 33 def, 24 res)
Robin: 20/15/15SM/4 Trickster: (34 STR/44 speed/40 luck/17 both defenses)
Lucina: 20/15/3 Swordmaster: (35 STR/40 speed/38 luck/26 def/19 res)
Tharja 20/20/16 Sorcerer (47 Mag/41 speed/21 luck/35 def/19 res)

B tier:
Fredrick: 15GK/5 Paladin: (26 STR/25 speed/12 luck 17 def/13 res)
Panne: 15/10WyvernRider/4 Griffon Rider (31 STR/31 speed/20 luck/23 def/9 res)
Gregor: 20/10 Bow Knight (30 str/26 speed/18 luck/19 def/5 res)
Say'ri: Level 7 Swordmaster (23 str/33 speed/25 luck/15 defenses)
Sumia Level 20/7 Falcon Knight (19 str/32 speed/27 luck/13 def/18 res)
Morgan, stats are irrelevant, Rally Spectrum monkey
Anna: Level 12 Trickster (16 STR/27 Magic/27 speed/35 luck/13 def/16 res)
Basilio: Level 12 Warrior (39 str/29 speed/24 luck/25 def/10 res)
Flavia: Level 12 Hero: (32 str/36 speed/27 luck/27 def/14 res)
Libra and Lissa just heal and die

Fredrick and Chrom/Robin/Tharja MVPs.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 25, 2013, 12:43:35 AM
Okay, FE13 chapter 23 is the first time I've gotten fucked over by the ninja reinforcements. Didn't realize that killing the boss neither ends the stage nor the reinforcements, for once.

Time to see if blocking the stairs will work, I guess. If that doesn't then I'll have to push everyone north and play defensively until reinforcements ends, at the cost of making the stage about three times as long to complete.

Edit: Yep, it worked. Should've done it the first time, but I thought it wouldn't be necessary and I could push my healers closer.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on February 25, 2013, 06:17:38 AM
I suppose if I ever play FE13 on a higher difficulty all my too many playthroughs of FE6 might be useful.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 25, 2013, 07:15:19 AM
Tales of Graces fffffffffffffffffffff- I just talked with Fourier in her lab for point of reference for where I am up to.  Dug the name drops with Fourier, Poisson and Gauss.

What I am not digging is how much "The first Tales Game you can really play as a Mage" gets a kick in the taint once you try to use higher level spells.  I mentioned earlier I am using Malik because Asbel is consistently being the biggest sack of tools this side of Leon in the Tales series. 

First of all as is series staple you get bumped out of spells the moment something looks at you.  This is kind of okay if not for a few of the later things.
Second up, enemies start off targeting player 1.  Without fail.  This makes the first few seconds of every fight a dodge fest while you get footing and your party members hit dudes to reset their AI. 
Thirdly, crowd controlling enemies is not a thing that happens.  You can fight 5-6 enemies at a time.  You are going to get hit out of bigger spells even if you combo into them (at this point you can only realistically combo 2 skills early fight, 3 late fight, but at that point Ether Flare is overkill).
Fourth and this is really what makes all the above a thing, ENEMIES SPAWN RIGHT UP YOUR ANUS.  I don't remember if this is just a thing that is happening in Fendel, but constantly I am getting into fights with 5-6 dudes.  You start targetted a dude on the other side of the map and can see 2 of their buddies.  What you don't see is the 3 harpies spawned right behind you.

The number of times I have been hit out of an Ether Flare just before it goes off is aggravating.  Oh a bug hit me for 9 damage.  Better stop doing anything.

Fifth of all and the absolute kick in the balls and the 100% reason I think you aren't meant to be playing a Mage unless you are like player 3.  Miracle Arts (or whatever they are calling them this time).  Miracle Arts can go get fucked buy a middle aged used car salesman who isn't really trawling for a rent boy, but just someone that will take a beating for money and doesn't mind getting turkey slapped.

Here is why Miracle Arts can go fuck themselves.  Eleth Burst is the perfect time to get your spam on.  You combo up to a 4 CC skill and spam to your heart's content.  You feel like a god.  Until someone uses a Miracle Art that is.  Then your cast not only gets interrupted BY YOUR OWN PARTY but your combo that lets you unleash the wrath of the gods themselves with super fast casts?  That gets reset.

But it is cool you are playing as that douchebag Asbel anyway right?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on February 25, 2013, 08:26:55 AM
I think you can turn off the other characters Mystic Artes if you want to.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on February 25, 2013, 08:56:25 AM
Huh.  I'm surprised that there's not some sort of equipment or skill to make you not get hit out of casting nearly as often.  They had that all the way back in Tales of Symphonia if I recall.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on February 25, 2013, 09:10:34 AM
Huh.  I'm surprised that there's not some sort of equipment or skill to make you not get hit out of casting nearly as often.  They had that all the way back in Tales of Symphonia if I recall.

It's called Iron Stance in Graces.  I know how it works for Asbel so someone else will have to shed light on how it works for casters.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 25, 2013, 04:22:50 PM
You can definitely turn off Mystic Artes for any characters you don't want using them. There's a bunch of equips that grant Concentration (I think that's what it's called in this one?) that prevents getting knocked out of your spells. You can also forge Gems that grant this effect to insanely high levels such that basically nothing short of death interrupts your casting. The mages also get a lot of titles that grant this effect on a per-spell basis, so it's worth checking which of your spells have it attached and stick to those earlier in the fights.

Though yes, the game still favors Player 1 being a Melee character. I usually play Malik myself, but I've always been playing with a group. Even as player 2 or 3, enemies that spawn behind the PCs are annoying, though a lot less so when you have the camera angle set up to see the whole field instead of the default zoom-in you probably have it set on for 1-player. Also, note that enemies can't spawn behind you if you sneak up on -them- when initiating an encounter. If you don't like the opening dodgefest, get better at sneaking up on encounters. You'll also start with a fuller CC meter, making opening casting a lot easier.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on February 25, 2013, 09:34:24 PM
Sure, I could turn off mystic arts and lose out on a few thousand damage.  Or I could put them on manual (no) or I could just use Asbel like the game clearly wants (no).

It interrupts the gameplay but, like you saw with FF13, I won't sacrifice significant gameplay advantage just to make the gameplay flow better.  I would sooner put the game on Easy and stop giving shits.

Have not seen Concentrate gems (by that name or another?).  Assume they are kind of rare like Rise and Exceed?   (That is having only got 1 or 2 of each at this point and regretting using them before I got a grasp on what was happening with that system).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on February 25, 2013, 10:50:16 PM
FE Awakening: Chapter 12 was certainly a big spike in difficultly. It's nice that weapon selection actually matters a bit in this game on the PC side, the big spread of weapon powers can be frustrating on the enemy side. Chapter 12 is probably the best example of this. You've got all these knights and cavaliers equipped with iron lances, steel lances and javelins who have around 17-20 or so attack when average defense is around 10-12 maybe. The problem is that there's also a few paladins among the knights and cavaliers who have silver weapons whose attack is much higher (27-28 or so) and they'll just swoop in from way across the map and lop off 60% of a characters health or just straight up OHKO the dancer character. It'd be okay if it was just the boss who did this or if I were playing on a harder difficulty, but these guys didn't really have any special markings and this was on normal mode. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 26, 2013, 01:23:07 AM
Started up KotOR2 again.  I don't know if they changed it since the last time I played the game + restored content patch, but holy fuck is that gauntlet you have to run through Nar Shaddaa with Atton, Mira and T3 hard.  If I hadn't made sure to have Atton get his Jedi on the second we hit ground I don't know how I would get through it.  Still cool that they gave Atton his own solo section, though.  I've always liked him, although his blackmail arc with Kreia sort of drops off (because you can resolve it by making him a Jedi once you get your ship back). 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on February 26, 2013, 02:46:43 AM
I went and FAQ'd the reinforcements for FE13 chapters 24 and 25 because I remembered from Normal that they had stuff that would be a pain in the ass if they could attack on the turn they spawned. Sure enough, C24 had six forts spread throughout the map that would spawn Paladins, Great Knights, and Wyvern Lords on a rout stage, ugh. The former are at least hindered by all the forest tiles, but the Wyverns would've been a total pain in the ass if I weren't expecting them.

Meanwhile, chapter 25 shocking turned out to have actually REMOVED some reinforcements, instead of the usual tactic of making them spawn a turn earlier and sometimes adding a few extra rounds near the end. On Normal, a set of Dark Fliers and Griffon Knights arrive on turn 2 on both lower corners, but these are gone on Hard and above. Holy crap, I think IntSys actually playtested their reinforcements for once. Oh sure, the Generals spawn on turns 4 and 6 instead of 5 and 7, but those aren't ambush killing anyone.

Edit: C25 complete. I'm sandbagging the last stage so I can look up some details on how the Avatar logbook works, so I'll just compile some quick thoughts on my team this time before I forget. Doubt the finale's going to change my thoughts on a PC, anyhow.

Chrom, 20/18 Great Lord: S-ranked with Sumia. Great start and solid endgame. Definately appreciates a speed boosting Pair Up to reliably double fast enemies on Hard Mode, but someone less overkill than Sumia but who can do more than chip damage on Dual Strikes would probably be better overall. I briefly considered reclassing him to Great Knight for Luna until I noticed it would cost him 4 speed, which is painful even with +9 from Pair Up.

Sumia, 20/16 Falcon Knight: Much less useful without Frederick's strength boosts, she struggled to reliably one-round anything not weak to Beastkiller save the squishiest of mages (not even lategame Sorcerors, which kinda mattered). The high skill helps with activating Dual Strikes though, so Chrom got a lot of kills for her, especially with a Javelin equipped.

Julius, 20 Tactician/15 Grandmaster/12 Dark Knight: S-ranked with Miriel. He was defense screwed early on which held him in check, especially with a partner who wasn't boosting either his defense or his speed. Eventually the sheer quantities of levels fixed that flaw, though on Hard he never felt invincible or completely dominant without any form of draining. 8 move as a Dark Knight was pretty cool for getting him to the frontlines; Valkyrie would've been even better, but male Avatars are kinda boned on class selection compared to females in exchange for more flexible Rallybot children options.

Miriel, 18/15 Sage: Her offense was fantastic early on, especially right after she got Concentrate and Julius got Solidarity for ~33% crit rates with Thunder tomes in the first third of the game. Bad level-ups later on ultimately relegated her to Dual Strikes, mopping up stragglers for exp, and the occasional uber-ranged Rescue, sadly. Lack of durability was an issue the entire game - she could barely take a single physical attack for pretty much the entire game, and her Res wasn't that great either.

Panne, 10 Taguel/~13 Wyvern Rider/15 Griffon Knight/1 Wyvern Lord: S-ranked with Gaius. Panne's growths as a Wyvern Rider: 105 HP/75 Str/65 Skl/70 Spd/40 Luck/50 Def/20 Res. That's just nuts on paper, even by FE13 standards. Only problem is the initial speed loss from dropping a Beaststone, which Pair Up can alleviate. I think going for Griffon Rider before Wyvern Lord might've been a mistake in hindsight, though Deliverer is always nice at least.

Gaius, 10 Thief/~14 Myrmidon/15 Swordmaster/1 Assassin: He was supposed to just be Panne's speed-boosting backup, but somehow he ended up with 38 strength/44 skill/36 speed and was a total killing machine, especially with +Strength from Panne. 8 move while she was a GK, too. What the hell? I need to check if those stats are normal for him. Maybe I fed him a bunch of Energy Drops early on that I'm forgetting, I know all the mid/lategame ones went to Chrom instead.

Tharja, L20/20/6 Sorceror: Blah blah blah Nosferatu blah blah blah high defense blah blah blah Tomebreaker blah blah blah free damage boosts from Vengeance. I had her tank 30-40% of the map at times, hence the highest non-Avatar level of anyone. Clearcut lategame MVP.

Gregor, L17/6 Hero: I basically scanned the Pair Up list for a class that would raise both Tharja's skill and speed and settled on Hero. Poor Gregor basically never saw any action after chapter 9 since his speed and defense were both so middling, but he provided the essential stat boosts to make Tharja broken.

"Marth", 20/19 Great Lord: Actually trumps Gaius with 39 Strength/40 Skill/42(+2) speed. Turned out a lot closer to the one from my first file than I expected, albeit with higher average team levels and thus stats. No S-ranks so I mostly used her with Tiki, though she could fight separately pretty well if need be.

Tiki, L30/8 Manakete: Pretty great with those Hard Mode stat boosts, range 1-2 on a Manakete is fantastic and Pair Up/Rally Spectrum existed to fix any speed issues. I tried to mostly stick with regular Dragonstones when supporting and only switch to Dragonstone+ if she took lead.

Libra, L12 and Anna, L13: I am lazy on training staffbots in this game and just stick to the prepromotes for higher defensive bases. Mostly relied on Physic and Rescue lategame since both are storebought.

Olivia, level irrelevant: I'm resigned to the fact that she's probably the worst Dancer in the series for a variety of reasons, unless you grind her stats via reclassing. Still, she can usually give my staffbots and rallybots free turns safely and sometimes got rescued out after dancing for someone important. Dropped from chapters 21, 24, and 25 for safety purposes, though in hindsight 25 was workable.

Morgan, L19/6 Dark Knight and Laurent, L15/6 Dark Knight: Waited to recruit both until I could pass on Rally Spectrum, plus they got Rally Magic for good measure. Then I fed them what experience I could on their easy Paralogues (with more success on Morgan, obviously) and promoted them to Dark Knight for 8 move Rallybots who could take a hit without dying, finish off weakened enemies, and snipe the odd flier with Arcwind. This worked out about as well as I could've hoped, the Rally Spectrum spam was great lategame and both their durability and offense mattered on occasion compared to a 10/1 Rallybot. They pretty well justified my decision to pair my Avatar with Miriel this run, whom I largely picked for flavor reasons initially ("At the very least Julius should have a Sage wife, even if there's no silverish haired ones available!").
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on February 26, 2013, 03:36:52 AM
Ni No Kuni: Finished.

I maintain that this was an "okay" game that suffered from a lackluster plot and gameplay that didn't really excite. It excelled at being a beautiful game, but that doesn't sell it by itself.

THe characters were underdeveloped through and through. Oliver after the very first arc pretty much acts like Oliver from the last arc, and is way too much of a straight man to be interesting besides. Drippy is a bit of a joy in his comments and mannerisms, but not compelling or endearing enough to carry the game himself. Esther is pretty much just eye candy once she joins the party, having little role to play at all. Swaine's joining arc is pretty bad and you don't care at all about him for a while, but his major character arc is decent enough in that you get to see some of his motivations and a genuine disconnect with his former self... then he kind of drops off the face of the planet as far as being a character goes. Character interaction is somewhat acceptable with Drippy picking on Oliver a fair amount and Esther/Swaine being a squabbling comedy duo (which just feels... odd given the age difference, Swaine acts far too much like a teenager). None of these interactions sell the cast as eminently likable. The overarching plot of the game is just bad. Plot points are not elaborated on NEARLY ENOUGH in the arc up to fighting Big Bad 1, and Big Bad 2 is just completely disconnected from the plot beforehand (with handwaves made to tie them in). Big Bad 2 was added to the game after the original plot/story was completed, and it shows. Badly. The narrative disconnect is painful and honestly doesn't even make good sequel material, let alone trying to be part of one large story arc. As an idea, this woman has been the villain 'all along' but has... done almost nothing to hinder the PCs, leaving everything to Big Bad 1. The lack of action until Big Bad 1 is defeated just makes it cheesy "BUT THERE IS A BIGGER VILLAIN BEHIND THE VILLAIN!" nonsense. I'm not even sure on a few major plot points with Big Bad 1, who feels far more strongly connected to the overall story (being the driving force for most of the action of the game, and a far more obvious and omnipresent villain throughout). The game would have been much better served by not adding the last arc and strengthening the story it had up to the end of Big Bad 1, which is where the major climax of the game is and the resolution of the impetus of the journey.

Combat had an interesting system in mind but kind of blew it on implementation. You can switch familiars around and such, but honestly there isn't THAT much reason to once you find one or two to work with. And recruiting new familiars being entirely random is a pain in the behind. Randoms tend not to be a threat for most of the game, and when they finally are you have MT spammable damage to wipe them up easily (which is a good idea, as they have access to the same moves in some cases!). Bosses tend to be decent enough affairs, at least once you can give the "All Defend" and "All Attack" commands to have the AI prep for enemy supermoves that will hurt bunches and bunches, or counterattack when a boss is disabled for some reason due to cooldown or being smacked with a severe weakness. All told though the game failed to excite with the system. The "feed your familiars treats to boost stats!" system got exceedingly boring very quickly, and the familiar system in general felt lackluster. The movesets are heavily reminiscent of Pokemon, with the option to even hold off on evolving waiting for better moves to show up on unevolved mons (this tended to hurt long-run potential somewhat as evolved mons are reset to L1 and need to build up levels again ala Disgaea reincarnation). But for a large part I just didn't care about the movesets outside a rare few. The need to hit weaknesses was not really there that badly (and you generally have weapons to do that for you). The offense stat buff moves were nice enough, but other than that it was just "ST damage" of varying MP/damage ratios and MT damage to select from. Meh. PCs felt underpowered outside of Oliver's lategame (yeah, he's good) and the late-joining PC who comes with a spammable MT hyper-fast move that launches enemies like rag-dolls. I generally didn't care when Esther, Swaine, or a Familiar learned a new move. And that's not what a game should aim for with it's PC development system.

The game is gorgeous. It's been said. It's been said again (because it bears repeating). If you like playing games that are pretty you kind of owe it to yourself to play this game.

I can't justify spending full price on it though. It's a fun romp but not nearly good enough to be hypable, and I don't feel it's a good game for this group in particular that emphasizes gameplay.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on February 26, 2013, 04:19:52 AM
I think the solution to Grefter's problem is to play as Pascal, the melee mage. Up to lv.3 physical->Magnetic Field->whatever usually works wonder.
Or go for Cheria, who is much easier to manipulate her charge time than Malik. Up to lv.2 physical->Religiousx2->whatever works wonder as well.

RS 3 Hack- The game is a series of disappointment after God. Chaos Ruler still sucks in this patch, it seems none of the patch maker is working on improving Chaos Ruler. Typical elemental MT spam is getting old among end game bosses.
Hell Lord isn't much better either. It is a surprise how he is easily walled using Imperial Arrow as the formation.
Diva sucks, no explanation needed.
Saiva has nothing but inflated HP. Not to mention the uber reward from beating other last bosses end up making her even weaker compare to past patches......
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on February 26, 2013, 09:29:45 AM
Went on a FONV mod safari. At first I was taken aback by the elaborateness of some of these people's video game wives. But then I realized that feeling the urge to make a video game wife is a guarantee you will have time to do it. At first I was going to say that's why the boobs always look like real boobs don't but... Gamebryo.

Tried out the Boulder Dome mod that attempts to recreate Van Buren's area of the same name. Interesting and ambitious, but it has a couple problems. One, I get that they wanted the place to feel desolate and trips to take a long time, but fuck there's a lot of walking you have to do. Way too much.

Also, amateur voice acting. If you make a mod probably don't add that. It just makes your mod awkward.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on February 26, 2013, 10:13:32 AM
Generation of Chaos: Pandora's Reflection- Started this. It's... strange. But it works, kinda. Ogre Battle map system with comboing, summons and danmaku, Sting elements in the battle system and the good type of IF artwork. Thankfully the alchemy stuff is very simple, unlike Spectral's in-depth but obtuse system. Writing is also simplistic but it's a GoC game. At least servicable so far even if it does not pull off in medias res at all.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on February 26, 2013, 08:50:08 PM
Kid Icarius Uprising:  Okay, the controls suck but everything else about the game is awesome.  I'm more of a fan of the flight sections than the ground missions.  If I could I would tape a troll face to Palutena, poor Pit.  Anyways, I've been replaying the first two levels to get a feel of the difficulty levels.  A higher intensity means better loot, right?  I'm spending too much effort into weapon fusion.  I'm leaning towards staff or palms for my weapon choice, I dunno.  There's no axes for Pit? wtf i change my mind this game suxs.

I think this game is better played on a normal 3DS than a XL.  The stand that comes with the game doesn't fit the XL, and the heavier XL makes it more unconfortable to hold.  A small touchscreen is actually better for moving around on the ground missions.  Fucking Sakurai doesn't makes things any easy for us large people.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 26, 2013, 11:59:48 PM
Higher intensity does indeed mean higher rewards, both in terms of item quality and raw number of hearts.

Dunno about the XL specifically, but the best way I found to hold the game was to hold it normally with my left hand while my stylus-holding right hand added some support via the pinky.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on February 27, 2013, 02:38:57 PM
FF6 Eviltype- Started this back up. I haven't played in a few days. Right now I am saved right after finishing the Magitek research factory.

Orcs Must Die 2- Beat Yeti Den and Chilled Caverns without mana. Yeti Den was just a matter of using grinders in the right way to handle the sappers and spamming the Jar of Ghosts to keep the enemies at bay. I beat Chilled Caverns on the first try (with one skull granted). I *think* I can five skull CC without mana, but that requires a lot of effort and getting lucky with my traps killing the goblin shamans.

The hive, fuck. I haven't even gotten halfway through the level. I'm thinking I need decoys at the bridge at the center of the level to save my archers from Lightning bats, but wave 3 keeps on slaughtering me no matter what I do.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 27, 2013, 05:38:17 PM
Metroid Prime - Most of what good will I had for this game got pissed away by a "you must collect twelve random macguffins scattered throughout the world!" episode. Like seriously, wtf. Anyway I'm at what I have to imagine is the final boss right now. This game is a surpirisingly big failure. Will post more detailed thoughts when done.

Soul Calibur 4 - Mostly just screwing around in one-player, something I don't normally do in fighters but I guess I was in the mood for? To the game's credit, the tower of lost souls is actually quite fun. The rest not so much. I don't even want to talk about "story" mode except to say thank goodness the story is skippable. But you don't have to spend much time on the rest.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 27, 2013, 05:41:47 PM
NAMCO WRITING PLOT
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on February 27, 2013, 06:00:53 PM
Bot how could someone not love Tiki randomly murdering Siegfried!  Or Soul Calibur ice-cubing the world because it's suddenly evil!  Or Yoda venturing through a rift of space time instead of defeating Palpatine!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on February 27, 2013, 06:23:48 PM
Soul Caliber plot peaked during Soul Blade. By SC5 it literally is a yo dawg waiting to happen.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 27, 2013, 06:29:05 PM
I wouldn't know about most of it since SC4 decided to put much of its plot in incredibly slow FFT-chapter-intro style text. Sceneskip is a glorious thing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on February 27, 2013, 06:37:48 PM
/me tries to imagine that entirely bereft of context.

... l...i...t...t...l...e s...o...p...h...i...t...i...a c...l...e...a...v...a...g...e

Okay, I give up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on February 27, 2013, 06:54:30 PM
You can fast scroll it, though with like, with the exception of Zams you pretty much know exactly what's going on anyway. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on February 27, 2013, 06:56:56 PM
No I don't.

And I like it that way.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on February 27, 2013, 07:59:44 PM
Good vs Evil.

EVERYTHING RUINED!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 27, 2013, 09:01:15 PM
Yeah, really not much more to plot than "SOUL EDGE BAD! SOUL CALIBUR GOOD! ALGOL IS MEAN!" and then the endings sort of do their own thing that you just scratch your head about...

SC5 at least has a story, though, like super said, it just ends with a "yo dawg" moment, so I'm not sure that's an improvement...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on February 27, 2013, 11:33:07 PM
SOUL CALIBUR also bad!  Angol Fear is a stupid name.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on February 28, 2013, 03:20:52 AM
Fire Emblem Awakening: So I like this game and all but for some reason I'm playing it at a Snails pace.  I'm thinking I'm feeling a little burned out of FE from playing FE12 Hard Mode as much as I did and quickly or something, so yeah, gonna take a bit of a break.

Darksiders 2: Been playing this as well.  Game is...about what has been said.  Notably improved core gameplay in terms of battle system, platforming, etc.  Inferior for exploration (mostly due to poor rewards due to how the game handles it), plot and setting.  It's hard to compare directly to the first game as a result, as while the first game was God of War meets Legend of Zelda, this game is more like Devil May Cry meets Diablo with a hint of Metroidvanias.

I was thinking about doing an Abridged version of this, but there's not enough story to really work it.  Also, lack of a fill-in for The Watcher means half of it would be Death monologuing <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 28, 2013, 05:32:33 PM
A little late, but ...

for the Grefters: You really won't be missing out on any damage by turning off the AI characters' Mystic Artes. You can just use Malik's/whoever you're playing as Mystic Arte multiple times instead. Then you won't miss any damage AND you can control the pacing of the gameplay.


Games Djinn plays:

Penny Arcade Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 2: Sorta plodding through this when I have time. I love the quirky setting and writing, even though I'm still not a fan of PA art. Eventually I will get to PA3 (aka: the one I really want to play). Though the mini-game-based ATB system in this is pretty fun for how short the game is.

Fire Emblem 13: Started playing this, but got busy right around chapter 4... I like the cast so far, and I haven't seen enough plot for it to be -bad- yet. Chrom is a crazy idiot for trusting me, but at least he's getting called out on that. Frederick for best character so far! Gameplay-wise, he's good, but my natural aversion to Jeigans has me throwing him out in front as a literal wall, bereft of any weapons. With the enemy sufficiently lured, my weaker squishies can run up and drink in the EXP.

Also, I like The Vaike. He will become a murder-weapon if I have to walk over the corpses of every other expendable in my army to do it. (I hope it won't be that hard.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on February 28, 2013, 06:02:08 PM
What mode are you doing Djinny?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on February 28, 2013, 06:40:46 PM
Normal Classic, male Robin +HP -Luck (I think, I don't recall which minus I picked. I just selected whatever it defaulted to, same with his appearance). I figured whatever was default would be how I'll take him in CKDL.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on February 28, 2013, 06:46:59 PM
KIU:  Pandora's labyrinth of deceit almost gave me a seizure playing the level in 3D.  What a mind fuck of a level.  Still pretty fun in short bursts.

FE13: Lunatic+ finally done.  If you played Advance Wars DS and beat the hard campaign using Eagle/Sami base rush strat, it's like that in FE13 only it's mandatory.  Get 4-5 Galeforce users, pair them up, and use the extra turns from galeforce to zerg rush the boss in 2-3 turns.  Trying to beat chapters 20 and 25 by normal rout is almost impossible unless you get real lucky with reinforcements spawning with terrible skills.  Dark Fliers with Vantage+ and Hawkeye (and Galeforce!) means someone is going to die.   My MVP  was Lucina by far.  Chrom/MU pairing gives her access to Galeforce, Sol, Rightful King, and Vantage all at once.  Aether's lower proc is not worth it over Sol.  Counter is still the biggest troll skill in the game.  Cordelia/Severa/Chrom/Morgan/Stahl/Tiki/Owain rounded out the rest of the crew.  Everyone else was just meatbags to distract the enemy so my 6pool strategy would work.  Not a mode I would play through again, especially getting stuck on Chapter 2 for about 2 days.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 01, 2013, 12:52:44 AM
Persona 3 Portable, Yattaf solo:

Naginata in hand, Yattaf took a look at Junpei, took a look at Yukari, and promptly realized that they were only going to be liabilities (despite strong "Friendship is stronger" themes in the game) Her first choice as a leader was removing them from the party, forever.
When other people joined the team, they were so hopelessely outmached by Yattaf at that point that, out of an inferiority complex, they all decided on their own to only act as backup/support.
(Except the dog, who's busy being a dog)


Anyway:

- 3x Venus Eagle: They do 20 damage with physicals/Garu, they die in 4 hits from any non wind basic spells, Dia heals for 60.
Solution -> A badass Alp persona with wind protection, Zio and Dia.

- 3x Dancing Hand: Those have every spell available, so any persona with a weakness is out. They do about the same damage as venus eagles but are weak to Strike damage. Unfortunately, the only way to get Strike is Bash, a physical skill that costs 11 HP (Seriously, every HP counts)
Solution -> Ara Mitama persona, with Dia, Rakukaja and Bash. Rakukaja doesn't last long enough, but this isn't a problem when doing damage gives you free turns.

- Rampage Drive: Ara Mitama destroys that guy too!

So far, Yattaf is just starting S-links with everyone, and she hasn't really decided who she'll hang out with yet.
She has decided who she's not going to hang out with though. Like Junpei.

She's also joined the tennis club:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBqBCMpn4ZE



FF4 TAY: Did Ceodore's quest, then Porom's, then Palom's.
Then did Palom's optional dungeon sans the ridiculously tough boss.
Went back to Ceodore's quest to see if there was an optional dungeon there too, and accidently erased Palom's save.
Seriously?
I'm sure everybody did something like this at least once in this freaking game.

Restarted Palom's quest and beat that optional boss the right way at level 30. Nice fight.
Then I beat him the wrong way (using the co-op attack) and it was good fun as well.

TAY is surprisingly great so far. It knows the best things about FF4 are the quick pace, constantly changing tools given to the player, and balance.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on March 01, 2013, 11:14:39 PM
Oh my. I didn't realize that Donnel essentially gets promotion bonuses for changing out of the Villager class. I changed him to a fighter and rushed him up to level ten to change him to a hero and as a level 1 Hero almost all of his stats are in the thirties. The only ones that aren't are HP (56), Mag(11), Speed(29) and Res(19). I don't forsee the game being very challenging in the future.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on March 01, 2013, 11:46:57 PM
Quote
Persona 3 Portable, Yattaf solo:

Marry me, Fenrir <3
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on March 01, 2013, 11:55:33 PM
FE13: Lunatic+ finally done.  If you played Advance Wars DS and beat the hard campaign using Eagle/Sami base rush strat, it's like that in FE13 only it's mandatory.  Get 4-5 Galeforce users, pair them up, and use the extra turns from galeforce to zerg rush the boss in 2-3 turns.  Trying to beat chapters 20 and 25 by normal rout is almost impossible unless you get real lucky with reinforcements spawning with terrible skills.  Dark Fliers with Vantage+ and Hawkeye (and Galeforce!) means someone is going to die.   My MVP  was Lucina by far.  Chrom/MU pairing gives her access to Galeforce, Sol, Rightful King, and Vantage all at once.  Aether's lower proc is not worth it over Sol.  Counter is still the biggest troll skill in the game.  Cordelia/Severa/Chrom/Morgan/Stahl/Tiki/Owain rounded out the rest of the crew.  Everyone else was just meatbags to distract the enemy so my 6pool strategy would work.  Not a mode I would play through again, especially getting stuck on Chapter 2 for about 2 days.

(http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/3346/cervantess.jpg) Come, reinforcements, said the spider to the...  other spiders.

(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120918063618/fireemblem/images/thumb/a/a1/Lucina_portrait.jpg/120px-Lucina_portrait.jpg) kekekekeke

(http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/3346/cervantess.jpg) OMG nr 10 u noob
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on March 02, 2013, 12:12:42 AM
FE:A Galeforce and Armsthrift were my two favorite skills.

Donnel was put on the shelf to allow some other people time to get stronger.

My Chrom and Avatar ended up being pretty weak, shame too.

My MVP units ended up being Owain, Donnel, (Owain's dad...go figure.), Brady, Nah, Gerome, and Inigo. The kids really do steal the show in this game.

One thing I want to mention is, though I enjoy the support conversations, it feels as though a lot of them don't have the substance some of the older games provided. Like, almost none of the characters share any back-stories with each other. I get that this game is a semi-dating sim do get the kids integrated, but I guess that's my one gripe.

other then that i have enjoyed this game from beginning to end.

Oh, well I haven't finished just yet. I am nearing the end. I'm in chapter 25 right now, so it can't be too far from here.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on March 02, 2013, 03:34:46 AM
I'm waiting for the bonus maps in FE:A to come out, so until then...

FE8 Netplay with Trancey;
I've had worse ideas. Since we're playing FE8 Normal, we're basically going to be making bad decisions all the way through. Some ground rules:

1) We're going to keep track of kills per player. Person with the most kills gets MVP at end of the level and "wins". So there's some element of competition
2) Lords rule -since lords are always forced, Trancey and I agreed to basically swap turns/levels at controlling the lords. Same with Seth for the first 10 levels.
3) Speaking of Seth, his kills don't count until level 10+ because he basically starts out as god and is unfair to the other guy anyway
4) Once we get deployment choice, Hatbot deployment. We're thinking of splitting deployment in 1/2 with 1/2 of it being Hatbotted and the other half being manually chosen (so we don't get stuck with deadweight late in the game)
5) #YOLO forever. It is Fire Emblem after all.

Haven't thought of any penalty clauses yet but we'll see. Some highlights tonight:

- Trancey controls Eirika in the prologue and gets her killed from a 39% chance iron axe followed by a 19% chance iron axe. No penalty clause means we wipe and reset, but it was p.great
- Against the boss in the fourth level, we don't have enough offense to kill him since he's on a throne. Luckily, GARCIA manages to hit off of sub 50% chances, allowing us to kill him that turn. Shitty level up though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on March 02, 2013, 10:32:30 AM
Please tell me you got that on stream, with Trancey commentary.  There's has been a lack of poor life decisions.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on March 02, 2013, 12:39:36 PM
http://www.twitch.tv/tideruglia/b/372778663

Just 4 u Eph. You'll have to excuse that Trance has a quiet mic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on March 02, 2013, 12:51:40 PM
Thing about character backstories in FE13 is that you have the pick the right supports to get them, since most characters have over a dozen and it'd get dumb if the same backstory elements kept getting rehashed in every single support. So it largely comes down to chance whether you get serious character development supports like Gregor/Tharja, Gregor/Cherche, Lon'qu/Cherche, Virion/Panne, Libra/Tharja, Gaius/Maribelle, Chrom/Sully, or Cordelia/Avatar, or supports written purely for comedy like Henry/Sumia, Vaike/Avatar, or Lon'qu/Miriel, or supports that make references to past FE games like Stahl/Nowi, Panne/Avatar, or Donnel/Cordelia, or supports that are just kinda dumb like Vaike/Olivia.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on March 02, 2013, 02:46:03 PM
That is the case then. I am still far from uncovering every single support from this game. I guess most of them I've unlocked aren't too deep. Some are great though, Owain's supports are so silly they make me smile in my pants.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 02, 2013, 10:55:44 PM
Metroid Prime: Beat this a couple days ago.

In some ways the game's opening area serves as a warning sign I should have taken more seriously. Like in Super Metroid, the game begins with a timed escape sequence. Unlike Super Metroid, it's seven minutes long, and has a point where I wasn't sure how to advance due to being unable to find the platform I was supposed to jump on. I thought it was bad design, before I shrugged and moved on. But this is pretty much what the game does wrong in a nutshell. Bad platforming and bad pacing, and not really especially good at anything else.

I'm still not sure quite what went wrong. You can certainly see the similarity to the great games in the series I love. To some extent the game set out with a simple goal, translate Super Metroid into 3D. It doesn't even, at base, do a terrible job of it. But the resulting product isn't much fun. I think part of the problem is that while first-person perspective better fits with Samus' beam and missile attacks, it is absolutely terrible for platforming, and the game insists on keeping both.

First-person platforming really sucks. It involves trying to jump on things without being certain where they are. I'm not certain it is a thing that can be done well... none of the FPSes I have played I would consider to have platforming and now I know why. But regardless, the game does not do a good job of it. Even worse, the game does not allow you to simultaneously move forward AND look down, so there isn't even an awkward option to look at your feet as you jump. Have fun if the platform is moving! And then there is my favourite, when the game combines platforming with poor visibility (fuck the frigate). Or forces you to use x-ray mode which is pretty much always poor visibility (or infrared). And in general few things are less fun than just trying to look for platforms to jump on, while in some crappy visibility mode. And the game does it a lot.

The game also has some serious problems with pacing. I clocked in at 14:30, which is insane for a Metroid game. Of course it would be faster if I knew where to go, but the thing is... I usually did know where to go. The game, to its credit, will tell you where your next objective is. Obviously there are various time savings that one could make (and would on a replay), but that's still two to three times longer than the other games. There's a couple reasons for this:

a) While all Metroids tend to force you to do a fair bit of backtracking as you get new powerups that let you advance further in old areas, this is the only one that never really speeds up said backtracking. There's no speed booster (except for the morph ball). There's no flight-allowing space jump (shitty platforming must persist until the very last area!). In general the maps aren't designed with shortcuts once you get certain powerups the way other games are.

b) That stupid fetchquest late in the game. You literally have to track down 12 random items that do nothing but open the final area. Like what the hell, I facepalm when RPGs do things like this and they at least have the excuse of using the padding to squeeze in some more writing.

c) Lots of time-wasting to get past certain rooms, usually in the form of solving random "puzzles" akin to those in Zelda. It even has a chime when you solve one kinda like Zelda. Actually between this and the fetchquesting and some of the boss design they might as well have called this game Metroid: Now we want to be Zelda, so don't play this if your name is Elfboy. The game isn't actually longer than Super Metroid in terms of content (that is, bosses, or powerups), just in ways that waste your time.

Otherwise the game's okay. Combat would be much better if switching between weapons was a faster action or if charging didn't take so long (it's significantly slower than Super/Fusion, and I don't like charging as a mechanic to start with), or if boss design was less lame. Omega Pirate and the final boss are pretty decently fun and took me a few tries each, but nothing exceptional. Ridley was lame. Most everything else is either braindead easy or a puzzle gimmick. Plot is embarrassingly non-existant, I don't think I ever really understood what was going on nor did I care. It's pretty much "take Super Metroid, remove that introduction where the game spells out clearly what's going on and why you should care, and remove the bit with the baby Metroid which made you want to kick the final boss' ass". I mean to the game's credit the game has no plot to get in the WAY, but this kind of complete plotlessness isn't my style.

Well I think that's everything. It's not total crap like FF2 or whatever, but still weirdly bad.


Replaying God Hand now!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 02, 2013, 11:31:59 PM
Huh I was watching bits of a guy replaying Marathon and there is lots of bits he certainly refers to as platforming.  Rooms with elevated platforms you need to fall between as puzzles and to get pickups and whatnot (guy is an avid platform fan as well).

Doom has similar kinds of sequences and Halflife series definitely has Platforming sequences.

They all have that problem you describe of not being able to see enough to jump and land particularly safely.  Being able to navigate your character in a 3D space like that with the reduced field of view is definitely a common problem with the platforming in First Person games.  Some more modern games work around it with options to expand the field of view beyond the stock 90 degree angle to a broader view that gives you peripheral vision and this takes a bit of getting used to but is pretty amazingly useful when you do (something even lets you output a full 360 degree view, forget what it was, probs Crysis). Neat way of using technology to ease a long standing problem with the viewpoint.  Works beat with widescreen monitors of course, or even more so for multiple monitors if you are one of those crazies running eyefinity.

I would say it is something I wish they would stop doing because even in great FPS games with platforming (Halflife) it is the low point of the game, but then there is Portal and I need to shut my whore mouth.  There is a first person series of puzzle/platform era that has rated game of the year and really high on the list another year both times they come out and it wasn't solely because of the writing.

So I guess I am saying to at the other Prime games that you haven't (??? Thought you had played 1.  Was it only like 3 you had played or something?).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 02, 2013, 11:36:08 PM
I hadn't played any games in that series before.

Marathon doesn't even have a jump button. There is some moving between platforms that you could call platforming I suppose, though it's quite different from Metroid which seems to have tried to put 2D platforming mechanics (doublejumping and all that) in an FPS. And then not let you move while looking down (something Marathon and Quake certainly let you do. Don't remember Doom well enough to comment).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 03, 2013, 12:00:31 AM
I used Doom and Marathon specifically because it was in there before Jump was a thing in them (controlled falling instead of jumping).

Looking down while jumping in the games is normally inefficient anyway but wowowowowow is not having the option terrible in a game post Quake (Doom in its original version you couldn't look up or down, zDoom rectifies this).

I must be mixing up you playing Fusion with Prime or something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 03, 2013, 02:31:47 AM
I know Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for the N64, a game that is...iffy...had a lot of platforming and it sucked, but even THAT let you look down while moving.  Hell, it even gave you a convenient shadow spot when you looked at your feet to tell you exactly where you were relative to the platform (good for any of those tight-walk spots that the game oh so loved and sucked)  I know Shadows of the Empire didn't let you do that BUT the game had a 3rd Person Mode which is "USE NOW FOR PLATFORMING" obviously.

Metroid Prime not having either as an option is inexcusable, frankly, from all I'm hearing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on March 03, 2013, 03:04:11 AM
SotE had a first-person mode?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 03, 2013, 05:56:16 AM
It did, but you really had no reason to use it like ever, because, well, the game had too much platforming sections, tight spots, etc. that 3rd Person Mode was a vastly superior option.

It also had a RESIDENT EVIL CAMERA!!! mode.  I think they called it "Dynamic Camera" acting like it was COOL BECAUSE OF THE ANGLES YOU GET! I seriously tried to play the game several times this way, being a young, naive 13 year old and all that, I thought IT HAD TO BE A GOOD IDEA IF THEY PUT IT IN!  This never lasted more than 15 minutes.

Also had a Top Down camera mode, which...was actually useful for platforming though poor for combat.


...yeah, back to the First Person thing, the game used it several times, but it was only useful when you were in the ship during pre-set flying segments (Asteroid Belt and that other one in the final stage); useless during anything else, compared to 3rd Person mode in any event.


Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on March 03, 2013, 07:07:22 AM
I honestly remember dynamic camera more than the FPS mode.  All I remember of the later was some wampa raging.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niji on March 03, 2013, 10:57:41 AM
Hoosh, finally remembered my ID and password both for this site.

World of Blingcraft: Hellopanda Island Adventure
 Pretty fun so far, rocking that vanity transmog gear and playing the in-game pokemon like a boss.
DC Universe Online: I am a lvl 3 pastrymancer so far.

Pokemon Black & White 2: Almost got my story mode team to lvl 100 9 months later... Just in time for Pokemon DNA Digivolution!

Zenonia 2: Dear god I die so much, but its insanely fun, probably the best true Action RPG since seiken densetsu original 3 (and just as good art! though not quite as stylish). I look forward to the mage class returning in a future Zenonia game so I can resume the series(0 interest because of lack for 3+ so far).

Mugen Souls: Sorta not anywhere yet

Tales of PS3 and overly long introduction chapter: Got bored before I finished the child arc, so, not continuing the game since it failed game development #1 rule.
Nier: Very angry I lose all my power ups after introduction arc. So I skipped ahead and read how it turned now, now I do not wish to continue play lol, as this game isn't metroid and can't get away with that. PHENOMINAL soundtrack and action gameplay, I have no attachment to the characters aside from the book though, a major failing. I've always hated time skips for this reason. (and why I stopped reading one piece)

Dust a Furry tail: Dying to play this, looks very fun.

Ristar: Still 100% fun but emulators don't do it justice, and I really dislike the english version, but no luck finding the japanese version english patched ;C such a different story.

Rocket Knight PS3: Beat it without gold armor power up. Pretty fun, not as good as the first two though, but I felt attatched to the story this time. Really hoping Dynamite Heady gets this treatment one day!

Rayman Orgins(various): VERY FUN I think its the best Rayman since Gold (which didn't work long on my windows 3.1 and 95 comp back in the day...) don't see where the rage is coming from in the community, blows raving rabbits out of the water...

Sonic Generations: GOD DAMNIT my save file keeps auto whiping itself whenever I get so far, its very frustrating i want to unlock super sonic!

League of Legends: God damn I suck at this game now.

Over all conclusion, my reaction times have gone down tremendously so i will be phasing out many types of video games from my willingness to play due to that "practice makes you suck more" bug.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on March 03, 2013, 10:11:08 PM
Xenoblade: Heading towards Sword Valley. Game is decent so far, although there are some areas where it feels like it lags. It definitely wanted to be a spectacle, but it's cast is horrid in a mildly inoffensive way (Reyn was already enough of a idiot used as a bad running gag. They did not need to add Riki too, who is horrible and unlike most mascot characters, seems to be still be getting lines after several intro scenes). They should have made it so someone in the cast is supposedly to be mildly intelligent.

Battles are okay, although they get repetitive. They made the order who learn moves a bit odd in that many of the good ones comes first, followed by a lot of fodder. Trying to get a feel of everyone DL wise (Speed should be like SD 3, setting a random time period as 1 turn, and that period such encompass at least 3 techs probably).

They really want you to fully explore but then punish you by making swimming horrible (press directional button for 5-10 minutes in Eryth Sea while doing nothing else). Not like I am fully exploring. I wish that they threw some of the work they did making jobs (56 jobs in Alcamoth alone????!!) into other sections of the games.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 06, 2013, 12:50:20 AM
I'll name my daughter Yattaf.


Virtue's Last Reward: Spent the last 5 days marathoning this.
The only twists I could figure out from a while away were the deal with UOM and UOW.

This is a better, more interesting 999, until the last two hours where everything goes 100% crazy. One mad plot twist after another for two hours. 999 was kinda like that too, but absolutely not anywhere near that extent! I have seen my fair share of crazy anime stuff (Star Ocean 3 and Drakengard are good ones), and this is one of the best (/worst). I don't know how they could possibly make a third game in the series (it's planned) and keep it relatively sane for most of the game.

The best improvement was the cast; K, Dio, Tenjimoyi and Clover being better than just about anyone in the entire 999 cast (one of them being wasted in the end though) I liked just about everyone but Alice (-_- character design)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on March 06, 2013, 05:28:07 AM
Fire Emblem: Eugenics - Just finished Chapter 24.  Today's quiz: Guess who's who between two Dark Fliers.  Skill bonuses are baked in.
Lvl: 10  17
HP:  53  56
Str: 33  28
Mag: 17  15
Skl: 38  26
Spd: 39  31
Lck: 37  24
Def: 23  23
Res: 27  18


Yes, kids are broken.  Left is Cynthia (Chrom x Sumia w/ Aether & Lancefaire), right is Cordelia huffing an Energy Drop for +2 Str who is considered one of the best characters in the game.  Cynthia did one of the extremely rare wreckings of the boss of Stage 24 when she was listed as doing 0 damage, and practically killed the high-HP boss anyway with a friggin' Javelin vs. a Tomahawk.  (Aether + critical kicked in, of course.  Two Aethers actually, because check out that skill stat.)

I'm mostly using the adults anyway for flavor reasons, but yeesh.  Probably not quite as good on Classic since leveling them up is a bit more dangerous, but even in a no-grinding-Risen game, if you wait until Chapter 19-23 or so to actually collect the kids, they can potentially inherit awesome lvl. 5 / 15 upgraded class skills and will have base stats of broken, and you'll be overlevel for the kid recruit missions anyway - so you can send the other kids to mop up enemies whom they are more than a match for, yet are technically lower level than.  It's probably good for sanity's sake that kids are a tad uber, gives them a reason to exist.  The only kids I've seriously used in Chapter 22 onward have been Kjelle (Virion & Sully, made her a Great Knight) and Cynthia, since I didn't want to bench too many adults for the kids (Maribelle must simply endure the humiliation), but since I use the kids on any Risen map I do and they gain levels like crazy, I can probably catch 'em up for any aftergame content I feel like doing.  It's probably okay that kids are broken since it does take more work to build them up, it's just vaguely insulting that the kids are way more awesome than the adult warriors of now.

Also, in my playthrough, Lucina brought back some kind of elite teen girl squad, as I've recruited almost all the potential girls and no future males.  Noire is pretty funny, and better at Virion at everything (Astra & Vengeance on an Archer!  MWAHAHAHA!)...  except...  being the daughter of Lon'qu & Tharja, she has no freakin' Strength, and Virion was lucky to be Strength-blessed in my playthrough.  And of course Virion has an S-Support with Sully who is pretty awesome at tanking and killing everything.  Severa inherited Sol & Galeforce from Vaike & Cordelia, but she's also a brat, and I have no idea what to do with her on promotion - Hero seems pointless since I already have Sol and don't care about Axebreaker. Maybe Knight ->Paladin?  (Hopefully she won't lose her sword levels from Mercenary...).  Female Morgan I grudgingly went with Lucina over Anna to get more broken stats & skills, so she's pretty good - more of a physical beatdown type than my Avatar.  (Although the Lucina pairup is still amusing even if the writing is bland - especially since it happened AFTER, for me, the awkward C22 scene between Lucina & the Avatar.  Meanwhile, act casual about your grandkid who's like 7 years younger than you, Chrom.)

Meanwhile.  In FIRE EMBLEM PLOT nitpicks.  Plenty of plot fails to rant on of course, but this is just a nitpick.
Lucina claimed that her father taught her her sword skills.  Right.  It's also strongly implied that everything went to shit around the time she was ~16-17 or so (And the various other kids are 14-15).  Also fine.  Yet the big confrontation with Validar, in this timeline, happens right after the Walhart arc finished up, and any siblings to Lucina haven't been born yet!  Even if Grima's world conquest takes 16 years to complete, Lucina certainly wouldn't have learnt anything from her father, who'd have been rotting in the ground for the vast majority of her life.  Not to mention that some of the sibling chats clearly seem to imply both kids knew of Chrom.  Okay, fine, so the big confrontation with Validar happens much later in the original timeline, I guess they're much more blase about searching for Fire Emblem jewels or don't think it's relevant or Validar doesn't have !Avatar cluing him in on what to do to force this now.  Or, more accurately, the writers didn't want to pause time yet again, and then have a "FOURTEEN YEARS LATER" segment or something to do Chapters 21 onward in.  Yeah that's pretty much it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 06, 2013, 05:36:20 AM
The kids being broken if you actually get them caught up makes sense. I found most of them really trashy because of how far behind they start (and the later I got them, the worse, despite the higher raw stats) so they're probably balanced around reasonably efficient playthroughs (if probably a bit less direct than is my preference, where they kinda suck).

Yeah I was a bit baffled at that little plot point too. The explanation you offer about "knowledge from future = force confrontation faster" is the only thing that makes sense, I think.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on March 06, 2013, 04:24:38 PM
FF6 eviltype- Just got to the FC. I'm a bit underleveled (L23 or so) which is making things adventuresome.

The Cranes, Flame Eater, and Ultros 1 have been the hardest bosses by far. Ultros 1 needs tweaking; Banon can be OHKOed through defending due to how harsh his level penalty is. I have generally had some struggles/lost to randoms, but nothing too major overall.

New thoughts compared to the last time I ran through ET:


Locke has been massively improved. Sage buffed his weapons again. Not only does he get a capture weapon super early, all of his long range and unique weapons got a much needed buff in offense. Capture is worth using period; you can get some very nice pieces of equipment early while doing respectable damage. I am going to run Gogo in the WoR to see how stealing shakes out. Notable grabs:

-Diamond Vest from Rider/Gold Armor from Narshe Kefka
-Beret from the greasemonkies (I think) near South Figaro
-Tempest from the boss on the minecart in the Magitek factory

I kind of wish Sage would tweak Vigor to matter more so that it wasn't just dumping magic into PC's 90% of the itme with level bonuses, but the hack is so well balanced as is that I can't bitch too much. Also that'd make Hyper Wrists pretty broken. Also? The Air Anchor is very much worth using on the FC. I stole one from the air force fight, it is now MT.

Relm was pretty ubered on paper. She had autoshell, 60 magic, and good stats thanks to me getting lucking with rare steals. I was still not impressed in practiced, joining halfway before the FC with no magic sucks. Blah. She's still a total project character.I'm mostly going to avoid using a Moogle Charm in the WoR. I did that last game and I missed on a lot of the randoms.


This remains one of the best fan hacks I've played. Play it!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 06, 2013, 04:44:32 PM
Quote from: SnowFire
SIME TURFING WLOT PRITING DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE

I always get a kick from these analyses of yours. Never change, man.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on March 06, 2013, 05:06:53 PM
2nd OG: Maximum Eldy achieved. Currently beating the snot out of giant marauding garlic cloves so I can recruit a robot gymnast who laser-ribbons dragons to death. I love this game.

Bulletstorm: Started this, because I finally have the HD space to install all my PC games. Core mechanics are fun, script is entertainingly stupid, limiting me to three weapons at a time is uncool. Damn you, Halo!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on March 08, 2013, 07:19:23 AM
FE13: Finished.  Excellent game!  It's just plain more *fun* than many of the other Fire Emblems, as it manages to simultaneously be as tough a strategy experience as you want while clearing out a lot of the meh parts of an FE game.  While the plot is usually some shade from "bad" to "ridiculous," I like some of what the plot is trying to do in broad strokes, which is often enough.  And of course the vast amount of character work is precisely what the doctor ordered after FE:SD's nonexistent characters & FE:RD's threadbare side dialogue.  Hell, even the villain, who is quite standard MWAHAHA fare in most ways, is still effective enough; certainly drives the theme of the game home at least.  Certainly above par for a Fire Emblem villain (not exactly mighty competition).  And lastly, the music is pleasantly effective.  I very much like the way they seamlessly have a single piece of music for a level, but go from subtle to bombastic when fights start.

There is of course one notable flaw, which are ninja reinforcements, but I played on Hard Casual, so whatever.  There's another minor flaw, and that's the Counter skill potentially dealing lethal damage, but that can be sort of dealt with via reloading the map at least.

Hard Casual, if played bloodbath style, does kind of ruin the challenge in that the trick in FE comes in doing 0 loss fights (or occasionally 1 loss fights if the loss is sufficiently replaceable).  I'll probably follow this up either with Lunatic Casual (and play knowing that deaths are "okay") or Hard Classic.  I still mentally noted a loss in my head when I ate deaths that didn't come from ninjas, and I did a full reset on 1-2 maps after sufficiently failing it up to be able to complete it with my head held high (like the lava map...).  But yeah, around the time of the lava map debacle, I actually finished getting non-Chrom characters married, started using Pair Up much more aggressively, and did some light grinding in the sense of doing the various kid recruitment maps.  With the higher Skill, Def, & Res scores, and the S-Supports, suddenly pair-up attacks and blocks were far more reliable, and the stat bonuses were bigger.  The difficulty definitely dropped from there on: was able to handle C18-C22 with no deaths due to non-ninjas, C23 ate a reset for a stupid reason from an AVATAR death of all things (he should have paired up with Chrom!) after the plot section of the fight where he bit off a bit more than he could chew + bad luck, and then C24-25 were clear sailing.  2 deaths in endgame but that's when they're okay to happen even on a death run, and both were "unlucky" (Ignis triggering on someone I didn't bother to heal because I forgot to bring Fortify + an earlier Killing Edge hitting a like 6% of activation and 40% chance to hit against a wounded Vaike.  Switching to Berserker for long-term Axefaire is probably good, but in the short term Hero is probably better - more speed, more defense, much more skill to spam Sol constantly).

Anyway.  To go more into the "fun" part. 
* Casual mode, of course.  Stressed by carefully running a battle and getting some good level-ups, and then not noticing the boss was moving and that you activated it?  Whatevs.  I'm all for good challenge, but learning the game first on Casual mode makes for more "eh screw it onward" and less frustration.
* Restock.  No I don't care about doing inventory management, FE:SD's combine was nice but Restock is even better.
* Shop & Forge for whatever you like once you have access to it.  No worries about mysteriously disappearing items, except for Anna's shops, which are pure bonus anyway.
* Enemies have enough HP (on Hard) that you can't just 2HKO them quite as easily as it felt like in some other FEs.  BUT the existence of decent killer weapons & pair-ups means that you can often kill them with a single Pair Up action anyway.  I definitely used / enjoyed the Killing Edge a lot more in FEA than any other FE; I've got 50-60 HP to cut through, and while I'm listed as only doing 17 per hit, with a 30-40% chance of crit per shot, and another 60% chance of a pair-up attack per hit, that enemy is going down.
* The fact that grinding exists, if you want it.  I'm one of those people who felt vaguely compelled to play "optimally" through some of Radiant Dawn in the sense of intentionally trying to grind enemies down with more hits rather than fewer, let people get intentionally injured so I could level up healers, etc.  I'm not talking boss regen abuse, but just a general "take it slow and be sure to farm some extra XP if possible."  And getting MAD when a critical for chipping denies XP to the lower leveled character I wanted to give the kill to, etc.  Bonus XP for speed helped tamp this down somewhat, but not enough.  Shadow Dragon was even worse: I did the "take more turns to farm reinforcements" trick some, which was just aggravating.  Anyway, the existence of grinding means who cares!  If somehow a character gets screwed out of experience a bunch, let them go kill a bunch of Risen in a grinding map and catch 'em up. 

I'm a little worried that Lunatic might fall into the trap FE games can potentially become about being more about the stats than about the strategy - I hope I'm not reduced to too much "huddle in the corner while they attack me while glugging Elixirs" - but I'll see, I suppose.

Anyway.  Kill count was Avatar > Sully > Chrom > Vaike > Sumia > Tharka > Cordelia > Lon'qu > Virion > Lucina > Anna > others.  Last maps were a little too easy as noted, so maybe I accidentally overleveled?  That or embracing "always be paired up at all times" broke the game too much.

Claudius 20/20/4 - Male avatar, RES asset, HP flaw.  RES worked out really well combined with a bit of good luck, especially in the mid & early game - Claudius galloped ahead in levels, so he was still easily awesome on offense anyway, but he also could tank on the front lines to draw in enemies.  His HP ended up even worse than it "should" have been, but his DEF & RES better, and I know what I want most of the time.  (Only C23 really made him pay for it, and even then, that was because I foolishly hadn't paired him up.)  Married Lucina for better Morgan stats & abilities, for all that he should have married Anna.  Devious social climber marrying the nobility & all, I see.

Chrom 20/20 & Sumia 20/20 - Yup, they're good, you know this already.  Went Falcon Knight for Sumia to get Lancefaire for her somewhat suspect strength, plus it seems like she'd be the one to ride a white pegasus while Cordelia rode a black one.  By endgame, Chrom paired with Claudius while Sumia paired with Cynthia.

Sully 20/19 & Virion 20/16 - Paladin & Sniper.  Sully was really bad at first, but then became more and more awesome as time went on; she eventually was the best at tanking if I needed someone to go out and draw fire (okay, along with Tiki).  My Virion was strength-blessed and *still* a questionable addition to the team at first; he eventually made himself okay, mostly via S-Supporting Sully and letting her slaughter infinite flyers with a Javelin since Virion would just Pair-Up shoot them.

Lissa 20/16 - Sage.  Healbot, and alone, all alone, not enough fightin' males to marry her, and it doesn't really make sense to pair up the clerics unless you're fighting swarms of enemy mages (whom the RES-twinked Avatar can slaughter anyway).  (Okay she A-supported Chrom and B supported Vaike & Maribelle, but eh.)  At least she could take a damn hit though.

Cordelia 20/20/1 & Vaike 20/20/1 - Dark Flier & Hero (changed to Falcon Knight & Berserker after hitting 20 for the last map, pointlessly).  Cordelia was actually below par for me and had some meh level-ups, and was still perfectly fine as a unit.  Vaike was a good team up, as she speeds him up while Vaike makes her Spear hurt.  (Not quite as good a team as Vaike / Lon'qu which I used earlier and A-supported first, but once the marriages happened, eh, sorry bros.)  Vaike actually has a more sensible pair-up than I was expecting, as he snaps her out of constantly lusting for Chrom.  A bit.  And Vaike is hilarious anyway.  This was skill-blessed Vaike, so especially when Paired Up, he spammed Sol activations what felt like ~45% of the time while he was a Hero or some ridiculous amount.

Lon'qu 20/16 & Tharja 20/20/1 - Swordmaster & Sorcerer. Tharja started off with meh level-ups, but Dark Magic is indeed awesome, and Lon'qu ensures she doubles everything with Nosferatu to never die if you need someone to tank 8 incoming cavalry or something.

Tiki 30/6 & Anna */20/2 - Kept Anna a Trickster.  (I guess maybe she wants to spend time in Assassin if you're using her for postgame stuff to get Lethality?  But meh, I want my heals, so.)  Not much to say, Anna is hilarious & awesome and I even blew a Hammerne on her Levin Sword, and Tiki tanks everything and threatens to enroll Anna in a new career in, uh, food services after Anna calls her a job-killing socialist.

Cynthia 20/13 - Dark Flier, usually paired with mom.  Brains of a brick - it's nice they rewrote the recruit scenario a bit for Chrom is her dad, but she still calls Ruger father and doesn't notice anything amiss with that scenario?  Good thing her stats, especially with the Chrom / Sumia inheritance, are totally godly, even better than her sister's.

Lucina 20/18 & Kjelle 20/13 - Great Knight for Kjelle, who is weirdly limited on support options, so stuck around Lucina so she can prove that she is the toughest ever and will totally beat your face in, or something.  Kjelle was kind of unkillable by physicals that didn't hit her weakness.

Morgan 20/4 - Didn't use too much outside a bit of Risen grinding 4kidz & the final mission.  Seemed like she'd be pretty broken if caught up though what with the Aether, and can spam Rally Spectrum otherwise.

Severa 20/6, Noire 20/6 - Didn't  use outside Risen grinding.  Noire is kind of hilarious though, she's got one schtick but does it well.

Maribelle 20/12 - Used her most of the game, but she got dropped for kids around C20.  Probably unusable in a sane Classic playthrough, she's doubled by everything and OHKOed by everything, too much violin practice not enough dodging practice.  Laura-tastic, except fewer chokepoints than RD Act 1.


One question, though: Where is all the super-hard aftergame content that was hyped?!  I bought all the DLC, but I'm not impressed from trying Champions of Yore 1-3.  I guess when people buy their DLC they want to break the game right away with it rahter than wait to the end of hte game.  Lost Bloodlines is also listed as 2 star difficulty so my hopes are not much higher there.  Are all the hard maps still Japan only?   (I guess there's Infinite Regalia at 4 stars, but eh, haven't tried that yet.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 08, 2013, 12:42:15 PM
FE13: Frederick, -why- do you know how Chrom looks like when he's naked?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on March 08, 2013, 12:48:26 PM
Quote
One question, though: Where is all the super-hard aftergame content that was hyped?!  I bought all the DLC, but I'm not impressed from trying Champions of Yore 1-3.  I guess when people buy their DLC they want to break the game right away with it rahter than wait to the end of hte game.  Lost Bloodlines is also listed as 2 star difficulty so my hopes are not much higher there.  Are all the hard maps still Japan only?   (I guess there's Infinite Regalia at 4 stars, but eh, haven't tried that yet.)

Most of the four-five star maps aren't out yet yeah. Infinite Regalia is p.fun. Not super challenging, but since I've sunk quite a few hours into the post game, it might be good for you. Check out some of the bonus teams though and fight them early. Seeing 44 Speed Dark Fliers at level 20/5 was the getwrecked.jpeg all day.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 08, 2013, 02:27:38 PM
I need to ebalorate a bit on Virtue's Last Reward. It's noticeable because it tries to stay fairly grounded in reality. No one would bat an eyelid if aliens invaded in a Tales game, but it would seem a lot weirder in the Miserables. Virtue's Last Reward has no magic/mutant/monsters and is set in the near future, but it gradually adds some science fiction elements until the batshit insane ending. (With an incredible Captain K plot twist) It's like Being John Malkovich but crazier, or Lost without the black monster (if absolutely everything had actually been explained in Lost)
The story makes you forget about everything else but I really liked the industrial environment and puzzles overall. My only real complaint is that you almost never end up in the same rooms as Dio and K for some reason.


FF4 TAY: Finished Yang's path. Attack -> Attack -> Attack -> Attack.
Choosing a team at endgame will be impossible. I want Edward, his secretary, Yang, his daughter, the twins, the dolls... All of them.


P3P: Oh crap I only get 5 minutes to kill the first real serious boss. Tarukaja -> Agi on the support -> Cleave on the boss -> Lol. It took me 2 minutes to figure out everything about the battle / kill Yukari and Junpei, and 1 minute to actually kill the boss. Easy.
The 2nd floor of Tartarus, though? After struggling for a while, I got Mudo'd.


Ragnarok Odyssey: In chapter 2.
It's a Monster Hunter clone. Pick up a quest, finish it under 30 minutes, repeat. Bosses have huge HPs. And there's co op multiplayer. I really didn't like what I had played of Monster Hunter 3, but this is a lot better. There's no exploration and faster combat. The game still throws 567 systems at you and pretend you figure everything out right away though.
Currently I'm torn between Mage (actually a melee class), swordsman and assassin.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on March 08, 2013, 05:13:51 PM
FE13: Frederick, -why- do you know how Chrom looks like when he's naked?

If only I knew.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 08, 2013, 05:15:26 PM
FE13: Frederick, -why- do you know how Chrom looks like when he's naked?

If only I knew, I'd write a 500-page epic yaoific on the details.

Love you too. =)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 08, 2013, 05:40:41 PM
FE13: Finished Chapter 14, then decided to start trying out that swarm of Paralogues that popped up!

Just did Paralogue 8, so got Kellje.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 09, 2013, 03:19:38 AM
Started up ME3 again because they have three major post-release DLCs all out so I'm going through them. I'm overall still really impressed with most of this game. Everything except the very beginning and the very end is great, which is overshadowed by the incredibly dumb ending for a lot of people.

Finished Leviathan, working on Citadel. Haven't started Omega yet. Leviathan has some pretty interesting set pieces, as well as a fun little session of searching through research for clues that is... wait for it... optional. While most games would make you find every single clue, you just have to find one and you can happily go off and search the ten possible solutions it gives you.

The first piece on the mine is a little lackluster at first and your characters act more obtuse than they probably should, but the later set pieces are much better. The dig site has you running up a dig site camp built on scaffolds as a reaper attack flies in, and the final fight of the third area is another of the very intense "they're coming at you from all sides" fights that ME3 does when it wants to get intense. There's a sequence after that taking place underwater (because its called Leviathan so duh) that is really visually interesting and gave me the opportunity to make Venture Bros references.

So far Citadel is the tits. I fought my way out of a sushi bar, fell through a floor, and had to kick ass through some kinda alien Chinatown. Then the best character in the game showed up and finally joined my team.

They put a lot of effort into this and it shows even early on. Besides the amount of VAs they brought back (everyone, including the really famous ones except Martin Sheen) the game's opening area starts with you being able to listen to a bunch of clips Anderson was doing for his biography. He waxes nostalgic about the Normandy, working with Shepard, leadership, and coexisting with aliens. Of course, listening to all of this is optional because its character exposition and they prefer that you want it when you get it.  It feels, at that point, like the staff is making these reflections more than anyone because they are at the end of the trilogy and what have you.

I will post reflections on the others when I'm done with it but so far it is good. As for Leviathan, though, I would say "get it if you want more adventures in ME3, and would enjoy one that is more nonconventional."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on March 09, 2013, 06:54:00 AM
Atelier Ayesha: Finished. Good game all told, easily the best Atelier game I've played. MK1 beats it on virtue of being a tighter game overall, but it didn't have to be that way. More on that later.

The good, I liked all the characters, except Ernie. Really entertaining throughout, even in the most obviously anime trope moments. The atmosphere is slightly darker than past titles, almost a melancholic mood to a lot of the plot stuff, even if it maintains that Gust fluffiness overall. The music is great, final boss music in particular is fantastic and well-chosen. It is a very fun game to play (hell, I blazed through it in 4 days?), but it has its flaws.

Very open-ended, which actually works for it for the most part... until the crunch at the end. It generally points you in directions for stuff, but the requirements for triggering certain scenes are just kind of random and annoying that you can absolutely stonewall on character threads for a long time. Lack of FAQs for the game hurt for this. Prolly a lot easier that way.

As I mentioned before, atmosphere is really good. Sets and maintains a good tone, but doesn't quite back it fully with all the substance it could have. What's there is servicable and leads to a decent climax to the "main plot", but it could have been better if they weren't completely married to the Gust formula. Devoting less time to the little character stuff and more to mainplot, and adding an element of finality to it would have drastically made the game better and probably been nicer to their budget to do other things. Set the deadline as you wanted, but if they beat it early, roll credits anyway and give bonuses for early completion, then just give the player the world to play around in for however long they want afterwards. Deadline after final boss is stupid and arbitrary. I was really ready to give the game a pretty high score, but that element just holds it back. NG+ takes away 99% of your actual progress and just makes you do it ALL again for slightly different results. Pointless.

Only one plot battle poses any sort of threat, which isn't even the final. As far as optionals, Compact Dragon/Grand Dragon is a stupid fight in grand Atelier tradition, which isn't quite a knock against it, just saying I didn't put the time in. Woo boss that tripleturns and has an attack that heals 4x damage inflicted and is immune to Curse. It's just such a far step above the next hardest boss to it, which I had resets on but could beat. Alchemic attack items aren't nearly as overpowered as they used to be, though equips can be rightly buggered. Just didn't spend quite enough doing that.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, probably because the alchemic system this time around was pretty badtastic. Least intuitive system yet in terms of getting useful traits to transfer.

7/10... I fully expected 8/10 (haven't given 8+ in almost 2 years), but couldn't justify it due to those issues at the end. Prolly woulda been higher with a FAQ, but oh well!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 09, 2013, 09:27:26 PM
RS3 - Stat topic finally posted! Now, to go back to FE13 and never be seen again.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 09, 2013, 10:00:11 PM
Tales of Graces f - So got some more play in last night.  I do want to say Djinn, you are wrong in that you never get enemies spawn behind you if you back attack.  It is very very specifically fights on Mt Zavhert though.  Like... so many of the things I was hating were super specifically happening on Mt Zavhert.  As soon as I got off there stuff was back to how I had thought the game played.  Shit I got Malik up to 15-15 CC and you can even get off Ether Flare pretty consistently easily when chaining it on after a 4 CC move.  The game really does grow into the moves better than I thought it would.

The only problem is you have to travel through Mt Zavhert like 3 times minimum.  If you don't use Turtlez ohmygods it is like 6?  7?  times running through that place on foot.  I was thoroughly sick of Fendel by the time I had done the stuff with the Valkines there.

So then you go off to World's Eye to go to the center of the planet (You... are doing that plot again Tales?  Okay).  You get one fight there.  Then it is back to Strahta.  Go to one town.  Then it is back to Lahnt and a short retread through ooooooold dungeon.  Then back to Fendel for kind of filler dungeon.

Tales of Graces fffffffffffffffffff

Also straight up worse randoms than Mt Zavhert in the Untrodden Snowplains.  You fight both wolves AND super fast lizard dudes that will run in and out while spewing a conal freeze attack.  and there is fuuuuuuuck loads of randoms here.  I am not going to lie, Fendel has really been a low point gameplay wise for the game but I am still really enjoying it.  But the bullshit they have been pulling in Fendel really put a damper on it.  I actually just threw Malik on Auto and ate a snack while the game played itself while running through the last half of Untrodden Snowfield and all the way back out.  The point where I either let the game play itself or can watch/play/read something else while a game is off doing its own thing is a pretty damning point for a game.  At least with Graces it was my choice because I just needed to take a break, where FF13 it was literally me playing optimally while reading about Wil Wheaton and listening to his podcast.  To FF13s credit, I couldn't do that while taking a piss like I can with ToG.

All of that is so you can launch a shuttle to fly to another world to heal the magical girl who turns out to be from another planet (You... are doing that plot again Tales?  Okay).

So like having seen the two things above () bits, I am a little less ?!?!? about the f arc being going to the future, because I was kind of iffy about them rehashing ToP plot, but Graces really is like them going through a greatest hits of their plot beats of the past.  That sounded a lot better in my head than it looks on paper now that I read it because "Greatest hits of Tales Plot" is a pretty low bar to set.

Don't get me wrong guys, I am actually really digging the game and (most of the time) having fun, but goddamn is the game trying to make me get over it fast.

Edit - OH I Forgot to bitch about how much of a complete and total arsehole Asbel is. 

Like that time Sophie collapsed in front of the party and he proceeds to spend the next 4 or so camera shots shaking her constantly.  That isn't how you handle head injuries.

Then when Pascal comes up with a plan to help and goes "You know she isn't really human right?" and Asbel completely flips his shit and goes "What are you saying?  We are not just going to abandon her here!" and everyone is like ?!?!?!??!?!? wat no one even said anything like that dude.  The gentleman doth protest overly much.    What the fuck was going through your head dude?  That is fucking cold man.

There was a couple of other instances but I can't recall.  I really hate Asbel though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on March 09, 2013, 11:31:59 PM
Etrian Odyssey 3 - beaten (not-best ending)

Party consisted of: Gladiator/Prince, Hoplite/Princess, Monk/Prince, Arbalist/Prince, Zodiac/Prince.

In keeping with the tradition of Etrian parties ruining everything that they're too primitive to understand, I sided with Armoroad. It seemed to turn out later that they could have accomplished this regardless of who they sided with. Well played.

I was surprised at the basic final being what the basic final was - didn't seem anywhere near as grandiose as the previous basic finals. Of course I found out later that this wasn't the 'actual' basic final and that I would need to have been playing on a different route for that. Oh well.

I actually had some amount of trouble with the basic final I got anyway, mostly because it took me far too long to realise what Liberation was doing. After that and eventually realising that the combination attack was always used on particular turns, I swapped in the Aegis Shield limit before my next attempt with the intent to use it on those turns only to find that there wasn't enough time between them for anyone to charge it back up ._.

Eventually, I got lucky enough that the combination attack didn't kill a bunch of people on the second shot and was able to kill the problem enemy before they got to the third shot. The main enemy was startling easy without its support.

Seasailing was pretty fun. That sea quests are repeatable across different NPC layouts, let alone across the same NPC layouts, annoys me though.

Unsure if I'm going to bother with any of the postgame or not, since I'm definitely not going to bother with the dragons or so on there probably isn't much point.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 11, 2013, 03:26:38 PM
FE13 - Going to Chapter 4, finished the first Paralogue. Holy fuck Donnel your bases fucking blow.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 12, 2013, 03:29:31 AM
It's okay Snow. You don't have to tell me Yattaf is low heavy in the DL when she's not. I do appreciate it though.
(Nice stat topic)
(2ND EDIT: My ninja edit was not fast enough. Sorry)


Persona 3 Yattaf solo

In June.
Hierophant (UO couple) is maxed, Chariot (Tennis girl) and Hermit (Lonely nurse) are on their way.  I'm sure they all have the worst personas.
Yattaf's doing great in classes, by -never- studying but doing a pop quiz on every wednesday and satursday nights, sometimes offering coins to a shrine, going to the theather, and working on a part time job.

To this day I still can't believe how dumb and offensive the game gets with the persona summoning in battle. Amazing.


Bosses:

- Crying Table x3:
They're pure fire mages, casting only Maragi and Agilao over and over. (With the occasional Poizn once in a while) i'm sure Pyro Jack handles them just fine but I didn't have him.
Instead I used Inugami (Bufu, without a fire weakness) to hit their ice weakness and Berith (Rakukajas, fire resistance, Auto Tarukaja) to recover.
Level: 16

- Change Relic:
This spams wind spells and poizn, and doesn't have any weakness.
Fortuna for Bufu and wind res/dodge, + lots of Dis-Poisons and Medical Powders.
Level: 18

Afterwards I tried to get my Jack Frost his heart item because why not.
(spoiler : It sucks)
In the same battle Jack Frost changed his Pulinpa to Diarama.

- Emperor and Empress:
lol 30 damage.
The weakness changing gimmick is not a problem. At all.
Level: 20


This isn't a very hard challenge, simply because the main character is is overpowered with his ten bazillion options to exploit.
I mean.
In FF5 you get 4x exp for going solo. And there are already a tons of options available to exploit there too. It's the freaking job system.
In P3 you only get like 1,5x? 1,7x?
FF5 is easier than P3.
Yet FF5 solo was definitely harder than P3 solo is so far.
Anyway what I really want to say is that the best part of the challenge is the perverse pleasure of beating bosses then copying their names on google and seeing people struggling with every single one of them on Gamefaqs.



FF4TAY: Kain scenario finished.
Oh man. The fanfiction has begun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 12, 2013, 03:31:56 AM
It's okay Snow. You don't have to tell me Yattaf is high middle in the DL when she's not. I do appreciate it though.
(Nice stat topic)

Yattaf is like High Godlike. Reviver+Sun Magic+full choice of in-game equipment+OHKO-level Tiger Break? aw yeah

(and ellen is like low heavy anyway)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 12, 2013, 03:37:48 AM
I should do that stat topic.
Yattaf vs starting stats Sara vs starting stats Shonen (the supposed endgame party in my playthrough)
I'm out of touch with the DL proper but I can say that I can personnally consider this canon. OK has allowed worse.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on March 12, 2013, 03:47:03 AM
Quote
FF4TAY: Kain scenario finished.
Oh man. The fanfiction has begun.

Rule of TAY: Ignore Kain. It helps.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on March 12, 2013, 04:06:09 AM
Persona 3 Yattaf solo
This isn't a very hard challenge, simply because the main character is is overpowered with his ten bazillion options to exploit.
I mean.
In FF5 you get 4x exp for going solo. And there are already a tons of options available to exploit there too. It's the freaking job system.
In P3 you only get like 1,5x? 1,7x?
FF5 is easier than P3.
Yet FF5 solo was definitely harder than P3 solo is so far.
Anyway what I really want to say is that the best part of the challenge is the perverse pleasure of beating bosses then copying their names on google and seeing people struggling with every single one of them on Gamefaqs.

Level is a p.godlike stat in all incarnations of P3 and P4 in general. You only need to be 1 or two levels above to see significant damage reduction. Plus level governs what options you have via fusion. Still, I think this is more telling about how OP. Yattaf is normally since you kinda don't care that the other PCs aren't around.

Also, people get stuck on EMPEROR and EMPRESS? Really? Really? I mean, tables sure. They hurt like fuck if you don't resist their damage, but those two clowns?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 12, 2013, 04:58:41 AM
One thing worth pointing out for the FF5 comments is that while you do get 4x exp on a solo, you don't get 4x ABP (or whatever it's called). Not that it invalidates your general point of course.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 12, 2013, 11:41:10 AM
FE13: Chapter 22!  I got Tiki later than I really should have and regret it, because she looks like a legitimately good PC.  Oh well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on March 12, 2013, 03:03:03 PM
Quote from: Fenrir
Persona 3 Yattaf solo

I thought you did challenge playthroughs, not "Way the game was meant to be played anyway"throughs.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on March 12, 2013, 04:19:26 PM
Eviltype- Beat the game, killed Czar Dragon. Team was Umaro/Mog/Setzer/Gogo.  Outside of Gogo, this team was built around tanking. It worked very well. Two of the PC's were immune to physicals and Umaro was tanky enough to be in the front row.  Stealing (outside of a few things from the T-Rex forest) really drops off in the world of ruin, but there are some surprisingly cool things you can nab through it (seconds of things like scimitars).  The Air Anchor was *really* useful. It being MT and always hitting make it tremendously useful in areas like the Phoenix Cave and the ruined castle.  I found the debilitator and the bio blaster useful as well- they helped me take down the WoB superboss! Umaro I found to be very good outside of Cyan's dream. Gogo getting the Nutkin suit really saved his ass, as he cannot take a hit otherwise without a merit award. He needs a merit award if you're going to use steal/sketch/swordtech  (EDIT: Punisher lets you use swordtech? Cute), but it's still nice that he isn't using a freaking Tao Robe at the end of the game.

Relic talk: Props on making me care about the muscle belt.  You really want extra HP for Meteor/Goner ,and the defense boost works nicely with a Genji setup.  The Gauntlet only gives +15 defense, it needs to give me more to justify using it. (It's already inferior to the Genji Glove as is, thanks to weapon effects/capture).  Marvel shoes were also very effective.  Does the Magical Brush stack with Earrings?  Also, the Back Guard is a lifesaver on the FC/early WoR. Whoof, you do not want to be jumped in the Figaro Castle dungeon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 13, 2013, 12:01:38 AM
Assuming Magical Brush has an Earrings effect it should stack with one earrings but not a second (you can benefit from that particular effect twice but no more).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 13, 2013, 02:30:26 AM
ME3: Citadel was pretty worth it. Besides the sweet adventures in sushi bar shootouts, rumbles in space Chinatown, robbing a casino, and hearing Shep explain the individual meanings of the recycled "END OF CONVERSATION" clips was great. And then after you finish you get handed a Millennial Fair/Gold Saucer area. There's mini games and a combat arena that you can just kind of dick around with for fun. The best part, though, is an NPC who exists to talk about how stupid pubbies in multiplayer are.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 13, 2013, 03:52:38 AM
Quote
One thing worth pointing out for the FF5 comments is that while you do get 4x exp on a solo, you don't get 4x ABP (or whatever it's called). Not that it invalidates your general point of course.
I did make sure to get all the good stuff early (Mostly time magic, HP+30% and X-attack, IIRC)

Quote
Level is a p.godlike stat in all incarnations of P3 and P4 in general. You only need to be 1 or two levels above to see significant damage reduction. Plus level governs what options you have via fusion. Still, I think this is more telling about how OP. Yattaf is normally since you kinda don't care that the other PCs aren't around.

Also, people get stuck on EMPEROR and EMPRESS? Really? Really? I mean, tables sure. They hurt like fuck if you don't resist their damage, but those two clowns?
Yes. But I think that's mostly people who never switched personas and just decided to ignore Tartarus.

Levels probably do make more of a difference in Persona yeah, but it's not crazy like Tactics Ogre or anything. Equipping a level 10 persona instead of a level 20 one = Taking 2x more damage from the same attack.

I just beat a particularly nasty boss:

- Golden Beetle x3:
They're weak against lightning, but take nearly no damage from it (15-20, they have about 300 HP each?)... or from anything else really.
You're supposed to hit their weaknesses, then do a defense ignoring all-out attack to beat them. Which is impossible in a solo.
So Yattaf has to win a normal slugfest against three tanks that can do allright damage (Around 6HKO, can be more, can be less) and buff themselves to hell.
Three advantages:
- Beetles don't have much agility, so every attack hits
- Yattaf can in one turn use Zio on one beetle, Zio on another, then Mazio on all of them, -then- still have one turn left for another Mazio, healing or Rakukaja. Hitting an enemy multiple times while they're down has a good chance of preventing them from acting the next round.
- Two Zionga and four Mazio rocks in the inventory. I believe they ignore defense since they all do very nice damage to the beetles!
I created a Take-Mikazuchi with Zionga, Mazio, Diarama and Rakukaja; and focused on one beetle (using both Zionga stones) while always keeping Rakukaja up. The battle was easier with only two beetles, but it took a few Chewing Souls for MP restoration.
Level: 25.

Fuck. Andrew's right!

Quote
Rule of TAY: Ignore Kain. It helps.
There's more Kain story coming??

I finished Edge's. I loved how Gekkou could get all inspired by the pointless sacrifice of the monks, and permanently die by doing the same thing, not contributing to anything at any point.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: metroid composite on March 13, 2013, 06:45:52 AM
Heart of the Swarm single-player campaign


Gameplay is generally what you'd expect, except even sillier balance than the campaign for Wings of Liberty.

Some mildly surprising slipups on production values here and there; like talking potraits don't animate or move their mouth.  And the final credits had really low volume on the music.

But nobody really cares about that stuff; just things I would mark as a bug if I were working on the game.  In this post I'm going to be talking mostly about the story.  (Because if you're playing mostly for the gameplay, you were probably playing the multiplayer, not the single player anyway).

And...after a ho-hum Wings of Liberty.......I actually really liked it.  The interplay between Sarah and Jim is actually now among my favourite relationships in a game.  Granted, early in the game I was kind-of inclined to mockery.

[spoilers]like, Sarah hears a news report that Jim Raynor is dead; clearly she has nothing more to live for and should dedicate her entire life to revenge.  Sarah decides that she needs an army to get back at Mensk; where could she recruit followers...?  Hmm...clearly not the people who just rescued her and made her human, and used the word "us" including her.  No, she should actually fight against one of them in an early mission where she's assembling an army.  And oh hey look, Primal Queen Kerrigan is damn near a pallet swap of Queen of Blades Kerrigan.  It's like we're back to 8-bit logic: the pink ones are stronger than the purple ones[/quote]

But there is definitely stuff I like; spoilers in the quotebock since I can't remember how to do a spoiler block apparently

Quote
Kerrigan not being evil in the end is a big one; after all the work they had done to set that up, it'd be annoying if they just tossed it away.  Yeah, she's an ends justifies the means kind of girl.  And early in the story it's not clear early on if her past memories or her human compassion will just fade away as she becomes more zerg.  And then there's just so many well-done relationship scenes.  Like...Jim hands Sarah a ghost rifle, she says "it's been a long time", and he says "you'll slip back into it, just like riding a bike."  Then she kisses him, and is like "yep, just like riding a bike."  I love this line because it's so ambiguous.  It could be the innocent "this feels like old times and it's natural" or it could be interpreted as more manipulative, like she's "playing" Jim.  And later on, when she pretty much declares her open love for jim, he doesn't reciprocate, resulting in a very interesting relationship between the two.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 13, 2013, 08:14:53 AM
I found its plot to be extremely terrible but I guess you might be okay with it if you never played WC3, because the stuff with the Zerg is a copy paste of the Orc backstory. Kerrigan is likewise a really I likable character whose only motivation is revenge and also a ham-handed love plot. They could have taken the chance to add depth to the character after using her as a pure antagonist since the original Zerg campaign but they fail so thoroughly. Her whole character is just "I must get revenge on Mengak for making me a Zerg by turning back into a Zerg but also I will make myself much stronger with a plot hole plus now I am in love with someone I shared three scenes with before trying to kill." Which isn't really any kind of improvement. Outside of the character arc, the plot arc of the game is a point-for-point rehashing of Thrall's parts in WC3.

I don't know why I'm surprised, though. They had the writer for Jack from ME2 on board, and her character arc was capped off with some awful dialogue and curing severe emotional trauma by fucking her.

Both SC2 games are good exhibits of less being more. Much like Final Fantasy games, when all the dialogue is short and in easily-skipped chunks I can give it more of a pass than if its in a fully-acted cut scene that is supposed to be a REALLY MAJOR THING YOU GUYS.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: metroid composite on March 13, 2013, 02:20:36 PM
I played a little ways into WC3.  I vaguely remember playing a human arc, an undead arc, and starting a night elf arc, which might have meant that I missed the orc arc?  But yes, it's obvious they reuse storylines between starcraft and warcraft.  Arthas felt a lot like SC1 Kerrigan to me; human hero; becomes the lich king or whatever and starts defiling the land with his creep spread.

But you know what?  I enjoyed the SC1 plot.  And I felt that SC1's plot was a lot better than WoL's plot.  So...if they're copying some old plot threads to get their quality bar back up to 1998 standards, that's ok with me.  (I'd probably still put HotS plot overall below SC1 plot, but there was still enough stuff I liked to keep me satisfied).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on March 13, 2013, 03:47:31 PM
My takeaway from this: There is no longer a reason to play Path of Exile because Laggy is lost to that game
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 13, 2013, 04:38:03 PM
I played a little ways into WC3.  I vaguely remember playing a human arc, an undead arc, and starting a night elf arc, which might have meant that I missed the orc arc?  But yes, it's obvious they reuse storylines between starcraft and warcraft.  Arthas felt a lot like SC1 Kerrigan to me; human hero; becomes the lich king or whatever and starts defiling the land with his creep spread.

But you know what?  I enjoyed the SC1 plot.  And I felt that SC1's plot was a lot better than WoL's plot.  So...if they're copying some old plot threads to get their quality bar back up to 1998 standards, that's ok with me.  (I'd probably still put HotS plot overall below SC1 plot, but there was still enough stuff I liked to keep me satisfied).

It's not that SC1 was better. Their dialogue is still really atrocious and the plot is predictable to the extreme. But SC1 lets you ignore more of it AND in 1998 your standards were lower.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 13, 2013, 06:45:54 PM
Soul Calibur 4 - Still playing around with this. The second-to-last trial in the tower of lost souls is hard, man.

God Hand - Up to chapter 6 now. The game remains a lot of fun even if I can never quite decide the best way to hold the controller while playing.

Dark Souls - Decided to start this because Fenrir. Too early to really say much besides I suck at the game. (I think most people do at first.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 13, 2013, 07:40:23 PM
God Hand - Up to chapter 6 now. The game remains a lot of fun even if I can never quite decide the best way to hold the controller while playing.

With your feet?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 13, 2013, 08:41:56 PM
Sooner or later it's that or your thumbs break off.

EDIT: which reminds I should totally go back to playing that, got distracted by newer and shinier things at the time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 13, 2013, 08:50:22 PM
<Ciddy> Eventually I broke down and played a game where I could have a lobster suplexing demons instead.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 13, 2013, 11:58:39 PM
FEA: Completed.  Hard Mode Classic, for those wondering.  Since everyone else did it, I might as well post my final team:

Chrom (Great Lord): Pretty much a given.  Married Sumia.  Basically Ike-9 Mk2, which is to say "This is how you do a Marth-style Lord right."

Robin (Grand Master): Male, +Mag, -Luck.   Decent mage who could use some physicals, Married Lissa because that's the closest he's going to get to Chrom who is his secret lover. 

Sumia (Falcon Knight): Had damage issues later in the game, even with Gungnir/Brave Lance + Lanceflaire or whatever, but hey, healing, and paired with Chrom for extra smash or something.

Sully (Paladin): Decent Paladin, not much else to say.  Married Kellam, so I guess someone finally acknowledged he existed? 

Kellam (General): Doesn't take damage, him being paired with Sully was actually a consistent strategy I fell back on when I needed someone safe.

Lon'Qu (Swordmaster): Is a typical Swordmaster though like Sumia, he had some damage issues for a while late game, though unlike Sumia, Swordflaire did actually end up putting him back up due to Crit rates and Astra.  Balmung was a nice defensive back up as well.  Married Olivia because...shut up.

Virion (Bow Knight): Better than I was expecting given early game Male FE Archer, maybe I got a lucky one?  He was lagging for a little mid-game than had a good end game performance.  Mobile, was decent at offense, somehow had RNG in his favor when I needed him to survive a turn because enemies unexpected attacked him, and is absolutely MAGNIFICENT!!!  Married Cordelia.

Maribelle (Valkyrie): Mobile healer who can't take a hit to save her life.  She probably cost me some of my most resets for never just having the raw HP to survive hits and being hit by stray attacks.  That said, her healing was exceedingly useful, hence why I kept her in my party, and her offense as an Assist was passable when she got high enough to use a forged El-Thunder.

Olivia (Dancer): The OTHER person who cost me a lot of resets because there are times I'd use her to dance someone then REINFORCEMENTS LOL YOU LOSE!  She was also the only character to receive any sort of stat up item in the form of a Seraph Robe because it was pissing me off...or did Maribelle get that?  ...or Both?  Whatever, the point is, I didn't use them much!  That said, she's an FE Dancer, and is about what you expect from it, which is to say, a nice utility, and works as a Pair Up just for the speed boost.

Gregor (Bow Knight): For a Mercenary character, he's slow...yet also tanky.  He struggled to double things frequently...though he was still capable of killing or just tanking out areas, and decided to love critical hitting or assist kills with a Killer Bow.  So I guess the proper term would be GREGOR SMASH!!! Also, Gregor is the bravest man alive, as he married Tharja.

Tharja (Sorcerer): "Dark Knights sound awesome! ...wait, why is her Dark Magic fading out? ...oh, only Sorcerer can use it, guess I gotta go that way :("  ...and I don't regret it at all.  Tharja got my Silver medal (Chrom getting gold, Lon'Qu got bronze) and wasn't surprised, given how often I'd fall back on her just tanking out entire scenarios with Nosferatu.  Gregor as her consistent pair up gave her just enough speed to double most things, and late game, she had Tomebreaker so Mages just couldn't' touch her at all.  Actually, she was my main way of dealing with both Validar and Aversa (also used Robin w/ Superior Jolt against Validar.)  Best part was that she actually had a defense score, so didn't die to a sneeze, so Nosferatu strategy could actually work!

Cherche (Wyvern Lord): I probably should have made her a Griffon Knight as I had more faith in her speed than I should have, because she couldn't double much, though a few maps I did pair her with Sumia and such and she was good there.  In any event, I was a little underwhelmed; she's tanky, but the bow weakness is ever present, doesn't deal with magic well, isn't as evasive as I'd like, etc.  She's no Miredy or Jill when it comes to Unpromoted Female Wyverns in the series, which just makes the disappointment grow!  She was good come endgame at least, and it looks like Gerome would end up being rather powerful if caught up but whatever.  Oh yeah, she married Henry...because Henry is awesome and I should have used him in my final team!  yes, there should be a pun there, but I'm at a loss.  Also was my main Axe user, especially after I dropped Vaike, so there's that.

Lucina (Great Lord): I didn't think I was going to bother with her due to Nino-syndrome until I saw how high her stats were for her level, combined with Parallel Falchion and all that, and went "Ok, let's try her out for a map"; by the end of the first Map (the Ship), she had gained 5 levels and was already starting to compete with Promoted Units.  She's an absolute monster, and was pretty much the one character I didn't Pair Up when I had an Odd Number of units, because her stats were damn good overall and I was never worried about her dying (especially because Aether adds to her durability.)  Unbreakable Silver Sword that is infinite Concoctions and murders Wyverns doesn't hurt either, of course.  Promoted, I actually nerfed her with a forged Bronze Lance and she was still killing things (why?  Not to make her worse, but because I wanted that D in Lances so she could use Javelins, for obvious reasons, and didn't feel like usnig an Arm's Scroll.)

Tiki (Manakete): I was using Nowi for a while, but when she hit level 20, I saw her stats (most notably her speed) and doubled checked her growths, I realized there's no way Nowi was going to be worth anything long term; at least Manaketes have strong Pair Up bonuses.  Tiki, on the otherhand?  I wish I didn't get her as late as I did, kicking myself for holding off on that paralogue.  She's what I expect out of a Manakete, in terms of stats, durability, etc.  She's fairly tanky, decent offense (even 1-2 Range in this game!), and on top of that, SHE HAS ACTUAL SPEED.  Even with just a Dragon Stone, she absolutely crushes Nowi w/ a DragonStone+ on stats.   Makes sense granted, as Tiki was a decent unit in FE12, so now that she's finally matured 1000 years later, you'd think she'd retain decency...or something...

Flavia (Hero): I wasn't going to use her beyond the chapter she joins but then the last few maps increase the party size, so I needed a competent character for that slot.  It feels like the game hands the two PCs in Chap 23 to you for that reason: adequate PCs out of the gate who can fill in those empty slots.  She didn't actually see much use though; mostly was paired up with Virion and gave him extra bonuses while sometimes occasionally doing competent damage as an assist, but really, that's all I ask for with a unit like that.


I used a number of other PCs on reserves for worthless randoms, or in cases of "Damn it, I need a Thief!", Anna would be subbed in for someone of the above, and it's probably the FE game I used the most characters in, excluding FE10 due to it's nature, and FE2 and FE4 where "You can use everyone, SO USE EVERYONE DAMN IT!"


Overall thoughts on the game?

"Finally, a worthy follow up to Radiant Dawn!"

It's not a better game than Radiant Dawn, but it at least shows an attempt at legitimately trying to be an equal game.  The game is basically what happens when you take FE8 (which was already a remake of FE2 in disguise when you think about it...) and FE4, put them in a blender and this is what you get!  Ok, and instead of a generation time jump system, they go with the DBZ Android Saga plot of "Child of character from the Future comes to warn about the EVIL FUTURE that must be averted!"  spliced with a little bit of "Robin is totally FF7 Cloud" except the identity crisis here is more just straight forward amnesia rather than "I THINK I'M SOMEONE ELSE!"  Despite all this, the game ends up being pretty stock for FE plot:

Evil Country is bad, beat evil country before it takes over your country!  It does that plot twice actually, just ups the stakes the 2nd time, THEN decides "Validar is Nergal, he's trying to DESTROY THE WORLD WITH EVIL DRAGONS because evil"  because we need an epic final boss fight with a dark madman, not some guy trying to be Ashnard WITH PURE IDEALS!!!

...actually, when you think about it, the game is a combination of every FE game out there in some way, which makes sense that the DLC and Spotpasses is basically them throwing their arms up and going "Ok, screw it, THIS GAME IS FIRE EMBLEM ALL-STARS IN DISGUISE!"  I'm ok with this, and probably will take advantage of that on a replay, where I intend to use more children, as well as some of the DLC Characters (Dark Knight Micaiah seems really damn fun on paper), and possibly playing around with a Second Seal because I didn't do that much.


I'm thinking the game is an 8/10 right now.  Doubt it'll go below that, question of do I think it deserves more or not...but for now, yeah, 8/10 works.  Not quite Radiant Dawn level, but probably around Path of Radiance?  Yeah, let's go with that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on March 14, 2013, 05:52:11 AM
Dark Souls - Decided to start this because Fenrir. Too early to really say much besides I suck at the game. (I think most people do at first.)

The most important thing is to keep track of your deaths.  Death counters are the best part.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 14, 2013, 06:01:14 AM
You mean the game doesn't for you? Disappointing.

Have I mentioned God Hand is awesome?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 14, 2013, 09:26:16 AM
Prepare to die.. probably less than in God Hand?
Which class did you pick?



P3 Yattaf solo:
This is so much better than a normal playthrough.


- Intrepid Knight:
Solid durability, pierce skills, 3HKO wind damage and a rare Hama sometimes once or twice.
Yattaf made a Yamatano-orichi with Auto-Tarukaja and Auto-Rakukaja. She uses it then switches immediately to good old reliable Take-Mikazuchi. Once the auto skills wear off, the boss has already lost half his HPs. This would have been worse if the AI decided to spam Hama instead. (Expel immune personas aren't exactly incredible right now)
Level: 27

- Hierophant:
Lightning magics, strike attacks, Sukunda, Dekaja, and a fear inflicting attack. Relatively low stats. He looks easy but took me three tries.
The biggest issue is somehow Sukunda. It raises critical rate to the point where Hierophant can kill Yattaf in one round if he gets lucky. Fear can contribute to Hierophant's annoying H4X game.
-> Lightning immune Take Mikazuchi to kick his ass with Getsu-Rei (a physical skills that does more damage on full moons), switching to Sati to use Rakukaja if he drops a Sukunda. Staying above 200 HPs (out of ~250) at all times + A few Patra Gems to dispel fear are a necessity.
Level: 28

- Lovers:
Charm is a bitch, but damage isn't high - And Yattaf is immune to most of it with Sati. Using Medical Powders to heal is better than using a Persona with Diarama, or there's a risk of charmed Yattaf using Diarama on the boss.
Level: 28

- Furious Gigas x3:
They can use Power Charge to do 2HKO damage, and are weak against Wind but wind somehow does nearly no damage. (Ice and physical attacks do)
Gigases have way too much damage, Yattaf can't even handle two of them in a straight slugfest.
The solution is to equip a persona with Auto Raku/Tarukaja (King Frost) and to blitz them. Yattaf used her wind attack items (2 Garula + 2 Magaru gems) to keep them down and switched to Oumitsunu to get strike resistance and spam the very damaging Gale Slash attack. When Auto Raku/Tarukaja wore off, only one Gigas was left.
Level: 31

- Fanatic Tower:
Pretty much does nothing but cast lightning spells all day long. These spells don't even do as much damage as a single Furious Gigas attack.
Hahahah
Level: 32
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 14, 2013, 10:08:44 AM
More Fenrir making me feel bad for going lolfuckthisgameplay and playing P3 on ez modo for shits and giggles when I did it.

Y u gotta do me that way bro?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on March 14, 2013, 12:46:35 PM
Prepare to die.. probably less than in God Hand?
Which class did you pick?



P3 Yattaf solo:
This is so much better than a normal playthrough.


- Intrepid Knight:
Solid durability, pierce skills, 3HKO wind damage and a rare Hama sometimes once or twice.
Yattaf made a Yamatano-orichi with Auto-Tarukaja and Auto-Rakukaja. She uses it then switches immediately to good old reliable Take-Mikazuchi. Once the auto skills wear off, the boss has already lost half his HPs. This would have been worse if the AI decided to spam Hama instead. (Expel immune personas aren't exactly incredible right now)
Level: 27

- Hierophant:
Lightning magics, strike attacks, Sukunda, Dekaja, and a fear inflicting attack. Relatively low stats. He looks easy but took me three tries.
The biggest issue is somehow Sukunda. It raises critical rate to the point where Hierophant can kill Yattaf in one round if he gets lucky. Fear can contribute to Hierophant's annoying H4X game.
-> Lightning immune Take Mikazuchi to kick his ass with Getsu-Rei (a physical skills that does more damage on full moons), switching to Sati to use Rakukaja if he drops a Sukunda. Staying above 200 HPs (out of ~250) at all times + A few Patra Gems to dispel fear are a necessity.
Level: 28

- Lovers:
Charm is a bitch, but damage isn't high - And Yattaf is immune to most of it with Sati. Using Medical Powders to heal is better than using a Persona with Diarama, or there's a risk of charmed Yattaf using Diarama on the boss.
Level: 28

- Furious Gigas x3:
They can use Power Charge to do 2HKO damage, and are weak against Wind but wind somehow does nearly no damage. (Ice and physical attacks do)
Gigas have way too much damage, Yattaf can't even handle two of them in a straight slugfest.
The solution is to equip a persona with Auto Raku/Tarukaja (King Frost) and to blitz them. Yattaf used her wind attack items (2 Garula + 2 Magaru gems) to keep them down and switched to Oumitsunu to get slash resistance and spam the very damaging Gale Slash attack. When Auto Raku/Tarukaja wore off, only one Gigas was left.
Level: 31

- Fanatic Tower:
Pretty much does nothing but cast lightning spells all day long. These spells don't even do as much damage as a single Furious Gigas attack.
Hahahah
Level: 32

Reading about this playthrough pretty much makes my morning btw. Don't think I mentioned that yet.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 15, 2013, 12:10:52 AM
Thanks Tide.
... I should note that I still don't know how to use skill cards. I bought a ton of them from Tanaka and I do nothing with them.
(I'd probably waste them all anyway. I don't stay with persona for long)

It's okay Gref. I'm still the guy who struggled against Jecht.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 15, 2013, 01:44:18 AM
You only struggle against Jecht because you play games the way you do.

I... forget how to use the cards.  I recall it being fairly easy though since I got liberal use out of a Growth 3 one I picked up.  Is it the gem store in the mall?  Or is that just jamming a Persona into a weapon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on March 15, 2013, 09:05:54 AM
I thought you use them at the shrine or something
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on March 15, 2013, 08:47:32 PM
Heart of the Swarm Campaign finished.  First time on Brutal.  Overall difficulty felt like Wings of Liberty on Hard, but HotS gives tons of crazy overpowered zerg units to play with. 

The story is trash.  Everything in Wings of Liberty might as well never happened.  The new Zerg characters didn't make up for the removal of WoL's best characters (Tychus and DONNY VERMILLION).

The good news is that Bomberbot still lives and still remains the best reason to own SC2. At least until they finish ZERG HUNTER RPG, that is.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 15, 2013, 10:13:27 PM
Soul Calibur 4 - Beat the Tower of Lost Souls. Ended up needing to make three pretty good characters and the last two challenges were still pretty rough. Surprisingly fun actually, my expectations were very low though. Much better than other one-player figher modes I've played, not that there are that many of those.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 16, 2013, 01:32:26 AM
FF4 TAY:

Only Fu So Ya is left.
For the final team I'm torn between:
- Efficiency: Kain / Edward / Yang / Edge / Ursula
- Edward's angels: Edward/Ursula/Harvey/Palom/Izayoi
- UOM: Yang/Gekkou/Zangetsu/Cid/Edward
... Crap. I really want to use Porom and he's in none of these teams??



P3 Yattaf solo:
I have 500 000 yen hahahah.
(Oh right, that's like only 5000 euros)

Post september school music = The Vita needs a mute button


- Justice and Chariot
The big gimmick of the fight is that the bosses keep separating and uniting (sharing Hps by uniting) If one separated boss dies, the other resurrects him with full HPs, so they need to be killed in the same round. If the united form dies, it seems to use H4X to try and kill you (as I discovered much to my chagrin)
Their damage is alright but they prefer to waste a ton of turns using bad status (POIZN and silence) and separating/uniting instead. Unfortunately, Justice has Hama (ID) and Yattaf's only hama immune persona was a level 25 Justice.
After losing once I went with Virtue instead. Remove the auto counter accessory just in case and get the +20%HP one instead. Get good old Take-Mikazuchi when they're united to spam Gentsu-Rei and heal with Diarama. Stay with Virtue instead when they're separated, doing damage with Magaru and healing with items. (100 HP healing items are starting to become godawful, but there's nothing better) Finish them off with Magaru.
Level: 34

- Magical Magus x3
They're weak against fire. I'm not sure about their skills (mostly ice spells and magic repel, apparently), but they're sure weak against fire.
Start with sexy Incubus with Auto Tarukaja and Auto Rakukaja. Agilao on two maguses, Maragilao on all of them, switch to FLAUROS, Megido
The next turns, liberal use of Agilao and Megido.
Dead in three turns.
BTW Yattaf fought these guys wearing nothing but a swimsuit
Level: 37

- Natural Dancer
Aaaaargh
3HKO Wind skills + Hamaon (moderately accurate ID) + Tetrakarn (Reflects the next physical) + Sexy Dance (Charm) + Lots of durability. No weaknesses, resists fire/wind/lightning.
At this point Yattaf has 3 homonculuses (resurrects the MC after he's hit with ID) but I'd rather not waste them like they're nothing.
First off, Yattaf finally uses her first heart item by equipping the Narcissus Flower (Prevents charm) and never ever considering removing it.
 
She could have tried making the ultimate persona for that fight: Diarama, Expel immunity, an ice attack, and maybe wind resistance. Transfering the perfect skills takes too much time though, and the only useful skill card I had for that fight was a low level Bufu, which was definitely not enough.

Instead she used a Virtue with expel immunity and Diarama + A Cu Chulainn with Torrent Shot (good physical damage). Fuck ice spells, Torrent Shot is so much better. Tetrakarn is a major problem there, but it's easy to get around it: Equip a crappy naginata and do a normal physical attack everytime the boss uses it.
So, Cu Chulainn for Torrent Shot, Virtue for healing. Yattaf was vulnerable to Hamaon with Cu Chulainn equipped, but I spent most of the battle with Virtue and was willing to lose one homonculus.
Level: 40
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on March 16, 2013, 02:06:51 AM
If you use Kain and Edge and Edward you should probably be sent directly to bad character hell.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 16, 2013, 02:44:14 AM
Unless the rest of TAY ruins him, Edward is great. I always sympathized with him and like the idea of a joke character who can somehow still be really useful sometimes. I'd totally go with an Edward/Edward/Edward/Edward/Edward party.
My favourite TAY scene so far is where Edward sets his castle on fire to stop Kain. Then Kain just walks up to Edward to impale him. The end.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 16, 2013, 02:49:37 AM
I don't actually remember that scene*. I do remember lots of Edward crying over his 17-years-ago dead girlfriend though!

*I probably don't remember many TAY scenes at this point
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 16, 2013, 03:18:03 AM
If you use Kain and Edge and Edward you should probably be sent directly to bad character hell.

He's playing TAY, so he's already there.

(But seriously Edge is the best character in that game. All that gear with sweet itemcasts and stat boosts? Also he gets scenes that aren't complete ass, which puts him way up in the ranks of non-terribly writtenness).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on March 16, 2013, 04:00:23 AM
The three mostly just suffer from living in a time capsule where the game doesn't seem to realize that it is 17 years in the future. (But yes, the point about general character hell is well-taken.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 16, 2013, 04:33:40 AM
Say what you will, Edward is better done than Porom. Kain might be a better character than her even.

(Edge isn't in a time capsule, he's just hella inconsistent on when he can be pragmatic and intelligent).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on March 16, 2013, 09:03:44 AM
In Edge's case, I feel like him changing over the course of 17 years would be less plausible.  Edge is Edge.
 Kain now, fuck that guy.  So hung up over his best friends wife that his evil half's only goal in life is to kill said best friend and steal the wife away.  Dude, they have a kid, I think she's over you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on March 16, 2013, 09:12:41 AM
The real question is why the seneschal keeps calling him young master when Edge is 43.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on March 16, 2013, 02:03:54 PM
Edge is sensitive about his age. The seneschal is just doing as expected. It's a bit of subtle character building, clearly!

Playing The Last Story:

My roommate and I picked this game back up so it's getting completed before all the other things on my list.

I'm of mixed feelings on it. On one hand, it's got a decent plot going on, with some cliche, but reasonable motivations all around for the characters good and bad. Some good music, and a battle system that remains fun even after 30 hours, though it can get repetitive.

On the other hand, we just stumbled onto a sidequest where you talk to a psychic and collect adoring women.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 16, 2013, 08:39:50 PM
The real question is why the seneschal keeps calling him young master when Edge is 43.

Because the seneschal is a condescending douchebag who is trying to belittle him.  I'm pretty sure seneschal is Spanish for Grand Vizier, which is Persian for fucking traitor.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 16, 2013, 08:56:38 PM
FE13 - Chapter 5, you -rude- motherfucker.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 16, 2013, 10:27:51 PM
<FE13> We heard you liked wyverns. And ninja reinforcements. And wyverns who are ninja reinforcements.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 16, 2013, 10:46:45 PM
I actually managed to solve the chapter with only one reset. Pairing up Miriel and Lon'qu turns her into a gorram death machine, she just munched through the Wyverns while sitting inside a fort. Also, I'm very sorry I said you're rude for C5, FE13. Paralogue 2 is considerably meaner with the archer swarm and forest tiles hampering your movement feom saving Anna. >_< Doesn't help that Sumia really can't take hits to save her life.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 16, 2013, 11:02:04 PM
You don't need or even get anything for saving Anna in that map.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 16, 2013, 11:32:05 PM
Wait wait. I can let her -die- with no consequences? What about the village, is it a shineys?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 16, 2013, 11:34:37 PM
I didn't get the village myself... checking Serenes, it's a Physic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on March 16, 2013, 11:47:21 PM
Plotwise, the Paralogue 2 Anna is alive at the end of the chapter even if she 'dies' on the field, so there is really no reason to bother keeping her alive.

If you want the Physic, I'd suggest pairing up Frederick with Sumia, rushing them towards the village, and not worry about your exp too much on that particular stage.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 17, 2013, 02:42:11 PM
I don't actually remember that scene*. I do remember lots of Edward crying over his 17-years-ago dead girlfriend though!

*I probably don't remember many TAY scenes at this point

It's not as awesome as Edward fans would make you think.  Oh sure, sounds cool until you realize the plan isn't well thought out at all.  Kain is clearly stronger than Edward, if Edward is to survive such a move, Kain would definitely survive it too (and he does.)  The plan has this "OMG THAT'S AWESOME TAKE THAT!" thing but then...it does absolute jack squat to prevent the outcome of the scenario, and it's not in a typical "Maiden is a Villain Sue", or "Kain fan-wap" but just general Edward trying to be badass and failing in some very basic ways.  Again, he relied on ROSA as a contingency back up plan, and all this ended up doing was getting her kidnapped.


I think the best way to illustrate the failure of Edward's BRILLIANT PLAN!!! is through the results of it:

-A charred castle
-Dead ZOMBIE Guards
-Baron Queen gets Kidnapped
-The Fire Crystal, the #1 priority you were intending on protecting, gets taken anyway

Take off the shallow factors and you realize just how bad Edward's plan is.  And to think, he could have fixed the entire scenario by just MOVING THE DAMNED FIRE CRYSTAL from it's most obvious of locations.


I'll give him props for the Whisperweed thing.  That was actually well thought out and executed (and it succeeded in it's role at that); the "Set Castle on Fire" plan?   He played his trump card without, you know, actually using his other options first.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 17, 2013, 06:16:44 PM
Plotwise, the Paralogue 2 Anna is alive at the end of the chapter even if she 'dies' on the field, so there is really no reason to bother keeping her alive.

If you want the Physic, I'd suggest pairing up Frederick with Sumia, rushing them towards the village, and not worry about your exp too much on that particular stage.

While I'm glad, I'm also vaguely disappointed. It just felt so -possible- to save Anna, yet so dickish. Almost felt like a FE4 map without the ten-hour duration.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 17, 2013, 06:42:15 PM
Dark Souls - Well, I figured out pretty quickly this is the type of game I'd need to FAQ to enjoy, fortunately we live in an era where such things are possible! The setting also feels very bland so far - I suspect the underuse of music is to blame - which is not something I expected to say of a game where you start off as an undead. Otherwise, the game seems like it will be fun once I get into it, but I haven't reached that point yet. It really does remind me of Zelda 2.


God Hand - Up to the final chapter! I had almost forgotten how out-of-nowhere rude Great Sensei is.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 17, 2013, 06:56:18 PM
Plotwise, the Paralogue 2 Anna is alive at the end of the chapter even if she 'dies' on the field, so there is really no reason to bother keeping her alive.

If you want the Physic, I'd suggest pairing up Frederick with Sumia, rushing them towards the village, and not worry about your exp too much on that particular stage.

While I'm glad, I'm also vaguely disappointed. It just felt so -possible- to save Anna, yet so dickish. Almost felt like a FE4 map without the ten-hour duration.

For what it's worth, I managed to save the Village, but not Anna.  I just went with it, and yeah, learned that it didn't make a difference.

I forget how I saved the village, but I know I didn't use Frederick (I stopped using him after Paralogue 1 where I needed him to baby Donnel), may have just done Sumia+Kellam combo or some such.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 17, 2013, 07:12:33 PM
The +5 Defense from pairing up with Donnel certainly would -help-. I'm still using Frederick, though, the Silver Lance fuck you is just so good. It's still OHKOing people or near that much even in C6. I s'pose I'll just give him a second seal if I need him to catch up or something, since he's building supports with a few key people in my army as it stands. By the way, is Sully just supposed to turn out good? Mine is really shaping up, and she supports with good units too (oh hai Sumia and Miriel). I kinda wish FE:A was more liberal and allowed S supports with same-sex people just for that. I mean, all the people I want S'd are girls right now, except maybe Lon'qu. (<_<)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on March 17, 2013, 07:17:39 PM
A-rank supports give you about 95% of the benefits of an S-rank support in battle. Same stat boosts from Pair up, so you're just missing out on +5 hit, +3% Dual Guard, and +10% Dual Strike (the one that actually matters).

The main thing that you're missing out on are the kids, and the limitations on S ranks are there for a reason. <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on March 17, 2013, 08:01:13 PM
There are NOTABLY fewer options for same-sex supports in general, though.  Which is somewhat understandable, more marriage options probably comes first, but it's not uncommon for a character to have like 7-8 potential marriage partners and only 2 same-sex supports (and an Avatar support which can be either romantic or not).  For all that FEA *massively spoils* me with an abundance of support options compared to old FE games, which is great, I'd still be greedy and hope for a bit more - maybe something like half the number of same-sex supports as romantic supports, rather than a quarter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on March 17, 2013, 08:25:31 PM
I guess you could make an argument for generic supports limited to a B rank mechanically or something, but in terms of actual support dialogues I can understand why there aren't more; there's already significantly more support text in this game than in FEs 6-9 combined, even counting all the semigeneric supports as only one set each. IntSys eventually released a couple of easy DLC chapters specifically to add extra character interaction dialogue, mostly for same-sex character pairss and for the spotpass PCs who don't support anyone but Avatar.

The non-romantic supports also benefit from the fact that the writers specifically wanted those two PCs to interact instead of being mandated for gameplay shipping purposes, so you don't get the filler that some of the weaker romantic supports feel like.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 17, 2013, 08:55:26 PM
ALTERNATIVELY: Chrom/Frederick is totally a romantic support. I mean, from the C support, you already know Fred's seen Chrom naked!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 17, 2013, 09:04:25 PM
Edit - just because he has seen you naked doesn't mean he is romantically into you Snow.  No he isn't going to call and yes this is why you are a slut.

ToGfffffff - This game just keeps going.  It honestly has kind of outlived its welcome.  Having had two points of climax where you confront the big bad just to have it go "Nope" and then you get a filler distraction arc already I jumped ahead in a FAQ to make sure it wasn't going to do it again.

Still not as oooooomfg just end as TotA gets near the end with its filler arcs.

A I near the end I really must say they are doing some neat things on a Best Of Tales mash up game here.  There is a lot of good ideas.  Unfortunately the more interesting Tales ideas plot wise are few and far between and most of the good ones were done okay in the first place.  Bad tales plot is baaaaad, so even when Graces saves them it can be a bit weak.  That complaint might not happen if I wasn't playing

FF: Dimensions - I am in the last dungeon now.  The final dungeon takes place inside The Void which has swallowed pieces of the world.  You actually walk around on those dunks of land and interact with the lost villagers.  This dungeon also is inside another dungeon.  FF:D literally taking the FF series and running it through Pimp My Ride. 

So yeah it holds up right to the end.  Best FF game this side of 10 I would say and it takes the referential riffs on old plots and mixes them all together in a big dumb fun way that improves them all really.  It is light hearted and kind of stupid about it, but the game calls itself on it.  Even at its worst character wise there is straight up a point that I can't tell is parody or not, but is so brilliantly so that I will interpret as such regardless.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 17, 2013, 09:50:11 PM
Edit - just because he has seen you naked doesn't mean he is romantically into you Snow.  No he isn't going to call and yes this is why you are a slut.

Of course he's not going to call, men give me their numbers, not the opposite. Also, I expect better from you than slutshaming.

EDIT:

(http://25.media.tumblr.com/2c2067201a87864774466ce1658afad0/tumblr_mg8cx7fp7v1rmw3j6o1_1280.jpg)

grefter.tif
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 17, 2013, 10:20:23 PM
Dark Souls - Well, I figured out pretty quickly this is the type of game I'd need to FAQ to enjoy, fortunately we live in an era where such things are possible! The setting also feels very bland so far - I suspect the underuse of music is to blame - which is not something I expected to say of a game where you start off as an undead. Otherwise, the game seems like it will be fun once I get into it, but I haven't reached that point yet. It really does remind me of Zelda 2.

I'm just going to suggest one thing I should've started doing way earlier than I did: read item descriptions. Most of the stuff I was baffled by and looked up online (principally smithing) is right there in the descriptions of the relevant items. Basically everything of mechanical importance is genuinely documented in-game, there just...isn't necessarily a neon arrow pointing to it all. Past the tutorial zone, they expect you to put the pieces together yourself, but at least they give you enough to work with as far as gameplay is concerned. The real FAQ-bait in Dark Souls is NPC arcs.

How far are you/what class are you running? (Fair warning: I have played this game far more than is sane or healthy, have it functionally memorized, and will sperge on about it endlessly if given cause to do so.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 17, 2013, 11:32:25 PM
Warrior, and currently doing the Undead Burg (so, pretty early). Feel free to sperge all you want, I don't really care about spoilers.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 18, 2013, 12:01:20 AM
FE13 - Chapter 6, AKA Battle Before Dawn for Dummies. I'm starting to regret picking Kellam over Stahl.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on March 18, 2013, 05:21:35 AM
*looks up

MY EEEEYYYYEEEEEZZZZZ!!!!!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on March 18, 2013, 05:24:37 AM
Sexy pic Snow.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 18, 2013, 07:20:17 AM
I've been playing Sleeping Dogs.  It's a lot of fun.  Kind of GTA with the melee combat of Arkham City with a plot based on Hong Kong crime thrillers.  Definitely worth the $10 I spent on it.  I think the two different experience meters that measure your performance are an interesting mechanic; basically you have "triad" XP that comes from wrecking people's shit and busting shit up, and "cop" XP that starts out full and goes down in missions as you do things like run over fire hydrants, mow down pedestrians in your car, or shoot a cop in the face for getting up in your business.  Each type of XP is linked to different skill upgrade trees.  Since the premise of the game is "you are an undercover cop deep with the Triads" it makes for an interesting mechanic, since you are motivated to try and not do things like run down people or spray gunfire through a crowded mall, but you DO want to beat the shit out of as many enemy gangsters as possible.

Anyway Eidos games seem to go on Steam sale a lot so it's probably worth picking up next time it goes on sale.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 18, 2013, 07:13:33 PM
God Hand - Beat this. Finished with exactly the same 1.7 ranking as last time, which is disappointing (only 73 resets instead of 90, at least!), but I was really bad/rusty when I picked this game up again, and it wasn't until chapter 5 that I felt like I really found my groove. Flipside, once I found it, I really found it, for the most part. I had lots of trouble with the final battle my first time but this time it was fairly straightforward.

Dark Souls - Beat Tauros Demon. Initially imposing but I came back with a reinforced +2 weapon and he wasn't too bad. Seems like bosses in this game appear more imposing than they are. Starting to get into the swings of things with combat, I just have to remind myself that I'm not playing God Hand or Devil May Cry or Kid Icarus and that dodging doesn't work as well as blocking in many cases. The FAQ-bait nature of the game continues though, as I get to a dragon who seems to just knock me back off the bridge and I assume I'm not supposed to go that way yet. Check FAQ, apparently I am, okay. I can see how I'd have figured that out myself by fucking around, but I doubt I'd have had the patience to fuck around with him since he's like ten minutes away from the nearest bonfire. This is more a "I'm not 15 any more" observation than an actual criticism, mind.

Idly, is there any way to actually pause this game? I haven't found one. It's not a game-breaker since enemies don't stalk you until you wake them up, but it feels like an annoying oversight. Real life calls sometimes, punishing you for that is fake difficulty.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on March 18, 2013, 07:17:12 PM
Don't think so. Artifact effect of online play, sadly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 18, 2013, 07:46:09 PM
The FAQ-bait nature of the game continues though, as I get to a dragon who seems to just knock me back off the bridge and I assume I'm not supposed to go that way yet. Check FAQ, apparently I am, okay. I can see how I'd have figured that out myself by fucking around, but I doubt I'd have had the patience to fuck around with him since he's like ten minutes away from the nearest bonfire. This is more a "I'm not 15 any more" observation than an actual criticism, mind.

That you don't think obtuse game design is a valid criticism says so much about you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 18, 2013, 08:33:13 PM
It's obviously a design intent. I'm not sure what I think of it personally in this case but it's certainly not something which can brushed off as strictly good or bad.

I'm surprised at this comment coming from you, since I always thought you were of the school of thought that games hold your hand too much.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on March 18, 2013, 09:22:53 PM
You're not allowed to go to the bathroom while playing Dark Souls.  Ever.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 18, 2013, 10:15:07 PM
It's obviously a design intent. I'm not sure what I think of it personally in this case but it's certainly not something which can brushed off as strictly good or bad.

I'm surprised at this comment coming from you, since I always thought you were of the school of thought that games hold your hand too much.

I hate mandatory tutorials and lack of player agency.  I'm 100% okay with making the game more convenient for the player.  I like being able to save my game anywhere at any time rather than relying on save points, for example.  A gating mechanic being really obtuse which also requires a large amount of backtracking to reach is a time sink I'm not okay with.

Also the pause thing is fucking awful.  If I wanted a game that required me to live by its timetable I'd be in a raiding guild in WoW.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 19, 2013, 01:04:54 AM
Dark Souls - Beat Tauros Demon. Initially imposing but I came back with a reinforced +2 weapon and he wasn't too bad. Seems like bosses in this game appear more imposing than they are.

Yes. Fear is the mindkiller, etcetera. I thought you couldn't actually upgrade weapons until after killing Taurus Demon and getting to Undead Parish, though? Confusion. (Incidentally, the expected approach to that fight is "Try a plunging attack.")

dodging doesn't work as well as blocking in many cases.

Dodging > blocking > raw defense. Or at least that's been my experience. Admittedly proper dodging requires some knowledge of enemy attack patterns, so block -> poke is a pretty reliable strategy early on.

The FAQ-bait nature of the game continues though, as I get to a dragon who seems to just knock me back off the bridge and I assume I'm not supposed to go that way yet. Check FAQ, apparently I am, okay. I can see how I'd have figured that out myself by fucking around, but I doubt I'd have had the patience to fuck around with him since he's like ten minutes away from the nearest bonfire.

What, the bridge wyvern? There's a shortcut to the Undead Burg bonfire in the middle of the bridge.

And yeah, lack of pause is a side effect of the game being meant to be played online, was always my assumption. Wouldn't have killed them to make it an option for offline mode at least. I am guessing they figured no that ruins immersion. In practice it only matters if you're in the middle of a fight.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 19, 2013, 01:12:07 AM
You can upgrade weapons just by heading down the stairs from the starting Firelink Shrine bonfire, down an elevator to a place with a bunch of defenseless undead until you find some blacksmith in a prison cell (who apparently is fine with doing blacksmithing there...?).

Yes, I'm aware of that "shortcut" (isn't it the only way to get to the Undead Parish? Certainly the only one I've found), but to get to it you need to withstand an attack from the dragon who at first glance I assumed was a roadblock.

Dodging eats up a heck of a lot of stamina and what it does to the camera has gotten me into trouble if I'm planning to do anything after it besides running away. I dunno, guess I need to practice at it more.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 19, 2013, 01:28:25 AM
...Man, I totally forgot Rickert existed. Shows how often I bother with magic weapons.

Pretty sure the dragon only flies down the first time you set foot on the bridge. If he does that every time...well, if you're quick, you can turn back at the first scorchmark and run back to shelter just before he breathes fire (which of course requires advance knowledge that he's coming, so yes, he's kind of a dick move). Once he's on the other side you can run to the midpoint and go down the stairs to trigger the bonfire shortcut/take a non-dragon path to the Undead Parish. Running all the way across the bridge in the face of dragonfire isn't strictly necessary, although there are some attractive prizes for doing so. If you can bait him down onto the bridge (shooting an arrow/just waiting thirty seconds or so usually does it) it's actually possible to run past him before he manages to get a bead on you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on March 19, 2013, 01:58:57 AM
The dragon will, theoretically, jump down everytime.

You just have enough time to sprint/roll for the stairwell without getting fried.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 19, 2013, 02:21:16 AM
FE5: FINALLY REACHED THE SORTIE SCREEN SCRWE YOU!

...that said, I have finished another game awhile back, before FE13 even, and thus I must POST ABOUT IT IN ABRIDGED MANNER TO ANNOY EVERYONE!!!


...or so I wanted, but it seems I don't remember enough of the game's character names, plot progression, etc. and there aren't any good guides of it so...brief review?

Gravity Rush:  Fun little game that's kind of exactly what I needed to play.  It's different, outside of my norm, gimmicky, and not overly long, so yeah.  It's not amazing or anything, and has some question design decisions (moving the Vita during plot scenes screws the pictures, text bubbles take some time to spawn in NON-loading manners, so you can easily miss plot scenes, controls on Gravity Slide...), but it's fun enough and kind of addicting.

Characters and plot are fun enough too.  Kat's a fun amnesiac whose not really emo about it...hell, she's actually extremely "^_^" if you know what I mean.  Raven, the Shonen-Rival (even though they're both magical girls...just shut up and go with it) is more like-able than expected because the "rivalry" is short lived, and the Kat's actually willing to work together with Raven a lot, and Raven submits to the partnership earlier than expected.  Syd is the "incompetent male side-kick" that these Female Protagonist games have (though he's nowhere near as good as Luka from Bayonetta), and the Made UP Language just helps sell the unique setting.

One thing I don't like though is the aesthetic.  They have a nice, cool world idea, and...the color scheme is basically just a lot of brown, red and black.  Brown being anything urban, Black being VOID, and Red being EVIL COSMIC HORROR NEVI STUFF.  It gets tiring and fast. 


In any event, unique little game and I'm glad I played it.  I just needed SOME Variation between FEs, DMCs, etc., and this game gave me just that, so I could recover before a potential burn out.  Also, it provided the only interesting DLC character for PSABR, given Kat's Gravity gimmick is unique, cool design, and fun character (as opposed to...two more guys with guns and another God of War character no one wanted...)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 19, 2013, 02:44:41 AM
All that discussion of dragon dicks in Dark Souls and no one mentioned that the truely dick part of it is that it is a "You played Demons Soul right?  Because remember that bit in the linear game where we did this?  Well here we did it in a far less linear more free roam style game.  What do you mean you didn't see it coming?" thing.

Even further baffled by this game with how much Elf seems to be... not hating it (? don't want to presume "like" at this point).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 19, 2013, 02:51:07 AM
I'm pretty sure I'd be hating it without FAQs, for what it's worth!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 19, 2013, 02:59:44 AM
Should I be happy that you understand so well the value that kind of foreknowledge can bring a game or disappointed that you are finding any joy and making me think about Dark Souls again?  Not sure.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 19, 2013, 03:50:21 AM
I now can't access this site (and only this site) with my connexion. Dunno where that comes from. I'll probably have to post a lot less from now on because of this.


Dark Souls pause: Start -> Left -> Quit, or just turning off the console.
Continuing will put you right back to where you were before.
I don't know what happens if you do that during a boss fight. Probably Not Good Things.

The uncertainty was an important part of the game for me, as it felt challenging in an interesting way. But I like my games not necessarily being very clear about everything. (I totally had to faq to get to the undead burg, which I'm really ashamed of now. I just kept dying to skeletons)


FF4 TAY:
MURDERED Shiva and Ramuh.
I didn't like the gathering quest at all, but the stuff on the moon is better. Like regular FF4, enemies stop being nice around the moon. I had to change my plans for a fully gimped party full of crappy ninjas.
At this point the game gives one line to each character in the team during every event, just like in Golden Sun, just so that you feel your favourite character being there actually matters (It is an horrible idea in practice)
And for some reason you can put brainwashed Cecil in the team. THis is awesome. Every character usually says something generic like "What is going on??" or "This power...!" while brainwashed Cecil only ever grunts. Priceless. Best lines the game.

Party:
- Cecil: His stats are pathetic. But good equipment + Cover makes him solid defensively. He's a better, more defense oriented Cid right now. Cid -> -_-
- Edward: Sings shit.
- Porom: Rosa - . Hurray. I use her as a pure buffer in battle, as Edward handles all the healing. Haste/slow are too valuable to not use a white mage at all.
- Palom: Bio on everything.
- Yang: I seriously needed at least one of the game's ridiculous physical powerhouses.


P3 Yattaf solo:
- Akihiko: "I heard you've seen Junpei lately..."
- Yattaf: "What? Junpei?? Hahah, don't get the wrong idea"
- Akihiko: "Ok, I trust you"
*Later that night, wild Shinjiro/Yattaf sex*

El Cid I only just realized that your avatar is an older Mitsuru.


Hermit: Pure lightning/pierc boss = Walled by Cu Chulainn. Everything about Hermit is terrible anyway. I used Auto battle and the Vita got into screensaving mode twice. That's how easy it was.

Arcane Turret x 3:
They have defense lowering, strike attacks, Mind Charge + Ziodyne, and Eerie Sound which might as well be a wasted turn. They're weak against ice.
These tanks are durable and the damage quickly adds up; Yattaf cannot possibly win a straight slugfst.
I tried going in with a Koumokuten with Strike Res, Counterstrike, Diaram, Cruel attack (Inflicts a ton of damage on downed enemies) + A bufu card, and evade trike equipment.
Unfortunately Bufu does no damage and turrets are lethal enough that I had to heal 4 turns out of 5. Last time, I was down to one turret when it pulled an Agidyne ouf of nowhere, killing Yattaf in one hit.

New strategy: Same as the gigas pretty much. I "grinded" up to level 47 (which took a grand total of one fight against colored enemis with an exp up card) which gave me access to Parvati, AKA Ice Goddess.
Then, Bufula on one tank *extra turn* Bufula on another *extra turn* Mabufula *extra turn* Mabufula. At this point everybody is dizzy, so Yattaf can switch to Koumokuten and bring one to low HPs with Cruel attack. At this point Yattaf could go back to step 1 having only lost 100 Hps out of 400 or so.

Level: 47
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on March 19, 2013, 04:29:26 AM
Quitting during a boss fight just sets you outside the door in your latest shape.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 19, 2013, 11:03:11 AM
El Cid I only just realized that your avatar is an older Mitsuru.

P4A Mitsuru, yes.

And in fairness to the dragon bit, the bridge is covered with scorchmarks. You should be able to guess something's up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 19, 2013, 01:21:24 PM
... fairness ... Dark Souls ...

Nope.

ToG fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff - Side questan.  I fought 3 wyverns in the Valkines.  The wind one I beat on Normal in 7 minutes.  The fire won I beat in 26 minutes on Easy, the Water one I beat in 7 minutes on easy. 

What the fucking fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.  The curve on those fights is completely shit and suck a bag full of dicks.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 19, 2013, 01:27:31 PM
Every P3 character is older in Arena? That's great. (But I expect nobody but Mitsuru and like Akihiko)

I really can't access this site with my regular connexion anymore. I thought that maybe that would only be temporary. Sigh.


Grefter I don't really care about participating in this conversation but saying that Demon's Souls is linear but Dark Souls is free roam is pretty much nonsense. I might have to do the unthinkable... The use of a haters gonna hate pic.

Anyway going back to the dragon bridge from the bonfire shouldn't take more than 3-5 minutes. Distances between bonfires are very short when you know the area (and have unlocked the shortcuts), and you can ignore the enemies and run if they don't block/you don't care about them following you for a while.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 19, 2013, 01:36:59 PM
Well I am working on the understanding that Dark Souls is more an open sort of roaming set of areas that at least presents itself as kind of free roam where Demon's Soul is a sequence of levels that you chop and change between.  The dragon in one is pretty clearly the only way forward where the other would leave you thinking (I may be misunderstanding Demon's Soul's presentation though?)

Edit - And it isn't really meant to be hate, but like that whole bit is super iconic of the "Oh man this game just flat out kills you" thing that the internet circle jerked about in the Demon's Soul.  So it coming back was very very much a referential thing.  Again it is part of the game that I can't tell if I love it or hate it because it is approaching game design from a metagame design way that is pretty cool.

On the other hand it is just the game flat out killing you if you don't know it is coming.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on March 19, 2013, 03:03:51 PM
Fenrir: what type of error? are you getting a white blank screen and the page refusing to load?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 19, 2013, 06:41:03 PM
A regular error screen pops up pretty fast. There's often next to no loading.
I can't access the site on any computer/any browser with that internet connection.
I can access the site:
- With the free wifi from the same internet provider (so the provider isn't the problem)
- With a proxy (But I can't post)
It's like I accidentaly banned this site from my connection. (I didn't)


Demon's Souls has a hub world where you can access any of the 5 worlds divided into two "levels". But in effect each of the Demon's Souls levels is intricate, and you have more freedom about where you can go next.
Dark Souls is seamless without a hub world, but clearly divided into levels the same size as Demon Souls'. In effect you have more freedom about where to go in Demon's Souls. And there's a larger chance you might not figure out that there's nowhere else you have to go, and that you just need to run fast, on the bridge in Demon than in Dark.

Ignore stupid Internet hype. Again I think this is the only cheap death in the game, aside from collision issues. Anything else can be avoided with caution/quick thinking. (I almost beat Capra Demon on the first try by running the hell away from the entrance after seeing that thing run towards me)


I'm up to Cagnazzo in TAY, cheap easy bastard that still made me change my team.
I still kept Cecil. (His reaction: "Nngh.... Grrghhhh!!!")
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on March 19, 2013, 07:36:55 PM
Dark Souls, in general, is a lot more fair than Demon's was.

I do have some objections to Capra, but that is more that that fight feels really random and more or less comes down to the first few seconds.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Yoshiken on March 19, 2013, 08:22:33 PM
Disgaea: Been working my way through this over the last few weeks. For someone who doesn't like grinding much, I'm having a lot of fun working my way through Item World stages. Gordon is the most irritating thing ever, and not even in an endearingly cheesy way. Thankfully, Flonne and Etna are awesome enough that I don't really care. I should really spend less time on custom characters and more time on plot characters who aren't Laharl, but toying around with classes and throwing dragons at people is far more fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on March 19, 2013, 08:26:54 PM
Back to the Future: The Game

Started this while Super was here. It's good. The sound-alike they got to play Marty is fantastic, and the writing in general is pretty sharp and feels like a BTTF installment - not shocking given that it comes from the co-writer of the movies. Gameplay is very very basic, though. Puzzles are straightforward and there's no exploration element - Episode 2 had literally one room and an outdoor hub with four room-sized areas you can move between.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 19, 2013, 11:14:25 PM
Records of the Pale Rider, Death, labelled for some strange reason Darksiders The Second

"Where to begin my tale.  Perhaps from the beginning.  My brother, War, was falsely accused of doing something that...ok, he did it, but I know it's not his fault because the Council can't be trusted.  I shall free my brother's name from the issue.  I must question why my other brothers, Famine and Plague, do not aid me on thi...wait, you mean their names are Strife and Fury?  Since when?  Are you saying I've been calling them the wrong name all this time?

...alas, that is unimportnat.  What is important is that the journey here is BLASPHEMOUSLY FREEZING.  You'd think a cold hearted warrior who knows nothing but killing wouldn't mind this but you'd be wrong.  Thankfully, I have my trusty stead, Despair, with me, so I can move fast...and this annoying Crow who won't leave me alone that I named Dust.  Why Dust?  Because he's only slightly more useful than that...I wonder why I keep him alive?  I guess he finds something on occasion...either way, those two are my only partners.

On my way, I must use my Ninja powers to traverse this frozen landscape, and my scythes to cleave the skulls of various monstrosities.  For those questioning why I have NInja powers, all I'll say in return is how many Horsemen of the Apocalypse have you actually met?  Yeah, I thought so.  Near the end of my journey's in this frozen wasteland to find the prophet...by the way, I'm looking for a prophet who would have the answer...I am attacked by an Ice Giant.  It came out of nowhere and I swear it was put there on some sort of contractual obligation to make my life harder...which is irony given my name...

Upon meeting the prophet whose name eludes me... because I forgot it since he ended up inconsequential, he tries to play games with me.  Naturally, I threaten him to tell me the truth.  His response is hurling War, my brother, at me.  Does he think me a moron?  It is clearly just a shadow pretending to be in the same form of my brother.  I see to it that the imposter falls, and then crush the amulet that he says is a bad thing...you know I can't even remember what that did.  Nonetheless, I set off for the Tree of Life, since apparently that can restore humanity, which would lead to clearing War's name!

It is here that I meet the Makers in the Forge Valley.  The elder, Eidaar, greets me and tells me about corruption.  Thane teaches me a few skills, and I soon learn I am not at full strength.  I question how I lost abilities...perhaps I have come down with a cold...not even sure if that is possible for a former Nephilim-now-servant-of-balance-and-order like myself.  I also meet Ayla and her partner, who tell me about their current poor state of a forge being a mere replacement of the real thing, and they could up productivity immensely if I repair it.  While I care not, I have a sneaking feeling repairing this will be necessary along the awy...and sure enough, my first mission is to repair the cauldron that powers it.

Another one who makes Amulets tasks me with finding 3 rare items, telling me that some knave named Karn can tell me the location of them.  I hate that knave already, little do I know that my hatred for him will only increase over time.  So I set off for the Cauldron, and find Karn along the way.  He is an idiot, there is not much more to it than that, though he does somehow have useful information, but then he tells me he lost a rare item...a dinner plate.  With all the problems going on in this forge, he asks me to find him a dinner plate.  I'd kill him now, but I'd rather not make enemies out of all the other Makers, they are no slouches.

After throwing a lot of bombs around in the cauldron itself and pushing big balls into large indentations, I am successful in relighting the flames and thus, Ayla has her forge back.  In exchange for this, I am handed a Strife's Gun...wait, how did that get here?  Are you to tell me Strife is already here, and has failed in the mission?  Somehow, there are no answers at all...not even an ominous silence...then again, it is hard for me to care about Strife seeing as I didn't even know his name until I started this log!  My next mission is at the Drench Fort, where they tell me while the fire is lit, the water wheel needs turning.  At least Thane has helped me reclaim my Reaper powers.

...these Makers are not very good at their job, and worse, that pup Karn won't leave me alone!  I meet a Golem, one that is not corrupted...by the way, I am slaughtering lots of corrupt creatures along the way, just thought you'd know.   This Golem requests that I feed him rocks...maybe I'll humor the damn thing...maybe...

After a series of annoying shooting explosive rocks, swimming (an activity I despise), ninja antics on walls, and fighting a large monster that keeps spawning children that i need to use as a weapon against the mother...oh come on, my name is Death, morality never entered into why I do things.  Why am I trying to help War?  Because he's my brother, that's all there is too it! I respect a man who can jump into a battlefield and kill various angels, demons, and other monstrosities!

Karn has also lost yet another object, this time some form of armor.  To credit him for once, it is an object I can see placing value in for these times, but then, I question how one loses a helmet so easily?  Perhaps I should not put any thought into Karn's actions in the future.

Ayla, thankful of my task, offers me a gift: A key to work other golems.  I learn now of Wardens, large Golems that are autonomous and capable of aiding.  Apparently there is but one left that is not corrupted, and he knows of the Guardian, which is the largest and most powerful of the Wardens, capable of destroying the Corruption that leads to the Tree of Life.  Why do I not just go to the Guardian first?  Because we need the Warden to reach the Foundry, alas I must travel to the Lost Temple, on the opposite side of the Valley, to finally get it.  Karn, yet again, stands near me as useless as ever, and yet again, has lost an object in the temple...this time a compass.  I use everything in my will power to restrain killing him on the spot.

Piloting lesser golems whom are not well designed, running across chains, and killing corrupted golems, I finally reach the Warden.  He brings me back to the Forge, where the FOundry is, and rebuilds the bridge, but not after warning me it's dangerous for Flesh and Stone!  Good thing I am neither...yet despite this, the imbecile himself has arrived anyway.  He has not lost anything this time, but is now actively trying to help me in the Foundry itself.  Words cannot express my anger...no really, they cannot, since I am not even sure I am capable of feeling that emotion.

The Foundry itself would be far less annoying if I did not need to rely on Karn so much.  In fact, there are times I have called his name to do a task I need of him, like holding a door open, or tossing me up to a ledge, but he's busy staring at a butterfly.  Even something as easy as holding a Heart Stone of which to power the Guardian we found here cannot be done.  Still, somehow, we manage though the last Heart Stone was corrupted and involved me killing one of the Golems I had to pilot.  I convince him to place the corrupted Heart Stone into the Guardian, thinking the other two pure stones would heal it.

...I am wrong.  No one ever said we riders were perfect, after all.  I am forced to go aid Eidaar in the fight with the Guardian, and with the help of my trust Despair, we take down the Guardian.  Size is indeed not everything.  Eidaar then brings the Guardian back to life, now free of corruption, at the cost of his own life.  I should care not, but I do mourn his death for some reason.  The Guardian does his task in taking down the corruption that blocks the path to the tree of life, and so I head down that way.

Upon reaching the tree, I am pulled it...when did this tree become sentient!?  Within it, I meet a familiar figure...a former Nephilim named Absolam, who wishes me dead for betraying the other Nephilim when me and my brothers became the Riders.  He understands not that Eden was the realm for Humans, and the Nephilim, being spawns of Demons and Angels, have no right for such a place.  He tells me he is the corruption, and now I can see who my true enemy is...

...but not before I enter the realm of the dead.  Strange that I've never been here given...I'm not even going into details on this, those reading this know very well what I mean!  I meet an old Goatman Merchant here, named Ostagoh I believe?  He tells me that the Tree of Life merely sent me here and I must fulfill a task in order to save War.  you know what? I'm done, this log is over for now, and I'm going off to take a nap.  The Apocalypse can wait to be resolved!

-Signed
Death, the Pale Rider.

Perhaps I should mention that Vulgrim, the demon Merchant, is following me around and handing me objects based on what I pay him.  I suppose I can let him live in that instance..."


For those who actually read this entire thing:

Yeah, doing Darksider 2 updates in this style.  Later updates will be shorter (and probably more depth than general like this), because I covered an entire 4th of the game or so here, and this is not a short game.  Wanted to do typical Abridged style, but Death's off on his own too much for this to work (contrast to, say, War, who has the Watcher with him at all times.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 20, 2013, 02:35:42 AM
Back to the Future: The Game

Started this while Super was here. It's good. The sound-alike they got to play Marty is fantastic, and the writing in general is pretty sharp and feels like a BTTF installment - not shocking given that it comes from the co-writer of the movies. Gameplay is very very basic, though. Puzzles are straightforward and there's no exploration element - Episode 2 had literally one room and an outdoor hub with four room-sized areas you can move between.

How are the controls? I heard Marty was real shaky.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 20, 2013, 07:25:59 AM
ToG F - Finished the main game.  Not sure if I will jump over to future arc straight away.  I want to try something else.  Overall it was pretty good if you like Tales games.  One each on X-Box and PS3, both are worth picking up if you like the series but not really if you don't.  So eh.  I preferred Vesperia but I totally get the love this one gets.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: TranceHime on March 20, 2013, 01:00:09 PM
FE Gaiden: 16th Inflation ver.

For some reason, my version of FE Gaiden decided it would be a funny idea to inflate everything's base stats by 16. Fortunately, the caps got raised to 40 (and I'm told :iiam: if you go higher than 40 somehow) and everyone's growth rates got increased by 16%. Magic HP costs got buffed as well, so Robin (who I made into a mage) isn't wasting 1 HP every time he uses Fire. In retrospect I should've made Cliff into the Mage because he gets the best spells out of the 3 villagers (Fire/Thunder/Excalibur/Arrow/Aura) Maybe Fors won't suck balls anymore now that his growths and stats got increased? I mean FE Gaiden Archers probably had a chance to shine because of how they worked in the game, but Fors got crippled because of his suboptimal growths (30/40/10/20/20/10/0 is terribad).

Wonder if I should go for the Dragon Shield in Ch1?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on March 20, 2013, 01:09:25 PM
How are the controls? I heard Marty was real shaky.

Eh. WASD movement is definitely a weak point, but with how small the environments are you barely need to use it. Most of the time you can just click on the object you want and Marty will run there automatically. (Point-and-click movement? In an adventure game? It'll never catch on.)

waaaaaaaaaaaaaait a minute.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 20, 2013, 01:30:51 PM
FE13 - Chapter 7, AKA How The Game Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The Wyverns. I'mma forging that Elwind tome because Miriel -needs- to OHKO those fuckers.

EDIT:

Back to the Future: The Game

Started this while Super was here. It's good. The sound-alike they got to play Marty is fantastic, and the writing in general is pretty sharp and feels like a BTTF installment - not shocking given that it comes from the co-writer of the movies. Gameplay is very very basic, though. Puzzles are straightforward and there's no exploration element - Episode 2 had literally one room and an outdoor hub with four room-sized areas you can move between.

How are the controls? I heard Marty was real shaky.

Dear god in heaven, Rob.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on March 20, 2013, 10:59:49 PM
I'm about 99% sure that the caps were 40 in vanilla FE2 as well, you're just never reaching them except temporarily when an Angel or Speed Ring is equipped.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 20, 2013, 11:15:53 PM
Every P3 character is older in Arena? That's great. (But I expect nobody but Mitsuru and like Akihiko)

There's also Aigis! Who grew up about as much as you might guess.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 20, 2013, 11:47:21 PM
Didn't she turn into a real boy, though?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 21, 2013, 02:43:29 AM
Quote
Dear god in heaven, Rob.

When you see the name "Nelson Mandingo" is the first thing you think "I bet this will be a very tasteful post!" Or something?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on March 21, 2013, 02:49:53 AM
Gordon is the most irritating thing ever, and not even in an endearingly cheesy way.

You aren't completely alone in this view!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on March 21, 2013, 05:28:19 AM
Laggy and RICHARD vs. Tide - aka: TF7 Testing

Up to Train Graveyard. The only thing you need to know, is that out of all the random enemies and bosses so far, my only wipe is to SCOTCH. Scotch for gdlk.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: TranceHime on March 21, 2013, 11:05:10 AM
I'm about 99% sure that the caps were 40 in vanilla FE2 as well, you're just never reaching them except temporarily when an Angel or Speed Ring is equipped.

Yeah, you'd be correct there, I'm wrong.

The boosts mean Python isn't actually sucking! The Steel Bow actually turns him into somewhat of a scary little ass early on. The inflation in stat boosts and such also make me want to decide when to actually promote people as well. Either way I want Dozer's Dragon Shield so I am going to try and do something about that. So I was ramming my head against the Thief Cave in the hopes that I might get lucky and get an Angel Ring. :B

And now Silk is 1 level off her promotion level :B
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 21, 2013, 01:52:39 PM
Quote
Dear god in heaven, Rob.

When you see the name "Nelson Mandingo" is the first thing you think "I bet this will be a very tasteful post!" Or something?

No, I just clearly constantly misjudge the bottom of the well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 22, 2013, 01:59:13 AM
Breath of Death VII: There are ghost cars all over these old roads!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 22, 2013, 04:11:48 AM
Thankfully they don't like your friendly neighborhood vampire nerd.

FE13 - About to start C8 after a successful skirmish and a venture through Paralogue 3 where villagers valiantly sacrificed themselves so Lon'qu could slaughter Pegasi Risen with Miriel. I -really- like this game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: TranceHime on March 22, 2013, 10:27:41 AM
FE2 - I'm at the point where Dozer is still painful as hell, but Slayzer gets oneshot by a Claire crit.

Also Claire's a 14/1 F-Knight.

It turns out the hack decided to make thieves no longer drop Angel Rings, and that the only person who's badass enough to get one happens to be Rudolf.

So screw that. :B
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on March 22, 2013, 01:19:15 PM
But did you at least get the Seraph Robe from Paralogue 3, Snow? Only need one surviving villager for that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 22, 2013, 01:43:01 PM
I really didn't give a shit. I got a bunch of great levels for Sumia, Miriel and Lon'qu and I didn't want to give 'em up. Also, Maribelle managed to get speed in both her level-ups, which I didn't want to chance again.

EDIT: Also, give it to FE13 to make a 60% growth in speed qualify as merely "solid". If you slapped a 60% speed growth on Lilina, she'd godmode FE6 about as hard as Lute does in FE8.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 22, 2013, 02:59:54 PM
"Dear Wild Arms XF,

This is a "Chevalier blanc"

(http://t1.ftcdn.net/jpg/00/01/01/40/400_F_1014024_TekldW2FibKLrFGHIJpZwKqi5Szrjb.jpg)

This is a "Chevalet blanc":

(http://www.univers-festif.fr/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/135x135/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/c/h/chevalet_blanc_gm.jpg)

Seriously now.
Best regards,
Fenrir"


Paradoxically, I'm complaining but I'd have totally bought White Knight Chronicles if it had been named White Mite Chronicles
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 22, 2013, 03:26:18 PM
The image of a knight riding a white canvas is certainly hilarious, at least.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 22, 2013, 04:42:59 PM
For what it's worth Fenrir, the use of chevalet is intentional (if a bit odd). Something about painting a future on an empty canvas or something like that. Alternately, the English translation of the term appears as the title of one of the boss tracks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUkYEWUngyQ).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 22, 2013, 05:09:15 PM
I really should have expected a weird pun like this from Wild Arms.
I don't have too many comments about the game so far, it's weird how this has SaGa Frontier 2 graphics, when this game is way too nice while SF2 was way too mean.
There's no sceneskip right?


I wasted 10 bucks trying FFT War of the Lions too. I heard about the slowdown (this didn't really bother me that much), but not about the game being a blurry mess. It's not worse about it than your average N64 game, but it's still unplayable for me. My eyes would never forgive me for playing something like that for 20+ hours.


Finished FF4 TAY. I liked the 567 boss battles near the end, including Omega and Shinryu. The actual final boss was weak, though.
Yang got slightly less amazing towards the end, compared to Shiny Equipment Cecil and Palom of the Doublecast Flare.
I killed Bahamut just like most other espers.
The plot was fairly lame but the game moved at a brisk pace like a good FF should. This is one of the best things about FF1-5 actually. Playing the game for two hours always meant accomplishing a lot, in these games. Things started to go wrong with FF6, then a lot worse with FF7-9 (so much time wasted), then slightly better with FF10 onwards.


Persona 3 Yattaf Solo: Got easier lately. I'm curious to see the final boss. (I'll try not using Lucifer's 999999 attack)

- Sleeping Table:
Has fire and allmighty attacks, no weaknesses.
Dionysus has all the auto skills and Ziodyne. After the auto skills wear off, both Sleeping Table and Yattaf are near death. By then, switch to Saki Mitama, who has Diarama and fire resistance. Easy.
Level: 49
- Fortune/Strength:
This battle is SO LONG, yet the enemy doesn't do any damage. It can't even kill a level 3 Yukari without help. (I had to use Wheel of Fortune manipulation to kill the whole team) The wheel is easy to manipulate so the battle itself is a joke.
Level: 50
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 22, 2013, 06:22:00 PM
I really should have expected a weird pun like this from Wild Arms.
I don't have too many comments about the game so far, it's weird how this has SaGa Frontier 2 graphics, when this game is way too nice while SF2 was way too mean.
There's no sceneskip right?

Unfortunately not. This isn't as big a deal as it could be because resetting a battle always takes you to after any cutscenes and/or Labyrithinia's advice (i.e. right as the battle itself begins), but it sucks for replays.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on March 23, 2013, 01:33:13 AM
When I eventually get around to replaying it for speedrun purposes, I'll let you know if there are tricks >_>. In the meantime, enjoy the game. And yes Chevalet Blanc is intentional. FYI, the Japanese version of the game played with the concept of "Blank Easel" a lot and basically used it for like everything, including OST tracks. I guess the translation team wanted to keep something that sounded foreign and opted to use french since for all we know, that could be the reason the original developers chose the name too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 24, 2013, 02:51:52 AM
BoDVII: I passed up MT healing to get ST healing that wouldn't break the combo meter. Most games this would probably be a bad idea! Not here, apparently.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 24, 2013, 04:17:44 AM
I'll finish P3 before seriously dwelling into XF.


Yattaf solo:
I'm flying through the game now, beating two bosses per hour:
- Those rescue missions (added to P3P) really artificially rise Yattaf's level. I don't fight enemies when scared and generally try to avoid them (and exp cards) now
- HP+30% ring = Awesome
- Yattaf is awesome.


- Hell Knight x3
POIZN, electricity, ID. Resistance to every element.
As always with 3x Tartarus fights, this battle needs to be over quick since they do a hell of a lot of damage.
I tried winning with a Dionysus with auto skills and elec resistance + a Suzaku with Vicious Strike (Heavy strike damage to all, decent critical rate. 5 Vicious Strikes kill them all). The idea is to attack with Suzaky and heal with Dionysus (using a bead) The biggest issue is Vicious Strike consuming way too many HPs, and I had 4-5 resets figuring out the perfect way to handle the battle.
Eventually I just got two crits in a row with Vicious Strike and won easily.
Level: 52

- Mythical Gigas
50 damage Deathbound to Dionysus.
At this point I even have Diarahan (from Daisoujou)
Level: 55

- Strega:
Lol
Level: 56

- Hanged Man:
Hanged man can either summon random enemies, do a variety of attacks, or summon three statues, which make him invulnerable until they all die.
Anything he summons dies from a single Magarudyne from (the overly badass) Jatayu, and the attacks aren't really impressive.
Problems:
1) He's durable as hell
2) He does pretty much nothing but summon statues all day long.
That battle wasn't hard but it cost me a lot of SP restoration items.
Level: 57

- Chidori:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Roflcopter.gif)
Level: 58

- Judgement Sword x3:
With electricity immunity and Magarudyne, Jatayu completely wrecks this guys.
Level: 60

- Stasis Giant x3:
It's 180F and I get to fight pure physical bosses?
I could easily shut them down but using my souped up Dionysus is just easier. (I raised his stats whenever I had nothing to do)
Level: 60

- Phantom King:
Oh no, expel skills and 3HKO damage with Mind Charge -> Megido
Daisoujou has expel immunity and Diarahan. Yattaf auto battles, cancels to heal after two Megidos.
Level: 62

- Royal Dancer x3:
I still have that Narcissus Flower from earlygame to prevent charm!
... I also now have a Bishamonten with Maragidyne and Slash/Pierce immunity. With this setup I don't even think the dancers can damage with me with anything but POIZN damage.
Level: 63



Knytt Underground: I can appreciate the size and graphics and mix of Knytt and Within a Deep Forest gameplay, but the plot unfortunately ruins the atmosphere. This was the last thing Knytt needed, really.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 24, 2013, 06:00:13 AM
BoDVII: I passed up MT healing to get ST healing that wouldn't break the combo meter. Most games this would probably be a bad idea! Not here, apparently.

It's an actual choice! One I didn't take, though, because the MT healing's still really good. I made Sara into an offensive powerhouse too, so she was blowing shit up something fierce. Zeboyd is really partial to its healer girls.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 24, 2013, 01:06:51 PM
I didn't even try to build her offense and she wound up excelling at it.

Knytt Underground: I can appreciate the size and graphics and mix of Knytt and Within a Deep Forest gameplay, but the plot unfortunately ruins the atmosphere. This was the last thing Knytt needed, really.

I suppose depending on the player this could be consolation or salt upon the wound, but it's so plainly an Excuse Plot that one of the main characters routinely mocks it as such. Personally, I enjoyed the NPC chatter and didn't really care whether or not the plot amounted to anything.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 24, 2013, 01:57:15 PM
FF:D - Finished this the other day, I have mentioned to a few people how good the last dungeon is.  It is pretty good game overall.  The ranting I have done in chat and here before really cover it off.  It starts off a bit weak before Chapter 1 starts and then only really goes uphill from there.  The final product is a pretty solid spiritual sequel to FF5.  It isn't a remotely serious game and events are really just taking you from one place to another to string together gameplay sequences and to make some jokes and pepper everything with references.  The self referential nature of the game honestly only plays to its strengths and not in a "OH ITS THAT GUY FROM FF1 THAT IS THE PIRATE!!!" kind of way but entirely in that it takes familiar concepts from old FF games and mashes them all up and does its own thing with them.  It really works for me anyway.

The job system isn't quite are robust as FF5, but on the other hand isn't nearly as broken so there is that.  My biggest complaint is that by end game Front Row is kind of dead like FF6, the physical damage scaling just has to keep up with Back Row defenses too much to leave it survivable in the front row.  Pair that with both team's physical jobs really wanting to be running either 2 handed or double sword respectively and Shields really sit by the wayside, which is a shame because they do give nice defensive boosts, but nothing nearly worth halving your offense for and nothing close to making front row survivable even.  I was rolling 2 Red Mages at end game just because hey Double Cast is a thing that I would theoretically like (and never got), so got to use neat shields at least.  Go me.  Otherwise the gameplay is really good and the tighter focus on the job system does have added benefit in that I ran my Fifth party member after the parties merge as a Light Warrior that had been using Physical jobs, dropped him into Seer and bam, fully competent White Mage that had picked up some tanky Abilities to help him soak damage for longer and can pinch hit as another damage character during randoms or if the boss is particularly weak or blitzable (these do exist). 

That said you are really kind of stuck with wanting to run 2 White Mages for most of the game (swapping on and off for diverse skillset) in both parties.  So it is a little more restrictive than it could have been.

It is good, check it out if you have something that runs iOS or Android.

Trials Evolution Gold - I stayed up too late playing this.  This is way more fun than something this frustrating should be.  Must unlock Micro Donkey.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 24, 2013, 05:53:05 PM
- Hell Knight x3
POIZN, electricity, ID. Resistance to every element.
As always with 3x Tartarus fights, this battle needs to be over quick since they do a hell of a lot of damage.
I tried winning with a Dionysus with auto skills and elec resistance + a Suzaku with Vicious Strike (Heavy strike damage to all, decent critical rate. 5 Vicious Strikes kill them all). The idea is to attack with Suzaky and heal with Dionysus (using a bead) The biggest issue is Vicious Strike consuming way too many HPs, and I had 4-5 resets figuring out the perfect way to handle the battle.
Eventually I just got two crits in a row with Vicious Strike and won easily.
Level: 52

Aren't those guys vulnerable to Charm? I remember them utterly failing because of Sexy Dance => lolololololol.

Quote from: Fenny The Bestest Who Ever Bested
- Chidori:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Roflcopter.gif)

Never ever change.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 24, 2013, 06:48:29 PM
Death's Log, Chapter 2, Land of the Dead, Part 1:

"So after seeing that the wears of this useless goat fellow were in fact...useless...perhaps I should expand my vocabulary some...I had decided to explore this rich land.  I must say, I rather like the atmosphere.  No living beings, just undead monstrosities that I can murder over and over again.  Perhaps I will look into buying a vacation home here...might need to ask the Council for a raise for being a Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  Sitting around and waiting for it to occur and not killing anything in the meantime is hard work!

So after traversing the land some, going through a cave and hitting these switches, I have discovered that these switches need to be weighed down.  This makes my life that much harder...though I still question why I have life to begin with, given my name.  Why have I not removed myself of it?  Why am I still tangenting?  Why are my thoughts about such a thing being written in my journal?

Dust points me in the direction of a tomb, where I explore some, and using my acrobatic skills, I managed to traverse the spiral stair case and reach the bottom.  There, the Deposed King, one of the creatures Thane has warned me about sits!  And so I take my mighty scythes and go to take his life!

...he crushes me under his club...repeatedly.  Hmm...it would appear he is a more worthy foe than I thought, perhaps I shall come back later when I have recovered more of my maximum power.  So I continue onward leaving this troll behind me...no, my apologies, I did not mean to equate such a worthy foe with that foolish knave of a Maker Karn...why is he still alive anyway?

Upon exploring this land, I come across a floating fortress held by dragons.  Well, it seems me and Despair need to illustrate why we are tools of the Apolcaypse, as I stylishly run across the back of one of those serpents, both on foot and on horse, and reach the castle.  Though, some gameplay segment brings a physics puzzle...who designed this place anyway?  I'm sure whoever it is has died...given the location, I am sure that is also a safe bet.  I come across some arena of sorts, with ghostly fellows.  I talk to one of the Phantoms, at first he talks about trying to 'best death' but then seems eager to teach me a few new tricks I had no considered.  Something about his king and chancellor being lazy bums who do naught but bark orders.  He said he won a tournament to gain his freedom, but is still just a servant.  I will see to it that this King gets a nice earful!

...or so I would if his guards were not so stubborn.  I would kill them, but alas they are already dead.  The Chancellor appears and offers me a deal; if I am to defeat the Arena champion, I can gain an audience with the king.  I question where this is, but it seems we are conveniently by the Arena already.  That Goat fellow has appeared as well, simply saying 'A merchant knows all ways, and does not tell them all.'  Clever boy...or it is just a cop out, I cannot tell.

Upon arriving at the Arena, the Guardians there tell me that I have to EARN my right to fight the Champion.  So let me get this straight...I have to earn my right to fight the champion in order to earn my right to fight the king.  An inefficient means of doing something...but far more efficient than those governments set up by the deceased human race, I assure you.  It appears I must find 3 objects and activate it to summon the Champion.  Each object is hidden behind lantern puzzles in different rooms, and all of those statues holding the lanterns contain at least one that has dropped it's lantern.  I've heard of repetitive design, but...well, I actually don't have a follow up to that, this is just flat out repetitive.  I do in the meantime have to slaughter a bunch of bugs and skeletons, at least, so it is not too bad.

The Champion is summoned and he is a push over.  Oh sure, he transformed into a worm at first but using my magical grappling fist I could easily grab him, slash him, and force him into his larger form.  I suppose he did take quite a beating, but after a fairly trivial encounter, I take his head.  If this is the best the land of the dead has to offer...well, I suppose that's why they are all dead.  And I suppose that line of thinking is wearing thing too.

I bring the head to the Chancellor, and reluctantly, he lets me in to talk to the king.  The King is quite a ghastly fellow, being annoyed at how many dead souls there are, due to the death of humanity.  I do tell him I am growing fond of the atmosphere, he thinks I am jesting...is it so odd that I like it here?  Nevertheless, he says he cannot aid me without his court of 3 judges which are spread around the land of the dead.  Why is it always three?  In fact, that annoys me enough that I head back to the Forge Lands and cover up some loose ends.

First I slaughter Belethor or whatever his name is because he lives in a hot volcano.  This line of thinking would make sense if you were there, I assure you.  After him, I find the Warden's brother, Oran, who apparently while he was asleeping, his legs and right arm have decided to leave him.  How does that work exactly?  Are you to tell me that if I slept for several millennia, I'd wake up half a man...if that is what you can call me...I suppose it is accurate given they call me 'Horseman'.  Though, looking back at the murals, it would appear one of my brothers is in fact female...but the silhouette is vague, odd thing to bring up now...

It would appear the Shaman of the makers has a task for me to do, involving finishing off a construct she created using the heart of her dead comrade that has been corrupted.  I set off to do it, and in the process, fighting constructs stronger than I am use too.  I am less than fond of these things, even falling to them several times, but with perseverance I pull through, and eventually, defeat it.  Also, I manage to find the blacksmith's hammer after a large swim...it's best you don't question this.

Then I go back to actually do the task I was given: Finding the Court of the King.  So onto the first of them.  It seems he wishes to end my own quest by smashing the elevator anytime it reaches floor 2.  I am less than fond of this action, though he seems perfectly content with me going to any other floor.  Jokes on him, I found a work around to keep the elevator from dropping below floor 2, after a large amount of tedious dungeon crawling, wall climbing, block pushing, and skeleton slaying...wait, is the right term?  Can it be considering slaying something when it's already dead?

I meet the Phariseer in his tomb, the first of the three I am forced to find.  Even though I saw him before, he comes out of a coffin and wishes to kill me.  As if one that is already dead can slay the one named death, such irony!  He falls to my abilities fast, and while I could kill him, he yields and becomes my servant.  Seems he is incorporeal and thus can traverse to areas I cannot, as well as turn to stone.  Hmm...perhaps he could find use as a paper weight in the future."


So ends the second part of Death's Log.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on March 24, 2013, 08:27:14 PM
Gratuitous tank battles- Started this. Interesting concept, it is a mix of RTS and tower defense. Don't know how much I like it though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Yoshiken on March 25, 2013, 12:29:41 AM
Disgaea: Working through endings. Got normal, good, Etna, Flonne and Vyers endings. Currently grinding to get Lv 100 item ending, then gonna work on that Dark Assembly one.
I have never been the type to enjoy grinding in games, but apparently I don't mind it so much right now. :')
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 25, 2013, 05:30:33 AM
FE5: Chapter 12x, wee!

Mareeta is Proto-Fir, in that she joins underleveled and would seem unusable,  but then she's up against a bunch of inaccurate axe dudes (with Forests to help no less), and given a damn good weapon to rip apart these enemies with.  Downside?  Wasted more shots of the Mareeta Sword than I wanted too. 

I hate to say it, but I'm actually kind of having fun playing this.  The game is a dick, but at least it shows some signs of modernizing the series that FE6+ added in, just not quite polished enough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 25, 2013, 01:07:23 PM
FE13 - C11! Oh, open field with tons of people and I can see where the reinforcements will come from, how bad can it be -

*Gangrel of the "only fails to double Sumia" starts moving along his waves of grunts while reinforcements with promoted enemies swarm from both sides.*

*Gangrel doubles and finishes off a Sully who got chipped by a merc beforehand.*

wtfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 25, 2013, 01:37:51 PM
Trials Evolution - SO MUCH RAGE.  I CAN'T DO ANYTHING FOR SHIT I SUCK AT THIS GAME ARLSDKFJSLKDFSDF oh there is that gold I was after, how did I do that.  I beat old time by 8 seconds.

Far less frustrating was trying to get the Micro Donkey.  This is done by only using half the controls on a Normal difficulty stage (the furthest I have got).  Most of the night's play to do, but unlocked.  Hooray I have the worst bike in the game!

This is just like being a teenager again. Doing stupid shit over and over and failing at the same basic things you always do.  Doing it the difficult way even though you don't have to just to achieve something that makes everything even harder again.

Also fapping is legit way to get through.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 26, 2013, 02:01:50 AM
BoDVII: Wow that was short. Probably a good thing--it's entertaining enough for what it is but hasn't got much on its mind beyond look you are playing dead people. Combat is designed to be as fast and streamlined as possible, which I approve of in theory even though in practice it can lead to you just mashing confirm until the next round starts. Past a certain point, all randoms become: can the enemies stop Sara from getting two turns y/n? <N> Congraturation! Still, it's a nice model and plays out well in boss battles. I guess STOP! Cthulhutime is next whenever I feel like playing something else.

So the town names are obviously derived from retro RPG titles. Two of these I get: Motherbound = Mother/Earthbound (although it is impossible for me to read it without seeing Motherboy); Lufestpolis = Lufia/Estpolis...dunno the other two. Langsong = Langrisser/??? I guess? No idea on Palad-Lennus.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on March 26, 2013, 02:03:51 AM
Paladin Quest/Lennus there.

EO4: dragons are jerks, news at 11.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 26, 2013, 02:33:46 AM
Quote
So the town names are obviously derived from retro RPG titles. Two of these I get: Motherbound = Mother/Earthbound (although it is impossible for me to read it without seeing Motherboy); Lufestpolis = Lufia/Estpolis...dunno the other two. Langsong = Langrisser/??? I guess? No idea on Palad-Lennus.
It's "japanese RPG series + its english name" every time; Langsong is Langrisser + Warsong (on the genesis, not very playable)
They could have done Dragon Warrest too



Quote
"I suppose depending on the player this could be consolation or salt upon the wound, but it's so plainly an Excuse Plot that one of the main characters routinely mocks it as such. Personally, I enjoyed the NPC chatter and didn't really care whether or not the plot amounted to anything."
Makes things worse for me!
I've chuckled at some of the dialogue but that wasn't worth losing the atmosphere of the game.
Knytt doesn't really have astonishing gameplay or anything, just nice physics and the lonely/intimate/contemplative exploration of an unknown, weird and wonderful environment.
But then this game doesn't take itself seriously and talk about the Internet or something. The artificiality of the game becomes apparent, and the exploration loses its charm. Why bother exploring a massive world when everything there is a giant joke anyway? (I'm exaggerating but you get the idea)



Quote
Aren't those guys vulnerable to Charm? I remember them utterly failing because of Sexy Dance => lolololololol.
Yes!! I'd have loved to do that but I'm not really reading faqs for this one.
Hmm. I should do a "Break FF5" playthrough one of those days.



Even more bosses.

- Reckoning Dice: Auto attack the whole time through. No joke. Yattaf somehow kept getting crits. Is this what the Great status does? I should have abused the hell out of this from the beginning of the game!
Level: 65

- Noble Seeker x3
They randomly use *any element*-Dynes, no weaknesses and no resistances.
Seth has good MT damage with Maragidyne/Fire Amp, a Reflect fire passive and a Null Ice skill. Yattaf has a wind immunity ring. That's 3 elements walled out of 4. Yattaf switches to Hariti (only walls 2 elements) to heal when she could die in 2 hits. There's a 1/64 chance to die every now and then (each of the three enemies would have to use the wrong element), but that wasn't not a problem.
Level: 68

- Carnal Snake x3
Pierce Attacks, Fire attacks + Fire break (breaks fire protection) + Spirit Drain (Drain MPs)
They were a huge pain at first. Abaddon might null all their damage, but the snakes tend to use a lot of fire attacks right after Fire Break, they're durable, and any stalling tactic is spoiled by Spirit Drain.
Then I fused Kartikaya, remembered that she's needed for the best weapon in the game (Weapon fusion is one of the new additions to P3P IIRC and I had looked at what it could do), made that weapon (Vel Vel Maluga, stick of doom), and destroyed the boss with Abaddon (nulls fire and pierce) + "Great" status + Just plain old physicals.
Level: 70

- World Balance
Every elemental spell, ID from both types, plus allmighty damage, resistances everywhere?
That's great and all, but World Balance can't break 3HKO even with Megidolaon against a tanky Yattaf. Game over. Yattaf has no weaknesses + total ID immunity with both Seth (for damage) and Daisoujou (for healing)
Level: 70
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 26, 2013, 05:29:47 AM
RE4 HD: Just beat THE BIG CHEESE!!  As in, I beat Chapter 2, onto suplexing cultists!

Replaying this is just making RE5 and RE6 look worse, because it's still really damned good!  I mean, yeah, chain saw deaths are bullshit, but they're also often cases of "oh, I could probably have avoided that if tried this strategy."

Contrast to RE5 where chain saw enemies are just huge sacks of health that NEVER DIE EVER and can OHKO you...and you sometimes fight several.  Ok, RE4's take a lot to kill, but there's a difference between "reasonably durable, take these things seriously!" and "NEVER DIES."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 26, 2013, 06:28:28 AM
The thing that sets RE4 apart the most, I think, is how much more interactive the environments are. Not every area is equally intricate, but there's very few areas that are non-interactive barriers and exploding barrels and that's it. There's a ton of areas in RE4 where there's movable barriers or ladders you can climb/knock over or hazards you can lure them into that aren't as uncreative as carelessly left-out barrels of I guess gasoline, and I think it demonstrates the amount of thought that went into RE4's level design vs others.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 26, 2013, 12:15:03 PM
FE13 - So, beat C11. The winning run went more or less like this:

<Gangrel> I KISS YOU
<Sumia&ChromOTP> smooch smooch *lol ohko.*
<Gangrel> </3

And then there was a laugh track. Robin is my first promoted unit, right now I'm about to enter a "Save the Anna!" random battle for shinies. Well, and levelling Kellam up. Yes, I'm levelling people who don't exist.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on March 26, 2013, 01:12:00 PM
I didn't actually reach a chainsaw enemy in RE5 before I decided to play something not-stupid, but the thing that makes them reasonable in 4 is that even if they take forever to kill, they can be knocked down without too much trouble, so it's more a matter of combat strategy than "pump bullets into the same thing forever."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 26, 2013, 04:31:05 PM
Dark Souls - Been making pretty good progress since finally conquering the Bell Gargoyles. Darkroot Garden was a pain for a while but forging a halberd so that I could two-shot the plant enemies helped a good deal. The plant golem things (I wish this game showed you enemy names) were pretty rough for a while then at a certain point I figured out how to fight them and they became fairly simple. Moonlight Butterfly was a few moments of "oh god how do I hit this guy EVER" (I am pure melee) then he decides to let me hit him for a while, not too bad. At this point I had enough souls to get my halberd to +5, fuck yeah one-shotting hollow soldiers. Went back and killed the two super-enemies in the Undead Burg/Parish, one was still pretty super and one was not. Found another one who just one-shots me with his club, how rude. I bought Heal but as of yet I haven't actually used it. Did the lower undead burg which was pretty easy, Capra Demon gets the honour of being thus far the only boss I beat on the first try. Then some sewers. I kill a bunch of ROUSes and frogs and get to some overgrown alligator, who of course kills me. Around the third or so run down I am mocking the frogs constantly, they give 200 souls and get OHKOed, what the hell this is a joke I am loving all this free exp, they barely seem to do any damage and- *dead*

Well fuck youuuuuu. Apparently Curse is obnoxious. 4000 souls to heal it does feel needlessly steep. I'd be more forgiving if the game actually told you where to buy the curse-healing items. It tells you about New Londo but all those ghosts in the way say "lolno", much easier to just buy the damn thing once I figured out where (FAQ-use number 4 or something). Anyway that was a bit of a dick move but now that I know to respect the frogs' breath a bit more they're still basically jokes, just rude ones. Now back to killing that overgrown alligator.

My compaints about the game fundamentally remain but as you can probably tell I am still finding it a surprisingly large amount of fun.


Star Ocean 4 - Speaking of things that are fun, this. Worst thing about the game so far is Lymle, best thing about the game so far is that you can turn off her battle VA. (Seriously, the best thing about the game is how dramatically differently the PCs play from each other, really great ARPG for that.) Currently in the game's first Really Big Dungeon, which is definitely not the Death Star. The Cardianon are pro negotiators, for reals.


Marathon - This is your fault, Grefter. To continue from a long-abandonned discussion, this game does actually have more platforming than I remembered. It is still infinitely better than Metroid Prime's because (a) no jump button means you don't have to guess when you have walked off a platform, ever, and (b) you can look down if you need to, though the design of platforming is such that I feel the need to way less often. Anyway apparently I have a really good memory for this game despite this, I played on Normal figuring I'd be rusty as hell but I've roared through, currently at Chapter 20. Also I am pretty seriously weirded out that I am simultaneously playing a western computer game which has background music alongside a Japanese console game which (usually) does not.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 26, 2013, 04:38:01 PM
the Chain Enemy in RE5 is fairly early, but the game treats it like a full on legitimate boss who has "Instant Death if you get close".  This wouldn't be too bad if it was only one of them because, well, Boss Fight, ok, I can manage.  They're suppose to be like this.

The issue of course is that this is not the only one.  The game sends a few more at you throughout the game, and there's one section WITH TIGHT CORRIDORS no less where you have to deal with like 3 at once.  It's just unfun and frustrating. 

I think the RE5 versions can be knocked down to an extent.  At least, you can stun them, then do QTE Melee move in Uppercut or something for extra damage.  Though, without health gauges, visual indicators of how close they are to death, and what not, you're doing this a lot.  You uppercut the damn thing, they fall to their knees, you sigh because that means they're about to get up.

RE4's are a change of pace from the usual mooks by contrast.  Fun as the game is, it'd get old if all you fought were the typical Ganado throughout the early game.  Chainsaw enemies are just common enough that make you react appropriately.

And yeah, Rob, interactive environments are definitely something in RE4's favor.  The most obvious one to me is "knock down ladder to slow enemy advance."  It keeps a sense of variety compared to RE5 just being a lot of "Shoot enemies as they spawn." 

I know I said it a while back, but while fundamentally RE4 and RE5 aren't much different, RE4 got all the little things right that RE5 didn't that just make it such a better game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 26, 2013, 09:24:11 PM
Found another one who just one-shots me with his club, how rude.

Havel the Rock. He is a rat bastard, but you want his ring. This is a good time to get the hang of backstabbery if you haven't already. It's also one of those times you probably shouldn't be blocking anything because he'll smash right through your stamina.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 27, 2013, 04:25:08 AM
It's not a club. It's a dragon tooth. SRSLY

You can hurt New Londo ghosts if you're cursed. They know how to use their trick well (passing through walls) but they're very easy in a "normal" fight, even with half health.

It's much faster to just grind 4000 souls to feed to the shopkeeper, and wait until lategame to New Londo in any case. I don't think there's even really an item worth it there, aside from maybe a curse resistance ring and a jagged blade random drop, which could be an allright earlygame weapon. I guess you could murder the NPC and fight 4K before killing the gargoyles. (good luck)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 27, 2013, 04:31:36 AM
Man, didn't even think to attack the ghosts while cursed. I had done it previously with the transient curse item... uh I guess the name was a pretty big hint, now that I think about it. Oh well!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on March 27, 2013, 12:59:40 PM
Well shit, BioShock Infinite. You got me. Well played.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 27, 2013, 08:45:35 PM
It's much faster to just grind 4000 souls to feed to the shopkeeper, and wait until lategame to New Londo in any case. I don't think there's even really an item worth it there, aside from maybe a curse resistance ring and a jagged blade random drop, which could be an allright earlygame weapon. I guess you could murder the NPC and fight 4K before killing the gargoyles. (good luck)

Firekeeper soul! But you can get that without really exploring the area.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on March 28, 2013, 03:38:35 AM
Finished The Last Story main story mode. Wanna try out the online co op mode at some point since the arpg part of the game seems like it would be a lot more robust with other humans.

The gameplay opens up a lot more towards the end and the PCs start diversifying (there's also a few sections where you finally get to control the non Zael PCs).

The story is basically a more sophisticated FF4, complete with a crawling Manos Hands of Fate scene right into a "oh god Kain, curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal!"

More importantly, my 6-year-old cousin is now hooked on FE13 and I've continued my goal of corrupting the youth of the nation.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 28, 2013, 03:53:31 AM
FE5: Bite me, chapter 13, because you have way too many reinforcements that merely ripping through them takes too damn long.  No, seriously, the way this game handles reinforcements was something I can't fathom how they thought that was a good idea.

For those who don't know, the way the game handles reinforcements is on set turns, it just adds enemies(who are Ninja style I might add) form a certain pool of potential enemies.  And no, I don't mean "On turn 3, enemies pop up!"  I mean "Turn 3 to 15"... yes, that's 12 turns in a row of reinforcements.


Looking briefly at the next chapter...*eyes Eda, adds her to the list of Fire Emblem Minervas, sighs at how Cherche doesn't qualify this*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on March 28, 2013, 07:45:56 AM
Mario Kart 7: Reasons to play this game over Sonic Kart Transformed -

- supreme Mario cast (but no WALUIGI, worst omission)
- crush Elfboy's soul

Reasons to play Sonic Kart Transformed -

- blue shell

well I should do some soulcrushing at least
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on March 28, 2013, 05:53:46 PM
League of Legends: Been playing this again. Since I've got a headset and Skype and all, I've been playing with Chimp lately.

Did you know team based games are more fun when you can communicate and count on at least one teammate?

Shocking.

Anyhow, I've mostly been suppoting him in bot lane, which, I must say. I'm pretty good at it.

Leona 4 lyfe.

I should actually play some other roles at some point, but I'm the best helper.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on March 28, 2013, 06:01:14 PM
Defender's Quest- Finished the normal game.   Got 90 stars in the maingame, finished around L30. Going to do the NG+ content, it sounds like a lot of fun.

The basic concept of the game is tower defense with RPG elements.  It has scalable challenge, EXP growth, etc. It basically hits on a lot of design choices that I find to be neat.  Class balance is pretty eh. Archers are by far the best class for most of the game, due to superior range giving them the de facto best offense. Clerics are very useful late as well for Zeal and healing (Not much damages you before that). Knights are strictly good for breaking armor, which is a limited niche but hey. When you need them, you really need them. Berserkers are generic sluggers. Ice Mages are okay, mostly for when you have to maintain a choke point rather than just arrow everything to death. Dragons kind of suck for the value, oh well.

I'd say Archers>>>>>Clerics>Berserkers>>>>Knights>>>Ice Mages>>>>Dragons for use offhand.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on March 29, 2013, 05:42:50 AM
Mario Kart 7: Reasons to play this game over Sonic Kart Transformed -

- crush Elfboy's soul


Elfboy will know the fury of Lagtori.

Well if Kappa is playing I guess I got to go buy Mario Kart 7.  Peer Pressure yo.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on March 29, 2013, 05:51:33 AM
Mario Kart 7: Reasons to play this game over Sonic Kart Transformed -

- crush Elfboy's soul


Elfboy will know the fury of Lagtori.

Well if Kappa is playing I guess I got to go buy Mario Kart 7.  Peer Pressure yo.

Well if Eph is playing Mario Kart 7, I guess I got to go buy it. Peer Pressure yo.

Also gamez, been playing on Fire Emblem 404 because FEchat all day and night and I was talking with Trancey. So I realized they changed the growths and bases and I got dicked around by the RNG early on when Eliwood had like 7 strength for 6 levels straight...

Then I blew an Energy ring on him and RNG will RNG. This is the most ridiculous Eliwood I have ever gotten. And considering the fact that I've had a few pretty good Eliwoods before, this is saying something. Yes, he realistically has only 15 strength, but when you haven't hit level 20 and your sporting stats like these

(http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/7425/uberwood.jpg)

who can complain? This is literally stronger than some of my 20/10 Eliwoods, which should say something.

Game is a little unbalanced but also somewhat tougher made by enemies being harder to one round. On the other hand, uberEliwood not even being my best unit should really tell you something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 29, 2013, 04:41:35 PM
Death's Log, Chapter 3, Land of the Dead Part 2, Volume 6:

"With my new found 'friend' I can now activate switches from areas I was incapable of doing, as well as activate multiple at a time.  Seems I can turn him to stone at will, or send him through large iron barred doors...how arbitrarily selective.  Nonetheless, it is time I look for the second of the court, the Judicator.  He is located nearbye, so I jump on Despair and ride off to meet the Judicator in what is no doubt a new dungeon.

The Judicator is actually prompt in meeting me, and seems to not wish me dead.  No, he in fact negotiates the situation, stating that there are human souls, three in total...again with the three...that have yet to pass fully through the land of the dead and need to be judged and cleansed, all three located in this very tower.  WHy did he not grab them himself?  I suppose being dead himself means transferring souls is difficult, as he seems incapable of moving from that throne.

There are more skeletons that come after my head, but they know not of the adversary they face.  That is until a Corpse Champion rises up, wielding large shields and swords...these things are less than trivial to take down.  They are no match for me, but they are stubborn in the whole 'not being killed a second time' part of their existence.  Yes, it is weird to find ways to discuss killing things that are already dead, I am looking forward to writing about enemies that this is not necessary.  Well, there are bugs and selective beasties running around here, I suppose they qualify as alive, and thus have a pulse I can remove from them.

Each soul I gather requires using the exact one spirit I have aiding me that happens to be of the first of the Dead Court.  His name is not worth remembering, so I shall call him Dylan.  Dylan proves useful in a variety of creative ways, such as the ones labelled above, but also when he is turned to stone, I am capable of using my Death Grip to pull myself over to him.  I suppose beating him into submission was an effective way to earn his loyalty.

Upon gaining the third soul, I am attacked by the largest Skeleton yet.  Good thing he is strung up and cannot fight back beyond sending small fry at me.  That is until I kill the dead thing (seriously, this is getting old), and it somehow comes back as a big armored skeleton.  Another fight ensues and I come out victorious.  I then take that soul to Judicator and...hmm...odd...a certain prompt won't appear to let me give him the soul.  What is the strange 'loading' icon that is causing problems?  What is this odd 'talk' option I have, and why is that odd wall that's been following me suddenly fallen down?  A quick fast travel and the situation fixes itself.  The Judicator thus joins me and becomes a second Dylan.   As such, I will name him Gilbert.  If you think I am being disrespectful, might I remind you that they are dead, and I am literally Death.

After Gilbert joins, I am taunted by the 3rd of the Dead Court.  Wait, how did he leave his area of comfort?  Are there no rules in the land of the dead?  And why does he look different from his brethren, having horns and armor?    Nonetheless, he tells me I am incapable of taking on even the weakest of challenges here.  I retort noting I have taken down the Arena's Champion, he thinks that's child's play.  I don't think 'logic' applies to this one, since does not 'Champion', let alone an undefeated one, imply 'strong?'  I set off to the Gilded Arena where he claims he will be waiting, even though I searched there thoroughly. 

The guardians of the Arena then send me to a new area completely in the middle of nowhere.   This new area is...much like Gilbert's area, though requires that I use both Dylan and Gilbert to proceed, not just Dylan.  How fittingly convenient, it is almost like they were specifically designed to be tackled with this power set.  Either it is dumb luck or the person who designed this place has some amazing foresight.

Repetitive dungeon that is only slightly more complicated than the last completed, I face off against the apparent strongest of the court.  Oh, perhaps I should note that Gilbert and Dylan make fine allies in the odd case they can be summoned in areas with hostiles.  Alas, their brother is not one of them.  That reminds me, wasn't my original task involving my brother?    Eh, I'm sure I'll remember it in due time, what matters is the 3rd of the court falls, and becomes my ally too.  He shall be named Emily.   I care not for gender distinguished names, Emily is the name I have chosen for him.

I take the Dead Court back to their master.   What does the Dead King decide to do with his newly returned servants, who pledge loyalty and unwavering faith?  He murders them on the spot...in as best as you can murder a soul.  This angers me!  I spent a good while trying to recover these three, and he just gets rid of them?  What was the purpose of my task then?  To feed his eqo?  I can see why those of the Dead Kingdom despite their lord!   The King tells me I have one more task before I can go to the Well of Souls, where I would find a way to restore humanity, and rescue my brother War...oh, right, was that not the purpose of my quest to begin with?  I believe I got sidetracked.

It seems I would have to sacrifice the Nephilim to restore Humanity...even though I am certain that my brothers and I have killed all the Nephilim outside of the four of us, who no longer qualify.  They state the artifact still houses the souls of them, and Absolam's death has only screwed things up.  Hmm...perhaps I should just go kill that large demon the King wants me to kill, so off I go, but not before I earn a new trick!

I can split my soul into two separate beings, allowing me to...finish more puzzles.  What happens to my body?  It becomes stone until my two halves return.  This is a weird power and so selectively useful that I feel my next task will require absurd amounts of convenient usage of it to prove it's use.  Sure enough, that is indeed the case.  Lot's of soul splitting, transporting my body only to turn it to stone, pushing blocks, standing on switches, killing spectral skeletons (...what does that even mean?  Were they skeletons that died again and thus turned into souls, but what happens when I murder them?  This whole land of the dead thing doesn't make sense.  Next they'll tell me that the true Grim Reapers are nothing but Travel Agents offering luxurous train rides to the 9th Underworld that is Paradise...suppose I still have a sense of humor after all.)

The demon finally apepars; it is 100 feet tall with a tentacle beard and a mask.  I could not make that up if I tried.  Details of the fight are not worth recording; he is annoying, that is all that needs to be said.  I do get to stick my scythe into his face twice, then beat him up off screen...wait, what is this screen I speak of and how do I know it exists?  I blame Dust, because the crow deserves it.

Speaking of crows, beyond this fight is none other than the Crowfather from the beginning of my journey.  Is he dead?  Was he dead?  Do I care?  It seems Dust does but then he is a crow, so he should be drawn to the Crowfather.  More exposition about me needing to go to the Tree of Life, defeating the corruption, stuff I just covered.  It seems I do have to destroy what's left of this talisman to kill the Nephilim but it must be done at the Tree of Life or some garbage.

And so my journey in the Land of the Dead comes to an end.  I suppose I could come back here when I want too...I still have to buy my vacation home here at some point after all.  Yet, duty calls...or is this something I want to do?  To be honest I cannot remember...I'll just blame that knave of a Maker and move on."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 29, 2013, 06:36:43 PM
Dark Souls - Beat the Gaping Dragon after a bunch of tries, he was pretty rude. Not too hard to dodge overall but very damaging and durable so not much room for error. Now Blighttown. I got inflicted with Toxic and blooming purple moss didn't cure it despite saying it should (and the FAQs saying it should), what's up with that? Oh well, no big, I didn't lose my 25k souls from the boss so all was good, and I've since managed to not get toxic'd. I'm a bit confused with how the upgrade system works from here, what's the difference between +6 (and beyond), "raw" weapons, and magic weapons, anyway? Also is armour upgrading at all worth it?


Star Ocean 4 - On Roak, Edge is currently a delicious ball of anger and self-loathing. Currently trying out Meracle who I find pretty difficult to use because she's so close-range... it really makes a big difference compared to Edge, even. I have the same difficulty with Bacchus' Galvanic Shock but for him that's just one move, for Meracle that's everything! I've stopped using the temp because temp (even though I like said person) and Lymle because Lymle (even though objectively she's a fine PC), not sure who I'll use from here on out.


Marathon - Beat on Normal, doing a run on the highest difficulty now. Up to chapter 10.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on March 29, 2013, 06:41:20 PM
*looks at Tide's image*

*looks again*

*carefully reads Tide's post*

...Why is the background of that FE status screen a Mario level?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 29, 2013, 06:46:45 PM
because FE Hack.

Before you question further, remember, these things have allowed OSTIAN PRINCESS to see the light of day.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 29, 2013, 07:05:59 PM
*looks at Tide's image*

*looks again*

*carefully reads Tide's post*

...Why is the background of that FE status screen a Mario level?

Man, that's one of the saner things about one of the saner hacks in the Something Awful thread.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on March 29, 2013, 07:56:17 PM
DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OSTIAN PRINCESS is magical and I'll read no words to the contrary.

Dark Souls - Beat the Gaping Dragon after a bunch of tries, he was pretty rude. Not too hard to dodge overall but very damaging and durable so not much room for error. Now Blighttown. I got inflicted with Toxic and blooming purple moss didn't cure it despite saying it should (and the FAQs saying it should), what's up with that? Oh well, no big, I didn't lose my 25k souls from the boss so all was good, and I've since managed to not get toxic'd. I'm a bit confused with how the upgrade system works from here, what's the difference between +6 (and beyond), "raw" weapons, and magic weapons, anyway? Also is armour upgrading at all worth it?

Different upgrade paths affect what stats get used to buff the damage of a weapon.  +6 and up just straight increases the stat scaling, Raw increases the weapons base damage, but lowers the bonus from stats, Magic gives the weapon a bonus from intelligence, but lowers the bonuses it gets from other stats.  In addition, Magic also splits the damage, half the weapon's attack power will now inflict Magic damage.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 29, 2013, 09:04:09 PM
Quote
DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OSTIAN PRINCESS is magical and I'll read no words to the contrary.

Magical...certainly is an accurate description of the game, I'll give you that much!
Pity that's not in any correlated to being "Good."


RE4: Ashley turned a bunch of cranks while Leon shot a bunch of cultists, then got caught in the most OBVIOUS TRAP EVER. 

...this could related to a number of sections of the game, granted, but yeah, just finished 3-1.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 29, 2013, 09:17:13 PM
Blooming purple moss should cure toxic. Regular purple does not (just cures poison). Maybe you used that by mistake? Dunno how thorough you were with looting the Depths, but the Spider Shield will negate poison buildup from blocked attacks, if you got it. Handy when there are poison dart jerks around.

Raw weapon upgrades cap out at +5 and require more common ore, so it's basically the poor man's Normal upgrade. As a general rule, normal weapons are most effective for a character with high physical stats (STR/DEX, depending on the weapon and how good its damage scaling is). It really depends on what kind of character you're building, though. Elemental weapons are a decent choice for characters with low physical stats since you can just invest enough levels to use the weapon and then dump the rest of your levels into other things*, but I advise against relying on them. You will get badly walled by the DLC bosses if all you go in with is an elemental weapon. You are basically getting hit with enemy defense twice when using them, so in practice I find a maxed-out normal weapon is going to do more damage even if the elemental weapon says it has a higher attack rating on paper.

(*This is what pretty much every low-level PVPer does so they can murder newbies with impunity in Undead Parish. Consequently, I'm kind of down on lightning weapons. It's very easy for them to become a crutch and then suddenly oh shit why am I only doing double-digit damage to Artorias.)

As Fudo noted, magic weapon damage scales with INT, and divine weapon damage scales with Faith. I find that these are really bad for pure melee characters but a pretty decent choice for casters since it means your casting stat contributes to melee damage. You want at least one divine weapon no matter what though, because of a certain dungeon and a certain boss fight.

Armor upgrades are worth investing in, but I wouldn't spend any uncommon ores on them unless you're just overflowing with resources. Generally speaking, killing things faster >>> taking hits better has been my experience with the game. Shield upgrades are totally worth it though because they boost the shield's stability (higher = less stamina consumed when blocking). I max out whatever weapons I want first and then worry about armor. Note that you can reverse weapon upgrades later if you decide you want to take one down a different path...but you don't get back any materials you've previously used upgrading them. The highest-tier upgrade materials tend to be rare finds, so you want to make sure you spend 'em on a weapon you're set on using for the long run.

Also I just have to note how hilariously different our experience has been with those last two bosses. Capra Demon probably killed me about fifteen times my first run through the game. Gaping Dragon has never, ever killed me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 29, 2013, 10:51:59 PM
Quote
DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OSTIAN PRINCESS is magical and I'll read no words to the contrary.

Magical...certainly is an accurate description of the game, I'll give you that much!

That hack alone was responsible for the :magical: smiley that started popping up these days in SA. It's just that amazing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 30, 2013, 01:59:34 AM
Re Dark Souls:

Maybe you just didn't notice plank face still spamming you with his blowgun while you were eating herbs. Those darts are small and silent.

Armour upgrading is somewhat worthwhile but not significant like weapon upgrading. You're way more likely to change armour than weapons. I only do serious armour upgrading mid/lategame when I decide to stop rising endurance and I have an amazing hat. Earlygame you can still upgrade to +1 or +2 for dirt cheap so why not.

You get different weapon upgrade choices at +5 and +10. It's scary at first but straightforward:
- Straight damage weapons are reliable
- Elemental weapons are very good but can get walled more easily (Quelaag has fire immunity)
- Faith weapons are for priests
- Int weapons are for mages
- Raw is Jeigan, since it's pretty good early but the only path that stops at (effectively) +10 instead of +15.
Differences beyond that are slight and mostly for pure min/maxing.



Persona 3 Yattaf Solo

- Fierce Cyclop x3:
Has slash attacks most of the time, some lightning attacks, plus annoying immunities.
Black God's Rock nulls slash damage. Kartikaya absorbs lightning. Kthnxbye
Level: 74

- Jotun of Grief:
Is immune to everything but pierce damage. Has massive HPs.
Fortunately he's too busy wasting all his turns, while Yattaf has Primal Force (uber ST pierce damage) thanks to Kartikaya.


Fittingly the only S-links I didn't max were Junpei's and Tsundere's.
They get SUPER SAD and are unavailable for a large part of the lategame, then in january Aigis and Mitsuru are available and better, with better ultimate personas.
So yeah, I paid the price for maxing hierophant ASAP to get super earlygame personas. This price being the skill "Bow Master - Inflicts double damage with a bow", I think I'll live.

Aigi's S-link....
...
THE THINGS I HAD TO DO TO GET METATRON


- Jin:
Oh crap he can abuse any weakness. Well Sandalphon has no weaknesseses. (plus very weak Regen that handles Jin just fine) Autobattle -> Win.
I like how he thought hte could harm Yattaf by casting Berserk on her.
Level: 76

- Evil Jesus:
Seriously you can't possibly get to this point and have trouble with that boss.
Level: 76

- Final boss:
I did try beating him a few times at level 77 and came close to succeeding. I used the Abaddon strategy. Abaddon's status protection ring + Abaddon persona. Skills: Null pierce/slash/strike, resist ice, Diarahan, Weapon Master, Bufudyne, Endure. I fed Abaddon all those stat+ items until every stat was near 99 too. Honestly it's a great strategy, and it goes pretty well, but inevitably at one point, 4598 hours into the battle, something goes wrong. Luck plays a large factor because crits, I can't heal every other round because that's so boring oh god kill me the battle is long enough, and I can't afford to not equip the status immunity ring.
So I've decided to make my level explode instead and come back with Satan or something. We'll see.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 30, 2013, 06:34:37 AM
Come back with Armageddon and fuck.dat, you know it's legit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on March 30, 2013, 09:47:40 AM
Final Fantasy 4 Advance - replayed through

Felt like replaying FF4, and I wasn't about to replay FF4DS, so.

Main takeaway was that I didn't remember anything about the interface lagging as badly as it does. Thoroughly infuriating.

I could have sworn that you needed to beat all the lunar trials before getting access to Zeromus EG and was consequently surprised when I ran into it on my first descent. Actually, checking a video on Youtube, you do get told something to that effect the first time you enter. Possible it's referring to something else, or maybe there's a bug in the game (which wouldn't be particularly surprising). Maybe on my original play I always warped out as soon as I finished all the trials my current team had access to under the assumption that the end wouldn't be accessible yet - as far as I know I only ever fought the Brachiowhatsit once that playthrough, which would be consistent with that.

Kain's lunar trial is still appallingly horrible. I eventually ended up throwing the Hero's Shield on him so that he could take a hit and I wouldn't have to leave everything to the whims of wonky timing. I kind of wonder whether Lunar Bahamut can be reflected, but I threw away/sold all my curtains as they were wasting inventory room so I couldn't feasibly set that up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 30, 2013, 11:47:47 AM
StarCraft 2 HotS - So finished this.  I think the campaign on Normal is easier than Wings is, but I am okay with this because I know absolutely nothing about how to play Zerg.  Now I know it is totally just spamming tier 1 tech units and saying kekekekekekeke.

So plot stuff.  I can see where mc is coming from.  I am not really down on there being same kinds of notes hit with Kerrigan that there is with Thrall, that is something that happens when you have the same person doing the writing.  They have themes that they keep returning too.  So it isn't remotely surprising seeing Metzen return to the same themes that surround the character he has written the most about and clearly identifies so clearly with.  Chris Metzen is all about Thrall and the Horde.

I could have done without her really going full Zerg again though, it is actually a plot kind of explored fairly well before with two people in love but not able to do so because one needs to lead a nation/empire and the nature of the ability to love in that kind of scenario (Dune is the one that really rings truest to this for me).  I could have gone for her trying to shape and lead the Swarm as something from in between (that and I dig the zergdreads look Ghost Kerrigan is rocking at the start of the game before she goes back full fetish zerg with spiked heels).

I had more fun than I was expecting to with the Zerg campaign considering I mostly know Protoss and Terran (Not gonna lie, even watching streams with pro Zerg players, Z matches are just mostly "And there is a pile of green, brown and purple doing stuff.  OH SNAP FUNGALS". or zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz more mutas.  ZvZ is just impenetrable for me).  I wouldn't say Kerrigan is my favourite female lead in a video game because April O'Ryan kind of still exists, but I can definitely see why mc would identify with her.  Especially now that there is actually character to her rather than vaguely ominously evil and sadistic when she is a Villain in SC1 and Broodwar (even as a Villain protagonist).

Sooooooo how long to Legacy?  Forever?  Well fuck.

I totally dug the standard Blizzard referential/rip off other franchises.  Suddenly DBZ fight! (okay I didn't dig that) but plot sequence after that we get summoning giant worms and riding on their backs.  Give me a Dune reference and I am happy.  Make reviving Ultralisks "Torrasques" and I give you a high five.  I am a cheap date for Blizzard games still even after D3.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 30, 2013, 02:49:41 PM
Quote
Kain's lunar trial is still appallingly horrible. I eventually ended up throwing the Hero's Shield on him so that he could take a hit and I wouldn't have to leave everything to the whims of wonky timing. I kind of wonder whether Lunar Bahamut can be reflected, but I threw away/sold all my curtains as they were wasting inventory room so I couldn't feasibly set that up.



Lunar Bahamut is reflect-able.  The first time I beat him, I used a Lunar Curtain and reflected all his Mega Flares.

The key to winning is Jump right before the Mega Flare resolves.  You should come down with enough time to throw an X-potion or something and do that again.  It is a dumb fight either way.

Frankly, pretty much all the Lunar summons are pretty bad honestly, for one reason or another.   Either they're too easy, or they are poorly designed and just frustrating (Lunar Odin)  FF5a and FF6a's bosses in the aftergame are way better just because they are legitimately creative and interesting as a result.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 30, 2013, 04:48:47 PM
Fusion spells were turned into one use items bought with gems in P3P Snow. As you can guess Armageddon's price is ridiculous (120 stones)
Doesn't matter, I now have Asura with Unshaken will (near status immunity) so I can keep that sweet HP+30% accessory. I'll try this later. This should go well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on March 30, 2013, 10:01:07 PM
The key to winning is Jump right before the Mega Flare resolves.  You should come down with enough time to throw an X-potion or something and do that again.  It is a dumb fight either way.

The problem is that if you enter Jump while the 2-count is on-screen you land too early, and if you enter Jump while the 1-count is on-screen you jump too late, so you need to jump at some point between the two - and not only can you still have those problems if you jump too early/too late between them, if you jump late enough that you don't land too early you can still have managed to jump too late to have enough time to heal, although this case at least needs to have happened several times before it kills you. So there's really no way to tell when you're supposed to jump, especially since Kain's turn is probably up so you can't try to judge how time is flowing from his bar filling (and if his turn isn't up then you're in trouble anyway).

Despite all that I don't really have that much of a problem with the fight conceptually - just with you needing to replay the damned murder mystery first every freaking time you retry.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 31, 2013, 12:00:42 AM
Legend of Grimrock - So this has been on my to do list for a while and I figured after SC2 seemed a good idea .  Installed it and started just to see how it is.  Enjoy it and realise it is kind of short, so I decided I might try to beat it this weekend instead of Ayesha.  Holy fuck suddenly 4 am..
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on March 31, 2013, 05:10:24 AM
Heart of the Swarm: I finished this awhile back, though still doing some achievement grinding (I better not have to replay the entire campaign to get the Kerrigan level 70 achievement after I somehow got cheesed out of a level on "Supreme," sigh.)  I'm mostly of the Ephraim/Laggy "plot so bad" school of thought, BUT.  The plot is still fun anyway.  I mean Diablo games all have an objectively horrible plot, but Blizzard pulls it off stylishly, so whatever.

Anyway, if the plot is viewed with SRS BIZNESS googles, the biggest problem is that the game doesn't want Kerrigan to be a villain this time around.  Now, it's very possible that a plot could have been written that sold Kerrigan-the-reformed-hero, but it'd have to really put a new spin on the Zerg, who have a bunch of, well, evil stuff in their arsenal, infestation being the most obvious, but the general galaxy-domination-via-killing-everyone also pretty bad.  The WC3 Orcs were closer: they went from worshippers of demons from beyond to shamanistic honorable-war-is-cool or something, which is fine for a fantasy universe.  But no, the story simultaneously wants us to be sympathetic for Kerrigan - she's the good girl, Mengsk is allied with the hybrids which are just inherently Evil, Because - yet still let Kerrigan do all sorts of super-evil shit and act casual.  Even if we seriously believe that Kerrigan is avoiding civilian populations on Korhal or some crap, and if we grant that because this is an SRPG Kerrigan's best way to get at Mengsk involves attacking the Dominion (rather than being a freakin' UNSTOPPABLE INVISIBLE PSIONIC ASSASSIN like she kind of is and trying to kill Mengsk Solid Snake style) - you do crap like infest random prisoners or barracks staff into an unstoppable wave of infested!  I'm pretty sure I remember how the whole colonist plotline in Wings of Liberty went, making people go batshit and kill their friends seems pretty unforgiveable.  And Kerrigan is busy sending off the other broodmothers to attack random other Dominion worlds, which I'm sure will be done with the greatest of care after how Niadra reacts to similar orders from Kerrigan!  (read: set up some Zerg to knock down at the start of Legacy of the Void before the big Amon showdown.)  Anyway, yeah, I just don't buy Kerrigan the hero, and I'm surprised Raynor buys it at the end, either.  She already did the "oh I was being mind controlled by the Overmind I'm not really evil" act before turning around and murdering everyone act once in SC:BW, and Raynor even briefly mentions it in "what about Fenix," so even if she really WAS good, everyone should be rolling their eyes and playing with the fact that she can't possibly sell this after fooling everyonce once already.

If they'd decided to spit on Wings of Liberty in a different way, they should have just had Kerrigan been evil, and skipped having her transform at all.  Raynor was a fool to think that a magic wand would untwist her; she's a psychotic nut bent on not just killing Mengsk, but dominating the galaxy with all bowing to her.  You don't need to look all Zergy to be a monster!  THen at least the story wouldn't need the bizarre contortions it goes into to explain why Kerrigan taking control of the Zerg, and all the bad things she does, are really all about her pinpoint revenge against Mengsk & his cronies, with totally no innocents swept up in the mess, nope.  (Okay, the game does kind of hit it in the first Protoss colony mission on the ice planet, but I'm not sure WTF Kerrigan was even doing there or why she cared or why she thinks that the Protoss won't find out soon enough anyway, so while I appreciate sticking some innocents in Kerrigan's line of fire and owning those deaths, it's still incoherent and the game still thinks Kerrigan is a hero anyway.)

Also, I'm hardly a crazed SC1 fanboy, having played its campaign long after the game came out (2002 or so?) and far preferring Myth: The Fallen Lords for my 1997 RTS fix, which also has a way better done plotline.  SC1 plot: Not actually that amazing, but it's competent.  Wings of Liberty is my favorite SC plotline so far, for all that Blizzard picked a lame direction to afterward and the Xel'Naga artifact plot was pretty weak.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on March 31, 2013, 02:59:32 PM
Soleil. Old Genesis game I played when I was a kid. There are a lot of "Now what the hell do I do?" moments thanks to weird puzzles.

The animal enhancement system is a lot of fun. Always something new to play with and they combine in quirky ways. For example the Speedy sword throwing enhancement along with the 'bounce off walls enhancement = deathtrap for enemies. The illusion one is totally broken though. It creates a copy of you that enemies will target... All enemies up to and including the final bosses. It even auto retargets projectiles in mid flight!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on March 31, 2013, 04:01:38 PM
P3P Yattaf Solo: Burnt all the bread
The Asura strategy worked really well and nothing ever really threatened me. Granted, I went all out. Level: 86.

I like P3P. It is still anime as hell, but Yattaf + Streamlined town interaction that makes the entire game feel like much less of a drag = Miles above FES.
PC control was much needed too (though I didn't exactly notice this)


WAXF: Killed the 1-2 Secutor.
I kind of want to use the dog the whole game (if he doesn't leave the team) Hmm. I dunno.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on March 31, 2013, 04:05:56 PM
Nothing to stop you from using Tony the whole game except that he will kind of suck.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on March 31, 2013, 04:43:36 PM
PSABR: Finally beat the game as Emmet because I downloaded him.

He's...another guy with a gun.  The Weapon change gimmick was something I guess, but in the end, he felt like just a Radec variant, whose Triangle moves temporarily change.  Definitely the less interesting of the pair he came in (Kat was a pretty faithful representation of her Gravity Rush self.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on March 31, 2013, 05:02:51 PM
Legend of Grimrock - And mash through until 1:30 am on the second night and finished.  Fun and short.  A few fights that would have been frustrating and character builds generally are fairly forgiving, knowing some in advance helps though (When in doubt focus on one skill to 50 and you will do okay, but there is plenty of builds that function well diversified). 
I used Human Warrior with Unarmed ending around 40ish points and 20 in Athletics, he got 3 skill up books.  Just didn't get hit.  Hits more often than my other Warrior because of the high dex that lets him dodge.  Works out well. 

Other warrior was a Minotaur with 16 points in Armour and 33ish points in Sword (just learned Slash).  This is where spreading your points thing has an impact.  Sword/Armour is a defensive build, you still kill things okay, but being able to wear Heavy Armour without evasion penalty generally just makes a bulky front liner.

Back row was filled out with a Thief using Missile weapons.  Was pretty good once you get some ammo enough to last an entire fight.  Straight up broken when they get 32 points in a skill so they shoot 2 arrows at the same time (yep you get to double your offense, I see no problem here!).  All the points in there, few overflow went into Dodge but didn't really account for much.

Fourth character was Mage.  I wouldn't want to play without a mage, they are terribly useful.  I also wouldn't want to play with more than one mage, they are an awful lot of effort and micromanaging them really interrupts your flow mid combat.  It is a pretty neat way to balance.  Unfortunately Mages are one of the ones where pick any skill to level to 50 won't work.  Spellcraft has a cool level 50 skill that is entirely useless because you will have like 12 points to put in to other skills.  That is a problem because the level 50 skill is halve all Energy costs...  Staff Defense is just terrible and a waste of time.  You could get buy levelling one of the elemental skills to 50, but it is a terrible waste.  They don't seem to scale with skill ranks, just unlock more stuff.  Last direct boost to a spell you unlock is at 24-27 depending on tree.  Everythign after that is a passive buff either to resist or a tiny stat buff, with only Ice really getting one that is relevant (Willpower), Air gets Dex which is nice defensively and Fire gets Str which is nice for carring shit around, Earth gets Vitality which I guess is okay.  I could see arguing going for the part wide passive +25 Resist to Fire maybe since it is like 5 extra points.  You also really want 18 points into Spell Craft though because that halves the time it takes to cast spells (and you want to use the Orbs you can find as well, so 10 is what I would consider bare minimum).  Back that up with enemies immuning/resisting elements sometimes and Mages are just very cluttered.  If you went for Fire Resist party wide (specifically because there is a common durable foe that uses Fire) you could get Improved Poison Bolt from Earth by end game, so if you wanted to dedicate skill books to your mage you could get them like 25% cast time reduction from Spell Craft alright.  Not really worth it though since you would only get the fire resist late I think.

I went Ice anyway and didn't regret it really.  Not tons resisted it.  It worked on the Fire dudes.  The Party wide spell to resist Frost was pretty useless though, but on the other hand enchant Ice Arrows wasn't resisted much either.  I got the 18 points in Spellcraft and grabbed the +3 Fire skill book to get rank 1 spell to dabble with.  Dumping points into it after tha got me up to basic Fireball at end game, but it didn't see much use.

If I was going to redo it, I would have gone the cheesey Minotaur Thief that just spends the whole game in the back row throwing shit at people.  I think you could make a solid front line evasion tank out of an Unarmed Thief (Lizard man?).  Minotaurs generally pretty great though, but you want to drop that Dex penalty they start with like a bad habit because that will bit you in the arse quickly.  Warrior I would think about just doing pure Axe and not caring about Evade. Hell they could carry around a torch and free up good shield for the Thief tank.  Mage I think I would go Air Magic and maybe splash into baseline spells for all the elements after getting 18 Spellcraft.  I don't think they are worth feeding all your skill books too, but the Fire magic book is worth getting for them.  I don't see a burning need to roll bug dude for your mage, but there also isn't a particularly compelling reason to roll Human over them.  The other 2 races are shitty mages, so that is your only real choice.  Bit more Willpower/Energy for a single extra skill point?  Meh.  I think the more compelling argument is that while the human portraits don't have much breadth, they are miles above that available to the bug dudes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 31, 2013, 06:23:20 PM
Fenrir, you should definitely use Tony all game. While he is inferior to other options you can certainly still beat the game with him, and I'll be very curious to see what uses you put him to, since his mobility+durability+elemental resistance is hard for other PCs to match.

Thanks for the DS advice everyone. Fenrir, you were probably right about dart guys repoisoning me without me noticing since at that point I hadn't figured out what was doing it. I don't recall seeing "!Toxic!" reappear but eh. Have since used blooming purple moss successfully, so if it was a weird glitch at least it was a one-time thing. For Cid, re the bosses, it's probably a result of our different playstyles. Capra Demon is nearly helpless against shield blocking, while Gaping Dragon mocks the hell out of it with many of his attacks. He'd be completely worthless if I had decent range, but I didn't, and he has lots of ways to punish you in close so I had to learn how not to die to those, and then it's a long fight so I would screw up periodically, even though it's not that hard.

Dark Souls - Blighttown. Speaking of lack of range, mosquitoes are dicks. My weapon got damaged here so I had to retreat out, and when I did I bought 75 throwing daggers which deal with those. Most satisfying kill that doesn't give souls ever.

Star Ocean 4 - Roak. Hooray, Myuria joined, now I can use a mage without having to use Lymle or the temp. I am trying not to complete copy Ciato and just use the Edge/Reimi/Bacchus/Myuria party but it is tempting, Edge teamplays better than Meracle by quite a bit.

Marathon - Chapter 12 of Total Carnage.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on March 31, 2013, 08:16:42 PM
Dark Souls - Blighttown. Speaking of lack of range, mosquitoes are dicks. My weapon got damaged here so I had to retreat out, and when I did I bought 75 throwing daggers which deal with those. Most satisfying kill that doesn't give souls ever.

Re: weapon damage, you know you can buy a weapon repair kit from the Undead Burg merchant (I think, could be Andre)? It costs a couple thousand souls and is infinitely reusable at any bonfire.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on March 31, 2013, 08:21:11 PM
Dark Souls - Blighttown. Speaking of lack of range, mosquitoes are dicks. My weapon got damaged here so I had to retreat out, and when I did I bought 75 throwing daggers which deal with those. Most satisfying kill that doesn't give souls ever.

Re: weapon damage, you know you can buy a weapon repair kit from the Undead Burg merchant (I think, could be Andre)? It costs a couple thousand souls and is infinitely reusable at any bonfire.

Both now, and maybe a couple more too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on March 31, 2013, 09:33:25 PM
I'm aware, yes. But... it's a waste of money! You could always just walk back! Inefficiency! something something OCD tendencies
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 01, 2013, 01:24:04 AM
So far, formation attacks are really easy with Tony and I like his range. I think most of the time I'll use him + the best PC (Clarissa so far) + 4 drifters since I like sprite-changing generics more than boring story PCs.
I've already made three drifters with high attack, 2 with high magic, one with high def/res, and all of them being fast.

I won all the early battles the wrong way.
1-2 by killing everybody. Sacrifice with Clarissa, formation attacks with Dog/Brother, clone spam with Labyrinthia.
1-3 by killing everybody. I just waited until they were out of VT/HP and sniped them with Labyrinthia. Time consuming and worthless! Yay! (The 1-2 battle took so long I learnt about VT there)
1-4 by killing the boss. This might actually be easier than saving all those crappy villagers.

The classes in this game are fantastic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 01, 2013, 01:49:10 AM
I'm aware, yes. But... it's a waste of money! You could always just walk back! Inefficiency! something something OCD tendencies

Inefficiency is any trip through Bligthtown.

True OCD will require getting anything anyway.  Including useless things like Hollow Warrior set and Chain Mail!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 01, 2013, 02:14:12 AM
Symptoms can display themselves differently from subject to subject.  I see no shock at the N1 fan expressing a need to collect and gather everything and being confused at the guy with a love for Math having a need to do everything in the cleanest most efficient manner. 

Don't be stunned when the dude that was compelled to LLG Breath of Fire 1 immediately after beating it will only sink a large investment into something that directly grants him more player power.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PsySlaver on April 01, 2013, 04:11:31 AM
Fenrir is back, wow.

Played Atelier Rorona for one hour or so and not sure I want to continue.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 01, 2013, 05:41:01 AM
1-4 by killing the boss. This might actually be easier than saving all those crappy villagers.

You actually did it the standard way.  Saving all the villagers is QUITE tough because the enemy AI really favors killing them dead and a single loss is game over, and the enemy debuffs like hosing your team over.  It's much easier to rush down the boss.  (So...  go play it again and kill everything non-boss if you want to prove yourself.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 01, 2013, 05:55:09 AM
It'd be easy enough to save all the villagers if it weren't for that useless old man!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on April 01, 2013, 06:19:34 AM
Atelier Ayesha- Beat.  First impression was pretty accurate: game is traditional atelier to its detriment, and a firmer hand on the story flow would have really made it shine.  Still, gameplay has a quick pace and can put out cool fights when it wants.  7/10/

Pokémon Black 2- Beat.  Game has unusually high average levels for Pokemon; running a team of five most of the game I was still 55-60 after I finish the E4.  Not sure if I'm feeling more of a 7 or an 8 for it, it's really an uncommonly well made maingame as the series goes.  Haven't mucked with aftergame though.
Lucario, Haxaurus, Leavanny, Samurott, Zoroark.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 01, 2013, 06:57:42 AM
FE5: Cyas is a dick.  Putting havan to sleep just before he hits level 20 with 25 EXP *sigh*

Now my next goal apparently is to RECRUIT XAVIER!!!

...I am getting Douglas Flashbacks ._.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 01, 2013, 07:21:22 PM
FE13 - Laurent's paralogue is a -monstrosity- if you want to get all the treasure, though I think I have devised a plan to get all I want from it. Does another oasis appear after the wave with the uberspeed Falcon Knights shows up? This would be a dick move for the ages.

Also, my Kjelle is hilarious. L9 Myrmidon with Outdoor Fighter/Indoor Fighter/Tantivy/Avoid +10 = 20% hit rates on people with a WTA and she's one-rounding things with a -Bronze Sword-. What the fuck, children PCs.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on April 01, 2013, 08:38:36 PM
Who'd you pair up to get the kids?

Also on that note, FE13 beaten. Gonna replay on lunatic with a full on "make the kids as op as possible" run that involves abuse of grinding maps to make sure they inherit the skills I want. I will attempt to keep the grinding to just that, and to getting the supports in the first place I suppose. But we'll see how well that works out for me, Lunatic is pretty brutal.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 01, 2013, 08:58:23 PM
For Kjelle, I paired up Sully and Frederick. Frederick got reclassed to Wyvern Knight and he was L10+, so he passed Tantivy to her, while Sully gave her Outdoor Fighter. Indoor Fighter came from her base class and then Myrming it up = Avoid +10. This is a hilarious combo and she's at 26 speed right now to boot. >_> The bases on the kids are soooooooooooooooo absurd.

For other people, Laurent is Miriel+Lon'qu, and Laurent got Astra. Chrom married Sumia and Robin married Henry (^_^), while Cordelia and Kellam are an item and Tharja married Libra. I cannot comprehend how do you get an archer out of -that-.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 01, 2013, 09:21:56 PM
Really the amazement is more that Noire can fight at all.  Archer is about as close as it gets to non-magical civilian, and Villager would be a tad unfair, so.  (Unsurprisingly she is a really good archer, although I'm not sure if Libra has anything to offer there.)

Is the Libra / Tharja support any good?  Most of Libra's supports in my Lunatic playthrough have been reliably boring, just as say Lon'qu is reliably amusing, but Tharja is a weird enough match that I could see it potentially being interesting.  (Libra / Cherche: Libra meets up with Minerva and makes friends with all god's creatures or something, yawn.  I was hoping for Axe Buddys or something.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 02, 2013, 12:09:59 AM
Libra/Tharja is kinda serious and sorta boring, though the wedding support is pretty amazing. It certainly doesn't compare to Tharja's better stuff, like her B Support with Robin that had me in stitches or Henry, which wins by proxy due to Henry and someone else seriously unbalanced. Libra wastes Tharja's Hot Topic Wiccan gimmick so bad it's kinda sad, and it doesn't even delve deeper into what Libra's about.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 02, 2013, 08:09:12 AM
FF5 - iOS port goooooo.  Turns out it is more remake that straight port on a code level!  They didn't just take new sprites and slap them in.  You move around the field with more free movement instead of huge goals like your normal 16-Bit RPG.  Also more touch interface friendly menus (no shovk here).  Still seems balance wise is a straigh port valance wise, but it is a chunk more work than I was expecting done to it.  Sort of a happy medium between the total reworking of FF3/4 DS and the void of change that was previous FF ports. 

Not sure if this kills me pushing FF:D since FF5ish was the selling point I went with all the time and now well there is FF5++ on the same platforms.  So I say, get both if you can.

Only negative I think I see is that unlike FF:D there is no choice in how the D-Pad interface works.  It is the one I preferred, but I recall Djinn saying he appreciated the choice that Dimensions offered.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 02, 2013, 02:52:06 PM
FE13 - Morgan's idea of forging bonds of friendship and affection with his mom: setting up a deadly ground trap. Robin's reaction to her son's mentality: approval and tips on how to be truly evil next time. This cast makes the Looney Tunes look balanced and sane. I'm increasingly certain this game is actually a comedy - it'd explain the time travelling, at least.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Bobbin Cranbud on April 02, 2013, 07:40:51 PM
Recettear - Finished the maingame on my second cycle. I misunderstood how time passed in the village and dungeons initially, which led to one Recette living in a cardboard box dream, but after that it was pretty easy to balance the different aspects of gameplay. I'm fairly sure I could've completed it in one run. I can tell there's interesting mechanical depth here, as well as more story, but I'm not sure the gameplay is the type that interests me enough to find either. It was a cute game acquired at a low price, that probably suffices.

Sleeping Dogs - Best GTAlike I've played. Melee combat is a blast with Batman: Arkham-style fighting, the driving mechanics are good, the parkour mechanics are good, I love Hong Kong as a setting, and the main character being a conflicted undercover cop suits my tastes better than either the more straight-laced police work of L.A. Noire or the straight-up criminality of GTA or Saint's Row. The Face system gatewaying purchases is... interesting? I'm torn between liking it and not, and ultimately think it could have been handled better, but it's cool they incorporated it. Weapon combat is the only thing I don't care for. Maybe because they show up rarely and are quickly lost, I can't get a grip on the rhythm of melee weapons and tend to drop them to continue fighting unarmed, even though they're technically better. The gunplay is imprecise in a way that's probably intentional, or maybe just doesn't feel as good compared to the slickness of the unarmed combat system.

League of Legends - A friend of mine scored a pentakill! I helped! This is likely to be the highlight of my League career. ;)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on April 02, 2013, 08:20:22 PM
Atelier Ayesha:

I tried to Barrel~ but the barrel refused to Barrel~.  Outside of that major gripe, pretty standard entry in the series.  The alchemy component of the game took a few steps back compared to Totori/Meruru, but the rest of the game is more streamlined to make it easier for new comers of the series to jump right in.  I still miss the Iris/Mana Kheima of RPG first/Alchemy second structure.  At least they're getting better with character designs with every new game.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory:

This game is rated T. (http://i.imgur.com/adcjHy8.jpg)

The T must stand for Trancey.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on April 02, 2013, 09:33:18 PM
REVENGEANCE: who needs silly fantasy games like FE13 when I have realistic games like MGR, beat up a crazy robot arm french lady who was much easier than the sentient robot chainsaw dog miniboss earlier.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 03, 2013, 01:02:56 AM
Hi Psy!!
Haven't you been away from even longer?



It's a bit disappointing to see WA XF being so averse to challenge playthroughs because of gimmick battles. Everywhere.
A Gadgeeter SCC could have maybe been possible so far, but it would have required a ridiculous amount of grinding for gems.

I think I'm in 1-8. I unlocked the next classes.
Gimmick battles often aren't very interesting. You often get:
- Game tells you to do X. You do X and there's no challenge.
- Game tells you to do X. You do X and it's kind of a pain (-> Protect UOM mission, stealth mission)
Now for the good ones:
- Game tells you to do X. You don't do X and can still win. 1-2 + That mission where you invade a fort were like that.
- Game tells you to do X. You do X and the battle is still a decent and interesting challenge. Only the "escape in 99 turns" mission has been like that so far.


I still like the game but doubt I'd ever replay it. I feel FF3o handled this kind of class changing (-> changing classes all the time is optimal) in a far more elegant way. It was a good compromise between "You absolutely need THIS class for this battle (XF)" and "Just pick your favourite class and never even change if you want to (FF5, FFT)"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 03, 2013, 01:31:22 AM
I've done several challenge runs of XF (3 PCs only, base equipment only, and a FF5 fiesta-type deal). It hates SCCs with a passion, yes, but there are plenty of options past that.

I'm not really opposed to the FF3-style but the good news is that the game is almost done with job forcing. There's some occasional primary skill forcing still to come (Fantastica's MP damage comes to mind for a couple fights), and puzzle maps may always require specifics, but aside from that the last non-puzzle map that actually requires a class is 1-8, I believe, though plenty of others may necessitate a change in tactics.


Dark Souls - Fenrir plays elfgames, elf plays fenrirgames. Anyway I beat Quelaag (who gets added to the "good boss" list for anyone keeping track). Sen's Fortress is pretty fun, if a bit long with no bonfire (unless I missed one), at least up to what appears to be the boss. Soul gain here seems significantly higher (there was even some wussy archer who gave 4k, wtf), I guess that's your reward for advancing the plot? My halberd is +9 now and it's pretty awesome, I also made a divine weapon so I can deal with the catacombs eventually or something.

Also, the firelink shrine keeper is dead. Okay. Let's see what the people hanging around her have to say about it... nothing? Aren't bonfires and their keepers kind of a big deal in your barely-defined setting, game? Oh well.


Star Ocean 4 - Beat up some cultists (who learned that ice weakness is a bad thing to have), now I'm fighting at the colosseum, soon I will train a bunny. Why is the mage fun to control? Is this still Star Ocean? (In fairness, they might well be fun in SO3 too, but that starting level, no thanks.)


Marathon - Beat on the highest difficulty setting. Took about 11 hours or so. I never did do this back in the day so this rates as a reasonable accomplishment for me. It was actually a bit easier than I expected. I'm certainly not better at FPS gameplay than I was when I was a teenager, but I think I am a lot better at analysing which weapons work well in which situations which is a ridiculously big deal in this game. All that Mega Man paid off!


I'll probably choose another game to replace the last one there, now, but not sure what. Not a 360 game, I'm switching game discs often enough as is. <.<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 03, 2013, 02:03:24 AM
Oh good.
It's not like I'm ever not going to use a Fantastica anyway.


Blue guy is starting to become crazy and Petrus is actually kind of an asshole. I think Petrus has something to say about it if you talk to him several times, or if you talk to him right before she dies? Hmm. I forgot.

Divine equipment for the catacombs almost feels like cheating but I still use it almost all the time >_> (Like the secret way to lure one of the most annoying bosses to his death)
Skeletons stop raisin back if you kill the necromancer nearby that's raising them, and the necromancers never respawn. It kind of forces you to ignore the skeletons and rush ahead to kill the necromancer (and into traps) I had to do it this way the first time through.

There is indeed a hidden bonfire in Sen's Fortress. But once you're up to the boss the elevator is a better shortcut.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 03, 2013, 02:08:18 AM
Dark Souls - Fenrir plays elfgames, elf plays fenrirgames. Anyway I beat Quelaag (who gets added to the "good boss" list for anyone keeping track). Sen's Fortress is pretty fun, if a bit long with no bonfire (unless I missed one), at least up to what appears to be the boss. Soul gain here seems significantly higher (there was even some wussy archer who gave 4k, wtf), I guess that's your reward for advancing the plot? My halberd is +9 now and it's pretty awesome, I also made a divine weapon so I can deal with the catacombs eventually or something.

Also, the firelink shrine keeper is dead. Okay. Let's see what the people hanging around her have to say about it... nothing? Aren't bonfires and their keepers kind of a big deal in your barely-defined setting, game? Oh well.

Sen's Fortress: there is a bonfire on the top floor, but it's kind of hidden. Assuming you've reached the firebomb area, poke around at the edge of the roof (after you've killed the firebomber!) There's one place where the parapet's broken off and you can step off onto a ledge (some careful camera work should let you see what's below, so it's not a blind jump). I totally missed this my first time through the game. Even so, there is a shortcut through the place. And the archer is a unique enemy who drops a unique sword. Probably you killed him before he got a chance to use it.

Firelink: you may have met her murderer before. If you talk to him enough after freeing him from prison in Undead Parish, it becomes blatantly apparent that he's the responsible party once the murder happens. You will be able to reactivate the bonfire eventually, once you've cleared the zone after Sen's.

Fenrirs beat me to it, oh well. *shakes fist*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 03, 2013, 02:40:17 AM
The Black Eye Orb you got from the Fire Keeper corpse will tell you exactly when to do the thing it needs to do.  Just make sure to always have it on you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 03, 2013, 11:32:33 AM
Fire Emblem: The Self-Insert Who Shagged Me - Laurent paralogue vanquished! The trick really is to control the flow of reinforcements, which is closely binded to the houses you visit. The last wave with Rally Strength Warriors, 27 Speed Falcon Knights and 40+ Attack Berserkers is still quite scary in a vaccuum, but you'll manage if you're prepared for it in advance. Gave Henry a Speedwing and Narga's Tear for reasons of: Henry and Second Sealed Laurent into a Dark Mage. I'll miss Tomefaire, but the extra levels for growth and Dark Magic itself are way too tempting.

EDIT: Laurent wants mommy to teach him how to set alcohol on fire. D'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw. =3

Also, Myrmidon Kjelle is currently sporting something like 30 Speed and 20something+ Strength and she's level -15-. If you care to optimize children growths with Second Seal shenanigans, they get impressively stupid. Even though I benched Frederick a couple maps ago, he -really- served me well, handing her Tantivy. Did I mention she can get up to +30 avoid from skills? Yeah, right now she can get up to effectively 92 Avoid after stacking up Outdoor/Indoor Fighter, Tantivy and Avoid +10. She's the wind with a pair of brick walls for punching gloves.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 03, 2013, 02:16:05 PM
Defender's quest: Trying to get the last 20 gold stars or so. I finally broke down and turned EXP up to 300.  A lot of the missions you just flat out don't do enough damage at normal levels.

Oh yeah. Gref: You stopped playing right before the game got hard. I had trouble beating the last set of maps on *normal*, let alone extreme. I still haven't beat the final map, but that is strictly a laziness thing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on April 03, 2013, 09:25:01 PM
Mana Khemia 2: popped this in for something colorful to play with my friends. Ulrika's path is a hit! I can only wonder how well Raze would have went over, based on Lily's reputation around here. Gameplay is still Mana Khemia goodness, only now there's a circular Timed Card gauge. I forgot how much I loved this battle system. The story's also pretty funny. Nothing new to say that hasn't been gushed over before.

Mugen Souls: replaying this one, gonna get DL numbers this time because... fuck I dunno. I tried to just put it away and forget about it, but it's a surprisingly fitting game for stat-topicing and I keep wanting to. So far, this is the only Compile Heart game I like.

FE13: Played a few more maps! Lissa X Vaike OTP! Everyone else: don't care, Vaike is the only character that matters. And I like Lissa's dress. OTP! Will play more during slow days at work.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 03, 2013, 09:43:24 PM
Death's Log, Chapter 4:

"You know, it occurred to me, I'm suppose to be following Dust to wherever he takes me, according to the Crowfather, but Dust has taken me nowhere.  I just follow a golden dot on my map which appears wherever I need to go unless I am in a dungeon.  How strangely convenient...

In any event, I arrive on the other-side of the Tree of Death in...the Tree of Life.  Was that not in the Forge Lands?  Nevertheless, it seems I meet the Crowfather here one last time, telling me I need to open the well of souls with a key.  A key found in this very land called Lost Light, which is run by the angels.  I thought they lived in the White City?    I am informed that the secret was so great, they made a second city and had a select few watch it here.  Logical thoughts, I must say.  He points me in the direction of the Crystal Spire to find my next destination.

In travelling there, I am attacked by Angels with black wings.  Oh boy, corrupted angels, just what I need.  I kill one, two more pop up.  I kill them, four more pop up...I see where this is going, perhaps I should cancel all my appointments over the next fortnight?  Yes, I am aware how long this is, but these angels are a persistent bunch.  IN a bit of a surprise, an ally comes to my side; an Angel who I later learn is named Nathaniel.  He aids me in dispatching his former brethren and explains to me that Lost Light has been swallowed by Corruption and only the Archon atop the Crystal Spire can fix this.  Very well, I shall meet this Archon.

In expecting a long arduous dungeon to reach the top, I am surprised in that it took only an elevator ride, some wall climbing, and an explosive rock to clear away to achieve this.  I will not complain about this outcome.  I meet this Archon who tells me about the current situation with the Hellguard, as in the elite Angelic warriors and their task on Earth.  It would appear they have been locked out of the White City...weird seeing as the first game just said the White City was destroyed.  Nevertheless, I am to search for the Rod of Arafel, it seems, so the Archon can clear corruption.  He warns me that Earth is entirely at War's fault...how many times have I heard that?

I go to Earth to get the Rod of Arafel, this wartorn land, and run into Uriel of the Hellguard...a character from War's previous adventures...wait, this adventure takes place prior to that?  Why did not anyone tell me this?  That changes the whole perspective of the situation!  The developers are going to hear from my Apocalyptic Lawyers about this...or would had not the company gone bankrupt already.  For shame.

Nevertheless, following the trail of dead angels, I am fighting various undead beasts along the way.  Fortunately, it seems there are various angelic weapons, one rapid fire divine laser and another that creates holy detonations I can set off remotely.  A straight forward quest for once, and a nice breath of fresh air as all I need to do is fire at them, and they die.  After recovering all pieces of the Rod...which is split into three...again with that number...I bid Uriel a farewell and headback to give the Rod to the Archon.

He clears the corruption in that part of Lost Light, tells me to meet the scribe, and hands me a Griffon to do so with.  I do nothing but ride the griffon; my brother war gets a big epic battle against angels on it, I get a mere joy ride.  I am unsure who comes out ahead in this between the two of us.  Nevertheless, I continue in the library of sorts to clear out more corruption, and find the Void Walker, an item that creates portals at select spots...but only blue ones.  I question why not orange ones but that is not relevant.  There are also at least six different variations of opponents here.  That is thrice the amount in any other area I have been to, it would appear the universe has taken off it's gloves and wants me dead.

The scribe himself is big, overweight, and sits in his chair...and is the greatest opponent I have yet to face  I blame the tentacle in his stomach.  Fortunately, he sits in a room with portals for the Void Walker, so I use his own power against him, an interesting tactic if I say so myself.  I threaten to take his life, but he warns me of the situation, that Corruption is spreading, and he has not been taken, but the Archon has, and is trying to use it to further his own means as much as possible.

...I believe we call this a plot twist.  I must redouble my efforts and slay the archon since he is asking for this."


And now that Death's log is over...

Quote
FE13: Played a few more maps! Lissa X Vaike OTP! Everyone else: don't care, Vaike is the only character that matters. And I like Lissa's dress. OTP! Will play more during slow days at work.

You say this now, but when you meet Henry, your opinion will change.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on April 03, 2013, 11:12:48 PM
With an OTP like that, Djinn is legally required to recruit Owain ASAP and use him as much as humanly possible.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 04, 2013, 01:19:35 AM
Free Demon's Souls on PS+. Dare I? Dare I not?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 04, 2013, 02:43:25 AM
It's not really a game I'd recommend due to various bullshit mechanics and a generally less forgiving/convenient design philosophy than its successor...but hey, can't beat the price.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 04, 2013, 02:53:01 AM
Yea you can.  I will pay you to play xcom instead Shale.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 04, 2013, 03:12:00 AM
You know it rarely works.

Fire Emblem: Arnold Schwarzenegger Comedy Hour - More children paralogues! Derpynthia is the strongest indeed. Severa paralogue was a waste of time considering the PC recruited, but at least I have a L15 Dark Mage Laurent sporting 20+s across the board. This is pretty unbalanced.   
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 04, 2013, 05:22:37 AM
Just because it doesn't work often that is no reason for me to not trust in Shale and his overwhelming good taste.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 04, 2013, 12:05:39 PM
Shining Force. The end.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 04, 2013, 12:15:47 PM
Doctor Who.  Terry Pratchett.  His current avatar.  18 posts ago he said "Dredd: Very solid."  Most of the comics he reads.  Pretty much everything in this post. (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,6216.msg150863.html#msg150863)  Challah he makes.

I have faith in Shale's taste.

Edit - While I am patently hyping Shale in a place he might actually read.  I bought this (http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e793/) the other week and suffice to say I am hellaz happy with it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 04, 2013, 12:16:36 PM
Quiet, Brazilian scum.

X-COM is definitely getting played, I just can't justify buying it before the inevitable sale discount when my PC backlog is so ridiculous (and includes X-COM games to boot).

Also I may or may not be playing ShF3 at this exact moment.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 04, 2013, 12:20:45 PM
Doctor Who.  Terry Pratchett.  His current avatar.  18 posts ago he said "Dredd: Very solid."  Most of the comics he reads.  Pretty much everything in this post. (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,6216.msg150863.html#msg150863)  Challah he makes.

I have faith in Shale's taste.

This is about me gratuitously ragging on Shining Force rather than Shale's taste. He was raised on Monkey Island and Sam & Max, he's one of the exalted.

Quiet, Brazilian scum.
Quote
Also I may or may not be playing ShF3 at this exact moment.

Instant rimshot, just add water. G'night, ladies.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 04, 2013, 12:28:39 PM
And I am playing Fire Emblem 10 because I can't buy Chrono Cross on PSN, otherwise I would be playing it right about now, I see no reason any of this matters.

Also not sure if you know how this pay to play thing works, but okay.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 04, 2013, 12:35:52 PM
And Grefter am playing Fire Emblem 10 because I can't buy Chrono Cross

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of multilayered rimshots overlapping each other.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 04, 2013, 12:38:01 PM
I think you don't know how rimshots work and your neighbour has taken up drumming as a hobby.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 04, 2013, 12:41:53 PM
I have no idea what I'm doing

I think the lady doth protest too much.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 04, 2013, 12:50:40 PM
Also not sure if you know how this pay to play thing works, but okay.

I could buy the game now for fifty bucks, or wait until I can get it for $20 without any risk of running out of games I like in the meantime.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 04, 2013, 12:53:12 PM
Technically, Shale doesn't make Challah.  He buys the Challah and uses it to make some fine french toast.

SPEAKING OF THINGS WITH POOR TASTE!

Fire Emblem 5: Holy shit, Leaf Promoted!  Also got Xavier.  Uh, yeah, getting him and the membership card does not look reliably doable, seeing as while the Lenster Knights will not attack the kids, they WILL attack each other once they turn neutral, thus likely to kill each other.  Thankfully, I never use Secret Shops in FE games, so I'd rather have that Master Axe that Xavier brings.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 04, 2013, 12:57:24 PM
Also not sure if you know how this pay to play thing works, but okay.

I could buy the game now for fifty bucks, or wait until I can get it for $20 without any risk of running out of games I like in the meantime.

This is the forum equivalent of a failed marriage proposal. You make me proud, boy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 04, 2013, 01:13:16 PM
I do what I can.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 04, 2013, 02:08:42 PM
If I didn't set myself up to be disappointed I wouldn't be me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 04, 2013, 02:33:38 PM
You feed off that particular pathos, yes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 04, 2013, 04:04:09 PM
Finish the tutorial and go up to the first boss in Demon's Souls (Phalanx) and you'll know if the game's for you. It's not too long!



Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm by the way just saying, but I've heard XCOM has some pretty suspicious enemy scaling. Like, finish Y story mission or develop X technology and suddendly every enemy is better/more aggressive, while getting your soldier better equipment doesn't do anything so your save is basically screwed if you pick the wrong choices, and the game doesn't tell you about it.

Rest aside. None of this Oblivion-like design is in any PURE Souls game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 04, 2013, 04:32:32 PM
I played a bit of it at the last Texas con, so I know I don't hate the gameplay. Didn't reach the first boss, though, so I didn't really get to taste the difficulty level. I downloaded it (why not?), so I'll give it a stab at some point.

OGs2: Final battle. Trying to motivate myself to slog through the evil Choukijin again. And the Custos again. And the Custos grunts again. I was hoping Euzeth would call in some Balmar enemies or something wacky from Alpha/2 or something.

ShF3: Insane mode playthrough. Up to the dragon's cave in Scenario 2. MVPs for this run are spellcasters just because of the 50% defense bonus enemies get from the difficulty setting - although Rock has been ripping stuff apart with throwing axes thanks to the mithril one you get in C4.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on April 05, 2013, 01:29:13 AM
OGs2: Final battle. Trying to motivate myself to slog through the evil Choukijin again. And the Custos again. And the Custos grunts again. I was hoping Euzeth would call in some Balmar enemies or something wacky from Alpha/2 or something.

He summons a combined Volkruss if you beat the two split ones.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on April 05, 2013, 09:51:19 AM
BioShock Infinite is a game like Nier.  You beat it and you're only halfway done because the second half of the game is where you play it again and say "HOLY SHIT how did I not catch that?" the whole way through.

I will probably write a long thing about the thematics of the game, but suffice to say at first it seems like it's a story about the whitewashing of America's past in favor of a pre-racial America where everything was great and ignoring the dark side of life at the time, but it's actually about the power of guilt and taking personal responsibility for things.

Also Booker reminded me of one of my favorite archetypes.  He's a terrible person but he's got just the right sliver of decency to hate himself for it and is cynical enough to think everyone else is at least as bad as him.  Reminds me of me. Or Elim Garak.  We're basically the same person, he and I.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 05, 2013, 01:14:28 PM
FE13 - COLLECT MCGUFFIN TIEMS or maybe I could just recruit Noire and be done with the kids. Cherche's gonna remain a virgin forever, so giving birth to Elfboy will have to wait until a replay. Lissa and Maribelle were also bereft of pony (:downsrimshot:). And Panne. And Nowi (WHO SHOULD NOT GET LAID FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER THOUSAND YEARS fuck you intsys). And Olivia. Jesus, Olivia survivability.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 05, 2013, 04:25:03 PM
LoL: I have become a support main. I shall stun all of the carries forever. Seriously though, still mostly playing support as it beats fighting over other roles.

Bioshock Infinite: Picked this up last night. Picked it up on PS3 because I didn't feel like dealing with PC bullshit.

I really miss my mouse.

Anyhow. Not too far in, but thus far I can say this.

(http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/353/279/e31.jpg)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 06, 2013, 05:09:16 AM
WA XF: Finished 1-13
I'm surprised by how good Sacred Slayers are. With item slots being extremely limited, I expected healing to be pretty bad. (and thus, rather balanced?) Instead we get near MT full healing at a ver low MP cost. 
Gadgeteers now look utterly outclassed. Especially since I'm not bothering with excavators, obsessively looking for item scopes, and the like.
Tony is pretty useful as a bait for magical enemies / as the guy who goes and opens all those useless treasure boxes. An excavator with sacred slayer equipment would probably do his job better though.

Is there any way to know when buffs/debuffs/status effects will run out?


Ys 1 (Chronicles PSP version):
Beat this. I picked nightmare mode, forgetting that Adol gets to the max level halfway through this game, and that late bosses are already huge bastards in normal mode. Vagullion, Dark Fact and the two disembodied heads took me something like 50-100 tries each. No jokes.

It is Ys 1. Adol doesn't slash enemies, he rams into them. Every item/piece of equipment has a nice picture, every NPC gets an entry in the record book. The strong blue demons from the beginning of the game are a joke 10 minutes later. The game lasts less than a dozen hours.  There's badass music. And anime girls. Every new piece of equipment and every level up is seen as fantastic. The game starts by forcing you to speak to villagers for 30 minutes then it's nearly all fighting from then on. And trees bleed.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Bobbin Cranbud on April 06, 2013, 05:24:12 AM
LoL: I have become a support main. I shall stun all of the carries forever. Seriously though, still mostly playing support as it beats fighting over other roles.

I always get support picked out from under me in solo queue. :(

(I'm finally at the point where I can play other roles, but still main support.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 06, 2013, 05:40:43 AM
Most status effects wear off following the third turn of the target which gets them, although some (such as Invoke and Rush, and obviously Turn Stolen), use a different number, and sleep/stone/confuse are just completely random. This guide (http://www.gamefaqs.com/psp/935425-wild-arms-xf/faqs/62918) has the complete list. </shameless plug>

Widespread is ridiculously good (and is a large part of what makes Heal so good), but it's balanced by being stuck in a class with crappy stats unless you invest about half the game's worth of CSP into it. Sacred Slayer OC is too strong overall regardless, though.


Star Ocean 4 - Aeos revisit. Both boss fights here are so good, swarm fight done right then nasty boss who summons minions and encourages you to switch between PCs to deal with them or the boss most effectively. I've found the game kinda easy for a Star Ocean thus far, though much of that is the fact that it's kind of a replay in practice due to watching everything before (or maybe it's just a comparison with Dark Souls), those fights were seriously intense though. Great stuff. I'm definitely on the Captain K train for this game.


Dark Souls - So Iron Golem went from "this is frustrating it's kind of a long fight and sooner or later I make a dumb mistake and either fall off the cliff or get hit by his ridiculously strong grab attack" to discovering that the 2-handed heavy attack from my halberd all but stun-locks the guy. Um, lol? (Funnilly enough I only started using it because my light attack sometimes missed between his legs and that got frustrating.) Anyway I made friends with some demons who can now ferry me back and forth to some swank castle. Sure whatevs.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 06, 2013, 05:44:05 AM
Gadgeteers get their niche from the fact that a bunch of good items in the back half of the game are Gadgeteer-only, stuff like the "cure any status ailment" item (rather than the "FAQ beforehand" cure 1 status items).  But yeah, meh to item micromanagement.  The thing I did like from Gadgeteer, though, was Decelerate.  Especially on a character with a ranged attack - Dandelion Shot being the most obvious.  The effect is barely noticeable against hordes of average opponents, but against one badass debuffed opponent?  Buffs / debuffs last according to the number of turns a target gets, so Slow Down / Debilitate -> Formation Arts Decelerate physicals spam -> lol turns.  (Even better with Levin using Cancel Strike, but you aren't using him.)  Sure you can theoretically kill someone faster with Elementalist spam, but the deny-turns with 15HKOs strategy also works and is hilarious and easy on the MP.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on April 06, 2013, 06:42:14 AM
I'm definitely on the Captain K train for this game.

Is this the first time we've liked the same game?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 06, 2013, 08:22:41 AM
Valkyrie mother****ing Profile, my good man.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on April 06, 2013, 09:45:17 AM
But probably the first time you've like the same game that was released since the DL's founding.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 06, 2013, 12:38:50 PM
Dark Souls - So Iron Golem went from "this is frustrating it's kind of a long fight and sooner or later I make a dumb mistake and either fall off the cliff or get hit by his ridiculously strong grab attack" to discovering that the 2-handed heavy attack from my halberd all but stun-locks the guy. Um, lol? (Funnilly enough I only started using it because my light attack sometimes missed between his legs and that got frustrating.) Anyway I made friends with some demons who can now ferry me back and forth to some swank castle. Sure whatevs.

The stunlocking is deliberate. Hit him enough in the same spot while he's staggered and he'll fall over. It's actually possible to knock him off the roof this way. Vastly speeds up the proceedings! There's also an NPC summon around who can and will solo the boss with ease. The usefulness of NPC summons varies widely but Tarkuuuuuus! is probably the most broken of the lot.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 06, 2013, 02:22:02 PM
But probably the first time you've like the same game that was released since the DL's founding.

Don't they both have high opinions of Star Ocean 3 then?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 06, 2013, 02:39:04 PM
Thanks guys.
Yeah I figured out how that speedh4xing strong enemies was excellent strategy, but I didn't think about using Gadgeteer's attack for that too. Man.
NEB how in the hell did you beat 1-14 with three guys? I very barely won on the first try, but mostly because the enemy did a few poor choices late into the battle.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 06, 2013, 04:07:54 PM
CK: Star Ocean 3 as well, and beyond that I uh don't think we've played too many overlapping games since the DL's founding, although Cappy doesn't have an RPG Ratings list for me to stalk to verify this. We completely disagree on what makes a good SRPG of course (VPDS vs. FFT/FE) but beyond that I don't recall much quibbling with him.


Cid: Yep, he did indeed fall over. Do attacks have very different stun properties then? My one-handed light attacks in particular did nothing.


Fenrir: Yes, 1-14 was definitely an evil battle with three PCs. What I did:

Clarissa: Elementalist; Dandelion Shot OC, Dandelion Shot EQ (book/brooch)
High-MAG generic: Sacred Slayer; Elementalist OC, Geomancer OC
High-ATK generic: Sentinel; Fantastica OC, Geomancer OC

The most useful tools in dealing with that map are Shut Out (especially with Widespread, note the Sacred Slayer) and Sentinel's ZOC (especially effective at the opening to the left of the battle surrounded by a pit, where the Sentinel can heavy strike people into the pit). Elementalist and Sacrifice for smashy smashy since even with those tools enemies are very much capable of getting around them and you need to be able to kill them hard.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 06, 2013, 05:53:07 PM
Cid: Yep, he did indeed fall over. Do attacks have very different stun properties then? My one-handed light attacks in particular did nothing.

Different attacks, different weapons, difference in boss stats, difference in boss weakness areas.  Quelaag for example, is pretty much stunned if anything hits her girly parts.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 06, 2013, 07:48:36 PM
Yeah, you can literally stunlock Quelaag to death if you've got a fast enough bow. At least, I've done this in co-op. But boss AI is always a little flaky in multiplayer. Most bosses can be stunned, but it's rarely a bigger deal than "Yay I get to regen a little stamina before Ornstein tries to stab my face in again."

I'm pretty sure enemies have a poise stat just like PCs do. What I'm not sure of is exactly how it works. Say normally two successive hits of the same attack will stagger you, but if you have a couple seconds of safety in between hits, it won't, right? I suspect poise operates according to a meter that decreases when you take hits, regens when you have a spare moment in between hits (so sort of like stamina between attacks), and resets completely when you get stunned, but I'm not aware of anything that documents the mechanic to quite that degree of precision.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 06, 2013, 09:42:11 PM
Yeah, you can literally stunlock Quelaag to death if you've got a fast enough bow. At least, I've done this in co-op. But boss AI is always a little flaky in multiplayer. Most bosses can be stunned, but it's rarely a bigger deal than "Yay I get to regen a little stamina before Ornstein tries to stab my face in again."

I'm pretty sure enemies have a poise stat just like PCs do. What I'm not sure of is exactly how it works. Say normally two successive hits of the same attack will stagger you, but if you have a couple seconds of safety in between hits, it won't, right? I suspect poise operates according to a meter that decreases when you take hits, regens when you have a spare moment in between hits (so sort of like stamina between attacks), and resets completely when you get stunned, but I'm not aware of anything that documents the mechanic to quite that degree of precision.

That's more or less it.  The only thing more obscure than poise mechanics is Deflection, and almost nobody even knows the later exists.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 07, 2013, 01:28:00 AM
...?

The only guess I have is that maybe that's when you fail a parry attempt but take reduced damage anyway?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 07, 2013, 01:40:12 AM
...?

The only guess I have is that maybe that's when you fail a parry attempt but take reduced damage anyway?

Deflection is a stat for shields that governs if weapons bounce off it or not.  It is not ever explained or shown in game at all.  For example, the famous Lightning Spear will bounce off the Silver Knight Shield but will follow-through it's entire attack against a Black Knight Shield.   It still won't do any real damage, but you also aren't staggered and open to attack.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 07, 2013, 02:34:54 AM
Ahh. I always assumed that was related to stability (in which regard SKS > BKS) but I guess not.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 07, 2013, 03:02:46 AM
Ahh. I always assumed that was related to stability (in which regard SKS > BKS) but I guess not.

Iron Round Shield's the best examplw of it since it's in the same category as greatshields for deflection, but can parry and is tagged in the medium shield range.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 08, 2013, 06:03:07 AM
Terrible at posting in this topic:

Suikoden Tierkreis - Good plot, bad gameplay, gee, I've never seen this from the series before. I like the more religious cult twist on the villains and I enjoyed the big spoiler about 65% through. Characters aren't as good as Suikoden V's which makes it rated lower, but its gameplay is less frustrating due to load times not being a big deal. I like the main villain and Diadora in particular, and I like the main character's enthusiasm and positive outlook without being constantly told he is right like Shu from Blue Dragon. Liu is also cool, even if he's a sketchy bastard. The betrayal character has large supply of paint chips which he seems to eat at all intervals.

Fire Emblem 7 EHM - Kinda lame. Doesn't really add much relative to ENM.

Fire Emblem 8 Eph Hard mode - Completed. Ended up being crushed by defense-blessed Vanessa, who ended capping. Last Hope was still fun fun times though. Ended up watching most of the plot due to actually enjoying it well enough.

And since this last collection of updates will make Grefter cry...

Mass Effect: Just started this as an Adept. I am a Colonist! Ruthless! I immediately became a Renegade for telling my whiny subordinates to stfu, but I was nice to the creepy Spectre man. Did the first mission and generally embarrassed myself due to shear incompetence; I think I played like three hours of Heretic when I was eight and that is about my only experience playing shooting games. For some reason I can't get my magic to work with the button I told it to do though. :( I am told I should probably generally either always be nice or always be a douchebag for charm/intimidate.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 08, 2013, 06:45:02 AM
You know what the correct answer is (Be a douchebag only really shines in the sequel though... buuuut you will get a bonus to douchebaggery in carry over save if you are a big douchebag in the first game).

Edit - Oh and problems playing it, I found the gunplay floaty and casting spells interface in the X-Box version kind of funky.  Also make sure you get comfortable with the Y axis.  I think I set it to invert when I played on your X-Box so if you aren't used to that you will want to turn it off.  You really do just suffer through ME1 sometimes if you aren't super invested in the space opera bits.

Thank you for trying it :)

FF5 Mobile - I continue to be impressed with this port/conversion.  It is polished in some strange ways.  Dash works on a map!  Due to the touch pad interface not having a button to mash they made ! icons pop up when you can interact with things on the field.  That sounds minimal but it makes mash A to find items in pots gameplay far less irritating.  The new sprites are generally pretty good.  I got through Ship Graveyard so saw Krile's sprite which looks significantly less outright disturbing.  Still a massive downgrade, but eh, I will take a sprite that looks like a younger girl over GIANT ANIMU EYES FROM NOWHERE. 

Using Thief for Laggy Hype.  Might actually even main class Bard on someone for Tallychus.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 08, 2013, 06:54:23 AM
Well, most of the other douche options seemed just bad. Tell Ashley it's her fault that everyone is dead? Just feels mean. <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 08, 2013, 06:56:25 AM
That is okay.  Being mean to Ashley is fun.  She makes fun of Andy all the time :(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

(The point of being a douche is to do that.  It pays off when you start pushing people off buildings to save a bullet).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 08, 2013, 03:12:33 PM
Bioshock: Infinite - Honestly, playing this game puts me in mind of visiting a really racist Disneyland.

So, visiting Disneyland. =)

Seriously though. Supes fun. I do have a few annoyances thus far. Checkpoint system is ass (I blame console here). When Elizabeth notes something and Booker comments, I wish it'd give you an indication of where what she's talking about is. Since dialogues run by themselves, it is pretty easy to miss them if you're in the wrong spot.

Seriously digging the game, even with the handicap of playing on console.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 08, 2013, 11:13:10 PM
Bioshock Infinite - Finished this.  The opening half or so of the game if fantastic and full of fun little references to stuff and exploring the setting.  It is the build up to a Noir story that is an exploration of faith and cult behaviour and all the fun things the game has on the surface.

The last half of the game man.  The last half of the game is full on Tarantino style plot exploration mashing up bits and pieces from all over the place in ways that are familiar themes but done again in a new interesting way (they are done fairly rapid fire rather than being an exploration of a few done in-depth).  I do highly recommend it just on the strength of the back half of the game although the front half is pretty goddamned great.

The only issue I have is that the gameplay has worn thin by the back half.  The gunplay etc really is a fairly stock standard shooter and at that point it is honestly getting kind of bland, but oh well I can deal with that.  Stock shooter gameplay is still gameplay I enjoy.

Also I had spent the whole game thinking that Execute was kind of worthless addition that was put in just to have it.  I think it now exists nearly entirely for a specific sequence later where ammo is scarce and you fight mobs of melee guys and going on melee heavy Execute spree is probably the easiest way to handle it without chopping and changing weapons.

I have heard grumblings about the way it is an FPS in such a plot heavy game (that I highly recommend to non-shooter fans), but I don't really think it would work told from another perspective.  A lot of the landscape and setting set pieces look fantastic and those are kind of the bread and butter of your FPS.  The plot and story really do work great told that personally as well.

In closing, if this was Ken Levine's response to his crippling depression after Bioshock 1 and the critical success it got as "best shooter evar" (which I don't agree with) then well good fucking job.  This manages to completely one up Bioshock 1 in every department.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 08, 2013, 11:51:09 PM
I kinda liked Bioshock but can't really garner any interest for Infinite somehow.
Bioshock 1's fights were decent fun but run of the mill, and the plot was... unique? But ultimately not very clever, with cr4zy plot twists and the subtelty of a sledgehammer. I don't really get why it gets major credit for stating the obvious (-> Stop listening to Ayn Rand. Ok, it's not obvious to Paypal's boss, but he's not listening)
Infinite says racism is bad and has Robot George Washington.
Points for not making the past look wonderful, at least.
(Bioshock 1 was remarkable for its horror aspects but they seem completely removed from this one)


Knytt Underground: Finished. The ending was what I should have expected. I have to admit that the characters and storyline really grew on me, but the exploration wore thin because of everything I've already said. I felt like I was exploring just to fill the map at times.
I got 0 achievements. 0. That's actually pretty great!

Ys 2 Chronicles: Finished on nightmare. This was a lot easier than Ys 1, proving that nightmare mode was programmed with feet.  Oh well.
The beginning of the game was similar to Ys 1, but with very NESy mazes.
The midgame was a drag, with even huger mazes and having to stay still most of the time waiting for HP to refill. There really is no alternative method to heal.
The lategame has the craziest maze of all, but Timestop is super uber broken and awesome. At this point randoms all die but bosses still get to be pretty fun fights.
SSH made the music for this game, right?

Ys 3 Oath of Flegh... Filgaia: Ys games, so breezy.
I hate to say it but they're also way better (if more generic) with Adol having learned how to use a sword.
I started on nightmare there too and cleared the mines.

Wild Arms XF: Oh come on Charlton, will you kill Edna already??
I unlocked the next set of classes, and they all look underwhelming. I can't say no to Widespread'd Protect though.
2-2 was the hardest battle so far, it drew me crazy. It's that one where you need two sentinels on one switch then another person on another switch just to activate the one elevator to the enemies. You need 3 climb to even get to that elevator. Then, SURPRISE REINFORCEMENTS.
It got a lot easier but still annoying once I realized mages could target a few enemies from below.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on April 09, 2013, 12:57:30 AM
Mario Kart tier list:

Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed (super fast, no blue shell, online, neat courses, sonic > mario for kart racing this is the twilight zone)
Super Mario Kart (for high IQ individuals)
Mario Kart 7 (portable true online)
Mario Kart Double Dash (character unique items, why do these not exist anywhere else)
Mario Kart DS (Missions aw yeah)
Mario Kart Super Circuit (p. alright)
Mario Kart 64 (not Mario Kart Wii)
Mario Kart Wii (good luck trying to unlock anything)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on April 09, 2013, 01:38:18 AM
The past not looking wonderful is the entire point of the story. It's really not a game about racism except in the most superficial read of it. It's about guilt, repentance and white-washing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 09, 2013, 01:40:58 AM
Quote
Wild Arms XF: Oh come on Charlton, will you kill Edna already??

Haha, if you're already saying this now...


Nitori Mario Kart tier list is pretty legit


Star Ocean 4 - Mega Man beat Galaxy Man Kokabiel and got Black Hole Bomb. Black Hole Bomb is awesome, no shock there. Myuria/Bacchus/Reimi/Sarah is shaping up to be my final party. Morphusupremacy. Currently in the final dungeon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 09, 2013, 02:05:49 AM
Knytt Underground: Finished. The ending was what I should have expected. I have to admit that the characters and storyline really grew on me, but the exploration wore thin because of everything I've already said. I felt like I was exploring just to fill the map at times.
I got 0 achievements. 0. That's actually pretty great!

I got a whole one on my first run through the game. How anyone even found the super-sadistic bonus areas is beyond me. Nifflas went a little overboard on the secrets with this one.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 09, 2013, 02:38:30 AM
Wild Arms XF: Oh come on Charlton, will you kill Edna already??
I unlocked the next set of classes, and they all look underwhelming. I can't say no to Widespread'd Protect though.

Edna is WONDERFUL and I will not hear anything to the contrary.

Regardless, that set of classes is pretty interesting, I think the hows just haven't sunk into you yet. Berserker's movement gimmick is really neat if used correctly, and it has both the strength and speed to run decent physical builds. Enigmancer is a very good mage carrier class, sporting a very cool base skillset and the best stat spread of all mage classes (I think only Elementalist has higher MAG than Enigmancer, and it has both actual speed -and- 4 move. Durability is trashy, but what can ya do). Devastate is horrifyingly effective if you have people spamming Rush on your Enigmancer. Also, Strider OC should be passed around like candy to your physical classes for Drop Kick alone. Trail, Swift Shock and Mesmerize aren't bad either. The class itself could be better, but it's at least accurate and has plenty of range. The worst class of the bunch is really Grappler, and even that one has some interesting applications (Grappler OC+IFF make for hilarious positioning manipulation shenanigans and Accelerator can be kinda busted for how little CSP you need to invest for it).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 09, 2013, 07:11:29 AM
Mass Effect - Mostly just accused a villain of being a villain and failing for obvious reasons and then wandered around the big ass city for a while. A bit too big for my tastes but whatever. I was then attacked by assassins in the city, which the party members didn't even seem to notice or care about? I am confused. Kaidan sure dies a lot. <_< Just finished talking to Harkin and grabbing some new crap from the shop.

Final Fantasy Dimensions: Just did the Prologue. Better than a lot of the old FFs at prologues, which we can give it a golfclap for.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on April 09, 2013, 08:10:50 AM
FFD has a slow start. It is the worst part of the game by far IMO. If you don't hate it now, it should only get better for you, unless you hate rotating temps or job-changing systems.

Mana Khemia 2: Chloe is Daria and that is awesome. Enna feels too normal for this group. I get that this is his schtick, but Chloe already feels like the "normal one", even though she still manages to have some personality. Enna just feels like a punching bag. But considering Pepperoni/Ulrika/Goto all alternatingly fill in that role, he's so extraneous.

Battle-wise, the game is shaping up nicely. I like this party, and I just recently got someone from the other team (Puniyo) as a temp and managed to field a full party for a little while. I hope to see more of that. The game really shines with a full party, though a 5-man team is decent. I've been obsessively maxing out the Grow Book as new recipes become available, so I'm waaaay more overpowered than I need to be, but the bosses still manage to put up a challenge at times. Looking forward to more of those.

I miss Pamela's voice clips. :(

I wish I had played this sooner.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on April 09, 2013, 08:21:05 AM
Sadly you don't really get full parties for any meaningful stretch until the bonus chapter (the one unlocked by beating both Ulrika and Raze paths).  In general Mana Khemia 2 kinda assumes you played the first, so bosses start reasonably challenging and stay there.

Enna mostly exists to give Ulrika's party a link to Flay I think.  Character wise I feel like he was just designed to be the opposite of Et, so in practical terms boring as hell.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 09, 2013, 08:51:59 AM
Ulrika's path at least sees you getting more people from the other team as temps at least.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 09, 2013, 05:48:02 PM
The last chapter of Death's Log is written in some weird moon rune language.  Translating it directly is not worthwhile, but worry not, we have found what might be considered a faithful reenactment of the entire sequence of events!

DISCLAIMER: We take no responsibility for any ad-libbing, inconsistencies, and possibly unexpected members of this portrayal.


*Cue Death leaving the Library*

Death: Ok, now to go give the Archon a nice talking to!  That's the best course of action here, right?  ...who am I even talking to?
Archon: Ah, Death, how did things go!?
Death: ...you're the one who caused all the problems here, and your friend the Scribe sort of gave away all that.  How do you THINK things went?
Archon: YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! I am the only one SACRED enough to make decisions! IT's my judgment! THE CORRUPTION IS EVIL!!!!
Death: Says the man being eaten by corruption...
Archon: I DO THE JUDGING NOT YOU!
Death: Um, I thought as one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, I do have a technical ability to judge whoever I damn well please?
Archon: IRRELEVANT! *blasts Death through several pillars on a conveniently large arena sized field*
Death: ...so...Boss fight?
Archon: Boss fight.
*Boss fight ensues, Death Wins after 3 cinematic actions involved in the fight*

Watcher: Ah, now that was quite amusing.  Well done Horseman.
Death: Thanks, I-...wait, who are you?
Watcher: I am the Watcher sent by the council!
Death: Weren't you a character in the first game?
Watcher: Yes.
Death: ...that died at the end of it?
Watcher: This is technically a parallel story that takes place at the exact same time, that event hasn't happened yet!
Death: ...you're not suppose to be here at all, because you're currently with War, and thus this entire sequence is forced isn't it?
Watcher: No I am not, and yes it is.
Death: Good, THEN GET BACK TO THE FIRST GAME NOW!
Crowfather: What the hell did I just miss?
Death: Pointless moment of Fourth Wall Breaking...also, where'd you come from?
Crowfather: ME!? You're the one who fast traveled out of nowhere!  You even accessed the map and everything!
Death: I ask the questions around, here, NOT YOU!
Crowfather: So you're a parrot of a main character?
Death: YES! ...wait I mean...well, I walked into that one...
Crowfather: Silliness aside, you got the Angelic Key!
Death: ...oh, right, I did take that from the Archon, didn't I?  I can go into the Tree of Life now, right?
Crowfather: No, you need the other Key that goes with it.  There's always two halves to every whole!
Death: And I guess this OTHER key is the "Demon Key" *snicker*
Crowfather: Yes, that's exactly what it is.
Death: ...wait, seriously?
Crowfather: Yes, no, GO TO THE DEMONIC UNDERWORLD AND GET THE OTHER KEY! Here, there's a portal over there!
Death: I...uh...ok...

*in the Demonic Land*
Crowfather: Good, you made it!
Death: How'd you get here before me?  I clearly walked into the portal and you were still on the other side.
Crowfather: I have my ways.   Anyway, go talk to Samael, he rules this land and holds the key.
Death: This land doesn't exactly look like it's in good condition...and yes I know this is suppose to be hell, but that doesn't explain why the DEMON LORD'S CASTLE IS IN RUINS.
Crowfather: Well...uhmm...Corruption is here and...uhh...corruption comes from Chaos and...uhh...corruption?
Death: Oh ok...how do you fight that anyway?
Crowfather: YOU DON'T! All you can do is stop it from advancing, CORRUPTION IS ETERNAL!
Death: Whatever, onto Samael's castle...wait, I thought the Demon Lord was called the Destroyer...ah whatever...

*near the Castle*
Ostagoth: Aha, Horseman, fancy seeing you here.
Death: Weren't you in the Land of the Dead?  How'd you end up here.
Ostagoth: It's called good business.
Death: That doesn't begin to make sense.
Ostagoth: Nor does the fact that I'm about to tell you that Samael has disappeared and you'll have to talk to Lilith to have any chance of finding him.
Death: Where'd that come from?
Ostagoth: Good Business.
Death: You're not really going to answer my questions are you?
Ostagoth: I am a goat person, do you really trust what I say?
Death: Fair point.  Anyway, onto to meet Lilith!

*in the castle itself*
Death: Hmm...I wonder where she is...
*Random Demon attacks, Death kills it effortlessly*
Death: That is some welcome you have there. </rough actual line of dialog>
Lilith: Well, I had to make sure you weren't coming to kill me...but then, how could you kill you're own mother?
Death: You are not my mother.
Lilith: Yes I am.
Death: No you aren't.
Lilith: Yes, I really am.
Death: I call bullcrap on that because there was literally nothing leading up to this point.  You were just suppose to be Samael's Mistress, and now you're claiming to be my mother just so I can deny it.
Lilith: And?
Death: And I'm a Nephilim!  Being his mistress implies I'm his son, which is impossible since if you're a demon, that means you slept with an Angel to create me.  So either you're lying or a whore...
Lilith: Oh please, just look at me! Everything about me suggests I'm a succubus, so "Sleeping around" is kind of part of the job description.  Besides, at least I didn't SLAUGHTER MY ENTIRE RACE.
Death: ...that was a low blow and you know it.  Anyway, just give the damn key.
Lilith: I share Samael's bed but not his secrets! </actual line of dialog, roughly>  I can't tell you where he is.
Death: Great, you're useless.
Lilith: What I mean is I don't know where he is now.  I can, however, upgrade your Void Walker into a Phase Walker and let you travel to the past to meet him when the castle was still in good shape and he's still around.  Only works on certain portals that only exist in this castle though.
Death: ...ok, I guess is a fine substitute.  What's the catch?
Lilith: Well, you do realize that you have all the souls of the dead Nephilim within you.  You're trying to restore humanity.  You do realize that to revive one you have to sacrifice the other...
Death: ...go on...
Lilith: And the Nephilim are your brothers, so...
Death: You want me to choose the Nephilim over humanity despite how the entire purpose of my quest was to restore humanity so War would be pardoned for something that is not his fault?
Lilith: Oh, I won't pressure you, but I trust you'll make the right choice...for your mother's sake...
Death: You're trying to guilt trip me...oh screw it, I'm leaving to meet Samael, GOOD BYE.

*one dungeon involving lots of Phase Walker related puzzles later not worth mentioning because they're hard to describe...but they are creative*

Death: Well, here's the throne room...except I'm in the present.  I need to get to the past...oh look, a Phase Walker spot, how convenient, time to go through it!
*he travels back in time*
Samael: Ah, horseman, so the council sends you to the past to do their bidding...wait, no, this is of your own accord.
Death: Wait, if this is the past, how'd you know I was gonna meet you here? How do you know I'm from the future anyway?
Samael: You used the Phase Walker to come here, why else would you use it?
Death: ...touche.  So uh, about that Demon Key...mind giving it to me so I can beat up Corruption and restore humanity?
Samael: Sure.
Death: Well that was ea-...
Samael: IF YOU CAN BEST ME IN COMBAT AND PROVE YOU ARE WORTHY OF IT!
Death: -sy.  Why does every noble demonic guy require such a thing?
Samael: Because we need a reason for a boss fight with a demon lord.
Death: ...right...

*one boss fight later*
Samael: Ok, here's the key.  Just remember Horseman, you must sacrifice one race to save the other.
Death: Let me guess, you want me to bring back the Nephilim too.
Samael: Oh hell no.  I don't honestly care who you bring back.  I just felt it was a sporting thing to remind you that grave sacrifices must be made so you're prepared for the decision ahead.
Death: Oh, well...thank you?  Going back to my time now.
*Back in the present*
Death: Well, time to open the portal to the tree.
Lilith: SAVE THE NEPHILIM PLEASE!!!
Death: ...I thought you were trying to be subtle about that...
Lilith: Uh, er...I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to, son!
Death: uh-huh...yeah, I'm just going to go to the tree now...

*at the tree*
Crowfather: Good, you got the key.  Now, open the door, make the decision, beat up Absalom...
Death: Wait, why do I have to beat up Absalom?
Crowfather: Because the game needs a final boss and we hinted at him earlier.  Did you seriously think that was just a red herring?
Death: No, but I was hoping that was the case.
*Using the soul split because style, Death opens the tree's gate using both keys, walks in*

Absalom: DEATH! You have finally arrived! Now I must explain stuff because we still have some plot points to cover.
Death: Just get on with it.
Absalom: So yeah, you and the other 3 all slaughtered the Nephilim.
Death: Yes, we know this.
Absalom: But something stood out to me...you showed remorse and hesitation when slaughtering us while the other three did not!
Death: So?
Absalom: HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE!? You're Death!  You're suppose to enjoy killing because that's what you do!
Death: It's called "I still have a conscious because I'm a good guy", unlike my brother War, I am NOT a Rob Liefeld Rip Off character.
Absalom: You still used a gun!
Death: That belonged to my brother, and the game required I used it!  That doesn't count!
Absalom: REGARDLESS I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!
Death: For whatever it's worth, in hindsight, if I could do it again, I might have actually spared you and some of the others to avoid this nonsense...but I guess it's too late for that now?  Whatever, let's get this fight over with!

*one straight forward final boss fight later*

Death: Well, that was easier than expected.  Now, to revive humanity!  So...souls of Nephilim...yeah, you kind of have to go away...I guess I have to sacrifice myself too for this to work?  That sucks, but at least War will be saved!  *takes mask off, never see the front of his face from here on in* To restore life, I must sacrifice Death!  ...the irony is just stupid there, let's just jump into the WELL OF SOULS and get this over with.

Narrator: And so Death of the Horseman sacrificed himself and his brothers to bring back humanity.  HOWEVER!!!

*cut to Darksiders 1*

War: I have just coincidentally defeated the destroyer and crushed Mark Hamil's head in my hands!  And it seems all of Heaven and Hell is out to get me, but don't worry, I HAVE ALLIES *summons the other 3*

Narrator: The number of the riders always has been, and always will be four, and so Death shall ride again!

Fury: Hey, we got vague sillouhettes in the ending! That's more than what we got in the first game!
Strife: Sweet, we can kind of see what we look like!  Wait, is it just me or is one of us a chick?
Fury: That would definitely seem to be the case...token female and all that...
Strife: So...which of the two of us is female?
Fury: ...
Strife: ...
War: Oh you two shut up and move on.  This game is not getting a sequel because THQ disbanded and no one bought our franchise...yet...
Death: Disappointing, I know...

--------


So yeah, Darksiders 2 beaten.  I found the game more fun than Darksiders 1 mostly because the battle system is so much better, and it doesn't feel like it has to feed directly of LoZ for dungeon design.  More platforming based elements, less block pushing, boss fights are straight forward though sometimes have some gimmicks to keep things interesting (they aren't anything close to DMC level though), and plenty of options.

The problems are what most people complain about.  Item drop system needs to be improved because there's so much worthless stuff you get throughout.  The Diablo style is neat to a degree, but eventually gets tiring having to check all the gear you keep getting only to find you're filled with obsolete stuff.  Made worse when you go get that out of the way chest to find it has nothing worthwhile in it.

I wouldn't say the plot is worse than the first, but the characters are.  The lack of the Watcher as a consistent character for Death to bounce off of the way War had, and no Central Point akin to Samael in the first game (why they didn't just use the Crowfather for this role the entire game, I don't know) hurts the character interaction, which is a pity because Death himself actually a more fun character than I expected. 

Still, it is what it is, and the goods outweigh the bads, and overall while there are some things this flubs that the first game did better, it's a better overall package I feel.  Long game too for the genre standards (about 20 hours) and I didn't even do all the side quests and everything.  Worth looking into if you want an action game with a bigger emphasis on exploration and all that instead of just straight up battles.  Stands alone well enough on it's own merits since it's sort of a detached parallel story to the first game as opposed to a sequel, while still keeping the game connected.  Just means you'll mist obvious references that help put the game in perspective with the first, but aren't overly important to understanding the game as a whole.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 09, 2013, 10:58:27 PM
Vaguely amused at Jo'ou's ranking of the third set of unlocked classes in XF being in exactly the opposite order from mine!  Probably a good sign, although I agree the third set is a tad underwhelming.  (Hardly bad, but more roleplayers.)  Grappler I thought was hilarious, you get Accelerate on the cheap, and even just *enemy* positioning shenanigans is pretty funny (toss people down cliffs they have to climb back up from & all).  Strider I didn't use too much but respect the power of Drop Kick after I was informed that Strider stats & weapons were underrating it (also I used Felius in Halberdier a decent amount, and Upper Hand is practically the same move).  Enigmancer, uh, when most enemies have some crippling elemental weakness, give me Elementalist OC instead (as amusing as IFF can potentially be in some setups).  Screw you Berserkers, the "run in a straight line" thing means I'd feel way too obligated to attempt to plan my moves two turns in advance or the like so that it doesn't basically pass a turn due to not being in range of an the enemy I wanted to attack.  Mapping out routes around the random map objects and into the enemies not so fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 09, 2013, 11:11:00 PM
Yeah, I loved using Grappler just to chuck people off cliffs. Actually a tactic of some genuine use in a few maps!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 09, 2013, 11:35:05 PM
Such as 2-4, the hardest map in the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 09, 2013, 11:45:30 PM
Enigmancer, uh, when most enemies have some crippling elemental weakness, give me Elementalist OC instead (as amusing as IFF can potentially be in some setups).

I essentially had both in practice - no offensive mage setup worth its salt in XF should be bereft of, at the VERY LEAST, Elementalist EQ forever - and Elementalist OC as well until Emulator kicks in. If you can get Mag +25% (and I'm a hard advocate in favor of it, though you probably won't get it by Act 2 without grinding), even better. Also, Devastate provides immediate crowd control, which Elementalist needs Widespread to apply - and both have the issue of needing Rush to work at its best anyway. They fill different and very useful niches in the end, and ideally you'll have both rather than pick-choose.

EDIT: Also, further in Enigmancer's defense, DISPEL is crazy useful by virtue of being the game's only status healing spell.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on April 10, 2013, 01:37:53 AM
Upper Hand is practically the same move

Isn't Upper Hand specifically less powerful (it's the same as a basic physical, Drop Kick is better). Also, Swift Shock is great for pumping out melee damage over time. I'd also say that for Strider hype, AIM + 25% is a great pick up for physical fighters since without it, most classes for a lot of the game are hitting in the 70% range and it's at least not the final move to be learned.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 10, 2013, 02:04:30 AM
AIM +25% is useful, yes. Especially if you manage to also grab Secutor EQ, since that mitigates a lot of the issue with axe accuracy. Strider's stats are kind of shaky for the kind of skills it gets, but its general skill load is desirable for a lot of physical builds. It's cool like that. Also, Upper Hand works backwards in terms of power (lower height than enemy, better, also being able to hit higher altitudes than yours and ITE). Problem is mostly being in Halberdier OC, which is kinda bad otherwise.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 10, 2013, 03:59:57 AM
Drop Kick's great and I find using physical builds without it kinda painful, 3 range vs. no 3 range. It having good power is just gravy. Also even if you have Upper Hand anyway, having both skills is very nice (one exploits downwards elevation, one upwards).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on April 10, 2013, 08:14:56 AM
Strider's a good class for Spoiler PC. Her badonkadonk is perfect for Drop Kick.

Also, in Ayesha news. Beat Grand Dragon. Easily the toughest superboss fight in a Gust game I've experienced. No clear and easy way to cheese. Combination of God Miracle Drug, Forbidden Capsule giving the occasional tripleturn, Secret Remedy with lots of buffing, Exa Bomb or Lightning Stern when I could (managed to Blind and Hold him a few times). Good equips though not as good as they could be. Didn't stack Skill Up, Red Power, Soul Words, and Stats + 6 enough. Oh well. Motherfucker is dead when I was on my last legs. Used the last Forbidden Capsule on Juris, attacked twice and Hail Mary'd his Special, heard the music come on, much rejoicing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on April 10, 2013, 08:58:50 AM
Picked up Lollipop Chainsaw.  I haven't met her yet but I'm pretty sure I'm in love with Juliet's older sister, Cordelia.

I'm not sure if this game is weirder than No More Heroes, but it's probably gonna be close.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 10, 2013, 02:30:27 PM
Drop Kick/Trail both work very well for that PC. Strider OC Is fantastic on the last PC and Felius both, it takes advantage of how heavy their unique gear is.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 10, 2013, 02:59:15 PM
Bioshock Infinite: The deadliest weapon from Bioshock once again proved it was OP. Successfully recovered some gunsmithing tools from an impound. Sort of.

Uh. Yeah. This game went really, really weird all of the sudden. Good weird! Just weird.

Also, it distresses me a little bit about how some of the rhetoric from this game is so clearly of the era it is basing off of, but wouldn't have been out of place during last year's election. I know that that's the point, but still.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 10, 2013, 05:01:31 PM
I feel like Edna just spent the last 2 hours mocking little girls for no reason.
And she's pretty much like Seymour from FFX.
...
In that I don't really know whether she has a weird suit or she's exposing her belly.


So far Berserker is good with Rush but rushing him every 3 turns is a pain.
My strider is downright pathetic... But I guess you're not really supposed to give her a bow.
Tony pretty much doesn't have any redeeming qualities anymore.

Quote
Such as 2-4, the hardest map in the game.
Yes I was going to mention XF being wayy more sadistic than Dark Souls
I checked a faq to see what were the bloody requirements for winning this battle. The faq mentioned nothing aside from "By now you should have maxed every class. Follow my exact same builds and steps, and you'll win this battle".
The most useless faq writer.


Quote
I got a whole one on my first run through the game. How anyone even found the super-sadistic bonus areas is beyond me. Nifflas went a little overboard on the secrets with this one.

I found it near the beginning of chapter 3!
By then I was starting to get accostumed to the controls and wasn't exactly ready for a Super Meat Boy challenge so I just ran away!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 10, 2013, 05:05:13 PM
Quote
Such as 2-4, the hardest map in the game.
Yes I was going to mention XF being wayy more sadistic than Dark Souls
I checked a faq to see what were the bloody requirements for winning this battle. The faq mentioned nothing aside from "By now you should have maxed every class. Follow my exact same moves and builds and steps, and you'll win this battle".
The most useless faq writer.

For 2-4, first you have to lower the health of three enemies to Crisis level (below 25% mHP). Then, you have 100 turns to either wipe the enemy forces or rush to the gate. Oh, and nobody on your side can die. Have fun.

I love that map.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 10, 2013, 05:20:25 PM
Yeah I won it by turning EVERYBODY into excavators with long range attacks.
I nearly lost near the end because Tony, but used Sacred Slayer OC for infinite turns.
I think this battle would be pretty much unwinnable with decent enemy AI (enemies targetting the weakest PC and trying to maximize damage)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 10, 2013, 05:31:27 PM
I often used Labby's Replica to bait enemies in that map. The real kicker is trying to manhandle the goddamned Elementalists there - everything else kinda sucks (Sentinels are egregiously bad against Elementalist OC and Geomancers are just egregiously bad). And Iunno, enemies usually didn't fail at their AI in that map (of all things >_>) and I still could manage just fine.

EDIT: Still, that map is -never- trivial. It always takes me a minimum of two resets for me to handle it, since your strategy and planning pretty much have to be top-notch at all times. Yet, it still allows for so many ways to win - Grapplers could have a FIELD DAY there by positioning enemies in places they don't want to be with the corner crevices, for instance. Your Excavator spam also works, and honestly it surprises the HELL out of me, since I never consider using Excavators offensively!

tl;dr I love XF.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 10, 2013, 05:43:49 PM
Oh right I play games.

Fire Emblem: International Plot Writing of Stupid - I'm not even done with the Valm arc and the writing is egregiously dumb.

<ExcellusMikeMeyers> RARR WE HAVE YOUR SISTER FIGHT FOR US OR SHE DIES
<Yen'fay> okay
* Say'ri escapes, joins the party and chops heads.
<ExcellusMikeMeyers> RARR WE DON'T HAVE YOUR SISTER ANYMORE FIGHT WITH US ANYWAY BECAUSE UH AVRIL LAVIGNE
<Yen'fay> sure why not
* Yen'fay fights Say'ri, GIVES ZERO FUCKS, gets zero lines and gets one-rounded by Morgan.
<Morgan> Happy birthday!
<Say'ri> NOOOOOOOOOOOOO BROTHER YOU DIED TO SAVE ME
<Chrom> MIKE MEYERS YOU SCHEMING BASTARD
<Players> Wait a minute, he wasn't mind-controlling them? I mean, hypnotoad is a bad plot device, but it at least makes the terminal brain damage make SENSE.
<Chrom> SCHEMING BASTARD MIKE MEYERS MUST PAY
<Players> i am twelve and what is this


And let's not talk about the dropped Tiki plot threads please. Gameplay-wise, I finished all the child paralogues from my married ladies and beat the Tiki joining map. Fun little defense mission. Now, time to advance plot again and slaughter the universe with my overpowered children and reclassed PCs. Did you know Miriel can ride a pony with the best of them? Yeah.

LATE AS FUCK EDIT #grefter:

Quote from: Fenny
I feel like Edna just spent the last 2 hours mocking little girls for no reason.
And she's pretty much like Seymour from FFX.
...
In that I don't really know whether she has a weird suit or she's exposing her belly.

Answer: Yes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on April 11, 2013, 07:23:14 AM
Dark Souls DLC:

The environments and random mooks you fight are uninspiring but the bosses are best among the game.  Three times I got invaded by people who kept spamming HELLO and I'M SORRY speaking stones at me.  I apparently am missing one or two of them.   The best part of the DLC was following a cat that lead me to an invisible wall where I rescued a dog and summoned the dog for the boss.  He didn't do anything but hey it's a dog.

I wasn't following Dark Souls 2 information until I saw this, get hyped.

(http://i.minus.com/inordDzzx1YTK.gif)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 11, 2013, 01:27:27 PM
FE13: Robin Suepowers vs. Goldmember Red Riding Valmar's Horn MR. I RIDE A GODDAMN HORSE WHILE SITTING ON MY THRONE - Valm arc stupid finished! Valhart's offense is kinda scary, but it doesn't matter so much when he gets one-rounded by Robin/Maribelle pair-ups. I'm growing increasingly convinced that Dark Magic completely breaks the game, even moreso when the person toting it is a child character. Seriously, I could've had Laurent solo THE ENTIRE MAP with a roughly 0% chance of it going wrong. Now, for more trainwreck.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 11, 2013, 04:16:40 PM
ShF3: Almost done with S2! Grinding for skill levels in the optional dungeon, as well as regular levels for the people I haven't used much. Penko's level 7 already and I'm not even done the first map - this is much easier than I remember, even with the boosted enemy defense.

Borderlands 2: Got this as a gift last week, playing Maya. It's definitely more engaging than the first game so far - Phaselock is more fun than any of the action skills the original four had to offer (especially since I mainly played Mordecai, and ye gods that falcon was lame), and ditching the bonuses to individual weapon types frees up slots for more entertaining things like magnetizing enemies and shooting them with acid clouds, which heals you on a kill.

Writing's fun too. The Lilith-cult quests? Gold.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 11, 2013, 04:42:35 PM
Orcs Must Die- Playing a little of the first game, I am curious as to how it holds up. Holy crap.

A: You have way way *way* less power. I didn't realize how badly I missed things like Chilled thunderstorm and trinkets till they were gone.
B: Enemies like fliers seem to move way faster.
C: Fuck Nightmare in OMD1. Three seconds to set up!? Fail.
D: You get less coins to work with. Both in terms of starting amounts and how thin the first few waves are. Robot definitely refined the game's wave design in 2.

I knew there was a large gap in quality between the games, but I didn't realize how big until I replayed 1.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 11, 2013, 04:52:26 PM
"And Iunno, enemies usually didn't fail at their AI in that map (of all things >_>) and I still could manage just fine."

Well in the same battle there was:
- Enemies not attacking until PCs were in their own range
- *Mage 1 uses Fire on Berserker. 161 damage. Mage 2 gets a turn ... He moves next to Berserker and does a 3 damage physical*
- Sentinels moving up to Tony and then not doing anything.

I looked at artwork.
No, Edna is wearing a dress, not the most ignominious corset on earth.
Yes, Seymour is showing his belly. He doesn't have weird hair on his belly like I always thought, but some kind of rune. Disappointment.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 11, 2013, 04:55:30 PM
Egads, XF AI never failed as hard as that for me.

Also, your horror towards Edna amuses me so much. It's kinda great.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 11, 2013, 05:08:01 PM
C: Fuck Nightmare in OMD1. Three seconds to set up!? Fail.

I liked that element of it. "No setup time, you must build and defend simultaneously" was the core of OMD1 Nightmare to me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 11, 2013, 07:12:28 PM
It feels like a way of encouraging rote memorization of the levels rather than building on the fly. I'd be more tolerant of it if there weren't serious problems with getting barriers down in time/how strapped you are for coins early.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on April 12, 2013, 01:40:54 AM
Fire Emblem 8: Eph Hard Mode.

Feels a lot harder than it did when I played it on NM, so I guess it works. Enemies are moderately threatening...

Except to Tana and Ross. Who destroy motherfucking worlds. The second time Ross turned out Godly for me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 12, 2013, 04:54:14 AM
Star Ocean 4 - Finished. Final levels in the low 60's, around 45 hours or so. I expected this game to be worse than SO3 but by the time the dust settled I realised it really wasn't. SO3 at its best > SO4, to be sure, but SO3 spends too much time not at its best, which is why I haven't yet replayed the game any time in the past 8 years. SO4 fixes so many Tri-Ace problems, it's great. The start is pretty fast! (The first 15 minutes still suck, but you quickly get multiple PCs to play around with and things get good.) The PCs are available instead of being hidden behind stupid unintuitive split-paths! Nobody starts ridiculously underlevelled! Similarly, on writing, I think SO3 at its best does better than this game, but then it decided to go and have almost no plot at all lategame. Past that they are somewhat similar, with a mix of a few surprisingly good characters (Edge, Faize, and Myuria for me, though Reimi and Bacchus are also decent) and a few gimmicky support characters who range from vaguely amusing (Adray/Meracle) to obnoxious kid characters (Roger/Lymle). Antagnonists aren't much (except the main one), NPCs occasionally have badass scenes out of nowhere though. Scenes do tend to be a bit longer than necessary, but I have a hard time being too bothered by that (I survived Xenosaga, SO4 actually has a cast). They do sometimes fall victim to goofy Japanese tropes and questionable translation (Edge uses the word "evolution" to apply to things which... aren't evolution, and does so quite a lot), too, but there's also lots of good stuff. Private actions also help, this is certainly the SO I did them most in. Fully animating and voice acting a lot of that is a huge help; I know most games don't have the budget for this but goodness, character work just isn't the same with text alone. I have particular love for Bacchus' and Myuria's plotlines which are exposed through these.

Gameplaywise it seemed easier than the average SO, but certainly not piss-easy or anything, and has higher difficulties for replays. I have a lot of good things to say about the different PCs; they controlled differently and were almost all pretty fun to use. Character balance was pretty solid overall too, although Reimi/Bacchus/Myuria felt a bit better than the rest while Meracle definitely felt like the LVP. I'm really appreciative of how the mages felt in this game, I probably controlled Myuria more than anyone else after she joined and I think Lymle would have been fun too, I just hate her. Obviously this is a ridiculous improvement over SO2's mages, and I feel unqualified to comment on 3's because of aforementioned acquisition/level issues. <.< Back on topic, I miss the fury system, certainly, but they did a good job of keeping some of its crucial anti-stunlock features (combos are inherently limited, rush mode exists, key solo enemies have no-guard). I don't think four PCs helps the game either (harder to switch to one person on a dime, more AI PCs is meh). So the overall battle system of 4 is worse, yes, but avoiding those aforementioned pitfalls probably made me like it more in the end. Targetting system could be better but didn't hurt the game as badly as I expected, if you really need to change targets you can do so via moving the camera.

Game gets an 8/10. If it is indeed better than SO3 like I am currently thinking, then it now ranks as my favourite ARPG. It can get a golfclap for that.


Dark Souls - Mmm. To some extent the game is weighing on me now. I still like it, certainly, but it feels like it has gone on a bit too long. I'm nearing 40 hours which is just too long for the type of game this is (it wants to be a NES Zelda/Castlevania/Mega Man pretty clearly), I figured it'd be a fun one to replay but getting less and less sure of that. Anyway I avenged the Fire Keeper (I have nooo clue who "Lautrec" is, I didn't recognise him, DARK SOULS PLOT!!!) and mercifully got a lot of Humanity for it, since I was feeling like the game was starving me of it needlessly. Currently dying to Ornstein and Smaugh, though I've come very close at least. Hardest boss since the Bell Gargoyles, definitely.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on April 12, 2013, 05:01:09 AM
FE13 Lunatic Chrom Semi-solo:  Semi because actual solo is completely impossible.  Used Frederick teamup up to the point where wireless features are unlocked, then it's full solo from there.  No grinding on random Risen or Outworld gate, anything else is pretty much legal.

Early levels are hell.  Got lucky with a Tiki Tear random item found which let me solo Donnel's paralogue, then I was strong enough to solo the corresponding Chapter.  Gets progressively easier until around Chapter 18 where enemies start damaging you again.  Went Lord 20->Cavalier 20->Paladin 20->Great Knight 18ish->Great Lord 20 and now back to Paladin for the balanced defenses.  Should have gone Great Lord much earlier, Aether is so much better than Luna.  Great Knight is damned strong until you get to the chapters where enemies use special weapons because it's weak to everything.

And now I'm on Chapter 22, which I expected in advance to have problems with.  And hoo boy I was right.  This is the one with the 12 Risen with A rank weapons, each of which has comparable stats to (capped) Chrom.  And they gang up on you so there's no way to fight them one at a time.  Gonna have to play around with this one a bit, but it may be a complete stopping point since there's very little I can improve upon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 12, 2013, 05:40:55 AM
Fire Emblem 5: THE GAME IS DONE! IT'S FUCKING DONE!  I completed it technically yesterday but whatever, I FINALLY FINISHED IT.  I had to do massive save state scumming too because seriously, THIS GAME HAD A MAP THAT TOOK 93 TURNS.  There are people who actually watched me play this too...

That said, I dunno how to rate this game.  I had more fun with it than I expected BUT I did cheat the system with saved states, and I know I would have found the game exceedingly annoying and frustrating without that.  Guess I have to rate it based off what it was like playing without saved states, and it's...not good.  I still probably respect it more than FE4 because it's far more traditional style and it did invent a lot of ideas that later FE games would use or modify.  Honestly, that's the game's big problem is that it's rough around the edges across the board.  If they were to make an FE11/12 style remake for the game, it could be really good.  Note that the base game FE5 has more to work with than FE11/12 so keeping things the same but adding in modern mechanics might actually be enough.

Things the game added on near as I can tell that later games incorporated/modified/etc. that started here:

-Legitimate Speed Threshold for doubling (4 points)
-Con stat to deal with weight (hey, Axes aren't laughable now!)
-Rescue Mechanics (WHY DID FE11/12 NOT ADD THIS IN AT ALL!?  True, FE13 didn't have this, but it had Pair Up instead so I view that as a lateral extension)
-Conventional item trading.  FE1/3 might have had this, I don't know, but FE4 did not.
-Weapon Ranks based upon usage of said weapon

Probably others but yeah, at least the game took steps in the right direction.  Skill System helped keep some diversity for cast members other than stats, though ALL STATS CAP AT 20 (but HP) was a very poor decision.  The only good thing that comes from it is that understatted Prepromos can keep up with legitimately raised units better but meh.  Fatigue System...is overhated.  It's not a GOOD system, but I don't feel it ruined the game and it does have work arounds if you need a crucial unit for a specific map (just make sure you have S Drinks and you're fine.) 

Dismounting was neat but god damn did they fuck it up for indoors when they made a grand total of TWO PCs capable of using Lances on foot and they both have an E in them (one of them only gets it on promotion to boot),  and there's a ton of PCs who use ONLY Lances when mounted and can only use Swords when unmounted, so you need to go out of your way to dismount them just to get some sword levels (and there's at least 2 Axe Knights that can't use Axes on Foot, despite there being on-foot Axe users throughout the game)

Capturing was a cool mechanic.  Could be really good if it was fine tuned at that!

Anyway,thoughts on characters I used throughout the game for significant enough time; due to Fatigue, there's a lot more than normal:

Leaf: Sucky Lord Syndrom.  Not particularly strong, hits a level cap and can't promote for a while (though nowhere near Roy level), relies heavily on his Prf Weapon (which is good but one of the lesser Prf weapons), and his promotion SUCKS.  How much so?  +1 to most stats (most people get at least a few +2s), no boost to Con, no new weapons or skills.  At least Roy had legitimate stat bonuses and got a Super Sword to go with it!  Especially insulting because he had like the best promotion ever in FE4, and apparently THAT'S IN THEG AME'S DATA.  He does get the Blaggi Sword but there are other arguably better users of it (Fergus mostly)

Finn: Really damned good.  His Prf Brave Lance is amazing, he's got good stats, and mounted.  The one issue is the Sword thing I mentioned earlier but he joins early enough that usage of him in early indoor maps will probably get his Sword Ranking good for end game.

Othin/Halvan: The Fighter Duo AND THEY'RE ACTUALLY GOOD.  Othin's Pugi is ridiculous, Halvan gets a Brave Axe early, both have good skills and stats, high build makes them good at capturing, etc.  How did later Fighter duos fuck this up so much?

Saphy: I used her a decent amount early on because she was one of the only staff users (Fatigue system and all that), and she's the only one who can use Hammerene.  She got an A in Staves early too, which was damned handy, though stopped being significant...until the final chapter where I realized I needed as many Staff users as possible to make it sane and several of my staff users were Fatigued, so yay!  Never promoted though.

Dagda: Jeigan Warrior!  He's about what you expect.  To his credit, he makes a theoretically good unit to bait out Ballistaes due to usually being able to survive 2 shots and Duel will make them fire twice at him, s they run out of charges faster.  Did I mention the only sane way to deal with distant ballistaes is that way?

Fergus: Being a Sword Knight, he never has to worry about Mounted vs. Unmounted for weapon purposes which is a nice boon.  Beyond that, just a solid overall unit who can use the Beo Sword for a nice late game boost and can even wield the Blaggi Sword.  Additionally, he gets the least penalties unmounted, only losing 1 Str and Def (and that Strength loss disappears after promotion).

Lara: Because I missed Lifis, she was my only Thief for a while.  This made her automatically useful for most indoor maps so she never was used outdoors just to keep her Fatigue down.  Then she became a Dancer out of nowhere and...became useful as a Dancer because seriously, getting extra turns on your staff users is a HUGE deal in this game.  She could still steal from enemies as a dancer but AHAHAHAH no to that.  Awesome when she'd get a Double Action.  ONly reason to keep her with a Sword on I felt was to avoid an enemy instantly capturing her; otherwise she's free inventory space on the map or something.

Karin: Unimpressive Peg Knight.  She has that Unmounted Issue and joins during several indoor chapters with an E Rank in Lances so she can't even get a good weapon when she finally can be a flier.  Runs risk of being killed by Bows, etc.  To be fair, she is mounted so good at capturing, and she's mobile so good for rescues and just reaching certain areas.  More of a utility than a combat unit.

Asvel: I used a lot of Grahf Calibur early on, his Prf Wind Tome with high Might and 50% Crit, but managed to hold onto it just long enough that he could fry a scary Wyvern Boss.  Took him a while to get that A in Wind for Tornado too.  There was a time where I was afraid I was running out of legitimate Magic though found a spot with a lot of Thunder Mages, so he at least had that much, and later shelled out a lot of cash on Wind when it was storebought.  Good Mage in any event.

Nanna: Mounted Healer outdoors, indoors she's basically a healer who isn't auto-captured because she can use Swords.  The Earth Sword is really good to be fair, and made a lot of use out of it in a pinch and kept her alive.  She has a rough beginning in any event, especially due to low Staff levels, but she works her way into a competent unit.   The most important thing she has, though, is Charisma.  Adding 10% Hit/Evade to all units near-bye is a godsend in a game like this, especially since after a point, Evade Tanking is the only thing that works as your defense doesn't get high enough to deal with raw damage.

Shiva: The game's Navarre.  He's about what you expect, which is to say, good at the fast, evasive swordsmen thing.  He also has Sol so he's a little more durable, and even capped Defense without me realizing at one point (might have been the scroll I used on him); since I gave him the King Sword, he was another Charisma user, but that's not him so much as the weapon, so doesn't count.  Still, extremely good and reliable unit.

Selfin: Mounted Archer who has Duel...ok, that works.  The only problem is duel can bite her in the ass against people she can't counter giving them extra turns.  Nothing special outside of the early Brave Bow she gets, and hey, being a Bow Knight means she keeps her weapon ranks on foot because they're functionally Archers indoors.  That's SOMETHING at least.

Pahn: Lara turned into a Dancer, I lost my Thief...but I gained this guy at the exact same time, whose a Thief Fighter, so he basically filled in for her role.  He was basically Thief Lara who didn't feel like a complete liability in combat, so he could occasionally sneak in a kill, or bait out a hit or something.  Again, mostly a utility, but he worked.

Eda: The game's Minerva!  She has a shaky start, being basically Karin who can do damage but less evasive.   Her main problem, however, is her god awful sword levels from start; she starts with a D, and joins a little too late to salvage that so she's pretty much a pure Outdoor unit.  I did do some Elite Sword abuse with her late, and she actually capped Defense without me noticing (due to Mounted gains), and ended up being a solid late game unit.  she's also a flying mounted unit, so she's good for capturing, rescues and general mobility.

Dean: BEST MALE WYVERN EVER! ...ok, that's a blatant lie because FE10 Haar exists, but he's still pretty damn good.  He's a Prepromo with passable stats for his level, so he's strong out of the gate, and they even give him a good Prf Weapon.  Good Attack, Brave Effect, and Ambush, so he can legitimately tank out enemy swarms.  Also has Movement stars so he randomly gets extra turns, making him great for covering ground.  To top it all off, he joins with an A in Swords, so he can work for indoor missions too, though Wyverns take a significant stat penalty on foot unlike most.  One thing I learned late was that he and Eda get a Hit and Avoid bonus when next to each other, which would have been nice to know.  The Dragon Lance is a pain in the ass to get granted, but it's also extremely important.  Naturally, usual Flying Unit utilities go here.

Linoan: Resire Tank, can use staves (and decent rank to start with),  free Promotion later in the game so she doesn't steal a Knight's Crest, Lightning is a good spell...yeah, solid unit.

Mareeta: She's the game's token Female Myrmidon (ala Marisa,Fir, Mia, etc.) and she's...arguably the best ever?  How you may ask?  Well, let me explain all her benefits.  First off, a movement star, albeit only one, she can still get random double turns.  Secondly, Pursuit Critical ratio of 5...which means the second hit on her attacks is almost always a critical hit.  She starts with Luna, which is 100% ITD in this game and can stack with Crits.  She also joins with the Mareeta Sword, which is a nice broken weapon, and has good stats.  If that wasn't enough, she can learn Astra later in the game...which can stack with LUna and crits...yes, she can randomly hit a guy 5 times for ITD damage, each hit making a separate check.  THIS HAPPENED ON THE FINAL BOSS TOO.  I literally warped her to the final boss, threw her at him with the Mareeta Sword, and well, hilarity ensued.  Excellent unit, in any event.

Fred: Sort of just used him as a sub if I had free space, because he had the stats to not totally fail mid-game.  Not much to say about him, other than I guess he could use Magic swords better than most fighters but meh.

Olwen: So the FAQ said to not get her (or let her die) and use the alternative guy instead.  That FAQ gets RoR'd because yes, Olwen's stats are iffy for her level, but hand her a decent scroll (Fala works well I found), and she'll even out well enough, and stats is all that guy had.  What does Olwen have?  Divine Thunder, a Brave Spell with high Attack.  This was such a nice trump card I can't stress it enough. That's not all she has though; when that was running out, the game hands her the Holy Sword, a SECOND Prf Weapon that is pretty much the best Sword in the game.

How good is that weapon?  Here are stats:

Holy Sword: 17 Might, 65 Hit, 20 Crit, Hits Twice, Effective vs. Mounted Units, grants Prayer, +10 Magic, 60 Uses, 11 Weight
Brave Sword:  15 Might, 75 Hit, Hits Twice, 60 Uses, 14 Weight

I was tempted to show off a few others, but you can Serenes Forest that crap if you're really curious.  In any event, that weapon is amazing and she can use it on foot too, making her great at slaughtering mages.   So between having 2 great Prf Weapons, joining earlier and the game gives tools to offset the stat edge, I can't imagine the other guy is better.  Ok, his immediate stat edge is significant, but frankly, Divine Thunder is such a huge boon, and later the Holy Sword. Stat differences can be made up for, unique weapons like that cannot.

Sleuf: Pure Staff Bot.  He kind of completely replaced Saffy later on due to the Movement stars and all that, whenever I needed a pure staff both, and he's good for that reason alone.  No seriously; joining with A in Staves is immediately a character worth considering.  I can't stress this enough; Status Staves, Warp Staves, Restore, etc.  are a HUGE deal in this game.

Sarah: What the hell is wrong with her?  I recruited her, saw the FAQ hype her to hell, was going "She can't be that good" then next thing I know she's constantly double acting, murdering things on counters with Critical hits, and STILL capable of using Staves.  I look into why and well, the reasons?  5 Movement Stars, has Prayer, Wrath AND Elite so she's very good at getting levels, weapon levels...kind of suck, but this was after I farmed a number of Thunder Tomes and she can use Light Magic too.  Sarah's an absolute Monster who can use staves, and is the only character who can use the Kia staff (...really, fan-translators?  Couldn't call it Cure?) to get Evayle in your team.   Great character, etc.

Amalda: Sort just a character I subbed in when I had characters who were fatigued, because she's mounted and could use staves.  She worked passably enough for this role.  Not-amazing, but she was never a primary character.

Delmud: He joins late and is a worse Fergus who has Charisma.  This is strangely more useful than it sounds because Charisma is great.  Mostly used him for late game filler but he got the job done.

Sety: So...the overpowered Wind Mage God of Death that Luc only DREAMS he could be on this remote level of amazingness returns from FE4 in this game...and he's still broken.   First off, A in Staves, see the usual things about that.  Secondly, decent stats out of the gate for his level.  Most importantly?

Holsety: 20 Might, 90 Hit, 30 Crit, 1-2 Range, 6 Weight, 50 Uses, Effective vs. Fliers, +20 Speed, +20 Skill

Yep, his broken weapon of "no, fuck YOU Fire Emblem 4" returns in this game.  Fatigue meant I couldn't use him in the last map (sadness...), but he more than pulled his weight in the chapters I deployed him.  I guess he's comparable to Athos because he's ludicrously overpowered but gained late enough that he almost feels fair.

Galzus:  As if Mareeta wasn't good enough, she's also the only one capable of recruiting this guy, whose really good. At first glance, he looks like a normal Prepromo Hero who joins late...ok, whatever...

Then you look closer at him, and see he's got legitimately very good stats, notably caps 3 stats, high build, good HP, and A in both Swords and Axes.  Then yo look again and see he has both Astra and Luna just like Mareeta.  To top it off, he also joins with actually good weapons, so you can literally use him the instant he's recruited and he'll pull his weight.  He's kind of like FE6 Karel, only in a game where you're more likely to use him due to the Fatigue system.


And there you have it, FE5 is done and I don't think I'll ever touch it again!  I think I respect this game more than FE11/12 because it at least tried to take the series in the right direction and the following games definitely followed suit just fine tuning what FE5 up with, while FE11/12 sort of conveniently ignored a lot of the good ideas FE5 established that other games incorporated (like, oh, rescuing), but at the same time, I can't claim it is a better game, because, well, it's not.  It's a 1999 game that has the polish of a 1992 game, and it has aged about as well as you expected (ie not at all), and I don't think I could have played it if not for saved state abuse.  The game's difficulty is not an exaggeration; it's basically Rom Hack level hard, and as snow said, DEMANDS THAT YOU ARE PSYCHIC to play it.

Unsure what i give it, kneejerk says 4/10, but might be too generous, though I do think the game deserves serious props for at least trying to fix a lot of the issues of the earlier games, even if it didn't quite pull it off.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 12, 2013, 06:19:30 AM
Dark Souls - Mmm. To some extent the game is weighing on me now. I still like it, certainly, but it feels like it has gone on a bit too long. I'm nearing 40 hours which is just too long for the type of game this is (it wants to be a NES Zelda/Castlevania/Mega Man pretty clearly), I figured it'd be a fun one to replay but getting less and less sure of that. Anyway I avenged the Fire Keeper (I have nooo clue who "Lautrec" is, I didn't recognise him, DARK SOULS PLOT!!!) and mercifully got a lot of Humanity for it, since I was feeling like the game was starving me of it needlessly. Currently dying to Ornstein and Smaugh, though I've come very close at least. Hardest boss since the Bell Gargoyles, definitely.

Yessss delicious O&S deaths.

In a something Laurtec's a guy you can spring from a jail cell in the Undead Parish.  Doing so will allow you to summon him for the Bell Gargoyles.  He'll hang out next to the Firelink Keeper until he murders her.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 12, 2013, 06:28:33 AM
I keep mentally going over the Undead Parish in my mind and can't picture a jail cell, nor do I recall anyone hanging out next to the Fire Keeper except crazy dude #1. I think I'd recall anyone in an outfit as stupid-looking as that boss I just killed, but nope, nothing. <.<

edit: FAQed where he appears. Y'know, I don't actually recall finding that room... I remember the corpse in the barrel near the Bell Gargoyles and the mage, but I can't picture this prison cell described. Oh well, maybe my memory is just shot.

Also, you need to be in human form to summon, apparently? Well I guess I should be glad it does -something-. Feels like a pretty hard to sell to use humanity on anything but kindling bonfires to me, though... the Dark Souls risk/reward system does not encourage human form -> summon because if you die, good lord that's a big resource down the drain for nothing. There's probably a way to get humanity that I haven't discovered though. (In that the best I'm aware of would be farming rats.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 12, 2013, 06:36:16 AM
I keep mentally going over the Undead Parish in my mind and can't picture a jail cell, nor do I recall anyone hanging out next to the Fire Keeper except crazy dude #1. I think I'd recall anyone in an outfit as stupid-looking as that boss I just killed, but nope, nothing. <.<

The jail cell's hidden on the second floor behind a breakable door.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 12, 2013, 11:02:28 AM
NEB: I still think O&S are the hardest fight in the game (possibly excepting the final), so...good luck with that! There is an NPC summon in the hall outside the fog gate, though, and I do find that having a distraction makes that fight vastly easier.

Personally, I found the game more fun on replays. Understanding how the system works/knowing generally where things are/how to approach the game in general. There's a surprising amount of flexibility to the kind of characters you can make that you don't necessarily notice at first when it's all oh god oh god I'm going to die. You can play around with different builds and you die a lot less so the game's much quicker (I can bash through it in about twenty hours now; my first run was three or four times that). You're about halfway through, for reference.

The best humanity farming spot is in the DLC. Prior to that, getting yourself summoned is probably less painful than farming rats. And yeah, being human = you can summon/invade/get invaded. Otherwise it's just cosmetic. I stay human all the time just because I tend to dress light I'd rather not look at a withered corpse if I don't have to.

No sniper hate?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 12, 2013, 11:04:27 AM
And the best place for humanity farming in the normal game is still upcoming.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 12, 2013, 11:07:51 AM
I could never stomach fighting Jim Henson's Skeletor Babies though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on April 12, 2013, 01:48:15 PM
Game gets an 8/10. If it is indeed better than SO3 like I am currently thinking, then it now ranks as my favourite ARPG. It can get a golfclap for that.

Did not expect this. High praise from the Elf indeed. Maybe the game isn't quite as bad as I remember it being after all, might be worth seriously considering a replay  :) Might even go for the PS3 version since that's the console I feel most comfortable/am most active on now, heard Reimi was sort of nerfed on that one though. 

I don't even actually hate Lymle (the dog rocks), I used her in my original team Meracle/Bacchus/Lymle/Serah, it's just the FaizeXLymle stuff I was uncomfortable with =/

Quote
Meracle definitely felt like the LVP

http://www.thatcutesite.com/uploads/2010/10/sad_cat.jpg

What makes you say that if you don't mind me asking? =) I started using Meracle right from when she joined and she was doing some serious damage right from the start. Comet Impact is serious beast. Easily received her 50'000, 70'000 and 99'999 damage trophies without breaking a sweat and this was with no item creation. Also she absolutely destroys Armaros Manifest/the insect boss with her Hurricane Claws from the cave with her Blindside > skill spam combo  :) Speaking of which she has one of the best Blindsides in the game with it's invincibility frame. She's a Beat S kind of girl  :) I can't remember if she ever does really well with Rush or not but she is powerful and like Reimi she also gets the Berserk + Focus combo with mad critical hit rates so she is a serious power/crit machine. Drill Spike and X-Claw are crazy good too~

**

What did you think of Arumat and also any thoughts on the game's Item Creation system? =)

Did you get any character endings/the full/extended endings?

Oh yeah are you doing post game?

Thanks  :)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 12, 2013, 02:38:47 PM
Fire Emblem 13 (Or How IntSys Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The Endless Siege Tome Rush Kekekekekeke) - See title. Two resets so far on Five Gemstones, who is an aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasshoooooooooooooooole of a map. Constantly rising reinforcements of Mire Sorcerers make for such a dick move and the chipping adds up pretty fiercely. Then, there are the reinforcements who show up to eat Anna's face every time you open a chest. I think I reflexively pressed L+R+Start the minute I saw two Generals, two Sages and two Heroes at the ready uniformly in her range. Also, Assassins are a Peggie's worst nightmare. Alas.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 12, 2013, 03:12:20 PM
Bioshock Infinite: Arrived at Comstock house. Door was locked by fingerprints, but that's fine! We have a plan!

Then things got weirder.

On that note.

I know there isn't anything particularly revolutionary about this literary connection (they pretty much hit you on the head with it early game) but I feel the need to quote something amusing Ashley and I found last night.

GUIL (tired,  drained, but stilt an edge of impatience; over the mime):
No... no... not for us, not like  that. Dying is not romantic,  and death is
not a  game which will  soon be  over... Death is not anything ... death  is
not... It's the absence  of presence,  nothing more ... the  endless time of
never coming back ... a gap you  can't see, and when the wind blows  through
it, it makes no sound...


Just an amusing phrasing. I'm probably reading a bit too heavily into it. Also, of course,

GUIL: Our  names  shouted  in  a certain  dawn  ...  a  message  ...  a
summons... there must have been  a moment,  at the beginning, where we could
have said-no. But somehow we missed it.

Honestly, Bioshock Infinite is largely reminding me I should reread/rewatch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Which is always a good call by games.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 12, 2013, 03:53:01 PM
Quick response time before work.


El Cid: Cool, and I figured as much, with regards to replayability, but I guess 60-80 hour first playthrough + 20 hour replays is much more than I would be willing to sink into this game, which ranks as good but not great to me. Ah well.

Snipers? You mean the guys with greatbows? They weren't too bad since they <Futurama alien>shoot where you are, instead of where you are going to be!</Futurama>. I had a couple resets against the one who was on a narrow ledge, one from realising that you shouldn't shield him and a second from plumetting to my death as I attacked him just after he tripped over the cliff himself. Whoops!


CT: Meracle felt like the LVP because her range is very poor, and she doesn't actually do more damage, or have more speed, than the other melee fighters. She also has less crowd control. Considering I would already lean towards Edge and Arumat near the bottom as well, but they have numerous other advantages (HP, better AoE, healing in Edge's case), that's not very good. Compared to Reimi, she may get Focus but her crit multiplier is 1.2 instead of her monstrous 2.8, and the reason Reimi is so good is because of her range.

Arumat? As a character he's mostly a dumb stereotype but the game calls him on it periodically so he ends up okay (also the scene where Edge tries to kiss him is great). As a PC he actually does have noticeably good damage (unlike Meracle) but it's not really enough to make me care.

I got all the endings except Meracle's and Crowe's. I thought I was going to get everyone's but I guess I screwed something up.

Postgame maybe later, have to do stat topic work first.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 12, 2013, 04:05:01 PM
The best glitchless Dark Souls speedrun is under one hour!


WAXF
Winning conditions:
- Make sure nobody dies, cross the bridge with every character, activate the three switches, make sure no enemy has crossed the brige, find the six hidden gems on the map, solve the three riddles of Ram'Un'kar, resurrect Teta and Aeris. While juggling four flaming torches. You have three turns.
- Alternatively, kill Tarasque

...
...
*kills Tarasque*


I really don't get why we had to disarm the big bomb in the city twice.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 12, 2013, 04:50:20 PM
I don't really get the big bomb plot at all!  (But I've already had this debate with Elf/Ciato/Jo'ou/etc.  I pretty much think these events make Charlton a RAR I EAT BABIES villain with a bit of plot ludicrousness on the side since nobody, not the Martial Guard nor the civilians seem to care very much nor notice the whole nuclear bomb in the central park / king saying Charlton sucks / etc. things.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 12, 2013, 05:14:41 PM
XF plot and ridiculous, pick ninety-two.

Winning conditions:
- Make sure nobody dies, cross the bridge with every character, activate the three switches, make sure no enemy has crossed the brige, find the six hidden gems on the map, solve the three riddles of Ram'Un'kar, resurrect Teta and Aeris. While juggling four flaming torches. You have three turns.
- Alternatively, kill Tarasque

There's an alternative to killing Tarasque in that map? Well, spank my ass and call me Paprika.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 12, 2013, 10:23:58 PM
No.  Not again.

FF5 - Garula wipes because I was using thief and Monk as my frontline.  One Monk changed to Knight with old gear and stuff is easy.  Knight 2 stronk.  Trying not to use one this time, so now Lenna is Magic Knight and I need to work put what to do with Faris after she gets Learning.  I think I am lower level than normal thanks to Dash working on maps now (8 at Garula, so probs over levelled by Elf standards).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 12, 2013, 10:36:32 PM
No.  Not again.

You just haven't earned it yet, baby. Not that you ever would.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 12, 2013, 10:57:25 PM
Dark Souls alone justified the cost of a PS3 for me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 13, 2013, 07:10:50 AM
Dark Souls - Fuck yes, the bastards are dead.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 13, 2013, 07:31:57 AM
Dark Souls - Fuck yes, the bastards are dead.

Welcome to the harder half of the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on April 13, 2013, 11:21:48 AM
Finished Lollipop Chainsaw.  A surprisingly effective satire of sexism in games given what it looks like at first glance?  I'll bullet some stuff.

-The main character has a sidekick who follows them around and occasionally does a thing at the behest of the main character.  Juliet is the main character, the sidekick is her boyfriend Nick, who becomes a disembodied head after the prologue.
-An enemy that illustrates the use of insults as weapons by throwing words at you in giant-ass letter form (weaponizing insults, if you will).
-Nick has all his agency stripped from him, has to participate even when he doesn't want to.  When he asks to be left Juliet just kind of ignores him and tells him that he ISN'T useless because he is there for moral support.  He only exists to make her feel better.
-At the end Nick realizes he DOES have a purpose and that purpose is to sacrifice himself for Juliet.  Then because of it he gets to return to life with a new body, but now he's shorter than her to physically underscore the unequal relationship between them that's run through the whole game.

Suda51 is gonna do what he does, and I'm gonna keep buying his games, is what I'm saying.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 13, 2013, 03:27:27 PM
Quote from: Fenrir after I finished my Black Mage No Attack Magic run
Well done, Super. Now, thief solo??


(http://i.imgur.com/cijz8Y0.png)

Goddamnit it Fenrir! :( This gave me the idea to do a Thief SCC.


Thieves suck. Dawn of Souls did a lot to make thieves less absolutely awful.  They have much better equips from the bonus dungeons (haha, like anything in DoS is remotely a challenge normally, let alone after bonus dunegons). They were given really high HIT, which makes their physicals reasonably competent. IE they're no longer the fourth best physical fighter for 90% of the game.  But god. They suck.


Garland wasn't bad. I just had to not get unlucky with evasion to win the fight. Pirates... pirates were hell. I had roughly two dozen resets at level 8 before giving up the ghost. You can beat them at that level with a single thief, but it requires midn bogglngly high amounts of evasion. I got another level and came back and beat them on the first try. 

Wizards slaughtered me. No ands, ifs, and buts. I can't really beat most of the randoms in the Marsh Cave as is, so getting to the Wizards is difficult. I average roughly 15 resets getting to them.  Thieves barely break the defense of the wizards at L12, and Wizards are quite capable of wiping the floor with a single thief in three attacks. On top of that, enemies do so much damage in the marsh cave that I keep running out of potions. Oh boy!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 13, 2013, 04:13:28 PM
Dark Souls - Fuck yes, the bastards are dead.

Which one did you kill last? You can get the weapon/armor of whichever one goes super mode. Both of their boss weapons suck, but given the choice between Ornstein's armor and Smough's armor...well, which one would you rather look like? (Yes this is my priority for armor in Dark Souls, and Ornstein looks fabulous.) Ornstein also drops a unique ring if you kill him second (not one I've ever had much use for, though).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 13, 2013, 05:09:10 PM
I killed Smaugh second, as I found he provided more openings to attack him than Ornstein Plus.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on April 13, 2013, 05:22:21 PM
Quote from: Meeplelard
-Legitimate Speed Threshold for doubling (4 points)
-Con stat to deal with weight (hey, Axes aren't laughable now!)
-Rescue Mechanics (WHY DID FE11/12 NOT ADD THIS IN AT ALL!?  True, FE13 didn't have this, but it had Pair Up instead so I view that as a lateral extension)
-Conventional item trading.  FE1/3 might have had this, I don't know, but FE4 did not.
-Weapon Ranks based upon usage of said weapon

FE3 had a speed threshold of 3 to double, which sounds workable in theory with a 20 cap for everything. I'm 99% sure 1 and 3 both had conventional item trading, but I can't be bothered to download either to verify this, especially now that 11/12 exist.

Gaiden chapters with specific unlocking prequisites is another major series element that FE5 pioneered, unless you count FE3 part 2's frue final sequence. Fog of War and Escape missions are two other things that FE5 came up with, though you might not consider those improvements to the series, especially FoW. <_< The 6-10 version of Fog that at least let you see terrain was a clear improvement over 5's implementation, though.

FE3 honestly sounds like it's the most polished of the three SNES Fire Emblems, which is kinda sad considering it was the first released. If 11 and 12 didn't exist I'd actually try it out since it sounds reasonably non-frustrating, but as it is I don't see much of a reason to bother unless I really want to stat cap Feena via FE3's hilariously broken growth-boosting shards/orbs and stat boosters.

Speaking of FE12, I've been sporadically playing a Marth+females+unarmed thieves playthrough through the past few weeks on Hard/Casual, just beat chapter 10 today. I'm definately glad I picked Hard instead of Normal now, because the extra enemy deployments genuinely make things more interesting. Take C10 (http://www.fireemblemwod.net/fe12/guia/ENG_capitulo-10.htm) for example; since your fliers aren't forced to dismount like in FE3, they can easily move up and kill those two Bishops with siege tomes near the start of the map. On Normal, that pretty much reduces the rest of the map to just mop up duty, but on Hard and above they add a Sniper and 2 Mages with Shaver who can easily kill your fliers if you're careless. On the other hand, if you use Javs to kill the Bishops, you can safely stay out of the Sniper's range and only be exposed to one Shaver mage per Peg Knight, which is survivable. Alternatively, I've seen strategies for the stage that involve mass Snipers+Dracoknights clearing out pretty much every enemy in the central corridor on turn 1 with careful planning, even on Lunatic. Multiple strategies to handle a situation is cool, keeps the game from getting too puzzle-like (which is really bad in a game with randomized level-ups).

The drawback with FE12 and why I haven't played that much is that some of the maps ripped straight from FE3 end up being dumb and tedious. Like chapter 3 (http://www.fireemblemwod.net/fe12/guia/ENG_capitulo-3.htm), which requires you to take a long circular path with low enemy density if you want to actually recruit all the PCs. Or chapter 9 (http://www.fireemblemwod.net/fe12/guia/ENG_capitulo-9.htm), which was actually made worse than FE3 by adding an enemy whom only Marth can recruit to the left side of the map, one who starts moving if you enter the range of any enemy on the map, even the Dracoknights with huge move. I didn't want to burn a staff Rescue charge on the stage, so Marth needed dozens of turns just to recruit Etzel -> cross the desert to recruit Minerva -> cross the desert AGAIN to sieze the throne, one of the stupidest sequences in FE history. I don't really miss the Rescue command for any sort of combat purpose, but FE12 would be a much better game if you could have mounted units ferry Marth across the map, even if it didn't work on anyone else and completely killed the combat stats of the rescuer.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on April 13, 2013, 06:07:05 PM
Thanks for the reply NEB  :)

I liked your comments about Arumat's character =), well done/good job on getting most of the endings, I remember that being quite a process with the bouquets and triggering the right specific private actions and all, especially for Faize~

Glad post game might be a thing later, and looking forward to the stat topic, I lost my notes for it so good luck with that  :)

For the IC/creation system I didn't really get into it much, I mean I did the stuffs for the bouquets and other odds and ends, but as far as equipment/synthesis/making uber stuffs go I didn't really touch that, not really a system I remember enjoying much on the whole~


Still formulating a reply to the Meracle stuff  :P Fun vids in the meantime (Meracle vs the arena/one of the top ranking battles (no item creation) - incidentally if you haven't done the arena yet and like cameos I recommend it since the No1# is a shout out to one of the earlier games, pretty fun stuffs~)  and one I found that sort of emulates the situation when I first started using her with outdated/less powerful gear for the times (only this is postgame with earlier main game equips)~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB2cbXxZIYw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqSKxbvDQOY

Edit - Hmm, yeah on Meracle we may have to wind up agreeing to disagree then =) She may not have Reimi's monstrous crit modifier but she does have monstrous strength/ATK power/growth, winding up with game best eventually, she will wind up with signicantly higher ATK than Edge, Reimi and Bacchus and while Arumat comes close/second best ATK he has lower luck and doesn't get Focus, and she has some of the highest skill damage % modifiers across the board so when she's criting a lot with Focus up and with the Critical Hit/Attack Boost combos she's criting off that ATK and DM%s and Berserk, she has range and crowd control in Drill Spike and X-Claw in addition to target control with her juggling skills, and once she picks X-Claw up and with max Beat S/double Blindside/Chain Exceed/etc she's a juggle machine able to keep targets juggled pretty much indefinitely with the right set up, X-Claw is pretty much her infinite, well Comet Impace, Drill Spike and X Claw are all great skills really in my books =)

(of course actual math with crit mods 'n stuff might prove numberically Meracle's high ATK and skill DM% modifiers don't matter as much as I think in which case fair enough I'll beat a graceful retreat/concede~) 

For the record I do think Reimi is great, I used her extensively in and out as well, she's definitely one of the best, I consider the eventual best team as Meracle/Reimi/Arumat with Serah for buffs or maybe Myuria for the fastest healing though I personally prefer Serah since with that level of blitzing/juggle/locking power the need for healing is significantly reduced in my experience~

In terms of power the mages seemed kind of lacklustre in my experience and the gap between them and the fighers seemed to significantly widen as things went on and just seemed to worsen significantly when all was said and done with the fighers ending significantly more powerful.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on April 14, 2013, 12:42:54 AM
That wasn't my experience with SO4 at all. The mages were pretty badass the whole game and I ended up using Lymle in my final party. Because for as terrible as Lymle is, I can forgive a lot because :: puppy ::  :)

This is also the reason Rinoa manages not to be my most hated female character of all time. It works for characters I like too. Repede~ :)

Mana Khemia 2: needs more puppies. Otherwise I'm almost done with Ulrika's story. It's ridiculously fun to fight bosses and synth new equips. Most of the story sections are pretty lacking though. I feel like I should have played Razes story first to understand what the hell is going on. Chloe is now a yaoi fan girl and Goto tipped the creep o meter with the Enna scene. I'm scarred.

Flay is the best bad guy ever.

Do we ever find out what the hell Goto is?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 14, 2013, 12:53:52 AM
I found Myuria to be one of the best characters and one of the most fun to control to boot.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 14, 2013, 01:00:42 AM
Do we ever find out what the hell Goto is?

Not really.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 14, 2013, 01:07:36 AM
Yeah, I definitely think the mages are good, having spent a few hours levelling everyone and trying out different things. Range is so great in this game, much easier to find openings to attack and it's virtually impossible to get off melee combos if things have No-Guard or are in Rush Mode. Their Int is lower than fighter Atk, but they also don't face Def (which actually exists in this game, unlike SO3!) and Mindflare is a significantly better skill than Berserk or even Berserk+Focus (no defensive risks). Lightning Blast x3 locks down anything that lacks No Guard + isn't in Rush Mode and hits multiple people, Ice Needles is like Crimson Squall.. very long range, very powerful, self-combos easily, even randomly instantly kills things because why not. Toss in that MT healing spells are pretty great (battles get easier whenever I have two people with them, I found) and I'd definitely argue the mages > the fighters on average, although I'm generally inclined to agree with the consensus argument that Reimi is the best individual.

edit: For the most part, "mages" in the above paragraph refers to Myuria and Lymle. Sarah's much worse at running an offence than they are (limited offensive options, no Fast Cast, starts underlevelled + with no BEAT ranks which makes for a bad offensive start) but of course that's not her primary role, her spot on the team is due to Fairy Light + early Restoration + Cure Condition + Enhance/Sacred Pain. Sounds like Fairy Star kinda does bad things to her worth although she still retains some advantages, and nobody says you can't use Sarah + the Fairy Star mage.

Meracle does have higher Atk than non-Arumat PCs (except at endgame where Bacchus gets a weirdly strong weapon). I'm a little less impressed by her multipliers, since it's virtually impossible to use Comet Impact or Claws of Fury and then do anything useful after them, which leaves them as combo finishers. I can't comment on X Claw yet, having just gotten it, and Drill Spike's aftergame of course... range and crowd control are two things she badly needs, so I'll have to see them in action to comment.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 14, 2013, 01:53:04 AM
XF plot and ridiculous, pick ninety-two.
I'm at that part where Edna is completely tense about her hidden badass trump card.
Then she tells about it to the rebels... And they use that info?
I laughed.

Winning conditions:
- Make sure nobody dies, cross the bridge with every character, activate the three switches, make sure no enemy has crossed the brige, find the six hidden gems on the map, solve the three riddles of Ram'Un'kar, resurrect Teta and Aeris. While juggling four flaming torches. You have three turns.
- Alternatively, kill Tarasque

There's an alternative to killing Tarasque in that map? Well, spank my ass and call me Paprika.
You have to know!
It's really great because you kill Tarasque and then Felius goes "OMG a bridge! We can use it to get past our enemies by activating the switches etc etc" then immediately after you get to the victory screen.
It's weird.


Ys Oath of Filgaia Nightmare Mode: Every boss is a major roadblock. Right now I'm dying against the ice dragon.
Great game but Nightmare mode really does take things way too far.


Super: Hahahah. I'd follow you, but I hate how you have to rely on reloading to get perfect level ups for FF1's hardest challenges.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 14, 2013, 04:13:55 AM
Do we ever find out what the hell Goto is?

Kinda, but I think that reveal may be ending specific. Apparently he's a tall and devastatingly handsome bishie who only wears a fursuit because Gust hates you. I didn't enjoy MK2 much and the cast is basically 100% of the reason.

~

Bioshock Infinite: I just blew up a robot George Washington and Tears for Fears out of nowhere, man.

I wasn't planning to get this after the mediocrity that was Bioshock 2, but people kept making it sound awesome. People are accurate.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 14, 2013, 05:08:07 AM
Raze path cast is pretty great. Ulrika path cast... well, has Goto, who is just detestable. In some ways I get what they were going for with him; the MK2 cast is not shy about making humour out of pushing boundaries (Lily has some glorious stuff in this vein), but Goto was a big misfire.


FE7 Hector Hard Mode - So the last time I played this was in late 2004 and I thought it was whoamg insanely hard. Figured I should try it again now that I have way more FE experience, and... yeah, it's not really any harder than FE10 or FE13's middle difficulty modes. Funny. Just recruited the Caelin gang, current team is Hector, Matthew, Oswin, Lowen, Guy, Erk, Priscilla, Lyn, Florina, and Sain. Used Marcus in every map up until C17, and I'm still thinking of using him over Lowen who doesn't have any supports on the current team. Oh well, Raven is about to kick someone out anyway.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on April 14, 2013, 09:09:01 AM
Quote
I feel like I should have played Razes story first to understand what the hell is going on.

That wouldn't work.  Such as the game has a plot, it's all in Ulrika mode.  Or the bonus chapter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 14, 2013, 04:18:23 PM
Thief solo: Done. Final level: 99.  EXP focuses in dawn of souls, which would explain why I hit the level cap.

I had to retreat fromt the Marsh Cave. I couldn't beat most of the randoms in the Marsh Cave at L12, and it was pretty close to mathmatically impossible to beat the Wizards at the level I was at. I went back to Elfland, bought potions and came back. The extra levels I got from that made the Wizards tough but quite  beatable. I beat the Wizards at L14. Any fight iwth more than a couple of enemies will slaughter my thief at this point. Earlygame thief defense is wretched failure.

Astos. Holy shit. Thief MDef in Dawn of Souls is absolute crap, and the first spell Astos uses is Death.  The hit rate was over 90% against my thieves. To even have a prayer of winning, I needed to avoid that. Death was only the first problem though. Astos has defense. Thieves hate defense with a passion early, since they do their damage with low STR weapons/high hit. It takes a long while for my L15ish Thiet to slug down Astos thanks to that defense, which brings me to the next problem. Slow is just about as fatal as ID. Why you ask? Because it lowers Thief's physical to one hit. A single hit from Thief against Astos is lucky to break double digit damage, and after he uses Slow he starts using his attack magic. His L2s do way more than I can heal with potions. I finally won the battle. He didn't use death until several rounds into the fight and Slow missed. I also got reasonably lucky with critical hits, which boosted my damaage all the way to tolerably bad.

Marsh Cave/Astos was the high water mark for challenge by a mile. Several things came together right after that to make things much easier. The Silver Armlet/Buckler gave my thief an actual defense score, so he wouldn't be absolutely pasted by random monster physicals. The Wyrmkiller (HIS BEST WEAPON UNTIL MASAMUNE) is gained then as well. Hi potions being storebought means resource management isn't an issue either.  EXP gains also go way up at this point. I gained 20 levels between Astos and Lich, and that's without any grinding or doing anything besides running to Crescent lake for gear and potions.

Vampire gave me a reset, and I died a few times when I got careless against randoms in the Earth Cave. Lich was pathetic. Oh no! Don't spam your awful physical against me! I had gained enough levels at that point that I didn't really fear his magic either.   I attempted to fight Kary before the Air ship. It didn't work, her physical could 2HKO my thief and I had issues breaking her defense. I run to the ice cave instead. Had a couple of resets on large undead formations, but it wasn't too tough. I skip the class change dungeon, since I am staying as a thief the entire game.

After that, the game went from kind of tough to really easy. The Ruby Armlet/Pro Ring are a massive jump in defense. Even better, you get a Ribbon at this point! That handles the pesky problem of status. Kary is a cakewalk with the new gear. The sea shrine's not any harder. Kraken I had a bunch of resets on, but I forgot about the Defender's Blink effect and forgot to grab the Diamond armlet. Blink alone would have made him a joke.

There weren't any real difficult randoms in the Sea Shrine/Mirage Tower. My levels were absolutely nuts (L65 at Kraken) due to the EXP gain rate, and that was without any serious leveling. Tiamat died in one round, Razer worked the first time.  There were no real notable enemy formations in the Shrine of Chaos. Black Knights had enough defense to where they took some time to slug down, but that was it.  The Fiends revisited were a really bad joke, they couldn't break potion healing. Masamune comes and doubles my offense (43-80), which is just in time for dealing with Chaos. Chaos is cake. Blink to make you invunerabsle to physicals, potion healing, Strength/speed potions to give you enough offense to handle business. I didn't attack till I was proprely buffed, which was right after Chaos healed.


I am actually thinking that four thieves would have had a harder endgame than a single thief.   
Yes. I had more resets to VAMPIRE than I should have to all four elemental fiends and Chaos. That says it all about Dawn of Souls challenge.


Hardest fights:

(Kary)
(Wizards)
1. Astos (50+ resets)
2. Pirates (20+ resets till I broke down and gained another level)
3. Anything that had fatal status early. Swarms of undead with paralyze, Pyrolisks with ID. (20+ resets)
4. Most of the Marsh cave randoms. Thief defense is appallingly bad early. (10+ resets and a lot of running)
5. Kraken (10+ resets, but if I had remembered the Defender he would've been beaten on the first try)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 14, 2013, 04:22:02 PM
FFD: Just finished Chapter 1 and got my first job levels! Heck yeah. The game in a few ways reminds me of putting FF5 and FF6 in a blender. Not sure if I will like it more than FF5 yet; job systems tend to get better with progress, so we'll see. The game seems to be attempting to have character work, not really too successfully in the way that SNES games tend not to, but whatever. :p

Mass Effect: Just got a better party. Garrus and Tali are now flanking my Adept Shep. I just finished dialoguing with folks on the ship; damn, Tali is very talkative! I still need to learn how to control my dudes better; during the club fight my NPCs died within like 10 seconds and my Adept had to solo like seven-eight enemies with a Pistol. Doesn't seem ideal. :p
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 14, 2013, 07:43:26 PM
Good. Now do a White Mage magic-less solo!

WA XF: That moment where you realize how awesome Accelerate is.
I got the Nightstalker class at the same time. I have one with Atk up//mov up/Accelerate/Secutor equipment. He has Infinite Turns.
My new goal is giving everybody Accelerate.
Clarissa was LVP (Time spent in the Dandelion Shot class feels pretty much wasted and I gave her all the crappy gimmick classes like geomancer) (I'm not including Tony. Tony is wasting everybody's time), and she got a new terrible haircut. So I'm now just ditching her for Ragnar or Levin as the sole unique PC in my team. Ragnar's more fun but Levin would probably be an absolutely insane Nightstalker.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 14, 2013, 08:06:58 PM
The only reason you master Dandelion Shot is getting the +3 skill slots master bonus.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 14, 2013, 10:01:27 PM
Ciatos you want to put points in to Barrier.  Makes it stronger and have a shorter cool down.  This is silly design.  Rough that early because everything wants points.  Hope you keep having some fun, the gameplay really is much better in later games.

Super, good.  Now go play Thief.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on April 15, 2013, 12:22:07 AM
FE13 Lunatic Chrom Semi-solo:  Well I actually beat Chapter 22 right after posting about having problems with it.  Went towards the southwest, used Superior Lance to beat the guy with Gungnir, took out the Dark Knight and Bow Knight in that area, then lured everyone into the corner and ran away from them with my better movement speed and killed Aversa.  First map where I didn't kill every enemy!

Chapter 23:  Cakewalk.

Chapter 24:  Fuck.  This is hard.  Tons of Wyvern Lords. and they all have Lancebreaker.  After much trial and error I determine that I'm not beating this without access to axes, which means changing back to Great Knight.  But I'm not level 10 in Paladin, which means I can't switch.  So bascially involves running around and trying not to die long enough to Second Seal into Great Knight.  Finally managed to get it.

Chapter 25:  This basically involves climbing the mountain to the right of the starting area and slowly picking off the enemies one by one.  Hardest part is the Warriors who have Counter, they will run up next to you and let you suicide on them.  So you have to move away from them and kill them with the BOLT AXE.  Yes, this is true Fire Emblem!

Endgame:  Oogh.  Uh.  Yeah.  Let me get back to you on this one.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on April 15, 2013, 02:43:45 AM
Man, FE12's difficulty really spikes when the dragons start showing up; those 12 move enemy wyverns are insane. Thankfully winged goddesses Palla and Catria could ORKO them with Silver Lances unpromoted, buying me time to reach the secret shop and buy Wyrmslayers/Dragonpikes en masse. After promoting they had the power to ORKO Ice Dragons with Steel Lances, which is just hax.

Best combat pegs in the series, aside from... well, FE2 Palla and Catria still win, I think, 3x attack power vs monsters is every bit as obscene as it sounds on paper. Also FE11 Wing SpearCaeda has a case, though mainly on warpskip where her crappy durability doesn't matter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 15, 2013, 03:22:57 AM
Bioshock Infinite: VAUDEVILLE R.E.M.

In less significant news, game finished. It's a good thing I wasn't expecting an ending that made any goddamn sense, or I might be pretty pissed off right now. Fortunately, this was not a thing I was expecting, so the big reveal provoked only laughter. I mean, I see what they were going for, but there's a world of difference between "Oh my god I have realized that I am horrible person" and "Everyone in the world is a horrible person and they should all die in flames, and in order to ensure that this happens I will build a city in the sky and invent time travel so I can go back twenty years and rescue my daughter from myself in order to properly raise her as an avatar of destruction who has magic powers for some reason." And you know, from what we saw of Booker as a PC, I just can't mentally make that jump. This isn't even touching the eternal question of time loops how do they start.

Oh well. Game is still fun, just better at building a world than at telling a story. Which really shouldn't be much surprise by this point. Art design is unsurprisingly fantastic, good use of period music (and the Creedence). The mad scientists were entertaining, existential confusion mom was the good and freaky kind of wow that came out of nowhere, little details like the way music echoes and distorts off of buildings during the introduction makes things feel off even before people get actively horrible...None of it has the impact the first 2/3 of Bioshock had (it just follows too many of the same beats), but at least it has the sense to stop when its antagonist is dead.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 15, 2013, 03:37:28 PM
Shining Force 3: Finished Scenario 2, into Scenario 3. Insane difficulty is fun. Everything 2HKOs everybody. Level 20 promoted, abused save states for good level-ups, and equipped with a White Ring? Fuck you, you get 2HKOed by spellcaster physicals. And of course the bosses just rape, especially monsters since the difficulty level gives a bonus to base attack power but not weapons - so anything that has a naturally high attack power to compensate for not using equipment gets an enormous boost. The second-to-final boss was hitting for 75 damage on characters with 50 max HP.

S3 is good fun. I'd forgotten how much they screw around with party balance in the beginning of the game. Your healer can only cast Aura, so your only option for HP restoration is (a) items or (b) burning through MP like crazy. Plus his only attack magic drains his MP straight to 0, so if you need to play that card, it's items or nothing for the rest of the fight. And the only wizard you get for 3/4 of the game has two options for damage - a parasitic heal with 1 range and the MP-sucking, AOE-only Spark spell. You definitely can't play either of them like the spellcasters the earlier games hand you, especially with the "everything 2HKOs" rule in full effect. Plus I recruited Edmund instead of Produn, which on the plus side gives you an extra melee attacker and damage sponge early, but also means your second healer joins in chapter 3 (of 7) instead of midway through C1. Item healing it is!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 15, 2013, 03:40:31 PM
Bioshock Infinite: I also beat this over the weekend. I think my experience is a bit opposite of Cid's? I did have to do a bit of reading to clarify certain parts of the ending, but I found it actually worked quite well. I also feel the end of the game (the last 1/3?) had equal to stronger impact then the first 2/3's of Bioshock.

Agreed on knowing when and how to actually end the game, though.

I'm actually a bit hype to play it again. The game leaves just enough questions floating to be fun to get all Englishy with while explaining enough that, provided you have access to the Voxphones, that the game makes pretty solid sense.

That said, regarding the spoilers.

1. The Booker and Comstock thing is one of the harder ones to reconcile, but it does actually make some degree of sense if you consider it as a 12 year slide mixed with messages of power corrupts and unilateral forgiveness. It does require one of the bigger leaps in the game, but it works as a reminder for what we all could become. Also, he didn't intend Elizabeth to have magical powers. He just wanted a blood heir that he could no longer produce. Elizabeth's magic is actually a bit of a problem for him.

2. They do posit a decent theory re: Elizabeth's magic power. Her lost finger being in one world while she's in another. It is a bit handwavey, but it works well enough considering SCIENCE does it in the first place.

3. Time Loop start is actually handled pretty cleanly in this one, thanks to multiverse theory. Now, multiverse theory causes some other annoyances (I'm still working to come to grips with how the Comstock resolution actually occurs; the answers seems to be Constants and Variables! The universe is not as infinite as we think and there are still finite divergent choices to be made), but it handles the actual story arc fairly well.


So yeah. I dunno. I'd disagree. I found the story for Bioshock Infinite to be quite solid. Interested in more story based DLC. Will do a more thorough breakdown of the game at some point shortly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 15, 2013, 03:44:39 PM
Mass Effect - Just got Liara. That mission was pretty terrible. The car combat/controls are hilariously bad, a flashback to Suikoden IV sailing but worse because you can die. FAQed where to go because fuck that shit. After that... treat, I went into the base and fought the Krogan Battlemaster who I had trouble beating/was annoyed with due to the 45 second load time/cutscene. Decided to turn in game on ez mode for that fight. (Hooray for that option!) The boss fight was still about as fun as gouging my own eyes out to spite myself, but at least I didn't have to deal with the load time anymore.

Meanwhile, on my ship, Garrus honey, I know you're lonely, get into my bed. Not until the second game. Alas. :(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 15, 2013, 03:47:08 PM
Man, I dunno what you're talking about. Mako has BEST controls.

*coughs*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 15, 2013, 03:57:06 PM
I am told it is not in 2 except in DLC.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 15, 2013, 04:04:10 PM
Orcs Must Die!- Five skulled every map on Nightmare. I five skulled the DLC stages first. Triple Down was unpleasant but not too bad once I figured out the right weaver setup/got used to dealing with OMD1 heavies. Great gorge was just nuts. You only have two spots to guard, but one of those spots is a flier rift where they'll send 40 fliers in a wave at you.  IE: Use Autobalistas.  It took me some time to get used to OMD1. Namely, you drop three slots on magic and one on barricades and just build really simple kill boxes. I really hope a third game comes out, I adored both entries into the series. 

Also, the knowledge weaver is way, way better than I gave it credit for. Unless I'm using Guardians, it makes sense as the default weaver. It gives you a lot of coins thanks to spell magnification, and trap linkage means you have tons of MP to play with.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 15, 2013, 04:13:18 PM
I am told it is not in 2 except in DLC.

One of the many reasons ME2 is the far superior game. >_>
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 15, 2013, 04:24:23 PM
Yeah, the main reason I haven't quit ME1 is because I want to play the others. If it was a standalone game I would have I think.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 15, 2013, 09:03:40 PM
Bioshock seems to work with a mix of linear time and multiple universe stuff.

Every choice plays out in all dimensions, but if there was never a choice then there is no branch.  So in the end Booker travels back to the Baptism and goes through with it but having reconciled who he is.  There is no Comstock because there is no Choice at the Baptism, there is no one to sell Anabelle to (and hopefully Booker doesn't gamble so much as to feel the need to do so).

Also Booker as an "okay" guy masking the Comstock connection from the player is pretty great.  You hear about some fucked up shit Comstock did before the Baptism.  Booker did those too.  He is not a nice man.  One more game positting that the answer to "What can change the nature of a man?" being Regret.

I don't doubt that at this point Booker is less horribly racist.  Being a drunken mess of an enforcer for hire to pay off gambling debts sure gave him some perspective on the plights of man.


Edit - Apologies for anyone that caught size tag fail edits.

Yahtzee described Mako like driving a fridge on a roller skate.  This is an apt description.  There is a physics bug that is useful though Ciatos.  Go to the Menu and you will lose all momentum.  This is far more useful than it sounds.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 15, 2013, 09:32:22 PM
Andy: I might be able to reconcile it if it was a revelation we had more time to digest, but getting it in the last sentence of the game speaks more of "Behold my twist ending and despair!" than of any truly necessary character development. There are some signs earlier in the game once you know to look for them, but nothing that really indicates how we got from moderately remorseful dog of capitalism to greedy, spiteful, omnicidal maniac, which is a problem. You can speculate about alternate reality Bookers and/or being led to a particular outcome via the method intended for Elizabeth that's described on that one voxophone, but I find this much too large a jump to be left to assumptions. Also, I just cannot make the chronology work in my head. Did Booker/Comstock really take just two years to go from relative nobody to having enough charisma and clout to build a floating city and populate it with a mass of zealous followers? Or did he start smaller and then go back in time to do it again more professionally and on a grander scale later and that's why Comstock looks so much older than Booker, so things just got worse and worse through repeated cycles? If hanging around Elizabeth for a couple years was what left him sterile, then why did he need to go back in time to get someone of his own bloodline in the first place?

You can approximate answers for much of this stuff, but it bugs me just because none of it feels necessary. Explicable character development needs to trump crazy plot twists. Admittedly I missed something like twenty voxophones, which annoys me greatly.

Other stuff that's belatedly occurred to me to mention now that I'm not frazzled from shooting dudes for six hours straight:

-It amuses me how casually they handwaved the whole "How does it fly?" question. Quantum mechanics? Good enough for me! Also quantum uncertainty as an explanation for ghosts, as good an explanation as any. Anytime there was an NPC around unsure of its vital status was some quality creepiness.

-Discussions about the grammatical implications of time travel? Aw yeah. You know, I can't help but wonder if Rosalind Lutece's brother is really just another her pulled from a reality where she happened to be male. He did just kind of turn up out of nowhere one day, as far as the public knows!

-Is it just me, or is enhanced Bucking Bronco + shotgun a totally broken combo? Any mob without heavy hitters can be completely neutralized that way.

-Last minute addition for Grefterpost: I came away with the impression that the Elizabeth horde genuinely drowned him at the end.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 15, 2013, 09:44:47 PM
You are spot on with Lutece's.

There was more to the ending after the credits.  Skipping them makes you miss it.  Yes it is a dick move.  Hit up YouTube.

Anything is a broke combo on trash dudes.

Edit - I would have to review the voxophone again but I thought it was the device and not the subject that caused the sterility.  So it is earlier in the timeline than the abduction.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 16, 2013, 04:52:00 AM
Mass Effect- Spend my time doing quests and stuff. Got a bunch of money so I can give proper armor to my folks, as well as properly levelling up Tali and Garrus. I can't help it, I am too nice to be mean to people, I have lots of Paragon points now ^_^
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on April 16, 2013, 05:33:57 AM
Pokeymanz black: my friends are playing this so I finally opened the box. The plot actually exists which is more than I can say for any other Pokemon game I've played. Still not important to the enjoyment of the game. In fact it kinda detracts from the gym fights. It feels like "why am I fighting these sports guys when there's an evil organization to stop?" The addition of an actual threat to poke harmony feels weird and out of place in this already-flawed illogical world. It also makes me think about it for more than a fleeting moment and the house of cards collapses.

Really streamlined battles and social features though! Enjoying it more than soul silver.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 16, 2013, 05:53:28 AM
Don't look anyone in the eye, they might try to take your money on the road. Children wandering the highways and caves, gyms which seem to contribute very little to society and wtf don't you people have jobs??? And let's not even get started on the ethics of putting big monsters in tiny balls because you have to catch them all. People in this world seem to have two stages of their life: collect monsters in balls and then sit in gyms or in obscure locations waiting for children to come fight them.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 16, 2013, 06:32:16 AM
<CIATOS> WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN THE CHILDREN MUGGING BUBBLE BURST.  YOU ARE STARING AT AN ECONOMIC CRISIS AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IT UNOVA.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 16, 2013, 01:32:43 PM
Pokeymanz black: my friends are playing this so I finally opened the box. The plot actually exists which is more than I can say for any other Pokemon game I've played. Still not important to the enjoyment of the game. In fact it kinda detracts from the gym fights. It feels like "why am I fighting these sports guys when there's an evil organization to stop?" The addition of an actual threat to poke harmony feels weird and out of place in this already-flawed illogical world. It also makes me think about it for more than a fleeting moment and the house of cards collapses.

Really streamlined battles and social features though! Enjoying it more than soul silver.

Oh please, every Pokemon game has a major crisis!

I mean, did you completely forget about EXPAND THE LANDMASS!?

And don't get me started on the implications of the world being ruled by Team Galactic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on April 17, 2013, 01:12:28 AM
I haven't played either of Gen 3 or Gen 4. But I was told that they were still basically plotless in the same vein as Gens 1 and 2, and FFTA2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 17, 2013, 02:00:27 AM
R/S/E had a pretty clear plot.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 17, 2013, 05:42:06 AM
Gen 3's plot is EXPAND THE LANDMASS vs. EXPAND THE SEA, and that accidentally triggers Doomsday requiring you to summon the Shenrong from DBZ to fix the entire issue.

Gen 4 is basically a Team comprised of Generic Evil Guy, Sailor Senshi and a bunch of Meeples trying to take over the world with EVIL REALITY BENDING POKEMON!  I think in Platinum, he summons both and causes Pokesatan to pop out and it tries to eat him or something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on April 17, 2013, 06:28:01 AM
Super Mario 3D Land - 100%ed up to world 3, weird jumping but otherwise cool
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 17, 2013, 07:38:03 AM
Yes the Pokemon Ruby villain wants to expand the landmass because more landmass = more space to do things LOL. He succeeds, then realizes something like "OMG Water is actually important??"
Pokemon Sapphire Villain apparently doesn't give a fuck about Tuvalu

Star Ocean XF: I'm n ... 4-5?
Can't believe nobody objected to 3-11 being in the game. (that's the one where you have to use extremists to hook to pillars vs slimes with misery) I eventually finished it with Solo Extremist Layrinthia with 4 Peppy Acorns teleporting all over the place.
All four last classes are pretty great.
Emulator gets the same damage as Elementalist with more range + being able to use it after a turn is over.
High Cavalier is a bad class in itself but it gets Remain (And Quicken). I always use a Widespread Remain at the beginning of every fight. Intrude gets some use too (obviously less than in WA4)
Extremist is tanky and has Debilitate... Bosses were already terrible before, they didn't need that
Nightstalker is the obvious MVP with Secutor equipment and Accelerate. She burns all her VP before High Cavalier gets a second turn though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 17, 2013, 05:15:05 PM
I tend to solo that map with either Alexia (who has the temp status immunity move) or Labby, yeah. I despise it. (Not as much as the Clarissa solo map though.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 17, 2013, 05:20:17 PM
ShF3: Finished chapter 2. The last fight of the second chapter starts off with enemy soldiers sniping you from stationary cannons that are unevadable and have nigh-infinite range. Then you get a strike force onto the walls, kill them and take over the cannons, which you can use to kill the boss at your leisure because he can't actually reach the walls to fight back. And he has infinite reinforcements that you can snipe for cash, which is good because the shops stock weapons that were endgame-level in the other two scenarios and that shit is expensive. Ah, catharsis.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 17, 2013, 05:21:48 PM
Does the game still have Egress?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 17, 2013, 05:35:33 PM
And Angel Wings. That stage is basically farming Nirvana, yes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 17, 2013, 05:51:41 PM
Jesus -christ- that's degenerate.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 17, 2013, 08:15:47 PM
Mario Kart 7- FUCK OFF BLUE SHELLS
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 17, 2013, 08:28:29 PM
hahahahahahahahahaha
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 17, 2013, 08:44:48 PM
Warframe - Laggy was someone that finally listened.  Good times are being had.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 17, 2013, 10:23:51 PM
Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge: I wanted to be clever with the description of this game, but then laziness strikes and I just go "whatever, I'll be bornig" and so...

Just beat Mission 1.  The first Crystal Skull challenge has you fighting DOKU FROM NG1 WHAT THE HELL GAME!?  Looking it up, beating him just yields a double Karma bonus and I hate myself for trying so many times just to give up.  Sounds like finding all the Skulls gets you the same reward, just doing the entire challenge gets you more Karma.  Ok, that's fair or something.

Also...this game has actual Ninjaing.  There are times where you can actually stealth kill enemies by sneaking up on them and stabbing them through the heart.  I know, I'm as shocked as you are.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 17, 2013, 11:06:22 PM
Captain K's Bizarre Adventure (Snes): The most stylish RPG, with the worst possible gameplay
I know nothing about Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and basically don't understand anything.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/16/1366236093-jojo-no-kimyou-na-bouken-j-00002.png)


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/16/1366236142-jojo-no-kimyou-na-bouken-j-00008.png)


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/16/1366236127-jojo-no-kimyou-na-bouken-j-00006.png)


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/16/1366236098-jojo-no-kimyou-na-bouken-j-00011.png)


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/16/1366236117-jojo-no-kimyou-na-bouken-j-00003.png)
But seriously these battles don't make any sense.


EDF2017: Is irremediably stupid and breaks all the rules of modern shooting game design. (unlimited ammo, no health regen, weird health progression system, not "visceral" at all, slow main character)
I never expected to like it that much.
It somehow feels like the best combination of Borderlands and Mass Effect Multi.
There aren't a lot of enemy types, but the game hands the player cool different weapons like dopamine. And not boring randomized weapons like Borderlands, actual weapons you want to try.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on April 18, 2013, 05:53:59 AM
MOAR POKEYMANZ: So I Pirated Totally Legit Traded in all the Legendaries/Event Pokemon that you can't get any other way and I've decided that I'm gonna attempt to fill out the 150 Stars of Destiny Tablet in this game seeing as how I haven't gotten to play a proper Suikoden in half a decade. It's not as fulfilling, but whatever, Victini's cute.

These "Plots" you guys described in RSE and DPPt are totally clarifying to me why people are hyping the plot of BW. It's not -good-, but at least it's not deargodwhut. I'm still not sure it was the direction to take this series since at least the deargodwhut sounds amusing. BW plot just kinda makes me see all the unfortunate implications the series has. It's like examining the Mario universe too closely.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 18, 2013, 06:40:12 AM
Any plot hype from BW should be consistently reiterated as being good plot for the target market for Pokemon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 18, 2013, 06:42:06 AM
Mass Effect - Working on the Feros arc right now. I've found that the best strategy for beating Mako combat is just to ignore it, run everything over, and hope you aren't shot in the back. I'm finally getting a hang of the combat and I'm enjoying it well enough aside from the Mako. I like playing as a mage who throws people in the air and shit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 18, 2013, 06:53:16 AM
I don't know if I did it when I played through blitzkreig styles (and with a controller), but when I play on PC there is only like 1 bit where I even bother doing Mako combat.  Otherwise I just get out to shoot things.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 18, 2013, 06:55:48 AM
I tried that and died horribly. So I gave up and decided to use the Mako. Sadly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 18, 2013, 07:06:26 AM
Your circle strafe-fu is weak and costs you XP and credits :(  Foot kills worth twice as much as car kills.

(This is broken and silly and not sure if intended part of design.  It really shouldn't be.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 18, 2013, 07:08:53 AM
I tried fighting a giant, acid breathing monster in the Mako but that ended in me deciding to not do any sidequests today ;)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 18, 2013, 07:26:29 AM
You can get out of the Mako just as the giant worm is about to die to get those 1337 XP. I did it constantly.

ME2 doesn't have the Mako, it has the Hammerhead, which controls more less like a vehicle and more like a mascot character, in linear levels.
ME3 doesn't have vehicles.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 18, 2013, 08:21:31 AM
Thresher Maws are pretty shitty to fight.  Moving the Mako so it is perpendicular to the worm and moving left to right while shooting at it lets you dodge the consistently (they lead their shots as though you will drive in straight line).  When they dig I tend to drive around a decent size circle just so you have some momentum I case they surface under you.  Plinking them with a pistol for that last sliver if health will get you like 2k exp and loads of credits.  Getting all of them on side maps (3 or 4) will easily net you a level worth of experience with the rest of the crap on the planets.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 18, 2013, 02:53:01 PM
Lift is the greatest thing in the entire game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 18, 2013, 06:37:45 PM
I <3 playing as the Adept, especially now that I discovered I can send my hapless allies to scout out enemies for me. Magics are fun~ Only problem is that I don't really want to use Liara because I am already an Adept, and I like Liara.

I found out that I apparently have to kill two of my bros because I'm too lazy to do a sidequest. The good news is that it is the two lamest party members anyway. But it might change my future Mass Effect experience???

Right now I am being peer pressured by my friend to save the lives of Feros people with sidequests, but that's so much effort, saving people. God.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 18, 2013, 06:40:05 PM
Right now I am being peer pressured by my friend to save the lives of Feros people with sidequests, but that's so much effort, saving people. God.

<Ciatos> I liked eugeny better when I was making anime fantasy people bang
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 18, 2013, 06:42:40 PM
I don't really do sidequests in many games! They often give paltry rewards for big pains in my ass.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 18, 2013, 06:48:01 PM
I know! But :non-sequiturthedralwaddledee: applies. That and letting a whole race die for reasons of :effort: is such an Ice Cream Popess modus operandi too. =)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 18, 2013, 07:59:31 PM
Indeed. Well, they are going to die because of evil scientists, and who doesn't love evil scientists, anyway?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 18, 2013, 08:51:07 PM
But the good scientist is trying to save them later on and he is the best character.  Goddammit Renegade route in ME3 :(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on April 19, 2013, 12:14:08 AM
Hmm, sorry if I offended anyone over the SO4 mages, I didn't mean to imply they were really bad or anything, they are definitely fun and effective in many ways during the game =) As mentioned I did have Lymle and Sarah as part of my main team, and I did try Myuria out as well especially in the post game as well where I really gave everyone an extensive whirl for the most part. I don't remember for sure but I think I might have somehow picked up a couple of really nifty weapons for Meracle at some stage like the Dragon Claws from I think the arena and the Bigfoot Claws from IC while Lymle was like stuck with the wand from the Mega Insect Warren or something for absolutely ages so there was a large discrepancy between INT and ATK if I remember right and combined with Meracle Berserk + Focus + Critical Hit Support + Blindside Beat S there was a notable/sizeable difference in offensive output. Like I said I picked up Meracle's 99'999 trophy and other damage trophies pretty early =)
The Dragon Claws come with Increases Critical Hit chance too which is neat~

Part of the reason Reimi is so good is if I remember right, I could be wrong since it's been a while since I played so correct me if I'm wrong, is because critical hits break No Guard and enable juggling/interruption/etcs during enemy Rush, which in the long run in my experiences was something Meracle became very good at as well especially with her juggling skills =) She does have flaws like the low HP and general fragility on the AIs though~

Anyway PS3 version is supposed to arrive tommorow, looking forward to seeing the differences there =)

Tales of Graces F Back at postgames. I has the king. I died. Asblooo~
Chaos mode, not real good at playing anyone other than Cheria or Sophie >.>

 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 19, 2013, 12:59:12 AM
There is no need to apologise for being right.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 19, 2013, 05:19:38 AM
Dragon Claws are indeed a pretty cool weapon, and not too hard to get if you do colosseum stuff, and especially if you do bunny races~. Critical hits feel a touch overrated based on my testing so far, but I'll reserve judgement until I'm done. Still, no real question that Meracle should end up pretty good on damage, possibly even the best. I don't think it's by enough to justify her weaknesses in other areas (you brought up her durability but I think the lack of range or crowd control is a bigger deal, she doesn't really do much besides punish single targets and even that relies on risky maneuvers). That said this is one of the really good things about SO4: despite the fact that the characters play very differently there's very solid overall balance, such that depending on what you're looking for almost anyone can be good. (not sure about the NG+ PC)


Dark Souls - Beat some wolf with a giant sword, this is by far the coolest enemy design Dark Souls has come up with. He was pretty easy though, by DS boss standards (which is to say less resets than anything since Capra Demon). Especially once I realised I had some ring which jacked up three key stats a whole bunch in exchange for... my not being allowed to remove it or it breaks? I can do that. Going through the Duke's Archives, died to some plot fight apparently. Dum de dum. So far Fudo's statement about the harder half of the game is not being born out!

FE7 HHM - Okay, the game gets harder around Pirate Ship or so, pretty legit stuff there. Currently up to Kinship's Bond, the defend Nils map. Raven is so broken.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 19, 2013, 05:45:50 AM
Mass Effect- Feros completed. I am currently Level 23, the boss fight thing was pretty fun since it was just a series of regular fights.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 19, 2013, 05:08:44 PM
Dark Souls - Beat some wolf with a giant sword, this is by far the coolest enemy design Dark Souls has come up with. He was pretty easy though, by DS boss standards (which is to say less resets than anything since Capra Demon). Especially once I realised I had some ring which jacked up three key stats a whole bunch in exchange for... my not being allowed to remove it or it breaks? I can do that. Going through the Duke's Archives, died to some plot fight apparently. Dum de dum. So far Fudo's statement about the harder half of the game is not being born out!

In fairness to Sif, you could've fought him at any time (I always do it after the DLC, though--it changes the cutscene). As much as I love the music/aesthetics of that fight, yeah, it's one of the easiest in the game. All you really need is a 100% physical shield, because that's all he's got. That said, I agree with Fudo's statement only insofar as it applies to DLC bosses and the Tomb of the Giants. Most of the second half bosses were much easier for me.

I don't suppose anyone's already directed you to the game's various secret areas? (Asylum revisited, Great Hollow/Ash Lake, Painted World of Ariamis, Daughter of Chaos bonfire, and DLC are all various degrees of FAQ-bait. Players were typically good about leaving messages to clue other people in about these, but online activity may have died down by this point.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 19, 2013, 05:26:48 PM
The doggie is super cute!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 19, 2013, 05:46:58 PM
Hey, if the pre-DLC cutscene isn't seen first then the after-DLC cutscene doesn't become" no happiness ever" levels of impact.  I was always unclearly saying that it's more the levels than bosses.  Half the remaining bosses are hard, the other half are Aslyum Demon levels of ass-punching easy.  The levels though are always in the haha-FUCK YOU level of things.  Then again maybe I'm the only person to regularly be picked apart by Duke's Archives. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 19, 2013, 05:48:55 PM
Yeah overall the endgame's not really harder (especially since Lost Izalith was nerfed) but it has the two hardest non-DLC bosses and the hardest area.
How different is the cutscene?
... I need to replay Dark Souls. (and only use whips / never level up!?)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 19, 2013, 06:04:26 PM
ShF3: So in Scenario 2 you have a choice to spare one of the bosses or keep fighting her to the death. If you do the nice thing her husband joins in S3. If you keep fighting, he shows up as a boss, trying to assassinate the S2 hero's mother for revenge. It turns out that he's basically insane with grief because his wife was carrying their unborn child, and now you have no option but to kill him and move on with your quest to help the guy who, you just discovered, executed a pregnant woman because she wouldn't give him a boat.

The hell?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 19, 2013, 06:09:13 PM
Honestly, the Souls games' difficulty tends to drop a bit later on because...well. You've got better gear, which gives you more room to make errors.

That said, I'll say I had some trouble with Sif. Getting caught by the spin slash (even blocking) trended towards causing death.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 19, 2013, 06:12:22 PM
I guess maybe my more time-consuming plays are spent in the first half so I don't get second-half practice in.  Except against the DPC bosses,  Those have built-in time-consuming.  go to hell kalameeeeeeet
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on April 19, 2013, 11:34:02 PM
Thanks Gref and NEB =)

Tales of Graces F- Steamrollin' through the F Arc. All seven characters are reunited and available for battle now. The core of my team is still the same Cheria/Sophie/Pascal but I switched Manlik out for you know who. Currently still playing on Chaos and F Arc is easier than I remember it being from before so far except the boss at the desert ruins with the forced team was still a pain.  Took a few resets/strategy tweakings/revive item spammings. I'm glad to have my main party back~

I can has Accels. I can Instadignation. I is happy~

Did a few sidequests and I have all the Accel and Accel Mystic Arte/finisher titles except Pascal's finisher. I am probably going to Piggyback the Rockgagong some for money, then do more stamp collecting so I can get the Book of Striking then go to Lhant Hill or somewhere to work on getting more titles for the characters (Cheria has all her A and B Arte mastery titles though) before continuing with plots. I think I might be able to make it through to the final dungeon of the F Arc tomorrow. Seems to me shorter than I remember it being.

Star Oceans 4- Saved at the save point in the Northern forest after going through the cave on the first planet. Been controlling Reimi. I used the harvest point trick near the Calnus to get Edge and Reimi to L3 before exploring but I still had three gameovers from ambushes and what not as I tried to readjust myself to this game's combat. Didn't help I thought I was in ToGf and kept hitting square to try to dodge/sidestep at first! Then I kept forgetting to hit a directional button with circle to jump and also tried to use items near the enemy instead of getting to a distance first. Also kept getting mixxed up with L1/L2 and R1/R2 switching characters instead of using skills! It was kinda hilarious >.> Things improved once I started using Blindside more and once I remembered how to activate Rush that helped too. I think I'm probably picking it up again quicker than the first time I played the game at least~

Not noticed much differences between the versions so far. I don't seem to be getting many critical hits even with Blindside/Rush but it's probably too early to make a judgement on that~

I might utilise the recovery point in the Northern forest so I can fight a while and experiment more with it~

I forget if Reimi has any combos with her basic bow physicals though I have picked up a bunch of her x consecutive long range attack trophies including the sixty~ one.

Poor Andy though. You will be missed~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 19, 2013, 11:49:28 PM
WAXF: Beginning of the final act.
Man Charlton fucked up at the end. I guess he just panicked. What Katrina was saying.
He fights so badly the best strategy in this battle is to do nothing at all. (He'd have a good chance of ruining the team by ignoring the zombies, trying to run away and spamming that mass attack against the team) Anyone could have noticed that attacking the zombies over and over wasn't killing them. And Edna somehow survives him!!!

Somehow the three samurai dudes were the hardest bosses in the game. I killed the first one, left the second one with 89 HP then killed the third one.
Entire, full HP team vs One lame dude with 89 HPs.
Unfortunately my characters all had 0% chance of doing 0 damage.
Well I won with only the sacred slayer left with double digit HPs, and the boss was going to octo-turn me next!


EDF 2017: Finished.
Finishing the game nets you the much cooler Pale Wing character that's on the cover. (who can fly) Yes you have to beat the game to even see/play as the girl on the cover.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 19, 2013, 11:59:21 PM
Dark Souls - Beat some wolf with a giant sword, this is by far the coolest enemy design Dark Souls has come up with. He was pretty easy though, by DS boss standards (which is to say less resets than anything since Capra Demon). Especially once I realised I had some ring which jacked up three key stats a whole bunch in exchange for... my not being allowed to remove it or it breaks? I can do that. Going through the Duke's Archives, died to some plot fight apparently. Dum de dum. So far Fudo's statement about the harder half of the game is not being born out!

In fairness to Sif, you could've fought him at any time (I always do it after the DLC, though--it changes the cutscene). As much as I love the music/aesthetics of that fight, yeah, it's one of the easiest in the game. All you really need is a 100% physical shield, because that's all he's got. That said, I agree with Fudo's statement only insofar as it applies to DLC bosses and the Tomb of the Giants. Most of the second half bosses were much easier for me.

I don't suppose anyone's already directed you to the game's various secret areas? (Asylum revisited, Great Hollow/Ash Lake, Painted World of Ariamis, Daughter of Chaos bonfire, and DLC are all various degrees of FAQ-bait. Players were typically good about leaving messages to clue other people in about these, but online activity may have died down by this point.)

I'm really not interested in making the game longer, I'm afraid! Wouldn't know anything about online activity, I play the game without.

Duke's Archives was pretty easy once I mustered the patience to kill those two boars at the start. Also the prison gave me a scare that I was stuck there for a few moments! I think those blue-haired creatures the lizards summon are supposed to be badass or something, but they really aren't.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on April 20, 2013, 12:08:18 AM
I've actually been playing through Dark Souls as well despite having it sit on my shelf for about a year and a half and barely touching it.  I agree that Sif is pretty easy, but the boss of the New Londo Ruins would have been a nightmare without an online person helping out. It doesn't help that Spears have a really hard time hitting the boss and you want to deal a lot of damage really fast. I really like the game, but a lot of the areas designed to make you fall to your death just aren't fun (Great Hollow/Anor Londo/upper Blighttown). Bosses are neat, but it would be cool to have some sort of balancing mechanism to make them a bit harder with multiple people.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 20, 2013, 01:56:17 AM
Ok I didn't expect XF's final act to be that short.

This was a decent game.
It relies entirely on the very robust class system, one of the best incarnations I've seen. All the classes are varied, balanced and fun to use, and meshing them together was a joy. This completely saves the rest of the game.
Including the CTB bar was a really great idea, since the FFT approach of hiding it in menus is so much worse.

So yeah everything else about it is kinda meh. It looks like the devs realized that strategy games get boring fast, and so they threw way too many gimmick battles and stages. Cute at first, grating fast, and destroying the replay value. There was a lot of wasted time in general, especially with the "Save Levin's dumb dad" or "Save civilians" battles that had absolutely no margin of error.
The game kind of misses the chance of having interesting political intrigue like other strategy RPGs, and instead tells a dumb WA story. At least WA knows villains are better, so it shows a cutscene of the villains after seemingly every single battle in the game. That villain cast was overall good (Charlton, Rupert, Edna) but otherwise I don't have good things to say.
Unlike FFT and TO, the game gives a ton of unique PCs at the very beginning, so you can't play around with generics if you play normally (I had to make a concious effort to avoid this)
Item synthetizing is pretty bad too. I ignored it until endgame, where I had too much money and stores only sold +3 weapons. I took about an half an hour to upgrade everybody to +6. Can't say this was exciting..
The dog really really sucks. Honestly sub Suiko3 dog at endgame. The worst RPG dog. :(

Anyway it was still pretty good, especially for a Wild Arms game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Otter on April 20, 2013, 01:56:29 AM
Super Meat Boy: picked this up, ran through, got A+ times on all the Light World maingame levels.  Cleared the first three Dark World chapters.  Did some levels here and there in Cotton Alley but some of them seem really hard and I got sorta discouraged.  In terms of bandages, I've only unlocked Headcrab so far.  I like the game but I'm not sure I want to dedicate the time to 100%.

The Binding of Isaac: got all the endings and beat all ten challenges.  Fun but I'm definitely not gonna 100% this one because it's basically just luck and patience in finding the remaining items at this point.

Judging by the last page or so of the thread, I'm a bit late for Heart of the Swarm and Bioshock Infinite discussion, but I'd be interested to hear how they were.  I'm guessing Infinite is like Bioshock but a bit prettier and dumber while HotS is pretty much another WoL-esque campaign of gimmick missions and idiot plot that I'll inevitably play anyway.  Opinions?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 20, 2013, 02:39:46 AM
Bioshock Infinite vs Bioshock could go either way. I'd generally be somewhat inclined to say, on the whole, they are about of equal intelligence. For all that Infinite does beat you over the head with "RACISM IS BAD" there is actually a fair amount of subtle and well done stuff in there. I dunno, since it came with a free copy, I should replay Bioshock as well and come back with a better answer.

So.

Prettier yes. Dumber... not sure.

I'm still definitely up for Infinite talk, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on April 20, 2013, 03:13:32 AM
BioShock Infinite does do the *racism!!* thing, especially early, but unlike most games, it doesn't stop there. The racism thing is a facet of the bigger thrust of the story, not the whole thing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 20, 2013, 04:04:41 AM
The OMGRACISM part is just set dressing.  It really has little to no impact to the narrative and is there for world building.

It is better for it being there, more flavorful and it not coming up would have made for a pretty vapid presentation of fundamental extremism.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AAA on April 20, 2013, 04:12:33 AM
You're pretty much on the money for heart of the swarm. The missions can be pretty fun, if you beat wings of liberty on brutal you won't have any problem here, the upgrades are super broken and make it pretty damn easy. The plot is the same exact CORRUPTION! shit blizzard has been doing for years now, you could do a find/replace on WC3's plot with all the names and it would wind up being exactly the same. The evolution missions are funny though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Monkeyfinger on April 20, 2013, 05:12:30 AM
Heart of the swarm is way more heavy on the action RPG stuff than wings of liberty was. You're given kerrigan plus a handful of suped up versions of zerg units like roaches and hydras, and made to fight an HP bloated boss with big flashy telegraphed attacks. Not really a fan :/
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Ranmilia on April 20, 2013, 07:34:24 AM
Infinite is pretty good actually.  The sociological part of the story is quite nice!  The technobabble and especially the final ending, where it comes to a head, are awful.  But if you can tolerate an incredibly dumb final scene, it's still probably an improvement over 1's "put the climax of the story at the 75% mark and then have another 3 hours of pointless stuff."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on April 20, 2013, 09:30:15 AM
The OMGRACISM part is just set dressing.  It really has little to no impact to the narrative and is there for world building.

It is better for it being there, more flavorful and it not coming up would have made for a pretty vapid presentation of fundamental extremism.

I don't think it's just set dressing.  The very opening where you wander around this fantastic, whitewashed version of 1910 America for like ten minutes and then get slapped in the face with the incredibly racist underbelly of that era goes back to the whole theme of "accepting you made mistakes in the past, rather than trying to explain them away."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on April 20, 2013, 09:39:21 PM
I'm buying a PS3 soon.  Tell me all the games to play.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 20, 2013, 09:40:59 PM
Valkyria Chronicles, Tales of Graces are the two I really recommend.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 21, 2013, 12:37:56 AM
Tales of Graces F - <Grefter> Tales of Graces FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Just finished the childhood arc. All I have to say is :asbel:.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 21, 2013, 12:53:02 AM
NotMiki: Play Heavy Rain.  Then play Final Fantasy 13 for some Square-Enix trolling and your monthly dose of self-loathing.

Fenrir: Yeah, the XF item search system is bad & boring.  Luckily it only seems to matter at endgame (although it'd be nice if the brief time that +4 weapons are buyable had a big "spend ur cash now, this won't last" warning).  Especially not a fan since it basically locks you into your equipment choices as you can't easily get more than 6 or 7 sets of +6 equipment without being super boring, so I guess no more class changing (at least without also using Off Class EQ).  I'm also pretty much with you on the political plot to XF being really bad, for all that I found Rupert & Edna amusing anyway.

Did you finish Oath in Felghana Nightmare?  I found most of the bosses incredibly hard...  with an import of Hard data for broken-as-hell +9 equipment all around except for the two final sets which were merely at +5 or so.  I can't imagine how much grinding some of those earlier bosses would have taken without all that broken.  How much are you grinding, anyway?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 21, 2013, 12:54:58 AM
Quote from: SnowFire
Fenrir: Yeah, the XF item search system is bad & boring.  Luckily it only seems to matter at endgame (although it'd be nice if the brief time that +4 weapons are buyable had a big "spend ur cash now, this won't last" warning).

It has one. It's called "THE GAME IS USING GODDAMNED TIME TRAVELLING PLOT OVER HALFWAY THROUGH THE SCRIPT".
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 21, 2013, 01:07:01 AM
Item creation kinda sucks, just like it does in absolutely all other games. All I say in XF's defence is that (a) it doesn't completely break the game if you do it, and (b) the game doesn't completely break you if you don't, either of which can make an annoying IC system far more relevant.

I thought the game's plot was fine. Not really too impressive on raw plotting, but good villain casts make everything better.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 21, 2013, 02:36:31 AM
Notmiki get God Hand again as a PS2 classic, and alternate between it and Demon's/Dark Souls


I thought that "endgame" was at least going to get better weapons than "the past". It's especially jarring, plotwise, since the team does eventually take control of the country back.

I'm up against Garland in Oath of Felghana Nightmare, and I'm completely exhausted. Usually I grind one or two levels at every boss, until getting another level takes more than 10 minutes I think. Since Ys has Suiko Exp you can't grind much anyway, so you have to just get better.
Gyalva, Gullen, Chester 1/2, Gildias were the hardest bosses.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on April 21, 2013, 02:47:26 AM
Are you playing the version of Oath that heals you when you use boost, or the one that doesn't?  because I have trouble seeing how nightmare is beatable on the latter, particularly the ice dragon boss.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 21, 2013, 03:23:33 AM
The one that does.
I did beat it without the auto revive accessory though so I could have done it with both I think. I got really really good at dodging him. (I had to)



Edit: Megaman X Maverick Hunter endgame, Armadillo fight:
*X enters the room*
Armored Armadillo: ENOUGH TALK!!
*Fight begins*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 21, 2013, 05:03:32 AM
If Oath is like the other games in the series, the auto-revive is a one-shot that you should save for Galbalan anyway.  (I've never actually burned the auto-revive early and seen if it became repurchasable, though.)

Your experience sounds like mine - run the dungeon, get walled by the boss, collect 1-2 levels, boss is now beatable.  Except.  As noted above, I have utterly cheaty weapons for Nightmare that would take a ton of extra grinding (if even allowed?  On my Normal playthrough, they capped the items at+3 upgrades) to get, which means I'm probably stealthily 2 levels higher functionally than I seem, which since level is the god stat, well.  So congratulations on your awesomeness if you're not doing crazy hour-long grinding per boss.

Elf: Oh of course, great characters can save objectively stupid plots all the time (cough, cough, Game Arts.  Or for that matter several Fire Emblems). So yeah, good thing for XF the villain cast hams it up well, I'm down for hyping that part.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 21, 2013, 02:33:52 PM
I've actually been playing through Dark Souls as well despite having it sit on my shelf for about a year and a half and barely touching it.  I agree that Sif is pretty easy, but the boss of the New Londo Ruins would have been a nightmare without an online person helping out. It doesn't help that Spears have a really hard time hitting the boss and you want to deal a lot of damage really fast. I really like the game, but a lot of the areas designed to make you fall to your death just aren't fun (Great Hollow/Anor Londo/upper Blighttown). Bosses are neat, but it would be cool to have some sort of balancing mechanism to make them a bit harder with multiple people.

I am pretty sure that boss durability is mildly boosted when you have allies. Not enough to offset the extra offense a competent ally brings to the table, but it's been my observation that they take marginally less damage than usual. Anyway, spears are a low-damage, defensive weapon--their selling point is that you can attack while blocking, and you're basically trading some damage output for this benefit. Not really an ideal choice for the boss fight where DPS is all that matters! Personally, I find the Four Kings easier solo just because you can't really manipulate their AI the same way when they have other distractions to hit (if you're alone, it's possible to keep the other kings from going aggro if you stay close enough to your current target).

I'm buying a PS3 soon.  Tell me all the games to play.

Also tossing in a recommendation for VC. Knytt Underground is also a thing. I am not sure what your standing on N1 is, but Disgaea 4 was one of their better efforts. Bioshock Infinite comes bundled with the original Bioshock, so that's two quality games you get at once if you haven't already played the original. And yeah, if you could take God Hand, Dark Souls should be no big thing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on April 21, 2013, 06:18:09 PM
Throwing in a hardy recommendation for Disgaea 4, Valkyria Chronicles, and NIER (if you haven't played it on 360).

Kid Icarus Uprising: I kinda wish the surprise twist of Chapter 9 wasn't ruined long before I ever got the game (and considering I got the game at the -last- DLCon, that's impressive). But otherwise, it was well-handled and I can see why everyone made such a big deal about it. Working through Chapter 11, not sure I like the new villain cast apart from trollcifer.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 21, 2013, 06:27:27 PM
I didn't know about the plot twist, but it was still evident something was up because I was thinking midgame "holy hell, I'm not one to complain about games being short, but I refuse to believe the game is this short".


FE7 HHM - Man, I'd almost forgotten how evil Genesis is on this mode. Three long-range tomes (plus an Eclipse, nobody cares). Three status staves. Luna that OHKOs anything it crits; I didn't raise a longbowman and I don't have any heavilly built up supports this playthrough (trying for S rank) so I just have to use a high-luck PC and hope for the best. At least Kishuna nerfs some of the enemies for the first four turns.

I'm rather amused to note that FE7 HHM enemy stats seem almost identical to FE8 HM. When HHM is tougher (and generally it is) it's because of tougher map setups, like this one.


Dark Souls - Cursed again! Aw nuts. Apparently I wasn't supposed to do Duke's Archives before New Londo or something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 21, 2013, 06:35:20 PM
Not sure what you're using right now, but most heavy armor has ass for curse resist. Lautrec's armor set might serve if you're having repeated problems with that. Running around with humanity in stock also boosts your curse resistance (not to mention item drop rate, and some other less important stats) buuuut running around with humanity in stock first time through the game is generally haha no.

New Londo does have a curse resist ring you can pick up, but the main selling point of the place is the very large ember (+15 weapons aw yeah).

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Magic Fanatic on April 21, 2013, 07:18:50 PM
I'm buying a PS3 soon.  Tell me all the games to play.

On top of the other recommendations, Ratchet & Clank Future games are good.  Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time are more of the standard R&C titles, while All 4 One is more of...  Gauntlet with explosions?  Eh, that works.  Haven't played Quest for Booty or Full Frontal Assault though, so I can't weigh in on those.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 21, 2013, 11:00:55 PM
If Oath is like the other games in the series, the auto-revive is a one-shot that you should save for Galbalan anyway.  (I've never actually burned the auto-revive early and seen if it became repurchasable, though.)

Your experience sounds like mine - run the dungeon, get walled by the boss, collect 1-2 levels, boss is now beatable.  Except.  As noted above, I have utterly cheaty weapons for Nightmare that would take a ton of extra grinding (if even allowed?  On my Normal playthrough, they capped the items at+3 upgrades) to get, which means I'm probably stealthily 2 levels higher functionally than I seem, which since level is the god stat, well.  So congratulations on your awesomeness if you're not doing crazy hour-long grinding per boss.

Elf: Oh of course, great characters can save objectively stupid plots all the time (cough, cough, Game Arts.  Or for that matter several Fire Emblems). So yeah, good thing for XF the villain cast hams it up well, I'm down for hyping that part.
It was just sheer perserverence! I fought Gildias something like 50 times.
You can buy multiple auto revive items in Oath, but each one costs 2x the cost of the last one. They're like those HP+ potions in that regard.
I beat Garland and only have the final left. >_> Another day.


NEB if you went back to Seath's room in Duke's Archives, don't do that, you need to find another way in the Duke's Archive. Seath is still invincible here.


Megaman X Maverick Hunter was decent. Not much to say. I'm starting to like Megaman games. I've never liked how these games have too many options, but the level design makes up for it.
I only used four options anyway. Shot, Charged Shot, Flamethrower, Storm Tornado.
Storm Tornado 4 life.

The Vita doesn't work well with standard controls, but O = Jump, R = Attack, L = Dash is surprisingly excellent.

The optional mode is great but there are like 50 new weapons and you can't even equip them until you beat 3-4 bosses.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 21, 2013, 11:09:05 PM
Yeah, aside from missing out on Homing Torpedo that's pretty much the good options of MMX1.

Re Seath, yeah, I found him at the bottom of the cave of invisible platforms.

"Invisible platforms? In the ice level? You're making this too hard for the kids!"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 21, 2013, 11:24:10 PM
Oh right I did use Homing Torpedo too! (Mostly against Sigma 1 while staying on the upper left corner of the room)
Storm Tornado though. Damn.

Ok nevermind about Seath you are supposed to beat him here.
Curse res could be nice but it's not really needed. I find Seath to be the easiest boss in the game honestly. I don't target and go straight for the left/right tentacles.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 22, 2013, 12:34:32 AM
Yeah I was doing decently then he cursed me. :(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 22, 2013, 12:59:51 AM
Chameleon Sting is good in Maverick Hunter X due to limited aiming as well, though, at it's best when Charged for obvious reasons.  Even better in MHX when you consider you can swap weapons while still in invulnerability.  I think Rolling Shield gained a similar buff.

Boomerang Cutter is better than it appears at first since it's a little stronger than you'd think, utility of grabbing things, and hit's weird angles that are a pain to get.  To be fair, Homing Torpedo does lower it's use significantly, but it's still an OK option.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on April 22, 2013, 01:22:58 AM
Throwing in a hardy recommendation for Disgaea 4, Valkyria Chronicles, and NIER (if you haven't played it on 360).

Don't have a 360 actually.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: MalcolmMasher on April 22, 2013, 02:17:50 AM
FE7 HHM - Man, I'd almost forgotten how evil Genesis is on this mode. Three long-range tomes (plus an Eclipse, nobody cares). Three status staves. Luna that OHKOs anything it crits; I didn't raise a longbowman and I don't have any heavilly built up supports this playthrough (trying for S rank) so I just have to use a high-luck PC and hope for the best. At least Kishuna nerfs some of the enemies for the first four turns.

I'm rather amused to note that FE7 HHM enemy stats seem almost identical to FE8 HM. When HHM is tougher (and generally it is) it's because of tougher map setups, like this one.

Hawkeye (and Hector) should be able to preempt a Luna counter with the Brave Axe from Kinship's Bond.

In my opinion the meanest part about Genesis is that you can only get one Restore beforehand. Person holding it got Berserked? Too bad. I generally approve of the map design, though; in three modes it's a turkey shoot, and then HHM makes you the turkeys.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 22, 2013, 03:30:34 AM
Yeah my winning strategy for the map involved Priscilla standing 1 square out of Sleep range, then using a Pure Water when she had to dive in for Silence protection. The bastard with Purge and Berserk was the trickiest part of the map probably, I ended up tricking him into using Purge and coming near the east wall so Hawkeye could double Hand Axe him.

Brave Axe does take care of the Luna Druid in Hawkeye's path, but there are also the ones to the west. That said I was eventually able to get the first hit on the last of those on turn 4 before Kishuna leaves, so the strategy was safe aside from missing. Still very dicy.


Jim: No comment on PS3-specifics, but FF13, XCOM, Star Ocean 4, DMC4, and Bayonetta are all pretty cool as far as multiplatform games go.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 22, 2013, 11:24:39 AM
Despite Seath being a joke he's killed me an inordinate amount of times or forced restarts because of tail bullshit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 22, 2013, 01:26:52 PM
People can bitch all they like about getting Kalameet's tail, but I have never got Seath's tail to drop. Trying has only ever got me horribly killed, and the only reason I've ever got that sword is that once my summoner was nice enough to give me one after noticing I was running a sorcerer and only using the Moonlight Butterfly Horn (which is not great, but at least has the distinction of being one of the nicest looking weapons in the game. It's that or Quelaag's Furysword).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 22, 2013, 01:58:40 PM
My PC attempt at Seath's tail went disgustingly easy.  Then he killed me like three times.

Then I got pissed and used Power Within, Dusk Crown, Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring, APyro Hand +5, Great Fireballs and wiped out a fourth of his health with each hit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 22, 2013, 02:04:47 PM
Wait, Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring...boosts pyromancy?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 22, 2013, 03:47:34 PM
Wait, Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring...boosts pyromancy?

Ayup.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 22, 2013, 03:51:23 PM
I think, if I recall correctly, I got Seath's tail.

Flamberge OP.

Also, fuck those invisible platforms. Fuck them in their goddamn invisible eyes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 22, 2013, 04:30:40 PM
Wait, Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring...boosts pyromancy?

Ayup.

That would've been good to know before I ran a SL50 pyromancer through NG+! Oh well.

And the only one of the invisible platforms that's really a problem is the one leading to the blue titanite slab. That one can get its invisible eyes fucked. The others are all straight lines.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 22, 2013, 05:10:39 PM
I dunno. I had a LOT of arbitrary deaths in that area. Felt like a couple of the paths just did weird things or had a weird cutoff near the end.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 22, 2013, 06:28:36 PM
They're all slightly slanted so if you have bad enough luck to be running near the edges you can slide off.  There's also one of the normal(nroaml!) pathways that you can slide off easy if you're running because of a nasty incline on the left.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on April 22, 2013, 07:12:50 PM
ToGF- Good to see more peoples are playing this, I'll be interested in reading Snow's thoughts =)

Saved at the start of the final dungeon of the F Arc. Managed the boss at the lab first fight this time and the boss in the gardens wasn't too bad this run either. I think the min/max CC and HP+1000 DLC has helped a lot~ Don't think I'm overlevelled, only L65~ Avg or so~

Well Temporal Rift/Time Stop, Runic/Round Shield and Arcane Vigor are some of the best Accels =) Sophie's fits her very well too~

It's reaching the stage where I'll soon have to do all there is to do before leaving the F arc like getting all the dolls and most titles for spoiler PC which will be quite time consuming and grindy so I'm going to hold off on that for a while.

Star Oceans 4- Since I am fiending on this instead. Around 12hrs~ in. Just finished off the Triom Village side quests/shop orders. Between this, collecting ingredients for Item Creation, materials for the quests on Aeos, filling in Monster Data (I made a fol increasing jewel from the scumbag thief types), monster surprises and ambushes, plus general absentminded wandering/roamings (am I going the right ways?) Edge and Reimi are already L20, with Faize and Lymle close behind and I haven't even been to the wind swallow valley/celestial ship yet!~ Since I've already did two runs of Graces and one of this without any extensive tinkering around in item creations for OP equipment, items and such during the game for overthetop curbstompings and the likes I have decided to let go and do so this time~ Edge is currently sporting a Flame Sword and Aqua Mail, Faize an Iron Sabre and Aqua Mail, and Reimi has a Earthsoul Bow. Lymle just has the wand from Woodley but I gave her the Magic Bracelet I had Edge steal from the bully kid~
I think in general I'm probably going to end up really overlevelled and overpowered this time through the game since I'm going for the achievements this time as well like complete all shop orders, collect monster datas, etc. I know I had to complete the Triom quests before clearing the celestial ship and make sure Aeos is all finished before setting a course to EnII. Well I don't know about getting all the monster data for points of no returns on one run. That might get tiring. I think monster data carries over at least.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 22, 2013, 07:23:23 PM
In terms of ToGf, I'm just getting a feel for the game right now. The writing still lands within the usual Tales fare (i.e. lulz), but I never expected more. Gameplay I'll form a more solid opinion once I get used to it and actually get to explore B. Artes, but I found the decision to make the control scheme reminiscent of a FPS a bit questionable at first, especially considering the limitations on moving around the 3D environment. But it actually works in its favor once you get used to it, especially considering how often the angles switch in battle. Allowing R-stick shortcuts to amplify your skill roster in-battle is a wonderful decision, though. How do I improve the CC from minimum during battle, though? The only reliable way I've found so far is killing enemies in battle, but I feel like I'm missing an intricacy here.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Talaysen on April 22, 2013, 07:32:25 PM
In terms of ToGf, I'm just getting a feel for the game right now. The writing still lands within the usual Tales fare (i.e. lulz), but I never expected more. Gameplay I'll form a more solid opinion once I get used to it and actually get to explore B. Artes, but I found the decision to make the control scheme reminiscent of a FPS a bit questionable at first, especially considering the limitations on moving around the 3D environment. But it actually works in its favor once you get used to it, especially considering how often the angles switch in battle. Allowing R-stick shortcuts to amplify your skill roster in-battle is a wonderful decision, though. How do I improve the CC from minimum during battle, though? The only reliable way I've found so far is killing enemies in battle, but I feel like I'm missing an intricacy here.

Some A Artes will do it on crit, IIRC.  They should say something like chance to increase CC by 1.  Might need titles to get that effect on them though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 22, 2013, 09:04:01 PM
To get Seath's tail weapon you just have to run to the tail and attack it.
If Seath starts turning, stop until he stops turning (that means he's targetting you) then run up to the tail again.
If you aim for the tentacles he can only really hurt you with the tentacles stomp attack, but he doesn't use it that often. And worse comes to worse, you can take a hit, roll and estus away, he's slow enough.
I found both DLC tail weapons much harder to get.

For the invisible floor in the Crystal Caverns  I just bought something like 999 stones and walked veryyy slowly the first time through.
Nowadays I just never get the blue slab, and every other path is simple enough.



Anyway, ZHP. (More cheap downloadable PSP games!)
This game has all the terrible NIS trappings but I'm a sucker for roguelikes that have a way to raise your level 1 stats. (Which means: This, and Baroque) This is betraying the very nature of those games, but I just can't help but love a sense of progression in my games, you know?
The roguelike part itself is decent, with a good variation of items and situations. Being able to see the enemy field of view helps manipulating battles more easily than in most roguelikes.
It's too easy so far but I've just stacked SAT chips on my character. This just seemed like the thing to do. The real game begins in the aftergame, I presume.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 22, 2013, 11:32:45 PM
In terms of ToGf, I'm just getting a feel for the game right now. The writing still lands within the usual Tales fare (i.e. lulz), but I never expected more. Gameplay I'll form a more solid opinion once I get used to it and actually get to explore B. Artes, but I found the decision to make the control scheme reminiscent of a FPS a bit questionable at first, especially considering the limitations on moving around the 3D environment. But it actually works in its favor once you get used to it, especially considering how often the angles switch in battle. Allowing R-stick shortcuts to amplify your skill roster in-battle is a wonderful decision, though. How do I improve the CC from minimum during battle, though? The only reliable way I've found so far is killing enemies in battle, but I feel like I'm missing an intricacy here.

Some A Artes will do it on crit, IIRC.  They should say something like chance to increase CC by 1.  Might need titles to get that effect on them though.

This makes sense. More reason to encourage effective critical gauge management. It's kinda overwhelming at first, though, but hopefully I'll manage long-term. This game has more of a learning curve than any other Tales I've played, which is both good (because it makes the battles considerably less mindless) and bad (because it can be frustrating at first to effectively deal with the systems in play). It's a net positive, though, and as I get other PCs, I'll probably settle into someone I can use comfortably. The character variety is one hell of a step up from TotA already and actually feels comparable to a Star Ocean, which is honestly always a compliment.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on April 22, 2013, 11:46:58 PM
A Artes/critical hits are indeed good for building up/recovering CCs~ You'll get a support/buff skill called Insight which boosts ACC and critical rate, one of the battle tips you get for Cheria will mention how Insight boosts the critical rate and to use time while an enemy is stunned/staggered for using low CC artes to build up CC/etc. Hubert and Cheria have some of the best critical rates and Accuracy stats in the game which Insight on top polishes off nicely but depending on the difficulty mode you might not get to see the overall effect of that for a while (higher difficulty modes have enemies with higher EVA which ACC is taken against)~

SO4- Back on Aeos sidequestan' Team is L24 now >.> Used Edge for the celestial ship boss. One of his attacks did 7000~ damage <.< I used a hamburger steak before battle and a Enhance card to boost ATKs as well. Forgot to mention earlier I've also been enjoying cooking and making/using symbology cards this time =) Cleared out all the monster data for the celestial ship. The Lizard Commander took a while. Also turns out the save trick for getting 100% boss data still works for the PS3 version. I forgot about it for the two earlier bosses though >.> I now have 50'000~ in monies, I think I might buy four First Aid manuals, I have all the other skill manuals available so far including Chain Combos for everybody. I am going to finish off the Aeos quests then head for the mothership.

So far I have some manuals I still haven't used yet like HP Boost, Focus and Critical Hit since I'm not sure who to give them to yet. I was thinking of giving Critical Hit to Reimi and keeping Focus till Meracle joins, or maybe the other way round, not sure what would be better (could give them both to Reimi but iirc she leaves the team a couple of times) 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 23, 2013, 12:28:42 AM
Reimi leaves for the first half of the brief dungeon where Meracle joins. She also leaves for a bit on Roak but there's no battles during that besides the Edge arena fight.

Oh yeah, and it seems I have to rescind my comments about crit multipliers. I dunno if they existed in SO4j but everyone has the same crit multiplier (1.2) as far as I can tell. Good news for Meracle fans, it means Reimi and Meracle use Focus equally well mechanically (Sarah should be a lower priority because crits barely help magic). Stat topic is sitting at around 85% done, prepare for Morphus hype~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on April 23, 2013, 04:17:37 AM
Almost done with FE12 now. The ninja reinforcements on hard and above are some of the worst in the series, unfortunately; the ridiculously high move of mounted classes (and even worse, Wyverns) combined with competent stats make them ludicrously dangerous if you don't know what's coming beforehand. There's almost never any warnings about them either, unlike FE13. Playing on Casual means that they're generally more of a nuisance than a show-stopper, but it's still pretty annoying as a design decision. It's also kinda bad that I had to resort to Casual to not get completely frustrated by asshole reinforcements.

Chapter 19 is probably the nadir, throwing 8 promoted enemies per wave at you near the end of the stage, in an area that already includes 4 ballistae, a recruitable enemy, and some regular Horsemen/Paladins/Generals mixed in. I'm seriously struggling to see a way to handle it without casualties and still recruiting Wolf (who is admittedly useless, but hey, completionism) besides having Caeda fly in and kill the boss with Wing Spear, then burning a Rescue staff charge on her or warping in help so she'll survive the ensuing enemy phase.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on April 23, 2013, 11:39:54 AM
It is possible to bait out Wolf without triggering the reinforcements.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 23, 2013, 01:44:02 PM
etrian odyssey 4- Just finished the first Maze, levels are L18-19. EO is a Wizardry type dungeon crawler. I'm enjoying the game overall, but I have some problems. Or see below:

The good: Gameplay, challenge- Class balance looks decent too. It's tough and gives you the option to play on easy if you don't want to deal with permadeath. I approve.
The bad: 'automap', writing- Writing is obvious. Game can't write worth a lick, and I doubt that it'll change. The writing is incredibly stock when it's there, which is not often.  It's not a big deal though, I don't play dungeon crawlers for plot. The automap is garbage. Oh goodie, It 'maps' things but you have to mark thing like doors, passages, etc.  That isn't gameplay, it is an annoying gimmick. Have an option for a full automap for those who want it, and let the pen and paper crowd fill it out.  You're forced to fill it out or memorize dungeons (You don't beat dungeons in one go), and as it's FPS you really need to fill out the map.
The ugly: The art. DEATH TO LOLIS.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on April 23, 2013, 03:21:09 PM
Dark Souls: Had some experience with PvP yesterday. Main thing I learned is that people online do not equip for magic defense and it's kind of funny. One guy invaded me while I was wandering around in the Catacombs. I cast Homing Crystal Soulmass and he made the mistake of bowing when he got close. The Homing Crystal Soulmass then blasted him for 400 damage. The DLC sorceries are a lot of fun too. Especially Dark Bead which caught some guy wearing heavy armor for like 700 damage.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 23, 2013, 03:44:42 PM
FE13 - DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 23, 2013, 03:50:03 PM
Dark Souls: Had some experience with PvP yesterday. Main thing I learned is that people online do not equip for magic defense and it's kind of funny. One guy invaded me while I was wandering around in the Catacombs. I cast Homing Crystal Soulmass and he made the mistake of bowing when he got close. The Homing Crystal Soulmass then blasted him for 400 damage. The DLC sorceries are a lot of fun too. Especially Dark Bead which caught some guy wearing heavy armor for like 700 damage.

The DLC sorceries are grotesquely unbalanced for PVP. Dark Bead is bad enough, but Pursuers can crack 2,000 damage if you're properly twinked out.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 23, 2013, 04:13:18 PM
ShF3: Almost time for second promotions! Holy fuck, the first fight of the chapter is brutal. Giant clump of enemies that borderline OKHO (loooots of surviving with 1-5 HP) and like to add status. Especially sleep! Man, fuck sleep. Reinforcements that appear right next to you when you move too far. Secret room all the friggin' way on the other end of the map with the material for an ultimate weapon inside (and unless you thread the needle just right with a flyer, you trigger reinforcements on the way there). I went for maximum turtling and status-whoring, and it was still an "ohgod the pain" sort of experience. Luckily the boss of the map is ID'able - once it got within range, one lucky crit with the Assassin's Knife ended the suffering.

This is my first time playing through S3 in English, so I didn't realize before that the fairy who joins you is another cameo from Shining The Holy Ark, along with Julian and Galm; that game had a system where you could recruit generic fairies to deal some MT damage to enemies at the start of a fight, and apparently one of them grew a name and decided to turn into a full-fledged PC.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on April 23, 2013, 08:27:53 PM
Tomb Raider: The only correct way to play this game is axe only as soon as you unlock it, it's a nice reprieve from dying to QTEs (there are a lot of QTEs)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on April 23, 2013, 08:39:01 PM

Anyway, ZHP. (More cheap downloadable PSP games!)
This game has all the terrible NIS trappings but I'm a sucker for roguelikes that have a way to raise your level 1 stats. (Which means: This, and Baroque) This is betraying the very nature of those games, but I just can't help but love a sense of progression in my games, you know?
The roguelike part itself is decent, with a good variation of items and situations. Being able to see the enemy field of view helps manipulating battles more easily than in most roguelikes.
It's too easy so far but I've just stacked SAT chips on my character. This just seemed like the thing to do. The real game begins in the aftergame, I presume.

The game gets pretty challenging right at the end, and due to the sudden-death nature of Roguelikes, it can always catch you off-guard if you're not careful.

Kinda surprised you didn't mention the story or characters, though. ZHP's writing is probably is strongest point.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 24, 2013, 07:49:57 AM


Kinda surprised you didn't mention the story or characters, though. ZHP's writing is probably is strongest point.
Sorry Djinn. I'm really only there for the roguelike.
I liked the part where the former hero gets hit by a car. I didn't like anything else.
I chalk it up to different cultures between the east and the west, and NIS always exacerbating it. (+extremely drawn out story sequences)
I know an autistic guy who always interacts with others to reassure himself. The game kind of sounds like that.
Its life lessons are lost on me.
(As is its fourth wall breaking since it's everywhere now)


The game gets pretty challenging right at the end, and due to the sudden-death nature of Roguelikes, it can always catch you off-guard if you're not careful.

Yeah.
There were two challenges:
- OHKOingEnemies in late dungeons. Once you know who they are, it's easy to get around them with a surprise tech attack. (+ a physical if that wasn't enough)
- The stat god final boss. I just came back with mad +Sat equipment (Including two Dark Repulsors from an optional dungeon), unleashed Super Extra Speed mode and 3HKOed him.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on April 24, 2013, 10:02:54 AM
Tomb Raider: I forgot there was a stereotypical old Irish guy, then he died. I fell into a river of blood and lost all my guns but if you're using guns in this game you're doing it wrong

Far Cry 3: So that's what fratbro "Space Cat" sees while high...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on April 24, 2013, 08:11:16 PM
GoC6- Finished. So many mixed feelings about this game. Weird, but fun. Not wholly satisfying but pulled me in all the same. They coulda done more but the simplistic nature also helped keep you focused in battle. A bit repetitive/needed some variety but still made you think each time/kept you on your toes. Story worked for what it was. Usual JRPG fare with few good or bad points. Hard to score. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a weirdly different RTS/SRPG hybrid, of sorts.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 24, 2013, 10:54:17 PM
Now that I think about it, ZHP had a decent cock joke in its tutorial too.

The NIS effect:
 
I just did an optional 60 floor dungeon.
Remember, this is a roguelike where you always go back to level 1.
I literally took no damage from enemies for 59 floors.
On the last floor there was Flonne with four weaker monsters.
One of these monsters attacked me long range for OHKO damage.
No damage for 59 floors, then OHKO damage from the weakest enemy on the floor.
(I had Auto revive. I immediately turned Unlimited Turns mode on and 5HKOed Flonne. Dungeon cleared)

NIS makes Tri-ace games look balanced
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 25, 2013, 04:44:40 AM
Dark Souls - So, Four Kings. I realised I was doing better in this fight when I just spammed attack. So I just spammed attack. Victory get. The game's lamest boss fight so far? Almost certainly! C'mon game I expect better of you. Now to go back and have equipment with non-fail curse resist and kill Seath.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 25, 2013, 05:35:15 AM
Bosses that are not Bed of Chaos are not as lame as Bed of Chaos because they are not Bed of Chaos.

~

Mass Effect: Borrowing the trilogy from the elder sibling. I am running a soldier who shoots things. So naturally I immediately spent all my level-up bonuses on charisma/intimidate. Then I got lost for a couple hours on Babylon 5, except I don't think Babylon 5 had a strip club.

How much of the series DLC is worth caring about?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 25, 2013, 06:19:37 AM
The DLC is generally pretty okay, above average.  None of it remotely essential.  It really is buy it if you are enjoying the games, if the price tag doesn't seem worth it then skip it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 25, 2013, 06:21:30 AM
Can't speak to ME1 DLC.  I enjoyed most of ME2's DLC that was actually content rather than a new piece of armor, but I haven't played it all.  It is super inefficient as far as "price per hour of enjoyment" compared to the maingame but whatever, I'm willing to pay 6 bucks for an hour of gameplay I guess (after paying like 20 bucks for the entire Digital Deluxe ME2).  (And some of the DLC is free.)  Zaeed and his mission are kind of boring.  Normandy crash site is free but very short.  Overlord is actually a lot of content and some interesting ideas mixed with some total whiffs, but hey, it's amusing.  (It turns out autistic people speak Geth or something.  Wut.  They also invert the proper way to do a horror scene of the "seemingly empty ship with a lurking threat.")  Firewalker is silly vehicle shoot'em ups.  Kasumi's mission is fine but really short (1 hour?) and apparently she and her dead boyfriend, despite having super-Japanese names, are lily white.  I see, the future.  I still need to do Lair of the Shadow Broker & Arrival, but eh, saving that for before starting up ME3, which I have still failed to do.

In other news: FE13 Lunatic Casual beaten.  Maybe longer ramblings on that later.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on April 25, 2013, 08:47:18 AM
I chalk it up to different cultures between the east and the west, and NIS always exacerbating it. (+extremely drawn out story sequences)
I know an autistic guy who always interacts with others to reassure himself. The game kind of sounds like that.
Its life lessons are lost on me.

Life lessons? I was mostly talking about the one-liners and its general perception of how terrible society is to the point its comical. I also liked the Reporter chick's general veiled bitchiness. The superhero trope parodies were hit or miss, but I generally enjoyed them, particularly the random Prinny Wife that gets assigned to you in the home base.

Your anecdote about the autistic guy doesn't really seem to make sense as related to the game's episodes? I guess you're talking about Darkdeath himself?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 25, 2013, 01:37:25 PM
FE13 - Donnel no longer gets 2HKOed by everything when paired up with Kellam and got a D in Spears! He's still trashy oh boy. Only four levels to go, at least, and I'll have a Second Seal for him and Panne both when the time comes. Only four levels to go!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AAA on April 25, 2013, 03:09:13 PM
Mass Effect 1 DLC: Shatter the sky is a pretty fun mission and has payoff in the later games, I would recommend it if you have the money to burn.

Mass effect 2: In addition to what snowfire said, Lair of the Shadow Broker is pretty damn good, especially if you choose to romance Liara. Arrival sets up ME3 and has an interesting stealth section but is otherwise skippable, also the ending is lame.

ME3: Leviathan is ok. Not really worth the purchase unless you're a diehard fan. Citadel is fucking awesome, buy it if you're at all interested.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on April 25, 2013, 03:34:23 PM
etrian odyssey 4- Just finished the first Maze, levels are L18-19. EO is a Wizardry type dungeon crawler. I'm enjoying the game overall, but I have some problems. Or see below:

The good: Gameplay, challenge- Class balance looks decent too. It's tough and gives you the option to play on easy if you don't want to deal with permadeath. I approve.
The bad: 'automap', writing- Writing is obvious. Game can't write worth a lick, and I doubt that it'll change. The writing is incredibly stock when it's there, which is not often.  It's not a big deal though, I don't play dungeon crawlers for plot. The automap is garbage. Oh goodie, It 'maps' things but you have to mark thing like doors, passages, etc.  That isn't gameplay, it is an annoying gimmick. Have an option for a full automap for those who want it, and let the pen and paper crowd fill it out.  You're forced to fill it out or memorize dungeons (You don't beat dungeons in one go), and as it's FPS you really need to fill out the map.
The ugly: The art. DEATH TO LOLIS.

Permadeath? What the fuck man, there's no permadeath in EO games. Someone dies, you can take them back to town and get them revived at the clinic(in this game, the clinic is at the inn) or just use a Nectar. You know, a consumable item that even in area 1 you should have several of.

Also, the point of the map is so you can put your own notes about shit on it with the little red arrow marker, as well as putting your marks about secret passages on it. If you're wanting an auto-map to even fill out the secret passages and shit for you, I'm just going to point and laugh.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 25, 2013, 03:39:00 PM
The ME1 DLC is very Mako oriented. I wouldn't recommend it.
I found all three main ME2 DLC pretty good, Kasumi's is indeed very short though.


I didn't really find the one liners in ZHP very funny.
Anyway SRS POST. I'll talk some more about my dislike for ZHP's story (and the typical NIS story in general) because I realize I wasn't really clear.


ZHP didn't really percieve society as terrible. Most characters were awful at the beginning but Table Flipper's sheer qualities made them ultra nice and happy.

Note: I gave the main character the name "Table Flipper", one of the random selections NIS gave me. As it turns out it was an incredibly poor choice, because Table Flipper is always turning his other cheek.


Anyway ZHP is overly mean to Table Flipper, then it goes on lengths about Table Flipper's determination despite everything, and then it praises Table Flipper endlessly.

The repeated nature of this narration made me think of that autistic guy blaming himself constantly for ridiculously minor things, saying that he needs to change, saying that he is changing, saying that he has changed and it's awesome, over and over. (He's pretty brilliant otherwise but yeah, as expected, social interaction and self reflection are not his thing)

The game forces unreal expectations upon Table Flipper and constantly bullies him (he's supposed to be you, because silent main) Then Table Flipper fulfills these expectations because it's a videogame. But what about you, who just played a videogame for 20 hours? WHAT ABOUT YOU!!??? You saw the main character becoming awesome and lauded, but you're still the same guy that everybody finds pathetic!
- You find a new motive and are ready to tackle real life with newfound determination. But then the real world is a harsh place and you could fail for reasons entirely out of your control. And  you realize that you can't actually just throw yourself repetidely at something to succeed.
- You become depressed because you're still a failure and can't motivate yourself at all.
- You reject the game's dumbness entirely
- You just don't give a fuck (this is most likely)

ZHP is trying to say "Anyone can be awesome and special! Yay!" and instead is saying "What are you doing with your worthless life?" It could have made younger me depressed without me realizing it, and sent me in the worst possible direction compared to now.

ZHP:  It could be a danger to society that should be kept away from impressionable minds.

I give it a 6/10.



There's a good reason why ZHP is this insane.

ZHP begins with the world ending and literally no one giving a shit about it. Why? Because uh... It might be funny? And because we all saw the world being threatened in billion other medias anyway. BORING.

There's a distinct difference between comedies like the Simpsons and NIS games. NIS games are buried so deeply into a sub-culture of tropes of mangas, videogames and animes often self referencing and out-crazying each other that they don't have the slimmest connecion to the acts and emotions of people in real life.

They are nearly as abstract as the story of L block in Tetris. It's also why I very rarely find them interesting or genuinely funny.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on April 25, 2013, 10:43:20 PM
etrian odyssey 4- Just finished the first Maze, levels are L18-19. EO is a Wizardry type dungeon crawler. I'm enjoying the game overall, but I have some problems. Or see below:

The good: Gameplay, challenge- Class balance looks decent too. It's tough and gives you the option to play on easy if you don't want to deal with permadeath. I approve.
The bad: 'automap', writing- Writing is obvious. Game can't write worth a lick, and I doubt that it'll change. The writing is incredibly stock when it's there, which is not often.  It's not a big deal though, I don't play dungeon crawlers for plot. The automap is garbage. Oh goodie, It 'maps' things but you have to mark thing like doors, passages, etc.  That isn't gameplay, it is an annoying gimmick. Have an option for a full automap for those who want it, and let the pen and paper crowd fill it out.  You're forced to fill it out or memorize dungeons (You don't beat dungeons in one go), and as it's FPS you really need to fill out the map.
The ugly: The art. DEATH TO LOLIS.

Permadeath? What the fuck man, there's no permadeath in EO games. Someone dies, you can take them back to town and get them revived at the clinic(in this game, the clinic is at the inn) or just use a Nectar. You know, a consumable item that even in area 1 you should have several of.

Also, the point of the map is so you can put your own notes about shit on it with the little red arrow marker, as well as putting your marks about secret passages on it. If you're wanting an auto-map to even fill out the secret passages and shit for you, I'm just going to point and laugh.

The intro said that there was permadeath. *Shrug*  The map doesn't put things down ilike doors and item resource spaces, so yes. I have a serious problem with it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 25, 2013, 10:53:43 PM
EO mapping is kind of a thing.  I honestly just grab a map online before I do the dungeon Super and it is kind of fun in a weird way sitting down and transcribing a map.  On the other hand I ostensibly do data entry for a living (doing less and less each year...), so the concept of copying one thing from one place to another being something I don't mind doing is not a shocking thing.  Suggest trying it for a level and see how you like it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 26, 2013, 12:39:19 AM
WA:XF - So years after starting this pretty early on, playing the first few levels and going "FFT dudes should like this" and putting it down I have gone back to it.

Jailbreak was annoying because it was late and I just wanted it done and kept fucking up.  Mostly because the guards are slower than I thought and forgot they hadn't moved on yet.trololol walked into line of site.

Level after jailbreak?  This level is shitting me (on my first try).  I had Felius go Gadgeteer, others still in base class.  Tony sacrifices himself to distract the 3 dudes at the back.  Felius liberally throws around Heal Berries.

What does Clarissa do?  Clarissa misses.  Everything.  All the time.  Okay I will just check Rob Turn works on the big boss chick.  75%?  Score.  Miss. 
(http://www.periscopepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/WillyWonka-480x345.jpg)
Hahaha random chance you card.

Lets try that again while she has raped the shit out of something.

More 75% chance.
(http://buffalo-roam.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/unimpressed.bmp)
Why you do this to me game?

You know what?  Fuck this.  Labrynthia has plinked the Fantastica over there down to 20 HP and you do 22 damage to her on your physical and I need to reposition you to actually get Rob turn off.

71% chance to hit.  Oh you want to miss that as well?

(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbyxdvq8vf1qjp3f2o1_500.jpg)

Okay.  Lets go for that Rob Turn again.

You know that one that is 75% chance to hit.

Yeah lets do that again.  Oh you missed.

(http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/D53913/jean-baptiste_greuze_ennui_d5391372h.jpg)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on April 26, 2013, 01:37:13 AM
I think you pissed off the deity of Video Game RNG, Grefter.

Offer up more sacrifices in a Fire Emblem game or something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 26, 2013, 02:44:47 AM
(http://fi.somethingawful.com/safs/smilies/5/1/rolldice.001.gif)

I'd recommend using Levin's Cancel Strike to tie down the jail boss, higher odds running off a faster PC. Given positioning, Clarissa generally serves me better as a Gadgeteer in that map due to being far closer to the villagers so you can heal them. Keep Dandelion Shot OC at least for Sacrifice. Alternatively, if you have a spare booc or two, Elementalist both Levin and Clarissa and attempt a blitz on that side of the map.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 26, 2013, 03:00:52 AM
Levin couldn't get down there to cancel strike because he hadn't killed the dude that is all up in his grill.

You see he missed his opening Cancel Strike and then got hit and lost his Detonation.

Edit - at 74% hit rate just as an FYI.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 26, 2013, 03:16:56 AM
Detonation is pretty useless anyway. Only applies to passives. You may just want to Blast the grunts as well, they're pretty frail.

Also, you should never ever get within ten miles of a 100-sided dice.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 26, 2013, 03:43:25 AM
Just keep it in mind when I bitch about FE in future.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on April 26, 2013, 04:39:49 AM
Bosses that are not Bed of Chaos are not as lame as Bed of Chaos because they are not Bed of Chaos.

~

Mass Effect: Borrowing the trilogy from the elder sibling. I am running a soldier who shoots things. So naturally I immediately spent all my level-up bonuses on charisma/intimidate. Then I got lost for a couple hours on Babylon 5, except I don't think Babylon 5 had a strip club.

How much of the series DLC is worth caring about?

It is a canon fact that Babylon 5 had a holo-brothel. I believe it was in Red Sector.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 26, 2013, 05:38:16 AM
I recommend playing a game that doesn't actively try to make you miserable.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 26, 2013, 06:48:27 AM
Like Shining Force 3 on hard?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Ryogo on April 26, 2013, 07:11:51 AM
I've mostly been playing a cross between Dota 2 and SMT: Soul Hackers. Managing my demon personalities is a helluva task most times. Rageworthy when they won't do what I tell them to do, or all of their abilities are the opposite of what they like to do.

On a side note, apparently my last post here was in March 2009. Holy crap, I didn't realize it had been so long. Trying to remember why the hell my avatar was set to Razor Ramon now.

Also, a big hello to everyone. It's been quite a while. :P
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 26, 2013, 07:18:01 AM
Really been that long?  Because man, I saw name and avatar and went "OH yeah Ryogo, whats he been up to."

So apparently both of us have had busy lives the last 4 years without noticing...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Ryogo on April 26, 2013, 07:31:16 AM
That's what my last post's timestamp says. Damn.

Haha, I've been putting away at university still. A change of majors and me being a general 19-year old idiot kinda set me back a bit. I moved out of residence, got really busy with exams, and then I dunno what happened after that that made me not come back. It might have been embarrassment from having to drop out of mafia and feeling like a dick. I vaguely remember that. Oh well, back now. Forum hasn't changed any but the site went through a huge re-haul, I see.

Do you guys not do the tournaments on the main website anymore with the write-ups and stuff? If so, that makes me sad.

To keep this remotely on topic: As always, I'm buying too many games with not enough time to play them all. Soul Hackers is eating up most my time, though my friend gave me BioShock Infinite for my birthday and I've been on that non-stop these past couple days. Think I'm finally nearing the end though without going too spoiler-iffic. I've gotten all my powers, achievement progress for collecting items are nearing the end, etc. Outside of that, way too much Dota 2. Like, unhealthy amounts. I've got a problem.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 26, 2013, 03:29:21 PM
Mass Effect: Suddenly it's Blaster Master. The Mako handles with hilarious awkwardness. It's not quite Big Rigs, but it's pretty close. What's that you say, you want the Mako to ascend an eighty degree slope? Oh, you better believe we can do that, baby.

Apropos of nothing:

Shepard: "You do realize this place is falling apart?"
Random Krogan: "Yes, exhilarating, isn't it?"

I have had enough of you! The random planets you land on generally look pretty terrible, the same vague texture shaded different hues with nothing to distinguish them but sometimes mountains. And yet, the skies look pretty nice! Looking up and seeing this gigantic red sun taking up a third of the horizon, with actual effort applied to animating whorls of plasma? Stuff like that's pretty neat. I actually like poking around the star systems and reading planet descriptions and the like, I guess just because Space Exploration! is a very Cid diversion. It reminds me of playing Star Control 2, if planet landings were actively painful to undertake.

So guys I don't want to alarm you all but it turns out there might be some hazards in telling law enforcement officers that they are not in any way accountable to the law. I know, I didn't see it coming either! Shepard's position is comically absurd. So I'm an elite special agent who can take whatever measures I deem necessary to complete my assignments? Except I'm a famous special agent, so everybody knows I work above the law and they come to me with all their personal inconveniences because they know I won't be held accountable in any way if resolving them gets messy. And since this is an RPG I always say yes just to get that blinking quest flag out of my log.

Total thumbs-up for Ashley's girly armor.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 26, 2013, 03:31:05 PM
Like Shining Force 3 on hard?

That's me using the game to hurt myself. I could set the game to normal whenever I want, but XF doesn't have a "good level design" mode.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 26, 2013, 03:46:05 PM
SRWD doesn't have a good level design mode either and you did what essentially amounts to a challenge playthrough of it anyway. >_>
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on April 27, 2013, 12:34:52 AM
SRWD has Big O though, which compensates for a lot of gameplay problems.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 27, 2013, 01:36:39 AM
Or would if it was a better PC.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 27, 2013, 01:53:12 AM
XF has Edna Snow as a villain, I am okay with this.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 27, 2013, 01:54:26 AM
Sometimes, you almost redeem yourself.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on April 27, 2013, 01:58:38 AM
XF has Edna Snow as a villain, I am okay with this.

Werd
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 27, 2013, 06:02:21 AM
Fenrir: Man, you weren't kidding about Seath. Took a couple tries because I couldn't figure out how to damage him but then I FAQed that and promptly beat him without healing. Easiest boss in the ga- *fights Pinwheel, goes in with 20% health left and no healing, wins* okay never mind.

Post-Anor Londo half of the game kinda 0/4 for good bosses.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 27, 2013, 06:48:27 AM
To be fair, Pinwheel can be fought a lot earlier in the game legitly.

The main problem is that equip scaling really messes up the later game. The extra HP and damage makes the fights a lot less precision oriented on the whole, which makes them a little more mashy.

I generally consider it your reward for making it this goddamn far.

Surprised you had so little trouble with 4 Kings, though. Those guys were fuckers, ever as my nearly last boss.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 27, 2013, 07:01:49 AM
I had some "trouble" with them (as in resets), they just aren't a good fight. Mash attack more = win, near as I could tell. I never learned how to dodge several of their attacks but more buttonmashing and just hoping they don't all decide to attack at once is a ticket to victory. Reminds me of SotN Drac except you can actually lose. The fight was stupid.

I'm sure you can fight Pinwheel earlier, but the randoms on the way to him are way, way better than he is (even moreso if you don't have a divine weapon) so uh respect not found regardless.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 27, 2013, 09:18:56 AM
Pinwheel is supposed to be fought at lot earlier but he's still very easy then. He takes a lot of time to get going and has no durability, but he can at least smash low damage builds, which isn't something Seath can do in my experience!
The reward is worth it, you get 20 estus flask charges instead of 10 for bosses like Ornstein and Smough

For 4 Kings you have to learn their attacks in NG+ since they get a big stat increase (or with a worse build)
From very close range you actually get hit by the hilt of their sword and take very little damage. They can still be a pain with the purple laser and "Big hug" moves.

In a non NG+ game you can actually beat a few other bosses in the game by straight tanking and mashing with high poise / high def / low mobility equipment. In NG+ tanking stops being viable.

About the next bosses... I hope youre not hoping for much >_>
There's the worst boss (Centipede Demon) + one of the easiest bosses if you know the trick (and you know the trick) + Bed of Chaos (I actually like Bed of Chaos but I'm in the minority there)
+ Ceaseless Discharge if you haven't beaten him hahahahah


ZHP: Slowly doing the endless grind. I got a few more endings and finished a few more optional dungeons, getting my "shops" to max level + a whole lot of costumes. I also unlocked my whole body. (you can put stat boosts on your body)
Equipment fusion is still a mystery though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 27, 2013, 12:21:05 PM
The Elf should totally do the DLC just so he can stop being disappointed in bosses. Artorias and Manus are bastards.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 27, 2013, 12:31:52 PM
Hey the Chimera is pretty good too!
I have a special fondness for the gargoyles.  I don't think any other fight topped that one, but Artorias came close.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 27, 2013, 02:21:21 PM
And let's not forget the sheer glory of Kalameet!

Or do because fuuuuuuuck that tail.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 27, 2013, 02:58:32 PM
C'mon, it's not that bad. Roll right when he does his diving attack, roll right again when he lands. This puts you right behind him, which will prompt him to slam his tail on the ground right next to you. Hit the tail. Repeat four or five times! Kalameet is more tedious than difficult.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on April 27, 2013, 03:23:04 PM
Oh yeah, it's never difficult just tedious.  But whacking that tail until he's nearly dead and it's still attached and waiting a minute between each opportunity is bullshit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 27, 2013, 05:43:56 PM
ME1 - Finished. My general view of the game is that it is not good enough for me to replay, but good enough to play the sequel I am told is better. I think it is okay. Mako seriously compromises enjoyment of large stretches of the game by being terrible. The core combat is not great but workable once you have a lot of spells. Not sure how people tolerate playing as a Soldier -- the AI controlled PCs feel relatively limited due to their dopey AI. The plot is... mmm. There isn't a lot of core plot and what is there isn't great -- mind control spaceship is pretty hokey even on the scale of hokey things which games employ -- but I like most of the interactions with the Council and Saren when they exist. PC cast not really being part of the plot other than brief segments with Ash and Kaidan due to the non-linear nature of recruitment is particularly frustrating with this game because it has good character writing and there is no real PC choice other than the choice to get them or not, so making people optional feels pointless (as opposed to games with limits or restrictions on recruitment, like BG or whatever). Feros/Noveria gives you a feel for human colonization in space and its hardships and Virimire has some interesting plot stuff, and in the final dungeon you get the background information from the world.

The PC cast is decent overall with a couple of misses. Garrus has great voice acting and is in general a badass. I may have fostered some mistrust of the Council into him on accident ;). Tali is probably my favorite character objectively, but I just love Garrus's style. Tali is great as well! I liked the stories of her culture and in general the stuff about the gypsy lifestyle they have. Definitely hope she features prominently in the next games. I also like Liara and Ashley, although not quite as much as the other two. Asari life isn't as interesting as quarian life, and Ashley is pretty much just an action girl with some decent character work. I was disappointed about the lack of Garrus dating; even with a creep face I'd still have bedded him. I decided to mate with Liara instead.

Wrex is terrible. The krogan are a hilariously bad racial stereotype in a game that generally portrays its races as non-stereotypes, which stands out. I remember speaking to someone upon starting a sidequest who told me that there was a "grumpy and violent krogan" to deal with. I laughed, as every single krogan in the game is the same character -- grumpy and violent. Not sure why this caveat even needed to be made.

Kaidan is boring. Booooring.

I killed Wrex both because I hated him and because it seemed thematically appropriate to do so. Considering how insane krogans are on a good day, pissing one off and keeping them in your party feels stupid. Kaidan also died at Virmire.

Shep is great, actually. I love the femShep voice acting and rather than the DA1 style of press option, get talked at by NPC, press option, you get organic dialogue with NPCs. Except the recurring characters "I have to thank you, Shepard." "GOODBYE!"

The biggest problem with the cast is that they mostly just build backstory rather than interacting with the story.

I think the game's setting pretty great; very sci-fi but I like that well enough.

I charmed the second to last boss into shooting himself.

Couple other nitpicks -- the game throws way too many useless weapons at you lategame -- just give me money, please! Or Omni-Gel. As Cid mentioned, a lot of the generic worlds are very boring. The armor availability is very weird as well -- is it random?

5/10, I could definitely see a improved sequel of this game going much higher (improve the combat, remove the Mako, tighten up the story significantly, integrate the cast into the plot better) because the building blocks are clearly there. ME2 will definitely be played at some point.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 27, 2013, 10:52:22 PM
Loot is almost purely random.

Glad you enjoyed some parts of it!  Pretty much spot on all round on gameplay stuff.  The only reason to replay 1 is to carry over to 2 really.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on April 27, 2013, 11:42:59 PM
FE13:  Brady with Galeforce and Rightful King.  This is the way.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on April 28, 2013, 03:27:46 AM
The Legend of Grimrock: Playing this because a coworker gave me a copy.

Running the default team because why not and stat topic hype or something. Game's intro is fairly cool, and it does various stylistic thing nicely (the shared dream sequence gimmick, the occasional earthquake, and a general feeling of foreboding). The gameplay is a little flawed, relying too much on movement and not enough on actual setup early. But I'll just truck on and see what I can do with the builds I have.

The game's difficulty is significant, but the save-anywhere function mitigates that enough as long as you remember to save often. I have 4 deaths by F3... 1 to a swarm of mushroom men on the first floor. They were behind a gate that I could open and close (so I could fight 1, win, close the gate, rest, open the gate...) but one of them got a lucky crit and offed my minotaur PC and it went downhill from there since I didn't have access to revival yet.

The second was a trap room on floor 2 that pretty much screamed (TRAP!). Stepping on the switch closed the entrance and opened three doors with skeletons behind them. I thought I could take them but I didn't maneuver properly and was cornered, with 2 being able to attack my team at once. The second attempt I bumrushed one of the cubbyholes as soon as it opened, killed the single skeleton there, and occupied the cubby hole so that I could fight the other two 4v1 at a time.

Third death was on a Mushroom men section on the second floor. Entering that area and clearing it out, I thought I was good to hit a switch I found and continue one with the intention of retreating if need be. I didn't realize the switch I hit opened up a compartment towards the entrance of that section with enemies in it. I ended up pincered and game overed.

Fourth death was a skeleton trap on B3 that I knew was coming. I didn't get a chance to bumrush a cubby this time and so I died even with better stats/gear. Funny, that.

I've found the mage to be useful for fighting the 2x2 formations of skeletons, since MT damage just makes it go so much faster. Not that it would be difficult with the boring strategy of "Back off/strafe from enemy, wail on them as they move into adjacent square, back off again before they can attack". I think I have found that my Throwing-knives rouge girl is a better damage dealer than my front row fighters on account of the fact that she does not ever miss, whereas standard melee attacks have poor accuracy.

As far as builds go, I was hoping to make the human fighter a swordsman, the Minotaur fighter a mace-user (because he started with points in it), the rouge a missile/throwing weapon user with Dodge, and the mage a Fire mage because Pyro.


Fun little dungeon crawler.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 28, 2013, 08:34:00 AM
Loot is almost purely random.

Glad you enjoyed some parts of it!  Pretty much spot on all round on gameplay stuff.  The only reason to replay 1 is to carry over to 2 really.

Enjoying how stupid Lift is is another good reason.

But yeah, I pretty much agree. 2 demolishes 1 in quality.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on April 28, 2013, 09:26:59 AM
Wrex is terrible. The krogan are a hilariously bad racial stereotype in a game that generally portrays its races as non-stereotypes, which stands out. I remember speaking to someone upon starting a sidequest who told me that there was a "grumpy and violent krogan" to deal with. I laughed, as every single krogan in the game is the same character -- grumpy and violent. Not sure why this caveat even needed to be made.

Did you not explore his dialogues?  There's a ton of stuff about krogan and why they are how they are.  It all comes from being a race that's doomed, Children of Men style.  If you'd met Wrex a few hundred years ago, he'd have been a totally different person, but the more he saw, the harder it got for him to feel like fixing krogan society was possible.  Dude's a failed leader in the last years of his nation, he's got the right to be bitter.

Also by killing Wrex you've doomed the galaxy.  I hope you are happy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 28, 2013, 02:34:16 PM
Yeah, most of the interactions I've had with Wrex so far have mostly been him lamenting how screwed up his people are, not celebrating it. I figure that's a decently redeeming distinction? Also I don't know how you can't smile when the dude offers "We need to focus on breeding" in all seriousness as the solution to the Krogan dilemma. Clearly he's just an old hippie at heart. Make love, not war!

Anyway, Councillor Troy is down. I let the queen alien go. Normally I'd be down with alien space bug genocide, but it's a little harder to support when the alien space bug is capable of saying, "I know that we screwed up, do what you must." Ender's Game what up. Murdered the everloving fuck out of the mushroom king, though. I don't know if it was even an option to let that thing live, but I wouldn't have taken it anyway.

So Cerberus I guess is the Umbrella Corp of the Mass Effect universe. Create horrifying, uncontrollable monstrosities -> ??? -> profit!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 28, 2013, 07:04:17 PM
Oh, Lift is indeed glorious. As is Singularity. I really liked the control that Adept has. I will probably just play as an Adept throughout?

The krogan backstory is definitely an important part of the setting. It makes you definitely double-take at the morality of those who did it(even though I kind of get why) and adds an interesting ripple to the Virmire arc. Wrex's dialogue tree certainly added to the player's understanding of the genophage. Tali also took a swipe at Garrus about it in one of the elevator scenes which I thought was an interesting touch. I am ready to see what they do with the variety of races in the new two games!

Dooming the galaxy is acceptable as long as it's interesting ;)

I forgot to mention that I managed to get the Completionist trophy. I know it doesn't require too much, but it's more than I usually do, which is a good sign? I liked the quests because they were short and worth it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on April 28, 2013, 07:52:16 PM
<Ciatos> THIS GAME IS BLEMISHING MY MINIMALIST TENDENCIES GKJFKYSKFLASKRMOETGK
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 28, 2013, 10:44:44 PM
Mass Effect: Well that's done with. The finale was pretty satisfying in its cheesy Hollywood action movieness. Like Ciato, I brought Garrus along because I told him he could shoot the bad dude, and Tali because she is the coolest (the quarians' situation reminds me of the Syreen in Star Control 2, except not all Buck Rogers amazons). As far as key decisions go: Against my better judgement, I saved the Council. I suspect they will waste little time making me regret this in Mass Effect 2, but at least it got Anderson in with them. Which is also conceivably not a good idea just due to him not at all having a high official's personality, but at least it means I report to someone who will actually listen to me when I tell them ancient robots are coming to kill us all and I know this because of a dream I had. While I can mostly understand the Council being skeptical about someone citing visions as sufficient cause for galaxywide military mobilization (although I would've at least expected the Asari councilor to entertain the notion), they totally did not need to give you the finger and lock you down after Virmire. Dick move there, guys. I also let Kaidan die instead of Ashley, although that wasn't really the plan going in. Kaidan says he's so pinned down he'd be dead before I got there? Okay, I'm saving Ashley. You have to present it as a tactical decision if you want me to let you make a heroic sacrifice, girl. I generally played Shepard as a total square except when people were being insufferably stupid.

Also, that was the eightiesest credits music I have heard since the eighties and I approve.

Okay game is okay. It is half of a terrible game fused onto half of a decent one. The shooting is fine, not all my thing but it gets the job done as a timewaster. I barely ever gave my squaddies direct commands and they generally pulled their weight. Liara was pretty good about chucking dudes into the air for me to shoot, although really assault rifles get so nuts if you focus on them that almost nothing in the game can stand up to half a second's sustained fire. But mainly I'm really baffled that anyone thought the Mako was a good idea. It's awkward and no fun to use and the jumping thrusters just send you in random directions and do crazy things to your inertia and what what what. I look forward to a sequel without Ragdoll ATV. It was honestly funny to me just how dumb it was, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt.

There was a lot of that low-grade silliness that just made me laugh about things no one really thought about in this Very Serious game. Like the way every place you might conceivably see combat is loaded with helpfully destructible canisters whether it makes sense for them to be there or not. I know that's kind of a shooter standard practice, but you just have to shake your head when every single (copypasted) warehouse/freighter you step onto is stocked up with volatile/toxic/flammable materials every five feet or so. Or the way NPC models always seem to roll their eyes when they walk away at the end of a conversation, random strangers walking up to the elite special agent to get their mundane problems solved. Just little things, people behaving in mildly artificial ways that just reinforce with a rueful chuckle that oh yeah, I'm playing a game.

Speaking of, there is a Dragon's Dogma expansion out now and I may or may not hit that before Mass Effect 2, assuming my connection actually manages to download the former in all its bulk.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 28, 2013, 11:43:50 PM
I was also a square, although I think I was a smarmy jackass to Joker due to him generally deserving it(he is awesome, but...). I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THE CREDITS MUSIC! I laughed and laughed at how eighties this was. (Still better than most game vocals!)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 29, 2013, 12:12:55 AM
Adept is the nicest ME1 class but Vanguard is waaaaaay better in ME2/3. (Especially 3) Gameplay changes a lot between the first two games.
Renegade starts becoming way too awesome in ME2 too.
Seriously I played a few non-Vanguard non-Renegade (and non-Female) Shepards before, but I'm never coming back.

ZHP: Finished all the Dengeki dungeons and got Asagi. Levelled up to 9999 in her dungeon with an Iron Spear.
There are only 3 insanely long dungeons left!!

Megaman X Maverick Hunter: So I did a level with Vice, went up to the boss, then realized none of the three weapons I had chosen out of 16727 available were fit from him.
Vice mode is only good for people who already know everything about Vice mode.

Instead I started Hard mode with Megaman, which was absolutely impossible for me until I just went and got the leg+body upgrades and beat the eagle. Then Storm Tornado Storm Tornado Storm Tornado and nothing was a challenge until the very last boss.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on April 29, 2013, 12:16:26 AM
How does Vanguard work in 2/3? I like them the best thematically, but I was told that they were hard to play as in 1 so I didn't.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 29, 2013, 12:30:20 AM
Vanguard is mostly about Charge. (and it sucks until you level up Charge)
Pick the best target, use Charge, shoot the flying body (preferably with a shotgun), find cover and repeat. Charge recovers shield when used so you can easily go on a good streak if you're good.
ME3 gets more crazy with Nova, which is a very damaging close range move, with invulnerability frames, that can be chained right after Charge.

The other classes all are about the usual kind of long range sniping from cover you'd see in this kind of game (Uncharted, Gears of War) without that much variety.
In ME1 this didn't matter because ME1 wasn't a game where cover really amounted to anything, unlike ME2/3. So running around lifting + throwing people was pretty great. In ME2/3 you die in a few seconds if you're not behind cover, so you're just staying behind cover and pointing on the very tiny enemy head on the screen until it turns red if you chose a boring class.


You can watch a youtube video of a Charge Vanguard to get the feel of this class.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 29, 2013, 01:04:11 AM
It is pretty much this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvgvrI7HZ3M

Adept is more laid back and less tense at least. Stay from cover and watch the fireworks/shoot the flying enemies.
It is absolutely terrible in a high difficulty mode but I think It's fine in normal.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 29, 2013, 01:10:15 AM
Eh. Tech Armor let Sentinel get away with a lot of bullshit in 2/3.

*waves the Sentinel is best class flag*

True gish awesomeness.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 29, 2013, 01:11:39 AM
I was also a square, although I think I was a smarmy jackass to Joker due to him generally deserving it(he is awesome, but...). I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THE CREDITS MUSIC! I laughed and laughed at how eighties this was. (Still better than most game vocals!)

I genuinely liked it!

So importing character data in no way constrains you to the same class, right? (Actually, does it copy gender/face, or is it purely the story decisions that are retained from one game to the next?) You pretty much build fresh in the sequels? I will probably kill people with my brain in those just to shake things up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on April 29, 2013, 01:17:08 AM
Man, here one of my concerns with the shooter side of ME1 was that cover played too large a role.

Cid: You can change classes, yes.


Dark Souls - Tomb of the Giants! This was hellish until a friend tipped me off that to use the Skull Lantern, it has to be set as a -shield- and not a weapon. Whoops. Fun enough area past that, the quadrapedal skeletons were suitably scary at first. Nito kinda sucked as advertised, I beat him first try but at least he went through some of my healing? Demon Ruins now, Ceaseless Discharge was a couple tries (one where I threw myself into a pit attacking his body) then pretty easy. Afterwards I went butchering recoloured bosses until I got eaten by a sandworm. This is the life.

FE7 HHM - Up to Battle Before Dawn. Got Harken despite some grief of leaving the mobile Purge dude alive for a long time (I always find it much easier to get Karel in Kenneth's map). 5 stars in everything except Funds, damn you promotions.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 29, 2013, 01:29:21 AM
Cover is always going to be a factor in a shooter (unless you want to stand in the open and face tank?).  The active implementation of chest high walls is a thing though.  You honestly can get away just fine without using it much and just use natural cover in plenty of instances.

Or roll Vanguard I suppose.

This is part of what I dug about ME3 combat though, especially in mutliplayer.  I roll Engineer a lot.  In ME3 you can go with a light weapon loadout so you can use specials more often.  My overload chains to 3 enemies and stuns with like double damage to shields and barriers or something.

ME3 multiplayer lets you be Darth Quarian and it is fantastic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on April 29, 2013, 01:29:47 AM
Shining Force III: final chapter. Time to train up the Scenario 1 and 2 teams and get the super ultimate weapons. Second promotions and the attendant weapon upgrades made the last few battles pretty well balanced (plus I used a cheap way to grind for weapon skill levels). The optional boss guarding those superswords is going to be a real experience, though...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on April 29, 2013, 02:38:41 AM
How does Vanguard work in 2/3? I like them the best thematically, but I was told that they were hard to play as in 1 so I didn't.

(http://i.imgur.com/0zxXKM6.jpg)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 29, 2013, 04:02:00 AM
I was pretty happy just playing vanilla Soldier in ME2 - but on the one-step-below-hardest difficulty level on a PC with a mouse for aiming, so getting the shots right was fairly tense at times.

I'm fine with a cover shooter, just that to make cover shooters interesting, the bad guys need to be constantly trying to flank you so they can get a tasty shot at your totally unprotected side.  There are a few enemies that do this, but not really enough, and when this doesn't happen the "lurk behind nearly invincible cover" strategy works a tad too well in the gunfights.  (evil crazed dogs or zombies or hte like can get you, maybe, but the run & gun works there.  Zombies coming for your position + dudes with guns pinning you down, that's what's interesting, but that's also fairly rare.)  Also the equivalent of explosives everywhere was the ridiculous "oh look an empty field near a landed spaceship, COVER EVERYWHERE from offloaded barrels or just random bumps in the ground or whatever.  Okay, yes, a cover shooter should be a cover shooter, but since the system works fine for some more open mobility or sniping based play, I wish it'd been more 80% cover shooter, 20% weird stuff, rather than a 90/10 split ME2 mostly is.

Vanguard is pretty amusing and I'd probably give it a run if I ever replayed ME2, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on April 29, 2013, 04:15:16 AM
So Cerberus I guess is the Umbrella Corp of the Mass Effect universe. Create horrifying, uncontrollable monstrosities -> ??? -> profit!

And oh yes, while on the ME note.  Cerberus is more competent in ME2, but it definitely has a few headscratcher moments.  The Overlord DLC is pretty notable as one - the chief supervisor at this Cerberus research facility has basically screwed up in the usual "create horrifying, uncontrollable monstrosties" way; you can read reports about how he's in trouble with the higher-ups due to not delivering results, and how he forces his scientists to do the obligatory "attempt this incredibly dangerous operation and who cares about safety or turning on deactivated Geth to turn the area into grounds for a cover shooter mission."  Fine, we all need excuses for a cover mission.  However, the big choice at the end is something along the lines of "spare him and his human test subject so he can continue working for Cerberus" or "Punch him but then let him continue as before, having cleaned out the current problems at the base."  And then Cerberus will be pissy at Shepard if you pick the Paragon option.  UM.  Frankly I'd assume that the only reason Cerberus would want this researcher who managed to get a bunch of Cerberus personnel dead and half an expensive facility blown up is so that they could inflict extreme torture on him.  And they want to let him continue working?  Wut.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 29, 2013, 05:14:51 AM
He still had a use.  Cerberus do often dispose of agents that have failed, but only after they aren't useful.  He clearly showed progress in some area.

Frankly in ME2 and ME3, all the classes play differently, but the core shooting mechanics are strong enough that I am confident you could get through the game as a Sentinel only using your Pistol.

If you are going to play on Normal (or easy!  Don't dismiss faceroll mode if you aren't having fun with shooter stuffs) then Adept will play perfectly fine Ciatos.  The specifics of why they don't scale well is that in ME2 enemies can have Armour, Shields or Barriers to get through before you can do HP damage.  They can damage Armour (and barriers?) pretty good with Warp, but otherwise you can't do much until things are in HP range.  Most of your other spells only effect things down to HP.  On normal you don't face much with shields/armour.  On Hard or more everything has something like that.  So they scale horribly with difficulty because of it though.

I think they are kind of OP on Normal honestly because you can just dump a Singularity and fuck up an entire room.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on April 29, 2013, 05:53:31 AM
The higher difficulty modes are one of the best examples of scaling up difficulty in a game. It doesn't just scale up all enemy stats with a coefficient and call it a day like most RPGs do, it actually gives enemies new abilities and makes you change your tactics. I can't think of another game that did it so well. Alpha Protocol has the same idea but the combat in that game was so totally unbalanced it doesn't work as well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 29, 2013, 07:22:40 AM
It is a neat vector for difficulty scaling to be sure, it just does not apply equally across all classes.  Tech classes in general really shine under it due to trending to having more tools to handle the different layers of protection.  I think that is fine for Insanity where the game really doesn't pull any punches (and I consider doing it as anything but Infiltrator a wilful increase in difficulty on the player's part), but Hard scales it up too hard too fast.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 29, 2013, 08:01:54 AM
Oh yeah I don't think we have mentioned it yet, but one of the biggest problems with Adepts in ME2/3 is that nearly every skill shares the same cooldown. You can't Lift and then Throw; if you use Lift you have to wait a few seconds to use anything else.
That's also why an adept is probably only going to level up one spell and only ever use that + guns.

I wanted to like the tech classes but found them more boring than soldier.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Ryogo on April 29, 2013, 08:54:55 AM
In the ME series, I always made a point of keeping the same class through each game with my Shepard. I think I was Infiltrator my first run down the series. Having a sniper rifle was always a huge plus in those games I found. In ME2 though, it was negated a bit when you get to choose an extra weapon proficiency later. ME2 was definitely my favourite in the series, though I'm one of the people that wish they didn't simplify the character leveling. Still fantastic games though.

Actually, I'm curious to know who everyone else used as their go-to party now. My party as a rule was Shep, Jack, and either Thane or Grunt to round it out.

I actually beat Bioshock Infinite today, and all I can say is DAMN it was good. I'm a masochist when it comes to shooters so I made my first playthrough on hard. I immediately dove back into 1999 mode and am loving every second of it. Apparently, I missed a good 15 voxcorders and 10 sightseeing locations so I've got something extra to do other than just replay the game. I get to go on a scavenger hunt too :D
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on April 29, 2013, 03:14:52 PM
ME3, I want to say, was where they finally found the happy balance for powers + shooting? ME1 it was WAAAAAAY skewed to powers being amazingly stupid, ME2 shifted a bit too heavily for shooting (particularly on higher difficulties), and ME3 hit that sweet spot?

Honestly, for raw gameplay, I think I'd be hard pressed to argue 3 wasn't flat out the best game? Just got all the elements to come together right (shooting, powers, use of cover, mobility, flanking, etc).

Anyhow, my default party trended towards Shep, Tali, who the fuck cares (more seriously, rotated between most PCs, but did generally use Mordin or Garrus the most).

League of Legends: 5 game winning streak! Followed by 4 game losing streak! I dunno. Still having trouble with decision making, I think. My general mechanics are improving pretty well, but I'm still not that hot at determining what I should be doing when, especially come midgame. I'm also still a little prone to not vary my item builds enough.

Bioshock: Decided to play this and then replay Infinite to really look at the two next to each other. Up past Steinman. He is very pretty now.

Fun fact: Infinite uses a completely different (read: more natural) control scheme on console then Bioshock does. Fuck Bioshock's control scheme.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on April 29, 2013, 04:53:48 PM
ME3 has a good evolution of ME2's gameplay, but its mission structure and characters just aren't as great.
I mostly rotate characters in ME2 too since there are so many great ones and you don't have to micromanage them like in ME1. Mordin steals all the spotlight though, he's the best character in the series and I have to stop myself from using him all the time.
The best complementary powers were Warp and Overload, making Miranda particularly effective. At least in higher difficulty modes. In lower ones I tend to forget I can give orders to them.
I don't use Miranda that much though, because she's supposed to be the perfect woman but looks like Michael Jackson.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: MC50 on April 29, 2013, 08:27:26 PM
As someone who played through all three Mass Effect games at roughly the same time, (I started the series a little before 3 came out) as an adept, I had the most fun in 3 by far.

Oh, Adept is the most overpowered in 1, no doubt. Stasis works on everybody. Even the last boss.

And they're useless in 2.

But in 3, they're great. OK, Singularity is pretty bad (except in MP), but Warp/Throw is good. Warp/Cluster Grenade is better. And pull has its uses if you're using a good shield stripping gun. They're a lot of fun.

I put about 300 hours into ME3's multiplayer, and I almost never take cover. I usually just use soft cover like Perfect Dark or something, as Mass Effect is the first FPS I've played since, uh, Perfect Dark. It seems to work!!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on April 29, 2013, 09:17:24 PM
Multiplayer moves way way faster than single.  You can still use cover in it, but not being stuck to a wall leaves you way more agile yeah and mobility is super useful in levels that are largely just kill boxes.

If you liked ME3 multi you should really check out Warframe by the way.  F2P game on Steam that is pretty friendly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 30, 2013, 10:27:28 AM
I don't use Miranda that much though, because she's supposed to be the perfect woman but looks like Michael Jackson.

God dammit Fenrir now I can't not see it. It's a good thing she goes out of her way to be unlikable anyway.

So yeah, started ME2 as an adept. Amusing that the facial scar I picked for ME1 didn't carry over to the ME2 character model, but I guess it makes some odd sense. Shepard did acquire new ones, after all. I can't say I think much of my new employers, but it's okay because space Dirty Harry's got my back. Everyone really calls the Illusive Man "the Illusive Man," even the people who work for him? That's barely a word!

I have to wonder, has anyone shifted Shepard's gender between games, and if so does the game comment on this in any way?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on April 30, 2013, 01:07:09 PM
I don't use Miranda that much though, because she's supposed to be the perfect woman but looks like Michael Jackson.

God dammit Fenrir now I can't not see it. It's a good thing she goes out of her way to be unlikable anyway.

So yeah, started ME2 as an adept. Amusing that the facial scar I picked for ME1 didn't carry over to the ME2 character model, but I guess it makes some odd sense. Shepard did acquire new ones, after all. I can't say I think much of my new employers, but it's okay because space Dirty Harry's got my back. Everyone really calls the Illusive Man "the Illusive Man," even the people who work for him? That's barely a word!

I have to wonder, has anyone shifted Shepard's gender between games, and if so does the game comment on this in any way?

Eh? As far as I can remember if you're loading from an ME1 save you don't have the option to change gender.  Maybe change the face, though I didn't because I was pretty happy with Cunnilingus Shepard's face to begin with.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on April 30, 2013, 08:37:15 PM
Huh. I saw it gave me the option to edit the face despite loading a character and just assumed that meant editing everything? Did not mess with it to find out, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 01, 2013, 01:10:36 AM
Sorry Cid.
I noticed it right away! I somehow thought everyone else did!!


ZHP Crazy Grind:
There is a method to the grind. It's better

- Final boss' equipment stolen. Pretty hilarious how he's just a random goon underneath all his clothes.
- More 9999 levels by mass murdering , now the main character has a super uber (useless) jump in the main base.
- Some attack removed on the Shadowgram, some defense added, all speed removed. No more getting one shotted out of nowhere in the middle of a big dungeon by having a glass canon build. I'm pretty sure that speed has no point.
- Absorber (Maintains equipment durability if no damage is taken) found. I can now go in long stretches without losing any defensive equipment durability.

I now always equip a headgear with No Pain No Gain (50% reduction) + Energy Saver (50% reduction). They stack. I lose some attack power, but I can just stay in place and recover all my HPs all the time, and never worry about food again.

I swear I'm getting there! The build is pretty amazing right now, I think I just really need to synth shit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 01, 2013, 02:59:43 AM
It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't have such an amazing ass.

Anyway, finished with Omega and returned to Citadel. Bought a space hamster, owned that snooty reporter, and discovered I am the core marketing demographic for Asari burial shrouds. Notably more amusing than my first visit to Citadel! The idle chatter is fun and it sounds remarkably like they put Doc Mitchell in charge of security. I guess I also talked to some politicians and recruited a ninja but pfft. Next time I am letting the evil robots eat you people. I have also recruited a Mordin and he is a source of smiles. "Flammable! Or inflammable! Can't recall. Doesn't matter." :D

Today's obligatory Star Trek reference: "It's green."

So are there like no female turians/salarians/krogans to be found anywhere or do they just look/sound alike so you don't actually know what gender anyone is? (Possibly this is in a codex entry but I am not in the habit of reading those. It has been my experience with other games that dump their lore in encyclopedias that such entries are rarely of any genuine interest to me.)

Every store on Citadel Station is my favorite store on Citadel Station. I'm sure this won't prove awkward later. Look it's not like anyone demanded an exclusivity contract.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 01, 2013, 03:51:32 AM
Considering the official status of Shep in like 75% of routes there, no one is going to be able to do much about it or believe the endorsement. 

Counsellor for Salarians is female.  You do see Female Krogans once you hit Tuchanka in 3.  I believe you see a female Turian sometime (??!??).

Mostly it is just efficiency of character models and VA unfortunately, but yes most alien interaction is massive sausage fest. 

Plot wise, Krogan's have an excuse for only encountering males (kind of obvious), Salarians there is no excuse for, but at least you see some.  Turians, no excuse really.  They are pretty clearly equal opportunity based on a specific conversation with Garrus in ME1 (She had speed, I had reach and strength), but you never really run into female Turians.

Asari, humans and Quarrians kind of fill in female quota in the series, it is noticeable and kind of unfortunate, but it would be far from the first time or the most majour time a business choice in keeping costs down impacts some of the integrity.  Budget is unfortunately a realistic concern in this artform after all.

She is honestly modelled after the VA (easy to find comparison images), but yeah there is definitely an MJ look in there.  Unreal Engine 3 making everything look a little plastic doesn't help.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on May 01, 2013, 04:36:36 AM
Only one store was my Shepard's favorite store, darn it.  (Although inexplicably the game feeds you more Paragon points if you sell out even more.)

XO Tigh is in charge of security at the Citadel, more specifically.  (Yeah, same as Mitchell from a quick Google check.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 01, 2013, 04:49:06 AM
Paragon Shep loves everyone equally.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on May 01, 2013, 05:43:23 AM
Crisis Core- So after a long break where I stopped playing PSP games because I would be sure that there would be some easy way to connect a PSP to a PS 3 to a TV (which must exist. Does anyone actually know this), I finally beat this. Weird game. Battle system was kind of horrible in his button mashing glory. I took a long break in between, so I completely forgot there was a dodge and block button. Only would have mattered for the fight with Tri-Thundaga, which was I think the only reset. Balance was a not something they were trying for (Auto-Life that never wears off? I got that midgame and ran around forever with that. Also, Osmoga and it's 180%+ HP was not difficult to fuse early either). I realize that DMW works on some internal mechanic, but it was a clusterfuck for a system to be based around. The battles were inoffensive overall though.

Plot was weird. Had to go back to a plot summary to try and figure out who was trying to accomplish what (...Not even really sure what Genesis was aiming for at endgame). Thought Cissnei was going to die since she's never seen later, but apparantelly she just disappears timeline wise, which is just weird (As was Cissnei; not sure what exactly they were aiming for with her). It did mesh together well enough takes to a large dose of nostalgia.

I always thought Loveless was some trashy/sleazy play, so the play they played it up was really, really weird. Genesis' haircut made him extremely hard to take seriously. It was very lesbian/soccer mom hybrid. This, along with the fact that he really, really, really loved apples, was what stuck with me. Don't think that was their intention.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 01, 2013, 05:59:04 AM
Female salarians make up a tiny fraction of the species. They are egg-laying animals so that's workable. Females tend to be busy running the affairs of their extended family, over which they preside kind of like a Mob Godfather. You meet them a couple of times and they are the ones who wield all the political power.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on May 01, 2013, 10:53:17 PM
Plot was weird. Had to go back to a plot summary to try and figure out who was trying to accomplish what (...Not even really sure what Genesis was aiming for at endgame). Thought Cissnei was going to die since she's never seen later, but apparantelly she just disappears timeline wise, which is just weird (As was Cissnei; not sure what exactly they were aiming for with her). It did mesh together well enough takes to a large dose of nostalgia.

Cissnei is there just to show the game is connected to Before Crisis.
You have to play that to find out what happened to those Turks.

In other words, commercial value.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 01, 2013, 11:10:28 PM
Frankly, if we ignore Before Crisis, we can simply assume that Cissnei is the predecessor of Elena, and that after Crisis Core, she either resigned from the Turks due to Zack's fate or something along those lines.

I know, it's technically not canon because "Before Crisis", but from where I'm sitting, the less Crisis Core is forced to relate itself to anything the compilation besides FF7 proper, the better.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 01, 2013, 11:24:34 PM
WA:XF - So GREFTAR HAS SOME ISSUES time.  I can't help myself, I upgrade weapons as soon as I can.  That means I have done excessive random battles because hey I could just do one and get some money to help fuel upgrades and get some CS to unlock some other classes OC skills.  So I assume I am going to be over powered/levelled for the rest of the game's content.  I am kind of okay with this given my badness at SRPGs.

Poor Geomancers though.  They don't seem like that great a class to be honest.  They introduce them to you with an enemy that is actually pretty okay in the Swamp level (lololol) but then once you get them they shit all over them.  Their weapon being like shorter range guns than FFT and not being able to dumbfire is kind of painful.  Like no maps have Leypoints until a few levels after they are unlocked.  That map they give you Leypoints as the Geomancer Tutorial and tell you to use Geos?  Geomancers fucking blow on that map.

So there is a bunch of leypoints that demons sit on and gain extra powers from?  Cool, lets get them to move off them and they Shutout the squares (with Geo OC on a Sacred Slayer or something).

You can't in fact do that.  So there goes that.  The only way Geo can move thing off Leypoints is to teleport them to another Leypoint, so that shits on that part of the strat. 

Okay, so hey at least they have all the different Leypoints setup so that as you work around the map the next guy you kill has weakness to the last leypoint you were on.  Cool, lets get some use from Ley Attack!  On the demons are out of weapon range no matter where you stand on the Leypoint.

You can only see Leypoints on the Geo's turn kind of kills my ability to give a fuck about Leypoints as well, I will just notice the enemy's move usage change or the damage prediction changes..

So at the end of it, what do you do?  Walk around outside of range of all but one dude and gank them with Elementalist or Levin's Blast and not give any fucks.

That map is pretty shitty and only because it specifically goes out of its way to defeat its own design choices.  I now assume Geos suck for the entire game and are not worth caring about.  For now Ley Points have been far too infrequent to be worth caring, their skillset outside of Shut Out is entirely worthless without them.  I kind of question the value of spreading a single leypoint across an entire map even.  I guess it lets you exploit elemental weakness on a grand scale easily?  It still leaves you entirely to the whims of the map design though.

I assume from this point on any time Geomancer is useful is when the game is channelling Disgaea map design which my opinion of has only dropped more and more as time goes on.  XFs other puzzle maps sure didn't help since they outside of a few were all better than Disgaea 1s map design.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on May 01, 2013, 11:27:36 PM
Frankly, if we ignore Before Crisis, we can simply assume that Cissnei is the predecessor of Elena, and that after Crisis Core, she either resigned from the Turks due to Zack's fate or something along those lines.

I know, it's technically not canon because "Before Crisis", but from where I'm sitting, the less Crisis Core is forced to relate itself to anything the compilation besides FF7 proper, the better.

From the way I see it, if there is only the original FF7 with CC, everything is all good. Or maybe Vincent May Cry, for letting us spit on Lucretia.
AC and BC are the ones that really shouldn't exist.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 01, 2013, 11:46:29 PM
The best things about Geomancers are:

-Their armour. Elemental resistance is hard to get and some of the most damaging enemy attacks are elemental.
-Translate to warp between two leypoints. There's a couple maps in Act 2 where this stands out as particularly useful.
-Shut Out is extremely useful in certain situations. Keep an enemy from moving, block a chokepoint, etc.
-Replace gets the paigeols off their leypoints, which I certainly found useful for the Geomancer tutorial fight. You can also Replace a paigeol onto their opposite leypoint, which instantly kills them. This needs Rush to truly shine but lots of skills do.
-They have the best the best MP of any class with worthwhile ATK (tied with the slower Sentinel), so I have used them as an okay carrier for low-MP physical PCs such as Ragnar.
-Ignore Move Cost and Crisis Move Up are welcome boosts to mobility especially on battlefields with lots of water or snow. Too bad the skills cost too much to be worth it.

Other than that, their weapon sucks, their stats are kinda meh outside the aforementioned niche, and their skillset is pretty shoddy. I've never gotten any use out of Ley Attack, Ley Boost is decent on paper but I've never bothered in practice, and all of their skills are situational.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on May 02, 2013, 12:32:18 AM
Plot was weird. Had to go back to a plot summary to try and figure out who was trying to accomplish what (...Not even really sure what Genesis was aiming for at endgame). Thought Cissnei was going to die since she's never seen later, but apparantelly she just disappears timeline wise, which is just weird (As was Cissnei; not sure what exactly they were aiming for with her). It did mesh together well enough takes to a large dose of nostalgia.

Cissnei is there just to show the game is connected to Before Crisis.
You have to play that to find out what happened to those Turks.

In other words, commercial value.

Yeah, but apparentally they don't specifically deal with a resolution fo rher specifically at least by googling it. I guess it's more baffling because I'm not exactly sure what her intended purpose (plotwise) in CC was.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 02, 2013, 01:02:41 AM
WA:XF - So GREFTAR HAS SOME ISSUES time.  I can't help myself, I upgrade weapons as soon as I can.  That means I have done excessive random battles because hey I could just do one and get some money to help fuel upgrades and get some CS to unlock some other classes OC skills.  So I assume I am going to be over powered/levelled for the rest of the game's content.  I am kind of okay with this given my badness at SRPGs.

Yes you will. If you're going to grind, by 2-2 or something, a forest will open up where you'll get to fight Creeping Chaoses. They give you CP equal to half the damage dealt by the killing blow or something, and putting up a Labby Replica will get them stuck casting status or gravity damage (that deals no damage to the replica) most of the time, so if you -really- want to grind it out for skills, you have that option. Be aware that after a few maps, that forest will be unavailable until somewhere in act 3.

Quote from: Grefter
Poor Geomancers though.  They don't seem like that great a class to be honest.  They introduce them to you with an enemy that is actually pretty okay in the Swamp level (lololol) but then once you get them they shit all over them.  Their weapon being like shorter range guns than FFT and not being able to dumbfire is kind of painful.  Like no maps have Leypoints until a few levels after they are unlocked.  That map they give you Leypoints as the Geomancer Tutorial and tell you to use Geos?  Geomancers fucking blow on that map.

Geomancers are the biggest miss in terms of roleplayer classes in XF, hands down. Their selling points are the excellent EQ (across the board elemental resistance off okay stats that stacks with natural elemental resistances! It's quite significant. You can also do worse than ranged weaponry too, since no-strings-attached ranged physicals come at a premium in XF. The weapon stats themselves are junk, though, so way to waste Geomancer Atk) and Shut Out can be a neat tool for space control, but that's it. Geomancers just aren't very good, and I have no idea why they couldn't at least create leypoints themselves instead of roflcopters.

Quote from: Grefter
So at the end of it, what do you do?  Walk around outside of range of all but one dude and gank them with Elementalist or Levin's Blast and not give any fucks.

Doin' it rite. Also emphasizes why Geomancers were a botch in terms of design, and why there are a grand total of -three- maps where Leypoints are of any relevance at all. Hell, the map where it's most relevant is just because they let you get a treasure chest you don't really care about in the fucking hardest map in the game. Granted, it also helps fish an Elementalist away from their spot, which can be useful. STILL.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 02, 2013, 02:00:17 AM
Wait so you are supposed to intuit to use the Zone control skill to OHKO an unseen before enemy?

Hahahahahaha.

Okay I will stick with Legit Snow Strats.

Also dude I ran into that I assume is Ragnar also explains Snow liking the game as much as the fact that he is villain cast.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 02, 2013, 04:02:14 AM
Ragnar is horrible. Also, Ragnar failure aside:

Sometimes, you almost redeem yourself.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 02, 2013, 04:09:09 AM
Mass Effect 2: My new friends make my old friends think I'm crazy. I cannot really blame them.

Apparently I should feed my fish more often. Like at all.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 02, 2013, 04:12:06 AM
Maybe if they were cats you'd bother.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 02, 2013, 04:13:38 AM
Boo apparently feeds himself man these slacker fish should follow his bold example.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 02, 2013, 05:00:55 AM
Plot was weird. Had to go back to a plot summary to try and figure out who was trying to accomplish what (...Not even really sure what Genesis was aiming for at endgame). Thought Cissnei was going to die since she's never seen later, but apparantelly she just disappears timeline wise, which is just weird (As was Cissnei; not sure what exactly they were aiming for with her). It did mesh together well enough takes to a large dose of nostalgia.

Cissnei is there just to show the game is connected to Before Crisis.
You have to play that to find out what happened to those Turks.

In other words, commercial value.

Yeah, but apparentally they don't specifically deal with a resolution fo rher specifically at least by googling it. I guess it's more baffling because I'm not exactly sure what her intended purpose (plotwise) in CC was.

She was an extra character for Zack's DMW, and the game is starving for females.  if you squinted hard enough, you could get Tifa, I guess, but she's introduced late and Zack's interaction with her is brief (I suppose you could spin it such that he gets to know her during the week he spends in Nibelheim, but that'd be padding; Tifa's plenty developed in FF7, I don't think Crisis Core could really add much to her character.)

It also adds a character whose conflicted between her job and her feelings.  She clearly wants Zack to get back to Midgar, and evade Shinra, but her orders mean she has to act directly against her feelings.  She doesn't want to be a traitor for obvious reasons, so there's a legitimate conflict in her character here.  There was closure with her character in the sense that they got the point across that she clearly feels close enough to him that she was willing to tell him her real name (but never does, due to, well you know.)

They could have done more with her, but I don't feel she was a completely pointless and wasted character.  Without her, you'd be pushing Tseng everywhere, and some scenes would be awkward with Tseng there, so having a 2nd Turk helps.



To Niu: I'd argue only CC should be considered outside of FF7 proper.  BC just sounds like it's a retcon mess that wasn't well thought out at all.  AC just doesn't have a coherent story and is flat out disregard for FF7 characterization (if nothing else, Emo Cloud).

VMC...no, I'm sorry, "Hey it gives us a reason to hate Lucretia!" is not a good thing.  That'd be like saying XS3 is good for letting us spit on Shion...ok, it does let us "Choke a bitch" but after all the nonsense you have to put up with before AND after that, it's really not enough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 02, 2013, 05:29:03 AM
If you hit on your aide de campe (what is actual name for her?) enough she will feed your fish for you.

Snow, it is nothing about his character and everything about his practically sprayed on belly shirt and like fucken 12 pack or whatever the shit was going on there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 02, 2013, 06:59:43 AM
Dark Souls - Beat this! 64 hours, level 65 (str > vit > dex > faith/endurance for anyone who cares, somewhat haphazard build based on what I needed at the time).

Unfortunately, Fenrir, I can't really agree with you about Bed of Chaos hype. I want to like the fight... dodge hazards and do some platforming! But it's too short, and the walk to the fight is too long. Oh well. Wasn't really happy with any of the lord soul fights, my favourite fight during this arc of the game was the Demon Firesage who was at least kinda competent and made me learn his moves. Demon Ruins/Lost Izalith was pretty good for non-bosses though. Taurus and Capra Demons galore! (Capras still don't deal with shields, but fighting two at once is good fun.) I also liked the giant stompy guys. I liked them even more when I realised you can make them kill each other.

Final boss was fun, if different. Completely badass human! Has human weaknesses. Nothing I did seemed to work (as in, stop him from pummeling me) except parrying, which worked pretty well, so it was all about learning his timing to counter him to death. Halberds solve everything. Not as difficult as Bell Gargoyles or O&S (though the former was probably mostly me not learning the game yet) but pretty good, can't complain about him as a way to end the game.

I've commented enough on the game so far such that you can mostly guess my opinion of the game. When it's on, it's a good fun action game, deeper than it first looks and much deeper than some games of this type that seem to think having a couple RPG elements is an excuse to make your gameplay simplistic and dopey. Boss design is great when it's on its game, though there are some stinkers too... I think that's the price you pay for having this many bosses. Randoms are pretty fun, varied enough, always crucial in a game like this. I do quite like the sprawling world which is interconnected and you can find various shortcuts as the game goes on, kinda like a Castlevania or Metroid (and certainly better about it than Metroid Prime was!). It's better in the first half than the second, unfortunately.

The game has all manner of design decisions, typically in the pursuit of being seen as hard, which are questionable (if few that make me outright think "this sucks"). Long walks to boss fights in a game with only one life? Meh, feels needlessly punitive. Give me lives, yellow orbs, save points closer to bosses, whatever. At times it works really well; Sen's Fortress (possibly my favourite area of the game) wouldn't be the same if it gave you an extra bonfire in the middle. At others it works less well, there's really only so many times I want to kill/avoid the same set of enemies. The game also sends me for a FAQ far too often. Not the end of the world, I figured out very quickly this would be the case, but I don't really get it as a design decision. They even seem to want you to play online where apparently other players will leave you messages telling you most of the FAQ-bait things, so why even bother? Inventory system is also pretty bleh, given that if I ever want to use three weapons (including talismans, pyromancy gloves, etc.) I need to scroll through lots of crap which I can't organise. Unorganisable inventory in 2011, seriously? Maybe I missed a way to do it, I just realised this has been annoying me for 50 hours and I should probably have asked you guys about this before. Whoops. (And yes, I'm aware trashing things in your inventory or feeding them to that weird snake dude is an option.)

Game's too long. Ultimately that's my biggest complaint. I want a 30 hour game that I can replay in 10, they gave me a 60 hour game that I can replay in... 20? 30? I dunno. Just too much. It really dulls the potential, to me, of playing with different builds, because good lord, after all this time I really don't want anything more to do with the game for a while. All the games this one most seeks to emulate (oldschool NES titles, Metroids, Castlevanias, DMC, God Hand, etc.) are way shorter and I'm thinking there is a reason for this. I imagine this complaint will be lost on the people who love the game but so it goes.

Game really dropped the ball on plot/setting/atmosphere as well. Writing was nonsense from beginning to end, I didn't really know what was going on, NPCs illuminated nothing about what the fuck I was doing. I can read up on it online but I really don't give a shit, there was nothing whatsover in the hints the game dropped that suggested this game's plot was remotely interesting. Even for a barely existant plot it manages to be bungled ('sup, Fire Keeper murderer arc). Yes there's sceneskip so it's ultimately not a big deal, but ugh, somehow this nonsense annoys me more than having no plot whatsoever, or goofy plots. It's nice to have something to play the game for besides the gameplay side of things.

No music outside bosses is terrible. Makes a lot of areas feel lifeless. Sometimes that's the point, but when literally every area besides the Firelink Shrine does it it quickly loses all impact, and adds to the feeling of "why the fuck am I doing this" that pervades the game. Aesthetically it does do some things well though; environments are great and there are some good monster designs in there (obviously Sif is the best, nobody debates this I hope).

Good thing that gameplay's good! Change a lot of things about this and you have a 10/10 game. On the other hand, remove that gameplay and dear god this gets dropkicked after about hour 4. As is it can chill with a 6.5ish. Might have a firmer opinion on this once I have some distance. It's been a pretty fun/interesting ride but I'm glad it's over.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 02, 2013, 07:06:12 AM
The game needed to not lose to FF1 in plot...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on May 02, 2013, 07:48:15 AM
Bottemless Box allows you to store nearly anything you want at bonfires when you buy it.  I think you can organize stuff somehow I've just... never felt the need.

There's one other area that has a music track.  Otherwise having something playing all the time could interfere with audio cues for enemies which are exceedingly helpful.  Hearing when some jackass is sneaking up on me has saved my bacon loads of times.  Boss fights are less of an issue because you're always focusing on the boss, so gogo epic boss tracks.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 02, 2013, 07:52:21 AM
If I felt that way (About enemies sneaking up) I could adjust the music volume. As is I don't feel any need, I can separate sound from music just fine (I play DMC with music on, audio cues are a big deal in that game).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on May 02, 2013, 12:29:55 PM
Snow, it is nothing about his character and everything about his practically sprayed on belly shirt and like fucken 12 pack or whatever the shit was going on there.

Well, that's certainly the only reason -I- could find to like Ragnar! (I am probably the closest thing to a Ragnar fan in the DL.)

Games:

Mana Khemia 2:
Beat Ulrika path! That was p. cool, let's do it again!
Raze Path: Lily makes everything better. Her obsession with the Puni creatures is wonderfully unbalanced.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 02, 2013, 12:35:04 PM
WA:XF - So this stop Berserkers and Geomancers map isn't heaps of fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 02, 2013, 02:43:00 PM
Man, and I actually really like that map. The key there is trying to balance your forces to spread out on both directions, since you can blockade the ten million move Geomancer. As usual, Elementalist EQ+OC is your friend, you want that offense.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 02, 2013, 02:45:58 PM
Snow, it is nothing about his character and everything about his practically sprayed on belly shirt and like fucken 12 pack or whatever the shit was going on there.

Well, that's certainly the only reason -I- could find to like Ragnar!

I'll refrain from quoting a certain remark regarding Ragnar's looks for reasons of: -someone- has to keep this topic's dignity from spiraling into exponential negatives (#grefterfishing). As for me, the helium balloon pec look does absolutely nothing but make Ragnar look like he was spat out of a Tex Avery cartoon. I'm not even a fan of bulging muscles on real people, let alone anime people.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on May 02, 2013, 02:57:49 PM
Game really dropped the ball on plot/setting/atmosphere as well. Writing was nonsense from beginning to end, I didn't really know what was going on, NPCs illuminated nothing about what the fuck I was doing. I can read up on it online but I really don't give a shit, there was nothing whatsover in the hints the game dropped that suggested this game's plot was remotely interesting. Even for a barely existant plot it manages to be bungled ('sup, Fire Keeper murderer arc). Yes there's sceneskip so it's ultimately not a big deal, but ugh, somehow this nonsense annoys me more than having no plot whatsoever, or goofy plots. It's nice to have something to play the game for besides the gameplay side of things.

The game does have some neat world building and lore behind it, but you really have to work to find it. If you keep up with NPC's dialogue and sidequests there's actually some cool stuff in there, but it's kind of unfortunate how difficult it is to find everything and even then it makes you fill in some of the gaps yourself. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 02, 2013, 03:38:41 PM
Yeah, I'm a bit softer on Dark Souls plot, but I'm working on a long write-up about that shit. Fundamentally though, you are correct. The complete lack of exposition is a big failure in the game, because there IS a lot of cool stuff.

Do disagree about atmosphere (I thought the game nailed it), but YMMV.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on May 02, 2013, 04:52:50 PM
Dark Souls plot is 90% show, 10% tell and 5% of that tell is lying to you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 02, 2013, 06:21:52 PM
NEB:
Yes the obscure bait stuff can be found with the help of online messages left by other players.
It's very different from checking a faq because they're often still a bit obscure with the limited choices of words (Things like "Below" or "Careful") and they can be used to lure people into death. (I fell 3 or 4 times in a bottomless pit because there was a "Treasure below" or "Secret passage" nearby)

Not really much else to say. Your comparison with what I said about FF13 is apt, we recognize the same good gameplay but disagree about all the atmosphere/plot stuff.
I really love the atmosphere/lore/lack of non boss music in Dark Souls and wouldn't trade them for FFT's story and music!
NEB on FF13, Fenrir on Dark Souls: "Totes awesome guys"
NEB on Dark Souls, Fenrir on FF13: "Core gameplay is alright but why is everything else so terrible. WHY? *Gameplay nitpicks that probably would probably not be mentioned if the rest of the game wasn't that bad*"



ZHP: Found the Holy Grail of stat boosting: Twinking the shadowgram so that an equipment part gets a 255% boost.
Before I had twinked to boost physical attack and HP. I had about 1/3 more physical attackand 1/6 more HP than base. Strength goes from 300 to 400.
Now I actually have two equipment parts set up with a 255% boost. I have about 7* more every stat. Strength goes from 300 to 2400.
I still don't understand how the math works. I'm trying to figure it out but I really don't get it. But everything dies!!
I must say, figuring out everything in ZHP is a lot more fun than in Disgaea. I'm near the end of it anyway, I think.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 02, 2013, 06:35:09 PM
I guess I'm not even seeing where you decipher a plot out of that nonsense? The most emblematic thing to me is watching a scene with some wolf, a string of nonsensical dialogue occurs, and then a yes/no box appears for no discernible reason. After watching almost the entire game I still have no idea why any of the bosses were fought other than I guess you're a person who kills things.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 02, 2013, 06:39:24 PM
Item descriptions NPC banter and looking at the actual world.
Demon's Souls has the same amount of plot  as Dark Souls and it has a 312k story guide that pieces everything together on gamefaqs! There's not a lack of story, you just have to look for it, which you might or might not want to do.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on May 02, 2013, 06:41:19 PM
Kid Icarius Uprising:

I've been going through the game in the last few months, taking it slow mostly because I get tired from playing on a level, and I constantly like to replay levels for a better score.  However, yesterday I finally beat it.  My average intensity level was 6.4, mostly dragged down from the last level dying 5 times.

Anyways, it was the best game I played on the 3DS (out of 8 titles played, woo :| ).  What put me off on buying it for so long was the short single player which I was "advertised" as being only 9 chapters long but should get it anyways because.  It was some great trolling from Sakurai.  Absolutely no hints or clues that the game was actually more than twice as long.

The dialog during gameplay absolutely smashes any other game I have ever played.  The voice acting is excellent,  fourth wall jokes are paced correctly and are actually funny, and the dual screens lets you experience the character emote poses (Hades' "I KISS YOU" face is the best) without interrupting gameplay.  Yeah it's repetitive on replays, but it's of easy to tune them out while blazing through the level on 9.0.  As much as I love it when Hades' hams it up, my favorite character is Viridi; she's so adorable talking shit to both Hades and Palutena at the same time.

As much as I like the weapon varieties, level and enemy design, risk/reward of the Intensity system, and meaningful achievements and Smash-like unlocks,  I can only like the gameplay so much until I realize I hate the control scheme.  There's nothing wrong with the default touch screen controls; they work fine and offer a degree of precision you can't get with dual analog.  However, the game is just unbearable to play on a 3DSXL.  I have not found a comfortable way of playing the game without developing carpel tunnel syndrome after every level.  The stand is useless, holding the system with one hand gets tiring after 10 minutes, and using my right hand to support the system gets in the way of my aiming.  Everything would probably be better if I had the normal, smaller 3DS model, or maybe I'm just a big baby.

Apparently mutliplayer is a big part of the game, but I don't trust Nintendo online and unless there's character banter during a match, there's little incentive for me to try it out.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 02, 2013, 06:46:42 PM
I guess I feel like looking for something requires some barebones generation of interest on the part of the game? If FF1 had a giant database of information I'm pretty sure I wouldn't read it either.

I need to play KIU!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 02, 2013, 06:56:20 PM
I wouldn't either! I never did read those giant databases in Mass Effect / Xenosaga / FF13. I can definitely understand not liking it but it has nothing to do with giant databases. It is a very different approach to storytelling than usual that just isn't about feeding info.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 02, 2013, 07:04:51 PM
Having actually extensively read up/watched up on plot stuff, most of it is actually pretty easy to put together IF you want to. The plot is nothing, but the individual stories going on within the world (Quelaan, Priscilla, Artorias, Dusk, Humanity, The Fire Keepers, etc).

That's kinda where Dark Souls really comes together. There is just neat stuff happening.

Honestly, I think the game's generally melancholy mood captured me, since not too many games outside of survival horror really aim for that tone.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 02, 2013, 08:53:05 PM
You pay for nonstandard story telling practice, it isn't going to be for everyone.  I can especially see how shite it would be for a spectator.  Playing the game with someone else around as a shared experience sure as hell is going to make you less inclined to sit and read through a laundry list of unsortable items (in a game that doesn't pause in menus).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 02, 2013, 09:55:44 PM
Man NEB I feel sorry for you for never noticing the bottomless box. It's sold by the first merchant! I always toss anything I don't actively use in there. And you can actually manually rearrange inventory. I forget how because I never need to (see bottomless box).

The game is tense enough without regular music that I think having it there at all times would be excruciating. And I definitely support the practice of saving music for special occasions when it's this fucking good. Definitely one of the top OSTs I've ever heard. It's not like XS1 where you spend the long stretches of silence just waiting to hear the same damn song over and over again, everything here is perfectly calibrated to amp up the moment it plays. They save the good stuff for when it's most impressive and that is a trade I'm willing to make. Apparently Sakuraba made a conscious effort to expand his usual repertoire for this score. It worked. I would not have guessed it was him if I hadn't seen his name in the credits (although knowing that afterwards, there are pieces that remind me of VP2's more orchestral moments) and I dearly hope they retain him for Dark Souls 2 (because Demon's Souls' soundtrack? Pitifully lackluster). Usual disclaimer that music is inordinately important in getting something to connect with me, of course.

Complaining about lack of lives I think is not a fair point. You have infinite lives. Whatever items you got/shortcuts you unlocked before dying keep, and the souls/humanity? Eh, you can get those back (all of it, if you reach your bloodstain). I actually think Dark Souls is extremely forgiving when it comes to PC death. It's the game's central conceit. All the internet's "hardest game evar" hype is pretty bullshit, it's just a game that demands much more in the way of caution, patience, and observation than most*. You finished with substantially lower levels/hours than I did first time through, for what that's worth (even taking into account you skipped a couple optional areas).

Funny that you cite Demon Firesage as the most notable second half boss. I always found him a joke, have only died to him on NG+. (I'd also previously fought the beta version of him though, Stray Demon, hangs out in the asylum once you find your way back there. Which you didn't. >.>) Props for parrying Gwyn to death, I am still too terrified to try. Even after all this time I can only reliably parry mooks that clearly telegraph their moves (basic hollows, black/silver sword knights, darkwraiths). Black knight shield is the key to that fight otherwise, anything with worse fire resist and he'll chip you to death.

(*Which yeah, extends to the story. I will just echo the others in saying the atmosphere worked for me. There is a ton of detail and a lot of love poured into those environments and there was a distinct air of faded grandeur about it that really made it feel like a place to me.)

I assume you got Link the Fire ending because people generally do on a first run.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 02, 2013, 10:08:24 PM
I think his point is that having long dungeons without the presence of a life mechanic is annoying, the solution being a bit more save pointage, not lives. Going through a 10 minute area 20 times just to get to a boss isn't all that fun after a couple tries.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 02, 2013, 11:04:14 PM
That is what it comes down to for a lot of taste here I think is the implementation of pacing mechanics.  Time is the biggest punitive measure taken in Dark Souls and it is pretty extreme.  It comes off as pretty goddamned grindy (mixed with the level up/soul system) as an outside observer.

When you slice it like that and given what you know of your psychological profile of ELVES and CIATOS, I don't see how that response would come as a surprise.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on May 02, 2013, 11:28:59 PM

The game is tense enough without regular music that I think having it there at all times would be excruciating. And I definitely support the practice of saving music for special occasions when it's this fucking good. Definitely one of the top OSTs I've ever heard. It's not like XS1 where you spend the long stretches of silence just waiting to hear the same damn song over and over again, everything here is perfectly calibrated to amp up the moment it plays. They save the good stuff for when it's most impressive and that is a trade I'm willing to make. Apparently Sakuraba made a conscious effort to expand his usual repertoire for this score. It worked. I would not have guessed it was him if I hadn't seen his name in the credits (although knowing that afterwards, there are pieces that remind me of VP2's more orchestral moments) and I dearly hope they retain him for Dark Souls 2 (because Demon's Souls' soundtrack? Pitifully lackluster). Usual disclaimer that music is inordinately important in getting something to connect with me, of course.
I'm not a fan of most of Sakuraba's music, but I do think that he was a solid choice to compose the soundtrack for this game. The general style of the music plays to his strengths and is much closer to his tracks that I actually enjoyed (some of his VP2 and Eternal Sonata stuff) than the stuff that I hated (most of Star Ocean and Baiten Kaitos).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 02, 2013, 11:55:25 PM
I am personally not commenting on the merits or lack of merits in making the save points far away. I personally believe it depends on the level design. MMX2 is a good example of a game I think is hurt significantly by having absurdly hard bosses because its levels are awful(it does have lives, but has the extra special thing where you have to redo its bosses if you die in the final dungeon.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 03, 2013, 01:01:54 AM
Fenrir: yeah, perfect summary I think. (I'm amused you cite FFT there, I've never thought of its story or music as special, and I think it's the best game ever!)

Quote
Complaining about lack of lives I think is not a fair point. You have infinite lives.

Not in the context I meant here, which is respawning right before the boss. If you read the rest of my post my complaint is pretty clear: I get tired of walking through the same area over and over a bit after a certain point. Games with lives get around this by still making you walk through the same area, but giving you 3+ kicks at the can each time you reach the boss, so that one time you bungle 10 seconds in isn't as annoying. God Hand would be an example of a game that gives you infinite lives in this context, since it lets you retry over and over. While I'm fine with having a "punishment for loss" retread, I think Dark Souls errs on the side of having too much, is all!

Plot stuff, yeah, I think this is going to be an agree to disagree case.

The game's music did nothing for me, sorry to say! Maybe if it played at more points when I wasn't just trying to stay alive. It's not bad, but nor did I find it anything memorable or especially worth hyping. Kinda like VP2, yes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 03, 2013, 02:43:12 AM
ME2: Found out where Jack went after Pitch Black (because Pitch Black did not, of course, have a sequel). Loyalty grinding was supposed to commence but hijacked by plot for GHOST SHIP. Very rude. I'm told this game has kind of a stealth point of no return and I should focus on loyalty/sidequesting as soon as possible. Is this accurate? (I'd do that anyway, but still.)

I should really stop buying fish.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 03, 2013, 03:13:42 AM
Soft point of no return (actually just a timer on something) is actually a mission to a derelict Reaper.  It is related to the events that take place on the Space Marie Celeste.

Edit - Derelict Reaper is not a spoiler.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 03, 2013, 03:56:24 AM
Point of No Return is very obvious. Point of Consequences if you dick about is not. As Gref says, do not do the Derelict Reaper mission until you are ready.

I'm trying to remember, were there any really obnoxious boss gaps? The bonfires could have afforded to be a bit closer, but I don't remember any that were tooooo bad.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 03, 2013, 06:49:49 AM
It isn't even that big a thing, it is like consequence for ginning around, but it isn't worth getting all NNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG about.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 03, 2013, 10:23:47 AM
Point of No Return is very obvious. Point of Consequences if you dick about is not. As Gref says, do not do the Derelict Reaper mission until you are ready.

I'm trying to remember, were there any really obnoxious boss gaps? The bonfires could have afforded to be a bit closer, but I don't remember any that were tooooo bad.

Lost Izalith was the worst. There's also a decent chunk of unavoidable combat before Nito, but it hardly matters in his case.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 03, 2013, 03:50:05 PM
Ah right. Yeah. Lost Izalith was stupid. I had blocked that one out.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 03, 2013, 04:45:50 PM
Did you miss the second savepoint in lost izalith? The trek isn't that long. Nito's isn't either.
Longest would have to go to Seath since there are no shortcuts or bonfires in the crystal caves. It probably takes about 5 minutes to get back to him from the savepoint compared to 2 minutes against most bosses.
4 kings is long too, especially since the shortcut is not obvious at first and you have to go through a ME1 elevator sequence.

FFT's ost isn't amazing as a whole but there are some truly inspiring tracks, which isn't something you see very often!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on May 03, 2013, 04:48:17 PM
Obnoxious trek or funtime with the most hardass Titanite Demon in the game.  Thanks Lost Izalith!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on May 03, 2013, 05:39:55 PM
Star Oceans 4 - Doing the battle arenas. Reached rank 26 in the solo mode with Faize. He is L51 has a Elastic Rapier I made him with Item Creation which gives him over 1000~ ATK and chance of stun on his base physical attacks, and is also rocking a maxxed out Ice Needles, Mindflare, Enlighten and a L8 HP Boost. I also use Vampiric Blade for getting back the MPs. Sometimes Convert but that's a bit risky without healings/after you've used up the meager supply of items the battle arena gives you. Fights are starting to get a bit tougher, I keep losing to the rank L23 Adept Necromancer because I can't work out how to avoid Shadow Needles, Black Rock and some crab thing were also quite resilient and took a while to go down because of element resistance . Chained Ice Needles with all the buffs up are still ok though but sometimes my shoulder buttons are stiff and I've been finding it difficult to chain/combo sometimes. Having to fight Edge at the start was fun and then I was all like oh yeah I can do that, and had a go with Lymle so I could have her fight Faize and then Faize fight her just because, Edge was tough with Lymle at first since I thought Fire Bolt chains with Hound Grenade finisher would be a good set up but I kept getting interrupted before I could get the Fire Bolts off, had to retry and gave her Hatchet Reels with Hound Grenade finisher instead which worked much better, also when I did get hit Energy Shield helped a lot. Then I was able to fight Faize and after I fought Lymle with Faize, Faize vs Lymle was funny because I had a demon doggy chasing me around the arena, and Faize was unable to outrun it and ouch Lymle dog hit hard. Still won quite easy though since Lymle didn't have much HPs~

I did a lot on Roak and made some serious progress for the grand scheme of things. I've completed all the side quests available so far except for the Ogre Battling, Otherwordly Diet  and Astral Caves, also completed a good chunk of Roak's store orders as well, also still have to go back to Lemuris to hand the Fang Flutes in. As far as monster collection goes on Roak I managed to get 100% for Honeybee, Unicorn Wolf, Kobold Bandit, Axe Beak, Thieving Scumbag (nice monster jewel) Albero di Anima, Corpse Bat, Syndonaist Alpha, Syndonaist Beta, as well the Black Eagle, Guardian Beast, Tamiel and Sand Bird pseudo bosses and bosses using the save/reload method. For the Syndonaists I wanted to make sure I definitely collected 100% monster data for them incase they disappeared like the Cardonian stuff.  Some of the others I thought might make nice monster jewels and also fought a lot of stuff while collecting materials for sidequests and clearing the way to harvest/mining points, etcs.

I had some fun times, Meracle has her 30'000 and 50'000 damage trophies now. I've been able to buy/use lots of different skill manuals for everybody and since I've completed the relevant sidequests Lymle, Myuria and Sarah all join Reimi in having Energy Shield and No Guard is now available for all the fighters. I also have Meracle's Ocarina ability for clearing the Sand Bird quests which should make things easier for hunting monsters, collecting data, and getting rare items in the future.

I can has a bunny now. I called my bunny Pinkfluffs because it wouldn't let me use Fluffypinkster or Pinkfluffster >.>

Currently I've been using Faize, Reimi and Meracle the most in my teams, mostly maining Faize/Meracle, Lymle and Myuria have also had a fair bit of usage as well, with Edge/Bacchus still getting some too. Haven't used Sarah at all yet. Faize is L51, Meracle L49, Reimi L47, Lymle/Myuria L46, Edge L40, Bacchus L39, Sarah L36 (she's still received EXP from doing side quests and things)

Going to be hanging around the battle arena for a while =) Want to get Meracle's Dragon Claws and Faize's Mithril Rapier at least (only have enough Fight Coins to get one so far), don't know what else yet~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 03, 2013, 06:15:38 PM
ShF3: Cleared the optional dungeon with Synbios' force. Man, I remember this thing being way harder in my first run. The boss of the whole thing has nightmarish stats - 5000 HP, Spark magic with a really wide area of effect, near-OHKO physicals if he doesn't crit and overkill if he does - but is really easy to neutralize with positioning shenanigans since he starts in a 3x3 box with walls so high that the only way out is flying. So I sniped at him for an hour and claimed my Shining Sword. Gonna be a bit more fun to tackle with the Scenario 2 team, though; the only PC there who can use MT healing is male, but the MP regeneration accessory is female-only. And you need a *lot* of MT healing for that battle.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Ryogo on May 03, 2013, 11:14:22 PM
ME2: Found out where Jack went after Pitch Black (because Pitch Black did not, of course, have a sequel). Loyalty grinding was supposed to commence but hijacked by plot for GHOST SHIP. Very rude. I'm told this game has kind of a stealth point of no return and I should focus on loyalty/sidequesting as soon as possible. Is this accurate? (I'd do that anyway, but still.)

I should really stop buying fish.

Point of No Return is very obvious. Point of Consequences if you dick about is not. As Gref says, do not do the Derelict Reaper mission until you are ready.

Andrew is right. The best way to do things is not touch the mission to obtain the IFF until you're ready to end the game. You can get away with doing one, maybe two missions after that until the point of consequences hits (there's a reason you can do at least one mission, without getting into spoilers), and it'll be pretty obvious when you hit that point and will suffer for dicking around more. It's NOT obvious that the consequence point is coming though unless you've played the game at least once.

Railroading collector ship mission == Okay to do (You're kinda forced to anyways), IFF quest == save until you're ready to finish the fight
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 04, 2013, 12:10:04 AM
Last bonfire I found in Lost Izalith was right at the end of the lava, which still leaves a decently long walk? (Unless there's one in the ruins somewhere.) Taurus Demon is also a fairly large trek, though isn't too hard a boss (same with Moonlight Butterfly). It's worse if you get killed by the dragon after him. For Bell Gargoyles the raw distance isn't too bad, but I found I always needed to kill the enemies on the way (and there are 14 of them) and of course I fought them so many times, it adds up.

My rough guess is that about 6-8 hours was spent on just walking back to boss fights, which is quite a lot!

There are a bunch of small things that can help of course, I didn't think about unequipping things for faster running speed (I was usually equipped for the second fastest, fastest is worth the time saving of unequip -> equip in some cases). And of course getting better at using dashing and rolling to dodge past enemies. It's a shame I don't really want to replay the game because it's clearly better on replays! Maybe some day.

Oh yeah, randomly, is there any good reason not to just use the Ring of Favour and Protection forever once you get it? +20% to three crucial stats seemed way better than anything any other accessory does, and it still leaves space for a situational tool like the anti-lava or traverse-abyss accessories. (Havel's Ring was probably the most common occupant of the second slot.) I probably missed some good ones, but most other accessories felt way weaker by comparison.


FE7 HHM - Cog of Destiny's a jerk. Actually one of the best FE fights (which is funny because on any other mode it's one of the worst), I like the dynamic making almost all enemies mages does, since they PCs who are durable aren't very damaging and vice versa. Wish I had bought more hand axes though. FE7's shops are seriously the worst thing about the game, this is very obvious after playing later FEs (10 in particular).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 04, 2013, 01:51:31 AM
Oh yeah, randomly, is there any good reason not to just use the Ring of Favour and Protection forever once you get it? +20% to three crucial stats seemed way better than anything any other accessory does, and it still leaves space for a situational tool like the anti-lava or traverse-abyss accessories. (Havel's Ring was probably the most common occupant of the second slot.) I probably missed some good ones, but most other accessories felt way weaker by comparison.

Depends on your build. If you're an offensive caster, you want that slot free for whatever ring boosts your magic type instead. Personally, I have never used that ring, even for pure melee characters, just because I can't stand the idea of locked equipment. It is objectively good but I just hate the drawback too much. Typically my ring setup for melee is Cloranthy Ring (boosts stamina regen, found in an optional area you skipped) and probably the Wolf Ring (boosts poise, found in a side path just before Moonlight Butterfly). I won't tolerate moving at anything but top speed, so I'm generally wearing light armor (or no armor for heavy weapons chick), which makes poise an attractive bonus. Otherwise most rings I can think of are just about situational use or specific builds. Lingering Dragoncrest Ring is good for a weapon enchanter build I guess (which can be absolutely devastating when paired with a good light weapon).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 04, 2013, 02:00:43 AM
I'll be honest, I spent a lot of the game with 0 poise (lookin' like a cultist). It felt like there were only a relatively small number of fights which exploited this...

(Though yes, when they did, heavy armour was go, and Havel + RoFaP lets you stay at the second speed tier in that, so good enough for me. Never bothered with Wolf as such.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 04, 2013, 02:56:11 AM
There were one or two points I regretted the F&F ring (Lost Izalith, Four Kings, since I had to ditch Havel's to maintain my preferred speed). Outside of that though? Just comes down to flexibility.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 04, 2013, 03:01:23 AM
6-8 hours sounds crazy (Aren't you seeing time "wasted" as longer?) but there's a good chance I just don't remember the first playthrough.

Most of the time I have the ring of favor and protection + Havel on. Pre patch, the DWGR (aka ninja ring, which allows backflips. Backflips are slightly better than rolls) was better than the RoFP, and using both together allowed ninja flipping full havel builds. I still use it from time to time.
'
The Lost Izalith trek is: Walk through the lava, blimb the slope, run past the fire breathing statues, climb some stairs, and voila, Bed of Chaos.
Getting past the zombies to fight Bell Gargoyle isn't too hard, getting past the warriors is harder. The only boss where you realistically have to kill people is Capra Demon I think. (Because of dogz)
Poise is the main reason to get a heavier build than "fastest", its way better than the higher defense. It's excellent in PVP and against Gwyn and Nito. (no divine weapon) Presumably other bosses too but I don't want to try a low walking speed high poise playthrough.


Megaman X Maverick Hunter Vice mode:
Good thing Vice mode exists so we can all finally understand his motives.
...
Anyway I managed to go pretty far with the distance needler, stubborn crawler and Marooned Tomahawk, but X and Zero are destroying me. They're like Death and Dracula from Castlevania PoR except their faces are dumb.
Looking at a faq I saw that Vice mode actually has powerups (!), I'm going to painstakingly collect them all and destroy the two fancy lamers with their crazy bullet shmup patterns.
Edit: Dead! It'd have been so great if touching X actually hurt him.



Zenonia: The first game that was supposed to be as good as a console game, but available on the iphone, was released on the PSPas a mini.
Good first impressions (nice pixel art), appaling second impressions.
The framerate is unforgivable (Probably in the 10-15 FPS range, for an action game. How could this exist past 1993?), the main character is slow as hell (Unless you pick the assassin class), the music is ear bleeding.
I put every single stat point into agility, which raises critical hit and evade rate. I had a ~70% evade rate, which could be boosted to 110% by using one of my skills. Then I found some boosts that could boost evade by 269%. The game clearly stopped caring. (And I still got hit a lot)
It also crashed a lot, including during the last cutscene. I didn't bother getting back there.

One interesting is that the game has moral choice!!
But the evil path, like Valkyrie Profile DS' is more of a "Main character is more idiot than evil" path.
There's a conflict between the holy paladins of white and blue and the dark dragon forces of red and black. In the evil path the main dragon bad guy, who looks obviously evil, just tells you "Uuuuh your father... was killed by the paladins?" and you believe everything. The good guys are then all "WTF?" and you're all "Liars!!"

Later the main evil dragon chick, right before dying, tells you that everything was a lie.
And you're all "Whatevs I have already broken 4 holy seals, I'm not going to stop there"
Fantastic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on May 04, 2013, 03:21:35 AM
Poise is boss against Four Kings because you can just stand there wailing into them without a care until they grab you.  On Four Kings note having your ring slot's restricted to Covenant Ring and Favor Ring is a real pain for casters since Dusk's Crown also increases Magic damage against you, so you aren't getting any damage boost from any magic against them unless you feel like being borderline suicidal.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 04, 2013, 05:54:10 AM
I never, ever take off Dusk's Crown when I'm running a caster. Like I care about Dark Souls defensive stats when I could be dealing more damage! More importantly it looks fabulous.

~

ME2: I have never encountered such gratuitous use of the word "cloaca."

Also Miranda internet dating logs. Today was fun. Swear to god though I'm tooling around the galaxy in a ship full of asari porn junkies. More than I needed to know.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on May 04, 2013, 06:27:36 AM
Legend of Grimrock: Beaten

A fun enough old-school dungeon crawler. Harder than I like usually and I needed to FAQ a variety of the puzzles. The game needed to have you reach a higher level or give more skill points so you could allocate skills more effectively. You can get 50% MP reduction! But it will do squat. You can get double-speed melee weapons with rogues! But you won't hit anything because you didn't put points into the weapon (and hence get an accuracy boost).  Re-specing might have worked out better.

Whole party was pretty useful except for the rogue, and that was because I focused on Evade rather than offense skills like I should have. Swords seemed like the best thing on account of being faster than hammers and so on.

DLwise, the default party...

- Human Fighter: Swords so he can do damage decently fast. Damage spikes helps with some healers or something.
- Mork: I think he wants to go swords too for damage? The second best sword for both of em then I suppose.
- Whitefeather: She wants to go for Evade probably. She'll never have damage, so having perfect evade is probably the best she can hope for.
- Da Wizard: I imagine wants fire magic. Maybe Ice magic focus for the chance of freeze. Even with 50% cooldowns he's not that fast due to needing to input the runes for spells manually.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on May 04, 2013, 07:50:58 AM
Taurus Demon is also a fairly large trek, though isn't too hard a boss (same with Moonlight Butterfly).

Eh? Moonlight Butterfly isn't that far, unless you didn't find the hidden bonfire near the closed gateway in Darkroot Garden. From there, it's only 3 root monsters and a heavy armor dude, maybe about a thirty second walk if you're running without fighting?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 04, 2013, 06:32:09 PM
ME2: I have never encountered such gratuitous use of the word "cloaca."

Cloaca Mahoney disputes your claim.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 05, 2013, 04:29:33 AM
ME2: Huh. So quarians keep those suits on even on their own ships? I figured their ships were sterile environments and they only needed the suits for outside excursions. Bitching out the admirals was pretty great, moreso for them graciously admitting I was right afterwards.

Anyway, loyalty missions done (still plenty of sidequesting to get in before returning to the plot, though). Yeah that pretty squarely solidifies Mordin as the best of the new recruits. As far as his quest goes, I suggested he use the data to help the krogan. Hey, the last time I took pity on an infamously violent alien species it turned out well enough. It was difficult in good conscience to say no when the opportunity arose again, in spite of Shepard getting so many firsthand examples of krogan unpleasantness. If Wrex wasn't in charge, I really wouldn't have any hope of this ending well. It seems like the game really wants you to make this choice, though--even questions I casually asked Mordin just to get more information about his work with the genophage were voice-acted with a persistently accusatory tone. Then I talked to the shaman about krogan history and heard about how it was good and educational that they'd nuked themselves back to the stone age repeatedly and jesus I just saved the Thraddash didn't I. Does Wrex have a different VA now? He didn't sound the same.

Apparently there is no lesbian orgy button in this game so instead I propositioned Garrus. This was hilariously awkward, although I kind of dread seeing the outcome of his "research."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on May 05, 2013, 07:57:52 PM
SO4-

Have the Mithril Rapier, Dragon Claws, Wild Arc and Crested Spear from the battle arenas. Wheee~

The Mithril Spear gives a +666 boost to INT and the Crested Spear +444 INT, apparently the 360 versions only give +333 and +338 respectively so looks like Faize in particular was buffed here. The uber Faize is now rocking with over 1000 INT with max Beat S (900+~ in Beat Burst) and 20'000+~ HP, is L55 and has Terra Hammer =)

I reached rank 5 in solo mode arena with him. Some fights took multiple retries though especially the Great Solar Phoenix which went into double digit resets. Plasma Cannon you are not my friend. Eventually picked up Faize's 10'000 damage trophy though - Enlighten X 3 + Mindflare + max cancel combo + weakness hitting.

Other tough fights with Faize this time were Lord of the Mountains, which kept summoning allies, another spellmaster type with healing, a Guardian Beast type - Smashing Feet which kept on ignoring Hide, eventually decided to try blindsiding it and spam Hide from behind and was able to set up for defeating it that way. Hide has definitely been a lot of help for Faize in the arena =)

I tried the Ultrabeast Gedon at Rank 2 once so far and it seems a lot easier than the Great Solar Phoenix was for Faize. It's just a tank. It also liked to spam Void and Healing once it was low on HP, war of attrition/resources and then I screwed up thinking I was in Hide mode when I wasn't and it sneaked up to Faize and delivered melee pain~

Meracle is L53. I have her up to rank 28 or so in the arena so far. Managed to pick up her 70'000 and 99'999 damage trophies =) I am still mostly using the Focus + Berserk + Blindside + physical attack combo > Comet Impact spam strat with her though I have starting using Somersault Smash for randoms elsewhere. Meracle doesn't like Void, Blind or Silence~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 05, 2013, 11:37:07 PM
ME2: Hahahaha Mordin Solus, interspecies dating adviser.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 06, 2013, 06:29:38 AM
Suikoden 2 - Decided to replay this on a whim. Good fun, the game has aged pretty well I think (translation is awful but the writing comes across fine, and the speed of the game makes me much more favourably inclined towards it than many other PSX titles). Up to South Window. (That's south of here!)


edit: CT, yeah, it sounds like the PS3 version upped the powers of some of Faize's weapons notably. Which he probably needed although the lower power encourages the player to ditch him which is probably a good thing, so I see why they did it that way in the original.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 06, 2013, 11:16:16 AM
FE13 - *Tiki/Anna A support.*

...

GODDAMMIT, I should NOT be laughing this loud at 2AM in the morning!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 06, 2013, 11:24:44 AM
WA XF - It has been a while since I updated.  not much ground made.  I did 1-16 or whatever it is and OH HEY +2 UNLOCKS with Search Scopes and other things to play outside of bus trips, so random punching was actually a decent use of time.  I know it is not Approved Legit Playstyle, but eh portable game gonna be portable.

Only thing really to note is "Oh hey you wanted maps full of undead to make me appreciate Sacred Slayer OC?  Way ahead of you bro."  Actually wiped once to the zerg rush map against Ragnar, but that was just me fucking up and going "I know there is obvious trap here, but I will do it anyway" and ran him back at the start.

Highlight to it was having my Elementalist with Sacred Slayer OC getting blitzed down and giving no fucks because he was one shotting motherfuckers left and right on his way out.  My only regret wasn't finding a way to twink him enough to do it in Sacred Slayer with Widespread.  As it was Labyrinthia was doing a respectable enough job with a strong 2HKO.  If only that second 4 spawn hadn't split up before she could wipe them out.  Clearly the answer there was more Sacred Slayers to Turn Shift her.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on May 06, 2013, 01:48:59 PM
Refer to Ragnar only by his full name RAGNAR BLITZ LEBRETT, as it is the only way to fully express his wankery.

EO4- Got the item that lets me fly to the second tier of the sky. Levels are L21ish.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 06, 2013, 07:00:45 PM
FE13 - Playing the game only with children PCs completely robs you of your sense of perspective. For instance, I keep thinking Severa with 42 Speed could stand to be faster because Brady capped his own Speed stat as a Trickster, and he also makes Noire's 34 Speed look downright sluggish. Seriously, this is just kinda degenerate. >_>
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 06, 2013, 08:37:14 PM
Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge: The Mecha Dinosaur is seriously a really poorly designed fight.  STOP MAKING ENEMIES SO ANIMATED THAT YOU CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ATTACK AND AN IDLE ANIMATION.  This is not difficulty, it's straight up poor misleading design.

Also, don't make unblockable Shock Wave Attacks when the attack causes debris clouds to fly up, making it impossible to actually see the sometimes.  I can see why this fight kept getting brought up as a low point of the game, especially considering, well, to quote multiple reviewers "HOW DO YOU MAKE A FIGHT WITH A CYBORG T-REX UNFUN!?"


On the upside, Ayane's legitimately fun to play as.  She's got combos and moves fast, and a good ranged attack and Ninpo.  Way better than Rachel in Ninja Gaiden Sigma who was pretty much the combination of all the worst things in the game, equipment wise.  Oh, Ayane also doesn't have gimped movement like Rachel did either, so she can do legitimate off the wall acrobatics.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 06, 2013, 08:59:52 PM
Well, it sounds like they captured the Ninja Gaiden Black experience exactly!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 06, 2013, 09:26:42 PM
Well yes, I'll give it that much!  The series has always been really bad at boss designs, I won't deny that!

To be fair to NG3RE, they fixed Bow Combat A LOT.  Auto Lock On exists, no more limited arrows, Arrows are basically all explosive kind (though enemies still have armor that deflects them, so jump -> Shoot-> repeat  isn't an auto-win in enough instances), and generally speaking, enemies you are required to take out with a bow get one shotted.

Downside is you're often forced to deal with Snipers in enemy swarms.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing yet, granted, more of a "Ninja Gaiden hates you and everything you stand for" scenario...which is up to par.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on May 06, 2013, 10:02:42 PM
Code of Princess:  This is basically an homage to (or ripoff of) Guardian Heroes.  So if you liked GH, you'll like this.  Only real departure from GH is that you can change equipment to help with difficult battles.  Oh, and the main character dresses like this:

(http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/media/31358/4/2.jpg)

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aai40Zl8ts8/TWfD3jpfMsI/AAAAAAACCU0/_OJVVwGh6js/s1600/9.jpg)

Making strides in women's rights every day, Japan.  Although the game does call her out on it; the townspeople think she's a prostitute and her brother tells her to put some clothes on next time she saves the world.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 07, 2013, 12:37:03 AM
ME2: All sidequesting done.

Operation Overlord was pretty fun in-between the (at least better than Mako) driving bits. Needed a Punch Archer renegade interrupt, though. This is what I call the natural result of an excessively results-oriented management style. As for Arrival, well, is it terrible that my first thought on hearing "300,000 dead" was "Oh, they're only batarians?" Seriously never met one of these guys that wasn't some combination of slimy/slaver/jerkwad. Every other race has a mix of laudable and deplorable individuals but these guys are just universally assholes. Good riddance! [/racistCid] Something like half the DLC missions come bundled with the PS3 trilogy, for reference--the only ones I had to acquire myself were Arrival and Zaeed's mission (which I got purely because it annoyed me that the character selection screen was asymmetrical).

Got my last-minute recruit, ran his loyalty mission (Tali came with us, of course). I rewrote the geth heretics. Why kill what you can convert? Kind of a shame you get him without much chance to do anything with him, but I guess it's not like you could reasonably take him into any populated areas.

Final mission looms. Next time the shit, it acquires verisimilitude.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 07, 2013, 01:00:01 AM
Classic Captain K.


El Cid we really went through the same steps: Romance with Garrus -> Ask Mordin about it.
This is all downhill from there unfortunately!


ZHP: Let it be known that my numbers are now higher.


Dissidia Duodecim 012 Final Fantasy: Oh great I have gained 30 THP and 60 GM. What do I do with thes- Activate Hyper mode with L1+Square? Ok I'll try - Assist combo? What the hell is that? Wh- Break gauge?
Jesus Christ why are there so many things in this game?? Why didn't they show some restrain??? WHAT IS GOING ON.

Another major issue is that you can't change characters in the story mode. That character is Lightning. I hate her and all her attacks. I just want something nice like, a quick stab with a sword. But no, every attack has to be big and slow and impressive. Come on, give me a proper main character (BARTZ)



So I gave in and got PSN+ for a year. Tons of "free" games:

- Uncharted Golden Abyss: Oh man these graphics would be awesome in an actual videogame!
You know, FF7-10 had spectacle. FF10, up until you get Wakka or so, is pure spectacle. You're thrust into a series of "incredible scenes" where you're just pressing up or X and nothing you do really matters. Well I think the spectacle has moved from RPGs to third person shooters this gen. Uncharted, so far, is nothing but that. I am bored out of my mind.

- Hitman Absolution: This main character is about as cringe worthy as your average Xenosaga game.
It is a standard dumber Metal Gear so far, but I have killed people by smashing books to their faces. So this shows promise.

- The Cave: I went with the hillbilly, the scientist and the time traveler.
I didn't expect a Double Fine game to feel so empty. (but good looking) The violent ending of the hillbilly's story was more unsettling than funny. Right now I'm just waiting for someting magical that's probably never going to happen.

- Thomas Was Alone: I think I am done with those artsy 2D platformers. I cared about the characters a bit. Anything else felt like a waste of time.

- Infamous 2: After so many disappointments, this is incredible. No complaints. (Well, the story does nothing to me, but...)
I've seen very few games nail the flow of the main character like this one, and this makes every aspect of the game look good.  It's also pretty cool to see a sandbox game take place in New Orleans instead of New York like every other.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 07, 2013, 02:25:56 AM
Fenrir the man told you not to ingest anything.

And yeah, The Cave would've been much better if it wasn't, you know, 50% rope climbing. (The other 50% is ladder climbing.) It amuses me that it's basically a stealth Buddhist tract, but that's about it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AAA on May 07, 2013, 02:57:34 AM
Kind of a shame you get him without much chance to do anything with him, but I guess it's not like you could reasonably take him into any populated areas.

Actually he originally was supposed to be a much earlier recruit, if you hack him into your party earlier there are a lot of character specific lines for him. Taking him along on Tali's loyalty quest is rather amusing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 07, 2013, 03:13:05 AM
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.  I'm currently an hour in and it is BAD ASS. They truly went all out with the mid-80s early 90s sci-fi movie/game aesthetic. It opens with a Ninja Gaiden (like, NES) cut scene explaining that in the near-future of 2007, nuclear war scorched the world. You then shoot up a base in a helicopter while Little Richard plays. When you get off, your friend turns on your cyber commando mk. IV tutorial implant. You go through a sequence of tutorials that are designed for you to mash enter as fast as you can to skip while your character shouts "this is so fucking dumb! You know I hate tutorials!"

Then you get to kill dudes with a laser knife and shuriken and all kinds of guns. Your partner has to hack a computer and he updates you on his progress by saying things like "I'm through the RAM!" And "oh no I'm being attacked by kilohertz bots!" Or my favorite, "the CPU is encrypted? I'll have to rewrite the hard drive socket!" Truly a masterwork of 90s technical gibberish. Then your friend dies like 10 seconds after mentioning his wife for the first time.

If you want to play a game based on what bad sci-fi writers from 20 years ago thought 6 years ago would be like, this is your game. Also the main character is voiced by Michael Biehn.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on May 07, 2013, 06:07:43 AM
FE13 - *Tiki/Anna A support.*

Jo'ou, a person of taste and refinement.

Got my last-minute recruit, ran his loyalty mission (Tali came with us, of course). I rewrote the geth heretics. Why kill what you can convert? Kind of a shame you get him without much chance to do anything with him, but I guess it's not like you could reasonably take him into any populated areas.

Final mission looms. Next time the shit, it acquires verisimilitude.

Actually, as noted, you CAN take the final recruit on a bunch of loyalty missions, just uh.  This means you are blitzing the plot missions, ignoring loyalty, triggering the time limit, then doing the loyalty missions anyway, which is kind of weird.  (Since if you're on track for a "screw loyalty chaaarge" playthrough, why change it up?)

I thought the choice at the end of that mission was somewhat interesting, but totally blown, because it was one of the choices that most needed a Planescape Torment-esque "multiple explanations for doing the same thing" since neither option exactly corresponds to either Paragon or Renegade.  And then given that they went back to just 2 choices, they picked the wrong paragon/renegade results.  (And as usual, all the moral choices in ME2 seem predicated on the "and this is even possible don't ask."  Since my default kneejerk was "you just told me about this now?  I'm not trusting something this half-cocked and recent, let's stick with explosives, we know explosives work.")

Something like:
A) "We can't trust even friendly Geth.  Merging new ships to their side would make this branch far too powerful.  Blow them up."  (Renegade points.)
B) "How do we know this virus will even work?  You just told me about it two minutes ago.  I am not fragging changing the plan 90% of the way through the mission.  If you wanted this seriously considered, you should have told me about it when I'm not trying to dodge laser fire."  (Mix of P&R.)
C) "Mind control, if it even works, is a worse fate than death.  I'm not in the business of soul stealing." (Paragon points.)
D) "We need every bit of power we can to stop the Reapers.  These Geth will serve because they are needed."  (Renegade points.)
E) "I won't kill sentient beings purposefully when there's another way.  This virus will save the Geth's lives, even if the experience will be weird."  (Paragon points.)


Would have taken no time at all to add to the game, just record some more Shepard dialogue, and have made me like 10 times happier about it.  When there isn't a good Paragon/Renegade fit, that could have been a strength, not a weakness.  Oh well.  (I blew them up for reason B basically despite being a Paragon.  Oh well.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on May 07, 2013, 11:47:47 AM
White Knight Chronicles- Not too bad so far. Just kinda... banal and cliche. Combat system coulda been better/more fluid, but eh. Kinda like the townbuilding mechanic.

As cliche as the villains are as well, you gotta respect the blatant and literal Snidley Whiplash moustache twirling.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 07, 2013, 02:33:40 PM
FE13 - *Tiki/Anna A support.*

Jo'ou, a person of taste and refinement.

The whole support is just ridiculously on the ball with comedic timing. I also didn't expect the job-killing socialist line to be verbatim. Also, Gangrel's Widows Foundation. Some of the in-context delivery ("That was a rhethorical question. Please don't answer that"). Just... yeah. FE13 is often funny and almost always amusing, but that one was just crack-out-in-the-middle-of-the-night entertaining, which is usually a bit much to ask even from FE13 comedic support writing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 07, 2013, 04:18:17 PM
ShF3: why the hell is Penko one of my best attackers I don't understand
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 07, 2013, 08:46:49 PM
I thought the choice at the end of that mission was somewhat interesting, but totally blown, because it was one of the choices that most needed a Planescape Torment-esque "multiple explanations for doing the same thing" since neither option exactly corresponds to either Paragon or Renegade.  And then given that they went back to just 2 choices, they picked the wrong paragon/renegade results.  (And as usual, all the moral choices in ME2 seem predicated on the "and this is even possible don't ask."  Since my default kneejerk was "you just told me about this now?  I'm not trusting something this half-cocked and recent, let's stick with explosives, we know explosives work.")

Yeah, the dialogue choices available throughout the mission didn't really echo what I was thinking, so I spent most of the mission picking the noncommittal, "Let's just shoot the dudes who are shooting us and figure this out later" options. The (clearly renegade) dialogue options in favor of rewriting the heretics consistently denigrated them as sentient lifeforms ("They're just tools/machines,") which was totally not where I was coming from. I've always been intrigued by AIs and my natural inclination is to interact with/assist such characters as much as it's reasonable to do so. The hope here is to salvage enough for them function as a race in galactic society. (It really is brainwashing and brainwashing is pretty heinous but the heretics are arguably brainwashed already. Anyway a majority vote of Legion's programs agreed with me so...democracy!)

I do question why Legion didn't think to mention the option before the mission, though. You figure a logical calculating machine would present all the variables beforehand! Not to mention oh by the way activating the signal will also generate a burst of lethal radiation.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 07, 2013, 09:31:48 PM
More choices there would have been hella jarring and not fit with the storytelling style ME goes for.  It is not Torment, it isn't even Baldur's Gate.  Also the choice very clearly is foreshadowing ME3 in hindsight.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on May 07, 2013, 09:41:35 PM
Sure it would.  There's still ultimately only 2 choices as far as branching the plot.  Just that the two choices in this case can be either Paragon or Renegade.  You get exactly 2 choices where which one is which is obvious 95% of the time, spicing up the other 5% just makes things more interesting without detracting from the usual rule.

Remind me to rant on the big choice near the end of Jade Empire sometime, incidentally.  (Not that I've played the game, but I've had it spoiled for me.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 08, 2013, 12:17:06 AM
ME2: Game finished. Brought Mordin and Kasumi with me for the finale, Mordin because he is the coolest and Kasumi because I like watching her warp across the battlefield to backstab dudes. Also I spoiled myself on the ME3 PC roster and if I am going to be kicking it old school by design there I might as well use the new kids while I can. Amusingly, Kasumi has no trouble surviving outside the barrier during the segment where you move along a narrow patch of safe ground. Guessing no one on the design team considered her presence in that sequence!

Endgame plot:

I nuked the Collector base. Like I'm letting my boss get his hands on toys like that. Humans in this series have such a great track record of inhabiting ancient alien wrecks and not going insane/turning into monsters/getting eaten, right? By this point I consider it a favor to the as yet undevoured to destroy any ancient spaceship I get my hands on.

So if new Reapers are supposed to look like their victims why do all the other Reapers look exactly the same? Because it saved the developers effort on producing extra character models for a brief cutscene? Seriously, ancient evil robot dudes, there have to be more efficient ways to make more of yourselves. I know you are all grimdark HATE HATE HATE and whatnot but you don't have to build your young from a composite of liquefied people just to impress me. Seriously just use metal, it's okay, I'll still respect you.


But whatever, all I ever expect from Bioware plot is an excuse to hang out with cool people.

Huge cast is huge, so naturally not everybody clicks, but there's enough. Mordin is obviously the best! He is hilarious, intelligent, morally conflicted but resolute in his personal decisions anyway. Great stuff. Grunt probably fares the worst. I appreciate that he's able to at least acknowledge there's no value in killing without a cause (look he's a krogan I'll take what I can get) but still, there's not much there. Am glad everyone has their personal quests this time around since the Mass Effect games are less banter-focused than previous Bioware games I've played and any extra opportunity for personal growth is appreciated.

Very good game. Much improvement upon its predecessor on every front. Plot missions are actually pretty consistently creepy, even random bystander chatter is much more amusing to listen to! Hidden timer for Bad Things to happen is a pretty dick move that I would encourage people to look up and prepare for in advance, but otherwise whatever gripes I have are nitpicky ones--wow those exp/money/discovery popups are obtrusive, mildly frustrating not always being able to do something with a level or having leftover points at the end (oh noes delayed gratification), etc. Seriously minor stuff, not worth caring about. Not having to dig through ME1's Big McLargeHuge inventory was a relief! I spent most of the game in armor tricked out like Samus Aran, pity I wasn't running a blonde (didn't though, ethnically indeterminate w/black hair).

Running into someone from ME1 was always nice, even just for minor piddling stuff. Look forward to seeing where everyone ends up in ME3. I know not to expect anything from the finale (which I YouTubed to see what the fuss was about back when everyone was shitting bricks about how dumb it was) but I assume at least there's plenty of game before that to wrap up all the personal details that interest me way more than Plot anyway? Also what is most different class from Soldier and Adept. Chucking gravity wells at people is pretty cool but I saw enough of it over the course of this game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 08, 2013, 12:55:14 AM
Handwave Reapers looking like the race they come from being as part of a system.  It was just done to make you fight a Contra boss. 

You do tie up most of the stray little side things in ME3 over the course of the game.  If you have seen the ending of ME3 you can see exactly what I was talking about with the Legion loyalty mission there.  It is literally the exact same choice you are presented at the end of ME3 on a smaller scale (with no middle ground).

If you want class that plays different from gunplay or aoeing shit down, I suppose Vanguard is the go to thing here, but I find Engineer plays a lot more pokey than the others.  I would kind of suggest try playing out Sentinel instead maybe though.  Throw on some Judas Priest and wade in with dual Omniblades and wreck shit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Monkeyfinger on May 08, 2013, 02:20:08 PM
I beat ME2 and I don't remember anyone called Kasumi
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on May 08, 2013, 05:56:00 PM
Remind me to rant on the big choice near the end of Jade Empire sometime, incidentally.  (Not that I've played the game, but I've had it spoiled for me.)

As someone who has played the game, rant away. It's the reason I couldn't complete my replay as Closed Fist, since that choice pissed me off so much.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 08, 2013, 06:57:42 PM
Suikoden 2 - I have enrolled a wolf and a squirrel in university.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 08, 2013, 07:50:15 PM
Instant valedictorians.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 08, 2013, 08:18:56 PM
All this time and I never realized Suikoden 2 takes place at Wossamotta University.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 08, 2013, 08:53:38 PM
I beat ME2 and I don't remember anyone called Kasumi

DLC character (free with the version of the game I played though). Thief, dresses like a Sith, says she's Japanese but doesn't really look like it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on May 09, 2013, 03:46:21 AM
Grimrock: Playing with my own created party.

Observations:
Throwing weapons are very good when they are backed up with minotaur strength and attack bonuses. Can not enchant the ammo bit that feels like a waste of time anyway.

A rogue focusing on Evade works great in the front row, serving as an impregnable wall to physicals. The bonuses to elemental defense work too well on someone with high Dex too!

Thunder magic isn't too impressive. Invis rather sucks and the damage edge of thunderbolt will be subsumed by the lack of boosting weapons.

Summon Night Swordcraft Story:
Finished. Charming enough little game. Fists were my primary weapon because spamspamspam. Uppercuts unbalance enemies and you can infinite combo even some minibosses with sufficient agility. The craftknight boss fights are good stuff. My favorite is still the "DUH!" moment when I figured out the easy way of beating Razzy.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 09, 2013, 10:23:58 AM
ME3: Buzz off, Tim, nobody's wants you for their king.

Started as a sentinel, freezing dudes is pretty neat. Face looks weird this time, bit like it was sculpted from Play-Doh. Wondered if this might be some oddness caused by the import but cycled through some presets and they shared this aspect. Just strange because all the NPCs are very detailed Mt. Cragmore.

Citadel Council is as classy as ever.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on May 09, 2013, 06:08:38 PM
All this time and I never realized Suikoden 2 takes place at Wossamotta University.

He said squirrel, not skverl.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 10, 2013, 04:11:55 AM
ME3: 1x robogirl acquired. She can streamline any procedure except this thing that you call "love."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 10, 2013, 04:45:20 AM
NG3RE: Ok, T-Rex down; got to it with more Health, it's got specific hit spots, and it's a dumb fight, etc.

Mission 4 wasn't too bad outside of one instance that yields graphics glitches that could be fatal, but it's a case of "if you fell, you'd die anyway" and the game kills you so whatever (the graphics glitch is a result of falling, not the cause of it.)  The Crystal Skull mission sucked, I didn't hurt the boss at all, though thankfully finding the thing is enough, the boss just gives you a bonus for Karma, etc.

The Boss in this mission was actually not bad...outside of the kill condition.  Look, I get it; dodge a specific attack then heavy attack for the finisher.  I figured that part out, but it'd be nice if the boss didn't have 5 attacks during this final phase and the one attack it needs to use it rarely does. 

Game even taunts you by keeping a health gauge on the boss that you hit, it goes down but replenishes back to that minimal value.  Blech, way to ruin an otherwise passable boss fight (boss fight is basically just knowing what attacks it uses are punishable, and playing defensively, nothing particularly out of the ordinary, and it doesn't pull any real fake outs either.)

So...half way through the game I believe!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 10, 2013, 04:36:49 PM
ShF3: Optional dungeon finished again, got Medion's ultimate weapon. One more run to go, and it's with the strongest party which also has a truly ridiculous number of healers, so it should be a breeze. That probably means there will be a run of crits that massacres my entire party via OHKOs, but c'est la vie.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 10, 2013, 10:38:49 PM
WA:XF - I want to like this game so much more than I do.  So much of this map design can go fuck off and die.  Where Chapter 1 was puzzle oriented of varying quality that is well covered.  Chapter 2 is about "Reinforcements arrived up your butthole".  I can deal with that, I am assuming it is going to happen now.  Leaving your mages at the back is going to get them ganked by 8 dudes that spawned because you killed 3 of the 7 enemies on the map.  I could put up with that I guess.  It just so consistently being setup that maps feel like Overcome obstacle -> Dudes spawn -> Clean up.

It is just kind of boring.  That isn't making me hate though.

What is making me hate is this map where I need to not kill dudes.  That is cool, not killing dudes is a fine thing.  The reinforcements that come after you achieve the super vague target of getting a certain number of dudes into near death range is achieved even spawn in front of you.

No one can die.  They don't tell you that anywhere.  Which changes the dynamics pretty heavily.  I want to get my dudes to stick together far more for example and probably use another Sacred Slayer OC.

This is especially annoying because to this point just eating the death and using Revive Fruit was actually a pretty good strat (because Revive Fruit more OP than Phoenix Down in FFT).  That 2-2 Elevator shit (thanks for the heads up Elf) was handled quite handilly with a suicide blitz by Levin to lure all the dudes to the ledge and blow like half of them up.  Liberal abuse of moves with near infinite vertical tolerance (Lightning) cleared up the rest.  The map where they introduce Misery to you, well that is a fine way to cure that shit, especially if you had suicided a Gadgeteer.  Suddenly on this one map though?  Oh that is a terrible thing and we won't let you do that.

Also of note is that they make the enemy drop Peppy Acorns on that map with Misery.  So you can get Peppy Acorns first on that map if you kill things with an Excavator.  You could in theory then equip them with the Excavator skill In & Out.  But you can't because Misery blocks it.  Dicks.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 10, 2013, 10:40:20 PM
Yeah, WAXF has the misfortune of being an awesome core gameplay and class system shackled to completely shitty level design. It would be so much better as a PC game where custom maps could be a thing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 11, 2013, 04:41:41 AM
The annoying maps don't stop there. Sorry.

There are more and more reinforcements as the game goes on. I think we've understated how they're terrible design.
I often forced myself to play very conservatively in fear of them: I didn't want to run into the risk of having 0 Mps as 8 new enemies appear, as restarting a 20 minute SRPG battle is dreadful no matter what.
Reinforcements are more reasonable in something like FE (as long as they're not ninja), where you don't have to manage resources.



ZHP: Screwed up somehow and lost all my items despite the insurance. I'm not picking this up again for two bosses.
Laharl was another ultra lame boss. In the 149 floors dungeon, I took 0 damage from everything but one monster, OHKOed everything but 2 monsters. Then I 16HKO Laharl and he 3HKO me back. Lolz.
N1 really doesn't know what the fuck to do with the numbers in the aftergame of their games so they just make them bigger. A shame.


Uncharted Golden Abyss:
I'm weak and got up to the end despite weak gameplay. I enjoy yhe Indiana Jones barter, various artefacts, cool statues and lush forests.
I don't know what my reaction is supposed to be when another platform collapses and Nathan Drake falls to his death but oh wait he can catch another. For the 167th time.
I was kinda surprised the first time, I found the game kinda lazy the third time, and I'm not even reacting anymore at this point. I'm just going through the motions.
I like the shotgun a lot. But this is one of those dumb two weapons games, so I often have to swap it with an assault/sniper gun and go back to play Ophtalmology: the game.


Infamous 2:
Surfing on tramway overhead lines, pwning pigeons.
Karmawise I chose Nice over Jerk but I might replay this. I mean, you get orange lasers instead of blue lasers.
Thegame's shockingly competent but lacking in vision, and inspired by comics. So it's like Darksiders. (But obviously not as dumb, rest assured)
This feels very different from the usual sandbox games, mainly because you end up spending very little time travelling between or during misions. Meanwhile GTA feels like its 90% travelling without a special objective from point A to point B.



FF9: I kinda want to solo this. Does anyone remember how available Vivi and Freya are? Do theh disappear for a large portion of the game or anything? (I doubt anyone but those two and Zidane are reasonable choices for a SCC)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on May 11, 2013, 04:54:07 AM
You won't be disappointed in choosing Good side for inFamous 2 once you get Ice Rockets.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on May 11, 2013, 05:07:32 AM
FF9: I kinda want to solo this. Does anyone remember how available Vivi and Freya are? Do theh disappear for a large portion of the game or anything? (I doubt anyone but those two and Zidane are reasonable choices for a SCC)

Yes, I did a Hatbot Solo challenge a while back (change solo PC after every major event). Incindentally, I got the best PC drawn at ALL the worst times possible. Fuck you too, bot.

Anyway, Vivi is available for a large portion. Freya kinda disappears on Disc 2 late. Disc 3 is pretty even though. The hardest SCC by far is Garnet but for all the wrong reasons. The opening forest dungeon is actually also really tough with Steiner for some reason. He has issues trying to save Garnet inside the plant as his Bronze Sword deals shit for damage and he's not fast enough to juggle between damage, keeping damage off Garnet and keeping damage off himself.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 11, 2013, 06:37:41 AM
If you do an FF9 solo, for goodness' sake use someone besides Zidane. Anyone, I don't care. Vivi sounds cool though and IIRC his avaiability is pretty excellent.


I can't say I found reinforcements that big a problem in XF? Unless you're spamming Turn Shift like mad you shouldn't be running out of resources due to them (except maybe trying to do 1-15 without Sanctify). And even if you do run low on resources you have several recourses, formation arts (physical dudes) and combination arts (magical dudes) are a pretty effective way to output damage without MP. (edit: MP Burst can also help, but it's gambly. It works better if you have a Magic Berry or two just in case, or some other method of regenerating MP to try for MP Burst again, such as the various "___ and Heal MP" skills.)

2-4 is a jerk, no question about it. Game does tell you that losing a PC is a loss condition though, it's in the condition screen (always check for "any ally falls in battle" vs. "all allies fall in battle"... latter is more common but more puzzly/trickier maps call for the former often enough). I had thought the game tells you you have to lower three enemies into critical, too? Could be wrong there. Regardless you know it now. It's still a nasty map, but yeah, what you have to do is critical three enemies then rush through the gate. I recommend getting as many people as possible near the gate before you trigger it to open. (The much-maligned Geomancer can let you sneak some people over there, and their armour resists the nasty elementalist offence!) For another protip, the reinforcements can cast Shut Out to stop you from escaping so either escape quickly or carry people with Dispel to deal with it.

Also Felius' Status Absorb lets you yoink away Misery from all your PCs, and either he/anyone he status absorbed can then use those Peppy Acorns (which I never knew about, shows how much Excavator I use probably; kinda cool though). If someone dies you can also revive them and they won't be miseried any more, though that's less elegant.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 11, 2013, 07:36:39 AM
Revive Fruit zerg was how I did that map without beating my head into a wall (it is pretty doable with just Formation arts and shit), but yeah good point on Status Absorb, hadn't thought of that.

It isn't that Reinforcements are troubling or burn through excessive resources, it is just that they are straight up boring as fuck and kind of shit on this "Preplanning without prior knowledge" thing.  If the solution to a strategy game is to load up the map, eat a reset and then know what is going on it hurts it in my opinion (part of why people dislike Fog of War maps in FE non?  Also it really kind of defeats the purpose of the honestly neat descriptions from Labyrinthia).  That and the already bitched about "And now put the PSP down while the AI gets 9 turns in a row where you can't respond" is the thing I take issue with.

I am not going to check a Conditions screen when the game forces me to read through a scripted description of the mission objectives for every single story mission in the game just in case they didn't tell me shit.  That can eat a bag of dicks.  Also why the fuck is it a condition there?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 11, 2013, 10:54:42 AM
ME3: Dammit Kelly don't give me my fish back I'll just kill them like all the rest.

Bug hunt day. Man, I was hoping for better payoff than that. ME1 = release space bug queen, expect space bug allies somewhere down the line; ME2 = space bug queen is still alive and apparently rebuilding quietly, yay; ME3 = space bug queen got weaponized again and needs your help to stop it again, then you get some offscreen workers you'll never see for your mystery weapon. Bwaah. I guess a BIG DAMN SPACE BUG HEROES moment was too much to hope for. Speaking of, I can't say I'm fond of the idea of building some magic bullet to wipe out evil space robots for us. Running around the galaxy building alliances for a huge collaborative Suikostyle effort is pretty cool, building the Death Star just feels like a distraction.

So this is the first time I get to see a galaxy map that has spheres of influence outlined and apparently humanity claimed like a quarter of the galaxy in three decades. That is pretty nuts and suddenly I can't really fault all those aliens complaining about human expansion. All the other big players have been at this for thousands of years! Also apparently ME's stance on gay marriage is that in two hundred years it's totally normalized and no one even blinks anymore. Cid-approved social development! Except for the evil space robots.

I am definitely digging the sentinel powerset. Running up to dudes and exploding at them is pretty great. Running with minimal weaponry to punk cooldown times and maximize facexplosions, works pretty well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 11, 2013, 11:36:30 AM
There might be something come up with that later super minor spoilers, but I think it is a split you won't see Even if you kill the queen you still get that mission.  I am pretty sure if you save her then you prevent a new queen from being fucked up by the Reapers who if you save gets controlled at a later point and losing some progress on Project Crucible.

I am glad you are digging a game where you are a Space Opera Lesbian.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 11, 2013, 11:39:36 AM
Like that wasn't the selling point in the first place.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 11, 2013, 11:42:53 AM
It took 3 games to really get there though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 11, 2013, 12:09:24 PM
Ok thanks!
I kinda wanted to do Zidane but I knew my DL reputation would have never recovered from this. (and his options are lacking)
Vivi sounds really cool though.


In XF, not burning through resources mostly meant:
- Not using Turn Shift, so the Sacred Slayer in the team was always lagging behind everybody else (I'm not waiting for Sacred Slayer to catch up with infinite turns Nightstalker burning through her VP)
- Not using Intrude ever
- Not using Rush a lot, which locks a hell of a lot of options
It would have been great to use those in the few battles where I could have

Sopko: Ice Jump is already badass. I don't know how I could play this game without this move anymore.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on May 11, 2013, 12:50:00 PM
Zidane would be really dull. You steal a lot and then spam thievery.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 11, 2013, 12:59:59 PM
Not really.  Zidane's best damage is pretty much always his physical.  He does way more damage in game with his physical than he does in the DL; Thievery is a huge waste of time outside of LLGs.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 11, 2013, 01:19:58 PM
I think I'd have refrained from using Thievery/Frog drop/Dragon lance anyway.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on May 11, 2013, 01:37:51 PM
I maxed thievery pretty easily on the last run I did of FF9. The best argument against it would be how much it'd slow down the game (Did FF9 even have mug?).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 11, 2013, 02:55:05 PM
It does and it doesn't.

Mug exists, but it's "Does damage on successful steals only", as opposed to classic "Attack + Steal." 


Thing is, Thievery is gotten late, and Zidane using the Ultima Weapon can pump out 9k+ easily enough end game.  Orihalcon can easily net like 6k+ if properly built.  Just MP Attack + Beast/Bird/Demon Slayer is enough to give him a huge boost to damage as is.  Only advantage Thievery has is saving Ability Points for Status Immunity and such (no need for MP Attack, Slayers, and if care, Long Reach)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 11, 2013, 05:19:56 PM
"use your physical a lot" is even more boring than "use thievery a lot" though! (Also seconding that Thievery sucks, needs 600+ successful steals nooo thanks.)

Fenrir: Yeah agreed about Turn Shift/Intrude, Rush shouldn't be a problem though. It's 8 MP. I used it all the time on the 3-person playthrough when I had half as many resources!

Grefter: Checking conditions takes like 3 seconds. But sure, if you don't want to do it in general, then don't... that said it is worth doing whenever you are confused about precisely what the objective is, though (such as in 2-4), and you can even do it mid-map. Everyone has to survive 2-4 because the goal is to get everyone through the gate, and you could cheap it out by killing off a bunch of people and just having the last one escape. As a warning other maps where you have to have everyone escape or reach a certain destination usually have the same condition.

As a general design decision I'm not a big reinforcements fan (more player knowledge is better) but they're a way for the game to handle more than the normal limit of number of units on a map at once (I would strongly suspect that XF can't handle 24 units on screen at once, sprites are a bit too detailed unlike FE or SRW). They don't act as soon as they appear or anything so you can react to them pretty appropriately. Also almost every SRPG ever (except FE11-13 and anything else with a similar feature) forces you to sit through lots of enemies acting in a row at points. At least hiding half the enemies as reinforcements on some maps keeps these times down!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on May 11, 2013, 05:38:49 PM
Not really.  Zidane's best damage is pretty much always his physical.  He does way more damage in game with his physical than he does in the DL; Thievery is a huge waste of time outside of LLGs.

Just going to second Meeple here. I didn't have Zidane all the time, but his physical is top notch. Especially with killer and MP Crit. He's good in the sense he never really lacks damage (because he has lots of physical twinking options), just his secondary skills suck. So if you can't physical something to death, level up and try again. Literally more boring than Steiner as the latter at least has some gambly sword techs early.

Fenrir: Vivi should be interesting. Especially once you get elemental armor that allows you to heal with Dual cast in trance. I had Vivi for a part of disc 2 and it was pretty neat despite how frustrating it was. Have fun against the Beatrix fights by the way. I couldn't find a way to get past that outside of needing to grind for HP as nothing seems to stop those OHKOs.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 11, 2013, 06:40:23 PM
Quote
"use your physical a lot" is even more boring than "use thievery a lot" though! (Also seconding that Thievery sucks, needs 600+ successful steals nooo thanks.)

Can't agree with that.  Physical is a quick animation and doesn't require sitting through the same 5 seconds of a chest appearing, opening, exploding on enemy all the time.  Physical ends things in same number of actions in a fraction of the time. 


It's not more FUN per se (both are dull), but Physicals are at least a lot faster and don't require grinding a lot on the side.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 11, 2013, 09:47:15 PM
As if I remember Thievery's animation.

"These are both equally boring but at least this one is less slow" <- FF9, ladies and gentlemen.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 11, 2013, 10:07:48 PM
Well, generally speaking, in FF9 (and...most RPGs offhand), physical animation is shorter than everything else.  Even not remembering the animation...yeah...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 11, 2013, 10:32:47 PM
As if I remember Thievery's animation.

"These are both equally boring but at least this one is less slow" <- FF9, ladies and gentlemen.

Beat me to it.

I could totally open the Conditions screen.  It just pisses me off that there is so much competing design going on there.  I mean It is like if FFT didn't tell you all the objectives at the start of battles (even if they are Engrishy as a motherfucker sometimes) and XF uses whole sentences and is in character voice.  It doesn't tell you all the objectives and with such liberal use of Reinforcements it doesn't even give you a good overview of the battlefield.  It pretty much turns a neat feature into a burdensome waste of time.

And really I wouldn't be shitty at Reinforcements if it wasn't like every single map.  Even ninja Reinforcements in FE don't bother me as much as they do most of you guys (FE has way bigger issues for me obviously >_>), especially because it uses them sparingly.  This chunk of XF has been a slog of them map after map. 

I could buy the technical limitations if they didn't spawn nearly as many as they do after killing so few.  The number of times the optimal strategy has essentially been to do what 2-4 forces you to in nearly killing dudes and then cleaning up is the best choice is frustrating.  With the best part being, here in 2-4 I think Reinforcements are fine conceptually!  That is actually the exact point you should do them, but at this point I have done like a billion maps overflowing with reinforcements and now I am just completely over the mechanic.

Edit - Oh and for reference I did beat the level, it is just a point of discussion, I am not raging for days about a level I can't beat.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 11, 2013, 11:08:09 PM
FF9 has three battle speeds: Very slow, Even slower, Slowest.
I'm wary of the length of Vivi's lategame magic animations, but I played FF8. Twice. I can live with this.
(I wonder if someone did a GF only challenge in FF8.)

Anyway Vivi the pyromaniac burns random beasts and plants in the forest. He casts fire, preferably multitarget, on everything. There's a giant boss plant, he casts Fire on it, then he casts Double Fire on it. And Fire again.
Then the forest fights back and it's supposed to be the bad guy there?


Uncharted Golden Abyss:
Ended the best way any game could end.
With a ~30 touch screen QTE fight where any mistake restarts the battle.


NEB: Rush wasn't very costly but you often have to recast it, and it's competing with more "deserving" skills for MP like Slow Down and whatever else your fantastica might have at the time. I did spend one or two battles wasting too much MP on rush.
Oh, the way combination arts do magic damage was really clever from the developers, but it wasn't well explained in game. I realized how it worked lategame.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 12, 2013, 12:01:11 AM
I'm reading all this crap about MP running out in XF and I'm sitting here baffled at what game did you play. I -never- had resource issues in that game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on May 12, 2013, 12:04:35 AM
Stop giving me more @#$%&^&@$% Goddess Staves, Infinite Regalia.

*shakes fist at RNG*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 12, 2013, 01:10:15 AM
...
It really looked much too slow, even for FF9 standards. Well FF9 from the european PSP/Vita store is actually 50 hertz PAL FF9.
It is 17% slower FF9.
...
*deletes*
(As a reminder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7h9htbYDss&feature=player_embedded#! )


Snow: XF is overall generous with MP but it's not like you can just waste it entirely. It'd be the perfect amount of MP given to the player if not for hidden reinforcements.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 12, 2013, 01:42:08 AM
I'm still baffled. I used Turn Shift -a goddamn lot- and never had issues with resources. And fuck, I've only found out Magic Berries even -existed- this playthrough. >_>
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on May 12, 2013, 08:11:03 AM
I recall a couple of long maps (like 2-16) where MP is an issue. But I played through the game both times using mostly combo arts and lock-on to conserve resources. Having a few PCs with random smashing options helped since it let everyone else save up on MP. This just usually meant Levin would be out of MP nearing the end of the map.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on May 12, 2013, 10:29:07 AM
WKC: You know, some of the plot twists in this game would be pretty good if they were properly built up to. There's just not enough of anything to make it compelling. Kara continues to say everything I want to say to other characters and Caesar continues his running meta-commentary on the game that mirrors my own assessment. Other than that, just kinda goes along. Game isn't really as bad as advertised. It's just... unremarkable. Kinda like FFXII if it were better plotted but had a blander story.

Townbuilding being balanced around online play makes me annoyed. It's actually pretty fun, but since you can upload the town online for other people to use, they made it so you can only max ONE of the 6 aspects/stats of the town at a time rather than all of them eventually, forcing you to either constantly shuffle or go to other peoples' soon-to-be non-existant online towns. Oh well. I suppose it made sense at the time but I doubt it'll be fixed when the servers are shut down.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 12, 2013, 12:25:50 PM
ME3: Go away, ghost kid. I'm trying to play a game here! Goddamn.

Really not sure what they're going for with this. It is war and people die? No kidding, game, because suddenly everyone's dying, and since these are people I've known for a while it actually means something:

-Mordin, noooooo! At least he died doing what he loved: singing Gilbert & Sullivan. (Also SCIENCE.) I hate to think how much worse that scene could've turned out if I hadn't told everyone about the sabotage before he went up the tower.
-Yeoman Chambers, R.I.P. And I thought she was better off where she was than on the Normandy! Henceforth, my fish maintenance program shall be referred to as Kelly.
-Thane. Long time coming, but still.
-Udina. Oh wait I shot him the head. Well, it was still somewhat of a surprise when he came off as not an asshole for like the first time ever when I talked to him early in this game.


We are supposed to feel sad or just more sad because this time it was a kid that died? Sorry game but I am a heartless bastard and this is a narrative so I need a reason to care about someone. And shamelessly manipulative hack writing is the best way to ensure that I do not care about someone.

Questionable writing decision #2: "That assassin should feel ashamed of himself." No kidding, Thane. Look, guy, your job is just to murder one dude. The best way to murder that dude is doing it before he even knows you are there. The worst way is to jump down really loudly behind him and waste a minute menacing your target until armed support shows up and you are outnumbered three-to-one. Next time you have a chance to kill someone, don't hesitate! Mook feels really out of place in this context, all flashy weeaboo sword technique in a game that nearly fetishizes run 'n' gun marines.

I swear I've spent magnitudes more time killing Cerberus goons this game than I have Reapers. What a bunch of twits. Oh well, at least the Council actually thanked me this time.

In other news, I got to see a giant sandworm eat a giant space robot. It was neat. Genophage has been cured! Not without some reservations, mind--again, I would have zero hope of this ending well without these particular leaders in charge. I don't really trust any species to responsibly, voluntarily curb its own population growth. But at least they're not a race of nihilists anymore and that is really why I did it. I have no personal interest in having children myself, and tend to think it is a thing people do from an honestly kind of creepy compulsion of instinct and that the best thing the human race could do to mitigate the myriad environmental problems it's caused is to get control over just how many of us there are causing them...but the fact is that negative population growth just does awful things to the collective psyche. Look at any nation with a declining population and there's just this pervasive cultural malaise. What I'm saying is, Children of Krogan? Pretty spot-on and it had to end.

Random other stuff:

-So now I can chain-freeze dudes so that when they explode they freeze other dudes. It's pretty great.
-Encouraging Joker to mack on the computer is the best thing.
-Still no sign of Talis. They better not be doing what I think they're doing.
-Jamaican me crazy, Javik. It's actually kind of nice to see the Precursors weren't all they're cracked up to be.
-Why isn't Blasto a real movie franchise? I would totally pay to see a movie about a renegade jellyfish cop who plays by his own rules and the laconic elephant alien thing that has to put up with him even though he is three solar days from retirement. Henceforth, I consider "badassfully" a perfectly real and legitimate word. No, I don't care what you say, Firefox spellchecker. Is the criminal scum feeling fortunate?
-She just came over to use my shower. (The storyline is ludicrous.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AAA on May 12, 2013, 12:28:40 PM
Do yourself a favor and youtube what happens if you side with the salarians, unless you have a problem feeling like The Worst Person In The World.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Yoshiken on May 12, 2013, 09:51:55 PM
Game isn't really as bad as advertised. [...] Kinda like FFXII

As for FF9 discussion, I enjoyed reading into stuff a while back and found out that the guy who pretty much designed everything in FF9 made all but one decision - he wanted the combat to be the fastest in the series, and Sakaguchi suggested changing it to the slowest so that people could enjoy their nostalgia trip at a slower pace.
Ito would have given me a remarkable amount of hope for the future of the FF series, if not for the huge role he played in FFXII. :(
(Also the same person responsible for AP, Materia, and Triple Triad, and hell, I've spent the last 9 years playing Triple Triad online.)

Edit: Also, as for comments of FF9 being entirely dull options but some are faster, I think you can cut the 9 from that. I mean, hell, FF8 and FFX are much worse for having a stupid amount of boring options than FF9 is. FF9 gives you less options but at least some of them (read: Quina) are mildly entertaining to play.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 12, 2013, 10:17:32 PM
Quote
As for FF9 discussion, I enjoyed reading into stuff a while back and found out that the guy who pretty much designed everything in FF9 made all but one decision - he wanted the combat to be the fastest in the series, and Sakaguchi suggested changing it to the slowest so that people could enjoy their nostalgia trip at a slower pace.

Well that explains bloody Lost Odyssey, I guess. >:(

And no other FF is nearly as slow as FF9. FF8 is the only one close and having just watched both again recently it's way faster. Its fighters are also insanely boring PCs as the Zidane discussion alludes to. So no, I won't be dropping the 9 from that sentence.


Fire Emblem 7 - At the last map.

Suikoden 2 - Just came back from the first visit to Matilda.

Paper Mario - Started this randomly, still early. No timed hits make the early battles extremely bland, but I presume it gets better.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 12, 2013, 10:42:38 PM
I dunno, I played FF10 Tidus SCC and that was quite fun (...and painful at times...) because Tidus has a full skillset and options to explore, not to mention Overdrives are handled so much better than FF9 Trance.  Auron and Wakka, the other two primary fighters, also have options you'll be using quite a bit to exploit, and FF10 also has better support abilities to speed the battle up on equipment, etc. 

FF9...the only fighter with a remotely interesting skill-set is Armarant and he joins with half of the game finished.  The other fighters are pretty much pointless fluff skill-sets that you'll just be using their basic physicals most of the time.  Sure, Freya and Steiner get MT damage eventually, but it's so late that you don't fight much in the way of big groups anymore.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Yoshiken on May 13, 2013, 12:11:28 AM
Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the speed of FF9. The options, though, are there, for all that character availability hinders it a little. Freya, Amarant and especially Quina have some really interesting options, and Vivi is, at worst, the same as every other Black Mage in the FF series.
Compare to FF8 which throws you a bunch of GF skills! ...where you're lucky if you ever use more than 1.
Or FFX! Loads of options! But, outside of some ridiculous challenge, none of them will ever be more than time-consuming ways to win.
I guess I rate FF9 combat highly on the grounds that, hey, at least it actually gave some challenging bosses, even if it was only for the first quarter of the game. That's still a quarter of a game more than any other FF.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 13, 2013, 12:26:05 AM
Difference between FF10 and a variety of other games is that FF10 strongly encourages consistent usage of them.  You don't often need them, but I found myself using stuff like Power Break or Darktouch/buster type moves way more than other games in the series and most other jRPGs in general.

It just strikes a very good balance of having variety and actually encouraging using it without being cumbersome.  Only time it really became annoying was when I was doing a playthrough of trying to get an overkill on everything ever (I will likely never do this; wasn't worth it) and I had to spend the first bunch of turns spamming Cheer or Focus to insure my damage was high enough.  That aside, FF10 gives you plenty of stuff to work with, and things are reliable too.

And mind you, I often waste turns in FF10 making sure everyone can act, even though I know I shouldn't, and FF10 never felt slow.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 13, 2013, 12:46:22 AM
Reminder that Yoshi is discussing from the point of view of PAL FFX.  PAL FFX is still slow.  Not nearly as slow as FF9 though.

I didn't realise PAL FF9 had the slowdown fix that FFX did as well.  That is horrible because when I replayed FF9 (No I don't know why either) I remember being astounded at how much slower it was than I remembered and I played an NTSC version the second time and PAL the first.

Sooooooo.  Fuck FF9.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 13, 2013, 01:01:11 AM
AFAIK most console games up until 2002 or so were 50 hertz. NES, SNES, Genesis, PSX, N64 and early PS2 games were affected.
The PSX PAL emulation on the PS3 uses 50 hertz games. (Boycott it all)

PAL FFX had stretched resolution on top of the slowed down gameplay though, making it even more awful, so it's a prime example of PAL conversion fucking everything up. (Devil May Cry was worse though)



BTW FE only have three options most of the time: Moving, doing direct damage and healing. Worst games ever.



I really don't remember FF9 being all that challenging anywhere and it was one of my first RPGs. FFX was much more difficult (but I blazed through it and refused to do crappy minigames)
FF9 isn't about fighting in hindsight, it's about all the silly little charming things Yoshi loves. You spend like 10% of the time in battle, 20% listening to the story and 70% sending letters to mogs, playing card games and finding the perfect pair of trousers or something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 13, 2013, 01:23:11 AM
Don't forget the time-honored FF9 pastime of forcing your enslaved chocobo to peck the ground thousands of times for your amusement.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 13, 2013, 01:26:43 AM
Praising FF9 as the only challenging FF is pretty weird. It gets even weirder when you say the quarter of the game that is challenging is the first (I guess Gizamaluke's okay?). But eh, challenge debates.

FF9 is better for minigames than it is for plot or gameplay certainly. Obviously not what I play games for (minigames are fine, stuff like Mognet can burn) but it's there.

Fenrir: I know the FE comment is tongue in cheek, but "deciding where you move" obviously creates a wealth of options not seen in FF9. (This is true for any SRPG.) RPGs can't be rated purely by your number of options but generally I'd say that pure, non-position-based RPGs which have a decent number of characters who will do nothing but attack (FF4, FF9) doesn't make for great game design.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 13, 2013, 01:37:35 AM
Well, FF9 TRIED to give everyone full skill-sets and all that, just a lot of those skill-sets are filled with large amounts of "who cares" that you forget they have moves, so a number of those character just end up being "use physical."

For a game that people tout as being awesome for having character differences, FF9 really doesn't succeed well at it.  As I said, you can divide the cast up into 4 groups:
Fighters
Healers
Vivi
Quina

True, you can do something similar with Valkyrie Profile, but then that had a Battle System that complimented classifications like that, and got creative with it's simplicity.  FF9 is just a typical menu based RPG when it comes down to it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 13, 2013, 01:45:52 AM
I was going to make a comment about not being tricked into skillset = complexity variation and interesting choices.  If a command can be functionally replaced by putting it in place of the basic attack command because you use it every time then all you have succeeded in doing is adding more button presses to your menu based game.  Nothing remotely interesting to be had there.

Also <3 Fenrir for making the joke I was thinking of much more succinctly.

The PAL conversion thing stands out as me not realising it because there is 2 ways you can easily convert to 50 hz from 60 hz.  You can do the terrible thing that Square do or you can drop frames like the games that did't fucking suck to play tended to do.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on May 13, 2013, 03:08:26 AM
I really don't remember FF9 being all that challenging anywhere and it was one of my first RPGs. FFX was much more difficult (but I blazed through it and refused to do crappy minigames)
FF9 isn't about fighting in hindsight, it's about all the silly little charming things Yoshi loves. You spend like 10% of the time in battle, 20% listening to the story and 70% sending letters to mogs, playing card games and finding the perfect pair of trousers or something.

There comes that moment in FF9 when you realize Auto-Regen was one of the better abilities in the game. Not because it Auto Regen has always been a good ability (check out FFX Regen and how many times you may use it), but because it was an ability you realized you could use against the game's slowness. Half the reason for even using Thievery was because the animation was longer so you could heal  more HP while that was going on. I distinctly remember when I first played FF9 and basically cheesed Trance Kuja that way. Flare Star counters; someone does something lengthy, heal all HP back.

Long story short - FF9 was slow and it was not good for it at all.

I can't really recall any real challenging fights in FF9. I mean, outside the optional bosses anyway. The game gives you a ton of options to cheese things out with equips so you never ever have to really tap into some of the more oddball things you could use to win fights. Also, status rates suck. Unlike FFX, if there was a choice to status or nuke, you're better off nuking because status has like 40% hit rates or something terrible. FFX at least actively urged you to try status and didn't shit all over their success rates.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 13, 2013, 03:40:35 AM
ME3: Oh, you idiots.

You better believe I punched Gerrel right in the bread basket.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 13, 2013, 04:24:00 AM
Hey, XCOM people! Is the DLC worth buying?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 13, 2013, 04:26:59 AM
For how much?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 13, 2013, 05:09:07 AM
Four bucks combined.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 13, 2013, 06:16:16 AM
Four bucks, dude. You get a mini-campaign and new customizations. Just fuckin do it, the XCOM staff at Firaxis deserves it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 13, 2013, 06:31:28 AM
Yes then.  Easilly.

YOU CAN MAKE YOUR DUDEBROS LOOK PRETTY. Bonus missions and stuff supposed to be pretty good (haven't got to them yet though)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 13, 2013, 02:38:12 PM
OFF - Amazing (and terrifyingly strange) atmosphere and setting saddled with pretty generic gameplay and annoying puzzles - it's sorta like Terry Gilliam's Magicant. The indie RPG Maker RPG universe puts out some crazy stuff.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 14, 2013, 02:15:21 AM
NG3RE: The game gives you the Scythe, really is there any other weapon to use in the game now? 

...ok, yes, the Lunar Staff is the best at building Ninpo by far since apparently raw # of hits builds Ninpo and this is important for the final boss where there is literally a section that's "Keep fighting until you get ninpo built up than fire!"  It's kind of dumb really because said Ninpo is suppose be UBER OVERPOWERED, but it's really just a "Advance Boss Fight" move with ridiculous gauge, *Sigh*

Boss fights in the later part of the game aren't too bad.  They aren't all that good, but they seem to hold off on most NG bullshit, so that's enough for me.   Then again, they had to balance around lacking items so they couldn't just throw whatever at you.

That said, game is ok.  It does Mook Combat reasonably well, boss fights range from really stupid to forgettable inoffensive, the QTEs and ilk are actually not too poorly done and rarely a "push X to not die" kind (more of a "Push X to avoid taking damage" kind), and sometimes they don't even tell you what to do, you have to figure it out...which surprisingly helps because it gives you a sense of actual decision making.  You're in Falcon Dive, missile coming at you from the left, HOW TO AVOID THIS!?  Obviously, "Dodge Right" and they give you enough time to recognize "QTE POINT!"

Sadly, game still flubs on areas and isn't amazing by any stretch.  Like it has a few gimmick sections that I'm not convinced add anything (Sit in car and shoot guys before car explodes, no way of telling just HOW much more punishment you can take!)  And one of the cooler gimmicks, Stealth Kills, is completely absent after Mission 2.

Ayane's actually a fun alternate character to play as unlike Rachel, though her boss fights are really just "fight 3 suped up mooks with her limited arsenal."  She's very clearly a character created as an afterthought bonus as a result, albeit, she mostly fights mooks and is fun as a result.  Unlike Rachel who is gimped in all ways possible outside of maybe her Ninpo equivalent.


The game also has the misfortune of legitimate plot.  The first two games basically just said "Ryu's a Ninja, there are bad guys, go kill them dead.  By the way, most are demons, monsters, zombies, etc. so don't worry about moral ambiguity here!"  This game through in actual nonsense that...uhh...doesn't really help.  The whole schtick with Mizuki's family, Ryu's arm is cursed, a little girl whose a total plot device because shut up she's important...yeah, I can't say this game really benefitted from having plot more complicated than "Ryu kills bad guys."  OH BUT WE GET TO SEE RYU'S FACE THIS GAME! HE UNMASKS HIMSELF!!!  Not sure what the point of that was...



Arkham Asylum:  So, onto a game where you do actual Ninjaing, just started this, up to the Gordon Tobacco following stuff.  Not much to say yet.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 14, 2013, 04:15:13 AM
ME3: "I don't know how else to say this, Traynor: my shower's only for winners."

Citadel DLC best DLC. Tactical full-party banter action is go! Seriously fun stuff, they really leveraged the cast for all the snark it was worth.

Oh I guess I did some plot stuff too. Maybe it's just because I've already seen the finale, but anytime an evil space robot tells me that I couldn't possibly comprehend its goals and motives, what I hear is, "The writer hasn't actually figured that out yet."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on May 14, 2013, 07:09:19 AM
Far Cry 3:

- getting into position to snipe into an outpost
- a whole bunch of wild animals wander in and kill everyone, causing the outpost to be liberated

now I feel bad about hitting so many animals with my car
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 14, 2013, 05:43:30 PM
So I'm thinking of doing a semi-Hatbotted Dark Souls run.

Any suggestions how how to do it?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 14, 2013, 06:49:57 PM
Hatboting your stat raises sounds boring, you'll probably end up with an half assed character with a lightning club like everyone.

Suggestions?
- Hatbot your class
- Hatbot the only two stats you'll be ever able to raise (you might want to raise some vitality anyway)
- Pick a master key and always Hatbot the next boss you'll fight: (At the beginning: 1: Taurus Demon, 2: Bell Gargoyle, 3: Pinwheel)
- Hatbot which path your weapon will take
- Attribute a number to each of those weapon types : Fists, daggers, whips, bows, greatbows, greatswords, greataxes, greathammers, ultragreatswords. Hatbot the three weapons you'll be able to use throughout the game from that pool, and work on getting them ASAP. (you may use a cestus or something until then)
- Hatbot the two spells/ two miracles / one pyromancy skills you'll be able to use and maybe use them


Tactics Ogre PSP: Warren Report told me the father of one of the bosses I killed is a famous architect.
The artistic presentation is wonderful, and makes the tiny sprites look very silly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 14, 2013, 07:26:51 PM
That sounds along the lines of what I was thinking. Hatbotting random stats every level-up would be suck.

I mainly want to randomize my path, as it were, not my entire experience and end up completely subpar. Which is tricky.

Like most of your ideas, though. I think maybe if I get Int/Fai as a stat I'd allow Spells/Miracles and just binary yes/no if I could use them? Same for Pyromancy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 14, 2013, 09:23:06 PM
Hatbotting usable weapons probably will make the biggest difference in how you play. There's just so many out there that you wouldn't normally use and a lot of them require specific builds.

I wouldn't Hatbot stats at all, you really need a specific spread for some things to be usable to any degree, but class/weapons is probably fair. I would probably go class -> weapons -> spells if you get a class with any affinity for it (there are a ton of wacky utility spells that don't see regular use because straight damage is more consistently useful).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 14, 2013, 09:44:11 PM
Hm.

Roll: Class
Roll: Weapon Category
Roll: 3 Weapons from Category
-> If weapon category is is one-hand primary, roll dual-wield/shields/nothing
Roll: Sorcery/Miracles/Pyromancy/No Magic
-> If magic is allowed, roll yay/nay for every available spell

?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 14, 2013, 11:44:29 PM
Sounds pretty good! Hope you'll not end up with a classic one weapon + shield or your experience will be pretty basic.

Evaluating TO characters so far:

- Denam (Knight): I just throw him in the middle of the battle and have him heal with items or spells. His sword doesn't do much damage but he never dies. Special characters seem to have 50 more HPs with no drawbacks, and knight is a tanky class.
- Canopus: Winged god with a crossbow. I wish he could use one of those great bows instead, but ah well. I'm not sure I want him as a 3 mov archer.
Berserker, Warrior, Terror Knight: Every physical class is much better than before. They can actually survive on the front range.
- Cleric: Went from necessary to complete waste. He heals for less damage than items, requires MP and might be OHKOed by an archer. He's relevant when you're broke, which is all the time, but items are cheap and you could always sell another leather armor for like 10 +2 herbs. I gave basically everybody Field Alchemy, and don't regret it.
- Archer: Worse than before, but that's saying nothing. Archers rock the world. And there are even some male archers now!
- Gryphon: Pretty good! I'm glad beasts got this much needed boost and can actually equip stuff. I don't think I'll use more than once anyway.
- Dragon/Beast Tamer: Well I used one to recruit the Gryphon. Empower Beast doesn't look like it makes up for the low stats at all. 70 TP for a one turn move?  Maybe I miss a good way to increase TP. I wish the beast tamer still had his aura around him (at least beasts don't suck as much anymore)
- Ninja: I gave mine dual daggers for higher avoid. I'm not exactly impressed yet.
- Rogue: I used one to steal a boss' vitality ring. He stole some worthless ingredient instead. Otherwise he dies to a sneeze and does 1 damage with his blowgun.
- Witch: Got hit hard. She has 2000 spells but most seem worthless, her damage is not impressive and her long range is not long enough. Maybe I'm missing some awesome status in her repertoire.


BTW I checked missables and fully intend to get that obnoxious no deaths/no chariot worthless title >_>
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 15, 2013, 01:48:36 AM
Clerics pay off somewhat when you get Major Heal; that + Mother's Blessing can easily restore upwards of 300 HP total in a single turn. I actually found them one of the better classes because Archer and Knight crowd out so many other roles between them.

Plot PCs have randomly better stats, yes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 15, 2013, 02:59:18 AM
ME3: Thessia. Hahaha what. Did you really just do that, game?

*ninja flips ninja flips ninja flips* *boss gets shot a lot from the safety of across the room* "HOLD ON I NEED TO RECHARGE MY SHIELDS" *ninja flips ninja flips ninja flips* *boss gets shot a lot more without doing anything to return fire* "HOLD ON I NEED TO RECHARGE MY SHIELDS"

What was somebody thinking? Unfortunately, he does have the one power even Shepard can't top: cutscene immunity. He really did sneak in from one of my Japanese animes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 15, 2013, 03:30:57 AM
Almost all the really shitty things in ME3, like the dead kid scenes and Kai Animu Leng, are the work of one guy who worked alone because his ideas were SECRET.

Did you take Javik with you to Thessia? He lays a huge burn on Liara.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 15, 2013, 03:53:51 AM
Almost all the really shitty things in ME3, like the dead kid scenes and Kai Animu Leng, are the work of one guy who worked alone because his ideas were SECRET.

Did you take Javik with you to Thessia? He lays a huge burn on Liara.

I dunno, I thought Kai Leng worked. He pretty much got humiliated by Shepard EVERY time they met.

It was hilarious. Especially his shittalking while backed up by a choppa.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on May 15, 2013, 04:09:07 AM
Katanas are a better choice than Daggers for Ninjas in TO because Ninjas can only equip a limit subset of daggers, mostly low level ones. I guess Baldur Dagger +1 is okay enough to last until you get Damasc, but that requires item crafting and if you're willing to craft in the maingame you can get noticably better 1h katanas anyhow.

Boon of Swiftness is probably the most useful spell that Clerics get, the speed boost is nice and it can't be duplicated by items. There are other classes that get BoS (Valkyrie/Rune Fencer does with better movement/durability and less awful damage than Cleric even during the time when Valk damage totally blows), but if you're going to use a Cleric for whatever reason you might as well go ahead and spam Boon as much as possible.

I find it really helpful to have at least one mage at all times to deal with monsters and golems, who can be troublesome for the rest of your party to deal with at times. Best elements to specialize in are Earth, which gets AoE Petrify and Slow and Lightning, which gets ST Shackle (same effect as FFT Don't Act) and AoE RT reset.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 15, 2013, 04:19:30 AM
Almost all the really shitty things in ME3, like the dead kid scenes and Kai Animu Leng, are the work of one guy who worked alone because his ideas were SECRET.

I hope that's the guy who got fired. Most of the game is great! But when it's stupid, it's special ed stupid. I have to wonder if maybe the fight being such a joke was the programmers getting back at Mr. Auteur. "Just because we have to put this mook in our game doesn't mean he has to be competent." But just because it's hilarious in a horrible way doesn't mean the game wouldn't have been better off without it. Seriously the last thing I need when everyone in the plot is facing genocide is the sudden appearance of a comic relief villain (intentional or otherwise) who owns everybody with cutscene powers.

Did you take Javik with you to Thessia? He lays a huge burn on Liara.

I did not. Usually I try to take people who might have some personal interest in a mission, but for some reason it didn't occur to me in this case (which is silly because hey prothean artifact). I brought Ashley because I hadn't used her much. She had some fun needling Liara's sense of cultural self-esteem, but that's about it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 15, 2013, 04:32:10 AM
Boon of Swiftness is about as weak as a haste spell can be (due to its short duration it grants less than 1 turn on average to its target) but it's still worth using because it funnels turns away from someone who can't do anything useful (on turns when no healing is needed) to someone who can. I still don't like it much because of its cost, which forces you to use better magic herbs than you would otherwise, but I'd have to compared to costs of various herbs before deciding if this is just me being irrational or not.

I did just fine on my first playthrough where my lone wizard died (finishers kill anti-physical enemies well enough) but yeah it's probably worth using one. Just ugh, hard to ignore how much worse they are than archers at almost everything.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on May 15, 2013, 04:54:10 AM
If for some reason you are badly underleveled for a fight, mages' stock goes up, mostly thanks to status spam now being required.  Of course you *also* want archers anyway for actual damage + killing people before healing thanks to their finishers.  Certainly the way I won the Ozma fight underlevelled (because it seems like plotwise it should be done pre the Lanselot plot, and she certainly has dialogue vs. Barbas & Lanselot, but dang if the enemy level doesn't suggest it should be done while in the middle of the Hanging Gardens or something).  I won it via bringing 2x mages + 3 archers + Canopus (flying psuedo-Archer) + 2x clerics, with everyone else just being meatshield distractions.  Mages spammed Petrify, archers actually killed people.

But yeah, this is a pretty unusual case, and it's very hard to intentionally be underleveled in TO (well, underleveled overall, at least, obviously new classes can be underlevelled) unless you're intentionally switching classes constantly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 15, 2013, 07:03:22 AM
Almost all the really shitty things in ME3, like the dead kid scenes and Kai Animu Leng, are the work of one guy who worked alone because his ideas were SECRET.

I hope that's the guy who got fired. Most of the game is great! But when it's stupid, it's special ed stupid. I have to wonder if maybe the fight being such a joke was the programmers getting back at Mr. Auteur. "Just because we have to put this mook in our game doesn't mean he has to be competent." But just because it's hilarious in a horrible way doesn't mean the game wouldn't have been better off without it. Seriously the last thing I need when everyone in the plot is facing genocide is the sudden appearance of a comic relief villain (intentional or otherwise) who owns everybody with cutscene powers.

He's that same dude who did the ending and his storyboard just ended with "LOTS OF SPECULATION!"  He get shitcanned?

Did you take Javik with you to Thessia? He lays a huge burn on Liara.

Quote
I did not. Usually I try to take people who might have some personal interest in a mission, but for some reason it didn't occur to me in this case (which is silly because hey prothean artifact). I brought Ashley because I hadn't used her much. She had some fun needling Liara's sense of cultural self-esteem, but that's about it.

Javik shatters Liara's whole world. That part where she recounts all the religious stories related to those relics? Javik deconstructs her entire religion in like ten minutes, explains that the protheans are her gods, and that he is incredibly fucking disappointed in the asari. Their world was altered to give everyone biotics, they were given an enormous leg up in tech, and they were genetically compatible with all races. They were basically engineered to be in the perfect position to beat the Reapers and they pissed it all away.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 15, 2013, 08:14:39 AM
Prof of the true infinite depths of teh ebils of DLC according to the Internet.

Have I mentioned how over reactionary people were about Javik?  He is on the border of good taste, but he is nowhere near as "vital" as the wider public made him out to be.

I am just going to echo how hilariously shitty Kai Leng is.  Watching Laggy breakdown when we were both playing it is a highlight from 2012.  The fact that Andy just rolls and is cool with it is proof that he is the cuddliest nicest guy ever.  He is like a puppy with an English degree that loves card games.  Why the fuck is there not a TV show based on this I have no idea.

Edit -  it could be set 15 years in the future and we can set him as approaching middle age as a tenured middle school English teacher struggling with a mix of Tweens trying to be cool and jaded like the teenagers are and their natural fascination with the newly widely accepted freedom of the fluidity of language.  No longer are we ruled by strict structures of sentences, tense and grammar, spieling.  How does he grade that?  Does he blame his classic favorites like House of Leaves for their deconstruction of publishing and storytelling for this travesty that it has done to his beloved dialect?

He can wear a tartan waste coat and a bowler hat.  It will be fantastic. 

Edit 2 - Scottish Terrier obviously.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 15, 2013, 08:37:06 AM
The BioWare fan "public" is fucking toxic.  On the ladder of bad, they're only above people whose interests are, by their very nature, fucked up.  Like dudes who like anime for pedophiles or dudes who use the Book of Erotic Fantasy in their D&D games.  Nothing they think or say has any validity.

Javik is a type of DLC I'm okay with.  He's really no different from Leviathan, another mission that revealed major details of the game universe's backstory but weren't critical to the plot.  Yes, the game is much better with him there, particularly in places like Thessia or his stuff on the Citadel with the hanar, but as far as the game's main plot is concerned, he's kinda secondary.  Does his DLC have lots of interesting stuff in it?  Yeah.  But I think that's a good thing.  DLC done well is a good way to extend a game (look at New Vegas for the best example of this).  If he didn't have cool shit that came with him you'd say "I got this bonus character and he doesn't do or say anything cool ever."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 15, 2013, 08:50:46 AM
The sad part?  I legit think if they had not made it Day 1 DLC and just made it "exclusive" to the collectors edition for like a month like all the fucking Gamestop/Amazon/whatever preorder "exclusives" are and then released it later then the community would have given next to 0 fucks and instead developed the toxic "well you should have just bought the Collector edition then noob" elitist nonsense you see instead.  Fucking bees dick difference but changes the way (dickhead) end users take ownership of the scenario completely on its head.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 15, 2013, 10:21:29 AM
Javik's an ass, but an enlightening one. He doesn't have to give you a dissertation on his people's religion or history to tell you what they were all about, he just has to keep being who is, stepping all over everybody and everything they value in every conversation and generally not giving two shits. In the grim future there is only war.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 15, 2013, 11:21:18 AM
WA:XF - So I have been playing more of this and yeah maps generally a bit better I think?  Less REINFORCEMENTS NOW KTHX.  I will note the irony that when I checked the Conditions for the Bridge with King Tarasque mission I failed because I wanted to see what would happen if I took it as literally as possible (it just says to pull the switches, so I ran Levin over and hit the switches straight away and failed because dudes not over the bridge yet), but hey I deliberately did that one.  That is on me.  I am not going to be a dick about it.  I beat the level by turning Ragnar into an Excavator (suck it elf u h8er [this is a joke]) and had Levin and him only deployed units and ran over the bridge.  Deploying Levin was a waste of time.  I could try to kill King Tarasque, kind of wonder if he drops like a pile of gold or something.  I don't really give a toss though.

What I am going to be a dick about is the plot.  Why the shit does the game suddenly become all about Ragnar there?  Like, he gets POV bits for 3 or 4 levels while the rest of the cast is mostly kind of just there.  Like one Felius scene that is stupid foreshadowing.  No Clarssia scenes because she is all "u guys probs hate me now :(".  Nothing from Levin?  Really?  So you went with Ragnar because he is the last dude left?

Also fuck King Hrathnir.  He just rolls up on you after what should be a pretty climactic battle with zombies that were constantly reinforcing on the map (that I was one shotting with Elementalist geared Sacred Slayers of course) and is all "try harder nubs." and then is all one shotting zombies with his big cleave move and is all "Problem?" then commits suicide by trying to blow himself up with bombs that he clearly could have you know, got a detonator for or something if he was planning to do that shit.  Dick.

Also I know like it is a running thing that Snow is Edna.  That is pretty self evident (I mean I JUST saw the sequence where she is all "eff you guys i will just go get the rl princess" at the party.  This and the sequence just before that where she tried to troll the rl Princess and gets served and is all "BITCH I CUT U" and then getting verbally pimp slapped once again by her prisoner is like MAXIMUM SNOW.  But you guys seriously.  The whole villain cast is Snow.  Charlton is the pissy 50 year old he is going to become "that isn't how you DO things you need STRUCTURE and ORDER and CONTROL.  All the while I am going to SMOKE my CIGARETTE all the TIME.  It is a surrogate penis you know."  But man, Weisheit?  Weisheit is teenage Snow.  Some of you may remember him when he first turned up here and Niu was like this guy is my friend, he is like me but even crazier yaoi fiend.  This younger man is the Snow that Niu was referring to since we have clearly seen some actual deep dicking has calmed that aspect of Snow down (that and he was into Yaoi before it was ruined when it went mainstream in the US).  Weisheit is Snow in full World of Darkness LARP mode wanting to have Felius all up inside him.

For reference Rupert isn't part of the Villain cast.  He is the Straight man of that ensemble and there is no fucking way Snow is ever going to play a Straight Man convincingly.  Rupert is pretty much just a troll rather than a villain.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 15, 2013, 11:56:41 AM
So, ghosts of past, present and future me?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 15, 2013, 12:06:52 PM
Pretty much.  I am not sure if Edna is present you so much as perpetual you.

Edit - I suppose it works better to also describe Weisheit as the Snow that has been.  Charlton is most definitely the Snow that hasn't come yet.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 15, 2013, 12:59:09 PM
I could try to kill King Tarasque, kind of wonder if he drops like a pile of gold or something.  I don't really give a toss though.

Tangent, but :grefter: is more important than gameplay anyway. ANYHOW. Killing King Tarasque is so easy I didn't even realize you could activate the bridge and shits to beat that fight. That and I certainly ain't going to say no to delicious CSP.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 15, 2013, 01:51:52 PM
In other news, it is embarrassing how long I have been using Berserker Ragnar before I realised how good he is with it.  In an open space he is so worth Rushing and Turn Shifting too for some serious Raving Ravage damage.  If you threw in Blood Heat and the counter skill in there he would seriously push something's shit in.  And here I was happy with it just being his range helping counter the usability of the limited mobility while he picked up Move Up (which I am sorely tempted to grind on Crawling Chaos until my mages all have it).

That makes up for my disappointment in finding out that the only interesting sounding skill Felius has is broken.  He nearly would be cool with attack assist.  Back to the bottom of the pile you go Felius, Ragnar just got better than you.

On that note, do you want a typo correction Elf?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 15, 2013, 02:07:20 PM
There are two classes Ragnar was pretty much born to be in: Berserker and Extremist. Berserker just synergizes way too well with his Rave (this name is so fucking -stupid-, by the way). Meanwhile, Extremist benefits from his base evade+Tactical Evasion quite a bit, with High Slugger damage being based off AVO. Accuracy will always be an issue unless he spends time grabbing AIM +25%, though. Also, Felius, underwhelming, pick ten.

Also, man, why grind for Move +1? At that point, having a mastered Elementalist is feasible, slap EQ+Magic +25% on an Enigmancer and blow shit up with the better raw stats. I guess you could do -both- for 5-move Devastates, I guess.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 15, 2013, 02:15:02 PM
Your "I guess" is correct (and my Elementalist generic is showing that even 4 move mages can lag a bit and struggle for slots for more OC skills).

Also you should just start referring to Raving Ravage as RaRa (pronounced like Ray Ray).  Since it deserves your disdain.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 15, 2013, 02:40:57 PM
Well, Mag +25% and Elem EQ are just utterly paramount to offensive magic setups anyway. I can't think of a single damage-geared magic build that won't have one of Elementalist EQ or Magic +25% (both being preferrable, but that's more of an investment). Later on, Emulator OC and Exploit Weakness are also amazing choices. Emulator OC even mitigates the variety issues cannon mage setups experience in the early game.

Support mage setups, of course, are more flexible (, but you want Elementalist EQ there regardless. Books are the best magic weapon -bar none-, and just equipping one pretty much makes the difference between, say, Heal being 60% PC HP and borderline full healing even off Sacred Slayer stat bases.

EDIT: wait, you just meant Rupert is Random.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on May 15, 2013, 08:24:09 PM
The more important question is: Who is Tony?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 15, 2013, 08:30:24 PM
The best damn character in the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 15, 2013, 08:32:32 PM
Hatbot was unavailable, so RANDOM.ORG is filling in for him.

Class: Deprived (Thanks, not!Hatbot)
Weapon: Bows - Darkmoon Bow, Composite Bow, Shortbow
Magic?: Miracles - Force, Heal, Great Heal Excerpt, Great Heal, Replenishment, Lightning Spear, Sunlight Spear, Magic Barrier, Darkmoon Blade, Vow of Silence, Gravelord Sword Dance, Gravelord Greatsword Dance

...I may have made a terrible, terrible error.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 15, 2013, 08:53:13 PM
It's okay, you'll probably get bored 1/3 of the way through and go back to Baldur's Gate mods anyway. >_> <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 15, 2013, 09:07:36 PM
Mulligan, Andy.

In all seriousness, there are worse things to get for a bow setup. Darkmoon Bow's damage runs off of faith and is actually pretty respectable (for a bow) if you pump that stat (decently fast-firing too, like the shortbow, which is going to be better than the higher-damage bows just because oh god you'll have to dodge between every fucking shot), so it's kinda nice you got miracles in conjunction with that? It's elemental though so hahaha DLC bosses. Too bad you got Sunlight Spear instead of Great Lightning Spear. 10x Lightning Spear + 10x Great Lightning Spear = more than enough firepower for most all bosses. Darkmoon Blade is actually a really brutal boss nuke...if you have a melee weapon. Also you can't use it after you've killed Gwyndolin...which is how you get the Darkmoon Bow.

You know what Andy, I refuse to believe this wasn't a Hatbot production. All-bows is probably doable--most bosses it just means you take forever to kill them and have to dodge a lot--but I have no idea how you'd deal with Capra Demon (dogs'll probably stagger you any time you try to do anything) or Gwyn.

~

So random ME3 question? The war room's galaxy map has been saying, "System offline, no data available," the entire game. What the heck is that about? Is that thing supposed to not work and be completely uninformative or...I dunno? I'm also a little perplexed I can still only upgrade weapons to rank 5 despite being almost out of game--there's a trophy for boosting one to rank 10, so I have to assume this is actually a thing that's possible. Makes me wonder if I missed something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 15, 2013, 09:40:06 PM
I think you need a net connection for that part to work.  Rank 10 weapons might also be multiplayer only.  I do recommend it though if you are remotely interested, it is pretty fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 15, 2013, 09:42:07 PM
I generally kid. I haven't ever played bows primary, so hey. That'll be something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 15, 2013, 09:54:14 PM
Capra should be a simple matter of run up to the stairs + aim quickly and snipe dogs. This should work.
Gwyn.......  Abuse the elevation difference? Can you shoot through rocks?
It's okay Andrew. You can pretend nothing happened and reroll. It wasn't Hatbot.


The commentary on Snow was spot on.
At least he's not the WA3 villain cast.
(That would be Niu)


Tactics Ogre: One of my characters got killed by an underlevelled fairie with a blowgun. I am a mastermind of tactics.
I find that... an archer actually works better than a witch for dealing damage to monsters. I mean, he does 2/3 damage but he gets a finishing move and dies way less easily. A monster doing a limit break on a witch is something terrible.
I've picked the wrong element though, it seems. (Fire)
Noted, about ninjas and katanas, I switched weapons.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 15, 2013, 09:58:25 PM
Dark is the best element for magic pretty much no questions asked in TOPSP. Earth eventually gets decent and Wind is solid backup for earlier GT and multitarget sleep. But Fire just sucks, buffs/debuffs are trashy outside speed. Also, for mages, you kinda want to invest on Spellstrike for status accuracy, it makes the rates shoot up into constant 100% territory.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on May 15, 2013, 10:09:42 PM
Crowd control via status is the really important part for mages, not damage until you get the endgame/postgame spells. I once had a well-geared team who could steamroll every human fight via mass archers/ninjas + 2 tanks with Rampart Aura get wiped out in an sidequest battle stage because I was up against three Golems. They managed to wipe out my party tanks with techniques while my archers and ninjas struggled to inflict any serious damage to them, at which point the fight was basically lost.

In the rematch I brought in an Enchantress whom I had recently intended to retire; despite being somewhat underlevelled, she easily kept the Golems petrified until my heavy hitters mopped everything else and could focus on the Golems one by one.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 15, 2013, 10:42:22 PM
Daaaaamn
I'll just use one of the sisters as a mage instead I guess.
I use Spellstrike. My accuracy issues with the witch exist because fireballs like to randomly target Canopus instead of the enemy. I wish there was a Trajectory skill for spells.
I want to do a witch SCC.
Or anaother archer SCC. The last one wasn't -legit-, I only had 10 party members. TO PSP has 12!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 15, 2013, 11:52:11 PM
Petrify being the reason Earth gets good, of course.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 16, 2013, 12:41:28 AM
BTW.
Crafting.
:( :( :(


(Also, SCCs here are a really terrible idea, forget about it)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 16, 2013, 12:58:48 AM
Pretend crafting isn't in the game, life improves.

I don't think SCCs work well in many games besides FFT, most other games don't give individual classes enough options and/or are too lengthy. Never really been tempted by FF5/XF/TO SCCs. (Fiesta/Hatbot runs can be cool though.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 16, 2013, 01:51:40 AM
ME3: He died the way he lived: a major load.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 16, 2013, 02:11:01 AM
FE7 HHM - Beat this (second time). 5 stars on everything except Exp which was 3 because Exp rank is kinda stupid, and I spent too much time midgame worrying about Funds instead. Oh well! Best PCs were Raven (slightly RNG-screwed, haha), Heath (RNG-blessed) and Priscilla (loads of evade, staff stuff), although Lucius deserves note for being Raven's A support and having the most kills because things liked to suicide on him though sometimes succeeded in killing him. My pegasus knights got pretty badly RNG-screwed (especially Fiora) which didn't stop them from being useful, just stopped them from dominating. Eliwood I benched because he's kinda bleh and wasn't turning out well, the highlight of the final chapter was feeding him kills with Durandal. Kills which saw him getting 4x-overkilled if he missed because he had 3 speed! (Good thing Durandal has hit.)

Good times. This game's shopping system sucks forever and there are a few other nagging polish issues (any time you can't deploy Merlinus is too much obnoxious inventory management) but otherwise I remember why I like it a lot, there's some great map design with secondary objectives and solid overall balance. Probably my second favourite FE though it's close! (Non-remake FEs made in the past decade so good.)


Paper Mario - Speaking of decadish-old IS games. Getting into this more. It's a bit of a slow starter (c'mon, needing an hour to unlock timed hits?) and the writing's a pale shadow of glorious glorious M&L3 but otherwise it's quite interesting with its non-random damage scale and simple but important choices. It's already obvious that the game lends itself more to challenges than normal playthroughs but it seems breezy enough for a legit first playthrough which is always how I prefer to do things anyway.


Suikoden 2 - I decided my army needs more squirrels. Most armies do.


edit: re typo correction, you mean for the BMG, Gref? If so then yes please. (If you mean for my posts in general, then uhhhh sure?)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Otter on May 16, 2013, 02:23:38 AM
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/44765065/killhavelock.JPG

Ran through Dishonored yesterday on Normal.  I tried not to abuse quicksave too much and ended up killing a bunch of extra dudes.  This afternoon, just as a completionist thing, I re-ran all the missions, on Very Hard this time, and got Ghost while never killing guards or abusing sleep darts (much; I did use them to help me spare the Pendleton twins' consorts).  Killing the Regent in the middle of a room full of his guards without alerting any of them (time stop, blink, shadow kill) was pretty fun and satisfying after the trainwreck that mission was for me the first time.

So now I was thinking about trying out a "spare no one" run but I'm not sure how long the novelty would last, might as well go play Saints Row 3 or something.  Fortunately Cid just reminded me that I never actually played ME3 despite loving ME2 and playing it obsessively like three times in a row.  Probably should play it.  I can't even do Bioshock Infinite because I'm on XP, what the hell.

edit: damn, just googled this and apparently the last mission is different in High Chaos?  Tempting but probably still not tempting enough to justify a slaughter-run.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 16, 2013, 04:04:18 AM
I killed everything that moved in my Dishonored run unless it was too much effort to do it without being spotted.  It is pretty meh honestly.  You just turn everything to dust and get a couple more weepers for your effort.  The Princess is a complete fucking mess at the end of the game for it if you want to see that, but eh.

Edit - and BMG elf, good gods I have no fucking place telling people to fix typos in posts.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 16, 2013, 05:12:04 PM
OFF - Dedan defeated. Time to visit a giant library.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on May 16, 2013, 10:43:19 PM
SN5- Finally! In my hands! How long has it been since the last one!? Though, I can't help but to feel SNUX is the real meat, while SN5 is just a tag along.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 17, 2013, 03:05:52 AM
ME3: Hahaha. You know, I'd been encouraging my crew to hook up whenever the opportunity arose, but I totally didn't call Tali/Garrus. Occurs to me I never had them in the party together in this game, maybe I missed something.

In less significant news, game finished. For a...given value of "finished."

Game needed a "spaceghostkid is an idiot just erase him" button. Game did not provide one so I improvised. With my gun.

With regret: the writers anticipated my attempt at lateral thinking, and full of scorn at my wish to elude their carefully constructed ending scenario they chose to wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy. Then the credits rolled. And overwrote my autosave so I'd have to replay the last hour of the game to see an ending that sucked even marginally less.

(I did grab the extended cut ending for what that's worth. I don't actually know what that entails, wasn't out when I YouTubed the ending way back when. Obviously irrelevant for universal armageddon ending though.)

Seriously Shepard just point out that spaceghostkid is factually wrong. Hey remember that 300-year war between robots and their creators? That's over. I talked them out of it. They're friends now. Also that chick who was shooting all your dudes with me on the way in? Hey kid she's a computer. Your thesis is disproved, cycle broken, shut your fucking face uncle fucker.


I knew in advance that all the final choices the game plainly offered you, and really everything related to the final sequence, were incredibly dumb. I didn't actually know that could happen, but clearly I should have known better than to second guess the divine wisdom of the great mind that brought us Kai Leng. Also jesus what does your rep have to be to make those final dialogue choices on the Citadel? I was like 90-95% paragon and still couldn't to it. What the hell.

ME3, I dunno. It reminds me of Return of the Jedi, you know? There's rollicking action sequences and some nice character work building off of earlier series entries and you're having all kinds of fun up until space teddy bears show up to own all the bad guys for you and now you can't believe in anything anymore. Except this time you are the one who is the space teddy bear's bitch.

It makes me sad because they did such a great job with this game for most of its run. Aside from the stuff already bitched about at length (ghostkid/Kai Leng/ending) it was a greatly enjoyable experience. Combat is cleaned up and more fun than before (too easy, but at least I can finally dodge), individual missions play well off most of your actions in the previous games, writing is solid...Which just makes ghostkid stuff even more glaring. I know there's a war on, dude, because I hear about it through everybody's personal stories every time I drop in on the Citadel. You know, I actually found myself running past some of those NPCs repeatedly just to see how everyone's little dramas turned out? And then you get back to the Citadel for the finale and everyone's dead or melted. Fuck you too, game. The non-asinine writers on this game did some good work. It really does feel like Space Suikoden for much of its run. You race all over creation solving problems to unite disparate peoples and there's a big satisfying moment near the end when you finally see everyone standing together against a common enemy, yah? And then you hit an ending seemingly calibrated for maximal discordance, disappointment, and frustration.

How something that is so satisfying for so much of its run could also stoop to such staggering depths is just kind of amazing to me.

Still, it is good to see that London still maintains telephone boxes even well into the 22nd century.

(Why doesn't Anderson have a British accent though.)

Series general stuff:

-I don't think I mentioned it before, but I actually quite like the alien designs? They're almost all humanoid in the same basic proportion as humans, which seems like a box sci-fi writers have trouble climbing out of, but they're all quite distinct and memorable. There's not more of them than you can keep track of or would be sensible and nobody's just Bumpy Forehead People. I have a strange fondness for the elcor because they can only speak in Deadpan.

-I think I have to call ME2 the best entry in the series. The antagonists' plan there was pretty dumb too, but it's the kind of dumb you can mostly handwave because hey at least this isn't the end of the story. TIM also actually worked in the context of that game (and that game only). You know you can't really trust him, but you kind of owe him for resurrecting you and he genuinely is doing work the Alliance *should* be doing. And he's smart enough to keep the worst of Cerberus's excesses out of sight while you're working for him. There was some actual tension there, whereas ME3 Cerberus just reverts to straight-up soul-raping transformations for some and sanitary liquefaction for others, not even trying to hide it anymore (where the heck does all the funding for these projects come from, anyway?) Brainwashed villain is also kind of tiresome. Stared Into Abyss/Abyss Stared Back isn't the worst angle for a villain, but it's definitely less fun than someone more ambiguous that you can actually sort of argue with.

-Javik/robogirl final party (not that ME3 really has a final battle per se). They seemed like the most appropriate partners for ultimate space robot genocide. Of course since this is ME3 my choice did not matter much.

-Girlfriend Traynor is super cute. On the character front, the returning characters matured very well across the three games. Even the fun ones felt a little sketched-in in ME1? But much more fleshed out across the sequels and I was quite attached to most by the end, particularly Tali and Garrus (my only regret about running femShep is no Tali romance). So yeah, Bioware doing fun character work, no real surprise there. It's like the one thing they're consistently good at. Garrus and Joker trading racist jokes was a highlight.

-Joker and the computer, best videogame couple or best videogame couple? (I'm actually serious here.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 17, 2013, 05:23:32 AM
You manage to get both quarians and geth on your side (based on stuff you did in 2) or did you have to pick? The first time I had to pick. Chose quarians cause I needed ships.

It was rough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 17, 2013, 10:20:16 AM
Because you just beat it I need to retell the Renegade run through. 

Highlights of mashing RED on everything.
You pretty much get to leave the Turian home world to burn.
You lie to the Krogans.  Mordin knows anyway.  You shoot him in the back.  The Salarians side with you and you trick the Krogan into thinking they are cured.
You can reunite the Geth and Quarians by sheer willpower of douchebaggery.
Wrex finds out you lied because Mordin was far from the only Salarian that has problems with committing a third act of genocide as a race.  He attacks you on the Citadel and you shoot him and then space him.
You can totes get Joker and Ede to get their bone on still.
You choose to destroy all Artificial Life in the galaxy.


Just to repeat that.
You can reunite the Geth and Quarians by sheer willpower of douchebaggery.
You can totes get Joker and Ede to get their bone on still.
[bold]You choose to destroy all Artificial Life in the galaxy.[/bold]


That is the second most fucked up shit you do on that path.  It is the most hollow soul crushing gaming experience I have put myself through, it is pretty amazing (EDIT - This is in fact a straight up lie).  They pull no fucking punches with the consequences to your actions of being a douchebag who gives no fucks and gets stuff done regardless of who it hurts.  It really is pretty great and with other stuff that happens makes the Saren plot come full circle.  It is pretty cool.  Shame about the parts of the game that blow.

And the dialogue choices that you couldn't pick in the ending sequence require you to play that path very strictly when interacting with TIM throughout the whole game.  If you pick one snarky response you can't get it as Paragon or one "Nice" response on Renegade side.  Still need a threshold on the respective meter as well I believe, but it is mostly locked in early game.  That is where I fucked up because hey, I was playing Renegade Shep who had been Renegade in ME2, so I felt like maybe I shouldn't hate.  I chose wrong.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 17, 2013, 11:01:05 AM
You manage to get both quarians and geth on your side (based on stuff you did in 2) or did you have to pick? The first time I had to pick. Chose quarians cause I needed ships.

It was rough.

Yeah, I went out of my to reconcile the two of them. I figured something of the sort would be an option and put off the quarian mission as long as possible to build up enough rep to hopefully talk everyone through it. Even then I admittedly checked a FAQ when the choice came (it wasn't entirely clear from context what my options meant--Rally the Fleet/Warn the Fleet could just as easily have meant "Tell the quarians to blow up the geth before they power up.")

And yeah Grefter, this is why RED LAZOR ending option is retarded. Also because hello EDI. The least objectionable on the surface is the control option because guys here is first command: fly into the sun. Full stop. But knowing this game that is just a trap because that was President Bartlett's plan and it didn't work out too well for him either.

You know, there are times the overarching plot of these games just feels like a huge endorsement of the Prime Directive. Almost every time someone dredges up an old alien ship and tries to exploit it it's a disaster, salarians uplift the krogans and Bad Things happen, there's galactic civilization in general being wholly dependent by design on someone else's inventions...anytime somebody gets their hands on tech they haven't culturally prepared themselves for, it ends in tragedy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 17, 2013, 12:17:00 PM
It isn't really that retarded with the Renegade run.  It is incredibly fitting thematically.  Shephard ruins everything good by trying to solve all problems directly and as finally as possible with no middle ground.  You make absolutely 0 things better in a Renegade run.  This is a pretty cool pay off to the way Renegade is pretty much the rockstar way to play ME2, it is so good, you completely wreck shit and nothing bad happens because of it.

Just like how Cerberus are totes actually good guys and cooperating with them will have no consequences and is a great idea.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 17, 2013, 06:05:25 PM
Glad to see I'm not insane and your thoughts line up almost perfectly with mine.

Yeah. In general, the most insulting thing to me about the ending sequence is that they strip you of all your independence, power, and autonomy. That's where it goes the worst. Hell, the ending could have been better just by removing ghost kid and having the EXACT SAME OPTIONS.

Because the outside railroading is what hurts most.

You are motherfucking Commander Shepard. You have done the impossible. Multiple times. And to suddenly be told "Here is what I'll let you do, trolol" is incredibly insulting. It really does FEEL like you should be able to shoot ghost kid and make a "perfect" choice. After all, you were told you couldn't beat the reapers/reunite the quarians and geth/save the krogan/whatever.

I dunno. It just felt like such an un-Space Opera ending. Which given the whole game IS a damn space opera is really disruptive.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on May 17, 2013, 06:48:31 PM
Far Cry 3: Beaten

people who need to experience this game's plot:

elfboy
snow
ciato
snow
aiel
snow
alex
did i say snow yet

we need a new era of hateposting in WGAYP, otherwise the game is alright
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 17, 2013, 06:49:39 PM
Beyond autonomy, I think that the biggest problem is that it trivializes your actions throughout the game. Whether you scoured every corner of space for possible assets or showed up with the absolute minimum you could complete the game with, you can win because the Star Child says you do. The war assets that the whole game focuses on obtaining do not exist to solve the problem, they are merely set dressing and a way to get onto the Citadel.

Like, in ME1, you have to get to the controls so you can contact the Alliance fleet. But when you kill Saren at the end, he doesn't instantly die. His barriers go down so the fleet has an opening to kill him. If taking out Saren just made Sovereign die, we'd be left wondering what the point of their presence in the final battle was, because they wouldn't contribute. And in 3, that's the feeling I get. Once the Crucible shows up there is no point to them being around.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 17, 2013, 08:00:46 PM
Beyond autonomy, I think that the biggest problem is that it trivializes your actions throughout the game. Whether you scoured every corner of space for possible assets or showed up with the absolute minimum you could complete the game with, you can win because the Star Child says you do. The war assets that the whole game focuses on obtaining do not exist to solve the problem, they are merely set dressing and a way to get onto the Citadel.

Like, in ME1, you have to get to the controls so you can contact the Alliance fleet. But when you kill Saren at the end, he doesn't instantly die. His barriers go down so the fleet has an opening to kill him. If taking out Saren just made Sovereign die, we'd be left wondering what the point of their presence in the final battle was, because they wouldn't contribute. And in 3, that's the feeling I get. Once the Crucible shows up there is no point to them being around.

*nods* You're right. That is another big issue, there. The climax of ME3 lacked even the impact of the suicide mission, where you really feel like "Man, this is why I recruited these people."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 17, 2013, 08:46:20 PM
It isn't really that retarded with the Renegade run.  It is incredibly fitting thematically.  Shephard ruins everything good by trying to solve all problems directly and as finally as possible with no middle ground.  You make absolutely 0 things better in a Renegade run.  This is a pretty cool pay off to the way Renegade is pretty much the rockstar way to play ME2, it is so good, you completely wreck shit and nothing bad happens because of it.

Just like how Cerberus are totes actually good guys and cooperating with them will have no consequences and is a great idea.

I guess I should rephrase: it would've been the antithesis of my run. It is an absolutely shit option when you've gone out of your way to help robodudes (which I pretty much always will do if it's a possibility because robots). Of course, they're all terrible options. It's like someone fused the endings of Human Revolution and Fallout 3 because neither one sucked enough on its own (Fallout 3 being my previous champ for stupidest ending ever).

Totally random thing occurs to me. You know when you find the geth in ME2 they're hanging around this star that's dying prematurely and everybody's all whoa that shouldn't be happening, DARK ENERGY? And it sounds significant and never gets mentioned again? What the heck was that all about? Dropped plot thread or cut content?

You know, I have to wonder how any star system with or near a relay has any damn resources left. You run across a lot of planet descriptions that say such and such race mined this planet out and I think, if it only takes an advanced species a couple centuries to exhaust a planet, how the heck is there anything worthwhile left anywhere after jeebus knows how many cycles of galactic civilization?

Just editing to note that yeah, suicide mission was pretty fun stuff. I like multiparty dungeons, even cases like this where the people that split off will only be doing offscreen duties, just for the sake of making you feel like you actually need this huge crowd of people.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 17, 2013, 09:00:39 PM
Maybe dead robots work like fertilizer?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AAA on May 17, 2013, 11:52:08 PM
The dark energy thing was what the original plot ending was going to be about, the reapers were trying to stop it or something. It wound up getting leaked so they changed it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 18, 2013, 12:19:30 AM
That's why one of the lead writers, who wrote the opening stuff on Earth and the kid segment, sequestered himself from the rest of the team.  And thanks to that, there was nobody to tell him how stupid it was.

e: The worst part is how the last five minutes undoes all the good stuff on Earth leading up to that. All the stuff in London was way atmospheric and they really have the impression that you threw everything you had at them and maybe it was still not enough. But, nope, makes all of it irrelevant because the Star Child can end it at any time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 18, 2013, 02:26:09 AM
I didn't mind the ending! (But

It didn't fit with the rest of the game at all but it was fairly unexpected (and at the same time, standard sci-fi stuff)
I for one was glad they did away for once with the concept of Shepard (AKA You) Does Everything Important Ever. It is naive and silly. This is a problem with video games in general, but the Mass Effect series was particularly ridiculous as a serious sci fi world where literally no shit is ever done without you in 3 games.

I wasn't exactly floored because "Oh Come On Not That Kid Again" and contradictions, but wasn't extremely disappointed either.
As far as I'm concerned the worst kind of RPG ending is definitely the 30 minutes one where you get to see every city around the world to check back each NPC and major character's happy ending. Jesus.


The Super Cyborg Ninja can burn though. So stupid.


Anyway really the most clever about ME3 is that you think you'll fight reapers all the time, and instead you just get to fight a stupid internal war, mostly with Cerberus, the whole game. (There might be a metaphor for climate skeptics)


Tactics Ogre: Harborym being petrified in his first battle. Irony.
C route this time. I couldn't stand being a lawful/neutral bastard with that perfectly new shiny translation.
Canopus is even better than Aloser. Madness. He's always the first to help NPCs with his range, and  he likes to go on little Cleric-crushing parties with the gryphon while Aloser (I'm not using the new name) is hopelessly stuck with her 3 range.


inFamous 2: The final boss is already in town and I'm far from having every skill. Grinding in this game sounds horrible :(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 18, 2013, 02:29:01 AM
Mass Effect 3 is a metaphor for BioWare being a shitty game developer.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 18, 2013, 02:34:49 AM
Bioware is Shepard and Cerberus are the fans who "betrayed" Bioware when they hated the ending and complained.
Bioware expected all this and did a game about it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 18, 2013, 03:10:55 AM
In a way, though, it's still Shepard being responsible for everything. It's all the other people fighting who are deemphasized completely. Shepard still has a role to play, while every other organic life form in the Sol system could wink out of existence when you go up that elevator and the ending would still play out exactly the same.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 18, 2013, 03:47:42 AM
Yeah definitely.
The kid is all "You are awesome and special!" too. (for all that he's says he's even better)


Anyway, the journey is better than the end, and there was at least real closure at the end of the trilogy.
Meanwhile Infinite Space ended like this:

*Main character unites a bunch of people Suikoden style to beat Badguy Jerkface*
- Badguy Jerkface: Nooooo
*Reapers start invading*
- Everybody: Naniiii??? There were even more powerful things than us hidden in the universe and they're all invading?
- Main character: Hey Badguy Jerkface, let's try to beat these aliens together. We have no chance but whatever.
- Badguy Jerkface: K

End
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 18, 2013, 04:52:42 AM
There are few games I can think of that would not be improved by having the last line of dialogue be a character saying "K."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on May 18, 2013, 07:42:44 AM
Counterpoint: Star Ocean 4
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 18, 2013, 12:51:52 PM
Dragon's Dogma/Dark Arisen: Finally, I can play as a killer nun. What took you so long, Capcom?

The main menu song is no longer actively embarrassing. I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 19, 2013, 03:02:35 AM
Too late, it would take years for me to get used to not mashing X when presented with the Dragon's Dogma title screen.


Tactics Ogre PSP: Chapter 4.
Since I tend to get underleveld by rushing the boss (not sure there's an exp penalty) and not grinding much, I've always been underlevelled. Well I decided to stop having a diverse team and went with 6 packs of clones: Two white knights, two gryphons, two archers (Cerya and Arycelle), two terror knights (Including Denam), two clerics (Olivya and Hobyrim)
The newcomes take a lot of time to catch up but the team's already pretty amazing. Clerics are pretty much only on item + haste duty but whatever. I'd have booted them in favor of status mages if not for Exorcism.

The level scaling is weird. Story battles seem fixed. Random battles... I got into one with a solo level 3 Denam and fought a level 6 team. I go with a full level 15 team and fight level 13 monsters. Maybe there are only a limited number of possible enemy formations or something? (one level 6 team, one level 13 team, one level 20 team, etc)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 19, 2013, 05:13:41 AM
Counterpoint: Star Ocean 4

Fuck you for making me think of that shitheap of a game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 19, 2013, 06:55:15 PM
FFD- In Chapter 2, just continuing to piddle around.

Sonic Colors - When does this game stop sucking? I've gone through about 9 areas and all of them have been piss easy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 20, 2013, 02:10:46 AM
DD/DA: Poking around on Bitterblack Island, no new gear new enemies in the first couple minutes ho hum--

OHSHIT MIMIC

Am I...am I going to have to go back to attacking treasure chests before opening them? I think I am. (SADLY MY PAWNS WILL NOT.)

The environment is pretty cool. Instead of a bunch of random cave dungeons attached to a world map, it's all one sprawling area, what looks like (so far at least) just different wings of one huge castle. This is an approach I'm very fond of! It's a universally dark, dank and dismal place to visit so far but still I appreciate the style of the layout way more than any of the base game's dungeons. It's a little like poking around the Koudelka mansion except not broken up by interminable battles.

That first boss though, I, uh, probably wasn't supposed to kill him yet. Ten health bars, does 75% of my HP with one stomp, like fifty feet tall stuffed in a barrel so good luck dodging. So instead of actually fighting him I climbed up on the rickety bridges over the boss arena and plinked away at him with Great Cannon for half an hour while my pawns jumped around like morons, taunted him, and fell to their deaths (in basically that order). Now my pawn and I no longer level simultaneously. Staggered leveling, as irritating to me now as it was when I first encountered it in FF1 decades past. Wait why did the cyclops drop multiple eyes. I don't get you, Capcom.

Fenrir make sure to bring plenty of lamp oil. Also towels. You should never forget your towel. (Seriously.)

Death is a jerk.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 20, 2013, 02:34:58 AM
Quote
The environment is pretty cool. Instead of a bunch of random cave dungeons attached to a world map, it's all one sprawling area, what looks like (so far at least) just different wings of one huge castle. This is an approach I'm very fond of! It's a universally dark, dank and dismal place to visit so far but still I appreciate the style of the layout way more than any of the base game's dungeons.

Well I for one and shocked to hear that you like a quirky open world game with free roaming, no load screens and a bleak setting.

But seriously, Dragon's Dogma sold enough to justify a sequel?  And you bought it?  You are crazy mang.  Crazy.

That said I look forward to Fenrir's posts about it (yours are good, but don't quite have that Fenrir panache).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 20, 2013, 04:16:22 AM
What I lack in style I attempt to make for in ::words::. This can take you down a bad road. You start hanging out with a couple adjectives just to leech off some local color and before you know it you're penned in down some backalley by a gang of adverbs with unsavory expressions and more syllables than you know what to do with, but it's okay they'll show you.

And yeah apparently it did. Million or so copies within a month of launch? Though this here is more "Original game repackaged with new content." And because I am a single dude with only a cat to worry about I can afford to buy new versions of games I already have.

I can wear an eyepatch now. So worth it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 20, 2013, 04:33:05 AM
OFF - Finished World 2, and sheesh this game is depressing. That arc is pretty short, but the story with Japhet, as simple as it is, is kinda disheartening if you stop to think about it. Also finished testing him, and holy crap he has even more HP than Dedan. Right now, I'm about to finish World 3 by beating the crap out of Enoch, and I can predict testing him will be a fucking pain in the ass because his whole fight involves an escape segment - and you can't save between the escape and the actual fight. Bleh.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 20, 2013, 04:40:59 AM
You mean it is the same release style Capcom use for every second game series they have.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 20, 2013, 03:50:18 PM
I'm going to love Dragon's Dogma expansion and my commentary is going to be boring!
It's a reasonable price for newcomers, you get the entire game + the expansion for 30 dollars at launch on PSN. It's a shitty price for those who already bought the game (= Probably most of those who are going to get the expansion)

Anyway did they change healing in Dark Arisen?
Healing in Dragon's Dogma was particular, for an action game. Cyclops hits you with a club. Press start, time stops, you go into a menu, use a herb and instantly heal.
Involved risk and reward mechanics.


So, getting that no incapacitate title in a normal Tactics Ogre playthrough is pretty difficult, when there are bosses with near OHKO limits, and random dudes with Dark Weight.
My team adapted reasonably well, but Sylvie the Generic Vartan is no Canopus. Some days he seems to have half damage, half accuracy, one third less HP, less defense and magic defense. And none of these godly limit breaks of course.
My tactic for most battles is:
1) Form a massive wall with the 2 Terror Knights and 2 White Knights, with the 2 archers and priests behind.
2) Have the 2 Vartans and 2 Gryphons catch the enemy from behind.
3) Canopus hits someone with the Finishing Move Dullbind. Crap I forgot I had to aim this again.
3) Everything goes well then Sylvie dies. Again.
4) Restart and have Sylvie barely do anything.
Seriously, fuck Sylvie.
(Oh this was pretty hard to find, so I want to share the PSP TO artwork: http://saloonrpg.blog67.fc2.com/blog-entry-27.html
Warning: Legs)


I also finished Sine Mora.
The characters look like they're ripped straight from Blacksad. Amazing work.
It might even be more attractive as a shoot them up as Ikaruga, with an even more convoluted storyline. (I don't even know who's talking most of the time)

The actual game is pretty bad.

There are weapon upgrades. 0 upgrades = Pathetic firepower. All upgrades = God of destruction. Each time you get hit you lose a few upgrades and need to get them back immediately. (They disappear pretty quickly) Usually as you try to get them back you take another hit and lose a few others, and again and again. Misery.

Instead of a lifebar, each attack you eat hits some of your time instead of your lifebar. If the timer hits 0 you're dead. So you can make up from getting hit by killing enemies quickly.
On one left side of the screen there's you. You need to avoid the bullet hell.
On the right side there's the enemy. He's often very small so you need to aim.
How could you do both things at once? I guess the alien replicants who made the game thought "One eye concentrates on the left side of the screen and the other on the right side. Problem solved. Stupid humans."

There's a pretty rad slow mo gauge though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on May 20, 2013, 08:20:53 PM
Star Oceans 4- Finally reached the save point in the Audience Chamber in the Palace of Creation, saved before the final bosses. First though allllll the way back to Calnus so I can do more Item Creation, back to ENII for the Last Letter sidequest, and to fulfill some shop orders in general. Going to use the two Red Dragon Scales I found in a treasure chest to make the Bigfoot Claws for Meracle and also ensure everybody finishes with their best main game equipment overall~

Cleared out all the loot in the final dungeons except the ones I don't have the proper elemental rings for yet. Also had to discard stuffs in my inventory to make room for repeats but mainly I did this so I could get all the EXP and SPs from opening the treasure chests/etc >_>

Also might just be me but the game seems to progress really rapidly after the return to Aeos and finally making it to ENII. I mean hanging around Roak and getting all the best stuffs for the best equips for the time whether through the arena or IC, then you're at ENII and there's more new stuffs, some of which can replace some of the best stuff you made, then the final dungeons and same again. Wouldn't be surprised if the final upgrading back at the Calnus outdates some of the stuff I've found on this final stretch of dungeon crawling here too <_<

Currently Meracle is equipped with the Laser Weapon because tossing symbology cards is fun sometimes (and actually turned out to be quite useful when I was engaged by enemies in the anti/sealed skills sections of the Halls of Termination, was glad I'd made healing/revive/buff cards too though they aren't based off INT I don't think) ~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 20, 2013, 08:50:39 PM
Anyway did they change healing in Dark Arisen?
Healing in Dragon's Dogma was particular, for an action game. Cyclops hits you with a club. Press start, time stops, you go into a menu, use a herb and instantly heal.
Involved risk and reward mechanics.

Not insofar as I can tell. There's a new augment to make magical healing faster though!!1

(I mostly rely on mage pawns to heal me, actually. Reduces the amount of crap I need to carry around, and going into the menu breaks up combat so I like to avoid that necessity.)

Other stuff, uh. Looks like most of the originally DLC gear is bundled into Dark Arisen as Black Cat merchandise. I think there are some mechanical tweaks but this may be wonky memory. Dragon's Maw isn't in the Mystic Knight skillset anymore and I miss my instant win button. I guess they needed something to make Fighter actually attractive in comparison though. Dark Anguish (I could've sworn this used to be called Abyssal Anguish, the really nutty Mystic Knight weapon buff?) doesn't seem to last as long either. Again though, may just be faulty memory.

EDIT: and of course important change is you can now easily acquire more portcrystals than you will actually need.

While I'm blabbing about the game, it occurs to me I was never clear on this: for weapons with both attack and magic ratings, does the magic bonus actually contribute to melee damage, or is it just there to passively boost your spell power? I never used them much before, so mechanically optimal or not unsure.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 20, 2013, 10:01:00 PM
I'm going to love Dragon's Dogma expansion and my commentary is going to be boring!

You say that like I don't read everything you have to say about Dark Souls and enjoy every word.

WA:XF - So Ragnar is Djinn.  Levin encounters the moral quandry of following the woman who has been championing his ideals under someone else's name that he has already decided to follow after finding out she was not who she was pretending to be and following the woman who she was pretending to be and does indeed stand for the ideals he believes in as well. 

Ragnar then proceeds to suggest

Quote
Three way.

(http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/characters/13/89632.jpg)

Unironically.  So yeah.  Djinn.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 20, 2013, 10:03:18 PM
Quote
Sonic Colors - When does this game stop sucking? I've gone through about 9 areas and all of them have been piss easy.

Game gets harder during, Starlight Carnival, Astro Coaster, Planet Wisp, and Aquarium Park.  Tropical Resort and Sweet Mountain are kind of piss easy, yes.

Edit: Though, keep in mind I wouldn't say the game ever gets really "Hard" per se, just stops being a total joke.  This game is scarcely hyped for it's difficulty, for whatever that's worth, and often people snipe at it for the difficulty spike in the 2nd half (though, that's more PROFESSIONAL REVIEWERS!!! or something, and the spike while notice-able isn't like "lolololol" to "frustratingly hard" like they'd imply.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 21, 2013, 12:37:35 AM
DJINN RAGNAR AND BLITZ TONIC LEBRETT

There's nothing Ragnar does that doesn't make a scene worse.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 21, 2013, 12:55:35 AM
Thanks Gref! I like your posts too.Seriously I don't know how to react!


I just spent one hour adding +1 to all my equipment in Tactics Ogre in preparation for the Hanging Gardens.
Crafting is interesting.
There is nothing obscure about it. Materials are easy to find and very inexpensive. You buy crappy ores from the store then make them into bigger ores then into ingots and then into better equipment. It takes a lot of time but is all easy and cheap.
Crafting can fail, in which case you reload and try again. Nobody ever said "I just wasted five minutes making ores and bought that Baldur Shield for 5000 gold. Crafting failed. Oh well" Everybody reloads.
So all it takes is a lot of time, spent in menus and saving/reloading.

This crafting system is obviously pretty terrible to anyone playing this game!
But! It is 1) Time consuming and 2) Simple, while most others are 1)Time consuming and 2) Needlessly complicated
So it makes one of the most terrible first impressions, but this might actually be one of the very best crafting systems.
While it looked worse than XF's (for example) at first, but I don't think the added steps of sending generics to the world map to find random shit really adds much.



Anyway you guys should really use Crossbow Canopus or Gryphons one of these days. I can't recommend them enough.
Canopus really should not use any other weapon. All these years, giving him bows or spears? I was a fool. Canopus is all about crossbows. Even more in the PSP remake where he benefits from an incredible AoE finisher.

The best thing about using 2 gryphons is that they have the same RT and always act in tandem. So, "Priest from the back row eats a 2HKO rock to the face" will always irremediably lead to "Priest from the back row immediately eats another, fatal rock to the face"
They're as mobile as vartans (!), and their rocks are reasonably powerful with the same range as bows (!). Their physical attack deals are as strong, and they benefit from an accuracy boost.
Their finishers are very cheap (Only 50 points) with perfect accuracy.
They're by far the fastest units in my team, and pretty durable too. They also only cost 1 slot.
The only things they really lack are item use and Trueflight.
Gryphons. Not Crossbow Canopus great, but great.


Denam's cool as a Terror Knight. Obviously, having the main character be a "Terror Knight" is already its own reward, but he gets a pretty accurate sleep spell (Very useful against titans/dragons) while still being on a competent tanking class.



El Cid: oh yeah I always forget about magic healing. I soloed Dragon's Dogma so this was a non factor.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 21, 2013, 01:34:53 AM
Bear in mind that I dislike almost all crafting systems (it's just a question of how much), so take my thoughts here with a grain of salt.

The reason TO's crafting system is one of the worst is the nature of the time consumed. If you do XF crafting, you can estimate roughly how much time it will take to gather the needed ingredients. Is it pointlessly time consuming, yes of course, but at least it's predictable. Want to craft in TO? You might succeed in making the item first try, then it's not too time-consuming. Or you might try to make it ten times and still not have it at the end. That feeling is pretty terrible. I think it's extra bad that you have to reset over it. Resets are what you try to avoid in games!

It's like farming rare drops (which is also lame), except at least that involves fighting battles (in the game's presumably rather fun base gameplay) and trying to be as efficient as possible about it. And doesn't involve resetting (unless you want to do it without e.g. gaining unwanted levels/etc.).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on May 21, 2013, 01:38:50 AM
I'm going to love Dragon's Dogma expansion and my commentary is going to be boring!

You say that like I don't read everything you have to say about Dark Souls and enjoy every word.

WA:XF - So Ragnar is Djinn.  Levin encounters the moral quandry of following the woman who has been championing his ideals under someone else's name that he has already decided to follow after finding out she was not who she was pretending to be and following the woman who she was pretending to be and does indeed stand for the ideals he believes in as well. 

Ragnar then proceeds to suggest

Quote
Three way.

(http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/characters/13/89632.jpg)

Unironically.  So yeah.  Djinn.

Oh yeah! I knew Ragnar had one redeeming quality besides his abs. Go go polygamy~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on May 21, 2013, 02:34:24 AM
I find it interesting that Terror Knight Denam worked out.  Style points, sure, but despite having Rampart Aura, I never had any trouble shredding enemy Terror Knights - they seemed to be tanks without tankiness in exchange for their status.  Considering that TO does throw some authentic tanks in your direction, it stood out.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on May 21, 2013, 03:19:20 AM
Out of curiosity, what level is your Canopus' Crossbow level, Fenrir?

Mine hit L6 whilst sidequesting in C4, and the third Xbow finisher (Deathblow) is a three hit attack that OHKOs almost every boss in the game. With Canopus' amazing move it is just absurdly good in assassination missions, quite possibly even better than Brimstone Hail overall.

As for TO crafting, its only redeeming feature is that it's mindless enough for me to do it while listening to podcasts and not get distracted on either, much like playing slots in a DQ game. This almost made up for the atrocity of game design that is Wootz Steel. Almost.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 21, 2013, 04:24:22 AM
Nah it isn't even that.  It is how it takes more than the item cap in basic materials to make stuff the further you get in.  Everything uses the same core materials and just escalates in price.  From memory some end game stuff tool more than 2 stacks of shitty ore to make a single item.

Soooooo grindy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 21, 2013, 04:37:39 AM
DDDA: So the expansion likes ninja bosses. You can generally run away from them but this can still be pretty alarming. OHSHIT eaten by zombie dog. OHSHIT zombie dragon (fortunately there was a balcony, Great Cannon 2, bosses 0. Except for the times I died repeatedly trying to fight them in melee). OHSHIT SUPER OGRE JUMPED OFF THE BRIDGE RIGHT AFTER SPAWNING wait that one worked out pretty well.

Giant cyclops/zombie dragon pretty clearly not meant to be killable through conventional methods without some extreme grinding. The one unavoidable boss I've fought so far was properly scaled for an endgame character though.

Running Abyssal Anguish hammer mode again. It continues to be a most satisfying and efficient way to demolish boss health bars. There's something viscerally rewarding in that *thunk*/*scrape* SFX combo.

OHSHIT CAPRA--
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 21, 2013, 10:42:33 PM
WA: XF - Not even much further in an encounter with the head of the Zoroastrians or whatever.  A scene that is all about dealing with the past of Elesius and what it will do with the future after the coup has like 2 or 3 lines from the Princess and then is all about Ragnar again.   What in the actual fuck dialogue writers?

Also Ragnar's advice on hitting on the ladies is to act nonchalant.  He does this by loudly describing how totes hot a woman is to himself within hearing distance but no actually talking to her the entire time.  So you know, be a creeper.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 22, 2013, 12:10:45 AM
I find it interesting that Terror Knight Denam worked out.  Style points, sure, but despite having Rampart Aura, I never had any trouble shredding enemy Terror Knights - they seemed to be tanks without tankiness in exchange for their status.  Considering that TO does throw some authentic tanks in your direction, it stood out.
Terror Knights have the same equipment options as knights (excluding weapons) They have a bit less base durability but nothing major. (I'm comparing TK to WK since I don't have a high level Knight, but I assume WK are roughly the same as Knights) I saw no difference in durability when I changed Denam from Knight to Terror Knight.
Healing + Phalanx might make enemy knights look tankier than they really are. This or they have less defense oriented skills/equipment.

Out of curiosity, what level is your Canopus' Crossbow level, Fenrir?

Mine hit L6 whilst sidequesting in C4, and the third Xbow finisher (Deathblow) is a three hit attack that OHKOs almost every boss in the game. With Canopus' amazing move it is just absurdly good in assassination missions, quite possibly even better than Brimstone Hail overall.

As for TO crafting, its only redeeming feature is that it's mindless enough for me to do it while listening to podcasts and not get distracted on either, much like playing slots in a DQ game. This almost made up for the atrocity of game design that is Wootz Steel. Almost.

I think he and Arycelle have level 5 weapons while everybody else is at level 1-3. Looking forward to this! Crossbows are probably the best weapon types in the main game, for all that bows are more fun to use.
I haven't done many sidequests since keeping the pirate battle for later, and ending up missing it.

Bear in mind that I dislike almost all crafting systems (it's just a question of how much), so take my thoughts here with a grain of salt.

The reason TO's crafting system is one of the worst is the nature of the time consumed. If you do XF crafting, you can estimate roughly how much time it will take to gather the needed ingredients. Is it pointlessly time consuming, yes of course, but at least it's predictable. Want to craft in TO? You might succeed in making the item first try, then it's not too time-consuming. Or you might try to make it ten times and still not have it at the end. That feeling is pretty terrible. I think it's extra bad that you have to reset over it. Resets are what you try to avoid in games!

It's like farming rare drops (which is also lame), except at least that involves fighting battles (in the game's presumably rather fun base gameplay) and trying to be as efficient as possible about it. And doesn't involve resetting (unless you want to do it without e.g. gaining unwanted levels/etc.).

I think you have it backwards. Figuring out how much time crafting takes is very simple in TO. "I need to forge 32 storebought Inferior Ores into 16 Iron Ores into 8 Iron Ingots into 4 Steel Ingots into 2 Baldur Ingots into 1 w00tz ingot. Then I forge that into my weapon"
It's not worth saving / reloading until the very last steps, since the materials are cheap and the % chances for low materials are sky high. Even when crafting the piece of equipment itself, the success rates are 60-80%. The time spent saving/reloading is really trivial comparted to the rest. (This might change far into the aftergame but I doubt it) It's just particularly noticeable as bad design.
In XF I do not immediately know on which maps I need to go, and I don't know the number of crafting items my drifters are going to bring back. Things are less obvious and streamlined.



Anyway, looking back, it's pretty great how Lans Tartaros is out of the picture earlier than Brantyn. (not for long, but hey) I don't think anybody expected that.

This would be like the council of elder conservatives actually ousting the charismatic new evil leader in all those RPGs. This never happens.
(I guess every RPG is trying to re-enact the Julius Caesar story)

Hell, another council just got owned by the charismatic new evil leader in that Balxephon/Hobyrim flashback cutscene I just saw. Balxephon was all "Council = dead. Hobyrim? More like Hobo-rym."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 22, 2013, 01:12:59 AM
If the success rates are that high then TO crafting is less terrible than I had always heard. My remaining comments stand however.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 22, 2013, 01:19:10 AM
Success is based on your stats.  So later in the game you are doing stuff the easier it is.  There is technically some on the fly risk:reward benefits you can do on how frequently you should save when making a piece of gear.  It is mostly just a pain in the arse and so blatantly and obviously terribly designed that is offensive.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on May 22, 2013, 01:48:44 AM
Could you actually forge multiples at once. Because if so making that one item to add to your weapon is going through the crafting screen 30+ times (let alone the chance of failure). Definitely much worse than XF, where trial and error worked well enough for me at end game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 22, 2013, 02:29:04 AM
DDDA: Wait a minute, that was the final boss from Ghosts 'n' Goblins. Capcom! I am pleased to see that at least one person in the world of Dragon's Dogma actually acknowledges how dysfunctional their cosmology is, though.

Expanded content beaten. Sort of! Once you've killed the boss, the whole area resets with remarkably meaner enemy formations. Want to fight multiple dragons at once? (You're crazy but) you can do that! Feel like fighting through a whole city of capra demons? Too bad, that'll happen too! (Minotaurs actually, but the circumstances in which you first meet one are so similar that I can't help but associate.) So basically it's what NG+ should've been. (NG+, for the uninitiated, being "Exactly the same as before except piss-easy because you have endgame levels and gear.")

Area turned out to be more linear that it looked at first. (Early on you find a clearing with a host of locked doors. Turns out they're all just treasure rooms!) Not really a problem, still pretty cool to explore and way more fun that any of the base game's dungeons. They reused a few rooms over the course of the dungeon, which is lame, but eh. Minor complaint.

Death is still a cockmongler.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 22, 2013, 07:51:28 AM
Could you actually forge multiples at once. Because if so making that one item to add to your weapon is going through the crafting screen 30+ times (let alone the chance of failure). Definitely much worse than XF, where trial and error worked well enough for me at end game.
Yes that is the problem with it (or else people wouldn't complain about the crafting system that much)

Higher level items have lower success rates, and this seems a much more pronounced impact than stats. The first items I could craft had ~80% and the ones I can make have ~60%. The number of painful steps with 100% success rates to go through keep increasing though, so it evens out. (This is absolutely not good news, but it is what it is)

That's why I made a comment about postgame gear maybe being painful to craft, but I doubt the rates get as low as something like ~10%.

You might want to save/reload for the slight % chance to get a double when crafting, but that's pure madness. (Maybe it's worth it when crafting wootz steel?)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 22, 2013, 07:56:32 AM
It generally wasn't when I was running some napkin math with assumptions about crafting crits like that.  The odds I observed were bad enough that you would spend more time fishing for crits than you would just making another one.

Doing time vs probability exercises more interesting than actual crafting in TO.

Cue for elves to say of course it is.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on May 22, 2013, 08:35:41 AM
Bought Dokopon Party on a whim since it was cheap and claimed to be a "Party RPG" on the Wii. Is it any good?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on May 22, 2013, 01:21:20 PM
Fire Emblem: Awakening - Beaten

Fairly entertaining.

Played through on Normal Newcomer, although I ended up resetting on all deaths and didn't use any in-map saves anyway.

Chrom got gold, tactician got silver, Yarne somehow got bronze. Don't remember any of the associated numbers offhand.

Parent pairings, for anyone into that sort of thing, were:
Gregor/Cherche, Stahl/Lissa, Henry/Olivia, Tactician/Cordelia, Ricken/Nowi, Donnel/Miriel, Lon'qu/Maribelle, Gaius/Sumia, Libra/Tharja, Frederick/Panne, Chrom/Sully

A bit odd to see Chrom get automarried at the point that that happens despite only having a C rank support. Unsure if you can really feasibly get an S rank support by that point if you were playing sensibly, although it does seem like supports take much less effort that I generally think of them as taking. Also interesting to see, now that I've thought to check, that the ones that I didn't get were activated in the support log anyway.

It feels like the villains generally didn't have as much presence as some have had in the past, which was disappointing. Also disappointed in some characters having extremely few support options.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 22, 2013, 01:50:05 PM
It took me about four maps to reach S-Rank with Chrom/Sumia and all I did was pair them up often. Supports build crazy fast in this game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 22, 2013, 03:25:34 PM
So you have to go through the forging screen 63 times for some maingame items, AND you may have to reload at points if it fails? Yeah I can't imagine what the problem with TO crafting is.


If you pair Chrom with Sully or Robin, then you have almost as much time to get them to S support before C11 (15 chapters if you do all paralogues) as you have to get Henry to S support before the game ends! I got the S with Sully myself and I play pretty quickly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 22, 2013, 04:05:56 PM
ShF3: Beaten. Last Taros run went smoothly, final battles were a bitch and a half though. You fight on three fronts at once, rotating between each of the three forces, and if you're doing poorly in one of the fights, some of the enemies there may get sent over to Julian's (the main hero) battleground as reinforcements. Naturally, since enemies in Insane have nutso defense, it took me a while to clear them out, so Julian got to deal with a bunch of extra snipers and melee fighters, who are of course 2HKOing counter-whores, so that was fun.

The final boss was comparatively simple. Even with two attacks per turn he's rarely in danger of killing anyone, just because Scenario 3 throws so damn many healers at you that you can almost always fit in an Aura or a high-level Heal spell between his turns. Just make sure to crowd together to split up damage from his best attack (which deals 90 total damage whether it hits one person or 12), and put people with high defense at the very front to soak up his melee hits. Add Slow magic to debuff his defense, mix in a few thousand HP of damage, victory.

So, of course, I go on to the Premium Disc and its run of nine bonus boss battles. Which I was happy to discover can also be set to Insane! The first five are bosses from the main game, unscaled (but with more support than they had the first time around). Most of them are easy, although fighting six at once in one of the fights did earn me a reset. Then you get into the real meat of the mode - updated versions of old games' final bosses. Dark Dragon is a joke - low MDEF, lowish HP, no good damage. Iom (from the freaking Sword of Hajya Game Gear spinoff) has nasty support that swims around and is hard to coax into a corner for people to melee, but the boss himself is fine. Zeon? Ohgod. 4000 HP. Three-digit defense in a game with subtraction stats, and where my very best character has 128 attack power.  Poison that deals 30% MHP damage per turn. Doubleacting (and he regenerates HP after every action). This will be fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 22, 2013, 05:14:21 PM
I guess even the developers realized Zeon was a wuss in his home game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on May 22, 2013, 05:18:37 PM
He has arms now, which is obviously what the ShF2 fight was lacking.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on May 22, 2013, 05:21:56 PM
<Zeon> My limbs give me super strength!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 22, 2013, 05:42:02 PM
Paper Mario - Five chapters are in the books. This game is a lot of fun! Almost certainly the best Mario RPG, it doesn't have the comic genius of M&L (particularly 3) but the gameplay is what the others games in the series wish they had, very tight. Manages to be just varied enough with the choice of partner and badges, is not terrible on challenge at base with some optional fights to ramp things up a bit, competely non-random damage makes combat feel very strategic, there's a lot to like here. Plus they elevated Raphael the Raven to some sort of minor deity. Also the writing's certainly not bad or anything, I will never say no to more RPG!Bowser antics.

Suikoden 2 - Finished Rockaxe, got 108 stars. Replay's almost done. Not much to say about the game that isn't well-known at this point, but I'll weigh in anyway when I'm finished.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 22, 2013, 09:41:17 PM
So you have to go through the forging screen 63 times for some maingame items, AND you may have to reload at points if it fails? Yeah I can't imagine what the problem with TO crafting is.


If you pair Chrom with Sully or Robin, then you have almost as much time to get them to S support before C11 (15 chapters if you do all paralogues) as you have to get Henry to S support before the game ends! I got the S with Sully myself and I play pretty quickly.
Actually that's wrong, the absolute highest number of steps required for crafting seems to be 31 for the maingame (steelbow) Most endgame equipment requires between 15 and 20 steps. Earlygame equipment takes around five.

Things escalate quickly in the aftergame since a single w00tz steel takes 35 steps and items may require multiples.

One hour to upgrade everybody at endgame. Not that bad on the pure time requirement front! Can't say I remember what this took me in XF but I didn't go all the way.Games like SO3/DQ8 took longer
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 22, 2013, 10:44:13 PM
TO Crafting is an exercise in Tedium more so than anything else.  The fail rates need to die as those really served no purpose other than punishing people who forgot to save before making anything. 


I wouldn't say it's a "good" system, but I hardly view it as the "WORST THING EVER!!!" or anything.  There are naturally probably way better ways they could have handled this (the fail rates along are dumb, even if they exist to offset the random chance of getting a 2 for 1, it's stupid.)
Thinking on it, it's no different than BoF2 cooking, albeit BoF2 cooking doesn't require as many steps, but still has failure rates, gotta do things one step at a time, etc.  Can't even save beforehand. 


ANYWAY...

Arkham Assylum: So I found a Batcave on the island and got a grappling hook made specifically to pull things towards me.  Then Oracle talked about Joker's E-mails that included a wheel chair joke.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 23, 2013, 04:06:49 AM
DDDA: Screwing around with Bitterblack Island round 2. Now there's a dragon that automatically sets me on fire when I try to climb on him. He is in the second room. (I ran past him.)

On the other hand, flipping back to Magick Archer for the hell of it, and wow how did I never use Ricochet Hunter before? BBI is full of narrow, cramped passageways and that spell is absolutely insane in close quarters. Ninja'd by a squad of giant zombie dogs? Fucking handled, man.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 23, 2013, 05:10:25 PM
Final Fantasy Dimensions - Why yes, the hyperactive comedic relief girl is my favorite character. In Chapter 3 right now.

Suikoden I - Kirkis just slept in my bed. The empire is full of puppy huggers for sure.

Super Mario Bros. 2 - Died to the boss of world 4! I'm definitely a little rusty on the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 23, 2013, 10:53:50 PM
TO PSP: Finished the main game. (With the Hero King Unscathed title!)
The battle with the dopplegangers was cool, I had to keep my priests and weaker vartan out of my team because enemy Arycelle + Canopus craaaaaap

Gryphons have started to become obsolete, since they can't equip anything but accessories, can't equip a lot of skills (including Swiftwoot). I've ditched them prematurely and replaced them with one earth mage (slow, petrify) and one dark mage. (charm)
The number of options in the aftergame is staggering. I don't know what to do and which team to use.

So what happened? The Heim war starts. My title tells me that Denam has been "brought down by an assassin on his coronation day". Then the war is over and Denam is alive and he goes chase songstresses and stuff? Huh. Man, anything to justify the aftergame!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on May 24, 2013, 12:20:45 AM
SO4- Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies! Bunnies everywhere!~

This is taking longer than expected!~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on May 24, 2013, 07:46:00 AM
Finished Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. I think it won me over when I realized that my character, Sergeant Rex Power Colt, yells AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! If you hold down the trigger long enough with an automatic weapon.

It's a very enjoyable tribute to 1980s budget sci-fi, action movies, cartoons, and quite specifically Terminator 2, a movie so good they ignored it came out in the 90s. It's also only 15 bucks.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on May 24, 2013, 02:08:55 PM
Final Fantasy Dimensions - Why yes, the hyperactive comedic relief girl is my favorite character. In Chapter 3 right now.

::APPROVAL::

What classes are you using?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 24, 2013, 06:51:55 PM
Oh, I'm still in C2, my bad. Just using two physical fighters and two mages, lots of summoners and stuff like that. I just started the quest to get Bard. I want Alba back. :(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on May 25, 2013, 06:14:52 AM
DDDA: Zombie pope was a lot meaner the second time around.

I am spending way too much time running back and forth to/from the Black Cat to dupe materials though. New gear + higher levels of dragonforging = you need so much rare shit to max out your equipment (which you really want to do because the last upgrade is a huge boost). And it's generally easier just paying for this stuff rather than trying to farm it because did I mention there's a dragon so hot you are going to die.

So still pretty fun when I am running around killing things, but there's a lot of grind prerequisite to being able to kill the nastier things.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 25, 2013, 06:21:51 AM
Arkham Asylum: So an important doctor ended up being useless by being kidnapped twice then exploding.  Don't you love wasted characters?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on May 25, 2013, 07:36:05 AM
If it means I don't have to listen to Cree Summer screeching like a banshee I'd be alright with Batman exploding and the game turning into a Butler simulator as Alfred.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 26, 2013, 03:30:14 AM
Infamous 2: Finished, started over as evil.
The evil side did indeed get screwed, but it's ok for a second playthrough.
I've tried a few internet missions submitted by players. The random ones show some effort, while the highest rated ones are all about unwinding (5625 enemies trapped in two square meters, kill them) Disappointing player base.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 26, 2013, 03:37:05 AM
Suikoden 2 - Beat this. Got 108 stars, time was a bit under 108 stars. I tried to break the game less than last time (though still more than my minimalistic first playthrough). Unfortunately most bosses had pretty bad days anyway so I didn't come terribly close to any resets... except for one against Han. That duel is surely the roughest one statistically that the game requires you to win in the series. Best storebought armour and a Level 13 weapon was still leaving Riou dealing about a fifth of the damage as he was receiving. Gave him the shiny unique armour (Master Garb) for the second go and it was still pretty lopsided though less so.

I got the "best" ending despite intending to go for the more tragic one because I am apparently too big a softy.

Not much to say about the game, it remains good for obvious enough reasons.


Paper Mario - Beat chapter 6. Still enjoying this game a lot!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on May 26, 2013, 05:08:49 AM
Infamous 2: Finished, started over as evil.
The evil side did indeed get screwed, but it's ok for a second playthrough.
I've tried a few internet missions submitted by players. The random ones show some effort, while the highest rated ones are all about unwinding (5625 enemies trapped in two square meters, kill them) Disappointing player base.

The highest rated ones are usually more about quickness and/or simplicity for getting the UGC trophies for Platinum.

Evil Side is indeed not as strong as Good this time around, but Napalm Grenades make killing large enemies a hell of a lot easier, whereas Ice Rockets were better for human sized foes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on May 26, 2013, 06:22:00 AM
Injustice: Why is Aquaman so badass?  Also Wonder Woman in Slave Girl Leia outfit, I approve.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on May 26, 2013, 08:32:10 AM
Games with powerful candy bars:

* Secret of Mana / Seiken Densetsu 3
* Pokemon
* Deus Ex Human Revolution

Just finished the DLC, The Missing Link.  Fun and reasonably meaty for DLC (~5 hours of gameplay?  That's a lot), although it's tight corridors 24/7, and the usual incentive to spam quicksaves to get perfect takedowns & stealth.  And once you get to the final third of the game there's no reason not to unleash candy bar broken like crazy as usual.

Plotwise, the DLC is 100% consistent with what happened in DE:HR, which is cool, no crazy curveballs with THIS NEW CHARACTER WAS SECRETLY BEHIND EVERYTHING OH SNAP, but flipside you don't really learn anything new either, so eh.  As usual, women who are part of evil conspiracies are the ones most likely to have doubts about the wisdom of murdering hundreds of people, while the men either shrug or else cheerfully run the program.  Although I guess in fairness some of the hacked emails from the (male) chaplain are all "uh the soldiers have some doubts about this, can you clarify why exactly we're doing this and the legality of it to improve morale?"  Yeah, I'd think that kidnapping hundreds of people who really obviously aren't terrorists if you bother to talk with them at all, which some soldiers clearly do, might raise some eyebrows.  Oh well, conspiracy theory fiction, where guards shrug about this and nobody falls in love with a prisoner and nobody mentions off-handedly to their girlfriend back home about this.

Random annoying oddity: Our Villain's name is Pieter Burke, and he's part of a mercenary operation, which is like the most stereotypical South African name + profession I can imagine, but he has a South-Southern accent instead.    As in, Southern US.  Weird.

Also, for all the self-generated hype about the boss fight...  there isn't really one.  It's just some more gameplay, which is fine, I like DE:HR gameplay, but I was one of the people who *liked* the MGS-esque change-ups for the boss fights in DE:HR.  Totally unrealistic, but sure, having enemies that can take like 15 shotgun blasts to the chests and have wacky gimmicks is interesting and changes the pace.  Ideally you can fit some stealth options in there too, but the final section of Missing Link is just more "eat candy bars, be invisible, shoot people at point blank range with a stun gun while invisible."  Boss battles gave you a chance where that strategy just plain didn't work in DEHR, which was *good.*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 26, 2013, 03:54:04 PM
Yeah Sopko I think I was underestimating the evil side a bit.
The bad rockets kill titans amazingly quickly too. And you get full regeneration with the ionic power.
They're not that unbalanced, I just miss the ice jump. There's little point to the dash, you can slide through the air indefinitely but this consumes too much energy.
 
You can see the problem with achievements there. They made a few quick mp achievements to get you to try the mode. Instead the majority of people just does insanely quick no challenge missions just to get the platinum more quickly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: kokushishin on May 27, 2013, 09:20:04 AM
Went through a sizable chunk of Mirror of Fate  (I heard it was short, but this is a bit much) and towards the end of TO.


Success is based on your stats.  So later in the game you are doing stuff the easier it is.  There is technically some on the fly risk:reward benefits you can do on how frequently you should save when making a piece of gear.  It is mostly just a pain in the arse and so blatantly and obviously terribly designed that is offensive.

It's pretty difficult to not have good base stats, at least not without falling to Naked Bard Orlandu levels of "It's my constitutional right to play retarded if I want to, hurr durr!"   With Necromancers you can switch to Ghosts (and maybe low level ones if you refuse to use mages) but even still their stat spread should be decent for mage gear.

A lot of the Wootz steel items are carried by randoms, and even the uniques that require it aren't necessarily that much better than their predecessor.   There's no Iron Dagger spam or Fabricate shenanigans, but the orbs do sell for a lot more than it takes to make and they're quite strong in battle to boot.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 27, 2013, 09:18:14 PM
Stats requirements is entirely an observation on how crafting feels early game and the impact it has on scaling of the crafting system as you progress.  Things that start being RNG as fuck become super easy given time.  By the time you are doing shit with Necromancers you have all the stats you could need.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Otter on May 28, 2013, 02:25:04 AM
Played some fluffy games this past week or so.

Dishonored: finished it in a day.  It's fun to blink around and stop time and pretend you're Stocke from Radiant Historia.

Hotline Miami: finished it in one sitting.  I am kinda guaranteed to enjoy stuff with stealth puzzles and quick action and encouragement of speedrunning (see Dishonored for prettier, more elaborate version of same).

Ys Origin: ran through Yunica (normal), Hugo (normal), and Toal (hard) routes, finishing at level 49 all three times.  Fun game that was very easy to get into.  Might try Oath next or try to determine which of the oldschool Ys titles is most accessible.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on May 28, 2013, 02:54:51 AM
Injustice:  Beat story mode.  Damn, just when you thought the Joker couldn't sink any lower.  Also, poor Shazam.  O_o
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 29, 2013, 04:58:24 AM
The Last Story -

"Gosh Blue Dragon was pretty good, but kinda disappointing."
"Gosh Lost Odyssey was... okay, but very disappointing."

And here I am playing more Mistwalker games, I dunno. I blame Uematsu.

I'm about six hours in, stormin' the enemy fort.

Gameplay's kinda weird. Rather ambitious in some ways, I like some of what they are going for here. Positioning matters, you can draw attacks (or not), there's even a little battle preview screen to help you plan your offence before most battles, items and MP done away with. This seems like it could be a great ARPG with positioning and teamwork both at the core. Unfortunately the execution largely feels like a bit of a mess. You can't change which PC you control (bleh) and camera control is really limited so it's hard to get a good sense of battles, which are fast-paced and hectic. It's chaotic and seems like it could be punishingly hard, and the designers realised this and decided you had to be killed five in a battle to lose, which is kinda bleh. The game feels kinda like FF13, but it inherited all of FF13's battle system flaws and piled on a few more for good measure. Well it wouldn't be Mistwalker without disappointment!

Fortunately the writing is pretty good. Not perfect, certainly; it is heavilly cliched at points (although plays those cliches well), and at times the game kinda glosses over some mechanical things the party should be doing, but eh, overall it's pretty good, and the scenes between the two leads tend to be quite good, so there's that. Still too early to tell where the writing quality of this game will end up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on May 29, 2013, 08:35:00 PM
The Last Story's battle system fixes all those problems in like the last two chapters... and in Multiplayer. You can choose which PC to use and all those positioning tricks are a lot less clunky when there's fewer targets on the board. Uematsu is indeed still the selling point of TLS, but the plot and writing never get egregiously bad like LO. Not perfect, but certainly a better story than FF13! Unsurprisingly, the whole last act feels ripped out of FF4, but with better dialogue. So you have -that- to look forward to.

Play Xenoblade instead.

Kid Icarus Uprising: Back to this, still playing on "Baby's First Rail Shooter" mode because the game hates lefties. On Ch23, and my opinion of Viridi has changed completely from "Oh jesus fuck another eco-antagonist" to "holy shit best-written character in the game". In general, the entire cast is pretty outstanding and I'm never disappointed where they take the humor next! I feel like I'm playing a Nippon-Ichi-made railshooter. Not sure if that's a glowing recommendation to anyone but me, but I mean it affectionately.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 29, 2013, 08:48:17 PM
As one of the people on the board most likely to be put off by the phrase "Nippon-Ichi-made", KIU is awesome and everyone who hasn't played it yet is doing themselves a disservice. You don't even have to enjoy the gameplay (which is pretty great once you settle in with the controls!) for it to be worth your time.


I can't even begin to imagine how TLS multiplayer would work. Due to time constraints, it seems like it would have to cut out giving commands to your allies and Gale which are two of the better parts of the system at the moment. Good to hear the gameplay gets better, not so happy to hear there's a conservation of story and gameplay quality at work apparently...

I don't own Xenoblade (and due to a stupidly low print run this is too expensive to change. Thanks, NoA!) and the description of "it's kinda like FF12, and has lots of exploration and sidequests!" is quite offputting (although it sounds decent past that). Semi-interested in borrowing it from someone at some point, but backlog. I feel like I should get through some of the games I actually own first!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 29, 2013, 08:57:13 PM
I never bought it because no one talked about anything but the sidequests. Meh.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on May 29, 2013, 09:08:25 PM
As one of the people on the board most likely to be put off by the phrase "Nippon-Ichi-made"

I'd challenge you for that title, quite possibly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 29, 2013, 09:55:40 PM
I will fight you and become champion.  Is there a title belt?

WA:XF - I am doing stupid things instead of progressing.  3-4 or so saw a massive jump in item quality enemies had and I was taken by surprise.  Wow enemies all competent suddenly? Oh +5 weaponry would do that.  I enjoyed going into the battle where there is a big Shut Out section in the middle with Widespread set on Engimancer Clarissa already.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on May 29, 2013, 10:32:56 PM
Quote
KIU is awesome and everyone who hasn't played it yet is doing themselves a disservice. You don't even have to enjoy the gameplay (which is pretty great once you settle in with the controls!) for it to be worth your time.

I"ve been saying this since the game came out!  No one listens to anyone about KIU.  I should avatar Palutena out of spite of everyone but...meh, laziness...

Arkham Asylum: Completed.  Didn't realize the game was as short as it was; the % listing is misleading like that, guess it's a reference to "everything found" and not story or something.  Whatever.

Overall, can't say the game is to my liking.  I respect it for what it is and how much effort they put into the "Full Batman Experience" but honestly...that just isn't my thing.  Combat is a bit eh, game's too slow moving when combat isn't involved, bosses aren't that interesting...yeah.

Not saying it's a bad game, just not a game I could really get into.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on May 30, 2013, 10:25:30 AM
Star Ocean 4- Cleared the main game. Final stats/set ups and stuff can be found here -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_9q62MmP3s&list=PL0-L-Wk7FQUp-LdOcijjhsmCp9PdFOsz4&index=3

I was lazy in the end and didn't bother getting Laser Suits for non Bacchus/Edge/Arumat peeps, stuck with the arena stuffs for some peeps. Game was good too me re Red Dragon Scales, I used the two from the treasure chest in the final dungeon to make Meracle's Big Foot Claws so I only needed four for Edge and Arumat's armour, funny thing is the two of them that dropped quite quick I wasn't even controlling Myuria for (though I'm not entirely sure you have to be controlling/landing the final blows for the character increase specific drop rates skills to trigger but I used Myuria and Bacchus a lot while fighting for the ingredients for final equips anyway)

For anyone interested in seeing the final boss fight (SPOILERs and stuff) -

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-L-Wk7FQUp-LdOcijjhsmCp9PdFOsz4

I've done two versions so far (Plot Relevantish and Ladies Night) and I am also planning on doing an all fighters and mage orientated versions too =)

Game is a definite improvement on the 360 version I think, much more player friendly and gameplay balance has been revamped/reworked to make things interesting, different and more challenging. Not particularly fond of the Reimi and Meracle nerfs but I'll get used to them/adjust to/with them for the postgame I hope. X Claw was nerfed too (no longer an indefinite juggling auto win button) =( So were Black Hole Sphere's DM% modifiers I think =(

Otherwise the changes have been mentioned before in chat/elsewhere but yeah mage weapons have been revamped with INT increased across the board, most noticeably for Faize who gets quite a significant boost with his arena weapon (haven't seen his post game weapons yet), critical hit rate activation has either been reduced and/or enemies have become more resistant to critical hits, some Item Creation recipes require more/different ingredients to make stuffs (to prevent you from becoming completely overpowered with IC from very early I think though I didn't do this in 360 version anyway) some items do different things when synthed i.e Potent Attack seeds only give 7% ATK boost when synthed to a weapon as opposed to the 18% they gave in 360 version, treasure chest locations have been changed, switched around, and/or hold different stuffs.

For the player friendly bit, a few aesthetic stuffs like choice from Japanese or English VA, Anime or Modern character portraits/menu/etcs, switch individual voices on/off (dunno if the 360 version already had this one though) but the big deal is no disc switching so no more switching discs every time you travel between the Calnus and a specific planet for respawning for harvesting, mining, etc, as well as for returning to places on different planets for sidequests, shop orders and such. As a result this also makes the game much more accessible for players who want to get the achievements/go for Platinum.  Well everything seems to just run a lot smoother in general and I currently have 50% achievements and am working on battle trophy collections as well. I dunno, I actually seem to be quite enjoying this now for some reason.

Oh yeah game doesn't freeze as much and it's possible to change targets in battle!~

(it still freezes some like when if playing for an extensive amount of time then encountering a long cut scene, happened to me earlier on and then again during extensive ending but this might just be my PS3 since it happens some with ToGF too)

I got all the endings including Faize and Crowe's =)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 30, 2013, 11:12:46 PM
TO LUCT: Looked at a faq to better understand mechanics.
...
SCC time!

So far I've played the L path up to the end of chapter 3 with a bunch of warriors. Pretty crappy class, but they can equip bows and crossbows. I've sniped every boss so far to maintain high chaos frame and get the "at least you're not dead?" ending this time.
Soon: Full blowgun team.

I expected Serious Vyce's portrait to be a bit cooler. But ah well, unique class. I can't not have him.
All the plot additions to the remakes are... middling. What I've seen so far: Ozma is nice, Ravness' story (ugh), light hearted CODA stuff (I've only seen the first battle), Diego stuff. None of that really fits well with the rest of the plot.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on May 30, 2013, 11:58:03 PM
So like the wacky police slapstick in the original Last House on the Left? (One of the seminal mirder/revenge flicks)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 31, 2013, 12:11:38 AM
Vanilla TO is SRS BSN most of the time. In contrast:

- Ozma is nice isn't that strange in the context of the game, but that's like a Suikoden 2 remake with Luca Blight as an actually nice party member who's Pesmerga's secret lover.
- Ravness thought she was in a Wild Arms game.
- The early Coda stuff was like a zany barfight with your old and serious party members. It's the first battle where neither side is really serious about killing each other and it's much more difficult than most serious battles in the game.
- I'm fairly sure Diego was trying to be Jack Sparrow?

The team was pretty commited to faithfully rewriting Tactics Ogre (And committed to having the most faq bait recruitment since Suikoden) and then adding some cool random shit they thought about.

(By the way WWF references are lost on me. Sorry)

BTW seeing the Galgastan fight back in 3L was a bit surprising compared to 3C. But I guess that has to do with Serious Vyce in 2L raising an army against the Duke, as opposed to Nice Guy Denam in 2C running the fuck away.

Edit: Oh man I have gotten the Glamrock axe.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on May 31, 2013, 12:32:18 AM
- Ravness thought she was in a Wild Arms game.

wat.

(Ravness is...  okay.  Kind of disappointing that the best excuse they could imagine for Ravness to rejoin was "Denam conveniently saves her life twice in battles" but oh well.  I don't see the WA connection, though!)

Also if you are doing the Diego nonsense you are brutally overpowered, it's balanced for *aftergame* when Denam can run around doing silly non-serious hijinks like tracking down Canopus's sister.

Although, question, since I haven't messed with a time travel replay yet.  I saw that normal characters in the past re-become guest characters and refuse to follow your orders to change class or anything.  After Ravness bites it in the Chaos playthrough, does she mystically rejoin the party thanks to time travel?  Or do I have to directly travel from C4->C2 in order to keep her alive or the like?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on May 31, 2013, 12:40:16 AM
Paper Mario - Completed this. Around 22 hours, level was also... I believe 22. BP was maxed, I built the other two stats pretty evenly.

It was fun! To some extent I think it goes downhill a bit late because the higher stat scale gets a bit away from the game when it's truly in its element, but it still does "efficient clearing or randoms" better than at least 90% of the genre. Bosses it largely relies on some cute designs for, when you get down to straight slugging with them (hi final boss) it gets kinda boring since the optimum single-target damage to a given target is extremely obvious. Still, without a doubt the best gameplay of the Mario RPGs. Badges give it enough customisation for the game to be quite replay-friendly obviously which is a plus (this will certainly happen at some point), otherwise the game is simple and so very strong at what it does.

Writing-wise it is the weakest Mario RPG. Bowser is still pretty funny (not nearly at the level he is in some other games though) but that is about it. Its plot is far closer to that of a standard Mario game than any of the other RPGs (oh look, Bowser does supervillain things, collect shinies and stop him. also he kidnapped Peach just because). There are some gems in there like Bowser's diary but they are too few and far between. Whatever, this rapidly becomes a "don't play this for writing" game, but that's disappointing seeing as even SMRPG was notably better at this.

Not too much else to say! It was fun. Fans of RPG gameplay should check it out, even if you don't take to it is definitely quite unique and worth seeing.

edit: oh yeah and I beat the optional fight against the three Anti Guys in the final dungeon. Now that was pretty rough, had one reset then slipped through with 2 HP and 0 FP remaining when I won!


The Last Story - The last hour reminded me of a few things. First of all: the "you see with Zael's eyes, look for things" feels like a transparent attempt to add immersion and when the game uses it too much it gets grating. Oh well, better than a silent main. Second: The game's optional quests (which I assume the Yurick/Mirania backstory on the island, and then the archeology stuff with Horace both were) are a little weird, especially the most recent one where I just wandered back to prison when it was done. Third of all: Cutscenes remain where the game is at its strongest. I want to punch Jirall in the face. Interested to see how the Dagran/Evil Uncle Edgar Count Arganan plot shakes out at this point.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on May 31, 2013, 01:08:43 AM
I've went to the Diego battle and immediately reloaded >_>

You keep your entire team when you go back in time, so you can do Chapter 1 with Deneb, and fight Arycelle with Arycelle. When they rejoin the game assumes they rejoin but you get no prompt screen. If they die, they're dead in the plot and the game won't act like Catiua is alive when you just murdered her even though she's in your team.

One really weird thing about this (AFAIK, I haven't tried it yet): Arycelle takes a massive loyalty hit in the neutral path. If you have a high loyalty high stats Arycelle from Chaos / Law path and get to the neutral path, she'll take that loyalty hit normally and might leave later on. But if you kill her in battle (not as your PC) she won't be in the plot anymore and won't take the loyalty hit. But you'll still have her as a PC.

I wasn't really aiming at WA in particular and could have said Tales. Her arc was definitely un-Tactics Ogre in any case. She was a strong and nice girl who died in Chaos path to get you worked up against ">:( Vyce", and had a kind of irrelevent arc in the lawful path where she eventually kills some generic enemies and does a lot of self reflection. In the last battle before she's recruited, she and Denam are basically just praising each other as if no battle was taking place.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on May 31, 2013, 08:12:37 AM
You should now steal a copy of the second Paper Mario from Excal or something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on May 31, 2013, 05:30:29 PM
FFD - Not sure how this game manages to have worse plot than FF5, but it is impressive. Still fun as hell gameplaywise though. Cid upgrades his robots to be fabulous and pink. Cid coolness +1.

SMB2 - Eat it, Wart! Now trying to play the game with people besides Her Royal Floatiness. (Autocorrect asked me if that should be Flatness. Dunno what you're trying to say, iPad...)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on June 01, 2013, 06:35:57 PM
<Ciato'siPad> I'm insulting you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 01, 2013, 10:32:05 PM
Kingdom of Amalur: New company makes a new IP.
It's the most generic western RPG humanly possible.
They expect it to sell millions.
It doesn't.
Company crashes.

TO LUCT: Got through Law path. My full warrior team is level 41 and has started learning Strength 4 / Constitution 4. Ozma is the first character who starts out great right away. Vyse certainly isn't. Arycelle and Canopus continue to dominate.
I'm not sure I really want to get serious about the aftergame. Why is everything so faq-bait? Did they just want to sell a lot of guides? I wanted Deneb in my team but her recruitment process is almost a parody. Remember the rumors about reviving Aeris?
Recruiting Deneb as a Wicce is dumber than this.
Getting priest marks for Catiua? Dumber than reviving Aeris.
That stuff about uber holy generals or whatever? Dumber than reviving Aeris.
I haven't even mentioned the Palace of the Dead.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on June 01, 2013, 10:39:38 PM
Kingdom of Amalur: New company makes a new IP.
It's the most generic western RPG humanly possible.
They expect it to sell millions.
It doesn't.
Company crashes.

It worked for Golden Sun, it was worth a shot.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on June 01, 2013, 10:45:35 PM
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning DID sell millions.  That game wasn't what brought 38 Studios down.  The problem was that they were ALSO making an MMO in the Amalur universe that:
A) Was going to be like World of Warcraft, but BIGGER AND BETTER
B) Made by a bunch of game developers who'd never worked an MMO before
C) Run with a "cost is no object, look at Blizzard" style
D) Never launched.

The Maryland studio that made Reckoning was the ashes of Big Huge Games, the people who did Rise of Nations, that got bought up back when 38 Studios had psuedo-venture capital in the form of Schilling's investment.  The team working on the MMO was the crew in Massachusetts / Rhode Island managed more directly by Curt Schilling.  The debts the latter racked up weren't paid by the money generated by the Maryland studio, who lost their jobs anyway.

I see from Wikipedia that Rhode Island is busy suing the remains, because Rhode Island fronted a huge amount of money to the studio so that Providence would be a software hub or something.  Not sure why they're bothering; investment, especially investing in a company that most real venture capital stayed far away from, is risky business.  (Actual venture capitalists reacted in horror to Schilling's sales pitches; they could tell he was way too personally involved, which was a *bad* sign not a good one.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 01, 2013, 10:57:37 PM
"It worked for Golden Sun, it was worth a shot."
...
Indeed.
But Golden Sun had the "Crazy Snes graphics on a handled!!" thing going for it. Amalur has average graphics.


Snow, yeah.
But it's the same idea: The company expected Amalur to sell millions to inject that money into the MMO behemoth, but it didn't sell enough millions so the company crashes. (I thought it sold something like 500 000 copies though? Haven't really kept track)
I doubt the game would have paid itself on its own anyway, since it was made from assets from the MMO.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on June 01, 2013, 11:55:17 PM
Isn't getting Priest class marks just stealing from Clerics in Phorampa Wildwood? I've never bothered but it sounds pretty simple to me.

Everything else you listed is pretty awful, yeah.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 02, 2013, 12:05:15 AM
Wikipedia says 1.2 million. I dunno.


God Hand Hard Mode - Holy crap the Mr. Gold/Mr. Silver level was brutal.
The Last Story - I am now gainfully employed by Evil Uncle Edgar, together we will save the world.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 02, 2013, 12:21:43 AM
Well yeah Hinode.
You'd think there was a more reasonable way to get this than a rare steal on some random enemy on some random map though. No way to get it without a faq.
It's just Catiua's basic class!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on June 02, 2013, 01:31:03 AM
Borrowed Retro Game Challenge from a friend. Surprisingly fun game, aside from the racing portions(Rally King and Rally King SP) and the really old style shooter(Cosmic Gate). The Robot Ninja Haggleman games manage to be alot of fun, and the Guadia Quest RPG somehow captures the feel of the old NES DQ games....without being crappy. It's actually fun, even.

Got to the final challenge, slowly working on beating all the games. Most are done, mainly just Guadia Quest is the one that'll take awhile. It's...almost a full sized NES rpg, so that's no real surprise. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on June 02, 2013, 02:34:06 AM
Well yeah Hinode.
You'd think there was a more reasonable way to get this than a rare steal on some random enemy on some random map though. No way to get it without a faq.
It's just Catiua's basic class!

Fair enough, but the Aeris analogy doesn't make sense for a simple-but-obscure item like that. Meanwhile stuff like Deneb's recruitment or Cressida's recruitment really is as byzantine as all those old crazy Leo/Aeris rumors were.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on June 02, 2013, 04:06:03 AM
Incidentally, let us pause to chuckle once more at skill growth rates.  Apparently something that Catiua-as-Princess gets hyped for is Princess Whim status curing in the Palace of the Dead, which does indeed sound useful...  except... at lvl. 1, it's got like a 25% chance of removing status all around her or something similarly pathetic.  Using it 3 or 4 times barely seemed to move the needle on the skill chart.  So to get a useful Princess's Whim, you probably have to spam a TP-limted skill like 300 times or something similarly insane.  Maybe more.  On a class you only get for the back half of the last chapter of the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 02, 2013, 04:31:44 AM
How very FF2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 02, 2013, 04:35:07 AM
DDDA: Completed. Expansion boss mk 2 is a very dumb fight. Not just because he looks dumb (although he most definitely does), but because it's the polar opposite of the first-run fight (which is pretty outstanding if you tackle it as soon as it becomes logistically feasible to do so). They stripped away the speed, mobility and ferocity--basically everything that makes the first form a terror. Now he floats serenely around the arena casting spells, I dunno, whenever he feels like it? I seriously chipped through his entire final health bar (using only the basic attack of my horribly outdated magick bow because it was sadly the most efficient tool available) without him doing a goddamn thing. What the hell, Capcom? I also gave up on killing Death because the bastard regenned all his HP somehow. What in the--he's a multiple encounter boss, that's not how they're supposed to work!

Everything else was fun to kill, though.

BBI can get seriously grindy though, as may be inferred from distance between last and current posts on the subject. Most of it isn't strictly necessary, but if you want to get the most out of the new gear, resign yourself to either farming imposingly badass enemies or spending a lot of time running between Asalam and the mountebank. And I didn't even get top notch weapons! I shudder to think of the time investment required to get optimal gear. Actually I think most of my time I was just upgrading armor I wanted to use because it looked nice. Dragon's Dogma has a lot of nice looking swag! (What no of course I didn't dragonforge the chainmail bikini turn those accusing eyes elsewhere.)

Anyway, I'm making one last set of Black Cat runs before shutting down (hey, I still had new gear to upgrade) when the game decides to close things out on a high note. Usual stuff at first, back and forth back and forth:

"Hoy there--"
"I've a business--"
"Hoy there--"
"I've a business--"
"Hoy there--"
"I've a business--"

*Mute TV and turn on Daft Punk to make it bearable*

Wait, what's this? Arsmith spawned on top of a box. NPC pathing does not understand vertical movement, so he just paces round this one-foot circle on top of the box. Then a pawn breaks the box and Arsmith dies from quantum uncertainty.

It's the parade of low-grade stupid that really makes Dragon's Dogma a memorable experience.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 02, 2013, 04:54:50 AM
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons:  I asked Sage which one to get, he said Ages, so naturally I grabbed Seasons.

Just got the Shovel.  This game seems to take Link's Awakening, then throw in the random silly stuff the original game had like "It's a secret to everyone" *get Money* (only now with something resembling a decent translation...so not as awesome)  Whatever, it's otherwise 2D Zelda, so the game doesn't waste your time as much and is simple yet fun so far.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 02, 2013, 09:58:47 AM
Breath of Fire II: Hay guiz I just playd this cool game~

It was surprisingly fun once I got passed the "Seven boring sins" episodic sections and actually got back to the Ryu and Nina- based plots. Too bad that's like 20% of the game and you have to get through Highfort to see it.

Still, Shamans are fun! I want a stat topic with Shamanized forms. They are unique and legit forms as far as I can see. It would be nice to at least have numbers for them.


Kid Icarus Uprising: COMPLETE! (Well, barely beaten by the skin of my teeth on super-easy mode, but that's LIKE being Complete.) I have now finally played this, enjoyed this, saw the final Hades jokes, and Meeple can stop telling me to play it...


Pokemon Black: 7 Gym Leaders down! Suddenly, an avalanche of unwelcome plot and exposition appears! It's not very effective...

Vanillite is cute.

I have hacked like every Legendary Pokemon at level 1 into my game at this point. My team is now Articuno, Shiny Rayquaza, Kyogre, and a rotation of Arceus and the other Gen4 Dragon Legendaries for kicks. Despite rolling with illegal Legendaries, their level deficiency makes it so the game keeps fighting back, improving the whole experience.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 02, 2013, 02:30:23 PM
Quote
Still, Shamans are fun! I want a stat topic with Shamanized forms. They are unique and legit forms as far as I can see. It would be nice to at least have numbers for them.

Or you could just go right here (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,202.msg1129.html#msg1129).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on June 02, 2013, 02:59:02 PM
Re: Amalur, RI is suing because the current governor of RI campaigned on, among other things, how states shouldn't be dabbling in venture capital.  So the governor has an ax to grind and is politically benefitted by playing up Amalur as a huge failure.

Re: Godhand Hard mode - Elvis' mansion is possibly even harder than Gold & Silver.  Those areas are probably the hardest in the game because you're lacking the moveset to reasonably deal with multiple enemies.  And by moveset I mean Drunken Sweep.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 02, 2013, 05:31:17 PM
Elvis' mansion wasn't tooo bad aside from the jewelry room which was indeed very rough. I didn't have as much trouble with it as Gold/Silver's stage, but such is the difference between going in with bad resources and good.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on June 02, 2013, 06:21:52 PM
Jewelry room, or as I like to call it, the murder box.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 02, 2013, 06:29:39 PM
Quote
Still, Shamans are fun! I want a stat topic with Shamanized forms. They are unique and legit forms as far as I can see. It would be nice to at least have numbers for them.

Or you could just go right here (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,202.msg1129.html#msg1129).

It doesn't have Spar's forms. Clearly worthless. (actually I hadn't noticed it since it was buried in the topic)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 03, 2013, 03:57:53 AM
Oracle of Seasons: So I beat up a moth using a feather to make me jump...

...yeah, this is about on par with the nonsense that went on in Link's Awakening.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 03, 2013, 09:10:00 AM
Xenoblade Chronicles: Holy crap this game is fun. I wish I had more time to just grind out cool gear and new abilities. The battle system gets pretty intense when you skip all the side stuff. It feels like the kind of game where I'd have fun if I just had hours to sit around and do all the side quests. Sadly, I do not have the time to play the game as intended, so instead every encounter is a grudge match of epic proportions.

I've been playing for about 10 hours now and I haven't gotten to a point where I feel comfortable trying out the other PCs since even the basic randoms slaughter me if I'm not playing at the top of my game with the main.

At first glance, the battle system seemed pretty straightforward, but the actual positioning tricks and necessity of timing are just as integral as strategizing and resource management. It gets a little tricky if even one PC falls and I find myself having to flee more often than I'm used to.

Storywise, I can see why it's been lauded. It's really solid and all the of the PCs are likeable thus far. Great voice work too. The villains introduced so far are sufficiently hateable and I'm eager to bash their metal faces in.


Pokemon Black: Oh great, the bad guys just recruited a Legendary Pokemon, what ever will I do? *eyes the fact that you can have like 3 Legendaries by the time this happens in-game*

Nevermind that I hacked in like 7 of the previous Gen Legendaries. Arceus, eat'em.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on June 03, 2013, 03:22:59 PM
Portal 2: The possibility of getting money from random Steam people for playing the game got me to finally put in the time to finish this. Really fun ending (love the logic of "I've learned that the easy way of doing things is usually the best...and killing you is HARD.[/i]"), and I've made $4.75 on trading cards so far.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 03, 2013, 05:40:52 PM
Xenoblade Chronicles: Holy crap this game is fun. I wish I had more time to just grind out cool gear and new abilities. The battle system gets pretty intense when you skip all the side stuff. It feels like the kind of game where I'd have fun if I just had hours to sit around and do all the side quests. Sadly, I do not have the time to play the game as intended, so instead every encounter is a grudge match of epic proportions.


Actually the internets are filled with people doing all the sidequests, then having no challenge ever again and being bored with the battle system.

Quote
Re: Amalur, RI is suing because the current governor of RI campaigned on, among other things, how states shouldn't be dabbling in venture capital.  So the governor has an ax to grind and is politically benefitted by playing up Amalur as a huge failure.

Amalur was a failure. Get over it. Rhode Island will rule the world. We are everywhere. Do not resist.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on June 03, 2013, 06:16:54 PM
League of Legends: Got into ranked, clocked in at Silver 2, I'm happy enough. Prolly gonna cool down on playing this a bit to explore other games.

Warframe: Tried this out. Sort of see the appeal. Game does a really bad job of introducing you to your skills and the like, though. Completed... Mercury, I guess? Managed to accidentally go on a mission I'm pretty sure I had no business being on, but the guy with me was p. cool and revived me twice.

Thomas Was Alone: Watched Ashley play some of this. British narration = 10/10 would watch again. Solidly atmospheric, deep, troubling metaphors about being used sexually and abandoned, starring rectangles and squares.

Hotline Miami: So yeah. This sort of seems like what being on drugs would feel like.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on June 03, 2013, 11:41:01 PM
It's really solid and all the of the PCs are likeable thus far.

So, you're still on the start screen then? Joking aside, the PCs just get vaguely dumber as time goes on in a near uniform manner (at least to the midway section that I'm at).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 04, 2013, 08:06:57 AM
Dumb isn't necessarily unlikeable! The characters are flawed, but interesting all around so far. I've only met five of the PCs so far, and only Reyn seems particularly dull-witted, but he's also a pretty good friend with a protective-of-those-weaker-than-him streak that I like. Shulk himself actually comes off as a bookworm, but he's still mired in the confusion of actually using the new powers of the Monado. The temp is the most cliched character thus far, but the dialogue and interplay between her and Shulk/Reyn kept her from being grating and she has a few fantastic scenes. Dunban just seems awesome, though he has terrible taste in friends at the beginning. Sharla's the only one who keeps making dumb moves like rushing headlong into danger, but considering all the depressing shit she's dealing with, it's understandable. I feel the characters are fairly well-nuanced thus far, but admittedly it doesn't take much to ruin a good character so maybe in a few dungeons I'll feel differently (I certainly did with Lost Odyssey). I'm going to remain optimistic for now.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on June 05, 2013, 12:42:16 AM
They all start vaguely sliding down (especially at PC #6) when the writers try their hand at witty banter and fail badly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 05, 2013, 12:47:15 AM
Maken Shao:

Proto Demon Souls (That nazi enemy would be awesome in Dark Souls!), made by Atlus, with SMT music/art.
... It also reminds me of God Hand.
... One cool mechanic is how you can hijack people to use their bodies; you don't even have a body of your own.
...

Oh yeah, you haven't heard of it because quite frankly it's not very good.

Controls are sloppy, as is often the case with full 3D action games before the "Left stick controls the character including strafing, right stick controls the direction he faces" revolution.
There are 5 minutes FMV cutscenes. From 1999.


Much in this game is the source of endless laughter.
- Seriously, airplanes don't work that way. Airplanes can't be mazes.
- I LOVE how some enemies are introduced as "Member of the European Union"
- The main bad guy is Mr Meteor. His henchamn is the german head of the european union (Angela Merkel I guess), obviously with nazi enemies.
- Walking animations. -_-
- http://i.imgur.com/dB9hCi6.jpg

I am quite pleased to see this is the only game I've seen that, at any point, takes place in my city.
What's changed after the post cyberapocalypse?
- The subway has become about as complicated as Paris', so I assume the city saw extreme growth in short time
- There's some dude named Badelaire (shouldn't it be Beaudelaire?) you can hijack. He's pretty cool (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110720065045/megamitensei/images/a/ad/24.jpg) except his walking animation makes him look like he has hemorrhoïds. I know people who miss one leg. They don't walk like that.
- There's an underground mine underneath the city now, complete with carts and everything. Most of the level takes place in that underground mine, which would be like most of a New York level taking place in New York's famous giant nuclear factory
- Stereotypical gangsters (with the suit, the tie and the hat) with butterfly wings, four arms and two machineguns.


Sooo anyway, the game kind me that the strange crappy orange dude from the beginning of the game (Look at this bad boy: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091012220342/megamitensei/images/thumb/6/61/Gou_Inaba.jpg/250px-Gou_Inaba.jpg) could maybe become H4Xzilla. So I used him non stop. He does turn pretty good (Dude can call lightning with his stun gun), but not as good as others, and he required a crazy amount of exp to become fully powered. So I just wasted a lot of time. Yeah.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 05, 2013, 04:14:57 AM
Super Mario Galaxy: Bower Jr.'s Ship falls to turtle shells to the face.  Then I got a few more stars.

Oracle of Seasons: Giant Enemy Crabs that need to be taken out with Flaming Slingshot hitting it's weak point for massive damage (which isn't actually massive) need to not be so durable and not have high damaging attacks. 

I also found MYSTARY SEEDS because...apparently SEEDS ARE EVERYTHING in this game no they aren't
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 05, 2013, 06:35:02 AM
That is pretty amazingly camp art outside of the triple sunglasses self harmer in a goth onesie (with immaculate shoes because SMT characters always do).

Snow approves yes/yes?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on June 05, 2013, 04:34:39 PM
Borderlands 2: WHADDA TWEEEST
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 05, 2013, 06:18:58 PM
The camp doesn't stop there Gref.
I'll post more artwork later.

Apparently you get to fight the presidents of:
- Germany
- China
- The United States
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on June 06, 2013, 04:54:57 PM
Additional Borderlands: Got fast travel to Sanctuary up and running. That station-defense battle was clearly not balanced for single-player. Ah well.

Also, I was packing for a flight to Maine and found my R4 card! I haven't seen that thing for almost a year. I can finally finish my EF Exceed replay! And Professor Layton! And a bunch of other games I don't think I ever even touched! Good times.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 06, 2013, 09:14:36 PM
Oracle of Seasons: I see a lot of pits with objects on the other end.  Also enemies with shells in front of them that required a certain item to beat or attack from their backside which was a pain.

Well, obviously, it's time to get the HOOK SH-*Magnetic Gloves*...or get a completely unique item for the series with actually interesting effects allowing for completely new and original puzzles.  I'll be damned, actual creativity in a Zelda game after OoT stagnated everything! (ok, Majora's Mask I'll give props to since the Masks were legitimately creative)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 07, 2013, 06:44:45 AM
Additional Borderlands: Got fast travel to Sanctuary up and running. That station-defense battle was clearly not balanced for single-player. Ah well.

Just finished that in TVHM.  The takeaway I got from that fight was "hope you're good at shooting loaders in the shoulder of their gun arm!"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 07, 2013, 12:02:53 PM
Pokemon Black: PETA stole a dragon and told me that's what all the cool kids are doing, better get one too. Or they'll set the world on fire. Team PETA are dicks like that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on June 07, 2013, 06:23:31 PM
That's what Corrosive Sniper Rifles are for.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on June 07, 2013, 07:42:23 PM
That also would have worked. Sadly I just have fire and electric right now.

Picked up my EF EXCEED replay, discovered it was at endgame so I put on all the ultimate gear and went to the bonus dungeon. OW. first boss fight was no big deal, but Super Mark Hunter wrecked my shit. Full MT OHKO. Yeah. Gonna be abusing Guard and Steady next time around, I think.... (at least there are save points!)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 07, 2013, 07:57:46 PM
Pokemon Black: PETA stole a dragon and told me that's what all the cool kids are doing, better get one too. Or they'll set the world on fire. Team PETA are dicks like that.

I call bullshit on this.

It's White PETA that is about setting the world on fire.  Black PETA is all about causing world wide power outages and robot apocalypses and other electrical related stuff!

Oracle of Seasons: I got a remote control Boomerang.  Does this make Link Batman?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 07, 2013, 11:22:03 PM
TO LUCT: 5 Glass pumpkins.
Can't believe I'm doing this


Maken Shao: I missed ANDREI, aka Russian dude, from the beginning of the game so I restarted. (http://i.imgur.com/77FZuZW.jpg) You basically get to choose between Orange dude and him, and he's way better (both get obsolete quick)

Game is stupid as hell. It got pretty damn fun, if still janky, once I got access to more freedom about where to go next. I think I'm near the end.
I saw the most awful/disgusting Iron Maidenish enemies from this game, and I've seen a lot of Iron Maidenish enemies.

I wanted to be a jerk to everybody so I picked all the wrong choices. Eventually I was so much of a jerk than one of the good guys (http://i.imgur.com/7MELgeK.jpg) actually tried to kill me. (I beat her and stole her body) Then it dawned on me: I could have killed all those other good guys earlier too!!
Basically they ask "Do you want to save the world Y/N?" and you answer "No". Then they get all "Ok....... Don't you not want to not save the world, then? Y/N" and I answered "Uuuuuh... No?" Then they go on about "Ok then do this..."
I figured this was all meaningess talk, but no. I could have killed them by answering Yes to their absolutely ridiculous question earlier.

I'm half tempted to re-restart but I got my hands on too many great PCs.
- This is the leader of the UNITED NATIONS (http://i.imgur.com/hQHs5VM.jpg). (Svatsikas removed obviously) Highest speed in the game. Has a laser sword in game, but only attacks with heels (until you level her up some)
- Mafia leader (http://i.imgur.com/pmqK6Ml.jpg) No comment necessary
- Guy who was going to become the next pope according to in game trivia (http://i.imgur.com/sEtynCa.jpg) he's a drug addict and uses a scythe.
- From earlier on (http://i.imgur.com/eRgc0MN.jpg) Indian TV star who uses evil radio waves to destroy the morale of people or something.

The biggest issue with the gameplay is having a different control scheme when locked to the enemy or not.
Strafing locked to an enemy: Move left
Strafing not locked to an enemy: Circle + Move left
Sometimes an enemy will move out of the way, you won't be locked to him anymore and will need to quickly adapt. Sometimes you'll want to switch between locked/unlocked all the time (for a boss fight for example) but won't be able to pull it off. Lots of cheap hits that way.


XCOM Enemy Unkown: Bought this. Considering playing Ironman Normal but I'm not sure about it yet.
I should connect the PS3 to the net to download all the patches but uuuuuugh
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 08, 2013, 01:07:54 AM
I have installed the patch and even redeemed the code.
Fenrir: Modern day hero

The base is wonderful and reminds me of a Life Aquatic scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewIKc6QlTNo
Since the MC is (probably) never shown, I'll assume he's Steve Zissou from now on, perpetually blasé and complaing about dolphins.

The first choice you get to make in the game:
- Are you a humanist and who wants to save 4 wonderful American scientists by helping America
- Are you a greedy bastard who wants 200 bucks by helping China instead
For shame, Firaxis. For shame.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on June 08, 2013, 01:45:05 AM
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D - played through on new mode.

Not planning on doing any levels in time trial mode or the other mode. (Or on replaying on classic mode.) Got the full star and puzzle badges though.

Pretty great to awesome most of the time, with a cupful of infuriation thrown in.

I went to change control scheme to use the D-pad at one point and found that doing that also rebinds all the actions to other buttons, which is slightly appalling. Ended up going back to the default one because I couldn't get used to the other changes. I was also finding it strangely uncomfortable to hold in the R-button for lengths of time, which made me make numerous more mistakes in climbing sections than I would have preferred.

Ended up buying some green balloons/barrels to take into the final level after only ever having gotten Squawks and red balloons throughout the game. Didn't end up needing the barrels, used one green balloon. But mostly, after having left to buy those and collect Diddy, I then beat the final level on my next attempt (although I would have died if it wasn't for the green balloon), so I probably could have done it much quicker if they'd just given you access to Diddy within the level. It's not really apparent why they don't - you can leave the level for the world map at any point and the only downside is that you need to re-collect any puzzle pieces, and the ones in the final level are in no way difficult to collect.

More infuriating was one of the boss levels where you essentially can't reach the boss the first time without Diddy (without a full-health Diddy, even), but every retry starts you off at a point where you can't get him any more. Because if you die against the boss with Diddy, you can certainly easily beat it without him, right! And in this level leaving to go get him isn't actually a feasible course of action to take because then you need to replay the initial part of the level, which is no cakewalk.

All up I found it highly enjoyable when I wasn't playing a level which was killing me dozens of times. (Mostly minecart, barrel rocket, or advancing threat ones, and a fair proportion of those deaths would be self-inflicted due to having missed a collectable).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 08, 2013, 11:00:43 AM
Rondo of Swords: not actually playing this again (dear god no), but I started following the LP and I'm reminded that the story is far more competent than a game that looks like this should be. Am I crazy or is the plot actually somewhat logical and worth following?

Pokemon Black: alternately, it could be that Anything looks competent after playing with adorable monsters for too long... Playing around with the Mitosis pokemon today. It is adorable in that single-celled organism kind of way.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on June 08, 2013, 09:18:10 PM
Project X Zone:  This would be interesting if I knew who half of these characters were.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 09, 2013, 02:27:30 AM
I looked it up on Wikipedia just now.  The fact it's got ToV and RoF characters theoretically makes it worth it.  Now watch the game be about sexualized children.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 09, 2013, 02:51:14 AM
Started Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. This game is the eighties.

"I made a promise to a special lady. Lady Liberty. She told me that...winners don't do drugs."

"Tell my wife and kids I died for my country."
"You can tell them that yourself!"

Somehow the dinosaurs that shoot laser beams from their eyes are the least funny part of the equation.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 09, 2013, 06:47:26 AM
I'm not anything special.  People who make paintings of sad clowns or dogs playing poker, those people are the ones doing something special.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 09, 2013, 01:20:08 PM
XCOM:
Very early on the game told me: "Difficult mission, difficult mission, or very difficult mission? lol"
-> Like 6 regular aliens, 6 thin men and 3 flying things I had never seen before attacking all at once.
I vaguely remembered hearing something about this, so yeah:

Rule 1) Do not advance the plot too fast
Also Rule 2) More snipers
And Rule 3) More satellites
I went through the plot way too fast, mostly because I went with Europe and they had badass scientists. Also capturing live aliens sounded cool.
It's a bit of a shame, I don't see why the level of enemies could not depend only on time. It's not a crippling issue though. (I'm more bothered with the time wasted when you have to search the enemy on maps)

I restarted a few times without the tutorial and things went more smoothly. The tutorial is very well done, but it prevents you from focusing on satellites. And from choosing Africa, which seems to have the best earlygame bonus.

Ironman is great for this game, every single action in the game has weight and the atmosphere is always tense.
Good stuff so far, I don't know if this will last or get too repetitive though. I'm not bothered by the fact I bought it just before it came free with PS+.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on June 09, 2013, 05:18:28 PM
Project X Zone Demo A- I recognized Ken and Ryu! Also that pink haired singer chick Utena? Yuri was on the box art at the end as well. Anyway this was quite fun after I started figuring up how things work. Apparently you spend XP to use skills and stuff, I was quite liberal with this and item use over all though I imagine it might not be the same in the actual game for being as generous with things. The boss's special kind of hurt but nobody died. Oh and I found a CT bait already!, Good Morning Dance yep yep~ Oh and Black Cat Waltz ^_^

Tales of Graces F- Been doing some Trials of Graces and more F arc. Beat the final fight of Trials of Graces "Enter the Dragons" at L66 with 4 x Cheria (I used Cheria, Sophie, Malik and Pascal as my Cherias) Picked up where I left off in the F arc, at the start of it's final dungeon. Did all the puzzles and the pseudo bosses/boss fights there and just defeated the final boss of the F arc with Cheria/Sophie/SPOILER PC/Pascal at L68 (spoiler PC was L67) I had a few retries especially since I was trying to figure out how to do "Blue Earth" but kept on screwing it up. Finally went with the win without doing it since I wanted to have a video to put up later, but didn't save since I still have things to do in the F arc like the arena~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 09, 2013, 06:07:47 PM
Project X Zone Demo:  Needs more Mega Man.  Actually, Ryu/Ken (and their assist which is Devilotte) are the only Capcom characters in this demo which is silly I tell you!


Oracle of Seasons: 8th Dungeon and stuff.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on June 10, 2013, 02:32:27 AM
Did a fun little mini challenge on Saga Frontier where I used Asellus and a team of monsters. I hadn't really messed around with monsters so it was kind of fun. Ended up with Kylin in his regular form, Thunder who ended up a Black Dragon, King Sei the Skullasaurus, and Cotton the Dullahan. Asellus herself was a gunner/mage hybrid. It really is a shame that monsters don't have any good ST damage options because aside from that they're kind of neat. Unfortunately, I'm fairly sure I had some of the better ST damage monster skills and even then Asellus could out damage the entire monster team if she got a critical with Two Gun Bound Shot. Although I did make a mistake when I gave Kylin the Griffin's Griffith Scratch absorption. They are really good in random fights thow where stuff like Light Ball/Oscillation/Magnetic Storm/Windblast just destroy random battles. They tend to combo a whole lot which is always satisfying even if the damage isn't the best. Magic Heal is also neat but Thunder was the only one who was able to get it.

Orluge took two tries since my first attempt he petrified Asellus and I could tell I wasn't winning after that. After reseting and giving Asellus a EMT Tag, it went rather smoothly because he made some really bad AI decisions. Orluge himself decided to spam Selection over and over on King Sei's corpse instead of on Thunder or Cotton which could have caused problems. Cotton was also pretty great in that final section of the fight as he blocked a ton of attacks with his shield. It's certainly nice to be on the other side of the Dullahan shield's block rate and Asellus was able to wear Orluge down with a couple of turns of Bound Shot. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 10, 2013, 02:48:06 AM
The one thing that can be said about monster ST damage is that GroundHit, which is at or near the top of their damage curve, is at least very easy to get. In that sense monsters are somewhat jeigany, they get their damage a lot more quickly than most other races, and stats too in many cases, although it requires some knowledge of the game.

I feel like four monsters should outdamage one def-pierce BoundShot but the fact that I can see a possible set that doesn't is kinda revealing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on June 10, 2013, 03:57:48 AM
To be fair, this was on Orlouge who I recall had high defenses, but even against normal enemies it would probably be pretty close. Ignoring combos the 4 monsters probably averaged 1200-1400 each and a defense ignoring two gun Boundshot could hit 5500.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 10, 2013, 05:27:01 AM
Shale, what level are you in BL2? I was looking for a level 50-ish bro to go on an airboat desert pirate adventure with me in TVHM.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on June 10, 2013, 06:58:48 AM
I'm still on my first runthrough. So, a bit under 20.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 10, 2013, 07:25:58 AM
Well then I guess you won't get to live out Sterling Archer's fantasy by commandeer an airboat with me then, will you?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 10, 2013, 12:31:12 PM
Penny Arcade 4 - This is good in the same ways PA3 was.  Get it and enjoy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on June 10, 2013, 05:50:43 PM
Hotline Miami: Beat the main game missions.

Game is fun. The atmosphere works, although I actually feel the game's plot lets it down a bit.

Gameplay is a hoot, although the fast death system can get a bit irritating. Right around the 20th reload because you swung the pipe a little right. FFFFFFFFFF.

Still, enjoyable enough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on June 10, 2013, 08:05:38 PM
Skyward Sword: Trying to kill one skulltula is harder than anything in Wind Waker
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 10, 2013, 08:51:33 PM
Penny Arcade 4 - This is good in the same ways PA3 was.  Get it and enjoy.
Shit. I need to find a PC powerful enough for PA4.

XCOM: Looking back I might have just gotten unbelievably unlucky last time. I got a Very Hard Very Early mission there too, with roughly the same enemies. But the team survived this time because I didn't get assaulted immediately by every enemy on the map.

Anyway the game got easier. I have two snipers.
Not progressing the plot until those satellites are everywhere.
I still can't tell the difference between the two melee classes between "rocket" and "notrocket", until I'm right in front of their ability lists.

These are the official colors of every class (Each soldier in that class wears that color. I couldn't tell them apart otherwise)
Sniper: Green
Support: Purple
Rocket: Yellow
Notrocket: Red
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on June 10, 2013, 09:16:19 PM
Skyward Sword: Trying to kill one skulltula is harder than anything in Wind Waker

This is not exaggeration!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 10, 2013, 09:34:45 PM
Difference is that Rocket sucks and can't hit anything where Notrocket is probably the most improving unit in the game.  Just really strong skills.  Sniper is great, but they really get their money skill early (shoot at things others can see) and don't get anything that is much of a game changer from there until they max out.  Assault on the other hand has lots of great skills on the way.  Run and Gun makes them amazingly flexible. 2 of them with shotguns are more than capable of charging into a room and taking out the biggest threat around or cleaning up weakened targets.  One with a rifle is just incredibly effective at getting into position and spotting for your sniper while being effective at mid range.  Normally a role you can fill out with a Support, but if you are running 3 Assaults I would recommend trying it out sometime (like when bunch of dudes are in hospital).

I am somewhat biased though, I ended running 3 Assault, 1 Support 2 Sniper as my main team.  My opinion of Heavy could not be lower.  Others with more breadth of experience with the game might disagree.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 10, 2013, 09:44:46 PM
Yeah I can see the appeal of Notrocket, I started using one with a laser shotgun. Toasted against large groups of enemies though. Unless I throw a flash grenade in the middle oooooooh
Heavies can't hit, but they get to attack twice so this is cool? Rockets are OPB but totally amazing.
Snipers get all the exp so they max level in the second month.

I admit I have read mechanics.
Nice how story missions give -2 Panic. Because right now my fellow african countries are toasted and I should have done the story missions earlier. Hmm.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 10, 2013, 09:46:27 PM
Assault also deserves hype for that ability that grants a free reaction shot if an enemy moves within 3 range. One-rounding berserkers with that is good times.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on June 10, 2013, 10:13:44 PM
Also Lightning Reflexes!  Kind of important, that one.  (I was never entirely sure when maneuvering in the back would lead to reaction fire, but letting the assault do some dancing first usually solved that problem.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on June 10, 2013, 11:32:26 PM
Assault is great, but I will say that I've had solid success with Heavies. Rockets are pretty devastating.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 10, 2013, 11:58:28 PM
Heavy has a neat trick with a stealth suit where you fire, then go stealth and then move as far forward as you can. The enemy won't fire on you but they WILL usually move past you. Then when you get your next turn and stealth drops you unload on them, crossfire style.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 11, 2013, 01:39:49 AM
Assault has this cool trick with stealth where you crawl up something's butt with Run and Gun and Double Shot and kill any enemy in the game in one turn with sky high crit rates without them having a chance to fire back*.

*Strategy may not scale with difficulty level.

Lightning Reflexes is another one of those game changers.  You already have a huge bonus to evasion when running, but knowing that the first shot will miss gives you confidence to run them in most places and be able to survive.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 11, 2013, 02:42:09 AM
Oracle of Seasons: The final boss is Velguarder Sigma.  That is all.

Game is...well, Link's Awakening with a Season gimmick, different dungeons/bosses, and a few unique items.  Fun enough I suppose.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 11, 2013, 03:02:49 AM
Lightning Reflexes is probably the best talent in the game across all levels of difficulty, yeah.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 11, 2013, 08:45:56 AM
Penny Arcade 4 - This is good in the same ways PA3 was.  Get it and enjoy.

I find it amusing that Grefter likes PA so much since every time I experience PA comics/games/whatnot, I keep thinking of Tycho as a less-attractive Grefter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 11, 2013, 11:25:11 AM
Tycho is somewhere between Alex and  I on the personality spectrum.  Unlike me he can actually write.  Unlike Alex he loves to express his self loathing quite vocally.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Otter on June 11, 2013, 01:27:01 PM
PA4: so I started on Insane and gave up on the fourth fight, switching it back down to Veteran for the rest of the playthrough and finding it basically kinda tame.  Game finished, it's great but a little too easy on Veteran.  Final party: Mr. Beaks, Philosofly, Dust Bunny, Nigiri-Chu.  I missed anything optional that wasn't in the Colosseum.

I restart on Insane and realize you don't have to fight that fourth fight immediately, you can skip it and gain a level on a much easier fight before going back.  Okay!  I clear out part of the Ice Cream Cave without spending any money but I can't quite beat the boss or a few of the other hard encounters (Iceking guy) so I go and spend most of my money on a Mail-Order Axe for Mr. Beaks.  This gives me very respectable bleed damage and the Ice Cream Cave crumbles.

On Veteran it was trivial to spend all my money on duplicator upgrades and ignore the other shops, so this is a wake-up call.  Basically equipment is the efficient short-term investment but it'll eventually be obsoleted by what you find in chests, so you wisely want to invest in duplo upgroids instead because those will last you the rest of the game, except you can't do that exclusively because you need stats now.  I'll be interested to hear if someone better than me manages to handle Insane without Kiko's shop.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on June 11, 2013, 02:19:24 PM
I had the same experience as you with Insane early on, but now that I have some gear and levels I will probably switch back. Liking the game in general. I wasn't looking forward to the Pokemon mechanic but it's handled pretty well. Also the whole demon train sequence is great.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 12, 2013, 12:34:37 AM
"Lightning Reflexes is probably the best talent in the game across all levels of difficulty, yeah."
Lightyears behind Squadsight on easy/normal in any case. There just aren't that many enemies with Overwatch, and getting hit by Overwatch is rarely an issue.
I imagine that the best strategy is to be pretty defensive on high level difficulties and can't see it getting that much better.
Definitely convenient though.


Anyway everybody is maxed. The last destroyer skill is impossible to choose.
Everyone has a satellite, except those bastard germans/russians who left despite my sats / two ships over France.

I built a robot. He had half the hit rate of a destroyer in his first round of battle, and he died in his second. I was fighting three mutons, accidentaly triggered a fight against another muton + one super muton, and all my 65-80% hits missed. I gave a robot sacrifice to the RNG gods. (Amazingly, this worked and everybody else survived)

Maybe I built my assault wrong, but he doesn't do -that- much when he goes up against enemies, even after flanking and with plasma weapons.
Heavy has gotten a lot worse though, now that Rockets aren't OHKO machines. My appreciation for Bullet Swarm dropped. Suppression is still something I guess.
Support is kinda stealing the show, for non sniper classes. Flash grenades are great, move is great, healing is great, they get two items. They'd be useful as healbots, but they also get roughly the same damage potential as heavy/assault with the same durability and nifty support skills.
Sniper was already awesome and now he casually doubleacts. Line of sight stuff is still a problem though.

I really don't get why enemies move when not under player sight. It's more realistic but it really brings nothing to the gameplay and is a constant annoyance. I don't want to search the whole map for one last robot disc who's having fun circling around the borders of the map at mad speed.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on June 12, 2013, 03:38:47 AM
FF13-2: finished epic animu rivalry scenes between a KH character and some guy who went to the penis envy school of weapon picking

Then I punched a bunch of flans because shit, that's what I do.

we need a return of science

FFD: I'm in the final part of the game now. I just finished the second-to-last 'real' dungeon and I'm going through all of the little time warps now.

Party looks like this, all around Level 70:

Alba: Level 20 Ninja with full Monk skillset, STR+20%, and Backliner equipped. Ninja is silly fast in this game, kinda like Ursula from FF4TAY. Backliner allows you to attack from the back row at full damage. Probably the best character due to the mad speed. Has Smash as her F-Ability which is great.

Glaive: Level 15 Magus with Doublecast. Doublecast Flare is a thing that happens.

Sol: Level 19 Dragoon with full Warrior skillset, STR+20%~ Not as fast as Alba but still pretty fast; makes up for the lower damage and speed with having decent durability and White Wind from F-Ability.

Dusk: Level 15 Seer with Summon and MP+20%. The essential support character (has Hastaga!) and can beat down some randoms too. Diablos is broken in this game.

Aigis: Level 20 Paladin with Doublehand, STR+20%, Damage to MP. Tanky and decent damage, better MT than Sol but is slower.

Definitely a twist on FF5 in the same way that TAY is a twist on FF4. The game's writing is very lazy except for the ridiculous Alba, who breaks the fourth wall a few dozen times. The cute white mage with the cat ears hitting bitches with lightning bolts made me smile too I admit! Otherwise this game is mostly a gameplay experience. I like the boss design, I like the dungeons, and I definitely like the split parties and how they threw a wrinkle in the job system by not letting everyone have the same combination of classes. it doesn't have the wacky, random deaths of FF5 with the Level whatever spells, which I do appreciate.  I am really surprised that this game is so long! I am at 46 hours right now. Absolutely worth the 18 bucks I spent on it.

SMB2: Been playing this a lot lately. Beat the game once using only Princess, one game trying to use everyone equally, one game using everyone but Princess equally and trying to figure out who works best for each level, and one playthrough which I rolled a dice for who would do each level. Drew Toad for the last level both attempts! :(

Suikoden I: Racial tension over, time to go kill recruit a douchey narcissist.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 12, 2013, 09:54:57 AM
You're not using SARA?! Clearly you are playing wrong by not honoring the Tallychus.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on June 12, 2013, 03:51:51 PM
???
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 13, 2013, 02:48:35 PM
New Super Mario Bros. U:  I haven't played any of the other games barring a brief political stint with NSMBW at DLCon, so...yeah, keep that in mind for some of my comments!  Actually, this is going to be a brief rant.

That said, finished the main game.  Outside of a few levels near the end, the game is a tad too easy;  Only a few stages I actually died, even less I died multiple times (though these stages I died 5+ times because Luigi box appeared), and the game hands out free lives like candy.  I had over 80 lives by the end of the game!

Still fun if easy at times.  The boss variety is neat too, albeit fighting that SMB3 Mini Boss a bunch of times got old.  They did try to make him different in a number of ways, but still felt like the same fight over and over again.  The Koopalings being in the game is always a treat, and the fights were creative.  Roy and Ludwig stood out as the most interesting fights to me, albeit most were still easy (none of them had me dying more than once.)
The last Mid-Castle having Kamek as the boss was a nice touch, though, and he's a legitimately fun fight.  Nice change of pace from fighting the same guy 6 times, and it always bugged me in Yoshi's Island that you never actually fought Kamek seeing as he was the game's main villain (albeit, to Yoshi's Island's credit, the Baby Bowser twist at the end was funny.  Kamek just being the stooge for a whiny, toddler whose entire motive is "Wants to ride the weird green pony" was just glorious and fits into Yoshi's Islands less-than-serious narrative well.)


Bowser Jr...needs to go away.  He's so forced into this game it can't be emphasized.  He pops up mid-game, does that laugh which gets old REALLY FAST.  There's a trademark, and then there's being a one note pony who can't do anything else.  All he does is appear, "AHAHAHAH!" then try to act like he's awesome.  Go away, you're not amusing, you're annoying in that cute way, and you completely fail as a villain in any sense, and every scene your in is a scene they could have put Bowser.  His first boss fight is the over done "hit target with their own heat seeking missile" gimmick that I've seen in Mario Galaxy multiple times already, and it's even less interesting here because 2D.  Swim around in a circle, slight sharp angle, success.  ALso, shoving his face in a bunch of castles near the end adds nothing to the game in any sense.  It's just "that is ugly, and not in a good way."   Bowser Jr., you are NOW Bowser, and you never will be.

The 2nd fight tried, I guess, but still came off as forced.  Didn't help that it was tied to probably the most annoying stage in the game; the only self-moving stage, which I can deal with, that also forces a Motion Control gimmick that the game never eevn touched upon before.  No, seriously; the game never really touches Motion Controls until this point, then goes "Oh yeah, start tilting the Wii U Gamepad to move this thing."  Wish they just did, I dunno, balance based controls, as in, the platform moves based on where Mario is standing; I know they've done this before, but it feels more natural than the pad.


Bowser himself...well, I do love the whole retro thing leading up to him, and the retro style fight itself!  Of course it's a blatant cocktease because it's too simple and the final boss fight is probably the one time they actually made use of Bowser Jr. in a remotely worthwhile way. 


Oh, and Ghost Houses are annoying.  Part of this is the music; it's annoying after the 2nd loop.  The other problem is the gimmick of "illusion based stage" gets old.  Yes, I know Super Mario World had them, but I remember there being less of them and they were better spaced out.  I'll give props to the final Ghost House though; the rotating rooms was a neat gimmick.


Anyway, was decent fun, but won't go WOMG AMAZING or anything.  The Multiplayer still exists of course and that's as trainwreck and friendship breaking inducing as always...especially with a 5th player.  I played Single Player because I knew Multi-player would never allow me to actually finish the game <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 13, 2013, 08:50:43 PM
It's funny, I read that post and I have to remind myself you're describing a game I haven't played, because almost everything you mention is something from one of the first three NSMBs or SMB3. Kinda the direction Nintendo has gone with that series, which I can't say I approve of but I'll keep buying all the games for systems I own anyway because they're pretty damn good (although NSMB2 was starting to stretch my patience a bit).

Bowser Jr. is in the game because he's in all the NSMB games (and indeed, every Mario game made this century so far as I'm aware), and was the main villain of the first (Bowser appears only to be killed and revived as DRY BOWSER for the epic final confrontation). I can't speak for his portrayal in NSMBU but generally he's great and you need to stop hatin'.


God Hand Hard Mode - Chapters 3-5? Pretty easy by God Hand HM standards, I only had like ~30 continues each (with only Azel really scanning as particularly tricky boss-wise during that arc). Chapter 6? That was a whole 'nother problem. I had significant issues with the "Whip it!" stage (15 consecutive randoms, all but one fought at least two at a time unavoidably, and me with only one roulette orb), the crazy telekinetic old man (whom I never found notable on NM, but his grunts being way better makes all the difference), and Demon Shannon.

The Last Story - At what I have to assume is the final boss. The story goes into a bit of a lull when it isn't about Count Arganan or Dagran, which is a fair bit of the lategame, but eh. Gameplay did get better, as advertised, though I still could never bring myself to call this a gameplay game despite some good effort/groundwork being there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on June 13, 2013, 08:54:56 PM
I like how you call only 30 wipes easy. God Hand must be a strange little beast.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on June 13, 2013, 09:16:19 PM
FF13-2: *throws a moogle at Snow, acquires Hipster Glasses*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on June 13, 2013, 09:29:54 PM
I thought you -weren't- playing Theatrhythm.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 13, 2013, 10:56:50 PM
Quote
Bowser Jr. is in the game because he's in all the NSMB games (and indeed, every Mario game made this century so far as I'm aware), and was the main villain of the first (Bowser appears only to be killed and revived as DRY BOWSER for the epic final confrontation). I can't speak for his portrayal in NSMBU but generally he's great and you need to stop hatin'.

I dunno.  Everything I've seen about him in Super Mario Galaxy is just annoying too.  I don't find him "Great" in any sense of the word.  He's an unoriginal design (...yes, it's unoriginal; it's literally just Baby Bowser from Yoshi's Island) with no real qualities as a character that adds anything (he's unfunny, he has no real unique personality quirks other than a laugh and just taunts Mario in...uncreative matters, and he lacks Bowser's classic charm)

This is a cheaply made character who they keep bringing back.  I'm sorry, he's not great, and I know it's subjective, but I will keep hating him forever.  Congrats on making me more annoyed at him actually by making that statement <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on June 13, 2013, 10:59:31 PM
A very adult response to someone disagreeing with you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 13, 2013, 11:10:38 PM
I'm apparently missing what makes him worse than the Koopa Kids or Kamek (beyond "well they appeared in games I played as a child" which I strongly suspect is the real reason here). You can't seriously claim any of them have more personality than he does. And Bowser's child looks quite a bit like Bowser did as a child, yeah... shocking!

But hey, don't let me get in the way of your pointless hating of things, just expect to be annoyed as all signs point to him appearing regularly in Mario games for the forseeable future.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 13, 2013, 11:32:35 PM
A very adult response to someone disagreeing with you.

Hey, he told me to stop hating!  So I responded by overreacting like a jerk <_<


And I dunno; I just get bugged by him.  Kamek at least had dialog before every boss in Yoshi's Island and there was something...charming? about him.  He also didn't have the stupid laugh which they used no less than 4 times in a 3 minute time span.  The Koopalings I won't deny are total nostalgia, and part of my dislike for Bowser Jr. is how they were literally using him as a replacement for all 7 of them for a while (or so it felt like), and nothing I saw about him really justified doing that because he was about as unoriginal as they come (the design point is more an illustration of lack of creativity; came off as "make a new character with little effort, so just reuse a design and call it something else!"  Waluigi bugs me for the same reason; "make an evil Luigi because why not!"  Granted, I know the original reason was a Wario doubles partner Mario Tennis, they just never let go of him.)

I just don't see what makes him "Great"other than "He's in a Mario game, therefor I should like him!" which seems to be the defense.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on June 13, 2013, 11:36:20 PM
Clearly the only thing to be done is to resurrect the Rate The Character topic (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,4823.msg140703.html#new) and make a spreadsheet of MARIO SERIES CHARACTERS.  Then we'll finally know the numerical truth behind if the laugh is annoying or not.

That said.  I can't say Bowser Jr. did a whole lot for me in NSMB DS, the only one I've played.  I'm not saying the Koopa Kids would necessarily have been much better, though!  Mario characters plot, time to stop thinking.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 13, 2013, 11:51:37 PM
I think we can all safely agree that Fawful will rank high <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 14, 2013, 05:20:34 AM
(http://www.assetstorage.co.uk/AssetStorageService.svc/GetImageFriendly/721367288/573/500/0/0/1/80/ResizeBestFit/0/FRU/DB80D3783754758B859719D474D99B26/haters-gonna-hate-batman.jpg)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 14, 2013, 05:35:01 AM
Quote
I just don't see what makes him "Great"other than "He's in a Mario game, therefor I should like him!" which seems to be the defense.

That's definitely not it, since I don't think Kamek is particularly great! Or any of the koopalings besides Roy (Roy is awesome and I won't hear anyone say different! This may not be very rational).

Anyway, Mario characters are of course shallow as hell, so the reasons I like Bowser Jr.:
-That laugh. Particularly great in Double Dash after he pelts someone with an item. (Also on the Double Dash note, his epic bawling if he loses, like you just know Bowser is going to beat him up for his failure.)
-The audacity of raising your dad from the dead as a zombie and having a tag-team boss fight with him.
-His tendency to be a silly villain even in SMG which manages to screw up Bowser by making him too serious. (not that SMG is Bowser Jr.'s best showing either)

That's pretty much it!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 14, 2013, 07:59:33 AM
Oh man for the first time ever I agree with Meeple
Baby versions of already existing characters rank only slightly higher than QTEs on the terrible scale. You could always replace Bowser jr with Bowser and have something better. As a villain he doesn't have Bowser's size, the Koopaling's numbers/diversity or Kamek's flying or old school wizard trickz, he's just an annoying jerk kid. Which makes for a pretty bad antagonist even for a freaking Mario game.

(This is all the srs talk I can take about Mario)

"I'm apparently missing what makes him worse than the Koopa Kids or Kamek"
Dude, Ludwig Von Koopa
They should have made all the koopa kids after historical figures. Koopa Marx. Isaac Koopa (throws apples at you)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on June 14, 2013, 08:37:36 AM

"I'm apparently missing what makes him worse than the Koopa Kids or Kamek"
Dude, Ludwig Von Koopa
They should have made all the koopa kids after historical figures. Koopa Marx. Isaac Koopa (throws apples at you)


I think Fenrir wins.

Bonus, Koopa Marx reanimating the dead would make perfect sense.  Must crush capitalism.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on June 14, 2013, 03:25:25 PM
Holy rollerblading Batman smokes!~

Okami HD- Flowers, flowers, flowers everywhere~~~

Meeple why didn't you tell me I could cause flowers to burst into being everywhere or make leaves spring up or whirl through the air while running and jumping (lovely orange/red ones in the air)!?!!! Or DID you!?  :P I also have the ability to cause trees to burst up into being too now =)

Just finished doing stuffs in the field and returned to the village except for giving the guardian statue behind the wall an offering since I am not sure how to do so and I'm not sure what the green circle of light in the pond outside the Dojo's is for other than the fact Ammy doesn't drown while in that part of the pond >_>

Edit - Oh yeah!, forgot to mention since I am just playing the game again now, both Mr and Mrs Orange are hilarious! Just saw Mr Orange dancing~

I also figured out I can make the dog in the village jump into the air on all four legs every time I bark at it, I am very amused right now in general~

What should I be focusing on for boosting with Praise? Also Issun says it's safe to sell the statues and stuff I've found, is he telling the truth!? :P
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Magic Fanatic on June 14, 2013, 04:31:43 PM
Earthbound - Replaying this again.  Cheating like crazy - specifically, I've used a Save State Editor to give me the Gutsy Bat, Magic Fry Pan, Gaia Beam, 3 Rabbit's Feet, 2 Souvenir Coins, a Goddess Ribbon, and all the "of Kings" equipment, just so I don't have to really try to get to the end of the game.  I know I'm robbing myself of some of the experience, but I'm kind of on a timer right now.

Just got to Scaraba.  Levels are 42/36/38/23.  I haven't run away from fights and fought everything close to my path, but I haven't gone out of my way to fight that many extra encounters through enemy spawns.  I'm worried that I'll wind up overleveled compared to other people, but I'll just have to wait until the end of the game to really see.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on June 14, 2013, 04:43:10 PM
Penny Arcade: Climbing a tree. The Merch fight is a bitch even on Veteran. Possibly it's time to stop coasting with my party makeup.

Borderlands 2: Got back to Sanctuary, holy crap there are so many sidequests. Currently I am scavenging shields to dump into a woodchipper, before that I re-enacted The Good, The Bad And The Ugly with rocket launchers and telekinesis.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on June 15, 2013, 06:04:43 AM
Tales of Graces F: Completed sometime early in the week.

General thoughts; liked it better than Vesperia. Less general bullshit, enjoyed the characters more even if the plot itself wasn't great.
I have really mixed feelings about this game in general. I want to like it more, but there are just some issues I have that I don't think I can get over. The battle system is revamped which is both good and bad. Long story short - Star Ocean 3 already did it and did it better. I could go on a rant but since people like to take opinions as gospel, all you need to know is that I was not impressed. Considering Star Ocean 3 came out like 5 or 6 years earlier, it should be *better* in every way, not consistently worse. Oh well. Maybe all this really says is that I Tales battle systems do not attract me. Also, the music sucks. About the only good piece is Unspoken Feelings. Oh, the opening was good too, but that's about it >_>.

So yeah, play it for the characters (DRACULA RICHARD), and the battle system if that's your cup of tea. Game's probably about a 6.5 or 7/10 for me. Would probably dock all the other Tales games by one after this one though. Now, on to more important matters...

Wild ARMS 4 - 4th Speedrun completed
I plan to re-run Divine Weapon a couple of times to see if I can shoot down form 3 faster, but long story short, this run blows my previous run out of the water. I finish the game to the Ex. File point in 5 hours, 5 minutes and 44 seconds. That's about 18 minutes and 22 seconds faster than my old time. So yeah, I completely crushed it. If you use SDA's methodology and stop the timer on the kill, its about 5 hours and 2 minutes. So yes, it's really close to sub 5, which means if you scrutinize every little thing, you'll probably hit that point. I'm completely burned out though at this point. Having spent a year and a half to produce this, it's by far my best work (the time should tell you) as the executions and the strategies were all better. More short cuts, lots of crazy little tricks and most importantly, finding fixed strategies for every fight sans Earthbound Dead, Jeremy 1, Miscreation and Divine Weapon 3. That's pretty insane. Considering the fact that we started off with like 30 bosses with no known fixed strats or approach, the progress that I've been able to make over the course of 4 years still amazes me. I imagine in time, we will eventually decipher things like Accelerator and the RFX mystery when RFX goes above 500. But that's for another day.

Also, special thanks of course to Tal, who although didn't help with anything past my second attempt, laid a lot of the framework for some of the strategies that are still being used. Also, thanks to Sage/NEB/Snow for their continued interest (also, stat topic + Tiny flower tip) and Super/Grefter for conversing with me when I felt like stopping at various points but kept going. I suspect I won't be speed running, but will still do my yearly play through though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 15, 2013, 06:55:15 AM
Quote
Meeple why didn't you tell me I could cause flowers to burst into being everywhere or make leaves spring up or whirl through the air while running and jumping (lovely orange/red ones in the air)!?!!! Or DID you!?   I also have the ability to cause trees to burst up into being too now =)

I thought it was strongly implied!  After all, you can sort of do all that while playing as Ammy in MvC3!  I thought you'd have picked upon that part or something!
...yeah, I got nothing.  I think I might have mentioned it once or twice, but I can't remember.


As far as praise goes?  Don't worry too much about what you focus on.  Just raise whatever you feel like, game won't penalize you for the wrong decision once.  Okami is a very forgiving game in terms of difficulty, and it's not really demanding in terms of optional things ever.  So just go with whatever you want/feel you need at the moment, and you'll be fine.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 15, 2013, 07:25:35 AM
Ludwig von Koopa would be pretty great if he was a composer or deaf or -something-, as is it's just a cool name. I'd have loved Historical Koopas.


God Hand - Chapter 7. I was really worried about Great Sensei, he took a bunch of tries. Then I realised that Shaolin Blast + Godhand took off like 95% of his HP. Whoops! (Yeah, I'd been trying crazy shenanigans with Chain Yanker assuming his HP wouldn't be that bad).

The Last Story - So the final boss is pretty tough! GameFAQs thinks I should be 5-10 levels higher than I am though so that may be why! Not sure how this is, I didn't feel like optional quests added that much exp from those I did but maybe I missed some key late ones.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Talaysen on June 15, 2013, 12:49:20 PM
Tales of Graces F: Completed sometime early in the week.

General thoughts; liked it better than Vesperia. Less general bullshit, enjoyed the characters more even if the plot itself wasn't great.
I have really mixed feelings about this game in general. I want to like it more, but there are just some issues I have that I don't think I can get over. The battle system is revamped which is both good and bad. Long story short - Star Ocean 3 already did it and did it better. I could go on a rant but since people like to take opinions as gospel, all you need to know is that I was not impressed. Considering Star Ocean 3 came out like 5 or 6 years earlier, it should be *better* in every way, not consistently worse. Oh well. Maybe all this really says is that I Tales battle systems do not attract me. Also, the music sucks. About the only good piece is Unspoken Feelings. Oh, the opening was good too, but that's about it >_>.

Star Ocean 3 didn't "do it".  The games' battle systems are pretty different.

I guess you didn't like it as much, and that's obviously okay, but the games aren't similar enough to say that ToGf is just SO3 but worse.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on June 15, 2013, 09:23:07 PM
I dunno. At it's core, it certainly felt similar enough to me. They aren't the exact same game of course (which I apologize if it came off sounding that way), but pretty much whenever I was playing it, I would rather play SO3 if I wanted the ARPG experience. It felt less cohesive overall and the issues I had with the game were worse than the ones I have with SO3.

Even if they aren't similar...I consider SO3 to be pretty good as far as ARPGs go (dropping like 300 hours into it would be sign number 1). So I'm using that as sort of what I would expect the game to at least do. Kind of like, "Here's what I'm expecting. How do you fare in comparison" sort of deal. I mean it does better in things like ITEM CREATION, but just on the whole, as a game that came out many years after...eh. I mean, don't get me wrong. I don't hate it. Heck, it blows Vesperia out of the water for me, but compared to other games, not quite as good as I hoped. Which is a shame, because I really do want to like it more, but so it goes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on June 16, 2013, 07:50:53 AM
FF13-2: Science has officially taken over the world and it is glorious. And a little Big Brother-esque. Now we get to listen to wanky wankman talk about how he wants to kill everyone because THIS GIRL, SHE'S SUFFERING, why do games think this is a good motivation??? And then we get this scene where Caius is all like "lol kill me" and noel is like wtf man it's the girl's birthday. BUT WE MUST HAVE A MANLY DUEL, MAN, and so we fight and it is stupid. Worst birthday ever.

Now I am traversing the final dungeon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 16, 2013, 09:50:19 AM
FF13-2: Science has officially taken over the world and it is glorious. And a little Big Brother-esque. Now we get to listen to wanky wankman talk about how he wants to kill everyone because THIS GIRL, SHE'S SUFFERING, why do games think this is a good motivation??? And then we get this scene where Caius is all like "lol kill me" and noel is like wtf man it's the girl's birthday. BUT WE MUST HAVE A MANLY DUEL, MAN, and so we fight and it is stupid. Worst birthday ever.

Now I am traversing the final dungeon.

I think he might have actually been the worst antagonist a FF game has ever had.  Worse than Ultimecia or Space Pope.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 16, 2013, 12:24:23 PM
FarCry 3 : Blood Dragon - Blitzed through this on Easy on the weekend.  Why on Easy?  Because curb stomping shit like a boss is exactly how this game should be played.  Amazing 10/10 should be played.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on June 16, 2013, 01:41:22 PM
I dunno, he actually (FFXIII-2 ending SPOILERS! and stuff) succeeds in destroying the world/remaking it anew/whatever it was he was trying to do, that's how the game ends with his plan fulfilled and it was a motivation that worked apparently. Although I'm not entirely convinced there wasn't someone pulling his strings there, since in the ending Yuel doesn't seem all too bothered about what he has done to everything and in the Lightning and Snow DLC she's as creepy as hell. I'm still half convinced Etro is the villain like Fang says she's a cruel Goddess and all, either that or there is another god behind Caius, he says Lightning is the pawn of Etro but who's he the pawn of hmmm. Also I don't think everyone was killed exactly in the end by destroying the world rather Chaos came and reshaped everything, not quite sure how that's supposed to work but apparently all death is ended or something, I'm not quite sure about the suffering apart along with of ending all death and suffering though because Lightning Returns~  Anyway for FFXIII-2 in itself the game ends with the end of the world and the playable/main heroine of the game dead, no wonder people were/are pissed off~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 16, 2013, 01:59:00 PM
Caius is definitely not the worst FF Antagonist ever.  He's definitely got some major problems, but at least he has some qualities here and there (he is really good at stealing the scene and has a sense of charisma about him.  Of course, the problem is once you get past the surface...yeah...), and a few minor tweaks could have made him actually good, but they dropped the ball at several points in that development.

People just label him that because "oh god FF13-2 is the worst thing ever" and so every failure in the game gets magnified dramatically...same as FF13 in that regard really.

Hopefully, LR helps sort all this nonsense out, but it sounds like Toriyama is being Toriyama again and I don't hold out too much hope for it (still going to get it, of course.)

That said...games...


Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D: That name is a mouthful and should feel bad as a result!

Anyway, never played the Wii version, so bought this because portable and doesn't have Wii Mote wiggling.  Control scheme in both variants feels weird and I have to complain about the forced usage of L/R for mundane actions which they seem to love doing these days.  Why not just do what DKC with B = Jump, A = grab stuff, Y = Roll/Pound/Run (I think that was the control scheme.)  A strong example of "if  it's not broken, DON'T TAKE A HAMMER TO IT TO TRY AND BANG OUT THE KINKS THAT AREN'T THERE."  I wouldn't mind so much except the game lacks customization controls; you pick Analog or D-Pad, and are forced into that scheme.

Beyond that nuisance, game seems promising.  Part of what helps is that after NSMBU was disappointing on difficulty outside of a few stray stages, this game very much doesn't pull any punches right out of the bat.  Also game's humor based on the few plot scenes I've seen is fun too (DK pounding a Tiki for trying to hypnotize him is a good way to start level 1!)  Also nostalgic hearing all those DKC1 themes remixed, though I do hope for some original themes here and there.

...which reminds me, DKCRTF better have STickerbrush Symphony.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on June 16, 2013, 04:16:58 PM
Ultimecia's motivation makes no sense, but at least she doesn't have very much screentime. Caius stinks up the place with his large screentime and idiotic motivation. (Haven't seen the ending yet CTs, will read your post when I do.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 16, 2013, 07:22:33 PM
Ultimecia's motivation makes no sense, but at least she doesn't have very much screentime. Caius stinks up the place with his large screentime and idiotic motivation. (Haven't seen the ending yet CTs, will read your post when I do.)

That's basically the difference-maker, yeah.  Caius is as bad as Ultimecia, in much the same way: badly written and awfully-designed, but he's in the game so much more and it puts him over the top.  Also his abilities were defined by the director as "HE CAN DO ANYTHING" which means not only does he look awful, have bad lines and photocopied Soul Edge to cart around, but he exists as a way to excuse poor writing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on June 16, 2013, 09:07:00 PM
Well, in fairness to FF8, it doesn't even *try* to "explain" Ultimecia's goal.  "She's a crazy power mad villain, stop her."  That's okay sometimes.  Not every villain is motivated by being spurned by their girlfriend in high school or their mother dying or being betrayed by their best friend.  Sometimes they're just evil, and have bizarre / irrational goals that can't really be negotiated with - to compare her to a far better villain, see Dark Knight Joker.

Caius is frustrating because as Meeple points out, the fact he's around a bunch DOES give him presence points in a way that Ultimecia lacks (okay, yes, "Edea" in Disc 1/2 is really Ultimecia, but Ulti only gets so much credit there).  So he's a credible threat, and from a purely theoretical standpoint, some kind of deranged love triangle at the end of the world between Noel, Caius, & Yuel has genuine potential to ham it up.  Just the actual script, and the attempt to "explain" Caius, attempts to do some bizarre half-jump cartwheel reverse twist, and ends up just faceplanting instead.  They'd literally have been better off if Caius was just possessed by an evil spirit and they replaced all his lines & motivations with "MUST DESTROY...  HELP ME NOEL...  DESTROY".  That'd be uninteresting and uncreative, but at least make something approaching sense!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 16, 2013, 09:23:32 PM
tl;dr-  If you don't have any GOOD ideas, you're better off just not explaining anything at all.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on June 16, 2013, 09:35:08 PM
Also known as the "Midichlorian Principle."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 16, 2013, 11:02:08 PM
XCOM: 2 casualties the first time I see a sectopods (3 overwatches in the same turn? Really?) then 2 casualties the mission right after against three sectopods and with a terribly nerfed team.

I'm endgame and just need one cyberdisk to finish every research. Cyberdisks just don't want to appear though. I don't think I've always killed them before they could do an attack. I guess they adapted. I don't know if I want to wait for one to appear just for completition, especially since I'm playing iron man.



Anyway in this other mission I follow 2 alpha sectoids.
Enemy turn. One alpha sectoid mind controls a teammate, then 14 alpha flying enemies appear in the same turn. That's bad.

Everybody runs away and leaves poor mind controled Zhao to his fate. They hide far away and use overwatch every turn.
Three turns later, Zhao regains his sense, in the middle of every enemy. Stealth armor -> GTFO
Somehow this whole strategy worked. No casualties in that battle. Weird.


BTW Assaults are now officially rad and destroyers terrible. Other classes haven't changed.
Stealth armor is far and above every other piece of armor. It's ridiculous.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 16, 2013, 11:07:31 PM
Psi Armor is pretty cool too, if you take the right skills.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 16, 2013, 11:24:52 PM
No stealth and 20 less defense is a pretty difficult price to pay for more psy powers with long recharge time.

The only guy with psi powers in my team is the sniper (+One support, but he got eaten by a sectoid), so I pretty much don't use them anymore since I maxed them.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 16, 2013, 11:44:07 PM
I found it made the difference between mind control usually working on Berserkers and usually not, personally. Of course, my psi agent was an assault so he was good at finding clusters of dudes to MC at each other.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 17, 2013, 03:25:03 AM
DKCR: ...why was I throwing bombs at a bird in a basket?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 17, 2013, 03:52:38 AM
Since both animals spend a lot of time in trees, birds and apes are natural enemies. You should watch that show Planet Earth, it explains all about that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 17, 2013, 10:40:25 AM
tl;dr-  If you don't have any GOOD ideas, you're better off just not explaining anything at all.

Disagree entirely. I'd rather you try something batshit insane and fail spectacularly than to be vague and boring and god I'm falling asleep just thinking about examples like golden sun....
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on June 17, 2013, 10:50:28 AM
Not quite the same thing.  Golden Sun was blatantly being as generic and half-assed as possible.  FFVIII being FFVIII, there are a bunch of obscure, incredibly vague bits of plot and terminology surrounding Ultimecia that don't make a lick of sense.  But there's just enough of it that a fan so inclined can make shit up to fill in the blanks.  And if you don't have any good ideas, giving the fans some scraps and letting them make up the story will endear them to the plot far more strongly than you ever could on your own.  It's the SNES Plot Principle.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 17, 2013, 01:05:27 PM
If you offer me a choice between Caius and a Cactuar as my villain, I'd take the latter. Sure it has no personality, background or dialogue, but the ones they have to Caius actively make me hate him. Not in a way where I want to see him get taken down for his actions (see: Handsome Jack) but where I just want him the fuck off my TV. Ultimecia engenders the same response and thus, I like her more for being in the game less.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 17, 2013, 01:05:52 PM
Of course, then we get situations where people take scraps that aren't even there to imply a character is deeper and more interesting than they are.   Bonus points if the analysis goes against actual statements made in game!

Happens more with the earlier SNES RPGs than the later ones,  mind you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 17, 2013, 01:30:05 PM
Golden Sun isn't bland and unexplained.  It is boring and explained in amazing detail.

Warframe - So I haven't been talking about games much lately, it is because I have been playing this.  All the time.  Forever.  It is good.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 17, 2013, 03:16:12 PM
Quote
Golden Sun isn't bland and unexplained.  It is boring and explained in amazing detail.

That is probably the single most accurate and concise explanation of Golden Sun I have ever heard.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on June 17, 2013, 04:33:36 PM
I actually agree with both sides somewhat on the bad but interesting villain vs. the boring villain. The problem with Caius is that not only is he spectacular in his terrible, he is frankly kind of bland in his obsession with death and just being a huge prick. It's not too much we haven't seen before and it's awful.

Van is an example of a villain I think ultimately didn't work all that well because his goals are so bonkers(along with being a little underdeveloped) but I respect the game more for trying than if they had just put in a generic villain.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on June 17, 2013, 06:43:31 PM
Okami pretty much requires you kill yourself to die.

Yeah.

On the subject of stupid writing: Generally speaking, bad writing is not going to fail spectacularly in an over the top and interesting way no matter what you try. It is just going to be bad. "So bad it's good" is not a reliable thing to shoot for and is actually pretty hard to achieve.

As others have said, though, the concept is that you don't need to explain EVERY little thing as it often makes the situation worse. I'll use a different example then most people: Silent Hill. Silent Hill 2 is the best game in the series... largely because it dispenses with the cult bullshit and focuses on the important stuff. Why is the town evil? Because fuck you, the town's evil. And it works!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on June 17, 2013, 07:59:33 PM
Hey, I'm good at killing myself to die!~ Er, wat.

Ok, so it hasn't actually been fatal since way back when I only had three balls of Solar Energy and I thought it would be fun for Ammy to take a swim but yeah I'm good at in falling holes from failed jumping and blossom crossing attempts, etc  :P No, wait there was also that thing with the tree earlier on too <_<

Thanks for the advice Meeple, I am in the Moon Cave now =) I don't know why I thought this game would be short!~

I like Caius in Augusta Towers and the story about him and the warrior and how he got the name Ballad, also though I think I might just have a thing for Liam O'Brien so I hope he's in Lightning Returns >_>

Tide, by completing ToGF does that mean you did everything, like future arc and getting "Accel" mode, Richard as a PC again, roleplaying dolls, etc and cleared all of the Zhonecage and the upgraded super version of the final boss too? I thoroughly recommend it if not because stuffs like Accel modes really switch up battle dynamics a lot =) Did you finish up on Chaos mode as well? I really liked with ToGF how unlike with SO3 you could upgrade the difficulty to different modes during your current file and eventually to max straight away just as soon as you had unlocked it even though it was just your first file~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 17, 2013, 10:06:40 PM
Falling in holes doesn't count as dying in Okami.  I think it's only a bit of damage and a respawning a little back like Zelda games?  In any event, when I talk about dying, I mean "Health = 0"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on June 18, 2013, 02:59:02 AM
Injustice:  Tried out the online yesterday.  Wow it's horrible.  Worst online in any fighting game I've seen.  Yeah that's right it's worse than first build Marvel vs Capcom 3.  So much lag.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on June 18, 2013, 05:04:21 PM
BL2: Raiding the Hyperion company town. SO MANY ROBOTS. I did finally get a corrosive sniper rifle, but it's underpowered and really not doing the trick here. Got a badass 3x3000 rocket launcher from a SHIFT promo code a few days ago, maybe I'll switch to primarily using that and just burn money on ammo. Or I could throw money at Moxxi until she gives me that corrosive SMG.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on June 18, 2013, 07:08:43 PM
Kid Icarus Uprising: My 3.5 melee/ranged starred End-All Arm kills all the bosses before the dialogue plays, the folly of no health bars. Also Hades needs more lines, he is swagmaster.

Bioshock Infinite: Possession I've found is pretty good for getting people to stop shooting me and shoot someone else, but I must incorporate the charge vigor as it is the greatest move.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on June 18, 2013, 07:35:20 PM
Mario Kart Wii- Been playing this. What the hell to not being able to jump.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 18, 2013, 07:49:39 PM
You couldn't jump in Double Dash either and that didn't stop that game from being good! (Overall I like jumping but it's not especially necessary, and I think SMK is the only game which had track design significantly encourage it.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on June 18, 2013, 09:18:25 PM
Bioshock Infinite: Cawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcawcaw
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cawcaw

Agreed.

Seriously though, every single Vigor appears to be awesome.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 18, 2013, 09:39:29 PM
Bioshock Infinite: Possession I've found is pretty good for getting people to stop shooting me and shoot someone else, but I must incorporate the charge vigor as it is the greatest move.

Upgrade it so you can play as a Vanguard.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 18, 2013, 11:46:56 PM
XCOM: Finished. Climatic ending:
*Assault enters the last room*
Final boss: I am the alpha and omega... *summons a few high level monsters*
*Sniper: Headshot, double tap, regular attack, boss dies*


Yeah so XCOM was decent but I'm disappointed.
For all that this and FE are very different, they're good for the same reason, because the game goes player phase / enemy phase / player phase instead of Random/CTB like Shining Force or FFT.
You get that moment where you see 5 enemies, you can move any allies anyway you want, and the goal is to find the tactic with the lowest % chance anyone of your characters dies. I like that.

The game wastes 70% of your time moving allies in a small group from point A to point B without fighting enemies. This ruins the game. It needs to be mentioned again. Having to move every ally across the map in FE is annoying enough, but this is ten times. It is more boring that Glass Pumpking farming in TO.

Classic/Impossible mode look really fun at times, but a higher difficulty level means having to be even more careful and wasting even more time.
So nope.

The macro gestion level was interesting, even if a bit unbalanced. The early/midgame taunts you with way too many things to spend money on and not enough money, even starting in Africa.
The choices are pretty interesting. I think I made the best ones: Go for satellites all the time. Forget about them for 5 minutes and upgrade armor for everyone as soon as better armor becomes available. Try to find a balance between them and new weapons.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on June 19, 2013, 06:39:12 AM
FFD - Finished! Final boss wasn't too hard, but I had some trouble with at least one boss before him. Plot twist ending lulz!! Fun game, people with iOS should try it if they are in the mood for a little old school gaming with some modern conventions(save points, shops in more convenient places, warp points).

FF13-2: Also finished. Holy fuck that final boss was a bitch. I did pretty much the bare minimum of stuff, got 34 fragments? Had to leave and get about 300 extra HP which made all the difference. Ended up with 38 or 39 fragments due to grabbing a few for free EXPs. Highlights of the game are Mog and listening to Super weep about Chocolina.

FF5 - Started the 4JF with a black mage army. Not as kawaii as Vivi though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 19, 2013, 10:26:07 AM
FF5 on iOS or emulated somehow?  Because you know, iOS version not so bad.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 19, 2013, 10:50:12 AM
Tales of Eternia: been poking at this for a while when there was an LP going on. Never finished it before. Currently on Disc 3. The end of the world is nigh! Only three Suom until the planets collide! Plenty of time to wander around finishing side quests, I assume? How long is a fucking Suom?

The LP is great. It makes the game seem a lot better than it is.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on June 19, 2013, 05:17:45 PM
I already own two versions of FF5! Playing GBA version.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on June 19, 2013, 05:59:41 PM
Borderlands: Okay I'm finished Opportunity and never ever going back. Although looking ahead in the walkthrough I am now absolutely terrified of Hero's Pass because it is apparently worse than this place, which is already "take three steps, fight six waves of 20 engineers and robots each."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 19, 2013, 09:42:01 PM
FF5 is the FF I won't dis owning multiple copies of.

FF5 - I got Blue Mage.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 19, 2013, 10:05:07 PM
FF5 on iOS or emulated somehow?  Because you know, iOS version not so bad.

If the world map had a "this is the next dungeon or town you need to go to!" dot I would say it is the idea FF for a phone.  I'm not required, or even expected, to be invested in the characters, plot or game world.  It's just something I can take out and dick around with in 15-minute chunks while I'm waiting on the bus or heating my oven or whatever.  The only problem is not always remembering what happened last.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 19, 2013, 10:26:19 PM
And that is why I pimp FF Dimensions, because that is exactly what it is.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 20, 2013, 12:24:10 AM
FF3 PSP:

Morto, Morta, Yattaf and Mortes are the four warriors of light.
Three of them get eaten by a werewolf.

FF3 gives a lot of goodies at you early on. Including: A bow, holy arrows and 2000G (wooden arrows costing 4G each)
Storebought potions/antidotes + holy arrows kick the crap out of the western tower, and get Yattaf one level per fight + one kickass sword.
I actually never end up using that sword because holy arrows are that good. I fly through the Djinn cave because I don't want to have a lot of levels as a crappy freelancer and holy arrows don't grow on trees.

Djinn: "Ohcrap I still have Autobattle on" (this already has and will cause a lot of trouble). So Yattaf hits him with a physical while he started doing mass damage. Of course he then dies to a single Antartic Wind. Whatever. Level 11.

CLASS CHANGE.
Choice.


lol

Monks get the highest Hp growth, HP being the only relevant stat at levelup. In a solo (=overleveled) game their attacks scale better than any sword. (Probably) Counter is sick solo, as it counters any physical with a 2x power attack, and can work multiple times per round.
Going back to the djinn cave to get the remaining treasures gives me all the levels I need for the next stretch of the game.
At that point I get 99 potions.

Bahamut: Mortes, Morto and Morta came back from the dead for the noble purpose of fleeing from the fight. Then got eaten by a werewolf again.

Black wizard or Red Wizard for the rat cave? Red Wizard is more convenient since he has Mini, but I don't want to nerf myself in that hellish dungeon.
Giant rat: It always does at least one physical / round, and its physical does 20 damage to my back row mage. (who has 380 HP) Fire spells hurt a bit more, but three Thundaras kill the rat.

Game flies by amazingly fast. Yattaf punches things and drinks potions. No problem.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 20, 2013, 01:29:22 AM
Donkey Kong Country Returns: I beat a weird Dinosaur thing that breathes fire.  Seriously, I don't know what that was, but I am on World 7.

Chronicles of Mystara: Played Shadow Over Mystara as a Fighter, and part of Tower of Doom as a Dwarf.

Shadow Over Mystara remains a damn fine game, I don't think anyone is surprised, and Fighter is probably one of the more boring characters in the game!  Tower of Doom...feels very generic in comparison.  It's not bad, but Shadow Over Mystara is a significant improvement over it's predecessor.

People need to buy the compilation in any event because seriously, SHADOW OVER MYSTARA IS ON AN ACTUAL CONSOLE NOW.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 20, 2013, 02:28:48 AM
WTF is Mystara?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 20, 2013, 02:35:56 AM
Some shitty D&D game.  Only losers play tabletop.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 20, 2013, 02:37:31 AM
WTF is Mystara?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQQ3zq4x4Kw

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 20, 2013, 03:10:17 AM
Oh, Okay, the D&D Beat'em up. That's all you had to say, man. I didn't know those things even -had- subtitles...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on June 20, 2013, 04:43:55 AM
BTW, the english release will be a watered down version done by an alternate team, while the original crew will be working on the Japanese retail copy that is the complete version. Don't ask me why Capcom think this is a good idea.

I dunno, he actually (FFXIII-2 ending SPOILERS! and stuff) succeeds in destroying the world/remaking it anew/whatever it was he was trying to do, that's how the game ends with his plan fulfilled and it was a motivation that worked apparently. Although I'm not entirely convinced there wasn't someone pulling his strings there, since in the ending Yuel doesn't seem all too bothered about what he has done to everything and in the Lightning and Snow DLC she's as creepy as hell. I'm still half convinced Etro is the villain like Fang says she's a cruel Goddess and all, either that or there is another god behind Caius, he says Lightning is the pawn of Etro but who's he the pawn of hmmm. Also I don't think everyone was killed exactly in the end by destroying the world rather Chaos came and reshaped everything, not quite sure how that's supposed to work but apparently all death is ended or something, I'm not quite sure about the suffering apart along with of ending all death and suffering though because Lightning Returns~  Anyway for FFXIII-2 in itself the game ends with the end of the world and the playable/main heroine of the game dead, no wonder people were/are pissed off~

fal'Cie=Etro is not cruel but stupid. As in insufferably and irrevocably stupid.
String pulling? Maybe. There is that monster behind the chaos that appeared in the vision fal'Cie=Cactaur showed to Snow.
On the other hand, I do feel Yuel is innocent in all this, with Snow as her last hope.
I was also under the impression that fal'Cie=Pulse and fal'Cie=Lindze let the events in FF13-2 happened on purpose, knowing that'll open up the path to Invisible World for them to complete their focus.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 20, 2013, 04:53:08 AM
Every time you explain something that happened in FF13 I don't know who I want to hit more, the people who wrote it or the people who bought it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on June 20, 2013, 06:30:44 AM
Toriyama of course. Square would be a much better company if he is gone.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on June 20, 2013, 07:10:37 AM
FF13-2: Just because he succeeds at his plans doesn't mean his motivation is legitimate. He succeeds because he is immortal, not through any clever planning or particular talent for anything besides douchebaggery. His success is just because the game tells us he's successful! I should do the Light/Snow DLC though.

Blue Dragon: Played the first hour of this game on Hard Mode. Pretty fun so far! Shu is an awful character. Holy shit. Nene is awesome though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 20, 2013, 07:37:57 AM
Toriyama of course. Square would be a much better company if he is gone.

I suspect more and more that the only thing at Square-Enix that wouldn't improve the company by leaving are the words "Square" and "Final Fantasy."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 20, 2013, 08:02:41 AM
The Last Story - So I beat this. Surprisingly short game, it only took me 22 hours. Could go a bit further if you did more sidequests (I did a few if they looked plot-promising but by no means all or even a majority).

Anyway, its writing is certainly the reason to play it. It's pretty good on the story front, though certainly could be better. It walks some well-travelled paths certainly but generally walks those paths pretty well. Two of its plot threads are in particular quite interesting: the Zael/Calista romance is pretty solidly done and I liked the somewhat unexpected direction it goes in even if the destination is largely predictable. And the machinations of Count Arganan and Dagran, who are morally questionable but on your "side" and make the dynamics of the game for less black and white. In general the game was at its best when following one of those three characters (Zael excluded, he's always around). Unfortunately I think all get a bit less screentime than I'd like for their stories to be effective. The rest of the cast is okay but generally unspecial, a mix of red herring characters and party members who are decent but won't be entering into the realm of many people's all-time favourites. The story has some weaker points too; Zangurak's a pretty lame villain and I don't think the game sold me on the Gurak perspective of things too well (though it did a good job of showing that the humans weren't exactly paragons either!). The human villains are pretty good though, Jirall's descent into madness was great (this is what happens when you take an already jealous and somewhat unstable individual and throw him in prison for a few months for a crime he didn't commit!) and the fight with him was a great scene as far as music/VA were concerned, while Dagran's just a smooth customer and his villainous motivations are pretty reasonable... just wish he'd had a bit more screentime! I also like how the party dealt with him in the epilogue.

Gameplay's weird. I can't say at the end of the day that it's great, but at least it's different. Kinda surprising that Mistwalker went in this direction for the game. There are shades of FF13 here... it's fast-paced, you only directly control one PC, drawing enemy attention is a key part of the system, you can periodically change your allies' AI... but past that the similarities largely end, the combat is somewhat ARPGish. Sadly the ally control isn't really fast-paced enough to ever be intriguing as such (it takes a while to recharge the command ability) but it is a key part of battles. I kinda liked how the game encouraged you to do damage in unusual ways instead of just rushing up and pounding on something (slash, vertical slice, or chain combo with allies) although sometimes pounding was the only practical way, or one of the others could get repetitive. Overall I was left wanting a lot from the combat, it is a bit unpolished and the inability to control non-Zael characters EVER was annoying. Fights kinda vary, some are interesting certainly but some can't possibly threaten to overwhelm the 5 lives everyone has, which still feels a bit like a hack. For a while I figured the game would be uber-easy but there were a few quite competent fights later on, at least. I actually couldn't beat the final boss at the level I reached him/her, but fortunately the game puts a grind spot near the final save point which lets you level up really fast if you want. Final level was 56->61.

Music's good because Uematsu. Not much more to say.

It's probably the best Mistwalker game though it's very different! Blue Dragon the gameplay game, Lost Odyssey somewhere in between, now Last Story the plot game. 6/10? 7 if I'm feeling very generous. Not as good as Paper Mario which I'm now convinced is a 7.


God Hand HM - Beaten. 460 continues. The real number is higher because I turned off the game a couple times. Fun times, game was very tough throughout, no surprise there. Final boss was good fun, felt a bit more like DMC/Mega Man than the usual God Hand fight (hard to put into words what I mean there... just that there's a very, very heavy emphasis on avoiding each attack correctly I guess, whereas many other bosses you can brute force offensively more), in a good way. And I mean no disrespect to God Hand there! Next playthrough will be Kick Me Sign Normal. One thing about God Hand is that random drops really dictate your level of "free" offence which is huge in getting past any given boss or room. This is both a weakness and strength of the game, but as I get better at the game I'd kinda like to liberate myself from it a bit... no roulette/God Hand probably goes a long way there. Normal Mode because while HM was fun, I am in no way ready for KMS on it, and I really do like the NM fluctuating difficulty.


Valkyria Chronicles 2 - So I started this up. Hmm, interesting setup they have here, politicky alternaty early 20th century Europe, seems kinda cool OH GOD THE ANIME TROPES THEY ARE DIALLED UP TO ELEVEN NOOO. (To be fair I was warned about this.) Too early to say much about gameplay. Or plot even. But yeah.


FF5 4JF - Almost done my Monk/Mystic Knight/Bard/Dragoon playthrough, I'll put together an actual post for that later since this one is already long enough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: kokushishin on June 20, 2013, 10:44:04 AM
Thanks to a friend I should have Xenoblade fairly soon.   Never really had much interest in TLS although I watched some friends go through the whole game. They're trying Pandora's Tower now and the camera seems like a major hassle.


Quote
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning DID sell millions.  That game wasn't what brought 38 Studios down.

It needed to be a blockbuster to cover all of their other deals (like housing for employees that moved) and fund Copernicus.


Quote
Apparently something that Catiua-as-Princess gets hyped for is Princess Whim

It's one of the few universal debuff removers, but it's more a perk rather than a feature. Princess is more along the lines of divine beams of doom while wielding Swords of Plot Importance. 

Weapons are fastest (compounded with having more ways to trigger and stacking with augments, ology etc.) while Steal is the slowest.


Mobility is key for 'that one battle' in Diego's quest.   

While admittedly a fuckton more complicated now, Deneb in the original still involved buying Orbs and collecting Glass Pumpkins.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on June 20, 2013, 12:59:34 PM
Okami HD- Ryoshima Coast. Just lifted the curse zone and exploring now. This game is magic. Sooo much fun!~ I have now found a set of three dogs that jump up into the air on all four paws when Ammy barks at them, I have also fed them so jumping heart dogs~ So unbelievably cute!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on June 20, 2013, 01:49:23 PM
Valkyria Chronicles 2 - So I started this up. Hmm, interesting setup they have here, politicky alternaty early 20th century Europe, seems kinda cool OH GOD THE ANIME TROPES THEY ARE DIALLED UP TO ELEVEN NOOO. (To be fair I was warned about this.) Too early to say much about gameplay. Or plot even. But yeah.

Sadly you have already summarized the plot.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on June 20, 2013, 02:55:39 PM
Overall I was left wanting a lot from the combat, it is a bit unpolished and the inability to control non-Zael characters EVER was annoying.

Hey now, the Metal Gear Calista segment exists, that's kinda like (crossbow-only) combat!

kokushishin: Sure, I knew that, but my point was that if 38 Studios had just made Reckoning and not shoved a giant pile of cash into the money pit that was "let's do a WoW clone without much experience or lots of venture capital", they'd probably have been rather pleased with themselves and had enough money to take a shot at a 2nd game.

Re Deneb: That's not really an excuse!  Despite going to Deneb's shop, I certainly recall never getting a clue that said "sell Glass Pumpkins to me," and if there was one, then FINDING the dang things, and knowing how ridiculously many you need, certainly torpedoes this sidequest idea into the worst-of-all-time category.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 20, 2013, 05:22:33 PM
Yeah, Snowfire, and there are a few more small bits of controlling other PCs, but never more than 2-3 battles and you never get to choose to do so. What's really weird is they made a mechanic of how the player directly controls spellcasting but then never uses it outside like five fights!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 20, 2013, 08:39:11 PM
Quote
BTW, the english release will be a watered down version done by an alternate team, while the original crew will be working on the Japanese retail copy that is the complete version. Don't ask me why Capcom think this is a good idea.

I think you're overstating things a bit.

The core games are the same, and the digital release has a lot of the extras.  The only actual differences are the color editor and the fact that there is no limit on number of a class used at once (normally, there's a limit of two, since there's only 2 colors per class.)

A lot of the other bonus goodies are...special edition release only, and that version costs an equivalent of $126.  Compare that to the release we got which costs only $15.

The reason the game isn't getting a physical release stateside is because for a game like this, there's little market for that.  An "HD" version of an arcade Beat 'em Up is very much the exact game they'd release digital only stateside.    Frankly, Japan gets a lot of Collectors Editions the US never gets, like the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Collectors Set.


It's hardly "Watered down."  Missing two factors that weren't even in the original game?  Maybe (Not saying they're insignificant ones), but you exaggerating the differences here.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 20, 2013, 09:02:17 PM
Are these missing thins available as DLC?

If so this is just DLC as ala carte game sales happening again.. I a, okay with this.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 21, 2013, 01:08:50 AM
No mention of it one way or another, which suggests it's not happening.  I mean, it's not impossible, but I figured something like that would be noted if it was planned for one version and DLC for another.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 21, 2013, 06:02:59 AM
Yeah, Snowfire, and there are a few more small bits of controlling other PCs, but never more than 2-3 battles and you never get to choose to do so. What's really weird is they made a mechanic of how the player directly controls spellcasting but then never uses it outside like five fights!

In Multiplayer (and I think the arena), you can choose any PC as your main controlled character. So all of them have functioning controls. Why they didn't implement PC -choice- in the maingame is anyone's guess... particularly when you consider how relatively infrequent the segments with -just- Zael are...

Tales of Eternia: Sweet, finally beat this thing! It's actually not as bad as my first impression of the game. It actually does a ton of things right in combat, particularly the multiplayer controls (something that ToE did first, I hadn't realized). The difficulty balance is pretty amazing, too. Lots of standard things are pretty good too. The Craymel Fringing is neat, the encounter rate hits a nice sweet spot, the puzzles are (usually) not very tedious, and the game is shorter than most in the Tales of series so it doesn't wear out its welcome nearly that quickly. Music is nice, too. Melnics is a cool concept, if overall poorly implemented.

However, there's some pretty egregious problems. Namely the painful painful voice-acting, the terrible character designs, the first 2/3s of the plot (I kinda like Shizel as a villain at least), and any of the rest of the villain cast. Chat/Quickie/Meredy are also pretty terrible to varying degrees. Farah, despite my initial loathing, probably ended up the best actually developed character? Yeah, -Farah-.

It's an interesting little bit of mechanical history to the Tales series. And since ToV and ToG are so much fun, I'm glad it happened and that I finally finished it. Not really a recommended part of the series unless you -really- like 2D Tales fighting and have four people to play it together? Still 10000% better than Legendia~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 21, 2013, 06:13:24 AM
The real question is A) Did you realise that Meredy has brain damage and B) Keele approval or disapproval?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on June 21, 2013, 07:27:46 AM
The real question is A) Did you realise that Meredy has brain damage and B) Keele approval or disapproval?

Also that Reid is the only one with common sense.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 21, 2013, 08:36:42 AM
Meredy was grating and it's clear that there are plot holes galore involving the Melnics translation issue (seriously, how hard is it to keep track of your handwave-y excuses for why people can speak to eachother?).... BUT I genuinely appreciated the attempt of incorporating foreign language into a JRPG for once. And I accept that Meredy's weird speech patterns are totally because she's trying to learn a second language really fucking fast. The Magic Translator Earrings generally work for why the others can speak/understand Melnics, but whenever Meredy talks, I'm assuming she's trying to talk in Inferian, which explains the childlike syntax issues. I know that my second-language skills were pretty basic for a long time, too. It's a nice touch, even if they drop the ball on it a million times.

As for Reid being the only one with common sense... well, it's a valid criticism, but the main villain plot in Eternia isn't really based on common sense, so Reid isn't as effective as Keele's goonlord logic, Farah's insecure need to help literally -everyone-, or Meredy's familial duty to keep driving plot forward. Overall, I found Reid pretty funny, but kinda lackluster as an actual -protagonist-. I like him better in the crossover games where he's not the main character. It helps that he gets a voice actor who knows what inflection is. (Impressive considering he has probably a grand total of 15 voiced lines in Radiant Mythology, but god damn the VA in ToE sucks.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on June 21, 2013, 09:48:16 AM
You missed both then, Djinn.

Meredy talks with the same syntax problems -in both languages-. When they get to the other planet, it's pretty clear she's speaking her native language. You see her speak to other members of her race, of which she would have no reason to speak Inferian.

For Reid, it's the sequence of events in the Inferian capital. Reid is the only one to point out that further continuing to convince the powers that be of their mission is a bad idea, but is consistently outvoted at each step by Keele and Farah, despite evidence becoming overwhelmingly on his side.

And yeah, I liked the use of Melnics, despite iffy implementation and balldropping. Actually have a font for it and could read it easily for a while. NERDPOINT: Zenny and I used to have full conversations using the font! LOLOL KILL OURSELVES.

Reid does work in TotW, especially when paired with Arche. Games that use the crossover for comedies are generally good for that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 22, 2013, 05:53:56 AM
FF5 Four Job Fiesta 2013 - Finished.

Run this time was Monk, Mystic Knight, Bard, and Dragoon. Quick review time!

Monk: They have lots of HP. Best of anyone, and they get passives that boost it. Barehanded is really good early, both as a passive ability and something they can easily spread to other classes. Falls off as time goes on, beyond some good synergy with Hero's Rime. Counter's also nice. Kick is useful in occasional randoms and against Dragon Pod. Their weaknesses are a lack of variety and being all-around underwhelming later, a lack of evasion for a front-row class, and lack of weapon options (Main Gauche, can't use Spellblade, etc.). Focus is also a nice and rather underrated skill, 2x damage in 1.5x normal time, and also disables Chicken Knife's downside.

Mystic Knight: Heavy fighter class with unusually high speed but unusually low Str/HP by their standards (still good of course). Their skillset... hmm. Obviously needing two turns is a downer. Bad in W1 randoms, but good against most W1 bosses due to hitting weaknesses... those that lack weaknesses though, they are awful against. In W2 they get Break Sword. This move rocks, it does take setup but petrify hits almost everything. Lategame they get Flare Sword which is solid certainly. Their weaknesses are of course the setup time, and the fact that they have a stretch late W2 / early W3 with terrible weapons (no new weapons between Bal and the W3 airship). Having now run both, I can say quite confidently that no, they aren't as good as Time Mage as far as water jobs go, whose skills manhandle boss fights and are at worst comparable against randoms (nothing as fatal as Break Sword, but lots of other tricks).

Bard: MT stop/confuse? Sign me up. Bard is the best class I've ever used on fiesta against randoms, most likely, barring a small number which block both statuses. Then they fail. This sums them up nicely overall until W3 (I could give them Barehanded and put them in the front row, but the durability's ugly). In W3 they gain a great trick for bosses in Hero's Rime, which raises party level. I've never really used it before unlike the status songs. It's actually decently solid, upping all the party's damage considerably. Monk in particular goes kinda crazy, it tops out at like 7k damage. Anyway the class is too bad against bosses for too much of the game (and the problematic HP persists forever) but beyond that they're reasonably solid, OMG a good FF bard.

Dragoon: Third year in a row with these losers. As usual they're a mediocre job which at least has shields. Being the only high-strength class in my team that can actually use knives meant they got spellblade. Daggers for life, yo. So yeah they were the crappy Mystic Knight with a locked secondary pretty much.

Generally speaking, setups were:

Monk + Sing or Focus
Mystic Knight + Focus
Bard + HP+30% (sometimes Barehanded)
Dragoon + Spellblade (rarely Focus)

Notable bosses:

Garula: Owned by Defend and Counter. Fitting since he's all counters himself.

Liquid Flame: Spellblade's by no means a free win here! The hand can't be hit, and the counters/damage are nasty otherwise with a non-healing team. Barely pulled through.

Sandworm (2 resets): Holy shit. So, this normally terrible boss has Auto-Protect so he can last a while, and I had no spammable healing better than Potions. His 60 MT damage + Sap actually is kinda scary! Had to break down and use a couple Elixirs, then he was easy. Any team with magic damage or healing sould have little issue here, I just had a rare one without!

Archeoaevis: Competent due to lack of weaknesses and my continued lack of healing, but I was able to slug it out with him okay. Mighty March (regen song)'s best showing!

Titan: Dodge Earth Shaker via Alluring Air to charm a Ghaelicat into floating me in advance.

Manticore (1 reset): Vulnerable to stop, but I got lazy and he actually overwhelmed me once since his AI decided to spam Aqua Breath. Second attempt I just locked him down as one should.

Dragon Pod: lol Kick for the win

Atomos: Sleep Spellblade. Here I learned that it doesn't apply sleep if the target is already asleep, so I had to be kinda careful about alternatingly hitting him with that and something else.

Seal Guardians: The team is only barely strong enough to blitz past each crystal limit range, so did so. I botched one but that only meant some Phoenix Downs had to come out.

Exdeath 1: Actually kinda competent since my party was at a huge low point for damage here! Very, very slow fight but plenty of Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs, along with Swift Song, sufficed here.

Once I hit W3 I realised that all I needed was enough HP to survive one particular attack, so I reached Level 33 and started running from everything else because why not. As usual I buy Hermes Sandals immediately and pick up my appropriate legendary weapons (as well as an early Rift dive to get the Enhancer for my MK) and the rest of the game largely folds. Hero's Rime starts seeing play here for any bosses lasting longer than a couple rounds (except Omniscient).

Omniscient: Silence Spellblade spam so that he can't cast Return despite my physical offence. Unfortunately here I learned that using Spellblade removes weapon elements, so I couldn't use Air Knives like I'd planned.

Omega: So Bard and Mystic Knight may be the two best jobs for this. Two Romeo's Ballads used in alternation lock him down utterly, Thundaga Spellblade lets me hit him decently hard.

Catastrophe: Notable for one reason only: his Earth Shaker I had no answer for, so the level I bothered to reach? Entirely for this guy. I probably could have gone out, got Float cast on me via confuse and use the extra turn from him dispelling it to blitz him, but that is way too much effort for how deep into the dungeon this is.

Twintania: I don't always blitz this guy, but with Holy Spellblade and Hero's Rime, why not?

Necrophobia: So I screw this one up and am constantly reviving from his doubleact near-OHKO, but it's all ST and I'm auto-hasted so I'm not really in danger of losing.

Tree Exdeath: I screw this one up and he hits me with a really lucky Meteor! Fortunately I'm able to recover.

Neo Exdeath: Break Spellblade = dead bottom part. Odin = dead back part. Hero's Rime has had a lot of time to get started in the first fight, so enjoy ~10k hits, other two parts! At least he lives to get off Grand Cross.


I'd like to do another this year, it'll be Random so maybe I can finally get Black/White/Blue Mage. Seriously that'd be awesome, I am 10/12 so far for getting fighter jobs and am due for some mages!

Overall fiesta job ranking of the jobs I have drawn to date:

Time Mage > Ninja > Mystic Knight ~= Bard > Knight > Monk ~= Ranger >> Dragoon > Berserker


Also I replayed Super Mario Bros. 2 randomly because why not, it is great.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on June 22, 2013, 03:40:43 PM
Fallout New Vegas: Randomly had the urge to start playing this again.  PS3 broke sometime in the months since I'd stopped playing it, so just bought it up for PC since it included all the DLCs and stuff for 20$ only.  Before anyone wonders why I got it for the PS3 in the first place, my PC was a piece of shit and I lacked the funds to get a better one.  But that's old news.  New news time.

Don't know where I'm going Ending-wise but I've left myself all free and open for that.  My prime goal was trying for explosives/energy weapons with low intelligence/charisma to see the idiot dialouge options.  Then I'd just shoot my way out of everything.  Excepts explosives blow when all you have is dynamite and if I didn't have the merc grenade rifle I probably would have said screw it.  For whatever ingenious reason I chose the +5Points to all Skills/-10% EXP gain Trait on a character not built for min-maxing.  The throw speed/-throw range one as well which is crap since grenades are too cumbersome for wide open and bunching up is less likely in vaults and stuff.  Though I got some small use in wiping out the Protectertron room at Helios.  Actually got the Energy Weapon damage achievement before explosives.  Then I got normal guns too because I had to rely on them so early.  Then during my Ranger-murder run for one of the Gun Runner Challenge achievements I somehow got the unarmed one just from twenty dudes.  Though that led to the hilarious realization that if I stealth-killed guys with the fist-weapon that makes my kills explode no one reacts to it at all.

I was pretty much stupidly poor most of the time until I got to Vegas.  I never raised Barter yet still have 25 in it somehow.  Snow Globes were the only thing that allowed me to get my Luck Implant and break the banks.

Felt like seeing Lonesome Road since I never did it PS3.  Red Glare's rapid-fire rockets were awesome, but ramming into everything's DT wasn't.  Deathclaws randomly killing me in one hit wasn't fun either.  Courier's Mile was hell, spent over two-hundred rockets on the Marked Men so I was forced into using only Thump-Thump against the deathclaws.  I wanted to lure them into a Satchel Charge trap since the Marked Men nearly killed me a dozen times with them, but all the Deathclaws ran away when I planted them.  So I charge off after them and they magically circle behind me and complete bypass the trap.  Luckily they all group up enough for Thump-Thump to cripple the hell out of them.  I'm as fast as can be so I manage to outspeed them cripple and kill'em off.  Anyway, talked down Ulysses and stopped the launch.  I'd already blown one forgiveness and wanted Idolized with the BoS because pointless number boosters amuse me.  For some daft reason I put my bonus SPECIAL point into a stat that's not Endurance.

Best part is all the extra Ranger type armors.  Well after writing and all that.

Then did Old World Blues since I wanted all the giant bonuses it gave.  Decided I'd do the DLCs in reverse order at this point too.  Primarily used Energy Weapons here, especially that Unique gatling laser that thing is just dreamy.  Killed the Legendary Bloatfly with it.  Well with glitching too but eh.  Speaking of glitching the game kept crashing like a sone of a bitch near the end.  Couldn't even make it to one side of the Sink it got so bad at the end.   Anyway, this also gave me the final stealth speed boost, so now sneaking's almost as fast as running.  Despite the stealth suit's speed boost it's actually slower because of it being medium armor.

Listening to Ulysses' tapes in reverse is weird.  Think Tank, Mobius and Brain are all as entertaining as ever.  Amusingly failing the speech checks with Mobius seem to continue the conversation on as normal anyway. 

At this point the sheer volume of levels means I'm getting high-up in secondary skills even with ass-bottom Intelligence.

Future Playthrough Ideas.
Pacifist Pro-Legion Run.
Hilariously Anti-Legion Run until I get forgiveness then Ave True to Caeser.
MAXIMUM NCR.  Anti-Material Rifle Ranger.  With all the DLC armors I don't have to worry about faction-neutral the whole time.
Quick little run to see if I can get the Intelligence Implant at Level 1.
RIP AND TEAR: Kill everything.  EVERYTHING.  The Mojave only needs me and Yes Man.  EDIT: Oh and Vendortron I guess.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 22, 2013, 05:02:10 PM
I found pacifist is pretty fun in NV. Pro Caesar though??

FF3 PSP Yattaf solo:
I've still not grinded on this run at all. Yet I one-rounded Garuda. This Yattaf is canon.

Anytime I hit a challenge, I try a lot of different interesting strategies that all fail. Then I switch back to Monk and the challenge goes away immediately.
I was in this cave filled with status enemies. I used the Knight for his partial status immunity shield. Right before the boss I switched back to Monk, not even caring about job downtime. The boss still exploded.

FF3 DS would be really cool with a rebalance patch. No job levels. No job downtime. HP growth unrelated to class. Lower endgame physical damage. Save points (OMG) Item descriptions telling you about status immunities.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 22, 2013, 05:05:32 PM
I'm fine with job levels really (it's a nice reward for staying in a class a bunch, you have to be careful to balance it with the more pressing needs of switching jobs though... fortunately FF3 has those!). Job sickness is bleh, the original handled it better. HP growth... honestly isn't that big a deal, the spread at endgame is very small and it's a bone to some classes which are otherwise kinda mediocre (Monk is underwhelming at normal levels; they just aren't balanced for solo exp focusing). The rest, no arguments.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 22, 2013, 06:04:58 PM
No job levels allows for more flexibility. Giving a reward for not changing anything to the way you're playing  (for the whole game) and punishing for experimenting (even lightly) is not very good design. Especially in a JRPG. One of the best strategies is to keep a fighter for the whole game, which is pretty terrible and boring.
No job levels would also allow special abilities to be useful from the getgo. Things like Viking's Provoke need it.

This situation is similar to RPGs giving more or less XP for characters not in the party.  Full XP to everybody is better because you can change your characters at anytime with no downsides; your short term strategy has no effect on long term. FF3 would be better if its jobs worked the same.


I find that HP growth is just a kick to the mage classes for no reasons. Monk and Black Belt do get a bonus when they're mostly useless in game, but say scholar and evoker and bard get to be even more screwed.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 22, 2013, 06:07:43 PM
Yeah, fair enough, I can't really disagree with any of that. (Except that I found Provoke decent even at low job levels. edit: checking the mechanics it is scrubbier than I remembered though.) I do think there is sometimes something to be said for rewarding an investment in a class instead of just always letting the player pick the best job for the situation, but FF3 probably overrewards this (despite encouraging you to switch jobs considerably more than some similar games).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on June 22, 2013, 06:23:22 PM
Quote
(despite encouraging you to switch jobs considerably more than some similar games).
Not that much, since your damage utterly tanks going from JL 50 to JL 1!  Sure, some of the blunter instruments (Mini dungeon) or Garuda work, but many don't.  I guess you're theoretically supposed to use Viking for the Water dungeon because it has Lightning damage or something?  But eh, they'll have to be a pure Provoke bunny since as noted their damage will suck way worse than Fighter/Monk/Knight/whatever you built.  There's a dungeon that's supposed to hype using Dark Knight, but I didn't really see the advantage at all.  The only case where FF3DS got the balance right was Heim's dungeon - you can use a Scholar and get a boost, or you can #YOLO it up and fight at a disadvantage, but a winnable one (unlike the Mini dungeons which just force you to switch to mages, thus you can't exactly "make a mistake").

Anyway, the proper balance between a mild reward for sticking at a class while still having the flexibility to change would of course be X% of JL spillover, and then a generally slower rate of JL advancement.  If all your side classes - including the ones which you haven't unlocked yet (Ninja, Black Belt!) - got 75% of the JL of your main class, that'd be a pretty good balance.  (Go ahead and keep job sickness though, I don't want to feel obligated to switch all my character setups before a boss, and job sickness is an excuse to pick a set and use it throughout the entire dungeon.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 22, 2013, 09:26:37 PM
I found pacifist is pretty fun in NV. Pro Caesar though??

Yeah, I don't think you can finish the game on Caesar's route without killing the President.  You don't have to do it directly but he does have to die by your hand.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 22, 2013, 11:30:20 PM
Honestly, FF3o did Job Levels better.  You get bonuses from JLevels, but they aren't huge, especially for fighters.  FF3DS gave too much emphasis to Job Levels, it really hurts later jobs, most notably the Earth crystal ones.  Fire/Water Crystals are gotten promptly enough that you can catch up with some investment   Though I don't think JLevels really are the problem with the game.

It's that FF3DS tried to rebalance a system to make all jobs viable when the original intent was that Jobs were specifically intended to become obsolete in favor of others.  Even with a bunch of JLevels in FF3o, a Monk would not be better than a Black Belt (keeping it to the FF3DS names because easier), or a Warrior beating out a Knight.   This isn't the case in FF3DS, especially since Black Belt is gotten way later in FF3DS compared to FF3o, and Black Belt is one of the most JLevel intensive classes in the game for worth.


So I don't thin JLevels themselves are the problem, I think it's that FF3DS wasn't balanced properly around their existence.  FF3o showed JLevels are not intrinsically flawed, just FF3DS' way of handling was too much.


THAT SAID...

Donkey Kong Country Returns: Beaten the main game.  Not much to say other than it's hard but fun.  Someone argued it was the best 2D platformer of this generation.  I cannot agree with this but mostly because Mega Man 9 exists which is one of the best Mega Man games ever, less so for DKCR's worth.

Though, DKCR really contrasts NSMBU in general.  NSMBU gave you a bunch of lives, you're never at a risk of dying.  DKCR, you can easily have 70+ Lives, but it's also easy to just blow through about 30 of them in a given stage, so the game is hard enough to make you actually care about those lives.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on June 23, 2013, 12:46:06 AM
Shit, I've only done the Legion path once so I completely forgot about the President.  I do remember I have to blow up the Brotherhood though.  Well, when I get there we'll see how creative I can get I guess.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 23, 2013, 12:57:32 AM
Are we talking pacifist run like the game legitimately never registers any deaths as caused by you? Is that even possible in New Vegas? (Does it count as your kill when you reprogram turrets to do it for you?)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on June 23, 2013, 01:14:47 AM
NCR/Yes Man is doable since you can peace-talk all factions and can disable House but not kill him.  House and Caeser require you to wipe out the BoS though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 24, 2013, 01:16:07 AM
Castlevania weekend. Rondo of Blood, beat up Dracula with a twelve-year-old girl. He didn't take it very well. Two runs through the game, though--first was just straight-up Richter the whole time because I didn't find any of the alternate stages or any of the captured girls. Then FAQed the hell out of it (because holy crap how did anyone stumble onto the good ending on their own? What's wrong with you, Konami?) and ran Maria the whole time because she's so much easier to use that it's absurd. Gave up trying to beat good ending Drac with Richter after probably a few dozen failed tries. There's just too much shit going on when that third form hits low HP.

And today was Symphony of the Night. Tore through an Alucard run to unlock the other characters (PSP version includes Maria mode. Birds shall be thrown with abandon! Yes). Spent most of the game maining the combat knife. What the heck? Hadn't taken any notice of this thing before but it turned out pretty excellent. A few points less attack than most one-handed swords but attacks twice as fast. Pretty good deal! Anyway now I'm poking around the CV wiki just to check out all these gamebreaking random weapons I've never got throughout three runs through the game and jesus there is some ridiculous shit in this game. I didn't know 90% of this stuff existed. You and your drop rates, Konami.

Will probably make a Richter run before tackling Maria. Save the novel run for last and all. Never actually completed Richter mode before anyway. And why play new games when I can play old ones over and over again right?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on June 24, 2013, 01:26:55 AM
Etrian Odyssey  IV:

I was curious if Etrian Odyssey 2 was indicative of the series as a whole in terms of challenge/setup/so forth. EO4 has answered that for me since they feel like identical games. Pure dungeon crawler with some party customization thrown in and cute chibi anime PCs.

I like the exploration aspect of finding caves/labyrinths, since it involves some thinking and avoiding/baiting the giant monsters that will make mincemeat out of your party while searching for interesting tidbits in the landscape. The customization works fairly well and I like the comfort of knowing that if I 'mess up' I can just spend two levels and respec. The other thing I like about the game is End of Raging Winds. Too bad it has only played once, and only for a midboss at that (deserves to be a major boss theme).

Party is a Fortress/Dancer/Twinblader (status whore)/Medic/Sniper.

The Dancer isn't contributing as much as I had hoped unfortunately. The Sniper's damage is starting to leave something to be desired (although Arm Bind is nice, the accuracy is just too poor against FOEs). The Fortress does her job well, the Twinblader kicks ass (accurate status, good damage, speed), and the Medic does what a Medic does. I'm as uninspired by the EO4 Medic as I am with the EO2 Medic though. Slow and the healing isn't as good as I'd like. Row-target status healing is sweet at least.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 24, 2013, 08:29:58 AM
FF3 Yattaf:

Last really interesting fight was Titan. Easy though. I had a job level ~90 Knight who took 1 damage with 2 shields after using Shield from its weapon.
I grabbed Black Belt and did the Odin/BahamuR sidequests to raise job levels. Then Doga and Unne were each OHKOed by Focus -> Focus -> PUNCH. I then punched my way through Eureka. (and got an amazing ribbon in the process)

Do you know just how much damage a level 80 jlevel 50 black belt does?? Yeah me neither. All the game ever shows anymore is 9999.


500 HP potions don't exactly cut it anymore (Yattaf has 7000 HPs) but I don't... really need healing in battle anymore? At worst I can switch back to jlvl 99 Knight, who can heal a decent amount with Blood Sword + whatever best shield is available.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 24, 2013, 08:34:13 AM
Exp focusing kinda dumb sometimes.

Also you can estimate your Black Belt's damage by seeing how many hits it takes to kill endgame bosses! I can't guarantee how effective boss defensive stats will be though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 24, 2013, 09:21:07 PM
Exp focusing kinda dumb sometimes.

Strangely this worked really well with FF5 solo.
I maybe should do a post where I rank all these challenges I did, one of these days.


FF3 Yattaf solo is pretty much over, I can't imagine losing to the final boss. I also have 15 elixirs.
Instead I've done all the stuff added to the remake. And it is all awful.
1) Mognet. Wifi only sidequest in an RPG. Great idea. Thankfully removed from the PSP version
2) A legendary blacksmith that moves between towns.
3) No meaningful enemies until the end, only a pure waste of time
4) Optional dungeon that's as long as this: <-> Only one dumb superboss.

The FF3DS/FF4DS team is decent enough at remaking old games but only has terrible ideas on its own. They made their own game after those remakes and it was a slog filled with terrible ideas. (FF 4 heroes of light)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 24, 2013, 10:33:27 PM
That sounds like a pretty good assessment of that team yeah.

FF3DS focuses three different resources when you only use one PC: regular "level up" exp, job level exp (based on number of actions, now one PC gets all the actions), and "hand/weapon" exp you gain each time you attack. FF5 only has one resource being focussed in this way (AP isn't focused and there is no equivalent of hand exp).

Speaking of FF5 challenges, new fiesta: blue mage, time mage, monk, white mage. Compared to all my previous fiestas this team is stupid OP. No boss is capable of posing a challenge up against the combined might of time/blue/white (not that white has mattered yet); I don't have any lightning damage or stop-song but I'm still going to beat Omega and all else shall be mocked. Fighting all the randoms because they're somewhat more interesting with this team at least.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 24, 2013, 11:45:56 PM
Quote
The FF3DS/FF4DS team is decent enough at remaking old games but only has terrible ideas on its own. They made their own game after those remakes and it was a slog filled with terrible ideas. (FF 4 heroes of light)

The team also made Tales of Versus.  You'd think a Tales Cross Over Fighting game would be easy and natural progression, but nope!  They managed to screw that up too!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on June 25, 2013, 04:35:58 PM
Okami HD- GG, Fireburst is OP~

Just about to do Catcall Tower (^_^), as well as Fireburst, I have also managed to power up the time Brush tech (Mist Warp), the Cherry Bomb one (Cherry Bomb 2) and just received Whirlwind though I haven't used the latter two in battle yet. Also to rival the group of jumping heart dogs in the area I have been playing through now there are lots of kitties ^_^ Now I am going to a tower which promises to be full of them. Massive CT bait game is massive CT bait game =) I'll reserve full judgement until I'm all done but this is a serious contender for one of my all time favourite games~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on June 25, 2013, 05:06:57 PM
Fallout New Vegas: Honest Hearts and Dead money finished in that order.  Comedy value of the two of them shoots up with all the Divide and Big MT foreshadowing turning the Courier into some sort of completely oblivious asshole.  Good thing I was 1 INT so it was totally in my non-existent character.  The Courier vs Courier Foreshadow Dialogue Challenge also completed during the Ending Slides for Dead Money, and if I'd killed just one more thing I probably would have leveled during the slide.  Woulda loved to see how that played out.  My vigorous habit of deleting my saves to try and fix all the loading screen crashes means all my Madre saves are already gone.

Honest Hearts: Still the weakest of the DLCs I feel.  Graham's great and all, but the White Legs are just bland and dull.  Even with the Ulysses stuff for the White Legs  they can't compete with the other DLCs.  The brutality and diversity of the Marked Men, the delicious Ham of the Robo-Scorpions and the unnerving nature of the Ghost People.  Fleeing the valley is still weak since you kill Salt-Upon-Wounds anyway leaving so Graham and the Dead Horses could probably clear the White Legs up and save Zion anyway which Daniel's ending slide bitches about eh.

Bizarrely choosing to attack will be what I do during my Pacifist playthrough.

Dead Money: By this point even with DUM DUM INT I've enough skill points to just pass most of my challenges.  Had points in Perception for once as well so I got Christine's chip thingy.  Pointlessly got all the Vending Machine tapes.  Having Auto-Inject Stimpacks was kinda hilarious for cloud running.  The final tunnels leading to the vault are still obnoxious though. 

Totally gonna skip this on Pacifist since shipping the comps around the Ghost People doesn't seem possible.  Even in 100 Sneak Mode Dean would just start shooting as soon as he saw anyway.  Granted I didn't have him on passive but all it takes is one DANGER anyway and everything's ruined.  I don't think it's even possible to get past some of the speaker parts without shooting them too.  I suppose if I get Stealth Boys in every single one of Dean's Stashes the first might be possible but eh....
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on June 25, 2013, 06:19:30 PM
Okami HD- Ok, so now we have a dance troupe~ Get out of my head game =P

Edit - Obtained Fountain and Power Slash 2 heheheh~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 25, 2013, 10:51:25 PM
CT is finding stuff I didn't even know existed in the game!  Granted, Mandy was doing the same so maybe I just suck at finding this stuff <_< >_>


Project X Zone: Up to Chapter 5!  It's basically Namco x Capcom 2, even to the point where characters from that game are all like "Hey, remember when we fought together?"  or recognizing things similar, like Tron going "Hey! That girl is like KOS MOS!" when she sees T-elos.

The major thing this game has NxC so far? Enemy turns don't take forever and a day.  One example was that a turn had like 10 enemies going in a row...took less time than would 2 enemies acting in NxC.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 26, 2013, 12:17:58 AM


FF3DS focuses three different resources when you only use one PC: regular "level up" exp, job level exp (based on number of actions, now one PC gets all the actions), and "hand/weapon" exp you gain each time you attack. FF5 only has one resource being focussed in this way (AP isn't focused and there is no equivalent of hand exp).
I didn't even know about hand exp.
job level exp didn't matter that much because you can reach high levels fairly easily by playing normally. The curve for regular exp is less exponential than usual though. I didn't end up with that much of a level advantage in FF5 (where I didn't grind either)

Also you can estimate your Black Belt's damage by seeing how many hits it takes to kill endgame bosses! I can't guarantee how effective boss defensive stats will be though.

Red dragons were constantly 4HKOed. I'd estimate that Black belt level 99 everything does around 30k damage overall. Probably less than a warrior with Advance.

Superboss Iron Giant died against a solo jlevel 7 character. I had grinded Yattaf to level 99 and switched to onion knight. Back row, double onion shield, onion armor, genji stuff otherwise. Then, alternating between Flare and Elixirs.
Level 99 onion knight makes even jlevel 7 work.


Unlocking Yattaf's non chibi art was pretty awesome. I can't even find it anywhere on the internet. It's the uber secret only available on the PSP/phone versions!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on June 26, 2013, 05:20:42 AM
So apparently Xbox is giving free games away every two weeks to Gold members for an indefinite period of time.  Right now the free game is Fable III.  So what the hell.

Fable III:  I can identify a person's sexual orientation by shaking their hand.  I also learned that gay meant homosexual during the Industrial Revolution.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on June 26, 2013, 05:25:46 AM
FF6- Playing this on and off. Up to the Magitek factory. After Eviltype, playing vanilla is a slight step down in challenge. *cough*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 26, 2013, 08:57:47 AM
Project X Zone: Played a few levels of this. It certainly is... flashy! It's enjoyable so far, but I haven't seen a lot of depth in terms of actually differentiating the PCs from eachother so far in anything but the most superficial (read: aesthetic) ways. This does not make the gameplay -bad-, it just makes it repetitive. At least thus far. I haven't gotten far past the tutorials, there's plenty of time for them to get fleshed out. I'm just not holding my breath.

Story is balls-to-the-wall over-the-top already, but playing it with the straightest face. I approve wholeheartedly.

I am amused that the entire game is voiced in 'glorious nihongo'. It's been so long since I watched subtitled anime, I forgot what it sounded like (which is to say, not much like regular spoken Japanese). I get why they made this decision, PXZ is a damned niche game if I ever saw one and any corner-cutting that wouldn't offend the target audience is a corner well-cut. I'm still just shocked the game got an official translation at all. It's a big gamble, and I hope it pays off because I would love to see more of these.

Dear Capcom: Please stop denying that Breath of Fire existed. Yes, I love Darkstalkers too, but they are not a suitable replacement for -everything else in your library of games-...

I hope when NamcoXCapcom 3 or whatever comes out in Japan, they bring Konami in on the action (Squeenix, Atlus, or Nintendo would be even cooler, but they don't seem as willing to do crossovers, plus FireEmblemXSMT is coming out soon so they're probably considered a rival series at this point...)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 26, 2013, 01:29:00 PM
Quote
I hope when NamcoXCapcom 3 or whatever comes out in Japan, they bring Konami in on the action (Squeenix, Atlus, or Nintendo would be even cooler, but they don't seem as willing to do crossovers, plus FireEmblemXSMT is coming out soon so they're probably considered a rival series at this point...)


If anything, Nintendo's been more receptive to Crossovers than any of the companies you mentioned above.  Sakurai stated he'd be cool with the idea of Nintendo vs. Capcom after Ono said that's the project he wants to see.  Not to mention one of Nintendo's bigger new IPs in recent years was Mario and Sonic At the Olympic Games, which is a crossover with Sega.  There's Pokemon Conquest which is Nintendo x Tecmo I believe (or whatever company makes Samurai Warriors), and SMTxFE coming out in the future, which is AtlusxNintendo.  I think it's safe to say Nintendo doesn't ind crossing their characters over with someone else.

Heck, one of the Itadaki games replaced Final Fantasy characters with Mario Characters, while retaining the Dragon Quest characters.

Meanwhile, I haven't seen anything with Konami that suggests they wanted to do anything like that, outside of Snake in Brawl, and that was completely Kojima begging Sakurai. 


Really, the only crossover that'll never happen is something like Metroid vs. Halo, or ZeldaxUncharted.  Or Gods vs. Gears: War Of the REAL MEN! 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on June 26, 2013, 04:56:33 PM
Fallout New Vegas: Completed with Mr. House's ending path.  I had the House Duster and none of my other playthroughs would go for him so I went for it.  It has doubled as an experiment into my options for the Pacifist Run.  Also bizarrely I didn't get an ending slide for Hanlon despite doing his Quest.  Weird.  My ending speech with Lanius was also a completely different beast than I've used in the past, maybe because of Lonesome Road?  Anyway during the Second battle I only ever popped two guys as further practice so something.

I also started the Pacifist Run-through, my first order of business seeing if I could make it to the Implants.   So after encounters with two raider groups--one sporting a grenade rifle--and a quick fling with cazadors while running from one of the raiders I make it to Implant Town.  So, with 42 SPECIAL points and 182 EXP the world is my scary, scary oyster.

Pacifist Rules more than Tunnel Snakes
Rule 1: Don't kill things.  Obviously.  I'm counting Companion kills into this as well.
Rule 2: Complete the Caeser's Legion questline.  Since this Questline unavoidably involves killing people, my actions to complete those Quests will be solved by not directly murdering people.
Rule 3: Complete as many Caeser's Legion Quests as possible.  (This includes taking out Forlon Hope through what I'll describe as a hair-brained scheme.)
Rule 4: Complete as many Companion Quests as I can.  (With some trickery it should be possible to get everyone but Lily)
Rule 5: Complete the DLCs I can; figure out if Dead Money is actually possible.
Rule 6: Get the maximum amount of Idolized factions I can. 
Rule 7: Get every Ending Slide group.
Rule 8: Come up with more Rules.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 27, 2013, 02:00:23 AM
Noticed Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines was on Steam and recalled people making it sound cool, so what the hell. Messed around a bit with the tutorial as a Malkavian because come on, but I dunno if I'll actually stick with that because, while amusing, I would like to be capable of holding conversations with people. To what extent is this a game where you can talk your way through problems and avoid combat if desired?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 27, 2013, 04:18:52 AM
Obvious main quest missions are pretty forced combat/stealth scenarios (favoring combat that gives no reward because White Wolf XP system).  Side stuff in the hubs though is really free form.  I would recommend first run through play something not Malkavian, something that is okay at combat and enjoy some social skills.  Brujah is super easy combat but less easy social.  Ventrue is a pretty happy medium.  Tremere have a pretty consistently good aesthetic (I would use Guns).

Second play if you want sometime enjoy Malkavian as they give veiled spoilers everywhere and either look like All The Fetishes as a female or Pimp Coat with Dr Seuss Hat as a male.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AAA on June 27, 2013, 04:46:59 AM
Also there's a fan patch that fixes a lot of the bugginess and crash issues, I don't have a link but it shouldn't be too hard to find.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 27, 2013, 06:30:14 AM
Project X Zone: Up to Chapter 13!  Apparently there is a party split because...I guess the team is starting to get too large so it's either smaller maps with less units or huge oversized maps that take forever like the previous one!

To be fair, the previous one was really kind of 2 maps spliced together, since you kill all enemies, then HUGE TANK OUT OF NOWHERE THAT BASICALLY CHANGES THE LAYOUT OF THE MAP! followed by a whole bunch of reinforcements, with 3 bosses.  At least I got to shoot Saya in the face with a machine gun or something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 27, 2013, 02:00:45 PM
Yeah I really really recommend the fan patch for Bloodlines. Wesp5's.

There are a lot more combat/dungeons lategame compared to earlygame the game's no Fallout 1. So you need to think about your build a little. It's not Alpha Protocol where you pretty much just die if you pick the wrong build, but you'll need some offense as some parts can get pretty damn hard.

I'll just dump a ton of info on you since I've played the game 8 times.

Ok:


- Defense sounds worthless but is good for survival, I suggest raising it lategame.

- You should focus on one weapon type. Guns are good lategame but terrible early. Using a few points on melee or unarmed to make the earlygame smoother and just focusing on guns lategame is not a bad idea.

- I really really suggest only picking one "social skill". Ventrue's Dominate and Malkavian's crazytalk count as social skills. Also every woman is bisexual and every man is heterosexual (obviously) so you should pick a girl if you want to use seduction. In regular Bloodlines, Persuasion is much better than the other two skills and on par with Dominate/Crazytalk, but I heard the patch changed this.

- Thaumaturgy and Celerity are OP.

- Hacking is cool.

- Don't get crazy about books, they're only really useful if you want to min/max.

- It's better to focus on most skills, but Haggle and sneaking are skills you might want to put a few points in even if you don't want to max them.

- Yeah don't pick Malkavian. Or Nosferatu. I think female Ventrue, Toreador or Treme would be more your thing.


Hotline Miami Vita: Finished this in one setting. Damn.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on June 27, 2013, 03:05:25 PM
Female Toreador is what I played, it worked well. They get celerity! Celerity is op as shit.

I do hear Tremere is even more ridiculously strong, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 27, 2013, 03:29:40 PM
Nah Tremere's thaumaturgy is less strong than Celerity. Still OP.

They get a really useful shield that eats half damage and lasts for a while.
Plus a skill that drains maxHP (Like, 1/3rd) and works on most bosses. And the multitarget version of that skill. They just completely trivialize both final bosses.
And Blood Boil, which is not particularly useful but still fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on June 27, 2013, 11:05:12 PM
So I rented Skyward Sword...

and while the game is tons of fun, I fucking can't stand the Wiimote controls. It makes the gawd damn game so frustrating at times.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 28, 2013, 12:10:57 AM
Malk is great for a second play through but if it's your first play through I eagerly await your forum post in a couple weeks asking "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED IN THIS GAME???"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 28, 2013, 12:24:10 AM
That's the only innovative part of 3D Zelda since Majora's Mask!


I finished the litteral pixel hunt in Hotline Miami and got the other ending.
True ending = Coherent ending.
Regular ending = Meta.

Best tracks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR1SvoPhCVg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taU8ugPg618
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYLxlIF7Wn0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJDrXiMVndw

I still need to get A+ everywhere with the frog, and then maybe replay the entire game with only Oscar.
Sounds like a game for Gref. Rob. Zenny. Trips. You've all already played it, right?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 28, 2013, 01:13:26 AM
I'll just dump a ton of info on you since I've played the game 8 times.

I really wonder sometimes how you have time to do anything but play games and post about it.

Anyway, decided to go Toreador. That which cannot be seduced will be shot. (And I'm sure by now it's correctly assumed that I will run female protagonist whenever a game gives me the opportunity.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on June 28, 2013, 02:14:19 AM
Project X Zone: Up to Chapter 13!  Apparently there is a party split because...I guess the team is starting to get too large so it's either smaller maps with less units or huge oversized maps that take forever like the previous one!

To be fair, the previous one was really kind of 2 maps spliced together, since you kill all enemies, then HUGE TANK OUT OF NOWHERE THAT BASICALLY CHANGES THE LAYOUT OF THE MAP! followed by a whole bunch of reinforcements, with 3 bosses.  At least I got to shoot Saya in the face with a machine gun or something.[/quote

Meep, this gets worse. It eventually gets to a point that you'll feel NxC's map is actually shorter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 28, 2013, 02:48:39 AM
Anyway, decided to go Toreador.

You chose poorly.  Dracula was totes a Ventrue.  Ventrue 4 life.

Pretty sure Rob has played it, Zenny is too busy crying about not getting 12 inch tube steaks nightly.  Trips I am dead certain has played it.  It is Otter The Game.

I haven't played it because it is too twitchy and anger inducing and I am banned from those kinds of games after playing Trials.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 28, 2013, 04:57:00 AM
You chose poorly.  Dracula was totes a Ventrue.  Ventrue 4 life.

Right on Ventrue bro.  I didn't become a Dracula to be some poor-ass biker or a mincing fop.  I wanna GET FUCKINNNN PAIDDDDD!!

But yeah, I've played Hotline Miami.  That game is disorienting as fuck when you're drunk and it's 2 AM.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on June 28, 2013, 10:01:16 AM
TitS- Sorry, I don't believe that your world has invented airships but apparently not banks. At the part where the Matron is mugged of her $100,000 while walking along the coast. Guessing I'm not going to get rid of this plotline for a while. On the plus side, game's challenge hasn't gone to shit yet. And hey, the first plottish boss actually seemed to have durability, speed and damage (more than all the bosses in the topic!) and some of the monster hunts are putting up decent fights. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on June 28, 2013, 10:25:12 PM
Fallout New Vegas: Rule of the Pacifist.

When I last left off I was a bright shiney level 1 outside New Vegas.  Well Freeside but close enough.  My first goal, find two more locations nearby and level up!  This was interuppted by a Fiend winning a fight with a caravaneer who promptly plasmaed off 1/3 of my health with each shot.  As I bunny hopped around a building and gullped down stimpacks wondering if I could make a break for Crimson Caravan, the Fiend grabbed a 10MM pistol for some batshit reason and let me make it to the CC who promptly shot him to death.  Yay!  My first not-kill!  And then on my way to Freeside I got jumped by another Fiend!  Like, I only get a Fiend on Eastside maybe once every other playthrough and then all of a sudden I get two in one game.  What the hell.  So I scooby-dooed back to CC who promptly decapitated the bitch.  Yay more loot.  Shitty loot, but loot.

Thankfully that's the last of my Fiend adventures for a while, but my Freeside adventures start out just as--if not moreso!--dangerous.  I'm quickly attacked by a thug and his pool cue, as I've just arrived no random Kings member will save me, and attempts to beseach the Followers for aid go on deaf ears(enemies won't go into the Fort it seems), but the sheer experience of seeing the Fort gives me my first level and the power of Swift Learner(which oh god will I need).  But then I remember the bodyguard Kings who promptly makes him eat a 10mm submachinegun death.  Then when I get attacked by more and more Thugs Mick & Ralph come to my rescue because Thugs will go in there for some reason.

I mostly just play around Freeside-Stripe for a while since it's chocked full of pacifist quests.  One NCR trooper randomly dropped dead allowing me to loot the Light NCR armor.  Useful with the 10% move speed for Light armor.  But unfortunately, my pacifist ways cost the life of dear Old Ben, for when he got surrounded by three Thugs I could do naught to save him.  But I also got to watch a hooker explode a dude's head with her bare fist so everything worked out alright in the end. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-06-27_00001.jpg?t=1372453802)

I suddenly felt the burning need to do the main storyline trail crumbs in reverse, so that's what I did.  Despite not actually doing any NCR quests previous to Boulder City, smooth-talking my way through that was apparently enough for a Fame bump.  Also a dead radscorpion came flying over the horizon in chunks.  That was weird.

Heading down to Novac, I can't actually get the ghoul quest from Manny, so I have to get it from... Nobark.  Huh.  Anyway, I evade the outside feral ghouls and they won't follow me inside.  Natrually my non-existent ability to Sneak means the indoor ghouls find me despite me beelining for the safe floor.  And then the Feral Ghouls follow me to the safe floor.  Well, this'll be an interesting trainwreck!  I head over to Jason and BLAHBLAHBLAH him and run around to throw the ferals off my trail since the Brotherhood are just ignoring them.  Except Jason.  Who's now hostile to me and whacking my ass with a tire iron.

Well shit.  Let's see how many cars we can pile on this trainwreck!  I hop down to the basement, past the feral ghouls lost there and Chris running around like a jackass, and Jason and the two ferals follow me.  I go and talk to Davison get his BLAH and run over to Harlon and get HIS blah and let him kill one of the ferals and... why is there only one feral?  I head back and see a bunch of friendly pips on my compass and... well this apparently happened. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-06-28_00001.jpg?t=1372453770)  So with all the exciting things over with--except for Harlend getting obliterated by the Nightkin during his escape.

Heading over to Primm, and trying to free Beagle is looking like a disaster.  While the guys in outside Primm can be killed by the NCR guys nearby, those inside the hotel won't come out and there's two guards at the very start.  One of those two took themselves out with Dynamite, but the other's adamant steve.  This is gonna be tricky.

Back up to Goodsprings for the tutorial.  Than over to the Prison for... well no real reward since I only get Powder Ganger fame if they actually fend off the NCR.  And that just doesn't happen unless you stack the odds in their favor or they get lucky with NCR bugs.  And the NCR didn't even lose a single trooper this time.  And then they immediately went to sleep in the  prisoner beds once everything was dead. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-06-28_00004-1.jpg)

In the mood for Powder Ganger fame, and since it's one of the only quests I can do for Boone--oh yeah I did Boone's recruitment thing.  Yay technicalities.  Where was I?  Oh right, I head to the Legion Raid Camp and lure them into an NCR patrol.  Well, I do that after witnessing this. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-06-28_00005.jpg?t=1372453789)  Unfortunatly the Legion wins the fight, so I end up luring the dude into Nightstalkers to finish them off.  Thank you Animel Freind.

This allows me juuuuust enough of a clear path to bring in Boone and get his history points.

Then I go and do some stuff for the Khans because it's a lot of Skill checks I can make.  Same thing for Bitter Springs and Camp Golf.  Gonna do Return to Sender soon.

Then I also realize the sheer particularities of what I have to do at McCarren.

Pacifist Rules more than Tunnel Snakes
Rule 1: Don't kill things.  Obviously.  I'm counting Companion kills into this as well.
-Going good so far!
Rule 2: Complete the Caeser's Legion questline.  Since this Questline unavoidably involves killing people, my actions to complete those Quests will be solved by not directly murdering people.
-Haven't even touched it.  My devious Master plan now involves 6 Perception.  I have 1 base.
Rule 3: Complete as many Caeser's Legion Quests as possible.  (This includes taking out Forlon Hope through what I'll describe as a hair-brained scheme.)
-I don't even have the Legion on my Pimp-Boy yet.
Rule 4: Complete as many Companion Quests as I can.  (With some trickery it should be possible to get everyone but Lily)
-Of the 13 History Points available for Boone, I need 5 for his quest.  There are only 5 points available that don't require something dying directly as a result of my actions.  1 of those points runs opposite of a Legion Quest.  Oh joy.  THANKFULLY.  Said Legion Quest seems to require me to kill someone with no alternatives, so niener niener niener.
Rule 5: Complete the DLCs I can; figure out if Dead Money is actually possible.
-Not a priority right now.
Rule 6: Get the maximum amount of Idolized factions I can. 
-Already failed Powered Gangers and Good Springs and maybe even Novac.  Good going me.  Getting Idolized with the Stripe will also have some problems.
Rule 7: Get every Ending Slide group.
-11/29.  Well that's just low-effort ain't it?
Rule 8: Come up with more Rules.
-See below.
Rule 9: Kings Rule Freeside.
-Damn straight.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 28, 2013, 11:18:35 PM
As I bunny hopped around a building and gullped down stimpacks wondering if I could make a break for Crimson Caravan, the Fiend grabbed a 10MM pistol for some batshit reason and let me make it to the CC who promptly shot him to death.  Yay!  My first not-kill!

Taking the Iji approach to pacifism, I see.
 
Rule 9: Kings Rule Freeside.
-Damn straight.

Good man.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 29, 2013, 03:20:46 AM
VtMB: Knox Harrington, the video artist?

Game references its favorite things blatantly and proudly, I see. "If I'm not back in ten minutes, call the president." Also Corvega, car of the future today.

Anyway, cleared out most of the preliminary Santa Monica quests. Tourette, huh? Cute, guys. So at the moment I am mostly just sitting on XP until it looks like I need it for something, though I did shell out for a couple ranks of hacking so I could actually get into anything. I am kinda failtastic at combat but that's not such a big deal when you have Matrix speed.

EDIT: oh yeah, the hotel? Was neat, but I expected all hell to break loose when I picked up the pendant. Instead I just walked right out of the building. Oh well!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on June 29, 2013, 03:38:21 AM
Project X Zone: Bruce Willis decided to show up again and actually joined me instead of being just a prologue character.


Also finally got a chance to play Shadow Over Mystara Co-op with a friend.  Game is even better when you have at least one other person!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on June 29, 2013, 04:11:47 AM
I'll just dump a ton of info on you since I've played the game 8 times.

I really wonder sometimes how you have time to do anything but play games and post about it.


This reminds me that I only have two days left for my master thesis.

We all only ever pick female characters but seriously, if you ever want to replay Bloodlines. Choose a male malk.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on June 29, 2013, 07:33:57 AM
(http://lpix.org/935778/c29101.png)
Dear DQ5 fan translation team:  Thank you, phrase Joy Cookies is now a regular part of my lexicon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on June 29, 2013, 10:13:34 AM
As I bunny hopped around a building and gullped down stimpacks wondering if I could make a break for Crimson Caravan, the Fiend grabbed a 10MM pistol for some batshit reason and let me make it to the CC who promptly shot him to death.  Yay!  My first not-kill!

Taking the Iji approach to pacifism, I see.

This line will become even more hilarious later.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on June 29, 2013, 10:19:34 AM
I'll just dump a ton of info on you since I've played the game 8 times.

I really wonder sometimes how you have time to do anything but play games and post about it.


We all only ever pick female characters

Speak for yourself.  I don't need to play Fallout 2 on easy mode.

And on the topic of good RPGs and being a totally rad dude, I finished a playthrough of KotOR2 with the restoration patch, which I hadn't done in maybe a year?  Possibly more.  Anyway, game's much better as a dude because the Handmaiden has a solo fight with her sisters (which is one of the few times you can directly adjust a follower's alignment rather than doing it via your own with influence), throws down with Atris, and does other things that are relevant to the climax of the story, while the Disciple doesn't really do anything that isn't in some way redundant (the stuff about Revan's tactics is also basically the same stuff that G0-T0 explains, for example).  Also you can be Jesus. 

Still good.  It ended with me and my bro Atton going into the edge of known space to fight aliens and shit because we didn't have anything better to do.

e:  I forgot one good thing about the Disciple.  If you're dark side Atton may kill him at the end.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on June 29, 2013, 11:02:50 AM
Game references its favorite things blatantly and proudly, I see.

The bins around Santa Monica are all shaped like bins from Arcanum.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 29, 2013, 12:03:37 PM
Yep. Also apparently some local dude made bail by hocking 40 copies of Arcanum.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Otter on June 29, 2013, 12:29:44 PM
Started up Bloodlines just because it's been discussed here and I'm dangerously impressionable.  I made a male Ventrue named Osaka-bancho with a focus on strength, melee, and Dominate.  My RP will consist of either making people genuflect or making them into examples of what happens when you don't.

In 4jf news, Rick Perry has made it safely back to Galuf's castle with the help of his telepathic moogle friends.  This run is my intro to blue magic and I'll admit that consequently I haven't gotten to know time magic, beastmastery or samuraidom as well as I might, they all sorta function mainly to carry blue.  It's still been a ride just figuring out all these new spells and it's made more comfortable by the fact that I can run from all the randoms I want without really needing to worry about my level come boss time.  That said, my previous and inaugural run taught me to respect the lategame bosses and especially NeoElfDeath himself, whom I ultimately cheesed out that time with Break but I haven't learned any Break spells so far this time around and so we'll just have to wait and see how that shakes out won't we.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on June 29, 2013, 02:49:50 PM
Rogue Legacy - is tactical leveling dressed up as a roguelike dressed up as Castlevania.  You go into the castle, loot shit til you die, then spend money on either improving the equipment available to you, improving your statz and passives, or improving the classes available to you.  Each time through you have to chose one of three 'heirs' of your last intrepid(ly suicidal) adventurer, and they can have random traits and have pre-assigned classes, so the game gently nudges you toward trying different playstyles.  What makes it really work is you lose all your money each time you respawn, so if you want to unlock some of the pricier stuff, you need to do well in a single run.  And to top it all off, the controls are nicely responsive and enemies are well-designed.  Good times.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on June 29, 2013, 07:05:35 PM
Happy Wars:  Pretty fun!  Basically LoL but with a lot less shit going on.  Mostly playing Mage right now because I got a spiffy premium wand from the spinner.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 30, 2013, 12:06:22 AM
VtMB: "Venture Tower," huh? Very subtle, Lacroix.

Downtown quests, most of 'em done. Vick was a jerk. I should probably invest more in not-dying-related skills. And shotgun shells.

VAMPIRE COMMIES.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on June 30, 2013, 12:10:41 AM
Okami HD- Just reached the first village in the snowy region. I have now learned two more "secret" brush skills in Thunderstorm and Deluge, I also have the plot related brush skill Thunderstorm. In the snowy region little snowflakes appear when jumping 'n stuff. Pretty~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on June 30, 2013, 03:24:48 AM
Some of the chapter names in Project X Zone are fantastic. "Arisu in Wonderland" had me in stitches when it first popped up on screen.

Not far enough to really comment on the gameplay much yet.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 30, 2013, 04:34:55 AM
The Nerfing of Maria R. (previously known as Symphony of the Night): So yeah, I also finished this thing. I think PSP Maria was basically a practice run for the awesome incompetence more spectacularly displayed in Harmony of Despair. To some extent I don't mind this? SotN was a fun but stupidly easy game, so I can't be all that bothered if it's actually somewhat difficult for once, but when your damage plummets to 1-2 per bird against certain enemies it just reaches the point of what the fuck is wrong with you Konami (ten minutes of stunlocking Galamoth to death, god why). That's a minority of the time though, and she plays differently enough from the other characters that I enjoyed it anyway. She's supremely mobile but has ass for damage; you can't tank everything out like Alucard or OHKO everything in the game with Hydro Storm like Richter. You actually have to dodge and be careful for once! So yeah, playing one of my favorite games in a different way, decent enough way to pass five hours or so.

I guess this is what happens to you after you show up a Belmont in his own game, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on June 30, 2013, 09:14:13 AM
FF5 - Beat my second fiesta this year: Blue Mage, Time Mage, Monk, and White Mage. Blue + Time crush every boss so horribly, I figured white mage would help with the breaking bosses (Curaga is more than the game can typically handle) but it ended up largely superfluous. I decided not to use the Magic Lamp, Dark Spark, or Level 5 Death to give the final boss more of a chance, it didn't help. Mighty Guard is pretty much all that's needed to reduce Neo Exdeath to the complete chump I remember him being in normal playthroughs.

Randoms were more interesting. Since this team annihilates bosses but not randoms I decided to turn this into a no-run playthrough. Most randoms still aren't super-hard with the blue magic swiss army knife, but figuring out how to efficiently deal with them was fairly good fun. (Time Magic also had a definitely role to play here of course). Some thoughts on the blue spells, now that I've played through the game with them...

Goblin Punch - At first it's pretty great, use a physical... from the back row, against the back row, doesn't matter. It's even ITE! Pretty great. Basic physicals don't scale well in FF5 though, not even Excalipoor could save this. Basically useless after the fire crystal.
Vampire - Great healing move in W1 (even does decent damage!), remains cost-efficient healing forever though you have to pick your targets because MEvade messes with it. On a side note, as cool as FF5 is, I'm not really a big fan of the MEvade mechanic, especially since it's a hidden stat in the bestiary.
Aero - Okay elemental move early, tends to slightly outdamage Goblin Punch and can also be used MT. Costs MP though and nothing amazing, hardcore outclassed later.
Flash - Good against Garula. Low accuracy means that's about it.
Pond's Chorus - Almost nothing in the game can be hit by toad it feels like. Garula and Twintania I guess. I don't bother (Garula can heal from it so whatevs, just use Flash).
??? - Generally considered useless because Vampire is it, only it heals. It did have some use in Karnak escape though (one of the roughest patches in the game due to low offence of Blue + Time at this point), as once at low HP I could spam it while Vampire would send me back to low damage. (Mainly against Gigases who absorb wind.)
Aera - 10 MP for a 50 power spell is okay, remains serviceable for MT even later. Nothing special though it's obviously the peak damage for a time after you get it.
Aqua Breath - At 38 MP it's pricy. But 75 power MT is really good (second only to summons and scrolls for a long time). Even after it is eclipsed by the cheaper, more damaging Aeroga, it maintains uses due to being non-elemental and ignoring barriers. Also it overkills Sandworm and some other desert creatures.
Moon Flute - Full-party berserk! This was useful in the library where you can face thousands of monster HP which is relatively easy to cut through and Barehanded (due to Monk) and Main Gauche meant my physicals were actually pretty good! Then I never used it again. The ATB reset of inflicting berserk seriously hurts this.
Magic Hammer - I dunno. In theory this probably hoses some things since nothing immunes it, but accuracy meh whatever, never found a use.
Level 5 Death - Adamantoise, Launchers, Atomos, and certain randoms. Potential further abuse with Level 2 Old which I didn't really bother with this playthrough. We all know the abuses of this, it's good.
Self-Destruct - Ignores everything, but this is still crap.
Dark Spark - Level alteration allows for some evil with the associated spells, and hey it also decreases status evade and in many cases magic damage, so that's something. Highly situational though, with that accuracy.
Missile - Now this is more like it. Even with Time Magic cutting into its niche a bit, gravity spells are pretty cool as you can hit lots of things with them. It's also got a very low MP cost. Plus, who doesn't like killing giant plant bosses with Missiles?
Flame Thrower - Bread and butter offence move for late W1 and early W2, though time magic served up Comet as competition. With the Flame Rod this is a respectable 75 power for only 5 MP. Retains some use against fire weaks even in W3.
Transfusion - Makes your MP supply endless, particularly with Raise. In practice I didn't find this a huge issue and find Transfusion a bit cumbersome, though. Still saw use on occasion, although realistically just being more liberal with Elixirs would replace it.
Death Claw - Uh it's Missile except way more expensive and less accurate. In exchange for this it lowers enemy HP even further and briefly stuns them. I find that a losing trade in general but there may be exceptions.
Level 4 Graviga - Low-cost MT move. It only works on targets of a certain level who are ALSO gravity-suspect, but it's actually not bad anyway due to perfect accuracy. Really helps wreck some formations at a low cost, particularly in the pyramid and the rift.
Time Slip - 90 accuracy sleep. Old may hurt this more than it helps I find, since if the enemy immunes either the whole attack whiffs. Anyway sleeping enemies never wake up against mages so they are sitting ducks.
Off Guard - Nice if something has high defences but low status evade. ... this doesn't happen often. Worth it against Gil Turtle though, and uh I guess Azulmagia.
Aeroga - The skillset's signature attack spell. Air Knives make it quite potent, the best generally applicable ST and MT offence. Air's even a good element overall, which is nice. 24 MP's a touch costly but not too bad, and you get Gold Hairpins to help out the spamming of this. Would have been even better if I hadn't drawn the only two non-knife classes.
White Wind - Nice stuff, MT healing! Pretty easy to parlay it into near-full either from using the highest-HP caster or healing them first.
Level 2 Old - Weird little spell. Slows and destroys the magic of various enemies. Can be comboed into Level 5 Death if you really want. I don't make extensive use of it but it certainly has its place. Completely annihilates any boss foolish enough to have an even level, but that's probably why almost none do (castle Exdeath is the notable one).
1000 Needles - Kinda costly. Is great if you get it in world 1, but by world 3 it's just a more reliable Comet which costs four times more. See Omega for more, that's the main place I used it.
Level 3 Flare - Pretty decent in the Phoenix Tower's desert and the Rift (desert and castle), where quite a lot of enemies get hit by it. It's a low-cost Bahamut against those enemy types.
Mighty Guard - Hello, bosses. You lose, have a nice day. Better than halving all damage in a game where almost nothing dispels? Sign me up. Oh yeah it also floats because why not. The capstone broken ability of a broken skillset.
Mind Blast - I dunno, it probably has some uses (magic evade ignoring status) but none I really found.
Doom - I used it once against... King Behemoths, hoping they wouldn't counter it (they do). No real use for this, although I could have used it to kill Neo Exdeath's back piece if I'd remembered it. Perfect accuracy gives it a niche, at least.
Roulette - Is shit. For some reason you get it super-late.
Lilliputian Lyric - I didn't get it. Its main use is probably mini-ing your own shield user for insane evade, since enemies almost uniformly immune it.

Omega's the one interesting point of note on the playthrough. First of all, I have Quick, so it is possible to beat him with "inflict HP Leak, cast Quick, let HP Leak work for hours". (Poison Rods and Mind Blast both let me inflict HP Leak.) But honestly that bores me, so I tried to win legit. The problem with that is my offence is horrible. Against Omega's 150 MDef, perfect magic evade, and absorption of non-lightning elements, almost everything I have is hosed (Meteor, status, Aeroga, Aqua Breath, you name it). 1000 Needles is the sole exception here. The problem is that Omega will counter every attack, 1/3 of the time with Encircle, which erases a PC around 40% of the time (less if they have an Aegis Shield). This would slowly wear me down. So instead, I dig in. Reflect Rings on everyone stops most of his skillset (exceptions: all his counters, as well as Flame Thrower, Earthquake, Maelstrom, Rainbow Wind, and Wave Cannon). Wave Cannon just removes half of max HP, White Wind that nonsense. Earthquake can be dealt with by Float. Rainbow Wind (silence) can be stopped by Sage's Surplices on the mages (the Monk gets unsilenceable blue magic). Flame Thrower is survivable in shell, and I also have a Flame Shield. So I can stall forever. People only die if (a) Flame Thrower hits someone unshelled or not at full HP or (b) Wave Cannon + Maelstrom doubleact means HP Leak can kill someone if I'm unlucky and don't react quickly. Also dead people come back with no shell or float, so (c) Earthquake if I don't reapply one. All my reflect rings means I have to bounce haste/shell/float off Omega and hope they hit the right things.

Regardless yeah, I'm fine defensively. Offensively... every so often Omega casts Search, which causes him to target the target of Search with -everything- for one round. This includes his counters. And Search is reflectable! So yeah, wait for him to cast Search, unload 1000 Needles. Quick can also be used. 1/3 of the time (it feels like less grr) he'll even counter with Mustard Bomb and hit himself for a further 1500 + some HP Leak, the rest of the time he uses attacks which fail against himself. Still, this lets me win. ... in theory. In practice, reflected Atomic Rays (heal for ~1500) and post-Search Flame Throwers on self (heal for ~1100) eat into my offence. I eventually run out of Elixirs from restoring MP and lose. What's weird is I feel like I did way, way more than his max HP in this time even with the healing... but I guess I could be wrong. That or he heals off some weird mechanic I'm not aware of, but I can't see any thing in the BMG which would make this the case. Oh well! Still pretty happy I came up with a way to stall against Omega indefinitely and even get some perfectly safe damage in.

Gil Turtle (Blink + Off Guard a bunch, then Comet spam) and Shinryu (blink + berserk with Quick to help out) are painless by comparison. Berserk + Blink also allows me to own Omniscient hard. And King Behemoths, the game's attempt at magic spoilers (although in normal games, they are magic spoilers with no defence against Odin). Ultimately this may even have been White Mage's main purpose in this playthrough, though they did help out in some other ways.

Good times.


Other gaming:

I haven't been able to get into Valkyria Chronicles 2. Don't hand me 20 PCs at once, I am overwhelmed. (This is probably just an excuse. I guess I'm just not in the mood for the game at the moment.)

Instead I am replaying the two best games I have played this year, which are Fire Emblem 13 and Star Ocean 4. For FE, just doing Hard Mode again since it's about where I like my FE challenge. I'll probably have a FAQ for the reinforcements though. :( Going without Fred this time (well after chapter 3 anyway), using pair up more than last time to get a better feel for it. I definitely find Pegasus Knight + Knight pairup do a great job of negating each other's weaknesses, but this is old news. For Star Ocean, playing on Universe Mode, up to Cardianon, which is definitely where the game picks up I feel. The first area of the game is kinda weird, item resource limits you never have to deal with anywhere else in the game. It's fun in its own way just feels like a different game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on June 30, 2013, 10:21:00 AM
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance: This is my new favorite furniture collecting game
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on June 30, 2013, 08:07:18 PM
Oh god lobotomites can talk.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on June 30, 2013, 10:21:47 PM
And wiggle their hand-penises. (That's the scary part.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on July 01, 2013, 01:14:23 AM
VtMB: So Malk mansion was pretty great. Best part of the game so far. Not so much the game going, "'sup, it's totally cool if I spawn enemy reinforcements behind you, right? I thought so," but hey, we got by. Jacked by four flaming psychos, left with a barely visible sliver of health left. Solution? Wander off for snacks while HP regens. It's not like the building's on fire or anything, right? Come back a few minutes later, check if fire's advanced any. Nope, it was polite enough to wait for me. Gameplay!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on July 01, 2013, 04:14:38 AM
Fallout New Vegas or how I learned to love the lobotomite.

I did more Mojave stuff but frankly it was uninteresting.  In my glorious planning I ended up going into OWB because I wanted the Perks.  This was... interesting.  Enemies were everywhere so I was barely fast traveling.  Lobotomites apparently have the eyesight of the Gods because they see me Sneaking when they're a dot on the horizon.  Thankfully I'm only mid-level so I'm not being obliterated by Anti-material rifles.  Robo-scorpions have less awareness but their tail-lasers do a lot more damage.  Everything else isn't really important.  The dog test I guess, since the howl attacks hurt a bunch but since the chemistry sets actually work I end up with over 200 stimpacks.  Not that this helps against One when I try and get his Sink upgrade.  But more on that later.  The addition of robo-scorpions to the stealth test makes for some weird times since reconfiguring the tripwire IFFs apparently makes the turrets go berserk on them.  And me but what else is new.  The school tests with the nightstalkers were piss-easy because of animal friend.  And speaking of animal friend, and getting back to the mad securitron One, my attempts to... pester? him generally involved me being chain-stunned by his rapid-fire missiles and incapable of opening my pip-boy to overdose on stimpacks.  And I'm too lazy to set hotkeys.  So after enough putzing and finding out he has a melee so he won't kill himself from splash damage, I make like scooby-doo and get out of there.

And he and two others follow me.  Greaaaaat.

And then a Cazadore attacks!  I'd gone through their lair earlier to grab the implant tape.  Through the fortune of the gods I didn't get hit once then.  Well that certainly rectified itself post-haste!  Luckily heartless kept me from being poisoned.  But the cazadore gave me an EVIL idea.  To lure One and his entourage to the nightstalker station and let them destory him!  It was hard and limp-breaking journey, but they eventually made it to the outside rubble only to be too large to fit inside.

hahahahahahaa

EXCEPT!  The follow through doors mechanics are unsually forgiving/punishing!  And they magiclly follow me inside and procede not to be attacked by the nightstalkers at all.  Even when the nightstalkers are caught in splash damage.  Well, dammit!  Most animals are natrually hostile anyway so rank 2 in animal friend felt like a waste.  BUT!  I'm but a scant couple EXP off a new level and new perk.  I desperatly comb the lab and find only one skill check, but all the robot-kiting has left me just close enough to get some stimpack and chem challenges done.  LEVEL!  26!  Sure I'll be putting off another EXP booster perk, but THINGS!

Except even with Animal Friend 2 the Nightstalkers refuse to attack One.

/suicide

As my final comment, the final dialogues are much less satisfying using speech checks instead of quest-bullying.  Even if it is hilarious.

Pacifist Rules more than Tunnel Snakes
Rule 1: Don't kill things.  Obviously.  I'm counting Companion kills into this as well.
-Disables don't count.  They totally dooooon't.
Rule 2: Complete the Caeser's Legion questline.  Since this Questline unavoidably involves killing people, my actions to complete those Quests will be solved by not directly murdering people.
-Well, now I'm up to 6 Perception.  Once I'm 30 things will be silver!
Rule 3: Complete as many Caeser's Legion Quests as possible.  (This includes taking out Forlon Hope through what I'll describe as a hair-brained scheme.)
-I still don't have it...
Rule 4: Complete as many Companion Quests as I can.  (With some trickery it should be possible to get everyone but Lily)
-Raul's quest complete.
-Part 4 of the X Amount of Parts needed for Boone completed.
Rule 5: Complete the DLCs I can; figure out if Dead Money is actually possible.
-Old World Blues completed.  No kills, but 5 Robot Disables.
Rule 6: Get the maximum amount of Idolized factions I can.
-Completing Ranger Andy's quest got me Idolized in Novac.  Now if only something got me to Liked for NCR...
Rule 7: Get every Ending Slide group.
-18/29.  We're getting there!
Rule 9: Kings Rule Freeside.
-I got the Roxie ending without doing anything Rex-related.  Ehhhh.


Somewhere along the way a lobotomite staring yelling at me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 01, 2013, 05:19:49 AM
Project X Zone: Chapter 30 and such.  Chapter 29 is awesome if only because of the stuff it references.

God Eater Burst: So given it was free on PSN Plus, and there are characters from it in PXZ, I figured why not?

...well, unexpectedly, the game involves playing as a SIlent Protagonist Avatar Mary Sue style character.  Great, and here I was hoping for something kind of story/character driven.  I mean, yeah, there's supporting characters, but so far it seems like Monster Hunter (with way more intuitive controls, thus much lower learning curve) in a post apocalyptic scenario with AI Partners similar to you or something.  WIll reserve judgments on gameplay.

I can say, however, that PXZ got Lindow and Soma spot on, in that the former is a pretty cool guy who seems to somehow actually enjoy his life despite the hell hole the world is in, and the latter is just an emo punk.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on July 01, 2013, 05:18:58 PM
Man blue magic would be cool if it wasn't that much of a pain to get.
As it is I only ever get the uber earlygame costly MT spell (Aquabreath/Beta) and Big Guard if I can find it / care enough.

The malk mansion in Bloodlines is great yes. Everyone only ever talks about the hotel!
I really like ventrues but you never get to feel like a ventrue in the game, as you... kinda start the game as a disgrace (because your boy/girlfriend broke the masquerade and all that) and stay Lacroix's bitch the whole game.

Hotline Miami: Got the A+ trophy before getting A+ in every level. Huh. Other trophies are bugged anyway. Whatever.
There are two levels left with "only" an A ranking!
Combos are the best way to get a high score, so Zack (Longer combo window) has been my best personality/mask for my first A+ rankings. I've found that Brandon (Higher running speed) eclipses it later though. Especially when he gets a knife and kills an entire floor with it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on July 01, 2013, 09:11:30 PM
The hotel was cool but I think suffers in comparison for not really having a second act (it did come first though, so I'd guess that's why it stands out more for people). Once you've found what you were looking for in the hotel, you leave. Once you've found what you were looking for in the mansion, everything is fucked, dude, everything is fucked. Also monologues > headlines as far as background flavor goes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on July 02, 2013, 12:13:06 AM
The mansion also introduces a new antagonist, which is another point in its favor. It really gave me an extra push in the next part of the game, because I wanted to get those fuckers who set me up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on July 02, 2013, 12:21:27 AM
F.E.A.R. 2: I'd figure there'd be more jump scares.

Home: Interesting little experiment that doesn't quite work, IMO.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on July 02, 2013, 03:55:51 PM
Rogue Legacy: This game is pretty awesome. It's a roguelike Metroidvania where you carry over skills, stat-ups and equipment from playthrough to playthrough but start with a randomized character class and subweapon every time. The controls are really tight, the various character quirks really affect how you play from session to session, and the exploration is good fun. The only real thumbs-down so far is that I'm not big on having to go through the hub area from scratch every time - although there are ways around that, for a price.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on July 03, 2013, 01:38:43 AM
VtMB: Boss tells me, "Sneak into this museum, steal the sarcophagus, don't kill people." It is not explained to me how I am intended to pickpocket a sarcophagus without anyone noticing on the way out. So as soon I'm in the basement and there are cameras everywhere, I just murder the everliving fuck out of everybody.

Fortunately my boss had bigger things to worry about by the time I got back.

In Hollywood now. Good times. Highlights!

-THRILLHO.
-Josef K's computer password is Kafka. Naturally.
-"Margaret Tang." So somebody watched Rushmore I guess. (I enjoy reading all the computers, yes.)
-But of course the stripper is the nicest vampire in town!
-Freddie Mercury, hostile food critic.
-I gave up on the zombie quest after a couple tries and just hired a hooker instead. I gather successful completion of the quest gets you the dude's gun, but whatever, I've got plenty of those and most of my combat is still unarmed anyway. Bullets cost money, fisting is free. I only have Celerity at rank 3 and it still wrecks everything.

Mansion #2 looks like it's going to be a lot less pleasant than the first one. Which is saying something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on July 03, 2013, 02:52:41 AM
FF6- Just replayed Vanilla. Had a few resets, all of them in the world of ruin. Had a fluky one that involved incredibly bad luck (L90 Magic) and one that involved idiocy (Guardian).  Anyway, it's fun but it makes me appreciate how much effort was put into ET to both balance the cast and give enemies some bite. Most of that was increasing enemies HP.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 03, 2013, 06:36:23 AM
God Eater Burst: So I killed a demonic gorilla thingy...

Lindow remains a cool guy, Soma remains an emo dick.  Not much else to say.

PXZ: Chapter 34, HERE I COME!

Also, I had one reset embarrassingly enough.  It was entirely avoidable but I got cocky, a unit that wasn't allowed to die got swarmed, then hit with a super and, yeah, ow.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on July 03, 2013, 01:10:12 PM
Rogue Legacy beat.  180 lives or so.  Fun little game, with a neat concept and solid gameplay.  What strikes me about the game is how well-matched the levels, obstacles, and enemies are to your range of motion and control.  Nothing too complicated - spike traps and projectiles and the like - but when you get the hang of it, it is poetry in motion.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on July 03, 2013, 09:58:15 PM
Star Ocean 4 Universe Mode - Roak, about to head to Tropp and meet cool people. Hm, Sahariel was easier this time, knowing what to do > stats I guess.

Fire Emblem Awakening - Beat the first ten chapters. So far this has been much easier on a replay. I am checking guides for reinforcements wherever I have forgotten them though, which helps! It's not a joke or anything, but it's definitely easier than Hector Hard Mode... probably than FE10 too? Then again Chapter 11 is right around the corner and it may change my tune. Still not sure what I think about Pair Up. I do think switch and transfer help make it less vapid an option, but only somewhat. I think it would be much better if the stat boosts were a bit smaller and Separate didn't take up the entire action, maybe?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on July 04, 2013, 05:39:50 AM
Fallout New Vegas, it's not murder if someone else kills them even if I directly led them into conflict.

Went and completed Cass's companion quest.  Nice and quick and easy and painless.  Ranger Jackson gave me a NCR HOO RAH conversation choice and that's when I realized I'd somehow been bumped up to Liked by NCR.  ABUSE GO.  Got Forlorn Hope and McCarren(also got the Ranger safehouse yay) to get troops to Bitter Springs with that and delicious EXps are mine.  This bumps up Bitter Springs Troopers to 9 from 5 which will be useful for Boone's quest later on.

After that I felt the burning need to become bros with the Brotherhood of Steel.  I grabbed the Vault items I needed.  Vault 11 turned into a civil war between rats and mantis' because of animal freind.  At first the mantis carved a bloody swathe of victory, but near the end Jimmy the Super Rat went on an undefeated streak and claimed the Vault for all of ratkind since.  Seriously, one rat killed like, four mantises and two bark scorpions near the entrance.  Vault 22 was ASS though since the carriers move like fucking lightning and broke my space suit like jerks.  Still, got what I needed and completed the quest as well.  Yay and stuff.

Back to the BoS.  Or rather here for the first time.  I go shoo off the Ranger since there's Speech EXp there and I need to check something.  And yep, this is the only possible time I can get away with killed the Elder with the turrets since he'll come to floor 1 for a debrief on that route.  If he makes i back to floor 2 he won't chase you back to floor 1.  Looks like another Bunker self-destruct later.  Probably the better idea since literally every paladin now has a guass rifle.  Also for some baffling reason the firing range paladin felt like sleeping 24/7.  How I envy him.

Anyway, with me being a Paladin and all I finally have enough resources for what I call: the most convoluted plan I've ever executed that I can remember!

The whole of my planning and... let's say dancing has been solely for the express purpose of completing Boone's Quest.  Boone needs 5 HISTORY points to unlock his quest.  There are a total of 13 points available.  8 of those points involve killing someone.  2 of the remaining five I've already mentioned, freeing the Powder Gangers at the Legion Raid Camp.  The remaining 3: 1 point involves a somewhat buggy quest I'm saving for last.  The other 2 are part of the nexus of interconnected bullshit I have to do.

The 2 points come from freeing NCR hostages in the middle of another Legion base, Nelson.  The problem with this is, this causes the base commander to become permanently hostile, and he's the one who gives and ends the Quest to wipe out Camp Forlorn Hope.  And since I'm doing all the Legion quests I can I have to do that before rescuing the guys.  So, to wipe out Forlorn Hope I actually have to start the quest to save it.  Then, I have to strategically pickpocket all the officers, who I have to kill, along pickpocketing with half the troopers.  During the Restoring Hope quest, a gang of Legion Raiders will attack me, so I have to lure them over to Forlorn Hope.  THIS FAILS.  The melee Legionaries won't cross a certain threshold for some retarded reason, and the one gunner will just get mobbed by the one Trooper who pulls three cattle prods out his ass.  So no hope of him taking four officeras as well.  So I mix things up, I throw on Legion armor and drag half of Camp Forlorn Hope to the ambushers.  It's a brutal, no holds barred contest as the ten or so NCR get cut down by three Legionaries, but I do it.  I complete We Are Legion without killing a single person!

So for my next magic trick, saving the NCR guys right outside the door!  I need to have Boone with me to get his History Points, but the hostages are right in the middle of the settlement.  So, I need to copy my above plan.  There's a little NCR checkpoint up the road, manned by a Ranger and two Troopers.  And I just so happen to have a load of stuff to give them as ~PRESENTS~ including an Anti-Material rifle with Explosive rounds and power armor.  When I lure Legionaries up to them, the Troopers decide the fancy weapons I gave them are for other people.  One dies trying to punch things to death while the other plicks away with a 10MM pistol.  And then the Ranger explodes dudes.  A LOT.  He barely takes any damage and more-or-less clears the whole base himself.  I grab Boone, save the Hostages and things are gravy.

When I was giving ~PRESENTS~ I got caught and died in one Explosive AMR shot.  This makes me drool for my AMR run.

After that I go get the last buggy point and it's off to Bitter Springs!  Which comes under Legion attack!  This is why I did the Bitter Springs quest.  Since Boone and I can't fight, I have to rely on Troopers.  And well, my first attempt without tipping things in my favor starts up with 11 NCR vs 4 Legion and ends with 4 NCR vs 0 Legion.  Then the Legion's second wave spawns and the Quest fails because everyone dies.  SO RUN 2!  I ~PRESENT~ away my power armor to the NCR Officers and some Troopers.  I fully kit out Captain Giles, power armor, better weapon, two auto-inject stimpacks and have another go because damn is it annoying reverse-pickpocketing things.  So, the first fight goes better, and ends with only 4 casualties on the NCR.  Second Wave hurts bad though, and cuts them down to about 3.  Troopers just have no damn health whatsoever.  Luckily Giles was kinda beastly, she probably killed off half the Legionaries herself, including a somewhat nice snipe from half the camp away.  VICTORY!  I now have a repentant Boone who I'll never use.

And then I went and got Arcade who killed the Silver Rush crier goddammit.

Pacifist Rules more than Tunnel Snakes
Rule 1: Don't kill things.  Obviously.  I'm counting Companion kills into this as well.
-Sure things may have died before I reloaded...
Rule 2: Complete the Caeser's Legion questline.  Since this Questline unavoidably involves killing people, my actions to complete those Quests will be solved by not directly murdering people.
-Or maybe 32?  34?  Or 50 at this rate.
Rule 3: Complete as many Caeser's Legion Quests as possible.
-Forlorn Hope has fallen to my hair-brained scheme.
Rule 4: Complete as many Companion Quests as I can.  (With some trickery it should be possible to get everyone but Lily)
-Raul's quest complete.
-Cass's quest complete.
-Boone's quest complete.
Rule 5: Complete the DLCs I can; figure out if Dead Money is actually possible.
-Old World Blues completed. 
-Loansome Road's probably gonna be endless Stealth Boy abuse.
Rule 6: Get the maximum amount of Idolized factions I can.
-Somehow I got Liked with NCR.  Legion is also finally on my faction list whooo.
Rule 7: Get every Ending Slide group.
-23/29.  Now that's progress!
Rule 9: Kings Rule Freeside.
-When I got attacked by Thugs a Kings came to my defense as usual.  The Thugs knocked his magnum aside and he went and hid.  When I dragged the magnum to him he vanished.


Somewhere along the way I exploded.  Multiple times.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on July 04, 2013, 07:10:56 AM
I should probably use Animal Friend sometime. It sounds hilarious.

What the heck is an AMR?

VtMB: Sewer levelllllllllll. Why did I think this was a good thing to do at midnight. Glad I was saving up my bullets, so many vagina monsters down there. Clan Tzimisce = worst clan.

I'm pretty sure the number of Arcanum references in this game cracks double digits.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on July 04, 2013, 08:12:00 AM
Anti Materiel Rifle.  Giant sniper rifle to snipe armoured vehicles.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on July 04, 2013, 10:23:33 AM
Anti Materiel Rifle.  Giant sniper rifle to snipe armoured vehicles.

Additionally, it is the rifle from the opening video that the guy is sniping bandits with from the New Vegas city walls.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on July 04, 2013, 02:43:04 PM
Oh, right. 2AM postin', y'know.

I always thought it was too nice a gun to waste expensive ammo on sniping some random Fiend.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on July 04, 2013, 03:07:01 PM
As an NPC he would have unlimited ammo so there's no loss of profits at all.

EDIT: Animal friend has been surprisingly useful.  Normally you wouldn't bother because y'know, EXP.  But watching a Nightstalker kill a robo-scorpion or a giant rat go on a murder spree or Legion dogs turn on their masters is hilarious.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on July 04, 2013, 03:17:35 PM
Penny Arcade 4: Beaten.

This was a fun gameplay-oriented romp. I didn't mix up Trainers at all so I could get a DL-topicable set of beasties, and even then it wasn't all that difficult on Normal/Veteran. Veteran offered up SOME challenge, while Normal didn't. I'd suggest DLers play on either Veteran or Insane for maximum fun. There is no real penalty for losing a fight (you just restart it at your leisure), so playing on a higher difficulty makes the gameplay shine a lot more in terms of strategy and utilizing your options efficiently.

And there are a lot of options! Every monster has a skillset, the Trainers have skillsets (and passives), and different equip types give different passive bonuses in addition to stat bonuses. The game is heavy on the quickdraw-to-kill-enemies aspect but there are tanking/healing strategies that probably work a little better on harder modes (So long as you don't take TOO long... enemies still power up every turn *grumble*).

Plot/characters aren't worth mentioning really.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on July 04, 2013, 03:24:46 PM
Blue Dragon - Randoms were harder than the boss in that factory dungeon! I am amused.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on July 04, 2013, 05:33:59 PM
As an NPC he would have unlimited ammo so there's no loss of profits at all.

EDIT: Animal friend has been surprisingly useful.  Normally you wouldn't bother because y'know, EXP.  But watching a Nightstalker kill a robo-scorpion or a giant rat go on a murder spree or Legion dogs turn on their masters is hilarious.

Only for their default weapon. Other weapons use ammo.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on July 04, 2013, 06:20:54 PM
As an NPC he would have unlimited ammo so there's no loss of profits at all.

EDIT: Animal friend has been surprisingly useful.  Normally you wouldn't bother because y'know, EXP.  But watching a Nightstalker kill a robo-scorpion or a giant rat go on a murder spree or Legion dogs turn on their masters is hilarious.

Only for their default weapon. Other weapons use ammo.

Companions use ammo for non-default weapons, NPCs don't.  The Ranger I gave the AMR to only had one explosive bullet but shot a dozen times.  Same thing with Giles.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on July 04, 2013, 07:20:12 PM
In the setting, though, that's a kind of nice anime-ish moment, a la the beginning of Wild Arms 4.  "Holy shit, Caesar's Legion!  Wait...  I have a super-gun with unlimited ammo?  Where did that come from?  Wait... the power was within me the whole time!  I can save everyone now!" (Then skip the part where you pickpocket it back.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on July 04, 2013, 07:23:32 PM
That's pretty weird considering how pickpocketing works but I guess #gamebryo.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on July 04, 2013, 09:12:59 PM
VtMB: "A fighting Tong?" Not anymore, they aren't.

Oh shit, it's the Mandarin.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 06, 2013, 04:42:44 AM
PXZ: ...I think I killed all the villains (or they "went back to their home world" for those that didn't die...or "are functionally dead but technically not but actually is always dead because Zombie" in the case of Lord Raptor) save for the original creations for this game.  I think this qualifies as being in endgame now?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on July 06, 2013, 07:20:33 AM
Fallout New Vegas, where the word of the day is Slavery.  As in Slavery to the game crashing and freezing but being enjoyable enough that you work past them after the rage comas.

Normally I've been spacing these out every other day for two play sessions, but I played A LOT today and didn't do much yesterday so my mind's all kinda sorta cloudy on what I did.  I brought Arcade to Repconn and then... stopped?  I dunno.  Like I said, hazy.  But after that I went and did Veronica's companion quest.  With great difficulty.  I'd already done the plant thing, couldn't do the Pulse Gun, and sold the E-Finder.  Thankfully the Finder is buggy as shit and respawns, but then I had problems with Freeside Thugs.  If I brought Veronica in she'd kill them.  If I tried to pickpocket the E-Finder I'd get caught by a goddamn kid.  If I tried to talk to the kid he'd end up fleeing because I'm in combat because Freeside Thugs are apparently omniscient in knowing your position.  So after far-too-fucking-many attempts I get the E-Finder and head over to activate it.  Cool thing is that the Follower there has dialogue if you're in the BoS.  Neat.

So blah blah blah, get that done.  The final jackass Paladins at the end are actually helpful since they kill the Scorpions in front of Hidden Valley allowing me to actually fast travel from there.  Veronica stays with the BOS because the other way involves corpses.

Then I did... a thing.  Yeah, that sounds right?  E-DE's quest along the way somewhere.  Followers him since BOS is gonna meet the earth.  Oh yeah, I went and grabbed Arcade's points.  First time I ever did the White Wash.  In fact that's probably the last quest I've never not done before.

Somewhere along the way I went and recoverd Ranger Esteban's corpse.  I had Light Step so traps were no worry, and luck of luck had a caravan distract the fiends while I snuck away with the body without a scratch on me.

At some point I felt the burning need to do Lonesome Road.  Since I wanted to do it with Idolized factions that's what I did.  NCR, Legion, Strip all went to Idolized and I boosted what else I could (Freeside, Goodsprings).  I also finally got around to installing Primm Slim as sheriff.

Once on the Lonesome Road, having NCr/Legion and actual talky stats meant I could ip a good bit more information out of Ulysses.  Unfortunately the Divide ripped a hell of a lot out of me.  Some of the Marked Men were literally cheating since they beelined straight for me as soon as I detonated the warheads even when I was Hidden.  After several failures at the second necessary warhead, I lucked out finding a stealth boy and used that to get to the highway.  Which is where the real FUN* begins.  I manage to sneak past the first group of MM there, but the stealth boy runs out and I have one hot on my ass when I start running into Deathclaw territory.  Thankfully it's an arc-welder MM so he pegs the deathclaw and then they go at it.  Then ED-E does his teleport thing whenever a plot conversation happens and he's now in the middle of deathclaw lane.  So as I'm running on the walls of the highway jumping across pits and breaks to stop myself from being horribly butchered, I suddenly start getting EXP pop-ups.  It can't be ED-E.  Even with 10 CHA he couldn't beat a single MM one-on-one earlier.  So, when I get to satchel charge lane and a Deathclaw blows up there, all I can fathom is that if any of them die I get EXP anyway.

Anyway, the elevator ride was kinda lulzy since the explosions just killed Tunnelers.  Everything until the Temple was unnoteworthy.  But then in the Temple I learned I can't unseal the maintenance pod unless the security bots are destroyed.  BUT HEY!  I had a perk level recently, so I reload that, get the perk that allows me to disable robots.  After a pain in the ass to get back to the Temple, it seems Disabling the security bots completely removes the option to even open the pod in the first place.  hahahahahaha

Anyway, Ulysses comletely steamrolls the final, and I go and burn the whole world to the ground.  Sure, I take Rep hits with the NCR and Legion, but that's what forgiveness is for!  After some truely epic malarky, I get Arcade's comp quest done as well(have them side with the NCR because it's not like I'm fighting.)  I get Rex's done as well during this time.  And that's actually kinda a story.  I went to grab the brain from the Legion dog since this is supposed to be a Pro-Legion playthrough.  Now, I expected since I had Animal Friend that I would avoid fighting the dog in the arena, but NOPE that's another quest I don't care about.  So as I'm hopping like an idiot in the Arena being glad the Fort auto-saves, I hit the sweet spot, the heavens align and a Legionare shoots the dog dead.  HOORAY.

Anyway, after talking a man into becoming a meal for cannibals and blowing up the BOS bunker again and letting Luck guide my actions, it's time for the Arizona Killer!  Well, sometime along the way I freed Silus, taught Legionarress that the Red button on Mines is the off switch and gave false intel on Aureliues of Phoenix's plan thing.

SO ARIZONA KILLER.  My ridiculously stupid original plan here was to use the move item feature to drag active mines from the No-Man's land between Forlorn Hope and Nelson to the stage and let things end that way.  But you can't move active mines.  So, I just set up the AA guy to shoot the vertibird outta the sky.  It's not murder if my pip-boy doesn't say I've killed something!  And then when I fast travel to the Fort in my NCR disguise I completely fail the entire Legion questline.  GG

So, final battle!  It's hilarious watching Prime Legionariess just cave through the NCR lines without any casualties.  Anyway, since I told the Remnants to support NCR they showed up early.  Now, I was planning on running past them before they butchered me, but apparently things have changed and now they're friendly to you even across faction lines.  So now I have two super-tough bodyguards who instantly brutalize any of my other allies.  Since they do that, I don't have any support going forward.  The Boomers are always kinda buggy, they released two payloads and killed nothing.  But the Great Khans manage to buy enough time for me to move on before they're effortlessly slaughtered as usual.  Eventually they both Remnants fall after killing about 30 Prime Legionaries.  In utter comedy, they both had their weapons knocked away at the same time, then grabbed the others and had one last hurrah before dying.

So, talky, talky END.  Slavery finally takes it's roots in the Mojave, and all without me directly killing a thing.  Sorta.

Pacifist Rules, but not as much as Slavery
Rule 1: Don't kill things.  Obviously.  I'm counting Companion kills into this as well.
-Pip-Boy shows that I have 0 kills of any stripe.  ARE YOU GONNA CALL THE PIP_BOY A LIAR HUH?
Rule 2: Complete the Caeser's Legion questline.  Since this Questline unavoidably involves killing people, my actions to complete those Quests will be solved by not directly murdering people.
-I have another plan to try in Arizona Killer later.  It's probably more insane than dragging live mines.
Rule 3: Complete as many Caeser's Legion Quests as possible.
-Done and done.
Rule 4: Complete as many Companion Quests as I can.  (With some trickery it should be possible to get everyone but Lily)
-Raul's quest complete.
-Cass's quest complete.
-Boone's quest complete.
-Veronica's quest complete.
-Rex's quest complete.
-Ed-e's quest complete.
Rule 5: Complete the DLCs I can; figure out if Dead Money is actually possible.
-Old World Blues completed.
-Loansome Road completed.
-Didn't do Honest hearts yet, but I'm gonna do it.  I AM I TRULY MA JUST WANNA CHIEV
Rule 6: Get the maximum amount of Idolized factions I can.
-Well this failed utterly.  Who knew murder made for easier Idolizing?
Rule 7: Get every Ending Slide group.
-29/29.  Who's a bad mama jamma?
Rule 9: Kings Rule Freeside.
-When I was attacked by the Silver Rush Crier, King was running around the Third Floor.  But none of the outside Kings would defend me, even when they got hit.
Rule 10: Slavery Rules the Mojave.
-And there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it other than shoot at me because I have no way of defending myself.


Anyway, I will do Honest Hearts later, I just wanted to blitzed to the ending for now.  Lonesome Road also gave me a preview of how infeasible Dead Money is. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on July 06, 2013, 09:34:04 PM
When life gives me lemons...
I play Persona 4 for the first time on Very Hard mode.
After the Longest Intro Ever, the game shows that it is completely. relentless. on that mode.
It's not as brutal as Devil Summoner Hard Mode, as destroying enemies easily is A Thing, but resource management? I treat half the items as more valuable than any Megaelixir in any Final Fantasy. Snuff Souls? 1 Snuff soul is more useful than Chie.
For the First Time Ever in SMT, physical skills are really useful. Yes, I'll use 7 HP to avoid taking 80 damage.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on July 06, 2013, 10:55:40 PM
BL2: Beat the game, started the DLC. Captain Scarlett is fun - good variety of stuff to do, good writing ("child schmafficking" is one of my favorite lines in the game), neat treasure.

Sadly, I also discovered that this game does the same thing the first game did, where if you finish the main game and then go into the DLC campaigns you quickly go over the level cap for the first playthrough, so every enemy is at least four levels lower than you and a total pushover. Instead of sleepwalking through the DLC until I got bored and quit, like I did with the first one, I decided to switch over to True Vault Hunter difficulty and just go for the DLC immediately. Which worked in that the enemies are now leveling up with me again, but the problem now is that I'm on track to hit the level cap for TVH before I even finish the DLC, without so much as touching the main game. And I have to finish the main game on TVH before I can unlock the highest difficulty.

Gearbox, I love you but seriously learn to EXP curve.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 07, 2013, 03:51:48 AM
Project X Zone: Beat it.  Game is simple and fun, but not much else.  It definitely comes off as something intended to play in short bursts at a time, not a "marathon and beat this all at once!" due to it's structure.  It is better than Namco X Capcom since while that game was beefier, PXZ is just so faster.  No, maps don't take longer than NxC; average map in PXZ takes about an hour, these get a little longer come end game; NxC, some maps can take upwards to 2 or 3 hours.  PXZ also has things like, say, animation skip for attacks, and counter attacks don't suck roughly half way into the game, Multi Attacks are a HUGE deal in this case, being legitimately good crowd control, what have you.

Also, this game lacks Leon, and instead gives us Yuri.  Also lacks Shion and gives us...ok, her replacement isn't much better.

6/10 game, and now to derail it with something I know Djinn would thumbs up:

POTENTIAL IDEA: Nintendo joins the crew!

By which I mean I am looking at Nintendo's franchises and picking which ones would fit into PXZ.  Remember that PXZ had a consistent design standard for the most part, using only Humanoid characters with something resembling realistic proportions, or easily reimagined without harming the design, hence why some "no brainers" didn't get in like Sonic.  You'll also notice they used MMX characters, who probably are the easiest to transfer into Adult Humans while still looking relatively normal.  So yeah, I am taking this into account.

Here are some franchises I feel would work, and potentially thoughts on characters that I could see being used; if I leave the franchise blank, it's probably lack of knowledge of the franchise.  Also, only covering good guys, so PCs and Solo Units!

With that said, HERE WE GO! 


Legend of Zelda: Link/Zelda team up seems like an obvious thing; I know I said no villains, but Ganondorf does feel like a shoe-in there.
-As a bit of an aside, a meta thing to consider is that Capcom actually made a few Zelda games in the past, so Link being in a crossover with Capcom characters included is fitting! (...shut up about the latest Smash!)


Fire Emblem: I'm just gonna say Chrom/Robin as a team (Robin wearing a hood to avoid canon silliness), and Lucina as a Solo unit.  Feels like it fits FE Awakening the best.  A second team could be in the game, ideally from characters NOT from Awakening's Universe, just to illustrate the raw scope of FE Cast, kind of the way Sakura Wars had characters all over the place from my understanding in PXZ.

Metroid: Samus is a Solo Unit; seems logical enough.

Sin and Punishment

Xenoblade

Golden Sun: Isaac/Garet team w/ Ivan as a solo unit!  Yes, Garet will start asking too many questions, and one of the "bad guys" PCs like Heihachi or Demitri will tell him to just shut up, and everyone will cheer, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO SEE THIS.

F-zero: Captain Falcon is a solo unit, THE FALCON PUNCH MUST BE IN THE GAME DAMN IT!

Punch Out: Little Mac could make a fun Solo Unit

Pokemon: Here me out on this one; the Pokemon Trainer is a solo unit, where in he has 6 preset Pokemon he uses in his attack.  Something like Pikachu, 3 starters from different regions and typing, possibly stages too, a legendary, and an Uber as his finisher.  Yes, this would be absolute madness on the battle field but isn't that what PXZ attacks moer or less end up as?
As in, a team would look like Pikachu, Bayleef, Blaziken, Piplup, Terrakion, and Yveltal; this is purely for example reasons, nothing more.

Legend of Murasame or whatever it's called: Takamaru as a solo unit.  Because screw you, that's why.

Kid Icarus: Pit and Pittoo as a unit.  hey, if PXZ can put KOS MOS and T-elos together, I don't see why this is impossible.  Also Palutena as a solo unit because DIVINE POWER OF TROLLING!!! is a must.


As an aside, Bayonetta would be perfect in a game like this.  Given her first game was published by Sega, and her second game is being published by Nintendo, and she's made by a bunch of former Capcom guys, she'd be bridging like 3 companies together or something like that!


Anyway, probably others I've forgotten, or we can take more units from franchises or something, but that should be a start for an idea of adding Nintendo's roster into the mix!

Why Nintendo?  Well, Monolith Software did help develop the game and they're owned by Nintendo so...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on July 07, 2013, 07:39:28 AM
FNV: Have you seen what an anti-material rifle can do to a Deathclaw?  Yes, yes I have.  :joecool:
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on July 07, 2013, 01:39:59 PM
Re: Meeple's Latest Rant

<3

I see you're finally putting your powers to good use!

Suggestion: Earthbound
Well... Mother 3's adult PCs would certainly fit in, though the iconic Lucas or Ness or Mr. SATURN are less likely.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on July 07, 2013, 03:30:44 PM
Up to chapter 18 on Project X Zone. The battle system's novelty has yet to wear off on me thus far, but the last few stages have been pretty lengthy. From what I've heard of the game I might end up taking a break around the 30s.

Character interaction has been my favorite part of the game thus far. Really glad they subbed all the pre- and post- battle dialogue for this unlike Endless Frontier, there's been some great lines in those. The actual plot, meanwhile, suffers from dimension hopping so much that it has almost no cohesion at all. All the bosses never ever dying after you beat them is getting silly as well, although from what I understand that was inherited from Namco x Capcom.

The Resonance of Fate duo are my MVPs thus far: great speed, great attack range, huge XP buildup rate, and a cheap barrier piercing skill. Aside from their own skills, they're great at getting any solo unit I want turns ASAP. Kogoro/Mii have a really good natural skillset (including another barrier busting skill) and more well-rounded and might actually be better if the game didn't keep deploying them near the back where they see less combat. Dante/Demitri also stand out just for dishing out tons of damage.

Not sure what's been more surreal so far, seeing a young Heihachi who is almost always on your side or Neneko in general.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on July 07, 2013, 03:33:26 PM
EF definitely has some problems killing characters off as well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 07, 2013, 04:29:05 PM
Re: Meeple's Latest Rant

<3

I see you're finally putting your powers to good use!

Suggestion: Earthbound
Well... Mother 3's adult PCs would certainly fit in, though the iconic Lucas or Ness or Mr. SATURN are less likely.

Can't speak for the adults in Mother 3 but the characters in Earthbound clearly have a stylized look that prevents them from working well without changing them drastically.  The Adults aren't much better than the kids in this regard.

Best example I can use to illustrate this is Brawl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2VG9IPUyiM

Lucas is standing right next to the Pokemon Trainer here, and is like half his height.  Remember that Pokemon Trainer is suppose to be young boy himself (though, I wouldn't buy the fact that he's 10 like the Kanto Trainer he's based off of is suppose to be, so we can assume he's a little older.  Still clearly not an adult due to his voice.)

Plus he's got things like a big head + small body combo. 

Look at the other characters I chose for this list from Brawl meanwhile.  Link, Zelda, Samus, Cpt. Falcon and Pit offhand.  All of them resemble normal humans, or need minor tweaks that don't really compromise the look.  In Earthbound (dunno about Mother 3), the stylized appearance is a big part of the look.

There's definitely something lost transferring from the Mother stylized style to PXZ's more realistic anime style.  For a similar case, I skipped over Ice Climbers.  Yeah, you could make Nana and Popo look realistic, but there's definitely something lost from the characters in doing so, they'd just be a boy and a girl in colored parkas with hammers...ok, I'll be fair, that is a unique looking design thinking on it.


(yes, I am totally overanalyzing this because it is SUPER SERIAL IMPORTANT and such)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on July 07, 2013, 09:30:32 PM
The Last of Us: man I love zombie movies
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on July 08, 2013, 12:28:12 AM
Hotline Miami: Bought for 3 bucks during a GOG sale.

What even is this game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on July 08, 2013, 01:14:02 AM
What is Hotline Miami?
(https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/598339840/h54D966FB/)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on July 08, 2013, 03:09:16 AM
Rogue Legacy: Last boss! And now I know that if you kill his first form while standing on the extreme right of the screen, his second form spawns on top of you. Nice.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on July 08, 2013, 03:28:23 AM
Grefter: As near as I can tell you're a drunken murderous late 1980s furry and you kill errbody
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on July 08, 2013, 08:22:47 AM
Project Crosszone - Hi Cancan Dancer Excellen Mii.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on July 08, 2013, 10:20:46 AM
Re: Meeple's Latest Rant

<3

I see you're finally putting your powers to good use!

Suggestion: Earthbound
Well... Mother 3's adult PCs would certainly fit in, though the iconic Lucas or Ness or Mr. SATURN are less likely.

Can't speak for the adults in Mother 3 but the characters in Earthbound clearly have a stylized look that prevents them from working well without changing them drastically.  The Adults aren't much better than the kids in this regard.

Best example I can use to illustrate this is Brawl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2VG9IPUyiM

Lucas is standing right next to the Pokemon Trainer here, and is like half his height.  Remember that Pokemon Trainer is suppose to be young boy himself (though, I wouldn't buy the fact that he's 10 like the Kanto Trainer he's based off of is suppose to be, so we can assume he's a little older.  Still clearly not an adult due to his voice.)

Plus he's got things like a big head + small body combo. 

Look at the other characters I chose for this list from Brawl meanwhile.  Link, Zelda, Samus, Cpt. Falcon and Pit offhand.  All of them resemble normal humans, or need minor tweaks that don't really compromise the look.  In Earthbound (dunno about Mother 3), the stylized appearance is a big part of the look.

There's definitely something lost transferring from the Mother stylized style to PXZ's more realistic anime style.  For a similar case, I skipped over Ice Climbers.  Yeah, you could make Nana and Popo look realistic, but there's definitely something lost from the characters in doing so, they'd just be a boy and a girl in colored parkas with hammers...ok, I'll be fair, that is a unique looking design thinking on it.


(yes, I am totally overanalyzing this because it is SUPER SERIAL IMPORTANT and such)

I even specified that Lucas or Ness wouldn't work... and my thoughts were precisely -because- of everything you just said!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on July 08, 2013, 11:21:00 PM
Project X Zone: Half a stage of obnoxious battle quotes and I'm already ready to strangle T-ELOS. Argh, couldn't Monolithsoft have picked anyone else to be KOS-MOS's partner?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on July 08, 2013, 11:47:25 PM
Rest assured, there are several other terrible choices for a KOS-MOS partner.

SO4 Universe - Has been largely clear sailing (outside TREES) until Tamiel. Tamiel is ow.
FE13 - Chapter 16. Also kid recruiting. Kid PCs are so weird.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 09, 2013, 01:25:10 AM
Project X Zone: Half a stage of obnoxious battle quotes and I'm already ready to strangle T-ELOS. Argh, couldn't Monolithsoft have picked anyone else to be KOS-MOS's partner?

I think the T-elos logic stems from the fact that she was in Extended Frontier, so natural progression?  I don't much defense beyond that.  She's the least tolerable character in the game in that regard, and it's not even close.


I guess the other defense is KOS-MOS = Mega Man, T-elos = Bass.  Granted, neither are in the game as we have X and Zero who are effectively the upgrades of those two characters but shh!!!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on July 09, 2013, 03:21:56 AM
If you want a character as poorly-conceived as KOS-MOS to look good pair her with a character who is even worse. Like when an averagely-ugly girl goes to bars with a fatty who has one eyebrow.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on July 09, 2013, 03:35:39 AM
I'm not even complaining about her terrible design, which is about on par with several others in PXZ *cough*Saya*cough* or her XS3 plot which is beyond terrible but not relevant at to this game, thankfully.

I'm complaining about the fact that she has essentially the same personality as Devilotte except played 100% seriously, so she spends every single pre- and post-battle dialogue gloating and cackling obnoxiously. Normally you'd expect this sort of character to get her comeuppance at some point in the game, either seriously or comedically (i.e. Devilotte at the end of her attack sequence), but the way T-ELOS is being written I don't expect it to happen in the remainder of this game now that she's a PC.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on July 09, 2013, 08:15:56 PM
Okami HD- Beaten. Great game 9.5/10, thoroughly enjoyed, would play again.

Stuff I didn't do, since that's less than I did -

*Didn't defeat Blockhead Grande
*Didn't complete Bestiary
*Didn't completely fill treasure book
*Didn't fill completely fill fish book
*Didn't defeat the three Devil's Gate trials
*Didn't collect all Stray Beads
*Didn't obtain all the trophies related to the above
*Didn't get the Barking Up the Cherry tree trophy (didn't get a cherry tree for max money obtained in the final results screen)
*Didn't get the No Furball on the menu trophy
*Probably didn't find every single clover, smash every rock, dig every hole, scale every heights, etc
*Didn't figure out the thing with the gravestones

I have 72% complete/trophies, I will probably do New Game+ or something and do the rest for everything in the future  :)


(yes I teared up at the Issun stuff outside the Arc/during the final fight/ending/etc, also at Ammy getting knocked down/stripped of her powersI'm a CT, what do you expect~)

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 09, 2013, 08:26:26 PM
The whole final dungeon sequence outside of the Celestial stuff (which I feel is introduced too late to really be effective, so you have this "ok, I don't care" mindset...at least I did) of Okami is pretty spectacular as a whole.  Starting with the tear jerking scene with Issun up through...well, the moment you mentioned.  Ending is kind of humble overall, but they pretty much used all firepower for the final boss sequence itself, I can deal with a humble moment.

...ok, to be fair, I didn't break down crying at the Issun Scene outside the Ark the way a lot of people did, though my little sister did say "That was so sad!!!" the first time she saw it.  Issun's just a fine example of how you can make an annoying little brat of a character yet still grow attached to him.


Anyway, if you're wondering CT, Okamiden is mostly a lot of the same as Okami, though toned down because DS vs. PS2/Wii/(PS3), what'd you expect?  If you're curious about how a story can continue, or just want to see another story in the same world, it wouldn't hurt to try it, but at the same time, you aren't missing anything...

THEN AGAIN, Chibiterasu is probably one of the most CT Bait protagonists of all time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on July 09, 2013, 08:36:28 PM
Rogue Legacy: Beat the final boss. Had a few failed attempts with Hokage, then rolled an Archmage and daggerspammed him until he exploded. 146 deaths before the fateful victory. Good times. Started NG+, which is a total bitch but has great rewards. So far I've killed the first boss, who is a total joke on any difficulty.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on July 10, 2013, 01:29:11 AM
Project X Zone: The villains have committed the apparently unpardonable crime of stealing a girl's dessert.  Better than the main plot/10.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on July 10, 2013, 01:55:28 AM
Hotline Miami:

Beaten. This game crawled up it's own asshole real quick. Fun gameplay at least, but I have no desire to try to A+ everything.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on July 10, 2013, 07:41:27 PM
Rogue Legacy: Last boss! And now I know that if you kill his first form while standing on the extreme right of the screen, his second form spawns on top of you. Nice.

That happened to me too.  Fatally.

When I beat the game, used Barbarian King.  I invested heavily in weapon damage, crit rate, crit damage, and armor, and pretty much ignored magic damage and MP entirely.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on July 11, 2013, 01:05:47 PM
The Last of Us

Fun game! It had my gf jump out of her chair a couple times, which made me chuckle. Best survival horror game in a LONG time. Potential GOTY? It's getting tons of praise.

PXZ

YES! A game with EF mechanics and more bouncing boobies! It even has some characters from games and animes I know. Score! plot be damned, this game is fun. I'm somewhere around chapter 6, the cast is getting hella large, but it's not that bad due to the pairing system. Should have a lot of fun with this one.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on July 12, 2013, 06:16:14 AM
FE13 - So let me tell you the story of Albert Silverburg, Chrom's tactician and the saviour of Ylisse's armies. While many of Albert's comrades quickly found love on the battlefield, Albert was more picky. Albert, master tactician, demanded someone who synergised with his magical nature for optimum combat performance to be his partner. The very... odd Miriel was rejected, as was Ricken because he was just a kid. The beautiful Tharja, though... she could provide what Albert needed. Magical power, durability, the ability to take care of herself and pronouce her enemies dead before she even attacked... and maybe even a little more? She was a creepy and sinister individual, but she won Albert's heart, and the two were wed.

Time passed. Zany hijinks ensued. Due to events it is best not to think too closely about, Albert's daughter Morgan joined the team. As Morgan was also a dark mage like her mother, Tharja decided to take care of her daughter on the battlefield, lest Morgan decide to intentionally hit her head against a rock at an inappropriate moment. Which left Albert free to allow his eyes to wander to... the exotic swordmistress Say'ri. One look at those thighs and there was no going back for Albert. He babbled something about "well her stats are really good but she can't support anyone except me right now" and as tactician none had the right to contradict him, but wiser men and women knew the truth. Say'ri and Albert fought battle after battle together. Tharja never gave any sign she noticed, but we can infer that she did, given that she decided to turn her other daughter with Albert, Noire, into a nervous wreck, a battered shell of a human being.

Albert, however, is not called the finest mind in Ylisse. He must have known that his behaviour would lead him cruising for a 1-HP, Vengeance-enhanced, Anathema-allowed critical hit from Arcthunder when he least needed it. Could Ylisse afford this in their struggles against Valm and its mighty conquerer-king? No, no it could not. "Go over there", he said to his wife. "My sources tell me that no reinformcents appear there this turn, so you can safely keep Wind equipped, rather than your immortality-granting Nosferatu". And Tharja, her mind plotting hundreds of hexes, agreed to follow her tactician's orders in the heat of battle.

And that's when four of Valm's finest warriors appeared from the forts without warning, and took Tharja's life, cutting her down as Morgan could only watch, weeping, as she finally understood why she couldn't remember her mother.

Meanwhile, Albert learned that a cruel god had dictated he could only achieve one "S support" per lifetime, while the player controlling him learned that one should never place too much trust in GameFAQs.

The end.


Star Ocean 4 Universe - Tamiel fell after a 3 failed attempts, and it was a close thing where I learned to manage my healing better, mostly. Now I'm at the Phantom Soldiers gauntlet boss fight. These guys are seriously rough on this difficulty, which is to be expected (though to be fair I am somewhat underlevelled). I do really like this fight, at least... feels like one of the few times in RPGs that they managed to capture correctly the feeling of taking on a large number of enemies at once and how scary it should be. (Contrast every Suikoden ever and its chain fights of "Soldier x6" which you can beat on auto-battle.) It kinda has it in for any fighter PCs not controlled by the player but so it goes. I do wish the difficulty in this game were a bit less uneven, but Star Ocean (nay, Tri-Ace) and a spiky difficulty curve, pick two.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on July 12, 2013, 03:49:56 PM
BL2: Beat the pirate DLC! Leviathan was a complete pain in the ass until I realized that the weird duck-down-then-straighten-back-up move throws rocks at you, and those rocks can be dodged. Up until then I had no idea what was killing me, and that got old fast. Once I got a clue, it was just a matter of playing it extra careful because the game decided not to spawn any sandworms for a while so I couldn't get second winds until the queens showed up.

Now: EXPLOSIONS! Mr. Torgue is the best.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on July 13, 2013, 05:10:58 PM
XCOM: started.  Some annoying woman keeps coming on the radio and telling me NOT to blow things up with rockets.

Hmm, Terror mission.  Okay, lots of enemies, but I can deal with this.  Huh, they make zombies.  Okay the zombies don't look too threatening - I'll ignore them and concentrate on shooting the aliens.  Huh this zombie looks sick, poor guy... AAAAAHHHHH!!!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on July 13, 2013, 06:23:06 PM
PxZ

Can someone tell me what the letters next so certain attacks stand for? I think S and D are by some attacks, but I am not sure what they reference.

I don't think the Limited Edition also came without a manual and none of the faqs online seem to mention them either.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on July 13, 2013, 09:55:56 PM
Check the in-game tutorial section, it has all the mechanics explanations.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on July 13, 2013, 11:01:20 PM
Etrian Odyssey 4: In the 4th Stratum maze. The game has proven to be a lot of fun. I am especially fond of the shortcut system, which lets you take on the dungeon in bits and pieces and pick up where you left off even though you're not actually starting further in the dungeon. It creates a sense of accomplishment whenever you make a forray into the dungeon even if you don't make it to a new floor.

I need to respec my team. I respec'd my Sniper into a more damage-oriented build and it worked marvelously (as opposed to her old Bind-oriented self which was not very useful now that randoms pose little to no threat). I could respec my medic to ditch the LIne Heal in favor of party heal, the Nightstalker to favor a skill-damage system instead of an attempt at a Swords Dance game, and... my Dancer and Fortress are mostly all right, though the fortress could use a better secondary than Medic (which ain't working too well for her, though auto-revive should be nice once I remember to put it on). Two people with Auto-revive promises to be cool.

PA4 stat topic'ing continues. A few bugs to note but the cast is neat enough, albeit weak by DL standards. A few infinite healers and at least one fast damage dealer or so.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on July 13, 2013, 11:03:09 PM
Fallout New Vegas: ~People let me tell you about my Anti-Material Rifle, he's a big-barreled gun that'll kill Deathclaws to the end~

Because saying, "and then I used my anti-material rifle to reduce the target into its base components" every other day would have gotten tiresome--for you not me--I instead waited until I was done with all the DLCs.  Next update will be to the endgame and then back to the Pacifist playthrough to finish stuff there.

So, since the AMR is one of my One True Loves, I rather meticulously planned out my stat build because that's what I want to do with my life.  AMR's don't show up until level 16, so I planned everything around that.  Little did I know that with GRA installed the GRA AMR acronymfest! is available at level 1(because I ran to the clinic at level 1 again).  With the whole of my planning ruined, I went and did some lowbie quests(Primm, killing ants) to earn enough scratch for supplies so I could face Lonesome Road at level 6.

It was... well at 10 Charisma EDE was useless but at level 6 with 1 he isn't!  Which was good because I was hitting enemy DT a hell of a lot.  The initial Silo stuff was doing that, and all the Marked Men outside were hella dangerous even with weak weapons.  And then one of them had an Assault Carbine and my fortunes changed rapidly from there.  I cleared out everything in Hopeville that wasn't behind a warhead and headed back to the Mojave because Lonesome Road showers you in way too many caps.  I got my AMR at around level 10.

After that I went and grabbed This Machine and All-American.  Two guns I've really wanted to use but could never fit them in.  This Machine was useful for clearing Vault 34, but when I went back to Lonesome Road, I needed the firepower of my other guns too much so it eventually fell into my Novac Room(also got the First Recon Beret because I need crit).  Anyway, High Road Deathclaws felt the righteous power of the Anti-Material Rifle and all was right in the world.  I tried Courier's Mile immediately, but everything rushed me at once so I was like NUH-UH after dying three times. 

Going further in, I was really impressed with just how robust Ulysses's dialogue trees were.  I'm still getting things I've never seen.  So, after Anti-Materialing so very many things, including Rawr, I make it to the Temple.  Now, this is gonna be an NCR run, so I'm gonna launch the nuke at the Legion, so I don't need to free EDE and having the 10% damage boost would be decently helpful.  But this is also the first time on PC I'll be really using companions, so I free him--and hell, might as well see his ending eh?  Anyway, as usual I spare Ulysses, this time using the Enclave logs since I had no rep to convince him.  I loot everything from the Marked Men rush because I just get teleported next to a commissary anyway and now I get to be heading back with much caps.

Straight into OWB because I need my spine upgrade.  Even as low a level as I am the Robo-Scorpions are still obnoxiously bullet spongy when being hit by AMR rounds of all types.  I also run out of rounds for nearly all my guns by the end because the Sink so rarely refills its inventory.  On the other hand, OBW gave me inspiration for a magic trick.  Now you see the LOBOTOMITE. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-08_00005.jpg)  NOW YOU DON'T! (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-08_00006.jpg)

a magician must never reveal their tricks, but can you figure it out?  Here's a super-slow mo replay.  Now you see the LOBOTOMITE. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-08_00007.jpg)  Now you don't! (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-08_00008.jpg)

Anyway, with the actual abiliity to kkiiiilll things I went through things lickity split.  Also I leveled up a ton because cripes do the DLCs vomit EXP on you.  The Giant Robo-scorpion went down before Mobius even completed his speech because Turbo is a hell of a drug.  And speaking of drugs at this point I was pretty much downing any and all alcohol I got my hands on immediately because letting it all sit in my inventory taking up 30 pounds was a pain.  So with Klein's giant stash I was sloshed for the whole of OWB and Dead Money when I got to it.

Which was next!  Because I could break down .308 rounds from the vending machine to get hand-load for other rifles.  Automatic Rifle is a lot better than I remember it being, but 20 rounds is still an obnoxiously low and I have my Assault Carbine for fast shooting anyway.  I also think I might be able to do Dead Money as pacifist if I really abuse saves because Ghost People seeing me immediately when I open a new door is bullshit.

Finally on to Honest Hearts where I can indulge in my SNEERING IMPERIALIST (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-10_00001.jpg) roots.  Shortly thereafter Graham's threat of me not getting a second shot proved prophetic.  I only needed one.  And then this guy here jumped off a cliff. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-10_00002.jpg)

So with Honest Hearts ended I lamented not being able to use Light Shining in the Darkness.  But got over it.  I grabbed Boone and EDE and took my AMR to its destiny of clearing out Quarry Junction.  It was almost too easy despite Boone's bizarre insistence of randomly switching to his Machete and me KOing EDE at one point.  On my way north I got ambushed by a Legion assassin squad, which sent me over to Forlorn Hope to get the ear quest.  I go and clean out the Raid Camp, get ears there.  I kill Vulpes, but his group doesn't have ears for some reason.  So, that means Searchlight and Cottonwood Cove is next.

Unlike my Explosives/Energy run, this time I get involved in the hunt the last dogtag run.  Seeing this almost made wasting an hour in Searchlight worth it. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-12_00002.jpg)  Eventually I find it on a ghoul that I never killed because Astor and his crew did it.  I resist my impulse to kill them with Explosives.

After that it's the Cottonwood Cove shuffle.  During my Recon into Cottonwood Cove, I noticed that the Legion had let one of their captures walk loose. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-12_00003.jpg)  Really, if they can't keep someone locked up they all deserve to die a radiation-based death.  And the officers deserve to be reduced into more parts than actual Legionnaires at the cove.  It was actually difficult to find Canyon Runner because he'd been blasted into the river.  Before I finished up there I ended over to the Nuked spot to clean that out.

Anyway, with things complete I have enough history points for Boone.  But first, I needed to find Manny for Boone's Comp quest.  Little did I know that he was entertaining a guest that day. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-12_00004.jpg)

Anyway, over to Bitter Springs.  Do the quests there because I can.  I also have the perk that allows me to see VATS target HP and DT and the troopers only have 50 HP.  Giles is the only one above that at a grand total of 55 HP.  And at this point, I'm in my mid-40s of level, so they aren't scaling at all.  No wonder they got plastered by the Legion so easily.  And then at the end of Boone's comp quest I noticed a bit of Fire Gecko was chilling out in Bitter Springs.  Despite me only using All-American, its head had flown clear over two mountains to get here. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-13_00001.jpg)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on July 14, 2013, 12:26:51 AM
XCom:  Oh, so the game doesn't auto-save.  Oops.  Okay well now I can start over and I actually kind of know what I'm doing now.  Started in S. America because I want to torture the green out of some aliens.  For some reason nearly every one of my soldiers is female.  I do not envy the aliens when their menstrual cycles have all aligned.

Also, an operation named "Morbid Hero" should have been a tipoff.  Had to reset on that one.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on July 14, 2013, 03:02:33 AM
Also, an operation named "Morbid Hero" should have been a tipoff.  Had to reset on that one.

OR you could keep going and put fresh bodies on the line to replace the fallen.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on July 14, 2013, 03:57:25 AM
Unlike my Explosives/Energy run, this time I get involved in the hunt the last dogtag run.  Seeing this almost made wasting an hour in Searchlight worth it. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-12_00002.jpg)  Eventually I find it on a ghoul that I never killed because Astor and his crew did it.  I resist my impulse to kill them with Explosives.

This happens to me every fucking time. (The "Goddammit I've searched the town four times and there's still one missing" part). I hate Camp Searchlight so much.

Fudo what the hell is going on in that picture.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on July 14, 2013, 04:02:13 AM
Unlike my Explosives/Energy run, this time I get involved in the hunt the last dogtag run.  Seeing this almost made wasting an hour in Searchlight worth it. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-12_00002.jpg)  Eventually I find it on a ghoul that I never killed because Astor and his crew did it.  I resist my impulse to kill them with Explosives.

This happens to me every fucking time. (The "Goddammit I've searched the town four times and there's still one missing" part). I hate Camp Searchlight so much.

Fudo what the hell is going on in that picture.

I Bloody Messed that ghoul.  After entering every building in town its parts contorted back to where the corpse was and where they'd be if it was standing upright again.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on July 15, 2013, 04:10:10 PM
The Walking Dead: Beat Episode 1 & 2

Yeah, basically this game. Also is the asian kid from Ep 1 supposed to be the same guy from the show?

A lot of the choices seem a lot more superficial than the game would like them to be, honestly. Specifically talking about Episode 2, where I sided with Kenny on basically everything up until the big end-of-episode decision, and the following dialogue trees seemed to only really be weighted by that final decision. Which is honestly to be expected, but it would have been nice to have a more nuanced reaction from Kenny with regards to that final choice.  Oh well. 

That aside, this game is pretty great. That's basically all there is to say on the matter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on July 16, 2013, 04:52:38 AM
The Asian dude is Glenn from the show. The farmer who takes Lee and everyone in at the beginning is also Hershel. The game is based on the comic rather than the TV show (and thus doesn't have the rights to actor likenesses) so the resemblance isn't obvious.

The Kenny thing is one of those things that Telltale apologized for, saying that it was probably weighted too heavily in favor of that one thing and they tried to address that going forward. Anyway the game only gets better.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on July 16, 2013, 02:25:46 PM
OK, that's nice to know, actually. Unfortunately I'm busy preparing the house to go on vacation so it's not a fucking disaster when I come back, and won't be able to play Episode 3 - 5 until I get back.  Seething in anticipation!

Also, is Mark from the comic/show at all? I've only seen the first two episodes of the show. It seemed like he was just thrown in there with no fanfare between Episode 1 and 2, so I imagine he may have been a bit player in the other media?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on July 18, 2013, 01:37:31 PM
I'm going to be on planes a lot over the next month, so I figured I'd finally try a 4 Job Fiesta run through FF5. Rolled up Thief for my first job, which works reasonably well. I'm in the ship graveyard, which was nice enough to drop three daggers for me before I got to the boss.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on July 19, 2013, 12:49:06 AM
Just hope you don't get Berserker!


FE13 - I beat this, for the second time. Played on HM Classic again, it is kinda where I like my FE difficulty overall. Used Pair Up a lot this playthrough. Pair Up is kinda dumb but nothing new there. At least Paralogue 17 exists, I already liked that map and would consider it a good one in any other FE game but the way it puts a far greater element of risk to Pair Up makes it easily the best in the game I feel.

Unit notes...

Chrom - Grew well, managed to be generally very solid (good stats everywhere) but in a way that was never super-notable. Ridiculously high double attack rates with Sumia does stick out, though. Went Paladin towards the end for bonus move.
Sumia - Ridiculous speed (even for her), kinda eh otherwise, though nice Res/Avo (and not horrible Def) did stand out some. Strength could be better though picked up at the end with Lancefaire. See Chrom double attack comments.

Albert Silverburg - Had +HP, -Luck. Was pretty solid for a while in that "mage with good overall stats" thing that Avatar does (HP was definitely nice). Later on he decided to stop gaining speed ever. He finished the game with 23 despite having gained something like 46 levels overall (and his flaw did not influence speed). After he got Rally Spectrum I switched him into Dark Mage->Sorcerer for Hex/Anathema/to gain some extra levels for speed (which didn't really work out) but hey you can never have too many dark mages.
Tharja - Is Tharja. You can never have too many dark mages. Good stats in the places that matter. One of my best PCs then she died due to shenanigans I detailed last week.
Say'ri - Great speed, surprisingly solid durability, we know the story here. Wounded in Chapter 23 because I failed to notice one of the assassins had killer instead of silver (and it only barely killed her). Something about FE13 makes me occasionally a bit lazy about checking enemy weapons, but I can't quite put my finger on what.

Sully and Stahl - Were two of my better PCs for a while early. Once other PCs started promoting they started to feel less and less special though, so I ended up benching them. Still, mobile, and good overall stats (mostly Sully, though Stahl had better speed than average so he was pretty good too).

Lon'qu and Cordelia - Cordelia got RNG screwed and Lon'qu... just didn't feel that impressive at base. I benched them as soon as they gave me Sevara. Then I ended up not doing Sevara's map because RNG-screwed parents = lol child and I've recruited her before anyway.

Maribelle and Henry - Maribelle did that mounted healer thing. Henry did his underlevelled dark mage thing. Both died to the same ninja reinforcements in one of the maps I wasn't FAQing, how sweet.

Panne - Reclassed her into Wyvern Rider ASAP. She smashes things pretty well despite weapon problems early, and managed to hit A in axes by the time I hit Chapter 22 and got the Helswath. Res kinda sucked but good Def/Speed and amazing Str/HP. Went Griffon Rider and paired with Gaius so she had 11 speed post-pair up. I should have given her the boots clearly. Could survive forged Silver Bows if need be which was nice.
Gaius - Making Panne faster and more mobile. He was decent in his own right, particularly once he picked up Lucky Seven for a big durability boost. Locktouch and Trickster in general (staves, Lucky Seven) always makes him feel a bit better than Lon'qu to me despite slightly lower stats.

Libra - Backup healer, only deployed when I had spare space. He had like 21 speed. I sent him into the final chapter which is pretty much the ultimate death sentence, and sure enough he was doubled and one-rounded with 100 accuracy after firing off a Fortify or two.

Anna - Like Libra, but more consistently deployed due to various reasons (Locktouch most obviously). Also never gets as frail and had some Levin Sword smash for a bit midgame. Late she mostly entered pure support unless I needed healing.
Tiki - Solid tank PC who can deal out some 1-2 range damage. Then she hit Level 30, and I gave her a Second Seal. Um okay holy crap. Absolute MVP of the last few maps, godmodes all stats with 1-2 range. Can't one-round the generals unless Anna procs a weakness-hiting support attack (Armourslayer) but everything else is ridiculous. Got hit by the final's Ignis and barely even noticed, her Def was over 50 and her Res over 40. I kinda want to see what Nowi/Panne would do in this situation since they do reach it earlier but their stats (and in Panne's case, base class) are much less powerful to start with so it's probably less OP.

Basilio and Flavia - They're okay lategame filler. As usual Basilio is the best archer in this game. (...) Flavia's fine all-around just unexciting.

Lucina - See Say'ri more or less, only with higher strength before the latter picked up Lancefaire. A bit better than Chrom overall? Similar though. Unlike Chrom I left her in lord to have someone swing around a rapier. (Also she got move from her Pairup anyway...)
Kjelle - Speed sucked, res sucked, but good str/def. Standard knight fare really, but Great Knight really helps them. Decent move! Makes supporter more mobile! Lucina gave her loads of speed to boot (and she gave Lucina loads of str/def) so that partnership worked pretty perfectly.

Cynthia - A lot like her mother (speed!) but generally a bit worse, mostly due to weapon ranks and lower level meaning she didn't actually pick up Lancefaire. Is a real hero though.
Yarne - I don't like the taguel class much, so I made him into a Barbarian -> Berserker since I've never used that path before. Anyway, monstrous HP/str/speed, shoddy Def and awful Res. Most fights involving him seemed to be Yarne giving and receiving 40 damage a hit, but with Yarne hitting twice. This worked... okay! Final fight was too rough for him, though; he died, and his partner in crimefighting went with him.

Noire - Looked bad, so I held off on recruiting her until she had Rally Spectrum via her father. Pretty much all she was good for. Like Libra I sent her into the final battle knowing it was a death sentence, and sure enough it was.

Morgan - Were it not for Tiki going crazy, she would be my strongest PC towards the end. Started as Dark Mage due to Tharja, went Sorcerer until Tomebreaker then Dark Flier. Giving up dark magic was rough, but I can't say no to a flying mage, especially since she inherited Albert's HP and Tharja's defences and could eat forged weakness-hits and live. Her mag/speed were great... only dump stat was luck, really. She ended up doing the most damage to the final boss despite not having a falchion, says all you need to know.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on July 19, 2013, 02:08:07 AM
Ni no Kuni: The price dropped on this, so I picked it up, along with its gorgeous strategy guide.

Gotta say, the guide makes it look pretty awesome. I think I read the thing from cover-to-cover before I ever started a moment of the actual game. It has the usual Level 5 problem of assuming that every mechanic in the game needs to be a collection quest (with well over 100 weapons, armors, items, alchemy recipes, NPCs, recruitable monsters, spells, storybook pages, etc). It's kinda ridiculous.

Still, if you ignore the obvious push towards OCD, the game is pretty nice. The story and characters are a lot flatter than I'd like, but compared to standard JRPGs, they aren't egregiously boring nor very exciting. The setting is by and large amazing at least. Where the game shines is its Monster Collection. The monsters are all pretty awesome and interestingly designed. I feel like they were really banking on the game being a suitable rival to pokemon because it has FAAAAR more depth to it than necessary for the kind of game it is. They are pretty awesome, with the best names ever, and the actual Familiar system in-battle is pretty well made. The game just needs less slow-paced walking in between.

Playing the game on Normal is a decent challenge so far. I hope it continues this level of well-balanced random and boss design.

Seriously, Ghibli, you needed to step up your game on the plot/characters, because everything else about this game screams quality so far. These flat characters are killing your otherwise entertaining work.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 19, 2013, 04:05:59 AM
God Eater Burst: Beat the main game, by which I mean I got the ending credits.  There seems to be aftergame stuff, might play around with them a bit to see if there is legitimate aftergame plot, because there are some loose ends I feel aren't tied up, like Alisa for example.  Yeah, they explained her, and the team reacts to her and all that, but they never quite have the resolution scene, and she's almost kind of dropped other than being Sakuya's side-kick for a brief-late game stint.

It's an interesting game, if frustrating at times because enemies sometimes do so much damage, take cheap shots, and the game has such limited healing (why is it that there is no 3rd level healing item?  That really felt needed late game.)  Character work is pretty good, truth be told, and plot while somewhat predictable, was entertaining as I legitimately wanted to know what was going to happen next, what the actual answers to certain questions were, etc.  It does a good job with it's post-Apocalyptic setting on top of that.

Also, they made Soma's emo-stance kind of justifiable by the end...I said kind of, because he takes too far at times and you just want to smack him.  Also, the ending sequence just cements that he really needed to be the main character.  The SMT Logic is strong in this one, and it hurts the game's otherwise good work in this regard.  Even the ending is all "This is about Soma, because shut up."  I really get the sense that he was the intended main, then they went "Screw it, make some customize-able avatar silent protagonist because MULTIPLAYER!!!"  and he got relegated to a lesser role. 


Also, Niu, do not say anything about any sort of Post-End Game plot or anything, even if there is none.  I want to discover this stuff on my own.  You practically spoiled a huge point at DLCon that wasn't even remotely referenced in-game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on July 19, 2013, 08:06:42 AM
Ni no Kuni: A bit further now, have two PCs, multiple pokemon, and skillsets have started to widen. Battle system is still fun and well-balanced despite this. For now. I ended up fighting a few too many battles while exploring and it killed the challenge almost immediately just having two more levels than recommended. The game is tightly balanced but apparently any amount of grinding breaks it. Apart from this and the relatively slow walking speed, I'm having a blast gameplay-wise. The puzzles are fun, too!

Characters still suck compared to what I'm sure these writers are capable of. It's just lazy and disappointing. HOWEVER: while it's still early on, there seems to be a bit of subtlety going on in a 'setup for a twist' sense. Since I haven't heard anything regarding any kind of major twist ending from reviews, I suspect it's a thread that'll get dropped or forgotten.

But if it turns out to just be really subtle and none of the reviewers noticed it, I will take back all the crap I've said about this having a terrible story. I have very little hope for this, but apparently I want this game to be good.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on July 19, 2013, 12:54:22 PM
FF5: Man, Garula is a pain in the ass when you can't equip armor or cast Cure. Buying 50 potions and using two or three of them after every counter did the trick, but seriously, ow. He was by far the toughest enemy in the all-thief section of the playthrough, with Magissa/Falzer providing a speedbump but never actually wiping me out (everybody in the back row, attack attack attack attack attack attack yawn attack). Logged my progress with the Gilgabot and got Mystic Knight for my next job, which'll do me just fine.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on July 20, 2013, 04:11:57 AM
OK, that's nice to know, actually. Unfortunately I'm busy preparing the house to go on vacation so it's not a fucking disaster when I come back, and won't be able to play Episode 3 - 5 until I get back.  Seething in anticipation!

Also, is Mark from the comic/show at all? I've only seen the first two episodes of the show. It seemed like he was just thrown in there with no fanfare between Episode 1 and 2, so I imagine he may have been a bit player in the other media?

No, I think he's someone they added to accentuate the "time passing" feeling and establish that the characters had run into other survivors prior to the start of Episode 2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on July 22, 2013, 12:50:38 AM
Chapter 29 of Project X Zone really needed to have some more WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOR??. It's the one time in this game that I really missed the lack of a dub.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on July 22, 2013, 02:47:14 AM
For what it's worth, it pretty much matches the jap dub of X4 step by step on that line, which is hilarious.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on July 22, 2013, 02:56:45 AM
Happy Wars:  got my first 2 super premium items this weekend, not too remarkable but the base stats are nice.  Game is still way too fun.

Perfect World:  made super ultra amazing rank 999 weapon, but have a lot of rerolling of stats to do on it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 22, 2013, 04:00:57 AM
Chapter 29 of Project X Zone really needed to have some more WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOR??. It's the one time in this game that I really missed the lack of a dub.

Just be happy it's there at all.  I don't believe the game graced us with its little brother from Devil May Cry despite Dante being in the game AND in his DMC1 outfit to boot!


Oracle of Ages: I just beat a witch by shooting fiery pellets through a seed shooter off a wall.  If there is one thing that the Gameboy (Color) games have in common for Zelda, it is that all of them throw logic out the window.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on July 22, 2013, 10:32:50 AM
The Walking Dead - beat ep 2

went straight kenny now I uh kind of feel bad

this game is pretty cool
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on July 22, 2013, 02:44:17 PM
Borderlands 2: Finished the campaign of carnage, got a ton of nice loot, started Tiny Tina DLC. It's already 10/10.

FF5: My fire job is Geomancer, which was disappointing at first but I'm coming to appreciate the fact that it finally gives me some friggin' MT damage. In the floating ruins right now, and Gaia absolutely wrecks this place - the only available terrain magic is Wind Slash, which is MT 2HKO to everything that doesn't absorb wind. There's also finally a consistent source of Hi-Potions (common steal from the soldier enemies), which is very welcome. Now to figure out how to beat Archaeoaevis...

Edit: Since I don't have Internet at home I rolled my Earth job early. Samurai. Gil Toss here I come!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on July 24, 2013, 04:01:12 AM
XCom:  Beaten.

From the beginning, there was one soldier who just seemed to be luckier than the others.  Everyone called her "Casino" because the odds were always stacked in her favor.  Sure she'd get wounded, but any time she was close to death she'd somehow manage to dodge those enemy shots.  Casino was a frequent resident of the infirmary.

When it came time to initiate the Psionic Testing program, nobody was surprised when Casino showed signs of being gifted.  In fact, after testing all available soldiers at XCom, she was the only one with any psionic potential.

When it came time to raid the alien Temple ship, Casino's luck finally ran out.  The House finally called it's due, and Casino went out in a blaze of glory.  But she will be honored as the one who saved the entire Earth.

===============

Amusingly enough, the volunteer surviving the entire game does not count for the achievement of keeping a soldier alive for the entire game.  Cutscenes getting in the way of my achievements yo.

I liked the game but wow is the difficulty completely random.  I mentioned the Morbid Hero mission before where you raid the large alien ship.  First few times I tried it I kept getting wrecked by swarms of three Chrysalids.  So I put the mission off a bit and loaded up for bear before I started it.  And then the only enemies were a few drones and floaters.  Total cakewalk.  Needs to be a bit more consistent.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on July 24, 2013, 01:21:33 PM
Fallout New Vegas: Where effort dies when accidentally changing the the reply window page.

Stuff happened.  It happened over a period of over a week so I can barely remember anything.  Apparently it started with Doc Henry's insight comments on Mojave life when up in his perch of Jacobstown. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-14_00001.jpg)

After that was adventures with the Fiends.  And gross, (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-15_00001.jpg) gross overkill. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-15_00003.jpg)  Like with the Legion, they so deserve it for their inability to keep prisoners locked up. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-15_00002.jpg)

My trip also took me around to freeing Nelson.  Obnoxiously this only seemed to function half-correctly as I'd still get "WE'RE DOOMED" messages at Forlorn Hope.  Sometime after that was funtimes to Hoover Dam.  I was 50 now, so I felt like checking out how the NCR HP values were.  They were... very random.  NCR Troopers could have 30, 50 or 190 HP.  The Engineers had 70.  Patrol Rangers had 80, and the NCR Heavy Troopers boasted a rather impressive 490.  Boone was at 380 or so, and ED-E felt like invoking Satan while sitting at 666.  On my way out of the Dam, I met a friendly face! (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-16_00001.jpg)

So, then I go do the Great Khan stuff, and go do Vault 19 stuff, then go finally assault the Prison.  Well after getting one confusing screenshot. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-16_00003.jpg)  Anyway, I finally realize why the assault if you side with the Powder Gangers usually results in such an overwhelming NCR victory.  And that's because there's like over twice as many Troopers if you defend.  On top of that, all the Powder Gangers inside the entrance building will shuffle out to be slaughtered or just get ignored completely, whereas if you're assaulting Sergeant Lee/the quest guy will run straight through it.  I mean, they still kill Eddie and all, but only the Sergeant lives on assault.

Anyway, I'm not getting EXP and there's not enough combat anymore for interest, so gogo endgame.  I go and complete all my Endgame missions for NCR before I start even get them that way I minimize my time with pointless legwork.  After I get the BoS Peace Treaty I come back to Hoover Dam and meet an NPC I've never ever seen before. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-24_00001.jpg)  Which naturally leads to hilarious consequences. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-24_00003.jpg)

After that was the President thing.  Which was only really funny because when I was trying to talk to the Ranger to start the thing I got buzzed from one of ED-E's final part quest, then got the Ranger talking to me, then got the second half of ED-E's thing.

Anyway, full on to THE BATTLE!  Watching all my allies follow me around (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-24_00004.jpg) was funny in a lemmings-like way. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-24_00005.jpg)

On my way to the Legate, one of the Centurions did a thing. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-07-24_00006.jpg)  Okay, it's kinda near-impossible to see with photobucket's scale-down but if you squint kinda below my crosshairs you might see him.

And then when loading the Legate's Camp the game crashed.

WHELP.

Second run I decide to see if telling the Veteran Ranger squad to charge was worth it(seriously, why do that when you can have them actually stick with you?) well it's even more useless as they sort of stand like idiots at the start, only move when they get attacked then just stand like idiots again near the bridge to the Legate's camp.  So, I'm only going in there with Cannibal and Doc Henry as support.  This is a far cry from that time I had like, everything.  Seriously, the game bugged out and I got the Other Remnants guy, nearly all the Ranger group, Arcade in the Tesla Armor, a BoS Paladin, some troopers along with the usual group of normal comps, Ranger Commander, Johnson and Henry and the two suicide Rangers later in.  And speaking of the Suicide Rangers I actually managed to save them from Lanius who never attacked once because he was getting twitchy between killing them and trying to talk to me.

And then came Oliver's pathetic ending.  Seriously, why is it when you actually support the NCR Oliver's by far the least congratulatory and praising?  whatever
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on July 25, 2013, 01:08:52 AM
I think that Obsidian felt that the NCR ending didn't need to be sold as much as the others, especially if you played Fallout 1 and the existence of NCR as the most powerful and organized state in the known world is a direct result of your actions as a player.  Hence why Oliver is a prick; they know they can get away with it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 25, 2013, 06:18:11 AM
Oracle of Ages: A 2D WATER TEMPLE.  WHAT THE HELL GUYS?!


God Eater Burst: Tsukuyomi can bit me.  In other news, Difficulty 10 missions unlocked and uh...ok, I'll be honest, the whole "Search for Kanon and Brendan!" part?  Seriously, that was stupid.  Actually, a number of missions are just time wasters, it's at a point where you want resolution for the big build up scene and they're just wasting time with the plot irrelevant nobodies to pretend they're important.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on July 27, 2013, 05:56:58 PM
Project X Zone - Beaten the first nine chapters. I have some mixed thoughts about this game so far.

It's got Endless Frontier's combat at base, which is pretty good! It lacks the interesting combos to assemble due to the lack of COM use... and in fact, because you have to use all three attacks to get a fourth, you barely have any choice in what moves you do use (just the choice of fourth, and the variance between moves is not as high as in EF). So it ends up weirdly feeling like a bit of a step back from EF. Also did solo units really need to have two cut-ins per attack, given you will be using them every single time? (I may be biased because while I recognise a lot of the paired units so far, I recognise hardly any of the solos... 'cept Tron who is awesome.)

The SRPG integration thing is where it really tries to be different from EF. It works... well, much better than VPDS! Mostly it just avoids being slower than it needs, which is important since at base trying to combine EF's combat system with a SRPG is going to be pretty slow at base. The response and XP systems work quite well and make for interesting decision-making... at least when the game has challenge. I found it largely a cakewalk for the first eight maps (though it was steadily trending up) but Chapter 9 (where you fight both Due and Ayame, as well as some randoms who have AoE) was a huge step up and I went from never having lost a unit to losing five. Whether to counter or defend or do nothing (or full defend if you want to be XP-inefficient but really really really need a unit to live) is interesting. I did realise after the fight that I was forgetting the game had items. I may continue to do this since items seem kinda OP? We'll see. Since the game is only interesting if it maintains some challenge, I'll have to adjust things to ensure it does just that; fortunately I am not above this.

Plot is awful. This isn't really shocking, but it should be said. Writing quality is just really, really low; every scene seems to consist of 20+ PCs saying things and conversation flow is very stilted (localisation? Nah, I suspect it's in the original). The actual plot itself is nonsense of course. (I'm not sure what it says that I still prefer this to VC2.)

Apparently you never get PC choice in this game? That feels like an odd decision, both because I feel like maps will be too cluttered if I get too many more PCs, and because I would love the opportunity to bench some people I don't give a shit about and keep a higher percentage of my turns going to Chun Li and Dante.

The game's "Gender Roles" moment: for every single paired unit so far which features one male and one female (which is most of them), the male is always the lead. What the hell game. I get that in many cases it's the logical decision given the source material (e.g. male main character) although that is revealing in its own way of course, but they still have had some opportunities to reverse that and clearly chose not to (Frank West and Hsien-ko, and most bafflingly Kogoro and Mii, which is weird since Mii seems closer to being the main character).

I realised that it is easy to tell Namco/Bandai characters from the other companies' characters: ridiculously dumb weapons! It's quite comical how consistent this is. Special shout-out for God Eater here.

Not sure what my overall opinion on the game will be; it is keeping my playing for now at least though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on July 27, 2013, 07:43:39 PM
PxZ items are impressively degenerate and what keeps them even remotely in check is their limited numbers. If you never use them ever, I figure you'll be in for an interesting ride, though: enemy numbers REALLY ramp up later on and that's how the game mainly gets you to lose units.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 27, 2013, 09:10:30 PM
Items in PXZ can break things wide open though yeah, you do have to use them sparingly as it is easy to just throw them and then go "wait, I only have x number of items left?"  Not that the game is regularly hard if you hold off on items, but eh, play however you find most enjoyable, etc.

The Gender Roles thing, yeah, usually it is because "Main Character" vs. othewrise.  In Frank/Hsien-ko's case, Frank's the only rep of Dead Rising, and the main character of his game; Hsien-ko is just a random popular character tossed in from a franchise with multiple reps.

Other cases offhand that aren't "Male is Main (or close enough to it), so takes precedence"?  Jill probably should be leading the Chris/Jill crew since it's based on their Revelations design (which is more Jill's game from my understand), and the Resident Evil villain is clearly more Jill-centric than Chris.  Soma/Alisa is another case, because having just played the game, the only real "Edge" Soma has on Alisa is "he appears earlier"; in the grand scheme of the game, both play a fairly equal role overall.

And yeah, Mii really should be leading her unit; Kogoro never really ends up doing much more than "Mii's body guard."


SPEAKING OF ALISA/SOMA!

God Eater Burst: Beat the Aftergame.  Ok, I just sort of Youtubed the ending, because fighting the Black Hannibal a second time was just not going over well the multiple times I tried.

The end plot can be summed up as "God Arcs are People Too!"  God Arcs being the weapon that God Eaters use...yeah, this is weird stuff.  Ren is kind of annoying, what with the whole "I'm a young new recruit who happens to know EVERYTHING and is all mysterious *freaky glare* BUT I LIKE THIS DRINK EVERYONE HATES!"  The plot surrounding him/her (...seriously, I can't tell!) explains that, sure, but they could have at least made the character look and sound a little older!


Oracle of Ages: Used an FAQ for a few hidden things near the end, because I hate Twinrova, and getting the Blue Ring was handy, and damn it I wanted my Sword Beam!  That said, finished the game.  While the dungeons are more interesting, I'm not sure the game itself is better than Seasons.  I guess Ages has better individual elements but Seasons was a better overall package?  Something like that.  Still, playing these games made me want to play some of the other 2D Zeldas which is basically...Minish Cap and the not yet released Link Between Worlds?
2D Zeldas actually show creativity and thinking outside the box, instead of the usual "same gimmicks, same items, different layout."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on July 28, 2013, 06:59:47 PM
Orcs Must Die 2: I've been playing this again of late. Steam recently released workshop tools. Most of it is the usual fanhack chaff, but there have been several cool trap modifications. The dart thrower was modified to throw Kobold Sappers, which is fucking hilarious.  Only one person has really done wave changes, and it's the typical awful hard mode type stuff.   Also been playing some coop with Otter, which is fun.  Crunch remains the hardest level in OMD2 outside of the Yeti DLC (FUCK GOBLIN SAPPERS).

Also have the walking dead game to play, I'll get to that sometime soon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on July 30, 2013, 05:29:11 AM
Mother 3: Just beat Chapter 1.

Only things I'll say thus far is gameplay is dull, and I feel the game is hurt more by being in the same franchise as Earthbound than helped.  A lot of stylistic choices were clearly made because "Sequel to Earthbound!" that hurt the fact that game wants you to take it way more seriously, but it's hard to when the game is trying to make itself look like "Earthbound with better Graphics."  To it's credit, it does do the serious stuff well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on July 30, 2013, 05:08:19 PM
FFV: Merged world. I abandoned all pretense of balance for the Exdeath fight and just threw money at him until he exploded. Now I'm in the pyramid. Throwing money at things until they explode continues to be a valid, if expensive, strategy.

DQ6: Started this on an airplane when I got tired of the pyramid. Fuck Aarghoyles and fuck the designers who put them in this game.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on July 30, 2013, 06:14:20 PM
FF5 - Done 2 Fiestas this year.  First one was Blue Mage, Mystic Knight, Ninja and Chemist.  This was pretty broken and brutally fun.  Pick various ways to snap things in half (not necessarilly most efficient, but most fun).  Was the longer of two runs I think even though I played less of the game.  High point was Sleep Swording Atmos to death because iOS version fixed a bug (?) where hitting something with Sleep sword that was Asleep would wake it up anyway.  This is no longer the case and wreck follows.  I finished the Pyramid and did some basic stuff on the overworld (didn't bother with Lamp, did bother with Mighty Guard) then decided that meh I wanted to just go crush the final boss.  Crush is exactly what followed.  Chemist works like a more effort filled Bard in Ex Death in that you can just pour Level boosters down people's throats and wreck shit.  Overall based off my next run I would rate them better than Bard honestly.

Overall fun had and quality of that run was Laggy/10.

Next run I got Black Mage, hey off to a good start.  Berserker, oh well do I want to donate and change that?  What to?  I just watched CIATOS do a run with Time Mage, others are meh.  Lets try Berserker.  NOW I KNOW THE MEANING OF REGRET.  Fire class was Bard.  Bard is pretty good you guys, I don' know if anyone has told you.  Way too many of its tools are back loaded though.  Strength/Mag booster (one of) should have been dropped on you early World 2 or so really.  That said they completely tank in the final dungeon when shit randomly gets butt loads of Magic Evasion and some stuff Stop works on is barely phased by it, so applying it abusively is quite a bit more tricky than it used to be.  In the last chunk of the game their astounding frailty really shines through though.  Especially compared to Chemist who can just chug Goliath's Tonics and giggle.  Bard was pretty fun and worth it for Equip Harp Berserker beat down on Leviathan (couldn't get it to roll on Shinryuu).  Final class was Dragoon.  It wasn't Berserker at least.  I even used Jump unironically in one fight.

This run was quicker and technically harder, but none of that is particularly damning.  What it definitely was was infinitely less fun.  Berserker just shits on so many things you can try to do for fun.  Want to try and charm things in the flying ruins to get free healing?  Nah fuck you says Berserker.  Want to not get Counter killed to death?  Nah fuck you says Berserker.  Want to try and steal Coral Rings with Thief Knife?  Nah fuck you says Berserker.

The worst part is?  I didn't even want him dead on the one fight where you want to kill someone off because Berserker damage was still legit on Atomos.

Fuck this class.  It actively saps the fun out of FF5 which I have really come to love.

iOS continues to be easy mode though, Berserker now always seems to attack the first target in the list, so they won't randomly punch back row things.  On the other hand, this meant Necrophobe required applications of Jump to kill the back two Barriers (bard stuck singing, Black Mage getting one shot by barriers, MP sapped and Jump better turn efficiency than Ethers and you know, the untargetable part of Jump).  On the other hand iOS version has no delay when an ATB bar filled and I don't know if that would help, but I was unable to consistently Stop lock Omega even with 3 Bards.  Theoretically doable at the levels I was at (BRZRKR CRITZ CHEWING THROUGH 50K HEALTH YESSSSS), but I don't have the patience for it and after fishing for a 50% chance of correct targetting on Delta Attack on the opening turn (33% chance) and eating approximately 95 billion Atomic Rays in the face for 5k damage I ragequit and decided to punch the game in the goolies.

Then Exdeath kind of wrecked me a few times while I got the pattern of when to stop buffing and when to blitz Form 1 down (Berserker: Nah fuck you) and solidifying approach to form 2 so as to not eat Almagest for a spread of OHKO - strong 2HKO damage party wide.  I was kind of stunned that I actually finally used that Reflect your own spellz 4 more damage strat for once (since party had more live targets than Neo Exdeath at that point, so Firaga All was superior to Flare even unboosted).  Magic Lamp was key to a few too many strats IMO, but it is effective and got me wins so I won't complain too much.

None of this got me as mad as Exdeath Castle fight though where I was wiping to dudes just getting wrecked by double act physicals.  Nothing like getting stick up my arse about wiping to uncontrollable variables in the last phase (Yep legit locked in untenable position just because someone died to double physical, OHKO BM in back row).  I was mad.  Even when I won I was mad.  Fuck so much of that fight and fuck Berserker so much.  I ain't even mad at Bard, but losing control of ANOTHER PC doesn't help heaps either.  u didn't want to play this game anyway right? 

Fuck Berserker.  I am sorry Alex, but I would rather be playing with my Forest Friends.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Ranmilia on July 31, 2013, 12:23:19 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/M47Mg1d.gif)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on August 02, 2013, 01:45:02 AM
The end plot can be summed up as "God Arcs are People Too!"  God Arcs being the weapon that God Eaters use...yeah, this is weird stuff.  Ren is kind of annoying, what with the whole "I'm a young new recruit who happens to know EVERYTHING and is all mysterious *freaky glare* BUT I LIKE THIS DRINK EVERYONE HATES!"  The plot surrounding him/her (...seriously, I can't tell!) explains that, sure, but they could have at least made the character look and sound a little older!

When does projection that only some people can count as human being?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on August 02, 2013, 02:38:28 AM
Walking Dead, Episode 3:

Well, for starters, it doesn't play around with any of the bullshit that made 2 kind of hokey (Oh hai mark). Shit also gets emotional pretty quick.  On the all but too expected downside, it turns out a lot of the choices aren't really choices at all. Investigating the little mystery in the start of the episode, and what you did with that, ultimately didn't matter, and for the purposes of the remaining narrative, neither does the big decision made on the side of the road that results from the drama. Also it is pretty obvious that Telltale realized that writing two whole separate characters based on what you do in Episode 1 was going to be too much of a headache for too little payoff, and Carlie/Doug dying isn't really shocking in the least.   Fortunately, this is completely invisible if you don't compulsively restart trying to get the outcome you wanted... which I guess is the point. I figured the storylines would diverge in much more grandiose ways and kept trying to get the storyline path that I wanted to see, but it turns out that the overall structure of the narrative remains the same regardless of the decisions. The only thing that changes are the details, so just going with it and not rewinding to make what you want happen happen is a much more satisfying experience. 

That said, it was a little strange storytelling-wise to have the climax of the episode happen, and then... oh hey let's go solve more puzzles this episode (so we can replenish our cast with more people since we killed off half of them!), but overall a much stronger episode than 2 was.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 02, 2013, 06:06:41 AM
The end plot can be summed up as "God Arcs are People Too!"  God Arcs being the weapon that God Eaters use...yeah, this is weird stuff.  Ren is kind of annoying, what with the whole "I'm a young new recruit who happens to know EVERYTHING and is all mysterious *freaky glare* BUT I LIKE THIS DRINK EVERYONE HATES!"  The plot surrounding him/her (...seriously, I can't tell!) explains that, sure, but they could have at least made the character look and sound a little older!

When does projection that only some people can count as human being?

When it is being used in a hyperbole for the sake of humor, albeit, no one else would really get it, but still.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on August 02, 2013, 06:20:51 AM
Walking Dead, Episode 3:

Well, for starters, it doesn't play around with any of the bullshit that made 2 kind of hokey (Oh hai mark). Shit also gets emotional pretty quick.  On the all but too expected downside, it turns out a lot of the choices aren't really choices at all. Investigating the little mystery in the start of the episode, and what you did with that, ultimately didn't matter, and for the purposes of the remaining narrative, neither does the big decision made on the side of the road that results from the drama. Also it is pretty obvious that Telltale realized that writing two whole separate characters based on what you do in Episode 1 was going to be too much of a headache for too little payoff, and Carlie/Doug dying isn't really shocking in the least.   Fortunately, this is completely invisible if you don't compulsively restart trying to get the outcome you wanted... which I guess is the point. I figured the storylines would diverge in much more grandiose ways and kept trying to get the storyline path that I wanted to see, but it turns out that the overall structure of the narrative remains the same regardless of the decisions. The only thing that changes are the details, so just going with it and not rewinding to make what you want happen happen is a much more satisfying experience. 

That said, it was a little strange storytelling-wise to have the climax of the episode happen, and then... oh hey let's go solve more puzzles this episode (so we can replenish our cast with more people since we killed off half of them!), but overall a much stronger episode than 2 was.

I think Telltale wanted to avoid rewinding as much as possible and just make a story that reacts to you through emphasis on character relationships, rather than events.  If you have wildly diverging events, then the push is there to replay it and try to get the different events, as much as it is to take in the story.  It's part of the same reason it's so hard to die in that game- players dying in video games isn't a consequence you have to deal with, it's a demand to replay part of the game.

When does projection that only some people can count as human being?

...How the fuck is this a sentence?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on August 03, 2013, 08:16:18 AM
I think Telltale wanted to avoid rewinding as much as possible and just make a story that reacts to you through emphasis on character relationships, rather than events.  If you have wildly diverging events, then the push is there to replay it and try to get the different events, as much as it is to take in the story.  It's part of the same reason it's so hard to die in that game- players dying in video games isn't a consequence you have to deal with, it's a demand to replay part of the game.

I think that's pretty much on the money. After Episode 3 I stopped rewinding altogether and the experience was much more enjoyable.

No real further comments now that I've finished Episode 5. Great game, very well done. Plays to the strengths of the Adventure genre for sure. All of the episodes are consistently great, even if Episode 2 is a little hilariously bad about some things (oh hai mark).   Thinking about getting the DLC but now that the story is over I can probably wait for a while before rushing onto the DLC.

Also, of course the black man dies. of course.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on August 03, 2013, 09:10:50 AM
The DLC is a very different experience from the original game.  I think it's actually more interesting to replay, though.  The way that the narrative is non-linear w/r/t time makes it so you notice a lot of things that you maybe didn't realize were important the first time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Otter on August 04, 2013, 04:03:55 AM
Summer means Steam!

Orcs Must Die 2: Fun stuff.  I spent almost a week predominately playing this (and Innovation) and enjoyed myself.  It's a simple tower defense game where you play an action game during the waves instead of just sitting there watching your traps do stuff for you; co-op makes all of the above better.  Eventually I'd done all the levels on Nightmare and I'd messed about with all the traps and weapons in the game and so the novelty wore off but I feel pretty well-served by what I paid for it.

Mark of the Ninja: not actually about a guy named Mark who is, himself, "of the Ninja," so that was disappointing but the stealth gameplay was fun all the way through.  I played through Normal as a pacifist and then ran it back for the hardmode NG+ as bloodthirstily as I could, which is pretty much my pattern with these things; did the same to Dishonored.  With both runs and some messing around for achievements and secrets I spent in excess of twelve hours here and in all that time rarely found myself frustrated with a game that's all about stealth, so that's something.  Like OMD2 this was a Summer Steam Sale item, so solid value, recommended, etc.

The Swapper: the art, the music, the puzzles, the atmosphere, it was all delicious to me and unlike the previous two games (which felt more like guilty pleasures or time-wasters) this one left me with a sense of personal satisfaction at having played it.  As a time-for-expense value it's vastly worse than the other two games I'm listing here, it's short and it has no replay value, but it's easily my favorite of the three anyway.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on August 04, 2013, 09:26:09 AM
Project X Zone- Fin.  Not bad for a game that more or less stops meaningful character progression by mid-game and gave up on plot from the word go.

Gemini and Erica are probably the only cast members I wasn't familiar with that immediately got my attention.  Sadly I don't think their Sakura Wars game is even the one that was released over here.  That said, all the backflipping does make me wonder if I shouldn't put Resonance of Fate higher on the stack.

Otherwise it's basically Endless Frontier but less interesting.  Why it's so much more playable I don't know.  6/10.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 04, 2013, 02:46:50 PM
Actually, we did get Gemini's game.  In fact, I saw Sakura Wars for the Wii just yesterday at Gamestop, and she's right on the front cover (in different clothes so I did question if it was her at first.  Back of the box removed all doubts where she's dressed the same as PXZ) so yeah.

Alas, we did not get Erica's, but I suppose 1/2 aint bad considering we missed like 6 entries of the games.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 04, 2013, 04:58:11 PM
Gemini's the cool one anyway, Texas cowgirl + samurai is just perfectly dissonant for a character design. I'm pretty much the same as CK as she's the only character I wasn't already aware of that I am managing to give a shit about. Okay, I also like Devilotte, but I had seen her before in uhhh... *wikis* Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo apparently, not sure that counts. The award for most annoying character I was unfamiliar with goes to Neneko, but that is a Japanese trope which doesn't work at all in English unless handled by a deft translation team, something I would certainly not say this game has. Also her music sucks and pushes aside better theme musics.

Anyway, PXZ is an okay game but it could have been much better. It's pretty fun when the game does a good job with mission objectives (defeat a well-defended boss, blow up the statues, etc.), but rout missions are boring because there are large numbers of enemies and bosses are dull sacks of HP of which there are typically 3-4 per map. I'm really sick of solo attack cut-ins (twice per battle scene, every time!) and I have no idea why there wasn't an option to turn those off (when there is an option to turn off the far shorter "KO" cut-in). I've already mentioned my ??? at the decision to never give character choice, which helps bog down maps. So basically, the game ends up far slower than it should have been, a marked contrast to the fast-paced Endless Frontier. Response system is cool though, as mentioned, and I feel like mentioning it again because it is probably the game's coolest new feature (yeah SRW had something similar, EF's system is far more elegant and provokes more interesting decisions). Also this isn't a plus or minus but I have no idea how people can play this game with items, I have never used them and the game feels completely not balanced for them (unlike EF) since the enemy damage scale is so low (random damage is 8HKO or so, bosses get up to 3HKO with super moves! Sometimes GT!). It's not a terribly hard game without them but it's at least interesting; I know I would sleep through all battles if I allowed myself to use them.

I just got the Resident Evil team, which means I think I have all the pair units now unless I've miscounted? Still have a few scattered solos to pick up.

I do wish they'd done a bit more to differentiate the characters. The stat curve is pretty small overall (although not invisible), the biggest differences between the PCs seems to be the speed at which they pick up fourth attacks and MT attacks (so go Chun Li/Morrigan? Bonus points for them randomly having a 4-range MT which so far nobody else on my team has). A few PCs have notable passives like the RoF's +1 range above an XP threshold, and a few of the skills are quite notable (Estelle's MT healing is super-efficient, better than normal healing as soon as at least 3 people are injured! The MT Move+2 buff is also very potent) but I would like to have seen more.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 04, 2013, 09:15:52 PM
Mother 3: Beat Chapter 2.

On one hand, I approve of the game letting me use a character who can do things besides "multiple flavors of damage."  On the other-hand, I do not approve of the game forcing it to be mostly a solo sequence when you're forced to fight large number of enemies while having limited healing and no real way to deal with groups.  Chapter got significantly more interesting when Kumatora popped up, but that's only the last 4th of it or so.

Remember how I said Chap 1 was good at drama?  Yeah, Chap 2 seems to have dropped drama entirely and tried solely for humor and it's not really working.  Humor seems to be trying too hard at the "WEIRD IS FUNNY!!' angle that Earthbound had, except Earthbound actually had it work while Mother 3 is more just head-scratching.  A boss that is basically Boss Beethoven is amusing to be fair.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on August 05, 2013, 10:19:12 PM
Far Cry 3: Pretty good, but offensively dumb. This is the ultimate white male privilege colonization story.
Also very similar to Just Cause 2 just worse in every way and with no grappling hook.

You're a Straight White Man on holidays on some island in the Pacific Ocean, who gets caught by bad guys but manages to escape before passing out.

You wake up in a Rebel Village where black people herald you as Very Badass because you managed to escape from Big Bad Guy's camp (how the hell did they even know about it?) From that point on you can stop any cars driven by rebels, steal it and throw it into the nearest ocean while the rebel walks back to the village to get another car. And you help the savages solve their problems because they give you resources. Also indigenous women tell you you're hot.

Apparently this game is actually supposed to SUBVERT the insulting colonialism trope? This is a fucking joke:
1) The game treats all this plot plainly with no sense of self awareness nor critiscism of the main protagonist up until where I played, which is already pretty far. (Well there's the insane main antagonist mocking the player? Hurray) I already know everything doesn't descend to hell at one point because the story of this game didn't get "Spec Ops the Line"-level attention, so if anything happens I sincerely doubt it will be enough. (and it will be too late)
2) The story is what it is because it sales more than "Non-white man/woman sees the effect of colonialism on his island". Stop being a hypocrite and pretend you made something progressive.


Dark Souls no level up challenge: Named the main character Sliman. Perhaps the greatest pun I've done (not that it says much)
2 slots of pyromancy makes this challenge a lot easier than it has any right to be, at least at the beginning.
You can spend all that exp on silly items (poison kunais!) and more importantly on the pyromancy flame. So the earlygame isn't even that harder than usual. You trade a lot of defense for slighty more offense.
Everything went pretty well up until O&S. Gwyn was impossible so I looked a way to cheese him on youtube: Force him to do his jump attack by running away, then roll left + 2 attacks, repeat. (still pretty hard damn to do)


Persona 4 Very Hard: In the sauna. I'm bored out of my mind. The Persona 3 only worked for one game for me. I like having to dedicate in game time and make choices, but Devil Survivor handled this way better. I don't really care about any of these characters and their Saturday Morning Cartoon antics.


Star Ocean Ratix Solo: Beat this.
This would be even easier than the incredibly easy main game if not for fatal status attack and incredibly awful status defense accessories. Best status protection in the game: 70% status protection against one status, 10% chance to break. Wow.
As it is the aftergame is impossible. I went up to level 15 or so.


Tales of Eternia Reid Solo: Tree village.
This would be a Yattaf solo but you know what? Farah isn't worthy of being called Yattaf.
The hair, the dress, the boots... Farah has such an incredibly bad taste, you just have to stay away.
Reid is a dude I already know too well, and it's not like he has a good fashion sense either, but he's not digusting and he looks goddamn mental in battle. So I chose him.

Since there's no exp focusing I'm staying on Normal mode instead of Hard.

Cooking stuff is pretty useful for once. It took a very long time but now Reid has truly learnt how to make a sandwich. What a badass.

Anyway I have pretty fond memories of this game and it has aged well enough. But looking back we can see that the series really started going in the wrong direction there, with a dangerously high cutscenes/battle ratio.
Mashing A during every cutscene leaves well enough time for battle here, unlike Tales of Symphonia onward.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on August 07, 2013, 07:40:55 AM
Dragon's Crown: I'm playing through a DnD campaign as a dwarf who loves powerbombing troglodytes. Ashley joined me as an axe wielding Amazon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lady Door on August 07, 2013, 06:23:34 PM
Game is far less offensive than I anticipated, and it definitely comes across as an homage to the 80s.

Not that it invalidates the criticism, of course. But personally I don't find it off-putting enough to stop playing the game. Now, if I'd had to choose whether to buy it in the first place, I probably would have passed.

Worth noting that we got the art book when we picked up our pre-order. The art book is a fancy production! It's actually a book, albeit softcover, and it has really pretty arts. I like.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Yoshiken on August 07, 2013, 07:23:00 PM
I'm part of a charity marathon at the moment with a few friends - come join us and spam chat and stuff? :D We're taking donations for Macmillan Cancer Support, and there are prizes to be won and challenges to force us into for donations, so come and join the fun. <3
Tomorrow, specifically, I'll be doing an Ocarina of Time challenge run where I take a drink every time I take damage (meaning I get more drunk and get worse at the game and... vicious and beautiful circle) from about midnight (GMT) to 11:00 Friday, so join for that?
We're streaming over at http://www.twitch.tv/tolarian_tutor if you're interested - viewers, people in chat and especially donations are greatly appreciated. <3
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on August 07, 2013, 11:20:19 PM
Dynasty Warriors 8: Beat all four kingdoms' storymodes, both normal path and what-if path. Zhang Chunhua is the most hilarious new character. Zhang Bao is the most useless new character. Guan Xing is an airplane. Shoe Shoe is the most plot important nobody ever. Huang Gai for most improved character from earlier versions of the game, no contest.

All in all, funtimes. Esp taking on the storymodes 2p. The fact that everyone has a unique EX weapon now is amazing. The balance between Dive/Shadowsprint weapons and Dash/Whirlwind weapons is unfortunate(like...8-9 each of the former two, like 30ish each of the latter two...), but still not too bad. It DOES mean that an amusing number of people are good with gigantic double axes or a combat boat, at least?

Also, SMT4. First section, up through Naraku's end feels alot harder then most SMT games. After that, feels easier then say Nocturne or the DDS games in general. Odd progression there, but it's easy to tell why, since it's about that time that you get a real skillset and some variety in your demons. Once you really get rolling and can fuse more resists/nulls onto your demons as you go, it gets harder for enemies to exploit weaknesses and the difficulty lets up more. Also, Tetrakarn is highly important to get, but if you have it you can lulz through some midgame bosses. Won't get into any real specifics since folks are still playing this and SPOILARS.

Plotwise...Jonathan is a moron, Walter is a moron, Isabeau is just kinda there and I reaaaaaaaally want to punch Abbot Smugface Hugo.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on August 08, 2013, 03:28:32 PM
DQ6: Up to the "real" version of the Demon Lord Whatshisname. The first version wiped me once when I did some dumb things with Carver and got him killed immediately. Then I started the fight over, realized his AI can be cheesed out with Buff, and stomped him. Second fight, though. Ouch. I powerleveled enough to learn Zing after dying there; hopefully that'll help (although if Zing is as reliable as usual, I kinda doubt it).

FFV: Finally got off my proverbial ass to beat the pyramid. Mellusion is a pain without Scan/Libra, as always. Even more so because her barrier change can also make her immune to Zenigage. Luckily when it did hit her it was dealing 6000+ damage, so it didn't take many barrier cycles for me to get enough shots in. Picked up Masamune, Gaia Bell (holy crap that thing sucks) and Assassin's Knife from the sealed castle, which is all the legendary weapons I can actually use. Woo, endgame power!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on August 08, 2013, 10:01:32 PM
The Walking Dead ep 5: well that's depressing

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows: well that's depressing
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on August 09, 2013, 04:33:21 AM
Final Fantasy Dimensions: Having a lot of fun with this, but I'm already in the Dark Knight chapter and I realized I've missed every Eidolon so far... Time for backtracking!

Deciding which jobs to hand out in which combinations is the most fun. I think I've got a pretty solid setup I want to use now:

Dark Warriors:
Nacht (Thief/Warrior->Ninja when available)
Diana (WhiteMage/Summoner/Ranger->RedMage if I really need Dualcast)
Glaive (Monk/Warrior->DarkKnight when available)
Alba (BlackMage/RedMage for Dualcast -> Dancer when available/possibly Magus if I really need Ultima)

There are enough free JP in the game to max four Jobs with an extra point leftover, this makes building really organic and fluid as three jobs is generally more than enough. Alba's also spent some time as a summoner, so backtracking for summons has been worthwhile.

Light Warriors:
Sol (Warrior/Dragoon - no clue what I'll use for a third job, maybe Paladin or Thief?)
Sarah (Summoner/BlackMage -> Memorist, supposedly these guys can be twinked to make an awesome Mage or Melee build, but not both)
Aegis (RedMage/Warrior->Paladin when available)
Dusk (WhiteMage/RedMage/Bard->Seer when available even though Seer is useless. This is the ultimate support PC and the only one I'm sure will end up in my final party)

I'm guessing that my final party will include the twins, plus Nacht since Ninjas are apparently broken. A Memorist-Summoner also sounds like a lot of fun so I'll prolly use Sarah over Diana for my summoner. Then I just get to shuffle around Sol/Glaive/Aegis for my fifth-slot melee build. Since I'm not sure which job will end up best for endgame melee, I'll have to experiment with Paladin/Dragoon/Dark Knight builds. I suspect it'll be Paladin since I think they're the only class that can use the Break Damage Limit Ultima Weapon sword...

The game is very susceptible to breaking just by leveling a few times over the 'suggested' level, so this much planning is probably a waste, but it's fun to envision where my parties will end up. May have to try a challenge run on my second playthrough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on August 09, 2013, 07:18:20 PM
Dragon's Crown: Yup. This is more or less what was advertised. Fun brawler, super fucking chaotic with 4 people on the screen. Animation is great. It really does capture the feel of beer and pretzels style DnD well.

BlazBlue Continuum Shift: EXTEND: Been playing this too, but haven't mentioned it. Cleared Calamity Trigger Reconstruction and Ragna's story mode. Otherwise been grinding challenges (40-66% on all characters, I think?) and trying to figure out a main.

Had some weird difficulties in certain places (Relius challenge 5 was weirdly hard and took me like, an hour to clear. Which is a bit excessive for B, 6D, 2A, B, 6D, 2A, B, 6D).

Thinking about getting back to my BG: EE playthrough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Idun on August 09, 2013, 09:14:46 PM
Xenoblade: just got Xord'd. Headed to Satorl Marsh; sort of low-key obsessed with Dickson. Cycling in Dunban to my main crew, but not quite sure who to cycle out. Reyn's p. dope at this pt: L26 each, Reyn @ 4k HP, auto-attack to the 716 range, str 341, Dunban at 620 range str 260, obv. excluding gems. When will these warriors get a break? Time to play on the waist of a bionis.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on August 09, 2013, 09:30:51 PM
Final Fantasy Dimensions: Okay, so Job Micro-managing is incredibly effective for the actual dungeon-crawling aspect. In the previous Dark Warriors section, I pretty much had 2 fighters, 2 mages. However, I gave Diana, arguably the most useless of characters, a weird job combination with WhiteMage/Summoner and then Ranger. Now, the combination doesn't -sound- that strange, after all, Rosa's been doing the bow-healer thing since FF4. However, Ranger as a job is actually built as a melee class, as opposed to a Mage using a bow. Due to the extreme effect job changing and job levels have on stats, this effectively means I can play Diana as either job as if she were two different characters. The Jobs also complement eachother pretty well as Ranger has a few support options that White Magic and Summoner's MP+20% passive help to bolster. So I can run her as a major melee damage source for the winding dungeon sections, then switch her back to full Mage for boss fights. As I'm typing this, it all sounds pretty obvious and logical, but it broke a previous paradigm for me.

tl;dr: mixing melee and magic classes in FFD is more effective than progressing from one mage class to another mage class, or the same for melee. At least for the midgame where resource management is still difficult.

I suspect at endgame (based on all my stat topic work on this so far), that mage classes complement eachother very well and there's very little need for the skillsets or passives from the melee classes. But midgame, the resource management aspect means that switching back and forth is far more efficient if you're speedrunning or just in a hurry.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on August 09, 2013, 09:48:00 PM
Learning Fusion skills from overlapping skillsets also can be incredibly useful.  That say my final party did involve someone pinch hitting like that between Paladin/Memorist and Seer because it let them fill whatever role necessary.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 10, 2013, 12:46:38 AM
FEA Replay: Finally completed!

Not comment on characters since boring,a nd I think I commented on the DLC characters already.

Well, no, I don't think I mentioned Eirika and Lyn so...uhh...here they are!

Eirika is nothing like her FE8 self...at all.  She's a Bride, knowing all of Bride's skills, so that's a perk, she has a B in Bows, D in Lances/Staves.  Yeah, like I said, not Eirika like at all.  I turned her into an Assassin since it kept her good Bow levels, and never really used one before so yeah.

Lyn is mostly a stock Swordmaster though she has Zeal, something females can't get.  She misses out on Myrmidon skills sadly so she's not as evasive as you think though you could reclass her and what not. 


Generally speaking of the DLC characters I've used, looks something like this for worth:

1. Micaiah.  Shadow Gift is just that stupid good, and she has the stats to make it work.  She was probably the MVP of the entire file, truth be told. Promoted her into a Dark Knight, then she hit level 20 in that rather early and turned her into a Dark Flier.  I didn't even notice she lacked Hex and Anathema, truth be told.
2. Leif.  Surprised me, but basically being a trickster with quite good stats, and only real failing relative to Anna is no Move+1 made him quite good.  Staff levels at E are a bit meh, but you can raise those pretty fast.
3. Marth.  Pseudo-Prepromo Lucina w/ Aptitude and 30 levels to work with; he's quite good as result.
4. Seliph.  Male Swordmaster w/ Galeforce at a lowish level.  It's funny because I keep thinking "oh, he's just a swordmaster" then remember "Wait, he has Galeforce..." and suddenly his utility sky rockets.  Why not higher?  Because I feel his damage was a tad lacking at times which held back.
5.  Elincia.  Mobile staff bot w/ Rally Speed.  I was at first disappointed that she was offensively inept, but having Falcon Knight whose actually really good at using staves ended up being quite handy.
6. Eirika.  Ended up basically being an Archer with a Bow and staves for a while, then just a good Bow using PC as an Assassin.  Rally Heart was a cool option too, being a lesser Rally Spectrum that also boosts Move.
7. Alm.  If he had better speed, he'd be notably higher because Dread Knight offense is insane.  Sadly, he doesn't have that speed, and sometimes needs to be paired with a high speed Pair Up just to avoid being doubled.  After a point, he's not in jeopardy of being doubled anymore, and when he does double, things just DIE.
8. Lyn.  Feels a little too generic as a Swordmaster, and her strength is a bit on the iffy side.  She's not BAD, but she doesn't really have anything that stands out.  Especially compared to Seliph, who does a lot of the same things and then it's +5% Crit and Acrobat vs. Galeforce, Charm and Avoid+10%.  That's really her issue; Seliph is just better than her at doing the same things.
9. Roy.  Is any shocked that Roy is the worst of a bunch of Fire Emblem Lords?  He's a Mercenary with Aegis and Dualstrike+, which aren't really bad, but honestly aren't enough.  His stats aren't particularly stand out like some of the other characters,  which begs the question of "Why not just use Gregor or Inigo?" if you want a good Mercenary.   His stats are comparable to Marth's, true, but Marth is 3 levels lower and has Aptitude, so it's really no question how the two are going to end up on the long term.


I already really want Ephraim, Celica and Ike, as those three look kind of ridiculous.  Good choices I suppose for Suped Up Lords as DLC characters.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Crystalgate on August 11, 2013, 04:46:55 PM
Titan Quest: Started an Earth/Spirit character. My strategy was to pump Earth Enchantment, then pump Flame Surge and once I got to Delphi, spec out of Flame Surge and instead put the points into Ternion Attack. Earth Enchantment Doubles my fire damage and Ternion let's me shoot three projectiles for 80% damage each with my staff. This makes the damage 480% which so far has been just about as balanced as it sounds like. There's also an improvement down the road that gives Ternion Attack area of effect.

I'm not sure what I'll get other than that. Maybe summons.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on August 11, 2013, 07:42:19 PM
Project X Zone: Beaten a few days ago. For a while in midgame I appreciated the teamsplit chapters because they meant fewer bosses per stage, which meant less of a slog to complete.  Then chapter 36 threw 5 bosses and some 90K HP midbosses at me. Than chapters 38 and 39 had even higher boss density than previous full team maps. Then the last two stages happened, which were... yikes.

At least 40 is just slow if you move all your units to the bottom area of the map and work cautiously upwards. 41 was both brutally long (well over a full 3DS charge from start to finish) and descended into a complete clusterfuck at times. The worst was when reinforcements got triggered mid-turn, resulting in all the faster enemies getting their turns in consecutively immediately afterwards - taking 8 boss attacks plus some grunt moves consecutively without the usual PCs spread throughout was quite painful. Luckily I had a ton of high end healing items hoarded for this moment, which I spammed recklessly since I don't intend on bothering with a Clear Save ever.

XP was definately the best-designed game system, lending a real sense of strategy to skill/Multi-Attack/finisher usage that I gather from heresay was completely absent from NamcoxCapcom. The core battle system is pretty solid, but I was left with a sense that it works better when the PC cast is much smaller. I had a hell of a time trying to remember which attack was strongest for 20 separate PCs for the sake of counters and didn't even try to memorize any other attributes like XP growth. I suspect this is why they put in the +1 system, so players would have something to aim for in battle without having to memorize the attributes for every single attack, but it definately restricts both in-battle decision making and PC variety.

The pre- and post- battle dialogue was definately my favorite part of the game, with good lines and amusing crossover interactions. The game would be a lot worse if they weren't subbed ala Endless Frontier.

Super Mario 3D Land: Three worlds in, and the level design is already significantly more creative than NSMB2 (or any NSMB game, admittedly). 3D makes the platforming controls a lot trickier than 2D Mario games, though; I find myself screwing up basic jumps that I never would in any of the 2D games.

Auto-saving after every single level is great, but it makes me wonder why they went back to the lame checkpoint system in NSMB2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on August 12, 2013, 08:49:11 PM
Tales of Eternia Reid Solo:
Disc 2.
Hell of a challenge, one of the best I've done. The difficulty is constantly ramping up but the game showers Reid with game changers like new weapons, recipes or skills, multiple times per dungeons. The save system is very nice too, something I had never even noticed before.

I have welcomed Carbonara as Our One True God. 60%HP / 40%TP healing after battle.

(http://www.socialcooking.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/tagliatelle-carbonara1.jpg)

Eat this over and over, Reid.
Unfortunately they don't have the ingredients down there on Celestia :(
He is stuck with non nutritous meals like Fruit Cocktails. 10% TP healing. Fucking great.



Dark Souls Bow Only:
Looks actually possible and not crazy?
You can snipe enemies and everything! And you can actually headshot them!!

Anyway it's the second to last challenge I can think of I haven't done for this game.

I've done:
- Pyro build
- Mage build
- Cleric build
- Melee only
- Kill everything on sight
- SL1
- Fist weapons only
- NG+
The only cool ones left are Bow Only and Fat Bastard With Huge Poise and A Zweihander.

Anyway I ignored the undead guys, went straight for the bow + 30 arrows and killed Stray Demon with them. (Total joke)
Undead burg: Ignored undead dudes again and bought 200 normal and 200 weak arrows.
Went back to the start, rushed through New Londo and got a Composite Bow. (dying 10 times in the process)

I'll try getting to Pharis right after the gargoyles to steal the Black Bow.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on August 12, 2013, 11:51:28 PM
Short Bow fires the fastest. This might actually matter at some point? Plenty of situations you can get two shots off with that instead of everything else getting you one (between titanite demon bolts, for example).

Fenrir make a pure dragon mode run. It's totally balanced! The fact that you drink estus through your neck is not at all indicative of the fact that From Software didn't apply much thought to this covenant.

I am almost ashamed at the number of characters I've run through the game by now. It's honestly kind of disturbing.

~

Shadowrun Returns: I wore a Sander Cohen bunny mask to a funeral and no one said anything.

Smashed through this over the weekend. Fairly short, but not so much that it feels like a bad deal for the price. Worth bashing through if you're in the mood for an old-fashioned point-and-click PCRPG. (Which you should be.) Plays kinda like Fallout 2 combat except, you know, polished (I loved Fallout 2 but so not because of the combat). You have skills instead of called shots, can actually control your damn team, permadeath is FFT-style, dudes automatically crouch when they end a movement next to cover, you can set people up for interception fire, etc. Pretty simplistic system but it gets the job done. It's never what I'd call difficult, but the game will punish you for making dumb tactical choices. (There are higher difficulty settings, though--I played on Normal, which is what I always do the first time I play a game unless the word Gust is somewhere on the packaging.) I died once, AI got lucky with a grenade crit + double tap (MC death is game over).

My only real gameplay complaint is for when you have to split a mission between a raid and a matrix run. The decker basically runs with a party of friendly programs in parallel to the physical combat going on in the real world, which is neat in theory, but in practice missions like this tend to end with 3/4 of the party standing around waiting for the decker to run out of cyberspace. You can totally afford to have the MC skip decking altogether and just rely on hirelings for it, which is what I did. It's not required very often and it's better to have a specialist when it is. Lets you focus your MC on shooting dudes in the face, which is something the game wants you to do a lot. (Hiring dudes is kind of expensive though, makes me pine for the Genesis days when you could feed someone chump change for one job and then exploit them for thousands of nuyen worth of unpaid matrix work.)

In a more macro sense, it's an extremely linear game, basically a static series of conversations and setpiece battles. This is totally fine for a once-over but you won't get much different an experience from running it a second time. Charisma can get you some extra conversation options, but you'll never talk your way out of a major fight. It's mostly just different ways of convincing people/upping your payment for jobs/some minor extra options for non-combat obstacles. And while you don't get anywhere near so much karma that you can be a god at everything (which I approve of, forces you to make tactical choices about your build instead of grinding until you become god of all skills a la Skyrim), if you want to see what the other classes are about, you can just hire people to experiment with them.

The basic campaign turns out to be pretty much late Fallout 1 with space bugs instead of super mutants. Which is fine. Also, totally trolled by the ending. Called it, but still good for a laugh.

Is Shadowrun or World of Darkness more deliberately hopeless? I really can't decide.

Lack of manual save is baffling. I'm not sure what the thought process was there, combat savescumming or something? Some of the last missions are as much as an hour of chained battles and if for some reason you have to power down your computer in the middle of one, whup, best resign yourself to redoing that stage from the start when you pick it up again. Biggest strike against the game. Not crippling or anything but definitely a bwuh design choice just for the inconvenience of it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on August 13, 2013, 08:34:52 AM
Composite Bow actually seems a bit faster, those two bows being the fastest in the game. Higher damage too. (But lower range)

Thanks Cid. You can even get the head without fighting any boss. One more Dark Souls playthrough confirmed. (30 stones for the torso though??)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on August 13, 2013, 11:29:32 AM
Tales of Xillia: Finally got to play this! It's off to an awesome start and I can't gush enough about it, but I'm sure everyone expects that because Djinn and Tales games. So I'll just list the problems with it:
1. TP is back. Why? You fixed that problem in ToG, why would you saddle yourself with this lame resource mechanic when you're already using ToG's AC system? Just feels like a step back.
2. Link System is awesome, but it has problems. First of all, I'm playing with other people, and Linking automatically takes control away from a human player, so it effectively turns the game from a 4-player affair to a 2-player affair since you have Link to get the most out of the system. I guess this is good for people that play solo, but it's a flaw for me.
3. You have to Link to do any of the upper-level artes, so if you only have 3 PCs, then one of them is getting shafted.
4. I guess I could complain about Jude being a far less interesting main than the best the series offers, but you get a choice between him and Milla, and Milla fucking rocks.
5. Music is still bland, like every Tales game since ToD.
6. On the hardest available starting difficulty, the game is still too easy at the moment, though if I know Tales games, this will change once I get a bit further in.
7. I miss ToG's style-switching system between A- and B- Artes. ToX has some similar aspects to it, but it's less integral to the gameplay.

Overall, though, balance is pretty good. The three PCs I have so far all play very uniquely from eachother and from previous Tales builds. Milla in particular is a great variation on a Tales mage, which quick-spell versions of all her spells to allow her to fight at different ranges. The story is straightforward, the villains aren't completely inane, and the main PCs so far are all competent and have good chemistry, as long as you don't make Jude your main. Seriously, he fills in the 'young kid' role very well and manages to be likable in it, don't ruin it by trying to make him carry the whole story. Especially when Milla does it so well without trying. Alvin is hilarious and my new personal hero. Reminds me a bit of Lowell from The Last Story. I just hope the other characters can keep up the trend... (I have little hope for this, considering at least two of them are little girls and that almost never ends well... I guess ToV's Rita was okay if you consider her 'little').

Lots of fun, I wonder when I'll have time to play it again?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on August 13, 2013, 11:58:07 AM
Composite Bow actually seems a bit faster, those two bows being the fastest in the game. Higher damage too. (But lower range)

Thanks Cid. You can even get the head without fighting any boss. One more Dark Souls playthrough confirmed. (30 stones for the torso though??)

Yeah, it really sucks getting powered up before doing anything else. Dragon scales have a shit drop rate from one of the meanest standard enemies, so I got them by killing other players. Drop a sign in Undead Burg, hope low-level players don't know what they're getting into, spam fire breath. (I got lucky though, some random player figured what I was trying to do and was nice enough to straight up drop half of what I needed.) So basically run down to the ancient dragon right when you get to Lordran, run back up to Undead Burg with the head stone to murder people, run back down to the dragon with loot to get the torso stone...It's an exercise in masochism, climbing out of the Great Hollow twice at like level 10.

I have no idea at what point in the game From Software thought dragon mode was going to be balanced. Fire breath stunlocks everything in the first couple zones to death but the damage becomes obsolete almost immediately. It's absolutely shit by the time you could legitimately get it without the master key. Buff is pretty useful but eats a ton of stamina. Fortunately, your unarmed damage is not stat-based; it remains at least decent for most of the game and is horribly overpowered for the first half or so (buffed plunging attack vs Taurus Demon = fucking hilarious). I think it's something like 400 ATK at covenant rank 2?

Your melee range kind of sucks though. (I had to call in help for the Four Kings just because I had trouble hitting them.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on August 13, 2013, 12:10:42 PM
Tales of Xillia:

I'm a big dirty Tales fan so I was going to like this. Let me hit some of the finer points:

1. TP system works well enough. Artes are very powerful but consume TP. You have an AC counter that limits your combos, 1 AC per attack/Arte. You can chain a full combo of Artes if you so choose, it's just rather expensive. TP is regenerated by attacking so by sticking to regular attack combo strings you can restore TP. The end result is that you have control over your damage output. You can pace your damage output to suit your own needs whether it is maintaining a balance with your TP restoration, or going all-out and draining TP to take something down.

2. Link System. This works very well because it 'pairs up' two PCs so they fight in tandem. Every few combos you get to do a shiny combo attack that is very powerful too.

3. Skill tree system: The skill tree system lets you choose how to level your PCs. It is a spider's web with skills and new Artes caught between the 'nodes' of the web. If you take all the nodes that surround a skill/arte, you get it without expending the expansion points (CG) which you get 3-4 of per level. You can only set the skills you have the Skill-Points for, but having them increases versatility, and they are very powerful for combat purposes. This reminds me of a better version of ToV's skill system, where the skills are easier to obtain and you have more control over it.

More later.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 13, 2013, 02:22:31 PM
TP becomes such a complete non-issue later on to the point that it doesn't limit anything.  I guess they just don't want you spamming demon fang endlessly.  Suckers, I do that anyway gel supremacy.

Oh wait, that means I've been playing too huh?

Tales of Xillia: Actually I'm right at the endgame, clearing up sub-events before heading into the final dungeon.  Why haven't I posted about it?  Ummm, laziness?  Yeah that sounds like my kind of excuse.  Guess that just gives me an excuse to dump everything plot-related in one giant spoiler post.  Except swooning over Gaius, that'll be in bold.

But uh, addressing some more of the above posts.  Difficultly will step up in chapter 3, though randoms will never stop being pathetic.  Well, really that's the only one, so yeah.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 13, 2013, 06:47:59 PM
Project X Zone - ... there's a chapter 41? aw nuts. I'm a little tempted to put this game down. It's not bad but it's slow and repetitive and I'm disappointed to hear there are still 14+ chapters left. I have a much lower opinion of the battle conversations than hinode does; some are funny, yes, but most are bland non sequiturs and a few are cringe-inducing. Otherwise, opinion on the game's strengths and weaknesses remains pretty much unchanged.

XCOM - Far superior strategy game. Replaying this, felt rusty enough to go for normal, having a blast. The game's flaws remain but they are still quite forgivable, and the more one plays the game the more its flaw of "will you or won't you be able to see that enemy after moving?" becomes easier to mitigate via experience, which is nice. Currently ironmanning it up, although the playthrough isn't formally on Ironman mode because the game froze a few times last playthrough (none so far this one at least) and I don't trust it not to do the same again and eat the ironman save file.

Star Ocean 4 Universe Mode - Picked this up again, at En II.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on August 13, 2013, 07:06:11 PM
Project X Zone - ... there's a chapter 41? aw nuts.

Fuck, I'm at like C31. >_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on August 13, 2013, 08:00:06 PM
I sympathize, since I've stalled at about that point.  The game could stand to be a bit more consice (still beats NxC on that end though...)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Idun on August 14, 2013, 08:25:10 PM
Made it to Frontier Village; currently controlling Dunban, with Shulk in tow. Princess stepped out of the party for a second. Hey store, thanks for spoiling the game! (Who the flup is Riki?) Moving on, L37. That's that. All quests until Frontier Village complete. Or at least, that I know of.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on August 15, 2013, 03:56:03 AM
Tales of XXX: the combo system is awesome still. The opening sections beat ToG out of the water! Still a little too easy, but playing on Hard makes the bosses challenges. Enough that we had had to drop the difficulty down on one or two.

The villain cast is looking kinda lame now, but the fanservice chick is hot in that whorish way.

PC interaction is still the highlight of the story, Rowen is pretty hilarious and an awesome UOM. The little girl is inoffensive overall, at least she acts like a little girl. Teepo is her comic relief mascot thing and tries to be funny. He often fails but I inexplicably like him anyway, especially when he is trying to eat Jude's face. Jude is actually a pretty good character, but I'm glad he isn't who I chose for a main. Milla and Alvin carry every scene they talk in.

My only concern about the link system at the moment is when the inevitable solo colosseum area shows up, I will be completely cut off from using my powerful artes.

The art direction and overall tone of the story is a lot more mature than previous Tales offerings.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 15, 2013, 05:01:15 AM
Since it doesn't seem you have your fully party yet I can somewhat safely say that the villain cast will get better when they actually y'know talk to the party instead of wondering where the hell they all came from.

I was literally going through the arena when you made your post, so points for bacon.  Though when the coliseum inevitably comes up there'll be other more pressing problems to deal with.  As usual there's the team match as well which you damn well will want to do hot damn is the reward for that good.

Hilariously I had an easier time in the Arena as Rowen and Elize over anyone else. 

Anyway, I'm on track to just eke out the Sub-Event title in postgame, so right now I'm trying to max out my shops.  Completed Weapon, everything else is in the 90s.  Trying to finish off the Link Heart titles too, but having Jude and Leia glued to the hip for the entire game means I'm doing annoying grinding.  On the other hand playing boulder master as Rowen is balling.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on August 16, 2013, 10:45:44 AM
inFamous: Playing electric Spiderman is fun, doing Good side because good is cool
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on August 16, 2013, 11:55:26 AM
inFamous: Playing electric Spiderman is fun, doing Good side because good is cool

Excellent. Good side is also the best path to do the stunts, if you're interested.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Otter on August 16, 2013, 01:46:54 PM
Save the Date: beat this last week, 's good

TH14: yadda yadda it's good, capped all the Lunatic cards in spell practice, awaiting patch

LFT: Team Republican (http://i.imgur.com/knMakBY.jpg) Nominees (http://i.imgur.com/zZovdMV.jpg) has saved Olan, gotten through its first Zalmo encounter and is on its way to Orbonne.  I really like mime but my party is practically designed around making it less effective than it should be.  Right now Rick Perry is a thief with martial arts and that is kinda the worst for Mimestadio, who imitates the double-attack martial arts punches by doing a single non-martial arts punch.  Romney and Palin have been pure damage-twinking wizards so far, just fire spells and fire rods and MAU, and obviously my mime is casting those without benefit of MAG+x equips or the fire boost or MAU etc. so that's bad too.  Paul Ryan is the only one with decent mime-synergy; he just now switched from monk over to geo where he's still just spamming monk skills but off higher PA, and that monk skillset works pretty nice with a mime.  So that's something.

So I'm learning a lot about what stuff doesn't go together (to reiterate: my team and mime) and thinking about how to salvage the situation and get through Chapter 3.  I think one move that would help might be sending Rick Perry back to knight, equipped with Charge, since both the weapon and the Charge help Mimestadio dish out way more damage (and in the meantime Rick would be picking up nice breaks to use with Concentrate).  I might also send Mitt and Sarah to oracle and time mage respectively, get some status stuff working so it's not all about MA and I can get some better mimes out of those two.  Unfortunately doing that and keeping their black magic secondaries gets rid of a lot of my revival.  Maybe I'll just pick one, give it to Mitt, and let Sarah hang out in priest for a while?  These are the questions.

Yadda yadda LFT's good, I'm bad at it, this is not a challenge game and yet I feel like I'm about to hit the part where I have to farm randoms or props for jp or something
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on August 16, 2013, 04:35:53 PM
Happy Wars:  went ahead and dropped $20 on the game since it's good enough to deserve some of my money.  Ended up with 5(!) super-rare items as a result.  Now I'm spoiled for choice for cleric helmets - I just have to decide which one to use.

Streetpass Mii Plaza:  Bought all the new games for it since this is something I play every day anyway.

Mii Force:  Nice shooting game, the levels have nice variety so you're not always doing the same thing.  Difficulty isn't bad but it's balanced by you having really crappy weapons unless you do lots of tagging during the day.

the Garden one, forget the name:  This is boring.  Not bad mind you, just super slow/tedious.

Warriors Way:  simplified Nobunaga's Ambition.  Doing pretty well so far.

the haunted mansion one:  This is really good actually.  Could see this standing on its own as a full-fledged game with some modifications.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on August 16, 2013, 04:39:37 PM
FF5: Got all the tablets, mainly through Zenigage spam. I've tried a few times to steal the fourth Protect Ring from Odin, not sure if I'll keep doing that until I get it or just smash him with money and go into the Void.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 16, 2013, 07:10:29 PM
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance: I just killed Metal Gear Ray with a sword...yeah, that makes total sense in a Platinum Games kind of way.  Also playing Hard Mode since from my understanding, it's geared towards people use to DMC-style action games.

Ducktales Remastered: Woo-hoo!  Beat Amazon Jungle after trying it about 4 times.  Playing on Medium, and game is kicking my ass.  By trying, I mean "full cycle of lives."  Hard game is hard.  Even the tutorial stage cost me a few lives.  Fun stuff like the original game in any event.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on August 16, 2013, 10:57:19 PM
Otter you're the man.

ToE Reid Solo: Finished Gnome's cave.
Since resources (ingredients) have been scarce I've actually used the Heal ring (8% max HP healing after killing any enemy) unironically in this dungeon. Woaah.
The game has a nasty tendency to throw ice swords in ice dungeons and earth halberds in earth dungeons, making sense teasing you with a powerful but for now totally useless weapon. (that's probably going to be outclassed right as you leave the dungeon)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on August 17, 2013, 11:39:49 AM
Tales of Triple X:  Completed in about 45 hours.  The last chapter felt extremely rushed, but otherwise a pretty solid game.  I think it's a bit better than Graces F, but no where near the level of Vesperia. 

The best feature of the game is instant travel that you get from the beginning.  No sidequests are missable either, and a skit telling you when a new one opens up.  Does this count as hand holding? Maybe, however, it's better than having to switch to text documents after every major event to make sure I don't miss anything.

The worst part is the lack of artes.  Tales games usually gives you new abilities to play around with every hour.  Here you get only a handful every 3 hours.  I heard this is improved upon in the sequel.

Cast was pretty solid but no godtiers like Yuri, Jade or F arc Richard.  Gaius was pretty cool until his new partner in crime came in, urgh they can go die in a ditch.  Best PC was Elize, I have over 2000 uses of Teepo Roar and it keeps getting better.  Worst PC is Leia.  She literally brings nothing to the plot.  Not that she's bad or anything, but you can remove her from the game and get the same results.  Honestly Ivar should have been the 6th PC.  Sure, he's annoying at times but he brings a couple of laughs here and there.

Dragon's Crown:

Level 24 Sorceress.  The fanservice here is creepier than mort NISA games, but the game is pretty fun to play.  Online has some Brawl-tier amounts of lag, sadly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on August 17, 2013, 04:56:43 PM
Eph, did you do Jude or Milla's side? I'm on Chapter 4 on Jude's side and after the events at the end of Chapter 3 when Jude and Leia ended up in Hamil, Jude might not have snapped out of it if it hadn't been for Leia and she did (spoiler if you didn't do Jude's side) did dual Alvin, true she didn't win but it was still kind of badass, with her making a stance against Jude and Alvin about not giving up too and well against Alvin in general. I'd been waiting for someone to try and kick his ass the whole game pretty much aside from very early on where he was cool Nothing much going on with her apart from that true but I also like her interactions with Elize and Agria, and at least she's been pretty inoffensive on the whole and has pretty much just did her duty, made a stance and pulled her weight in major plot battles/in helping to try and save the world.

I agree about Ivar being funny and him being a party member/playable but not at the expense of Leia since she's my main ;D I'm playing on Hard mode and honestly her being back up healer/reviver/support to Elize has been invaluable at times since my AI Elize has gotten herself wiped quite a few times over the course of the game even with defensive AI tactics options. Well I'm playing on Hard mode and I'm only L50 and have just been using storebought equipments for the most part, sometimes enemy drops/steals as well but I haven't done any arena stuff or Devil Beasts. I've just fought the boss at the shrine. It managed to wipe out my entire team once and then in the reattempt most of my team at once including Elize due to status shenanigans, then it was boss Mystic Arte spam happy later in the fight so Leia's ability to get the team quickly back on it's feet with items was appreciated. I've just picked up the skill that boosts item effectiveness with her as well =) Well it was a fun fight, appreciated when I had the openings to lay the pain on the boss with Leia/Jude Tempest Pirouette spam too.

I agree about the rush later if Chapter 4 is indeed the last one, totally wasn't expecting boss fights in a row and was a bit unprepared.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on August 17, 2013, 05:45:33 PM
ToX as well

Man, this game is fun, right?

I miss side stepping from Graces, but then again i think I enjoyed Graces battle system a little more.

Anyways, this game rocks regardless.

Jude is bland, but fun to use in fights.

Milla seems fun. I haven't played her much, but she has aerial combos and is a close and distant fighter.

Alvin is the man. He might win the award for most flip flopping, double triple quadruple agent. Who knows!

Elize is useful, but utterly annoying. I can't stand Teepo either. I wish these Tales games would steer away from these young characters. Or at least give me a LULU (suikoden 3) scene or something!

I don't mind Leia actually. I like her fighting style and she is the thief, so that's a plus.

Oh, and this whole Ivar thing. I agree he should have been a party member. But wow, do the cast of ToX treat Ivar like shit or what? I mean come on, he is annoying, but they don't have to be that mean to him.

I power leveled a bit in that one mine that had the gentlegnome mobs. 2k experience when the regular mobs were giving me 80ish? Yes please. granted I am over leveled, but who cares. Hard mode is easy, and I've fought enough to figure a harder mode will not unlock ala the Graces route. I am a whore to node grinding.

I agree that linking is great and all, but it really does take away from the co-op experience. they want you to link combos with every teammate, but when you do that you force other people playing to be a spectator for that time. Kinda lame, but ah well. Two players can work through that.

I have two games. Me and my girl are playing through Milla's story. We are at some military camp site about to go after that death ray. I am also doing Jude's story on my own. I started some time after we bought the game and only recently got all the characters. In that game I am around level 42...I think you are supposed to be around the 20s when entering Xian Do. Ah well.

Fun times! I can't wait until I unlock the arena again and get knocked out of the ring! UGH!

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 17, 2013, 05:47:40 PM
Star Ocean 4 - Completed on Universe Mode, party was Edge/Faize/Myuria/Bacchus. The phantom army ended up as the hardest boss fight, followed by Tamiel, the final boss, and Armaros Manifest, probably in that order. Bit of a grain of salt needed since I was probably somewhat underlevelled midgame. The more battles one can skip before benching Lymle, the better. The big surprise was how competent the first form of the final was, which I found roadkill on Galaxy but was about as scary as the real fight this time, aside from lower HP. I'm now planning to tackle some aftergame stuff, though not sure how much before I get bored. I usually do enjoy some Tri-Ace aftergames though... often better than the maingame! But I have less patience for such things than I used to. Not sure if I'll start using different PCs now or what.

Edge - He has Healing, which is good. Pretty damn unimpressed with him as a fighter though. Most of his better moves knock enemies around in weird ways which is bad for team play; the ones that don't are weak. And in general the game doesn't like melee fighters much. He's somewhat durable which is nice but not really enough to notice. I'd probably be better off benching him for Lymle or Sarah.
Faize - Yay! So Faize is a pretty bad PC, think we all knew this. Basically, take Myuria, and (a) drop her Magic by a bunch, (b) take away all her support spells and replace with Antidote, and you have Faize. I think his casting speed might be slightly faster but if so it's subtle enough I'd have to test it to be sure. Fortunately ice spells are the best, and Stone Rain's not bad either. His real problem is his weapon selection; double-digit INT at most from everything in the maingame except one weapon from the colossem. This puts him way behind the other mages until you get that, and I foolishly assumed I'd be able to get something better from IC or whatnot so I didn't get it until the final dungeon. In the final battle, and only the final battle, I gave him the Laser Weapon, because Myuria was needed for heals which left him as the best candidate to deal damage with Mindflare Ice Needles. Once the boss picks up Divine Wave and particularly Dawn of the Cosmos it just gets too punishing to fight at melee. (spoiler) Also Faize dealing the final blow to himself is kinda meta.
Bacchus - No new revelations on Bacchus, but he's very good. Great set of moves, even if every one of them has a problem or two. Tanky as hell. Emergency Healing is nice. Black Hole Bomb is sooo good at controlling randoms even on this mode where it fills up their rush gauge quickly. I also ran into the Kokabiel refight in the last area and that move destroys her which is good because in the real fight I had no particular counters to the fight (she resists all non-dark elements, dark symbols are bad and Bacchus' best weapon by far at that point was lightning) and was thus forced to use Edge which is an awkward/slow process (fortunately it's not a fight that's too powerful offensively). Galvanic Shock is really good what it does, a bit cumbersome but piles out loads of damage (makes Armaros Manifest explode). It's the best way to deal with the early stages of the final boss because of the random stun, later on it just gets too difficult to set up though. I also got good milage out of Termination as an area-of-effect crowd control move, particularly after picking up Berserk, although it gets largely shelved once Black Hole Bomb Sphere shows up.
Myuria - Again, nothing new, she's good. She's mostly about firing off Ice Needles spam off great casting speed (also Deep Freeze freezehax, or lightning crowd control) but then she picks up Fairy Healing and Restoration for no real reason and is arguably the best healer because Sarah is so much slower. Freezing is even more useful in Universe, the rate didn't seem to drop much. Final dungeon has a decent number of freeze-immunes but who cares.

Compared to last time when I used Sarah and Reimi... Reimi was certainly missed for Kokabiel and the final boss, but otherwise I think I may have overrated her somewhat in the past? The stat topic kinda taught me there's not much she does that Myuria and Faize-with-real-weapons (and perhaps even Arumat?) can't beyond that extra elemental control. Still that long-range damage niche is one you can never have too many of, and she's the best PC at it for a while. Sarah... I've noted before that generally I think the game gets easier if you use more healers. Even on this playthrough I used her in a few fights (Phantoms because lol AI-controlled fighters there, so I subbed out Edge, and Armaros Manifest I subbed out Faize, and I used her for an underlevelled quick sub-in-and-heal in a few other places, particularly bosses) which says some good things about her, even if she has her problems (no Fast Cast means she falls behind as a healer late).

So yeah. Current plans are to open a bunch of treasure chests for aftergame skills, pick up Fairy Star (though I'm not sure who to give it to), then tackle the Cave of Trials the Seven Stars.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 17, 2013, 06:39:51 PM
No sidequests are missable either, and a skit telling you when a new one opens up.  Does this count as hand holding? Maybe, however, it's better than having to switch to text documents after every major event to make sure I don't miss anything.

Maybe there are no missable in-depth sidequests, but there are plenty of missable small one-scene sub-events that get no warning whatsoever.  Too many people were straight wrong about this and I almost missed the highest sub-event completion because of it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on August 17, 2013, 06:45:19 PM
Ivar deserves everything he gets. Every scene he's in grates on me and takes me out of the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on August 17, 2013, 07:48:44 PM
Nah, I agree with Scar on that. Yeah he makes mistakes but he was being used/manipulated by Alvin and just brushed aside by everyone else especially Milla. He's also only just the same age as Jude (well a year older, 16) and has received a sheltered upbringing. Given his age, well once I found out about that his friction/beef with Jude over Milla made sense to me. Besides he eventually actually does some things to help the party/saves them from some pain albeit in a bumbly sort of way. I mean he did spare/prevent the team from eating (Fezebel Marsh spoilers) Gauis's Mystic Arte for one thing and later took out and managed to get soldiers to stand down during a battle and flew the flying ship Also at the end even Jude says things might have been different if they'd actually taken the time to be nice to him to sit down and have a proper talk explaining just exactly what was going on etc.  Not saying Ivar's completely blameless or anything just the team, especially two characters in particular have a lot to answer for as well.

Not to mention Ivar's no Agria or Muzet =P
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on August 17, 2013, 08:39:39 PM
Oh I'm not even far into the game yet. I just hate the normal Japanese WACKY OVERREACTION body language attempts at humor when it sticks out so badly like that. It's painful to watch at this point.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 17, 2013, 10:00:11 PM
Hey at least Agria's intentionally psychotic that's something right?  No, no it isn't.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on August 17, 2013, 11:53:35 PM
My god, Cosmic Mario's voice is annoying in Super Mario 3D Land. I now hate it more than the baby penguin from SM64 and baby Mario from Yoshi's Island combined.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on August 18, 2013, 04:23:59 AM
Oh I'm not even far into the game yet. I just hate the normal Japanese WACKY OVERREACTION body language attempts at humor when it sticks out so badly like that. It's painful to watch at this point.

Are you implying that there is a time where Japanese body language humor isn't gratingly unfunny and painful to watch? Because that would be a lie.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on August 18, 2013, 05:43:33 AM
It hasn't been too bad in Yakuza 4. Largely because the only chars that do it are ones who are very clearly massive dorks you are supposed to find endearing like a friendly village idiot at best. Or ones you are supposed to want to punch in the face and often get to! The serious characters all avoid that stuff. That's about the only way I can think of it make it not :eyeroll: though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on August 18, 2013, 06:24:11 AM
Oh I'm not even far into the game yet. I just hate the normal Japanese WACKY OVERREACTION body language attempts at humor when it sticks out so badly like that. It's painful to watch at this point.

Are you implying that there is a time where Japanese body language humor isn't gratingly unfunny and painful to watch? Because that would be a lie.

I've seen it happen, but usually the poses are singular, low-key and overlap with ones that exist in other cultures. Like the ol' thumbs up + bright shiny smile

Plus, Isaac and Miria.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 18, 2013, 07:55:46 AM
ToXXX: Beat it two days ago and just cleared out the Bonus Dungeon.  Golden Mage Knight is a douchebag what a surprise.  Watching the Devil Arms unlocking double Jude's Attack Power over his best weapon was worth it.  Will throw down... uhhhh let's say final Jude thoughts later I guess.  Right now is other things time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on August 18, 2013, 10:06:42 PM
inFamous: Second island, saved all my XP for basic Lightning 3.
Bus escort took some resets out of me, intense
Screw Trish, I want more crazy tar Sasha
I think I'm about to go kill the old man who throws cars with his mind
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on August 19, 2013, 01:04:57 AM
Oh I'm not even far into the game yet. I just hate the normal Japanese WACKY OVERREACTION body language attempts at humor when it sticks out so badly like that. It's painful to watch at this point.

Are you implying that there is a time where Japanese body language humor isn't gratingly unfunny and painful to watch? Because that would be a lie.

I've seen it happen, but usually the poses are singular, low-key and overlap with ones that exist in other cultures. Like the ol' thumbs up + bright shiny smile

Plus, Isaac and Miria.

Isaac and Miria just steamroll the world with the overpowering force of their combined stupidity. It is one of the very few instances I can think of where I actually liked the characters who behaved in this manner.

~

Dark Souls: The Bravery of Being Out of Range edition (alternately, the This Is Fenrir's Fault edition).

You know, I always thought bows-only would be one of the harder novelty runs to try, because they seemed like irredeemably low-damage weapons, but I'm actually astonished at how easy they make the game. I've died four times so far:

-Rolled off the church roof trying to dodge gargoyle fire breath.
-Rolled off Darkroot Basin trying to dodge a black knight halberd.
-Ornstein is an armored fucking ninja.
-Lautrec's asshole sorc bro.

It's like a sorcerer run except you can ignore endurance and attunement, so you're doing nothing but pumping your damage stats nonstop. I grabbed the composite bow as soon as it was realistically feasible to do so (post-gargoyles/butterfly, SL26). How have I never used this thing before? It is highly badass. +10 and large arrows = something like 350 attack power for O&S? That is extremely good for midway through the game. I guess like anything else bows just require a properly optimized character. Downside: they're hit and run weapons, not about DPS at all. I do not look forward to being unable to knock Artorias out of his casting animation. Or the Four Kings period. Or the catacombs/Nito because even a +5 divine bow gets me a laughable ~170 attack power, and skellies resist piercing damage. Ow.

Very large ember retrieval is next because bigger numbers.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 19, 2013, 01:46:24 AM
Metal Gear Rising: Monsoon is a stupid, unfun fight that wouldn't have been so bad if not for a few quirks the game has that really don't support a fight like that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on August 19, 2013, 02:52:12 AM

Dark Souls: The Bravery of Being Out of Range edition (alternately, the This Is Fenrir's Fault edition).

You know, I always thought bows-only would be one of the harder novelty runs to try, because they seemed like irredeemably low-damage weapons, but I'm actually astonished at how easy they make the game. I've died four times so far:

-Rolled off the church roof trying to dodge gargoyle fire breath.
-Rolled off Darkroot Basin trying to dodge a black knight halberd.
-Ornstein is an armored fucking ninja.
-Lautrec's asshole sorc bro.


I died like 10 times against Armored Boar & Friends in the Burg.
I'm forever a scrub

Quote
It's like a sorcerer run except you can ignore endurance and attunement, so you're doing nothing but pumping your damage stats nonstop.
Honestly I found sorcerer to be easymode, especially compared to archer.

You need to spend souls on arrows and weapon upgrading. Mages only need to buy fancier spells. I don't really think they need endurance, just
vitality/att/int, and attunement doesn't have to be too high. Archer can go with two stats only but three seems better.

Magic can be considered pretty much unblockable in PVE (while every enemy with a shield easily blocks arrows) and does more damage. Homing Soulmass is a nice bonus, and there are lots of nifty spells like Magic Shield. And you get to turn into an urn.


Tales of Eternia Reid Solo: Beat Volt
Player trolling through weapons got to another level in this dungeon, as you get 2 cool different electricity weapons that obviously can't be used there, but then you get Freaking Excalibur immediately at the end and it's much better than both. So basically those two elec weapons will never get to be useful.

Celsius was the only hard Disc 2 boss so far, until I figured out her pattern.
Reid attacks -> Celsius dodgerolls behind him and smacks his face. (even if he tries to get away, guard or hit her then)
Solution: Reid attacks -> Celsius dodgerolls behind him -> Reid immediately jumps behind her and goes all gravity-ignoring-slapping on her.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on August 19, 2013, 03:08:40 AM
Honestly I found sorcerer to be easymode, especially compared to archer.

Sorcerer is unquestionably easymode; I'm just amazed archer reminded me of it at all. (Everything feels easy to me after Indymode though; the terror of oh god I can't block anything is old news now.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on August 19, 2013, 05:26:57 AM
Beat ToX.  Impression: decent game that failed to excel in pretty much any way whatsoever.  Basically, take everything that is great about ToV and water it down until it's not great anymore and you have ToX.  Except Gaius.  He is probably the best Tales antagonist of the series.  Gaius is what Duke from ToV should have been.

Pros:
Teleporting to anywhere you have been (plot permitting).  So convenient!
Viewing skits and the like in the menus.
In combat, each character can fill a niche or two, and non-controlled characters are more useful than pretty much any other game in the series.
Jude, Milla, and Elise are good characters.  Elise in particular is possibly the most believable little kid I can think of in an RPG.  Rowen and Leia are good but underdeveloped.
Gaius.
Gaius with his shirt off.

Cons:
Where were the costumes?
What, no cameos in the arena?
Boring titles, no in-combat special challenges like ToV had.
Alvin.
Alvin plot.
Alvin sidequest plot.
That one scene (Jude side only).  Where, following Milla's apparent death, Jude goes catatonic and Alvin tries to murder him and Leia.  My god, what a crap piece of writing.  Unquestionably the most dramatic scene in the game - reminds me of TotA at its finest.  Artistically directed, genuinely suspenseful.  But what the characters are doing is just. so. stupid.  So stupid.  And it neatly encapsulates what is so stupid about Alvin plot.  First Muset tells him she'll spare him and send him home if he murders Jude and Leia for her.  Why would she ever do that instead of just murdering him and searching for them?  Because the writers needed to shoehorn in ANOTHER person Alvin could betray the party to is the only answer.  It makes no sense and is out of character for Muset.  Why would he ever believe that she would keep her end of that bargain?
There are plenty of NPCs who need to get punched in the face but for some strange reason pretty much no one ever punches them in the face.
Regarding the theme of the game...on its surface it's similar to ToV in that the message is "trust humanity to make the tough choices and save itself AND nature."  Except that ToX's version of saving humanity is that a Great Man needs to save it, and they're just squabbling over whose vision of humanity - Gaius' or Milla's - wins.  There's no sense that humanity at large has a seat at the table, or even that it should.  Contrast that to ToV, which shows as well as says that humanity has the potential to set aside differences, come together, and do the right thing in a time of crisis.  ToV is uplifting.  ToX is kinda a downer.  And AT THE SAME TIME in ToV everyone who ought to be punched in the face gets punched in the face!

TL;DR ToX is ok, but you should play ToV instead.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 19, 2013, 05:39:38 AM
Pros:
Gaius.
Gaius with his shirt off.

Damn straight.

Cons:
Where were the costumes?

Under the price tag that says $2.99 of course!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on August 19, 2013, 01:59:48 PM
In retrospect Wolverine mode was harder than SL1, Indymode is probably even harder than that thinking about it. The true Dark Souls starts there.
(But trust me fist weapons are terrible)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on August 19, 2013, 10:35:08 PM
Cons:
Where were the costumes?

Under the price tag that says $2.99 of course!

The Dhaos costume worth every penny I paid.
It fits Milla so well, and nothing beats having the uninspring ToX battle theme replaced with Conclusion.
Yes, they use Conclusion, not that subpar Decisive.

BTW, the Leon costume fits Jude so well to that point I was absolutely disgusted and horrified.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on August 19, 2013, 11:45:03 PM
Secret Agent - Played through

I'd only ever played the first episode in my youth, so I got to see the other two. It may not have been worth it!

Pretty much the only new thing in the second and third episodes was a couple of puzzles based on the behaviour of keys (in that picking up a key of the same colour as one you already have causes it to be lost).

Disappointingly you never get to actually fight Dr. No Body.

Reasonably entertaining, I kind of want to replay Crystal Caves now.



Project X Zone - Played through

Strikingly mediocre. Probably most of the problems I had with it have already been gone over by other people.

Not only is it overwhelmingly slow, but it also feels like you're barely ever making any progress, which just compounds that.

It's easily possible that I'm just forgetting everything since it's been a while since I played it, but I currently feel like PXZ actually managed to be more pandering than SRTOGSEF (despite SRTOGSEF having original characters designed for that purpose and PXZ not really having so). It may be due to the battle quotes being transcribed?

Whoever decided on the naming for EP, XP, and EXP needs to be chided.



Shantae - Played through

It's fine-ish?

I wish they had recorded the number of times you'd game overed, because that happened a lot. Mostly due to bottomless pits everywhere. Especially in places like the zombie swamp. I don't think that really works in environments you need to go back and forth through all the time! Especially horribly boring ones like the waterfall area where you constantly need to spend time climbing up and down, and you just want to jump from the top to skip part of the map and oh you fell in a conveniently placed pit and now you need to redo the area from the beginning

The dash attack is useless and appears to exist just to trap you into buying it, seeing as how it's triggered by you holding down the attack/run button without moving. So you're running through an area and jump onto a platform and are waiting for it to move, and then the dash attack finishes charging since you weren't moving. And there's no way to cancel it, or move while it's charged up. So you get to enjoy uncontrollably falling into whatever you were platforming above and starting over, and somehow remembering to unintuitively let go of the run button while you aren't moving.



Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros. - Played through

Pretty great all up. Not as good as Bowser's Inside Story, but that is kind of a high bar to meet.

A little disappointing that so much is brought back from the previous M&L games. Especially hammer crush/bury overworld mechanics, which I think we're all sick of by now.

Also disappointing to see that most of the Pi'illos aren't actual characters. I was hoping for something more along the lines of the slime population from Rocket Slime. Not the case. To be fair most of the population in M&L RPGs aren't actual characters, so I'm not sure why I was hoping for that.

I like the Expert Challenges mechanic, although I didn't manage to complete a good deal of the later ones. Ended up with 829 points, missed 6 Dodge challenges, 3 No Hitter challenges, and 1 Bros. Attack challenge.

What I don't like is the sorting. The default sorting (sorting by order of 'discovery') is fine for earlygame, but it's useless mid-lategame, and the list is always reset to the default sorting whenever you enter. The other sortings aren't that useful either! There's one that puts challenges you haven't beaten at the top, which sounds good, except it includes challenges you haven't 'discovered' yet as part of that, and things are ordered within the 'beaten'/'unbeaten' categories by challenge type, so you end up with heaps of blanks. It's fine at endgame once all of them have been discovered and presumably most beaten...

The music is pretty good, I especially like the boss battle music. Another track that I like, "Dream's Forbidden Depths", is very reminiscent of something but I cannot think of what (it's probably just some old Mario music anyway).

Something I don't like - the motion controls failing during the final giant fight, which caused an unavoidable loss as Luigi just went off in one particular direction regardless of how the console was moved. This was particularly galling as it takes an annoyingly long time to get to that point in the fight to begin with. Happily it didn't happen again the second time I got up to it. The end of that fight was pretty great but still not enough to make up for it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on August 20, 2013, 12:05:24 AM
Leia was awesome in that scene though.

Yeah not sure I understand that either NotMiki, I'm hoping it gets explained in Milla's story or something. Only thing I can think of is Alvin went to Muzet hoping to play her and she in turn was just playing him for the lols, because well toying with people and doing things for amusement doesn't seem out of character for Muzet to me, since she was toying with Jude, etc since she joined in the snow tundra. Basically Alvin was just trying to buy some time for himself trying to find a way to work the situation to his advantage as usual, don't think he really believed her or maybe he just wasn't thinking rationally at all, not sure exactly but I think that time frame along with everything that happened to Milla/the events on the ship and the aftermath is when Alvin's mum finally kicked the bucket either that her condition had seriously deteriorated to death's door then or something. I actually lost the dual to him on Hard mode because I was kicking his ass, had him down to 16'000 HP then bam he hit me with 4000~ HP damage out of nowhere >_> Afterwards he has the chance to finish a helpless Jude and Leia off but instead yells at Jude some about what he's supposed to do, what they are supposed to do, Milla, their missions, etc blah blah blah then fires scream yell fires his gun into the air then takes off, apparently the scene plays out differently if you win with Jude ;o Jude gains badass points or something. Well actually there's an NPC subevent that enforces the idea of Muzet doing things on a whim, so hmm

The writers probably had no idea what they were doing there might also be right probably but really they needed to address the Alvin thing properly and have a proper real confrontation over it, giving the player a satisfying chance to teach Alvin a lesson, I was waiting for that battle all game even if I didn't actually win  :P

**

There are costumes in game! ... For Jude, Milla ... and Alvin >_>
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 20, 2013, 12:12:50 AM
Yes, it does go differently.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on August 20, 2013, 01:24:23 AM
Alvin: WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUR
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on August 20, 2013, 08:46:32 AM
I'm not even a quarter through the game yet, but even if Alvin's entire plotline revolves around killing babies and kicking puppies, he is not undoing the sheer amount of charisma he's putting forth at this early stage. I'm just really skeptical about this.

I'm okay with a mild amount of spoilers, but now I want to know what happens that could have given Jim such a diametrically opposed view towards Alvin. Can you explain it without spoiling the main plot? Character arc spoilers I don't mind.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on August 20, 2013, 02:59:17 PM
Can't go into much detail without main plot spoilarz, so I'll keep it general.  The stuff that makes him dumb has to do with who Alvin is working for, what his motives are, and whether, once you figure out who he is working for and what his motives are, his actions make any sense whatsoever (I am confident that however much you have played you noticed the Alvin has ulterior motives and is working for someone sekrit).  And the party's reaction to it is dumb, which makes the whole thing much worse.  It's just...really forced and overwrought and doesn't need to be.  If they had just pared it back a little it could have been fine, but instead they went overboard with it.  And all of this is compounded by the scene from Jude's plot I mentioned, which I guess is meant to drive home the point that Alvin is not to be trustworthy and chooses a magnificently idiotic way to do so.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on August 20, 2013, 03:06:58 PM
Taste.

Payday 2 - Got this from my brother.  It is pretty good guys if you like 4 player coop shooters (I do clearly from how much I dig Warframe) with leveling mechanics.  It is less pick up and play than Warframe and a lot slower paced, but it fits well with the games I play with my family.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on August 20, 2013, 08:45:51 PM
Saints Row 4- fucking owns. Uses the phrase "don't you understand? He's sacrificing himself to save the world! It's our only chance to say goodbye!" While that fuckin song from Armageddon plays.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 20, 2013, 10:35:18 PM
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance: Completed Hard MOde.  Final Boss is a pain in the ass, so I actually went back on Easy mode, played through the prologue and first mission so I can get 5 Nano Pastes, then went back to fight the Final Boss on Hard Mode.  Turns out that's all I needed.

Seriously, Final Boss is typical Metal Gear fare in the sense of "Everything you've learned to this point is useless; use skills you haven't used at all and learn them on the spot! Have fun!"  So blocking and parrying to punish an attack? Nope, not really useful, he has a lot of unblockables.  Hit and run? Nope, he is invincible.  Blade Mode to slice things? Nope, you have one chance or you take 150% damage (I have health of 180%, so yes, often a OHKO if he hits me ONCE before that).  To top it off, they have a QTE related attack...that you have to parry first to get the full effect of.


Seriously, it's a dumbly designed fight and it's after 2 stupid plot fights beforehand with imprecise conditions (the first is "survive for undetermined amount of time", the 2nd is "let him kill you").  A lot of the game I couldn't tell whose insanity it was, Kojima or Kamiya's, but this is clearly a Kojima thing, as DMC, Bayonetta, Okami, etc. don't pull final bosses of those style.  To be fair, MGS3 was pretty good at avoiding that, since while it had the token final duel, they did let you use all your gear, so you didn't have to CQC your way to victory.



THAT ASIDE, the agme was quite good, and worth playing for anyone who is a fan of DMC style action games.  Plot is surprisingly sane and straight forward too for a Metal Gear game.  In short?

Evil Mercenary Crew is stealing Cyborg Brains to make an army of Cyborg Soldiers, Raiden goes to bust heads.  Learns evil politician is part of this group, and is actually trying to start another war because WAR IS GOOD FOR ECONOMY, by faking a terrorist attack.  Raiden slices things until all the bad guys are dead and we move on.
Nothing really outlandish or ridiculous in that regard.  The Ridiculous stuff exists mind you but it's all style, and not related to substance.  They save it for things like Raiden literally flipping over Metal Gears by the blade, thereby defying the laws of physics, jumping across missiles because Fuck You that's why, etc. 

...ok, all that stuff I can label on Kamiya, because it's all DMC/Bayonetta style insanity.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on August 21, 2013, 12:30:44 AM
@Grefter my kid plays Warframe if you need another person to play with.  Game seems a little dull from me watching it, but he seems to enjoy it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on August 21, 2013, 12:56:37 AM
Sure, I am on as the obvious username.  Laggy plays as well (as do some others in association), so drop him a bell as well.

Edit - OH and RE: Payday 2.  It would be a pretty good game for that group as well, especially if you can get Super in on it.

There isn't friendly fire, but watching Super get lost in a small map and accidentally setting off alarms before you even get close to the target would be pretty great.

++ Cthulhu mask available 10/10 GOTY
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on August 21, 2013, 03:07:35 AM
LFT: Andor theme team!

Gist of team: Black Wizard with Talk skill Elayne, Archer with battle skill (Switched between that and basic, figured battle skill fits better with her as a general) for Birgitte, White Magic with Summon for Nynaeve, Geomancer with Martial arts/punch art for Aviendha and Thief with charge/sing for Thom. (Bard makes more thematic sense and I will use it from time to time, but thief fits his in battle fighting style perfectly)

Haven't had too much trouble till Golgorand, which is beating me down bad.  The team's bad movement skills are really hurting them at this point, and Gafgarion's evasion is giving me fits. Wish I had weapon break for Birgitte.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on August 21, 2013, 03:19:36 AM
For Djinn:

Read Jim's spoilers, but the reason Alvin gets a lot of hate is very similar to the reason why Anise gets a lot of hate from TotA players. Inconsistent motivations and a few mindnumbingly stupid actions.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 21, 2013, 03:41:06 AM
Nothing is as bad as Anise.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on August 21, 2013, 03:56:26 AM
Great, things we have established that Anise is worse than:

The Church of Scientology
Hangovers
Eugenics
Genocide
Arson
Murder
Eugene Levy
Rape
Atrocities commited during war
Nanking, The Rape of
Old people asking for tech support help
NSA spying on every electronic communication in the world
Little bits of popcorn stuck in your teeth
Ivan the Terrible
Naive teenagers posting comments on youtube
Uninformed opinions posted on the internet
Xylophone bands

Yeah everything on this list pretty much pales in comparison to a character from a mediocre PS2 era RPG.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on August 21, 2013, 04:28:37 AM
@ Djinn

Ehhh, Alvin had already established himself as a massive jerk by that stage/the spoiler scene throughout the game various/different ways in other spoiler scenes and that last scene is just the nail in the coffin for some people. For the characters too since by then some of them pretty much hated him and none of them really trusted him. Like he'd kind of p much burned his bridges by then. To be fair he does try to redeem himself later and even at other times through the game there's stuff he does to help. How much he managed to redeem himself endgame depends on how forgiving a player is and/or how sympathetic of his back story they are. I really liked him early game too DJ, the charisma and stuff like his action scenes where he blows stuff up with his gun, etcs so the team could progress was really cool. I had him rocking his swimwear and shades back then/for a while. Now I have him with earrings and a dog collar because >_>

Actually probably because I liked him early that other stuff bothered me a lot later, and had me going dammit Alvin a lot!~

(not to mention the spoiler scene involved my favorite female character of the game/usual main so yeah, CT RAAGE!~)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on August 21, 2013, 04:39:11 AM
Now I have him with earrings and a dog collar because >_>

Sideburns and aviators all the way.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 21, 2013, 02:04:15 PM
Aviators and hat.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on August 21, 2013, 09:18:41 PM
Saint's Row 4-  President Tony Stark performed an exotic dance routine whose formal name is apparently "the Dance of the Wyld Stallyn."  There was an appropriate QTE using the left and right triggers for ass slaps.  Then Keith David and I threw cars at guys and they flew off a bridge.  Game of the Ever.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on August 23, 2013, 01:34:40 AM
Great, things we have established that Anise is worse than:

The Church of Scientology
Hangovers
Eugenics
Genocide
Arson
Murder
Eugene Levy
Rape
Atrocities commited during war
Nanking, The Rape of
Old people asking for tech support help
NSA spying on every electronic communication in the world
Little bits of popcorn stuck in your teeth
Ivan the Terrible
Naive teenagers posting comments on youtube
Uninformed opinions posted on the internet
Xylophone bands

Yeah everything on this list pretty much pales in comparison to a character from a mediocre PS2 era RPG.

Because this is Zenny, I can only assume this is in ascending order of terribleness.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on August 23, 2013, 02:08:50 AM
Sure. Whatever.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on August 23, 2013, 10:48:09 AM
Saint's Row 4-  President Tony Stark performed an exotic dance routine whose formal name is apparently "the Dance of the Wyld Stallyn."  There was an appropriate QTE using the left and right triggers for ass slaps.  Then Keith David and I threw cars at guys and they flew off a bridge.  Game of the Ever.

*Cid checks SR4's cast list*

"Keith David as himself"

I see.

~

Zenny's list of terrible things includes Eugene Levy

What, you've never seen any Christopher Guest movies? That's the only defensible ray of light in Levy's otherwise deplorable career, but damn man, Christopher Guest movies. It's like, hey, even Ivan the Terrible commissioned St. Basil's, right?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on August 23, 2013, 04:30:23 PM
*Cid checks SR4's cast list*

"Keith David as himself"

I see.

SR4 does not shy away from its memes. the most-cited example is probably the voice options when you create your character - Male 1, Male 2, Male 3, Female 1, Female 2, Female 3, and Nolan North.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on August 23, 2013, 04:33:43 PM
*Cid checks SR4's cast list*

"Keith David as himself"

I see.

SR4 does not shy away from its memes. the most-cited example is probably the voice options when you create your character - Male 1, Male 2, Male 3, Female 1, Female 2, Female 3, and Nolan North.

The main joke wrt Keith David is that the trailer first just says "Keith David as..."  He played Julius in SR1 so the assumption is that he's returned to the role. But no, he's playing Vice President Keith David.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on August 23, 2013, 06:03:45 PM
Divekick: I think I'm maining Redacted, Mr. N or Kick. They rule.
I really don't understand any of these jokes but the game's fun and approachable. Unplayable MP on the Vita via wifi though.



ToE Reid Solo:
This got really easy really fast. I'm right before the final dungeon and haven't had trouble in ages.
I went and beat Shadow ASAP and it wasn't even that hard.
Still can't beat the arena though.

I can't believe I didn't share this picture already:

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/34/1377277092-best-man.png)

Look at how ridiculously happy he looks. This is him all the time. His friends are dying, he has a dumb apple shield and he's the happiest guy on Earth.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on August 23, 2013, 07:02:43 PM
That makes a lot of sense.  He's got food and those idiots who keep getting him in trouble finally shut up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on August 23, 2013, 07:44:58 PM
Now go do the Boss Rush with Max Only. It'll be like a Max-only run, only possible.

(seriously, Max is like the coolest person in that cast)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 23, 2013, 07:52:43 PM
YEAH!

ToXic: Instead of making a giant post filled with thoughts I instead beat the Golden Mage Knight Twice more with greater and greater ease.  Then I started Milla's side.  The plot depowerment makes her so pathetically weak she can't even one-shot with her Devil's Arm.  The cutscene with Presa was ugggghhhhhh.  Killed the boss in one Link Chain though.  Yay me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on August 24, 2013, 04:17:04 AM
Fire Emblem 12: Had a copy of this on my laptop at work and a whole night of nothing else to do. Decided to give it a replay. The fan translation of this is awesome. I have a new appreciation for the whole Archanean saga of FE games. FE12 made the story and character almost good!

So for my replay I did a Normal/Classic run with Plot-Important-Only Characters. Might as well give them some time to shine. How am I determining what "Plot Important" is in this game with over 70 recruits? Well, the easiest way was "Do they have lines in any other maps besides the one they are introduced in?". This gives me access to a good combination of awesome units (Caeda, Merric) as well as forces me to use some terrible ones (Yubello, Wendell, most of the Prologue PCs). I also generally decided that if they weren't forced into my party, they probably weren't that important to the plot, so I guess they have to die. (Exceptions: Tiki, arguably the most plot important PC outside of Marth; and Katarina, the only -new- character with any plot worth a damn.)

Also, since it's a Plot-Important run, clearly PCs have to stay in their plot-mandated roles. No reclassing. (This is why I did Normal instead of Hard.)

Oh, how liberating it is to slaughter the useless deadweights in this army. It -does- cut me off from some of the best recruits (the Whitewings, a lot of Marth's former army buddies, and a whole heck of a lot of awesome gear attached to sub-par units).  It was a nice balance of challenge and schadenfreude.

Party:
Marth & Avatar: Obviously had to keep these guys. Went with Male Mercenary->Myrmidon Avatar. Named him Robin. I tried to keep them out of the fray too much once I had a full party so they wouldn't take all the challenge out of Normal.

Luke: Yay, a cavalier! Backbone of the earlygame since I was trying not to abuse Marth and Robin. Ended up replacing him with Sirius eventually.
Rody: Yay, he was useful early on, though fell out of favor quickly. Basically replaced him with Cecille as soon as I had enough units.
Cecille: The best. I wore her headband the entire game. Kept her through to the endgame. Was particularly STR and Luck blessed, so she criticaled a lot.
Ryan: Has enough lines, but I didn't feel like he was even close to plot important enough, so I let him stay dead the second time he ran afoul of axes to the face. No bows in my army, dammit!

Linde: My main source of magic damage for basically the entire first half of the game. Got a ridiculous magic growth. Didn't leave her out of a fight until her Aura tome broke. Eventually my main healer too.
Julian: Well, only two options for Thieves, and Julian's actually a decent front-liner. Also, Rickard died a horrible death and it was awesome. Kept Julian the whole game.
Ogma: Not as awesome as I'd hoped. I used him when there was extra space on the field.
Yumina: A healer! Useful! The first plot-mandated one. Staves are awesome in this game. I kept getting free staves from How's Everyone bonuses, so she got to gain a lot of levels. Kinda wasted most of them though. Had crappy magic and never amounted to much when she could mage.
Yubello: The worst. LVP by a wide margin. In a game where there's a few maps that you really need some good mages, Yubello just disappoints all around. Basically dead weight in every map I tried to use him. Eventually let him die so he'd stop hogging my How's Everyone bonuses from my -good- characters.
Sirius: My main Paladin from the moment I got him. He grows slowly, but it doesn't matter. His stats are perfectly timed for a low-PC run like this. Got a decent amount of How's Everyone bonuses on critical maps, too. Eventually gave him the Gradivus and watched the fun.

Caeda: MVP. No surprises. Flight + dat STR growth + Wing Spear surpremacy. After I got her, I literally would field the extra units just to throw them unarmed at the enemy and watch them die since I knew I wouldn't need them anymore.
Wendell: Not good. Better than Yubello! My backup mage for a few maps before Merric joined, then became a secondary Yumina.
Feena: Okay, she doesn't technically fulfill the requirements for Plot Important, but she's a unique unit type and I just like Dancers. Obviously made things a lot easier. Had a decent STR and DEF growth so she was never dead weight in combat either.
Minerva: More fliers, thank god. Minerva was so much help in keeping people from dying all over the place whenever they would miss. Hauteclere is also awesome. It ended up getting Hammerne'd.

Merric: It was cathartic letting him slaughter Elrean straight up then Rescue staffing him to safety. Best mage in the game for me, almost solo'd the desert map.
Xane: A necessary evil. Xane is an experience sponge, but when you need another Caeda, he can't be beat. Only used him on maps where I needed extra fliers or mages.
Tiki: My cheating concession. Ended up with the third-most kills in my army. She is as good as advertised. I liked giving her the How's Everyone bonds and drops to see her stat numbers get to ridiculous levels.
Katarina: Another cheating concession. I basically ended up doing this because I needed more PCs that didn't suck (fuck off Rody and Ryan). Also, I like her character arc with Robin. She made a great mage and staff user.


Characters I sorely missed:
The other pegasus knights: Jesus christ I didn't realize how much I had depended on those guys.
Malicia: I actually kept her around the whole game in case I wanted to use Hammerne. (spoilers: I did.)
Gordin and/or Jeorge: Or basically anyone who could use a bow. I considered letting either of them be considered plot important because there is a disgusting amount of fliers in FE12 and Wind Tomes are harder to come by. Also, the Parthia~!
Navarre: I considered letting him be plot-important, too. For style points. Also because I like Myrmidons and Ogma/Robin didn't always cut it.
Nagi: It would have been nice to actually have a second Tiki on those final maps, but at least she was nice enough to share her Divinestone.

Collecting all the Star Shards was a royal pain in the ass on this run, though. Damn.
Best part of the whole run was getting How's Everyone bonuses... on PCs I actually wanted to USE! Clearly the game was designed for this kind of full-scale ally slaughter. I also tended to enjoy deploying the useless fodder as meatshields for the early turns of some of the harder maps. I know that technically means I 'used' them, but I'm not gonna let that stand in the way of my enjoyment of a game I beat in like 2 days.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on August 24, 2013, 06:46:38 AM
Happy Wars:  Zephyr came out, crowd control class looks pretty cool and was sorely needed.  About to hit rank 40.

Streetpass Mii Plaza roundup!:

Mii Force:  Still good but frustrating.  I mostly have to go through it with the flamethrower which is terrible because my other 3DS uses a red shirt char.  But changing that would mean not using a red shirt in Find Mii 2.  This appears to be conscious design by the programmers!

Flower Town:  Changed my mind about this one.  It's actually really enjoyable just because it has variety.  You don't just get your watering from guests and then you're done for the day, you can still roam around and do other stuff/shop/do jobs/feng shui it up.  Takes a long time to get going but it pays off well.

Warrior's Way:  And this is objectively terrible.  Almost completely linear.  You get your armies for the day, fight and win or lose there's nothing else to really do.  Upgrading your castle isn't stimulating at all.

Monster Manor:  While designing maps with Tetris blocks never gets old, it's getting a bit stale.  The same problem with red shirt comes up again - I never have to fight anything because you only fight enemies when changing colors of hallways.  Supposedly there are some actual puzzles later on but I have yet to reach them.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on August 24, 2013, 11:39:20 AM
Now go do the Boss Rush with Max Only. It'll be like a Max-only run, only possible.

(seriously, Max is like the coolest person in that cast)

There's a boss rush?
Anyway. Max vs Volt/Rem = lol
Max is definitely the best character but he sounds as unfun to control as one of the mages. And you get him so late.

I "beat" the game (I screwed the Aurora wall thing up but whatever) Nereid was totally ridiculous as expected.
I Rune bottled savories to get to 9999 HPs and beat Cless (With Reverse Dolls). Equipped Cless'stuff/two Warrior Symbols/The Omega Shield (you get that midgame and never ever take it off) and used a Syrup Bottle midbattle for status immunity. Omega demon chaos spam + Lots of jellies.

Megasonic Thrust was my best skill overall. Those lategame skills don't even compare.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on August 24, 2013, 12:47:13 PM
Toki Tori - Played through

Fine.

Beat the hard levels for Forest Falls and Creepy Castle, not going to bother with the ones for Slimy Sewer and Bubble Barrage though. I just don't really find that style of gameplay to be particularly entertaining when things get too complicated.

Kind of annoying that the rewind control is locked out when you start dying, considering that a menu option comes up to rewind after you finish dying anyway.



Duke Nukem 2 - Played through

I'd only ever played the first episode in my youth, so I got to see the other three. It was underwhelming.

The first episode has a lot of variety in levels, the other three - not so much. There are story-based reasons (sparse as they are) for this but that doesn't really ease the pain. Also they didn't seem to care about this when they made the bridge of the spaceship some sort of cave.

The other three episodes also reuse the gimmick levels from the first episode (all episodes have an earthquake level, all episodes have a radar dish level) which cheapens their effect.

I cannot say that I am a fan of the way the rocket chairsledthing thing moves.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on August 24, 2013, 01:22:45 PM
There was a YouTube video of Max Solo Boss Rush so I know it's possible. Just curious how Fenrir might go about it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 24, 2013, 01:51:21 PM
Here's justification for your usage of Tiki:

She plays a notable role in Shadow Dragon AND re-appears in Awakening. Due to that, she's got the most canon appearances of any Fire Emblem game alongside the Peg Knight Trio (who are all in FE2 I believe), and unlike the Peg knights, she actually plays a semi-notable role!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 25, 2013, 09:15:10 AM
Project X Zone - So the current chapter I'm on has like 80 enemies. Meh. Think I'm done with this game until I'm in a situation where I have nothing to play but portables. Wasn't really expecting this to happen after the game's rather promising early stages, the game kinda went to hell when it let maps balloon uncontrollably AND stopped having any missions that weren't "defeat all enemies".


Suikoden 3 - So I started this again. I remember reading that it's a good idea, at some point, to play through each character's Chapter 1-3 in succession to get a stronger feel for their storyline, so that's what I'll be doing. Toying around with some challenge where I use weaker weapons/armour/... magic skill level maybe? than normal.


Star Ocean 4 - Cave of the Seven Stars. Randoms here are certainly a big step up from the final dungeons. Bacchus is the man, though. Black Hole Sphere to stun them for a bit and fill up the rush gauge, then rush combo Galvanic Shock to one-shot one of them, avoid fire and repeat as necessary. Switched from Edge to Sarah because Edge really wasn't offering much special, AI Faize is quite a bit better at not dying than AI Edge. Yes, I'm unironically sticking with Faize as a superior PC to someone.


Final Fantasy V - Decided to try a solo challenge since I was craving more FF5 but want a break from fiesta and normal playthroughs are just crush smash crush. Using Faris primarily because (a) Galuf and Lenna both miss significant chunks, and (b) Faris versus Bartz, c'mon guys this is obvious. Grefters will happy to know I used Galuf until I got Faris though, so he is level 5 while Bartz is 2 and Lenna is 1 (this should help his solo bit in early world 2). Also, extra challenges because I can: (1) no escape, because I'm not a wuss; (2) fight everything in the game, if possible; (3) no Mix because Mix is dumb and overcentralising on a solo; it can do basically anything ST outside damage and I'd rather actually have tradeoffs in my skillset.

Anyway I learned that earlygame FF5 enemy damage is weird, it is largely terrible but the magic tends to hit like four times harder (to the front row). Fortunately most of it isn't used often, turn 2 at the earliest? Just got the water crystal. Quick recap:

Wingraptor - Ohnoes I actually healed against him. Much easier than Moldwynd x3 randoms which can potentially use Aero (~75 damage) on turn 2. (You'll never see this on a non-solo since they're OHKO-bait.)
Karlabos - Hardest fight by far, thus far. Basically he has a 100% paralysis move (shield blocked, 10% shield rate though...) and a ~100% HP-1 move. Paralysis gets him two turns in a row after it's used. Quick, spot how I can lose horribly without being able to do anything in response! Speed differences aren't enough, back row proved essential. Vampire in response to HP-1 or if HP gets too low is the way to go. Vampire is kinda cheap in a solo, I was considering just never using it but I needed it to make this fight sane. Eh, it should fall off soon enough anyway, even a bit of MEvade can fuck you over.
Siren - Monk with Black Magic Lv1. Punch punch, switch to undead, cast fire.
Magissa - Went as pure black mage for this, which probably isn't as safe as blue since I can't outheal Magissa, but fortunately I can outslug her. Put Forza to sleep as soon as he shows up, Frost Rod-boosted Blizzard for the rest of the fight.
Garula - Blue Mage with Black Magic. Use Flash (obtained with Ether from North Mountain) to blind him, then Blizzard away from the back row for a simple victory. If he gets lucky with hitting I could use Vampire, but he doesn't.

Currently level 15, was 7-8 for Karlabos, levels for other things less important.

Guess I'll take a look at beating Shiva (which will involve more Vampire). Jackanapes... well you can't get Level 5 Death on a solo! :( Image + axe Aim or something? Control on a thief (ew 40% hit rate)? We'll see, that's certainly a project for late W1... fortunately there are other places to get an Elven Mantle. [EDIT: Oh wait, if I can get 1000 Needles, then Thief + that = win.] A bit worried about Liquid Flame / Karnak escape but after that it should probably be clean sailing for a while? Could easily be proven wrong.

Classes used so far:
Monk - Inflated by the extra levels obviously, hits like a truck and lots of HP and counters! Recently hit JL2 (the highest I intend to get, for a long time) so I can pass Barehanded around.
Blue Mage - Vampire. And hey, can use shields and do some damage otherwise, and has Flash and stuff. It is by and large easier to learn skills on a solo at least! About to hit JL2, unfortunately 3 is what I really need (for Blue Magic itself)
Black Mage - Has hit JL1. Does damage, casts Sleep on Forza. MP is sorta limited on a solo compared to normal play, extra levels doesn't offset having more sources of damage. Still solid.

No real use for the other jobs yet (Knight, Thief, White Mage). I was hoping Thief might be fast enough to prevent Karlabos from getting two turns in after paralyse but sadly not. I'm pretty indecisive in terms of what to build. Blue 3 and Time 2 seem like must-haves for many bosses in the future, beyond that... I'll just grab what I think I need and we'll see. Summon at some point... probably White but not sure. Control obviously, and Ninja has plenty of good stuff, once I get fire.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on August 25, 2013, 11:09:05 AM
Mm.  Reducing your magic skill levels has the practical effect of making magic weaker (and nigh-unusable outside healing if we're talking default/untrained only) in a game where magic is already relatively at its weakest in the entire series.  More interesting, at least to me, would be reversing that; try doing a no-Blacksmith run perhaps.  My instinct is that the upper half or so of physical characters can function just fine this way, but it still brings the physical/magic balance to something more interesting.  Cooullld be wrong though!

e: heck, in keeping with the idea of weaker armors, maybe just do a no-shop run.  Scavenge gear from treasure chests and such, but otherwise abstain from the blacksmith, armorer, and item shop.  (I'd say use the rune shop, but on the other hand adding that in would just mean you use default runes/can't change rune setups until you recruit Jeane.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 25, 2013, 02:49:34 PM
Dead Rising 2 Case West: Been sitting on this for a while, finally played through it.

It's more of the same for Dead Rising 2, which isn't a bad thing as DR2 is a good game, and hearing Frank's banter as you screw up with Chuck is funny at times.  The chemistry between the two is amusing as well, between Chuck being the whole Cool Action Hero, and Frank being the Smart Ass Jerk whose "been there before", and the two clearly don't like each other, just working together because it's kind of necessary.  Frank can't do it alone, and Chuck needs someone to help him clear his name.

Cliffhanger sequel-bait ending I'm not fond of though, which yes, we know DR3 has been confirmed, but it's not looking...uhh...promising.  Also X1 exclusive so I probably won't ever play it.


Doubt I'll play Off the Record, unless it becomes a "Games With Gold" thing, because while DR2 is good, I can't see spending more money on it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 25, 2013, 06:29:08 PM
Mm. I'd kinda like to at least somewhat preserve character balance, so if I nerf fighters I will nerf mages in some way, too... maybe not as much, but some. Two spell ranks is my kneejerk as a decent tradeoff for no blacksmith, as it should keep things usable. Maybe I should nerf them unevenly. Three for water, one fire fire and earth, two for everything else? Maybe.

Not going to do no shop though, that will just encourage me to grind treasure bosses for armour (and also would encourage annoyances like rotating around my few armours which are way better than the rest). Instead I'll probably do something like "use armour 3 tiers worse than current storeboughts".

edit: oh yeah, the lowered def requirement necessitates a ban on monster PCs and Augustine hahaha. Well I'll use Fubar while he's forced of course. (I can also make an exception for the dogs and then never use them anyway.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on August 26, 2013, 08:18:22 AM
Been doing lotsa gaming, but no posting!

Blue Dragon – The final boss sequence was douchey. Nene was a ridiculous boss who basically makes you want to horde elemental resistance items, and the other bosses were pretty irritating too.

Overall the hard mode is a good hard mode, feels a lot like Eviltype except with the final dungeon expecting side quests to be at least partially done. Definitely would recommend the hard mode to someone who wanted the game with a lot of bite, not to someone who wanted a slightly more challenging version of the original.

Cthulhu Saves the World / Cthulhu's Angels – Played this over a course of a week. Fast and fun. Umi is the best – Cthulhu needs fangirls too. ^_^ Dungeon design sucks ass, though. Not sure the point of Ember. I like that you kill Dacre in CA and that the narrator is the final boss and has lots of punny attack names. Both modes ended with Umi beating people's faces in, though.

Fire Emblem: Awakening : Finished the maingame of another playthrough on Hard Classic. Got all of the kids and I'm working on supports in the aftergame as well as levelling kids. Brady, you suck!

Wild Arms 5 – Finally decided to tackle this. The game feels like it is putting WA2, WA3, and WA4 in a blender and seeing what comes out. The results are mixed, but I'm enjoying the game so far. The gameplay is fundamentally a watered down version of WA4, the map system harkens back to 2, an d the medium system is like 3's. I think my favorite character in the game is Greg, unshockingly; he is the pragmatic one in a team filled with idealistic children. Plus his voice acting is super sexy.

Also, they were right when they said we should never meet our heroes. </Metric>

The RIVALRY motivations range from well duh(Greg) to hilariously stupid(Chuck). Seriously, a hot, rich, and successful guy is macking on a lady that you didn't have the balls to ask out, boo hoo. Carol's voice acting is a thing. Can we just ban children from RPGs altogether, just to be safe? Monowheel is awesome. Puzzles are awesome. Graphics are nice, but the gameplay itself is somewhat lacking.

Suikoden – Finished replay! Lawl to the final boss, Sonya was the best boss in the game. Playing rock/paper/scissors and CHEATING is the best. Game is weird. Beginning is super strong writing wise and the game decays into weirdness. Oh, I guess I did a challenge of the game, not using Water or Wind or Flowing or Cyclone. I mostly just used Mega Medicines for my healing and they were adequate.

Few things:

Pahn, immediately upon me accepting him into my army despite being a traitorous cur stands in my bedroom saying “Where's my food.” Get the fuck out, son.

Translation fail Part 1: There is a line after the Dwarf Village 'said' by Kirkis: “After returning from the dwarf village” which I guess was a tag in the code?

Translation fail Part 2: When you are asked if you want to ride a boat with Tai Ho, the options are:
1. Yes
2. Correction, maybe later.
Viktor, upon seeing Shell Venus, screams “There you are!” Why didn't we see a continuation of this epic rivalry in the second game?

Earth Rune is boss in this game. Two attack spells helps.

Mind control is such a compelling villain motive that TWO of the generals have it. Intriguing!

Forcing party members is no bueno.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn – wtfever ya'll
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 26, 2013, 04:33:36 PM
FF5 Solo - Completed a bunch more.

Shiva - Blue Mage with... something. Flash the Commanders, then Vampire as needed.
Fire Ship - I have a choice, here, between Barehanded or black magic, both are great here... except Poltergeists. Those guys are scary because they can inflict confuse turn 1, null all black magic elements, and have some evasion. Best bet is still to punch them and hope, though.
Liquid Flame - Blue Mage with Black Magic 1. Another fight where Vampire is the hero. Long one because he heals himself, I have to watch for paralysis locks, etc., but the risk of dying is relatively low because of 0 MEvade, I need to get quite unlucky with paralysis.
Karnak escape (2 resets) - Once just involved bungling something with Gigas counters, the other time involved getting all the way to the end and getting hit by Death Claw. PARALYSIS! Ruining my day forever. Anyway, I use Blue Mage with Barehanded here. Barehanded one-shots everyone except Gigases (two-shot) and enemies in the back row. Vampire can repair damage if I'm low on HP. Aera is an important pickup from Gigas, which it fortunately uses 1 turn out of 3. Aera lets me one-shot Sorcerers, who are a bit scary (confuse) and waste time (frog) I don't have, even if they're in the back row, which is nice. Also, I have to beat a Sergeant random at some point, who is accompanied by Cur Nakks... MT OHKO with Aera kills the nakks, but makes the sergeant run. Hit Sergeant with Aera, then MT OHKO everything works. Finally there is Iron Claw. Switch up my setup, Black Mage with whatever. MT Fira kills the dogs, he transforms, hit him with sleep! Then 2HKO with whatever element. Giving him a turn is a 1/3 chance of Death Claw which is the end. I grabbed all the chests.
Dhorme Chimera - Yay Aqua Rake.
Library - I'm Level 21 here, thankfully not 20. Anyway these battles aren't too hard, I'm more concerned with gaining job levels than specific strategies. The weakest setup I have that deals with them is Beastmaster + Blue (if I need healing) or Time (if I don't). Time is a bit stronger since the only way to die here is to be hit by slow (page 128) then berserk (page 256), and hasting self offsets that. Main Gauche + Elf Mantle makes enemies unhappy.
Ifrit - Liquid Flame version Easymode. Black Mage with Time 2. Haste self, Slow him, 3HKO with Blizzara.
Byblos - I can 3HKO him too, but the counters could mess me up so I don't. Time Mage + Blue is the safest thing here. Vampire won't always hit, but his damage isn't so great and it hits often enough. Haste/Slow to turn things my way, Vampire when needed, otherwise Gravity until he's in range of death from 130 damage Goblin Punch aw yeah.

Jobs so far:

Blue Mage - Unshockingly the most crucial job. If I did this again I would probably try to go without using Vampire. As mentioned before it should get less overcentralising as time goes on. Anyway using it for the entire Karnak escape sequence helped me hit Job Level 3, so I have Blue.
Time Mage - Haste is awesome in a solo, pays off in any battle you plan to get 3 or more actions in. Slow is great too of course. Hit JL 2 in this so I have both those spells.
Monk - JL2, for Barehanded.
Black Mage - JL1. Good place to switch into to have loads of damage, though... the best at this point.
Beastmaster - JL1. Working on Control now. Uh not much else to say about it, physicals aren't complete garbage with Main Gauche though (whip physical kinda is, sadly).

No other jobs used yet, not even White/Red/Summon/Ninja.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 26, 2013, 04:58:10 PM
Mother 3: Just beat the Mechanical Gorilla.

This game is behind its time in terms of basic mechanics, polish, etc.  Its barely improved from Earthbound in this regard, just in Earthbound's case, this was the norm.  Mother 3, its a 2006 jRPG, there's really little excuse.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on August 26, 2013, 06:25:03 PM
LFT- Chapter 3! I'm at Goland, getting my ass kicked around the freaking block. Olan keeps getting killed on the second turn before I can reach him.  >_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on August 26, 2013, 10:08:55 PM
Laggy Fantasy: Tactics are Magic: Up through Dorter2. Been having some trouble as my team has next to no offense, but I'm powering through. Getting Invite on Fluttershy has been quite helpful, as it swings fights pretty dramatically.

War of the Lions translation is awful. While it does clear up some scenes and actually improve on a couple of them, the Ye Olde Englishe being jacked up to 11 turns quite a bit of the game unintentionally comical. Argath is a laugh a minute.

Rayman Legends Demo: Fucking fantastic. Ash and I had a blast with this.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 26, 2013, 11:06:38 PM
FFT is such a great game. It has two vastly different translations. How they both managed to suck, I'll never understand.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on August 26, 2013, 11:23:37 PM
It seriously is pretty impressive to manage to get a complete retranslation and STILL FUCK IT UP.

Also, the fact that they do ye olde englishe and then throw in a spoony bard reference. Seriously.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 26, 2013, 11:28:52 PM
Simple really...

FFT's original translation is like a lot of early PS1 Translations: It's lazy, bad and people didn't bother to care toher than "does this resemble English?"  This leads to hilarious mistakes!

FFT War of the Lions translation wanted to be as different from FFT's as possible, so went with the "WE MUST SOUND AS IMPRESSIVE AS POSSIBLE!"  This led to, well, what Andrew said.  Also they love to use "Th" over "S" a lot.  Argath is probably the best (worst?) example of that.


That's a problem with a number of retranslations Square-Enix had around that time.  While they are more accurate, they often come off as being written with that "we must impress you" mindset.

FF4DS comes to mind for this, compared to FF4a (and possibly FF4 PSP...I think that version is just the GBA script with adding in some FF4DS terminology like Eidolon and Feymarch.)  I remember looking at two examples from both translations.  They were the same line of dialog in the corresponding scenes.  FF4a was straight forward, to the point, and sounded like normal English.  FF4DS said the same thing in twice as many words, and it sounded way too wordy.

...it's like they gave the translation to me and didn't have someone hit me anytime I was being anything but concise.


TO BE FAIR:
Having a profound, wordy style dialog for specific characters is fine if you want a specific speech pattern from them.  At least then you're giving them an extra character trait to try and help sell their character.  Just FF4DS and FFTWotL did this with EVERY character, so that clearly wasn't the purpose. 
In FFTWotL's case, at first I thought "Oh, they're all nobles or had noble upbringings" and that's what they were aiming at.  That is until Mustadio, a commoner, spoke in a very similar style, at which point I just realized the guys were, well...again, see Andrew.


(That said, FF5a definitely got the whole "Translate and put actual effort into writing" thing down right.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on August 27, 2013, 03:34:27 AM
WotL translation at least falls under "overdone atmosphere" instead of "Nobody involved spoke fluent English." I was able to suspend disbelief for the new script a lot more easily than the old one, just because it felt intentional.

But yes, FF5a reigns supreme among retranslations.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on August 27, 2013, 04:13:42 AM
Tales of Xillia: Finished (Jude Main).

In short, this is one of (if not the) best Tales game for gameplay, but one with a mediocre story/character cohesion along with an inferior soundtrack.

Gameplay: Tales of Xillia's combat system is good due to depth. You have the basic combo system, which allows you to blow through TP fastfastfast to deal lots of damage or pace yourself to keep your resources at the same level. Since you regen TP through regular attacks there is incentive to mix in regular physicals with Artes unless you just want something dead. The game's Link system works very well, providing you with the means to mix PC's passive skills and healing while tapping into some awesome combo artes. Want more HP? Link with Alvin. Want to halve your TP costs? Link with Elize. Want to steal stuff? Link with Leia. The drawback is that you share inflicted status, but that only matters for a handful of big battles. The game features auto-items that you can turn on and off (as well as setting what situations call for item use), and you can swap the auto-items on/off for the whole party with two button presses. Swapping PC's in/out is fast, easy, and encouraged by the game's design.

The character growth system is a lot of fun. You have a hexagon representing the 6 stats. You expand the hexagon by taking certain points (each representing stat gains) within it. If you take enough points to 'enclose' a space you get a new skill for it. The hexagon starts out small but when you 'enclose' the 3 of the 6 outer layers it expands. You can push out and expand ASAP to unlock the more powerful outer nodes and skills, or you can develop evenly. You start out gaining 3 GP per level, then 4, then 5, then 4, then 3, and finally 2 in the 60s-L99. So basically you can complete MOST of the boards by endgame but some selection will be left undone.

Every PC has Skill Points as a stat. They can equip passive skills to the point where the sum costs of those skills equals their Skill Point stat. This keeps you from grabbing too many skills at once and lets you tailor your playstyle to how you like..

Character balance is good.

Jude is a hyperfast main character who excels at getting out of the way of attacks. His damage output is respectable. He has some healing skills that affect an area but no revival. Mostly he's just CRAZY fast. I think of Guy from TotA but the speed just makes a mockery of that. The guy can practically teleport. Oh he can do that too if he backstep dodges an enemy, as it teleports him behind them for bonus crit rate and immunization against further strikes in their combo.

Milla is a fighter/mage hybrid with some aerial gimmicks. Not much for raw damage but good at tying up lots of enemies. I was actually unimpressed with her, truth be told. Her durability isn't anything special (it's bad without a particular skill to reduce damage by 30%). Her damage is lackluster... Maybe I misued her but there you go.

Alvin hits things like a god damn truck. He also soaks up physical punishment really really well since he gets +25% Pdef (loses some MDef but Mdef doesn't matter too often). And he has some great ranged attacks. Variable Trigger is so good it's almost broken since it hits a line, deals lots of damage, and is fast. The Charge mechanic just makes the damage that much better.

Elize is a ridiculously good healer. Spells are really fast (and the lag time is cooldown, not windup), TP eventually becomes a non-issue, she heals areas for a good deal more than most Tales healers, she has a very spammable Auto-revive move, ressurection, an MT status healing move that adds status invulnerability... just a fountain of heals. Her Healer AI is very good as it keeps tabs on when to spam area healing and when to do the auto-revive/ressurect other party members. Her attack magic is excellent crowd control that concentrates enemies into an area. She has some defensive skills like Auto-Medicine that make her surprisingly tanky since it's a 15% chance to heal 30% HP... doesn't sound like much until you remember just how multi-hit the game can be and suddenly her durability is a lot higher than it looks. As a side note, her ultimate passive skill is an OPB auto-rez. That is not in fact OPB. It refreshes anytime you switch her in/out. Faster than casting Revive on herself even. Especially nice since everyone uses skills that make revival full HP/TP restoration. Oh yeah she has a unique skill that triples her exp in a fight that is long and has her healing a lot. Like boss battles. Where most of your exp comes from.

Leia is a solid healer (mostly revival, some ST healing) and fighter. Stealing is essential in some boss fights on Hard (they heal themselves with items otherwise!). Her aerial hijinks can be a lot of fun. Her Item skills are wonderful. You may as well just set her to be the auto-item user and lelet her make the best use of items to keep your party in tip-top shape. Rather tanky to boot. Not bad at all!

Rowen is like Rita Mordio with less damage. He can put out lots of fast area spells, and gets better at it as the game goes on. Elemental options abound and he ties up enemies very nicely even before he puts together his good magic combo skill repetoire. His Binding Chains move gathers an entire enemy field into one area.

In terms of in-game usefulness, I think Elize/Alvin (heals/damage) and Leia/Jude (for the same reason mostly) work best. But you can swap party members in/out as you see fit and everyone gains full exp.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 27, 2013, 05:34:23 AM
I think my favorite pointless thing about Jude is getting the skill that gives his front-steps damage combined with the skill that removes the AC cost of back/front-steps.  ENDLESS COMBO.

I can't get into the swing of Milla either--generally because I'm just plowing through with the Devil's Arms and killing everything in seconds is the exact thing you don't want to do to learn a melee moves.  But from what little I've read--IMMA EXPERT NOW--you need to get Milla into the air so you can have happy fun times doing melee or magic.

Alvin just blooms so late.  Speed Charge is such a goddamn boon but you can't get it until like 50.  At least proper maintenance of his charges means you have the best glory.  Then again Variable Blast all day every day no one gets near you that isn't a boss.

Never knew switching Elize in/out refreshed Angel's Cry.  Mainly because buwhy is she out of the party in the first place.  Auto-Medicine I swear is actually wrong in its % chance.  I literally couldn't die in the Arena because it just kept going off.  Watching Negative Gate go off in less than a second is glorious though.

Rowen is just too screwed by AI.  It will not uses Arte Tuning at all which really cuts into his damn power.  A full barrage of Fireballs will ruthlessly butcher the Advanced Single Boss in the Coliseum but the AI will never make use of it or anything because standing around like an idiot is a better idea somehow.

Leia has a skill that KOs her when her link partner dies, but the partner gets full HP/TP.  It costs 8 SP.  It is known as the worst skill in the game.  Minimum Damage has more freaking uses god damn.

Anyway that was my party as well for fighting the Golden Mage Knight.  Jude/Leia brought on the pain while Alvin kept whatever he could busy to screen Elize while she did her healing/revive.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on August 27, 2013, 08:50:35 AM
But yes, FF5a reigns supreme among retranslations.

FF5a's script is less a retranslation and more a full rewrite, isn't it? I seem to recall the localization team got tons of leeway with the text.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 27, 2013, 04:21:37 PM
FF5a kept the basic text the same, but added in actual writing quality to make the text not dull, adding in mostly a large amount of comic relief.  Supposedly, the actual FF5 Japanese script is a lot more similar in tone to FF5a's than the other English ones, being more humor toned and light hearted, albeit the style of humor is significantly different (more satirical and less gag-based)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 27, 2013, 07:38:37 PM
Uh no, Rob's correct. The tone of FF5j is similar to, y'know, the three translations we saw previous to FF5a's which all had a very consistent tone. Which is to say it has some humourous moments, but satire it is not. What on earth would it be satirising? Story-heavy RPGs barely existed then. I have multiple Japanese-speaking friends who have played FF5 in its original Japanese and neither described the script as funny (the terms I recall run more along the lines of "crap" but it has been years since I talked to either about it <.<). If you compare the scripts of FF5a and other FF5 editions side-by-side you can clearly see where FF5a completely rewrote things in a way not at all similar to the original, in order to be more humourous.

FF5a basically had a freedom to completely gut the existing game's tone, probably because the English-speaking world had no attachment to the story it was trying to tell. If Square Enix NA had done that with FF6 or FFT or probably even FF4 there would be an uproar from fans, but FF5 was in a unique position where only a tiny minority of people in North America/Europe/etc. had played the game when they might form an emotional attachment to the story (plus, let's be honest, it's a bad script for encouraging emotional attachments), so they were free to rework it into something people would actually find appealing without pissing many people off.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on August 27, 2013, 08:36:27 PM
I'm with the Elf-Rob alliance on this one.  I think we've been over this before, but your theory that FF5 was originally supposed to be humorous / satirical / something doesn't seem to fly from what I know of the story, either.  It was just really generic.  Now, luckily for us, it turns out that if you do want to interject random humor, it's easy to do this on a generic quest-to-save-the-world skeleton, but that doesn't mean it was there originally.  To wildly guess, I'd suspect that FF5's script was written by big fans of FF3j's plot, since there are a number of similarities (multiple worlds, 2 sets of 4 destined warriors, evil plan to return everything to void), but decided they should incorporate some of FF4's innovations, so we'll have Exdeath actually show up sooner than the final dungeon to taunt the party a la Golbez, and we'll need some tragic death / sacrifice thing too, but from an old guy so it's okay (Tellah / Galuf).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on August 27, 2013, 08:48:04 PM
I will echo the skepticism with respect to FF5 original having a satirical script. Most of its crap feels inevitable to be played straight.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on August 27, 2013, 09:27:53 PM
Given the overall plot arc of FFV (elemental crystals, interdimensional meteor rocketships, chosen heroes save world from evil tree), lighthearted humor was the right decision for the script and I don't particularly care who made it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on August 27, 2013, 09:42:17 PM
I'm with the Elf-Rob alliance on this one.  I think we've been over this before, but your theory that FF5 was originally supposed to be humorous / satirical / something doesn't seem to fly from what I know of the story, either.  It was just really generic.  Now, luckily for us, it turns out that if you do want to interject random humor, it's easy to do this on a generic quest-to-save-the-world skeleton, but that doesn't mean it was there originally.  To wildly guess, I'd suspect that FF5's script was written by big fans of FF3j's plot, since there are a number of similarities (multiple worlds, 2 sets of 4 destined warriors, evil plan to return everything to void), but decided they should incorporate some of FF4's innovations, so we'll have Exdeath actually show up sooner than the final dungeon to taunt the party a la Golbez, and we'll need some tragic death / sacrifice thing too, but from an old guy so it's okay (Tellah / Galuf).

I'm with the Elf-Rob alliance on this one.

Elf-Rob alliance

White is black, left is right, up is quatloo. I don't know this world anymore.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on August 27, 2013, 10:37:05 PM
Mana Khemia 2 - Restarted this awhile back since I never got around to beating it. Working my way through slowly, just beat the most annoyingly tanky boss outside of a BoF game in the form of a gigantic buffalo pig thing with a satellite missile launcher. Took nearly no damage from anything I did outside of crits and YUN AND ENNA'S BASIC PHYSICALS(those hit weakness for some reason while their techs did not). And that was after busting it's defense, too. Unite Mode activating 4 times in one fight, kind of a thing.

FE13: Must...grind...all...the...supports.... I think I have a problem.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on August 27, 2013, 10:42:10 PM
Buffacow has this thing where it has something like 80% reduction against the first three or four hits in a chain, it's kind of absurd without unite mode.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on August 27, 2013, 11:38:56 PM
Boarpoppressor, hating your guts since 2009.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 28, 2013, 08:36:39 PM
FF5 Solo continues.

So I get the Fire Ship. I realise I can't reliably survive Skull Eaters yet (they go first and can do ~800 to the back row), at least not with any job which can kill them, so we'll put Jacohl aside. Off to Istory instead! I get into a fight with Ramuh, lose because he pulls out a decent damage move I didn't know he had (only decent, so I'd have been fine if I stayed healed). Fine. I opt for Time/Barehanded to deal with him quickly and effectively. And of course I instead get into a fight with Mini Dragons.

Mini Dragons - 1000 HP, good defences, and their damage can add up. This is a long, long, long slog for my setup, which pretty much has to retreat to the back row, haste, heal, and tank. Gravity does help cutting them down at least.

After that fight takes ages, I opt for something more aggressive in case I fight them again. Ninja with Time it is! I'll throw crap at them if need be.

Ramuh - Not much to say here, Haste/Slow, just attack for a while. Ramuh kinda sucks outside his rare Thundara.
Sandworm - Aqua Breath to the FACE. This goes for most of the desert as well.
Crayclaw - Black Mage. Actually not a *complete* joke, he goes first and uses Tailscrew! I have to use a Hi-Potion since I'm in a non-healing class. 2HKO him though. If I'd gone with Red I could have saved a resource, but eh, Black Mage AP more valuable.
Adamantoise - Red with Time. Adamantoise is a fair bit tougher than Crayclaw so he gets the more serious setup. With this I can do everything: haste, slow, protect, healing, and Blzzara to actually do decent damage. The only W1 boss which Vampire completely sucks against, for the record.
Rocket Launchers - So surprise, these guys are actually a pain! I go with Summoner + Learning so that I can 2HKO them while learning Missile. That's not important though. What is important is that they have Rocket Punch, which confuses. And lots, and lots of gravity, and no physicals to unconfuse you. So yeah, easy to hit yourself fatally here. Going barehanded instead of using a Thunder Rod is actually a bit safer. In hindsight I should just have used a staff-using class, since Heal Staff lols at confuse.
Flamethrowers - Another new blue magic, another formation MT 2HKOed by Ramuh. These guys have decent offence but are easy enough to outslug.
Soul Cannon - Ninja with some magic skillset. The key here is OHKOing the Launchers before they use Old, and a scroll does just that. Thunder Scrolls the rest of the way, using Vampire to heal. In hindsight I should have used Haste/Slow since there's no way he'd even be at any risk of firing a second shot with those, and I could have saved a bit of money. No big, though.

Ronka Ruins as the only major dungeon of the arc, definitely deserve some note. I mostly work on learning Control here, with Blue Magic if I get into trouble. Missile helps for cutting through higher HP, Flame Thrower on enemies with high def, otherwise Main Gauche Goblin Punch all day long. Aqua Breath if I face five enemies at once. Not too bad. Once I'm done getting Control I switch to Summoner for some very easy sweeping, as nearly everything here is one-rounded by either Shiva or Ramuh.

Ghidra - Oh hey, I have a use for Phoenix Downs on this challenge. Bye. I'm even Level 28 at the end of Ronka, so I get Level 4 Graviga.

Archeoavis - Time and Blue. Missile cuts through a couple forms, Flame Thrower/Aera most of the rest. Last form and its element spoiling just eats chippy Goblin Punch death, but with the Heal Staff, Haste, Regen, and Slow, I'm not in much danger other than a scary moment or two with confuse (which still isn't that bad).

Okay, world 1 wrapup time.

Skull Eaters - Now that I have over 800 HP as a Ninja, I take these guys and their stupid cave down. They go first, sometimes they run, sometimes they miss. I actually never do get hit but it doesn't matter! Scrolls OHKO them.
Prototype - Control. zzz.
Jackanapes - Control actually doesn't work here, so much for that. So Ninja, OHKO them with Shuriken. Feels like a waste but I probably wasn't going to use those Shuriken on anything else so whatever. I kill four of them and grab the treasure.

Titan (1 reset) - Haha I screw this up, attack him just as he's getting a turn where he decides to use Earth Shaker, and two of those in a row kill me! Aside from that dumb mistake this guy's not too hard, since ES is nowhere near the high 2HKO it often is at normal levels.
Manticore - Pretty easy. Punch it to death with Barehanded White Mage.
Purobulos - Summoner. Titan. Smash. They counter Titan by healing themselves but it so doesn't ward off the 2HKO. Important to blitz these guys because they can Self-Destruct turn 2.

So off to world 2!

Solo Level 5 Galuf! Not too bad, enemies fail to OHKO him even now. Throw takes out the randoms, one shot of gravity takes out Gilgamesh. I do have one reset here because I job change to Time Mage a few steps early, run into a random, and get slowly beaten down. The fact that I almost win is a little depressing.

Big Bridge enemies largely roll over and die to Ramuh. Gilgamesh is tougher and demands an actual setup, so Red with Time again. As with Adamantoise, having a full skillset like this is pretty potent: Haste/Slow/Regen/Protect, healing, and -ara spells for offence. It's quite bad offence once he uses Protect/Shell (Haste is countered by using Slow again) but it suffices.

And that's where I am now!

Job update:

Blue Mage - JL3. Blue Magic remains great for Vampire, Missile, Flame Thrower, Goblin Punch, Aqua Breath, etc.
Summoner - JL2. Picked this up mainly in Ronka, it's a great skillset obviously, MT mowing things down for the win. Throw might be even better but it has a prohibitive JP investment.
Ninja - JL2. I haven't used its abilities, but Throw is nice, see above.
Monk - JL2. Still all about Barehanded. Great ST damage if things don't spoil it, Summon mows things down faster and from the back row though.
Time - JL2. Haste/Slow yep. Regen has gotten some use! As a carrier, also has Gravity.
Black - JL2. Working on this one quietly in the background although it's lost much of its luster outside a few fights.
Beastmaster - JL2. Control! So far only used for specific fights, but it may see broader use once I get the Hypno Crown.
White - JL1. My current project, as there will come a time when Curaga is by far the best healing and Shell/Image will also be welcome.

Still haven't used: Knight, Thief, Mystic Knight, Berserker, Geomancer, Bard, Ranger, any earth job.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on August 28, 2013, 09:27:23 PM
SR4: The president of America is French.

Also I'm just gonna go ahead and assume Rob rocks the Captain's Pistol at all times.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on August 29, 2013, 01:47:33 AM
SR4: The president of America is French.

Also I'm just gonna go ahead and assume Rob rocks the Captain's Pistol at all times.

No, the President of the United States is British.  Although if you use the Nolan North voice he makes it very clear that your character is now named Nolan North and there is no way around it.

My weapon loadout:
-New Ratstick!  You can bash up a whole bunch of rats with just one quick strike, that way it's more humane
-Han Solo pistols (sorry, the Heavy Pistol is shit and I'm more of a puckish rogue than a disgruntled outlaw)
-Robocop pistols that shoot FUCKING LIGHTNING BULLETS
-Silenced shotgun painted like the motherfucking flag
-Starship Troopers assault rifle because the Verhoeven connection with Robocop.  Would you like to know more?
-Guitar Case Rocket Launcher
-MURICA! gun

Speaking of voices, my friend found out if you take Female Voice 3 and lower the pitch down to about -30 it sounds almost exactly like Michael Jackson after he got all weird.\
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on August 29, 2013, 02:31:01 AM
Yeah, I wanted to use Deckard's gun, but it was just too fucking slow. Star Wars blasters all the way. (Although, my standard method for dealing with almost anything is the same as it was in SR3: unload SMG or shotgun into a car near the enemies so it explodes and kills all of them without me having to aim at them individually.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on August 29, 2013, 03:03:45 AM
SR4: The president of America is French.

Also I'm just gonna go ahead and assume Rob rocks the Captain's Pistol at all times.

No, the President of the United States is British.  Although if you use the Nolan North voice he makes it very clear that your character is now named Nolan North and there is no way around it.

My weapon loadout:
-Starship Troopers assault rifle because the Verhoeven connection with Robocop.  Would you like to know more?

Oh fuck really!?  Morita morita morita!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 29, 2013, 03:54:13 AM
Mother 3: Just did the 5th Needle Thing.

Haven't finished the game yet, but because it's on my mind, I'll let this off my chest now:

The game's humor is extremely hit or miss, and usually misses.  Mixoypale's or whatever solution to recovering you from hallucinations?  That was funny!  Simple, yet effective considering.

Masked Man having an elaborate red carpet appearance before zapping your team?  That's not funny.  It's just an over drawn cutscene that comes off as "LAUGH AT THIS! IT'S FUNNY! SEE!? I'M FUNNY ;_;" combined with a Manos moment of the team just standing there while the entire thing is happening rather than, you know, Lucas grabbing the darn thing.   This is the "Movie" Movie style way of parodying things; that making it overblown and hyper-silly is automatically funny for a parody.

Then you return to the beach, seeing Bronson, who apparently hasn't moved an inch, being entirely brown.  That's...actually kind of cute, because it is a legitimate parody of things that jRPGs have, while not bringing too much attention to itself.

The part that gets me most is how Mother 3 had some strong serious stuff early on, but then went "wait, right, Earthbound sequel" and is forcing out any silly ridiculous thing it can think of in hopes to remind us "THIS IS A FUNNY GAME!" but at the same time wants you to take it seriously.  It's biggest weakness is easily the thing that people were hyped up most about:

It's an Earthbound sequel.  Nothing against Earthbound, but because it is one, not only does it get compared directly to it, it shows an obligation to follow in Earthbound's foot steps, but not actually grasping what made Earthbound worked.

Another thing that made Earthbound work was WHEN the game was made.  In the SNES era, a lot of the silly things Earthbound was making fun of were the norm.  Few jRPGS had taken notable steps forward in the form of narrative,  and they were all fairly recent ones, so the era it was making fun of was still fresh in their minds.  It's very much a product of it's time.

Mother 3 is trying to parody a lot of the same things...during the PS2 era, when the genre has moved on notably in terms of story telling, narrative, character works, etc., and a Satire-style parody just doesn't work when the rest of the Genre is like "Yeah, we get it...that's why we don't do these things anymore..."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on August 29, 2013, 04:50:04 AM
Yeah, I wanted to use Deckard's gun, but it was just too fucking slow. Star Wars blasters all the way. (Although, my standard method for dealing with almost anything is the same as it was in SR3: unload SMG or shotgun into a car near the enemies so it explodes and kills all of them without me having to aim at them individually.)

How far in are you?  Where Saints Row IV is going, you won't need cars... TO KILL.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on August 29, 2013, 10:15:42 AM
Fire Emblem Awakening: AKA The one where everyone is "quirky".

So I finally got around to picking this up again, and have gotten far enough in to be intrigued. The plot isn't bad and the game is good about not trying to play up any TWISTs or Mystaries. It just drops the hammer immediately instead of trying the string the player along as if they couldn't figure it out in the first cutscene plot threads pop up in.

Holy crap the entire cast is nuts. I'm not sure if I love it or if I'm annoyed by it. Good writing but damn.

If you ignore supports, the game plays it pretty straight, but there's also no character development. I thin I can literally count on one hand the number of pcs who speak in plot outside their recruitment scene.

Seriously, Ricken should not be the most sane person in my army.

Of the PCs I have so far, I think I'd rate thee sanity levels like:
Stahl, Ricken
Chrom
Robin
Virion
-gap-
Frederick
Maribelle
Sully, Miriel
Donnel, Kellam, Vaike
-gap-
Lon'qu
Lissa
Sumia

Everyone has some supports that round them out a bit, but there's an impressive amount of crazy in there
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on August 29, 2013, 11:05:19 AM
Yeah, I wanted to use Deckard's gun, but it was just too fucking slow. Star Wars blasters all the way. (Although, my standard method for dealing with almost anything is the same as it was in SR3: unload SMG or shotgun into a car near the enemies so it explodes and kills all of them without me having to aim at them individually.)

How far in are you?  Where Saints Row IV is going, you won't need cars... TO KILL.

I only did the first few plot missions before getting caught up in oh god so many collectibles, so I've mostly just been running around at random doing side missions. I have the freeze superpower, but that's it for the crazy stuff so far.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 29, 2013, 01:35:17 PM
Quote
If you ignore supports, the game plays it pretty straight, but there's also no character development. I thin I can literally count on one hand the number of pcs who speak in plot outside their recruitment scene.

To be fair,  FE games are like this regularly.  FE7 characters are kind of stale (outside of some Lyn-Mode stuff) without supports.

That said, the average FE13 support is far zanier than the previous games, so I guess it stands out more as a contrast to the main plot.  The characters in question also are just quirkier and thus more memorable, leading it to more interesting sequences on top of that.  It's kind of a necessity for a game like Fire Emblem with Perma-deaths, to avoid situations of "Wait what if this character died in a previous chapter? They can't participate here!"  FFT is another example in that regard, where whenever someone joins your party, it's sort of the game also going "And they will never get a (required) cut-scene ever again!" 

Supports were pretty much a tool implemented to try and fill the gaping void of character development outside of a core like 4 characters FE Games prior 6 had, with gameplay benefits to give you that extra incentive.  Ok, FE10 supports sucked ass, but they had plenty of fun info Sessions that were functionally supports anyway, so that worked well enough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on August 29, 2013, 05:22:46 PM
Speaking of which, I softmodded my Wii in large part so I can play FE9 without spending sixty dollars on it. Finished chapter 9 this morning, after something like six resets because Hard mode has a bunch of reinforcements and I am terrible at keeping fragile characters away from the odd myrmidon. Boyd has been my most surprising good character; he started out completely terrible and I considered just letting him die on the escape-the-fort chapter (took a bunch of resets and a Speedwing to get him out alive), but now he wrecks everything, doubles almost everything, dodges a lot and is impossible to kill unless I'm dumb and send him up against four enemies without healing him first.

Titania is oddly good too. The sheer volume of enemies, plus the fact that she auto-deploys in every chapter, led me to actually use her as something other than a panic button, leading her to eventually gain a level. Specifically, a seven-stat level (no RES). Either she's better than your average Jeigan or I guess that was all my RNG luck for the entire game.

Oscar is the suckiest cavalier I've seen in a long while, though. Level 13 and he's got less STR than Mia the weak-but-dodgy Myrmidon, who is L8. And he has no STR supports. But i keep him around because nobody else can use spears. Boooooo. (note: this game marks the first time I have ever given a shit about FE supports since the conditions for learning them are finally sane. Good job, IS.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 29, 2013, 05:49:54 PM
Yay~

Titania is indeed better than your average jeigan. Seven stats is still an anomaly of course, but you can expect 4 pretty regularly.

Oscar is really damn good on average, probably the best PC in the game! Really good average stats, and due to supports and the knight ward he is impossible to RNG-screw on durability or speed! The only one possible is... strength. :( So if he has less strength than Mia you can safely drop him as you pick up other useful lance-users (did you get Marcia?).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on August 29, 2013, 05:55:22 PM
Titania is one of the best PC's in the game, yeah. Also you got unlucky on Oscar. He's really tanky. STR is a bit of a problem as you noted, but he usually is so durable that it doesn't matter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on August 29, 2013, 05:58:28 PM
Oscar is still pretty tanky - not as much so as Titania or whatshisname the knight, but not that far behind them. I've put enough experience into him that I may just get him to Paladin and convert him into a tanky, mounted archer.

Plus now that I've got bonus EXP to play with I can save-scum for STR levels.

(I did get Marcia but am wary of making any pegasus knight my sole lance-user until I get the accessory that cancels weaknesses.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 29, 2013, 06:12:01 PM
For what it's worth arrow weakness is only 2x might in this game. (They're also weak to wind but... wind tomes are piss weak so 2x barely matters there.) Still I understand that logic.

You'll get another non-flying lance user (two of them, in fact) after finishing chapter 10.

For Oscar, if you do promote him, bows are fine, but you might also want to consider axes; they'll make up for lower strength somewhat and for some reason use Steel Axes at E, unlike other steel weapons.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on August 29, 2013, 06:23:03 PM
Quote
If you ignore supports, the game plays it pretty straight, but there's also no character development. I thin I can literally count on one hand the number of pcs who speak in plot outside their recruitment scene.

To be fair,  FE games are like this regularly.  FE7 characters are kind of stale (outside of some Lyn-Mode stuff) without supports.

That said, the average FE13 support is far zanier than the previous games, so I guess it stands out more as a contrast to the main plot.  The characters in question also are just quirkier and thus more memorable, leading it to more interesting sequences on top of that.  It's kind of a necessity for a game like Fire Emblem with Perma-deaths, to avoid situations of "Wait what if this character died in a previous chapter? They can't participate here!"  FFT is another example in that regard, where whenever someone joins your party, it's sort of the game also going "And they will never get a (required) cut-scene ever again!" 

Supports were pretty much a tool implemented to try and fill the gaping void of character development outside of a core like 4 characters FE Games prior 6 had, with gameplay benefits to give you that extra incentive.  Ok, FE10 supports sucked ass, but they had plenty of fun info Sessions that were functionally supports anyway, so that worked well enough.

Yeah, most of the FEs are structured in a way that doesn't develop many characters outside of supports. The series without supports has some serious problems with memorability of non-mains. I generally like the goofy characters more because holy shit compare this to like FE6 tertiary cast. You could probably fall asleep during Alan and Lance's supports. FE10's 'supports' actually work better than the regular supports because the game can time when you see them rather than having to guess awkwardly at what point you'll see them. In FE13, there was a scene where Sully and Sumia talk about their sex lives and Sully says " W-well, it doesn't matter anyway. My love life's duller than a sack of flour." After, you know, she could be married to Chrom and have a child. I mean, maybe having sex with the hottest dude in Yllise is -that- boring, but maybe you shouldn't confess it to a Chrom fangirl. ;)

I question Djinn's sanity list. Did you not see Frederick/Chrom supports? And Virion's introduction is him stalking a hot lady in the woods, not a paragon of sanity. Sumia on the other hand just loves pie!

Also Oscar being bad makes me sad. :(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on August 29, 2013, 06:26:16 PM
Oscar was always the Savior Of Everything in my games. In general I find cavs underappreciated and myrmydons overappreciated in just about every FE but 4 (where myrmydons really rock and cavaliers are really really bad)

Mother 3 is actually at its core doing the opposite of following Earthbound's footsteps for better and (mostly) for worse, with the heavy handed anti-consumerism message and everything. It is almost apologizing for Earthbound like a 30 year old looking back in horror realizing how shameful and terrible Xenosaga is and burning the CDs.
Anyway the humor hit its low point with the magipsies.

Spelunky Vita: Shiit I've bought this a second time.
Finished with shortcuts.
It's weird how my favourite contemporary games are now Small (/Indie) Games + Dark Souls

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker: Got lured into buying this because promo.
I had forgotten that I just didn't want to play a standard MGS anymore because of the controls. :(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on August 29, 2013, 08:39:04 PM
I question Djinn's sanity list. Did you not see Frederick/Chrom supports? And Virion's introduction is him stalking a hot lady in the woods, not a paragon of sanity. Sumia on the other hand just loves pie!

Also, Miriel not being at the highest echelons of unbalance is questionable in and out of itself. I mean, her gimmick may be one-dimensional, but the heights she reaches in her pursuit of SCIENCE!!!11 are nothing short of absurd (re: Lon'qu support, which isn't even HER MOST UNBALANCED SUPPORT).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on August 29, 2013, 09:24:31 PM
Miriel-Henry has one of the saucier A-supports too (hope neither one was already married!).  Henry is investigating the nature of curses with Miriel, and notes that they seem to be best at killing stuff, and research on how to create life would seem to be a logical next course of investigation.  HMMMM
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on August 29, 2013, 09:45:30 PM
Like those two would even consider it cheating.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 29, 2013, 09:55:17 PM
Re FE9 stuff: yeah, pretty much what Elfboy said.  Oscar is arguably the MVP of FE9 due to having good stats where they count, supports with the right people (most notably Ike), with a good affinity on top of that (Earth is OP) and is a good Class.  He also gets Lances, which are "good enough", which makes the Bow option on promotional generally a no brainer.  To be fair, E Rank Axes still allow Steel Axes for some reason, which are a nice alternative for extra Weapon Triangle affinity without any training.

His token red counterpart that uses Axes is pretty much the same thing stat wise, and thus treated similarly.  Not quite as good due to lacking Earth Affinity granted, but definitely a strong character in his own right.

And yeah, Titania's probably the best Jeigan simply because of FE9's structure.  Early game has limited number of units that not using her feels like a legitimate penalty, existence of Bonus EXP means anything she steals can be compensated for (and the game rewards you for finishing maps fast, so she helps get MORE Bonus EXP), has good bases and Growth combo to make her viable the entire game, etc.  She's probably the worst Paladin come endgame...which is still arguably above average overall for a quality PC!


Quote
Yeah, most of the FEs are structured in a way that doesn't develop many characters outside of supports. The series without supports has some serious problems with memorability of non-mains. I generally like the goofy characters more because holy shit compare this to like FE6 tertiary cast. You could probably fall asleep during Alan and Lance's supports. FE10's 'supports' actually work better than the regular supports because the game can time when you see them rather than having to guess awkwardly at what point you'll see them. In FE13, there was a scene where Sully and Sumia talk about their sex lives and Sully says " W-well, it doesn't matter anyway. My love life's duller than a sack of flour." After, you know, she could be married to Chrom and have a child. I mean, maybe having sex with the hottest dude in Yllise is -that- boring, but maybe you shouldn't confess it to a Chrom fangirl. ;)


Yeah, pretty much.  That is one thing FE10 has going for it using Info sessions instead of Support Convos, is they're always relevant to the context of the game. 

Quote
Oscar was always the Savior Of Everything in my games. In general I find cavs underappreciated and myrmydons overappreciated in just about every FE but 4 (where myrmydons really rock and cavaliers are really really bad)


To be fair, Ares in FE4 is extremely good himself.  Won't defend Alec or Noish though.  Oifaye is a typical Jagen I suppose.

Myrms in FE5 are good too, mostly Shiva and Mareeta though.  The Cavaliers in this game are...iffy at best, unless you count Cavalier Derivatives like Lance Knights and such (in which case, Fin and Fergus are both very good.)  One thing Myrms have going for them of course is indoor Chapters they aren't affected at all, while all Mounted Units are hurt in some regard, be it simply losing mobility, or having to change their weapon entirely, and losing their awesome unique weapon in the process for the chapter (Fin and Dean are both prime examples of this, albeit, Dean isn't a Cavalier at all, but not the point.)

Quote
Mother 3 is actually at its core doing the opposite of following Earthbound's footsteps for better and (mostly) for worse, with the heavy handed anti-consumerism message and everything. It is almost apologizing for Earthbound like a 30 year old looking back in horror realizing how shameful and terrible Xenosaga is and burning the CDs.
Anyway the humor hit its low point with the magipsies.

I...agree with this for the most part, yeah.  I mean, there are times it differentiates from Earthbound in ways that help, most definitely (the serious stuff in Chapter 1 was actually quite good, and nothing Earthbound does really compares to it), but a lot of it is just clumsily handled stuff.

And yeah, don't know what they were thinking with the Magypsies.  I didn't mind it at first because I thought it was a one time gag that I would have probably forgotten about, but the game seems to think the idea of explicitly manly Drag-queens is hilarious, and then takes it a step further with the O2 Refill machines being essentially the same style joke only now forced down your throat.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on August 29, 2013, 09:56:22 PM
<CIATOS> HOT SLOPPY MAKE OUTS IS JUST SCIENCE.  Organic chemistry at its best bitches.

The Bureau: X-Com Declassified - This is better than Enforcer.  Go it.  It honestly is kind of meh.  It plays like a cheap Mass Effect game.  The controls are clunky and the AI is the worst.  Just the worst.  I was playing on Veteran (default second hardest difficulty) and got up to a point that I was just sick of it and decided fuck this shit and dropped it to easy.  That improved fun a little.

It doesn't fit into any canon established by the new game.  It is purely another timeline reboot which is disappointing just out of interest in how they would tie it in.  Wait for it to go on sale if you even care.

Also now that it kind of blows and doesn't really fit the other games well I don't mind so much that it is up in B in my steam list instead of down in X like the others.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on August 30, 2013, 08:10:44 PM
FF5 solo - Beat world 2.

Last time, I'd just beaten the Big Bridge. So I get to Regole, buy Gaia Gear and lots of spells. Regole area has a few monsters of interest:

Fairy Orcs - They'll revive dead PCs as zombies if they get a turn. This is annoying because zombies apparently gain levels if they win the battle, which will make the PCs harder to kill off in the future. No thanks. Solution: Ninja with magic, throw a scroll at them.
Kuza Beast - They have ??? which is very, very fatal given a chance, and are immune to a few key statuses. Not Break though.
Shield Dragon - Control sees its second use.

Anyway, get up to the Moogle River, which explodes to Ifrit/Ramuh like little else. Tyrannosaur is the recipient of a Phoenix Down (see, they have a use on this challenge!). In the desert afterwards, Cactuses are a way for me to learn 1000 Needles (I couldn't do it back in Ronka due to HP concerns, but here, Blue Mage with Control is durable enough). Sandcrawlers are durable bastards with Maelstrom to be annoying, but Break tells them to have a nice day. Aqua Breath wold also wreck them, just at a high MP cost, so my Cactus-farming setup would also have won.

Here in Bal, bad jokes will get you PUNished... Objet D'Arts explode to good lightning damage (2HKO), just need to make sure I'm faster than they are so because they can use Break on turn 2.

Bal area randoms notable for Cursed Beings, another notable revive-as-zombie random. Ninja, Lightning Scroll, dead. Drakenvale I go back to rocking Summon while levelling up whatever I feel like. Zombie Dragons are annoyingly durable, taking several Ifrits to down, so whatever, they can be friends with Mr. Phoenix Down. Otherwise, Ifrit/Titan sends most everything packing. Switch to Ninja and Fire Scroll things when MP runs low.

Golem - Requiem would make this easy, but I don't really want to sink JP into Bard (I may anyway at the pyramid, but not yet). The undead accosting him are apparently Heavy, so Phoenix Down is out. Protect/Shell on Golem, cast Ifrit a bunch, smack one of them with a Heal Staff once the other dies. I do use one Elixir on Golem which is a waste I could have avoided with a better setup.
Dragon Pod - In case you didn't know, this boss is terrible. Golem utterly shuts it down. So does casting Titan every turn for a MT OHKO while it wastes turns summoning. lol.

Onto the ship. Gobbledegooks are jokes. Gilgamesh/Enkidu I beat with Time Ninja, Haste/Slow/throw all the scrolls. Easy although I do need to be merciless since Gilgamesh will cast Death Claw eventually, which is potentially an instant loss as I still can't block paralysis. Hermes Sandals can't come soon enough!

Barrier Tower's a fair bit rougher than previous dungeons. I have 2 resets here. Travellers are weak but will use Time Slip, crushing my damage and leaving me prey for a bunch of free enemy hits as a wake up. Magnetites pull me into the front row where Reflect Knights can do real damage. Level Trickers will hit me with Level 4 Graviga (I'm level 36) and finish me from there with physicals. The overall scale of damage is still pretty low but these are things to watch out for. Anyway, a mix of rod-using summon classes is helpful here, as Titan wrecks some enemies, but spares Magnetites and Travellers, and Ramuh is good against those (especially Magnetites who get OHKOed). Comet also sees its first use here, as its damage doesn't suffer after a Time Slip, and it hits everything pretty well. I also level white mage some but it's riskier since it takes 3 Ramuhs to drop a Traveller. I also want to get some Blue Magic, so Summoner with Learning. Time Slip's not too bad past the annoying Old status. I also grab Off-Guard from the Ziggurat Gigas, a random which is otherwise notable mostly for being a durable flying type.

Red Dragon - So the thing is here that you can fight either Red or Yellow x2 in a couple chests in the dungeon. Reds aren't too bad, they have decent damage but a bunch of weaknesses. Heavy/Undead typings are annoying, but two castings of Titan and they're done.
Yellow Dragon - Titan blitz is somewhat less effective here, it would take five of them to bring them down. So the trick is to have another skillset which can deal with them... such as Blue! They're not Heavy, so Missile kills them nicely. Vampire can also be used to heal if this battle goes too long, as unlike Reds that is certainly a possibility. So, Summoner with Blue proves the way to go for these fights.

The second one guards... a Gold Hairpin! Excellent! *air guitar* This gets used forever in mage jobs from now on, it makes a ridiculous difference for spamming Titan and the like.

Atomos (1 reset) - Things I learned about Atomos: (1) Pull and Wormhole are both MT, (2) He only needs to use pull 4-5 times to eat things (I didn't count exactly), (3) He has enough speed to pull and devour the entire party, AND waste a turn casting Slowga (which mercifully missed), before I get my third. As soon as this happens there's a Comet blitz and even with Shell it's pretty hopeless; maybe if I had Curaga. Redo, Black/Time, Haste, then Sleep, then Bio. Return if Sleep had missed.

In Ghido's Cave, two winning strategies exist. Ninja with two Air Knives can hack through Metamorph and use Flame Scrolls to kill the slimes. With Learning, I can wait until I meet an Enchanted Fan, which uses Aeroga. Hell yeah! That unlocks the other strategy I use here, White Mage with Blue, as Aeroga and Flame Thrower can deal with each fight, even unboosted. White Mage, of course, I am using primarily to level. I switch between them depending on my MP needs; if the Ninja uses the Dancing Dagger, I sometimes even get MP back. Pretty cool.

Forest of Moore's a bit trickier. Galajellies use Rainbow Wind which inflicts blind/silence; both of these can be defended against however. With the ninja setup, I use the Bone Mail to block blind, Flame Scrolls to kill everything except Galajellies (need two for Imps), and physicals have a 75% chance to kill Galajellies (while also restoring MP with the Dancing Dagger, if desired). I also run White with Summon, using a Sage's Robe to defend silence. Even without any strengthening this works fairly well, as Titan/Ifrit takes out everything in no less than two hits, and Galajellies can be killed by Sylph (or Chocobo, but that hits their high evade). Wyrms are a bit peskier as they take a whole bunch of Ramuh castings, but Wyrms also suck. Heal Staff is also an option for restoring HP if I feel like saving MP.

I forgot to bother with Lilliputian Lyric. I always forget this even exists. I will grab it later. I do remember to grab the Aegis Shield, which gives me a way to block petrify (besides Ribbon), very important.

Seal Guardians (1 reset) - I forget that Firaga focusses and thus does way more damage than I'm used too. Oops! Fortunately I was running a suboptimal setup anyway so I come back with a better one: Time Mage with Level 4 White (levelling the class has paid off!). Haste, Protect, Regen, Slowga/Slow, Shell, Float tilts things decidely in my favour. Graviga + a Comet or two kills each guardian and the often don't even get a turn. I drop the earth user to low HP and leave him there because haha Earth Shaker, the rest aren't a big problem as thanks to Shell even the fire (who did more than I expected, as mentioned) struggles to deal a borderline 2HKO, and the others just suck.

Random world 2 bookkeeping time!

Catoblepas - With the Aegis Shield from the forest, he's a joke. I guess I could have used a Ribbon to get him earlier, he might have been somewhat useful in Moore. I use Knight here for the first time because it feels like the most valuable shield-user to sink JP into at this point.

Gil Turtle - Black + Summon. Dicy fight with this setup, but I really want a good way to output damage (Blizzaga is the best), and Golem is the most effective way to slow down his offence; at my unusually high levels it gets destroyed in 5 shots in the back row. Having Time or White would both be huge helps, but skill slot limits exist for a reason. I do cast Float before the fight, of course. Anyway, keep Golem up as much as possible, cast Blizzaga, count the number of hits so I don't do anything stupid like provoking counters when Golem only has one hit left to go. Elf Mantle decides it really likes me in this fight so it ends up shorter than it probably should be.

Castle Exdeath is probably the toughest world 2 dungeon (2 resets overall)... probably the toughest in the game in fact, but we'll see. There are a few problematic enemies. Black Warlocks can cast Confuse turn 1, Stop turn 2. Leaving one alone is bad because they gain a bunch of fatal status. Summoner (but not other classes) have enough oomph to one-shot them with Titan, but this is still a bit risky because the warlocks can go first. Ninja only two-shots with scrolls, BUT they can use Bone Mail, which blocks confuse. Bandercoeurl also can use instant death when alone, but they can be statused out first easily enough. Red Dragons get 2HKOed by Titan, other dragons fear gravity, so a setup of Summon and Blue handles them well. Otherwise, a mix of Titan/other summons and scrolls works well here. My attempts to level White Mage get mostly put on hold in this dungeon because it's just not good enough, but I spend a lot of time levelling other key jobs like Time Mage, Summoner, and Ninja.

Carbuncle - Catoblepas to the face once he drops his defences.
Gilgamesh - He has a bunch of status (including the potentially fatal Time Slip), so I go for a Bone Mail setup. Ninja/Blue, he doesn't have much MEvade so Vampire is reliable after Hurricane.
Exdeath - Time/Summon, Haste/Golem/Carbuncle, cast Titan a bunch. In theory he can cast Doom turn 1 (I don't see it), so Time also has Return to make sure that doesn't happen. Easy past that.

I'm Level 44 (yep, past normal endgame). Current job status:

Level 4: White Mage, Time Mage, Summoner
Level 3: Black Mage, Blue Mage, Ninja
Level 2: Monk, Beastmaster
Level 1: Knight

I'm close to Throw now so that's an obvious upcoming project. Otherwise it'll probably just mostly be raising up some things so I have a reasonable shot at Omega and Shinryu (Time 6, Black 5). If I somehow run out of things to do I will go after ninja mastery (for a much better Freelancer) or maaybe Dualcast but probably not.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on August 30, 2013, 08:12:45 PM
Wild Arms 5 - There are four Sentinels. There are four towers. I see where this is headed. I just want to slap Chuck over and over.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on August 30, 2013, 08:59:21 PM
-Starship Troopers assault rifle because the Verhoeven connection with Robocop.  Would you like to know more?

It doesn't end there, either. Some of cyber-Steelport's feminine statues have three boobs.

SR4: *Romance Kinsey*

"Hey Kinsey, want to fuck?"

*Kinsey punches you in the face, then jumps your bones*

What is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on August 30, 2013, 10:14:27 PM
FF5 solo - Beat world 2.
...
Excellent! *air guitar*

Grefter approved.

Ninja uses the Dancing Dagger, I sometimes even get MP back. Pretty cool.
Laggy approved.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on August 31, 2013, 03:55:45 AM
-Starship Troopers assault rifle because the Verhoeven connection with Robocop.  Would you like to know more?

It doesn't end there, either. Some of cyber-Steelport's feminine statues have three boobs.

SR4: *Romance Kinsey*

"Hey Kinsey, want to fuck?"

*Kinsey punches you in the face, then jumps your bones*

What is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more.

There is a romance option that involves the conversation

"...See, I respect you so much that-"

"No, you don't. What's your real angle?"

"I'm looking for rough sex and Kinzie scares the shit out of me."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on August 31, 2013, 06:47:05 AM
Ducktales Remastered:  Finished.  Fun Stuff.  I'd do a review of the game but really...I think this is a better and more efficient way to waste your time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woJrjb91pW4
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: kokushishin on September 01, 2013, 01:12:13 AM

Juggling a bunch of games at the moment.  The only thing I've beaten of late is Crimson Shroud, but I've been getting into the Paper Mario series,  plan on starting BL2 sometime after the upcoming update, and Dragon's Crown when it arrives.


FFT War of the Lions translation wanted to be as different from FFT's as possible, so went with the "WE MUST SOUND AS IMPRESSIVE AS POSSIBLE!"  This led to, well, what Andrew said.  Also they love to use "Th" over "S" a lot.  Argath is probably the best (worst?) example of that.

The problem with that example is Argath is an actual name.  It's not even a Johnny vs Juan or Roland vs Orlandeau.  It's calling Harry "Harry", not "Hair E" or "Heri".   
I don't think it's too much to ask someone to have a bit more familiarity with Modern English if they can rote through random Japanese loanwords or Greek and Latin.

You'd be suprised how many allegedly "old and obscure" words people gripe that Smith used are still around today. 

Like say
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weald-Artois_Anticline
or perhaps
http://www.phillymummers.com/
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on September 01, 2013, 04:01:07 AM
Project X-Zone: Finally beaten. Now may we (I) never speak of this game again.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 01, 2013, 04:04:44 AM
Ok, just completed two games in the last few days, I'll be giving you a DOUBLE RANT!!! or something...in two different posts.

THE FIRST ONE...you all probably know what it is already, so let's stop with the silliness...despite the game in question...

Mother 3:

So here's this game that is a sequel to a cult classic in Earthbound that came out 10 years later and never came stateside.  Then a (competent) fantranslation comes out, and suddenly people rave about it a lot, like it's the next coming of Video Game Jesus or something (well, not that much, but some people act like the game is the most incredible thing ever), yet...interestingly, apparently Japanese Fans weren't anywhere near that thrilled with the game.  Won't say it's hated but the West vs. East situation apparently is pretty notable difference in popularity.  To me, that raises a red flag of "A lot of people decided they liked the game before they played it!" since the combination of "Cult Favorite getting a sequel" and "Game never released stateside" is a winning combination for instant gratification when someone actually gets to play it.

Now, I played Earthbound back in the 90s, enjoyed it fair enough, but I know the game is completely a product of it's time.  I already ranted about the humor elements, so I'll spare you that angle, but other elements Earthbound had were things that were starting to phase out around that time.  Limited Inventory with equipment taking up slots in that inventory, or 1st Person Battles that were primarily text based instead of using visuals.  To illustrate what I mean, just compare (S)NES Era Dragon Quest to an (S)NES era Final Fantasy, and you'll see a dramatic difference in how battles play out.  As a result, I can forgive a lot of Earthbound's failings to some degree because at the time the game was made, these were fairly normal, so I can't blame the game for that, for all that it is still a flaw.

Mother 3 didn't really fix most of the issues.  It may have lessened some of them, like larger inventory space, or showing damage in battle via damage display instead of just "The target took 100 damage!" indicators, leading to faster battles, but it still feels like a game made in 1996, not 2006.  Even with a larger inventory, I still hit the inventory limit plenty of times and there's actual moments in the game where a person will give you an item, and oh wait, your inventory is filled, can't give it to you...and you lose the item permanently.  Worse, there's at least one moment where because Lucas had a maxed inventory (while Boney had open spaces), I missed an item and reset.  One thing the game does do right is making a "key Items" section separate from the rest of the game; that's something that was annoying about Earthbound, to be sure.  I'm also not convinced that random dude standing in places is better than Escargo Express in Earthbound as a storage system.

As far as battle system goes...well...it's Earthbound with a Rhythm based system, better difficulty, and a far worse cast.  The Rhythm thing is kind of neat in theory, but I never really learned the system, and the game doesn't do a good job of telling you how to pull it off; getting one hit felt like a crap shoot to be honest.  Yes, it's no different than Timed Hits in other games, but other games do a much better job at telling you about them.  One thing that makes SMRPG's timed hits so much better than other games is the well done tutorial.  Simply says "Press Button right before impact extra damage", and the key was just figuring out when that moment was.  Mother 3 just says "Hit it based on the music, put enemies to sleep to make it easier!"  I did the latter, and it never seemed to work, and the fact that they made it based on music just made it all the harder.  Thankfully, it's not important and I got through the game fine without it, but it did make Duster and Boney really damage anemic at times.

Next off, the Rolling HP system.  I didn't mind this in Earthbound where it felt like an extra neat mechanic that you could choose to use to your advantage, or ignore and not really suffer, mostly there for psychological effects of letting enemies have massive damage self destruct moves, which mostly meant "kill these guys last", and little else.  Mother 3...feels like they incorporated them as a basic mechanic that it was "use this or you will suffer a lot!"  In fact, the entire final boss was nothing but learning how the mechanic works, unless you managed to hold onto all the Magypsies Mementos the entire game, something neither insured nor does the game do anything remotely in hinting you're coming up to that.  To the game's credit, it is lenient on Game Overs, as it just sends you back to the save point, with all EXP gained between then and now intact (ala FF6), and Save Points are often right before boss fights, so good design there.

What about the worse cast thing?  Well, see, here's the thing about Earthbound:
All 4 PCs seemed to have a use and were varied.  3 of the characters had full, varied PSI Skillsets, and Jeff had all his unique tools and Bottle Rockets to find various niche purposes.  Those who haven't played Earthbound, I know you may find this weird to hear "What? Paula is useful!?" but bare in mind the DL does not translate these characters well at all; they're actually fairly well balanced in game.

Mother 3, by comparison?  Well, Lucas and Kumatora are fine; I have no complaints for them.  They're essentially Ness and Paula all over again, with a few spell adjustments, for better or worse.  The problem is the other two.  Duster has the same 6 moves the entire game, and 4 of them are Single Target Status moves; he's got HP I guess.  Boney is even worse; he's fast!!! and can SNIFF FOR WEAKNESSES! And is...completely ineffectual othewrise.  He's got HP and Attack on par with Kumatora, can't realistically use some armors without completely destroying his attack, etc.  The only thing he has going for him is good speed to be an item boy for, which with less equip slots, he does have more item slots.  You know XF Tony, and how he sucked and his sole purpose was basically a high move, high speed character until Excavators appeared, and was in a game where one crappy character wasn't a big deal because you can completely bench them in favor of Generics or something?  Yeah, Boney's like that except with the option to bench him.  He's basically a Warm Body and inventory space, nothing more.

Oh, and gonna throw this out there, but the "fever" system?  Pointless.  It's a way to waste time learning something forcing you to walk around in circles for a while until you get the "You learned a new PSI!" thing.  Compared to like every other game where you simply gain the level, learn the spell!  I don't mind alternative methods of learning things of course, but the "fever" idea just feels like an extra time wasting factor.  If you're not learning the spell related to level, just tell us "the character learns the spell!" as an independent variable of levels.  No, "it stops you from running so making it harder to avoid enemies!" is not a good excuse; it's just a nuisance.

The cast is another problem for the overall game.  Lucas is a silent protagonist, after they established he can talk in Chapter 1...basically, this game follows the rules of "Are you the main character of this chapter?  If so, you can't speak!"  DUMB STORY DESIGN GUYS STOP DOING IT.  There's a reason that Silent Protagonists in jRPGs are scarce by the PS2 era.   Kumatora and Duster both speak but show little to no characterization at all other than "Kumatora is a nice girl" and "Duster is suppose to be a silly slightly incompetent guy"; when I say "suppose to", I mean Chapter 2 tried to build that as his character but the game never really goes back to highlighting it.  Then we have Boney, a dog, who sometimes makes translated comments to himself, but is ultimately completely lacking in characterization.  I don't mind Dog PCs in games, but either they should talk normally (like Red XIII), or the cast should be big enough that one mute PC doesn't hurt (see Repede.)

...which really, when you think about it?  Mother 3 is Wild ARMs 1's cast but with worse writing.  Lucas = Rudy, Duster = Jack, Kumatora = Cecilia, Boney = Hanpan.  Now let that sink in; Mother 3's main cast is a lesser version of Wild ARMs 1's cast.


The plot of the game?  First off, anti-consumerism message got old fast, though game does eventually drop it I guess, but not for necessarily something good.  Quite the reverse, it replaces it with no real theme as it hamfistedly introduces the 7 Pins, and the game basically says "Pull them all to beat the game!"  Yes, a Zelda's Axiom introduced halfway into the game.  The game flow also halts dramatically here.  A comparison I can think of is Valkyrie Profile 2, where Chap 1-2 are quick and straight to the point, then Chap 3 comes along and you're just on a wild goose chase jumping from one dungeon to another serving no purpose other than padding, because "Your PrincessThe Dragon Orb Is In Another Castle Ruins!"  Only once does this arc end does VP2 start to get moving again.  Chap 7 of Mother 3 is the same way, really.  Game is moving along fine enough during the earlier chapters, then introduces this, and it halts.

But wait, Earthbound did the same thing you say with the Sanctuaries?  No, it didn't.  Earthbound introduces the Sanctuaries right in the start of the game, saying "There are 8 locations, the first one luckily is near-bye!" and also states that these are necessary for Ness to unlock his full potential to fight Giygas.  Ok, so we know exactly what to expect the entire game, and it's built up right at the start, and naturally, the Sanctuaries are spaced out throughout the game, with "plot" interspersed.  While Earthbound has a number of things that haven't aged well, it's pacing certainly is still fine.  Mother 3's section really just comes off as "This game is too short, quick, toss in an excuse to make a bunch of dungeons to pad this out!"

To credit Mother 3, they did have a good excuse to why Lucas needs to pull it, as "Good Guy pulling = Dragon is good! Bad Guy pulling = Dragon is bad!  There is a bad guy who can pull Needles too!" and having the Magypsies disappear actually lent itself well to an excuse as how the Villain can learn about where they are through a Magypsie who betrayed the others and helped the villain  but also explains why the villain didn't pull the one nearbye.  Of course, this whole plot is related to Magypsies to begin with, which Mother 3 tries to pass off as legitimate humor but and uh, see my earlier rant.

The other thing Mother 3 does right is getting some serious moments well done, particularly Chapter 1 has some really well done moments.  Problem is that any serious tone the game has is completely dropped in Chapter 4 and on, which several DLers called a "mood whiplash" which...sorry, I can't say is a good thing.  The game clearly wants you to take it seriously at times, but when you pull that "mood whiplash", it compromises any scene that can be taken seriously.  The big reveal in Chapter 8 for the game's backstory where this is actually a post-apocalyptic game with everyone but Leder having their memories erased and all history deleted such that only Tazmily Village was left, and everyone can live in peace and harmony and off the land with a well done, well thought out explanation would have been great in most games, honestly.  It shows a lot of thought and effort put into a reveal, and outside of the constant "DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?" statements, the expository speech actually kept my attention, long as it was, I was even able to ignore the design of the guy telling me this.  The problem is that it's an anvil of seriousness crashing down when the game has been completely goofy since, and the game takes an immediate turn back to goofiness right after, completely wasting the reveal.  The reveal also is wasted as it doesn't really build off it, as it ends up saying "Good, now go save the world and beat the villain!"

Now yes, bipolar games can work; Shadow Hearts Covenant comes to mind.  The difference is SHC actually understood what kind of humor meshes well with serious stuff, knew when to be silly and when to be serious, and actually had characters and writing to pull off both.  Just imagine SHC if Yuri were a silent protagonist instead of the Snarky Ass With a Heart of Gold...game is suddenly way weaker on all fronts now isn't it?

Speaking of Villain...seriously, game?  You're trying to make Porky/Pokey, the completely incompetent, total parody Bestfriend turned evil henchman in Earthbound into a legitimate, serious threat?  Oh, they keep silly antics to be fair, but it's hard to  really go with a game selling you on "THIS GUY IS A SERIOUS THREAT!" The entire last part of the game felt like just a lot of Earthbound fanservice, though the boat room where it had a lot of Earthbound objects did leave a sense of nostalgia.  Also played the Mother theme song "Pollyana" there, which was a HUGE breath of fresh air after hearing the same melody in the Villain's theme being played as every other track in the game, a melody I am way less than fond of.  I hated it in Brawl, this game only made it more annoying, it's practically the Theme Song of the game, even though it's technically not.  Actually, that aspect alone made me hate the OST, as there weren't really any stand out songs in the game otherwise; just a bunch of whimsical songs that felt soulless compared to Earthbound (Earthbound's OST is not something I'd hype either mind.)

When it comes down to it, as I have said in chat and probably once before in this topic, the game's greatest draw is easily it's biggest weakness:
It is a sequel to Earthbound.

As a result, a lot of stuff it was good at (legitimate serious scenes when it tried) gets compromised by the failed humor I indicated in an earlier post.  Everything the game does gets compared to Earthbound, and while it does some things better on fronts, many of them aren't "better enough" to make up for the failings, especially considering the 10 year difference between the games.  This is not a good game, sorry to say; it was kind of dull for the most part, the humor had me going "uh-huh..." more than actually cracking a smile,

Do I sound like I'm being too negative?  Perhaps, but the game failed to deliver, and I really wanted to just end it.   As I said, the game feels like an SNES game made in the PS2 era, and that's not a good thing.  It is not well polished, the game tried for humor and failed to deliver in most cases, what have you.  It very much failed to capture that spark Earthbound had, and Earthbound is not a game I'd deem to have aged all that well for a number of reasons, yet Mother 3 seems to not have learned from that much at all.

So yeah, I am giving the game a 3/10.   Is this harsh? Maybe, but it was not a fun experience, and whenever I think of something good to say about the game, multiple bad things come up to compromise it.  Reminds me of FF10-2 in that regard (no, I am not saying Mother 3 is like FF10-2, I'm saying both games have this thing of every-time I think of something good about the game, a bunch of the game's problems start surfacing again and I am reminded why I didn't like it.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on September 01, 2013, 04:18:35 AM
Defeated the Golden Mage Knight.

The third part of that battle was a hell of a fight. 3 bosses each capable of putting down a world of hurt. Status flying around, multiple PCs being KOd at once near-constantly, having to try to stop the bosses from healing each other... just chaos.

I ended up cheesing the hell out of it with Elize/Leia keeping the corpses from ever hitting the ground. Elize could layer on the Auto-Lifes and put down MT heals at breakneck speed while Leia could do MT revival through items that was instant and had no recharge time. ToX has the best healers in the series bar none, and you need them on the higher difficulties.

Alvin manned the offense. He has the best straight up attack move in Variable Trigger/Blast. It is fast, ranged, and knocks the enemy back, holding up a boss that would otherwise be wailing on your party with any number of nasty gimmicks. He also has a skill that grants full auto-crits in Overlimit mode, which means that since only one PC can really whore out the Overlimit mode, there is no reason to NOT use Alvin to unload a world of hurt whenever you fill up the bar.

I didn't really put enough attention into it before but mages have a good use for strength-up skills since they can transfer them to fighters via a link. And there are good reasons to link fighters to mages. Elize's link handles all your TP problems (which items can do too, in fairness). Teepo Drain, Elize's Link action also fills up the Link gauge very very fast, leading to more offense from Alvin. I found out that Rowen's "Stop Time for 3 seconds on a successful backstep dodge") is a Link skill, which means that Jude + Rowen can whore that out brutally... There are actually  fair number of combos like that.

Enemies using Milla's spells are a lot scarier than she is with them. Since they have, you know, actually threatening damage.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on September 01, 2013, 05:07:42 AM
Now do it two more times(unless that was your third).

The most devastating part of the bastard was the Grave-like ! counter that two of them did.  One-shotted me every time until I learned it had shit for vertical reach and so I spent most of the battle with my feet off the ground.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 01, 2013, 06:21:42 AM
NOW FOR THE OTHER GAME! This game I stealth played so I wouldn't be talking about it in chat, accidentally spoil anything, and because SCIENCE and all that.  Only a handful of people knew I was playing this game at all.  So uh, yeah,  that said, time to reveal that the other game is...

(http://www.side.com/i_folio/xeno.jpg)


I originally had a different pic, but it was huge to the point where it's obnoxious.  Yes, this picture is big but barely fits in the margins so shouldn't bother anyone for scrolling purposes?  Anyway, about the game itself...

AS A WARNING, THERE WILL PROBABLY BE SPOILERS.  I WILL DO MY BEST TO CENSOR THEM BUT YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Xenoblade Chronicles was a game that gets universal praise like everywhere.  You never hear anything bad said about the game outside of "WHY IS IT SO HARD TO GET!?" or "IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE!" but that's NoA's fault for not printing enough copies, not the game itself's fault!  The game was then highest ranked Wii game in famitsu's "top 100 Nintendo Games of all time" in like 2012 or something, its score on aggregate sites is over 90%, scoring no less than a 9/10 from like every publisher.  Despite the limited number of people who played the game, Shulk is one of the most commonly talked about potential candidates for SSB4, and the fact that something looking like Shulk's face appeared at the end of the initial "X" trailer got people psyched as hell for a potential Xenoblade sequel (or at least, a spiritual one.)  Consistently, I've heard the game touted as "FF12 DONE RIGHT", and worth noting that I liked FF12, though won't defend it due to it's niche nature.  I've even heard one online reviewer, in a random podcast, call Xenoblade a "Once in a Console generation kind of game."

...basically, this game has a lot to prove.  That is probably one of the worst mindsets to go into a game with I know; might have ruined Mother 3 for a me bit, I won't deny, but I stand by all that I said about Mother 3 above!  Back to XBC, though, I've not heard of a game with such a strong standing behind it in years (...well, I guess Persona 4 thinking on it?)  It was also made by Monolith Soft who brought us...well...

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/84/Xeno3boxart.jpg/256px-Xeno3boxart.jpg)

Though really, one bad game shouldn't compromise other great stuff they've done...except outside of Xenosaga 2's gameplay and some legitimate good character work in that series (Virgil, Cherenkov, Albedo's backstory in XS2, to name a few), I was never a big fan of their work.   And the game is suppose to be long as hell, to the point where Elfboy keeps asying "NO ONE FINISHES XENOBLADE!!" (if jestingly) ...well, this is going to be a painful ride, isn't it? 80 hour game made by a team whose stuff I'm lukewarm to at best with possibly the most hype of any game in the genre in years leading to a biased viewpoint of the game, etc. 

This is where a lot of you probably stop reading and going "oh great, Meeple destroys another highly regarded game, that's two in a row, the guy is completely un-pleasible.  I'm never reading another Meeple rant again!!!"  I totally don't blame you either...though, there is one small problem with that assumption.  That problem?

It's that my opinion of the game is actually...well...
THIS GAME IS FREAKING AWESOME!

Yes, you read that right; XBC is a great game, and actually lived up to pretty much all of it's hype.  I am legitimately shocked by this.  Ok, to be fair, I wasn't expecting to hate this game, or even dislike it.  I was expecting to find the game merely "decent" but it completely showed up my expectations.

So...let's start with the things XBC didn't do right, because that's easier.

First off, the Interface is kind of annoying at times.  Why they did a pop up menu that leads to a normal menu baffles me.  I wouldn't mind this so much if leaving the normal menu screens cancelled out of everything, but it doesn't, and sometimes you forget this, and plan on pressing, say, the Map button and instead get the Story Memo button, or you want to target an enemy, and instead you get nothing.  Now being ambushed by an enemy isn't a big deal in this game usually, just means the music is different...often for the worse, as the two battle themes when you initiate a battle (Time To Fight and Mechanical Rhythm) are considerably better than the two ambushed ones, which brings me to another flaw...except not because I still have one other interface complaint, that being targetting.  Given the basic hecticness of battles, it's sometimes hard to see what you're targeting due to health gauges super imposing over each other, and sometimes you'll target an enemy off screen.  The game could have benefited from what FF12 had where you can actually have a "Wait" mechanic going through menus and change targets that way; would have made it easier to see whose targeting.  Note that the Menu Interface is fine in battles, and actually works well in them; it's just the whole "Pop Up menu -> Real Menu" thing that's pointless, would have been better to just have one menu screen cover the pop up menu.

Now onto the OTHER issue:
How music worked in battles at times.  Now I don't mind music changing based on situation; Skies of Arcadia did this well for example, and there being a "Your party is in trouble!" theme wasn't so bad as once you got out of trouble, it'd revert back to the original theme.  The real problem, though, is visions, in that when you see them and change them, you get this...intense "HURRY AND ACT!" theme...which is weird seeing as you already changed the vision.  Ok, I don't mind that though just the song LASTS THE ENTIRE FIGHT in most circumstances, and it's a pretty blech song compared to most battle themes (the two I mentioned + You Will Know Our Names.)  I wouldn't be surprised if this was a bug or shoddy programming and the intent was for the songs to end once the vision attack was finished, but nothing was a greater kill joy for being invested in a fight than having "You Will Know Our Names" play, fight is really heating up, then you see a vision, and my reaction was often "OH FUCK NO!" especially when it happened early, NOT because of the attack, but because the music was going from Top Tier to Blech.


So what's good about the game? Well...just about everything else.

The game does a good job at world building, with the Bionis and Mechonis, and establishing locales.  There is a lot of exploration to be had and the areas feel vast to an almost overwhelming degree, but a lot of it is optional, and the game is good at telling you where to go with a Minimap and a pointer so you don't get lost in these vast areas.  There was only one part of the game where I got lost figuring out what to do and that was entirely my fault as I didn't realize there were actual "Yes/No" prompts with NPCs indicated in that style, so I thought the "Wait til Later" option that was default was actually the game telling me to "wait til later to continue the plot", and not the just the "No" prompt!  The game does it right by starting things off with a bang, with 3 strong PCs in basically unlose-able fights to give you a sense of what battles feel like, then goes "ok, enough playing with the Light Saber Wielding Bad Ass, here's the real protagonist: This seemingly wimpy blonde haired nerdy kid named Shulk.  Don't worry though; he's got a 7 foot tall seemingly steroid induced muscle bound best friend named Reyn, so it's all good!"  The big reveal in the ending about the setting probably would piss me off if the game dwelled upon it but really just used it to finally fill in some holes, and go "look, that's all in the past, let's move on with the future ok?"

The plot kept me legitimately guessing.  I mean, yes, there were clear cases of "This character is up to something" but it was really hard to guess what or the connection, and in some cases, the game even seemed to imply "maybe they're just going to reveal some major contingency plan that screws over the villain!"  and in at least one case, Alvis, said character kind of does.  The stuff that was predictable was handled well enough that I didn't care that it was predictable, either because it had good style in pulling it off, or guessing when it was going to happen was tough.  It's amusing that the game is not easy to predict what direction it's taking at times when one of Shulk's super powers is Pre-cognition.

Then again, the whole theme of the game is basically "Fate is not absolute, the future is not set in stone."  It gets this noted right early on, when Shulk first gets his visions, showing him getting beat up, and he's able to react and avoid it, and later they're worded as "These visions are a possible future", and they're acting to insure they don't happen.   The cast never really compromises this belief either; never at any point after Shulk recognizes he can change his visions does the team give into this crap about "predestination" or anything like that.  It's always "we're alive, we can make a choice, and damn it, we're going to fight for the future we want!"  The game also doesn't really hammer it in; I mean, yeah, it's obvious, but the game makes it work with the tools presented, not in spite of them.   Sometimes, stories it's hard to find the theme in because it is juggling many of them at once, and as a result, those themes never get quite developed enough.  Other stories have this problem of beating you to death with the theme; XBC is a game that finds a good balance, of making the theme clear and apparent, but not bringing it up TOO much that you're sick of it.   I mean, I'm not entirely certain XBC's theme is brought up as often as  "You'llneverknowuntilyoutry!" in a certain OTHER game for example (no offense to that game with awful plot and amazing gameplay!!!!)

One really neat thing about the game's theme is because of Shulk's Visions, they actually incorporate the theme into gameplay too.  You can get visions about hints for future sidequests, as well as the Vision System in battle, going "hey guys, THIS ENEMY IS GOING TO USE A BIG ATTACK, YOU MIGHT WANT TO REACT!"  I'm aware part of the reason is because of the nature of Xenoblade's battles, a big evil attack out of nowhere is a big middle finger, and can completely change the fight with no way to recover, so it was a way of having charge times and making them obvious, which is totally fine.  Combine that with actually established plot and thematic elements the game establishes, for a genuine sense of plot and gameplay integration, and you have an amazingly well thought out idea...if only the music didn't futz up though >_>

Even when the game actually pulled an an FF4 moment with Fiora surviving it was handled in such a way that didn't feel like it compromised the scene and they did explain how we got from Point A to Point B.  Contrast this to, oh, Cid exploding with a bunch of bombs and ending up just being bed ridden in a dwarven castle, and the only explanation that makes sense is "A Spoony Bard did it...and Moogles.  What do you mean there are no Moogles?"  I was at first annoyed they pulled the stunt, because the scene prior does a good job of establishing the character's fate, but it does lend itself well into other things, so I'll say the positives outweigh the negatives here, which is really all that matters.  The game doesn't compromise this in other areas really, so doing it once isn't such a bad thing.

One of the interesting things the game does, back to the world building, is just how it treats multiple races.  I mean, yeah, Nopon are silly cute little creatures, and talk with odd dialogue, but the Homs characters don't even think twice about it, no matter how silly Riki sounds.  Easy to understand since the game right in the first town shows Nopon merchants walking around and interacting with Homs as an everyday thing, so we can easily believe that it's just an accepted trait of these creatures, and as silly as Riki sounds having a heartfelt talk with Dunban, you don't bat an eyelash in seeing Dunban treat him with mutual respect (then again, this is also Dunban, but I'll get to CHARACTER ANAYLESES!!! later.)

Gameplay..."improved FF12" gets it right...kind of.  It's better than FF12 in some regards (mostly a lot smoother) but also different in a number of others ways.  The game would be really annoying to play given how far the terrain you take, so going back and forth would be a major chore...except for the existence of fast travel.  Being able to warp between certain points at will completely negates that potential issues, and makes backtracking so much easier as well as going to specific points on large areas.  Having limited healing, with only 3 PCs having actual healing moves and only one of them (Sharla) having adequate supply for long fights to rely on was an interesting design decision, but they did compensate well enough with Aggro, having enough defensive buffs and strategies to prevent taking damage, manipulating masses, etc.  Heck, a Boss having just ONE enemy on support can completely screw a fight over, even if the enemy isn't very strong.  All 7 PCs were varied with niche uses, between Reyn being a tank built around pulling in aggro, Melia the only reliable source of Ether damage, or Dunban being the speedy damage dealer.  I was constantly swapping characters and it did take me time to figure out what was the best way to use each character, seeing who works well together, and frankly just like the Affinity System to make characters capable of sharing more skills!  I guess one complaint I have is skill growth system; it's fine with the AP costing system, but having to find books to upgrade further, and sometimes the manuals are drops from monsters is not design I'm fond of.  Thankfully upgrades provide marginally, while still significant, boosts, and are not crucial.

Also, the game does have the "Main Character dies = game over" thing, but it does have fail safes.  First off, there's a bit of a delay; if the other characters finish the enemy within a few seconds of the character dying, you'll still be given the victory.  Secondly, the party gauge system allows that if you have any gauge, the fight will continue and your party member will come and heal you at the cost of a gauge.   You can also choose "Run" at any moment and avoid most fights going south fast.  If you do die?  Game is lenient on game overs, sending you back to last major landmark, which can sometimes be a notable distance but never too far.    Boss fights send you back to like right outside the minimal range of engaging, and even skips the cutscenes leading up to it immediately, so you don't have to do scene skip (...wait does the game even have Sceneskip?  I don't know, seeing as I don't sceneskip on first file unless for Reset purposes, and due to how Xenoblade's resets vs. Bosses work, it never comes up there!)


Music...well, it's quite good!  I'll just say songs I really liked were "You Will Know Our Names", "Engage the Enemy" "Gaur Plains (Day)" and "Mechanical Rhythm."  The only song that stood out to me as "bad" are the negative battle themes one, but I guess they were intended to not sound good so you stop hearing them...except the GOD DAMNED VISION THEME NEVER ENDS >_<


So...onto the main event: THE CAST OF CHARACTERS!!!
(http://www.featureshoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/9LF.jpg)

...except to do this Meeple style would take way too long, so I'll just do a general explanation.

Basically, I didn't really find anyone in the cast I hated...outside of maybe some of the High Entia villain characters.  Lorithia felt woefully underdeveloped, mostly there because "right, we need a female for these things" and the EVIL STEP MOTHER thing was resolved almost as quickly as it was introduced.  I guess I should say "High Entia females Not Melia were the only characters I didn't like" because most of the males were fine, at least Kallian, who was a nice breath of fresh air.  What's this? An Older Brother who not only is supportive of his little sister taking the throne, but actually is the guy who recommended it in the first place?  And his reasons for it?  Clearly he's got ulterior motives!  His reasoning is BECAUSE SHE'S THE BEST PERSON FOR THE JOB AND THE TRUE HOPE OF THE HIGH ENTIA!

Ha, I knew it! His reasons are because he thinks his sister would make a better Empress than he would Emperor, and could lead the HIgh Entia to prosperity and is...actually...totally...ok with this...and even lies on her behalf with nothing to gain from it himself...huh...it's almost like he's completely legitimate in everything he says.   Ok true, we later learn WHY he thinks that way, but that was also for good reasons, and there was nothing sketchy about it, so yeah, nice to see an noble elder brother Prince without any sort of evil douche qualities whatsoever.

The character I was afraid of most was Alvis.  He's introduced helping Shulk, but in a MYSTERY!!! kind of way, so you go "he's up to something."  Then he helps the team out and seemingly is a good guy after all, once we learn who he really is.  Ok, fair enough...then talks to Lorithia, who has "EVIL VILLAIN CONSPIRATOR" written all over her in a suspicious way, and I was like "NO! PLEASE DON'T GO THAT CLICHED ROUTE!" The game both does and it doesn't, as they never really reveal Alvis' motives, truth, etc. until the very end, and it's nothing like you expect.  And in the end of the game, he was actually sincere with many of his claims.  I was expecting a "He backstabs the villain last second" situation so he remains like-able but the twist was something completely unexpected.  He was never on the villain's side to begin with, really, nor was he his disciple, but was faking it the entire time, instead just kind of observing to see how things go until someone can change the course of the future.  The super computer reveal was kind of forced, I guess, but at least it explains why he's so rational and logical, and shows almost no emotions.

The PC Cast?  Well, Shulk is a like-able nerdy fellow; he's something different though not entirely original.  I just prefer having heroes who generally not either "ADVENTURE TIME!!!!" like, oh,  a certain goggle wearing red head, or emo anti-social douches, and I like my heroes having personality and, you know, dialog.  Shulk clearly has all that, and his negative qualities feel more like legitimate human flaws than anything else.  The "Book Smart but questionable Street Smart" angle worked, and gave a nice foil to Reyn, who in some regards was the opposite.  Reyn worked as the best friend, who wasn't a total idiot at least to basic common ideas, and even good at emotional support or simply making decisions based on moral thoughts.  He was the one, after all, who said "Shulk, you need to tell us your visions" giving the most basic, and simple reasoning of "We can't help you on what we don't know!"  Some funny interactions with Sharla, who is not afraid to say "Reyn, you're an idiot", and Riki, where it's basically "Hulk vs. Puffball."  The ending having all 3 of them together fishing and basically bouncing off one another was a great capstone on Reyn's interaction with both characters.  Speaking of Sharla...probably character I have the lowest opinion of in the main cast?  I mean, she has some good lines in battle ("This is proof that Brawns is better than Brains!" "Ok, I can't let THAT one slip, Reyn!"), and it's easy to sympathize with her stance but she didn't leave a strong impact.  I guess she's kind of like Lulu in FF10, in that she's not a bad character, but leaves little impact.  Speaking of which, another FF10 Parallel that's obvious is the next character, Dunban!

Dunban is basically Auron but friendlier and more open.  I don't mean this as a put down to Auron at all, just a difference in personality.  They're both the mentor figures of the main who were heroes in great events before, both are bad ass swordsmen, and heck, both even had a trinity of friends in the past!  I was legitimately surprised when Dunban ended up surviving the attack on Colony 9, because "Badass Swordsmen with super legendary weapon, overleveled, does un-remove-able gear...yeah, this guy is going to be dead by this sequence, and Shulk is getting the Monado", and then when he joined, and had a whole skillset with normal equips, I was basically "Wait, the badass mentor dude is not only alive, but a PERMANENT PC!?  I can get behind this!"  It's nice having that supportive mentor figure who isn't perfect, to be the "Team Dad" and simply keep things in line.  I found it also amusing that, of all people, when they were on the fallen Arm of the Mechonis, Dunban had a character introspection scene with Riki...and it worked.

Speaking of Riki...and yes, I know Melia should come next but shut up, HEROPON MORE IMPORTANT!  Riki is a really weird case of a character who SHOULD be played for laughs, but played straight for the most part despite his odd dialog, and it oddly doesn't seem intrusive.  I guess because Xenoblade gave him just enough dialog to flesh out his character and keep him a regular plot character, but not too much to the point where he got annoying.  He's actually funniest when paired with females in battles, such like Melia going "Here Riki Riki Riki.  Can I pet your hair please!?" "For you, Melia, ANYTHING!"    His attacks also show what kind of character he is.  Speaking of attacks, Riki took me the longest to figure out how to use him, and when I thought he'd be a pain to control (generally speaking, I didn't like controlling Sharla or Reyn, because Healer and Tank tend to be better AI controlled), but then I figured out he's best when just stacking a whole bunch of Gradual Damage moves like Poison or Burn, and watching the damage pile up fast.   Also...

Why does this guy:
(http://www.pidgi.net/wiki/images/thumb/e/ec/Riki_(alt)_-_Xenoblade_Chronicles.png/120px-Riki_(alt)_-_Xenoblade_Chronicles.png)

Have more HP than this guy:
(http://operationrainfall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/xb-reyn2-195x110.jpg)

So...yeah, Melia...when you think of "NIntendo Princess", you probably think of the DiD duo in Peach and Zelda.  Well, Melia says Bollocks to that and gets...put into a DiD situation early on, gets healed, then kicks ass with Ether, assassination attempt on her life, gets out, then kicks more ass.  Yeah, don't know where I'm going with this.  She just worked as being a dignified noble character to contrast the whole team of commoners, I guess, while not being an arrogant bitch about it.  The one thing that felt off was the forced Love Triangle tossed in which went nowhere...I guess it was put there because we needed to give Melia an emotional reason to stick with Shulk over her own people?  I dunno, felt like it was there for the sake of being there.

So...last character...must be spoken in SPOILER manner because...it's Fiora, the character you think is dead for half the game then pops up all GUNDAMNED OUT but seemingly amnesia'd NO WAIT JUST POSSESSED BY A GODDESS, ok, she's back to normal, except now she's KOS-MOS. Uh, ok, random, but does make for a unique look, character mechanics, and easy explanation for how Fiora can keep up with the other 6 characters despite being MOSTLY DEAD for this entire time.  I was worried that after her original appearance, she'd be all Tsundere-like, being all SHULK I LOVE YOU, but I'm also going to yell at you, combined with Reyn hating...then she dies, ok, nevermind.  Then she is undied and is not like that.  Frankly, this makes sense; she was put in a situation she never expected to see Shulk and Co. ever again, and having been reuinted with him, even in a manner that is less than ideal, she's going to look at all the positive sides of things, so being back with Reyn is going to be more a sense of familiarity than an "ugh, Reyn, shut up."  Furthermore, she's good at looking at the bright side of things.  Case in point, how she treats being in this new body.  Rather than whine or be emo about, she simply says she prefers her old body but can acknowledge the benefits of the new one, and willing to accept it just because it means she has a second chance at life.  It is, again, a nice breath of fresh air to see someone acting rationally and not getting all emotional over every little thing.

I'll give Monolith Soft one thing about that character in terms of design:  They made a Robotic Female who was not entirely fanservicey for once.  I say "entirely' because some armor options she has are a bit revealing, but don't worry, nothing on the level of BOOB CANNONS, at least in any obvious one (I think the medallion on the chest opens for her big ultimate attack, but you really can't see stuff with all the laser's flying around.)

Also, generally speaking the character interaction is top notch.  The existence of Heart to Hearts, while a pain to unlock sometimes because Affinities take a while to build up, just add extra scenes between characters which is also a bonus, and characters having unique battle dialog based on party members is nice.  Again, most obvious when you have Riki paired with 2 females, and he's talking about being the HEROPON PROTECTING THE LADY HOMS! and the two girls are all "My hero~" *fake swoon* after a fight ends.

Villains...meh, they worked, I'll just say that.  This is getting too long as is.


So...yeah, I think I've raved about this enough.  Don't have much else to say...or maybe I do and don't feel like it...or maybe I just don't know how to put it into logically sounding fitting words.  Well, no, I'll say one last thing:

A very odd strength I feel the game has is it was on the Wii.  As a result, it didn't have the graphical capabilities of the PS360, but rather, limitations that forced them to find ways to compensate around it.  It reminds me a lot of PS2 RPGs, like FF10, where characters do have odd exaggerated actions, constant close ups on who is talking, and scenes are more exposition than action based.  Strange as this sounds, this worked to the game's benefit, as the graphics are still just good enough to get all the important things across and make action related cutscenes look cool, but at the same time, never gets bogged down with feeling it needs to force action or special effects to that HD LEVEL!!!  I dunno, but it did remind me of how many PS2 RPGs looked like this, and in a good way.  I do wonder if it goes back to what Kitase said about FF6 recently, where one of the game's strengths was the fact that the Dev Team had to work under restrictions relative to what exists now, so you couldn't take this mindset of "Put everything in!" that many modern games fall into, as to some degree, feels like XBC was working in a similar vain, albeit, Wii has far less restrictions than the SNES, so maybe not <_<


So screw it, I will just say this:
9/10 game, maybe 9.5/10.  The game's flaws are minor and I can overlook it, and otherwise a really damned good game.  It's long, but honestly, that just gave a sense of wonder I haven't had in a jRPG for a while, and it's well paced as a lot of the time spent is stuff you're doing, not what the game is forcing you to do.  Took me nearly 80 hours to beat,  but don't really have a complaint about the length.  This is not something easy to say, all things considered.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 01, 2013, 06:28:32 AM
SR4: "I won't have some effeminate alien dictator stomping all over my expanded universe fiction!" Paranormal bromance.

I've done enough of the sidequesting that the NPCs have started glitching out. Now Steelport is filled with citizens suffering from SD Head Syndrome, people trucking around with giant eyeballs instead of heads, dudes walking upside down, floating through the air motionless, crackling with electricity, waving around wiggly Reed Richards fingers...It's official, folks, things are gettin' weird around here.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on September 01, 2013, 06:42:50 PM
LFT- Forward the White Lion of Andor! I just beat the game with a Andor themed team. Setups:

Aviendha- Bounced between Monk, Ubersquire, and Geomancer. Final setup:

Squire

Guts
Punch Art
Counter Flood
Martial Arts
Move+2

Avi also used Jump quite often with the Dragon Spear.

Thom: Mostly a thief with a mantle. It fit his fighting style perfectly. I had him as a Bard for a little while, but it just wasn't as effective as thief.

Thief
Charge
Abandon
Attack UP
Move+3


Birgitte- Archer unsurprisingly. She really came into her own once the special bows became available.  She had a large level lead late due to the autohaste bow.

Charge
Battle Skill
Speed Save (Death only makes her stronger, after all)
Concentrate
Move+2

Elayne- Focused on making things go boom boom. Also gave her talk skill since it fits her role later in the WoT books. She was awesome early on for black magic. BM trailed off late due to charge times going a little nuts, but talk skill filled the gap nicely.

Wizard

Black Magic
Talk Skill
Counter Magic
Magic Attack UP
Teleport

Nynaeve- Bad besides for revival early, scary late. Math skill is still an extremely effective niche.

Priest

White Magic
Math Skill
MA Save
Short Charge
Move+2

For the first three and a half chapters, I avoided using the Move+ skills. That however bored the living fuck out of me and created some frustrating situations (Goland was a nightmare, had a lot of resets due to Olan biting it before I could get near him).  Had fun with this run. Biggest issue besides for movement was the lack of revival- I had two revivers, neither of which was from Item. I had to be careful to keep them both up at all times.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Otter on September 04, 2013, 08:21:05 AM
CT initial equip: beat Magus without using any items in a fight that was pretty indicative of the challenge in general.  Benching this until the next time I resort to phone gaming.

LFT: Innovation challenge run just made it past the sluice.  I just realized that twitch records when I stream so maybe at some point I'll organize and title the vods.

SR4: just got to the They Live fight scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9rrgJXfLns).  Pretty amazing, as was the Streets of Rage segment.  Blahblah best sandbox, everyone's hyping this without my help.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on September 04, 2013, 09:55:31 AM
I suspect that given how CT defenses work on a curve, later on that no armor upgrades will be a bit more difficult.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on September 05, 2013, 01:02:38 AM
Dragon's Crown - beat.  This game is two gigantic boobs away from perfection.  It is the new high water mark for side-scrolling beat-em-ups.  There's not a lot of plot, but what is there is inoffensive and well-executed.  Animations are smooth, art is stunning.  Now let's talk gameplay.

Where Dragon's Crown absolutely shines is meticulously balanced gameplay.  There are 6 classes, and the ones I've spent time with all play quite difrferently, but I'd be hard pressed to say any one of them is actually better than the others.  Here's one example of balance: the durability curve is pretty flat between magic and physical classes, but physical classes have a much easier time interrupting melee attacks because of their longer combos and wider attack range.  There's a level cap for the regular game, but if you hit it (which you will if you do sidequests and you won't if you don't), you keep on gaining experience which, on NG+, is immediately applied.  Nicely done.

So far so good, but what really makes the game shine is stages and bosses.  There are 9 stages, and each one has a split path.  Stages are rather short (looks like they learned their lesson after Odin Sphere), packed with loot, and sprinkled with secret rooms.  Bosses are where the game really shines.  first of all, there are tons of them.  19 to be exact.  And almost every one of them involves some special feature.  Gimmick is too pejorative a word because these features really enhance things.  Just a few examples - there is a mage's tower.  the path splits and either you descend to the depths and fight an evil warlock, or you ascend to the top and fight a gigantic chimera.  When you fight the chimera, it takes up almost the entire room, and the fight continues you smash through one floor after another until, finally, if the fight lasts long enough, you smash through the bottom of the tower and the chimera falls into a pit of lava.  Or the pirate's den, where you fight a horde of pirates.  Who possess a genie's lamp.  If a pirate is holding the lamp, it summons a genie that does Bad Things to you.  If you get hold of the lamp you can summon a genie to do Bad Things to the pirates.  Naturally the lamp-holder can't defend themselves, but that's what you have allies for.  It is a good time.  Or the Wight, which is immortal and chases you through the catacombs, and is only vulnerable while light from a statue of the goddess shines on it.  Fortunately there exist a few such statues in the area.  Unfortunately the wight and its undead minions will try to destroy the statues when you get to them, so you are frantically protecting the statue, beating back the undead horde, and oh yeah trying to kill the Wight.  Good, good times.

Oh yeah, and the game has a slew of quests, the majority of which are interesting and fun, and all of which present neat little vignettes about the world.  Quests like 'defeat the harpy alone' because the requester doesn't want word to get out that his son, a young and foolish knight, was bewitched by the flying fiend.  Or 'secure the plans from the orc base without waking the sleeping orcs' or 'find the secret room in the wizard's lair, disrupt the ritual, and destroy the evil statue,' 'defeat the vampires without a single maiden dying' et cetera.  Fun stuff.  Did I mention there were a lot of them?  Oh yeah.  when you beat the game, another 20 or so open up.  Good, good times.

Anyway, game's great.  Play it.  9.5/10.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on September 05, 2013, 10:10:58 AM
Tales of Graces f: this is like game of thrones if game of thrones was boring
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 05, 2013, 05:01:45 PM
So... exactly like game of thrones?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on September 05, 2013, 08:39:54 PM
Presumably he means like game of thrones without the sex and violins.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 06, 2013, 04:55:33 AM
Star Ocean 4: Beat the second Seven Star Cave boss. It is a boss fight against four people, the leader has a passive which boosts all his team's offence by 50%. He has a million HP. He is also, I learned by complete accident, vulnerable to freeze. </nelson-laugh>

Suikoden 3: Hugo, chapter 3. Man does Wind of Sleep tilt tough fights. Enemies hit like trucks against my crappy armour, but WoS, man, it's good stuff, even at C rank. Hugo does benefit from most of his tough fights being against humans, as some monsters do immune it.


FF5 solo - Beaten. Recap of world 3:

Antlion - So I have a Level 7 Krile and a Level 2 Bartz. Whatevs, solo this with Level 7 Krile because it's funny. With a high-def setup in the back row she barely takes any damage (7HKO), Time Slip then Goblin Punch to death.
Gargoyles - Put them to sleep.

Moore Pyramid: Black Magic gets a real chance to shine in this dungeon. Almost everything here is weak to part of it. MP can be concern, so switching to Ninja does okay here too... and then I finally learn Throw, yay, so Black Mage with Throw for best of both worlds. Kaboom! I have one reset here from an ambushed by Accursed Ones who actually hit quite. Oops. Defaulting to the front row solves this problem because almost everything can be one-rounded if I'm not ambushed.

Melusine - Put her to sleep.

So at this point as usual things get a little crazy. Hermes Sandals are no less godly than they always are. But since I have summons at my disposal, I get another huge upgrade, in Syldra. Boosted Syldra is gross, using it off auto-haste annihilates randoms for most of the rest of the game. I don't completel lack resets but any I do get tend to be due to clear mistakes.

For my first three weapons I grab the Magus Rod, Assassin Dagger, and Sasuke's Katana, I believe, although of the three only the Magus Rod sees significant use. I was thinking I might try to master ninja which would have made Sasuke quite useful (super Main Gauche) but I never do. Magus Rod becomes the weapon of choice as it both cuts down on loads of weapon switching (Air Knife, four elemental rods), it also replaces Gaia Gear which is quite inferior to the Black Robe.

Odin - Well Skull Eaters are kinda jokes now. So is this guy. Four Syldras and he's down, pretty much.
Exdeath's Soul - He has instant death of several flavours, so Bone Mail comes out to play. Syldra and hope he doesn't use Banish (which there is no immunity to). Extra problematic is the fact that I also need a way to deal with Shield Dragons which I sometimes run into (I run with black magic once. Against an enemy with reflect. This doesn't work, hi reset).

Island Shrine: Fairly easy dungeon overall, summon wrecks things. I raise up random mage jobs at this point just to diversify my skillset. There is one huge exception though.
Tot Aevis - This guy is a dick on a solo. He has lots of HP and evade, and absorbs wind so killing him is a slow process. It would be easy, except I learn he has petrify. Well fuck. Using an Aegis Shield or Ribbon will stop this, though throws me into a weaker job of course. Blue Mage would probably be the best choice here (shield + hairpin) but I run knight in order to get Two Hands. Odin (Gungnir) is a decent way to chip him down, but slow, or I can hit him with the Brave Blade and hope I hit.
Wendigo - By contrast this guy sucks, put everyone to sleep then Syldra Syldra Syldra.

The second set of weapons I get includes the Sage's Staff since Holy is around the corner, Excalibur to hit the odd holy weakness, and Masamune for itemcast Haste.

Okay, so Fork Tower. This isn't really solo-friendly, so I decide that I'll run the non-Faris PCs as a low-levelled team (with no previously built up skills!). The enemies here are easy, except for Dueling Knights which counter. They're actually quite tricky. Fortunately they don't counter sleep! A mix of Blue Mage and Throw takes them out, Throw takes out everything else, so I run a blue mage and two ninjas.
Minotaur - Samurai/Ninja/Knight. Samurai itemcasts Haste on everyone, ninja is pointless but uh hey tanking counters with Sasuke (should have used something else), Knight uses Brave Blade. I was going to use Ninja for secondary offence but the counters make it not worth it. Not too bad, with protect and back row and good armour on my knight he doesn't actually do that much damage. Kind of terrible actually seeing as how frail my team is! (300 HP or so.)
Omniscient - Well I figured this was the tougher tower so I sent Faris to it. lolol Reflect on self, watch him fail. Also he's weak to Syldra.

For the record, yes, doing Fork Tower is somewhat against the spirit of the solo. Rest very assured I could easly have beaten the rest of the game without doing it, though. As mentioned I just wanted the challenge/experience of beating everything in the game on a solo, so Fork Tower had to fall for me to access two more dungeons.

Great Trench is another slaughter dungeon. Only noteworthy thing is learning Doom from the skeleton unknowns (kinda useful in one fight if I don't use the Magic Lamp, which I never do). Everything else gets crushed, Syldra one-shots most things and Odin deals with the rest. Including the boss. The Gargoyles (who get 2HKOed by Syldra) are literally the only fight in this dungeon I don't just one-shot.

Waterfall cave is mostly a slaughter dungeon, but...
Tonberry - One reset here, I overestimate their HP and the Knife x3 kills me. When I fight them again, Golem or Protect both own them.
Leviathan - One reset here too. I figure "lol I have Thundaga and 3000 HP, I won't lose unless my luck sucks". Of course I trigger a Tidal Wave counter right before he doubleacts, he does like 2000 damage at once and I die. Okay, refight with White+Black, Protect/Shell THEN beat him down in slaughterrific fashion. (i.e. he's easy, but I take him too lightly once.)

Phoenix Tower can be a bit tricky. I have a reset on Kuza Beasts who have ??? which is potentially evil, and one by triggering Danse Macabre (zombie) because I forgot which enemy used it and tried to stall for some MP regen. Otherwise it's not bad though. The randoms are just frail enough to be one-rounded by Syldra, the creatures in walls can largely be avoided (and most are easy anyway). Again Magic Pots I finish off Time Mage L6 and gain a bunch of AP for Red Mage... rod-using jobs are the best here because Wonder Rod assures you'll only lose one Elixir.

With all the dungeons done it's time for random world 3 stuff. I hunt down a bunch of randoms to say I did. And random other stuff.

Stingray - Oh yeah Mighty Guard is kinda cool I guess even in a solo, I take him down slowly otherwise.
Bahamut - lol boss focussed on multitarget damage in a solo, after Shell not even Megaflare is worth giving a shit about.
Famed Mimic Gogo - nothing
Level 5 Death - I pick this up from the island shrine at some point, Bone Mail finally lets me learn it!

Final dungeon time. Overall it's just bash away at everything with appropriate summons. Syldra kills lots, Odin kills most of the rest. I have a reset against an Iron Giant when I fight him accidentally without Summon equipped and get Rocket Punched, but no other issues with any randoms otherwise. A few randoms later resist Odin, but Leviathan (against water weaks) or just two uses of other summons also takes them down. Did I say two uses? I should mention I got Dualcast around when I hit the crystal region of the Void. >:D

Calofisteri - lol

Omega - Okay, this bad boy is tricky. With Rapidfire, Spellblade, and Dual-Wield a one-shot is likely possible at my levels. Unfortunately I have none of these things, and they take a combined 1330 JP to learn even though I already have Ninja Level 4 in the bank. Fortunately there's another way to win, although it's slower and riskier, but it needs far less setup. I run Time and Black Magic on a Freelancer with a Magus Rod, Flame Shield, Gold Hairpin, Sage's Robe, and Reflect Ring.

Here's the idea. Most of what Omega does is reflectable, fire elemental (Flame Shield), or earth elemental (cast Float before the fight). The exceptions are Rainbow Wind, which silences (blocked by armour), Surge Beam, which takes only half HP (bounce Fira/ga off Omega to heal with Flame Shield), and Maelstrom, which sets HP to single digits. The only way to die is for a combination of Maelstrom and HP leak. HP Leak is pretty much permanent in this fight due to Surge Beam being used so often. It can happen at most 1/3 of the time. The way to counter it is to be ready for the turn it is potentially used and heal IMMEDIATELY, which will save me unless I get really unlucky and Maelstrom is used, hits (it checks MEvade), and sets HP to 1-2. Overall that's about a 5% chance which is acceptably low. The tricky part is being ready for this. Maelstrom is used on a double action, and the first half is potentially Surge Beam, so I have to be above half HP for the turn. And the previous turn is also Surge Beam... which I have to heal from, and he gets turns faster than I do (I have no speed-boosting classes mastered sadly). A crucial realising is the REGEN spell. Yes, Regen. With it, I will recover HP between those two turns so I don't actually have to heal between them, as regen more than offsets HP Leak (though kicks in at fixed intervals instead of every clocktick, hence HP Leak can still kill).

The other trick to the battle is one I used on one of my fiestas; once per cycle Omega will use search, which bounces off Reflect. When he does this, for the rest of the turn he'll direct all counters against the target of Search. i.e. himself. Since his counters are potentially fatal (Encircle), this is important. Quick, Thundaga x2 takes off about 9000 damage, more if I'm lucky and he hits himself with Mustard Bomb. So, after 6-7 cycles, he's dead. Black Magic is used both for offence and healing, while Time Magic provides Haste (always the first action of course), Quick (helps me get started, and doubles offence), and yes, REGEN. I assume this will be Grefter- and Laggy-approved.

This fight is probably the highlight of the challenge. While other bosses needed clever setups, few are this clever, and no others were this difficult, save KARLABOS (what the fuck, game). Yes, it took the superboss to rival the second boss in the game, for challenge on a solo.

Anyway, onto other stuff.

Apanda - lol
Azulmagia - Azulmagia is great, as long as you're not level divisible by 3 you can teach him Level 3 Flare and watch him spam it. Which is good because some of his other stuff is kinda scary for a solo.
Catastrophe - So he can use petrify, which means a sub-optimum set with Aegis Shield. Fortunately otherwise he is all about the MT damage, against a solo.
Halicarnassus - Turns me into a frog but pretty lol otherwise.
Twintania - Wait for him to charge, then hit him with Catoblepas.
Gilgamesh - I steal the Genji Shield then never use it.
Necrophobe - Now that I have dualcast... yeah. Doesn't even get an attack off. Blitz the fuck out of the barriers with double Syldra, he gets a turn to drop his invincibility and use Flash, use double Holy (vs. weakness) in his face. Yes, this is the one and only fight I use Mime, for White/Summon/Dualcast.

Shinryu - Y'know back when I first played the game I beat Omega with relatively little trouble (dat Rapidfire Spellblade is pretty awesome and he's not too hard to survive against) but Shinryu gave me all sorts of hell. This remained true on subsequent normal playthroughs, to varying degrees. On challenges though, Shinryu's the easier one on average, I think, because there are more ways to damage him effectively without being worn down by his counters and such. Anyway Shinryu's no easy target obviously, but not too bad. White Magic, in particular, has almost everything needed for this fight - Protect/Shell/Blink for control, and Berserk if desired, although Berserk is somewhat dicy. I also run Summon just for some back-row compliant offence with Syldra. Golem also does Blink's job better than Blink itself, at least until Berserk, since due to my high level Golem is only 3HKOed after protect + back row. Equipment is Masamune/Magus Rod, Ice Shield, Ribbon, Black Robe, Coral Ring. Blocking both water and ice is very important (especially water), and he has a bunch of status so Ribbon.

Anyway, the start of the fight is dicy due to no haste or quick, but fortunately he wastes his first two turns (skips one, then Tidal Wave against Coral Ring). Itemcast Masamune for Haste, heal as needed while putting up various buffs. Once they're all in place, attack with Syldra, watching Golem's HP. There are a few complications. Shinryu is fast as fuck, significantly faster than Omega. So respect for those doubleturns is key, even with Protect/Shell/Golem to slow him down. Even worse, he has some doubleactions, though as long as my level is odd and not divisble by 3 (it isn't... both would be REALLY bad though due to his blue magic spells) only one of them can be used for two attacks. Just staying on top of healing and Golem is the key, attacking only when safe. It's certainly not a short fight, but overall, not as bad as I was fearing. There are a few combinations which will kill me with bad luck (Maelstrom then Thunder on a doubleturn, or Maelstrom then Poison Breath), but thanks to Shell I have a decent chance of those failing even should they happen. Anyway they don't come up. Looking at his AI script again I realise I was kinda lucky to beat him on my first try, but that's how these things go sometimes!

Exdeath / Neo Exdeath - So this time, the setup is Blue Magic and Summon Magic. Magus Rod, Aegis Shield, Ribbon, Rainbow Dress, Hermes Sandals. The key to this equipment is it blocks all immunable status except zombie, which is key.

The first form is the harder one. Yeah, I'm kinda weirded out by this too. First off, between 60% and 20% HP, he can use Doom. YOU LOSE! Not until a few turns in but it means you need to press the gas pedal during this stage. Then, below 20%, he can use Meteor. Meteor... probably isn't going to kill through Shell, but it is a strange, random thing, and if you're unlucky, it -can-.

Anyway, it's best dealt with by Mighty Guard and Golem, then blitz blitz blitz blitz. Carbuncle would also probably be a good idea, since I can heal through it anyway and it does lessen the need to heal against Flare/Holy. I don't think to do this though. Fortunately it's easy to setup at full HP, since with statusblocking his full HP skillset is a horrid joke, ohnoes basic physicals. I do die once here, though, because of Doom. I never knew he had Doom!

Neo Exdeath by contrast is actually easier. The only thing he has that is scary is Grand Cross, hence the statusblocking setup. Even with all that, though, he can still inflict zombie (no way to block that at the same time as sleep/paralyse/stop) or Maelstrom-style low HP (and some of his moves inflict HP Leak). They're not likely (1/18 each), but y'never know. Otherwise the move does nothing. Still, that move puts a timer on the fight, which is why I used Syldra to blitz it down. In hindsight, this is questionable. I might have been better served by, say, Holy (it'd mean no Golem) or even Brave Blade Sword Dance since I really only need to blitz that one part. But this makes the overall fight shorter, so whatever. It's not that hard anyway.

Everything else is largely whatever. Dispel is the most notable move, but one Mighty Guard patches that up (it doesn't kill Golem). Damage moves all suck against 3000 HP and Protect/Shell, and Golem means I don't even need to heal often because the physicals ~12HKO Golem, Flare/Holy are the best (and they don't last long!) at a mere 3-4HKO. Almagest is a hilarious joke of course.

The back part is the recipient of a Doom spell, easing up on some damage a bit. It's not really necessary, as Carbuncle neutralises it (I don't bother) and it's not too damaging anyway, but it saves me some time. Beyond that it's straightforward, Syldra all day long and Elixir when I need to heal HP or MP (more often MP). When Grand Cross is coming before my next turn (I double constantly of course, but after the second turn post-the charge announcement), I wait in case it does critical HP so I can heal immediately. Of course it never does. The third Grand Cross does, in fact, inflict the dreaded countdown, but by then the battle is basically over. The nice thing about Syldra is it kills both parts at the same time. As with form 1, I -could- tank through Neo Exdeath's limit mode, but I would overall rather not.


Fun fun! As mentioned, final level was 55. I have a full maingame bestiary except for Bartz's Abductor (which I forgot about... if I'd cared I probably could have beaten him LLG style though not certain). Final job levels were as follows:

Mastered: Red Mage. Only class I did this for. Probably not worth it but it was something to do in world 3 as JP gains spiked up, and made endgame randoms a joke at least.
Job Level 6: Black, White, Time Magic. Pretty obvious, all good skillsets. Only reason I bothered with Black 6 was Osmose, and this probably was a waste of time, but any rod-user was so easy to use late that whatever.
Job Level 5: Summoner. Same as the above, this gives the full skillset. There's no reason for magic mastery as setting magic skillsets gives you good magic anyway. Anyway, Summon is probably the game's best skillset overall. MT damage that starts good then becomes absolutely amazing as time goes on, and some cool utility options.
Job Level 4: Ninja. Throw. Ninja is pretty obviously the best physical job in FF5, and you can debate if it's actually physical. Magic provides all the utility, Throw and Summon provide the best MT smash and... are pretty damn good at ST smash honestly! The best varies but yeah.
Job Level 3: Blue Mage, Knight. I went for Two Hands but never really ended up using it. Blue Magic is obvious. Vampire was OP for a while but as predicted it definitely fell by the wayside late.
Job Level 2: Monk, Beastmaster. Punching things worked very well earlygame, even moreso than usual due to being level-reliant. Still a world 1-thing only, really. Control's only occasionally useful, but really good when it is. Had I not being interested in defeating all enemies, though, I probably should have passed on this; confuse works as well for getting most blue skills save 1000 Needles which eh I wasn't durable enough to get while it still mattered.
Also used a bit: Dancer for ribbons. However in any actual tough fight, freelancer for ribbons is better. Thief for stealing the Genji Shield even if I didn't end up using it! I used Samurai on the kids in one fight for Masamune itemcast + better HP than Freelancher! Does that count?

Did not use: Everything else. Berserker obviously just sucks, Mystic Knight takes an extra turn to do much and is all ST even thereafter so not very useful on a solo (though Drain Sword would have some okay use against a few bosses probably), Geomancer is just inferior sweeping to other options, Bard is all about status which is too short-lasting on a solo (or team buffing), Ranger is just kinda mediocre outside Rapidfire which at 600 JP is too expensive for something so niche, Dragoon sucks, Samurai doesn't really have a great niche. Chemist... well, Mix is fine and in hindsight probably shouldn't have been banned, there are only a few fights where its extra utility is particularly useful (nice against Exdeath though, Doom immunity!). Early Vampire is certainly more overcentralising! Then again the early going is harder than the late, so banning things that are good in the earlygame is questionable.

Pretty fun. I'm not normally a big fan of solos but FF5 is fairly well-suited to them, game is fairly easy but just hard enough to gain some definite bite from a solo, without becoming stupid and grindy (hence why I did 2-person runs of SH3 and G3, for instance). My biggest issue with the challenge is it felt like too much of the challenge was just coming from status moves which normally are bad (and hence I often don't even remember despite having played the game 8 times!). Like seriously, ST confuse and ST paralyse and ST stop and ST doom and Grand Cross all suck in normal files, but they were some of the scariest things for a solo because it's pretty hard to block status outside Dancer/Freelancer (though Hermes Sandals cover a few, and Bone Mail is a godsend for certain things). It's fine though, just kinda weird; I was hoping for a bit more challenge from a good slugging boss (the way FF6 bosses can lay waste to solo PCs despite similar HP inflation) but it didn't really pan out.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: OblivionKnight on September 06, 2013, 01:14:03 PM
Not a lot of console gaming, but lots of computer gaming!

Until my computer died a few weeks ago :(.  Still trying to salvage it...

Thank god for backups!


Big thing has been League of Legends.  This is an excellent game, but it's got a worse population of whiny players than any Blizzard game.  Holy shit.  The stories I could tell...I typically play a middle mage, secondary a support (Soraka...I think that's the only one I play).  Viktor, Lux, Morgana, Gragas are probably my mains (<3 Viktor's Death Ray).  Actually hit level 30 right before the computer blew, but will probably do ranked at some point.  Seriously though, the people are...asses.

For RPGs...hey, check out Exit Fate and Last Scenario.  Exit Fate is like the best Suikoden game I've played, and Last Scenario is also quite good for a more classic RPG feel.  They're free, and fun.   

Usual SCII, TFII stuff.  Love SC2 having unranked now - more fun experimentation.  TF2 always has been and always will be fun as hell.

Diablo 3 got boring real fast...the expansion and new direction look like it might revitalize it a lot.  Definitely picking it up, and will go back to it at some point, but it is definitely the most disappointing Blizzard game ever :(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 06, 2013, 02:28:20 PM
About the FF5 solo: You're not playing the GBA version? The aftergame can definitely be done. I liked going in it blind and solo.



Baldur's Gate:

So I didn't like this game because:
- D&D rules are about as directly transferable to videogames as Mario Kart is to a book format. The mechanics are ridiculously complicated for no reason, and everybody has like a 30% chance to hit, MAX, making every fight heavily luck reliant. (This gets better in 2 IIRC)
- Evil path is pretty badly done. This is not really a game of choice, you're supposed to be a good guy/girl pretty much. Pretty much any time you can choose to be a jerk, you're pretty much going to be punished for it. (This is still fun)
- Exploring maps is terrible if you've OCD about this (I've gotten better at not caring about this lately)
- Too much bad loot everywhere
- Boring setting, characters, plot
- Fucked up balance
- Psycho Cyan final boss
- Bad journal


This is still all true.
That said, Lawful-Evil Yattaf solo challenge on the hardest difficulty setting.

I got the game on GOG and am doing the whole trilogy Tutu thing, with everything added, high resolution etc. The only gameplay change i made was removing the exp cap, which might have fun consequences later on.
Yattaf is a fighter/mage/thief, focused on long bows and long swords because longbows rock and I remember good swords being everywhere.
3 wisdom (And I am going to roleplay this all the way through), 13 charisma, maxed other stats. Same picture as Skie.

Fighter/mage/thief characters take ages to level up so the earlygame is hell. Yattaf's taco is either way too high or way too low (I forgot whether the taco stat should be high or low), and she has one level 1 spell. And no money.
Fortunately after some experimentation I realized that Sleep is disgustingly overpowered and sailed through earlygame randoms. Yattaf is now level 4/3/4. There is still no good way to heal so I'm just staying at royal chambers in inns several days in a row. Somehow this is waaaay less expensive than asking a priest to heal you in town.

Highlights so far:
- First time using sleep and realizing that this is AoE, asleep enemies have their stats lowered don't wake up after being hit.
- Maxing lockpick at first and getting that 1000G gem in the first city, selling that prompto
- Pickpocketing, failing, hiding in the shadows and getting the hell out
- Getting Imoen in the party just to have her get the kiss of death from Nereid (who immediately attacks Yattaf afterwards) Near death Nereid goes all "Wait please. I have a quest! Allow me to explain. I can resurrect thy friend" and Yattaf goes all "LOL no die". 5000 free exp. Awesome. Then Yattaf just dumps Imoen's body . (who will inexplicably come back in the sequel?)

Worst part:
- Having nearly enough money to buy an awesome longbow + 1, doing Garret's recruitment quest the lawful evil way, losing 2 reputation points and seeing the price of the longbow +1 skyrocket.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 06, 2013, 02:33:04 PM
FE10: So started a new game of this.  Originally I had a replay about halfway in but my brother makes it hard to play on the Wii, so shifted to a different console and started over!  Why did I stop that replay originally?  Honestly, I couldn't give you a good reason if I tried.

Anwyay, just beat 1-7.  I'm raising Fiona because I never did it before and I keep getting reminders why I never did it.  Even with an Iron Lance+5, she sucks.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 06, 2013, 04:39:13 PM
Man I haven't even thought about the FF5a aftergame in years. Maybe I'll give it a spin but I remember it being kinda dull/long outside the big three bosses, areas were too big with not enough save points. I almost never bother with encounter control in RPGs unless I'm retreading or lost, but I definitely used Read Ahead there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on September 06, 2013, 05:04:28 PM
Lufia 3- Just got the princess. Randolph is a thing. He combines Tia's durability with Dekar's magical stats and speed. We have an early frontrunner for cast LVP!

Really enjoying the game. I cleared out the ruby icon dungeon, that involved a lot of running and spamming of Destroy. It got me enough cash for a bunny ears which is cool.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 06, 2013, 10:46:57 PM
Fen if you are interested this (http://www.gibberlings3.net/bg2tweaks/) tweak pack has an option to change the reputation tables to give discounts at low and high rep.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 06, 2013, 11:06:06 PM
Nah don't worry. I don't want to impact the base game too much, aside from removing the exp cap.

Solo = Way too much money anyway, and I use Friends for discounts.
I just cleared the mines with 10 000G waiting. Bought every spell available plus a few Potions of Broken +1. The exploding skull is fun.

I really don't see any point to fighter/thief/mage except in a solo game, where they're so cool. They just do everything!

All in all this is pretty fun. Non linear world + No level scaling + Difficulty + Lots of options does that to me even with the gameplay issues.



Randolph really has no point whatsoever BTW. First PC I kicked out. I'm the only other guy (ever) who likes Lufia 3 by the way.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on September 06, 2013, 11:14:33 PM
Don't you need another 5 PCs to join after Randolph before you have enough to kick him out?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on September 07, 2013, 04:36:25 AM
NEB:

Fun fact vs. Omega: Encircle and other Expel moves are immuned by Dragon's Kiss. Also, If you just wait around in Quick you can fullheal with Regen if you want.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 07, 2013, 07:30:34 AM
Pyro: Yeah, I'm aware of that. However, two things. One, I banned Mix because I feared it would be overcentralising (due to haste, defensive buffs, and status all in one skillset). As I mentioned in my post, this proved a mistake likely, as it wouldn't have actually been as potent as I was worried about compared to things I could do anyway. Two, Encircle is only one problem with Omega's counters; another is Mustard Bomb, which does nasty unreflectable non-elemental damage, something Omega normally doesn't have and something I wasn't really prepared to deal with. And the reflecting-Search strategy makes counters a non-issue regardless.

That said, I'd still likely have used Dragon Kiss in both that fight against final Exdeath if I could, for the immnity to Maelstrom and in Exdeath's case, Doom. For Omega I'd use Mix with Mime to replace item, since it can cover MP healing in item's place. For Exdeath I'd probably use Summon + Mix? (Need the ribbon, so no Mime unless I master Dancer and Equip Ribbon carries over... no clue if it does actually.)

Re regen: Far more evil than regen, the exact same trick works with HP Leak as well, so apply HP Leak, Quick, collect victory with Omega (or ANYTHING ELSE IN THE ENTIRE GAME since nothing immunes HP Leak) It's degenerate (and slow) enough that I refuse to use it on principle. That said the regen version wouldn't actually be useful in that particular fight, as (a) it would be incredibly slow as regen would be fighting HP Leak which Omega has you constantly under (and winning, but only slowly), and (b) I had a healing skillset for free since black magic had my best damage... and just happened to also have full healing by accident due to my need for a flame shield.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on September 07, 2013, 01:06:59 PM
I thought I had tested Venom/Bio+Quick to see if that worked and was disappointed when I couldn't get it to work on enemies. Maybe I was trying the wrong thing. Anyways I had a blast reading about your solo NEB.

Tales of Xillia:

Just cavorting around testing some things about the system and verifying level/GC gain. In re-fighting some old bosses with the knowledge that multi-hit Artes are the best form of damage, I've come to another conclusion. In addition to one-hit artes inflicting optimum damage/hit, they also enable you to very very quickly change from a combo to a backstep dodge. Since enemies give you a sign (blue ! mark) when they are about to combo-break, being able to get away fast is fantastic. This is rather awesome with Jude, who backsteps a great distance and has a good chance to avoid an attack entirely. Or you can just Guard and reduce the damage dramatically.

Levels 2-12: 3 GP gain
Levels 13-35: 4 GP gain
Levels 36-40: 5 GP gain
Levels 41-50: 4 GP gain
Levels 51-59: 3 GP gain
Levels 60-99: 2 GP gain.

I think Leia's "random" element skill is non-random and gives you the enemy's weakness if they have one. Sweet.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 07, 2013, 01:44:39 PM
FE13: Almost to Chapter 11, who should I pair Chrom up with? (why can't I pair up Chrom with Cordelia? you are cruel, game.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 07, 2013, 02:21:53 PM
FE13: Almost to Chapter 11, who should I pair Chrom up with? (why can't I pair up Chrom with Cordelia? you are cruel, game.)

Well, there's only one FAIR way to decide:

HATBOT!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on September 07, 2013, 06:57:46 PM
Accidentally saved over my 95% complete SR4 save.  OH NO GUESS I'LL HAVE TO PLAY IT AGAIN.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on September 07, 2013, 07:27:43 PM
Whoever you want, Djinn.  Although if you've paid attention to chat, understand that if you want ChromxOlivia, you have to jump through some crazy hoops, so maybe best to save that for a later playthrough.  Also ChromxMaribelle is kinda "bad" depending on your thoughts on grinding.  (Having done that myself...  if you want them to actually fall in love and hit an S Support, you need to pair up Mari with Chrom and have Chrom go on a killing spree.  If you want Mari to *gain levels* and not suck, you need to have her heal.  So yeah, doing a minor bit of Risen / DLC to let Chrom x Maribelle mow down a bunch of sucky enemies for support is highly recommended.)

Enemies don't wake up from BG1 Sleep?  Weird.  (But the less said about BG1, the better.)

Also, in very belated FE9 commentary, I know that people tend to whine a lot about slow FE9 Weapon skill growth, but I find it difficult to care in a game where you can easily forge Iron weapons +3 on the cheap that'll have a ton of uses, and Iron weapons +5 later that make that E in whatever weapon type look good.  Axes are still good, but getting Steel early isn't so much the reason why for me!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 07, 2013, 08:22:32 PM
By the logic of "You can forge Iron!", I can argue "You can forge Steel and that character can use it."  Also, late in the game, few people want to use Iron+5 when they can be swinging around Steel+5 or Silver+5.  Axes having Steel at E Rank, or Mist's D Rank in Swords (as opposed to E) is nice for that reason alone (granted, Mist still has issues killing things that aren't mages)

Also, might as well toss in "You can only forge 1 weapon per chapter, do you really want to use it on Iron that late?"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on September 07, 2013, 08:29:35 PM
Tales of Graces f: It was almost Crusader Kings but then it was Tales again. Hi Pascal~

(http://i.imgur.com/FRfe4Lv.gif) (http://imgur.com/FRfe4Lv)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 07, 2013, 08:33:56 PM
FE13: Heh, Virion and Cherche have this dynamic that's very Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Awesome <3 Why can't I pair Chrom with cool people? (Well, okay, Sully is awesome, but a weird match for Chrom.)

I ended up choosing Maribelle, though I can't help but feel she's too good for him.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on September 07, 2013, 09:12:20 PM
Chrom/Sully is the most natural to me because they are already friends and unlike Sumia it's not just her being gaga over him.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 07, 2013, 10:21:00 PM
It's less that Sully isn't a good pairing for Chrom and more that... Sully can do better than Mr. Boring Prince.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on September 07, 2013, 10:45:39 PM
There are pretty slim pickings in that army. Frederick, sure, but we know he is probably gay for Chrom. Lesbian sex is probably the best way to get a respectable partner.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 07, 2013, 11:18:16 PM
Gregor is not pleased with that statement!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on September 08, 2013, 12:48:15 AM
Steamworld Dig - played through

Pretty entertaining. Got two gold medal-things and two bronzish ones, the bronzish ones being for time and death tally.

Gets a bit annoying later on when re-appearing blocks show up, but you also get the metal detector in that area which essentially trivialises the whole mining side of things anyway. I have mixed feelings on that.

It was also a bit disappointing that the only people who moved into the town were storeowners.



MacGuffin's Curse - played through

Pretty entertaining. Lots of amusing object descriptions, at least until the mansion.

I didn't really understand that it was going to be a game of pushing things around until I started playing it, which was a depressing thing to discover, but ultimately the puzzles rarely ever got complex enough to be annoying, which was a relief.



The Blackwell Legacy - played through

Seems promising. Then it ends. (Referring to shortness, not to some problem with the ending.)

Hopefully the sequels will be able to do more with what it was building up.

Notes system reminds me of Discworld Noir, which is always a good thing. Typically I managed to forget it existed at the most critical time though, which I blame on it not coming up in the conversations at that point.

I am a bit down on the way progression is sometimes structured - the time which stands out the most is in one of those areas where you only get to talk to a person, and when you stop talking you automatically leave - after you leave the first time, you need to go straight back in order to have a different conversation with the same person that gets you an item, which you can't do during the first time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 08, 2013, 01:39:29 AM
Enemies don't wake up from BG1 Sleep?  Weird. 
It also basically never runs off.
Asleep enemies are basically dead enemies unless you decide to rest for 8 hours or something.

(But the less said about BG1, the better.)
Too bad!!

Baldur's Gate Yattaf Solo Insane Difficulty:
Gotten to the Cloakwood mines already, level 6/6/7.
The boots of speed (2x walking speed) are there. They're kinda annoying in a regular game and basically the best thing ever in a solo. I'll try to avoid not abusing backpedaling + shooting too much from now on, something that can probably kill anything. Otherwise the game is still basically crazy hard. I die and have to try new approaches against every other encounter. And I obviously rest every fight.

I got some mileage out of a lot of spells lately, including unusual ones like Grease or Blindness.

I also realized that I was kinda traumatized by the spider lair as a kid. This game has some of the most unsettling giant spiders! The basic one is already giant and gross as hell. Then there's the slightly bigger green one, the teleporting one that probably teleports in your mouth in your sleep, and worst of all the superfast one you can't hide from.
And the lair itself comes out as a surprise "Hey let's check out this cave OMG"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 08, 2013, 02:19:45 AM
The best part:

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/36/1378603165-what.jpg)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 08, 2013, 03:02:57 AM
My personal favorite is probably the archest of archers, but I also like The Vaike and Gregor. Unfortunately, they won't let me marry Gregor to everyone.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on September 08, 2013, 12:20:04 PM
Tales of Graces f: All hail blood god Richard

Rank Raymond
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Otter on September 08, 2013, 01:47:36 PM
Because I remember Elmonster's Journal (http://www.baldurdash.org/journal.html), I'm expecting some Yattaf fanfic in between the fight recaps.

SR4: finished, with 93% completion.  I have some gripes over stuff that's gone missing since SR3 (what happened to quickswitching among weapons? where did grenades go? why'd they ditch the fun Genki minigame and keep insurance fraud?) but some of the other changes are great (instant vehicle delivery, hacking stores instead of paying for them, that Audiosurf-esque minigame).  After SR3 I felt like there was no reason to go back to SR2; not exactly sure I feel the same way this time, but regardless it's pretty great.  I do wish you could replay old missions from a holodeck on your ship or something.

LFT Innovation: finally beat Zalera and then churned through Dyce and the Murond sequence.  In UBS4 I had to rely on a turn-1 Invite of Nitori the Auto-Haste Archer because he kept one-shotting the ladies.  Rofel and Kletian were both easier than the Nitori fight, going down on the first try each, but Balk held me up for a while; it turned out I just wasn't able to get a Holy or a summon off and I had to get my mediator and archer the turns they needed instead.  Faith-boosting my mediator was a good precaution.  I gave Hashy one attempt and got wrecked by damage split; will come back at him with some Threaten I think.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 08, 2013, 03:31:28 PM
Pokemon Black: Replaying this because reasons.  Just beat Cold Storage.

FE10: 1-E, here we go!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 08, 2013, 09:39:01 PM
FE9: Trying to avoid casualties on Hard leads to a loooooooot of resets. I did stealth on the jailbreak mission, which was a giant pain in the ass because of how brutal the boss is one-on-one, and then C11 just had a lot of moving parts to keep in order. C12, the first one on the boat, was simple once I figured out that crows can't attack through the walls of a ship. C13 is shaping up to be another pain. Especially when the enemies crit the NPC on guard duty and win turn one.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on September 08, 2013, 09:43:33 PM
Shale: Yeah, that's a problem.  The best way around it is to recruit Astrid on turn 1.  It will probably involve using Lethe and SHOVE hype (yes, you can shove people around to get those crucial extra squares to move in range right away.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 08, 2013, 10:29:20 PM
Yeah, I've been doing that the last couple of runs. It's a bit painstaking...I should probably consider swapping in Moredecai for SMITE HYPE.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 08, 2013, 11:07:06 PM
Man sometimes I think Shale may be the most well rounded human being in the DL and then stuff like this happens.

Who is it going to be and how many strange things does Jim have to do before the runnings are between Meeple and OK?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on September 09, 2013, 12:11:12 AM
SR4: finished, with 93% completion.  I have some gripes over stuff that's gone missing since SR3 (what happened to quickswitching among weapons? where did grenades go? why'd they ditch the fun Genki minigame and keep insurance fraud?) but some of the other changes are great (instant vehicle delivery, hacking stores instead of paying for them, that Audiosurf-esque minigame).  After SR3 I felt like there was no reason to go back to SR2; not exactly sure I feel the same way this time, but regardless it's pretty great.  I do wish you could replay old missions from a holodeck on your ship or something.

The modding team who did Gentleman of the Row and Gentlemen of Steelport are actually working on that right now.  They successfully modded it into SR2 and 3 but there's a few more complications (more global triggers tied to story progress in SR4, I think?) that are making it take longer.  So hang in there.  Unless you're playing it on console in which case you need to realize you are inferior to the PC Master Race.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 09, 2013, 12:25:24 AM
FE13: just got Henry. Holy crap Dark Mages in this game rock face. I would pair him up with Tharja, but she is already married to Robin because Tharja is awesome and balanced. Tal made a comment before: Dark Mages are making up for 12 games of being boring as hell.

I think they are doing an excellent job. :)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 09, 2013, 01:11:00 AM
Because I remember Elmonster's Journal (http://www.baldurdash.org/journal.html), I'm expecting some Yattaf fanfic in between the fight recaps.


Jesus I should have written it from the start, because I've already forgotten most of it already. (Nice link by the way)


Basically Yattaf is strong, smart, independant. She doesn't need anyone's help. She wants to be everything at once to handle any situation: She's a fighter and mage and kleptomaniac, basically anything but dumb priest or dumb bard.
She won't admit it but she just didn't care at all about her old man getting killed by Sarevok in the intro (Let's face it, Gorion has always been a relic to her, she doubts anybody has ever cared about him), but she seeks revenge purely because she felt personaly humiliated. To this end, she's willing to do mercenary work for all the wrong people for more money.

Yattaf grew up with Imoen, and always found her kind of... gross? She sometimes hung out with her because she was seen as the hotter girl of the two, but that was basically it. Imoen always tried to stick with her and never really understood Yattaf's numerous messages. As soon as Yattaf found a way to get rid of her without getting her hands dirty, Imoen was gone from this world.

Yattaf's reputation in the Sword Coast has been pretty terrible lately, and if you ask her it's mostly because she's terribly honest. This one guy called Minsc asked her about rescuing his girlfriend and she just couldn't give any fuck about it. Minsc attacked her and met a swift death.
Similarly, a drunkard and a bunch of druids probably expected more politeness than they should have from Yattaf. They're all dead. Yattaf is very touchy about her freedom to go wherever she wants and I sincerely doubt she's ever going to apologize to anyone.

Yattaf always had the option to have a faithful familiar with her, but she's too cheap to feed him.

At one point one guy asked her a riddle :
"It has neither mouth nor teeth yet it eats its food steadily.
It has neither village, nor home, nor hands, nor feet; yet it wanders everywhere
It has neither country, nor means, nor office, nor pen yet its ready to fight - always
By day by night there is wailing about it.
It has no breath yet to all it appears."
Yattaf gave the obvious answer: A bear. Yet the guy still attacked her. Oh well, she killed him and collected the bounty on his head: Happy ending.

In battle, Yattaf uses everything in her arsenal. Against an average enemy, Yattaf hides in shadows to hit her first target's weakpoint with her bow. She then unleashes any status effect (Sleep, Charm, Hold) while still showering the enemy with arrows. If all else fails and the enemy's at close range, Yattaf confuses it with Mirror Image, attacks with her Spider Bane and drowns him with various attack spells like Magic Missle or Agannazar's Scorcher.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 09, 2013, 01:16:31 AM
BTW I've been hit by a terrible bug that shows the polymorphing animation around Yattaf every 3 seconds. It's horrible.
When I realized this I had saved all over my old saves. I hope it's going away with BG2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 09, 2013, 01:22:59 AM
FE13: just got Henry. Holy crap Dark Mages in this game rock face. I would pair him up with Tharja, but she is already married to Robin because Tharja is awesome and balanced. Tal made a comment before: Dark Mages are making up for 12 games of being boring as hell.

I think they are doing an excellent job. :)

Hey, Ray's totally fine in FE6!  Won't really defend them in any other game though (well, Pelleas is ok, I guess, but replay Only is totally lame.)

Also they didn't exist in every game either, if you want to be technical, just FE4 (enemy only), FE5-8, FE10 and FE13 off hand?

...yes, I'm being super technical, what about it?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 09, 2013, 01:27:31 AM
Re FE9, yeah, can't recommend this enough: turn 1 have Mordecai use smite and someone else use shove and get Astrid turn 1. I used to think that C13 was the hardest map in the game, but that strategy (plus the knowledge that most of the crows don't actually attack, though you do have to defend the base square from them) makes it not too bad.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 09, 2013, 01:40:41 AM
Also Astrid, despite all first impressions, is actually very much worth raising.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 09, 2013, 03:01:58 AM
Astrid isn't really spectacular enough to be worth it I found. There are other better units that don't eat exp like crazy. Also bows suck and she'll only have an E in other weapons when promoting.
I don't think any FE Nino-like is worth it though.

BTW

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/37/1378691833-new.jpg)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 09, 2013, 03:05:18 AM
Wait there weren't any Dark Mages in FE9? I could have sworn there was something close at least?

And FE11-12 had a few Dark Mage alikes too. They were mostly just Sages with dark clothes though I suppose.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 09, 2013, 03:12:25 AM
Try clearing your Temp folder Fen, it might clear up the bug with animations (I doubt it, but that fixes things normally related to map change errors and crashes upon changing area.  Worth a try though!)

Elmonster's Journal is great times, recommend reading through to killing Demogorgon at least.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 09, 2013, 03:21:20 AM
No dark mages in FE9, no. FE11-12 has them but yeah they didn't have any special dark magic to use.

Nosferatu, which is probably the iconic dark tome of GBA and 3DS FE, spent FE9-12 as a light tome, so you might be thinking of light mages from FE9/etc. instead.

Astrid's on the borderline of "definitely worth using" to me. She doesn't need crazy amounts of exp to be good (give her the same exp you give anyone else and she'll still catch up and surpass others within a few maps because Paragon), but she is crappy for 2-3 maps. There are many better mounted units in that game but few better who are unmounted!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 09, 2013, 04:42:05 AM
Interestingly, Nosferatu, sometimes called Resire, originally was a Light Tome in older FE games too.  I think it's only Dark in the GBA games and FE13.  Nosferatu was also the attack move Clerics got in FE2, aka the only way the could actually gain EXP!

Branching from that, I think FE13 is exceptional in that it is the only FE game to have Dark Magic, but not Light Magic.  I don't really have a point here, nor trying to imply anything, just something I noticed since there have been several FE games with Light magic and no Dark Magic (FE9, FE11-12), but nothing pre-FE13 that had it the other way around.

For Astrid, yeah, the EXP gains, combined with how she joins with an equip that compliments them perfectly (+30% Speed Growth, whee!), are why I think Astrid is worth using.  It's worth putting up with the few maps she's mediocre in (ok, not worth using on the desert I suppose) as once she catches up, she's quite effective.  The "E Rank in her 2nd weapon class" doesn't bother me too much because she can pick Axes for that weapon, and a Forged Steel Axe is good enough as a Melee weapon to last her, if you need her to counter Melee.

Now, FE10 Astrid...yeah, there's really no defending her.  They pretty much nerfed her growths to compensate for Paragon's awesomeness, but forgot to give her good bases to compensate, on top of how Paragon can now be taken off her and given to any PC (the only perk of keeping it on her is it's free, whoo?), making her in running for Worst PC in the game.  The only real gimmick she has is being the only mounted Double Bow user in the game, which I guess is something, but it's not nearly enough to make up for all the problems she has before then, and really, the Greil Marksmen are just so much better at using it anyway (1-3 Range on a weapon that strong? SIGN ME UP!)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 09, 2013, 04:52:07 AM
Well there are many kinda bad, mostly unmounted character types in FE9 (Mages, thieves, non-humans in general, prepromoted in general, swordmasters) and she's probably better sure. But compared to other immediately usable paladins she just feels worthless, like those lategame paladins in Shining Force no one ever uses.
Nobody ever cares about Makalov but he might actually be more worth using for example.

Nice try but this didn't work Gref. I can't see how this would not go away with BG2 though, even with all the Tutu thing I added. Right? Right???
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 09, 2013, 05:35:39 AM
Interestingly, Nosferatu, sometimes called Resire, originally was a Light Tome in older FE games too.  I think it's only Dark in the GBA games and FE13.  Nosferatu was also the attack move Clerics got in FE2, aka the only way the could actually gain EXP!

Branching from that, I think FE13 is exceptional in that it is the only FE game to have Dark Magic, but not Light Magic.  I don't really have a point here, nor trying to imply anything, just something I noticed since there have been several FE games with Light magic and no Dark Magic (FE9, FE11-12), but nothing pre-FE13 that had it the other way around.


I think you could make the argument that Staves are already "Light Magic", so it makes more sense the FE13 way.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 09, 2013, 06:04:35 AM
It will probably go away if you did Tutu, it will stick around if you did Trilogy because it is the whole thing in one game (I don't like Trilogy).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 09, 2013, 08:51:43 AM
FE13: Cherche and Kellam are surprisingly adorable. Libra has far more amusing supports than I would have imagined given how bland and one-note he seemed at first glance.

Henry is apparently the RNG's favorite person. He's gained like 3 perfect levels in the 5 he's gotten since he joined. Has the best battle quotes, too.

Because I'm playing along with the LP, I got inspired and fed all my stat boosting items to Vaike. Pairing him up with War Cleric Lissa for the axe-smashing-est good times.

Current team:

Chrom/Maribelle
Cherche/Kellam
Robin/Tharja
Vaike/Lissa
Libra/Virion/Henry/rotation slot

Yeah... I'm not optimizing at all, but I'm having fun!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 09, 2013, 09:23:33 AM
Suboptimal play means you are scum.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on September 09, 2013, 12:07:24 PM
Interestingly, Nosferatu, sometimes called Resire, originally was a Light Tome in older FE games too.  I think it's only Dark in the GBA games and FE13.  Nosferatu was also the attack move Clerics got in FE2, aka the only way the could actually gain EXP!

Branching from that, I think FE13 is exceptional in that it is the only FE game to have Dark Magic, but not Light Magic.  I don't really have a point here, nor trying to imply anything, just something I noticed since there have been several FE games with Light magic and no Dark Magic (FE9, FE11-12), but nothing pre-FE13 that had it the other way around.


I think you could make the argument that Staves are already "Light Magic", so it makes more sense the FE13 way.

Time for me to spit at the translation.
The hp drain spell is always called Resire, it was light magic in FE4-FE5/FE9-FE10. The magic classification was different before FE3.
It got switched to dark magic from FE6.
Nosferatu is a level A damage dark spell that appeared since FE6. But for some reason, some translated game slap that name onto Resire.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 09, 2013, 12:58:04 PM
It will probably go away if you did Tutu, it will stick around if you did Trilogy because it is the whole thing in one game (I don't like Trilogy).
Why?
(I can just import the character in BG2 as usual anyway)

I just beat one guy I was never actually able to kill. Nice.
It was Kahrk, the crazy ogre mage from the jar near the bridge.
Dispel Magic, potion of magic immunity, Arrows+2
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 09, 2013, 01:02:37 PM
It will probably go away because the import process should force a proper refresh of the character effects.

Actually worth trying Exporting your character now, copying your save to Multiplayer and reimporting the character.  That shouldn't impact your progress at all and try to fix the issue the same way.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 09, 2013, 02:39:35 PM
Man that almost worked. You know weird BG related stuff too well.
The only problem is that exporting and importing reverts Yattaf's exp to the cap.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 09, 2013, 02:49:39 PM
http://www.mud-master.com/shadowkeeper/

Just edit back up to relevant level.  I am kind of stunned that there is a check on level cap there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 09, 2013, 06:38:07 PM
Rayman Legends: Wonderful. Simply wonderful. One stage you're running through a jungle, the next you are being chased by dragons, the next you are platforming in place as a ship sinks into the desert around you, and the next you are running across wooden snakes to a mariachi rendition of Eye of the Tiger.

Murfy is kinda eh. Would be curious how it played out on the Wii U, but I honestly dislike the idea of the game stripping me of platforming, so it'd probably be annoying in everything but two player. On the PS3 it at least mostly avoids getting in the way.

Game is stuffed full of content. Bunch of levels. Bunch of remastered levels from Origin. Bunch of costumes to unlock. Daily and weekly challenges if you want to compare your platforming to other people.

In all seriousness, if you like platformers at all, you should get this. Game is just straight up fucking fun.

Planescape: Torment: I've finally gotten around to playing this. Started a while back.

Made it to the Lower Wards/Clerk Ward. Still a Fighter, because the Mage trainer is too busy being a wannabe sensate.

Annah and Morte are hanging out with me, which is good. Because Morte is bloody OP.

Had an issue with magic crashing the game, but fixed that, thankfully.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 09, 2013, 08:44:13 PM
SR4: Streets of Rage mission is really a thing. This was great.

Done all open world stuff/ally missions except for unsurprising spoiler homey's. I can now freeze people and shatter them so that they explode and freeze other people. I might have mentioned this before. Probably when I was playing ME3 because it was awesome there too. But it bears repeating.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on September 10, 2013, 03:56:52 AM
Time for me to spit at the translation.
The hp drain spell is always called Resire, it was light magic in FE4-FE5/FE9-FE10. The magic classification was different before FE3.
It got switched to dark magic from FE6.
Nosferatu is a level A damage dark spell that appeared since FE6. But for some reason, some translated game slap that name onto Resire.

"That reason" being that vampires are associated with draining life, so when FE7 was translated, translating the dark-themed life draining spell as "Nosferatu" makes 100% sense, while "Resire" is not actually a word and to the extent it is one is actively nonsensical (sire someone again, what?).  Even if it was hypothetically a bad translation it was a fine localization, because spells should make sense and be evocative.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 10, 2013, 04:20:19 AM
You might "sire" someone again as you raise them into unlife.  Legit translation IMO.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 10, 2013, 06:45:58 AM
If "Resire" makes sense as a vampire-themed tome... then how does it make sense as a Light Tome?

Mana Khemia 2: Hey, I had a day off, so I played more of this. Raze path, Lily's unbalance is amazing as always. Though the Battle for the School Festival makes a whole lot less sense now. I kind of assumed that Lily had been tricked into helping the Chairman (or pressured/convinced into it by her father?) stop the school festival when I saw the event from Ulrika's path. It just made sense that conservative Lily might have some reason for not wanting a school festival. Instead, it seems like Lily actively -wants- a School Festival and then Marta says "you can beat up Ulrika" and Lily's like "sweet, I'm in." I guess it's funny, but it just comes off as really inconsistent writing, since I don't recall Ulrika ever really doing much of anything to piss Lily off. They sniped at eachother a bit in the first chapter, but damn, Whim and Et are far more antagonistic to Lily than Ulrika is. It just doesn't sit well with me.
/arguingaboutcharactermotivations

Playing on Hard Mode and skipping as many randoms as possible to keep the boss fights challenging. And how rewarding it was! I got to the end of the dungeon and the battle against Ulrika's team was amazing! Actually had to bust out a few items. The game has a great battle system, especially when you're up against an actual challenge! Since I'm on the second playthrough, these are few and far between, but when it happens, it's gold. Looking forward to it getting harder again. I wish it was easier to speed through it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 10, 2013, 07:02:11 AM
Because its totes the cool lingo dude.  You know like the Riserection of Christ.  It will make you cry out "Oh Jesus!"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 10, 2013, 12:14:12 PM
Time for me to spit at the translation.
The hp drain spell is always called Resire, it was light magic in FE4-FE5/FE9-FE10. The magic classification was different before FE3.
It got switched to dark magic from FE6.
Nosferatu is a level A damage dark spell that appeared since FE6. But for some reason, some translated game slap that name onto Resire.

"That reason" being that vampires are associated with draining life, so when FE7 was translated, translating the dark-themed life draining spell as "Nosferatu" makes 100% sense, while "Resire" is not actually a word and to the extent it is one is actively nonsensical (sire someone again, what?).  Even if it was hypothetically a bad translation it was a fine localization, because spells should make sense and be evocative.


This, pretty much.  I don't mind a name change if it is for purposes of making a more straight forward description of what the spell does.  As Snowfire says, "Resire" tells us...uhh...what?  Just a fancy name for a spell.  Most, if not all, spells are either straight forward names (Shine, Thunder, etc.), or in the case of most legendaries, based on some legend or myth, be it a real myth like Balmung or Durandal have, or an In-Game mythos like Naga.

Resire tells us nothing; Nosferatu, thanks to a famous old silent movie, I think many are capable of at least recognizing the Vampire Association, and Vampire Name for a Drain spell doesn't really need any explanation.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 10, 2013, 04:25:19 PM
Time for me to spit at the translation.
The hp drain spell is always called Resire, it was light magic in FE4-FE5/FE9-FE10. The magic classification was different before FE3.
It got switched to dark magic from FE6.
Nosferatu is a level A damage dark spell that appeared since FE6. But for some reason, some translated game slap that name onto Resire.

"That reason" being that vampires are associated with draining life, so when FE7 was translated, translating the dark-themed life draining spell as "Nosferatu" makes 100% sense, while "Resire" is not actually a word and to the extent it is one is actively nonsensical (sire someone again, what?).  Even if it was hypothetically a bad translation it was a fine localization, because spells should make sense and be evocative.

Can not QFT hard enough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on September 10, 2013, 07:59:11 PM
Leave it to Niu to get mad they didn't leave in nonsense Engrish.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 11, 2013, 02:24:19 AM
http://www.mud-master.com/shadowkeeper/

Just edit back up to relevant level.  I am kind of stunned that there is a check on level cap there.

Hm could have worked. But I'm too close to the end now. I've done everything outside Baldur's Gate + Most of Baldur's Gate proper.
Hell of a lot of really powerful stuff for my character starting from the Cloakwood. There's the Spider Bane right away, plus the boots of speed, robe of evil mage, and Haste.
Then Baldur's Gate right away has arrows of dispelling + OHKOing Ogre Mages + tons of damage, plus a ton of really overpowered spells. Monster Summoning I&II, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, and a few others.
Yattaf can now open any lock for free with a spell, making the Thief part of Fighter/Thief/Mage even more useless. (Have I mentioned how awful Find Trap is?)

Really really powerful fighters can still be a treat against Yattaf, but mages are a non factor now. Minor Globe of Invulnerability completely shuts them down, as does Haste + Arrow Rain. Monster Summoning is also much appreciated in a solo game.

Not much has happened storywise, Yattaf did quests for people because while it's funny to give one liners to quest givers, they actually become far less inclined to actually offer quests.
Yattaf flooded the Cloakwood Mines with all miners trapped inside because gotta go fast. She really didn't want to go down there a second time warning everybody, understand that.
In Baldur's Gate she got poisoned (and not regular poison, PLOT poison), and had to give away a stat-up book for a part of the antidote. The irony was lost on her when she murdered the person she was trading with for a book of wisdom.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 11, 2013, 04:31:36 AM
TL;DR: YATTAF = INVINCIBLE

* looks up Sarevok's stats*
... I will never beat him
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 11, 2013, 04:43:26 AM
You only need to get through half the HP pool on Sarevok.  The biggest threat in there with haste boots isn't even him.  It is the fact that the floor is littered with traps that are pretty lethal and that he has a competent party for support.

Wand of Summon Monsters cheese is honestly my default strat these days (I like to play with summon cap removed since that is legit authentic BG1).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 12, 2013, 12:06:42 AM
I thought his friends could be easily picked apart one by one. (I'm not above that) I think I abused all those Wands of Summoning last time and would like to win with a different strategy, I'll try a few others.
Can his Haste be dispelled by the way


The game's really on a slippery slope when you get low-ish reputation. 2 dudes tried to kill me in Baldur's Gate, and since they're supposed to be good, killing them = -2 reputation hit for each one. At that point random Flaming Fist members could attack me for an even bigger reputation loss. I had to give like 2000 gold out of my 70 000 to a lame cult.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 12, 2013, 10:57:11 AM
SR4: PUT ON THE DAMN SUNGLASSES.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on September 12, 2013, 04:56:50 PM
Lufia 3- Just took down Amon. The battle system remains a ton of fun. Bosses have gotten easier of late just due to the sheer amount of offense you get ,though Amon was a marked improvement. He had brutal OHKO damage off magic and Galactic Lancer, which wasn't a big deal. The MT 100% confusion? *That* sucked.  Aima remains my MVP, Randolph the LVP.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 12, 2013, 05:36:57 PM
Quote
Randolph the LVP.


Do you honestly expect that to ever change? 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Crystalgate on September 12, 2013, 07:24:01 PM
Rogue Legacy: Beaten it for the first time. It toke me 65 generations.

The game was rather fun, but the new game+ hasn't been so far. I think I just start over and avoid unlocking the Lich and the Dragon. They kind of clutter the gene pool. Skipping the Spelunker would be good too, but I want the gold upgrade, so I have to think about it. In any case, the new game+ should be more fun with less crappy draw.

I found one aspect of the story funny. We have this family where at an age of approximately 30, a member enters the castle and then never returns. Then one member of the next generation does the same thing. This repeats for what in my playtrough was 65 generation and never did they consider that, hey, maybe they can just use the money to buy a load of farms or something and ditch the meat-grinder of a castle. Then you reach the last boss and it turns out that, yes, they are nuts. They don't really have a good reason to enter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on September 13, 2013, 12:46:59 PM
Tales of Graces f: Friendship isn't friendship unless you've been to the moon and crashlanded in Richard's vice presidental office
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 13, 2013, 12:54:46 PM
Well that's just common sense.

FE9: Beat the boat stage. Had quite a few false starts involving crows stealing the Occult scroll or Gatrie dying to bullshit Thunder criticals, but once I realized the second wave of crows would only go for treasure and doesn't actually attack anyone, that phase of the fight went a lot smoother. On to a....fog of war map. Woohoo!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 13, 2013, 01:53:30 PM
FoW doesn't exist in Normal Mode!  Granted, that doesn't help you at all, and thus was a completely pointless statement...

FE10: Brom beats Yeardley with AXE TO THE FACE.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on September 13, 2013, 02:56:31 PM
I think there are only two in the game even on Hard. Series definitely started to move away from them -- there aren't any in 11/12/13. And 10's feature usually some twist like torches to mitigate the effects somewhat.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 13, 2013, 04:44:57 PM
It is a pretty dumb mechanic to be honest, mostly because of just how the AI has such abuse over it while you are at the complete mercy of it.

...thinking on it, I think the mechanic started in FE5.  Of all of the ideas to carry over from FE5 when "Streamlining" FE in FE6, why did they decided Fog of War had to be one of them?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 13, 2013, 04:51:42 PM
It's fine in the first such stage of FE9, because that's a defense level where your best strategy anyway is to set a line and hold it against incoming waves of enemies. Not being able to see exactly how many are coming fits with the theme of the fight. The upcoming one is a kill-the-stationary-boss mission which is less fitting.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 13, 2013, 04:59:18 PM
Fog of War in a defensive map isn't too bad, yeah.  It's more that Fog of War has a huge unfair advantage for enemies in ways it shouldn't in any other kind of map.  Ran into an enemy you couldn't see because he was in your path of movement?  That unit loses their entire turn!   Defensive maps don't have that nearly as much as anything that requires you to take an offensive.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 13, 2013, 07:34:20 PM
FE13: Still chugging away at this. I'm hitting that point in every Fire Emblem where I've played with all the features and now I'm kinda bored with it. Characters are still pretty fun, there's just too many of them so even the awesome character work isn't selling me on it anymore. I'll prolly finish it, but it'll be a lot slower now. It was the same way with every FE except FE10, which despite the larger cast, managed to get -more- streamlined towards the end instead of throwing out too many optionals that distract me from the goal of "get it finished".
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 14, 2013, 04:46:00 AM
BG Yattaf Solo:
Baldur's Gate 1's mechanics are rough but it's nice to see a non-Biowarised Bioware game.
BG1 is basically like Zelda 1 and 2, they're a bit clunky but interesting games before the Great Homogenization began in their respective series of games.


Anyway I went up to the final battle with nothing really notesworthy happening, and level 8/9/10.
At somewhere around that point the game thinks those levels are totally ludicrous and basically doubles the exp required every level. (Yes you're supposed to finish BG at level like 6)
Levels don't really matter much anyway, they give a few more spells and make the main character less squishy.
It's just nice not having all that xp wasted. Seriously I have 10x more exp than the regular cap now.

Auto strategy against difficult enemies is now Mirror Image + Blur + Haste + Invulnerability globe, then monster summoning (which isn't really that great) in battle (+ Chaos if enemies are human-ish) + lots of arrows.
Variations include sneaking in, leaving the field of view of enemies and throwing a poison cloud in there.


Anyway I immediately left the climatic scene to do the expansion. Specifically Werewolf Island. Greater Werewolf on a solo is totally nuts. And I bet he's probably already nuts in a normal game. The guy regens HP at a crazy rate and resists magic. His damage is pretty good too.

I had to kill all his buddies, come back and test 40 different strategies. What ultimately worked: Obv Mirror Image/Blur/Haste ASAP. Then Greater Malison to reduce his status resistance, then Hold Person to reduce his evade to 0. Potion of Cloud Giant Strength (23 Strength), then Spider Bane spam. I barely made enough damage to kill him but this worked. Then I discovered a Long Sword of Werewolf Slaying +10 right behind him.
......
Not sure this would have worked that much better than the Spider Bane anyway.


Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on September 14, 2013, 09:46:35 AM
GTA5: Like GTA4 except interesting, less awful tutorial misssions

Chop > Riley for videogame dogs 2013, CoD loses again
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 14, 2013, 11:37:46 AM
Because Fenrir gives me bad ideas, I started up BG1 with an intent to run one PC through the whole series. Never played BG1/ToB before, so 2/3 of a new experience for me! Oh god the Bhaalspawn grew up in Tutorialville. No wonder you guys complain about the intro to this game.

I was going to run a druid just because I never have and I figured I might as well have the party healbot be someone who can never leave or permanently die. But then I thought, you know what spell I've never used? Find Familiar.

So instead I'm running a sorcerer just so I can have a cat.

Wizard would be more practical because diverse spell selection but you don't really get to be pretty when you're a wizard (you can, but sorcerers are just obligated to be so). I prioritize responsibly.

So at level one I get two spells. One of them is Find Familiar. The other one is Magic Missile and oh god I have six HP. Level 1 D&D PCs. But that's okay because summon cat = triple HP. Cat power! I'm sure I will regret this later when competent enemies show up and he nukes my HP by getting killed, but whatever, cats. I will probably savescum constantly to keep him alive through the whole series just like I did with my wife in Fallout 2 (I had to glitch the game to let her survive the electric floor room on the oil rig--save/reload, she respawns outside the scenery). Also the cat moves at something like 2/3 my speed and often paths in front of me to slow me down. So I am basically on the road with Hobocats.

Speaking of, man, the walking speed in this game is a thing. Was it always this slow in the series? I don't remember it being exactly unbearable in BG2 (although I still spammed Haste constantly for getting around the city).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 14, 2013, 01:19:30 PM
FE9: well, that was easy. I had one reset when an invisible bandit burned down the house with Vantage in it, other than that it's a pretty simple stage, fog of war or not. The enemies are weak and predictable enough to feed to Astrid for quick levels, too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 14, 2013, 03:39:54 PM
Big mistake Cid. Big mistake.

I really really would have hated the 2/3 walking speed. (I didn't get Find Familiar because I'm just too scared about the -1 CON but now I'm glad) Walking speed is definitely pretty bad in BG1. Right now I actually have 2x walking speed thanks to the boots of speed and it still feels kinda slow at times. Your familiar has one third of that.

You'll find that the game likes throwing you naked in a middle of nowhere right after Tutorial Town.


Edit:
BG1 text cutscene: "Holy shit this dude is going to give you so much money!!! Awesome!!"
Five seconds later: *Dude betrays you*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on September 14, 2013, 05:21:34 PM
Rogue Legacy: Beaten it for the first time. It toke me 65 generations.

The game was rather fun, but the new game+ hasn't been so far. I think I just start over and avoid unlocking the Lich and the Dragon. They kind of clutter the gene pool.

...I find this kinda funny, since for me Lichking/queen is the best class in the game hands down. I admit I haven't played Spellblade with a decent spell yet(came up once so far. Had DAGGER), so that might be better. But generally I'll take lich over anything except MAYBE a ninja, and only then when the ninja has better spell/abilities then the lich.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 14, 2013, 08:18:04 PM
I think I beat the game with a dagger-using spellblade. It's a really good class, at least after promotion.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 15, 2013, 01:58:30 AM
BG1 Yattaf Solo: Finished everything.
The expansion's "riddles" were annoying, and Sarevok remains the cheapest motherfucking final boss I've seen in an RPG. Wands of summoning are not broken against him, they're absolutely essential.


...
Yet all is forgiven.


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/37/1379205886-swag.jpg)

SWAG

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/37/1379205886-ujelly-2.jpg)

Despised? The fuck?

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/37/1379205887-donate.jpg)

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/37/1379205887-ohyeah.jpg)

As long as she donates some of her 180 000 gold pieces, nobody cares about Drizzt (and ALL THOSE OTHER INNOCENT PEOPLE)
You can feel Yattaf's lawful-evil smugness as she thinks about the pathetic plebe.

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/37/1379205889-100.jpg)

Sorry stat screen, Yattaf's numbers are 2 big 4 U

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/37/1379205892-biography.jpg)

Yattaf's entire biography.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 15, 2013, 02:10:03 AM
I really really would have hated the 2/3 walking speed. (I didn't get Find Familiar because I'm just too scared about the -1 CON but now I'm glad) Walking speed is definitely pretty bad in BG1. Right now I actually have 2x walking speed thanks to the boots of speed and it still feels kinda slow at times. Your familiar has one third of that.

Nah, it's not that bad. You can chuck him in your backpack if you don't feel like waiting all the time/worrying about it getting nuked by AoE spells (not an issue where I am now but I'm sure it will be eventually). Which I guess kinda defeats the purpose of having it other than bonus HP, but hey, I am actually using it in fights because its astonishing 2 damage counts at level 1 and anyway it's absurdly tanky vs starting enemies (0 AC, 24 HP). Obviously this won't last, but it has better odds of short-term survival than any of the humanoids I've picked up so far. So basically Hobocat is also Jeigancat.

I have no idea if all the familiars are that slow-moving though, only tried the one (I ran chaotic neutral specifically to get a cat. Other alignments get something different). Anyway, I modded the game to pick up what is more recognizable to me as BG2 walking speed and there was much rejoicing.

So I left home for the first time ever and immediately met a dude who looks like he is trying to rip the skin off his face. He walks around saying, "I am become death, destroyer of worlds!" and offered me something to drink. I am sure that this partnership cannot end badly. (Wait I recognize him from BG2 and already know it does.) Then some other dude attacked me in broad daylight and got annihilated by the local guards. Pro assassin strats.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 15, 2013, 02:39:55 AM
Woah I'll get one immediately in BG2 then.
Lawful evil gives you...
An imp.
:(
He can still polymorph into a bear!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 15, 2013, 05:51:33 PM
Ok nevermind about the imp. He's great!


(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/37/1379263468-imp.jpg)


BG2 has great ways of alienating every party member.
Yattaf just couldn't get over how Jaheira's head before bizzarely diformed since the last time she saw her. Didn't even release her from her cell. Jaheira went crazy.
Anomen just got told to shove it.
Oh and I need to talk about that Ogre Mage that screamed like a little girl running from Yattaf's arrows in the circus tent. Yattaf found this hilarious. Andrew don't hurt me
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Monkeyfinger on September 15, 2013, 11:28:30 PM
in all my years of being a BG2 fan I never found out that familiars have dialogue, or that they can be put in backpacks
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on September 16, 2013, 12:06:36 AM
The DL - entertaining *and* educational
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 16, 2013, 12:54:56 AM
Really?  And here I was going to make a comment about how I am not sure the Familiar is worth the inventory slot in a solo run without a bag of holding.  The extra HP at level 1 though is pretty amazing though if you are a Wizard.  As a Sorc I probably would have held off to cast it from a scroll though (one is in BG itself Edit - This is with Tutu, it is a baseline Tutu thing.  Mileage may vary with Trilogy and Enhanced Edition) to free up the extra spell slot.  Sleep and Magic Missile or something at Level 1 goes very far.

Sadly familiar dialogue is static and never changes.  It would have been cute to have them be responsive (and far too much work for BG2.  That shit ain't Torment).

Edit - And also one thing of note, if you have free Level 1 spell slots and aren't sure what to take, Scare (Fright?) is a rare spell that you can't really find on scrolls and scales way better than level 1s other than Chromatic Orb (take Chromatic Orb).  It is pretty niche, but it is a fun little toy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 16, 2013, 01:24:57 AM
Why would I hurt you? I like Nalia, not Aerie >_>
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 16, 2013, 10:05:24 AM
Oh sorry. Nalia fares relatively better, castle cleared and everything. Only problem is that I left in a hurry and never told her about it (I just can't decide about the stronghold right now) so she's probably dying from not knowing what is going on.

I found that Magic Missile was pretty terrible at level 1 as a mage but I guess I don't know about their probably awful physical offense. It's my favourite lvl 1 spell (... this is getting confusing) at high levels because it can be used near instanteously right after a physical attack.
I just got the awesome Robe of Vecna though so this probably changes everything.
(Edit: Ok I've tested Chromatic Orb against trolls, so good)

At least it sounds like they made different dialogue for each of the 9 mutually exclusive familiars, which is cool as hell. Unless every familiar of the same evil/neutral/good alignment has the same dialogue.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 16, 2013, 11:08:37 AM
Cat dialogue is definitely different from what you copied, yeah. It is appropriately tsundere (I hate using that word, but cats, they're amiable little sociopaths and it fits).

Critical cat damage is six in case anyone was wondering.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 16, 2013, 02:11:08 PM
All 9 have different dialogue yes.

Saint's Row 4 - So this is dumb as hell and amazingly fun.  Stuff has been said before.  The chance to run around using Deckard's pistol, Robocops fullt automatic pistols, a Jawa Ion Blaster as a shotgun and the Alien Marine Pulse rifle is pretty great.  My only sad times is not finding enough opportunities to use the Dubstep cannon. 

Dubstep is also the perfect soundtrack to this game.  It is stupid stupid music but so much fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 16, 2013, 02:12:36 PM
The Last Story: Started this up, finished chapter 1.  This game's first impressions are "It's kind of a mess." Mind you, the game could easily sort this out quickly in the next few parts by simply getting out of tutorial mode (to be fair tutorial stuff had plenty of actual "You control the character" stuff and were quick, so that's good), as well as actually going into a bit of exposition as it literally throws you in the middle of a bunch of ruins and says "there is stuff happening to 4 characters, by the way, that black haired dude you start as?  Yeah, he's not the main, the white haired guy you're going to use in 2 minutes after that is his companion is!"  At least, it seems to imply Zael is the main anyway...

...reminds me of Golden Sun 2 how it spontaneously made you start as Jenna, then after like 5 fights, they're like "Oh yeah, Felix is the actual leader here!  We made you play as Jenna because reasons."

...I should just shut up, though, and not judge a game based on it's intro tutorial dungeon that is likely meant to be mostly a gameplay introduction with some plot teaser things that are meant to leave you a sense of "What the heck is going on" as a hook to get you to play more.  IOWs, take everything I've said about the game thus far with a grain of salt and then some!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 16, 2013, 03:21:32 PM
FE9: Is it Alliterative Desert Level O'Clock already? How time flies. Didn't bother stealthing/pacifisting that one, since the bonus EXP for it is barely more than what you get for just murdering everything, and dodging the active Laguz would make it a bitch to get all the items.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 16, 2013, 04:22:02 PM
Most people agree a pacifist run, barring personal challenge of "can I do it?" is not worth it precisely for the reasons you laid out.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 16, 2013, 06:32:44 PM
I have gone from playing not enough games to too many really suddenly.

Mark of the Ninja: Yeah, this is pretty much how a stealth game should be done. Could have snuck around people more, instead opted to murder them good. My master shall be avenged... even though he survived originally, still. Killed the German dude and now PLOT TWIST. NINJA PLOT TWIST. My murder spree shall not end.

Planescape: Torment: Had to cheat a bit and use an FAQ on the whole convincing Ravel's daughter thing. I apparently missed a key bit of dialogue and, as a result, had no idea what to do next. Derp. I also cheated after annoying the Lady of Pain, but seriously, fuck that section. Current party is Annah, Morte, Fall-From-Grace. TNO is a fighter because I didn't find the Wizard trainer. I am currently hunting for the gate. It is not going well.

Orcs Must Die 2: Played this a little more. Acid spitters 2 gud. Spikes floors 4 gud.

Rayman Legends: Maingame beaten. Now all the unlocked stuff and perfecting levels to go. Ashley and I may kill each other. Doing the daily/weekly challenges as well which are fucking nuts. Game is great. Seriously, go buy it. It was well worth the 60 quid.

World of Warcraft: Wanted to see a bit of what the Panderia expansion was like, so I did a trial for 7 days. Had a little fun, although am completely clueless about what is happening due to changes. Pokemon system is awesome and fills my vanity pet collecting heart with glee. <3 account wide pet pools. Started a Monk because triple threat classes are best. Wanted to be a Worgen Monk but =(.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meiousei on September 16, 2013, 07:05:58 PM
I don't know what's more annoying: FF14 Pugilists/Monks or WoW Monks. Curse you, monk rotations. Also, Magic might give some pointers on Pet Battling (He's really into it.)

FFT WotL: I reset my game in order to try melee and that other mode, for the extra gear. I made it through to Chapter 3 underleveled though, I'm barely 25. I wonder if I can end up finishing the game far more underleveled than I was on my first run.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 16, 2013, 09:11:50 PM
Planescape: Torment: Had to cheat a bit and use an FAQ on the whole convincing Ravel's daughter thing. I apparently missed a key bit of dialogue and, as a result, had no idea what to do next. Derp. I also cheated after annoying the Lady of Pain, but seriously, fuck that section. Current party is Annah, Morte, Fall-From-Grace. TNO is a fighter because I didn't find the Wizard trainer. I am currently hunting for the gate. It is not going well.

Wizard trainer is in the bar with the burning man, which is called, I think, The Burning Man. Should grab him before you leave the city because you won't be back for a while, and it's worth prying his personal story out during the training.

I've tried to get the Lady of Pain pissed off just to see that section but she never responds.

~

BG1: An inscription on a tombstone:

"Here lies Andrew,
the quality of his armor was not assured."

:(

I am still stupidly obsessive about map clearance. I wish I wasn't, because BG1 has a lot of basically content-free wilderness areas where you just fight mooks and get an inflated XP count. First legitimate game over (plenty of earlier resets due to allies dying, mind): let the sexy nymph give you a kiss for no apparent reason y/n? Guys what do you think I did.

Sirines are damned annoying. Encountering them basically goes like this: Cid is blundering around in the dark dispersing FoW like a nitwit, doot dee doot dee doot, ohshit enemies out of nowhere! Try to pummel them with spells but they're already sanctuaried/invisible, start plinking away with missile weapons and oh god they charmed Minsc eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. Then I reload and chuck Horror/Entangle at them from offscreen. Problem solved. I tossed the former at Dynaheir on a whim and it turned out to be pretty rad? I never actually bothered with status in BG2 outside of combo spells like Chromatic Sphere, but the actual damage spells are so bad when you don't have a pile of levels under them that this turns out to be a pretty useful alternative as a low-level PC.

Kitty is pretty much obsolete already, sadly, save for the HP bump, being amusing, and occasional scouting (which matters when you haven't played the game before and don't know where everything is). I will keep using him anyway. I'm running with Imoen/Minsc because I intend to use them through the whole show, Dynaheir because Minsc combo platter, Jaheira/Khalid because I haven't found anyone more useful yet (I'd like to toss Khalid but he takes his wife with him, the jerk). Long run I plan to go Imoen/Minsc/Viconia/Edwin/open fifth slot for NPC quests and/or whoever is new to ToB. No Edwin for BG1 though because he disappeared after I refused to help kill Dynaheir.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 16, 2013, 09:57:57 PM
BG1: An inscription on a tombstone:

"Here lies Andrew,
the quality of his armor was not assured."

=(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 16, 2013, 10:08:27 PM
Khalid is one of the better fighters in the game (shut the fuck up Super).  He is the one capable of the best AC and his biggest downside is low Str which is easily fixed with the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength and any time before those drop you don't need that much of a stat advantage.  He pinch hits with a bow better than other fighters as well and both of you playing BG1 can probably vouch for how centralising bows are in it at this point.

Sirines are a thing, the ones in that area in particular are out of nowhere and kind of brutal.  I pack a Potion of Clear Mind just for them.  Throw someone with a Tower Shield and immunity to mind effecting spells and you can pull all their Charm charges and then move in to clean up.  They will probably maintain target the whole time and have such good AC vs ranged that you don't need to worry.  Two similar alternative strats are, if you don't have the potion, just do the same thing with your party a mile away.  Charm will wear off eventually while your dude just sits there.  Problems are that sometimes the Sirines don't stop attacking charmed character so a crit from Arrows of Wounding will hurt (probable wipe at low level), if you don't get all the charges of Charm in the first 2 charms (if not all Sirines do it at once because of range issues) they can run out of arrows and start meleeing which doesn't have nearly as much AC boosting gear to get around and IIRC has the Int damage effect of Mind Flayer or something (doing this involves waiting through 2 full lengths of Charm duration which is zzzzzzzzz).  Finally, you are using Minsc, do the above but with Berserk, he is immune to charm then.

Wowwwwww I hadn't even been talking about Dak'kon that he missed.  Dak'kon can't train you to be a Mage until you have been taught by an NPC, Mebbeth is the earliest trainer.

Faqing the Player Maze is fine.  Maze is boring. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 16, 2013, 10:13:13 PM
If you want a PRO TEAM Dynaheir should probably go away because micromanaging two mages is terrible.

Meanwhile anything with a bow rocks. I think my Kivan had 50% of every kill endgame, with Minsc having like 15-20%. The only reason I didn't go all bows in the solo is the taco penalty bows get at melee range, but it doesn't matter in a normal game.


BG2 Yattaf solo (still on insane): Sunfire is awesome. Summoning sword spiders is awesome. New Boots of Speed:
I've done like four sidequests and already can afford everything I want (Every spell + Robe of Vecna + Bracelets of 3AC)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 16, 2013, 10:41:02 PM
Yeah. I solved the puzzle (got the journal and everything) but felt being forced to try every portal was kinda ass.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 16, 2013, 10:45:28 PM
PRO TEAM would be using 2 mages and some kind of cleric.  It is less fun unless you know the interface well though (Seriously, bind keys to Cast Spell and you will learn the icons.)  It is fine in BG1 honestly when your spell pool is quite small.  BG2 with Aerie is completely out of hand.  Scaled up UI helps since you can see more spells at once but wowwww does it suck at the original 800x600 res in BG2 (let alone 640x480 if your PC wasn't good enough...).

If you know the answer you can run to the right ones, but yes, it is butts.  It was Mebbeth you couldn't be bothered with right Andy?  Not Dak'kon?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 16, 2013, 10:51:13 PM
I honestly dunno. Don't think I encounter either, unless Mebbeth is the one in the sensorium? Either way, I think I've found the one Fighter trainer and, of course, Annah.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 16, 2013, 11:00:50 PM
Mebbeth is not in the sensorium.  She is in a hut in the lower wards.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 16, 2013, 11:05:06 PM
Why a second mage when you can have an archer?
Double Fireball on sight is probably fun but otherwise it's so much less convenient. And it gets in the way of Haste until you have 2 level 3 spells.

New best screenshot:

(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2013/38/1379368709-bards.jpg)

Jeez Strago, not interested



EDIT:

Playing BG1 then BG2 is the weirdest experience, since BG1 is all about complete restraint and sobriety, with its single digit max level, 4 HP mages and so on, while BG2 is about showering the player with the cheesiest gear and having relatively cheesy enemies to compensate. (Nothing like Sarevok I'll admit)

Basically I just got Vhailor's helm, which can create a slightly lower level perfect clone of Yattaf.
Won against an über Lich Lord by summoning spiders so he could cast all his amazing spells on them and then try to melee freaking Yattaf.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 17, 2013, 02:41:43 AM
To be fair that was supposed to be a preorder bonus merchant, everything he has is broken as fuck really.

Pay2win DLC before it was cool.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 17, 2013, 02:46:52 AM
I'd have said
"Ok. I'm not using his stuff then"
But Vecna's robe!!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 17, 2013, 03:24:25 AM
Double Fireball on sight is probably fun

Pretty much exactly why I run with two mages. Hotkeyyyyyys. Just watching 2x Magic Missile barrage arc in towards the same target is worth the bother. Also, how anyone deals with liches other than summon spam is beyond me.

Anyway, I ditched Jaheira/Khalid since I knew I'd need to make room for Viconia anyway. Didn't really want to be tied to the two of them since I've used Jaheira a lot for BG2 in the past and decided she could sit this one out. So I run into this random woman in the middle of nowhere who attacks Minsc just because he's a dude. Minsc berserk falcon punches her out in one shot, then she joins the party because what the hell I've got a free slot. Checking out those stats, 9 constitution, bwuh? Woman, you want to build an amazonian new world order, you'd best toughen up. "This is the kind of stupidity you get from male leadership!" <-- Said when the party leader is an 18 CHA female, you'd think she could notice? Oh wait, elf. Maybe not.

Korax, noooo! I needed you to kill all the basilisks for me!

Then I remembered the game had a plot and went to clear out the mine.  Dude says he won't tell me his evil plans, summons some mooks. We beat him up, honor his request to spare his life if he'll spill his evil plans, he laughs and says he won't tell us his evil plans and then he summons more mooks. So that is the last time I spare anybody in this game.

Sometimes bears are all BWOOOOAR and sometimes they just don't give two shits. I don't get it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 17, 2013, 03:34:46 AM
Don't approach them and they don't care.
Have someone go near them and they go >:-(


BTW for anyone who might know: How bad is the randoms scaling in Icewind Dale 2?
BG2 bad? FO3 bad?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 17, 2013, 03:58:34 AM
Scales with same mechanic as BG2 (Party level on spawn).  Scales more granular than BG2 though (BG2 caps out super early).  Is mostly more dudes and higher types of dudes (so not FO3 bad).

I see you have discovered Shar-Teel.  She is decent because holy shit that Str score, but yes, Con leaves a lot to be desired.  Can get away with it since a lot of tankiness comes from raw AC in AD&D, but she works better as a secondary fighter (like you probably used Minsc as with Khalid around).

Request for that final sixth slot in BG2 (if you aren't going to use Sarevok), I recommend Mazzy if you haven't given her a run.  She is a pretty nice character and is mostly a complete package out of the box.  If you are doing ToB you can grab a Shortsword +5 from the shop outside Demogorgon dungeon that will carry her through SoA segments along with any of the many very strong Shortbows.  For giggles you can put any Weapon Spec from there on into Halberd and use the insanely strong but incredibly niche +6 Halberd in ToB.  The existing skills will carry her until you get it (and there is no other Halberd's of interest in the game).

This post made no sense and I apologise in advance.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 17, 2013, 03:49:28 PM
MOAR FE because I only have time for one game at a time now. C16 was a complete joke. No resets, recruited Devdan because why not, got all the treasure (had to kill the thief to recover one of them, but blitzing through that corridor wasn't too bad). Almost time for a first round of promotions; Oscar is the first to L20, followed by Ike. I tried to hold Ike back so he could kill stuff in C17 without wasting experience, but kept having to use him to swoop in and save casters, or the AI would decide to suicide against him. Oscar is a surprise after how badly he was lagging before but I was able to save-scum a few points of STR from bonus EXP levels, and then gave him the Spirit Drops from the ship to boost him further. He's just too damn good as a tank to bench.

Boyd (capped HP at level 13), Astrid, Nephenee (got Vantage for her! Now I just have to find someone who can hurt her enough to trigger Wrath), Soren, Brom (kinda speed-blessed, relatively speaking) and Zihark are other top performers.

Anyway, after that I took a run at C17, got decently far in the first section, then an archer ran up and one-shotted Mist without a critical. Miracle is friggin' worthless.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 17, 2013, 05:28:25 PM
Miracle only kicks in Luck% of the time, which yeah sucks. It totally saved my life once when I made a really boneheaded move and had Ike charge a boss who 2HKOed him, though!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 17, 2013, 06:32:04 PM
Mazzy is fucking fantastic.

She almost justifies the existence of the short races.

Almost.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 17, 2013, 06:51:11 PM
Miracle only kicks in Luck% of the time, which yeah sucks. It totally saved my life once when I made a really boneheaded move and had Ike charge a boss who 2HKOed him, though!

Similar situation happened here too, though in my case, it was Ike surviving a Critical Hit that would have killed him that was unexpected!

I wouldn't say Miracle is a GOOD skill, but it does give you that extra RNG push that can save you if you're lucky.  There are only so many skills you can put on a character after all, it makes for adequate filler, though, not something to rely on, more of a "crap, I can't believe I left this character in range of-*Miracle* oh, phew, got lucky there!" thing, kind of like dodging that 90%~ hit from an enemy that would kill you.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 17, 2013, 07:11:02 PM
I've literally never seen it activate, and I have seen Mist take a lot of fatal hits in this game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 17, 2013, 07:50:33 PM
Well assuming she's still tier 1 (which I am inferring from her being OHKOed by a non-crit by a midgame enemy) her luck probably means it kicks in 1/6th at best, and bear in mind that not all fatal hits will trigger Miracle (it can only work if the unit will survive if the damage is halved, and Mist often takes high 2HKOs where the halved second hit would be fatal anyway), your experience honestly isn't that unlikely. As Meeple notes it is if anything slightly more valuable on latergame units who have higher luck and are more likely to be in the line of fire anyway. Since it's 5 CP it fits as a filler skill on infantry units like Ike, Nephenee, Boyd, etc.

That said it still sucks overall - it has saved me once on five playthroughs and it is quite statistically unlikely that I would see it even that often - so mock away.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 17, 2013, 08:46:01 PM
Don't approach them and they don't care.
Have someone go near them and they go >:-(

I've had them go hostile from across the screen. I've also had people stand right next to them while healing up from an unrelated battle with no response whatsoever.

I brought Mazzy along for the ride when I ran a goody-two-shoes paladin. She got things done. I will probably grab Sarevok though because new dude (is he the only PC addition in ToB?)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on September 17, 2013, 08:53:36 PM
On the other hand, a Miracle saved MY Mist on her join map with her starting luck.  Stupid blargh where the space she moved was "safe" but then I moved another unit and then she was just exactly in range then.  Miracle is awesome, hax harder.

Also, funny story.  There are Sorcerers on Apotheosis, the final FE: Awakening DLC map, with Miracle.  And Luck scores between 70 and 99.  And insane Defense.  And Nosferatu.  Awakening Miracle isn't "half damage" it's "keep 1 HP regardless of amount of overkill if you started with >1 HP."  So yes, you can attack into the Sorc, have Miracle trigger, have them drain you for a ton (possibly with Hawkeye = guaranteed hit!) on the counter, and have the double portion of your attack now have to smash through all the drained HP and then another activation of Miracle.  Got the Sorc down to 1 HP, so time to send in another unit?  By the way, they have Vantage too, so time for another 100% hit drain.  (They'd be totally broken, except Brave Weapons + Pair-up Attacks + infinite proc works exist, so you can potentially throw 12 hits at 'em off a single attack.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 17, 2013, 09:04:01 PM
I was going to say Bolting, but that works too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on September 17, 2013, 09:31:00 PM
Longbows (specifically, the Double Bow) has a bit more kick to it than the long-range spell in Awakening (Mire), but yeah, the long range strat works too.  The Double Bow is also nice in that pair-up attacks still trigger, while they won't with Mire.

And oh yes, I almost forgot.  Those Sorcerers also have Vengeance and enough skill to make it trigger 100% of the time.  With 80 HP, that means if you ram into Vantage while they're at 1 HP, that's an amazing +39 damage.  Yeah, that can OHKO units in classes with low Resistance caps even if their Res is maxed.  On the bright side, if YOUR unit has Vengeance and full health and attacks into that and survives their hit...  mwahaha, now they're the one that's going to be eating insane damage.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 17, 2013, 09:56:54 PM
Only in ToB, yeah.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 17, 2013, 09:59:06 PM
Sarevok indeed only new PC in the expansion.  Dunno if your player psychology is similar to mine or not, but I have trouble using him since it either means suddenly swapping from five manning to six manning or dumping someone I dragged through the underdark to use him.  I often struggle with this.

GTA 5 - My brothers got this and they played it last night.  They got to struggle with aiming n a controller and driving cars though busy streets.

SR4 - I played this instead and jumped around the city on foot with no effort at all while listening to dubstep.  I also gave a fanboy rights to his favourite TV show after playing his fan fiction scenario on the one condition that he never stop.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 18, 2013, 04:01:33 AM
Sarevok indeed only new PC in the expansion.  Dunno if your player psychology is similar to mine or not, but I have trouble using him since it either means suddenly swapping from five manning to six manning or dumping someone I dragged through the underdark to use him.  I often struggle with this.

Yeah, that has been a problem. When time comes to switch in the people I mean to use long-term in BG2, I often find I don't want to ditch the people I've had basically as placeholders since early in the game just because man it seems a shame to waste all those levels they got (I will bring Yoshimo to Spellhold just so I have no choice but to have an open slot for Imoen; gogo workarounds for personal obsessiveness). When does the ToB content become accessible? I figured it was after BG2 proper's arc...but it sounds like not.

Anyway. Went back to Nashkel after clearing the mines, dude walks up to me, he's all, "I'm gonna kill you, Homer." Three town guards within five feet of him. This game has the worst assassins outside of Childerich.

I'm not sure where the plot is right now so I'm back to dicking around. Someone told me to go scalp some bandits? I question this as a method of bounty collection. How do the authorities know I'm even turning in bandit scalps? I could be a bandit handing over trophies of my victims for all they know! Anyway, Durgal's Tower. I spend the evening hacking through the upper floors and the basement, figure I'm done after the post-puzzle ninja boss that init drops freaking Cloudkill on you, but no. It just goes on like this.

Still. This must be one of the BG1 expansion zones, because it's the first indoor dungeon I've seen that actually looks designed instead of just a bunch of random squiggles which confound party pathfinding. Cash/loot/exp just raining from the sky in there, too. I've had to leave twice to sell junk and everybody's got two levels in there without the place even being done. I uh think I might be exceeding the intended endgame level for this game well before I finish it (level cap is off).

BG1's whole enemies randomly respawning five seconds after you walk away from a tile thing is getting really fucking old.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 18, 2013, 04:22:06 AM
BG2 not big on respawning dudes at least (and you like never need to revisit a map outside of Athkatla anyway).

Durlag's Tower is indeed TotSC content and yes it is indeed ridiculously profitable and shovels EXP at you by the bucket load.

Watcher's Keep is available from the start of BG2 with ToB installed and is kind of Durlag's Tower parallel.  All the other content is locked until ToB itself.  Doing Watcher's Keep straight out of Irenicus' dungeon is ill advised and great fun if you know how to game the system (would be done to try and get stat ups early on level 3 or so of the dungeon and of course the shiny +5s that ToB showers you in).  Only downside to doing it early it is that for some stupid reason the first tier of enemy level scaling prevents a guy spawning with one of the upgrade items for the shinies on the first floor (upgrades only possible in ToB itself, so no +6s in SoA, you will just have to put up with +4 and +5 broke shit). 

It is for a Bastard Sword though , so it isn't really a big deal, its just a bit short sighted design on their loot tables (and I don't know of a mod that actually fixes it, for all that it should be super easy fix).  No big deal because Bastard Swords suck anyway, the only other good one outside of generic ones is like a +3 you get in the Underdark from a shop. 

Maybe they should have been left rolled into Longsword proficiency, but those didn't need more support (maybe two-handers?  I don't think that would work so great, but it could be a neat little niche to be get 2 handed weapon prof with a sword/shield or both weapon profs or something at the cost of your weapons suuuuuucking).

Anyway TotSC content is pretty fucking nuts (that Greater Werewolf Fen talked about earlier is also some of that) and super super skippable.  I legit mostly just go to Ulgoth's beard to buy spells and a cloak, loot top level of Durlag's tower and don't touch it these days.

Edit - Actually there seems to be some dispute over level effecting the spawning of the status with the Foebane on it, saying that it will always spawn.  That seems counter to a lot of user feedback (my memory of the sequence is the same) where it didn't spawn no matter how you completed the event leading into it and people using patch that forces max level enemy spawns no matter what saying that it fixed the issue.  Not really sure.

Edit 2 - Browsing changelog of a fixpack at Gibberlings 3 gives this amazing set of fixes.

Creature Sex Fixes - Various creatures were incorrectly identified as male, female, or neither.

Creature Gender Fixes - There exists a gender identifier for creatures in addition to sex. Gender has several different values beyond male and female, such as summoned or illusionary. Summoned, in particular, is what allows scripts to detect summoned creatures, the summoning cap to work, and for the death spell to work against just summons. Gender also controls the casting soundset of creatures.

I love this game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on September 18, 2013, 09:35:36 AM
GTA5: As a Canadian I am bad at torturing, it took me like four tries

I will never be Ocelot
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 18, 2013, 04:11:19 PM
Yaaaay, I beat the first part of 17. Oscar promoted, into Bow Paladin because I like triangle attacks and no way am I raising Marcia enough to use the Falcon Knight version. Also Astrid is so awesome that she may have turned me into a mounted-archer fanboy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 18, 2013, 06:31:35 PM
Planescape: Torment - Since the TNO can't find Ravel's gate, and the place he's pretty sure it is is blocked by DEADLY LARVAL WORMS that wrecked his shit, he has decided to try and learn more about his past and do some sidequesting.

Several of them he'd already forgotten he'd acquired, which leads him to believe he is naturally a bit forgetful.

He is quite surprised his honesty regarding his past hasn't come back to bite him in the ass yet.

He made a new friend with some weird Gith dude. He doesn't really understand their philosophy, but his party is mostly crazy anyway. Also, not many of them like each other.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 18, 2013, 07:37:46 PM
Cid, are you sure those bears weren't other kinds of bears? Some always attack / never attack.
I haven't noticed anything special and have just explored the entirity of BG1.


IWD2 being worse than BG2 about scaling still feels pretty bad. (Obviously FO3 is much worse) I dunno. Hmm.

During the Unseeing One sidequest, you could clearly see the difference between fixed encounters (One small beholder, or one big beholder) and the scaled ones (THREE BIG BEHOLDERS AND THREE SMALL ONES AT THE SAME TIME) It's obviously not something that goes well with solo challenges. The only reason I survived that is that beholders can't use their big terrible spells on summons, so I just stood back spamming Summon Spider / Summon Carrier.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 18, 2013, 09:50:36 PM
I don't actually think the level scaling is bad in IWD2.  It is built so you can replay it.

Also worth noting I might just be thinking of Heart of Fury encounters.  Lots of IWD2 is a blur.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on September 19, 2013, 03:55:27 AM
GTAV - First Person View Dog Fucking. I feel like Nitori made a comment about this.  Fuck the idea though you need an iOS device to train the dog or pimp your ride.

I got in a helicopter, and immediately crashed into the ground.  Flight controls are back in full force.  I'm pretty sure there's one point where I have to land a fucking plane and it's going to take over 100 tries.  I played NES Top Gun.

GTA internet is very convenient.  Call of Duty knockoffs, Republican propaganda, and anime porn are all accessible on one page.  I don't know why Rockstar thinks anime porn is a part of american culture though.

This game is very misogynistic.  Every woman is either "HATE PENIS, NEED RIGHTS" or "NEED PENIS, FUCK EVERYTHING ELSE".  There's not one single likeable female character in the game.  It doesn't bother me too much but goddamn it's going to piss off a few of my friends.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on September 19, 2013, 04:54:52 AM
I played NES Top Gun.

You have my sympathy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on September 19, 2013, 07:59:52 AM
Tales of Xillias- Second run. Milla side. Unknown mode/double damage/triple crit. Back at Fezebel Marsh. Screw you Gauis
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on September 19, 2013, 02:51:08 PM
Tales of Xillias- Second run. Milla side. Unknown mode/double damage/triple crit. Back at Fezebel Marsh. Screw you Gauis

Coincidentally this is almost what I just did.  I didn't have enough grade for DD/TC so I have Dark Seal's slapped on everyone instead.  DD/TC would have just made the battle too easy though since Jude hits the Atk. cap with his Devil Arm.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 19, 2013, 08:17:25 PM
Might get IWD2 then. Heard it's pretty hard.
ToEE sounds good too.

BG2 Yattaf solo: Dead Firkraag.
I never even beat him with a party of 6!

Strategy: Summon a cacofiend so he wastes all his spells, then melee fight with constant stoneskin + mirror image + improved haste.

Use Any Item = Yattaf can actually use Carsomyr hahahahahahah.
+ An amulet with auto-protection from evil, which makes cacofiends actually not fight back.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 19, 2013, 08:27:11 PM
FE: C17 Part 4! Boyd is promoted, Nephenee and Soren are knocking on the door.  Parts 2 and 3 weren't bad, let's see what they have in store for m....holy crap that's a lot of bad guys.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 20, 2013, 02:47:50 AM
BG1: More Durlag's basement. Chessboard battle. What were they thinking?!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 20, 2013, 03:17:09 AM
It makes slightly more sense than Shining Force 2's?

(In my game I just stayed in the same place and murdered everything. Neat fact: Enemy awns become queens if they get to the end of the chessboard)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 20, 2013, 06:30:46 AM
Suikoden 3 - Hugo chapters done, fun times. Uneventful enough although randoms got fairly nasty towards the end, and I got hilariously owned by the optional Azzodess in the Flame Champion Hidaway. The highlight of the battle: a round in which all but one of my PCs missed, the one PC who hit drove the boss berserk, and she promptly used an MT physical (for boosted damage) which silenced every person in my party who had a rune. Thomas chapters have gone pretty well until the Zexen Marshalls fight which uh even knowing what to do was brutal. Maybe I should try to put them to sleep or use the earth rune's def buff, I dunno.

Star Ocean 4 - Beat Gabriel Celeste. So uh he resists all elements but punishes short-range attacks relentlessly by having evil short-range AoE moves. Sure was nice of him to leave an aftergame non-elemental bow lying around in his dungeon though. Bacchus was initially the star of the aftergame due to Black Hole Sphere -> rush mode combos but yeah it's definitely been Reimi of late, so much ranged offence.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 20, 2013, 10:18:44 AM
It makes slightly more sense than Shining Force 2's?

(In my game I just stayed in the same place and murdered everything. Neat fact: Enemy awns become queens if they get to the end of the chessboard)

I pretty much did too, but it took like half a dozen tries just to be able to nuke the enemy casters before they confused the entire team (which was the first thing they tried to do every single time, and which is pretty much guaranteed death in a map where unapproved PC movement = lightning bolts in face). 3x Fireball, don't know how else I could've dealt with that many rude enemies at once (I was lucky to have a one-time itemcast on hand for the third). Even that didn't kill like any of the casters, just brought them all to death's door and I was kind of lucky to be able to pick them off with bows before they got any spells off.

Fought the Demonknight legit. Which is to say that he got swarmed by hasted ogres. Everybody needs something like 50-70k experience for a level now so uh maybe I'm done leveling after all. I'm also sitting on something like 90k gold and there's nothing worth buying. I have no idea what the game wants to me to do at this point but I'm going to just try and smash through the remaining plot now. God that is all the dungeon I want out of this game, thanks.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 20, 2013, 12:16:59 PM
Once you cleave through Durlag's Tower the game doesn't want you to do anything else other than try to kill a superboss (who is lame and boring).  It drops a dagger.  Smash Sarevok and move on.

Saint's Row 4 - Dubstep Gun is pure glee now that I have it fully upgraded.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 20, 2013, 02:48:32 PM
Last Story: Lisa's reveal was totally unexpected in every sense of the word! By which I mean I guessed it the instant I saw her.  Ok, maybe not the name and I flubbed the title but that's more me botching setting details than anything else.  Still went "she's the girl going to be married in a month" when I first saw her.

Game is starting to come together better now, so yeah, mostly just the tutorial dungeon that felt like a mess.  I am noticing this is a far more plot and character heavy game than expected, so it is a good thing the character work has been fairly solid thus far.  Also I probably should mess around with customizing equipment colors a bit because this game has too much black in terms of outfits, though it does look good on some of the characters.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 21, 2013, 01:59:54 PM
Characters wear CLOTHES in The Last Story?  :o
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 21, 2013, 02:43:54 PM
Yes, yes they do!

If you're using the image of a near topless woman cutscene (that being Syrenne), namely this one:

http://www.awesomeoutof10.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/laststory3.jpg

That's one of the exceptions, not the norms.  Its a flashback where in they used Syrenne's "unequipped" skin instead of her default outfit.  I don't think any of the characters in that image are using their default outfits, possibly all are using their "Base" (unlike Xenoblade, stripping a character of all equips still keeps them clothed in more than their underwear.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 21, 2013, 04:19:40 PM
<explaining the joke>
You can customise characters' outfits in The Last Story
This includes removing clothes (within reason)
Djinn enjoys looking at sexy human flesh
</explaining the joke>
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on September 21, 2013, 04:30:55 PM
:thejoke:
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 21, 2013, 05:04:56 PM
<explaining the joke>
You can customise characters' outfits in The Last Story
This includes removing clothes (within reason)
Djinn enjoys looking at sexy human flesh
</explaining the joke>

The joke only goes so far when even the "naked" outfits are still more clothed than a number of games where characters full outfits still show of a lot of skin(...except Syrenne...)!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on September 21, 2013, 06:26:28 PM
<explaining the joke>
You can customise characters' outfits in The Last Story
This includes removing clothes (within reason)
Djinn enjoys looking at sexy human flesh
</explaining the joke>

The joke only goes so far when even the "naked" outfits are still more clothed than a number of games where characters full outfits still show of a lot of skin(...except Syrenne...)!

There's also a "naked" dye that de-equips characters even further. You have to unlock it by doing one of the sidequests, but I think characters with it are just in their underwear. Alternatively, you could go the route of the SA LP and use really tight clothes combined with skin tone dyes. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 21, 2013, 06:47:59 PM
I see.   Well, that changes things a bit, and chances are I won't be making much use of it at all!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on September 21, 2013, 06:53:26 PM
Been playing a free version of FFXI for awhile now.

It's saving me money.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 21, 2013, 08:10:36 PM
I was very equal opportunity about it. Guys and girls alike were equally naked.

Tales of Xillia: Oh man, Leia annoys me a lot in her introductory stuff. She gets better but goddamn does she make a terrible first impression. Kind of fun to play as her though. I may end up going back to using Jude because she has a lot of lag after her aerial attacks. She makes a weird healer.

Dear Tales of Xillia: Please don't take away my characters anymore. I am playing this game with my friends and when you do that, my friends cannot play. Especially do not do this for 5 hours straight after having given me nearly the full party before.

We invited another friend over to join us for video games and we decided on ToX, only to immediately get thrown into a Milla solo section... and then a Jude solo section... and then a Leia/Jude duo section. It's bad enough that it is suboptimal to play with unlinked PCs, it's worse when you don't even have the -option- to link.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on September 21, 2013, 08:24:55 PM
Well it would hardly be fair to only undress half the cast.

FE13: Decided to get around to a serious lunatic run. Feel pretty good that i cleared the first 3 maps(not counting the tutorial) on my first try. Map 4 is going to be a bitch though, as Fred only has 3 shots of Silver Lance left. Once renown awards open up, I am going to break this thing wide open and start creating uber kids to wreck the second half of the game with. But getting there will be the trick.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 22, 2013, 02:19:24 PM
Baldur's Gate, Tales of the Sadistic GM

Oh man. So I was just kind of dicking around in unexplored zones because I still didn't know where I was supposed to go (because I'd totally overlooked the necessary plot flag by visiting the wrong inn in Beregost) when I stumbled into this town called, I forget, Whatshisface's Beard or something. A bunch of cultists immediately spawn upon entry and steal that worthless dagger I got from killing the Demonknight. I chase them and kill them because hey, they've got red circles around their character models. Not too much trouble until I get to the cult HQ basement.

Cult leader instacasts Horror, summons a demon that immediately silences the whole team and paralyzes half of it. Okay, reset, try that a few more times until I manage to kill the mage before she can get her spell off. There's six cultists standing around the room but they don't do anything. I figure the game's glitching out, but hey, no arguments on my part because this fight's enough a bastard already. After a couple tries I manage to kill the demon without any casualties--at which point one of the cultists explodes and the demon respawns. Aw god dammit. So new plan, kite the demon around the room while the rest of the team murders the cultists one by one. This isn't easy either since he still has decent damage and a pile of status hax, but eventually I pull it off with just Minsc dead. Okay, no big, I can get him rezzed--then Imoen and Shar-Teel explode and turn into ghouls. WHAT THE FLYING FUCK.

At this point I FAQ the fight to see what the hell is going on. Okay so he has a spell that puts an invisible timer on someone and when it runs out they're dead forever, no resurrection, poof. Whyyyyyyyyyyy.

At this point I'm done playing the way the game wants me to. Imoen stealths in around the cult leader and shoots the cultists to death from outside her visual range. This takes a while because Imoen has party-worst damage hands down and there's six of these guys and they're kind of beefy, so I wander off for like twenty minutes while she plinks them all to death. No biggie, I had chores to get done anyway. Finally the cult leader's all alone and I can just straight up blitz the fight. It still takes a few tries because demons, man.

So what's my reward for this ordeal? Absolutely nothing. I poke around town a little more, this one dude's all "Hey go visit this isolated island for me there's relics to loot and everything." FUCK YOU no I'm done here.

Plotwise, cleared the bandit camp and the Cloakwood mine. Nothing much to say about either of these. Apparently I am up against the Iron Throne, look forward to bitchslapping Joffrey in person. So now there is actually a Baldur's Gate in my Baldur's Gate game, how about that. I immediately hit the shops, maybe there is something worth spending my hoarde of excess gold on in the game's only metropolis? The first shop I visit sells nothing but cursed gear. Whyyyyyy.

I also found a gender-switching belt. Oh hey, Shar-Teel, got a present for you, pal! (I'd do it if I thought she'd react in any way, but BG1 didn't put much effort into scripting its entirely-too-many PCs.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 22, 2013, 04:42:16 PM
I kinda liked the fight myself in the solo playthrough, but I had to cheat. By killing the six cultists then going up the stairs and resting. Evil Satan from the Depths is too fat to fit in the staircase.

The fight on the island is worse. Good thinking on getting the hell out of there.




Yattaf has done every BG2 sidequest + killed the two dragons + beat every cowled wizard fight you get by casting magic in the city. Not many opportunites for lawful evilness. She's on to siding with vampires and rolling over the rest of the game.
The mage stronghold quests were pretty fun. I'm going to keep "Yattaf's dagger" in my inventory and kill the final boss with it. Also needless to say all three mage kids are dead dead dead.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on September 22, 2013, 06:33:32 PM
GTA5: I think Xenosaga plot made more sense
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 22, 2013, 07:10:18 PM
FE13: All children recruited! Fuck those paralogue maps. Inigo and Owain are the best. Noire is hilarious, but doesn't flip out and go crazy nearly often enough. Severa makes me angry. Cynthia and Brady have some good moments. Laurent, Kjelle, Yarne, Morgan, Nah, and Gerome are just bland. I'm probably gonna stick to using the main cast and the three kids that I actually like.

Tharja is still MVP. Henry is up there too. Seriously, I'm reclassing everyone I can into Sorcerers next time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on September 23, 2013, 02:50:48 AM
ToX: Back up to endgame.  Jude now has max attack as his base.  Yay or something.  Milla's side of Chapter 4 was interesting.  It also taught me the best way to play as her.  Jump in the air and spam Thunder Blade until everything dies.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 23, 2013, 03:18:58 AM
BG1: Well that's done with.

I'm not sure exactly what happened with the Sarevok fight. Well, I'm not sure what happened the time I won. I quite definitely recall what happened when I tried to deal with it as a real fight, which was in turn half the party getting ID'd instantly and some asshole Haste-spamming Fireball arrows at me. So I decided this was obviously not a fight you're supposed to deal with fairly and lobbed a couple fireballs at the gang from offscreen before running to hide behind my summon cordon. Only Sarevok followed me. His goons definitely weren't dead, because I still saw battle messages from them killing stray wolves, but I guess their boss just ran too far away for their AI to keep track of him? Fine by me! He's enough of a meat grinder on his own, tore right through waves of summons while everyone sniped at him from the doorway. I wanted to let Hobocat killsteal, but nah, no way I'm sending the cat after a killing machine he'd probably need a crit to hit.

The cat can pickpocket, did I mention that? He's about as bad at it as you'd expect, but the mental image is no less fantastic for that.

Pretty glad to be moving on to BG2, BG1 isn't something I'd likely replay on its own merits. The dungeons are horrible clusterfucks of narrow, twisty corridors and the cast lacks the personality of its successor. I just spent an hour or so tooling around Irenicus's dungeon and that place alone evidences more character than all of BG1's environments. Sidequests are also all very bland. Kill/retrieve X sums up every one.

The fact that Sarevok didn't feel any need to change out of his totally metal demon armor and put on respectable clothes for the ducal initiation meeting (and that no one questioned this) conveys everything of consequence about the intelligence of Baldur's Gate citizenry.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 23, 2013, 03:31:02 AM
FE9: Stage 19. Hawks stole the boss kill in 17.4, but I got the Adept scroll so I'm calling that a net win. Promoted a bunch of people in 18, got the triangle attack, now it's time to try and not kill any crows. This will certainly not be a pain in the ass.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 23, 2013, 03:34:26 AM
If you were wearing shit that metal you would never change out of it for so many reasons.  Primarily because of how goddamned long it would take, but partially because that shit is so fucking metal.

Also the Familiar Pickpocket is why the Elmonster solo that was linked earlier goes for a Chaotic (neutral?) Sorc, so they can save scum and get some useful stuff early game BG2 (Ring of Regeneration from dude with the shop in Waukeen's Promenade is the big win for solo games).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 23, 2013, 03:48:41 AM
FE9: Stage 19. Hawks stole the boss kill in 17.4, but I got the Adept scroll so I'm calling that a net win. Promoted a bunch of people in 18, got the triangle attack, now it's time to try and not kill any crows. This will certainly not be a pain in the ass.

On the bright side, you can start leveling Ike again!  Granted, I don't suspect Ike was level 20 for all THAT long (if he reached that at all), FE9 is actually nice about the plot promoting Lord in any event.


Last Story: Zael took over a warship with just his best friend and a mage...and conveniently ran into 2 of his allies who were captured on said ship along the way.  Whatever, all I know is Lisa looks good in Stealth Armor/Greaves, so damn it, she's keeping those on!

Pokemon Black: About to tackle Victory road.  Started using a Vullaby, looked at my levels, looked levels for Promotion, remembered final boss levels, realized I wasn't getting a Mandibuzz, and put Sigilyph back in my team.  If I was stubbon, I'd go grab Tornadus and use him as my flier, but don't feel like chasing a runner around right now.

Other Pokemon are Serperior, Krookodile, Carracosta, Cobalion, and Chandeleure.  Considered using Darmanitan, but effective as he is, he's also BORING (FLARE BLITZ! -> THINGS EXPLODE!  And that's all he ever does), Chandeleure at least has neat typing, even if probably a worse option.


Valkyrie Profile: Just started chapter 3, got Nanami so I have one stupid good Mage in my team, who that is will change!  About to get get Kashell.  Sending up Llewellyn this chapter because I didn't get Janus.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on September 23, 2013, 06:03:34 AM
I really like Sigilyph. In any other Pokémon game it'd be totally worth using, but Black/White is just horribly cruel to both Flying AND Psychic mons.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on September 23, 2013, 06:30:20 AM
Sending up Llewellyn this chapter because I didn't get Janus.

You know who's better than sending up Llewelyn in Chapter 3?  ANYONE.

Seriously though don't do it, his Hero Value is too low for the Chapter and you won't get all of Odin's gifts.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 23, 2013, 07:12:29 AM
What if you LEVEL GRIND bro?  Totes doable (and stupid, breaking the class reqs impact is way lower than you expect.  Do the same thing when you need a strong swimmer later on and no fucks to give).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 23, 2013, 07:15:45 AM
I've certainly gotten Llewelyn to the required level for C3's hero value req on a couple occasions. It's... 13 IIRC? High but not crazy unreasonable. Obviously it's not optimum play though.

Also only having 65 hero value is still pretty bad; I wouldn't be shocked if you still get better items from someone with better hero value even if it's not an archer.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 23, 2013, 07:34:29 AM
Having done it multiple times (because I am stupid and don't do things optimally like I actually know how to do), it really does take a bit of a grind.  Some Cave of Oblivion abuse goes far.

It helps that I kind of dig using him though.  I have more affection for Layer Storm and BUT THERE ARE NO WORDS than they really deserve.

That and Snow likes Janus and his taste in men has proven to be horrible.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 23, 2013, 12:18:54 PM
Hey! >_< Low blow.

Tales of Xillia: In our never-ending quest to avoid Ivar, we have taken three times as long to get some damn transport wyverns as it would have to just let Ivar carry us one by one to our fucking destination. Note: I still have not gotten these transport wyverns.

But a whole lot of drama happened! I suspect that Alvin's story must play out a lot differently in Jude's path, because it doesn't come off nearly as bad as everyone was making it out to be. In fairness, it looks like a lot of the scenes in this section would have been Milla-only, making the whole thing a lot more clear than in a Jude playthrough where he's missing out on key scenes of Alvin's motivations and various coverups?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 23, 2013, 12:23:06 PM
On the bright side, you can start leveling Ike again!  Granted, I don't suspect Ike was level 20 for all THAT long (if he reached that at all), FE9 is actually nice about the plot promoting Lord in any event.

He was L20 since...15 or 16, I forget which. Definitely all through 17. Not a huge deal, I'd have kept him off the front lines while he was at half speed anyway.

Speaking of Ike, Aether kicks in a lot for something with a supposed Skill/2 activation rate. Not complaining.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 23, 2013, 03:19:35 PM
That's because Aether in FE9 is a Skill% chance, at least according to Serenes.  FE10, where the move is stronger (ITD instead of Defense/2 on the 2nd hit) is Skill/2%, as are all mastery skills, though, Mastery SKills are generally better in FE10 as all Fighters (including Laguz) basically have a multipler tacted on, so it becomes a glorified critical hit.  In fact, on raw damage, I think Aether is one of the worse ones, just you never care because Ike hits so hard that his damage more than doubled is pretty much an insured kill to most enemies.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on September 23, 2013, 07:58:40 PM
Why the fuck do you still say things.

It's none of your damn business.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 23, 2013, 09:48:59 PM
Look it isn't my fault that Janus is lame and boring.  No amount of adding Poison on his basic physical will save him.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 23, 2013, 10:34:42 PM
But that's like plot and gameplay integration or something!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 23, 2013, 10:43:57 PM
It is and that is fine, but VP poison sucks and Llewleyn has integrated Pokemon. 10/10 use him all day every day.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 23, 2013, 11:48:52 PM
Jesus type with a gun that shoots arrows =/= Boring
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on September 24, 2013, 12:31:03 AM
Integrated Pokemon?

...does he get some bow that shoots pikachus? Cause that is pretty cool.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 24, 2013, 12:38:51 AM
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0419760/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Like this.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on September 24, 2013, 01:14:12 AM
That's why you use Jessie Mystina.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on September 24, 2013, 01:19:31 AM
That's why I deserve Taco Bell and Tequila.

Lufia 3- Finished! 7/10. Gameplay's good, writing is hilariously bad, polish is bad. It's a game that could desperately use a port/cleanup along the lines of what Dragon Warrior 4 got on the DS. The gameplay has crazy amounts of potential with even a few small improvements.  If the game's going to use rando dungeons, it could have used better designed ones as well- the dungeons got pretty repetitive late.

Guard Daos was very respectable, as was the final boss. They were both fast and had a lot of damage/status.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 24, 2013, 01:22:16 AM
Set that bar for failure and Super will not only meet it but exceed it with flying colours.  I suppose if you have to be good at one thing you may as well strive to be the best.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 24, 2013, 02:39:25 AM
BG2: 2/3 of intended party in place. I'm tempted to rush to Spellhold as soon as it's financially possible just so Imoen doesn't get behind on levels (I hate this). Tackling the Underdark with basically starting gear would be pretty ugh-worthy though. Evidently BG:T mods ensured she was carried over to BG2 as a pure thief, which I'm fine with...although it still didn't stop her from cutscene casting and getting arrested for it! For long-term planning purposes, I'm not really clear on precisely when/how Sarevok becomes available? (I don't give a damn about spoilers.)

I forgot to mention, best part of BG1? Walk into random store in the city, immediately see this message twelve times in a row:

*Rabid chicken - attacks Imoen*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 24, 2013, 02:47:12 AM
Trilogy continues to be completely inferior I see.  There is mods that handle Imoen XP scaling if you are interested.

Sarevok doesn't become available until Throne of Bhall proper starts.  It will be after the climax of BG2 where you go to Suldandesellar (NOT SURE ON ELF SPELLING).

BG2 plot structure is Irenicus Dungeon -> Athkatla DO THINGS for cash -> Athkatla DO THINGS for thieves/vampires -> Then a huge break for Spellhold/Underdark adventures-> Athkatla DO THINGS to Gank some vampires -> ELFTOWN -> Internal demiplane representation of hell.

Any point where DO THINGS is specified you are free to fuck around and do whatever.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 24, 2013, 02:59:52 AM
I am kind of hesitant about modding the game while in progress because I broke BG1 doing that and had to replay the intro because of it (waugh). Oh well, thieves level faster than everyone else anyway.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 24, 2013, 03:57:42 AM
You could be paranoid and copy your game folder before modding.  Also Weidu is pretty flexible and will let you roll back changes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on September 24, 2013, 04:39:00 PM
BG2: Did Chapter 3. Well that was fast.
Bodhi has a very nice swimming pool.


Elminage Original: Wizardry-like for the PSP
Rarely have I seen a game live a lower amount of fucks about the player in any way.
There are like 20 classes and no explanation about any of them in the game. Pretty much everything else is the same and there's no balance and obscure mechanics are everywhere.
The manual is all "Uuuuh if you're having trouble go to the inn I guess? KTHXBYE"

Also it is hard as hell.
I played 7 hours nonstop.

I went with a Fighter/Valkyrie/Hunter/Bard/Bishop/Alchemist.
- Fighter (Yattaf) gets the Flamberge early on, and goes do 2x the damage of everybody else combined right away. This is the most unbalanced weapon since that crazy shit in Dragon Slayer Gaiden. Best HP and AC too.
- Valkyrie is dual wielding for decent damage, plus she gets to learn some priest spells.
- Hunter can hurt the back row, and sometimes gets a random double attack at the end of the turn. Good early, starting to lag now. Also he's a dumb lizard.
- Bard is pretty subpar but every party needs a bard. I made mine a 50 year old werebeast that looks like a lion. He does the thief stuff like opening chests, and can use his harp to put one enemy to sleep.
- Bishop gets mage and priest spells at an absolutely appaling rate. I turned him into regular priest and gave him two shields because this just wasn't cutting it. He has a cool hat and his nickname is "Boss"
- Alchemist's spells are ALL about status. I don't think I've ever seen status effects being more useful in a game? Spellcasters get spells at a crazy rate in this game, so the alchemist gets access to stuff like MT paralysis pretty fast. Lately though she's gotten a Flame Rod, which item casts Flamberge level damage on a whole row for free. (The fuck?) I maybe should give the rod to the Bishop and continue to status things.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 24, 2013, 06:06:51 PM
Planescape: Torment: On Grefter's advice, I went looking for Nordom.

It has not gone well.

Finally got TNO into Wizard. I'm kind of tempted to use THE PORTAL, but my team feels really under built at the moment (hard constructs stomp holes in me).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 24, 2013, 09:17:03 PM
Don't worry about it. The modron cube is like the only place in the game where the enemies really try. And everything after that you can solo with Nordom kiting and sniping so it's so worth the bother (also because he's Nordom. "The situation no longer equals total logic.")
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 24, 2013, 09:17:58 PM
Hard constructs not representative of expected difficulty level.  If you want to skip it and jump through the portal things will be easier than Modron Maze
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 24, 2013, 09:24:03 PM
Well, to be fair, Larval Worms wrecked my face too. I did manage to handle a bunch while Morte was on like, 9 Clot Charms and healed whenever they attacked him, but after that wore off...

Anyhow, I'll prolly take another shot at trying to find Nordom today.

I might have to bust out a pen and paper for this one.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 24, 2013, 10:00:59 PM
If it helps, it is always on an 8x8 grid and you always start along an edge.  You can totally run past constructs as well, PS:T doesn't do "You must gather your party before venturing forth.", so you only need one person to run to an exit (IIRC Annah in Stealth will do the job especially well if you don't get a room with a 3 spawn since they won't see you as you enter the room).  It is also worth noting that you probably do want to farm some dudes in the dungeon though since they have randoloot for Nordom and Optix is hands down the best Lens for him.  Normally get it if you clear the dungeon on Hard.

It is definitely one of the places that is easier as a Mage since Cloud Kill is amazing for the dungeon, but Cloud Kill is amazing for everything in PS:T.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 24, 2013, 10:35:43 PM
Yeah, I figured out some of the trickery for running through the dungeon. The main problem is dudes hit really hard and I don't have a ton of HP on anyone, meaning too many 2/3 spawns (especially if they end up poorly positioned ) and I'll start losing runners.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 24, 2013, 10:40:50 PM
Only have one dude do the run then >_>  You click the exit and everyone will charge for it.  Select everyone but your runner and tell them to run away from the fuck machines.

Also from memory if you have Annah stealth before transition she will be prestealthed (but need to reactivate) when you zone in, so that can help.  You do need to be out of combat of course, so it only works if you have ganked a solo guy or something.

Remember that you can always back out and rest up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 24, 2013, 11:57:20 PM
I was doing the one runner thing once I figured it out. :p Just especially with 3 automaton rooms (or when I need to backtrack) the single runner can get cracked a time or two, which adds up way quickly. It isn't awful, just a bit tedious, especially since I wasn't using graph paper at the time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on September 25, 2013, 12:29:00 AM
Lollipop Chainsaw - what is this i don't even (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HGBzTEnpgc)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 25, 2013, 01:13:09 AM
My only response to that other than (WHY ARE YOU PLAYING THIS.  OF COURSE YOU ARE PLAYING THIS) is so when are you getting Bayonetta?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on September 25, 2013, 03:45:29 AM
I have Bayonetta, but I'm still getting back into the "playing games" gear. I'll probably give it a spin once I'm done with Lollipop Chainsaw, which seems really short.

EDIT: Lollipop Chainsaw also triggers so many conflicting impressions in my goddamn head I can't even begin. It's like the game manages to be both crudely chauvinistic and cleverly empowering at the same time. I'M SAYING THIS ABOUT A GAME WHERE THE BARELY LEGAL MAIN CHARACTER POLEDANCES WHILE TOTING A CHAINSAW TO BEHEAD ZOMBIES.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on September 25, 2013, 04:31:11 AM
And yet one of the villains literally uses the word "bitch" as a weapon and the male lead exists purely to do things for the female lead.  It's like Suda51 was making fun of genre conventions BUT HE NEVER DOES THAT DOES HE???
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on September 25, 2013, 04:43:53 AM
And yet one of the villains literally uses the word "bitch" as a weapon and the male lead exists purely to do things for the female lead.  It's like Suda51 was making fun of genre conventions BUT HE NEVER DOES THAT DOES HE???

Yeah, I know it's one of his schticks, though he isn't involved with the game's writing as far as I understand. This is just kind of the game's niche: it's clearly satirical, keeping in mind one of satire's defining characteristics is shifting so close to the conventions it ridicules it often melds with them. So, the vague unease one'd feel playing the game is pretty much part of the ticket's price.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 26, 2013, 04:32:23 AM
Pokemon Black: Completed replay.  Final Team was same as what I listed only replaced Sigilyph with Reshiram for final battle because Fire/Dragon.


Zoda's Revenge: Startropics 2: I am in Chapter 4, Sherlock Holmes is hunting down Zoda's clone Zoda-X...what?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on September 26, 2013, 06:57:52 AM
ToX: Clearing out more things before the final.  In a surprise twist I actually learned the FINAL BOSS has the most HP in the game.  But anyway, cleared out the pointless Sub-Events before finishing off the final Devil Beasts.  She-Harpy was nothing resembling a threat because teleporting as your counter is trash.  Electric-ballman was decidedly more deadly for Rowen though.  Poor old guy kept getting one-shotted, all while Jude just laughed and absorbed every single attack.  After that was the Arena.  Group Basic was a breeze, though Group Advanced was pretty painful.  I learned that if an enemy displays 9999 attack in the enemy book it's probably actually higher than that.  I can debuff an enemy's Attack by 40% and it dropped a capped enemies Attack down to 8730.  Anyway after losing a couple life bottles to the semi-finals the final fight goes sadly easy.  Beat the ever-loving shit out of the weakest, then pick'em apart from there.  One of them can't even hurt good old Jude again.  Sure did over 12k worth of damage to Rowen though!  Ironry.

I checked to make sure I could reach Magnus Zero and I can.  Dunno if I'll fight the Servants first or finish off my levels.  Did get the 1,000 Feather Title along the way.  Boooo.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on September 26, 2013, 09:17:03 AM
Masoukishin 3- Finally. I couldn't figure out how to get Tyutti's secret weapon because it is so easy..... Either way, now Tyutti's skill set is complete, she shall reign the rest of the game as a unbeatable monster.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on September 26, 2013, 12:06:06 PM
Fudo: Remember that elemental resist skills are Linkable (and stack by addition with each other and equips).

So Two folks with Elemental resist skills linked while Rowen has, say, Elemental accessory equipped will tend to negate elemental damage of every type.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on September 26, 2013, 04:56:45 PM
Fudo: Remember that elemental resist skills are Linkable (and stack by addition with each other and equips).

So Two folks with Elemental resist skills linked while Rowen has, say, Elemental accessory equipped will tend to negate elemental damage of every type.

Well, yeah but in this case Rowen still had the Dark Seal equipped.  I don't think even his normal resists popped up either but it's all irrelevant.  It's just Jude doesn't need any of the tweaking other characters need since his best armor/helmet resist the same elements while everyone else generally spreads out the resists.  That is why I have the girls all rocking Elemental Circlets for the full resistance set over their "best" helmets.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on September 26, 2013, 09:54:28 PM
GTAV - Trevor is Nitori levels of balance here.  He's even Canadian to boot.

Also I got a wanted star by killing a shark in the water with a hunting knife.  Fucking NSA has eyes on those sharks before they put freakin laser beams on them.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 27, 2013, 05:34:39 AM
FE9:

/me punts Chapter 19 into the sun.

After five or six runs I finally work out reliable strategies for distracting the birds, safe spots for the healers, and a way to attract Naesala's attention without him slaughtering anybody...and the boss crits Ike with 2 HP left. Wasted all goddamn night on it and I have to start over again. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-----
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on September 27, 2013, 06:01:32 AM
Just checking, but are you aware certain PCs can talk to Naesala to cause him + all the crows to retreat?

Janaff or Ulki with a Full Guard can bait him on turn 1 while shrugging off most of what else the enemies can do, then talk to him. Then put Reyson in his range (but hopefully not too much more) and he'll go talk to Reyson at the start of the next enemy phase, then all the crows will pull back. It's actually not too bad if you pull it off this way, though you still need to watch out for the boss... use someone with good res since the Sonic Sword targets that, and he has both crits/adept procs so you really want to see his base damage down in the single digits before those.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 27, 2013, 06:36:00 AM
Didn't Chap 19 even have those characters state "Hey, we can talk sense into him" during an info session?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on September 27, 2013, 06:52:02 AM
ToX: Cleared out the Pinkist Sub-Event for uhhh... pride?  How shameful.  Fought the Servants.  My memories even worse than I remember and Rowen just ended up getting planted a good lot of time.  Really this was more like a test for my run against the Golden Mage Knight because they have the highest Def scores next to him.  On my way through Magnus Zero everyone got to 99 yay.

So, my plan going into the GMK was to use Accessories to minimize damage through absorption.  This might have worked if Alvin and Elize were actually capable of doing damage.  But since I didn't feel like wearing through all my Items because they could only chip away a thousand damage each.  So, I changed my strategy.  Alvin has ALL CRITS ALL THE TIME in overlimit, so I'll link him with Jude and just go all Link Artes on the shiny bastard.  Switch out my Elemental resist accessories for Link Gauge Speed+ and start using a combination of Sharpening Pulse into Chaining Alvin's entire set.  This tends to do pretty horrific damage when it hits.  Though the GMK is a slippery bastard and ! Counters like mad.  Though bizarrely his Grave! counter doesn't oneshot me horribly like it did on normal.  So anyway, the fight lasts 13 minutes which is actually probably a record for me.  Still gotta fight him twice more but hopefully I can put some more kills unto Alvin's weapon between them so we can really rake up the pain.  Leia ended up using like 80 Apple Gels in this fight alone.  And it easily could have been more than that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on September 27, 2013, 12:41:24 PM
Just checking, but are you aware certain PCs can talk to Naesala to cause him + all the crows to retreat?


Indeed. I'm going for the Knight Ring you get for not killing any of the crows before doing that, which is part of the problem.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 27, 2013, 03:21:55 PM
Endless Frontier: So...I jump in a warp and end up what apparently is Not!Japan.  I assume this is the case because there are cherry blossoms everywhere.  Then again, it could also be DC or Newark...

Last Story: Zael and Co. aren't very good at the Metal Gear Solid thing when it comes to the Gurak base.  Then again, that can be blamed on the rookie here.

But more importantly, THIS GAME HAS GIANT ENEMY CRABS. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on September 28, 2013, 02:57:24 AM
Civ5- Got lots I should be be doing. I'm instead playing Civ.  Cleared the game twice. Once as America on a small map. Second time was a culture victory as India. I didn't go to war or found a second town. I fell behind in technology in a hurry (no shock). The bigger issue was money, I was constantly broke; barely had money to keep a few city states in line.

Also, mercifully I won when I did (1980). The Americans and Russians both had nuclear bombs; the Americans also had all of north and central america. Russia mere had all of europe and Asia to where I was (Almaty area irl).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on September 28, 2013, 02:58:32 AM
Fudo: Grave is earth-elemental. So the reason it isn't overkilling you is because of high earth res.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 28, 2013, 03:14:08 AM
BG2: I crossed the Shadow Thieves and lived.

Hadn't made a run working for Bodhi before. Glad I did, that was one shiny shiny amulet the boss dropped. Immunity to silence/level drain, and faster casting? Oh my yes. Fight was pretty hilarious. I walk up with bhaalspawn solo because I don't feel like maneuvering the entire team around Maze traps. Lob a bunch of summons through the door, then suddenly wait what is that awful hellgate forming in there--*Priest of Mask - Summons Nabbasu.* Oh god dammit. Run away, run away!

This is a startlingly effective plan. They lose control over their demon and it slaughters Linvail's support instead of me.

Spellholds are yes. Chapter 5 or whatever can be the great sidequestathon, I've got a little sister to rescue. For great leveling parity! Imoen 200k XP behind everyone else upon return, pretty insignificant in the long run. Of course, my weapons kind of suck, which might be a problem going forward. I couldn't even damage the pit fiend in Spellhold without resorting to Melf's Minute Meteor spam. Speaking of, how the hell have I never used this spell before? Stunlocking off of fast attack which for all practical purposes can hit anything. It is fantastic.

So yeah, I--wait a minute, something's wrong here. Where's my cat? That is not my cat!

It seems Hobocat got himself disappeared. He was definitely carried over from BG1, waiting patiently outside my cell in Irenicus's dungeon, didn't have to resummon him or anything! The game just seems to have lost him during a cutscene transition. I'm not sure exactly when...wait, last time I definitively remember him being there was when I was tracking down Boo*...wander around the docks, get transported to the phantom pet shop--!!!Someone kidnapped and sold my cat!!! NoooOOoOOoOOo.

I...haven't tried resummoning him yet. I'm almost afraid to try! I do retain his bonus HP, at least.

(*Yes, Unfinished Business mods are also in place. This is new material to me.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on September 28, 2013, 03:46:52 AM
Fudo: Grave is earth-elemental. So the reason it isn't overkilling you is because of high earth res.

I should have said Grave-eqsue.  When I was on Normal the Counter was one-shotting me even with Best Equipment and Linked double Resistance Skills.  That put me at 60% Earth Res for Jude.  With the exact same circumstances set up on Unknown I wasn't being one-shotted.

Though typing this made me realize that I was keeping him debuffed with Sharpening Pulse a lot, but still his attack power should still be higher than Normal even while debuffed.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 28, 2013, 07:16:03 PM
BG2: From Minsc's profile: "Most powerful [foe] vanquished: Saemon Havarian."

Yeeeeeesssssss.

(The narration went on like he got away, but it's no less satisfying an experience for that.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on September 28, 2013, 08:05:24 PM
Didn't carry over the Devil Arms this run myself.

Just unlocked their full power again though after re-beating the Devil Beasts/re-collecting them all then beating GMK. Not sure how much stuff I would have been able to get my guys to null/absorb because Unknown/double damage/triple crit but I didn't try. Used Leia (Dark Seal), Rowen, Alvin (Affinity Stone), Jude (Risk Ring) Stop Flow/Squall Shot/Shattering Demon Fist time stop combo shenanigans for mad EXPs. Leia jumped from L81 to L96, everyone else levelled up a bunch as well though not quite as much. Though both Elize/Milla ended up one higher level than Rowen despite not being in my active party ;o

Really not much left to do. Might fully max some Devil Arms, blitz the rest of the arena for fun, fight the powered up versions of GMK, get everyone to L99, completely fill out all the Lilium Orbs again ... oh yeah there's some grindy title skill/enemy/food stuff I could do for grade I suppose. Might be time to shelf this game soon though~

Got Xillia 2 ordered/ready to deliver Monday~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on September 28, 2013, 11:59:35 PM
Lollipop Chainsaw - i am twelve and what is this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGNiXGX2nLU)

So far, this is quite shallow, rather easy and very fun. I love the aesthetics of the game and the dialogue is hilarious and jarring in equal measures. Excellent soundtrack too, and even though the game's easy as hell (mostly because Juliet is nutsily good: she's absurdly durable in the context of the game and gets up to seven shots of 50% healing at pretty much any time she wants. Additionally, the Nick powerups are brutally powerful and her combos and support tools, like Chainsaw Blaster and Dash, are quite strong. And don't even let me get started on how awesome her dodge jump is, with ten billion invinco frames), the stage design is entertaining and the boss fights are varied and interesting. Not to mention the BOSSES themselves are -hilarious- so far. I'm about to hit the Fulci Fun Center, which's bound to be a doozy in terms of insanity.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on September 29, 2013, 02:56:51 AM
Got a PS3 today along with picking up a few games. Among  those games were Demon Souls and Puppeteer. I got frustrated with Demon Souls so I decided to pop in Puppeteer. This game is the best. I've only played through a couple stages, but the game oozes charm. If I  had to compare it to one thing, it would probably be Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride. It's gorgeously animated and while it's kind of easy if you play through normally, it's already shown that it could be pretty challenging if you wanted to collect all of the souls.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on September 29, 2013, 07:18:05 AM
Oppression in History and Video Games: A Rant

In the real world, the tragedy of a lot of the more fanciful executions that occurred was that the claimed charges were false.  Killing witches is bad because there weren't really any witches, so innocent people were getting killed.  However, if we veer into the realm of alternate history, it's important to note that if the charges were true, all of the sudden these actions become a lot more understandable.  If Martha really was cursing her enemies and causing their babies to be stillborn and their crops to fail, that's really bad!  It's not even clear if imprisoning her would stop the magic!  Death becomes a more understandable resort.  In the same way, if a cabal of Jews really did kidnap Christian babies and sacrifice them and eat them, and put young Christian boys on mockeries of Pilate's trial before crucifying them, well, that's murder.  They kind of do deserve to be executed, if this really happened (which it didn't).

Thus, if in your literature or video game, you want to touch on this note - which I heartily endorse, of course - it's important to not make the villains "right", unless you're intentionally doing some grimdark cynicism, or unless you actually play them not as villains but justified.  A positive example: Harry Potter.  The Death Eaters are basically wizard-racial-superiority types, and lots of the Wizarding World basically subscribes to their views that mixed blood is somehow "bad", but they're wrong.  In the actual reality of the setting, there is no difference between normal-human born wizards & witches, mixed bloods, and purebloods.  They all have the same potential "power", morality, etc.  While the HP series villainy has other issues, this part is done correctly - the reader can be frustrated along with Harry & Hermione that "YOU IDIOTS THIS IS STUPID WHY ARE YOU SO HUNG UP ABOUT BLOODLINES."  (A nice tonic to all the many other fictional series where bloodlines actually are super-important, too.  Sure Harry is still a chosen one, but it has nothing to do with his parentage.)

However, I've been playing both Dishonored and more Fire Emblem Awakening lately, and both awkwardly trip this up.  Let's talk Fire Emblem first.  In the first plot arc of the game, we learn that ~10 years before the game starts, the unnamed Exalt who fathered Emm/Chrom/Lissa goes on a crusade against Plegia.  Ylisseans worship Naga, Plegians mostly seem to worship Grima.  The war drains both sides of people until he dies, and 16-year old Emmeryn calls off the war.  Plegia is still cheesed off, though.  The tone in the first 11 chapters is unmistakable: the Exalt was wrong and made a terrible error, earning Ylisse only a bitter enemy.  Okay, a cautionary tale about how once you start a religious war, stopping it is hard; hate lives on, etc.  Fine, solid.  However!  In the third plot arc of the game, we discover that worshipping Grima has the unfortunate side effect of rendering you magically bound to sacrifice yourself for Grima's feast, or something.  Not only that, we are explicitly told that this ritual requires a lot of people, and that Validar had intentionally not sent any Plegians to fight Valm because he needed them all to restore Grima to full power.  (And it's not clear if this ritual also requires the Fire Emblem, but it apparently doesn't, but maybe would have been easier had they also had the real Fire Emblem.  Whatever.)  The consequence of waking Grima up is apparently the end of the world and the extermination of all human life within 15 years or so.  In other words, the kind of fate so terrible it pretty much justifies breaking every single human law or ethical guideline to stop if you value the continuance of humanity at all.  So...  the exalt was right.  If Emmeryn's father had succeeded in his war, and exterminated the Plegians, then the world would not be under threat from Grima!  Did you just provide an in-game reason for genocide to be a good idea?!  This is sickening, and surely not intentional by the writers.  Anyway, freedom of religion does not really apply when someone is worshiping the very real dark dragon who actively wants to destroy humanity, and said worship gives him power.  Blargh.  Any power of the moral from the first arc is undercut by the third arc accidentally saying "actually, the Exalt's only fault was that he failed in defeating the Grimleal, they really do deserve to be attacked and destroyed immediately."

In Dishonored,  we learn that the Overseers, the religion of Dunwall, have big hypocrites for leaders.  Additionally, you got inducted into Team Outsider (very strangely...  since Corvo is silent, rather than a "deal" or contract with him, he just shows up and says "hey, I like you, have a tatoo and magic powers."), and the Overseers hate the Outsider and consider him basically the devil....  and you work against the Overseers somewhat incidentally, you are presumably supposed to be not a huge fan of the Overseers.  The game also wants to be ambivalent about the Outsider, in fairness; you get told in the between-mission loading screens that "The Outsider is neither good nor evil."  In reading logs of things like "interrogation" sessions of Outsider-worshippers, you find that they have magic powers and can do things like possess people, alarming the interregators as the person's spirit flitted from interrogator to interrogator.  Okay, that is kind of terrifying (and you do indeed have a possession power you can buy in-game!).  So...  what's the verdict?  Let's look at the Outsider-affiliated people other than Corvo, who can be played as both "good" and "quasi-evil."
* Granny Rags has an Outsider Shrine.  She wants you to murder some thugs and to get back at the thugs by planting plague goo in their elixir stills, which would cause people who drink their elixir to get sick rather than healthy, or at least make the elixir worthless.  Uh-huh.
* A crazed survivor who'll attack if you enter his apartment has a Shrine near Kaldwin's Bridge.  You can read his journal, where he finds the Whalebone inscribed with the Outsider's mark, becomes obsessed with it and misses going to a job, gets into a fight with his cousin who came by to visit (& help!) him, but picked up the whalebone himself.  And he uh murderered his cousin, and clearly descended further into madness rapidly thereafter, realizing that everyone is thieves coming to take his precious rune.  As a little mini-horror vignette, A+, but I'm not filled with trust for what the Outsider's artifacts do to people.
* The torturer who tortured Corvo for 6 months is an occultist and Outsider worshipper, complete with Outsider magic.  Additionally, the Outsider claims in the above vignette that he ignores Sokolov as he's "not interesting enough" and thinks that the Outsider can be summoned with specific words or phrases.  Which implies that the Outsider powers only come to those whom the Outsider finds interesting, and freely.  So... the torturer is also an interesting dude to the Outsider, just like Corvo.
* Daud & the assassins have Outsider powers, too, and kill various notable people.  Uh huh.

Anyway, I like the plot element, but "neither good nor evil?"  Uh.  It's pretty clear that the Outsider is, at best, someone who enjoys watching humans be horrible to each other, like a Roman emperor watching gladiators go at it.  God of chaos, madness, & assassins and all.  Considering that someone with Outsider powers is an *extremely* dangerous individual who can possess others and flit past defenses (like, uh, the whole freakin' game of Dishonored), I really really can't fault the Overseers wanting to kill them!  Going back to the historical case, this is like "what if the witches in Massachusetts had REAL POWER to kill people."  This is less bad than the FE case, as Dunwall is a more cynical world, but trying to spin this as "neither good nor evil" is a bit much.  Just embrace that a crazy chaos god gave you power, but that doesn't mean Corvo needs to use the power for evil.

Although on that note, I must say I find the "evil" path actually more fitting.  You are an assassin given power by the devil to go around killing people.  Additionally, while the writers seem to think the Empress is sympathetic for some reason, I'm much more cynical of this.  You can't build a quasi-fascist state in 6 months by magic (unless you are Harry Potter Book 7).  The Empress "should" be as bad as the rest of them, these are her advisors after all, but whatever.  Additionally, I'm with the Zero Punctuation review: The decision to make Corvo a mute was a mistake, just as it was for Gordon Freeman.  It sort of works if you play Corvo as the silent deathbringer who just wants revenge and nothing else, similar to how Crono just wants to save the world, of course; hence my preference for the "dark" interpretation of Corvo where he's just another political player getting revenge against those who shoved him out of the way.  The positive Corvo interp suffers, however, but it's clearly intended - the (supposedly trustworthy) Empress speaks highly of Corvo (is he the royal *consort* as well as bodyguard or something?  Who's Emily's dad?).

Okay, I just wanted to randomly rant.  I'm pretty okay with killing Grimleal in FEA or having Overseers oppress Outsider worshippers in Dishonored, yet the games themselves have a more incoherent view on the matter, with sometimes it's okay and sometimes we'll imply it's bad.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on September 29, 2013, 07:29:44 AM
On a lighter note....
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=180986555
Apparently I was supposed to sneak upstairs, read that Waverly Boyle was worried about someone being out to get her, and use that to convince her to talk with me privately ("I know something about the plot against your life.  Come with me downstairs and I'll tell you more.  Surprise it's me.")  However, the designers built in several options, which include following her into the bathroom (!) as she walks around the party.  She even has her own snarky line about the fact you're doing this...  bad choice, miss, you should have just screamed immediately.  Right, close door, then execute.  Somehow the death animation meant she didn't get a scream out as I murdered her anyway.  She ended up the only target I killed rather than non-lethally humiliated, because the non-lethal option was just too creepy - "Hi I don't know you but I love her from afar, pls let me kidnap her and take her far away from here so she can be mind forever."  Doesn't sound very wise regardless, if he's authentically in love with her, he might just let her go or some such.  But Dishonored, like Mass Effect 2, isn't a game that wants you to think about "hey is this plan even plausible."  (Dealing with the Pendelton Bros. had the same issue - "Hi I am a crime lord I will deal with these people in some nebulous non-lethal way trust me.")
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on September 29, 2013, 07:46:25 AM
Psychonauts - played through

The game has numerous problems that I'm sure everyone has gone over before. I'll just say that the one I found the worst was the times when the camera would act up, especially since movement seemed to be always linked to the camera instead of having any sort of memory as to where the camera was facing when you started moving. Of course, the instance which is freshest in my mind is how the camera randomly doesn't move at the final jump on the spiral netting, so you suddenly need to compensate for that after it was actually working properly for the rest of the jumps.

Also the horrible times when ladders don't work properly. Especially the one up to the roof of the first peasant's house. That's right, Raz, just try to get off the ladder when you're still several rungs from the top and fall off several times before you'll actually climb it properly. I'm not already sick of having to climb back up here after every failed attempt to get those horrible bird figments.

Still manages to be fairly great despite everything.



I've finally gotten around to setting my PS2 back up and I've found that the modchip (Matrix Infinity, don't remember the version) seems to have died. Turning it on just gives off a black screen, if I go on to reset the system it appears to start up in regular mode. So apparently it should still be possible to run PAL games, but not others. I've tried running a firmware installer CD but it just sits there clicking for a few seconds. Does anyone have any experience in/advice for this sort of situation?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 29, 2013, 11:15:14 AM
A lot of the truly fucked up shit with regards to the Outsider is human fault, not his specifically.  There is canonically very few people with a Mark at a given time.  So many of the problems with practitioners is brought on by crazies worshiping him and him not really caring.  Granny Rags is fucked up though, yes.

The torturer may worship the Outsider and be a practitioner, but he doesn't have a mark.  Outside of those marked there is no real sign that The Outsider even interacts with his worshipers.  They act out to try and get his attention and as Sokolov shows, doing what you think he likes does nothing of the sort.  The actual interaction you see him have with anyone unmarked is actually with Piero.

Saying he is evil I think is missing the point.  He is Pan in a cynical setting (which is pretty cool given that he is far less blatant about everything than The Trickster was in Thief).  He isn't evil so much as completely alien with a delightfully wicked sense of humor (See the Heart).  His worshippers tend to be fucking messes though in the ways that worshiping a being of chaos should be.

I stand by in both Thief and Dishonored that while the Hammer and Overseers are understandable, their representation as generally being pretty wrong is accurate.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on September 29, 2013, 04:11:38 PM
The Heart is pretty alarming, too.  She occasionally has lines like "How do I know all this?" or "Why am I here?"  I get the impression she's an imprisoned soul or the like who can't remember her actual life due to a curse, but maybe I'm reading too deeply into it.  Whether this is punishment or reward as far as the Outsider is concerned, I'm not sure.

Even if we accept that the Outsider is in fact just Pan, the rather understandable fact that lunatics & killers worship him and authentically get power means that I can't blame the Overseers too much for being suspicious and wanting to "interrogate" worshipers.  (Also, the Overseers have enough uncomfortable parts to 'em they're clearly not the heroes, of course, for staters the whole "kidnap children and kill some for recruits" part.  But distrusting the Outsider is understandable!)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 29, 2013, 08:57:23 PM
That is pretty much the point of it yes.  The Outsider isn't nice (an uncaring god out for its own amusement), but people do a whole lot of terrible shit to each other without his help, but use him as justification for an awful lot.

Spoilers for implied stuff at end game you may not want to know, but is a discussion point.

It is implied and all but stated directly in the last stages that the heart is the Empress.  Ignoring the obvious symbolism that goes with this and just straight up viewing the literal components to it is such a great example of how fucked up The Outsider is.  I am not sure if it is a joke to him, he thinks it is a nice thing to do or if it is just pragmatic to give Corvo something useful to achieve his goals.  I come out interpreting a mix of all three.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on September 30, 2013, 02:09:30 AM
Endless Frontier: Holy crap Reiji hits hard.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on September 30, 2013, 02:44:13 AM
Tales of Xillia: Thinking "Gee, it'll be more efficient to get Kills on the Devil Arms by linking two characters who need them!" was horribly wrong.  I completely forgot that the Magnuz Zero enemies get buffed too because on Normal the Arms get unlocked so you won't feel it.  But now, it's become rather quite painful to play as something other than my intended Jude.  Even with Leia being able to Sharpness her P,ATK to max she can't cut it under my control.  By the time it takes me to clear one area using Leia+Alvin I could clear three with Jude+Alvin.  Alvin's Charge Armor skill also has a wrong description.  It says you can't be staggered while Charged but it really means you can't be staggered while Charging.  The lack of Link Artes that the other characters have with each other hurts too, even if the Elize+Leia death copter is unbridled WIN.  I also misread the description for Sharpening Pulse's debuff.  It's a 40% chance to debuff, not a 40% debuff.  It's really more like 30% when it hits, which is still good and all.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on September 30, 2013, 03:28:49 AM
Endless Frontier: Holy crap Reiji hits hard.

Particularly at that point in the game, where you have no high-end offense-buffing spirits. He'll be game-best damage throughout the game no matter what even with the questionable mults on some of his attacks, though the gap closes considerably once other damage buffs come into play.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 30, 2013, 03:40:20 AM
BG2: Steamrolled Bodhi, now embarking on spree of earlygame quests I am massively overqualified for. Also apparently I forgot to grab the Gesen Bowstring when I was in Spellhold. That's, uh...you can't get back there, can you. Dammit. Sorry Imoen, you'll just have to keep failing at damage. Here, have this flying dagger that sets people on fire. I know it's not the same, but it'll have to do.

Starting out the Unseeing Eye bit, bench Jaheira for Keldorn and she gets all pissy. Apparently she leaves permanently if you kick her out after clearing her personal quest? She outright says as much. Not really a big deal since she'd get booted in ToB anyway, but I did intend to bring her along to smack Jon in the face. Oh well.

This old dude named Elminster's been following me around for two games now. I feel like I should kill him. Is such a thing...permissible?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 30, 2013, 04:57:28 AM
She should be outside the Harper Stronghold at the docks unless you did something seriously fucked up (Or I am forgetting some flags for things that can happen?).

Jaheira is just moody (which is why she is 10/10).  Edit - Wiki suggests it is a requirement in her romance that she never leave, so it is probably just a warning about that.  FOR SOME REASON SHE DOESN'T HANDLE ABANDONMENT WELL.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on September 30, 2013, 11:30:00 AM
Well yeah Jude is the best character in the game and everything. Dat Palm Strike/Shattering Demon Fist and all :) My Leia has 6'500~ P-ATK on her Devil Arm (also has the highest A-Attack >_>) but that's because I used her all of my first run and most of my second run as too (well she was always in the party either way even the rares times I wasn't maining her except arena/etc) but I did forget she would be able to hit the caps sooner due to Sharpness/Elemental Impulse. Can't remember if enough enemies in Magnus Zero have elemental weaknesses for you to take advantage of the combined Sharpness/Elemental Impulse (off Mystic Symbol) effect though. I usually forget/don't remember her buffs going on the offensive with her since I usually take to the air straight away since I've been trying to master aerial master shenanigans this run <_< You're right about the Link Artes, Leia/Alvin don't really have any great ones, Invigorating Rain is probably the best one but then Sharpening Pulse is probably better =/ Might just be better off sticking to Leia/Jude for it? (assuming if you want to fully max out Leia's Devil Arm naturally/without buffs later) Tempest Pirouette did more for me than Spinning Thunder but then I didn't have all the buffs up, hmnn.

Spiral Strike spam is probably Leia's best arte for really driving up the link gauge (you probably know this already)?

Leia is supposedly a lot better in Xillia 2. Speaking of which it just arrived! :)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on September 30, 2013, 11:44:31 AM
Disgaea D2: C4, Dis1 characters with Dis4 (I think) mechanics. Flonne and moth riding mage kill everything
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 30, 2013, 12:03:37 PM
She should be outside the Harper Stronghold at the docks unless you did something seriously fucked up (Or I am forgetting some flags for things that can happen?).

Jaheira is just moody (which is why she is 10/10).  Edit - Wiki suggests it is a requirement in her romance that she never leave, so it is probably just a warning about that.  FOR SOME REASON SHE DOESN'T HANDLE ABANDONMENT WELL.

Yeah, I just checked and she is in fact not hanging around the Harper building like she normally would be. Which makes sense because they've tried to kill her repeatedly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 30, 2013, 01:11:24 PM
Huh, maybe she gets pissy if you boot her twice?  Or were you on character quest?  Weird.  Oh well I guess?  (Use Mazzy instead.  Don't you dare touch Cernd).

Icewind Dale - Since there is so much Infinity Engine going on I was all excited and wanted to play something that I hadn't done in ages and Andy has Planescape covered, so I went with the second shittiest game in the engine (IWD2 would be a better game if it wasn't such a giant clusterfuck of bugs and jamming 3rd Ed rules into 2nd Ed engine).  I am done with first level of Dragon's Eye.  Interested if Yxonumei is as bullshit as I remember.  Running all pure classes because I am like that.  Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Druid, Bard, Mage.  Because IWD is mostly low level so that running that many casters isn't so bad.  I really should have grabbed another fighter type (paladin probably) instead of the Druid, but Druid's get interesting spells in IWD1.  They wanted them to be legit competition for Clerics in the dungeon crawl game, so they get solid selection of the token healing (Think they even get Res and Heal) and get enough offensive spells to be a ghetto Wizard. 

I am regretting the Bard as I always do for several reasons.  Primarily I don't like scroll management of who learns what.  If I want 2 arcane users I normally get a Sorcerer in BG1 with Tutu.  BG2 showers you in scrolls so it isn't so bad.  The other reason I regret it is that the Bard is about to unlock Level 3 spells.  This is the point where Bards > Wizards for raw damage in spell casting due to character level driving spell damage and Rogue spell experience tables (Level 7 Bard at 40k experience, Wizard level 6 at 40k Experience with 2 level 3 slots, extra D6 on Skull Trap.  This will persist well into level 20 (where spell level caps out in base IE games).  Bard doing 20d6 with Skull Trap at 2.2 Million experience compared to Wizard not getting it until 3.75 Million.  When the Bard has it capped out the Wizard will be level 16 (in 50k more exp).  It only really gets out of hand around level 12/13.  So the Mage can pretend to be good at damage for a few more levels. 

That said I fully accept that this is a real total artifact of Infinity Engine games with Skull Trap.  First of all it deals non-elemental Magical damage, the least resisted damage type in the game (see why Horrid Wilting is so strong in BG2).  Secondly it isn't capped on spell level like Fireball, so it keep d6/level damage relevant at level 3 slots for way longer than it should since damage level cap is the primary scaling factor for spell levels up to 8 (where they start dropping d8s).  Thirdly Skull Trap live up to its name.  You can spam a pile of them somewhere and lure enemies into them or where enemies will spawn and just explode them.  I love this part.  To cap it all off, you can just throw it into a crowd and it goes off instantly as if you used Fireball.  Also the AoE is smaller than Fireball, which is fine because 30 yards is actually too fucking big and Skull Trap will hit the majority of mobs you pull anyway.

So the bard unlocks Level 3 spells 2 levels higher than a Wizard, but only 1 wizard level worth of experience different (level 5 Wizard gets 1 slot at 20k experience, level 7 Bard gets 1 slot at 40k experience, same time Wizard gets to level 6 and gets 2 slots).  Your Wizard has only had one level of dropping fireballs on shit like a boss being a total BA then Bard comes along and dunks them for 2d6 more damage when he first unlocks them.  Shits cray yo.

That isn't even talking about my main man Magic Missile.  Bard shits out missiles all over like a mofo giving 0 shits about the fact that Wizard supposed to be like master of magic.  Oh extra missile every 2 levels beyond first?  We will be about even when we are shooting 4.  At every other point in career bard will have more missiles sooner than Wizard.  Also Chromatic orb is hilarious if the game supports Instant Death variant.  You think your Wizard is pretty pimp with his one shot of Finger of Death at level 14.  Level 7 spell finally, shit that Bard's can't learn finally, bust out some Instant Death like a boss.  Single shot of it at a -2 save.  Some pretty sick shit.  Oh wait.  Bard has had Instant death in his level 1 slot (at +6 to be fair) since he was level 12.  oh sure its only 3 levels difference and the Wizard can do that as well and will have an extra shot of it.  WRONG WRONG WRONG.  The bard will have had Instant Death available at 440k experience, when the Wizard is level 11 still, they won't even have level 6 spells yet (For Disintegrate for your ID REPRESENT).

So yeah.  Fuck bards, they shit all over my Wizard Parade (I was into Wizard Parades back before Harry Potter made them cool).

Also I keep using them in Icewind Dale because they have all these fancy Bard Songs and shit that you never use.  Warchant of Sith is the one that gets me hard because it is like 2 HP Regen a turn and I love passively healing the party (ITS SO EFFICIENT YOU GUYS 12 HP A TURN, THAT IS 2 HP/SECOND FOR FREE).  That shit is dumb because you never fucking use it in combat, Bard is too throwing explosive death skulls at people to sing a note, then because Bard has the longevity of a 13 year old they are out of spell slots instantly, so you know what you do?  Rest.  Thus fully healing.

Fuck bards.

So anyway, Wizard gets to pack assorted buffs and debuffs because Bard ain't got time for dat shit (And Fireball because Fireball suxxxxorz as noted above and I still love my Wizard throwing fireballs like a boss.  What do either of them pack in level 5 and 6 slots?  Well whatever the fuck really, Skull Trap kind of invalidates damage spells of all other levels that are not Single Target for damage control or are status spells.  You could use Chain Lightning, but it is a bit inconsistent in what it hits.  You could use Sunfire since it caps out at 15d6 (Bards learn it at level 13, you see because Bards don't have to work hard to reach their potential) and has a nastier tendency to blow up your party in ways that not even Skull Trap can.    Cone of Cold has some use if you badly want to fuck your own party up with hard to control 90 degree arcs of 10d4 damage; because a spell that you learn at level 9 Wizard needs to cap out its progression at level 10 (Bards learn it at level 13 as per Sunfire).

Actually level 5 Arcane is a weird spell level.  In BG2 there is all kinds of cool control stuff to put in there. Breach for stripping melee defenses, Lower Resistance for fucking up dragon's days, Shadow Door for a strong Invisbility effect before you get Mislead, Spell Immunity for hilarious exploits, Spell Shield for generic protection and stuff.  IWD?  It has Cloudkill, which is great for standing around waiting for it to dissipate after it has either killed everything or done fucking nothing.  Otherwise it is... Some mass crowd control effects in Chaos?  When you could have just dumped a Cloud Kill in shits face if their saves are bad?  Otherwise it is Summons (or cone of cold which we have established the suckitude of).  You get to pick between Elementals or Undead.  There is no fucking reason you would ever pick Undead because your Cleric will have that shit at in all them level 3 slots that are useless because you are rocking level 5 and they now have all those filled with Heal.  Also Summon Undead is fucking STRONK and both these versions are the same. 

Incidentally if you are doing this because don't have a Cleric and have a Druid then You Are Doing It Wrong.  You picked Druid because they can act like a Ghetto Wizard and are using your Wizard as a Ghetto Cleric in response (when you should proooooobably be having them act as a Ghetto Bard.  See above.) also your Druid will level slower than Cleric because suck it Druids.

What was I talking about again?  Oh yeah.  Icewind Dale.  It sure is a weird little dungeon crawler.  You know my favourite little bit of unremembered history with this game that you won't notice unless you read old reviews or walkthroughs?  This game was a direct competitor with Diablo 2 for some people for some reason.  It came out THE EXACT SAME DAY in NA.  The games couldn't be more different and these days are both in completely different genres, but back then they were divergent offshoots of the same pedigree.  History definitely shows a clear victor on this one.  In retrospect that is full batshit fucking crazy.  Most especially Interplay dropping that shit on the same day as D2.  Like NOW dropping shit the same month as Blizzard is kind of retarded (and inevitable because Blizz with hold release until 2 weeks before you announce release, because suck it Druids), but back when Diablo 2 was coming out?  I might be talking out of ignorance and having been in my tiny bubble of friends and family, but Diablo 2 was something that we had been scrounging information from Magazines and this new Internet thing for like 2 years ever since we had finally worn the sheen off the first game (2 years of pretty consistent on and off play).

I will let this quote from Wikipedia carry this point home.

Quote
Icewind Dale was critically well received, scoring 92% on Game Rankings. Gamespot gave the game 86% saying: "It's well suited for fans of Black Isle Studios' previous games, classic hack-and-slash AD&D computer games, and anyone looking for an action-packed role-playing game with a lot of depth." IGN scored it 8.8/10 and Game Zone gave it 9.5/10.  According to GameSpy, "Icewind Dale was a fun dungeon romp that can hold its head up high, even if it can't match its big brothers".  Chris Chan of the New Strait Times said the game was one of the best he'd ever played, giving much of the credit to R. A. Salvatore's writing, which he called "superb". Chan went on to compare the game with the "overhyped" Diablo II, saying controlling six characters was more interesting than the single character permitted in Diablo II.

It wasn't even poorly received, just holy fucking shit it was Diablo fucking 2.  What in the fuck Marketing people 15 years ago?

Edit - Fuck bards.

Edit 2 - Good gods, I spent my whole night posting about playing Icewind Dale instead of actually playing it.  I didn't even mean to post about it other than a passing mention.  I meant to post THIS story about GTA5 that I forgot to even start.

GTA5 STORY TIMES.

My brothers have been playing this a bit more than I have.  I fuck around and lose them money.  That is fine.  We were doing some item collection shit on Trevor.  I crashed and couldn't get my vehicle back, so swapped to Michael and got shot by cops because I punched a guy in the street and that is a Shoot on Site crime (and don't even know the controls for shooting).

So my older brother respawns and runs around for a bit as Michael, plays some golf (which you can manually walk between shots if you so desire.  GTA5 is more Golf Sim than most Golf sims).  Swaps to Trevor in his Tuxedo getting kicked out of a Casino saying "Where does it say pants are required on the Casino floor?", then my older brother turns around and sees the Submarine I had been piloting around with Trevor looking for Nuclear Waste before I beached it out of boredom (it is Yellow of course).  He then runs down the highway to steal a car and gets run over by a Pißwasser truck.  GTA5/10 made fucking around with that sub finding nuclear waste for half an hour bored out of my gourd worth it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 30, 2013, 02:19:22 PM
Huh, maybe she gets pissy if you boot her twice?  Or were you on character quest?  Weird.  Oh well I guess?  (Use Mazzy instead.  Don't you dare touch Cernd).

There's like one step left in her character quest. I got sick of waiting for Anagram Man to show up, said fuck it I'll handle that once I'm done sidequesting. Maybe this wouldn't happen if I'd completed that step, but I'm willing to bet this flag gets flipped as soon as the Harpers turn on her. Also romance a nonfactor since female Bhaalspawn (duh it is me) and I didn't mod the game for same-sex romances (it seems weird to do this when they were clearly written as heterosexual).

The only reason Cernd will ever be in the party is to deal with his deadbeat dad issues because I'm trying to do everything this run (because BG is just so much fucking game that I know I won't be playing it again for ages if ever). Consequently I am so fucking relieved Haer Dalis has no personal quest to endure.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on September 30, 2013, 03:18:03 PM
Oh you hadn't done character quest yet?  That makes sense now from memory. I tend to romance her if I am using her because the Harper Pin is pretty good item (and I like her and the story).  So it wasn't fresh in my memory.

Did you do Aerie's quest yet?  It is pretty painful.  If you want to mash through the character quests I recommend using time skip console command.  They are paced to last you through doing most of. The side stuff without many if any party changes, so it might take a while.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 30, 2013, 04:36:07 PM
I didn't even know Aerie had a personal quest! I figured she'd just sit in the circus tent for the rest of her life.

EDIT: yeah, I kinda regret leaving all these things for post-Underdark. Jaheira's alone involved way more mash-Z then going random places than I'd've liked.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 30, 2013, 06:38:14 PM
Since Grefter mentioned it.

Planescape: Torment: I went through a portal to visit a Night Hag after recruiting a Modron. I learned my party is full of secrets and that they are all suffering. They are "tormented" if you will. Gameplay has been getting harder, requiring I pay attention enough to just throw Morte at it.

Ended up in Curst and was gonna help a dude save his daughter from slavers, but then I apparently bypassed all that by accident by going underground? But there are about a million guards down here, and I'm not sure the best way to handle it.

I do wish the game wouldn't nest dialogue choices in weird places sometimes. Figuring out how to address Morte and Annah's deep dark secrets was actually kinda hard.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on September 30, 2013, 07:56:58 PM
Well yeah Jude is the best character in the game and everything. Dat Palm Strike/Shattering Demon Fist and all :) My Leia has 6'500~ P-ATK on her Devil Arm (also has the highest A-Attack >_>) but that's because I used her all of my first run and most of my second run as too (well she was always in the party either way even the rares times I wasn't maining her except arena/etc) but I did forget she would be able to hit the caps sooner due to Sharpness/Elemental Impulse. Can't remember if enough enemies in Magnus Zero have elemental weaknesses for you to take advantage of the combined Sharpness/Elemental Impulse (off Mystic Symbol) effect though. I usually forget/don't remember her buffs going on the offensive with her since I usually take to the air straight away since I've been trying to master aerial master shenanigans this run <_< You're right about the Link Artes, Leia/Alvin don't really have any great ones, Invigorating Rain is probably the best one but then Sharpening Pulse is probably better =/ Might just be better off sticking to Leia/Jude for it? (assuming if you want to fully max out Leia's Devil Arm naturally/without buffs later) Tempest Pirouette did more for me than Spinning Thunder but then I didn't have all the buffs up, hmnn.

Spiral Strike spam is probably Leia's best arte for really driving up the link gauge (you probably know this already)?

Leia is supposedly a lot better in Xillia 2. Speaking of which it just arrived! :)

I juggled the GMK across the whole breadth of the arena using Shattering Demon Fist.  It was funny as well and then I went and watched a video about playing mind games with AI.  Leia's sitting around mid-8000 for me.  Being linked with Jude for eleven hours when no other pairing is even at two hours skews things apparently~  She actually has a higher use percentage than Jude.  With food and Sharpening Pulse she'll hit the Cap for the GMK battles, though I'll without a doubt get max Leia's Devil Arms naturally later, but this was mostly to buff up Alvin since Jude+Alvin for Sustained Critical will be my go-to for damage against the GMK now.  Jude+Leia until I burst into Overlimit and then switch to Jude+Alvin and I'll run through their entire Linked Artes set for crazy damage.  A couple of enemies in Magnus Zero have Elemental weakness but Jude's generally pretty good about hitting those anyway.  Fire is one of the more common ones, and I can do the Jude+Alvin Swallow Fury Link Arte for fire, and when that ends I can immediately combo it into normal Swallow Fury and get enough Sync Bar to use the Link Arte again.  That was hilarious to learn.  When I had to learn to avoid the GMK's grave-esque !counter for my normal run I started to get into Jude's aerial groove.  Cyclonic Surge until I touch the sky~  I actually managed to headbutt Agria into the ceiling doing that. 

With Double Gauge Speed and Sync Stones the gauge fills so fast I can do just about anything though I will keep that in mind.

From what I've read everyone got at least a buff in 2, though Jude's Snap Pivot has tighter timing.  Ludger's supposed to be almost comically overpowered though.  Anyway good luck with that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on September 30, 2013, 08:21:28 PM
Ugh, the talk really makes me want to play BG 2, but then I remember what it was like playing BG 2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on September 30, 2013, 09:00:16 PM
Just LP the thing? The gameplay's not for everybody.

Ended up in Curst and was gonna help a dude save his daughter from slavers, but then I apparently bypassed all that by accident by going underground? But there are about a million guards down here, and I'm not sure the best way to handle it.

The solution is Nordom. (The solution is always Nordom.) They're slow enough he can shoot them up while outrunning them. Kite 'em back to the party to make finishing them off a little faster. That's how I deal with the place, at least (and the next couple environments, if memory serves).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on September 30, 2013, 09:05:20 PM
Its more the annoyance that there are literally 500,000,000 guards.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 01, 2013, 07:34:18 AM
Tales of Xillia: Finished off the second and the third iterations of the GMK.  I definitely spent more time just trying to cleave through normal enemies from the extra floors than actually fighting him.  The stupid plant things can call in reinforcements apparently.  Just from the durability of the enemies I managed to use so many Link Artes that I got the highest Titles for Link Artes(4050 uses) and Chains (1350).  Leia managed to break 9000 for her P.ATK base, while Alvin just barely eked out over 6000, which turned into 8601 when he got fully buffed up in battle.  The GMK's defense just scaled monstrously though, hit 9999 in all the Atk/Def stats, he also gained more HP than the Final Boss go figure.  Also more proof that the display number is some sort of wrong.  In the first fight hitting him with the P.Atk debuff knocked it from 9999 to 8737 and in the second fight it became a glorious 9953.  If I had actually checked in the third fight it probably wouldn't have even visibly changed.  And yet I still don't know if it actually matters!  Anyway, Leia ran out my stock of Apple Gels both times and I came perilously close to losing a couple times in the third fight.  He also got off heals for the first time ever, though he still wasted time applying Sharpness haha.  He also does have a normal Grave attack for a Counter, while additionally having the weird nameless 360 grave-esque as a counter as well.  I have no idea.

Anyway times for this were:
First fight, 14 minutes.
Second fight, 20 minutes.
Third fight, 30 minutes.

Good solid lengths and I never felt like I was ever at a definitive comfort-zone or OHGAWDI"MMADIE spot either.

Anyway, what's left is to grab the Trophy Titles for Rare Monsters(sitting at 62 of 75) and Jude's Restore Partner Skill(9 of 150).  Restore is gonna be a pain because only Magnus Zero enemies can even knock me down anymore and they hurt.  Once I grab those, and maybe the title for Alvin's Max Breaker, because he used it a lot during my fighting, I'll finish up the run and then go do something maybe.

Also I tried it out and Elize's 40% cast time reduction stacks with both the Mystic Symbol's 30% and Rowen's Speed Cast Linked Skill 30%.  100% cast time reduction~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 01, 2013, 08:15:39 AM
You are seeing why I prefer Mage to Fighter now Andy.  Fighter is very strong and can handle almost everything gameplay wise.  But Mage has Cloudkill in a game where enemy saves are kind of pitiful (like I think PS:T enemies are actually on the same scale as BG1, so like lowwwwww level).  Unlike normal Cloudkill, Torment's is actually just fullscreen Instant Death with no cloud nonsense.  Kite around, gather things up and AoE them down with ID. 

Mage is gameplay skip where the gameplay you are skipping is PS:T combat.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on October 01, 2013, 11:42:04 AM
Fudo, I wonder, why don't you just use Milla and spam Cyclone? That is actually the solution to a lot of stuff.
Put on Aeria Spell, then you just need to repeat Higher Than Sky-Cyclone-landing cancel-Higher than Sky-Cyclone-landing cancel-repeat, and you are all set against 99% of stuff in this game. You can toss in Rising Sun if necessary.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 01, 2013, 07:33:34 PM
Because that's boring.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on October 01, 2013, 09:28:16 PM
Civ5- Just beat the game on Prince on a duel map and on a 12 person map. I have gone full Ciddy and am starting to dream about playing the game, someone save me
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 02, 2013, 12:52:32 AM
http://www.civanon.org/

No more turns!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on October 02, 2013, 01:31:22 AM
Megaman X Command Mission: Trying this out again after roughly 3 years hiatus. Started it up because there's an LP going on of it. It was this or Trails in the Sky and no one gave me a push in either direction, so I went for the one that had more DL presence because... well I figured if I liked it, there'd be more people to talk with about it.

So far, I've finally met most of the playable cast and taken down 4 Robot Masters new generation Reploids. Hippopressor was the best of course. Wild Jango was fun in that over-the-top way. I barely remember Silver Horn already. Dr. Psyche / Mad Nautilus was pretty freakin' fun. Points for being a two-stage boss in the middle of the game, I guess?

I'm digging the interplay between Hyper Modes and Action Triggers. I kinda wish more RPGs utilized this sort of thing alongside a full skillset.

The plot is WOW WTF. Note that this is my first introduction to MegaMan PLOT. I knew it was dumb, but I hadn't played a Megaman game since X3 and I think was before I knew how to read (exaggeration, but the point remains that it wasn't something I paid attention to before).

The setting stuff seems like it could be cool, but holy crap does this series win for worst execution ever. It makes Grandia1 and ToS plot look sophisticated. It is still better than the likes of Golden Sun because despite GS being less... DUMB, MMXCM is still less BORING. That's... something at least?

Anyway, a very fun gameplay game is in there with all the trappings of BoF6. Would be nice if Capcom would just make BoF6...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on October 02, 2013, 01:40:52 AM
Yay! Hey if you asked when I was around you know what game I would push you into.

MEGAMAN (X) PLOT is indeed a thing. That said I at least get enjoyment out of things like X's melodrama over the death of Aile, whom he'd known for like 25 seconds, even if I'm not certain I'm supposed to. Bad, but as you noted, still better than the Golden Suns of the world. Obviously not the reason you play the game, of course. Enjoy!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on October 02, 2013, 03:09:01 AM
Seeing the SA folks sperg about how the plot execution should be better is one hell of a side show.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 02, 2013, 03:19:43 AM
Let me get my flowchart of explanations as to why X6 is the greatest plot of our time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on October 02, 2013, 03:36:08 AM
Djinn - Capcom is making BoF6, you did not know? It is one of the most horrifying news out there.

Elf- Zero knows Alice for a game long. Just that game was not ported.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on October 02, 2013, 03:38:04 AM
No no, they're CALLING a game Breath of Fire VI.  They are not making Breath of Fire VI.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on October 02, 2013, 05:26:49 AM
Endless Frontier: +1 Hookerbot in my party.  That is all.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 02, 2013, 05:30:53 AM
They already made BoF6.  It is called Megaman X: Command Mission.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on October 02, 2013, 01:48:06 PM
http://www.civanon.org/

No more turns!

The link is a lie, there is nothing but more turns. I can't let Bismarck get away with declaring war on me! Just...one...more...Wonder...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on October 02, 2013, 02:32:48 PM
Lollipop Chainsaw - lolwat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCeMMqdLf5Y‎)

Just completed Evil In The Unfinished Cathedral. My main beef with the game from a design standpoint is really being egregiously easy, at least on Normal. Juliet's durability is gross overkill, it's just hard to even care about getting hit - which is a pity, since boss patterns and all that shit are quite fun to figure out, but are trivialized by ten million HP + three shots minimum (depending on difficulty) of 50% healing you can pop on the go for no strings attached at all (and, once again, not getting into Juliet's dodge being borderline gamebreaking AS IS). I think they could pretty much triple the damage on everything ever past the first stage without breaking a sweat.

Past that, the game's still really fun and fast-paced, and smart in a very Blondie way - I can't help but laugh at -every single boss intro- and the dialogue in general leaves me in stitches. Oh, and the soundtrack is excellent. I really hope you don't feel offended easily, though: the game really does push its satire buttons hard and fast, it can -and- will make you uncomfortable (take a minute to analyze Juliet and Nick's rapport and you'll realize it's a reverse date-rape scenario, for instance). The only thing keeping the seams together is the brutal self-awareness, which does say a few things about Gunn and Suda51 as writers.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on October 02, 2013, 07:58:14 PM
No no, they're CALLING a game Breath of Fire VI.  They are not making Breath of Fire VI.

Not naming any names but SOMEONE needs to stop fucking around with that Monkey's Paw
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on October 02, 2013, 08:46:48 PM
Has anymore info come out on that game that is being called BoF6? So far it doesn't feel like we know anything about it. So I'm trying to remain optimistic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 02, 2013, 10:25:25 PM
Silly DJ. Having information before complaining is silly!

Joking aside, it is iOS and there is some talk of online social game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 03, 2013, 10:46:07 AM
ToX: Blah blah Title grinding.  Overshot Jude's Restore by over 200 uses yowza.  Milla's Bind and Alvin's Breaker ended both on 452 funny.  Leia and Elize didn't need any help, and Rowen overshot by a hundred or so.  Snap Pivot, Charge and Elongating Staff barely eked out over this goal as well.  I did some pathetically rough speed tests to break up some monotony.  Jude+Dash+Glow feet took 4 seconds to cross the field, while Rowen took 10.  Ouch old man.

Grinding Rare Monsters is a sick insulting joke.  When I started I had 66 Rare Encounters done, so I averaged 1 Rare Monster every two hours of normal playtime.  During Grindfest 2013 in two hours I got 84 rare encounters.  What an obnoxious pain the ass.

But that sets me up to getting the last points of Grade from Milla's Endgame and snagging the Platinum as well.  Too tired to to that now though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on October 03, 2013, 12:08:31 PM
Silly DJ. Having information before complaining is silly!

Joking aside, it is iOS and there is some talk of online social game.

Pretty much this yeah.  the most I heard about it is Japanese fans were just as furious about the game, after its initial announcement, as western fans were.

Also keep in mind Capcom announced like 20 iOS games at once, so who knows how much is done for each.


That said...

EF: I got a Black Robot, then I blew up a Blue Robot...though I think technically he teleported after the fight so he didn't actually die, meaning we'll likely fight him again.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on October 03, 2013, 12:56:13 PM
If you fight someone in EF, you'll almost inevitably fight him/her again. And you fight EVERY NAMED CHARACTER AT LEAST ONCE.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on October 03, 2013, 05:35:17 PM
Grandia 2 Hard Mode: Played this sporadically over less than a week, following along with the superb LP. Holy crap, it had been 13 years since I played this game. I had forgotten entire swaths of it. Like, if it hadn't been for Tide bringing it up every now and then, I might have entirely forgotten Ryudo's village even existed.

Plus side: The first disc of this game is really good. Like, really high quality writing and character interactions. It really surprised me since I had this lingering impression that it was really ham-handed. As it turns out, that impression wasn't entirely wrong, since the second half of the game is really fucking dumb, save for a few awesome parts (like Selene). It was a lot less tolerable than it was when I was a kid... But my overall impression of the game's plot, characters, and world is still pretty positive. There are some weird-ass plot twists at the -very- end, and WAAAAAAY too much overreliance on The Power of Friendship to fix things rather than making the characters work/be clever. But there's also some genuinely good character work going on, and I certainly can't fault it for being -boring-, which is far worse than being balls-to-the-wall batshit. (Seriously, I had completely forgotten that Granas and Valmar were apparently aliens? Or space-faring magical humans? Or... whatever the fuck?)

Voice-acting was still hit-or-miss, the graphics are -old-, but definitely hold up better than some of its contemporaries, and the music is amazing. I hesitate to say it, but I suspect that the really incredible music helped sell some of the cornier bits where it otherwise might have been too much to handle.

Gameplay-wise... it hasn't changed much! Due to the DL, I was much more familiar with how Grandia battle system works this time around, and the Hard Mode hack is really more like a "Normal Mode" for any other game. I'm perfectly okay with this, I like my games short and cutting down on challenge tends to make fights more about winning -efficiently- than merely -winning-. Still, it was a whole lot more fun fighting the bosses than I remembered from the Dreamcast days.

So yeah, here's my glowing review of an old game that I already had a good impression of. The reason it gets such a good review is because I've been playing and finishing a LOT of games recently, but despite having already beaten Grandia 2 in my lifetime, this is the first game this year where I beat the final boss and felt... sad it was over. It's been a while since that's happened, normally I'm all excited to start something new, so apparently Grandia 2 is doing something right, even if I can't point to any single thing that would elicit this reaction. I would guess nostalgia, but I've replayed quite a few games that I had much more fond memories of, like KH, Grandia 1, and FF7 that didn't give the same impression. They are still favorites, but not games that left me wanting more. Grandia 2 may actually improve its ratings score with me on replay, despite its objective flaws towards endgame (the Hard Mode hack objectively improves its gameplay flaws, at least!).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Monkeyfinger on October 03, 2013, 11:03:47 PM
I'm doing my own BG2 playthrough. For this one I've set the frame rate to 60 in the config utility. This speeds up all walking and combat by 2x. The nice thing about it is, you spend half as much time as normal walking from place to place. The drawback is, combat is a lot more fast paced and hectic, which means a lot of my favorite gimmicky dual class spellcaster builds aren't really viable. I'm using a straight berzerker this time. Dwarf, of course, for the racial saving throw bonus.

Other than that, I'm playing like I normally do. Core difficulty, minimal modding, no resting in dungeons, do all stronghold quests but skip most of the character ones. Party is Keldorn, Jahiera, Aerie, Nalia, Yoshimo (swap for Imoen in c4)

I'm up to the underdark so far.
As always, the planar sphere is hard as hell with the no rest restriction, because there's so damn much to fight and you can't leave till you've cleared the whole area.
The planar prison gets a lot tougher because it takes so much more effort to keep your guys from slipping into those fleshy portals on the ground. The master of thralls was quite a bit more powerful than I remembered too.
Big setpiece battles like liches and dragons are all easy stomps on the first try since I spent so much time discussing and mulling over those battles as a teenager.
I miss the version of the cloak of reflection which actually reflected stuff. It made beholder clearing so much faster.

I wore my enjoyment of this game out a while back, but it's pretty good after a 6 year break.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on October 03, 2013, 11:08:28 PM
FE9: Finally cleared stage 19, and got rolling pretty well from there; chapters 20 and 21 were pretty much cake, and the extra cash from 19 lets me finally go nuts with crafting super-powered, extra-light weapons. Fun.

I almost perfected stage 22 (the one with all the priests) on the first run, except I left Soren in range of the head guy who casts Light, and he managed to trigger Adept and a critical hit so the counterattack one-rounded him. Bah. At least I know to make sure not to do that!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on October 03, 2013, 11:40:53 PM
If you fight someone in EF, you'll almost inevitably fight him/her again. And you fight EVERY NAMED CHARACTER AT LEAST ONCE.

Not true, there's totally Kaguya's dad. And the crew of the Zeit Krokodil. And that male beast-merchant. edit: Haken's dad as well.

I think that's it?


Quote
extra cash from 19 lets me finally go nuts with crafting super-powered, extra-light weapons. Fun.

"Extra-light" shouldn't really mean anything for the vast majority of units now (possible exceptions: Rhys, Soren, Mist), in case you aren't aware. Weight only matters if it exceeds the user's strength.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on October 03, 2013, 11:54:50 PM
Has anymore info come out on that game that is being called BoF6? So far it doesn't feel like we know anything about it. So I'm trying to remain optimistic.

It's not just an iOS game, it's also a browser game. Best to keep your expectations rock bottom.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on October 04, 2013, 12:08:14 AM
If you fight someone in EF, you'll almost inevitably fight him/her again. And you fight EVERY NAMED CHARACTER AT LEAST ONCE.

Not true, there's totally Kaguya's dad. And the crew of the Zeit Krokodil. And that male beast-merchant. edit: Haken's dad as well.

I think that's it?

Fine, fine. Regardless, you fight the vast majority of the named cast just because Endless Frontier runs its relationship on Looney Tunes logic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on October 04, 2013, 01:09:45 AM
If you fight someone in EF, you'll almost inevitably fight him/her again. And you fight EVERY NAMED CHARACTER AT LEAST ONCE.

Not true, there's totally Kaguya's dad. And the crew of the Zeit Krokodil. And that male beast-merchant. edit: Haken's dad as well.

I think that's it?


Quote
extra cash from 19 lets me finally go nuts with crafting super-powered, extra-light weapons. Fun.

"Extra-light" shouldn't really mean anything for the vast majority of units now (possible exceptions: Rhys, Soren, Mist), in case you aren't aware. Weight only matters if it exceeds the user's strength.

yeah, I made a sword for Mist and a light tome for Rhys with reduced weight. Bors' lance didn't get that treatment. 
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on October 04, 2013, 07:39:03 AM
Has anymore info come out on that game that is being called BoF6? So far it doesn't feel like we know anything about it. So I'm trying to remain optimistic.

It's not just an iOS game, it's also a browser game. Best to keep your expectations rock bottom.

Oh. Never mind. Fuck off then, capcom.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 04, 2013, 10:53:36 AM
Tales of Xillia: Milla side finished, Platinum get.  After the GMK madness the Final just doesn't have that kind of steam though he did manage to get in some KOs because I was playing lazy and Mystic Artes hurt.

But screw that who wants some steaming hot pointless stats!?!?!?
Total Play Time: 133:46
Total Encounters: 2557
Total Weakpoint Hits: 9999 and capped
Total Linked Artes Used: 5473
Total Linked Artes Chains: 2356
Total Auto-Items Used: 2381
Total Food Effects Activated: 1903

Ability Usage
Jude: 467
Milla: 1086
Alvin: 570
Elize: 450
Rowen: 580
Leia: 470

Partner Skill
Jude: 640
Milla: 452
Alvin: 452
Elize: 520
Rowen: 609
Leia: 992

Battle Participation Ratio
Jude: 89%
Milla: 59%
Alvin: 60%
Elize: 84%
Rowen: 60%
Leia: 95%

Enemies Defeated
Jude: 8710
Milla: 2840
Alvin: 2780
Elize: 2390
Rowen: 2770
Leia: 6590

That all together comes out to 26080 kills!  And averages out to 10 kills a battle.

Link Time: All in glorious minutes.
Jude <3 Milla: 143
Jude <3 Alvin: 252
Jude <3 Elize: 90
Jude <3 Rowen: 57
Jude <3 Leia: 802 (13 hours ohhhhh yeah)
Milla <3 Alvin: 41
Milla <3 Elize: 117
Milla <3 Rowen: 51
Milla <3 Leia: 57
Alvin <3 Elize: 113
Alvin <3 Rowen: 64
Alvin <3 Leia: 91
Elize <3 Rowen: 153
Elize <3 Leia: 128
Rowen <3 Leia: 40

2199 minutes/36 hours spent Linked.  800/13 of which were Jude/Leia alone. 
[/size]
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on October 04, 2013, 02:22:09 PM
Civ5- Playing and doing well on Prince now. Current run is playing as the Mongols. Holy *shit* is their UU broked. It's vunerable if Knights to at short range, but otherwise it slaughters everything. It absolutely maims enemy cities, especially city states.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AAA on October 04, 2013, 03:50:35 PM
Since it's Prince you can probably conquer the world with Keshiks no problem, just keep in mind they will eventually obsolete if things drag on too long, so have a backup plan and don't neglect science too much. What speed are you playing on, anyway?

Also do you have all the DLC or is this vanilla civ5?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on October 04, 2013, 05:09:57 PM
Vanilla, though just got G&K and am downloading it now (thanks snowfire). My normal route to victory in Civ 5 on prince is play for a cultural victory and collect all of the wonders like (My precious).  If I'm playing for domination, I use the same turtling strategy early on. It's easy enough to deal with AI DoWing you early on, you sit a single unit in your castle and outlast them. Once you hit the industrial era, you have basically every single building in your capital  and a pile of money/techs.  I don't really build settlers ever, the game on Prince really rewards building towards a tall empire. Playing on standard speed. UU's get replaced awfully quickly on standard, but I was on the great plains map and was able to take out most of the world before they were obsoleted. It became standard artillery spam after that.


I've now cleared the game with the Americans, Egyptians (My favorite, shiny production bonus on wonders), the Japanese, the Indians, and the Mongols. The Ghandi one super boring, I only built one gigantic city and never DoWed. Still won the game with a cultural victory right before the American and Songhai got nukes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 04, 2013, 07:54:41 PM
World of Warcraft: Went and screwed around Pandaria a bit. Leveled to 87. Decided to take a break and go minipet hunting in dungeons. Had been doing a little bit of it before I picked up Pandaria (so level 85, Cata blues/greens). Pandaria blues and greens though... sheesh.

Molten Core: Tank and Spank pretty much everything, minus Baron Geddon (need a roof over your head) and Ragnaros (still need to position right). Got Raggy down before the first sons of fire phase. Hilarity ensued.

Black Wing Lair: Fuck this entire goddamn dungeon. 3 wipes on Razorgore before I got it right. 1 wipe on Vael because I didn't have a tight enough rotation (that fight is goddamn serious about DPS!). Was cruising easy until Ebonroc at that point. Fun fact: I can't kill Ebonroc! So uh... gave up on killing him and took down Flamegor and Chromaggus with him hitting me. Nefarian was a fun little stomp.


Karazhan: Only done this at 85. It was pretty easy, Netherspite aside (who I was forced to cheese out to beat). Should be breezy now.

Serpentshrine Cavern: This one wasn't possible for me. I couldn't deal with Leotheras the Blind or Fathom-Lord Karathress. My severely increased damage output should make both of them possible. Not sure about Vashj though. That might require I get to 90 and gear a bit further.

~~~~

Rayman Legends: How the hell do people get Diamond trophies in this game? Jesus.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on October 04, 2013, 09:30:42 PM
My raid-geared 90 tankadin kills bosses in seconds. Literally seconds. Netherspite in Kara? Dies in less than ten seconds.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 04, 2013, 09:42:18 PM
Yeah. I'd fully buy it based on quest geared 87. Honestly, I could almost do it with non-heroic geared 85 (got him down to 200K, I think?). It just amuses me how exponential stat growth in expansions is sometimes.

Honestly, I really should just finish questing and levelling, but slamming old content amuses me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on October 05, 2013, 02:23:12 AM
It's how I make money instead of doing dailies.  I solo clear everything in Vanilla, most of BC, plus Naxx and ToC and that's a good 2500 gold or so.  Doesn't take more than a few hours and you can get really, really drunk while you do it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 05, 2013, 03:59:27 AM
BG2: I told Keldorn to go home and be a family man. Then demilich butt was kicked in liberal measure. Had never fought Kangaxx before and it boiled down almost entirely to improved haste/berserk Minsc solo. I'm...not sure his second form even got a chance to do anything. He was getting hit so frequently it was just a constant litany of ::spell failure::. Almost done in the city now, but there's still:

-Planar Sphere
-Umar Hills
-Windspear Hills
-Trademeet

None of which I've touched at all. So much fucking game. Also character quests for people I don't like and Stronghold stuff. I'm not sure how much of that I'm going to mess with. (The legit one for my MC would be Planar Sphere, but modded game so I can do whatever.) Some of them I haven't actually seen before.

Horrid Wiltings may now be tossed with wild abandon. Somehow it's still more fun stunlocking everybody with hasted meteor spam.

EDIT: Viconia successfully scared off a lich with Turn Undead during the Unseeing Eye quest. I...might be a little overlevelled for these quests. Oh yeah, Keldorn being in close proximity when she activated that also made him go into panic mode. Keldorn, buddy, there something you're not telling us?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on October 05, 2013, 04:27:48 AM
FE12 Hard Mode - Now with text I can understand! Actually the writing in the prologue wasn't... that bad. I'm kinda surprised. Of course now we go from "new material" to "plot that was in FE3" so the suck probably kicks in now. Still, the translation team has done a good job here, I'm quite impressed.

HM prologue is way harder than NM, I had a fair bit of trouble on both Athena's map and Katarina's. A bit uneven because BANDITS map is a joke for instance (kinda funny since it's one of two which isn't just a training mission). I can already tell ninja reinforcements will make me angry, but otherwise seems fun enough. Chris is a Cavalier for anyone keeping track.


Suikoden 3 - Chris chapters. Whoof, they feel the loss of armour much more than the others, fights they used to stomp they uh don't any more. The five Zexen Knights vs. North Cavern was brutal, went through dozens of items, Bone Soldiers are huge jerks. (By contrast Mt. Hei-Tou with just Chris and Percival wasn't too bad.) About to do the Iksay stuff.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 05, 2013, 06:37:52 AM
Few more levels and you can star dumping truly degenerate shit on the game.

For giggles try Chain Contingency, -> Horrid Wilting x3, Trigger:On enemy seen.

As soon as it triggers you can instantly cast Chain Contingency again instantly and the game pauses letting you pick the same thing.  You can then cast a normal spell that round because Chain Contingency doesn't count as a casting option.

It technically isn't as broken as Improved Alacrity - Timestop with Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power, but it is significantly less space bar mashing.

EDIT - I had wrong spell name for Improved Alacrity, misnamed as Spell Sequencer.  Spell Sequencer lets you cast three Fourth level spells at once.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Tide on October 05, 2013, 07:39:01 AM
Front Mission 3:
Emma route initial routing done. Final time after last level: 8 hours and 5 minutes. Things that routing has confirmed: ROFUP I is godlike, Burst weapons are godlike and Ryogo starts with both. Next up: Alisa route routing + fine tuning. That or more Grandia 2 running I guess.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 07, 2013, 01:52:58 AM
BG2: I love how even NPCs who haven't met him before instantly know Cernd is a twit and cut him off midsentence.

So, Planar Sphere. Apparently if you go in there at a high enough level, the game spawns adamantite golems in a couple rooms. This is hilarious because the necromancer's notes are all like, "Dudes, I'm gonna make an iron golem, it'll be sweet." Adamantite > iron. It's even more hilarious because they spawn in the engine room later and they're too big to navigate the catwalks. So they just stand there blocking up their entire support contingent of lesser golems from even reaching you. Someone didn't really think through the enemy scaling there.

Also adamantite golems are unable to damage Mordenkainen's Sword. Either that or being unable to move locks out their attack animation (I don't think this is it because they could still spam Cloudkill and Slow). Totally the best summon in the game either way (barring ToB content).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 07, 2013, 05:01:51 AM
That really goes for nearly any room with Iron/Adamantite Golems.  They are all built in some room that they have no way of getting out of.

The only area I can think of that has a Golem like that which it can move far from where it spawns is Suldanesselar and there it can move around like the walkways, but can't get close to the stairs you can walk up to the second floor of houses and stuff.

Makes for fun times if you collect all the pantaloons and try to actually use the armour on anyone as well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on October 07, 2013, 05:05:08 AM
Endless Frontier: 3 Robot Clones got blown up by other Robots that weren't clones.

As in, yes, Haken blew up the Einst versions with Rampage Spectre as a final attack...but EXPLOSIONs that's why.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on October 07, 2013, 10:41:22 AM
Blue Dragon: Done.  Holy crap finishing 360 games.  Red letter day I assure you.

Once they decided bosses should either have HP or do damage (and occasionally both), and things like buffing actually meant anything, that was neat.  And it wasn't really bad before then, the breeziness was kinda enjoyable for what it was.

This is a weird goddamned class system.  As far as I can tell, character levels mean basically nothing, and all your meaningful stats come from job levels.  Until very late in the game, the value of cross classing is... fairly limited.  Barrier magic is mostly useful for grinding, Support magic's haste doesn't come into its own until the final dungeon (and enemies just flat out die to fast too bother statusing), so really?  Just stick everyone in their initial classes and rank up.  I mean, 8 ranks in Generalist for extra support slots and an accessory are nice, and for the final bosses I found I had to get Assassin Speed, but... aside from that, raw ranks in your base class for sheer stats is just the best move.  Until you need to power level because the endgame is so nasty, this is a job system where you're encourage to camp in one place from start to finish, sorta like if it was FFIII for 90% of the game then expected you to break it a la FFV at the end.  And no mistake, I skipped all the optional dungeons, and this is roughly as suicidal as if you were playing Chrono Trigger!  But eh, power levelling was more straightforward and I completely lost steam at the point I realized oh shit, game wants me to try now.

Rest of the game isn't worth talking about.  It's pretending to be a reconstructed SNES RPG, but it's really more half parody half example.  There's just too much stupid for it to really work.  Nene's fun at least.  6/10 I think?  I might be a little harsh with that and might bump it up to a 7 when I add it in, will have to see.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on October 08, 2013, 12:43:35 AM
I think you're underestimating crossclassing a bit simply because stat differences aren't that potent, so having more people just able to use white/black magic in particular is nice. (You're right about barrier/support mostly.) And to make physicals not suck pretty much requires at least two of Attack Amp, Double Attack, and up-to-date Magic Sword, I found, so some crossclassing helps there too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on October 08, 2013, 12:56:15 AM
Crossclassing for higher agility is very nice, too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on October 08, 2013, 09:29:07 AM
MMX: Command Missi Mana Khe Trails in th Tales of Xi Final Fantasy Dimen Disgaea D2: Oh man, my entire backlog is suddenly clear! I am playing Disgaea D2. I am the happiest Djinn. Fuka and Desco are actual -usable- DLC PCs for a change. Unlike most of the DLC PCs for the previous PS3 titles, Fuka and Desco weren't designed to just be fun aftergame bonuses once you hit level 100 and get to the final chapter, but instead, are easily available in chapter one or two and come in at Level 1 (like most of your Generic options would be anyway), making them fully usable in the Main Game. They even come with a high support level and Fuka fills a niche as a story PC with an Axe proficiency while Desco fills the niche of PC Monster! Awesome!

While I miss Magichange and Fusion, the other new additions and streamlining are all pretty nicely implemented. They toned down the Geo puzzles, brought back simpler skill-learning and levelling systems, making less things reliant on the same currency (Mana). In general, it has the streamlining of Disgaea 4 but Dis1's aesthetic trappings to make it look more like the original (I guess for nostalgia's sake?).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 08, 2013, 04:52:07 PM
Play more Xillia.  I need someone to Xillia things at.  Or something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on October 08, 2013, 04:56:03 PM
Rune Factory 4: Hard mode is not screwing around. Still, everything is beatable by BIGGER NUMBERS so forging up gear for the next dungeon is go. Loving the new glove weapon type(what's this? Gate favors punching things? The hell you say.), though it is less effective vs bosses sadly. The big damage comes from slams/throws after you stun an enemy, which just never seem to work on the two bosses I've fought thus far. Which is a shame, because when I say "big damage" I mean my normal attack is doing 80 and the slam is doing 650.

Getting to bring allies with you into dungeons is kinda cool, I guess. Forte and Bado both are okay. The problem is they really just serve as an extra hp bar to soak up damage, since they will only occasionally remember to actually attack. And while they have way more life the me, they also do way less damage. So it goes.

EO Untold: So this kinda got played for one day and then left my DS faster then any EO game has ever done so. Not due to any fault of the game, but because I picked up RF4 the next day. <_<;

Still, managed to kill a ragelope before I paused. I'm satisfied with that for now.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meiousei on October 09, 2013, 12:12:07 AM
White 2- I'm a little late to the party, but I'm setting a time limit. Christmas Day, I have to have beaten the game before I even open Pokemon X.  I wonder what kind of challenge I should try...I had an idea of playing the starters plus the first 3 pokemon I catch for the whole game (4 manning the game basically). Funny thing is, the first 3 I caught was literally: Purrlion, Seaweedle and Riolu. By the lords, help me. This could either be awesome or a trainwreck.

FFT:WotL- I'm trying to figure out if my FFT is bugged. I did all the requirements to get Dark Knight, but it's not showing up anywhere. >_< Oh well, I'm going to get Agrias up to Dark Knight as fast as possible. And get my other classes up before I start Chapter 3 proper.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on October 09, 2013, 12:45:18 AM
Valkyrie Profile - Finished! Just used Arny and Lawfer and Jelanda because I am boring.

Chrono Trigger - It's the season to replay things~ Lucca just bailed my ass outta jail, yo. I picked up Marle's necklace first so I am a criminal yo.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on October 09, 2013, 01:50:56 AM
Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millenium Girl:

Not a fan of first person dungeon crawlers but I have a huge stockpile of Nintendo credit I got from my brother's Wii U so I figure I start on the one with PLOT.  This game is not as hard as I thought though. I might play more when I get through the more appealing 4 3DS games I just bought.

Rune Factory 4:

So I'm playing as a princess who has the option to date a shirtless horseman or shirtless wolfman.

<Ciato> Where do I sign up?

--

I also picked up New Super Mario Bros 2 and Mario&Luigi Dream Team.  I'm might get around those sometime next year. Upcoming pokemon and Phoenix Wright come first.

The Wii U I got is a shiny paperweight right now.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 09, 2013, 03:14:30 AM
BG2: Humiliating dragons for fun and profit. Thax'awhatsit got hit with Finger of Death but I thought, you know, we can probably be more insulting than that? So for Firkraag we do the following:

-Bhaalspawn/Edwin go in stocked with Lower Resistance and spell sequencers full of Greater Malaison.
-They clone themselves. Clones copy the lesser sequencers too.
-Chuck all the debuffs at him in the opening round (Viconia tosses in a Doom for good measure).
-Activate secret weapon: Chromatic Orb!

And the ancient red dragon eats it to a level 1 spell. Admittedly it still took like half a dozen shots for him to fail the save, but one good troll deserves another. My team is now capable of dropping like eight Fireballs on an enemy party before they can blink, but you know, it's the little touches that matter.

Stronghold stuff is all done, except for Thief because they hate me. Might have something to do with me massacring their leadership, I dunno. Amused that the neatest and most involved stronghold quest is the one probably nobody ever sees. Seriously, does anyone play a bard?

Mazzy gets to come along for punching Jon in the face. I think I used her as a melee fighter last time? Jesus why. She gets like five shots a round with a bow. That's crazy.

The priest I hired for De'Arnise hold cloned himself. What. I thought you guys frowned on that sort of thing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on October 09, 2013, 04:08:59 AM
White 2- I'm a little late to the party, but I'm setting a time limit. Christmas Day, I have to have beaten the game before I even open Pokemon X.  I wonder what kind of challenge I should try...I had an idea of playing the starters plus the first 3 pokemon I catch for the whole game (4 manning the game basically). Funny thing is, the first 3 I caught was literally: Purrlion, Seaweedle and Riolu. By the lords, help me. This could either be awesome or a trainwreck.

If it means anything, Leavanny isn't bad, Lucario is of course great, and Liepard is...er...yeah <_<;

Endless Frontier: Finished!  So you guys want a Meeple rant? No, you probably don't, which is why I'm going to spare you one and give a quick run down!

Game is fun but repetitive; don't think I could take much more of it, so length is fine.  Boss fights were a bit too excessive, and sometimes massively forced (why did we have to fight Dorothy a second time exactly?  Mind you, she's the boss I hate the most not because of what she does, but her animations seem to take forever while being completely uninteresting.  Yes, you drop bombs out of your dress, we get it, IT'S NOT AMUSING THE 73rd TIME YOU DO IT, LET ALONE THE 284th!), and Boss Fights to me just came off as "Random Encounters with Higher HP, and occasionally whip out ST OHKO damage."  Game wasn't hard and didn't have a single reset unless yo include the time I accidentally pressed the power button on the 3DS and had to replay part of the dungeon <.<;

Final Team was Haken, Reiji, Xiamou and KOS-MOS.  Haken because main character and he was good at the whole damage thing, durable, and such.  Also Rampage Spectre.  Reiji was even better at the damage thing, and Faith made him a back up healer if need be.  Xiamou because...actually, outside of Barrier, dunno why I kept using her over Kaguya.  There was a brief moment mid-game where she had attack 2nd only to Reiji, and she did have Valor before anyone else (not including Reiji's Soul), and maybe I was too lazy to swap out but that doesn't explain why I kept swapping her back in after forced PC fights...then again, due to how EXP worked, she was like +3 Levels on anyone else I wasn't using.
KOS-MOS because all games she's in, she's a strong PC, I figured this is no exception and well, she's solid, but more importantly, she was my healer.  I shoved a Luna Stone on her and now she had 700+ SP and could spam Bond, sometimes twice, which made the lack of Kaguya feel...completely irrelevant!  Also, she's pretty tanky too, and even has Guard to compliment, that's always a plus!

As far those I didn't use?  Already covered Kaguya kind of by saying "probably should have used her over Xiamou."  Aschen's cancel timing annoyed me, her voice in DTD mode REALLY annoyed me, and she didn't seem to really have much special about her. 
Suzuka...where do I start.  I guess the fact that she was often getting KO'd by things that weren't KOing anyone else (there wre times I'd do a team of like Xiamou + the 3 I wasn't using just for shits), the timing on her attacks is annoying, she's awkward in animations, damage is lower than others, and her animations aren't really that stylish.  Yes, they took a dancer and a robot, and somehow made it uninteresting.  Feels like they put all the flashiness into Kaguya, who they went "Swordgirl...that uses a sword that shoots boomerangs..." and then added some extra visual flair in some of her animations (mostly the sword flashes anytime she did a 360 slice)

Music is good,  Humor is hit or miss, Boob Joke comments were not exaggerated, T-elos needs to be punted into the sun, Haken putting his hat back on anytime he uses Last Showdown is badass, and the game gets a 6-7/10 out from me!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on October 10, 2013, 02:18:58 AM
I am doing some testing for ToX and I realized that I wanted to double-check some of Milla's Spirit Shifted Artes, thinking they could get her more damage than her physical Arcane Arte Cloud Pierce. In passing I happened to try an aerial combo for her, even though I kind of suck at those. Then I realize that Milla's Lightning attacks ignore vertical tolerance completely and can be used from way up high above the enemy where she isn't subject to the annoying auto-counters everyone else rams into. So not bad at all for damage, and much better than was thinking she would be.

Then at 200 uses her Lightning moves doubled in damage. And thus was born Lightning Death Goddess Milla Maxwell.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 10, 2013, 02:44:30 AM
I am doing some testing for ToX and I realized that I wanted to double-check some of Milla's Spirit Shifted Artes, thinking they could get her more damage than her physical Arcane Arte Cloud Pierce. In passing I happened to try an aerial combo for her, even though I kind of suck at those. Then I realize that Milla's Lightning attacks ignore vertical tolerance completely and can be used from way up high above the enemy where she isn't subject to the annoying auto-counters everyone else rams into. So not bad at all for damage, and much better than was thinking she would be.

Then at 200 uses her Lightning moves doubled in damage. And thus was born Lightning Death Goddess Milla Maxwell.

ToX: Back up to endgame.  Jude now has max attack as his base.  Yay or something.  Milla's side of Chapter 4 was interesting.  It also taught me the best way to play as her.  Jump in the air and spam Thunder Blade until everything dies.

Now with two endorsements!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on October 10, 2013, 04:27:15 AM
I saw that and thought you meant CASTING thunder blade, which has a tendency to inflict burn and do very solid damage on high HP bosses.

The Spirit shifted version makes a mockery of that. Though some way of mitigating the high TP cost is required.


I still find Elize's defend strat amusing. The damage reflect is largely worthless due to not doing overkill damage back to the enemy, so you can't whore an ultra low def Elize and pull massive damage rflection like you could basically due in ToG. although it is funny to imagine taping down the guard button and winning an otherwise hard boss fight...


alternating artes prevents the long combo damage penalty, so variety is good!

Elemental resists stack additively so they tend to be good. All the elemental resist skills are link skills amd stack so two folks linked are at 60% and it just gets better from there.  Stack some elemental guard armors and helms and you can mock most elemental damage. Also if you absorb an element it can not inflict status on you. So light absorption means no more confuse, which is yay.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 10, 2013, 04:44:23 AM
Yeah I remembered wrong and thought I said Thunder Blade Lightning until I went back to get that post and WHOOPS no Lightning there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Monkeyfinger on October 10, 2013, 09:59:00 AM
BG2: Humiliating dragons for fun and profit. Thax'awhatsit got hit with Finger of Death but I thought, you know, we can probably be more insulting than that? So for Firkraag we do the following:

-Bhaalspawn/Edwin go in stocked with Lower Resistance and spell sequencers full of Greater Malaison.
-They clone themselves. Clones copy the lesser sequencers too.
-Chuck all the debuffs at him in the opening round (Viconia tosses in a Doom for good measure).
-Activate secret weapon: Chromatic Orb!

And the ancient red dragon eats it to a level 1 spell. Admittedly it still took like half a dozen shots for him to fail the save, but one good troll deserves another. My team is now capable of dropping like eight Fireballs on an enemy party before they can blink, but you know, it's the little touches that matter.

Polymorph other is a great finisher for that strategy. Let him spend the last moments of his life as a squirrel.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 10, 2013, 10:12:13 AM
If there's any more of them in ToB, I'll remember to try that.

Speaking of, ToB. Permanent party assembled at last! And Mazzy gets to spend the rest of her life in the pocket plane apparently. Uh, sorry about that, Mazzy. Wasn't exactly the plan. Is there no going back to the world map once you hit ToB? I've just been shuttled from one place to another so far.

The game flaked out and Edwin's spell sequencers are no longer usable. The abilities button for him just doesn't exist anymore. If I try recasting the sequencers, the game just tells me he already has them set. Very annoying! Hell is not being able to use your most broken skills.

EDIT: random peasants instantly realize that I'm Bhaalspawn now. What. Is it tattooed on my forehead (the bums will always lose)?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 10, 2013, 02:21:14 PM
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/51477-spell-sequencer-bug/

Try this
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on October 10, 2013, 03:02:50 PM
Lollipop Chainsaw - zombie elviszilla just ate my town am i doing this right (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW_HCdU-qEY‎)

So, yeah. Beat the game. Killabilly was a fun fight! Regardless, nothing I said before about this game has changed at all: it's crazy, silly, ridiculous, uncomfortable and pretty damned fun. Now, what to do next. Trying to choose between DMC4 and Bayonetta.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 10, 2013, 05:53:50 PM
Do you want to play the better or the mediocrer game first?

If the former, Bayonetta. If the latter, DMC4.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on October 10, 2013, 09:21:40 PM
Lollipop Chainsaw - zombie elviszilla just ate my town am i doing this right (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW_HCdU-qEY‎)

So, yeah. Beat the game. Killabilly was a fun fight! Regardless, nothing I said before about this game has changed at all: it's crazy, silly, ridiculous, uncomfortable and pretty damned fun. Now, what to do next. Trying to choose between DMC4 and Bayonetta.

Flip a coin or Hatbot it; both games are good.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meiousei on October 10, 2013, 09:58:12 PM
Should also suggest Killer is Dead or are you waiting before playing that one?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: TranceHime on October 11, 2013, 05:34:34 PM
unfortunately because i am unable to pick up pokemon X on release date, i have taken it upon myself to play shitty Moemon romhacks which are vaguely interesting because of the sheer amount of effort needed to code half the shit they actually implemented in these romhacks.

Like SaGa style move sparking. Yeah, I wish I was joking.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 12, 2013, 01:03:44 AM
ToB: So basically Highlander if someone had had the brilliant idea of collecting all the immortals in one place and telling them to get along.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on October 12, 2013, 01:11:42 AM
People get silly ideas sometimes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 12, 2013, 01:22:32 AM
Bhall is from Zeist?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 12, 2013, 02:25:25 AM
Andy, take a day's detention for making me remember the plot of Highlander 2.

For actually knowing the name of the damn planet, you get a week.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 12, 2013, 02:27:18 AM
Bhall is Zeist.

(http://i.imgur.com/MLezO.gif)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on October 12, 2013, 02:28:10 AM
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team- fin.

It was pretty good for about 15 hours.  The dream mechanics are generally pretty interesting and even when it stops being novel, it remains enjoyable enough by and large.  They've kept exploration mechanics pretty simple.  Giant battles are back, and aside from the last are pretty lenient.

The trouble is, they've been making this series for ten years and you can just feel the fatigue in the standard gameplay.  They really don't know what they can do to mix it up except have completely separate gameplay, which is fine except you still have a big chunk of the game that's tired.  That feeling bleeds through and wears you down as a player too.

So by the end I was just grinding it out because I wanted to finish the game up before the weekend, and with a final clock of 39 hours that's a pretty large gap between when I really enjoyed the game and when I just wanted the game to stop.  Still, there's a reasonable amount of good game there too.  And it IS all about Luigi.  Just, yeah, lost all steam for a while there.  7/10.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on October 12, 2013, 02:51:09 AM
Disgaea D2: This is Disgaea 4, but more streamlined and with a less good/funny story. Tons of fun, and it has some good one-liners here and there. The story is a lot more serious than previous Disgaeas, more in line with Disgaea 2 and Phantom Brave. I think if I had gone into the game looking for a more standard JRPG plot with the occasional joke instead of LOLDisgaeaWackiness, I would have been more pleasantly surprised than disappointed by how little truly funny parts there were. The Etna Episode Previews are still pretty good though.

I feel like the whole story would have benefitted immensely from a looser localization.

Gameplay is more streamlined and there's a ton of quality of life updates that make things go a lot faster. The maingame maps are more balanced than ever before for non-grinders. They also put a lot more emphasis on uniqueness in characters and generic units, with passive abilities (Evilities) being more notable and numerous than ever. Unlike some of the previous titles with the Evility system, the game WILL mercilessly destroy you if you ignore the unique passives that every unit type in the game has. Story units all have a unique Evility or two, while generic units can pick from one of three different options that all offer a slightly different take on a similar theme (Like, the Water Dragons can either immune all Water damage or get increased stats every time Water damage is used or just a straight increase in Water damage).

Thanks to these new and more relevant Evilities, the game has a lot more variety in playstyle options. Defensive, counter-focused FE-style team builds are distinctly more viable (and sometimes less time-intensive to make/setup than more standard offensive builds). Grind-focused Evilities and Status-effect-boosting Evilities offer other team strategies that I never would have tried in previous Disgaeas.

The grinding options are just as numerous and exciting as previous titles. They of course decided to add some new ones for the crazy grinders, including Land of Carnage mode, which apparently increases the stat/level caps by a factor of ten and tries its damnedest to kill the life out of you. Fun, if that's your thing? I probably won't get to the point where I want to do -that- much grinding, but it's nice to know that I could grind for hours and continue to make significant progress and still have future challenges where team synergy will -matter-.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 13, 2013, 12:31:53 AM
Icewind Dale - So this game is better than I remember it being, which means to everyone else it will suck.  It is combat heavy Infinity Engine game that does combat pretty well.  It hits the sweet spot in levels where the spells are not out of control for most of the game.  It only really gets out of hand with the Expansion after you have finished it (I was pushing level 20 on rogue classes, 14/15 on others, capped out with Level 8 spells on Wizard.  The spell selection on the wizard available really restricts them from competing with Bards out scaling them due to level.

I was wrong about Druids, they have pretty shitty spell selection, but they do have a section of being better healers than Clerics because of their unique level progression.  By about 12 they even out in healing capability, Cleric gets Level 7 spells sooner than Druid, but on the other side of the coin all the level 7 spells for Clerics fucking blow, so it really comes down to Clerics having one more level 6 slot for Heal.  Clerics have better buffs, but Druids have some okay filler damage spells in Call Lightning if you are outdoors and Static Charge if you position them right.  Outside of Firestorm and Sunscorch their other damage spells suck.  Sunscorch is a pretty good Level 1 early on for damage and later is good for Troll killing.  On the other hand Clerics get Flame Strike which is as good as it has ever been in IE games (Flame Strike is always good).

Plot of the game is what it is.  You definitely don't play the game for it.  Big dungeon crawl that is fun if you enjoy the combat system.  This is probably the first time going back to an IE game than 2nd Ed AD&D didn't kind of grate on me.  One of the things it really does well for its niche is giving the player a good sense of character progression.  With the expansions it covers the same level range of all of BG1 and 2 up to SoA.  That is crazy high experience curve for D&D really, but in a dungeon crawl like this?  It hits a pretty sweet spot of feeling like the kind of progression you see in something more like Wizardry or Might and Magic while being very solidly in the BG style combat system.

Soooooo given everyone else's discussions about BG2 and Torment, I can't say I recommend it to you guys, but I certainly really enjoyed it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on October 13, 2013, 01:34:51 AM
It hits a pretty sweet spot of feeling like the kind of progression you see in something more like Wizardry or Might and Magic while being very solidly in the BG style combat system.


I'm the only guy who will understand this. And I've already played Icewind Dale. (And it rocked)


I'm only playing things in short doses lately.

Touch my Katamari was good. I haven't played a Katamari game in ~10 years so the lack of change wasn't an issue. They managed to remove the tank controls somehow? I always thought they were TOTALLY NECESSARY but nope. Left stick controls character, right stick controls camera, this works here too.

I answered the Bear vs Cow question with Cow. Not on purpose though.

Goro's story was cool as hell, I wish I could link to all of it but it's very low quality on the internet.
The ending was:
"A single thought took hold in my mind.
Katamari Damacy is really awesome.
And that's my story."

Better than Tidus'
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 13, 2013, 07:41:02 AM
ToB: Sometimes Sarevok randomly smacks the fuck out of someone for 200 damage. Jesus, bro. Anyway, beat up a jerky fire giant, hit Watcher's Keep because why not.

Teleport maze, that's why not.

You know, maybe it's because I already know she's the villain, but Melissan seems remarkably unsubtle with the whole "Oops, all the Bhaalspawn are dying and it's totally my fault (but seriously not on purpose you guys oh by the way here's a few more you should kill)."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on October 13, 2013, 12:26:13 PM
Final Fantasy III DS - played through

Generally pleasant, final areas a bit nervewracking. Somehow managed to not gameover during the final areas although CoD brought things close a couple of times.

Final party was all L57, Luneth Ninja41, Arc Devout32, Refia Sage31, Ingus Scholar99. Arc was the only character who managed to avoid dying multiple times (or at all) against CoD, which is probably for the best.

I was surprised to find that so many enemies in the tower/WoD were susceptible to gradual petrification. (After being surprised at how enemies seemed to keep dying more quickly than they should be doing and looking into why that could be happening - I had had two golem staffs on Arc and one on Refia). Not going to complain about it though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on October 13, 2013, 12:33:48 PM
Ingus Scholar99

Badass.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on October 13, 2013, 07:34:40 PM
Star Ocean 4 - Beat Ethereal Queen.

Wandering dungeon was rough, since you pretty much need to put aside several hours at once to beat it, which I definitely can't be bothered to do too often. I'm quite glad the Seven Star Cave exists as that was really more my style as far as aftergame stuff goes. Still, wandering dungeon was fun enough to test oneself against, long gauntlet of a dungeon where item limits mean a lot. Spell-based revival is crucial; I used both Myuria and Sarah and have a hard time seeing it be remotely doable without at least one. I did it in two main runs: once as far as the Philosopher's Stone (I also bought an ogre cannon from the santa shop) so I could make some ultimate weapons, then the true run.

Ethereal Queen herself was a predictably nasty fight. Not so bad for the first half or so, but once she starts using Supernova things get nasty, since ugh GT OHKO to anything near her. Resurrection Units to the rescue, but the limits on those are kind of a big deal. I ended up mostly using rush boosting (and benefitting a lot from her killing my allies) and rush combos to kill her, with Reimi. Unlike Gabriel there's little reason this strategy couldn't be pulled off with a melee type too because rush combos don't care, but Ethereal Queen's element resistance meant Reimi was my best option. First half of the fight was the more usual, safer, ranged pew pew pew.

Pretty fun, but I'm definitely done with the game for now.


Suikoden 3 - Beat all the chapter 3's. Finally did bring down the Azodess in the Flame Champion Hidaway (which was rather brutal) with Chris' party, in no small part because it included Emily (also Estella). Currently in duck village in chapter 4. Went with FC Chris because I have a hard time caring enough about Geddoe to pick him and I saw FC Hugo again quite recently, so eh. Also hey, this should result in minimum possible pain against the Water Dragon who spoilers will be awful.


Fire Emblem 12 - HM replay. Okay, translation doesn't help, most of the game's writing since the prologue ended has been terrible. Ninja reinforcements suck, but they did make the Roro fight more fun at least, that was pretty neat. Running a pretty traditional team with lots of flyers. Chris has kinda gotten RNG screwed and is actually struggling to stay on the team, it's weird.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on October 13, 2013, 09:25:58 PM
Pokémon Y - IN POKÉFRANCE, YOU DON'T NEED SPRINT SHOES TO RUN
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 13, 2013, 09:48:26 PM
Valkyrie Profile - Replaying for the first time in a long while.  It is ridiculous how much this game makes me happy.  Arngrim sequences, Lenneth/Freya interaction, how beautiful the sprites animation is, how mashup and bad I am at the combat system, how much skills literally blow up the game and even the slightly stilted delivery of the VA.  All these things bring me joy.

Currently ranking up my Send bait in Chapter 2 (Llewelyn got sent Chapter 1, Belenus will go 2, Lawfer will go 3, Jelanda 4).  Debating who to use as my "normal" party.  Debating whether or not to use Janus, think I will use Kashell for once.  Maybe Lorenta as Mage.  I think I have done Aelia before so mayyyyybe bring back Jayle.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on October 14, 2013, 01:53:44 AM
Pokémon Yattaf:  Screw the Pokémon, I'm going to collect all the fashion in the world!  Gotta wear 'em all!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on October 14, 2013, 02:01:12 AM
Valkyrie Profile - Replaying for the first time in a long while.  It is ridiculous how much this game makes me happy.  Arngrim sequences, Lenneth/Freya interaction, how beautiful the sprites animation is, how mashup and bad I am at the combat system, how much skills literally blow up the game and even the slightly stilted delivery of the VA.  All these things bring me joy.

Currently ranking up my Send bait in Chapter 2 (Llewelyn got sent Chapter 1, Belenus will go 2, Lawfer will go 3, Jelanda 4).  Debating who to use as my "normal" party.  Debating whether or not to use Janus, think I will use Kashell for once.  Maybe Lorenta as Mage.  I think I have done Aelia before so mayyyyybe bring back Jayle.

Man, Kashell is so -boring-. I'd just use Jayle for lulzies again.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 14, 2013, 02:08:46 AM
Kashell is kind of a lock, Jayle/Janus/Aelia are the three competing really.

That said, I should probs use GREY instead of Kashell once he is available for BICYCLE DISASTER.

Maybe go for a change late game to Jayle/Grey/UOM in last few chapters.

Edit - Can't use Suo, used him before and he is more snooze than Kashell.  Jun without any of the fun timing on skills.

I could use Lyseria as well, but mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on October 14, 2013, 03:32:31 AM
Man, I used Lyseria a lot. Not that it MATTERS, equip a Coin of Fortune and a Unicorn Horn/Apocalypse Wand and you don't even notice your mage being level 1.

EDIT: I like Grey's normals, at least. They're kinda fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on October 14, 2013, 05:27:29 AM
That said, I should probs use GREY instead of Kashell once he is available for BICYCLE DISASTER.

probs

Also fuck yeah VP replays.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 14, 2013, 06:00:05 AM
VP is still one of the prettiest games I've ever seen. I don't think there's anything else from its generation I can even contemplate saying that about without laughing.

~

ToB: Where was I? Oh right, Demogorgon. He's dead. So is everyone else who stood between me and GODHOOD (enlightened godhood though, because come on it's me, so yeah all those people I killed you can just take my word it was for the greater good). Yeah, this was basically my weekend.

I think I can pretty confidently say I'll never play BG again just because god this thing just ate a month of my life. But still, glad to have seen the whole thing now, ToB adds a lot to a game I already liked a great deal. Some of the bosses can actually put up a decent fight against all of your crazy broken shit! Sendai/Draconis/Balthazar/Ravager all had a pretty decent amount of cheese going for them. Good fights in the sense that they killed a couple people and burned through a chunk of my resources but I didn't gameover. Melissan butchered me a couple times before I just said fuck it and swarmed her with planetars/devas (this is probably the optimal solution for everything, though). Speaking of, good lord Melissan was hungry for scenery. Well, she had been waiting the whole game, and it is in the series' tradition.

Other stuff, well, the environments look nicer? Also, ToB music cribs heavily from the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack. This is of course a good thing, as we know how inordinately important proper noises are to my appreciation of a gaming experience.

Final party standings, just for the hell of it:

[Bhaalspawn]: Level 26 CN half-elf sorcerer. STR 12, DEX 18, CON 20, INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 20. I imagine my priorities are pretty obvious there. The sliding scale of caster power in these games is pretty ridiculous. Early BG1 was fire off a couple Magic Missiles then hide behind her cat the rest of the day (not even joking). Then eventually I got Haste and spiderrrrs. BG2 she picked up Melf's Minute Meteor and was an extremely effective caster interruption mechanism through the midgame. Lategame is Mordy's swords and Warding Whips and sequenced Fireballs. And then ToB hits and I can stop time and toss down four Horrid Wiltings before anyone can even move and whyyyyyy.

Most powerful foe vanquished: Firkraag (Chromatic Orb!)
Kill percentage: 28% (ended the game with exactly 1,000 kills).

Minsc: Level 28 Ranger. Minsc is a meatgrinder. Ran two-handed swords from start to finish.

Most powerful foe vanquished: Bodhi (I'd contest this; the game seems to credit plot power in these rankings more than it sometimes deserves, and he definitely killed plenty of things that put up more of a fight).
Kill percentage: 35%. Butts were kicked in liberal measure.

Viconia: Level 35 Cleric. Does pretty much what clerics do, patch up the other idiots when they get themselves killed. Also summon BWOOOOAR and later fallen angels (arguably more important).

Most powerful foe vanquished: Thax'awhatsit (Finger of Death).
Kill percentage: 8%. Yeah keeping people alive is usually more her priority. Also bears.

Edwin: Level 26 Conjurer. Summoner of cannon fodder, Haste battery, peels away magic defenses when needed.

Most powerful foe vanquished: Dragon (the nameless Watcher's Keep one. Before that it was the Suldenessellar dragon whose name I will not even try to type, who died as a squirrel).
Kill percentage: 7%. Not too surprising since he was usually on buff/debuff/summon duty (and he sat out BG1). I'm the artillery, Edwin calls the cavalry.

Imoen: Level 37 Thief. So yeah that bit where I didn't want her getting behind on levels in BG2 is pretty hahaha what in retrospect. What the hell, Thief XP tables? Even before the end of BG2 it'd become painfully apparent why they made all the game's thieves dual-class, but I kept her vanilla because it seemed too late to productively start on a caster class (also I already had three of them to keep track of and jesus they all had like four or five lines of spells to wade through by the end of the game). So yeah, Imoen, she has a bow and she shoots people with it. Except near the end when I dumped spare proficiency points into dual-wielding because why not, I've got all these awesome spare weapons and it's a shame to just leave them in inventory.

Most powerful foe vanquished: Elite Fire Giant. Yawn.
Kill percentage: 11%. Surprised it's even this high. But I guess she was usually on scrub cleanup duty.

Sarevok: Level 29 Fighter. Holy shit Sarevok is good. (I know, huge shock, right?) Apparently it's possible to get his alignment to shift? Didn't happen in my game, never had any banters trigger past Saradush.

Most powerful foe vanquished: Draconis (this ranking is bullshit since he also got the last hit on Demogorgon. Draconis was a fucking pain in the ass, but c'mon, he's not Demogorgon).
Kill percentage: 8%. It says something about his acumen for slaughter that it's this high when everyone else in the party was at it for three games and he's just got ToB on his record.

MC's spell list for the BG nerrrrds. I trust the regrettable consequences of leveling at 3AM will mostly be self-evident:

1st level: Armor, Chromatic Orb, Find Familiar, Identify, Magic Missile

-Armor was nice in BG1 and worthless thereafter, Identify ditto that stopped mattering once Edwin joined (insta-ID anything due to GODLY INTELLECT), we've already been over Find Familiar...but seriously, in the long run, what do you care about from 1st level spells but Chromatic Orb and Magic Missile?

2nd level: Agannazar's Scorcher, Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Ray of Enfeeblement, Resist Fear

-Yeah I dunno. Scorcher damage looks good on paper when you can first get it, but then you see your party members running through the beam and aw god dammit. Acid Arrow kills trolls and that's pretty much it. MI got tossed into sequencers occasionally. I used Ray like twice. Resist Fear I think I was thinking "At some point there will be dragons." But they almost all got statused to death and I think I never even used the spell. Whatever, it's 2nd level spells.

3rd level: Dispel Magic, Fireball, Flame Arrow, Haste, Melf's Minute Meteor

-These are pretty much all great, though Dispel Magic stopped seeing use once I could have Edwin toss Remove Magic instead (and not ruin my own buffs in the process). I think I never bothered with MMM before because why would I want to cast a spell to give me a weapon to throw when I could just cast a spell to shoot someone instead? It turns out the answer to that is: because this way you hit fast enough to stunlock people from even doing anything.

4th level: Confusion, Greater Malaison, Improved Invisibility, Minor Sequencer, Spider Spawn

-I don't think I ever used Confusion. I don't know why it's there. Greater Malaison was only ever employed to make humiliating dragons easier, but I consider that worth the spell slot. Spider Spawn is worthless by the end of the game but pretty nice when you can first get sword spiders out of it. The other two never stopped being handy.

5th level: Breach, Domination, Lower Resistance, Oracle

-Breach is great, Lower Resistance was again purely there to fuck with dragons (and thus totally worth it), Oracle was immediately outclassed by True Sight, Domination was like never used (just because I play video games 'til dawn sometimes doesn't mean I have a problem stop looking at me like that).

6th level: Improved Haste, Pierce Magic, Summon Nishruu, True Sight

-Improved Haste is godly, so is True Sight, both usually got tossed into a sequencer for boss fights. Nishruus are pretty cool at first but horrible fodder by the end of the game. Pierce Magic is neat in theory but was already outclassed by the time I got it.

7th level: Khelben's Warding Whip, Mass Invisibility, Mordankainen's Sword, Spell Sequencer

-Wait, I took Mass Invisibility? Huh. How about that. Anyway Warding Whip is like the best debuff in the game. Fuck that contingency some enemy's got prepped at 50% health or whatever, this way you get their current and future buffs (if you can spare a couple extra turns for them to fall one by one). Mordy's sword is the best summon short of ToB, almost nothing in BG2 core can reliably hurt them and they'll solo tons of pesky enemy types for you. Spell Sequencer is triple Fireball. End of line.

8th level: Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Improved Mantle, Simulacrum, Spell Trigger

-I never used Improved Mantle. My MC always had the speedy boots on, and if someone was actually in a position to hurt her, I was probably already fucked on account of the rest of the party being dead. Simulacrum is pure cheese (double your spellcasters!) but I rarely used it just because tracking and controlling 2x spellcasters is such a hassle. Horrid Wilting of course is supreme crowd control, and Spell Trigger was usually loaded with buffs for anything that looked like it actually meant to put up a fight.

9th level: Comet, Dragon's Breath, Energy Blades, Energy Drain, Improved Alacrity, Spellstrike, Summon Planetar, Time Stop, Wail of the Banshee

-Improved Alacrity -> Time Stop is absolutely ridiculous. Casting times? Fuck 'em, I want all my spells to go off now god dammit, now! Energy Blades makes for a fantastic upgrade over meteorspam, only hurt by having to compete with all this other stuff. Planetars are supreme and like the only thing that made the last fight look winnable (it looked like no one in my party but Sarevok could even hurt her, not sure what the deal was there). Spellstrike is neat in theory but doesn't do anything about the contingency that asshole caster's probably got waiting down the line. The rest of that stuff basically never got used.

Man all those words I just typed and I don't think I talked about the plot at all? Well that pretty much sums up the BG experience. You just play it for SWORD, MEET EVIL, EVIL, MEET SWORD.

Oh god I just realized Mazzy was still in the pocket dimension when it stopped existing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on October 14, 2013, 07:03:04 AM
Civ V - Played this on Chieftain, having never played Civ before other than a half-finished Civ IV playthrough. It was very easy but it was nice to get a bearing on how to play the game. Now I'm playing on Warlord as Catherine the Great. V is quite a bit more fun than IV. <_<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 14, 2013, 09:09:00 AM
Your spell selection actually isn't that bad really, only a few things that could be improved.

Sounds like Sarevok would be using a +5 weapon probably if he was hitting the final boss and no one else was?  She uses Improved Mantle from memory, which blocks Magic Weapons +4 or lower.  So something like Gram or Psion's Blade will penetrate it.  Other weapon choices easily can cap out at +4 or so.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 14, 2013, 08:31:08 PM
You know, rereading all this, I'm really struck by how diametrically opposed BG battle design is to the workings of an actual D&D game. BG can afford to throw broked enemies at you and force you to improvise if you're not prepared/haven't dealt with them before, because you'll just reload if you die (and I certainly died over and over to certain enemy types when I first played BG2). An actual P&P game operating on this philosophy is shortly rolling up a new campaign (or alienating its players).

It's just funny to notice the discrepancy replaying BG2 with some GMing behind me.

This is kind of acknowledged by the bit in ToB where you can pay a gang of level 1 adventurers to handle an endgame quest for you ("100 gold, we're rich!" is just classic. Also: "I found a magic dagger. In a couple days, Tim can tell me what it is.") They come back so confident in their skills that they decide to murder you for your loot. After justly being curbstomped for this, the game reloads and they give you the quest item like they should have in the first place.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 14, 2013, 09:37:19 PM
It also exemplifies why rocket  tag mechanics in an RP are awful.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on October 14, 2013, 10:32:00 PM
Tales of Xillia 2 - Fffffsteaks you Victor, ffffsteaks you and your tuxedo mask! This fight made CTs mad. Had to turn game down to Moderate~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 14, 2013, 10:33:27 PM
d4 for hitpoints with maybe +2 from con.

Longsword does d8 damage. 

*AD&D*

VP - So I have this stupid habit of grinding out all my transfer bait in Chapter 2 and 3.  I am in Chapter 2 at the moment and Nanami should have the skillpoints to be sent up in Chapter 7 (She just scrapes by Hero Level reqs).  Jun is good to go for Chapter 5.  Lucian will go in 6.  Kashell will go in 8 for the lolololol factor.  Belenus already sent for 2, Lawfer ready for 3 and Jelanda ready for 4.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 14, 2013, 11:37:02 PM
Gods forbid someone crits.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AAA on October 14, 2013, 11:51:21 PM
Hey new civ 5 players, the Brave New World expansion is on sale at Newegg for 9 dollars
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832205116

It says it's a code for the Mac version of steam but it works on regular PCs just fine.

Coupon Code: EMCWXWW235
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on October 16, 2013, 05:20:09 AM
Demon's Souls - started this.  beat Phalanx, Tower Knight, Leechmonger, Armor Spider so far.  Have made it to Flamelurker and Adjudicator and had zero success with either.  Build: katana/shield/magic-using royal.  I suspect this is terribly suboptimal.  Except for the part where I'm using magic.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on October 16, 2013, 02:31:07 PM
Pokémon Y - as in why did I get this version? It doesn't have a goddamn Aggron or Poocheyna.

And why do I have to tip everyone in Pokéfrance?  Hats already cost more than several potions and revival items.  You charge me 5000 bucks to make my poodle pretty.  What does France do with all this money?!

The new exp share is godly.  It's designed to be broken but removes grinding.  Compile with very minimal HM use you can run full 6 man parties and stay on par even when you swap in newbies to try them out.  Menu management still sucks.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on October 16, 2013, 04:08:05 PM
Pokemon X: Sometime after badge 3.

I'll be brief:

The Bad so far:
-Skates being mapped to analog and not able to turn off, kind of annoying to swap between analog and D-pad when walking through grass.  Wouldn't mind as much if they just turned skates off like with pressing D-pad when you walk through grass and you can do normal running.
-EXP Share is broken; only 3 badges in and both my starters are fully evolved!  Thankfully, you can turn this off and play the game like normal, which I may do on a replay after Pokebank comes out, and see how it holds up on difficulty, so this point isn't too big a deal.
-EXP Share not telling you stat gains on level ups

The Good so far:
...everything else.  It basically takes everything that made BW2 good and makes it better, even to the point of destroying it on Main Game Pokemon options, and BW2 had possibly the best draw to date in that regard, so that's saying something!  If I didn't have a "Kalos only Pokemon outside of the Kanto starter" thing, it'd be hard for me to actually choose only 6, the raw variety is that overwhelming!

You'll notice the things I hit against the game are minor gripes, but I do hope the Skates thing is at least addressed in the inevitable Z version somewhere down the line.


I will also say I am legitimately impressed how fast the game moves in general.  Was worried we'd have another Gen 4 (or at least, Diamond/Pearl; HGSS and I'm told Platinum weren't too bad here) situation but...I think this may be the fastest Pokemon game to date...outside of Horde Battles because 5 ENEMY POKEMON PER TURN.  Though that isn't so bad unless you're fighting a Mime Jr. horde and they're spamming Copy Cat, as it basically doubles the number of actions made per turn -_-


Last Story: Zael and the hot white haired chick had to break up because Zael is in a situation where he's likely to be assassinated because the duke is an asshole and everyone who reaches a certain position always has an inconvenient accident killing them. 

...what?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on October 16, 2013, 06:00:39 PM
Meeple: Not really.

(also I'd have spoiler-tagged your post if I were you.  I thought it was pretty obvious that the problem was that Zael was allying with Callista's uncle - someone she dislikes and thinks is a murderer!  Simple as that.  It's not that Zael will necessarily die and she thinks her uncle will kill him, it's that her uncle is a bad person, and she can't condone others working for him, and she certainly won't date his lackey.  Even if, in its own odd way, Zael is doing it for her / to get to her.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on October 17, 2013, 12:41:45 AM
Penny Arcade 3: Wanted a quick bite-sized game. PA3 provides that AND one of the best JRPGs I've seen in ages. Good job stealing the best of Grandia and FFV and putting your own spin on it. Not to mention a fun over-the-top story that I never expected I'd actually start buying into, but it's kinda awesome. Kill some gods, guys :)

My favorite part so far are the gentle ribbing on FFX-2's Dressspheres. In PA3, Classes are given by the PCs wearing "Pins" made from the souls of various warriors that were defeated by an eccentric coven of seamstresses. It's just zany enough to be hilarious but taken just seriously enough to really make sense in the context of the game. :)))))
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 17, 2013, 12:50:38 AM
Get to the sequel.  Kill things with your vending machine.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 17, 2013, 06:51:11 PM
WoW: Hit 90. Tanked some instances to remember how that works, got annoyed at a hunter who had their pet growling, etc.

Still clearing old content for battle pets. Here is my (embarassingly poor) progress as of this moment.

Molten Core: All pets acquired. No fights but Geddon or Ragnaros require even an inkling of thought. They just require positioning so falling damage doesn't become annoying.

Blackwing Lair: Missing pet from Lashlord. Razorgore sucks, but whatever. Can't kill Vael before Burning Adrenaline, but, as long as I don't get lazy about my rotation, its a pretty easy win once I have it. Haven't tried Ebonroc again yet, but I might be able to actually kill him now? Not sure, not that it matters.

Temple of AQ: Missing pet from Viscuidus. More trouble than I expected? Princesses are annoying thanks to Fear + Heal, but not an actual problem. Couldn't kill Twin Emps myself at 89, but I think I still need slightly better gear. I could outdamage the heal, but I'd lose too much progress during swaps. Haven't tried Viscuidus yet because I need to enchant a weapon.

Serpentshrine Cavern: No pets acquired =(. Fathom Lord is irritating as hell until you down the Shaman, but cake after that. Should be no issue for me now. Vashj is just an awful, awful fight solo. I think I can do it, but I need to actually plan for it.

The Eye: No pets acquired =(. All pretty easy outisde of Kael (although Astromancer was hella annoying since you spend 90% of the fight in the air). Kael sucked and took me a few times to get the strategy down right. Severely annoying fight since you spend a ton of it disoriented/stunned/feared/silenced. If you can get through the 4 advisors, its not too bad. If you can get to the final phase, it is cake.

Karazhan: No pets acquired =(. Seriously, Raiding with Leashes II sucks. Complete cakewalk now.

Next up will likely be Naxx. I did try it briefly and died to Anub'rekan, but I also let the stupid Crypt Guard stack up his debuff magnificently high.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 17, 2013, 09:45:55 PM
http://www.wowwiki.com/Recipe:_Frost_Oil You might want this also for Viscidius.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Magic Fanatic on October 18, 2013, 05:41:03 AM
You have a Paladin, right?

http://www.wowhead.com/item=43601/ This should work for Viscidius as well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on October 18, 2013, 08:58:37 AM
Disgaea D2: Nice outfit, Flonne
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 18, 2013, 06:01:19 PM
WoW:

Naxx 10: Arachnid Quarter finished, Plague Quarter finished. Died twice to Patchwerk (once because I went Ret, the second because I think I somehow trigger his enrage and frenzy simultaneously, which was hitting for 13K through Ardent and Guardian and caught me off-guard. Beat him the attempt after that though. Gluth, however, is proving insurmountable solo. My DPS just isn't high enough to chunk through his health before the Mortal Strike debuff gets me killed.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lady Door on October 18, 2013, 06:52:30 PM
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CDUNCGqVadY/UOoCzeFgspI/AAAAAAAAFEM/x-buLQfCKB4/s1600/kel.gif)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on October 18, 2013, 11:52:33 PM
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CDUNCGqVadY/UOoCzeFgspI/AAAAAAAAFEM/x-buLQfCKB4/s1600/kel.gif)

If this was Facebook, I'd have liked this post.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on October 19, 2013, 06:31:44 PM
Pokemon X: Opted for a mono-Fairy team, first go around. Without the usual BST/move info available for team planning and with the revised exp share making it very easy to constantly reshuffle your Pokemon roster, I figured it was a good time to try a gimmick run, plus I wanted to try out the new shiny typing. When Pokemon Bank gets released in December I can upload everything and start a new, more conventional file, but now was the time for experimenting.

Azurill is the only Fairy type available pre-gym 1 and it's not doing much of anything with Bubble/Water Gun for offense at first, so the run effectively started on route 4 with Ralts and Flabebe available. At first, Fairy was practically a neutral typing, with actual Poison moves rare and Fighting/Dark/Dragon/Steel all pretty much nonexistant. Midgame the Fighting and Dark types started showing up and Fairy's awesomeness as a defensive typing started becoming relevant; I think I've seen more Bites from enemy Pokemon than every Poison and Steel attack combined.

On the other hand, Fairy move progression has been a pretty serious problem. Offensive Fairy moves are rare this generation, especially good ones. None of my dual types even got a Fairy move for a long time, aside Mawile's Fairy Wind running off the wrong attack stat aside. Even the mono-Fairies were often stuck with a weak Fairy Wind for way too long in many cases.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on October 19, 2013, 06:47:04 PM
Pokémon seXY:  Got my hair styled and shot a fabulous PR video.  Apparently there is something to do with battling pokemon and becoming a master trainer in this game, but I am way too busy for that!

Elemental Kingdoms:  Iphone tcg.  Apparently it's a complete ripoff of another tcg but that one isn't available in America so...  Anyway pretty entertaining, movement accrues at a reasonable pace so you don't feel obligated to buy more turns.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on October 19, 2013, 06:47:42 PM
Pokemon X - So I got a female Aerodactyl after awhile of trying, will be hatching a bunch of eggs for more. Anyone else playing want to swap friend codes and grab one?

Actually, do we have a friend code topic here? I vaguely remember there being one....
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 20, 2013, 01:20:43 AM
ToX: Not that it's too surprising, but getting hit for 12K from Gaius' Mystic Arte is still an eye-popping experience.  Now, what is surprising is learning that all the red and the giant explosion mask the fact that it's actually Light-element.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on October 20, 2013, 02:16:01 AM
WoW:

Naxx 10: Arachnid Quarter finished, Plague Quarter finished. Died twice to Patchwerk (once because I went Ret, the second because I think I somehow trigger his enrage and frenzy simultaneously, which was hitting for 13K through Ardent and Guardian and caught me off-guard. Beat him the attempt after that though. Gluth, however, is proving insurmountable solo. My DPS just isn't high enough to chunk through his health before the Mortal Strike debuff gets me killed.

Step 1:  Get your ass to the Timeless Isle.
Step 2:  Get kitted out in 496 gear.
Step 3:  Never die in content less difficult than Cataclysm again.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on October 20, 2013, 04:26:11 PM
Demon's Souls - hey guys this game is hard!  Anyway, rescued sage Freke, beat Fool's Idol (1 death), Flamelurker (1 death, because the first time it handed me my ass I resolved only to come back with All The Flame Resist), Dragon God (like 10 deaths, and would have been more if not for All The Flame Resist), and PENETRATORRRR who did not kill me because Power of Friendship.  Current things impeding my progress: the red mindflayer dude on the stairs up to the boss in 3-2 two red mindflayer dudes on the stairs up to the boss in 3-3 what the fuck game; the big dude with the club on the small island in 5-2; the fact that every time I go to 4-1 I get so many souls I don't want to risk them fighting a boss; work; sleep.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on October 20, 2013, 11:18:50 PM
Suikoden 3 semi-challenge playthrough - Water Dragon down!

This was by far the hardest required, must-win fight so far on the playthrough, nothing else comes close. This despite the fact that I allowed myself to use Level 9 weapons (fear) once I obtained the Silver Hammer, mostly to flatten out the curve of who starts with good/bad weapons. The Water Dragon fights with six ice pillars, and against my defence they do between 100 (Chris) and 200 (light armour types) damage per hit, every round! Sometimes 2-3 of them use unites for GT ice magic instead but yeah they still overwhelm pretty fast. After a few failed attempts, I settled on the following setup:

Chris (True Fire)
Percival (Water)
-
Aila
Nei (Jongleur + Water)
-
Emily (Skunk)
Leo (Wall)

Note the final pair, as it's crucial to the strategy. Skunk Rune prevents Emily from being directly targetted by the ice pillars, although the boss ignores it. UNIRONIC WALL RUNE USE YES on Leo doubles his already high def to insane levels, and he takes less than 20 damage per hit from the ice pillars. Since the ice pillars like to target those who are close to them, with only the Emily/Leo pair far forward, they'll target exlcusively Leo. I used Nei to boost Emily's damage, but was at a bit of a loss for who to pair her with, since Song of Madness turns even normally defensive allies into aggressive ones. But an aggressive archer is perfectly fine since she won't pull Nei forward, and Aila has the benefit both of having two swings and of having Freeze, which does in fact work on the ice pillars.

It's not a perfect strategy because song of madness (or even just using Water Magic with Percival) makes the Chris/Percival pair run forward, and they do die sooner or later since "high" defence isn't good enough when I'm using New-tier equipment (chapter 2 stuff, roughly). Ironically would have been easier with another FC since I could have made them a water rune user and stuck them with a second archer. But it worked out pretty well.

And again, unironic wall rune use!


FE12 - Defeated James Hardin. Well that plot was dumb. This time I am actually getting the real ending, hooray. Current team is Marth, Palla, Catria, Caeda, Luke, Maris, Malicia, Etzel, Minerva, Feena, Chris, and someone who varies (Julian, Tiki, Sirius, Darros, etc.).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on October 21, 2013, 12:50:48 AM
Pokémon Y - The skates are pretty much the best invention ever. Moving fast and easy through a Pokémon environment is amazing.

Also, the variety in choices for Pokémon even early is nothing short of overwhelming. You get interesting typings, monsters and skillset choices nearly from the get-go, it's kinda nuts. Running so far a Frogadier/Bulbasaur/Fletchinder/Pancham/Inksay/Pikachu team. I kinda wish I had a different Electric, but that'll do. Bulbasaur remains hugely valuable as a status whore even five gens later.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Pyro on October 21, 2013, 12:59:46 AM
Final Fantasy 4 (SNES ver): Played through and beat on a whim and to satisfy nostalgia.

Generally a competent enough game. Reminded me of Rosa's role as quintessential healer and Rydia's Glass Cannon. Also found it easiest to leave Kain a frothing madman for most of his time in the party. Charge times were a bigger thing than I remembered them being. Barely ever threw stuff with Edge because it cost too much.

It's FF4. Still can't see why there are so many remakes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on October 21, 2013, 03:10:07 AM
Pokemon X: Xerneas caught now, which means my final roster is pretty much set. Some thoughts now on the Fairy types that I've either dropped, or never used in the first place:

Flabebe/Floette: First mono-Fairy type and first source of actual Fairy damage, making it an important Pokemon. For all of route 4 it was actually my strongest Pokemon, its competition being Ralts and a physical-less Azurill. Unfortunately, that was never going to last, due to the line's awful in-game movepool: no STAB upgrade at all from the 40 base Fairy Wind until either gym 6 or Floette hits level 46, whichever comes first. Instead, it gets a steady progression of marginally improved Grass attacks, mostly physical, none of which help it damage Fire or Poison types.

Florges' endgame stats are pretty good and it can eventually scrape together a respectable Moonblast/Calm Mind/Psychic/grass attack moveset, but the lateblooming nature and heavy redundancy with so many other Fairies that I was using led to it being dropped at L34 to make room for... either Sylveon or Dedenne, I forget.

Spritzee: Version exclusive to the game with no Fairy Deer God, ruling it out as a practical matter. Even if I had traded for one early on, the item to trade evolve it is ALSO version exclusive so seriously raising one was out of the question.

Snubbull/Granbull: Would've been much better as Normal/Fairy than pure Fairy. STAB Strength/Return would've made it a lock for endgame, but instead it apparantly gets no physical STAB at all until the 40s, ugh. It sat in my party for a while but never saw any actual combat.

Dedenne: Yet another scrubby single-stage Pikaclone, to nobody's surprise. ~81 SpAtk/~101 Speed means it at least has usable values in the two key stats, so I was seriously prepared to use one throughout the game... until I beat gym 6 and realized it is the only special attacking Fairy who can't learn Dazzling Gleam, somehow. >_< It gets no special Fairy attacks by level either, just the physical Play Rough. That earned it a seat on the bench at L47.

Mr Mime: By the time it showed up in the wild, I had a L35 Gardevoir. The wild Mr. Mimes were ~22 by comparison.

Carbink: Both attacks stats are around 50 base. That's more suited for a Pokeniu-style challenge run than what I am currently attempting.

Mawile: A real pain in the ass to actually encounter, but the Poison immunity was highly valued on a team that's otherwise almost entirely Poison-weak, and the other Steel resists don't hurt either Alas, the Mega-evo item is postgame only, and regular Mawile's stats are usable but still pretty weak. No physical STAB at all until the move relearner (which comes between gyms 6 and 7, sadly) meant it got most of its levels from Exp Share, mainly getting pulled out when its resists were called out. My last drop at L57 to make room for Xerneas itself,

Jigglypuff: Listing this here even though I haven't actually seen one yet, because it apparantly only shows up around gym 8. Seriously, what the hell is the point of leaving Jigglypuff that late? That makes the line completely worthless, even with Wigglytuff getting +10 SpAtk. It should've shown up around the same time as Swirlix and Spritzee, not well after Xerneas.

In non-Fairy type thoughts, trainer customization is really nice and will hopefully be a series staple from hereon out. I find myself hardly ever using the bike in favor of either skates or running shoes. Horde battles are amusing, but I have not had a single sky battle yet thanks to the absence of any flying/levitating Fairies in the main game, somehow.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on October 21, 2013, 05:01:59 AM
Not knowing what your current roster is, apart from Xerneas and presumably a Ralts evo, makes it hard to follow your whole post.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on October 21, 2013, 08:41:56 AM
Sen no Kiseki - Finally done with my first cycle of the game at 90 hours.... such a long game....
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on October 21, 2013, 07:01:48 PM
DmC: Picked this up on the Capcom sale Steam had last weekend, beat the first playthrough last night. Even after playing the demo, the game still surprised me by being as good as it was. The Angel/Demon weapon system works really well and the visual design is just great - the chaos of Limbo feels like a real, cohesive setting (cohesive as walls made of insanity can be, anyway) and the They Live writing on the walls was a great touch. The story doesn't suck either, which is kind of a shock. I mean, it's not exactly Shakespeare, but it's also not garbage, which is nice because it does take itself about a billion times more seriously than DMC3.

I didn't even miss lock-on in the heat of combat, and that was the thing I was most dubious about. My main negative is the sameness of combos - every weapon has one move you do by mashing attack, and another move you do by tapping attack twice, pausing, and then mashing it. Even when the moves they execute are very different, it makes combat feel samey when your thumb is doing the same thing in every fight. Also, the bosses are jokes. Even Vergil (spoiler warning you fight Vergil it is totally unexpected and nobody saw it coming), who is slow and telegraphed and lame which is all the more annoying because that's the exact opposite of his DMC3 versions, even though he's using a lot of the same moves.

Overall it's about an 8/10 game, pending the DLC and a run at Son of Sparda/Dante Must Die.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 21, 2013, 09:29:54 PM
Demon's Souls - hey guys this game is hard!  Anyway, rescued sage Freke, beat Fool's Idol (1 death), Flamelurker (1 death, because the first time it handed me my ass I resolved only to come back with All The Flame Resist), Dragon God (like 10 deaths, and would have been more if not for All The Flame Resist), and PENETRATORRRR who did not kill me because Power of Friendship.  Current things impeding my progress: the red mindflayer dude on the stairs up to the boss in 3-2 two red mindflayer dudes on the stairs up to the boss in 3-3 what the fuck game; the big dude with the club on the small island in 5-2; the fact that every time I go to 4-1 I get so many souls I don't want to risk them fighting a boss; work; sleep.

Let me just note my amazement that you had more trouble getting to the boss of 3-2 than beating the boss of 3-2 (which I found by far the most troublesome fight in the game).

~

SR4: Finally got off my lazy butt and finished this. Jane Austen ending acquired! I look forward to her loyalty mission in SR5. Appreciate the extra lighting options for the simulation but wish they'd been available earlier (I got real sick of the simulation's perpetual twilight or whatever).

The villain was plainly having so much fun throughout the game that it was honestly a shame to kill him.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 22, 2013, 01:41:52 AM
ToX: I admit it, I am the consumerism whore and bought costume DLC. /negative man
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on October 22, 2013, 04:15:12 AM
Not knowing what your current roster is, apart from Xerneas and presumably a Ralts evo, makes it hard to follow your whole post.

Azumarill, Gardevoir, Slurpluff, Sylveon, Klefki, Xerneas; I'm saving thoughts on them until I beat the E4. Also looking back, that post was kinda a mess. If it helps, my team composition went roughly like this, using the guide to doublecheck names:

pre-Gym 1: Exp leech Azurill, Chespin/Farfetch'd do all the actual work
Route 4: Azurill, Ralts, Flabebe
Route 7: + Swirlix
Glittering Cave: + Mawile
Route 10: Catch Snubbull and Eevee, bench either Snubbull or Floette (forget which)
(Gym 2, dominated by underlevelled Mawile and Sylveon)
Route 11: Catch Dedenne, bench the remaining one of Snubbull/Floette
Glittering Cave: Catch Mr. Mime and Mime Jr, neither of which I ever used
(Turn off Exp Share around gym 5 when I realize Azumarill is L50 already and Mawile/Sylveon/Dedenne are mostly caught up)
Post gym 6: Catch Klefki, drop Dedenne out of disgust
TEAM FLARE PLOT: Catch Xerneas, drop Mawile

Don't remember where everything evolved besides Sylveon (after only one level-up) and Swirlix (trade item found in the second gym town), don't think they really matter much.

I actually forgot Carbink even existed until a Hiker used one late in the game and had to go back to get it. <_< I only used Repel near the end on my first trip through Glittering Cave, so either the encounter rate for it is really bad or I had awful luck. Incidentally, Mawile and Dedenne both took forever to show up, with the former being worse due to how Glittering Cave encounters work. Kinda sucks to spend so much time hunting down what turned out to be two temps, but c'est la vie.

My original tentative plan was Azumarill/Gardevoir/Dedenne/one of the two Steel types/Xerneas/open slot for whatever worked best, but Dedenne ended up failing to meet my lowish initial expectations and I didn't actually make a decision on Mawile vs Klefki until I actually caught the latter. The mono-Fairies I had no plans for at all when I started playing, I ended up deciding who to keep and who to drop there based on a mixture of in-game experience and the initially tentative move sets compiled by Smogon/Serebii.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on October 22, 2013, 05:31:26 AM
Demon's Souls - hey guys this game is hard!  Anyway, rescued sage Freke, beat Fool's Idol (1 death), Flamelurker (1 death, because the first time it handed me my ass I resolved only to come back with All The Flame Resist), Dragon God (like 10 deaths, and would have been more if not for All The Flame Resist), and PENETRATORRRR who did not kill me because Power of Friendship.  Current things impeding my progress: the red mindflayer dude on the stairs up to the boss in 3-2 two red mindflayer dudes on the stairs up to the boss in 3-3 what the fuck game; the big dude with the club on the small island in 5-2; the fact that every time I go to 4-1 I get so many souls I don't want to risk them fighting a boss; work; sleep.

Let me just note my amazement that you had more trouble getting to the boss of 3-2 than beating the boss of 3-2 (which I found by far the most troublesome fight in the game).

~

Go fig.  I'm using a magic/shield/1h katana build, and magicing that boss to death was easy.  Boss was practically designed to be blasted to death at mid range.  I'm not sure if there's a timer or whatnot but I was able to kill the first one just about the time the second one showed up.  On the other hand, the mindflayer dudes I lacked the close-range damage output to rush down, and long range their magic attacks ripped me a new one.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on October 22, 2013, 08:05:01 AM
Pokémon Y- Beat the champion.

Best Pokémon game?  Unlike Gen 5, this really does feel like a big leap in user friendliness and overall design.  You're given LOADS of good solid pokémon options every time you advance, wild pokes are rarely significantly below expected levels, TMs are readily available, and there's a great number of event pokémon to use if catching isn't really your bag.  The biggest knock I can really give it is that it's ridonkulously easy at points, but that's because the new EXP Share is, as snow would put it, degenerate.  Oh wait if you want something a little more respectable you can turn the thing off.  Done and done.

E4 Team

Greninja (71 Water/Dark, Torrent, Jolly, Extrasensory/Waterfall/Surf/Night Slash)- Aside from Night slash being ridiculously late, and thus making the Dark typing an added liability (albeit a minor one) 99% of the time, real good at what he does.  Water Shiruken is pretty lame honestly, but waterfall exists so what the hell ever.  Glad the Gen 6 starters don't suffer from what made all the gen 5 ones kinda suck: out of type movepool is quite reasonable here.

Yveltal (64 Dark/Flying, Dark Aura, Hardy, Foul Play/Oblivion Wing/Dragon Rush/Psychic)- So, HP and offense uber?  Pretty cool.  I am a sucker for great draining moves, spam Oblivion Wing all day every day.  Is an uber, does uber things.

Gourgeist (65 Grass/Ghost, Pickup, Mild, Seed Bomb/Leech Seed/Shadow Ball/Phantom Force)- Not really that great.  It's really the mid-game when you want that grass typing I found, and by the time he got into the party there just wasn't a lot left.  Ghost didn't fill any real niches for me admittedly, and I felt like EVERYTHING was packing Crunch for some damn reason so.

Blaziken (62 Kickchicken, Speed Boost, Brave, Sky Uppercut/Bulk Up/Brick Break/Blaze Kick)- Sweet jesus.  Not balanced.  I didn't get Victini in Gen 5, so I dunno how that performed, but good lord if I'd used this guy as anything but a trump card in the before the endgame I dunno what the game would have done.  Came damn close to soloing two different E4 members.  Kicker is that it counts as a trade, so 50% bonus experience on top of the already experience heavy new systems.  If you're looking for the game to fight back, bench.

Sylveon (71 Fairy, Cute Charm, Lax, Dazzling Gem/Moonblast/Calm Mind/Misty Terrain)- Really limited movepool.  I used Calm Mind all of once, Misty Terrain (a team variant on Safeguard) never, and Dazzling Charm is just Moonblast with less power but MT and more importantly a PP stash for longer dungeons.  Basically tanks, smites foes with the POWER OF THE MOON, goes from there.  Fairy tends to be reasonably neutral except when it's effective, since the types that resist it are ALSO its weaknesses anyway.  I had to backtrack severely to get the eevee for this, so it was underlevelled... and still ended up with my highest levels because, well, it's a special tank with a reasonably neutral typing, good leadoff that likes to OHKO things.  Well and because, due to the nature of its evo, it gets a 25% exp boost.

Aurorus (65 Rock/Ice, Refridgerate, Modest, Ice Beam/Light Screen/Hyper Beam/Thunderbolt)- Look at that typing.  It's trying to be an HP tank.  AND YET.  It's just a neat poke.  As many things as it has to run screaming from, you can depend on it to go out and win slugging matches a weird amount, although in fairness it was helped a bit because I wasn't using anything else that could learn Tbolt.

Others (in order dropped)

Charizard (65 OG, Blaze, Mild, Cut/Fly/Strength/Flamethrower)- HM whore!  Except.  I'm playing Pokémon Y, so it gets its Y Mega Evo.  Mega Charizard Y jacks its SAtk and replaces Blaze with Drought.  So basically if I ran across something my bad overall type coverage couldn't handle (I swapped 'zard for kickchicken in the E4 basically), a mega-form flamethrower basically OHKOed anything and everything with neutral resist to fire.

Vivillon (58 Bug/Flying, Compound Eyes, Lax, Bug Buzz/Quiver Dance/Stun Spore/Hurricane)- The bug has a pretty useful moveset at basically every stage of the game; I even found myself missing bug buzz at points after dropping him.  ultimately the stats just aren't going to keep up, the usual "why do they keep making Bug/Flying" question comes up, but... yeah.  For in-game usefulness really really high, clear MVP until the point I dropped him for my cover legend.

Lucario (48 badass, Steadfast, Hasty, Calm Mind/Swords dance/Aura Sphere/Strength)- Not really great in gen 6?  I didn't use him too long though.  I considered it for a while (hence Strength) but really didn't want to mess around after a point.  Admittedly I used Lucario heavily in BW2 and plat in recent memory so other, more unique options were more appealing.

Snorlax (28 lazybum, THick Fat, Naive, Strength/Body Slam/Rest/Yawn)- Basically a good placeholder while I found cooler pokémon.  He's really very early, something like L15 and I believe before gym 2, maaaaybe 3.  Nothing exciting but at the time I was holding out for later options so hey why not.

I also considred trying out the slug dragon, but forgot it needed to be raining to hit final evo (I caught one like three short of evo or something, but I dno't know rain dance on anything and the areas with auto-rain are really low level).  Since it stops learning moves at its final evo level until evolution, stuffed it back in the box (because I mean I already blew the one Heart Scale I found on Sylveon, nuts to hunting more).  if I run across rain dance I might pull it back out to play around, assuming I stick with the aftergame.

so uh yeah.  Pokeymanz.  I'm honestly feeling 8/10, wasn't expecting this to pull so far ahead of the pack but here we are.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 22, 2013, 07:44:45 PM
ToX: Y'know, I expect Gaius to pull off a OHKO effortlessly, but I didn't expect the Chapter 3 end boss to do so.  Huh.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on October 22, 2013, 08:38:40 PM
Beat Pokemon X and Y this weekend and immediately started up a new file to do a Rock type challenge run (with a bonus Vivillion because they seem cool). Final team on the first run was Gardevoir, Greninja, Snorlax, Florges, Pangoro, and an Avalugg that I got really early on from Wonder Trade as a level 1 Burmite. They were all over-leveled due to Exp Share (especially Avalugg) so I tried to do a no healing run of the E4 until I got to the Steel guy who wrecked my team pretty bad. Overall, it's easily the best pokemon game to date. There's just so much stuff to do both for casual players (character customization, pokemon amie) and more hard core competitive players (super training and breeding changes). There may not be as many new pokemon, but the new ones are well designed and almost all of them are usable in some way.

The plot is the usual dumb pokemon fair, but the game is really pretty. In particular I love how ridiculous the E4 is and there's a huge variety in the environments. Overall the visual design blows the other pokemon games out of the water. The online stuff is pretty cool too. Wonder trade is a great feature and great to see what you can get. Sometimes you only get a Pikachu or Weedle, and sometimes you get a starter that someone was breeding that didn't have the exact nature they wanted. Just really good stuff overall.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on October 22, 2013, 11:17:07 PM
Pokeymans Why - Completed.  Due to the exp share, I shifted a group of 9 main pokemon to use.  The 6th slot was usually HM Slave Lapras or some random thing with Fly.

The strongest trainer in the game was Team Flare's boss and his Mega Gyarados.  Got nearly swept until I landed a crit Sucker Punch.  My Yveltal had complete ass stats and the worst nature (-spatk +spdef).  While you're given a large variety of pokemon to use, electric types are not one of them.  You had Pikachu (bad), Plusie/Minun (lol), Heliolisk (requires Sunstone, never found one), Dedenne (really lol).  I had a Magneton but everything and their mom packs Earthquake endgame.  Looking back I think Jolteon is your best bet.  Thankfully, I got Zapdos as my legendary bird for postgame.

Overall team:

Starter - Delphox (Flamethrower, Psyshock, Grass Knot, Shadow Ball) - reminds me of Alakazam only with fire STAB and a rather shallow movepool (what you see is pretty much what you want 90% of the time).  It kind of sucks in the midgame where its only good move is Ember if you decide to focus on developing its special attack. 

Butterfree: Hey, buffed Spatk!  Otherwise I used it for status junk and Infestation cause that move sounds cool (it's not). I kept it around until level 37 when it's stats were not cutting it anymore.  I still used it to steal infinite heart scales from Luvdiscs.

(Mega) Venusaur (Petal Dance, Substitute, Leech Seed, Synthesis): My token tank of the group.  When I saw it's -spatk nature, I decided to train it to tank things with Leech seed.  Mega Venusaur loses its ice/fire weakness so it can tank even more.  I had a lot of things to destroy grass types so it was designed to take out everything else.

Talonflame (Acrobatics, Flare Blitz, Swords Dance, Steel Wing): Baby Ho'oh.  Really fast and if it survives after one swords dance it was able to sweep everything except ground types (that always seem to have Stone Edge, go figure).  This and Butterfree were used to fight in sky battles. 

Toxicroak (Sucker Punch, Brick Break, Poison Jab, Bulk Up): How do you beat a Disco Ninja Frog? (Greninja) With a Poizn Karate Frog.  Dry skin and dark resistance made Callum's starter cry.  Fairy types show up often and this filled out my Fighting/Poison requirement well.  Was the MVP for taking out the mega gyarados with hax.

Aegislash (Iron Head, Kings Shield, Sacred Sword, Shadow Claw):  Probably the most interesting pokemon ever developed.  It can swap to 150 attack or 150 defense forms at will, has a strong defensive typing (I'm pretty sure the nerfs to steel resisting ghost and dark was because of this pokemon) and decent movepool.  Even though the Dusk stone is pretty late in the game,  Eviloile makes its second evolution still pretty tanky and still has a solid 100 base attack.

Krookodile (Earthquake, Crunch, Rock Slide, Outrage):  STAB Earthquake and Crunch, Intimidate helps its shaky defense and it's still a crocodile that wears shades.

Tyrantrum (Earthquake, Head Smash, Crunch, Dragon Claw):  Really unimpressive for something that's a giant rocky T-rex.  It's special ability lets it get STAB bonuses on bite attacks like crunch, thunder fang etc but its still really slow, low special defense and still weak to the overpowered Earthquake.

Sylveon (Shadow Ball, Moonblast, Calm Mind, Draining Kiss):  Has a movepool that rivals Flareon, but draining kiss with a big root gave it some solid lasting power.  Completely dies to any physical damage though.

Azumarill (Aqua Tail, Play Rough, Surf, Strength): Kind of a semi-HM slave.  I used it because it's new fairy typing made the name "SAAAge" more appropriate.

---

Now that Gamefreak finally made a giant step in improving the aesthetics of the series, I'm interested in seeing their third version how it can further improve techical aspects or see if they can add a challenge mode similar to BW2 only make it available from the start.  The Elite Four should be using 6 pokemon and gym leaders 4-6. 

Team Fenrir is no Team Meeple but they still have a lot of swag.  I heard their objectives are different in X but in Y they didn't seem to do anything extremely silly (RAISE THE LAND).  The thing with the giant guy was dramatically out of place for a pokemon game and an excuse to add cutscenes omg.  The one thing that will blow your fucking mind is that in the ice sliding puzzles you can slide DIAGONALLY.  That's almost blew my mind as much has Stick Farfetch'd will now crit 100% of the time with moves like Slash.  Time for ubers.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on October 23, 2013, 05:11:23 AM
Pokemon X: Xerneas get, it is Rash nature.  Sylveon, I like you and all, but the Christmas Deer Demands a Sacrifice!!!

...by which I mean it's going into my box so I can clear up space in my party, what, you thought I was going to sacrifice Sylveon?  I'm not that evil!


Last Story: So Jiral supposedly was behind the assassination, and all the info to prove it was right on his desk and blatantly in front of us.  THIS DOES NOT SEEM SUSPICIOUS AT ALL!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on October 23, 2013, 10:50:58 AM
Disgaea D2: beaten, trades 90% humor for better gameplay. Given where I'm posting this this is clearly a super winning trade but I want something funny

Disgaea 4: hard-hitting political commentary from NISA, much better. I think the first two chapters are funnier than all of DD2
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on October 24, 2013, 04:45:19 PM
DmC Vergil's Downfall: Almost done with this. Vergil plays pretty well once you get all his styles - close enough to his DMC3 version that it flows naturally, but with a bunch of new moves. He's pared down to pretty much just his Yamato and Summoned Swords moves, though, which is annoying - rather than giving him new weapons for his Angel and Demon styles it's just different katana attacks. Plus, the DLC is short - six stages, including one that's just a boss, without much enemy variety and all with the same visual style. No cool stage transformations or THEY LIVE writing on the walls, either. Booo to that.

Luckily I'm playing the PC version, so there's a hack to put Vergil into the Bloody Palace. He plays well but I can't see going through those few levels over and over through all the higher difficulties.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 24, 2013, 06:52:41 PM
WoW: Magic has been helping me gear up. =)

The Wolf Among Us Ep. 1: Bought this on a whim + Sopko respect. Pretty good. Telltale needs to learn to optimize, though. Some of the loadtimes/skipping were amazingly obnoxious.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 24, 2013, 08:03:53 PM
ToX: I beat Jude's EPIC ONE-ON-ONE DUEL using nothing but Assault Step as my damage.  That was fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on October 24, 2013, 08:44:25 PM
ToX: I admit it, I am the consumerism whore and bought costume DLC. /negative man

At least they worth every penny spent.
The Star Driver costumes are hilarious. Past character outfits are good with the battle BGM change. Dhaos costume pretty much is the best costume for having Resolution as the battle BGM.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on October 24, 2013, 09:00:57 PM
If only the Star Driver outfits changed the battle music to Monochrome
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 24, 2013, 09:53:40 PM
US doesn't get Star Driver.  And I totally would have purchased every single piece.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on October 25, 2013, 02:28:08 AM
WoW: Magic has been helping me gear up. =)

You got told where the Timeless Isle was?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Magic Fanatic on October 25, 2013, 06:11:00 AM
You got told where the Timeless Isle was?

That and then some, actually.  I'll often kidnap him for helping him build up his gear and whatnot.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on October 25, 2013, 10:47:30 AM
Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, episodes 2-4:

So yeah, I played all of these this week (and a bit of last?). They are short. They kinda remind me a bit of what I like about Disgaea in that they have this 'refuge in audicity' kind of writing and humor-style, but actual serious shit happens sometimes, despite it not usually getting taken all that seriously. It's a fun balancing act to watch and the overwrought writing style of PA works pretty well at telling a JRPG-style over-the-top plot.

Gameplay is a different story: It is pretty unambiguously awesome and since the games are short, it doesn't really overstay its welcome. Well, for episodes 3 and 4 anyway. Zeboyd games does good work and they are getting increasingly better at it as they get bigger budgets. I keep worrying that they are going to hit critical mass at some point, but maybe we'll get a few more gems out of them before that happens? I'm really looking forward to the new Zeboyd Phantasy Star game.

tl;dr: all the good design choices of Cthulhu, but with more polish and a completed script by a more practiced writer!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on October 25, 2013, 05:43:56 PM
Pokemon X beaten. Mono-Fairy was a suitably amusing gimmick for a playthrough, and with trainer customization I made a few suitable outfits to go with the theme. The earlygame was a bit rough due to limited STAB options and some not so great Pokemon, but eventually the strengths of the typing, dual types (Water, Psychic, and Steel) that helped cover its weaknesses, and an overpowered cover legendary made for a smooth ride. Lack of a maingame Fly user was the biggest nuisance, I had to resort pull out an HM slave Farfetch'd anytime I needed to backtrack. About two-thirds of the way in I figured out how to request something I hadn't seen yet in GTS, but despite getting a Togepi this way eventually I opted not to use it until post-E4 to maintain the normal game experience.

Final team was 66/67, the Exp share having been turned off around gym 5. (Edit: Had a brainfart on my levels earlier, somehow)

Azumarill: Useless at first due to being stuck with Bubble and other special Water attacks, Return and Bulldoze from PokeParis made it a wrecking ball and my first legitimately good Fairy type. Annoyingly it evolved too late to get Aqua Tail by level, so I had to wait until the relearner for physical Water STAB; this ended up mattering surprisingly little, though. As my highest levelled team member up until I turned off the Exp Share I almost never used it in boss battles, and Return/Bulldoze/Bubblebeam was enough to OHKO every random I pulled out Marill/Azumarill for. Aqua Tail (later Waterfall)/Play Rough/Superpower made for a great lategame moveset with room for an extra HM move. Steel neutrality, STAB Water moves, and Superpower made it my best lategame counter to Steel types, an obviously important role for a mono-Fairy type.

Gardevoir: Earlygame is basically unchanged, midgame is worse due to Psychic getting pushed back from L26 in RSE to L40 now, but the lategame is far better with a second STAB type and a better set of resists. Dark neutrality and hitting Darks SE with Dazzling Gleam/Moonblast are huge improvements, while the STAB Psychic attacks for OHKOing Poisons were welcome for this particular team, although it doesn't like actually switching into Poison attacks. Psychic/Moonblast/Thunderbolt/Calm Mind was what I mostly ran lategame, but plenty of other options existed for those last two slots (Shadow Ball, Energy Ball, Flash, Double Team, etc.).

Swirlix/Slurpuff: An all-around statistical mediocrity, Slurpuff's saving grace is its killer movepool. TM compatibility includes the likes of Flamethrower, Surf, Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, and Psychic, making it a swiss army knife of coverage moves my other Pokemon couldn't get. Mine ran Dazzling Gleam/Flamethrower/Surf/Energy Ball lategame, providing my only Fire attack and letting Azumarill run something other than Surf in its last slot.

Sylveon: Evolves immediately if you catch an L19 Eevee, then getes Draining Kiss at L20 and Moonblast at L37. That's way better than what the Flabebe and Swirlix lines get for Fairy move progression, though apparantly not Spritzee (which isn't an option in X anyhow). Actual competence at being a Fairy type earned it a teamslot up for midgame despite the poor coverage options; it spent much of the game with a set of Draining Kiss/Moonblast, Swift, Bite, and Cut, only getting better alternatives like Hidden Power Fighting, Shadow Ball, and Psyshock late in the game. Xerneas pretty much obsoletes it completely, but with Dedenne's failures I had nothing better to replace it with, so I stuck with it through the end. Helps that I like Sylveon's design a lot more than, say, Granbull's or Mr. Mime's.

Klefki: Poison immunity is priceless for a team that generally has 5 members weak to that type, and the other Steel resists certainly don't hurt. Mega Mawile would pretty clearly outclass Klefki for the team's Steel/Fairy slot, but it is sadly only available post-E4. Compared to regular Mawile, Klefki trades Intimidate, Swords Dance, and better Steel damage for better speed and special defense, Calm Mind, and Prankster Thunderwave. At the time, I wasn't totally sure which would actually be more effective and picked Klefki mainly because I liked it design more. After seeing it successfully set up a CM sweep on the champ's Aurorus with zero item support, I felt justified in my decision. (Dazzling Gleam/Mirror Shot/Calm Mind/Thunderwave

Xerneas: 131 base SpAtk + STAB + Fairy Aura + Pixie Plate = things die to Moonblast. Geomancy isn't all that good in-game, but it OHKOs almost everything in-game that doesn't resist Fairy without setup anyhow, plus Calm Mind exists if I feel the need for a no-charge setup move. Thunderbolt and Psyshock rounded out its largely unused coverage moves.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on October 25, 2013, 09:39:06 PM
Suikoden 3 - Beat the Brass Castle war battle in chapter 5. The end is in sight.


Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem - Hard mode beaten.

My Marth got pretty badly speed-screwed so I had to give him two speed boosters to not be doubled by Medeus, who was much less pathetic in this game than he was in FESD in no small part because he lost the manakete weakness. Still got one-rounded once the bishops were out of the way, Marth 3HKOed with 100 hit, so Feena + Again Staff = three actions = victory.

Enemies get very fast late in the game. On the one hand this is kind of cool, on the other hand this pretty much just means you throw everyone into their fastest class which features a weapon they have (swordmaster, or falcon knight/paladin for lance-users, etc.). Like my first playthrough, I barely used anyone on the male reclass set B.

Peeps used with kill counts:
Luke: 94 - Good stats, hits things with swords, not much to say.
Palla: 84 - Uber. Made her my falconknight because I figured she could use the +2 speed, ended up capping there anyway.
Catria: 83 - Uber.
Caeda: 77 - Wing Spear
Chris: 74 - Got RNG screwed, so I benched her, then took her off the shelf at 14/1 to recruit Katarina, then ended up running with her anyway. At least she promoted late enough that I could have a second FK, that was cool.
Maris: 73 - Had a lot of stat boosters. Yay favouritism! After said favouritism, see Luke.
Marth: 50 - Mine got RNG screwed. Had the boots so getting exp with him wasn't painful, for all that I do wonder if I shouldn't have given them to Feena anyway.
Minerva: 28 - Used most of midgame, mostly benched late outside C21 and Final.
Sirius: 21 - See Minerva; joins earlier, benched earlier (around 12 or so). Was typically a dracoknight.
Nagi: 18 - OHKO dragons. Not a great unit otherwise, but is durable at least. A robe would help her fear Glower less. Fuck Glower, that shit's rude.
Linde: 16 - Earlygame filler, blast things with Aura/Nosferatu. Probably could have stuck it out with her but Etzel showed up so meh whatever.
Malicia: 15 - Awesome staff user, high speed meant she could kill Gharnef too, and Nosferatu tank in a pinch.
Tiki: 15 - Probably shouldn't have bothered, growth unit who I ended up benching before she hit her good chapters since Nagi is faster anyway.
Rody: 14 - Earlygame competent, ultimately didn't make the cut.
Barst: 12 - Filler pirate midgame, hit things with axes until I got Minerva.
Etzel: 11 - Can use Excalibur and staves at base, not much not to like.
Draug: 10 - Filler pirate midgame, hit things with axes until I got Barst. E rank hurt.
Darros: 7 - Filler (promoted) pirate midgame, hit things with axes until I got better units.
(gap)
Katarina: 3 - Random staff user on some later maps when I felt like having three. Also Nosferatu.
Feena: 0 - Dancer, godlike for turn allocation, Lady Sword let her defend herself somewhat though she badly needed an Angelic Robe and even then I had to watch sometimes.

Rankings were A in Speed, B in Survival (I lost Cord and Midia on their joining maps, and Radd died before I could recruit him), and B Tactics (not that people seem to know what that one means?). Most maps took a reasonable number of turns (topping out at 11) except C19 (Wolfguard recruitment) which took 13 and C3 which took 21. Fuck chapter 3, that map is so dumb. Hope you like to watch Marth walk a lot. At least it's FE's most realistic depiction of military life?!

Game had some reasonably cool maps later, they did a pretty good job with setting up enemy threat ranges in places and such. Too much Seize though. I do appreciate the FE11-onwards polish things like skipping enemy phase, skipping battle animations in the middle, dead PCs dropping their inventory into convoy, but I really miss Rescue. At least the game has a cool set of staves with nifty effects but it's not really enough. Hard was a pretty good place challenge-wise, it'll be interesting to try Maniac at some point (seems like the game has a pretty nice array of difficulty settings?). It was pretty fun but still worse than FE6-10/13 fairly clearly. Game stays at 6/10 or wherever I had it.


Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind - Played this for the first time in well over a decade. I dunno why. I have some nostalgia for the game because I played it a lot when I was younger, particularly with my young cousin who I think really loved the death animations (which are pretty funny). Felt like dusting it off and seeing how it held up I guess. Anyway it's okay. Good challenge level (the game showers you with lives, but damned if it doesn't make you feel like you need 'em), although the physics are a bit weird. Stage design's pretty good (rewards you nicely for exploring with the aforementioned lives, but you can rush through most levels instead if you'd rather), enemy design's a bit weak though (outside some of the raw visual design, such as land sharks).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on October 25, 2013, 10:20:50 PM
I believe the 'Tactics' rank in FE12 is for completionism: things like recruiting people, visiting villages, getting the true ending, etc.

Class set A>>>class set B in FE12 is a pretty universal consensus from what I can tell, it has both most of the high move classes and most of the high speed classes. This also favors female characters prior to unlocking merged class sets, since the female class set is a superset of male A both before and after promoting. Then merged sets massively favors males overall, although the good PC list still skews female thanks to Palla/Catria/Caeda hax.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on October 26, 2013, 04:21:44 PM
I guess this is technically a doublepost but it's been close to a day now so whatever.

Pokemon X:

(http://i.imgur.com/hBhaIag.png)

:)

Wish medals could still be viewed in-game, but this will have to do.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on October 26, 2013, 06:05:59 PM
Are there any Fairy-types (retypes?) that -aren't- in the Kalos pokedex? I know the Kalos dex is huge (400-something mon?), but that's still only like half the Pokemon in existence and I don't know if some of the ones that got retyped with Fairy that required trading from an older game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on October 26, 2013, 11:00:21 PM
Only one Serebii lists is Arceus, but I think that's only with Pixie Plate equipped.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on October 27, 2013, 12:55:31 AM
Togekiss and Clefable lines are retconned as well, can be potentially obtained from Friend Safari.

Whimsicott is not available at all, but one NPC uses it postgame, so you can verify its newfound Dragon immunity yourself.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: TranceHime on October 27, 2013, 02:34:49 AM
pokemon x: over 100+ hours spent in post-game, what the fuck is wrong with me

going through the painstaking effort of raising pokemon for online battles i don't really know why but i'm going to limit myself only to mons that aren't incredibly popular, i will make exceptions of course, such as excadrill.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on October 27, 2013, 05:50:01 AM
ToX: I think the most important thing I learned over the past few days is that Ilbert is one of the Six Ruling Houses of Rashugal.  :explodingpsyduck:

But in boss testing news!

Chapter 4 Jude Side:
EPIC DUEL BOSS!: Can inflict status with a decent chance.  Way too many damn moves.
IMMA ON A BOAT!: Starts out with the ability to one combo KO.  And one of those moves adds poison/TP poison.  FUN!  Inflicting Burn before using the Mystic Arte that can't kill?  ALSO FUN!
RAWR IMMA NOT A DRAGON!: Um, doesn't inflict Skill/Arteseal with stupid-high chances like the earlier form.  Mystic Arte can't KO.  But has a fairly brutal stun combo... that's 50% HP and below.  LAMER.
RAGING MIST OH YEAH: Raging Mist is stupid giant-AOE bullshit that even Jude can barely avoid.  Anyway, there's actual some semblance of durability here now.  Being able to start off with a Mystic Arte is cool beans too!  And so is spamming it after every combo when below 50% HP.
THE THRONE OF THIS WORLD: The Mystic Arte can't even seem to activate unless the Arcane Arte hits everyone.  And the Mystic is Light it looks like.  That's weird on so many levels.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meiousei on October 27, 2013, 08:24:58 AM
I’m not used to reviewing a beat game, so this is going to take a bit for me to write. Spoilers are slightly abound.

White 2: Beaten. I have to admit the music in this game is catchy, especially the three musketeer deers’ trio and Colress’s music. I normally have to say, Pokémon music does not normally interest me, but this time I liked it.

As for my challenge, I had to drop the 2 Bug, 2 Grass Challenge midway because of Skyla. I just could not beat her with the team without dying. I did manage, however, to keep the majority of my Pokémon around the same level (read: 13 of them). I also went on a Nature/Ability spree, making sure to grab the right nature for a lot of the Pokémon I wanted. As a result, I had one Legendary aiding me in the Elite Four part of Pokémon League.

Plot was…different. It was not what I was expecting in a children’s game, but even more, I felt the plot reminded me a lot of (no joke) a drama series that mother likes to watch on TV. Rival character wants to take down the villains in revenge, the villain not really WANTING to be a villain but looking for strength by fighting others. The ones that ARE bad guys just being terrible at their jobs (save for freezing ONE city and taking Pokémon). Even with the clichés, I still like the game plot (I must be a sucker for games like that) and the Shadow Triad had to save their butts several times. I actually like those people. Why can we not have a game that involves only the Shadow Triad? Anyways-

Quick shout out to Status Effects. Thank goodness you cannot die of poison while out of combat. Otherwise, I would be dead more times then I can count. In addition, Confuse Ray + Toxic combo is sick (and how I made Ninetails remain relevant).

Final team consisted of:

Serperior-
This one. This one has usually been in my party since the start. She died several times, and during the Marshal fight, she got smashed in the face with Hammer Arm (x8 times before she fainted). She held up when the going got tough though, even in light of type disadvantages, so she earned a spot in my final team. For what it was worth, using her as a tank and lead in has helped me (especially when I remember to use Coil to raise defenses). She isn't the best starter, but somehow I managed to do fine with her.
Move Set: Giga Drain, Leaf Blade, Iron Tail, Coil


Braviery- Sheer Force is making its presence known. It is how I knocked out a lot of Marshal’s and Caitlin’s Pokémon with Crush Claw / Shadow Claw spam. When equipped with Quick Claw, most of the time, it manages to destroy Pokémon thanks to the Sheer Force (which prevents status effects in lull of more damage).
Move Set: Superpower, Crush Claw, Rock Slide, Shadow Claw


Lapras-An oldie but goodie. Since I hunted down one for the better part of 2 days, the Lapras I named “Garry” has proven his worth the entire game since. Having Hydro Pump before I reached the final gym, I made it learn Thunder to make it useful for the final gym. Even after that, Lapras’s Special Defense (Sassy Nature) really did not help much when it came to enemies that unleashed Fighting- or Rock- on him. Ironically, thanks to the Rocky Helmet, I can just sit back and heal while those particular enemies suicide on him (which was my main strategy since the final gym).
Move Set: Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Thunder, Surf

Hydreigon- I kept swapping between this one and the others when it came to Shauntal and Grimsley. It’s a good thing I did, as it was a good meat shield to protect some of my other Pokémon. While it is true it was my last Pokémon to catch, (save for the Ninetails, who will be appearing a lot more in my post-game play) it is showing its worth for all work I put into leveling it. Also, it being Hasty makes it able to move fast and just burn things.
Move Set: Fire Blast, Dragon Rush, Dragon Pulse, Work Up


Mienshao-Now this one. This one is funny. She had crap for defenses, so she goes down rather quick against Pokémon who are stronger in ATK. That said, she was able to kill many of the trainers I fought since I caught her and was trying to get her defenses up. The same Pokémon that caused Serperior and Braviery to faint made her faint early on. She turned around and (once revived) dodged the attack that killed her to defeat that very same Pokémon.
Move Set: Drain Punch, Hi-Jump Kick, Rock Slide, Acrobatics


Terrakion- I was not going to use him. I only did because A) The team I was going to use was very weak to Rock, so I needed to have someone (aside from Hydreigon) that could withstand the attacks and B) The original one that was supposed to be in this slot was supposed to be Gliscor. However, it has earned its place, holding up against 3 of the 4 Elite Four members. It’s probably not going to stay in the post-game group, as I’m going to run a more “demented” team for that one.
Move Set: Rock Slide, X-Scissor, Sacred Sword, Swords Dance

Overall, this game was a lot better (to me) than Diamond. I’m very happy I was able to play this game, and I hope that Pokémon X will be as memorable, especially once I transfer my Pokémon from Diamond and White 2 over for breeding, trading, and training purposes.

I am sorry if my review kind of sucks. I am not very good at this kind of thing, since it has been a while since I wrote anything longer than a mere paragraph. I might make a second review for after-game impressions, but that depends.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 27, 2013, 02:25:39 PM
Arkham Origins: Deathstroke's pretty spry for an old guy. Captain K-approved villainy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on October 28, 2013, 05:38:37 AM
Blazblue Chrono Phantasma - Finished story mode. Time to work on Abyss Mode.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on October 28, 2013, 08:25:48 AM
Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies- Hello new PW game.

The original trilogy blurs for me, but I feel like Edgeworth>This>Trilogy>AJ more or less.  It's fairly streamlined (much less pixel hunting, in fact only about one location per case is actually searched fully, and most of your investigation is done through questioning people), and they pretty routinely mix up which lawyer you're controlling and their mechanics.  Also tells a fairly complete story but is clearly making way for a bigger story arc.  Go buy it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on October 28, 2013, 01:12:53 PM
Blue Dragon - started up a save I have at start of disc 2.  Jiro bro, I ain't saying she's a gold digger.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DALZ0zpXEL4/TK5Pj1Tpu9I/AAAAAAAABcA/C2WXNMAa1oo/s1600/kanye_shrug.png)
Shu refuses to lose at this game of vaginas.  Thanks for teaching him it Jiro.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on October 28, 2013, 06:38:22 PM
You got told where the Timeless Isle was?

That and then some, actually.  I'll often kidnap him for helping him build up his gear and whatnot.

Frankly I just ride Magic around and let him do all the work while I surf the net. Most efficient gearing method.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 28, 2013, 08:49:14 PM
AO: Copperhead wants you to know that she is very flexible. Gimmick fight where the game flat out tells you the gimmick (once you die); I ignored this and plowed through it like a regular mookswarm (except they all have knife-fingers and one of them can teleport and you are on drugs).

Also KillBane is an actual boss fight this time. Like, not just a Giant Mook that runs into walls! Design competence for the dramatic encounters on average above previous installments (although there's nothing so standout as Mr. Freeze in Arkham City yet). Flipside, game on numerous other fronts notably less polished than its predecessor, which is weird. I know, different development team and all, but still.

I have all the toys now, which pretty much means it's time for dedicated Riddler hunting.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on October 29, 2013, 02:39:07 PM
Civ 5- Been playing a lot of tiny islands maps. They are glorious unbalanced but fun- you never need to build a road or an army, just ships. You get tons of gold from all the sea tiles as well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on October 29, 2013, 09:07:13 PM
I liked trying to make an island empire in older Civs just because the idea is neat conceptually, but the games were never really balanced for it. It handicapped you too much not being able to spread the effects of all your "[X] bonus to all cities on same continent" wonders and improvements. Also Civ 2&3 (mostly what I played) were really bitchy about corruption when you built cities in far-flung locations.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on October 29, 2013, 11:58:15 PM
Tiny islands is insanely pro player. I played on immortal and found it to be about as difficult as playing Prince on a normal map. Sea tiles give food and gold and you only have to build a navy. Once you hit three range on your ships, you can take cities without getting scratched.

E: Civ 5 you rarely build wonders above emperor, the AI has too large a lead to start with tech and production for it to be viable.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on October 30, 2013, 05:12:25 AM
Well, that's not entirely true, you just have to pick & choose your Wonders.  You WILL get beaten to techs you don't beeline, but even on Immortal, you can snag a Big Ben or a Notre Dame if you priortize it enough.  Especially true if you have a good production capital and/or a Great Engineer.  So it feels more like it's supposed to be - you get SOME of the wonders but not all or even close to all.

Cid, there aren't any corruption penalties based on distance in Civ5, and no wonders or effects that care about being on the same continent.  (Okay, not entirely true, Indonesia in BNW *encourages* you to be on multiple islands / continents.)  The only trick is that rather than roads, you need Harbors to get trade routes / railroad bonuses, which can be both good & bad.  (Good if you're Carthage or in the later game, bad for the early game where the effort to build a Harbor can be substantial compared to an army of road-building Workers vomited out by the Pyramids.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on October 30, 2013, 02:11:26 PM
The Typing of the Dead: Overkill

It is The Typing of the Dead. I am playing it. The main characters sadly do not have Dreamcasts strapped to their backs. There's really not much more you can say.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on October 31, 2013, 05:43:39 AM
X:  Calem you probably shouldn't make your entire team weak to Bug.

Mr. Mime's idle animation is amazing.

This game has ridiculously easy gym trainers and ridiculously hard random trainers.  Nothing like getting your entire team soloed by 1 Hawlucha.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on October 31, 2013, 07:59:03 AM
BBCP - Abyss mode suddenly becomes a dull grindfest after I got berserker....
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 01, 2013, 12:18:50 AM
Suikoden 3 - Lost to Sarah once, despite being hit almost entirely by magical attacks (I blitzed the Azzodesses). Second time I won, just had to put in someone with Clay Guardian and also not to get MT blitzed.


Pokemon X - Fun fun. I'm up to the second gym. Glad to see this game is at least decently paced. Holy crap saving doesn't take 10 seconds, is this for real. Anyway I picked Fennekin because cuteness, and Bulbasaur because Sleep Powder/general effectiveness or something. Current team is Blaixen, Ivysaur, Fletchinder, Vivillion, Sandile, and Absol. Holy shit Absol early in the game, actually a good jeigan. Speaking of good jeigans, I just got evolved Super Steelix who I may start using. I just got to the rock gym and my team sucks agianst rock so at the very least I should push one of them out for Steelix for the moment.


Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies - Case 2 beaten! Hmm. I wasn't too big a fan of the first case in terms of plot construction, but the second was quite fun. Not a top-tier case by any means but more solid than any non-1 case in Apollo Justice so hey that's a step in the right direction. That must have been a terrible case to localise, though (and I don't think they did a great job of it, but oh well). New characters are pretty fun, my favourite is probably Fulbright who is kinda like Gumshoe with an injection of 20% more competence and 100% more JUSTICE. Athena's pretty fun as well, seems to be halfway between the "young female helper" and an actual lawyer/PC which is an odd mix and we'll see where they go with it, but it works for now. The prosecutor has a gimmick which is again mostly lost in translation but hey the hawk is awesome and I appreciate that he has far more contempt for his own weasely witnesses than he does for his proven defence attorney opponent (take notes Godot plz).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on November 01, 2013, 12:50:36 AM
DmC Vergil's Downfall: Beat! Last level was a pain in the ass until I realized how much offense Vergil gains in his Doppelganger/Devil Trigger mode. Then I stopped turtling and wiped the floor with the final boss. Unsure whether to replay this or the main game first. May leave it to Hatbot. I plan to go through both on Son of Sparda (roughly Very Hard from DMC3) and then tackle the Bloody Palace after I've got all the upgrades and moves.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on November 02, 2013, 12:51:26 PM
Borderlands 2: So I started Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt so I could fight the boss that drops this week's big Loot Hunt item. Holy shit, fuck Giant Spores forever and ever. Skullmasher isn't worth that aggravation.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 02, 2013, 08:17:50 PM
Phoenix Wright DD - Case 3! It was okay. The overall thrust of the case was kinda predictable and the unpredictable elements didn't add that much, though made for some decent enough character work. Athena has really grown on me, though; being playable brings out the best in her (but perhaps the same could be said for all AA playable characters). Blackquill continues to walk a fine line but generally pull it off.


Pokemon X - Beat the third gym! Captain K is generally right about this game, random trainers out of nowhere have been improved but gym leaders have been nerfed from previous games. It makes the game's challenge curve more consistent, which overall is probably a good thing? I miss the epic boss fights of Emerald but the game is more consistently engaging; it's a bit of a tradeoff. Did have some trouble against Korrina as I misplayed the fight once and got swept by Hone Claws x4 Flying Press.

Pokemon used recently:
Fennekin / Braixen: Currently going through a bit of a midgame slump, but not terrible or anything, the stat buid is certainly a good one.
Ivysaur: haxing the world with Sleep Powder, Leech Seed, and decent offence, especially now that poison is legit.
Absol: Oh yay they made you actually show up early. Solid jeigan, I'm probably about ready to drop him though.
Sandile: Really fragile but hits decently hard and fast. Ground is a niche I like to have though, much happier with it now that it has Dig.
Sigilyph: Great against the fighting-heavy part of the game, I'll probably ease off using it at some point since it won't evolve further and I'm planning on convering both the flying and psychic niches with other pokemon. Has Thunder Wave as well, which is nice.
Hawlucha: MVP right now, Flying Press hurts like hell, it's ridiculously fast, and has Roost. Yeah. It's a final evolution in a team of non-final evolutions.
Lucario: Just got this. Probably will be pretty close to Hawlucha level?
Lapras: Just got this. Something that can surf before I inevitably pick up Starmie.

Others used recently but probably now benched: Steelix, Fletchinder, Vivillion


Suikoden 3 - Beaten! Had one reset against the final boss because I brought out the wrong party to mess around with things, realised that Caesar immeditely vanishes and you can't change parties again without leaving the dungeon, said fuck it and gave the battle a shot anyway... might have won if the boss hadn't used nine of a possible nine actions on the first two turns, which I've never seen before. Second time, came back with a better team:

Chris (True Fire)
Hugo (True Water / Killer)
-
Emily (Killer)
Nei (Jongleur / Water / Skunk)
-
Yumi (Earth / Water)
Yuiri (Wind / Drain / Killer)
-
Jeane

Even untrained, True Water's healing was fast enough to go before the boss. It wasn't quite full untrained, but was an improvement over the Shield Rune, and Yumi tossed in extra Kindness Drops as needed (after the opening Clay Guardian) while Nei sang and physical beatdowns were administered. Didn't even end up killing the Earth Crystal.

Anyway that was pretty fun, served its intended purpose pretty well of feeling like a bit of a hard mode without being excessive (only Water Dragon caused more than one reset) and rebalanced things a bit. I actually found myself choosing to go with fire over lightning if a PC had the same natural ranks in both (i.e., +1 in fire on this challenge) and I feel the challenge I went by did a decent job of balancing the runes, though there's no saving the fact that the individual spells on the runes themselves are unbalanced compared to each other (e.g. Wind of Sleep is so much better than other wind spells that Cyclone Rune is actually worse than Wind).

edit: Mostly for my own reference, kill counts! Note that improved fire!Joker sweeping up way too many slow kills in Geddoe's chapters and rising to #2 in the kill count as a result, I was amused.

146: Chris
89: Joker
86: Cecile
84: Emily
82: Hugo
77: Geddoe
64: Queen
63: Ace
62: Sgt. Joe
61: Nash
56: Jacques
55: Percival
50: Aila
48: Juan
39: Lilly
33: Estella
32: Borus
30: Watari
27: Fubar
26: Lucia
24: Belle
24: Piccolo
22: Hallec
21: Ayame
19: Reed
19: Roland
19: Yuiri
16: Thomas
14: Wilder
13: Elaine
13: Mua
12: Fred
12: Nei
11: Leo
11: Salome
11: Yumi
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on November 02, 2013, 09:58:23 PM
Xenoblade Chronicles: Whew! Finished this! Did maybe 40% of the actual content in the game, but damn the game still feels long.

The story is long and drawn-out, but it justifies it well. It is pretty amazing.

Really, it's a 10/10 game for someone who has the time to give to it. Unlike say... Xenosaga, which only gets worse the more time you spend playing/watching/thinking about it.

It's just a bit too drawn out for my tastes, but I still highly recommend it. Despite how much I don't like long games, I -still- think it's a damn fine game, both story-wise and battle system. The exploration porn just gets a bit tedious to me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on November 02, 2013, 10:06:48 PM
Operation Togepi Breed has been a success, and I now have a whole box full of Modest Serene Grace Togepis with flawless HP/Defense/SpAtk/SpDef/Speed and Nasty Plot as an egg move to give away, not counting the parents or a hex-flawless Togepi that I'm keeping as a personal trophy.

Anyone who wants one, post your FC in the 3DS topic and then ask me for a trade when I'm online (Trainer name: Titania). I believe I have registered everyone who's already in the topic, but feel free to pester me in chat if I forgot your FC.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on November 03, 2013, 01:39:41 AM
hex-flawless Togepi that I'm keeping as a personal trophy.

...

I've spent a lot of time breeding pokemon over the years and never had more than 4 perfect stats.  Six is unreal.

Defense Grid:  Got a gold star on all the Awakening missions.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 03, 2013, 02:16:46 AM
Yay other Defense Grid players! Do you have the DLC levels/steam to compare high scores on?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on November 03, 2013, 02:30:43 AM
Destiny Knot lets you pass down 5 IVs instead of the usual 3, which makes multiple-flawless IVs exponentially easier to pass down than in past generations. That hex-flawless was "only" about a 1/192 chance with two quint-flawless parents.

More relevantly, I have about a 19% chance of getting another 31/x/31/31/31/31 Togepi from every egg, all of which are Modest thanks to Everstone and 80% of which have Serene Grace.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on November 03, 2013, 03:09:42 AM
@super, playing on Xbox, not Steam.

@hinode, all that breeding and you still haven't made a Trainer PR video?  Get your priorities straight!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 03, 2013, 03:48:01 PM
Pokemon X: Beat this a while back and did aftergame.

Final Team:
Delphox: Starter.
Blastoise: 2nd Starter, also token Mega and Surf/Waterfall user.
Aurorus: Liked the design and special ability (even if I didn't use it much)
Noivern: Gotten late but whatever.  Also my Fly user.
Xerneas: Because I felt like be a jerk, that's why
Pangoro: Kung Fu Gangster Panda!

Others used:
Hawlucha: Used for Fly before getting Noivern; can't be used in Sky Battles sadly.
Sylveon: Fairy used before Xerneas
Vivillion: Basically a Butterfree variant
Honedge: Used it briefly, considered it entire game but didn't have room.  Might use on replay

There are a number of Pokemon actually I want to use like Talonflame, Pyroar or Florges, and possibly some earlier Gen Pokemon I never used much, but can only use so much in one playthrough and there's too many good options!

The only notable flaw for XY, ignoring EXP Share because you can turn it off, to me compared to other Pokemon games is the lack of aftergame.  2 aftergame legendaries with barely a dungeon attached to them (well, Zygarde has a dungeon just one you complete most of before the aftergame) and a sole runner do kind of suck.  Also, I question why they removed the ability to check Pokemon availability based on Habitat that BW2 had; it was a nice way to check "do I have everything in this area?" before moving on, rather than having to check everything individually.

The Pokemon options in this game are nothing short of amazing.  By the time you end the first forest, you have access to 2 Birds, token 2 early game Normal types, 3 Caterpillar Pokemon, Pikachu, and the 3 Elemental Monkeys.  The game never lets up either.  Every area has a good draw of Pokemon and generally a unique build as well, so you don't get a sense of "Oh great, more of these" like you do in other games.  It's a game that really emphasizes just how many Pokemon there are by Gen 6 and tries to use its diversity to its advantage, rather than try to limit your access to it.  It blows BW2 out of the water in this regard, and BW2 did a damn good job of its Pokemon draw as is.

ON A RANDOM PET PEEVE NOTE!
 Xerneas' moveset doesn't make much sense thematically.  They talk about it being the Pokemon of Life, it has a strong association with forest and trees, and is a Fairy, thus association with the Moon...

...yet it does not learn any of Recover, Synthesis or Moonlight?  You'd think Pokemon of Life would learn a legitimate Healing move but Xerneas doesn't.  Heck, the fact that its offensively based at all is still kind of weird (dunno about you, but "Life" to me suggests it'd be more geared around "not dying" as opposed to killing.)

It also has a limited moveset for Grass moves.  Like why doesn't it get Energy Ball or Solar Beam?  It does get Grass Knot and Horn Leech, but still feels weird.

Speaking of Grass type, it has all this talk about being a tree, yet why is it not Grass/Fairy?  Honestly, I think that'd make more sense than being pure Fairy simply because it makes it an even playing field, type-wise, between it and Yveltal.  As it stands, Yveltal flat out loses to Xerneas (Fairy > Dark, Flying is neutral), type wise.  If Xerneas was Grass/Fairy, that'd make Xerneas' Fairy type beating Yveltal's Dark type offset by the Flying > Grass advantage.  Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I do feel it would have fit rather well (and Grass/Fairy is not a common typing, while we already have a number of Pure Fairies.  I think the only confirmed Grass/Fairy at the moment is Whimiscott?)

Ok, that's off my chest.  Dunno what I rate it; 8/10 at least.  I suspect Z-Version will improve upon everything because, well, when has the 3rd version in the series NOT done this (shut up Yellow version)?   This game already has a pretty damn strong argument for being the best game in the series, which makes me even more excited for the inevitable 3rd version as a result. 

NOW ONTO ANOTHER GAME!

Last Story: If you're expecting a major rant on this like you got with Xenoblade because Operation Rainfall game...WELL TOUGH! These two games have nothing to do with one another and just happened to suffer a similar fate because Nintendo of America are a bunch of jerks, and in the end all this means is a lot of Brittish Voice Acting and terminology/spelling in the dialog! Ok, that last part isn't a bad thing, at least in the Voice Acting part (the spelling part just leads to a number of "wait did they spell that wrong? ...oh, right, English Spelling =/= American Spelling" moments)

Anyway, game's decent enough, but wouldn't say its spectacular.  It's definitely a story and character work game above all else.  I wouldn't say the story is SUPER ORIGINAL, but it definitely felt fresh enough and not completely cliched either (even Arganan's being evil wasn't played entirely cliched.   Yes, you could see it coming a mile away, but the game doesn't really turn him into an antagonistic character outside of a brief stretch that gets interrupted by RANDOM GURAK ATTACK, and comes off more as an example for what Zael doesn't want to be. .)  Character work is really good just due to all the moments the game gives them to interact, between talking to party members during down-time, their mid-mission arguing/discussions/whatever, and all that.  Syrenne and Lowell easily have the most character of anyone in the game, between Syrenne being "A man in a woman's body" and Lowell being the narcissistic, self-centered lady's man with a heart of silver. 

Some funny gag moments with every character happens here and there; one that sticks out to me is when Mirania shouted "Let's blow them all up!" or something along those lines, and the party reacted more or less how the player would to that statement.

Also give props to Therius for not being quite what I expected.  He's introduced more or less as the SHONEN RIVAL, and ends up...not really being that.  Superiority complex over Zael, but gains respect for him over time, and for once its not because of strength but because of character.  The whole duel thing came off as a friendly competition and nothing more.  IOWs, they made a Bishie Rival character who subverts the tropes in general.  No real hatred for Zael, gains respect through means other than "This guy is strong!", and never actually stands in his way; at most he's more un-supportive and that's only early on.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT PLOT! Gameplay is...eh.  A little too gimmicky I guess.  Straight up fights are too easy, gimmick fights can get annoying because it's got the Zelda issue of "figure out what to do once, you know how to win and it's just a case of doing it 3 to 4 more times and win!"  Final Boss fight pissed me off because he had OHKO damage in a game where you have limited Resurrection, even when guarding.  Worse yet, my first fight with him I got him down to like a pixel and one more volley of spells by everyone (and Syrenne had a Shadow Stitch ready) would have killed him, but he got the hit in RIGHT BEFORE everyone shot it, and I had to redo all 3 forms (lost the 2nd time due to screwing up a lot in the first 2 forms, mostly Syrenne losing a lot of lives.)

Game is about 6-7/10 for me.  It's decent enough, but nothing amazing.  It's also short so it doesn't overstay its welcome, which is good seeing as it's a plot/character game more than anything else.  Oh and it is TOTALLY a rip off of Final Fantasy in every sense of the word! Except no it isn't...at all...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 03, 2013, 04:07:26 PM
@super, playing on Xbox, not Steam.

@hinode, all that breeding and you still haven't made a Trainer PR video?  Get your priorities straight!


Aww. Defense Grid 2 isn't coming out on the 360, I don't think. Anyway, DG is a ton of fun- have you managed to gold all the Awakening missions?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on November 03, 2013, 05:28:41 PM
re: Last Story

Definitely an above-average game for the reasons you mentioned, Meeple. The only reason I brought up 'Final Fantasy rip-off' was because there are definitely some endgame sequences that feel like they were written by someone who worshipped FF4 as the ur-RPG and needed to rebundle its all of its tropes in the last hour of the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 03, 2013, 06:51:07 PM
Actually, I wasn't thinking about you when I said the "FF Rip Off" thing; it's just a general mockery the game gets because of it's name + Sakaguchi (someone else in chat did accuse the game of being so, before I even started it, though several jumped on them indicating the name is where the similarities end)

That said, I don't see how TLS is FF4esque.  The last minute reveal I guess has parallels but only in the sense of main's best friend betrays because he's a total douche due to inner feelings he has kept held up the entire time.  Thing is, that parallel is kind of surface level only; the reasons and motives of the character in question and execution are completely different.  After all Dagran was sincere in his reasons for going against Zael.  He did it because that's how he really felt and Zael had reached a point of standing in his way that he eventually had to take him down and Zael also held the other half he needed for ABSOLUTE POWER!  Meanwhile, Kain is just lusting over a girl (oh yeah, that's another thing; Dagran was corrupt political idealism, Kain was just dickish jealousy) who is sleeping with his best friend AND had to be mind controlled in order to betray said friend

I don't see all the big tropes you're talking about popping up in the end.  The Final Boss was a twist, after-all (I was expecting Dagran to show up in the fight with Zangurak, being all FRIENDS STICK TOGETHER type thing.  Heck, he blatantly holds back from killing Zael earlier in the game in a way that suggests he doesn't have the guts to kill his best friend.), Zangurak was trope-tastic the entire way through, so this is not something they're pulling in the end game, and everything about Zangurak from start to finish, with his limited screen-time, is basically "The dude wants to kill all humans, we will spare you boring cliched rants by giving him limited screen time, only enough to get the point across that he is super strong and thus a threat!"

So really, I don't see what the last hour does that is massively tropetastic that the rest of the game didn't.  In fact, I was expecting the final boss to be The Outsider given all the hype behind it, and how these MYSTERIOUS GOD characters are regularly final bosses, yet the end of the game is more you saving the deity in question.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on November 05, 2013, 03:17:06 AM
Actually, I wasn't thinking about you when I said the "FF Rip Off" thing; it's just a general mockery the game gets because of it's name + Sakaguchi (someone else in chat did accuse the game of being so, before I even started it, though several jumped on them indicating the name is where the similarities end)

That said, I don't see how TLS is FF4esque. Thing is, that parallel is kind of surface level only; the reasons and motives of the character in question and execution are completely different.

Actually, I agree with you! I don't really feel like it's a "Rip-off" and was just kinda casually using the phrase. I felt like there were a few important scenes towards the end that just kinda had an FF4 flavor to them, repackaged. You say it well yourself: The parallel is kind of surface-level, but that's what stood out and amused me. It kinda felt like they were almost trying to say "look, this trope doesn't have to suck! F*ck you, FF4 :)"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 05, 2013, 05:42:04 AM
Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies: Beaten! Man, that final case. Good stuff.

Very solid game overall. Not a single bad case in the bunch; only the second game in the series I'm willing to say that about (first being JFA). Nothing great until the end and even then it's not flawless or anything. Still, overall, really good, how the fuck am I only the second DLer to play this go out and play it guys.

All the major characters are good. The new ones work really well. Athena's a lot of fun and the final case kinda highlights how much better she is than Maya etc., even when she is a defendant she manages to be capable and some nice character work there, this was by far the best "character thinks she murdered as a child" arc the series has ever tried. Simon has a personality kinda reminiscent of Godot but isn't an asshole and has character work that doesn't make me want to punch a wall. Phoenix, Apollo, and the Judge are their classic selves, which is good. Fulbright is pretty great! And a couple more... Edgeworth cameo isn't strictly -necessary- for the game but they handled it well and his role made a lot of sense with the game's themes. Pearl... is Pearl, gratuitous cameo but a Fey one was needed by now, although her new design feels kinda lazy; I have trouble buying her as 17.

Other stuff, mostly spoilers:
I was a bit disappointed with how predictable most of the killers were, and I also thought the gameplay was a bit too handholdy/easy until near the end, but I guess the latter in particular is just a consequence of being a veteran of the series. It'd be nice if there was a less handholdy hard mode, though. The former issue is somewhat a consequence of the rather limited number of supporting characters in each case, many of which could be easily dismissed as suspects. Of course the last case does turn this on its head! The game does have a few long sections without much gameplay, I felt, but it's hard for me to care too much when the series ultimately isn't about gameplay and the plot generally had me hooked during those sections. The game also may dial the drama/over-tthe-top factor a bit higher than I'd like, although this is really to be expected in PW... felt like they pushed it extra far this time? Breakdown animations were completely ridiculous and even non-evils had them (e.g Starbuck), some of the ridculous cheesy plot twists were ridiculous and cheesy (hey, BOTH of Juniper's friends have crazy secrets!), and a pivotal moment in the game's plot involves a bunch of killer robots holding people hostage. I don't really dock the game too many points for this, it is what it is though I don't think it would be my first choice.

I touched on the major characters already; my favourite case-specific characters were probably Mayor Tenma (caw-caw-caw!), Robin (hey despite previous comments I liked this plot twist / transformation), and Aura (kinda evil but fun anyway). Some comment along the lines of "LGBT? In MY Ace Attorney?" goes here.

Case ranking: (4 and 5) > 2 >= 3 > 1. Can't really separate 4 and 5, I actually don't think the game should have done so since you are primarily focused on the same murder throughout.


edit: Oh yeah, music in this game is certainly the best in the series save (probably?) AAI, definitely something I think the games have gotten better at of late.

Final verdict? Not sure. Probably a bit below 2 and AAI for me, but has a decent case to be the next best in the series... it versus 1 vs. 3 could depend on my mood (i.e. ask me when I'm more than a couple hours from finishing it). Not sure what that makes this score wise. 8/10? I'll think about it.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on November 05, 2013, 04:15:00 PM
DmC: Son of Sparda, Dante's game. Mostly smooth sailing so far. Had a few resets on each of the boss fights thus far -- Hunter in the first level has a few attack patterns I didn't see the first time out, and Succubus knocked me off the platform, which eats a ton of health. Also, Butchers (the things with buzzsaws for hands) are assholes. SOS extends their combos, so I have to re-learn all the attack patterns or I get my face ripped off when I try to dodge twice and then counterattack, against a combo that's four hits long now.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 06, 2013, 11:24:47 PM
CSTW- Just finished Dacre's dungeon. This game is.... okay. It's BoD7 with a slightly tweaked battle system, but not by enough to really hook me. Writing is good when it's there, which it mostly hasn't been.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on November 06, 2013, 11:47:53 PM
(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/12/15/article-1095069-025A1DD9000005DC-172_468x286.jpg)

Subtle.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 07, 2013, 12:53:15 AM
You lost me there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on November 07, 2013, 01:43:24 AM
I think he may be referring to CStW's style of humor?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on November 07, 2013, 02:19:15 AM
I would claim I was being subtle, but I legit just hit reply to the wrong Super post.

Payday 2 - Shitty Halloween event got extended.  Still playing anyway, still fun even with shitty enemies.  Devs apparently like the Headless Bulldozers and are contemplating finding a way to emulate them in normal gameplay.

They may be okay if they weren't just extra spawns but as is getting gangbanged by Shield dudes too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 07, 2013, 02:52:00 AM
Giga Bowser RPG: Just punched Wiggler in the face...a lot...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 07, 2013, 03:45:56 AM
Punching things in the face a lot is Bowser's self-assigned job! That and lighting things on fire. Including his allies. Especially his allies.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 07, 2013, 04:54:08 AM
Well, I figured that part out!  It is, however, important to note the last significant thing I recently punched in the face so people have an idea of where I am in the game though!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 07, 2013, 05:49:29 AM
CSTW- Final dungeon. Using Umi/Sharpe/October. Randoms get real freaking nasty in the volcano and onward, bosses have kind of lost impact. Been running Umi for Flood, Umi/October are using Void to handle randoms. Sharpe has okay MT damage (500~) but I have him in for bosses. Dacre/Ember both look pretty scrubby, Paws is okay but lacks damage.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on November 07, 2013, 07:10:09 AM
Pokemon XY - 6 Gyms down. Using Chesnaught, Blazy, and Blastoise :)

Civ V - Just beat Prince mode with Augustus.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 07, 2013, 09:51:32 PM
CSTW- Finished. It's a slightly remixed version of breath of death. I conceptually love the games, but in spite being short they drag a little. The almost complete lack of plot hurts- the writing that's there is very good, but the actual plot is obviously a joke. It's a quality product though. Donno what I'm playing next.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on November 08, 2013, 01:50:42 AM
If you want something "Like CSTW, but with a plot", you really should try out PA3. It has a lot more consistent writing and yet a similar playtime and even tighter balance in gameplay.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on November 08, 2013, 03:34:15 AM
CSTW- Finished. It's a slightly remixed version of breath of death. I conceptually love the games, but in spite being short they drag a little. The almost complete lack of plot hurts- the writing that's there is very good, but the actual plot is obviously a joke. It's a quality product though. Donno what I'm playing next.

You should go for MK 2 now!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 10, 2013, 03:17:17 PM
Pokéymanz Y - Beat third gym! And I have a L39 Greninja and a L34 Pangoro HAVING JUST BEAT THIS GYM. I'm turning the damn Exp. Share off.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 11, 2013, 12:13:59 AM
Using the Exp Share and sticking with a single party is so cruel.

Pokemon X - Beat up Team Flare a lot and got my uber. My team is Delphox, Venusaur, Starmie, Hawlucha, Krookodile, and Eviolite!Haunter. Mostly around Level 49-50. The game is fun and definitely one of the best Pokemon games; fast-paced and much more emphasis consistent competence out of enemy trainers instead of bosses being good and everything else being a sea of suck. Obviously you need to avoid the aforementioned cruel situation above if you want the game to put up any fight, but I think the design they went with can work for any number of playstyles. I was expecting to hate on the game for the new Exp Share but on reflection it's actually a big positive.

And obviously things like the better animations do a great deal for the game. Skipping a gen probably makes this much more pronounced. So much faster-paced than Diamond, too! This game kinda drives home how Diamond was bleh.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 11, 2013, 12:37:03 AM
I've even been rotating a lot! Problem is I never took out froggie and panda because um yeah. So, you see what happens there. Also, it's pretty telling that trainers and randoms STILL put up a fight against the high-levelled folks, so I haven't experienced the game being retardedly easy (but I also used underlevelled people a bunch), and enemy levels are oddly high as it stands anyway. I may put Greninja and Pangoro in a box later, but I'm keeping 'em as panic buttons for now, since my whole party is overlevelled (comprised of Greninja/Pangoro/Sylveon/Heliolisk/Sigilyph/Amaura). I wanted to get a more interesting Fairy type (and my Sylveon lacks Draining Kiss, so the suck is strong), but oh well. On the other hand, I expected Amaura to be trashy, but it's oddly useful.

EDIT: Also, until it evolves, Helioptile fucking suuuuuuuuuuuuucks.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on November 11, 2013, 08:24:34 AM
Pokemon Y - Just caught my Uber. Lysandre is hilarious.

Using Blaziken, Meowstic, Heliolisk, Durant, Chesnaught, and Umbreon. I'd never used Umby before so I decided why not and the others are all cool Pokemons I'd never used before.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 11, 2013, 05:05:43 PM
EXP Share kind of needs to be turned off if you do not want to steam roll things; I turned it off late (Gym 6 or so), and levels did end up lower than the E4 at least by the end!  I think of the EXP Share as a difficulty modifier of sorts rather than a feature.  Game letting you turn it off whenever you want to me makes it, at worst, a poorly implemented object that you ignore, rather than a legitimate flaw. 

Think of it as analog to things like FF9 Tetra Master, where in if you don't like the feature, ignore it and pretend it's not there; game does not penalize you for this.

Elfboy, fwiw, Gen 5's battle speed is about even with HGSS (which is a significant improvement to DP; sounds like Platinum is about the same.)  It does, however, do a few things that speed the game up in general.  The one that comes to mind is weather; it will only show the weather effect the turn it is activated, then have a symbol in the corner reminding you what weather is activated when selecting commands, so you don't have to go through "Rain Continues To Fall!" *animation* every turn.  XY naturally did something similar.

But yeah, XY is one of the faster Pokemon games, even though it sounds like it should be one of the slower ones.  Gamefreak really did a good job in that regard.


Giga Bowser RPG:  So I had a bunch of useless plumbers beat up a Bug/Fairy type Caterpillar by abusing some ruler mechanic!  Also our hero punched a giant tower mech a bunch of times.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 11, 2013, 05:22:02 PM
I think Pokémon Y battles move faster than Platinum. It's -really- impressive, they did a great job streamlining animations and shit. Map navigation's also very notably faster.

EDIT: Also, I -like- the Exp. Share. It's just broken as fuck, but it's inevitably very useful and viabilizes a much looser poké rotation (streamlining further the Pokémon swap would close the deal for good, but eh). I've been rotating 2/3s of my party since the game's beginning and haven't felt remotely stressed about it. Honestly, I feel the game is -improved- by its existence, though it certainly can be perfected.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on November 11, 2013, 06:01:50 PM
So I just got my copy of Guided Fate Paradox. It is less "zany" than Disgaea D2, but I'm gonna go ahead and say that it's got a better story going on. The art is apparently done by the artist who made Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and the main character is basically Kyon. Depending upon your opinion of these things, it's either the best NIS story, or the worst.

Gameplay is basically ripped wholesale from ZHP if you've ever played that, but with a few quality-of-life upgrades and a "partner character" with variable AI you can customize. So far a great roguelike as of the beginning of Chapter 4.

Your main character suddenly becomes God and learns he has to grant the prayers of those who believe in him. The best part was granting the prayer of zombie.

Oddly enough, it was a pretty serious moment.  :'(
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 11, 2013, 06:27:03 PM
I think Pokémon Y battles move faster than Platinum. It's -really- impressive, they did a great job streamlining animations and shit. Map navigation's also very notably faster.

EDIT: Also, I -like- the Exp. Share. It's just broken as fuck, but it's inevitably very useful and viabilizes a much looser poké rotation (streamlining further the Pokémon swap would close the deal for good, but eh). I've been rotating 2/3s of my party since the game's beginning and haven't felt remotely stressed about it. Honestly, I feel the game is -improved- by its existence, though it certainly can be perfected.


Oh, I'm not saying EXP Share is bad; overall I agree with you.  All I'm saying is at worst it's a feature you turn off and ignore, as though it was never there.  When that is the worst case scenario, that's generally a good thing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 11, 2013, 09:47:15 PM
So, uh, just got Star Ocean 4 through le mail. Do I keep busting through PokéYmanz or do I give in to ADHD?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 11, 2013, 10:23:19 PM
The only correct solution is to play both.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 11, 2013, 10:27:12 PM
You take me for someone who has far more free time and gaming focus than I have.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on November 11, 2013, 10:38:02 PM
Cult of the New is the only way to live.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on November 11, 2013, 11:57:38 PM
Arkham Origins: Oh right, I finished this. It is good but it is no Arkham City. There's a few things holding it back here. Arguably some stuff is neater mechanically, but as an overall experience it leaves less of an impression. The last boss is a predator battle, for example? Which is a novel thing for the series and therefore neat. It was aptly compared by my brother to the Mr. Freeze fight in Arkham City, albeit, "More tense but less memorable." I would extend that description to the boss fights in general here. They probably do a better job of engaging you in the core combat of the system (something Arkham Asylum barely even tried to do, and which Arkham City still struggled a little with) at the general cost of style points.

Creatively the development team is just a couple notches below Rocksteady. There's no encounter with the flair of AA Scarecrow sequences, no exploration as engaging as spelunking through forgotten Victorian Gotham or scaling externally Wonder Tower in AC. Still a fun thing to play if you like the core gameplay of its predecessors, just lacks some of their flair. Various plaudits and unfortunate disclaimers:

-Series continues to do a good job of exploiting even the most obscure corners of the extensive Batman rogues' gallery.

-Batman is still irrevocably tuned in to KMOOK, but at least this time there's no bitch bitch bitch (not literally; only figuratively).

-As far as plot twists go, I was somehow more impressed by AC's it WASN'T the Joker all along than by AO's it WAS the Joker all along! I'd never deny he's an effective villain, and Not!Hamill puts in a creditable effort (the recognition of Batman as "Finally, someone as crazy as I am," is pretty great), but does he have to steal the show every time? I will grant that the Jokervision sequence was stellar, though. It's very easy to believe that his brain genuinely does visually perceive Batman as a ghastly bat-demon.

-Beating the crap out of the Joker to the Carol of the Bells is pretty fantastic.

-It's a little buggy. I encountered some awful lag in a couple cutscenes, occasional loading issues, one time genuinely had to restart it when it just locked up, and once after I fell in a pit the game reset an elevator which effectively forced me to exit the entire zone to get it in the proper position again. On a meta level it amuses me that a rendition of Batman's earlier adventures, when he still didn't trust anyone and made some simple mistakes, is accordingly less polished itself, although I am sure this was not deliberate.

~

Disgaea D2: Oh right, I played this too. I was in the market for something colorful and silly after the gloom of the Batmans. It is more Disgaea. You know what you're getting into by this point. Game weirdly pretends neither of Disgaea 1's endings really happened. Flonne is alive and not a flower, but Laharl is not a prinny. No mention of this discrepancy is ever made. Whatever dudes, we've got grinding to do.

So guys the antagonist in this N1 game is an emo wanker. We're all very shocked, right? He's also a cheap piece of shit chained onto another battle, and I'm glad I was already overlevelled by the time I got there (I still died once; too zonked the first attempt to check beforehand and notice he had eight movement paired with six-range AOE techs. Whoops!)

Aftergame stuff looms, I dunno how much of it I'll bother with. At the very least I will probably hit up the Disgaea 4 mission just so I can spend some time hanging out with a superior cast.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on November 12, 2013, 09:39:30 AM
AC4- I really enjoy this game. After the AC3 story of moving between large set pieces and chasing the narrative, AC4's story is a big improvement that focuses less on historical events, which AC3 went overboard with, and more having a story that emphasizes the main character's freewheeling and individualist nature, and in turn, encourages you to do the shitload of extra stuff, like hunting the rare white jaguar or diving to shipwrecks for treasure.

Also you get a pirate ship and a pretty swag outfit so that's cool.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on November 14, 2013, 09:27:11 PM
Disgaea D2: Oh right, I played this too. I was in the market for something colorful and silly after the gloom of the Batmans. It is more Disgaea. You know what you're getting into by this point. Game weirdly pretends neither of Disgaea 1's endings really happened. Flonne is alive and not a flower, but Laharl is not a prinny. No mention of this discrepancy is ever made. Whatever dudes, we've got grinding to do.

Eh? You did not get Disgaea1's good end?
The main Disgaea games all took place after the D1's good end.
Prinny series are the ones that takes place after the normal end.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on November 14, 2013, 10:25:04 PM
Got Metal Gear Revengeance free with PS+ then Vanquish for 4€. I win. Some of the best games of the gen.
Bayonetta just didn't look that great to me but I might have to get it at one point too. Also any upcoming game from the guy not on the Wii U (so basically no game)

Anyway I'm kinda stuck against the MGR final boss (trying not to use health items) and two missions in Vanquish.

I thought I could differentiate good camp from bad camp easily but MGR has blurred the lines?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on November 14, 2013, 10:54:14 PM
If you like MGR then I think you will actually dig Bayonetta.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on November 14, 2013, 11:26:27 PM
I'm not a huge DMC fan is the thing, and Bayonetta sounded closer to that.
MGR kept things more simple (only two attack buttons, no major focus on combos at all), added more variety, and was better as a result I found.

Anarchy Reigns is also a thing I guess.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on November 15, 2013, 12:30:16 AM
Bayonetta is from the same developer as MGR.  From memory it is only two buttons?  Your combos are just a mix of those buttons and less involved than DMC from my limited experience with DMC.  Mileage may vary because my experience with Bayonetta is only on Easy as fuck (dem plat trophies) and MGRR is only by rep, but there seems to be a huge overlap in the fanbase.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on November 15, 2013, 01:23:20 AM
As I understood basically kinda the same dudes made the first REs, DMC, Bayonetta, Vanquish, MGR, Okami, God Hand, Wonderful 101? Or at least, if they don't exactly work on the same games, the "spirit"'s still there, just like these Suda games in which Suda acts as Dude Who Appears In The Credits But Does Nothing.


Okami is super boring. God Hand and DMC are definitely fun but they're focused on mastering a lot of slightly different attacks which isn't really my thing (also why I can't get into fighters) so I wasn't actively seeking that list of games. Vanquish and MGR are the shit though.

Anyway I beat MGR, looking forward to trying this again on Hard and unlocking a ton of stuff.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 15, 2013, 03:05:23 AM
Pokemon X - Beat. Levels around 57-59 at the very end (a level lower before starting the E4), that's largely with one party and no Exp Share and is about what the game feels balanced for. I didn't have too much trouble with the E4.. or even the final boss really until that final pokemon which was nasty. Four special moves off 165 SpA and 100 speed (overlevelled as hell so the actual stats might as well be 15-20 higher than this), ouch. Ended up beating it by having Delphox Calm Mind up against Tyrantrum with Feather Dance and Leech Seed applies first for defensive support, then sweeping the remaining pokemon away with its ridiculous speed.

Team notes! If I don't note an item they probably just had a +20% damage boost on their best move or something.

Delphox - Flamethrower, Psyshock, Calm Mind, Shadow Ball/Grass Knot
Certainly the strongest fire starter I have ever used, but since I've not used Infernape this... doesn't really say much! Anyway it has a bit more speed/SA than the standard charphlosion stat build, but more importantly it has a way better skillset... plenty of special moves, a second STAB (which I used to hit both defences, though Psychic is more damage at base), and Calm Mind. Fire gaining another resistance this gen also helped, and the huge number of enemy fighting types in this game help the value of psychic. Did have a notable midgame lull where it was stuck with non-STAB Psybeam as its best move in the late 20's. The high level curve of this game means that "becomes awesome at Level 34" isn't so damning, though.

Venusaur @ Venusaurite - Petal Dance, Sludge Bomb, Leech Seed, Sleep Powder
I don't think this needs much explanation, Venusaur is OP. Sleep Powder and Leech Seed off average speed and good durability can cripple most things you need crippled, Petal Dance is really great now and gained early (Level 32!)... 120 power move with only a relatively minor drawback since you can switch out to avoid the confusion. Poison helps against fairies and lets it beat up other grasses which it would otherwise fail against. Oh yeah and a Mega Evolution which cancels two of its weaknesses and makes it bulky as hell. Probably the overall MVP?

Starmie @ Leftovers - Surf, Ice Beam(/Psychic/Thunderbolt), Confuse Ray, Recover
Nothing new here, Starmie does everything and does it well. Its special coverage is better than ever with the addition of Dazzling Gleam, and if this game had Choice Specs I would probably just have run it as a pure destroyer with dual STABs and Boltbeam. That said I like the fast, reasonably durable, confuse/heal build too much, easily beats most pokemon who can't do huge damage to it. Ice Beam ended up the move of choice because I had so little answer for dragons otherwise. Probably the most valuable pokemon I had against three of the E4 (dragon, fire, and water, though the last is debatable), otherwise was just generically good.

Hawlucha - High Jump Kick, Fly, Feather Dance, Roost
Like Starmie it has a great skillset which I struggled to decide what to do with... Swords Dance, X Scissor, Poison Jab, to say a few. I settled on having it do double duty of claiming swift OHKOs with its dual STABs and acting as a fast annoyer with Feather Dance and Roost. It's a bit fragile but with that skillset and that speed I have nothing to complain about. Obviously really great midgame due to being a final evo before gym 3 (with Roost at base and 80 power STAB by level 28).

Krookodile - Earthquake, Crunch, Low Sweep, Strength
My second physical fighter and obviously the inferior one though still pretty good. Intimidate's always nice, Low Sweep was mostly for some type coverage but hey sometimes speed lowering is cool, otherwise it just rocks its STABs off above average speed and high attack. Durability was a bit problematic although it did pull past Hawlucha late (although it felt worse because it wasn't as fast and thus got hit more), although the first two forms in particular felt quite fragile. Might be the LVP, I dunno, but hey, it had two attacking STABs and you can never go too wrong with that + over 200 Attack/speed sum.

Haunter @ Eviolite - Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb, Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam
Hey Eviolite gave me an excuse to use Haunter, whose design I dig, instead of Gengar, whose design I do not dig. Also, mine had crazy had SA so it actually felt like a more durable Gengar who only was lacking speed! Unfortunately lacking Gengar's speed is bad, since "more durability than Gengar" still sucks, and my attempts to give it utility didn't work too well and I ultimately decided having more type coverage would be more useful. Still, three immunities and two R4s gave it plenty to work against. Obviously not one of team leaders but it played its role well enough.

I used Sigilyph until reasonably late when I decided that I probably didn't need a third psychic, or a third healer. I used Lapras until I got Starmie which fanboyism would make an easy switchover even if the far greater speed and Recover didn't.


Anyway this game was a lot of fun, very good chance it's the best Pokemon game. I really love that the game decided to dewussify the non-boss sections of the game. Any given trainer needs to be taken at least moderately seriously, even randoms are decently legit. Victory Road has generally been my favourite parts of Pokemon games, XY was, from somewhere around the second gym on, kinda like all Victory Road, all the time. Also a whole host of minor improvements: saving is fast! Animations are pretty great! Catching things doesn't randomly deprive you of Exp! High pokemon availability! In a vacuum none of them are that big a deal but it adds up; this is a sleeker experience than past games for sure. There are still some improvements that I would like to see of course, but generally I was impressed by this. The plot was stupid when it existed (not often) but whatever you don't play the games for this.

One of the best games I've played this year though I haven't played any games that have really blown me away this year. (Same way I feel about Dual Destinies.)


VVVVVV - So this is one of those games I'm not sure why it took me so long to play, generally heard good things about it and they are generally right. Anyway apparently while I wasn't looking it came out for the 3DS, so yeah, sold. Anyway very fun little platformer. Rather limited in that there tends to be only one way to do any given thing, so it'll be replay-value light, and it's also kinda short? But it's still a lot of fun for what it is, I love gravity physics so much. It is a whole game of Gravity Man's stage in MM5 or those fun 2D gravity sections in a few Mario Galaxy levels, you had to know I was going to hype that. Anyway I haven't gotten around to the extra created stages the game comes with, hopefully those are good since what I'm currently counting on to extend my playtime.

Got 19/20 trinkets. 20th was a matter of FAQing where it was; I will get that later. I got the three which are difficult to do by technical means (edge games, prize for the reckless, doing things the hard way) though there was some hair-pulling involved of course.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on November 15, 2013, 03:16:55 AM
Venusaur is indeed OP. Mine had a nature that was -SpA, and it still pulled MVP duty most of the time. Meant I ran petal blizzard later on(Grass type Surf running off Physical? I'll bite~) instead of petal dance, but it still kicked ass.

Nice to see Hawlucha pays off in the end, I was tempted to use one but Mega Aerodactyl neatly stole my flying slot.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on November 15, 2013, 05:39:29 AM
Elf gets VVVVVV.  Gets Veni Vidi Vici like it ain't even a thang.

Gods I hate you for being so good at platformers.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 15, 2013, 06:12:41 AM
It was still a thing!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on November 15, 2013, 06:18:31 AM
Pokemon Y -

Beat it, fun times were had. I love the adorable as heck starters in this game!

Chesnaught - Leech Seed / Wood Hammer / Low Sweep / Bulk Up
Standard turtle against physicals with decent magical durability. Slow but Low Sweep can help him outspeed things.

Blaziken - Brick Break / Blaze Kick / Bulk Up / Sand Attack
A little too fragile considering his turn 1 speed. He's okay, but not great.

Meowstic - Psychic / Psyshock / Calm Mind / Thunderbolt
Fast and hits both defenses, although she fell off a bit by the end.

Heliolisk - Thunder Wave / Thunderbolt / Surf / Grass Knot
Fast and high special attack with good off-type coverage. Physically very fragile.

Durant - X-Scissor / Thunder Wave / Iron Head / Dig
Bug/Steel is a cool typing and he has 150 speed at endgame. Killed the final Pokemon of the final boss with him.

Umbreon - Assurance / Baby-Doll Eyes / Screech / Moonlight
The tanky debuffing turtle.

Too much kawaii in the game, my brain exploded.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on November 15, 2013, 06:55:56 PM
Elf gets VVVVVV.  Gets Veni Vidi Vici like it ain't even a thang.

Gods I hate you for being so good at platformers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa2P9sU7gEQ

The fun starts at the 8 minute mark.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 15, 2013, 07:53:07 PM
Giga Bowser RPG: Wanted to finish the game last night, but final dungeon arc is much longer than I thought!  So instead, I just punched a castle...a lot...black holes may have been involved too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on November 16, 2013, 01:25:32 AM
X:  I discovered a hidden village of Pokémon that ran away from their owners due to abuse.  So I promptly shoved them into pokeballs and commited them to a life of slavery.

OMG Sneasel is so pimp!

(http://www.serebii.net/xy/pokemon/215.png)

He's all like, "Sup?"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 16, 2013, 05:31:03 PM
Giga Bowser RPG:  Completed.  I did do some backtracking to insure I got the last ability, because shut up, that's why!  Did make me appreciate the final dungeon more in how it asks you to use all your tools, not just "what you got most recently." 

Game is pretty much what you expect; decent fluff.  Doesn't aspire to be great, just decent, and succeeds at that.  Still had some frustrating things, most notably are some of the platforming segments were a pain because the jump is trivial with Mario, but having to have BOTH Jump is just annoying, especially when you need both to land on a platform that's barely larger than one character.

The other thing that annoyed me was the sneezing Mini-game.  When I finished it the first time, I was glad it was over with...then they throw it at you two more times in quick succession.  It is a poorly responsive mini-game that has 2 parts to it and is completely unfun.  They use the stylus gimmick in one other area (the floating platform in the last Bowser Interior dungeon) and it's way better there in every-way.  The sad part is, all the other Minigames range from ambivalently forgettable to actually fun, which is rare!

Thinking 6/10 material.  It's decent but nothing amazing.  Better than Superstar Saga, but not by a significant amount which I think I gave the same rating too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on November 17, 2013, 10:00:32 AM
BoF 2- Replayed for general amusement/stat topic recalibration. Just got the whale and Deis. Any input on when would actually be a good DL time to consider her in terms of starting. Taken earliest as possible, she'll be about 300,000 experience up on everyone else (Which granted is probably worth about 3 levels at endgame). Early game balance is interesting in that everyone really does feel well balanced. Ryu is the best, but even running through Nimufu's Tower, Sten!!!! felt like the third best party member. Of course, Jean comes along and just is horribly dead weight (and without the spell from Ray, Nina would be only slightly better).

Xenoblade- Progressing very slowly. God, so much hate for the auto rotating dungeon aspects. Makes me slightly queasy/headachey at times. This game would be so significantly improved if it was a true turn based game instead of a turn based game badly disguised as a wannabe ARPG. Just beat Mumhkar the second time. Couldn't tell you what he can do because the game makes it truly impossible to tell. So badly contrasts with Tales/Star Ocean in battle visuals.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 17, 2013, 04:53:35 PM
Odd, I remember Nina's S. Boom being devastating in Witch's Tower... and her speed is okay and her durability irrelevant due to BoF2 targetting. Glancing through the notes I made for the BoF2 stat topic she's never far behind on damage compared to any other character (ignoring dragons), and hers is MT. I guess if most enemies fall between Katt/Sten and Ryu/Nina for speed (which sounds possible) then you can argue Katt/Sten have speed while Rand has healing (ignoring Ray's spell) and she comes out lacking compared to them, but I feel like that's underrating both the value of MT and the value of having someone in that fourth position, since fighters take a notable damage hit there. Also overrating Rand's healing-off-bad-speed.

Not sure what to do with Deis. I don't think it matters too much? I'd probably say to compromise and wait a couple dungeons (maybe when you have to go over to that area anyway? I forget exactly when that is but I remember thinking sometime fit the bill), although with how minimal BoF2 exp is early, if it's 300k now it'll probably be 250k minimum then. Both times I played I remember noticing that you get about half of the ~million endgame exp in the final dungeon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 17, 2013, 07:10:42 PM
Pokémon Y - In the span of a day, I went from having three gym badges to six. Um yeah, the game started really rollin'. Also, I have an oil lamp Pokémon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on November 18, 2013, 07:47:34 PM
Castlevania: CHARLOTTE JONATHAN- Finished.  The number of borderline instant-death attacks in the end is rather rude.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on November 18, 2013, 07:59:39 PM
World of Warcraft: WoW Battle Pet Trainers are officially more frustrating than anything Pokemon has ever thrown at me. Fuck all of Pandaria in the goddamn face.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on November 18, 2013, 08:01:39 PM
WHY ARE YOU PLAYING WOW TO START WITH.  IT IS AN INVITATION TO DISASTER.  THOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE GRASP OF CATASTROPHE.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on November 18, 2013, 08:02:31 PM
Playing it for superior Pokemon designs.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on November 18, 2013, 08:28:30 PM
Odd, I remember Nina's S. Boom being devastating in Witch's Tower... and her speed is okay and her durability irrelevant due to BoF2 targetting.

Ran into a few enemies who nulled it. Her damage would be better, but lack of Scan or something similar hurts there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on November 19, 2013, 12:29:52 AM
Game of "did you buy Fire Emblem Awakening, have a cheap extra game to get pumped for the bizarro crossover," aka Shin Megami Tensei 4: Finished.  This is...  an odd, odd game.  (As are most SMT series games, in fairness.)  In terms of quality, Tactics Ogre might be a weird comparison - both make huge, unforced errors and have various nasty system traps lying around for you, but they both end up decent games anyway.  Although TO is notably better.

Anyway, the fundamentals of SMT gameplay make "balance" a tricky, tricky thing.  It's a damn good thing they at least gave you basically infinite continues before the battle you lost, but even then, things can get annoying.  Here's the SMT4 difficulty cliff:
Beginning: OH GOD NO DEAD AGAIN NO WHY DID YOU RUN OFF WITH MY STUFF #$%^&
Earlygame: Punishingly "hard."  Except hard in a totally random "lol you went 2nd and the enemy randomly hit your weakness or got a crit and killed everything" kind of way, or in an annoying - if you aren't save / reloading everything - style, oh boy back to the inn due to another BS demon death and I don't want to use an expensive revival item.
5-10 hours in: Massively hard, but at least you start to have the tools to deal with it.  The first big boss takes like 4 rounds of spamming his weakness to kill, and has uber damage that gets multi-hits and slaughters you, and has moves that get lots of crits to slaughter you even more.  But he is beatable...  if you spam evasion-up buffs and get lucky enough on dodges to not die instantly.
10-30 hours in: Randoms start not being a huge threat, and your MC build starts to pay off, and you have tools, but can still definitely wipe to random bullshit, and there's a few good bosses here to keep you on your toes.  (NOTE TO SMT DEVELS, THIS IS THE SWEET SPOT)
Back half of the game: lololololol, now the system is rigged in your favor.  Smash randoms with unstoppable non-elemental MT damage even if you can't hit their weaknesses (which you can), watch as enemies ram into your elemental nulling like morons, etc.  As you can tell from the stat topic, bosses inexplicably stop really doing more damage later, too!  So terrifying bosses who could dispel all your buffs & debuffs and do massive MT damage get succeeded by bosses who don't have a crucial all-dispel and don't do appreciably more damage vs. more HP and haxier options.

It's tricky.  Action games can be punishingly hard and it's "your fault" so fine.  Games like Fire Emblem can have huge weakness mechanics but since there's a map, they functionally only punish mistakes and reward good decisions.  Even Pokemon, in 1v1s, makes huge weakness / huge resistance work because, well, that's the whole game.  Having a large party with a hefty random component to who goes first, and add in enemies who are balanced around sometimes randomly smashing your weakness and sometimes randomly losing their entire turn, and you end up with what is an "unsatisfying" random experience.  In the early middle it's okay because you have just enough tools & demon stock to control things, and then toward the end your broken just plain trumps enemy broken, the random becomes "will the enemy be sort of okay or totally ineffective."

Since disliking things is easier than liking things, some random errors & things that just bugged me about SMT4:
* Silent Main.  Specifically, silent main in a game where he's the focal point of a fair amount of plot.  Think Serge from Chrono Cross.  Thankfully the game eventually figures out that a Silent Main going everywhere is lame, and Our Hero takes around an RPG party for color commentary, but this only fixes so much.
* The overarching goal of the game is barely integrated with it.  More spoilars, but also think Chrono Cross - you do a bunch of random stuff and stop some bad people, and then at the end oh by the way you can also achieve this too, semi-randomly.  Silent Main doesn't help here.
* The obligatory trip to the status screen for healing after every battle - well, before you start wiping every battle in 1 round, at least.  Forget it and eat a death!  Okay, I can accept that old-skool style, but what about poison curing?!  Setting a demon ability on poison curing is a terrible waste, and it takes multiple button presses to make your way down to the poison curing items, again, and fix things up.  This is in a game with poison rivers and poison zones everywhere.  Look, one poison river for flavor reasons is fine, but so many?!  Is this place livable at all?!  More importantly, is this place too annoying for heroes to visit, having to constantly go reset the damn poison in the status screen?
* There's some weird plot threads left hanging, which I can only assume are things that I'd know if I'd played the other SMT games.  (Example: Dude saying "You don't even know what the Yamato Perpetual Reactor really is, do you?"  Well...  no.  And apparently you aren't going to tell me, Mr. Game.)  From checking Wikipedia afterward, the game seems to heavily reference SMT1, at least.  Not that SMT plot necessarily makes any sense even when things are "explained."
* Dungeon design is occasionally terrible, although usually mercifully short.  Seriously, small dungeons are a merit, I'm fine with just 3 screens.  Flip side, SMT4 likes (tiny) maze dungeons as some kind of old-skool throwback, which meh, even if they're small.  It also has a few teleport dungeons, which bah.  Again, they are also small, but still, screw that.
* Demon lord Lucifer is ugly.  What's up with that?  He's the "Morning Star!"  Tarnished beauty if you must, but he shouldn't be vanilla ugly.

That said, to be clear, I liked SMT4, and it was a fairly gripping experience, eating up a decent amount of my time.  The plot, while filled with holes, ends up reasonably compelling enough anyway, and sometimes smashing everything is pretty fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 19, 2013, 01:46:49 AM
SMT game

That sounds about right. Odd that they decided to pick off from where they left in freaking DDS, which is just vaguely jarring considering how many of the fundamental SMT problems they toned down for Persona 3 and 4.

Pokémon Y - Pokémon backstory time - loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool wtffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on November 19, 2013, 03:00:11 AM
DDS sent you back to save points though, right?  That'd make the game far more hair-pulling.  At least SMT4 lets you just back up before the battle, FF13 style, and save/reload everywhere for other issues.  (Early game, when a death potentially means a trip all the way back to the start, is definitely save / reload cheese time.  As are the kinda stupid demon conversations where you bribe them and then they join you, maybe, before you have lots of bribe material.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 19, 2013, 03:33:20 AM
DDS does set you back to the last save point, but it's also not especially lethal (... usually) and save points are pretty common, so it's not too big a deal. I do get really annoyed when I lose due to what I perceive as entirely random chance, but it's pretty uncommon that you lose significant time out of it.

Pokemon X - Pokedex sitting at 244. Gotta catch 'em all I guess. Exp Share is on now as I raise up lots of pokemon, having a blast just kicking around seeing how everyone is.

VVVVVV - Beat the game with less than 50 deaths, woo~ Gravitron and final level by far the most difficult parts, I now think, for all that I had the most trouble with space station 2 my first time through. May try to V-rank a couple of the easier time trials (space station 1 and tower) and improve on my super gravitron record (currently at 13:xx seconds) but that's probably about it.

Legend of Dragoon - Ghost ship.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on November 19, 2013, 02:25:52 PM
Meru + Shana + Translight/Dancing Ray spam + boss + hahaha Y/N?~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 19, 2013, 04:37:08 PM
Shana and MT Holy items -utterly trivialize that dungeon like it ain't a thang, yes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on November 19, 2013, 05:50:49 PM
=)

Mmm, Magical Hat is nice too, if you get lucky with a drop (or two) from the Magician Bogeys~

I think I had White Silver Dragon there before, I must have grinded a lot on that file >_>
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on November 19, 2013, 06:15:23 PM
That's one of the fun things about LoD, the way it responds to grinding is amazing.  The other fun one is getting Blossom Storm on Lavitz.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 20, 2013, 12:09:06 AM
Yes I'll be shoving MT holy down the boss' face. This playthrough I've largely been switching between high-mag characters for bosses and addition-spammers for randoms. Works pretty well.

Game does a pretty good job of non-Kongol character balance. The main thing jumping out at me is that Shana is notably worse than I remembered, she has yet to put meaningful separation between herself and Rose for magic stat (and in fact trails for the entirety of disc 1), and her cheesy spells do require you to suck more in randoms (to be fair, randoms be bad so this isn't as big a deal as it could be). Clearly improves with time, but yeah. Also Dart goes through some really bad phases like late disc 1 (where he is by far the least damaging of the fighters... and then gets a fire sword just in time for a dungeon where all the randoms are fire-innate, gj) but I kinda already knew this.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on November 20, 2013, 12:21:03 AM
Breath of Fire 2- Oh god, Highfort Sten solo battle. WTF that is that fail game design. Please make it so that a character may need to face a battle against an enemy that is faster than you (unless you are leveling 19 or above, meaning that basically you have been using Sten all the time) and can potentially OHKO is fucking great. Compound that with no equipment shop (so I got a few chests, but if I could buy Sten a better helmet and shield, that would likely help a significant amount), no escape, no way to switch equips with other PCs, and no EXP focusing is a great combo. Hitting on goos, hoping they don't run away.

Alternately, with a lot of luck it can be beaten. You just need to evade 1 of 4 attacks (maybe 50-50ish at Super Luck?) and you need none of the 3 attacks that hit you to be Slams. You also may need him not to hit the top of random variance on the 3 hits that get you. It certainly can happen, but I think it will take me longer than just getting Sten to 19 (at which point he is faster and the battle theoretically becomes almost stupidly easy). Yeah...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 20, 2013, 11:28:38 PM
TomE- Playing a cursed. L16 or so? It's less painful now that I've hit L10.


MK2- Text too small to read/10. With bonus obnoxious animeness turned up to 11. *flush*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on November 21, 2013, 04:54:22 AM
A note: SMT4 is a stand alone game, thus you won't find explanation to its plot holes in other games.
And thank god, it is a stand alone game, as so many characters are OOC in this game: from Steven to Gaby, to Lucy, and to Beelzebub.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on November 21, 2013, 05:44:29 AM
MK2- Text too small to read/10. With bonus obnoxious animeness turned up to 11. *flush*

Forgot about the microprint. Basically was designed for HDTV only.

BoF 2- Beat Highfort with the great 3rd and 4th members of Spar and Jean (why yes, I did not realize that one damn dragon statue does not let you change PCs until it was too late). In the dungeon Spar gains...Exit and Warp. Awesomely useful.

I think I would have used Ag-Up during the Shupkay battle.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 21, 2013, 06:01:27 AM
Even on an HDTV, that text sucks. No idea what they were thinking.

Pokemon X - The catch-a-thon (really more of a level-everything-to-evolution-thon at this point) continues.

VVVVVV - Finally got past 15 seconds on the super gravitron. Not going to try for 20, that will drive me insane. I did end up getting V ranks on Space Station 1 and Tower but all the others are too horrifying I think, final level is evil and the other stages all have at least one very nasty shiny to get (lab not so much maybe, but it still feels out of my reach). As such I think I am done with the game for now.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 21, 2013, 02:50:52 PM
Dhyer: I'm playing it on a 31 inch HD TV. It's still next to unreadable.

FM4- NG, no NG+ *sob*. Note to Tide: First reset was on the Dranz map. I cleared it easily enough, but didn't do it in 15 turns and lost Latona. Bad luck with evasion and forgetting to give Elsa Add AP+1 both hurt.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on November 21, 2013, 05:12:38 PM
So I'm playing Rogue Legacy again for some reason. I beat NG+ and NG++, got all the equipment plans, and am now working on maxing out all stats before buying all runes and then proceeding to smash the final boss's face in yet again. Hopefully that will satisfy whatever weird completionist urge keeps bringing me back to this game. Not that it isn't fun! But NG+++ is just kind of nuts.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Lord Ephraim on November 21, 2013, 08:19:00 PM
I had absolutely no problems reading the text in MK2.  I tested both on a standard CRT TV and my 46' HDTV. I was using component cables though...

Ace Attorney 5: Finished.  I think it's in the middle of the pack in terms of ranking.  My overall gripe is that they kind of wanted to go with a 3 protagonist route, but with only 5 cases (and 2 of them are filler) there wasn't enough content to fully develop characterization and gameplay.  I still tend to get ahead of the game when it comes to cross examinations in that the game wants me to press first before presenting the evidence.  The result is that I never finish a trial with a perfect score.  There's a new DLC case today but at six dollars it seems pretty steep unless it's a 3 day trial.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on November 21, 2013, 09:00:48 PM
I had no trouble with MK2 on a similarly sized TV to Super, either.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on November 21, 2013, 11:45:14 PM
FF13 Lightning Returns - Cloud's costume is way too strong. Cloud's costume is WAY TOO STRONG! That damage is ABSURD!!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on November 22, 2013, 12:53:52 AM
I'm in the "Text was unreadable" camp of MK2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 22, 2013, 01:55:19 AM
Pokémon Y - Well, getting Yveltal was inordinately easy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 22, 2013, 03:46:27 AM
Well, Dialga/Palkia were easy to get too.  Apparently, Gamefreak caught on that forced fight Ubers should be easy to catch because it's obnoxious going through cutscenes every time you fail.

Reshiram/Zekrom took it a step further and the game requires you to catch them.  Fail, and it basically yells at you and makes you refight them, thankfully they too are easy to get.  I hear Xerneas/Yveltal are the same deal with the "Forced Catch" thing...and I personally caught Xerneas with a Pokeball because reasons.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on November 22, 2013, 09:34:34 AM
FF13 Lightning Returns - Cloud's costume is way too strong. Cloud's costume is WAY TOO STRONG! That damage is ABSURD!!

My favorite interview was the one where Toriyama said "well since we have so many costumes and the player can control the camera there's no way I could take panty-shots out of the game."  It really encapsulates the absolute creep that he is.  I mean, Resident Evil 4 solved that problem like a decade ago by having Ashley be like 'fuck you' and she wasn't even a STRONG POWERFUL PROTAGONIST WOMAN like Toriyama likes to wank about her being.

Also the ending is the absolute perfect capstone for that shitpile of a series.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on November 22, 2013, 10:35:45 PM
God forbid all the costumes wear bike shorts underneath.  Couldn't have that now, could we.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on November 22, 2013, 11:08:28 PM
Or having her wear pants. That would be silly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on November 22, 2013, 11:38:50 PM
Quote
FF13 Lightning Returns - Cloud's costume is way too strong. Cloud's costume is WAY TOO STRONG! That damage is ABSURD!!

How is Aerith?  :)

Does she come with an innate healing ability or anything?~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 23, 2013, 12:48:50 AM
I had absolutely no problems reading the text in MK2.  I tested both on a standard CRT TV and my 46' HDTV. I was using component cables though...

Ace Attorney 5: Finished.  I think it's in the middle of the pack in terms of ranking.  My overall gripe is that they kind of wanted to go with a 3 protagonist route, but with only 5 cases (and 2 of them are filler) there wasn't enough content to fully develop characterization and gameplay.  I still tend to get ahead of the game when it comes to cross examinations in that the game wants me to press first before presenting the evidence.  The result is that I never finish a trial with a perfect score.  There's a new DLC case today but at six dollars it seems pretty steep unless it's a 3 day trial.

Well there hasn't been a 3-day trial since the first game IIRC (unless Apollo Justice had one and I blanked it out) but for what it's worth the DLC case is certainly on the longer side of average, and certainly doesn't lack for new content, so if $30 for the first 5 cases was worth it for you then $6 for one more certainly should be. Plus it has an orca dressed as a pirate with a moustache.

Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies - Beat the DLC case. Heh. (significant spoiler warning) Oh yes, watching the game's villain running around in his traditional role again is surreal. Ha. Anyway, it's the first case in the series where the death isn't a murder by any definition? We were overdue for that. Overall a solid case, although the as with the maingame I think it gets a bit overwrought at points with things like the "villain"'s sudden transformation. Does tend towards convolution somewhat too. On the other hand... mad props for how it kept me guessing as to everyone's role in the thing. One of my complaints with the rest of the game was usually how obvious the killer was... not the case here! Dr. Crab was certainly a good red herring. I can't say I didn't enjoy it a fair deal and yeah is definitely worth picking up. Great humour and style points too. You can probably reasonably play it after the second case which maay be a better time than at the end, but I could see going either way there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 23, 2013, 04:41:48 AM
New Super Luigi U: I beat Wendy O'koopa and am heading down the alternate path because reasons.  Stages are shorter but way harder than NSMBU still (I got close to losing all lives, but then got lucky on some minigames and now have about 14 so...), and you have more power ups (mostly the NSMBU power ups + Coptershroom and Penguin from NSMBW), and yet...I am getting all Star Coins easier.  I guess with smaller stages, even with a time limit, their locations tend to be more obvious and easier to get too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on November 23, 2013, 06:48:25 AM
Niu, re SMT4: I can't really comment on how out of character people were, not knowing the other games too deeply...  although I've looked at Nocturne boss fights on YouTube before the lulz, and there didn't appear to be a whole lot of depth there.  Not that there's a lot of depth in Nocturne in general with its silent protagonist and not even properly melodramatic scenes when he fights his friends, because he's silent.
<NocturneFormerHumanClassmate> Hello let's see who is more powerful, our friendship is over, oh no you beat me, why didn't you adopt my goofy philosophy.
<NocturneBeelzebub> Hello I am demon, chaos is awesome, we must fight to see if you are worthy of my help.
<NocturneLucifer> But first, I must know the extent of the power of darkness you hold within.  Behold the supreme power of darkness me, let's darkness fight.

Anyway Beelzebub is basically a non-entity in SMT4, so I suspect it's more a general demotion to random sidequest boss that would aggravate him.  However, some of the SMT4 characters have the combination of "vast importance" and "tiny amount of lines" so I have to assume that we're supposed to fill in details from SMT1, even if SMT4 is technically its own universe.  Stephen's the most obvious example - I'm still not 100% sure WTF he's up to and why in SMT4, but at least SMT1 plot from Wikipedia gives some context for why there's a teleporting magical dude in a wheelchair occasionally showing up and spouting off cryptic advice.

Also, even if it isn't exactly the same universe as SMT1, SMT4 clearly includes the same plot elements.  As best I can tell, SMT4 is some wacky world where the chaos / neutral / law endings to SMT1 all fired off simultaneously.  It's neutral in that Our Hero saved Tokyo as a member of the Counter-Demon Force, but the lower half of Tokyo became an anarchist demons & gangster Chaos land, and the angels established their 1000 year kingdom on the roof.  Our hero then reincarnates again shortly there after - it's 25 years Tokyo time since the trouble but he's 18 - and the angels somehow snuck an extra 1,000 years in up top, because that's how they roll.  Yuriko constantly reincarnates because that's how she rolls.  No idea why Stephen is still around and is buddies with a goddess but hey.  The various characters met in the alternative universes are "Chaos Hero" and "Law Hero" basically in Kenji & Kiyoharu.  In Blasted Tokyo the missiles hit because for some stupid reason that's what Law wants to do, in Infernal Tokyo it ended up being a chaos-led world by Chaos Hero.

As a side note, there's a *little* bit of it, but SMT4 really needed a Yuri Hyuga type character to call the various villains on their bullshit.  SMT series seems to want to pretend that, while crazy & evil, the Law / Chaos plans are [idealistic / noble / tempting]-if-flawed...  when they're really not, just stick with crazy & evil.  (Similar issues with, say, WA4 acting as if Lambda's plan is "Tragic Idealist Gone Too Far" rather than "totally batshit.")  Look, Chaos supporters.  Even if YOU think you can win a fight with invading human-devouring demons, all of your support network that gets you food and fixes your clothes and repairs your weapons won't.  You're going to end up with the Atlas Shrugged II problem (http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif) once all the "weak" are eaten.  Law supporters, you're mildly better, but you're total hypocrites, and I'd like Our Heroes to point this out.  For the sake of peace and order we must kill everything, got it, or something.  (To the game's vague credit, I do appreciate how it shows the "outsider" approach to Judaism and to a lesser extent Christianity - God has picked a Chosen people semi-randomly, and everyone else gets divine nukes dropped on them and are scorned, because.  That is pretty scary and resonant, I'll grant.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 23, 2013, 06:53:33 AM
10/10 post for working an Angry Flower reference into a discussion of SMT plot.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on November 23, 2013, 04:25:52 PM
Or having her wear pants. That would be silly.

Well, "there's a free camera so you're only allowed to wear pants and no skirts allowed because some perv might look up your knickers" is not exactly an empowering message, either.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on November 23, 2013, 04:30:48 PM
Just go the Lollipop Chainsaw route and have the character be fourth-wall aware of where the camera is pointing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on November 23, 2013, 04:31:07 PM
Invisible cartridge Zelda: Yusssssss!

A LttP world with new dungeons and other new things?  Yussssssssssss! I am a happy camper right now. Your house gets taken over by some guy that turns it into a rental shop, and instead of give you free ish, he charges you to rent the crap. If I were link I'd kick his arse to the curve. It is interesting though that the game has some of the iconic items from the series found in this shop and not in the dungeons like mostly every other Zelda game.

I've gotten as far as the new other world. Games fun and easy so far. I don't mind the difficulty, it's like nostalgia mixed in with new treats. My mind is constantly retracing the steps in LttP and fighting with what is in this game. Like, oh there should be a tree on this spot or that was a house in the old game and such.

I set up my street pass character for everyone to beat up on if anyone is interested. I'm having a fun time with this one.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on November 23, 2013, 05:10:44 PM
Or having her wear pants. That would be silly.

Well, "there's a free camera so you're only allowed to wear pants and no skirts allowed because some perv might look up your knickers" is not exactly an empowering message, either.

It's less about empowering characters that are fictional despite what Toriyama thinks and more that Toriyama has demonstrated himself to be an utter creep and at least should have the privilege of putting characters in skirts taken away, since the board at Square has apparently decided not to fire him like they should.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on November 23, 2013, 06:04:34 PM
Or having her wear pants. That would be silly.

Well, "there's a free camera so you're only allowed to wear pants and no skirts allowed because some perv might look up your knickers" is not exactly an empowering message, either.

It's less about empowering characters that are fictional despite what Toriyama thinks and more that Toriyama has demonstrated himself to be an utter creep and at least should have the privilege of putting characters in skirts taken away, since the board at Square has apparently decided not to fire him like they should.

I agree about Toriyama, but the empowerment we're talking about here isn't for fictional characters but rather for the game's audience, just like any other message from the media about what women should or shouldn't do that takes as a given that men are creepy horndogs and that nothing will change that ever.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on November 23, 2013, 08:30:33 PM
Or having her wear pants. That would be silly.

Well, "there's a free camera so you're only allowed to wear pants and no skirts allowed because some perv might look up your knickers" is not exactly an empowering message, either.

It's less about empowering characters that are fictional despite what Toriyama thinks and more that Toriyama has demonstrated himself to be an utter creep and at least should have the privilege of putting characters in skirts taken away, since the board at Square has apparently decided not to fire him like they should.

I agree about Toriyama, but the empowerment we're talking about here isn't for fictional characters but rather for the game's audience, just like any other message from the media about what women should or shouldn't do that takes as a given that men are creepy horndogs and that nothing will change that ever.

If you're going to have a free camera and give interviews about how you "can't eliminate pantyshots" from your game, you should probably either reconsider your character designs because you actually don't want them like you say OR not make comments like that in the first place because you're clearly trying to draw attention to it. If he's so concerned about it that he would bring it up in an interview, why wouldn't he just design her with pants?

Besides, if the game's audience is looking to the guy who made Parasite Eve 3 for empowering messages, they're probably so fucked in their day-to-day lives that nothing anyone can do will help.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 24, 2013, 04:58:40 AM
Dawn of Mana- Started, played an hour of this, quit. This may be the worst game I've played since Hoshigami.

1. Switches between third person and first person combat with some frequency.
2. Related to that, the worst camera I've ever seen. It's easy to miss enemies or items.
3. Seems to have modeled the core gameplay concepts of Chocobo's mysterious dungeon. IE: Start over at L1 after every chapter, only one PC (Though CMD did let you use a couple of others...)

Basically is completely unplayable. I also got motion sickness from the spinning platforms and trying to switch between weapon types on them.  Hit detection and targeting were sub secret of mana. Speaking of SoM, this game makes SoM look like a quality product.

FM4- Finished my NG run today. Game clock says 21.5 hours. I spent at least an hour and a half idling and dicking around though. Had great fun with the playthrough, first time I've played FM on NG and not NG+ since I first beat it in like 2004.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: OblivionKnight on November 24, 2013, 12:06:33 PM
Seriously?  The fuck did you start playing that?  I said years ago when it came out that it was a pile of shit!

WHY DIDN'T YOU LISTEN TO ME!?  WHAT HORROR HAVE YOU VISITED UPON YOURSELF?!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 24, 2013, 02:39:40 PM
I thought it had the potential to be funny bad! Nope, just bad bad. I can assure you, I'm never touching that game again.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on November 24, 2013, 11:36:17 PM
X: beaten.  Final party was Vivilion (MVP, no really), Chesnaught, Furfrou, Aurorus, Talonflame, Clawitzer (HM Slave only).

I'm not as in love with the game as others were.  Lacks a lot of the polish BW2 had.  Worse than Diamond/Pearl as far as first iterations of a generation go.

The good:
fashion

The bad:
way too many menus on the bottom screen, and all shoved in your face at the beginning of the game.
Lumiose City - wow what a clusterfuck

The meh:
roller skates - they were fine for running around, up until you had to talk to someone or go through a door at which point said task became impossible

I actually don't think it's the XP share that's a problem for leveling, it's getting xp from capturing pokemon that throws things out of balance.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 25, 2013, 12:29:27 AM
You could stop using roller skates by using the D-pad instead of the analog, helpful if you wanted more precision.

The EXP share is absolutely the problem for the level curve. It literally results in 100-250% more exp (unless you use 3+ pokemon per opponent which is not the norm). By contrast even if you catch over half the pokemon you encounter in a pokemon game (which is crazy considering how many of the pokemon you fight are from trainers) that's only a 100% boost... actually much less because boss pokemon still give considerably more exp than randoms.

I played without Exp Share on and I thought the level curve was fine. I've never heard of anyone who played the entire game with Exp share avoiding becoming overlevelled (i.e. above the levels of at least the Elite Four, if not the champion as well). I actually think the "exp for capture" is a good move since it makes no sense to punish the player for capturing things, even if the penalty is relatively small.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on November 25, 2013, 12:59:10 AM
(http://cdn.defjam.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/1-4-1-1-1-DMX-Wire.jpg)

The bottom menus at least try!  They all force your first interaction to be a tutorial.  Failure shines through when my older brother was half way through the game before he even realised they were tutorials.  I mentioned Super Training to him and he had no idea what I was talking about.  He knew that there was patting pokemon and feeding them cupcakes and had literally no idea where it came up for half the game because the UI while forcing you to do the tutorials doesn't actually engage you to interact with the different pages. 

Also suffers a ton from modern iconography UI design holes.  Icons are great when users have learned them.  They suck until they do so and you force users to click into menus to find out what they are.  I didn't realise there was a save button on the front screen of the default menu for ages.  OHHHH that is what that button is.  Okay.  Cool.  It is cool if your UI is intuitive.  UIs tend not to be.  Even Apple in all their It Just Works tm you will note that iOS apps still have fucking tooltips telling you what each app is.  Click into one (say Kindle App) and suddenly no fucking idea what any button does.

Literally worse initial user experience than power user menu cruft.

Also would agree with Fashion being the greatest Lumiose being the worst and agree with Elf RE: experience/capturing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on November 25, 2013, 09:40:35 AM
SNow Fire, SMT4 - I'll just say this, SMT4's endings and philosophies are extremely half baked. Especially we had more "to the bottom of it" ending not too long ago in SMTSJ. This is the SMT Law & Chaos in a simple term: Law "Human with intelligence are cancer, let's make them into mindless dolls", chaos "survival of fittest, nothing more and nothing less".

Stephen is one of the character that is OOC the most. He is a neutral force that has transcended above physical realm, and help out in the past just because he can. How he sided with the Tokyo Goddess and set up bunch of things for her is extremely unlike him.
As for Beelzebub, he pretty much is Lucifer's right hand henchman, he is out there doing his own thing in SMT4 is already very weird. In past games, he is always acting in behalf of Lucifer. Be it SMT1 or 2, Devil Survivor, or even Devil Summoner.
Of course, nothing beats the super fanatic Gabriel. That is truly head desk worthy. She supposedly is the most moderate and peaceful one of the four.

Though, why are you under the misconception that SMT4 after SMT1? The alternate universe works very differently from SMT1 either, especially the LAw route.
BTW, Yuriko IS Lilith. Her cult worships Mem Aleph.


FF13 Lightning Returns - So.... in the end, everything is Etro's fault, again? Just by how much she can fail at life? Her stupid whore level is reaching the same level as Lucretia.
And continues having fun with Cloud costume, its fire power has made hunting down Abanda a breeze. I am successful in driving Abanda extinct, which rewarded me with an end game weapon, at fairly early level of the game. Than I took the said weapon and mopped Gaius to the floor. Ah, everything is going so well.
BTW, I did't get the Aerith costume. Getting her download code requires purchasing a completely useless guide book.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 25, 2013, 11:58:09 AM
You could stop using roller skates by using the D-pad instead of the analog, helpful if you wanted more precision.

The EXP share is absolutely the problem for the level curve. It literally results in 100-250% more exp (unless you use 3+ pokemon per opponent which is not the norm). By contrast even if you catch over half the pokemon you encounter in a pokemon game (which is crazy considering how many of the pokemon you fight are from trainers) that's only a 100% boost... actually much less because boss pokemon still give considerably more exp than randoms.

I played without Exp Share on and I thought the level curve was fine. I've never heard of anyone who played the entire game with Exp share avoiding becoming overlevelled (i.e. above the levels of at least the Elite Four, if not the champion as well). I actually think the "exp for capture" is a good move since it makes no sense to punish the player for capturing things, even if the penalty is relatively small.

Another thing to note is that the level curve balances itself out quickly if you use the XP Share for a while and then turn it off, like I did. By the fifth gym, my level lead over everything (which already wasn't -that- high) was completely gone. By the seventh, enemies were already higher-levelled than I, so it led to a pretty cool difficulty curve - though I feel the gym battles are kinda less interesting than the random trainers who randomly employ badass stuff all over the place. Speaking of which!

Pokémon Y - Currently at the Victory Road, crawlin' along like nobody's business. I kinda wish I had Baton Pass on me, since that'd let me play one hell of a sweep-crying game with Greninja. Sweeping the universe with Chandelure is an acceptable substitute, though.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 25, 2013, 03:22:58 PM
Quote
I'm not as in love with the game as others were.  Lacks a lot of the polish BW2 had.  Worse than Diamond/Pearl as far as first iterations of a generation go.

Ok, first off, how is it worse than Diamond/Pearl?  DP has a pretty iffy Pokemon Draw, while XY clearly has an amazing one, and DP is the slowest Pokemon game to date, while XY is quite possibly the fastest.  I seriously cannot see what DP did right that XY didn't do, while the reverse I can find many things.

As far as polish compared to BW2...

Offhand, the only things BW2 did that XY didn't do are:
-Better Dowsing Machine (though, XY's is functional once you understand how it works, so  it qualifies as "Good Enough", just BW2's is more convenient)
-Free Space Aspect (dunno why this didn't return; it was a really neat mechanic for item management)
-The inability to search for Pokemon by Area (as opposed to by Pokemon)

These are really the only things XY is lacking and none of them feel like deal breakers.  I can see arguing BW2 > XY because it does have it's advantages (like a legitimate aftergame), but I can't see how one can consider XY sub DP quality, when it is clearly closer to BW2 in quality.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 25, 2013, 03:29:13 PM
A lack of aftergame such as the uber elite 4 in FRLG is probably my biggest gripe with the game. As someone who missed gen 5 I had no problem with XY's dowsing machine (being able to use it with one of four registered items puts it above early games in the series at minimum), and searching pokemon by area isn't a huge problem when the pokedex is actually ordered by area instead of completely randomly holy shit. Really I think Lumiose City being difficult to navigate is the flaw of the game listed thus far I most agree with and it's really not that bad, just means you can easily miss a couple TMs and places to buy pokeballs, evolution stones, etc.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 25, 2013, 03:50:41 PM
Like I said, I don't view the Dowsing Machine as a flaw of XY, because it works well enough once you understand how it works (mostly the "which way you're facing matters" aspect for whether it notes or anything.)

Registering is something else BW2 did better thinking on it; you can register way more items, even shortcuts to entire menus (big because accessing the menu otherwise takes off dowsing machine.  Using the Register method keeps Dowsing Machine.  Still gotta turn it off to save, which is lame.)

Again, not saying XY was bad about it, nor saying it is a deal breaker; more a case of "One did good, the other did better", and generally, XY's methods were "good enough" that I don't really care that much.  Just trying to think of things BW2 did better; whether it was significantly better or marginally/technically better is a different story.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Scar on November 25, 2013, 10:03:35 PM
Is there a link or thread with all of you guys' friend codes for the 3ds?

I just my my own 3DS and here's my friend code: 3239-3831-6546
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on November 25, 2013, 10:13:56 PM
Bumped it up the top for you when I could have just posted a link, but whatever, I am tired and dizzy.

Warfrane - Laggy is back, so I am playing a ton of this.  I still fucking love this game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on November 26, 2013, 03:34:52 AM
Oh thanks for reminding me.  Dowsing Machine is completely horrible.  Can't remember any Item Finder type thing worse than this.  It's pretty much only good for telling you there's an item somewhere on your current map you haven't gotten yet.

Diamond/Pearl had better balance, pacing (fast is not necessarily a good thing) and at least tried to have a story.  Team Flare is so pointless as villains.  Woo, we paid to join this cult and wow we look fabulous!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 27, 2013, 01:45:19 AM
Trying to have a story is ALWAYS a negative for Pokémon.

Pokémon Y - Beaten! Final levels were 57-63 across the board, probably just about the best they could muster. Diantha's Mega Gardevoire is QUITE A NASTY SURPRISE, though! Fun stuff, for all that the Elite Four were sorta anemic outside Siebold's scary as fuck Gyarados. Anyhow, there's really not much I can say about the game that others haven't - highly polished and player-friendly Pokémon with a nice, smooth competence curve that moves upwards and notable difficulty grading flexibility with the XP Share plus the usual Pokéxperience. Really, it's been over a decade and a half since I started playing these, it's pretty much straightforward what I love about these games.

Main party!

Greninja (Surf/Hydro Cannon/Waterfall/Ice Beam) - So hey, Gamefreak looked at Sceptile and thought "guys, it'd be really cool if we had a WATER Sceptile, huh?". And then they forgot that Surf shows up at like gym 4, so the lull where Grovyle didn't get an up-to-date STAB for a long time is replaced by Frogadier having an overpowered 90 Power STAB early. Seriously, that offensive stat spread is crazy good stuff and it's always up-to-date on its money damage moves, so it blitzes like a champ off a great offensive typing. Type coverage is a problem (very few good TMs to effectively hit multiple weaknesses, Strength/Return never impress me without STAB), but at least you can have it play the dual stat glass cannon game properly once it evolves to Greninja (Thief and Night Slash if you're willing to shell the Heart Scale for it). Mine ended up with 140 Attack with a -hindering- nature, which was hilarious (S. Atk was 163 or something like that), and that speed is positively nuts. Substitute also saw some play, particularly cheesing Olympia's Meowstic hilariously (YES, SPAM GHOST BALL AND ITS 6HKO TO GRENINJA REALLY SMART). Durability, of course, is kinda trashy, but that blitzing is so good. I've always been irrationally fond of Water types, especially starters, and the Froakie line is probably the best of all. Likely MVP.

Venusaur (Petal Dance/Growth/Sleep Powder/Sludge Bomb): The reason why Greninja isn't open and shut as the MVP. Elfboy touched up on why Venusaur is brokenly good well enough - fucking tanky as shit with the Megavolution and excellent offense alongside a nasty status/stalling game. Hard to argue with that.

Pangoro (Brick Break/Bulk Up/Crunch/Sky Uppercut): Sky Uppercut was unneeded and I probably should've sticked with Low Sweep, but whatever. Pangoro pretty much busts skulls all day when it gets the chance - Dark/Fighting typing and viable STABs for both types off 130 base Attack make it a terror against a lot of Psychics, and Fighting itself is monstrously good for offense. Speed is problematic and defense stats are sketchy across the board, but Low Sweep often took care of the first problem. I shuffled Swords Dance and Bulk Up a bit too depending on the situation. The panda is hilariously useless when Fairy damage comes into play, though. W4, dear -god-.

Sylveon (Moon Blast/Draining Kiss/Calm Mind/Rain Dance): This thing stalls really damned well for something with that speed and pdef. Amazing S.Def makes it a veritable magical wall - to the point I often didn't even fear its Poison weakness once a single Calm Mind entered the equation - and Light Screen before I got Calm Mind. Fairy typing is pretty damned good in general too, spoiling the highly common Dark/Fighting types is a blessing. I gave it Leftovers for furthering the Draining Kiss/Calm Mind stalling game as well, and it served me quite fine. Rain Dance was there for Torrent-active Greninja sweeping shenanigans, which proved crucial against the champ's Mega Gardevoire (lol ohko with Waterfall) and little else. There's also this stint where Sylveon positively sucks if you don't get an Eevee with a Fairy move from the get go until Moonblast (relying on Bite off that Atk stat? eeeeeeeeeeeeeeew), but that's what I used the Exp. Share for as well.

Chandelure (Confuse Ray/Shadow Ball/Fire Blast/Calm Mind): Hell sweeper, trivialized Grass types with reckless abandon. In hindsight, Confuse Ray proved to help very little on him, but oh well. Setting up sweeping sprees post Calm Mind spam was quite a sight to behold. Getting Chandelure from Litwick to its fully promoted glory can be pretty trying, though - Litwick/Lampent are -egregiously- frail and underwhelming at general stats.

Yveltal (Psychic/Dark Pulse/Oblivion Wing/Fly): Well, the bird's tanky as shit and I gave it a Big Root to make its draining amazingly powerful healing. Otherwise, nothing truly gamebreaking, especially considering it's a legendary.

Star Ocean 4 next.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 27, 2013, 04:36:37 AM
Yveltal, if Xerneas was an indicator, sounds like it's overpoweredness comes from ridiculously strong Dark Pulses that can be complimented by the tank + Oblivion Wing combo ridiculousness, but dunno how he is in practice, because well, X version.

New Super Luigi U: Finished.  To be brief, a few minor tweaks in direction and style and we have a game that looks basically the same on surface, but is very different in practice.  Sounds like if you've played NSMBW, you can skip straight to this one via the physical copy, though, given the best way to get a Wii U is the Mario Bundle these days, that's probably moot!


Dillon's Rolling Western: Got this via Club Nintendo rewards because wasn't spending my coins on much else and it's a case of "seems interesting but not sure if I want to spend money on it" so yeah, this works.  Beat the 2nd town area.  Game's a neat way of handling Tower Defense, with preparation being more about exploring the area around in an alotted time rather than just straight up "Build defenses."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 27, 2013, 09:21:05 AM
Oh, Yveltal is very good at that indeed - I'm pretty sure Big Root Oblivion Wing is pretty much 100% of damage dealt as healing - this gets SILLY when paired up with a weakness hit, and it takes hits very well. I guess I just expected something more obviously degenerate.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 27, 2013, 02:06:04 PM
Well, that's the difference between 130 in an offensive stat instead of 150 (which the Gen 3 through 5 legendaries have); one is very good, the other is downright absurd.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 27, 2013, 04:04:04 PM
Yeah, I was mostly comparing Yveltal offense to, say, Chandelure offense (Chandelure of the something like 150 S.Atk). That's kinda cruel.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 28, 2013, 06:30:32 PM
Only 145!  And to be fair, Yveltal kicks Chandeleure's ass offensively if he uses Dark Pulse, but yeah, the raw damage is not why you use Yveltal.  They were clearly aiming for more well rounded ubers this time who can dish out a lot of damage in one typing because, well, gotta make them stand out somehow!  Though otherwise, yeah, their offense is a tad lower than you'd expect from an uber these days.

I also must say I like how Geomancy and Oblivion Wing were creative trademark moves, not just "massive STAB attacks" like the bunch before.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on November 28, 2013, 11:17:11 PM
League of Legends: fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on November 29, 2013, 11:22:10 AM
FF13 Lighting Retrun - Wow, the grinding in this game is actually fun, this game is so immediately rewarding that mutilating the monsters becomes a pleasurable thing to do. What is happening here? N1 seriously needs to be ashamed when Toriyama of all people is making a better grindfest power up game.

Anyway, time to go back to kill more Cacturs!!.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 29, 2013, 12:52:40 PM
Star Ocean 4 - triaceopening.txt
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 29, 2013, 06:35:31 PM
Sonic Lost World: Up to Silent Forest Act 4.  Would be further if not for the stupid 3000 animal req making me run through Windy Hill Zone about 6 times just to grind them.  Seriously, what was the point of that?  What's wrong with "beat stage -> progress to next stage" requirements?  It's totally fair for bonus stages and such, but for the main stages? No, it's just dumb.

THAT SAID, game is decent but rough around the edges.  It shows a lot of potential but they need to bang out kinks and not be too worried about the game getting stale, and stick to more conventional things.  Ok, a grinding stage?  Fair enough, that's a sonic thing, one or two of those don't hurt.  Swapping between 2D and 3D? Fair.  Gimmick stage where you roll a snowball and all the rules of Sonic suddenly don't apply because gimmick stage? Go die in a ditch.  That's Bonus Stage material, not main stage material; don't force a long, boring stage where basically everything you learned up to that point is completely meaningless.  It's one of the worst stages in Sonic.

Also, can we stop with the large tube w/ balls rolling towards you?  You've done that gimmick way more than it should have been done.  It's dull and just a waste of time because you haven't mixed up the formula.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on November 29, 2013, 08:32:29 PM
Look, people like large tubes w/ balls. It's genetics.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 29, 2013, 09:34:03 PM
Depending on what angle you're talking about, that doesn't apply to most males!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on November 29, 2013, 11:04:22 PM
bang out kinks
Not sure whether to make music joke or sex joke.

Quote
Gimmick stage where you roll a snowball and all the rules of Sonic suddenly don't apply because gimmick stage? Go die in a ditch. 
But that snowboard stage in Sonic 3 was so cool in 1994!!!!1!1!1!!  It has all the elements there, guaranteed success.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on November 29, 2013, 11:43:44 PM
The snowboard in Sonic 3 didn't even have gameplay!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on November 30, 2013, 12:48:27 AM
You pressed jump and it determined if you missed a turn and which route you took.  It gave you more or less rings!

Steam Marines - 4 character roguelike style is clunkier than I remember, this was painful to try out but was all on me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 30, 2013, 02:57:11 AM
OB- Just got Yushis and Debonair. At the point where I can sleepwalk through the game. Love the strategy elements in the game (Moving through rough terrain/taking cities/alignment/etc) but all the planning goes by the wayside when you get your deathsquads rolling.

FF7- Saved halfway through the Kalm flashback. Still sorting through thoughts on this.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on November 30, 2013, 04:49:06 AM
It turns out the flashback Cloud isn't himself, it was actually a Soldier he was acquainted with called Zack, but Cloud was actually there as one of the Shinra soldiers.  This pays off in some close bonding between Cloud and Tofa later!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on November 30, 2013, 04:58:05 AM
Wait, Super had not played FF7 before?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on November 30, 2013, 05:00:53 AM
I dunno, it's kind of a niche title I think, even on an RPG site like this. I'm planning on playing it for the first time over this year's holiday.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on November 30, 2013, 05:10:28 AM
Wait, Super had not played FF7 before?

You are silly, Niu.

Anyway yeah, 7's gameplay is exactly as I remembered it. It's oceans better than 8's (fuck the draw system) and 9 (slooooooooow) but the lack of polish is extremely noticeable.  It's very, very early PSX in that regard. The minigames are *painful*, I am glad RPGs largely do not use those any more. Death to all QTE events and timed hits as well. The only one of those that FF7 has in actual combat are limits, and I always bench Tifa and Cait Sith anyway.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on November 30, 2013, 06:09:30 AM
Resident Evil 6: Screw the hate, this game was fun...  with the proviso that it be played co-op at night with the lights turned off.  And that by "game" I mean "Leon & Helena chapters" so the fun part of the game is shortish.  It's not survival horror, but that's okay by me, survival horror is too stressful; it's a co-op action shooter where you get all your health back if you die, so less carefully keeping track of typewriter ribbons and heals, more shooting a giant zombie shark chasing you down a water pipe connected to the cathedral catacombs which are also an evil zombie lab where all the scientists / guards have once more turned into zombies, as per usual.  (I can only imagine how much salaries & life insurance are in the field of zombieology, considering the survival rate.)  The co-op is well done: a good mix of standard combat where you can support each other normally, forced split-up sections where you're expected to "help" your partner in some way, and forced split-up sections where both characters have their own independent objective that you run off to complete.

Allegedly the Chris chapters are horrible, and the Sherry/Jake chapters were certainly weaker from what we played of 'em (C1-C2, wherin we racked up more deaths snowmobiling through an avalanche than the L/H campaign combined, and it includes some just plain slow encounters, like with the giant monsters that Chris also fights.  Fighting giant monsters should not be boring.)...  but yeah, whatever, I just won't play the Chris chapters ever, I'll take a short & good game over a longer game with horrible sections.  Hey, the chapters are all skippable for a reason, I figure.

Anyway, to talk too much about RE plot is to court madness, especially when I haven't played all the chapters, but as a few random comments:
* Does every vehicle Leon touches explode?  I think maybe 1 makes it to its destination vaguely safely, while the other 14 don't.
* On the same note, I think 97% of all random civilians you see are there strictly so that they can be slaughtered or turned to zombies and attack you.  Tsk, I think the right proportion is more like 80%, surprise us sometimes by occasionally letting them live.  Weird, I know.
* I commend the town of Tall Oaks on either its fine evacuation procedures or its love of mass transit.  Apparently only 70,000 people get zombified in the downtown, yet an entire NYC-ripoff subway system exists!  Either this is a small town of <200K that nevertheless appreciates the importance of subways, or else they actually managed to save most of the people.  Well done!
* Although, on that note, I have no idea why they decided to chop the game up temporally and make it multiple incidents.  Isn't zombifying a major American city enough fodder for the plot of, like, multiple games?  Why do we need to visit more places that also get zombie outbreaks?  Kinda makes it less special.
* Kudos to RE6 plot at using an airborne zombie virus to explain the situation, as it actually makes way more sense to explain a sudden zombie outbreak situation than basically any other explanation, especially the "biting zombie horde" scenario.  I have no freaking idea why Leon & Helena weren't infected though, despite being near the stuff constantly, yet apparently are vulnerable in the China arc rather than simply decreeing they're immune, Sherry / Jake style.
* L&H's villain, Simmons, is totally ludicrous and freaking Umbrella might possibly make more sense than his motives, and he totally should have been betrayed by anybody who knew anything at any point in the plot, but whatever, zombie T-Rex.  But next time, guys, skip the government conspiracy that makes no sense and just stick to "insane dude thinks zombies are awesome, releases zombie juice and gives self zombie ultimate power injection, gogogogo."
* Of the new characters, I actually rather liked Helena.  She got to do more of the parkour crazy jumps that were just barely plausible if you were in tip-top shape and had not been fighting zombies recently but hey it's awesome anyway.  Jake, uh, they were obviously trying a tad TOO hard to make him "cool."  Maybe they deflate him a tad more in his later chapters.  Anyway, I'm sure Capcom would have had to deal with fanboy rage if they'd romantically paired Leon & Helena up, alas, so everything will stay the same and safe.

Tales of Xillia
Okay, this is more "What Games Are You Buying."  Got the last copy at 20 bucks at GameStop's Black Friday event.

Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies:
APOLLO: This folding screen holds the secret of the Forbidden Chamber - I'm sure of it!  Let me just examine it more closely...
APOLLO: (Hmm, maybe I should check the transcript, too.)
ATHENA: Apollo?  You okay there?  Apollo?  Apolloooooooooooooo!
G A M E   O V E R

Defeated in the freaking investigation section of PW, sigh, forcing a reload to the beginning of the day.  At least you can apparently B-cancel through text that the game thinks you've never read.  Weird, too, since DD is actually very good about letting you skip to any section of the case you want in its start-up options - but not finely sliced enough for getting around the ol' stylus the transcript icon to randomly crash the game trap.  Oh, well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on November 30, 2013, 06:45:42 AM
Pokémon DMX:  Parallel Swizzle my Nizzle.

Finally unlocked the Looker quest after stumbling around for a long time (you have to fight in the Battle Maison, then fight rival again).  Oh dear they're trying to have a story!  And failing.

Tomb Raider:  This was $14.99 today so why not?  I'd played the beginning before but got a little farther.  Damn this game is so beautiful.  Really immersive, to the point when your xbox friends pop up you're like wtf why is that interrupting my movie?

Also bought Onechanbara for 80% off.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on November 30, 2013, 09:32:58 PM
For what it's worth Snowfire, my less-than-positive opinion of the game stems from the fact that I found it more often frustrating than fun.  Then again, I played all 4 stories and outside of a brief stint in Jake's story, it was entirely single player.  Game that requires multiplayer to be fun and only one of them approaches decent (Leon) is not a good game to me.  Nothing to do with Survival Horror factor.

Granted, the "is a Survival Horror" is indirectly what makes RE4 way better than RE5, since survival horror implies some attempt at atmosphere, which leads to actual luls in combat.  I'm all for combat, but games do need to take breathing room every now and then.  Even games like DMC and Bayonetta understood that, and they're straight up action games!


Quote
But that snowboard stage in Sonic 3 was so cool in 1994!!!!1!1!1!!  It has all the elements there, guaranteed success.

I don't see how "snowboard" became" snowball" though.  And really, once you board down Not!San Francisco to Butt-Rock on debris from a plane door, you can only go down in this mechanic!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on November 30, 2013, 10:36:18 PM
Yeah, I kinda think they should have considered hyping the multiplayer more directly, L4D style.  It really feels like that's what the game is designed around.  I buy the "frustrating" part, certainly some of the Jake/Sherry encounters just felt like slow trial-and-error until it worked.  (Ugh, played some of J/S C3, the lab escape bit - that one definitely flirted with "frustrating" over cool a tad too much.)  That said, having played it in what I presume to be its intended multiplayer split screen form, it is pretty good for what it is at that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on December 01, 2013, 12:55:07 AM
Granted, the "is a Survival Horror" is indirectly what makes RE4 way better than RE5, since survival horror implies some attempt at atmosphere, which leads to actual luls in combat.  I'm all for combat, but games do need to take breathing room every now and then.  Even games like DMC and Bayonetta understood that, and they're straight up action games!

I think what really makes RE4 better is level design, more than anything.  Other than a few levels earlier on, RE5 lacks an answer to 4's most interesting setpieces, which were different large areas with mixed terrain and a whole bunch of different elevations and obstacles.  It just feels like all the levels are somehow lazier.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on December 02, 2013, 01:31:36 PM
Star Ocean 4 - triaceopening.gif, now with basic gameplay. Ranged damage kinda rules your face so far.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on December 02, 2013, 05:58:57 PM
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Replaying this series since I never finished the third game. 4th case beaten. Game's writing is better than I remember and Phoenix makes a great deadpan snarker. I had actually forgotten he was the straight man. Game's logic is still a little bizarre at times. The 4th case is particularly bad about this, as there are a few circumstances where contradictions exist but don't count until a specific moment (murder weapon being fired three times) or are obvious but require pressing anyway. When this is combined with occasionally needing to fail, you can burn a lot objections trying to ferret out what you're actually supposed to do.

Also, game needs a skip text button for accidentally clicking on a repeat investigation dialogue.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 02, 2013, 09:11:10 PM
Pandora's Tower: Started this up, got past the 2nd tower.

Hey Aeron, this game has a cast of like 3 real characters and given the way the game is structured, I don't expect that number to go up...do you think you could...oh I dunno...NOT BE A SILENT PROTAGONIST!?  Ok, yes, he does say the occassional "Yes" or "Elena" and such, but nothing of actual substance.  Only time he says something more is when you're talking to Mavda about stuff and it's just basic parroting what Mavda said so she goes into more detail.

And he has occasional "I have to do this!" to self moments, mostly it's the game yelling at you for "You cannot do this yet, go try something else in the tower!"
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on December 03, 2013, 02:03:49 AM
Star Ocean 4 - triaceopening.gif, now with basic gameplay. Ranged damage kinda rules your face so far.

It will continue to do so. Hope you like using Bacchus/Reimi's dashing attack!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 03, 2013, 05:25:56 AM
FF7- *Accessory broken, item sealed, frog inflicted* I could swear FF7's slots in the battle arena weren't totally rigged, but they were here.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 03, 2013, 05:26:43 AM
Isn't the universe in general rigged against you?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on December 03, 2013, 12:25:55 PM
Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies - played through (not the dlc episode yet though)

Pretty great. See what other people said.



Pokémon X - played through

Pretty great.

Organize Boxes still isn't the default option for the box computer? dasfjk;aca;cv

Party I beat the game with was Clawitzer, Talonflame, Chesnaught, Aegislash, and Tyrantrum. They were all around level 90 at the time because that was how I had been rolling. (And I wasn't leaving any area if I had records of any uncaught Pokémon existing there, and some of them were highly uncooperative (ARBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK))

Currently have 484/518 creatures nationally - think I'm missing 20 specifically from Kalos if you discount anything over No. 150 in each regional 'dex.



Picross e3 - played through

Pretty picrossy.

I guess Mega Picross mode is nowhere near as banal as Picross e2's Micross mode, but that doesn't mean it wasn't terrible. Because it was terrible.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 03, 2013, 02:28:06 PM
It's more that FF7's arena hasn't aged well. (Along with the entire game). The GP system's dumb, not being able to save your battle points is dumb and the actual structure of the arena's very luck based.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on December 04, 2013, 02:56:05 AM
Actually the Battle Arena is like one of the rare minigames FF7 does right.  The luck is part of the tension.  It's basically one of the only ways the game is ever hard, so it being cruel and unusual and possibly unwinnable..  well....  you should have backed out earlier, wimp.  I approve.

Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=7050073
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 04, 2013, 03:13:13 AM
http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=7050109 (http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=7050109)

re the FF7 battle arena, I definitely agree with Snowfire. (And yeah you should generally retreat once you start stacking generally bad things like no item and no accessory since at that point you're only one more bad draw away from a loss). Part of the fun is the different challenges you'll have to deal with.


Pokemon X - 100 hours in, I now have an entirely complete Kalos pokedex except for Banette and Shuppet which can't be fixed until Thursday (because GameFreak). Never actually did that in a pokemon game before I think. Fun enough thing to do though wouldn't do it very often or perhaps even ever again. Anyway the game was fun, definitely done with it for a while now.

Legend of Dragoon - beat disc 3. Divine Dragon got horribly exploded by Power Up magic (I didn't even see it at red HP, yikes). Lloyd was more competent than I remembered on the other hand, he had some good luck with the counters and finished the battle with two PCs dead, not too bad. Doing Polter Armour immediately is also pretty fun.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 04, 2013, 03:27:16 AM
Backing out's not fun when you have an extremely limited supply of GP/BP not saving.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 04, 2013, 03:40:26 AM
Your GP supply is only as limited as you make it, and if you somehow end up blowing it all and not getting the item you want you can always reload the save with the GP so you don't have to build it up again. This doesn't seem like a problem? I dunno, I've never done that minigame and felt restricted by GP at all, but then I love the motorcycle game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 04, 2013, 03:53:51 AM
The only way to get more GP before the Highwind (When you can buy it, do Chocobo racing or at least do different games) is grinding the bike minigame. This is not good design at all. It gets much better later on at least.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 04, 2013, 04:05:29 AM
Even if you dislike the bike game, you can just pretend the arena is a disc 2 sidequest (aside from the one forced bit on disc 1 where you don't need GP anyway). I don't see how you have any cause to complain here.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on December 04, 2013, 04:17:24 AM
I think losing BP on exit was a bit punitive (I mean, if you REALLY want to build up to Omnislash 500 bp at a time, why make you do it all in one session?), but otherwise it's kinda a 'working as designed' scenario: yeah, the Battle Arena is supposed to be artificially hard and sorta annoying.  Game doesn't really make a secret of it, and with patience you can certainly luck your way through, so I can't find much fault with the overall design.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on December 04, 2013, 04:43:08 AM
Yeah, I always considered the Battle Arena more like a Disc 3 sidequest, since it's not like you'll even be able to use Omnislash right away.  That and going in without a Ribbon is asking for trouble.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 04, 2013, 05:06:08 AM
I definitely consider it a "right after temple of the ancients" (for reasons related to said ribbon) sidequest myself but again, I love the bike game. Early Omnislash doesn't matter, but early Champion Belts certainly do. Also doing it on disc 1 = no ghost ships which can instantly lose you the fight no matter what penalties you have. Apparently it's really unlikely but I have unhappy memories of it happening to me anyway.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 04, 2013, 05:33:37 AM
Pandora's Tower: Another tower down! HA! TAKE THAT WATER DUNGEON THAT HAD NO SWIMMING INVOLVED!

Radiant Historia: TIME FOR ANOTHER ABRIDGED SERIES BY MEEPLE!  As a reminder, this done entirely for laughs, will probably not be that funny in-spite of that,and does not necessarily reflect my opinion of the game, so if you think I'm being too hard or over-hating, keep in mind, I have already decided to overhate it before playing it so the game had no chance to begin with!
No seriously, it doesn't reflect my opinion, so don't get defensive!

*Desert scene*
FEmale Elf: The world is dead :(
Male Elf: I know :(
Female Elf: Wanna try again?
Male: Ok.

*insert exposition here about war here, but more importantly, CHARACTER TIME!*

Old Dude: Hey STocke, I have a mission for you, OUR GREATEST SPECIAL FORCE SOLDIER!
Stocke: Wait, since when am I the greatest Heiss?
Heiss: Since you're the main character of the game.  I mean, you ARE wearing Red and this game did originate in Japan so...
Stocke: What the hell are you talking about?
Heiss: ...nevermind.  Here, go meet up with this contact that will tell us about Grangor Weapons.  WE MIGHT BE ATTACKED!
Stocke: Ok.  Going to do it then.
Heiss: BUT TAKE THIS BOOK BEFORE YOU GO! IT IS THE WHITE CHRONICLE AND-...
STocke: ...it's blank...
Heiss: What?
Stocke: It's blank.  You gave me a blank book with a fancy name.  Are you going senile?
Heiss: Look, just take it, it's important!
Stocke: ...how? I coudl take any random book off the shelf and it'll be more useful than this.
Heiss: It's a Good Luck Charm, ok? Just think of it that way.
Stocke: You're not going to stop this conversation until I say yes, aren't you?
Heiss: No, no I am not.
Stocke: Fine! I'm off to do this SOLO MISS-...
Heiss: By the way, your partners are outside...
Stocke: ...not that I have anything against allies, but next time, why not tell me that at the beginning?

*Stocke leaves room*

Stocke: Ok, so where are these supposed allies of mine.
Girl: Hi, are you Stocke?
Stocke: Yes, and you are?
Girl: I'm Raynie, and this is Marco!
Stocke: Ok, I'm fine with you but...Marco? A kid? What use can he have?
Marco: I can heal?
Stocke: Fair enough!  Let's go do that mission thing! *vision of Raynie and Marco dead* ...wait, the hell?  Why am I getting these visions?  Ah I'm sure it is TOTALLY NOT FORESHADOWING FOR A TRAGIC INCIDENT IN THE NEAR FUTURE THAT WILL BE THE LEAD INTO SOMETHING BIGGER! Anyway, off we go!
????: No, stop, don't go yet!
Stocke: Huh? Who said that?
Big Suit Of Armor: Stocke, I have a bad feeling about this!
STocke: OH GOD WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME!?
Big Suit of Armor: ...it's me, Rosch...you know...your best friend?
Stocke: ...OH! RIGHT! YOU!  Why are you dressed like that?
Rosch: I always dress like this.
Stocke: You do?
Rosch: Yes, especially since I lost my arm in battle in that tragic incident, and now have a Thaumetech one.
Stocke: ...that arm of yours is mechanical?
Rosch: Yes, isn't it obvious?
Stocke: Not when you're dressed like that!
Rosch: Anyway, I have a bad feeling Stocke, and whenever I have a bad feeling about soldiers, THEY DIE!
Stocke: HA! Like that could happen to me!
Rosch: Well, I guess it's possible you could just be seriously injured and come back alive...like I did with this arm...that changed my life forever...my poor arm...
Stocke: Again with the arm thing...look, I'll be fine, ok?  SEE? I'M SMILING! HAPPY! GOOD! FINE!
Rosch: (...he's doomed...)

*one overworld sequence later*

Stocke: THERE'S A FLAMING MECHANICAL CHICKEN! KILL IT!
Marco: Why?
Stocke: Because it's dangerous!
Marco: No it's not; it looks pretty tame.
Stocke: But it will attack us!
Raynie: It's just sitting right there; we can walk right past it and it won't notice us.
Stocke: THE THING IS DANGEROUS I SWEAR!
Marco: Looks rather weak actually...
Stocke: Ok, look, we need a forced fight for the sake of a tutorial ok?
Raynie/Marco: Oooooh.
*one tutorial fight later*
Stocke: So, let's finish this mission!

High Colonel Dias: Now to ominously appear during a rain moment! Please note my SILVER BISHIE HAIR and my sword! It is probably strongly indicative of my role in the story!
Palomides the Executioner: Sir, your hair is clearly yellow though...
Dias: IT'S PRACTICALLY WHITE IN THE ART OK!?  Anyway, let us enact our CLEARLY NOT OMINOUS PLAN!
Palomides: You mean crush our enemies outright with superior everything?
Dias: ...yes, yes I do...

*shift to Stocke's crew*
Stocke: So, we're suppose to meet the guy here?
Raynie: Believe so.
Stocke: Know anything about the person?
Marco: Well, he's suppose to have a bunch of guards!   We just need to escort them to Alistar (Meeple Note: I apologize if I butchered the name, still getting use to locales and such)
Spy Person: Except they were all killed along the way due to an ambush and I'm all that's left...
Marco: ...or the person comes alone and we have to protect them, but that's not a problem, right?
Stocke: Something feels wrong about this...oh I'm sure it's nothing big.
Raynie: ...hey STocke, fork in the road.  North is the direct way home but...
Spy Person: They probably are waiting for us there..
Stocke: Right, we go South, which while less direct, should avoid contact with the enemy and...
*Arrow kills Spy Person from the south*
Stocke: ...we fail at our mission out right and are now fighting for our lives OH GOD!  Quick! You two stay here, I'll go scout the area!
Raynie: Wouldn't it make more sense for us to go together?
Stocke: NO! Because you need to guard the corpse!

*Stocke investigates area to south*
Stocke: Alright you cowardly snipers, where are you!? Don't make me go all Protagonist on your asses! ...seems they've run away.  Oh well, path seems cle-*sees a blockade*...right, guess that options out.  Things can't be easy...and suddenly I remember Raynie and Marco being dead in that image...I don't like where this is going.
*Stocke returns*
Raynie: So, we going south?
Stocke: Well, see, Blockade down there so...
Marco: We have to bust through the enemies up north?
Stocke: Yes, let's do it despite how suicidal it is! Not like we have any other choice...
*the group goes north, battle ensues, Stocke gets hurt some*
Stocke: Hey Marco, heal me please!
Marco: I can't!
Stocke: ...why not? Aren't you the healer?
Marco: I don't know any healing spells!
Stocke: ...then why did you...oh not worth it, let's just end this fight.
*They win*
Stocke: There's a lot of them but they can't beat us at all!
Palomides: Yes, but I can!
Dias: Do you not know dramatic entrances or tact at all?
Palomides: I'm a big hulking guy who kills things, none of that applies to me!  Look, just sit back and let me deal with these pests ok?
Dias: Fine fine...
Stocke: ...I think we're screwed...
*Palomides glows black*
Stocke: Umm...I'm guessing talking this over is out of the question?
Palomides: Hello, Executioner here!
Stocke: So...unwinnable plot fight?
Palomides: Unwinnable plot fight.
*Palomides kills Raynie and Marco, seriously wounds Stocke*
Stocke: Crap, gotta retreat...sorry guys.
*Palomides pursues and corners Stocke on bridge with help of guards*
Palomides: Running away to save your own hide...clever, but fruitless.
Stocke: ok, I can't win this fight, I'm too injured to beat those mooks over there...maybe I should slice the ropes on the bridge and try to kill him alongside me...or I'll just jump and accomplish nothing...yeah that option is sounding good, BYE! *jumps*
Palomides: He won't live, but find his body just in case and assume he's dead if he doesn't.
Generic Guard: Sir, isn't that what gets all villains like you killed eventually?
Palomides: ...*murders the Generic Guard* Anyone else?

*Stocke awakens in an Escher painting*
Stocke: Ok...where am I?  Let's retrace what happened.   Mission, failed mission, dead allies, jumped off bridge with serious injuries...oh...
Male Elf: You have awoken, KEEPER OF THE WHITE CHRONICLE!
STocke: Um...what?
Female Elf: KEEPER OF THE WHITE CHRONICLE! HE WHO CONTROLS FATE!
Stocke: ...I'm confused...can you at least tell me your names?
Male Elf: I'm Teo.
Female Elf: I'm Lippiti.
Stocke: ...and am I dead?
Teo: No, but you could be!
Stocke: That's not helping...
Lippiti: You failed at your mission...or did you?
Stocke: No, I'm pretty sure I failed.
Teo: But this point can fluctuate.  You hold the White Chronicle, you can erase those moments by going the other way!
Stocke: Uh, what?
Lippiti: JUST TURN LEFT!
Stocke: Oh, so you mean I should head south...even though that was on my right...but it's too late to do that.
Teo: We can send you back and you can make the decision again.  YOU HAVE THE POWER TO DO SO!
Stocke: I'm still lost...what is this place anyway?
Teo: Irrelevant, sending you back now with the White Chronicle!
Lippiti: Remember, TURN LEFT! When you have the chance, TURN LEFT!
Stocke: BUT SOUTH WAS RIGHT-...wait, I'm back out in the field...ok, that was probably just a dream...and I'm still wounded.  Wait, why am I not by a river...this place looks familiar. *Stocke looks to the side, sees Raynie, Marco, and Spy Person alive* ...ok, this is just weird...wait, I remember...TIME FOR HEROICS!
Raynie: ...hey Stocke, fork in the road.  North is the direct way home but...
Stocke: NO TIME TO WASTE! ARROWS COMING! GET DOWN! *Stocke jumps into middle of arrows for no good reason, seeing as Spy Person jumped down and avoided arrows*
Generic Enemy Archer: CRAP! They knew about us!? HOW! OUR PLAN WAS FLAWLESS!
Stocke: There's something I'm suppose to do here...
Voice of Lippiti: TURN LEFT!
Stocke: Right! Gotta go South! So guys...chase them, now!  Can't let them get away!
Generic Enemy Archer: WE REFUSE TO BE CAUGHT! *They suicide*
Stocke: ...and yet, they had plenty of time to run away...ah well.  Wait, there was a flaw in this turning south plan...
Marco: Hey Stocke, the area is barricaded off; this is too well planned for a simple attack...
Stocke: Right, that!  Umm...so can the combined strength of us push this?
Lippiti: TURN LE-...
Teo: *smacks Lippiti* He already did that!
Lippiti: Oh, right...this is where we Deus Ex Machina his way out of the situation, isn't it?
Teo: Yes, yes it is.  Hey Stocke, want super powers?
Stocke: Um, maybe?
Lippiti: TOO BAD NOW YOU HAVE SUPER STRENGTH! PUSH THE BARRICADE!
Stocke: ...ok *he does so*  Wait, if you guys can do that, why didn't you just change the past yourself?
Teo: We can't deal with problems directly, ONLY HELP OUT!
Stocke: Uh-huh...
Raynie: Stocke, who are you speaking too?
Stocke: Would you believe me if I told you some time elves?
Teo: DO NOT TELL HER OF THE WHITE CHRONICLE!
Stocke: What? It's not like she will believe me...
Raynie: Actually, that makes perfect sense.
Stocke: Oh, well, because that's totally NOT what is happening.  Nope!  Just an adrenaline rush! I totally didn't go through these events just 10 minutes ago with catastrophic results!
Raynie: Well, you're not being suspicious, let's get going!

*They get back to town without a hitch*
Stocke: Mission success, whoo!  And-...why am I back in an Escher Painting?
Teo: You succeeded, good job!
Lippiti: Yes, and just so you know, you can only go back in time to fixed points, because time is in flux!
Stocke: Why are my wounds still here? I changed the past!
Teo: You changed the world's past, but your personal past remains!
Stocke: So...if I die, it's game over?  But if someone else dies, I can be all "ABORT MISSION! RETRY!" until I get it right?
Lippiti: Pretty much!  You are the keeper of the White Chronicle after all, you have this power, use it wisely!
Stocke: So if I'm the guy controlling time...do I get a nice blue box that is bigger on the inside of which to move around in?
Teo: No, NOW GET BACK TO REALITY!
Stocke: Back to reali-...oh, hi everyone!  Was I asleep?
Raynie: Yes, you passed out due to wounds we have no clue how you got.
Marco: Yeah, and my healing powers couldn't save you, but MEDICAL SCIENCE COULD!
Stocke: But...Marco...we established you can't actually heal worth crap anyway...
Marco: I leveled up, so I learned how to use healing!
Stocke: I uhh...sure, why not.
Heiss: Ah, good, you two go, I need to speak to Stocke alone *they leave* So Stocke...was the WHITE CHRONICLE USEFUL FOR YOU!?
Stocke: (crap, he knows of the White Chronicle, he must want to use it for bad! They told me to never talk about it.) Well...you know...it was totally a good luck charm.  Yep!  Almost tripped over a rock, but managed to get on my feet! Totally good luck! I'd have tripped without it!
Heiss: And...?
Stocke: It's just a book...that gives good luck...THAT'S IT!
Heiss: I see...well, ok, I'll take your word for it!

*meanwhile, at the enemy castle*

Protea: I'm the queen of what is likely thje evil empire.  Excuse me as I flaunt my evilness.
Eurica: Um, is that really wise doing that?  I don't see any logic in your actions.
Protea: SHUT UP AND LEAVE!  This is all cryptic stuff to happen later in the game.
Eurica:  Really? I thought it was just a chance to force out an intro for the 3 of us.
Protea: Three? There's only two here.
Selvan: Yo.  I'm here too.  Dunno what the hell I am yet.

(If It's not obvious, I don't remember what the hell they talked about there, just Eurica yelling at Protea, then Selvan commenting on the scenario after she leaves, I apologize for the poorly written scene.)

*Stocke rests, and leaves room*
Stocke: Ah, time for a normal day.
Girl with Leaf Crown: HI STOCKE! YOU'RE BACK ALIVE!
Stocke: Hi Sonja...what's with the shouting?
Sonja: BECAUSE I LIKE SPEAKING THIS WAY!
Stocke: Can you...not?
Sonja: Ok, fine.  Are you better?
Stocke: Yep! Nothing can go wrong now!
Alistarian Soldier: STOCKE! DIE!!!
Stocke: Wait what? A Traitor!?
AS: Ahaahah! ACTIVATE SUPER POWER NOW! WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO NOW!?
Stocke: Umm...this looks ominous...
*knife nearly hits guy*
Rosch: Stop this at once, or you'll have to fight me.
AS: I MUST KILL STOCKE! *dies and turns to sand*
Stocke: ...awkward....
Sonja: That looks like the Sand Disease of people turning to sand when they die!
Rosch: Isn't that just a myth?
Sonja: Well, I think what happens is he ran out of Mana before dying, so his body just turned to sand.  Normally, people die, and the mana leaves them, here it was the other way around.
Stocke: Well, that's just plain weird...
Rosch: by the way, Stocke, I'm going to be promoted...wanna join my ranks?
Stocke: But I'm working under Heiss, he won't be happy.
Rosch: I can pull some strings...but only if you want to.
Stocke: I don't know...
Rosch: Think about it and tell me.  I won't force you to do anything you don't want.
Stocke: If only there was a sign to indicate what I should do *vision of Stocke looking at Rosch's dead body* OH COME ON! THAT'S NOT FAIR!
Lippiti: PSST! KEEPER OF THE WHITE CHRONICLE! THIS IS ONE OF THOSE POINTS WHERE TIME CONVERGES!  CHOOSE THE RIGHT PATH OR THE WORLD WILL BE DESTROYED!
Stocke: ...if you're trying to be secretive, WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING THIS AT FULL VOLUME!? Also, aren't I the only one who can hear you anyway, so what's the point of being secretive.
Lippiti: SHUT UP AND CHOOSE A DOOR AND DECIDE! THIS IS TOTALLY IMPORTANT!  Just remember, TURN LEFT!!!
Stocke: But it's a straight line...
Lippiti: TURN. LEFT.

Narrator: WHICH PATH WILL STOCKE CHOOSE!? Will he go with the old fart Heiss? Or will he choose his best friend?  Or will he do both for the sake of seeing everything get turned to shit and thus press the giant reset button because he's a jerk like that?  FIND OUT NExT TIME IN RADIANT HISTORIA ABRIDGED!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 04, 2013, 01:01:02 PM
The only way to get more GP before the Highwind (When you can buy it, do Chocobo racing or at least do different games) is grinding the bike minigame. This is not good design at all. It gets much better later on at least.

You aren't meant to do it this early very very clearly based on this restriction.  Design working as intended.  I consider it good design there personally.  BP carrying over would be better net design, but it generally functions.

I am with Snowfire in that I consider it a late Disc 2 or Disc 3 quest personally given that is the timeframe for everyone else' ultimate weapons and level 4 limits.  The fact that it is available that early IS a nice nod to the player and better implementation than similar things in other RPGs.  The prizes don't change and start off out of reach.  Then later in the game when they want you to have it they shift the goal posts closer.  That is better than randomly changing the item list in the Casino half way through the game just because.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 05, 2013, 02:45:18 AM
Speaking of FF games that haven't aged well. I was in the mood for a mindless dungeon crawl. Every couple years or so this happens and I start to think it might be fun to run a newspaper to replay FF1. Every time I am disabused of this notion as soon as I start playing the game but I keep doing it anyway. Tradition I guess. So I Hatbotted a team, and he was reasonably generous:

Fighter CROM (he laughs at your four fiends, he laughs from his mountain)
Thief CUJEL* (who mostly serves to remind me how awful thieves are, but it is of course wholly appropriate for him to smugly watch everyone else do the work)
White Mage LINA (look it was the only girl class)
Black Mage EDWIN (was hoping for a red mage)

Astos is a bag of dicks. I reset like a dozen times trying to get a fight where he didn't use either of the two (at most) actions he lived to take IDing someone. Stop iiiit, you're ruining my leveling parity! Eventually I had to just settle for having the most useless party member get behind (hint it's the thief).

Second half of the game is still Itemcast.gif. Remind me why I have mages.

Why does FF1 even have an INT stat.

(*Yes I realize I misspelled his name.)

~

So there's a pile of PS2 games I've been wanting to replay, but I can't bring myself to do so because they just look awful on the HDTV. I think I asked this in chat once but I can't recall if there was an answer: any good way to make PS2 games not look so grainy, granular, and generally shittastic on a modern TV? I don't care if FF1 looks like shit because it is FF1 and that is only accurate, but I would prefer SO3/Suikodens/et al to retain their familiar prettiness.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 05, 2013, 02:57:45 AM
That is one shitass party. No red mage and a thief? at least you have access to Temper, that still rules the world.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 05, 2013, 03:12:23 AM
Sit further away.  Get drunk.  Wear stunner shades.  Harden the fuck up and deal with lower res textures?  Port it to PC and download a texture pack.

I dunno, I personally go with harden up.  The game always looked that bad.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 05, 2013, 03:17:25 AM
That is one shitass party. No red mage and a thief? at least you have access to Temper, that still rules the world.

As long as there's at least one fighter in the party, the rest of the team could all be Ramus and you'd still make it through.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: hinode on December 05, 2013, 03:53:46 AM
Beat A Link Between Worlds over Thanksgiving weekend, then started up the Oracle of Seasons that I got as a preorder bonus. I have a still-working cartridge of Oracle of Ages, which I used to start up a linked game. Pretty close to finishing Seasons up now, just have the linked game final boss sequence left.

The aforementioned OoA was the latest Zelda game I played previously around its launch date, so my memory of the series was really bad by the time I started up ALBW. I've also never played any of the 3D Zelda games or the touchscreen-only ones, nor do I intend to do so in the near future. I'm glad I waited until after playing OoS before I made any comments, as it gave me an actual frame of reference to compare it to.

The biggest practical impact of item renting for me is that opens up the overworld really early on; with the Power Glove/Zora's Flippers/Pegasus Boots all available immediately after the first dungeon, in additional to all the action items being rentable for a low cost, you can reach almost everything in Hyrule near the beginning of the game, instead of the game handing you a slow drip of accessible locales as you complete the various dungeons in OoS. I enjoyed exploring the world maps in ALBW more than dungeon crawling, whereas with OoS the constant cycle of detours that led to nowhere without a later dungeon item got tedious to the point where I just broke down and followed a guide on everything in the overworld. In fairness I believe this is less of a problem with the earlier Zelda games, especially the original, but I definately recall it being an issue with Link's Awakening and OoA as well.

The other big difference in game design from what I recall of 2D Zelda tradition is that dungeons have fewer but mostly larger rooms. Pretty much every single room besides the entrance contains a puzzle, a boss/mini-boss, or a wave of mooks who unlock a chest when defeated, with no filler rooms that exist just to take up time or make a shape out of the map (which, in fairness, I don't believe ALTTP did either). I don't think this is a big deal either way if you've memorized everything/use a guide, but I did find the shorter dungeons to be convenient when going in blind, as it takes a lot less time to go around in circles figuring out where to go next. By contrast, in OoS I got through the first ~6 dungeons with minimal guide usage despite being not that good at Zelda puzzle solving, but by the end of OoS I found the levels got so large that any unnecessary backtracking just made things tedious. The existince of rooms that would throw you back to the entrance if you don't get through them quickly enough was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, in terms of just going and faqing absolutely everything in a dungeon (which took longer than any ALBW dungeon for me, even with guide help).

I feel like I should mentioned the non-linear dungeons that got hyped so much prerelease. It's certainly nice on paper, but for someone like me who doesn't normally replay Zelda games it matters a lot less than the hardcore Zelda fans who replay them over and over and use glitches for all sorts of crazy sequence breaking hijinks.

Combat mechanics are by and large the same as ALLTP except with eight-way targetting for ranged attacks and a unified stamina bar instead of separate bow/arrow/magic meters, which is fine by me. Based on my rusty memory of ALLTP I'd say that ALBW's boss difficulty is more even. There's definately nothing as time-consuming as ALTTP's Moldorm fight, and I think the hardest ALLTP bosses where somewhat harder than the toughest ALBW fights, but on the flipside nothing in ALBW is as laughable easy as Kholdstaire or Vitreous either. OoS is definately harder than either of them, even before considering that you're limited to a single potion instead of carrying around 4/5 bottles worth of fairies and/or potions.

I didn't mind the absence of trading chains at all, and all the mini-games are mercifully completely optional. Putting treasure dungeons in most of the hidden locations was a great touch, as was putting generally harder puzzles in those instead of mandatory dungeons. They reward players who can find and beat them with significant cash to help permanently buy items, but they don't lock everyone else out of major gameplay options. I don't think there's anything missable at all in ALBW either, except for maybe a minor rupee chest here or there.

In summary, ALBW isn't a game that's going to change the mind of someone who doesn't like 2D Zelda games at all, but for more casual/relapsed fans like me it's definately a nice entry in the series that polishes up various aspects of the series that have been annoying faq-bait before. I have some more comments on Oracle of Seasons as well, but this post is already getting kinda long so I'll save them for later.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 05, 2013, 05:43:52 AM
That is one shitass party. No red mage and a thief? at least you have access to Temper, that still rules the world.

As long as there's at least one fighter in the party, the rest of the team could all be Ramus and you'd still make it through.

Yeah I have to say, the Cid's party is above average, thanks to fighter/someonewithLife/whatever/whatever. Heck, the only reason fighter/anything isn't an above average party automatically is because technically 52% of possible parties include at least one fighter. <.<

Also yes, for the record, the Int stat does nothing. Same with the Luck stat (although it was at least was supposed to do something, running is just bugged). Poor FF1 stats.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on December 05, 2013, 05:47:51 AM
So what is FF1 magic damage based off of?  Is it just static?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 05, 2013, 06:01:48 AM
Interestingly it is based on Dex.

Warfrane - I have been playing this a lot with Laggy.  I still love this game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: DjinnAndTonic on December 05, 2013, 06:17:30 AM
Clearly the INT stat tells us how good the PCs are at solving puzzles and deciphering ancient texts! DnD rules, yo.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 05, 2013, 06:40:53 AM
For the srs answer: FF1 magic is based entirely off the target's magic defence and elemental affinities; caster stats have no effect. The game shows you Int but makes MDef a hidden stat because :ff1:.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 06, 2013, 12:23:55 AM
FF7- Finished. Short: Gameplay still some of the best work Square has done, even with the utter lack of challenge. Parts of the story are excellent and there's tons to like about the cast. All the minor polish issues and dumb PSX era artifacts are irritating beyond belief, but it doesn't lessen how good the game is.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 07, 2013, 04:25:56 AM
Radiant Historia Abridged:

Episode 2: Giving Reality the Finger!

Rosch: So, Stocke, have you made up your mind?
Stocke: (I must think about this carefully.) ...yeah, I'm going with you.
Rosch: Excellent!  You can take your two subordinates with you as well.  I'll deal with the specifics.
Stocke: Ok.

*in the city*
General Hugo: I HAVE BROUGHT YOU THE WORDS OF NOAH! YOU ARE LIKE MELTING SNOW UPON THE LAND THAT BRINGS ABOUT IT"S BEAUTY! WE ARE ONE! GO US!
Audience:  Yay us!
Hugo: It is a sad thing that Noah cannot speak for us...BUT IT IS NO WAY SUSPICIOUS!  Trust me, this is what he says!

*in an office*
Lt. General Raul: What a beautiful speech ;_;.  Such passion! Such poetry! Such...
Rosch: Um, sir, I kind of need to talk to you about something...
Raul: Such-...damn it, don't interrupt me when I'm getting sentimental!
Rosch: Sorry, but the speech you were talking about happened 3 hours ago...
Raul: DON'T JUDGE ME!
Rosch: ...anyway, about Stocke joining my crew, will him being part of Heiss' Specinct of Special Intelligence gathering be a big deal?
Raul: Well, actually, thinking on it, that's not even an official group.  Heiss just sort of made it and no one really cared because it was useful, so we just shrugged.
Rosch: And Stocke just kind of joined, right! 
Raul: Yeah, so using simple logic we can transfer him without Heiss having much of a leg to stand on, because officially, Stocke is not really a member of any group right now!
Rosch: Oh, thank you!
Raul: By the way, why do you want Stocke?
Rosch: Because SOMEONE thought it was a great idea to make my team nothing but new recruits who have never fought on the battlefield and I need someone whose actually experienced enough to set an example and well, you know...Stocke is those things...
Raul: ...and?
Rosch: ...and he also has a styling red cape which would raise the appeal value of my team by about 22%...
Raul: HA! I KNEW IT!

*later*
Rosch: So, men, we are having our first meeting here!
Stocke: Men? Those look like boys to me.
Raynie: Yeah...Rosch, is there something you're not telling us?
Rosch: They're new recruits, I'm pretty sure I DID tell you this off screen.
Marco: I think he did, but we just weren't paying attention because seriously, who cares?
Stocke: I was listening, I'm just pointing out the oddity of his statement...
Rosch: STOP ARGUING ABOUT SEMANTICS AND LET ME FINISH MY CAPTAIN SPEECH!
The 3 PCs: RIGHT! SORRY!
Rosch: Anyway, so all I ask is none of you die.  That's my one command.  My one goal is to make sure everyone lives!
Stocke: Gee, that sounds original...
Rosch: QUIET YOU!  Oh yeah, by the way, this is Stocke, he's kind of the ace on our team, and a good friend of mine.  PAY ATTENTION TO HIM BECAUSE YOU WILL LEARN A THING OR TWO ABOUT FIGHTING!
Stocke: ...can we just fast forward this part to something actually relevant, like...I dunno...the mission?
Rosch: Oh, right, our first mission is to GO TO ALMA MINES!  By the way, Stocke, meet Kiel, he's a Blade Dancer.
Kiel: Hi! I'm a Blade Dancer!
Stocke: Umm...ok?
Kiel: Yeah, I'm really good with a sword...just not at combat purposes, BUT IT WILL BE AN HONOR TO FIGHT ALONGSIDE YOU AND LEARN HOW TO STAB THINGS!


*one uneventful trip later*
Rosch: Here we are, so what's going on here?
Contact: Well, we're blocked off and the guy sending the explosives didn't come.  NOW I MUST GO BECAUSE I AM JUST AN INFO DUDE TALK TO THE WORKERS INSIDE!
Stocke: ...yeah, let's do what he said.
*into the mines*
Mining Soldier: Um, yeah, see...explosives didn't get here.
Rosch: Anything else?
Mining Soldier: ...and they were suppose to be here?
Stocke: We could send scouts out to find him...just saying...
Rosch: We could but it'd take too long for it too happen.
Kiel: I Know! We could ambush the enemy coming down this way anyway!  We're in a good position to do so, they don't know the way!
Rosch: While that is true, we don't have the man power to do it...still might be our best chance, anything else we should know?
Mining Soldier: Oh yeah, Selvan of Ganborg is said to be in the area...
Rosch: Oh, well...uh...that changes everything.  Stocke what do you think? AMBUSH OR SCOUTS!?
Stocke: (I must think carefully about this!) ...ambush?
Rosch: Ok, let's do it!

Narrator: So Stocke and co. tried an ambush, IT FAILED MISERABLY BECAUSE SERIOUSLY SINCE WHEN ARE THESE THINGS THAT EASY?! BAD END MORON!

*White Chronicle*
Lippiti: Ambush, smart idea, but too late!
Teo: Uh, yeah, what she said.  Do you know what you're suppose to do?
STocke: If I say yes, can I get a second chance at this?
Teo: ...I...guess...

*back tot he mines, repeat the sequence Stocke chooses Scout*
Kiel: They're taking too long...
Marco: I know! Maybe we should have ambushed.
Stocke: NO THAT IS A HORRIBLE IDEA TRUST ME! Wait, was there a right answer here?
*Teo and Lippiti appear out of nowhere*
Teo: You are stuck between a Rock and a Hard place, seems there is no right answer here.
Lippiti: HA! FOOLED YOU!
Stocke: You two are jerks, you know that? You said there is always a right answer!
Teo: ...ignoring Lippiti again because seriously, what I mean is that someone else has a Chronicle like yours...THE BLACK CHRONICLE!
Grimoire Weiss: A Black Book and a White Book? Oh come on!  We did that before it was cool.
Stocke: Who the hell are you?
Grimoire Weiss: Someone not from this game.  Now if you excuse me, I'll be taking my leave from this game forever!
Stocke: ...anyway...if someone can undo whatever I do, how can I make this timeline right.
Teo: Go to the other timeline, and do events that correspond with this.  Something you do in that timeline can perhaps make the Merchant delivering the explosives make it here.
Stocke: How does that work? It's an alternate timeline!
Lippiti: BECAUSE CHANGING THE PAST DUH!
Stocke: It's a different timeline! THAT MAKES NO SENSE!
Teo: What my sister means is that doing something in one timeline allows some of those events to "bleed over" into the other one, so things can change in subtle ways.  Remember, it's the same world, so they're interconnected.
Stocke: Oh, so...basically...reset, try again, come back after stuff is done?
Teo: That's one way to put it, yes.
Stocke: RIGHT! I know what to do!
Raynie: Um, Stocke, who the heck are you talking too?
Stocke: NO ONE I SWEAR! Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to jump into this book!
Raynie: What the hell are you talking about?
Stocke: Something you aren't going to remember because I technically never said it from your perspective GOOD BYE!
*Stocke jumps back to the decision making with Rosch*

Stocke: Yeah, sorry Rosch, I gotta stay with Heiss on this one.
Rosch: Oh, well, if that's your decision, I support it! I wish you the best of luck! (...jerk...)
Stocke: So...yeah...let's see what Heiss wants me to do!
*at Heiss*
Heiss: Stocke, I want you to beat up this Anti-Noah guy named Vlad.  He's a jerk and causing problems, go talk to the item shop for details!
Stocke: Why can't you give me details?
Heiss: Because reasons.
Stocke: Fair enough!

*at item shop*
Stocke: So...umm...info please?
Item Shop Guy: They're in the Pub, the guy is dressed in a dark hood, can't miss him...ALSO BUY SOMETHING NOW HEISS SAID YOU WOULD!
Stocke: Fine *Buys an herb just to shut the guy up*
*at Pub*
Stocke: *whistling nonchalantly*
Generic NPC: We get it! You're Nonchalant!
Black Hooded Man: Hey, do you have the ANTI NOAH STUFF!?
Bartender: DO I!? OF COURSE I DO!
Stocke: ...gee, THAT ISn"T OBVIOUS!  Now to stalk them for about 10 feet so I don't create a commotion!
*Stocke does exactly that*
Stocke: So...going to do something bad are we?
Black Hooded Man: YOU'LL GET OUT OF HERE ALIV-*is stabbed mid conversation*
Stocke: Well, that was disappointingly easy.
Raynie: Stocke! We're here to-*notices dead guy on ground*...help...
Stocke: Already done, let's go tell Heiss! *at Heiss* DEED IS DONE! BRING ON THE NEXT!
Heiss: Ok, there's problems with the Sand Fortress, it got taken over, go do stuff like meet a contact to tell you what's going on there because IT'S IMPORTANT AND SO IS ALMA MINE!
Stocke: ...ok...let's go gu-...Where the hell are Raynie and Marco?
Heiss: Getting drunk?
Stocke: ...*sigh*
*one collecting spree later, the group heads to the rendezvous spot*
Raynie: Where's the person we're suppose to meet?
Marco: Maybe we're suppose to go to the OTHER side of the river and meet them there?  There's a cave, makes logical sense.
Stocke: DAMN IT!
*one river crossing later*
Stocke: OK, are we in the right spot NOW!?
Marco: I think so?
Raynie: This is taking forever.
Stocke: We've been here for 5 seconds...
Raynie: THAT'S FOREVER! Maybe they're lost, LET'S GO FIND THEM AT THE MINES!
Marco: That's stupid! Let's wait here and give them the benefit of the doubt!
Raynie: No! You're stupid! Right Stocke!?
Stocke: (I have to think carefully about this) ...let's try to catch the person at the mines, because I'm bored.
Raynie: HA! I WIN!

*They get to mines*
Stocke: Um, there seems to be a major Grangor force here...
Marco: So...it's the 3 of us vs. all of them, we have the element of surprise...does anyone here know how to play Dirges?
Raynie: No, why?
Marco: Because we're basically screwed.
Stocke: Whatever, you guys go ahead and take care of it, I'll cover the rear (...by which I mean I'll take a quick trip to the White Chronicle...)

Narrator: So Stocke deciding that Raynie was the smarter one was a stupid decision and so he goes to choose Marco as the right one! BAD END!!!
Stocke: HEY!  That almost sounded insulting!
Narrator: Oh just get back to your game.

*back to the rendezvous point*

Stocke: So Raynie...shut up, we're waiting here.
Raynie: Damn it!
Contact Guy: Hi...do I know you?
Stocke: No, you don't (BUT I KNOW YOU!)
Contact: Whatever, anyway, HERE'S THE DETAILS! ALMA MINES HAS FALLEN! SO HAS THE SAND FORTRESS!  YOU'RE SUPPOSE TO ATTACK GRANGOR HEAD ON!  Also, Palomides was there but he isn't so you won't get killed.
Stocke: O...k?  I guess we can't take it over, but we can sneak in and work on some espionage mission, right?
Contact: Hell if I know, I'm just the messenger, GOOD DAY SIR!
Stocke: ...ass...
Marco: So...we're going to try and sneak in?
Stocke: Yeah, let's head over to that area!
*Part way down*
Merchant: HELP ME! I'M ATTACKED BY TWO USELESS THIEVES!
Bram: HEY! NOW I'M REALLY GOING TO KILL YOU!
Hertz: Why are we killing him again?
Bram: Because...it's fun?
Hertz: FAIR ENOUGH!
Stocke: Hey! Get away from him!
Raynie: Do you have to act all hero like?
Stocke: Yes?
Bram: That was a bad move!
Hertz: You will regret this.
Stocke: Do you seriously think you can beat me? We even have you outnumbered 3 to 2...well, ok, Marco isn't exactly useful, but that's irrelevant!
Marco: HEY!!!!
Hertz: OK! LET'S DO THIS!!!
Stocke: ...so...boss fight?
Bram: Boss fight.
*one boss fight later*
Bram: WE LOST! RUN AWAY!!!
*they run*
Merchant: You saved me! Now I can deliver these explosives! Except I'm too late apparently...here, you take them!
Stocke: Wait, you were the guy with the explosives?
Merchant: Yes, and now I'm alive, thank you!
Stocke: ...I wonder if these explosives can get through the mine in that alternate timeline!
Raynie: What the hell are you talking about?
Stocke: SOMETHING YOU WON'T REMEMBER BECAUSE IT NEVER HAPPENED! ...whoa, deja vu...
*Stocke goes back to alternate timeline to deal with Alma Mines, tells Rosch to send scouts*
Kiel: HEY! The scouts are already back!
Merchant: Yeah, we met along the way! Sorry, I tripped and couldn't get up!
Marco: Really now?
Merchant: YES! Anyway, HERE ARE BOMBS!
*they blow up rocks*
Rosch: Ah, good, let us head into the mines and find out what the enemy is up too!
*Bunch of goblin slaying later*
Kiel: Say, is it just me, or have we been only fighting Goblins?
Rosch: It's just you, WE MUST FIND THE ENEMY!
*Earthquake happens*
Raynie: ...:(
Rosch: Is there something wrong, Raynie?
Raynie: No! Nothing! I swear!
*Cave in happens, Rosch, Stocke and Co. are split from the other guys*
Stocke: Well, this sucks, guess we have no choice but to head further in?
Rosch: Pretty much.
Raynie: NO IT'S JUST LIKE BEFORE!
Stocke: Wait what do you mean!?
Raynie: Oh nothing ^^;

*end of the cave*
Rosch: Well, there seems to be a bunch of Grangor soldiers with explosives, they're clearly trying to break their way into the cave and use this to attack us.  Any ideas?
Stocke: Well, we could use their explosives against them.  I have these weaker explosives that are enough to blow that stuff up, not to cause a cave-in.  Even Weaker Explosives are dangerous.
Rosch: Wait, is it really that simple?
Stocke: Yeah, pretty much.
Raynie: WE CAN'T LET THEM KNOW WE'RE HERE!
Kiel: YES! THEY CANNOT KNOW THAT WE ARE HERE FOR THIS TO WORK!
*STocke, Rosch and Marco facepalm*
Rosch: Anyway...we have a plan.  Stocke, you know what to do.
Stocke: Yep!
*Stocke jumps into he middle of enemy foray*
Stocke: HEY LOOK AT ME I'M A TARGET!
Rosch: Not...what I had in mind...but we can make the most of this! Kiel, now!
*Kiel sets off the bombs, half the enemies are knocked down*
Stocke: NOW I'M AN ENEMY! *beats up a bunch*
Raynie: So Stocke, why did you let about 7 live?
Stocke: Because...Boss Fight?
Marco: Boss Fight.
Raynie: Oh ok!
*one Boss fight later*
Rosch: We did it! We succeeded in our first mission despite having mostly inexperienced boys!
Kiel: Yay us!
Raynie: Let's get out of here please ;_;
Rosch: Hold on, think we can use this against the enemy?  We can attack now!
Stocke: Actually...not really.  While yes, we can attack, don't you think they'd be watching this exact spot?
Rosch: RIGHT! A plan I come up with is stupid, good call! Lets' just blockade the thing but leave some forces here to patrol the area then.
*They do exactly that, back at town*

Marco: Man, a successful mission is awesome.
Raynie: Yeah, glad to be out of there!
Marco: Tell me, Raynie, why were you REALLY afraid of being in there?
Raynie: I just don't like that place OK!?
Marco: ...it's because our old group was killed in a cave-in too, wasn't it? You're still not over that/
Raynie: ...yes.  It's all taht monster's fault.  MONSTERS ARE SMART I TELL YOU!
Marco: No, they're stupid! It almost killed itself!
Raynie: That was all a cunning plan, I swear! THEY'RE SMART!
Marco: Nuh-uh! Monsters are stupid!
Raynie: You know what? YOU'RE STUPID!

Narrator: As Raynie and Marco get into a slap fight of...stupid...what will become of our heroes in the next adventures of...
Grimoire Weiss: Psst! Do you know the way back to Nier?
Narrator: Oh, yes, it's down the right, to the left, go into Cavia, then explode in a trainwreck.
Weiss: Ah, thank you!

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 07, 2013, 11:19:02 AM
Dark Souls Bow only:
Right before O&S.

At close range, bows are even worse than fist weapons (dodgerolls + shoot only gets you so far), but you get to trivialize a few enemies + do a lot of cool stuff if you know the game well.

DPS is so low I upgraded the Composite Bow super early (+15 before Sen's Fortress early) and put every stat point into damage at first. And it is definitely the best bow and all.

Build is:
27 STR
40 DEX
Everything else into vit

But I mostly buy arrows instead of levels now.
I am almost tempted to go through NG+ just to use all these expensive cool arrows (poison arrows, dragonslayer arrows) on earlygame enemies.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 07, 2013, 06:33:19 PM
That is about where bow damage maxes out, yeah. Toss on large arrows and I think you hit like 430 attack power? Which is more respectable than I thought it would be.

Surprisingly the hardest fight in this mode is freaking Nito. After the first attempt I just caved and summoned someone (the only time in that run where that felt necessary). It just looked logistically impossible solo. And I ran the same stat build as you, so I had plenty of HP to spare! You do such pitiful damage to skeletons, especially considering you have to switch to a divine bow (which is presumably not the composite bow because that's your main weapon and there's only one and you want it +15) that you can have no realistic expectation of killing the goons before he closes in on you. I think my partner basically soloed the boss in the time it took me to kill the initial skelemob. Must have been a pitiful sight on the other side (it certainly was on mine).

I also had an unexpected death from Centipede Demon when he chose this time to demonstrate (after me sinking hundreds of hours into the game) that he can in fact chuck fireballs at you from across the room. What in the fuck?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 08, 2013, 01:21:15 AM
Toejam & Earl, made a fixed world run. I don't particularly like fixed world, but the trophy for it was the only one I hadn't got, so. I got randomized five times over the course of the game. The fact that two of those occurrences were immediately consecutive (meaning I did not practically lose anything) was small consolation considering three of the other times were immediately followed by (re)discovering the total bummer.

I don't know what I did to anger the RNG gods so. Someone please tell me, I will never do it again.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 08, 2013, 03:12:19 AM
Quote
I don't know what I did to anger the RNG gods so. Someone please tell me, I will never do it again.

Not being more vocal about your Toe Jam and Earl Playthroughs to the point of spelling them out in gruelling detail to the game justice maybe?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on December 08, 2013, 07:26:11 AM
Pokemon Y - Caught 'em all, as the kids say.

Phoenix Wright Duel Destinies - Just completed the first case. Pretty fun, even if the defendant is kinda annoying.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 08, 2013, 07:13:53 PM
Pandora's Tower: 4 Down, 9 to go!

...this game is starting to get tedious...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on December 09, 2013, 05:07:44 PM
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Finished. Game's writing quality is better than I remembered. The whole cast is relatively well handled. Game is a bit annoying for not having a text skip function.

There are issues where (either due to localization or writing) the actual thing you're supposed to do is rather unclear at a given moment, which leads to some annoyed wandering and presenting of all of the options.

Dunno why everyone thought case 1-5 was so bad when I brought it up in chat. Mostly filler, but it works. It does have some annoying, shoehorned in DS things, but they weren't too egregious. *shrugs* Not the best, but not the worst. Certainly didn't feel a strong case to skip it. iOS version has a bug where you have to make the strokes to write Ema's name in a specific order and direction. That was annoying.

PW: Justice for All: Onto this now. Lulz present the glasses. That one felt off.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on December 09, 2013, 05:39:04 PM
There's a local DL sphere of hate for 1-5.  At actual PW fansites it's erratic and unusually mixed.  (Some people love it, some people like it, some people hate it.)  I thought it was great at the time myself, and while I've cooled a bit on it (most notably the narrative slant is WAY THE HELL TOO LIGHT ON LANA), it has its moments.  Also Ema is a way better sidekick than Maya.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on December 09, 2013, 07:00:30 PM
Mmm. I dunno. I didn't feel too much for Ema. She struck pretty much all the same chords to me that Maya did.

Honestly, the only real problem I had with the case was some of the time waster stuff that the DS created (lulz fingerprinting) and that the case had a couple more headscratchers than 1-4 (one of which I'm pretty sure was a localization error?). I thought the narrative was solid and better explored the relationship between the police and the prosecuters, as well as better explained who stuff like Von Karma happened, as well as better positioning Edgeworth.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 10, 2013, 12:05:09 AM
(spoilers I guess, hahaha like spoilers could ruin the serious "plot" of 1-5)

Since I wasn't in chat at the time I don't think, I will definitely have to take my time to add my voice to the 1-5 team. While I like aspects of the case - I agree with Snowfire that Ema is better than Maya (though I find everyone PW has slotted into that shtick better than Maya), and I find Jake Marshal hilarious - overall my opinion on it is very negative. Damon Gant's murder plot is mind-numbingly stupid and the confrontation with him is far too drawn out (I tend not to enjoy the parts of the case when the killer is reduced to a quivering mess grabbing at any lifeline he can, in 1-5 that felt like it went on for ages; I really don't need to hear about PW-verse evidence law which has never been brought up before and never will be again), Lana is really awful and this is kinda glossed over, etc. As a serious plot case it's absolutely bottom-tier to me. As a final case of PW1 it ruins the tone and narrative arc of the game which cases 1 through 4 had going (especially since it brings back Edgeworth, whose character arc was nicely closed in 1-4; his presence in 1-5 both contradicts the sequels' timeline and adds nothing to his character). As a comic case it has its moments but they are too far between.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 10, 2013, 11:13:20 PM
Pandora's Tower: Tower #5 down!  Also, the game randomly decided to acknowledge that Aeron doesn't talk much and seems to abruptly decide he's the "Strong Silent Type."  Ok, fair, but still doesn't change the fact that while these are more "Action louder than words" people, they still respond when it's appropriate with verbal cues when your hot girlfriend talks to you. Or just say "As you wish."  That works too!

Radiant Historia Abridged:

Dias: So, Selvan...the queen is annoyed we failed?
Selvan: Pretty much, but ehy, we still have THAT SPY THAT IS TOTALLY NOT HEISS in the enemy.
Dias: Ah good good!

Stocke: So let me get this straight, Raul, you're sending us to the frontlines with rookie soldiers outside of me, Rosch, and my 2 subordinates because...
Raul: Because Hugo demanded it.  Look, I don't like it either, and frankly I think he just wants you guys dead because you're getting too popular to the point of stealing attention from him...but I DID NOT SAY THAT OK!? THIS STATEMENT NEVER HAPPENED.
Rosch: But you DID just say.
Raul: NEVER. HAPPENED! Anyway, go meet with the Valkyrie, someone who suffered a similar fate to you.  You know, became Popular, suddenly was sent to frontlines to die but hasn't actually died yet?  Yeah you're to help her.  AGAIN. THESE ARE NOT MY ORDERS!
Stocke: Can we say no?
Raul: No.  You can however look into Heiss.  I think he's trying to screw you guys over.  Make sure you meet the messenger along the way.

*they meet messenger*

Messenger: Yeah, Heiss is totally trying to screw you guys...by the way, I'm totally suppose to stop you guys as well.  MWAHAHAHAH! ENGUA-OH GOD MY SPLEEN!
Marco: Man, I hate evil nameless NPCs *pulls sword out*
Stocke: ...did Marco just do something offensive related?
Raynie: Yes, yes he did.
Stocke: Ok, good thing he's dead.
Messenger: I'm not quite dead.
Stocke: Yes you are.
Messenger: No I'm not.
Stocke: You'll be stoned dead in a moment.
Messenger: I'm getting better!
Stocke: Oh don't be such a baby.
Messenger: I feel HAPPY! I feel HAPPY!!! I feel *Sand Plagued*
Stocke: ...well, didn't see THAT coming.  Well, let's wait for the right moment to tell Rosch we're being betrayed.
*Next Scene*

Stocke: Yo Rosch, Heiss is totally betraying us.
Rosch: Well that sucks...anyway, we're here, I'm starting a war meeting with...what's your name again.
Viola: Viola.
Rosch: Right! This Valkyrie chick!  GOOD BYE EVERYONE FOR LIKE 10 MINUTES!

Narrator: Will something significant happen?  Will Marco ever do something competent again?  Will the game remember Kiel exists?
Kiel: HEY! I was totally in this sequence in the game!
Narrator: Shut up, you're just a useless guy with a name!
Kiel: ...jerk...
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 11, 2013, 12:35:56 AM
That is about where bow damage maxes out, yeah. Toss on large arrows and I think you hit like 430 attack power? Which is more respectable than I thought it would be.

Surprisingly the hardest fight in this mode is freaking Nito. After the first attempt I just caved and summoned someone (the only time in that run where that felt necessary). It just looked logistically impossible solo. And I ran the same stat build as you, so I had plenty of HP to spare! You do such pitiful damage to skeletons, especially considering you have to switch to a divine bow (which is presumably not the composite bow because that's your main weapon and there's only one and you want it +15) that you can have no realistic expectation of killing the goons before he closes in on you. I think my partner basically soloed the boss in the time it took me to kill the initial skelemob. Must have been a pitiful sight on the other side (it certainly was on mine).

I also had an unexpected death from Centipede Demon when he chose this time to demonstrate (after me sinking hundreds of hours into the game) that he can in fact chuck fireballs at you from across the room. What in the fuck?

I was prepared for Nito because of this post, and took a Divine Bow +10 and some magical arrows from the giant blacksmith. Completely pathetic. Everytime I nearly killed the skeletons, Nito did that big black wave which semi-killed them to full life.

I stayed at the start of the area to only attrack him + two skeletons, and beat him with regular Composite Bow and regular arrows by just ignoring his pals.

Surprisingly all the DLC bosses were very easy this time. Gwyn's obviously still kind of a bitch, but I nearly beat him with the freaking dragonslayer bow. (my other one broke)
Most resets yet? Iron Golem. Srsly.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on December 11, 2013, 11:30:34 AM
Pokémon X - up to 580 obtained, 600 seen

Those seem like auspicious amounts to stop on. I guess I could get Weavile if I felt like boring myself to death with Battle Maison/Institute battles but then I'd have 581/600 and it wouldn't be as natty. (Ignoring Mountain being 150/151 being less natty than Mountain being 151/151.) I could probably dredge up an extra 9 monsters (I'm waiting on 5 from my brother as it is) but would the seen amount line up? Unlikely.



Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies - played through dlc episode

For a couple of reasons, it feels like it would have been better to play it before finishing the maingame. Oh well. Still pretty good.

Does anyone know if there are any further DLC episodes planned?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 12, 2013, 03:18:13 AM
Pandora's Tower: You know those towers I've been completing? ...yeah, that's another one down, shock and awe!

Also, a scene where Aeron actually was responsive.  Yeah, his lines were generic, and few word answers, but it actually came off like "a man of few words!" and not a silent protagonist.  See, it's not that hard to sell the "Strong Silent" type without making him actually silent.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 12, 2013, 09:30:09 PM
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness- More or less done. I'm right before the final boss chain. It's an interesting enough game. It's much better than Lament of Innocence, and  features some really excellent music. The Innocent Devil system is neat as well- think of it as an expanded version of the familiars in SotN.  Combat is mostly easy, though it spikes some at the end of the game if you don't use the steal system/forge the ultimate gear.  The backgrounds in the stages are okay. They're a little on the bland side (I prefer 2-D castlevania graphics) and the levels themselves are very linear. I didn't mind the levels beign linear, but it certainly isn't replay friendly the way SotN or the handheld games are.  It's worth a spin for the PS3 price, but don't go in expecting miracles. The plot/writing is Castlevania/10, so the cheese is to the max.



That said, I'm not at all a fan of 3-d action games and this game reminded me why. Too visually distracting and reflex reliant. (The same reason I detest most every RPG with timed hits, for that matter)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 13, 2013, 12:08:55 AM
Played the game earlier this year, generally agreed on most stuff. Yeah, I didn't steal a goddamn thing and consequently the last few bosses took a notable upswing in durability due to my inability to craft top-tier weapons. Final Drac was a particular nuisance, but that's also partly due to awkward design (in the fine "What the fuck is happening in this fight" tradition of SotN). Drac round one was actually a pretty satisfying fight! (Mostly for the music.) I would've been okay with it ending there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on December 13, 2013, 01:02:43 AM
Onechanbara:  So this seems like a pretty brainless game, you just slash zombies repeatedly.  Then you run into some enemies that you can't hurt then your sword starts sticking in enemies then you go berserk and your life starts draining and WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?

So I start looking at Gamefaqs and apparently this is one of the most poorly documented games in gaming history.  To the point that the publishers of the game had to make their own (high quality!) FAQ just so people could understand how to play.  So now it is a pretty deep game if you know what the hell you're doing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 13, 2013, 01:08:47 AM
Also: Curse of Darkness did one thing very well- it made hearts and candles *really* matter. It's just a neat touch, makes it feel more like a traditional castlevania. I was hitting candles in the final dungeon for the meat healing (Which ruled), because potion healing was so limited.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 13, 2013, 02:25:12 AM
Fallout New Vegas: Started a new character because the PS3 broke and I can't play Xillia.  Anyway, felt like going on Hardcore mode.  I've almost drank myself to death twice!  This is fun~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 13, 2013, 02:26:02 AM
Nearly means you weren't hardcore enough.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 14, 2013, 12:38:22 PM
Wild Arms V - Fuuuuuuuuck this game.  The first hour or so is the most tedious boring bullshit with little bits of animu plot of the most annoying kind (grrrrrrr you found thing I lost!  Mad at you! Except I am not and want to make out.).  This is after you have run through a dungeon on a cold open.  Then you get to go to the world map which is hands down the worst I have seen in many years.  You move incredibly slowly, the camera is close enough and the whole things looks like. A lower quality dungeon rather than a world map.  It is lazy, hacky and terrible and clearly only there because people complained about it in 4.  Then you get to run around the map with no direction and no fucking map.  If you go the wrong way the game only tells you after you have walked to a dungeon.

Once you get there it is a boring dungeon with patchy plot sequences, half a full party and you don't get access to skills because of the different skill systems.  One of your two gimped characters is even more gimped than the other.

This is a terrible way to start a game.  It is the complete opposite of WA4 which as a whole is a very punchy short well paced game.  At least when Triace make me have a slow shitty opening they are pretending it is plot instead of a moving slowly through dungeon and "world map".

Edit - Game would be better if shitty Virginia (Rebecca) shot Dean in the face and the game was hot sweaty lesbian action a with Avril.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 14, 2013, 04:38:06 PM
Speaking as someone who quite likes WA5 overall, that post is still pretty much spot on and I hope to see more. <3
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on December 14, 2013, 05:52:49 PM
PW5 - Holy shit I love the defendant of Case 2. What a strange fellow.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 14, 2013, 06:25:40 PM
caw-caw-caw-caw
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 14, 2013, 06:53:17 PM
Pandora's Tower: 8 down! 4 to go...or is it 5?  I can't tell if the game ends at the 12th or 13th tower...probably 13th because "You got the last macguffin! OH NO! BAD STUFF HAPPENED! ONE MORE DUNGEON BECAUSE FINAL BOSS!" will occur.

Also, I'm seeing a pattern with the second set of dungeons...in that they're all basically the same thing as the first 5, only MORE ADVANCED!!! but somehow simpler because you already know all the tricks the game is going to pull.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 15, 2013, 04:50:57 AM
Fallout New Vegas: Went to Honest Hearts to get sweet sweet .45 auto SMG and grab green gecko hides to make the armor.  After an inordinate amount of green gecko kills hampered by me being low level enough that they rarely spawn, I made the gecko-backed reinforced metal armor!  Then promptly replaced it in five minutes with the desert ranger gear.  GG.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 15, 2013, 05:15:59 AM
WA5 - Map sucks more than I first said, you can't save anywhere on it.  So you end up leaving town, crawling through a dungeon to get to a dungeon to crawl through to the end of, have to walk out of that dungeon then crawl through another dungeon to get back to town.  One of these dungeons is significantly longer than the other, is less interactive and has a significantly shittier map.  It is at least a decent representation off a bleak wasteland that is actually full of trees and plants.  It is boring though! 

Also I was wrong about not getting a full party as quickly, because you are capped at 3 peeps in battle.  Why in the fuck that just hampers the good combat system.

Now that I have mediums... Am I just being nostalgic for the depth of the skill sets in WA4 or do mediums come with less skills than characters had in 4?  Because that also hampers the good combat system they are reusing.

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 15, 2013, 05:38:01 AM
WA5 is like a marriage of a bunch of ideas that WA3 and WA4 had, except they weren't implemented as well in either, so it falls into an uncomfortable middle ground of both.  I don't think the game is that bad, but as far as gameplay concerns go, they didn't think things over as much as either game.

Playing WA4 and then starting a WA5 file shortly after (that I really should get back too), the differences are immediately apparent; kind of hard to overlook how Move+Act becoming a standard completely changes things.

I will give WA5 one thing on gameplay: They did allow for a variety of hex formations.  They don't limit themselves to the perfect Hexagon shape that WA4 used, so the game mixing things up in that regard is kind of neat.


THAT SAID, onto a game completely unlike Wild ARMs outside of the dungeon crawling and puzzles! ...ok, maybe it's got more in common with Wild ARMs than I thought...

Pandora's Tower: Big Flaming Tower of DOOM!!!! #2 beaten.  Hey look, Elena's becoming a psychopath! Are we actually having something that resembles plot development?  I sure hope so!  Only took about 75% of the game of doing the EXACT SAME THING EVERYTIME!

...ok, there are Elena dream sequences, except that they make little sense right now.  I'm sure they're intended too until the last one where the game goes "AND THIS IS WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT!" which I wouldn't mind if the game had notable plot other than "Aeron is a really damn dedicated Boyfriend."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on December 15, 2013, 06:01:40 AM
Mediums give you five OCs and the fifth comes in at Lv90 and you only get to equip one at a time ever.  Not that any of the final set of OCs looked that great.   Not sure what the heck they were smoking there.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 15, 2013, 06:11:46 AM
Orcs Must Die 2- Been playing a 5x the number of Orcs mod. It passes the time till Defense Grid 2 comes out.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 15, 2013, 06:20:42 AM
The one good thing WA5 did compared to 4 gameplay-wise (besides the varied hex formations as Meeple mentioned) is giving you more badge slots quickly, as well as a good array of badges to fill them. It doesn't make up for the gutting the skill system got, but it is something.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 15, 2013, 12:50:38 PM
WA5 - Shitty Brad (Greg) plot still the best.  It was cool when Brad and Clive had those bits too.  Carol is what you get if Trance was cosplaying Rudy (If Carol isn't a robot then her animations upon meeting you at first are fucking terrifying and she can die in a fire.)

Also one more Wild Arms game with Niu as a villain out of nowhere.  We are batting 6 for 6 now aren't we?

Holy fucking shit they have finally decided to give up and assume that their target audience is that fucking dense.  There is a faction called The Moderates that are fighting another faction who will do anything by any means at any cost to achieve their goals.  I don't know if they have explicitly been called The Extremists yet but you are 1 step away from it guys.  I know majour plot elements in WA games are not known for their subtlety but the politics ones are normally not quite so blatantly explicitly labelled.

More badge slots is kind of neat but I need more access to interesting badge choices to make it worth it (Counter build with Comet Mark and Arctic Blade is neat and only real thing I have going and I have three slots so am already at the point of going "Not sure if stack and should be throwing on 100 hp or not").  This early on not enough badges are worth considering.  Stat badges are either too negative on their downside/too weak to be worth a downside.  Thief badge for Avril and HP ones are really all I care about for stats.  Knight badge would be okay but Sword Medium users have other good badges available and everyone else wants Magic if only for items (Sword users may also). 

Sea medium snoozes Luck Medium rulezes.

I feel no reason to use Dean for a few reasons, primarily I don't use him because I want in battle voices to match up for all characters and I had to turn off his spoken clips.  Not because Yuri Lowenthal is annoying.  It is because some fucking idiot decided to make him speak every time you open the map. Argh shut up shut up diediediediedie.  But like gameplay wise his stat spread isn't that different from Greg and Greg gets Ranged basic physical.  Slap sword on them both and Greg just has so much more flexibility with Dash.  The ammo difference wasn't noticeable at 2 on Greg, now that ammo pools scaling upwards, lol.  I assume something scales up in ammo use soon or ammo pools scaling upwards on later Arm Parts is going to pretty much eliminate Ammo as a gameplay feature.  I would even use Carol in place of him.  Rebecca slots Sword just fine too and Carol can run Luck (Shoot Anywhere pretty cool!).

Everything having move and act fucks up so much stuff in the system.  It makes it harder to control the field (possibly by intent), it slows down combat a ton because all the AI is ADD as fuck and moves when there is no need to, it makes Jump even more niche than it already was (thankfully they put it on two mediums so it can be extra not used) and all in all on your normal hex grid it mostly kills positioning matter.  So it is a good thing they have the varied layouts.

Edit - Oh and speaking of ADD AI Balam is annoying as fuck as a boss.  Isolate, Replace and Warp.  All while walking around.  Opening move was walk forward, Warp back to starting position.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 15, 2013, 01:12:59 PM
LET'S HAVE A LITTLE LOOKSIE

LET'S HAVE A LOOK AROUND

LET'S HAVE A LITTLE LOOKSIE--

*Dean muted*

Seriously is there anyone who DIDN'T mute Dean a minute into exploring WA5's world map. I'm so relieved they at least gave the option.

~

Fallout New Vegas: Went to Honest Hearts to get sweet sweet .45 auto SMG and grab green gecko hides to make the armor.  After an inordinate amount of green gecko kills hampered by me being low level enough that they rarely spawn, I made the gecko-backed reinforced metal armor!  Then promptly replaced it in five minutes with the desert ranger gear.  GG.

Is the .45 that good? I've never actually used it. I tend to ignore things where the ammo pool starts in an expansion because I get nervous about oh noes ammo shortage if I don't have like a thousand spare rounds in stock or something idiotic like that (also I tend to main energy weapons and always wind up murdering the sole energy weapon vendor in New Vegas, so gogo Cid planning skills). My favorite the last run through the game (paused just prior to the DLC, for whenever I felt like running them again) wound up being the 12.7mm, which I love because it sounds like a futuristic laser machinegun* and I can unload it in a deathclaw's face at medium range and murder the fuck out of the thing before it even has a chance to close to melee.

Also I habitually run with the Vault 34 security armor. It looks like ass and is only sort of decent as armor but it's incredibly cheap to repair and it's not like I see my character anyway (I prioritize responsibly). Alternately Sierra Madre security armor (same reasons) or Christine's stealth suit for sexiness. I...don't think I've ever actually crafted a single item in FONV outside of like weapon repair kits (SO MANY WEAPON REPAIR KITS).

(*Yes I know there are genuine futuristic laser machineguns. I don't particularly like them.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: PlasmaKappa on December 15, 2013, 01:25:16 PM
Starbound: I extracted the brain of an innocent bird and got a 170 DPS axe when I had a 28 DPS hammer
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 15, 2013, 02:50:48 PM
Fallout New Vegas: Went to Honest Hearts to get sweet sweet .45 auto SMG and grab green gecko hides to make the armor.  After an inordinate amount of green gecko kills hampered by me being low level enough that they rarely spawn, I made the gecko-backed reinforced metal armor!  Then promptly replaced it in five minutes with the desert ranger gear.  GG.

Is the .45 that good? I've never actually used it. I tend to ignore things where the ammo pool starts in an expansion because I get nervous about oh noes ammo shortage if I don't have like a thousand spare rounds in stock or something idiotic like that (also I tend to main energy weapons and always wind up murdering the sole energy weapon vendor in New Vegas, so gogo Cid planning skills). My favorite the last run through the game (paused just prior to the DLC, for whenever I felt like running them again) wound up being the 12.7mm, which I love because it sounds like a futuristic laser machinegun* and I can unload it in a deathclaw's face at medium range and murder the fuck out of the thing before it even has a chance to close to melee.

Also I habitually run with the Vault 34 security armor. It looks like ass and is only sort of decent as armor but it's incredibly cheap to repair and it's not like I see my character anyway (I prioritize responsibly). Alternately Sierra Madre security armor (same reasons) or Christine's stealth suit for sexiness. I...don't think I've ever actually crafted a single item in FONV outside of like weapon repair kits (SO MANY WEAPON REPAIR KITS).

(*Yes I know there are genuine futuristic laser machineguns. I don't particularly like them.)

.45 auto is pretty good yeah.  The super hand load rounds are 1.3x damage and -4 enemy DT making them some of the better rounds around.  You don't need to worry about .45 ammo outside Zion though, Vendertron starts stocking the stuff once you're done there, even though he pre-stocks Lonesome Road ammo.  I'm gonna grab some 12.7 for the survivalist's rifle.  Stuff just doesn't exist in Zion though which is annoying.

All my previous PC playthroughs were abusing the shit out of Light armors being way better.  So this time around I felt like going giant heavy-armored unstoppable death machine.  Once I get back to the Mojave I'm gonna grab the Avenger minigun and Power Armor Training before heading into Loansome Road and complete that so I can grab the Scorched Sierra Madre Power Armor after the bombs fall.

I was against the gatling lasers for a while too, but then I tried the Sprtel-Wood 9700 and it was fancy-awesome.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on December 15, 2013, 09:35:17 PM
Fallout New Vegas: Started a new character because the PS3 broke and I can't play Xillia.  Anyway, felt like going on Hardcore mode.  I've almost drank myself to death twice!  This is fun~

You should play it with J.E. Sawyer's mod to put a cherry on it.

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/JSawyer (http://fallout.gamepedia.com/JSawyer)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 15, 2013, 10:26:37 PM
Fallout New Vegas: Started a new character because the PS3 broke and I can't play Xillia.  Anyway, felt like going on Hardcore mode.  I've almost drank myself to death twice!  This is fun~

You should play it with J.E. Sawyer's mod to put a cherry on it.

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/JSawyer (http://fallout.gamepedia.com/JSawyer)

I don't have the Hardcore Achievement yet so I wanted to do it before I tried out JESawyer.

EDIT: Speaking of Fallout New Vegas: Completed Honest Hearts.  Originally I was just gonna go kill white legs and didn't give a shit about speech checks, but rereading the Survivalist Logs convinced me to go for the mercy end since at that points I practically was the Survivalist.  Once back in the Mojave I went and grabbed the Avenger.  Along the way I ran into a couple deathclaws, but the .45 SMG cuts them up good.  The young ones can' even get through my DT.  The Avenger itself is sadly disappointing, though that's partially because of condition at the moment.  A full box of ammo couldn't kill one damn sentry bot.  That means its nightkin hunting time!  Gotta get that condition up.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 15, 2013, 10:29:05 PM
*Cid scans list of changes*

-Haha the Van Graafs were set Neutral originally what.
-The King fuckin' better be flagged Good.
-Nerfed Sunset Sarsaparilla, nooo! (This is my principal source of healing. I almost never use stimpacks.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on December 16, 2013, 02:47:25 AM
Wait a sec, did Grefter just compared me to Volsung? This is insulting.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 16, 2013, 03:08:27 AM
Duo of course.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Captain K. on December 16, 2013, 03:45:55 AM
Tomb Raider:  beaten.  Great game.  The realism was really high.  Graphics were great, movement and combat felt smooth.  I don't know what they did to that poor voice actress but you could really believe she was getting murdered.

The game's biggest flaw is related to its biggest strength.  Because it is so realistic the parts of it that are not realistic stick out like a sore thumb.  Lara can take so much damage and regenerate so quickly the Solarii probably think they're fighting the T-1000.  Which isn't to say the combat isn't fun, but kind of ruins the atmosphere that the rest of the game sets up.  And as for plot, it can be summed up as "I'm reunited with my crew!  Oh no I am separated from my crew by yet another load-bearing Solarii."  Keeping Lara solo just felt contrived after a while.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on December 16, 2013, 06:25:36 AM
Fallout New Vegas: Started a new character because the PS3 broke and I can't play Xillia.  Anyway, felt like going on Hardcore mode.  I've almost drank myself to death twice!  This is fun~

You should play it with J.E. Sawyer's mod to put a cherry on it.

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/JSawyer (http://fallout.gamepedia.com/JSawyer)

I don't have the Hardcore Achievement yet so I wanted to do it before I tried out JESawyer.

EDIT: Speaking of Fallout New Vegas: Completed Honest Hearts.  Originally I was just gonna go kill white legs and didn't give a shit about speech checks, but rereading the Survivalist Logs convinced me to go for the mercy end since at that points I practically was the Survivalist.  Once back in the Mojave I went and grabbed the Avenger.  Along the way I ran into a couple deathclaws, but the .45 SMG cuts them up good.  The young ones can' even get through my DT.  The Avenger itself is sadly disappointing, though that's partially because of condition at the moment.  A full box of ammo couldn't kill one damn sentry bot.  That means its nightkin hunting time!  Gotta get that condition up.

God damn, the survivalist.  It's amazing how plain text in a room can be so evocative when games so frequently fail to pull that off.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on December 16, 2013, 05:00:42 PM
PW5 - DLC case. I can't stop d'aaaawwwwing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on December 16, 2013, 05:08:13 PM
Star Ocean 4 - 'kay 'kay 'kay 'kay 'kay
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on December 16, 2013, 05:10:57 PM
throw it out the spaceship hatch
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 16, 2013, 06:37:25 PM
Radiant Historia Abridged:

Narrator: We Find our heroes sitting around, twiddling their thumbs waiting for Rosch to tell them what to do next.
Stocke: What the hell are you talking about? Some guy already told us Rosch was ready, and that's what we're going to do!
Narrator: Look, it's my story and I tell it however I damn want!
Stocke: Fine, be wrong!
Raynie: Stocke, who are you talking to?
Stocke: Doesn't matter, what matters is we go see what Rosch wants!  But first, I have something to do!

*Stocke goes to Kiel*
Kiel: SERGEANT! TEACH ME HOW TO FIGHT!
Stocke: First, I'm pretty sure I got promoted to Lieutenant.  Secondly, ok (but really I am going to learn how you sword dance! That stuff is cool!)
*they train and learn from each other, which somehow upgrades Stocke's out of battle slash*


*they go*
Rosch: So we're going to play defensive while Viola over here is going to the front lines to meet Granorg's next attack.
Stocke: That sounds awfully suicidal...
Viola: We could swap places if you want!
Stocke: No, not at all!  Being on guard is fine by me!

*mission is set forth*
Stocke: Man, I'm bored, why did I decide to stay in the guard squad again?
Rosch: Because you yourself said it was a suicidal mission?
Stocke: Oh, right.
Marco: So...anyone wanna play Hearts?
Messenger: Sir! The Valkyrie is having problems with Dias, WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS!?
Rosch: The mission is to STAY HERE!  I think we should do that.
Kiel: WE SHOULD SEND REINFORCEMENTS!  We have enough men here!
Rosch: I'm the leader around here!
Kiel: YEAH AM I'M NOT! SO MY OPINION IS BETTER!
Stocke: (I have to think carefully about this one.)  I think Reinforcements might not be a bad idea?
Rosch: But how will we defend here?
Stocke: We send half the troops to help her, and keep half of them here.
Rosch: Ok, I guess that'll work.  Let's do it!

*BAD END*
Teo: You had barely enough troops to push back an offensive with everyone there, HOW THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU'D DO IT WITH HALF THE TROOPS?
Stocke: Because...uhh...hey, what's that?
Teo: Huh, what?
*Stocke runs through the node back to the decision point*
Teo: ...can't believe I fell for that one.
Lippti: Hey where did he go?
Teo: ...not even going to dignify that with a response...

*back at base*
Stocke: Yeah, we should keep to the mission.  Reinforcements is a stupid idea seeing as we barely have enough troops to stop an offensive as is, no way half the troops would work! NOT AT ALL!
Teo's Voice: HEY! I told you that!
Rosch: Right, we'll stay defensive!
*more thumb twiddling later*
Marco: So...anyone wanna play hearts?
STocke: NO!  Say, that guy is suspicious...*points to soldier*
Rosch: He's not one of the soldiers, AFTER HIM!
*they chase, explosions*
Soldier: AHAHAHAH! FELL FOR IT! WE SET UP BOMBS THAT YOU CAN'T SEE! GENERAL DIAS' ATTACK WAS JUST A DIVERSION!
Stocke: Well crap, we're kind of screwed now...
*Teo and Lippti appear*
Lippti: NO YOU ARE NOT! FIGHT AND BELIEVE YOU CAN ALWAYS WIN!
Stocke: ...
Teo: What she means is that the BLACK CHRONICLE is at it again, you need a Satyros to get around this!
Stocke: I don't know any Satyros, and it's kind of too late to prevent this...
Teo: *does a circular "keep going" motion*
Stocke: ...unless I go into the OTHER Timeline that I completely forgot about because it involves suicidal invading a country with 3 people...right! Maybe I can get lucky there!

*Stocke jumps over to other timeline*
Stocke: So...we're invading Granorg through some annoying Mountain Pass and the Sand Fortress, right?
Raynie: Yes, not sure why you'd forget this.  We just discussed this 2 minutes ago.
Stocke: We did? ...I mean, right, we did!  Just getting us focused!

*they reach Sand Fortress, which in this timeline is controlled by Granorg*
Stocke: It's ok guys, I got this!  I know exactly where to go!
Raynie: How, this is the first time we've all been here! You yourself said this!
Stocke: It is? I mean...right, it is!  Just I'm good at finding my way around this stuff!
*Stocke using knowledge from the other timeline gets through it no problem*
Marco: It seems an awful lot like you have been here before and you knew exactly where to go.  I mean, you didn't make one wrong turn.
Stocke: I TOLD YOU I'M TALENTED AT THIS STUFF!
Raynie: Explain why we got lost on the mountain then.
Stocke: MOUNTAINS ARE NOT FORTRESSES! TOTALLY DIFFERENT!  Anyway, let's get to Granorg

*they reach the border, guards there*
Marco: Looks like getting through won't be easy.
Raynie: We could just to bust through but that's suicidal.
Stocke: It's ok guys, I got this! *approaches Guard* Hey...can we go through to Granorg?
Guard: Do you have a pass?
Stocke: No...not really...
Guard: Then no.
Stocke: ...well, I'm out of ideas.
Raynie: I thought you said you had this...
Stocke: Look, I'll think of SOMETHING ok!?  We just gotta...
*they hear a scream for help*
Stocke: Oh look! Someone is in danger! Let's go help them out!?
Marco: Besides "because we're the good guys" why should we?
Stocke:  Because...uhh...I'm sure it's important for getting through that gate...somehow...

*they go to the scream*
Girl: Help! I'm beating eaten by Tigers!
*the team wins and beats the tigers*
Stocke: I can take on TWO TIGERS with my barehands!
Raynie: No, you really can't...
Stocke: ...ok, fine, but damn it, it'd be awesome if I could!
Marco: Hey, are you alright?
Girl: Yes, yes I am! My name's Aht! I already know your name is Stocke, Marco and Raynie because we're skipping introductions.
Stocke: Ok, are you alone?
Aht: No, I have my partners Liese and Vanoss.  Hey guys, come out?
Vanoss: Yo.
Liese: Hi.
Stocke: Wait, you guys were RIGHT THERE and you didn't think to help her out against those tigers?
Liese: They were scary :(
Vanoss: Yeah, it's not like I'm a big guy or anything.
Marco: You do realize after they killed her, you'd probably be next, so running away was kind of meaningless right?
Vanoss: LOOK! When you're a travelling performance group that is trying to jump the border because we have passes, you can do whatever you want!
Stocke: You guys have passes?  Can we join up with you to go across it?
Liese: Well, you DID help...so sure!  Just you guys need to wear these robes as to look awkward so you are convincingly performers!
Stocke: Ok, makes sense...wait, why are there only two?
Vanoss: Because your outfit is so weird already, you won't need one! *actual reasoning*
Stocke: I...uhh...thanks?
Aht: Yay! Let's go! By the way, I can help in a fight!
Stocke: Then why weren't you fighting those tigers?
Aht: Because I am useless alone :(
Stocke: Ok...

*they go to the border*
Vanoss: So we're a performance group, can we go across the border?
Guard: Sure you can...except that red guy, he's clearly not weird enough to part of your group.
Stocke: HEY! You guys promised my warddrobe was-...I mean...YES! I totally am part of their group!
Vanoss: Look, he's new, cut him some slack ok?
Guard: ONLY IF HE PERFORMS FOR ME!
Raynie: Stocke, how are we going to get through this? You don't know any performances!
Marco: We could just try to bust through...
Stocke: (I have to think carefully on this one) umm...GERONIMO!!! *they bust through*

BAD END!!

Teo: Did you SERIOUSLY think that was going to work?
Stocke: Hell no! I just wanted an excuse to yell that and this seemed as good a time as any.
Teo: ...just go choose the other option please?
*Stocke goes back*
Lippti: Personally, I thought he was onto something!
Teo: You would...

*back at the Guard Post*
Stocke: Ok, I can perform, BUT YOU CAN'T MOVE A MUSCLE! THIS IS VERY DELICATE!
*Stocke makes a complete fool of himself trying to Sword Dance*
Guard: How many times did you cut yourself doing that?
Stocke: Not counting the time I kicked myself in the shin? 13 times...
Guard: Man you suck...but such dedication to keep trying after that many injuries! You get an A for effort! You can pass!
Stocke: Yay!
Vanoss: I know a good spot to set up camp, let's go there!
*they go there*
Stocke: Ah, good, finally a time to relax and...
Liese: We need firewood, go get some...
Stocke: ...what the hell?  Can't we rest to restore our HP after all those ran...
Liese: NO! Aht, go with them, they'll need you to find it!
Aht: Ok!  By the way, Stocke, I'm a Satyros if you couldn't tell, so are the others!
Stocke: Oh, ok.  I seem to recall that being important...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?
Aht: LOVE ME!!!
Stocke: Wait, what? I know I saved your life but you're kind of...uh..just get off me ok?
Aht: Ok, but still, I WILL PERFORM SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR YOU!
*She glows blue, Stocke suddenly sees things he never saw before*
Stocke: What did you do to me?
Aht: Now you can see things like a Satyros but only if you're close!
Marco: Hey cool, can I get that power too?
Aht: NO!
Marco: WHy not?
Aht: BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE YOU *sticks tongue out*
Marco: ;_;
Raynie: Can we finish this stupid quest please?
*one firewood fetchquest and wild boar boss fight later*

Stocke: Man, look at the view...
Raynie: ...it's all a wasteland...I remember it being a lot greener last.
Marco: Desertification.  Apparently it's entirely QUEEN PROTEA'S FAULT according to Noah...by which I mean that's what Hugo claims Noah claims, so it's probably just plain scapegoating.
Aht: Hey can we go back to the camp? I'M STARVING!
*the team goes back and deals with food stuff*

Narrator: Will Stocke ever-...
Stocke: Oh no you don't! There isn't a single god damn cliffhanger to be found at this point.  Don't even try to pretend there is anything remotely interesting going on!
Narrator: Fine, but don't come crying to me when your ratings plummet!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 17, 2013, 03:21:23 AM
Fallout New Vegas: Started a new character because the PS3 broke and I can't play Xillia.  Anyway, felt like going on Hardcore mode.  I've almost drank myself to death twice!  This is fun~

You should play it with J.E. Sawyer's mod to put a cherry on it.

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/JSawyer (http://fallout.gamepedia.com/JSawyer)

I don't have the Hardcore Achievement yet so I wanted to do it before I tried out JESawyer.

EDIT: Speaking of Fallout New Vegas: Completed Honest Hearts.  Originally I was just gonna go kill white legs and didn't give a shit about speech checks, but rereading the Survivalist Logs convinced me to go for the mercy end since at that points I practically was the Survivalist.  Once back in the Mojave I went and grabbed the Avenger.  Along the way I ran into a couple deathclaws, but the .45 SMG cuts them up good.  The young ones can' even get through my DT.  The Avenger itself is sadly disappointing, though that's partially because of condition at the moment.  A full box of ammo couldn't kill one damn sentry bot.  That means its nightkin hunting time!  Gotta get that condition up.

God damn, the survivalist.  It's amazing how plain text in a room can be so evocative when games so frequently fail to pull that off.

"I tell them never to hurt each other but that if someone else comes along and tries to hurt them to strike back with righteous anger."  Just going along as usual but when I reread that line I just knew I had to go for mercy.  Went and grinded random ass enemies and dealt with like a half-dozen game crashes to do it.

Fallout New Vegas: Grabbed Veronica for BOS entry.  Then it was off to Black Mountain!  Where after going nearly to the top with all of one fight I get ambushed by seven Super Mutant Masters at once.  My ridiculous amount of food + Rad Child made me invulnerable but Veronica died.  RESTART!  I nearly blow through all my ammo getting back up to the top.  Once there I kept changing my mind about what ending I wanted for Black Mountain mainly because it's only real spot for minigun enemies.  But I only got one along the way so PEACE IT IS.  After I repaired Rhonda I just wasted time in the storage room until Tabitha charged in and Rhonda set her on fire.  It was hilarious.  I grabbed the last of the BOS tapes, opened up the Boomers then did the knights.  I decided to switch over to Raul for my companion because I chew through weapon durability like hotcakes.  On my fast travel to Black Mountain I get attacked by a damn Deathclaw out of nowhere and am literally only saved because my latest perk was Life Giver's +30 HP.  Grab Raul, then a quick hope through Vault 22 for the Bunker part.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 17, 2013, 07:07:56 AM
WA5 - I just got Shit Squeifer (Chuck who is all the jacket of Squall and all the fail of Aiel worship). Like I am in the fight with Feredoon.  His first turn was Move forward, Jump back (http://youtu.be/GPqcccmiOMc).  Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

I can't decide if his jacket is shitty or if he wears a bodice over his bomber jacket.

I don't have much to add other than the dungeon rhythm is really getting to me.  With the shitty pacing in the world map map it feels like the best place to take a break other than towns is like the first boss in a dungeon.  That is just weird.  Why are all the bosses so far shitty trash mobs that appear while the party is talking about crap?  I can't even appreciate the game bringing it up with Dean detecting something mid conversation in some dungeon like it is DBZ power level shit because it is so dull.  Any time you actually run into a plot relevant fight you get curb stomped in a plot fight.  The most plot heavy foe you actually beat at this point in the game is Axe Gob + 2 Shotel Gobs followed by their "Boss" Olivier who is less relevant than them.  Everything else is just some junk out of nowhere (which to be fair the game has been doing since the first dungeon).

I am being unfair to the game because it gave me unlimited money, thankfully they throttled badges in shops and that you can synth so I didn't have to grind out Sherrifs badge now because I would have to if I could (I won't later probably, not as novel then).

Plot so far is okay I guess.  I wish not everything was called Johnny Appleseed because it is hard to take serious.  Secretly everyone was potentially Johnny Appleseed all along.  Except for Chuck.  Chuck was a sex changed Buffy the Vampire Slayer cosplayer.

Edit - Lolololol Feredoon,member for the Radicals who will do anything to preserve the Veruni race, spares life of Chuck after he and the rest of the party killed 4 guards because a hot girl asked him too.  Player player.

Edit 2 - bust out the Dutch angles when Dean declares revolutionary war on the Veruni holy shit.  Also call of Carol as Trance continues to hold up.  Everyone ignores her and she is scared to be alone and wants to be loved, nearly gets abandoned because everyone walks away without listening to what she is really saying.  Spends forever looking for a hot older man and studying.


I also remembered something I forgot to complain about with the map.  Fuck Honeysdale and it's unused second exit on the map.  I couldn't find how the fuck to get to the Desecrated Shrine for like an hour and a half because you need to go around the west side of the village to get to a place east and there is a hill blocking your view of huge path there.  Fuck the world map and fuck the shitty fucking map they give you to work with.

I love the mono wheel functionally.  I hate the mono wheel because it is a fucking mono wheel.  Seriously the dumbest mode of transform anyone ever invented.

Edit 1000 - Did they even give a way to get Pierce or some way around Hard property?

Edit 10000001 - Sol Niger fight, casts Hyper on Fire Ley point.  Is weak to fire.  What are you even doing other than being killed in 2 rounds?

Edit 44232432432 - YOU GUYS DO YOU GET IT.  IT IS LIKE BERLIN.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on December 17, 2013, 03:52:42 PM
Fereydoon is not very radical, but he does love getting laid, yo. Chuck is a real life Internet loser -- he definitely is in the friend zone.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on December 17, 2013, 06:56:39 PM
Fereydoon isn't very radical but he is completely ridiculous, yes continue to trust the creepy genocidal man with the oversized penisblade, he surely has your best interests at heart.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 17, 2013, 09:20:45 PM
Pandora's Tower: And the pay off is!!!! ...kind of out of the blue.  I guess there are hints, but it's kind of "Um...k?" type reveal that mostly exists because "We need an EPIC FINAL BOSS FIGHT DAMN IT TO SHOW THE POWER OF LOVE!!"  The game actually lacks a legitimate antagonist for 95% of the game, as your enemies are mindless creatures.

Yes, I am finished.  Game is kind of meh.  Pretty much all my usual rants remain here.  To the game's credit, all the bosses are creative and different despite the "HIT THE GLOWING WEAK POINT WITH YOUR CHAIN!" and the last two towers were legitimately very well done.  The first five were alright, the 2nd group of five was pretty much a rehash of the first five, just with a different, "more advanced" lay out.  It's like they gave up on creativity, so just recycled to get the needed 12 Towers in.  13th tower, thankfully, ended up just being a stairway to the final boss, I am ok with this.

It's easy to see why this is the least talked about the Operation Rainfall games.  Xenoblade was legitimately good on all fronts, a "once per gaming generation" kind of game in that regard, and Last Story had some really good character work while not really failing at any other category (at worst, it fell into "forgetably average")  Pandora's Tower doesn't really have anything standing out for it.  It makes a potentially interesting setting that it does almost nothing with because you're isolated to the 13 towers, so it's all built upon texts, which sadly doesn't do enough.  You don't get to actually see the world, it's just told to you.  So the fact that the Vestra don't have their land and want it?  Yeah, the game tells you that's the case rather than showing it, and you kind of shrug because there's no investment.

Chain stuff was neat at times, but hurt by the unresponsive controls.  Sometimes it'll claim you're targetting something chain-able that yo're not, so it fails, others the cursor won't register the thing you're targeting because you moved it onto the thing too quickly.  Hitting specific body parts of enemies is annoying because of a fixed camera.  Really needed a 1st Person option when you go into Chain Aiming mode because hitting a larged armored enemies arm when you're aiming at the head sucks if the guy is standing on his side.  Just because the camera is focused on that guy from that angle doesn't mean Aeron should be limited to it.  This is why Fixed Cameras are stupid and should go away.

Combat has little depth to it; the fact that one review tried to claim it had a lot made me eyeroll.  Any 1v1 fight can be won by chaining the guy up, then either charging up to max and pulling it, or chaining again, getting them wrapped up, and wailing on them with your sword.  Two enemies is either isolate one and kill them one at a time, or chain them both up and deal damage to both.  If there's a lot of small hard to hit shit on the ground?  You just swear because there's no effective way to deal with them other than try to kill them fast and hope the terrain doesn't bite you in the ass.

You have 3 weapons that handle differently, that's good!  Problem is Twinblades have no range and damage sucks, and they gimp your defense, so they're useless other than letting you run faster (which helps get through dungeons faster when you don't care about combat.)  Scythe would be fine except 4x2 slots instead of 3x2 like the other two, because making you run damn slow apparently wasn't enough of a flaw.  So you end up just sticking with your sword and it wastes the system.

After thinking about it over, I find myself struggling to think of what I enjoyed about it, and overall, there's not much.  It's not atrocious or anyhting, just there's little quality in the game, and there's plenty of flaws.  4/10 game as a result.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 17, 2013, 11:35:26 PM
New Vegas: Did the Khan's Drug Stuff to get the Fiend Vault bunker part.  The Khan armorer had an absurd amount of my ammo types so I stocked up on on around four thousand rounds of ammo.  .45 ammo suffers from being stupid heavy though, I had three times as much 5mm Ammo and the .45 ammo weighed more.  After that was the expedition to the Valut... 34?  The radiation hell.  Thankfully I have Rad Child and Atomic! now so I just blazed a path!  Then I remembered this wasn't the right Vault... Well at least I emptied my .45 auto rounds that freed up some space... FOR MORE AMMO!  Bwhahahaha, over 3000 rounds of 5mm JSP + an additional thousand in AP and HP.  I made so much ammo that I completed all of Vault 11 before the pip-boy messages went away.  Join the BOS, get me some Power Armor.  Sold off my .45 auto stuff because it's too Heavy for Raul and I to carry anymore.  Since he now has the Desert Ranger gear I'll throw'em a Ranger Sequoia to complete it.

EDIT: I keep forgetting to mention this, but my AMR run ended with me on Very Hard and that carried over to this Hardcore run so I've been Very Hard/Hardcore this entire time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on December 18, 2013, 06:56:30 AM
Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky- Completed! Really enjoyed this. Embodies all the best things about classic RPGs. Fun, light-hearted, great world-building, lots of character interaction. It does have some of the failings of the era though, mostly in the story and some devices they used. I'll give it credit though for tying a lot of stuff together.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 18, 2013, 07:03:03 AM
Cool I am glad you got around to it.  I thought you would have a lot of fun with it.  More fun than quality but it is really good at what it is.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 18, 2013, 12:38:14 PM
WA5 - No plot progress today because side questing opened up a chunk with a train pass.  Highlights are Yulie and Kresnik retold as npcs and Kresnik totes into his bicycle.

Low point is needing exactly 221500 gella to open a door.  Having it liquidate 800k worth of money because the game has a terrible easy money exploit was ergo, but halving all elements badge is hard to turn away.

Doombringer being available as soon as Chuck joins feels weird, but I don't know if I will use him anyway.  I am kind of attached to Greg and his coop skills are pretty solid and already unlocked.

Edit - oh and Cordyceps cures Poison, Misery and Misery?  Well I am fucking horrified.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on December 18, 2013, 06:59:59 PM
Well Chuck is pretty pointless anyways.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 18, 2013, 08:35:20 PM
Well cordyceps is one of the most horrifying things on the planet, so that's only a natural reaction to a game forcing you to ingest it.

Previous WA PCs popping up in WA5 was one of the nicer details. I'm pretty sure the entirety of WA1-4 is out there somewhere?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 18, 2013, 08:43:59 PM
Yeah, they are a bit hit and miss sometimes.  Kresnik and Yulie side quest is great for the game nodding to how over the top Kresnik is.  Cecilia's is also really subtle so far and quite enjoyable (she is a Veruni that wanted to get out and see the planet unprotected with her own eyes) and takes place without any questing so far, she just turns up in Mirapulse a while after you have run into her at Laila Belle.  No way would I have noticed without walk through circle jerking about the cameos so much. 

Also Rudy shows up fucking everywhere.

Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on December 18, 2013, 09:57:48 PM
Professor Layton And The Azran Legacy - played through

Very enjoyable. Want to say that it's easily the best from this trilogy.

It starts off somehow feeling more constrained than the games usually are, but eventually it opens up considerably more than previous games have.

I had been hoping for backstory on Emmy which there didn't end up being much of - looking things up online afterwards, it looks like the backstory I was after was in Last Specter all along, but it was incredibly inconsequential. In that case I guess I can understand how I forgot about it, although ideally I would have forgotten that it was even a thing as well. Oh well.

There is extra backstory for some other characters and it goes to some pretty dumb places, unfortunately.

The fashion minigame was fine, although since every character seemingly had a single 'perfect' set and every item could only be given to a single character, the later characters who were seemingly supposed to be more difficult to help weren't actually that difficult because you didn't have as many items to choose from.

The nut-gathering minigame was fine. Nothing to say about it.

The garden minigame was fine. Didn't perfect the last two gardens, but you don't strictly need to for them to count as beaten. Oh well.

Don't know if I'll bother doing any of the bonus puzzles or not.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 19, 2013, 02:02:13 AM
Radiant Historia Abridged:

Narrator: And so Stocke and co. have finally reached Granorg.
Stocke: So, we've finally reached Granorg!
Narrator: And they said their farewells to the Satyros!
Stocke: Good bye everyone! I still don't believe that Aht is a priestess by the way.
Marco: When did that get brought up?
Aht: We skipped that scene because the Narrator Jump Cutted us here...
Narrator: Sure, blame the non-character why don't you!
Raynie: Why are you still here?
Narrator: Because shut up, anyway, back to the story!

Aht: No, I don't want STocke to go! I want more of him!
Stocke: Umm...yeah...about that...don't you think it's better to stay with your own kind!
Aht: NO! I MUST GO WITH YOU!
Stocke: Crap, well, uh...say, what's that behind you?
Aht: Huh? What?
*Stocke grabs Raynie and Marco and they run*
Vanoss: That was a clever thing he did!
Liese: Yes..."clever"...

Stocke: So about that contact...you think it's that OMINOUSLY DARK HOODED GUY OVER THERE?
Marco: Why would our contact want to look conspicuous and stand out in the crowd?
Raynie: When you think about it, that's a great way to get killed...
Stocke: Good point...let's ask the guy! *they go to him* So...uhh...Timber Forest Sure Has Changed!
Dark Hooded Guy: ...what the hell is Timber?
Stocke: Er...I mean...beautiful weather we have today!
Dark Hooded Guy: ...yes, yes it is...
Stocke: ...look, I'm trying to speak in code to you whether you are the contact or not, are you?
Dark Hooded Guy: You do realize codes like that only work if there we both knew of it, right?  Either way, yes, yes I am.
Stocke: ...why are you dressed like that?
Dark Hooded Guy: Because it's so obvious to the point that no one would seriously think a spy would dress like this.
Raynie: That makes an odd amount of sense.  Anyway, what are you here to tell us?
Dark Hooded Guy: Go kill Princess Eruca!
Stocke: Uh, ok, sure...
Dark Hooded Guy: And now I must guy! *Runs off in a manner that is akin to a 4 year old pretend he's superman*
Stocke: An assassination mission eh?

*in the Historia*
Teo: So Stocke, what are you going to do?
Lippti: KILL THE BITCH! KILL THE BITCH! KILL THE BITCH!
Stocke: Umm...haven't decided yet, I still have to gather information, you know.
Teo: True, you don't have to make the decision quite yet, but consider your options.
Lippti: Hello, is anyone listening to me? I said KILL. THE. BITCH.  It's that simple!

*out of the Historia*
Marco: So...why are we killing Eruca and not Queen Protea?  She's the bad guy, after all!
Stocke: Yeah, that does seem strange...
Passer-bye #1: HEY! DID YOU HEAR THAT ERUCA IS APPARENTLY HELPING THE REBELLION!?!?
Passer-bye #2: NO! I DID NOT! IF SHE WERE TO BE KILLED IT WOULD CAUSE A HUGE RUCKUS OF CONSPIRACY IN GRANORG AND LEAD TO A MAJOR POLITICAL COLLAPSE!
Passer-bye #1: GOOD THING THAT WON'T HAPPEN!
Marco: ...well I guess that answers that...
Raynie: We need to find a way into the castle, shall we take a look around this place!?
*after looking around*

Raynie: You know, I expected Granorg to look...you know...better condition?
Stocke: Well you see...
Raynie: Queen Protea?
Stocke: Queen Protea.  Though I hear her predecessor wasn't a good guy either but at least there weren't corpses in the street.
Marco: That was a corpse I tripped over?! You told me it was a dummy!
Stocke: No, I said YOU were a dummy.
Marco: Oh...
Raynie: ...Stocke, that's not-...
Stocke: Give him a moment, Raynie...
Marco: ...HEY!
Stocke: Anyway, let's check that SHADY BAR that those two thieves we beat up in the forest just ran behind.
*They check the bar*
Barkeep: Man, the stuff behind there smells, IT'S ALMOST LIKE THERE'S A SEWER THERE!
Customer: Yeah, the SEWER that leads to the CASTLE which would be a PERFECT way to GET PAST the GUARDS.
Stocke: ...how convenient, though I do question why people in this city talk like that...
*they check behind the bar, get into sewers*
Raynie: *sigh*
Stocke: What's wrong, Raynie?
Raynie: We're in a Sewer dungeon...
Stocke: And?
Raynie: Seriously what the hell game developers?  These are some of the worst dungeon design concepts of all time yet they INSIST on shoving them anywhere.  It's like "our game is really good...wait, we are obligated to have a really crappy flaw, THROW IN A SEWER DUNGEON TO PISS EVERYONE OFF!"  It's total filler and accomplishes nothing...
Bram: CAN YOU GUYS SHUT UP! You're foiling our plans of GETTING INTO THE CASTLE AND STEALING STUFF!
Stocke: No, you are foiling OUR plans of MURDERING THE PRINCESS...which we might go back on last second, haven't decided that far yet...
Bram: ...truce?
Stocke: Truce.

*in the castle*
Bram: Ok, you leave us two alone, we'll leave you alone, got it?
Stocke: Works for me, you guys go first.
Bram: Sure thing!
*the two get captured*
Raynie: On hindsight, that was a bad idea, wasn't it?
Marco: Yeah, now the guards are on HIGH ALERT.  We can either sneak past them, or try something else...Stocke?
Stocke: (I have to think carefully about this one...) Hmm...well...you know how I have some good plans?
Raynie: Yeah?
Stocke: This isn't one of them! *Runs out in the open* LOOK AT ME I'M A TARGET!!!

Narrator: And so Stocke fought off the guards effortlessly and survived, Raynie and Marco managed to get caught and hung and somehow Eruca died on a date that didn't make sense.

*BAD END*

Teo: ...do I have to even ask here?
Stocke: To be fair, I openly stated it was a horrible plan...
Teo: Well, I guess you did survive it somehow, so that's impressive...
Lippti: KILL THE BITCH! KILL THE BITCH!
Teo: So...going to sneak around now?
Stocke: OH HELL NO! I'm going to the other timeline because I am NOT doing those sewers again!

*Rosch's timeline*
Stocke: Let's see...I was suppose to do something here...oh I'm sure if I continue the events, I'll remember-...
*Entire fortress explodes*
Stocke: ...oh, right, I was suppose to find those bombs BEFORE the Fortress blew up...
*Back tracks a bit*
Stocke: Ok, NOW TO FIND THOSE BOMBS!
Raynie: What bombs are you talking about?
Stocke: The ones that I totally DON'T KNOW ABOUT AND JUST ASSUME ARE HERE BECAUSE GUT INSTINCT!
*Stocke finds the bombs in an annoying fetchquest*
Stocke: Score 1 for foreknowledge...even if it did take 3 weeks to find them all...
*Stocke continues the timeline up to the bomb point again*

Rosch: Drat, We lost the guy!
Soldier: Sir! We are under attack! Dias was a decoy!
Rosch: Right, Stocke, let's go push them back!
Stocke: Explosion in 5-4-3-2-1...*nothing* ...hey, I did it!
*Explosion*
Stocke: ...did I fail?
Voice of Teo: No, that was just Lippti baking a souffle...
Stocke: Ah ok...wait, how did I hear that from there?
Voice of Teo: Her baking has the side effect of rupturing space and time, don't ask me how...
Stocke: Right.  Anyway, let's go beat up those bad guys!

*they push back the Granorg army*
Rosch: Well, we won, but at what cost?
Stocke: Umm...nothing?  Most of our soldiers are still alive, and look! Viola's right there!
Viola: Yes, I can see why you two are the YOUNG LIONS!  You did well.
Rosch: Heh, I guess we did!

*a few days later*
Rosch: So...I'm being summoned by Hugo...
Stocke: He's a douche, you know that right?
Rosch: Yes, yes I do.  My team is in your hands Stocke...
Stocke: Shouldn't Viola take control since she's the commanding officer here?
Rosch: TROOPS ARE IN YOUR HANDS!  Oh yeah, Kiel, you're coming with me because I said so.
Stocke: Take care of Rosch, Kiel AND LOOK OUT FOR HUGO HE IS A DOUCHE!
Kiel: Huh? What?
Rosch: ...just follow me.
Kiel: Right!
Stocke: ...I feel like I'm forgetting something...
Voice of Lippti: KILL THE BITCH!!!
Stocke: ...on second though, I think I prefer keeping it that way...

Narrator: And so we end another exciting episode of...
Stocke: ...does this even qualify as episodes anymore?
Narrator: Can you let me finish for once?
Stocke: ONly if you can find a way for Lippti to make sense...
Narrator: ...right, ENDING NOW.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 19, 2013, 03:05:33 AM
Fallout New Vegas: I was sitting at Camp Golf wondering how I should get a Ranger Sequoia.  Do the radio quest badly?  Wait until the Vets start spawning and mug them?  But I am gonna nuke the NCR so I need to pop the forgiveness for that... OH I KNOW.  I'll just pickpocket it.  Thank you pacifist run, you've saved me yet again.  Say hello to Stealth Boy.  Raul, say hello to your new gun once I have thousands of rounds.  Also once I do your little quest thing.  Huh, always thought I needed Idolized to finish off the Boomers, only needed Liked.  After that was a wonderful trip into Vault 3 to clear out all the damn Fiends.  Boy howdy does the Avenger carve the path.  I also managed to kill Motor-Runner with help from Ranger Anders for like the first time ever successfully.  Back to McCarren to turn in the bounties.  LEVEL UP.  Hello Pack Rat trait, why yes I would love to half the weight of all items under 2 pounds.  HELLO 100 POUNDS OF FREE SPACE.  Pick up the retrieve Ranger Esteban mission.  Then find out shooting two of the fiends there causes the game to crash!  After like seven tries, Raul and the Ranger who gives out the NCR Emergency Radio kill them off while I drag the body over.  I boost myself out as much as possible before hitting that Loansome Road.  I am hitting DT on the sentry bots even though the shield doesn't pop up.  AP rounds would kill them in less than a box, but the JSP rounds wouldn't.  GRUMBLE.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on December 19, 2013, 08:51:38 PM
Also Rudy shows up fucking everywhere.

Remember to hook Rudy up with Jane, as it involves someone's best weapon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 20, 2013, 12:54:04 AM
Sonic Lost World: Finished. My thoughts about the game remain relatively unchanged.  It's not bad but there's definite room for improvement.  The patch does fix some of the game's issues, namely making 100 Rings = Free Life like most games (why the heck was that removed to begin with?) and letting most of the Wisp Powers not require the Gamepad to play.  Yoshi's Island DLC was neat too.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on December 20, 2013, 02:50:18 AM
Xenoblade- Got the 7th PC. I would say that the game is firmly settling into the the realm of "disappointing." Writing is really bad (for all that bad platitidues in FF 13 are mocked, at least they are well delivered and the writers are in on the joke), characters are all really dumb, and the battle system has so many issues because of the idiotic way they tried to set up the camera (Revival in this game is so annoying because you know to run next to the dead character, but the game loves to point the screen towards the sky so that you can't easily even see where the fallen PC is). I think I mentioned briefly before but I really don't see why this just couldn't have been turned based because it's clearly not an action RPG (I guess it's pandering to people who like MMORPG battle systems? I don't know why they haven't figured out yet that people do not play MMORPGs for battle systems).

Music was the high point, but apparentally I've reached some point with new basic battle music that sucks. This is unfortunate given the number of battles you get into. Plot cohesiveness was stronger initially, but I think that extreme laziness/creativity got worse as the game went on. I still can't believe that there are two damn human towns, and their actual names are Colony 6 and Colony 9. And everyone starts relatively carefree despite the fact that the implication is that near 80% (at least?) of the human race has been wiped out (At least 7 of at minimum 9 colonies are gone, so...). There is almost no plot/atmosphere cohesion in a lot of places. I guess I've gotten in so far that there no reason not to finish it, but at this point the game feels so sloppy/lazy.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Hunter Sopko on December 20, 2013, 03:41:33 AM
Also Rudy shows up fucking everywhere.

Remember to hook Rudy up with Jane, as it involves someone's best weapon.

Yep. Rudy's. Boioioioioioiong
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 20, 2013, 04:12:51 AM
(for all that bad platitidues in FF 13 are mocked, at least they are well delivered and the writers are in on the joke)

I think you are a very generous man and are capable of seeing a lot of good in people where it may not actually exist.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 20, 2013, 04:39:38 AM
As someone who liked FF13...outside of maybe Snow, I don't see much in the way of self awareness FF13 has.  I guess Sazh's occasional one liners but that felt more like general comic-relief moments that fit the character more than anything else.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on December 20, 2013, 05:04:08 AM
Lightning's line about Hope's name would be an example of where I would consider the writer in the joke. The line is horrible, but in a way that I would be shocked if whoever wrote it didn't realize it. At least they have to aware compared to the writers of Xenoblade where you get the same stupid sentiments but channeled through dull writing.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 20, 2013, 05:21:42 AM
Do you think they like come up with the line during character plotting and decided to name him just for that line rather than the scene being "oh man we can call the youngest kid in the party Hope and it will be so great you guys.  Nailed it."
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 20, 2013, 05:39:34 AM
It's hard to argue that said particular line isn't comical; Hope even responds to it along the lines of "wtf that's just my name". Pretty sure Lightning even intended it as such; they are discussing some pretty dark shit so she tries to make a joke (and isn't very good at it).

No clue if the character's name predates the line or vice versa, but it doesn't really matter.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: VySaika on December 20, 2013, 05:26:51 PM
While I haven't played the game myself, it is interesting to see one negative opinion of Xenoblade. Everything else I can remember seeing about it has ranged from "yeah, it's p.good" to "gushing lavish praise" with no dissenting opinions. I'll admit that does make me feel a bit better about my initial reaction to gameplay footage of it being "well this doesn't look engaging at all", but that's probably me really not liking MMO style gameplay!

Anyway, I play things too!

...kinda.

Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Downloaded this a couple weeks ago, played through it. Could stand to have a few more stages/areas and definately needed more places where the elephant form matters, but was overall a fun platformer and worth the cost. Spinning Death Balls > fire and cloud magics, no question.

Radiant Historia - Finally getting around to beating this. Just picked up Wind God Strike, will now proceed to murder everything with Gafka. ...okay, will now proceed to CONTINUE murdering everything with Gafka, since that's what I was doing anyway. Getting peeps into the center line is not hard.

Neverwinter Nights and NWN2 - Despite having already bought both games more then once over the course of time, I grabbed them AGAIN from the GOG winter sale so that I wouldn't have to jump through hoops to get them working on my Win8 machine. GOG is p.cool like that. Ignoring the main campaigns, I grab some modules for both and go to town with new stuff. Yay~ Of note, I got one NWN2 mod about being a badass monk and punching the shit out of everything, and you guys know how much I enjoy punching things, so that one has been pretty fun. Bad Habits, I think it's called. The respawn feature in it ticks me off a bit(you can just revive wherever you fall with no penalty at all, meaning you can basically win any fight with no strategy, just spam respawn at it when you die. That in and of itself doesn't irritate me, but the fact that it really feels like the designer used that as a crutch to not bother balancing encounter difficulty at ALL does.). Still having fun overall with it.

Pathfinder - What, this counts as a game, doesn't it? Actually finished a campaign recently, was pretty cool to play one to completion instead of it dying a premature death due to drama. My char was basically LVP the entire game, but that's because I actually listened when the GM asked us to not make broken twinked out optimized dudes. And I was the only one who listened. Rolling the worst stats in the party also helped there. But Lawrence still did his job(which was disarming traps, mostly) perfectly due to me sinking feats into his skills and such, so it was cool. The GM wants a break though, so next game will prolly be me running it. As the only ones willing to run are me and a guy with all the enthusiasm of a Meeple but all the overall competence of Euram Barrows.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on December 20, 2013, 09:33:58 PM
PW5 - Finished the DLC case and case 3. Fuck case 4 with a rusty dildo so far, the defendant is so goddamn annoying. Still early, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 20, 2013, 09:42:27 PM
Radiant Historia Abridged:

Narrator: And so we join Stocke as...
Stocke: HEY GUYS! LET'S TALK TO VIOLA ABOUT THE NEXT MISSION!
Raynie: Why are you speaking so loud?
Stocke: To overpower the Narrator.
Narrator: (Jerk.)
Marco: What? Do you think something is wrong?
Stocke: Well, I feel like we should be doing something, let's go!
*they go to Viola*
Viola: *cough* *wheeze* So...yeah, we haven't heard from Rosch's crew, can you go catch up and see what's what?
Stocke: Yeah, I can do that, no sweat!  Where to?
Viola: Gran Plans.  I need you guys to hold the north, kind of important and all that.
Stocke: Right, enemy border, got it!
*Stocke and Co. head off, attacked by enemies*

Raynie: There seem to be a lot of enemy soldiers *sets one on fire as she says this*
Stocke: Well, we are kind of close to enemy lines *Stabs one in the face*
Marco: Shouldn't Rosch's team have dealt with this *gets punched in the face*
Stocke: Yeah, that worries me too..*kills two guys with one slash because bad ass*
*They move on until they come across a small group of enemies*
Enemy Commander: It's more Alisten!  If we've figured out anything, they will underestimate us! WE CAN DO THIS MEN! We may not be important enough for Nametags or unique sprites, but damn it, we have a-BLARGH!!!
Stocke: ...really, Raynie, you could have waited til he finished before hitting him with lightning bolts
Raynie: ...he was talking?
Marco: Say, what did they say about the Underestimate thing?
Stocke: ...are you implying those guys actually beat Rosch?
Marco: No, but there are probably stronger guys who may have...
Stocke: If only we had a sign...
Near-Dead Alisten Soldier: I'm not dead!
Stocke: Yes you are.
Near-Dead Alisten: ...can we not do that routine and just do the "Near dying vital information" thing?
Stocke: Oh, sorry, right.  Anyway, where's Rosch?
Near-Dead Alisten: He went south, things aren't looking well.
Stocke: So...Rosch is to the south, when he should have headed to the North like we're going?
Marco: Yeah, basically, either we follow Rosch and try to help him, putting the plan at jeopardy or go North and continue the mission.
Stocke: (I have to think carefully about this.) I have Faith in Rosch, LET'S GO NORTH!

Narrator: So Stocke was totally bad ass and kicked the crap out of enemies to the North.  Him and Viola became heroes and were promoted and Rosch sort of died.  Stocke became so busy, he forgot about the whole "Save the world" thing and screwed everyone.

*BAD END*

Stocke: Ok, what did I do wrong this time?
Teo: To be honest, nothing.  You made a brilliant military decision, though I don't think anyone could have anticipated that as a result.
Stocke: Basically, what you're saying is I can't be blamed for this one because I might as well as flipped a coin?
Teo: Yeah, pretty much.
Lippti: YOU BLEW IT BIG TIME! GO FIX IT NOW!
Stocke: Well, yes, that's what I was...
Lippti: SHUT UP AND GO NOW! GO SAVE ROSCH! DOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOIT!
Stocke: RIGHT! OFF! LATER!

*at the crossroads*
Stocke: Let's save Rosch, he's totally my best friend and I owe him one.  After doing so, we should have enough time to protect the North!
Marco: If you say so...
*they head south, see Rosch on the ground with some named bad guy whose name I forget so we're calling him Leonard*
Stocke: Rosch, NO!
Leonard: Mwahahahah! This guy was cake! That other guy was...uhh...what's worse than cake?
Stocke: Muffins?
Leonard: Yes! That other guy was MUFFINS!
Raynie: That's not really much of an insult.
Stocke: You hurt my friend, DIE!
Leonard: No, you hurt MY friend!
Stocke: ...no, I really didn't.
Leonard: ...look, I'm just going to run away now because this is a waste of both of our times, ok?
Stocke: Ok.
*Leonard leaves, drops note behind him*
Stocke: Rosch, are you alright.
Rosch: No, I'm going to die.  They somehow got the jump on us, sorry...*Rosch dies*
Stocke: ...so not matter what path I take, it's wrong...
Raynie: WHat are you talking about?
Stocke: If only there was someway I could find out how all this went down.
Marco: Hey! I found this note on this ground after that guy left which tells in exact detail that they were tipped off about this whole thing!
Stocke: Oh, wow! That's great! It's a pity you can't change the past...

*At the Historia*
Teo: So you're going to change the past?
Stocke: Yep.
Teo: Awesome!
Lippti: YES! TIME IS IN FLUX! HISTORY CAN BE REWRITTEN!
Stocke: ...cue to get going?
Teo: Cue to get going.

*backup to the Sand Fortress*
Stocke: Hey Viola, the enemy knows about Rosch's plans and is totally going to destroy his forces.
Viola: Oh, and how do you know about this?
Stocke: I use to be in SpecInt, I have my ways.
Viola: Fair enough.  Right, men, UNLEASH THE THAUMACHINES!
Stocke: Isn't sending giant mechas a little...severe?
Viola: Look, these are last minute plans, so it's either release them or come up with a plan that will be too late.
Stocke: ...right, giant death machines sounds like a good idea!

*fast-forward to Rosch scene because shut up*
Stocke: Hey look! Rosch is still alive and so is Kiel!
Leonard: AHA! YOU ARE WOUNDED! YOU HAVE NO CHANCE OF BEATING ME!
Rosch: This doesn't look good...
Kiel: Any ideas how we can get out of this?
Rosch: We just gotta hope something unexpected happens...
Stocke: GERONIMO!!! *beats up the two mooks of Leonard*
Leonard: Who are you!?
Stocke: Friend of Rosch's, do you want to duel me or what?
Leonard: RETREAT!!! *runs away*
Stocke: Rosch, are you alright?
Kiel: He's injured but alive.
Stocke: Good, let's get him back to the Sand Fortress and play it by ear from there.
Rosch: Sounds like a plan.
*enemies appear*
Stocke: Umm...ok, there's no way we can outrun them while carrying Rosch...
Raynie: Go, Stocke, Marco and I'll will hold them off!
Stocke: ...NOT ARGUING GOOD BYE!
*They go, realize they're surrounded later*
Stocke: Ok, here's what's going to happen.  I'll fight the enemies head on and try to stall them because Raynie and Marco did the same, Kiel, you take Rosch to Alistel!
Kiel: NO! I'm going to fight them! I wanna be the hero for once! GOOD BYE! *he runs off*
Stocke: But...Kiel...I...wait, maybe I can talk him out of this by going back to the pa-*checks White Chronicle, no node* The hell? How come I can't go back?
Voice of Teo: Fixed Point in Time.  Sorry Stocke, but this is the natural course of time.
Stocke: The hell? You never told me about that!
Voice of Lippti: AHAHAHAH! YOU SCREWED UP! YOU SCREWED UP!!!

Kiel: *surrounded by armored guys* This isn't good...
Big Armored Dude: Look what we have here...
Kiel: Time for my SECRET PLAN!
Big Armored Dude: What are you trying to pull?
Kiel: *pulls a white flag* PLEASE DON'T HURT ME I HURT EASILY I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT!
Big Armored Dude: ...
Kiel: ...
Big Armored Dude: ...pathetic.
Kiel: Well crap, I'm out of options...am I going to die?
Big Armored Dude: Yes, yes you are...


*back at Alistel*
Sonja: Rosch is alive but unconscious.
Stocke: Well, at least he's alive...
Rosch: Actually, I have 5 seconds of consciousness to tell you, Stocke, that IT'S ALL HUGO'S FAULT! *falls down again*
Stocke: How convenient!  Going to tell Raul now.
Sonja: Be careful!
Stocke: I'm not doing anything dang-*slips on a water puddle, cue laugh track*
*Raul's office*
Stocke: So...Hugo's a traitor.
Raul: well, I can't turn a blind eye forever, but I need proof before I do something about it.
Stocke: LEAVE EVERYTHING TO ME!
Raul: ...you're going to sneak into his office and find his document, aren't you?
Stocke: Oh hell yeah, that's what I do best!
Raul: Well, there's no way this can backfire, go ahead, he's not in there now!
*in Hugo's office*
Stocke: Let's see, if I was leading a country and betraying it at the same time for the sake of ABSOLUTE POWER, where would I hide a document like that...
Heiss: Right here of coure! *is holding it*
Stocke: Ah of course! Right...hey, where did you come from?
Heiss: I was always here!
Stocke: No, you really weren't; this room is small enough that you can see everything from the doorway.
Heiss: Oh, is that so? In that case, I'll be forced to kill you! *does disappearing Ninja tricks*
Stocke: Now that's just unfair!
*fight scene, ends in a stalemate*
Heiss: Persistent Bastard!
Stocke: Hey, Heiss, your shoes are untied!
Heiss: huh, what? *drops document*
Stocke: JUST AS PLANNED! *grabs Document, disappears and runs away*
Heiss: What the...damn it, oldest trick in the book...and he learned my invisibility powers just by watching it! Clever boy...
Hugo: What are you doing in my office?
Heiss: Chasing after a rat...
Hugo: Did you catch it?
Heiss: No...
Hugo: ...WELL GO GET IT! I hate rats.  They are ugly, and smell and usually bring diseases!

*back at Raul's office*
Stocke: Here's the document.
Raul: Thanks, though I think it's best you get out of here.  They know it's you, but don't know it's me...sorry, can't do much to protect you.
Stocke: Yeah, I'm getting out of here with Rosch like...now!
*at clinic*
Stocke: HisonjatakingroschacrosscountrybecausetraitorcomingbackneverIloveyoubye!
Sonja: Oh no you don't! Not without me you aren't! I'm the only one who can treat him!
Stocke: ...fine...
Sonja: Where are we taking him anyway?
Stocke: Sand Fortress.  Viola will know what to do.
Sonja: He won't make the journey.
Stocke: Do YOU have a better option?
Sonja: ...
Stocke: Thought so!

*out of town*
Stocke: Damn it Rosch, you're too damn heavy!
Sonja: Maybe we should have taken off his armor first?  we can still do that!
Stocke: No time for that! We must hurry!
Sonja: But...I...oh whatever...
Rosch: I think we're being attacked from behind.
Stocke: ...*sigh* Ok, Sonja, carry him alone, I gotta fight off an army single handedly...
Sonja: Isn't that suicide?
Stocke: Trust me, I got this!
*scene shift*
Sonja: Dead end, and I can't carry you much further.
?????: Perhaps I can help.
Sonja: Huh? But you are...
*one scene later, 15 dead bodies on the ground*
Stocke: I...can still...fight...
Soldier: HE'S INHUMAN! RUN!
Stocke: Yeah, you run away, I can take anything you-*squish* oh god, there goes my organs. *Collapses*
?????: This is him?
?????#2: Yep, that's the description alright!

*White Chronicle*
Lippti: STOCKE! DO YOU WANT TO START CHAPTER 3!?
Stocke: Umm...I feel like I'm forgetting something...
Teo: no, you aren't, trust me...
Stocke: Really? Because I swear there was something else I had to...
Lippti: KILL THE BITCH!
Stocke: Oh, right! Gotta go assassinate someone in the other timeline!
Teo: Was hoping to avoid that...

*timeline jump*
Stocke: So...about sneaking around...I can turn invisible.
Raynie: Since when can you do that?
Stocke: Since shut up, that's when.
*searching the entire castle, the team comes across someone who they believe is Eruca*
Marco: There's something too easy about this...
Raynie: other than how we got lucky that Stocke pulled a power out of his ass to get us through this?
Marco: Yes, why would she just appear like that?
Stocke: ...IT'S A TRAP!
Soldiers: THERE THEY ARE! GET THEM!
Stocke: Quick! To the sewers everyone!
*They get to the sewers, it's barred off*
Stocke: ...someone ratted us out, I think...
Raynie: Double Agent?
Stocke: I think so...and now we're cornered...
Soldiers: Any last words?
Voice: HOLD YOUR BREATH!
*Sleeping gas*
Stocke: Who the hell are you?
?????: Otto.  Now are you going to trust me or be on the receiving end of their pointed sticks?
Stocke: Trusting you sounds like a good idea, let's go!

*back in the bar somehow*
Stocke: Thank you Otto, but what is this?
Otto: Well, Pierre, you wanna explain this?
Pierre: VIVA LA RESISTANCE!
Raynie: Well that explains that...
Marco: But where was the princess?
Hooded Person: AAAH! Marie, it's hot in here, would you mind removing my hood?
Marie: Yes, milady.
*Eruca revealed*
Eruca: Hello Stocke, nice to meet you, now JOIN OR DIE!
Stocke: You do realize I can probably beat half of the people in the resistance without breaking a sweat right?
Eruca: ...ok, you're smarter than you look, time for plan B: Persuasion.
Marco: How do you plan on doing that?
Eruca: My step mother is not of Royal Blood, she's causing Desertification.  If Alistel Wins, it won't stop it.  I can do the RITUAL to stop it, at least temporarily, and we kind of need to.  Stupid bitch and her ruling this country when my father died and *grumbles*
Stocke: Ok, your story checks out.
Raynie: what? That sounds like an elaborate lie!
Stocke: Too elaborate if you ask me! (That and it fits in too perfectly with what the Time Elves have been saying...)
Voice of Lippti: KILL THE BITCH!
Eruca: Tell me, Stocke, what is this war to you?
Stocke: It's a job.
Eruca: Ok, so no emotional investment?
Stocke: No really no.
Eruca: If you don't trust me, then go to Cornet and talk to the elder there, he will explain everything.
Stocke: Ok.

*at Cornet Village*
Elder: Yes, Desertification is happening and it's all Queen Protea's fault...well, and partially that bastard Hugo's fault.
Stocke: Right, all I needed to hear!
Raynie: Wait, Stocke, you're saying we should join the resistance and BETRAY ALISTEL!?
Stocke: It involves saving the world.  The world's going to end in 10 years at this rate.  So when it comes down to saving the World vs. saving a country, I think the answer is obvious...
Marco: I agree with Stocke!  Raynie, you want to protect Alistel, but what use is protecting Alistel if the world is gone?
Raynie: ...you know, for a while the pathes weren't mutually exclusive but...can I have a moment to think about this?

*meanwhile, in Queen Protea's castle*
Protea: Selvan, go burn down the city to kill the resistance
Selvan: Where should I begin to start explaining how incredibly stupid an idea that is?
Protea: OFF WITH HIS HE-...
Selvan: Er...and by stupid, I mean GENIUS! YES! Burning down the town, on it!
*hallway*
Selvan: Ok, you, generic redshirt...
Soldier: Um, sir, my shirt is blue.
Selvan: SHUT UP!  Anyway, go spread a rumor about the resistance burning down the town, then burn down an uninhabitted section to let people escape while the entire city burns slowly
Soldier: Ok, my family will at least survive...
Dias: Wait, you're going to do what?
Selvan: Queen's orders, she's going insane, kind of want to keep my head...
Dias: Well it is our fault she's sitting on the throne...
Selvan: Can we just oust her already?  This is getting horrible after King Richard left...

*back are Cornet*
Villager: GRANORG IS BURNING!
Stocke: ...right, let's go help the princess, Marco, you're with me!
Raynie: Wait, take me with you!
Stocke: ok, fine...by the way, since we're no longer part of Alistel due to being traitors, we're now equals, you're not my subordinates...which means nothing really changes and I still get to push you around since I'm cooler than both of you.
Marco: Ok, fine.
*at Granorg, which by the way, entire city is on fire*
Stocke: Ok, where to first?
Aht: HELP ME!!!
Stocke: ...do we have to?
Raynie: Yes.
Marco: Pretty much.
Stocke: Damn it!
*they save Aht, Vanoss and Liese*
Vanoss: You sure he's THE ONE, Aht?
Aht: Yes! Definitely!
Liese: Stocke, take her with you!
Stocke: Can I say no?
Aht: NO YOU CANNOT!
Stocke: There's gotta be someway out of this...
Voice of Lippti: KILL THE BITCH!
Stocke: ...coming from you, Aht joining doesn't sound so bad anymore, let's go!
*at the bar*
Stocke: WHERE'S THE PRINCESS?
Pierre: Behind this wall!
Eruca: Yep, I'm fine, let me help you guys escape to the Sand Fortress so we can continue on!
Pierre: SORRY PRINCESS BUT I MUST BETRAY YOU NOW BECAUSE MY SISTER DIED AND WE AREN'T GETTING ANYWHERE!
Eruca: You're serious about betraying us?
Pierre: Yes! NOW DIE *shot in the face*
Stocke: WHOA! Princess, what the hell?
Eruca: What? Is it so weird that a princess carries a gun and knows how to use it?
Stocke: I...uh...er...remind me not to piss you off, is all.
Otto: I'll hold them off, get out of here!

*White Chronicle*
Teo: ok, Stocke, what are you doing here?
Stocke:  I just thought I'd do some side quests now, is all!
Teo: Really? NOW of all times?
Stocke: Look, I can go right back to that moment whenever I want!
Teo: *Sigh* Fine, just don't get yourself killed.
*Multiple sidequests and bad ends later, even ones including produce somehow*
Teo: Can we get back to really saving the world now?
Stocke: Yes, yes we can.

*Sand Fortress Border*
Stocke: We're here, princess.
Aht: Think that guy made it?
Raynie: I doubt Otto could survive...
Otto: I'M NOT DEAD!
Stocke: Yes you are!
Otto: I'm not!
Stocke: You're injured, you won't last.
Otto: I'm getting better!
Stocke: You'll be stone dead in a moment!
*Marco heals him*
Stocke: ...or not...seriously Marco, why?
Marco: I feel like we prevented this routine earlier, but can't place it why...almost like there's another me...maybe there's a whole other time based off different choices we make, leading to infinite possibilities.  Maybe this is just one of those moments and every decision we make changes the very nature of reality!
Stocke: That's just plain stupid, Marco.  I'm embarrassed you're even on my team.
Voice of Teo: Says the man who is jumping between timelines at whim, thus knows for a fact that everything Marco says is completelhy true.
Stocke: Do you want me to reveal the truth of the White Chronicle?
Voice of Teo: ...right, carry on with the denial!

Narrator: And so with that argument done, Stocke and co., after healing Otto, set off to do...uhh...wait, what are you guys suppose to be doing again?
Eruca: We WERE going to discuss that, but you decided to cut us off before we had a chance to gather ourselves.  Seriously, the nerve of some people!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 20, 2013, 11:02:36 PM
Fallout New Vegas: The Avenger is the bane of marked men, it just tears them up so bad.  Satchel charges are a monstrous pain with heavy armor though.  I take like, 300 damage and literally can't disarm any of them.  If I hadn't saved two dozen doctor's bags it'd be even worse.  Things mostly went easy breezy until I got to fighting Deathclaws.  the SURPRISE at the High Road killed me, then the two at the start of the area outside the Temple killed me about three times, including once in one hit from full health.  Oh the otherside, Courier's Mile went quick and easy, and Rawr went down fast too.  Still getting new dialogue from Ullysses, I love it.  Economy is still broken beyond all belief, I went in with like, 72 caps and ended with over 200,000.  That's gonna be a lot of 5mm rounds and gov't for Raul.  Before I get my ghoul back I go do Long 15 to get the Scoched Sierra Power Armor and take the next step to ultimate power.  I step in, consume my drugs and... move like a damn snail.  I'm under my weight limit what's going on?  Ugh, whatever, charge.  The ghouls are useless, but the Heavy Armor Troopers somehow get their DT against the Avenger's JSP rounds and I'm damn low on AP.  Survivalist Rifle can't do anything either since all I have are Hollowpoints.  I waste most of my ammo cutting through them, but the minigun troopers drop some AP for my fight against Colonel Royez.  Thankfully I knock aside his plasma caster and he draws his knife and sits there and takes a full box of AP to the face.  Hello delicious bear pauldron armor.  Swap that on and slowly return to the Mojave Outpost.  I check online for any movement bugs.  OHHEY I HIT CAPSLOCK AND WAS WALKING THE WHOLE TIME.  /suicide.  Anyway, dumped stuff off in Novac, grabbed EDE and Raul and returned to Long 15 for loot because I'm greedy.  Fixed up Raul's gear before going on the world tour of ammo.  Went from 700 5mm JSP to 4500.  Delicious.

I actually prefer using the Avenger to snipe targets since I have the ammo now.  I can actually trace the bullets to see if they hit instead of random missing with other guns.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 21, 2013, 03:59:29 AM
Legend of Dragoon - Beaten again. Level 40, around 38 hours or so.

Random thoughts:

The battle system is pretty good; the game is overall too easy for it. Nothing new here. I do really appreciate that the game put in optional fights such as the fallen dragoons and the divine dragon spirit (the best way to be a good boss in LoD? Be dead) which actually will test the player some. i just wish the game had done a better job of challenging fights in the maingame. What's weird is that midgame, with Lenus and then a few disc 3 bosses it seems to find its way, then the chapter 4 required bosses uniformly suck, outside Melbu who is merely a slow grind which can kill you if you screw up but overall is still disappointingly easy.

While I do enjoy the game a fair deal, it's easy to see why one might not. If you like timed hits it's good fun. If you don't, then attacks will feel annoyingly slow in that FF9 way, to go with the long loading times the game has. The game also has long animation times for certain enemy spells, which I don't really mind because they suit the battles they're in; randoms use almost entirely basic physicals and unboosted magic which animate very quickly. Funny how big a difference the timed hit mechanic makes to the overall perception of whether the game's battles drag.

LoD inventory is interesting and I'd like to see another JRPG try something like it. It's limited by design; restocking it is cheap so you really think more about what items you want to carry. This allows them to make the items good without feeling overpowered, and you get lots of choices between types of healing items, attack items, repeatable items, etc... what's worth your inventory? I do think it was a good decision to give the best mages healing magic, so if you use one you can shift to using less healing items and more attack items, nice little built-in balance. Oh yeah and the whole system would suck if equipment cluttered the inventory, so thank goodness it's separate. I do wish the menu for accessing items was better though; it's a bit cumbersome (doesn't combine items except in battle, doesn't save cursor position, etc.).


Next up on my list of RPGs to replay which I haven't played in years is Xenogears, but that will wait until the new year. For now...


Civ 5 - Is fun. I haven't played Civ in over a decade, wasn't sure if it would trigger the same general response... but it seems to. Certainly are a few key differences compared to Civ 2; the biggest I've noticed is that cities are much harder to conquer (which well probably reduces the risk of losing before turn 20 which Civ 2 had at least). I'm also annoyed that you can't control unit movement entirely with the keyboard any more, but that's not too big a deal.

Super Mario Kart - So I randomly started playing this last week and was struggling to win on 150 cc. I'm rusty at the game and it is wonderful! SMK's pretty much my favourite so it's actually pretty great that the skills at it have decayed enough for it to be a legitimate challenge again. :)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on December 21, 2013, 04:09:58 AM
Interested how you think XG will hold up, because I tried replaying that one a few years back and was constantly battling sleep myself.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 21, 2013, 04:55:32 AM
I doubt XG will hold up at all. Story driven game+PSX translation+unfinished to start with. Liking the game helps overlook issues like that (I really enjoyed FF7 on the replay, even with the awful translation).


Related! I'm on a replay kick. SO2- Just got down with the herb fetching quest for Bowman.  Still love the combat, just wish there was sceneskip. The last of the textdumps is coming up soon though (Lacour front lines).  Running a Claude/Rena/Precis/Opera team. I got the eternal sphere on disk 1 for the first time ever. I got the minus sword on the first try (Tried to get it on a whim as I had the mithril lying around and was just dicking around after failing to get silvance). Getting the ES after took some time, bu hey.

I'm running on universe. Randoms can and will posterize you if you don't take them seriously. It's definitely fun, I haven't played through SO2 in over a decade.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 21, 2013, 05:40:19 AM
Joining the replaying of PS1 RPGs bandwagon...

Valkyrie Profile: Just beat Chap 5!  Well, no, still have to send someone up and see sacred phase but shh!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 21, 2013, 08:57:04 AM
I really need to get back to that...

Also I fully expect XG to hold up for the Elfmans.  He knows quite well what he is getting in for with the parts he doesn't like and if he still had that positive a response to LoD I can't see XG having that much of an aversion either.  All the reasons he liked it are still there.  Like Disc 2 change will probably be "REALLY this took this long?  it was this much of a text dump?" but that is only because it is truly ridiculous and you remember it being long, just not how long it actually is.  On the other hand though the Soylent System is still the Soylent system and that part really does hold up.

Edit - Also of course some of this is personality types coming in to play.  Elf is a really positive guy under the sarcasm where lets be frank here, the three of us (Dhyer, Super and I) are all huge bitches.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 21, 2013, 05:52:11 PM
I quite enjoyed the XG disc 2 text dump and imagine I will again; oh noes it is reading. I have also watched much (but not all) of the game a few years ago when I saw a friend play through it, so I know roughly what I'm getting into on that front. The real question is how much things like Babel Tower and the final dungeon will piss me off when I'm the one who actually has to play them, though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 21, 2013, 11:41:52 PM
I wouldn't bet on it being enough to really lower  your opinion much though!  You know why they suck.

 The text dump is more bad because of how much of a hit it is to the pacing of the game and that it is so much tell rather than show (because budget obviously), not because it is text in your PS1 RPG >_>.

WA5 - So I have realised I missed chances to put the villains in the same naming conventions as the protagonists.  Shitty Strider (Fereydoon) is kind of boring, Shitty Villain Alucard (Volsung) is dumb and I understand Niu's reaction, Shitty Niu is Duo obv, Shitty , Shitty Bondage Childerich is the worst thing so far(Kartikeya).

Did Ice Queen fight.  Wouldn't vote based on that form personally but whatever me voting isn't important at all.  Asgard is a really pointless boring system to have in the game.  I think it might be worse than the Sand Crawler or whatever it's called in WA3.  We are also only at 2 boss fights that are actually plot impacting that you didn't autolose so far, Nigtburn and Ice Queen.  This is getting pretty weird.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 22, 2013, 12:35:48 AM
Fallout New Vegas: Slow progress in OWB.  Running through ammo at a dizzying rate.  Sink takes forever to restock.  Also fought the SECRET GREAT LORD OF THE NIGHTSTALKERS because how the hell did a random-ass nightstalker nearly kill me through 46 DT and 400+ HP.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on December 22, 2013, 01:10:45 AM
I think it might be worse than the Sand Crawler or whatever it's called in WA3.

At least you could control your dudes in sand crawler combat in WA3.  WA5 Asgard combat you just go off and make a sandwich while things trundle and punch each other.  It is also completely irrelevent since hovering skips randoms and none of the three forced fights matter which begs the question of why even have it in the first place.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 22, 2013, 02:48:35 AM
Radiant Historia Abridged:

Narrator: ...is he here?  No? Good!  So we join Stocke and co. as they travel through the Sand Fortress, deciding what to do next.
Eruca: So...we should go to Cygnus...just saying.
Stocke: Sure, works for me; Aht, got any ideas where we can camp on the way there?
Aht: Does a random cave in the middle of nowhere with an Oasis in there count as a good place?
Stocke: Why yes, yes it does!

*they reach the cave*
Aht: We're here! SEE THE SKYLIGHT!? IT'S AWESOME!
Stocke: So...we should probably start preparing.
Raynie: Right! I'll go prepare the tent, Marco is coming with me.
Marco: Ok.
Raynie: And we need someone to watch the fire, CONGRATULATIONS STOCKE!
Stocke: HEy, I didn't sign up for it!
Raynie: Psst! YOU WANT TO TALK TO ERUCA RIGHT!? IT'S IMPORTANT YOU DO IT ALONE AND YOU MAY NOT GET THE CHANCE!
Stocke: If you're try to keep it a secret, why are you shouting?
Raynie: Because it forces everyone to cover their ears due to how loud I am, thereby keeping it a secret!
Stocke: ...how strangely logical, anyway, you're right!
Marco: Yes! I'll help wtih the Campfire!
Raynie: No, you won't.
Marco: Yes, I will!
Stocke: (I have to think carefully about this.) Let's...give him a chance to prove himself?
Marco: Yay!
*Campfire*
Marco: So...uhh...princess...do you like...tennis?
Eruca: ...
Marco: ...neither do I...
Eruca: ...
Marco: Wait, there's something in the woods...I'll protect you!
*Screen shift*
Stocke: What happened over...*Stocke sees Marco, Eruca and Rosch dead* Oh god, What DID happen!?
Rosch: I came to assassinate the Princess because I heard rumors about you betraying us.  Marco jumped onto my lance and died, Princess fought back much better than I expected...now I die.

*BAD END*
Teo: So...can you explain why you thought Marco can be trusted with this?
Stocke: I gambled with him having a chance, I was wrong.  This is the nature of casinos.
Lippti: TIME IS NOT A CASINO! DO NOT GAMBLE WITH FATE!
Teo: ...well, technically she's right.  Stocke, go back and tell Marco he can't do it.
Stocke: Right-o.
*Stocke backtracks*
Stocke: So uh...Marco...no.  I'll watch it.
Marco: Oh darn!
*campfire*
Stocke: So...Princess...why me?
Eruca: You look like my brother and he was killed by my father because unlike my father he was a GOOD MAN and my father apparently had a NO DECENT PERSON rule in our family.
Stocke: How'd you live?
Eruca: I kicked the family dog every once in a while to disguise my decency...and shot a bird in the face by accident but claimed it was on purpose.
Stocke: Ouch, you had a hard life.
Eruca: Tell me about it.
*Rustle in the woods*
Stocke: Stand back princess, I'll handle this!
Rosch: Stocke! It is you!
Stocke: Rosch? What are you doing here?
Rosch: Making sure you're completing your mission of assassinating the princess...
Stocke: That was my mission?
Memory Voice of Lippti: KILL THE BITCH!
Stocke: ...oh, right, it was.  Look, I decided saving the world is more important than our home country, and she's kind of necessary for it.
Rosch: Since when were you so idealistic?
Stocke: Since shut up.
Rosch: If you won't kill her, I WILL!
Stocke: Gotta get through me first!
Rosch: Dude, look, I can walk over you, do you know how easy that is?
Stocke: ...you're right, please, be my guest...
*Stocke trips Rosch in the high school method*
Stocke: HA! NOW SURRENDER!
Rosch: NEVER!
Stocke: Ok *Stabs Rosch* ...wait, WHAT HAVE I DONE!?
Rosch: You killed me.  I didn't want to believe it, but you killed me!
Stocke: I knew this was coming but I couldn't prevent it...just what was I suppose to do?  Now I know how Shulk feels.  There's nothing I can do...nothing...
Teo: Or you can go back to the alternate timeline and get that Rosch to turn on Alistel, making that bleed over into this timeline and thus he may sympathize with your situation.
Stocke: Or I can...hey wait a minute, that's a great idea! Thank you Time Travel!
Lippti: DON'T FORGET TO TAKE HIS ARM IT IS IMPORTANT DOITDOIT!
Stocke: Why would I do that?
Teo: Well, let's put it this way: If you don't do it, you're not going to hear the end of it from my sister.
Lippti: DOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOIT!!!!
Stocke: ...fair enough!
*Jump to the Alternate History, Stocke wakes up in a weird area*

Stocke: So...where am I?
Aht: YOU'RE IN CELESTIA!
Stocke: Oh, thanks Aht.
Aht: You're wel-...hey! How do you know my name!?
Stocke: Umm...it's on your name tag!? (I hope she doesn't realize she's not wearing one...)
Aht: Oh ok...
Stocke: (Phew, dodged a bullet there!)  So how did I get here?
Aht: Me and Gafka found you.
Gafka: Yes, Big One and Red One were down, the girl was fine.
Stocke: So we're all fine and dandy in Celestia?
Gafka: That is correct.
Sonja: Stocke! You're OK!
Stocke: Yes, yes I am...how's Rosch?
Sonja: Alive and uh...well, go talk to him at some point.
Stocke: Ok, I guess I'll go do that now...
Gafka: NO! Go talk to Elder first!
Stocke: Before I do, can I ask one simple question?
Gafka: Yes?
Stocke: Why is it that every time an RPG Protagonist comes to a new village, we always have to talk to the Elder?  I mean, it's not like they know us but immediately trust us.
Gafka: That is a good point.  Go ask the Elder about it.
Stocke: Maybe I will!
*Elder's house*
Stocke: Yo, Elder, why do we, that is jRPG heroes, always need to talk to you guys, that being elders, every time we enter a new village?
Elder: Because we are contractually obligated to help you guys.  How else do we get our paychecks?
Stocke: Ah, ok...and who is the woman?
Elm: HUMAN SCUM!
Stocke: Wuh?
Elder: That's Elm, leader of our scout forces...and she doesn't like humans...to say the least...
Elm: I WILL RIP OUT YOUR FLESH AND ROAST YOUR ORGANS AND FEED THEM TO MONKEYS!
Stocke: ...I get the feeling I am unwanted here...
Elder: You'll get use to it...
Elm: NEVER FORGET!!!!
Stocke: Umm...yeah, I'm going to talk to my friends now...
Elder: Probably for the best...
Elm: AND IF I SEE YOU AGAIN I WILL SLICE OUT YOUR LUNGS AND PLAY THEM LIKE A VIOLIN!

*At the back pond*
Stocke: Hey, Rosch, what's up buddy?
Rosch: Oh, hi...Stocke...
Stocke: Is something wrong?
Rosch: Well, let's see.  My entire brigade of rookie soldiers that trusted me with their life is dead, I nearly died on the battle field, my mechanical arm doesn't work anymore, and we're surrounded by a race of people who probably would prefer we're dead.  Did I mention we're probably branded traitors and our superior officer was setting us up to die?
Stocke: So...everything's fine?
Rosch: ...why couldn't it be me to die on the battlefield...
Stocke: Ok, NO! You are NOT pulling this survivor's guilt crap on me.  Yes, it's sad, but they all put their lives on the line because they believe in you!  Now you can either sit here moping about it, or you can...
Rosch: ;_;
Stocke: ...you know what, I'm going to talk to Sonja, screw you!
*with Sonja*
Stocke: So what's up with him?
Sonja: His arm got destroyed.  He was chosen as a rookie soldier because my brother trusted him and...you know, I'm not sure why I'm telling you this.
Stocke: IF we repair his arm, think that might cheer him up?
Sonja: WE CAN'T REPAIR IT OK!? WE NEED ANOTHER SAMPLE AND THEY'RE ALL BACK IN ALISTEL!
Stocke: You mean like...THIS!?
Sonja: Where'd you get that!?
Stocke: Oh, I have my ways...
Sonja: ...unfortunately, I lack the tools to do it.  I can extra the core, but only with my tools in Alistel, and good luck getting back there.
Stocke: Alistel you say...

*Stocke jumps back to the prologue*
Stocke: Hey Sonja, think you can extract the core from this arm?
Sonja: Sure I can, but...why and where the heck did you get this?
Stocke: Don't have time to explain, just do it!
Voice of Lippti: YOU HAVE INFINITE TIME!  THAT EXCUSE IS STUPID!
Stocke's Mental Voice: Shut up! I'm trying to save the world here!
Voice of Lippti: NO! YOU SHUT UP!
Sonja: And done!  Oh, by the way, take these tools, you'll probably need them for whatever it is you're doing.
Stocke: Right, thank you!

*back to where he was before*
Stocke: Hey, Sonja, think you can use this to repair Rosch's arm?
Sonja: Hey, isn't that the core I extracted from the arm you gave me a while back?
Stocke: Yes, yes it is!  I also still have those tools you gave me!
Sonja: Right, leave everything to me!
Stocke's Mind: Cha-ching!
Gafka: Red One, Elder wants you again!
Stocke: Ah nuts...
*Elder's house*
Elm: YOU WILL PAY FOR RETURNING HERE, YOU SON OF MAN!
Elder: Um, yeah, there are more enemies than expected, we think our Scout troupe is caught, think you can aide them?
Stocke: Ok, leave everything to me!  You saved me, I help you!
Gafka: I will go with Red One, he should not have to do this alone.
Stocke: Hey cool, I can use the help of a strong looking guy like you.
Aht: ME TOO! ME TOO!
Elder: No, you stay here Aht!
Aht: My decision is final, I AM GOING WITH STOCKE!
Stocke: NO! I AM NEVER TAKING YOU WITH ME!

*in the plains*
Aht: Man, I am so glad you decided to take me with you Stocke ^_^
Gafka: More importantly, I think that's the crew over there...
Stocke: I WILL TAKE THEM ON SINGLE HANDEDLY!
*rushes in, battle ensues where-in all 3 are there despite Stocke going alone*
Stocke: Man, that was easier than I thought, it's almost like you two were helping me...
Gafka: That's because we were...
Stocke: I mean besides Moral Support!
Gafka: ...
Vanoss: Aha, thank you for savnig us, I am Vanoss!
Stocke: So you guys have stuff to say?
Vanoss: Yes, we must see the Elder at once!

*Elder*
Elm: YOU RETURN A 3RD TIME HUMAN DO NOT THINK YOU WILL GET AWAY FROM ME THIS TIME!
Stocke: Seriously, PUT A GOD DAMN MUZZLE ON HER WHENEVER I COME IN!
Vanoss: It seems things are worse than we thought...Alistel is about to win over Granorg and well...can we investigate Alistel?  We need to learn about this Hugo guy.
Stocke: Hey, let me go too! I'm from Alistel, so I can help around.  Also, as SpecInt, I am good at sneaking around.  I can also turn invisible!  Also I want to check up on Raul, my superior...he's actually a good guy, see...
Gafka: I'll go with you too, mostly because this game sucks when it's solo PC sections which we have been good at avoiding.
Aht: ME TOO! You can't return here without me anyway!
Vanoss: Just as well, Elder decided last minute we need to head to Cygnus first anyway, so we'll go in two groups.
Stocke: Ok, TO ALISTEL WE GO!

*Alistel*
Stocke: Well we made it! How long til Vanoss gets here.
Vanoss: Yo *he says coming from the north*
Stocke: ...how the heck did you beat us here?
Vanoss: Uhh....Generic Troupe Member #1 Billy, wanna field this one?
Billy: Well, you've certainly got me stumped. *pulls down a Radiant Historia map* By all accounts, it doesn't make any sense.
Vanoss: Anyway, we've got news, but first, WE MUST PERFORM TO LOWER OUR CONSPICUOUSNESS!
Stocke: Oh, cool, I can do that too!
Vanoss: No, you wear this robe because you stand out thanks to your red!
Stocke: This seems awfully deja-vu like...
Voice of Teo: Because the exact opposite scenario happened in the other timeline -_-
*the crew performs, soldiers arrive*
Soldier: Hey you over there...STOP DANCING! HUGO HAS SOMETHING TO SAY!
Vanoss: Oh look, how convenient!
*The team goes to listen to Hugo's speech*
Hugo: WE MUST CRUSH EVERYTHING THAT ISN'T US! LONG LIVE OUR UTOPIAN SOCIETY OF RED SHIRTS!
Gafka: Well I've heard enough, let's go!
Stocke: That's a bad idea; they'll see you leave.
Gafka: *sigh*
Hugo: WE ARE AWESOME! THEY ARE TRASH! WE CANNOT LET THEM LIVE! I AM A POWER HUNGRY BASTARD WHO IS USING ALL OF YOU BUT YOU WON'T CARE BECAUSE YOU ARE JUST SHEEP! SEE? I CAN SAY NOAH DOESN'T EXIST AND YOU STILL WON'T CARE! LONG LIVE ME!!!
Civilians: Such a great speech, it's amazing.  I'LL TRUST HIM WITH MY LIFE! *one slices off his own arm and throws it to Hugo to show dedication*
Stocke: ...man, things have really gone downhill since I left...but let's get going...
Hooded Man: NO! TAKE THIS NOTE BUT SHOW IT TO NO ONE! NOW I MUST GET GOING!
Stocke: Hmm...what does this say?
Note: Meet me in back alley, NOW! Signed -TOTALLY NOT RAUL.  PS: Raynie and Marco are definitely NOT with me. PPS: Please bring a sandwich, I'm hungry.
Gafka: So are we going?
Stocke: Well, I don't know what the point is...it's definitely not by anyone I care about...but I guess it can't hurt
*Back Alley*
Raul: Hi Stocke, glad you came.
Stocke: HEY! The note said it was totally NOT by you, what gives?
Raul: I needed to avoid being caught so...
Stocke: And next you'll tell me Marco and Raynie are with you...
Raynie: Hi there!
Marco: We're back!
Stocke: ...let me guess, you're not actually hungry and you were messing with me, and I brought this sandwich for nothing?
Raul: Oh hell no, I'm starving!
*one sandwich later*
Raul: So...yeah, I'm basically a traitor, and my secretary got assassinated, but Marco and Raynie saved me...can I join you guys to Celestia? I have IMPORTANT INFO afterall.
Stocke: Yeah ok...but yo might want to take off that hood, it's kind of very hot.
Raul: HA! I can take it!
*5 minutes*
Raul: IT'S TOO FREAKING HOT! I'm taking this hood off.
Stocke: I warned you...

*Celestia, Elder's house*
Elder: And who are these humans?
Stocke: Marco and Raynie are friends of mine, Raul is my superior officer and totally a cool guy, BETTER THAN THAT JERK HUGO!
Elm: MORE HUMANS!? YOU DARE BRING MORE OF THEM HERE?! GET OUT NOW!!!
Elder: So...Raul was it? What have you come to tell me?
Raul: Simply put...you guys are not safe, and we need you to join the war...
Elder: You'd have us join Alistel!?
Raul: Oh hell no! Alistel is going to take over Granorg, then they'll set their eyes on you.  Hugo said as much.  So you either sit hit twiddling your thumbs until your resources run out, or you join with everyone not those two and try to fend them off.
Gafka: He is right; Hugo did say as such.
Elm: TOO. MANY. HUMANS. HATE. DEATH. KILL. MAME. *Faints*
Stocke: FINALLY, she's done.
Elder: I see, but I must think this over...ok, we'll help.
Raul: Good! But we need a leader...
Raynie: Hey, why can't you be the leader?
Raul: Strategy is more my thing; haven't been on the frontlines in a while...SO I NOMINATE STOCKE!
Stocke: Oh hell no! I can lead small groups but I am NOT a military guy! I QUIT!
Raul: ...I think it's clear he won't do it.  Anyone you have is qualifed Elder?
Elder: Alas, no we do not; lots of hunters, no warriors.
Gafka: And I have no gift for leadership.
Marco: So what you're saying is we need some sort of BIG GUY with military experience, like a Captain of sorts, to run the army?
Stocke: Well, no one like that is here...
Raul: Actually, Rosch would be perfect!
Stocke: ...oh, right, Mr. Mopey Dopey Survivor Guilt.
Raynie: NO! WE CAN'T USE HIM! HE'S JUST HEALED! THAT'S STUPID!
Raul: I can lead the crew if we desperately need one but Rosch would be better...Stocke, what do you think?
Stocke: (I have to think carefully about this one)  Yeah, Raul, you take it...because Rosch is being too emo to do anything right now.
Raul: Ok, guess that settles that.

Narrator: And so, Raul wins many battles with the Celestians being an awesome leader...then gets assassinated and things sort of go to hell.
*BAD END*

Teo: ...
Stocke: ...
Teo: ...
Stocke: ...So...Rosch?
Teo: Rosch.
*Stocke returns*
Stocke: Ok, fine, I'll go smack sense into Rosch and get him to do it before Raul is forced to do it, GEEZ!
Raynie: ...what was that all about?

*with Rosch*
Stocke: ROSCH! WE NEED YOU TO LEAD AN ARMY!
Rosch: Lead an army? I can't even lead myself! I am useless!
Stocke: Look, you can either lead the army or...
Rosch: Or what?
Stocke: Or I will be forced to do an inspiring, heroic, morale lifting speech that makes you suddenly want to join us!
Rosch: DO YOUR WORST!
*One speech and dramatic boss fight later*
Rosch: ...still not convinced...
Stocke: Well, time for plan B, Sonja, you're up! I'm leaving!
Sonja: Right! Rosch, if you help them I'll...I'll...
Rosch: You'll what...
Sonja: *whispers in Rosch's ear something implied to be too lewd for the speakers*
Rosch: YES SIR! I'LL TOTALLY GO AHEAD AND FIGHT THIS WAR!

*Elder's house*
Rosch: So, I will lead this war!
Raynie: Ha! I knew you'd come through! yay Rosch!
Marco: Um, Raynie, you were kind of the front runner for ROSCH SHOULDN'T DO THIS, you're kind of being wishy washy.
Raynie: WHO IS COUNTING ALRIGHT!?
Voice of Lippti: I AM!
*Stocke lets out a big sigh*
Rosch: So...onto war?

Narrator: And so, Rosch leads the team to VICTORY...initially...by which we mean chapter transition.

*Granorg*
Protea: SELVAN! DIAS! WHAT IS GOING ON!?
Selvan: Well, you see...your majesty...
Dias: MUTINY!!! *Breaks glass and angry mob carries Protea out*

Raul: So there's an enemy force coming...
Rosch: Good, I'll take Stocke, Raynie, Marco, the little shaman girl because we need get back in here, and the big beast guy.
Stocke: Works for me! Let's go!
*one dungeon later*
Thaumachine: CELESTIANS DETECTED! ALL. MUST. BE. ELIMINATED! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!
Stocke: Oh sure, this couldn't be made easy, could it?
Gafka: Can I punch the thing yet?
Raynie: Hey, I wanna zap it!
Thaumachine: YOU. WILL. NOT. ES-CAPE! EXTERMINATE!!!
*Boss fight later, Thaumachine defeated*
Rosch: Good, now let's hope those from Cygnus got their job done!

*back at Elder's house*
Raul: We won the battle, but Cygnus kind of got completely wrecked by some new super weapon Hugo is using from Granorg where is now stationed.
Rosch: Well, that's just PRIME.

*at Granorg*
Hugo: YES! USE OUR SUPER WEAPON THAT TURNS PEOPLE TO SAND! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Fennel: Sir, I think you're going mad with power...
Hugo: I'm not crazy! You're crazy! See! I'M TOTALLY SANE!  KILL MAIME DESTROY TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!
Fennel: Ok, if you say so...
Heiss: Oh let him have his fun...how often do you take over the world anyway?

*Elder's house*
Raul: So I sent Gafka to Forgia, land of the Beastmen, in hopes to get them as allies...except they hate us humans a lot.
Stocke: Just how much can they hate us?
Raul: Well...you know Elm over there?
Stocke: You mean the one we tied to a flagpole so she doesn't kill us?
Elm: HUMANS MUST ALL BE DESTROYED! DEATH TO ALL AND EVERYONE OF THEM!
Raul: Yes her...well, multiply that by about 100.
Stocke: So...(I have to think carefully about this)...let's get allies with someone else, but who?
Raul: Well, I guess there are remnants of Granorg...
Stocke: (I have to think care-...oh screw it) Granorg it is!

Narrator: And so, Granorg teamed up with them and one month later betrayed them and screwed everything up.

*BAD END*

Lippti: I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA!  JOINING WITH YOUR ENEMY!? WHAT DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN!? I AM EMBARRASSED TO BE RELATED TO YOU!
Stocke: You're not related to me...you're related to him *points to Teo*
Teo: ...regretfully so...
Stocke: Look, I don't like dealing with Elm because she's a racist bitch, and the prospect of dealing with a whole village of people like her did not sound appealing so I tried my options.  I am very sorry I screwed up, and now will go choose the other option, ok?
Teo: *Sigh* Go ahead...

Narrator: AND THUS STOCKE LEAVES FOR GRAND ADVENTURES OF...choosing...the other...option...yeah, I got nothing...

NOTE: I called him "Elder" because I couldn't be bothered to check the spelling of his name.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 22, 2013, 06:39:15 PM
Did Ice Queen fight.  Wouldn't vote based on that form personally but whatever me voting isn't important at all.  Asgard is a really pointless boring system to have in the game.  I think it might be worse than the Sand Crawler or whatever it's called in WA3.  We are also only at 2 boss fights that are actually plot impacting that you didn't autolose so far, Nigtburn and Ice Queen.  This is getting pretty weird.

Yeah, people were pretty split down "would you vote on Ice Queen y/n" which is why we ranked Avril and Ice Queen separately (Fei/Id-style) to avoid the problem entirely.

I pretty much agree with Random and yourself re Asgard. Fun fact, I had forgotten Asgard fights were a thing until I saw Ciato replay the game this year.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cmdr_King on December 23, 2013, 01:36:27 AM
FF Dimensions- Beat.  Cracked 50 hours, final levels around 72.

Final party setup.

Sol-  Paladin, Battle Arts/Counter/Str+20.  Basically casts Mighty Wall, the spams double attack forever.  Mostly meant I could free up my mages to thigns besides buffs.

Sarah- Summoner, Doublecast/HP+20/INT+20.  Main healer.  Argy is really good, and since hey endgame, spamming Argy+Bahamut for 5000 damage heals was cool.

Aigis- Dragoon, Doublecast/Magic Blade.  So magic blade is just the coolest skillset.  Bunches of enemies are weak to stone as it turns out, and otherwise it's basically a critical hit that can hit weaknesses and doublecast.  Yeah.

Diana- Magus, White Magic/HP+20.  She ended up going all the way through both WM and RM, but didn't quite hit JL19 for WM/Doublecast.  Oh well.  Least effective PC of my final five, but that's to be expected since I basically left her in a grinding class and sent her down two job trees that don't contribute damaging attacks (at least not for a Dark Warrior)

Nacht- Ninja, Aim/Backliner/Alchemy.  Spreadshot is pretty awesome.  Does pretty much just that, although he can toss out emergency phoenix down+Xpotions at least.  Just, y'know, Spreadshot with dual wield is kinda crazy good.  Especially since rather a lot of enemies are human, demons, or undead (the stuff endgame katanas hit).

So, this game is the sort of game I keep thinking "why the hell don't they make more games like this".  It's a bit on the lazy side, definitely, but even then it's basically taking ideas from FF II, III, IV, and V and turning them into a more functional and refined whole.  Even when it's more or less lifting ideas wholesale, they tend to make more sense in the new context.  So it's a new game that's reasonably priced but is still comfortable and familiar and you can intuit your way through it based on familiarity with the series.  Not super awesome of course, but quietly solid.  7/10 material.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 23, 2013, 03:03:53 AM
Radiant Historia:

Narrator: We join Stocke as he is about to make the OTHER decision for joining the alliance.

Stocke: Let's go with Granorg, that can't go wrong!
*Same bad end*
Narrator: LIKE I SAID, we join Stocke where he is making the OTHER decision for joining the alliance!
Stocke: So...teaming up with Granorg sounds good!
*Bad end YET AGAIN*
Narrator: *AHEM* WE JOIN STOCKE WHEN HE IS GOING TO JOIN THE FORGIA!
Stocke: Hey, we should join with Granorg.
*Bad End*
Narrator: You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?
Stocke: Yes, yes I am.
Narrator: Whatever, I'm out.
Stocke: FINALLY! Anyway, let's join with Forgia!
Raul: Yes, let's see if Gafka will help us.
Stocke: I'll go talk to him!
*with Gafka*
Stocke: Hey Gafka, can you talk them into helping us?
Gafka: I was exiled from my crew, and they hate you, what do you think?
Stocke: Umm...maybe?
Gafka: ...let's put it this way, if you had the Beast Mark, you MAY have a chance, but as things stand, I doubt we will get anywhere.
Stocke: Where do I get the Beast Mark?
Gafka: From my tribe by Cygnus...
Stocke: I smell a Catch-22...
*Time Elves appear*
Stocke: ...ok, I get it, you don't have to say anything, jump into the other timeline and get the Beast Mark there, right?
*Stocke goes back to the Oasis Cave thing*

Stocke: Ok, let's see, talk with Eruca done...what happened next?  I forget why I even jumped timelines to begin with...
Rosch: STOCKE!!!
Stocke: ...oh, right, I killed Rosch...
Rosch: Stocke, thank god I found you!  I need to tell you that I have BETRAYED ALISTEL, I completely understand if you're against this.
Stocke: Actually, I'm traveling with the Princess of Granorg, so I kind of already have.
Rosch: Oh, that makes life easier.  Anyway, I need you to go to Cygnus while I deal with...
Stocke: Already on my to do list!
Rosch: ...do I really need any reason to be here then?
Stocke: Not unless you plan on joining us.
Rosch: Raul needs me and my brigade, so I cannot.  Good luck Stocke.
Stocke: (Wow, he actually made a complete 180, awesome!)
Voice of Lippti: Actually, it was more like a Right Angle!
Marco: Hey Stocke, I'll cover the fire now, you take some rest!
Stocke: Ok, nothing can go wrong here!
*One sleep gas trap later*

*Prison*
Stocke: ...where am I?
Ricky: STOCKE! You're awake.
Stocke: Hi Ricky...yes, I remember you, just tell me where we are and how we got here.
Ricky: Some desert Prison and we were drugged.
Stocke: So anything else?
Hedge: MWAHAAHHA! I HAVE CAUGHT A FINE ONE HERE! YOU LOOK STRONG!
Stocke: What are you babbling about?
Hedge: THIS IS THE CYGNUS ARENA! YOU ARE GOING TO FIGHT TO THE DEATH AGAINST A CHAMPION! Please try and make him look good *does a mustache twirl animation*
Stocke: ...I am not going to dignify this with a response, instead I am just going to play along and try and use this as an opportunity to get out of here.
Hedge: I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY!
Stocke: Ok, let's do this...
*Stocke kicks the crap out of the Gladiator*
Hedge: NO!!! HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?
Other Guy: Hey, you're pretty strong, wanna go meet the king? I'm sure he'd like this!
Stocke: DO I!?
*Throne room*
Stocke: So...you're Garland, right?
Garland: Indeed I am, and what's your name, strong one?
Stocke: It's Sto-...er...ERNST! Yes, it's Ernst, TOTALLY NOT STOCKE!
Garland: HA! Amusing, just like the name of the fallen prince of Granorg!  Anyway, we like to ENTERTAIN our guests, and you are strong, I'd like to make you my guest!
Stocke: Ok, cool.
Garland: On one Condition: You are here to fight in the Arena when Dias arrives.  He's going to be a guest to, you see.
Stocke: I uhh...ok?
Garland: Also, I'd like to TEST YOUR MIGHT!
Stocke: Do I have to?
Garland: If you win, you are a free man, HOW DOES THAT SOUND?
Stocke: Ok, in that case...
*kicks Garland in the balls*
Garland: *screams like a little girl* cheap...shot...
Stocke: You never laid down the ground rules...
Garland: I...know...you...win...
Stocke: Yay! Now to FIND MY FRIENDS!
Hedge: NO! Sir, this is a bad idea! YOU MUST KILL THE INFIDEL NOW!
Garland: Silence! I will make that decision!
Hedge: BUT YOU CAN TRUST ME! HE IS BAD!
*Searching around the city some*
Stocke: Damn, found no one...maybe I'll just go for a drink.
*in the bar*
Aht: STOCKE!!! HELP ME!!!
Stocke: ...of all the...*sigh* ok, fine.  I'm taking AHt out of here Bartender whether you like it or not.
Bartender: GOOD! She's been causing me to lose customers for the past 3 days!
Stocke: So...Aht...do you know where anyone else is.
Aht: No.
Stocke: ...great...
*more searching later*
Stocke: Man, why can't we find anyone...
Aht: Did you try asking the conspicuous looking guy in the robe over there?
Stocke: As if he would know anything...
Conspicuous Robe Guy (CRG): I KNOW EVERYTHING!
Stocke: Ok, tell me where my friends are.
CRG: FOR A PRICE!
Stocke: ...great...what do you want?
CRG: A BATTLE!
Stocke: ok, let's do this...
CRG: Oh, you won't fight me.  I want you to fight in my brother's street arena thing.  Get at least a Gold Rating and come back here.
Aht: Yay! Me and Stocke get to fight together!

*one Arena match later*
Stocke: Alright, who is next!?
Hertz: HEY! IT'S HIM!
Stocke: ...great, the Desert Crows again...
Bram: YOU WON'T BEAT US AGAIN THIS EASILY!
Stocke: ...Aht, I don't feel like dealing with these guys, you can take them.
Aht: Yay!
*Stocke walks off to the side, leans against wall with arms crossed, sound effects of Aht beating the crap out of both of them are heard*
Aht: Ok, give up yet?
Bram: We...concede...
Hertz: Just...so...annoying...
Arena Guy: You guys have one more fight!
Stocke: Ok, who is next?
Gladiator: Remember me? I want to fight you again, FEEL THE WRATH OF MY CHI!
Stocke: ...oh god, I can't move!
Aht: DEUS EX MACHINA POWERS ACTIVATE!
Stocke: Ha! I can move...wait, when could you do that?
Aht: I always could but it means I will probably exhaust myself and die...but you MUST WIN STOCKE!
Stocke: (I must think carefully about-...wait a minute, this is a perfectly good opportunity to get rid of Aht once and for all, screw the carefully stuff.) Ok Aht, let's go with your plan!

Narrator: And so Stocke wins the fight but Aht died and thus things kind of went downhill from there.

*White Chronicle*
Stocke: Wait wait wait wait wait...you're telling me that Aht is integral to the timeline?
Teo: Yes, yes she is.
Stocke: So what you're saying is no matter how much she annoys me, no matter how much I hate her...I can't let her die?
Teo: No, you cannot.
Stocke: GOD DAMN IT!
Lippti: GO BACK AND FIX IT NOW!
*Stocke goes back*
Stocke: So...Aht...don't do that.
Aht: Huh? Ok.  Think you can win...
Stocke: ...not really...*Stocke gets his ass kicked*
Aht: So...how are we going to fnid our friends..
Stocke: I have to figure out a way PAST THAT CHI!
*Time Elves show up*
Stocke: Ok, what do I need this time?
Teo: I heard there was a Gutral who defeated him once, a travelling one...who was exiled...does that ring any bells?
Stocke: Maybe?
Teo: ...just go to the other timeline and ask Gafka for help.
Stocke: Oh, ok.
Lippti: Let's Do the Time Warp Again~
Aht: Hey Stocke...who are they?
Stocke: Oh just Time El-...wait, YOU CAN SEE THEM!?
Aht: Uh, yeah.  I'm kind of a SHAMAN, you know.  It's my thing.
Stocke: ...whatever you do, DO NOT TELL ANYONE ELSE!
*Back to right where Stocke left off with Gafka*
Stocke: Hey Gafka...about Chi...
Gafka: Oh, Chi? Just press Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right A B Start and you'll get past it.
Stocke: Really? That's it? Ok and...hey, wait, how do I do th-...
*Stocke finds himself back at the Arena*
Stocke: ...how'd I get here? I totally didn't use the Chronicle...
Voice of Lippti: That's the Power oooof LOVE~
Stocke: ...so uh...yeah... can I fight the next round?
Gladiator: BEHOLD MY CHI!
Stocke: Let's see...I'm suppose to do something here...ah screw it *Stocke does some weird DDR crap that resembles what Gafka claimed*
Gladiator: NO! HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT SEQUENCE!?
Stocke: Because I'm AWESOME duh.
Gladiator: You win.
Stocke: Ok, LET'S GO FIND OUR FRIENDS!
*after some lying to guards later after getting info*
Stocke: Hey, Eruca, we found you!
Eruca: Stocke! They were going to sell me into Slavery!  Though oddly they didn't take my gun so as soon as they opened the door I was going to shoot them in the face...
Stocke: Yeah, well, I'll figure a way to get you out of here without causing chaos.
*explosion by the doorway*
Stocke: ...I wonder if that distraction will help us *looks to doorway, Marco and Raynie are there unconscious* ...or conveniently gets us our OTHER friends.
Raynie: Stocke! We found you!
Marco: Yeah! We woke in Skalal near-bye, and the guy tried to hit on Raynie, so she made him his bitch and well..
Stocke: What's that mean?
Marco: Let's just say I saw a side of Raynie no man should ever witness...
Raynie: ...I'm standing right here, you know...
Marco: EEEP!
Stocke: So...we need to figure a way to get Eruca out of here...

*At Garland's Throne*
Guard: So...we're being attacked by Hell Spiders...4 of them...
Garland: GET EVERYONE TO SAFETY AND WE WILL MEET THEM HEAD ON!
*back with Stocke*
Stocke: Seems to be a lot of ruckus going on...
Civilian: HELP! HELL SPIDERS! THEY WILL EAT OUR TOES!
Stocke: How bad can one spider be-*looks off in distance and sees one* ...umm...so...let's go rescue the princess before fighting that thing...
Aht: Why!?
Stocke: Because she has a gun that shoots lasers.
Aht: Oh ok!
*One Eruca rescue and dead Hell Spider later*
Stocke: Ok, let's go talk to Garland about your rescue.
Eruca: That seems risky doesn't it?
Stocke: I just saved the town, I think I can win a negotiation war...
*with Garland*
Hedge: That's a horrible idea! THAT GIRL IS INTENDED TO BE GARLAND'S SERVANT! GIVE HER BACK NOW!
Stocke: But the town would be destroyed if not for her...
Hedge: No butts! OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!
*Garland punches Hedge in the face*
Hedge: Ow! HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO ME YOUR MAJESTY!
Stocke: Also, about this girl, she is...
Hedge: AHA! PRINCESS OF GRANORG! YOU ARE A TRAITOR AND MUST DIE FOR BRINGING THE ENEMY HERE!
Garland: Ok, that's it, I've had enough of your crap, Hedge.
Hedge: And what are you going to do about it?
Garland: YOU ARE BANISHED! GET OUT NOW!
Hedge: And what if I don't leave!?
Garland: Or I, Garland, WILL KNOCK YOU DOWN!
Hedge: EEEEEH! *Runs away*
Eruca: Well, that deals with the introductions, Stocke.
Garland: Your name is Stocke eh?
Stocke: Yes, yes it is.  I think you need to rethink your plans to meet with Dias.  Talk to the princess about it, I'm going to take a nap.

*one nap later*
Stocke: Ah, Raynie, Marco, you guys ready?
Raynie: I USE TO LIVE HERE IT'S GREAT EVERYTHING IS OK!
Stocke: That's nice Raynie, can we get off to speaking to the king?
*At Garland*
Garland: I'm going to meet with Dias.
Stocke: Weren't you trying to AVOID that?
Garland: We changed the location, now we set it up such that if he pulls a fast one, WHIRLWINDS WILL GET HIM MWAHAHAHA I AM A GENIUS!
Stocke: Maybe I should go too?
Garland: I need you to stay here and fend off HELL SPIDERS.
Stocke: (I have to think carefully about this) ...ok, good luck!

Narrator: And so Garland got ambushed by BALLISTAES! No, seriously, freaking ballistaes!  Dias is a jerk like that.
*White Chronicle*
Stocke: Ok, fine, sheesh, I'll volunteer to meet up with Dias myself.
Lippti: DON'T FORGET TO BRING A TOWEL!
Stocke: It's the Desert! What the hell am I going to do with a towel!?
Teo: Well, technically, you could wipe sweat because it's hot...but that's neither here nor there...

*backtracking*
Stocke: So...I'll go instead of you.  You'll just be putting yourself in danger, he has no reason to want me dead other than being a total douche.
Garland: Fair enough, off you guys go!

*in the Desert*
Dias: That jerk Garland, how dare he show up late to our ambush of him!
Hedge: Hey, Dias! Guess what? He planned this spot so you'd get killed!  You better attack now!  Also, Garland probably won't be coming himself, he has this kid telling him everything! Reward me please thanks!
Dias: Thank you indeed...Palomeides, HIS REWARD PLEASE!
Palomeides: Yes sir!
*sits on Hedge, killing him*
Stocke: So...here we are in the desert and...
Aht: Why are there so many soldiers this far south?  That makes no sense...
Marco: IT'S A TRAP!
STocke: Damn it, I already used that joke!
Marco: ...joke?
Stocke: Anyway, RETREAT! WE MUST HELP GARLAND!
*back at Cygnus, everything is going to hell*
Stocke: Garland, what happened?
Garland: Dias pulled a fast one, as you expected.  Jerk.
Ricky: I found this band Dias dropped!
Stocke: It looks like something Hedge would wear...HE MUST BE TO BLAME...but it's bloody, so he's probably dead.
*Time elves appear*
Stocke: ...which is why I am going to travel back about 20 minutes ago and warn him NOT TO BETRAY GARLAND BECAUSE HE WILL DIE.
Aht: IT'S THEM!
Raynie: What are you talking about?
Stocke: SOMETHING YOU WON'T REMEMBER BECAUSE THIS NEVER HAPPENED! ...whoa, Deja Vu!
*Stocke jumps back in time 20 minuets ago, catches up with Hedge*
Stocke: So...Hedge...don't go tell Dias, he's just going to kill you.
Hedge: PROOF!?
Stocke: THIS BLOODY ARMLET SHOULD PROVE I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!
Hedge: THAT PROVES NOTHING!
Stocke: Explain why your name is on it.
Hedge: PROVES NOTHING!
Stocke: It also has a fluffy bunny picture on it...
Hedge: ...ok, that proves everything, I won't do it *runs away*
Stocke: ...odd, I can't believe that worked given there really is no fluffy bunny on here...

*fast forward to plan being inacted*
Stocke: The path is clear, yay! Let's go talk to Dias!
*Ballistaes*
Eruca: Change of plans, we destroy ballistaes...anyone object?
Stocke: Works for me!
*4 ballista explosions and Garland helping out later*
Garland: Aha, now the whirlwind starts! We got 'em!
*With Dias*
Dias: Ok, this is getting ridiculous...
*Tornadoes*
Dias: ...OH COME ON!!!
*Back at the good guys*
Garland: Just as planned! Stocke, do your thing!
Stocke: Right-o!
*Stocke meets with Dias*
Stocke: Dias, we meet at last!
Dias: Oh hi Princess, fancy meeting you here...how's life on your end?
Eruca: It's good, Dias, how about you?
Dias: Same old same old; your step-mother is a complete psycho, I hate working for her, but I got bills to pay.
Eruca: Yeah, life sucks.
Stocke: ...I feel ignored...
Palomeides: YOU IN THE RED! ...have we met?
Stocke: Ye-no...-maybe? (Crap, I can't keep track of what I have and haven't done. Stupid time shenanigans.)
Voice of Lippti: Go go! Go Johnny Go Go Go! Johnny Be Good!~
Palomeides: I must kill you for you look strong!
Stocke: You won't win this time! ...even if it's the only time...ok, look, let's just fight in a non-duel fashion so that other guy can join you?
Palomeides: Ok.
*ONe boss fight later, Sand Plague kills Palomeides*
Dias: Grrr...my plans foiled, I'LL PAY FOR THIS!
*everyone stares at Dias*
Dias: ...I mean, YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS! *runs away*
Stocke: Let's go tell Garland the good news!
*Back at Cyngus*
Stocke: So Garland...we're going to invade Granorg...me, Raynie and Marco and NO ONE ELSE!  we gotta kill all their big-wigs so the war ends.
Garland: ok, have fun with that!
*They leave*
Aht: YOU'RE NOT LEAVING WITHOUT ME WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT I WILL CHASE YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH STOCKE!
Stocke: ...was afraid she'd say that...but what's your excuse Eruca?
Eruca: Plot convenience, mostly.
Stocke: Ok, so we'll go kill the guys and...
Eruca: Nooooo, we're going to Skalla first and talking to my contact because your idea is stupid and has too many holes in it.
Stocke: Ok, fine, sheesh.

*at Skalla*
Stocke: So where is this guy?
Eruca: At the inn.
Stocke: Why couldn't we just jump cut there?
*At Inn*
Stocke: So where is this guy? I bet he's a nerdy little nothing who...
Gutral: AHEM!
Eruca: Oh, there you are!  You must be the contact from Forgias.
Stocke: ...or he's a Gutral whose fist is bigger than my face, shutting up.
Eruca: Might I know your name? I'm Eruca.
Gutral: I'm Bergas.  I will help you get in, but first you must get a BEAST MARK before my clan will have any chance of trusting you.
Aht: How do we do that?
Bergas: Go to the Holif Ruins and pass the trials there!
Raynie: So...basically a fetch quest?
Bergas: Pretty much!

*At the forest outside the Holif Ruins*
Marco: Wow! There's a lot of vegetation here! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS EXISTED RAYNIE!?
Raynie: Because the Desertification process started before I lived in Cygnus, duh!
Eruca: It's all my parents' fault...
Stocke: Look, we get it, your Step Mother is a bitch who can't do the ritual and is screwing us over...
Eruca: And my father too, he didn't do it too, because he lost the sacrifice necessary to do the ritual.
Stocke: Yeah your father is-...SACRIFICE!?
Eruca: Yeah, we need a sacrifice for the ritual, pretty sure I told you that.
Stocke: FIRST TIME I'VE HEARD OF IT! That's horrible! How can you go about doing this every time?
Eruca: BEcause we need to in order to save the world!
Stocke: I CALL FOUL! I WILL NOT STAND FOR IT! Even if I have to throw a hissy fit and get on the floor and scream til you agree!
Raynie: You know, while we discuss this, we kind of aren't continuing this important quest...
Aht: I DON'T CARE SO LONG AS I'M WITH STOCKE!
Stocke: Fine fine, we'll get the Beast Mark, THEN I'll consider bitching and moaning about the ritual, happy?
*Everyone nods*

Narrator: And so, the team gets the Beast Mark, after fighting what looks like the BLACK CHRONICLE for the first time, and a HUGE SPIDER right after.
Aht: Hey, that part was kind of important, you can't just narrate us through that!
Narrator: I can and I just did, DEAL WITH IT!
Aht: Now I know why Stocke hates you...

---
If you're wondering, I am doing Sidequests, but not listing them here mostly to make this thing less long.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: dude789 on December 23, 2013, 03:16:24 AM
Tales of Xilia: Saw that this was onsale at Amazon and picked it up on a whim. Just got through the forest dungeon where we get the healer girl and I'm really enjoying it so far. The gameplay is typical tales, but with some nice changes to combo and movement mechanics that make fighting feel a lot more fluid. Characters have generally been cool with Alvin being a standout. I really wish Teepo had a less grating voice actor though because I like his design for a mascot character and the writing for him isn't bad. Just that voice...ugh.

Biggest surprise so far has been artistic design which has been really good so far. The game's much prettier than most other Tales games and so far a couple of the areas have been breathtaking. Biggest weakness is the soundtrack, but it's generic Sakuraba so I knew what I was in for.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on December 23, 2013, 05:59:09 AM
Lightning's line about Hope's name would be an example of where I would consider the writer in the joke. The line is horrible, but in a way that I would be shocked if whoever wrote it didn't realize it. At least they have to aware compared to the writers of Xenoblade where you get the same stupid sentiments but channeled through dull writing.

The line is played 100% seriously in the game. The writers think that line is SUPER COOL and if you don't understand why it's the fault of the audience.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on December 23, 2013, 06:06:17 AM
I'm pretty much at the same spot in Xillia despite having picked the game up for Black Friday.  SlowFire or something.  Anyway, yeah, it's fun, and if it's going to ripoff some plots, Final Fantasy 6 ain't a bad place to start.  (There's Magitech tubes draining entities of their essence and war looming on the horizon.  Although unlike FF6 there appears to be two separate rival villain casts a la ToS, which is fine by me.)  The excuse to "recruit" Elize was very, very weak (uh, Jude, why not take her over to Nia Khera to be adopted and NOT be stuck in deadly peril?), but whatever, they eventually remembered to show off that she can hold her own in combat.

Forest boss Jiao was pretty badass, I had to spend down my entire inventory of Gels & 4 Life Bottles (playing on Hard ofc, Jude-side).  Thank goodness he had a wind weakness...  enemies in general are massive damage sponges on Hard, which is fine, more reason to use special moves.  The team-up attacks seem to be the only thing that really deals damage, especially when there's no elemental weakness to hit.  Also I fail forever at using anyone besides Jude, and I can only easily chain 4 team-up attacks with Jude / Milla.  Not sure if I just have the wrong abilities set for Jude, or what.  (Okay, Jude / Rowen can get 2 team-up attacks, that isn't bad.  Jude / Elize has like Fairy Heal off Healer and htat's it, and Jude / Alvin has Double Demon Fang and that's it.)  Running with Demon Fist / Air upward juggle / earth Cerberus Strike / Healer at the moment.  Whenever I try to switch to a non-Jude character I get horribly massacred, so experimentation might be tricky.

I also agree with dude that the art design is in general fantastic.  Very pretty scenery & monsters, and the characters are very distinctive if very anime.  That said, there are a few characters who get a disapproving brow furrow.  The evil cat girl in stockings...  uh...  yeah.  I suppose I'll see her more later.  The other character is Milla herself, of course.

(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/0/00/Xilliamilla.png)

Okay, yes, she's a spirit cosplaying as a human so there's actually an excuse for her to be some kind of implausibly tall supermodel...  but...  look at that hourglass body shape.  That is *not healthy*.  If she's nearly starving herself, it seems unlikely she should have a giant rack -  these features don't normally go together.  It's kinda disturbing, since you see a lot of Milla, and it's not like official art that never shows up in-game (think CT Marle had a particularly ridiculous hourglass picture of her somewhere for example, but it's not in the in-game sprite, so whatever).

On the bright side, sticking Elize in shades & bunny ears with silly accessorizing?  Capital.  I'll let you off for now, ToX.  For now.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 23, 2013, 06:10:16 AM
Lightning's line about Hope's name would be an example of where I would consider the writer in the joke. The line is horrible, but in a way that I would be shocked if whoever wrote it didn't realize it. At least they have to aware compared to the writers of Xenoblade where you get the same stupid sentiments but channeled through dull writing.

The line is played 100% seriously in the game. The writers think that line is SUPER COOL and if you don't understand why it's the fault of the audience.

Or, you know, you just assumed that's what the writers wanted you to think, and went with the most negative perception so you could hate the game more.  Being biased against a game makes taking views like that easy, doesn't it?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 23, 2013, 06:12:56 AM
Biggest surprise so far has been artistic design which has been really good so far. The game's much prettier than most other Tales games and so far a couple of the areas have been breathtaking. Biggest weakness is the soundtrack, but it's generic Sakuraba so I knew what I was in for.

There will be some Jazzier tracks later on, and the two believe songs are pretty good.  But it's otherwise Sakuraba auto-pilot like little else.

That said, there are a few characters who get a disapproving brow furrow.  The evil cat girl in stockings...  uh...  yeah.  I suppose I'll see her more later.

It's supposed to be a fox tail actually~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 23, 2013, 10:11:12 AM
Or, you know, you just assumed that's what the writers wanted you to think, and went with the most negative perception so you could hate the game more.  Being biased against a game makes taking views like that easy, doesn't it?

Or it is interpreting it as the same tone as the sequences that this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcnGJ6LNqTY) happens in and it is completely 100% serious. 

Literally saying that the game with bad writing, that we all are pretty much agreeing with, has bad writing is what he is doing.  Now can we all go back to leaving it alone again?

Wild Arms 5 - Did the four towers that are in bum fuck nowhere on each corner of the planet.  I have no idea how you are meant to find these and not accidentally kill yourself on end game dungeons at least once without an FAQ.

Carol = Trance is pretty perfect.  As soon as she says she wants to go with Dean and co. her elderly gentleman declares that she has reached puberty and runs away abandoning her.  Then they make up by her calling him daddy and him being okay to them having an open relationship.

Edit - Also Luck Medium >>>>>>>>>>>> Sea Medium continues to shine true, but enemies stopped having so many Berries to steal so I am in dire need of some kind berry intake and I have no fucking idea where any of the trees are to restock on stuff.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Random Consonant on December 23, 2013, 01:34:42 PM
the same way WA3 intended it, by making you talk to random NPCs and making you hope one of them coughs up directions
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 23, 2013, 04:15:22 PM
Quote
Or it is interpreting it as the same tone as the sequences that this happens in and it is completely 100% serious. 

No, he is trying to tell someone who played the game how a scene is played in-game, which shows that not only is Rob wrong (as he is so often it is a running RPGDL joke), but he has no respect for the intelligence of anyone who disagrees with him. Nothing really new here.

Quote
Literally saying that the game with bad writing, that we all are pretty much agreeing with, has bad writing is what he is doing.  Now can we all go back to leaving it alone again?

Just for the record: we aren't all agreeing, we just aren't arguing because it is fruitless. Good freaking lord, you realise that aside from myself and Meeple (and Super sometimes, if he counts for this) none of the other FF13 defenders even bother to respond about it any more because the venom Rob and to a lesser extent you will spew about it at the drop of a pin is infuriating? Also, "go back to leaving it alone again"? Don't even try to pretend you weren't the one who started this; Dhyer voiced an opinion (tangential to the main point of his post!) but you just had to get a snarky response in on the subject. Please don't tell me you were thinking "I'm sure everyone will take this in a good humour and it definitely won't lead to any conflict" because I know you're much smarter than that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 23, 2013, 04:56:42 PM
However you feel about FF13 plot, it's pretty clear that the writers took it seriously. It isn't TAY where the characters are breaking the fourth wall and commenting on how this all felt familiar.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 23, 2013, 04:59:34 PM
It's not fourth-wall breaking, but nor is it completely "serious", as per Hope's eye-roll reaction to the line. I already offered my actual opinion on the scene a page ago if you're actually interested in debating that, but I don't think anybody is.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 23, 2013, 06:54:17 PM
Had a post before, but was noted that I was missing the argument because bad vocabulary, go me!

The line itself...I wouldn't say it's a joke, but it doesn't come off as deep, or anything like that.  It comes off as trying to illustrate Lightning being sympathetic and being bad at it.

If it was completely serious, then the scene would have had Hope respond in a way that isn't just blowing off Lightning's line.  The entire thing is just a set up for Lightning going off on a definition of her name.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 23, 2013, 07:58:38 PM
edit 1billion - Actually no.  I don't want to try and babble stuff trying to explain things it isn't worth the personal strain on nonsense for it.  Ignore it.

This isn't FUUUUU Y U GUYS NO UNDERSTAND and FUUUUU Y CAN'T I JUST LET THINGS BE.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Anthony Edward Stark on December 24, 2013, 02:31:47 AM
If you experience actual fury because someone makes fun of your video game, you should probably reassess your life because you might be Toriyama.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 24, 2013, 03:53:13 AM
Radiant Historia Abridged:

Narrator: And so we join Stocke when...
Stocke: Hey Bergas, what's the plan?
Bergas: We can either attack immediately, or wait for my men and completely out number them and win!
Stocke: (I have to think carefully about this.) I'm bored, LET'S CHARGE IN!
Bergas: Ok!

Narrator: So Stocke charged in head on and...
Stocke: ...how'd I do?
Narrator: It was a SPECTACULAR FAILURE! It's a shame none of you were around to see it.
Stocke: ...technically, I was...
Narrator: But most of it was off screen...
Stocke: ...touche...

*BAD END*
Lippti: Personally, I thought you should have just kept going! Even if your friends are all dead, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE WILL TO LIVE!
Stocke: In otherwords, I can go back in time, be patient, and win WITH my friends not dying, is that right?
Lippti: NO! YOU CANNOT DO THAT! THERE IS ONLY ONE PATH!
Stocke: Yeah...sure...one path...gotcha...

*Backtracking*
Stocke: Let's wait for your comrades.
Bergas: Ok.
Narrator: So the Gutral arrived, they attacked Granorg only to find the resistance army, which by the way was key to this plan, mostly wiped out.
Eruca: NO! Without OTTO and WILL and PIERRE, there was no sense of unity! WE NEED ALL OF THEM ALIVE!
Stocke: ...crap, I think know where this is going...
*Time elves appear*
Stocke: ...now I DEFINITELY know where this is going.
Teo: Just so you know, you only need to save Will and Pierre; them living will probably lead to Otto living.
Stocke: ...or I can jump Timelines and help out on that side.  Got the Beast Mark and all that...
Teo: Well, I GUESS you could do that too...
Lippti: NO! YOU CANNOT DO THAT! THERE IS ONLY ONE PATH. EVER. PERIOD.
Stocke: Yeah, ok, I'll be going down that one path now...in another timeline...might be forks in the road...
*Stocke jumps to alternate timeline*
Stocke: Yo, Gafka, I got the Beast Mark!
Gafka: Aha! Now we might be able to actually head into Forgia and form an alliance.
Stocke: Awesome, let's do this!

*a long trip across canyons and such later.  Oh yeah, Skalla is taken over by Alistel*
Gafka: And this forest will lead to Forgia.
Stocke: ...didn't this lead to the ruins that I got the Beast Mark from?
Gafka: You didn't have me to show you the way through.
Stocke: True.
*One Forest Trip Later*
Gafka: We're at Forgia!  Oh yeah, EVERYONE HATES YOU Remember...so let's just go straight to the chief.
Chief: Aha, Gafka, and you've brought humans, no doubt they have the Beast Mark?
Stocke: It's right here, see!?
Chief: ...I said no doubt didn't I?
Stocke: I suppose you did...
Bergas: Bah, humans are worthless and foul creatures.  They kidnapped our kin!  Why should we help them?
Gafka: That will be explained in a jump cut!
*One Jump Cut later*
Bergas: ...ok, I understand now but I still don't trust them.
Stocke: DO YOU NOT SEE THE BEAST MARK!?
Bergas: No one has gotten that in years!  Not enough proof for me! Maybe if you save my comrades I might consider...
Chief: Hey, that's a great idea!  Stocke, we'll join you if we save our comrades.
Stocke: Ok, sounds fair, where are they?
Chief: Skalla.
Stocke: ...WE WERE JUST THERE! *^@()*) (^@)* ( #)^)$( *(&@ %&(@!!!
Raynie: ...I think my vocabulary just got expanded in ways I didn't know was possible...and probably not for the better too...
Rosch: Someone WAS covering Aht's ears during that, right?
Aht: Marco, what's a #)^)$(?
Marco: There are somethings best left unknown, TRUST ME.

*Jump cut to Skalla*
Rosch: Ok, so our mission is to rescue the Gutral by any means necessary, though ideally with as few casualities as possible to show we are not a blood thirsty ra-...PUT THE SPEAR DOWN NOW RAYNIE!
Raynie: Awww! But that was going to be my 100th impaling!
Rosch: Tough! Just so happens I have a plan!
Stocke: ...wait, since when are you good at strategy?  Heck, that was always your weak point; you usually had me do all the thinking.
Rosch: Plan. Have one. NOW! TO INN. GO!
Stocke: YESSIR!
*at inn*
Rosch: Ok, here's my plan.  Step 1: Get Alisten uniforms.  Step 2: Cause mayhem.  Step 3: ??????.  Step 4: Profit!  Any questions?
Aht: Can you go over step 3 again?
Rosch: NO! Anyway, We'll split into two teams.  Seeing as 2 of us are way too big and one of us has the physique of a 5 year old girl, that means Stocke, Raynie and Marco will cause mayhem while the 3 of us get the Uniforms!
Stocke: ...wouldn't it make more sense to do it the other way around considering the first half?
Rosch: YOU DARE QUESTION MY PLAN!?
Stocke: No...just...you know...do you really want to help Aht get dressed in an Alisten Uniform?
Rosch: ...when you put it that way, ok, the teams are swapped.  NOW GO GET THOSE UNIFORMS!
*Outside*
Marco: Now where are we going to find 3 convenient uniforms for us to steal from soldiers...
*3 drunk soldiers happen to walk outside*
Marco: ...that'll do!
Stocke: Hey, guys...can we have your clothes?
Drunken Soldier: Huh? *hic* Ok, sure.
*they strip and hand the clothes to Stocke and co.*
Raynie: Ignoring the fact that I had to see them naked, I'm not going to complain about the means at which we got this...
Marco: What? It's not like they have nothing that you never saw before!
Raynie: WHAT ARE YOU IMPLYING!?
Marco: It's just that....oooh, right! You're a woman! I keep forgetting that!
Raynie: WHAT?!?!?!?!
NOTE: He actually makes a crack about "needing to remember Raynie is a woman" here.
Stocke: Er...before-you-kill-marco-remember-we-have-work-to-do!
Raynie: ...damn it!
Stocke: *phew*  Anyway,let's go tell Rosch we succeeded.
*Back in the Inn*
Stocke: We succeeded.
Rosch: Good...NOW GET DRESSED!
Stocke: Ok! Let's do this!
Raynie: OUT!
Stocke: What?
Raynie: OUT! NOW!
Stocke: I...uh...huh?
Raynie: THINK YOU GET A FREE SHOW HUH!?
Stocke: ...you could just throw the uniform over your rather light armored clothes you know and not expose anything...
Raynie: OUT!!!
Stocke: Fine, sheesh.
*Jump cut later*
Gafka: So what's the plan.
Rosch: We cause mayhem.
Gafka: How do we do that?
Rosch: We start a riot of course.
Aht: Well, can we do that?
Rosch: Watch me!
*Rosch side checks a grunt*
Grunt: Hey, what did you do that for?
Rosch: Doesn't that...make you angry?
Grunt: Huh? No! I've been getting therapy specifically to not get angry at these things.
Rosch: Come on, just a little?
Grunt: You are forgiven.
Rosch: ...get angry please?
Grunt: No can do.
Gafka: So...that didn't work obviously...
Rosch: We really need to start a riot.
Gafka: Leave that to me then!
*Gafka grabs a totally different soldier, raises him over his head and bouncing him up and down*
Gafka: Hey everyone! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT!
*Riot ensues*
Aht: Hey, that was pretty awesome!
Rosch: we got company.
*9 Grunts appear*
Gafka: Pretty unfair odds, huh?
Aht: Yeah, they don't stand a chance!
*one ass kicking by our heroes later, we jump to the other 3 in uniform*
Stocke: THIS OUTFIT SMELLS! Can we please trade Marco?
Marco: Hey! Mine's just as bad!
Raynie: can you two stop complaining?  It's not like you had problems fitting your chest into this outfit!
Soldier: HEy, we need help!
Stocke: No you don't.
Soldier: I don't?
Marco: Uh, yeah, see, we need you to run away, and get everyone out of here.  The super weapon Hugo has? He's going to aim it here because the Rebellion is coming and it will KILL THEM ALL!
Soldier: Oh, ok, we will evacuate everyone then!
Stocke: Wow, nice job Marco.
Raynie: Let's release the Gutral!
Gutral: WE WILL NOT TRUST HUMANS EVER!
Stocke: I have a Beast Mark?
Gutral: Oh, ok, then we will allow you to set us free!
Stocke: Well, that worked out better than I hoped!

*Back at Forgia*
Bergas: Ok, you guys can be trusted.
Chief: Yes, we will join your cause!
Elder: Aha, Chief of Forgia, it's been awhile!
Chief: 150 years eh?
Stocke: ...you guys are old farts...
Elder and Chief: SHUT UP YOU WHIPPERSNAPPER!
Stocke: YES SIR!
Raul: It seems everything is in place, should we launch our first offensive on Alistel?
Stocke: ...well, since I see no reason to second guess this, yes, let's do it!

Narrator: The Gutral are big guys and they KICK ASS. Lot's of ass! So much ass is kicked, you could not believe how much ass being kicked!  This is awesome ass stuff!

Bergas: Sorry sir, but some of our troops have chased the enemy.  I guess they're getting overconfident with our success.
Stocke: We have to get them back here, no sense losing more men than we have to-...
*Watches allies and enemies turn to stand from a distance*
Stocke: OR HE HAS A SUPER WEAPON AND WE NEED TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE BACK TO THE SAND FORTRESS!
*They run back*
Raul: Well that explains how Cygnus was beaten so easily.  That damn Flux!
Stocke: (The Flux AGAIN!? Why does that always keep coming up!? ...wait, this is the first time I'm mentioning it in this series, isn't it?)
Voice of Lippti: Time is in flux! History can be rewritten!
Raul: I have a contact in Skalla, hold on, I'll be right back!
*Stocke twiddles his thumbs for about 5 hours*
Stocke: God damn it, that's the last time I'm doing that to kill time!  Why can't I jump forward through time when we're just sitting around waiting?
Voice of Teo: Because it hasn't happened yet?
Stocke: ...stupid time and your logic and your *Grumbles*...
Raul: I'm back, and here's my contact.
Eruca: Greetings, I am princess Eruca of Granorg and *sees Stocke* OMG! BROTHER! IT'S YOU!
Stocke: ...no it's not...
Eruca: But it's like you know me and aren't surprised to see me!
Stocke: ...long story, and no I cannot explain it.
Voice of Lippti: *from a distance* KILL THE BITCH!
Rosch: From what I can tell, this weapon is related to all the people turning into sand in other areas, right?
Eruca: Yes, it's all because of THE FLUX!!!
Stocke: More Flux nonsense?  Damn it, I'm going outside, good bye!
*Outside*
Stocke: Finally, peace and quiet and...
Eruca: Hi!
Stocke: ...here I thought I could...actually, you know what?  Just tell me what the FLUX is.
Eruca: Something passed down in the Royal family that shouldn't be used as a weapon.  Dunno how Hugo is using it.
Stocke: It's Fennel's fault.  All that blabbering about SCIENCE finally paid off I guess.
Eruca: Oh, well, we do need to stop it if we stand a chance.
Stocke: And we do that by...?
Eruca: Getting the Etherion!
Stocke: And that is...?
Eruca: In the posession of my step-mother...who is now dead...yeah getting this is going to be tough...
Raul: GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! A messenger of Hugo's has come asking for an Armistice!  Says he'll end the war entirely if we agree!
Stocke: He can't be trusted, can he?
Raul: I SAID "GOOD NEWS" Didn't I?
Stocke: (I have to think carefully about this one.)  Umm...ok, let's accept?

Narrator: So Stocke and Co. feel for a BLATANT TRAP THAT GOT EVERYONE KILLED!  Well, no, Stocke didn't die because he was lucky to be in the Sand Fortress.  GOod thing too, this would be a game over if so.

*BAD END*
Teo: I thought you said you couldn't trust Hugo.
Stocke: Well, he did say the war would end which I thought meant...look, I figured he deserved the benefit of the doubt.
Lippti: WELL IT BIT YOU IN THE ASS, YOU DUMMY!
Stocke: Yes, yes it did. Now excuse me, I have an Armistice to reject.
*backtrack*
Stocke: Hugo cannot be trusted and he'll kill us all.
Raul: Oh, ok, we'll tell the messenger then.
Stocke: So...about that Etherion...
Eruca: Yeah...Hugo probably has it...
Stocke: ...god...damn it...
*Time Elves appear*
Stocke: I know, I know, go to the other timeline and get it there where I'm better friends with Eruca.  You don't have to spell it out to me...
Teo: Except of course when we do...
Stocke: BUT THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE TIMES OK!?  Now, what was it I had to do in that timeline again?
Teo: Get Pierre, Otto, and Will not dead?
Stocke: Oh, right...
*Stocke jumps back to Will*
Stocke: HERE IS A SAND SWORD NOW USE IT TO NOT DIE!
Will: AAAAAAAH! I mean...thank you!
*Stocke checks will off the list*
Stocke: Now...Otto needed both alive so...Pierre is next...he was about his sister, right?
*Stocke saves a little girl from a well*
Pierre: I WILL KILL YOU PRINCESS!
Stocke: Would you kill your OWN SISTER THOUGH!?
Pierre: Oh, Claire's alive? I SUDDENLY FEEL BETTER THANK YOU!
*Stocke checks Pierre off the list*
Eruca: Otto, you're wounded!  Even though Marco did just heal you...
Otto: Yes, but I must fight Palomeides head on!  Even though I don't stand a chance, THIS IS VITAL!!!
Stocke: Why not ask us for help?
Otto: NO I MUST DO IT ALONE!
Will: NO YOU WON'T! I WILL BE ALONGSIDE YOU WITH MY SAND SWORD!
Otto: Oh? Will! My identical looking life-partner! Yay, let's work together to beat him!
Stocke: ...wait, those two were gay lovers?
Eruca: This is the first I've heard of it...
Voice of Lippti: That's the power of...LOVE!~

Narrator: And so Stocke has succeeded in saving all 3 Resistance dudes.  Then he went to take a nap in the White Chronicle...
Stocke: Saving the world is tiring and this is the only place I can do it without screwing up the Space Time Continuum alright?
Narrator: ...I didn't say what you were doing is WRONG, sheesh.
---
...yeah, I couldn't remember his name either, so he's just "Chief."  Distinguishes him from "Elder" of course.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Cotigo on December 24, 2013, 06:52:06 AM
#opinionsaboutvideogames

/thread
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 24, 2013, 08:09:06 AM
Fallout New Vegas: I've grown so used to being nigh invulnerable that I forgot the Giant Roboscorpion could kill me.  Twice even!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 24, 2013, 12:29:22 PM
I dunno what even happened when I fought that thing. I shot it in the tail from across the room and it pretty much immediately exploded.

FONV: Like so many things, this is Fudo's fault. I'm picking up an old file between maingame and DLC content. Figure I will run the expansions in order because that strikes a balance between giving me time to play with the coolest toys (from Dead Money and Old World Blues) while not leaving my least favorite entry for last (Honest Hearts; the Survivalist journals are outstanding, but I've never been impressed with the rest of the expansion).

Anyway, now I have a holorifle. Ho ho ho.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 24, 2013, 12:45:34 PM
Dark Souls Archer: Dead Gwyn

So I want to see dark magic in action; I grabbed my old mage and am going through NG+.
40 vitality, 50 intelligence, 35 attunement so far
Jesus Christ, he looks exactly like James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2, is wearing a silly dress and is killing bosses in 2-5 hits. Also doing monster damage with a silly dagger. Can't wait to see the new way better spells.


Super Hexagon: Hexagon/Hexagoner cleared, 36 seconds in Hexagonest.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 24, 2013, 05:16:22 PM
I dunno what even happened when I fought that thing. I shot it in the tail from across the room and it pretty much immediately exploded.

FONV: Like so many things, this is Fudo's fault. I'm picking up an old file between maingame and DLC content. Figure I will run the expansions in order because that strikes a balance between giving me time to play with the coolest toys (from Dead Money and Old World Blues) while not leaving my least favorite entry for last (Honest Hearts; the Survivalist journals are outstanding, but I've never been impressed with the rest of the expansion).

Anyway, now I have a holorifle. Ho ho ho.

Something I am proud to take the blame for.

EDIT: Went and fought all five Legendaries.  Bloatfly was a hardcore greenman-to-greenfly fight where I took like seven hits but would not die.  I expended over a thousand rounds of 5mm ammo killing him.  The other four combined took less ammo to take down, including shooting every Deathclaw in Dead Wind with the Avenger.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on December 25, 2013, 10:04:06 AM
It's Christmas morning and I'm sitting here debating LoD because nobody else is up yet~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on December 25, 2013, 01:00:07 PM
Paper Mario Sticker Star - I bought this a year ago for Christmas and started playing it a year later. How timely of me!

Past that, not having played the preceding games in the series might've done a good thing for my appreciation of the game, but mostly it solidifies itself in very good bases: the turn-based, more pool-centric battle design makes for some intriguing choices in battle, and the game's system also forces your hand into high-profile efficiency and specific setup dismantling. Tying your offensive strength to card-like items may be annoying for some, but when you get as much choice and agency over your stickers like you do here, it's all good. Also, making coins a plentiful, yet valuable resource both in inventory/skillset management -and- battle proficiency is an oddly cool idea. Currently on world 2-2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 25, 2013, 09:29:40 PM
Merry Christmas RPGDL. :)


Civ 5 - Mongolia used the power of the science to achieve interstellar space flight by 1950. Chieftain difficulty, so very easy. Late in the game I even wiped out Japan which was about as strong a civilisation in the game as any (edit: which I didn't even have to do, but I did it because they spent the first 2/3 of the game randomly denouncing me and sneak-attacking me for no real reason besides "waaah you're settling cities near us waaah", so they had it coming)... cities were way, way easier to take lategame but that's probably because on this difficulty the enemies fail at advancing technology quickly and the game expects you to build good wall-style upgrades to compete militarily or something.

Fun game, really is a lot like Civ 2 in the ways that matter. Seems to carry over the drawbacks a bit too, like the lategame feeling sluggish (I really didn't need to watch every enemy exchange fire with each other lategame... I should check if there's a way to turn that off come to think of it) as there's just more and more stuff going on. Will play again of course.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on December 25, 2013, 09:37:20 PM
Set Quick Combat on in the settings, yes.  There's also Quick Movement but I find that less necessary.  (Also always check the advanced options when starting a new game.)

Are you playing vanilla, G&K, or BNW?  (Just got BNW from a certain laggy source, as a side note.  Time to get some trade caravans pillaged.)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 25, 2013, 10:11:22 PM
Vanilla; I highly doubt the differences between vanilla and the expansions would be worth spending money on for me.

Oh yeah, a couple minor things that bugged me:
-The recommendations seemed to want me to build workers, workers, lots of workers! It kept telling me I needed more... even long after I had improved every land tile in my territory. This is mostly just a detail but it felt weird; I do like the AI recommendations as a tiebreak when I'm ambivalent about what to build so it's a touch annoying when they're wasting time recommending things which are obviously bad ideas.
-Also on the worker note, when I would hit end turn the game would sometimes interrupt one or more of my workers who were in the middle of projects to make me give them orders again, then hit end turn once more.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: SnowFire on December 25, 2013, 11:06:53 PM
Gods & Kings is pretty awesome, I must say.  I really like most of the additions it has - new civs, religion, espionage, some social/culture tree rebalancing, better city state quest system, etc.  (Okay, there is one thing that is annoying: coups.  But oh well.)

The end turn applies to anything on automatic movement, actually, surprised that came up with workers though.  Usually comes up for me if a unit was told to move an odd number of spaces, arrived at their square, and now wants a new order.  Just got used to end turn = perform remaining automovement myself.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AAA on December 26, 2013, 01:06:21 AM
Were there barbarians or enemy troops around when the prompts started showing up? The game will stop whatever they're doing so you have the chance to move them out of harm's way, even if there's no way they can actually reach your dudes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 26, 2013, 02:17:03 AM
That sounds possible. Especially if allied troops were activating it as well? I'll have to watch for it on a replay.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meiousei on December 26, 2013, 03:39:35 AM
Pokemon X: Welp, finally started it. Somehow, I got a Hasty Froakie, a Hasty Torchic, a Hasty Pidgey, a Mild Pikachu, a Naughty Bunnelby, and a Sassy Azurill. Then came the fun part. Everytime I tried to capture a Burmy, it will Struggle on itself and suicide. I know I need to move on but god **** I want to at least ATTEMPT to complete the pokedex this time.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 26, 2013, 05:18:43 AM
FONV: Trapped Elijah in the vault this time! Then I reloaded and shot him in the head for Christine.

I can never seem to meander through God/Dog's dialogue tree enough to trigger the "You heard his entire story" challenge flag. Dunno what I'm missing there! First time through the game I thought it was just because I never put Dog in charge (it felt like a dick move), but I talked through all his available dialogue this time too, so bwuh.

I am seriously inclined to run the rest of the game in Vera's dress.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 26, 2013, 07:44:54 AM
FONV: Trapped Elijah in the vault this time! Then I reloaded and shot him in the head for Christine.

I can never seem to meander through God/Dog's dialogue tree enough to trigger the "You heard his entire story" challenge flag. Dunno what I'm missing there! First time through the game I thought it was just because I never put Dog in charge (it felt like a dick move), but I talked through all his available dialogue this time too, so bwuh.

I am seriously inclined to run the rest of the game in Vera's dress.

Apparently you need to have Low Intelligence to get Dog's story. (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/The_Whole_Sad_Story)

Looking sharp is greater protection than any armor.

Fallout New Vegas: Cleared out the Deathclaw promontory.  Couldn't shoot fast enough to kill the final rush and died.  So then I sucked down 4 Turbo and cleared it no problem.  Except I completely ran out of ammo!  Well whatever, that's what the Great Khans are for.  I also had enough Sunset Star Caps to finally make one last grasp and finish Legend of the Star.  Whoopee.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on December 26, 2013, 06:18:17 PM
Marvel Puzzle Quest: Started this because I wanted to save Ashley from Candy Crush. Fun. F2P model is a bit annoying though.

Justice For All: Day One of the final trial drove me up a wall and I ended up FAQing it a little more than necessary. Actually thought of the point about the button way at the start of the trial, but, since it wasn't relevant until a few RL days later, totally forgot it. Derp.

World of Warcraft: I've been slacking. Almost have a level 25 pet of every family, now need to expand my collection.

League of Legends: Showdown is weird. Played it a bunch as Ziggs as the 1v1 nature of it makes it really bizzare. Things I'd normally consider advantages don't always work out right because I can't count on map pressure or the like. I've been caught off guard a couple times by someone diving me out of the blue.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 26, 2013, 06:22:48 PM
Radiant Historia Abridged: THE END OF TIME!!!!!

Stocke: Oh bullcrap!  This is NOT the end of time...hell, isn't the whole point of my quest preventing that?
Narrator: Look, it's a fancy name, just go with it.
Stocke: Fine, fine, sheesh.

Raynie: So we need to attack the castle through the sewers right?
Eruca: Actually, we can just walk through the front door and punch my step mother in the face.
Marco: That sounds a little too easy...
Eruca: Trust me on this!
*The team walks through the front door right to Protea*
Protea: NO! YOU WILL NOT BEAT ME! GUARDS GET THEM!
Eruca: Mother, there are none left, NOW GIVE ME THE THRONE!
Protea: No! You conceited brat.
Eruca: But I want it!
Protea: I told you, you'll get it by your next birthday!
Eruca: but IwantitIwantitIwantitIwantitIwantitIwantitIwantitIwantitIwantitIwantit!!!!
Stocke: Face it, she's not going to stop til you say yes.
Protea: She's ALWAYS like this, today she'll ask for the throne, tomorrow she'll want something else!
Stocke: Ok, let's try a different angle.  Give her the throne or I punch you in the face!
Protea: You wouldn't dare!
*Stocke punches her in the face*
Protea: ...ok, I give in, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!
Aht: That was a little too easy...
Eruca: By the way, STocke, take this ETHERION! We don't need it here anymore.
Stocke: I seem to recall this is important.

*Historia*
Teo: Congrats Stocke, you finished the STANDARD HISTORY!
Stocke: Huzzah, I'm awesome!
Teo: You still need to finish the Alternate History to truly save the world using that Etherion!
Stocke: ...mother ****er!  Ok, give me...however much time I need to do this...
Teo: You have unlimited time though...
Stocke: Shhh!!!

*Alternate History*
Stocke: So...I got the Etherion...
Eruca: ...you jumped through Timelines via the White Chronicle, don't you?  Because you certainly didn't have it 5 minutes ago, and there's only one in the world.
Stocke: ...yes, yes you did, and how did you know about all that?
Eruca: Because my family is the one who used that damn thing to begin with.
Stocke: Oh...just so you're claer, the other you has absolutely no idea about this.
Eruca: Does she know that you are my brother?
Stocke: Zuh?
Eruca: Oh nothing! TO WAR MEETING!

*War Meeting*
Raul: We need to get to Granorg Castle.  Hugo is there with Protea already hung.
Eruca: Well, there's a secret passage through...
Stocke: The sewers, right? Please tell me I'm wrong.  FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TELL ME I'M WRONG! No seriously, I hope I'm wrong.
Eruca: That's 100% correct actually.  Plus it gets is conveniently close to the spot where we can stop the flux.
Stocke: ...excuse me, I need to swear profusely for about 5 minutes outside.
*Stocke leaves, starts swearing inaudibly during the rest of this scene*
Rosch: So our plan is to go in through sewers, bust some heads, and liberate Granorg with the Queen?
Gafka: Sounds easy enough, we can walk over them.
Raul: We can't make a ruckus until AFTER the Etherion is used, unless you want to live the rest of your life as sand...
Rosch: ...well, now that you mention it...
Gafka: You're not seriously considering...
Rosch: I've always wondered what...
*Raynie smacks Rosch*
Raynie: That's Stupid! You're Stupid! STOP BEING STUPID!

*one sewer trek later and jumping through the library, the Etherion being used*
Raul: That's the signal, CHARGE IN AND KICK ASS!
*in the castle*
Stocke: This is where we run out of here, right?
Eruca: YES!
*they leave, run into Dias at front of the town*
Dias: HA! YOU WON'T GET PAST ME!
Stocke: Oh, do we FINALLY get to do our big duel this game has been leading up to?
Dias: GET HIM GIRLS!
*Dias sends out elite female soldiers*
Marco: It seems fate did not smile upon us...
Gafka: Shut up and just beat the worthless girls...
*one boss fight later*

*Town Square*
Hugo: Behold, the Prophet Noah is actually here! What's that you say? WE WILL WIN!? YES HAVE FAITH IN NOAH!
Civilian #1: He didn't even say anything...
Civilian #2: YEAH! YOU'RE A LIAR!
Hugo: No no, only I can hear him!
Civilian #3: I call bullcrap!  Still, tell us what else he has to say!?
Hugo: Umm...don't do drugs?
Civilian #4: NARC!
Civilian #5: Let's get out of here, he's a fake!
Hugo: No he's real, I swear! *Hugo knocks dummy over revealing it to be fake* ...oh crap...
*Civilians leave*
Hugo: BAH! I don't need followers! I'm going back to Alistel because there's a SECRET WEAPON THERE! COME FENNEL!

Stocke: So...all we have left is Hugo?
Raul: Yes, though I think the Valkyrie is still there...maybe you can talk her out of it...
Stocke: Well, she's a good person, maybe we can!
*at Viola in the palace*
Viola: I WILL NOT YIELD! I AM LOYAL TO THE END!  For the record though, I know Hugo is corrupt and bad but DAMN IT MY PRIDE SAYS I MUST FIGHT!
Stocke: *Sigh* Let's get this over with...
*team beats Viola*
Rosch: She was a warrior until the end...
Stocke: Dude, don't try to sound profound.  She was just one of these PRIDE IS EVERYTHING people who really, what's the point?
Rosch: You'll never understand, Stocke
Stocke:  No, it's just a stupid cliche that doesn't even make sense!
Rosch: NEVER. UNDERSTAND.
Raul: You know, you did miss Eruca's coronation with you guys arguing over this.
Stocke: Screw it, we're going to Alistel to beat up Hugo, COME ON EVERYONE!

*at Alistel*
Hugo: I have 500 troops left, I can still win this!
Selvan: No, you really can't.
Hugo: YES I CAN!
Selvan: ...yeah, good day sir, I'm leaving.  By the way, your 500 troops aren't with you anymore.
Hugo: YES. THEY. ARE!
*Selvan leaves, gets stabbed by Heiss on the way out*
Heiss: So...yeah, everyone is gone, I just came here to mock you.  By the way, I was playing you as a tool this entire time, good luck losing the war!
Hugo: Bah, I don't need you! I got a secret lab that will give me SUPER POWERS, right Fennel?
Fennel: Um, that's not quite ready sir...
Hugo: SECRET LAB. SUPER POWERS.  NO ARGUMENTS!
Fennel: Er...I mean, yes sir!

*at Alistel*
Raul: OK, here's the plan.  You stab Hugo in the face in his secret lab, I become Prime Minister and take all the credit, got it?
Stocke: Sounds good to me!
*team busts through way through the lab to Hugo*
Hugo: MWAHAHAHHA! THE POWER OF NOAH IS WITH ME! YOU CAN'T BEAT ME!
Marco: Um, what?
Hugo: I CAN CHANGE THE PAST AND FUTURE WITH THIS POWER!
Stocke: ...can we just fight you and get this over with?
Hugo: NO HOPE FOR YOU!  STOCKE! DO YOU WANT THE POWER OF A GOD!?
Stocke: Umm...(I have to think carefu-...) OH HELL YES!!!

Narrator: Stocke let the power go to his head, and thus everything go screwed.

*BAD END*
Teo: You're an ass.
Stocke: Look, I figured if I had the power of a god I could defeat someone who that batshit insane...what was I suppose to do?
Lippti: TURN LEFT!!!
Stocke: ok, ok! Sheesh, I get it!

*rewind*
Stocke: ...so...yeah, I don't think Godlike Powers are a good thing.  Trust me on this.
Rosch: Gafka, you handle this.
Gafka: Right. Falcon...PAWNCH!
*Hugo gets blasted off the screen, comes back immediately*
Gafka: ...it seems he still has stock left...
Hugo: SEE? YOU CAN'T BEAT ME! I'VE BECOME AN ULTRA SUPER LEVEL INFINITY GOD PLUS! MWHAAHAHAH!
Stocke: So every time we kill him, he comes back to life?
Fennel: Yes, it's from the power of the HISTORICA! A super sword whose powers he sapped!  Got it from some Celestian.
Stocke: So that sword can beat him?
Fennel: It's power is drained so not anymore.
Stocke: You said it's from Celestia?
Fennel: IT WON'T WORK STOP TALKING!
Stocke: ok all I needed to hear!
*Stocke jumps back in time to Celestia*
Elm: HUMAN SCUM! YOU WILL REGRET THE DAY YOU LAID EYES ON THE GROUND 3 FEET IN FRONT OF ME!
Stocke: ...hi Elm.  Can you recharge this sword so I can give it back to your friend?
Elm: Oh, sure!
*Elm recharges sword*
Elm: THIS IS THE ONLY TIME I DO SOMETHING FOR A MERE HOMOSAPIEN BASTARD SUCH AS YOURSELF! DO NOT SHOW YOUR UGLY HAIR HERE AGAIN!
Stocke: Noted!
*Stocke jumps back to Hugo*
Stocke: ok, Hugo, let's do this!
Aht: But Stocke, his power is unlimited, we can't harm him!
Raynie: Yeah, we don't really have any hope!
Fennel: I TOLD YOU THE ONLY THING THAT CAN STOP HIM IS HOPELESS!
Rosch: WE'RE DOOMED!!!  WE MUST GIVE UP! WE CANNOT WIN!!!!!
Stocke: There's an old Alisten saying, Captain.  A phrase of great power and wisdom, and consolation to the soul in times of need.
Rosch: What's that then?
Stocke: ALLONS-Y!!!!!!!!!!!
*stabs Hugo in the face with the Historica*
Hugo: NO! HOW DID YOU GET THAT!?
Stocke: Umm...wibbly wobbly time wimey?
Hugo: CHEATER! *dies*
Stocke: Yay! We win!

*White Chronicle*
Teo: You do realize the Black Chronicle is still out there and you need to beat him to finish this, right?
Stocke: ...right...who has it by the way it anyway?
Teo: That's probably about to be answered at any moment!

*Back out in Granorg*
Eruca: Congrats Stocke, we've won!
Stocke: Sweet!  But it's not over yet...
Eruca: What makes you say that...
Soldier: MY QUEEN! THE FLUX HAS BEEN ATTACKED BY ONE GUY WHO WAS INVISIBLE!
Stocke: Only one person can do that...which isn't me...HEISS!
*they meet Heiss*
Heiss: Oh, you found me.  For the record, I am doing this for your own good.
Stocke: Yeah, I call bullshit on that...
Raynie: So you were the one behind everything all along!?
Heiss: Yep, now, if you excuse me, I'm going to reverse the ritual at the IMPERIAL RUINS, so whatever you do not FOLLOW ME THERE, because it is not VITALLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO SO.
*he teleports away using Black Chronicle*
Eruca: Either he's a member of the Royal Family or has the Black Chronicle...
Raynie: What's the Black Chronicle?
Stocke: Special Book that lets you alter time.
Raynie: And you know this because...?
Stocke: SPOILERS~!

*At Imperial Ruins*
Heiss: Stocke, I was right to give you the White Chronicle.  Teo and Lippti were wise to tell you NOT TO TELL ANYONE!
Marco: What's he talking about?
Stocke: Cat's out of the bag.  Basically, I can do the same thing as Heiss and thus have been doing so all along...for the benefit of the world mind you.  No clue what Heiss is doing with it.
Heiss: TRYING TO DESTROY THE WORLD OF COURSE! IT IS NOT WORTH SAVING! HOW DARE YOU GO AGAINST THIS BRILLIANT IDEA!
Stocke: Because I'm SANE!?
Heiss: This coming from a guy who takes advice from Time Elves.
Stocke: Look, they're perfectly well rounded, normal kids who always know what's ri-...
Voice of Lippti: TURN LEFT!!!
Stocke: ...ok, ONE of them is like that at least.
Aht: Well, I knew this all along, because I'm awesome!
Rosch: And you didn't tell anyone because...?
Aht: Because I'm AWESOME!? It's fun keeping secrets!
*continues onward, guy with Black Book appears*
Stocke: So...I thought Heiss has the Chronicle...
Aht: That's just a puppet being controlled!  It's also KING RICHARD OF GRANORG!
Stocke: Ok, this is getting weird.
Heiss: Not really, let me explain.  I killed him because he wanted me dead, because sacrifice...by the way, he's my brother.  Also, you're my nephew, his son, and thus Prince Ernst.
Stocke: Umm...how does that make sense?
Heiss: Because you died, got half of Eruca's soul because she was upset during the ritual, when she was suppose to be sacrifice, but she whined and whined and whined about the whole "dying" thing, so they made you die instead, and got upset when you died.
Stocke: Umm...that still doesn't explain every...
Heiss: I also grabbed you after you were revived, and altered your memories so you thought you were someone else named Stocke.
Stocke: Ah, there we go!  Ok, thank you for clearing all that up.
Heiss: So you see, I AM TRYING TO SAVE YOU!
Stocke: And I am trying to KILL YOU BECAUSE SERIOUSLY WHAT THE HELL?
Raynie: Wait, were YOU the one who killed all my comrades using a PUPPET SPIDER?
Heiss: Puppet Spider? That's completely moronic!  I tried to kill off all the comrades with poison traps and avalanches...except by the time I started it, that spider killed everyone but you two, strange how that worked out...and how you two helped Stocke learn how to use the WHITE CHRONICLE.
Marco: You're a sick man.
Heiss: I AM PERFECTLY HEALTHY! JUST BECAUSE I'M OLD DOESN'T MEAN I'M DYING!
Stocke: Can we just...I dunno...end this already?
Heiss: Sure!
*Boss fight later*
Heiss: Bah, this isn't working, if you won't save you, I'll save you by killing Eruca when you can't protect her!

*White Chronicle*
Teo: We don't have much time, Heiss is grown strong enough to break the rules!
Stocke: How did he do that!?  Who are you guys?
Teo: Remnants of the Ancient Empire.
Stocke: Oh, ok...how am I suppose to stop Heiss? I don't know where he's going!
Lippti: Meet her at a point he doesn't know about, DUH.  I mean, there's that time you saw her when you didn't realize it was her with Aht.  GO THERE AND DO STUFF!  You can save her then!
Stocke: ...
Teo: ...
Stocke: Did Lippti just...give me...actually good advice?
Teo: I've known her for centuries, and this is the first time she's ever made sense...
Stocke: Does this mean reality is collapsing at the seams?
Teo: Maybe, all the more reason you NEED TO HURRY!
Stocke: RIGHT!

*Stocke goes back to Aht = Shaman moment*
Stocke: So...Aht...you're a shaman...
*Scream*
Stocke: Oh look, someone needs help, come on everyone!
*team meets up with Eruca and Heiss is there*
Heiss: MWAHAHAH! DIE PRINCESS!
Stocke: No, I'll save you Princess!
Eruca: What the heck is going on?
Heiss: You can't beat me alone Stocke!
Raynie: WE'LL FIGHT WITH YOU TO THE VERY END STOCKE!
Marco: YES! OUR LIFE IS YOURS!
Stocke: ...I guess the other timeline is bleeding over into them...NOT COMPLAINING!
*they beat Heiss*
Heiss: BAH! I'll do this the old fashioned way: Press the World Destruction Deus Ex Machina Button!
*he leaves*
Eruca: How did you know who I was?
Stocke: It's me, Ernst Eruca, but I've been living as Stocke.  I met you in the future, and knew he was coming in the past.
Eruca: Makes perfect sense
Stocke: You're about to meet me for the FIRST TIME, ok?  This is the FIRST TIME we meet is coming up in a few days.  You got that? THE FIRST TIME!
Eruca: Ok, I guess...
Stocke: THIS CONVERSATION NEVER HAPPENED!!

*White Chronicle*
Teo: Good, now go save the Standard Timeline so they converge and the world is saved.
Stocke: Ok.

*Granorg, Standard Timeline*
Stocke: Where's Eruca?
Raynie: I think she went to do something with the Flux and never returned.
Stocke: ...crap!  QUICKLY! HEISS IS AFTER HER LET'S GO!
Rosch: Hey, take me with you, you could use a guy like me.
Stocke: Yep, glad to have you on board for the first time in this timeline!
Rosch: Oh, and take this Gutral with us, he's strong too.
Stocke: Hi Gafka!
Rosch: You know him?
Gafka: No, we've never met...though I am getting the strangest sense of Deja Vu.
Stocke: Why is that both of the got shoe-horned in last minute...
Voice of Teo: Because final dungeon so give you as many PCs as possible.
Stocke: What about Eruca?
Voice of Teo: What ABOUT Eruca!?
Stocke: ...nevermind, TO THE DUNGEON!
*in the FLux area*
Stocke: Is it just me, or did this place get way bigger? I swear it was one room.
Aht: Oh I can explain that easily.
Stocke: Oh?
Aht: It's bigger on the inside!
Stocke: *facepalms*
Gafka: Red one, let's move on!
Stocke: Right!
*they get to a room with 4 nodes, time elves appears*
Lippti: BOSS RUSH BOSS RUSH BOSS RUSH ^_^_^_^_^
Stocke: ...she's kidding, right?
Teo: no, she's not.  Heiss is using the Black Chronicle to power up people during your past and you can kind of have to stop them before things go south.
Stocke: *Sigh* Let's just finish this.
*one boss rush with a few cutscenes later*
Rosch: So...how did I fight in areas where I technically wasn't if we were reinacting plot moments?
Aht: It's best you don't think about these things; that's how I get through it.
Rosch: Well that's just PRIME.
*next room, Dias and Eruca are there*
Dias: MOVE AND THE PRINCESS GETS IT! MWAHAHAHA!
Stocke: You seriously don't wanna have a shonen rival duel?  Because I feel we really should have one.
Dias: NEVER!!!
Stocke: Ok *goes invisible and saves Eruca*
Dias: Grrr...you'll pay for this! Heiss, wait for me!
Stocke: Eruca, I know who I am!  And I know I am going to have to die to save the world.
Eruca: And you're ok with this?
Stocke: Well, I have to save the world and I can't see a way that doesn't involve me dying...I wish there was some alternative...
Eruca: Let's just shoot our Uncle in the face first, ok?
Stocke: Works for me!

*at the final boss chamber*
Selvan: Sir, they're here!
Heiss: Do you want to be PART OF SOMETHING GREATER!?
Selvan: Yes, yes I do!
Heiss: Good, stand by that crystal!
Dias: Sir, they're right here!
Selvan: Hey Dias, wanna join me in getting super powers so we can have hot passionate love later?
Dias: DO I!? *Dias runs over there*
Heiss: ...who said anything about SUPER POWERS?
Both: WHAT!? *They turn to sand*
Heiss: NOW I HAVE THE FULL BLACK CHRONICLE POWER!
*Stocke and co. arrive*
Stocke: So Heiss...yeah...about the destroy the world by saving me thing...not happening!
Heiss: I GAVE EVERYTHING TO SAVE YOU AND YOU DISAGREE WITH ME!?
Stocke: Then why have you tried to kill me at multiple turns if you are TRYING TO SAVE ME?
Heiss: BECAUSE MY PLAN IS AMAZING!
Stocke: Um...yeah, guys, let's beat him up.
*They beat up a book until Heiss loses*
Heiss: NO! WHY CAN'T I USE THE FULL POWER OF THE BLACK CHRONICLE?
Stocke: Well, you see, the reason is...
Heiss: Don't you dare say "Because I have nothing worth fighting for" or any preachy stuff like that! It's total nonsense!
Stocke: I was ACTUALLY going to say it's because you're holding back.  You have more experience with the Chronicle than me and can tap into it's full power, but you're still hoping I'm going to convert to your side, which face it, IT'S NOT HAPPENING.
Heiss: So what you're saying is I AM MY OWN WORST ENEMY!?
Stocke: Yeah, pretty much...if you really wanted me dead, you might actually kill me...
Heiss: THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT IS HAPPENING THEN! MWAHAHAH!
Raynie: Good Job Stocke, now you just made him stronger!
Stocke: As if this outcome wasn't inevitable.
*BIG BOSS FIGHT WITH A GIANT BOOK OCCURS, STOCKE WINS*
Heiss: No, why are we so different?
Stocke: We're the same you and I, just the difference is I saw HOPE FOR THE FUTURE, you saw DESPAIR IN THE PAST.  Or something like that...look, the Time Elves told me it and I just sort of shrugged.
Voice of Teo: DON'T BLAME THIS ON US DAMN IT!
*Back at the Flux room*
Rosch: Where's the Queen?
Eruca: I'M SAVING EVERYONE BY SACRIFICING MYSELF!
Stocke: No, that's not your duty as the Queen, it's my duty as...uhh...the brother that isn't your brother but is and...look, just make me die so you can get your soul back.
Eruca: But I don't want you to go.
Stocke: I don't want to go either, but it's not like there are any other options that will save the world.  I wish there was something I could do to prevent this...
Voice of Lippti: KILL THE BITCH!!!!!!
Stocke: But nothing is coming to mind.  So yeah, good by everyone, and please spare me a heartfelt "WE WILL ALWAYS BE WAITING FOR YOU!" speech...
*they give him one anyway*
Stocke: ...can't even grant me a decent final request.  Jerks...

Narrator: And so Stocke saved the world, and died.  Everyone lived happily ever after...except Stocke Didn't actually die, he actually had a bigger verbal beat down of Heiss, Heiss then went all more batshit and somehow managed to save the world through that, and Stocke decided to come back to life.  Look, it's an ending, and I am not going into more details.
Stocke: Well that seems rather cheap way to end the game.
Raynie: Why have we let this guy talk the entire time?
Marco: Pretty sure none of us agreed to him.
Eruca: Stocke...you should sever your ties with someone like this.
Stocke: I'VE BEEN HACKING AWAY AT THEM SINCE THE START OF THIS GAME!
Rosch: There must be something you can do...
Narrator: HA! I am here to stay and nothing can stop me!
Gafka: Is that true?  There must be something we can do...
Teo: Hmm...well, I can think of one idea, but...
Lippti: KILL THE BITCH!!!!
Everyone: WORKS FOR ME!
Narrator: EEP!!!!

*random number dials around a lot and ends on an 8*
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 26, 2013, 08:34:01 PM
Apparently you need to have Low Intelligence to get Dog's story. (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/The_Whole_Sad_Story)

See, now that tempts me to run a moronic brawler through the game, except I know myself too well and I expect I'd just feel sad all the time knowing I'm missing out on awesome dialogue (although I guess I'd be encountering new dialogue if I dialed the INT low enough?)

EDIT: I've run largely similar high INT/PER/AGI characters through the game both times, for reference. SCIENCE SHOOTER basically. I like maximizing my dialogue options. I've pretty much totally ignored Charisma and Luck. So stupidly lucky/pretty pugilist for the contrary experience?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 26, 2013, 08:52:13 PM
WA5 - Finished this.  Spent a chunk of time gathering berries from enemies (and thus levelling) that turned out unnecessary for the final boss, but I suppose that gives me a stock for aftergame shit if I feel like it.  Final boss sequence generally pretty underwhelming.  All the Sentinels harder than Volsung (Both normal and duel variants) which is impressive for someone that I watched cast *Get 2 more turns* after already being under the effects of *Get 2 more turns* move.  It lets him instacharge his OHKO move, but meehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  He wasn't a fight that tricked you into piling in one panel before it or anything.  Other fights setup to use the Hex based combat system way better (and not many in this game were).

The game feeds you enough mats to make Sheriff Star if you do all the side stuff, that feels weird given the items history.  It also bottlenecks creation of it in weird ways.  Some of the A badges are completely disproportionate to the amount of effort to make as others (Sup Lucky Bird, you are not that great but are super super resource intensive).  So it is still pretty dumb.  Weirder feeling is that there is a badge that required one to make.  I understand how 100% Orange makes someone a super tank, but it is still kind of weird.

Plotwise, it is a WA game, there is no subtlety someone did something stupid with missiles, everyone becomes friends after you punch them in the face.  I wish they hadn't been so explicit with the time loop at the end, that would have been a cool work it out on your own plot bit, but they had to explain it at the last minute.  So it goes.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 26, 2013, 09:10:01 PM
I think I saw only one low intelligence dialogue option in the regular game when I went through it as an idiot, FONW is no Arcanum in that regard.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 26, 2013, 10:24:29 PM
the Helios One crew has the most low-int diaoulge.  Other than that it's mostly Followers related.  There's also a Low Int choice during the talk with the MASTERMIND in the FORBIDDEN ZONE but it's not in cave speak.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 27, 2013, 03:24:23 AM
Most games aren't Arcanum.  Most games that try it over punish low Int enough that it messes with the rest of the gameplay (or are even less impacting, Baldur's Gate and IWD have very few low score checks at all and only really reward high scores).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 27, 2013, 03:31:41 AM
Yeah I remember only Helios one. That was really dumb. Fallout 3 dumb, but in New Vegas. Weird. Whole game you're talking normally except for one quest where you're a moron.

Low int dialogue was pretty much the only thing I liked about Arcanum. But malkavian talk is better.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 27, 2013, 05:54:01 AM

Low int dialogue was pretty much the only thing I liked about Arcanum. But malkavian talk is better.

That cuts to the bone.  There is so much good setting work there and straight up crazy crazy powers and devices you can build (in astoundingly varying levels of effectiveness).

Malkavian dialogue better than like most other dialogue out there.

Pretty much it mostly just comes down to writing the entire game script again just for low Int isn't worth the time investment.  It kills immersion to have it only come up periodically, so better to drop it entirely than to half arse it.  Nobody wins.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 27, 2013, 06:55:07 AM
Valkyrie Profile: Chap 7 more or less finished.  Just gotta send someone, do Cave of Oblivions, and done with that!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Twilkitri on December 27, 2013, 09:55:55 AM
MURI - played through

It was essentially everything I had hoped for, so I'm happy. Only potential issue being that it's pretty short, but given that I found Duke Nukem 1/2 to be dragging a lot when I replayed those earlier this year that could actually be a good thing.

Played through on easy - I don't currently have any desire to replay on any of the harder difficulties though. Maybe if eventually I get the itch to replay it like I do with the classics I'll try one.



Bravely Default - Just landed in Eternia

Eeeh.

As things currently stand, I want to compare it to FF3DS, and I want to say that FF3DS was better.

I think FF3 had the right idea, not having job levels unlock anything, because it means that you don't have any reason to keep using old jobs once they're superseded. Meanwhile here I'm probably somewhere between 1/2 - 3/4 done with the game and three characters are still in the first jobs I've put them in, and the only reason that the fourth isn't is because the fourth is still a freelancer. A freelancer that via metagaming I think is almost mastered! But still. I have something like 16 jobs available currently.

And there's definitely some good stuff in the higher job levels - my white mage recently got an ability which causes unfocused magic to have the same power as focused magic, for example (e.g. using Cura on the whole party is as effective on any one member as using it on just that member would be - and the MP cost isn't changed, so there's essentially no reason to ever not use it on the whole party now). I'm fine with the makeup of my current party. It just seems that all the rest of these jobs are being wasted.

Laughably, freelancers have an inherent ability which causes their stats to raise by 1% for every mastered job the character has. Unless JP gains slam through the roof shortly, that is never going to matter.


Leaving the topic of jobs, something else which annoys me is the world map. First off, movement is annoyingly slow, even in vehicles (the early vehicles, at least). Secondly, almost everything is roadblocked until you're supposed to deal with it. That in and of itself would be fine-ish except half the time they didn't even bother to put in a real roadblock. Instead you slowly trek over to a place you can see and then the characters say 'We don't have any reason to be here' and refuse to enter. I really think that the game could have done with a node-based map instead of one you manually navigate because there's almost no point to navigating it. (Also, anywhere you do need to go, for the main quest and for side quests, is marked on the map, so it's not like you ever need to find anything. I don't remember any points at which the characters didn't know where they needed to (directly) go next.)

I will say that the vehicle I got recently is pretty cool, though. A superior version of a classic vehicle in some ways, although inferior in others. They should have restocked the shops with new items.


The brave/default system seems kind of poorly utilised?

To get the obvious out of the way, it does let you revive someone with a phoenix down/etc and then give them a potion/etc straight away without giving the enemy a chance to knock them back down. And it does let someone who's been silenced use echo herbs on themselves and then cast magic straight away, and so on. But outside of that?

In random battles, the game seems to expect you to make all characters use all four possible moves straight away and end the battle in a single turn. Constantly. It gets old. The autobattle makes your characters do whatever they did last (e.g. if you have a character heal an undead enemy, then put autobattle on before they've done anything else, they'll keep healing enemies... regardless of whether the new enemies in question are undead or not...) - I want to say that that extends to consumption of brave turns, but I'm not sure, but the main problem with this is that you can't set targets during autobattle so its use for this is limited. Sure, if you're powerful enough that you can just take out all the enemies with everyone using 4x attack and don't want to take advantage of any elemental weaknesses or anything...

It works a bit better when you're up against bosses, but that's only a fraction of the game.


Plotwise, I'm concerned that things are going the Golden Sun route (except in reverse). I have no idea if Eternia actually has any sort of legitimate reason for their goals because they refuse to tell anyone, despite their claims that they do. And they definitely don't have any sort of legitimate reason for at least some of their ACTIONS. Hypocrisy is rife. The contingent sent to deal with Florem are the most noticeable here. Okay, the game does imply that Fiore was using neurotoxins on Einheria's sisters to send them insane, so that explains them - but that doesn't explain Fiore himself, or Einheria for that matter who doesn't seem to care too much what's happened to her sisters.

Supposed goal of Eternia in Florem: Take control of water crystal, because reasons.

Actions in Florem: Genocide of Crystallist people, poaching of sacred animals, manufacturing neurotoxins out of said animals and using them on all the other inhabitants to cause them to become dependent on said neurotoxins. The token even-more-insane Eternian bigwigs also kill a couple of people so that they can win a beauty contest for no apparent reason.

There is a subplot involving Fiore and the neurotoxins and some other Eternians which hasn't been resolved yet,
so maybe everything will be explained. But I'm not seeing that as likely.

Eternians actually seem to not get anywhere near as much plot as they should, because each tends to be given their own sidequest and they have little interaction (outside the bigwigs). Taking Florem for example again, I killed Einheria's two sisters, and when I faced her personally she didn't even say anything about it. Presumably because of the fact that I might not have done the other sidequests yet, but that seems really poor. There was a small scene of two Eternians interacting post-sidequest in Eisenberg, but I'm not sure whether the second sidequest even becomes available until you've done the first there, so if that's the case then I guess that allowed for it.


There's a bunch of minorly cool stuff, it's not all bad. Norende Reconstruction is fun to direct, although it ends up being much simpler than it initially looks. The capability to customise special moves is interesting, although a lot of the options are of limited use against bosses unless you know what you're going to be fighting ahead of time as you can't do the customisation in-battle. Fine if you use special moves against randoms, but I don't normally.

The game has readily accessible encounter control for anyone who's into that - you can go into the options and set encounters on -100%, -50%, ±0%, +50%, or +100% at any time. And -100% does indeed seem to prevent all random encounters.

Summons are pretty stylin', although the water one is a bit of a letdown (the lightning one also to a lesser degree). The method of acquiring them is also somewhat novel - each anchorite uses the summon on you, and if you survive you get it (I wouldn't have seen most of then otherwise due to not having given anyone the summoner job yet).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Jo'ou Ranbu on December 27, 2013, 08:48:07 PM
Paper Mario Sticker Star - Currently searching for the long-lost parts of an ancient Wiggler. I kinda love this game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 28, 2013, 02:42:09 AM
DDS2 - Started this up since it seems it is harder for me to SMTed out these days.  Just finished the Prison bit, wiped once because I didn't know randoms would start up in that room and everyone was on 1 HP.  Oh well.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 28, 2013, 03:14:15 AM
VP1: Chap 8 beaten!  Only fell off Celestial Palace 4 times too!

Next up: Jotunheim, followed by a reset for the express purpose of doing both B and A ending for the AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE!!!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Luther Lansfeld on December 28, 2013, 09:18:44 PM
PW5 - AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA *breathes* ahahahahahaaha!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 28, 2013, 09:43:26 PM
VP1: FInished replay!  Fun game, etc.  It's VP1, we know the drill.  Dunno if I'll do SG this time around.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 28, 2013, 10:08:51 PM
Hahahah there's no cutscene skip in the FFX remake. A storyline so good, nobody would want to skip these cutscenes ever.


Dark Souls: Got all the dark spells. <3 Very few charges unfortunately!

Soul Sacrifice: The grimdarkest game since Drakengard. So I'm naturally doing a full grimdark build, being an asshole online sacrificing everyone for MORE POWER instead of healing them and stuff. It's pretty fun. I like this better than Monster Hunter.
Costumes for women in this are really shameful. Basically every female costume but one has 50% less fabric than its male counterpart. The tamest one (the one Yattaf wears) has a freaking corset.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 28, 2013, 10:53:09 PM
Not actually used dark magic before, Fenrir?

My principal PVP character just spams the fuck out of Black Flame. It's shameful how effective this is.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 28, 2013, 11:27:34 PM
Are you a GiantDad??

Yeah I had never tried it before. Seems like it's useful for making PVP more balanced, and fairly useless in game. Still worth it for that nifty Pursuers animation.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dhyerwolf on December 28, 2013, 11:35:02 PM
Hahahah there's no cutscene skip in the FFX remake. A storyline so good, nobody would want to skip these cutscenes ever.

Uh man, there goes my reason for considering purchasing the game.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 28, 2013, 11:47:36 PM
Are you a GiantDad??

Yeah I had never tried it before. Seems like it's useful for making PVP more balanced, and fairly useless in game. Still worth it for that nifty Pursuers animation.

GiantDad? Get the fuck outta town.

(I hate giant's armor. Goddamn everybody uses it in high-level play and I'm sick of seeing it. I also hate the family masks just for aesthetics.)

I never wear more than light armor. I have one character that ran with chain mail! (Which is terrible, but so shiny). But that's pretty much it. I value mobility too much. Which I guess is a shame because there are some really nice-looking armor sets in the game (Brass Armor! Definitely my favorite. I'm quite fond of Leeroy's set as well).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 29, 2013, 12:15:53 AM
There was a pre-patch time when ABSOLUTELY EVERYBODY had only Havel's set on all the time + maaaaybe a fancy hat like a bag.


Yeah I can't go wth anything slower than fast roll either nowadays, and I don't like putting points in endurance anymore.
Fortunately most of the cool sets are very light (Crimson, Chester's, Gold Hemmed, Painted Guardian, Beatrice's, Xanthous, Gwyndolyn's, Hunter)
Only ones I really regret are Lautrec's and the Channeler one. Domnhall also has a fairly cool armor but you can just equip this + light stuff and still fast roll.


Hahahah there's no cutscene skip in the FFX remake. A storyline so good, nobody would want to skip these cutscenes ever.

Uh man, there goes my reason for considering purchasing the game.
Yeah, one lost sale from me too
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 29, 2013, 12:24:43 AM
FFX is 10/10 game of the decade type material for me so I'll probably buy its remake anyway if I ever get a system for it (but since PS4 lacks backwards compatibility apparently, there's a very good chance I never will) but yeah, that is an incredibly stupid move and fully approve of the game's sales suffering because of it.


Still playing Super Mario Kart and Civ 5, not much to add about either.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 29, 2013, 02:36:19 AM
MORE LIKE FFX/10 RIGHT?  (Just kidding its like a 9).  I know I am getting it on Vita because fuck yes portable FFX.  No scene skip is polish issue but certainly not a deal breaker for me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Monkeyfinger on December 29, 2013, 03:05:52 AM
I hear they want to do an FFX-3 that starts from the ending of FFX and retcons FFX-2 out of existence.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 29, 2013, 03:10:25 AM
It couldn't go any fuckin worse than X-2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 29, 2013, 05:57:47 AM
FONV: Running Honest Hearts. It is pretty yawnsies outside of the Survivalist journals, so I'm kinda dozing here until oh my god. Hey remember that bit in Jurassic Park where the guy's hunting a raptor, and he's getting into position and lining up his shot and all that and then he looks to the side and clever girl one's right next to him?

That, except with GIANT CAZADOR. Nearly jumped out of my skin.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 29, 2013, 06:10:58 AM
Borous' reach has no limit!

I've meanwhile just been meandering uselessly.  Watching a Legion attack squad hit Ranger Station Echo right after I delivered the codes was hilarious though.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 29, 2013, 06:11:51 AM
I hear they want to do an FFX-3 that starts from the ending of FFX and retcons FFX-2 out of existence.

They are considering making an FF10-3 if there is enough demand, yes.  Retconning out FF10-2, though, is not happening, much as it would improve things.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 29, 2013, 10:22:23 AM
DDS2 - Just got up to Power Plant.  ZOMG PLOT TWIIIIIST I didn't expect coming.  In that the plot twist lines up with something I had been considering complaining about.  Serph kind of sucks more than your normal SMT silent main.  Like even more than Persona 3/4 mains do.  I am fairly convinced you could easily ditch Serph and replace him with Gale and the main plot could function exactly the same.  Then hey this part of the game did just that!

Physical build sucks, I should have known better.  Mage build could have easily got two or three elements set and been able to steamroll pretty much everything.  Strength build randomly performs okay or gets cock blocked.  At least you can change Serph out of the party in DDS (unlike if you did a shitty build for SMT mains normally).
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 29, 2013, 02:51:20 PM
As far as I'm concerned, Gale was the protagonist of DDS1.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: NotMiki on December 29, 2013, 04:24:37 PM
It couldn't go any fuckin worse than X-2.

please please please don't tempt fate like that.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meiousei on December 29, 2013, 04:27:23 PM
Pokemon X: Welp, I decided to try Wonder Trade last night, but I sorta got carried away with it though. I did get one Gen 2 starter, one Gen 3 starter and a Protean Froakie, along with some others I might actually level with in the future. I also have been...hesitant...to continue plot for a bit. I will try to bum rush the next few areas after catching a Mawile and unleashing a holy rite of terror which will be glorious.

I actually am considering picking up Project X Zone as the next 2DS game, as well as FE:A and KI:U, due to PxZ being on sale for 14.99.

Any suggestions on what I should pick up for the 2DS that won't make me hate myself or anything Pokemon related?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 29, 2013, 05:45:29 PM
Theatrhythm is fun, though given the existence of Curtain Call coming out within the next year or so, you may want to hold off on that.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is good for appeasing your masochistic side.   Well structured platformer that is quite challenging on top of it, which is a hard combo to come by these days.

I've heard Super Mario 3D Land is good.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on December 29, 2013, 05:57:55 PM
Hey now, FFX-2 has dat battle system >_> Or something~

Legend of Dragoon JP- Saved after the Hero Competition. That guy with the bow and apples was actually sort of threatening this time. The red armour guy before was also slightly more durable/lasted slightly longer than usual. Having fun with this so far. Apparently enemies do have more HP in this version, seem to hit harder and also attack items were nerfed or rather they were buffed up for the English versions. Randoms even do seem kind of threatening in this and worth paying more attention to,  same for bosses, well enemies in general so far,  I've had to break out the heals or even the odd Angel's Prayer here and there due to underestimating/not paying attention to things, even had to drop an Angel's Prayer vs a random when a character was low on HP and I thought I could get away with beating the enemy on time but no >_> Attack items with Shana/etc are no longer as OP as hell but they are still useful, and speed is still a thing so Shana was still relatively useful with attack/item/speed combo vs the bosses I used her for.  They were still kind of useful with Rose vs Drake for dealing with the multi targets of wire/bombs/etc as well. Drake on the whole was no joke this time though but he dropped the Bandit's Ring right away so niice. Apparently there's some sort of trick to getting that which involves managing to finish off Drake, wire and bombs all at once which I managed to do so.

About Shana/Attack Items it's more like they were still kind of useful but no longer OP and this time/in this version additions are already sort of better especially now I am already at this stage of the game and Rose, Dart and Lavitz have their additions built up now, and Rose/Dart already have DLV2.  Not to mention just getting the Bandit's Ring drop >_> She is also only at L9, three levels behind Dart/Rose on L12 despite me deliberately putting her in vs a couple of bosses earlier so she'd get EXP before leaving for a bit. On the other hand healing is kind of more of a thing now so White Silver Dragoon might still be worth putting her in again to build up her SP for DLVs and things. However Haschel is about to join and now I am having a party dilemma~

If anyone is interested and hasn't saw in the video thread I am doing a sort of Let's Play of the JP version here -

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-L-Wk7FQUoBXA09O3CzfhO6lDRinjSk

where you get to watch me stumble and fumble my way around things~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 29, 2013, 06:04:13 PM
They added some "out of battle auto healing everybody to full" option to FFX, which must be harder to program than cutscene skip, and which should save a lot less time to everybody. (Even to people playing FFX for the first time and wanting to see the story. Since they're going to die against Yunalesca a few times)
Dragon Quest has had this auto healing stuff since forever and I never even use it.

I'm pretty sure every Square game since FFX has had sceneskip. Seriously they just had to not add this on purpose.

I hear they want to do an FFX-3 that starts from the ending of FFX and retcons FFX-2 out of existence.

FFX-2 Yuna isn't waifu enough so they change her back to FFX-1 Yuna.

DDS2 - Just got up to Power Plant.  ZOMG PLOT TWIIIIIST I didn't expect coming.  In that the plot twist lines up with something I had been considering complaining about.  Serph kind of sucks more than your normal SMT silent main.  Like even more than Persona 3/4 mains do.  I am fairly convinced you could easily ditch Serph and replace him with Gale and the main plot could function exactly the same.  Then hey this part of the game did just that!

Physical build sucks, I should have known better.  Mage build could have easily got two or three elements set and been able to steamroll pretty much everything.  Strength build randomly performs okay or gets cock blocked.  At least you can change Serph out of the party in DDS (unlike if you did a shitty build for SMT mains normally).
I hope you're ready for some really dumb/crazy stuff to happen. And for a big final dungeon.
Also, don't diss Yattaf from P3P, she's awesome.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 29, 2013, 06:12:54 PM
Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies is great but I have no idea if it's your type of game. Mario Kart 7's one of the better Mario Karts. New Super Mario Bros. 2 is one of the weaker Mario platformers IMO but still worth playing if you're a fan of those. VVVVVV is an indy game and you can get it for PC as well for slightly cheaper but I definitely recommend it if you're a fan of 2D platformers.

I thought Project X Zone was far too sluggish and repetitive past a certain point but I still got 40 hours out of it, and probably around 20 of those were pretty fun, so there are worse ways to spend $15.


Civ5 - Beaten on Warlord as the Romans this time, bribed all the city-states into electing me ruler of the world by 1945.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on December 29, 2013, 06:21:25 PM
Oh and I am unsure whether I am projecting things or not while playing through the game since it has been a long time since I played the start of the English version of LoD. Like I feel a bit overlevelled/higher levelled compared to normal but I'm not fighting any extra. Dart/Rose L12, Lavitz L11, Shana L9. Am I supposed to have Gust of Wind Dance already? (despite leaving Lavitz out for Firebird and Feyrbrand/Graham)~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 29, 2013, 06:28:14 PM
Quote
I'm pretty sure every Square game since FFX has had sceneskip. Seriously they just had to not add this on purpose.

Crisis Core did not, actually, and stands as a result.

Kingdom Hearts didn't either, for that matter...but I'll touch up on that in a bit!

That said, what makes the FF10 HD scenario worse is FF10-2 is released with the game, and that DID have Sceneskip (to a degree), so it's going to stand out when one game has it and the other does not.

Though, it's not as bad as what KH 1.5 HD did.  KH1 didn't have sceneskip, ok, but KHFM added it, cool, you're learning!

Then KH 1.5 HD, which is based off KH:FM doesn't have it.  As in, yes, they actively removed sceneskip from a game that had it.  Forgetting to put it in is bad enough, but removing the feature from a game that originally had it is downright unforgive-able.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 29, 2013, 07:00:29 PM
SO2- Replay finished! Universe bottomed out pretty hard on challenge, but I also wasn't nice and ICed shiny equipment. Finished at L86. Cyril was especially pathetic, as he did not get off a single attack.

May fiddle with GE again after this.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 29, 2013, 07:18:28 PM
Lavitz gets Gust of Wind Dance at L11, and since he's forced for Shirley's Shrine yeah L11 at the end of that seems pretty reasonable.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 29, 2013, 08:52:30 PM
I hope you're ready for some really dumb/crazy stuff to happen. And for a big final dungeon.
Also, don't diss Yattaf from P3P, she's awesome.

I am always ready for dumb crazy stuff in SMT games.  That is like half the reason to play them.  I need to go shut down a power plant to stop the sun from downloading Earth.  The whole time I sit back and think about how cool it is that they manage to find new ways to approach their constant treatise on the nature of order/chaos through the vantage point of all religions and specifically from the viewpoint of humans making deals with demons without changing things much at all.

DDS2 introduced a heal my dudes button and I have to say I really appreciate it.  It is more intelligent about it than most DQ ones are.

I second the rec for VVVVVV and don't harp on the PC thing, it is worth the price on DS and an interface you are used to is pretty important to a platformer like that.

P3 main only works because of the games dating sim style gameplay, such a story focus series having silent mains is pretty rough.  P4 works so well in spite of it.  Here it is jarring and really doesn't work at all.  Gale does so much of the actual driving of the plot in both games so far.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on December 30, 2013, 07:42:26 AM
Fallout New Vegas: More meandering.  I eventually half-assed it enough to get Wild Child with NCR so I could finally pop the forgiveness, skyrocket straight to Idolized and recruit Boone for one last Legion Murderfest 2013.  The inexplicable enemy spawning after a fast travel has reached bold new heights however. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2013-12-30_00001.jpg)
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Niu on December 30, 2013, 11:10:46 AM
FFX-3 is going to be really bad. As X-2.5 and the drama CD that lead to X-3 is absolutely TERRIBLE IN WRITING!! It is absolutely atrocious that I want to stab Nojima in the face. They are giving Yuna the same treatment as they did to Cloud in AC, just from a different angle. Yuna acted like a stupid stupid bitch. Serious, you and Tidus went through so much, how can you treat him like that!? And no responsibility bullshit either, if you value your position as a summoner that much, you should understand how a summoner and her guard is inseparable. Hell, you could not have pulled through X-1 if Tidus was not there. There is absolutely no excuse for Tidus to be treated that way!! Ugh! UGH! UGHHHHH! Fire and acid to this piece of sorry excuse of a soap opera!!
It doesn't help when the new character is also a stupid stupid bitch that I don't even want to comment on. UGHHHHH!!!!
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on December 30, 2013, 11:55:43 AM
>_______>

Do you have the book Niu? By the way is it true that there is sexual content in general in it,  one thing is Tidus is distracted by Yuna's sexiness in a swimsuit, worries he won't be able to concentrate on battle because of this, gets his head blown off by a bomb and dies? Then gets resurrected by Yuna, so he is an Unsent and controlled by Yuna? (like the Seymour/Anima aeon thing?) This is some of the stuff I've read about it. However I'm not exactly sure which are cold hard facts or which is hyperbole and/or blown out of proportion. If that bit is true though .... <________<
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 30, 2013, 12:01:36 PM
The things that interest you never stop being fascinating.

DDS2 - Power Plant is a big dungeon.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: superaielman on December 30, 2013, 02:28:18 PM
You never played DDS during the ranking push back in the day, Grefter ?Huh. Yeah, you're in for some... interesting times late in DDS2.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 30, 2013, 05:48:50 PM
DDS2 - Power Plant is a big dungeon.

Ahahaha, you say this now.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 30, 2013, 06:22:24 PM
I wonder what's the biggest monster final dungeon between this one, Nocturne's, FF12's and any other I might have missed.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 30, 2013, 06:35:02 PM
TAY's also needs a mention.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: AndrewRogue on December 30, 2013, 06:52:31 PM
Assassin's Creed 2: So playing this for the first time. Kinda skipped out on the first game since I tried to play it without an HDTV, which was a hideous error.

Seriously, this game's frame narrative confuses me. It seems only to exist to annoy me.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Clear Tranquil on December 30, 2013, 07:00:03 PM
@ Grefter Me or Niu? ;o

Lavitz gets Gust of Wind Dance at L11, and since he's forced for Shirley's Shrine yeah L11 at the end of that seems pretty reasonable.

Thanks NEB :)

Oh I remembered I did the marsh fort and Sandora battles with Commander/Knights pseudo boss, that probably helped as well~

Rose is easily my strongest character right now. Whip Smack mastered, does between 140-190~ depending on enemy, DLV2, Astral Drain Special does 200~ I have her with the Demon Stiletto/Cape/Attack Badge combo :) Dart has mastered Double Slash and Volcano, is working on his third one and Lavitz has mastered his first one, and is on L3 on his second. Dart also has DLV2 and Lavitz just got Blossom Storm aww yeeah~
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 30, 2013, 07:46:07 PM
Isn't Early Game Rose's whole thing being "I'm better than all of you at everything...except HP...and Shana's speed...DEAL WITH IT!" <_<?
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 30, 2013, 08:39:17 PM
I mean you CT.  Niu is always a good time, but he is a fairly predictable.

I am aware that the final dungeon is crazy big, DDS does that itself.  There is a difference between that and the one right after they start peeling your party like a banana.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fenrir on December 31, 2013, 03:40:46 AM
Yeah TAY's was pretty long in retrospect. But it didn't really feel long at all. Maybe because it's basically the whole final chapter and I expected a lot of game left by that point since the dudes are finally reunited.



Soul Sacrifice: Has the Lost Odyssey syndrome of pretty bad main story (repeating the same things over and over) + great lore hidden in menus.
I've just been sitting there for one hour reading a lot of tales about horrible-to-decent people making pacts with the devil and being changed into bosses. Love it.


I should mention gameplay at one point. It's an action/RPG specifically about boss fights. Some missions aren't boss fights but those honestly only exist to help pace the game a little. Random enemies exist, but mostly as resources (and minor annoyances) during boss fights.
When you kill an enemy it reverts back to its pre-monster state (for example, a spider) and you can choose to either save it (A little health restored + More Good Exp) or sacrifice it (Spell resources renewed + More Bad Exp)
When an ally falls in battle you can heal him so he gets back in the fight or sacrifice him to unleash a big bad >:-( smiley face spell. Usually everybody saves each other online, because sacrificing really is being a total jerk so nobody does it. (except me obvs.)

Spells are your only way of attacking. You get a bunch of them every mission and can fuse them together.
You only get 6 spell slots though. And you can't spam spells; you only have a limited amount and have to search around the battlefield for items or random monsters to replenish them. It's not too bothersome, it's just a way to balance the game. 6 slots does feel too limited though. There are like 40 spell types or something but I can't afford to waste one slot. In fact nowadays I only use regular projectiles, roots (elemental damage roots), eggs (explosive eggs), healing, golems.


That's the basics but there's a ton of other shit, as expected from a game like this.
I just equipped a +65% damage -35% defense rune on my chaos arm IV, then a bunch of elemental tri-roots and fought an earlygame harpy. Immediately bombarded it with fire tri-roots. It caught fire (stunned) so I used ice on it (combo) + attacked it over and over with ice until both its wings were broken (SW33T L00T) and it was trapped in ice. At this point I used electricity for another combo and it died.

"Chez Yattaf' multiplayer room working well. About 50 MP games so far.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 31, 2013, 04:26:23 AM
Super Mario Galaxy: Finally finished...well, ok, I mean beat the final boss.  Took me long enough and it's entirely my sister's fault.  No, I won't get into why!

Well, no, part of it is my brother's fault for hogging the TV but let's not get into that!

Anyway, I can see why the game got such critical reception.  It really does elevate the genre to new heights and doesn't skimp on like anything.  Ok, some people whine about the LACK OF EXPLORATION but since when has that been a big part of Mario?  Mario 64 is like the only game and maybe Sunshine?  Either way, I'm not sure what you're suppose to look for in exploring other than Stars so...<_<

Two things that I don't like about this game though are Swimming and Spring Mario.  Spring Mario is just an awkward mechanic that feels forced last minute, and honestly is the only power up that didn't really add to the game, but legitimately detracted.
Swimming...oh boy.  For as good as the game controls normally in most places, Swimming it seemed to have lost all competence and became legitimately painful.  This wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't keep forcing you to do swimming sections once every like 3 Galaxies or so.  One of the last stars I got was all "Oh, new one Star Galaxy, lets grab that!" *Swimming* "Fffffffff."  Thankfully it was a boss fight so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but blech.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 31, 2013, 05:21:52 AM
It wouldn't be a Mario game if underwater controls weren't dogshit.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Dark Holy Elf on December 31, 2013, 06:31:54 AM
The underwater controls in the 2D games are only moderately bad. The underwater controls in the 3D games are an abomination.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 31, 2013, 02:32:04 PM
Swimming in Galaxy isn't so bad when you have a shell and just need to go straight with some basic turning (see the Penguin Race for example), it's just that only comes up sometimes.  Plenty of "Swim free style!" and LOTS of "DIVE DOWN TO DEEP!", the latter emphasizing the problems the most.

I don't remember Mario 64's swimming being that bad (though certainly not good by any stretch of imagination), though possibly because it is used way less (I can only think of two swimming stages off the top of my head in Mario 64 but very possible it's faulty memory).  Galaxy seemed like it was proud of swimming mechanics and kept bringing it back meanwhile.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Shale on December 31, 2013, 04:36:18 PM
FF Dimensions: Picked this up on an end-of-year sale. I'm not thrilled about the JP twist on the job/ability system, but other than that (and the amateur-hour line-break glitches) Alternate Reality FFV is good times.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Grefter on December 31, 2013, 05:10:45 PM
JP really exists to throttle you going broad with jobs and guide you into focusing on two or three jobs.  You will always have plenty of JP if you don't go super broad.  I am not even convinced it is actually to stop you being overpowered and not just to keep the player focused (and counter exceptionally dumb grinding).

FO:NV - Starting this up again was painful as fuck.  I hate this engine so much.  It is terrible.  Once I was down past Primm I was mostly comfortable with it again though, but goddamn does it fucking suck.  I probably should have replayed Alpha Protocol.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Sierra on December 31, 2013, 10:54:24 PM
FONV: There are more important things to talk about than FACTS and DATA!

I should really hate Borous because cazadores, but it's just impossible for me to dislike anyone who talks like that. Anyway, weapon loadout for Biiiiiiig Mountain (and probably the rest of the game):

-12.7mm submachine gun (GRA edition because I don't have that achievement yet).
-Holorifle+++ (probably my favorite weapon in the game).
-Riot Shotgun
-Survivalist's Rifle (awesome, but not sure why I brought this, as I probably won't use it. Sorry, Randall!)
-Annabelle (I've been stockpiling missiles the whole game. Time to go nuts with explosive sneak attacks from a mile away).

May cycle in the Cyberdog Gun later if I feel like it. I remember it being pretty fearsome when modded.

In between expansions I stopped off in the Mojave to finish off We Will All Go Together. I hate this quest more than any other in the game. There's always this one ghoul who gets killed outside the city limits or something and I spend like an hour circling round the damn town trying to find its corpse, then I go off to do a DLC mission and I guess the corpses reset at starting points when I come back or something? Fuck that quest anyway. Then I stop in Goodsprings to get geared up for OWB and wait what Cid why do you have twenty-two varmint rifles in storage. What were you doing, early 2013 Cid. I don't understand.

I guess I chucked them all in there earlygame and the weight made it inefficient to haul them out and sell them. I just don't know.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Meeplelard on December 31, 2013, 11:50:19 PM
Wonderful 101: I was fighting a giant spiked robot.  Then a Transylvanian Girl appeared, started talking like a valley girl, transformed into the Pink Ranger, posed like Bayonetta, then whipped the robot to death.

Then I fought a Giant Mech on a giant tower, using said Giant Whip, then I Falcon Punched him in the face with a truck sized fist.  Oh yeah, there was also a German Alien Villain with 3 eyes who told me his life story because Wonder Red requested it.

...I am under the impression Kamiya made this game to prove that people really shouldn't try to test his levels of over the top insanity.  Mind you, the above was all the abbreviated version.
Title: Re: What Games Are You Playing 2013?
Post by: Fudozukushi on January 01, 2014, 03:28:20 AM
Something about the holorifle never felt right with me.  But the cyberdog gun is real good.  It has a scope!  It weighs 27 pounds!  It needs pistol powder!

I ran through Searchlight's crap earlier too.  Thankfully fast traveling to the place instead of wandering in seemed to put all the target ghouls in their initial spawns so I didn't have to deal with any wandering at all.

Having Bloody Mess with the Avenger is hilarious.  I fire so many bullets everything explodes and I always leave the crimson trail in my wake.