Author Topic: What games are you playing 2014? (Read 214102 times)

Hunter Sopko · « **Reply #800 on:** March 30, 2014, 04:32:47 AM »

Quote from: Anthony Edward Stark on March 29, 2014, 11:26:45 PM

I always liked Brad's return. He just shows up running across the desert and now he has a giant fucking gun. They didn't really bother giving a fuck and it was hilarious.

A gun that required a truck to lug around at the beginning of the game, no less. It's pretty awesome.

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #801 on:** March 30, 2014, 04:45:04 AM »

Quote from: Grefter on March 30, 2014, 02:45:55 AM

Oooh save points again, reminds me I meant to chime in with it last time the overlap came up with XG originally being planned at some point as a Chrono Trigger sequel. It is cool to see the save points being both an in game thing AND used by not nice people to do not nice things in both games. It is probably a direct rip of the idea in to CC, but I am fine with this. It is used differently in each one and is pretty good both times (XG does it better with Soylent System in play too of course).

Doesn't XG predate Chrono Cross? CC would be the one doing the direct rip.

Grefter · « **Reply #802 on:** March 30, 2014, 05:59:22 AM »

Yeah a rip from XG spec script in to CC where it is probably done worse, but it is still pretty neat.

Also meant to chime in on the WA2 thing. Brad works so well in WA2 in part because of how little goddamned sense WA2 makes (in part due to translation). The issue isn't with heroic sacrifices that the characters overcome though, it is overturning them within the same sequence and doing it multiple times that really grates in ToS.

Niu · « **Reply #803 on:** March 30, 2014, 11:31:53 PM »

Anyone noticed that the Soylent System itself is a rip off from the film Soylent Green?

Dark Holy Elf · « **Reply #804 on:** March 30, 2014, 11:43:32 PM »

Seeing as the name is the same, I'd say it's more of an homage or reference, but yes.

Cotigo · « **Reply #805 on:** March 31, 2014, 12:25:56 AM »

Quote from: Niu on March 30, 2014, 11:31:53 PM

Anyone noticed that the Soylent System itself is a rip off from the film Soylent Green?

GUYS. fuckin, GUYS.

CHILL OUT. I'm about to drop a truth bomb on y'all.

CHILL THE FUCK OUT.

NOW

did you know

that water is wet

you may resume flipping the fuck out

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #806 on:** March 31, 2014, 01:28:52 AM »

Quote from: Dark Holy Elf on March 30, 2014, 11:43:32 PM

Seeing as the name is the same, I'd say it's more of an homage or reference, but yes.

I feel like that reference definitely played better in Japan, oddly because it's less familiar there. Naming it the "Soylent System" ruins the reveal because the second they go in and there's food inside I'm like "this is definitely made of people." I don't imagine that, in Japan, Soylent Green is a movie where everyone knows the final plot twist even if they've never seen it like it is in America, where it's in the same situation there as Planet of the Apes or Citizen Kane, so it might have been actually surprising.

That said if it IS an intentional advance spoiler then big ups. It takes balls to spoil plot twists in your own game and I think the only other time I've seen it done on purpose was in DX:HR, with the Picus building emails.

Grefter · « **Reply #807 on:** March 31, 2014, 01:40:59 AM »

It works pretty chill for a few reasons in that it helps with the build up as you watch Elly and Fei eat in the scene that Elf covered. Also it is such a minor point in the overall plot that you can totally get away with spoiling it in advance. It isn't a plot twist so much as a "Yeah these guys are exactly as horrible as you have been lead to believe".

Captain K. · « **Reply #808 on:** March 31, 2014, 02:25:21 AM »

Quote from: Makkotah on March 31, 2014, 12:25:56 AM

Quote from: Niu on March 30, 2014, 11:31:53 PM
Anyone noticed that the Soylent System itself is a rip off from the film Soylent Green?

GUYS. fuckin, GUYS.

CHILL OUT. I'm about to drop a truth bomb on y'all.

CHILL THE FUCK OUT.

NOW

did you know

that water is wet

you may resume flipping the fuck out

Goddamnit Zenny spoiler tag that shit.

Sierra · « **Reply #809 on:** March 31, 2014, 02:27:50 AM »

DS2: Darklurker annihilated. I have five Sunlight Spears. It was all I needed. Didn't live long enough to clone itself and I took no damage.

So now I have the best chime in the game and guys it honestly looks pretty silly. It seriously looks like my character is waving Buster Bluth's hook hand at people and using it to generate lightning bolts. She's a robot!

Anyway remaining bosses are a mix of boring and OH GOD NO so instead I'm now futzing around with a sorcerer. Sorc damage definitely not so overpowering out of the gate as it was in DS1, even the good spells take me like 15-20 hits to down bosses. I want a better staff but can't find one, gather Hexdude would give me one but that requires investment into faith and blaaah. I still resist the multitasking. Instead I'm just dumping all my titanite on the crappy starting staff to compensate.

I lack the strength to use any shields and don't want to make the investment (I dumped a couple levels on STR to use a rapier as back-up weapon, but that's it) so I just have to dodge everything if it somehow manages to close range. As always, this is good practice. I took the Sentinels solo because the server was down and Bellclaire's sign mysteriously refused to appear. Holy crap you can actually dodge through their unfair pirouette of doom attack. Amazing what you learn how to do when you have no other choice.

Rolling is weird, it seems that if you're just mashing the dodge button then consecutive rolls will eat up like twice the stamina, but if you wait a split second in between rolls (the way successful dodging of enemy combos actually requires) then the second roll will just use up the normal amount.

Anthony Edward Stark · « **Reply #810 on:** March 31, 2014, 02:38:21 AM »

Quote from: Grefter on March 31, 2014, 01:40:59 AM

It works pretty chill for a few reasons in that it helps with the build up as you watch Elly and Fei eat in the scene that Elf covered. Also it is such a minor point in the overall plot that you can totally get away with spoiling it in advance. It isn't a plot twist so much as a "Yeah these guys are exactly as horrible as you have been lead to believe".

At the same time though, if there's a game you are allowed to doubt the competency of the localization team for, its probably Xenogears.

Dark Holy Elf · « **Reply #811 on:** March 31, 2014, 03:31:21 AM »

Hey, Xenogears is absolutely in the upper half of localisation team competence for the PSX era. Probably in the upper quarter. These are some low standards we're talking about here.

Meeplelard · « **Reply #812 on:** March 31, 2014, 04:04:10 AM »

Soul Silver: Got a Calm Mewtwo (+SDef, -Atk) by Master Balling him and giving the finger to multiple -SpA or -Speed Natures. Normally wouldn't bother but when you're using Master Ball, you have little excuse!

Also caught Articuno using a Great Ball because shut up.

AndrewRogue · « **Reply #813 on:** March 31, 2014, 10:21:42 AM »

Dark Souls 2: Now that I'm unemployed I played way more of this than I should.

Basically ran through the remainder of the game(?) and am up to the Withered Memory area. Still missing a few bonfire locales, don't think I completed anyone's story successfully, and lost the plot thread somewhere. So Dark Souls all over again.

I'm honestly finding DS2 way harder than DS and that can be attributed to the fact that every fucking lategame enemy and boss is still massively two-shotting (or one-shotting) me. Like I am honestly not sure why I am bothering with armor. The help it is providing is not substantial. I'll do a more thorough rundown on bosses/areas when I finish the game.

Fenrir · « **Reply #814 on:** March 31, 2014, 12:27:22 PM »

Woaah Citan is even better than I remember.
Niu too.

Andrew, if you use mage armor and don't raise vigor above 20 like I'm doing right now, you end up getting one shotted by random enemies. So that's at least something.

El Cid, the good sorcerer staff is in Aldia's Mansion. Sorry. Hex staff isn't that good for sorcery anyway, though still way better than anything else at the time int-wise. (And it looks hot, I need to insist)

I'm at the end of the game right now, wearing Velka's robe + Witch hat + Astronomer skirt. Fantastic. Stuff is generally easy. I had three blue invaders trying to kill me, that was pretty cool.
Doing more damage with Dark Orb than Soul Spear right now. I'm aiming for 64 intelligence just to see the animation for the uber sorcery spell, then resetting all that into HP.

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #815 on:** March 31, 2014, 01:37:10 PM »

Bravely Default - Last boss! *Humdedum* *lololololol disaster* WELP, that went poorly.

So, I decided to stroll around the Dimension's Hasp instead, gathering new equipment and mastering an extra job for each party member along the way. In the interim, I also discovered focused Meteor with Pierce Magic Defense is about as nuts as offensive magic ever gets, scoring easy 9999s with no buffing involved (relevant, since nothing else I have -reliably- reaches that high without buffing off a single swing). Of course, there's Dark Knight landing 40k+ damage Rage strings post-Life or Death, but that costs 2 BP. I'll probably master Freelancer with Tiz and slap Perform on Agnés for BP-boosting cheese against the final boss because, well, why the fuck not.

Fudozukushi · « **Reply #816 on:** March 31, 2014, 02:30:28 PM »

Armor is only the tiniest bit helpful if you stack absurd amounts of it. When I hit 1300 the Royal Aegis changed from two-shotting me to three-shotting me. And that's only if one of his hits was with the handle otherwise it was a coin toss to survivability. I just stuck with my item-find or soul-gain sets unless I felt like whoring out with pure armor. Against normal enemies insane DEF can matter... but bosses it's useless. With 8 VIG I had 1000 HP and took 800 in damage roughy. Even if I pumped every stored level I had into VIG I still would have only reached 1600. Two-shot range anyway!

Cmdr_King · « **Reply #817 on:** March 31, 2014, 04:39:54 PM »

Quote from: Jo'ou Ranbu on March 31, 2014, 01:37:10 PM

Bravely Default - Last boss! *Humdedum* *lololololol disaster* WELP, that went poorly.

So, I decided to stroll around the Dimension's Hasp instead, gathering new equipment and mastering an extra job for each party member along the way. In the interim, I also discovered focused Meteor with Pierce Magic Defense is about as nuts as offensive magic ever gets, scoring easy 9999s with no buffing involved (relevant, since nothing else I have -reliably- reaches that high without buffing off a single swing). Of course, there's Dark Knight landing 40k+ damage Rage strings post-Life or Death, but that costs 2 BP. I'll probably master Freelancer with Tiz and slap Perform on Agnés for BP-boosting cheese against the final boss because, well, why the fuck not.

Yeaaah. I feel like Time Mage in general is immensely backloaded, and part of that is Meteor being... damn near the only spell on them that's routinely useful. Great for cross classing with either BM or Arcanist (or both really, if you're going to attack mage you've got time to master at least those three classes (thanks C5-7 sidequests!!)) but a bit weak on their own.

Also, enjoying the meta?

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #818 on:** March 31, 2014, 05:17:01 PM »

Quote from: Cmdr_King on March 31, 2014, 04:39:54 PM

Yeaaah. I feel like Time Mage in general is immensely backloaded, and part of that is Meteor being... damn near the only spell on them that's routinely useful. Great for cross classing with either BM or Arcanist (or both really, if you're going to attack mage you've got time to master at least those three classes (thanks C5-7 sidequests!!)) but a bit weak on their own.

Also, enjoying the meta?

Time Mage indeed is crazy backloaded. Its truly good skills are all lategame things (Magic Attack +30%, Meteor, arguably Hasten/Slow World). Gravity/Graviga would be better if they weren't so chancy and Stop's duration is immensely erratic (moreso than the other status spells), which makes its usefulness limited. Meanwhile, the only thing I ever used consistently on TM until that endgame spread was... Slow. That's not really great, although guaranteeing bosses always go last is -very- useful, at least until Pirate shows up and learns Shin Smash. For the sake of crossclassing, Meteor benefits more from Black Mage, since Pierce MDef single-handedly keeps attack magic desirable as a high-end offensive tactic for the remainder of the game. And Meteor's mostly a ST smash thing (late, Summon Magic+Pierce MDef uniformly turns randoms to mulch, but the game de-emphasizes randoms at that point. Granted, BOSS FIGHTS start getting very crowded, so the crowd control niche remains). The thing with Meteor and Pierce MDef is that the spell is insanely defense-subject (multihit magic, oh my). You remove that factor and suddenly things start getting very silly.

As for the meta: concept's fun, but the execution could use some work! I'll mull it over a bit further once I'm truly done with the game, though.

Cmdr_King · « **Reply #819 on:** March 31, 2014, 05:24:59 PM »

Arcanist mostly brings Convergence to the table (at 3 sp mind) so with all three classes together you have your option of either mocking Mdef or having targetable Meteor, which is pretty useful depending on the fight (in particular, before the C8 battles most fights tended to have one reaaaallly dangerous member and everything else didn't matter.)

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #820 on:** March 31, 2014, 06:44:43 PM »

True. On the other hand, you can do pretty okay at damage even just sporting Summon Magic+Pierce MDef and Magic +20%, but that's more of a C7 fight and onwards thing. With a little tinkering, I could pull off Susano-os gobbling over 7k a pop (granted, needs M. Atk buffing, otherwise you're looking at 4.5k per casting). I suspect you could pull off some utterly degenerate MT ITD blitzes this way with a relatively short fallout time, and, of course, you could always Convergence summons as well, but it kind of defeats the point, since they don't unfocus. As far as my money goes, for pure passive skill building, the overall best offensive setup runs off Pierce M. Def and +20% M. Attack. Efficient, elegant and benefits both pure blitzes and status whoring (I was looking at 100% hit rates even on Death spam outside of massive resistance even at the Dimension's Hasp off DL-legal mage builds).

Cmdr_King · « **Reply #821 on:** March 31, 2014, 06:49:38 PM »

Huhh. I never had much success with status where it mattered, so I never really looked at ID (because in a majority of games, ID will inevitably be the weakest status in terms of efficiency to make up for being the best in terms of effect). Well that and after chapter 6 or so I turned randoms off and turned them back on only to grind JP for the finale.

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #822 on:** March 31, 2014, 06:55:24 PM »

The problem with BD status in-game is largely being ST early and then just not really mattering late. There's a window in C4 where it's insanely useful (Vampire Castle and Eternia, where Sleep+Annihilation >>>>>>>>>>>> -every random- in those dungeons. If you get BM's MT amplifying skill, it gets even better, though in that case I slapped Status Amp just in case). But from testing against Dimension Hasp and final dungeon randoms, 160 M. Attack racks you 100% hit rates on every Black Mage status against typical resistance.

Cmdr_King · « **Reply #823 on:** March 31, 2014, 07:00:52 PM »

So gets good just in time to be irrelevant. Woot.

(Although considering that BMs are vital for most of the game and lose their biggest niche in the DL, having some other boon so they still look good in the stat topic is pretty okay with me.)

Captain K. · « **Reply #824 on:** March 31, 2014, 07:23:30 PM »

BD: I just noticed that the title screen changes after you get the bad ending. Bwahaha! Did it do that in Japanese version? Doesn't seem like something that would translate across.

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Author Topic: What games are you playing 2014? (Read 214102 times)