Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Sierra]

uh, Seth's ultra is hella blockable. And if you jump as he gets it off and are far enough, it'll whiff.

Weird, never seen it dodged. Granted, I have rarely been on the receiving end of it myself, mostly used it against the computer and/or other people. Had seen plenty of other ultra combos blocked but never this one.

[Xeroma]

It has a hitbox kinda like a hadouken that travels quickly. Perfectly blockable. I THINK he has some upper body invincibility on startup so it can be used an anti-air though.

[Yoshiken]

Okami: Finally got back to playing this... Considering all the hype this game got when it was released, it's a bit disappointing. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it's just... not -that- good. It's a little repetitive, and the puzzles are never particularly difficult - the only thing that can be hard is getting the damn painting right. Still, like I said, not bad - it's got a decent battle system but it's just not living up to the hype it first got.

[Smashy]

BvS: In true Trainwreck fashion, I have 3 of the KnightFrame pieces... and still lack the other 2 BN allies.  Not too bad, actually, because that means once I do get the bloodline it should be fairly simple to get those other 2 pieces.

Estiah:  Other browser game I play.  It's a TCG-like, but instead of having a hand and all that it just draws and plays each card charm like a random AI of sorts.   Probably going to wind up slowing down a bit, though, since I've maxed out my main in just about all the main skills he needs.  There's always Gathering >_>

(Edit: Sadly, he will never be able to melt faces, since that's Inquisitor only.  Such sacrifices must be made for an axe to the face.)

Iji: Actually did Sudden Death sectors, which was much easier than I thought it was going to be due to the enemies also having one health and revive stations still working.  Plasma Cannon drops everything in a straight line for the low cost of 2 Shocksplinter ammo, and Nuke drops the entire room if I so please.  Nanomaster next, and then Extreme.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Star Ocean: The Last Hope - ANGST

Yes. I dislike that part. I mean... I get why, and a little bit was appropriate, but it drug out too far. Props to Reimi, though. For one time in an RPG, a member of a military organization behaved appropriately for their position and situation.

[Grefter]

Yoshi, PS2 or Wii release?  I was massively underwhelmed by the Wii release sadly, caligraphy wasn't super difficult in the original while the Wii version needed to be made a bit more forgiving.

[Yoshiken]

PS2 one - I find it awkward doing perfectly straight lines with the PS2 controller, and that's screwed me over a few times. Also, why is it that every game seems to have a damn fishing minigame and, regardless of the controls, I always fail miserably at it?! >.<

[Grefter]

Because most minigames are shit small things that are tacked on and lack polish the vasy majority of the game has.  It isn't just fishing ones.

Fair enough though yeah, straight lines on the PS2 were the hardest part.

[Pyro]

Yes. I dislike that part. I mean... I get why, and a little bit was appropriate, but it drug out too far. Props to Reimi, though. For one time in an RPG, a member of a military organization behaved appropriately for their position and situation.

This. With a little more Reimi hype.

Actually, Reimi is probably my favorite RPG archer now! Not that there was much competition in that department.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I'll stick with Ronixis J. Kenni. The best ARPG mage that ever lived, primarily because he was basically a fighter who used a bow and also had magic. Even though in the end he did get killed, they had to hit him with a supernova. Otherwise he would have shrugged it off and asked in that was all those bitches had before he had to teach an alien woman to love by cheating on his wife.

[Xeroma]

Star Ocean 4 - Beat the Dragon Newt before stopping tonight. Liking the game quite a bit so far. Lym would be so awesome if she had a good INT stat, so I'm shoving her down S Beat for now. Faize is a decent mid-range supporter but feels kind of lacking right now, Reimi is generally good at what ARPG archers are supposed to do, Edge is Fayt++.

[Talaysen]

Yes. I dislike that part. I mean... I get why, and a little bit was appropriate, but it drug out too far. Props to Reimi, though. For one time in an RPG, a member of a military organization behaved appropriately for their position and situation.

A lot of the blame goes to the plot for forcing the angst direction, really.  Angst, even if it makes sense, is not fun to read.  At all.  It's just annoying.  And then they went over the top with it, like you said, so yeah.  Just a whole lot of stupid.

And Reimi did a great job there, yes.  Possibly echoing Pyro's "best archer ever" hype?  Though I think Natalia was more dominating in-game.

And... Ronixis?  He didn't seem that good anyways, but eh, SO1 has broken all around.  Besides, Rita totally wins in the "best ARPG mage ever" department.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Meh, Ron wasn't that great a mage because mages were kinda crappy in general, so of course he pales in comparison to other mages. No, what made Ron awesome was that he was a good mage when mages didn't suck, back in the beginning, and then at the end? Flare Spread. Suddenly you are AoE attacking everything with regular physicals because you are awesome. He'd have sodomized the  endgame had they not dummied out the Rapid Bow. Also when you hit him, he doesn't fold up like a chair. I liked that.

Really, though, I feel they threw in that whole thread to explain why the Eldarians and the Morphus aren't part of the Earth Federation in the other Star Ocean games. The moral was "giving people technology they don't know how to handle can end up poorly." Though I do wonder if they were part of the PGF in SO3, since the memberstates such as Earth would have been on a comparable level at that point. I mean, you had Expel and Roak as members.

[AndrewRogue]

Darkmoon Faire: San Francisco, World of Warcraft TCG; Day 2, DMF Championship.

7 Rounds of Swiss, cut to top 8. 116 Entrants.

Match 1: vs Dominic (Halavar)

Game 1 and I already regret deck building decisions. A GOOD SIGN. Game one goes fantastic. His draw isn't as hot as it needs to be, and I get out Duty Bound/Myriam. He explodes quickly. Game 2 sees him hitting weapons and his Black Felsteel Bracers to buff them. Tankatronic Goggles interferes with the Untargetable and Elusive trickery of Zempre and Myriam. He ramps and I can't answer. Game 3 sees a long struggle that ends with both of us topdecking to try and win. I manage to hit answers to his weapons, while slugging it out.

1-0

Match 2: vs Damien (Black Ice)

Game 1 and 2 are basically the same. He absolutely steamrolls me. Simple and ugly.

1-1

Match 3: vs Vincent (Ressa Shadeshine)

Game 1 sees his Detect Traps knocking three Myriams out of my hand and basically ending the game right there. Game two sees me stabalizing and burning him out with Myriam. Game 3 recalls Game 3 or Match 1, with both of us going into topdeck mode. I answer the weapons he hits with some lucky topdecks and manage to slug him out.

2-1

Match 4: vs Adrian (Marlowe Chistophers)

Game 1 sees me unsure of what to expect. Moments later, discard dumps my hand and I meet a voidfire wand for the lock and a loss. Game 2 seems me in the lead as he makes a poor decision with his Manhunt and I get a Myriam out on the table. Game 3 has me off to a strong start, but he eventually manages to stabalize with two board wipes and then locks me with the wand.

2-2

Match 5: vs Phillip (Zenith)

This is a pretty uneventful match. I pretty much steamroll him. Answers for all his answers and a strong offense put him to bed in two games.

3-2

Match 6: vs John (Black Ice)

Son of a bitch. Game 1 sees him misplay into my Zempre/Duty Bound combo a couple times which pretty much seals the deal. Game 2 has me on the ropes early with a great start. It looks like I'm gonna stabilize for a while, but he recovers better. Game 3 has me with an early offensive. He starts to stabilize, but a play mistake on his part has me able to swing past his Weldon and score the win with a 5 counter Bonecracker.

4-2

Match 7: vs Matt (Black Ice)

So, by this point, I've basically realized I chose the wrong deck for this event. Black Ice is one of the big decks, and I'm playing, at some level, a less effective version. This obviously does not go well for me. See Match 2, basically.

4-3

I'll make a post one day to explain this terminology. Maybe tomorrow. I am worn out. This puts me in 33rd place of 116, so, all told? Didn't do too bad. Still disappointed, especially after yesterday.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Question: do you have Highlord Bolvar Fordragon? If so, you should use him to destroy your enemies.

[TranceHime]

http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/101449/index.html
Yuyuko, as Earthshaker (Raigor Stonehoof)
** Absolutely amazing game, not to mention extremely exhausting. 76 minute war of attrition where disables won out in the end over raw strength, this shows how teamwork can actually allow you to carry the game despite facing a disadvantage in terms of strength - I lacked the damage my ally did, instead opting to assist in ganks and sacrificing myself to make sure my ally escapes. Raigor's interesting though, a Strength melee hero who IS in essence a caster-disabler type. It all makes sense - Fissure, coupled with Aftershock, causes some nasty stuns and allows for a great mindgame, Enchant Totem synergizes very well with Aftershock too, causing damage output to be nearly tripled, and in mass creep lanes, Echo Slam clears them all out very quickly. Enchantress with a combat/disabler build can also be very deadly, when you are Sheepstick'd and stunned, you really CANNOT do anything, no matter how tanky you are. The final stretch, you see the Admiral trying to kill me at 30% life, when suddenly he gets Sheepsticked, I Fissure him and force him to get trapped by large Mega Creeps. He then gets eaten alive by my teammate's Impetus, which by the way is extremely strong. I cannot emphasize how important disables are.

http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/101450/index.html
Ran Yakumo, as Lightning Revenant (Razor)
** A classic example of why you should deny and harass. Denying gives your opponent less gold and experience. Harassing means you force your opponent to move back and stop killing creeps for gold and experience. As Razor, I forced my opponent to return to heal several times, exhausting his only regen item - a single Healing Salve. My opponent also did not deny, I did not need to deny due to Razor's horrendous animation and the fact my opponent couldn't get close to me - I was constantly harassing with Chain Lightning. Eventually, in 10 minutes, I had 3.3k gold under my belt, and proceeded to purchase my Boots of Travel and Bracers. My teammate, Barathrum, also got BoT. We both had insanely fast movement speed, giving us incredible chasing capabilities, and later in the game my damage output was obscene, causing me to gain a streak. My single death was due to a gank, and I was unable to escape thanks to a lucky Viscous Nasal Goo. Fortunately, my teammate arrived to kill both opponents.

http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/101453/index.html
Remilia Scarlet, as Lord of Olympia (Zeus)
** This is one piece of evidence to prove that the Dirge+Zeus combo is totally imba post-6.57. Dirge's ultimate skill, Flesh Golem, allows him to infect nearby units with... THE PLAGUE. The Plague forces enemies to take 30% more damage from everything... Including Zeus's ultimate, Thundergod's Wrath, which, at Level 3, would do a whopping 600+ damage, around the same as an amplified L1 Dagon, or a normal L3 Dagon. Thanks to that, I was able to cough up a Double Kill RIGHT at the enemy's Fountain of Life. It was truly a beautiful sight. My Arcane Ring allowed to support Dirge's mana-intensive regime, and his Soul Rip was able to support my insane frailty.

[Fudozukushi]

Question: do you have Highlord Bolvar Fordragon? If so, you should use him to destroy your enemies.

For the Highlord!

[Mad Fnorder]

Retro Game Challenge: Is amazing. Am currently playing through Guadia Quest.
 "DO YOU FEEL ASLEEP?" May make a stat topic.

...What's this?

Retro Game Challenge, without going too deeply into the background, is a series of pseudo-80's retro NES games compiled on a DS cart, including fake cartridge art, manuals, and "Gamefan" magazine issues with cheat codes. One of the games is a full fledged Dragon Quest 2 mockup, complete with three party members and constant delays. It's also exquisitely localized, with intentional flubs of "YOU DEFEATED ALL ENEMYS!" and the like in all the right places.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Got tired of Wild Arms for a while, so I randomly decided to start DQ8.

I really wanted to hate this game. I hate Akira Toriyama's art with a fiery passion. And art is really important to me in a video game.

But the game is too damn good. It's a classic RPG, but it's really streamlined. The pacing is steady so far, the character growth system is engaging, the random battles aren't too numerous, and the monsters are cute. The voice-acting is also quite impressive. And all the characters, despite their hideous faces, are really likeable. Even Angelo.

Well, Guv isn't too exciting, but he's okay for a silent main.

Also, apparently the mouse breathes fire. This is awesome.

The game has been somewhat challenging so far. I've been trying to rush through the game a bit, so perhaps it's because I'm underlevelled, but it's nice to play a game that doesn't just roll over and die if you use enough items.

Guv: Swords 30; Courage 26
Yangus: Axes 40-ish; Humanity 30-ish
Jessica: Whips 3?(whatever level you get TDL); Staves 20-ish; SexAppeal 4
Angelo: Swords 18 (why doesn't he get SP?!)

Plan is to alternate between Swords and Courage for Guv. Yangus is levelling Axes until the skills stop being useful, then he's switching to Humanity for kicks (Underpants Dance!). Jess has TDL, so she's going to work on Staves until that's maxed. After that, maybe more whips? Angelo is gunning for Falcon Slash on Swords, then switching to Staves for magical smash.

I seem to have glitched my game by dying. At one point, I was able to warp whereever I'd had been before, now my list of "Zoom" options stops 4 towns ago. I tried revisiting these towns (Pickham, Ascantha, the stops in-between), but they still are unavailable for "Zoom"ing. Kind of sucks really, since I REALLY needed a teleport to the nearest inn after dying... >.>;;

-Djinn

[NotMiki]

Angelo starts of very slow for SP but it picks up considerably as the game goes on.  Opposite of Yangus.

[Excal]

All characters end up with 250 Skill points at level 99.  It's just that Angelo is really backloaded, finally getting into the swing of things around end game levels.  So if you're going to look up skills for anyone, look them up for him.

[Niu]

Star Ocean 4 - Beat the Dragon Newt before stopping tonight. Liking the game quite a bit so far. Lym would be so awesome if she had a good INT stat, so I'm shoving her down S Beat for now. Faize is a decent mid-range supporter but feels kind of lacking right now, Reimi is generally good at what ARPG archers are supposed to do, Edge is Fayt++.

You have to be kidding me, Edge is nowhere as good as Fate. His combos connected poorly and lacked decent ranged game.

I mean, you had Expel and Roak as members.

To be fair, Expel got in only because Precis herself is being a genius. Her Mana Cleaner made Quadratic Sphere/Key possible for common use, and the Federation take Expel in only because of that.


BTW, am I the only one who find the Remi angst more annoy than Edge Angst? At least Edge has an excuse to be angsty, but Remi's came out of nowhere when she is getting good, that really ticked me off. And it really serves no purpose at all.

[Shale]

SF4: Finally played a bit of it, on the 360. Gravitated toward Dhalsim and Abel, although by the time I get another crack at it I'll probably forget everything new Dhalsim has, and everything period about Abel.

[Pyro]

Reimi angst is all of one part of one scene, and makes a great deal of sense given what she had kept bottled up. And she never let it get to her on a more rational level. She was disciplined when she needed to be.

It also helps that the English VA does a fantastic job in that scene (and almost every other)

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

P4 - Nitori x1 get.