Author Topic: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition. (Read 687260 times)

Idun · « **Reply #3375 on:** July 09, 2009, 04:36:55 AM »

Done with Suikoden V for the night. 22:30 clocked. Discovered the insanity behind Stars of Destiny from chat. I've officially started a more vigorous search for recruiting, but so far I'm not able to get some members. For example, Marina is supposed to be in an Inn, but I can't find her. Etc. So I haven't investigated all of Sable yet. I actually left the city right after learning about Oboro recruitment fail to make sure I've talked to him. Otherwise, I need to scrap a range from 1-2 extra pieces for all of my orb piece sets since I never invested time into that. The next time I play, which is tomorrow, I'll orb piece grind hopefully by FAQing because I don't remember who drops what so far. I just really don't want to go back to Ceras Lake.

Meeplelard · « **Reply #3376 on:** July 09, 2009, 06:19:38 AM »

Chaos Wars: So right after Yuri pulls off For the Child for the first time, I end 3-5's missions and...

HOLY SHIT ITS A SHADOW HEARTS SWARM!!!

Ok, I knew Gepetto and ALice were in the game, but I did NOT now Kurando and Anastasia were too...oh well, not complaining...besides that I have to consider if I want to use Kurando now (Alice...is going to replace Rin, I'm certain.)

Niu · « **Reply #3377 on:** July 09, 2009, 07:02:06 AM »

Quote from: Meeplelard on July 09, 2009, 03:43:43 AM

Raven is someone I can't realistically see ever controlling though. They pretty much spliced every single Tales Fighting style archetype on him, be it Meleer, Archer, Mage, what have you...and it works. The thing is? It only really works if you keep him ON AI, cause Human control has too many limitations to the point where you'll spend more time micromanaging his skills than you will actually fighting, just best left to the AI who has unlimited access to all his skills, and let him work from there (in addition to the usual "You want healers AI Controlled" thing.)

Also, regarding Estelle being tanky...being decent in human hands has little to do with durability. Guy, for example, has some early game durability issues, yet many will agree he's the easiest character to use even then in TotA. Estelle is typically a healer, so again, best left to AI, and her magic isn't quite as versatile and user friendly as Rita, so yeah. Admittedly, I MIGHT be underselling her physical techs, and she may actually work as an unexpectedly solid fighter, but honestly wouldn't know; I'm mostly just thinking Primary Healer = Best Left to AI.

How reasonable is Karol to control, OOC, Niu? I never messed with him much cause I didn't like his fighting style, so I can't realistically judge

Now, the complex thing with Raven is that, AI can't use him well at all. AI can't do his combos right and he is infinitely inferior to Rita if you use him as a mage, that is why I just toss him out of the team and never bothered with him unless I am going to control him myself. Unless you micromanages and does his more ridiculous than Judy combo, everyone kind just out damages him outside Estelle and Repede. And you are not going to give up those two for him either as those two have other tricks that makes them infinity better.

And you miss my point in Estelle, this is not about human control, rather about her survivability set up that makes her very hard to kill. So she becomes your tank instead in higher difficulty where bosses are doing ridiculous damage, where you want to put her right in front of them and let her absorb all the pain. That actually works better than trying to out heal the bosses's damage.

Karol's play style is about doing a lot of damage in one hit by using charge. His combos are very limited so it is best to not bother. He DOES have a two combo chain that I am aware of that does good damage but I still won't recommend it, as he is slow, his attack animation is also slow, that makes him easy to get interrupted. Hit and run is still better for him.

Meeplelard · « **Reply #3378 on:** July 10, 2009, 06:03:13 AM »

Chaos Wars: CHap 4 beaten. Got to the first boss in Chap 5 and...holy shit, difficulty spike! I might have to actually care about raising characters between acts to keep their ranks up to speed.

Shale · « **Reply #3379 on:** July 10, 2009, 06:31:32 AM »

The Dig: Picked this up from LucasArts' Steam fire sale. I figure it and LOOM are going to need the most love out of that batch, and this interests me more. Got underground in the first sitting. It's solid. Held back some by the middling VA, since it's going for serious drama, but it's still drawn me in pretty well. The first major SPOILARZ moment had impact.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #3380 on:** July 10, 2009, 07:29:18 AM »

Just wanting to note that when I brought up Rita as the first 'viable' Tales mage, I meant as a main controlled character.

Plenty of Tales mages have their uses, but generally you aren't doing yourself any favors controlling them over the melee fighters. Even in ToD2, Harold was just fine on AI while you controlled a fighter to keep enemies tied up and not killing your squishy mages.

On Jade and Estelle - both of them double as fairly decent melee fighters, though I wouldn't use them as mains. Jade in particular was fun for FOF abuse off of Thunder Lance spam.

Niu · « **Reply #3381 on:** July 10, 2009, 07:53:45 AM »

Quote from: DjinnAndTonic on July 10, 2009, 07:29:18 AM

Plenty of Tales mages have their uses, but generally you aren't doing yourself any favors controlling them over the melee fighters. Even in ToD2, Harold was just fine on AI while you controlled a fighter to keep enemies tied up and not killing your squishy mages.

You know, this is kinda moot when... well Harold can blast most of grunts to oblivion before they can remotely reach her. And honestly speaking outside Barbatos and Sebnok, I find controlling mages in ToD2 is a lot better than using the fighters.

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #3382 on:** July 10, 2009, 10:08:56 PM »

PoR - Wiigii I can has a frog morph.

kokushishin · « **Reply #3383 on:** July 11, 2009, 12:11:58 AM »

Star Ocean 2nd Evo: lost track of this for a while, now currently in Linga. Ended up with Precis (who seems less annoying) and Welch. The new skills for mages seem to help Celine and Rena a bit, but combos and Godspeed pretty much offset it and then some. In fact I'm tempted to start a Rena file just to see how insane Dias can get now.

Captain K. · « **Reply #3384 on:** July 11, 2009, 06:39:04 AM »

PWI: Level 68 BM, level 62 cleric. Also have a level 22 veno I've been trying out. Dumping all the XP into genie so it doesn't level much.

Had a fantastic Twilight Temple 1-2 high run tonight. Got 4 Broken Shards of Gold Armor and 5 Serpent Skins, which is just O_o from one run. Can make all my level 70 armor now.

Ultradude · « **Reply #3385 on:** July 11, 2009, 06:43:46 AM »

SRWD - Sooo... Quatre in Sandrock is probably more useful than Heero in Wing Zero. Also, Epyon's longest ranged attack is only 3.

On the far less surprising end of things, Battle 7 is a fucking awesome ship, Basara's rockin' kicks lots of ass, and Shin Getter now has Stoner Sunshine and the main crew, making it even sillier. Daltanias is kicking ass, and Big O is doing great despite the armor glitch - Roger gets early damage reduction seishin, which kicks ass.

EDIT: Holy crap, how many times can I mention ass-kicking in paragraph guys? I'm goin' for the record!

Xeroma · « **Reply #3386 on:** July 11, 2009, 06:49:32 AM »

Armor glitch? The only thing wrong with D armor is how low it is as a spread, not anything coding-wise.

Meeplelard · « **Reply #3387 on:** July 11, 2009, 06:58:29 AM »

Chaos Wars: Just beat Chap 6!

Team is Hyoma, Yuri, Hiro, Alice and Grave. Satisfied with the results so far!

Well, ok, everyone feels a bit lagging...compared to Yuri and Alice. This isn't so much cause they're bad as much as that Mages seem to be really good at offense in this game (Alice has some durability issues, as expected, so you can't really bring her to front lines), and Yuri...well...For the Child is as ridiculous as its always been. And Yuri is twinked so he can spam it reliably...on Turn 1. Typically, Yuri getting a turn = something dies, unless its a boss or as a lot of Dark Resistance <_<

In some cases, several things will die >.>

Ultradude · « **Reply #3388 on:** July 11, 2009, 07:04:34 AM »

Quote from: Xeroma on July 11, 2009, 06:49:32 AM

Armor glitch? The only thing wrong with D armor is how low it is as a spread, not anything coding-wise.

Same difference!

Incidentally, how many of you hate that phrase?

EDIT: And just when I was getting used to Shin Broken... Shin Holy Hell Broken jumps in for a level, though from what I understand it's not permanent until later.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #3389 on:** July 11, 2009, 07:39:15 AM »

Quote from: Meeplelard on July 11, 2009, 06:58:29 AM

Chaos Wars: Just beat Chap 6!

Team is Hyoma, Yuri, Hiro, Alice and Grave. Satisfied with the results so far!

Well, ok, everyone feels a bit lagging...compared to Yuri and Alice. This isn't so much cause they're bad as much as that Mages seem to be really good at offense in this game (Alice has some durability issues, as expected, so you can't really bring her to front lines), and Yuri...well...For the Child is as ridiculous as its always been. And Yuri is twinked so he can spam it reliably...on Turn 1. Typically, Yuri getting a turn = something dies, unless its a boss or as a lot of Dark Resistance <_<

In some cases, several things will die >.>

Will a stat topic come of this playthrough? *crosses fingers*

Meeplelard · « **Reply #3390 on:** July 11, 2009, 08:00:37 AM »

Quote from: DjinnAndTonic on July 11, 2009, 07:39:15 AM

Quote from: Meeplelard on July 11, 2009, 06:58:29 AM
Chaos Wars: Just beat Chap 6!

Team is Hyoma, Yuri, Hiro, Alice and Grave. Satisfied with the results so far!

Well, ok, everyone feels a bit lagging...compared to Yuri and Alice. This isn't so much cause they're bad as much as that Mages seem to be really good at offense in this game (Alice has some durability issues, as expected, so you can't really bring her to front lines), and Yuri...well...For the Child is as ridiculous as its always been. And Yuri is twinked so he can spam it reliably...on Turn 1. Typically, Yuri getting a turn = something dies, unless its a boss or as a lot of Dark Resistance <_<

In some cases, several things will die >.>

Will a stat topic come of this playthrough? *crosses fingers*

OH GOD NO. This game is not stat topicable...in the least...for so many reasons.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #3391 on:** July 11, 2009, 09:31:36 AM »

People keep saying that, so I believe it.

I just don't quite understand why it's not stat-topic-able. I mean, we've managed to do stat topics for ARPGs of all flavors, games where characters were basically interchangeable (Hello Koudelka!), and solo-RPGs... How can Chaos Wars be so impossible to stat topic?

Sierra · « **Reply #3392 on:** July 11, 2009, 11:11:51 AM »

Crisis Core: Ran back to Shinra HQ to stop Genesis and his flunkies was from doing something or other. When we find him he just sort of walks of, mumbling bad poetry as usual.

Quote from: El Cideon on July 09, 2009, 12:52:28 AM

Genesis is a wanker.

Also, was Exaflare gravity-based, or was I just really lucky in having over 6,000 HP when it hit? (My max was actually ~3,800, but I had a huge surplus from DMW bonuses). 6K on an attack would be pretty nuts at this time in the game. MBarrier or stacked HP materia would make it survivable, but you'd have to see it coming to prepare like that.

~

SA: Normal still hands me my ass, so I did a couple more Easy runs (Mari B and Reimu B). Reimu C sorta sucks and I don't think I'll be using her any more. Only really useful for those spellcards that encourage you to fly a 360 around the boss, and even then half your firepower's shooting off into space.

Grefter · « **Reply #3393 on:** July 11, 2009, 11:53:42 AM »

It is gravity based. Dammit 2 other people playing CC and one is caught up to me almost and Shale has beat me to it. I should just keep playing instead of doing Missions... but so much broken to do.

Edit - Guitar Hero Metallica - I have worked out why this shits me and I am pretty much ambivalent to it in general. Like taking into account that I am a huge Metallica fan. It feels more like a game than any of the other ones I have played. The same riff you have played earlier in the song seems like it is on different buttons even though it is the exact same notes for no reason other than the context of the song changing slightly either side of it. The game likes to throw alternating guitar parts at you (WTF) because hey Metallica plays with a lead and a rhythm guitar, you aren't playing bass, so you can do both bits right? It also feels like the Metallica songs are artificially made harder than other bands songs (other than the Slayer one because well that one is Slayer). This is all playing on Medium though. There is a lot of Green to Blue reaches for no fucking reason whatsoever other than to just make that part a pain in the arse in an otherwise fairly text book song. Songs that are easy most of the way through get stupidly hard 3/4 of the way through (on the SECOND solo, not the first! This is Metallica, there is a lot of solos and these aren't short songs). It just is full of game shit instead of you know, giving people a really fake feeling of playing around and getting to listen to this cool song. It is just DO THIS BULLSHIT SO YOU CAN DO SOME MORE BULLSHIT instead. It is just fucking dull.

Idun · « **Reply #3394 on:** July 11, 2009, 02:44:17 PM »

Just finished the scene with Miakis and Georg. I pretty much expected what was said to occur in the game though I thought it would occur just a tad bit earlier. I'm busy collecting stars right now - - I've yet to move on with the storyline. I'm not too sure if this is a bad thing though.

Twilkitri · « **Reply #3395 on:** July 11, 2009, 03:12:34 PM »

Etrian Odyssey -

Down to Strata 3. The boss of Strata 2 was highly scrubby but I guess there's always the other one there if I ever feel like masochism. Will be nice to have a change from greenery.

BOF V -

Up to TopSector. Tantra fight was surprisingly easy considering I didn't exactly have much in the way of equipment improvements over the previous attempt; I was initially just going to dragon it but decided to give it another regular try and there it went. The second fight with him wasn't much worse, although I had somehow gotten the impression that Take That was a line-based attack which led to some mild drama the first time he used it. R-Bosch on the other hand I viewed one attack string from and promptly blew that for a game of soldiers.

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #3396 on:** July 11, 2009, 03:28:57 PM »

Ouendan - argh ready steady die

Meeplelard · « **Reply #3397 on:** July 11, 2009, 03:41:54 PM »

Quote from: DjinnAndTonic on July 11, 2009, 09:31:36 AM

People keep saying that, so I believe it.

I just don't quite understand why it's not stat-topic-able. I mean, we've managed to do stat topics for ARPGs of all flavors, games where characters were basically interchangeable (Hello Koudelka!), and solo-RPGs... How can Chaos Wars be so impossible to stat topic?

Koudelka got stat topic'd? Seriously, I don't remember this, and if it did, it wouldn't really reflect the game. There's no rhyme or reason for stat builds and it'd just be complete "Topic Creators Interpretation!" Stat Topics are like this, but Koudelka is *100%* like that, outside of maybe what weapons characters have initially. Its one thing if *BOSSES* were gained, which is a totally different thing entirely.

Stats in a solo RPG are meaningless; they're only gained for the purposes of, again, bosses. What people do grab are skillsets and just show relative damage values. Solo RPGs have only one issue, and that's "All stats are average"; otherwise, they're fairly easy to stat topic. Don't pretend they're anywhere near the same clusterfuck value as Koudelka, FF2, or Chaos Wars.

That said, unlike Koudelka which is 3 PCs, Chaos Wars has an FF2-esque style growth system with over 30 PCs. Skills are effectively 100% initial, and weapons have no logic in being store bought, and there's 0 consistency. Its like Disgaea, except weapons sort of lack the base stats here, and its more like "Arbitrary range + Special Skills!" As such, early game PCs will not break enemy defense, while late game PCs will be flat out better in every way.

(I actually planned on stat topicing FF2, but then realized just how...bad an idea that is. Part of the reason was I wanted to see Emperor's FF2DoS stats and how they were changed...seems the only difference is he gained about 5000 HP.)

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #3398 on:** July 11, 2009, 04:18:19 PM »

So... Chaos Wars is FF2-style growth? Huh. Okay, that explains it.

Are the Chaos Wars bosses worth stat-topicing, then?

Yoshiken · « **Reply #3399 on:** July 11, 2009, 06:14:23 PM »

Pfft, FF2 would be perfectly stat topic-able, outside of the main playables. It'd just take a little careful consideration and some specific rules is all!

Talking of FF2: Castle Kashuon. Plotting to kill things. Gordon is useless beyond all belief. At least Josef could actually survive attacks. (Well, except for those involving Indiana Jones rip-offs.)

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Author Topic: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition. (Read 687260 times)

Idun

Idun