Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Pyro]

Dragon Quest 4 DS:

This game is fun. I can't put my finger on WHY too well, but it just clicks with a nostalgic style and plenty of polish (on the DS at least <_<). Just beat Taloon's chapter. Enjoyed the uniqueness of that quite a bit.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Well, I kind of wanted to play ToV, having messed around with a friend's save a bit, and it seems entertaining. Problem is I can't find the damn thing anywhere.

[Xeroma]

You could always try looking for it online? Unless that's not an option. Failing that, ask someone in the group if you could borrow it.

[Meeplelard]

Chaos Wars: Beaten!  Game threw a curve ball at me in the end!

Here's what the game claims:

Rank 50
Maps 4

BUT THERE WERE ONLY 3!?!?!  THE PLOT TWIST! I CAN'T HANDLE IT!!!!

...seriously, though, I was really going to dock the game a point for the final boss...cause i thought he wasn't the final.  See, as a final boss, it felt appropriate having that many evil tricks, and having a fight that long, etc. so I'm cool with that; final bosses are suppose to be better than most other things in the game, barring obvious failures like EVIL GAIA or Zophar 4, who are borderline Plot Fights.
But I was getting really pissed off if he wasn't the final boss like I expected.  He was hurling big damage, random status that could fuck you over if you weren't careful, and randomly parasitic healing, meaning that using Deadly Attacks to slowly whittle away even then might fail.  Also Counters which are both a good and bad thing depending on what's going on (Good for you cause it counts as pushing his turn back dramatically, bad cause it interrupts your actions.  It actually killed a combo of mine that would have done like 10k damage to him -_-)

Anyway, game...it really should be awful.  It takes a mediocre at best system, has trainwreck mechanics (copyright Soppy), crosses over some of the most random shit ever, and even tosses in some fights that should make you tear your hair out late game...yet somehow, it managed to be...fun in an odd addicting sort of way.  I seriously don't know how it worked; its like they took a bunch of bad ideas, threw it into a blender, and somehow came out with something above average.  If that isn't Synergy, I don't know what is!

To be honest, I went into the game not expecting much; mostly played it out of shear curiosity...
Well, no, that's a lie. I REALLY played it cause it had Shadow Hearts Covenant Characters.

Yet, I had fun playing it!  Anyway, some random thoughts!

Hyoma was a decent main.  He's just...really rational about everything.  Not afraid to speak his mind, he's got this "bad ass" vibes, but at the same time, doesn't feel like he's trying to impress everyone, and has some snappy dialog.  He works well cause Chaos Wars is a cast filled with such crazed misfits, you need someone who isn't afraid to go "...what the hell is wrong with these people?" yet somehow, keep his cool.

Rin...she HAD to be a joke about the Deus Ex Machina Female Lead.  In that in so many games, said character knows very little about their powers or something, beyond that they have them...and half the time, they never really get a good explanation for having them, just "oh, you're special!"  So how does Rin spoof this?
Hyoma: So if we use this Key, we can access this tower, right?
Rin: We just need to authenticate it and we'll be there...I think...
Hyoma: You think? You're the Gate Master!  Isn't this part of your job?
Rin: It is, and I said it will work...maybe...
Hyoma: In otherwords, you have no idea.
Rin: Yes I do! Its just nothing like this has ever been tried before!
Hyoma: That's just another way of saying "I don't know"...

She worked well enough cause its clear the game isn't taking itself seriously, so yeah.

Hayatemaru is someone they had to have gone out of their way to make as annoying as possible.  Bad jokes, arrogant as all hell, never shuts up...you name it!  YOu might be thinking "Ok, no, he's just badly written!"  But you have to factor in this is general exchange in Chaos Wars:

Hayatemaru: AHA! We are victorious!  Good thing you have me around to kick the fish!
Hyoma: ...you can stop talking now.
Hayatemaru: Now, why would you say such a thing? Or is it you just don't want to admit that I was the one who won this fight for us *wink* Come on, admit it!
Hyoma: No, I just don't like you.

Shizuka was the weak link of the original characters.  She's mostly just there to be a psycho female friend of Hyoma, and eh, didn't quite come off so well.  She wasn't annoying, but I felt they didn't really do much with her.

Other characters generally played their rolls well enough, though I only know the Shadow Hearts characters <_<;
I will say that Hiro was definitely a lot more prominent than any other Cross Over character, but from what I understand, this is cause she's essentially IF's Mascot, so its only natural they'll default to using her.  Not complaining; she seemed cool enough as a character, and I do like the concept of "Flaming (Half) Demon Scythe Girl from Hell!"

Otherwise?  Well, mostly just Yuri, Okita, Grave/Mika were prominent.  Not shocking that the major henchman of the game are from those respective games!  I'd comment on Garino and Saigou, but I know nothing about them!  Nicholai, though?  Obsessed with Yuri, keeps getting his ass kicked, eventually goes Astaroth, and...yeah.  Though a reaction to that post scene?

Nicholai: NO! How is this possible! Astaroth and Seraphic Radiance are suppose to be equal!
Me: Uh...no?  You're thinking of Amon, Nicholai.  Seraphic Radiance is WAAAAAAY stronger...

...yeah, now I'm not making any sense anymore, so uh...

ITS A 6/10 GAME!!!! or something

[DjinnAndTonic]

Clearly the next step is to play Growlanser Generations and Growlanser Heritage of War.

[Hunter Sopko]

No, now he needs to play the other game I lent him and finish it by DL-Con ::Nodnod::

[Meeplelard]

No, now he needs to play the other game I lent him and finish it by DL-Con ::Nodnod::

Or I could finally get off my ass and work on the ;_; stat topic >_>

though, probably get back to FF12, so I can set up the Live Chat on Skype for the Pre DLC4 "Meeple's Fun vs. Yiamzat"; you all know you want to hear PUBLIC MEEPLE SUFFERING!

[Cmdr_King]

I don't suppose you'd go for less suffering, more Marth hype and play FESD?  We need more players ;_;

[Anthony Edward Stark]

You could always try looking for it online? Unless that's not an option. Failing that, ask someone in the group if you could borrow it.

Well, yeah, I can get it online. I'm just kind of shocked that it's off shelves this quickly.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Ouendan - Kaizouendan 1. Cleared a bunch of stuff, S Ranked Atsuki Kaizo no Hate, Kaizo Night Carnival and Kaizody. Working on Kaizo Thrill and Kaizoro Odoru.

[Sierra]

Never played DQIV original, Pyro? Just curious.

~

Fallout 2: I didn't expect to start it this soon either, but it sounded like the right kind of distraction from lackluster CC writing. Played through Klamath and The Den (minus freeing Vic--see below). Now just finished up with Modoc, which is notable for several things:

-Exploding outhouse.

-Goonies reference out of nowhere.

-SHOTGUN LESBIAN WEDDING.

My wife is an appallingly bad fighter, unfortunately, but it's not like I expected to get a killer PC by sexing up some random butcher's daughter. Presumably as a result of all this, my reputation in Modoc is lodged at "Antipathy" despite my singlehandedly saving the village from starvation without ever resorting to violence. Which only goes to show that no matter how good a person you are, no matter how sterling your accomplishments, if you have a publicized sexual indiscretion in America, you are scum.

Not 100% sure where I'm going next. I haven't been able to get Vic from the slavers through diplomacy and I don't have the gear to kill them all, so I guess I'll keep hitting random backwater towns until I've accumulated some decent firepower/armor. Gecko's closest, but also supposedly broiling with radiation. I only have two Rad-X pills, but I guess we'll see if that's enough. Redding's out for now--went there once and I couldn't kill the Wanamingos, which it looks like you have to since everyone in town wants the chip from that mine.

Money, and resources in general, seem a lot tighter than they were in Fallout 1. Not only because it lacks an obvious exploit like the whole "sell off the raiders' leather armor at The Hub and be set for life" bit, but I seem to be getting shafted on trades. Everything is freakishly expensive and it looks like I get less for selling items than I pay when buying them (Fallout 1 pretty much always gave you equal value, it seemed). Makes me wonder if I should have at least a few points invested in Barter--which was pointless in Fallout 1, but maybe they learned from the skills being grossly imbalanced in that game. I dumped a lot of skill points into melee weapons just to make the earlygame smoother, after an abortive early attempt at the game* showed that finding a decent gun early on and keeping it stocked up on ammo wasn't likely to happen (the pipe rifle is so. Fucking. Horrible). Also have a lot in speech because talking through problems is way more entertaining than FO combat. Perks currently possessed are Kama Sutra Master (seriously, how could I not take this?) and Presence (not great, but there didn't seem to be a lot of stellar options at the time. It was that or Quick Pockets. Thief would be okay if I ever used any of those skills outside of lockpicking, but I don't).

*The first game was actually cut short because I foolishly only used one save file the whole time and eventually got myself stuck on the third floor of a building full of people who wanted to kill me. The Bishop residence, in New Reno. If you know the game, and if you know me, you should only need one guess to know how I wound up there. As for New Reno...god, that place is a hole. I'd also recruited Myron before getting stuck--he's a creepy fucker and I really don't want to have anything to do with him, but I figured anything that disrupted the drug trade could only be a good thing in the long run (even if it resulted in half of northern California suffering from horrific withdrawal in the short term).

After seeing both New Reno and Vault City, I fully expect the representatives of the NCR to show equally epic levels of douchebaggery once I actually meet them.

EDIT: Oh, and while I'm trying to avoid spoiling myself on things here, I would like to know if Fallout 2 has any kind of timer attached to the plot. I've already received one dream vision from the Arroyo shaman (who is creepy as fuck, by the way--there's a fair bit of this going around and I didn't really see it in Fallout 1. The character models used in the cutscene that accompanies the start of a new game in particular come right from Uncanny Valley) but I'm not sure if it was actually hinting at a time limit or just trying to remind me that, yes, you are still on a mission and it involves more than drug addiction and lesbian sex.

[superaielman]

L4D achievements- I have 43/58 left to get. Five of those are versus so I don't care too much about those. Three are just clearing a bunch of survival maps, so don't care about those.

Untouchables- No damage after triggering the finale. Death Toll 5, rock, hope for the best. Blood Harvest 5 maybe could do this as well, but that requires dodging tank concrete throws on the barn and eh to that.

Do not disturb- Avoid witches. <_< What, I like shooting Witches! They are awesome because it means you didn't get a tank and the worst even an expert wtich can do is kill one person.

Unbreakable- Don't heal.  Four human players run easy. Sounds kind of lame unless you're going for something else at the same time, like...

Nothing special- dear god. No damage from any special infected. Almost has to be death toll, considering how brutal the run in blood harvest is.

Stomach upset- See above. You're going to get vomited on in no mercy and dead air's final.

Red Mist- Fuck minigun placement. I'm about 40% through this.

Zombie Genocidist- Less than half. I won't get this any time soon unless I start fucking around with survivor mode.


I've gotten most of the achivements I want, now that I scored man vs tank and what are you trying to prove. I want more fanmaps. Oh yeah, Death aboard is getting a update soon too. Can't wait for that.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

There IS a time limit, but it's like 11 years. I've literally never run in to it, even when I run around after the game. What those scenes are telling you is that Arroyo has reached a new "phase." Each time it happens, the geography of the town changes a little. My favorite is when the little kid's dog disappears. When you get the GECK, of course, it skips right to the last phase, and the visions stop coming.

Most people, however, don't realize this is happening because usually, you get your sharpened spear, maybe your melee training, and take off from Arroyo like a bat out of hell and never come back.

[IhatethisCPU]

Beat: SMT: DS2. RKVLA. Got Neutral ending, without actively trying. ...Seem to be in the minority in that, though.
Final team:
Thor, (Blah.)
Cu Chulainn, (Someday Lugh WILL make an appearence in a Megaten game.)
Nebiros, (Was quite useful.
Fenrir, (Tri-Elemental at at that.
Scathach, (
Cybele, (Was Law up until the end of Chapter 4.)
Titania, (Was fond of her back in Nocturne, carried over here. ...The fact that she was the only on to have healing magic through skill inheritence at end-game means nothing. >_>')
Gdon (Only because Gdon is a tiger. That's, literally, ON FIRE.)

---

Am currently playing Growl: HOW (Gamefly is a wonderful thing indeed.). Got through the prologues, and made it to the MC's(Who I named Araken, for no real reason...) story-line. Am currently trying to take back stolen documents. My continued failure to do so is annoying me.

Assumptions/Note:
Fanille will eventually do something something so incredibly stupid I will want to punch her in the throat. (I'm getting vague Shion vibes here, so that may be why. Mostly because of her VA.)
Said throat-punching will not be a dialogue option, at any point.

Liking the MC dialogue system thus far, though.

[Shale]

Crisis Core missions: Whee, more grinding. Got the Protect Ring so I no longer need Wall, and slapped the 470% HP bonus that materia had onto Curaga instead. I'm at 100% with all DMWs except Genesis, which is at 55%, and I can't trigger Genesis Mode for the life of me to get that last scene. I'm torn between rushing the underground cave missions so I can buy Apocalypse materia or leveling up an Octaslash booster and grinding through to the Magic Pot that gives the Genji Shield.

[Meeplelard]

Well, one way to get a lot of DMW time, and hopefully provoke Genesis Mode?

Do the 1000 Man Melee again!  Ok, so that's a bit cruel, so maybe just keep doing the 100 or 200 one (so you have actual breathers), until Genesis Mode activates.  Once you get that far, it shouldn't be TOO long til you get the scene.

That's about the only advice I can give to getting that last Genesis scene.  Naturally, you'll want to NOT DIE as much as possible, but later missions, this...isn't feasible...on Normal...

[Shale]

I did in fact redo the thousand-man-melee. With Heavenly DMW rate. No Genesis Mode.

[Niu]

Fanille will eventually do something something so incredibly stupid I will want to punch her in the throat.

I can tell you right now that you have the wrong guess.

[Pyro]

Rob: If you are really interested in ToV we might be able to loan it to you. I'm kind of surprised that you are having trouble finding it.

Alternatively you could wait till next year and hope the PS3 version gets released in the US.

Cid: I never played DQ4o.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Eh, it's a nice thought. But usually I take some time to finish these things, assuming it has the kind of things you have to play through multiple times for.

[Shale]

I've had Meeple's copy of Kingdom Hearts since last November. We lend for the long haul.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Fanille will eventually do something something so incredibly stupid I will want to punch her in the throat.

I can tell you right now that you have the wrong guess.

Agreed. Despite the incredibly stupid hat (it's outlandish even by Growlanser standards. Don't worry, they call her on it in-game!), Fanille actually has one of the more fleshed out personalities. They took that overly-shy type and actually wrote her in a believable way (and didn't throw in too many Freudian excuses for her to be shy and demure). They really milk the VA, too, and she despite sounding like Shion, she pulls it off well enough.

Still pales in comparison to Melvina in my opinion, but overall I was pretty happy with GL5's cast (Korin aside, even though -she- gets all the funny lines).

Too bad that the dialog in general is too directly-translated...

[Taishyr]

IhatethisCPU: Persona 2 features Lugh as a hidden Persona; he's not bad.

[Meeplelard]

I've had Meeple's copy of Kingdom Hearts since last November. We lend for the long haul.

And I've had Gate's copy of...well, something really awful...for nearly a year, so yeah.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I'm sure he can suffer to let you have it for one more year!