Author Topic: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition. (Read 692416 times)

Ultradude · « **Reply #4250 on:** August 31, 2009, 01:39:18 AM »

Started FE10 finally! I know I've got plenty else to beat, but this is me and Fire Emblem, so it'll go quick.

Completed through 1-3. Why... was 1-1 so hard? So many enemies, so sucky team. 1-2 was a breeze though, and 1-3 wasn't bad even with a few silly mistakes.

Yoshiken · « **Reply #4251 on:** August 31, 2009, 02:03:08 AM »

Persona 4: Killer spoilers. Not sure how much people still care, so smaller font just in case.

Seriously, Johnny Yong Bosch can NOT pull off evil. He sounds completely drunk throughout the first Shadow World scene with him! I mean, it probably doesn't help that the image for him looks drunk too - is it actually the same as his drunken face in-game? I can't quite remember.

Also, at first, bad ending get. For those who saw me asking in chat about P4 endgame stuff, this is why. Thankfully, I had an extra save (from about a month before, but meh), but I seriously wish they would have actually given some kind of a WARNING about it being bad ending risk, y'know? Even just a "There's a chance things could take a turn for the worse. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow." *cough* save now *cough*

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #4252 on:** August 31, 2009, 02:10:46 AM »

P4 gj's it up really bad regarding the ending shenanigans. This is not news.

DjinnAndTonic · « **Reply #4253 on:** August 31, 2009, 02:38:50 AM »

Quote from: Twilkitri on August 30, 2009, 03:39:22 PM

Rogue Galaxy - Beaten

Cool, I'd been wanting to yammer about this one for a while.

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The whole Drigellum collection section seems kind of phoned in. Walk down repetitive path, do nothing of consequence, watch scene, repeat x6. Disappointing.

But it gives the audience a chance to get closure on JUPIS!

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On another, earlier, hand, Johannasburg was pretty cool. Anyone know if there's any official art of Johanna, because she seems a good candidate for the next time there is a prettiness tournament.

It exists. I may have it floating around on my hard drive somewhere. She's also a cool boss. Very rankable. Agreed that Johannasburg was probably the best part of the game, but the game's story leaves a lot to be desired.

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Speaking of completeness targets, I'm currently on 97% revelation, 94% factory, 79% hunting record, 77% rare items, 0% insectron >_> with the rest completed. I have a block of 30 enemies that I've never seen taking up the majority of the missing hunting record; unsure where exactly they would be. Presumably something has opened up since beating the game since they're after the Arabis section enemies, but the game does not appear to be helping me out here. I intend to look up help on the remaining rare items and factory blueprints anyway so I will likely look up where I should be looking for these as well.

Yes. Those would be the post-game enemies on the Ghost Ship and such. There's actually quite a few things you can't complete without going there.

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Speaking of item usage, the revelation flow was overly formulaic as well. Effectively most times you get to a new area, some enemies will drop a new item that's used in it, which will currently be blocking several skills in the flow that you'll now unlock and their followups will end up blocked by an item in a later area. So you end up hoping to get enough random drops of these items, or you have to either grind or wait for shops to start selling limited amounts of them later on, but mostly my complaint is that everyone's flow ends up waiting on the same stuff. There are two items in the game which are used in the flow uniquely; there should at least have been one for every character. At the very least.

The Revelation Flow system was pretty abusable if you concentrated on 3-4 characters only. The only reason to even give your remaining characters any skills was for the Final...

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In final news, I consider the first movie of the puzzle being 'solved' to be awesome. Also game needs to be ranked. Also game needed to not drop five thousand cliches on you all at once post-Labyrinth. Kinda suffocating that way.

I'm all for Rogue Galaxy ranking hype. The duelists are fairly interesting (Jaster's Freeze Gun and Barrier-breaker Gun are pretty cool) and the characters are resourceless types a la VP in a lot of ways. They also have a lot of elementally-aligned innate abilities that add to their general interest value.

Johanna and Jaster-Clone are pretty cool as rankable boss options, too. And Temp Desert Claw Godlike hyp-*is shot* Ahem, I mean, Star-King Jaster solo fight for Godlike hyp-*double-shot*.

Would be interested in seeing a stat-topic for this, at least, as it's a really easy ARPG to interp.

Ranmilia · « **Reply #4254 on:** August 31, 2009, 02:46:07 AM »

To be fair to P4... You get a huge batch of obviously moving into endgame plot scenes, are told that more is on the way tomorrow, and get dumped straight in front of the save point for the first time in what, an hour? Two maybe? It's a very clear warning to save right there, if you're at all familiar with the VN-style structure P4 plot uses.

Which, granted, most non-Japanese players won't be. But that's not really the game's fault.

The choices you need to pick to avoid the bad ending, now, those could have been clearer.

Sierra · « **Reply #4255 on:** August 31, 2009, 03:07:06 AM »

Quote from: Sir Alex on August 31, 2009, 02:46:07 AM

To be fair to P4... You get a huge batch of obviously moving into endgame plot scenes, are told that more is on the way tomorrow, and get dumped straight in front of the save point for the first time in what, an hour? Two maybe? It's a very clear warning to save right there, if you're at all familiar with the VN-style structure P4 plot uses.

Which, granted, most non-Japanese players won't be. But that's not really the game's fault.

The choices you need to pick to avoid the bad ending, now, those could have been clearer.

The last point was my main problem with the sequence. That, and if you picked any of them wrong, guess what? You get to button-mash through the whole cutscene again.

Saving at every opportunity really should be routine for anyone that far into the game, of course.

Yoshiken · « **Reply #4256 on:** August 31, 2009, 03:33:01 AM »

Alex: Actually, it's right in the middle of the tests. I was somewhat confused as to why the tests suddenly stopped halfway through, but thought nothing of it and carried on as normal.

As for the choices... Yeah, true. I was indecisive the entire time, which is what you're supposed to do! But I was the wrong kind of indecisive apparently.

And Cid, I've never been one for saving often. It's screwed me over a number of times already, but it's something I always have a habit of sticking to. Worst thing it's ever done for me was a run of Ocarina of Time where I hadn't saved at all, having just reached Adult Link. Game crashed on pulling out the Master Sword. >.<

Fudozukushi · « **Reply #4257 on:** August 31, 2009, 03:53:38 AM »

Mana Kehmia 2: Lots more time sunk into this now. Can give a better... something....yeah.

Improvements!

You move a lot faster and jump higher!
Items are gotten in larger amounts. Picking plants gives 9 ingredients easy.
You don't use the slash to fight monsters, you run into them and hit the right button to start. Blues go down if you hit the right button, and they can be killed at night now.
Monsters at night don't go super spazzy, they aren't as strong, and they give bonus AP.
You now synth everything in the same place.
Synth books now teach multiple things and are in the stores right next to each other.
Actual reason to manage your ether level. Getting 100 Ether level unlocks a third spot for Growth Book items
If you don't have an item for a recipe, but can make it, the game takes you to the correct menu to make that item.
You can see the HP/SP status of your support characters.

Downgrades!

The text for everything that's not dialogue is too freaking small!
The characters require huge amounts of AP in comparison to the first game.
You now need to synth with certain characters to unlock new stuff. Unlike where they just popped in before and said EUREKA!
The card gauge has been replaced with an annoying circle gauge that can make it hard to tell what's going on.
Five characters. Yes, five. I'm not done yet, but there's an entire help topic about the sixth slot being for Guests. All glory to the temp.

Other Stuff!

Burst has been replaced with a Unite Gauge. It rises through doing damage, lowers by taking damage.
Unite mode allows intimate strikes, which is using both Support characters to deal big damage and consume a portion of the unite gauge.
Finishing guage is gained by doing support, and does raise when not in Unite mode. But it doesn't fill nearly as fast as MK1s could.
HP and SP are gained through fighting instead of Grow Book.
There are minigames for do gathering now. Farming is slot machines, fishing is "wait a certain time then hit X", and mining is memorization. Mushroom grabbing is gone, so far, and fruit grabbing is hitting X and collecting you grapes. You can also make items that give bonuses to your gathering too.

Anyway, that aside. In-game I just finished Winter Break by beating a giant boar pig with a cannon on its back that could turn into a satellite weapon. Also Flay is still awesome. But we all knew that already.

Yoshiken · « **Reply #4258 on:** August 31, 2009, 04:09:47 AM »

Quote from: Yoshiken on August 31, 2009, 03:33:01 AM

And Cid, I've never been one for saving often. It's screwed me over a number of times already, but it's something I always have a habit of sticking to.

LIKE RIGHT NOW. asddgfdhjfs.
I had discovered FRUE KILLER and his intentions, a few days past opening the path to his sekrit lair.
Now? Day before the search to find information. GAH I NEED TO SAVE MORE. >.<

Jo'ou Ranbu · « **Reply #4259 on:** August 31, 2009, 04:20:10 AM »

I don't think you'll ever learn if Persona 4 hadn't taught you by now. <_< Maybe you just need to play SMTN, that one sounds like THE game that eats your head for not saving every time you breathe.

Yoshiken · « **Reply #4260 on:** August 31, 2009, 04:24:22 AM »

...I've completed SMT:N before. It's one of my top 3 games. (Along with P4 & Smash Bros. Melee, as it happens.) ._.
And... well, I saved often there, but mostly because it was along the path I was taking. If I don't have a Save Point directly in front of me, I don't tend to save often.
(When it came to -training- in Nocturne... I lost a good few hours at a time when I died.)

Taishyr · « **Reply #4261 on:** August 31, 2009, 05:25:49 AM »

Oh, right. Been meaning to ask you this for a bit, Yoshi, but it always slips my mind.

Did you play Hard Mode?

Grefter · « **Reply #4262 on:** August 31, 2009, 09:20:12 AM »

Quote from: Zombie Fudo on August 31, 2009, 03:53:38 AM

There are minigames for do gathering now.

Why is this not in downgrades.

Quote from: Yoshiken on August 31, 2009, 04:24:22 AM

...I've completed SMT:N before. It's one of my top 3 games. (Along with P4 & Smash Bros. Melee, as it happens.)

Have.... have you even heard of a good game, let alone played one?

Twilkitri · « **Reply #4263 on:** August 31, 2009, 10:21:29 AM »

Quote from: DjinnAndTonic on August 31, 2009, 02:38:50 AM

Quote from: Twilkitri on August 30, 2009, 03:39:22 PM
The whole Drigellum collection section seems kind of phoned in. Walk down repetitive path, do nothing of consequence, watch scene, repeat x6. Disappointing.

But it gives the audience a chance to get closure on JUPIS!

I think I had Jupis in the active party twice over the entire game >_> The once when he was forced in the final sequence, the other when he was required for a major bounty trigger.

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Yes. Those would be the post-game enemies on the Ghost Ship and such. There's actually quite a few things you can't complete without going there.

Hm, I already went there though, although I only alluded to this. It did seem to end kind of abruptly ('We ain't leavin without mountains of treasure!' *gets to treasury where there is mountains of treasure* *leaves effectively emptyhanded*) so I may have missed something.

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(Jaster's (...) Barrier-breaker Gun

I have complained about that thing before but I will take this opportunity to do so again. Why could it not at least have broken shields as well as barriers. Why did it have to take so long to recharge when it's effectively necessary to deal with that stupid mechanic. Why did I forget to swap it back out for the weapon I was currently working on so many times.

On that note, they really, really needed to step up weapon EXP at some point. I have only a bare fraction of the total amount of combinations. Actually to be fair I was mastering each weapon before combining it when they only need to be skill-maxed, and mastering takes a ludicrous amount more EXP in a great deal of cases, but paranoia. Never actually figured out what the hyper crystal/etc actually did when I think about combinations for that matter.

In some ways, enemies with shields were more annoying that enemies with barriers... there were a lot more of them, for one thing, and secondly you have to put up with the inane mechanic where you'll just drop your charge if you're not holding down a direction when you release it, which I did oh so many times. If I'm already in a good position and I'm locked on to an enemy why do I need to provide aiming that you're going to ignore anyway, game!

AND WHY THE HECK DO TALL ENEMIES NULL ALL MAGIC DAMAGE

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Could be interested in seeing a stat-topic for this, at least, as it's a really easy ARPG to interp.

Hm, I know as far as my experience is concerned at least, I was never sure at all what exactly raising the elements on weapons did for you. The only things I can think of don't really make much sense given other parts of the system. Aside from that things seem generally simple enough, yes.

Bardiche · « **Reply #4264 on:** August 31, 2009, 10:49:15 AM »

Finished up Mana Khemia second playthrough. This time I decided to use Muppy, I'm glad I did! His defense skill is awesome and I can't believe I preferred Pamela over him!

Wild ARMs AC:F is nearing completion as well. Up to Pandemonium.

I have so many games I want to finish at onec I just can't decide on a play order. ;_;

Fudozukushi · « **Reply #4265 on:** August 31, 2009, 12:29:17 PM »

Quote from: Grefter on August 31, 2009, 09:20:12 AM

Quote from: Zombie Fudo on August 31, 2009, 03:53:38 AM
There are minigames for do gathering now.

Why is this not in downgrades.

The amount gathered is such an increase.

Twilkitri · « **Reply #4266 on:** August 31, 2009, 12:39:34 PM »

Quote from: Twilkitri on August 31, 2009, 10:21:29 AM

Quote from: DjinnAndTonic on August 31, 2009, 02:38:50 AM
Yes. Those would be the post-game enemies on the Ghost Ship and such. There's actually quite a few things you can't complete without going there.

Hm, I already went there though, although I only alluded to this. It did seem to end kind of abruptly ('We ain't leavin without mountains of treasure!' *gets to treasury where there is mountains of treasure* *leaves effectively emptyhanded*) so I may have missed something.

I see, there's another one. Well, it's certainly not like we got to spend anywhere near as long on the last one as we would have liked -_-

The people responsible for the trivia section need to be slapped.

TranceHime · « **Reply #4267 on:** August 31, 2009, 12:45:14 PM »

Suparobo Gakuen:

Today's lesson of the day: Quatre's best served as a kamikaze pilot.

Clear Tranquil · « **Reply #4268 on:** August 31, 2009, 01:43:08 PM »

Quote from: Bardiche on August 31, 2009, 10:49:15 AM

Finished up Mana Khemia second playthrough. This time I decided to use Muppy, I'm glad I did! His defense skill is awesome and I can't believe I preferred Pamela over him!

... because Pamela is awesme? Awesme + broke. Twinked No!Bullying is godly damage and Pamela just laughs at physical reliant bosses. She competely and utterly mocks the likes of Dark Yula + her cronies + No Bullying rips the final post game boss a new one as well. Indeed it rips bosses in the main game a new one too. Especially I am imagining beyond scary numbers on Isolde if I ever do a New Game+

I mean Yula can't even touch Pamela >_> Like at all. I think Pamela is the most damaging character in the game (along with Flay, I think)

Bear + Friends + No!Bullying + Shiny Physical immunity - Rules

Heheh I just like big numbers + blitzing ^_^ Pamela delivers~

****

Enchanted Arms - EMPEROR OF FIRE! *srnks* Heh. Thanks to Gref for recommending this game. I'm up to London after the Emperor of Fire events. Game is fun enough. Turn based w/th High random encounter rate is pain but Auto mode relieves that to an extent. At least enough to make it playable. On the other hand I still run away more than I probably should. That reduces the entire party to 1HP + IEP after a while and drags things down again. Oh well.

Game has some platformish aspects which is nice. Bosses are entertaining enough (though lately I've just been defeating them through sheer force of will, selecting Retry until something works) Story works (of course I never have high expectations there) Characters are a mixed bunch. Raigar is spiffy. Atsuma is a main that doesn't use a sword *gasp*! Yuki is of the type that would usually be CT bait but she isn't really my type of character in combat. That is Karin. I didn't think I was going to like Karin at first but upon using her in battle and discovering she had dance techs ... she even has a Power Dance (not as good as Peppita's though) which I am going to buy ASAP. Her other dances are HP recovery + revival + status cure. Fun. I probably prefer Karin to Yuki. Annoying little girls don't get points from me if they don't impress me in battle. Karin does lose some points for who and what she is though (who didn't see that one coming) Golems are another interesting niche part of EA's system. So decent game is well ... decent.

superaielman · « **Reply #4269 on:** August 31, 2009, 01:54:58 PM »

Pamela's pretty damn unremarkable until C9, when her physical immunity+Support skills show up. Even then she isn't dominating or that great, but is decent enough. Definitely gets points for the nifty dispel which helps shut down one of the game's better bosses.

Clear Tranquil · « **Reply #4270 on:** August 31, 2009, 02:03:06 PM »

Silencing early game Renee is fun though! Plus Muppy doesn't get great support skills until later either.

I don't see how you don't think No!Bullying's damage isn't that dominating or great but w/e~

Yoshiken · « **Reply #4271 on:** August 31, 2009, 02:27:54 PM »

Tai: Think I went with Normal. I'll check that soon-ish.

Gref: What would you say is your favourite game then? For starters, I can't stand shooting games, and I like RPGs that require strategy and planning more than "lol level more" so... SMT makes perfect sense for me to like. <3

Clear Tranquil · « **Reply #4272 on:** August 31, 2009, 02:55:33 PM »

I dunno. Apart from P3 + P4 I've only played SMT Nocturne/Lucifer's Call and I recall grinding for levels for skills + cash there >_>

Meeplelard · « **Reply #4273 on:** August 31, 2009, 02:59:51 PM »

I wouldn't call SMT "planning" as much as nearly every fight falls into one of the following categories:

Hit Weakness -> Win

Defend when enemy uses Power/Mind Charge -> Heal on following turn -> Win

Buff + Debuff -> Win

Even the boss gimmicks just generally get their asses kicked by knowing these 3 basic strategies. Ok, so DDS had a 4th strategy of "Know enemies primary element -> Abuse Void spells -> Win."

There's a difference between "Strategy" and "Pretending you're an in depth system, when really you're just coloring for a pretty standard one." Every SMT Game I've played has fallen into the latter. More over, SMT games spit on strategy a decent amount of the time, cause the hax levels in those games are considerably greater than most games. Most of my resets in DDS, for example, were due to some bullshit like "Enemy goes first -> Uses MT status -> It actually hits on its rare chance -> Screw'd before you can make a move." This isn't strategy, its losing thanks to dumb luck; luck plays a factor in many RPGs, but SMT raises it to a point where your well thought strategy can suddenly be not well planned cause a little hax factors in and everything falls apart, and unlike games like FE, there's no way to plan AROUND this luck factor.

.,.wait, we did this argument before, didn't we <_<?

Yoshiken · « **Reply #4274 on:** August 31, 2009, 03:03:05 PM »

Hmm. I think I only did that around the final Karma Terminal, and that was only because I was getting the money for the Magatama in the shop there.

And yeah, just checked. I'm playing on Normal difficulty. Guess my next playthrough's gonna have to be on Hard~

Meeple: We've had the luck discussion, but that's nothing to do with the strategy side of things. And precision and timing fall into strategy just as well, and doesn't make my initial point invalid - you won't get through an SMT through sheer levelling, you just need to know what you're doing and do it right.

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Author Topic: Games you're playing: The 2009 edition. (Read 692416 times)

Taishyr

Bardiche