Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Taishyr]

Annihilator primary trick: wait until they're facing away, Crack them. Halves HP and disables pretty much all but one weapon. It's the most consistent way I found to kill them - even nukes didn't faze them well enough.

And yeah, the plot gets morbid with kill-a-lot mode.

[Fudozukushi]

Force Unleashed: THE STUPID WHORE BITCH SHOULD NOT BE THIS AGGRAVATING STUPID FIGHT GFJKBAVA!

Suikoden Tactics: Got the weird urge to play this for Lazlo Smash antics.  LAZLO SMASH!

[Grefter]

Braid - I really -really liked this until I found out that all the puzzle pieces are required (it is actually the whole game, playing the demo I thought it was more platforming) and some of the World 2 (first area in the freaking GAME) puzzle pieces are downright obtuse.  There is some pretty cool stuff in the game puzzle wise, but meh, pull bullshit on me and I FAQ you.  It is a pretty decent little game and some of the puzzles are kind of cool for puzzles.  Cheap and meh, worth it for a long nights entertainment that I didn't want to put off finishing to another night, so yeah it is alright.  The plot stuff is mystary for the sake of mystary.  But meh, you can ignore it or read up the plot faq for an explanation (it is mildly interesting and is pretty much spot on).  I dunno, it isn't Portal, but it isn't a bad indie project and I imagine Jonathon Blow has his $200k back at this point, so we will call it a highly successful one at that.

But seriously, FUCK that jump on the last level.  If you have played it you will know it.  Such bullshit pixel perfect platforming in what is really a goddamned puzzle game.  Try as much as I could I couldn't get it when I was trying.  Time I got it I was just spamming jump button to try and get out of the Goomba trap.

Oh yeah the game loves Mario, so it is cute with the references to it (enemies are goombas, the princess is always in another castle and whatnot).

[074]

Annihilator primary trick: wait until they're facing away, Crack them. Halves HP and disables pretty much all but one weapon. It's the most consistent way I found to kill them - even nukes didn't faze them well enough.

And yeah, the plot gets morbid with kill-a-lot mode.

Secondary strategy: Devastator + Strength 10 + high Attack.  Devastator honestly seems to do more damage than the Nuke (and is arguably the most efficient weapon for this purpose).  For the most part, the Nuke isn't that good for raw damage.  It IS good for getting swarms of enemies off your ass, but with high Attack, Strength 10(to keep from getting knocked on your ass) and the Devastator, you only need a few volleys to vaporize an Annihilator.

[EDIT] Weapon Compendium proves that the Devastator's better.  Devastator does 3 hits for 3 HP damage.  Nuke does one hit of 5 HP damage.  Only thing(s) that work better for raw damage output are the Velocithor (and possibly, the CFIS).

Also: High enough Attack plus a Plasma Cannon will oneshot Assassins.  This is VERY useful.  Don't underestimate Attack as a stat.

[Bardiche]

Suikoden Tactics: Got the weird urge to play this for Lazlo Smash antics.  LAZLO SMASH!

I couldn't bear how awfully slow that game is.

Having succesfully finished SRW: AG the first time around, going on my second playthrough! This time with less fail, more Dancougar / Mazinger hype, and less Fa fail. I'm actually comparing Pilots to eachother now and selecting them based on skill rather than their awesome factor.

This means Noin, Fa, Quatre, and all those other fail guys that I somehow thought were half-decent are now perpetually benched unless I can afford to deploy more than my aces.

Getting CyBuster now~

On a related note, is Namco x Capcom worth something? I'm tempted to have my mate burn it to a disc for me so I can play it on PS2...

[Shale]

SRWZ: Stage 17 Gibraltar (Baldios' first appearance). Argh die smash. I spent a good hour getting myself in position to win in six turns, only to find out that I'm supposed to win by the end of the sixth player turn, and I had no way to win without counterattacks. Pain.

[Xeroma]

Namco x Capcom is really slow and lacking if you can't read the dialogue. Wait for a trans.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

In fairness, it's also so insanely broken that just watching the carnage is a dead baby comedy in its own right.

[Scar]

Persona 4 finished!

It has pros and cons that make it delightfully different to Persona 3 Fes. I am not sure which I like more, but the happy go lucky feel P4 had (despite being one big murder mystery) is giving it a slight edge as of right now. this doesn't matter, because I still have to replay both games for full completion...ness.

Also, Kanji starts off awesome but starts to dwindle by the end of the game. Not sure why, but his moments became few and far between. Still think he was my favorite cast member despite disappearing at the end.

Also, I wish my school had a school beauty pageant.

~

Anyways...

I couldn't for the life of me find a copy of SWR anywhere...so I found the next best thing whcih was a story synopsis and skipped all the way to SWR3!

SWR3:

Oh how I was spoiled with the OGs. This game feels clunky and slow compared to the gba counterparts, but it also sports all sorts of anime mechs which are devoid of the OGs. Despite its shortcomings, this is as good as a place to start as any.

Pilots I know!

Amuro, Kai, Bright, Ryuu, Sayla, Hayato, Fa, and Kamuyi? (wasn't his name girlish or something in Zeta?) along with their counterparts I fight against like Char and his rag tag bunch.

I do not recognize Kouji and the Getta pilots for obvious reasons, but I have heard enough about the mechs to know the awesomeness or Mazinger.

Anyways....

Just wrapped up the 4th fight and Emma and Kamiyu joined the squad. Two more Gundams won't hurt my group in the slightest. Those GMs are piss awful.

About to start map 5 now.

[Bardiche]

Namco x Capcom is really slow and lacking if you can't read the dialogue. Wait for a trans.

Hence why I ask, bottom of the page.

[Shale]

.....dammit, now I'm tempted to play NxC. That can't be good.

Edit: Also, holy crap, Rent-A-Hero!

[Xeroma]

If you can read the dialogue and know enough of the games in NxC, it's worth playing. Crazy crossover shit galore.

[WanderingMind]

Started Riviera: The Promised Land for the PSP and I'm loving the music.

[Nephrite]

This means Noin, Fa, Quatre, and all those other fail guys that I somehow thought were half-decent are now perpetually benched unless I can afford to deploy more than my aces.

Getting CyBuster now~

Cybuster is a lot worse than Quatre is you heathen liar.

[Pyro]

Bioshock:

Just got to the major plot twist. Thus far the game has been fun but not what I would label awesome. The variety of methods you can use to take out the hordes of (very deadly) enemies the game throws at you is certainly something else. I'm not really that into the survival-horror feel of the game, though. Little Sisters aren't that creepy and Big Daddies, while scary as hell at first (WHY DOES SOMETHING SO HUGE MOVE SO FAST!?), have gradually become more manageable as all kinds of nifty weapons are unlocked.

Ratings of weapons and stuff? Sure.

Wrench: Is melee. Not much else to say. It is as good an option to fall back on as any, and the wrench-boosting skills make it a viable choice (certainly beats the regular ammo in a lot of the lower end weapons)

Pistol: Suckarse without the appropriate weakness-hitting ammo type. With it you can be pretty effective but it honestly feels like a poor man's solution.

Shotgun: Hurts things! Kind of. Okay not enough to matter by now. The electric shock effect is nice for various enemies.

Machine Gun: Good stuff. WIth the recoil upgrade it is very effective at downing things... when you use the right ammo type. Still, one of the key "take down the big daddy" tools with the mech-buster ammo. And it is pretty damn effective at mowing down splicers with anti-personnel.

Rocket Launcher: Boomstick. What else do you want to know? It hurts things and hurts them pretty bloody well. It just is kind of a nuisance to keep stocked all the time so it is mostly only for emergency/big daddy situations.

Chemical Launcher: Very effective. The electric gel ammo for it is pretty much an auto-win vs. Big Daddies if you can spare the ammo for it.

Crossbow: Poor man's version of a sniper rifle. It still does the killing part just as well, so maybe I should say it is an "economy" version.

Powers!

Shock: Not all that good, surprisngly. The big problem is that it is very expensive, and since it doesn't generally kill things it isn't really something you can reliably use all the time. Unless you hit water with it. That works really really well for killing things.

Telekinesis: Awesome, awesome ability. Besides the frequent utility purpose of grabbing distant objects, gas canisters are some of the best damage you can get. As long as it doesn't get shot before you can launch it, whatever you targeted is pretty much dead. And stealing hats off of random enemies and chucking the things in their faces never gets old. And that whole body shield side effect is also good.

Fire: Generally think this is too expensive and doesn't kill fast enough. Still, utility purpose occasionally and lighting things on fire is ALWAYS fun.

Ice: I have barely gotten any use out of this skill. Maybe the upgraded versions would be better, but it just seems like it is kind of worthless in a large melee, and 1 v 1 scenarios generally have more effective means of killing something. Still, it can be useful if you face down a particularly frustrating splicer.

Decoy: Works very, very well. Allows you to duck out of a fight and reload/run away/take a better vantage point. Liberal use of it can render large mobs of damaging splicers just an exercise in picking them off one at a time as the rest attack the decoy.

I'll have to try more strategies as I get further. Some of these are fun, and the combinations available intrigue me.

[Xeroma]

Bard: I love the Cybuster to pieces, but AG is sadly not a very good game for it. It's sorta usable if you doll it up, but there's better options.

[Niu]

Started Riviera: The Promised Land for the PSP and I'm loving the music.

Than fetch Knights in the Nightmare's OST ASAP.


Devil Surviv.... I mean Majin Tensei 3-

So, Kaneko do keep his word. Enough sugar coating and simplified system to appeal to casual fans, but still enough crack to keep the old fans satisfied. Multi endings as well, but the route split is simplified where everythign splits on Day 6, basing on your affinity with other characters in the previous 5 days.

[Unoriginal]

Persona 4: Finished, True ending.  Debilitate SMASH puny bosses.  Pondering whether to start a new game+ run for this or for ToS2 before AT2 comes in a few days.

[Hunter Sopko]

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete- Finished. Fun and simple game. Mostly a less polished EBC, but still enjoyable. VA was laughable yet nostalgic of all those early anime dubs. It was surprising how many hints/plot points of EBC they exposit in the game directly. A lot of the Damon Spire books you can read afterwards pretty much outline all of Lucia's plot. Good foresight on the writing staff

Cast was decent. Alex worked as your typical hero, Luna was fun. Full points for Jessica and Mia. Lunar games have a strange rate of good/strong female characters. Kyle was great, but Nash was kind of a mook. His plot was LOL, but the personality trait wasn't endearing to me, even though I can see why people would like him.

Ghaleon worked for what he was. Motivations were a cut above normal RPG villains, even if most was filled in by expository dialogue by the characters after the fact. Royce was easily the toughest boss outside him, and was fun enough. Xenobia was Antenora level and kind of an easy fight too. Phacia was pleasant though.

7/10. Can't really rate it higher.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete- Finished.  It was surprising how many hints/plot points of EBC they exposit in the game directly. A lot of the Damon Spire books you can read afterwards pretty much outline all of Lucia's plot. Good foresight on the writing staff

If you're playing the PSX remake, it's quite possible that the Saturn version of Lunar Eternal Blue had already been released by the time the writers were adding in these Lucia plot points... It's nice that they added this in, but... Not really 'foresight'.

[Hunter Sopko]

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete- Finished.  It was surprising how many hints/plot points of EBC they exposit in the game directly. A lot of the Damon Spire books you can read afterwards pretty much outline all of Lucia's plot. Good foresight on the writing staff

If you're playing the PSX remake, it's quite possible that the Saturn version of Lunar Eternal Blue had already been released by the time the writers were adding in these Lucia plot points... It's nice that they added this in, but... Not really 'foresight'.

Well, yeah, but foresight was an easier way to describe it than "man, they really went back and looked at Saturn EB and added good foreshadowing to this remake!"

[Bardiche]

Bard: I love the Cybuster to pieces, but AG is sadly not a very good game for it. It's sorta usable if you doll it up, but there's better options.
[/quote

I meant I was on the mission where I had to retrieve it. Not that I was going to actually USE it.

[Grefter]

Bioshock: Weapons stuff.

Just feel the need to chime in on this stuff because Bioshock is kind of cool but super breakable.  You are pretty spot on with some stuff though.


Wrench: Is BROKEN.  You need to equip for it, but everything you get for it is insane.  It is easy to multiply the damage of this thing through the roof.  Stunned or stuff that doesn't know you are there is just going to DIE.  Static Shock makes everything just die while you spam click.  Pretty much the best use of Tonics for the slots buffed by it as well.  Wrench Lurker for so easy to get and so crazy good.

Pistol: Is pretty much there for picking off crap stray enemies with headshots yeah.  It is just kind of there, but it has a function and it performs it.

Shotgun: Shotgun does seem to petre off a bit yeah, it is really good at killing slight tougher stray crap later, but sadly meh.

Machine Gun: Pretty spot on here, default ammo is again good for killing crap, specialist ammo is pretty much there to chip down threats until they die (or finish them off after elaborate stuff)

Rocket Launcher: Yeah it is just a rocket launcher, does its job.

Chemical Launcher: Exists to kill the final boss.  Can do some obscene damage with the + element damage tonics.

Crossbow: Is also broken if used correctly.  Keeping most of your ammo is awesome, couple that with Fire Bolts doing ludicrous damage when using + fire damage tonics and stuff just dies.  Trap bolts are good at what they do but sadly easy to just trash.

Crack Powers.

Shock: For hacking pretty much and ... worse at it than Cryo, but doesn't risk enemy corpses (and thus resources).

Telekinesis: Yeah spot on for this, cheap as hell to use to boot.  Barrels also effected by Pyro tonics as well I believe which makes them get obscene I would imagine.

Fire: Good in crowd situations, but yeah kind of meh.

Ice: Ice sucks.  It exists for hacking and wasting resources.  Shattered corpses are useless corpses.  Freezing hack targets slows down their water flow in the minigame though for what that is worth.

Decoy: Yeah does its thing.

The wind trap power is junk methinks.

NOT THE BEES! is apparently really good but I haven't used it much.

[Meeplelard]

Phantom Brave: Beaten!

I was breezing through the final part of the game...then Sulphur kept kicking my ass.

So I grinded a bit, realized it was taking longer than expected, and the dungeon was TOO high leveled so blowing up weapons wasn't gonna work.  Somehwere along the way, I got my fusionist's level raised...

...it was only here that I learned Fusionist level factors into Mana costs in fusions.  IOWs, I've been paying a shit load of mana when I could have been paying like 1/10th the price, if I had only raised my Fusionist.  I felt like a bit of a klutz at this point!  So I twinked the hell out of my weapons, primarily speed on Ash and my other two fighters (they were roughly trading turns with him), and that with a little luck (basically, the whole fight hinged on what he did early on, which seemed completely arbitrary) was enough to win.

Game was...alright I guess.  It's creative, but hard to get into and wasn't really wowed by anything.  It pulls a few stupid maps too, though none on the level of some of Disgaea's shit at least, and generally Protections were easier to work around than those Geo Panels (Dis1, anyway; Dis2's Geo Panels were handled so much better its not even funny.)  Eh, guess 6/10?

I will say that it did have some neat characters, despite the game being overall serious.   And by "characters" I really just mean "Cauldron" <_<

[Taishyr]

Iji: Keeps crashing. Boo.

PB: Working up three Bottlemails/Blob/Fusionist/Blacksmith/Ash.

Soul Nomad: Up to map 17? ASDF BLUE BLOB THINGS, RESTRICTED MOVEMENT, SNIPER HELL, WHAT THE FUCK AM I JUST SEVERELY UNDERLEVELED. Ahem. Anyways, lost like a little bitch to the map, gonna try it again later. On the positive side, just got my fifth room. That might help some, but thus far I can only get one unlocked room to be any good after a Change so eh.