Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Yakumo]

It's SNOW. He isn't letting Raki get three turns.

Eh, if you're obsessed with shiny numbers and don't know about the bug giving Raki three turns is really easy, in fairness. >_>

[Yoshiken]

FFVII: So, that was my worst HDINS (Half-Day-In-No-Saves) run ever, methinks, and it took me three days to finish it! XD
I left the PS2 on pause for 2 days, and then died the most ridiculous death ever...
Beat Motorball & Jenova-BIRTH, which were where my last two losses were on HDINS challenges, and then... I realised I only had ~1300 Gil. And needed 3000 for the Gold Saucer ticket. :/
So, I left Corel to go fight some stuff for Gil. 2x Flapbeat & a Joker. The two Flapbeats both Flying Sickled Tifa, killing her. Get Aeris to Phoenix Down -> Joker Joker's Cloud, killing him, two Flapbeats Flying Sickle Aeris before she revives Tifa. Game Over against random enemies. >.>

[VySaika]

TotW:RM- So. In stark contrast to the rest of the game, which is a cakewalk...the final boss Widdershin, despite having the silliest villain name since Toodles, is an utter, utter, UTTER bitch as a boss. He tears through your PCs as if they were tissue paper (not that that's hard, since you can't, you know, give them any sort of equipment), his moves have stupidly large hitboxes on them, and he does about, oh, three or four times the damage of any other boss in the game. Per hit. Mrf. His pattern is pretty easy, it's just also very easy to get caught in a death combo, which is maybe one or two moves depending on what he decides to use. Luckily he has some bad ones/easy to dodge ones that he uses pretty often to lessen those odds, but... mrf.

I think it's like a point some angry programmer wanted to make to his boss. "Hey, you know those minor flaws in the game you said wouldn't matter? Let's magnify them 100x for the final boss and see who is right."

Yeah, ask Xer about the "what the FUCK GAME!?" rants I was going on about this guy. Widdershin is a WHORE. Doesn't help that he seems to be immune to getting knocked down, so my favorite class, Fighter, was preeeety useless there. >_<

[Captain K.]

DQV:  Beaten.  Final party was Hero, a Golem, Parry (who pretty much just cast Insulatle every round), and Debora (who just used Sage's Stone every round).  Haven't done the postgame content yet.

Overall, one of the weaker DQs.  For the most part it was rather easy.  They give you tons of gold in this game compared to other DQs, although you are outfitting a party of 8 instead of 4.  Several bosses were rather competent, notably Bjorn and the Final's second form.  I got scared when the Final started using Meditate, but luckily it seems to be OPB.

The balance can be really skewed by what monsters you recruit though.  I never was able to get Slime Knight or any of the other monsters that can heal.  My first character that could heal other than the Hero was Parry.  Yeah, that was a long stretch.

Anyway, it's out of the way now.  Not in a hurry to replay it - Avalon Code comes out this week, and I'd like to get Retro Games Challenge as well.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Wait, you didn't try to see who else besides Reimi had Sidejump attacks on getting them Rob? You MISSED the fact that Bacchus cosplayed Megaman for like the entire game? Despite apparently using him constantly?

I wasn't aware anyone had sidejump abilities until just recently, actually. I spend most of my boss battles using Edge because he soaks hits like a motherfucker, so sidejump attack whatevers never entered the vocabulary until I got in to high-level arenas.

But yeah, the story? Not great. Though the end is pretty cool as it is all continuity porn (Lightspeed Kenny, En2, the UP3 and the Terran Alliance...). Still better than SO3's second disc, though. "HEY IT'S ALL A GAME" is not something you can do and have people take your franchise in any way seriously afterwards. No wonder the director said SO4 would take place in a different continuity

[Fudozukushi]

FSN - Been reading this recently, about halfway through Fate route. Don't think I like it as much as tsukihime, characters just aren't as interesting or entertaining and they haven't been using the setting as well as I would like. Also DEAR GOD SO MUCH EXPOSITION WHY it was bad enough in tsukihime, Nasu really should just learn how to put details into less words in his works. Other routes may change my mind on the game overall though, so I'll keep an open mind.

Fate route sucks duh.

[Yakumo]

Eh, UBW is the only good path IMO.  Fate route is boring and HF destroys one character horribly and gets way too long winded with nothing actually happening.  In my opinion F/SN is much weaker overall than Tsukihime, but it's still a good read, that's just not a fair comparison. <_<

[DjinnAndTonic]

But yeah, the story? Not great. Though the end is pretty cool as it is all continuity porn (Lightspeed Kenny, En2, the UP3 and the Terran Alliance...). Still better than SO3's second disc, though. "HEY IT'S ALL A GAME" is not something you can do and have people take your franchise in any way seriously afterwards. No wonder the director said SO4 would take place in a different continuity

I personally thought the "It's all a game!" twist was kind of funny. It was at least a somewhat unique idea. I try not to think about it too much when I'm dealing with the other entries in the series (which is why Welch's presence in SO1/2 PSP is somewhat annoying, but oh well). But I thought it was kind of clever in the same way that Nadesico's self-referencing theme of "Anime will bring World Peace!" was entertaining.

FSN - Been reading this recently, about halfway through Fate route. Don't think I like it as much as tsukihime, characters just aren't as interesting or entertaining and they haven't been using the setting as well as I would like. Also DEAR GOD SO MUCH EXPOSITION WHY it was bad enough in tsukihime, Nasu really should just learn how to put details into less words in his works. Other routes may change my mind on the game overall though, so I'll keep an open mind.

Fate route sucks duh.

Yeah, Fate route is pretty bland. I personally find HF to be a fun path in the sense that I find psychological trauma to be interesting to watch. UBW is generally pretty cool and reveals the awesome (not-so-secret anymore) twist. Fate just kind of exists so that HF and UBW can subvert it. Reminds me a bit of what Soul Nomad's Demon Path makes so awesome, though.

-Djinn

[Mad Fnorder]

I sense discussion of SO3 in a non-angry manner...

Ah, forget it. I don't care anymore.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I personally thought the "It's all a game!" twist was kind of funny. It was at least a somewhat unique idea. I try not to think about it too much when I'm dealing with the other entries in the series (which is why Welch's presence in SO1/2 PSP is somewhat annoying, but oh well). But I thought it was kind of clever in the same way that Nadesico's self-referencing theme of "Anime will bring World Peace!" was entertaining.

I love weird shit like that. It's why I love EarthBound. The funniest thing I've ever seen in a game is the house you buy in Onett which only has three walls, the back one of course being the one you can't see because of the camera angle, and so it's not there. The thing is, when it's done well it's funny. Playing it for laughs is the only way to do that plot point well.

When you do it like in SO3, you make it so it's impossible to take the plot seriously anymore, because it's a serious twist and not a "yes, I know, this is a game, so I sometimes like to make jokes about the limitations of that." When you pull that card, you are rubbing the player's nose in the fact he cares about something that's not real, and you eliminate the possibility of any threat being taken seriously anymore. I mean... the universe gets destroyed? Oh noes we have to load the backup copy. My friend died? Get on the revolving door of death that is being respawned by someone with admin powers.

Of course it's true, it IS a video game, but you don't draw attention to it. Do you see puppeteers attaching things to their strings and wearing day-glow orange shirts?

[Hunter Sopko]

Yeah, ask Xer about the "what the FUCK GAME!?" rants I was going on about this guy. Widdershin is a WHORE. Doesn't help that he seems to be immune to getting knocked down, so my favorite class, Fighter, was preeeety useless there. >_<

Yeeeah. Swordsman here. Finally beat him. 6 tries isn't horrible, but belies the ridiculousness of Widdershin. I managed to put him into the comboable state often enough. Sword Rain: Alpha -> Demon Spiral Hammer was pretty effective. Just gotta pick your battles VERY WISELY. I can't imagine beating Widdershin with a magic class... On the other hand, game beaten! Very entertaining fluff, outside of final boss hax. A ton of really fun skits. Probably a 7/10 game. Either moving back to SH3 or starting up GoC5 next.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

So I just beat the Solo Arena in SO4. Not too hard if you know what kind of status you're going up against, though sometimes it takes a longass time. Can't imagine how hard this would be with a melee character. Anyway, the game's crowning moment of awesome just happened.

"Announcer:
The crowd is going crazy! They are seeing history being made and they know it! Listen to them chant the Champion's name!

Crowd:
Cyberface! Cyberface! Cyberface!"

[TranceHime]

7th Dragon - Disinfecting the world of POIZN by stepping on evil evil flowers! ...I'm serious. Basically, said flowers, dubbed as "Floflo," are present whenever dragons are nearby. In a given area, exterminating the dragons will cause these evil flowers to disappear. In the world map, it is full of these flowers, which you get rid of by constantly walking on them. You lose health when they go, but you also fix the extremely inflated prices in the nearby town. Plus, some quests make you do this.

What's the premise? It's all peaceful in the beginning, but after a local monster hunt - killing a dragon - his brethren - the so-called original inhabitants of the world Eden, where 7th Dragon takes place, get pissed off and go batshit crazy. They start to ravage the land. You better kill these fuckers or the HUMAN RACE BECOMES EXTINCT. Very, VERY trainwrecky plot but the gameplay just makes things that much better.

[AAA]

P4-Welp, looks like it's endgame. That last boss was a real bitch of a fight, what with his ability to throw out MT OHKOs. I ended up pacing myself until he started doing that, and things went smoother. So much for my usual 'go all out' strategy. I think my final party will end up being Yukiko, Yosuke, and Chie. Yukiko for Mediarma, Yosuke as a backup healer/buffer, and Chie for physical beatdowns. Now I just gotta figure out where I'm going to get the yen to buy them all armor. Is it just me or is yen way harder to come by in this game? In P3 you had it practically falling out of your ass.

S. Link wise, maxed Fortune and Devil, started some other links but nothing major. I would like to max Moon before Christmas, but it doesn't seem too likely because I still have 4 levels to go. I'll max Empress once I can get Trumpeter, but that's about it. Everything else is at least level 2 though. Wish I could have unlocked Tower faster, but I just didn't have the Understanding.

Statwise everything is maxed except for Diligence, which is stubbornly hanging onto Level 4. Whatevs.

[Clear Tranquil]

So Rob ... did you fight "Wandering Swordsman" yet?

Also I've heard the final super boss (from the second post game dungeon) is hell on earth and actually gives even fully twinked out and broked characters a real run for their money. Sounds fun!

[Niu]

Errr no.
Iseria Queen is terribelly easy. Why? Because by the time you got to her, you'll be having too much cash that can you can buy as many Tri-emblem as you want and fuse them on to accessories. Result? You can Rush abuse as mad and be bale to spam Rush Combo every 5 seconds. And it won't take over 5 minutes before she falls.

[Grefter]

5 minutes is a long time in Star Ocean series.  Hell I think Radiata Stories is the only one by Tri Ace that provided super bosses of a really notable length and still have the pretty standard Tri Ace super boss staples.

SO1 PSP - Finished.  Didn't end up getting the sword skill from Ashlay anyway (annoying, I tried doing PAs everywhere but missed the important one in Van because well I am still not sure exactly how to initiate a PA in Van).  Entirely sub par to SO2 in every single way possible.  Getting bad endings due to being lazy with PAs is good times though, gives a lot of the VP death/recruitment feel to some of them which is good times.  Worth playing as a fan of SO2, but honestly probably a bad remake.  Combat system refresh was a good idea as was the world map, but that is only... half the really shit things in SO1 and the other half of the shit is still entirely untouched.  Still like has been said 3 times in as many pages, it is short at least.

[Hunter Sopko]

SH3- Picked this up again. Through Mexico, stopped at Brazil. Heh. Apparantly the possibility of Lady kissing Shania makes Johnny pass out. Respect -1.

[Clear Tranquil]

Just going by what I read on the other boards Niu - but yeah I have way more respect for gamer skill here. Good to know then. I read that she can be refought and that she gets stronger and stronger forms but from what you're saying it seems those twinked Rushes will still ream her.

[Yoshiken]

Anyone care to help me out on something?

Local game shop has a few games in stock at the moment and I, having realised how limited my games knowledge is, have decided I want to buy one of the four in the window... The problem is deciding which.
They've got Vandal Hearts 1 & 2, Saga Frontier 2 & Breath of Fire 3.
The first 3 are all £30, whereas BoF is £20. (If it helps, £10.00 =~ $14 (US))

Any thoughts on which...? I'm leaning towards BoF3, for the main reasons that I've heard a lot more about BoF than the other two series, and it's cheaper. Good move?

[Grefter]

Depends what you are looking for in a game.  Vandal Hearts 1 is pretty shitty SRPG with obnoxious shit to unlock, but it is ranked for whatever that is worth.  Very easy to emulate if that is a factor.

VH2 is another SRPG, but is a bit more off the wall combat system (you and the computer both move a unit at the same time).  It is pretty odd artistic style if that interests you as well.  A few other odd things as well.  If you enjoy looking at slightly experimental games (Note that it isn't really successful at it, but it is experimenting) then VH2 is also worth checking out.  Probably the rarest of the three off the top of my head as well for what that is worth.  Also easy to emulate.

SaGa Frontier 2 is pretty much a train wreck with style.  It has some cool concepts and like all SaGa things ever made it is very experimental and insanely unpolished and kind of ball breakingly brutal just due to how unintuitive many of the systems in the game are.  It is pretty alright plot and is just all kinds of different, I wouldn't recommend it though.  It emulates alright.  Not sure where it sits for rarity in PAL regions.

BoF 3 is a pretty solid standard RPG.  Bad plot pacing, but if you are into over analyzing game plot it hold up surprisingly well and generally has a few actual positive points to it beyond being weird.  I am a bit of a fan and was a big follower on the Gamefaqs board before I grew out of being a stupid teen, a couple of other members here were as well, so you have a lot of help available as you play if you want.  Not sure how it emulates, think it isn't that rare and there is a PSP port available as well that should be pretty easy to track down from bargain bins in PAL territories by now.

So while BoF 3 is probably the best game there it is also probably the weakest if you are into collecting.

[Meeplelard]

I've only played VH1 and BoF3, but I'd go with BoF3 of those two.  As Grefter noted, BoF3's real issue is its pacing, as the game just sort of shoves you into a massive fetchquest half way in and nothing interesting happens barring one small plot arc.

And I'll note that while the game is technically related to the first two, it stands alone well enough.  The link ups are more reference like in its "Hey, I know what they're talking about!" there, where if you didn't play the other two, it'd translate to "Oh, just another back story padding factor" that so many games have anyway.  Heck, I don't think, easter eggs aside (like sprite uses and such), there is a single BoF2 reference the entire game.

[Captain K.]

BoF3 is one of my favorite RPGs.  It is a little fetch-questy, but really a fun game overall.

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Pokemon fans, from today through the 21st you can download a SPESHUL Regigigas from Toys R Us locations in the United States.

[Bardiche]

BoF3 is what I woulda buy alright. One of my favourite games, and one of the few relics of PS games I brought along when moving. (others are FF9, Lunar 1 & 2, BoF4 and Suikoden 1 & 2, not sure what that says of me)

I suggest you take a look at some screenshots and decide if the game's art style interests you, then view some YouTube movies of battles to see if the battle systems look interesting at first glance.

[Niu]

5 minutes is a long time in Star Ocean series.  Hell I think Radiata Stories is the only one by Tri Ace that provided super bosses of a really notable length and still have the pretty standard Tri Ace super boss staples.

This is 5 minute without getting hurt or any critical danger. As she'll be just sitting there and let you hit her as Rush Combo is broken. It'll last 5 minute only because she has too much hp. Serious, Super Nova gets you only if you let her.

SaGa Frontier 2 is pretty much a train wreck with style.  It has some cool concepts and like all SaGa things ever made it is very experimental and insanely unpolished and kind of ball breakingly brutal just due to how unintuitive many of the systems in the game are.  It is pretty alright plot and is just all kinds of different, I wouldn't recommend it though.  It emulates alright.  Not sure where it sits for rarity in PAL regions.

Lies, SF2 is a master piece. And it is among the most user friendly SaGa ever. Cash grinding and skill learning are both at least two tiers lower than rest of the SaGa (and the duel mode commands are so simple and straightforward, you'd likely just learn Delta Petra and Incinerate by the first dungeon). States and level up are also simplified and much easier to adjust (especially with Anima value being the defense multiplier, making all the complicated SaGa defence type mechanic no longer a headache). The healing is also more resourceful than rest of the SaGa.