Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Hunter Sopko]

Valkyria Chronicles- Did Chapter 7 and Largo's Mission. Chapter 7 was an awesome time. Was kinda satisfying to snipe off all their troops in the first turn. Selvaria sure knows how to be intimidating too. Largo's mission was just sort of eh. By the numbers but amusing at the end.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

S3 - lol lulu foreshadowing. Meanwhile, waitwhat Hugo starts with Heavy Damage? Schweet!

[Twilkitri]

Pokémon Diamond: Got the National Dex. Not really much else to say about that. Frankly, I would have preferred it if the game was limited to just the mons in the Sinnoh Dex... there are far too many in totality for anyone sane to bother collecting them all these days, ignoring the ones that can't actually be gotten anyway. Hopefully HG/SS will limit the availables to the 250-odd that existed at the time of G/S.


SRWOGSEF: Bizarrely my order showed up at the start of the week after I had been told not to expect it being sent before the 14th. Any case, I'm up to Mirabilis Castle, which means it's getting close to being able to get Suzuka off the main team time. Gameplay is being as good as it was in the JP version... the script is kinda childish which is a bit annoying, but overall it seems to be averaging out in good territory so far.

[Magic Fanatic]

BvS - Business as usual.  Nothing to see here.

Tales of Legendia - So I finally got a Compound Arte for Chloe, and I'm not even at the Waterways yet.  I just wish I could figure out how to work Senel's.

Shadow Hearts 3 - Just got the first Blue Ring.  Beat up all the available Pit Fights (Prac Beast Sci III had to be the hardest one there - Coral Pendants mean I don't worry about Small/Reverse Ring or Tight Ring, even with Technical Rings on), got the Phone Call for Johnny, Sake for Mao, and a few fully-upgraded Stellar Charts.  Just a few more side-quests before continuing the plot at the Salt Lake...

[Meeplelard]

Senel's COmpound Artes are all Throws, IIRC, so naturally, the enemy needs to be downed first before he can use them.

I believe, as an added restriction, his Compound Artes are also all Species Specific ones.  They hit a specific enemy species (if really damned hard), and nothing else.  This is contrast to his other throws, where if you use, say, a Large Enemy throw on a Small enemy, it will automatically compensate and use the lesser throw for that enemy size (no, it doesn't work in reverse, naturally.)

That said...

FM4: Stage 5 and such.  Yay to Shop access!

Its nice how you can buy things in sets; speeds up equipment upgrades dramatically.

Also, Darill seems to be the polar opposite of Elsa.  Elsa's what one could call a rookie, from what I can tell, and is serious about her job, etc.  Darill...is a lazy bastard whose clearly been on the battlefield numerous times and doesn't give a shit about his job anymore <_<

[Cmdr_King]

To expand on Meeple's point, Senel's Compound Eres work on very specific species of enemies that are otherwise immune to being Thrown.  So generally, if you know what throws you can make, best to see what enemies are in an area and, if something special exists (for example, dragons, beds, Wyrms) throw that Eres together on the field and stick it in place of your standard throw mid-battle.

Naturally, given how limited their use is, they REALLY hurt what they can hit.  Killing Time, specific to the CQ final boss, did something like 22,000 damage.

[Pyro]

Legend of Heroes 3: Beaten.

The game is an over 10 year old generic RPG with virtually no polish. Oh well, it had some neat ideas but the overall execution is just crap.

Although it was amusing to pre-empt every single move by the final and beat it to death with a spammable overdrive-like spell off of Forte's speed. Amusing.

DL: The dog has perfect evade, full healing, and is faster than Rika. Hmm? Were there other characters?

[Cmdr_King]

Dragon Quest V- Beaten!  Fun game, very Dragon Questy.  Well, in the late going.
The first two generations are actually really focused, it's kinda weird as the series goes.  Once you get the kids there's a long period of wandering aimlessly, probably to ensure that you get some levels for them since, really, they're pretty good and stick around for the duration.
Bianca, if you're curious.  I tend to be a sucker for canon in those sorts of situations.

Being a DQ game, not much to say about the cast.  Why would there be?  I will note, though, that the Party Talk option is pretty cool.  Parry's a total chatterbox, which is cool because it really reminded you that, hey, badass legendary hero or not he IS 10.

DL Notes

Guma (Hero.  Blame Tai.)- Lowish Heavy feels right.  Good equips, solid damage, lots of healing, Buff is useful, but still not a particularly diverse fighter, and speed is an issue (it usually is).

Bianca- Never... really used her, outside her temp stints.  By the time she joined the party fully she felt so underlevelled, and I was already used to using Hero/Parry/monsters.  Still, worked for what she was.  Still, Bounce and respectable damage keep her competitive in Middle at worst.

Madchen (Daughter)- Also rarely used.  She'd probably be a good random smasher though, Kaboom + Happy Hat.  Otherwise, very similar to Bianca, Middle of some flavor.

Parry (Son)- Pretty good.  You can get 3/4 Zenithian equips real early, so his defense jumps up straight off.  Sword item-cast was awesome in a few early fights (lategame bosses jsut don't bother self-buffing enough), and for the final boss spamming Kazap was the way to go.  HP kinda held him back at poitns, and obviously the whole levelling thing takes time, but not too bad, since the hero and monsters tend to level really slow.  Lowish Heavy.

Saber (Kitty ^.^)- Fills a party slot nicely.  Speed and damage are always respectable, but levelled slower than the other mosnters I picked up so got dropped.  Probably Light, straightforward, but not bad as a Light.

Didn't use Sanchez, and don't remember the temps too well.  Monster wise, used Slime Knight and Slime.  Both make Middle, Slime Knight on raw healing and Slime on Yamikei clause.

Feels like a solid 7/10.  Grind heavy at points and, if we're honest, wastes a really gripping plot, but was fun and always entertaining.  Rank Slime!!

[AndrewRogue]

Pokemon Platinum: The Hatbot Challenge

Progress: Up to Veilstone. Fantina proved to be an absolute whore and required expending 4 pokemon and a handful of Super Potions to get through her Mismagius. Otherwise, been working to keep team levels paced

Current Team
Gastly L20
Psyduck L24
Gyarados L24
Unown L22
Noctown L 22
Marill L22

The Box of Shame: Turtwig, Ponyta, Machop, Shellos, Shinx, Burmy, Geodude, Starly, Hoothoot, Nosepass, Parchisu, Buneaery, Silcoon, Cascoon, Shieldon, Togepi, Budew, Bibarel, Buzil, Roselia, Eevee, Ralts, Combee, Chingling, Kricketune, Goldeen, Staravia, Bronzor, Rotom, Golbat, Scyther, Duskull, Gligar, Lickitung, Chansey

[superaielman]

Its nice how you can buy things in sets; speeds up equipment upgrades dramatically.

Those sets usually are inferior to building mechs from the ground up.  It's an option if you're feeling lazy.

[Rozalia]

Red alert 3 - Rising Sun

mission 1 - Rising Sun already are massive pricks for attacking on new years day. Mission was easy and the transport unit is nifty.

Mission 2 - What the hell is up with the crappy RS units. I had 30 units attacking 1! Apoc tank and it took like 20 seconds to kill it.

Mission 3 - RS picks up a "I win" button. The soviet commanders commants were quite funny.

Mission 4 - Thankfully Shogun battleships seem to be the best navel unit in the game. Other wise this would have been a loss.

Mission 5 - Shogun battleships = Win.

Mission 6 - Hollywood was a slugfest the whole way. Mostly relied on the very cheap but effective tank busters.

Mission 7 - Currently playing. Krucov is a bastard for spawning out of nowhere and destroying my fleet. Not just becauce it takes time to rebuild but because the allies keep bombing me.

P4 - Picked up Kanji. Not liking the fact reserve characters don't get xp meaning I have to switch them around if I want to use them at all. The result is the main becomes overleveled which isn't good.
Normally I could balance this by killing the main but this is Persona so thats a no go.

[Magic Fanatic]

To expand on Meeple's point, Senel's Compound Eres work on very specific species of enemies that are otherwise immune to being Thrown.  So generally, if you know what throws you can make, best to see what enemies are in an area and, if something special exists (for example, dragons, beds, Wyrms) throw that Eres together on the field and stick it in place of your standard throw mid-battle.

Naturally, given how limited their use is, they REALLY hurt what they can hit.  Killing Time, specific to the CQ final boss, did something like 22,000 damage.

Yeah, I still can't seem to do it anyway.  I tried using the Megant throw on what I thought was a Megant, and...  Nothing.  Not being able to change the Compound Eres hurts it in my eyes as well, but I'll keep trying...


In any case...

Shadow Hearts 3 - Just cleared the first run of the Garland Mansion.  My team for the boss was Johnny/Shania/Mao/Natan.  Technical Rings all-around, yet I managed to 100% Perfect that boss fight.

[OblivionKnight]

Red alert 3 - Rising Sun

mission 1 - Rising Sun already are massive pricks for attacking on new years day. Mission was easy and the transport unit is nifty.

Mission 2 - What the hell is up with the crappy RS units. I had 30 units attacking 1! Apoc tank and it took like 20 seconds to kill it.

Mission 3 - RS picks up a "I win" button. The soviet commanders commants were quite funny.

Mission 4 - Thankfully Shogun battleships seem to be the best navel unit in the game. Other wise this would have been a loss.

Mission 5 - Shogun battleships = Win.

Mission 6 - Hollywood was a slugfest the whole way. Mostly relied on the very cheap but effective tank busters.

Mission 7 - Currently playing. Krucov is a bastard for spawning out of nowhere and destroying my fleet. Not just becauce it takes time to rebuild but because the allies keep bombing me.

Did you finish up the Allied Campaign?  I've found this true for both RA2 and RA3 that the final Allied mission is the hardest >_>

Anyway, the RS units are meant to be able to fill multiple roles, hence the air/ground Tengu shifting, and the VX ground/air shifting.  And Apoc tanks are...uh...tanky >_>  If you were using Tengu against it, that would make sense, since they're pretty much pure anti-infantry or (weakish) anti-air.  Granted, cheap and fast, which is nice.

I find I like the RS the best, due to their fast expansion and ability to fill multiple roles. 

Anyway, this made me want to play RA2 again.  Played through the Allied Campaign, at the final mission.  Bleh.  Prism tank splash killed the vital building at the end right as I killed the last target around it.  I heard the defeated sound a second before the victory sound.  It was funny and depressing at the same time >_> 

[Hunter Sopko]

Valkyria Chronicles- Beat the first half of Chapter 8. B-Ranked it, mostly cause it was more trouble than it was worth to keep reloading for stuff.

[Random Consonant]

Endless Frontier - Beaten.  Man that was a fun game, except for FORCED EVASION GRAH WHY.  Granted a lot of that frustration could've been avoided by sucking less but still.  Final dungeon was short, sweet, and to the point, which is a good thing.  Probably a 8.

I should probably do CotP next.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

S3 - I don't remember the Saint Loa Knights quest from my first playthrough...

[Sierra]

Ico: Started and finished this in one evening. Took about six hours of playtime, though I took a break once or twice due to accumulation of phenomenon known as "heebie jeebies." The Castle of No OSHA Compliance is a scary place for people who dislike heights. It's like they took lessons from Star Wars architects or something. The water tower sequence and the endgame cliffs/caverns were particularly vertiginous (all I can say about the former is, if I was stuck climbing around on a tower of rickety wooden scaffolding, throwing bombs around would not strike me as an ideal way to progress. Ico is phenomenally brave, stupid, or both).

Neat little game. Like Shadow of the Colossus, it is pretty much a wholly unique gaming experience and wins for design. I think a game being extremely short is more than a fair trade for this. My only real complaint is the lack of save points between the gate sequence and the queen. I mean, they're plentiful throughout the game, and then you have a solid final hour of gameplay in which there are none. By this point, I really don't think there's any excuse not to have a save point just before your game's final battle.

[NotMiki]

Devil Summoner 2 - picked this up today, complete with Raiho 'action figure.'

Nothing on GameFAQs for it yet, so I'll ask here: does anyone know the exact requirements for your DS1 save for getting all the bonus goodies?  I've got a clear file, never beat Beelzebub or obtained Raihou, but did everything else.

[Captain K.]

Platinum:  finished.

Candice was pretty easy.  Froslass is a nice addition to her team, but manageable.

Volkner is fail.  No surprise there.

Aaron gets most improved award.  His Yanmega is damned nasty, and you still have Heracross to deal with when it's gone.

Bertha still sucks, and I didn't even have any grass attacks to use on her.

Flint has all fire pokemon!  And is somehow even easier!  Graveler versus Magmortar!  Magmortar begins absorbing sunlight!!!  EARTHQUAKE.  Graveler versus Rapidash!  Rapidash begins absorbing sunlight!!!  EARTHQUAKE.  Pretty much the worst AI I've seen all game.

Lucian is solid.  His Bronzong is a lot weaker, but he adds a ridiculously strong Espeon to his lineup.

Cynthia was very easy until I got to her last pokemon Lucario.  He heal-locked me with Aura Sphere.  I literally went through every potion in my inventory before Aura Sphere ran out of PP.  After the heal-lock was broken he went down easily.

I used the same team for the entire game.  Ranked in order of usefulness with final levels and movesets:

lvl 50 Luxray (Crunch, Scary Face, Charge, Spark).  Huge base stats and Intimidate means he rapes the maingame.  Also doesn't hurt that three of Cyrus's final five pokes are weak to electric.

lvl 54 Golduck (Waterfall, Rock Smash, Strength, Surf).  Good all-around - can tank, do big damage with Surf.  Rock Smash is good earlygame also.  Most useful one for Elite 4.

lvl 48 Rapidash (Bounce, Agility, Megahorn, Flame Wheel).  A late addition to the team when I knew the Ice gym was coming up.  Did everything I wanted it to - wicked fast and a solid attack.  Don't think I ever missed with Megahorn.  Was waiting for Flare Blitz though. 

lvl 52 Graveler (Earthquake, Double-Edge, Stone Edge, Rock Climb).  Good earlygame, nearly useless at the end.  Dies to a sneeze from special attacks.  Laughs at physicals though.

lvl 52 Torterra (Cut, Leech Seed, Earthquake, Giga Drain).  Why so low?  Because damn near every important trainer in the game has ice attacks on their pokemon.  Solid defenses are meaningless against x4 damage.  Offense was lackluster as well, needed Wood Hammer badly.

lvl 48 Drifblim (Flash, Defog, Fly, Shadow Ball).  Despite the hitpoints, can not take damage well at all.  Offense is weak as well.

Also got the National Dex, after using 21 Timer Balls and 38 Dusk Balls to catch Uxie.  W.  T.  F.
Soft-reset/Masterballed until I got a good Azelf that I plan to use in the Dallas competion at the end of the month.

[Niu]

Devil Summoner 2 - picked this up today, complete with Raiho 'action figure.'

Nothing on GameFAQs for it yet, so I'll ask here: does anyone know the exact requirements for your DS1 save for getting all the bonus goodies?  I've got a clear file, never beat Beelzebub or obtained Raihou, but did everything else.

Those item has no purpose but sell for money.
If you really want them...
Just by having the Raidou1 file gives one, have high cumulative loyalty give you another, having a second cycle file fetch you the third.

Few tips on the game.....

1. CHAOS ROUTE!! I repeat... CHAOS ROUTE. Do it on your first cycle, as Chaos Route unlocks two extra demon compare to Law. And Chaos route also unlocks Lucifer's side quest in the second cycle. And trust me, the Lucifer fight is awesome.

2. You can tell what your alignment is by how the Raidou icon spins on the world map. Spinning clockwise is law, counter clock wise is chaos. Neither would be neutral.

3. Fiends randomly appear on new moon, especially when you have low luck. You can only fuse them after you defeat them. And yes, the Four knights of Apocalypse are around.

4. Bring Beliar and Neberos along when you fight Alice.

[NotMiki]

Thanks for the tips.  I had a good enough save for all three, as it turns out.

It's always good to know well in advance what options would be most useful for a replay (though nothing you say here sounds as messy as good choices for RS:MS - to get Darque you need to not trigger a certain completely unrelated cutscene with Neidhart?  Oh, and be sure to go to different bars frequently from the very beginning so you can find the gloomy chick?  Yeah...)

[Niu]

The quickest way to unlock all demon is like this:

1st Cycle:

1.Stay on Chaos until you fight Amatsumikaboshi

2.Tweak to Law after that and do the Asura Ou side quest in the final chapter (or you can skip this here and do it on the 2nd cycle)

3.Tweak back to Chaos at the point of no return (you can literally tweak your alignment for free at that point, and the ending you get is determined).


2nd Cycle

1. Complete all side quest, including Lucifer ones that are unlocked with a Chaos ending.

2. Tweak for neutral alignment during the final chapter and unlock the final side quest (which is only acessible after you beat all other side quests).

3. Tweak back to Law at the point of no return.

[Tide]

In University and need a method to kill time...so designed this fun little challenge.

Basically, we're going to test a DL FF8 twink idea in the course of FF8!

The rules:
1) 1 character only. Doesn't matter who it is, but I'm sticking with Squall. This at least stimulates having just that twink character on the frontline and see how well they do

2) Draw command can only draw GFs and nothing else

3) Card command is allowed to Card stuff. This is how I'll be mainly getting my junctions. Well, that and drops

4) No other command than the above 3 may be used (if it proves impossible, I'll change it, but I don't foresee problem currently)

5) No more than 4 GFs can be junctioned onto the solo character. A bit self explanitory. Makes you choose between which GF's passives/junctions you want. As opposed to mass abuse

6) Level Cap at 65. This is Ultimecia's max level and I want to avoid bonus abuse.

Should be fun. Currently still in Balamb. Thanks to the rul restrictions, if I want to have a chance at Elvoret, I will need some junctioned magic to go along :/

[Rozalia]

Did you finish up the Allied Campaign?  I've found this true for both RA2 and RA3 that the final Allied mission is the hardest >_>

I had to do it about 3 times before I cleared it but yeah the final allied mission is the hardest by far due to the time limit. I funelled enemy ground forces through the bridge and destroyed them with about 20 multi gunner turrets. Destroying the bridge was a no go becauce they'd then simply attack my ally instead and he'd lose big time.
The biggest threat was enemy migs so I chrono'ed some mirage tanks to their airbases in the east to destroy them.
After that it was a case of bombing the crap out of the buildings.

Anyway, the RS units are meant to be able to fill multiple roles, hence the air/ground Tengu shifting, and the VX ground/air shifting.  And Apoc tanks are...uh...tanky >_>  If you were using Tengu against it, that would make sense, since they're pretty much pure anti-infantry or (weakish) anti-air.  Granted, cheap and fast, which is nice.

I find I like the RS the best, due to their fast expansion and ability to fill multiple roles.  

The problem is of course they are terrible at all the roles they do. I've found the tengu in whatever form to be one of the worse units in the game. Its ground form can kill basic infantry and scout units but fails when faced with heavy infantry or a tank of any kind.
In air form its even worse as it is so weak. If the other enemy fighters were expensive they'd be an arguement but they aren't so yeah.

The only good units to me that the RS has are the sudden transport, rocket angel, Shogun battleship and of course Yuriko Omega.
Everything else is either damn bad or out classed by something the other forces have.

[DjinnAndTonic]

In University and need a method to kill time...so designed this fun little challenge.

Basically, we're going to test a DL FF8 twink idea in the course of FF8!

The rules:
1) 1 character only. Doesn't matter who it is, but I'm sticking with Squall. This at least stimulates having just that twink character on the frontline and see how well they do

2) Draw command can only draw GFs and nothing else

3) Card command is allowed to Card stuff. This is how I'll be mainly getting my junctions. Well, that and drops

4) No other command than the above 3 may be used (if it proves impossible, I'll change it, but I don't foresee problem currently)

5) No more than 4 GFs can be junctioned onto the solo character. A bit self explanitory. Makes you choose between which GF's passives/junctions you want. As opposed to mass abuse

6) Level Cap at 65. This is Ultimecia's max level and I want to avoid bonus abuse.

Should be fun. Currently still in Balamb. Thanks to the rul restrictions, if I want to have a chance at Elvoret, I will need some junctioned magic to go along :/

I don't quite see how this is a -DL- twink idea...?