Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

S3 - Hugo 2! Forgot how utterly batshit his Repel score/skill was.

[Grefter]

Game's not bad, just...a bit too slow for my tastes?  It'd be nicer if fights weren't so large scale.

While I kind of agree, I can't help but love the game for the crazy arse shit it does with some of the Sims.  They really are the most crazy stuff in the game, so you probably shouldn't feel compelled to beat them (or beat them as soon as they come up, although that is incredibly rewarding).

[superaielman]

Game's not bad, just...a bit too slow for my tastes?  It'd be nicer if fights weren't so large scale.

While I kind of agree, I can't help but love the game for the crazy arse shit it does with some of the Sims.  They really are the most crazy stuff in the game, so you probably shouldn't feel compelled to beat them (or beat them as soon as they come up, although that is incredibly rewarding).

I love the scale of the fights. It's a large scale tactics game that rewards you for team work and isn't something you can blow through.How you move and attack is really key, along with link setups. It manages to balance twinking and default builds by the simplest thing in the world- cash.  Computer shops let you rebuild PC's from stratch, but it's so money heavy that you can rebuild one PC each path on a normal file (tops) without being broke and having to ignore equipment upgrades.

And yeah, the later sim maps get crazy. The second to last Darill one in the elevator was damn tough to beat with the infinite AP trick on a NG+ file.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

FO3: Someone made a mod that lets you play as the Terminator. Suffice to say I downloaded it, made one, and used it as my excuse to play the ax-crazy character I usually only play when I'm bored. Used console codes to jack my health way up to make it accurate.

DADA DA DADA!

[BaconForTheSoul]

Sacred 2-  This game should be awesome, but there are so many issues.  The graphics are insane, but that causes lag at times... I'd much rather the graphics be toned down to allow the game to run smoothly.  Also, the plot is just nonexistent so far.  I'm only 4-5 hours in, but I'm not even sure what the hell I am doing in this world outside of completing random side quests.

Puzzlequest Galactica-  Does not seem as cool as the original.  Not liking the hexagon board or the way thing drop.  Seems a lot more random that the last Puzzlequest, and that game had plenty of randomness in it.  Also a lack of classes to choose from, at least so far.  And space is typically less cool than medieval times anyway.

[Meeplelard]

FM4: Beat up a bunch of mechs who were trying to cross a river, some had missiles.  The end result was they all died in a variety of ways.

Wagner 2 was a lot easier than Wagner 1, though, I can tell that's primarily cause I'm getting a better grasp of the Link System, gave Bosch a better build (my Sniper/Bazooka character; unsure which I want to keep him with, thinking I prefer Rifles a little more for a number of reasons), and I actually figured out how to make Latona hurt things...a lot...

His map did look horrible until like 5 turns in, I noticed there was a little path through the buildings that'd let me regroup with the rest of the party in a reasonable amount of time, so reset, and yeah, map became trivial <_<

[Shale]

Played some Fire Emblem DS during the ride home from Ithaca this weekend, up to chapter 10 or so (just got the first master seal). Game's basically vanilla FE, which isn't a bad timewaster but not particularly special. Level-ups seem weighted against you a bit more than usual (double-digit no-stat levels so far, argh), but it's not difficult so that balances.

[superaielman]

FM4: Beat up a bunch of mechs who were trying to cross a river, some had missiles.  The end result was they all died in a variety of ways.

Wagner 2 was a lot easier than Wagner 1, though, I can tell that's primarily cause I'm getting a better grasp of the Link System, gave Bosch a better build (my Sniper/Bazooka character; unsure which I want to keep him with, thinking I prefer Rifles a little more for a number of reasons), and I actually figured out how to make Latona hurt things...a lot...

His map did look horrible until like 5 turns in, I noticed there was a little path through the buildings that'd let me regroup with the rest of the party in a reasonable amount of time, so reset, and yeah, map became trivial <_<

Wagner 2 has some scary offense but the durability takes a step down thanks to links. The game really speeds up once you master links, as a grand total of no plot fights pass between Wagner 1 and 2, just a new round of equips and the chance to set up links. That map can be a grind. The missilers keep steady pressure on you and if you donj't get lucky with evade, Bosch/Elsa are in bad shape after dealing with Wagner.


Persona 4- To the real final area. At 70+ hours, got this far in under two weeks. I like it a bit! Super short review, may flesh out more when I'm done.

Good-

-Gameplay is fun. P4 did a wonderful job balancing physicals and magic and giving you a reason to rotate your personas with the leveling and inhertience system. 
-I liked S-links. The reason Souji needs so many Personas is to help him when he is discovered by the half dozen women he can date in the game.
-Character work is very good. Dojima, Eri, Nanako, and others round out a fairly strong NPC cast. PC cast I liked on the whole. Rise and Yosuke were my favorites, but I liked everyone.
- Dungeon design was fantastic. It's not often you can say a gay bathhouse and a strip club fit as epic dungeons, but they do.
-I'm a sucker for murder mysteries, which this game is.
-Music is good, setting works.
-Good gameplay choices in general besides for the note about Souji below.

Bad-

-The fox. SP healing is not only overpriced, it actively forces you to go do an obnoxious fetch quest of doom to get said overpriced healing.
-Money's too tight. This is a large problem early and late game.
-Main dying is game over. I had one game over by him getting OHKOed by three enemies triggering high counter on a MT physical move. There is no excuse for this in a game where you have full PC control. I had several resets just from Souji getting an unlucky KO.
-The game programmers are all world perverts. Souji can date up to a half dozen women at the same time.  (Of course for the sake of research I dated the four PC girls+Ayane. Purely scientific.)
-PC's not in the main party don't get EXP. Lame.
-It's FAQ baity. Not nearly to the degree P3, but... very much so.

9/10, most likely. I want to replay it again soon. The flaws are there, but it's a compelling game to play. It does a lot of the same things MK does, but just in a different direction stylewise.

For those that played P4 and didn't get spoiled: How long did it take you to figure out who the killer was?

[AAA]

After the second suspect was found innocent. Just process of elimination+thinking things through.

[Fudozukushi]

Suspected from appearance since I'm a paranoid bastard.  Confirmed when S. Link roster filled out.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I beat Pokemon Diamond and MMX8 in the last week.

MMX8 I got a taste of and I basically couldn't put it down until I finished it properly. It's soooo addicting. My favorite stage is Optic Sunflower's stage. I enjoyed the little minigames and the time constraints and stuff. I used Zero/Axl, one of the few times I chose to not use X. Axl just deals with a couple of the parts too well, and Zero helps against the second and sixth (?) games.  The spikes in this stage are REALLY bitchy. The boss is really really bitchy until you figure out how to dodge her big attack.

My second favorite stage is Gravity Antonion. I feel like it's an improved version of Gravity Man's stage in some ways, like in the fact that it uses the changing directions creatively and allows you to puzzle things out. I really like the boss fight here too even if it's a little on the easy side aside from the limits. BLACK HOLE THAT SUCKS IN BUSTER SHOTS is neat. I used Axl and X. No particular reason, Axl's floating is very useful and X was really rolling by this point.

I also like Avalanche Yeti's SHOOTER stage, boss was surprisingly tough for an ICE BOSS and all. Axl is particularly valuable on your thumb because of rapidfire in this stage. X was the other character because he has longer range than Zero for the minibosses. Plus he rules. Trilobyte's stage wasn't that bad either, kind of a fun concept if nothing else. Boss is way way way too easy though. X/Zero there. Dark Mantis is WANDERING IN THE DARK OH NO. Burn Rooster's gave me the most resets I think, just a lot of difficult portions, especially when trying to get the powerup. Burn Rooster is Blaziken's scary, metal kicking relative of some sort. He really is a lot like Blaz! X/Axl team once again. BAMBOO PANDAMONDIUM's stage is kind of boring comparatively, it's fun enough but has too much mecha action. I love the panda though, he is really philosophical and I like his voice acting. I used X/Axl once again.

And then there is Gigavolt Man-o-war's stage, which is quite possibly the stupidest, least fun stage ever in MM games. The background is ugly, the spinning around gives me a headache, and the single-minded goal of hitting the TAUNTING WITH UNGODLY VOICE ACTING MAN-O-WAR. Whoever thought of this needs to be beaten with a hammer. What a bunch of bullshit.  Eventually upgraded WE and just beat the shit out of him in like 15 seconds and got an AA score on the stage somehow. Fortunately X just rolled over the boss, the second person doesn't really even matter.

The Sigma stages are unmemorable, the final boss series is pretty bitchy though. I managed to get by them pretty quickyl with lots of upgrades and having watched the boss be beaten already. Cute gimmick with him/her.

My favorite person to control was Axl, he floats like Peach in SMB2. I think he wants to be a princess, so that's why OK likes him. Zero is a surfer, man. X is boring but very good also. I didn't use Zero that much really.

Pokemon Diamond, however, has been a two year work-in-progress. I first quit because of Happiness evo but I decided to try to overcome it. I did and it was good. Everything seems too easy, but the game picks up the pace once you finish the gym drought. E4 was really challenging because I wasn't very high-levelled. Mostly 43-47. Final party was Dialga/Empy/Golem/Staraptor/Bronzong/Roserade. All of them were valuable at points in the E4 but Bronzong using Hypnosis and allowing my team to recover from its being slaughtered (especially by Lucario) was a very nice thing. So he gets the nod for the most useful.

I think it gets a 5-6/10. It's fun enough, but I feel like it really lacks in a few departments (Pokemon variety and having lots of good options for the types, especially fire/electric, and the game is way too easy). I feel like it's a step down from Emerald which is a bit of a shame. Sounds like Platinum is better, but I think the GS remakes are before that.

[TranceHime]

Estiah: Ohhh my god my PvP just skyrocketed for some reason. It definitely goes to show that a good deck can take you a long way, as it seems:

This week : (92.1% win)
35 Wins 3 Losses

Life Time : (53.8% win)
114 Wins 98 Losses

Before my improve deck, I was scrimping with sub 40% win rate weekly, now I have been able to surpass my PvP slump and I'm able to defeat many people around my rating. Also, the folks introduced some achievement thingers which is kinda nice, I suppose. My lifetime PvP has surpassed the 50% mark unusually fast, so I'm very happy with that. Somehow, I am going to surpass my guildmaster in terms of level if my progress keeps up.

Thanks Smashy for all the advice :D!

[Tide]

FF8 twink challenge continues

Squall is now at level 15! Just before Garden v Garden. Bosses on Disc 2 thus far...

Iron Clad the first: His damage is actually pretty solid despite decent Defense. Walking into this battle with only 1200 HP meant that each of his 300+ damage shots actually had an impact on me. Also, using Diablos here because I thought the Adamantine was in this battle meant that I had to sacrifice healing. Squall can't be in this party, so I used Irvine instead. And...what do you know? AP Ammo! One hit knocked me into Limit range, Armor Shot proceeds to kill in 2 hits (9000 damage total). The remaining soldiers got eaten by Normal Shot.

Oilboyles: Walked in with less than 1000 HP. They deal around 200 damage each, so I had to get rid of one quick. Not a problem since I was already in Renzo range.

NORG: Draw Leviathan and Mug the orbs for stuff. The orbs aren't bad on damage (Spirit was a neglected stat here due to Diablos), but I had Healing via elemental junctions! Yeah, that's didn't go over well for him. Just knocked the orbs out a little bit so that they won't cast magic, 3 hits later? *splat*

Iron Clad the second: Okay, I really wanted the Adamantine. So once again, I had to instill Diablos. Thankfully, GFs picked up some important junctions so it didn't hurt me as bad. I avoided junctioning strength here since I did not want to kill it before I finish stealing. Started the fight at full, and I was pretty happy I did. Squall did around 300 damage a hit. So this took a while. Went from 4800 HP to 2100 by the time the fight was over

Raijin: Elem Atk-Bio. Can't heal self as a result, so have to be careful with HP. However, thanks to 100 Holys + HP+80% from Brothers, I had over 8000 HP, making it easy to control my limit range. Hit self a bit to drop into limit range. Kill Raijin with a physical or two.

Fujin/Raijin: Draw Pandemona. Immediately Renzokuken Fujin before she does anything else. Mop up Raijin. As a note for lulz, Lionheart triggered on Fujin. Massive pain ensued.

Cerberus:
I wanted to steal the Spd-J scroll. But I also wanted to get rid of Cerberus fast. So I opted to use Wind Elemental Attacks since IIRC, Limit Breaks ignored elemental properties unless the limit break attack had an elemental property in and of itself. This went pretty well...until Cerberus casted Berserk. Well crap. Now Squall was only dealing around 500 damage a hit. And in addition, I walked into the fight with roughly 40% of my HP at most. It wasn't that bad until Cerberus casted Triple. At which point, I was not protected against Thundaga, so Triple Thundaga dealt 1500 damage, which was actually pretty threatening! Finished the fight at around 1200 HP or so.

Seifer:
<Seifer> Let's go after them monsters!
<Squall> Kay
<Squall> *4 hits of 4000 from Renzokuken + Lionheart (9999*17)
<Seifer> HOW CAN I LOSE D:?!

Seifer/Edea: Opted not to steal either boss character's items as: a) I can't use Heroes/Holy Wars and b) Royal Crown MAG+60% is so very useful on this challenge >_>
Seifer...uh...see above without the Lionheart. Edea...now Edea was actually pretty competent since you had to be junctioned well. Death to St-Def and Pain to St-Def to ward off Maelstrom and Death. Blizzaga dealt around 350+ or so, but could've been heavily resisted. I also had Healing in this fight, so on the whole it was not bad, but could've easily lost if junctions weren't set properly.

GF wise, I played enough cards to get a Gambler's Spirit. Deleted St-Defx1 on Carbuncle since it had St-Defx2 now, and replaced that with Card. Quezt is now obsolete outside of Cardmod. Leviathan replaced Shiva for Spr-J and Carbuncle is more or less my lock GF having Hp/Vit junctions, Vit+X%, Status options and Counter. He hasn't even gotten Auto Reflect yet >_>! Ifrit still solidly good. With Elem Defx2 and the Strength+ options still standing out. Originally thought Pandemona will overtake it, but he gets too little time before Cerberus shows up and renders him moot. Suffice to say though, Quezt and Shiva are gone from being junctioned. St-Atk hasn't seen much play strangely enough. Thanks to Supt-Mag RF being mid way disc 2, despite the fact that I now have 100 Drains, Carbuncle has put in any AP into learning St-Atk. So healing myself in battle mostly relies on Elem junctions. And to my recollection, Drains don't work on everything either, so I'm not tempted to get St-Atk immediately. I suspect the main 4 GFs will look something like: Cerberus/Carbuncle/Doomtrain/Brothers

Squall's end of Disc 2 stats:
HP: ~8400 (100 Holys to HP + HP+80%)
Str: 184 (Lionheart + Str+60% + 100 Triples. Variety of other strength junctions lets me manipulate Squall's strength for stealing/card)
Vit: 91 (same set up as last time)
Spr: 78 (same set up as last time.)

Elem Atk: 100 Aeros
Elem Def: 100 Tornados

St-Def: 100 Pains, 100 Deaths

Overall thoughts:
This twink has obvious strengths. Utilizes the attack command which is very good in FF8 and limit breaks to pull out all the stops. With some clever junctions, also have healing and a variety of ways to control damage. The problem comes from that you can only have one strength setting at one time, which might not suit all foes, especially if you need to card. Setting up healing might get you walled, and the challenge throughly makes sure you play cards a LOT. 4 GF rule further makes things interesting since its not possible to have everything you want at the same time and further more difficult to have some things learnt at some points.

[OblivionKnight]

For those that played P4 and didn't get spoiled: How long did it take you to figure out who the killer was?

Well, process of elimination...


I figured that, when the list came up, it couldn't be any of the social links.  That narrows it down to, what, 3 people effectively?  >_>  After that, it was easy.  Also, Naoto gives you all the good clues beforehand (needs to be someone with access to the crime scene narrows it down INSANELY well).

[Dark Holy Elf]

MMX2 - On a serious Mega Man kick of late. Picked this up, bashed my head against the wall a few times, and finally beat the game without subtanks (or armour). I finally have a real handle on how to face Sigma and not get damaged at least once per cycle, although he's still way hard. May try my hand at a no-upgrade run like I have for all the other MMX games I've played... but eh, no rush. Definitely will get to MMX5 first!

MMPU - The real reason I am on a MM kick at the moment is this, though. (Well, that and having just come off of MMX8.) This game is pretty win. I did a Normal run with Mega Man which was... well, there's not much to say about it, decent MM game but nothing special. However, the game doesn't end there! Currently playing Elecman Hard Mode, up to the Yellow Devil. The game has oodles of features which make it cool, from stage construction to the many different PCs you can unlock to the difficulty modes (which actually seem to make a big difference, and aren't just HP/damage multipliers) to the option of Old Style MM1. The VA is win, too - I especially like Elecman (you're shocked, I know), Iceman (Soldier DOWN!) and Fireman, because he is THE GREAT VICE PRESIDENT RICHARD HAWK crossed with a pyro.

The real reason the game rules, though? PLAYABLE ELECMAN.

PLAYABLE FUCKING ELECMAN.

That is all.

[Ultradude]

Pokemon Diamond finally started! Chimchar selected! Have reached Oreburgh with the additions of Abra, Starly, Geodude (all keepers for now), Zubat, and Bidoof (replacing them as soon as I get more type coverage to fill in).

So I can't really give a very detailed opinion yet, other than to say that the AI is pretty fucking stupid already.

[superaielman]

For those that played P4 and didn't get spoiled: How long did it take you to figure out who the killer was?

Well, process of elimination...


I figured that, when the list came up, it couldn't be any of the social links.  That narrows it down to, what, 3 people effectively?  >_>  After that, it was easy.  Also, Naoto gives you all the good clues beforehand (needs to be someone with access to the crime scene narrows it down INSANELY well).

*Nods*

I  thought the scene right before Rise is kidnapped is incredibly odd. Why would a detective run from his duty to arrest some random guy with a camera because some kids say he's the murderer? He's the only character who doesn't show any real emotion, just an incredibly steady 'nice' guy routine. The lack of a social link also really stood out. It got painfully obvious once you get to fall. He doesn't bat an eye when you start talking about Persona.

It was cool the way the game built towards the spoiler.

[Captain K.]

Knew it from the beginning, because art books spoils it.  But the game twisted enough that I wasn't sure it was him during the middle of the game because other things seemed more likely.

Yosuke is a very viable option for the killer - he's in all of the right places and even has some motive.  The game does a nice job pointing at him.

[Meeplelard]

FM4: So while trying to protect a building, after blowing up 2 helicopters and a tank, you are greeted by 5 Wanzers...ALL ALLIED TO YOU, and most have good enough stuff!

...I really didn't expect the game to be so nice and hand you a bunch of competent temps out of nowhere, but I'm not complaining!  Speaking of the building we were to protect, it lost 90% of its HP <_<;

[Niu]

On a side note, during the developmental phase, there was a plan to make Yukiko the real killer.

Growlanser PSP- So, the new plot arc don't starts until Gevel is beaten? Nor I can stuff Elliot and Richard in the same team??? HATE!!!

[OblivionKnight]

On a side note, during the developmental phase, there was a plan to make Yukiko the real killer.

Growlanser PSP- So, the new plot arc don't starts until Gevel is beaten? Nor I can stuff Elliot and Richard in the same team??? HATE!!!

Tapdancing lesbians what?  I never heard that.  How would THAT have been accomplished?

[Grefter]

They would make her stab people.

[Clear Tranquil]

MK- Post game done. I'd have probably enjoyed the dungeon more if I hadn't already completed grow books, made fighting seem relatively pointless. Boss fights themselves were fun enough especially since they kept using physicals/physical based skills on PAMELA~ Made it easy to exploit the HP 1 No Bullying twink too. Critical++, Stun++, Magic++ and SP++ helped relieved the tedium of the dungeon too. Oh and Twilight Morions <3 Roxis got one of dem shinies at the end, Pamela earlier. Had a blunder when Jess restored everyone's HP with her support including Pamela's against the final boss of the dungeon but he just lowered Pamela's HP to 2 with his lightning spell later so yeah. Seal your own doooom~

Grandia 2 (for the supers) Started. Heading to the Baked Plains next. Enjoying it so far. The game shows it's age but then I started enjoying it and that doesn't matter as much. Thoughts so far -

Ryudo- Taught him his second skill recently. Should I bother giving him a Mana Egg at all or just focus on spells with other characters? Character wise he's ok. The mouth reminds me of super!

Elena- Didn't like her at first. Part of that might be the VA, dunno. Liked her a bit better when she was reassuring/speaking words of encouragement to NPCs. Heh I shouldn't be too harsh on the girl, after all she has Millenia to compete with :p Battle wise looks like the default healer but would it be viable to let her play around with the Chaos Egg instead? Dunno, I might keep her with the Holy Egg for DL purposes. We'll see.

Millenia-Loving her so far. The flirty/forward/seductive/friendly personalties appeal to me >_> The darkness provides an interesting contrast ... I have a feeling something tragic is going to occur here ;_; Owns as easily in battle as she does out of it. Had her on "Each Own" for a while. Might as well take advantage of that while the save points are close.

Roan- Do I smell item boy? Cute kid. Uhh ... there's not much to say really.
 
Oh found a Carro and gave it nuts. Was it supposed to do anything? That's all for now, Skye is quite nifty too.

[Grefter]

Elena actually has one of the better Voice actresses around doing her voice, far from her best role though...

Carro's and nuts do nothing as a heads up.

Rule of thumb, Ryudo should be attacking.  Skills are good on him.  Throw a healing egg on him with some stat ups when you have spare ones so you can heal in a pinch (like if you fall asleep at the game for half an hour or something and the enemies do any damage to you at all) or just want to horribly abuse some enemies.

G2 is pretty much a long chain of smashing things horribly, so yeah have fun with it just killing stuff dead however you like most (except for maybe Eye of Valmar fight, which is the only boss in the game that the enemy even tries and it is horribly easy as well).

Edit - Oh yeah, don't underestimate the broken of a well twinked magic setup.  You can do some really obscene chunks of damage for very little of an incredibly vast easily restored resource (compared to SP moves).

[Twilkitri]

SRTOGSEF - Finished.

Good fun. Not a great deal I can really say that I probably didn't say for the JP version. Still not a big fan of Forced Evasion, especially when it bugs out. Kaguya is leaving the screen for the next character in the chain and no attacks are currently being made? Better Force Evade then! At least that particular instance only happened the one time. Beat my JP combo amounts by 20000 damage and 80 hits.

Used Haken/Aschen/Kaguya for the final along with Suzuka solely so I wouldn't have to put up with her support attack. Not exactly the star of the battle there but considering the amount of times I mistimed the supports that are easy to use this was probably a good way to go about things.

Script was decent all up but I don't think I'd put it anywhere near the level of OG1/2.