Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Sierra]

SoA: Today I got to see the RAMIREZ MOTIVATION SPEECH. Which = two more wannabe tyrants masturbating over how great it is to rule through brute force. Yawn. Good thing I wasn't expecting much out of those two.

Two more Piastol fights. Mk. 2 was better (high 2HKO?) but manageable. Mk. 3 took several tries. Tempest Dance almost killing Vyse in one shot (he tended to live with about 100 life left--and he has the best durability by a fair margin) was not principally the problem. First time it was a mix of getting worn down/eternes hitting at a bad moment (all I needed was one more Pirates' Wrath, argh). Second attempt's going well, Eternes hits 3/4 of the party late in the fight. Then it kills everyone on the second turn. ...Right, Delta Shield to the rescue. That, and kill the dog immediately just so there's no random element to throw off the battle plan. Turtle and bust out PW whenever possible (with Increm, it only takes three). Nasty fight, godlike titles make sense. (Idly, I think it says a lot about the general challenge level of the game that this was the first fight that really forced me to rely on a defensive strategy. Well, no, some of the other Wanted battles did too, now that I think of it. SoA optionals >>> SoA plot bosses.)

I have to say, though, her angst is a little silly. Or at least misguided. Being upset over your family being killed? I can see that. Recognizing Vyse and going all "Damn you for destroying my life when you were ten years old" was vaguely psyduck, though. I mean...he was a kid, do you seriously think he was responsible for all that? I will cut her some slack for being stylish and having more combat ability than any of the plot bosses, though.

Stopped for the night after crushing the aiel. Think all I've got left now is the final dungeon. Which means that my next move is to FAQ the hell out of anything I wasn't able to find on my own, and then go kick the bishy in the teeth.

EDIT: Also, boo to Gilder rejoining at the same level he left.

[AAA]

Mana Kehmia: Jess, Flay get.  Head desk at Jess.

Why the hell do I want to play Drakengard all of a sudden?

Because The Watchers do not laugh, they do not regret, they do not become ill. La la la la la!

[Shale]

KH2: Pride Lands. Furry Sora isn't as stomach-turning as I feared. Losing the Drives is kind of lame, though.

[Dhyerwolf]

I have to say, though, her angst is a little silly. Or at least misguided. Being upset over your family being killed? I can see that. Recognizing Vyse and going all "Damn you for destroying my life when you were ten years old" was vaguely psyduck, though. I mean...he was a kid, do you seriously think he was responsible for all that? I will cut her some slack for being stylish and having more combat ability than any of the plot bosses, though.

It's about as logical an assumption as a 17 year old girl being an angel of death.

[Shale]

KH2: Tron. End of line.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

KH2: Tron. End of line.

This is why Timeless River isn't the most badass thing ever.

[Grefter]

KH2: Pride Lands. Furry Sora isn't as stomach-turning as I feared. Losing the Drives is kind of lame, though.

Furry Sora is only not as stomach-turning as you fear because you have already experienced Tentacle Rape Donald.

[Shale]

I never said otherwise.

[Twilkitri]

Etrian Odyssey -

Down to floor 22. Strata 5's theme came way out of left field in a move I never expected and I love it.

Boss of Strata 4 was once again a scrub but this time it at least had decent offensive power, not that it got much of a chance to use it.

Fair amount of overpowered, overpriced equipment has been showing up recently. How do you expect me to make so much money, game! To be fair the power of the next best equipment in comparison is by now nowhere near the sort of difference that the Arc Drawer had at the time it showed up, so there's less of a reason to be caring about this equipment.

[Idun]

At the Port in DQ8. I have five hours now. Either I'm doing too much grinding in between towns, or the game is just long.

Game is long.  You'll probably log 50+ hours near the end (I had 90 or so, but I also had 20 in AtL1, so...)

Game takes longer between towns in the early going.  No question the game's long, but that part gets quicker as things progress.  If you're the type of person who has to explore every corner of the map (like me) take my advice and wait to do so until you get some faster modes of transport than your feet.  Main character also gets a spell that reduces the encounter rate particularly of lower-level enemies, so backtracking to find assorted treasure chests and whatnot is fairly painless.

So far that's what I've done. I think I have a handle on the skill system as when I was exploring and getting the bronze coins, I was using that money to buy upgraded armor AND equipement. For now I think I'll just buy equipment as I want to get the skills of individual weapons over and done with instead of dispersing the points. I'm hoping that the main starts getting better skill points too, as Yangus seems to get an average of 5-6 per level and my main named Alexei gets 2-3.

[OblivionKnight]

Everyone has the same final number of skillpoints gained (350 by level 99), though at different rates.  Yangus and Jessica start fast and trail off, Bob/Meeple/Eight/Watermelon/Guv/Jesus/Osiris/Whateveryoucalledhim stays fairly consistent, and Angelo is slow to start but gets more at higher levels.  At level 40, Yangus and Jess have over 200 (202 and 207 or something like that), Named Person has 189, and Angelo has a bit less than that. 

[Sierra]

Oh, Idun: Make a point of not selling old equipment. At the very least, hang on to anything that's not sold in stores. Some obsolete equips will be vital later for item creation.

[Shale]

SUPER HYPER ESPECIALLY Jessica's Leather Whip. If you sell it, you have to either trek all over the map looking for the one other example of same in the world, or screw yourself out of every single IC whip in the game until you're almost at the last dungeon.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

KH2: Tron. End of line.

His combo attack thing is, I think, the most greatest attack of that generation. You open the console and start spawning random polygons... THAT KILL.

[Idun]

Oh, Idun: Make a point of not selling old equipment. At the very least, hang on to anything that's not sold in stores. Some obsolete equips will be vital later for item creation.

Phew. That's good as I've only sold the armour for like, a 55% markdown of their original price. I chose to sell them because I don't know if my Item bag is infinite or not, so I freed up some space. I didn't know that you'd get THAT many new characters, so I'll stop using these seeds I have. >_>

[Cotigo]

PW:  Day 2 of C5.  It's very easy to tell that C4 was the end of the game originally and that C5 is tacked on.  This is partly due to the sophistication of the "examine" function, but also because... the writing's far better than anything else in the game.  Not knowing the full details of the chapter yet, I can't say much for the mystery aspect of the case, but everything else?  It's like they finally hit on what they were going for, comedicly.  It is far less schitzophrenic in style than the other chapters, even C3 and 4, which were starting to figure out what was working but still fell into "lol poses" "lol believe in frienz" and other similar tripe that made the first two chapters so unplayable.  It does, to an extent, still dredge up that tripe but not enough for me to notice.

The downside to this is that I'm fairly sure there will be a drop in quality from C5 PW1 and C1PW2 simply because the latter came first.

[Bobbin Cranbud]

I... think? I know EPSXE has multiplayer, just never used it.

Hmm...

I don't mind dropping the, what, $6 or $7 it would take to get Brigandine GE off the Japanese PSN store.  But I WOULD like to know there was somewhere to actually play the multiplayer part of the game before I go through the hassle of setting up an account and getting a prepaid card from... somewhere? (Not sure how to go about that)... and then figuring out how to get an ISO off the PS3 downloaded game rather than a CD.  I doubt anyone I know locally would be down for extensive Brigandine playing in hot seat mode.

[superaielman]

PSN store I think sends the files as ISO downloads. If you were going to emulate the game, the easiest way to do it would be to grab a torrent of it or bum it off someone here, then just configure EPSXE from there.

I haven't done any of the multiplayer stuff in GE; the scenarios I can't comment on balance wise. EDIT: They look decent enough. And yeah, I'm sure people would be down for mutliplayer brig. That sounds fun.

[AAA]

Quake Live-



Prince of Persia-The new one, not the old PC game. It's not very good. On the bright side the art direction is gorgeous and the platforming is fun in a mindless Assassin's Creed sort of way. On the bad side it's incredibly repetitive. You have 6 bosses and you'll fight them all at least 4 and possibly 6 times with only minor variations. Combat is 'block, string up combo, block, string up combo, repeat" and gets old about halfway through the intro. It's pretty short (10 hours or so I'd guess), but feels longer due to having to do so much stuff over and over again. Story is mostly just there. The writers tried a little too hard to make the Prince in a likable rogue archetype and it shows. Elika's okay I guess, she mostly just exists as a plot device and to save your butt when you fall off a cliff. The ending, though, is absolutely terrible. It completely negates the last 10 hours or so of platforming, boss fighting, and sheer tedium you just fought through to get it. I suppose it was supposed to be sad or some bullshit, but really it just makes me wish I hadn't played the game.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

PoR - Dear god, Hex is -hax- offense (lolpun). This is dealing like 800 damage off Charlotte L1 charge times, and Dark is not a bad element to have on a spell. It's not very flexible at dealing with heights, but you can cope. And there's always Ice Needles when you want flexible. Jonathan's Vampire Killer is also very, very wrong.

TWEWY - lolmingle. Joshua is still completely broken.

[Fudozukushi]

Mana Kehmia: Jess, Flay get.  Head desk at Jess.

Why the hell do I want to play Drakengard all of a sudden?

Because The Watchers do not laugh, they do not regret, they do not become ill. La la la la la!

Ah, so I'm going more insane.  Good to know.

[NotMiki]

I don't know if my Item bag is infinite or not, so I freed up some space.

It is.  Coins you get from beating monsters are only good for money, by the way.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I don't know if my Item bag is infinite or not, so I freed up some space.

It is.

Took them only eight games to get it right!

[Talaysen]

Fair amount of overpowered, overpriced equipment has been showing up recently. How do you expect me to make so much money, game! To be fair the power of the next best equipment in comparison is by now nowhere near the sort of difference that the Arc Drawer had at the time it showed up, so there's less of a reason to be caring about this equipment.

Gathering.

[Twilkitri]

I was going to say that gathering barely covered inn expenses, but checking the list I see that selling prices of more recent stuff have jumped up absurdly. Still, that would have to be one of the more boring things I can think of.