Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VPDS - Huh, Save Rosea battle was easy. I guess I got lucky? But it really looked like only three enemies started in range of her; two of whom are far enough away that they have to use spells (which don't 2HKO) and the third you kill turn 1.

As mentioned above, one of those ghosts can physical and just won't always do it. I had it crit her once and kill, and then dizzy her once and kill by it's self.

It's only really an issue if you want the 200% Sin req though, I'll admit, as rigging up good Sin counts on a few of those enemies is tricky. Most of the game isn't too awfully hard if you don't care about Sin, honestly...

Hm. B route, I've been pretty anal about getting 200% Sin and that hasn't made the game any harder (although it did make for 90% of my resets). The rewards just get ridiculously awesome. Figure A route would probably make you work harder for it.

[Shale]

VPDS: Finished C2, after a lot of resets. The last fight there had two Realmstalkers, one starting out one move away from my party (who were already pincered by a lancer and two sorcerers). Tried killing the first one with a four-person raid, but that took  four or five tries just to set up properly and came just short of a kill, so I said fuck it and blew Vali's Awakening on him. That made the second one (an Ancel clone and easily the more dangerous of the two due to 3300 HP) way more annoying to kill, but I pulled it off with a lot of reviving. The boss was a moron and targeted people at random, so she was easy pickings despite the solid 2HKO offense.

Now i can use my Elemental Edge! And it looks like it has an extra effect on the SC, judging from the cross that shows up next to "Special" when it's equipped. Shiiiiiiiiiiny...

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

You'll probably be using Vali's Awakening a fair deal on that playthrough. >_> It's been overkill for me since like C2, but it's all in good fun.

EDIT:

VPDS - Three battles in a row without a hard save? *Thwaps Tri-Ace with a stylus.* BAD DESIGN. BAD. NO COOKIES FOR YOU. *Thwaps again.*

[Shale]

Oh, that'll be fun. ;_;
Dammit, No$GBA, I want a working save state.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I hope it at least has quicksave support, because that helps a bit. In your case, though, I recommend a shotgun.

EDIT: Right, I was so busy smacking Tri-Ace for that design failure that I forgot. I can has a Caduceus. Goooooooooodbye, game.

[Cmdr_King]

I seem to recall that the A path reduces the number of consecutive maps in that fight string.  This is no help at all.
Of course, supposing Shale makes it that far, I fully expect he won't be able to handle the A ending's support <.< Well, maybe you can sneak past them. (Final itself has less utter hax for evade and defense and should be managable, at least!)

[Shale]

I seem to recall that the A path reduces the number of consecutive maps in that fight string.  This is no help at all.
Of course, supposing Shale makes it that far, I fully expect he won't be able to handle the A ending's support <.< Well, maybe you can sneak past them. (Final itself has less utter hax for evade and defense and should be managable, at least!)

I know what I'm trying is possible, because it's been done before. How sane it is is another question entirely, but it's doable.

[Cmdr_King]

Yeah, that makes sense now that I've remembered you can, in fact, just sneak by the final boss's support.  there's a skill for this whose name I forget, but basically it makes you untargettable until you attack something, and the first final boss map ends and restarts sans support once Wyl attacks the boss.
(Storebought weapons are such a huge downgrade from the Sin loot that I'm not convinced you can break the support's defense with them.  Mind, you also have the issue of the final boss' Heal spell, but that's not so bad.  I don't think.)

[Shale]

Assuming the boss has to follow AP rules like the rest of the enemies, I can hopefully cheese that out by baiting attack magic (it's got attack magic, right? I've yet to see an enemy spellcaster that doesn't.)

[Cmdr_King]

It does, and yeah, that seems like the logical way to handle it.

[Talaysen]

VPDS - Huh, Save Rosea battle was easy. I guess I got lucky? But it really looked like only three enemies started in range of her; two of whom are far enough away that they have to use spells (which don't 2HKO) and the third you kill turn 1.

They can both definitely attack normally and 2HKO because they did that to me like a million times.

Now i can use my Elemental Edge! And it looks like it has an extra effect on the SC, judging from the cross that shows up next to "Special" when it's equipped. Shiiiiiiiiiiny...

It adds holy damage on attacks, I believe.  Nothing to do with the SC at all (and I'm not even sure it affects the SC at all).

---

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor - Day 7, JUST AS PLANNED path.  First fight was pretty tough because there were lots of enemies and they can kill people fast if they gang up on them.  Then I cracked Mystic Yin.  Now I have Mari doing 300-500 damage with Ice/Fire Dance which hits 2-5 times.  Enemies tend to have less than 500 HP at this point.  She actually almost OHKOd a boss with Ice Dance (granted, was weak to it but still).  Hero's packing Force/Elec Dance with Dual Shadow (chance of double acting) and doing similar damage.  Atsuro's got Deathbound + Pierce + Drain which basically gives him a parasitic healing physical skill that deals 200-300 per hit (2-5 hits again) and ignores resistances barring Repel.

Yeah, the next few maps were kind of easy compared to this level of offense.  Even GIANT BUG who might've been difficult due to resisting everything and draining physicals and having 10% regen (that kicks in every time you attack or he attacks) was a joke.  Mostly because his offense fails and couldn't put any pressure on like the other bosses who basically triple-act near OHKO or squad 3HKO damage (or in some cases 6-act that crap).

[Dark Holy Elf]

Shale: Dunno if you're aware of this, but Realmstalkers only appear if you fail the sin requirement for a map. Preventing them from appearing is the only real reason to care about sin. Also, the cross symbol on the Elemental Edge means it deals holy damage with its regular attacks (I believe this is MAG-based bonus damage like it was with VP2 elemental weapons, but not certain). EDIT: As Tal notes, it doesn't affect the SC.

Sage: Okay yeah, the ghost being able to crit her and such does fail.

[Shale]

Shale: Dunno if you're aware of this, but Realmstalkers only appear if you fail the sin requirement for a map.

I am aware. As I will be failing all Sin requirements in this run, there's not much I can do about it other than killing them. didn't realize the SC doesn't get the elemental damage boost, but it's dealing 2000+ damage anyway, so I'm not crying over that.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Oh, so it's one of those bizarre, self-imposed challenges that only a crazy person would do.

*whistles*

[Shale]

Oh, so it's one of those bizarre, self-imposed challenges that only a crazy person would do.

*whistles*

Me? Crazy? Those are fighting words, sir.

Edit: also, you're the one who said that Sin is a dumb system.

[DjinnAndTonic]

VPDS: Started this on the plane ride home. The concept is awesome, the writing is... meh, and the music makes it all better. I actually felt kind of bad for Wyl during the prologue, so I can only assume it was the good music.

The battle system is simple and keeps a lot of the things I liked about VP1, and the game itself is easy (my favorite kind of SRPG! Screw you, WAXF Chapter 2-1!!!~!) Enjoying it immensely and I'm surprised how quickly I put all my other games aside to play this one.

WAXF: I still love the concept of this game, but Ch2-1 really killed my enthusiasm. I finally beat that chapter at DLCon, so there's a chance I may keep playing it.

Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero?
Freakin' Awesome. The plot is amazing. Etna wants dessert, the Prinnies will get it for her. Cue 10 worlds of Netherworld- and Dessert-themed platforming. You die in this game. A lot. It's somewhat IWTBTG-like. The controls aren't as tight as I would have liked, and getting hit stuns Prinny for way too long and it causes 99% of deaths. ...which is definitely the point, but it's frustrating at times.

Dragon Quest Swords: Popped this in one evening at Meeple's. Doesn't seem too bad, but the controls are wonky. Still the only Akira Toriyama game where the art doesn't make my eyes bleed...

Mortal Kombat vs. The DC Universe: HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... This is bloody insane and it's hilarious how seriously it takes itself. As a fan of both MK and DC, I am 100% satisfied with this - dare I use the word? - trainwreck.

Gah, have to go back to work too soon. Too many games I want to play... >.>;;

-Djinn

[Grefter]

Gah, have to go back to work too soon. Too much Castlevania: Judgement yaoi I want to draw ... >.>;;
-Welcome to the Time Rift.

[Random Consonant]

CotP - Too much CotP talk made me want to get back to this.  Cleared Chapter 4, A Route.  Hopefully C5 of that route won't go overboard on the whole consecutive battles with no chance to save in between thing, though I very much doubt it.

[Excal]

No, A-Route Ch5 Final is still a 3 parter.  After all, why would they make that easier?

As for what I'm playing, mostly just dicking around with random stuff (finishing an old FE10 playthrough, beating a few of the lamer challenges for Brawl (but not 15 Minute Melee, Marth's way too slow and clunky for that to work now, though I think a mastery of Ike Tilts will get me through) and other things that appeal to me)

Main thing I have going is still VPL, which I'm currently mucking about in Ch 7 in.  Given that I've gotten the A ending cutscene, I'm now safe to send two people up again and see if I can convince Odin to like me enough to give me a free Gram.  If that fails, well, hopefully I'll get enough cash to buy one.  It's not exactly like I've been hurting for cash ever since I beat Lezard's Tower and made the game weep.  After beating the main game I'll likely put the Seraphic Gate and Voice Collection Collecting on hold for a XF replay, non new game plus.  After all, people keep on saying that 2-1 is a bitch, and I can't recall it...  at all.  So, I want to refresh my memory of that just to see if I did somehow forget a frustrating battle.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Gah, have to go back to work too soon. Too much Castlevania: Judgement yaoi I want to draw ... >.>;;
-Welcome to the Time Rift.

Quoted for truth.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Dracula X: Beat this. Well that was pretty straightforward. At least the final battle featured a (sadly retranslated) DIE MONSTER YOU DON'T BELONG IN THIS WORLD. Fun enough but not a very good game as a platformer, although I liked the graphics and the music is pretty solid. Maria/Richter comments stand.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Wait, Castlevania could do gameplay ever before SotN? The Castlevanias that came before it that I had played felt like riding a bicycle made of bricks through a high-school cafeteria in the middle of a food fight.

[Meeplelard]

Hey! Be fair! Super Castlevania was at least somewhat better than the others!  Its amazing what 8 Direction whipping can do in a game of that style, as does stuff like "Holding Whip Limp."

...why they removed that in Rondo of Blood, I don't know...

[Grefter]

Because Castlevania games have to be shit by law or something.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Castlevania 4 was brutal. Just no holds barred brutal.