Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[SageAcrin]

Bang Shishigami is as manly as Dan Hibiki. *Nod.*

Doesn't Shishigami translate to lion god or something ridiculous like that?

Baldur's Gate 1(Tutu mod):

Yeah, I'm weird and am replaying BG1 with shiny improvements instead of playing newer games.

I blame all the newer games I have being boring or SRPGs. I hit SRPG burnout and never have recovered fully because all the games I want to play are SRPGs.

Maining a Cleric/Ranger so that I have just as many ridiculous spell options as my mage main last time.

Generally taking about half the time as the first run, because I remember what things were completely worthless as sidequests and what wasn't. >_> Plotwise I'm just through the Nashkal Mines, but I've cleared out like 80% of the wilderness sidequests, including the ice cavern at Ulgoth's Beard(At L3/4. That was a pill. WEEEEEEEB SAAAAAAAAVE ME~) and half of Durlag's place(The upper half. The half that matters. <_<).

I think my most common strategy has been "Web stack and free action ring main walks in and smashes the hell out of everything.". Yay cheese.

[Shale]

Bang Shishigami is as manly as Dan Hibiki. *Nod.*

Bang Shishigami wearing a pink Gi while using Bang Install would create a manliness singularity that would consume the universe.

[Sierra]

P3: I still want to punch Ryoji in the face every time I see him.

Almost done with the NG+. Did manage to screw myself out of completing Moon and Fortune, but at least I finished Mitsuru this time (with all of two days to spare). P3 really is ridiculously demanding about full link completion. I think you'd have to answer every single question right, always have a persona of the corresponding arcana when doing link scenes (which is tough the first time through, given persona availability, inventory restrictions, and money concerns) and generally just do everything in the most efficient manner possible. Which would require much advance knowledge of the game anyway. Maybe it's a little easier in FES (I gather you can at least access Moon during vacations there, which would've made enough of a difference for me to finish it here)? But I'm pretty sure anyone claiming they got full completion the first time through P3 vanilla is either a filthy liar or they followed a FAQ very closely.

That, remembering how irritating some of Elizabeth's requests are, and the general shittiness of the plot (in other words, being reminded of everything P4 fixed) mean my rating of the game's going down. I think Soppy's assessment was pretty accurate: if the cast wasn't so endearing, the game would be beyond redemption.

Oh yes, I tried fighting Elizabeth, too. ...Fuck that.

[Taishyr]

Cid: Yeah, I half-FAQ'd P3FES and got full SLink. This being said, I heard in vanilla P3 the full complete in one turn requires, amongst the inanity you listed, forcing someone to reverse because it makes the link go up faster IIRC.

EDIT: Half-FAQing being looking at the FAQ, noting what seemed like important "do-by" dates, then just improvising while making sure I hit those dates. Made one error which kicked me back a day, but.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VPDS - I'm a day late, but I really need to state this:

Helgi's Sword is freaking retarded. Yoohoo, 200 Attack, 3-Attack, SC-able sword with added Dark-elemental damage. This is possibly even better than Angel Slayer on Wylfred in practice (partly because Wyl has a great base magic stat, but still).

[Twilkitri]

Rogue Galaxy

O frabjous day! We've been pressganged into the MIO fanclub! Just what we allas wanted!

Following an in-game reveal scene that roadkill could have seen coming a mile off, we are off to the Mining Planet where it is dark and overrun by Mafia. And where Kisala wants to go on her days off, apparently. I deem that this planet is a take on Kessel, although Kessel is scrubbily tiny whereas apparently 40% of the metal used in the galaxy is mined on this planet, so either the galaxy is very very small or this planet is very very huge.

I've managed to earn the bounties on half the regular enemies I've seen so far in comparatively little time which is a nice trend, and the other half don't show up in the place I was spending my time. Jellymen can go jump; I have taken to just breaking the barrier on each and then wiping them all out with Desert Wind. Hopefully the barrier system does not become increasingly prevalent.

[Sierra]

Cid: Yeah, I half-FAQ'd P3FES and got full SLink. This being said, I heard in vanilla P3 the full complete in one turn requires, amongst the inanity you listed, forcing someone to reverse because it makes the link go up faster IIRC.

EDIT: Half-FAQing being looking at the FAQ, noting what seemed like important "do-by" dates, then just improvising while making sure I hit those dates. Made one error which kicked me back a day, but.

Yeah. GameFAQs has a guide for doing it in one cycle. Said guide has the last link (Sun, idly) being maxed out on Jan. 31. Yes, the last day of the game. If there's a margin for error in P3 vanilla, it is absolutely infinitesimal.

I did resort to checking a FAQ regularly about halfway through the replay, for the record, because it became apparent that various mistaken answers on my part were slowing things down dangerously. Good thing I did--it probably made the difference in regards to having time to finish Emperor/Empress (both completed in the last week of the game).

[Shale]

Played the demo of Batman: Arkham Asylum. The control scheme desperately cries out for gamepad support (and I hope that's only missing because it's a demo), but otherwise it is a damn fine Batman game, and I'm not sure we've ever had one of those before. The combat's fun, the stealth gameplay is very robust and involves the patented Batman "drop in behind a mook on a grappling line, grab him, leave him as a warning to others" routine, which is awesome.

Style is top-notch too, as you'd expect from Paul Dini, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. The only weak link there was Harley Quinn; Her new look is really, really stupid and her actress just isn't into it. Either Arleen Sorkin's just doing it for the paycheck or whoever they got to replace her is putting all her effort into doing an Arleen Sorkin impression and didn't have anything left to actually act.

[Yoshiken]

Breath of Fire IV: SAMURAI NINJA DOG YEEEEAAAAHHH

[Niu]

*facepalm* Bah, I forgot the bit about Laguz losing their powers.

I dunno, though.  It seems to me that, in the absence of other information, concluding that it was a punishment from the goddess is the most logical conclusion.  So, his actions in the beginning seem like a desperate but perhaps necessary step in order to hold things together and prevent further damage.
The bad part is that he felt so guilty over this, and was so busy feeling sorry for himself/the branded, that he neglected his role entirely and let the world go to shit around him.  Essentially, while he might have prevented a panic in the wake of his original loss of power, without its key mediator the world ended up in exactly the same position... except even worse because the one guy Ashura might have listened to was urging her to judge everyone as unworthy out of guilt and despair.

And you just restated the reason WHY I want him to die a cold and painful death.
I mean, such brilliant logic, blaming everyone to be discriminating bastards edspite you MADE them into it.
He just don't want to face the reality that chaos would rise sooner or later after he lost his power and trying to convince himself that nothing would happen if he can come up with a belivable, yet horrifying lie, and then he wants everyone to die for him after everything has backfired in the maximum altitude. The level of delusion and hypocrisy is beyond ridicule, wow, have everyone die for YOUR sin?

Mother fucker, FE10's true ending is the crapiest thing ever by allowing this indecent son of bitch to live.

[Meeplelard]

Aria of Sorrow: Just beat Balore.  The Balmung is pretty obscene, and to think I was impressed by Laevetain just before it.

Balore was a douche fight...til I learned you can jump on his hands, then he became pretty routine.  Second half of the fight looks a lot worse than it really was.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VPDS - I thought a Seraphic Gate couldn't be more glorious than VP2's with the Dog Theater.

I was utterly, entirely wrong. Long live the Gate.

[Shale]

DQ4r: Hero's chapter! Recruited the sisters, powered up for a while, trekked through the desert. I guess now I walk some more?

[Dark Holy Elf]

VPDS - I thought a Seraphic Gate couldn't be more glorious than VP2's with the Dog Theater.

I was utterly, entirely wrong. Long live the Gate.

[Hunter Sopko]

Cid: Yeah, I half-FAQ'd P3FES and got full SLink. This being said, I heard in vanilla P3 the full complete in one turn requires, amongst the inanity you listed, forcing someone to reverse because it makes the link go up faster IIRC.

EDIT: Half-FAQing being looking at the FAQ, noting what seemed like important "do-by" dates, then just improvising while making sure I hit those dates. Made one error which kicked me back a day, but.

Yeah. GameFAQs has a guide for doing it in one cycle. Said guide has the last link (Sun, idly) being maxed out on Jan. 31. Yes, the last day of the game. If there's a margin for error in P3 vanilla, it is absolutely infinitesimal.

I did resort to checking a FAQ regularly about halfway through the replay, for the record, because it became apparent that various mistaken answers on my part were slowing things down dangerously. Good thing I did--it probably made the difference in regards to having time to finish Emperor/Empress (both completed in the last week of the game).

Yeah. The FES max guide has you finishing your last link on Jan 28th or 29th I think. I still was 4 ranks short of finishing just due to my own mistakes. Moon at 8, Justice and Fortune at 9, the rest were maxed.

I didn't find anything bad about Elizabeth's requests, really, other than maybe the fusion ones. I watched a video of someone fighting Elizabeth in hard mode and laughed about how I'd never bother doing that ever ever.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Ghostbusters:

IT'S FUCKING GHOSTBUSTERS.

[Captain K.]

Helgi's Sword is freaking retarded. Yoohoo, 200 Attack, 3-Attack, SC-able sword with added Dark-elemental damage. This is possibly even better than Angel Slayer on Wylfred in practice (partly because Wyl has a great base magic stat, but still).

Magic doesn't affect elemental attacks.  Helgi's just does a flat +50% Dark damage.  And yes, it's considerably better than the "Angel Slayer" against Lenneth, who is weak to Dark.

[superaielman]

DQ4r: Hero's chapter! Recruited the sisters, powered up for a while, trekked through the desert. I guess now I walk some more?

Walk south, yeah. You run into a town soon enough. Did you abuse Taloon's shop in chapter 3?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VPDS - Shishio meido is in loooooooooooooooove~

Wylfred's chances of survival currently reach over twenty digits. In the negatives.

[Shale]

Walk south, yeah. You run into a town soon enough. Did you abuse Taloon's shop in chapter 3?

Abuse how?

[Sierra]

I didn't find anything bad about Elizabeth's requests, really, other than maybe the fusion ones. I watched a video of someone fighting Elizabeth in hard mode and laughed about how I'd never bother doing that ever ever.

To clarify, the ones that got to me were the "Retrieve X number of this item from this monster" requests. Because the drop rates are something like 20-25% per monster and you can fight a whole group of the enemy in question and get none of the required item. (P4 made the drop rate 100% for requests like this, by comparison. Maybe FES did too? I dunno.) Since you usually have to fight several battles just to even find the enemy in question, this can get annoying. Also, Shadow Shard (game tells you its on floors 165-168. Turns out, it's on floors 168, 171, 181, 184, and you have a 10% chance of it showing up each time you go to one of those floors. Ugh). In short, a lot of them require you to revisit an area repeatedly just in the slim hope that the random element you need will cooperate. It's obnoxious.

[Meeplelard]

Walk south, yeah. You run into a town soon enough. Did you abuse Taloon's shop in chapter 3?

Abuse how?

Taloon's money doesn't transfer from his quest to Solofia's...but his item stock does.  Given his story has silly awesome item drops (Steel Sword and Iron Armors as relatively common drops from easy enemies), you can horde a lot of these, and leave them in his inventory.  When he joins up in the Main Storyline, you can then sell this horde and get lots of cash that way.

At least, that's what I THINK Super means.

[OblivionKnight]

Also getting a Sword of Malice for yourself, at least.  I stockpiled Swords of Malice for my game - then again, i r crazy

[Hunter Sopko]

To clarify, the ones that got to me were the "Retrieve X number of this item from this monster" requests. Because the drop rates are something like 20-25% per monster and you can fight a whole group of the enemy in question and get none of the required item. (P4 made the drop rate 100% for requests like this, by comparison. Maybe FES did too? I dunno.) Since you usually have to fight several battles just to even find the enemy in question, this can get annoying. Also, Shadow Shard (game tells you its on floors 165-168. Turns out, it's on floors 168, 171, 181, 184, and you have a 10% chance of it showing up each time you go to one of those floors. Ugh). In short, a lot of them require you to revisit an area repeatedly just in the slim hope that the random element you need will cooperate. It's obnoxious.

Maybe I'm just lucky then. I would say they were about 50% for me. I never really had to go back in order to get stuff (though this is helped by not bothering with the Wealth Hand series of requests).

[superaielman]

You can stockpile gear in Taloon's chapter, yeah. There's an infinite money trick there with the shop his wife opens as well.