Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Bardiche]

I've played this game before you know. It's just been so godawful long I'm like, "WHEEEEEE, WHAT I DOING, HOW I SHOT INVENTION".

I don't like Maria. Still don't. Maybe because I like playing as Nel (spamming heals olol), and Maria alters between I WILL NOT USE MP AT ALL to I AM GOING TO STAKE EVERYTHING ON THIS SINGLE FIGHT, MP USING GALOOOOOOOOORE. Star Ocean 3 frustrates the hell out of me for not allowing two-player mode and just... you know... fighting with only ONE dumb AI and a smart player beside you. (usually smart, ymmv)

Fayt, Nel and DASHING BLONDE GUY WITH THE HUGE TORSO AND GOOD LOOKS forever. At least until I get Peppy.

//EDIT:
NOT THAT I DON'T APPRECIATE THE OFFER OF ASSISTANCE. I'll bother you whenever I need to. ^_^

[Clear Tranquil]

Oh yeah, no offence I just like discussing SO3  Besides I don't remember if you completed it before or just played to a certain point  That and I like to cover stuff in case it hasn't been covered and for other peeps reading too for future reference just in case  It's good to cover old ground sometimes too ^_^

I don't like Maria either. She's mean to Peppy. Well quite mean in general overall to peeps. This has nothing to do w/th her role in battle though Yeah Maria's starts out terrible though her AI, etc ... it's easily fixable but yeah Nel/Peppy/Fayt-Cliff team yeah!

You can micromanage between dumb AIs if you can be assed 

Who was your first team - mine's was Nel/Albel/Sophia 

[Bardiche]

I remember Fayt, PRETTY GUY and Nel as being my golden trio. Never really did saw much need for the others who joined you. Never quite liked mages in my Star Ocean either.

I MIGHT ACTUALLY NOT HAVE FINISHED IT, IDK. My lack of worthwhile memories (I do remember the dragon fight having awesome music. What was his name, Croysel? I also *know* I got Fayt's girl back at some point and I might've just gone fuckitall and restarted IDK, I felt the plot was trolling me at some point ;_; ) could be explained that way!

[Sierra]

But it's MK cast, they're flanderrifically animetastic by nature. Being grated by them is hardly unexpected or not understandable. At least Flay has managed to become more insane. >_>

Minus that I basically liked most everyone in MK 1 to some degree! So this is serious downgrade

Seconding this. MK2 has mostly failed to make me care about anyone, which is a major problem when the game expects you to play it twice just for a proper ending (which was already a bad idea). Lily has some minor trainwreck value, I suppose ("I wish Raze would make a collar for me..."); in this cast, I'll take what I can get. Chloe's the only worthwhile person on Ulrika's side, and this stems mostly from her wishing nothing but death and destruction on her dimwitted colleagues.

Tony's probably the most likable person around. He's still trying to put up the tough guy act, but you can tell he's a total softie now.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Tony's probably the most likable person around. He's still trying to put up the tough guy act, but you can tell he's a total softie now.

He wasn't a total softie then? Which bizarro version of MK1 did you play?

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I ran Albel, Cliff and Nel. I'm generally incapable of not having Albel in my group, as the game is not as enjoyable without his psychotic cackling.

[Chisa]

Cliff/Nel/Pep was my first endgame party.  Cliff was usually on AI for FoF lockdown and SMASH, and I'd control one of the others.  Really ought to finish the superbosses some day, but last time I tried, Fayt kicked my ass in under 30 seconds.

As for what I'm playing now, finally went out and picked up MK.  Just past getting Muppy, and Nikki and Anna are basically my win buttons.  Pamela and Roxis too, to a lesser extent.  Flay needs to get more Book, because I really want to use him more.

[Shale]

I ran Albel, Fayt and Nel, I think? Can't quite remember.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Three of Nel/Maria/Cliff/Pep, to chime in. Not much to say, they all have their purposes. Game is cool like that.


DQ4 - Reached the final save point, about to assault the four towers. Game definitely gets more forgettable towards the end. DRAGON QUEST GAMEPLAY unwinds to be kinda boring when you don't feel like the individual decisions matter towards dungeon conservation and winning a fight efficiently and safely, and enemies just don't keep up. Plot is worse than I remembered, as I think I've mentioned. PCs barely talk, and what little story there is is underexplained and handwaved.

[Dhyerwolf]

But it's MK cast, they're flanderrifically animetastic by nature. Being grated by them is hardly unexpected or not understandable. At least Flay has managed to become more insane. >_>

Minus that I basically liked most everyone in MK 1 to some degree! So this is serious downgrade

Seconding this. MK2 has mostly failed to make me care about anyone, which is a major problem when the game expects you to play it twice just for a proper ending (which was already a bad idea). Lily has some minor trainwreck value, I suppose ("I wish Raze would make a collar for me..."); in this cast, I'll take what I can get. Chloe's the only worthwhile person on Ulrika's side, and this stems mostly from her wishing nothing but death and destruction on her dimwitted colleagues.

Tony's probably the most likable person around. He's still trying to put up the tough guy act, but you can tell he's a total softie now.

I will say that occasionally, when the writers are trying so hard, they've successfully made Lilly off-handedly bitchy in an amusing enough way, and her 2nd character quest was actually somewhat amusing (Although Puniyo was a pretty heavy factor there). I guess this would still fall into taking what you can get.

[Taishyr]

I used Nel/Cliff/Fayt, in the grand tradition of "fffff raising up units i haven't been working on in a skillz-dependant game".

[Sierra]

PST: Ravel.

MK2: Still chipping away at it, albeit slowly. Raze chapter six, character quests = apathy.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

MK2 - Finished C4. Marta, you fucking bitch.

[Cotigo]

Phoenix Wright 3:

Beaten.  Last chapter, I think, as a standalone chapter, was ultimately worse than 1-5 and 2-4, but those two are the best standalone chapters in the series, so that's not necessarily bad.  As a game, PW3 actually has a coherent narrative that spans 3 of its chapters, and spans into two chapters from the other two games.  And even 2-2 and 2-3 were at least nice in characterizing Godot, so it's easily got a better story than the other two PWs.  I'm probably also favoring it a little for finally wrapping up the two loose plot threads in the other two games satisfactorily. 

I'm kind of glad Apollo Justice will be picking up with a new cast--not too much more to be done with this, aside from more exploration of Edgeworth and Franziska.  Frankly not too excited to play it, though, because it is not Edgeworth Investigations.  3-5 showed that Edgeworth is 1000x better of a Point of View character than Phoenix Wright so that game should be waaaaay more interesting, but that's purely conjecture.

[Grefter]

Tony's probably the most likable person around. He's still trying to put up the tough guy act, but you can tell he's a total softie now.

He wasn't a total softie then? Which bizarro version of MK1 did you play?

Did you not play the one where he set fire a tree just to be a dick?  Sure he was being a total try hard there, but he wasn't being a soft cock either.  It wasn't evil, it was just being a dick, but that isn't soft.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Tony's probably the most likable person around. He's still trying to put up the tough guy act, but you can tell he's a total softie now.

He wasn't a total softie then? Which bizarro version of MK1 did you play?

Did you not play the one where he set fire a tree just to be a dick?  Sure he was being a total try hard there, but he wasn't being a soft cock either.  It wasn't evil, it was just being a dick, but that isn't soft.

There was that, right. But then, he spent the rest of the game getting cocked around by Renee and then I couldn't take him seriously ever again.

[Clear Tranquil]

Oh and wasn't he owned by the grandpa?

P4- My party is equipped with Miori Shirts + Land Badges. Twinking is fun~

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

MK2 - After the landmass of failure that passed for enemies in C4, C5 nicely picked up the slack so far. Randoms are registering on the damage scale and the Cruise Ship job boss was really fun and pretty good. I'm digging this game more than MK1.

[OblivionKnight]

So in the end, P4 gets like a 3-4/10.  Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of you are going to attack me over it, but I didn't like the game much at all.

I really don't have any comments regarding your thoughts on the game at all (you're entitled to your own opinions, and much as people may disagree with them, they're still valid).  My only issue I take offense with is the, "If I said any controversial things about the game I'd get attacked" comment.  While this may have been common moreso in the past (me and FFT, FF6 and ID...others I can't think of), I would think it's been pretty much nullified, and wouldn't be something that pops up.  For instance, NEB going through TotA (and...you?  Can't remember if you discussed that or not when you were playing) was something that he greatly disagreed with a lot of people on, and I don't think anyone said anything to him about it.  Give us some credit - we're assholes, but only when we need to be >_>

On another note, since you mentioned it and Super did...am I the only one that never had a problem back attacking enemies and getting first strike?

Also, I half-figured you were playing it when you said you played only through to the first boss, but also talked about something that was a bit beyond that >_>  Makes sense you were hiding it thinking back on that.

<also, yes, this is a bit after the fact, I know...fucking Philadelphia>

[Sierra]

I honestly don't recall having a serious problem getting initiative in P4.

PST: Nordom > Curst prison and Avernus. Legions fall before the might of a walking box.

[Fudozukushi]

On another note, since you mentioned it and Super did...am I the only one that never had a problem back attacking enemies and getting first strike?

If I was patient I never had a problem with it.

[Cmdr_King]

I think it has everything to do with your levels, from what I could tell.  If you were underlevelled, enemies were larger and more agressive/sensative, meaning they reacted much more quickly to your approach.  So if you weren't really trying to match enemy levels, I can't imagine successfully sneaking up on many enemies to make the back attack.

[Talaysen]

Even on the large enemies I still got initiative most of the time.  It just takes good timing and perception.

[Hunter Sopko]

Finished The Answer. 5/10 game, right under The Journey. While the narrative was a big improvement over The Journey, overall it's a slight step down. There was a very fine line in it's challenge that it liked to dance wildly between enjoyably challenging to outright bullshit, which seriously dragged the game down. The fact that basically nothing happens until about the 60-70% point also is pretty bad, but there's so much good stuff after that point it saved itself from being a 3 or 4. I like how it dealt with the effects of The Journey, because it's always interesting to see how the events of something changed people.

I can't really say it saves all the bullshit that happened in the second half of The Journey though. Needing a second game to work the kinks out of your story is cheating. Kinda like if you gave S4 a better score because Suikoden Tactics answered all the lingering questions it left.

Random yuri innuendo at the end was unintentionally hilarious.

[Excal]

Timing?  Ah, so that's why back attacks don't exist.