Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Shale]

SRW Alpha: Finished stage 8. "ROBO! PUNCH!"  HEll yes. Also hell yes to an actual in-engine cutscene, and to the fact that Combattler V is an engine of destruction. Choudenji Yo-Yo should never be that awesome.

[Clear Tranquil]

I have found that I've been ambushed a lot less on the P4 replay though by virtue of refraining from trying to ambush the enemies myself ... I just stand there and let them run into the front of Souji. That seems to work~

What did you mean by SO3 Taitoro the proficiencies of the battle skills?

[Bardiche]

Just died on SO3. To a random fight.

You can all go die in a fire with your "HAY DEATH ON MP" mechanics, StarOcean makers. ;______;

[Clear Tranquil]

Where was this?

Those breath throwin' thingies in the lava caves?

You can MP TANK later and abuse the low MP pools of enemies by abusing MP damaging skills yourself so all is not lost.

[Taishyr]

Suikoden Tactics: Started, got to ISKAS WANTS TO GO WITH US INTO THE TUNNEL THIS CANNOT BE (A TRAP). Thoughts... Andarc kinda sucks, oddly? Yeah, two shots of OHKO-to-enemies damage... and absolute shit in every other area. Woo.

Rita's admittedly worse but she has a hammer and is thus superior.

The voice acting is so bad (mostly) it's good, Yohm is -obvsly- Kyril's mom who is Kyril's dad after being resurrected by a time-traveling anti-Rune Cannon, and I still find it funny that kid!Kyril was like 100x better than teen!Kyril, even beyond the "i got weaker due to three years of crippling injuries" nerfbat.

[Idun]

Finished Mount Olympus. I'm in Disney's Castle - well, actually I'm in the black and white old cartoon world of the Disney characters. MY favorite part in the game was the corridor leading to Minnie's library where there were a bagillion Heartless and I smashed the crap out of their faces. I was actually disappointed to discover that they were not eternally recurring - not even when I exit the room and re-enter it. Sora got his DMC on.

[Bardiche]

Got frustrated with Star Ocean for a while so decided to do the Epilogue part of Wild ARMs Alter Code F.

Got Zed (hilarious failure), nicked the Humpty Dumpty bros. (forgot to download Full Revive, ffffff)

So! At level 63, decided taking down Leviathan Golem was a marvellous idea. It took me an hour, but I got it in one try.

Since it killed me way earlier (when I just got the boat again), I already knew it'd open with Cyclone. So!

No Water Breaks except on Emma (because I am an idort), but I got FP Advance on Cecilia so she had 63 FP to start with! Opened with Rudy, Jane, Emma. First turn, Jane Follow Me!s, Emma Great Boosters Rudy, Rudy blasts Leviathan for amazing 3100 damage. (against 210,000 HP...)

Leviathan opens with Cyclone and kills Emma immediately, Jane and Rudy almost dead. Rudy's Emergency FP Up! throws him to 100 FP. I immediately switch out Jane for Zed and Rudy for Jack. Zed throws a Revive Berry on Emma, Jack defends. Jack eats a Sting Ray which he easily survives, and now everyone's back alive!

Emma, Jack and Zed re-enter the back and Rudy, Jane and Cecilia take the vanguard. This never changes again during the fight!

First turn, Cecilia immediately Permanence's Rudy, Jane Follow Me!s (boss is faster than everyone but Jane), Rudy Lock-On Gatling Raid for 5500 damage. (not 18 bullets cheese)

Boss hits Rudy for 800 damage. Next turn, Rudy defends and recovers 280 HP thanks to Lifecharger! Jane Follow Me!s, Cecilia invokes Holy Man Sorrow. Leviathan Hydro Pumps Jane, which she barely survives--she now passes 25 FP so I'm happy enough.

Next turn, Rudy Lock Ons another Gatling Raid, Jane Mystics a Potion Berry for 1000 HP (Floral Arts), Cecilia casts Protect. Boss uses Water Zone. (As expected, since he began flying...)

Jane Follow Me!s, Rudy Lock On Gatling Raid, Cecilia invokes Star Prism and throws a Permanence up. At this point, I've won--both Jane and Cecilia recover HP on FP Level Up!, and Jane has 1780 HP, Cecilia has 2080 HP thanks to HP Up 2 + 3. Everytime Water Zone is up, everyone defends to reduce Maelstrom to 200 damage. Whenever I need Heals, Jane Mystics a Potion Berry. Cecilia gives herself Quick, then Reinforce, then casts Permanence again. Afterwards, gives everyone a dose of Resurrection.

Rudy gets replaced for Emma during the Water Zone turn, Emma quickly Great Boosters Cecilia. Cecilia casts Permanence. Jane crits. Emma goes back, Rudy gets back in, and at this point Rudy's only got Snipe Bullets, so his offense is hosed.

Rest of the fight is mostly Cecilia invoking Thunder Fang while casting Lightning every so often and defending every other turn, Jane keeping everyone alive with Mystic Potion Berries and Rudy attacking with Lock-On for epic 480 damage.

210,000 HP gone in one hour. But you know? It was amazingly fun to do. Holy Man Sorrow + Shield/Protect hoses incoming damage fiercely. Reinforced Cecilia makes her a Material whore, seriously.

[Sierra]

PST: Re-finished. Man, I'd forgotten what a total dick Trias was. The questionable nature of his plan is one thing. That whole "You lesser beings should feel honored to be exploited by me" arrogance, though? That's crossing the line. I redeemed him anyway, of course (killed him last time--didn't have a choice then because Vhailor was in the party).

Sending TTO on a wild goose chase to buy time for resurrecting allies sadly caused the game to wig out (graphical issue with the teleportation spell; I don't remember stuff like that happening last time, so I blame Vista), so no epic, full-party beatdown this time. Granted, there's like half a dozen other ways to deal with him, but I like giving my teammates the chance to beat the crap out of him. They deserve the opportunity.

Number of good scenes I didn't see first time through. Dak'kon interaction in general (requires you to class change to mage; I stayed a fighter all through the game on my first run because I wasn't aware of how easy and free of consequences changing classes is in PST), last scene with Mebbeth, Adahn (which is short but just conceptually cool). Wound up NG at the end, despite the fact that I think I made most of the same choices as I did in my first run. I'd guess lying constantly about my name to make Adahn show up made enough of a difference to steer me away from LG. Could not talk Vhailor into killing himself, sadly. Tried all the options, but I must have not had the required stats up to snuff.

Also, bumping game up to 10/10. Ultimately, I don't care if the combat's underwhelming. I could forgive a game with PST's script just about anything. Saying farewell to everyone after dealing with TTO is the most touching scene gaming has produced.

[Dhyerwolf]

Suikoden Tactics: Started, got to ISKAS WANTS TO GO WITH US INTO THE TUNNEL THIS CANNOT BE (A TRAP). Thoughts... Andarc kinda sucks, oddly? Yeah, two shots of OHKO-to-enemies damage... and absolute shit in every other area. Woo.

ST elemental panels are win and should generally be keeping mages afloating anyways.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

MK2 - C6. Man, only Flay could get away with encouraging a student riot and THEN a Battle Royale in a private school.

Also, no CQs on this chapter? Goddammit game I want more Lily trainwrecking NOW.

[Sierra]

Snow: And he's not even done yet. MK1 Flay was merely eccentric by comparison; MK2 Flay is psychotic. He's clearly the game's true villain!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Snow: And he's not even done yet. MK1 Flay was merely eccentric by comparison; MK2 Flay is psychotic. He's clearly the game's true villain!

Considering how Flay ending is canon and all, I'd be highly disappointed if he did any less.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I'd be more impressed with Bardiche if I hadn't done that at level 50. Laser Silhouette over and over and over and over and over

[Fudozukushi]

Snow: And he's not even done yet. MK1 Flay was merely eccentric by comparison; MK2 Flay is psychotic. He's clearly the game's true villain!

Considering how Flay ending is canon and all, I'd be highly disappointed if he did any less.

The entire game is a plan by Flay to increase his armed forces!

[DjinnAndTonic]

P4: Still enjoying this. Finished the Strip Club. Wow at Shadow Rise. SMT elemental weakness system is still Djinn-bait. Even more fun now that P4 has taken out AI-controlled PCs, condensed the elements down, and removed earlygame MT ID. If they would just get rid of the Silent Main who causes Game Over upon death, I would actually hype SMT gameplay instead of merely enjoying it as a guilty pleasure.

I spend so few of my days actually -battling- due to trying to max all SLinks in a single playthrough... Damn addictive Life Sim game.

DQ4: I've recently taken to assigning my students to playing Taloon's chapter for me. The English is simple enough and all they really have to do is mash A when customers come in.

But they're just so damn -happy- to be playing a video game in class. The DS really does bring fun into the classroom. And now the kids know what a Cautery Sword is! Yay!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

MK2 - Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeells yeah, C6 chapter boss -fucking rules-. Fun little gimmick, made him pretty impressively durable, and he used the right kind of offense to pressure the party like a champ along with a few more tricks. Also, it is fucking Boarpoppressor. Seriously, A GIANT BOAR THAT HAS A CANNON TIED TO ITS BACK AND IT SHOOTS SATELLITES. Total badass.

(Flay has the best pets.)

[Shale]

SRW@: First route split done; sacrificed skill points for secrets so I could get the G-3 Gundam, and don't regret it. The thing is a nightmare against land-based enemies, and would be MVP if it could fly. (come on, Minovsky Craft...) Combos are broken and awesome, Combattler is still ridiculous.

[Clear Tranquil]

... hnmm Snow has me intrigued about MKII now. Better than MK? Must be something then. Is it the boss designs and dungeons that does it? Twinking?

Pfff ... be a REAL man Bard!/Roger  

Work the system, work it!

*steals your WA-AF ... hey wait when did that come out in the UK!?

Persona 4- Finished the Marukyu arc. Despite forgetting to equip Yukiko's silence resist fan for the serious boss it never even used Foolish Whisper this time. I go to the work of actually obtaining a silence resist this run and it turns out redundant. Baad! I also wasted too much time buffing for Rise, trying to apply DEF down, the MT ATK buff and Power Charge all at once in between wailing on her w/th the other characters so she scanned before I could smack her w/th a power charge buffed Yoshi Brave Blade. I was trying to lower her HP to 0 ;_; Anyone know if that's possible?

I'm pretty impressed with Chie right now. Her speed really picked up in Marukyu. It was kinda amusing that KANJI was the fastest of my non Yoshi Souji PCs though until Chie + Yuki caught up w/th level AGL boosts. That happened last time too. Yukiko is meh. That healing really doesn't cut it on Hard mode, especially not w/th Yuki's own durability well lack there of. I am reaaally tempted to use Teddie again.

I eat my hat about the ambush thingie, I ate quite a few ambushes in Marukyu. Glad you're still enjoying the game Djinn! The end of the Marukyu arc seems as good a time as any for me to take a break from the replay so ... bon voyage!

Might work on S Links a bit more though ... yeah damn addicting ;_;

[Grefter]

*steals your WA-AF ... hey wait when did that come out in the UK!?

The devil you say, I had to import that shit.

[Bardiche]

I'd be more impressed with Bardiche if I hadn't done that at level 50. Laser Silhouette over and over and over and over and over

How did you ever get the MP to spam Laser Silhouette? Or did you first whore it to max level? >_>

*steals your WA-AF ... hey wait when did that come out in the UK!?

I don't live in the UK. :p

[Clear Tranquil]

... I am confused now. I could have sworn you were not British but living in the UK 

Gref: Not worth it?

[Grefter]

Oh no, it is a lot of fun.  I just hate importing because I have to, I like it to be something I can choose.

[Bardiche]

... I am confused now. I could have sworn you were not British but living in the UK 

I've never claimed anything to that effect. What made you think I live in the UK?

[Clear Tranquil]

I'm just going to blame you and Yoshi being as close as thieves and leave it at that 

Fair enough Gref *nodnods*

Hopefully we'll have the choice for SO4 International!

[Bardiche]

I'm just going to blame you and Yoshi being as close as thieves and leave it at that 

W-we're not close at all. I have no idea whatever gave you that impression.