Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Idun]

I'm one hand clapping for Kingdom Hearts 2.


awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[Ultradude]

I'm one hand clapping for Kingdom Hearts 2.


awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Make sure you clean up after yourself.

[Idun]

The fourth or whatever (fifth?) version of Xemnas was a bitch when I had to dodge all 9.9billionredraysofhate but I discovered just slowly hitting the X and triangle rather than just triangle made the battle like, 29312093103910293 more easy. Like, the hardest boss I had was at Beast's Castle when Mickey had to intervene.

[Idun]

Oh, yeah and Sanctuary is one of the best vocal main theme song in an RPG that I've ever heard. Hands down. And I hate the majority of other voices with melodies. OMG BACKLOG IS GOING DOWN

[Grefter]

You just lost any credibility you ever had (Which is okay, it was none anyway).

[Yoshiken]

Like, the hardest boss I had was at Beast's Castle when Mickey had to intervene.

Xaldin? Yeah, Xaldin's a bitch. Worse yet was that Mickey didn't intervene for me in 7 tries. I'd fucked up on a previous boss, so I had an 80% chance of him arriving or something?

[Idun]

I dunno. So CK says Mickey intervenes with various bosses and Xaldin was the first I've ever had Mickey show up. And he showed up 4 times for that boss. :/ That's shitty if there's some percentage.

and k Grefty-poo.

[Grefter]

Tales of Vesperia - Turning this third plot arc into retread of old Tales games standards is exactly what this stand out non-standard Tales plot needed.  GET BACK IN LINE BITCHES YOU WILL CONFORM TO OUR TROPES INSTEAD OF BEING HEAVILLY WRAPPED IN OTHER ANIME TROPES.

Thanks Namco, glad you still have respect for your audience.

[Meeplelard]

In credit, unlike OTHER Tales games, Vesperia knows how to keep it short!  It even does a dungeon BEFORE you realize you're into "ITS STANDARD TALeS PLOT BITCHES!"

(That, and at least one would be dungeon isn't a dungeon at all, just a plot scene.)

...no, I'm not saying this plot was exactly a good thing in anyway, just saying it at least doesn't fuck with Vesperia's gameplay like many other Tales.

[Yoshiken]

I dunno. So CK says Mickey intervenes with various bosses and Xaldin was the first I've ever had Mickey show up. And he showed up 4 times for that boss. :/ That's shitty if there's some percentage.

Yeah, he only appears against certain bosses, and the percentage changes depending on how many times he's appeared before. First time you die on one of these certain bosses, there's a 100% chance of him appearing. 2nd is 80%, then 50%, I think... Not sure how it changes after that, though.
I think I died on the gate in Beast's Castle (...don't ask) and he'd appeared there. That was it, so there was an 80% chance of him appearing on Xaldin. If you'd not died before then, it'd be 100% for you on Xaldin.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Tales of Vesperia - Turning this third plot arc into retread of old Tales games standards is exactly what this stand out non-standard Tales plot needed.  GET BACK IN LINE BITCHES YOU WILL CONFORM TO OUR TROPES INSTEAD OF BEING HEAVILLY WRAPPED IN OTHER ANIME TROPES.

Thanks Namco, glad you still have respect for your audience.

If I had written that game, Chapter 3 would just be a parade of vigilante justice around the world where Yuri breaks in to people's houses and murders the fuck out of them for being assholes.

It would have ruled.

[AndrewRogue]

Demon's Souls: Fuck you, giant death spiders.

Muramasa: Take THAT, giant death spiders!

[Grefter]

If I had written that game, Chapter 3 would just be a parade of vigilante justice around the world where Yuri breaks in to people's houses and murders the fuck out of them for being assholes.

It would have ruled.

It would have.  Tales of Punisher would have been hilarious.  I didn't expect the game to go and do that.  I just would have appreciated to not have that shit again for once (I know they weren't in ToD, but ToD is explanation enough).

Edit - This is to say I don't even MIND them in other Tales games.  It was obviously fairly appropriate in some of them (ToP obviously, ToE spring to mind).  It just didn't need to happen here.

[Idun]

I dunno. So CK says Mickey intervenes with various bosses and Xaldin was the first I've ever had Mickey show up. And he showed up 4 times for that boss. :/ That's shitty if there's some percentage.

Yeah, he only appears against certain bosses, and the percentage changes depending on how many times he's appeared before. First time you die on one of these certain bosses, there's a 100% chance of him appearing. 2nd is 80%, then 50%, I think... Not sure how it changes after that, though.
I think I died on the gate in Beast's Castle (...don't ask) and he'd appeared there. That was it, so there was an 80% chance of him appearing on Xaldin. If you'd not died before then, it'd be 100% for you on Xaldin.

This percentage is based on whether or not you choose to continue if you die rather than resetting the game right? I don't remember how I did on that chandelier-ish boss, but I don't believe I died. It seems like too much luck on my behalf with Xaldin (4 times for Mickey). I was actually somewhat flustered because Mickey has NEVER showed up for me (I was able to beat most bosses w/o restarting except for the mammoth huge groundtree thingy enemy from the Pridelands) and didn't know how to use Mickey or do that charge revive move that I never filled the bar with, but Mickey revived Sora anyway. 4 times. One battle. Those were the only four times my battle record cites too. And Stitch was my most used summon, ad my highest combo was 300 something I think? Not good but I rushed through.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

If I had written that game, Chapter 3 would just be a parade of vigilante justice around the world where Yuri breaks in to people's houses and murders the fuck out of them for being assholes.

It would have ruled.

It would have.  Tales of Punisher would have been hilarious.  I didn't expect the game to go and do that.  I just would have appreciated to not have that shit again for once (I know they weren't in ToD, but ToD is explanation enough).

Edit - This is to say I don't even MIND them in other Tales games.  It was obviously fairly appropriate in some of them (ToP obviously, ToE spring to mind).  It just didn't need to happen here.

I think I'm going to call it "Tales of Dexter" instead, thank you very much.

But yeah, I think I would have liked it better with them sticking with what was honestly a pretty solid story that didn't need to lean on old plot devices. If nothing else, I'd rather it at least kind of touch on the Cumore Brigade and what was left of the Royal Guard and what happened to them, and some kind of inter-Union power struggle.

[Shale]

Bangai-O: EXPLOSIONS. Treasure is awesome.

[Pyro]

The game could have been clever and played up a Flynn v Yuri angle for a good climax, but we got the rather crappy villain cast instead.

Oh well, the game is still by far the best Tales game overall.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I thought Alexei was actually a pretty decent villain. The way he went about setting up his goals and getting things in to position made a lot of sense to me. For example, the Royal Guard being loyal to him versus the Imperial candidate was the result of a decade's worth of stacking the Guard with people who were loyal to him, and exploiting of legal loopholes. And instead of just, say, running in and whacking the entire Council, he made them all look like huge douchebags so that the people would actually WANT him to toss them out of office and take full control.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Oh, yeah and Sanctuary is one of the best vocal main theme song in an RPG that I've ever heard. Hands down. And I hate the majority of other voices with melodies. OMG BACKLOG IS GOING DOWN

Yay, Utada Hikaru fan. Good choice, Idun. Utada's voice is my personal favorite for J-Pop. She's really quite talented, though obviously her style isn't to everyone's tastes. I know Grefter hates J-pop on principle.

[Meeplelard]

*SPOILERS TO ToV.  READ ARE YOU OWN DIGRESSION, ETC.  OK. THEY'RE NOT THAT BIG, BUT THEY'RE STILL SPOILERS*

Eh, Alexei's a walking cliche, frankly.  The Leader of the Royal Guards who everyone loves and respects is actually EVIL!? NO WAY!!!

I will grant the game does subvert the last crisis regarding him, such that for once it WASN'T part of his plan, but more like he fucked up big time cause he was WRONG about the thing he was releasing.

"Hey, I'm going to unleash this ultimate weapon and TAKE OVER THE WORLD!"
*he unleashes...except its not a weapon, but an object that seals off a BIG EVIL MONSTER*
"...wow, I was horribly wrong..."

Just nice to see a villain be COMPLETELY WRONG about his goals for once, and them spit back in his face.  Alexei himself was a lamer, but I will grant the shit he caused being more or less completely by accident in such a way where he goes "oops...I fucked up BIG TIME", and the guy was still an evil prick...yeah...

Duke isn't much better of course.  He's another kind of cliche, as in the Well Intentioned Extremist spliced with "Humans Fail at Life and need to die for this world to be saved!"  Shame too, cause the scene where he gives you Dein Nomos makes you think twice about him being a jerk, and you just kind of accepting that maybe he's like that cause that's just kind of who he is, and he doesn't actually mean to be a total prick...but the last parts of the game sort of undermine this by securing that no, he's just an anti-social jerk.

Really, I love ToV, but its villain cast is weak.  I suppose Barbados or whatever his name was worked for what he was, cause while also a walking cliche, it felt intentional and appropriate here; he's just a temporary antagonist whose obviously not going to be long term.  And Yeager's actually genuinely good cause he ends up being different than you'd expect, and it fits in well with the rest of him.  But most everyone else is just blech.

Though, I will say that I for one was pleased with how Flynn was an ally pretty much the entire game through.  We still got the whole duel that games like this can't avoid, but didn't just pull a forced "Rar, Flynn's Lawful Stupid!" bullshit that you expect to keep him in character but force a fight out, but just a simple friendly duel...one provoked by Yuri no less...and in such a manner that just works well with their friendship.  Actually, its nice that Flynn avoids being Lawful Stupid in general; yeah, he's note exactly supporting Yuri's extreme actions...but he still tolerates them enough to let Yuri get away with it, cause they DO have positive impacts!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

To Djinn: I think you just made CK spontaneously lose a leg and an eye.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Yes, I'm aware of CK's intense irrational hatred of Utada Hikaru. I don't really understand it, but I accept it. She's not for everybody, but overall, she's probably the best you can hope for from J-Pop. Her voice doesn't break, she doesn't miss notes, her English is pretty fluent from her time spent in America (not perfect, but not even close to the worst, and avoids most of the cliched problems that Japanese speakers have with English), and her compositions are memorable and catchy. She writes the majority of her own music from what I'm told, so at least she is something resembling an authentic musician, which is more than I can say for any of America's pop bands.

FF4 DS: Started this while on vacation. It's fun, but I don't know how long I'll be playing it.

Why the hell won't Auto-Potion kick in when Cecil is about to die?

At Mt. Hobbs, Yang get. Died to the bombs thanks to leaving the DS on while I was transferring trains and the boss counted down to zero while my characters were waiting for me to give them orders. Decided to stop for a while.

Shining Force 2: Because I had some spare time to kill and playing the PS2 was an option, I started this one (it was next on my backlog of ranked games). Actually, it's fairly enjoyable due to its completely straightforward nature. There's just nothing to it. Easy and mindless wastes time well, and the story sequences are cheesy in that 'the translator doesn't have enough textspace!' kind of way. Still miles ahead of ShF1, and probably the remake too, for all that the remake tried really hard to give the Force members something resembling personalities (or at least quirks).

Anyway, Kiwi is ridiculously adorable and I want to use him in final party even though he sucks. But hey! Better than Jogurt!

I've also been babying Slade at Tai's suggestion and it has already started paying off now that I can destroy worlds with only a dagger! (L11). Bowie talks occasionally, but he feels more like a silent protagonist than Max did.

AI-controlled Peter is a goddamn killthief and needs to go to the special hell for child molesters and people who talk during movies.

Having more fun trying to come up with inappropriate ways to interpret the horrible class acronyms than anything else, though. SDMN, PRST, KNTE, THIF, PHNK.

SDMN is clearly short for Sodomist N. >.>;;

I think we figured out that PHNK is supposed to 'Phoenix Kid', which is Peter's unpromoted class (promoted: PHNX). But still have no idea what the 'E' in KNTE is supposed to be (Chester's unpromoted class). Presumably Knight-something, but who knows? Wiki lists his class as 'Paladin', so I'm lost.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Eh, Alexei's a walking cliche, frankly.  The Leader of the Royal Guards who everyone loves and respects is actually EVIL!? NO WAY!!!

It's not the fact that he turned out to be evil that is intriguing, it's the way he does things that I like. He acts upon his goals in such a fashion that I could see a normal person in that kind of scenario actually doing that. Like I said, the Royal Guard aren't loyal to him because they are teh ebil, it's because he's spent ten years cherry-picking people from the Knights for their loyalty to him and consolidating them in to one unit. It's a tactic that has worked well historically and it makes more sense than somehow having the most elite unit in the Empire's military turn out to be loaded with ax-crazy babykillers and nobody noticed.

Duke isn't much better of course.  He's another kind of cliche, as in the Well Intentioned Extremist spliced with "Humans Fail at Life and need to die for this world to be saved!"  Shame too, cause the scene where he gives you Dein Nomos makes you think twice about him being a jerk, and you just kind of accepting that maybe he's like that cause that's just kind of who he is, and he doesn't actually mean to be a total prick...but the last parts of the game sort of undermine this by securing that no, he's just an anti-social jerk.

I won't defend Duke, because Duke doesn't have the excuse that Alexei has of having reasonably-scaled goals executed in fashions that make sense.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Eh, Alexei's a walking cliche, frankly.  The Leader of the Royal Guards who everyone loves and respects is actually EVIL!? NO WAY!!!

It's not the fact that he turned out to be evil that is intriguing, it's the way he does things that I like. He acts upon his goals in such a fashion that I could see a normal person in that kind of scenario actually doing that. Like I said, the Royal Guard aren't loyal to him because they are teh ebil, it's because he's spent ten years cherry-picking people from the Knights for their loyalty to him and consolidating them in to one unit. It's a tactic that has worked well historically and it makes more sense than somehow having the most elite unit in the Empire's military turn out to be loaded with ax-crazy babykillers and nobody noticed.

It's nice that they actually spell this out for you in ToV, but since this is proven historical tactic, I had always assumed that this is how -all- generically evil RPG military commanders got their elite troops... >.>;;

So, it's not really something I'd give Alexei credit for unless the way the story presents it is particularly creative... (and since I don't remember how ToV did it, I'm going to assume it wasn't that great).

[Ultradude]

I'll side-step this J-pop discussion for now to keep from fanboying over Maaya Sakamoto too much, but just that Utada is not one of my favorite artists but objectively pretty awesome.

And to stay on topic, how many generics should I have on my team in Disgaea DS? Right now I've just got two mages, a brawler, a prinny, and a cleric.