Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Sierra]

Potions of fire resist are your best friend against dragons El Cid (Greater Warmth Balm or something).  There are some in shops if needed, slap one on at least your tank, keep your healer a fair ways away from the dragon and turn the dragon around away from your party, should slowly be able to chip it down.

That was basically the plan, just didn't have the resources to slog through it. Only had one of the fire-resist items in my inventory at the time, threw that and an anti-physical buff on the MC but it wasn't enough to last through the whole fight. Could last for a while, but the need for healing was still near constant and I just got worn down once I ran out of good potions. Heal alone couldn't keep up. And if the dragon decided to pin the MC and just start chowing down then it was fucking over right there. Is there any way to stop that shit? Anyway, will go back later properly equipped (and with Morrigan instead of Oghren. Ranged attack = better. Oghren would always die quickly because I couldn't keep both him and the MC alive at the same time).

DA: Fuck Gaxkang.

[Grefter]

Nope, being able to survive the burst of the pinning is the challenge really.  When I had 70% fire resist I found the burst from pinning the only really threatening thing, but yeah I may have had more potions at that point.

[Scar]

Anyone have Borderlands for the PC? I wouldn't mind playing with someone else!

My user name is Rad_Shadow

[Monkeyfinger]

I used shale to tank the dragon and kept the dragon in between him and everyone else. Stoneheart and taunt insured no one else got hit unless he died, and a large fire crystal made that rare - rare enough that Wynne could just revive him whenever it happened.

[Sierra]

I don't actually have Shale, sadly. Redemption code, for whatever reason, does not work. It could be that I stupidly forgot to log in before trying to use it and the Bioware database marked it as "used" after my first abortive attempt. In any event, no golem for me.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

That I would enjoy the game more on Hard Mode was the second thing I learned about the game, right after "It has Flay and he is possibly even more insane than before".

"Possibly"? Well played euphemism, my good sir.

[Monkeyfinger]

I don't actually have Shale, sadly. Redemption code, for whatever reason, does not work. It could be that I stupidly forgot to log in before trying to use it and the Bioware database marked it as "used" after my first abortive attempt. In any event, no golem for me.

Did you enter it into the right place?

http://social.bioware.com/redeem_code.php

And use the right code? (The shorter, 16 digit one)

[DjinnAndTonic]

Shining Force 2: Finished this. Cute little game. Better than expected. Overall positive feeling after finishing it. Objectively boring as hell. I think the currently ranked fighters after the latest culling is -just- right for a game of this caliber.

The bonus battle at the end was pretty cool, though.


Persona 4: Aaand back to this after that little diversion. P4 is definitely a weekend game, and I have so few weekends free. But this weekend is good, and I got a lot done in the game. Really fun, the characters are starting to mesh really well. I've been keeping Chie in my team full-time, switching out the other two slots occasionally. Teddie and Chie in the same team sucks for variety, so Teddie's only been in my party once. Yukiko's levels are lagging a bit, but I like using her.

Definitely think I'm settling into a predominantly damage-based team with Yosuke, Chie, Kanji... Souji's playing healer. Social Links are coming along well, though I need to do more of Kanji's with how often he's in my party. It'd be nice if he was doing more random criticals and status-healing like the others.

Rise is awesome.

Just finished Mitsuo's dungeon. Rank Mitsuo now.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

* Jo'ou Ranbu twitches at the idea of constantly swapping teams in Persona.

[DjinnAndTonic]

It's not that bad at this point? Maybe it gets worse later, but right now, I have no trouble keeping up all the PCs just by using them in my runs back to the old dungeons to get Quest items.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

It's not that bad in a vacuum, no (and in practice, it'll probably just mean you'll grind a bit more, but I'd just rather avoid outright grinding period), but P3-P4's mechanics where level is the god stat make swapping around -hugely inefficient-, since you're spreading level gains thin throughout a large party, and the game gives you absolutely no reason to spread that experience among party members you won't use (no forced PCs at absolutely any point once you begin swapping). I like concentrating experience as much as possible to keep the level spread not only even, but the highest it can be while avoiding grinding, since I tend to do dungeons in at most two forays and I don't do item farming in general. Swapping and using multiple parties just weakens you in the long run (and dear god SMT needs to abandon that design tenet already, it's stupid).

[Pyro]

ToS2:

Game continues to be better than ToS1, and in general is entertaining. Although you can't permanently learn skills off of equips like in ToV (permanent skills are gained via levelling), the skill equip system is interesting enough to warrant hype. It does indeed breed specialized twinking, which is always good. You can focus on durability or damage, for example, or give Marta a sleep-inducing physical by sacrificing some attack power (and oh my god status being good in this game is so O_o inducing considering it is Tales).

I'm a tad overlevelled right now it seems (2 more than Presea who is with me now), so I'm going to hold off on fighting randoms for a while. The gameplay is decent enough. Better than Abyss by virtue of having more accessible customizing, better than ToS1 by virtue of Free-run/interesting variants on combos/monster recruiting/tonnes of after-battle skits!

Plot is silliness but at least it isn't as convoluted as ToS1/TotA. There is a god you are trying to resurrect and some people in a resistance organization want to use that god for bad stuff. One of the resistance organization members has a speshul motive and is clearly the designated true villain/antagonist. Insert references to ToS1's overall plot (though less than you might think). The theme with persecution is still silly and still present, but it isn't the main focus.

The characters make up for the lame plot for the most part. Emil/Marta work as a team and the dynamic there is good stuff. Well it is more a love triangle sort of deal, since Emil basically has split personalities. Their relationship is successfully utilized as a vehicle for developing the both of them, which is all I can really ask for. That it is funny/charming at times is good enough for me. The ToS1 cast are all static characters of course who only get a chance to show their personalities instead of develop them. That said, Presea endeared herself more in the first five minutes of ToS2 than in all of ToS1.

The nature of being a sequel to a finished game (that had left no intended threads for a sequel) makes the game feel like (kinda poor) fanfiction at times which is unfortunate. The game's plot is focused on something you never even saw mentioned in ToS1, so the tie-in there isn't even required. To say nothing of how odd it is to have two sets of elemental spirits/monsters.

[Yoshiken]

Finally started vanilla FFT. I wish my emulator ran a little quicker, but no faults with the game itself so far. Took me a while to find the whole ability menu thing, but that's why in-game tutorials exist! Job system hype, as per usual from me, etc, etc. I'm already hating Gafgarion, Delita and Algus, but I'm guessing Delita changes drastically from the hype I've seen of him. I still find myself laughing every time Ramza yells anything, thanks to the LFT 'scripts' by Tide+others, be it in the actual script or the in-battle move. ZALBAAAAAAAG.

[Grefter]

FFT has an in game tutorial that I HIGHLY reccomend.  I cannot specify enough how great that thing is.  Should be available from the menu when you start the game up.

[superaielman]

Uncool, minion. Uncool.

LFT- Goland down. Need to cruise through the plot fights now and pick up the rest of the crew.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Uncool? Dude, you haven't experienced the glory of FFT if you haven't read Daravon's tutorials.

[Pyro]

ToS2:

Did the twilight ruins up to the boss, got the equipment that gave Marta 1 TP cost on all spells and 1 second casting times. She could auto-life the entire team and throw out damage spells like nobodies business. Oddly enough I still lost to the boss of the thing because it was Light element so Marta couldn't just rape it effortlessly and somehow the fucker got through all of my auto-lifes when I let my attention slip for a moment and OHKO'd my entire party (twice, mind) with a Meteor Storm.

HATE.

[Mad Fnorder]

Anyone have Borderlands for the PC? I wouldn't mind playing with someone else!

My user name is Rad_Shadow

I'm castolari on Borderlands. I'll add ya.

[Excal]

Snow, the thing you're forgetting is that the Exp gain is kinda like a Suikoden in that your level determines how much Exp you gain from a fight (My P3 replay is very definately emphasizing that, since it's taken until June to start consistantly hitting three digit Exp gains).  I know this meant that my technique of just setting whoever the two lowest level people (and lowest level healer) worked fine for all two and a half games.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Snow, the thing you're forgetting is that the Exp gain is kinda like a Suikoden in that your level determines how much Exp you gain from a fight (My P3 replay is very definately emphasizing that, since it's taken until June to start consistantly hitting three digit Exp gains).  I know this meant that my technique of just setting whoever the two lowest level people (and lowest level healer) worked fine for all two and a half games.

It still ends up emphasizing a bit of grinding (even if somewhat involuntary) if you leave your PCs out for even one full dungeon, because the scaling isn't strong enough to even out the levels entirely if the gap gets even remotely noticeable (in P4, it -definitely does-, as your level gain ranges from ten to fifteen levels per dungeon - unless you don't mind being somewhat underlevelled, which I -do- in games where level is the god stat, and I honestly don't like the idea of grinding much, it's a waste of time. I'm not saying swapping in P3-4 completely fucks you over, but it's hard to argue that it's a somewhat inefficient way of raising PCs due to the mechanical emphasis on levels, and the way the swapping and XP handling was managed still leaves plenty to be desired.

[Yakumo]

Anyone have Borderlands for the PC? I wouldn't mind playing with someone else!

My user name is Rad_Shadow

I'm castolari on Borderlands. I'll add ya.

I don't have it quite yet but I've ordered it, should have it soon.

[Grefter]

Wait what?  It isn't out on PC there yet?  Steam harder.  It is a fun game, have fun with it.

[Yakumo]

No, it is out on PC.  Just, I got it for $15 less by ordering a boxed copy online and it has to ship.

[Grefter]

Dragon Age - Finished.  Good game, very much in the same vein as Baldur's Gate, finally something else in that style.  There is some definite NWN in there as well, but that isn't all bad.  Very worth playing.  There is a bit overly much mass enemy horde (far more NWN there than BG, but BG has its share of overly long dungeons), but overall worth it.

PC wrap up I guess.  Sword and Shield warrior with Reaver and Champion picked.  Alright class, will get you through normal.  Future plays are probably going to be Easy because fuck I don't care anymore.  Mage next I think and I want to just be able to firebomb everything into oblivion, so Easy to avoid Friendly Fire.  After that I want to do a Rogue and I just couldn't be arsed playing one on anything harder at the moment unless they do a bit of fixing on them.  Dwarf Commoner we a hell of a lot of fun. Human mage I suppose and then follow it up with City Elf rogue.

Dog - Is awesome, but yeah really needs to at least have 7 of his 8 talents to be good.  Very good late game though, set him to rape mages and have good times when there is someone else to keep all the other crap off him.

Alistair - He is alright but I ended up going the other ending route because just seemed most reasonable, which surprised me, I knew it was coming and did NOT expect it to pan out that way.  SPOILAR NPCs reasons feel very tenuous at best, but the game does frame it fairly well and it does work well for his character to be the tragic hero.  Alistair will probably get to be the guy holding everything when I get around to Rogue so that I can stick things in them.

Morrigan - Eh I actually like that choice she gives you at the end, a lot of the choices in the game actually gave me pause to think about and that was one of them.  Pretty much happy with her character, probably best Female in a Bioware game since Viconia or Jaheira.  She isn't really likable, but she doesn't HAVE to be.  Will take her up on it next play through since the world will be burning.  Solid character pretty much because she has Cone of Cold, but hey can't really go wrong there.  Rest of her spells are meh, but you can easy turn her into a healer as needed.  Edit - Oh yeah, another case of shame about the dress sense of the most interesting female in a game.  Yeah it makes her appealing to some people, but faahhhhhhh.

Wynne - Healer, you should use Wynne.  She doesn't really need to do anything else, I threw her a few healing spells then just went fuck it, got Haste and maxed out Arcane Warrior on her just to get more mana regen.  Character wise nothing amazing, but not annoying either.

Leliana - Ignoring the barely above Deus Ex level French accent she is pretty alright (Considering they are in Canada this may be a regional thing or they somehow totally screwed it up ooooorrrrrrrr the French actually sound pretty weird and Deus Ex did it way better than I gave it credit).  Nun chick rogue?  Okay, oh hey she is a reformed spy.  And then it turns out she isn't quite as reformed as she wanted to be, but is at least a good person at heart.  Not bad.  She rode the tricycle.  Not really great either.  Gameplay wise, I gave her bows.  Bows suck.  But I took her along for lock picking since you get her first out of the thieves and Zevran starts with no points in it (Honestly 4 feats to pick locks is probably a bit over cost considering how many talents rogues need to get aaaaand they actually have some good choices from specialisation to boot).  She was equip and forget party member there to open things, acceptable since it is a role you pretty much have to fill out and to do a rogue well you need to micromanage them a lot.

Zevran - I actually like this guy.  Swings both ways fairly openly and entirely unrepentant killer guy, but he is actually capable of being funny and is a smooth operator operating correctly.  Didn't really use him gameplay wise though, seemed like he would mostly lose his damage to invest the feats in lock picking and that is all I would take him for.  So lose/lose situation there.

Sten - Worf.  zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Oghren - Could have been fun?  Has pimpstache of doom, but didn't care enough to really do much other than try to get him laid because well fuck, you gotta help a brother out.

[Monkeyfinger]

Didn't get Shale?