Let's Play Some Motherf*$&ing Games: 2010!!!!!!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

FE9 - *OSCAR/KIERAN SUPPORT.*

...

*KIERAN/MARCIA SUPPORT.*

......

Kieran is unbalanced.

[BaconForTheSoul]

FE8- Hard/Females/Almost Hardcore

I managed to get Eirika killed off on that damn map with eggs and ranged units.  Oops.  I give up on playing a full hardcore females only mode, but I guess 1 reset will have to do.

Didn't get anyone killed off the entire game.  I think the key was getting everyone to 20/1 before the survive 11 turns map.  That map had spelled my doom a couple of times before, but with everyone at 20/1 and Lute at 20/7 or so I managed to rush Aius and deal with them before Pablo got there.  (Having a ridiculously tanky Amelia helped too.)

Final was 662 turns, 90 on Queen of the White Sands.  A couple maps I had to go extremely slow and a couple of others I just wanted supports.

Characters/Kills!!  (Ranked from least MVPish to MVP!)

10. L'Archel- Did not use
9. Vanessa- Only used on map 5 to rescue citizens from teh evil spider
8. Neimi- 20/12, 129 Kills-  Didn't get a ton of use out of her swords, and her 30HP was beyond awful so I had to keep her in the back a lot.  Surprised she got as high as she did.
7. Eirika- 20/9, 100 kills-  At 20 Eirika had 24 fucking HP.  I'm pretty sure that is awful.  By the time she got promoted a lot of the enemies could one shot her so I got very little use.  Not sure how she even got to 20/8.
6. Natasha- 20/12, 37 kills- Standard healer, helped with her lightning on a couple of maps.  Again I didn't go Bishop since I wanted the movement.  Lots of movement + Psychic = very nice.
5. Tethys- 20, 0 kills-  Was Tethys
4. Marisa- 20/13, 136 kills-  Because I had to be careful about getting her killed I couldn't rambo Marisa as much as I usually do.  Kept her behind a bit although she still killed shit nicely.  Relying on crit is was also risky, hurting her use.
3. Tana- 20/16, 170 kills-  Got pretty tanky and evady later, so I just sent her on most maps to clean up far away enemies.  Worked well.
2. Lute- 20/19, 245 kills-  Power leveled early.  I went an odd route and didn't make her a Sage.  This capped her magic at 25 (which she had at 20/6), but the movement was really nice for missions I needed to be quick.  Getting Amelia, rescuing people, etc. and she still had plenty of killing power.
1. Amelia- 20/18, 193 kills- Amelia had ridiculous defense for me.  I'll have to check stat topic to see what's normal for her, but I'm pretty convinced her growth was nuts.  That + 55 HP + Garm completely smashed the later levels.  (Surviving 15 turns is easy when she can sit there and take on all enemy reinforcements herself while Natasha drops Psychics down.)

Time for Ruins!

[BaconForTheSoul]

And time for 20/20 RNG goodness!  Using Gamefaqs for the averages.  Me first, then average.


8. Neimi (Aragorn)
35 HP, 23 Str, 28 Skl, 27 Spd, 20 Luck, 7   Def, 21 Res   (Maxed Str and Skl is all.)
41 HP, 23 Str, 26 Skl, 30 Spd, 23 Luck, 12 Def, 18 Res

So yeah, my Neimi is as frail as I figured.  6 HP and 5 Def below average.  This is why I didn't get to use her for crap.  Also terrible luck and speed... wow.  But hey, at least I got Resist and some skill!!!!  FAIL NEIMI. 

7. Eirika (LORD)
40HP, 24 Str, 29 Skl, 30 Spd, 29 Luck, 17 Def, 15 Res   (Maxed Str, Skl, Speed)
47HP, 21 Str, 29 Skl, 30 Spd, 28 Luck, 17 Def, 17 Res

Again massively HP fucked.  The Str is nice.  Maxed speed and skl, but it's damn near impossible not to do that with Eirika.  Yay for frail ass Lord!

6. Natasha (Freya)
40HP, 25 Mag, 15 Skl, 22 Spd, 28 Luck, 11 Def, 28 Res  (Maxed Mag and Res)
40HP, 25 Mag, 15 Skl, 23 Spd, 29 Luck, 10 Def, 28 Res

Again, I maxed the 2 stats that are easy to max.  Actually, my Natasha is pretty damna verage.  Minus 1 spd and luck and plus one defense.  Yawns!

5. Tethys (Stripper)
33HP, 2 Str, 4 Skl, 24 Spd, 25 Luck, 8   Def, 20 Res (NO MAX)
34HP, 2 Str, 4 Skl, 25 Spd, 25 Luck, 11 Def, 18 Res

Nothing exciting here other than the minor defense nerf.  Tethys is supposed to just dodge/not get hit anyway.

4. Marisa (Master of swords)
54HP, 16 Str, 25 Skl, 30 Spd, 20 Luck, 9   Def, 18 Res  (SPEED MAX ZOMG)
53HP, 19 Str, 29 Skl, 30 Spd, 26 Luck, 11 Def, 13 Res

Are you kidding me?  Marisa got raped across the board.  Skl is the most amazing thing.  Her average is supposed to end at like 32 to her 29 cap... and I got 25.  This is why it didn't feel like she raped as hard as she usually does.

3. Tana (FALCON PUNCH)
50HP, 23 Str, 20 Skl, 28 Spd, 30 Luck, 18 Def, 17 Res  (Max Str, Speed, Luck.)
47HP, 23 Str, 22 Skl, 28 Spd, 28 Luck, 16 Def, 18 Res

Well.. she didn't run terrible, but not really good either.  Two of the maxed stats are pretty easy to do.  This is getting sad.

2. Lute (Mage on a horse)
42 HP, 25 Mag, 22 Skl, 22 Spd, 28 Luck, 14 Def, 22 Res
37 HP, 25 Mag, 18 Skl, 24 Spd, 25 Luck, 11 Def, 23 Res

SOMEONE WHO RAN GOOD.  Nice HP, obvious 25 magic, amazing skill, lacking a bit of speed, but good luck and defense.  Lute is my only person who beat the RNG this time around, and it showed with her domination throughout the game.  She woulda been number 1 if she had the ability to tank 5000 units like Amelia could.

1. Amelia (General of doom)
50 HP, 20 Str, 23 Skl, 25 Spd, 29 Luck, 26 Def, 15 Res  (Max Speed!)
49 HP, 23 Str, 26 Skl, 25 Spd, 30 Luck, 21 Def, 13 Res

Even my MVP didn't do good.  Bad Str and bad Skl, but her defense/res made up for it.  Who cares if you can do damage when you cannot die... at all.


RUN WORSE ME!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Heartgold: I have a Magmortor~~~ Life is goood~~~

[Pyro]

Beyond Good and Evil:

Finished. An utterly generic game that I enjoyed but would not strongly recommend. My copy was glitched so the sound was screwed up. Still, mostly inoffensive and fun (except for the very last part of the final bsos that needs to die in a fire).

[Strago]

Alpha Protocol -

Finished Moscow and moved on to Rome, my third and final hub. This game has grown on me massively since my initial revulsion at its bugginess and wonky controls. I know that a good chunk of the branching plots and variable character interactions are fairly cosmetic, but I don't really care -- they go a long way toward making the story feel really personalized, and it's been drawing me in very effectively. And there are quite a few choices that really matter, too. I loved the repercussions of dealing with Nasri in Saudia Arabia, and Grigori when you first get to Moscow. Will be interested to see what effects, if any, result from my having iced Jibril al-Bara and the Gelato Shop guy.

Bosses so far have actually been pretty fun. Which surprises me, since they're generally sort of reviled? Brayko's fight is kind of absurdly badass, between the soundtrack and the rad use of the spotlights. And Steven Heck's help made it a fair bit easier than it would have been otherwise, I imagine. And of course I'm specializing in Assault Rifles, which are awesome (and versatile to the extreme, what with Subsonic Rounds being a thing), so there's that.

Already have plans for my next playthrough, on Recruit. I really want to see if Stealth/Sabotage/Toughness/Martial Arts can be a viable combo. I have a feeling that I'll find Omen and Brayko stonewalling me, but I still want to give it a shot. Can always put a few points in Pistols or Assault Rifles if need be. Or just spray bullets wildly.

[Grefter]

I can tell you that you will do horribly on bosses without weapon skills.  You should be able to handle Brayko fine if you do Thailand first.  I haven't heard to many problems with Omen as melee.  I might start play through using pistols tomorrow night.

Boss fights aren't bad so much as not knowing you need combat skills makes them what the fuck and personally only really had issues with Rome guy, everything else was normally manageable or totally awesome.  I wasn't prepared for Rome and there isn't much about the character or the fight that particularly appeals to me.

[superaielman]

CT- Golem was a surprisingly bitchy boss fight since I didn't have any real MT healing. Didn't take the fight seriously until late as well; Burp killed off Marle and Crono both.

Well balanced game. Crono=Lucca>Ayla>Robo>>>>Frog>>Marle.

Crono and Lucca were both better than I remembered. Crono really benefits from the speed and the crowd control focus of Whirlwind. He's quickly surpassed by Lucca as a combat unit, but that speed means he'll tend to get a drop on randoms. Lightning 2 dominated Magus's palace and helped a bunch on Azala's dungeon as well.

Lucca just had massive damage and the Taban Vest to help with her speed. Her damage tapered off some, but should be fine as soon as she picks up Fire 2. She gets Flare earlier than the others get their ultimate techs as well. Ayla's got damage/stats, but needs some time to catch up with everyone else. Her double techs kick all kinds of ass and I expect her to eclipse Lucca/Crono sooner rather than later.  Robo's got great offense and some healing, but the speed needs work.  I found his MT damage to quickly be rendered useless as well. The offense is hard to argue with, though. Frog's got no real damage outside of Masamune crits and only has solid stats, but he has a few useful double techs and he is built to be effective in Magus's castle. Marle was the worst PC by miles for the first fourth of the game or so. Haste helps some for bosses, but she still has an ugly damage/speed mix. I didn't find her useful outside of healing for specko until she got Ice Water with Ayla.

Game deserves a lot of credit for such a well balanced PC cast. Outside of Marle being a total turd early on, there are strong benefits and drawbacks to using every PC. Well, outside of Crono/Frog in Magus's castle. That was silly.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I can tell you that you will do horribly on bosses without weapon skills.  You should be able to handle Brayko fine if you do Thailand first.  I haven't heard to many problems with Omen as melee.  I might start play through using pistols tomorrow night.

Boss fights aren't bad so much as not knowing you need combat skills makes them what the fuck and personally only really had issues with Rome guy, everything else was normally manageable or totally awesome.  I wasn't prepared for Rome and there isn't much about the character or the fight that particularly appeals to me.

I messed up Brayko pretty well using a combination of Rage and Iron Will when he came in close.

In my current playthrough I somehow managed to not get him to tell me about Surkov, though. Fack.

[Rozalia]

WKC - Played a bit of this today, my thoughts thus far.

The Custom avatar you make is a silent support character? Well Its unexpected at least.
Leo is going to be lame.
Yulie is going to be annoying.
Princess is going to be kidnapped.
Evil Persian or whatever they are meant to be will stab the good guys in the back.
Mustache dood is evil because anyone with such facial hair is evil.
Black Knight is a woman? No self respecting male black knight would wear light armor and be silent.

After thinking about it for a bit I'm going with Longsword + Divine because hey I might as well save myself some time later in getting that trophy. Longswords have a bad rep because apparantly those who use it compensate for their small "tool" or if female they are compensating for their lack of the "tool" but thats Poppycock. My avatar has a huge power drill and doesn't need to compensate for anything.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Pokemon Soul Silver - 11 badges down. In particular this meant I beat the Elite Four.

They really did a lot to make Lance not the utterly pathetic scrub he was in Crystal. I didn't really see the worst of what he could do myself, but watching Ciato's copy sorta drove home the power of Outrage off overlevelled Dragonite attack. It feels like they embraced that Dragonite isn't really fast or durable enough to deal with speedy Ice Beam spam (I see nothing that suggests Jynx doesn't take that battle to pieces, for instance) and instead made up for it by making them fast enough to deal with more ordinary icebeaming threats and super, super-powerful offensively. It's a different style of final boss than Pokemon usually throws at you so I have to give them some credit for that. Still one of the easier ones but at least there's definitely no longer a "... what the fuck was that?" reaction to the fight.

For my own part, Jumpluff Sleep Powder and Flash, Girafarig Agility and Baton Pass, Feraligatr Swords Dance and Ice Fang made fairly short work of the fight.

Ninetales really pulled up a lot at the end. I walked into the last Leon fight fairly crippled but Nasty Plot/Dark Pulse/Flamethrower made for a borderline sweep of him. Ninetales was also essential for both Will and Karen. Getting Nasty Plot and a decent off-type move to go with it helped so much.

I had a lot of trouble with Sabrina; my team doesn't tank specials too well overall, and the only Psychic resister I have kinda sucks at the job (Steelix). Definitely the hardest fight in the game to me so far. Kanto gym leaders feel a bit better, which is fine, but Sabrina was already pretty tough IIRC. Also beaten Surge and Misty, both of whom were at least competent.

With the aftergame Pokeathlon prizes opening up, I got myself a Togekiss. Choice Scarf/Specs, Air Slash/Flamethrower/Extrasensory/Aura Sphere. Fairly badass on paper, though hasn't really had a chance to shine yet. I think my mistake was going with Specs, aftergame bosses have been very speedy so he needs Scarf to shine against a lot of them, at least with the sweeper build I have.

Having trouble deciding who to bench. Was thinking of Girafarig but BP/Agility just helps so much even if its stats aren't good enough for much else any more. Steelix maybe, for all that this will leave my team very vulnerable to electric. I should probably do it anyway, there's not much electric left in this game. Watch me get swept by Ash's Pikachu.


Bold statement, but I'm fairly confident in it: After playing the game, watching Ciato play the game, and looking over the movesets... Meganium is the best starter in HGSS now. I'm kinda surprised by this, given gator hype, but Meganium getting Petal Dance just rounds him out so much, now he has reasonable offence to go with the tanky supporting. I'd dig Fera more if Ice Fang weren't so weak or if he were faster, he basically needs Agility support to dominate. He also competes with Gyarados, who has better stats, an earlier final evo, and eventually Dragon Dance. Typhlosion just looks bad due to the superior fire options present in the game; Magmar and Ninetales have similar speed, Confuse Ray, Nasty Plot in the fox's case and just win statwise before Level 36. I suspect Arcanine might be better too but am uncertain there. Meganium not only has his own perks, but he faces a real lack of competition from grass attackers (Victreebel and Vileplume get Petal Dance later/never and have worse stats), and grass is a great in-game type.

Also this kinda drives home how bad the gen2 starters originally were. Feraligatr with nothing worth noting that ran off his Atk stat! Meganium whose best attack, ever, is a 55-power Razor Leaf! I guess Typholosion's competition from other fires wasn't as harsh though, since they learned FT way too late.

[dude789]

Bold statement, but I'm fairly confident in it: After playing the game, watching Ciato play the game, and looking over the movesets... Meganium is the best starter in HGSS now. I'm kinda surprised by this, given gator hype, but Meganium getting Petal Dance just rounds him out so much, now he has reasonable offence to go with the tanky supporting. I'd dig Fera more if Ice Fang weren't so weak or if he were faster, he basically needs Agility support to dominate. He also competes with Gyarados, who has better stats, an earlier final evo, and eventually Dragon Dance. Typhlosion just looks bad due to the superior fire options present in the game; Magmar and Ninetales have similar speed, Confuse Ray, Nasty Plot in the fox's case and just win statwise before Level 36. I suspect Arcanine might be better too but am uncertain there. Meganium not only has his own perks, but he faces a real lack of competition from grass attackers (Victreebel and Vileplume get Petal Dance later/never and have worse stats), and grass is a great in-game type.

Meganium is also my favorite of the Gen 2 starters, but if you don't plan on using him in your team for very long I'd suggest choosing one of the others. I chose Chikorita and the Lance/Clair double battle was a lot harder because Lance's Gyarados would go first and OHKO the rival's Typhlosion. I'd also say that Meganium has a bit of competition from Tangrowth. Tangela is pretty late, but Tangrowth's offensive stats are really good and it eventually gets Power Whip.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Somehow I'd totally forgotten that Tangrowth's evolution was a reasonable one despite being a gen4 addition. That is a point, although Tangrowth is down 30 points of speed to Meganium and loses damage fairly badly until Power Whip comes out to play at Level 54, so whatever competition it does offer is less than what the other two starters face.

[hinode]

Exeggutor gets Sleep Powder, Leech Seed, and Wood Hammer/Seed Bomb, plus you can evolve it pretty early via Pokeathlon prize. Victreebel doesn't get any good Grass STAB until L47, but Sludge Bomb by TM is an option, and it's not a TM that gets a whole lot of competition. Belossom of all things gets Leaf Blade via heart scale, Sleep Powder/Stun Spore, and Drain Punch for more coverage on a potential Swords Dance set.

I really don't think the grass competition in HGSS is bad anymore, unlike GSC. I'm also not very impressed by Meganium's support movepool, not without any sort of worthwhile status.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Meganium's point is to be tanky and throw up defensive buffers, not status things. The fact that he doubles as a grass attacker now, something he was less impressive at in GSC, is what makes him worth noting. All the other grass attackers you listed have serious problems. Exeggutor has no grass offence until Blackthorn, as well bad speed and special def, while Bellosom needs a super-rare bug catching prize or the national dex and again has bad speed. Victreebel isn't even a grass attacker unless you count the almighty 55-power Razor Leaf at Level 39 Weepinbell. A poison attacker, as you say, but that's not what I was commenting on, and not very useful anyway.

[hinode]

The point is that Reflect/Light Screen have much less marginal value than Sleep Powder/Leech Seed, especially in a game where you can buy them as TMs early on so their distribution is a lot more widespread. Psuedopassing only gives you three turns of defensive buff, and Grass itself is at a disadvantage against most gym types if you're using Meganium yourself.

Solarbeam is available as a storebought TM as an early Grass option, though I'll admit it's not ideal. Sunny Day helps eventually if you have the slot for it, since all of those Grass types have Chlorophyll. Sun Stone isn't really hard to get, either; current HP is a major factor in the scoring now, so something at the high end of its level range and caught at full health will usually win.

Without its usual trump card of good status, I don't really agree that Grass is a great type in-game in HGSS. The Johto gyms are pretty much stacked against Grass as a typing, both offensively and defensively. There are a million and a half random trainers with Water types as usual, but you don't need help against those. I've played HGSS twice, completely ignored Grass the first type around and didn't miss a beat and mainly used it for Leech Seed second time around.

[Dark Holy Elf]

You simply face so much water and rock (The latter being annoying for a bunch of types, with its most common members liking to explode in your face if you don't one-shot them lategame) that having a grass attacker is handy. I agree it's not necessary; just look at my current team (No, Jumpluff doesn't count as grass offence). No type is. Still, it's a fairly cool type to have, which is mainly a point in its favour over fire, which is a weak typing for the same reasons (this isn't to say individual fires aren't worth using).

I'm not sure I'm following your argument here. If your point is "Meganium isn't too impressive" (and it seems to be), then so what? I never claimed he was an amazing pokemon or even a great starter by series standards. I claimed he was the best starter in HGSS, and you haven't really given me compelling reasons either of the other two might be better. I'm currently using Fera and watching Meganium and I can tell who is generally performing better and more valuable to the team, Lance aside. He's okay, mind, outright good at points, but he has plenty of lulls and faces extremely stiff competition from the usual array of capable water pokemon, the most glaring of which is the L30 Gyarados the game dumps into your lap. The only reason I'm not using Gyar is simply because I want to use my starter.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Alpha Protocol- I goaded Marbury into coming after me instead of escaping, which meant I got to gun him down like a bitch. All that time I spent taunting him meant my cooldown abilities came back up. So I hit Overclock, threw a super-powered explosive at him, used Iron Will for the extra life as I ran at him through gunfire, then popped Fury and beat him to death.

[hinode]

Your original arguement seemed to primarily be that "Meganium is way better than the competition, Gatr/Typh aren't", but I don't really agree on Meganium being better than the other Grasses. Status is such an important part of a Grass type's utility IMO, especially in a game where the bosses are stacked against Grass types matchup-wise and non-boss trainers are even weaker than usual in a Pokemon game. The fact that Meganium is still an average attacker at best with no type coverage barring an Earthquake TM (probably the single most fought over in the game) only makes its mediocre support capabilities for a Grass type less appealing.

I didn't make any direct comparisons between Meganium/Typhlosion/Feraligatr because that depends wildly on personal playstyle decisions (i.e. how diffuse exp is being spread around). That's purely subjective grounds with no right answer so no amount of discussion is going to change anyone's minds.

[Grefter]

Man I read you guys talking about a few levels in that mix, level 39, 47, 54 and I sit here and think, seriously?  You are debating the superiority of something with GSC/HGSS level curve based on the competition getting stuff in the aftergame half of it?  I dunno hinode man, on paper the Elf has a really compelling argument based just purely on the mega shit tastic level curve of those games.  I mean sure for that very same reason carrying a Magikarp for so long is going to be stupidly painful, but ergh.  Why couldn't I have just kept my Ice Punching Alakazam for dragon beat downs?  Sad times.

Man I really want to play AP again.  Think I will start it up now.  Freelancer with pistols and being psychotic and shooting everyone in the face.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Typh isn't really a personal playstyle decision unless you are a real powerleveller. Typh just kinda uh sucks compared to Ninetales.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Your original arguement seemed to primarily be that "Meganium is way better than the competition, Gatr/Typh aren't", but I don't really agree on Meganium being better than the other Grasses.

He's better than them at grass attacking, which is relevant for the reasons I gave. Also don't see where the gym leaders are really affecting things here since HGSS represents literally every single type amongst its 16 gyms and E4, doubling up on Psychic, Fighting (kinda), Dragon, and Poizn.

If your argument is that the likes of Jumpluff and Exeggutor are better because they can sleep things, then sure, that's reasonable, but they don't really crowd out Meganium at his own job. I'm using Jumpluff and can't help but feel that Meganium would be nice to have on the team. This is my own damn fault for not using an electric, but I wasn't impressed with the grass attacking options in HGSS (I gave up on Bellsprout in disgust once I clued in that Growth no longer even had the decency to afffect Vine Whip and Bullet Seed) and I do see them as valuable.

You may disagree on the value of a grass attacker and that's fine but it doesn't change my original argument, Meganium is harder to eclipse at the job he does. Typh on the other hand is overtly worse than other fires at the very job he tries to do, and Fera faces varied water competition from all sides (Surf is still the type's money move and still runs off his wrong stat) and one very similar but superior option in Gyarados.

[Hunter Sopko]

inFamous- Started up my Hard, Evil playthrough to go alongside FFXII. It is indeed a bit harder! Enemies can be a bitch to kill sometimes. I shutter to think of what the trash golems will be like ;-; Hopefully I can finish up the stunt list this time around, but I still suck at hitting back grenades accurately and hardmode is NOT a good time to be doing the Shockwave Three People Off a Building at Once one. You just take too much damage before you can corral them in. I'll probably leave the Dark Water missions until later when I get the shield.

Those two are incidentally the last two I needed on my Good playthrough, but with 100% of all cities cleared three enemies NEVER appear on a rooftop together. There are three Reapers that show up on the traintracks, but thats just not high enough, and my Shockwave ends up throwing at least one onto a building.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Alpha Protocol- Just raised my unarmed skill to the point where I got the running knee strike. Holy fuck, that thing DESTROYS people when you have the reinforced arm guards attached to your armor. I'm basically just running around, using people's knees as steps so I can more easily bash their skulls in with my knee.

Also this time, I sold out and decided to work with Halbech. See, I kind of dusted a couple NSA agents and I don't think I'll get away with it.

[Twilkitri]

Time Gentlemen, Please! -

Generally an improvement over BTDT. Being in less of a hub-style situation helps, and there's a fair amount more game there. Also has more of an ongoing storyline that the characters are involved in instead of one barely happening in the background.

Could have done with a little less immature dialogue however.


Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story -

Very entertaining. I would like to say that it was better than Partners in Time but I find myself unable to remember why I was displeased with PiT and it may even have picked up an unwarranted negative association somewhere.

It does start to drag a little with overly long areas as the end approaches. Also, I don't believe that the Inside was as fleshed out as it could have been, and disappointingly there are times which M&L don't spend Inside.

Big battles are amusing and now I vaguely want to replay Rocket Slime.