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

[Anthony Edward Stark]

VENGEANCE IS MINE. I just shot Mr. House right in the face. Now I'm going to go kill Caesar with a straight razor.

EDIT: Oh my god, I just got done with Vault 11. This place was fucking amazing. Gref, you need to get your ass down there. It's southwest of the intersection between the 93 and the 95.

[DomaDragoon]

Fallout NV: Darn it, I fell way behind Rob. I still haven't gotten around to meeting Benny in the Tops, because I've been discovering locations and doing sidequests. Got the NCR armor for Boone, so he looks even more like Rolento, then shipped him off to the 38 so I could get Arcade; pimped out ED-E with the Followers, then shipped him off to the 38; and now I'm playing errand boy for the King.

[Grefter]

Yeah I have to say even playing through as a pretty nice guy there was a few moments so far where I have felt kind of bad for just straight up shooting Caesar's Legion dudes.  I shouldn't be stunned that Obsidian can write villains that can be evil without being such total douches that I immediately kill them on sight by default.

Best moment so far, just doing general searching and pulling a horde of Glowing Ones.  I can barely hurt this dudes and they are relentless.  Longest most intense running through a deserted wasteland I have had in ages.  This is the kind of shit that makes this own the hell out of Fallout 3.  The Wasteland never feels like it is strictly railroading you like huge portions of Washington did in FO3.  There are threats that are beyond your grasp that you can run into, but you should have a way around them even if it means hiking a fair way.  Fallout 3 on the other hand had rail road ways throught he city instead of doing the interesting thing of just saying "Get to here" and then having a multiple path maze which would have been amazing to have people play through and discuss like they could have with a burnt out shell of a city.    Instead this is open up to you, you can go wherever you want and suffer the consequences for reaching beyond your grasp.

[Dhyerwolf]

Special ability-wise... well, they finally did something but recycle the same runes they pretty much have used since S2, and I for one welcome the change. The Suikoden series was seriously stagnating gameplaywise, in my eyes - S1 introduced things, S2 put in a whole new spin with multiple rune slots and way more rune options, S3 put in a whole new spin with skills and partner-commands. By contrast, S4-5 offered virtually no innovations (uh formation skills?). Tierkreis opts for a pretty large departure and it works well enough. Certainly, every character receiving different marks of the stars makes character choice more interesting than in many previous games. My main complaint is that the system does take a little while to get rolling - it's dull when everyone has only 1-2 marks and doesn't really hit its stride until everyone has 5-6 and you start making real choices.

Oh, and characters having varied equipment options that make for real differences (dual-wielding vs. 2-handed vs. 1-handed and shield, strike/pierce/slash, short/medium/long range) is another neat way to differentiate characters a little and make the player make choices, probably an overdue idea in the series. BUT BUT BUT YOU CAN'T SHARPEN WEAPONS ANY MORE NOT A SUIKODEN.

...
The game lends itself nicely enough to the DL if it ever gets playership (if if if). Quite a few PCs with plenty of plot who are also forced for reasonable durations, everyone has clearly unique skillsets, etc. Haven't looked closely at the individual duellers yet beyond one or two (Hero is a very solid Heavy, for instance), but offhand I'd certainly support Hero, Liu, Marica, Jale, Asad, Crodechild, and Diadora, and would certainly consider supporting Diulf, Sophia, Fredegund, Manaril, Vaslof, Resno, Neira, Hotupa, Cougar, and probably a few more. Valfred for bosses, unsure if anyone else is worthwhile as an idea (the final maybe, about 4 others are workable if anyone actually cares about mediocre Suikoden human bosses who aren't Zahhak/Alenia level comically bad).

Wanted to comment on things I found striking! The first was that I liked that they went a special ability route, but I didn't like the way it manifested. At the end, there felt like there was just way too much redundancy, but's too many battle characters+too many skills+so many of the skills ending up identical in the end.  Which actually goes back to theoretical duelling. When I made my large ranking list for the game ages ago, I realized that the game ended up spreading out skills in such a manner that basically every person I gave a ranking even in Middle (and it was about 30 of them)! A few Heavies or H/M and one Light IIRC (Mubal)...but, yeah, felt like I was ranking the few types over and over!

Also, wasn't the final only durable compared to other bosses? Remember it having like 15K which isn't horrible, but not really great.

[Dark Holy Elf]

25k actually (not counting the previous forms). No this isn't durable in the grand scheme of RPG bosses, but this is Suikoden we're talking about.

[Dunefar]

Lufia DS: In the middle of this whole Gratze clusterfuck. The tank dungeon and tank boss were both retarded gimmicks. One thing I want to mention while it's on my mind: Why did Maxim make a random, blatant pass at Iris at the Ice Mist Mountains? It's wholly out of character, unless it's something like Iris is manipulating Maxim's emotions for a Mirror of Truth repeat.

[Dhyerwolf]

Oh, 25K is decent at least, I just really had it in my mind as 14K for some reason. Well, 25K is decent unless you probably do trading to get lots of money at least!

[Dark Holy Elf]

I actually have some cursory boss stats (didn't really care enough for in-depth testing for a few reasons!) which I should organise and post sometime. Maybe tomorrow.

[Dhyerwolf]

Cared enough about the bosses to get cursory ones! I mostly just snickered at them and moved on.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Fair reaction.

THEY ARE BETTER THAN ALENIA AND ZAHHAK THOUGH.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

FO:NV-

Finished. NO KINGS, NO MASTERS. I'd have turned Vegas over to the NCR if Tandi was still alive, but she isn't and I don't trust anyone else from there. So independence it is!

[Grefter]

Yeah knowing that is an option I might go for it as well, because seriously, fuck those guys.  Looks like the Hub hasn't got any better over the last what is it hundred years?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

>Vanish for two months.

>Return after having purchased an XBox 360

>Now playing Tales of Vesperia (leaving desert), BlazBlue Continuum Shift (maining Hakumen and TAGER)

You had disappeared?

[Pyro]

Yay more ToV players.

Lufia 2 DS: Beaten.

A fun game, if one I wouldn't recommend to everyone. I'll post more on it later.

Maxim for Godlike, though.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Yeah knowing that is an option I might go for it as well, because seriously, fuck those guys.  Looks like the Hub hasn't got any better over the last what is it hundred years?

About 110, I think. But, yeah, did you do Cass' quest?

[Grefter]

Nah I might have missed it.  I am pretty bad at finding quests in Oblivion engine games.  Even this one which I am thoroughly does induce a great apathy for rifling around trying to find named NPCs.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

She's literally the only person not in an NCR uniform in the bar at Mojave Outpost. And come on, she's Cassidy's daughter and needs your help, man.

[Niu]

Yay more ToV players.

Lufia 2 DS: Beaten.

A fun game, if one I wouldn't recommend to everyone. I'll post more on it later.

Maxim for Godlike, though.

Second cycle has an alternate ending and a true last boss. And no, the true last boss is not Arekdias.

[Random Consonant]

L2DS: Beaten.  Short game, pretty fun too if you go in for its sort of gameplay.  Way too easy to snap in half once you get a bunch of mystic stones though.

[DjinnAndTonic]

And no, the true last boss is not Arekdias.

God dammit, why NOT!?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

The amount of caring I see for LUFIA PLOT astounds and saddens me.

[Captain K.]

Went shopping and bought !Lufia2 and Dawn of Heroes.  Starting with DoH first.

The graphics and story are dorky as hell, but wow is this ever a DL game.  Surprisingly deep SRPG with good balance among characters and some actual CHALLENGE.  The fair fight rules and the way squad buffs work make you actually use your brain for once.  Also I love that Reynald can improve his healing by beating on people.

Stuck on the last boss of the second zone now, because his guards are evil incarnate.  I come so close to killing one of the damned things (which would make things so much easier), but just can't quite get those last few hp off.

[DjinnAndTonic]

The amount of caring I see for LUFIA PLOT astounds and saddens me.

Well, I always kind of liked the idea of the Sinistrals, Lufia's own little version of the Four Horsemen, and Arek's random existence and even more random non-importance bothers me.

[Random Consonant]

You just don't understand MYSTARY.

[Grefter]

Considering it is a remake of the game that he has his one and only scene, having no closure after all these years is some pretty amazing fail/trolling.