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

[Rozalia]

It's true that Reimi gets even MORE Mary Sue-ish after Edge starts getting over the Emo-flu, but she actually has that one scene where she tells Edge to shape up, and takes over as captain, and generally acts like a competant person who has military training (which she has, so she -should- act like this).

One scene is all that is and she quickly destroys her credit with the scenes on Roak. I wanted Edge to smack her after that crap she pulls.

Yeah, I just recommended cutting out like 60% of the game. And the remainder focuses on Faize/Lymle and gathering allies from other planets. Yes, Djinn's best-case scenario for SO4 would be a Suikoden-style "travel around gathering help from various nation-planets" while an inverted pedophilic version of Lufia 1's romantic subplot goes on.

Then randomly cutting away at the end to earth requiring your party of primative people to combat an evil galactic  overlord because he just happens to be immune to all modern weapons and your party are the only people who use melee weapons. No the games fine as it is as I don't trust their writers to write something better then what we've got.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Did the previous team get sacked or something? SO3's plot twist was "Hah hah hah this is only a game and you are concerned with the outcome, you dumbass" but at least outside of that it never got offensively bad.

[Crystalgate]

Monsterworld IV: I was rather stressed when I played it the last time and didn't get to enjoy it as much as I could have, so I decided to play it again.

I already found out something I didn't realize before, the very first enemy type you encounter can't hurt you at all. In this game, most enemies will not hurt you by touch, they have to attack you to cause damage. The first enemy you encounter is never considered to be attacking.

I beat the first dungeon and then got a papelongo. To raise a papelongo: put a papelongo egg into water. Once it hatched, feel free to use it as a steppingstone on lava, to clog up a high pressure geyser, to freeze it into a block of ice and whatever you want to. In return, the papelongo will help you get to places you otherwise wouldn't be able to reach. No wonder everyone in town wants one. Fortunately, there's a guy selling yellow papelongos like they were balloons. Asha of course didn't buy one and instead raided the castle treasury for an extra unique blue one.

Anyway, in most games, buying something for 500 gold early in the game will have a negligible effect later on when things cost over ten times as much. This game however managed to figure out a way to make early purchases impact the economy later on. You find gold bars that you can sell to a rich fat woman. However, if you wait until later, she will pay you more for them. She pays 1,000 after the first dungeon and will eventually go up to 10,000. Therefore, it's better to wait a bit and not sell every gold bar immediately. It doesn't pay to overdo that strategy though, you do have quite a margin. I think that saving the gold bar in the castle treasury until you get 10,000 gold for them and holding off selling gold bars in dungeons until you beat them (as opposed to exiting them and immediately selling) is enough to get all the legendary equipment. Do not however save the gold bar you can loot in the rich woman's house for later though as that chest will eventually disappear.

[Captain K.]

Dead Rising is actually trying to make it so that death doesn't cost you anything, the main thing you restart the game for is to know ahead of time what is going to happen (design choice, how do you survive a Zombie apocalypse?  Know everything that is going to happen)  It costs you in items, but you have learned lots and you keep experience (which goes a looooong way).  As you know more you will progress further in the story and be far better able to rescue other survivors, ie get more of the story.  It is essentially the thing BoF V was trying to do but failed horribly at with 0 transparency and actively punishing the player sometimes.

Not to say Dead Rising 1 does it particularly well, that is far far more damning of BoF V than it is praising DR1.  DR2 handles it generally a bit better and plays with the fun stuff a lot more.

The inherent problem in that style of game design is that if you don't enjoy the first playthrough, you won't want to play it again.

SO4:  On Roak.  Still enjoying this.  Haters gonna hate.

[Pyro]

Haters gonna hate.

Damn right. (Actually what I feel for SO4 is mostly Apathy induced by the lategame feeling so dull)

[Meeplelard]

I generally agree with Djinn in regards to SO4's assessment, especially Reimi, though I disagree about removing Area 51 stuff cause that did serve an actual important point in the game's overall point that Technology + Underdeveloped Planets = Bad.

SO4 really isn't that bad a game, just...there's a lot of little things it did screw up which hamper the overall experience.  Its alright, but a clear step down to SO3.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

It also lacks a lot of what I'd call Star Ocean touches. Item Creation is crippled, your party is fixed, and no multiple endings.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Fixed party is the only one there that actually bothers me, given that previous SO item creation was unbalanced in the extreme. (Endings just get filed under 'whatever'.)

[Cmdr_King]

Opposite really.  Star Ocean recruitment is annoying as hell.  Granted, multiple endings is just a nice perk rather than a must have and in 2/3 Star Oceans I neglected IC for most of the game.  I can see missing just the sheer detail and rewards you could get out of it though.

(Granted, if you thought 'fixed party' meant 'you must always use the same characters, that makes more sense, but I don't BELIEVE it's true.  You just always get all the PCs.)

[Dark Holy Elf]

Oh, yeah, I don't care if you always get all the PCs. I actually felt SO2-3's PC splitpaths detracted from the game, and was just there to add some blatant fake replay value.

[Crystalgate]

Monsterworld IV: Beat the infernal warlock. The volcano is my favorite stage as it makes the best use of the Pepelongo (I hope I got the name right this time) and there's nothing in it that detracts from the enjoyment. The fact that Asha doesn't have so many hearts now also works to the stage's favor. The boss is a bit bland though, the first form is to easy while the second form is almost unavoidable.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Regardless, they are things that characterize the series and have since the beginning. The only exception is Blue Sphere, which was a Game Boy game, and thus has the excuse of storage space.

And even that had better IC. My favorite, actually, come to think of it.

[Meeplelard]

Yeah, SO4 doesn't have Fixed Parties in the sense of "You must use this character here!"  There's just no recruitment system.  You still have full flexibility on who to use when.  IN FACT, you can even swap characters mid-battle if you want, even dead ones.

I honestly didn't miss SO Recruitment at all.

That said...

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix: ...the original Akuma is as...wrong...as advertised. I beat him, but dear god there is *NOTHING* that can be considered fair about him.

[Crystalgate]

Monsterworld IV: Stream sanctuary and ice pyramid beaten.

The stream sanctuary is fun and my second favorite stage. Good platforming, good use of the pepelongo and I find it the most esthetically pleasing. There is a risk you end up running in circles if you make a mistake or get lost, but movement trough the stream sanctuary is quick due to it's namesake streams.

The ice pyramid however is the worst stage. It has the slippery floor, which is always fun in platformers, long hallways that you can easily end up having to run trough multiple times and makes poor use of the pepelongo. There are few uses for the double jump the pepelongo provides and it's main use in the pyramid is to find secret doors which is implemented in an irritating way.

The ice pyramid does have a good idea for the pepelongo though. You can send it into a cold stream and it will freeze to an ice-block which you can use as a platform. This could have been a setup for a good puzzle. Normally you can double jump with the pepelongo, but if it's frozen inside an ice block, it obviously cannot provide you that service. Even better, instead of having to exit and re-enter a room to reset the puzzle, you can just press A to command the pepelongo to thaw. There should be a way the designers could have used that to create some fun and simple puzzles, but that wasn't to be.

Speaking of the pepelongo, it grows between stages. After the volcano the growth doesn't do much except, as I mentioned in an earlier post, force the game to close of old areas. After the stream sanctuary however, the pepelongo grows so big Asha can no longer walk while holding it, making control a bit worse. This is nothing compared to what happens after the ice pyramid though.

Game: "You know that pepelongo which allows you to double jump, interact with the environment in various ways and overall makes the game more fun? Guess what, you're done using it! From now on the pepelongo ceases to be a gameplay element and is restricted to story only!"

The next stage is more fun than the ice pyramid, but I still wish I had my pepelongo.

[Captain K.]

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection:  Picked this up, mainly because it has all the Streets of Rage games.  Also has the Sonic-related stuff, Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Shining series, Phantasy Star series, and GAIN GROUND*.  Working on unlocking the rest of the titles, but some of these old shooting games are merciless.  At least in Touhou you can see your death coming.


*A really shitty one-player game that becomes awesome when with a second player, because you argue with your teammate about who gets to use what characters.

[Rozalia]

Gain ground is awesome but unfair. I love when you continue the game in a latish area and you're then expected to beat them with a crappy spearman. Yeah a man with a stick is so effective against killer robots from the future.
You're so right about the whole argue thing, the friend I play the game with always wants that powerful machinegun gun that comes early and is crazy broken at that point. I of course want him too.

[Crystalgate]

Monsterworld IV: Beaten.

Aegis island is fun enough, although not as fun as the volcano and Stream Sanctuary. The small and big gimmick was the most fun part of that place and I wish it was implemented as a feature rather than as a short gimmick. On the plus side, I do think the warlock of heaven is the best boss of the game. It's hard to avoid it's attacks, but it is never unfair.

The final stage is just refighting enemies and mini bosses encountered trough he whole game. There is one unique enemy though, but it's design makes me think it was originally supposed to be on Aegis island. The final boss isn't interesting either.

[NotMiki]

My defenses are impregnable.

My style is impetuous.

GOD HAND HARD MODE: Beaten.

Only 496 continues!

[Dark Holy Elf]

My defenses are impregnable.

My style is impetuous.

You're not Alexander!

[Magic Fanatic]

Wild Arms 4 - We don't rape the game hard enough version:

So.  Transfer data passed on, where I did almost everything in ACF.

Mariel being L100 had me starting WA4 with 50 Heal Berries, 33 Revive Fruits, 25 Potion Berries, 20 Nectars, 10 Mega Berries, 6 Vibhutis, 5 Holy Berries, 4 Full Revives, 3 Ambrosias, and 2 LVL Apples.  Everyone got a free level-up.  I started the game with about 7K Gella, 6 ROM cartridges, and the completely useless Convert badge.  I also had about 3250 battles in ACF completed.

Let that number sink in for a bit.

Lombardia has ~3250 ATP, and I get it just after getting to Port Rosalia.

Up to Port Rosalia, game was simple enough.  Did this, did that, just sped through.  Got Raquel in my party.  At the start of the game, she deals ~9.5K damage to enemies.  Managed to grind up a whole slew of Combination Arts, including Mind Recovery and Hi-Material.  Dealt over 10K damage to Tony 2 with Raquel in one shot.  I don't predict having any problems until at least after the three-quarters mark of the game.

[Xeroma]

Jim is now officially the hardest core motherfucker in the whole DL. Congratulations.

Edit: Oh right this is a games topic.

The 3rd Birthday[aka parasite eve 3]: Picked up and beat. To put it into TLDR terms, everything about the game is really good except the plot, which is outright terrible. In spite of that it's very much worth playing and one of the best hardcore action games on the PSP, packing a unique mix of RPG customization/skill-based shooter gameplay/tactical strategy that makes the game feel fresh and fun. It's also very pretty and has very good music, controls well, and has good polish[full scene skip, decent menus, etc].

[DjinnAndTonic]

But Oh God, Even Djinn Thinks The Plot Is Terrible.

[Rozalia]

Good to hear (The good that is) as I plan on getting it day 1 myself. The plot being bad isn't a shocker but I hope its bad as in RE bad because then that means its completely awesome, if not its just well, bad.

GS DD - If you thought the GS1 & 2 duos were bad then you'll be shocked to find the one in this game is somehow even worse . "Yeah I'm like totally the best swordsmen in all the world, fear my 15HKO and piss poor hp!". Man I could have taken this chump at lv5 where I had according to the game "no chance" to win. Just pathetic.

I did face star mage though who was pretty cool, he has like a 6HKO which is pretty damn good for this game (I think one of the programmers coded his stats wrong. That damage is far too high). He also has some extreamly cool support so he gave me a little trouble as I went in with my full on offence set up so I had only single target healing.

GT5 - Getting to the edurance part of the game....no just fuck you game and your 24 hour races. I'd have to leave my PS3 on all week to complete those crappy races.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

If you ever played Parasite Eve for plot, you need immediate psychological help.

[Tide]

LFT:

Laggy is coercing me to finish the end game. So, I booted it up after a lot of work getting everything ready and streamed it. It was a blast, with Trance as commentator and Laggy being actually there for the first bit. Anyway, some highlights:

UBS4
- I bring in Mediator Mustadio. Mimic Daravon laughs at puny evasion. I manage to hit 2 guys with it at 55% chance each.
- The bigger highlight is using Invite and turning 2 units, 1 of them being Nitori , into Guest PCs
- After Mimic Daravon hit, Nitori proceeds to use CHARGE+20. I purposely let it go off after buffing Nitori with Yell.

Rofel
- I get unlucky the first time and miss 2 92-94% Raise chances. Laggy proceeds to own me with Jumping Priests
- Second run, I knock out those Priests with Hellcry + Agrias powersmashing. Rofel was a bit of beast himself, but goes down after some sustained punishment as long as he doesn't get a crystal
- At one point near the end, I drop a Speed Ruin on Rofel, then proceed to walk into my own Speed Ruin. It was a very pro moment.

Kletian
- Kletian gets unlucky, misses 2 flares, one of them which gets COUNTER MAGIC'd for around 110+ damage
- Enemies line in a row, Agrias smashes them all in a hit. Lucky that Flare missed, otherwise, I would've lost Agrias from this move and the battle might've turned sour pretty quick.

More maybe tomorrow. If you're in chat with nothing to do, join us on Skype or watch stream for hilarity.

Also, reminder to self:
Get the non Lion War version of the game for a 6 month update patch before Altima. I do not want to get Lava Ball'd for 999 damage