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

[Shale]

Michael and Fasalina inherit from Dann, too, but by the time you get to that stage you can't do anything about it.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Michael and Fasalina inherit from Dann, too, but by the time you get to that stage you can't do anything about it.

Like that's an issue when the Dann is the machine I've upgraded the most on like all fronts.

[Shale]

You never know. I stopped upgrading Dann around 60% because it didn't need any more power to be MVP.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Given how inefficient upgrading in general gets past -that- threshold and how 60% upgrades across the board tends to make a lot of machines deadly, I'm not really worried. I think Dann is within that area itself - 60% across the board. Goddamn, having a Super that dodges a lot is fun.

* Jo'ou Ranbu also gave Prophecy to Van just because I could~

[Rozalia]

her FF12 Design was just ugly

I disagree as I find the FF12 design very sexy and snazzy

Devil survivor - Getting all the endings while waiting for devil summoner. Got the Yuzu ending and its nowhere near as bad as people say it is. I mean it has overlord Honda for YHWH's sake.
Also who the hell sends you those emails at the end? Its from "M" and the dark outline looks like it could be Metatron but if so, what exactly is a 8 foot tall angel using a DS for?

If no one tells me I'll have to assume metatron and YHWH don't appear because they're too busy playing super mario bros together or something. Which would kick all kinds of ass

[Bardiche]

I presume it was Metatron telling you you're an arse.

Yuzu ending is good. Gives +7 or so speed? Makes your turn come about faster which can definitely be handy when coupled with Tyrants.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

The beginning of Star Ocean 2 drags like a bitch, just like every other tri-Ace game. But I do like how Claude is just like "Welp, I broke galactic law. My bad. Better try and impress this chick so I can bang her and her fine-ass mom." And then when the Mayor is telling him how dangerous it is to fight the rapist/cannibal (still not clear on which he was aiming for) Claude just responds "Please, I have a kickass raygun."

[Grefter]

Besides, I wasn't comparing the script to Disgaea.  I was comparing gameplay - enemies in Disgaea all move at once before attacking, while enemies in Fire Emblem...  ENEMY TURN -> Move -> Attack -> Move -> Attack -> Move -> Attack repeat ad nauseum.  In Disgaea, it's ENEMY TURN -> All Move -> Attack -> Attack -> Attack...  Not to mention that in Disgaea, you don't have distractions of "SHUT THE HELL UP AND LET ME PLAY!" caliber in the middle of a map...  And don't even get me started on the method of gaining items.

Because remember, watching attack animations over and over and over is playing the game (I know Disgaea has since put in an animation skip function after D1, but you konw what?  Disgaea without the flashy animations is even worse than Disgaea normally is, which is to say it is fucking abyssmal).

Just remember people, no matter how much you like either game, both of them are shit.

Edit - As we resolved in Chat the argument here is the normal issues with FE.  Highly punishing RNG, permadeath and FE general anti-grind features.  Nothing to do with turn length.

[Yoshiken]

Persona 3 FES: Okay. Coming to this from P4, I complained about the lack of control over allies. Then, it turned out they were pretty intelligent and I didn't really care. Now, what the fuck.

Reached the F72 boss with Akihiko dead, so Mitsuru/Yukari/Junpei as the party. The three Gigas things proceed to get knocked down by Yukari and the All-Out Attack takes them down to about half health. "Perfect!" I think. How wrong I was. Mitsuru then misses, Yukari uses a physical attack, and Junpei is Junpei. Having assumed Yukari would use Magaru again, I now have to watch as the Power Charged enemies proceed to DESTROY Yukari and Mitsuru. "Not a problem," I think, "I'll just switch to Pale Rider and use Garula - I don't even need to waste my revival items!" So I do. Except it does barely any damage, despite weakness, and I now have to decide how to kill them. I can't AOA, because they'll destroy me (having PC-ed again), and Garula does single-digit damage, so I'd run out of SP before winning. I decide to switch to Titan and Kill Rush one of them, killing it. I then try again, and... one hit. Dammit. It killed me.
Now, the problem I had here? Junpei. He was on Act Freely for the first half, and was switched to Full Assault after Yukari/Mitsuru died. HE DID NOTHING. Seriously, is this plot-based or something? Because that's a really fucking retarded idea - "OH YEAH I'm pissed off about taking orders, so I'd rather let myself get killed y'know?!" If it's not plot-based, why the fuck is Junpei so retarded. I was there using Slash Attacks randomly and they worked fine, so why the hell didn't he?

[Twilkitri]

SDGGGW -

Ground a pilot (Luke (GG) to be specific) up to level 31, bought a new Devil Gundam Final and ground it up to level 40 with the tier 4 level gain set. Gave it Berserker Systems I, II, and III. Ex V was not particularly happy with this turn of events, but Zero-G still managed to put up a fight with its annoying dodginess. Only ended up triggering the break twice that map, but since all three I saw were all 'Destroy all the Guarder Mk IIIs' I don't expect that any I missed out on were going to be particularly interesting.

Collected all the now-unlockable items, got one of the three units I was missing from beating Ex V and I had looked up how to get the other two earlier. It involved equipping a particular unit with a particular part, which is fair enough in and of itself, but you then had to go on and use the unit rotation system on that unit, which is thoroughly nonintuitive.

So all I could really do now is grind more in order to hit all the breaks in Ex V or build up money and buy all the rest of the pilots. Neither of these options sound particularly entertaining.

So! In general, I loved it. Nice break from the way in which SRW et al go about things. Only real complaint that comes to mind is the getting one item per stage system when there are 140 items to unlock and only around 50 stages, in a game where there is no real need to grind excepting for Ex V.

[Clear Tranquil]

Less Junpei, moar awesme dog.

[dude789]

Now, the problem I had here? Junpei. He was on Act Freely for the first half, and was switched to Full Assault after Yukari/Mitsuru died. HE DID NOTHING. Seriously, is this plot-based or something? Because that's a really fucking retarded idea - "OH YEAH I'm pissed off about taking orders, so I'd rather let myself get killed y'know?!" If it's not plot-based, why the fuck is Junpei so retarded. I was there using Slash Attacks randomly and they worked fine, so why the hell didn't he?

Was Junpei equipped with an elemental weapon. I haven't played FES so I don't know exactly how they work, but that could have been why he didn't attack. Also, if you wanted Yukari to hit them with another wind attack you should have changed her tactic to Knock Down (or whatever it was called).

[Luther Lansfeld]

Because remember, watching attack animations over and over and over is playing the game (I know Disgaea has since put in an animation skip function after D1, but you konw what?  Disgaea without the flashy animations is even worse than Disgaea normally is, which is to say it is fucking abyssmal).

Just remember people, no matter how much you like either game, both of them are shit.

Edit - As we resolved in Chat the argument here is the normal issues with FE.  Highly punishing RNG, permadeath and FE general anti-grind features.  Nothing to do with turn length.

FE8 is notably not anti-grinding though, especially by FE standards. If you want to become 20/20 after Chapter 10 or whatever you can, it just means you probably need to re-evaluate where all that time is going.

I like turning off the attack animations in all games that can, personally. I don't really think battle animations contribute positively to the game. Brigandine is just unplayable with the attack animations on for example.

[Yoshiken]

Dude: Nah, Junpei's got some high Crit rate weapon. I didn't set Yukari to Knock Down because I assumed she'd use Garu attacking anyways, and I needed her to heal if things got bad. Turns out, they got bad way too quickly, and against her. Whoops.


Agreed with Ciato on attack animations. I tend to have them on for, say, 2-3 fights. Maybe turn them back on if I get a cool-sounding new move. Anything else, they're just a waste of time, especially for FEs.

[Hunter Sopko]

A setback like that is a good way to learn to take hold of the reigns of the AI. You can reset the settings on each character each turn, so just remember that and plan ahead.

[Yoshiken]

Mm, definitely will be from now on. Although I'm still confused as to why Junpei blatantly ignored the orders anyways and did fuck-all. I'm going to put it down to Junpei being a 'tard, methinks.

[Meeplelard]

I tend to turn animations on unless I keep redoing a fight over and over again and just want it over with.  I'm a sucker for these things.

Though, exceptions exist, like Brig comes to mind.  I know in Chaos Wars, not knowing of Animation Skip made some bosses downright dreadful to fight, like the boss of the 2nd to last chapter who spams his ULTRA COMPLEX ANIMATION SUPER MOVE.  Egads that was a painful fight cause of how long it took, primarily cause of that move.  If I knew Animation Skip existed (not intuitive in that game), life would have been so much easier.

(certainly made the Final Boss playable)

[superaielman]

Brig's attack animations are bad in the way low budget PSX polygons can only be.  There's a reason the remake ditched those for little sprite physicals instead.

[Cmdr_King]

I find that I turn off animations for console games but leave them on in handhelds.  I think the size difference just makes it harder to track without the bigger pauses for the animations.

Speaking of.

FE6- Decided to pick this back up.  I seem to have left the old ROM and save files on an older computer, so had to start over.  C5.  At this stage, the differences between it and the other GBA games (reinforcements) haven't really had a chance to show up.  Although it seems to me that the game isn't shy about having large enemy counts from the get-go... and, of course, non-sword weapons failing and lower stat totals (ie low Skill) mean I occasionally have to pay attention to the weapon triangle.

Playing as a break/compliment to

Earthbound- Just got out of Moonside.  I can't help but feel that, if I weren't FAQing everything, I'd be pretty annoyed at the game.   Comparisons to Dragon Quest are apt in many ways, and not particularly saying what you're supposed to be doing at points is among them (although it has nothing on the order of the Zenithian Armor Hunts so far).  Not bad for all that, but also something I have a hard time playing at a stretch.  One dungeon at a time is pretty well enough for a given day.

[Meeplelard]

EB has something in game that Dragon Quest games only wish they had though:

Hint Guys.

Just about every town has one of those guys where if you pay them money, they pretty much spell out what you're suppose to do (or at least, point you into the direction, where you'll fumble upon the right thing to do by accident.)

They're basically the game's equivalent of Fortune Tellers that some games (often Non-RPGs) have. 

I beat EB without any guides, frankly, and didn't get too last, when I was in like 7th grade, where as I doubt I'd do the same with a Dragon Quest (heck, in HIgh School, I still needed a FAQ in DQ5, and that's straight forward by the series standards!)

So I think that saying they're just like Dragon Quests in regards to direction is rather harsh, cause EB you can figure out what you're suppose to do by talking to everyone much easier than Dragon Quests.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

SRWK - I went through the byzantine requirements for Fasalina and Michael to get losers who don't even break 5k with their finishers at six upgrades? *Punt.*

[Shale]

Saudade of Sunday has a natural A in space, at least.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

You know it's sad when that's a legitimate advantage. Granted, whenever I'm in space, I'm just tossing the SEED Destiny yaoi guys (YES, LACUS IS MANLY TOO WHAT ABOUT IT) at the universe first and foremost.

[Hunter Sopko]

inFamous- Stopped right before the Anything for Trish mission. Zeke is amusing, and the Street Fight sub-mission was easily the best one so far. Massive firefight between 20 enemies with you in the middle? yesplz. Been combing over the city for Blast Shards, over 50% done there. The Dustmen are a lot more fun to fight than the Reapers, at least. The Alden Strikes mission was... cool but annoying. Place was just too goddamn big.

[Crystalgate]

Dragon Warrior III: Time to track down a ghost ship. It's done by using the pirate bone and then you're told how far north/south and east/west you need to travel. The ghost ship floats around randomly, but not fast enough to make tracking it down harder. I don't know if it can spawn in an inaccessible position though.

The ghost ship has a lot of dead who aren't quite dead. Ghosts who look like flames, ghosts who looks like humans and ghost who looks like skeletons, or is it skeletons who look like skeletons? Talking to them reveals that the ship wasn't a very nice place even before becoming a ghost ship. After searching a bit, the party eventually discovers Luvmemory in a chest. Lia assumes that the teenage poetry book is important and takes it with her. Once she's confident she got all easy to find loot, the party leaves the ghost ship.

Next destination is a lake which one can reach from the seas via rivers. Unfortunately, a ghost is there and said ghost kicks the party out of the lake. Nearby is a shrine with a man who explains that a woman drowned herself in the lake after she heard (and confirmed?) that her lover died while sailing. He also suggests that if she's reminded of the love between her and her husband she may find peace. The party sails as close as they can without getting kicked out and Lia holds up the teenage poetry book. She even goes as far as to read from it after making sure her companions knows she will be very angry if they tell anyone about it. It's of no use though.

Desperate, Lia orders her companions to sail into the getting kicked out point and after being kicked out yet again, she tries waving and reading the teenage poetry book a second time. This works. Both the woman in the lake and her lover appears and have a talk in a globe of light. Then they disappear. The party can now enter the lake which has an island with a shrine on top of it. Inside the shrine is the Gaia Sword.

Then they travel to a volcano and casts the Gaia Sword into it. The volcano causes a lot of earthquakes and reveals a new path by clearing the mountains who happens to be in the way. The new path leads to a cave. Inside the cave Lia finds both an armor and a weapon only she can use. The weapon is stronger than what she currently has, but lacks the ability to hit multiple enemies, so no deal. However, it can also be used to cast quite a powerful spell and since Mye is lacking in damage department, she gets it. Unfortunately, it appears that if you can't equip it, you can't use it either.

After making a good job of exhausting both Mye's and Seth's MP pools, the party makes it to the other exit. There they find a shrine. This one has a man who's impressed they made it there and gives Lia the last orb. Time to go to shrine #138 and use the orbs.

Like all other shrine, #138 has people who apparently has lived there since the dawn of time and does absolutely nothing else. In this case it's two women who likes repeating each other. Lia uses the orbs to awaken the Lamia bird who takes off and lands somewhere outside the shrine. The women explain that the bird can fly them wherever, but that it will only obey someone pure.

Fortunately, the latter turns out to be just talk and Lia is saved from the trouble of having to find someone who's both pure and that will obey her. It's time for a rest for now though. Next up is getting to whichever places she couldn't reach before.