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

[Meeplelard]

Or they'll just resort to the old "Its a different Welch! She's the Cid of the Star Ocean world!" excuse.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

That is one of the most spineless things I've read.

I'd rather that they just hack off the head of the SO3 plot twist and bury it separate from the body, but it's a good start.

either the writers and director aren't on the same page

I figure that this fits Star Ocean 4 pretty well.

[Rozalia]

either the writers and director aren't on the same page

Most likely. You'd think with the director trying to wipe SO3 from existance he'd make sure there weren't Npcs on Roak telling you "The final battle is coming up, better get ready". Its also lazy "Shit guys, people think my game's story is retarded so lets pretend it never happened........Kay?".

[NotMiki]

I find it vaguely hilarious that a series that broke the 4th wall is now inspiring disputes about what's on the other side.  I have trouble thinking of a statement about Star Ocean continuity which is less meaningful than '4-D space does or does not exist.'

[Niu]

I'll just put it this way. Missing Procedure is just a vaccine program.
I guess players starting in technologically advanced planets are having too much advantage, so the mass that is SO4 got set in motion to tweak game-play balance.

Also, if you want some 4-D related stuff, talk to a certain NPC in EN-2.

And the Welch is a different Welch.

[Rozalia]

You mean that guy that talks about gods? I don't think its much of a relation to 4-D space. Also why is having guns an advantage. SO4 has shown that even railguns can't defeat a weak lv 1 bug.
Luther should fix that before anything else

[Niu]

I mean the guy in the market place who has been mumbling about universe being controlled.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I find it vaguely hilarious that a series that broke the 4th wall is now inspiring disputes about what's on the other side.  I have trouble thinking of a statement about Star Ocean continuity which is less meaningful than '4-D space does or does not exist.'

Having discussed that plot twist at length several years ago, I think my issue with it can be encapsulated in the following: "Most games try to get us to care about their fictional characters, but usually they don't rub our noses in the fact they manipulated us in to doing it."

Plus, the entire universe was destroyed and they just reloaded a copy or some shit. How can you have believable peril when you know that the entire universe being completely obliterated still won't do anything?

[Rozalia]

I mean the guy in the market place who has been mumbling about universe being controlled.

I don't remember that. I remember him mentioning there might be people more advanced that them and thus could be refered to as gods. I might be remembering wrong.

Plus, the entire universe was destroyed and they just reloaded a copy or some shit. How can you have believable peril when you know that the entire universe being completely obliterated still won't do anything?

I'm hazy on the subject but wasn't it the bugs in the system that did that.

[Cotigo]

I find it vaguely hilarious that a series that broke the 4th wall is now inspiring disputes about what's on the other side.  I have trouble thinking of a statement about Star Ocean continuity which is less meaningful than '4-D space does or does not exist.'

Having discussed that plot twist at length several years ago, I think my issue with it can be encapsulated in the following: "Most games try to get us to care about their fictional characters, but usually they don't rub our noses in the fact they manipulated us in to doing it."

Plus, the entire universe was destroyed and they just reloaded a copy or some shit. How can you have believable peril when you know that the entire universe being completely obliterated still won't do anything?

In fairness, WA3 did this and it was still pretty OK if for no other reason than the final shot before the epilogue.

ME - Game worked long enough to get off Eden Prime, hooray!  Gonna speed through the story missions to get Assault Rifles, then... Vanguard, I guess?  Maybe Sentinel, though Kaiden sucked ass early which is turning me off to the idea.  Something with Lift is the point, though.

Also, hey, renegade path conversation options are not asininely evil.  Obama Shepard is just an enormous asshole but doesn't go on and on about his POWAH.  Neat.

EDIT:  Oh, hey, question.  Exactly what do the biography choices (Spacer/War Hero, Etc) affect?  Is there a canon combination between those and alignment?  Or, if not canon, are there more interesting combinations than others?

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Each of the six background items has a unique mission associated with it. Also, you can get small starting bonuses to paragon/renegade with some of them. Earthborn and Ruthless give you a little extra ren to start with, Spacer and War Hero give you para. I went Spacer just because not only is your mother not dead in that one, you actually talk to her. And Ruthless because you don't fuck with me.

As far as canonicity, not really. If you start a ME2 game without a ME1 save I just don't think they mention it. Doesn't really come in to play seriously, except for some small callbacks. For example: if you're Earthborn, in ME2 you'll hear the Alliance has founded a Shepard Scholarship to help kids who grew up in the shitty parts of Earth get out of the hood and go to school or whatever. If you're a Spacer then there'll be a news story about your mother refusing promotion to Admiral, because she thinks it's a political move or a sympathy card cause her kid got killed. And so on.

If you want to play your Shep for maximum bawwwwwww, you could go Colonist/Sole Survivor and then get as many people killed as possible. Then you're basically the pariah dog.

EDIT:

In fairness, WA3 did this and it was still pretty OK if for no other reason than the final shot before the epilogue.

The plot twist in WA3 was "HAHA you are playing a video game!"?

[Cotigo]

In WA3 at the end Nega Filgaia destroys everything but then Virginia was able to restore the universe through MEMORY!!!1!!!11111!111.  I haven't played SO3 but what you were describing sounds very similar.

So, Spacer/War Hero for Paragon and Earth/Ruthless for Renegade(s of Funk).  Otherwise don't give a shit.  Got it.

ME:  Got to the Mako parts.  Ugh.  ughughugh.  Fortunately I was so prepared for these parts to suck that I don't really mind them.  Still they do suck so hey.  Everything feels really pointless because I'm just killing time until I kill 150 people with my assault rifle but whatever.  I'm probably going to get that, realize there's no way to make Shepard not ugly, and then not play the game for a while because really I want to play the KotOR2 restored content mod.  >_>

[NotMiki]

Plus, the entire universe was destroyed and they just reloaded a copy or some shit. How can you have believable peril when you know that the entire universe being completely obliterated still won't do anything?

I have a PS2 memory card with a corrupted and unerasable SO3 save that might shed some light on that subject...

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I haven't played SO3 but what you were describing sounds very similar.

The twist of Star Ocean 3 is literally "you are playing a video game," though, which is more of a problem because the Wild Arms worlds are not contiguous and so the stupid ending need not apply to all games in the series, and I didn't really care for WA3.

So, Spacer/War Hero for Paragon and Earth/Ruthless for Renegade(s of Funk).  Otherwise don't give a shit.  Got it.

ME:  Got to the Mako parts.  Ugh.  ughughugh.  Fortunately I was so prepared for these parts to suck that I don't really mind them.  Still they do suck so hey.  Everything feels really pointless because I'm just killing time until I kill 150 people with my assault rifle but whatever.  I'm probably going to get that, realize there's no way to make Shepard not ugly, and then not play the game for a while because really I want to play the KotOR2 restored content mod.  >_>

If it makes you feel any better, you get to pick a new face in ME2, plus your ugliness will be the cool ugly and not the ugly ugly when you go Renegade.

[Meeplelard]

I will note that while I really like WA3, the epilogue kind of ruined the ending's impact.  I'll grant SOME epilogue was needed, but the entire Epilogue could have just been the wanted poster.  Just show that, and everything would have been fine and it'd be a neat visual image to end the game on (and fitting considering how strongly they got the point of the setting across.)

And yeah, Zenny, first part of SO3's ending is very similar to WA3's, just they also had the nerve to make it philosophical to hell...like OPENLY philosophical, to the point where the characters actually try to philosophize why things happen, contrast to WA3 where Ginny sort of just accepts what happened and the ending moves on.

[Magic Fanatic]

So.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story - Beaten.  M&L at L40, Bowser at L33.  Bowser's level would have been higher if he ever got any EXP boosters (or benefitted from the Bonus Badge whenever a battle when involve both parties.

Rant more on it later, like after my shift at work.

Next up:

Final Fantasy III DS
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
More Disgaea 3
More Blazblue
More Grim Grimoire
Persona 1, 2IS, and 2EP
Star Ocean 2
Xenogears
Lunar 1 and 2
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Spyro 3
Final Fantasy XII
Star Ocean 3
Breath of Fire 3
Breath of Fire 4
Final Fantasy I & II GBA

...That's all I can remember off the top of my head for wanting to play and that I have immediately available to me.

[Dark Holy Elf]

SO3's plot twist is utter brilliance because it makes everything that happened in SO2 completely meaningless. More seriously, just found it fun. Oh no a game doing something that isn't 100% formulaic (at least within the genre, blah blah I'm aware the Matrix exists, etc.).


Super Mario World 2 - Beaten. It probably deserves a long rant but I beat it like a week ago and have had limited internet access and time since then. So, in brief!

The good:
-Stage design was very varied and often brilliant.
-Boss design was again, very creative, although I wish more of them were more challenging.
-Nice visuals generally, very much sought out its own style and nailed it. I'm not even the biggest fan of that style in the world but I respect what they did, here.
-Challenge level was overall pretty good. Bosses, as mentioned, could have been a bit tougher, but otherwise, game rarely mails in a total joke level the way pretty much every other Mario game since SMB3 has.
-Raphael the Raven.

The less good:
-Controls suck. This singlehandedly keeps the game out of the elite tier of sidescrollers. This was really driven home, sadly, in the final boss fight, where the boss was non-threatening enough that he wouldn't kill, but you have to jump back and forth between small pillars and Yoshi's controls are bad enough that I was sometimes missing them and falling into a pit. This is excusable early in a game as you get the hang of things, but the fact that it always happened somewhat even by the end indicates to me that the controls are definitely a bit gummed.
-Game could have done with twice as many halfway points. Levels are big, often huge, and I have no problem with that, but I dislike having to go back over five minutes when I die.

Collection stuff was kinda silly (red coins are a stupid idea) but I don't really care. The game also totally lacks any explorable map and I still don't care.

Overall a fun game, glad I finally played it in full, good experience and so on. Not exactly jumping up and down to play through it again, but that's fine. Capcom games await!


FE Shadow Dragon - At Chapter 16 or so on the H3 run.

Xenosaga 2 - About to dive into MOMO's subconscious. Gameplay is sexy, plot is very hit and miss, GS stuff is more tiring on a replay.

[Hunter Sopko]

And yeah, Zenny, first part of SO3's ending is very similar to WA3's, just they also had the nerve to make it philosophical to hell...like OPENLY philosophical, to the point where the characters actually try to philosophize why things happen, contrast to WA3 where Ginny sort of just accepts what happened and the ending moves on.

Which is why the "Marry My Daughter" ending is the best one. ::Nodnod::

[Cotigo]

ME:  In the corporate building on Feros.  I'm honestly enjoying the gameplay in this game, which is kind of a first for a non-Tales RPG.  And since my main goal with Obama Shepard is to get rifles this makes the gameplay waaaaay more interesting than the story, which I won't care about until I start a real character.  All my squad mates are kinda gimped because I haven't put any thought into building them, but the game is easy enough that this hasn't mattered aside from it being annoying to unlock chests. 

Also, holy hell the Mako has a canon.  I wish I had known that when I was bumming around the sidequest worlds.

Man, I certainly feel like I've murdered 150 enemies already, but apparently the game thinks otherwise.  Mph.

[Fudozukushi]

Also, holy hell the Mako has a canon.  I wish I had known that when I was bumming around the sidequest worlds.

I wish I knew that for my first encounter with a Worm.



Ace Combat 4: Picked this up because I needed a time waster because I'm sick of falling asleep at 8pm out of boredom.  Anyways, up to mission 11 or so.  Just destroyed the superweapon despite having 90% damage on me while fighting the Aces.  Spiffy.  Also my first death in-game was due to flying into a goddamn crane, despite grazing water and mountains three times earlier.

[Shale]

The problem with the SO3 twist isn't that it breaks formula, or even really that it subverts the series' world- and character-building (although I'm not a fan of that part) it's that it's (a) done unsatisfyingly and (b) done halfway, mixed with the standard RPG conventions of a final-boss throwdown with the main villain (who in this case should be able to kill you all by pressing a button), the human spirit overcoming all (even when the "humans" aren't, never mind the part where they're nothing mystical about format c:\) and so on.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

ME:  In the corporate building on Feros.  I'm honestly enjoying the gameplay in this game, which is kind of a first for a non-Tales RPG.  And since my main goal with Obama Shepard is to get rifles this makes the gameplay waaaaay more interesting than the story, which I won't care about until I start a real character.  All my squad mates are kinda gimped because I haven't put any thought into building them, but the game is easy enough that this hasn't mattered aside from it being annoying to unlock chests. 

Also, holy hell the Mako has a canon.  I wish I had known that when I was bumming around the sidequest worlds.

Man, I certainly feel like I've murdered 150 enemies already, but apparently the game thinks otherwise.  Mph.

Feros will really jack up your kill count, assuming that the Rachni Workers count towards it (I do not see why they wouldn't).

[DjinnAndTonic]

The point of SO3 is to teach the moral "Be nice to your toys/video game avatars, because you never know when they'll get uppity and come for revenge."

Also, SO3's plot twist makes SO1,2, and 4's plots so much more understandable. When the gods are teenaged MMO-players, plot twists like Faize and Mu make a lot more sense.

At least SO4 finally gave you a ship and let you travel freely to other planets. Phantasy Star has been doing that since before SO1, took them long enough to make it to the party. :<

[superaielman]

ToV- Just thwarted Cumore in Helios. Game's still good, not much else to say otherwise. I will generally second the Yuri hype and the game has excellent party chemistry overall.

Yuri reminds me of Seifer in a way. He couldn't cut in the group Flynn's excelling in and his taking his band to fight other things. Unlike Seifer he isn't written by someone freebasing nuclear waste and his choices make sense.

[hinode]

Just got to the Scarlet Forest zone in Wizard of Oz, and the graphics are really impressive here. Technically it's limited by DS 3D rendering, but artistically the work is just amazing. Nice music as well.

Need to gather my thoughts more before commenting on the battle system, and nothing else in the game is really interesting enough to be worth discussing. For instance, the trackball movement interface takes some getting used at first, but there's nothing really wrong about it (or conversely, right about it) - it's just different from more conventional games.