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

[BaconForTheSoul]

FFXIII-  Going along smoothly... liking plot and gameplay for the most part, but since liking things is boring... this is what is bothering me so far.

1. Too much 2 person fighting.  Fighting with 2 people is a lot slower and a lot more boring than fighting with 3.  I'm assuming this will go away eventually, but for not it's a nuisance.
2. The trash mob fights actually take time in this game (some run 2 mins on average) so having to do 10-15 of them between semi-important events is ehh.
3. People keep hitting Snow and I'm annoyed that I can't.

Other than those minor issues the game is pretty good thus far.

[Rozalia]

FFXIII - The intro is looooong but I've played S5 so it didn't faze me very much. I'm up to the point where enemies are actually forcing me to switch paragisms or however you spell it.
Though I must question something. Why does a machine you wreaked and blew to pieces come back 10x stronger? Its like the army have valiant cast on their machines or something.

[Idun]

Despite Last Remnant currently being a boring game with worse character animation than Legend of Legaia, it does manage to do one thing. I can pretty much save anywhere. Good shit, since I can't play the game for too long at the moment. Granted, I just made it to the second city, so maybe the game is starting off extremely slow. Anyway, the battle system reminds me of Suikoden III except there's a larger battlefield, the ability to roam with some sRPG maneuvering elements. Getting the impression it is including randomized troops you can hire to help you with areas, IE, a tactical game. Haven't seen how well it's gone yet though. Battle system is fine - nothing spantastic about it. Tendency to lag in-between moves which sucks for the connecting combos. Music in-game is five times better than listening to it on the comp.

Star Ocean First Departure - left Portmith. Thinking I need to level up a bit as randoms are taking out too much on ILIA. Actually, that would be a great idea because I need to get some more Skill points as ILIA is the only person with a special right now. Not too excited by auto-target because it makes my main sometimes run around in a circle. I'll play around with the options. Storyline is as expected from its notoriety in the series. They added SO3 elements and contracted some of the original stuff (skill allotment) buuuuut, it's still a fine game.


Ubermarici. Weird name for a Remnant. I'd have prefered. . .  ubermanci.

[BaconForTheSoul]

FFXIII - The intro is looooong but I've played S5 so it didn't faze me very much. I'm up to the point where enemies are actually forcing me to switch paragisms or however you spell it.
Though I must question something. Why does a machine you wreaked and blew to pieces come back 10x stronger? Its like the army have valiant cast on their machines or something.

Naturally to our untrained eyes, all machines look alike.

It's like if I'm from a planet that has never seen a Brazilian person.  I could beat up a Brazilian and think, "man that was pretty easy."  Then a day later I see Royce Gracie and think it's the guy I already beat up.  30 seconds later when I'm on the ground crying, I'm gonna be wondering what happened.

[Shale]

Endless Frontier EXCEED: Beat. Final party, inasmuch as you have fixed parties in boss fights, was Axelfimi, Aldy, Haken and Kaguya. Reiji, KOS-MOS and Neige also saw heavy use, while Suzuka, Aschen and Xiaomu were thrown to the wayside. Last boss was...okay? First phase took a while, but the second fell pretty quickly, even with his extremely scary uberspirit. The way you kill him was stylish as all hell.

Overall, the game's a pretty solid 8/10. Every change they made from EF1, gameplay-wise, was good. Solid ideas, good implementation, the works. The new characters play distinctly, the new mechanics fit, and I really can't think of anything to complain about in the changes. Game is still pretty breakable, but more of that breaking is now dependent on you being good at it - for instance, you can now use screen-clearing Overdrives in every fight and recover double-digit SP after a battle, provided you can also string together three-digit combos on demand. It rewards you for combo skill while enemy guarding and Forced Evasion are still there to punish you for sucking. Support Defense forces you to use everyone in big fights, another nice addition. I can't rate the story, obviously, but judging from the first EF that's a point in its favor.

The only complaint I have is the NG+ content. It's a 34-stage extra dungeon, but it's scaled for an endgame party, and you start NG+ back at level 1. So you have to go through the 25+ hour game again, with most of the challenge gone because you've got all your old cash and equipment, before you get to the new stuff. Bleh. I don't think I'll be doing that for a while.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

FFXIII - The intro is looooong but I've played S5 so it didn't faze me very much. I'm up to the point where enemies are actually forcing me to switch paragisms or however you spell it.
Though I must question something. Why does a machine you wreaked and blew to pieces come back 10x stronger? Its like the army have valiant cast on their machines or something.

FACT: Robots are like Dragon Ball Z characters. If you almost kill them they get way stronger, which in turn begs the question on why they bothered training at all instead of just taking turns blasting each other in the chest with rockets.

Anyway, even the jungles in this game have fucking corridors.

[BaconForTheSoul]

What you mean Vegeta losing to the second weakest Ginyu member, getting beat up 4-5 times, and then beating Freiza's 3rd form doesn't make sense?  Blastphemy.  DBZ plot is not to be questioned!

And yeah, just beat the forest and thought the same thing.  The buildings are all poorly designed and seem to be super long walkways, the jungles too.  Buuut... it's an RPG and it's damn pretty so I'm letting it slide.

[Just Another Day]

I remember being pretty annoyed by the ridiculous linearity of the early game (although there are decentish setting reasons for some of the odd environments). I mean, it's no worse than many others I've played, but FFs tend to have a bit more exploration early on.

I can't bring myself to hate early game Sazh as much as I probably should because that goddamn chocobo is unbearably cute.

[Meeplelard]

What you mean Vegeta losing to the second weakest Ginyu member, getting beat up 4-5 times, and then beating Freiza's 3rd form doesn't make sense?  Blastphemy.  DBZ plot is not to be questioned!

Actually, Vegita NEVER beat Frieza's 3rd form; Frieza just sort of got pissed at Dende keeping everyone healed, went form 4, then Vegeta went all "HA I'LL BEAT YOU!"  Vegeta then got his ass kicked badly.  Oh sure, it seemed like he was doing well at first, but that's cause Frieza was literally just toying with Vegeta, as once he stopped playing defensively, fight sort of just became massively one sided.

Also, DBZ is pretty consistent...until the Buu Saga...on the fact that Saya-jins getting injured -> Healed = Massive Power Boost.  IT has to be a genuine injury though, like getting beaten within an inch of his life.  Also, from what I understand, the difference in power between Recoom and Baata/Jeice was...rather minor (unlike GUldo whose a weakling and Ginyu whose twice as strong.)  Only Saya-jins and Cell (who has Saya-jin Cells in him, so he inheritted the trait) ever show this off.  The humans just become useless regardless where they are, Piccolo just gets stronger by either fusing or some massive training, Villains usually just find some bullshit halfassed power up like most RPG final bosses have.

Does this make sense?  No, but DBZ is actually consistent about it, so it does deserve at least that much credit.

I know, I just analyzed DBZ plot, but people immediately assume random shit about DBZ and...uhh...yes, its the Poster Boy for Cheap Shonen Anime, but that doesn't mean it fails at everything everywhere.

[BaconForTheSoul]

Well, not saying it fails at everything everywhere.  I enjoyed it through the Cell saga.  But regardless, the Saiyan power growth was pretty damned random.  If it was good as it was duying the Frieza Saga, Vegeta would have been having minions beat him to within an inch of his life and then healing in one of those cool tanks his entire life.  Sure it took a week or so to heal, but in a year you'd be stronger than anything.

Not that I really care.  There isn't an Anime out there without silly plot holes like that when they try and put an actual number on strength.  Just poking fun at it.  (For that Yu yu Hakusho comes to mind also.  6 fighters all train under the old bitch and end up with powers like 4k within each other... when initially there was a decent difference between their powers.)

[Rozalia]

Naturally to our untrained eyes, all machines look alike.

It's like if I'm from a planet that has never seen a Brazilian person.  I could beat up a Brazilian and think, "man that was pretty easy."  Then a day later I see Royce Gracie and think it's the guy I already beat up.  30 seconds later when I'm on the ground crying, I'm gonna be wondering what happened.

Thats possible but there only seems to be one of that kind of robot. Why the army would invest in a one of a kind robot is anyones guess.

FACT: Robots are like Dragon Ball Z characters. If you almost kill them they get way stronger, which in turn begs the question on why they bothered training at all instead of just taking turns blasting each other in the chest with rockets.

Its quite an impressive robot then considering it lost both its arms and its ability to fly yet still tracked me down after falling from massive heights. Then again the robot is Guard Scorpians cousin....

But regardless, the Saiyan power growth was pretty damned random. If it was good as it was duying the Frieza Saga, Vegeta would have been having minions beat him to within an inch of his life and then healing in one of those cool tanks his entire life. Sure it took a week or so to heal, but in a year you'd be stronger than anything.

I always gathered it was % based as it would otherwise make little sense. Thus the higher your base power level the more you gained from the ability.

[Fudozukushi]

Well, not saying it fails at everything everywhere.  I enjoyed it through the Cell saga.  But regardless, the Saiyan power growth was pretty damned random.  If it was good as it was duying the Frieza Saga, Vegeta would have been having minions beat him to within an inch of his life and then healing in one of those cool tanks his entire life.  Sure it took a week or so to heal, but in a year you'd be stronger than anything.

Well eventually his minions wouldn't be able to hurt him and stall out his growth.

[Rozalia]

True but what would stop him from blasting himself?

[Cotigo]

It'd be easy enough to hand wave and make it something like "SAIYANS ONLY GET MORE POWERFUL AFTER BEING INJURED IN BATTLE!1!!!!111" or something like that.  It's not like DBZ plot is anything complex.

[Meeplelard]

I think the logic is simply the battle thing; Saya-jins are a warrior race, Battle to them is higher on the tier of importance than Sex (no wonder their race got nearly extinct; screw the "Planet blew up!" excuse!), so naturally everything related to them is battle.

DBZ plot is pretty simplistic for the most part, cause hey, its Shonen anime and meant to be all about BIG AWESOME FIGHTS!!!!! and what not.  Its pretty easy to make an excuse without having to come up with genuine logic when its just "Warrior Race -> They have bizarre advantages in building muscle mass!"

[BaconForTheSoul]

Well, not saying it fails at everything everywhere.  I enjoyed it through the Cell saga.  But regardless, the Saiyan power growth was pretty damned random.  If it was good as it was duying the Frieza Saga, Vegeta would have been having minions beat him to within an inch of his life and then healing in one of those cool tanks his entire life.  Sure it took a week or so to heal, but in a year you'd be stronger than anything.

Well eventually his minions wouldn't be able to hurt him and stall out his growth.

Well, you could always have a couple of your minions growing strong with you.  Not strong enough to be a threat, but strong enough to beat you down.  I mean Krillin vs Vegeta is pretty laughable, but Krillin was still able to beat Vegeta up when he allowed it.

But getting back on topic.  Major plot twist in FFXIII RAWR.  It makes very little sense right now, but I'm assuming it will down the line.

Also, this plot is feeling a lot too FFXish with some FFVII mixed in.  Makes sense considering what people think of those 2 games though...

[hinode]

Toriyama was clearly making everything up as he went along with DBZ, considering how wildly it veered from the early Dragonball chapters. The anime version also suffers from some really lame filler they threw in to buy time.

[Excal]

SRWJ - I'm getting to the point where I'm beginning to wonder why I leave the battle display on, and then I get Bonta-Kun, and I remember why I like that feature.  As of right now, on Map 35, almost done beating up the Layzner goons.  Finding, oddly enough, that the God Gundam is slightly worse than the Shining Gundam.  Damage isn't really any higher, and it feels less evasive.  Though part of that could just be the enemies finally starting to get better.  Also wondering why original mech upgrades get any hype, since I have a rough idea of how long this game is, and we're starting to hit late for a Chapter 2 mech to upgrade, and in about four maps, this will hit stupidly late.  Especially when the freaking Mazinkaiser came ten maps ago, and it's been two or three since it got its absurd Sword upgrade.

On a side note, Mazinkaiser is rocking worlds.  Only real flaw so far is that it is a one pilot super robot, so it doesn't get extra SP in exchange for being constantly hit.  But its defense is so crazy that...  I honestly don't even care to pull out the defensive spirits against most bosses right now.

Also, is it just me, or is Bonta-Kun actually worse than the Arbalest.  I mean, I'm not going to replace it just yet because game's still easy, and the animations are still kickass.  But, seems like the secrets aren't that good.  (Granted, not going for IWSP or Zeorymer Mk2 this playthrough, so who knows.  Those could be worth it.)

[hinode]

God Gundam is a pretty significant improvement in mobility over Shining (90/135 -> 100/150, + DoubleImage clone) so you must be having bad luck. Either that or fighting stronger enemies.

Bonta-kun is pretty clearly weaker than Arbalest, yeah; it would make no sense whatsoever plotwise for it to be stronger. It's there as an entertainment option.

Best non-Great Zeorymer secrets are Tekkaman Rapier (moreso for the insane combo attack with Blade than as an individual unit) and Layzner MkII. IWSP is really only slightly better than mediocre, it's just a huge step up from the other Strike Packs which are downright awful lategame.

[MC50]

Also, I believe in that game the God Gundam is B in Air? If so, make sure you land it to get rid of that, it makes a pretty big difference.

[Excal]

Hmm, Layzner Mk II hasn't been so hot so far, but I'll admit that could just be that it never seemed like much more than filler before either.  As for the God Gundam, yeah...  the few maps since then have involved too much time over water, which means there's a B rating either way.  That'd do it.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

A Modules are your friend.

[hinode]

Layzner MkII has a 4000 power V-Max, which is better than any Real can pull off in J except for Blade/Freedom/Justice/maybe Rapier. Oh, and God Gundam if you count that as a real (it gets more weapons later on). It also has some really insane potential movement in flight mode, V-Max stat boosts, and enough mobility to dodge everything if you invest in it. Also Layzner Formation upgrades to ~6000 power or something impressive like that, for all that it requires using Baldy and Babel so most people won't ever see it. With all that said it's still merely a solid unit and not anything incredible, but it's a clear statistical winner compared to IWSP and Gai's Aestivalis. The less said about X-Aestivalis or Balzack the better.

[Meeplelard]

Well, you could always have a couple of your minions growing strong with you.  Not strong enough to be a threat, but strong enough to beat you down.  I mean Krillin vs Vegeta is pretty laughable, but Krillin was still able to beat Vegeta up when he allowed it.

DBZ has stated that characters can power down at will, thus make themselves significantly weaker.  Obviously, Vegita dropped all his guard and lowered his power down to the point where Krillin could significant damage to him.   Besides, considering the scenario wasn't exactly normal.  Strongest guy in the universe, you get stronger when you're near dead *AND* there happens to be a kid with super awesome healing powers, it was a gambit (one that failed miserably granted.)

Branching from DBZ, cause people are looking too deeply into this instead of just saying "Its a freaking action based Shonen Anime/Manga, just take things for what they are!"...

FF2: Dreadnaught time!

Josef's Unique weapon is...a Dagger.  Um, ok, I guess its better than going in with not-adequate Fist levels, especially cause of Shield Compatibility, in Soul of Rebirth, but its kind of insulting considering he has no levels in Daggers, and you've probably been raising him purely as a Monk due to 3 levels in Fists initially, and they hit much harder than weapons at the time, not worth raising him in other weapons.  Still kind of a dick move cause every other character gets something logical (well, not Leon, he was more "Firion gets a sword, Guy gets a Axe, lets give Leon the Lance!" but Leon's Lance levels are at least adequate enough.)  I guess they went with logic of "Cat Claw = Dagger, LETS MAKE DRAGON CLAW TOO!"

Honsetly, they should have made it a new weapon class being Claw, which functions on Fist levels, and works as an alternative to Unarmed, ubt whatever.  It'd give Josef a Niche instead of basically saying "Give him Excalibur in Soul of Rebirth eventually, cause he gets no super awesome unique."

Also, not bothering with Gungnir; Gordon really sin't worth it.  Dancing Dagger, when I get Leila now?  Yeah, would bother with that.

FF13: Lightning and Hope are a lot more fun than Sazh and Vanille.  I guess its just the fact that Lightning as a Commando > Sazh as a Commando, for how fights flow.

I awnt to play this game more but something keeps coming up, be it school, random shit with parents, Brother Deciding He Wants to Hog the TV For Some Movie He's Already Seen BUT WAIT HASN'T SEEN THE DUB, etc.  So yeah, only 10~ Hours in despite enjoying this a lot.

[Rozalia]

FF13 - In chapter 10 messing around with the teams and considering all the choice I don't quite know who to take. Lightning, Sazh and Hope are who I'm running around with at moment but not sure all round.