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

[Shale]

20-ish?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I... guess. <_< The acts are really short, at least. Also I definitely should give Virginia more time in Fantastica once she learns Gadgeteer EQ.

[Just Another Day]

Just started FFIII DS. Wow. Its characters talk and have names and are even introduced individually (presumably, anyhow, only seen the one so far, but even that's a big change). Can't really tell on gameplay yet. Very similar to FFIV DS, which I guess shouldn't be surprising.

[SageAcrin]

Bosses were all unremarkable but again I was probably overpowered, for all that I was only Level 32 or so.

I believe I pegged Narshe as the first area people would go to after the obvious stuff(forced to airship->Veldt stuff to Owzer or getting Terra back->the other of those two->Narshe), mostly because people do seem to go there early. I'unno why. Moogle Charm and just doing everything else('sides the locked Locke doors.) while they're there? So yeah, it's pegged to about those levels and your equipment was surely far better.

It's also probably not hard enough to start with, although Ice Dragon's a funny build in that it gets a lot worse if you're a lot more powerful than usual. Making Umaro too good would violate the original spirit of the boss(what, I do keep that in mind.), and the randoms are stuck with "Hey guys did you know there's three save points and a fullheal in this (small) area?". I'm not making randoms OHKO you constantly to keep up with that, so screw it. <_<

Oh, and Tritoch, but I'm pretty happy with what I did there. It's gimmicky, and could probably stand to have some more offense backing it up(not too much, but a little more), but whatever.

The game does have two notable flaws to my mind. First of all, the yellow stone system is a bit baffling. Why not just give 3 lives like most games? It's just annoying when you beat a level on your last life; I'm tempted to redo the level when that happens so I don't waste money getting the yellow orbs back. The second flaw is that ever since Mission 11 or so the game has fallen in love with DARKNESS which makes it annoying to see things; I don't really dig this. In theory it could lend the game a horror element but I don't think DMC is very effective at horror anyway.

Make sure you pick up SE when you get DMC3 then.

It fixes the DARKNESS crap either way, but the american DMC3 standard still has the Yellow orb crap. In the japanese original version you effectively had infinite Yellow Orbs and they had a very limited/expensive Gold Orb that is just an instant fullheal(which is to say it's still worse than Vital Star Larges since it's way more expensive but hey auto!). SE (in american and japanese versions, I believe) lets you choose between both options~

[Meeplelard]

He's got my copy of DMC3, so having SE won't be an issue!

Edit: I thought the Japanese version of DMC3 had the Yellow Orb standard as well, and their Special Edition added in Gold Orb, as well as Very Hard to the difficulty list (US version added in Japanese Normal, relabeled everything back to what they're suppose to be), as well as Heaven and Hell (yay gimmick modes?!)

Gold Mode is based off DMC2 in any event, which had limitless continues, and Gold Orbs were basically LoZ Fairies (...that gave you full DT as well, cause you know, 1 shot full healing auto-life was clearly not awesome enough as is!  Nevermind DMC2 is so easy, you forget these exist).  DMC3 added the option of letting you *NOT* use a Gold Orb if you didn't want to, which is nice; annoying entering a boss fight with practically zilch health, and die to it, then your Gold Orb effectively does nothing here but let you take one more hit relative to a normal death.  Nice that you can say "no", accept the death, come back wtih full health, and actually use the Gold Orb to full potential!

FOR THE RECORD:
I consider the Yellow Orb standard of DMC1 a stupid thing myself.  There was really no reason behind it, and I'm glad they've since punted it from DMC3SE and on in favor of just unlimited continues (of course, you lose a shit load on your ending style ranking, but there should be SOME penalty to dying!)

[Dhyerwolf]

Very similar to FFIV DS, which I guess shouldn't be surprising.

Note to self, scratch FF IV DS off of games to play list?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Like it being FF4 wasn't enough to do that.

[Just Another Day]

Note to self, scratch FF IV DS off of games to play list?
[/quote]

It's a pretty true remake, plays fairly similar to the original hardtype (which wasn't that hard, recall, just wasn't ludicrously nerfed). I'm told the battle mechanics are actually largely redone, but it feels largely the same. Bunch of extra minigames and whatnot, probably an extra sidequest or two. Graphically almost identical to III, which is to say not terribly impressive, translation's a bit of a wash. I dunno, I didn't get through it (borrowed it and ran out of time) and don't feel any real need to track it down to finish.

Given that FFIV is, I think, just basically a worse game than III to start with, if you really didn't like III DS, I wouldn't bother, no.

[Dhyerwolf]

Well, I should note that I fairly disliked 3 DS's battle system, although I'd have to imagine that FF 4 DS couldn't also be a self-defeating job system by the very nature of the game. Still could be a clunky slog though!

[Just Another Day]

I definitely get the feeling that IV (and probably III) are aimed at new, younger audiences rather than existing fans. Which, y'know, probably only makes sense. They're definitely not director's cuts.

[Niu]

Xenoblade-

The Radiata Story NPCs are REALLY getting on to my nerve.

[Shale]

Shadow Complex: Finished the challenge missions (aaaargh at The Big One - goddamn mechs) and got the jetpack in the main game. Not much to say about it other than that it's still a really good Metroidvania thing.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Bosses were all unremarkable but again I was probably overpowered, for all that I was only Level 32 or so.

I believe I pegged Narshe as the first area people would go to after the obvious stuff(forced to airship->Veldt stuff to Owzer or getting Terra back->the other of those two->Narshe), mostly because people do seem to go there early. I'unno why. Moogle Charm and just doing everything else('sides the locked Locke doors.) while they're there? So yeah, it's pegged to about those levels and your equipment was surely far better.

What about Zozo and Miranda? You know, the Cyan recruitment (which in turn tells you to where to get Gau, in case you didn't do it on accident). When you get the Airship the game tells you to head there.

[SageAcrin]

Bosses were all unremarkable but again I was probably overpowered, for all that I was only Level 32 or so.

I believe I pegged Narshe as the first area people would go to after the obvious stuff(forced to airship->Veldt stuff to Owzer or getting Terra back->the other of those two->Narshe), mostly because people do seem to go there early. I'unno why. Moogle Charm and just doing everything else('sides the locked Locke doors.) while they're there? So yeah, it's pegged to about those levels and your equipment was surely far better.

What about Zozo and Miranda? You know, the Cyan recruitment (which in turn tells you to where to get Gau, in case you didn't do it on accident). When you get the Airship the game tells you to head there.

Knew I was forgetting a step. Yeah, that was assumed first, I just couldn't recall the part I forgot when I posted that so I just shrugged and went with it.

[Captain K.]

ToS:  Finished the Figurine Book.  Now let us never speak of it again.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Xenoblade-

The Radiata Story NPCs are REALLY getting on to my nerve.

When you say 'Radiata Story NPCs'... do you mean actual cameos? Or are your AI-controlled companions just recruited stupidly like RS PCs and their AI is so worthless that they might as well be background color?

I just... didn't think Xenoblade was a tri-Ace game, so I'd be surprised if they were cameos?

Also... does it have any references to the other Xeno-whatever games? (Hopefully not Shion, and sadly probably not Xenogears even if it -is- related in some way.)

I see copies of it in the store all the time, but I have an American Wii, which means I can't play Japanese Wii games on it... >.>;;

[Rozalia]

Given that FFIV is, I think, just basically a worse game than III to start with, if you really didn't like III DS, I wouldn't bother, no.

Say what? FF4DS is actually a good remake unlike the turd FF3DS is.

WKC - This game plays like a slowed down and retarded FF12 but it isn't so bad. Them giving you an avatar that does nothing plotwise was pure genius! Its like they knew you wouldn't give a fuck and had your avatar reflect that. The scene in the castle where Yulie is about to get stabbed and your avatar stands right next to her doing nothing is pure comedy.

The best part has to be the birds that act as projecters and Leo and the princess randomly bursting into a dance over a lake. What the hell was up with that random dance? It makes no sense to me because I know how these hero types like to go save women they met for like for minutes but Leo? He met her for a couple of seconds when he was a child and they didn't even talk.

Onlines been fine though but its just terrible so little people have a mic. Also town building is terrible and serves no real purpose.

[Hunter Sopko]

The best part has to be the birds that act as projecters and Leo and the princess randomly bursting into a dance over a lake. What the hell was up with that random dance? It makes no sense to me because I know how these hero types like to go save women they met for like for minutes but Leo? He met her for a couple of seconds when he was a child and they didn't even talk.

Ask Dante.

[Meeplelard]

Given that FFIV is, I think, just basically a worse game than III to start with, if you really didn't like III DS, I wouldn't bother, no.

FF3DS is a better remake than FF4DS, if you ask me, and I personally agree that FF3 > FF4 based off the originals.  FF3DS mostly has one really major fuck up, which is the final dungeon bullshit (no save points; back during the NES era, this was more forgivable.  But now?  No, there's no excuse for a dungeon this long with no breaks and no save points.  Especially when the final boss is NOT a trivial fight.)

Otherwise, it kept the general difficulty the same (horizontal shift basically; randoms are somewhat easier overall, but bosses are overall harder.  The Dark Guardians not-Cerberus are the exception since they all are much worse than their Original incarnations, which is sad), and totally reworked the balance, such that every job for the most part can be used at any point its available, instead of "Ok, now you have Knight, NEVER USE FIGHTER EVER AGAIN!", so you have more options to work with, especially late game where the final dungeon is no longer "Sagex2 + Ninjax2 = Yay!" but you can actually make a team custom to your liking! (...so long as some form of adequate healer is among that group, unless you're a masochist or have FEOK's...who can heal anyway thinking on it...)
It leads to a different experience at least, for all that the core game is overall the same.

FF4DS did change the mechanics a lot meanwhile.  Just compare the FF4DS Stat Topic to the FF4o/a one, and you'll get an idea of what I mean.

One thing FF4DS also did was really make apparent how FF4's story was NOT a masterpiece (for all that nostalgic fans will defend it to highest hell.)  It tried to make epic scenes out of bland generic crap, and it only made the scenes look silly.

Just look at the scene in Myst.  You know, a scene where a town is burning and there's a little girl crying over her dead mother...you'd think this should have some powerful visuals and audio.  FF4o/a did a decent enough job considering the time, I suppose.  FF4DS turned the scene into...more memetastic than anything.  Cecil's yelling "WHY!!!!!!!!" certainly doesn't help, the scene feels rushed rather than just "oh, SNES game, ok" and Rydia's "I HATE YOU!!!!" really did not need that DRAMATIC ECHO, which actually made it harder to take seriously, rather than add emotional impact  It really just made the scene sillier rather than improve it.
I will grant that the added Golbez stuff was nice, since hey, NOW GOLBEZ HAS BACKSTORY! That's something the ENTIRE FF4 CAST DIDN'T HAVE!  The added flashbacks for Cecil/Kain/Rosa did absolutely nothing but tell us stuff we pretty much already knew, and were cheap.  Honestly, FF4DS really just exemplified how poor FF4's plot is and how badly it aged, instead of actually fix up what was wrong with it.

Part of why I don't want an FF5 or FF6 remake is cause I don't think the remakes will necessarily be better than the core games, and to be frank, both games have aged considerably better than FF4 so they really don't need one.

[Luther Lansfeld]

FF4- *kicks Palom and Porom in the face* Don't tell me you guys just got OHKOed by Cagnazzo. Oh my freaking god. Cid like, almost has double of their COMBINED HP! I HATE CHILDREN!!

[Just Another Day]

FF3DS is a better remake than FF4DS, if you ask me, and I personally agree that FF3 > FF4 based off the originals.  FF3DS mostly has one really major fuck up, which is the final dungeon bullshit (no save points; back during the NES era, this was more forgivable.  But now?  No, there's no excuse for a dungeon this long with no breaks and no save points.  Especially when the final boss is NOT a trivial fight.)

Otherwise, it kept the general difficulty the same (horizontal shift basically; randoms are somewhat easier overall, but bosses are overall harder.  The Dark Guardians not-Cerberus are the exception since they all are much worse than their Original incarnations, which is sad), and totally reworked the balance, such that every job for the most part can be used at any point its available, instead of "Ok, now you have Knight, NEVER USE FIGHTER EVER AGAIN!", so you have more options to work with, especially late game where the final dungeon is no longer "Sagex2 + Ninjax2 = Yay!" but you can actually make a team custom to your liking! (...so long as some form of adequate healer is among that group, unless you're a masochist or have FEOK's...who can heal anyway thinking on it...)
It leads to a different experience at least, for all that the core game is overall the same.

FF4DS did change the mechanics a lot meanwhile.  Just compare the FF4DS Stat Topic to the FF4o/a one, and you'll get an idea of what I mean.

One thing FF4DS also did was really make apparent how FF4's story was NOT a masterpiece (for all that nostalgic fans will defend it to highest hell.)  It tried to make epic scenes out of bland generic crap, and it only made the scenes look silly.

Just look at the scene in Myst.  You know, a scene where a town is burning and there's a little girl crying over her dead mother...you'd think this should have some powerful visuals and audio.  FF4o/a did a decent enough job considering the time, I suppose.  FF4DS turned the scene into...more memetastic than anything.  Cecil's yelling "WHY!!!!!!!!" certainly doesn't help, the scene feels rushed rather than just "oh, SNES game, ok" and Rydia's "I HATE YOU!!!!" really did not need that DRAMATIC ECHO, which actually made it harder to take seriously, rather than add emotional impact  It really just made the scene sillier rather than improve it.
I will grant that the added Golbez stuff was nice, since hey, NOW GOLBEZ HAS BACKSTORY! That's something the ENTIRE FF4 CAST DIDN'T HAVE!  The added flashbacks for Cecil/Kain/Rosa did absolutely nothing but tell us stuff we pretty much already knew, and were cheap.  Honestly, FF4DS really just exemplified how poor FF4's plot is and how badly it aged, instead of actually fix up what was wrong with it.

Part of why I don't want an FF5 or FF6 remake is cause I don't think the remakes will necessarily be better than the core games, and to be frank, both games have aged considerably better than FF4 so they really don't need one.

Yeah, we basically agree on the FFIV remake. I think it's pretty decent, but can't make up for the game's underlying weakness. If you dislike FFIV less than I, though, I can see how you could like it.

Not much further into FFIII yet. Got all four characters now, think it's kinda cute how they get staggered just a little bit. I like that they're actually characters, even if they're obviously gonna be pretty one dimensional. Never really been a fan of the total generic, particularly with a cast of four. Finding the interface pretty clunky, not a fan of the load times (which aren't, admittedly, terrible, just long enough to bug me). Warming up to the graphics (I did with FFIV too, but it took a while).

[Anthony Edward Stark]

FFIV falls in to the same trap a lot of Square's games find themselves in: they set their sights very low. FFVI was based on opera structure, sure, and it does well with it. But FFIV? Comic books. Not awesome comics, but like 70s and 80s Claremont-style stuff. That's why everyone dies all the time and nobody ever stays dead.

I mostly enjoy the original FFIV for a combination of nostalgia and its sort of eager diligence in selling everything that happens. But remaking it seems to be counterproductive; when you start voicing some of those lines, they become really dumb.

[NotMiki]

FFIV? Comic books. Not awesome comics, but like 70s and 80s Claremont-style stuff. That's why everyone dies all the time and nobody ever stays dead.

Well, this either explains why I like FF4 so much or like '80's Claremont X-Men so much.

[Talaysen]

WKC - This game plays like a slowed down and retarded FF12 but it isn't so bad. Them giving you an avatar that does nothing plotwise was pure genius! Its like they knew you wouldn't give a fuck and had your avatar reflect that. The scene in the castle where Yulie is about to get stabbed and your avatar stands right next to her doing nothing is pure comedy.

I think the avatar character was just tossed in late in development or something.  It's the only thing that makes sense.

Onlines been fine though but its just terrible so little people have a mic. Also town building is terrible and serves no real purpose.

You get a discount on stuff in your shop, and the stuff in your shop depends on how you build.  There's also some unique stuff in the shops at higher stats but I never managed to get that far.  It's only worth it if you plan on doing high rank online stuff.

---

Chaos Wars - Up to chapter 4 now.  Trying to figure out how to get... Poly-tan or something?  FAQ said to buy 100 items in the store, so I bought a bunch of cheap 60 Dia items and a few status items and the fight's still not showing up.  What the hell?

[Shale]

Shadow Complex: Got foam, beat the Return of the Spider-Tank, then found the way forward blocked by hyperspeed-breakable boxes. Guess I should go get the Friction Dampener, then.