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

[dude789]

Finished all levels but 9-7 and 9-8 in NSMBWii, missing star coins in four other levels.

I have to say that I really underestimated the Propeller Suit before; while the reliance on Wiimote shaking still feels gimmicky as a control method, it is amazing on any level where most/all the difficulty comes from platforming instead of killing enemies. I managed to beat 9-3 and 9-6 on the first try while getting all the Star Coins with it, after dying repeatedly on each level without it. I also decided to unlock of the game's Super Skills hint videos for entertainment; I no longer consider the Mini Mushroom pointless anymore, even though it's only used on about two stages normally.

That said, lately I've been watching a 4-player Let's Play of the game, which is simply amazing. The sheer depth and variety of ways to screw over your 'allies' in this game is a spectacle to behold.

The game really shines when you're playing multiplayer. Me and my sister have been doing a runthrough of the game and it's been a ton of fun. The amount of lives loss between when we decide to be cooperative and when we decide to sabotage each other is astounding. I'd also like to second the praise for that LP. It is hilarious all the way through and well worth watching.

[Shale]

Shadow Complex: Almost done. Got the triple jump and hookshot, and got massacred once when I triggered the final battle by accident.

Soul Calibur IV: Started. It's...not too different from SC3 at the fundamental level, but it's still fun. Plus, netplay. Now I just need to get back into practice so I don't get slaughtered every time I go online.

Bayonetta: So this is what happens when Clover decides to stop being so darn restrained. Hilarious, often disturbing stuff. It's very much a successor to Devil May Cry 4, with the classical European setting and the quasi-angelic monstrosities. The addition of a second basic-attack button allows for a dizzying number of combos, and Witch Time is a pretty great mechanic. I do miss the simplicity of the style meter, though. Combo numbers are way harder to make sense of in the middle of a crazy fire/fist fight. Finished the first two chapters with Gold ratings so far.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

* Jo'ou Ranbu gnaws on Shale.

FE9 - Marcia smash everything.

[dude789]

I've been playing some Mario Galaxy 2. I have about 60 stars so I feel that now I can form an educated opinion on it. It's definately deserves all the great reviews everyone's been giving it. It took all the things the original Galaxy did and really builds on them to make a better game. The graphics and especially music are both outstanding and the level design is really clever. The challenge is also really good. The normal levels are about as challenging as usual for a Mario game, but the comets are usually pretty hard and offer a much greater rise in difficulty than Galaxy 1's comets. Yoshi and the new power ups are also really well used. Spring Mario still sucks though.

The game does have a few flaws. There are too many of those rock shooting monsters. They were in the original Galaxy, but they're practically everywhere in this game and it's kind of annoying to have to deal with them in every level. I also wish that they would have a bigger galaxy with 5 or 6 stars and about the size of a Sunshine or 64 course every once in a while. Even if it was something like once every 2 worlds it would be nice to have a large expansive level to balance out the short gimmicky ones. Other than that it's one of the best games out on the Wii right now and really worth playing.

[Hunter Sopko]

inFamous- Hard mode sure knows how to pick it's spots. Climbing the tower was made slightly more difficult than normal due to lots of rocketeers infesting it, leading to a couple falls. The battle at the top was a whore since EVERYTHING was either a grenadier or crab-spewing, rocket launching conduit.

Battle with Alden was about the same, though he spammed fireballs much more often in his last stage, which made most of the platform you stand on inaccessible. Took me about the same amount of tries though. It's good to know what you're doing.

Stopped immediately after. I dread the coming Historic District.

I also forgot Hard Mode cuts down on the XP you get from enemies (though not from missions). Getting the amount I need to get the evil upgrades, especially the 12k needed for the last stage of the Lightning Bolt, will be a bitch. Just have that and Shockwave left though.

[Captain K.]

TWEWY:  Picked this up again to see how much I have left to complete.  Only got 226 Shutdown PP for not playing the game in over 2 years.  Fail.
Completed the Black Planet sets, Wind/Wood/Fire/Mount set (cute effect), and the other minor sets.  Still have a ton of regular pins to max though.

AWDS:  Working on Survival Mode trophies.  Finished Turn Survival in 48 turns with Kanbei and Sonja.    

Edit:  47 turns right after I posted this.

[Shale]

Bayonetta - Chapter V. What the fuck is up with randomly turning off Witch Time in boss fights? Not cool, game. Especially against bosses who ignore hitstun. And never stop moving.

What I'm basically saying is fuck you, Jeanne.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Devil May Cry - Beat this!

Overall a fun game, I made my criticisms well-known but otherwise I dug it quite a lot; solid experience. The game is hard, makes no apologies about it, and expects you to be good. That's fine, it gives you a lot of satisfaction when you overcome a nasty challenge.

Bosses are the toughest of course, and the game is merciless almost from the beginning here. I don't think Phantom would be the best boss if he fought late in the game, but since he pretty much serves as the guy who -forces- you to figure out a lot of how the mechanics work (I can say personally I didn't use Devil Trigger or a lot of evasive tactics before fighting him), he is that in practice. Still was to me even after watching someone else fight him for an hour! Overall, Phantom > Nightmare > Nelo Angelo > Mundus > Griffon to me, and none of those inequalities are especially close. Nightmare deserves note because, even more than the others, I hit some point where I finally, truly understood how to fight him, to the point where when I fought him for the third time I kinda embarrassed him with only one reset. Mundus was kinda disappointing, really, but I'm happy enough since I wasn't really a huge fan of the shooter section of the boss fight. It wasn't terrible, but there really seemed to be no real strategy beyond "never stop moving ever" which is kinda disappointing. Plus my random bias which I'm sure nobody here will have sympathy with here: I think reversed vertical movement is stupid and needs to stay in flight sims. Half my deaths in this part of the battle were from this! Nelo Angelo; I have nothing specific to add about him beyond that he was fun. As for Phantom,

SPIDERS ARE ALWAYS EVIL BOSSES. (Except in RPGs.)

Weapon-wise, I liked that the different weapons had real uses. Handguns were usually my favourite for bosses because of the mobility; Grenades were terrific for certain randoms that it stunned nicely, but I'd switch to a few exceptions here and there. Didn't get too much out of the Nightmare Beta because of how late it was, and never really liked the shotgun much, seemed to do what the grenadegun did and not nearly as well. Of course I'm probably missing good uses. Melee weapons... clearly performed better against some enemies and situations, too, although I never did use the unmodified Force Edge once I got Alastor; I figure this is normal?

Aesthetic-wise, well, you can really see DMC3 did what was needed to this series. The storyline is ridiculous but just not ridiculous enough; DMC is kinda OG1-level ridiculousness while DMC3 is... well, I've seen enough cutscenes to know that DMC3 is pretty much in its own tier here. This seems like it'd be nothing but an improvement. Music is kinda forgettable overall, a few fairly cool boss tracks but nothing to gush over. Also, liiiiggggghhhtttt.

The game reminds me of MMX1 in a lot of ways: start of a series, has some mechanical hangups which get fixed in later games, fun experience overall. Obviously there are plenty of differences, but yeah. So... 7/10 or so.


Pokemon - Beat Ash. Which means I'm done Soul Silver. So... two rants for the price of one, sure, why not?

Final level was 56-57, barring the two ubers who were 72-73. Total playtime was about 56 hours. Endgame, for what that's worth, had both those numbers around 40. Still undecided between Jumpluff and Crobat for overall MVP, Jumpluff was more important for bosses and awesome at capturing but Crobat was damn good at bosses and randoms both. I think Roost is quietly the best gym leader TM in gen 4? But obviously it relies on my "fuck items" playstyle.

I used the same team as for the Uber Elite Four, with the notable change of Mewtwo getting the Choice Specs. This was quite helpful, as it allowed him to one-shot Pikachu who I was otherwise expecting to have a lot of trouble with since my team has neither ground attacks nor electric resistance of any form. Overall Ash wasn't too bad due to Mewtwo being that damn good, but eh, it wasn't a solo or anything (Jumpluff was second most important!) so could be worse. Beats item spamming and I'm not sure how easily a fair team can take him down. Actually probably wouldn't be too bad, a good enough ground type can probably take Pikachu, and the Snorlax screams "set up on me". But yeah, with no Pikachu counter I did what I had to.

Anyway, overall? Well, HGSS is certainly much better than Diamond/Pearl. The gme isn't ludicrously slow (if still notably slower than Emerald and Fire Red/Leaf Green), and pokemon availability is actually notably good. The sheer number of legends is a pleasant surprise (four ubers and four vanilla legends even before the three runners?) and I don't even care about such things too much. Pretty wide variety of most types available beyond, say, Dark, which is excusable enough. It's a good remake, fixing most of GSC's obvious flaws (GYM LEADER BALANCE). It's still probably the easiest Pokemon game but it's no longer embarrassing and there's a lot of stuff to do. Pokeathlon was a fun enough diversion, and might have been the series' best minigame to date if Voltorb Flip didn't exist. Voltorb Flip was an absolute barrel of fun and made me kinda happy I wasn't using almost any Pokemon who benefitted significantly from its rewards since it'd feel like cheating after the hours I sunk into it.

I'm going to have to think where I rank it compared to FR/LG. It's not as good as Emerald because it lacks Em's finely balanced challenge and isn't as fast, but FRLG... hmm. I'll think about it. More pokemon availability is sweet. Probably a 7/10 regardless. Quite a theme today!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Grenade gun was way better than it should have been, because you could roll or jump to cancel the reloading animation and triple your rate of fire.

[Meeplelard]

Melee weapons... clearly performed better against some enemies and situations, too, although I never did use the unmodified Force Edge once I got Alastor; I figure this is normal?

It is.  I'm pretty sure Capcom even wanted you to do that.  Force Edge is pretty much just a placeholder until you get Alastor.  

Given DT is linked directly to your weapon, they didn't want you to have DT before Alastor, so they just gave you a lesser sword for the early chapters, then you get Alastor, and Force Edge just gets ignored from here.  Alastor is stronger, has DT, has techniques, etc.
Further proof of this is if you look at all the Dante related stuff for DMC1, he's usually holding Alastor, not Force Edge; see the DMC1 Box Art as an example.  Heck, Viewtiful Joe, they talk about Alastor being his sword even (and when he swings, Lightning comes out of the blade); they really weren't subtle with how Alastor was to make Force Edge Obsolete, and Force Edge just exists for a placeholder weapon until you get Alastor.

(Remember that Viewtiful Joe predates DMC2, so Rebellion hadn't been thought up yet!  Obviously, Rebellion is generally regarded as Dante's trademark Sword from DMC2 and on.  I do find it weird that they made a whole new sword for Dante in DMC2 though, seeing as Alastor would have been a fine Trademark weapon, *AND* how Dante's starting DT Element is Lightning anyway.  Ended up working out anyway cause DMC3 = Prequel = They can't use Alastor + Force Edge Origins Explained here = Rebellion works nicely as the Sword here.)

After beating hard mode, the game gives you access too "Legendary Dark Knight" which in addition to being a costume change, Dante also starts the game with "Yamato", which is basically an Alastor Clone.  Only reason I can think of for doing that is for the sake of DMD mode, if you wanted to start a fresh game; that first mission is *HELL* watching videos of it just cause with minimal items and the worst Melee weapon, enemies take forever to kill.
LDK, it allows you to have DT for the short spurt of time before you get Alastor, and its really quite amazing how much easier that section becomes when you have your own DT to counter the enemies.

[Twilkitri]

S&M3 They Stole Max's Brain -

So this episode's opening gimmick is an ace-attorney-testimony-alike sequence which really doesn't work well with voice acting/models. And the inability to step backwards aside from going to the end and restarting. And each option automatically advancing you to the next segment.

Fortunately that doesn't last all that long.

Only some old toys for the maingame this time sadly, although one which didn't get anywhere near enough use previously gets far more of a chance to shine here, and the viewfinder is applied in a less appalling way than before.

I found this episode to be fairly enjoyable although the trailer somewhat hyped it up as being far more noir than it actually is, that being mostly contained within the opening segment and vanishing completely halfway through. It also seemed to be shorter than usual. Fairly apathetic towards the plot hook for the next episode.

Some of the animations seemed really phoned in also.



Disgaea DS -

Partway through Frozen River.

Game is pleasant enough so far. Especially since as far as I have seen so far NIS know what the peoples want and that is every icon on the screen counting as a touch control.

The ability to move people to take part in team attacks/area effect healing/etc and then cancel their move and do something else with them afterwards is vastly disturbing.

[hinode]

I used the same team as for the Uber Elite Four, with the notable change of Mewtwo getting the Choice Specs. This was quite helpful, as it allowed him to one-shot Pikachu who I was otherwise expecting to have a lot of trouble with since my team has neither ground attacks nor electric resistance of any form. Overall Ash wasn't too bad due to Mewtwo being that damn good, but eh, it wasn't a solo or anything (Jumpluff was second most important!) so could be worse. Beats item spamming and I'm not sure how easily a fair team can take him down. Actually probably wouldn't be too bad, a good enough ground type can probably take Pikachu, and the Snorlax screams "set up on me". But yeah, with no Pikachu counter I did what I had to.

With regards to a "fair team", remember that there are 16 gym leader rematches to potentially build up experience on. If you stick to a team of 5-6 Pokemon instead of rotating 12 like I did (<_<), then that exp should get your levels a lot higher than usual for Pokemon. The rematch format is a real pain and I can see skipping it entirely, but it's far more interesting than just grinding endlessly against randoms at least. There is also the Pokewalker, which depending on your lifestyle and how much you play HGSS each day can potentially be worth quite a bit of exp.

Red's Pikachu isn't that dangerous in my opinion because aside from being neutered by Ground types, you can also scarf a physical attacker to outspeed and probably OHKO, especially if it has the Earthquake TM.

[Dark Holy Elf]

hinide: Like I said, nobody on my team had a Ground attack. I think the only one even capable of learning one was Mewtwo, who didn't need the help. Well, Ninetales can learn Dig I guess, but I'd already used that TM even if I was willing to consider this (which I wasn't). Yeah, I think this is the only time I've ever played Pokemon in which I've just let the Earthquake TM rot in my inventory (though to be fair, it'd be a decent pickup for Fera if I was willing to dump Surf). Pikachu just had me kinda worried for the raw sweeping potential; Snorlax and Lapras lack the speed to pull that off, although I guess the three starters all have the potential to do it?

Where is the Choice Band in HGSS, anyway? With how available they made the other two Choice items I was surprised I never got this. *checks* Oh, Battle Frontier, lame.


Phoenix Wright 3 - Replaying this, finished 3-1. Hmm, for some reason I can't put my finger on I am much less excited about replaying this than I was 1 or 2. PW2 makes sense, it's my favourite and all... but I like PW3 better than PW1, so what gives? Maybe I have some weird nostalgia for the first game or something.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

WAXF - Just beat 1-14. Due to a bad bit of planning on my part, I got a reset there, but putting Ginny back into Geomancer for the fight (it's fine, since her main class, Fantastica, is more about the OC) and then everything played the way I wanted it to play.

[OblivionKnight]

And...FE8 game finished.  Hardest map was definitely 19 (Fog of War in Rausten) by far.  Enemies are actually competent there on Hard Mode.  Not too much else to say - maps made of monsters died fast.  

Final stats!

Eirika
Lvl 5, 33 HP, 10 STR, 20 SKL, 18 SPD, 18 LUK, 13 DEF, 15 RES

*LVP.  Massive liability on pretty much every map.  Gave up on her by level 5.  Awful growth - I couldn't have her fight things, as the counters tended to kill her.  Needed silvers to break defense.  Defenses were decent, at least...everything else was below average, sometimes by a lot.  Still my best Eirika ever >_>

Tana
Lvl 13, 37 HP, 19 STR, 16 SKL, 27 SPD, 21 LUK, 12 DEF, 15 RES

*Ended up still being good, despite the awful stats.  Was really looking up last time I posted (when she had picked up from looking awful!), but then fell down.  ;_;

Natasha
Lvl 16, 45 HP, 25 MAG, 16 SKL, 26 SPD, 30 LUK, 19 DEF, 30 RES

*...damn, she turned out well.  Even caught up on SKL!  Mauled monsters in the last chapter, and was one of the 4 MVPs of chapter 19 - she took on a whole hoard on a pillar by herself, and slaughtered them all.

Vanessa
Lvl 13, 41 HP, 20 STR, 21 SKL, 26 SPD, 15 LUK, 11 DEF, 14 RES

*Defenses are a little low, as is the speed and luck, but the others are good.  Pretty similar to Tana, overall.

Neimi
Lvl 13, 42 HP, 21 STR, 18 SKL, 29 SPD, 22 LUK, 16 DEF, 15 RES

*Thank god the STR caught up.  She picked up a lot after a rough start.  Fast, damaging, awesome archer.  The SKL is a little worrying, but...eh...

Lute
Lvl 12, 36 HP, 19 MAG, 13 SKL, 20 SPD, 24 LUK, 9 DEF, 21 RES

*...wow.  Kind of gave up on her, really - her growths just died after promotion.  The MAG growth in particular is just awful.

Tethys
Lvl 20, 33 HP, 4 STR, 4 SKL, 27 SPD, 27 LUK, 8 DEF, 17 RES

*Eh, she dances.  Low on defenses, higher on SPD/LUK.  Works.

Marisa
Lvl 16, 52 HP, 22 STR, 29 SKL, 30 SPD, 30 LUK, 17 DEF, 14 RES

*...yes, I have good luck with Swordmasters of the female variety.  Holy hell, no RNG abuse, and she still turned out awesome.  One of the main MVPs at the end, and probably the best...she tore the entire left side of chapter 19 apart on her own.  

Amelia
Lvl 13, 50 HP, 25 STR, 24 SKL, 25 SPD, 25 LUK, 20 DEF, 17 RES

*One of the other MVPs.  Just...mauled things.  She took physicals the best (though Natasha, Marisa, and Neimi weren't far behind), and could maul things.  Wielded axes at the end - chopped things up goooooood.  

L'Arachel
Lvl 14, 30 HP, 24 MAG, 19 SKL, 25 SPD, 27 LUK, 16 DEF, 28 RES

*Decent enough.  Low luck and awful HP, but held up well enough.  Ivaldi smash!

Syrene
Lvl 12, 39 HP, 20 STR, 19 SKL, 22 SPD, 27 LUK, 15 DEF, 20 RES

*Turned out decent enough!  Oddly ended up being the overall best Falcoknight...oddly.  Had good growths with her, and she basically took on a few hoards by herself.  Helps I leveled her a bit on the map she joined, so she could actually fight things and not die!  

Myrrh
Lvl 20, 39 HP, 20 STR, 20 SKL, 20 SPD, 3 LUK, 20 DEF, 20 RES

*...yeah, capped all stats but luck (gained none!  Awesome!) and HP (average or so!).  Also an MVP - she basically went from starting level to max pretty fast.  Still had 25 charges when she maxed out with little problem.

[hinode]

hinide: Like I said, nobody on my team had a Ground attack. I think the only one even capable of learning one was Mewtwo, who didn't need the help. Well, Ninetales can learn Dig I guess, but I'd already used that TM even if I was willing to consider this (which I wasn't). Yeah, I think this is the only time I've ever played Pokemon in which I've just let the Earthquake TM rot in my inventory (though to be fair, it'd be a decent pickup for Fera if I was willing to dump Surf). Pikachu just had me kinda worried for the raw sweeping potential; Snorlax and Lapras lack the speed to pull that off, although I guess the three starters all have the potential to do it?

Where is the Choice Band in HGSS, anyway? With how available they made the other two Choice items I was surprised I never got this. *checks* Oh, Battle Frontier, lame.

I was thinking about something like Heracross, which should be able to OHKO Pikachu just with STAB Close Combat. In your case it just happens that your one big physical hitter happens to be Flying type.

Dig is actually storebought in Celadon, although it's a bad idea for Ninetales anyhow.

Choice Band was available via the Winner's Path Pokewalker route that stopped a few days ago. I dunno if you downloaded it in time, but it's a pretty good way of stockpiling Choice items for competitive play/gen 5 transfer, although as an event course it's obviously not something that is meaningful for in-game purposes. I have 6 Specs, 6 Scarves, and 3 Bands on my save file, which I stopped playing a while back save for Pokewalker transfer.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I will readilly admit I have never been terribly tempted to unpack my Pokewalker from the packaging it came in. <.<

[Captain K.]

Pokewalker breaks the already easy game to pieces.  Earlygame Kangaskhan anyone?

[Hunter Sopko]

inFamous- Blitzed the rest of this. Abused a large battle sub-mission to grind out the XP I needed to get the rest of the Evil upgrades. After that it was just a matter of finishing out the story.

The missions on the helicopter were much easier than I remember, mostly because I approached them more intelligently. Taking down the radar dishes was cake. The anti-air guns were harder, but also not that much of a problem, nor was the second half of that mission.

Final boss was another deal. Much faster, his moves do much more damage, and he varies his patterns much more. It was ridiculously frustrating. He's divided up into three sections, each comprising 1/3 of his health bar. The first and second stages I think I had ten tries on each. The third stage though he sort of calms down and stands around a lot, letting his summons do the work, but when he DOES go into action it's crazy if you haven't taken care of everything else. You HAVE to keep your eye on him. But still, pretty easy compared to the other two. Got it on the third try.

Platinum gotten. Woohoo. Totally worth it. It's a fantastic game.

[Pyro]

Magna Carta 2:

It is a pretty serviceable game (although it plays all the JRPG tropes HARD). I like the combination system in the game. Basically you deplete stamina every time you attack, and it slowly regenerates when you aren't attacking/using a skill. When you finally deplete your stamina you go into an overdrive mode that means that for the rest of your attack string (including however many basic attacks you have left + a skill) you do 1.5x damage. After that is done though you are in overheat and can take no action for a good amount of time, and you have about -50% to -100% stamina that you have to regenerate back before you can do anything. That is where the combination system comes in. If you overheat someone and then switch to someone else (this is just a button press), they start a 'chain' that increases the new controlled PC's damage by 50% for a time equal to how long the original is overheated. If during this 'chain' the second PC is put into overdrive and caps it off with a skill, you get to fully replenish the stamina of both characters. There is some danger in this because if you time it wrong you are stuck with two PCs who are out of the fight for a decent chunk of time.

Of course enemies suck ass so badly it isn't funny making the downside kind of moot! Pity. Oh well, still a decent system and the game has time to give enemies that aren't laughable pushovers.

[Scar]

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Beaten! Feels good to beat a game since I haven't in such a long while. Think the last game before this one was...DQ4? Either way, it's been some time.

Thoughts? Well I love the whole Metroidvania approach these DS CVs have continued to follow, so it's easy to say I adored this game. I finished the game with around 92 % completion. Not sure if it goes over 100 or not in this one, but I hadn't farmed too mnay glyphs or backtracked for missed items all that much. My favorite glyph to spam had to be the nitesco one (aquired from those green skeletons thing-a-ma-jiggers.)

Also, the Dracula in this game has to be one of my all time favorite forms of the boss. Not because he was hard or anything, but because he was so gosh darn cool looking to fight. Ax kick to the FACE!

If I had to rate it, I'd give it a 7/10 or something.

[Luther Lansfeld]

PCB Easy- Just picked this up again to show my mom. I almost beat it on the first try! I got to the final card, which I typically need about two lives to get through and I only had two bombs and no lives. Ah well.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

FE9 - I just beat Day Break's nigh-endless ass. Currently, my whole main army is promoted, so I guess it's time to post stats and evaluation.

Ike - L1 Lord, 35 HP, 18 Str, 8 Mag, 18 Skl, 21 Spd, 13 Luc, 15 Def, 9 Res. Ike's been generally serviceable, but thoroughly unspectacular. His Strength sorta came in bits and pieces, and those bases suck - thus, his offense just didn't impress for a while. Being stuck with Swords doesn't help either. Oscar support is godly, though. tanktanktank

Nephenee - L2 Halberdier, 20 Str, 5 Mag, 22 Skl, 22 Spd, 12 Luc, 20 Def, 9 Res. She has an Arms Scroll and Boots fed to her. Utterly, utterly badass - she just got uber level-ups in general and fixing her two primary problems turned her into a killing machine. She's holding Vantage and Wrath - and while Wrath hasn't seen much use, Vantage helps her a bunch with lol ohkos on the frail. Hell yes.

Oscar - L1 Paladin, 18 Str, 7 Mag, 16 Skl, 17 Spd, 8 Luc, 17 Def, 9 Res. Rather average, but an average Oscar still reams shit. The Ike support is uber, and Oscar just tanks way too well this way. Pally mobility+Hit and Away = cookies.

Marcia - L2 Falcon Knight, 22 Str, 4 Mag, 18 Skill, 22 Speed, 11 Luck, 18 Def, 17 Res. She's Talisman'd, but otherwise, -what the fuck-. I've always had this tendency to get saddled with uber Peggies (even Thany followed the mold), but this is ridiculous. Marcia has fucking awesome offense on me, and if that wasn't enough in addition to all the awesome Peggies already have, she decided she'd be a total tank too. Completely godlike, and the Kieran support is also excellent.

Kieran - L2 Paladin, 15 Str, 3 Mag, 16 Skl, 19 Spd, 12 Luck, 15 Def, 7 Res. Strength-screwed, but this isn't a big deal, honestly. Badass Paladins are badass, and Kieran has Oscar/Marcia supports for more badassery. Axes are also great and mitigate the Str issues.

Mist - L1 Valkyrie, 37 HP (Seraph Robe'd), 12 Str, 18 Mag, 10 Skl, 17 Spd, 21 Luc, 8 Def, 18 Res. Holy hell, the promotion bonuses are -nuts-. Otherwise, typical healer.

Boyd - L1 Warrior, 46 HP, 18 Str, 3 Mag, 17 Skl, 17 Spd, 11 Luc, 11 Def, 6 Res. Defenses kinda suck and the Strength could be a bit higher for Boyd standards, but he got somewhat speed-blessed. This is more than enough to make him excellent at what he does. Mist/Titania supports.

Jill - L1 Wyvern Lord, 36 HP, 18 Str, 7 Mag, 21 Skl, 17 Spd, 8 Luc, 16 Def, 7 Res. Notice how she's inferior to Marcia in every relevant stat (no, HP and Skill are -not- relevant). This honestly doesn't matter much, since the Laguzguard is really helpful on Jill and she gets the typical flier goodness too. Definitely strong, and even facing uber Marcia competition, I always reserve a spot for her. Mist Support A.

Astrid - L2 Paladin, 36 HP, 19 Str, 6 Mag, 19 Skl, 21 Spd, 10 Luc, 14 Def, 16 Res. Juuuuuuuust a bit blessed in Strength there. Astrid is really fun and useful, and I'm betting axes will make her a blast, especially off the Strength.

Titania - L7 Paladin, 36 HP, 15 Str, 5 Mag, 15 Skl, 18 Spd, 15 Luc, 13 Def, 8 Res. Her stats no longer stand out, but she's been way too useful for the whole game so far, and she can still stand up stat-wise with most of my party. S in Axes is also sexy. Ike/Boyd supports. So far, she's my MVP for the overall game.

Mia - L1 Swordmaster, 31 HP, 17 Str, 8 Mag, 19 Skl, 22 Spd, 11 Luc, 14 Def (Dracoshield'd), 10 Res. She had durability of -fail- until promotion (still looks bad even post-promo) and Swords aren't exactly a great weapon type to specialize on. Often wanted to dump her, but she seemed to at least grow well, so I kept at it. She's still overall weaker than a unused Stefan, which probably says something about -her- and Stefan.

Soren - L1 Sage, 40 HP (Seraph Robe'd), 4 Str (Energy Drop'd), 21 Mag (Magic Drop'd, but it wouldn't matter much - he was close to cap when I used it, and he was L15), 19 Skl, 17 Spd, 12 Luc, 9 Def, 19 Res. Turning out quite well. Speed is pretty average, but the durability is far less horrible than I thought it'd be. Getting kinda Def-blessed at least let him stave off lolohkos. FE9 mages have... issues, though.

Volke - L20 Thief, 29 HP, 19 Str, 1 Mag, 20 Skl, 20 Spd, 14 Luc, 11 Def, 6 Res. Who cares, Thief offense.

[Rozalia]

WKC - Finished and as expected the plot is just blarh. So much is unfinished it isn't even funny, like the Knight of Balandor guy Cyruss I think his name was. So he randomly goes to Faria to invade with a force of four soldiers!?!1 and has a total of three scenes where he crys about the kings death and then the game ends? He is the most pointless "main" character ever and he just seems to be an excuse to have Nolan North in the game.
Yeah they'll explain it and I'm sure he'll have a big role then but the point standss regardless, he is completely pointless.

Characterwise the best is Caesar which comes as unexpected tto me and the best plot twist is the black market one. All the others were cliche and easy to see coming but that black market guy just comes out of nowhere and hey you don't even find out who he is so hows that for a plot twist?

Beyond the plot the gameplay is a laughably easy experiance. No enemy can ever even 3HKO their damage is so fricking bad it just isn't even funny. A toddler could beat this game and to prove it I'll review the bosses "epic" ratings.

Belcitane form 1 - Has no durability, slow due to charge times and has 10HKO damage. But hey he has Poizn!?1

Belcitane form 2 - Has shedloads of Hp now. Too bad he still has 10HKO damage and has lost Poizn.

The Sun King Grazel - You'd think with such a bad ass name and title he'd be a good fighter? You'd be very very wrong. Belcitane level durability with twice the damage which is still shit damage.

The Black Knight Dragias - Is Decent? Shitty 5HKO but massive speed compensates for the damage, has a good amount of Hp as well and has some decent healing (heals for 1100 when the party average per turn is 300) and unlike other bosses knocking her down doesn't stun her for ages. Gamebest boss I think.

The Black Ursurper Shapur form 1 & 2 - Massive and I mean massive amount of hp so we're heading for the typical final boss witth oodles of hp and huge damage right? Wrong! He can either spam 8HKO damage or charge up to deal 4HKO damage.

Such horrible horrible bosses. Yu Yevon and Evil Gaia owns all these lamers so badly it is extremely funny.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Phoenix Wright T&T - Up to 3-2 now. Hmm. One thing I really need to do this playthrough is sort out my opinion of Godot. I'm still unsure how to take him. I just saw the scene where he gets hyped as this new super-dangerous prosecutor... but of course he's never prosecuted a case in his life. So surely this hype is tongue-in-cheek, mocking the hype previous prosecutors got. But it seems shockingly played straight otherwise. Kinda the story of Godot here, the game can't seem to decide if he's an incompetent joke or this scary nemesis for Phoenix. Maybe I'm just missing something.