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

[Pyro]

I can't see myself getting into the aftergame/optional stuff in DQ9. It's just such a pain in the ass to do even mundane quests.

[Cmdr_King]

ToS2- Finished.  Funny how the sequel to ToS manages to have a) a compelling romance as the driving force of its plot and b) probably the best overall villain in the series.  Now, overall it's a weaker cast than either TotA or ToV; the supporting cast is much weaker (although skit quality is quite high, outside that the ToS crew is not very engaging here), and while the relationship writing is well above what you expect for this seriesgenreJAPANvideo games... well, in general really, neither Emil or Marta is a great character on their own.

Anyway, setting aside the flaws in the ToS1  cast (summed up as "shut up Genis", "needs more Sheena", and "*faceplam at lloyd*") the only real quibble I have with the game is the control scheme.  I'm not sure if it's the way I hold the nunchuck or an inherit flaw to the controls, but they're really loose and, more importantly, I managed to routinely punch in the wrong Arte because my <--> was reading as ^ or vice versa.  Similarly jumping and launching attacks never came out right for me, although I often have that problem in Tales anyway.

Now, yeah, there's a bunch of llitle things the game does oddly, and most of them add up to a dead giveaway that it was a budget title meant as a cash in, but on the whole this doesn't reflect negatively on the game.  In any case, it's a better game than the first Tales of Symphonia by a notable margin, 8/10 material.  Not much to say otherwise, although I was annoyed that the game managed to lock me out of the last big sidequest even though I went well out of my way to hit the prerequisites.  It's always the silly hidden mechanic that you don't even realize is there that gets you.  Does explain what the Synch stat did though.

More may or may not be forthcoming.  We shall see.

[Meeplelard]

CK, come on now, you know that "Screw you out of a side quest for whatever bullshit reason" are what Tales games love to do!

[Pyro]

Huh? The final sidequest is just "do the last mission in each chapter". Did you happen to just miss one? Wel, it isn't a big deal outside of the equips for TP->1 and Speed Casting Marta.

[Cmdr_King]

It's not.  I did all three prior quests (ALE) and the final one never showed up on Chapter 8's list.  I had to search a lot to figure out why, but it turns out that each chapter has a Long and Short version of the quest list... and the final Hunter's Trophy is only on the long version of C8.  It turns out which version you get is a simple stat check the first time you talk to a Katz that chapter against all of monster's Sync scores; as long as one has a high enough score (supposedly around 100 for C8), you're good.
This also means that, since you have no idea the game is making such a check, if you do or don't get it you wouldn't even realize it was POSSIBLE to do it another way.  And of course, since it's one check, you have no idea if you did or didn't get it until you do/fail/quit a dozen quests to actually bring up the end of the list.
Didn't make a big difference on the final game (just putting, say, Lloyd in your party is enough to make up the gap in the final area), just very annoying.

[Luther Lansfeld]

S3- Currently doing Geddoe Chapter 3. This game is way hard. Rock Golem kicked my ass twice, it was pretty embarrassing. Sharpening weapons rules.

I'm quite enjoying this game once again, even though Hugo chapters still bore me and such. Hugo 2 was at least short! I think I remember Hugo 3 being really long and boring though.

I have Queen with the Blood Armor and the Wind Rune, Geddoe has Lightning/Water, Ace has Water, Joker has Fire, Aila has Earth/Shield, and Jacques sucks. Shield Level 2 is silly good. I enjoy controlling this group the most I think even if I like Chris chapters overall better.

Also, man, Borus comes off as a dick in that early C3 scene. As Grefter said "Immaturity is not an explanation for murder." followed by "Man, once I murdered one child, I just couldn't stop! I'm such a nice guy."

Duke is a wanker.

Man S5 is so much easier than this game.

[Sierra]

Nier: Acquired 1x ending. Everything in the final dungeon got horribly brutalized. Partly due to overleveling from my doing too many sidequests (I don't know why I bothered with those, since I sure as hell didn't need the money for anything after I picked up the Phoenix Spear and it mostly just boiled down to too damn many trips through the Junk Heap. Stupid completionist urges). Spears are as unbalanced as hyped by Pyros; I didn't use anything else after they became available. Dash -> roll -> dash -> roll -> dash -> everyone's dead. Boss health meters started falling in two or three combos. Yeesh. Danmaku Queen and the final at least made it difficult to approach them.

So, second cycle...do you actually play as Kaine, or just get extra scenes?

[Pyro]

Second cycle starts at the un-stoning and only features a few extra vis-novel style scenes at the start/subtitles for what shadows say. It also features a voice inside Kaine's head. You still play as Nier. You still keep the broken.

[AAA]

Bioshock 2 -Good but not great. Really felt more like an expansion pack or something than a standalone game, since it's basically just Bioshock with a new story tacked on and some minor adjustments to gameplay. Apparently playing as a Big Daddy only really means you get a Drill and some reskins of the pistol and machine gun. Maybe it was just me but I also seemed more frail than Bioshock 1, but maybe they upped it to counter Vita-Chambers.

The new mechanic with the Little Sisters was somewhat annoying but manageable, mostly because the game throws so much static defense shit at you. You've got Trap Rivets, Trap Spears, Proximity Mines, Mini-Turrets, anything you've hacked....it's very easy to hold off Splicers. Of course I rescued all the Little Sisters because I'm not a soulless monster. The new hacking minigame is pretty nice and long distance hacking was cool. The new plasmid abilities didn't do a whole lot though being able to befriend Big Daddies and other heavy enemies was helpful at points. Not that it matters, since the game is piss easy and I was drowning in money, ADAM, and ammo by the end. Big Sisters are basically just a stronger version of Big Daddies, they die pretty easy and drop sweet loot as well.

I'm really failing to see anything Bioshock 2 did that was a major departure from Bioshock 1 and failing. To be fair Bioshock was a great game and is still great today, but I wish they could have been less derivative. Even the story is like "Okay, it's Andrew Ryan but he's a Utopia-Justifies-The-Means Collectivist. And female. Also blah blah blah some stuff about family that didn't have nearly the impact of the first game."

So...disappointing I guess. At least the ending makes it pretty clear that Bioshock 3 isn't gonna happen. Didn't have a chance to try the multiplayer since I don't have Gold right now, but I doubt many people are playing anyway.

[Hunter Sopko]

FFXII- Finished Ye Olde Pharos Dungeon. Not quite as bad as I was expecting, really. Definitely not something to be taken in one sitting, but managable none-the-less. The bad thing is that nothing really happens until you reach the top is all. At least the Cid scenes/fight at the top are amusing. He's a pretty decent insanity type antagonist. The VA does a good job of it. The Gabranth stuff felt pointless though.

Doing whatever hunts I feel like before I finish the game.

[Meeplelard]

Darksiders:  Zelda style game with gameplay akin to God of War so far!  Except seems to lessen the shit I don't like about God of War, like mobility being better (especially the dodge), Quicktime event related kills are just "press button when enemy is near dead, game does the rest of shit for you" and none of this "Press 3 more buttons without fail or we kill you" nonsense and plot...well...LETS ABRIDGE SERIES IT!

Narrator: In the beginning, Angels and Demons were beating the shit out of each other.  AND BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF EACH OTHER THEY DID.  Then the COUNCIL!!! said "Shut up both of you and to your corners!" ...then humans were created, so a 3rd kingdom was born, but humans are weaklings.  Angels and Demons made a truce not to attack until the Apocalypse, with the FOUR HORSEMEN being there to keep the BALANCE IN CHECK, by the COUNCIL's orders...and they'd leave humans alone.  And the APocalypse won't occur until the 7 SEALS ARE BROKEN!  BUt its not like THAT will ever happen, right?

*Modern Day*
Billboard Guy: Meteors are hitting across the country! I sure hope this isn't an omen!
*Meteors destroy city, demons start killing everyone, Angels appear, start fighting demons causing huge collateral damage, not giving a shit if humans are dying in the process*
Useless Humans: OH NOES WE'RE BEING KILLED!
*BIG OMINOUS METEOR appears*
War: Ok, bad ass hero here...wait, why do I look like shit? I am so killing whoever the artist of this game is when this is up.
Demons: RARR! WAR IS HERE! KILL HIM!
*War kicks their asses...effortlessly...*
War: Demons running amok, Angels flying around in high tech armor just cause they need to look remotely cool for once, instead of like pansies...yeah, its the Apocalypse alright! Now to kick som-...BLARGH!
*War loses some of his powers, and like 2 bars of health*
War: What the fuck is that?  Screw it, I'm still powerful enough to kick ass.
Angel: HE'S NOT AS POWERFUL AS HE WAS BEFORE! KILL WAR!
*War throws a Car at the angel*
Angel: Stupid...gameplay....mechanics...being in his favor *dies*
*Numerous angels and demons getting their shit ruined by War later*
Female Angel: Look, Abaddon, ITS WAR!
Abaddon: What are you talking about Uriel? *looks* What are YOU doing here, Horseman? THE SEALS HAVEN'T BEEN BROKEN!
War: WHERE ARE MY BROTHERS!? Why am I the only one here?
Abaddon: WHY ARE YOU HERE!?
War: ...is this not the Apocalypse? Why is there a full scale battle between Angels and Demons then?  YOU KNOW SOMETHING!
Uriel: Don't listen to him, Abaddon! We must worry about THE DESTROYER!
Destroyer: *large freaking hand grabs Abaddon out of nowhere, seemingly crushing him* Yes, WORRY ABOUT ME INSTEAD!  Also, I am TOTALLY not a euphemism for SATAN!
War: ...yeah, I don't know how "Destroyer" can be taken as a Euphemism myself.
Destroyer:  Good, now that we're on the same page, I will now...KILL YOU!
*War throws a car at the Destroyer*
Destroyer: ARGH! THAT HURT! But it'll take more than one Car to beat me *gets hit by another* STOP THAT!
War: Ok *Stabs the Destroyer in the face*
Destroyer: Grah! This gimmick fight won't last much longer, and I will totally beat you in plot!
War: Yeah, like that's going to happen.  I'm the bad ass Main *War loses the rest of his powers* ...shit...
Destroyer: VICTORY IS MINE! *crushes War*

*in some other realm not ours*
Council: War, what the hell is wrong with you? WHY WERE YOU DOWN THERE? YOU WEREN'T SUMMONED!
War: Yes I was.  Why the fuck else would I go down there?
Council: You totally weren't summoned!
War: How the hell do you know that?
Council: Well, explain where the other 3 are?
War: If I knew, I wouldn't be in this mess.  But Abaddon, HE KNOWS SOMETHING!  If only I could go back there and settle things straight.
Council: How do you expect to make up for your misdoings?
War: ...I just told you.  I'm gonna go down there, beat the shit out of both sides til they start listening.  The DESTROYER is up to something, Abaddon knows stuff...look, its not every day that a battle that is identical to the Apocalypse goes on, but its not ACTUALLY the Apocalypse.
Council: AND WHAT IF YOU FAIL!?
War: Well, I'll sort of, you know, DIE AT THE HANDS OF ONE OF THEM?  I think that's justifiable punishment for "screwing things up" (this is totally not my fault by the way.)
Council: FINE! That works too, but we will send to you this WATCHER to make sure you aren't really fucking things up.
War: Why the hell would I side with either of them?  The demons are just generic dicks, and Angels are over-self righteous pricks who are just as corrupt as demons, only they're prettier.
Watcher: Oh stop your whining, and just get your weapons ready so we can go.
War: Fine, fine.
Council: Also, seek out VULGRIM THE DEMON MERCHANT.  He will prove helpful to you!
War: Wait, why are we siding with the demons? I thought we were suppose to be totally neutral.
Council: Well, you see, this guy sort of always wanted to make deals with us but we kept neglecting him, but recent events permitting, we decided it wouldn't be a bad thing.  He doesn't exactly side with the Destroyer or anything.
War: I...see...well then, I'm off!

*Back on Earth*
War: There's something...different about me.
Watcher: Maybe its that you're a weakling now whose stuck on the Council's leash and we could just kill you anytime they want if they're big enough dicks?  Oh, don't worry about me, I'm just here to report shit in case you DO go against your orders, I'm not actually going to help you or anything.
War: Whatever...oh look, how convenient, LOW CLASS DEMONS!
*beats them up, gets to top of tower*
War: How long have I been talking to the council?
Watcher: Oh, just 100 years...and there are no more humans by the way, they kind of died off within that time period.
War: Then the 3RD KINGDOM IS LOST!
Watcher: Are you done with the drama?
War: Yes, yes I am, off to find Vulgrim!
*some traversing later*
Watcher: I believe we've found who we are looking for.
War: Who? That weird masked guy over there?  Well if you say so.
Vulgrim: WELCOME STRANGER!
War: Uh, hi.
Vulgrim: I got a selection of GOOD THINGS ON SALE, Stranger.
War: I see...
Vulgrim: WHADDYA BUYIN?
War: I'd like information on how to beat up the Destroyer.  I'll give you these Blue Souls as payment.
Vulgrim: Ah, I'll buy it at a high price!
Watcher: What he means to say is "Go find Samael.  He hates the Destroyer too and use to be as strong as him!  Also, take this horn."
War: Right, off to find Samael it is!
Vulgrim: Come back anytime!

War: So, what am I suppose to do next then?
Watcher: Try blowing that horn at that door with a symbol on it conveniently located right where that yellow marker on your map is.
War: Ok *does exactly that*
Gatekeeper: WHO DISTURBS MY SLUMBER!?
War: I do, I want to get in.
Gatekeeper: YOUR REASON!?
War: To kick the crap out of the Destroyer eventually, I guess.
Gatekeeper: ...ok, later. *Gatekeeper walks off*
War: That was depressingly easy; not even a half assed boss fight?
Watcher: Don't worry, one of those will happen soon?
War: Oh?
Phantom General: *insert incomprehensible language here*
War: ...look, I understand demon speak, so you're not exactly hiding anything from me and I KNOW you know English, so we can please speak like that so we both don't sound like idiots?
Phantom General: Fine, fine, ruin my evil charisma while don't you.
War: Its why I'm here!
Phantom General: I thought you were here to kick the crap out of my warriors and free Samael.
War: Well, that too...wait, those were warriors?   I thought they were Salesmen!
Phantom General: YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT INSUL-*ass kicked by War* blargh!
War: God damn it, I'M NOT BUYING ANYTHING.  Fucking Salesmen.
Watcher: You just dealt with Vulgrim you know.
War: Yeah, but he actually had a name, so that's totally different.
Watcher: Oh complete this darn puzzle and just talk to Samael already.
War: Huh? Do what now? *War is spilling blood into a random symbol via odd statues*
Watcher: ...nevermind.
*Samael comes out*
Samael: WHAT DO YOU WANT, HORSEMAN!?
War: Your...help?
Samael: ...no.
War: Please?
Samael: Ok.
War: Wait, seriously?
Samael: I was just testing your manners! I am not as strong as I use to be, GO BRING ME THE BEATING HEARTS OF THESE 4 DEMON LORDS HOWEVER AND WE WILL BE ABLE TO STOP THE DESTROYER!  Your first one will be that bat bitch Tiamat.
War: I thought Tiamat is traditionally a dragon.
Samael: BAT. BITCH. NOW GO!  Oh yeah, take these wings that are totally NOT a rip off of God of War 2's Icarus Wings.
War: Right, so where's my next destination?
Watcher: According to our map...a lava cave followed by a large graveyard.
War: ...wonderful...
*After going through that*

Watcher: Oh look, another Gatekeeper.
War: Yo, Gatekeeper, let me through! I'm gonna beat the Destroyer.
Gatekeeper: A CURSE HOLDS ME HERE!
War: Ah nuts, this is just a convenient excuse to introduce another gameplay factor before I can enter, isn't it?
Gatekeeper: Yes, yes it is.

Narrator: ...no, I REFUSE to do a "Next time" stunt here.  You can all shut up and leave.
Watcher: Well, you're certainly in a good mood.

[Dark Holy Elf]

XF update, finishing off Schnell Ruins.

4-10-A (Katrina versus the Scorpion cosplay)

Katrina surrounds herself with a mix of Fright Knights (minor fire weakness) and Enfants Terribles (minor water weakness). I don't really have much to say about their offensive abilities because most of them are very easily killed from 20+ hexes away. Anchor Hook is my weapon of choice here, pulling the enemies into pits so I have two PCs running Extremist OC, with Rush to better enable them, while Elayne contents herself to magic-nuke the few who would be too annoying to Anchor Hook.

Katrina herself deserves note because this time, she doesnt sit willingly awaiting her demise but instead pumps 200+ damage into people off XF boss speed. Still, a good barrage of Feeble Mind does her in, and as long as I watch the turns her damage is easy to control since all her flunkies are long dead.

4-10-B (Giant Crow)

Same map as the previous, except all the mooks are Enfants Terribles this time. Doesn't matter, once again, grossly outrange enemies and Anchor Hook them so nothing they can do matters.

The Fear Guardian has loads of Res to make her harder to Devastate to death, but after Fragile it's quite doable. Physical defence is nowhere near so impressive anyway. Pretty easy, since the guardian is both slower and a weaker mage than Katrina. Prevent probably hoses her pretty badly;I didn't think to try at the time, though. 2900 HP is decent but nothing too bad at this point.

4-11-A (Charlton the summoner) (2 resets)

Just to set the stage for this one; three paths to Charlton each occupied by 3-4 John Does (the ones in the centre have around 500 HP, the others are frail). Charlton himself gets a huge buff, though, as he's picked up two nasty new tricks. Call Servant, which I can no longer wall just by surrounding him, summons a 500-HP John Doe to a square adjacent to him if one exists. And Energy Drain, non-typed damage which rapes very badly once he's beaten up. Neither of these cost MP, so Feeble Mind is no longer an attractive option, and he has no status weaknesses (nor Piedras' terrible evade) so there's basically no way to just cheap him out. This adds up to a boss battle which is actually very tricky. Hey, I was due for one.

Anyway, after some mucking about I settle on two Emulators (for as much MP as possible) and one Extremist (for a decent mix of attack and HP, as well as a useful OC). I blitz through the central path because it's the quickest, despite the durable enemies. Charlton isn't too bad at first, I just hope he doesn't use Dark Destruction (he only uses it twice in my three attempts), slap the three main stat downs on him, surround him as much as I can, and start attacking. At first, Energy Drain is quite weak, and he'll use it all the time which relieves some pressure. My mages mainly use Devastate which is quite handy as it kills the undead he summons at the same time (usually) in 3 hits, and even though of course he always summons more, this resets their turns (they are very slow). Once Charlton gets below half HP his damage starts to get too hard to handle, especially since the undead will periodically survive long enough to hit me with Disease. My first attempt I try to play defensively with Heal and disease-curing but eventually I get overwhelmed due to a combination of needing to do both of those, resetting stat downs, etc., and the undead start getting more turns as I do this. With him healing for as much as 300 HP he gets very hard to overwhelm at the end.

Second try I realise I need more turns (but Nightstalker's awful HP isn't really an option) so I start Turn Shifting like crazy. After some initial efforts I ignore healing entirely and just try to hammer him and the undead as fast as possible. I do pull this off, but come out of it so beaten up that I get finished off by the undead, very embarrassing. I actually had a Strider instead of an Extremist to get the treasure on this attempt, one of the reasons I switch to Extremist is to make this occurence less likely. But in general, on the third attempt, I play timing a little better and am not in such a horrible position when I finish Charlton off.

What I am is disturbingly low on MP for a lategame fight, but fortunately the remaining undead are easy enough to dispatch with (Widespread) Sanctify, so I split up and take them out without any real trouble.

4-11-B (the final puzzle)

Everyone told me I'd need more than three PCs for this one, and I agreed. Turns out we were all wrong. Not only is three PCs enough to win, but two is, so I use two just for the hell of it. Labby as Grappler with Arcanist OC, Clarissa as Emulator with Strahl Gewehr. Labby has no weapon so she'll always "miss".

Anyway, the map is divided into three main platforms (as well as two smaller ones on the side at the top). The second platform is easy enough to get across to, as it isn't much higher than the first, so Labby Heavy Throws Clarissa across (range 5) then Warps up there herself (range 6). Clarissa uses fire magic to light the first torch. It's the second jump that I thought was impossible, since the vertical jump is always at least 5, so Heavy Throw and Warp both don't work. However, at one single point at the very far right, the horizontal gap is only 3, so if Labby stands in the rightmost, topmost corner, and Clarissa stands beside her, Labby can use Ground Slam (infinite vertical range, 3 horizontal) to toss Clarissa up to the third platform. From there, Clarissa shoots the treasure chest, uses water magic to snuff the torch on one far platform, and uses any damn Emulator attack she wants to trigger the attack switch. Victory!

4-11-C (Alas, poor villain...)

Charlton uses Black Corrosion on everything repeatedly until the John Doe stats are so high that they outspeed and kill him with physicals. He can't Energy Drain undead so if I'm nowhere near him (preferably out of his 20 range attack, although it'd be doable even if the attack was true MT like I once thought) I'm safe, and his doom is assured.

But where's the fun in that? I'm feeling a bit of a CSP crunch after all. In particular, I realised during the last Charlton fight that having High Cavalier OC for Intrude and maybe even Quicken and Remain could be really handy for a tough boss fight, and the mother of all tough boss fights isn't far off. So I shove everyone but Vin in High Cavalier, and start hatching plans to Anchor Hook zombies to their dooms. Can't revive from that! Sanctify is also an option. Rush is of course great, and having skills to heal disease and heal is essential. Fortunately Extremist and especially High Cavalier have amazing HP, which reduces the threat of Black Corrosion wiping me out quickly.

I do inevitably have to step inside Charlton's range to do some killing, and even misjudge it once or twice which makes this much hairier than it has to be, but after I figure things out a bit better, Clarissa stays out of his range and Elayne often does too. Most of the undead actually line up for me really nicely, so I can anchor hook them fairly easily. I need to pull off some crazy shenanigans to ensure I actually kill 7 of them for the 8 CSP, but hey, that's what Turn Shift and Accelerate is for. I burn every last bit of MP and need to hope for some AI luck on a John Doe to try to disease Charlton instead of finishing him off, but I get it. Would I have reset if I hadn't? Yeah, probably.

And that's the end of Chapter 4. Final Act seems potentially rather worrying at this point; even though C4 was overall not as bad as I expected it showed some nasty warning signs for Weisheit somewhat and the final boss especially. We'll see.

[Captain K.]

*War throws a car at the Destroyer*
Destroyer: ARGH! THAT HURT! But it'll take more than one Car to beat me *gets hit by another* STOP THAT!
War: Ok *Stabs the Destroyer in the face*

Awesome.  I must play this game.  Time for a related movie quote:

"You're not so tough without your car!"

[Grefter]

Meeple is covering Darksiders with far more brevity than the game itself comes close to being.  Be warned, Darksiders is like Legend of Zelda mixed with God of War and a truckload of stupidly long boring dungeons.

And it isn't -bad- art Meeple, it is Warhammer/Warcraft art.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

SO1r - Holy hell this game's breakability hits a level of refinement that's comparable to SO2's.

[DjinnAndTonic]

And it isn't -bad- art Meeple, it is Warhammer/Warcraft art.

In Meeple's defense, same thing.

[AndrewRogue]

And it isn't -bad- art Meeple, it is Warhammer/Warcraft art.

In Meeple's defense, same thing.

You wound my heart.

[Cmdr_King]

But you have no heart... not now, anyway.  I mean, look at you!

[Lady Ashe]

Beat OG1. Fun game, but nothing amazing. Shame people dislike robots in the DL.

Also started OG2 and man you can really tell five years passed between the games. Stuff like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SziDbSthYDA makes me wish I was playing the PS2 version instead though.

[Dhyerwolf]

FF 13- Beat the plot boss in the Fifth Arc (Or...if there's more than I beat the first one). Man, and I thought I was supposed to get to some free roaming shit soon! Someone really needs to get in modern FF designers heads that if your battle system is not awesome, chaining long dungeons together with little else to break stuff up is a shit idea. Not like FF 13 has gone anywhere near FF 12's level yet, but I was sick of doing this in the middle of Ch 9, put the game down for a good long while, slogged until early chapter 10, put the game down for a good long while, and slogged more! Unless I'm really on the verge of something else, something tells me that the game is soon to be put back down for a good long while.

[DjinnAndTonic]

And it isn't -bad- art Meeple, it is Warhammer/Warcraft art.

In Meeple's defense, same thing.

You wound my heart.

Fine fine, in Warhammer's defense, they are very good at making art of ugly things.

[Niu]

Nier: Acquired 1x ending. Everything in the final dungeon got horribly brutalized. Partly due to overleveling from my doing too many sidequests (I don't know why
So, second cycle...do you actually play as Kaine, or just get extra scenes?

Extra scenes only. Unpleasant extra scenes with trolling to the maximum degree.


Last Ranker-

Complete it, how did Kouli beats everything so damn fast anyway???
Whatever, a good game overall, I am surprised at how coherent and refined this game is despite being made under limited budget.
The battle system is somewhat repetitious and the customization took a long while to open up. Yet, there are enough enemies with their unique quirks, who are actually not badly designed, to actually make you dig into that system. Pretty challenging game over all. Fights like those with Rosa and Norma really makes you plan on when to break them to prevent their big move and how to get pass over their limit phase. The only flaw that stands out is how gauntlet is somewhat overpowered, with breaking being so effective.
The pacing of the story is also good, things are happening pretty rapidly and dungeons are pretty short, successfully made the game more engaging even at the cost of cutting down exploration. Everything is to the point and thing barely drag on, something that modern RPGs are lacking.
The characters are surprisingly likable too. Zig is the silent, cool, somewhat anti-social type main done well. This shows especially when he became the top suspect in the city and how he quietly shows his frustration. The dynamic with his surroundings are also engaging, even with the everyday NPCs, some of them simply hilarious. On the other end, Yuli is an entertaining baby eater, like how he literally dances with his hand over his head when he made Fazz turned against Zig or how he must make more people in pain just so his favorite little girl would preach him to do goof. Awesome death scene too!! He couldn't take scolding from his favorite little girl. (Though, Missy's "Byebye Yuli, I am happy now" is indeed kinda creepy). And he managed to pull all these out without becoming a joke villain!
But then, limited budget is limited budget. How Beager's plot gets cut off is pretty "...." worthy. Welmar also lacked enough screen time to make his death impactive (yet, it still managed to shock me, imagine how effective would his death be if more time was given to him). Though, Rosa and Gargano are the one who needs the justice the most. They have to squeeze Gargano's entire plot thread in minimum length and rush everything through. Then the game ends before Rosa can even redeem herself.
You know what, I'd love to see them make Radiata styled sequel for this game, the cast is just so fitting for it.

Oh, BTW, Nojima, you did live up to my claim that you can write decent plot without Nomura behind your back. And consider the budget of this game, what you did is actually not bad. But... but...... what is with all the yaoi undertone by the end of game?? In such heavy dosage too!! They eloped right?? That is what they are doing at the end right?? I can already hear the sound of Rosa cracking the table in half!!!
Nomura you are laughing right?? You must be laughing when you see this ending!! How you have successfully turned him into a yaoi fanboy just like yourself!!! Not like I disagree with yaoi or anything. I am laughing too when I see that ending, but god, the spread of Nomuraism is a totally different thing!!

[Hunter Sopko]

FFXII- Beat! The Gabranth scene there made a whole lot more sense than the one in Pharos. They could have completely taken him out of that one and it wouldn't have mattered. Liked the battle scene. Vayne was a wanker to the end. He kind of looked like Vigo from Ghostbusters 2 before the buffness. Final battles were cake though. Ending was good though. Classic without being stupid or inane.

I enjoyed the game, all told. Not a whole lot, but I did enjoy it. 7/10 game? It reminded me of WA5 in a way. There at one time was a pretty complete and decent story in there, because it does poke out at points. During the process though it was thoroughly sundered and it's full potential lost.

It starts off well, then long stretches of time go by without plot, but they at least attempt to cover pretty much everything that had gone on. There's no bad leaps of logic or plotholes really, so that's a point in it's favor I guess. If things had been fleshed out in the story it really could have been good.

The gaps really hurt the character work though, but everyone had at least one good moment. Basch was good at the start and drifted off, Balthier was fun throughout. Penelo was oddly interesting (relatively) to watch with Lharsa. Ashe... not a fan of how she played out, but it wasn't terrible. Vaan was just kinda there but didn't annoy me as much as I thought he would. Fran, well... Berserker Fran was fun to watch at least! The intrigue between the Judges and the general Archaides thread was good while it lasted. Again, shame that the game didn't flesh things out more.

Gameplay was okay. I liked the gambit system all told, but there was too much of a gap between the regular content and the post-game content, which is sort of a misnomer since there's no New Game+. No I am not leveling 10 more levels to do Rank 7 hunts. It's at least not hurt by the lack of New Game+, there isn't anything after the final dungeon and nothing important to steal from the finals, so it doesn't matter. Can just boot up the save file from before you beat it.

Ended with, Dagger Vaan (Zwill Crossblade), Bow Fran (Artemis Bow) and Greatsword Basch (Ragnarok). My Zodiac Bravez were Aries Vaan, Pisces Basch, Sagittarius Fran, Leo Penelo, Capricorn Balthier and Aquarius Ashe. Didn't bother with any of the other Espers. Only got Adra since it was on the way to a hunt.

[Strago]

You'll probably want to build either swords or spears for Guv so he has offence once the game goes boss-happy (which it will in another 10-15 hours or so). Otherwise, those look good.

For what it's worth, my Guv was boomerangs-only and I managed alright. I think the only bosses that gave me notable trouble were... Empyrea and the final? Oh, and a reset on Dhoulie. Huzzah for boomerangs!

[Monkeyfinger]

You'll probably want to build either swords or spears for Guv so he has offence once the game goes boss-happy (which it will in another 10-15 hours or so). Otherwise, those look good.

For what it's worth, my Guv was boomerangs-only and I managed alright. I think the only bosses that gave me notable trouble were... Empyrea and the final? Oh, and a reset on Dhoulie. Huzzah for boomerangs!

Other things could contribute to that, like good builds on other characters, high levels, luck with boss's chosen moves, etc. It doesn't change the fact that Guv really wants a decent sword or spear tech, like falcon slash or multithrust.