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

[Niu]

You know, everyone can beat 10 stone Saruin. Just have everyone learn Illusion Body and spam Phoenix Arrow.

I'd rather have consistency than accuracy myself, but this is more a question of Asian languages not being spoken like they're written, which ain't exactly rare.

Technically, it is about Asian language can assign multiple pronunciation to a same symbol then the symbol functions differently according to the pronunciation. Then the function a symbol conserve is limited by its artistic structure, and it can not bare any meaning outside its structure. In other words, a symbol can serve multiple purposes, and how you pronounce it determines which of the purposes is being used right now. This is common in Chinese, and especially worse in Japanese.

And as the resident Chinese of DL, I'll just say this......
Fuck romanization, just fuck it.
It does NOT get the point across at all. Especially on how the vowels work... it made it harder then it really is.

[NotMiki]

You know, everyone can beat 10 stone Saruin. Just have everyone learn Illusion Body and spam Phoenix Arrow.

I generally limit my PCs to their starting class skills with minor exceptions, so that's not an option I've left open to myself.

[Magetastic]

Right, I play things.

DQ9: Picked it up from the Ciatos, playing through it. Fun enough so far (just got to being able to change jobs, and it's neat enough; unlocking jobs is a bitch and a half at times, though), can't say I've got too much to complain about. Sad part is, nothing to really comment on, either. It's remarkably... mediocre. Though having my main have blood-red eyes really makes the game for me. Especially in the prologue~

Suikoden III: Decided I'd actually play this. Done all of the Ch. 1 POVs, and am now at the beginning of Geddoe 2. Hugo is a bit of an emo wanker, Guillame is SO PEDO OMG, Chris needs to have her own damn opinion, and Geddoe is <3. Seriously considering skipping Hugo chapters, but I have a feeling that would lead to me genuinely missing out on parts of the story, as opposed to just different sides of what's going on. (Though he seems clearly the least important, thus far. He's had almost nothing that everyone else didn't already get, and even less than that.)

P.S. Council is DOUCHENIZZLE TO THE MACS.

EDIT: Is the main the only one who can get Egg On? Or, really, any other form of Tension building?

[Cmdr_King]

YOu have to do all the chapters regardless, so it's just a matter of how sequentially you want the plot to be done.

PS: Thomas chapters are the bestest anyway.

BbS- Done.  Fuller breakdown later.  Need to record thought though.  Dude.  Sora was born and, instantly, sought out Ven's heart and healed it.  AS A NEWBORN HE IS JESUS.  Heh.  Funny.

[Xeroma]

Mage, Martial Artist class has a skill tree that teaches Psyche Up, which raises tension on the caster. If you want tension shenanigans I'd invest in at least one martial artist.

[Dhyerwolf]

EDIT: Ninja'd by Dhyer, so back to RPGs. Oh, yeah, I forgot about Amplifier, I tend to dismiss it as impractical since it can't be used after moving AND has a hefty MP cost so the only way you get ahead in terms of damage per turn or damage per MP is to use Rush while doing the other setup.

It was more a theoretical thought process than anything worthwhile! Although...I suppose if Royal Cheer stacks plus a horde of debuffs that really makes 2500 a very low number!

[Niu]

YOu have to do all the chapters regardless, so it's just a matter of how sequentially you want the plot to be done.

PS: Thomas chapters are the bestest anyway.

BbS- Done.  Fuller breakdown later.  Need to record thought though.  Dude.  Sora was born and, instantly, sought out Ven's heart and healed it.  AS A NEWBORN HE IS JESUS.  Heh.  Funny.

I am somewhat disappointed that the new hidden boss is still an Aqua mine bait. What does her mine cannot do anyway??

[Clear Tranquil]

The Black Cave Dhyer? Ouch yeah. At least those birds were easy though! I liked the dungeon design too. Hmm yeah haven't had much trouble with randoms since.

LO- Dungeon before the final dungeon I think? I have to fight six wizard dudes and they are a pain in the ass. I don't get it and I've tried defeating the experiments in the pods and then going back to fight them too only to still get wiped >.> Eventually I ran out of items from fighting experiments over and over and called it quits since it was the middle of the night and I was very tired by that point. Also I couldn't find a way back to the save point which rendered my experiment beating efforts meaningless <.<

*SPOILERS (Jansen/Ming related - don't know whether peeps would mind reading it or not but warning just in case - I haven't went into too much detail though about exactly what happens in a certain event *^_^*)

I am really enjoying the game for the most part which explains why I have been steam rolling through it for every new cut scene to see what will happen to the characters. My favourite characters are probably Jansen and Seth. Jansen is so silly but so adorable too with how he pretends to be a hard man/lout at first, trying to be cool and sauve and not letting his feelings show but the next minute saving a bird, worrying about Cooke and Mack, singing, trying to help Ming and generally acting like a sap around her. I thought something was up when she was staring at him on the return to Numara, when he went "Huh" to her scrutiny and when he was restless and called out to her after the boss fight but wow *^_^* When I found myself in control of Jansen in the area after that I just knew there was going to be a scene of some sort between those two but I honestly didn't expect that from Ming. She'd become gradually more tolerable over the course of the game  (in part for me because of previous scenes with Jansen) but it still annoyed me whenever she took charge of things or received credit for them (hey I defeated the dino monsters not Ming who wasn't even in my party!)  after being such a DiD early on but yeah I like her better now! I hope it isn't a trap! I really want a happy ending for those two *^_^*

Out of the two kids I think I'm starting to like Mack more than Cooke. He may be a baby but at least he doesn't go around kicking people! It's odd that I don't really like Cooke since the young female characters are usually my favourites (Peppita, Meru, Relm, Eiko, Vanille, etc) but yeah. Either those or characters like Aerith, Alice and Lucia so it's quite surprising that Seth is probably my favourite female character in this game. I like Sarah too but yeah. Hmm.

My party is Kaim, Sarah, Jansen, Cooke and Mack. I had a certain character in for a while instead of Mack so Kaim and Serah could learn Double Item + Double SP though. I decided to just use two Immortals and build a bunch of mortals up for Link Skills. Also to see what they'd be like as duellers in the DL. I'm mainly just using Kaim because he's the main really and though I usually switch out mains when there's an option to I'm glad I didn't here because of party splits. He's pretty well built up by this point and I like him enough character wise to keep him in unlike mains in some other games. Sarah I decided on because I didn't really like Ming back then, it makes sense to use her with Kaim because of plot and it seems like she has the potential to become the best mage in the game. Mack because Spirit Magic is cool and Cooke because hey White Mage, always handy and can't do any harm having two around (I've kinda built Sarah up this way as well) Cooke's actually been surprisingly useful lately, especially vs those darn experiments backed by Casting Support from Sarah. Jansen ... I love mah Black Mage *^_^*

If I ever do a replay I think I'll use Jansen and Ming because of plots next time. Also Seth and Sed also because of plots. Dunno if I'll use Tolten though.

[Grefter]

Language is games.

Anyway, though on this point.

As a transliteration, Tseng to Sung seems pretty reasonable to me, for the record, though I'll agree that consistency is way more important than accuracy in these things ^_^

I believe the reason Tseng was left as Tseng in FF7 rather than translated to something more akin to the pronunciation is to help divulge the fact that he is indeed foreign and not "native" like the rest but also not from Wutai like the named members of the cast that keep more Japanese style names.  No idea where he is meant to be from exactly, but he is different from the rest of the Turks and Shinra, but not from Wutai.

Edit - DQ9 - Cash grinding with alchemy is boring and stupid, but easy to do on the bus and a thing to theoretically do.  There being two recipes that you can do with storebought things.  30k bank roll to start doing Ear Cosy's is good, work your way up to 90-95ki or so and you have a cycle that earns you 20k for little work.  Gold Mail gives bigger profit per item but requires a bank roll of 400k+ to get going.  I don't think there is even that many damned items you can spend the money on that makes that remotely functional (it garners you about 30k profit per 99 items, so 1.5x as effective as the method that requires a quarter of the initial investment, only real benefit is that you have to stop at one less shop and I think the Gold Mail is on the first screen of Chest Recipes).

[jsh357]

More Secret of Evermore, yay!  You don't even wanna know what kind of issues I had recording this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fj4GAYEsEw

I have also been playing Metroid: Other M.  It's better than most of the 'hatas have been saying, but I can definitely see why they dislike it.  Trading open exploration for more action was a pretty piss-poor decision.  I have no clue what they were thinking (even from a Japanese standpoint) with Samus's characterization.

I am just past the Varia Suit scene.  LOL at giving Samus permission to use it right before it's about to be a non-issue.

[Dhyerwolf]

CT, you've gotten past where I have, but I'd imaging taking in a stronger party would help. Immortals really can get all the skills mortals have while having more HP. 4 Immortals+Sed is best party by far! Set everyone up with Auto Shield and Auto Barrier, everyone with 2x Item, etc...By the way, you didn't need 2 SP Ups. One in a party gives you the full benefit I believe.

[Captain K.]

Edit - DQ9 - Cash grinding with alchemy is boring and stupid, but easy to do on the bus and a thing to theoretically do.  There being two recipes that you can do with storebought things.  30k bank roll to start doing Ear Cosy's is good, work your way up to 90-95ki or so and you have a cycle that earns you 20k for little work.  Gold Mail gives bigger profit per item but requires a bank roll of 400k+ to get going.  I don't think there is even that many damned items you can spend the money on that makes that remotely functional (it garners you about 30k profit per 99 items, so 1.5x as effective as the method that requires a quarter of the initial investment, only real benefit is that you have to stop at one less shop and I think the Gold Mail is on the first screen of Chest Recipes).

From what I've found, grinding alchemy for money is neither necessary (you rarely need large amounts of money until you get ready to buy Chronocrystals) nor efficient.  Killing Gem Slimes in grottoes is a much faster method.  Of course you may not have a map with Gem Slimes, but they're pretty easy to find.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Japanese A sound: From teaching the various correct English sounds to the kids, I've come to the conclusion that the Japanese A takes slightly pronunciations depending on the consonants surrounding rather than just being one set sound.

In general, it sounds exactly like the A in Father. This pretty much only changes in Y-A compounds.

Of course, this comes from children, so their use of their own language may not be properly formed, and it seems to differ more by person than by any usage standard (apart from the YA compounds being universally more "A as in Cat"-like).

Games: Ha, you thought I was playing something. *Patiently awaits CK BbS review*

[Cmdr_King]

Hey, the review is separate from the What Games breakdown.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Well, I'm not playing FFT on my phone, because Square has decided to continue it's five-year mission to disappoint me in all ways. Guess what? Even though it's just a PSP port, it's not even close to done apparently.

[Grefter]

From what I've found, grinding alchemy for money is neither necessary (you rarely need large amounts of money until you get ready to buy Chronocrystals) nor efficient.  Killing Gem Slimes in grottoes is a much faster method.  Of course you may not have a map with Gem Slimes, but they're pretty easy to find.

Or you know I might also not even have any Grotto maps at all.  I honestly can't see money being terribly useful beyond this point, I am at the second last shop in the regular game, after that the only place you can spend money on is DQVC from what I understand, so outside of buying seeds whenever they show up in DQVC then anything else should be a known quantity that can be acquired through other methods unless I am totally missing something (highly likely).  For the point of the game where it is useful?  Vastly more time efficient than cash grinding by other methods.  Considering you can do the grinding for it once you reach Batsureg with a quantity of cash that is not overly beyond your grasp at Batsureg I would say if you have interest in systematically destroying things then it is worthy of notice.

Now for where I am up to, it isn't worth it, I should really just push through and finish the game with the gear I had and used a tad more alchemy to tide me over, but that wasn't the point of doing it.  I did it to see how it works and how practically it could be applied to leverage an advantage out of a game.  It is most definitely no SaGa Frontier 1 Gold Bar abuse money maker, but it has its uses if you are into that kind of thing.

Now if you want your time spent playing to be fun and interesting and actually entertaining?  Most definitely not.  Stay far far away from Alchemy cash grinding, it is tedious and stupid and the gains are marginal.

That is another part of the fun of critical analysis being half of the fun of playing a game.  You can do the dumbest most tedious shit on the bus to work and it is fun.

[Clear Tranquil]

Lost Odessey- I finally defeated the wizard dudes by having Jansen spam Primsa while Kaim and Mack took out the Gold Saint with Combo. After that I travelled around the world a bit looking for stuff and managed to received the "Well Travelled" achievement after unlocking the sidequest areas. Apart from buying new equipment, items and the Resurrection spell for Cooke didn't do much with those because I didn't want to be overpowered for the final. I did accidentally run into both Ming and Jansen's bosses and got creamed though. I might have managed to turn the tide for Jansen's but I didn't have any ID protection. I decided to go ahead continue the plot. Turns out the game wasn't finished with me for party split nonsense but I eventually managed to beat the two Generals using a Kaim/Jansen and Mack/Sarah duo where other combos didn't work. Boss in the Glass Chamber was a complete joke because I still had on the elemental protection accessories I'd equipped for the wizard dudes. After the plot events I became lost trying to escape from the dungeon before the time limit ran out but next time thank goodness for Sed who kept fixing broken parts I found which gave me more time to work with.

Final boss unlocked yay. Took four attempts, won on the fourth. First attempt lost to the Magic Beast. Second attempt defeated the Magic Beast with only Kaim and Mack still standing only for me to find myself facing the final with two under used Immortals. Game bit me in the ass for hating on Ming earlier on >.> Seth was better off and she actually ended up surviving the longest of the four but I simply didn't have enough healing, revive and status curing items to win. So back to the world map, put Ming in the party and fought a while in the Burning Lava Caves to build her up skill wise, etc. Also released the final Royal Seal with Tolten while I was there. Built Ming up more in the Snowfields, rearranged all the Immortals skills and headed back to the final. This time I defeated the Magic Beast and the final's first form only to eventually be nerfed by All Petrify in the final fight.

On the fourth attempt I won but it was close. Everyone was fully protected from status (Poison, Blind, Petrify) but eventually I ran out of full healing/revive items. Ming and Seth ended up dead, Kaim ended up doubling Healing Herbs on Sarah while she spammed L7 Black Magic. Fortunately I figured out the boss had an elemental pattern and I was able to hit the weakness each time with Sarah for massive damage. Funny thing is though it's Kaim that finished him off with a magic stone. Seth was abusing Double Item with those when she was alive too.

Ending levels were around L48 average. I actually defeated the Magic Beast at L45 first time but training Ming boosted levels some. Mack also learned 3 Combo in the process which I also had Kaim learn. Pumping out over 7000 damage per round vs Magic Beast helped tremendously.

Ending get. I have to admit I bawwed at the sad stuff. I also bawwed at the happy stuff. I am such a romantic sap >.> Anyway happy ending for me, I am satisfied. Lots of scenes near the end including the end involving my favourite character. Powerful scenes in general for the characters for Dhyer and Grefer to look forward too =-)

I'm not going to go into too much detail involving the ending and over all thoughts on the characters until other peeps have finished. I'll save thoughts on character battle performance and duelling potential until next time too I think.

Next up Uber Jansen! Probably do his side quest next and some others before calling the game quits for a while. Definitely see a replay though.

CT, you've gotten past where I have, but I'd imaging taking in a stronger party would help. Immortals really can get all the skills mortals have while having more HP. 4 Immortals+Sed is best party by far!

Thanks. Yeah I thought as much. Thanks for the info about the Double SP too. Good job I didn't use take up time learning it with Ming! Sed is awesme, I'll probably end up alternating him in with Jansen while doing the side quests and stuff =-)

[Meeplelard]

Darksiders Abridged: Episode ...

Watcher: Wait, why doesn't this Episode have a number?
War: Cause it looked ugly, so I decided to kill the number...violently.
Watcher: I think you have a problem.
War: Its not my fault I was born the PERSONIFICATION OF VIOLENCE, and that's basically all I know how to do!
Watcher: Whatever, so where were we...oh, right, 3rd Heart, we just got it.
War: Oh, right, we gotta take this thing to Samael, don't we?
Watcher: Yes, yes we do!

*at Samael, with nothing really interesting happening in between*
Samael: Ah, the 3rd heart, good!
War: So, you're going to tell me whose heart I need to rip out next, give me some random power up that lets me travel farther, and then we'll have more cryptic nonsense to further show there's more to this plot than meets the eye?
Samael: I'm impressed; you've shown the ability to think beyond merely killing what's in front of you.
War: Just get on with it.  I've a busy schedule of demon murdering to get back to.
Samael: Your next victim will be a Giant Spider named Silitha!
War: ...we couldn't go through the game without at least one giant spider, could we?
Watcher: Just pray this one isn't made of lava.
War: Where do I find her?
Samael: Go through the Ashlands.
War: I just came from there, now you're saying go back?  Why couldn't I just kill two birds with one car?
Samael: Because your horse, Ruin, hasn't regained his full strength...and still won't, but I'll give you this ability that lets him run across INVISIBLE BRIDGES so you can reach the next dungeon.
War: I see...
Samael: Anyway, you won't find her, she'll find you!
War: That makes things easier.
Samael: She takes care of her children, catching things for them...except the lucky ones, they get kept alive...FOR INFORMATION!  She's a collector, you see.
War: Ignoring how that makes no sense, what can she tell me about YOU, Samael!?!?!
Samael: DON'T PRY INTO MY LIFE DAMN IT! I can read my Demon Porn All I want while you're off doing all the hard work!
War: ...
Samael: ...er....I mean...don't pry, or this will not be a happy ending! And I do want it to be a happy ending!  I'm a fan of Disney movies, you know.
Watcher: Really? I never would have expected a tough guy like you to be into that kind of stuff.
Samael: Shut up, we all have our soft spots! I know that YOU, War, take ballet during the off season!
Watcher: ...now THAT I didn't know.
Samael: Oh, there's far more I could tell you about War that you don't know!
War: Ok, ENDING CONVERSATION NOW!
Watcher: But I want to hear-...
War: END. NOW. OFF TO KILL GIANT SPIDER!

*At the Ashlands*
War: *whistling random Western themes as he slices across arbitrary zombies*
Watcher: I get the feeling you're having fun.
War: Me and Ruin go way back!
Watcher: ...I'd rather not hear your story, thank you very much.
War: Oh look, its that weird portal thing! TIME TO SMASH-...
Watcher: *smacks War*
War: er...I mean...run across the invisible bridge?
*War does exactly that*
War: ...its quiet...to quiet...something isn't right here...
Watcher: What makes you say that?
War: Cause there's no enemies for me to slaughter
*War gets attacked by a huge fucking GOD KNOWS WHAT and transported to a different place entirely*
War: ...how did I get caught up in a web? Like seriously, I looked up and...oh hell with it, BUTTON MASH QUICK TIME ESCAPE POWERS ACTIVATE!
*War breaks free*
Watcher: Cobwebs everywhere, spiders dancing around, huge freaking mansion that screams "YOU'RE IN A DUNGEON"...yep, I think we're in the right place?
*spiders the size of large dogs attack War*
War: FUCKING SPIDERS! YOU GO SPLAT NOW!
*War steps on them...literally*
Watcher: Not the most elegant way of dealing with these pests, but I suppose I cannot argue with results.
War: Now, for the BIG SPIDER
Watcher: How about you just dodge the spider entirely using that Chronosphere thingy over there and we come back with a new item that is inevitably in this dungeon?
War: But I wanna kill it now!
Watcher: But maybe you can't!
War: YOU SPEAK MADNESS!
Watcher: ...ok, how's this.  Lets get the item first, cause maybe it'll let you kill it in far more creative and FUN ways than what you have available.  If I'm wrong, you can punch me in the face.
War: Oh, that sounds good, LETS DO IT!
*many stupid puzzles related to spiders and avoiding big huge ones cause they're dicks later*

War: Big ominous pedestal...I'm smacking this open!
Watcher: Wait, you might not want to...
*You gained A CHAIN WITH A LARGE HOOK ON THE END.  War can now pretend he's spiderman!*
War: What was that you were about to say?
Watcher: Oh nothing.  by the way, follow me OVER HERE!!!
*War runs to beat up random demons*
Watcher: War! Don't make me call you again, HORSEMAN!
*War continues to beat up demons*
Watcher: YOU WILL REGRET NOT LISTENING TO ME!
War: Shut up! I'm trying to find a way to get up to you! You're standing in an awkward spot and I can't reach there easily!
Watcher: ...oh.
*War finally reaches there*
Watcher: Oh look, little hooks to swing across, why don't you...
War: WHEE!!!!!!!! *is already doing that jumping from thing to thing*
Watcher: ...seriously, THIS is the personification of violence?
*War comes up to one of those big armored spiders*
War: Can I kill this one?
Watcher: Fine, see what I care.
War: Ok! *uses the Totally-Not-Hook-Shot to beat said Spider*
Watcher: Good job, now repeat that 3 more times cause you have to kill all 4 spiders to open that seal.
War: Ok.
*War does that with backtracking and such*
War: Say, what's that huge ominous mass of crystals that my fist can totally smack over...
*Large Crystal Spider appears out of nowhere*
War: Watcher?
Watcher: Yeah?
War: This is a mini boss, right?
Watcher: Probably.
War: And that usually means a retarded gimmick, right?
Watcher: Most definitely.
War: ...nuts...
*War fights the stupid mini boss involving pulling large webbed things from the ceiling, chucking them at the things open mouth*
War: Why. Am. I. Not. Doing. Damage. To. Its. Shell!?
Watcher: Cause its a hard shell?
War: But...that fist I got is suppose to smash them!
Watcher: Its...made of different material?
War: Screw it, maybe if I attack the back-...oh hey, its all soft and squishy here!
*War stabs the back a lot, Spider dies*
Watcher: Good job, now lets just finish this dungeon, and get out of here.  These spiders are pissing me...
*War enters room, huge gauntlet of just about every generic demon class to date starts popping up non-stop*
Watcher: Is there any chance you WON'T slaughter all of them to speed this up?
War: You're suggesting I leave things alive when I can clearly kill them, I thought you knew me better than that.  Besides, there's one of those "Kill all enemies!" seals in the way.
Watcher: Figures.
*War wins said Gauntlet*
War: I AM JUST THAT AWESOME! Now, where's the Spider Queen thing?
Silitha: RIGHT HERE!!!
*She lands right by War*

War: ...you're the boss?  And you can SPEAK!? Holy crap! I haven't seen one of those since Tiamat!
Silitha: You want my heart, don't you Horseman? BUT DO YOU KNOW WHY WE CHOSEN ARE CHOSEN?
War: Does it look like I care?
Silitha: Within our breasts lies the power that Samael once had! Once he gains our hearts, he will be back to full!
War: Look, I don't care.
Silitha: YOU WOULD BE WISE TO JOIN US RATHER THAN FOLLOW HIS LEAD!
War: Care. Do. I. Not.
Silitha: And...are you listening to me?
War: no.
Silitha: ...YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS INSOLENCE!
Watcher: Just a tip, but you may want to find a way to get close to her cause she uses TELEPORTING WEB NONSENSE, and her weak spot is clearly her face.
War: IOWs, use this Hooked Chain Thing on her face when she's talking, slice her a lot?
Watcher: Sounds good to me!
Silitha; YOU ARE A FOOL TO TRUST SAMAEL!
*War slices her in the face*
Silitha: HEY! That's cheating!
War: And I suppose using unlimited Teleporting Webbing is totally fair?
Silitha: YES!
*Silitha body slams on War using said webbing*
Silitha: YOU WILL NEVER GET MY HEART!
*Silitha jumps to the ceiling creating a whole bunch of "use Hook Shot Clone on here!" spots*
Silitha: MWAHAHAHAH! NOW HOW WILL YOU GET ME!?
War: ...Crap, there's no "Press B to Kill Boss VIOLENTLY", guess I'll have to improvise!
*War uses Hook Shot, proceeds into a cutscene where he beats the shit out of Silitha*
Silitha: ARGH! I'm NOT DEAD YET!!!
*Silitha falls from ceiling, through 3 stories of the mansion, onto a convenient spike*
Watcher: Oh, come on; to avoid ripping off Zelda and God of War, you instead rip off Devil May Cry?
War: Why are you complaining about this game being a rip off? I thought you were the one who was fully aware of that?
Watcher: Cause its starting to piss me off too.  Anyway, just take that god damn heart to Samael and...
War: Fuck no! I'm going hunting for items with this hook chain thing!
Watcher: Oh great...

*nothing special happens here, except for one instance in the Anvil's Ford*
War: I see a chest over there and...
Brittish Gentleman Zombie: Good day, Chap.  How about a nice little challenge between you and me.
War: Um, what?
Brittish Gentleman Zombie: Have at thee!
War: Who the fuck are...OH! That Zombie cane hurts...and why the fuck is a zombie wearing a BRITTISH GENTLEMAN OUTFIT?
Brittish Gentleman Zombie: Aha, very witty! Alas, we must continue out duel.
War: Uh, ok?
*War beats the shit out of the zombie...well, no, the Zombie puts of a semi-competent fight*
Brittish Gentleman Zombie: Bloody Hell, I've lost! Cheerio, we shall meet again!
War: What the fuck was up with that?
Watcher: I honestly have no clue...

War: So...we done with the game yet or what?
Watcher: What do you mean?
War: I mean...we got the 4 hearts so once I take this to Samael, he's going to kick the shit out of the Destroyer, right?
Watcher: ...you are naive, Horseman!

[DomaDragoon]

Smash Bros Brawl: Finally got around to hooking up my Wii, so there you go. Played enough matches to unlock ROB.

[Dark Holy Elf]

LFT - Playing this again. It's pretty terrific, nothing new here. The intent of this replay is to finally try out the different special characters since I basically ignored them on all previous LFT playthroughs. Also to give Summon Magic a whirl. I was going to do something with Lancer, but that seems to have been sidetracked, oh well. For some reason the class doesn't really fit into my designs that I keep thinking up. Maybe eventually. Anyway, I've beaten the first two chapters. No multi-reset fights, but definitely scattered single resets (offhand: Dorter Slums, Windmill Shed, Dorter 2, might be forgetting a couple). PC notes...

Gene: Decided to name Ramza after the God Hand for a whim. Unsurprisingly he's focused on Punch Art, with a side of Guts mainly because Wish was helpful earlygame when revival is at a premium. Towards the end of C2 he collected all of that and has since been spending time as a Martial Arts Geomancer trying to collect Attack Up. Has Move+1 and PA Save, also. Decent all-around, but became quite good once Power Sleeve showed up - that being earlier than it used to be is a huge boost for Monk and its quadratic PA shenaigans.

Miakis: Knife fighter obviously. Thief really does do the mini-thief thing well, with the improvements to daggers; in particular, Platina Daggers when they show up are quite powerful. Charge remains, to my mind, THE way to get singletarget smash, as Charge+2 is a free +2 attack (even better than just +2 PA because it affects things like Speed/PA weapons which are harder to boost) and Charge+5 is usually dead easy to get off and almost doubles damage for much of the game. Could have other stuff but don't, was more focused on picking up Move+2 and Concentrate, and unlocking Ninja, which she finished by late C2 so can now slice people up. Being knife- instead of fist-oriented feels far more practial now in general with the nerf to Ninja PA, since it keeps all the benefits of the greater speed and throw damage (Throw definitely stings right now).

Elvis: Sort of a generic filler build, he emphasised both Item and Yin Yang Magic. Paralyse, Sleep, and Silence Song were the spells I mainly used, which isn't anything new to LFT but they still felt like some of the best options. Tied up enemies very well (even most bosses in C1-2 can be hit by those, everyone but Wiegraf and Queklain) and kept me alive with Throw Item and Phoenix Down when needed. Pretty good synergy there, status spells are best to throw out early and Item helps ensuring I don't die during cleanup. Weapon Guard for stick parrying was pretty cool too. I dropped him when I got Agrias not because I felt he was a bad member of the team, but because where he was going was kinda unexciting - I'd seen all this before. Also Mustadio was set to take over Item duties.

Nena: Game handed my a generic with stats adding up to 140, so who was I to complain? Built her as a Summon to try out the new Summon Magic skillset. I must say, I'm really digging it - the overall power hasn't really changed much from earlier LFT, but now there are definitely decisions to be made involving going for fast summons (basic three aren't the fastest any more), powerful summons, AoE summons, etc. I like that the most expensive one is the fastest, makes sense. I went for Moogle first because it's cheap and decent healing, then Shiva because Ice Rods are available earlier than Thunder (and in time for the snow battle at Zeakden), then Leviathan because it's an inexpensive JP cost for a huge AoE, then Half of MP to be able to afford more than one per battle (although Summoner MP is awesome enough that I'd have two by now anyway). Pretty fun skillset to go through, and still turns the battle faster than anything else I have.

Mustadio: I hate FFT's auto-selection of abilities sometimes. As a guest, Musty started with Leg Aim and Arm Aim... great! As a permanent PC, he started with neither, instead investing in Seal Evil and some worthless Engineer RSM that wasn't Equip Gun. Oh well. Only had a few battles with him so far, but his role is pretty clear - starting with both L4 in Chemist and Engineer makes him emphasise those classes even more than before, so he's basically going to have the job of long range sniper/disabler and healer that he so naturally tends to. Equip Gun will let him step outside those classes more easily than before, but it remains to be seen how much I'll have him do in that regard.

Agrias: Holy Knight still sucks, unfortunately. Fortunately, though, Agrias now starts with the new and improved Geomancer class open, and this makes a very easy choice to send her to ASAP. Toss in those easily available Power Sleeves and hello, near-100 damage from Agrias in C2? Totally unheard of back in the good ol' days. Her quick development makes her quite a solid PC compared to what she had to offer before, as she'll have Attack Up by early C3 at this rate, and from there, I intend to start building the Holy Sword skillset itself (HK's problems don't seem as bad with Attack Up).


Yep.


NSMBWii - Enjoyable enough singleplayer. Great multiplayer, now my friends and I just need more Wiimotes, but the chaos and fun mix of competition and cooperation that true multiplayer Mario brings is something the series has needed for literally a quarter of a century. My main problem with the game is Wiimote shaking, which remains way too slow to be appropriate for a fast-paced platformer. Why the hell does Nintendo think this is a good idea? It's small enough fault that maybe I shouldn't dwell on it, but bringing back one of the only flaws in Galaxy just makes NSBMW feel like a step down from its DS predecessor, considering only singleplayer. Let me use my Classic Controller, bitches.

[superaielman]

 Did you run into a dragon in a random yet? The Defender is most definitely worth a poach for Agrias, it makes getting through HK skills much less painful.

[Dark Holy Elf]

No, I'm back to my standard efficient style of playthroughs where randoms barely exist and poaching doesn't exist at all.

[Clear Tranquil]

LO- Random ramblings -

Going back a bit to Grefter's post about the funeral. I agree that was out of order - not so much the mini games themselves but the no chance to save thing. Oh and one mini game - the torch lighting one was totally bizarre and frustrating. I couldn't work it out at all the first time and I had to quit and replay the entire section over again later. The text time thought the torch lighting was easy and I couldn't figure out why I had such trouble before. Oh and yeah the clown was weird and creepy though I did attribuite to weird clothing customs. Also the game is quite morbid for a while - a death, a funeral, a haunted forest, a haunted mansion, a dark cave, a haunted town ... It was cool and all but I'm glad the game got slightly less dark after all of that.

What was Jansen up to on the White Boa? My thoughts were either that he had come up with some sort of bizarre plan to rescue Ming and take her off the ship after hearing how the general was treating her or he was working off secret orders from Gongora. Ming says she was "testing" him >.> Apparently he passed the test?

Cooke and Mack. During the train events when Kaim and Sarah found them they were protected by a magical barrier. Also later they heal Kaim and Sarah. Did they put up the barrier themselves and are they just using their own White/Spirit Mage powers or is there something else going on that I missed?


Tolten - Why did the guard have something to save him with in the train? How did he get it? Did Gongora want Tolten to be saved or something? o_o Also they never really went anywhere with the Tolten's eyes thing >.>

[TranceHime]

And as the resident Chinese of DL, I'll just say this......
Fuck romanization, just fuck it.
It does NOT get the point across at all. Especially on how the vowels work... it made it harder then it really is.

I'm Chinese too, you know >_>

Touhou Souzinengi - Genius of Sappheiros
I've completed this a few days ago, but never got around to talking about it, not even in chat, so I suppose I'll get around to doing it here. Debating whether to include spoilers or not. But basically... If you hate bullshit or haven't already planned on it, DON'T FINISH THIS GAME. For the love of all that is holy, DON'T FINISH THIS GAME unless you're a masochist. Past stage 13 onwards, the difficulty never stops spiking. There is no reprieve at all, you're constantly assaulted with high durability randoms, gimmicky bosses, bosses with even higher durability, and the final boss is a form-chaining cheater that might be better than Kefka by sole virtue of durability ALONE! Seriously, shit's not cool. On the flipside, I really liked the gameplay system and that's pretty much the only thing that's kept me going on long enough to finish it. However, I don't particularly like some of the obscura behind Satori's skill learning, that's a pretty big minus for me because I'm a stickler for trying to learn super broken skills (Unfortunately Darkon Laser isn't until L99, and Satori was like L80 when I finished).

This would be longer but that's only because I didn't include SPOILARZ

[OblivionKnight]

No you're not.  I'M Chinese.  You and Niu are IMPOSTERS!