Playin' any games today, Flying Nun? (WGAYP - 2011 Edition)

[Otter]

Covenant: finished (again).  Still really like that NG+ is a Shadow Hearts-series plot point.  I actually didn't remember that you can power up Yuri's fusions from his Personal menu until I was doing optional content at the very end; it had vaguely bothered me that I was accumulating all these Souls and not doing anything with them, but eh.  Apparently it wasn't that big of a deal.  Remove the first ten fights of the Man Festival and it would be decent.  The rest of the aftergame quests are okay.

Dark Seraphim was trivial.  For some reason I remember that fight being harder, and Solomon wasn't any better (seems to exist to show just how broken your new Dark Seraphim is).  Solomon's Trials could have been a great way to include some truly challenging optional bosses that would have made full use of all your new optional stuff, so I kinda wonder why they're not.  You get so much power but nothing worth using it on.  Oh well!

FFX: never played the International version before, so I'm going to try playing with the expert sphere grid.  I've usually made Kimahri into a clone of Tidus or Rikku, so maybe I'll have him follow Lulu instead this time.  ESG is strange; I just took a detour with Tidus and now he's twice as durable as anyone else.  Anyway, reached Kilika's temple.

SH1: started it, got through the cannibal village.  Then I kinda decided combat wasn't as much fun in this game, so I quit and started

SH3: instead.  Got through Johnny's solo dungeon at the start.  The stock system already makes the game more fun to play than SH1.  I remember abusing Hilda's cheap attack spells with the Magic Mind's Eye a lot back when I played this on console, which was also fun.  My party for that run was strictly Johnny/Mao/Hilda/Ricardo, so maybe I'll try using Shania a little this time?  Maybe?

Portal 2: $25 price-point on the sale today was low enough for me.  I'll probably start it sometime tonight.

[DjinnAndTonic]

KH is just an exercise in wheels spinning to make as little ground as possible while making the same game again.

Except that Days and BBS both have better plot/writing and less Sora than KH1 and KH2, so honestly I think I the series is clearly progressing in the right direction. KH3 just means more SORA plot.

So they introduced a character and a plot arc then made a bunch of games that do not address said plot arc.  So... yeah.  That is the definition of your plot not going anywhere.

These spin off games not featuring Sora so that nothing important happens so the core series is not overly impacted is the very heart of the problem (and didn't even work in KH2 because even though people say nothing much happened in CoM you still start KH2 completely fucking lost!).

So yeah, better writing or plot in a spin off game does not mean that your overall plot is going anywhere.

EDIT- CLARIFICATION TO AVOID BLEEDING VAGINA/ANUS SYNDROME.  DO NOT GET BUTT HURT BECAUSE I CRITICISE SOMETHING.

Prefering the spin off games is fine, liking KH plot is fine (if a sign that you might be retarded).  You can like whatever you want.  You can prefer the plot from the spin off games regarding Organisation 13.  None of that impacts the way that the narrative has been told in that the first game is there, it is in canon and is the start of the story and sets in motion such gigantic impacting plot points that cannot be ignored unless you want to go on the scale of writing a Lovecraft story and then spinning it off into Strawberry Shortcake canon without ever addressing the looming elder gods about to eat your world.

I understood what you meant. Yes, the KH series is spinning its wheels on its main plot. My point was that I don't think anything would be helped by continuing its main plot. I think it would just make the series worse. Sort of like GS3, only the GS series doesn't even have any decent spin-offs.

[Grefter]

If you need to move on to another plot you resolve the shitty plot threads.  It isn't hard.  YOu make Orgy Scissors 61 have taken over all Heartless because they are super powerful.  Plot finished.  Move along.

[Nitori]

Terraria: i can no longer distinguish man from ore i may try to mine you and smelt you into a precious bar

[Fenrir]

Too bad about OB64. It's weird how it looks worse than OB even though both have 2D sprites.

Captain:
Things are only going to get worse if you start running away from battles, unfortunately.
I used pretty much the same strategy for the whole game (Optional dungeon aside) and it worked ->
 
1) Dual wielding machinegun Hero Action (try to target two people, jump right before the end to get some more time)
2) Another Hero Action to kill those two people (pistols or grenades)
3) Tri-action to do all that again in only one turn
4) More Hero Actions

You should only do Hero Actions always. And once grenades become storebought, use them to get a ton of levels.

Really, the game is shallow. It's about dominating enemies, uber combos with dual machinegun, dressing up your characters and customizing ridiculous guns.

Alpha Protocol: Finished another playthrough, got every achievement except Crime Buster (-> joins with AP at the end of the game) No idea how to get this one, every ending forces me to run away on the boat.
I didn't know you could join Sung's assassin at the end of the game, it's pretty great.
The game is more balanced than I remembered, any build focused on at least one weapon can get through. (Except Sabotage, but Sabotage is cheap so it's easy to see it as a support skill) Stealth's a good help in every boss fight, and no weapon feels overpowered. You'll have a lot less trouble though if you have armor and accessories focused on defense, at least for boss fights. Defense matters a lot.

[superaielman]

Plants vs Zombies: Got the survival achivement. The bungee blocking and magnet plants were critical to winning, since it stopped the obnoxious back row attacking zombies from wrecking my sunflowers. Unlike every other survival mode, I was very hard up for sunshine here, due to the way the bonus plants (double sunflowers) increase in cost for each one you have on the field.

FM5- Just beat the defend the base/megatank mission. Fantastic mission, both in design and challenge. (Mission 13-14? Last one in the Camobia arc). This is a really, really well put together game. It fixed a lot of FM4's design flaws and does a good job tying the entire series into one overarcing plot. I so don't blame Square for not porting this one- the amount of text in the game is staggering, and you really need to play the earlier games in the series to appreciate a lot of the plot.

[Luther Lansfeld]

FF4TAY: So I already read the plot spoilers and decided I was ready for some awesome.

First we meet young Ceodore (who is apparently named after Golbez, whose real name is Theodore, but Cecil decided "No, you need to be named after me too because my brother is dumb"). As virtuous as he is brave, young Ceodore is truly a paragon of what the son of the great King Cecil should be. Unfortunately, he has Mr. Jealous cramping his princely style and saying bitchy, aggressive remarks like "omg you're so incompetent, no one cares that you are a prince". Look, you better be happy my dad is a character from an After School Special or else your ass would be getting knocked down. (This is why you can't give free speech to commoners.) So I go through a cave, being condescended by this jerkface and then they abandon Ceo. I am about to get harshowned by a Sand Worm and then my Super Saijin plot powers kick in. Mr. Jealous gives me a speech about how they just put me through this trial to test me and I'm not a real knight. Was this supposed to be heartwarming or does this guy need to be thrown off the airship?

Then we meet Cecil and Rosa. Some bad shit is happening on our castle so Cecil makes sure that the bitch stays home, even though she went with him with him TO THE MOON and can wield a bow like no one's biz. So I walk around for a bit and save some girl and raid my own treasure chests or something. For some reason there is still a big throne in the bottom of my castle (??). I'm sure this won't come up later. My ho stalks me and Cecil reluctantly lets her back in.

"The white mage who serves as Baron's queen and a steadfast, loving support for Cecil. Her heart goes out to Ceodore as he enters an emotionally turbulent time in his life."
—Game Description

You know, I love that Rosa's entire bio is defined by her two closest male characters. Thank you Rosa for being an inspiration to feminism everywhere, even in this new era.

SPOILERS!!!!! if you care

Other than the little I've played, I know that DARK KAIN KIDNAPS ROSA. ZOMFG ROSA IS KIDNAPPED and there is more mind control. Also Edge has to fight his parents again because God hates him. Kain is like 35+ and still holds a 18 year long grudge because he wanted to bang a chick and it manifested into a dark side? Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

I mean, SPOILERS, Kain betrays people. He also steals a crystal.

[Tide]

Resonance of Fate:  Chapter 6.  I wasn't sure before because it was early in the game and I was giving it a chance to get better.  But these game mechanics are complete ass.  There is no balance whatsoever.  You're either raping enemies or they're raping you.  Critical Condition is one of the stupidest, if not the stupidest mechanics in the history of video games.  Getting into critical condition is pretty much game over, even against crappy randoms.  In the earlygame, it's pretty bad since you have so few bezels.  But they let you shoot hats off enemies to regain them and many enemies can be killed without scratch damage first.  Then you get farther along and you're facing five guys with machine guns and no breakable body parts.  It takes a minimum of two actions to kill them (one to scratch, one to kill), during which time the other four outflank you and rape you with automatic fire.  You can't regain bezels fast enough to continue to use hero actions.  And then for some reason when your bar is fully scratched, you lose *all* your bezels instead of just one.

It goes without saying but I assume you've been customizing your guns? The game is pretty obtuse about it so not only should you always check if you have the most up to date gear, but also if you're using the best type. There's a pretty big difference early on between 40 charge speed and 50 charge speed for example. I'm not sure how you're going about it, but Chapters 5 and 6 are some of the easier chapters in the game. If you've beaten Chapter 4, you're likely not hitting a bump until Chapter 14 or so.

At Chapter 5, you should be able to get around 70-80 Charge speed along with 25% Acceleration on your weapons. Your machine gun in particular should also be able to fit the drum attachment on and paired with the Magazine case at all times. This will give you a 27 clip Machine Gun with an option for ammo that can greatly increase the damage you do. The area where you need to go also has a bunch of fire weak enemies, so if you can, link that fire terminal up and spam Motolovs if you're really struggling to pick up a few levels. If you're still taking too much damage, start using more physical damage resisting accessories. Enemies have some targetting patterns; they tend to aim for the person with the lowest overall defense first unless someone is very close in range. You can use that to your advantage.

In battle, make sure to store your charges once you start gaining levels; you'll need it to deal good damage. On one Hero Action, you should be able to scratch up to at least 2 enemies. Also, unlike what Fenrir's saying, my assumption at where you're at is that you may be using too many Hero Actions and blowing way too many bezels. Try and see if you can snipe away some of the enemies first before rushing in with a Hero Action. Once the enemies start getting too close, Hero Actioning away is often a good call. Some enemies also have flaws. Like dogs for example only attack at melee range. If there are platforms in the stage, try to set up your Hero Action so you can jump on top of the platform. You won't be able to get dual machine guns until the next chapter, so you're going to have to wait it out if you want to use Fenrir's typical battle plan.

Once you get used to it, the game's pretty simple.

EDIT:
OH RIGHT GAMES...

Super Laggy RPG - Done. I'll create a post regarding my final thoughts on it, but Laggy already knows most of it.

[Idun]

I officially made it to the 10th floor of Tartarus. I think I'm moving pretty damned slow, because I haven't finished any of the special requests, and it just feels like I haven't done much. There's only so much I can fit into a day, but I was blessed by two 10,000 lucky fortunes over the course of a week I believe.

[metroid composite]

Plants vs Zombies: Got the survival achivement. The bungee blocking and magnet plants were critical to winning, since it stopped the obnoxious back row attacking zombies from wrecking my sunflowers. Unlike every other survival mode, I was very hard up for sunshine here, due to the way the bonus plants (double sunflowers) increase in cost for each one you have on the field.

Ooh, which one?  (The Survival: Endless achievement is different in different versions of the game; the PC version is only 20 waves; XBox and IPad are more like 40 waves).

I'm not a huge fan of magnets; they're fundamentally single-target, so they become weaker and weaker as answers at higher levels.  (Unless you're gold-farming, in which case yes: gold magnets are great).  Umbrella Leaf plants are totally worth it in this mode, though yes (which is weird, because they usually suck).

As for sunshine...you might as well just get the sunshine you need on the early rounds.  Seriously, be aggressive with sunflowers.  The first minute or so of this video demonstrates how it's done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GClKWyNeOso

And that's how you hit 9990 sun by about flag 4 or so.  (Don't pay too much attention to the rest of the video--it's not a very good build because it doesn't have Umbrella Leaf plants in the back and I would argue it mis-places its Winter Melons and should...probably play at least one Fume).

[superaielman]

I usually just stuck with four-six sunflower plants. And yeah, I just had to clear 20 waves.

[Dhyerwolf]

"The white mage who serves as Baron's queen and a steadfast, loving support for Cecil. Her heart goes out to Ceodore as he enters an emotionally turbulent time in his life."
—Game Description

You know, I love that Rosa's entire bio is defined by her two closest male characters. Thank you Rosa for being an inspiration to feminism everywhere, even in this new era.

She's the original queen has the plotless, foolish tag-along girlfriend. You didn't expect that change did you?!

[Luther Lansfeld]

I was hoping?

[Grefter]

For a game published in 2008, yes.  Yes I hope we all did and should.

LUIFAS - So Tanbel mine gets even more stupid with a rhythm mini game that gives no visual cues when to start the actual rhythm part of it, thus defeating the entire purpose and even if you use the voice acting as a cue it changes for each set of jumps when they are coming, that was amazingly terrible.  So now I have retrieved Jaffy from the mines he will make me a Ruby Apple for a rich guy.  I really dislike this change in plot.  In the original Maxim totally cheats this rich guy because the rich guy is a dick and Tia goes WTF?!?!??! in the remake Tia is the one that suggests it and Maxim needs to be talked into it.  So... Maxim just lost what little character he had in the original.  lulz.

Anyway, now that I have done Tanbel Mine I unlock the Sphere Grid clone which looks okay and have to head on to Tanbel Mine.  Lexis warns me now about poisoning enemies in the mine.  Thanks Lexis, you are looking out for us.  Nevermind that this mine also has enemies that can inflict Sleep which is amazingly brutal in this game.  Wheeeee also recruited Guy.  He is just this Guy, you know?

[Luther Lansfeld]

She is also like 35 instead of 18, so maybe she developed a personality in those 17 years?

[Meeplelard]

The funniest part is there are people who will adamantly defend Rosa as a likable, well written character and all that.  One of the excuses is "Since when is being a kind hearted, forgiving individual a BAD THING!?"

My response?  When it comes at the cost of being competent or independent in any sense.  If that's your only character trait that's NOT related to banging the main character, there's something wrong.

If nothing else, Yuna proves you can have those "positive" traits of Rosa without having to sacrifice other qualities.


...oh, right, I play games too!

Namco x Capcom: So I'm in the Infernal World again, split into three parties.  Party #1 had an actual "fair" fight cause the only AWESOME unit on my team was the male Ninja Duo. 
Current map?  Has KOS MOS, Ryu (who has since become broken due to EX Tatsu), Silph, Female Ninja Duo, and Rose at very least...yeah, this map doesn't really stand a chance at all.


DMC3 Vergil Mode Very Hard: Just beat Nevan.

[NotMiki]

In the end, Rosa just doesn't get enough screen time to develop much.

[Meeplelard]

Which is pretty sad seeing as she's the female lead in FF4, and thus like the 2nd or 3rd most important character in the game among the good guys.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Rosa gets kidnapped, which is embarrassing. Cecil is a problem because he is misogyny man. "Hey bitch, get back in the kitchen, Edward you can fight with me though."

[VySaika]

So after much whipping from the toro, I have beaten SMT Nocturne. Normal mode of course because I am not masochistic. Got True Demon Ending, fought the finals at level 86-87, which Tai says is frankly underleveled for them. After getting my entire team OHKO'd by the first final's uber attack(yay endure) I believe him. Managed to bring it back though and got a good pattern down to slug them out.

Other then that, we've been playing a bunch of Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3. For this game, I largely have only one thing of major note to say: what kind of crack is the Reborns Gundam on!? Seriously that thing is absurd. Best C4 I've seen yet having range AND damage to spare, I'm pretty sure the C2 is an unblockable grab(even if it's not unblockable it's still incredibly easy to boost cancel from). Yes, a *USEFUL* C2, I'm as shocked as anyone. The C3 is great, the square string is solid, air and ground musous are good...oh yeah, and it's combination musou shreds officer HP like little else. I'm just amazed.

Outside of the Reborns, the cast has it's ups and downs from the last game. I like most of the other new mechs(I may not like Gundam Wing, but I'll grant that it has some fun mech designs), but the Turn A and Infinite Justice, two of my favorites from DWG2, both feel worse then before. Much worse in the Turn A's case. There is also the interesting note of mechs like the Hamrabi, the Turn X and even the Guncannon being full mechs in this game instead of generics. They get varrying results though. Turn X is a powerhouse and one of my new favorites, while the Guncannon...well, full mech or not it's got so much suck you'd think it was a weapons grade vacuum cleaner.

On a final note for it thus far, I'm still somewhat annoyed at the inclusion of Schwarz Bruder...but not the Shadow Gundam. He's just running around in the Burning. Haven't checked DLC for the game yet, and dunno if I'll plunk down the cash for the Shadow even if it's available. But it still kinda irks me to have a pilot in the game without thier mech.

Also playing some DW7 of course. Not much to say besides for Yue Ying possibly being my favorite char in this game. Entirely for her musou. Cracks me up every single time.

[Fenrir]

Those levels aren't too low, you can survive the big attack by using War Cry / Debilitate / Rakukaja; you can spam that + healing whenever he goes all "PH34R" since you get a free turn before his uber attack.

Lost Odyssey: The lost Final Fantasy. I'm surprised by just how much it feels like FF7/8/9/10. Yeah, I know, same team, but still. Everything about those games applies. This one is maybe a bit more melancolic.
Storyline so far has some of the best (dream sequence) and worst (That scene where you first meet Mack and Cooke, right before fighting a few guards) writing in the entire RPG genre! Also: Queen Ming's dress? Really?

Bosses gave me a lot of of trouble so far, I'm pleasantly surprised.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Final Fantasy 4 The After Years - Kain's Revenge

So Rosa and Cecil wander around and run into Cid. Cecil and Cid have a manly conversation and we go kill some bosses. AND BY KILL A BOSS I MEAN GET HARSHOWNED BY A BOSS. We have Ceodore snooze chapter and then BAM ow the Zuu killed me. Rosa got Doomed and it was all over. So Rosa is useful after all!

So bad shit happens, Cecil sends Rosa away so he can defend the castle like a manly man, and then we pan to Ceodore. The ship is raided by something and BIGGS IS DYING BAWWWW. Biggs is an asshole, why do I care. So we have a dramatic scene with Biggs, he tells me what to do again before he dies (does he not get the chain of command), and I am all alone.

UNTIL THE HOODED MAN SHOWS UP!!!!!! He saves Ceodore's life and then he realizes that he must be related to Rosa, their eyes are so similar... their bodies are so similar... the way he brushes his hair across his face... the way he rests his hand on his hip...

And that's how Ceodore got an STD.

More seriously, he doesn't recognize me, we travel together, he says cryptic shit like "I have no name anymore... I abandoned that long ago." Ceo lols. I steal his equipment and give it to Ceo. We go to MYSTIDIA and hear about A DRAGOON IN MT. ORDEALS but we ain't got time for that shit, bro. We go through the Devil's Road and then get to Baron, where we get kicked out. And then we have to... omg.... go through the waterway to sneak into the castle. Have never done this before.

So Kain figures out who I am (ZOMG) and now I am controlling him.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I always thought Rydia was the main female character in FF4? She certainly has more screen time...
Rosa's just the love interest. (...not that this is a good excuse for Rosa to have no personality, but...)
God why are we talking about FF4 plot. (Ciato plz keep journaling TAY, it's hilarious)

GAEMZ: Replayed Chrono Trigger. Beat it once. Good times. Final party was Ayla-Robo-Frog because they have the least to do with main plot threads and it's funnier that way.

[Nitori]

Terraria - mine lava with lava to make more lava

Aquaria - i wonder if there's more swimming levels

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Final Fantasy 4 The After Years - Kain's Revenge

So Rosa and Cecil wander around and run into Cid. Cecil and Cid have a manly conversation and we go kill some bosses. AND BY KILL A BOSS I MEAN GET HARSHOWNED BY A BOSS. We have Ceodore snooze chapter and then BAM ow the Zuu killed me. Rosa got Doomed and it was all over. So Rosa is useful after all!

So bad shit happens, Cecil sends Rosa away so he can defend the castle like a manly man, and then we pan to Ceodore. The ship is raided by something and BIGGS IS DYING BAWWWW. Biggs is an asshole, why do I care. So we have a dramatic scene with Biggs, he tells me what to do again before he dies (does he not get the chain of command), and I am all alone.

UNTIL THE HOODED MAN SHOWS UP!!!!!! He saves Ceodore's life and then he realizes that he must be related to Rosa, their eyes are so similar... their bodies are so similar... the way he brushes his hair across his face... the way he rests his hand on his hip...

And that's how Ceodore got an STD.

More seriously, he doesn't recognize me, we travel together, he says cryptic shit like "I have no name anymore... I abandoned that long ago." Ceo lols. I steal his equipment and give it to Ceo. We go to MYSTIDIA and hear about A DRAGOON IN MT. ORDEALS but we ain't got time for that shit, bro. We go through the Devil's Road and then get to Baron, where we get kicked out. And then we have to... omg.... go through the waterway to sneak into the castle. Have never done this before.

So Kain figures out who I am (ZOMG) and now I am controlling him.

If I recall, doesn't the age of Ceodore and the gap in time between FF4 and TAY suggest that Rosa was running around with a baby in her most of the game? Cause that's kinda fucked up.