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

[Yoshiken]

Castlevania Judgement: YESZ. Picked this up because it was cheaper for me to get other games with this than without (yay offers!) Spent most of the day watching other people play it, although also took some shots at it myself. Not as hideously broken as I thought it'd be, although it's unbalanced as hell. Dracula is hilarious, Maria is nuts with wave spam and Death is sickeningly good.
Friends have been unlocking random shit, and we managed to beat Time Reaper with both Death and Aeon. Actually not a terrible game, methinks.

[Shale]

SRWJ - Yurika using Naze Nani Nadesico to explain the plot of Brain Powered: Instant, total win.

[SageAcrin]

SRWJ - Yurika using Naze Nani Nadesico to explain the plot of Brain Powered: Instant, total win.

Damnit I'm trying to play new games stop trying to get me to replay J for a sixth time.

[Hunter Sopko]

AI2- Went from Chapter 12 to Chapter 18 yesterday in an attempt to marathon finish before the New Year. It failed. I can't even recall most of the events that transpired due to apathy, except the latest twist about Fee. Oh well.

The world needs more Naze Nani Nadesico. Which also apparantly needs Miss Versange.

[VySaika]

Heh, still working my way through the cast and haven't picked a main yet.  So far I'm pretty smooth with Abel and I really like the way Sakura plays.  Too bad she takes hit like a Japanese schoolgirl.

Haha, Cap you play the same folks I do. Awesome.

[Rozalia]

Started up Fire emblem Sacred stones which I got for 8 pounds and as it usually goes for 20 it was a bargain. Game is actually pretty good and better then shadow dragon in like every way from what I see. Is Seth worth using? I know this is the FE where you can grind but I just want to know if he turns out like Titania or Jagen is all.

Moving post in the old thread here. No real reason as I doubt anyone cares but just in case.

Project zero 3 - Beat. Overall I don't know where I stand on it as on one hand it has better combat then the first one even if it was very hard at first. No really its hard because unlike the first game the enemies tend to sway about and as the attack a lot faster it means you somehow miss a point-blank head shot. I then found you could completely negate these enemies new advantage by just backing away from them while aiming as this causes them to miss their first strike (All enemies have either a 2 or 3 hit combo so its still risky if you're not quick enough).

Story is worse then the first I find but that might be because it splits the story up in to pieces and you really don't find out the reason for the hellish place until right before the final boss fight. The reason is also near exact what the one in the first game is. Shrine maiden is part of a family who does some fucked up shit to seal hell/the rift/VOID and one part of her training is all her earthly attachments must be broken but then even though its forbidden some guy comes along and him and the girl fall in love. On the day of the ritual he sneaks in and promises to get her out before the head of the house sneaks up behind him and kills him (How did the guy not notice some massive dude with a meat cleaver in the closed room?). This causes the girl to unleash hell itself upon the house/village.

Yeah I personally have always wondered what the hell these heads of the houses are thinking when they do this. Yeah rules have been broken but is provoking a girl you horribly killed to seal hell a good idea? At least it wasn't all that bad in the first one at least as everyone is only dead due to the head of the house going insane due the rules being broken because as everyone knows. Break a rule and EVERYONE FUCKING DIES! The one in the third isn't the reason for the deaths and she (I believe its a women, its hard to tell) gets fucks up as well by the shrine maiden.

Characters now:

Rei:
Plotwise: Those are some blinging tattoos she gets but beyond that I didn't like her too much mostly due to how uninteresting everything is to her outside her crying over her boyfriend moments. Theres like one time she gets a call from a ghost who says something like "No one will survive, I'll kill you" and whats Rei's reaction? Put the phone down and pretend it never happened.
Game-play: Balanced in all areas except range which she is best in and the character you use the most. Her added range means she combos a lot easier and hits things easier in general. Her damage is only half Miku's but half of Mku's damage is still pretty good. Her special power flash is rubbish as it only works on things you can easily kill anyway.

Miku:
Plotwise: Is Dissidia cloud or something. Why is she going on about shit she has already gotten over in the first game? Also I love how randomly for no reason she survives in the end even though their is no possible way she could have survived. Even the writers in the end basically put their hands in the air and go she just survived, we won't say how she just does okay.
Gameplay: Game worse range means she has a harder time hitting things....NOT! because her special power slows down time which allows her to easily rape stuff up the arse with her massive damage (Its twice Rei's!). Her biggest downfall is game worse hp but really thats all? With overkill damage, a slow down move its not such a downside as everything just gets curb stomped.

Kei:
Plotwise: His Niece can handle herself but you can't blame the guy for trying. As a man in this universe it means he is greatly handicapped. Seriously the only advantage men have is that they have more hp and can move heavy items because as the game says "Only a man could move this chest" because with being a man comes the ability to move heavy stuff. Anyway he is an overall nice guy but he has very little presence as you play as him the least and you only really meet him at end game (Just before he dies). I like that he came up with the plan to kill the final boss and went to do it because as a man its something only he could do (Because he is a man you see). Sad that the head of the house had already tried it and failed.
Game-play: Game best hp and horrible in all other areas. His damage is a third of Rei's meaning he has truly pathetic damage and his special power is the worst as well. He can hide from shit, big fucking woo.

The final boss:
Plotwise: I liked the whole, driven insane due to having to stare at her lovers cold dead eyes forever but beyond that she is a complete copy cat of the first games final boss.
Gameplay: Her hp isn't massive but due to not leaving herself open very often and the ability to not be comboed means she lasts long. Her damage isn't great but off course as she is the final boss she gets a cheap one hit kill where she zaps you to the void and then OHKOs you if she touchs you. Harder to avoid then it sounds I assure you, and when low on health she spams that shit.

Head of the house:
Plotwise: When the maiden smiled and stuck out her hand due to seeing her lover something should have clued old grandma in. She even looks back and sees nothing and then seems to brush it off as nothing which is an extreamly bad mistake. Maybe not though as she does wait for the guy at the entrance to the VOID so she can kill him RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE MAIDEN! Zahark levels of stupid right there.
Game-play; Looks tough and she has the plot to back it up but is in fact a complete joke. All she does is fly around doing 1 very easily interrupted move. Pathetic.

Hidden face man:
Plotwise: Evil but dedicated to his job. His job entails first building a house with his family and then as the eldest amongst his brothers killing them all and using their souls as pillars for the house to keep it safe. Then he has some 12 sons and passes on his secrets to them so they later can do the same. Evil prick but what he tells you is actually true. He tells you not to open the door as it would unleash the void and he is so dedicated to the job that when all the seals on the door are broken he kills himself and uses himself as a seal.
Game-play: Goodish damage, too bad he is made of wet tissue paper.

The Rope Maiden:
Plotwise: Is the final boss of the first game given form. The final boss is actually dead and all this prick is an imitation.
Game-play: The loss of her strongest attack means she goes from somewhat scary to pathetic in this game.

The Rope Man:
Plotwise: Same deal as the rope maiden except he is from the second game and he isn't the final boss of that game.
Game-play: Man this dude is tough. Quick as lightning giving you little chance to attack him, hard to interrupt, huge hp and massive damage that takes 75% of your hp per attack. He also is one of the few enemies in the game with a projectile even if it isn't very good. Strongest enemy in the game.   

8/10 game overall.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Started up Fire emblem Sacred stones which I got for 8 pounds and as it usually goes for 20 it was a bargain. Game is actually pretty good and better then shadow dragon in like every way from what I see. Is Seth worth using? I know this is the FE where you can grind but I just want to know if he turns out like Titania or Jagen is all.

He's more like Titania, having solid growths to go with the typical Jeigan stuff, so you don't need to be afraid to use him throughout the game. He also gets one of the game's high-end supports with Eirika (two good PCs available from the get-go for a reasonable-length support running off the best affinity combo in the game = toodles).

[Grefter]

Errr what are you talking about Snow?  The game has Colm.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Colm is not the only high-end PC in the game. >_> He does get an Anima+Light support too, but Moulder actually kinda sucks and that support isn't terribly fast. But then, Colm is the one who gets the best support in the game. Gooooooo Neimi.

[Grefter]

FE8 doesn't have other PCs.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I'll never understand your obsession with him, being a great PC aside. >_>

[Meeplelard]

Friends have been unlocking random shit, and we managed to beat Time Reaper with both Death and Aeon. Actually not a terrible game, methinks.

...I'm afraid there is something wrong with you, and you should probably seek help!

[SageAcrin]

The DL played it for a while.

It's not a terrible game.

For a given definition of terrible that would call, say, Clonus: The Parts Horror not terrible because it's so ridiculous.

Edit: Wikipedia says it's Parts: The Clonus Horror. Still, not bad for an MST3k that I watched ages ago.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Nier- I put together the key I needed. And now it is killing time.

[Taishyr]

Grim Grimoire: Okay so rant time!

Plot was damn well pieced together except for the ambiguity!end w/ Lillet Squared and even that closed more plot than it opened so I'll take it. Really, the plot is just neat and well-executed and bow tied and yeah.

General character thoughts:

Lillet 'Queen Of The Morning Star, Dragon Empress And Biggest Badass In The Universe' Blan: Just... just see the nickname. Lillet goes from studious awkward to I WILL KILL YOU WITH DRAGONS AND OWN EVERYTHING IN MY PATH with a remarkable, -believable- ease, and easily gets some of the best moments of the game. Just fucking awesome overall.

Margarita Surpris'ingly Isn't The Lesbian Option' + Surely 'Hypnotoad': Is probably the one major character weak point. How many times did she get told that what she was doing was stupid because she'd -die-? How many times did she do it anyway? Regardless, also sympathetic and understandable.

Amoretta 'Oh, Wait, This Is Why Margarita Isn't The Lesbian Option' Virgine: Well, manages to own the Big Bad twice, but otherwise is kinda just there for Lillet to hit the Lesbian Orgy button for. Which, mind, is hardly a -bad- thing.

Bartido 'Lillet's Beard' Ballentyne: Gets some neat moments when assisting Lillet. Also acts as an excuse for the Lillet Is Not Bisexual/A Lesbian crowd. Poor deluded folks.

Hiram 'Kenji' Menthe: Uh... his nickname says it all. He has nothing else to his personality.

Really the student cast could have used more time but it's understandable why they didn't get it.

Gammel 'I'm Sorry, I'm Supposed To Be Competent?' Dore: Well, the one fight you see him seriously in, he's damn good. Buuuut there's never any ingame proof of this. Granted, you beat the Big Bads by tricking them and thus they could easily just be stronger than Gammeldore, explaining his incompetency, but... Oh. Bonus points mega for BELIEVING LILLET BLAN. CONSISTENTLY.

Advocat: Second-best character in a game, and in a game with Lillet Blan that's -not an insult in any way-. Probably the most important NPC, too, and... he has the plot presence to underline this. A lot of the awesome lines come from him.

This being said, he merits a side note: I was going to hit the DL for what hype I'd seen about him at first, due to the fucking creepy interaction you see between him and Amoretta near the start. This being said the game does damn well at pointing out -there's something else to it- afterward, and managed to de-creep it. So yeah.

Professor 'I'm The Person You Keep Goddamn Fighting, And I Wish My Lovely Lion Were A Zombie' Opalmeria: And yet she's definitely a good guy. What the hell? Anyway, yeah, she's the one that keeps getting into fights with Lillet due to the situation at hand. Her personal plot is... well, it wasn't what I really was expecting! At least it got resolved okay, thanks to Hiram. (Yeah...)

Dr. 'ELLIOT, THE TRUTHINESS IS OUT THERE!' Chartreuse: Not much to say here. He's okay but not imprTRUTHessive; has a single-minded foTRUTHINESScus but isn't a dick outside of it, Opalmeria's just stupid in love. Uh... yeah.

Spoilers 'Become A Great Lesbia- I Mean Magician, Lillet Blan' McSpoilery: A barrel of exposition, also gets a few other lingering questions wrapped up. Really kinda cool to see, and they didn't waste the sprite so.

I'm kinda bitching about everyone here but that isn't my intent; the characters all work together so damn well it's not even funny, and the plot is very solidly done. Gameplay is... gameplay is "Summon two dragons + supporting force, win". I wish I was joking. Dragons, Homunculi (12x Psychic Storm SMAAAASH), and Morning Stars are a solid little core; there's a few other solid units (Unicorns, Demons, Phantoms, Golems) but those three are all you really need, ever (and Morning Stars can be dropped if needed). Fun game to smash through just for awesome plot. Probably an 8 or so?

Oh, right, one final thing: GAMEPLAY AND PLOT SYNTHESIS, THIS GAME ACTUALLY REMOTELY DOES IT. Having the cast acknowledge Lillet is freakishly good after the events of the game start unfolding is awesome to see (as is breaking the latter-game "30 Minutes" missions by killing them all first). Just really refreshing.

[Twilkitri]

Mass Effect -

Pretty good. Played as an Infiltrator/Commando. Never really ended up using any engineer combat abilities.

Mako sections were great fun.

Galaxy Exploration was very shallow. You're not even collecting most of the things you're able to collect for anyone specifically, yet you get paid for finding them. And the collections are segregated for almost no reason considering that you don't get anything special for 'finishing' them. You would expect some sort of exposition for collecting enough data discs at the very least, but no. Also somewhat bizarre that there are more items to collect in some of the collections than it states there are.

Why are you even bothering to survey resources on-planet considering that the amount there is seemingly too low to be picked up by the ship scanners and probably not worth the effort of extracting. And why do you need to decrypt the on-plant resources to survey them.

Boss of Noveria was somewhat of a pain as the game didn't provide any indication that you wanted to attack the flunkies as opposed to the boss. Especially since the boss went to its second stage as I blew up an explosive container near it, which either took out the remaining first stage flunkies or corresponded with the party members doing so, so I spent several minutes shooting the boss wondering why the health bar wasn't changing.

Then I went over and attacked it physically with the third stage managing to be triggered somehow at the same time again, and ended up flung out of the map somehow. Fortunately for myself I tried attacking the flunkies on my second attempt instead of attempting melee after finding myself unable to get to the second stage and discovered the truth.

Don't understand why the game won't let you save while standing in unmoving elevators and won't even tell you that your being in the elevator is the problem. A number of times I thought that I was in no-save areas because of this.

The story is somewhat disjointed. The part that most stands out is how the characters go from being told that a particular threat is currently dormant and will remain so if you succeed, to them being convinced that they need to be ready to deal with this threat after they've succeeded, with no intermediate steps. The possibility that said threat isn't dormant at all is very possible as it was just a theory but this is never brought up. Romance is even worse as one randomly started with Ashley with no warning or any apparent way in which it was triggered.


Super Robot Wars L -

Pretty good. Top killers were Godannar Tetsuya on 164, Athrun on 90, 'Brella on 89 who I'm not sure I actually killed anything with and just barged his way in when he joined. 326 turns.

I think they went too far with their attempts to make pairing units more desirable than in K. Among other things seems like chain attacks took a ludicrous damage hit.

I'm not sure whether it's just because I hadn't played an SRW in a while, but the friendliness of the enemy AI was terminally overbearing in this title. On the one hand I'm vaguely thankful for not having to reload anywhere near as much as I might have to have had, on the other hand it is facecrushingly depressing to see enemies damage units to low hp and then the enemies next to them ignore the critically-wounded units to attack other ones. Especially egregious when they've critically wounded one member of a pair and then the next enemy attacks the same pair but concentrates attacks on the other member.

Guess now seems like a reasonable time to replay J.

[superaielman]

Yay people liking Grim Grimoire.

Defense Grid- Done. I looked up a video on how to beat the final map, and woah. Other than that, I loved the game. It's a tower defense game that doesn't overstay it's welcome and has pretty creative map and weapon design.

Serious Sam HD- Brutally hard. I'm playing on wimp mode, otherwise I'd be getting owned nonstop. I just got into some suburbs (3rd map? Fourth?).  I'm liking the design/feel of the game, though it is a bit overwhelming the way you get hit constantly from three or four directions.

Victoria: Revolutions- I do decently at HoI, but this game makes me just grab my head in pain. My god. Interesting concept, though!

I'm burning through various Steam games I bought in the sale. Mirror's Edge, EU3 and PQ2 are also on the list of games to play.

[Pyro]

Yay people liking Grim Grimoire.

Cthulu Saves The World:

A fun retro RPG experience that should be played on Hard for maximum enjoyment. Like its predecessor BoD7, the game excises most of the annoying parts of RPGs and just gives you the fun stuff such as character customization and thinking your way to victory through the use of your well-built characters. The humor is endearing but not special and the dungeons can be somewhat frustrating at times, but the former isn't as important to the experience as you'd think and the latter is handled *nicely* through encounter limits.

Basically plays like a longer, improved version of BoD7. Quite enjoyable.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Nier- ending A. Killed some people who deserved it.

Now to play the game for real.

[Clear Tranquil]

Valkyrie Profile- Thanks for the advice in the other topic peeps

I've decided not to worry too much any more about getting the best stuffs this first run but I am going to go for the A ending (Captain K'ing it) Also Captain K'd for a puzzle in the Gotha Headquarters after fully frustrating myself out over it >.> Thanks to Captain K for Crystal Tricks.

Saved before the Sacred Phase at the end of C3. L18 Jelanda + Ether Sceptre + Magic Bangle + max INT skills for mass MT spamming goodness. Valkyrie is also L18, Arngrim's L15, Lawfer's L12, Jun L13, Janus L9, everybody else still at their default levels. I've also had max First Aid for a while now <.<

Also those poor, poor Dragon Zombies. Dragon Swords and Holy Crystals ...

I thought about restarting the game when I still didn't get Nanami in C3 after finally going with the flow with Jun in C2 but decided I didn't want to do everything all over again this time.

[Random Consonant]

SRWJ - The druggie trio was not as amusing as I had hoped.  SEED PLOT just keeps on giving regardless, though.

[Captain K.]

Thanks to Captain K for Crystal Tricks.

You're welcome!

Castle Crashers:  Finished with level 36 Green Knight (a level gained during each of the last two fights).  Maxed magic and defense, with a few extra points in strength.  Biggest sticking point was the mass skeleton battle in the volcano area, due to them laughing at POIZN damage.  Great game, great sense of humor.  The music was outstanding as well, which is noteworthy because I don't usually pay attention to music.

Scott Pilgrim:  Playing as Ramona.  Paid off Scott's video rental fees, so I am uber powerful now.  Feels like buying the Texas Boots in River City Ransom.  Heading to the 5th area now.

[Magetastic]

Started up Fallout 3 now that I'm back and have some free time. Got to Megaton after wiping out Vault 101 of all life, and am now debating between disarming the bomb and blowing everyone up. Think I'm going to do all the quests and get all the gear and perks and stuff before I blow it all to high heaven. I am a little curious how the guy is going to pay me, though. And how I'm supposed to survive the explosion. Oh well, those are details, and who needs those? Befriended Moriarty, though, and stood around by my good friend Mr. Nuke until I got severe radiation poisoning, and am now off to find some food and medicine in Raider Territory.

[Grefter]

So some people wanted more Golden Sun Dark Dawn nonsense.  I haven't been playing it much becase it is stupid.

But anyway, so after sending the women back to the kitchen you can now restart the Alchemy Forge in one town that you have gone back and forward to constantly so that you can fly to another mountain peak so that you can try to go back to your original fetch quest.  This game is matryoshka doll of fetch quests much like BoF 2 is. NOTE: FROM THIS POINT ON THERE IS NO DIALOGUE IN GAME.   Anyway, so you fly to the other mountain by going through a short floating platform sequence.  Then the only thing you can do over there is go into some ruins and start up a series of clockwork devices by solving horoscope themed puzzles.  Once you have all them started the Sagitarius puzzle (the last one) causes the mirror outside the temple entrance to have an arrow shoot out of it.  You exit out of the ruins again and use Grip synergy on the arror and it starts the mirror swinging as it was a pendulum on a giant horoscope clock.  Because you started this clock a path down from the mountain levitates up from no where and you exit to the world map.

I have no words to describe what the fuck here.  This is what I mean when I say the game has all the key things to make a decent RPG.  There is a long sequence to get to the next town, a series of puzzles and fairly short challenges.  There is just nothing connecting these things, no reason for them, no explanation for them at all and no way at all of knowing the effect these things will have.  Why do you solve these puzzles?  Because they are there and it will probably get you to the next place.  Somehow. 

Who the hell made this ruin?  Why would you make it like this?  This was supposedly a special road that ancient civilisation used.  How did the path levitate?  How do you make that work on clockwork?  Why the hell is it on a horoscope clock?  lolanswers

Worst part of it?  There was actually a block puzzle Lufia styles where you have 3 blocks to put in spots without overlapping the paths of the blocks that I looked up the answer for online because I was lazy and didn't feel like thinking about puzzles at 8 in the morning on the bus to work while I am listening to a podcast.  Easy puzzle, just feeling lazy.   You want to know what the answer was? LOL CAST THIS SPELL THE GAME GIVES YOU IT WILL TELL YOU THE ANSWER.

This game has easy puzzles and then like 1/4 of the way through the game it gives you a solve the fucking puzzle spell.

[Taishyr]

This game has easy puzzles and then like 1/4 of the way through the game it gives you a solve the fucking puzzle spell.

But it didn't tell you what the road was about. :/