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

[Dhyerwolf]

Maya's healing is great from a DL standout; from an in game standout, LoL 2 has some of the best healing items in terms of power, MT, and ease of obtaining that you're generally going to find in an RPG. Gospel is not early, and Maya's pretty easily replacable.

[Hunter Sopko]

Valkyria Chronicles- Played the second round of Edy DLC. Good stuff! They're all actually skirmishes that focus on each of the individual classes. Good challenge, and mostly Kill All Enemies missions with an Escort Mission thrown in there for Engineers. I actually got most frustrated with the Lancer one for some reason.

Rosie with the Ruhm still murderizes puny units though.

Moving on to Legaia 2 next.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Djinn: Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction to Legaia 2 entirely. It's wonderfully good fluff for what it is.

And yeah, while Gospel is good stuff, Maya's healing is totally unspecial in-game, see Dhyer.

[Yoshiken]

Super Mario RPG: Got this on the Virtual Console a week or so ago, been playing it on/off, cleared it today. I'd played it briefly before a few years back, so knew what to expect, but really didn't expect any challenge whatsoever - I'd remembered the first half of the game or so being relatively simple, and expected that to follow through. Nice to see they could throw in one or two challenging bosses, even if they were simple for the most part.

Start of the game is fitting to the Mario title: simple, straightforward, yet strangely fun to play. The first few bosses provide little challenge and are just 'use the new thing you just got'. As the game progresses, though, fights become more interesting, although the number that come down to 'buff and attack' is kinda annoying. That said, the platforming sections are good, the Axem Rangers make for a good fight thanks to needing MT (unlike.. pretty much anything else before that, and barely anything afterwards). Naturally, though, the best section is at the very end: the Factory run is pretty damn good, and the fights against Smithy are really different to the rest of the game - the final fight actually provided a fair bit of challenge (if only because I didn't realise Shredder was removing Geno Boost.) The fact that the game throws coins at you throughout (and quite literally at the end, with an infinite coin block and random enemies dropping 50+ coins) is kinda odd, but it makes Items actually usable over Special/Attack, I guess.
Still with Geno had made it into Brawl. Also kinda disappointed the Mario RPG series went down the Paper Mario route, since I was really disappointed with Thousand Year Door, and SMRPG is by far the better game, if only because it's actually creative with its platforming. ;o

[Excal]

FF13: Played this a bit yesterday, with two comments.  So very pretty, and I cannot read the battle commands as I input them, and this... has had little to no impact on my ability to play the game.  So, uh...  good thing I'm not all about the gameplay, because then this thing would just be putting me to sleep.

[VySaika]

Idun should play some other tri-Ace games perhaps? RS has its fun points, but there's definitely better in the same vein. VP2 comes to mind.

Played it, and no.

Holy crap, I'm NOT the only person who likes RS more then VP2.

* Gatewalker high fives Idun!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Idun should play some other tri-Ace games perhaps? RS has its fun points, but there's definitely better in the same vein. VP2 comes to mind.

Played it, and no.

Holy crap, I'm NOT the only person who likes RS more then VP2.

* Gatewalker high fives Idun!

I've never played RS but I assume I'd like it more than VP2~ Too much of a backlog to find out though!

[Hunter Sopko]

Legaia 2- Started. Went until the first boss. Game looks okay. I like the music throwbacks, as while I'll probably get shit for this, I liked a lot of the music in the first Legaia. Not a lot of middle-of-the-road choices for Lang, but I'll probably have some fun with the dialogue choices.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Super Mario RPG: Got this on the Virtual Console a week or so ago, been playing it on/off, cleared it today. I'd played it briefly before a few years back, so knew what to expect, but really didn't expect any challenge whatsoever - I'd remembered the first half of the game or so being relatively simple, and expected that to follow through. Nice to see they could throw in one or two challenging bosses, even if they were simple for the most part.

Start of the game is fitting to the Mario title: simple, straightforward, yet strangely fun to play. The first few bosses provide little challenge and are just 'use the new thing you just got'. As the game progresses, though, fights become more interesting, although the number that come down to 'buff and attack' is kinda annoying. That said, the platforming sections are good, the Axem Rangers make for a good fight thanks to needing MT (unlike.. pretty much anything else before that, and barely anything afterwards). Naturally, though, the best section is at the very end: the Factory run is pretty damn good, and the fights against Smithy are really different to the rest of the game - the final fight actually provided a fair bit of challenge (if only because I didn't realise Shredder was removing Geno Boost.) The fact that the game throws coins at you throughout (and quite literally at the end, with an infinite coin block and random enemies dropping 50+ coins) is kinda odd, but it makes Items actually usable over Special/Attack, I guess.
Still with Geno had made it into Brawl. Also kinda disappointed the Mario RPG series went down the Paper Mario route, since I was really disappointed with Thousand Year Door, and SMRPG is by far the better game, if only because it's actually creative with its platforming. ;o

I'm not quite so convinced MT is actually a good idea against the Axem Rangers. While it does clear them more quickly than anything else, it also means you'll have to brave Spritz Bomb counters from Black (always), sleep counters from Pink (sometimes), and it also gives Pink the ability to doubleact until she dies, increasing the chance you'll see the dangerous Petal Blast. This is fine; it means there are multiple valid ways to fight them, is all.

Hmm, unlike you I found the Factory a major letdown. Design-wise it feels mailed-in, and I feel like they missed a great chance for what could have been a fun boss rush (the Machine Mades were jokes). Smithy's the only boss there who feels even potentially dangerous and I didn't find him nearly as good as the midgame bosses like the cake, Yaridovich, and the Rangers. Partially because Toadstool just gets more stupidly good as the game goes on; at least earlier bosses can exploit her poor durability (rangers not so much, they just have 5+ turns to work with to accomplish things) but by the end this weakness has vanished entirely.

In general I think a lot of SMRPG's challenge can be negated if you know the timing for Geno Boost (or use Bracers) and know to equip status protection on Toadstool (otherwise MT mushroom/sleep+damage like Petal Blast and Aurora Flash from various bosses post-Seaside can ruin your day). It's still a fun game, though.

[Captain K.]

Holy crap, I'm NOT the only person who likes RS more then VP2.

* Gatewalker high fives Idun!

While RS is one of the weakest tri-Ace games, it is still more enjoyable than VP2.

[Grefter]

I've never played RS but I assume I'd like it more than VP2~ Too much of a backlog to find out though!

This is not something I would bet money on.  RS is a bit out there and it definitely suffers in the gameplay department which given your biases is going to hurt it a ton.  RS is one of those games you are more likely to enjoy if you are into concepts and interesting experiments regardless of whether or not they really work.

Golden Sun: DD - So I forced myself to play through the parts I knew.  This game goes much faster when you know exactly where you are going and where to search in town for all the hidden stuff worth shit.  I am now falling asleep to uncurse a tree or something.  Again I am not exactly sure why this is happening.  I thought I was supposed to be saving some pirates kid from being boiled alive, but hey I ended up in this town, talked to a woman and she said to do it.  So it is happening.

Also a side plot that only really comes up in books and in one area of the game (has been expanded in books in like every town since that one area) is the exploits of Emperor Ko and his general failings as a human being.  I approve of this message.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Sopko, did you lounge on the sheep yet? It's in the first village, go and find it if you have not yet done it.

Finished the penultimate dungeon in Legaia 2, it was kind of a pushover after the hell that was the fire dungeon. For some reason, I can't convince the overweight merchants to show me where the ultimate shops are. I want that Always 100% AP bangle, dammit.

According to the walkthrough I'm following, apparently I've been missing a lot of Maya's PA scenes. This isn't because I've been avoiding them, they just don't seem to be available when I seek them out. I suspect this is the result for having been a jerk to her at every possible opportunity. Now I feel like my disdain of her was self-reinforcing. I didn't like her much at first, and so the game stopped giving scenes with her at all, so my opinion could never change. I'm not sure whether I'm happy because it means there's less of her, or annoyed because now I'll never know if she would have become a decent character if I was nice to her.

...probably the former.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Well, I finished Nier, felt like I was dying inside, and decided to play Resonance of Fate.

My gun has eight barrels and three grips and four mags and five scopes.

[Pyro]

Well, I finished Nier, felt like I was dying inside

Nier: Touching and hopeful for part 1, CRUSHING YOUR WILL TO LIVE in part 2.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Even part 2 isn't so bad on your first playthrough. Though there's a few people I don't feel bad about killing regardless. Some people deserve it.

Also, I noted how Nier's dialogue transforms through the game, from being wary in part 1 boss fights to snarking in part 2, and then by the final boss battle all his lines have been replaced with "I'LL KILL YOU!" and incoherent screams of rage.

[Rozalia]

Fire emblem SS - At the stage where the enemy army arrays against you. Well by all that is holy it seems someone in the fire emblem world actually knows the basics of having a formation instead of randomly sending human wave tactcis at you. I actually can't recall a time where this happens in the other FE games I've played .

Deadly premonition - Gameplay, the driving sections and the graphics are all horrible. York somewhat makes up for it with his sheer insanity. That and he channels columbo and can make deductions based on the most minor of things. I'm guessing he has physic powers because the insight he gets from clues makes little sense.

[Idun]

I don't like the human arc. ):

The human arc is full of vapid, dogmatic humans with enmity towards elves. I prefer staying in Radiata, to be honest. The coolest thing about the human arc is that Jack's armor is designed much better. I hoped opting for the Human arc would have included more background on Algandars and how the castle is handling it. . . etc. Nope. Not so far. I just had both of my buttcheeks served on a polished silver platter from Gawain.

Forced Charles to start playing SO3. Man. I cringed. I couldn't stop cringing. I immediately became impatient and annoyed - considering he's used to games that require significantly less reading - he doesn't have the instant reflex of hitting X at the end of a text box despite the end of the voice actors sentence. This reminds me that I do hate the beginning voice acting of the game, where the figures are much less animated. He had the nerve to create a Battle Trophies file, and that shit is 1200KB. I can't afford that shit since I don't ever plan on buying another PS2 memory card.

[Meeplelard]

Human Path has better PC options, which means its the preferable arc if you want to do the after game, where your options suddenly MATTER (granted, you ALWAYS get the super PC late in the after game, so that's one slot filled or something...if you get that far...).  Main game is easy enough that such things aren't a big deal.

Fairy Path is...better at everything  in terms of writing, really.  Better characterization of Jack, the relationship with Ridley is actually well handled, Gawain is not as big a lamer since now his motives are clear, backstory is explained, and suddenly he MAKES SENSE, and Cross gets what's coming to him.  Also has a few extra little fights and such with human characters that help show some emotional impact related to Jack's choice, rather than "Oh look, more elves, lets beat them up!" like the Human Path has.

(Granted, Zane, I think his name was, is hateful prick regardless which path you do.  Nothing saves him, and I can't tell if you're suppose to hate him, or if the Fairy Path just failed to make you sympathize with him.  Cross, the game very clearly wants you to be against him regardless, and both pathes do display him as a total dick)

[superaielman]

To Cross's credit, he had like the one redeeming scene in the human path. And that was just him being a total fucking dickhead and ranting about his destiny as a leader (while rightly calling Jack a moron)

[Meeplelard]

I think Cross is a well done character to be honest, cause while you hate him...that's exactly what you're suppose to do.  They did a good job of making a character with nothing redeeming about him as a human being, at least morally.  His rant just helped establish that further, but also showed he had some logic to his thought process and wasn't just being a blow hard moron whose full of himself...ook, he's totally full of himself, but he actually makes sense with his rant!

I can see disagreeing, but as I said, they did a good job of insuring you're NOT suppose to like him at all.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I always found the party members on human side to be much more varied and interesting. Fairy path is "you get three PCs you may know and then a whole lot of ones you probably can't tell apart."

[Idun]

Yeah, I already did the fairy path and still prefer it. Got  Lenneth, etc. etc., just getting all my Human Friends. As Rob mentioned, the characters are much more non-distinct, due partly to that your exposure prior to choosing paths.

I'm not too fond of Cross. There's many scenes where, if he's such a subordinate, he clearly oversteps his bounds. If the knighthood had the rigidity it appeared to have, Dynas should have put him in place plenty of times. In the same vein, the connection for marriage between him and Ridley was completely unnecessary; it was used as a mechanism to offer more insight into budding feelings between her and Jack. Otherwise, party scene between them? Not worth it. Secondly, it was too short.

I do enjoy seeing the father-son (perhaps brother) relationship between Ganz compared to the fairy side where he's all about his father, mingled with a bit of self-discovery. RS is such a short game, but it could definitely benefit from more dialogue between each side's major plays compared to the assumptions both parties make about each other's intentions.

That said, I really do prefer the armor on the human side - especially the armor in the Storeroom after Urusula's last request when she couldn't pay up. They do need to bring up the issue of the orb's functions a bit earlier. I believe developers knew the majority of gamers would choose the fairy path first, unless they're douches (Sorry, OK. Wait, did you play the human path first?), and the human side is really much a "fill in the space" experience with better eye candy, weaponry and livelihood in the city.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Also you get to kill a bunch of fuckin elves, and you get Dynas on your team in a fight. Pretty much awesome on all counts.

It's like the Witcher. If you give me choices and one of them is kill elves and not only that but the elf-killing quest is called "The Flame That Cleanses" the fuck choice do you think I'll make?

[Grefter]

Playing Dragon Age a bit more today I was reminded why it is awesome.  Because you can decide to kill the elves and have werewolves join your army instead.

[Grefter]

This gets a seperate post because it isn't worthy of being in the same post as the above.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn - Fuck this game.  Fuck it in its stupid fucking everything.  It pushed beyond the point of mediocrity in how far it will stretch being mind numbingly dull.  The fetch quests have no end in sight as the fetch quest that started the game is resolution to another fetch quest that we only just recently got (that we still have other things spiral off to fetch to get answers from).  I lost my patience with a 10 minute text scroll of bad dialogue between a Djinn and 2 Trees that told us that the princess fetch quests were in another castle.  I hate everything.