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

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I try to forget I ever played FF8.

[AndrewRogue]

Playing FF8 quickly disabused me of that notion.

[superaielman]

Playing FF8 quickly disabused me of that notion.

But hey, at least Brave Fencer Musashi was good!

[Scar]

Valkyria Chronicles

1st RPG for the PS3, Hey!

This game is hell pretty. I must have missed the memo that Vyse and Aika were in this game, but that was just a bonus of an Easter egg for me!

I'm right around chapter 3 right now. The game is gorgeous and fun. I needed to get away from WoW and Blacks Ops and I think this will do nicely.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Playing FF8 quickly disabused me of that notion.

I'm not sure if this happened when I played FF7 or FF5; both those things happened around the same time.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Really? Secret of Mana was your breaking point? Weak.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Secret of Mana is one of the -worst ARPGs in the story of everything ever-. It's better than like Drakkhen and Dragon Slayer and -that's it-. Some of the shit they pulled with SoM regarding shitty mechanics and egregious hitboxes is Radia Senki-level failure.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Yeah I pretty much have to second the "Secret of Mana sucks" sentiment. I'd be inclined to say it was my breaking point for "Square can do no wrong" too. I played FF1 and FF8 at about the same time and while I don't think terribly highly of them either, SoM was definitely the only one of the three I realised was bad back in the 90's.

[Meeplelard]

Secret of Mana is one of the -worst ARPGs in the story of everything ever-. It's better than like Drakkhen and Dragon Slayer and -that's it-. Some of the shit they pulled with SoM regarding shitty mechanics and egregious hitboxes is Radia Senki-level failure.

And yet, people will praise it to highest hell, saying its one of those "Titans" from the SNES era.  Its a lot like FF4 in that regard, except FF4 feels more justified cause it doesn't fail on basic mechanical level.  SoM i noticed had huge misleading hit boxes, and shit like "Ok, I swung at that bird about 10 times, its close to the ground, but I'm not getting any connection indicator?  Even a "Miss" would be nice to know I'm at least AIMING at the thing!"

I know people say its a "revolutionary!" game and all that..yet it does nothing really ground breaking.  At least FF4 was one of the first games to have a genuinely character driven story, SoM doesn't even have that much.  and its not like it was the first to use an established battle system either; the only other game to use that style was Secret of Evermore, and it did it like 10x better (SoE at least didn't lie about hit boxes, and was a case where less options = better)

For the record, I use to like SoM, but...when I went back to in later years, it really failed at what I remembered.  Yes, again, FF4 had a similar thing, except FF4's decline from "Greatness" per se was a lot more gradual, as it wasmore "Age keeps hitting it harder and harder", where as SoM was more "The Rose COlored Glasses are off, what's underneath is an ugly trash heap"

[Captain K.]

I loved SoM, but it has been a very long time since I played it!

[Nephrite]

I could go into a very long thesis about why Secret of Mana isn't the worst game ever created but I doubt it'd be changing a lot of minds, so I'll shorten it and say that Secret of Mana, despite its flaws, was a good game for the time partly due to the fact that you could easily play it with friends. There were few RPGs at the time that you could play with other people and it being one of those few tended to make it seem better than perhaps it was.

It was also incredibly bright and colorful which I think is why people might wax more nostalgically about it than other games. Oh and it had that Nitendo Power play guide thingamadoober going for it.

[jsh357]

I personally find that the emphasis on narrative makes RPGs far more satisfying as solitary experiences.  SoM is pretty much objectively worse than SD3, the Quintet action RPGs, and especially Evermore in that regard.  Music's great, don't get me wrong.  And yeah, I did play the game multiplayer a bit back in the day, but it wasn't really as fantastic as some claim--the broken mechanics were still a huge problem, and I love me some buggy games.  You can kill nearly any boss in the game via magic staggering.  There isn't even a reason to stress grinding on enemies since this is possible. 

Another issue is the fact that menus paused the action for all players.  Considering how powerful magic was, sane players would use it frequently, and the fact that you're constantly using menus starts to take away the illusion of SoM's multiplayer mattering at all after a while: why should anyone control the sprite when a single player can just as easily pick her spells?  Ultimately the multiplayer elements feel very tacked on, and there were many more enjoyable multiplayer games out at the time (they just weren't RPGs).  Sure I'll give it props for being an early attempt, but i mean, nobody hangs up cave paintings in the Louvre.

Your mileage may vary of course.

[Meeplelard]

I...actually disagree strongly, Neph, on the Multiplayer aspect of SoM.  My friend and I were playing it, when I actually liked ti mind, the game just ended up being the two of us arguing "Fight that guy" "No, lets move on with the area!" and its more restrictive since you lose the free range of movement you have in 1 player mode.  Just cause its a rare 2 player RPG doesn't make it good, cause its multiplayer I found actually DETRACTED from the game, not added to it.

It says something that FF6 and FF9's half assed multiplayers were handled better, and they were really just "playing the same game with 2 controllers."  

It was also incredibly bright and colorful which I think is why people might wax more nostalgically about it than other games. Oh and it had that Nitendo Power play guide thingamadoober going for it.

I will give you this much though.  The game is bright and looks nice, so that could help cloud the nostalgic judgment.

Though, then you compare it to Chrono Trigger, which is even better visually in everyway...and has other redeeming qualities, INCLUDING how it stood the test of time, and still maintains a level of decency compared to modern games.

[Grefter]

While I am all for hating on SoM, mang that shit isn't even the worst Mana game, so yeah.  I am going to jump on board and just note that bad multiplayer was still something fairly unique for an RPG at the time and still is something that can move a few units of a certian series that is all about Tales and then having horrible Tales told.

FF6 and 9 multiplayer were also implemented after SoM, I am thinking there is a reason it was included in FF6.

[DomaDragoon]

It says something that FF6 and FF9's half assed multiplayers were handled better, and they were really just "playing the same game with 2 controllers."

Duck Hunt for Multiplayer win!

Puzzle Quest 2: Started clearing my gaming backlog by starting this. Chose the assassin because it's supposed to be broken. Hunting for polar bears right now. The game is Puzzle Quest 1 only without the exp/gold gems in the field. Pretty good so far.

[Dark Holy Elf]

FF6 and 9 multiplayer were also implemented after SoM, I am thinking there is a reason it was included in FF6.

Unless I'm going crazy, that exact style of multiplayer was also present in FF5, which predates SoM.

[Shale]

Multiplayer in a turn-based RPG has a veneer of utter pointlessness that co-op action gaming lacks.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Drakengard: For anyone who thought P4's bad ending went too far on the "bleak for the sake of being bleak", Drakengard is pretty much built on this premise and that's its selling point. Stay away. Alternately, it's kind of morbidly fascinating to watch all these messed up people trying to stop bringing about interacting with the apocalypse.

FF12RW: Not actually playing this anymore, but I stumbled across a group of my students playing this at the food court. I asked them what their favorite Summon Beast was and they said "Shiva".

Apparently she is popular with 8-year-olds. >.>;;

[Grefter]

FF6 and 9 multiplayer were also implemented after SoM, I am thinking there is a reason it was included in FF6.

Unless I'm going crazy, that exact style of multiplayer was also present in FF5, which predates SoM.

I only researched the stuff quoted, so don't look to me for fact checking there!  Edit - It being in FF5 would be a reason to implement it in 6.

[Hunter Sopko]

So. As people in chat were aware, I decided to take Delibird along with me to the Elite 4 as my Lance slayer. Level 45 didn't cut it, so I leveled it up to 50. With his setup, he COULD OHKO the Dragonites! Woo. Anywho, here's the setup beforehand:

Delibird, L50, NeverMeltIce
Typhlosion, L43, Shell Bell
Murkrow, L43, Lum Berry
Machop, L46, Lum Berry
Electabuzz, L46, BrightPowder
Hypno, L45, Quick Powder

I tear through the E4 with ease. Lance is just the problem.

Gyrados is a OHKO with Thunderbolt. Next

So he throws out his L50 Dragonite first. I bit it the first time to Outrage spam, as Delibird was not fast enough to go first. The second and third times he missed TWICE with Blizzard and I never really recovered. Both times I at least managed to kill off this one, but died later on due to my rhthym being broken. Fourth time I managed to hit him right off.

Aerodactyl next. First time seeing him (2nd time through) he killed off most of my party before I realized what to do with him. Third and Fourth times just saw me sending out Electabuzz and Hyper Potioning until a beneficial situation allowed me to kill him off. The 4th he got Paralyzed his first attack, so bam, dead.

L49 Dragonite the first is where I bit it the 2nd and 3rd times through. Ended up being faster than Delibird, so he tore through my team. 4th time he got paralyzed the same way as Aerodactyl and I managed to slip in Delibird after a couple Revives. He couldn't move, bam, Blizzard hits, OHKO.

L49 Dragonite the second... well, luck is finally on my side on this one. Missed with it's first attack. Delibird hits with Blizzard. OHKO. Delibird is the Pokemon Champion.

UU pokemon rock. 

[Luther Lansfeld]

FE7- Oh Desmond. You are Straff Venture level bad at parenthood.

[AndrewRogue]

Started WA4. Decent game thus far, certainly knows how to get on a roll quickly.

Brionac really feels more like "Special" Forces then an Elite Squad. And seriously, were they having that meeting in a small side office in folding chairs?

Jude: Acceptable.
Yulie: Too apologetic.
Arnaud: Awesome.
Raquel: Cool.

Died once to Jeremey because WTF DAMAGE.

[Grefter]

How am I supposed to

Dragon Age - Finish Origins.  Game is a bit buggy there, lost all my gear to a bug because I was wearing Key to the City.  It was just the armour and weapon I was using on my main though, so wasn't a big deal, I still had some upgrades to get so just rocked out with a shield, an axe I had put away to use until I should break my old sword/shield set and rocked Corruption that I had kept back at the castle.  Gladiator styles, fuck yeah.  Was fun but stupidly easy.  A combination of respecialisation being available and how insane archery is makes the game pretty lol.  I even made Sigrun a dual wielder just to see how big the difference was.  Both are broken, but archery takes less time to be so (and Warriors can do it as well).  Going to have to start up another game running around wearing only boots and gloves while dual wielding on a character called BIGGAYDISCO because this game lets you crank up the homoeroticism up to 11.  Prolly be male dwarf Noble because fuck why not.  I haven't played it before and it lets you break the game even more.

[Captain K.]

Hypno, L45, Quick Powder 

Is this supposed to be Quick Claw?  Quick Powder only works on Ditto.

[Hunter Sopko]

Derp. Yes. My bad.