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

[Meeplelard]

super didn't get a modern gen Console until recently.  Wanna say he was borrowing the 360 from Pyro for a bit to play ToV, and did something similar with a PS3?  So yeah...

...oh right, I play games...

Namco x Capcom: So Klonoa/Gantz is about to join the main team! ...wait, no they aren't, THEY RAN AWAY!  But we're finally going to get less earthly characters or something which means we should get some of the more interesting faces soon, right, RIGHT!?

(this didn't' stop them from giving us Hsien-ko and Felicia early mind you)

...I'm totally tempted to make an Abridged series of this game when I'm done.  Due to the cast being easy to remember, I just need a game script to remind me whose around wear, and what plot points happen when and...yeah...any thoughts? (I'd be making a new topic for it mind)

[Nitori]

Soul U-mad: I saved everyone in the world, then I killed everyone in the world, cool story bro
Tales of Vesperia: I had to play this for like 9 hours so when I got to punch a hippie in the face I damn well punched a hippie in the face

Also I bought a PS3, ditched the 360 baked muffins, they are delicious muffins

[SnowFire]

Tonfa: Good point.  I...  I did remember that weirdness when what's-her-face, other Psi-Com gal with the crop gets killed at the end of Chapter 9 thinking "Huh, we kind of have a dire named villain shortage now since Roche is also dead" but had managed to forget about it when he randomly shows up again for a boss fight.  Huh.  Yeah, that adds nothing.

Meeple & Jo'ou: Well, I think that XS3 Disc 2 was a bit rushed but basically fine, so hence you'll note my phrasing of "as some DLers seem to think."  I'd say that my thoughts on FF13 are closer to Meeple's on XS3 - he liked Disc 1 and was disappointed in what came after, and I actually like Chapters 1-9 well enough and had hopes that seem to have been dashed.  Obviously I don't have anything near the contempt that Jo'ou has for XS3 for either XS3 itself or FF13, though.

Also, Snowfire's point-by-point summary of the FF13 plotholes is a rather fun read. If you clean it up a bit and expand it to something less casual, it could totally be a main-site article?

It's currently written as requiring having played FF13 to make sense of most of it.  I could rewrite it to explain what's going on more generally, but that would also be massively spoiling FF13, which meh, it's not THAT bad a game for me to basically anti-recommend (which is what I'd be doing if I laid out the entire plot so readers didn't have to play the game).  It's also not even really plot-holes.  Plot-holes are fine (Chrono Trigger has a bunch and who cares).  It's bad plot.  Characters are inconsistent with motivations set up before.  Bizarre and illogical fetch quests are used when fleshing out a setting.  Worst, it clashes thematically.  If you're going to have a game about defying fate and commands from super-powerful beings, you need to have the characters do that, not follow the crumbs the Big Bad has set out slavishly.  If they'd wanted to make a game about arranging peace and understanding between two warring houses, the characters need to have an opportunity to do this.  Etc.

[Grefter]

You were all warned and you didn't listen to me yet again.

So when are you guys going to play Fallout?

[Niu]

Disgaea 4- So, a former vampire tyrant who is now a total idiot obessed over sardines that is manipulated by his evil werewolf butler? Compare to Laharl I don't know which is worse. Though, I have wanted to ask this since Disgaea 3, Lamington, what made you think promoting Flonne to be the Archangel is a good idea???

[Anthony Edward Stark]

You were all warned and you didn't listen to me yet again.

So when are you guys going to play Fallout?

Well, maybe FF13 will have taught them a lesson.

[Grefter]

Pfffft, they haven't learned from the last bunches of piles of shit they have realised was shit either.

[superaielman]

The little I saw of the game FF13 looked promising. It's worth a shot.  I'm in chapter two. The game is trying for speed, speed, speed. From switching points of view to twitchy, streamlined combat to surprisingly light on the dialog cutscenes, it's attempting to be more like a movie or action game than an RPG.

The actual execution of this is pretty terrible, though. Combat is 'streamlined' to the point that you only control one character, and it's just better to stick them on AI and let them auto target/pick the attacks anyway. There is very littler interactivity in battle, and that is a major strike against it so far. The plot has the same type of problem. You have to constantly read the datalogs to actually get the plot. The game is trying to move at such a breakneck pace that it doesn't do things like actually give you backround or enough details on the characters to make the story make sense.

[MC50]

SUPER ROBOT TAISEN J

Finished! Quick overview on the units I used.

C. Brachium - Calvina (135 Kills)
 - Decent, not amazing. Very durable, being both evasive and having good armor, along with its barrier. No range, though, which kinda sucks, and its finisher wasn't all that strong. Still solid.

Nadesico(Y-Unit) - Ruri (125 Kills)
 - Excellent. Forced on every map, amazing targetted MAP attack, over 15000 HP, 5 Spirit pools. Also joins very early.

Layzner Mk.II - Eiji (108 Kills)
 - Good, very dodgy, and quite strong. MAP attack was kind of useless, and he WAS the only one to die in the last level - he couldn't take a hit to save his life. Also, I think I would've preferred the Powered Layzner - This one had NO RANGE seeing as how it lost its missiles.

Zeorymer - Masato (106 Kills)
 - Durable, and his MAP attack is amazing. Hades attack is also strong without needing many upgrades. Still, really inaccurate, and you have to go out of your way to plan to use the MAP attack, unlike ones such as the Nadesico's.

Aestivalis Akito - Akito (105 Kills)
 - Earlygame - Artillery Frame support was solid. Then switched to the appropriate Melee frame for the situation. After getting Lunar Frame, stuck with that until I got Gai. Then spammed Double Gekigan Flare the rest of the game. Overall, not too bad.

Gundam Rose - George (104 Kills)
 - That MAP attack is amazing. Mostly he used that a lot, and also sniped with Rose Bits. Fell off lategame and ended up not deploying him near the end, but he was amazing for midgame.

Combattler V - Hyoma (93 Kills)
 - Earlygame king. That spirit pool later on is nice, too. Needs a barrier part to keep up tanking lategame, and then runs out of EN fairly quickly. Still good throughout the game.

Freedom Gundam (M) - Kira (90 Kills)
 - Strike is trash. Freedom is good! His dodging is only pretty good, but his attacks are strong for a real and his MAP attack is quite good as well.

Nelly Brain - Yuu (85 Kills)
 - Mostly untouchable. Solid enough support damage, enemies pretty much never targetted him.

Mazinkaiser - Koji (82 Kills)
 - Strong, of course, but I actually dropped him and only used him on route splits. Nothing wrong with him, just wasn't exciting.

ARX-7 Arbalest - Sosuke (79 Kills)
 - Lambda Driver makes his Shotgun pretty strong, and with Soul he can keep up damagewise. Decent, if not spectacular, real otherwise.

Baybull - David (74 Kills) and Buldy - Simone (29 Kills)
 - I used them for quite a while. As soon as you get V-Max, Layzner Formation spam is AMAZING. It does incredible damage and is relatively cheap EN wise, and can be used three times in one turn. It still keeps up damagewise lategame, too! Just, the Baybull and Buldy are pretty mediocre units. The Buldy fairs a little better as a Sniper/Repairer, but the Baybull is forced to be a frontliner - a mediocre frontliner. Dropped after deployment slots started getting low.

Gundam Maxter - Chibodee (69 Kills)
 - Eh. He was OK, and I mostly wanted to use the combo attack with Rose. I dragged him aroudn the whole game for it, and probably only threw it out once or twice - most of Rose's EN went towards the MAP attack. Also pretty fragile.

Voltes V - Kenichi (68 Kills)
 - Solid enough Super. Combination attack with Combattler was always a strong option, and again, the big spirit pool is great.

Final Dancougar - Shinobu (65 Kills)
 - Really likes a barrier part - makes him actually able to take damage. He certainly has no trouble dishing it out, anyway!

God Gundam - Domon (61 Kills)
 - Dropped. Decent enough unit, though needing Max Morale for his best attack actually screwed me over once, when he lost 1 morale for an ally getting shot down (I believe so, anyway).

Hime Brain - Hime (58 Kills)
 - Worse Nelly Brain. Combination attack was decent. Got replaced later on.

Archangel - Murrue (57 Kills)
 - No Nadesico, but still pretty solid! Takes hits quite well, and has a respectable spirit pool, even with only three units. Guts is very useful, as is Strike. Forced, as well, so might as well make use of it.

Tekkaman Blade - D-Boy (57 Kills)
 - Solid, with two lives. I probably didn't upgrade him as much as I should have, so he wasn't outstanding. Still a dependable unit.

Greimkaiser - Gale (40 Kills)
 - I figured I might as well use him if I bothered to get him! Basically Baybull+, but without the combination attack. A solid unit, but he has no finisher. If he had a combo with Layzner or something he would be great.

Aestivalis Gai - Gai (26 Kills)
 - Decent enough when he rejoined. His mech got like 4 upgrades in every slot for free a level after he joined, so he ended up massively overupgraded, seeing as how Nadesico was one of my favorites.

Iiko Baronz (Iiko) (12 Kills), Jonathan Baronz (Jonathan) (11 Kills)
 - Untouchable lategame snipers, gave Jonathan a +3 Support Attack part and let them go to town. Excellent filler units, replaced Hime Brain and another unit when they joined. Both of them having a combination attack with Yuu kicks Hime completely off of the team. Very similar, Iiko has better Spirits, but Jonathan has friendship with Yuu.

That's everyone I used for any length of time. Game was fun, there were a couple spots that had me think for a second about what to do, but for sure one of the easier SRW's. Enjoyed it, and the english translation was good!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

The little I saw of the game FF13 looked promising. It's worth a shot.  I'm in chapter two. The game is trying for speed, speed, speed. From switching points of view to twitchy, streamlined combat to surprisingly light on the dialog cutscenes, it's attempting to be more like a movie or action game than an RPG.

The actual execution of this is pretty terrible, though. Combat is 'streamlined' to the point that you only control one character, and it's just better to stick them on AI and let them auto target/pick the attacks anyway. There is very littler interactivity in battle, and that is a major strike against it so far. The plot has the same type of problem. You have to constantly read the datalogs to actually get the plot. The game is trying to move at such a breakneck pace that it doesn't do things like actually give you backround or enough details on the characters to make the story make sense.

In short: it hates letting you play.

[superaielman]

I'll see how it executes once you get job classes.  Like most games with job systems, the combat is not good until you start unlocking things. I'm really more irked by some of the storytelling flaws. They are trying to make the game play fast, and that's cool! But you need to balance that with the need to effectively tell the story you're trying to present.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Calling them "job classes" is an insult to games with good job class systems.

[Clear Tranquil]

FFXIII-

On Vanille/Fang -

*Vanille's "great shame" was simply her not telling Fang the truth about the past I think. In going along with Fang's plans to get their memories back or w/e even though Vanille hadn't really lost hers in some sort of misguided attempt to both protect Fang's feelings and in order to avoid having to fulfill her own focus of becoming Ragnarok, thus destroying the innocents of Cocoon she became inadvertently responsible for the fates of Serah and Dajh as well. Not completely though since Serah and Sazh take their own share of the responsibility (if Sazh had been watching Dajh properly perhaps he might not have wandered off) However if Vanille had told Fang the truth from the start Fang's main objective at that stage would have been probably been to try to get Vanille to fulfill her focus so she wouldn't turn Cie'th and since Vanille would rather become Cie'th than have innocents suffer any longer yeah. The same thing happened in the past before too, they were both supposed to become Ragnarok/destroy Cocoon  (it's it that novella thing) but Vanille backed out and Fang was forced to become Ragnarok herself because she didn't want Vanille to become Cie'th. More or less Vanille didn't want the same thing to happen again so she hid the truth from people.

*Vanille and Fang were starting to/going to have a reaction about the state of Oerba from the view from Taejin's tower I think before Hope decided to give everybody a pep talk (as is his habit in the later chapters) I think it goes something like this -

"So what was Oerba like?"
Vanille "Well it was warm and green ... and all naturey!"
Fang "Yeah ... all around the Fal'cie it was flowers as far as the eyes could see wasn't it?"

Sazh "... view from here ain't so rosy I'm afraid"

*Vanille becomes subdued/quiet*

Lightning "You want to wait here?"
Vanille "No ... I have to see for myself"

*Vanille/Fang look*

*Fang says something about things being hopeless, about the whole quest to do something about their brands not working, Vanille is also ready to give up, Hope then grabs Vanille's arm and reassures her that they can still do it, that everything is ok and does his party pep talk thing* >_>

On NASCAR nuke -

*The "airship" the team used was actually the Fal'cie Minerva (Bart's pet owl) so we don't really know if they had control over the flying of it or not or whether they could only do what they could when they got there. In addition portals had already starting to unleash Pulse monsters all over Cocoon which was Bart's doing so Lightning and the others arriving with their summon stuff was more or less about them wanting to deal with that than wanting to slaughter innocent racing car drivers. If I remember right one of the characters even saves one of the drivers from something. Of course they probably were just making the whole situation worse over all indeed and playing right into Bart's "Pulse Invasion" plans but again I'm not sure if they had any real control of when and where they could arrive back in Cocoon.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

super didn't get a modern gen Console until recently.  Wanna say he was borrowing the 360 from Pyro for a bit to play ToV, and did something similar with a PS3?  So yeah...

...oh right, I play games...

Namco x Capcom: So Klonoa/Gantz is about to join the main team! ...wait, no they aren't, THEY RAN AWAY!  But we're finally going to get less earthly characters or something which means we should get some of the more interesting faces soon, right, RIGHT!?

(this didn't' stop them from giving us Hsien-ko and Felicia early mind you)

...I'm totally tempted to make an Abridged series of this game when I'm done.  Due to the cast being easy to remember, I just need a game script to remind me whose around wear, and what plot points happen when and...yeah...any thoughts? (I'd be making a new topic for it mind)

Go nuts. MNeidegard has a complete script FAQ of NxC as well, so you could use it for your needs.

[Scar]

TO:PSP

Went on the road to Miami. Got ten more glass pumpkins before the battery died. Getting closer!

[Excal]

Eh, I know I found the plot scenes at the start of FF XIII to be fairly effective.  They get a decent amount of info across, and also have conflicts between characters.  That said, don't have access to a copy right now, so I'll talk about what I do have access to.

Fallout: New Vegas.

Did a decent chunk of the Boomer quests today, and got my first set of power armour.  Sadly, the game is a big ol jerk and does not let your buddies carry it for you.  Also, ran in to Vault 11 (how the hell did it get out here?) which, while being a much more interesting place than the Fallout 3 Vaults, also reminds me as to why I really disliked Bethesda's Vault Tec as opposed to original Vault Tec.  I mean, the original had the scientific study thing, sure.  But it was for a few vaults to stay shut up to provide a control group against those who released back into the wild.  I mean, the fact that there's all of these Vaults, but not a single Vault City says a lot (or, hell, even a freaking Shady Sands where the nearby Vault just gave up the ghost and people moved out).

Ah well, continueing to wrap up subplots until I'm satisfied and then I'll likely follow the plot to the SE.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Eh, I know I found the plot scenes at the start of FF XIII to be fairly effective.  They get a decent amount of info across, and also have conflicts between characters.

This, pretty much. Then again I was just fine with not understanding every detail about the setting at first and sorta trusting that eventually things would fall into place. Not really above reading a database for extra info in my own time either, goodness knows I did that in FFT and it certainly needs it to understand the political plot going on in the background (which granted, is probably less relevant to the main plot than FF13's).

I'm personally interested in FF13 just because its characters and their conflicts just seem far more to my taste than those in most RPGs. Not getting any "I've seen you from anime" vibes is good, as is clearly-defined characters interacting in a narrative without a silent main gumming the works. This combination feels kinda hard to find these days, at least in games that I might -also- potentially enjoy the gameplay of.

I've gotten too picky, probably. Time for more Megaman.

*replays Mega Man 9, to bring this back on topic*

[Meeplelard]

Suikoden Tierkries: I just learned there's such a thing called a "Magedom."  This frightens me as it gave me the image of Mage ruling over a kingdom.

...now I'm curious to meet "King Mage" <_<

(yes, I know that tells you nothing about where I am in plot, so I'll just say I killed a giant worm.)

DMC3 Very Hard:  Agni and Rudra are EVIL! EVIL I TELL YOU! EVIL!!!!!!!!!

...and I'm starting to get the hang of Nevan, which is coming in handy cause OH GOD ARCHERS!!!!

[DjinnAndTonic]

OH wow, you just -now- learned about the Magedom? And yeah, it implies a kingdom that is ruled predominantly by (and its citizenry consists primarily of) mages. I don't know why that's scary, though...

[Cmdr_King]

Not mages, Mage.  Capitals are important~

[Nephrite]

Radiant Historia

Picked this up after watching the Atlus stream. Pretty neat so far, wish the dialouge boxes didn't make the "schh" noise every time they passed, though.

RADIANT HISTORIA BOSS TOPIC INCOMING (to be abandoned)

[Excal]

If it makes you feel better, I suspect that if my brother and a hand picked harem ran a country, it'd probably be a better place than the Magedon.  Probably.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Eh, I know I found the plot scenes at the start of FF XIII to be fairly effective.  They get a decent amount of info across, and also have conflicts between characters.  That said, don't have access to a copy right now, so I'll talk about what I do have access to.

Fallout: New Vegas.

Did a decent chunk of the Boomer quests today, and got my first set of power armour.  Sadly, the game is a big ol jerk and does not let your buddies carry it for you.  Also, ran in to Vault 11 (how the hell did it get out here?) which, while being a much more interesting place than the Fallout 3 Vaults, also reminds me as to why I really disliked Bethesda's Vault Tec as opposed to original Vault Tec.  I mean, the original had the scientific study thing, sure.  But it was for a few vaults to stay shut up to provide a control group against those who released back into the wild.  I mean, the fact that there's all of these Vaults, but not a single Vault City says a lot (or, hell, even a freaking Shady Sands where the nearby Vault just gave up the ghost and people moved out).

Ah well, continueing to wrap up subplots until I'm satisfied and then I'll likely follow the plot to the SE.

Vault 21 doesn't count?

Anyway, Vault 11 is the best gaming moment of 2010, bar none. Great stuff, and a perfect example of good world-building. And unlike most vaults, it had an experiment that you might want to record the results of and wasn't just "wonder what happens if we constantly play a noise that makes people go crazy?"

Anyway, had Vault 11 played out differently they likely would have turned in to a Vault City but less assholish.

[VySaika]

If it makes you feel better, I suspect that if my brother and a hand picked harem ran a country, it'd probably be a better place than the Magedon.  Probably.

I dont even know Mage that well, and I'd be willing to put money on him doing a better job.

[SnowFire]

superaielman: You'll see, but the strategy is largely in the paradigm shifts.  Considering the system I largely don't mind the most optimal damage-dealing combos being ready for you with how fast the game plays.  The various paradigms are really about "control your AI allies in a halfway intelligent fashion" along with making each character quite unique, as they bring a different set of skills to the table.

Clear Tranquil: Fair enough about Vanille's worry.  If she obliged Fang into becoming Ragnarok by her own mercy/cowardice that's interesting, though it'd be nice if they TELL US (and not in a novella!).  As for the scene atop the tower, yes, but they don't talk at all inside Oerba, except when dealing with Vanille's pet robot (or the boss fight).  Which is just bizarre.  (As is not speculating about WHY this happened.)

As for l'Cie vs. NASCAR - no, the Pulse monsters start being released *after* Our Heroes attack.  Their ship arrives, they jump out with summons at the ready and start wrecking havoc.  The thing that really starts the panic is the television camera zooming in on Snow's brand when he jumps on the car, as everybody realizes that Pulse l'Cie have attacked.  And what do you know, it really does turn into an invasion!  If the goal is to calm the public down and not incite mass hysteria, which would play into Bart's plans, attacking a civilian event seems like a horrible way of doing it even ignoring the moral concerns.  I'm really not sure what they'd have gained anyway even if the Pulse attack was already afoot - fly directly to Edenhall, if you insist on following Bart's orders while claiming not to.

Dark Holy Elf: For all the hate you hopefully skipped in that post, I still like FF13, and the characters are indeed largely an asset still.  Well, at least Lightning, Snow, and Sazh are interesting enough.  There's some plot stupidity they're currently mired in, but luckily that can't harm interesting characters TOO much, lest all Game Arts characters be less awesome than they are.  Also agree with others that Chapter 1 of FF13 is certainly gripping enough, and I too don't mind reading some datalog entries for extra backstory.