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

[Glen Veil]

Diablo 2:  Randomly came across my game pack complete with cd keys the other day, so am losing myself in this for a week or so as a nostalgia prep to tide me over til d3.  Decided to roll a sin who will most likely be some sort of trap/venom hybrid, which while probably not the best build for single player pve reminds me of my favorite wwtrapsin from back when I did play, so it'll work despite the fact that coming across the runes for a chaos will probably never happen.

Finished Act 1 normal last night, got decently lucky with some early charm drops that all added 1-6 damage of various flavors, which sort of made up for my lackluster drop of claws, finished the act using two claws with only added poison damage.  Also had 3!!! set pieces drop, though early game sets are crap, though I am using the belt set that dropped because belt drops hate me otherwise.  Also got through with 0 deaths despite running into several nasty packs of cold enchanted and champion annoying shaman dudes that revive people packs.  Did have a close call on Andareel, in retrospect I should have brought two antivenom potions instead of one.

Now starting chapter 2 where my newly acquired shadow servant will be abused and whipped into tanking hordes of lightning enchanted bugs will I stand behind her going "oh ho ho ho" like a sadist.

[Meeplelard]

3rd Birthday: ...wait, seriously, that's the ending already?

...I knew it was short, but GOD DAMN I wasn't expecting that.  I figured the game would have been twice as long as it was.  Oh well, I suppose they expect you to replay it several times or something which...I might.  Ranking system and feats give you an incentive to try and replay.

Overall, fun little game.  There were some annoying moments Gameplay wise like any section with Rollers were annoying, and that one part with the Reaper you need to Laser was a bitch cause that stupid cage just screws with EVERYTHING if he cages one of your laser guys, and its easy to screw up.  Otherwise, pretty fun.

Plot wise...I'll be honest?  It wasn't nearly as fucked up or bad as people made it out to be.  No, it wasn't amazing or anything, and yes, it is kind of "what the fuck?" inducing, but beyond explaining how one thing led to something drastically different, it honestly works well enough.  The stuff not explained is typical fridge logic "Shrug, move on."  This is not like Chrono Cross where the game starts contradicting itself by nature as you try to piece things together; its more just...really weird.  I guess its fucked up in the sense of how bizarre it is, but it honestly is not THAT atrocious or anything.

And frankly, the plot twist at the end was a nice way to just go "No, all of you people who think we completely ruined Aya's character...you're just 100% wrong."  I say this cause people first off:

A. Totally mis-understand Aya from the first two games as is.  So many people just go "OMG ACTION GIRL! Bad Ass, Tough as Nails, DOESN'T"T FRAID OF NOTHING!"  Umm...er...no?  Aya is a normal person; she shows fear and is afraid of things, but she's at the same time trained (like any decent cop would be) to not be overcome by it.  She's just duty driven, so she acts based on what she thinks needs to be done, not cause of some personal emotional drive or "I NEED TO PROVE SOMETHING!"  She has a job, whether its an official thing or something she morally feels she needs to do, and she's getting it done.  Oh sure, she's an exceptional person in terms of genetic make up, but mentally and emotionally, she's just a normal person.

B. The situation is completely unlike what the trailers and such made it out to be.  This happens all the damn time and I love it when people jump to conclusions and are wrong because of it!  The twist at the end basically says that they could have done whatever the hell they wanted and you can't claim its out of character due to its nature, because...well...

Its not Aya at all, its Eve.  When last we saw Eve, she was like 10 years old, and thus completely unlike what we've seen.  She's also not combat hardened the way Aya is, so coupled with amnesia/identity crisis, it makes perfect sense that she'd crack under pressure.  Now, why Aya had to get herself shot, I didn't quite get that; I can formulate theories but there are some uneasinesses based off it, but again, nothing to the same level as Chrono Cross

Unless of course 3rd Birthday has source material that adds fucked up shit to the nature of the game.  If there is...this just proves one thing:

2nd Tier Canon Material should be ignored.  Yes, Outside Source Information is "2nd Tier Canon."  The logic of "If its not in the game, it does not need to happen" goes strong, and there has to be SOME reason it wasn't incorporated.  Its possible that shit wasn't incorporated cause...they realized how screwed up it was and it wouldn't work well into the plot, but they liked the idea too much, they held onto it in some manner and went "hey, how's this for the explanation" OUTSIDE of the game?  Seriously, people who take source material stuff a little TOO seriously need to think about things better; the simple logic of "If its not in the game, it doesn't need to happen" goes WONDERS with saving plots that these materials completely kill.  Chrono Cross' Balthasar shit is a prime example of that; CC makes no hints of that kind of nonsense AT ALL, suggesting he's nothing more than a passive observer; therefor, IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE SO.


THAT SAID...overall, unsure what I'd give the game.  Its certainly flawed, and its length is a bad thing in this case, cause while being short isn't so much bad, it definitely reaches that point of being TOO short, and if it was a little longer, some things could have been fleshed out some.  Still, a decent game overall, so I guess 6/10.

[Glen Veil]

Act 2 normal beaten, this assassin loves me, 4 uniques dropped, the first being an ethereal armor that is now basically making my merc a beast tank who even lived through duriel.  Also got the amulet that boost max fire resist along with giving a hefty sum of it by itself, suffice to say act 4 demons will not be causing me as much trouble as they should once I get there.

The other two pieces were vendor trash due to being weapons that aren't claws, but I did luck out and also got two pieces from a set for my belt and boot slots, which while it is a low level set not named siguns(I think that's what the op low level one was called?) the bonus is providing me with a hefty attack rating bonus which means I can actually hit stuff with my still mediocre weapon set, not that I should have to be doing that too much longer since I picked up a meditate merc to fuel my selfish 0 int investment self.

[Cmdr_King]

Meeple: I think the issue people take with the twist is more that unceremoniously killing off the heroes of the previous game pisses people off in general.  Sure, Aya probably has to be dead for this plot to work out, but there's a gap between being dead and being killed during your wedding by government agents even though they were unambiguously on your side throughout the series.  See also people's opinions of Chrono Cross endgame.

Twil: Only one S.Link in Persona 4 can reverse, Moon.  It basically involves telling them to go kill themselves, and while I never tried it, I don't think you can fix it afterwards.

I think some of the AI changes were because the game mechanics are slightly different.  Knock Down in particular just doesn't work the same way and wouldn't really be as useful.  This doesn't explain the lack of a Healing option, though.

[Captain K.]

Persona 4 - finished.

In summation, P3 is better.

Quoted for truth.  And yes, you didn't need direct control in P3 because the AI was so good.  So the AI being so much worse in P4 is a bit curious.

Last Remnant:  Finished.  Absolute Conqueror wasn't quite as bad as I thought, though I still had a couple of close calls.

Overall, 8/10 game.  It's very clearly a SaGa game despite not having it in the title.  But it has some changes over the other SaGas which make it far more tolerable.  Notably full healing after battle, which goes a long way towards making battles enjoyable.

The story is pretty generic and lame:

"Hey Dave, my sister just got kidnapped, drop what you're doing and help me find her!"  "Well, even though I am the leader of this city and currently engaged in a civil war, I will forget all of that and help you.  Despite never seeing you before."
======
"Howdy mister!  Welcome to our city!  Take a look at our Remnant that protects us!  We sure would be screwed if something happened to it!"

Next city:  "Welcome to our city!  This Remnant protects us all from danger!  I sure hope nothing ever happens to it!"

And so on.  But in spite of the actual story, the worldbuilding and atmosphere were quite good.  The visuals were very evocative and I loved how the towns were populated with lots of people who *didn't* feel obligated to hold conversations with the main character.  You could see them going about their business, shopping, talking to each other, etc.  I also thought the character/race designs were good, with the exception of the Sovani.  Their squashed faces and awkwardly attached lower arms just seemed unnatural and out of place with the rest of the races.

The combat system was a bit daunting at first, but once you figure out how things work it's very cool.  You're basically a battlefield general.  You can give orders to the units, but they resolve them in their own way.  Looking at the minimap can give you a clue as to which units to send where to get that critical Interception or healing.  For all that it was unintuitive, it worked.

The out of combat gameplay was rather streamlined also.  Instead of having to micromanage so many units, you just take care of Rush and the rest upgrade their own stuff along the way.  Of course you can not-so-gently nudge them in the right direction.  Rearranging unions was rather cumbersome, especially once you got a large number of formations to sift through.  But you didn't need to do it very often.

The game did have some major issues.  First of all, the ridiculous load times.  Luckily that was alleviated by installing the game to hard drive.  The cap on leaders was rather dumb.  With the large number of leaders available (both plot and generic), there was no reason to have soldiers included at all.  And of course the entire game was massive FAQbait - and the FAQs for the game are terrible.  Like I said earlier, I'd love to spend about six months writing an awesome FAQ for the game, but I have other games to play.  

My final party for the boss was Caedmon, Rush, Glenys, Leshau, and a soldier in Rune Ring 3 formation.  And Baulson, Blocter, and 3 soldiers in Blizzard 1 formation.

Character notes:

Rush:  I kept him 1-hand + shield for the whole game.  Concentrated on Mystic arts.  After I made the Aqueous Shield(+4 to both defenses), I found out a neat trick.  Put Rush in a union by himself and give him a + phys defense and a + mag defense accessory, and he's nigh-invincible.  Granted his AP is terrible, but he can still use Vivification Tincture to run around and revive other unions.

Baulson:  MVP.  Massive HP, massive damage, access to both types of healing.

Caedmon:  Gets hyped on Gamefaqs, but I didn't find him particularly special.  He has high stat caps compared to other characters, but if you don't max stats that doesn't mean anything.

Blocter:  I only started using him near the end because I thought Wonder Bangle would be useful.  It's not particularly since it only autoheals you at the start of next turn rather than just immuning statuses.  Still he is good in both defensive stats and that's useful in and of itself.

Emmy:  I used her after she arrived for most of the rest of the game.  She was pretty good but her HPs never went up much and I ended up dropping her because she was just too much of a liability.

Loki:  Used him in the midgame.  Actually wasn't too bad for being a Badrach.  Early Hexes is quite useful.

Leshau: Loki++, although lacks healing.  Massive parameter bonus!

Jager:  Also did not live up to Gamefaqs hype.  Supposed to have massive HP and damage, but wasn't that special.  I didn't want to drop him because he stole all my best accessories, but I made the tough call at the end.

Glenys:  I barely used her, but her skills were high due to passive skill boosting, and she starts with great gear.  Basically replaced Emmy since she does the same thing but a bit better.

Torgal:  Used a bit in midgame when I started experimenting with different setups.  Not too shabby, but should have used him from the start of the game if I wanted to do it right.

Pagus:  Barely used, along with Wyngale when I toyed with the idea of getting three Commanders.  Stopped when I realized how long that would take.

McGrady:  Generic leader with healing go!  Damned good at the beginning of the game, I hated to let him go.

Anyway, fun game if randomly infuriating.  First enjoyable SaGa since Final Fantasy Legend 2.

======================
Dungeon Crawl:  Did pretty well with a Hill Orc Berserker, until I got mobbed by a Centaur herding a group of yaks.

[Meeplelard]

Meeple: I think the issue people take with the twist is more that unceremoniously killing off the heroes of the previous game pisses people off in general.  Sure, Aya probably has to be dead for this plot to work out, but there's a gap between being dead and being killed during your wedding by government agents even though they were unambiguously on your side throughout the series.  See also people's opinions of Chrono Cross endgame.

I suppose that makes sense, but I see people bitching and whining about stuff like TIME TRAVEL and such in a game that's all about rewriting the past.

Generally speaking, though, the point you brought up is nowhere near the same level of bullshit Chrono Cross had, which is basically spitting on everything Chrono Trigger did, then putting it together in some loose bullshit manner that only makes less sense once you realize how the game basically starts to contradict itself.

Though, one thing it has in common with Chrono Cross is the "why is this a sequel?" aspect.  3rd Birthday probably could have worked better as its own separate game, thus not having to worry about attachments to certain characters and such, but then they went "hey, lets revive the Parasite Eve series, and with that, the characters write themselves!"  and ti was kind of an easy way out.  3rd Birthday doesn't really deal with the themes of the earlier games (that being Aya vs. Genetic Freaks of Nature), and the characters are so distant to their original selves in how they are used (while not necessarily out of character), it really gives off this feel that they made an original game, but couldn't think of a way to sell it, so just sort of shoved an established series on top of it, and twisted (no pun intended) some of the plot points to fit into the continuity.

But I don't see how its plot is as screwed up as Chrono Cross', which not only is so fucked up on its own, it more or less completely screws with Chrono Trigger itself by nature, adding bullshit and finishing plot threads that were left open in CT.  3rd Birthday's screw ups are more just screwed up on its own merits; they do nothing to play any effect on PE1/2 other than being set in the same timeline.

[Nephrite]

Persona 4 - finished.

In summation, P3 is better.

Quoted for truth.  And yes, you didn't need direct control in P3 because the AI was so good.  So the AI being so much worse in P4 is a bit curious.

Counterpoint: Ice Break and Marin Karin from Mitsuru. :|

[Cmdr_King]

Yeah, from what I've read Third Birthday just doesn't have enough plot to be worse than CC on that front.  CC's just the go-to example for "sequel that kinda really pisses off fans of the first game"

And bullshit to all claims of P3 AI being good.  It's adequate, by which I mean it only gets you horribly murdered 15% of the time.  It only works in fights where you're already firmly in control of the battle (in general because everything that can hit weakness on you reliably is already dead/didn't show up to the fight).

But for something that defeats the entire point of a turn-based game, it could be a lot worse.

[Meeplelard]

Oh, regarding P4 S. Link reversing nonsense...

I got the one with bitchy NPC girl related to the Basketball team to be reversed.  It basically just involves saying "That was mean" to her in one instance, and she overreacts.  You can fix it by simply talking to her during free time at a later moment, and apologizing or something.

[SageAcrin]

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.8.0 character file.

1122726 Estara the Demonologist (level 27, 139/139 HPs)
             Began as a Kobold Summoner on May 28, 2011.
             Was the Champion of Sif Muna.
             Escaped with the Orb
             ... and 3 runes (of 3 types) on May 29, 2011!
             
             The game lasted 15:35:49 (150378 turns).

Estara the Demonologist (Kobold Summoner)         Turns: 150378, Time: 15:35:50

HP 139/139       AC 24     Str 10      Exp: 27/864866 (108)
MP  43/43        EV 40     Int 21      God: Sif Muna [******]
Gold 6814        SH 22     Dex 25      Spells: 13 memorised,  7 levels left

Res.Fire  : + + .   See Invis. : .    K - staff of energy
Res.Cold  : + + +   Warding    : . .  b - +2 robe "Nuyqoufize" {rC++}
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : +    S - +1 elf buckler {AC+3}
Res.Acid. : . . .   Res.Corr.  : .    m - +3 helmet of Cocytus {Dex+4 Int+3}
Res.Poison: +       Clarity    : .    D - +0 cloak of Starlight {rElec rC+ EV+4 Stlt
Res.Elec. : +       Spirit.Shd : .    E - +0 pair of gloves "Shraiv" {rPois rC+}
Sust.Abil.: . .     Stasis     : .    z - +2 pair of boots of the Assassin {+Inv Dex
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .    H - amulet of conservation
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .    Z - ring of Robustness {AC+8}
Saprovore : + + .   Ctrl.Flight: .    V - ring of Quhyasel {rF+ EV+4 Dam+1}

^_^

[Tide]

So I bugged Laggy into making a Super Laggy-o RPG. Laggy agreed and I am in the process of playing it.

General changes:
- Time blocking made much earlier. Laggy and I agreed on changing the time frame so that it's neither too early or too late, but more in between. Will test this in new hack
- No more buyable Pick Me Ups! Well they can be bought for 2 frog coins. But so far, it hasn't been an issue. And I doubt it will be one.
- Buffs to spells and characters. Mallow now starts being able to OHKO Spikeys. Mario's fire orb has been buffed and you can do pretty solid damage with it (in particular, it puts Croco down earlier)

Bosses/Enemies:
- Laggy only really changed enemies of World 1. Most notable, BOWSER now deals 6 damage instead of 1. The Terrapins do 2 instead of 1
- The Sky Troopas have 15 HP or so. You basically want to use Jump
- Hammer Bros. deal more damage.
- Drain deals more damage
- Croco is largely unchanged outside of double acting (still badass though)
- And here's where the hilarity start. An excerpt from chat:

BELOME
[21:59:13] <%Laggy> lolol
[21:59:44] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> holy shit
[21:59:45] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> 22 damage?
[22:00:11] <%Laggy> ...
[22:00:11] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> ...
[22:00:12] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> Laggy
[22:00:13] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> WHAT
[22:00:14] <+ErikoKirishima> lol
[22:00:15] <+Ephraim> ...
[22:00:15] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> did
[22:00:16] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> you
[22:00:17] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> do
[22:00:17] <+Ephraim> gj
[22:00:22] <%Laggy> Well now I know what that flag does.
[22:00:28] <+Hello-BlueRabithedralWaddleDee> What happened?
[22:00:32] <%Laggy> lol
[22:00:37] <+Ephraim> Sleep Sauce more like OWN sauce
[22:00:41] <+Pinkie_Pie> Laggy you got something right
[22:00:47] <+Hello-BlueRabithedralWaddleDee> No, seriously, I missed the stream.
[22:00:53] <%Laggy> Sleep Sauce
[22:00:56] <%Laggy> "zzz"
[22:00:56] <%Laggy> *33*
[22:00:58] <%Laggy> *OHKO*
[22:01:09] <+Hello-BlueRabithedralWaddleDee> ... >_>
[22:01:10] <%Laggy> 40 to Mario
[22:01:11] <%Laggy> I see.

Apparently, Laggy increased the spell's mult with a flag, causing Sleep Sauce to do stupid amounts of damage. Also double act Lick without blocking deals 44 damage total, which OHKOs both Mario and Mallow. However, I managed victorious! Then onto the next boss!

BOWYER
[22:25:05] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> ...
[22:25:08] <%Laggy> ...
[22:25:08] <%Laggy> lol
[22:25:08] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> WHAT the fuck
[22:25:16] <+Ephraim> arrow to the face
[22:25:19] <+Ephraim> *32*
[22:25:37] <%Laggy> oh man
[22:25:41] <%Laggy> you're not going to like what' scoming
[22:26:25] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> Laggy
[22:26:27] <%Laggy> lol.
[22:26:29] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> I just got quadrauple turned
[22:26:32] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> please explain
[22:26:40] <%Laggy> He has a triple physical
[22:26:42] <%Laggy> <_<
[22:26:49] <+Ephraim> wut
[22:26:50] <%Laggy> I don't REMEMBER boosting his attack!
[22:27:09] <+Meeple_Gorath> that damage seems way too high for someone who multi acts
[22:27:13] <%Laggy> see Tide this is why i have you
[22:27:18] <%Laggy> so someone can gloriously wipe so I know what to edit.
[22:27:34] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> Bowyer is the new NECRON
[22:28:20] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> ...
[22:28:22] <%Laggy> oh my.
[22:28:23] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGY
[22:28:28] <+Ephraim> raggy
[22:28:30] <+Ephraim> raggy
[22:28:31] <%Laggy> So Bowyer is kind of a badass
[22:28:36] <+Meeple_Gorath> what did I miss?
[22:28:42] <+Meeple_Gorath> I see Geno dead
[22:28:59] <%Laggy> >.>
[22:29:22] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> ...
[22:29:23] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> Laggy
[22:29:26] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> you gave him
[22:29:28] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> OHKO potential
[22:29:29] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> hahaha
[22:29:33] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> This is so glorious
[22:29:34] <%Laggy> well
[22:29:36] <+Hello-BlueRabithedralWaddleDee> *overkill potential
[22:29:38] <%Laggy> I thought Lightning Orb sucked
[22:29:38] <+Ephraim> better grind moar
[22:29:44] <%Laggy> then I checked "ITD" on it to see what it would do
[22:29:45] <%Laggy> now I know.
[22:29:47] <%Laggy> ?

tldr; Bowyer is insanely badass and not really beatable at level 6. Will await further adjustments from the Lagbeast. Also, I was joking, but current version Bowyer is basically beatable only by the following strat:

[22:10:40] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> Laggy
[22:10:47] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> if I have to buy Rock Canides to beat Bowyer
[22:10:51] <+Tide|LaggyisSumoSanta> I am blaming you
[22:10:51] <%Laggy> lol

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Yeah, from what I've read Third Birthday just doesn't have enough plot to be worse than CC on that front.  CC's just the go-to example for "sequel that kinda really pisses off fans of the first game"

I'm pretty sure that was the idea. The guy who was in charge of Chrono Cross fucking hates people in general.

[Niu]

I really don't know how to it when comparing 3rd Birthday with CC.
CC is trucking itself up by trying to explain itself when its whole foundation is self contradicting.
As for 3rd Birthday... it just builds itself on top of Deus ex Machina. Then trying to feed you explanation and resolutions that is also Deus ex Machina in itself... so I guess 3rd Birthday end up less fail by admitting they are not trying to pull any reason behind the plot?

[Fenrir]

Last Remnant:
I find Jager and Caedmon decent. Jager has monster HPs, good item arts and Beowulf (which he uses about as much as everybody else uses their other skills) Caedmon has a really powerful regular physical attack and decent skills.  Duke of Ghor is kind of disappointing though.

I still can't beat the Fallen. BR 85ish, I believe most people have maxed non HP/AP stats (Leaders have ~1300 HPs, generic dudes ~750), but their weapons suck. I don't know if I should focus on upgrading their weapons or keep fighting in the Ancient Ruins. (I'm fighting on the first level since I can't beat Holy Servant and most Great Demons groups)

[DjinnAndTonic]

Last Remnant:  Finished.  Absolute Conqueror wasn't quite as bad as I thought, though I still had a couple of close calls.

Overall, 8/10 game.  It's very clearly a SaGa game despite not having it in the title.  But it has some changes over the other SaGas which make it far more tolerable.  Notably full healing after battle, which goes a long way towards making battles enjoyable.

What system did you play it on? I bought the 360 version, but I couldn't get into it. As a big fan of SaGa Frontier and SaGa 2, it interests me in some ways, but I'm curious as to how best to approach the game. The learning curve on the battle system is kinda ridiculous and I'm not sure what I should concentrate on first to get into the system. Also, BR means that experimenting tends to make things harder...

[Captain K.]

What system did you play it on? I bought the 360 version, but I couldn't get into it. As a big fan of SaGa Frontier and SaGa 2, it interests me in some ways, but I'm curious as to how best to approach the game. The learning curve on the battle system is kinda ridiculous and I'm not sure what I should concentrate on first to get into the system. Also, BR means that experimenting tends to make things harder...

360.  Really just play the game, you'll figure out things as you go.  The only kinda bad thing you can do is link multiple enemies into fights, since it raises your BR too quickly.  But even if you do that the game is manageable, just harder.  Oh, and save constantly, you will die a lot in this game.

[Niu]

BTW, which optional boss is the Fallen? I can't recognize thanks to the translation.

Is it the Lost Remnant (silver/orange)? The Being Known as God (red/green)? Or the Demigod (red/blue)?

[Otter]

WA5: playing this because WA4 was one of the best RPGs ever made (see: reality) and I wanted more of the same.  It's not bad, really, but it seems like it's taken a few baffling steps backward for the series.

On the plus side, I still really like the hex combat, and I'm not especially offended by the plot or any of the characters.  (For reference, I just finished the first plot battle with Nightburn.)  Maybe it's because I just played Dragon Age 2 and am thoroughly sick of brooding anti-heroes with dark pasts (Fenris being the most grating example), but Dean doesn't even bother me.  That said, why does Intrude cost 75 FP?  I've been waiting to go all Raquel on some punks with Greg, but now I don't even see why I'd use him at all.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Intrude's still pretty good even at 75 FP, to be quite honest.

Otherwise I agree with pretty much every word in your post. Hope you keep enjoyin' it.

[Fenrir]

The Fallen is the one related to a sidequest. You have to beat him early or his quest disappears, and he uses Armaggedon (Auto game-over) on turn 10. Forgot his color.

Super Mario Galaxy 2: 122 stars.
I like the two galaxy games, and they should be better than Mario 64/Sunshine (They're linear instead of free roaming, for once), but I don't know. There's just no tension anymore, for some reason, and that was a big part of Mario. Maybe that's it.
In any case, mastering the long jump in both galaxy games is like mastering Luigi in SMB2. Godmode!

[Bardiche]

WA5's Intrude benefits particularly well from a Reinforce (I think that's what the FP Up hex is called) coupled with either the equip that gets you 2-5 attacks per turn for a whopping 10 attacks if you get particularly lucky (and I'm not sure whether Rebecca's attack skill can stack with it :V), or the Double Cast one which does quite good damage and you should be able to Intrude again on your next turn.

I played WA5 before WA4, so I honestly found nothing wrong with the way WA5's system works, and thought WA4's system was a little limited at first blush. I definitely enjoy WA4's specialised charactermore than the freeform characters you get in WA5, though, but that's because I like characters having specific roles over jacks of all trades who you can mold into your preferred niche.

That said character skills still help a little there, though most seem to just favour physical attacks.

[Cmdr_King]

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse-
Decided to stop being a bum, play games obtained for free by leeching from hard working citizens of poorer countries.
So, 3-2 is easily the best episode among the telltale games.  Quirky, all the new mechanics are kinda cool, and the puzzle logic really makes a lot of sense as you just play around with the tools you have.
3-1 and 3-3 are solid, the humor is firing well and while there's the occasional dead end puzzle, it's usually overlooking something rather than moon logic.  This is pretty much true of every first and third episode in the series.
3-4 is doing pretty well right up until the final act.  There's some really easy to miss stuff before it, but the final act just... is annoying.
3-5 doesn't work at all.  The villain doesn't play very well, the logic of half the puzzles is way out there, and it's not terribly engaging or funny.  Exception goes to the spores: they were definitely a highlight for Sam & Max-iness throughout the season.

Pretty solid, but early installments were definitely stronger than the finish.

[Yoshiken]

ahhhh Pokemon tournament in like 4 days and I finished planning my team last night still have to try and catch half the fuckers with perfect IVs and EV them and PP Ups and oh dear god why ;_;

[Rozalia]

3rd Birthday related text

I'd personally just like to know what the Swat guys were doing. Were they the local swat team celebrating Aya's wedding in a unique fashion but some idiot loaded real bullets, the umbrella corporation afraid Aya would go after their genetic freaks next or is Toriyama just a really shity writer?
Also why were all the guests outside the locked church while the final boss chillaxed inside? Why is Maeda a creepy pedo rapist now, why was Hunter "Boss" Owen suddenly killed for no reason and why were *rambles on*. Good read as always but I think you're being too kind on the game.

Star Ocean the last hope - So I crush 4 wings queen with ease and then procede to face 6 wings. Of course in true Star Ocean tradition the game freezes wasting 5 hours I'll never get back. Sad how Tri-Ace bonus area's aren't scary due to their enemies but the likelihood of it freezing on you.

[Tide]

Super Laggy-o RPG version 1.01:

New changes:
- Timing change. It's still more strict than the original, but it feels easier to me, which is good. I've been informed GENO BOOST is also much harder to time.
- Special changes; Geno Boost no longer self targets and is now 8 FP instead (more prohibitive early on)
- Level up bonuses adjusted. Laggy changed it so that there's no ideal bonus anymore.

Bosses:
- BELOME has Aurora Flash in this version. I wipe 5 times before winning. Laggy will change this to the less deadly LIGHT BEAM
- BOWYER's offense is still competent but downgraded slightly. Lightning orb now dispels. Bolt deals 0 damage (...), which Laggy will look into. He still has triple physical and double acts which makes him scary for offensive output.
- CROCO 2. Laggy derps and forgot to account for starting Geno Boost. Proposed change: Steals your items at the start
- PAUNCHInello; more constant Sandstorms would make him scarier. As is, his last phase is the deadliest, but still managable. Laggy intends for buffing. I shall find out what he does in the next edition.