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

[Pyro]

Cthulhu's Angels:

A fun retake on Cthulhu Saves The World with good setups and strategy requirements. Generally found it to be sufficiently challenging in both randoms and bosses on Normal. The humor was a little better, but it's still a gameplay game that thrives on deciding how to customize your party and how to develop strategies for defeating enemies. I do like the PC dynamics, what with the Slow/Frail MT cannon, the Slow but durable healer/buffer, the fast glass cannon, and... the fast durable fullhealing/self-buffing PC with good damage. Yeah Molly is pretty MVPish no matter how you cut it.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I get Marco's optional pushing skills, but not the other two. I didn't find them super-useful because hey you can always Trans-Turn to Stocke and have him push for more damage (besides Grapple) but they had uses if I wanted to save time/MP/didn't care about damage/etc. which was often enough.

[Hunter Sopko]

inFamous 2: Got a Platinum trophy in this last night. Evil ending is muuuuuch easier than the Good one, even on Hard. Has it's moments, but Good ending was better. Glad I finished it up to free time for Catherine on Tuesday~

[Rozalia]

FONV Old world blues: Finally after the meh performances of the previous two dlcs we have what is in my opinion a first class piece of content . There is like an hour of talking at the start if you enjoy listening to the mad scientists voices like I do and don't just read the text but its all cool.
In the end I took the really nice option by proclaiming that I was the mighty Dr Mobius and ordering the other Scientists to surrender or face death from Scorpion related injuries.

Though I did steal Mobius's Mentat stash so I don't think the happy ending is going to last long .

Demon's Souls: Got this at last as everyone raves about it all the time as the best game ever because its so hard and all that jazz. I quite enjoy these types of games thankfully so its actually lived up to its hype thus far though the horrible character creation and the useless armour in the game stop it from being a personal fav.

Oh yeah I'd like to mention I did end up purchasing Nier little while back as it was cheap and you guys and few others had such a high opinion of it when I said I didn't like it a while back. After playing it myself I'll admit that the voice acting and story are top notch especially on New game +, the music is good but some tracks are too overused, the game is too easy and the puzzle elements, item and combat system of the game are complete crap. I finished it four times and my final verdict on it is: Yeah its alright

[Glen Veil]

TotA: Currently at the poin where the airship is just a ship because the order people are jerks. Fun game, but needs to be renamed Tales of Forced Romantic Tension.

[NotMiki]

Beats Tales of Invisible Ship Forcefields, I guess...

[Scar]

Tales of Fancy Men Who Show Mid Drift?

[VySaika]

FF5 FJF challenge: Beat! Ended up abusing return on Neo Exdeath until I got the magic lamp shoat to work and petrify the damned Almagust part. But hey, I was dealt Time Mage as my Water class, so abusing Return is entirely legit! (Magic Lamp spam, on the other claw, probably isn't. But hush.)

Knight with Rapid Fire, TM with Equip Sheild, Ranger with Rapid Fire and Dancer with Time was my final team. Dancer was also packing the Man Eater and 2 equips that boosted chance of Sword Dance.

Knight for game MVP. Smash shit -> win was always a viable strategy. Especially after BRave Blade came along. Hooooooly shit did that thing clean house.

Ranger...for game LVP, outside of giving Rapid Fire. That changed after Yoichi Bow came around(yay crits) but before that, ANIMALS was the best thing Ranger had going.

Dancer for most bipolar character. Dungeons with lots of undead? Damn near useless except as the item whore or backup Time caster. No undead around? Generally very solid.

TM is of course TM. Lots of cheese, no damage whatsoever between when rodbreaks stop being great and getting Meteor.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Congratulations Gate! Also to Tal, Hal, Yakko, and any other Fiesta participants who completed their runs. Been a lot of fun hearing about your playthroughs.

[Grefter]

SLRPG - Beat Axem Rangers.  They hit way to hard and that was a crazy hard fight.  I was like WTF the whole time.  Only Axem Pink wasn't really threatening.  I got lucky and Green Ranger didn't use heaps of status.  One restart happened partly because Red used Shredder.  Next try he didn't though, so could just kill the Zord pretty well.  Poison Gas is awesome win.    So anyway, finally won.  Then went and got Frying Pan for Peach and found that I hadn't equipped the new armour that I had spent a bunch of cash on.  So that is why they hit so damned hard.  My own fault.  Think the fight should generally be pretty fine balance wise now.

On the other hand, back to my hating on original SMRPG?  5 enemies taking turns one after another takes way to long.  mega zzzzzz fight during those moments.  On the other hand in original SMRPG it sounds like they die in like 2 seconds, so lol whatever.

[Captain K.]

Actually Axem Rangers are the hardest fight in the game in the original (minus optional super boss).

[Lord Ephraim]

Old World Blues: Just started but so far is really good.  A little bit too much dialog at the beginning but the crazy robot scientists are hilarious (also lots of COCK jokes Grefterlolololol).  There's a glitch where my character won't level up.  Seems to be caused from mods at the moment so I have to wait for an update for them.

Also dog powered machine gun.

DOG POWERED MACHINE GUN

[Meeplelard]

Actually Axem Rangers are the hardest fight in the game in the original (minus optional super boss).

Funny, as I never had any problems with Axem Rangers ever.  I always felt Yaridovich was the hardest fight in the original game...by a fair amount.

[jsh357]

Actually Axem Rangers are the hardest fight in the game in the original (minus optional super boss).

Funny, as I never had any problems with Axem Rangers ever.  I always felt Yaridovich was the hardest fight in the original game...by a fair amount.

Yaridovich was the hardest for me too, but I had trouble with the Axem Rangers my first time through the game. (this was before I realized that raising stats other than HP, Defense and Magic Defense is worth it in RPGs)  On replays I find them incredibly easy, though.  I also had trouble with the cake.

[Sierra]

DOG POWERED MACHINE GUN

Yes. There's a mod for this that ups its DPS to something like 450. It's a brutal weapon even if you don't meet the strength requirements. Most of the OWB weapons are pretty solid, actually. Sonic emitter is relatively low power and slow, but some of the add-on effects will auto-kill certain enemies (definitely robo-scorpions, at least) and anything hit by the knockback effect is almost certainly getting shot to death before it can stand up again.

Anyway, just finished this. I loved Dead Money for the NPC cast; Old World Blues has that going for it as well as being a heckuva lot more fun to explore. Anyone who enjoyed New Vegas at all should check it out. The NPCs are immensely entertaining, so naturally I took the ending that doesn't involve killing any of them--though I did reload an old save and massacre everyone later, just to see the different material in the ending. Man, you feel like a dick for doing that, even though all of them are incompetent and extravagantly insane. Also, Dala has a teddy bear in her inventory. Hah.

[Cmdr_King]

I'd say that the Axems are the hardest boss if you don't go in with knowledge of who can do what and take them out accordingly, while Yaridovich can make you work regardless of knowing what to do.

[Captain K.]

I had no problem with Yaridovich, but that's probably because I used Mallow extensively and Mallow wrecks him.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Nothing wrecks Yaridovich. Even his lightning "weakness" isn't much of one with that stupid MDef. Knowing the defensive timing for Geno Boost is the best weapon you have in that fight, though.

Not sure who I found the hardest boss in SMRPG, but all three of the names floated seem like the only really logical candidates to me. They're kinda different styles so I can see having more trouble with different ones depending on how you play RPGs.

[Grefter]

It wasn't even difficulty I was negatively commenting on (they are floating at about a pretty standard level for noteworthy fights in SLRPG anyway).  It is time their turns take.  Because this being SMRPG and this apparently even being a hard fight, you can't just get up and walk away for slow enemy turns either.  5 enemies going in a row is painfully boring.  If they are hard just because of the first few turns where all of them are up though that is cool.  I was very much on the defensive there due to previously mentioned stupidity so this just prolonged the animations.  My understanding is that they don't have much HP, looking it up individually they don't appear to, so unless I am misunderstanding the damage curve in SMRPG itself that stage of there being 5 people spamming attacks doesn't last super long.

On the other hand in SLRPG damage curve with those HP values I think I would have one shot three of them with Boosted Poison Gas.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

DOG POWERED MACHINE GUN

Yes. There's a mod for this that ups its DPS to something like 450. It's a brutal weapon even if you don't meet the strength requirements. Most of the OWB weapons are pretty solid, actually. Sonic emitter is relatively low power and slow, but some of the add-on effects will auto-kill certain enemies (definitely robo-scorpions, at least) and anything hit by the knockback effect is almost certainly getting shot to death before it can stand up again.

Anyway, just finished this. I loved Dead Money for the NPC cast; Old World Blues has that going for it as well as being a heckuva lot more fun to explore. Anyone who enjoyed New Vegas at all should check it out. The NPCs are immensely entertaining, so naturally I took the ending that doesn't involve killing any of them--though I did reload an old save and massacre everyone later, just to see the different material in the ending. Man, you feel like a dick for doing that, even though all of them are incompetent and extravagantly insane. Also, Dala has a teddy bear in her inventory. Hah.

I am really impressed with Ulysses' voice acting from what I heard in OWB. He did a pretty good job conveying the character we know nothing else about.

[Grefter]

SLRPG - Beaten now.  Game is great right up until the end.  Then Smithy 2 happened.  More on that later.

Bowser Castle is huge and takes forever.  Trash trash trash that is unavoidable and you do because it gives you two of the ultimate weapons, mega snooze.  Boomer has what feels like way to much HP, just does nothing but sap your resources, then you are healed and FP is restored for Exor so that is fine.  Exor is much easier.  Multipart boss just after everyone has learned MT damage moves other than Mario?  yeah easy mode. 

Factory is a bit eh.  The randoms are manageable (I just ignore them mostly personally.  I still finished around level 21).  The manager gauntlet was neat and finally hitting a boss that punished spamming MT was nice and caught me off guard.  Simple trick but a good one.  Smithy 1 was a good fun fight.  I was expecting Sledge to ignore Def Up and it does not which was a little disappoint.

Up to this point pretty much everything I had problems with in the hack were derived from SMRPG mechanics.  Timed blocks being terrible.  I understand Laggy has changed them a bit to make the timings tighter, but their presence honestly just fucks everything up that could be much more finely balanced without them there.  The timings are to tight in SLRPG, but whatever, the timed blocks timing is just so random and stupid that it is frustrating and annoying and that was not from SLRPG and the real problem is that it is really up in the air if an enemy can or will use attacks that you can block.  It is stupid, bullshit any annoying.  It could fuck right off and the game would be better for it.

Some fights just take way to long because of enemy animations.  You fight tons and tons of randoms in single encounters sometimes.  Here is a pack off 6 dudes.  Thanks, oh I didn't AoE them all down in a turn time for me to have a nap but lolno you can't because 1/4 of the attacks need you to be there to block.  See above complaints.

So anyway, Smithy 2.  Fuck that fight.  You go through Smithy 1 having a pretty good time.  Then Smithy 2 spams the fuck out of instant death.  lol hope u saw it coming bro.  So that chews up your buffs.  So that means you either need to pack a fuck load of buffers (actual first time I would complain about that!  Other fights don't need them!  Smithy 2's damage is just so obscene you need those Crystalline) or know in advance about it.  I mostly got through the fight by abusing Red essence for Phase 1 and just loading save state if he went overboard on Magnum the second time he went to Tank.  Speaking of Tank.  It acts.  A lot.  One time it acted 9 times in a row.  Spammed shots at a few people, then just straight up killed 2 people with magnum, then healed for 500.  So I revived.  Then it acted 5 times, Magnumed 2 people in that and healed for 500 again.  yay so awesome.  So then I revive again and pray that stuff doesn't go to hell.  He 5 acts again.  Load load load load load.  Fuck that fight and fuck that phase.

Anyway won when he decided to spend some more time in Status mode which for some reason looks like a letter box.  Then it was far more manageable.  Noting that I didn't have any status resist equip on.  Just you know, it wasn't killing 2/3 of my party while severely damaging the survivor every single turn.

If I had felt like going through Smithy 1 I am pretty sure it would have been very beatable with swapping a couple of accessories, drop Ghost Medal and Quartz Charm for some stuff, probably throw Peach to the dogs relying on Lazy Shell to save her and go Coin Toss and Safety Ring on Bowser.  That should have made it much more approachable and whatnot.  Still don't like that kind of thing second chain in a boss fight that doesn't heal you and takes away your stat buffs.  Fucking obnoxious.

Character balance is generally pretty good.  Bowser is of course awesome, Peach is very useful, I could have swapped her for someone else, but eh it is nice to not have a sausagefest party or something.  Mallow is really pretty good once he gets going.  Thunderbolt is probably a bit on the weak side, but whatever.  Geno I didn't use much but I know he would be fantastic if I had.  I think if I could boot Mario I would have a hard time picking between Mallow and Geno.  Geno would probably win because while status healing is awesome, it is cheaper than Boosting items.

Mario on the other hand honestly is fucking terrible.  Seriously I don't even know where the fuck to start to not make Mario terrible in this last part.  His only saving grace is that if you have been grinding Jump (for wicked Bowser ownage) then Jump is cheap.  Lazy Shell is passable damage, but is late.  Neither of these things is particularly impressive at all.  Way to much in the last portion of the game is immune to fire/jump or in some randoms have enough MDef that while Poison Cloud would still take a decent chunk out of them, Jump was not touching them much at all.  Seriously I think the biggest benefit Mario had going for him all game was Coin Toss.  ID immunity and giving me more cash.  Amazing.  In the Factory he was there to do generic supplemental damage (that anyone could have) and be the designated item thrower because everyone else was doing something else useful.

Done.  happier now that it is over.  The hack is really good, but I think the end game kind of took it out of me.  A few to many knock down drag out fights  starting with Yaridovich and then popping up all over the place.  Game would have been awesome if Knife Guy had been the final boss.  Just end the game there.  Knife Guy stabs you in the liver and you bleed out.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Final Fantasy 4: The After Years – Edge, Fulfilling His Time-Honored Tradition of Being a Bloody Corpse

So where did we leave off. Oh yes, Edge’s quest. So we play as NINJAZ! I find the premise of a ninja kingdom a little ridiculous but this is really an aside. A girl ninja, a baby ninja, an old ninja, and a fat ninja. Most of it is pretty uneventful other than learning that Porom has high Passive Perception and pwns baby ninja several times, seeing through him.

Then we get to Edge himself. The good thing about Edge is that he is such an egomaniac that he doesn’t giggle over Cecil like a fangirl at a Justin Bieber concert, so this is a refreshing change of pace. Edge’s decision making skills are still less than stellar though, which is why he goes to the Tower of Babil. Alone. In the event that he runs into anyone who uses magic ever or anyone who can physical three times (getting through Blink) he is fucked beyond reason.

Fortunately the ninjas reappear to help me, so I have help! Edge is probably the best of the ninjas, which makes me strongly suspect I will never use any ninjas ever. We climb the tower and then have this sequence.

Fat ninja: Hey, bro, this chick’s crazy, she killed lots of monks, let’s stay away.

Edge: *charges to her, attacks*

*Rubicant and parents reappear to tell Edge what a toolshed he is being*

Edge: *continues charging*

The party gets predictably owned and we have to flee from Ifrit over and over. Edge runs into the airship deck assuming there would be an airship there, gets trapped by the Mysterious Girl, and then leaps off the balcony hoping an airship would appear because it did before! Edge has a hunch that everything is happening exactly the same as it did 17 years ago. I applaud his ability to uh pick up on the fact that this game reuses its plot points. Very meta, FF4TAY, very meta.

So we land in Rydia’s loveshack and Edge hits on her because it’s the cool thing to do. AND THEN…. THE MAN IN BLACK APPEARS!!! !!!!! 111!1!

So we have successfully completed all the scenarios!

Or not. Next is Lunarian’s quest, where you play as FuSoYa and Golbez. I don’t have much to say about this quest other than OW BOSSES OH MY GOD I DIED AGAIN. However, I discovered that Slow is the bomb diggity after a while and that made things easier. Still not lovin’ the randoms that cast MT OHKO Breath. Died like nine times total?

So anyway, after that diversion of death and player suffering, we get to saving the world or something. There are two major things going on. Edge, Rydia, THE MAN IN BLACK WHO IS TOO COOL TO TELL US HIS NAME IS GOLBEZ, and Luca. We fly around the world getting owned by Summons, especially Ramuh oh my god, while Ceodore, Rosa, Eddie, and Kain confront E. Cecil. We go to Eblan Castle and it is on fire. Edge tries to duel Ifrit one-on-one, dies horribly. Rubicant revives him and then kills him again because he thought it was funny I guess and then spits on his corpse. Edge somehow gets revived by the power of parental love and then we (by we I mean Rydia and Golbez) kick Ifrit’s ass. We wander for a while, fight Titan, and then go to the castle. So a team of Rosa, Ceodore, Golbez, Kain, and Edge fight another MYSTERIOUS GIRL. Edge, bringing back memories to the final dungeon of FF4, spends most of this battle as a corpse on the ground while Golbez hurls magic, Kain prances in his pretty outfit, and Rosa and Ceodore try to keep the world afloat.

Now we head to… the moooooooooon! What exciting adventures await us there?! (There is still the Moon changing mechanic though~)

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I am kinda surprised you had much trouble keeping Edge up.  He's actually... really good in TAY.  My playthrough was just him and Yang turning the game's asshole inside-out.

[MC50]

I completely agree, Edge is amazing in TAY. He just... has everything. Fast, high physical damage, high HP(!?), amazing equipment selection, seems like every chest in the last dungeon is an upgrade for him, good MT damage eventually (!?!?!?).

Though, if he finished his chapter fairly low level I could see him being bad, the best thing to do is probably just kill off the other ninjas when they rejoin and let Edge get all the EXP.

[superaielman]

Defense Grid- Been improving my scores in this. It's a nice, relaxing game to play.

OBNeph: Just got Fogel. I've gotten four pumpkin items, two blood kisses, one each of the undead staff/ring, and no dream crowns. Princesses are still awesome in this game, the MT holy damage is SMAAAAAAAASH and the clerics/Rauny make excellent princesses.  I'm really looking forward to other people playing this and getting feedback.