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

[Luther Lansfeld]

DDS2 has voice acting?

[Yoshiken]

Er, most people don't accept Tidus' "I'm from Zanarkand", instead assuming he's suffering from Sin-toxin-related amnesia. (Even Wakka, who clearly -wants- to believe Tidus, seems to harbour this, when he lures Tidus to Luca with "maybe you'll see someone who recognises you"). They may humour him out of pity, but they clearly don't believe him.

Otherwise most of your plot things are just opinions ("ridiculous characters", etc.) which you're entitled to but you should hardly be shocked when others don't share them. Personally I think the FFX cast is waaaay more fleshed-out and human than most RPG casts, and has little trouble demolishing any previous FF game in this department besides 7.

Wakka believes him pretty damn quickly - as a thing, the first confirmation that Tidus is Jecht's son comes on the boat to Luca (specifically after the stop at Kilika) yet Wakka makes reference to him being from Zanarkand on the way to the Kilika Temple. As for the character statement, it was more in regards to, say, Kimahri, who has no point other than to prevent Yuna from falling down the stairs, or Lulu, stereotype extraordinaire. (I know FFs aren't exactly amazing on characterisation in general, and I can see why FFX would be considered best out of the series, on a perspective of "Gameplay is better, characters/storyline are no worse" but I can't see the hype in comparison to non-FF RPGs.)

[Meeplelard]

No, Wakka WANTS to believe him, cause of this concept:

If Tidus really is from Zanarkand, and Sin was the reason, there's that chance that Chappu didn't actually die, but was sent to another world, and thus a chance they can see him again.  Its a delusional thought of course, and Wakka himself sort of acknowledges this, but its that sense of denial that he wants to believe something that ridiculous cause its a nice thought.


The only person who believes Tidus is Yuna.   I don't think Wakka actually believes him so much as, being the nice guy he is, wants to believe him, but knows too well that Tidus can't possibly be who he says he is. 

Also, worth noting that from my experience barring a few specific fans, Lulu and Kimhari are generally regarded as the two weakest characters in FF10 for a reason, so you singling them out...well <_<

[Dark Holy Elf]

(I know FFs aren't exactly amazing on characterisation in general, and I can see why FFX would be considered best out of the series, on a perspective of "Gameplay is better, characters/storyline are no worse" but I can't see the hype in comparison to non-FF RPGs.)

Yeah, I'm really not seeing this "Final Fantasy is below average for RPGs in general at characters/storyline" argument but to each their own. (Actually the only series which I think decisively beats it is Suikoden, but a few others are roughly on its level, and then you have the Grandias, Fire Emblems, and Tales of the world which are clearly worse, to say nothing of the RPGs which don't even really try at them in the first place such as Pokemon and most 8/16-bit RPGs.)

[Dhyerwolf]

This makes me want to know what games he's playing because it makes me feel like I must be missing a whole bunch.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

We talking Final Fantasy now, or 1997? Cause Final Fantasy now is like when my dog had a stroke and even looking at it was depressing.

I mean, you can barely consider the pre- and post-VA games to be the same games, since reading and listening to spoken dialogue is so very very different.

[Clear Tranquil]

* Clear Tranquil liked Lulu >_>

Wasn't she like the bitchy witchy type except not really? I liked when Lulu whipped Wakka with her tongue. I enjoyed the banter/snark there. Also Lulu's sisterly relationship with Yuna and the way she first was with Tidus like an protective sister =) I liked the story with Lulu with the bitter/bittersweet stuff about her tragic past with Chappu and as a young Guardian, about the past she shared with Wakka there also and the desire to move on there for them to build a new life/future there but feeling the guilt/regret and the way that also kind of came out in her attitude towards the way she treated Wakka/others at times. I was interested in the growth/development here and the way her issues were resolved.

She was my favourite FFX female initially I think? I thought she was as cool as Auron in her own way My final team was Auron, Lulu, Yuna~

[Cotigo]

Personally I think the FFX cast is waaaay more fleshed-out and human than most RPG casts, and has little trouble demolishing any previous FF game in this department besides 7.

Which is part of why nobody should take your opinions on characterization, plot, or anything even remotely related to writing seriously at all.  Stick to gameplay more, you embarrass yourself less.

HEY LOOK THERE'S MORE THAN SNARK AND PERSONAL ATTACKS.

Bastion:  Wow did this game draw me in.  Way more than I expected.  Going for all achievements, which isn't really that big of a deal if you use the big guns (the hardest achievements are beating the arena areas with all 10 idols (hard mode) activated), but I'm going to try to do it without resorting to the Mortar / Calamity Cannon.  After multiple tries at the first "Who Knows Where" level with the Machete + Scattergun, I decided to switch it up with Ciel Hammer + Rifle.  Turns out the Hammer does do enough damage to cope for regen, and with leechaide (potions heal less, each attack deals drain damage) actually ends up working better than the machete despite the machete doing damage over time.  The rifle is nice for doing lots of damage in a short burst, but with the combination of enemies randomly blocking ranged hits and enemies randomly turning invincible after being hit, it's not as great as it is without the idols activated.  I'm thinking Machete + Hammer might be a better combination overall.  I haven't toyed around with the other weapons at full upgrades though, in fairness, so something may work out better, but the big guns aside everything else strikes me as really bad for hard mode.  The spear doesn't offer much and the pistols are easily the gameworst weapon, but the repeater and flamethrower could be cool with the right complementary weapons, but I can't think of anything offhand that works well with one of the other weapons. 

For normal levels, though, Machete + Scattergun is still the best combo I've found.  Machete offers constant healing while the scatter gun keeps everything from overwhelming me.  I'm thinking maybe the Hammer + Machete might work well against the last couple of levels if I'm really trying to not use the big guns.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I suppose this is where you tell me that FF4 and FF6 totally had the best plot in the series before the later games ruined it. Or are you not saying that because you know it would just lead to people mocking your opinions on writing?

[Meeplelard]

Which is part of why nobody should take your opinions on characterization, plot, or anything even remotely related to writing seriously at all.  Stick to gameplay more, you embarrass yourself less.

Its funny you talk about "embarassing yourself less" when the very nature of this statement makes you look bad in every conceivable way. 


From a more begnin, critical stand point that actually gets things done...
This statement is just you being an jerk and you know it.  Its completely uncalled for, and there's nothing to be gained from it other than
"hur dur you're a moron, now I feel good for calling you one" and you know it.  There was absolutely no reason to make a statement like that, and you know better.


And before you say "Rob said the same thing, why is nobody sniping at him?" no, he didn't.  Rob, while controversial as his opinion may be and how he stated it almost like a fact, never once put down the person in question he was responding too.  It comes off as confrontational, sure, but he at least showed he knew his limits.

Your statement, however, is completely uncalled for, and you'd be best to reconsider saying shit like this again in the future.  I don't care WHAT you think, I think its safe to say most people are not fond of that shit, let alone the person you're saying that too.


(Yes, I know, this is a case of "drop it everyone", but I feel someone had to say SOMETHING.  I don't intend to continue this thing on any longer than it already has.)



TO KEEP THIS POST TOPICAL:

STreet Fighter 3rd Strike: Beat the game with Ryu, Ken, Ibuki, Yun and ALMOST Q and would have done the latter but had to leave my house for something and didn't have time.
Played  a bunch of multiplayer matches too.  I can see why Chun-li is considered so absurd.  Just using a few basic strategies with her made her feel dominating.

[VySaika]

FF1 is clearly the high point of the series. No dialogue before or since has met the standard set by "I, Garland, shall KNOCK YOU ALL DOWN!"

Anyway, on the subject of FF...

Dissidia 012: The first Feral Chaos down, the level 85 one. Slowly working through 000 mode, will see how the next Feral Chaos works out. Also working my way through Labyrinth, have it over 50% done now. Next roadblock is...Rivals 2. Which means more Feral Chaos. Joy.

Top 5 team is probably...Firion, Warrior of Light, Yuna, Cloud, Prishe. In roughly that order. Somehow Bartz, Squall and Onion Knight have dropped off of my best chars list entirely, for which I'm kind of sad. I have just recently FINALLY figured out how to play Shantotto, but no idea how good I am with her yet, time will tell.

[Clear Tranquil]

I would definitely say FFX almost certainly does it better than all of FFII, the original FFIV, FFV, FFVIII and FFIX's non Zidane/Garnet/Vivi cast.

FF1 is clearly the high point of the series. No dialogue before or since has met the standard set by "I, Garland, shall KNOCK YOU ALL DOWN!"

Alternatively this works >_>

 

I have just recently FINALLY figured out how to play Shantotto, but no idea how good I am with her yet, time will tell.

* Clear Tranquil approves of this~

Let us know how that goes

Also no Radiant Historias for CTs afterall yet, DS r ded 

[Sierra]

FONV - Lonesome Road: Is linear as a Half-Life game, but it makes sense in-context. Anyone playing this is probably doing so for Ulysses, after all. There's only one place the road can lead and they want to make sure you know it. Dude sounds like Death and there's this distortion on the edge of hearing that makes talking to him feel just a little off (a lot about the Great Divide is just the right kind of bewildering; it would be easier to find a level floor in the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, for example, than it would in any of the surviving buildings here). I can't really call him crazy--if anything, he has a better grasp of reality than most people you've met here. That's really the problem--he exists under constant affliction of knurd status and is bent on sharing it with you.

Currently entering the Cave of Abaddon. I'm sure this will turn out to be a cheerful place.

[Grefter]

Lets all take Zenny completely seriously and get huffy about shit.  Now lets never play Fallout or Planescape: Torment!

Deus Ex HR - I haven't posted updates on this enough.  Got up to Singapore. 

WoW - I relapsed.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

FONV - Lonesome Road: Is linear as a Half-Life game, but it makes sense in-context. Anyone playing this is probably doing so for Ulysses, after all. There's only one place the road can lead and they want to make sure you know it. Dude sounds like Death and there's this distortion on the edge of hearing that makes talking to him feel just a little off (a lot about the Great Divide is just the right kind of bewildering; it would be easier to find a level floor in the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, for example, than it would in any of the surviving buildings here). I can't really call him crazy--if anything, he has a better grasp of reality than most people you've met here. That's really the problem--he exists under constant affliction of knurd status and is bent on sharing it with you.

Currently entering the Cave of Abaddon. I'm sure this will turn out to be a cheerful place.

I am legitimately afraid of tunnelers. Thank Alvis for flare guns.

E:

And before you say "Rob said the same thing, why is nobody sniping at him?" no, he didn't.  Rob, while controversial as his opinion may be and how he stated it almost like a fact, never once put down the person in question he was responding too.  It comes off as confrontational, sure, but he at least showed he knew his limits.

Damn, that's some serious misreading of me on your part.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Might as well toss in another XF update. I'll play other games eventually I promise.

4-1 (Tormenta Triad): Well they kill one person. Slow Down Lluvia and Feeble Mind blitz the one who casts the big damage spell, Slow Down everyone else and they can't do much of anything after that. Hilariously they will waste turns on the combo move until you kill one of them.

4-2-A (Rupert 3): Slow Down, Feeble Mind and Switch deal with Rupert well enough, Petrify spam deals with everybody else. Not much to say.

4-2-B (lategame classes): Nightstalkers and Emulators aren't as scary as Nightstalkers who are also Emulators! So yeah, this isn't as hard as 3-9. Extremists are pretty notable dodgers but slingshots are accurate enough to hit them once petrified.

4-3-A (paigeols): Damage emulator spells. Enemies go emo. Most of this fight is just dragging them out of the enemies while taking care not to go down to the damage of the enemies. Not too bad since the enemies are spread out.

4-3-B (Chelle 4): Great Excavator fight! This would be painful for lots of classes (any team that lacks Excavator or to a lesser extent Enigmancer would have its hands full with non-IFF Exploder Gems to do damage here probably. Anyway, I do, so it's not so bad. Instant death is still painful to be hit with but at least I can drop most of he enemies in a couple hits.

4-4 (Tormenta Triad 2): Weird one. Three-man combination arts 2HKO them, but not much else scratches them. Even Valiant is a bit limited here since I need to be doing damage for it to kick in! Either CAs or a three-panel Charging Thrust allow it, but this isn't a great map for the latter. Lots of enemies means lots of turns and the bosses do hit pretty hard, so this is a bit of a tricky one though I do pull through.

4-5 (Rupert 4): blah blah Slow Down Feeble Mind Switch, usual Rupert strategy. Do it before taking out much of his support. This is kinda cheesy but so it goes! Once he's down to no MP I do kill off a few more of his support mostly for CSP (or lulz).

4-6-A (King Tarrasque III 3): Can I combine numbers like that? Anyway, Tarrasque is weak to wind and vulnerable to sleep. He's still a massive pain to finish off with hard status and stupid res, and there are lots of vermin to deal with in the meantime. They fall to a mix of emulator madness (damage and petrify), as usual. Petrifying the misery blob is also key.

4-6-B (go crazy? Don't mind if I do!): Mostly a luck-based fight, and I have pretty decent luck. The enemies hit hard and are status immune (besides their initial status) but if you can keep some PCs protected it's not bad.

4-6-C (royal knights): Emulators lol at this fight, gravity three-shots everyone including Eisen, sleep works 100% on everyone including Eisen. Sometimes I can mix up damage to get 2HKOs instead of 3HKOs but it's not that important anyway.

Two updates to go~

[Cotigo]

Wank wank.  tl;dr.  Be less long winded, Meeple.

NEB:  LOL FF4 writing.  I would probably say FF6 does have better characterization/plot than FFX but that's largely because NOSTAAAAAALGIA and I'd probably be less charitable to its writing if I replayed it sometime. The series as a whole really ain't that great for writing, FFT aside. 

EDIT: Sorry, wasn't irreverent enough.  Yawn => Wank wank.

[SnowFire]

-- 4-3-B (Chelle 4): Great Excavator fight! This would be painful for lots of classes (any team that lacks Excavator or to a lesser extent Enigmancer would have its hands full with non-IFF Exploder Gems to do damage here probably. Anyway, I do, so it's not so bad. Instant death is still painful to be hit with but at least I can drop most of he enemies in a couple hits.

I'd include Elementalist in that list.  I had no idea Excavator could excavate Invisible Stalkers, and did fine with "Mage with Elementalist OC blasts a 'volunteer' with high Magic Defense standing next to a Stalker."  Since they only arrive 1-2 at a time, if you heal aggressively, you should probably be fine...  although I suppose in a 4JF runthrough you won't have Labby's Revive, so an instant death blitz might be problematic.  But eh, then just equip revival items instead.

[Sierra]

I am legitimately afraid of tunnelers. Thank Alvis for flare guns.

Man, fuck those guys. Little bastards shouldn't be able to hit that hard. (Also who is Alvis.)

Anyway, finished now. I went with the regular "Let's not be mass murderers today, mmmkay?" talk for Ulysses. Which sorta immediately backfired because shit man I can point nukes anywhere I want? "Bye, Legion!" is what I would've liked to say there, but I couldn't really just redirect the damn things after talking Ulysses out of it. So I let 'em blow up where they were and ran. No aftergame bonus area for me, alas. It's okay, I got plenty out of the game already.

Better than Honest Hearts (not hard), on par with the other DLC, I'd say. NV adversaries have plenty of presence and having the arc solely built around one works pretty well. Will have to run the endgame to get the other endings at some point (well, maybe not Legion. Don't think I could put myself through that) and that's a wrap for this one.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Mage with Elementalist OC blasts a 'volunteer' with high Magic Defense standing next to a Stalker

You need Widespread for that.

Though yes, Sacred Slayer + Elementalist/Emulator would indeed work. It'd just hurt some (though you could use the right spells to help, e.g. wind on Levin).

[Fenrir]

I think Rob's on to something I haven't really considered. No VA makes games feel like their own media, while VA makes them feel more like movies. And that's like a kid trying to wear a tuxedo.


El Cid: So was the bit with Ulysse satisfying?


Infinite Undiscovery: More SG. Hard as hell with only one character! Fun!!
Some bees IDed me, so I dwelved deeper into item creation and forged a wonderful 100% status protection accessory. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to protect against ID. Oh well. Just stay the hell away from bees.
I got some Anti-magic greaves at the same time too. Anti-magic is just that. Immunity to magic.

Soon enough, I fight Gabriel Celeste. Guess what, Gabriel Celeste is a pure mage. (and he looks completely fucked up) I'm just staying there while freaking Gabriel Celeste is trying to impress me with his shiny pyrotechnics.
He has only two attacks that can bypass magic immunity, and he can only use them at low HPs: Empress Massacre Redux (Lots of damage, but you can avoid it easily if you only spam Grin Valesti and run) and Critical Flare or something (RUN!!!). I only saw Critical Flare twice, and the first time it just killed me almost instantly.

Deeper into the dungeon (my god are dancing swords and larvas annoying) I run into some giant turtle thing boss, who's fast and can easily 2HKO Capell. That's... bad.
To get by without grinding or completely breaking the game, I farmed a ton of armalistas, atlantis minerals (+ dragon fangs) and forged the best equipment for Capell at that point.
I know have: Very high attack/defense, HP/MP regen, status immunity, magic immunity!! PH34R! Ethereal Queen is still going to destroy me.

Capell is level 144 now.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I think Rob's on to something I haven't really considered. No VA makes games feel like their own media, while VA makes them feel more like movies. And that's like a kid trying to wear a tuxedo.

They're almost definitely not something easily compared. When you are reading something you can decide how a line is to be delivered. When you add VA, you are seeing how someone else decided a line should sound. Compare reading a play with seeing a play. Different experience there.

[hinode]

Voice-acting also means that every single line is very explicitly going to be perceived as dialogue by players. RPG textboxes are frequently lengthy enough for players to essentially parse the text as prose, but that's not going to happen with voiced lines. Diction that sounds fine in prose can come off as being awkward or unnatural when used in voiced dialogue, so scriptwriters need to take much more care with their writing.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

It also has more "moving parts." You have to factor in both acting and direction, as well as technical issues like sound quality, on top of the writing everyone has to keep an eye on.

You can cover up a lot more when you can imagine lines being read however you want. When you have someone else telling you that, yes, "My name is Lightning and I can only destroy but your name is Hope so you give us hope" is to be taken 100% seriously, no doubt about it, it goes beyond normal bad to a very special bad.

[Fudozukushi]

Clearly all games should follow the Record of Agarest War example and have no english dub.  Just nothing but glorious NIPPON!

Speaking of glorious NIPPON!  Record of Agarest War Zero, brought to you by the same people behind Record of Agarest War!

When we left last off.... I was almost done with that donus dungeon?  Yes, that was it.  Bonus.  So, only one fight left, gotta be a big bad.... and it's less threatening then half, no all the fights I've been through in the dungeon.  Jeez.  The final reward is.... a new sword for Eugene, some new armor--probably the armor I want, either that or trash--and a nice new accessory that really boosts Alice's MAG.  So then I learn that I've actually been able to go to the north half of the continent this whole time and promptly fall into a rage coma.  Mmmm, coma.

When I return from my coma, I've accomplished all the kill-titles and gotten the missing blacksmith items.  Which are all terrible now.  And I can make new skills!  None of which I really want.  So, uh, let's do this thing!  Scarred Mountains go!  Shernini bride choice go!  Fight-fight-BOSS FIGHT!  It's against Obvious-Evil-NPC again.  This time he's only brought one OHGODIT'STHEHUGESTTHINGYET!  And it has more HP then the boss!  But I'm level 80 and these chumps are level 60!  And this is a SRPG!  And I slaught Evil_NPC so badly that I actually manage to break the 1,000,000 damage mark!  Then he gets sealed away because the plot-sword which Mila used to revive herself actually has power left.

Then I get sad.