Order of Ecclesia Hard Mode: Finally went and finished this. Dracula, being based around single big hits of damage (unless you massively screw up vs. bats or fireballs), doesn't actually change that much, so he wasn't so bad - drank ~7 High Potions, which is acceptable. Blackmore, Death, & Eligor I used a single Super Potion on each, whatevers. Still fun times, though I wish the final section of the keep post-Cerberus had been larger, and you had more areas to abuse Volacticus on. Yes it's broken but give me some large open-air type place I can ruthlessly rain destruction from above on, at least once.
Cthulhu Saves The World: One of the best Dragon Quest games ever? ... I think I would have preferred a great Cthulhu game, but whatever. I have to wonder if there isn't a Farmville-like addiction to such battle systems, as it's been done a billion times before, but CSTW cuts a ton of the crap out of DQ combat / dungeons. The dungeon design is still terrible, but there's an encounter limit, so you can get lost and it's doesn't devolve into a total slog. (Well. Insane removes the Encounter Limit, but I played on Hard.) Dungeons are still a bit too long in general, but oh well.
Anyway. Seriously, see first sentence. This is DQ style combat done right. Stalling strategies are temporary ploys to get some buffs off and get back on your feet, not a viable long-term option. Tanks have a role to play, thanks to the Defend command drawing attacks for tough characters (and becoming "Dodge" for frail ones who are then less likely to be targeted), so Defend -> Toss a heal on the defending character is a valid strategy. The average combat goes fast, and you have a strong incentive to *use* your cool skills by not making MP a terribly limiting factor. And the level-up choices are, in general, pretty well balanced, for all that the common stats vs. HP/MP choice is almost always better to take the stats. (They needed to bribe you with more HP/MP.) Also, once you pick a direction, splitting your focus is usually a bad idea, so you need to pick, say, Speedster Paws vs. Mage Paws, since flexibility never matters (and if it did, you could do it by replacing a character with the right build from the reserve anyway).
On the downside... meh at a lot of the fanficcy dialogue and plot. Yes, it's supposed to be silly, but it's also lame some of the time as well. I don't want to call it lazy - there was a ton of stuff to write even as is for a 2-man project - but couldn't there just have been plain *more* in some of the plot scenes? A lot of the characters are supposed to be funny merely by virtue of existing. Sorry, that doesn't cut it. "lolz it's the goth necromancer with an Addams family reference for a name!!1!" Who just shows up and joins. This is... pretty much true for everybody not Cthulhu / Umi / Paws, and even Paws just has one mini-plot arc in which he does something. This might be acceptable with more funny dialogue to let you get to know the character, but this only really happens for Umi. Umi has the simplest "idea" - anime sea chick inexplicably in love with Cthulhu - but hey, she runs with it and makes it funny. Sharpe is just lame. October COULD have been cool - you totally SHOULD have a cultist in your party - but she never really does anything. Paws was okay but minor. Dacre was lame - I approve of old man hype, but he also gets a "lolz join up for no reason!!1!" after which he does nothing. Ember, well, he's really late and does have one funny line, so I'll forgive him. ("Thanks for saving us from the dragon, oh horrifying hero! ...uh, wait. What's that scaly thing behind you?" Ember: "Nope, just a big pink dinosaur here.")
More generally, the plot is more Dragon Quest than parody-Lovecraft, which is a shame. "Go to the Shrine of Heroes, uh, 'cuz, and find a random holy sword, who will randomly join your party?" I see. It would be one thing if it was attempting to parody this more, but it feels more like they're just playing it straight. "Yup, here's your obligatory Ice Cave." This isn't fun. Fighting the 3 Heroes of Light who've found the 7 sacred crystals? Now that's fun! The best plot arc by far was the Innsmouth bit -> Magitek Marsh Foundry, which properly played with what I'd expect from comedy Cthulhu. Oh well. At least the battle system was solid throughout.
On that note. Pretty much stuck with the initial 4 the entire game. Physical Cthulhu, Physical Umi, Physical Sharpe favoring Wind Strikes rather than bothering to try and get a high-Hit regular physical, MT boom October. I used Paws in one fight, and it's an interesting idea for a character, but he doesn't bring the turn 1 damage I wanted. He's got some tricks but you want immediately relevant tricks in CSTW. Dacre I thought was even lamer than Sharpe, so I only used him in 2 boss fights (Don't want healers vs. masses of randoms that need to be cut down on turn 1!). Shoggoth (boss of Water Shrine) has MT POIZN, and he has Cure Condition + Heal All, so that's what the doctor ordered. The superboss quartet would slaughter October too easily, and her ST damage wasn't good enough (I'd taken an Uber Void over an Uber Dark Blast), and getting Regen + Healing + Team Buffing was too helpful. Might be the right choice for Azathoth as well, but I killed him pretty easily on the first try, so didn't need to experiment and try. I never used Ember; he seems like he'd be great in a normal DQ where you want to conserve MP, but he joined way too late for me to care about that.
Anyway, decent. I wish the designer had waited another week before releasing it to add more plot and dialogue, considering the obvious time spent on a really well-balanced battle system, but oh well. Going through Cthulhu's Angels on insane now, where I see Molly gets a lame "lolz I am so awesome" intro with no plot. Sigh. At least October / Elonalinka / Umi seem amusing this time around.
Trauma: Got this on sale from Steam. Don't bother. The game is half an hour or so, which would be acceptable... except it doesn't do anything, or tell a story. Shame, because it has a nice mood. You just get weirdness, but it's pointless weirdness, so meh.
Currently going through The World Ends With You on the DS. Such a weird game. I'd expect to hate a game about invisible hip teenagers shopping in Shibuya with ultimate power on the line or something, except it's actually pretty compelling so far. I actually like the characters I've met so far, which is an achievement considering my initial skepticism. Only nitpick... and it's a potential nitpick, at that, too... (End of Day 7 spoilers. So Shiki was impounded as Neku's most precious item? Okay, nice backstab from a plot perspective, but... she's not his to take. What happens for the guy who's a mountain climbing fan and likes Mt. Fuji the most? Or somebody whose most important thing is God?! You can't just zap them for a week, even if they win... of course it's possible that this whole setup is a giant lie and Shiki was never going to be revived in the first place, in which case, bravo. Oh well, just wanted to mention this nitpick. )
