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

[Grefter]

Yaoi yaoi yaoi yaoi~

I see Ciato is suggesting you play Planescape: Torment as well.  Should totally do it.

[Fenrir]

Snowfire: Honestly it's not really that close to DQ gameplay, it just looks that way. In DQ you pretty much never use magic against randoms because resources are scarce, bosses are all the same a war of attrition against doublecasters where you hope to god that they won't use dispel + the big multitarget damage move, random speed won't kill you and the Resurrect spell will work.
Cthlhu/BoD is all about MP restoration after every battle, you need to use just the right amount of offense. Boss battles are uh... Not that interesting, but different, since they get better every turn. Just crazy damage races.


Grandia Parallel Trippers SOLO:
Yeah, turns out you can solo, why not, it probably would have been boring otherwise.  I'm using Yuuhi/Bob solo (Turns out he's Bob in the status screen and Yuuhi everywhere else), at least this guy won't leave like Sue. Every Grandia character is there but I don't care, I'll only use our crappy extremely generic new game character.


So the battle system is a lot like Grandia's (On a Gameboy color? Nice) ...... WITH CARDS (Noooooooooooooo)
Thankfully that era where adding cards in RPGs seemed like a good idea is long gone.

Anyway there's no cancelling actions so this is friendlier to solos than other Grandia. You can delay actions to inflict more damage (this is worthless unless you're trying a combo with other characters if you're not misanthropic)
Everything costs MP. Using an attack will consume MPs and restore a little back, skipping turns will just restore a ton. You have a ton of different elements, the usual Grandia ones + melee ones (smash, shot, slash, stab, etc etc) Enemies have varying resistances against every element, and one character's skill with an element levels up if he uses that element multiple times during battle.

Lategame I'll try focusing on more than one element (since I know that element will get walled at one point), but right now I only care about fire. "Burn!"

Each character can equip 6 cards. Cards are things like "Burn lvl 5!" "Shot lvl 3", etc. You get to choose one of these skills every turn, and often earn cards by defeating enemies.
You can also combine cards to create new better cards.


Sooo anyway the beginning was easy enough until I ran into these three powerful enemies that each dealt 40 damage to my ~220 HP characters)
I removed all of Sue's and Feena's cards, and synthetized all their cards like crazy. I had gone from Burn! lvl 5 to Burnflare lvl 37, which hits everybody for a whole lot damage. Now I first strike -> OHKO everything and cannot be stopped.

[SnowFire]

Fenrir: Yes, that's why I like CSTW style way better.  Not sure why you say that it's not DQ combat - the resulting strategies are totally different, but at core it's still turn-based pick-a-move-at-start-of-turn with DQ-esque stat rules.  It's polishing the annoying edges with revival not being random, speed not being random, having one simple type of consumable potion, punishing excessive stalling strategies, not forcing you to buy teleport items, etc.

[Clear Tranquil]

It probably has more yaoi than LO as well >_> Can't think of much in LO

FFTA2- My clan is starting to take shape nicely though not without road blocks along the way (currently stuck at Flowsand Lord, just lost twice) Luso is L19, my team is L18 avg in general. Mainly been using Luso, Adelle, the default Viera, the default Bangaa, the default Nu Mou and the default Moogle still. I'm also using a Bishop Bangaa from Clan Mates and I have more bangaa, hume, Nu Mou and moogle extra in reserve. With Tai's help I've managed to roughly thrash out some long term set ups for the characters I'm using in the main. Luso's going to be a Hunter so he's currently working on Archer so he can unlock it, Walu is usually a Fencer with Green Magic as support but I currently have her back in Green Mage learning Shell, Zac (default Nu Mou) is Black Mage with White Magic as support but he's not being used for the boss, my default bangaa is currently a Gladiator and the moogle an Animist but I changed back to Black Mage for the boss. Adelle is currently in Soldier and has mainly been switching between Thief/Soldier for the skills. On the advice I've been given I've been thinking about Blue Mage for her but also might be leaving her in ATK boosting classes a bit longer to go towards her unique class later. Perhaps also some time Ninja or in Fighter if she can use it =)

My final team is hopefully going to be Adelle, Penelo, Walu, another Viera (maybe), Al Cid and Luso/Cid/Gria girl (maybe) - though other characters I don't know about might also join later and make me change my mind~

[Dark Holy Elf]

at core it's still turn-based pick-a-move-at-start-of-turn with DQ-esque stat rules.

Well, plenty of games use that type of battle system (Breath of Fire 1-4, Phantasy Star, Wild Arms 1-3, etc.). A few of them even manage to be good games with good battle systems! I don't think the system is inherently flawed, just DQ tends to do a bad job of it for all the reasons Fenrir lists. There was nothing wrong with this back in the NES days, NES games do lots of things wrong. DQ just continues to keep the same mistakes for the sake of nostalgia or something similarly idiotic.

Cthulhu looks/sounds pretty good (I don't really care that it's not faithful to the mythos) and I'll pick it up at some point.

[Grefter]

From BoD, the system is a good one and well worth checking out about.  lol to caring if it is faithful to the mythos.  That is like the last thing that matters to an RPG where you play as Cthulhu.

[Dhyerwolf]

Hey, it only took me like a year and a half, but I finally finished all of Eternal Poison! Opinion didn't really change, but obviously I liked it enough to go through all 5 paths. Heaps of a potential with a lot of glaring flaws; lots of style, but the lack of polish on the battle system is unforgivable because it would be so easily implemented (Also serves as a good way to never have VP:DS lack of numbers be rendered completely inoffensive). That said, I'm sure that they ran out of money (Certainly seems like each plot thread had several parts that they just didn't have time to write. Ashley's path was especially glaring here).

Final battle and spoiler chapter were cute if only because they somehow made summoning actually have a purpose (Less cute was the slog part, but at least they boss did have a scary attack). Was disappointed in the ending, but I had heard that in the end Thage was supposed to destroy the world or say that everyone played into her master plot or something.

Just for fun, in game rankings off the top of my head. Some of these of course are seriously foggy since it was a year ago.

Thage: 8.5. MVP. Smashes shit up, and is hard to damage. Little bit docked because if someone can damage or status her, you're depending on items to heal.

Raki: 5.5. Eh. I guess not needing to equip 7 is a small bonus. Didn't feel as good at anything as you'd expect.

Retica: 7. Bows+Healing.

Ashley: 8. Great healer, surprisingly good at attacking.

Reyna: 6. Starts off really solid, but she's the only character in game who basically starts off at core competency (Gains no weapon or skillset worth anything really).

Glynne: 4.5. Holy crap, single damage type? Yeah, he has magic, but really can't make much use of it. Reyna has the same damage type with far superior range.

Olifen: 7. Only hero to feel overall outclassed by other special PCs.

Logue: 5

Marie: 7.5. The smashing.

Levatte: 7.5. Heals forever, ton of buffs for leveling.

Rondeminion: 7.5. Crushes things absurdly, but don't expect anything at all outside of melee range.

Duphaston: 5. Eh. Surprisingly lackluster. Can do a bit of everything, but nothing well at all (MT is kind of bad, Healing is mehish)

Alexei: 4. Gets a point just because if you drag him around long often in the right chapters, that 100% Fracture will be awesome at taking down some bosses.

Ares: 4.5. Okay fighter. Gets spears, is fast, and is lackluster. Competent enough though and fills a few holes that may be needed.

Irina: 6.5. Retica minus. Bow users are always a solid choice.

Velnor: 6.5. Range+Accelero. Bow users are always a solid choice.

Komori: 7. Best Merc? Only one I used in every chapter. Buffs for leveling, early healing, passable magic, solid physicals of two types.

Vivian: 6. Doesn't have the range of skillsets Komori has, but the damage is pretty great. 3 of 4, I believe.

Yuri: 6.5. Indispensable on 2 of 4 paths, but Levatte and Ashley make her a bit irrelevant. Better usage than Komori on Thage/Rondeminion.

Stein: 5.5. Solid magic, eventually gets Cure 2. Does need some levels, but he's not...

Nena: 1.5. Horrible everything. Speed is trash, HP is trash, damage is lowest for mages I think, she has no healing, no buffing. Her niche is...late kind of crappy MT damage? Her whole score is derived for potentially being a warm body early, but she's auto dropped whenever the 7th PC comes along.

[SnowFire]

To be clear I don't think -anybody- is complaining about CSTW not being true to the mythos (well, see name of the game!).  My complaint is that 80% of the game is a Dragon Quest RPG that happens to include Cthulhu, and 20% of the game is a parody-Cthulhu plot that happens to involve DQ dungeons.  I'd like it more if those proportions were reversed - less "defeat the dragon in the volcano level", more "Sorry about trying to kill you, Lord Cthulhu!" from cultists.

[Captain K.]

KoF13:  Somehow managed to get six wins in a row in Ranked.  That makes this the first fighting game where I've managed to get a "win 5 in a row" achievement.  Unfortunately this game also has a "win 10 in a row".  Fuck my life.

Skyrim:  finished the main Thieves Guild questline, but still have to do all the small jobs to get them back to their former glory.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Saga Frontier - Lute's quest, glitchless speedrun. Beat in 2:51. Party was T260 (2 IonCannons for offence), EngineerCar (tank w/ backpack), Thunder (Dullahan w/ GroundHit), Hamilton (gunner w/ Shield), Rouge (VictoryRune, Implosion, MegaWindblast). Trashed Spriggan quite thoroughly, which was my revenge for losing to him last week.

There's a hell of a lot of time saving I can do. I spent too much grinding trying to get Thunder to Dullahan, I could probably do it faster. Better yet, use King Sei, since the Mizukagami is nice but not essential and Sei practically has a free shot at Dullahan due to his incredible base HP. Not sure if running two monsters is a good idea or not (could also drop one of the mecs, their offence isn't incredible even if they have great durability). I probably overkilled the amount of stuff I got, but I was a bit worried after losing badly last time. Major improvements to the run from last week were the Shield spell, the Dullahan form, trading up a gun and selling the HyperScale, and doing the Koorong Caves to get an AngelArmor and lots of money (but no dicking around with Mt. Mosperiburg, for instance, or recruiting lots of people I didn't need).

[Grefter]

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Beta played today.  Did the first planet on Smuggler and Jedi Knight.  It is pretty much WoW without 7 years of polish.  Better than WoW was at release, but that is to be expected.  The plot is Bioware stuff and generally pretty decent.  Lots of VA is different for an MMO, but the VA tends to just be middling.  Cinematic's VA is great though, but the two I saw were Jennifer Hale and Kevin M Richardson acted, so that is pretty much expected to be great.  Lots of random voices that you go OH it is them!  Most of them are Bioware regulars, but you don't hear them all in the one game that often (Cam Clarke!)

Combat system is very WoW.  Enemies are less strong and come in larger groups while soloing.  Haven't done a Flashpoint to see how the low level instances are, but eh.

So it is what it is.  Pretty much everything I expected.  I will probably play it for a month and that is it.

[Fenrir]

Grandia Parallel Trippers Solo:

Reached the fake ending.

I thought I was pretty much screwed at one point, as my character progression pretty much hit a wall. The only way to boost stats is through extremely rare stat seeds and two equipment slots. Getting levels only increases HPs! My favourite cards had reached the max level (50) way back in the second dungeon.
Enemies, especially bosses, were getting a lot better, a lot faster.

Fortunately I got stat boost spells soon after, the Def / MDef boosting ones being especially useful.
Then I got Protect (Immunity to physical damage for about 5 turns) and Veil (Immunity to magic damage for about 5 turns)
Yeah... I even have a status immunity accessory... What a joke.
Maybe Protect and Veil don't stack, at least?



BTW, just about anyone with a character portrait in Grandia 1 joins in this game.
Because everybody thought the only thing lacking from Grandia 1 was the possibility to have Gantz / Tentz / Java / Rem in your team. (i'm sure you all remember all of them)
Unfortunately you can't use a Nana / Saki / Mio team because the terrible main character is forced and there are only three character slots.

[Sierra]

LA Noire: Done with homicide. A little disappointed the cases generally followed the same beats, but at least vice looks more interesting.

Is it just me, or is Donnelly basically Pete Postlethwaite in videogame form?

[superaielman]

Ciddy, Civ5 is ten dollars, talk me out of buying it.

Orcs must die!: Fliers are following the grand tower defense pattern of being a royal pain in the ass.

[Shale]

SRWL: Finally picked up and finished this after not playing it since getting my DS back. I missed the arrival of Mazinkaiser to save Michel and never deployed him again. Argh. Final was remarkably balanced for a handheld SRW - even with buffs up his MAP did a number on my team, and the constant flow of pretty-good reinforcements combined with the infinite MAP works make you deal with him quickly or pay a high price. Solid game design there.

Ghost trick - Also picked up and finished this, finally getting myself unstuck from the prison escape. Awesome game. A bit on the easy side once I got past the escape (which I was stuck on because I kept trying to get him up the stairs, not realizing he could go straight into the ducts and the minor detail that Japanese game developers don't know what a bullet looks like. Somebody said that the plot manages to continually upend itself by adding to what came before, rather than wholesale overwriting it, and that's true. It's really good writing, although I totally called the twist on Sissel's origins. Ray's origins, now, those caught me by surprise.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3: This finally arrived in the mail, only two weeks after release! Screw you, Best Buy. I beat Arcade with Phoenix Wright and went 1-1 on XBL. Still have to figure out which of the newcomers to learn.

[Hunter Sopko]

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep- Finished Terra's path, just opened up the Secret Ending, so about to head into that.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Grandia Parallel Trippers Solo:

BTW, just about anyone with a character portrait in Grandia 1 joins in this game.
Because everybody thought the only thing lacking from Grandia 1 was the possibility to have Gantz / Tentz / Java / Rem in your team. (i'm sure you all remember all of them)
Unfortunately you can't use a Nana / Saki / Mio team because the terrible main character is forced and there are only three character slots.

Rem is adorable, so I approve.

Also, how are you playing this game? Just in Japanese? Or is there a translation out now?

[Sierra]

Ciddy, Civ5 is ten dollars, talk me out of buying it.

Super what are your thoughts on digital heroin.

[OblivionKnight]

It's perfectly legal, and #1 pharmacist recommended!

[Fenrir]

Yeah Djinn, there's a translation patch.

I don't remember Rem from Grandia 1 but I don't like him here. He made me go through a horrible minigame!

[Cmdr_King]

Breath of Death VII- Cthulhu's better.  The core system is the same, but there's several critical differences.  a) no teleport  b) Way less equipment variety  c) shorter quest, meaning fewer skills.  So this means, among other things, you have a lot more pointless fighting on the world map, the level up options often don't mean a whole lot because your equipment only supports one build (though at least the skill upgrades are still meaningful), and there's not a whole lot of skills to start with, so you get fewer of those choices.

Like cthulhu, there's potential here for clever writing that's too often wasted.  This is probably for the best, because unlike Cthulhu the times it does do stuff it's simple lampshade hanging that's fairly dry.  It's just a less absurd situation.  Ah well.  6/10 range, it's still a quick playthrough that's easily holding your interest throughout.

[Fenrir]

But... Cthulhu costs three times as much!

[Meeplelard]

Dead Rising 2: So I fought a guy on a chain saw motorcycle and hit him in the face with a Fire Axe ducttaped to a Sledge Hammer...

...then I fought some Hippie Vietnam War Vet Guy wielding a broken glass shard, which I fired lots of bullets into his face...


...yeah, this is Dead Rising alright <.<

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Beta played today.  Did the first planet on Smuggler and Jedi Knight.  It is pretty much WoW without 7 years of polish.  Better than WoW was at release, but that is to be expected.  The plot is Bioware stuff and generally pretty decent.  Lots of VA is different for an MMO, but the VA tends to just be middling.  Cinematic's VA is great though, but the two I saw were Jennifer Hale and Kevin M Richardson acted, so that is pretty much expected to be great.  Lots of random voices that you go OH it is them!  Most of them are Bioware regulars, but you don't hear them all in the one game that often (Cam Clarke!)

Combat system is very WoW.  Enemies are less strong and come in larger groups while soloing.  Haven't done a Flashpoint to see how the low level instances are, but eh.

So it is what it is.  Pretty much everything I expected.  I will probably play it for a month and that is it.

Jennifer Hale is the female trooper, btw. So if you like her you probably know what class you should play.

Anyway, I'm a little farther than you and I thought I'd mention that combat doesn't stay WoW-simple for long. They start introducing more and more variety in enemy abilities, so you start seeing enemy packs that are formed along group lines- a dude might be melee and another ranged, and the latter might have a CC skill while the former has disruptive AoE swings, for instance. While they might not have as much visual variety they are generally a lot more interesting than the average WoW mobs.

[AAA]

...then I fought some Hippie Vietnam War Vet Guy wielding a broken glass shard, which I fired lots of bullets into his face...

Looked more like some 90s grunge kurt cobain ripoff to me, especially with the green shirt