What Games ya Playin' 2012 - Suplex a Train Edition

[Grefter]

I was trying for a doing it wrong play through.  Mission not successful since the game forced me to leave Wrex alive.

I am planning on doing a long frm play through when I get home where I try to get everyone killed.  Do ME3 with like forced James and EDE for most of the game and the like.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Trails in the Sky - Just started chapter 3.

Game continues to be good fluffy fun that overstays its welcome a tad. Overall I have quite a positive impression of it, though. For all that the characters/setting don't play to my biases really, they're reasonably well-written for what they are (except Agate, because "what he is" is terrible). Story-wise the game does the mystery thing well enough; the game has me trying to connect the various story hints the game has dropped. Sometimes some of the writing choices and character quirks can grate a bit but not nearly as bad as I was initially expecting; for the most part the characters feel real despite the evident (yet not dominant/pervasive) anime trope influence.

System-wise the game is pretty solid too, nothing exceptional but gets the job done with its weird quasi-materia system. I think the menu could have been used better to present it (e.g. out of battle spellcasting is a chore, and it would have been really great if the game made it obvious which skills you were adding by equipping any given orbment) but it's a neat enough idea. Generally speaking the game is on the easy side which makes it harder to appreciate but it has its moments and as far as "games with pretty interesting systems which are wasted on it being too easy" it fares better than Grandia 1-2 and Final Fantasy 7 which are the games I find myself comparing Trails to most. I do wish the PC differences were a bit more stark (particularly Joshua/Estelle since they are your core PCs, they are barely different) and I don't find myself using non-interrupt crafts much because their value as interrupts is too high. These flaws are of course related as non-interrupt crafts are totally different between PCs.

The game's biggest flaw is that it feels slower than it needs to be, though. It's a weird case in that, outside the opening (you could strip the prologue way down, it did not need to be 5-6 hours) and the fixed text speed (not as slow as Xenogears/DQ9, but still) I have a hard time pointing at things I'd remove from the game in this regard, because I look at most any given scene and realise it is adding to the characters or the world (which is certainly much more fleshed-out than the average world of its type). So ultimately this isn't a big complaint, beyond that it seems like it would be an immense chore to replay (does it even have sceneskip?).


Oh yeah and I was watching OoT and it made me want to play Zelda games before they decided they needed to be all puzzles and wasting your time, so I played some Zelda 2. Up to the third castle, this game is hard.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I was trying for a doing it wrong play through.  Mission not successful since the game forced me to leave Wrex alive.

I am planning on doing a long frm play through when I get home where I try to get everyone killed.  Do ME3 with like forced James and EDE for most of the game and the like.

Well you have to keep at least a couple people alive in ME2 to survive, otherwise you can't transfer your save. So keep that in mind.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Well, it's on my X-Box, so I'm assuming he'll be doing this stuff at home. ME looked like space opera, I approve. He bought us a copy and played them as a preview.

[Nitori]

Catherine: The plot went all "video games" on me

[Otter]

Strange Journey: had some demoralizing resets in the new area.  Went back to the old area and wound up fighting some sidequest boss in the first area, I guess?  She used Charm on Gary Horses and he died.  Decided to table this for the moment and try for something fluffier.

Radiant Historia: so I played this.  Finished the game at around 180 nodes activated, then went back and finished about twenty more by exploring, then FAQ'd the rest for the sake of OCD.  I think it's kinda silly that there was a huge sidequest centered around teaching Stocke, Aht, and Eruca new skills that I never even encountered (though I picked up tons of the pertinent quest items by accident).  Did Aht seriously need traps more powerful than the ones I was already using all game?  I answer no.  Definitely would have been cool to have been adding that variety to my skillset throughout, though.

Probably nothing new to say about it from me if it's already hyped up around here as the best DS RPG.  It seemed easy for some stretches, but I'd usually just skip every random in the next few dungeons and then I'd start having to take bosses seriously again -- plus, if I had seriously wanted a challenge, I didn't have to use Aht.  And I wasn't overly concerned with whether it was exactly as hard as it needed to be because fighting was just flat-out fun anyway.  Combo systems and the power to interrupt enemy turns are both incredible, ask your doctor about Grandia 3 for more information, and then you take that home and put it on a grid and baby you got a stew goin'.

Limbo: blitzed through this in a bit over two hours last night.  Sort of underwhelmed by the puzzles.  Atmosphere was great for the first half hour or so and then it completely disappeared?  Cool?  I dunno man, we're in the post-Portal and Braid world now, your 2-3 hour puzzle game trading on its unique style and presentation has to bring something sweet to the table or it ends up feeling sorta mediocre.  It definitely looks and sounds good, though.

Bastion: this is the other thing I've installed from the latest Bundle so far.  I played up to the point where you stop hunting for... whatever they were called and now you're hunting for shards, I guess.  Speaking of unique style and presentation: this game has it.  Was enjoying it already and then I unlocked the ability to make every enemy faster for bonus exp and now it's even cooler.  I hope the rewards for first place in the challenge games aren't too important; some of them have been trivial to get (two pistols, shield) but others I can't even see myself bothering to come back for (hammer, machete; especially machete, I don't even want to think about working on that, all the little guys are running all over the place and you're trying to hit the ones off the stage with your machete toss and it's awful). 

I'll probably be playing Bastion for a bit, but after that, I might just put off Strange Journey again and keep the fluff train rolling with some Bowser's Inside Story.  I've also heard there's a Valkyrie Profile for the DS, but if it were any good I feel like I'd have heard something about it before now.  If it is, though, let me know while my RPG marathon rampage is still in effect.

[Niji]

Bastion: this is the other thing I've installed from the latest Bundle so far.  I played up to the point where you stop hunting for... whatever they were called and now you're hunting for shards, I guess.  Speaking of unique style and presentation: this game has it.  Was enjoying it already and then I unlocked the ability to make every enemy faster for bonus exp and now it's even cooler.  I hope the rewards for first place in the challenge games aren't too important; some of them have been trivial to get (two pistols, shield) but others I can't even see myself bothering to come back for (hammer, machete; especially machete, I don't even want to think about working on that, all the little guys are running all over the place and you're trying to hit the ones off the stage with your machete toss and it's awful). 

I'll probably be playing Bastion for a bit, but after that, I might just put off Strange Journey again and keep the fluff train rolling with some Bowser's Inside Story.  I've also heard there's a Valkyrie Profile for the DS, but if it were any good I feel like I'd have heard something about it before now.  If it is, though, let me know while my RPG marathon rampage is still in effect.

A neat trick to the machete one the moment you start it get to the center of where they are spawning asap with some practice u can kill them all before they have a chance to run away then its just a bit of quick clean up...also the 3rd place item for many of the weapons are extremely important(though only if you like using that weapon)...goodlucky with the final weapon's one though...though the 3rd unlock item for it is 100% worth the frustration.... Also bastion includes a NewGame+ option so yeah...keep that in mind hahah (but it doesn't work exactly like you'd think). It has 2 very different endings as well.

It is one of the most unique and best platformer/action-adventure type games I've played, make sure to get the DLC if you want to learn more of The Stranger....some...neat surprises in there...

For a true challenge turn all the idols on...Japanese Super Ghosts and Ghouls HARD MODE...ENGAGE.

[superaielman]

VPDS isn't any good.

[Meeplelard]

Says the man who can't maintain himself from trying to get Ciato to play the game every time she appears.

[Shale]

VPDS is so, so tedious if you're not playing a challenge game. Everything explodes when you touch it but it still takes forever to clear a map. I literally spent something like 20 minutes just walking from one corner of a stage to the other one time. It does have an utterly hilarious Seraphic Gate though.

(If you are playing a challenge then the levels still take a long time, but it's because enemies are legitimately threatening so it's more tolerable.)

[Meeplelard]

Well, to be fair, VPDS fights CAN go downhill fast...on turn 1.

By which I mean the entirety of VPDS fights basically come down to "Do you get out of Turn 1 with minimal damage?"  No, really, that's the entirety of VPDS fights outside of ones with rescue requirements, because if you survived turn 1, you've likely divided the forces so chances of being swarmed by the initial wave is down and that's usually the brunt of the enemies.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VPDS's biggest merit is being a case study on how egregiously bad design choices can turn in such a primitive system.

[Captain K.]

I liked VPDS myself.

Lollipop Chainsaw:  I somehow beat the farm stage on the first try without dying, beating Dad's score in the process.  There is something rather satisfying about mowing over zombies in a combine while "You Spin Me Right Round" is playing.

Stage 4 was back to minigames-that-are-stupidly-hard-until-you-figure-out-the-trick-that-makes-them-easy.  The roof area was glitched and there were no enemies, so I just walked around until a cutscene triggered.  T-Pain/Baron Samedi mashup was easy.

[Fenrir]

Strange Journey: had some demoralizing resets in the new area.  Went back to the old area and wound up fighting some sidequest boss in the first area, I guess?  She used Charm on Gary Horses and he died.  Decided to table this for the moment and try for something fluffier.

Strange Journey isn't hard but it is definitely anti fluff.
Take things slowly, go back to the ship when you're low on resources. Mini/sidequest bosses are sometimes brutal, but if all else fails some are weak to ailments. (Like Sleep + Calm Death)

Oh yeah and I was watching OoT and it made me want to play Zelda games before they decided they needed to be all puzzles and wasting your time, so I played some Zelda 2. Up to the third castle, this game is hard.

Dark souls is wher Zelda would be now if it went into that opposite direction after Zelda 1/2.
(Eventually I'll stop talking about it every post, but not now)


Dragon's Dogma solo: Working for Aldous.
I've explored the entire world map, and killed so many things.
Class variety is much better than it appears at first! I haven't tried mystic knight or assassin, but every class but sorcerer feels definitely unique. And sorcerer makes up for this with this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbyE-0Cg4yI
My new favourite but useless skill is Back Fire/Immolation. Set yourself on fire, then run around to set enemies on fire. I don't see any flaws with this plan.
Archery is MVP. "Why shoot one arrow, when I could shoot 6 arrows at the same time instead?" I know, right? In any case, cyclops don't like the idea at all.

Spoilers:
I saw the fitting conclusion to what I posted earlier:

I've also found the overpowered grimoire from one quest, forged a copy, finished the sidequest by giving the fake book, and kept the grimoire for myself.

I was fighting a gryphon, and the guy from this quest came back to help me by using the overpowered grimoire. It was like one of those very RPG moments where NPCs come to give you a hand in a difficult battle. Except nothing happened at all, and the guy just stood there confused. Hilarious.

[DjinnAndTonic]

For what its worth, I'm a huge fan of VPDS, though I'm in the minority certainly. I actually thought I was the only one but apparently the Captain enjoyed it too. If nothing else, then objectively the Seraphic Gate is worth your time.

Alternately: Play Xenoblade Chronicles.

[Grefter]

Archery is MVP. "Why shoot one arrow, when I could shoot 6 arrows at the same time instead?" I know, right? In any case, cyclops don't like the idea at all.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Motherfucker. Beat me to it.

[Captain K.]

Lollipop Chainsaw:  Beaten.  Managed to beat Dad's score on the first try at Stage 5 also.  Instant death QTEs on Stage 6 were not appreciated, but when you're fighting a Giant Stay-Puft Marshmallow Elvis you tend to be in a good mood anyway.  Good game overall, not amazing but very enjoyable.

The good:  Usage of music was outstanding.  Great selection of songs, and even the ones that aren't so great are used appropriately.  "Mickey" would get extremely annoying if it was the bgm for a stage.  But used as a Mario Invincible Star powerup song?  Perfect.

Dialogue was very clever, and the story is so batshit insane that you can't help but laugh.  Action was varied enough that the zombie-killing doesn't get repetitive.  Short game, but one that's enjoyable enough to replay.

The bad:  Minigames.  Not so much their use to break up the monotony of the maingame, which was fine.  But they tended to be stupidly hard until you figured them out and required a completely different set of skills than the maingame.

The ugly:  Misogyny.  A boss that screams curse words at the heroine that become giant letters is funny.  But when nearly every regular zombie in the game says "Bitch" instead of "Brains", it just becomes kind of sad.  See the comments about last year's Catwoman content in Arkham City.

[Dhyerwolf]

For what its worth, I'm a huge fan of VPDS, though I'm in the minority certainly. I actually thought I was the only one but apparently the Captain enjoyed it too. If nothing else, then objectively the Seraphic Gate is worth your time.

Alternately: Play Xenoblade Chronicles.

I enjoyed it, or at least found it passably average.

WA:XF- Almost done with a very, very stretched out replay. Final chapter. Just almost OHKOed Weisheit (Acc Up and Attack Up Buff, Six Shooter, Command Critical for 1741 damage; he has 1900 HP).

[Otter]

So I finished Bastion.  Lots of fun.  I pretty much just used my spear and shield.  I was using the distillery bonuses that gave me double damage and some health back upon successful counters, so I did a lot of work with just the shield, and I liked that the spear ignored defense and had nice crits.  Mortar obviously murders things towards endgame.  My Q slot was usually just the decoy thing, which seemed a lot better than anything else I tried.  I did end up getting first place in all the challenges; hammer and machete weren't as hard as I thought.  Going through it again now with all the shrines activated; died once when I hit a nearby swarm of birds with a mortar and then they all blew up on top of me.

At a glance I can't tell that there's anything else I'm interested in from this Bundle, but even if there isn't, I feel like I got my ten bucks back on this one alone.

[Luther Lansfeld]

FF5 - Just learned about Dragon Mountain. The dialogue of the original kind of sucks.

M&L3- Stuck on a Giga Bowser fight, the last one. This game is a little FAQbait for me if you don't want to take for fucking ever.

FFT- We recruited our friend who hasn't played FFT to do a four player run. We just beat Zeklaus Desert. The Ice Cream Pope hits bitches with lightning bolts.

[superaielman]

Harmony of Despair: Been playing this fairly often of late. Running a ton of C11 while Chimp chases madness (Two Muramasas+1). Been playing Julius a lot on C11/10, because I enjoy playing him and I have an easier time dodging with him than Soma.  Also maxed Alucard and Julius. Soma is still missing a Val+1 (don't care that much) and a couple of Dracula souls.

[Fenrir]

I see this is where all those avatars come from.
Is this better than Young Frankenstein? I didn't really... laugh during Young Frankenstein.

Dragon's Dogma: Slayed a dragon, saw the credits roll.
I'd talk more about the game but it seems that The True Dragon's Dogma starts here. Tons of shit happening, with the world in a way worse state than before.

[Niji]

FFT WotL: OH GOD SO FUN...but So fucking slow as fuck. 30 but usually 15 fps speeds(cause I like using magic always and forever)... The amount of time for it takes to become my turn is fantastically slow it feels more like I am watching someone else play the game, I think I will stick to the disgaea series after all even though this game is the shit, I just....it feels so slow now, anything below 60 fps feels like molasses dripping from a bun. Over all feelsing: A+ game if not for how slow the battles are, the story is as interesting/moar interesting than I remember it being, multiplayer seems like it would be tons of fun, the time it takes to level up/just get through a battle + cut scene length is just too lengthy for the casual way i like to tackle sRPGs :/
So putting it on hold till i have the dedicated multitude of hours to play it, perhaps I will skim through a story summery and play the newer ones for the DS though.

[Scar]

Got a hold of SRT A on the PSP and I could use some help. All I really need is someone or a link that has menu listings and skills, maybe even the item lists because while I can get by, knowing what I'm using might help!