What Games ya Playin' 2012 - Suplex a Train Edition

[Random Consonant]

It did lead to some grand and glorious things though.

[Niu]

RS 3.12- All the SaGa talks made me boot up this hack again. Installed a bunch of new patches since the last time I played. Also dumped a few difficulty up patches, after finding out how broken is the new stuff.

So, are you going to try for the Saruin fight (...and its nine prerequisites) if I may ask?

Since I am going to tackle Saiva, stomping Saruin is ncessary. He isn't that bad anyway, after as longas you have proper defence against Sword Rain and Darkness of Heart. He is much cuter compare to total monster like Apollo., or Chaos Ruler, which I am going to make him into.

[Sierra]

Sadly there is a seven character limit on FF9 names. This is how the NES-style vowel removal got started; Grefter had demanded Zidane be named ANALFIST and then we had to improvise.

THRLLHO. Make it happen.

[Captain K.]

Cid:  You must wear the ring throughout the boss fight.  Once you've beaten them, you do not need to wear it.  Unless you are summoned to help someone else fight the Four Kings; you still have to wear it during their boss fight also.  I think being limited to one useful ring is the biggest thing that makes that fight so hard.

Regarding FF9, I'd go CNTSLRP over CNTLCKR.

[Clear Tranquil]

Oh you guys~

[Anthony Edward Stark]

ARABNGGL for sure.

[DjinnAndTonic]

FF13-2:
Chocolina appears in all locations, in all times, sometimes in multiple spots in the same time/space. She probably has to be careful not to run into herself.
Chocolina is Doctor Who in a Chocobo Dress.

Plot-wise: Serah and Noel are pretty engaging. The little sidequest-stories are fun time-travel ideas, like finding notes from your future-self, or your cell phone from an alternate you. I like the idea of different times 'bleeding' together in little pockets.
The rest of the plot, particularly the cast from FF13, is kinda 'meh' for now. I don't have much hope for it. (No pun intended)

Gameplaywise: Djinn used Master Ball. FERAL BEHEMOTH WAS CAUGHT!
Feral Behemoth likes the Carbuncle Plushie you gave him.

I'm okay with the fetch-quest-style sidequests. They aren't all slogs. They're easy to ignore if they seem hard, and the little plot details you get from the easy ones are pretty worthwhile.
Also, I get to throw the shit out of my adorable moogle and get rewarded for it.

They seemed to have gotten rid of the terrible crafting system for weapons that FF13 had, so overall, I'm calling this game a success.

[Cotigo]

Needs more Dickdog.

[Tide]

Been racing and getting involved with speedrunslive. Ran Snowboard Kids 2 a few times, once in a race, several times alone. Gotten my time down to an hour before but it requires near flawless play and a lot of luck in the last few levels.

Will see what other stuff to race.

[Grefter]

FF13 changes to fix things haters hated

I never asked for this.

[Clear Tranquil]

Why is Grefter so win? ~

Har. I don't know though. Going to pick up a copy of the strategy guide today. From scouting ahead seems like the game has PUZLESZ in spades. Obnoxious puzzles and obnoxious puzzle dungeons are obnoxious. Maybe FFXIII-2's won't be so bad but it'll be nice to have a guide handy in case.  It does seem like they might be obnoxious from the amount of them I've seen in livestreams and one long dungeon is a huge tetris box with floating tetris blocks where if you don't jump right you fall allll the way down. Super's also right about the Crystarium this time - it's completely non linear and you can progress your characters any way that you want - except the game doesn't seem to tell you what the stat upgrades are and the abilities also aren't all marked out for you for future planning, strategy guide might also help with for finding a successful way to develop Serah/Noel and my monsters so they have respectable stats, not wonky. Also looks likes there's a boatload of other stuff in general that I might miss without a guide~

[Anthony Edward Stark]

It's weird, seeing a Square logo when I fire up a modern-gen game and then playing a game I like. I came in with such low expectations and it turned out to be really, really, really good.

[Captain K.]

Phantasy Star IV:  I'd been avoiding this game because you guys hype the hell out of it which is usually an indication that the game is shit.  But I was bored so...

Wait... This isn't too bad!  There's cutscenes... and humor... and I get to extort money from my own party members!  I guess this might actually be playable.

This completely awesome mage joins who has a massive TP reserve and destroys everything in one hit.  Then he leaves and is replaced by a slow, inaccurate fighter.  NOOOO

[NotMiki]

This completely awesome mage joins who has a massive TP reserve and destroys everything in one hit.  Then he leaves and is replaced by a slow, inaccurate fighter.  NOOOO

Relax, that dude will soon be replaced by someone more useful (like, say, anyone else in the cast.)

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Not soon. Gryz is like the longest-lasting temp in the game and he's pretty much the worst of them all.

[Hunter Sopko]

Growlanser 2: Started. Wayne Campbell Cruz totes believes decision making is most important in a commander and would defend and counter during a surprise attack. He came to learn Combat Tactics and feels he is weak in Defensive Magic. His protective element is Earth and he loves Onyx.

Seems like a game I should enjoy. The VA is surprisingly wooden, but WORKINGDESIGNS LOL. Played the tutorial mission and the first battle, about to head out to investigate somethingorothermonsterscouldn'tpayattentionwhatthefuckiswrongwiththatguy'svoicedoeshegarglerazorblades?

[Sierra]

Dark Souls: Four Kings went more or less as planned. Brief panic moment when I hadn't noticed I'd accidentally shuffled the items during a butterfingers moment, cue mad mashing of square button and "Oh god why am I not regaining HP?!" Fortunately Frue Tanking was still in effect. Also minor freakout when the fourth one died but the battle didn't end. "Wait what there's still a smidgen of the boss health meter left WHAT'S GOING ON." Fight in general is an admirably tense encounter. It wasn't particularly difficult when I came in prepared (I actually had time to spare between enemy appearances), but the atmosphere puts you on edge before you're even engaged in combat. Drop down a dark shaft at the bottom of a ruined subterranean city, find yourself surrounded by absolute, unyielding blackness, suddenly this ghastly apparition that looks like an explosion in a sheet metal factory warps in (then another one, and another one...and another one) and all the while this is blaring at you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUk1R-XNOzw&feature=related. I don't believe I can think of a videogame battle better suited to instill a sense of sheer panic in the player.

Glad to be done with New Londo (at least until the inevitable titanite slab farming ensues). Thereafter cleared out the Tomb of the Giants, which I will be glad to never see again. Nito, by contrast, was saaaaad. Admittedly he might not be if I hadn't come in with a divine weapon to dispose of his support. But without the skeleton mob? Zero strategy, just run up and slash at him with Quelaag's sword until he falls over. If he uses magic, heal, otherwise laugh.

Tore through the Duke's Archives, stopped after dying half a dozen times in the Crystal Cave. Obviously I don't have the focus tonight to deal with a dungeon full of invisible paths over fatal drops. Not looking forward to going back. While I give it credit for not looking like any other environment in the game, it is just, well, very blue.

EDIT: I can't help but wonder at the precise dimensions programmed for the Abyss. I started running directly away from the bonfire to find out. Eventually the bonfire dwindled and disappeared. Then I couldn't find it again and had to use a homeward bone to get ported to it.

[Captain K.]

The game certainly had its flaws, but Dark Souls was definitely the best programmed game of 2011.

PSIV:  I have a Land Rover that fits in my pocket.

[Hunter Sopko]

The game certainly had its flaws, but Dark Souls was definitely the best programmed game of 2011.

PSIV:  I have a Land Rover that fits in my pocket.

Pfft. You're just glad to see me.

[Captain K.]

Guilty as charged.

PSIV:  Wtf, Alys died!  And they buried her with a tombstone and everything?  Now how's she supposed to make a dramatic ressurection?

[OblivionKnight]

She does.  But you probably haven't completed the requirements for it now.

[DjinnAndTonic]

You have to visit the dragon-head-shaped forest and fight the Golden Dragon. It's only a 0.01% chance random encounter, and it will drop a "Revive Alys coupon" at a 0.001% chance. Get that and then complete ALL the missions and you'll receive a special fight against Alys herself later in the game. If you managed to powerlevel enough to beat her, then she'll be revived in your party. Make sure to powerlevel for at least 20 hours first. She's THAT hard. Harder than that Land Rover in your pocket.

[Meeplelard]

You have to visit the dragon-head-shaped forest and fight the Golden Dragon. It's only a 0.01% chance random encounter, and it will drop a "Revive Alys coupon" at a 0.001% chance. Get that and then complete ALL the missions and you'll receive a special fight against Alys herself later in the game. If you managed to powerlevel enough to beat her, then she'll be revived in your party. Make sure to powerlevel for at least 20 hours first. She's THAT hard. Harder than that Land Rover in your pocket.

You have your games screwed up here, because this is clearly the revive Leo method.

Reviving Alys I remember definitely has 7 more steps at least in the manner, and at least one of them was "Revive Aeris on Disc 1."

[Fenrir]

Sage: Alley-Oop is actually my favourite move in Precis' entire skillset, I only used this (and sometimes Barrier) past a certain point!

El Cid: You need to keep the ring against the four kings, but don't have to keep it in the Abyss afterwards.
Nowadays I sometimes die against Pinwheel and Iron Golem, never against Bell Gargoyle and Taurus Demon. Weird, huh?


Lego Harry Potter 5-7 : Finished, 100%. That was fast.
Probably a better game than Skyrim.


Racist Robot SaGa: Finished. The final boss was downright impossible with my robots, as predicted. So I checked a few topics on the arena on gamefaqs to get the best prizes (figuring this on your own would be such a pain) With 3 more MT full healing rods (Each with 5 full healing charges) that I slapped on my two fast robots while the two others were spamming Excalibur and Gungnir, I won!
I also beat every battle in the two optional arenas, except the one against Perfect Apollo. Good enough for me.

The game lasted about 15 hours. Robots are broken because you only very rarely need to fight random battles. You get enough equipment from dungeons, just slap those on your robots and you can probably beat anything.

I had two strength robots and two agility robots all the time. For most of the game, agility robots >>>> strength robots. Agility robots acted first (which is useful with those group attack guns), did about the same damage, and never had accuracy issues. (Strength robots couldn't hit anyting past a certain point without two rapiers or three in their inventory. And they only have 7 slots)
Then you get Gungnir and Excalibur, and strength robots start doing slightly more damage while still going last. Hurray.
Thankfully you can just change your setup whenever you want. I should have sticked with four agility robots for the whole game, with maybe one strength robot endgame to make good use of all these big damage swords everywhere.


In any case, I loved my racist robots. This just wouldn't have been the same with humans and espers.
It's unfortunate the developers didn't keep the same giant tower with floors setup of the first FFL, even if that didn't make any sense. Climbing a giant tower that leads to some worlds on different floors >>>> Going to the top floor every once in a while and teleporting to some worlds from there.

Highlights of the game:
- A town called Final Town, next to a dungeon called Final Dungeon. I really wouldn't want to live there.
- Racing minigame in an RPG: The weirdest racing since Big Rigs.

[Meeplelard]

Ninja Gaiden 2: So Chap 7 was fine until it decided to throw a completely pointless filler boss out of nowhere after you just beat a fairly tough boss (who had actual plot) right before it.  Said boss also has one of the dumbest mechanics you can give a boss like this:

Self Destructing that is instant death if you don't dodge it in a specific way, and the way to avoid it is discovered purely through trial and error, meaning you can kill him multiple times before you actually progress.  Seriously, that was just a stupid move and I don't know who thought the game needed a giant lava armadillo.