What Games ya Playin' 2012 - Suplex a Train Edition

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Everyone at the end is saved by a literal Deus ex machina. There is nothing even worth discussing.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I think there's a reason you made that resolution. You may want to stick with it.

[Excal]

I seem to be falling into a habit of skipping around a bit. With a few exceptions.

Professor Layton Trilogy

These have been my portable games of choice recently, and I got to close out 2011 by finishing Unwound Future. I thought heading in that the puzzles would be the primary selling point. And for the most part, they are delightful, though by the end of the third game, you start getting an eye for what'll work on even new stuff.

However, the characters are also generally excellent. Each of them can be boiled down to one or two character traits, but this is fine that they're not meant to be deep, or even overly compelling. They're simply meant to take their respective part in a fairly simple mystery plot.

The mysteries themselves are another issue. The second and third games both have their instances of having plot twists which are certainly forshadowed, but are more along the lines of "would be an asspull if they didn't put clues in before hand".  That said, fun games, and I'm definately going to be giving Last Specter a shot once I'm not so burnt out on puzzles.


Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Figured I'd give this one a shot. The graphics are gorgeous.  The sketch based character work is just a treat for the eyes, and each of the characters has a lot of personality, both in expressions, mannerisms, and in their dialogue.  The setup is also good so far. Ex-cop searching for his former buddy, now working as a guy who 'finds things that don't want to be found' under cover as a travelling salesman. Winds up at this hole in the middle of nowhere just as a bunch of interesting things, some related to him, are happening.

Really, with all of this praise, there's really only one issue I have with this game. And that's the unintuitiveness of some of the triggers. It's about as bad, if not slightly worse than the investigation phase of the Phoenix Wright games. Only there's no courtroom antics, and while there's less pixel hunting, there's more places to search, and more permutations of what to check.  So, yeah. Great game, just one major flaw.


Romance of the Three Kingdoms 7
This one is just personal indulgence since I like strategy games. Also, this one has less minutae and fine detail handling than the other ones I've played since, for the most part, you are forced to automate a lot of stuff (or you simply don't have a lot of authority) and usually only control yourself in combat. Honestly, I like this, because it means reading the AI, and figuring out how best to manipulate it to win battles with just one unit (badassedness of unit not guaranteed, though in this game it is)

In my current game, I suspect my side is going to lose despite not losing a single real battle I've been in. Man...  just realised I'm playing a Stark.

[Idun]

I'm not sure if this is directed towards a specific person or the entire discussion, but there's definitely good things about the plot. I find myself interested more in the dynamics of its characters though. In any case, I'd be upset over spoilers regardless of purportedly valueless plot. I didn't purchase FF13 with a DL bedside reader. If 13 is played to the degree that games like 7, Xenogears/Saga or more popular titles at the DL, and I willingly joined a messaging board, I'll just steer clear of impending discussion.

[Sierra]

Skyrim: Half of Markarth's guards are detailed to a museum that something like two people actually have access to. Makes sense to me.

[Fudozukushi]

Skyrim: Half of Markarth's guards are detailed to a museum that something like two people actually have access to. Makes sense to me.

And the other half are more corrupt then... some corrupt thingy.

....

Man did I ever enjoy killing everyone in that town.



Fate / Extra: As the keenly observant of you saw in the Christmas topic I got this bod boy for... Christmas.  Should I have said present?  Would have flowed better.  Well, anyway, yeah, Christmas!  Went through the Prologue on Christmas day before family stuff took over.  While I originally intended to offer more posts then um, this and earlier, that sort of shattered when I realized I was beating an in-game week each day.  I blame not getting this up on Monday on Sunday being also consumed by family.  Or something.

The Adventures of King "Joe" Awesome and his Servant Saber.  Naturally I didn't even know about all the king business going on in-game when I named my dude.  So the final weeks became hilariously confusing.  And does anyone actually use the nickname in the game?  I never saw it.  Also I'm not gonna explain anything since anyone who wants to actually play this game already has it and knows everything anyway.  So bacon away!

Round 1: I won.

Round 2:--huh?  You want more detail on Round 1?  It's the bloody first fight!  You're hand is practically held through the damn thing.  What was that about my mother?  Fine, fine you cheeky brat.

Round 1: So, despite being training wheels in difficultly a normal person is still all, WHOA and unattuned to things.  Which is made up for with how easy the enemy patterns are.  And these are the parts online reviewers claim are too hard.  As for Riderboobies!, while Matrix E is pretty much shoved in your face so no real worries there.  Hind isn't too damaging, though I expect that to change when against Archer and Caster.  I don't know whether the Master's little tantrum at the end was true or not, but ehhhh....

Round 2: Now we have some actual pro skills cred.  Except again everyone is doubting us because we're against a pro Master with resolve and determination and a spiffy beard!  But a nice beard fails to the see-through skirt!  The dead-end choice when running is so stupid.  Which means I'm stupid.  Now what does that say about you?  Also I actually got the Dead End in the prologue.  I'm depressed and you clearly hate yourself for reading this.  So uhhh, continuing on actual game-related things, the Master handicapping himself so badly by choice for a set of ideals brings flashbacks to Stay Night.  As for the actual fight, oh boy, I almost lost this one because it wasn't until the final round that I realized what Archer's NP was actually doing.  I just kept guarding and assumed that was negating its effects, it wasn't until the Poison nearly killed me that I realized what was going on.  Thankfully having skirmished with him in the Arena so much gave me a very good clue on his pattern which allowed me to end it.

Round 3: Now we're totally pro!  Except we're up against a little girl.  And as a man protagonist this means it's creepy.  Also I found out in my NG+ you can actually meet Alice in Round 1 Day 1.  Anyway, Alice's whole week is confusing and bizarre which fits pretty much perfectly.  It was also where I got my first real Game Over against... the Vorpal Sworded Jabberwocky.  He got a bloody EXTRA off on me because I conserved Servant MP as Saber.  I deserved that one, badly.  So beyond that and even more lose of identity, BOSS FIGHT!  I was actually considering putting some points into MAG to boost defense against Caster's spells, but uh, she has the same HP as Archer(who had twice as much as Rider).  And I'm now thrice! as powerful.  It ended on Round 3.  I don't even remember if she got her NP off.  And then Alice dies and Alice doesn't and everyone is sad.

zone 0: gotta save that tsundere.  also carnival phantasm has taught me lancer-kun deserves nothing but suffering

Round 4: If Lil'Ronnie wasn't so delightfully insane I'd be worried.  Also home to my next Game Over because I ran into them in the Arena during that obnoxious hunting because it's impossible to tell where they are at all early on.  And 900 damage on a normal attack when my HP was something 1600 was carp!  So uh, that aside, and landslide victory in the hunt leading into a fight where Lancer's normal attacks did only 400 made me... annoyed?  Yes, that fits.  For now. *evil laughter* As for the actual big bad boss fight, it was... forgettable.  I had enough of both MPs to end it on the third round again.  And then Lancer bid farewell to his humanitarian wife.

Round 5: Aw man, gotta fight that big bad assassin man.  Installing the bypass circuit was oddly painless, yet I have a feeling Archer and Caster are gonna get reamed.  And then comes three successive Game Overs.  The first one was to a Nephilim because once again HAR HAR SKILLS WHO NEEDS THOSE!  The second time was using the wrong Code Cast during the assassin bout.  Because boosting damage in a survival fight is better then healing!  Then the third was to one of those damn birds who I read poorly and once again SKILLS, USE THEM!  And then Elimination battle!  Hilariously I could have won without using Saber's NP because by this time she's dealing so much damage with Thunderous Applause that it probably did 75% of Assassin's life.  And fighting him so much gave me a really good read on his patterns.

Round 6: The land of the nobody.  Aw man, Flower Girl got eliminated!  I was really, sorely tempted to say no on the rooftop.  I had to restrain myself!  I haven't had to do that in... time.  I honestly had more trouble against Moby Dick then the actual Servant.  I was actually really worried going into this fight because of talk I heard... here?  Maybe.  Berserker still hit like a ton of bricks, but Saber is just too damn resilient and brutal to give him much of a chance.  RH revival is ridiculous though.  Glad I could burn through the resurrected HP on the same turn.

Round 7: Where Kings go head to head!  The surprise in Arena 1 was damn insane, if acceptably easy.  First spar against Gawain and I knew what was going on with the third Invalid.  Yay knowing Morte!  And of course this is the bloody sun sea.  Does anything ever not conspire against the PC?no  Second spar went... interestingly.  Gave me a good handle for the Elimination Boss battle.  Also joking around King to king was great.  As for the boss... well, knowing his pattern decently well means he only got off three actual successful hit in Four Rounds.  That's so... disappointing.

Mr. Millionaire.  Man, I was like all, what!  And oh no he didn't!  And, what's up with those ears?  And there's all, oh wow that Code Cast disrupted the DOOMSDAY BARRAGE!  For a turn.  And then there was water and moe and a blonde and a FIN.


The Adventures of Queen "Jane" ExcellentSuperior lousy space limit and her wonderboy Archer!  He's so dreamy~  And she's so cute~  Man, there's hilarious amouts of foreshadowing and comparison to the endgame in the start.   Spiffy.  Didn't do anything of substance yet, mostly just checking NPC's I never saw or chatted with.  Flower Girl's back, yay~!

[Grefter]

It was mostly a resolution that I think everyone is sick of me babbling about it.  This is hard for me because I kind of come here because I enjoy discourse, but the conversations about this game I know I tend to dip into more mean spirited monologue than you know actual fun dialogue.  I don't like to type just to read the shit I have to say, I like to do it to see what other people have to say which is clearly not the outcome that happens.

And because I can't help myself (Sorry) I of course go entirely counter to that and have to keep compulsively  rambling.  This doesn't actually say anything of worth. Do not read unless you want rambling.  I suppose I have kind of drifted into a why Chapter 11 is the way it is and why I don't consider that a spoiler thing anyway.

I mean literally that, not that the things that happen in Chapter 11 are so bad that they are devoid of worth as a piece of writing.  That would be some Xenosaga 3 shit.  I mean literally nothing happens in Chapter 11.  The plot progresses in that at the Chapter 10 to Chapter 11 transition you get to Pulse.  There is nothing there.  Then in the Chapter 11 to 12 you go back to Cocoon.  Some standard story beats happen in that you unlock some Summons and the antagonist continues to be a giant dick like he had the last two chapters.  There is very little in the way of actual progression on the plot front, it is going through the motions and has no build up towards the climax of the final chapters.  It is an extended lull between two climaxes.

Things certainly HAPPEN in the end of FF13, but the meat of the plot is solidly planted in Chapter 10 and 12.  10 is a short one but that is because it moves fast, there is significant narrative taking place thoug.  12 has tons happen.  11 really lives up to its reputation as the Gameplay Chapter.   I argue that they could have done way more with it, but as it is it functions as a prolonged piece of window dressing.  It isn't like it lacks purpose, it is world building and given the part of the world they are building having it being a decent length after the breakneck speed that Chapter 10 ran at works to its advantage.  It is you know, actual pacing.

Just in the context of what happens it feels really off because the scenes that are there follow the same beats as the last few chapters while both the gameplay and the plot pacing have drastically shifted gears which is why we are all left going ?????? at it.  They are using the same story beats used as a vehicle for the plot for the previous climax without the content driving them.  A slow walk from point A to point B while discussing your inevitable slow fate of turning into a Cieth lacks the same urgency of the physical threat you experience on Cocoon, yet we have two people gain their Eidolon's at a faster clip than we had in the last 7 or so chapters of people getting them.  The story beats are out of synch with the plot and gameplay pacing.

It is out of whack with the  textbook three act plot structure the other two arcs have utilised (Noting that at this point in the game it has fallen into three arcs of said structure with the initial In Media Res, story arc we jump into the climax of in Chapter 1 is pretty much resolved by Chapter 10.)

There is certainly ways I can see it could have worked.  If there was more pressure put on desperation of not being transformed by failing their pilgrimage certainly would make things align a bit more (with bonus points for making the side quests all the more poignant).  Maybe that was the intent?  No one ever seems to really get that feeling from the chapter though and just feels like it is gameplay time have fun good luck chapter .

Okay so fragmented ramblings there I think that satisfies my compulsive need to words words words all over the place.  I hope it is less aggressive and you know some kind of attempt to apologize with my brain.  I don't even know what I am doing anymore.

[Nephrite]

The one thing I was confused about in Chapter 11 is "Everyone is together! SUDDENLY, SAZH AND FANG ALONE! FANG AND VANILLE ALONE!" and it just doesn't make sense from any kind of narrative perspective. EVERYONE IS RIGHT THERE WHAT WHY.

Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed the game a great deal, it just really feels incredibly disjointed, like they started with an idea and then the writers got sick and they had to improvise.

EDIT: I will apologize for basically re-starting a discussion I'm sure everyone had here last year when the game first came out, though.

[Niu]

....Why can't we just conclude that FF13 and pacing ends up the way it is because Toriyama sucks at writing and completely screwed up when he made faulty decisions when he is directing this game?

I mean, that was exactly what had happened. And I don't see the point to frustrate ourselves over Toriyama sucking at his job.

[Hunter Sopko]

inFamous 2: Festival of Blood- My first true adventure in add-on DLC. Fun times, kind of. Sucks getting most of the nifty powers taken away. At least the game's atmosphere chose the right influence from the first game. Mary's Sasha-esqe voiceovers and visions are hella-cool, and the whole tale is narrated by Zeke as he relates it to some floozy he's trying to impress at a bar. Totes awesome.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

....Why can't we just conclude that FF13... sucks...?

I broke your secret code.

[Nephrite]

....Why can't we just conclude that FF13... sucks...?

I broke your secret code.

I am willing to follow this line of reasoning.

[Sierra]

Skyrim: Half of Markarth's guards are detailed to a museum that something like two people actually have access to. Makes sense to me.

And the other half are more corrupt then... some corrupt thingy.

....

Man did I ever enjoy killing everyone in that town.

I want to do that just for it being an unnavigable Escherscape.

[Fenrir]

I never played the game, but I don't mind the FF13 talk.
(I will admit I'm glad Grefter isn't ranting against something cool like Great Greed though)


Fenrir's amazing(ly easy) challenges:

TO Archer SCC: Ok, this one not so much. Tried two more times. The second time one of my archers died in the first Eden battle. Sigh. Time to create some backup archers from scratch, 10 won't do.

SO2 Precis Solo: Procrastinating because I really, really don't want to go to Lacour. Level 45, built a ton of stuff with IC. All useless except for the BARRIER move and ultra punch, which makes Precis' damage even more ridiculous.

Soma Bringer Solo: Finished every sidequest. That was the most underwhelming optional uber dungeon and boss I've seen. In the end you're just ... saving some irrevelent thieves... from some easy dragon. It's less exciting than it sounds.

Adventures of Hourai Solo: Snes RPG. I'm in a retro mood.
I've been pleasantly surprised by this! I'm really not a fan of the silly school setting, but this game pulls it off. Seriously, it takes a lot to make me appreciate goofy RPG/anime/school tropes. One of the most charming RPGs I've played. I'll be humming those 16 bit tunes for a while. The FF6 sprites and FF5 job system (well, club system. And you can join 3 at a time) don't hurt. It's really rough around the edges though, and it has the first person DQ battle system, as expected from a budget title like this. I rate it: "Better than Borderlands"

Anyway I heard it was pretty easy, so I tried soloing right off the bat... This is probably like Fire Emblem or Hoshigami where soloing makes the game easier, because my Olga is unstoppable, even in this school full of badass ronins and musketeers.
- Exp is shared between party members, so she gets a lot more than in a non-solo game, much like Precis in SO2.. Except in Hourai you have 4 active PCs and 4 back row members that don't directly participate in battle (think FF10, SMT, BoF4), and exp is shared between ALL of them. So Olga gets 8X more exp than usual. (!)
- Experience gives levels but also acts as "club points". So yeah, she gets 8x more job points too.
- Getting a level refills all HPs/MPs, and she gets a level every... 5-6 battles on average?
- She's the only character who can choose to join every club. And if you master a job, you get to keep ALL of its skills, passive or active. Among other skills she now has: MT High% death, Full healing, status immunity, more exp, more gold, more rare items after battles, +30% HP, +30% MPs, +20% every other stat.

She has 999 HPs already and enemies, boss included do 20 damage to her on a good day. I haven't even used any kind of healing in the last two chapters.
Bow before this angel of destruction:

What you learnt from the beginning of the Rushmore movie is false. Joining every club in the school is a good idea.

[Grefter]

Only cool people like Great Greed though so there is no reason to be hating and perpetrating on it.

TitS - up to chapter 3 I think it is?  Zeiss anyway.  Finally a character with a shittier Orbment setup than Estelle joins the party!  I need to finish this sometime so I can go into detail on the frustration I have with the design of this system (it is minor and in no way at all think it detracts from the game functionally.  It is only bad on a hypothetical scenario so far).

[Luther Lansfeld]

Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story - Pretty cute little game. If you were expecting deep and challenging gameplay though, you've come to the wrong place. It's a cute little puzzle game with timing/RPG elements.

[Captain K.]

OoE:  Restarted as Shanoa because Albus is boring.  Went through most of the game using Ignis and occasionally Luminato.  Finished the Training Hall and Large Cavern, as well as all villager quests.  Wow Jiang Shi is a joke compared to the randoms in there.  Currently working on beating Dracula's second form.  Funny how I can beat his first form without getting hit if I'm not wearing a Death Ring, but if I am I get hit by everything.

Plants vs Zombies:  picked this up while it was on sale for Xbox.  Beat Adventure mode.  Good stuff.  I liked how they interspersed the minigames to keep it from getting monotonous.

Skyward Sword:  Started.  What the hell is up with Zelda's nose?  Flying is fun when you're not trying to catch the Golden Snitch.

[Fenrir]

Gref: As just about the only person who likes Great Greed left, thanks.

Ciato: Watch out for that tank battle with the mole lategame. Hardcore. Couldn't beat it, had to get some help.


Adventures of Hourai High:
I'm on some desert island. All of Olga's stats are maxed. I'm running out of new clubs to join, mastering one takes like 10 minutes now.
Smash.

TO Archer SCC: Finished.
Thankfully, the game lets you save after Eden, so I didn't have too much backtracking to do after losing to Dolgare once. In the final battle he just teleported next to my team, I had Denim run the hell away while everyone else arrow rained his ass. I lost two people, but I don't even care!

I liked this challenge, because bows are awesome in TO. The general strategy was running for the hills and sniping everything from afar there while keeping the same position. There's nothing like having 10 badasses shoot every enemy down before they're even able to reach them. It doesn't always work. Archers still have three major disadvantages: Height disadvantage at the start of a battle (duh), corridors, and dragons (Archers ~10HKO dragons) Some Eden battles all had three, plus enemy archers! On the other hand, some free-gratification battles have you start with a ridiculous height advantage.
This was still a lot harder than vanilla TO, because you miss a lot of cool stuff late. (Mostly Resurrection and Petrify)

I think a ninja SCC (every ninja having a bow most of the time) would actually be easier, judging from Denim's performance. The innate JUMP+1 is a godsend. Same thing with an hawkman w/bow SCC, obviously. Maybe swordmaster SCC too? (swordmasters having bows, obviously)

[Luther Lansfeld]

Great Greed is hilarious. I'm convinced my best friend is actually Bio-Hazard Harry.

Fenrir: I just fought a couple of hard bosses. Two caterpillars. Once I figured out how to dodge their attacks things were better though.

[Captain K.]

Skyward Sword:  Finished the first temple.  The motion controls are alternately cool and infuriating.  Why should I need to re-center the target every single time I use the beetle?

Whoever decided to add shield durability to a game where shields are an integral part of combat is an idiot.  Doubly so because shield durability is stupidly low.

Plants vs Zombies:  Finished all the minigames.  Pogo Party was by far the hardest.  Ended up beating it by ignoring the first five zombies and letting the roof cleaners kill them while I built up economy and planted Tallnuts, Winter Melons, and the Pirahna Plants.

[Clear Tranquil]

FF13- Just fooling around with an old file. Mostly been devising ways to fight Mission 64, Shaolung Guis, Long Guis and Neochu at Stage 9 max crystarium using Vanille/Light/Hope. Involved excessive use of Vanille's Mistilteinn weapon and finding ways to increase her durability to the stage where she was able to handle hanging around on her own to exploit the weapon's potential (granted I could have used it's boosted healing/revival effects to get my team back on it's feet extra fast instead of working it's boosted damage effects with Vanille solo but where's the fun in that ;)) It was fun times watching the damage/healing boosts when it all finally worked out though =) Also discovered Vanille was very glad to have Reprieve available to her in the SEN role at this stage while Light/Hope lost out there (it would have been useful for having them hang around longer while I set stuffs up at least >_>) Long Guis are actually easier than Shaolung Guis because at least you can take out the legs and make them fall down and not do stuffs for a while, then wail on them w/th Poison/Gestalt and Death*COM when they are down. In general they are easy prey to Vanille's Poison/Gestalt and Death*COM tricks here even while only on Stage 9 Crystarium via summoning to take out the legs straight away but I wanted to demonstrate to aiels one of the best ways to take out the legs without summon abuse (the others being Highwind and Snow's special) through defence/resist piercing character unique specials. Even without summon they were still easier than Shaolung Guis though because Roar is easier to predict than Bay I find~

Before this I also subjected aiels to the final boss fights and the ending ^_~ *SPOILER* used the Poison/Gestalt method the big O's first form and much to our amusement instant death hit the very first time I used Death on the second form once staggered

Resident Evil Outbreak- Zombies! Braiiinss~

Chapter 2 was more a distinct lack of zombies and more a puzzle fest though. The boss at the end thus was a much welcome stress relief buster after getting through the puzzles.

[NotMiki]

Played through BoF:DQ with my little brother while I was home.  Did you know that Elyon can take a turn to generate extra clones if you kill the first two while he's in stage 1?  I did not know that.

[Sierra]

Elyon's a jerk.

Skyrim: So the cult of the pointy goddess tells me to go find their new sibyl, who has apparently been born in this small town down the road. While I'm marching there to pick her up, I start to wonder, "You know, no one's told this kid's parents about the whole predestination thing before today. What if they don't actually want to let her go? Is that a decision I'll have to make for them?" But no, they're totally cool with it, except hey she got kidnapped by some bandits and you'll have to get her back first. Skyrim quests: A) go into a dungeon and kill something; B) retrieve an item; C) go into a dungeon and kill something to retrieve an item.

(Incidentally, can you only get one of those "Agent of [deity]" passive abilities? I've done a couple divine quests, but of the powers the two quests purportedly gave me, only the first shows up in the active effects listing.)

Y'know, I do see some promise in the game's basic scenario. The Empire isn't so much evil or corrupt as it is weak in the face of a foreign aggressor (one which happens to have a very open creed of racial superiority); rebel leader sounds morally questionable and may be in it more for personal glory than liberation; rebels have a genuine grievance (Empire to Skyrim: "The Dominion's insisting we ban your native religion, so stop that or we'll...we'll...we'll let them walk all over you!") but it's still easy to understand a case against them--secession is only going to make it easier for the invaders to take the continent to pieces. The setup isn't bad. It's just undermined by not being populated with anyone worth caring about. I am pretty sure my interest will drop precipitously once I run out of map to look at. There is, however, a great deal of map.

[Fudozukushi]

(Incidentally, can you only get one of those "Agent of [deity]" passive abilities? I've done a couple divine quests, but of the powers the two quests purportedly gave me, only the first shows up in the active effects listing.)

There's only the two Agent perks.  Dibella with 10% bonus damage to opposite sex and Mara with +15 Magic Resist for no effort whatsoever.  I, don't know if they can stack or not, so I'll check it out myself tomorrow.

[Luther Lansfeld]

FE10 - The Show Must Go On. I am not sticking strictly to a no-reset rule, especially in cases where I feel I will be significantly screwed over by their deaths in the future, but I am definitely not resetting over everyone.

I'm in Part 2, Chapter 3, the Crimean Knights chapter. So far three casualties; Ilyana, in Part 1-5, Nolan, in Part 1-6, and Brom, in Part 2-2. Otherwise things have gone smoothly. I had two resets on the first Laguz map!! Never had a reset there before.