What Games ya Playin' 2012 - Suplex a Train Edition

[Dark Holy Elf]

A record of the rule of an awe-inspiring Koopa King, part 2:


Dear diary,

Where did we leave off last time? Oh right, I had just been crushed by my castle.

I've always said that trying times will show us who is the bigger man. Turns out then when times get trying, I am the biggest man of all (as expected). I figured if my own castle was going to attack me, I would have to show it who was boss. I'm the master of the castle; it is not the master of me! The only solution was for me to grow to about twenty times my normal size and give it a pounding. Yes, it was time for my enemies to know the wrath of GIGA BOWSER.

Anyway, my castle was being commanded by some pink rhinoceros named Midbus. I think his name is supposed to be some sort of terrible pun but I refuse to think about it too hard. He tried to attack me by sending out swarms of shyguys in airships, but fire cleansed everything. I was a little concerned with how easy I was able to defeat my own minions, but I guess that's what happens when they lack the morale boost that only comes from working for me! Eventually I pounded the castle enough that it fell to the ground again.

Unfortunately around this time I returned to my normal size. This wouldn't be so bad except that it happened in about an instant and my centre of gravity didn't change as it happened, so I found myself floating in mid-air and fell to the ground. Ow. I knew the day had been going too well. I asked Chippy if he knew any way for me to return back to my more fitting, giant size, but he babbled something about it only being possible in dire situations. Well screw that! First thing I do after I get my castle back and using Fawful as a baseball bat is to get my minions to work on finding a way to make the transformation permanent.

So anyway, I stormed up to the gates of my castle. Midbus appeared on the battlements and babbled that now we could have a "fair" fight because I was my normal size again. His idea of a fair fight was apparently to fire a giant cannon at me from the safety of my own castle. But you know what? I'm such a badass, I caught the cannon ball (which was several times my size) and threw it back at him! Oh yeah, sometimes even I have a hard time wrapping my head around my own awesomeness. My castle took some pretty serious damage from the impact, but fortunately my minions worked quickly and bandaged all the structural damage up. I kinda wish I didn't mean that literally, but oh well.

I needed that taste of victory to put me in a good mood, because what followed next was absolutely horrible. When I got inside my castle, I found my minions prattling on and on about how great Fawful was. His perfect teeth, his delightful manner of speech, the height of fashion that is his swirly glasses... it seriously pissed me off! Fawful had also taken to redecorating the place, putting swirly glasses on all the images of me inside the castle! Stealing my castle, brainwashing my minions, messing with my perfectly-chosen decor... this jerk is going to pay!

Anyway, apparently Fawful has been putting on theatrical performances in my castle while planning the takeover of the Mushroom Kingdom (because, according to one of my brainwashed minions, "everyone needs to have a hobby"). I figured I would check out this theatre, but when I got there, there wasn't a seat in the house! I'm the Koopa King, first-class VIP, you can't do this to me in my own castle! Eventually after I made my complaints known, I finally found someone non-brainwashed enough to give me a seat. It was attached to a suspicious-looking mechanism but it was large and throne-like, so I figured at least someone here was showing me the respect I deserved.

But even that respect turned out to be a ruse! After Fawful appeared and gave an opening speech to thunderous applause (a speech which wouldn't have inspired even the most insipid of Toads were it not for the brainwashing), he had the chair I was sitting in catapult me onto the stage! He then put me in a cage with Midbus, prattling about how our battle "would unfold like an angry dip of many layers on the chips of wildest hopes". What. Just... what. Anyway, I had been looking forward to pounding that rhinoceros in the face, and wasn't going to back down from the opportunity.

After my inevitable victory, it was time to move on the main event: punching Fawful in the face and getting my castle back! But Fawful had prepared a victory feast for the winner, and it would be rude and uncultured of me to turn that down. And it was delicious! No veggies to be seen this time, just tender cuts of meat and decadent desserts as far as the eye could see! I ate my fill, but the chef boos insisted so politely I keep eating, that I just couldn't let them down! So I ate and I ate and I ate. I think... I gained a lot of weight, for some reason.

And then the floorboards cracked and I fell, getting stuck in the floor. And now I can't get myself out. This sucks.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Final Fantasy Dimensions:

Actually still playing this! It really does feel like FF4-2 + FF5 Job system, but without all the stupid plot. Not that there isn't -more- FF4-2 stupid here. Not only are there level caps, there are JOB LEVEL caps by chapter. In Ch.1, all of the jobs have a level cap of 3 and no method for raising it until you beat the first chapter.

Not one to waste perfectly good Job exp, this meant that I couldn't focus on any Jobs and most of my characters ended up at Lv17 with 3 to 4 maxed jobs by chapter's end. Kinda lame when I was trying to specialize.

Come Ch.2, they give me 5 JP each, which can be used to raise a Job's level cap by 1 for each JP. So now I'm looking at a max of 8 for any -single- job, and then if I wanted to level any others, too bad. Kinda sucks. Hopefully more JP will be given out before the end of this chapter.

Still haven't gotten to play as the Dark Warriors since the beginning. The Light Warriors are so freakin' -boring-...

Current Team:
Sol (Warrior 5, Monk 3, RedMage 3)
He starts with Counter, which makes him the best physical fighter I've got (for other PCs to learn Counter, they need to either be -in- Warrior class, or get to Warrior Lv 5). He mastered Warrior 3 really fast, so I moved him to Monk, which also maxes out fast. So he spent the majority of his time in Red Mage, learning HP+20%. As a result, he ended up not being all that great for the majority of the chapter. Back to Warrior now, so he's pwning n00bz left and right now.

Aigis (RedMage 5, Warrior 3, Monk 3, WhiteMage1)
Starts with Red Magic, so I probably should have started him in a different class so he could have learned some passives to go along with his skillset. Anyway, he mastered Red Mage first and got HP+20%, then spent the rest of the time owning people as a Warrior or Monk with his innate Cover skill. MVP for Ch. 1.

Dusk (WhiteMage 5, Thief 3, Red Mage 3)
Starts with White Magic, so I made him a White Mage... great for MP early on! When I made him a Thief, he spent -way- too long learning things and had no MP. Steal was nice for keeping my Potion supply high, but otherwise Thief sucks and doesn't have enough MP to even use him as a backup Cure battery. Ended up in Red Mage for HP+20%, but his MP still hasn't recovered from Thief levelling. Possibly LVP?

Sarah (Summoner 5, BlackMage 3, Thief 3)
Except that Sarah is in the running for LVP. Built her as a Mage, but Magic is pointless for anything earlygame, Physicals own face and MP restoration is rare. Only really useful during boss fights, though it's notable that Sylph spam owns bosses hard in Ch. 1. (Too bad there's only like 3 bosses this early.)

Elgo (RIP)
Is the Temp Red Mage! Considering how much time my other PCs spent as Red Mages, Ch.1 feels like the Red Mage equivalent of a sausage fest. He -does- start out with Raise, Fira, Blizzara, and Thundara, so he was useful in boss fights and his MP reserves weren't bad so he made a good Cure battery. Doesn't gain Job Levels, though, so a little hampered in the customization department. Also made it so I was constantly switching equips around and there were never enough good Red Mage equips for everyone. He leaves at the end of Ch.1 to make way for the inevitable next "Fifth Party Member". Has a jaunty brown Red Mage's hat.

So... if anyone decides to play this game, learn from my cautionary tale: Don't start all the characters out in the Jobs that they seem designed for, it is not efficient since it means they won't learn any skills from their early level ups. Don't use Thief if you can help it, especially for your Mages, the speed isn't worth the MP hit. Sylph owns bosses. Team of 4 Warriors also probably owns everything, but you max out Warrior/Monk too quickly so stagger your team as best you can. Red Mage takes forever to max out, and it rewards you with HP+20%, so you should probably take most of your characters through it in Ch.1.

If I were to do it all over again more efficiently, it'd probably be something like:
Sol: RedMage->Monk->Warrior
Aigis: Thief->Warrior->RedMage->Monk
Dusk: Warrior->RedMage->WhiteMage
Sarah: Summoner->BlackMage->RedMage
Elgo: Constant RedMage hogging all your RedMage equips *shakes fist*

Starting with Ch. 2, you can actually raise the max J.Lvl, so there's a bit more flexibility on if you want to focus on one job or play with a whole bunch. I'll probably go back to the "DL-style" focus on one job here, depending on whether I get more JP or not.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

It's 2.99 for Ch. 1, then 9.99 each for Ch. 2, 3, and 4. These chapters are each multiple chapters themselves from what little research I've done on finalfantasy wikia. The 'bundled' package is 28.99. The Prologue chapter is free (and notably doesn't contain any job changing... WTF? Terrible demo).

It is -not- an iphone game worth $30, no. With any luck, it'll actually drop in price to reasonable levels. Obvious naked cash grab is obvious~

The gameplay itself manages to be solid -in spite of- its nature as an abomination of capitalism, not -because- it's a SquareEnix game.

The iPhone port of FF2 is still like $10 and FF2 is a game that only got made because the director was blackmailing the board of directors.  That shit's never coming down in price.

[Tide]

Wild ARMS 4 Speedrun - Finally past Enil after learning Genocide Edge right there and then. Must have 150+ resets or something silly. Anyway, onto the train now. Immediate problems:

- Arnaud is missing like 1000 EXPs because last run he took some kills from Raq. This means that I am short 10-13 points of MAG and it makes killing those Dreadnaughts with Hi-Breaks extremely unreliable. To make things worse, while Raq can solo the train more or less, I need Arnaud to be at level 25 at the end of this. This means that I have to get Arnaud the kill on those Dreadnaughts via Genocide Edge. When you combine the ID rate with the Counter needed on Tank Vehicle PLUS the fact that the move runs off HIT (...), you know this is going to suck really really fast.

Up 12 minutes now. TRIVIA - If I manage to reduce my time by another minute, I'll be 1 hour faster than when I first started running WA4. Talk about coming a long way.

[Fudozukushi]

Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition: Splitting up updates into character-centric because it will be easy.

Gentleman Joe: The first guy.  Did Lost Izalith stuff.  Demon Firesage is a joke as usual, especially with the Greatshield of Artorias.  Go back to the Daughter of Chaos to open the shortcut and realize what my TRUE GOAL now is, becoming the master of spider husbandry.  So anyway I go through the shortcut, kill the maggot, head into Izalith to get the phantoms and Siegmeyer.  Then realize I hadn't done the swamp part of his yet.  Anyway Kirk dies, Chaos Fire Whip get.  Head back out, save Sieggy in the swamp, go back to Firelink, back to the Aslyum, get the Old Witch's RIng for the first time ever.  Anyway, back over to the Centipede demon, and it's my first time actually fighting the Centipede demon in melee though.  Well, Solaire and me still kick his ass pretty bad.  Izalith goes swimmingly--the very second Chaos Eater I ever kill n the PC drops a Red Titanite Slab which is awesome since the DLC is missing its Red Slab for some reason.  Head over to Siegmeyer and... fail in saving him.  URGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.  Well, first time seeing the Speckled Stoneplate ring then.  Yay?   Bed of Chaos dies but who cares so's Siegmeyer.

Go down to Ash Lake anyway to get Dragon Scales for the Obsidian Greatsword.  Hydra's still a joke.  Get the Dragon Covenant chievie too.  Since I'm missing one dragon scale I head back to Vally of the Drakes to get it.  Also to die a half-dozen times against the Drakes.  After that display of patheticness I go and test out the Tracers since I actually have enough DEX for them now.  They're spiffy.  Anyway, Seethe is next, that'll go swell.

Ugly Joe: Enchanter Clarmore+4 without a boss dead guy. Just some Taurous Demon kills.  1,400 damage on one of them.  :psyduck: Anyway, my vague plan is to let someone/anyone here make me suffer and pick what I should do.  With vague this is my order otherwise.
-Go kill Pinwheel and get the Silver Serpant Ring for maximum comedy.  Also join the Gravelord Servant.
-Kill Gargoyles and Quelaag to open up Sen's and farm for a Symbol of Avarice for SUPER-maximum comedy.
-Kill Taurous Demon in one hit.
-Try and Kill Capra Demon in one hit.
-Troll in Depths with Gravelord Servant.

Handsome Joe: WANTS A KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS!

[Dark Holy Elf]

A record of the rule of an awe-inspiring Koopa King, part 3:


Dear diary,

Okay, I'm so mad right now. Really hopping mad. So it turns out that when that Chippy voice in my head told me I had eaten everyone, he may have been telling the truth. At the very least, apparently I inhaled Princess Peach. Which means... I had actually kidnapped her without knowing it! Yeah, I'm so awesome I can do that without even trying.

But that Fawful! That dirty little sneak! While I was trapped in the floorboards of my own castle, he snuck up on me and hit me with some sort of raygun which extracted Peach from me. And now that creep has kidnapped her! And as I've ranted before, nobody has the right do that except ME! I took some solace in the fact that he almost broke his back trying to carry her off (he ordered Midbus to help, but Midbus ignored him. See, Fawful? That's what your minions will do to you if you don't have Koopa King-level charisma).

Anyway, after that I found a fast-moving treadmill and I ran on it until I worked up a killer sweat and burned off all that fattening food from earlier. It was such an intense workout I literally caught fire! Armed with my freshly-honed muscles and the flames of determination, I set out to find Fawful and recover my princess. Sadly, all I found was a crate full of bob-ombs. They didn't take to my newfound elemental mastery well, and the next thing I knew I was flying halfway across the kingdom.

After I came to my senses, I found myself in some cave. I wandered until I stumbled upon more of my minions: a pack of Monty Moles I had previously tasked with digging their way into Toad Town as one of my many backup schemes to take over this stupid kingdom. Of course, they were incompetent and made no progress, so I had to push their drill myself until we collectively made it to the Toad Town sewers. I strode boldly forward...

... and got electrocuted by the town's security system. This sucks.

As I lay there helpless, I heard that fingers-on-a-chalkboard sound that is Fawful's hideous laughter. He was babbling about using Princess Peach to gain control of the tremendously powerful Dark Star. He disabled the security system in order to get it, so I was able to finally move on, but I was one step behind! But no matter: Peach, her castle, and this Dark Star will all be mine!

Eventually I made my way to the surface of Toad Town, but the way into Peach's castle was blocked by barriers of darkness so powerful that they didn't yield even to my fist! Now I want this Dark Star even more! I went looking around town for another way in, and that's when my day went from bad to worse. That's right, I stumbled upon none other than Mario (and, uh... green stache)! The plumbers didn't seem to want me to get the Dark Star, probably because they're jealous morons who wouldn't know a good leader if he punched them in the face.

It was a close fight, since Mario didn't have the cheaty power of cheating on his side this time. I feel like I actually prevailed despite being outnumbered, but then time rewound and I lost. I think I heard Mario say something about it being "the hardest fight in the game yet" but that doesn't make any sense and anyway it's hard to understand him with that ridiculous accent he has. Fortunately I have many weapons, and when my muscles fail me, I always have my brains. So I pretended to be unconscious and Mario and green stache discussed their next move: to track down three "sages" who might know how to overcome the dark barriers and reach Peach's castle. After some toad suggested that one of the sages lived in the nearby Dimble Woods, I got up and was off there faster than a bullet bill out of a freshly-oiled cannon. I'll be the one who gets to Peach's castle first!

To get to the woods I had to navigate past a lake, and although I came across some obstacles, I destroyed them by moving a sailboat with my sneezes. Yes, I never actually noticed this until now, but even my sneezes are so powerful and awesome they can get things done. I got past the obstacles, and rescued some more of my minions. Then I discovered an airship, so I figured to go with what was working, and sneezed on it too. It worked! The airship started up and flew into the sky!

And then it fell on... yeah, you get three guesses as to which peerless specimen of turtle royalty it fell on, and the first two don't count. It's just been that kind of week.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I Am Alive-  Bought this on Steam the other day.  It is... kind of like if you made a game out of The Road, but with more action, because it's a video game, dumbass.

Made by Ubisoft, so it uses a lot of the Assassins Creed style free running, but with a twist: you have a stamina gauge that depletes as you climb, so just like an actual climber (as opposed to the Amazing Spider-Ezio) you have to actually plan your ascent before you begin, and if you dick around too much you will exhaust yourself and plunge to your death.  So it's a challenge of pathfinding as much as anything, and then you have to memorize your route and execute.  You can also consume water or whatevs to replenish your stamina somewhat, but like I said: this is a game based on The Road.  That shit doesn't grow on trees.

This game is very brown and gray.  Not in a Gears of War way, but like when they made the movie version of The Road with Viggo Mortensen, brown and gray.  Society has collapsed, everything has gone to shit, and dust storms choke people to death while earthquakes collapse buildings.  NPCs are wearing multiple layers of scrounged clothing and so on.  It is an extremely dismal game world so far.  The dust storms have an in-game effect, too: if you have to go out in one, and are at street level or just a little above it, it will drain your stamina and health, potentially becoming lethal.  As a result, you dart from spot to spot high up, using the vantage to plan a route beforehand.  Running about like a goon will only get you killed.

NPC behavior is quite interesting and a highlight of the game so far.  Different NPCs have different types of behavior: some are just suspicious, defending their territory, and some see you as someone to kill and take things from.  Those who are aggressive can sometimes be cowed by pulling your gun or backing up and not making sudden motions.  When shit does go down, it tends to do so in a hurry.  Guns are treated like guns in the Road Warrior: bullets are precious resources to be carefully husbanded, and threatening people with an empty gun can do wonders.  And when you actually pull the trigger, they look the fuck out.  In a fight with four men, two with guns and two with knives, I had to lure the first guy into range where I could open his neck with a surprise attack, then whirl around and shoot the second gunman.  Both drop their guns, and if you don't pick them up, the two guys with knives will.  Now, if you do everything right, you can simply point your gun at them and they'll start backing off, because you just shot two guys and they don't know HOW many more bullets you have left.  On the other hand, if you get overzealous and make the deadman's click, bluffing with your gun becomes useless and they'll rush you.  Knife fighting is an exhausting thing and trying to fight two people at once will usually get you killed unless you can somehow divide them up or ambush one.  You can also use the environment to save bullets.  I bluffed a guy into putting his hands up and getting on his knees before I kicked him off the edge of a roof, for instance.  Saved me from using my only shot.

All in all I'm really enjoying it so far, and it was only 15 bucks.  I am interested to see where the game goes from here.

[Fudozukushi]

Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition.

Handsome Joe: Handsome Joe has a problem: he's just TOO damn handsome.  This led to a lot of resentment during his fledgling years, so in order to best give himself a defense he became an accomplished pugilist.  This also unfortunately gave him quite the temper in the manner of YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS RIP AND TEAR.  So when he sees the Asylum Demon he can't help but get up close and personal.  And I mean that literally because I punched a goddamn fatass demon in the ass for hours.  So after we learn the only thing that smells worse than zombie is zombie with its arms in demon ass, we die a couple of times.  Some were close, some weren't, but they were all stupid because punching away 813 HP two damage at a time is giving me Tales of the Abyss flashbacks.  So, on my final run, I do good, get him down nice and low, three bars of health left, so around 188 HP which is not even a hundred more ass punches!  And then I roll into the exit door.

Then I stare in disbelief for a minute or so.  Or so.

After cursing the gods and adding baldness to my list of defining life traits, I go and bitch through the Asylum and get Estus, key, plunge attack, kill Asylum Demon and no shiny useless Demon Great Hammer for me.

I still don't know what madness set into me that I didn't stop playing when I arrived in Lordran, so I just kept going.  Did the usual starter things.  I managed to make it back across the New Londo Fire Keeper Soul death bridge of tiny only for a ghost to eat my face off.  For comedy I take the Valley of Drakes path into Darkroot.  Grab Red Tearstone Ring for comedy too.  My first actual enemy kill ends up being a damn crystal lizard.  THINGS~  But I finally make it up to Andre and get some sweet sweet Cestus.  I quadruple my damage output!  With 9 damage nothing can stop me hahahahahaha! 

So after I get stopped by everything and their dog, I remember I'm a cleric and Heal comes in handy a lot.  Also no-shield makes you much better at parrying then having a shield.  It also makes you much better at dying horribly.

Gentleman Joe: Who once parried, and is now some freakish Four Knights build.  Was in Seeth's jail, broke out, yadda.  Got Channeler's Trident, got Avelyn through cheese method after dying five times.   Rescued Sieglinde, and weep that she may never meet he father again this playthrough.  Get far too many Blue Titanite Chunks off the golems.  Head into caves, prove I'm a masochist by getting the Blue Titanite Slab despite already having the DLC one and that Ugly Joe will be getting the Enchanted Weapon chievie easy.  Go and fight Seeth, and get the Moonlight Greatsword with ease.  This is the Red Titanite Slab of this post as my victory is crushed by Seeth actually managing to kill me.  Twice.  On the third attempt I'm pissy so I just plaster his ass with Dusk Crown-Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring-Power Within-Ascended Pyro Hand+5 Great Fireballs and kill him in three hits.

Then I farm over 100 pieces of twinkling titanite.  Get over 100k souls from clams.  Bought out Logan's things, bought out Griggs, bought out Rhea, bouth out Ricket and get Magic Weapon chievie.  Also realize Ingward has the last sorcery.  But stuff from Patches.  Head to Gough to buy some of his arrows.  650 is too damn much.

[Sierra]

-Try and Kill Capra Demon in one hit.
-Troll in Depths with Gravelord Servant.

Both of these things. Not that Gravelord Servant does much beyond invite people to come and kill you. Run seven goddamn characters through the game by now and only once have I ever seen Gravelord black phantoms. Some goon running NG++ or something summoned me and got hit with it in the Demon Ruins. Imagine the final set of stairs clogged up with a mob of souped-up capra demons that have like 6,000 hp and kill a level 75 PC in one hit. Yeah.

Good luck with the fist weapons, man. They kind of suck. Well, I guess the claw is decent.

~

Saint's Row III: My brother had this lying around so I figured I'd see exactly how crazy it is firsthand. There is DLC for this, no? Any of it worthwhile?

[Sierra]

SRIII: Jumping in front of cars for fun and profit. This is way funnier than it should be just because Havoc physics.

I really don't understand how anyone's still alive in this city.

[Meeplelard]

Sonic 4 Episode 1: All Chaos Emeralds get!  Then did Splash Hill Zone Act 1 in under a minute.  Doing it without Super Sonic seems...doable but you need to be precise at it.  With Super Sonic? Amazing what a speed boost a dramatically improved jump can do for achieving this!

Currently going through stages again, finishing them as Super SOnic to get that achievement!


Tactics Ogre: Right, beat this a few days ago!

It is leagues ahead of the original game, no questions asked there, and it is fun, but...there's definitely a few things holding it back from being truly great, and thing is?  Most of them were not necessarily bad conceptually, just the game needed to take like an extra month of development to hammer out the kinks.  Felt like they finished the core product, made sure the game was playable, then released it, rather than going over it one last time to second guess "is this adequate the way it is?"

The level 1 Job thing for new jobs was the most obvious offender.  The game at least gives you EXP for merely lasting the fight, so this isn't as bad as it could be, but it still offers little incentive to use New Jobs, basically saying "use these on Replays only!"

Also map designs could use work.  To be fair, that was the original TO's problem, but TOr had the opportunity to change them, and instead decided to be "TRUE TO THE ORIGINAL!" and its still something you had to deal with as a result.


Oh and while I didn't find Crafting necessarily bad in TOr, the existence of fail rates was just dumb.  The game doesn't auto-save, and you can Reload after failures immediately with no penalties. You waste enough time creating all the supplies from basic store-bought items, why make me spend an extra 30 seconds reloading the game and going through the crafting animation again?

Honestly, and this goes for any game I feel, any system that has a Fail Rate with an easy accessible Save Point really serves no purpose unless you're forcing the person to save beforehand (which would lead to a different problem arguably, so I'm not convinced that's necessarily better.)  This isn't like banking on a 60% hit rate in hopes to get the upper-hand in battle.  That's a legitimate Risk/Reward factor that could pay off or screw you over, and it's a genuine decision to make.  Here, its just "Oh darn, I failed, time to reload and try again."    Doubly so if the items being made aren't even game breaking, just marginal improvements over what you already have.



Anyway, decent game overall that could have been a lot better if they just hammered out the kinks.  6/10? 7/10?  Unsure offhand.  Again, dramatic improvement over the original.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I said it before and I'll say it again: TOPSP's crafting system used pure tedium as its sole balancing measure, which is a questionable design decision in and out of itself. The byzantine clunkiness is deliberate from beginning to end.

EDIT: Although, honestly? If you start crafting from the get-go, the system -is- gamebreaking, at least for the first 60% of the game or so, as someone who used at least the storebought crafts from beginning to end. The game feels clearly scaled for no crafting usage, and the +1/+2 weaponry and armor alone have a gigantic effect on how powerful you are. I think TOPSP is a better game for balancing it towards the low end, at least.

[Meeplelard]

Balancing it without Crafting was a smart move, no doubt, and I do agree Crafting is tedious.  I still maintain the Fail Rates have absolutely no purpose as the instant you recognize they can fail (be it by noticing the "Success Rate" indicator or seeing a failure first hand), you'd be saving before anything that has a care-worthy fail rate. 

Really, any game with an Item Creation system should balance AWAY from it.  Item Creation-type exists to reward those who explore it, not punish those who don't.


I guess crafting is just another fine example of how they needed to go over the game just one more time to polish it up.  All the ideas are there, and I don't see anything conceptually wrong with how TO was presented, so its really all in the polish that's holding back the ideas (though, offhand, dunno how to balance Job Leveling with the "Level Up Jobs instead of Characters" thing.  Possibly if New Jobs joined at levels based on the average level with some negative modifier (like Average Level -2).  This would have not only make newer jobs join stronger, but give an incentive to raise a number of other jobs to let newer jobs join stronger out of the gate, but they'd also join "underleveled" to not immediately outclass newer jobs, but not dramatically so that they feel unusable for a bunch of maps.)

[superaielman]

Game really needed to ditch the mark/tag/whatever class item system they use for class change. That annoys me badly and it is a very correctable thing.

[hinode]

Apparantly the crafting failure rates in the JP version of TOr were way, way, way higher than in the international release. So if you thought they were annoying as is...

Honestly, the whole system feels at times like it was forced on the dev team by executive meddling and the programmers decided to take their frustrations out on players.

[Grefter]

Really, any game with an Item Creation system should balance AWAY from it.  Item Creation-type exists to reward those who explore it, not punish those who don't.

Unless of course that is the whole driving point of your game and then like for serious you guys, Atelier games can be pretty cool.

[Cotigo]

Deus Ex - After multiple false starts since I bought it three years ago, I finally got past the first stage.  If someone hasn't given a game a shot more than past the first couple hours, you should never take their opinion about it seriously, and this game is proof positive of that.  Once I got through the godawful first stage, the game got good, quick.  Actually having multiple options to get through levels is pretty sweet, and even though I only have 3 augments so far, how much I've been using my skills to avoid outright combat whenever possible has been fun as hell. 

The game's plot is pretty good too so far, though a little dated (you mean the big agency I was working for at the start... ISN'T the bastion of justice the main character took it for? WHAAAAAAAAA).  Still, it's managed to suck me in, in a good way.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Really, any game with an Item Creation system should balance AWAY from it.  Item Creation-type exists to reward those who explore it, not punish those who don't.

Unless of course that is the whole driving point of your game and then like for serious you guys, Atelier games can be pretty cool.

This is where I chime in and say that Mana Khemia games are only good instead of outright great because they make me spend so much time on IC. Honestly can't think of a game where I outright liked it, it's just not an especially intriguing mechanic compared to the actual strategy of battles, or the more thought-provoking yet much less time-consuming character building systems seen in everything from the FFT job system to Suikoden runes.

[Tide]

Wild ARMS 4 Speedrun -

Oh boy. So I ranted about this last night in chat. Things keep getting better. On to the train now; as you probably know, the trick to getting through this quickly is via Genocide Edge. I have almost everything needed except for tiny problem. Arnaud needs to be at level 25 before fighting Balgaine. Otherwise, he gets outsped and doesn't get his second turn before Raq gets her first. You may be wondering why this matters. This is due to the way the damage lines up. With Jude/Arnaud getting 2 turns, they can do a combined 20k damage before Raq gets her turn and as a result, Raquel doesn't need that many Intrude activations to get the kill. But without Arnaud's second turn, damage drops by about 7k which is equal to 1.5x Raquel swings. So all of a sudden, it takes a bit longer and FP consumption goes up. Also, I want to keep his level up to pace because he needs the levels as a couple of bosses later require his MAG to take out.

This leaves me with 3 options. All of them deal with the battles on the first train:
1) Arnaud activates Genocide Edge in the second battle. Unfortunately due to his low HIT, it means he not only has to roll for the ID to trigger, he also has to roll just to hit the enemy. There's an alternative way around this by having Jude use MYSTIC HI BREAK to deal MT damage. In this way, Arnaud only needs to hit everyone with Genocide Edge instead of also needing ID to trigger (Yulie gets a follow up turn to kill the remaining enemies with Material if needed).

2) Raquel still triggers Genocide Edge, but now has to wait for ID to miss on a target. This gives Arnaud an opening to Jump and use Hi-Break on the remaining soldier.

3) Standard tactic, with Arnaud getting the kill on the third fight with a boosted Hi-Break hitting max power to kill both Dreadnaughts.

I thought scenario 1 was the most preferable. But the fact that scenario 2 and scenario 3 can be attempted in the same run means that I get two chances to get what I need. Oh yeah, on top of all this, I need to avoid random triggering of double techs cause they use time and still score a Hi-Counter on Tank Vehicle. Fuck me.

[kokushishin]

TO crafting is stat-related.  There are a couple oddities but most if it is straightforward "Raise Dex if you want better bows" etc.

[Dhyerwolf]

The Last Story- Horrible start. I guess I remember hearing that Mistwalker's first game entry was their best. Battle system is a bad mix of super pedestrian and headache inducing thanks to constant camera twirling. Any chance it improves?

[Niu]

The battle system gets better. It is somewhat mindless at first. But fights later on require more planning and uses of terrain and other stuff.

But the camera does not gets better. And actually makes those fight that needs planning to be annoyn.

[Dark Holy Elf]

A record of the rule of an awe-inspiring Koopa King, part 4:


Dear diary,

So last time, an airship fell on me, which by all rights should have resulted in my minions searching out Bowser Jr. to make him the new king.

But of course, as we have already learned, when Bowser is in a dire situation, he taps on a hidden reserve of power! Yes; fueled by a desire to get my revenge on Fawful and take the Dark Star that should rightfully be mine, I was again able to channel my boundless inner strength into becoming GIGA BOWSER. I showed that airship who was boss, beating it up good. It was such a satisfying display of power that even the return to normal size followed by a long fall (again) couldn't dampen my spirits.

Anyway, the airship settled on the ground as a goofy-looking tower which looked annoyingly like Mario (maybe it was my imagination). So I stormed in to give whoever was pilotting it a piece of my mind. Turned out my work was already done; the owner of the tower was a long-dead ghost. He had invented some machine he called the boo-ray which apparently could reveal ghostly things inside my body. For some reason I decided to play with the machine on myself for a while, turning it on and off as if compelled by some mysterious force. Eventually, my inexplicable behaviour paid off and Chippy informed me I had gained the ability to perform body slams! I tried out my new skills immediately and was suitably impressed with my newfound ability to smash through floors and activate various oversized switches mysteriously lying around the Mushroom Kingdom. I am so awesome.

At this point, I ran into a Toad who announced, "I see Mario and Luigi have already met the first sage and obtained his star cure!" WHAT. That's so unfair, I would totally have beaten them if I hadn't been crushed by a tower! Fortunately, the toad went on to say that the second one had been located, and it was in my very own castle! He referred to it as Bowser's Castle, third person, as if he wasn't even talking to me. He said that I had taken it from the sage and locked it in my vault. I was a bit confused but then I remembered that I totally mugged some loser for shiny treasure a while back. I guess I already met the second sage, and in my favourite way to meet people, too! I headed to my castle.

Upon reaching the castle, I discovered it was still acting as that horrible Fawful Theatre and swarming with brainwashed minions, but with both Fawful and Midbus away, there wasn't much resistance as I carved my way through a castle. I found my way to the VIP room which still had a feast laid out, and ate some more. This caused me to gain a lot of weight again, but this time I was able to quickly work it off with an array of rapidfire sit-ups, Bowser-style. So, back to exploring! Unfortunately, the path to the basement had been blocked off! So I explored around to find another way to the basement, and then I came across a giant statue of Fawful on the top balcony floor of my castle. SMASHY TIME!

But then I had an ingenious idea! The statue was actually located above the sealed-off entrance to the basement! So I made to push it over the ledge. A bunch of my brainwashed minions tried to stop me by pushing the statue back, but I'm such a badass that I overcame all of them at once, and pushed the statue and them over the ledge, smashing a path down to the basement and destroying the statue! Mwahaha, just another great moment in my awesome life!

So I headed into the basement, and eventually found my way to the vault. Some of my loyal minions had made it there ahead of me But then, right when I was about to open the safe which contained the star cure, a train burst into the room! ... yeah, I don't get it either. It was the Monty Moles from before! Those incompetent buffoons had drilled their tunnel into my vault instead of into Toad Town! ... or that's what I thought at first. But then I noticed that the front of the train was green and had giant swirly glasses on it and... oh god.

TRAITORS! Unlike my other minions the moles showed no signs of brainwashing; they had joined up with Fawful for money. I walked up to punch them in the face so damn hard...

... then I got ran over by a train. It pushed me along the tracks for several minutes. I tried my best to stop it but eventually it ran into a giant boulder at the end of the track and crushed me.

But man, at this point, death by crushing doesn't even bother me any more. Because we all know what happens next. Yes, GIGA BOWSER made his triumphant return, with this "Fawful Express" as his prime target! The train ran fullspeed away from me so I had to chase after it, before it travelled 100 "kilomoles" and made it over a rickety bridge and I, in my eagerness to exact my revenge on those traiterous scum, followed and fell to my doom. This was certainly my trickiest battle as Giga Bowser yet, but of course I prevailed, smashing those Monty Moles good!

And so, I returned to my castle, and reached my vault, and went to open the safe where the star cure is... and then realised that I've forgotten the combination! So I ordered Chippy to go into my memories and find it! Chippy acted like a pouty little bitch because I didn't ask "politely", so I had to (quietly) say pretty please like some child until he agreed to do it.

Guess there's nothing left to do but wait for that annoying voice in my head to get things done!

[Cotigo]

Deus Ex: Weu cam to honkon. han painted chaina vely osentic

voice acting lol

also the game just handed me a 1 hit kill melee weapon. that doesnt take any patience like the prod does. lololololol.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Rudra no Hihou: Yes! Just what this game needed! A completely anti-climactic ending! This game is totally getting 11 out of 10 stars!

Ugh, this game. I finished it. Great concepts abound, but the end result is terribly flawed. So far it's the worst of the dozen or so Square games from the SNES era that never got translated that I've played. Pretty much the inverse of my reaction to Bahamut Lagoon (where it felt like a game full of cool ideas, but these merely lacked polish/balance, as opposed to being boring/incomprehensible).

I think my list goes something like: LiveALive > Bahamut Lagoon >> Seiken 3 >>>> Rudra

Zettai Hero Project: I also beat this. Fuck this game's endboss, NIS. Cool ending, though.