What Games ya Playin' 2012 - Suplex a Train Edition

[Shale]

Defense Grid: Beat. Last stage went pretty smooth, really. Tooooooooons of fliers, they got a few cores at the end, but otherwise just load up guns at every chokepoint and watch the carnage. Good game, very solid system. Need to try some of the challenge modes.

Cthulhu Saves the World: Cthulhu's Angels, up to the volcano. The completely rebalanced party makes for a pretty nifty extra mode - glass cannons everywhere! Starting with October makes the first dungeon so so so much easier on Hard, though. Yay fireball. Loving the writing in this version, too. Mainline CStW kind of forgets to do more than pay lip service to its parody elements for a while, but when it's parodying itself things are much sharper. Evil Bridge is the highlight of the game thus far.

Darksiders: Okay, so Devil May Cry had a baby with the 3D Legend of Zelda games, and then God of War adopted it. Somehow this works. I think it has to do with the fact that instead of Navi following you around, it's Mark Hamill doing his Joker voice.

[superaielman]

You need to have two red missiles for the last couple of flier waves (Or a *lot* of cannon towers) to avoid losing cores on the finale. Try the DLC stages, those are fantastic.

[Grefter]

So I figured I should get some stuff to play on my Vita while I wait for P4 to come out.  Purchases went like this.

Oh I will just grab like $60 worth of games that is about the price of a new game on the Vita but I will get old stuff. 

You can buy money for your wallet in these portions 10, 20, 40, 80 or somethingmorethan80.  So new games are $60 and you have to use two transactions to get $60.  There is pretty much no decent reason for this.  But I grabbed $80 because they set up those pins and I will knock them down.  I grabbed Front Mission 3 because I have been meaning to play it, Vagrant Story because Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy 7 because of cultural touchstone shit, Wild Arms XF to appease dark gods (Which was pretty much where the extra $20 went).  Then I was left going "well I want an RPG and the only shit really on here is FF, so I guess I should get something notFF7".  Between PSP ports of 1 and 2, complete Collection of 4 and the PSX remakes you have pretty much anything from 1-9 to pick from (and off coarse I am buying FFXHD when it comes out).

So that left me in a quandary which to pick.  Fuck FF1 and 2 to death with a pitchfork of course, 3's remake isn't out just yet I think, but is due soon, but I have that on DS and hate it.  So 5,6, 8 or 9?  Well we know 9 is out because I have ranted about that for a long time.  8 I still prefer the PC version for breaking it in half.  5 or 6?  Well I thought about it for a while and it occurred to me that I just don't give any fucks about FF6 an longer.  Not to mention FF5 is fun as hell and the yearly challenges that big parts of the DL takes part in always gets me thinking of giving it another spin. 

So why don't I give fucks about FF6 any more?  I guess it is this many years on that most of the big things it hits is done in FF7 as well.  For a bunch of people (mostly those that played it on SNES) FF6 is this big huge game changer, but to the majority FF7 hit the same notes.  So for referring back to FF7 is more useful for the broader discussion of JRPGs in gaming culture.  They are both big story games that I have played enough to have killed the plot for, kind of modular PCs in battle with combat systems that are just a touch too slow for their own good.  Not saying that anything FF6 did that FF7 did it better, FF7 just did it bigger.  Bigger story, more modular PCs, much bigger cultural impact, way more bugs and of course a way slower combat system.

This wasn't about FF7 though, it was about FF5.  What does the jump back to FF5 bring that I don't really like?  The PSX script is a bit less fun than the GBA remake.  Uh, not being able to cycle between people when turns synch up?  That is about it.  FF5 winner and purchase.

So here we go

FF5 - Even with the worse script the first hour of FF5 has a whole bunch of "This is a thing that actually happened" moments in it and it is pretty glorious.  My favourite so far is talking around town to find out there is a dragon you can fly.  You hear about it and talk to a guy who has seen it.  There is a conversation that takes place right in his face about how this person in your party knows who owns the dragon and someone that used to ride it.  They decide they will go to the mountain and get said dragon and ride it.  After this the guy goes "I swear I totes saw a dragon you guys!".  Its okay buddy, we believe you.

No challenge or anything, just normal play through.

Also also also, the quicksave that came on the PSX version is probably the most useless thing ever.  You can save the game in a "Memo" file that will work as long as you don't turn off or reset the system.  So I guess it is there just in case you lost your memory card or something and can quickly run to the shop and buy one?  I was going to swear about how terrible a quicksave on a portable release that is until I remembered it was on the PSX version, not a specific PSP/Vita port from PSN.  Then it just confused me even more.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Well, the PS1 Quicksaves are mostly just to save you the ungodly slow loading times of regular saving on the PS1, I guess.

FF5 - Also playing this. I just finished World 1, decided to make Bartz into a jiggalo until I realized that I'd have to go through effort to twink Sword Dance. So I just have a Knight with Sing, a Ninja with Mystic Knight secondary, a Time Mage with Geomancer secondary, and a White Mage with Summon (never seen in FF before). Bartz was a Red Mage for a while.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Well I thought about it for a while and it occurred to me that I just don't give any fucks about FF6 an longer.

You are bad and you should feel bad.

I'm mostly just kinda baffled by the implication that FF6 and FF7 have the same character build systems... I mean, I know Esper-learning gives the cast flexibility/sameness in the lategame to a certain degree, but to boil them both down to 'modular character systems' is pretty much spitting in the face of one of the main things that I liked about FF6 - that all the characters had something truly unique to their builds. (I -suppose- you could make an argument for similarity to FF7 here due to weapons/Limits, but the scope is so different that it's a stretch...)

In fairness, your reasons for liking FF5 more are perfectly valid, I'm just not sure where this "FF6=FF7 but older" argument is coming from.

[Grefter]

Like I said, FF7 took FF6 and made it bigger.  FF6 had characters that are largely differentiated by equipment and at end game have some character specific skills that see very little use at all.  FF7 does that for the entire game.

[Clear Tranquil]

Tales of Graces F- Adult Arc. Just got RIIICHARD back at the Barona Catacombs. I've been controlling Sophie since Cheria left but I'll probably give Richard a whirl soon. I've unlocked Evil difficulty but so far I kind of suck at it except with Cheria. I mained Cheria from as soon as she joined and I think I kind of have the hang of her A Arte trees so far =) l already have Thunder Surge~

For the Asbel/Hubert duo fight on Evil vs the soldiers I failed hard though >_> I also lost to Hubert after in the manor though I think maybe that was supposed to happen. I had to turn the difficulty down for the soldiers and later the Barona cards. I could have probably won after much resetting maybe but I was getting kind of tired~

[Sierra]

SRIII: Also starring Burt Reynolds as Burt Reynolds.

[Niu]

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

You are only one game left before completing all the Square's late SFC era stuff (Treasure Hunter G).

BTW, for Rudra, you play the game as it is or use the translation patch?
If you play with the patch, I truly truly pity you.

[Meeplelard]

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

You are only one game left before completing all the Square's late SFC era stuff (Treasure Hunter G).

BTW, for Rudra, you play the game as it is or use the translation patch?
If you play with the patch, I truly truly pity you.

You do realize a second, far better translated patch came out at a later date, right?


That said, Djinn should play Treasure Hunter G for two reasons:

-Purple Haired Loli (I think?) Lesbian Wizards.
-Monkey that wields a Boomerang that is also your best Mage.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Holy crap I play games?

Romancing SaGa 3 - #poorlifedecisions dictates I was up for a replay to hopelessly crush my opinion of this game. Ellen playthrough, currently running Harid/Nora and trolling for extra members. It's nice to replay this with at least cursory knowledge of talent lists, though. Just went through the Lance/Yamas road and started the Highwaymen quest. Pondering whether I get Paul early or not, may end up running him as a greatsword user now that I know his talent list is friendly for those techs.

[Dark Holy Elf]

-Purple Haired Loli (I think?) Lesbian Wizards.

So close and yet so far, Japan.


Tactics Ogre: Starting this up again. Going to try to raise some stat-topic-legal PCs for some testing even if the game's mechanics are kinda psyduck.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Tactics Ogre: Starting this up again. Going to try to raise some stat-topic-legal PCs for some testing even if the game's mechanics are kinda psyduck.

Yay! Do you need some help in any way?

[Dark Holy Elf]

I'll let you know once I actually get to the end of this file and can start testing with clean PCs.

[Bobbin Cranbud]

League of Legends

Almost to greater runes! One more level to go before I get to play on an approximately level playing field.

XP systems in skill-based multiplayer games never stopped being a (stupid) thing.

That gripe aside the game remains fun. I've found I enjoy playing supports (support Nunu and Taric, to this point) most, although now that I'm a high enough level not to wipe on the wolves, jungling is starting to get fun as well.

The playerbase is every bit as bad as expected, though. Almost every solo queue has the person whose sole contribution to team chat is to say "mid." after they instalock their AP carry of choice. I can't complain too much, though, because I've won almost every solo queue game and lost almost every one I played with five friends. Probably because the best player in my usual group is deaf, the second-best doesn't own a microphone, and the fourth-best (after me) has personal reasons for not using one. -_-; It puts us at kind of a severe disadvantage against 5-man teams coordinating with voice chat.

Cthulhu Saves the World

Finished the Ultharian space ship.

Humor-wise, it feels like they had a kind of funny concept as encapsulated in the title, and then didn't feel the need to write actual jokes. Or at least funny ones. I've chuckled at some of the lines, mostly the quips from bookshelves and cabinets, but it's even more mildly humorous than Disgaea.

The gameplay is much better than the writing. I like the choices at each level-up and the mix of abilities on the characters, status effects seem to actually be useful, the combo system is interesting, randoms "running out" in each dungeon makes exploration fun, and the balance of faster clears getting more MP back is good.

I really only have two objections:

1. Is there any reason NOT to stand next to the mana replenishment point and choose Fight until all the randoms are dead? I haven't done this most dungeons, but I did do it in Dunwich because I came close to wiping (admittedly just before I got October; I probably could have pushed through afterwards). It seems like it's the obviously optimal choice for each dungeon and I'd like to believe there's a reason it isn't.

2. I get that this is an "old school tribute" type game and that terrible equipment UIs are a PC RPG staple, but did they REALLY have to make the shopping and equipment UI something that would have made me roll my eyes in 1995?

[Cmdr_King]

Dungeons are usually short enough that, assuming you don't go in circles (disclaimer: CStW dungeon design is intended to cause going around in circles), you can clear a dungeon of treasure and complete it without fighting as many battles as it usually takes to 0 out the encounter meter.  Put another way, the only real reason not to do so immediately before actually exploring a dungeon is to avoid grinding.  Since the difference is generally about a level or so, it's not really that big a deal either way I don't think.

[Meeplelard]

-Purple Haired Loli (I think?) Lesbian Wizards.

So close and yet so far, Japan.

For what its worth, the "Loli?" thing was because I can't quite remember.  It might just be that she's short, but I remember her at least being "young for an ancient wizard" and her clearly highly detailed yes, this is sarcasm 16 bit sprite gives the implication of her being underaged.  Again, could just be faulty memory...

...not sure why I went out of my way to say this <_<;

[SnowFire]

The Last Story: So our main character gets special magical can get into fights and revive everyone afterward powers from a mysterious Outsider entity, then meets a runaway girl who is secretly a princess*, and they're both orphans, and they run from some guards, have a romantic chat underneath a meteor shower, the princess remembers some song her mother taught her, the princess is going to be forced into a marriage against her will, and the princess has super magic powers she's been trained in despite living an uber-sheltered life in other ways.  Occasionally in-between I kill hostile reptiles.  Yes I am playing a JRPG, what.

* Okay technically daughter of a count, but since this random island apparently is super-influential since the rest of the Empire burned itself down and also has a magic superweapon, I'm sticking with princess.

[Grefter]

Tiny text to note sarcasm in that sentence is bad.  I thought you said Vagina and made it tiny because you didn't want to highly visibly post about full frontal loli nudity.

[Cotigo]

You mean that isn't what he said? I'm gonna choose to believe that that is what he said. 

Deus Ex - Past Hong Kong, infiltrating the submarine dock.  I have all the augments now and have given up all pretense of stealth after getting the dragon's tooth plus running and fully upgraded regen.  Running + Regen + Power Recycler = lol.  If only I chose cloak against robots instead of regular cloak, then I would just tear through the game.  Oh well. 

[Twilkitri]

Final Fantasy VII PC W7 - Mythril Mine

Finally came out over here last week
Cloud saves more like Strife saves am I right
SQUARE STOP MISPLACING MY SAVES at least they've only been disappearing temporarily

[Dark Holy Elf]

A record of the rule of an awe-inspiring Koopa King, part 5:


Dear diary,

So last time, I was subjected to the cutting betrayal of my Monty Mole minions as they tried to run me over with a train, so I took the liberty of smashing the train in retribution. And finally, I was ready to open my safe with the second star cure, which would give me access to Princess Peach, the Dark Star, and my long-awaited chance to finally rule this entire kingdom like I so deserve. But I had forgotten the combination.

After some prodding by me and passive-aggressive bitching by Chippy, he was able to do something inside my head (I try not to think about it too hard) and I recalled the memory of the safe's combination lock. So I opened the safe, and found the star cure! At this point, my minions told me that I should look in the back of the safe because there must be something else there. And I guess for some reason I wouldn't be betrayed by completely different minions twice in one day.

Well, that was stupid of me.

As soon as I looked in to check, they shoved me into the safe and locked it. They said something about Fawful giving them extra rations for this. Like... really? I could understand money, power, or surgically added spikes to their shells, but extra rations? It has to be the brainwashing. I kept telling myself that as I sat in the safe for hours, in increasing agony from being crammed into a tight space. I was aware that they moved me during this time, but I wasn't sure where. I also got really hungry so I ate the star cure since it was the only food I had available.

Then, finally, I was aware that the safe was hurtling through the air. And it crashed... and fell open. And I tried to enjoy my newfound freedom except I was in too much pain to do it. I ordered Chippy to fix me up and with some bitching (though not as much as last time at least) he did it. AND as a side benefit I gained the ability to curl into a giant spiky ball and roll around destroying everything in sight! This was the second best news of the day.

The best was that I had, somehow, been moved to Peach's castle! So I rolled, smashing everything in sight, punching Fawful's various mechanical minions which populated the place, and ESPECIALLY smashing the statues of Peach which had been modified to look like Fawful (this was seriously creepy by the way). Eventually I found my way to my goal: Fawful, Midbus, and the Dark Star. Fawful used some ice ray on Fawful which turned him all cold and blue but Midbus ranted about making me feel the burning hot rage of his newfound blizzard powers. Dude, do you even listen to yourself, or are all minions of Fawful just as nonsensical as he is?

So needless to say I beat him up. And after I did, I cornered Fawful. He had attached himself to the Dark Star and was ranting about "I HAVE DARKNESS!" which seemed kinda creepy but nothing a firm, confident punch to the face couldn't solve. After detaching him from his precious Dark Star and defenestrating the loser, my victory was complete! The Dark Star was mine! But before I could grab it, it went straight down my throat, and promptly gave me this really terrible heartburn.

So right now what I am doing is breathing in the icy air that the unconscious Midbus is still exhaling. This is really gross but at least it makes the pain less bad; I just hope nobody sees me, especially not Mario. I hate to say it, but I have to rely on Chippy's help again...

[DjinnAndTonic]

Final Fantasy Dimensions



Dragoon chapter, GO!

So... it felt like kind of a short chapter. And I only got to use my Temp Dragoon, Barbara for -one- of the dungeons. Kinda lame. Also, she was like 5 levels below me when she joined (I think I did too much grinding, but honestly, this game is so easy to grind in, I can't be blamed). She also speaks like Ayla for no discernible reason.

The game is actually doing a pretty decent job of revealing things slowly and hinting at future revelations... These revelations themselves aren't particularly -good-, but at least the game is trying.

Flashback scene reveals to us Barbara's late father was also a famous Dragoon leader, Abel! (3 guesses which FF4 sprite they recycled for him!) We also meet some of the Empire's other baddies - the Wind General Vata, some sort of Mechanical Construct named Argy, and Cid himself is kind of a fun head honcho for the Airship brigade.

Dungeon design is still pretty simplistic, as is befitting a portable game, and savepoints are commonplace. Randoms are challenging enough, throwing around decent damage and status already. And Autobattle is a boon for grinding once you get past the initial challenge of a new dungeon's opening randoms. Not enough boss fights though, and only one with a story character so far (and we don't even get to take him out, he escapes to fight again another day! To be fair, I'm kinda looking forward to fighting him again since he snagged a shard of Job Crystal in his exit!)

Overall, the game is a definite improvement over FF4-2, and feels kind of like it might have been intended as an "FF5-2" but then they realized that was a terrible idea and went ahead and made it its own game. I have to give credit where credit is due, this was a smart move.

The Light Warriors, while not deep, are at least starting show their archetypal personalities now. Sol = Hotheaded Angry Idiot, Aigis = Good Soldier/Ostensible Leader, Sarah = Mysteriously Omniscient Kindhearted Waif, Dusk = Prettyboy with an Agenda
The game does seem to be going out of its way to have brief interludes where the PCs talk to eachother, so it's not all bad.

Still a gameplay game and playing for story is a terrible idea, but at least the story is inoffensive? Still too expensive for what it is, though.

The game started handing out JP pretty regularly now at least. If I focus on one job, then at this rate I should be able to hit max JLv (20) with a single Job in one more influx of JP.
Levels:
Sol Lv 27 (Lv 7 Warrior)
Sarah Lv 27 (Lv 6 Summoner/Lv 5 Black Mage)
Aigis Lv 28 (Lv 7 Red Mage)
Dusk Lv 28 (Lv 7 White Mage)
Barbara Lv 23 (Dragoon)

Alas, time to leave behind my buff party and play with the Warriors of Darkness now. (Warriors of Darkness contains both of the characters whose personalities I actually enjoy, though, so no complaints really.)

[Bobbin Cranbud]

League of Legends

Two of the most frustrating games I've ever played, back to back.

In the first, the enemy team in Summoner's Rift was 4 AD carries and a tank... and all of one other player on my team bought armor. We ended up losing what should have been a laughably easy 5v5.

In the second, I was jungling Amumu and the top Darius - Darius, one of the best solotops in the game, especially at pre-30 - panicked at the idea of being 1v2, died twice and begged me to come lane with him. Figuring it would be better to try and salvage the lane, however suboptimal my setup was for that, I joined him. Turns out I was wrong (although two enemies killing me with 10 and 90 hp left respectively did not help). I figured this kid was summoner level 1. Nope, 17. Did he seriously never see a jungler in all that time? Weird.

Despite that unpleasantness, I hit level 20! Now to get enough IP to not be at a random disadvantage at the start of the game. Thanks MMOs.

XCOM Enemy Unknown Demo

Hahahahahahahaha!

This includes two missions, the tutorial and one real mission. The tutorial, in which the game dictates your moves, ends with 3/4 of your squaddies dead. I imagine it's a mix of trying too hard to show fans of the original how hardcore the new one is and getting new players used to the idea they can lose their troops and press on. What it ends up doing is approximating the feeling of helplessness and rage one gets from watching a Let's Play where the player really, really sucks.

The actual mission was a lot of fun, though. The control scheme is somewhat unusual (it feels like they borrowed some MMO/League/Diablo style hotkeys) but it works well. Being able to change the camera angle is a nice change from the original. So is the cover system, and the environmental system in general. Characters (human and alien alike) automatically take cover if moved next to it, and jump through windows and doors as part of their movement. It makes the battlefield feel dynamic and brings the optimal tactics feel more real.

[Luther Lansfeld]

FF5 - Galuf is dead. Cute little mage get. I'm currently hacking through Ex-death's castle.