What Games ya Playin' 2012 - Suplex a Train Edition

[Meeplelard]

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.

From what I've read, especially with the Dark/Light warriors thing, it was either that or FF3-2.  Dark/Light Warriors for an FF3-2 is a given; won't have to go into detail about that.

For FF5, people who had World 1 origins vs. world 2 origins.  Heck, World 2 gives a very "Dark World" vibe, and thinking on it, an FF5-0 might have been the original intent (eg game about Heroes vs. Enuo which led to World splitting into two.)

Either way...yeah, going to agree that making it an original game sounds like a smart move, since it allows for flexibility (though, a distant prequel like I mentioned for an "FF5-0" would work on grounds that being set 1000 years prior or whatever, it is related in universe only, and we know so little about that event that they could get away with just about anything.)

[SnowFire]

Tactics Ogre:
So when the game does its usual throw a leader of level equal to the highest level in my party + followers 1 level beneath at me, I tend to roflstomp.  Still low enough level I can get some +1 equipment without grinding up obscure drops and merely via some tedium, and archers stick arrows into the skull of my foes.  The game even is nice enough to let me deploy 12 (!!!) people which is way too many if I was playing seriously but at least lets me deploy 2-3 dead weight characters to catch them up on level, which is something.

Then there's the Ozma battle at Krysaro (Why am I going to Krysaro?  WTF are Dark Knights doing so far within "my" side of the map?) wherein I'm at a 5-7 level disadvantage and also the enemy has some pretty substantial numbers.  Early attempts (sans Sherri) got nowhere fast, but adding Sherri and adopting a White Witch of Narnia style strategy of 24/7 stone statues (Petrifog is brutal, yes let's stone 2-3 Templars at a 100% chance) got me frustratingly close...  careful archer sniping (since my archers are really the only ones doing any damage > 1) got 1 of their healers + a random templar swordmaster, the frontline Knights (who also have healing!) & Terror Knights were all turned to stone, Ozma was stoned, and distraction Canopus managed to snipe their damn Shackle Thunder mage with a carefully timed OHKO Slumber Shot.  But.  The one thing remaining other than Volaq on the enemy side...  were the TEMPLAR ARCHERS.  And the one surviving Templar cleric.  And the enemy archers were the one thing I couldn't really handle - reasonably tough, even potentially dodgy, and going to ruthlessly 2HKO my wizard and/or cleric which will nuke their MP.  Blargh.

Anyway, luckily enough the battles on the road to Barnica Castle don't cancel the Ozma event, so I was able to catch my dead weight up some.  But I'm not gong to Barnica Castle since I suspect knowing TO that will likely timeout the event, so I guess it's grindchu time since more important than catching dead weight like Vyce up (okay, and making Jeunes die a bit slower, that 2-3 level disadvantage is still notable) will probably be getting my archers to lvl. 18.  And then maybe I need to deploy freakin' 4 archers to beat Ozma & Volaq.  We'll see.

TOPSP, your most interesting battle so far was the Nybbas battle, where I was merely at a 2-3 level disadvantage but he had endlessly reviving undead but I could have Canopus assassination as a backup victory plan.  More battles like that, please!  5 level disadvantage is just frustrating, 0 level disadvantage is lol.

[Clear Tranquil]

Tales of Graces F- Just finished with the mini boss fight (Captain and Dragoons) at Warrior's Roost on Chaos. Really fun fight. By the time I reached the fifth fight in the arena the Eleth Bar was just about full so it filled to max then and Eleth Burst was triggered pretty much immediately at the start of the mini boss fight. Swift Pitch > Blessed Blades > Thunder Surge > Frozen Rain > Asterism Line > Asterism Line > Asterism Line + Hubert wreaking havoc on top wheeeee~

Team is currently Cheria L36/Hubert L34/Sophie L36/Asbel L36. Cheria I've been focusing on an A Arte build with, picked up the Battle Knives from Lhant early on for her and after doing Frederic's Hankerchief sidequest just before heading to Warrior's Roost I dualized with the item reward received from that so Cheria is now currently using a weapon called O/[_]/O/[_]- Seriously - and it's a skewer shishkebob weapon thing ;o Hubert just joined and will probably be focusing on A Artes for him as well but he's already L5d all his current titles and doesn't have any new ones yet >_> Sophie and Asbel are supposed to be my heal bot/support/tanks but the whole Asbel tank thing doesn't seem to be working out very well since I unlocked Chaos mode <_< Sophie does a better job of it with her whole dodge/evade/heal game. I tried out and ran both Cheria/Sophie/Asbel/Pascal and Cheria/Sophia/Asbel/Malik and even Cheria/Sophie/Pascal/Malik before Hubert joined. Pascal and Malik currently don't have any new skills/titles to work on though. I like Malik, he tends to stay his distance and keep out of trouble mostly. Pascal ughh  ... it looks like she has potential but honestly she doesn't seem all that great currently, so far she's mostly just been dyin' a lot >_> I also haven't dualized any shards onto equipment or anything yet just some random crystals onto weapons like with Cheria's Knifa, mostly just been synthing cashables/food so far.

[Fenrir]

Deus Ex (PS2): Finished.
In the final level I panicked because INFINITE ENEMIES + LIMITED RESOURCES + In game map doesn't make any sense. so I just went for the first ending I could see. Thankfully this was the one I'd have chosen anyway (the fusion one)
I think I've said nearly everything about this one? Turns out I liked the plot. Killing the true leader of the illuminaty was great too. (It's not really a spoiler) I like how the fake leader just said "Hey, that's not very nice" then went on with his life.
I'm starting to notice architectural strangeness in videogames more and more (Videogames like to have terrible stairs / never notice how terrible their stairs are); this game was hilarious on that front, especially since it's supposed to be set in a modern realistic setting. Who thought all those giant idea rooms were a good idea? My favourite part of the game was this inaccessible place in the Paris subway at the 7:10 mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZDTn-RV-z4&feature=BFa&list=PL8B3C5852853469DF
WHO BUILT THIS?


Crash Bandicoot 1/2/3: Finished all of them, 100%
The changes this series went through reflect the switch to the Playstation 1 era pretty well!

Crash 1 is brutal. Traps, bottomless pits and falling platforms everywhere. In each level, you need to smash all the crates and not die once to get the super special gem at the end. The game just generally starts getting way harder than both Crash 2 and 3 at around the... fourth level? Among 30 or so? It looks completely unfair at first.
Crash 3 is the easiest in the series, and half of the levels are special stages. You get swimming levels, jetski levels, plane levels, plane-fly-through-rings levels, motorbike racing levels. Many different gameplay experiences!! (they're all very boring) For the first time in the series you get powerups after defeating bosses. Like a doublejump the game is not built around, or a bazooka with unlimited ammo.
Crash 2 is probably the best objectively, for all that I like 1 better. Less brutal than 1, with gentler physics, and without being completely unfocused like 3. Too bad about all the obscure stuff. You can't finish this one without a faq (or a lot of free time), unlike 1 and 3, which were both very satisfying in that regard.


Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2: Finished that one too.
In SMT games, you can't fuse monsters who have a higher levels than you. In Pokemon, you can't use a traded monster with a ridiculously high level to just destroy everything. There is no such check in here; Pandora's box is open. Most of the fun in the game actually lies in building a hilariously powerful party for the part of the game you're in and beating endgame monsters way too early.
One nice thing about this game is that you can use one very large monster who takes two spots (think Ogre Battle) They are uber. In the second or third "level" I had a giant green dragon who could have still been useful at endgame. Bosses just never stood a chance.
There are tons of monsters with tons of skillsets. It is Dragon Quest though, magic sucks. I just gave everybody either healing (eventually MT healing) or passive attack boosts.
Like in every Dragon quest game, plot is bad but not as bad as music.

[Bobbin Cranbud]

League of Legends

The difference Greater runes make is startling, and makes the level system even more annoying. As much as I'm happy to rag on FPSes that lock their multiplayer content behind a level system, at least they're usually restricting options, not stuff that's strictly better. Conceptually I am unwilling to forgive this "design" feature, it's just terrible.

And yet, I keep playing anyway, because the game itself remains fun, especially with friends.

Finally won an arranged 5v5, which was nice. My ability to keep the AD carry alive as Taric is through the roof thanks to my new runes, and we had a great jungler playing Maokai (first time I've seen him) who wrecked the enemy Lee Sin. My lane partner (Vayne) and I ended up with only a death apiece, and I managed to stay at single-digit CS, the true mark of a great support! ^_^

3v3d solo queue and despite yet another incompetent Darius (seriously, I used to be  scared of this guy?) Shyvanna and my Taric rolled up a poorly chosen, frail enemy team (AD carry/AP carry/support vs. fighter/fighter/tank favors the latter pretty heavily on that map). First time I've ever led in kills in PVP, which was pretty cool. Tanky AP Taric is surprisingly viable, easily as good as the support version albeit for different circumstances.

I'll be glad when I and all the friends I regularly play with are 30, so I can pretend the meticulously balanced PVP isn't shackled to a ridiculous slow-burn "tutorial" phase that takes months to complete.

Shatter

Got this as part of the latest Humble Indie Bundle and forgot to mention it before. This isn't the one I wanted the most, but it turns out I still really like a good Breakout-style game. (What's the name for this subgenre, anyway?) I'm enjoying both the gameplay and the music a great deal, and the boss battles are quite creative. Not something I've seen done with this genre before and the game is better for it.

[AndrewRogue]

Pft. Darius.

That is all.

[Grefter]

Look at me, my name is Andrew and I will be sarcastically dismissive of the last post made.

BOOM meta sarcasm bitches

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Been playing Freedom Force. Still a great game, and there's improved texture packs out there now. It's a damn enjoyable tribute to the Silver Age stuff, particularly Lee/Kirby, and also challenging in a not-bullshit way. Play it if you like good games. If you like good games but would rather the game feature Time Nazis instead of Radioactive Russians as villains, the sequel is also great.

[Nitori]

Disgaea 3: This game has 3 tutorials about the same thing

on the other hand, the first boss was amusing enough

btw listen to Rob and play Freedom Force

[Sierra]

I did, until the sound stopped working. Which wasn't so much of a problem until the text boxes stopped appearing.

[DjinnAndTonic]

FFD:
Yay, I get to the play with the Dark Warriors. Mechanically, they are functionally the same as the Light Warriors, but the Dark Warriors have a shred of personality, so I like them more. It's only been one chapter, but they are already wearing their archetypes on their sleeves. Nacht's personality is "Silent", Diana is "Childhood friend who everyone loves", Glaive's is "Poor Sap who Never Wins", and Alba's is... "DeJap's version of Arche". Guess which one I like the most and win fabulous prizes.

Still, they also seem to have a braincell between them. They aren't immediately all best friends like the Light Warriors, but stick together because they actually come to the conclusion that 4 > 2 when fighting monsters. Not the most original, but I appreciate the hand waves towards logic. It feels like they -cared-, which I can appreciate.

Also, now that I'm further into the game, zOMG JOB SYSTEM is fun. It's literally the FF5 job system with more characters and a 5th party member temp that you cycle through each chapter. It's unsurprisingly fun. And after seeing the average length of the chapters, I'm actually a lot less angry at the ~$20 price tag. Being a proper new JRPG (that I haven't already played twice like most offerings in the app store) on my phone is pretty worthwhile when I consider that there's a lot more places where my phone is a more socially acceptable mobile gaming device than my 3DS/Vita. I finally decided on the control scheme that works best for me: the fixed directional pad gives me a lot more precision than the other two methods. Now that the controls are easier and the job system and chapter systems are more fleshed out, I'm actually pretty pleased with the game. It's shaping up much better than the Prologue indicated. I'm kinda sad that a lot of people will play the terrible Prologue and never actually get to the fun part of this game.

Current team:
Nacht (Warrior Lv 5, Thief Lv 5)
Alba (Black Mage Lv 7)
Diana (Red Mage 3, White Mage 5)
Glaive (Warrior Lv 5, Monk Lv 5)
Gramps (Ranger temp)

The eventual goal is for Nacht to master Thief, Alba Black Mage, Diana White Mage, and Glaive Monk. I gave my fighter-classes 5 levels of Warrior because Counter is stupid-good. They'll probably go back to Warrior again at some point to pick up extra Skill Slots. Similarly, Diana's playing around in Red Mage for HP+20% and eventually another Skill Slot. Alba is All-Black-Mage-All-The-Time until she masters it, then I'll probably have her play around in Summoner because it's the only other class with the INT to take advantage of it.

Thief is still terrible but since Nacht's innate skills built him as a Thief, I feel contractually obligated to try to use him as one. Notably though, the time spent in Warrior + Counter really mitigate a lot of the job's problems. He's durable enough that he doesn't die to a stiff breeze, and with Monk Glaive and a Ranger temp hanging around, he's actually free to Steal all the time and that helps me get the money/weapons for tricking out the rest of the party.

Being given 5 JP from the start REALLY made the Dark Warriors playthrough a lot more flexible than the Light Warriors, so props to the developers for figuring that out quickly!

Currently in the village of the Elves, climbing the World Tree Yggdrasil. Yah, there are Elves, Dwarves, and Moogles in this one. *shrug*

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I did, until the sound stopped working. Which wasn't so much of a problem until the text boxes stopped appearing.

Check the sound options?  I had this happen the first time I changed the resolution and the sound had changed to "no driver."

[Fenrir]

Where did the Kogoro avatar go? Oh well.


Double Dragon Neon: The one released two weeks ago.
The atmosphere, villain and cheesy soundtrack completely sold me on this game. I don't think I actually like any beat them up more than this? I don't know, I just don't want to play Scott Pilgrim, Streets of Rage 2 or Castle Crasher over this. Mechanically, there's a lot of variety, the slow and methodical pace help it from becoming too button mashy, and the dodge skills move it closer to God Hand than 2D beat them ups (It's nowhere near as good mechanically, but...) RPG elements help a terrible player like me finish the game.
(I totally wouldn't gush over the game like this without that soundtrack. A link http://virt.bandcamp.com/album/double-dragon-neon)

Vagrant Story: This game has aged badly, and I picked perhaps the worst challenge to play through it again!
I was just looking at those endless menus, noticed the sword limit breaks, the spear ones, the crossbow limit breaks... And the fist ones. I figured no one ever got them (completionists expected) since there's literally no point to using fists in this game. I pitied those forsaken fist only limit breaks and decided a FIST ONLY RUN.
The beginning was very tough, but then I got Raging Ache. Every enemy from then on has been very easy and just took a long time to kill. Healing is plentiful so there's no problem on that front.
I don't deny that punching bats is great. It is. But I think I'm going to stop now.

Demon's Souls: Finished the game with the mage, ran through NG+ in a few hours to get the remaning spells.
Magic is so overpowered, but less satisfying than melee. MP restoration is plentiful and cheap, but aggravating to use. Most advanced spells costs 20-100 MPs, regeneration items restore either 50 or 100. You need to like eating items all the damn time to enjoy this.
I OHKOed the Leechmonger on NG+ with Firestorm.
I'm tempted to try a thief luck-only run for the remaining trophies. (every ring, every special weapon, and a bunch of upgrading trophies) Looks nightmarish.

[Dark Holy Elf]

A record of the rule of an awe-inspiring Koopa King, part 6 (and final):


Dear diary,

So last time I defeated Fawful and obtained the power of the Dark Star. By eating it. This may not have been that good an idea.

Eventually, Chippy did something to jar the Dark Star loose from inside of me, and I spat it out again. When I did, though, it took on the form of... oh hell no. It did not just do that. It took on the form of me! (Only not as attractive). And to make matters worse, he immediately grabs inhales the princess and runs off with her! Why does every two-bit villain think he can steal my gig? Anyway, this kingdom isn't big enough for two Bowsers, so I decided there was one more loser I needed to punch in the face. He ran outside the castle, and I headed out to follow him...

And as I did, I heard that annoying laugh again. Seems Fawful had recovered from his last punch to the face and wanted more. As I cornered him, though, he babbled something about SUPER PEACH'S CASTLE OF FAWFULIZATION. I turned around just in time to see Peach's castle come to life, grow giant Fawful eyes, arms, and legs, and fly over to crush me. Yeah, bring it, you dumb castle, we all know what happens when someone tries to crush Bowser by now!

Anyway the stupid giant robotic castle tried to summon black holes to suck me in, but I punched him the face as he summoned the second so it appeared behind him, and we had a duel, mano a mano. I have always wanted to do some serious damage to this castle and I love punching anything like looks like Fawful in the face, so this was pretty much killing two birds in one stone. Best of all, this fight occurred in sight of Toad Town where all the little twerps were running around like maniacs. I love my life, sometimes.

The castle defeated, I returned to my normal size and headed to search for either Fawful or the evil version of me, whichever got in range of my fist first. This turns out to be Fawful, back in the conference room where all this mess began. He's now wearing a stupid cape and binoculars attached to the top of his head, hunting for the rest of the Dark Star's power. As if I'd let him get his hands on that! Cornern calls me a fink-rat (that is so 2003) and says I keep appearing like an ugly rabbit from the hat of a magician who stinks (yeah whatever), but none of this keeps me from punching his face off in our long-awaited showdown!

After the battle, the twerp is reduced to a tiny little core of darkness (still has those stupid swirly glasses and still speaks like a moron, though). Right when I'm about to go finish him off, the evil me appears and promptly inhales him, then talks about how he's "finally complete". Well, that's not good. He runs off, so of course I have to follow him.

I finally corner him at the top of Peach's castle, where he promptly uses his evil powers to summon a hurricane of darkness surrounding us. Oh yeah! Perfect backdrop for a sweet final battle. Chippy says I can rely on him and for a moment I think I hear Mario and Green Stache agreeing, but that has to be my imagination. So the evil me and I drop the gloves and battle for supremacy of the kingdom and the Dark Star's power. He's certainly no joke, as he has dark versions of all my minions and many of my own moves, and worse the evil remnants of Fawful appear periodically and restore him. A fatal mistake on the party of that little evil twerp, though, as he's now small enough for me to vacuum up with my awesome inhaling powers! I'm only able to hold him in for a few moments, but every time he emerges he's more beaten up (my awesome immune system at work!) until finally he doesn't emerge at all, and the evil me keels over weakly. At that point, I know what I have to do.

I walk over to him and punch him in the face. And again. And again. And again. And one last time, so hard that the impostor damn well explodes. A bit of a waste to destroy the power that might have let me conquer the kingdom, but whatever, I still needed that, after how bad this week has been. And besides, I've learned I don't need any dark power to be awesome. After all, even without it, victory, and Princess Peach, are mine! Then, from inside me, I hear a voice...

"Fawful tried... Fawful gave the 110 percents... Fawful worked the overtime... Fawful was the team player... Fawful put in the hours... Fawful got the hands dirty... Here Fawful goes... The disappearing... Forever disappearing... WITH YOU!"

And an explosion rocks my gut so hard I'm forced to spew up what feels like every meal I've ever eaten (and that's a lot). And to my horror, out come Mario, Green Stache, some girly Pacman reject, and worst of all, dozens of Toads. Gross! I won't be able to keep solid food down for weeks after seeing that!

The princess and the Toads run off as those stupid plumbers try to hold me off. I took a few knicks and scratches but I definitely got the better of them this time, though! I think. I don't remember for sure though, and the next thing I remembered, I was back in my castle, being nursed back to health by my once-again loyal minions.

But you know what? Despite the fact that another plot to control the Kingdom failed, I'm okay with this. As lame as this week has been from a personal embarrassment and betrayal perspective, I got to get out a lot, gained a whole bunch of cool new powers, and got to show TWO different villains why nobody, but nobody, upstages the king of awesome. And I think I set new personal bests for face-punching and lighting-morons-on-fire, especially if castles animated by mad science count for extra.

[Grefter]

So because I hate myself.

WoW - I am doing this one zone.  I went from watching a scene where a paladin's wife dies in childbirth and you watch him try to save her with healing spells.  Nice nod to merging of gameplay and plot!  Then the next quest I do has an Arrow to the knee joke in it.  Whiplash.

Edit - And yeah VS first run through with fists is really wonky.  If you get a bit of Strength they can go pretty okay because the Risk Breaks you get hit some fairly unique element combinations.  It is a fairly weird play compared to a normal run though.  Trying to go a magic based route is harder though IMO.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Separate post for this because why not.

Mario and Luigi 3 - Beaten. About 19 hours, levels were around 29/31 or so.

The game is good fun and I would absolutely recommend playing it to almost anyone. At the same time I'd never call it a great game, since it kinda suffers from some of the same problems which plague all Mario RPGs (well, the three I've played anyway).

Writing-wise the game's not perfect. Mario and Luigi are silent which is a bit limiting; though they do manage to be amusing with their pantomime antics at points, generally their arcs are writing-light and more about gameplay. And many of the bit characters are not as effective as it feels like the writers want them to be (Dr. Toadley for an easy example). In fact, the writing generally falls flat unless at least one of Bowser or Fawful are on screen. Fortunately, Bowser's pretty much the main character and is on-screen a lot, and he is absolutely glorious. Fawful too. Starlow/Chippy is also surprisingly good, much snarkier than the exposition helper usually is. Oh and Midbus is fine but he is pretty much Fawful Jr. outside one glorious scene where he proves the worst minion ever. So despite some weak spots it ends up pretty damn overall good; the best Mario RPG at writing because it just isn't afraid to be completely crazy and just have a good time, revelling in its strongest characters.

Gameplaywise, well. It's certainly an improvement over the highly problematic M&L1, for a few reasons. One, the special attacks are way more fun this time (and Bowser gets his own set). Two, the gameplay is considerably more varied since sometimes you have Bowser, sometimes you have to mix it up between Bowser and the brothers, and of course sometimes you have GIGA BOWSER (in addition to the regular bros fights). Third, the game's way tougher, actually putting up a fight and making you stay awake, so learning to dodge things is more rewarding (even necessary in some cases). I actually had to reset a few times, most notably against midgame Bowser who was probably the hardest fight, but a few others here and there. I didn't actually have to reset against the final but it was a near thing and certainly a fun and fitting capstone to the game.

Of course, unfortunately, the core gameplay is still quite limited... only so much you can do when you only have two PCs (sometimes one) who both have basically no skillset beyond damage, and using more MP to do more damage, and items. The game's basically all about learning to dodge moves and it's a little hard for that to carry a game, certainly compared to what I personally expect out of RPGs. The aforementioned shakeups make this a lot more palatable than in the first game, but it's fundamentally just masking a problem.

The game has good music. I liked how there were two mixes for each area depending on if you were inside Bowser or not, and the final boss music is suitably epic, while the rest just tends to be... catchy.

Probably a 6/10? Doesn't really wonderfully on my metric of what a good RPG should be, but as far as "games that coast primarily on comedy" it is certainly one of the best, and it was absolutely an enjoyable little romp.

[Cmdr_King]

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story- Beat.  So much better than M&L1.  At like, everything.  M&L1 had this bizarre idea that it was a platformer-rpg and couldn't go five mintues without adding a new mechanic to the platforming.  The result was this amazingly slow little thing.  This game had about as many cases of random tutorial for new mechanic, but they were split up between the Bros and Bowser so it's much less intrusive.  Nevermind less mechanically clunky and the game uses it more for roadblocks than just randomly inserting platforming segments out of nowhere.

But more importantly where the first game just had a sort of surreal silliness and was kinda cute, this game just made Bowser the main character, Fawful the villain, and the rest of teh game wrote itself.

I think the best part of the game was actually the Giga Bowser segments.  I suppose in part I'm just a sucker for random gameplay diversions in the vein of Suikoden War Battles, but more than that because there were just the four of them, they clearly put a lot of thought into making each one distinct and could play around with it.

So yeah, good stuff.  8/10 maybe?  Hard to say, will have to think on it.

[Tide]

Off topic, but it needs to be said:

Fenrir, I love your avatar. Marry me.

[Fenrir]

<3


Oh right Gref, fists are probably meant for NG+.
I'd do a magic only run but it involves going into menus even more than playing with a different weapon for every kind of enemy.


Demon's Souls Thief Class, Luck Only, Get Everything:
Turns out luck is a terrible stat! So Yattaf is just a starting character who never levels up, but who -can- get a bonus herb/shard once in a while, which is a totally fair trade for having 402 HPs instead of like 1500 if I had raised vitality instead.

Main weapons:
- Dagger +10. Loving the speed and backstabs. Ripostes were fine in the beginning, but at this point, I'm OHKOed by the enemies I'd use them against. The risk is not worth the reward anymore.
- Crescent Falchion +3: For those rare cases where the dagger just doesn't have the right damage type.
- Sticky short bow +5: Surprisingly decent in practice, just not often usable on its own. I always carry a large supply of fire and holy arrows just in case. Very useful for kiting too.
- Starting shield +whatever: Whatever.
I haven't really changed much (not even my clothes), just upgraded my stuff and added a falchion to my arsenal.

Progress:
- Phalanx: Threw 10 molotov cocktails.
- Fool's Idol: Edward's strategy: Hid behind columns, ran quickly to stab one clone, went back to hiding, repeat.
- Tower Knight: Killed his support, dodged his massive but predictable attacks and poked at his feet for hours
- Adjudicator: Didn't dare to try killing the bird with a bow, applied the good old melee strategy instead
- Armor Spider: Got to mid range, alternated between shooting holy arrows and dodging his stuff.
- Old Hero: Dude is literally blind. I just shot him from afar with holy arrows and he took ages to react properly. By that point I had moved to the other side of the room.
- Leechmonger: Just shot the monstrosity on a ledge with fire arrows, avoided giant balls of leeches by rolling.
- Flamelurker: Pure skill. Well, he only has a 3HKO with a Ring of Fire Protection, so this fight never got that bad.
- BP Satsuki: OHKOing, durable bastard. Block, backstab, heal, repeat.
- Storm King: Just hid inside the broken house and blindly attacked everywhere until everybody else was dead. Giant spear thrown by a giant manta ray? OHKO.

[SnowFire]

TOPSP: Okay, finally took down the Ozma fight.  On one hand, meh to having a plot-related recruit with lines be in a lvl. 22 fight you're presumably supposed to do before a lvl. 17-18 fight, but on the bright side this injected some challenge back into the game.  This was pretty intense.  Going up to lvl. 18 archers, and grabbing a level on the distraction to make them slightly less squishy (lvl.16->17 for most, 15->16 for Jeunan and something like 11->14 for Vyse), really made the difference.

Damage: 4 archers + 1 Canopus.  (Archers: Hobyrim, Arycelle, Sara, 1 generic from back when who was all skilled up.) 
Hobyrim & Sara had Longbow +1s for ease in focus-fire + for killing the Templar mages, Arycelle & the generic had Composite Bow +1s for the sheer damage at a slight range cost.  My archers would generally 4HKO-8HKO enemies, which means if I can throw enough firepower from all of 'em at the same target, it can fall reasonably fast before the healing comes in, especially with Tremendous Shot.

Ranting about wyrms and miasma: Sherri (Dark/Earth enchantress) + generic wizard (Dark). 
I didn't level Witch so screw that, Sherri does the same stuff sans Golem nonsense as Enchantress.  And...  wow, Earth magic ain't bad.  It can hit undead, and most importantly Petrifog / Duststorm is crazy with Spellstrike 2.  100% hit rates on absolutely everyone?  Area petrification/slow?  Yes please.  None of them could break defense with damage but it didn't matter, they could reliably stone the entire front line as well as Ozma, and toss Slow around if given extra time.  Most important key, if the stone wave ever broke up for long the front line of Templars would shred me to pieces.  Unfortunately Sherri needs to be on the front lines to do this and Templar archers, once they get in range, massively 2HKO her.  (Like 100 damage to 160 HP, 150 on a critical.)

Distraction + item boy: Denam, Ravness, Jeunan, Vyse.  (Warrior, Valkyrie, Dragoon, Ranger)
The first three's task was to occupy the bridge and make sure de-stoned templars & Volaq couldn't break past my line.  Otherwise, spam drug leafs on themselves to distract themselves from the horrible wounds being inflicted on them.  While they can sort of break defense now, they have like a 12-20HKO with their mighty 5-15 damage.  Attacking Volaq was just going to earn counters to heal off + healing from any other Templar...  and eventually set Volaq up with enough TP for a finisher which is almost surely a OHKO.  Deaths are really bad so I'll pass, thanks, Volaq will be throwing finishers at me anyway and is annoyingly slow/stone immune.  Ravness could throw around some ranged healing too with her magic.  Vyse was still behind on levels, and dual-dagger style for 1 damage a pop ain't going far.  He stayed toward the back and didn't try the distraction as much.

Healing: Olivya (Cleric)
Not much to say here, aside from the fact that the bridge blockade was largely able to keep her out of harm's way.  (She dies fast otherwise.)  Item-healing is potentially more powerful but sometimes you need ranged heals and sometimes you need area heals.

I will say I had to chariot some of the fight, since things like "oh surprise critical Sherri is dead and her MP is gone" was rage-worthy enough to back up on.  Same with letting myself time revival correctly.  I tried not to Chariot away stuff like Archer Deflects or Paralysis stun, though I actually did undo the stun twice.  I think I could have beaten the fight sans Chariot, but I'd want another level to finish things faster if so.  But yeah, even after I nailed a few templars with careful sniping after stoning the knights + carefully timed finishing moves, poorly timed 3x unstonings + Volaq finisher + templar archers fully in play was enough to put me on my back feet fast.  I still recovered, re-stoned, worked a few more characters down, and slowly triumphed, winning with honor which means killing all of Ozma's subordinates so there's nobody there pressuring her to stay with Dark Knights.  Yupyup.

In general Alexander O. Smith's script is great, but I liked the Ozma recruitment scene as rather well written even for the game.  The bit about "I will be your eyes, but perhaps you will show me the way" was even rather touching rather than maudlin.  Bravo.

After that was all done, I decided I liked this whole challenge thing, and did the Occione sidequest basically down 2-3 characters via continuing to level Mirdyn (White Knight) / Vyse as well as tossing lvl. 1 crappy Ozma in.  The Occione sidequest enemies are lvl. 20 or so, so about 2-3 levels higher...  perfect!  Those fights were fun, which I usually did with only 1 archer to spice the pot up some.  Although okay, I will admit to deploying 3 archers to the final showdown with the necromancer and aimed at his head rather than honorably killing all the subordinates first as is my usual MO.

At this point, White Knight (which I've been keeping in the back to throw out heals) has finally started to be able to break defense, and I consider switching Ravness over from Valk to WK...  except...  I get a tiny offense/defense boost in exchange for a pretty notable speed drop (RT 86->94).  With the exact same equipment.  Yeah no.  Valkyrie is still nothing special but tanky spear-user who can toss heals / Boons of Swiftness around ain't bad, and Rampart Aura / Velocity Shift aren't worth that kind of a slowdown.

Anyway, after Denam took a vacation to Exeter & Krysaro for no apparent reason after leading a "sneaky" force to Barnica (what WAS that mysterious blast on Exeter anyway?  Doesn't seem to have had anything to do with Occione...  did the Palace of the Dead blow up?), I was now nicely overleveled, which worked out anyway I guess since Barbas got to play comedy villain instead as Canopus practically solos him & his forces.  Next battle, too bad the game didn't switch up its habits and make Lanselot T. in the next battle guaranteed to be your highest level +2 or something, as at lvl. 18 he's not really going to impress.  Decent dialogue at least with Hobyrim & Ozma.  Otherwise, I stuck the Dark Priest to sleep, quick-saved, then had Canopus perform a Slumber Shot to send her into the next world peacefully and quietly.  The best I could do for the poor, slightly crazy one.  Lanselot's reaction was pretty great, although I was a bit disappointed with Denam's back at Phidoch - come on, run with it, in this universe this was all part of the plan.  Effective enough anyway I suppose.

(okay and then I reloaded the quicksave, but after the scene afterward...  nobody should stick her in charge of anything.)

[Clear Tranquil]

Tales of Graces F- I think I'm endgame. Maybe. About to return to Fendel Mountain Pass. Team is L48~ AVG. My main team is usually Cheria/Sophie/Hubert/Malik w/th the occassional Asbel or Pascal in for Hubert. Currently though my team is Cheria/Hubert/Asbel/Malik which seems to be doing fine so far on the new random Nova enemies which have appeared on the field but we'll see how it goes for the next dungeons proper. Cheria just acquired Garden of Innocence at least which should help~

The story has picked up recently, been enjoying it, especially the skit interaction between Asbel, Cheria and Sophie =)

Brief break down of current character stats -

HP - Malik (3718) > Asbel (3171) > Hubert (3027) > Sophie (2988) > Cheria (2654) > Pascal (2302)
P.ATK - Sophie (501) > Hubert (458) > Cheria (349) > Pascal (343) > Malik (310) > Asbel (292)
C.ATK - Asbel (499) > Pascal (477) > Malik (450) > Cheria (319) > Sophie (299) > Hubert (279)
P.DEF - Sophie (460) > Asbel (454) > Pascal (409) > Hubert (375) > Cheria (369) > Malik (286)
C.DEF - Cheria (454) > Sophie (360) > Malik (341) > Asbel (327) > Hubert (324) > Pascal (237)
ACC - Hubert (518) > Cheria (430) > Asbel (327) > Malik (286) > Sophie (271) > Pascal (184)
EVA - Cheria (515) > Sophie (454) > Pascal (391) > Malik (352) > Asbel (307) Hubert (260)

[Shale]

Darksiders: This game has no right to be good but it is. Combat is waaaaay shallower than DMC (very limited comboing, you can own everything with a simple powerup spell and one fist move), exploration is quite limited compared to Zelda, but combining the two into a single package creates a very enjoyable whole. Plus the style is so pure 90s that you have to laugh with it. To wit: War is animated in the hyper-muscled, huge-arms-and-hands Joe Madureira style. He wears giant metal gauntlets on his giant hands. One of your secondary weapons is an even gianter metal gauntlet that he wears over his regular giant gauntlet. They make sure to show this happening. It's spectacular.

And there's also Mark Hamill as Navi. Just wanted to remind people that that's a thing.

Anyway, just killed the spider boss, cruising around looking for stuff I can hookshot before heading to the Tower Of Dark Evil Darkness.

Orcs Must Die 2: Finished the Crunch. Wow. Game was pretty easy up to then, but I barely made it out of that one alive.

[Bobbin Cranbud]

Darksiders: This game has no right to be good but it is.

Truer words were never spoken. From what I've heard, 2 continues that so bad it's good flavor but does more to actually be good in terms of combat, mostly because Death is a more agile combatant than War.

Shatter

Probably because I'm playing in short bursts, I can't seem to beat the boss that plugs itself in.

League of Legends

Early on when I exclusively played Nunu, one of my friends told me I should get an AD for times when my solo queue teams were too heavily AP; I debated picking up Sivir but went for Pantheon instead. Sivir being free this week has convinced me I made the wrong choice.

Civilization V

Giving this another go because it came free with the XCOM preorder. So far my impression from playing it on a friend's system hasn't changed: it's gorgeous, but the gameplay is worse than Civ IV in almost every way and adds nothing to the mix. The Gods and Kings expansion does, so if I get to liking the base game I might pick it up.

Magic the Gathering

Played a Return to Ravnica prerelease.

I'm more used to draft than sealed, so even with a guildpak I felt like my card pool for the event itself was bad. Despite this, I took 3rd place with Izzet and came into possession of a truly ridiculous number of boosters.

Some of those I used for a draft, which I won handily going Red-Black. Rakdos the guild is very explosive and powerful in limited, and Rakdos the demon is an absurd bomb. He was my first pick both for the draft and of the rares arrayed as prizes, but sadly only came out once.

I can't tell if he will be a bomb in Standard, though. There's no question that he's powerful - a 6/6 flying trampler with a "drawback" that might as well not exist for these colors and an added effect that, while not likely to be important, certainly doesn't hurt. On the other hand, he has no defense against removal and little effect on the board the turn he drops.

Actually, I take that back. Many artifact creatures would be free the turn he drops. I wonder if there are enough playable ones for that to matter. Probably not, and with the Titans rotating I doubt there's anything more expensive than Rakdos himself worth running in a Red-Black aggro deck. In Modern, however, he's kind of intriguing. I'm curious if there's a deck to build around Rakdos accelerating out Darksteel Colossus or Eldrazi.

In Standard, though, his added effect is shrug-worthy, it's his body and fighting abilities that are notable. Right now the format is defined by midrange creatures, which puts some hurt on a RB weenie rush strategy. Rakdos gives the gonzo-aggro deck a control-style fat finisher who wins fights against midrange creatures, at a mana cost an aggro deck can support.

[superaielman]

Orcs Must Die 2: Finished the Crunch. Wow. Game was pretty easy up to then, but I barely made it out of that one alive.

Warmage or Nightmare? Warmage, you can just spam Archers near the rift to handle the fliers and use barracades/flame traps/tar traps on the ground to handle the rest.

Nightmare, you have to be much more protective of your archers (You get a fuckton of Giant types) but it can be done. It's one of the few maps where I recommend using Paladins on Nightmare, though you are very likely to lose a few from Gnolls.  You'll want to get good at using the crossbow in general though. Stun on the crossbow is the best way to slow down waves of giants, and headshots restoring mana means you'll have enough MP to spam thunderstorm to handle crowds.


The fire and ice DLC pack has the hardest stage in the game by FAR (The west wing) though the crunch is up there for normal stages.  There's just a ton going on and the only real chokepoint is by the rift.

[Nitori]

Deus Ex: I'm going to stab you in the face with a knife while you shoot me in the head with your assault rifle.

Because I'm trying to be stealthy

At least I got to blow up Anna, no one likes Anna.