What Games ya Playin' 2012 - Suplex a Train Edition

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Grefter Life Simulator Little Inferno - Welp, beat it with all combos performed. Wonderful little whatever it is. Weird little experiment that plays a lot with emotions in a very strange way. Not sure if it hits quite the mark it wanted to, but it manages to be a very unique and bittersweet thing that was pretty much made for the likes of me or Grefter, come to think of it. It's all about the experience. Also, it pretty much lets you tinker with it the way you -want- to. It's oddly freeform for what it is, and I can't help but appreciate that. Heartwarming.

[dude789]

Pokemon blue terrible play through:
Every so often it's nice just to play through one of the original pokemon games especially since it goes by so qucikly when played with the speed up options from Pokemon Stadium. The original games did a remarkably good job of making almost every pokemon viable, so I decided to see just how far the game can take it by using a team of mostly terrible pokemon. I just got to Vermillion and so far the team is Beedrill, Farfetch'd, Wigglytuff, and Drowzee. I'm aware that Drowzee/Hypno is far from the worst pokemon available, but it will be nice to have a crutch if necessary and it should be interesting to just how dominant psychic type is in gen 1 by using the worst one available. So far it's been fairly simple since Beedrill and Wigglytuff still have a stat advantage over most pokemon just by being fully evolved. Interestingly enough, Brock was harder than Misty because Brock apparently has a bunch of Full Heals he can use to cancel Beedrill's Poison Sting. He seriously used like 6 Full Heals between Geodude and Onyx before I was able to take them down. Misty was simple. My guys were a bit over leveled. Drowzee handled Staryu easily and Starmie was 2HKOed by Twineedle after one Leer.   

[Grefter]

Interestingly enough, Brock was harder than Misty because Brock apparently has a bunch of Full Heals he can use to cancel Beedrill's Poison Sting. He seriously used like 6 Full Heals between Geodude and Onyx before I was able to take them down. 

This is seriously the most wtf Pokemon thing I have learned in years and #rpgdl is a terrifying hell hole of wtf Pokemon facts.

I was going to make a joke about how this is worse than the time that Meeple taught me all the different ways that Sylph is broken between the billion FF4 variants, but I can't lie that much.  Nothing is worse than FF4.

[Tide]

FF8 - The RICHARD challenge. We're almost done. Sadly, RICHARD has yet to appear once and spectate.

Disc 3 Stuff - Nothing really exciting happens. Disc 2 is the hard part. I go and get the trade rule for cards to spread to Diff so I mass gather cards for items. During a section without Squall, I give his stuff to Irvine and level up Ifrit to 10 so he learns Ammo-RF. I Cactuar grind for AP with what I can though, the challenge's restrictions makes it such that any GF without Speed-J and later on Str-J/HP-J make this option tougher. Those things like to run, and they're fast. I also wipe like at least 10 times while grinding because 1000 needles hates me and sometimes the Cactuars like to gang rape me with this before I move. We're onto the last portion of Disc 3 now though.

Highlights:
- Wipe 11: So this is THE best wipe ever. 2 hand enemies. One draws Death from Squall, then casts Death on Squall. Insta-lose. Squall had like 27 spells or something ridiculous, so the chance of him drawing and casting that spell on me is 1/27*1/3 and then modified by spirit. This is a like a 1% chance of hitting, making this pretty funny.
- Wipe 12: I fight Jumbo Cactuar but he kills me with 10,000 Needles
- Wipe 13: I fight Jumbo Cactuar again, but he opens with 10,000 Needles this time after I open with Aura.
- Wipe 14: Bahamut apparently deals 1300 damage with his physical. At level 36, Squall has about 1700 HP. Did I mention Bahamut was fast? Blitzing strategy not very good when opposition resists said blitz.

No wipes on Abandon, but he was pretty funny too. The boss tries to Confuse me, which would be pretty bad, because Squall had Cerberus at the time which meant lots of strength and no defense. First time, I use a megalixir, which heals me of confusion. Second time, the confused AI chooses X Potion and proceeds to X Potion Abandon, OHKOing him.

Went and got Lionheart, which meant a whole bunch of things, including getting Tonberry as a GF. No wipes here. Then after Tonberry, I use Lv Up to pump up Adamantoise levels so they'll drop Adamantine (because lower level Adamantoise have shit drop rates for it). With Lionheart, I proceed to go back and fight Cactuar and promptly kick his ass in one move.

RICHARD, since you weren't around, it was decided by user Laggy (and the rest of chat) that we're going to give ULTIMA WEAPON a go. I smell wipes. Stay tuned.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Nothing is worse than FF4.

Off the cuff:  FF2.  FF11.  FF13.  FF14.

[Grefter]

Nothing means nothing

[Fenrir]

Devil Survivor 2:
Near the end of day 2. Just saved Asshole Kid.
Hinako is SMT trying to compete with Lost Odyssey regarding character design. (The character designer has a fetish for objects like ties casually resting on enormous breasts, by the way)

Every girl in this game is terrifying, Daichi is Milhouse Van Houten, and Asshole kid is an asshole. So at this point I'm pretty much just chilling with Joe 100% of the time, and avoiding eye contact with everybody else.


Rainbow Silkroad: Reached India. Game is a bitch even with SO MUCH MONEY. That's what happens when your only option in battle is attacking or using an item (and there only are 7 item slots). Either it's going to be easy or unfair.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Hey, that was three days after I was born! Oh, the 80's, how I wish I had truly been able to witness your camp.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Nothing means nothing

What is this I don't even

...where does he keep getting cream?

Things to add to Rob's list of "things worse than FF4":

Nothing means nothing

[Tide]

Devil Survivor 2:
So at this point I'm pretty much just chilling with Joe 100% of the time, and avoiding eye contact with everybody else.

User Fenrir doing the right thing.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Nothing means nothing

What is this I don't even

...where does he keep getting cream?

Things to add to Rob's list of "things worse than FF4":

Nothing means nothing

If I had the slightest iota of respect for you, it would be gone after you insulted the Macho Man.  You have less shame than was granted to animals.

[Meeplelard]

Someone link him to an Ultimate Warrior rant.   That'll help put things into perspective...maybe...

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Someone link him to an Ultimate Warrior rant.   That'll help put things into perspective...maybe...

Constellation of Destructity Ultimate Warrior, or Queering doesn't make the world work Ultimate Warrior?

[Grefter]

Does it really matter?  Mach Man is great because he is the Macho Man.  Not because he is better than other wrestlers.

Also Djinn just hated on watching a musclebound coke head do some simple close-up magic tricks on national television while flexing and ranting at full steam.

This is proof of having no taste whatsoever.  This man is multi talented in ways that most people wouldn't even dream of and you are all "worse than FF4".

[NotMiki]

Not sure if it hits quite the mark it wanted to, but it manages to be a very unique and bittersweet thing that was pretty much made for the likes of me or Grefter, come to think of it.

Gref gave me a copy of this because I told him I was feeling down.  So I played it.  I see the message the game wants to convey, and it's a good message and the game delivers it well.  But there's a (seemingly) unintended message about man-made climate change - and climate mitigation - that pervades the game, and is not resolved or really reckoned with in any satisfying manner, and is a complete downer, really.

Anyway, good game.  Makes you think.  Tugs on your heartstrings in expected and unexpected ways, and manages to pack an emotional punch even though it's not hard for you as a player to see how the game is blatantly manipulating you.  Also the burning stuff is well done (pun intended) even if you're not a pyro.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Does it really matter?  Mach Man is great because he is the Macho Man.  Not because he is better than other wrestlers.

Also Djinn just hated on watching a musclebound coke head do some simple close-up magic tricks on national television while flexing and ranting at full steam.

This is proof of having no taste whatsoever.  This man is multi talented in ways that most people wouldn't even dream of and you are all "worse than FF4".

He wasn't some shitty animu man.

[Captain K.]

FF4 is the dregs on the bottom of the cup when you're drinking and thinking "hey this is pretty good" and then you get to FF4 and you're like "SPEW!  I just drank dregs!"  Thankfully Macho Man Randy Savage is the cream that will rise to the top so you can encounter him long before FF4.

Also fuck Google.  I try to look up Ultimate Warrior and I get fucking ponies: http://thunderfists1988.deviantart.com/art/My-Little-Ultimate-Warrior-323100834

[Tide]

Does it really matter?  Macho Man is great because he is the Macho Man.  Not because he is better than other wrestlers.

Quoted again for Truth.

[Meeplelard]

Street Fighter x Mega Man: Beat it!  Fun game.

Bustered all the "Robot Masters" though then used Weakness on the Boss Rush because they're way too hard to beat 8 in 3 lives...even with their weaknesses, I eventually said **** it and used an E-tank to get past the last one.  Final Boss was good but has this issue of not having enough health aka he has only one form, so is mostly just a typical high end boss instead of the typical Gauntlet effect Wily has , and if you have E-tanks, you should be good.

Weapons range from good (C. Viper and Dhalsim's come to mind) to plain bad (WHY did they make Blanka's weapon effectively the Mega Ball with more annoying controls), so...typical spread there!  Stage and Boss design are nothing short of great, however.

The game does have some problems though.  There's a few bugs and oversights (like SONIC STYLE CRUSH DEATHS.  Ok, Urien's Stage, I can see that being intended, because one part feels like it was made to catch people that way, but C. Viper's, there's no way I can buy that was intended), as well as some control hiccups.  Sliding is sometimes unresponsive, and as a result, some bosses become harder than they really should as the "slide for quick get away" option from any impact attack becomes that much harder.  Might be easier if I was playing on a controller, but I digress, it still just felt off.

REGARDLESS, the game is 100% free.   basically a must for Megaman fans, and merely recommended for Street Fighter fans (gameplay > Fanservice etc.)

[Dark Holy Elf]

Lost Odyssey - Beaten. Final levels were 48, final time around 43 hours or so. Probably about 8 hours of that is One Thousand Year of Dreams, aka the collection of short stories contained within Lost Odyssey that are far better than Lost Odyssey itself.

Hoo boy, this game. It's a strange one, and a bit frustrating. There's all sorts of hints of a great game but nothing of the sort ever materialises. Gameplay is kinda close though. The game has pretty good battle design overall; lots of battles have unique mechanics (specific gauges you need to watch for or victory conditions), and even without that the game tends to succeed here. Randoms can keep you on your toes, bosses are hit or miss but generally fine. GC is a neat idea (though better-balanced for randoms and shorter boss fights, since in long bosses it vanishes and just isn't worth bringing back). MT healing not being completely uber is good. There's a fair bit to like here. Unfortunately, there are some problems: both animations and especially battle load times are too long. And the skill system is pretty bad. You have mortals who can't be customised and immortals who just slowly learn everything, and how good that everything is varies a LOT by which skills you randomly stumble on. Slot+3 and Slot+5 are huge and you may or may not get them! Apparently there's a full element blocker skill which would be broken as shit and I am glad I missed that. So yeah, VP2 idiocy all over again here. I've realised that if you're going to have optional random optional gamebreaking crap like this you should at least make it not benefit the entire party at once (e.g. Gem Box isn't as dumb as Toughness).

I found discs 1 and 4 the hardest (though finding the element blocker would crush disc most of 4). I had resets against damn magical worm creature (game's hardest fight, only time I had more than one reset), the Numaran soldiers who enjoy intimidating children, the Arthrosaurus swarm (praised this design already, it's cool), Gongora's pet liches (due to badly misplaying the fight, but it is one with little room for error), and the Magic Infantry in the final dungeon (only random to wipe me, but a few came close at least). Final boss was kinda disappointing but not awful (helped that I was blocking petrify with everyone!). I had more trouble with the second to last boss who had both MT "OHKO all mages and 2HKO everyone else" (which fortunately he couldn't spam) and "ST damage equal to previous which goes off faster than items", but no resets on either.

Writing is... well. The dream sequences, as I've already alluded to, are certainly very good. They're well-written, they have good music, and even the visuals (the way letters or words appear, in particular) are effective in their simplicity. I didn't regret watching a single one of them that I can recall. The best moved me to the edge of tears. The game is purportedly about the lives of immortals who live for a thousand years, and the dream sequences give a great examination of this theme, and a hard look at mortality, immortality, happiness, what makes life worth living, and plenty more. This is very good. It also does a fair bit to develop the immortals (well not Sarah lulz) and it seems like the game could have done a great job of connecting these past experiences to their present ones.

Unfortunately the game does nothing of the sort. The present plot is a boring mess. Key to the game's story is the conflict between one immortal and the other four, but to the very end of the game we never learn the real motivations for why the immortals came to this world and what they were supposed to accomplish. All conflicts with the main villain fall completely flat as a result, and all the PC immortals are seriously hurt as characters by this. The mortals aren't exactly exciting characters themselves; Jansen is the best of them probably and even that's mostly comic. Scene direction and dialog is awkward as hell (stunningly so compared to the dreams), it's one of the worst games I've seen in this regard since games adopted the fully-animated, voice-acted style they have now. It's often difficult to put my finger on, but most scenes fall completely flat, and dialog often fails to convey motivations. One of the reasons Jansen is the most-liked character is because the scenes' awkwardness doesn't really hurt the character who is naturally awkward, kinda like how WA2's translation doesn't hurt Liz. But this doesn't say anything good about the game.

The game's worst failings, however, probably lie in its pacing and dungeon design. Dungeons suck, they're often reliant on "hope you avoid getting lost while you press every single switch in this area, then figure out where to go". That's no good to start with, but several of these dungeons have literally no save points. On multiple occasions I went over an hour between saving which I don't find acceptable. Even worse it makes me start running from fights because I just want to get off the game; I have a life to get back to, thanks. I can't think of a game whose gameplay I enjoyed (read: didn't dislike) as much as this one where I ran so much, because uuugh that dungeon design and lack of save points. What is this, a NES game? Only good thing is there are more "checkpoints" than there are save points at least so I didn't lose TWO HOURS when I got killed by the liches (at the end of probably the worst such dungeon). But that raises the question of why not just have save points?!? If you're not holding out on them to create some tension and send me back a lot when I lose (not that I have much patience for this these days, but at least I get it), then why?!? At least BoF5 and FF3, patron saints of bad save mechanics, allowed you to make a temp save if you needed a break!

Otherwise... well. It has an incredibly strong soundtrack (Uematsu's still got it) and is a very nice-looking game graphically... although marred a bit by its awful, awful costume design. Search for Grefter's or Dhyer's posts on the subject, I can't do them justice. The ending is epic for providing a whole new set of awful costumes for me to mock.

The game can stay at 4/10 probably. It is clearly better than FF9 (gameplay and cast don't suck), but clearly worse than Blue Dragon (holy skill system quality difference, Batman!) for two games that I find it most comparable to. I may be slightly underselling it, it certainly does enough things right to be worth notice, but damned if it isn't a frustrating experience. It hurts to think what this game could have been with a little modern polish and actual writing/scene direction.

[Grefter]

Look at me my name is Elf and my opinion is all accurate and valid nyeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh.

[Tide]

FF8 - RICHARD approved challenge. The penultimate chapter.

Finished up Disc 3. Went to Disc 4. Lots of wipes along the way. Fun for everyone. Especially for Laggy. But Especially for RICHARD.

Wipe 15: I open up the Doorway to Deep Sea Reset Centre (c wat i did thar). About halfway through, random Tri-face back attack crit OHKOs me. Welp.
Wipe 16: I learn from my mistake and actually manage to make it down to the bottom. No Move Find though, so I can't use the Save Point. Selected Excerpts from chat:

[23:41:15] <%Laggy> doesn't he OPEN with light pillar.
[23:41:29] <+SageAcrin> yes under...some circumstances I forget.
[23:41:31] <+SageAcrin> <_>
[23:41:34] <%Laggy> <_<
[23:42:15] <@Elecman> I assume peerless is banned on this challenge, or at least some methods of getting it?
[23:42:20] <@Elecman> because lololol
[23:42:30] <%CmdrKing> I don't think there's any legal ways to get Heroes in this challenge.  Well.  I'm probably forgetting one or two you can get.
[23:42:38] <%CmdrKing> But Rare Card Refine is banned.
[23:42:39] <+Archmage> Man I dunno, I'm not sure what the terms of the challenge are. I'm not sure how else you would even survive a battle with Ultima with one PC.
[23:43:00] <+Tide|RICHARDapprovedwipes> ...
[23:43:02] <+Tide|RICHARDapprovedwipes> LULZ
[23:43:18] <%Laggy> lol
[23:43:19] <+Archmage> Wow.
[23:43:19] <+SageAcrin> yeah I think that is a 100% opener.
[23:43:21] <%Laggy> CALLED IT
[23:43:24] <@Elecman> Rare Card Refine ban does close some loopholes
[23:43:26] <+Tide|RICHARDapprovedwipes> <Laggy>
[23:43:28] <%Laggy> CALLED IT~~~

So yeah, opening with Triple = no very smart move.

Wipe 17: I make it down to the bottom, this time adjusting my HP so that I'm at critical. I quickly Hero up, then Renzo as many times as possible. No Lionheart and no kill. Two extra turns after the Hero wears off, I still can't kill him and he blasts me with Wipe Pillar.
Wipe 18: I run into a Behemoth who proceeds to maul me with an Assault horn crit. Ow.
Wipe 19: I go into Adel fight with Cerberus. Adel's first move is Meteor, which deals about 200 damage a hit. Cerberus has no HP-J, and my max HP is 1700. Good times!
Wipe 20: Apparently, Red Giant's PAUNCH ignores evade (or has perfect accuracy) and manages to catch me right when Protect wears off. So when I thought I could take an extra hit, I ended up not being able to.
Wipe 21: Gargantua is a whore. He casts up Berserk and then Slow and proceeds to triple turn me with a variety of shit while I slowly die as I am unable to heal.
Wipe 22: I get to Greiver in the Ulti fight. He blows away my HP-J, leaving me with 2820 HP. After Shell, Shockwave Pulsar deals 2830 damage.

Stay tuned for: The finale.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I liked Red Faction: Guerilla because it was like GTA: Total Recall, and if you don't like total recall you have worse taste than Djinn and should probably sign over power of attorney to someone.  When I picked up the Humble Bundle that had the sequel in it, I was excited.  Instead of tooling around on the surface and smashing shit and occasionally doing missions but usually just mounting hit-and-run attacks on army bases and such, they made it some kind of Gears of War railroaded shooter?  No wonder this game didn't sell.

I heard Metro 2033 was good, and I know for a fact Company of Heroes is, so at least it's not a total loss.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Gref gave me a copy of this because I told him I was feeling down.  So I played it.  I see the message the game wants to convey, and it's a good message and the game delivers it well.  But there's a (seemingly) unintended message about man-made climate change - and climate mitigation - that pervades the game, and is not resolved or really reckoned with in any satisfying manner, and is a complete downer, really.

I actually don't think that message was unintended, nor do I think the lack of resolution for it is accidental. Funny how it goes, really.

[Nitori]

AC2: Sweet, my climb up things simulator actually has things to do in it this time