What Games Are You Playing 2013?

[Grefter]

FF Dimensions - Got Ifrit then proceeded into a Volcano.  Good thing my White Mage doesn't have high enough Summon to use Ifrit yet otherwise I would have wasted a bunch of time.  My Monk on the other hand I really wish could move back to something else, but Ice Knuckles are wayyyyy better than any of the other melee options.  I could probably dump him into Ranger with the other Ranger and give them both Ice Bows since you want all the Rangers and have everyone Back Row, but eh that is boring.

I have really come to hate chests in FF games.  Opening up a chest you have done 3 encounters and walked through a damage panel or two to get to and getting "Echo Grass" makes me want to punch a designer in the face.

Persona 4 - Up to Kanji dungeon.  Was going to swear about Contrarian King but realised Rampage was a limit move.  Then the time I Defended after Diamond Shield to survive it Chie dodge like both hits of it and lived as well, so hey, that was nice.  Then nearly missed the Suzaku Feather afterwards because the game assumes you know something will have appeared to search.  Because just making the boss drop the special item would be fucking lame.  Getting it with SOS feature is silly though.  200+ SP pool for Yukiko.  Okay she can regen 7 SP minimum each fight.  Seems fair (no it isn't).

Kind of not digging Normal mode.  It is making the dungeon parts the least fun parts of the game.  Not because they are hard but because it makes me want to fuck around and regen SP to save up money which is probably making my OCD brain make the game way grindier than it should be.  I have a problem and it kind of ruins these games.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

FF13 AKA ROGUE BELLPEPPER INVASION - Just began C6, where I take a look at Vanille's enormous penis my controllable Saboteur and get the feeling of a sunshiny day. This game is actually a ton of fun, guys!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Gref, you would agree that Handsome Jack in BL2 is a complex reference to Diamond Dogs, right? It makes a lot of sense.

[Tide]

Persona 4 - Up to Kanji dungeon.  Was going to swear about Contrarian King but realised Rampage was a limit move.  Then the time I Defended after Diamond Shield to survive it Chie dodge like both hits of it and lived as well, so hey, that was nice.  Then nearly missed the Suzaku Feather afterwards because the game assumes you know something will have appeared to search.  Because just making the boss drop the special item would be fucking lame.  Getting it with SOS feature is silly though.  200+ SP pool for Yukiko.  Okay she can regen 7 SP minimum each fight.  Seems fair (no it isn't).

Kind of not digging Normal mode.  It is making the dungeon parts the least fun parts of the game.  Not because they are hard but because it makes me want to fuck around and regen SP to save up money which is probably making my OCD brain make the game way grindier than it should be.  I have a problem and it kind of ruins these games.

That problem tends to happen only in the early game though. I got through the entire save SP phase a bit easier by using more physical attacks between Yu, Yosuke and Chie. Rampage is good for random sweeping, and Yu can pick it up on some early personas as well. It's also easier now to get surprise attacks on enemies and that extra free turn helps to save SP too.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Devil May Cry - Beat Nelo Angelo 2 (not too bad thanks to two green orbs in the arena, thanks game!), now on Griffon 2 who at least is kinda fragile for a DMD boss. When you can hit him.

KIU - Still knocking down achievements and trying to get better at the game so I can tackle the really high intensities. I've beaten most stages on 6 or 7 now, and everything on 5, but 9 crushes me into fine powder.

[superaielman]

OMD2- Five skulled all but the last two DLC stages in the Yeti pack. Those... those will be a problem. I hate goblin sappers on levels normally reserved for Shion.

[Captain K.]

Theatrhythm:  Unlocked Aerith, Ashe, and Minwe.  Grinding FMS in Challenge mode to speed-level people because Bartz is stupidly good at FMS

Find Mii:  Slowly working my way through this, mostly with play coins.  Did manage to tag 3 people at the movie theater.

[Grefter]

You are a crazy man Rob but Imcan totally see it.

Lke I said Tide it is a problem eith me and not the game.. I know enough in advance to have like 20 TaP Soda in my inventory and some Soul tomatoes as well.  Not to mention the unnecessary grinding leads to a healthier supply of Soul items from chests.. If i would ju st spend the resources I was given i would be having more fun.

I would note that the arbitrary nature of Soul Soda and the tomatoes can fuck right off, but that is the shit Persona 3 pulled as well soqq more Grefter.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

FF13 - Middle of chapter 7. I never thought I'd say this, but there is -one- thing I hate about Snow, and it's called his gameplay. Argh, hate controlling him so much.

[VySaika]

KIU - Still knocking down achievements and trying to get better at the game so I can tackle the really high intensities. I've beaten most stages on 6 or 7 now, and everything on 5, but 9 crushes me into fine powder.

This makes me feel alot better about my ability at the game.

[Random Consonant]

The 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation EPISODE 3 THE GAIA SAVIOR (Cool Popped Collar Bro): People came back from demon golem land, sans Masaki and crew, so now Excellen is the only one with over 50 kills because I make good life decisions or something.  Some very rude guests showed up, then the game decided now for something different again so a manloli decided he wanted to be overpowered and then a couple dudes decided to go to the Antarctic.

Oh yeah Kusuha decided she wanted to spam ALL attacks all day but who cares about her.

[Pyro]

Bastion: Replayed a little of this on a whim based off something Grefter said in chat. This game is still Fucking Awesome.

I somehow managed to miss parts of the narration before (volume problems before?) so it's even better now.

[Dark Holy Elf]

KIU - Still knocking down achievements and trying to get better at the game so I can tackle the really high intensities. I've beaten most stages on 6 or 7 now, and everything on 5, but 9 crushes me into fine powder.

This makes me feel alot better about my ability at the game.

It was a great victory when I reached the intensity 9 gate (only one in the game) in Thanatos' stage. It's riiight after the air battle section, and I died as soon as I opened the gate and walked in, but I reached it, damnit! (And yes, the game gives you credit for this.)

[Shale]

2nd OGs: Finished up EX, and not a moment too soon. Not that the Masoukishin segments were terrible, but they were definitely starting to get old. And now I have Garmraid and Aile Chevalier (<3 Drumfire), which are awesome. On a gameplay note, holy crap Maximum Break is brutal when you've got three good supporters to use it with.

[Fenrir]

Devil Survivor 2: Finished.
I have unlocked achievements.

I liked the general approach of the game: A lot of enemies hide a few tricks, but winning without knowing about them is entirely possible, and they're not nearly as unfair as FE's reinforcements. Lose the battle, and you have some more knowledge the next time you play, and have a higher chance of success. I think Devil Survivor 1 did some of that too but it was more annoying than anything?

The communism vs liberals thing was cute but got absolutely nowhere in my ending. I think most people would avoid Yamato or Ricardo on their own the first time? Nice roleplaying guys choose Daichi, other people choose Al. I appreciate the idea of introducing kids to the concept though.
It was very similar (same battle system, engine, graphics) but different from Devil Survivor 1, like Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment. I like both games. Modern SMT hasn't failed me yet. (EDIT: EXCEPT THAT MMORPG)

[Tide]

The communism vs liberals thing was cute but got absolutely nowhere in my ending. I think most people would avoid Yamato or Ricardo on their own the first time? Nice roleplaying guys choose Daichi, other people choose Al. I appreciate the idea of introducing kids to the concept though.

That's my kneejerk as well. Yamato felt clearly to me as the Law aligned choice, while Ricardo was the Chaos aligned choice with Daichi being Neutral. So to implement that alignment, I think they went towards the extreme ends to portray those characters, which really doesn't sit well I think with most people. Yamato was an asshole and Ricardo wasn't much better. I chose Daichi's so I could get all the PCs recruited at the end, but I know CK chose Al as well.

Glad to know that you enjoyed it. It's a fun little game. Not perfect, but I think the game play is surprisingly closely knit. Story telling could use a little work, but I think they got across what they needed to.

[Niu]

The communism vs liberals thing was cute but got absolutely nowhere in my ending. I think most people would avoid Yamato or Ricardo on their own the first time? Nice roleplaying guys choose Daichi, other people choose Al. I appreciate the idea of introducing kids to the concept though.

Instead of the whole Yamato vs. Ricardo, I am more surprised at the Al route. When is the last time we see a benign deity in a SMT?

[DjinnAndTonic]

Have there ever been benign deities in SMT? The Velvet Room people maybe? If they count as deities...

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon: Beat this. Final team was Marth, Merric, and a bevy of pegasi. Caeda was MVP for the whole frickin' game. Triangle Attack saw a lot of use. Grounded all my pegasi for the ballista chapters. Est made a surprisingly effective mage in my run. Lost a few units but didn't care enough to reset. Also didn't care enough to kill off half the team to get any of the Gaiden chapters, though they look boring anyway.

Game is literally the worst Fire Emblem game ever, losing a lot of the polish of FE9/10 and instead adding reclassing as its only redeeming feature. Unfortunately, even reclassing doesn't save it because it's terribly implemented, even if conceptually sound.

I may give FE2 a whorl next, since apparently it actually takes place in the same continuity and has some crossover characters (at least the Pegasus Sisters and Camus, there may be others?). It's apparently horrible, but there's always hacking~

[Idun]

So this may OHKO chatters accustomed to my 97% non-game chat, but I am playing:

Code Princess, almost done with three characters at this point. Game loses major points for a sucky framerate and too much lag, though it doesn't put you in a bad position when fighting characters during normal plot events. 3DS

Kingdom Hearts 358/2, replaying the last few days (mmm, maybe 5 hours or so), since I popped DDD in and needed a refresher. Opted to not just read a wiki.

Kingdom Hearts DDD, just started, assuming pokéhearts'll get wacked out stats.

Xenoblade, about 16 hours in, liking the game so far, still getting very overwhelmed with quests. They bring in a lot of dough, but I just don't have time. Wondering now if the game is easily playable without doing such now. Anyone?

Resonance of Fate, 8 hours in. OK. So, I .. I think I'll leave the rant for this game later, but someone explain to me how fucking -dumb- it is to have a CHARACTER THAT CAN'T KILL ANYONE, even at the beginning despite battles going by swiftly. I'm recalling a pretty annoying mech battle that meant having him take shelter, Hero action, take shelter, Hero action, take shelter, and then put my two characters in and out. Sort of lame, waiting on an attachment that lets his damage actually turn into real damage and not scratch. . . I'm hoping. I could just google it. I DO like the hex exploration for maps though, perdy cool.

I haven't picked up TLS since I picked up Xenoblade. ]=

I have to get my gaming in before Janaury 14, then my life is over again. I may try to do the portable gaming, since it's cold and I refuse to bike on ice.

[Captain K.]

Most of the DL seems to like Resonance of Fate for some reason; I think it's the worst thing tri-Ace has ever created.

[Nitori]

Darksiders: this game is literally western Wind Waker, except better because Wind Waker isn't very good

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Most of the DL seems to like Resonance of Fate for some reason; I think it's the worst thing tri-Ace has ever created.

They created Pedophile Pandering Girl and the Underage Thai Prostitute Cat.

[Tide]

Darksiders: this game is literally western Wind Waker, except better because Wind Waker isn't very good

So what replaces the sailing?

Re: RoF - there were a lot of DL people that liked this? Really? As far as I can count, it's mainly me and Eph. Eph liked it because he could play as Rob. I liked it because I got to shoot some dudes. Everyone else I haven't heard from. Oh well, I guess Rob found it okay too I guess? That hardly constitutes to "everyone" though.

[Grefter]

I stopped playing it because it was clunky as fuck and had no idea of pacing or what curves looked like when designing difficulty.  Still better than SO4 though.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

It was pretty uneven but it did some interesting things. Armor as an extra health bar with sectional facings is an interesting idea that more ARPGs should look at. The basic ideas, by and large, were pretty good, they just needed to be executed wih more finesse. Also I made a gun with five barrels that all pointed straight up.

I don't really remember anything about the plot because I didn't get to the end and havent played in forever but I liked how it's plot wasn't all up its own ass. Like Gref said, it's streets ahead of SO4.