What Games Are You Playing 2013?

[Fenrir]

At this point the strategy is the same against every boss: Illusion Sun to evade a few attacks, Reviver for a Reraise effect (this is the only healing I use), then Dragon Inferno/Triple Thrust until the enemy's dead. This kills everything. Or so I thought.


I had never seen this enemy before. Nice.



Yattaf decides to take on evil Jesus and destroy his cult.


Unfortunately she needs to leave party members behind through all the dungeon. ...
And apparently Herman is permanently dead.


Yattaf grabs Sharl, Muse, Wood, Mille Feuilles and Thomas to use them as... pretty much boulders in a block puzzle
I wanted Harid instead of Mille Feuilles, but he just didn't give a fuck about this quest.


It is all very epic.


Unfortunately Jackal is completely pathetic. The End.




Is Dragon Inferno enough to kill that bastard?


... Yes. Yes it is.




This monstrosity probably has the best defense in the game, regens 999 every round, knows a bunch of status including petrification (which it loves)
The damage isn't that high, so Yattaf can afford losing a bit of defense.
Dream Gem for sleep protection, Feather Boots for Stone+Earth protection (I think), Kris Knife for overall status protection. Grab Dragon Inferno and spam it.



Abyss Naga just LOVES status. Forsake all defense for status protection (sleep & poison immunity + overall status resistance), then the usual strategy applies.


Hey! Let's try killing the final boss with his limiter off!!





Er...



Ok, ok. I get it.



Fine! I lost, I know!



Aunas mk2 is pissed. His counter has been upgraded to 600 or so damage (fire protection doesn't help), and he has monster HP + status. (ID, Charm, Stun, Stone) His non counter damage is fairly manageable with fire protection, but there's no way to be protected against every status, so Yattaf needs some luck to win this.
200 TPs wasn't enough, I had to use a few physical attacks to finish him off.
For some weird reason, he regens 999 HPs per round... Until he gets hit once. I guess he has a fire mantle effect that auto counters and regens HPs; with the auto regen disappearing after one counter.
... I should have used Double Dragon, right? I'm an idiot.



Byunei mk2 rocks with Stun. And I left the stun immunity boots back home.
She does good enough damage that the 3-6 turns lost because of Stun mean a game over 50% of the time, even with Auto resurrection on. And she has Charm and Poison too! Yay!
Aunas was hard enough, Byunei looks even worse. I really didn't plan this enough. No choice but to reload an earlier save.



First, training on the strongest regular enemy in the game, Asura.

Final stats:
999 HP
250 TP
147 MP
Sword: 38
Axes: 39
Spears: 39
Bows: 32
Fists: 43
Fire: 36
Sun: 36
Um... I -might- have sometimes reloaded before defeating an Asura to get more stat boosts.  >_>



Aunas still killed me 6 times, even with Double Dragon.



Goddamn Byunei took me 20 tries. The stun immunity boots don't even work. Either there's a mistake in the code, or it's not immunity just 90% resistance except Byunei has 170% hit rate or something.
Setup: Hidora Leather (poison immunity), E. Martial, Kris Knife (status protection), Death Ring. All in all, it seems like the best compromise between stat protection and defense, but it doesn't guarantee a win at all.


Forneus mark 2? .........


NOOOOOOO!
Ok. Now that I know how it works, I'm coming back with the Silver Hand. I'm not sure it will be enough to kill Forneus, but I might as well try. I don't think I can afford leaving one of the four abyss devils alive.

Edit: I tried the Silver Hand and even the Silver Hand + savestate abuse, but I didn't beat him. 16 full rounds of Dragon Scale Sword physical + Dragon Inferno aren't enough. I think that's it for this challenge, unless Destroyer is manageable even with Forneus alive.

[Sierra]

So I started up RS3 as Katrina, because if a game gives me the chance to play as Utena then dammit that's what I'm going to do. Game told me to go to Pidona. Manifestly failed to find any trace of Katrina's plot or any plot there, so now I'm just wandering around doing random shit. SaGa games. Currently beating my head against the rats, the rats in the walls. fft

Poet wouldn't leave my party so I let monsters kill him (this took more effort than one might guess). I hope he doesn't come back. Shoulda listened when I told you to hit the road, asshole!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

The rats? You either need MT to deal with Algernon or to get the poison from the professor in the forest to know which rat to hit every round (it's the one that doesn't take damage from the poizn). The thing is pretty danged frail (like 3000 HP? Um yeah), but its offense can easily mangle even parties nearing the 400s due to being so heavily gravity-based. Of course, if you learn Great Wheel with someone, the fight completely fails. Also, Katrina's plot is just killing Maximus, which is pretty much the blunt of Herman's quest. :saga:

EDIT: IN FAIRNESS, if you're doing random shit, you're doin' it rite.

[Ranmilia]

Knytt Underground:  broke down and got it after Cid's post.  Plotstuff/characters are fine, the gameplay feels like a bit of a step back so far, but I'm only through Chapter 1.  At least sliding down walls is gone.

[Sierra]

Chapter 1&2 are quite short and basically mechanical introductions (1: you can climb walls; 2: you can bounce around). Chapter 3 is where they cut you loose for free exploration and is really the bulk of the game.

They definitely do less with ball mode here than they did in WaDF (there aren't multiple ball types this time); the design focus was clearly to provide challenges that require you to utilize both modes and the new, temporary movement powerups you find in some rooms (I can't recall whether these exist in chapter 1, but the glowing flower things). It doesn't always work as well as it possibly could, but I think they were very creative with the simple mechanics involved. Once you hit chapter 3 you can go literally anywhere if you're inventive enough.

[Ranmilia]

Yeah, I see that now that I finished chapter 2.  Feels like I'm missing a ton of secrets though - the only two I've gotten are Knytt Stories and Fireworks, despite spending a fair bit of time checking places.  I even found a secret room at the start of C2, but couldn't find anything to actually do in it...  We'll see.

[Sierra]

The game is loaded with secrets. The only actual trophy I got was indeed Fireworks. Apparently there's a whole bonus area of a couple hundred extra rooms that I totally overlooked. Will have to knock that out over the weekend. Good news is I don't think much of anything is permanently missable (there is apparently one trophy that I can't see anyone getting without considerable advance knowledge of the map...but whatever, trophies, I'm more interested in seeing every cool thing on the map).

Shortcuts are absolutely everywhere, so it generally pays to check out any random empty space that looks suspiciously close to Mi's height.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Is that PCable?

[Sierra]

It is not currently on Steam, but I believe Nifflas's site has links for purchase elsewhere.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Yeah, Irotins just provided. Though I may buy it when I swap to wi-fi anyway (now that I have a PS3).

[Sierra]

The rats? You either need MT to deal with Algernon or to get the poison from the professor in the forest to know which rat to hit every round (it's the one that doesn't take damage from the poizn). The thing is pretty danged frail (like 3000 HP? Um yeah)

It didn't live through two whole turns when I came back with the poison.

Killed Volcano and recruited Undine because magegirl. She does something like 2x average PC damage and she does it MT. Uh.

Went to Vanguard. They have a fishman problem. Their solution is to move the town. No one's real clear on how to do this, but they're giving me money for it anyway.

[Niu]

Wait, so you give up on the shield?

[Twilkitri]

Super Robot Academy - finished with

Finished all the subscenarios. The reward was being able to re-view all the in-game images in a roundabout fashion. Great.

Ended up on 80% collection. Most of the missing ones are alternate versions - I only seem to be missing two units completely, both VirtualOn ones. Pretty sure one of them is Tangram, not sure about the other but who cares about VirtualOn anyway.

Things got a bit annoying to handle with my regular team once the opponents started flagrantly violating the team cost limit, so I threw together a new team which I ended up using most of the endgame, which was Tru Getta 1, J-Ark, Boss Borot, Big Shooter (new), Big Shooter (old). Latter three were originally intended mostly for EN regen purposes but because TG is bizarrely horrible at staying alive they ended up being used in combat a lot more than expected.

I'm pretty annoyed about how they put in far too many ZAKU variants (1 ZAKU Warrior, 2 Gunner ZAKU Warriors, 3 Blaze ZAKU Phantoms, 1 Slash ZAKU Phantom, 3 GOUF Igniteds) and un-improved Zoids units (Lanstag & Lanstag Break, etc) and so forth, and meanwhile didn't put in any Tekkaman Blade units. Also had barely any representation from several J-era serieses which to be fair they would probably have needed to do new sprite work for. Only (Reinforced?) Layzner from Layzner, only Zeorhymer from Zeorhymer... also only Orgun from Detonator Orgun, which is a bit odd seeing as it's W-era. Also no Voltron, unless it's the second unit I'm missing that I thought was VirtualOn (it is at the break between VirtualOn and Endless Waltz so could conceivably be another one-off). Also only the title units representing Combattler V/Voltes V/Dancougar, but that was the case in J/W/K anyway so I can't get too angry about it (YES I CAN).

EDIT: Okay, Voltron's actually on the front of the box, so it has to be it and Tangram that I missed. I can say that I never saw any opponents use it against me either though.

Anyway it isn't very good all up. I turned all the animations off after a handful of battles and it was still annoyingly slow. There's a small delay between the battle menu coming up and the cursor being movable which resulted in me going into the wrong menu a noticeable number of times because I tried to move too early and it didn't. Selecting to attack fades the battle podium scene out then fades the weapon list in, picking a weapon fades the weapon list out then fades the podium scene back in, and it's aggravatingly slow. Cancelling the weapon fades out/in to the weapon list again, and so on. You can't see your tick counter while you're choosing a weapon (or an enemy to attack), so if you need to recheck it you need to fade/fade back (twice) and the fade/fade forward again (twice). Similar problems with the spirit screen and some others.




My brother bought All The Bravest and I played a little of it. It's definitely pretty mindless, but I don't mind it? Going to agree that some of the 'premium' charges are dumb, but from what I played I'd consider getting it if they brought out a 3DS version (that wasn't crippled in some way).

[Grefter]

So they have Voltron on the box and it is missable?  I would be so mad.

[Twilkitri]

If you weren't already aware, SRAcademy is only vaguely related to SRW and doesn't play very similarly. Units are just pieces, the pilots aren't characters, and they're essentially all gotten from a capsule machine. (Sometimes you can get units after winning a match but this is rare, and even then half the time the units are common ones anyway. Something I forgot to complain about.) So just poor luck on my part.

[Sierra]

Wait, so you give up on the shield?

Bwuh? Dude, I have no idea what anything is/where anything is in this game, I'm just going with whatever I blunder across. Don't assume I know what the optimal course of action might be.

Anyway I'm in a village of lobster people that live in igloos made from starfish. This game!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Fire Emblem 10 - Doing a no reset playthrough (aside from Lord death). Lost Meg and Edward fairly early, and leaned on Volug and Sothe and Naliah to coast me through the rest of the chapter. Leo gained 5 speed! He might be the best Leo I've ever had (not that that says much, he usually dies).

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Wait, so you give up on the shield?

Bwuh? Dude, I have no idea what anything is/where anything is in this game, I'm just going with whatever I blunder across. Don't assume I know what the optimal course of action might be.

Anyway I'm in a village of lobster people that live in igloos made from starfish. This game!

Are you going to recruit Boston? He's surprisingly solid aside from his crappy armor, dumping his durability a fair deal. HIS WATER MAGIC GETS A 1.25x DAMAGE BONUS TOO (why wouldn't you use his MA instead)

EDIT: Also, the shield isn't that hot. The damage resistances are pretty amazing (and a solid rate for the activation), but eeeeeeeeeeeeeew doubled costs for all techs and magic. But anyhow, if this is relevant for future playthroughs, to get the shield, you agree to kill both Undine and Volcano, but then instead of killing either, you talk to the guys guarding the wells in-between North and South Moses. They'll leave and let you enter the Dead Man's Well, which is where you get the shield. Scour the dungeon, get the goody and then you'll get into a boss fight with both Undine and Volcano (psssssst use ID on them). Beat them up and neither dies while you keep the shield, then you can recruit Undine as well.

[Sierra]

I would so not use anything that doubled skill costs.

I don't know if I could bring myself to run with a lobster person in the party. There's only so much ridiculous I can take. I mean, I know I just beat up a demon car while riding on another demon car, but come on, I've got limits.

So I've just now noticed that mastering a tech doesn't only just make it a permanent part of the user's skill list. It makes it a part of everyone's skill list. This means that instead of just having a Nora with Great Wheel, I have an entire party that knows Great Wheel. This poor game.

[Nitori]

Rune Factory 3: one day in and everyone is fucking insane

[Tide]

Lost Edward fairly early

And nothing of value was lost.

Oh right, games. Playing Pokeymanz because I can't practice WA4. I've been meaning to go back to my run >_>

[Dark Holy Elf]

Street Fighter x Mega Man - Beat this. Short little game, no shock there. The version I've played didn't have any sort of save files or password system (apparently a newer version has changed this), so I ended up playing it the way I did old NES games: just getting good enough to beat it in one sitting. Worked out pretty well. Anyway, it's a decent enough game. Boss design is where it shines... you can tell they put a lot of love into translating the Street Fighter bosses into Mega Man opponents. Most of them are great. I found Rose the hardest of the robot masters and Vega the hardest overall. Stage design is... less good. It has its moments certainly but overall it's kinda iffy with a couple outright bad stages (Chun Li's is the most boring), and is hurt by a few glitches at points (elevators crushing you against top of the screen, ugh). Weapons are middle-of-the-road in terms of design.

Dante Must Die - Up to Mundus. He's a really, really big jerk. Just FYI.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Rune Factory 3: one day in and everyone is fucking insane

Gust game?

[superaielman]

Defense Grid- Been playing the Containment beta. They actually bothered to put a storyline into the game this time. It's minimalist enough to work. The levels are fairly tough. You don't have the orbital laser for the last few maps, and oh *god* do you feel it on Auger.

Tales of Maj'eyal- Jim showed this off at he last minimeet, and I was interested enough to give it a spin. I'm running an Alchemist. It's clear a lot of love and thought was put into the main game, with a hugely diverse cast and a lot of balance. That said, I found the game to be vastly improved with an Alchemist, since it has a second PC with him. I really wish this were turned more into a traditional RPG.  Having a party of three or four characters would be amazing with the depth of the system.  I also really dislike permadeath as a mechanic (one reason I don't care for rougelikes).  The gameplay is good enough to get me to overlook that, but blah.

[Grefter]

I am bad and should feel bad.

Permadeath is fine, it is just a question of balancing it right.  Roguelikes do it well from the direction of it generally being the loss condition (ToME is different but it still works there).  X-Com does it well by making it punishing but recoverable with nameless faceless entities.

Persona 4 - I have just got through Heaven and got to the climax after that.  Just before choice for FRUE ENDING my Vita ran out of power.  So I am going to probably spend all afternoon quoting saying PREVIOUSLY ON X-MEN since I will be picking it back up on a majour cliff hanger.

Like so many other games, spoiling the mystery gives me far more enjoyment out of it.  You get to notice the finer art of the story telling on your first time through with foreshadowing and knowing red herrings for what they are.

Sure I could appreciate it on a replay, but when it is 50 hours plus I am less enamoured with that as an argument.  Enjoying Momento watching it the second time only sinks 3 hours out of your life (watching it twice back to back).  What could end up being 100+ hours of gameplay on the other hand that is less enjoyable.

Especially when the solution is one you couldn't really see coming.  Also watching the execution is so much more fun without knowing the finer details which spoilers tends to never sufficiently do.  Like at this point?  I don't quite fully get Adachi, but he is a real piece of work if he is consciously driving the entire thing.  Him doing so would honestly be a little disappointing in a Persona game though.

What I would love to see the execution being is that by this point he isn't really on board with it, but his Id is in full swing and he doesn't have the finer control he did when he was kidnapping Saki/Yukiko etc.  Things like Jester ranking up when you rescue Nanako really kind of hint at this.

I honestly don't expect that finer level of execution from Atlus though, they are very much style over substance even at their best (which P4 really is to the point I would even recommend it to people who weren't really on board with P3).