What Games Are You Playing 2013?

[Meeplelard]

FE10: So started a new game of this.  Originally I had a replay about halfway in but my brother makes it hard to play on the Wii, so shifted to a different console and started over!  Why did I stop that replay originally?  Honestly, I couldn't give you a good reason if I tried.

Anwyay, just beat 1-7.  I'm raising Fiona because I never did it before and I keep getting reminders why I never did it.  Even with an Iron Lance+5, she sucks.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Man I haven't even thought about the FF5a aftergame in years. Maybe I'll give it a spin but I remember it being kinda dull/long outside the big three bosses, areas were too big with not enough save points. I almost never bother with encounter control in RPGs unless I'm retreading or lost, but I definitely used Read Ahead there.

[superaielman]

Lufia 3- Just got the princess. Randolph is a thing. He combines Tia's durability with Dekar's magical stats and speed. We have an early frontrunner for cast LVP!

Really enjoying the game. I cleared out the ruby icon dungeon, that involved a lot of running and spamming of Destroy. It got me enough cash for a bunny ears which is cool.

[Grefter]

Fen if you are interested this tweak pack has an option to change the reputation tables to give discounts at low and high rep.

[Fenrir]

Nah don't worry. I don't want to impact the base game too much, aside from removing the exp cap.

Solo = Way too much money anyway, and I use Friends for discounts.
I just cleared the mines with 10 000G waiting. Bought every spell available plus a few Potions of Broken +1. The exploding skull is fun.

I really don't see any point to fighter/thief/mage except in a solo game, where they're so cool. They just do everything!

All in all this is pretty fun. Non linear world + No level scaling + Difficulty + Lots of options does that to me even with the gameplay issues.



Randolph really has no point whatsoever BTW. First PC I kicked out. I'm the only other guy (ever) who likes Lufia 3 by the way.

[Dhyerwolf]

Don't you need another 5 PCs to join after Randolph before you have enough to kick him out?

[Pyro]

NEB:

Fun fact vs. Omega: Encircle and other Expel moves are immuned by Dragon's Kiss. Also, If you just wait around in Quick you can fullheal with Regen if you want.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Pyro: Yeah, I'm aware of that. However, two things. One, I banned Mix because I feared it would be overcentralising (due to haste, defensive buffs, and status all in one skillset). As I mentioned in my post, this proved a mistake likely, as it wouldn't have actually been as potent as I was worried about compared to things I could do anyway. Two, Encircle is only one problem with Omega's counters; another is Mustard Bomb, which does nasty unreflectable non-elemental damage, something Omega normally doesn't have and something I wasn't really prepared to deal with. And the reflecting-Search strategy makes counters a non-issue regardless.

That said, I'd still likely have used Dragon Kiss in both that fight against final Exdeath if I could, for the immnity to Maelstrom and in Exdeath's case, Doom. For Omega I'd use Mix with Mime to replace item, since it can cover MP healing in item's place. For Exdeath I'd probably use Summon + Mix? (Need the ribbon, so no Mime unless I master Dancer and Equip Ribbon carries over... no clue if it does actually.)

Re regen: Far more evil than regen, the exact same trick works with HP Leak as well, so apply HP Leak, Quick, collect victory with Omega (or ANYTHING ELSE IN THE ENTIRE GAME since nothing immunes HP Leak) It's degenerate (and slow) enough that I refuse to use it on principle. That said the regen version wouldn't actually be useful in that particular fight, as (a) it would be incredibly slow as regen would be fighting HP Leak which Omega has you constantly under (and winning, but only slowly), and (b) I had a healing skillset for free since black magic had my best damage... and just happened to also have full healing by accident due to my need for a flame shield.

[Pyro]

I thought I had tested Venom/Bio+Quick to see if that worked and was disappointed when I couldn't get it to work on enemies. Maybe I was trying the wrong thing. Anyways I had a blast reading about your solo NEB.

Tales of Xillia:

Just cavorting around testing some things about the system and verifying level/GC gain. In re-fighting some old bosses with the knowledge that multi-hit Artes are the best form of damage, I've come to another conclusion. In addition to one-hit artes inflicting optimum damage/hit, they also enable you to very very quickly change from a combo to a backstep dodge. Since enemies give you a sign (blue ! mark) when they are about to combo-break, being able to get away fast is fantastic. This is rather awesome with Jude, who backsteps a great distance and has a good chance to avoid an attack entirely. Or you can just Guard and reduce the damage dramatically.

Levels 2-12: 3 GP gain
Levels 13-35: 4 GP gain
Levels 36-40: 5 GP gain
Levels 41-50: 4 GP gain
Levels 51-59: 3 GP gain
Levels 60-99: 2 GP gain.

I think Leia's "random" element skill is non-random and gives you the enemy's weakness if they have one. Sweet.

[DjinnAndTonic]

FE13: Almost to Chapter 11, who should I pair Chrom up with? (why can't I pair up Chrom with Cordelia? you are cruel, game.)

[Meeplelard]

FE13: Almost to Chapter 11, who should I pair Chrom up with? (why can't I pair up Chrom with Cordelia? you are cruel, game.)

Well, there's only one FAIR way to decide:

HATBOT!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Accidentally saved over my 95% complete SR4 save.  OH NO GUESS I'LL HAVE TO PLAY IT AGAIN.

[SnowFire]

Whoever you want, Djinn.  Although if you've paid attention to chat, understand that if you want ChromxOlivia, you have to jump through some crazy hoops, so maybe best to save that for a later playthrough.  Also ChromxMaribelle is kinda "bad" depending on your thoughts on grinding.  (Having done that myself...  if you want them to actually fall in love and hit an S Support, you need to pair up Mari with Chrom and have Chrom go on a killing spree.  If you want Mari to *gain levels* and not suck, you need to have her heal.  So yeah, doing a minor bit of Risen / DLC to let Chrom x Maribelle mow down a bunch of sucky enemies for support is highly recommended.)

Enemies don't wake up from BG1 Sleep?  Weird.  (But the less said about BG1, the better.)

Also, in very belated FE9 commentary, I know that people tend to whine a lot about slow FE9 Weapon skill growth, but I find it difficult to care in a game where you can easily forge Iron weapons +3 on the cheap that'll have a ton of uses, and Iron weapons +5 later that make that E in whatever weapon type look good.  Axes are still good, but getting Steel early isn't so much the reason why for me!

[Meeplelard]

By the logic of "You can forge Iron!", I can argue "You can forge Steel and that character can use it."  Also, late in the game, few people want to use Iron+5 when they can be swinging around Steel+5 or Silver+5.  Axes having Steel at E Rank, or Mist's D Rank in Swords (as opposed to E) is nice for that reason alone (granted, Mist still has issues killing things that aren't mages)

Also, might as well toss in "You can only forge 1 weapon per chapter, do you really want to use it on Iron that late?"

[Nitori]

Tales of Graces f: It was almost Crusader Kings but then it was Tales again. Hi Pascal~

[DjinnAndTonic]

FE13: Heh, Virion and Cherche have this dynamic that's very Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Awesome <3 Why can't I pair Chrom with cool people? (Well, okay, Sully is awesome, but a weird match for Chrom.)

I ended up choosing Maribelle, though I can't help but feel she's too good for him.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Chrom/Sully is the most natural to me because they are already friends and unlike Sumia it's not just her being gaga over him.

[DjinnAndTonic]

It's less that Sully isn't a good pairing for Chrom and more that... Sully can do better than Mr. Boring Prince.

[Luther Lansfeld]

There are pretty slim pickings in that army. Frederick, sure, but we know he is probably gay for Chrom. Lesbian sex is probably the best way to get a respectable partner.

[Meeplelard]

Gregor is not pleased with that statement!

[Twilkitri]

Steamworld Dig - played through

Pretty entertaining. Got two gold medal-things and two bronzish ones, the bronzish ones being for time and death tally.

Gets a bit annoying later on when re-appearing blocks show up, but you also get the metal detector in that area which essentially trivialises the whole mining side of things anyway. I have mixed feelings on that.

It was also a bit disappointing that the only people who moved into the town were storeowners.



MacGuffin's Curse - played through

Pretty entertaining. Lots of amusing object descriptions, at least until the mansion.

I didn't really understand that it was going to be a game of pushing things around until I started playing it, which was a depressing thing to discover, but ultimately the puzzles rarely ever got complex enough to be annoying, which was a relief.



The Blackwell Legacy - played through

Seems promising. Then it ends. (Referring to shortness, not to some problem with the ending.)

Hopefully the sequels will be able to do more with what it was building up.

Notes system reminds me of Discworld Noir, which is always a good thing. Typically I managed to forget it existed at the most critical time though, which I blame on it not coming up in the conversations at that point.

I am a bit down on the way progression is sometimes structured - the time which stands out the most is in one of those areas where you only get to talk to a person, and when you stop talking you automatically leave - after you leave the first time, you need to go straight back in order to have a different conversation with the same person that gets you an item, which you can't do during the first time.

[Fenrir]

Enemies don't wake up from BG1 Sleep?  Weird. 

It also basically never runs off.
Asleep enemies are basically dead enemies unless you decide to rest for 8 hours or something.

(But the less said about BG1, the better.)

Too bad!!

Baldur's Gate Yattaf Solo Insane Difficulty:
Gotten to the Cloakwood mines already, level 6/6/7.
The boots of speed (2x walking speed) are there. They're kinda annoying in a regular game and basically the best thing ever in a solo. I'll try to avoid not abusing backpedaling + shooting too much from now on, something that can probably kill anything. Otherwise the game is still basically crazy hard. I die and have to try new approaches against every other encounter. And I obviously rest every fight.

I got some mileage out of a lot of spells lately, including unusual ones like Grease or Blindness.

I also realized that I was kinda traumatized by the spider lair as a kid. This game has some of the most unsettling giant spiders! The basic one is already giant and gross as hell. Then there's the slightly bigger green one, the teleporting one that probably teleports in your mouth in your sleep, and worst of all the superfast one you can't hide from.
And the lair itself comes out as a surprise "Hey let's check out this cave OMG"

[Fenrir]

The best part:

[DjinnAndTonic]

My personal favorite is probably the archest of archers, but I also like The Vaike and Gregor. Unfortunately, they won't let me marry Gregor to everyone.

[Nitori]

Tales of Graces f: All hail blood god Richard

Rank Raymond