What games are you playing 2014?

[Fenrir]

Final Fantasy Dimensions: Yeaaah I'm not feeling it. I'm trying to find something interesting in there but the game's not responding. Also, bad touch controls. Might as well replay FF5 instead.

Dark Souls 2:
Died with a twinblade character. Fell in a hole in the Gutter.

Twinblades give terrible first impressions, with bad damage, bad scaling, bad range, bad everything.
BUT you can use one with both hands and you can go all Star Wars Kid on an enemy with something like a 6 hit combo.

If you wield them in one hand or dual wield, they get the same moveset as other weapons, which obviously doesn't work at all with their extremely low damage.

So they're combo machine. Use with: resins, high str/dex, mundane/bleed/poison enchantment, ring of blades, etc.

That doesn't really make them good though. The combos are high commitment/risk attacks, like say, Great Club attacks, with very little range, unlike say Great Club attacks, without even doing comparable damage in the end.


Bows are cool and all but uuuuh they're just like magic.
If Soul Arrow was the only available spell ever and it did half its usual damage.
Sniping is cool though.

[Meeplelard]

Kirby Super Star: Just 100% Great Cave Offensive.

This is the one part of KSS I am not fond of, because GCO just always felt annoyingly laid out and seems to drag.  To think they apparently made a WHOLE GAME based around the idea of Metroidvania Kirby in Amazing Mirror is headscratching.

Ah well, with that behind me, it's onto easily the best parts of KSS: Revenge of Meta Knight and Milky Way Wishes.

[Sierra]

Dark Souls 2:
Died with a twinblade character. Fell in a hole in the Gutter.

Twinblades give terrible first impressions, with bad damage, bad scaling, bad range, bad everything.
BUT you can use one with both hands and you can go all Star Wars Kid on an enemy with something like a 6 hit combo.

If you wield them in one hand or dual wield, they get the same moveset as other weapons, which obviously doesn't work at all with their extremely low damage.

So they're combo machine. Use with: resins, high str/dex, mundane/bleed/poison enchantment, ring of blades, etc.

That doesn't really make them good though. The combos are high commitment/risk attacks, like say, Great Club attacks, with very little range, unlike say Great Club attacks, without even doing comparable damage in the end.


Bows are cool and all but uuuuh they're just like magic.
If Soul Arrow was the only available spell ever and it did half its usual damage.
Sniping is cool though.

Aw, I was just gearing up to do a run focusing on the weapon types I'd ignored--twinblades/lances/katanas (+3 rapier has to suffice until any of these become available). I guess twinblades can continue being ignored? The stats really did look like trash on paper, but I was holding out hope the moveset would make up for it.

Bows-only was the only other thing I could think of trying at this point, but yeah, I did that in DS1 and it was just like being a ghetto sorcerer. And you can't even ignore END in DS2 because bowshot chews through stamina now. Random thing it took me a long time to notice: if you execute an attack in DS2 with less than the normally required amount of stamina, you do lower damage proportionate to how much stamina you had.

Anyway scythechick -> hexchick basically done. I built a lightning scythe and grabbed Sunlight Blade specifically for the final boss. I still have to kill Darklurker (ffffff) because I want Lifedrain Patch, but Waifu scythe get! It's a little ostentatious. Also heavy, I had to sink a bunch of levels into VIT to carry it and still retain max roll power. 588 attack power, though! That's comparable to what I got out of Great Club shenanigans (on paper, less in practice because elemental weapon). It has the familiar scythe problem of hitbox wonkiness, with less range than the Great Scythe so now I have to get used to things all over again...but man the haft of the weapon is seriously somebody's spine and that is just too fucking metal you guys. Also that two-handed R2 is just pure style. Where to use it though? Oh right NG+.

[Fudozukushi]

I still intend to have QUEEN ANIME run twinblades all evidence pointing to their awfulness be damned!

Reduced damage isn't enough of a deterrent to just spam strong attacks with minimum stamina.  DS1 had negative stamina to punish that idea but here it's like 10% less damage and running takes much longer after stamina restores.  Whoop dee ship here let me staggerlock Darklurker who cares if it takes one more hit I can do this all day with no effective downsides!

Dark Souls 2: Around a dozen runs to get Old Whip.  Yayyyyyyy.

[Captain K.]

Dust an Elysian Tail:  This is actually good considering it's about furries.

[Fenrir]

Twinblades are not Dark Souls 1 Whip bad or anything. Unless you don't use the combo attacks.
Bows are meant to complement melee  weapons (preferably dex melee weapons) as they don't require a stat investment then (unlike magic) so their low power makes sense

I didn't even realize that lances were a thing different from spears! Too bad they're all lategame. Like all scythes/katanas/curved greatswords, if I'm not mistaken. Edit: Actually, only katanas and lances are lategame. I'll try the curved greatsword and scythe next time.

Oh by the way, the keyblade cannot be transfered to NG+

[Fudozukushi]

Chariot can make a Lance with its soul, so that would be Four Bosses plus a Gutter Dive(or Five to get to the Valley).  A Dark Scythe can be grabbed in the Shaded Ruins so if you make a Gutter Dive it can be grabbed without a boss kill at all, and even the Great Scythes only require one boss anyway on that same path.  Katanas are all Iron Keep(Four Bosses) or later.  Curved Greatswords are two bosses for the Murakumo(yay Gutter Diving!)

Speaking of the Chariot I forgot its soul could make the Crossbow Shield so Big McLargeHuge ate it and ARGH I could have actually used it!

Yeah, I forgot to mention the Keyblade didn't transfer over with Club-Guy.  It can't be upgraded either.  I want that damn moveset!

[Fenrir]

Actually, anything that requires twinkling titanite or petrified dragon bones to upgrade are not viable for my runs thinking about it. So using the Arced Sword isn't really a solution, and Murakumo requires beating scorpion lady, who's one of the only bosses I still fear!

You can also get some scythes as drops from Huntman's Copse enemies, but I don't know the drop rate. Chariot shouldn't be that hard to beat with a fresh character anyway, so accessing the Great Scythe shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Maybe going straight to the Iron Keep from the beginning of the game isn't that bad. The bosses on the way there aren't, but the levels are. I dunno. I should try it out once.

[Sierra]

All you need for NG chariot is MACE. I left it sitting at +3 on great scythe run because I didn't want to waste the large shards on something planned to become obsolete, and it was still perfectly sufficient.

Blacksteel Katana I think is the earliest of those you can get? Looks pretty sweet on paper. Four bosses in, yeah, but most of them are feebs.

Murakumo is boss, incidentally, was how I handled Throne duo the first time (the arc is big enough to hit both of them).

[Fudozukushi]

Checking the wiki... three katanas are straight related to Iron Keep.  Three more are from beyond Drangleic Castle and the last is the Chaos Blade.  Yeahhhhhhhhhh.

[Fenrir]

So surprisingly this makes katanas the least accessible weapons next to lances?
In the iron keep you either have to farm monsters (and might not even get one) or have to get an item for McDuff. Usually at this point I have Mc Duff's shop available, but not in a Run-straight-to Iron Keep run!

BTW guys, the next not-Souls
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=812089

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Duck Tales Remastered - <3 <3 <3 <3

[Grefter]

So podcast I listen to notes how many From games hearken back to Berserk and I keep seeing it in themes and armour designs and stuff.  That is all straight up Black Knight era Berserk shit right there.

Bravely Default - doing earth temple.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Well that helps explain why I didn't like Dark Souls' setting/atmosphere.


DmC - In what I assume is the final dungeon, which is a big business tower ran by the main villain. In the "demon world" version of it the walls are plastered with such slogans as "greed is great", "punish poverty", and "worship wealth". I am amused. Vergil remains the best character which is really freaking weird. Thoughts on things which are actually important can be saved until I am done.

[Grefter]

There isn't much there thematically other than generic dark fantasy stuff and stuff about fallibility of man/gods.  Tons of it in armour and weapon design though.

[Meeplelard]

Duck Tales Remastered - <3 <3 <3 <3

I am under the slight impression you like this game...


Speaking of awesome classics...

Kirby Super Star: Beat Milky Way Wishes and Meta Knight.  94% playthrough, might go and get that 100% and Arena later before moving onto KDL3.  yes, I'm going through the entire Kirby Anniversary Collection in order, WANNA FIGHT ABOUT IT?

[Fenrir]

So how is it similar to Berserk? (I don't know Berserk)

Honestly this just looks like The Next Souls Game EXCEPT dudes are wearing weirder hats than usual. (also there are guns apparently)

[Grefter]

The tattered cloak, gun in left hand is reminiscent of Guts.  Then more generic stuff you probably run into in other Souls stuff with the washed out colour pallet, army of ramshackle guys with torches.  Fighting fucked up zombie hell beasts and shit.

It is mostly just your baseline From things take a lot from it with some more explicit feeling references that give it a clear point in time in Berserk story arc (ie the majority of it).

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Berserk and the Souls games are both low fantasy that happens to be from Japan so similarities are gonna happen.

[Fudozukushi]

@Katana Chat.  Well, the jester hat and Gold Ring+1 are pretty much available instantly in Iron Keep and Allone Knights drop stuff pretty frequently but ehhhh it's still annoying.

[Sierra]

Took me all of three trips beating up the opening string of Iron Keep goons to get their katana to drop. Really not much trouble if you've got the stuff from Magerold. Totally worth the minor effort, I am wrecking everybody's shit with this thing. Katanas are actually kinda sluggish (next to comparable straight swords)? And lack bleed from DS1. But that's fine, they were totally overused there and needed to get docked somewhere. Anyway, we're hardly talking gamebest armament here but at +10 and 40 DEX I reliably get 300+ damage a swing off a relatively light slashing weapon and that is pretty good for anything that's not a hammer (should note I'm constantly two-handing it I guess). And there's no strength scaling (it's S for DEX) so you can ignore that stat altogether!

Which would be the reasonable thing to do, but instead I'm also pumping that up to 40 because twinblades! Fenrir neglected to include (among all the other legitimate drawbacks) that they also weigh twice as much as a single sword (this matters for me since I insist on maintaining max roll). And add to the MAD problem that stat requirements for entry tend to be rather high. So yeah, not recommendable but you guys they're so stylish. Dragonrider Twinblade actually looks more salvageable than the rest, so I'm saving up resources to get that upgraded. It was definitely fun using it to go all human blender vs The Rotten.

Lances really functionally don't exist. I won't even bother with the chariot's weapon because all my dragon bones are getting fed to the Dragonrider Twinblade.

Katanas, eh, I'm definitely giving Manslayer and Darkdrift a whirl, at least for novelty value. I am not even going to try getting the Berserker Blade and Chaos Blade is right out. Uchi is basically palette-swapped Blacksteel (except slightly inferior and storebought).

Fudo: I got the Old Whip again first trade this game without trying to or even wanting it. I would've preferred ore!

[Fudozukushi]

By the time Belmont got his whip I had the run time down to three and a half minutes. 

[jsh357]

X/Y Electric Monotype:
I've been trying to stick to a low level, and so far that has succeeded in making this pretty tough.  A common theme among the available monsters so far is low Defense, which isn't unexpected, but makes anything that hits hard a serious threat.

Before Gym 1, the only Electric type available is Pikachu, but he's a pretty good choice since the Bug gym leader has two flying types.

Between Gyms 1 and 2, the team has expanded to include Plusle, Emolga, Jolteon, and Helioptile.  (I had no luck finding either a Light Ball OR a Minun, neither of which is a huge loss in all honesty)  This team is surprisingly diverse.  Jolteon is the obvious keeper of the lot, but Helioptile has access to Ground and Rock moves, which have proven valuable more than once.  Plusle, while terrible on offense, survives better presently than other members of the team, so he's a decent Rocky Helmet candidate for me.  I've used that item to help take down a few weaker physical threats.  Emolga starts off with Pursuit and hits fairly hard (not to mention he nullifies Ground). 

The second gym (Rock) was pretty difficult, but I never got a game over here.  The biggest problem is a hiker who has a Rhyhorn and Onix, but between Plusle tanking (lol) and Helioptile flinging mud around, I managed to take him down.  Got a bit scared when the Gym Leader critted Helioptile, but I managed to paraflinchhax his Tyrunt, getting Emolga some nice EXP.  One great boon from this fight is Rock Tomb, which Helioptile can use.

Thinking forward a bit about Rotom.  He'll obviously be a great benefit to the team, but I wonder what the best form is for the challenge?  I'm honestly leaning toward his base Ghost form.  Rotom-Wash is unnecessary since I'll have Lanturn, meaning Mow, Freeze and base are probably the best options.  Looking at how annoying physical threats are, Ghost seems like the way to go.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Bravely Default - Finished! 74 hours total. Really enjoyed the first half of the game, liked the villain, class system kept me going through the doldrums of C7/C8. Final boss fight was pretty -.-.

I love games having variable difficulty. It is great for adjustable experiences. Played Hard Mode and it was quite difficult, but in a fun way~ Game has great music and I enjoy its graphical style.

The final boss I had a setup of Pirate with two swords and Sword Magic, a Templar with Dark Knight and physical attack 30%, a Time Mage with White Magic, and a Performer with Spiritmaster. Worked pretty well against the final set of bosses.

But obviously the most important thing... character outfit inequalities!

Freelancer: Edea > Agnes > Ringabel > Tiz
Edea's base outfit is the only one I would consider cute, the others are pretty much just in order of how much I like the general character design.

Monk: Agnes > Tiz > Ringabel > Edea
No piggytails, girl. Agnes looks beautiful as always.

White Mage: Agnes > Edea >  Ringabel > Tiz
I like the ones that look more like Holly. <_<

Black Mage: Edea > Agnes > Ringabel > Tiz
Floppy hat~

Knight: Edea > Ringabel > Agnes > Tiz
I like both Edea and Ringabel's a lot, but it just seems to fit her more, being a knight in training.

Thief: Agnes > Tiz > Ringabel > Edea
Not a huge fan of this outfit on anyone. Agnes' looks the least goofy though. Edea has the strange hood, and Ringabel's clothes are super baggy.

Merchant: Tiz > Ringabel > Edea > Agnes
The men have the more dapper outfits, but Tiz's black is more classy than Ringabel's blue.

Spell Fencer: Tiz > Ringabel > Edea > Agnes
See above pretty much.

Time Mage: Agnes > Ringabel > Edea > Tiz
Agnes is the only person who doesn't look like a dope in this outfit.

Ranger: no comment

Summoner: Agnes > Tiz > Ringabel > Edea
I like Agnes' hair in this one. The men have neat looking little outfits though.

Valkyrie: Edea > Agnes > Ringabel > Tiz
The boys look like stormtroopers, the girls look like valkyries.

Red Mage: Ringabel > Edea > Tiz > Agnes
I like the fabulous coat on the boys, but Edea sports the outfit too well.

Salve Maker: Edea > Agnes > Ringabel > Tiz
Not feeling the strange shoulder pads on the men. Not a great outfit.

Performer: Ringabel > Tiz > Agnes > Edea
Elvis > Stevie Wonder > bunnygirls in other words

Pirate: Edea > Tiz > Agnes > Ringabel
Edea looks so ridiculous in this outfit it wraps back around to awesome. Ringabel just looks bored.

Ninja: Agnes > Edea > Ringabel > Tiz
Don't dig the masks. Do dig the hair of the ladies in this one.

Swordmaster: Tiz > Agnes > Ringabel > Edea
All of these are decent. Tiz looks the most like the boss?

Arcanist: no

Spiritmaster: Ringabel > Tiz > Agnes > Edea
Ringabel looks the least dorky.

Templar: Ringabel > Edea > Agnes > Tiz
Ringabel looks like a knight in shining armor.

Dark Knight: Agnes > Edea > Ringabel > Tiz
Hair > no hair

Vampire: Ringabel > Edea > Tiz > Agnes
Such a dapper little outfit on Ringabel. Edea fits the dominatrix role pretty well though. ;)

Conjurer: Agnes > Tiz > Ringabel > Agnes
Eh, not a fan of this one in general.

I generally don't like Tiz's design very much -- he always looks like a bit of an dullard IMO.

[Captain K.]

That was the only important BD review thus far.