What games are you playing 2014?

[Fudozukushi]

Man why are there so many bloodstains in the Drangleic Castle throne room? This a favored PVP room or something?

I think there's something there in NG+.

[Fenrir]

Yes

[Grefter]

Perfect Works makes it worse (I'm willing to admit I own a copy of Perfect Works) by making it pretty clear that Elly/the Antitype is wish fulfillment for the Contact.  The Zohar or whatever pulled Abel's idea of the perfect woman from his brain, made her real, programmed her to fall in love with him, and if he was in extreme danger, to die trying to keep him alive.  I think there's an interesting idea of nature v. nurture in there but the writers don't seem to realize how fucked up it is how it stands.  If we're doing more "fix things with XG" then I think that's one of the two things I would hit (the general disconnect with the casualties is the other).  I'd probably have Shevat remove the Antitype programming from her at some point and she has to ask herself if whatever feelings she has are real or programming. 

I also really enjoyed Adjustment Bureau and/or Dark City.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Like I said: if they weren't willing to borrow from Western media, there would be no Cain.

[Niu]

Wave Existence is the the one who created and programed Elly to act the way she is. In other words, her situation is pretty hopeless from the start. There is absolutely nothing can be done about her.
Kadamony's influence only occurred after the ship crashed, where it reused Elly's material to create the original Myyah Hawwa.

There's a line to the effect of "redistributed your genes amongst the -Lambs- to preserve the world after your death during the Fall" (Because Xenogears has some goddamned awkward sentences sometimes).  I always figured this meant that through some means or other they actually reintroduced the gazel's genes into the general population after each one physically died, however the fuck they managed that.  So beyond just being their 10,000 year on descendants there seems to be a more recent and direct genetic tie between the gazel and the modern animus folk.

Yes, Krelian rearranged and redistributed the gene sequences of the Animus into the general populace, just like how he had implanted limiter on lambs everywhere.
On surface it is to reproduce the original copy, which are the bodies that Gazel lost during the catastrophe. But the truth is that Krelian is trying to mass produce better copies of Animus so he can trash the Gazel that he has a grudge with.

Tales of Symphonia Chronicles ToS, beaten. Final team was Colette/Zelos/Regal/Sheena. Hard mode, final boss was relatively easy considering especially the second form, no that was just easy. I'm not sure what the point of the second form was, there isn't even any cut scene or anything in between forms~

What difficulty? Mithos does have a couple of damaging mystic arts in his first form.

[Sierra]

What in the heck is a Kadamony? Deus I presume from context? (I don't recall the former name coming up in-game, but it has been a good decade or so.)

[Cmdr_King]

One of the major Deus parts.  It's a computer or some such that can also generate biological material.  Basically the means by which Deus creates Xenogears humans.  Miang is essentially the biological incarnation of it, completely subservient to Deus' will and monitoring its outputs to make sure their sufficient for Deus' purposes.  Basically the reason she causes multiple near-extinction events is to weed out inferior genes and create stronger meat-stuffs for Deus to use for parts.  Presumably, although we don't see it TOO much, baseline human ether response is so high by the time of the game that random dudes on the street could shoot fireballs if they wanted to, which wasn't the case when they started.

[Nitori]

Guacamelee!: good metroidvania, 5 steam achievements left

Marvel Heroes: leveled daredevil to 60, a terrifying world where daredevil isn't terrible

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Bravely Default - Welp, Vampire asterisk is finally mine. Also I mastered Dark Knight. Rage would probably feel ridiculous if I hadn't yet seen Dark Nebula (6.25x ST for 3 BP? Man I remember when I thought Judgement was great).

It actually costs 2 BP! My current setup has Edea churning out over 40k a pop, which leads to absolutely horrible things.

[Niu]

What in the heck is a Kadamony? Deus I presume from context? (I don't recall the former name coming up in-game, but it has been a good decade or so.)

Kadamony is the brain of Deus.
All process and command to Deus is issued by Kadamony.
Kadamony consists of two chambers, one of mechanical calculation unit and another of organic calculation units. Whatever Deus is trying to do, it must have the agreement of the both chamber to be put in action.

The organic chamber consists of the three compment.
Persona, the central unit of the chamber, which Wave Existence used to create the origginal Elly, and later reused to create the original Mayyh Hawwa by System Hawwa. It's cheif andf unique function is to control the output of Zohar.
Anima, the supplement to Zohar. Was used as the means to control Zohar before the invention of Persona.
Animus, organic unit capable of human liek function. In other words, they can drew ether. Cain and Gazel are this. Most human are lesser duplicate of this.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Bravely Default - Welp, Vampire asterisk is finally mine. Also I mastered Dark Knight. Rage would probably feel ridiculous if I hadn't yet seen Dark Nebula (6.25x ST for 3 BP? Man I remember when I thought Judgement was great).

It actually costs 2 BP! My current setup has Edea churning out over 40k a pop, which leads to absolutely horrible things.

It's 3 BP including the turn-BP spent using it, which is how I cost these things mentally. Hence why I compared it to Judgement.

[interrobangbang]

Mmm. I would simply note that, once you're in endgame (where you're hitting the damage cap far more reliably), Rage comes into its own again, as it permits the most 9999 hits in a round (I believe you can manage to Rage 4x in a round, if you're severely BP abusing). Regardless, even without BP abuse, two Rages hits 9999x10, which is, if not castbest, very very close, and it requires relatively little setup to make it hit that hard (Drain Damage+, Dark Damage+, a Performer maybe?).

Judgment only hits once, so the comparison sort of falls flat there.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Oh, obviously Judgement doesn't compete with Rage. The point was that they have the same cost, and there was a point in the game when Judgement (3 BP for 3x damage) was actually good, despite doing less than half the damage of Rage (barring dark resistance). It's a testament to the power creep that the class specifically creates.

I'm not sure what I think of the general paradigm where lategame classes have some abilities which crap all over previous classes. Not sure I've seen a case this blatant since FF3o.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

It kinda sucks because it sorta trivializes some investments. Of course, you also ponder Judgment is a L4 ability on an early midgame class and Rage is a mastery skill on the third-last class you ever get, but it just kinda drives the point home that Valkyrie loses its appeal almost entirely by endgame. It's not the -only- case, but it's the most egregious.

[hinode]

At least full Jump teams are a viable option endgame, although kinda of a dull one in my opinion. It's better than some classes can claim, at least.

[Sierra]

DS2: It only took 75% of the game but I finally got a weapon upgrade. Staff of Amana, not Staff of Wisdom. So not at 100% yet. Still beats the pants off basic catalyst's cruddy B- scaling at +10 (slower to cast though).

I was going to complete all of Navlaan's requests (non-violently) before flipping the switch to set him to merchant mode, but then I realized I'd have to genuinely complete the game just to get the item needed for request #2. So I said fuck it and let him out because I want my fabulous witch dress now god dammit now. It's uniformly less effective on defense than Straid's set and weighs more. The hat's bonus of an extra attunement slot is probably of less consequence than faster casting times (I have 50 Attunement anyway). Also apparently I miss out on some spells until NG+ and get jacked by the uber hexer at every turn, but all of that's a small price to pay for fashion.

[Meeplelard]

Soul Silver: ...screw fighting Red and his level 80+ Pokemon fairly! *Grabs Mewtwo and Ho-Oh, and throws them at him*  Ok, with that done, also caught Groudon, who is Jolly nature, cha-ching!

Tales of Graces f: Another research lab...IN THE FUTURE!!!

[Fenrir]

DS2: Beat NG+. Then Freja + Rotten in 50 minutes in NG++. Then Chariot + Old dude, not even going to beat the last giant.
Great Resonant Soul is still totally OP. I'm sitting on 2 500 000 souls so the 500 souls/cast is not a problem anymore.

I forgot to mention that you can dual wield crossbows / machineguns in this game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FDPSiuM_7k

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

At least full Jump teams are a viable option endgame, although kinda of a dull one in my opinion. It's better than some classes can claim, at least.

My kneejerk is that just about -every- class is endgame-viable in some way, just most options are clearly sub-optimal at that point because of the egregious power creep that shows up by C5. It's particularly strange because you have jobs/skillsets that are downright excellent at what they do or at filling oddball niches until then (Ranger, Thief, Valkyrie come to mind), and then late everything sorta flattens towards stuff like Dark Knight+dedicated healers. It's just impossible to outdo Dark Knight offensively and its downside stops existing with Sword Magic in hand.

[Pyro]

Dark Knight is crazy awesome at damage. But no class in BD is 'invalidated'

Freelancer: Scan is always good. Final skill can be degenerate.
Monk: Gets some simple and sometimes ITD damage tricks. Can, uh, OHKO endgame bosses in Bravely Second.
White Mage. Esunga! Dispel! Healing!
Black Mage: Pierce Mdef. Yum. Makes for simpler damage schemes than DK that can still keep up. Also status.
Knight: RAR I OVERKILL YOIR TEAM. Kniht takes 1, does solid damage that may as well be ITD.
Thief: Stealing is good.
Merchant: Low Leverage! High Leverage!
Spell Fencer: Always good with status draining and elements.
Time Mage: Meteor! Hasten World! Slow World!
Summoner: MP becomes less of an issue so MT damage without strings is good.
 Ranger: The accura y gimmick can be twinked to high hell.
Valkyrie: Jump gimmicks.
Red Mage: Clever combos with the passive skills can be degenerate.
Salve Maker: Healing Lore passive and Compounding skillset of win.
Pirate: Debuff+damage is nice. Amped Strikes + Free MP is cool.
Performer: Is always good Support.
Ninja: Can twink for lots of damage... and Utsumemi is always fun.
Swordmaster: Free Lunch!  And redirecting ST to it for solid Counters.

[SnowFire]

BD: Finally completed C2, onto C3.  I really really love the encounter control as it speeds up zooming to the bosses & exploring, and makes a quasi-challenge playthrough of keeping level fairly low more sane (because running away constantly is lame).  I'm not even exactly attempting to force the issue, but as noted, MP costs are actually pretty significant, so I tend to have my mages nearly dry halfway through a dungeon, causing me to set encounters to 0.

Anyway, Rusalka!  Attempt 1 post getting wrecked earlier and gaining a level or two: Okay, Frost Armlet on Thief Tiz, Agnes has Abate Water naturally off WM... Edea can use MAGIC ARMOR + Blizara Sword?!  But Rusalka absorbs Water, so I either need to switch up to Thundara immediately or use Withering Ripple - Water weakness.  (Withering Ripple, the best ever.)  Or - wait, Magic Armor stays around after you switch enchantments?  Sweet, I can Blizarra->Thundara and still have Water-halving.  Hermes Sandals on Edea to attempt to get her offense off before the clones, Agnes I want to be slow so that she can Cura post-Dark Flow now that I know she doesn't need to Default.  Ringabel, get a Mage Shell for more MDef I guess?  Okay, so 3/4 of my party can halve Dark Flow, but... Ringabel still gets OHKO'd anyway.  (maybe it's physical + water?).  Still, that sets up Dark Flow -> Thundara + Judgement + Judgement from Edea to immediately slaughter the clones, so a death isn't even that bad.  Doing okay anyway, but then the game crashes upon DS sleep wakeup.  +1 reset, but that doesn't really count!

Attempt 2, right, Hermes Sandals on Ringabel to try and get his offense off faster, and I try a Staff & Shield setup on Tiz (despite his Iron Pole proficiency being E) since his offense isn't tremendously relevant anyway.  This was sort of okay with some usual Charm scares, and then Charmed Ringabel casts...   REGEN ON RUSALKA.  This is literally the worst possible thing he could have done, no Dispel yet, and Rusalka will now regen 1200 HP every turn.  Despite that, I make some progress until I let Water Halving lapse on Edea and get knocked on the defensive after both Edea & Ringabel wipe to Dark Flow while Tiz & Agnes don't have stocked BP. I COULD rebuild but screw this, +1 reset.

Third attempt, back to Bow Tiz, and this time I set up my specials to have Lightning Element.  Now I have 3 free MT Lightning nukes of doom to play with, a rare case that might be better than Withering Ripple (which is pretty much the greatest Special ever normally, a decent reason to run 2 Rod users).  This time, I keep up water-halving on Edea and don't get haxed by Charm, so the Water Crystal is saved!  Don't feel like pressing my luck and trying to shatter the crystal to see what happens, as if it's a Game Over I don't want to do that fight again.

Anyway, onward to C3, ho.  (After first stopping to grab the Wind summon in Ancheim.)

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

About Rusalka: I'm pretty sure Dark Flow is physical, most skills on the enemy end gravitate towards that offensive spectrum.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I'm 100% certain that it is. BD is one of those games where almost anything that isn't part of a recognisable magic skillset is physical. (MDef, the worst BD stat.)

[Fenrir]

DS2: Got the platinum!!
*spams "Well, what is it?" in front of Fudo*
I still had to fight every major boss. People really need to figure out this Shrine of Winter thing.

Preparing mentally for No Death mode.
BTW I'm now pretty sure ADP is total BS.

[Sierra]

I'm considering pumping the stat anyway in dual-wield mode for POIZN spam. I am sure this plan cannot fail.