What games are you playing 2014?

[Captain K.]

Problem is I'm playing a 3-strength caster.  The only shield I can use is the Disc Chime, which isn't designed to take Vendrick hits.

Finished the Dark covenant.  Took 3 tries on Darklurker, I came back with Dark Quartz Ring + 2 which changed his Biju bomb to 60% damage instead of 100% damage.  He is also stupidly weak to lightning bolts.

[Sierra]

If you've got Sunlight Spear, all it should take is the standard compliment of charges to murder Darklurker from full health. It's great.

And yeah, blocking Vendrick is not an option unless you've got the strength to use greatshields. Anything less and he'll blow right through your stamina on the first shot, forcing you to rely on dodging and endure a tediously overlong fight where one mistake equals death. It's just about the least fun fight in the game (Ancient Dragon competes).

[Fenrir]

I don't think I'll ever try to actually kill the Ancient Dragon.
Vendrick isn't that hard, you just need to be methodical and hide behind those legs. Make sure you have 5 Giant souls. If not, burn an ascetic in the first black gulch bonfire and go kill those two giants again.

SL1: Finished.
230 total deaths.

Hex reaaaaly wasn't an option!

Giant Lord is easy to cheese and I got him with those 10 pyro spells doing 3/4th of the total damage needed.

Final boss was easy.
Long range: Kunais
Mid range: Holy bottles
Close range: Roll away from the extremely slow attack
Her only scary attack is the one stolen straight from Freja, but she doesn't use it that often. The other laser attack which she uses all the time is a joke.

I said my thoughts about this challenge already, it's one of the best I've done.


El Cid you can use these Dual crossbow prostats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I6fmvp37TU
(Actually I'm pretty sure it doesn't work in 2     )


- Half Minute Hero PSP: I already played this on Xbox, I tried the PSP version for the extra modes.
They suck. Princess 30 is so awful.
Not complaining since I'm replaying Hero 30 and don't have access to the other version anymore.


- FFDimensions: Yeaaaah I really don't want to do a regular playthrough.

I tried a solo but it was extremely boring, especially compared to FF5 solo.

So I want to do a 4 job fiesta kind of thing?
As I understand it, you get a ton of jobs at the beginning, then you get all the other ones one by one?

So do :
- Thief / Bard / MEMORIST (??) / Random job
and
- Black Mage / Dancer / Ranger / Random job
sound good? I'd like to try these ones in particular instead of more boring (and probably better) classes.

[DjinnAndTonic]

- FFDimensions: Yeaaaah I really don't want to do a regular playthrough.

I tried a solo but it was extremely boring, especially compared to FF5 solo.

So I want to do a 4 job fiesta kind of thing?
As I understand it, you get a ton of jobs at the beginning, then you get all the other ones one by one?

So do :
- Thief / Bard / MEMORIST (??) / Random job
and
- Black Mage / Dancer / Ranger / Random job
sound good? I'd like to try these ones in particular instead of more boring (and probably better) classes.

Due to the nature of FFD, yes, you start out with like 8 jobs (Thief is the worst, Black Mage is probably one of the best, though you'll be hurting for MP a lot until the itemcasts. You could probably do Summoner instead if you want a real challenge). I'd personally just 'roll' a new job option at each chapter from the full list rather than restricting it to only the new jobs?

For reference, you get Ranger -before- Dancer. And Ranger is pretty good for damage. Memorist is actually awesome when combined with a small skillset like you're proposing, so...

I doubt you'll get much challenge out of it. Particularly if you allow any grinding or sidequesting. The game just rolls over and dies for any kind of overlevelling (even just like 2 levels) until the later bosses.

[Fenrir]

I basically almost never grind. Also why I cannot get into MMORPGs/Monster Hunter.
I've gotten some levels solo and this hasn't really affected anything but HPs though.
This all sounds worrying though. I expected this to be like FF5! Is there no way to make the game both challenging and fun?
I might just roll with 8 Thieves-Bards / Thieves-Dancers.


Oh yeah BTW NEB that was good. I just kind of forgot everything past "Ramsus murders Miang" and now I see why.
I don't think you've mentioned that they're all nude at the end for some reason, which makes the whole ending even more ridiculous the first time through as you're obviously too distracted by their lack of genitals to be 100% immersed in the totally important plot going on at this moment.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I don't think you've mentioned that they're all nude at the end for some reason, which makes the whole ending even more ridiculous the first time through as you're obviously too distracted by their lack of genitals to be 100% immersed in the totally important plot going on at this moment.

This is true. (and possibly an improvement)


What makes FFD worse for soloing than FF5?

[Cmdr_King]

After a point all bosses immune slow, and are pretty fast at base.  So just from an offensive turn standpoint there could be issues.

[Dhyerwolf]

BD- Just beat the Dragon in the cave. Was having a monstrously hard time. Was saved by two things. First, I was informed that Ice and Water are the same element in this game (which is weird contextually given that it's based on a template that was split them up since was least FF 4 and I don't believe ever had them together. I would have neved guessed). The second is that I summoned a random helper, which was randomly a water attack...and then randomly criticalled. Took off 4700 HP from it.

[superaielman]

BD- Fenrir, I have shocking news: there's an evil dude with a french accent in this game! An evil merchant, no less.

[Grefter]

Zut alors! You are giving away all of the games secrets!

BD - Got to Eternia.  Lots of JP.  Get to choose which way I want to approach an enemy fortress.  Of course the answer is frontal assault against strong forces and then accidentally go down a side path and fight the "Medium" path monster as well.

[Fudozukushi]

Dark Souls 2: Prettygirl's last hurrah.  Flexile, Darklurker, Ancient Dragon, King Vendrick down and that's everyone.  Darklurker is unsurprisingly highly resistant to Hexes but enough shots of anything will work.  Ancient Dragon got my final life per the usual "so what if you ran your stamina bar empty running away OHKO anyway!"  He's still not hard he's just bullshit.  Therefor I counter with my own bullshit!  See, element esistances work funny in the game, every point is essentially a .1% reduction of that element damage.  So 1000 Resistance makes you completely invulnerable, like what I did in Iron Keep for those lava treasures.  While I can't reach 1000, I can reach 880, which is enough that the Flame Breath only does about 500 damage!  So long forever assclown!  Vendrick's sad as usual and didn't even get a hit on me.  Just stick close, and roll around him.  The vertical swing takes forever and the horizontal one may not even hit if you're hugging his legs because he's so tall.  Get two hits in an repeat until he's dead.  Grabbed the King's Shield instead of soul eating just cuz I could.  I think it's the lightest 100 DEF shield, for what nothing that's worth.  Prettygirl ends her reign of terror at a mere 13 deaths.  The Dark shined her way.

So, with dual-fist, club power and hex power behind me it's time for the true dark souls 2.  SHIELDS-ONLY.  Only one name could contain the sheer power of a shields-only run.

Big McLargeHuge: So, the good thing about shield attackin' is that it's pretty quick on the small-med ones, and you're attack counts as you blocking, and since the basic attack's a charge, you don't have to worry about pushing dudes away.  The downside it they're shields and it takes four hits and the full stamina bar to kill the weakest enemies.  Dagger at least as a psychotic attack speed to make up for its failings.  Shields don't.  If enemies get grouped up there's no real crowd control since the attack's a thrust with strike typing.  So my main goal becomes getting resources.  The Greatshield from the armorer and the Rings in ballista hell.  It takes a long ass while and plenty of deaths but I manage it.  The way to the Last Giant is open, and I've plenty of other things open as well.

Also got another Old Whip with the crows.  I just know when I start my Belmont run it'll be impossible to grab it.

[Meeplelard]

Pokemon X All Starters: I have gotten a Rash Xerneas caught with a Heal Ball! Mwahahah!


In news that should shock no one, is pretty damn awesome and murders stuff dead.

[Captain K.]

The vertical swing takes forever and the horizontal one may not even hit if you're hugging his legs because he's so tall.  Get two hits in an repeat until he's dead. 

We cannot be playing the same game.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

FWIW Krelian being forgiven and spirited off to heaven because he loved or whatever regardless of whatever he did is fairly consistent with Christian theology where you get forgiven for anything no matter how mad if you accept God. So it's stupid but in a way that's unusually consistent with Christian theology.

e:  Now that I think of it, would anything beyond the final movie have changed if Ramsus had successfully killed Krelian?  I don't remember him actually doing anything after that.  Maybe it's another one of those things where they cut for time but Krelian still comes back as a sexless angel at the end because the animation had already been drawn and paid for.

[NotMiki]

The vertical swing takes forever and the horizontal one may not even hit if you're hugging his legs because he's so tall.  Get two hits in an repeat until he's dead. 

We cannot be playing the same game.

Oddjob Souls

[Fenrir]

I don't think you've mentioned that they're all nude at the end for some reason, which makes the whole ending even more ridiculous the first time through as you're obviously too distracted by their lack of genitals to be 100% immersed in the totally important plot going on at this moment.

This is true. (and possibly an improvement)


What makes FFD worse for soloing than FF5?

Hmm. Hard to say.
Well there's the long jobless prologue for once.
The finite amount of job levels you can get until the aftergame means having to stick with a few jobs, instead of being able to try them all out.
Getting AP looks slower as well.
I just haven't really seen much interesting happening in 3 hours.

[DjinnAndTonic]

FFD just not balanced for solo runs. I mean, they literally hand you a free fixed-class Jeigan every chapter to keep your party count at 5. Also, a lot of the broken stuff in FFD is attached to MT, making it better, including healing and such. I dunno, just doesn't lend itself to solo play.

Challenge-wise? FFD is very tightly balanced. If you follow the prescribed directions the game carefully lays out for you, you will be the perfect level for awesome challenge and quite a number of wipes without any grinding or random-skipping. But do one extra run through a dungeon and you're overpowered for the next five hours.

[Fudozukushi]

Dark Souls 2: Big McLargeHuge's struggle onwards.  The first boss kill isssssss OLD DRAGONSLAYER DUN DUN DUN.  Wanted the Ring of Binding while I have slots up and flesh falling off, and the Tower Shield's outright better anyway.  Old Knights go down easy to being shield slammed at least.  Then... INVASION!  Oh boy taking 300 damage from fists and the dude has a ton of life because my 153 damage barely moved his bar.  OH BOY.  Whatever.  ODS, Dragonrider, Pursuer ambush(his sword bounced off the Tower Shield hahahaha!) and Last Giant all go down.  Scrape together enough titante to +6 the shield.  Ruin Sentienls get me with a fucking double-KO god dammit.  Whatever, they die after.  Get enough levels that I can finally use Havel's so I dive into the Pit.  RRV gets another bloody double-ko.  Also petrify apparently docks you t like, 25% HP each time instead of a normal death's whatever.  Exploding pricks get two more lives.  The first time because the zombie exploded STANDING UP for the first time ever and the second time I misjudged my roll.  Whatever.  Gutter goes fine until the bloody end where a sword zombie gets me on a ladder ughhhh.  Into Black Gulch.  Get the key after an EPIC fight with the giants and bonfire back up to grab me some sweet sweet Havel shield.  Use Branch to head through Shaded Woods since that has the most twinkling I recall off the top of my head.  The initial ambush goes simple but I die along the path to the next bonfire because ughhhhhhh.  Whatever.  Lion-men are a pain because they never stagger and shield's swing so slow I get hit every time I attack.  The giant prick gets my last death of the night because he utilized smough's death zone.  OH BOY.

[jsh357]

I imagine this post will not make me any friends... 

Bravely Default: Overall, it was okay.
- First four chapters were good, standard RPG fare aside from some terrible fetch quest type things.
- The concept of the second half of the game is pretty cool from a story perspective, but completely insufferable to play through. I won't spoil what happens, but needless to say it makes this entire part of the game a chore.
-Battle mechanics were good, though things get very tedious on normal and hard difficulties. I don't hate the Brave/Default system, but it's also just not that exciting to me. I don't think I would have enjoyed the game less if enemies had 1/4 the HP and the battles were just normal turn-based deals.
- Ringabel (Galuf 2.0) and Edea (Faris 2.0) are great characters with distinct voices and good localization, while the others are just there. Final villain reveal caught me off guard. Overall, I liked the story.
- Music was great, but needed more variety. It reminded me of Radiant Historia in this way.
- I can't give this game any higher than a 7/10 and a stamp of 'give it a go if you are a big jrpg fan.' It hits a lot of buttons I like, then throws a bunch of unwanted pies in my face. Glad we got it here, glad I played it, but I still like FF5 more. It's better than FF Dimensions, though by less than you might expect.
- Next on my list is to at least briefly try Chaos Seed, which recently got a translation patch.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Honestly most of that seems fair to me except the part about brave/default not adding to the game - they create a wealth of different strategies and boss designs which aren't seen before in RPGs. It's a big part of the game's appeal, I think. I also certainly don't think the game's second half is enough to lower it below FF5 (there are just so many things the game does better) but I can see it.


DmC: First six chapters completed. I definitely haven't internalised the gameplay yet but it's fun. The "pull enemies" and "pull self" options and how you can work that into combos, and combos involving different weapons is good times. Story is pretty dumb even if I get a chuckle out of the Raptor News Network.

Soul Nomad: I just got Odie and Tricia, quite happy the game finally gave me some special PCs in those roles. Writing-wise the game seems a bit all over the place but it manages to hold my attention very firmly whenever Gig is on screen and that is most of the time; the game has its moments otherwise certainly. I can't imagine this will be a game I love (really hard to see myself replaying it, in particular) but am definitely digging it well enough for what it is and am certainly finding it more to my taste than my previous N1 excursion.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

The story is They Live but without the amazing charisma of Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David so yeah makes sense.

[Sierra]

DS2: Thought I'd knock out the last of the trophies running cleric through NG++. Turns out she's missing one pyromancy only sold by Titchy Gren. Fuuuuuuuck. Frankly would rather run sorcerer (already has the spell in question) through NG++ up to Drangleic Castle than fight the chariot again.

But instead of doing either of those things, I'm giving a mixed build a shot. I never much liked these in DS1 but DS2 seems a little more flexible about them? The idea is run 30 INT/FTH, specialize in elemental weapons and spam the buffs, all the buffs. Not going to use direct damage spells ever so no reason to ever upgrade a chime/catalyst. Scary chick Sawyer lacks access to chainsaws in this world sadly so scythes will have to do. OH WAIT I can only buy them from Titchy Gren ffffffff. But until then MACE is the star of the show. If I don't get the skull hat to drop again I'll probably go, I dunno, Velka set + Sinner's mask? Running nudist armor right now. It's pretty great. Two deaths so far, one from jumping off a cliff to get nudist armor, other from Bastile Heide knight. Man what a jerk.

Fudo, that's how defensive stats work in these games? I was never sure. So every 100 points of defense = 10% reduction of associated damage type?

[Fudozukushi]

Gren's pyromancy's can be found elsewhere.  Firestorm and Great Combustion are in the Castle and Fire Whip drops from the Belfry Sol dwarves.  Had about four Fire Whips on Club-guy from grinding the mad warrior ugh.

Great Scythes drop from the Tseldora fun bunch at least.  Dark Scythe over near Tark as well.  I think the Skeleton Lords Soul makes a scythe too?

The elemental defenses sure as hell work like that.  Phys obviously doesn't from my continued being three-shotted by everything despite 1500 Phys defs.  I've read that every 100 Phys is a flat 20 damage reduce which I guess fits with my halfass testing on DOGS.

[Sierra]

If that's correct then the Ring of Steel Protection looks even more worthless than ever. Woo spending a ring slot to save like 2% of your max HP per attack.

Skeleton Lords make a halberd, but that might be close enough aesthetically. I'll probably try running with that for a while since that's where I'm going next (and elemental stones aren't in great supply this early). Covetous Demon turns into a totally wicked scythe, but it demands a lot more STR investment than I was planning for. Ultimate goal was to main Waifu Scythe, but apparently that's non-enchantable and anyway I want her bow too. Decisions!

[Fudozukushi]

Play Crow Roulette!  My ten stones got turned into eight elemental stones instead of anything remotely useful. 

Targray still sells Boltstones at least.