What Games are you playing 2015?

[The Duck]

Undertale - Playing blind, going full-blown bastard (well, not really. I'm half-assing it, so I guess half-assed bastard), including taking advantage of some things I knew from playing the demo like getting to the point where you can spare Toriel, then one shotting her when her guard's down. Malicious. That was admittedly really hard, though. I like Toriel, a lot. (Revision: Not as hard as killing Papyrus. ;_;) I figure this will be the least repetitive way to play, since NPCs get taken away as you butcher them. I'm also less interested in the replay changes that come from going good then evil on a replay than I am in seeing what happens if you play through as a bastard once, and a nice guy the second time around. 

Got to the save point with the crystalized cheese, after the first Undyne encounter. The Papyrus boss fight was amazing as advertised. Though I'm already pretty concerned that what I loved about the demo may be just not that accessible in a game much longer than the demo. I'm just not seeing it come into play at ALL yet, and by the time someone DOES replay it to see the fact that the game responds to the decisions you made in previous playthroughs they may already be put off by the game (ala Fenrir) or just not hooked enough to do so.  Ughhhh, that was like *THE* fucking thing that made the demo great, too. Without it, so far it's certainly solid but not really that amazing. I really hope that it comes into play somehow on the first playthrough to at least give the player a hint that they *really really really really really really* should be replaying it to see what the game does with replays, save scumming, regret, playing just to see content... all of it!

At least based off the demo, of course.

Killing things is actually much more tedious, especially if you are going out of your way to kill everything. What you're looking for from the demo is definitely there on replays.

[Cotigo]

Undertale - Playing blind, going full-blown bastard (well, not really. I'm half-assing it, so I guess half-assed bastard), including taking advantage of some things I knew from playing the demo like getting to the point where you can spare Toriel, then one shotting her when her guard's down. Malicious. That was admittedly really hard, though. I like Toriel, a lot. (Revision: Not as hard as killing Papyrus. ;_;) I figure this will be the least repetitive way to play, since NPCs get taken away as you butcher them. I'm also less interested in the replay changes that come from going good then evil on a replay than I am in seeing what happens if you play through as a bastard once, and a nice guy the second time around. 

Got to the save point with the crystalized cheese, after the first Undyne encounter. The Papyrus boss fight was amazing as advertised. Though I'm already pretty concerned that what I loved about the demo may be just not that accessible in a game much longer than the demo. I'm just not seeing it come into play at ALL yet, and by the time someone DOES replay it to see the fact that the game responds to the decisions you made in previous playthroughs they may already be put off by the game (ala Fenrir) or just not hooked enough to do so.  Ughhhh, that was like *THE* fucking thing that made the demo great, too. Without it, so far it's certainly solid but not really that amazing. I really hope that it comes into play somehow on the first playthrough to at least give the player a hint that they *really really really really really really* should be replaying it to see what the game does with replays, save scumming, regret, playing just to see content... all of it!

At least based off the demo, of course.

Killing things is actually much more tedious, especially if you are going out of your way to kill everything. What you're looking for from the demo is definitely there on replays.

I'm aware. To clarify, I am playing the game the most tedious way possible (OK no not really I am not farming out all the dungeons until encounters stop fuck that) now so that replays are much more enticing to do.

And I'm sure it's still there. That was such a big part of the demo that it would be stupid for it to not be there. What I am bitching about, I suppose, is that in a game much longer than 45 minutes-hour, users are much more likely to just quit after one playthrough instead of replaying, and missing out on what may well be the real meat of the game. I haven't read the spoiler correspondence between you and Fen yet since I'd like to go through blind, but if the game has people being done with the game after one playthrough (based off of reading Fenrir's non-spoiler text, mind) then it is doing a disservice to itself.

[AndrewRogue]

Dust: An Elysian Tail - Okay. So encounters with adds and explosions in tight confines are just annoying in this game. You need to approach them really carefully because it gets hard to actually see what's going on.

Fidget is the true hero of the game. Magic is ridiculous in this game.

[Fenrir]

I could answer your questions Zenny but that'd spoil things. Sorry

Gourry:

- The weak points of the game earlygame were for me a lack of control given to the player, a strong reliance on plot fights, and a tendency to go overboard with the saccharine elements.
Well this is amplified tenfold in the last stretch, with like three power of friendship moments, and every attack being gravity based so that you can almost never die. You need a hell of a lot of emotional resonance to get me to go non-relunctantly through something like that, and this game didn't have enough; while Alphys is the only one of the core six friends I disliked, Papyrus was the only one I really cared strongly about. (Because I kept calling him the entire game) Ok, Toriel was cool too.


- Ultimately, while the savestate / loadstate thing was rad as fuck (as was this entire fight) here we have a game that sends a message that there is something wrong with you if you do not care vicariously about your videogame characters.
 
The flower basically is a videogame player who's bored and just goes kill everything in its videogame, and it's the antagonist of the story. He abuses savestats mid battle to get advantages, he plays with saves and toys with the idea of restarting the game, etc. The reason it's being so evil here is that it is bored. You convince it that it is not very nice and it turns good after a while.

If you restart the game after getting the good ending, the flower-turned-good tells the player of Undertale, directly, that all the characters are happy now and playing the game again would make them unhappy again.

This whole thing is at the core of the storyline.

Two problems with this.

1) Jesus Christ, that infantilizating guilt trip! Stop attaching such emotional baggage to fake things. Toy Story has the same problem (Always keep all your toys your entire life or they will be super sad), Undertale might be even more dumb about it because we are not even talking about physical things. (It might actually be better because carrying your toys around your entire life must be a real burden)

2) This is a terribly judgemental and conservative way of thinking. I like going Renegade in Mass Effect and punching journalists. I like being a huge jerk in games because I'd never act like that in real life and want to test the game's boundaries. This does not mean that there is something wrong with me. Surely this is an argument we're all tired of by now. I took the whole thing pretty personally (like I was supposed to) and I'm not even one of those guys who kills bystanders in GTA

I wonder how your reaction would have changed if you went in blind like I did and didn't actually do pacifism first. That changed the tenor of my second playthrough for sure. As is, I can see your viewpoint but don't necessarily agree on everything.

So I actually see little problem with people getting attached to characters, that's a whole staple behind what makes good fiction work, in books, games, movies, tv, whatever. Like you, I quite like Papyrus and I also liked Sans and Toriel, who I killed first playthrough which I felt bad about. I actually liked Undyne after that ridiculous date (although somehow my estimation of Papyrus went up more in that scene), and while the friendship blah blah Giygas whatever fight at the end was too much, I don't see a problem with people coming away from the end of the game with some attachment to the characters. It's that kind of attachment that made the first season of the Walking Dead games work so well for me. I think an argument could be made that the situations the characters are put in to elicit emotional reactions are emotionally manipulative, though.

The game's writing is very on the nose and that is a big fault, but I think the basic thing it's doing is actually giving meaningful consequences to choice that people always clamor for. We like to do goofy shit, choosing renegade options and pushing the limits to see what we can do in a game, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. However, I think this is a different type of experience where it is trying to simulate a closed system (of course it's not truly closed) where you do something and characters react to it, positive or negative, and you can't go back and reload these choices because in this system, your choices are meaningful and have permanence. You kill an NPC, it obviously won't appear in town. You kill a major character, that has reverberations throughout the world and in how people treat you. I thought that was cool, and it points out that one thing that could constrain your behaviors was a sense that your choices would actually be reflected by the game world, which I find fascinating from a psychological standpoint. It's pointing out that this is a world where how you act matters, and some of the "gamey" behaviors we engage in can have consequences that can be emotionally affecting if there's no way to back out of them. Of course none of it is real and they are just abstractions, so maybe this is all silly sounding but I do think it is cool if the game gets you to hesitate and readjust in the situation it has set up. These choices are not at all nuanced, though, and that is a problem.

While I do think the writing didn't have to lay it on so thick sometimes (and oh man it does), I just didn't have the same reaction to it as you in terms of feeling guilted. I can easily see where you're coming from, though. Within the world setup, it does have a very simplistic morality and the No Mercy path is set up solely to make you feel fucking terrible. The weird thing is that I probably would find this level of moralizing unbearable if it were in a film, like I couldn't stand Funny Games.

Man a lot of that sounds sappy.

There is one awesome fight on a genocide run if you decide to ever go back.

Well first off, re: Zenny.
I think the game has huge replay value until you do a supernice playthrough, then it has no replay value (because if you replay you're as bad as Flowy).
This is bad when your first playthrough is a supernice playthrough.

I am sure the ending would probably have been more palatable had I not taken the supernice path first too, because I'd have watched one half of it for the first time in the first playthrough, then the other half in the second playthrough. I'd not have had to watch all of it for the first time in a row. Does it make sense?

I do not feel that it is very far fetched to try sparing everybody on your first playthrough though, especially since sparing enemies is the main selling point of the game.
If the game seriously did not expect me to go full pacifism right away, then it has failed somewhere. OR MAYBE I'M JUST NATURALLY WAY NICER THAN EVERYBODY ELSE?


I don't have a problem with the idea of getting attached to characters (otherwise I'd drop all of fiction but the most cynical), but with how this game treats them like real human beings with real emotions when the game directly talks to the player.

I am not saying that the question "Why are you hurting these fictional characters on purpose?" is a worthless one. (I liked for example Hotline Miami's approach to this)
I just think that Undertale's approach of trying to humanize videogame characters when breaking the fourth wall is manipulative and just kind of inane?

The consequences of your choices over multiple playthroughs thing is cool on paper... But I can't really praise Undertale for the consequence of the in game choices when the only choices are that obvious.
I mean, everybody mocks Bioshock's "moral choices" now ("Killing a little girl, or not killing a little girl?") and this is essentially the same thing.
Of course, the moral choices in this game could not really be grey, because it would run counter to the game's guilt trip purpose, but as said above I find said purpose dumb.

Toriel, Sans, Undyne and the fake final boss were all pretty cool. I just didn't get attached to them too much because the game is so short? Sans is second best (The E.X.P. and L.O.V.E. acronym reveal was pretty awesome. Too bad that HP didn't get to be Hitler Points or something)

I think I'm just going to watch that one hour long video about what changes in a genocide playthrough.

[Fenrir]

I'm really interested in seeing everybody's opinion about this thing!
Guys you can binge play it, it's pretty short.

FFRK: I haven't played this in two days, it's been really easy. I should start smoking more than once per month, just so I can stop easily and be a huge jerk about it to everyone.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

FF7 - Backtracking for some E. Skills (having picked up Aqualung, I think I'm in good enough shape to pick up Beta now with Elemental+Fire and that Fire Ring, definitely good enough to pick up White Wind) and the RTS minigame. Holy crap FF7 minigames are terrible.

[Captain K]

FFRK:  So I pity-summoned VSM's Black Mage RW against trash mobs.  Fun fact, the Special Combatant mob from FF7 immunes dark damage.  This game hates VSM.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

FF7 - Picked up White Wind and Beta without a sweat. Big Guard is next.

[The Duck]

I could answer your questions Zenny but that'd spoil things. Sorry

Gourry:

- The weak points of the game earlygame were for me a lack of control given to the player, a strong reliance on plot fights, and a tendency to go overboard with the saccharine elements.
Well this is amplified tenfold in the last stretch, with like three power of friendship moments, and every attack being gravity based so that you can almost never die. You need a hell of a lot of emotional resonance to get me to go non-relunctantly through something like that, and this game didn't have enough; while Alphys is the only one of the core six friends I disliked, Papyrus was the only one I really cared strongly about. (Because I kept calling him the entire game) Ok, Toriel was cool too.


- Ultimately, while the savestate / loadstate thing was rad as fuck (as was this entire fight) here we have a game that sends a message that there is something wrong with you if you do not care vicariously about your videogame characters.
 
The flower basically is a videogame player who's bored and just goes kill everything in its videogame, and it's the antagonist of the story. He abuses savestats mid battle to get advantages, he plays with saves and toys with the idea of restarting the game, etc. The reason it's being so evil here is that it is bored. You convince it that it is not very nice and it turns good after a while.

If you restart the game after getting the good ending, the flower-turned-good tells the player of Undertale, directly, that all the characters are happy now and playing the game again would make them unhappy again.

This whole thing is at the core of the storyline.

Two problems with this.

1) Jesus Christ, that infantilizating guilt trip! Stop attaching such emotional baggage to fake things. Toy Story has the same problem (Always keep all your toys your entire life or they will be super sad), Undertale might be even more dumb about it because we are not even talking about physical things. (It might actually be better because carrying your toys around your entire life must be a real burden)

2) This is a terribly judgemental and conservative way of thinking. I like going Renegade in Mass Effect and punching journalists. I like being a huge jerk in games because I'd never act like that in real life and want to test the game's boundaries. This does not mean that there is something wrong with me. Surely this is an argument we're all tired of by now. I took the whole thing pretty personally (like I was supposed to) and I'm not even one of those guys who kills bystanders in GTA

I wonder how your reaction would have changed if you went in blind like I did and didn't actually do pacifism first. That changed the tenor of my second playthrough for sure. As is, I can see your viewpoint but don't necessarily agree on everything.

So I actually see little problem with people getting attached to characters, that's a whole staple behind what makes good fiction work, in books, games, movies, tv, whatever. Like you, I quite like Papyrus and I also liked Sans and Toriel, who I killed first playthrough which I felt bad about. I actually liked Undyne after that ridiculous date (although somehow my estimation of Papyrus went up more in that scene), and while the friendship blah blah Giygas whatever fight at the end was too much, I don't see a problem with people coming away from the end of the game with some attachment to the characters. It's that kind of attachment that made the first season of the Walking Dead games work so well for me. I think an argument could be made that the situations the characters are put in to elicit emotional reactions are emotionally manipulative, though.

The game's writing is very on the nose and that is a big fault, but I think the basic thing it's doing is actually giving meaningful consequences to choice that people always clamor for. We like to do goofy shit, choosing renegade options and pushing the limits to see what we can do in a game, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. However, I think this is a different type of experience where it is trying to simulate a closed system (of course it's not truly closed) where you do something and characters react to it, positive or negative, and you can't go back and reload these choices because in this system, your choices are meaningful and have permanence. You kill an NPC, it obviously won't appear in town. You kill a major character, that has reverberations throughout the world and in how people treat you. I thought that was cool, and it points out that one thing that could constrain your behaviors was a sense that your choices would actually be reflected by the game world, which I find fascinating from a psychological standpoint. It's pointing out that this is a world where how you act matters, and some of the "gamey" behaviors we engage in can have consequences that can be emotionally affecting if there's no way to back out of them. Of course none of it is real and they are just abstractions, so maybe this is all silly sounding but I do think it is cool if the game gets you to hesitate and readjust in the situation it has set up. These choices are not at all nuanced, though, and that is a problem.

While I do think the writing didn't have to lay it on so thick sometimes (and oh man it does), I just didn't have the same reaction to it as you in terms of feeling guilted. I can easily see where you're coming from, though. Within the world setup, it does have a very simplistic morality and the No Mercy path is set up solely to make you feel fucking terrible. The weird thing is that I probably would find this level of moralizing unbearable if it were in a film, like I couldn't stand Funny Games.

Man a lot of that sounds sappy.

There is one awesome fight on a genocide run if you decide to ever go back.

Well first off, re: Zenny.
I think the game has huge replay value until you do a supernice playthrough, then it has no replay value (because if you replay you're as bad as Flowy).
This is bad when your first playthrough is a supernice playthrough.

I am sure the ending would probably have been more palatable had I not taken the supernice path first too, because I'd have watched one half of it for the first time in the first playthrough, then the other half in the second playthrough. I'd not have had to watch all of it for the first time in a row. Does it make sense?

I do not feel that it is very far fetched to try sparing everybody on your first playthrough though, especially since sparing enemies is the main selling point of the game.
If the game seriously did not expect me to go full pacifism right away, then it has failed somewhere. OR MAYBE I'M JUST NATURALLY WAY NICER THAN EVERYBODY ELSE?

I don't have a problem with the idea of getting attached to characters (otherwise I'd drop all of fiction but the most cynical), but with how this game treats them like real human beings with real emotions when the game directly talks to the player.

I am not saying that the question "Why are you hurting these fictional characters on purpose?" is a worthless one. (I liked for example Hotline Miami's approach to this)
I just think that Undertale's approach of trying to humanize videogame characters when breaking the fourth wall is manipulative and just kind of inane?

The consequences of your choices over multiple playthroughs thing is cool on paper... But I can't really praise Undertale for the consequence of the in game choices when the only choices are that obvious.
I mean, everybody mocks Bioshock's "moral choices" now ("Killing a little girl, or not killing a little girl?") and this is essentially the same thing.
Of course, the moral choices in this game could not really be grey, because it would run counter to the game's guilt trip purpose, but as said above I find said purpose dumb.

Toriel, Sans, Undyne and the fake final boss were all pretty cool. I just didn't get attached to them too much because the game is so short? Sans is second best (The E.X.P. and L.O.V.E. acronym reveal was pretty awesome. Too bad that HP didn't get to be Hitler Points or something)

I think I'm just going to watch that one hour long video about what changes in a genocide playthrough.

Thinking about it, I can see your path leaving people unsatisfied. I'm very happy with my path through the game. Killing Toriel made me feel like garbage, but I lived with that decision and didn't reset even I chose not to kill again. This bled into my second playthrough, when I wanted to make things right and avoid killing at all (which made the sparing Toriel very gratifying and your past actions are consistently reflected and commented upon in replays). So I went from a bit of a downer or bittersweet note to an ending where most of the heart-tugging things felt more earned because I had failed previously and was given an opportunity to fix things, which is probably a more cathartic path than just doing everything at once. In some ways, the promotional materials and coverage surrounding the game being one where you can befriend everything may have been doing it a disservice if doing it this way does kill any desire to replay.

The writing is too on the nose, I think this is a big flaw, and the choices are simple and binary, but I think the criticism hear is about you and this closed system that is in place, where you know that what you do matters and the game questions why you persist. I think it can be a little too manipulative at times, certainly moreso than it needed to be at times. Like we talked about, it's not flawless but it has some cool ideas that people should see. I think similarly closed system that doesn't lay it on so heavily could do wonders. I think the Walking Dead does some of this well in some cases, although with some examination it all falls apart and you realize that you're completely on rails.

[Grefter]

Payday 2 - We tried Framing Frame last night.  They haven't fixed it yet.  Stealth on old maps is still fucked.  I was incredibly mad.  We were doing that because they introduced a new mob to the loud missions who is also pretty goddamned bullshit with our standard loadouts and are a bit pay 2 winish.  Will see how we adapt.  Cloakers were more bullshit at release.  New dozers they introduced back before we quit last time were also bullshit.  The game has never handled change elegantly, might take a bit for the balance point to hit (them always showing up on Very Hard is pretty fucking rude since that is a still a beginner sort of level and they literally have thousands of HP to grind through).

[Cotigo]

FFRK - The FFX Flying dragon (Efflay? Effray? I don't remember the English name) fight was giving me fits until I made a retaliate build. It halves the main 4 FFX elements (minus Holy) and has a buttload of HP, almost as if it was designed to say fuck yo mages. Fortunately, with Sephiroth's Masamune, Lunatic High WR, Faris on support and Gilgamesh doing breaks while my WMs healed/wailed on Sephy I was able to eek by... the first battle.

Funniest part of the battle: Forgetting to take the Assassin's dagger off of Faris after Auto-equipping then having to S/L in the middle of the Efflay=Altern fight because she Instakilled Sephy after Retaliate wore off.

Also received my choice of free MC2 crystals. Got Sephiroth, Gilgamesh, and Aeris'. With Terra's and WoL's and soon to be Yuna's, I have a pretty good set of options shaping up for a Level 80 team.

Blew a mythril after losing the second round (which is Holy-Weak), was EZ thanks to Sephiroth wearing the WoL's Record Materia.

Still have no clue how you're supposed to not lose medals on damage taken. Anyway, one more boss fight until I get Yuna's MC2 crystal. Yojimbo looks obnoxious. Breaks don't work, he has a powerful MT physical attack, no weak points... I'll have to look into if Cheer and Water of Strength stack and what other buffs I may want to throw in. May just have to hope for another Lunatic High RW.

Then,  then it's farmday until it stops being farmday. The new Ultima event doesn't look like it has a time limit so I can wait on that. Though maybe I'll make a detour to speed through FF7 dungeons to get Aeris so she can get levels during the anniversary farming event.


I have a party to go to so that will all wait til tomorrow. It's nice to know that I can quit this goddamn game when I have a good reason to.

[Captain K]

I have a party to go to so that will all wait til tomorrow. It's nice to know that I can quit this goddamn game when I have a good reason to.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Final Fantasy Love's Easy Autobattles - Event quests in the FF14 event successfully accomplished, which now means I'm completely done with the most poorly paced event in the history of global FFRK. It's a pity they let it drag for so long (in JP, it was just a mini-event that went alongside the others instead of being a stretched out stand-alone), but the fights were very interesting - lots of different takes on crowd control, mainly, which is pretty rare in this game. Ifrit is also a lot more fun when he doesn't use Vulcan Burst three times in a row, but I guess Lunatic High also helped in the late going. Regardless, good to be done with this. Next, we have Zack's bonus fights, which should go live tomorrow night.

To Zenny: you're talking about Evrae. Also, regarding mitigation: in long battles, you minimize medals lost by stacking buffs and debuffs. Sentinel's Grimoire stacks with Shellga and Protectga, and both stack with Power and Armor Break. Otherwise, not much else to do. At least, you never had to face the older medal loss thresholds for damage taken (25% HP of the entire party = lol MT instant medal loss. The Edgar/Sabin event was a S/L fest).

[Cotigo]

Hmm, doing that, but still losing all my medals. I have a feeling that has more to do with these fights being scaled for Level80 parties now while I'm still in the 50-65 range with everyone but Terra. Ah well, I'm not terribly concerned about high end Masteries quite yet. I still have a lot of levelling/forging/gambling to do honestly.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

In all honesty, most high-end fights you try to get by for mastery through not losing both actions taken medals and fulfilling all of the target score conditions. 2-1-3 for the universal conditions is my most common score on the high-level fights.

EDIT: Also worth noting that Breakdowns are still worth bringing against bosses with Break resistance. Breaks, though, are a waste of an ability slot in that case.

[Veryslightlymad]

FFRK:  So I pity-summoned VSM's Black Mage RW against trash mobs.  Fun fact, the Special Combatant mob from FF7 immunes dark damage.  This game hates VSM.

Shoot, I left that guy up? I switched it to BM because my Cousin needed medals on FFIV stuff and had no dark damage.

[Magetastica]

FFRK: Starting to burn out a little bit after actually spending real time and not just bus/break time playing this over the weekend, so probably going to finish up the FF14 and Zack stuff then leave it on the backburner for a bit. It is fun, and I don't want to lose interest entirely.

FEif: Still plucking away. Still cursing my inability to read Japanese. That or I'm just ass at strategy games suddenly.

D3: Decided Monks are boring and lame so I built a Wizard and have been running around in silly headgear, slowly upping the difficulty level as I get more and more bad-ass. I'm now playing at Torment 2-3 while solo, while I sit back with Storm Armor and Magic Weapon on and I just blast things to death with Disintegrate and freeze anything foolish enough to get close. And if that works I LOL!Tele away. Twice. And then Disintegrate some more. I mean, I guess I have Archon Form for Panic Button healing, but I dunno. I'm thinking of grabbing the Flintlock Familiar instead for MOAR DPS BRO or something. Highlight of the game, though, is definitely running around the desert, killing a bunch of mobs, 3 groups of Elites, and 1 Boss (or whatever they're called) enemy, and a treasure goblin all at the same time... and getting virtually nothing of note. Walk around desert with nothing left to kill and 1 minute later I find some loose rocks, click, oh hey Legendary Belt of Knife Throwing, surewhynot.jpg.

[Veryslightlymad]

But... but monks.

[Captain K]

FFRK:  Did the FF14 event quests before attempting 5-man party.  Lost 7 medals on boss rush and got expert, which is stupid because it means that extra 3 stars on slowing an Imp doesn't help you master any easier.

Ifrit was a bit rough, I tried Yshtola+Thancred+Vivi+Balthier.  But the lack of MT healing and damage mitigation meant there were too many things that could go wrong.  So the obvious solution was moar Selphie.

Yshtola (Curaga, Shellga)
Selphie (Curaga, Diaga)
Vivi (Blizzaga, Waterja)
Thancred (Tempo Flurry, Shadowbind)
Red 13 Roaming Warior


It went well and then he did Radiant Sun when he had 1 hp left and killed Yshtola and Thancred before dying.  Would have mastered it if they hadn't died.  Oh well, will be easy with 5 people.

[Cotigo]

Final Fantasy An Autobattle In Brooklyn To Sell -

Beat Yojimbo. Final team was Terra (Thundaja/Waterja), Sepiroth (Retaliate/Endoasupiru, the physical skill that boosts soul gauge), Gilgamesh (Retaliate/Draw Attacks), Yuna (Water of Strength, Curaga), Lenna (Protectga, Curaga), with Aeris' Reraise skill as RW. Turns out if you need to deal with someone who uses only physical attacks you cannot go wrong with Retaliate. Lenna and Yuna were still dead by the end (if I had just ended it a couple rounds sooner I may have gotten the mastery. >_<) but yeah, I have Yuna's 2nd level cap crystal. Yaaay. Now I just have to unlock Aeris and level her up and I have my level 80 team.

It's kinda comforting to know that, worst case, if a boss that's giving me fits is purely physical and I don't care about mastery, I can just slap the Loner Record Materia and both R5 Retaliates on Seph and most likely win.

[Veryslightlymad]

FFRK:

At one point today, my entire party was confused and I decided this was not enough of a reason to turn off autobattle. I was right.

[Magic Fanatic]

FFRK - I have Hinode to thank for giving me the idea of how to not only get Mastery on the FF14 ++ fight, but also for how to complete the Event Quests for both + and ++.  So yeah, thank you.

Rivals of Aether - I have one friend to play this with so far.  I tried going into general online play and just got wrecked.  I also need to look into how to use my gamepad to play this, instead of my keyboard.

FF14 - After I complete two days worth of Beast Tribe dailies (yesterday's and today's), I'll only have two more days to do before I'm done with them all.  Woo!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Final Fantasy The Price Of Autobattle - Completed Zack's bonus battles. Very straight-forward stuff, Ultimate Weapon in particular is very simple. I got to hone Dismissal to R2 with the Greater Lightning Orbs from Proudclad with some spare as well. Just in time for the Sundaily, even! Hopefully I'll cap-break Fran today.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

It's kinda comforting to know that, worst case, if a boss that's giving me fits is purely physical and I don't care about mastery, I can just slap the Loner Record Materia and both R5 Retaliates on Seph and most likely win.

There are videos of an earlier Yojimbo +++ fight getting soloed by Retaliate Auron without a sweat, by the way. There's a reason purely physical bosses without NAT backup have become so uncommon.

[Cotigo]

Undertale - First playthrough beaten. They do a really good job of making you feel like a right dick for choosing the violent route.

Never found out what the mystery key was for, I kinda wanted to just move on to my pacifist run and figure out stuff then.

Enjoyed it quite a bit. More comments later, I have to get stuff ready for work tomorrow and pass out now.

EDIT: Snow: NAT?

EDIT2: WOW NEVERMIND I did not reload the game after it "crashed". I am not done nor do I have the energy for the final boss fight atm

EDIT3: I am a dirty fucking liar. That was hard as shit. Of COURSE Flowey could load mid battle to fuck up your dodging. God this game is so good. NOW I'm done for the night and more detailed commentary later.