What Games are you playing 2015?

[Fudozukushi]

I never gave a screenshot for that did I?  Well, that's fixed.

[hinode]

Pokemon AS: E4 beaten, halfway through Delta Episode now. Haven't posted about this in a couple of weeks due to a mixture of stalling for the Substitute TM for the E4, working on my secret base, and some burnout due to two back-to-back Pokemon runs.

Golbats and the rare Crobat ended up being a persistent pain for me in the latter part of the game, due to natural Acrobatics and a team rotation that included 4 Bugs but only 1 Flying resist (Plusle). One Ace Trainer with just a Crobat forced me to pull out healing items despite a team that had full health; Plusle wasn't on the team at the moment, Kecleon got OHKO'd by a critical Acrobatics before it could Thunderwave the bat, and the AI actually hazed away two Intimidates! That turned out to be smarter AI then some bosses in this game.

Lategame bosses:

Tate/Liza- lol

Wallace- No Nasty Plot yet for Plusle, sadly, but Quiver Dance+Giga Drain on Beautifly was enough for the sweep. Luvdisc is the biggest setup fodder in the game still.

Wally- Altaria and Magneton I beat with SE damage, then Roselia came out and I realized Dustox could setup on it for free with QD+Roost. Got to +6/+6/+6, OHKO'd Roselia and Delcatty easily... then Mega Gallade barely survived a Bug Buzz. Psycho Cut would've been an easy OHKO, but instead the AI used Close Combat on a 4x Fighting resist. -_- You can figure out what happened next easily enough.

Sidney- He has a glaring weakness to Bug but three priority users, so I decided against fancy Quiver Dance strategies in favor of just hitting him with super-effective moves. Worked out well enough, though I needed one QD on Masquerain to beat Absol.

Phoebe- Her opening Dusclops isn't safe to setup on due to Curse; I tried taunting it with Mightyena, but it doesn't last long enough, safely. On a whim I tried out Plusle's Nasty Plot here for the first time in the whole playthrough vs Sableye, and managed to sweep it plus two Banettes, taking a big chunk out of Dusknoir before finally falling.

Glacia- Her Froslasses were troublesome for everything I had pre-setup, so this was time for Quiver Dance. Flashx6, Thunderwave, and Intimidatex2 let Masquerain setup 5 QDs for an easy sweep, plus a sub to ward off her second Glalie's Ice Shard.

Drake- Aerial Ace on his opening Altaria made setup harder, but Ice Beam on Masquerain meant I didn't need that many QDs this time around. Intimidatex2 and paralysis was enough for Masquerain to setup two QDs, OHKO everyone except Kingdra, whose Ice Beam wasn't fatal due to QD's special defense boosts.

Steven- His opening Skarmory had Aerial Ace as well, so I couldn't get enough QDs for a a safe sweep off it despite Skarm's lowish offense. Instead, I had Plusle KO it and tried setting up on Aggron instead, who obligingly missed a whole bunch of Stone Edges and Iron Tails while I tanked its accuracy. Shadow Ball was an effective sweeping move here now that Steel's been stripped of its Ghost resistance.

I should be done with the rest of Delta Episode and the E4 rematch soonish, after which I'll post some thoughts on my twelve team members this time and this run as a whole.

[The Duck]

Bayonetta - I'm in the middle of Chapter 2 right now. I am enjoying the game pretty well, although I find the chapters a little overly long so far. I preferred DMC1's bite sized chapters.

Bayonetta has chapters that are just boss fights or short setpieces. If you're talking about the city, that's of a length that is more of an aberration compare to the pacing of others.

[Meeplelard]

Paper Mario: Just beat Chapter 6.  The game handing you a PC after you get access to Ultra blocks is weird.  I would be annoyed about that since there is an Upgrade block in the dungeon that I used before getting him, but they were wise enough to make a 2nd available only after he joins, so it worked out OK, especially nice because as is the standard of every Chapter boss to this point, the new PC is meant to be used on the boss in question to counter whatever they have...kind of reminds me of most Zelda Bosses from OoT onwards that pretty much follow the pattern of "use dungeon item to beat boss!"

Punch Out Wii: Beat Bear Hugger refight.  King Hippo was hard until I heard Doc's advice and that pretty much gave away the fight.  Piston Hondo *shakes fist at car companies* was pretty much a straight forward upgrade; I didn't see any gimmicks with him, just faster attacks, hits harder, more advanced AI patterns, etc.  Bear Hugger took a while, as it really came down to making sure you get as many Star Punches as possible and using them properly, since you can't get good combos on him without learning when to use those.

Next up: CHEATING INDIAN GENIE.

[Niu]

DS2 Break Record - Spring Diamond all down. They are unimpressive until the end. Cora Caroli is just another map weapon boss like the other three. Hell, she starts off to close and can easily be blitzed down in a few turn.

Canopus wasn't much either. Just really tank in the three factors fight. While the final form dies to Thousand Thrust like everything else thanks to its crappy resistance.

But still, who cares. The plot still flows as if its was written just for the Niu. The admin ending panders to Niu so much that I am overjoyed.

[Fenrir]

Citizens of Earth: You get all these status attacks but they are shit so you just stick with physical attacks.
Hard mode wasn't fun anymore so I stopped playing. Fuck this. 2/10


Dreeps:
Fucking Dreeps. 0/10.


Persona 4 Golden Hard Mode Solo:

I started playing this on Very Hard, but just got utterly wrecked at the beginning.
I then tried normal which felt too easy. (I may regret those words later)
So I settled on Hard.

(Incidentally, all this means I played through the dreadful P4 beginning three times in a day)



Shadow Yosuke

He is meant to be soloed, so he's nothing special.
Loser.



Yukiko's Castle

I love this:
"You have welcomed Slime into my heart."

The first floor is key here. For some reason it is randomly generated once but stays that way. If you exit / reenter it'll be exactly the same, with treasure chests restocked.
I got killed by randoms one time, then retried, and got one floor configuration in which I started next to a treasure chest. This meant I could exit and reenter the dungeon for (technically) INFINITE ITEMS, which means (technically) INFINITE SP, which means for (technically) INFINITE XP. I was no longer burdened by my finite HP and SP.

Unfortunately the only items I got on a regular basis were Peach Seeds (20 HP healing) and Revival Beads and stuff.
Also, the only SP healing item I could get are Soul Drops (Heals 10 SPs, that's pathetic) and Snuff Souls (heals 50 Sps, ultrarare)

The main character Yattaf (he's not a woman but whatever. He is named Yattaf.) starts with Izanagi, who has Zio (lightning attack), Cleave (useless) and Rakukaja (useless, since it goes away after three rounds) He didn't even have healing skills at this point, so I had to rely on PEACH SEEDS for healing.

On my second try through the dungeon, I spent the first battle guarding while Yosuke attacked (just to get killed), and he died pretty quickly. The bad news was that he then came back with 1HP after every battle, stealing my precious xp if he survives a battle I believe I'll be able to ditch allies after the sauna, which feels insanely far. I never even got past it on a regular playthrough.
The good news was that I also got Pixie after the first battle, and she comes with Dia.

There are two kinds of enemies here,
- Lying Hablerie: They're weak to Zio and die to one Zio + physical.
- Calm Pesce: RUN

I fought a few battles against Hableries, making sure he was dead before going for the kill. During the whole time he was all "HEAL ME YOU BASTARD, THIS PAIN IS CONSTANT AND UNBEARABLE"
I ignored him.


Shadow Chie

Strong against physicals, weak to Garu.
Uses physical and lightning attacks, + Green Wall (Wind res for 3 turns, used as a counter to Garu).

I had Garu on the Angel Persona, it did about 70 damage to her. Izanagi's Zio did about 35.
Chie's attacks don't do a lot of damage, but I really couldn't afford spending much SP there, so I quickly stopped using Zio.

What I did was double Garu for sweet 130 damage whenever she didn't have Green Wall on, and otherwise I switched to Izanagi and guarded. This means I could only attack every four rounds, but Izanagi has the best defense and lightning resistance, so I was barely taking any damage. It worked pretty well.
Level 8.


The first dungeon doesn't have overly difficult enemies (aside from any with physical skills, like Burning Beetles), but the huge resource drain was a problem at this point.
I could always go back to non TV world to replenish HP/SP, but I really didn't want to waste my days like this.


Avenger Knight

Weak to Agi
Has Power Charge, Skewer, physical attacks, OPB Tarukaja
Avenger knight took several tries; he does a lot of damage, about as much as I could heal with Dia. Since I could hurt him every round with Agi, this only was a matter of surviving about 20 rounds. doing Agi -> Dia and the occasional Agi -> Guard. Whenever I was on low Hps I only used Dia, just in case Agi missed.
My resources ;_;
Level 12


Shadow Yukiko

Weak to Bufu, has some strong fire attacks, Double Fang, White wall (Ice res for 3 turns)
I'm currently stuck against her.
Double Fang wrecks me. This is barely OHKO damage and she can use it quite often. At this point Dia heals for 1/3rds of my total HPs, so this is a problem.
Ice damage is necessary (and surprisingly rare at this point for fusion choices) After dealing ice damage to her, she always counters with :
- White wall
- Wait
- Huge MT Fire damage
I had a Persona immune to fire (Senri) so that's three free turns for me. I could just guard for the last turn just in case she wanted to use Double Fang; afterwards White Wall was dispelled, and I could use ice damage again and repeat the cycle.

I was pretty proud of these prostrats but she then summoned Prince Charming at half HPs. He's pretty durable, weak to Zio, and he uses Silence, Fear and physical attacks. Silence is the real dealbreaker here, he uses it all the time, and I can't hurt him with Zio whenever that happens. At this point, she also stopped following her dumb pattern too and could Double Fang my ass whenever she wanted.


Back to the Velvet Room, I fused Obariyon: Phys and fire res, with Dia. Boom. I had The perfect fit against her.

That wasn't quite enough so I then added a bufu card on top of it. (I relied on storebought ice cubes before to do Ice damage instead)
Man, you'd think this would be enough but no. At super low HPs Shadow Yukiko starts doing high% Fear status attacks followed by high allmighty damage to anyone inflicted with fear. Sigh.

I went back to town to sell all my stuff, so the blacksmith could get awesome new equipment I could then buy: Iai Katana, Lion Happi. Awesome.

STILL NOT ENOUGH. Jesus. There aren't any ways to protect against Fear and I can't blitz the last part of the battle because she's crazy durable.

I'm level 19.
I could fuse King Frost w/ Bufula at level 22, and a Mitama with Diarama at level 23, both would help a hell of a lot, but I don't want to grind four levels right now? Grinding isn't much of a problem but allies stealing xp and being a general annoyance make it more aggravating. I could probably get these skills by leveling a lower level persona (Jack Frost for Bufula for example) buuut my social links are pretty low so this might take even longer.

Mid grinding, I'll probably try to get a persona with high luck (to recover from fear more easily), plus the usual Bufu/Dia/Str res combo, and see how that goes.


At least resources aren't a problem anymore because I also just got Invigorate, which restores 3 SP every turn. So it's easy to just fight a low level enemy and heal back to full now.

[Fenrir]

I beat her at level 21. Fused and grinded with Jack Frost who got Bufula + Ice Boost. Fused that into Principality (it's not really a hot demon, because it doesn't even have phys res, but it's high level) so I could blitz the last part of the battle.

She still survived like 5 boosted Bufulas at 1/4 HPs, Shadow Yukiko just doesn't give a fuck. I was dropping double Bufulas, she usually put up her ice shield right after, and then I just healed every turn (while crying) until the wall was down.

Shivering Rondo, her big allmighty attack, at least has the decency of canceling Fear on the target, so I could heal a little right after being hit by its monstrous 180 Damage.
I healed with Life Stones. I could sell these for 1000 yen each (a lot), and they only healed for 20 more Hps than Dia. (80 instead of 60) But I really really needed the extra HPs. In fact, I'd have died without them, I finished the battle on my knees at 30 HPs.

[Fenrir]

Triple post


Steamy Bath house

Turns out I can remove other party members from this point on. I think this is an improvement over regular P4? Niiice.

This is a pretty cool dungeon, enemies hit like trucks but I have Tier 2 spells AND Diarama AND both Hama and Mudo. This is a game where instant death weakness on an enemy = I hit with a 100%ish hit rate + I get an extra turn. The 30%ish normal hit rate is also pretty efficient against the most durable foes that aren't weak to ID. So yeah. I basically haven't used status attacks as much in any game ever.



Daring Gigas

No weaknesses.

Pretty simple pattern:
- Power Charge (more damage on next attack)
- Rebellion (higher critical rate for 3 rounds)
- Tarukaja (higher attack for 3 rounds)
- then SINGLE SHOT FOR INSANE DAMAGE
And repeat.

Since I am a pro gamer, I beat this guy by using the little known Defend Command.

BTW he runs out of SPs after doing this silly pattern three times. He still continues afterwards, literally wasting three turns out of four. Sad.

Level 29

[Luther Lansfeld]

Bayonetta - Just finished Chapter 6, and I'm definitely enjoying the game quite a bit. It is very silly and off the wall in that Devil May Cry way, but obviously we're just playing this for gameplay. Gameplay is quite fun, Witch Time is an enjoyable mechanic and the action feels very fluid. I think the game generally is at its worst when it's not letting you utilize its core mechanics of Witch Time and Magic gauge, particularly against the silly snake enemies. Grace and Glory are a pain in the ass and they need to leave me alone >_>

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - The adorableness of this game melts my heart. I've done 13 stages so far, and most of them are pretty easy although I've had a few game overs. The dragon is terrifying.
http://assets1.ignimgs.com/vid/thumbnails/user/2014/08/14/WiiU_CaptainToad_scrn02_E3.jpg

Just look at him. Captain Toad makes shivering noises during that stage. (:

[Sierra]

I don't understand why you do these things to yourself, Fenrir.

~

Eternal Poison: Olifens are go! He's kind of a punk so far, honestly. Even Pokeymajins taunt him about getting cockblocked. Also Cardinal Nephew is a wiener and I'm sure Big McLogueHuge's class being Accursed has nothing at all to do with his frequent psychotic episodes. Meanwhile Marie takes no shit from anybody and is therefore better than all these people. Her attack quote pretty much ensures this is lodged in my head throughout the entirety of this path, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGAuPfho1og (on a similar note, it's difficult for me to hear Irina's level-up quote without mentally finishing the line, "--oh Mr. Roboto, for doing all the things that nobody wants to." I really wish this wasn't true you guys, Styx has plagued me all my life.)

At some point I rescued Hulk Hogan and he gave Olifen a weapon as a reward for stripping and then he left. I don't even know.

0/2 on optional fights so far. First optional boss ran off as soon as I got close because presumably I exhausted another invisible timer. I guess from now on I should beeline straight for these guys (insofar as it's possible to do so without aggroing everything on the map). Other optional fight got denied because a giant enemy crab I needed to capture to trigger it backed himself into a cul de sac where it was physically impossible for me to surround it. Was worried I was actually stuck there since a fight can't end while there are still bound enemies on the map, but it turns out you can still kill them even after they've been OVAKILLED (on the next map, I learn to my annoyance that living enemies are also fully capable of obliterating bound enemies with AoE attacks. Stupid gigases!)

~

Touhou Labyrinths: floors 13-15. Remember that PS2 dungeon that was just pits pits everywhere and hopefully you're jumping down the right one? Kinda like that, except at least here it's extremely easy to warp out and back in to relay points in seconds. Flipside, this actually nukes the rewards you get for randoms. Money/XP/droprates ramp up as you chain consecutive battles in a single dungeon dive, topping out at a bit over 100% increase after a couple dozen battles or something. So when an area's basically a long series of "fight a couple randoms before jumping down the next hole to loot something and then warp back to the entrance to spare yourself some backtracking," the battle counter resets constantly and you're really not getting much out of the zone. Not a mechanically difficult place to deal with, but annoying. But now it's over with and I can move to a teleport dungeon barf.

~

Also I tossed in DS2 today to check on what the patch changed. There's a totally grody new NPC who says a bunch of plot stuff but whatever, what we really care about is that Chameleon now works (sort of) on NPCs, right? I tried it out on the first hollows in the forest. You can inch up on knife dudes, every now and then they'll look at you all like "What was that noise? Eh, it's just a box," and then they get backstabbed. On the other hand, the archer jerk still recognized me as an enemy from miles away, so I guess maybe some enemies are less dumb about it than others. But still, Hollow Gear Solid, now you can troll the AI and other players at the same time, that's what we all came here for, right?

[Meeplelard]

Paper Mario: Chapter 7 completed.  Was thinking about finishing game tonight but then got stuck showing off a crappy game to some DLers.

[SnowFire]

The Stanley Parable- Yup.  "Finished."  Needs more jumpscares.

[DjinnAndTonic]

LoZ: Twilight Princess Wii

I've had this for literally half a decade, finally decided to play it thanks to Smash Bros and my newfound goal of actually playing the titles that half of the characters come from.

Finished it, did -not- 100% complete it. I -did- manage to get the Magic Armor though, and that shit broke the latter 3rd of the game for me, so it didn't take too long.

OoT-style gameplay really isn't my thing, and this whole series is pretty much -built- on that high-exploration gameplay focus. However, Twilight Princess manages to have a more solid story foundation than the other LoZ games I've played, so it certainly held my attention differently than the others in the series. The aesthetic was also full-on awesome, despite the overuse of bloom lighting. (Dear god so much bloom.)

So, basically it was the most Djinn-pandering of modern LoZ but it still isn't really ranked all that highly on my list of 'beloved games' because the basic gameplay style just doesn't resonate with me. Solo-adventure stuff just never does. Midna certainly helps a LOT in this regard, as does the 'second playable character' of Wolf-Link. But it's just not the same as party-based battle systems for me.

Of the LoZ games I've played now, I'd probably rank them LttP > MM > TP >>>> OoT. I just highly prefer the easy-to-see and intuitive controls of LttP-style exploration over 3D adventure games. I am going to have to give the new one on 3DS a try at some point soon, but I told myself I'd play Skyward Sword first before I spoil myself on all the top-down LoZ games on the handhelds. Windwanker can go fuck itself, I hate sailing, so it's getting played last if at all.

[Grefter]

Mass Effect 2 - I finished this on th weekend.  Playing through as Vanguard did end up more satisfying Thani expected, but it really needed both Rank 4 charge and the double ammo supply on Shotguns to feel good.  Charge gives you a great way to close distance and destroys shit,but before rank 4 it leaves you open, so you only really should use it to finish dudes off, but at that point the enemy isn't a threat (the usual problem with Biotics other than Warp and Reave).  Once you have rank 4 you get lots of shields back and will either aoe stun or get back a full shield bar and have some bullet time to respond (not hard to know which to pick in my opinion).  Double ammo just lets you keep doing it while keeping afloat in ammo comfortably.  The gameplay probably shifts to doable earlier if you go straight for Charge and use something other than the Claymore.  I went straight for Incendiary ammo though and that was everything I hoped it would be.  Making the Locust effective against everything was nuts and it got some serious work in before I was pinballing around the field shooting dudes in the butt hole.

Finishing the game made me really happy and solidified that I think this will historically show as one of the best sequels and most pure refined games to come out last generation.  It lacks a ton of room for growth in the RPG elements, but what it has are sleek and work amazing.  Adding DLC nearly would cheapen it if they didn't add story to the games when story is at its strongest as well.  It isn't Trilogy syndrome where it is best because it gets to have all the setup and suspense build with none of the crash and disappointment of the reveal not meeting the expectations, the game just legitimately has better writing than 1 and 3.

Also I heard someone say that the final boss was disappointing and man I don't get it.  It is still a giant fuck off Contra boss/Space Terminator.  It  looks rad as hell , is one of the very few "shoot me in my fuck me lights boss" in the series and those fuck me lights are its eyes and mouth.  You kill the giant metal Psace Terminator by shooting it in the fucking face.  The play could be slightly better, but it just uses standard cover shooter mechanics.  I guess I could take issue with that, but I haven't really seen cover based shooters really do great boss fights.  I don't think he style of gameplay really allows itself to much diversity?  Grams of War might show me otherwise, but the majority of ones I have played tend to be similar (hide in cover,shoot the helicopter).

Still one of my favourite games ever.  Jennifer Hale is pretty great and does slip a little more character into her delivery than Dudeshep gets.  It always reads a little like it is a crack in character that Shep puts on as well and it happens a lot more than in ME1.

So that said I was also glad to move straight on to

Mass Effect 3 - wowwwwww I had forgot how much better the play steps up in this.  Moving from Vanguard to Engineer feels good because that is more my primary play style.  Going to a weight based gear system lets them get a ton more breadth out of weapon design (So two distinct pistols vs 8 where some are unique and others are just a variation of stats for cost:benefit trade offs).  Both are good systems and we wouldn't have ME3s in the state it is without ME2s being as paired back as it is.  I actually prefer the feel of Me3s system, but have a ton of respect for ME2s.  I don't like all the cruft that comes with it (weapon ranks that you need to buy for example), but that extra cruft comes with the benefit of more growth and expansion of character that RPG nerds love so it does feel more "RPGish" for it.

I am running a Mantis Sniper rifle because it is light and comes with th entice benefit of being the semi auto sniper off the game which is my preferred sniper style.  Back it up with a light SMG just in case and do most of my work with 200% recovery speed Incinerate and Overloads.  Backed up by a turret and Combat drone as necessary.  Ruining Normal.

Also found out how Armour works better than I used to.  So Anti Armour ammo on Geth Plasma SMG with Armour penetration mods pretty much melts a Banshee.  I am actually looking forward to the final boss fight this time.

[Cmdr_King]

Kirby Super Star: So now that I can properly type it's time to add this review for a game I played like a week ago.  Anyway, you can really tell this game is like the proto-Smash in a lot of ways; the overall structure of the game plays out like Smash 64's pile of minigames and the overall stage design (especially Spring Breeze) carried over pretty directly into the original single player mode.

Aside from that strong impression?  Okay so this is the first Kirby game I've played more seriously than "a friend brought it over and I maybe did a couple lives worth of play", which I did on Kirby 64 and I thiiiink one of the GB games, Dreamland 2 or 3 I assume.  So based on KSS I don't think I'll ever really be a Kirby fan.  It's a fun enough game (I mean I basically did all five primary modes in a day and enough The Arena to determine I'm not good enough at the game to do it and not willing to invest the time Gettin' Gud) but it doesn't really hit any major notes for me.  It's just not something I'm going to keep coming back to or hype majorly at anyone.
Buuuut within that frame I can see why it'd be a favorite among people that do like Kirby.  It's basically a series of different concepts for what Kirby can be, and has a lot of charm that isn't quite hilarious, isn't quite the cutest thing ever, but strikes a decent balance between them and is pretty memorable in both directions.  Also has some pretty amazing spritework, oozes personality.  Probably about a 6/10 for me, just doesn't catch my fancy enough to rate higher but it's definitely interesting to see it in action regardless.

[Fenrir]

I don't understand why you do these things to yourself, Fenrir

Because the best part about playing a game all about social links is ignoring everyone and going solo?

Actually I already tried playing it once normally and got bored. Now this time I'm having fun! I'm even considering going back to Very Hard instead because I don't feel like I'm fusing enough personas and stuff.

[The Duck]

Mass Effect 2 - I finished this on th weekend.  Playing through as Vanguard did end up more satisfying Thani expected, but it really needed both Rank 4 charge and the double ammo supply on Shotguns to feel good.  Charge gives you a great way to close distance and destroys shit,but before rank 4 it leaves you open, so you only really should use it to finish dudes off, but at that point the enemy isn't a threat (the usual problem with Biotics other than Warp and Reave).  Once you have rank 4 you get lots of shields back and will either aoe stun or get back a full shield bar and have some bullet time to respond (not hard to know which to pick in my opinion).  Double ammo just lets you keep doing it while keeping afloat in ammo comfortably.  The gameplay probably shifts to doable earlier if you go straight for Charge and use something other than the Claymore.  I went straight for Incendiary ammo though and that was everything I hoped it would be.  Making the Locust effective against everything was nuts and it got some serious work in before I was pinballing around the field shooting dudes in the butt hole.

Finishing the game made me really happy and solidified that I think this will historically show as one of the best sequels and most pure refined games to come out last generation.  It lacks a ton of room for growth in the RPG elements, but what it has are sleek and work amazing.  Adding DLC nearly would cheapen it if they didn't add story to the games when story is at its strongest as well.  It isn't Trilogy syndrome where it is best because it gets to have all the setup and suspense build with none of the crash and disappointment of the reveal not meeting the expectations, the game just legitimately has better writing than 1 and 3.

Also I heard someone say that the final boss was disappointing and man I don't get it.  It is still a giant fuck off Contra boss/Space Terminator.  It  looks rad as hell , is one of the very few "shoot me in my fuck me lights boss" in the series and those fuck me lights are its eyes and mouth.  You kill the giant metal Psace Terminator by shooting it in the fucking face.  The play could be slightly better, but it just uses standard cover shooter mechanics.  I guess I could take issue with that, but I haven't really seen cover based shooters really do great boss fights.  I don't think he style of gameplay really allows itself to much diversity?  Grams of War might show me otherwise, but the majority of ones I have played tend to be similar (hide in cover,shoot the helicopter).

I've always wanted a game where somebody expands on the Suicide Mission idea. Just assembling and building up a team of people with distinct personalities, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses, and assigning roles that best fits their abilities (it was very binary whether someone succeeds at a role here). It could even be at a larger scale like having a more hands on Suikoden-style war, but I think that basic concept has a lot of potential. If you had some Gods Will Be Watching style randomness in play, that could make for a really interesting formula.

[Sierra]

EP: Today I learned that some enemies have a spell which frees other enemies that have been subdued but not yet captured. This is pretty annoying when they use it on a boss, since it respawns at half health. But hey, it wasn't too tough overkilling Mr. Firebird the first time, I'll just do it again, right? Immediately after I've done this, before I have a chance to capture him, some dipshit weasel Pokeyman veers away from the PC he'd been attacking the entire fight and kills the boss just to spite me.

These maps take way too long for me to hit reset, but goddamn. I probably missed out on a bitchin' fire spell. Dick move, game. Dick move.

[Tide]

I don't understand why you do these things to yourself, Fenrir

Actually I already tried playing it once normally and got bored. Now this time I'm having fun! I'm even considering going back to Very Hard instead because I don't feel like I'm fusing enough personas and stuff.

FYI, all Very hard does it reduce the XP and money you get to minimal amounts. It means you need to grind even more than usual if you need specific fusions and to level up paramtres to get money. Since a solo run is pretty much what the speedrun route is, maybe you can do that instead (like casual speedrun)? Probably more interesting than just grinding for things.

[Grefter]

Mass Effect 3 - Paragon interrupt to Bro Handshake with Wrex.

Paragon canon path in ME3.

[Meeplelard]

Paper Mario: Completed.

Game is ok, but nothing special.  It feels very formulaic after a point, not putting much extra into the battle system save an occasional gimmicky enemy.  This really stood out the most in the final dungeon which felt like it overstayed it's welcome, as I just wanted it over with.  It's not bad or anything, just kind of "eh."  Writing is amusing at least, with silly and charming dialog that is totally SUPER SERIAL and what not, music is kind of forgettable, etc.

So...let's look at allies!

Goombario: Was my default character if only for Tattle anytime I fought something new, and in Ultra Form, Charge + Multibonk is about as good as damage you'll get and cost effective.  Also, since his attack is a Jump attack, he can hit aerials!

Kooper: He's good at first due to your first MT damage, but half way in I felt no reason to use him like ever.  One of the few who didn't reach Ultra rank, I suspect his best attack does high ST damage, but honestly sounded boring.

Bombette:  At first, I barely used her because close range attack with ST damage only? Pass.  Then she gets Power Bomb and suddenly can nuke entire ground enemies for expensive cost.  Ok, cool, but not cool enough.  Then she gets ultra rank and suddenly does 7 damage with that move, and has Mega Bomb in case there's pesky flying enemies.  Also her attacks are Fire thus good for busting Dry Bones.  Ultimately, she was the most used character in the final dungeon, and used her a fair amount in the dungeon beforehand too, despite practically never using her before.  Also, Mandy thinks she's adorable, and really isn't that all that matters?

Parakarry: My least used character; I never felt any reason to use him since the "hits anything anywhere!" rarely comes up, and by the time it does, you have other characters with that gimmick, his specials didn't seem to stand out and uh, yeah, LVP I found.

Bow: Is Snow but a Ghost.  Weird character, in that she's really good Midgame, and should be great on paper, but can't do jack and all against anything with defense since she's multiple light hits, 0 defense enemies suffer from her Fan Smacks.  To her credit, her ability to hide Mario and hit enemies anywhere were both nifty,  and gave her utility use, though she definitely dropped late game.

Watts: Here's a character who felt useless at first.  I decided to give it the Ultra form because MT Paralysis sounded more interesting than what Parakarry and Kooper gave.  I do not regret this decision at all, since somewhere in the final dungeon I found Mega Shock actually has very good accuracy, and his/her/it/kappa's physical is ITD, as well as "can hit anything anywhere."  The ITD factor was invaluable since knowing it'll do 5 damage regardless is such a huge boon in a game like this.  This thing and Bombette saw the majority of use in the final dungeon.

Sushi: Character who felt too odd?  It seems like it has the best MT damage but it's a pain in the ass to pull off with the button prompts so just sticking to Goombette felt better.  Having water attacks is something but barely came up, and the defense buff could have been good but I rarely used it.

Lakilester:  Joins late, but honestly got good milleage out of him.  Cloud Nine is a great ability for longevity, it has reasonable and cost effective MT damage until about Chapter 7, and it he can throw his things at anything.  Hurricane was a nice utility just to get rid of annoying enemies that give 0 EXP, and reliable too!


So yeah, think it's something like 5 or 6/10.  Gotta mull it over.  I'm glad I played it at least, but also glad I got it via Club Nintendo so I didn't have to pay money for it, so it's not like I regret the 25~ hours spent on it, just also wasn't entirely impressed by it.

[Dark Holy Elf]

FF7 - Beat the game. Highlights include:

-Tifa was doing a pretty consistent 9999x2 with Premium Heart Mud/Added Cut.
-I did actually die once in the maingame, to a random in the Midgar raid which confused me.
-Hojo doing a total of 60 damage in the entire battle. Only the third form got an attack off, it was a Combo against back row + Sadness, it triggered a counter.
-I forgot to bring Dispel to Safer Sephiroth actually got a bunch of turns and did stuff, unlike every other post-Schizo boss. He managed to live long enough to use Super Nova, and died to a counter to it. Excellent.
-After beating the game, I went out and beat Ruby Weapon. I YOLOed him with double Knights of the Round and Mime, it worked thanks to Mystile/MBarrier/Sadness to tank the Ultima counters. Did have to finish him off with Pandora's Box since those two shots of Knights were all I had, but honestly, he has nothing to really threaten a decked-out team (unless he ran me out of items, which wasn't happening).

Just trying to beat Emerald now. Eye laser spam + Aire Tam Storm have done a pretty good job of overwhelming me so far, but I may monkey with my setup to get in all the needed Knights castings before I die. Or try something similar with gravity spam, but I missed W Magic which will make that a bit trickier unless I make a backtrack for that. EDIT: Noticed he was vulnerable to slow, landed that and got in the killing Knights of the Round at the last possible moment. Yay!


Plotwise the translation seems to get in the way more than ever these days. Obviously there are still some very good ideas there but translation standards are making them harder to appreciate for sure.


Kid Icarus Uprising - Playing all chapters on 9.0, allowing myself one reset on the ground section and one against the boss, so I beat most things on 7-8 (any time I get to a boss on 9 it vaporises me, ow). Up to chapter 21.


Super Mario 3D World - Beat the maingame! Very fun Mario... very possibly the best game in the series since the NES honestly, which is impressive. Everything good about the 3D games, the modern 2D games, and Super Mario 2 rolled into one. It's still not the hardest game ever but it doesn't embarass itself (I had 158 deaths since the game is so nice as to keep track) and has a very nice challenge curve. You could criticise its lack of SMW-style secrets I suppose, but I don't really care; the green stars and stamp is the perfect amount of collection for me. Currently doing the aftergame.

(I had a lot of the same experiences as Shale, particularly Red Hot Rush halving my ~50 lives and the lava lake level taking away most of the rest. Did manage to avoid a game over before the aftergame, though. I have since had two.)

[AndrewRogue]

I've always wanted a game where somebody expands on the Suicide Mission idea. Just assembling and building up a team of people with distinct personalities, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses, and assigning roles that best fits their abilities (it was very binary whether someone succeeds at a role here). It could even be at a larger scale like having a more hands on Suikoden-style war, but I think that basic concept has a lot of potential. If you had some Gods Will Be Watching style randomness in play, that could make for a really interesting formula.

I was really hoping ME3 would conclude that way.

[Fenrir]

Tide i'm not much of a speedrun guy honestly!

You're correct about very hard. But by going solo, I get a ton more xp yet as many personas, so I get to experiment a bit less with personas per level and this is a bit frustrating? If I truly go v hard solo , I would not plan on grinding much but on experimenting instead (persona is good with this) i don't really expect that many straight level checks like Shadow Yukiko, because p3 solo didn't have many either.

Btw very hard also forbids restarting from the beginning of the last floor after a game over, so this is Buy 99 Goho-Ms mode.

[Fenrir]

Have you guys watched the P5 trailer by the way, it looks nice.
I say this as someone who finds P3 and P4 pretty damn uncool.

http://youtu.be/oc_9r4wifFc



I'm really happy with all of Mass Effect 3's decisions (except everything related to the invincible dumb ninja) but I still am more fond of ME2. It's weird.