What Games are you playing 2015?

[Grefter]

Just do Cazadores and Deathclaw kills withy he game on super easy.  Cazadores is still really fucking annoying, but they are both really doable because difficulty scaling in that engine is silly.

Mass Effect 3 - I got distracted and have been grinding in the Arena a bunch because I was having fun playing around with different weapons and setups.  Going to go do Quarian home world after this.

[Cotigo]

Quitting before the end is fine. I honestly regretted having to kill the villain even though he blew up the Earth, just because he was obviously having so much fun.

I didn't play EtD, but SR3 definitely has an Auto-tune pimp as one of your main allies.

I guess I'm more concerned with SR3 having the same glitch if I play it. The desynced audio is enough to be gamebreaking for me.

Thage's begun. And I don't care what the game says, there's an H in her name and dammit, I'm going to pronounce it

Johannes Sebastian BacH and The River THames would like a word with you.

[Sierra]

I'm just going to ignore this perfectly reasonable rebuttal and move on as though I never said anything stupid in the first place. I'm sure this is shockingly uncharacteristic.

EP: Man if it weren't for Rondemion this game would be right in line with Odin Sphere's "Let's give our game five different protagonists but then make them all be blonde royalty" thing. And I can only be sure of 50% noncompliance with Rondemion (his hair is BROWN). 3/3 for the ones I've played so far!

Thage rescues an awful lot of people for someone actively trying to be a jerkass. Like twice as many as the other leads? Anyway, sent her down the dark magic path for the class change. Obvious mistake since I'm taking the forest route and goddamn everything is weak to fire. Also for some reason I have Nena in the party even though she's just Thage-, because I make sound strategic decisions.

EDIT: also I always forget New Vegas even has a difficulty slider, because why.

[Fudozukushi]

EDIT: also I always forget New Vegas even has a difficulty slider, because why.

Because there's nothing more beguiling than Very Hard Feral Ghouls managing to hit your -2 DT.

[Sierra]

Of course, now New Vegas is refusing to load any of my save files, so it may be a moot point.

[superaielman]

<Civ 5> Ciddy, I'm calling for youuuuuuuuuu

[Sierra]

Oh please, you know From Software's got both a new game and refurbished DS2 coming out shortly? My future's spoken for.

[Fenrir]

Oh shit right, I need to finish P4G VHS ASAP


Contrarian King

Contrarian King has no weaknesses.
He uses only physical attacks, but he can do ungodly damage with Rampage, which hits for 1, 2, or 3 hits, and is death if it hits three times. Contrarian King can inflict Fury with Hysterical Slap.

I made some uber Persona for this fight, and the entire strip club dungeon: It's a Take-Minakata (strong against phys / lightning, weak to ID) with Zionga (tier 2 lightning), Mahama (MT Holy ID), Invigorate 1/2 (8MP healing every turn), Diarama (healing), Auto-Rakukaja. (Def up for 3 turns at the start of every battle, very useful against randoms)
This persona is awesome.

For the Contrarian King fight I gave him a Rakukaja skill card, and used the spell every three turns so Yattaf could always survive a Rampage. There's still some risk involved (If Contrarian King uses a few Rampages in a row, or if he inflicts fury, things might be fucked) buuut I think he dies to 12 Ziongas or so, so I won after a few tries.

Level 28


Intolerant Officer

Intolerant Officer has a lightning weakness, he uses physical and elemental attacks.

While this boss has way higher stats than Contrarian King, Take Minakata is even more of a perfect fit , so I beat this battle at the same level.

My strategy was using Zionga at the beginning of every turn for an extra turn, then using either Rakukaja, Diarama, or very rarely another Zionga.
Intolerant Officer has a ton of HPs, so this battle still took like 15 minutes + 5 SP restoring items, but I wasn't in any danger. Except at one point when I thought "Huh, Zionga hasn't missed yet. It would really suck if it missed right now" Of course it missed (and I finished the round with barely any HP)


Level 28


Amorous Snake

Amorous Snake has a fire weakness. He likes to waste turns using Stagnant Air (higher ailment % chance for three turns. He only uses POIZN so nobody cares) He otherwise has only weak physical attacks.
Take Minakata is not impressed.

Level 29


Shadow Rise and Shadow Teddie

Both of these bosses have one thousand billion trillion HPs, but aren't really dangerous.
Shadow Rise has mostly elemental attacks from the four elements, so I just equipped Take Minakata (as always) who had no elemental weaknesses + Diarama who heals more than anything she could do.


Shadow Teddie has so many fucking HPs! Jesus! He also has a lot more options:
- Some physical attacks. They have low accuracy but decent damage. Take Minakata's resistance is really good here, so again he's my main persona for this fight.
- Rakunda (not that much of a problem, I usually don't bother using Rakakuja to cancel it)
- Silence (Only lasts two turns, often misses, whatever)
- Mind Charge + Mabufula (I switch to Ganga who drains ice, get healed to full, thanks Teddy bro)
- CHAOS DUNK (Nullified by defend)

He also uses Nullify Guidance two times, at half and 1/4th HPs. It's an attack that does about 100 damage and lets him act twice, so it's pretty damn fucking dangerous. He follows the first one with a chaos dunk (not a problem since it has a two turns charge), and he follows the second one with Mind Charge + Mabufula. (a problem)
I died there, wasting like 30 minutes. I was super-pissed.

So the second time around, juuuust before getting to his 1/4 HP phase, I switched to Ganga and used Tetrakarn just in case, . EZ

Level 31.
Level 31 is a lower level than OK's in his Persona stat topic. I'm glad I stuck to Very Hard mode, so my levels can be shockingly low all the time.


Mitsuo dungeon

Woaaaah this game got meta


Ps: I like the grandma who says "I AM DEATH"

[Fenrir]

You know, I convinced myself to go to a drama club to be more eloquent, I'm planning on getting there this week.

And I wonder if I got this idea from playing a bit of P4 before... and internalizing its "harder better faster stronger" philosophy there without even wanting it.

[Hunter Sopko]

Persona 4 Golden Very Hard Solo Yessss:


Ada-bro is my favourite S-link so far, he's totes my BFF. I am neglecting my romance options because I'm just hanging out with him all day.

Meanwhile Marie is a pretty bad addition to the game. She has the standard Female Robot / Female Goddess "clueless" personality, who learns what "friendship" is. Kill me already.

Pretty much. As amusing as Ada-bro's s-link is though, it really also kinda makes the whole thing kinda wonky. Yep, let's identify with and later make excuses for the sociopath. On the one hand, kinda funny and amuses the side of me I know is fucked up. Other hand, still really fucked up.

And yeah, Marie is totally flushable. Ruins the group dynamic of any scene she's in, and ruins the overall plot kinda later.

EDIT: And yeah. They really nerfed Shadow Yukiko and Shadow Kanji's fights in Golden. Screws with the difficulty of the whole game, since they were really the only challenging bosses.

[Fenrir]

I'm looking forward to this. I've maxed Adachi's link for now.

Yeah it's a bit weird how they simplified combat from P3 to P4, the lack of Tartarus bosses being a major hit. I think the game expanded on the real world more, with many more activities and options, but I don't feel there really are more interesting S links compared to P3. Did Yukiko's s link really have to be about how she can't cook?
So far I like Moon and Jester.

[Cmdr_King]

I feel like P4's links bat a higher average (the party members, even weaker stories like Yukiko's, are still largely better than the classmate/PC links in non-Yattaf P3) but don't have the absolute homeruns like Hermit, Tower or Devil.  Although P4 Death comes close at least.

[Fenrir]

Hermit, Tower or Devil.

A+ taste

I also liked Sun but it's a total downer.

I admit that I prefer to focus on the positive s-links, I've already forgotten all about the P3 s links with other PCs and those weird dumb kids.

[Cmdr_King]

Y'know, the endgame of P3 is really dumb and grindy, and one of the things that help motivate me to actually finish?  Seeing if there was an epilogue to Hermit.  Worth it!

[Hunter Sopko]

I'm looking forward to this. I've maxed Adachi's link for now.

Yeah it's a bit weird how they simplified combat from P3 to P4, the lack of Tartarus bosses being a major hit. I think the game expanded on the real world more, with many more activities and options, but I don't feel there really are more interesting S links compared to P3. Did Yukiko's s link really have to be about how she can't cook?
So far I like Moon and Jester.

Party S-links aren't good, yeah. Kanji's comes closest to quality.

Moon is good taste. I also liked Temperance and Death. Devil has its moments too. Sun is entertaining but only if you're into over-the-top melodrama.

Some of the night-time interactions are pretty awesome. Best addition to the game really.

[Meeplelard]

Ni No Kuni: Started this up, about to go fight some mice or something.  All I'll say about the game so far is that the game really takes it's time, and often says 5 words where 2 would suffice.  I get it that part of this is Drippy's style of speech, but I still feel like they have multiple double beats, just some unnecessary repetition.

Super Mario Galaxy 2: Bowser #1 beaten, which means World 2 is beaten...which doesn't make sense because we deal with Galaxies in this game so what the hell game? Since when did World become bigger than Galaxy!?

Dillon's Rolling Western: Stage 6 beaten!  No clue how much more is left...guessing there's 10 stages because nice round number or something.  Spring Grocks are bullshit, HOW DO ROCKS BOUNCE!?

[Niu]

DS2 Break Record - CURSES!! CURSESCURSES!! They change the criteria to fuse Satan just to match that stupid and bullshitty anime!! Now I can't fuse Satan until late into second cycle. UGHHH!

[Cotigo]

Ni No Kuni: Started this up, about to go fight some mice or something.  All I'll say about the game so far is that the game really takes it's time, and often says 5 words where 2 would suffice.  I get it that part of this is Drippy's style of speech, but I still feel like they have multiple double beats, just some unnecessary repetition.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Dhyerwolf]

Speaking of useless, at some point one of the stray people I rescued gave me a spear that can only be used by women. I...don't think there are female spear-users in this game, game.

Ares.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

SMT4 - So, I beat the game and got the Law ending. That was entirely unnecessary.

So, it's very much SMT in that very SMT way. The press turn system is as fundamentally broken as usual, the downwardly spiraling difficulty curve remains the same and the typical RNG pains still apply. On the other hand, I'm not sure I enjoyed a SMT-ish game this much since... uh, Persona 4, and Persona 4 offers notably more in terms of surroundings than SMT4 does. Cutting out on bullshit like "main dies, game is over", letting you save any time you want, giving you visible randoms, allowing you to access demon fusion from anywhere (even in-battle if you bother to buy an in-game app!) and streamlining the inheritance processes really helps on enjoying the experience, and the game gives you interesting options at a very good clip (letting you learn Tetrakarn and Makarakarn one-third of the game through rather than holding it off until endgame, for instance, makes for far more interesting strategies than what usually happens. Early access to dual buffs/debuffs is also cool).

Balance between physicals and magic also improved notably, though it still has the problem of magic as a main build looking better on the long term (you certainly want a physical demon as soon as you get access to Phys or Gun Pleroma, but you probably -don't- want Flynn as a physical fighter, since you have to shuffle between more stats and spend a -lot- more money - which you're going to be strapped for the ENTIRE GAME - than you would if you were just casting the spells that make demons fall down). The weakness system also doesn't get eventually shuffled into nothingness by the lategame, since demons with no weaknesses are scant even as bosses - which, honestly, at least acknowledges the system's importance throughout. I also like how they managed to find a nice balance between usefulness and annoyance factor on status - it's accurate and often MT, but it's almost entirely rigged to not shut you down entirely on a bad run (unless you have a REALLY bad). And, on your end, hey, you can wrangle press turns out of it or have it as a side effect of damage (another point for physical skills even early). Also, ID skills being -useful- even early without requiring weakness is a far cry from DDS's "turn two when -hitting- weakness" pointlessness. But that might have been my main actually having an actual Luck score, which leads me to think this is the first time in the series I actually didn't feel like raising Luck was wasting my time.

Bottom line is mostly that the level of polish applied in battle mechanics here honestly takes most of what annoys me about SMT while keeping most of what intrigues me about it. Dead demons going back to stock sounds annoying, but it felt like it actually brought interesting in-battle applications and decisions (since there also are skills and items which bask on this very design decision). The absence of stuff like Traesto or Goho-Ms baffles me, though: I don't think there's a point to traversing dungeons back after clearing them out by 2015. On the other hand, I've never seen a SMT game with dungeons this impressively short, so that's something.

Probably a 6/10. I kinda -want- to give it a 7/10, but it's still fundamentally SMT-ey and the surroundings certainly are less interesting than Persona 4's. The slick battle mechanics don't really make up for it enough to reach its level. Props for the Rose of Versailles references, though.

EDIT: Speaking of SMT...

Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor: Overclocked - I dunno, I guess I'm in a SMT kick. Just started Day 2.

[Sierra]

Speaking of useless, at some point one of the stray people I rescued gave me a spear that can only be used by women. I...don't think there are female spear-users in this game, game.

Ares.

Oh hey, how about that.

EP: One of the people I rescued informed Thage that she's not dressed properly for an RPG heroine. My immersion! Also yo Ashley burning people alive because their hair color's a different from yours is pretty uncool. Let's not go down that path, okay? I guess this is what happens when there's no one to beat persona into compliance.

I was really hoping someone would open that scene with "Good to see you again...sister," but it just didn't happen.

~

FONV: Didn't feel like dealing with caravan (obviously) and wanted more weapon skills before trying the last couple challenges, so I'm doing Dead Money instead because that's actually neat (also I want my holorifle already, dammit). Two mysteries strike me here:

A) How do Dean's sunglasses even stay on? Did he crazy glue them to his face?

B) http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=393816661 - So are ghost people made out of styrofoam or is the police pistol secretly a zero-point energy gun?

[Grefter]

Mass Effect 3 - Finished.  The ending sequences are about as weak as I remember and Kei Laggy is boring lame as remembered.  Did something that fucked up my chance to talk down Illusive Man at the end, not really sure what I fucked up, thought I picked properly in cutscenes whole play and had maxed out Paragon.  Oh well. 

I picked Mint Green ending.

The only thing I outright disliked was the fact that you kind of kill off one of the members of a genuinely pretty fun romance.  Going on from ME2 where I got Space Boners from Garrus, he wasn't putting on any moves in a hurry in ME3 so I went the Space Lesbian route with Traynor since I totes hit on Kelly Chambers as well, so hitting on my Yeoman is a thing that happened.  I actually genuinely like that relationship and then well it can't go anywhere because of the nature of ME3.

Because she was Shepard's partner it does mean she and Edi totes hugged at the end so I am going to pretend that means Joker/Edi/Traynor three ways is canon.

[Pyro]

I was really hoping someone would open that scene with "Good to see you again...sister," but it just didn't happen.

So who wants to tell him?

[Sierra]

I'm sure the game will make whatever it is apparent eventually, there's only four maps left.

So just now the Count showed up and he's like, "I'm gonna kill you, Homer Retica," but then he's all haha it is only joke. "But seriously you should totally kill your friends right now." I see no reason to suspect this guy of anything sinister at all.

Then Retica gave us a speech about the moral virtue of selfishness and Thage responded by admitting that she plans to destroy the world, which I think is only the proper response to that sentiment.

I saved Fungus again. I guess refugees are tied to specific maps? Thage has easily grabbed as many of them as Ashley and Olifen combined.

[Meeplelard]

Ni No Kuni: So at first I was happy to get a 2nd PC...only to see it's a Mage PC with a Mage Familiar, both of whom are healers, and has half Oliver's MP and lower HP.  To top it off, the AI seems to love blowing all their MP ASAP (though maybe that's because mages can't do physical damage worth crap OH LOOK), so she becomes useless pretty quick.
Should probably toss a non-MP reliant familiar on her just to alleviate the issue.