What Games are you playing 2015?

[Reiska]

Fair point on Rydia, though my experience is that Palom gets Bio quickly enough at that point as to render the difference close to meaningless (if perhaps not _entirely_).  Rydia is certainly not a project in the traditional FE "starts bad, gets amazing" sense, at least assuming you take "start of final chapter" as your start point.  (Now, if you include the first half of the game...)

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Saints Row 3 - I will never understand the logic of a game that lets you drop into the Atlantic Ocean and warp back to the nearest shore but forces you to fly your way to an abandoned warehouse on a helicopter playing gay nightclub music from 2010.

I also have a snazzy purple suit-trenchcoat combo and a kitty backpack.

[Reiska]

Final Fantasy IV - The After Years: The Crystals ~ Planet Eater

Finished the first part of the chapter, and all that jazz.  So we move on to part two.

A few observations.  First, I forgot to mention that this version of TAY retains the normal overworld theme, instead of always using the airship theme.  *shrug*

The cutscene at the beginning of part 2 of the finale actually subtly shows you the party you have to bring against DK Cecil, because all members of that party appear in that specific scene (Cecil, Rosa, Ceodore and Golbez).

Alright, so I finally get to choose party members!  By the way, finishing levels for the first part: Rydia/Edge/Luca 36, Golbez 44.  Cecil starts at level 30 now rather than 40.  Here's everyone's stats at the beginning of this part.

Cecil: Lv30, HP 1400, MP 125, 10/10/10/10/10
Rosa: Lv30, HP 975, MP 310, 24/17/18/14/37
Ceodore: Lv30, HP 913, MP 169, 21/23/20/12/23
Kain: Lv30, HP 1867, MP 93, 36/24/29/20/25
Rydia: Lv36, HP 1222, MP 367, 19/19/18/35/33
Edge: Lv36, HP 1846, MP 156, 31/31/25/21/20
Cid: Lv30, HP 1500, MP 15, 27/13/32/5/5
Yang: Lv21, HP 979, MP 35, 24/14/26/5/7
Palom: Lv27, HP 814, MP 289, 19/13/16/34/13
Porom: Lv22, HP 564, MP 230, 13/13/11/12/29
Edward: Lv23, HP 765, MP 92, 16/18/9/18/21
Luca: Lv36, HP 1908, MP 88, 42/20/40/4/4
Ursula: Lv20, HP 715, MP 40, 19/18/17/6/12
Leonora: Lv25, HP 667, MP 168, 20/11/15/16/27
Gekkou: Lv20, HP 885, MP 66, 21/14/22/9/8
Zangetsu: Lv21, HP 700, MP 118, 15/18/15/14/9
Tsukinowa: Lv24, HP 741, MP 84, 14/29/14/10/9
Izayoi: Lv19, HP 608, MP 95, 12/20/12/10/12
Harley: Lv14, HP 397, MP 60, 14/11/11/18/15
Golbez: Lv44, HP 2971, MP 342, 45/27/48/40/34
Calca: Lv21, HP 500, MP 64, 16/12/15/13/9
Brina: Lv21, HP 503, MP 65, 12/15/13/9/15

My chosen party will be: Edge, Luca, Ursula, Rydia, Porom. 

So, finally, I get to unveil the other big change in this version: most of the formerly Challenge Dungeon-exclusive gear is now storebought!  The Namingway immediately outside the Lunar Whale sells it.  I sell a bunch of useless crap I'm carrying, buy a bunch of less useless crap, and this is what I end up with for equipment on this team:

Luca - Sledgehammer, Horned Helmet, Mist Wrap, Hyper Wrist - 60/25/40/1/1 - Attack 114 x8, Accuracy 89%, Defense 40 x3, Evade 55%, MDefense 12 x0, MEvade 13%

I'm not currently able to push Luca to a 9x attack. and anyway, doing so gives up a ton of evade and a defense mult, and I kind of need Luca to take hits with this team right now.  55% evade on Luca is actually a little ridiculous.

Rydia - Faerie Rod, Gold Hairpin, Mist Wrap, Talisman - 19/24/18/60/38 - Attack 43 x3, Accuracy 64%, Defense 26 x3, Evade 60%, MDefense 30 x3, MEvade 43%

Other than the Mist Wrap, this is pretty much a bog-standard offensive Rydia gearing.  The Mist wrap pushes her defense mult to 3, which for now I feel is worth not having a Black Robe.

Edge - Kiku-ichimonji, Mage Masher, Chakra Band, Black Belt Gi, Hyper Wrist - 54/34/30/26/23 - Attack 128 x8, Accuracy 91%, Defense 34 x4, Evade 50%, MDefense 11 x2, MEvade 16%

Mage Masher gives him a species kill on High Wizards, pretty much the only thing he's going to get consistent boosts on here.  Pretty much standard offensive Edge build.

Porom - Aura Staff, Mystic Veil, Mist Wrap, Gil Band - 13/19/11/19/46 - Attack 44 x2, Accuracy 65%, Defense 25 x2, Evade 57%, MDefense 17 x2, MEvade 27%

Gil Band can be exchanged with Level Band as needed.  Squishiest PC here.

Ursula - Cat Claws, Queen's Whip, Chakra Band, Black Belt Gi, Hyper Wrist - 42/26/22/6/15 - Attack 52 x6, Accuracy 99%, Defense 30 x3, Evade 50%, MDefense 11 x0, MEvade 12%

The Queen's Whip allows her to do full damage from the back row, which is important at her low level.  She should improve fast.

Finally, in this version, you can now return to the Blue Planet if you missed anything there, or need to buy more consumables Namingway doesn't sell, or forgot/didn't want to exchange your Small Tails, or anything else like that, simply by examining the Lunar Whale's flight crystal. 

Also, a correction: While Slow appears to not be stackable in this version, Protect/Shell may still be (attempting to stack Slow actually gives a "No effect!" message, while Protect/Shell do not.  I haven't done damage tests with protshell stacking though)

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Final Fantasy IV - The After Years: The Crystals ~ Planet Eater

Need to add a "part one, chapter two" and a subtitle there to get the full effect.

[Reiska]

Final Fantasy IV - The After Years: The Crystals ~ Planet Eater

Need to add a "part one, chapter two" and a subtitle there to get the full effect.

Don't forget "The Movie: The Game: The Book".

[Fenrir]

Gaiden

[Fenrir]

Ether One: is a critically acclaimed walking simulator so I was excited to find it for free on psn+

1) Art deco style ads that look like Bioshock's
2) No human presence but a constant voiceover from a female scientist
3) Slow walking speed
3) You can only have one item at once and have to switch them?

I uninstalled after 10 minutes and am never looking back
I may also already be bored of FF14. Those story cutscenes, man. This should be the least important thing in an MMO but I feel they ruin all the world building

Poor Yattaf Orlandu doesn't deserve to stay at level 11/9 though

[Grefter]

I thought you could skip them?  That or I went for piss breaks.

[Fenrir]

Some but not all
Also I want to be fooled into believing this grind is for something. I expected this world to be Ivalice, instead it's just an MMO world, nothing to see

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Saints Row 3 - In which you can jump off your newly-stolen penthouse and parachute your way into the city streets. This may be the first time I've ever had fun with a GTA clone ever just because everything is so completely off the rails.

[Hunter Sopko]

Shallie: Nearly one-rounded the final, couldn't because you don't start with any Burst Gauge for the fight. Oh well. Missed out on a decent final boss theme, for all that the fight itself is pretty anti-climactic. It's a slightly better game overall than E&L, but surprisingly not by much. Might change on replay, as I hear the other path is actually different enough to warrant a replay. Given that I could probably breeze through it, might do so and re-evaluate. Still, as usual,split path RPGs are fucking stupid. I can't think of one that does it well besides S3.

A lot of the music is really good. Better than E&L's OST but not as good as Ayesha's. The problem is a lot of it is mis-used. They waste a really good track, one of the ones from the trailer, on a town you barely spend any time in. Some of the placement choices are baffling.

Should also be able to finish off Brave Story and Drakengard 3 soon, so I can finally move on to a new flight of games.

[Fenrir]

Forgot to mention that new FF4 TAY looks terrible, I'm not buying the game twice for less dungeons and challenge


Dragon Age Inquisition:

- "Hey, want codex info on these innocent deer-like animals? There's only one way, and that's murder"
- Isn't red lyrium really bad? Why am I establishing durable camps right next to giant red lyrium crystals?
- Morrigan got her precious cameo, she was mysterious. This character is never going to get old.
- Am I the only one who thinks this templars vs mages thing going on is totally this weird metaphor for the Arab-Israeli conflict?

[Scar]

The one on Steam looks like the FF4 for the 3DS right?

What did they change from the PSP version, cause that one was fun.

<3

[Reiska]

The one on Steam looks like the FF4 for the 3DS right?

What did they change from the PSP version, cause that one was fun.

<3

Short version:

• FF4 DS-styled graphics, yes.  The actual underlying mechanics seem to be mostly unchanged from other versions of TAY, with the exception of Bands, which are completely overhauled.
• Bands no longer you to play trial and error until you find the right combination of FAQ bait commands.  Instead, you simply put characters together in your party, go to the Bands menu, and it will tell you what (if any) bands they have.  Actually learning them simply requires winning a (small) number of battles; I think the highest I've seen required like 5-6 battles to learn.  Beyond this, bands can now level up by continuing to fight with those characters in your party, gaining bonuses to damage or healing or reductions to MP cost, depending on the band in question.
• Challenge Dungeons are gone, and Planet Eater is supposedly rebalanced accordingly around the correspondingly lower level curve.  I haven't actually tried moon encounters to verify yet.  Cecil does start at a lower level now (30 instead of 40), suggesting this to be true, though.  Because of this, Adamantites and Lustful Lali-Hos are now obtained in the chapters themselves, while most of the gear that was previously exclusive to them is now storebought at the beginning of Planet Eater instead.
• The optional characters are no longer optional; the Quarto Puppets which you had to fight for random drops in the Wii and PSP versions on Rydia's tale so that you could fix the dolls are now a required boss fight on the way out of the Agart Mines and always drop the required items, while the ninjas can no longer die (losing battles with them leads to a game over instead of proceeding with them dead).
• Going to the moon (at the end of The Gathering) is no longer a point of no return; you can now return to the Blue Planet at will, shop at the towns that are open, etc.
• The second part of the final dungeon, the Depths, has had its layouts substantially altered, largely significantly cutting the length of that part of the dungeon. A few other dungeons have had more subtle alterations - Agart Mines, for example, are missing a floor IIRC.
• The Mysterious Girl + Bahamut fight, previously on B20, is fought relatively much earlier in the Depths, giving Bahamut significantly more in-game use.
• The cameo boss fights with enemies from FF1/2/3/5/6 have been replaced with renditions of the Lunar Eidolon fights from FF4 Advance because S-E is too lazy to spend money doing those enemy models in 3D.

YMMV on which is the superior version.  I feel that the game flows a lot better without the challenge dungeons being there and with those items being storebought, but there's a legitimate argument that shortening the Depths detracts from the game.  I personally felt the original Depths dragged on a little bit too long with FF4 encounter rates, but not excruciatingly so.  In any event, I don't regret buying this version; it is a different, parallel experience to the original format which makes some polish changes and gives you a different set of endgame bosses to fight with different AI routines.

[DjinnAndTonic]

All the FF4-2 talk got me to check the iOS shop and hey look there's Final Fantasy Record Keeper for free, let's check that out, I've been wondering what All The Bravest mk 2 looks like.

So first impression? At least it's not as bad as ATB, but that's not saying much. It is not nearly as much of a naked cash grab. I'm guessing they made enough money on ATB to justify reusing its assets in an actual game! Honestly I haven't spent any money on it, but as far as free mobile games go, I'll try to keep an open mind about throwing some support its way. If it keeps updating like it has in Japan, the English version might actually turn out cool. At least for a on the go five minute play session nostalgia RPG. (One point in its favor, at least I can properly classify it as an RPG, unlike ATB!)

[Reiska]

Final Fantasy IV - The After Years: The Crystals ~ Planet Eater: Part 2: The Movie: The Game: The Series Gaiden

Oh boy, the chests in the True Moon's Subterrane are all different.  I'm not going to spam up this thread with all the differences, but the quick summary is that in general, most of the gear upgrades are earlier in the dungeon, and most of the top-tier equipment is no longer boss-gated.  (Ragnarok, Ultima Weapon, and the Hero's Shield still are.) 

On the other hand, the dungeon is no longer mirrored.  So the first 7 floors are mostly identical to the original Lunar Subterrane, except that the hidden passage that once led to Ragnarok has been cut short.

The FF4 boss refights no longer block the save points scattered throughout the Subterrane; instead, each has its own dungeon floor (which is always the map you originally fought that boss on in FF4).

Once you go downstairs from Subterrane B7, everything is completely different.  Each of the boss refights still has their respective dungeon levels; in between them, you go through the other moon maps (the lunar tunnels and Lair of the Father).  The first of the four Lunar Eidolon fights - yes, there's really only four - is at Lair of the Father 3F (it's Lunar Dragon, and beating it grants Dualcast).  Asura and Leviathan are fought in the Feymarch maps, and after defeating them, the path opens to the Lunar Core (same maps as FF4o) and, ultimately, the Dark Knight Cecil battle.

The Depths have been cut down to 13 floors, and are about as linear as FF13, sadly.  Mysterious Girl + Bahamut are on B4.  Here's my party when I faced her:

Ursula - Lv46, HP 2487, MP 115
Equipment: Godhand/Tiger Fangs/Adamant Helm/Brave Suit/Protect Ring
Stats: Strength 73, Speed 71, Stamina 89, Intellect 18, Spirit 32; Attack 112 x13, Accuracy 99%, Defense 101 x8, Evade 70%, MDefense 30 x3, MEvade 28%

Rydia - Lv50, HP 2074, MP 533
Equipment: Assassin's Dagger/Adamant Shield/Gold Hairpin/Sage's Robe/Twin Stars
Stats: Strength 29, Speed 54, Staminda 28, Intellect 78, Spirit 45; Attack 104 x6, Accuracy 99%, Defense 59 x9, Evade 80%, MDefense 46 x4, MEvade 63%

Edge - Lv50, HP 3156, MP 229
Equipment: Mutsunokami/Masamune/Adamant Helm/Fire Scarf/Protect Ring
Stats: Strength 63, Speed 55, Stamina 59, Intellect 42, Spirit 40; Attack 196 x10, Accuracy 99%, Defense 84 x6, Evade 95%, MDefense 32 x3, MEvade 40%

Porom - Lv47, HP 1896, MP 463
Equipment: Seraphim's Mace/Adamant Shield/Cat-Ear Hood/Robe of Lords/Twin Stars
Stats: Strength 27, Speed 34, Stamina 38, Intellect 23, Spirit 84; Attack 67 x4, Accuracy 81%, Defense 64 x6, Evade 88%, MDefense 57 x4, MEvade 65%

Luca - Lv50, HP 3076, MP 134
Equipment: Gigant Axe/Adamant Helm/Minerva Bustier/Limit Ring
Stats: Strength 86, Speed 40, Stamina 69, Intellect 3, Spirit 3; Attack 183 x12, Accuracy 87%, Defense 82 x2, Evade 63%, MDefense 17 x1, MEvade 17%

The remaining Lunar Eidolons are found on B10 (Lunar Odin, drops Ragnarok); B11 (Lunar Leviathan, drops Hero's Shield); and B12 (Lunar Bahamut, drops Ultima Weapon).

I'm too tired to actually finish tonight and I might need to grind a bit anyway, the second phase's Meteor counters are OHKOing me.  (Moon phase problems are part of it, should change it)

Still, I can give an overall opinion on this version now.  I think that everything up to the Depths, including the Subterrane, is an improvement on the original version.  While the Subterrane is technically *more* rehashed now, frankly, this game being as much of a throwback as it is anyway, it works, and it's a cute little nod.  (I'm not especially fond of those parts in the original.)

However, there's no denying that the Depths was just cut down way too much.  In fact, they barely even exist now, actually.  So Cecil went from being bad to actually being completely useless in this version.  By the time he stops failing at life, you have a whopping 2 required boss fights left (MG+Bahamut and the final).

Still, I don't regret buying or playing this version; it was fun, and the Lunar Eidolons were fun to work out strategies for, especially underleveled as I was.  Still, I think the PSP version is overall the best one, in the end.

[Grefter]

I played a bit of Stanley Parrable as my present to myself for my birthday because Fenrir gifted it to me ages ago.  Now it is a thing I have done a bit of.

[SnowFire]

Grefter was so bad at following instructions it's amazing Fenrir didn't fire him ages ago.

[Fenrir]

Don't play it again for five years so you can get the Go outside achievement

[Sierra]

I have New Year's Day 2020 set aside for just that purpose.

[Fenrir]

Wait until the 6th so you can play it for an entire tuesday

FF Record Keeper: this is pretty nice on paper, very unbalanced though. But I guess that's part of the charm
I like trying to get the most out of these ftp bullshit games without spending a dime on them, and actually completed all the bravest that way. Atb being supposedly the absolute worst about it
So far I am steamrolling everything but special events. Weapon power is everything and I got reasonably lucky with weapon drops.. I have 4 characters set to auto attack + Lenna who got her own special five stars weapon, and who sometimes heal/ use bolt. Omg strats
Seeing FF6 style sprites of dudes from FF7+ games is fun. Especially the bosses.

Transistor: I have 5 limiters on, this is starting to get really rough
Lovely game. Will talk more about it later

Dragon Age Inquisition: This game started bugging like hell so I went to the ps4 menu to close and reopen the game. Except I chose DELETE GAME instead. I redownloaded it afterwards instead of just forgetting about it, so I guess I don't hate playing it

[The Duck]

Is anyone playing Witcher 3? I've read a lot about it and everyone seems to like it but then I hear clips of Geralt's gruffy gruff gruff voice again and see the grimdark anger sadness and the desire to visit that world completely goes away.

[Grefter]

Demons's Souls's Inquisition - I was level 7 in an area that randomly had level 12 spiders.  They were fine and manageable for the entire zone until the last part of the zone when suddenly you fight like half a dozen of them.  I can just manage to survive the fight but then

Bugs
The spiders may spawn infinitely at times.


K

[Captain K]

Witcher 2 was so juvenile that I have no desire whatsoever to try 3.

Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros:  Started, beat the first world.  They simplified many of the mechanics from P&D mobile, notably evolving.  These colors are so bright.  Non-colorblind people must have to wear sunglasses to play this game.

[Nephrite]

Is anyone playing Witcher 3? I've read a lot about it and everyone seems to like it but then I hear clips of Geralt's gruffy gruff gruff voice again and see the grimdark anger sadness and the desire to visit that world completely goes away.

If you don't like Geralt being a sassy gruff person then I'm not sure the Witcher games are right for you.

I've been playing it and enjoying the hell out of it.