What Games are you playing 2016?

[Cotigo]

Fallen London. Persuasion? Name's Cotigo. Send me cats.

[Grefter]

You say that like something as beautiful a creature as me could lose.

[Cotigo]

I was wrong about my name. It's Zenthor not Cotigo. Send me cats anyway.

What am I doing how do I get money. I want to be an amicable boozehound but I need clothes. Capitalism calls? I should extort my friends instead of doing shit for free.

[Grefter]

At the very start money doesn't really come in.  I sold some random items at first.  You easy get large quantities of basic stuff as you progress.

Also sell you manacles and stuff if you didn't already.

[Cotigo]

I did. Also sold a bunch of bottles of wine I accumulated. I now have 30 cents and 10 bottles of wine. I feel like this game is accurate about my soul.

[Fenrir]

Fallen London: Currently making Zenny's arrival in Fallen London even more confusing
We are going to see a forbidden play

[The Duck]

I am Goubot in Fallen London but I haven't done shit yet.

[Cotigo]

do i sell the rats

do i smell the rats

what do i do

what do i do mr. fractal man

im too busy failing to seduce a model to know what to do with all these rats

[Fenrir]

If you need help, get yourself a talkative rattus faber at Nassos Zoologicals. It only costs 80 pence and will provide useful advice on your adventures.

[AndrewRogue]

Sometimes I am honestly convinced that you guys aren't actually playing a real video game, but are instead just making shit up and seeing how long it takes everyone to catch on.

[Captain K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70qsB_gW4G4

I couldn't remember who Myria was, but I may have killed them.  So terribly sorry about that.

(4 hours ago) Myria (Myria in Fallen London) has opened your Box of Saboteurs. What larks! Their yells echo across the rooftops. You fall asleep with a smile on your face. Nightmares is dropping...

[AndrewRogue]

I have joined in whatever this is as Harkan.

I have no idea what's happening.

[Excal]

Andy: So what you're saying is that you've joined in on the hoax.

Snowfire: I get what you're saying about Pelleas, but at least I can buy the story they give there.  Everyone, but Michaiah, thinks Pelleas is nuts and are understandably upset and don't want to do it.  But Michaiah is personally loyal to the idea of Daien and that idea requires her to be loyal to Pelleas' crazy decisions, and everyone else, well they're following Micaiah.  I always sorta saw it as let's say after the Hundred Years war the Dauphin decided to team up with the English against, say, Burgundy and the Beast-Jews.  The only person who can make that work is Jeanne D'Arc, and she's not in it because the Dauphin said let's do this.  She's in it because she's a French patriot (which needs it's last Valois at the top, no matter how crazy) and because God told her to.


Conquest - Got me my first Paralogue.  So I'm recruiting Kazu, or whatever dragon whelp is called.  Despite being on Normal, I've been having some issues.  First, Mozu isn't quite badass enough to hold a choke point by herself, so I try again and pair her up with Silas for two extra defense points.  It's amazing how big a deal those two points are.  However, the Falcon Knights are tough customers, and I made a fatal mistake of sticking Corrin in a chokepoint while equipping the Yato instead of the Dragonstone like I had thought I had.  So...  I'm gonna try again, but I think I'm gonna distract myself for a bit so I can cool off.

Bravely Second - The demo, as far as I got before I got bored of fetch quests and distracted by shinier things, was pretty good, so I have high hopes.  There's a few quality of life improvements, like now you can brave while in the middle of selecting you action in order to choose to do that action repeatedly.  Heck, it wraps around, so if you hit the default button, you go straight to 4 braves. 

The game is also happily not taking itself overly seriously and I've gotten a few great laughs out of the writing so far.  Plot is nothing special right now (oh noes, there's a new bad guy, he is stupid strong!) though a step up from the other games I'm playing.  We'll see if this holds once I get out of the prologue, since BD did the same thing and then you hit The Twist which I still love, but could have been executed better.  We'll see if this game has a similar Twist moment.  Also, I was kind of amused at just how much they upsell Tiz as this badass legendary warrior, and then you get him, and he is this Jedi Master, and otherwise the same as before.  As for new people, jury is still out on Magnolia, but I am liking Yew.  He's just such an enthusiastic dork.  Like a labrador puppy that hasn't been paper trained yet.

[Grefter]

I think I maybe had something broken.  I was aupposed to be building up Inspiration for a play I was going to put on at the palace, but I didn't have options to cash out.  I could still go back and complete the Portrait I already finished that was what got me IN to the palace.  So I finished that again.  Now I went back to Veilgarden to write another short story and get some cash and had to get rid of all me work on the Play that I couldn't work on.   K hope that's fixed it.

I invited Gourry and Andy out for Coffee and Zenny to hang out in a alley.

Cap still refuses to get good and 1v1 me at chess.

[Captain K]

You're never in the right spot for me to accept.  Go to your house when you stop playing.

[SnowFire]

FE Birthright: Okay, Shiro's Paralogue is officially shenanigans.  Serves me right for not looking it up beforehand.  PSA: Do this Paralogue immediately.

It's especially frustrating because I could have done it much earlier where it might not have been so, but I wasn't particularly interested in grabbing him.  ("Noble" kids have this problem...  why would I want someone like daddy *except* they can't wield the legendary superweapon?  Which has created a bit of a boy shortage among the kids, incidentally.)  Anyway if you do Shiro's Paralogue late...   the good news is that he starts out of range of enemies on turn 1.  The bad news is that like a moron, he will attack the Hero who moves nearby and get himself killed on the counter on his own turn 1.   So...  turn 1 recruitment or GTFO.  And if you're on Classic or trying to no-death Casual, then goooood luck to the poor Rescue Staff user that gets stranded in the middle of nowhere to summon Ryoma.  Did I mention that I am underlevel compared to the enemies here, who can one-shot squishies easily?

I think I'll have to come back later, as Dark Falcons seem the only sane way to do this.  Get Corrin's staff rank high enough to use Rescue (might require an Arms Scroll), pair him up with the Dark Falcon (Caeldori?), Galeforce hop forward, switch to DS+ Corrin (who can actually survive - although Azama might do so too, dunno), summon Ryoma in a pair-up, recruit Shiro & Offspring Seal immediately?  Seems chancy.  And heck, you're not even guaranteed to have access to Dark Falcon if you didn't purchase all 3 routes.  Apparently the game is super-troll and gives you the Shiro recruitment conversation like normal if he dies in the stage, he just doesn't actually join.  Quite the kick in the teeth for hopeful people who saved afterward.

[Fenrir]

Sunless Sea: I got north to the edge of the map.
Wow. Do not go north to the edge of the map.

I narrowly escaped cannibalism (and a gameover) but I am now very broke. I had 500 echoes. 500. Echoes.

I also left my wife and child, what can I say. I belong to the zee.

[Dark Holy Elf]

You can use the Rescue Staff on Shiro, and it really shouldn't be too hard to have a tanky Azama pairup or something like that which can withstand the punishment while Ryoma grabs Shiro and the latter pairs up with him if needed. It's still kinda silly but isn't that bad (and at worst you don't have to redo much of the map if it take multiple attempts). Given who his dad is there's no good way to do the map especially early short of grinding. That said Shiro is both a loser and kinda lacks a niche gameplaywise so feel free to pass on him if the fight's too annoying.

Re your Caeldori paralogue comments and the Level 7 and 17 enemies... yeah. My theory is that the paralogue is designed for a certain point in the game much earlier than you (or I) did it, and they created enemies who were a mix of promoted Level 1 and unpromoted, which is common in FE. But... the scaling they apply just increases those numbers by a fixed amount, so the Level 1 promoted enemies just end up silly. I dunno. The paralogues aren't always that well-balanced.

Plot maps have fixed levels, and yeah Birthright 20 is some sort of bad joke. Good news is that the plot maps will start ramping up pretty soon, because I would have been quite unhappy with the game if the level of challenge seen around 18-20 became the new norm.

Re RD, Pelleas has a reason to go to war: Begnion (that big, powerful nation with which Daein shares a border) requested his help, and it's against the laguz, which most Daeiners hate far more than Begnion. The main people who really have a problem with Daein's participation in this war are folks like Jill or Zihark who are much more sympathetic to laguz than the average Daein citizen; Micaiah notes that most of her soldiers are eager to go to war, despite her own reservations. And as Excal noted, she decides her loyalty to Pelleas is more important than her reservations... which doesn't seem unreasonable.

(RD still has the best plot in the series by quite a bit.)

[Cotigo]

If you need help, get yourself a talkative rattus faber at Nassos Zoologicals. It only costs 80 pence and will provide useful advice on your adventures.

You take me for a cad. With Charlie by my side, I was laughed right out of the singing mandrake for my lymrick about the man from nantucket.

[hinode]

I did Shiro's paralogue around C23 and he just barely survived the turn 1 counter. Granted, his mom was Rinkah and defense was his best stat upon recruitment IIRC. Still a really hairy first two-three turns, but I managed to beat it on the first try with no casualties.

Shiro's actually pretty different from his dad (Spear Fighter vs Swordmaster) but in this case it doesn't really help distinguish him much, since there's a glut of spear users on Birthright. Mine was sorta tanky but not Azama level and had weak offensive so I generally preferred to funnel enemy attacks to Ryouma or Shuriken Goddess Corrin.

[SnowFire]

Hmm.  Screwing around more, I realized I could use Azura to steal a few extra squares, so I managed the turn 1 recruit (at the cost of a horrible Corrin death to magic).  I'm not sure rescuing *Shiro* is the right call since that brings him into way, way more immediate danger, but maybe.  I'll give it another try, probably with flyer-with-Azama moves out, Dance Flyer, Flyer flies halfway and switches and rescues flyer-with-Ryoma, profit.

hinode: This is post C23, pre-C24, so similar.  Shiro has Kagero as mom, though.  He's actually reasonably tanky and stronger than both parents, but not super-fast, when I checked out his post-Offspring stats.  Weird that he's so much slower than his parents.  Of course the problem is that on turn 1, he's L20 vs. an L12 Hero and hence gets doubled.  He looks boring but usable as a pretend Oboro, I guess.

Also, Ryoma's getting to the point where he's kinda dangerous to use as an enemy magnet, for me at least, although I think he may have gotten slightly RNG-screwed (or just has bad growths).  Sure he still murders everything with crits, but if his dodge hax fails him, he's very killable.

Elf: It doesn't even have to be *that* early.  The map would be an order of magnitude less annoying if Shiro is scheduled to die on turn 2 rather than turn 1, and that's probably about what happens if you do it around say C20 (which I could have done!).  Turn 1, though, requires the likes of precious Rescue staff usage.

As for Radiant Dawn, this goes back to what I said before about rulers needing some sort of ideology, or reason, or excuse to do something dramatic like go to war.  I entirely agree that had Pelleas said that rampaging laguz were threatening innocent humans so he's sending out the army to remind them of their place, it'd have worked, sure.  (There would ALSO be...  implications...  for the likes of Volug, Zihark, Jill, and Rafiel.)  Instead, my recollection was that it was an explicit plot point that he said there was no reason, and Micaiah found this as some sorta-not-really-crisis because clearly Pelleas was acting strangely.  But does it anyway because that's what the script says.  I guess that's owning the plot point a little (Micaiah thinks it's weird!) but not enough for my tastes.  "No reason" should attract far more skepticism, even from a king, and especially a new king.

[hinode]

I don't remember his unpromoted stats, but after an Offspring Seal my Shiro has 27 def as an L10 Spear Master, which is kinda nuts for a non-dedicated tank class. I'm willing to bet his starting def was way better than yours, hence he could barely take a single counter.

Also I used 10/1 Oni Chieftain Rinkah as pair up fodder for Ryouma on most maps (a couple of paralogues I had to drop her for space), so he usually had +6 def and guard stance to help out his survival.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Snowfire: Well, there is a reason: Begnion requested their aid.

Pelleas: We are answering the request from the Begnion Empire to wipe out the barbaric Laguz Alliance. Your targets are... Gallia's sub-humans!

Recall that Begnion is the most powerful nation in the world and one with which Pelleas would dearly like to repair relationships. And, of course, recall that it is a nation of beorc, which has just been attacked (in their view) by (multiple) nations of laguz... and that Daein is rife with anti-laguz prejudice. Micaiah is skeptical about it (as the player is expected to be), and Sothe is enraged, but the reasons are very much there if you understand the setting the games have built up.

[Captain K]

Dark Souls 3:  beaten.  I'm going to go ahead and say that this is the best Souls game.  It doesn't reinvent the wheel, it just polishes the hell out of it.

My (very minor) complaints: It's a bit too linear, especially at the beginning of the game.  I miss the way DS1 had three paths available at the first bonfire and they were all horrible.  Also, I miss being able to upgrade armor.  Granted that takes some of the grinding out of the game.

Everything else was amazing.  The combat was clean.  The boss fights were great.  PVP was surprisingly decent, still some lag hits but no lagstabbing like DS1.  I loved how enemies would chase you much farther than in previous games, you generally couldn't run to the edge of an enemy's agro range and attack/retreat.

I ran full dex no hp build which I do not recommend because you die to a sneeze, even with bonus hp from embers.  If you don't mind dying then it works pretty well because you can cheese a lot of things with bows.

Starting class mercenary
Level 71
Vigor 11
Attunement 12
Endurance 11
Vitality 35 (most of this recently)
Strength 13
Dexterity 50
Intelligence 10
Faith 9
Luck 9

Weapons used were Sharp Rapier+10, Black Bow of Pharis+9.  Mirrah armor set, no helm, no shield, no spells of any kind.

I did Sirris's questline correctly, don't think I did any others right.  Will poke around and do stuff before I start NG+.

DS3 > DS1 >>> DS2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Bloodborne (haven't played Demon Souls)

[SnowFire]

Elf: But this is immediately after a brutal war to kick Benignon *out*.  I can certainly buy the darker elements of Daien being willing to fight laguz, sure, but to help their hated rival who defeated & occupied them 2 years ago or so?  It feels like, I dunno, 1920 Germany being asked to send troops to help out the French.  Even if it's a really hated enemy, we're kinda busy rebuilding over here to help out a slightly-less-hated enemy.

Anyway, I checked the script, and I guess we're both sorta right.  Okay, Pelleas does mention the sub-human thing and that it was a request from Benigon.  I was more referring to this part, as well as the chapter title of "A Reason to Fight":

--
Micaiah: The Daein Royal Army will answer Begnion's request and attack the
    Laguz Alliance at the Ribahn River. Those are our orders from King Pelleas.
    As his subjects, we will obey him.

Sothe: Without even asking why? Daein is finally on its own. Why are we even
    speaking to Begnion, let alone fighting for them?!

Micaiah: I don't know. I do know that King Pelleas wants what's best for
    Daein...just like us. He must know something we don't. I trust him. He's
    changed since the coronation, though. He doesn't smile or laugh anymore.
    Maybe it's because Izuka and the Black Knight vanished.

Sothe: Who cares about Pelleas smiling or laughing? We have no quarrels with
    the Laguz Alliance! Why are we targeting them?
--

From the dialogue, it's pretty clear that Micaiah didn't pry into anything deeper than "Benignon asked," with Micaiah assuming that maybe Pelleas knows something.  And Sothe (and SnowFire!) don't think this is sufficient and say WTF.  Maybe Pelleas does know something, but...  he should tell you it, then.  (Yes, yes, I know that the script doesn't want to reveal this particular plot point yet, but the characters don't know that.)  In fact he's going to have to tell lots of people if he wants them to risk their lives, some sort of good reason.  So yeah, there's a reason, but not enough of one for my tastes.  It's like saying that Batman will fight Superman because Lex Luthor told him that Superman killed his parents.  Okay, fine, but people say lots of shit, especially villains, we need more if we want to buy this confrontation without reflecting poorly on Batman's gullibility.

To give RD some credit, I'm willing to throw fiction some breathing room to set up OMG dramatic confrontations between two sympathetic forces, because people, including me, love that.  And I thought that among RD C1's best plot points was reflecting that Daien's rebellion was an alliance between its noblest and worst parts, what with the BK & Izuka helping you out.  RD C3, though...  precisely because it was a well-developed world, it annoyed me how it became nonsense because of WHOA you unknowingly signed a blood pact and don't think too hard about it.  Only when I actually care somewhat about the setting & characters will I sit up and say "No, Zihark is not going to go along with this without a REALLY GOOD REASON, penalty flag."   (And hey, there is a way to send DB characters back to Ike, if you hate yourself!  So there's that at least, a nice touch there noticed how out of character this was for a crew that went around saving imprisoned laguz earlier.)