Author Topic: What Games are you playing 2016?  (Read 124567 times)

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1775 on: August 23, 2016, 10:16:03 PM »
Playing games - Disgaea D2 replay on a whim while I hunt down a method to play Disgaea 5. DD2 is still fucking great as a SRPG, and I keep hearing people say D5 is even better. I am hype.

But more important than that, I mostly posted to say that Tide's review of Trails of Cold Steel actually has me considering that game and I appreciate how much time he must have taken to write it!

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1776 on: August 23, 2016, 10:20:28 PM »
Did you just go base Thief or did you pick a Prestige Class

Just vanilla thief. Probably a mistake, shoulda gone assassin because backstab+ is >>> minmaxing all those skill points. But I'll deal. My other option was go ranger -> archer specialization just to see how badly you can shred this game with bows, but I decided I already knew what that looked like because Kivan.

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1777 on: August 24, 2016, 01:38:37 AM »
ATTN BRAVELY SECOND PLAYERS: Friend Codes Plz?

Honestly, the world-building so far is pretty rad, and the plot hasn't reached any pants-on-head stupidity yet. It even seems pretty reasonable? I'm guessing it's going to go wildly off-the-rails like Bravely the first did in its later parts, but for now, I'm enjoying the game quite a bit. Long flights are great for getting portable gaming done~

Also NEB, you need to set a stronger Friend Summon. If I can hit 4-digit damage at level 14, surely an endgame file can help me smash more than 600 damage~

Dark Holy Elf

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1778 on: August 24, 2016, 02:00:39 AM »
I probably made that friend summon when the little mini-quest reward for doing so opened and never saw a reason to do so again. So just consider it a "Fight using your own skill!" message. :)

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Grefter

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1779 on: August 24, 2016, 03:09:25 AM »
NO MORE POKEMON - Meeplelard.
The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
Don't worry, just jam it in anyway. - SirAlex
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SnowFire

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1780 on: August 24, 2016, 06:28:54 AM »
Tide: Glad to hear you liked CS, I'll be playing it soon enough I assume.  FWIW, if you didn't play Trails int eh Sky, they kinda locked themselves in there on the size of Erebonia...  Estelle & Joshua travel Liberl on foot and people look at you weird for this, *and* the plot is quite clear that Erebonia is much larger in territory than Liberl is, so walking Erebonia isn't really happening if they want to be remotely consistent, which luckily they do!

--

Pokemon Y: Beat the maingame.  First Pokemon game I've actually completed.  Final Dark / Fairy squad:

Umbreon: Charm / Moonlight / Bite / Covet
Absol: Night Slash / Swords Dance / Quick Attack / Strength
Greninja: Night Slash / Surf / Hydro Cannon / Water Shuriken
Florges:  Magical Leaf / Razor Wind / Moonblast / Wish
Azumarill: Rain Dance / Hydro Pump / Aqua Tail / Charm
Gardevoir: Moonblast / Psychic / Thunderbolt / Calm Mind

There was also a Pangoro for HM purposes of having Rock Smash & Cut, with some amount of Crunch / Power-up Punch / Sky Uppercut for real moves.  Carbink, Klefki, Pawniard, & Liepard saw niche use.  Also, according to the aftergame IVs guy, my Azumarill was off the hook with "superb" stats or something and him complementing 3 of its stats outright with no "this stat is really terrible", so.

I kinda assumed that Zelda-style, the Elite 4 would be people you've already met and made friends with on the course of your adventure (PLOT TWIST), so, you know, it turns out the nobles from PokeVersailles are members, or the Bug Gym leader who was holding back, or something.  But nope.  The Fire & Dragon E4 leaders got smashed (plenty of Water & Fairy types here), the Water type was respectable (Florges has Grass, but it wasn't auto-win or anything), and the Steel leader was really badass, since my Fairies were basically helpless.  Notably, Aegislash legit threatened a sweep, sporting Sacred Sword for super-effective Fighting to kill Darks, and Iron Head for super-effective vs. Fairies.  Diantha, by comparison, while respectable enough was probably easier overall.  Speaking of plot twists that didn't happen, since I knew that "Diancie" was a Pokemon and they made a big deal about immortal Pokemon and people talked about stories of people turned into Pokemon or vice-versa, and certainly SMT has pulled this plot twist before, I was expecting Diantha to pull out a "NOW WITNESS MY TRUE FORM AND DESPAIR" Dracula style, but nope.  (Okay, for Pokemon, it'd be more like "Tee-hee, let me share a secret with you that only my friends know!")

On that note, the plotline with AZ seemed weirdly rushed.  He just shows up and fights you then gets happy again?  I mean, there's certainly an anime tradition of psychological healing via combat, but they didn't go for that kinda ham-it-up style.  Heck, if he just smiled from the back of the parade, that'd have been fine too if you're not gonna let me actually fight uber-Floette.  (Also, while complaining about POKEPLOT...  since the world of Pokemon was always "pretty close to modern day tech with an inexplicable lack of cars, but more Pokemon", I dunno why they made AZ from 3000 years ago.  Are we worried Roman super-weapons will destroy us all?  And Rome is only 2000 years old!) 

Anyway, my national Pokedex says 342 Seen, 163 Obtained, so...  that's basically all of them, right?

--

Fire Emblem: Okay, the Ostia castle siege map was pretty badass.  (For all that I won't complain about mixing things up from the Black Fang, these are some pretty fool-hardy mercs...  isn't Ostia the psuedo-capital of Lycia?  This feels like bandits deciding to raid Buckingham Palace.)  Stupid ballista ripping Lucius & Rath a new one.  I ended up sacrificing XP rank for Tactics via luring the boss out early, which may have been a mistake, as my XP rank genuinely dived afterward from not farming the whole map.  What?!  Are these ranks per-chapter or across everything?  And this is with heavy rotating the cast...  ugh.  Looking ahead, I see I need to hard-grind Lyn & Hector too to avoid getting Wallace's map.  Sigh.

Desert map was stupid as usual, except this time I had to tank my Tactics rating and also save/reload spam, as Pent cheerfully cleared the map before I could get *any* treasure.  Had to reload into "rescuing" him and then waste tons of turns trying to get drops.  Boo hiss.  It's not a HUGE deal I guess, but very bad if you are attempting to care about Tactician ranking and/or using Dart.

--

I Am Setsuna - Owned this since release, but only started recently.  I do not like that the main character is silent.  Yes, we're a Chrono Trigger ripoff, but Crono had 0 plot before the game starts; all his plot is organic to the game and of the "I am an awesome do-gooder" variety:
A) Whatever you did at the Millenium Fair, reflected in the trial.  Almost WRPG-esque way to give your blank slate some character.
B) In Arris Dome in 2300, Crono wants to stop the end of the world after watching it.  Awesome.  A hero's journey by choice, not obligation.
C) Events at the Ocean Palace.

And heck, I'd still prefer it if Crono spoke, but it's not so bad.  Serge not speaking, OTOH, is terrible because Serge has tons of plot specific to him, and he can't just shrug his way through it without some more detailed reactions.

The main character of Setsuna may yet turn out to be some kind of simple-but-works plot like Crono, but my hopes are not high at the moment, for spoilery reasons.  Finished the Ice Cave.
« Last Edit: August 24, 2016, 06:33:06 AM by SnowFire »

Hunter Sopko

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1781 on: August 24, 2016, 08:38:40 AM »
NMS: So that didn't go as planned.

To add a bit of flavor, I was going to accompany my first black hole jump with a scenario.

Jumping black holes damages components in your ship. I wasn't sure if it meant you were crashed onto a planet in the new system ala the beginning or not, but I was looking for a reason to get a new ship anyway as my 24 slot wasn't keeping up. So post jump I would be forced to pack everything I had into my suit and abandon my craft (either as it opens or upon landing at the closest available planet exiting the warp with no choice of LZ), declaring the ship totaled and requiring me to either find and repair another crashed ship, or find a trading post/station to buy one. Either way, it was hoofing it on foot for me the whole way.

My goal was to upgrade to about 30-34 slots. I had ~12 million on me at the time so based on previous research I could afford up to a 32 slot if I ran into a trading post. Still, it really was supposed to be going with whatever I found first, in my supposed desperation.

Of course, having a 48 slot suit made it really easy to carry everything from my ship, for one.

Second, I was informed exiting the jump that only one system was damaged: the coolant component to my Phase Beam. That's it. Took a huge chuck out of the motivation to actually do it, but I pressed on, beelining to the nearest planet and setting down with as minimal surveying as I could.

The climate was cold, but not Extreme, so throwing on a Thermal upgrade handled any issues I had with surviving. Lots of water, but not one of those ocean planets that would've made this suuuuuuuuuuck. Abundant flora and fauna, lots of resources, so all in all not the worst setting for it (better or worse, maybe an Extreme planet would've made the survival scenario more exciting?). Either way I kinda started looking forward to it again.

Transferred everything to my suit, still had room. Broke down all the ship parts I could for their components, still had room. So much for having to make tough choices about what to take<G> Started my trek, took a bit to find my first save point, so now I didn't particularly need to worry about crashing anymore.

All well and good for the scenario except... about ten minutes later, I run smack into a full trading post. Of all the luck! Ended up buying a 31 slot ship for ~8.5 mil. Everything else was either mid-20's or high-30's (Like 20 million). Yep. Dumb luck saves the space.

EDIT: The game should really stop using Linear distance to measure everything, if distance to the core is really the overall mark of progress. The black hole jump SAID I jumped 53k Light Years or so, but checking my Distance to the Core against my previous system, I only made 1431 LY worth of progress. Only 169,981 LY to go!
« Last Edit: August 24, 2016, 08:42:24 AM by Hunter Sopko »

Dark Holy Elf

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1782 on: August 24, 2016, 03:57:15 PM »
Snowfire: The ranks you see between chapters are meant to be across the game, but the thesholds for each map are sometimes a bit arbitrary so don't put too much stock in them. Though yeah, if you cut Kinship's Bonds short you'll probably have given up some potential Exp rank... but you can make up for that later. Getting ahead on Tactics is generally good because you can farm Victory or Death for a long time for exp, Tactics rank permitting.

I usually get Wallace's map instead of Geitz's map myself, and don't really consider it that big a deal. Geitz is better but I usually don't use either much, and if you care strongly about the Exp ranking you'll probably use him even less. It's not as dramatic as Harken vs. Karel where yes I would go out of my way to make sure you get Harken, whichever map you end up with there (even if you don't intend to use Harken, his sword is both better and more valuable).

Ensuring Pent doesn't kill too many people in the desert (certainly not the bosses!) is generally a good idea on ranked runs, and even unranked ones because you need 700 Exp to qualify for Genesis, which you certainly want to visit.


EDIT: Oh yeah, and good comments on why Crono works as a silent main and e.g. Serge doesn't, I definitely agree. Too bad that IAS apparently screws this one up, though an annoying number of games with silent mains do.
« Last Edit: August 24, 2016, 03:58:50 PM by Dark Holy Elf »

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Jo'ou Ranbu

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1783 on: August 24, 2016, 05:05:01 PM »
Sonic CD - I took some of my vacation time to go through this. Strange, strange game and an even stranger entry to the Sonic series. First, the good: while it's not the prettiest game in the 2D classic series, this is undoubtedly the most thought out entry aesthetically. Nice use of atmosphere with the time travelling and soundtracks (both the JP/EU and US tracklists are very good, though in very different ways. JP is catchier/more memorable and light-hearted, while US is musically more intelligent and atmospheric, but sometimes they push their hand on the dark aspects hinted at in the game, making some songs darker and heavier-handed than they have to be). The level design is also quite surreal and pushes ideas Sonic never had and ultimately rarely would again, and when it works, it's -really- good. Conceptually, I -really- like the idea of the bouncing magnet floors in Wacky Workbench and the flipping plane panels in Stardust Speedway. Tidal Tempest also works very well for what it is (it's essentially Labyrinth Zone done right, with easy access to land, generous bubble generators and ways to move through the level without bothering with the water parts - which are also generally easier to navigate), and while the designs are labyrinthine on paper, always moving right elegantly solves any general navigation dilemma as a rule of thumb. This is a general tenet of Sonic design, but it's particularly important in Sonic CD. Also, while boss fights were never the emphasis of Sonic games (hard to really make good timing-based or slugfesting bosses when your PC is borderline immortal as long as he can keep an easily renewable resource that's very easy to have at least a bare minimum to hold on to), I like that they largely took a more puzzle-based approach to them. Particularly, I'm fond of the bosses in Tidal Tempest and Quartz Quadrant, as simple as they ultimately are, and I enjoyed the Metal Sonic race as well - just a lot of little design decisions they made right there.

This said, the ugly parts often come meshed in with the good. The time travel mechanics are byzantine and awkward, often clashing very badly with the level design, and there's literally NOTHING to do on the bad future levels unless you're actively looking for a more annoying level design experience (in theory, you could want to go to the good future in order to have a safer run through the stage after getting the machines/time stones, which can be remotely relevant if you're running for score/rings). In fact, the only relevant time travel ever occurs to the past, though that might be a blessing in disguise with the stupid time travelling implementation. They seriously should've gone the way of checkpoint bonus stages in Sonic 2 for it if they wanted to gate the access so badly (and honestly, they shouldn't have). They also mix really good concepts with terribad ones: the same amazing magnet floors in Wacky Workbench become a chore to deal with when paired with the egregious background electrified nodes they used as the main obstacle in Zone 2 of that stage. The speed rails and flipping panels in Stardust Speedway are paired up with dickheaded orbital spike placement (why does the stage even have orbital spikes?). Then, there are just plain misses, like the entirety of Collision Chaos, which is a hot mess of a bumper hell stage, placed right at the early game when you're still getting a feel for the physics and controls AND features the worst of Sonic CD's spotty hit detection, all of it jumbling into the worst boss fight in the entire 2D series. Trying to reach Eggman at a Sonic Spinball-like hell with awful flipper control and deliberately tight spots when you put the crappy hit detection in perspective becomes an exercise in frustration very fast. The final boss is also very disappointing, veering towards the uninteresting design of typical Sonic bosses with the added bane of being unbeatable if you get there with no rings (though you have to deliberately TRY to do it) and borderline unlosable if you get there with. Also, exploration-based Sonic game at its very core is a questionable decision, especially considering you're limited by the in-game clock's limits. If there was a game to disable time limits to clearing a stage, THIS should be it. As is, the stages are large and sprawling enough that you may run out of time in PALMTREE PANIC if you decide to look into its nooks and crannies, and that's only in a single timeline.

So, yeah. Worth playing if you were ever a Sonic fan, but very bipolar experience. Tails mode, for what it's worth, makes the experience -considerably- better and makes me wonder if he shouldn't have been in from the start.
« Last Edit: August 24, 2016, 05:08:01 PM by Jo'ou Ranbu »
[01:08] <Soppy-ReturningToInaba> HEY
[01:08] <Soppy-ReturningToInaba> LAGGY
[01:08] <Soppy-ReturningToInaba> UVIET?!??!?!
[01:08] <Laggy> YA!!!!!!!!!1111111111
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[01:08] <Chulianne> No wonder you're small.
[01:08] <TranceHime> cocks
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DjinnAndTonic

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1784 on: August 24, 2016, 09:53:46 PM »
re: I am Setsuna
Well, the one thing Endir has going for him that both Crono and Serge do not is that he actually gets dialogue choices that have some personality written into them. Sure the choices themselves aren't particularly meaningful in directing the plot, but the characters do react differently to you depending on whether you respond as reformed jerkass or as terminal jerkass. Not going to defend the use of a silent protagonist over a proper character, but Endir comes off as less bad than most to me because they really just wrote two slightly different characters and asked the player to pick as playing one of the two at any given time Endir speaks.


Bravely Second: Time to Bust some Ba'als.

Is no one else playing this? The new jobs are fantastic.

FF Mobius: This game is awful, not recommended to anyone.

FF Brave Exvius: This game is amazing and new plot comes out today. I am hyped for more Rain/Lasswell shenanigans. Also randomly got 5* Amarant from the daily draw. He any good?


Trails in the Sky SC:
So Tide's Cold Steel review reminded me I hadn't played this yet. And God I love this world and characters and missed them dearly. The battle system's a little more robust this time around thanks to Chain Attacks and I'm excited to talk to all 3000 NPCs and read the mini-novel that you can collect pages of one more time~

I'm really sad that they haven't confirmed part 3's localization yet.

Kevin is the greatest priest since Wolfwood. (spoilers: Kevin is basically Wolfwood. This game has Wolfwood in it, play this game.)

SnowFire

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1785 on: August 24, 2016, 10:01:37 PM »
Kevin is indeed pretty good.  That style of anime character is...  erratic...  and can be quite annoying if done wrong, but luckily I liked Kevin.  He's pretty cool.

Djinn, not sure what you mean by "confirmed part 3's localization", but XSeed has said they're doing it!  (Shockingly enough.)  It'll be Steam only, though, to my knowledge, so no PSN release.

Captain K

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1786 on: August 24, 2016, 10:10:05 PM »
FF Brave Exvius: This game is amazing and new plot comes out today. I am hyped for more Rain/Lasswell shenanigans. Also randomly got 5* Amarant from the daily draw. He any good?

Nice pull, he's the one FF9 character that's actually good.  Tank, and one of the few characters that can revive dead people.

Myself, finished all the old quests I had been neglecting.  Leveling up Kefka to use as my Roaming Warrior and wield some Grabbity Rod.

MC50

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1787 on: August 25, 2016, 04:32:13 AM »
Been playing a few things. Most notably...

Bravely Second

Finished this a while back.

I'm not sure. Played on Hard.

GAMEPLAY NOTES

Yew
 - Bishop/Astrologist sub.

I liked the Bishop uniform on Yew. Anyway, multi-target buffs with that one passive was incredibly good. Generally just healed/buffed. Was good at that.

Magnolia
 - Guardian w/Hawkeye sub

Interesting. I really like Guardian as a class, though I feel you get it a bit too late (Your power level is too high at that point), but it saved me from some party wipe situations (The person possessing lives). Soul Cannon w/Bravely Second does absurd damage (50K?). Otherwise just tanky.

Edea
 - Fencer w/Patissier Sub

Bloody Wolf makes Fencer good. Until then it's solid, and debuffed often. However, the debuffs ended up being less useful late - and I stuck to Bloody Wolf and Stance Dancing. Worked well.

Tiz

Most of the game was Summoner w/ Miscellany sub. Eventually used Yokai just to try it out.

Both were fine. I pretty much just spammed summons with summoning surge all day in both classes, though Yokai had a few more gimmicky options to try out. Giving Summoner the Conjurer abilities made it even more powerful. (And I thought it was good last game!)

STORY NOTES (Brief, mostly spoilerfree)

It was there? Like, there were a couple of alright moments, there was actually one plotpoint very late game I thought was cool. But, the Ba'al are underused and the resolution isn't satisfying for such cool monsters. And the rest of the plot just kind of happens. It's fine, but I was a bit dissapointed.

Characters are likable enough, actually. Yew is fun. Magnolia is alright though she certainly isn't as "cool" as her first impression would leave you to believe. Some of the villains are likable as well.

OVERALL NOTES

I liked the game. It's probably about as good as Bravely Default. But - and this might just be my problem - I feel like the biggest problem with the games job system and gameplay, which is generally great and makes you look at your options - is that your powerlevel gets too high.

By endgame, your enemies are throwing out 90% AOE's, ST OHKO, AOE Dispel.
You on the other hand have easily replenishable AOE Life 2, Absurd buffs (That all lategame bosses have dispel to counter, because they are too strong), etc.

The game isn't easy - far from it - it just feels like with both sides power levels being so high a lot of fights end up being very similar.

That being said, the Guardian Asterisk boss fight was awesome. It rewareded experimenting - I poisoned my party, and when he possessed them he got absolutely destroyed. That sort of thing is what I really enjoy.

I said a lot of negative things, but I really did like the game quite a bit. And honestly all my battle system complaints only crop up on in the last 15-20% of the game. The rest is great. I would play more.

hinode

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1788 on: August 25, 2016, 04:43:58 AM »
Also, according to the aftergame IVs guy, my Azumarill was off the hook with "superb" stats or something and him complementing 3 of its stats outright with no "this stat is really terrible", so.


Your Azumarill was originally caught as an Azurill, I assume? Gen 6 is programmed so that all Pokemon in the no egg breeding group are guaranteed 3 max IVs in the wild. This was intended to make soft resetting for legendaries a lot less impossible, but as a side effect it also works on all baby Pokemon.

SnowFire

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1789 on: August 25, 2016, 05:37:27 AM »
Also, according to the aftergame IVs guy, my Azumarill was off the hook with "superb" stats or something and him complementing 3 of its stats outright with no "this stat is really terrible", so.


Your Azumarill was originally caught as an Azurill, I assume? Gen 6 is programmed so that all Pokemon in the no egg breeding group are guaranteed 3 max IVs in the wild. This was intended to make soft resetting for legendaries a lot less impossible, but as a side effect it also works on all baby Pokemon.

Correct.  That's an interesting side effect...  had no idea GameFreak had embraced ez mode.

Magic Fanatic

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1790 on: August 25, 2016, 06:28:22 PM »
FFBE - Just beat Arena INT S-5 this morning.

Boss was kind of painful, and I needed it to play nice with my set-up to win...  And I needed to beat it three times, because the first two times didn't count due to the game crashing while the boss was disintegrating, and if the game crashes there, the win doesn't count.

Now I'm just wondering what fights I should farm in the Arena.  BGN S-1 seems like the best, since Magicite blows the rest of the repeat rewards out of the water, but...  Bleh, they're all pretty uninteresting.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2016, 06:47:30 PM by Magic Fanatic »

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1791 on: August 26, 2016, 02:38:07 AM »
Hey Magic, what's a good setup for beating the last few bosses of INT-3,4,5? I am using the protagonists + max level Terra and Fran but I'm not making much headway. No access to Barrage or Full Break...  I assume you must read the subreddit or something regularly but I've just been kinda coasting through the storyline by over leveling or piling on debuffs thus far. Any suggestions would be welcome since I haven't been looking too closely at what treasures to get or what crafted items/skills are potent.

Magic Fanatic

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1792 on: August 26, 2016, 03:34:45 AM »
Hey Magic, what's a good setup for beating the last few bosses of INT-3,4,5? I am using the protagonists + max level Terra and Fran but I'm not making much headway. No access to Barrage or Full Break...  I assume you must read the subreddit or something regularly but I've just been kinda coasting through the storyline by over leveling or piling on debuffs thus far. Any suggestions would be welcome since I haven't been looking too closely at what treasures to get or what crafted items/skills are potent.

I haven't actually read much of the subreddit, outside of one time for specifics about the current Exploration event and for JP character lists to look forward to, but I digress.

INT S-3's main issue is that there's just a bunch of targets, so healing becomes a problem.  Bio Blaster/Bio Blade is going to be your go-to for offense, have Fina cast Cheer, and have Terra drop Firagas whenever possible.  Cheer is basically only there for the Protectga, and it might be a good idea to switch Fran to another healer to help keep people up, especially when Fina needs to recast Cheer.

INT S-4...  Vulnerable to Poison, Sleep, Silence, Blind, Paralysis...  Poison the bugger, Sleep it, and blast it with whatever Water magic you have on hand.  He hits hard, but that's all he does.

INT S-5...  Sleep and Blind are the only real status vulnerabilities that matter.  Stack Terra with as much MP you can, and just use Fira - not Firaga.  Outside of that, spam Blind and Sleep with everyone else, and stick Fire Rods (you should have the recipe for this from one of the Kolobos Island quests) on Fina and Fran to help out on damage while the boss is shut down with status.  Fina and Fran WILL have to switch to healing from time to time, but if you're lucky enough with Sleep, it shouldn't be too bad.  I assume you'll want two copies of Blind and four copies of Sleep.

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1793 on: August 26, 2016, 12:36:02 PM »
No Man's Sky - Some more #Photojournalism

Bob Ross' Landscapes R Us

http://i.imgur.com/kg7JDZc.jpg - High Toxic Planets are usually pretty colorful.
http://i.imgur.com/dyDrzye.jpg - Some unique topography I haven't seen before or since.
http://i.imgur.com/KRsLK2t.jpg - Ditto. Entire planet was covered in those sharply cut formations. Was neat.
http://i.imgur.com/ZSwYoLp.jpg - Some serenity
http://i.imgur.com/Kv7jBzt.jpg - Planet backdrops make the best pics.
http://i.imgur.com/vtT5eY5.jpg - Ditto.
http://i.imgur.com/6AplKBH.jpg - Works even better with moons though. Getting this pic was a bitch, since it was a High Security planet and stopping for more than a couple seconds would trigger sentinels and your HUD.
http://i.imgur.com/AavUvna.jpg - Yep. Moonz.

Grefter's Creature Corner

In honor of the Grefter buttplug creature, this segment is Grefter's Creature Corner, bringing you all the fun and weird creatures we've seen up to this point.

http://i.imgur.com/JvUNVc0.jpg - The re-name says it all. Tiny, cute little guy who was just sprinting all over the place. One of the smallest creatures I've encountered.
http://i.imgur.com/Pe6swAN.jpg - "What up? Just passin' through."
http://i.imgur.com/x2ktYhO.jpg - Possibly the most bizarre one I've come across so far. Also a favorite now.
http://i.imgur.com/DMa7BlG.jpg - Another shot of the above.
http://i.imgur.com/Q63urkH.jpg - Tigersharks yo
http://i.imgur.com/jWPSEM7.jpg - That head... This guy was also incredibly hostile.

Equipment Update

Suit - Complete: http://i.imgur.com/gM9PpwY.jpg
Multi-Tool: http://i.imgur.com/pl5YU6i.jpg
Ship: http://i.imgur.com/qSE3Foy.jpg - Doesn't look all that different from my last one, but those extra slots help.
http://i.imgur.com/RkVGXq0.jpg - GOD I wish I could've bought this. Was 38 slots and 30 million or so.

Meeplelard

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1794 on: August 26, 2016, 02:47:25 PM »
Mobius FF: I said this in chat, but Square-enix loves to promote this game more than RK or BE, despite both games being clearly superior, and in the case of RK, explicitly more popular.  The only logic I can think of is this is the game with the most level of design and development put into it, given the graphics, voice acting, etc., but that doesn't excuse how once you get past all the pretty...yeah, there's nothing.

Remember the early RK days where we made jokes about it being Auto Battle the game?  It has NOTHING on MFF, since at least early RK, you had to turn it off for bosses; MFF, I can't see a reason to go manual.  The AI knows exactly when to use the right action when, and it's a hell of a lot faster.

Also the characters are annoyingly written.  Ok, Wol is fine but only if you assume his dickery is the game intentionally making fun of itself, and being a literal example of "This is annoying and tedious" mindset the player is going through personified in his characterization.  The problem is, I think that's too clever for the writers.  To say nothing of Echo, who is an annoying fairy partner.  Hey, let's make a perky and wise-ass fairy whose always got a smile on her face and thinks she's more clever than she is.  She was annoying when she first showed up, and the Pupu arc solidified that the developers can't tell the difference between "cute" and "stupid."  No, having her talk in an "alien" voice when translating is not funny, it comes off as obnoxious.  She also is COMPLETELY pointless as a character, because you already have a cute companion in Mog, who is not introduced earlier, but gets the job done as someone for Wol to talk to.  Echo shows up and it's like "Do we need a second?"
Oh yeah, and calling it now: Vox is the villain.  Good lord does he reek of "obviously evil but the game wants you to think he's good!"  Disembodied voice telling you to the save the world without actually explaining anything, and one character is actually "yeah, I don't buy his shit" and said character so far has been demonstrably NOT a bad guy despite his name (Garland) thus far...yeah, sorry, but I'm calling it now: Vox is Chaos.  Garland is there as a red herring because "Oh, it's Garland in an FF1-inspired game, OF COURSE he's going to be the villain, LET'S MISTRUST HIM!"  but they've so far failed at giving me a reason to trust Vox and not trust Garland, despite how the game is telling me "TRUST VOX! MISTRUST GARLAND! THE REST OF THE WORLD IS DOING IT!

It especially stands out because having just seen Episode 7 of Supergirl where they pull the exact same misdirection there, only handle it way better, because they actually give you every reason in the world to mis-trust a certain character, such that when the true reveal happens, you go "Oh...did not see that coming...and it still fits perfectly with the narrative...well played."


Pokemon Black 2: It's plot and gameplay are infinitely better than Mobius FF.  Just beat Elesa, who is far cooler than Echo if only because she has the single most stylish gym in the series.  Also she's a pain in the ass if you don't have a ground type, which I didn't.  You really want one w/ Rock Tomb just to counter the Emolga, as if you don't, it Volt Switch's, and pisses you off.
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> so Snow...
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> Sonic Chaos
[21:39] <+Hello-NewAgeHipsterDojimaDee> That's -brilliant-.

[17:02] <+Tengu_Man> Raven is a better comic relief PC than A

Magic Fanatic

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1795 on: August 26, 2016, 04:47:38 PM »
FFBE - So, I did eight pulls: one daily half-price, and 7 Rare Summon Tickets.  Goal: Freya.

What I got of new or note:
1x Lani - She's...  Um.  She's really bad, even now.
1x Kuja - Eh, I can always train up a second one, to properly grind the LB, I guess.  I dunno, a second Flare could be cool, too.
1x Amarant - Hm.  In theory, he has niche uses?  Hard to slot him in my party with that equipment limitation, though.

Dark Holy Elf

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1796 on: August 27, 2016, 04:31:25 AM »
Time for another Wild Arms XF update. (Elementalist/Geomancer/Grappler fiesta, four PC limit. Still waiting on my final job!)


2-10-A (Zortroa): Zortroa tutorial fight, not much to say about it. Grapplers toss things into range of Elementalists, boomies ensue. Being able to toss them down for bonus damage is nice.

2-10-B (Chelle and King Tarrasque III): Much more difficult. The non-boss parts of the map are easy, but I realise that my party actually matches up horribly against these two. They're both immune to throws: King Tarrasque can't even be lifted, and Chelle always takes no damage. I still throw her down off the cliff... then to my horror realise that she has stupid-high climb and just comes right back up. Fuck. Elemental damage works, of course, but they both have decent MDef, and Chelle resists all elements, while the King regens. And both hit hard enough to be very scary, since one death is a game over. I try some shenanigans with Shut Out (both are melee) but eventually realise that yeah I need to GTFO and run away, getting the alternate victory condition of escaping the battle with everyone.

2-11 (Fairylight swarm) [1 reset]: The good news is that I can throw Fairlights to the opposite cliff where they literally can't do anything. The bad news is that I'm surrounded on all sides and the Fairylights will sometimes half my MAG for three turns which sucks, there are so many enemies I get trapped healing a lot and then I trigger the reinforcements at the wrong time. On the retry I'm a bit more careful about general positioning, etc. It's not too bad.

2-12-A (desert): I've had a bit more trouble with this in the past but it's really easy here, Geomancer/Grappler abilities to control enemy position and Elementalist to pick them off. The only noteworthy thing is that I realise for the first time that the Grapplers in this battle actually have ATK Charge, the Grappler mastery skill (ATK increases each turn, resets when you attack). Unusual!

2-12-B (pale ogres): A somewhat dysfunctional battle; the pale ogres are very dangerous with their super-high attack but waste a lot of turns trying to inflict sleep. Shut Out forces this, of course, while I take them out. Their Zortroa trainers just hang out in the back being totally useless and are easy to take out later. Only bad thing is I lose about 5000 gella to traps. :(

2-13 (damnations): Probably the easiest map in the game. I uh take damage at least? I don't always.

2-14 (paigeols): Stupid Edna trap #2. Another easy map, the paigeols are only any good on their own leypoint and I have multiple ways to get them off. And there's even one which I throw onto their opposite leypoint for an instant kill. 8-)

2-15 (Strahl Gewehr puzzle): Dandelion Shot is forced here. The third time I've broken the fiesta rules, all in puzzle maps so far.

2-16-A (Clarissa and Alexia): Alexia as Grappler, Clarissa as blaster. Deal with the striders first, then the elementalists. Not too bad.

2-16-B (rescue) [1 reset]: The first time I go the wrong way with Felius/Levin, get tied up with the sentinels, and end up losing everyone. The High Cavs charge Clarissa/Alexia with haste and can overwhelm very easily, while being too durable to take out quickly. On the second try I go through the secutor's side instead, allowing everyone to meet up and barely survive. Tough going though! I think Clarissa masters Elementalist after this fight, so with her natural high MAG, Elementalist EQ, and MAG+25% she can be an effective caster in any class.

3-1-A (Zortroa on the river): Relatively easy Zortroa map, I don't have much to say about it. I use a lot of Geomancer/Ignore Move Cost here beacuse it's helpful.

3-1-B (Forsaken Mutants) [3 resets]: Uggh there are three with misery and three with petrify and they have high move and haste themselves and I keep getting wrecked. I eventually figure out that if I beeline to the misery ones with everyone immediately I can kill them before the petrify ones join the fight. It's still chancy because Misery just kinda sucks. And the three misery-flingers are soft so I can't really hurt them with my grapplers.

3-2-A (Clarissa/Alexia again): Not much to say here, it's a simple enough map.

3-2-B (Chelle 2 and the myconids): A tricky map for two reasons. One is the sheer number of enemies: 18, including two bosses. Myconids are kinda tricky but once they get a turn below half HP they'll start wasting all their turns on a 3-turn countdown to... I dunno what, I've never seen it before. It sounds scary so I always finish them first. Above half HP they'll instead use confuse which has potential to be scarier. Lots of Zortroa around too.

The bigger problem though is definitely the bosses. As mentioned before they spoil Grappler pretty hard. This time, though, Chelle can explode PCs (though it's sometimes possible to find positions where she can't), and you have to kill them. Tarrasque dies first as I try to keep Chelle locked down with Shut Out. I use a mix of Combination Arts (because fighters have nothing better to do than start them) and wind spells which he is slightly weak to. Once he's down I still try to keep Chelle under Shut Out as much as possible and get above her on the stairway, so I can continue to use CAs/physicals (at least my fighters can damage her). Spells work much less well here, she resists all elements. But despite losing two PCs during this she does fall.

3-3-A (Chelle 3 and the kappas): No Tarrasque to worry about! Kappas are badass, especially with their fire attack (Geomancer EQ to the rescue). They resist all elements but their defences aren't super-amazing and they can actually be tossed around, so that + CAs does the trick, meanwhile Zortroa die fast to elementalist nonsense as always. Chelle herself is the same tactics as above, and certainly easier this time.

3-3-B (Weisheit 1): Rank Sinspawn Ammes!

3-4 (Guardian Shrine outside): A simple battle with the enemies very spread out and no reinforcements. Usual tactics work. There are even cliffs to throw enemies off of.

3-5-A (Guardian Shrine inside): Somehat tricky, because the Elementalists and Sentinels hit hard (and the latter can push into pits if you're not careful) and the Grapplers can get extra turns unpredictably. Lots of enemies too. But fortunately, not as bad as it could be, because hey everyone's got an elemental weakness and I can toss melee enemies onto a couple central pillars from which they can't escape.

3-5-B (Katrina 1): The first combat stall point of the entire game, I'm pretty happy it took this long! Clarissa goes Fantastica for Feeble Mind, though still uses all her usual Elementalist swag. (I use no Fantastica abilities aside from Feeble Mind on the boss.) The demons hit reasonably hard (Secutors with decent ATK, as well as Sacred Slayer OC) but they're too spaced out to be scary.

Erwin Schrödinger will kill you like a cat in a box.
Maybe.

Twilkitri

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1797 on: August 27, 2016, 09:55:54 AM »
ATTN BRAVELY SECOND PLAYERS: Friend Codes Plz?

I've friended you on a 3DS level but you're not registering in Bravely Second, so unless you have multiple 3DSs or there's some sort of geo-segregation thing going on like with FEFates I don't know what's going on there.



Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation - played through

Probably not a whole lot to say that wasn't said for the other branches. Some of the plot seems inconsistent with the other branches, I guess. A few novel maps, even if at least one of them is stupid (snow bomb).

Top killers - Avatar: 117; Percy: 66; Hana: 55.

So, I married the avatar to that one character you end up losing access to. I was aware beforehand that access was going to be lost but didn't know anything about why, and had a completely different scenario in mind.

In any case, I haven't seen any of the relevant scenes in a non-married-to-avatar context, but I got the impression that none of them could have been varied at all from that context because the tone was totally off in most of them. Kind of disappointing. Don't even get a paired ending. Not that any of Fates's paired endings have any thought put into them anyway as far as I can tell. Does Fates really declare any character that died as being 'retired' in their ending, or is that just a one-off for this situation? Because that wording is terribly stupid.

Was nice that Lilith didn't die for a change, for all that they never actually show up in the plot at all in exchange. Was nice that Azura didn't disappear for a change, setting aside that according to their ending they essentially did anyway.

Some time I should dig up the solo endings for all the women and see whether they get any which are actually half-decent rather than things like 'were a great source of support for their husband'.

Bunch of DLC to go, don't know if I'm going to do the second royal one as I've failed horribly the few times I've tried although I could try picking a more capable royal.

[EDIT]After finishing off Map Pack 1 (outside Royal Royale), I look into Map Pack 2 and it's all scenarios with prefab units? I had more than enough of that with Hidden Truths, consequently not going to be bothering with MP2 (for a while anyway).



Pokémon Picross - collected enough picrites to get the last energy upgrade, giving me the final two medals

You don't get anything for doing this.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2016, 01:13:22 AM by Twilkitri »

Anthony Edward Stark

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1798 on: August 27, 2016, 10:57:32 AM »
Deus Ex-  Finished.  Taken on its own it's a good game but it feels like a shift in genre from previous titles. Rather than something where you uncover a global conspiracy, the Illuminati, Page and the related plots are background elements operating while Jensen tries to get to the bottom of a plot to discredit a pro-Aug movement.  Feels more like an episode of Deus Ex than Deus Ex the Movie, I guess is how I'd put it.

The world detail, especially in Prague, is amazing.  Makes sense since you spend 80% of the game there, but still, outstanding. There's a real feel that the world is accelerating towards something bad as the Panacea project has failed, global warming is accelerating, the "new human economy" has fallen apart and the beginnings of groups like the NSF and Silhouette are arising. There's even a bioweapon involved.  Overall the game kind of ends abruptly and I was surprised by it.  Campaign's still a good 20 hours long though, and I'm interested to see about doing things differently this time.

The game's sidequests are a lot better than in previous entries.  You solve a couple mysteries, work with underground journalists, bust people out of jail, maybe even rob a bank. All that good shit.  They're well-varied and the characters involved in them have a bit more of a feel to them, even if it's just that most of them were just given a notable quirk or two.

As usual there's a WHOOOOLE lot of written material to go through, from breaking into people's emails to magazines and newspapers, but TV broadcasts seem to be somewhat more prevalent left on as background noise, when in HR I feel like Eliza was mostly part of cutscenes.  Also the conspiracy theory radio guy from the last show is still doing his thing, and he correctly predicts most of the plot of the first game, because this is the world of Deus Ex and in it every conspiracy theory is true.

Bob Page shows up for a little bit but you don't get to punch his fucking face so that's a bummer. They mention he's building a moon base.

Magic Fanatic

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Re: What Games are you playing 2016?
« Reply #1799 on: August 28, 2016, 11:01:37 AM »
FFBE - Caught up on story missions, so now I'm just farming Kolobos Reef for Orange Magicite for Golem.

Did the half-price daily draw, and an extra draw from a Login Bonus Rare Summon ticket.

Daily draw got me...  Lani.  Trash.  For FFRK players, let me put into perspective how trash Lani is: imagine you put 5 Mythril into a banner featuring Cloud, Cait Sith, Red XIII, and Vincent...  And came out with a 3* Gun Arm.  Yeah.

Rare summon ticket got me...  Xiao!  Decidedly less trash, and worth grinding with for her TMR, which is actually pretty decent as long as it doesn't run into anything that resists Wind.