What Games are you playing 2016?

[Fenrir]

You already have a good approach but this is how to play Dragon's Dogma:
Throw things off cliffs
Run on rooftops
Switch classes because min/maxing stat growth is not worth it
At least play both sorceror and assassin for a while at one point. Get Tornado for the sorcerer
Don't worry about missing sidequests because these characters aren't interesting
Give presents to the cardboard people you like
Rip and tear
Run away that thing is too powerful
Do not make a buff male protagonist and a waifu pawn for the love of god
Do not particularly prepare to die


Fire Emblem Awakening: I tried to play this but it has now become too anime. There is a hot springs scene.
Seeing as it was immensely successful and will shape the saga from now on, goodbye Fire Emblem forever.

[Sierra]

Pretty much everything Fenrir said. I don't think any of the missable sidequests lock you out of anything important and it's not like writing is the game's strong point anyway. If you really care then it'd be easy to stomp through the early stuff again on NG+ (which is just Chrono Trigger NG+, you trivialize everything because you're leveled up and the enemies aren't). EDIT: actually I think Madeleine's shop has some pretty nice stuff and she might not open it if you fuck up her quest?

I enjoyed mystic knight for the ridiculous magic cannon cheese and the stacking weapon buffs, but magick archer was probably the most fun once I realized I could load up a boss with like thirty explosive bolts and then give the PS3 a seizure by exploding all of them at once (ricochet arrows are also broke as shit in cramped quarters, but sadly that only really applies to the expansion zone).

The one saveslot thing is my only real beef with the game. It's not like there's much reason to have multiple files since you can easily run every class on one character, but I guess you could have siblings that also want to play it or something and well they're kinda screwed in that case (man I remember that being a nuisance with FF1 as a kid).

[Fenrir]

IIRC Madeleine's shop is only really cool for Fashion's Dogma (which IS important, I admit)

Most classes are fun with amazing perks to be honest. The only ones I don't like are those that rely too heavily on daggers, the only playstyle that doesn't work very well.
Sorcerer's spells just have to be seen.

[Cotigo]

MGS3 - It's OK? Still in the tutorial stage, I think. The controls were probably fine during the PS2 era but are now bonkers. I am trying to go full stealth without killing anyone, at least in the tutorial, but it is hard going and a lot of save scumming. I should probably just accept that some fuckers are gonna die and pacifism is for someone more skilled than me, just so I get through the game.

EDIT: The controls probably aren't pants on head dumb, but it is getting annoying being told to press the Action Button or the CQC button without telling me which button that fucking is. You're already breaking the fourth wall, don't be obtuse about your tutorial advice, game.

After I beat normal mode full stealth I may switch to hard mode and let myself kill some fuckers. I can run around just knifing people to death after I get caught in Normal before reloading and that's not really very fun.

Para-Medic is hilarious, at least.

I'm gonna give this game the good ol' college try at least. I'm getting Deus Ex 1 vibes, where it took me a long time to get through the tutorial stage because it's really boring and I'm trying to be a perfectionist, but once I got to the meat of the game and gave up on scruples I enjoyed the shit out of it.

[Grefter]

One save slot is fine to me.  One save slot with that infrequent Auto-save, but you can still quicksave super easy is weird.

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Lost_and_Found

This was the quest I failed by progressing plot.

It is fine.  I restarted as a wizard and swapped to being a Ranger.  Now I am running around without a bow because I didn't realise Rangers used different bows.  Daggers4life.

[Sierra]

After running through 80% of MGS3 recently (still need to finish this), I very much hope controls in the later games have basically no relation to the PS2-era controls because yeah, wow, yuck. Anyway, I highly encourage calling your friends whenever you find something new because most of those conversations are just ridiculous (Paramedic for food, Sigint for gear. Actually you really just need to call Sigint from the box).

~

IIRC Madeleine's shop is only really cool for Fashion's Dogma (which IS important, I admit)

What else did you think I meant?

[jsh357]

After running through 80% of MGS3 recently (still need to finish this), I very much hope controls in the later games have basically no relation to the PS2-era controls because yeah, wow, yuck. Anyway, I highly encourage calling your friends whenever you find something new because most of those conversations are just ridiculous (Paramedic for food, Sigint for gear. Actually you really just need to call Sigint from the box).

~

IIRC Madeleine's shop is only really cool for Fashion's Dogma (which IS important, I admit)

What else did you think I meant?

I'm not entirely sure what is different, but I found MGSV at least controls a lot better than the past games.

As for Dragon's Dogma, my sincere advice is to not even worry if you miss stuff, at least on first playthrough. It's practically guaranteed you are going to mess something up, but the brokenness of the game is an odd part of its charm in the end. I played a Ranger all the way through and had a lot of fun. Also buy lots of Ferrystones in Gran Soren; you won't regret it.

[Cotigo]

MGS3 - gave up on stealthing as soon as I learned about one button takedowns

took down everything in the area after being spotted and game was much easier

#stealth

[Fenrir]

Oh god the anime-ing of Fire Emblem is way worse than I thought. I've read about the new game and it has a rubbing minigame stolen from the slimiest games around that even Captain K doesn't play, and you can undress your characters and watch their 3d models, and there is some controversy about Nintendo removing a scene when you drug a character to sleep with her and turn her heterosexual?

SMT x FE seems normal now

[Anthony Edward Stark]

there is some controversy about Nintendo removing a scene when you drug a character to sleep with her and turn her heterosexual?

Yep, a bunch of weebs are throwing a fit because "it's wrong to censor art from another culture!!!!!!!!"

[NotMiki]

To be fair, drugging someone to make them teh str8t is only moderately more creepy than typical FEugenics of sending people out to the field of battle where they could die to death and having them fight next to someone you want them to make babies with until "nature" takes its course question mark

FE is pretty much an ant farm with a self-insert you guys

[SnowFire]

To be fair, drugging someone to make them teh str8t is only moderately more creepy than typical FEugenics of sending people out to the field of battle where they could die to death and having them fight next to someone you want them to make babies with until "nature" takes its course question mark

No, I'm gonna say that seduction via magical drugging is a lot creepier than playing the matchmaker-tactician.  And that's entirely ignoring any potential gay conversion angles.

[NotMiki]

I'll grant matchmaker-tactician is a pretty great title for a business card...

[Cmdr_King]

I will say I don't think FE13 was meaningfully more anime than the previous games, or at least the previously localized ones.  This game has a lot more and easier to find text, and the light voice acting reinforces what's in that text, but all the same basic characters were always there if you did their main supports.  It's just not as easy to ignore the plot and focus on gameplay... well it is (full sceneskip didn't stop existing afterall), but less easy to do so accidentally.

[Captain K]

I've read about the new game and it has a rubbing minigame stolen from the slimiest games around that even Captain K doesn't play

Hey, that's disrespectful.  I'm nothing like that.

*goes to google rubbing minigame*

[Fenrir]

CK1: There are entire games about rubbing anime girls. Up and down. Up and down.



CK2: Well. FE has definitely always relied on anime tropes (Sain) I'll agree.

But I think presentation and focus are pretty important. Supports were a small part of the game about static artworks talking to each other, and now anime has a bigger part?

Also:
1) On the "Record of Lodoss War to Love Hina" anime scale, Awakening has definitely moved a lot towards Love Hina, which makes it way more anime. (Djinn is going to France to murder me)
2) Character art is more sexualized in Awakening
3) this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP6KOvMInAI
664 770 views
4) hot springs scene

Overall this is similar to the difference between say, old SMT, and Persona 3. The animeness was always there, but with P3 now you get dating sim elements that become a huge focus of the game. And you also get a fucking hot springs scene

[Cmdr_King]

I more or less disagree on the importance of supports.  Technically they're more important because they unlock content, but overall supports were always really important in the GBA days I felt and it felt like a small step rather than a jarring leap.

Hmm.
FE8: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/0/0b/Tethys.png/revision/latest?cb=20151017120817
FE13: http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/b/b2/L_olivia.png/revision/latest?cb=20150922211941

More sexual in the posing but not the design.  FE13 does have a few more designs like that mind (Tharja, Nowi) while the next most over FE8 design is probably Marissa?  But it's about what I expected; more of a slow drift than a jarring leap.

But yeah, I think it's more like the shift between Persona 2: IS and Persona 3, if you will.  It's there but not to such a degree I can be shocked by it.

**For those that like FE13, FE13 still has some key things that make an important difference on this I think, such as "characters getting married is a deliberate fourth step in the support chain rather than a shocking swerve in a friendship you were enhancing for gameplay benefits" and "the hot springs is paid DLC so the otaku can throw money at it if they want and everyone else will never see it".

[Grefter]

CK2 can't handle this fast moving relationship and its demands for Commitment and just wants to stay friends with gameplay benefits.

CK#1DaBesCK, it is mostly just the Pokemon patting/feeding mini game from B/W

[Fenrir]

I basically never used supports in GBA FE. Most of the time they are a big short term hindrance, for dubious long term effects

I typed Fire emblem awakening art in google image and found 3 official artworks of women bending over including a way underrage and underdressed one

[Fenrir]

Grefter makes me think that maybe rubbing girls in FE14 is more similar to petting dogs in Nintendogs than rubbing girls in flimsy eroge cellphone games

Not sure which comparison makes the game look worse though

[SnowFire]

Uhhh FE13 is definitely a *lot* more anime in artstyle.  Or at least "modern" anime (get off my lawn, etc.).

I'm with Fenrir; when I went through FE7 & FE8 for the first time I got barely any supports.  And it's not like the game told you WTF was going on, how to get them, or why they'd help.  Awakening, OTOH, even if you ignore tutorial messages explaining supports, has a mechanic in Pair-Up that if you bother to use it at all, you WILL get supports.  (Which is good!)

Fenrir did you actually play Awakening?  I despise your average high school dating sim nonsense but the fanservice DLC pack for Awakening, aside from being optional, is also hilarious.  Mostly.  The writing is pretty sharp and I enjoyed the crew attempting to go to a festival, spend time at the beach, & visit the hot springs.  It's a lot better than "oops I bumped into you and then sleaze happened lol" and features more crazy instead, like Gaius raiding Henry's cursed-for-Grima candy supply and such.

[Cmdr_King]

Still more of a difference of degree than kind I feel.

Still, folks have their limits on stuff so if "made a fanservice pack" is the tipping point for "they are no longer even trying to respect my intelligence or good taste" then that's fair.

[DjinnAndTonic]

FE13 is more 'anime' than previous FE games? I mean, I guess I can agree but I always saw the FE13 changes as more of a shift towards 'stupid wacky anime hijinks' rather than 'sleazy pedo-pandering anime bullshit'. That's the main issue I'm seeing with this overuse of the term 'anime' as an adjective in this case. It doesn't really mean anything since I could easily remove the word from either description with no loss of meaning. No murder or trips to France necessary.

EDIT: "Oh no a hotsprings!" seems like a weird cross to die on for proclaiming a series is dead to you.

[NotMiki]

*goes to google rubbing minigame*

Well the latest iteration, a f2p mobile game, is called Monster Monpiece NAKED.  So uh.  It sure is called that.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I don't really get the complaints about fanservice DLC, and this is as someone who has no particular interest in them myself (I've yet to touch any FE13 DLC). If it bothers you it's so easy to just... not purchase. If the DLC had really objectionable stuff in it, that'd be one thing, but you'd need to be incredibly thin-skinned for anime bullshit of the regular variety to qualify as "really objectionable".

As for the FE14 thing... while being able to undress and/or rub the faces of kinda-consenting-kinda-not* NPCs is certainly creepy and I don't really want to defend it, I will point out that it's still an order of magnitude less creepy than all the games which allow the player to murder (and occasionally rape) innocent NPCs. I'm not sure what the solution is to things like this, or even if they need a solution.

FE14 is still an absolute must-buy for me because the gameplay sounds so great (FE13 has a few nagging problems to me; it sounds like 14 fixed all of 'em). Is this what it feels like to be a GTA fan?

*Of course they consent because the player is perfect, but the player is also their commanding officer.