What Games are you Playing 2017?

[Meeplelard]

Shovel Knight - Beat Spectre of Torment. Pretty fun! It's honestly kinda amazing this was free since it really is a fully new game; the stages are redesigned to fit Spectre Knight's style of platforming, the bosses get redesigns, even much of the music is redone (though generally isn't as good sadly). I guess Yacht Club is trying to build up a good reputation for their next full game? I dunno, but I had a pretty good time. Lots of fun platforming to be had. Boss fights are a bit of a mixed bag since they often boil down to "airdash into them until you win" and this works way better than it should, especially if you use the OP healing move. The final bosses were at least kinda designed with this in mind and are a bit more interesting. There's no boss rush which is probably a good thing. Plot is back to Serious Shovel Knight Plot unlike Plague Knight's silly campaign which is definitely a net negative, but oh well, it doesn't matter much.

From what I understand, regarding the business practice, the way it works is this:

Shovel Knight bought before a certain date gets automatically updated to "Shovel Knight Treasure Trove" which is basically the main game and all subsequent released content for free.  You can still buy this package now as a bundle, unsure if the price was changed though.  Wouldn't shock me if they raised the price for later buyers due to the amount of content, and the changed business model, since it's not screwing over early adopters at all but no clue.

Then they released Shovel of Hope, Spectre of Torment and Plague of Shadows all as separate releases on their lonesome.  You can buy any campaign you want by itself.  Want to only play as Plague Knight and don't care about Shovel Knight or Spectre Knight?  Then just buy Plague of Shadows!  No idea about the other bonus content like the Gender Swap mode coming down the pipeline and how that'll work.  Naturally, I suspect King Knight's mode will be handled similarly.
The combined 4 episodes bought separately naturally costs more than the bundle, which is pretty typical.

But yeah, Yacht Club games is giving legitimate options to the fanbase.  If I had to guess, when making Spectre of Torment, they realized that Plague Knight only sort of worked in Shovel Knight's stages and trying to have characters with drastically different mechanics all acclimate to the same stage can be tricky, and thus started making a whole new game, in essence, for Spectre of Torment, leading to a change in the business model since they figure they have nothing to lose and may get a little extra cash.
Honestly, I have absolutely no problem with this, since they're clearly NOT screwing anyone over, just allowing more options for consumers to buy in hopes to get more revenue.  Someone may not want to buy Shovel Knight for the price tag is now, nor care about any bonus content, but seeing it at a cheaper price may coerce a few impulse buyers, people on the fence, etc. into it. 


But yeah, hearing interviews with the team (from Gamexplain) and such, Yachtclub games definitely holds Customer Satisfaction in high esteem, believing that if people like your product and you stay true to your vision, people will come back for it, and you don't need to resort to any kind of underhanded tricks.  They could have cahrged for Spectre of Torment, treating it like a Gaiden Game/Add-on to Shovel Knight, but chose to stick to their original promise (Plague of Shadows...yeah, they couldn't pull that off outside maybe a small $2 DLC or some such like Protoman mode in MM9 was.)  They sound like genuine guys, in any event, and it really does reflect in their work on the game.


Also I agree that Spectre of Torment's plot is kind of meh.  At least Shovel Knight, there was an aire of playfulness in that "yes, it takes itself seriously, but we know the players won't" just didn't quite find the right level of cheese to make the pseudo-serious angle work (where as Plague KNight was clearly "ok, this plot is stupid, knows it's stupid, and is having fun with itself. EXPLOSIONS!!!")  Think of it like Resident Evil 4 in that regard, except RE4 did the pseudo-serious stuff better.  Spectre of Torment is surprisingly dark and doesn't really have any sort of comedic feel to it (the plot, that is, not the silly NPC HQ stuff, that's fine!) to give that impression, and thus the serious stuff has no impact. 

[Shale]

I expect they're going to go way into the silly end for King Knight's campaign, so Specter of Torment being self-serious feels fine on balance.

[Scar]

I started playing ffx again just for the trophy support.

Why this game doesn't have a scene skip function is irritating to say the least!

Just got airship access. Time to grind!

[SnowFire]

Trails of Cold Steel II
Finished, in the Epilogue now.  A lot to say about it!  But let's get to the important stuff: Rixia's character design.  I think this might be the most scandalous character I've seen in a video game in some time, possibly ever.  In Cold Steel 1, Rean comments (over text) that she's wearing incredibly little clothing in the fan magazine he found of her troupe, and the local hur-hur gurls are pretty type nods approvingly at pics of her (that the player can't actually see).  Anyway, she & Lloyd get a cameo chapter after the game is over in CS2, and holy crap.  She is not wearing any pants.  Nor a dress, skirt, anything.  Isn't Lloyd a police officer?  Aren't there public indecency laws to enforce?  Maybe they don't apply in the obligatory monster-infested computer server sewers, I guess.  She also wields a sword as large as she is that I have NO IDEA where she is storing this thing, same hammerspace that Laura uses perhaps despite more form-fitting clothing.  Anyway, this is important because it means she has way better range at attacking enemies than Lloyd does walking on the map, so you are incentivized to put her in front so you can watch as the swaying flap or whatever it is she uses in lieu of pants fails to cover up most of her hindquarters.  It would probably be more respectable to be running around in a bathing suit, actually.



Boss fight was pretty hilarious, too.  I had Black Haired Boy taken care of and killer emotionless girl #457 down to very little life, and 100+ CP ready to go to finish, but was playing with my food, and then got S-Craft'd into death.  Whoops.  Bit of AI roulette once they get to low life, so it took a few more tries to blitz through without getting eaten by that.

[Hunter Sopko]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vIBijzg4w

[jsh357]

The FF12 remake looks dope.
Good grphx + job system + no more shitty spell queue + fast forward button.
Might spend too much time on it. I want to do all the challenges!

For the first playthrough I'm torn between just one class per character or a Time Battlemage SCC. I'm probably going with the later ?

If it's the same as izjs you can't change classes anyway. It works more like FF1.

[Fenrir]

It's different, you get to pick two classes / character in this game
Anyway the install is so long

[dunie]

Nier Automata: finished forest stage. As I'm playing this game I actually wonder if chip modification matters? I mean, I somehow sorta kinda feel like I'm almost midway and the way around modding is too easy to notice substantial differences. I imagine such mods/pod love would matter were I to play on a mode other than Normal. I'm not quite interested in 1HKO right now though. I was a fan of the machine village track but now it is grating.

FF Curtain Call: to replace my stolen Theatrythm. Now 3500 crystal-whatever-you-want-to-call-its.

Just bought BD2

[Fenrir]

FFXII Zodiac Age: FUCK this remaster is good. Best FF?
Magic queue is gone. Job system is in. 2x / 4x speed is an option.
I'm going to Time Battlemage SCC this but first I want to go jobless until I get every party member, past Leviathan. For future optional challenges. If I can manage it.

Wish each job had a special in game outfits

[Fenrir]

FFXII Time Battlemage SCC:

Oh my god, time battlemages don't even start with Haste.
Instead they have Slow, Immobilize, crossbows and heavy armor. Crossbow + Immobilize means we have some potiential for cheese against some enemies. For now though, Basch still keeps his starting sword because it's a sword. Fran also still keeps healing and Balthier keeps stealing too. Old habits.

Healing might become a nightmare later on. We only have potions with no potion lore, and Reverse later on. The idea is that if we're hasted, and the enemy is slowed, we can heal faster?

Still, though. We easily beat Nidhogg thanks to Slow, and Cuckatrice almost looks solvable even now thanks to Immobilize. (She's immune but not her chicks) We'll see where things go.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Persona 5 - Currently in early December, so past the big wham plot thread and I have some issues with the whole thing as of now.

I -do- like the base cleverness of the setup, but holy shit what was the -point- in keeping it hidden from the player through stupid loldrugs narrative contrivance? And then 'oh shit i'm remembering' stuff. There was nothing narratively to GAIN from hiding that part, it actually makes it look LESS clever than it really is and mystery plot was never really the point of the game's overall arc. Sacrificing narrative coherence for the sake of an artificial plot twist is never okay for me, just makes me feel like they didn't trust the strength of that plot device enough. They really should have, it'd strengthen the feeling that you outsmarted the enemy.

Also, I remember Akechi being kinda odd in seeming to actually listening to Morgana more than once, so that was a nice Chekhov's gun, but, on the other hand, it does kinda feel like the game ends up bricking into Akechi being dumber than it wants you to think he is. I still don't feel quite convinced by the seamless real world => metaverse transition, since it does sorta rely on the user's UNFAMILIARITY with it, and Akechi actually has a lot more experience with it than the party does. The game sorta skims over this and it feels like this really does require a level of gambling further than the script acknowledges. Iunno. Also, wtf recommending the main to wear his school uniform after he went into hiding, what the hell are you people thinking? Oh dear god.

Makoto ended up being great at the end, mostly through the transition from reversed High Priestess to upright. Under that light, the Eiko plot thread -actually makes sense- and ties the symbolism quite nicely. Good stuff. Will muster some thoughts on some other confidant links as well.

EDIT: So, yeah. Since last time, I completed, besides Priestess, Strength (unlike Snowfire, I find this one of the -least- controversial things to allow DL-wise, mostly because wtf why -wouldn't- you FAQ this shit anyway, you should never be forced to bruteforce through Margaret-styled links. But FAQ-bait is much less of a factor to me than just straight in-game viability anyway) and Priestess. Strength, well. The link isn't too notable, since I'm not all that sold on Caroline and Justine as characters, but I guess I haven't been too into them since Elizabeth - surpassing her is a really tough mountain to climb. I'm also irrationally fond of the Star because the underlying themes of the particular arcana seep through the narrative in multiple layers, nice piece of work. I also like Hifumi's quirky, yet subdued nature, that works pretty well overall. I still loathe Mishima, but he of course makes tons of sense. Well-written, overall intelligently tied arc. Also, I HATE how Judgment skips three confidant levels straight. Feels very sloppy, though it can make sense given context, but it stands out pretty bluntly when the rest of the overall package is so slickly polished. I seriously don't know about that execution.

EDIT2: In the end, I really, really love the 6th Palace and everything about it. Execution, the setpiece, the whole thing. It's the most out there out of the metaphors used for the palaces and it makes for a pretty gripping experience, too. The boss... well, the gimmick is pretty cute, but it's an overall straightforward idea? She suffers -a lot- from mitigational stacking in P5 being so goddamn busted, Tarunda+Matarukaja essentially quarters her offense and Dekaja only helps so much when she's one of the few palace masters in the game to not double-act AT ALL. She's not entirely toothless, at least, but she felt very controllable in the way lategame SMT bosses generally do. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to forfeit Ann on bosses just because of Tarunda, and Makoto also went seriously up in value ever since grabbing Matarukaja. Now that Morgana got Masukunda, I can't help but imagine he'll complete a busted-ass defensive setup here (Masukunda is -ridonkulously- potent and its multiplicative stacking with Masuku makes bosses suffer horrendously), but frankly, it also makes one of Tarunda/Matarukaja pretty unnecessary. I don't think buffs/debuffs have been this potent in Persona since like P2, it almost feels like I'm playing FFRK at times.

[SnowFire]

Jo'ou: Setting aside the DL for a moment, I think that Strength has to be the worst gameplay idea that P5 has.  Sure, Confuse-grinding money and stalling in battles against status'd randoms to let SP-Adhesives regen you back up are lame, but that's my fault for wanting to do dungeons in a day and solve money problems; playing more "normally" would mean doing less of it.  Strength is just a chore if you FAQ it, and an even worse chore if you try and figure things out from trial & error (or just jump straight to the gallows roulette method), and is clearly "intended" to be part of the gameplay experience.  Personally I've found it the least fun part of the game.

(Now, DL-wise, SECRETLY the issue is not having late-breaking equips make the cast look terrible IMO.  Aka what OK is in favor of anyway, i.e. don't hold stuff like Nataraja / Judge of the Dead against the rest of the cast for surprise latebreaking +5 / +10 to stats.  Strength 10 seems a convenient dividing line to draw that leaves that out that is at least some consistent standard.  But who knows, I reserve the right to change my mind.  Side comment: if I ever get really bored, I'd be curious to see what the WA4 stat topic would look like with storebought equipment only.  Mildly more Jude hype perhaps?!)

Also, Star confident is...  hmm.  I think it's the most "vanilla SMT / JRPG-with-a-silent-main"y of the Confidants so far?  I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoy Hifumi and think she's a good addition to the cast, a nice intellectual version of Ann (high school minor celeb dealing with minor celeb problems, but for shogi rather than modelling).  But those dialogues also stray into "awesome person talks to self, inexplicably shares secrets with silent main and credits them for success."  I guess I'd really have liked it if they'd set things up for Joker to have a firmer role in what exactly he's contributing earlier, and why Hifumi is willing to hang out with him.  (When a master plays a novice, it might be very educational for the novice, but is unlikely to be useful for the master.)  Any of...

* Hifumi is friends with Yusuke and he sets the two up and participates in lots of the events.
* It's a big secret that Hifumi hangs out at that church (Rather than having random fanboys pass by), so she's fine with chillin' with Joker because she isn't having to turn down or accept hordes of people, and he's the first one.
* Joker isn't quite a novice - he was friends with some famous old Shogi master who taught him a bit in his hometown.  Curious about how a disciple of this other guy plays, Hifumi is willing to continue his education.

(In reality: Charming complete novice fanboy has some mysterious aura around him.  Maybe we'll chalk it up to fate.)

As is, Joker's a bit too bystandery.  Nothing unusual for many other games who do this, but in general, P5 does a better job setting up some of its other Confidants I think.  I guess it's tricky here because they clearly wanted "potential love interest of similar age who is not a classmate and is not a Phantom Thief" but phoned in the angle from her side.

Re gameplay comments...  I'm still a bit before you, but yeah, I definitely feel like after the Fourth Palace there's a huge shift as the gameplay seems likely to collapse in difficulty, because that's around where you both get Marakukaja AND your (much less funny) replacement support also starts throwing random buffs & healing on the party entirely too frequently.  It just seems really difficult to balance enemies so that they can be threatening when Tarunda, Marakukaja, and MT Healing exist, but not be complete bullshit before those are up.

[Niu]

Persona 5 - Currently in early December, so past the big wham plot thread and I have some issues with the whole thing as of now.

I -do- like the base cleverness of the setup, but holy shit what was the -point- in keeping it hidden from the player through stupid loldrugs narrative contrivance? And then 'oh shit i'm remembering' stuff. There was nothing narratively to GAIN from hiding that part, it actually makes it look LESS clever than it really is and mystery plot was never really the point of the game's overall arc. Sacrificing narrative coherence for the sake of an artificial plot twist is never okay for me, just makes me feel like they didn't trust the strength of that plot device enough. They really should have, it'd strengthen the feeling that you outsmarted the enemy.

Also, I remember Akechi being kinda odd in seeming to actually listening to Morgana more than once, so that was a nice Chekhov's gun, but, on the other hand, it does kinda feel like the game ends up bricking into Akechi being dumber than it wants you to think he is. I still don't feel quite convinced by the seamless real world => metaverse transition, since it does sorta rely on the user's UNFAMILIARITY with it, and Akechi actually has a lot more experience with it than the party does. The game sorta skims over this and it feels like this really does require a level of gambling further than the script acknowledges. Iunno. Also, wtf recommending the main to wear his school uniform after he went into hiding, what the hell are you people thinking? Oh dear god.

The impression I got is that they weren't even trying here.
If anything, this twist is so obvious that anyone intelligible will be seeing it coming miles ahead. In other word, this twist in itself has no surprise value nor impact what so ever.
But yet they have to let this twist happen to move on the plot, so they sugar coated it with bunch of superficial stuff so the twist is going to look like something that's worthy of attention on the outside.

[Hunter Sopko]

Persona 5 - Currently in early December, so past the big wham plot thread and I have some issues with the whole thing as of now.

I -do- like the base cleverness of the setup, but holy shit what was the -point- in keeping it hidden from the player through stupid loldrugs narrative contrivance? And then 'oh shit i'm remembering' stuff. There was nothing narratively to GAIN from hiding that part, it actually makes it look LESS clever than it really is and mystery plot was never really the point of the game's overall arc. Sacrificing narrative coherence for the sake of an artificial plot twist is never okay for me, just makes me feel like they didn't trust the strength of that plot device enough. They really should have, it'd strengthen the feeling that you outsmarted the enemy.

Also, I remember Akechi being kinda odd in seeming to actually listening to Morgana more than once, so that was a nice Chekhov's gun, but, on the other hand, it does kinda feel like the game ends up bricking into Akechi being dumber than it wants you to think he is. I still don't feel quite convinced by the seamless real world => metaverse transition, since it does sorta rely on the user's UNFAMILIARITY with it, and Akechi actually has a lot more experience with it than the party does. The game sorta skims over this and it feels like this really does require a level of gambling further than the script acknowledges. Iunno. Also, wtf recommending the main to wear his school uniform after he went into hiding, what the hell are you people thinking? Oh dear god.

The impression I got is that they weren't even trying here.
If anything, this twist is so obvious that anyone intelligible will be seeing it coming miles ahead. In other word, this twist in itself has no surprise value nor impact what so ever.
But yet they have to let this twist happen to move on the plot, so they sugar coated it with bunch of superficial stuff so the twist is going to look like something that's worthy of attention on the outside.

Endgame Spoilers (Not for Jo'oueyes yet)

The general consensus is that the Akechi twist is just an obvious thing for the audience to focus on and get them to stop thinking about the possibility of the second, bigger twist regarding Igor. I do kinda like this idea, and it does make sense.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Silent mains suck and they suck even harder in P5

Yeah, this is a truism plaguing the entire series. It feels particularly egregious in 5 - even moreso than 4. And also shows WHY silent protagonists need to go away. And honestly, it hurts -every single Social/Confidant Link- in the series. I end up entirely splitting the characters' worth from their base personality and writing, since they're -always- hurt by interacting with a paper plate with prompts. This said, I like Hifumi herself and her story (and that's where the symbolism brews). It's kinda hard for me to evaluate the actual rapport because there's almost -none- of it.

[OblivionKnight]

Have been working on a full Persona 5 retrospective, so I don't want to say too much, but a few comments to add:

- STRENGTH is basically a test of if you can use the system.  STRENGTH 10 is just if you want the cool stuff without level grinding Reaper (which...really isn't that bad, all things considered).  Most (I think all but 1) personas can be fused through regular fusion with the skills you want (e.g., level them enough, fuse with the right arcanum, choose right skills, win), rather than relying on sacrifice (although the latter works fine), and skill cards can get you all of them as well.  A little experimentation is enough, generally. I can see how it's annoying, but the benefits aren't necessary.  Rank 1 (Group Guillotine) and Rank 5 (Boosted Guillotine) can get you everything in the game, since additional fusion techniques unlock as the game goes on automatically (such as Itemization).  The Isolation and Special Treatment benefits are nice, but not necessary.

- YES SILENT MAINS SHOULD GO AWAY DAMNIT.  Joker even talks a TON in cutscenes, what the fuck.

- Confidants...I generally agree with everything said already.  The game does a really good job of following the meaning of the arcana, although I can't say I'm interested in all of them (Queen's was good on concept, I just wasn't interested in it).  Hifumi is interesting, in that she was planned to be a party member, and that would have been cool, maybe added a bit more layer to her confidant.  Be neat to see.  But more comments in the future.

[SnowFire]

OK: STRENGTH is a test if you like reloading saves a lot.  It's about as fun as trying to bid on ZoneSeek & Golem at the auction in FF6 if you had to do it ~5 times rather than twice.  There are a *few* of the fusions you get for "free", but not enough IMO.  It'd have been fine if it had been solely "make X type of demon" and have said demons all require exotic combinations a la the Group Guillotine.

Jo'ou: Well, Star felt the most glaringly obvious about it to me.  Ryuji, for example, has a perfectly serviceable setup where Joker doesn't feel TOO awkward or out-of-place: he's hanging out with the bros and meddling with the track team, something that's perfectly reasonable at the school.  Sure I buy it.  Death...   well, the basic excuse for the Confidant of "give me off brand meds corruptly" is fine (even if RIDICULOUS - maybe make it so Joker had a milder case of Fantasy Disease to explain why he's even a useful test subject?), even if the timing on people showing up at the clinic related to Takemi's past is awfully convenient, and the antagonist is a real moron (you...  disgraced your subordinate by creating a scandal and inventing a death?  How does that even work, and wouldn't such a death due to incompetence reflect badly on him too?).

Anyway, on the SMT note, for something done while not having access to a PS4...

SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked
Was kinda Trails'd out in the Epilogue, annoyance at some plot elements continuing, so started this up.  Pretty amusing.  And interesting coming into it from having played DS2 first.

* No human deaths so far!   ...is what I would have said yesterday, but just got thrashed by Beldr & his goons despite saving a crazed anime cosplayer and Game Over'd.  Well that was an unpleasant surprise.
* I can see why Ciato was such a big fan of Yoohoo.
* I actually like not having the affection meter tracker that DS2 & other SMTs & JRPGs love these days.  Let me just go do plot events and not worry that I'm not going to max out Fred's relationship level or whatever.  I missed out on the side plotline for Airi's father in DS2 because a guide told me that it wasn't needed to max out relationships.  My reward: having time to burn to get the likes of Keita to L5.  Yeah who cares, nothing of value would have been lost, I regret following that advice.
* DS1 graphics definitely feel a mite worse, but whatever.  Music, however, is pretty disappointing.  DS2 didn't have amazing music that I'd nom in the Music Tourney or anything, but it had map & battle themes that ranged from decent to pretty great.  ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z96YXHUuGXU )  Which is really the only music you need to get right, it's what you do the gameplay to.  DS1's music has really short loops and is okay at best. For example, from DS2...   "Challenge to Fate" and "Battle of the Brave" are solid map themes, and Septentrione / Will of the Species, while simple, are appropriately epic.   Break Out and Triangulum, meanwhile, are a nice switch up to rock for getting your face blasted off by the bosses.
* By reputation, physical damage dealers are supposed to get shafted in this game, but that hasn't happened quite yet.  You get the Marksman / Anger Hit combo very quickly, and it's really solid - Anger Hit costing practically no HP.  (Anger Hit is "50% chance of critical, 50% chance of miss.."  Marksman is "Your team can't miss."  And crits are good for farming Extra turns.)  I suppose it's not until later that physical falls off.
* While I wouldn't *normally* notice or praise something like this, Trails of Cold Steel II made me appreciate it.  There's a big scary L17 monster when you are wimpy L5 characters that gets chased off by an L20 NPC (who then departs).  Two or three battles later, when you are still only ~L9 or so, you get to face it again, with no NPC to save you, and knowing that you're supposed to die horribly.  But you win!  (And not via cutscene, you win in battle.)  Take that, computer-fortune-telling-fate-prediction!  This is pleasantly rewarding.  (How...  how did ToCS2 fail at this very common video-game  story beat so badly and so repeatedly.)
* Script is actually pretty decent so far.  Hmm, this person doesn't seem super happy we saved her.  Is it just that disaffected punk musician aesthetic at work?!  <3  Only complaint was that they seem a little too eager to justify the title -"we survived!"  "this can help us survive!"  "if we don't do this we won't survive!"  Yes game, I know it's "Devil Survivor."
* Also, vaguely amusing that unlike DS2, they bother to explain how humans can get clawed by demons & live, what with the Harmonizer.  It's ludicrous but works to explain the HP scores, sure, and the characters are all properly surprised by "WTF why am I not dead."

[Cmdr_King]

I think Overclocked introduced some (though not all) of the physical moves that DS2 had, so it's not QUITE as horribly unblanced between the two?  Could be wrong.

The main complaint with not having SOCIAL LINK GO is that what endings you can access is 100% dependent on it- like 'you can lock yourself out of every single ending except the bad one if you miss certain events' kinda stuff.  The game doesn't really hint at which ones are important and which aren't, so the complete lack of documentation definitely affects the final game.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Yes. If you want any semblance of real choice regarding the endings, you FAQ or you go home. It's a pity, too, since DS1 is a lot better writing-wise than DS2.

EDIT: Also, yes, Overclocked's physical/magical balance is considerably better than the original, exactly because they ported a few skills over from DS2. IIRC, though, the imbalance rears its head later on, since physical immunity/reflection becomes very commonplace and the original didn't have good multi-hit physical skills like Multistrike, in stark contrast to the magical side where you get the dances hella early. At least, the game had the good sense to provide both physical and magical boosts/amps.

[Scar]

Holy crap.

Young Scar must have spent 100s of hours grinding ffx for all this end game shit.

Wtf was I doing with my life back then?

I just got all my ap weapons customized and captured all the monsters in the game. Were dark aeons a thing in the ps2 version? I can't remember.

In any case, Tidus, Auron, and Rikku all have their celestial weapons. I'm still dreading the lightning dodging, but I have to suck it up and do it eventually.

Tidus is such a loser. Sheesh.

[Shale]

Dark Aeons were only in the international version.

Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies – This happened.

Much better story-wise than Apollo Justice, but also by far the easiest Ace Attorney game in terms of puzzle-solving. Rare are the points where an internal (or external) monologue isn't holding your hand, there's a visual cue in investigation mode when your cursor is over something relevant, and there are some notable translation screw-ups that spoil solutions – e.g. character/evidence descriptions in the court records that outright tell you the detail about that item or person that you're supposed to be deducing. For extra anticlimax, the solution to the final puzzle rests on one of those. I realize many people see ridiculous obscure puzzles in these games as a negative, but I'm not one of them. Bring on another 1-5, I say!

Anyway, I still loved playing it and thought they did a great job having the returning characters develop naturally, while undoing the worst nonsense of Apollo Justice. Phoenix being an experienced mentor to Apollo and Athena (but once again a practicing attorney!) really works for the character, and those two each find their own voices pretty well – much more so with Apollo than in his own game. The rotating viewpoints gets a thumbs-up too – I never went into a new case and thought “Dammit, I wanted to play as [Phoenix/Apollo/Athena] instead.”

Also, good use of nostalgia buttons for the most part. Phoenix and Apollo's gameplay gimmicks get short shrift when they're remembered at all, in comparison to Athena's new emotion-reading toy, but that's par for the course by this point.

Definitely will pick up the DLC case soon. Spirit of Justice....sometime, probably not immediately.

[NotMiki]

Will be looking forward to your thoughts on Spirit of Justice when you get around to it, particularly in terms of what it does with our heroes and how it sets up for the future of the series.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I definitely agree that Dual Destinies is too easy / would be better-served by being more puzzly although I will strongly defend the cursor changing as you move over examinable locations as an excellent choice. There was at least one point in the original trilogy where I walled hard in the middle of a case because I had missed the correct pixel and had thus failed to examine something I thought I had examined. That's not a puzzle, that's an annoyance.

Agreed on the character stuff for sure.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Oh yeah I totally forgot to mention I did a Four Job Fiesta this year, of course. I tried did #regpopular (chaos variant) and #krile (get a random fifth job which replaces the fourth job when you get Krile). My team was two Red Mages, a Mystic Knight, and a Blue Mage which became a Ninja. The fourth job was the most important, with Red Mage and MK providing enough utility to handle various situations otherwise. My only reset was on Catastrophe because I overestimated my offence and he blitzed me down faster than I could blitz him (or heal).

Also Ciato and I are playing LFT, doing a 4-unit run where we each control two people. Currently up to the final dungeon, made a detour to do the kolliery.

[Shale]

Pixel hunts are bad design, 100 percent agreed, but the highlighting meant I could just sweep the cursor over an area and click whenever it lit up, without having to think much about what I was looking for at all. I'd much rather have the old interface and they just avoid making the investigations stupidly fiddly.