What Games are you Playing 2017?

[Dark Holy Elf]

I found that bosses could do enough damage to win, but generally agreed as far as mid-stage damage goes. Hard Mode amps up enemy damage for what it's worth (and makes healing items less common).

[SnowFire]

I think I died once to Specter Knight, Tinker Knight, Black Knight 2, one of the rando-bosses, and Kratos.  Oddly enough, I never died to Polar Knight, who apparently gets hype on the Internet as one of the tougher ones.  Everyone else died on the first attempt.  (Which is not to say I'm super-awesome or anything, the boss challenges wrecked me, and I died plenty to the stages.)

Their damage is better, sure, but still not enough - maybe I will have to try NG+ after all, although that'll be after Plague & Specter Knight's campaigns.

Also, in the realm of other updates...

Devil Survivor 1
Finished Gin path, and finished the original Naoya / Kaido path and started its Day 8 that was added for the remake.  Also made a stat topic!  Which was comparatively easy after doing the DS2 stat topic.  Check it out.  (For all that it has the FF7/8 problem of "characters who can be equipped with brutally powerful skills in-game, but since everybody gets them, hard to parcel out fairly in the DL" issue.)

Anyway, the game feels like the endgame is just a tad short...?  Maybe I shouldn't complain that they didn't pad it out with filler, but it doesn't feel quite as epic as it could.  While it was *ludicrous*, DS2 has a second-to-last day where, with reality on the verge of blinking out, all the PCs decide to fight it out in some ego-measuring contest and ignore the presumed massive despair and riots and death in the background, then fight a last guardian who SURPRISE you knew before, then have a multi-part fight with the final which includes the obligatory shadow clones of yourself out to kill you.  DS1 just says "yup, time to go kill the other demon lords, you win."

Gameplay-wise, there's something else I largely prefer about DS2 to DS1, although DS1's take is interesting: DS1 has much frailer bosses, but they often have some sort of regen-per-skirmish passive attached that restores 10% or 20% of their HP every fight.  So if you're underlevel or not hitting the right element, you just aren't getting anywhere, and the boss gets free healing if they can snipe someone from out of range.  OTOH, get the right slugger in the boss's face, and they die *fast*.  This is a lot swingier than just giving the boss double HP but no regen.

Also...  yeah, quite the difficulty spike on Day 7 that necessitates some grinding, for cash if nothing else because holy crap are both auctions & the compendium expensive in this game, especially late.  Belzaboul in particular is a rude surprise; when I did Day 7 again, he wasn't SO bad (because I knew exactly what to save money for), but doing him blind without knowledge of the fight mechanics?  Yowch. 

(Gameplay spoilers if you didn't play it: if you kill 2 squads or attack the boss, all the other squads turn into evil flies, and the boss unlocks a new move, Spawn.  All the flies have it, too.  Spawn deals Almighty damage and, if you aren't defending, gives you the fly status.  Which is horrible.  Fly status activates really fast, pretty sure it's either "squad's next turn or Belzaboul's next turn, whichever comes first", and deals a bunch more Almighty damage (probably enough to kill you) and spawns a fly.  If the squad leader was killed, it'll spawn flies for every member in the squad, i.e. 3 more.  Oh, and it's a boss that has 6 Range and regens 10% health every skirmish, even ones where he's just sniping you from afar.  The Flies are not THAT dangerous, except if they get even one turn, they're tagging your characters with more fly status.  So...  yeah, aggro the boss early and watch as you face 3 fly mobs rather than just 2, and if you don't have lots of status healing, you're going to die horribly and have your graves replaced by swarms of flies that finish off the survivors.  You need to make sure that every squad can heal status, basically, to have a fighting shot at this fight.)

Anyway.  Good times.  I do like a lot of the cast of DS1 better than DS2's cast, especially the "minor" cast.  DS1 seems to recognize that randos and non-joining-PCs exist much better than DS2, where they existed solely to die in cutscenes before the fight to prove the danger was real.  We'll see how Naoya Day 8 goes... 

[Dark Holy Elf]

Polar Knight is competent enough but it's all because of spikes, not damage, which kinda goes along with your original point. Propeller Knight's the one I'm most surprised you beat on the first try if anything. I had a few more boss deaths than you IIRC (definitely had multiple against Spectre and Propeller; a few of the derpy Kickstarter bosses gave me some definite trouble as well), probably more than I had in stages overall. But it's not a super-hard game or anything.

[VySaika]

I know I died multiple times to Specter and Propeller as well, I think I got the rest within 1-3 tries, yeah. I also tend to play reaaaaaaally yolo aggressive in platformers, so that may have bitten me in the ass against a few of them.

Specter was definitely the one that got me the most, though. Not sure if it's because he was just harder, or because he's early and by the time I got to Propeller I was better at the game.

[SnowFire]

Specter Knight is legit, one of the tougher-but-fair bosses in the game.  Also helps that he's before massive Gastronomer chowdowns.  Along with Black Knight, one of my favorite boss battles just in terms of sheer coolness.

Propeller, I think the trick is getting downstabs off safely without being ground up by the propeller.  Not sure if it was dumb luck or what, but was pretty good at downstabbing him without getting cut to ribbons.

[SnowFire]

Sure is quiet around here...

Plague of Shadows
Beaten!  Propeller Knight stage was somewhat less hellish than I expected, although not a cakewalk.  Tower of Destiny 2 was brutal, but the real Plague Knight death simulator was the final.  Sure, it's "fast" as the lives scroll by, but both Enchantress and Corrupted Potion were insanely badass - 17 deaths apparently, many from cheerfully Screw Attacking to my doom.  Took awhile to figure out the proper bomb to throw at the final final, too, to be able to get in a lot of hits at once, the key to upping my offense (since I wasn't gonna perfectly dodge all that stuff).

Plot was still LARGELY amusing and some funny sprite work (could you recruit any of the OTHER wanderers?  I only got one of them), although I dunno about the back third of the game switching to Yandere simulator after buying out Mona's stock and fighting Black Knight 2.  Oh well.  It remembered to be funny in the VERY end at least!

Devil Survivor 1
Also beaten!  Again!  (Well, Naoya/Kaido Day 8.  And from reloading my end-of-day-6 save, no need to kill the challenge AND take more time by NG+ing).  But I didn't watch the ending, plugged my 3DS in, and then it went into its "get super hot and reverse charge and drain the battery and turn off" mode it sometimes does, so I guess I dunno what happens afterward.  Everybody rejoicing to live under their benevolent demon overlord, I guess.

I complained about it before, but Metatron (the final) is another dude with super regen every skirmish.  He DOES sport 2 elemental weaknesses, but still.  Some of my squads would literally heal him, or barely scratch him, every skirmish, and if you wait too long he puts up a Barrier and then heals some by attacking you.  But get your one Unit of Doom going built to his weakness extremely hard and null his element, and he can get splatted in 2 skirmishes.  Questionable design decisions here.

Naoya is weirdly deferential to Our Hero considering how he's played in N/K Day 7.  Whatever the Overlord says, etc.  Kinda odd.   Oh well.  Also, on the "good" route, all the ladies who rather reasonably opposed the plan to "become demon king" gets proven wrong and has to lick their wounds and rejoin the party.  Granted, if you pick "good" this is the scenario where Our Hero genuinely became demon lord to save everyone, I guess, but there's still a reasonable position that this is a bad idea!  It's especially weird for the girl you fought then kidnapped in N/K Day 7.  Oh well.  (At least KEISUKE of all people knows what's up and isn't rejoining you.  That's something.)

I ran Black Frost as my 4th member after Naoya & Kaido, because of course you should.  Style points if nothing else, and solid reaosnable dialogue from our frosty friend.

[Pyro]

Birth By Sleep:

Still the best KH game I have played. Seeing a bit of Fragmentary Corridor (which looks amazing) made me want to play it.

I like the melding system. It allows for customiazation and experimentation while lasting just long enough to get to the end of it by the end of a single game.

[superaielman]

EU4- finishing up a game as Spain. Fuck the French idea group, they have a obnoxious amount of morale.

[Sierra]

Sure is quiet around here...

Well, I for one just haven't played much new stuff this year! (And I can't contribute to Shovel Knight discussion becauuuse I didn't like the first one and didn't play the others.)

I have been playing Sonic Mania, though. It's quality work. If you took the best design aspects of the Genesis Sonic games and handed that material to an American development team who probably grew up on this stuff in the 90s anyway, this would be what you'd get. Some zones are recycled from Sonic 1-3, but in the best sense of the word: old material is reused for new purposes. You start out recognizing a level from its aesthetics and first couple screens, then almost immediately get lost in an entirely new layout. I've done both a Sonic run and a Tails run so far, and the game really does reward repeat visits. Level design is rife with alternate paths, to the extent that some stages felt like a completely different experience the second time through. It may have helped that Tails plays differently from Sonic: you don't get to use the novelty shields' special abilities, but you can fly. It's a nice re-do button for missed jumps and exploration (and there's plenty of vertical areas I dunno how you'd even reach without flight). Will probably go back and do a Knuckles run before shelving this for a while.

I could gripe about a few things (Mecha Sonic is an annoying fight, the last level takes too long and gives no indication I could see that you're supposed to be looping back to the hub repeatedly), but it's overall a very satisfactory platformer fix. Intricate level design, varied boss ideas, gotta go fast. What else is there to ask for with a Sonic game?

The chaos emerald levels get brutal very quickly. The best I've managed across a single playthrough is three out of seven, and I doubt I'm doing any better next time.

[Grefter]

I don't finish things at the moment so that's why quiet from me.

[Hunter Sopko]

Birth By Sleep:

Still the best KH game I have played. Seeing a bit of Fragmentary Corridor (which looks amazing) made me want to play it.

I like the melding system. It allows for customiazation and experimentation while lasting just long enough to get to the end of it by the end of a single game.

Also KH Monopoly

[VySaika]

Handheld: it's been long enough so I'm playing through Knytt Underground again to have a good non-rpg loaded up on my Vita for when I don't want menus.

I found a secret area, Figure Space! Dying terribly getting through some areas, but I get through eventually, good times.

...until...suddenly advanced Ball Tether rooms. And you know what I learned? The vita version has a bug that makes the ball tether not always work right. Won't always release when I let go of L, will sometimes just change me back to the sprite and send me plummeting to my doom despite the fact that I did not press R. Getting through the section where it's 2 rooms of fast moving ball tether swings, sure I got it eventually. Getting through the section where it's 5+ screens of precision tether movement? Cannot do. Kind of frustrating. Thankfully very few things in the maingame require long term precision tether movement, so it's just bonus areas that are not doable.

Console: grabbed OB64 on the VC to play through since I was randomly in the mood for it again. Trying to use more monster units this time, especially golems since I basically never use them. Also trying to do as much as I can without referencing an FAQ, though getting Dragoon or Princess I'm sure will require me to check one. Still early, on chapter 6 or 7, and despite 3 sessions of "lets try to find some neutral units" I can't get a single hawkman to join up. Found several! They just fuck off instead of joining every time. I did get a young dragon to stick with the dragon tamer the game started me with at least, so that's good.

Playing this is making me want to play one of the TO games again as well, but I'm 90% sure my memory is lying to me about having fun with Knight of Lodis, and my rants on TO PSP are well documented by now. Alas.

[Meiousei]

D5C: I feel I need to work alongside Magic on this, since he's doing the story faster while I work on the DLC content a bit first. (I plan on doing 5 of them so I can use them on stream when I stream next.) I don't hate the story by any stretch of the means, I don't know. It's more interesting to do the DLC atm.

[superaielman]

I don't finish things at the moment so that's why quiet from me.

You played War of the Chosen yet?

[DjinnAndTonic]

Persona 5:

Beat this. Akechi is a good and nuanced, well-implemented character. He is not a bargain-bin Light Yagami.

Everything else about this game is great. Even the grindy bits were more fun than usual. I actually got all the first-run super-personas.

Adults in the Persona universe are shitty, but no one is more illogically shitty than the main character's own unseen parents. How dare he stop that rape from happening! It's poor choices like that which are causing the downfall of our youth. I like that the happy ending is that your friends are like "your parents suck, we're basically adopting you instead."

Disgaea 5:

A time for 5s it seems. This is basically the Netherworld version of the French Revolution. It's sadly not as funny as that would seem. Disgaea 4 still the best game in the series, but the gameplay additions in 5 are pretty great. The absolute worst part of 5 so far is how it managed to make Etna/Flonne's DLC boring. The most horrible sin of all.

For someone who thinks Disgaea is better when it isn't being humorous (Dis2, Phantom Brave), this might be the Disgaea for you. Personally, I'm just kinda underwhelmed, though Red Magnus essentially being the Overlord version of Dwayne The Rock Johnson is keeping me engaged.

[Hunter Sopko]

Persona 5:

Beat this. Akechi is a good and nuanced, well-implemented character. He is not a bargain-bin Light Yagami.

Everything else about this game is great. Even the grindy bits were more fun than usual. I actually got all the first-run super-personas.

Adults in the Persona universe are shitty, but no one is more illogically shitty than the main character's own unseen parents. How dare he stop that rape from happening! It's poor choices like that which are causing the downfall of our youth. I like that the happy ending is that your friends are like "your parents suck, we're basically adopting you instead."

uhwut on EDIT:Akechi.

As for his parents... we never really get the sense of how they felt about it. They sent him to away until the story died down, sure. That's not really an awful reaction. We're never told that his parents did it out of spite or anything. We're also not told much positive stuff about them, but we're not told much of anything about them at all. It's a weird gap there they should've filled. Granted, MOST of the adult figures had that whole reaction, so it's not a far cry to assume the parents did too.

EDIT: Although I'm recalling we do get some bits from Hierophant at the beginning, but... it's hard to tell if he's being serious or just ballbusting. He is kindof a dick in the beginning

[Niu]

Soppy, I think you mean Akechi.

Birth By Sleep:

Still the best KH game I have played. Seeing a bit of Fragmentary Corridor (which looks amazing) made me want to play it.

I like the melding system. It allows for customiazation and experimentation while lasting just long enough to get to the end of it by the end of a single game.

Have you try KH DDD on HD yet?
Hihghly suggest that.
Outside the stupid drop system, DDD has the best control among all the KH so far. Solely on the battle gameplay, it probably rivals KH2FM.

[Hunter Sopko]

Yes I did. FIX'D

[Magic Fanatic]

So yeah, as Mei mentioned, I'm playing Disgaea 5 as well, albeit on the PS4 instead of the Switch like she is.

Just got up to chapter 5 last I played, and I've been going through Item World and grinding for Statisticians.  Also agreeing with Djinn that this game is too serious, and Disgaea 4 is the best game for cast because Valvatorez is the best MC.

Killia - As said before...  He's like like Overlord of Maximum Edge.  His only real quirk is...  He likes to eat a meal before fighting.  I know I don't have his full story, but he seems kind of bland as an MC so far.  He starts with fists and can use swords - which is good - and his first unique is almost exactly like Blade Rush.  Still, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him once aftergame rolls around.  If there's no limit on his unique Evility, he may actually be my choice to go after Damage trophies.  Got him leading the Boot Camp, and he's already my second-highest level unit...  Right behind my Heretic, who has sailed past him in levels just healing.

Seraphina - She uses guns...  Which makes her a terrific user for the Stealing Hands I wind up getting.  Outside of that, first chance I had, I put the Megaphone on her, since it's my strongest Gun for a while.  She's anti-male in both her unique Evility and her Overload, which has saved me a few times.  She's in my Interrogation Squad, which...  I've since gotten tired of her voice from just that.

Red Magnus - Let's super do this!  What can I say, I find his occasional verbal tic amusing.  Anyway, he winds up being the best of the cast in personality so far, and his equivalent in battle isn't too bad.  Axes means he can hit HARD though with no range, though lances (if I ever built those up with him) means he can get some distance if need be.  I have him in my Capturing Squad, so points there between hitting hard enough to capture consistantly.  Evility means he ignores a lot of defense, which is great early on...  Somewhat.  Super Olympia is super fun, even though it locks out everything that isn't a unique skill.

Cristo - Okay, so...  He comes with both bows (A) and staves (S).  It's very tempting to go bows with him most of the way, but he gets a lot of passives that build up his INT, so staves is probably the better choice, assuming you can throw a few spells on him.  His Unique evility wants him standing next to allies most of the time (which means it's useless when he's alone), but his Overload seems nifty, even if I haven't used it a lot.  Still, he's going to be very, VERY useful because of that evility, and what it might allow me to do.

Usalia - I just got her.  Seems like a generic monster - no overload, high general stats and move power, can't lift - and her verbal tic is unoffensive since she's so quiet.  Evility is another one that relies on standing next to people, and seems more situational than Cristo's.  Gonna have to figure her out.


Generic Overlords:

Logan - He lifts, he throws.  He lifts, he throws.  Sit him next to the base panel, and all my other units get basically +7 movement on turn 2...  Outside of Prinnies.  Overload means he can...  Throw twice times as far for three turns.  Okay.

Geese - My first monster Overlord.  He's a chimera.  His overload is to give himself seven turns of Regen, and he lowers all enemy stats by 5% just for being there.  His physical is Range 3 and bases itself off his good INT, so he's never not been useful.

Hedler - Insta-poison to all nearby enemies (5 panel range) as his Overload.  Outside of that, he's a Mothman, which is a plus in Item World runs because flying.  Only unit that really outshines them is Blue Tink back in Disgaea 2.

Erynder Z - Overload is an all-ally heal.  Evility is anti-female, but he seems less good at that than Seraphina's anti-male (Charm > Paralysis).


Generics (that I've used regularly):

Maid - The fact that the one you're given uses bows (though she'd be better with a gun despite Seraphina being there) and the fact that her Evility lets her have a free item use per turn (which means she could use two items per turn) means she's Thief v0.8.  Not good for damage, but good for that one niche.

Thief - Is a thief.  Doubled stealing rates, Create Box.  Uses Bows and Guns.  You all know the drill by now.

Clergy - Isn't as strong a healer as a Cleric, but is more useful, because Espoir is attached to all his heals.

Martial Artist - To be honest, I was only using him long enough until I unlocked Thief.  He's still useful, he's just...  Yeah.

[Grefter]

X-Com 2 - I started up a play on super easy with a save scum mod (WHY WAS THIS NOT IN BASE GAME?  Those options added to EW were greeeeat) because I am not doing a proper X-Com brain but yeah.  I am too early to have encountered any actual WotC changes, but I am doing DLC I haven't encountered before.  Stopped just on the pull of Viper King from Alien Hunters DLC, I am soooo reloading back a turn and killing that SOB first encounters. Frost Grenade going to have to be busted out for the kill and not the opener like I did first try.

[Fudozukushi]

Sure is quiet around here...

An endless stream of tears from WoW and HotS aren't very interesting from me.

[Meiousei]

To be fair, a lot of us have been here and there with stuff, so we haven't been up and around on the boards often. The mIRC however, has been a bit more active. Oh wells, back to dying working on Disgaea 5 Complete. That bug that can crash/corrupt the game is worrisome though.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Persona 5:

Beat this. Akechi is a good and nuanced, well-implemented character. He is not a bargain-bin Light Yagami.

Everything else about this game is great. Even the grindy bits were more fun than usual. I actually got all the first-run super-personas.

Adults in the Persona universe are shitty, but no one is more illogically shitty than the main character's own unseen parents. How dare he stop that rape from happening! It's poor choices like that which are causing the downfall of our youth. I like that the happy ending is that your friends are like "your parents suck, we're basically adopting you instead."

uhwut on EDIT:Akechi.

As for his parents... we never really get the sense of how they felt about it. They sent him to away until the story died down, sure. That's not really an awful reaction. We're never told that his parents did it out of spite or anything. We're also not told much positive stuff about them, but we're not told much of anything about them at all. It's a weird gap there they should've filled. Granted, MOST of the adult figures had that whole reaction, so it's not a far cry to assume the parents did too.

EDIT: Although I'm recalling we do get some bits from Hierophant at the beginning, but... it's hard to tell if he's being serious or just ballbusting. He is kindof a dick in the beginning

Yeah, Sojiro is pretty awful himself. He just gets enough screentime to improve. Creepy mad doctor, drunken reporter who pretends to date someone underaged, and the teacher who moonlights as a maid masseuse for her teenaged student are right up there in the 'nope, you're pretty terrible adults' category. Some of them have legitimately interesting social links, but they're always constantly brought down by these unsavory pederastic relationships they have with Akira.

I think the only adult in the game that was genuinely a good person the entire time was the Politician. Strange.

As for Akechi - I think his actual backstory and motives are fine. I think the writers' attempts at making him seem genuinely innocent for most of the game, and then sympathetic once they do the poorly-handled reveal is what gives me such distaste for him.

Like... basically the first line of the game is about how 'one of your friends betrayed you.' And then basically from the moment Akechi appears on screen it's like... 'Oh it's you. It's so obviously you, it's written all over your trope.'

Adachi he is not.

[Sierra]

Sure is quiet around here...

An endless stream of tears from WoW and HotS aren't very interesting from me.

Replace with FFXIV and DS3 replays and that's me first half of the year. But I don't have either of those things anymore!

[Captain K]

Sure is quiet around here...

Well I mostly play mobile games, so that's gonna fly over people's heads unless they happen to play the same ones.

Gumballs and Dungeons:  Was able to beat the Elemental Continent event for the first time, although I think they lowered the enemy stats a bit.  Currently at 1.1m on my Canas airship, with 5 statues built.

Devil Breaker:  They brought Astaroth back!  Woot.  Now I can finally get her to 6-star.  Also close to getting Gunther to 6-star, so my team is coming along swimmingly.

Overwatch:  I am too good at Symmetra, so I've started playing Zenyatta to give my enemies a chance.