What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Talaysen]

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Up to C25 now!  Rocks fall, everybody dies!

C19 - Easy since I knew how to get Naesala off my back.  Ballistae where only flyers can reach is a bitch move though.  Also, the boss and its support not moving annoyed me so I just had Astrid rush in and give her an arrow to the face.

C20 - Astrid > this map.

C21 - Other than HOLY CRAP THE BOSS HAS A LOT OF DEFENSE this wasn't too bad.  Hardest part was getting all the treasures before killing the boss.  Move faster, Volke!  Almost missed Tauroneo though.  Got him down to 1 HP and then realized Ike could talk to him.  Oh well, free EXP.  Also lol immobile range 1 bosses.

C22 - Easy.  Boss was beat by having someone shove the priest in the middle out of the way and having Ilyana spam Bolting while Astrid did the typical arrow to the face thing.  Gave Ilyana the kill because Astrid needs no puny EXP.

C23 - TOO MANY BALLISTAE.  Also goddamn traps.  Astrid fell into like three in a row.  Not like she cared anyways because enemies can't touch her.  Marcia kind of owned on this map, actually.

C24 - Typical steamroll the enemies map.

Final Fantasy Tactics: Lion War - Played like two battles of this.  Cutscenes are pretty~  Think I'm going to go with a more magey build for Ramza this time since I don't think I've ever done that.  We'll see how it works out!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

WA5 - Just done with the Abandoned Path. Dean is the unholy manbaby of Ryusei+Justin, Rebecca has a "Kick me, I'm tsundere" sign on her back and Avril is CK+Ciddy fanservice on sandals. The interaction is fine, though! The game is surprisingly pretty and gameplay has gone solid now that I have Mediums. The villains they introduced so far are impressively outlandish, though. Shaniansem (Volsung), Rita Gazongas (Persephone), Blue Kamen Ranger (Fereydoon) and Pantyshot Blight (Kartikeya) could well be runaways from a freakshow stand from Russia. <_<  

[NotMiki]

Pretty much everything needing to be said about TotA has been, but I'll add this: Mieu is better than almost any mascot because his naive, cloying presence is (for once) countered by someone who treats him like dirt (to mixed groans and 'thank you's from the playership).  Mieu allows Luke to be his comedic best.

[Sierra]

DQ8: Forgot to say I finished this! So yeah, I did. Levels were 40/39 at the end (Jess lagged on account of being absent for her stint as villain), time on the counter was sixty-six hours. Whoa. That easily beats anything short of P3 for first-run playtime. Can't say I'm really motivated to try the aftergame stuff, but the main game was fun enough. Thoroughly traditional, but it so completely overwhelms with sheer charm that you don't give a damn. VA can't be hyped enough (ACCENTS). So yeah, pretty solid 8/10 game. No faults worth caring about and it's entertaining from beginning to end.

A couple random questions, though. Does Marcello have more scenes after you fight him? He vanishes from the plot and I didn't think to go looking for him. Also, Empyrea claiming her real name was "Ramia"...Is that a reference to some other game in the series, or is there backstory I missed somewhere?

Anyway, started up AI2 last night. Felt looks like a generic male lead in the same vein as AI1's Klein, but hey, that's still lightyears ahead of Lyner. Right from the start it's clear the programmers at Gust learned a thing or two from AI1: AI2 has an actual user-friendly world map, a gauge for the turn order in battle, and a handy note in item descriptions specifying which ones are replaceable (argh to screwing myself out of the final Veola scenes in AI1).

[Captain K.]

BvS:  Got UOM Sign, Galuf Meteor!

Vantage Master:  I need to read a FAQ or something.  I have no idea which stat is which, and MP availability makes no sense.

[Nitori]

Mana Khemia - Finished, final boss is a massive failure just like a lot of the bosses~. Despite the sheer offense boost the optional bosses get from nighttime, all of the really hard ones such as Cateriprider and Stone Watcher show up before the support system get into full swing since that more or less eats the game up. Oh well, maybe they can get challenge right someday~. (Also, rank C9 boss)

Odin Sphere - Beat Gwen chapter 1. Pretty game is pretty~ but I kind of suck at it. Oh well~

[AAA]

FES-November 7th. Hanged Man, as usual, was a long slugfest but I did alright. Mind-charged Ziodyne off of Dionysus worked pretty well. Maxed Strength, have Justice up to like 7 or so, High Priestess at 5, though I'm going to be doing Temperance for a bit just to let Justice get more of a headstart before they both go into intimate territory.

Say, does anybody know what you're supposed to do for the 'water the flowers' and 'get the juice from the girl by the tree' Requests? I couldn't figure it out.

[Fudozukushi]

FES-November 7th. Hanged Man, as usual, was a long slugfest but I did alright. Mind-charged Ziodyne off of Dionysus worked pretty well. Maxed Strength, have Justice up to like 7 or so, High Priestess at 5, though I'm going to be doing Temperance for a bit just to let Justice get more of a headstart before they both go into intimate territory.

Say, does anybody know what you're supposed to do for the 'water the flowers' and 'get the juice from the girl by the tree' Requests? I couldn't figure it out.

The flowers are on the school roof I think.

[Niu]

Grave Markers are highly unimpressive from what I've seen of them (Boomer and Fresh Line). They also only have 9 and 8 seconds reboot time respectively, meaning that a 45% deduction isn't doing a whole lot for them, so I assume there's a better one with a longer reboot that I don't have yet.
Meanwhile Time Bombs (assuming that the pin you are talking about is one, since I don't believe I have it, and there aren't any items on the ultimate's field to use Pressure Bombs on unless I'm misremembering) require you to be ludicrously prophetic in determining that the enemy either isn't going to move from the spot you put the bomb, or that the enemy is going to move to the spot you did put the bomb, and don't even do especially worthwhile damage (again, this is just from the ones I've seen so who knows maybe the one you have in mind is incredibly upgraded from those).

Grave Marker unimpress....
A move that has 80% multiplier (aka 3rd best in game) invinci frame and lift effect all in one is not what I would call unimpressive. A 9 second recharge time is beyond reasonable to keep that thing becoming broken as hell. Which is why I bring up the Cat set in the first place, it can reduce that handicap and make Grave Marker broken. All you need is to combine it with Energy/Bullet Shot (bomb). Which has lift effect in every single bullet, and each bullet can hit up to potentially 4 hit, and you can change the direction of the bullet at will, and it has the highest multiplier of all Shot attacks, even higher than Black Venus. Anyway, the key is how many hits each bullet can deliver and there is total of 9 bullets, and ALL of them, adds lift. What does this mean? This mean you can keep the enemies all up in the air a good while. With Cat set, it is perfectly enough for Grave Marker to reboot while you kept the enemies in the air. And while you recharge Energy Shot/Bullet shot (bomb), you can keep yourself free with Grave Marker's massive invinci frame, and after Grave Marker run out, the bomb shots are ready again, and you can go back to blowing all the enemy back into air, and you can repeat this indefinitely. You can argue if it is only invinci frame that is needed than other attacks with invinci frame can be used, grave Marker is not necessary. But Grave Marker is the only attack that does good damage above having a decent invinci frame. Grave Marker's Invinci frame also connects very well, unlike say, Velocity Crash.

Most non heavy type bosses are dead in this set up before they can touch you much.
Better yet, if combine Cat set with Royal Queen, other crazy invinci combos becomes avliable too.
For example, combining Tigiris, Lolita Bat, and Flesh Line. Or just out right use both Lolita Bat and Shining Beam and give your self up to 22 shot of Energy/Bullet Shot with minimum reboot time. Good luck at the enemies ever get to touch you. Well, none heavy types anyways.

Also, why still use Tin Pin Blade? Lightning Rage is a much better version of the same attack. Same number of use and reboot time, but 135 atk and 3.33 Boot time, which are all better than Tin pin Blade. It is even buyable. Get Lightning Anger from Tiger Punks and evolve it with Battle BP.

[AAA]

Oh. I went up there and I couldn't do anything with them. Do you need an item or something first?

[Clear Tranquil]

Suikoden IV - Just got Kika. I already know how awesme she is in general since I played Tactics already. Training her, the King! and Dario (I'm pretty much training most characters just to try them out for a while. Maybe all characters depending on how bored I get!) is where I left off. Have to return to Nal Nal and Nay to see if more charas are available to recruit yet urghh~

The main reason I've even stuck with the game this far is because I sort of zone out during sea travel and do a mediate/reflection type thing whilst closing my eyes and hammering the auto button >_>

[Talaysen]

Anyway, started up AI2 last night. Felt looks like a generic male lead in the same vein as AI1's Klein, but hey, that's still lightyears ahead of Lyner. Right from the start it's clear the programmers at Gust learned a thing or two from AI1: AI2 has an actual user-friendly world map, a gauge for the turn order in battle, and a handy note in item descriptions specifying which ones are replaceable (argh to screwing myself out of the final Veola scenes in AI1).

Felt is so much better than Klein it's not even funny.  But that's mostly because Klein sucks.

Also yeah, AI2 upped the polish quite a bit.  One of the reasons I don't get the AI1 > AI2 hypers.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

In S4, if I recall, Kika is basically the best character in the game.

[Pyro]

I'd say Ted myself, but Kika rocks regardless.

[Grefter]

Kika is far more broken than Ted in the hands of a twinker.

AI1 shines more by being much more of a gem in the rough than AI2.  AI2's areas of mediocrity just stand out that much more (it is worse on AI3).  AI2 is probably the best in the trilogy over all though and the polish really is quite good.

Regarding TotA stuff, yeah Dune, like that because each of the characters is a regurgitated popular anime archetype.

AI1 - Got both the mirrors to get past Henmil's gate, so now I can get to the magical city!  Except that I remember there is more side stuff involved to get there.   Still eh, the replay is holding up how I remember the game being, just how much of the stuff there is I am not remembering so much.

[Clear Tranquil]

Kika is far more broken than Ted in the hands of a twinker.

Sounds like my cup of tea~ Mmmm I'm thinking of settling on something like Hero/Kika/Jeane/Viki for my overall party for the most part w/th Viki mainly being there for godly teleportation powers to previously visited areas. Can't wait till I get her seriously. Other options I'm considering for random switching around are Rita and Mizuki evade and speed hax respectively, Rita's also been pretty good w/th magic skills and Star Earring has been pretty nifty early on. Due to Tactics I excepted Mizuki to have better evade than her but it's the other way round here huh. Keneth also seems like a solid choice. Also I can't ... seem ... to stop ... using Chiepoo >_> <_< >_> I have no idea why. He's been my healer and equipped with a Lottery Ticket from when it was first possible. Mrmm LEK and Mitsubi seem pretty powerful from what I've seen. Wheee. That's what I love about Suikoden games, so many choices and discussion generation from that <(^^)>

Anyway definitely keeping Kika and probably using some mage until Ted joins (all I know is he's a mage!??? and appears to be some legendary fellow of Suikoden history?)

[VySaika]

I used Hero/Kika/Jeane/Ameria, as the latter three have a unite attack. Also, Viki doesn't need to be in the party to port around. Blinking mirror, etc.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Kika is far more broken than Ted in the hands of a twinker.

What's particularly impressive about Kika is that, even without three rune slots, twinking her leads to essentially unparalled results. Double-Strike Falcon Rune damage > even Double-Strike+Fury Rune Shrike, and it's far more accessible to boot, considering Mizuki gets her third rune slot pretty late. Kika -starts- with two slots.

[Soulgain]

A couple random questions, though. Does Marcello have more scenes after you fight him? He vanishes from the plot and I didn't think to go looking for him. Also, Empyrea claiming her real name was "Ramia"...Is that a reference to some other game in the series, or is there backstory I missed somewhere?

Not sure about Marcello since it's been a couple years, but Ramia is the God bird from Dragon Warrior 3 and your aerial transport, even the flight music in the two games is the same, albeit 8's is fancier.

[AAA]

FES-November 22nd. Sooo. Siegfried is obscene. I've gone 20 battles that have lasted one round. Even bosses that resist Slash take about half their lifebar's worth of damage. I killed Strega-Member in two rounds. Speaking of which, I never saw the scene where Takaya and Jin break Chidori out of the hospital. Was that taken out for some reason in FES?

Maxed Justice, will max Star probably the next time I do it, will probably focus on High Priestess with a side-helping of Empress until Aeon shows up.

[Excal]

This time, on the continuing saga of Wild ARMs, XF!

One plot cut horribly, horribly short.  I guess it's so that they can try and give even more foreshadowing for the plot twist I've been expecting since Chapter 1.  And here I thought it might actually have been subverted at one point, but the setup is basically screaming it has to be.  So I guess the delay is more just so that we can have forced angst as this news has to be reacted to immeadiatly instead of giving them some time to cope.  Ah well, I shall await the epic moment of epicness.

I also didn't expect the end of Chapter 3 to be quite as decisive as it was, though it did have a nice division of plot and gameplay moment in the transition between the twelve mech battle and the one right before it.  Especially since it was nice enough to give me three +4 weapons of machine raping, two folks who had grabbed the blue magic of electric death, and Labrynthia.  Not that this kept the plot characters from spazzing out before it was shown that half my party could one shot 2/3 of the enemy units.

Ah well, just finished 4-1, and with the final classes, and some of the more powerful Lvl 6 skills unlocked, I'm not sure that the game can actually pose much challenge anymore.  So, it shouldn't be much longer before it's finished.


Front Mission 4
Longer battles, lower power scale, and fewer battles.  That said, it is more satisfying to beat stuff up here.  Currently on Chapter 18, and it is nice to see the two parties having interacted, for all that I keep on thinking I've seen Hammond somewhere before.  Ah well, temporarily on hold as I get my XF fix, and wait for when I'm in the mood for a nice hard battle against recon packs and tons of artillery.


Front Mission 1
Yeah, I broke down and got this.  Currently trying to avoid having my battles break down into simply spamming missile attacks, but given the combat system in this game, it's so very tempting to just rain explosive death upon my foes.  Especially since I now have storebought Egrets when they're still at that point in the game where they can OHKO arms, and THKO anything else.  But, I don't want to nerf the short/melee weapons, especially as Yeehan gets nice and broken later with her melee skills.  That said, it's also taking a back seat to XF as I go about finishing it.

[Xeroma]

Persona 3 FES - Up to the last month. The Reaper's kind of a jerk without the ability to cheese him easily, but throwing a lot of lightning bolts at him seemed to do the job. Monad is -ridiculous-, two nightly visits and I already have most of the L80+ personas in the game. Armageddon is completely stupid.

[Twilkitri]

Also, why still use Tin Pin Blade? Lightning Rage is a much better version of the same attack. Same number of use and reboot time, but 135 atk and 3.33 Boot time, which are all better than Tin pin Blade. It is even buyable. Get Lightning Anger from Tiger Punks and evolve it with Battle BP.

I've actually had that for some time, but I misread the power on it >_>



Collecting items still, getting pretty closish to finishing... offhand I just need Samurai Sword, TWEWY Coat, Maid Outfit, and whichever Slammurai I don't currently have. Potentially one or two other things that aren't coming to mind. I need to go slap up the ultimate again for another King Arthur since my last one went and evolved on me ._. Stupid pins allas evolving when you don't want them to. Also need to find a TP Sunscorch.

[Grefter]

AI1 - Up to Duran Duran, done the Ka Luda Playground stupidly easy puzzle, got Norns last skill.  It still shits me that she fills out her skillset before the other characters.  But oh well, Delsus got Feint Shot which is still super cool and comes maxed out to boot.

[Soulgain]

Wind Waker - Just got the Hammer in the Forsaken Fortress.

Star Ocean 2 - Just started this, first time playing, I'm liking the way the story is going so far, the battle system is a little tricky but I'm just not used to it yet since it is somewhat similar to 3 which I played.