What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[SageAcrin]

Touhou: Shoot the Bullet:

I hate 9-6.

Cleared everything up to 9-6. Trying to do things linearly, but 9-6 is stupid.

http://pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/index.php/Shoot_the_Bullet:_Level_9_Spell_Cards Scroll down to 9-6.

Those shots are mostly falling down towards you at varying speeds and arcs depending on the color. Stupid.

Devil May Cry 3:

Completed.

Fun game; Fun enough that I'm probably going to cut through Virgil Mode, too.

Basically, everything about DMC1 is improved. Style? Difficulty being generally more flexible? Weapon depth being much larger(Every weapon is useful, there are five Devil Arms and five guns.). Better graphics. (Better music, too, I suppose, neither's notable on this though.) The ability to backtrack to get things in a way that makes sense internally(Redoing Chapters manually if you want.).

Basically, everything about it is great. Hell of a lot of fun, definitely the best 3D Action/Adventure game I've played since Okami(can't compare them, too different.).

Megamari:

Completed.

Was wrong-game's very much more like MM2 than MM1 on difficulty, just has a steep starting curve.

Basically it's MM2 without MM2 stupid memorization points(It has memorization points, of course, but they're more along the lines of the later series.). Which is to say it has all the good points of MM2 without the "I am going to stab you in the eye with my knuckles. Yes. Stab." effect that the memorization gave me at points!

This is very good. Great fun, has a well balanced set of weapons(Only two obvious losers, Youmu-Marisa pickup and Reimu-Alice pickup-out of sixteen weapons, and you can only get eight of them per playthrough, so.) and an interesting idea in the two characters that reminds me of a watered down version of MMX8's(Which is fine-full version of MMX8's would be too much for original MM style, it feels like.).

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

KH - Traverse Town. Enemies kinda suck. <_<

Okami - Up to the "revive Sakuya's trees!" quest. I should explore the area more. The game is still gorgeous and sexy. Loved how silly the Susano string was (PLOT-CONVENIENT POWER SLASH IS ENOUGH YES TILDE).

DW5 - I suck. =P Going to play on Easy first to get goodies.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Supreme Commander- Wow, the AI is clever. I'm on the last mission and I have to defend the Black Sun Control Centers. Well, the Cybrans to the north launched a ground attack at one, and while I was dealing with that, ran some siege bots past on transports to take out my anti-Nuke launcher. Then they levelled my base. Fuck.

[VySaika]

Persona 3:

Just got the 4th Old Document. The boss on Floor 85 beat me once, as I first fought him with Yukari in my team and a lightning weak persona equipped on the main, which didn't work out so well. Still, once I knew he was a lightning spammer, I came back at him with Mitsuru/Junpei/Akihiko and a Lightning IMMUNE persona on the main, and cleaned him up. Fight still took forever, as I had to slowly physical it to death, but the outcome was never in doubt. The 3 gigas-things boss right before it was definately harder, even though it didn't manage a kill on me. Managed to make me use 3 revival beads during the fight though, thanks to thier love of OHKO crits.

Overall I'm of mixed feelings on the bosses. Some have been solid fights, like those 3 gigas-things and Emperor and Empress, but most have been pushovers, and then there's the Intrepid Knight. Who kinda raped me like seven times before I managed to scratch out a win thanks to Cadenza hax. I'm holding out hope that more bosses will start falling into the Solid category, though I'd probably welcome another Intepid Knight level of insanity fight or two as well. Still, even when the fights are easy, they're still fun, so I'm not complaining!

I'm really not sure what it is that makes me like this game so much. There's only one, very repetative, dungeon. The randoms are already waist deep into recolor territory. And there are other objective flaws to the game. But I don't care. The battles are always fun, the characters are amusing, the music and graphics are very stylish, and no matter how repetative things start getting, it never feels that way. I just looked at my "time played" and saw over 30 hours and went "huh? I've been playing that long?" Unless things take a sudden turn for the worse, P3 is heading straight for 10/10 territory. I frikkin' love it.

[BaconForTheSoul]

You did patch it first Chapin?  It had some really bad optimisation unpatched.  Might still be a slow bitch for an older computer, but might actually run....


Fair enough Niu, just was what the line roughly said in the translation.  Not implying that it is the strongest spell ever cast, but the strongest spell within the school of Methodism assuming Methodism uses a standardised structured magic system ala Sorcery does.

Yeah my computer is just getting up there in age.  It's only 4-5 years old, but I didn't go all out when I bought it.  WoW was about the best that I could run properly and NVN kicks the shit out of WoW it seems.  Ahh well, I'll be due for a new one in June or so.

[Scar]

FF4DS

Yeah, it's kicking my ass.

A couple of things...

I am in the tower of Babel for the first time.

They gimped Kain? He is nowhere near Cecil's HP anymore, and now his drain spear doesn't transfer all of his damage back to his HP...lame!

Rosa lost a lot of HP. She is around Rydia's level in this game.

And Cecil is the HP king! Yang doesn't have the title anymore, Cecil towers about him, but it looks in recent levels that Yang is starting to catch up.

Cecil now gets more then six spells, and Life too! That's helpful.

~

I am loving the game, but I heard they added a lot of new content to the game. I have yet to see anything significantly different from the originals, but I guess there is a lot of game left to play.

Kain getting Mp is weird, but the only person NOT to start with Mp was Cid this time around....strange again.

Oh well time to watch Yang and Cid go BOOM!

[Meeplelard]

They gimped Kain? He is nowhere near Cecil's HP anymore, and now his drain spear doesn't transfer all of his damage back to his HP...lame!

Hate to break it to you, but the original Blood Spear was flat out awful.  Killed Kain's stats, lowered his accuracy to the point where the damage was abysmal (and as a result, the Healing too), lacked Blood Sword's "Damage*4 vs. Machines" aspect to give it SOME worth...yeah.  Don't go acting like Kain lost something with the Blood Spear being worse, cause it was always a bad weapon.

[Sierra]

RKS: Swordgirl mode continues. Yes. Took down all the other girls. Luste was probably the worst fight out of the lot, which is funny since she was pathetic on normal mode. Took like three energy tanks this time? Brat leaps across the screen whenever you get close to her, and you have only melee attacks in this mode. This results in a lot of me getting hit with charged shots when trying to close in. Argh. (I'm noticing more of the low HP attacks this time, yes, since I can't abuse weaknesses to slaughter people any more. Game actually told me to hurry up when I was fighting Zorne, and ominously sealed off the hole in the ceiling. Curious what's up with that, might go back and check later).

So, castle time! ...You can climb up The Wall. Ahaha. Not that it does you any good, but yeah, funny. Seriously, hate for that fight. The other castle bosses at least have the decency to come to you. Bleh. Anyway, making a serious attempt at that is clearly a weekend project.

[Xeroma]

You can assign character skills in FF4DS, you know. Check your key items. Also go searching around once you have free airship access, you can get some good skills. Some of the locations are kinda obscure though[check Mt. Ordeals again, for instance. And the Dark Elf Cave's last room.]

[Pyro]

MMXCM:

Beat Silver Horn. This game has no plot. None. I refuse to accept it. An impossibility beyond possibility.

Besides that its just a very straightforward fight->5 steps of dungeon->Fight -> 5 steps of dungeon->fight... boss->get stuff from town (yes, I'm saying the encounter rate is high). I'm not one to play a game for combat system alone so this is dull and boring. In some respects it even feels like a downgrade from BoF5, since the awesome encounter control is gone.

Incidentally, glancing at the stat topic... I definitely wouldn't call items ITD, just good ol fashioned magic. No Mdef in the game, so... Yeah. Not extending the bosses tricks to magic. Silver Horn proved just how right I was to stockpile up on the things. That could have been annoying if not for storebought Mega Thunders.

Its still MEGA MAN though, so I guess it has redeeming value.

[Xeroma]

http://ff4.wikidot.com/ Also Scar, use this page. It contains pretty much everything you need to know about the game.

[Hunter Sopko]

Woo. Hit 110. Didn't get as clean a screenshot as I'd hoped, as my freeze missed the enemies as I approached.

[/URL]

[Ultradude]

Smashed Sentinels in WA5. Also smashed Vagesta. Nothing too hard, aside from having a freshly black-marketed Chuck at the split up >_>

Kartikeya did not live up to the hype he gets at GameFAQs...

Currently sidequesting. Will give detailed (sort of) opinion once I beat it, possibly over the weekend. Then it's superboss time!

[Grefter]

ToPr - Future woooo, got Volt.  I like the new scenes with Chester, free levels and building up on his character and the relationship with Arche, makes it much smoother and it is working out pretty decent on that front (cliche, but alright pacing and whatnot) even though I have completely and totally forgot to watch the skits...  The scenes make sense plotwise and give Chester free levels to get up to speed.  This is great stuff.  Mixing plot and gameplay elements tends to get appreciation from me though.  I guess when he hits 40 or 50 he will be declared up to speed plot wise (40 would be equal to where you would be at about when you hit the future, he ... should only be a couple of levels behind by the time everyone is 50ish if I am reading the exp curve properly.

Oh yeah I also forgot to do the kick the things I dislike.  Poked around with the Ogi's today, combo skills are sometimes really bland connections of skills (use at any range is nice and the revamping of some of the skills is good, but Dual Kick + Beast/force/Lionheart/Lion Fang whatever it is called is still really bland, almost everything with Tiger Blade is uber and whatnot.  Stuff like Shining Strike/Magma Rift + Thunder Claw now though, that is nice.  Turn an alright skill of Shining Strike (!!!!!) and mix in a mini Tiger Bladeish attack, make the whole thing Thunder, make it juggle the enemy very well and have a big area effect, very nice.  Thunder Claw + that is going to smash the shit out of the next area with Lightning weak guys.

Other thing I kept forgetting to kick, the Odin and Pegasus stuff was cool when I was a teenager and loved all things mythical reference wise.  Now that I am smarter, it is just a Deus Ex Machina in a game that without it actually has a pretty slick plot.

[Meeplelard]

FE9: Finished Chap 14!

Amazing how much easier the game is when you don't use Rhys, which is to say, not using someone who is frail and doubled by most enemies <_<

[Dunefar]

RKS:

A Megaman 2 clone with lovely graphics, an LP and buzz around it? I'll bite. I got up to the second Iris stage before calling it a night. The gameplay's really good, classic Megaman with a lot of stuff to go at. By and large the best parts of Megaman 2/3/4 have been lifted out and it's all good. The stage design is solid, with many homages to old stages with reasonable difficulty. I'll post more when I play it when I'm not in a half asleep zombie daze.

However! There is one exception to the above. Fuck Freudia's stage. The ice stage+Quickman lasers thing is a fun concept on the surface, but turning the laser rooms into mini mazes with one right path and a few ways to screw up? Ew.  99% of the danger from this stage comes from lasers or pits, both of which are instant death. I don't mind some of this, but it's taken way too far, to the point where you're going to burn a lot of lives and continues getting the wretched thing down. Oh, and the boss is the hardest of the lot and you're likely to have used her weakness weapon in the stage beforehand.

[Sierra]

Good to see you're enjoying it, Dune. And yes, Freudia's a bitch and a half. I think I used bombs and the Lilli + Run Away strategy there (timestop was either empty or something I just didn't think to use).

Where's the LP of this? SA, I guess?

[Ranmilia]

Know what's even more fun?  Doing that stage with the alternate character.  She has walljump, y'see... so whenever you so much as brush a wall, she goes into the wallslide animation, which slows you down and then you get killed by the lasers.  And don't even think about what she has to do to the first fortress boss, with only a shortrange weapon...

RKS is a great game as long as you know what to do.  Otherwise it hates all life and you'll be destroyed by lasers and most of the bosses repeatedly.  Still fun, though.  The game over screens are treats.


Me, I went back to Megamari and did a playthrough using all the 'wrong' weapons.  Or, at least, as many as I could.  Thankfully some of the bosses you can't really go wrong either way.

And... surprisingly, most of the 'bad' weapons are really good.  Homing Amulet (Reimu-A) is game MVP.  No joke.  I'm not even sure it's worse than Yin-Yang Strike now, just because it's such awesome utility.  Quicksilver (Sak-A) and Ice Vulcan (Cirno-M) have also been very good to me.  Bloody Curse (Remi-A) is actually the biggest letdown by far, I can't believe people hyped that over Red Magic.  The ammo consumption is still too high to use it regularly, the short range makes it hard to hit with, and it doesn't even do that much damage, often failing to OHKO the green Tewi ships.  Its only advantage over Red Magic is the ability to aim down... but how often is aiming down with that short of a range useful?  (Answer:  Never, except for Yukari, and it's not hard to get level with her anyhow.)

[Sierra]

Yep, I did Freudia's stage with the swordgirl last night. It was painful.

[Ranmilia]

Annnnd I can't beat the fortress.  Youmu-A is a nearly absolute requirement.

[Smashy]

Lemme guess: Alice-only section?

p.s. Remi-A has at least 1 use. Unlike the Youmu weapon that this kind of playthrough sticks you with.

[AAA]

Odin Sphere-Started this, only got up to Gwen's first chapter before stopping. Game is pretty enough, I guess, though Okami is better. Combat looks like it could be fun. Playing on Normal, by the by. Not so interested in the plot right now, what with Gwen dropping dramabomb after dramabomb but it's still early.

[Otter]

Yes!  I am not alone!  During my Alice-collects-everything Megamari run (in which I 1cc'd the Fortress for the first time, which was fun), I thought that Reimu-A had GREAT utility and I loved it and it killed Remi fine despite the bad damage and I thought I must have been crazy but now I see I'm not!  I'm -probably- going to collect it as a rule from now on, honestly; I wasn't using the orbs as often as I see myself using the homing cards.  The orbs are clearly better in a few situations (like Youmu staircase, say, or against the Remi or Reimu), but the cards are really good enough on the bosses, other things can be used on Youmu staircase and other situations like that, and I was really surprised at how many times I was reaching for Reimu-A to solve some specific situation.

Oh yeah, RKS is talk is going on too.  Who else has beaten the Rider mode so far?  I suspect Smashy and Alex, at least.  Cid?

[Dark Holy Elf]

Phoenix Wright - Beat Case 4. That one took a while to get moving and was a bit more nonsensical than the previous (not to mention the new characters weren't up to the standards of Wendy Oldbag or Cody Hackins), but I guess case 3 in particular was high standards. Still enjoying the game a lot.

Super Mario Galaxy - Sexy. Haven't played much yet, but seems very promising. Ripping off Gravity Man's stage is a sure sign of win. Camera's still not perfect, but in general this seems like a huge upgrade on SM64. Love the stage design so far.

Super Metroid - Beat at 1:01. Argh. Only took over an hour because I had to do the final room in two runs - not enough missiles. One more pack of Supers would have done it easily, guess I was forgetting one on my normal route. Oh well. This is probably shelved for a while, as much fun as it is.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

KH - Man, it's late 2002 all over again, the evil allure of Disney+Square got me onikakushi'd once more. I still have issues with the camera angles (I... think I blocked how annoying they were for platforming from my mind, but the game's consistency on giving me the worst angles possible without the possibility to shift them to the least unfavorable side is obnoxious. This could've been solved with simply giving you an overhead view angle option. What the fuck?), the plot is still "what", but dear god I just have too much fun with it. Cure and Sonic Blade for Godlike - I really should've spammed Sonic Blade like a maniac back then, and Cure just means you don't die -ever- again. Roll Dodge is also <3. Currently up to Agrabah. Fuck, I hate Agrabah platforming. ;_;