What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Mad Fnorder]

BvS:  If there's any Season 2 players here that feel like changing villages, come on over to Champions.  There's several of us DLers there, and it's well-managed.

Seconded. We have Immortal Realm and Pie. Just went NRF, too.

[Yakumo]

Other than the three of us, who else is still playing, anyway?  And no thanks, I like my village.

[Grefter]

About time Strago.  Deus Ex is no Thief, but you will get by on the stealth game fair easilly.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

So as I wait impatiently for my Tankadin to get copied to the PTR, I made a Death Knight to kill time, and I have to say: the DK starter quests are really well-constructed. When you do something, it actually feels like like you DID something. Like when I killed the Mayor of New Avalon, he doesn't spawn anymore on my client. He's still there for other people, but we're invisible to each other. Apparently they do a lot of this in Northrend, which is awesome.

The downside is that I have to keep waiting or I have to go to Outland, and Outland is a huge step down.

[Tide]

Wild ARMS 2: The adventures of Janus and band of miscasted WA villains continues.

This time, the team proceeds to treck up a tower. Along the way they find switches! And a bomb called a Pineapple. Then they approach a radio, when suddenly waves of frue ideals (and terrorism) are sprouted over the radio lines. Janus' devises a plan to quickly head back to town and find and hunt the culprits. He needs to stab something.

Back at the town, the old man in charge of it tells us to take care of it even though it was his responsibility. Thanks old man! I am certain that I can put those EXP to better use. Back out they meet SCYTHE who tells the party of the location of where to go next. How? It is a mystary~ (for now)

Augst gives them the OK, and Janus is off. At the end of a familiar dungeon named Chug Chug, their first opponent from team ideals, HONOUR, has come to face off. In the face of Honor Dynamites and metal blades, Janus kicks the bucket, but is promptly revived by Hauser. Hauser then shows honour why MANKIND MUST PERISH with a bazooka to the face. Honour proceeds to retreat. Janus curses as they are unable to severe team ideal from releasing their ideals elsewhere.

Back at the farm, Augst gives the team a break. So Janus goes back to meet Enil. They meet again with Iron Man, Cyclops and Malik. Janus talks to Enil and they share a moment. And hence awkward horrible fanfiction was born. Janus eventually leaves town, with Hauser and Lolithia showing up dragging his ass back. After some upgrades, the team sets off...ON ANOTHER DAY!

QUOTE OF THE UPDATE:
Cyclops: "Hee hee hee!"

(Scythe = Marivel
Pltomea = Honour)

[AndrewRogue]

Started trying this Billy vs Snakeman thing while waiting for Wrath Beta Client. Also apparently fail at getting the banner to show.

[TranceHime]

Pokemon Platinum: Yeah, I have Platinum now. Hatbot'd Chimchar as my starter, got a female one on my second try. Whoopee. Things have changed quite a bit, no longer is there a Red Gyarados, you get the Pokemon earlier than normal. Though there is a slight fetch quest which annoyed me. >:|

[Sierra]

MGS4: I need spoiler tags. 61!

So yeah, done with South America. Just noticed that the rebels have little hearts appear above their heads when they recognize me. Ahahaha, nice. Anyway: I have a shotgun, I have a sniper rifle, I have the box. Do your worst, Liquid.

Also, who's leaving these nudie mags lying all over the place?

EDIT: Spoilerish stuff in tiny font. Some of it barely qualifies as such, but if you're like me and don't even want to have knowledge of gameplay stuff in advance, then don't read it. Also don't read if you're Trips.

1: For those of you who thought MGS3's Sorrow battle was a bit trippy: Kojima was saving his best crack-addled nightmares for this installment. Trust me. Oh god why is the hot chick trying to kill me. This might not sound like much of a spoiler, but the fight is so fucking wacked out that even letting someone know something bizarre was coming up would feel like ruining the moment. I'm serious.

2: In unrelated news, Naomi is clearly Miss Fanservice for this game. Maybe it's just too hot to wear bras in South America?

3: Raiden's back, and almost self-consciously badass. He does pull off some of the craziest (and cheesiest) action moves I've ever seen, though. Seriously, dude can use ninja swords with his feet. Both of them. At once. Also GEKKO CENTRIFUGE.

4: I have to wonder what made Debrin swoop in and save me. That's a lot of effort for just one paying customer, even one as lucrative as Snake. (Battlefield scavenging: now for fun AND profit!)

5: "I'm going to take a little nap now." I laughed. Hard.

Going to keep saves for all the bosses, as usual. Hopefully they'll all be that fun. Also Metal Gear Solid 4 stat topic yes.

[Strago]

Max Payne - Loving this. The style is exactly my thing, and the gameplay actually holds up pretty well as far as I'm concerned. Making my way towards the Charon, now, to get it back for Vladimir. I hope I see more of him, on that note. Coolest NPC so far.

Deus Ex - Installed, will start it some time after Max Payne.

VtM:B - Yeah, I got this too. Heh.

[VySaika]

More TotA:

Sidequesting done. Checked a Din's Shop FAQ, and decided to abuse it until I got Swordian Dymlos for Luke just because referances like that amuse me. Also played some DRAGON BUSTER. Beat it on my 3rd try, and got a new costume for Luke which is actually kinda cool. Also did some collesium fights. Can't beat Advanced Solo mode with anyone, but beat Advanced Group mode without issues. Then the Tales Cameo battle came along and overkilled me. ;_;

Next time I play, I'll advance plot and prolly try to just blitz the ending.

More Touhoumons:

So, it seems that my rival is using Nitori, and Eirin isn't actually a watertype like the Touhoudex Finali sent me says. So I needed to find a new water type. Enter Suwako. Suwako is AWESOME. Her final form gets Drizzle and a renamed Waterspout. Also she's Water/Ground and gets EQ at 34. And she has an awesome hat. Suwako is made of win.

My team now is Ex-Sakuya, Ex-Remilia, Ex-Patchy, Ex-Suwako, Flandre and Meiling. Flandre is a L55 evo, and Meiling can't get her Ex form until I get the national dex, sadly. Anyone know if there's a way to get that before fighting the E4 in Fire Red?

[metroid composite]

So...was getting tired of just having MoF and SA installed.  Popped in IN, and surprisingly 1cced it first try.  This caused spell practice to be unlocked.  Extra wasn't unlocked, though--how do you unlock it on IN?  Do you have to successfully complete the last spell?


Also, introduced Excal's little brother to Touhou, which should prove amusing since Excal hates the stuff.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Extra? You need to beat IN with all teams, I think.

[Smashy]

For IN? 1cc with whatever team you just beat it with, and you should get a different Stage 6.  Beat that and you unlock the Extra for that team.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

S5 - Suddenly it's Euram Barows!

[Rozalia]

Other than the three of us, who else is still playing, anyway?  And no thanks, I like my village.

Well I've been playing it for a while so I guess you can count me (Should have put that banner in my sig to make people see ths maybe but I never really bothered with it). I also like my village so I'll have to turn your offer down Captain K.

Anyway currently have been playing Disgaea afternoon of darkness and its gotten better as I played along. At first it didn't really hook me and it was a on and off thing but now I'm playing it a fair amount of time.
Final fights were not as hard they fought they'd be. Midboss had a new flashy attack but with no good support (They all die in 2 turns) he is beaten quite easily, which is a shame considering how hard his other battles were.
Vulcanus left me scratching my head for a bit as his support is massive, and it left me thinking I had no chance. Playing it safe was the best thing I could of down and I manged to beat the stage somewhat easily.
Laminton was a grind of a battle but it came down to me surronding him and hacking him to pieces. His attacks were easily healed but scared me at one point when he beat Gorden down in a counter war.

Going to keep going with this mode and not switching over to Etna's for a while because I want to beat everythig before going on to the next story (I may go back on this).
First I had to get some ready built allies to beat the dark senate down. Got a lv 130 dragon, a lv98 hobbit, a level 124 nekumata, and a level 70ish Galatic demon.
I got the Galatic demon in a test run and decided to keep him as its a pretty good tank even if it is really sad on the damage front.
I got the dragon and hobbit next and was very happy with how they did (Mostly the dragon). The nekumata I got wasn't the one I wanted but I had to make do with her. I at first tried for a lv 384 I think it was ne but I kept failing.
I'll proberly try again later because last time the monster survived with 1 hit point which was annoying.

Currently beat Prinny land, stuck on last stage of the humun world and have made it to Cave 4.

[metroid composite]

For IN? 1cc with whatever team you just beat it with, and you should get a different Stage 6.  Beat that and you unlock the Extra for that team.

Yep, that worked; thanks.

Also: wheeeeee, shiny rainbow boss!

[VySaika]

You like that picture way too much, Snow.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Can't blame me, though. It's perfectly appropriate.

[Grefter]

Much better though.

[DjinnAndTonic]

SaGa Frontier: Beat Asellus' story as a human. Then I went back and got the half-mystic and full-mystic endings. Neither was as satisfying as the human ending. But then... that feels like a polish issue.

Overall impression: SaGa Frontier is -good-. It really is. Surprisingly so. But I hear some of the other chapters are less... complete. Why, Square, why? I'm really hooked on the gameplay's character growth and recruitment aspects. The individual stories seem pretty interesting, but there's so much left out... This game suffers from 'awesome potential' syndrome. My interest is captured, but the game keeps letting me down... Right now, with only Asellus and a few minutes of Blue's chapter under my belt, the game is a 7.

Are there any SaGa series fans that can tell me more about how the other games in the series relate to eachother? Gameplaywise or storywise or however it works...

After playing this I'm serious tempted to pick up RSMS. Is it worth it?

My first experience with SaGa was Unlimited Saga, which was pretty much a bad joke that I never finished. But SGF is just so cool that I'd like to see a -finished- version of a SaGa game.

Final Party: Asellus, Zozma, Mesarthim, Fuse (w/ DSC), and Rouge.
People that came along and watched me fight: Rei, Ildon, Turnip, TimeLord, Emelia, Lute, Thunder, Gen.

The FAQ I was following called Ciato/BatKnight's battle 'easy', but it was by far the most difficult battle I faced in the whole game apart from the Firebird on Mt. Mosperiburg.

-Djinn

[superaielman]

You found Ciato hard when you had MT healing and DSC? I'm shocked honestly, that fight is awful.

[Laggy]

Supersonic combos probably. I can't think of a lot else that fight can bring. Maybe he got ID'd badly?

Also, Saga is the definition of "potential awesome". If you're into the world and characters, you can actually glean a lot out of it if you have an eye for detail and research Essence of Saga (it is definitely interesting to me and Super, I know that much, and Niu is the resident guru on such things). Gameplay... yeah, so much could've been better with polish, but it's definitely one of the main appeals.

I think the Saga games are separate entities in terms of universe and continuity but again Niu would know more.

[Tide]

P3 Speedrun - Bonus prize for Tonfa getting his streaming to work for Nin nin~

The world of pain continues. This time, we finally made it to Priestess. All the battles leading to her aren't bad. My accuracy sucks for some reasons since I seem to be missing here and there but I can kill her in 3 rounds without much trouble. Just that the AI had some serious hax (as well as actually being smart for once). That led me to a reset. On Priestess. *cries tears of emo* I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL WE GET TO SLEEPING TABLE.

A couple of key points to note on the train. The battles before the randoms int he final car drop very good EXP. So its worth fighting them. As an example, one set of those randoms drop around 50-80 EXP. With double EXP on Thebel, I'm getting 11 EXP at most. So this isn't really a contest. Next, relating to those randoms in the final car, you can't sneak by them. Or if you can, its really hard. So instead, I use run away or alternatively, bash my way through if the fight is simple enough.

The strategy for Priestess was simple. Assign both Junpei and Yukari to Assign Target so they don't start randomly healing. Then, cast Rakunda turn 1, switch to Alp for her high magic and repeatedly use Agilao/Mazio gems while the AI does their thing. 3 turns is enough. The trouble here is Mabufu hits Alp weakness. I can either hope the AI doesn't hit me (which only happened ONCE in four runs), does not cast Mabufu at all, or I can swap to Angel, with 2 points lower magic but doesn't have the Ice weakness. I chose the latter on the taped run.

Current time is 2 hours and 45 minutes with the first month finally finished.

Ahead:
- Need to craft multi elemental Lilim.
- Build up to level 4 courage so I can start Star S.Link when available.
- Elizabeth requests to get bonus money/attack items whenever possible.

S.Links right now... 3 Magician/4 Chariot/2 Emperor/4 Hermit. With Devil ready to start once I have the appropriate levle of Charm.

[Niu]

Overall impression: SaGa Frontier is -good-. It really is. Surprisingly so. But I hear some of the other chapters are less... complete. Why, Square, why? I'm really hooked on the gameplay's character growth and recruitment aspects. The individual stories seem pretty interesting, but there's so much left out... This game suffers from 'awesome potential' syndrome. My interest is captured, but the game keeps letting me down... Right now, with only Asellus and a few minutes of Blue's chapter under my belt, the game is a 7.

Asellus's chapter is among one of the least complete, actually. Her Ordeal with Furdo got cut, the infiltration to Trinity Base got cut, the event with Bene is also gone, and most of all, the potential homosexual relationship between Ildon and Rastaban is also gone.

And the only complete SaGa right now probably is the RSMS. Not even SF2 and U.SaGa is really considered complete.

As for all the details, I am more than happy to put them up in the fact center.... just when it'll got fixed. I was already drafting over the AT science topics too...

[Shale]

Are there any SaGa series fans that can tell me more about how the other games in the series relate to eachother? Gameplaywise or storywise or however it works...

After playing this I'm serious tempted to pick up RSMS. Is it worth it?

RSMS is good fun. It's got an incredibly weak plot even in comparison to SF (it goes: character-specific opening quest -> do a bunch of mostly unrelated quests, some of which involve foiling the plans of the big bad's minions -> go to final dungeon.), and if you're comparing it to Assellus' quest, the most plot-heavy path in SF, it's a world of difference in SF's favor. If you're in it for the gameplay, though, RSMS comes highly recommended. There's loads of options for how to build your characters with different weapon types, skills to build, equipment customizing, character classes (although race is no longer a meaningful distinction)...I didn't like SF that much, and I've recently hit 75 combined hours in RSMS. Plus it's cheap.