What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Niu]

Chopin is emoing over his deceased sister in his dream, is my take of the plot.

[TranceHime]

Game that has already devoured my body and soul, and most of my mind:

70:47:36.

I will not say anything more.  No, I am still not done with the game if that's what you think I mean.

Are you nearly done, though?

Upon further checking it turns out my game time was actually 100+ hours for said GAME OF SOUL DEVOURING.

[Grefter]

ES plot from what I played is about 1000 times funnier if instead of everyone having TB you read them as having Aids instead.  Aids that gives them magic.

Honestly though, the fact that they didn't even try for depth in the plot killed the game for me and I refuse to play it.  There is SO much potential there, but nope, lets make a crappy game that is about love and friendship which just sounds like you are hyping STDs as a form of miracle.

Edit - FUN WIKIPEDIA GAME.  Thank you for this inspiration Snow.

...  The song, which has since been covered by numerous artists, is about masturbation. ...

In Australia "I Touch Myself" was released as a CD single in December 1990 and debuted at number thirty-one later that month. After five weeks of being in the chart the song jumped to number-one knocking Vanilla Ice's debut single "Ice Ice Baby" off the top spot and stayed there for another week. It debuted on the UK Singles Chart at position sixty-nine and on its eighth week it peaked at number ten (its peak position in the UK) and spent a total of twelve weeks in the chart. When released in the United States, the song caused a minor controversy.

Despite common belief, Blondie did not record a version of I Touch Myself. The version that is commonly mistaken for being by Blondie, is actually the original version by The Divinyls.

 
THIS ENDS FUN WIKIPEDIA GAME.

SO1 Remake - So yeah I decided to put together a complete list of the stuff you can make with Blacksmithing since the stuff out there is kind of shit and just tells you best stuff you can make  once you have the Magical Rasp, which is practically the point where it means fuck all.  So anyway, dunno whether or not to make it a FAQ or not since Smithing by itself is kind of meh, but Crafting is to much work and I haven't quite narrowed down specifics of Customisation (which is also to much work anyway).

So meh I might just throw it in DL Wiki or something.

Edit 2 - Oh yeah I forgot to say that Item creation is officially completely and totally shit in SO1 compared to SO2.  Basic items needed for it being incredibly restricted in where you can purchase it is ultimate lose.  One shop so far sells Batons.  Another shop in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TOWN sells Smithing Hammers and Machinist Tools.  So much effort for this crap.  Should have been fixed.

Edit 3 - Alright here is the entirety of what a Blacksmith guide would contain

Without Magical Rasp
 
Iron - Knight's Shield 10 Def 70 Avd, Fine Shield 15 Def 75 Avd
Orichalcum - Hermit's Cap  35 Def 20 Avd Half fire
Damascus - Dwarven Mail 200 Def 1/2 Fire, Dwarven Helmet 60 Def, Dwarven Guard 25 Def 85 Avd, Dwarven Boots? 50 Def
Moonrock - Duelling Suit 300 Def 100 Avd 20 Guts Half Earth Fire Wind Immune Petrify, Kitty Suit 200 Def 120 Avd 5 Guts
Mithril - Mithril Helmet 70 Def, Mithril Greaves 75 Def
Meteorite - Steel Helmet 50 Def, Steel Armor 150 Def, Silver Greaves 30 Def
Rune Metal - Robe of Deception 100 Def 100 Avd 60 Mag 50 Guts Null Light and Wind immune petrify
 
Magical Rasp
 
Iron - Ankh Shield 20 Def 80 Avd, Kitty Hairband 25 Def 10 Hit 10 Avd
Orichalcum - Reflecting Plate 300 Def 1/2 Fire Wind Absorb Light, Dream Crown 40 Def Absorb Fire and Wind.
Damascus - Duelling Helmet 100 Def, Magic Bikini 300 Def 100 Avd 12 Earth Fire Wind
Moonrock - Battlesuit 500 Def 150 Avd 50 Guts, Kitty Armor 500 Def 150 Avd 50 Guts Null Fire + Earth
Mithril - Mithril Shield 30 Def 90 Avd Immune Paralysis, Mithril Mesh 200 Def 1/2 Water Fire Wind.
Meteorite - Sylvan Boots 100 Def, Sylvan Helmet 80 Def, Sylvan Mail 250 Def 12 Wind Dark Immune Petrify.
Rune Metal - Cloak of Stars 220 Def 100 Mag 1/2 Light.

So yeah.  Pretty short list, with it being this tiny there may as well just be a list in game.  No real discovery at all, just pain in the arse item gathering pretty much and then praying to RNG.  Not Battlesuit is only equipable by Iria from the people in my party (Default4, Ashlay, Ioshua, Phia and Marvelle).  A good portion of the equipment there is for the cat (catter?  More Cat?  Lesser More Cat?) chick that I don't have (who has stupid recruitment just as a heads up) and what gear she has there is pretty much copy paste someone elses with some plusses tacked on.

Yeah I am pretty disappointed in this.  Oh well, I have a cool CD playing anyway so it is fine.

[metroid composite]

FFT: The adventures of Little money (Laggy) and Little girl (mc) continue.

Starting from mid Chapter 2 (Goug Machine City) we got up through most of Chapter 4 (Kletian), and decided to call it a night before attempting the final three fights.


Laggy decided to go on the path to Samurai.  Once there generally setting Item secondary, using alternately Counter or Weapon Guard as a reaction.  I convinced him to spend one battle in Wizard opening up Time Mage, just because I had enough JP in the class to give him Teleport (which replaced Move+1).  Support was a constant Gained JP Up.
In the mean time, I was a Time Mage with Ramuh; got myself to Meteor, then got myself to Short Charge.  Stuck around long enough to get myself Quick as well, then started heading down the path to Mediator for faith raising.  I've been mostly a Talk Skil TM since then (I spent a bit of extra time in Mediator to get Mimic Daravon, though surprisingly it actually hasn't come up even though I do run out of MP).  My faith is now up to 83 or so.
About the time I was heading to Mediator, Laggy was becoming competent.  With enough Samurai JP to be effective, I asked him what his support would be now that he has no use for Gained JP Up; he asked me for suggestions, and I gave Magic Attack Up, so he spent some time as a Draw Out Wizard (complaining that he wasn't using Excalibur >_>) before settling in as a Draw Out Ubersquire.

Battle-wise, the ones that pop out in my mind as causing problems are Queklain (Nightmare). Goland Coal City (all sorts of problems from lack of revival to Olan dieing). UBS2 (Lancers, particularly hasted ones). Yardow (Summoners--the Ninjas died to Meteor before doing anything, but two Summoners are still a pain).  Wiegraf/Velius (After a bit of frustration, Laggy decided to Yell/Accumulate; without that I'm actually not sure how we would have won).  Balk 1 (it's embarrassing when you kill everyone on his team with an opening Meteor, and then fail to 2v1 Balk).  North wall of Bethla (North Wall crushed us.  We actually lost once at South Wall too.  Not the Sluice itself, though; that was easy).  Zalera (Nightmare, Knights that break stuff).

Some highlights include: OHKOing Zalbag with...I believe 768 damage?  (Best compatibility 78 faith Meteor).  Killing Adramelk before his first action resolved (we were hasted coming out of Dycedarg, and then Adramelk was instantly slowed when his CT was 0...and then Demied twice and Muramasaed twice before he got a turn.  He then decided to charge a spell, which never resolved).  In outside Limberry, we managed to learn Ultima and win first attempt despite going in with really bad setups (no charm protection on Ramza, I was a Mediator), the highlight of which was my de-charming Ramza with a Mythril Gun through Blade Grasp (19% hit or something).

[AAA]

GTA4-All available races done, 17/50 Unique Stunts. I just couldn't do the first racing mission, kept flipping out. Finally, the last time I tried I was in the lead the entire time, and sure enough I entered the last corner and flipped because running up against the wall makes that happen sometime. So just as I'm resigned to having to try it again, the first racer comes up and his me, and then the second one does and knocks me back right-side up. I gun it, hoping I can make up the speed with only a few blocks to go. I do manage to get past the second-place guy, but the first place guy was going too fast. There was a traffic jam just by the finish line, and the AI apparently was just going bugshit trying to ram its way past the cars, but I was still too far away. I wasn't going to make it.

I ram straight into one of the cars, go flipping over the entire block, and land right-side up on the finish line just seconds before the other car gets there, and win the race. I couldn't stop laughing as I gunned the engine and headed towards the spray shop. I was free.

I hit a lamp post going full speed up a hill. Niko shoots out of the windshield doing close to the sound barrier and winds up launching 20 feet into the air, and then lands on his head.

I proceed to win every other race on my first try. Then I go do two missions for Playboy X.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

XS - Beaten. Albedo ate a 3HKO, Sophie Peithos wasn't much better. The ending wasn't much of an ending, but it was expected, etc etc. I guess this counts as another game I broke into itty bitty pieces.

[metroid composite]

Half Life:
Laggy had me play this.  Quite enjoyable...unlike Half Life 2.

WAXF: Gadgeteer SCC
First few battles were easy.  Then we get to the "Use a Fantastica" level.  Bought three Freeze Gems and one Vortex Gem.  The Freeze Gems were used to kill the enemy level 20 Fantasitca.  The Vortex Gem to damage the first level 20 Secutor that charges forward.  (They seem to have fixed elemental weaknesses).

I gathered around the gap as follows:

._OO
O__T
.FLC

Hmm...this diagram is wrong, but eh.

With Felius next to Labrynthia and the only character exposed to two secutors, Tony diagonally across from Felius.  The reason for having Felius next to Labrynthia is that whichever Secutor walks into the circle of death will always attack her, and the other Secutor will attack him, so often an Extend Heal Berry would be able to heal both him and Labrynthia.

Kill the Fantastica ASAP (with the three Freeze gems) and then kill two secutors--after that I just made a run for it.  It's probably possible to run when two Secutors are left, but oh well.



That's probably the last hard battle for a while, though funds are a severe issue--I won't be able to splurge on more Gems for a while.  That battle may also just plain end a couple SCCs.  Well...Elementalist might just fry and block the choke with evade hax, and Fantastica laughs at it, but Secutor sounds brutal (although I guess they can use items too).

[Niu]

VPDS- I.Queen got denied entrance into the actual game, poor thing. And the system filtered away Lezard, sweet.

[Meeplelard]

English Legal Charter of 1215: Calintz is now obscenely overpowered.  Yay VISIBLE Counters and a O_o style whose FIRST MOVE outdamages like all other attacks barring like one style's final attack (which for those who don't know MC's battle system, this requires you to attack at least 3 times before said move is available)

Also, Crimson Scar is cracked as well.

*enemy hits Azel's shields, he takes 250 damage or so per hit*
*enemy hits Calintz's shields, Calintz having 3 less defense than Azel, takes 42*

This game really just wanted to make Calintz godly and such; there were subtle hints for the first 65 hours or so (eg noticiably faster than other characters and overall better damage for the most part!), but now its just idiotically blatant <.<

THAT SAID, I...think there might be an end in sight.  Like, I have a few ultimate equips (yay Ultimate Fuget Sword?), Calintz got his token massive plot upgrade that many mains get end game, and all spoilers have been revealed!  Also Calintz is clearly going to get it on with a certain black haired chick...

I...don't know what to say; if this game is truly going to end...I feel like I would have done the impossible.  But I should probably FINISH IT FIRST.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VPDS- I.Queen got denied entrance into the actual game, poor thing. And the system filtered away Lezard, sweet.

No Lezard in VPDS!? YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

[Tide]

Lezard: "No, I will not accept this!"

[hinode]

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon - Up to C24x.  I'll post thoughts on the game in general after beating the last two maps, but first I feel like showing some of my insane RNG luck this playthrough.

Marth, L26 Lord: 43 HP, 24 Str, 0 Mag, 14 Skl, 24 Spd, 29 Luck, 12 Def, 4 Res

He got 1 Angelic Robe and 2 Talismans, but the offensive stats are completely untouched.  Bear in mind his averages look like this:

    38.0 ±2.9 17.5 ±4.0 0.0 ±0.0 13.0 ±3.7 19.5 ±3.7 24.5 ±3.5 12.0 ±2.9 0.5 ±1.1

So yeah, the strength and speed are completely rediculous.  He's one point of speed away from one-rounding the final boss... who doubles average speed for Level 20/10 (30) chars himself.  Absolutely monstrous on offense, held back only by being stuck with the worst range 1 weapon type in the game.

Abel, L20/9 Dracoknight: 38 HP, 21 Str, 1 Mag, 23 Skl, 23 Spd (capped), 10 Luck, 15 Def, 4 Res

For the first twelve levels or so his strength was up there with Marth's, meaning he was even better due to lances+high move.  That levelled off a bit eventually but still was at solid levels.  Swapped him over to Dracoknight after promoting for flight and extra str/def, since I barely used swords with my cavs anyhow.  He has the Gradius for 19 MT range 1-2 legendary goodness right now.

Freyr, L20/9 Paladin: 45 HP, 23 Str, 1 Mag, 26 Skl, 24 Spd, 13 Luck, 12 Def, 6 Res

His speed lagged a bit midgame, but one speedwing and a few level ups fixed that.  Just for kicks he has a forged Javelin with 13 MT and 80 hit for overkill purposes.

Sheeda, L20/8 Sage: 38 HP, 4 Str, 21 Mag, 21 Skl, 25 Spd (capped), 26 Luck, 11 Def, 12 Res

She had a crapload of HP/defense boosters used on her, can't remember exactly how many.  Her magic growth was completely O_o the entire game, even before factoring in the two spirit dusts she got she was tracking ahead of Linda for magic gains, even though Linda beats her by 15% in growth there.  Above average in HP too, and somehow got a strength gain on 0% rate.  Waaaaaaaay better than Sheeda has any right to be.

Oguma, L20/8 Hero: 50 HP, 21 Str, 1 Mag, 25 Skl, 21 Spd, 12 Luck, 16 Def, 3 Res

Second lowest speed of my entire party besides Chainy (...), and he's still hitting his averages there.  HP, strength, and defense all above average to boot.  Used two manuals on him to raise his axe level after promoting, and gave him both the Miracle Sword and a forged Hand Axe with 13 MT and 80 Hit.

Barts, L20/7 Hero: 45 HP, 19 Str, 1 Mag, 27 Skl, 26 Spd (capped), 13 Luck, 12 Def, 3 Res

Swapping him over to Hero after promoting results in an absolutely amazing hand axe spammer, thanks to the big skill and speed gains.  I think these are high even by Hero Barts standards, though.  Strength is still plenty, and he has both Hauteclare and a forged Hand Axe with 15 MT and 68 Hit to guarantee the one-round KO on absolutely everything short of the final boss.  Note that he gets +15 hit from his A rank in axes, which is why it's lower than Oguma's version.

Julian, L24 Thief: 40 HP, 20 Str (capped), 0 Mag, 18 Skl, 23 Spd, 26 Luck, 10 Def, 5 Res

The RNG took out its frustrations on him for most of the game, as he struggled to gain strength for most of the game.  Gave him every last energy drop to compensate, and a few late level gains hit the cap.  His level is lower than everyone else's because he spent a couple of maps opening chests instead of fighting, and also a L20/1 promoted unit gains exp faster than a L20 or L21 unpromoted one does.

Rena, L20/10 Sage: 43 HP, 3 Str, 18 Mag, 15 Skl, 23 Spd, 25 Luck, 9 Def, 15 Res

Finally started slowing down on the exp gain rate relative to the rest of the party when they promoted.  Like Sheeda she got a ton of HP/def boosters, can't remember exactly how.  Her speed growth was every bit as nuts as Sheeda's magic, considering she's supposed to average 14 at this point.  She got 2 speedwings, but +5 to average is still insane.

Beck, L24 Shooter: 32 HP, 12 Str, 18 Skl, 12 Spd, 19 Luck, 20 Def, 0 Res

Gave him literally every single skill booster, plus most of the luck boosters, since he needed help with hit.  Shooters are fun to play around with, they're basically Ballista specialists, though not as good as I hoped without pampering; they have accuracy issues and can't one-round anything they don't hit a weakness on by default.  This is problematic, as every map in the second half of the game has some priests who spam Fortify if any enemies have taken damage that round.  I spent a whopping 18K forging an Elephant gun for extra hit/MT, which was necessary to OHKO a lot of mages in the game.  His level would be a lot lower than this otherwise.

Chainy, L9 Commando: Stats irrelevant

He copies the stats of whomever he's imitating, so basically his stats don't matter at all.  He's technically something of an exp stealer since his own levels basically don't matter, but having a second copy of any PC you want is way too good to pass up.  I usually picked Freyr for his overall stats+move.  Only downside is that he has his own specific inventory, so he can't quite be a jack of all trades unless you're willing to spent turns shuffling items around from the transport.

[superaielman]

Soul Nomad: Map 20. Really liking the writing so far, gameplay's decent but isn't as catchy as OB's system to me. Oh well, still good.

[Niu]

VPDS- I.Queen got denied entrance into the actual game, poor thing. And the system filtered away Lezard, sweet.

No Lezard in VPDS!? YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Yes and no.

[Cmdr_King]

Star Ocean: First Departure- Fin.  Fun game.  Is not balanced.  So kinda fun in the way FFVIII is fun.  Alternatively, it's like SO2 on fast forward, which is a big boost to my enjoyment of the thing.  I mean, if I had to itemize it the game would sound awful, it's a remake of an SNES era plot and you can tell, rips a PS1 era battle system so if I hadn't smashed it to pieces I probably would have been making weird curses at the game, that sort of thing.  Instead I spent about 16:30 mercilessly smashing stuff and supressing the urge to cackle.

Warning: Spoilers or plot details for Star Ocean: Till the End of Time may follow.

I will note that I've concluded Welch is Blair's player character in the Eternal Sphere, though this does imply she was about 12 when she started working on it.  But this would not surprise me at all.

Um... yeaaah, I can't really make any coherent DL notes for the game.  I ended up controlling Ilia with Millie/Roddick/Welch as backup.  Cyuss and Phia warmed the bench with Ronyx.  So I didn't even have a full party, didn't see half the cast, strongly suspect I missed Welch's money move, and honestly trying to follow SO1 damage numbers is like herding cats.  But I did make myself a Souleater.  Assuming Ashlay's the only other user, it's even legal!, between there being enough to go around + 13 characters + you may not even get Ashlay.  So Roddick's pretty badass at the least.

8/10.  Kinda short, but otherwise great fun.  And another tool in the "make DL get PSPs" arsenal, very important.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Any other allusions to 4D Space being a post-technological singularity human civilization? There were a couple in SO3, wondering if they ran with it any further.

[Cmdr_King]

Aside from Welch's existence/genre savviness/etc (and her race, which is listed as "It's a Secret!"), no real reference is made to SO3.  We'll see what Welch gives us in SO2.

[metroid composite]

WAXF

I was thinking that 1.3 would be the hardest battle for a while (since you're clearly not supposed to fight through level 20 enemies).  However 1.4 proved to be a pain as well (I couldn't easily kill enemies, and had to keep allied villagers alive).  Certainly had a few resets, and used more Berries than I earned back in cash.  I definitely have cash issues, and I'm starting to worry because I know there's a battle coming up with physically immune enemies, which means saving up for more gems.  I'm also going to need money to hire generics.

[Monkeyfinger]

Beat Mana Khemia. I got the Muppy ending because he's the coolest character. I'll jewtube the rest later.

Rating it 6/10, with 2 of the missing points being due to the pain in the ass growth system. I don't like IC in RPGs. MK's is above average but still irritating, and I have to constantly stay on top[ of it... fuck that. Great game otherwise - fun battle system, likeable characters, and the decency to put its plot on the backburner because the developers knew that was the game's weak point. Take note, GameArts.

In-game PC rankings would go something like:

Vayne: 8/10: Analyze was crucial. Early on he had the only good crowd control, later he switched to having good damage for bosses.
Muppy: 8/10: He had his cannon techs to clear weak randoms, Change to get rid of strong ones during the night-time, and his uber cover-ability + great durability to neuter bosses.
Roxis: 7/10: Was MVP for a midgame stretch when he was clearing randoms in one shot with the mid-level MT spells. His time cards during bursts were great for mid/late bosses. Being fucking worthless for his first 2 chapters holds him below Vayne and Muppy.
Pamela: 5/10: Project character. Generic Mage with fuckawful stats at first. 2 of her endgame unique skills were sweet though. D-support for when Muppy couldn't do it (or when the attack had a status), and that Sylph-style draining to totally obsolete jess.
Flay: 5/10: Early, when physicals were a major source of offense, he had great damage vs bosses and randoms. Late he could still mess up bosses. Strong timecard skill, and Screwdriver was amazing - like 6k damage after raiden charge + delay. Sat most randoms out during the second half, though.
Anna: 4/10: Like flay but without the timecard skills, really. Didn't use her much once Pamela started getting good.
Nikki: 4/10: Nice in the earlygame, completely tanked during the midgame when her damage wasn't great and she had no crowd control and her durability was meh. Had a bit of a resurgence late, when she got a fuckload of HP+50 nodes at once and her speed became useful for feeding turns to Muppy, allowing him to change randoms before they could go even in the face of nighttime stat boosts.
Jess: 2/10: Stereotypical shit mage character. One-round bait early, no unique skills worth using late to make up for the bad stats. At least healing echo was useful for that one stretch in the game after she got tough enough to survive a focused assault and before X-heals got common... -_- 2/10 might even be highballing it. What an utterly worthless all-around part of the game, seriously. She's not even an interesting character to make up for her gameplay woes.

DL:

Vayne: 3.90 Heavy. Tends to live to turn 1 despite going after Dekar, since he has that full statusblocker and solid durability, at which point his overkill combo murders most PCs. But, most of the people who can manage to kill him before he sets up are PCs (ID gets him, and to me the blocker misses a couple key statuses like stone and confuse) and the way I take bosses most of them in the upper division tank that combo - and then Vayne's a sitting duck. Evade whores like the FEers that clog heavy tank him out too. A tamer view of boss HP could boost him up to mid or high heavy, but to me... eh, he probably doesn't go far.

Jess: 3.30 middle. Timed healing is nice, but doesn't do much to solve that underlying problem of getting 2HKOed by average damage + being slow. There's accurate silence, but... most mages have a physical to threaten her with, and most of them get a chance to hurt Jess with a spell before getting silenced, if they don't outright block it. On-the-spot syntheses make her a Lemina close, we've seen how well THAT works... in short, Jess owns attrition fighters who don't block silence, as well as a lot of status whores, but fuck if she isn't a light level slugger even with the healing.

Nikki: 4.25 heavy. I think Tallychu might have undersold MK speed a bit, but I don't have conclusive proof. Anyway, turn 2 ID goes a long way when backed by high speed and HP and good status blocking, and her damage is pretty solid too, over 1.5x average. Good in a slugfest, good vs. anyone who doesn't block ID, but 1D. Oh, and Panther beat fucking ruins healers, that lets her stuff about 3x average damage into her second turn. Break might be worth respecting too, but... meh. Needs to be attached to better damage.

Pamela: 4.70 godlike. First, obligatory lol at the "high heavy. malik +" ratings we used to see. (Malik made godlike semifinals, remember) Anyway., high heavy ratings for Pamela make sense if you nerf or outright ban aroma materials, but taken at full effectiveness as I view them they're a really huge boost.  You can't take her out with physicals, you can't do it with a lot of status, and you can't do it with magic that's "merely" solid 2HKO, or you're asking to get drained to death. Or, if you're frail, splattered by a limit. Or, if you're a PC with crappy blockers, slowed or slept or silenced. Godlike is full of really mean, 1d physical hitters, which helps.  (I can think of Orlandu, Kefka, Emelious, Xorn, Melfice, Van, Guv off the top of my head, and that's not even thinking about the dregs of godlike...)

Flay: 3.60 middle. Blunt instrument. Buff up and try to murder with Screwdriver. Delay helps him get that 2nd turn a bit faster in practice. Nice HP and statusblocking, not-nice speed. Yeah, the vastly worse speed + time needed to buff sets him well behind Nikki.

Roxis: 3.50 middle. Meh, nice damage and and the only character who can COMPLETELY stop status, but... below average speed and can barely take two average physicals. Roxis matches tend to be too short for time card abuse. They're nice for damageless healers I guess.

Anna: 3.25 middle. Kinda sucks. Mediocre damage, speed and durability, resource issues, and some unreliable ID. At least she has element spoiling, and that MK status blocker. Quick dream's too weak to really ever be worth it.

Muyppy: 3.75 middle/heavy. Tanky one status wonder. The status is 100% and is seldom blocked, so it works. Too bad about the low-light level damage and the lack of non-status tricks, he's not outslugging anyone above middle, and very few middles at that.

Not touching bosses for now.

[Niu]

I will note that I've concluded Welch is Blair's player character in the Eternal Sphere, though this does imply she was about 12 when she started working on it.  But this would not surprise me at all.

I find it more likely for that hacker girl NPC to be Welch's player.

[Grefter]

For what its worth CK, if I am reading the customisation stuff that is floating around the faqs and stuff (which sucks by the way, the best one I have spotted is Kouli's which has some off translations, not his fault though and is your usual Kouli job that is just meant to get you through the game, not split the game apart) you can make Soul Eaters through regular Customisation anyway, through a roundabout route, but without the Luxurious swords anyway.

I disagree entirely on the IC being any good though.  It is horrible design with how restricted the purchase of the items is.  SO2 did it far better.

[Xeroma]

Ninja Gaiden Black - Trips why is the level design in this game so bad. Hell, the enemies and bosses aren't what's frustrating me now, it's the ridiculously dumb levels. Up to the aquaducts and I just feel completely lost at all times. ._.

[AAA]

No idea what you're talking about, I never got lost in NG1

edit-Oh yeah, have fun with the Aquaducts, everybody says that's the hardest level in the game(although I think it's pretty easy myself the ice/fire caverns are worse in pretty much every way)

[Clear Tranquil]

Huh SO3 Spoilys -

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I thought Elena was Blair's PC character >.> Could indeed be Welch instead though. Oh well~


Growlanser 5- Replay. Smashed through all the early roles with two MKII amulets equipped to each character. Awesme. That was a nice clear game addition.  Managed not to miss one of the steps needed for Fanille's ultimate armour this time. Also carried out one of the steps needed for Randall's armour. I tried to save Alisdar and Rasche but it didn't work ;_;

SO3- Albel/Peppita/Adray file. Still working towards 50'000 enemies/battles trophies. Taking my time with it. Decided to rack up some enemies/battles by grinding in the main game. Albel is L78, Peppita L82 and Adray L75. This is the first time ever that I've had anyone over L73-L75 in the main game I think and that was my very first playthrough (Albel/Nel/Sophia)  >.> My average is usually L50 - L60. Stone Golem - I forgot just how susceptible this thing was to an MP Kill/MP damage - Ten seconded~

[Cmdr_King]

Grefter- SO1's IC is kinda dumb, yeah.  Basically all you can do is throw stuff into the blender and hope you get something worth your time, since you probably aren't using things like orchestra (I mean, by the time I got conductor's batons?  I didn't care anymore).  But it does break the game, which can be fun in its own right, which is basically all I meant.

Niu- Hacker NPC girl?  Don't remember her.  'sides, basically just Wild Mass Guessing on my part, not a well thought out theory.