What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Meeplelard]

SotN: Also finished!

First off, the plot of this game fails.  I can't really say much else.  Its the son of Dracula running around killing shit until he finally gets to Dracula and kills him, along the way, runs into Richter and Maria and more shit happens.

...naturally, I didn't exactly expect much in this regard, so I really didn't care.  I just felt like I had to bring it up after OS <.<

However, game was genuinely very solid on all other fronts.  Well, ok, Graphics could have used some work, but don't really care about them.  The game definitely had a lot of effort and thought put into it, and it shows (compared to some games where they just kind of feel like they were casually made.  Compare MMX4 to MMX5 if you want to see what I mean.)  Generally well designed Metroid style game, RPG elements worked, and the game never really overly difficult either.

Granted, it does have its flaws.  Some of the puzzles are a bit obscure, and there is a lot of random exploring too.  Also feel its a bit too easy at times...and I'm referring to the first the 90% of the game, mind.  The last 10%...well, getting Crissaegrim kind of makes that whole section not count.  Maybe I'll at least fight Shaft and Dracula without it, and be fair.
It also put you into situations where you could easily get a lot of damage and do nothing about it.  The game needed some flinch moments like most other platformers have, to avoid this.  I know I found myself cornered and just got annoyed that I couldn't get out of it at times, taking more damage than I'd like, only cause there's no flinching.
Lastly, item drops were nonsensical.  This is present right at the start of the game, in fact.  After you lose your equipment, soon after, you get a Short Sword from a candle or something.  Ok, fair, basic weapon, one handed, etc.
...however, as either a common drop from enemies or from a candle later, you get a Red Rust.  This weapon is WORSE IN EVERY WAY, near as I can tell.  Lower attack, two handed, and no real other advantages.  Am I missing something or was that suppose to be a joke item?  This isn't a big deal, mind, its mostly just kind of irksome when you finally get  a new equip only to learn its still obsolete compared to your old one (in fairness, part of the reason why, and I acknowledge this, was cause I got the Jeweled Gauntlets early which are pretty damn strong for the time.)

Despite that, though, game was genuinely fun.  I can see why this completely revolutionized the series, turning it into something far different than games that precede it.  While I am not going to be one to hype it a lot, I can definitely see why it is hyped.  To me, the game just isn't completely my style, so I acknowledge its a taste thing, and thus, don't mind people that do hype it since the game is generally very well done for what it is.

I...don't have much else to say.  There really isn't much to say about the game.  Just that its overall well done, and fun.  7/10 game or so.

Also, I am not regretting waiting this long to play it.  While a good game, its a game I could have lived without playing (for all that I'd forever be curious about why its hyped), and at the same time, by waiting this long, I was able to play it on a controller (sort of), instead of a keyboard, so I wouldn't be holding things unfairly against the game.  I was also able to play it wherever I wanted since it was on the PSP instead of only at home, so it let me play other things alongside it <_< >_>

[Sierra]

Touhou stuff: Cleared MoF Easy with Reimu C. Most of the game is pretty simple by this point and I figure I should probably go attempt Normal again. Kanako's final spellcards, though...blurgh. I went into that fight with seven lives and lost four of them to her last card. Much hate for the bit where she phases in and out, also. The rest of the fight's simple.

Went back to PCB after that. Crashed and burned against Yuyuko with Reimu, but randomly tried Marisa B afterwards and cleared the game with her. Which is weird, because I hadn't used Marisa since I first tried the game and remembered not really liking her. Man, why is it I can only seem to 1cc anything when I randomly wake up at 3AM and am both exhausted and hungry?

Made another attempt at IN normal afterwards, but it was too late. The dodgehax deserts me with the light of dawn, it seems.

[Hunter Sopko]

Wild Arms XF and Wipeout Pulse gotten! But apparantly the firmware won't update unless the battery is charged to a certain point... fair enough, but considering the timer says I have an hour of juice left and it won't let me update is a little odd. Shucks. Was hoping to fill up this empty time at work tonight with some wild western, zero-G SRPG typey racing.

[DomaDragoon]

Diamond: Bibarel literally swept Bertha for the first time. My little Derpy's all grwn up :sniff:. Now my stumbling block's that darn Infernape of Flint's which outspeeds everyone on my team but Crobat and 1HKOs half my team. It's evil, but not Quagsire-level evil.

A Whole Pile of XBox Live Arcade Games: Guess what I bought yesterday? Best among what I've tried so far is the billiards game and Sonic 2. All of them are the free trials.

[Niu]

They try to sneak her in at the last scene before the silly merchant talk (which was...about as random a way as you can end a game by just showing the title), but that kind of felt forced and pointless.

The scene has relevance. The merchant breaks the 4th wall by giving the player one of the coins. The the player suppose end up writing the story book that Alice reads base on what the player has observed from the game. And that coin the merchant gave to the player is attached to the last volume of the book. Finally, Cornelius and Velvet breaks the 4th wall again to retrive that coin from the back of the book. Then that leads tot he secret sceen where the two reverts back to human.

[Meeplelard]

And how do you get said secret scene then anyway?

[Niu]

Fill up all event slots. Than watch the good ending again and one more scene should appear.

[Cotigo]

Smash Brothers Brawl:

Awesome.  Unlocked up to Sonic through versus, got the opportunity to get Captain Falcon, but that was after beating Classic mode with the Wii Remote on a whim and so I failed because the Wii Remote controls are absolutely horrible. 

Most of the characters are awesome.  Lucas plays totally different from Ness, and is arguably more fun.  I'm still better with Ness, especially since his Yoyos got a boost from what they were in Melee.  Zelda also got a boost, and I'm really glad that I got good with Din's Fire in Melee since it actually matters this time around.  I haven't played with anyone else enough to get a good read, though Peach seems way, way worse.  The new characters are hard to get a read on this early, though Metaknight looks pretty powerful, Pit seems useful though I haven't figured out how you're supposed to kill people with him yet, Sonic seems Mediocre, and I have no idea how to play Olimar.

Haven't gotten too far into it yet, but doing a coop run with my roommate on Subspace Emissary.  This is awesome, much better than Melee's adventure mode.  A mini-RPG-esque mission works way better here than it does in, say, Soul Calibur (though SC3's is pretty awesome).  Kind of annoyed at how they handled the camera there, though.  I don't see why it has to pull a Sonic and make the camera focus only on the first player, instead of expanding to show both players when possible.  But, oh well, that's a minor complaint.

[NotMiki]

Brawl: Subspace Emmisary is fun, but if you're gonna have such a large adventure mode, make some kinda accomidation for character movement that isn't based on combat.  To wit: when standing still, there has to be a decent way of moving forward that is neither a sudden lunge nor a crawl.  Still, small complaint overall.  Good game.

[Clear Tranquil]

S5- Picked up this again earlier in the week. Replay. Did the Dorat events, then recruited Levi, Norma and Ernst. Levelled Norma and Ernst up somewhat on the way to get Genoh. Got to Genoh found that having Jeane in the party didn't work for recruiting him so had to backtrack and pick up Alhazard from the castle and then level *him* up <_< Did such whilst going through Waterfall Basin back to Genoh. Then left his area, went back in and triggered the Richard recruiting events. Saved the game after recruiting Richard. He's L56 <_<

S03- No Uber Item Creation 4D mode almost complete. Most recently defeated Super Blair, Lenneth and Ethereal Queen. Powerdanced Kabooms and Air Raids were insane at keeping bosses interrupted and downed as was the odd Triple Kick from Mirage who was also my healer. Replacing Nel with Fayt was definitely the right choice.

Tempted to IC Dream Hammer and Ethereal Blast set ups for Freya so the fight will take less than ten minutes. Ploughing through Freya's 60'000 HPs w/o anything but the best damage moves doesn't sound appealing. On the other hand I want to test how well Kaboom/Air Raid/Triple Kick keep her interupted for safety purposes.

FF7 8 bit - Just got to it's version of Sector 5. The boss fight before it took a life time and I ended up using fourteen potions and seventeen Cures before the final enemy finally went down. Aerith only had three Cures left at the end of the battle <_< I <3 Aerith's Cure materia but not the way she looks like VPII's Lezard. I mean I like Aerith and I like Lezard but that's just creepy >_____>  My final party will probably be Cloud, Tifa and Cait Sith/Red XII since apparently Yuffie doesn't join in this port. Otherwise it would've been Cloud, Cid, Yuffie.

[SageAcrin]

Pokemon Emerald:

Up to the Aqua Base.

Norman was pretty good; Slaking, particularly, was a total pain in the ass, capable of one-shotting most of my team...but Slaking has his usual downside. I found a rundown that beat him; Swap out Duskull and Houndoom on his turns. For Duskull he'd use Faint Attack, hit Houndoom with it, and he'd resist it. For Houndoom, he'd nail Duskull with Facade on the switch.

Winona was hilarious. I have a good amount of anti-bird, but I didn't expect Spheal to eat half of the gym(and evo right after. ^_^). Two Pokes with Ice Ball and the Altaria with Aurora Beam. It was funny.

Thoughts on the pokes...

Metang: Has (very) low-end final-Pokemon stats once he hits Metang and takes forever to learn new skills past Confusion and Metal Claw...but gets those stats at L20. And those skills. He's fine, mostly due to the fun, fun Steel/Psychic typage.

Sealeo: Actually...was better than I thought as Spheal due to timing. His skillset is great the entire time as Spheal, as he gets Body Slam at L19 and Aurora Beam around 25, IIRC, not to mention Surf around the same time. This makes the horrid period between L25 and L32 not so bad. (Oddly, looking at the FAQ, he gets absolutely nothing worthwhile after Spheal, for skillset.) Once he hits Sealeo, he's basically Lapras-lite, so he's fine now. Walrein's going to be fun.

Lanturn: Fish god, right now. T-Bolt+Surf=everything dies. Confuse Ray+T-Wave=everything dies. Stats do not equal everything dies, but the typage is cool with Volt Absorb backing it. Fun. Will even get better when I get Ice Beam...if I give it that, it's skillset is pretty darned good now.

Duskull: Still. Is. Duskull. These things have the most painfully late evo ever, and outside of the Ghost typage, it's total dead weight right now. Though it tanks pretty well for a first evo. Somehow. It did really well in the earlygame, but now it's paying the price for a bit. It'll be fine once it evos.

Houndoom: Skillset. Get one. ._. He has Faint Attack/Flamethrower/Crunch, but Faint Attack's early 40s, FT's 51, and Crunch is WayTheHellTooLate(59). Evos really early, though, which was awesome, and Bite and Fire Blast are serving pretty solidly, right now. Not as standout as I'd hoped, the skillset does truly hurt some, but he seriously blows stuff up when he hits, even with weaker attacks, so he's great. Looking forward to Solar Beam. Wherever the hell it is. >_> (Don't tell me, I'll find it.)

Teddiursa: OHKOs almost everything with Strength. Doesn't actually do anything else. His durability is average. But he OHKOs almost everything with Strength. This is enough! He's also my HM whore, though I suspect I'll switch out for a true one(Either Tropius or Psyduck, in keeping with the theme, depending on what I want.). I've seen him 2HKO Darks with Rock Smash, it's fun.

Civilization 2:

Finally got a copy of this back, played some.

Lost repeatedly on Prince(Which I never could beat before), then finally won once through a close Space Race.

Then randomly booted up a Large Map runthrough on it, expanded really fast, and somehow hit 113% at the end, with a Conquest win.

So I reloaded and did Space Race instead.

And got 211%. o_O My best score in Civ by about four times. Awesome.

Alpha Centauri:

Finally got a copy of this too. ^_^

Played one game without the expansion and one with, on the second easiest difficulty whose name is escaping me.

Generally feels...differently focused from Civ 2, but the areas it shares are entirely improved.

Specifically, the tech tree micromanagement has rather dropped off, due to the non-guided-by-default tech tree. This makes tech racing a more general thing.

On the other hand, unit customization is focused on, and, while it does have the Civ 2 problem of offense/defense being somewhat linear boosts...overall it's a big improvement, you can actually make the kind of unit you want. Gives you a much larger chunk of flexability, and the unit costs balance out any possible brokenness it had inheirently, as an idea.

Otherwise they basically just improved the balance on everything else. Defensive end of the game feel notably superior, most special units feel notably superior, terraforming-while vaguely weird to be so necessary(it makes sense, obviously)-has much more interesting depth to it with stuff like boreholes than Settler improvements ever did, spies are improved(Wasn't necessary, is fun, though making a Spy-based stat for your faction definitely counterbalances it somewhat.), town improvements are better balanced and more interesting(none of this sixteen powerplants crap. <_<), diplomacy is way, way better, two more ways to win the game...lots of stuff, essentially.

Great game from what I've seen so far, which is admitably only a couple of plays.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VP2 - Seraphic Gate remains utterly glorious. I'll have to redo most of floor 3 and 4, though, Gungnir got me overconfident and I got killed by Freya halfway in. >_>;

SH3 - Started it on a whim.

*Game pulls a "lol shania has teh boobiez" joke.*

... okay, the PC cast is up for a promising start. Completely surprised at that, considering the splendorous job SH1 did with characters, really.

[Twilkitri]

SRWF: Finished.

330 turns for a nice perfect 10 turn per chapter average. Also for a nice 153 cut from my original run's 483 turns. To be fair I think during the original I spent ages in one particular chapter slapping down a Rygh Ghaos with Bilbine for no good reason. But that shouldn't have taken THAT long.

I consequently might get Sayla in FF this run. I cannot wait for her surely overpoweredness -_-.


Things that bug me: Why does the Qubeley always seem to have freakishly insane amounts of HP and defence? It should not take 1.5 Valoured Shine Sparks, 2.5 Valoured SEM Spins, 2 Valoured Dancouguns, and a Valoured Hyper Aura Cutter to take it out. It's a gundam unit and effectively made of paper compared to tank supers; yet it has almost 6 times the HP and 2.5 times the defence of my fully-hp-def-upgraded Dancougar. The most galling part is that I can't think of any better way to make it powerful considering that Strike exists aside from brain-damaged crap like making it nullify the first X attacks against it per turn regardless or something. And even that's a case of attack it with alert weenies to eat up the charges, and also meshes HORRIBLY with the stupid cannot-kill-bosses-without-SP I was going on about a while back.


Units were seeming somewhat underpowered at the end compared to at the end of the likes of 3 and 4. I'm thinking that this is an artifact of being restricted to 5 upgrades so far.
I don't remember getting Gilliam last playthrough. Is he real-path only?


I feel like resting and smashing a game before I start on FF. Which I guess points to SRWR replay.


AWDS: Got three building medals for all aircraft. Now just navy to go. Olaf's alternate costume scares me.

[Niu]

You now understand why Haman is so much feared in certain group of SRW players.

[Xeroma]

It's still pretty stupid. At least they were a bit more accurate about the durability of her mech in later games.

[Cmdr_King]

WA5- Finished.  Why is there another full goddamned dungeon after the top of Tower O?  Why draw out the Golem on Golem action?  Why was Volsung systematically easier than his subordinates?  (okay, I KNOW why that was >.> Wheeee sidequests)

Overall, it's almost like two different games.  First half is WA4-; blander cast, more idiocy, slow plot, gameplay suffers due to small skillsets and interchangable characters and bland bosses.  Second half (loosely defined as everything after Chug Chug) is akin to the best of DQVIII; the game just really opens up and lets you quest your brains out, search the world, fight some actually neat bosses, and that's probably when you can really start accumulating things that break the game.  Plus, of course, Avril > You and becomes exponentially more so with each passing plot event, probably the only thing that improved steadily throughout the game.

DL Cast?  Wellll... pretty much along the lines of Carol in Middle, Greg probably in Middle, the rest in light.  Bosses range from not-quite-Godlike (Nightburn, Elvis) to fairly solid at is (Fereydoon), though none are really beating the division.  As noted in the ranting, Volsung really sucked it up and didn't do much, but one thing he DID do was use his charged attack which was 10,000 rigged damage if I caught it correctly, which gives him something since he'll probably get one of those off.

[Otter]

Phantasy Star: finished.  Alis is an overpowered main; she wrecked Lassic and basically soloed Darkfalz, since her allies all got killed pretty early in the fight.

Phantasy Star II: hunting for Mareura Leaves is next.  Climatrol's right after that.  Woo.

Why am I playing games in this series after not even liking PS4?  It's simple: OK's mind control beam has finally taken effect.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Actually, you just need to buy that fucking mic and stop subjecting yourself to ReimuC. Stop making suffering look pleasurable, goddamnit.

VP2 - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA GUNGNIR MAKES THE UNIVERSE IMPLODE. I love the SG. Also, "What color were they?" "PURE WHITE" in retardedly huge font pretty much sums up the Dog Theater. This is glory.

[DomaDragoon]

Whole Pile of XBox Live Arcade Games: Up to 100 downloaded, all free trials. While a few of the new ones are interesting, I'm disappointed in the classic games. Not because they're not good, but because I really suck at them. There are at least half a dozen I'm going to get the full versions of.

Bioshock: Played the demo. I think only one word can properly describe it: WOW. It's been so long since I've played an FPS with an actual storyline (don't worry, UT. I still love you).

Diamond: Aaron's nothing more than a brief annoyance now (except that damn Drapion that I have nothing super effective against), Bertha cries when Bibarel comes on the field, and Flint just gets overpowered by my team. Now it's time for the fourth of the Elite Four... and it's Will's true identity! Lucian isn't that impressive so far, except for that darn 'Zam that beats the last few on my team each time. But it's only a matter of time, especially if I start using items...
Party: L57 Bronzong/Crobat, L58 Luxray/Bibarel, L59 Staraptor, L60 Infernape

[Hunter Sopko]

SO3: Finished Disk 1. That was Crosell? Seriously? What a joke. Got both battle trophies against him. Argh to the mandatory "pushing him out of the way scene." If there is one cliche I'm tired of, it's that one. Doubly so when it's a person about to explain everything about the plot. Made some Orihalcum at least! Should I just stick it on something now, or wait until I get a better weapon?

[Crystalgate]

Orihalcum is not needed at all for the main game and it's to weak to qualify for the ultimate equipment. If you want to use it anyway, a weapon called "Laser Weapon" is a good choise because every character can wield it.

[hinode]

Metang: Has (very) low-end final-Pokemon stats once he hits Metang and takes forever to learn new skills past Confusion and Metal Claw...but gets those stats at L20. And those skills. He's fine, mostly due to the fun, fun Steel/Psychic typage.

Hrm.  Are you giving Metang/gross Sludge Bomb, idly?  Seems like it'd be a good idea in Emerald if only for Wallace's Ludicolo, whom your team isn't built to handle otherwise at a glance.

Houndoom: Skillset. Get one. ._. He has Faint Attack/Flamethrower/Crunch, but Faint Attack's early 40s, FT's 51, and Crunch is WayTheHellTooLate(59). Evos really early, though, which was awesome, and Bite and Fire Blast are serving pretty solidly, right now. Not as standout as I'd hoped, the skillset does truly hurt some, but he seriously blows stuff up when he hits, even with weaker attacks, so he's great. Looking forward to Solar Beam. Wherever the hell it is. >_> (Don't tell me, I'll find it.)

*Looks up pokedex entry* Argh, this is one of those cases where Gamefreak pushed back move learning levels for no good reason (well, they added HOWL zomg).  Bite went 20->25 on Houndour, Faint Attack 30->35, Flamethrower 41->51, Crunch 52->59 compared to GSC.  I remember Houndoom faring better when I hacked in on Crystal.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VP2 - Unlocked SG Floor 5. Man, those fights are really fun. Only need a Levantine, now.

[Meeplelard]

DMC3: Beat Vergil mode!  It was a lot of fun.  He does indeed play differently than Dante; even Beowulf, despite being the same weapon, plays completely differently in Vergil's hands than Dante's (though, same general use of being the all out raw power weapon, but how you take advantage of that is different.)  All 3 weapons had their uses and niches, and it wasn't hard to figure out what those were either.

Also went back to Dante and killed the 100 demons in the credits, so got the special ending scene and such.

[Ryogo]

SO3: Finished Disk 1. That was Crosell? Seriously? What a joke. Got both battle trophies against him. Argh to the mandatory "pushing him out of the way scene." If there is one cliche I'm tired of, it's that one. Doubly so when it's a person about to explain everything about the plot. Made some Orihalcum at least! Should I just stick it on something now, or wait until I get a better weapon?

I'm at the same point myself in SO3. Problem is, I don't have a battle trophies save, (No space on my friend's memory card at the time, and got too far in to start over by the time I picked up a new one) so I've completely missed out on that part

I'm also playing DQ8. Fun times. Stuck on Dhoulmagus in the dark ruins, after he transforms into that bird thinger. Currently grinding away for a few levels. Hurrah!