What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[SageAcrin]

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.

Nah, didn't bother. (Beat the game before this post, last night.)

You're right, it wasn't built for that. ._. But Metagross could barely pull it off with Aerial Ace instead, IIRC...except the first time I got low varience on both AAs and he critted with a Surf. 1% shot or so...

I ended up itemspamming to beat Wallace, he pretty much chippershredded my team down. The problem is Lanturn, mostly; Slow electric didn't work so hot, since Wallace's team is varied enough to have junk like EQ laying around. Every other E4 fight went normally enough, but Wallace, with 10-15 levels on my entire team(45 on everyone but the L50-with-candy Metagross), just wasn't going to die to it, sadly, at least, no way I was able to figure out. And I didn't feel like grinding, sooo...

[Clear Tranquil]

Made some Orihalcum at least! Should I just stick it on something now, or wait until I get a better weapon?

Depends on whether you're taking Peppita or not. Power Dance will satisfy all your ATK boosting/buffing needs. If you abuse Power Dance *and* Orichalcum you can completely and utterly break the game by boosting ATK to 9999 as early as Moonbase w/th a L10 Power Dance <_< However as Jo'ou pointed out earlier Power Dance alone is pretty broken anyway so it's your call >_> If you're taking Nel or Albel instead of Peppita giving your Maria Orichalcum on a Laser Weapon isn't a bad idea.


~**~~

Collecting Battle Trophies - If you missed out on battle trophies at the beginning then you can start a battle trophy file by starting a new game and playing as far as the battle arena. Create a battle trophy file there, then restart your old file. You should now be able to collect battle trophies.

Ryogo - You've missed out on the disc one boss trophies but apart from that there's still plenty you can collect (and all other data like battles fought, cancel combos made, etc will have transferred over from disc one so you can get those related trophies too)

~**~

Seraphic Gate definitely has post game S03 beat as far as entertainment lolz value goes but since I don't have mad finger skills it's platforming aspects frustrate the hell of me and I enjoy the battle system of S03 more.

[metroid composite]

FFT poaching game.

So...to recap, I had just finished Chapter 3, which means it's poaching time again (nooooo~).  I had also just finished getting Equip Sword for Agrias (and since the Ice Brand is only 3 PA less than the Defender, now seems like a very good time to get her Attack Up and possibly Move+2).

However the start of Chapter 4 means two new weapons to poach (Whale Whisker and Stone Gun).  Joy ;_;

One of the biggest problems was actually recruiting a Tiamat family monster.  I went for the Bariaus Valley Tiamat battle instead of the Bariaus Hill SMB, which I'm told was a mistake.  Either it was, or my luck was really bad.  Not only was the battle rare, but despite there supposedly being a 75% chance of Tiamats, I had to get the battle four times.  (In the mean time, I just recruited a regular Behemoth.  Breeding them happened almost accidentally while trying to get into randoms and stuff).  The actual battle of recruiting a Tiamat was also fairly nasty.  My Chemist/Mediator got Death Sentenced by a Plague early on (luckily someone else had revival) and it was a very long time before I could keep my Oracle alive long enough to Paralyze the Tiamat...and after it was paralyzed the fact that it has free movement through water meant that the Mediator couldn't keep up (despite Germinas Boots and Move+1).

Three Hydras were bred almost instantaneously, so I took them into battle first, and after a couple of tries got two Setiemsons and one Rubber Costume ('cause why not--with three monsters it's pretty fast).  I decided Agrias still needed training way more than everyone else in the party, so she got to solo the battle, while someone else poached the Hydras.  (And given that she had an Ice Brand and the enemies were ususally goblins, it wasn't even all that much training.  In fact, my top problem was her finishing the battle before I could finish poaching the Hydras).

Poaching the Tiamat went somewhat similar--Agrias was set on Autobattle and told to go solo the puny random, while the other three party members chipped away at the Tiamat's HP from range 2 (out of counter range) until he could safely be poached.  The really depressing part I realized is that the Tiamat was a good 10 levels above my party, which means that the enemy monsters were a good 10 levels above my party, and I didn't even notice.  Puny FFT randoms suck.  Oh, and Agrias swapped out Bracer for Setiemson--as much as her PA needs help so badly, Setiemson is actually a bigger damage boost (barely) and Ice Brand OHKOs goblins anyway....

Poaching the Dark Behemoth was a royal pain.  Maybe guns have a different poaching percentage from all other rare poaches, since I never managed to get Mythril Guns in the 12+ tries last time?  Certainly Stone Gun took a good 12-15 tries, whereas no other poach took more than about six.  On the plus side, Ramza + good compatibility + Whale Whisker nearly OHKOed the Dark Behemoth (noticeably less HP than the Tiamat; granted level 20 instead of level 27).



Levels rose from 20 to 22 or so during this poaching run.  Ramza's up to 192 Stick damage, and I suspect he's still better off using Black Magic most of the time when he wants to deal damage (especially since he got Bolt 2 and Ice 2 from a crystal).  Mr. Knife is still using Zorlin Shapes, but now they're actually weaker than the storebought Ninja Swords, so it's more for the variety of "causes sleep".  The Spear user unlocked Ninja, where he has 15 PA with Power Sleeve, Twist Headband, Bracer, and I suspect will reach 16 PA shortly (mmmm....408 damage to neutral compatibility).  Agrias still hasn't gotten Geomancer unlocked, and only barely has Thief unlocked, despite my efforts to focus JP on her.  She's still doing much better now that she can use PA boosting.  (Defender is probably the second most relevant weapon I poached, but despite this in retrospect I would have helped Agrias more through the simple act of "Get her Equip Sword so she can wear clothes".  Granted, this would involve not getting Lightning Stab when I did, so...whatever).  Gun user finally has a poached weapon...and I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet.  We'll see how that goes.

[Tide]

Persona 3: Done. This took a long time. 91 hours is my full play time. I maxed out I think 10 S.Links? Lovers, Empress, Magician, Heirophant, Chariot, Death, Judgement, Fool, Sun and Hanged. Anyways, really really fun game. I don't think I've been this into something this long since Jap SO3 (80 hours there).

Anyways, what really sold me was the setting and atmosphere. It aims for the modern day setting and you're a regular kid with a special type of power. And they pull it off well. And the first month in April is really just attention grabbing. I loved every moment of the first two months really. Game also has CHALLENGE. After going through things like Ar Tonelico, yeah, this was refreshing. Like the table with high 2HKO multi Fire damage. Randoms also kept you on your toes a lot. Enemies had lots of damage all the way around. And since you realistically only have 1 lifebar from dying, it was essential to get first strikes and hitting weaknesses. FE10 was the other game that had challenge, but I don't think I was as into it as P3. Hard to say on that one, since FE10 is win too.

Characters are also awesome. Main is silent (unfortunately), but the others are all fairly well done and likable I would think. Think the person I least liked was a combination of Aigis/Ken. And neither were that bad really. Koromaru aka. Dog is static, so he's exempt. The others all go through their movements well. Villains...Harbinger of death was an interesting concept with the twist, so I thought he was fine. Strega kind of sucked. Except Chidori. She was fine. The other two need to go meet up with Sync and share their emo stories together. Was so happy when I got to kick their faces in.

My complaints...
After the first two months, you are basically set up for the next several months down the line and those days in between pass slowly >_>. Plot wise anyway. Gameplay battles have the problem of Main dying = game over. This...creates a challenge and a very unpleasant one unfortunately. I wish they had storebought status blockers because CHARM needs to go die in a ditch. They didn't need to do this and the game would still be fairly tough, which I guess makes things nice on some level. And not on others. It would also be good if you could control other PCs. I can't recall how many times I wanted to smack Yukari upside the head when instead of casting something like Mediarama, she casts Diaharan instead. Or when you're CHARMED and she refuses to heal you. Yeah. Other than that the final boss design is retarded. I like the way he is brought in, but the actual battle is essentially 12 and a half forms of suck. Half a form of OH GOD THE PAIN. And it has to be towards the end too, so if you die, you waste 2 hours of work. What fun! *kicks Atlus in the face*

Which speaking of the final, at one point in the fight, I was down to 40 HP with Minato and all other characters dead. Also! I was under Distress and couldn't use magic. Eventually had to spend 6 consecutive turns healing myself with Beads and praying for no criticals. Luckily, this happened, and I managed to get a breather when he did Moonless Gown --> Garudyne which I blocked. So I revived two characters and proceeded to heal my way back to a victory.

That's around it. Game is 9/10 for me I want to say. It's really well done and I definitely had lots of fun with it (albeit some frustrating moments). Stay tuned for Persona 3: The Speed run thanks to Hatbot and a 900 roll on it, followed by a 26 on trying to escape the duty.

Individual thoughts on PCs:
Minato: Godly, broken as hell. You should know why. Has full control, variety, everything really. His only weakness is that you have to constantly protect him since if he dies, you lose. Not that this is that much of a problem (nor is it his fault), so he's basically death incarnate. MPV. DL wise haven't thought about it. He's either unrankable or a Heavy of some sort.

Yukari: Has some early game lag. Gets better as the game goes on. Is more or less the dominant healer out of the cast of 9. Her wind spells are decent too, but she doesn't gain them as early as the others and she has the lowest durability with the least accurate physical. Would be better if her AI was not absolute garbage. Still secondary back up dominant healer is nice. And she works well in cases where Mitsuru is not available or is a poor choice due to weakness (hello Crazy Table). Took her into the final battle with me. DL wise, middle? Healing is nice, lightning weakness is not. Not having to worry about stumbling despite accuracy loss is also a good addition. Not sure common Wind is blocked.

Junpei: Kind of sucks early on. He gets better before he learns Spring of Life. After it, he's very solid. I just didn't use him as much since I really dislike the AI blowing HP on a skill that might do 15 more points of damage than their regular physicals. What the hell? He has some fire magic, which is basically tertiary really since his physical + physical skills work so much better. Not to mention its damage sucks. DL, lowish middle I want to say. Fire resistance, some slight regen and he doesn't have to constantly waste HP to do damage! Not sure how often his fire damage will come into play, but he doesn't seem pathetic enough to be a light. Also has some buffers to play with.

Akihiko: Starts of like a Jeigan. Can hit weaknesses, enemies can't really hit his, starts at a higher level, more HP, etc. Then all his advantages gradually fade out. He's still averagish towards the end, but neither excels in tanking, damage, or healing. What he DOES have is stat downs. Nowhere near as good Arnaud level debuffers, but they work well in a pinch and they definitely bailed me out a couple of times here and there. Combined with stat buffers, they make a big enough difference to warrant him a spot. He ends up being averagish all around, a mid tier level PC really. Third PC in the final battle. DL, feels like a middle. He has a resistance to a common element yet a weakness to another. So those trade off most likely. Full healing + those debuffers let him mess around a bit. Have to check up on his damage though.

Mitsuru: Awesome. Has damage, better durability than Yukari and works as a healer for some time. Not to mention she's almost always available makes her very valuable when going regular dungeon hunting. Later on, was a large part of my offense. Mind Charge was not much. Until combined with Defense down and attack up, which I learnt to do once the AI started being adamant on using it. Probably second best of the playable cast. Was my fourth (and obvious) choice in the final fight. DL, weak to fire but blocks ice, mind charge lets her vary her damage for limit fighters, Ice Break allows her to keep her damage and again, full healing. High middle maybe? Definitely recall her leading in damage towards the end.

Aigis: Um...was more or less my LVP. Didn't use her much and her resists seem to pale compare to everyone else's. I can't recall fighting enemies where Pierce resistance was critical. Slash resistance would've been nice though! Also, same weakness as Yukari makes it such that you really don't want to take both of them into the same fight. And most of the time? Yukari ends up being better despite suspectable AI.  Probably due to a mixture of not wasting HP constantly and being a party healer. Stat topic listed her having full healing, so that alone probably makes her at least not light. I will have to stat topic the rest since I really don't remember anything else about her.

Koromaru: Puppy. Dog. Win. Honestly though, Koromaru rocks. Thanks to getting two resistances instead of one. AND he had the most HP of all my PCs at end game. Not to mention when he joins he has some sick evade. He still does at end game, although by then, other PCs have caught up more. In battle, his main weakness seems to be no support options. He learns Fire Break which is nice. But his ID spells are out in boss fights and he doesn't have any buffs, debuffers, healing or anything. A nice offensive option though. Third most useful PC overall. In the DL, Koromaru is not Light! Hooray. Instant death + fire break and fire damage will at least let him do stuff. High HP is also nice. Blocking fire and darkness wins too. Recall his SP being one of the lower ones though, so he may have some resource issues. No healing is also a bummer. Mm...Middle? Feels like it. The cast is all relatively balanced, which makes sense since that's what I feel the game was trying to design.

Ken: Hey, a THIRD healer! Well, rather, second since Mitsuru later is more offense orientated. He had some thunder magic too which was nice. Specializing in light magic was kind of blah since its iffy instant death. When you really really need healing (and this happens in some fights), Ken takes that spot. He's not too shabby otherwise, but is not whoamg impressive. DL...may be another low middle. Full healing! Instant death! and uh...nothing else really. His damage wasn't much. Still he can probably spam ID and full heal until it hits.

Shinjiro: For the time you get him, he's a neat addition. No weaknesses, gets Great status quite frequently and he hits plenty hard. What someone who burns HP to do damage should be doing. Not sure how he would've been at end game, but he was solid when he joined. DNR DLwise.

[Sierra]

Touhou stuff.

MoF: Cleared Easy with Marisa B. Just felt like playing the game again and I hadn't used Marisa much, so yeah. Had like four lives left at the end? Pretty good, for me. Think I only died once on that horrific last spellcard. Attempts at Normal are quite clearly in order now.

Replay: http://replays.gensokyo.org/download.php?id=722

PCB: Randomly took Reimu A since I hadn't use her for a while and cleared Easy. Managed to 1cc it with each character now! Yay. Guess that means it's time to focus on Normal. Oh, and...got through stage five Youmu without losing a life. YES. And only one bomb, at that. ...Of course, then I go and die twice to stage six Youmu. What the fuck, self? Wound up beating Yuyuko on my last life, but hey, any landing you can walk away from...

Replay here, for those interested: http://replays.gensokyo.org/download.php?id=721

IN: Bah. The dodgehax buzz had worn off by the time I got to this one and I kept making stupid mistakes. Sadness. Still trying to clear Normal with team scarlet. I don't like the magic team and the ghost team has to fight Marisa...who I have major problems with for some reason. Reimu's actually fairly easy.

[TranceHime]

PoFV: Played Story Mode Lunatic with Marisa. Failed my 1cc run at Komachi. Again. *headdesks* Replay unavailable, or rather, unviewable due to, for some reason, the slow rate being 50.500%. I have NO idea why that is, because I don't see any slowdown when I review my replays myself.

[Captain K.]

I can't recall how many times I wanted to smack Yukari upside the head when instead of casting something like Mediarama, she casts Diaharan instead. Or when you're CHARMED and she refuses to heal you.

Yukari's Charmdi is bugged - she never uses it.  Not sure if they fixed that in FES or not.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

SH3 - FUCKING GOD, FRANK, SHUT UP.

[Shale]

SRWW: Hey, DS emulation works on my computer now, and I found an unhacked copy of the ROM! Score. Lots of style (especially when you consider that it's basically running on a GBA engine with higher resolution), good cast, fun levels so far. Much love for the soundtrack, too - Let's Go Gekiganger 3, Power of Desire, Kamikaze Man, Saikyou Yuusha Robo Gundan, Let's Go Gekiganger 3...just about every cast has a song I really like. Except Voltron, sadly.

Anyhow, finished stage 15, got Goldion Hammer, which somehow has better cutins than the Alpha 2/3 version. I'm not complaining.

[TranceHime]

SRWW: Hey, DS emulation works on my computer now, and I found an unhacked copy of the ROM! Score. Lots of style (especially when you consider that it's basically running on a GBA engine with higher resolution), good cast, fun levels so far. Much love for the soundtrack, too - Let's Go Gekiganger 3, Power of Desire, Kamikaze Man, Saikyou Yuusha Robo Gundan, Let's Go Gekiganger 3...just about every cast has a song I really like. Except Voltron, sadly.

Anyhow, finished stage 15, got Goldion Hammer, which somehow has better cutins than the Alpha 2/3 version. I'm not complaining.

Yeah, it's a shame SRWW was a bit... um, on the easy side. I'm not complaining, it's a healthy length.

Also there's this spammable money gritch, too.

[Shale]

Well, bear in mind the last SRWs I've played are J and OGs/OGG. At least it can't be much worse for challenge.

[Meeplelard]

Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga: Decided to finally start this up.

...and wondering why it took me so long too.  This game is hilarious and completely nonsensical.  Also Fawful is awesome.

one thing that strikes me the wrong way is dungeon design.  Random jumping things for the sake of making you jump more can get annoying, frankly.

[SageAcrin]

PoFV: Played Story Mode Lunatic with Marisa. Failed my 1cc run at Komachi. Again. *headdesks* Replay unavailable, or rather, unviewable due to, for some reason, the slow rate being 50.500%. I have NO idea why that is, because I don't see any slowdown when I review my replays myself.

The Gensokyo replay archive just mislists them all as that.

Dunno why.

Super Smash Brothers: Brawl:

Is awesome.

People are retarded who complain about it enough to rate it below a 9(well, unless they dislike the previous games, and hence the fighting game sub-genre it basically represents. That's fine.).

Got about halfway through Subspace Emissary in 2P with my brother and did some matches.

Character change thoughts at a glance:

Mario: Eh. He's Mario. He does feel like he's scaled up to...the....same relative point he was in Melee, which isn't special.

Link: Worse, maybe, I don't care, I hate Link, next.

DK: Didn't use, my brother liked him more for some reason, I didn't notice a difference, next.

Ice Climbers: Subtly hit harder with everything, Down Special is no longer epic fail, desynch easier, basically just better.

Samus: Worse, do care but not enough to really say much on it, I don't know what the Brawl Samus defenders are on about her OMG NORMAL HOMING MISSLES ARE SO MUCH BETTER!!1, next.

Pit: My brother swears by him, I didn't really use him much but he seemed fairly solid. Essentially renders Link obsolete due to much better ranged game with the arrows and much better recovery. Losing some range is worth it.

Kirby: Better, not massively but it's definitely there, various moves feel marginally better, dash attack is definitely better, hammer is way the hell better and now one of my favorite moves.

Yoshi: Sucks, do care exceedingly. Actually he's not unusable; A load of his attacks seem somewhat faster, the egg toss lost backwards throw but gained more forward range and the recovery boost is as good as Marth airswipes used to be, at least, egg roll is better, he didn't really lose raw % damage...he just didn't gain any impact at all, and seems to have lost some on the tail(one of his few impact moves), from what I saw. It's a relative thing, he gained...less tangible boosts and I don't think I'm good enough to capitalize on them. I don't think anyone will try, honestly.

Marth: Lost range, gained damage. I think his recovery got a little worse(The Side Special airswipes do a little less for recovery I think.). I don't like him as much anymore, but he's about the same overall.

Ike: AETHAAAAAAAAAR-what. Seriously, plays like a harder hitting, longer range, slower Marth. His recovery's comparable but less...what's the word, flexible, I think, he's all straight lines horizontally and vertically for recovery. Very enjoyable.

Pokemon Trainer: I could see myself maining this guy. Squirtle is weird and is taking some getting used to, but has remarkably, deceptively broad-range attacks and a solid ranged move. Ivysaur has great range in an entirely different way, if anything better than Squirtle, and a lot of nifty utility. Charizard I initially wrote off until I started messing with him more, now I'm not sure what to make of him, definitely may have some use, I'll muck with him more. Regardless, two characters out of three is enough, certainly.

Zelda/Shiek: Only used once, only used Zelda, enjoyed greatly the improved Zelda. Triangle Kick/Fire spam mostly. Next.

King Dedede: Oldstyle Bowser but with every trick in the book instead of none. Charge attack. Way better range/way broader hitboxes. Ranged toss equal to Peach's turnip rain and much more kawaii(^_^?). Great recovery. Still has Bowser's tendancy to be slow and hit hard, though.

Bowser: Fast Bowser is Fast. I'm incredibly disconcerted by his changes, though I approve very much. He's a hell of a lot of fun now, not sure how he rates otherwise besides non-suck.

Lucario: Only saw him one fight in SSE. I still want to use him a ton more. Mewtwo that doesn't suck~

Zero Suit Samus: Awesome, not sure what to make of her in general though. Hits hard, has great range, is...heavier than you think, but the recovery looked rather lousy. Didn't mess with enough really.

Pikachu: Also could end up maining him, I was near it before. Downsmash is now lethal as hell, otherwise slightly improved overall. I'll definitely take it.

Metaknight: Considering him too, for a main focus. Has basically the same trait I used to like about Yoshi, the ability to rack up % damage insanely fast. He's better at it, though. Not much to say beyond that.

Fox: Not a Fox fan, don't care, looked pretty much the same to me. Next.

Falco: I like the changes, enjoy him more than Fox, still don't...entirely care, but at least he's pretty substantially different now(Forward smash feels better than Fox, blaster is the usual slower, worse thing, has a rather different combo and neutral air that I can't really compare, etc.) at least.

Peach: Barely used. Barely saw used. Just ended up that way.

Wario: Kinda has everything, but in weird ways and with weird hitboxes. Intuitively I'd suspect Mario fans, especially Doc fans, should probably switch to him. Otherwise, dunno really.

Lucas: Fun, fun. Upsmash is awesome as advertised, generally his smashes are better than Ness' and his specials are worse(Freeze is...probably not all that different from Flash in practice, more manueverability but worse range, but I haven't messed with Ness much.). Very solid, absolutely nothing to complain about.

Ness: Is generally improved, plays like he's between SSB and SSB:M, can't say beyond that because I really didn't see much of him.

Diddy: I played him repeatedly. I still don't know what to make of him. Besides "Not bad" and "Weird-ass utility focus I have no idea how to make use of.".

Luigi: Unlocked but haven't actually used, again, just worked out like that.

Captain Falcon: Used like once, seen used like once, feels better on specials from what I saw but didn't see enough otherwise to comment. Besides that he was a good meatshield in SSE. Poor Olimar got whapped around a lot when he died that one time. ._.

Olimar: I don't know what the hell. I do better with him than I have a right to, his smashes are excellent, Pikmin Throw is excellent, the chain move seems to actually be really good for damage on a recovery, his air's okay, his standard moves are pretty bad. He's a load of fun, but I don't know how good he is. At all. I expected to get hamstrung using him, to boot.

[Cotigo]

Brawl:

Beat Subspace Emissary.  Game got really, really lame toward the end... then became fun again at the last level.  Final boss was challenging on Very Hard--about half of his attacks were instant kills.  Definitely taught me the importance of ground dodging in this game, especially with the worse air dodging system.  Subsequently unlocked the rest of the characters.

Olimar:  Finally figured out how to play Olimar... sort of.  Once I get more used to cycling out Pikmin I don't want, I'll probably get pretty good with him.  He's really good.  Kind of slow compared to the characters I'm better at, but makes up for it by being insanely hard to grab. 

Zelda:  Probably my best character.  In Melee, I got good at Din's Fire for the sole purpose of taunting my roommates, since it was so worthless and hard to hit with that it was the gaming equivalent of a cock-slap.  In Brawl?  It's an awesome move that can easily kill your opponent.  Get anybody over 100, knock them off the edge, and Din's fire them into oblivion has become a favorite strategy of mine.  Dropkick is slightly worse, harder to hit with and deals the same amount of launch and damage.  On the upside, all of her smashes got better (particularly her Spinning kick), and her Up Aerial A is easier to hit with.  Get above her after a certain amount of Damage and you're fucked.

Wolf:  The character that makes me roll my eyes at "OMG CLONE" morons.  Plays so differently from Fox/Falco (who play differently from eachother, mind) that he justifies his existance.  Pretty powerful, most people don't know what to expect of him and thus makes him really good right now, since people are expecting a Fox or Falco game from him. 

Toon Link:  Young Link ++.  Similar specials, is slightly heavier, has way better aerials.  Accelerated Downstab makes the move worthwhile.  Probably better than Regular Link.

Metaknight:  A A A A A A A A A A, Aerial Up A Up B Taunt repeat win.

Zero Suit Samus:  Awesome.  With the worse air dodging system, her down B is actually useful.  Plays really weird, but very fun as well.  Odd to play a character whose special moves are better than her smashes, but yeah.  Should have been easier to switch in between since I like playing with the items off.

Rob:  I'm... sure somebody can be good with him.  His attacks are powerful enough to make up for his awkward speed, but I just can't use him all that well. 

Game and Watch:  Way better.  Better jumps, less useless throws, you can actually do damage with him.  Not as big of an improvement as, say, Bowser, but noteworthy.

[DomaDragoon]

Diamond: Beat on the bus home from work today. Cynthia didn't like the fact that she was going up against a full team this time, and the RNG was on my side. Elite Four party was:

Worker 8 (Bronzong) - L 61, Luck Incense, Heatproof : Arguably my MVP for the Champion Battle, as he took down Spiritomb and Lucario on his own. Built as my tank, with the highest Defense and Spec Defense on my team. Lucian cried once I figured out that he'd make an excellent anti-psychic.

Luxray - L 60, BlackGlasses, Rivalry: LVP without a doubt. He was just too slow for an Electric, though he made short work of Milotic. He really needed a decent non-Dark/Electric move to be anything more than a sacrificial lamb.

Cromage (Crobat) - L 61, Amulet Coin, Inner Focus: If I needed speed, I went for her. With a 50 point advantage over every other Poke on my team, she went first and started flinching with Bite. Didn't have much of a role with the Elite 4, though she made a good switch against Bertha and hit a lucky Poison Fang on Cynthia's Garchomp that Toxic'd it.

Bibarel - L 61, Metronome, Unaware: Bertha Slayer. With Metronome and Waterfall, she managed to sweep her with relative ease. Stats suck, and it'll probably be the first I replace when I get the chance, but it's not often that an HM slave actually does well with me.

Firemonkey (Infernape) - L 62, Quick Claw, Blaze: He doesn't stack up well to the Elite Four, and was the only one I didn't use against Cynthia. Still, had the defense to take a hit or two while Close Combatting or Flare Blitzing and scored enough kills to earn his spot.

Raptor (Staraptor) - L 62, Sky Plate, Intimidate: Made Aaron cry like a little girl. Took Flint's best down without breaking a sweat. Scored more than half a dozen 1HKOs in the final run. MVP, and my new favorite Flying type.

Overall, while I was a little aggravated at the Elite 4 at the start, I'd blame most of that on me being cheap and not wanting to use items... ever. The game so far is an 8/10, but is still one of the weaker games in the series despite some good new Pokemon.

KOTOR: Now a Jedi on Dantooine. Playing Light Side Male Scout / Consular with an emphasis on Repair (why no, I'm not an HK fanboy, no sir).

[BaconForTheSoul]

The game gets a lot easier Ryogo.  On paper all the bosses later on are scary, but they tend to not focus enough and your PCs have awesome survival late game.

[Meeplelard]

M&L: Just beat Cackletta, now in the basement!

This game remains hilarious and all that.  Boss fights are neat with their quirks, randoms are a bit too routine (though they have an occasionally unique one, like the Viruses), and Dungeons have gotten better, since their puzzles have become a bit more interesting and less "jump for the sake of jumping!"

[Fudozukushi]

Brawl: *gasp* I'm playing this!

Newbies:

Diddy Kong: All about the Coy Bananas.  Those things annoy people more then anything.

Ike: Will be my main.  His power is insane and with his range he puts it to good use.

King Dedede: Kinda worthless in my view.  Sure he's heavy and somehow really floaty, but he's slower then Ike with less power.  His SideSmash takes forever to swing too.

Lucario: Better Mewtwo indeed.  Faster, and floats better.  His Down+B counter drives everyone I play against insane.

Lucas: Plays as a heavier floatier Ness.  UpSmash is as awesome as everyone claims it is.  PK Thunder is better then Ness', PK Fire is worse.  PK Ice is far deadlier then PK Flash if you can use it right.

Meta Knight: The skillset of spam.  He racks up damage at a fast pace and can recover excellently as well. 

Olimer: I have no idea.  I can't make anything work with him despite having actually won matches with him.

Pit: Side+B is freakishly cheap.  I caught two people against a wall with it for over 50% apiece.  Would have been more but I stopped it because I'm nice.

Pokemon Trainer: Much as I want to use Squirtle, Charizard ends up being my best.  All of their Up+B's are strong.

ROB: I seriously suck as him, but billy is freaking great with him.  His recovery is the best around and the Down+B can be cheap, fast damage if you know how to use it.

Sonic: Racks up damage like crazy, but can't Smash worth a damn.  Mario's natural Combo has more smash power then Sonic's SideSmash not charged.

Snake: Really powerful Smashes.  His UpSmash has is great, SideSmash is ok, and BottomSmash is freaking mines.  His Side+B suffers from terrible speed though.

Toon Link: Better then normal Link.  Aerial Down+B is faster and sronger.  UP+B can be charged, Bombs come out faster and are actually useful!

Wario: Hahaha, no!

Wolf: Plays far different from Fox and Falco, he barely even resembles them.  Blaster is weaker and shorter then Falco's Side+B is kinda worthless, UP+B is a faster, and his shield is weird.  His SideSmash is freaking amazing, racks up good damage and it has range. 

ZSS: Never played, never seen.  Blame never playing with FS on.



Oldies:

Bowser: Bowser got an upgrade!  Faster bigger hitrange and his Side+B is painful.

Captain Falcon: The exact same pretty much.

Donkey Kong: Seems to have a bigger hitrange, but that's it.

Ganondorf: Got hit with the slow stick.  His moves somehow come out even slower and are weaker on top of that.

Falco: His Endless A is better then Fox's now since it centralizes instead of spreads.  I also find his Blaster better since it interrupts, also hits the entire width of the stage for the most part.

Fox: Worse then his Melee form but still pretty good.  Not nearly as heavy or as fast a faller as before.

Kirby: His moves seem to have less of a cooldown.  Transition from Down+B to UP+B is a lot faster then Melee.

Marth: Worse then in Melee, but still good.  B has lesser hitbox but is faster, and his UP+B seems to have more range.

Peach: Side+B has less power behind it.  Turnips do less damage with less range.  Weaker then her Melee form.

Pikachu: Thunder and a few other moves have a higher hitrange, but that's about it.

Samus: Far weaker then in Melee, for which I am glad.  Down+B has less stun time, UP+B has less damage and range, Side+B are easier to see.  Her moves have all lost range and she is slightly slower as well.

Zelda/Shiek: Only see once, only as Shiek.  Didn't really seem to play differently as Shiek.

[Grefter]

Did you keep the main low level for maximum Consular brokenness Doma?  Massively unnecessary and can make doing the arena annoying (Doable at level 2 with every class though!) and the underside and the fight at the races of that first world brutal, but doable.  Also remember, no matter how sexy the dark side is, Force Wave is better.  At everything.  Get it ASAP at level 15.

[Smashy]

Decided to play a KoF game (2002 to be precise). Seeing as I suck at fighters/can't do hc motions to the right for some reason with this keyboard, I got my ass kicked quite a bit. Then I ran into Rugal. You should not have to guess what happened <_<

[Sierra]

PCB: Trying Normal again. After crashing and burning a couple times with Marisa, I reverted to Sakuya A and made it to Yuyuko. Damn sight better than I used to be able to do without continues, that's for sure.

[TranceHime]

More PoFV madness.

So. I played a couple dozen matches with Alex today and I got verily thrashed. I think I only got a few rounds in. Played against some other people too. Lost against those. I still have yet to get my ass kicked by Sage.

I'm waiting~~

[Lady Ashe]

I can't recall how many times I wanted to smack Yukari upside the head when instead of casting something like Mediarama, she casts Diaharan instead. Or when you're CHARMED and she refuses to heal you.

Yukari's Charmdi is bugged - she never uses it.  Not sure if they fixed that in FES or not.

I am filled with so much rage right now. Argh.

[SageAcrin]

Super Smash Brothers: Brawl:

Completed SSE, unlocked everyone, at around 93% for it. (By mutual agreement, both my brother and I decided to not bother getting 100% any time soon.)

SSE is probably worth the price of the game in and of it's self, albiet not a launch copy. Remarkably non-fail on challenge platformer/beat'em up in and of it's self with....despite no one ever talking, better plot than most of them(Granted the "plot" is basically a ton of fanservice for random Nintendo characters, but hey. Tea.).

2P has some stupid quirks, my brother usually was in that slot and had a tendancy to get nailed while offscreen and die without warning, though this is somewhat balanced out by the immunity to falling death. But I can't really see too much to complain about, per se, it's just not an awesome platformer, merely a solid one. It's funny considering the system was not designed for that at all.

More character thoughts!

Lucario(Con't): He's...mmmm, not quite Mewtwo, despite the similar play. It's not so much that his moves focus on impact, it's that he has Mewtwo-like damage-racking moves in slots that Mewtwo had trash in, making trying to play him like Mewtwo-with-impact a bad idea. D-air really shows this strongly, for example, can't recall specifics in other slots(B-Air I think was similar?), but I know they're there.

Peach(Con't): I miss the downsmash, but she gained in a lot of other areas to make up for it. I haven't really messed with the tilts(I forget tilts chronically. <_<;), though the few times I used them they do indeed seem a lot better. Side and Up smashes are better, etc. Probably ends up in the same relative place overall, without all the down-smash spam. (Downsmash, for the record, is now mostly an impact keep-away move and not terrible, just not special.)

Ganondorf: Uhm...lacking a strong opinion on him after the few times I used him. Feels decently similar to Smash in practice, for all that his moves are somewhat changed up. Dunno, need to use him more.

Toon Link: Just barely got to use him, already can see that he renders Link entirely obsolete. Much, much better recovery, I love his downstab, has a single fast air swipe which is good because I hate Link's juggling triple swipe thing, etc. I may actually use him without wincing. Awesome.

Wolf: Whoa. Wolf's nothing like Fox or Falco in practice, his Special moves are only vaguely related and none of his other stuff functions the same at all, and he's very good. He's fun. Hits hard and well balanced.

Snake: Gets the most awesome crowd chant ever. Even "We like Ike!" does not compare. Seriously fun to play, you really have to use his entire bag of tricks or just plan on using him to sow chaos into a 4P match. I'm not very good with him, but I really like him.

ROB: Struck me as an excellent beginner character, am baffled by people saying he's not. Most of his moves are pretty intuitive for timing except in the sense that you have to adjust to all characters having oddly different timing for attacks at points(D-Air is easier to time than Ganon's, for instance.), he hits hard, has excellent recovery for someone above-average on weight, good ranged game though quirky(Gyromite got overhyped, the fact that you have to charge it and it's not very fast/does a weird arc and takes a while to reload really hurt it. Laser is good though, solid damage and the reload time just means you can't spam it which would make it broken.), etc. Really cool character.

Jigglypuff: In the running for most nerfed. With one move getting smacked down, Rest, mostly. When something gets hit with...what was it, 70% life? and doesn't die to Rest, the move's dead. Just shoot it and put it out of it's misery. ;_;

Sonic: Most surprised about him out of anyone. I took right to him and enjoy the hell out of his playstyle, which generally involves running like hell and using his somewhat forgiving hitboxes to make up for slight inaccuracies when you're smacking the enemy, then getting out of there. Raw movement's most of his defense, and it works oddly well.

Game And Watch: Yeah, what Zenny said. Very much improved, losing the parachute is made up for by the killpower of the hammers now and getting a Link downstab with the key. I approve, he's much better.

[BaconForTheSoul]

Played a bit of Brawl at my sister's.  The multiplayer fighting hasn't rally changed at all... added some stuff, but got somewhat boring fairly quick.  I dunno, seems like the series just keeps changing a couple of things and shooting out a new game to sell lots and lots of copies.  I did manage to smack the punching bag or whatever it is 2500 feet!

Doom2- Replaying Doom 2.  Up to level 20 now enjoying the goodness of Super Arachnatron and MegaDemon dude fighting each other.  I rated stuff in Meep's topic on the weapons, but a lot of that stuff was off of bad memory I guess.
Tier 1 weapons- Pistol/Fist/Chainsaw- Al totally suck ass
Tier 2 weapons- Shotgun/Chaingun- Shotgun is okay for ammo conservation against the humans, Chaingun is okay for fighting one mob at a time since they can't shoot you while being shot
Tier 3 weapons- Plasma Rifle/BFG- I decided the BFG isn't as godlike as I once thought.  It's good at taking out Red Goat Demons/Archviles/Cyberdomon/SuperArchs.  Nothing else is tough enough to need it, and these guys are rare enough that it's meh.  The plasma rifle it pretty badass, but it runs through ammo quick and the rocket launcher can do what it can do... rip apart large hordes of guys.
Tier 4 weapons- Super Shotgun/Rocket Launcher-  The Super Shotgun is pure win indoors and with strafing you can take just about anything with ease.  Outdoors the rocket launcher is totally awesome.  I use these 2 weapons at all times unless I run out of ammo or am fighting a boss type guy.

Also, the music still owns.