What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Talaysen]

Mana Khemia - Not going to say much about the last chapter bosses since they don't even get boosts from nighttime (;_;) but I will say that the second-to-last boss died before it got halfway to its second turn and the final ate INFINITE TURNS LOL.

Still love this game.  Plot's not that great, but I think it worked.  Probably averagish for RPGs I guess?  Though I guess that's still pretty bad.  Character interaction more than makes up for it.  The characters themselves are fun, but the way they bounce off each other from time to time is amazing.  Character quests help build on this.

Gameplay is amazing, if a little too easy for required stuff.  But that's probably because of all the cheese the system gives you (C10/11 bosses would be really good in any other game, for example).  Building off of AI3's battle system was a great idea, and the new improvements were definitely enough to make the game not feel like AI3 all over again.  Support system is unique and probably one of the funnest additions to a traditional CTB RPG I've ever seen, and the fact everyone gets UNIQUE traits on their supports helps that even more.  The FFX-like Grow Book was a great idea, but it did need some more polishing, I'll admit.  Still loved it, though.  Intertwining non-battle gameplay (synthing items) with the characters' stats was brilliant.

Music was also great, but that's obvious since it is a Gust game.  This one probably beats out the previous AI games in music though, and non-vocal Ar tonelico stuff.

That said, there could've been some improvements.  Plot bosses needed to be harder (or just make them get night time bonuses, I don't care if it makes sense), or just give me a Hard mode.  Assignments could also stand to be a little more difficult, as it is way too easy to pass all your classes.  Alternatively, increase the number of units you need to pass, so that you can't pass the semester BY GETTING ALL C's.  At least the game REWARDS you for finishing early, but... more character quest chances don't mean much when you can just save/reload to see them all in the last chapter.

Overall, still think this is a 10/10 game to me.  I mean, I played it through multiple times in succession and NEVER GOT BORED.  That really says something.

Now I need to go do the aftergame~

[Dunefar]

Mana Khemia:

I'm up to chapter 5. Rain of Thunder on Pamela is sickening. Hit all damage and several time cards? YES. I need to see if I can get that on Jessica now.

[Captain K.]

DQ8:  Just got the Sabrecat.  Did a lot of alchemy grinding yesterday with Guv running into a wall in town while I read stuff on the computer.

TWEWY:  Started.  Shiki day 3.  I'm not experiencing the combat problems that others are.  Slashing works very well, and puck-passing is quite natural once you get used to it.  But yes, the shop menus do fail.  So far I'm digging it.

Oh, and only one savefile is terrible.

[Niu]

Oh, and only one savefile is terrible.

This is actually a technical difficulty of the game due to one of its function. But consider you can't really miss anything in this game, you don't really have to worry. Though, I do suggest you save often.

[Crystalgate]

Digital Devil Saga 2: Started it and made it to the point where I meet Roland for the first time. The game looks good so far, but I'm still waiting for certain things to get unlocked.

Threads of Fate: Started Mint's story. I have actually already finished Rue's story. Mint seem much more fun to play and much more powerful so far.

[Captain K.]

The problem is that my kid wants to play the game also, and I'm not shelling out another $40 for a second copy.

[Rozalia]

Time for ChokoAll hype, Rozalia, amirite?

Wouldn't have it any other way .

Progress currently on Jade Cocoon 2.

Didn't have much time today but I did quite a bit of the side quests such as the arena and the fetch quests you can do for money and rare beasts. The arena was a good way to see how my experiance with the game was far. I cleared level 1, 2, 3 and am on the last stage of 4 (I also managed to win a stage of 5 somehow).
My current set up uses 2 wind creatures and 3 fire creatures (One I gave wind attacks so I could have it attack when I'm using my wind side). It owns pretty nicely because putting enemies to sleep means you're bound to strike a crit and they are lethal.

In terms of story I did some of the fire forest. Got to face Nam at last, he was surprisingly....weak. How did he go 40 matches without a loss with those beasts? I could have beaten him with just one beast.
In the other news I learned of some horrible thing which was completly unexpected to me. Vanilla is in fact not just a braindead girl in a yellow sailer suit, but the commander of the best slime using beast hunters who more or less worship her as the best thing since sliced bread. If that ain't bad enough she also has her own fan-club (Who are "Ga-Ga" over her as they put it), these people risk their lives in the forest just to meet her, what is so intersting about her? Is there something I'm missing? One of those fans was nice enough to give me something. It was a action figure for me to view.....Of Vanilla of course.

Is anything involving Vanilla supposed to make sense is what I'm wondering.

[Ryogo]

Just got home a few days ago from university. Summer break! Woo! This means I have free and easy access to a computer again!
Let working/rugby/video gaming/forum posting en masse commence!

I just got a copy of the re-release of Persona 3, never having played the original Persona 3. It seems pretty sweet so far. Made some friends, and I'm currently at floor 40 or so, whereever it is the second barrier is in the Tartarus. Time wise I think I'm about 10 hours playtime. Haven't hit the Full Moon in June yet. I have to say, I loved the reaction of Yukari when I gave her the High-cut Armour the first time. It's just all the little dialogue things that have made the game that much more enjoyable.

Suikoden 3: I've finished Chris' Chapter 3, and I think everyone else is done Chapter 2. Not sure, its been a bit since I picked it up thanks to exams hitting me. Also picked up some random non-RPG's to keep me sane when I get stuck like Jak and Dakster and Def Jam: Fight for NY. Also going to order new pins for my NES so I can bust out my old games again

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

SRW@2 - ohgod those bosses are whores why stop killing my poor squad filler fodder. ;_;

It's fun!

[superaielman]

FM4- Just before map 12. Shotguns have worked out just fine for Zead now that he has some skill levels in it. So close to dual Minotaur arm users.. ;_; just a few maps to go!

[Talaysen]

Mana Khemia - Started the secret dungeon.  RANDOMS KICK YOUR ASS.  3X OVERKILL DAMAGE IN DAY TIME WHAT.  And then the first boss gets like two attacks for like 3HKO damage, one of which missed, and dies.  what.

The World Ends With You - Short Day 5 is short.  And then PLOT TWIST LOL.

[Meeplelard]

TotA: Up to Grand Chokmah!

You know, there's some games where you can do about 2 hours worth of work, yet feel like you did nothing at the same time...

...we call this game Dragon Warrior 7.  No, I don't know what this has to do with TotA...well, the game is slow paced, but that's an aside.

[Shale]

TotA: Hey, I remembered this exists. Went through Luke and Asch's emo-off at the top of the tower ("I'm a worthless shell of a human being!" "No, I am!" "ME!" Jesus Christ, guys.), killed Largo. Plot-to-gameplay ratio is getting annoyingly high - yeah, it was high before, now it's more so. Partly my own fault for doing optional stuff, granted.

[Nitori]

The World Ends With You - Yay aftergame~. I am in drastic need of Shadow Matter since every store kowtows to me now. Time to look some things up~

Legaia 2: Also beat this just to beat this. Velna was amusingly unremarkable, Vestra needed at least 2x the HP there. Tireless Ribbon + Atomic Heat = Avalon isn't doing much of anything. He also so very wished that MAs hit his damage halving~. Overall this game is so profoundly average that I am certain that no other adjectives work to describe it. All those little polish things and the food system probably make it a 6/10 thing though~

[Sierra]

DQ8: Dhoulmagus is down. Huzzah. Ran around killing gold golems beforehand to get up-to-date armor (took about an hour to amass...close to the amount of gold I'd accrued in the entirety of the game before this) and that seemed to do the trick. Well, and not having to refight the first form, granted. Still a nasty fight. Jessica spent most of it dead; MT anything plus a physical tended to kill her, and Zing stubbornly refused to work until damn near the end of the fight. This basically meant Guv and Angelo were both on healer status full-time and Yangus had to deal all the damage by default, one Parallax at a time (stupid Dispel whore made tensing up totally futile). Granted, calling in The Killdozers (the monster team. Yes, that's what I called them. It was just the first thing that popped into my head) while Dhouly was stuck with wretched defense (yay, Helmsplitter) cost the bastard something close to a thousand HP too.

You know, I kinda have to feel sorry for him; the PCs can die and come back again and again, but villains only need to be killed once (usually). This is functionally true in every RPG, but in DQ games you literally come back from the dead. I had to laugh when I reached the boss fight room again, Dhouly flew down in demon form and said something along the lines of "Ugh, you're back? This time I'll make sure you never bother me again!" Dude, the only way you could do that is by deleting my save file. I have to wonder if the quote would've been different if I'd died and had to try a third time! As an aside, I was going to say that I fully approve of Dhouly's theme music. It's creepy, but understated. Nice. Wish I had a save before his first form just for that; the atmosphere in that fight was cooler. Granted, since they use the same music for Season 6 Willow's scenes, I guess it's really Rhapthorne's music.

Oh yeah! Evil Jessica fight afterwards. Glad she wasn't gone long; I like having a full party, thanks. The actual boss fight was...pretty easy, actually. The only real problem was Kasnooze being annoyingly accurate. Again, psyching up wasn't worth the bother since Yangus was likely to be put to sleep before he could attack. Still not tough. Dominico, of course, is a total toolbox, but at least he has the decency to realize it in the end (*punts Charmles again*).

Looks like the arc of doglike is up next.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

So... I got an Xbox and Mass Effect (which came with it; I'd rather get the PC version. I got it for Rock Band when I found out the Wii version was the shitty PS2 port). Finished Mass Effect about an hour ago. Shock Trooper Paragon. Probably try a less Easy-Mode class next time.

Really well put together. Like, really. BioWare knows how to make better games than every one of those fucktards at Square could given an unlimited budget and unlimited time. I found all of the characters decently likeable (even Kaiden, who is colored by having Carth's voice... god, Carth, shut up), which is rare. All-in-all? I'd say my favorite character is probably... Wrex, because he got all the good lines, such as "Thousands of Protheans died here 50,000 years ago. Now it's time for a bunch of Geth to die here too." He knows that the only way to solve problems is me, him, and a whole lot of super-violent gun battles. I really liked Garrus and Ashley, as well.

The one thing I really miss versus KotOR2? Party interaction. Like, I know that, playing as Cockzilla Shepard, the Manliest Man in Space With a Huge Beard, Ashley doesn't like Liara, and Wrex doesn't get along with the blindly-noble Garrus. But I would have liked more interaction between the crew. You see some, here and there, but it wasn't on the same level as KotOR2, where you see Kreia insulting Atton and then Atton calls her a dried-up old cunt or something.

The ending was suitably epic, but it snuck up on me too much. I finished the last of the story planets, and I thought ti would be like KotOR2: when you finish, you can do sidequests and shit until you decide to go to Dxun and get on the War Droid. Nope, finish the last mission, and you go straight back to the citadel, and thus, cannot finish any of the Citadel side-quests.

[Niu]

The World Ends With You - Yay aftergame~. I am in drastic need of Shadow Matter since every store kowtows to me now. Time to look some things up~

All the average taboo noises drop them... on Ultimate.

[DomaDragoon]

Bioshock: Started this up yesterday, up to Fort Frolic. Everything gets a wrench to the face except the Big Daddies, which fall to a machine gun round now that it's fully upgraded. Choosing to heal rather than harvest, and the animation for that practically screams "Bad Touch".

[Clear Tranquil]

AI3 Finished.

Final levels L32 for all - party Iris, Jiptus Edge, Siren Nell.

Interesting final dungeon design. Really enjoyed the area overall what with the design concept and covering previously visited areas in the game (I got to go "hey I know where this is!" or "isn't this!?" <_<) and meeting up with characters I had come to know through questing. That was a neat touch I think and a sort of reward for all the hardwork I'd put into doing those quests and caring enough about the characters to continue playing the game to see their little stories through ongoing story arches by doing the various quests related to them. Was VERY happy I got to see Pamela and Winna in the final dungeon as well as Swiftblade Gramps (epic!) but kind of sad not to see Repre who I'd grown fond of over time.

When it came to final dungeon enemies I basically just fought anything that I ran into most of the time. I think I ran away once though >_>

Final boss fight! -


Started off easy but rapidly went pear shaped. Decided to try out the Jiptus summon seriously for like the first time ever in a boss fight and it actually worked. Jiptus made the opponent's basic elemental spells (Blaze and the thunder one) a real joke and after a barrage of physicals from the girls with high hit number weapons and Death Call from Edge the party soon had a Burst Bar to work with. Time for some Soul Burst power. Of course being the final boss this didn't make as much of a dent in the HP bar as it had done to other enemies throughout the game. However I wasn't too worried. The boss has no damage I thought! Rinsed and repeated the previous pattern of taking piddly damage from Blaze, etc and working my way towards another Burst bar. Another Soul Burst and the boss still isn't dead. Then it starts breaking out crazy things like Begining's End and Phantom Phase (or something >_>) Dimension Scythe wasn't too bad. Since I wasn't prepared for it the first time Begining's End flat out killed two of my characters leaving Nell to pick up the pieces. It didn't help that I didn't know I had to keep Jiptus refreshed through the fight which is something I just picked up from the final boss fight itself. Later in the fight even when I *was* prepared for it, trying to keep health topped up and everything before the turns it would be used characters *still* died ;o Even when I did sometimes remember to refresh Jiptus it didn't seem to help much. Though enough so that everybody didn't ever die at once. It contributed to the chance of that not happening I think. What really peeved CT off though was the boss would manage to kill just when I'd *nearly* achieved another Burst bar pretty much bringing it back down to empty. Somehow in between frantic tossings of Super Nectars, X Heals, one Elixer,  green soups, steaks, hot salads, Prism Tones from Nell and Healings from Iris I managed to get in physicals from Edge and either the rare Death Call from him or a Kobold Hero from Nell. By the end of the fight I was reduced to Heal Jars, pretty much out of everything else including Super Nectars though I had a limited stock of Nectars left ... so I was down to hoping I'd get enough skill points for Prism Tones or Healings in order to keep up with healing. I had to be conservative with those when I did them hoping to somehow squeeze in another Death Call to help with hit boosting for filling the bonus bar. I tried to keep on top of using physicals from the girls whenever I could. Eventually I managed to get another Burst Bar w/o anyone dying in the attempt to get it and thanks to Kobold Hero and Death Call chipping down the boss HP in between the previous Burst Bars and the new one a third and final Soul Burst finished off the fight.

Anyway good game. Started out slow story wise but really picked up in the second half with pretty much everything coming together well at the end with an everything happening, action packed, music jamming, adrenaline pushing atmosphere. Or something <_<  Character wise I think Iris ends up being my favourite overall though Nell is still pretty fun and I really like her in battle *prepares to hype her in the DL* *flees*  NPCs Noella was the one that stood out the most though I think they were probably going for that. Apart from that personal favs were Pamela, Winna and of course Swiftblade Gramps. Possibly Ewan too. Eh pretty everybody had something going for them I think they were ok overall.  Pretty hard to choose favourites from. Only one that felt vaguely pointless was Rufina. Maybe I'm the only one that thinks that though.

Enjoyed the battle system and fighting. Liked alchemy. Bounced along to the music.

Score - Well the game was already heading towards quite a high mark even before the awesmeness of the final dungeon and the general tone of the last chapter and that really got me going. Combined with the prospect of possibly playing the game again sometime in the future since I never did get the final mana and left a few other quests undone before completing the final dungeon plus the added prospects of dabbling in twinking to see if there is anything interesting in that regards (thinking of something involving Nymph Nel's Power Up + Soul Burst if that works) and creating every single remaining thing with alchemy that I didn't already get around to then possibly doing DL work that might tie into that and other things. To top it all of the game rewards a completed game with a clear file that gives access to snazzy character art, a music track list and an information library (like the ones in game true but at least it's now possible to access everything right away from the main menu screen! Which will be helpful for getting alchemy info on which thing does what right off the bat)

So ... 8.5/10

Might be higher depending on how much I enjoy playing it again if I do. Not 10/10 though. I'm probably being too generous already but then that's what happens when CT likes something >_>

[TranceHime]

Moemon Gold/Silver Edition: Still training for the Elite 4, I replaced my Typhlosion with a Magmortar, who is much much more stronger. Go go 230+ Sp.ATK at level 65. Also, she's very, VERY easy to train. I suspect she'll reach level 70+ alongside Ampharos. Everyone else will just have to slug along...

[Lady Ashe]

The problem is that my kid wants to play the game also, and I'm not shelling out another $40 for a second copy.

The game has an awesome NG+ so you don't lose any of your progress. The only problem is that Neku will still be as stupidly good as he was at endgame, so you'll need to lower the level and play on Ultimate or at least Hard for it to be even the least bit difficult.

[VySaika]

P3 Original.

Beat~ Final sequence was fun, I enjoyed the fight against the final(despite Moonless Gown spamming arghwhathate), and the ending was quite good. Hoping that I can start up a New Game+ on FES with my clear data from the main game.

Final level for the main was 95(yay monad block), with the party being anywhere from 80-88. Yes I had the o_O combo of Lucifer+Satan(and Lucifer had both Spell Master and Victory Cry so that was basically a random skip), and no I did not use it against any bosses. Wanted to see what they could actually do and such.

Overall, very fun game. Clear 10/10, what flaws it has are things that don't detract at all for me.

[AAA]

Hoping that I can start up a New Game+ on FES with my clear data from the main game.

You can. You carry over your Academics, Charm, and Courage stats, the items from maxed Social Links (not the actual levels themselves, though), and your Compendium(all Persona are set back to base levels, though, so no level 99 Lucifer right off the bat). I think there are a few more things but I know that your levels, equipment, items, etc. are all back to starting levels. You can also start a new game on Hard mode if that's your thing.

[VySaika]

Ah, cool. And I'm less saddened about the loss of levels then I am the loss of the moves that I spent so long trying to fuse onto my persona. Like...I had Growth 3 on damn near everything by endgame, and losing that alone will suck. But oh well~

[Crystalgate]

DDS 2: Just got Roland and Cielo. Gale continues to be awesome and while Argilla had one of her emotional outbursts, it was much better handled than in the first DDS. The dungeon I went through was annoying however.

Threads of Fate: Got the earrings needed for the doll. Mint is still better and more fun than Rue.