What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Niu]

TWEWY: Got to the top of Pork City. Go to secret boss. He 2HKOs my entire life bar on easy. What the heck. Not sure what I'm supposed to do. Trying at the moment to do all the offense with my partner and evade with Neku, but the margin for error is ridiculous.

EDIT: Did some pin hunting, a mimic of Niu's "Super long invinci-frame" setup got me a win on Easy, at least. Used Lefty Cat/Righty Cat/Brainy Cat/ Carcin/ Splish Splash Barrier/Some other badge I don't use. Working on Hard at the moment. May need to do some more ridiculous food grinding for attack power.

Time to level up. With some hp buffing food and a max level, he would be 2HKOing only on Ultimate.
I suggest this infinite chain set up: Cat set+290+201+166 to fight him on Ultimate.
As for invinci frame combo, use Black Saturn and Cancer, they cover each other's recharge time just fine, and save Splish Splash Barrier only when needing healing. Though Black Saturn take beating Minamimoto (Taboo) on Ultimate to get.

[Monkeyfinger]

Warpath Payload map

Fuck you.

Anyway, playing GTA4.

I hate the camera/targeting system. I hate not being able to invert the x-axis, because they implemented horizontal camera rotation in the shitty way. This is especially bad because you have to turn the camera to where it can see an enemy in order to lock onto it. I'm fucking tired of turning it the wrong way and getting shot up while unable to shoot back because the camera fucking sucks.

Not that the lockon system is without flaws. It always targets the center of an enemy, which doesn't really help you if most of him is hidden behind cover and only small body parts are poking out. Okay, so, free aim exists, just use that and target the exposed parts yourself, right? WRONG. Because lock-on and free aim are tied to the SAME FUCKING BUTTON, and which you use depends on how hard you press it, and the "default" press is lock-on. So goddamn retarded.

Honestly this game would be improved if lock-on were completely removed and free-aiming was both easy and essential, like in previous games.

It's a shame because GTA4 is an improvement on all the others in most ways, but the shooting missions are seriously worse because of this half-assed cover and lock-on system.

[Grefter]

Thanks, you just sold me on the PC version perfectly.

[Twilkitri]

TWEWY random natterings

Level cap? I am aggreived ._. I could've hitten that in the main game it's so low if I hadn't started skipping most fights in the later days.

Getting pretty close to rounding out my list of stuff to do for the main aftergame, soon time to see what the other component is like.

Anguis is freakishly insane, even with only one shot of it. Especially when used on an X5 puck. Also anger at most of my remaining pins being Reaper class so I'm wasting PP because I can only train one thing at once.

Speaking of PP, an easy 500 PP on Normal Glassesman who's in a really easy place to reach and simple to beat? And can be fought over and over? Sign me up!

Hard mode Neo Mathman is bizarrely easy what the heck. I barely hurt this game ingame on NORMAL but he just fails at life here I don't
understand
what is going on
I got three Dark Matters off of him for the heck of it only to find that barely anything wants Dark Matters anyway, they all want the scrubby version I don't have access to yet. How typical.

Meanwhile Hard mode regular Mathman trashes me constantly despite me beating the Normal version with no trouble ingame. The craziness.

Emptied my walking limb, time to gorge myself on things. I wonder if having it have Konishi's picture as an icon is supposed to insinuate anything. Incidentally! I hate having to grind for Adamantite. I suppose I should be aiming at getting Ultimate mode next.

I also hate purple elephants.

Only the two madly expensive shops left to 100% out I believe.

[Niu]

You find Minamimoto (taboo) easy might be because you realized his trick. He auto evade whenever he is touched by the stylus. Which means, if you have bunch of badges that don't involve touching him directly, he suddenly become pretty doable, outside his somewhat nasty offense if you chain fight him.

BTW, here is an alternate version for the infinite loop combo set.
201or19+166+2+280+any of 219/220/221+192 Set it up in this exact priority sequence.
Harder to control, but better at control large group of enemies. The key is to combo into 280 through 166, as 280 has a starting lag time (start tapping on a single spot when your 166 charge is down to 1/4), and use 280 mainly to buy time for other badges to reboot.
Note, infinite loops only work on none super heavy enemies and none natural fliers. Which means it works on Minamimoto and Hanekoma which is all it counts.

If dealing with super heavy enemies, I simply recommend at blowing away with 242 and 295.

If farming for Adamantite. Go fight Jelly No.31 and let it du0plicate as many Jelly No.32 as you like. No.32 all have 10% drop rate of Adamantite. It is not hard to farm like 10 of those in a battel chain if you know what to do.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Thanks, you just sold me on the PC version perfectly.

I feel compelled to announce my incredible shock that a game that centers heavily on shooting is better played on a PC.

[Grefter]

I know it is a shocking concept.  I had just heard they were revamping the auto-target system on the console versions.

[Mad Fnorder]

Thanks, Niu. I'll give 'em both a try in a day or two when I have a non-finals moment. My lack of dual screen attention span is killing me on Hanekoma, which is why I switched to the pure Neku Defense mode. The top screen is easy to dodge and counter, whereas the bottom will combo you to death if you blink. easier to take one almost entirely out of the equation.

[Lord Ephraim]

To Monkey: you can turn off auto-aim in the options menu if it pisses you off that much.  I only have issues when I want to hit a particular thing but instead auto target a cop then get shot at.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

SRW@3 - Started this a couple days ago, Selena path. The AS Soleares is drool-worthy. 175 Mobility cap (although the base is just 115, but more than any other Real I've got can say), purely P-inclined, with a 2-5 3700 base P that lowers defense, a 1-2 4000 base spammable P and a 115 Will, cheap as hell EN, 4500 base P ALL? I'm sold. And hey look, Selena has a subpilot. Who gets cheap Disturb at level 10. Sexy. Up to... stage 7? with my epic party of WUFEI/YZAK/Trowa/CRUEZE/Nicolai/Athrun. They really liked piling up the failure characters into that stunt. So, I'm seriously considering having Selena solo the puny universe for these stages, since I know I'll end up fighting at least half of them anyway.

[Captain K.]

BvS:  Timmy lvl 2 Get!  Also got a Shortbunny, so money is actually rolling in for once.  Finally was able to afford Chakra Armor.

TWEWY:  I am the Tin Pin Champion!!!

[AAA]

FES-July 25th or so. Already done with the Third Block so far as minibosses go, still have to find yet another rare drop Katana (;_;) before I'm completely done. But no matter. Had a leveling/money run go bad, as on the very last floor the very last enemy between me and a access point criticaled Minato with the very last attack and that was all she wrote. Bummer, I was almost level 30 and had 300,000 yen. Such is life.

[superaielman]

FM4- Up to the final battle of Elsa's path. I may call it quits here to keep a save att he final Durdanal sims, may go on. Either way..

Yeah, enjoyed the replay. Game is much shorter when you don't have to do sims for cash.

Otter pretty much hit on the gameplay parts, but.. mm. The game has two really hard midgame maps that stand out, and that's map 15  and map 18 (Megafloat base). Why? It isn't the bosses, Valivov is a joke and so is Dranz. It's the way the fights are set up. More specifically, lots of rocket users. It's by far the hardest type of damage to deal with in game. You can't evade rockets, can't smash them with defensive links and counters, and they can hit you from a long way away. Thankfully the game only hits you with them twice in any real size, and you have ways around it. In Darril 15 you get Alianza wanzers to help and Minotaur arms if you manage to unlock them, for the megafloat base you've just unlocked Beck and you can do serious damage to the Rocket users with Air Strike.

Second bit related to that- the Alianza wanzers you get once you get get past map 15 are completely worthless and are more of a liability than anything else. They're free units, but bleh. Oh well.


Gameplay stuff I want to write down so I don't forget- there's an infinite AP trick once the final round of the computer shop opens up. AP Bonus II knocks off 1 AP for every person in the link, even if they don't attack in the link. If all four have it.. yeah. Free actions for everyone but rifle and bazooka users, and that's so close to free that it doesn't matter. This is incredibly abusive and worth the cost of buying Sniper skills III for everyone. I had weight issues my first couple of games on my healers. Just stick them with the cheapest arm on their non gun arm, doesn't matter what. should let you use a decent machine gun for them.

EDIT: Sim 14 for Elsa is brutal. Just a lot of quality enemies and you start badly split up. Urgh.

[Meeplelard]

TotA: Just finished Token Ice Dungeon.  The game is psyching me up for a big massive battle...

...betting this is NOT going to be the final battle <_<

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I found that auto-aim wasn't... THAT bad. You can tweak your aim with the right stick as you're locked on. I use that to shoot people in the genitals, and then laugh as they cry. Aaaanyway...

Long story short, I can only chase a dude on a motorcycle down a subway tunnel so far before I get hit by a train, apparently. I became rather frustrated and went to plan B: rocket propelled grenades. They get the job done right. I had to cheat, but fuck that mission.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

SRW@3 - The "Selena Solo Puny Universe" stretch is over. ;_; Oh well, she came out of it with more PP than an average OG pilot gets in half a game and 60% upgrades on Mobility and weaponry (I think I maxed EN. <_<). Crush puny game, Selena, crush it good.

[DomaDragoon]

Crackdown: Just 4-starred Agility. The world is now my playground. Stiil, it would have been nice to have even higher jumping - 30 feet just isn't all that much.

[AAA]

FES-Middle of August. Justice/Chariot was a joke since I had Getsu-Ei. Slaughtered the first miniboss in the second half of the third block, then had some bad luck and got a game over and quit there. Hermit will be maxed next time I do it, then I'll probably wrap up Moon (weird fucking S. Link, on that note) since it's at level 8 and I guess start doing Hierophant or something until School is back in session.

[Pyro]

FES: Beginning of July. Just maxed out Justice S.Link and now onto Priestess and Magician and a bunch of others I have lying at ~5-8. Intrepid Knight was bloody awesome as a boss. Annoying as hell, but powerful and kept you on your toes. Lets see if the upcoming Full Moon boss can compare (the one who attacks couples. Gee. I wonder which one its going to be).

Character thoughts? Not much to say thus far really. Mitsuru has my best damage thanks to Magic score + 2nd level spell. Everyone else is varying shades of useful. Minato is silly versatile but for the most part its resistances and weakness hitting because buffs/debuffs don't seem to do much. Healing is also horrible right now but having the only MT healing is good.

Don't have much to say about the plot. Its serviceable. The dating sim feeling to some of the social links is weird, but whatever. You do them for the shiny fusion bonuses anyway!

Music and aesthetics are serviceable but not really worth talking about.

[Niu]

SRW@3 - The "Selena Solo Puny Universe" stretch is over. ;_; Oh well, she came out of it with more PP than an average OG pilot gets in half a game and 60% upgrades on Mobility and weaponry (I think I maxed EN. <_<). Crush puny game, Selena, crush it good.

Have her learn BSave before hand. It makes her map weapon you get later even more broken.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Ohhhhh, good idea. Also gives me more shots of Stealth Boomerang, and more spammability on a 2-5 P is pretty good.

[Meeplelard]

FF7: Spent too damn long trying to get Beta.  Mostly cause everytime I'd set things up, he'd always use a second launch, or squeeze another turn in right before my ESkill user could heal, etc.  This proceeds to be my slowest FF7 play through nonetheless!

TotA: Beat Van! Now its time for the game to pull another long quest out of its ass, it seems.  You know what this means?

INEVITABLY MORE OVERWORLD TREKKING!!!

...excuse me, I think I need to go drink a bucket of acid.

(though, playing FF7 right after TotA, you REALLY appreciate how much better its World Map is.  Watching Cloud get from Kalm to the Chocobo Ranch in a reasonable amount of time with little load times was so refreshing <_<)

[Shale]

Albiore + autopilot + complete image of world map for finding new dungeons/search points = good times. Well, better, anyway.

[Nitori]

Mana Khemia: Chapter 7, on the stretch of frees before the usual chapter ending plot. Battle system with support in play is amusingly broken, since I can generally keep 3 characters out long enough for the other 3 to restore to full SP. Characterwise, some of the PCs are...quirky, either excelling in time card hax (Roxis), staying at low HP all the time (Pamela), or just general Atelier style attacking haxing (Anna), while others are more generally defined. MVP is probably Anna right now, since Quick Dream doesn't fail on damage and is more or less capable of giving me 2-3 free turns. (Also, I'm not sure what Muppy does other than turn things into Punis and hit with fire damage).

Plotwise, the consistency of the academy setting is starting to drag a bit, and there isn't an astoundingly large amount of interaction of the characters between events, which is bad since they typically work best together, although Jess and Sulpher can swing on their own, I suppose. This area is probably "wait-and-see if the kitty is actually Jesus", so it can be saved for later~.

[Xeroma]

Persona 2 Innocent Sin - P2 goodness, even if I can only understand some of it. Thank god for the translated script. Only in Seven Sisters Highschool right now though.

Persona 3 FES - Status report: Finished summer break, maxed out all social stats, am about to max Hanged Man and Devil S Links, and am around L34. Will probably level up a bit before the next full moon, but I doubt I'll have problems after the ASSHOLE that was F110's boss. I don't want to see Sexy Dance for a long time.