What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[TranceHime]

Moemon Gold/Silver Edition: Help me decide a team out of the following:

Wailord, Tyranitar, Crawdaunt, Hippowdon, Camerupt, Seviper, Tropius, Huntail, Zangoose, Ho-oh, Salamence, Aggron, Torkoal, Jumpluff, Rozelia, Blaziken, Darkrai, Claydol, Lucario, Yanmega, Lugia, Magmortar, Deoxys, Absol, Sceptile

[Captain K.]

Moemon Gold/Silver Edition: Help me decide a team out of the following:

Wailord, Tyranitar, Crawdaunt, Hippowdon, Camerupt, Seviper, Tropius, Huntail, Zangoose, Ho-oh, Salamence, Aggron, Torkoal, Jumpluff, Rozelia, Blaziken, Darkrai, Claydol, Lucario, Yanmega, Lugia, Magmortar, Deoxys, Absol, Sceptile

Crawdaunt, Seviper, Tropius, Zangoose, Torkoal, Yanmega

[VySaika]

Needs more Jumpluff, Cap.

[Fudozukushi]

Persona 3 FES: Oh yeah, I'm paying this.  ...So I'm at 135, I think, in Tartarus, and yeah...

[AAA]

FES-September 10th. Hermit was a cinch, mostly thanks to Shinjiro critting a bunch. Having Getsu-Ei didn't hurt either. Maxed Tower, Moon, and Hermit. Emperor, Strength, and Fortune should be maxed fairly soon. Kind of a bad idea to max Tower so early, now I've got nothing to do at all nights except when you can walk Koromaru, which seems to be only two days a week. Bummer.

[074]

P3 FES: Taking a break from this, mainly because Hard Mode Intrepid Knight quite literally drives me insane.  Might need to take a few days to levelbust in Arqa.  Halfway tempted to get Fortuna right now, seeing as IK will -not- use Wind Break versus resists and Dodge Wind.

...now to find a way to get a Fortuna with Sukunda.


FM4: Started playing this straight for a while from a fresh new game.  Up to the third Dranz fight.  I fucking hate grenadiers.

Cast overview, I guess:

Elsa: Holy fuck.  She brings back memories of how I built my main in FM1.  Double machine-gunning from hell--at least when it activates.  Armed with twin machine guns, and a chassis possessing high evade, she's seriously a terror to behold.  While I wish I could've gotten her the uber-accuracy arms as of recent, the +10% will do.

Zead: MISSILES.  And generally good for high durability.  Missiles are nice for the fact that they are undodgable, at least.  Drops in usefulness once he runs out of ammo.

Hermes: FM4 healer.  Move on.

Latona: I'm ready to say that she's in the running for MVP.  Psychotic melee damage, along with link abuse and better evade than Elsa.  Melee's probably the easiest to build for in this game, too, given that you just have to worry about weight optimization, rather than balancing weight, accuracy, and everything else.  Yeah, I took off the EMP pack, and had links set up so she could attack as many times as possible during a phase.

Bosch: Synergizes well with Zead and Beck.  Is a rather meh-ish Elsa otherwise following his 'default' build.  Being a "missile beacon" is useful, regardless.

Beck:  More of a pure missile/support user, along with having the radio pack.  See Zead.  Airstrikes would be nice for smacking the goddamned grenadiers on the current map if they didn't move out of the way ever-so-conveniently.

Dranz: lol.  Basically just a HPed-up sniper with a bazooka.  He has quite literally nothing else going for him.  Latona and Hermes managed to easily doubleteam him in the second encounter with him.

Wagner: ...holy crap.  Elsa and Bosch being on the wrong side of the RNG against him in the second fight had shown me how easily he will tear through Wanzers with those machine guns of his.  A bit lacking in evasion and durability on the second fight, but that power is nothing to laugh at in that game.  Tore Elsa and Bosch a new one before Latona, Zead, and Hermes practically destroyed the rest of the map.

Not up for reviewing Darril's side yet.  

[superaielman]

Nama: Megafloat base (Dranz 3) is one of the hardest maps in the game. I'd suggest ditching the sensor pack, giving Zead some good legs (And a turbo backpack so he can refill his missiles) and giving Bosch a better weapon/skill selection. Rifles and Bazookas are both good, lets him support Elsa and Latona no matter where he is on the map.

[074]

Incidentally, everyone not named Bosch, Hermes, or Beck already has a turbo, and Zead's got those weird quad legs right now (which gives him, incidentally, the fastest movement of the party).  Probably going to take your advice for Bosch, though.

And yeah.  Megafloat is a whore.  I'd have tried it more were it not for finals tomorrow that need to be taken seriously, unlike today's.  Glad to know it's amongst the hardest, though (and I'm thinking the second Caracas map (Vavilov 2) also ranks up there.  For the exact same reason.)

[superaielman]

Yeah. Caracas 2 is the hardest map in the game, period.  Not counting the late optional sim maps.

Did you get the Minotaur arms early? Do you have em now?


Also, when AP Bonus 2 unlocks, give it to everyone. -4 AP with everyone in the link means more or less free actions, and that's insanely awesome.

[074]

Minotaur arms?  ...Never heard of them.  Was I supposed to get them?


Incidentally, I somehow managed Caracas 2 on the first try.  Somehow.

[Grefter]

One of the simulation missions gives you a set, it is way hard to unlock that mission though.  Need to kill all the enemies in Daryl's mission where the enemies were running away or something.

[superaielman]

Minotaur arms?  ...Never heard of them.  Was I supposed to get them?


Incidentally, I somehow managed Caracas 2 on the first try.  Somehow.

UCS sim 10 gives you Minotaur arms.

U.C.S. Simulation 10 (Minotaur Weapon Arms)   Defeat all enemy units in Stage 14: Governor's Manor, OR win U.C.S. Simulation 5 in 30 Turns or Less.

UCS Sim 5 is unlocked by beating Caracas 2.

[Crystalgate]

DDS 2: Beat it. The ending it not bad, but left me with a "um what?" feeling.

The plot is rather good by itself. Unfortunately, it still leaves things to be desired. Like the first DDS, it has a few but very long dungeons. I think DDS 2 takes that a step further. Early in the game, the dungeons are reasonable short, but starting with the Karma tower they get absurdly long. This slows down both the story and character development a lot and it seems that the further one advances in the game, the slower it gets. The final dungeon is by far the worst.

Character development is largely absent. Several already had some development in the first game and had little left. Other characters more off made a sudden realization and consequently, an equally sudden switch rather than developing over time. Anyway-

Serph: Mute as before, but this time around it hurt the story a lot more. His back story doesn't help him a bit (although it helps explaining a lot about many other things) due to him being unable to react to that new information and also severely impairs the novelty of Seraph.

Sera: This time around she is a lot better at acting and making decisions. Unfortunately, she also have a habit of apologizing and taking responsibility for things that aren't her fault which is not my favorite kind of female character.

Gale: The only really good character IMO. He is the cold and emotionless character developing into less cold and emotionless, but manages to remain cool. Actually, he started somewhere in the middle as the first half of his development has already been done, but that also works. He also manages to remain active through most of the game, something most characters have a problem with.

Argilla: This time she is less important than in the first game. The only time I felt she actually did something was when she out of the blue left the party. On the bright side, her emotional outbursts was better handled. She still acted the same, but the situations where she gets upset are more appropriate.

Cielo: Just like in the first DDS, he doesn't seem to have much of a purpose as far as the story goes. Nor was he funny or interesting or pretty much anything. He's largely inoffensive though.

Roland: He has a little development early on and one dungeon after that where he has a crucial role. He still seem to spend most the time just being an extra (and weak) muscle.

Heat: It was nice finally finding out what was up with his behavior. There was also now a point behind said behavior. He needed much more screen-time though.

Seraph: Awesome idea and she looks rather cool. If Serph just wasn't mute and the last dungeon had more cutscenes they could have done a lot more with her.

Battles are fast phased and rather fun, although the encounter rate could have been lower. The game offers more customization than the first DDS did and DDS still offered plenty of it. On the minus side, dungeons are more dull than before and some combat elements, status abnormalities in particular, are worse balanced.

Speaking of status abnormalities, what the heck is up with them? Even those that Cielo is weak against (the ones cured with a Panacea) missed Cielo more often than they hit. Instant death attacks had the same problem and I managed to miss with Mudoon very often against enemies that are weak against death. To make matter worse, they had poor placement. A few bosses that shouldn't have had status attacks nevertheless had them and often it boiled to whether or not you got unlucky and the wrong/to many characters got hit. Having a 20% or so Dormina hit two characters followed by a Calm Death in a bossfight wasn't one of the most enjoyable moments.

DDS 2 was still fun and I consider it a good purchase. It's just that I see it as inferior to the first DDS. I also feel that the opportunities to make it much better was there, but unused.

[AAA]

FES-October 7th. Ahh, Sleeping Table, when aren't you an annoying little bugger? Eventually had to just break down and open up the Lovers S. Link so I wouldn't have to spend hours grinding to teach Saki Mitama Mediarama. That and the few levels I got hunting for request items got me past. Fortune/Strength I won without too much difficulty, even though I was terrible at Wheel of Fortune for the first half the fight for some reason. Then of course Strength died, I hit Fortune with Distress, and All-Out-Attacked 3 times in a row. Mwahaha!

Maxed Fortune and Emperor. Will max Strength when exams are over, then probably move onto Justice/High Priestess/Temperance. I may have painted myself in a corner since once Temperance is over I'm left with nothing but love interests as far as school goes. Working on Star during exams because, well, it's fucking Star, the best arcana in the game.

[Meeplelard]

TotA: I beat the first real Dungeon after Van, and then did some plot...OH LOOK A DUNGEON...revisit that is completely unchanged and therefor sucks.  Now to Baticul, TRIGGER SIDE QUEST! Stopped playing there.

Man, the game really took a drop after Van.  So far, its basically saying "we are definitely not telling you that Van pulled a Xanatos Roulette.  Nope.  Definitely not.  No convoluted strategy that required him to lose at that fight there.  No siree!"
I'm just waiting for them to say "enough with the restraint, yes, he did exactly that!"

On the plus side, did some Colosseum stuff finally! Got to fighting the Tales Group!  And proceeded to lose horribly...at the same time, the fight froze just as Reid finished off Guy, which kind of annoyed me *shakes fist*

...yeah, I figured I could finish the game fast once the game got moving or something but then it decided to drop into a slow moving boring "lets throw lots of plot scenes with minimal gameplay, and you have to go from Point A to Point B!" to do things.  This would be horribly unbarable if the game didn't hand you Autopilot, which makes things sane!
Much like Monowheel saves WA5's overworld exploration <_<

[Shale]

So, I bought Puzzle Quest. This is why I haven't posted since Tuesday. Level 24 Druid, currently running through the Gallia quests. Game is fun and way, way too addictive.

[Mad Fnorder]

Finals are over! Huzzah!

TWEWY: Beat Hanekoma ultimate- Thanks Niu for the advice with Black Saturn. 4/6 Planets- trying to snag the other two before doing all the Reports stuff. However, the frog one is driving me crazy. Dozens of bland long chain fights (on ultimate so you have to pay attention) to try and and get one mob with a stupidly low drop rate for the one badge you want. And the rest is Orichalcum, which at this point is pretty useless. I guess every game needs one annoying grindy bit?

Everyday Shooter: Picked it up for PC. Catchy as all heck. Also remarkably pretty, and I'm not sure why I think that.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2: Apparently I am a Chikorita. Go figure.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Finished GTA4. Well, the ending was... bothersome. God damn.

So either I kill Dmitri, or don't. If I do, I never get to rail Kate. If I don't, I never get to rail Kate. And here's me, with a thing for Girl Next Door pornos. I was pretty mad...

UNTIL I JUMPED FROM MID AIR OFF A MOTORCYCLE ON TO A MILITARY HELICOPTER. Fuck yes, I was waiting all damn GAME to get my hands on a fucking military whirly and they FINALLY gave it to me, while I'm dodging rockets and spraying bullets across the entire West River.

[Captain K.]

TWEWY:  Finished all of Shiki's reports, halfway through Joshua's.

BvS:  Starting the 3-day quest for Reaper bloodline.  Also, I have a Monster Mask and Magic Fanatic doesn't!  Neener neener!

[Fudozukushi]

FES: So I did stuff, 5th Block hoooooo!  Also have Mighty Thor, who rocks.

Also, my real life last name was used in-game on my real life birthday.  Weird huh?

[Clear Tranquil]

Yay for weirdness!~

Umm ... Happy Birthday? ;p


**

Suikoden IV - SNOWE HOW COULD YOU!!!!!!

... *ahem* Obel Ruins. Active battle members are all at L25 with Louise in Support. Reached ... what I thought was the second save point in the ruins but now I'm starting to wonder if I was going round in circles >_>

Enjoying the game for the most part thus far. Won't be able to play anymore today though since I'm at my mum's and my sister has taken her PS2 to her dad's. Bah.

Edit - Apparently Suikoden IV killed the what games are you playing topic! ;o

[Captain K.]

TWEWY:

"Track down and eliminate all of this chapter's Pig Noise Symbols.
   Symbol near the blue book banner in Shibukyu Main Store, the
   only way to kill it is to close your DS right at the beginning of
   the battle."

Fucking fail, TWEWY.


On a lighter note, I now have Neku wearing a Pirate Hat, False Teeth, Patchy Biker Jacket, and a Girl's Uniform with Sweater.

[Twilkitri]

Yeah, you have to wonder what the heck they were thinking with that one. Fortunately that's the only completely stupid pig from memory.


Finished getting maingame reports and played through another day. Complete bizarreness and total awesomeness was for the taking. Fun fun. Ultimate boss was flagrantly annoying on easy and I haven't tried him on anything else yet ._. Next step was of course to finally get around to buying ultimate mode and go around filling out the noise drops list which is going somewhat nicely, doing regular Minamimoto at the moment. Up to 460 items, with quite a few more queued up now that Shadow Matter is available (and I have no idea why people were complaining about it considering how simple it is to get, unless they were wimping out on max level or something). Not overly concerning myself with pin masteries at the moment because of all the ones I have to spend to get items... not sure I care much for the fact that spending a pin you have a sole master of means you need to remaster another one. I'm actually missing two generic noises completely from the list so I'll have to go looking for those at some point I suppose...

I'm not sure I'm ever going to do the Time Attack on Hard/Ultimate. Unless I really beef up on defence or something (presuming it's not capped overly low).

Ok, so I've finally gotten three pieces of cat... and they continue doing nothing. I don't see there being any room for any more pins in the set unless the remaining ones aren't contiguously numbered, so I'm assuming I'm missing something flagrantly obvious here. Any clues?

[metroid composite]

WAXF:

Battles in this game take too long, I've decided.  It's like they took FFT (which had an acceptable length for battles) then doubled to tripled the size of all the battlefields, similarly increased the number of enemies, and then decided that the enemies should wait for you to go to them.  Oh, and once you're done clearing out the enemies?  Spawn reinforcements!  Once you're done that, maybe have the battle end then trigger a new battle on the same map because another character showed up (this time with more enemies!)

(I'm somewhere in early Chapter 3 fighting Chel and the Zortoa Kinship, AGAIN).

[Dark Holy Elf]

<_< To be fair those still sound shorter than lategame Fire Emblem battles. (Which I agree, err on the side of being too long.)

Mario Kart Wii - Cleared 50/100/150. Game's disappointing in some ways, but a lot of small additions/polish do help, so the gap between it and Double Dash probably isn't as large as I was thinking at one point.

FF3 - Black Belt (suck)/Sage/Ninja/Magus party. Got up to Cloud of Darkness and lost. Uh. Not looking good with the current party, because I lost when she outsped my Sage during the OHGODITHURTS Particle Beam phase, and I don't really see what I can do about that besides blitzing / Elixir spamming through the last 60k HP to ensure that eventuality isn't instantly fatal? With a party far less suited to blitzing than last playthrough.

Warrior is so the best class in this game. I want that damage. ;_; Even Shurikens can't compare.