What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

OGs1 - I've been lollin' around Levi's stage for almost a week now. Almost done with stat collection for characters, though (only Giado, Radha, Daitetsu and Lefina left to jot down). I'll jot down weaponry afterwards, and then it's just straight math. Thank god Banpresto was lazy and basically ripped the mechanics straight out of OG1.

[Ikari Gendo]

Besides modern games like Crysis, STALKER, ETQW, SupCom and Age of Conan; I've been going into an old-school PC gaming binge. TIE Fighter, I-War 2, Dungeon Keeper 2, Nox, Harvest Moon. Trying to motivate myself to finish the ten or so old RPG's I have lying around, but I hate it when they're over and I put them off to make them last forever...

What? No, this isn't a vague attempt at an introduction through declared interests post... no sir...

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

OGs1 - Beaten! I said "screw it" to gathering Lefina and Daitetsu stats before beating the game. Heading towards OGs2 now.

[Lord Ephraim]

OGs stat topic, Snow~

FFTA2: Witnessed some SPOILAR scene with Cid.  I have no idea what race he's suppose to be, but okay he works as a guest character.  An improved sequel with some minor flaws like the whole bazaar limit-what-you-can-buy crap, since you spend way too much in the "junk" jobs because you can't learn new abilities and waste stat growth.  The change in the level up system is great though; you don't really need to grind a whole lot.

[Idun]

Still playing Xenogears. This game moves so slowly, and it's putting me behind in my games to beat this summer. Regardless. . .  I just got the Thames fully equipped with flying capabilities . .  and I'm supposed to be going to Nisan.

Babel Tower is the worst dungeon ever. They put that dungeon in games to make people like me cry.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Ahahahahahahahahahaha. You know nothing about truly abhorrent dungeons. Babel Tower is fairly annoying, but if you want truly cringe-worthy dungeons, there is far worse.

*Waves to Baya Malay and Climatrol.*

[Idun]

I don't remember Baya Malay having blind jumps and lame Gear battles!

[Talaysen]

I don't remember Baya Malay having blind jumps and lame Gear battles!

Baya Malay is just one giant maze.  I think it had some pits as well.

---

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Up to 4-P now.  Dialogue before 4-P reiterated who the best character in the game is!  Anyways, Micaiah is slaughtering stuff here, which is good because she needs a lot of EXP.

Also, I gave Sanaki an Energy Drop so her Str doesn't fail at life.  As such she is GIANT NUKE.  Except small.

[Excal]

Oh god!  I remember Baya Malay.  One of the larger dungeons out there, complete with pit falls and a need to backtrack through half of it in order to make the boss at the end merely hard instead of unbeatable.

As for what I'm playing...  not much of anything actually.  Rondo of Swords is mostly what I've been playing, but...  A boss who can one shot Serdic from Range 10 and regens MP, oh, and has MP Switch just so that you cannot blitz him.  And good support with ZoC planted right in front of him and not inclined to be baited until you're already in smiting distance.  Let's add on the two ball lightning mages next to him, who only get one shot of magic each, but that one shot is also likely to just fry your poor character.

Yeah, my desire to continue playing is just shooting through the roof.

[Grefter]

Lame gear battles as opposed to early Phantasy Star combat?  I think even gear battles win and gear battles are a shining example of what not to do in a combat system.  The platforming in Tower of Babel is bad, but it is fairly minor, it is more boring than anything else.

[superaielman]

The tower of babel is long and has a few very bad jumps. This is still better than PS1. DIE PS1 and PS2.

[Meeplelard]

Baya Malay: Proof that you CAN get far worse than Deva Yuga for FPDs!

(in fairness, I didn't think Deva Yuga was that bad, since the "Hug the left wall" strategy actually works, due to pitfalls being only at the very end, AFTER the maze nonsense is over, the existence of a mini map so you can check if you're actually backtracking or moving forward, and how Persona 1 battles would actually end.)

(...and now that I've said something GOOD about Persona 1, I want to shoot myself.  Fuck you Phantasy Star 1 for making even trash like that look good.)

Anyway, might as well post something of slight productiveness!

Pokemon Colosseum: Just beat the Admin Refights!  They are stupid, and I swear the game is cheating for them.  3 Cross Chops missed Loudred/Wigglytuff total, where as Extrasensory got its 10% Flinch shot in (or was it 20%?) Not to mention that despite being paralyzed the entire damned fights, not once did they lose a turn from it, where as on my end, Attract and Confuse were kicking in too damn much?
Yeah, yeah, law of averages, etc. but this was just ridiculous how I was losing fights purely cause the game was favoring the enemy for the RNG.

Megaman Starforce 2: Currently at the Ski Resort area.  I'll get into more description about the game SOME OTHER TIME!

[Luther Lansfeld]

BUT BUT i wanna hear it NOW

[OblivionKnight]

*sees Baya Malay anti-hype*

You kids today are so fucking spoiled. 

[Anthony Edward Stark]

What can I say? RPGs are the only genre where combat is a punishment.

[Meeplelard]

BUT BUT i wanna hear it NOW

You'll hear it by the end of the night, that much I can guarantee!

[Luther Lansfeld]

OH BOY!

[superaielman]

*sees Baya Malay anti-hype*

You kids today are so fucking spoiled. 

It would have sucked shit if I had played the game in 1990.

[VySaika]

DDS2: spent about 6 hours today in the final dungeon. Gogogo SMT final dungeons, etc.

New PC is ultimate awesome. Team(except for one fight) has been New PC/Argilla/Cielo, with Argilla focusing on Earth spam/Buffs and Debuffs, and Cielo being my healer and Lightning mage. It's worked well so far, except for one fight.

Varin. This bastard ripped my usual team a new one, but I came back with Heat/Gale and outslugged him with a defense game(Heat also has alot of Debuffs, and Gale had Void Phys).

Figure I can't be too far from the end here, I'll likely beat it tonight or tomorrow.

[Niu]

As for what I'm playing...  not much of anything actually.  Rondo of Swords is mostly what I've been playing, but...  A boss who can one shot Serdic from Range 10 and regens MP, oh, and has MP Switch just so that you cannot blitz him.  And good support with ZoC planted right in front of him and not inclined to be baited until you're already in smiting distance.  Let's add on the two ball lightning mages next to him, who only get one shot of magic each, but that one shot is also likely to just fry your poor character.

And I have warned against this since very beginning. Do I also mention he has a uber defense hex that reduce all damage done to him not from Sedric by like, what 1/10? Oh, did I also mention he has this spell that has 7x7 radius and overkills everything in its range?

[Strago]

PS:T - Started a replay of this, since Arcanum gave me a hankerin' for it. But now the damn thing crashes inexplicably whenever I try to enter the Catacombs beneath the Trash Warrens. I'm patched and everything, so I've got no idea what's going on with this. Le sigh.

[DomaDragoon]

FFTA2 - Abusing Auctions for fun and profit. <3 Ultima Shot and Double Sword.

[Idun]

Is FFTA2 gameplay better than FFTA, because I was interested in picking this up once I'm done with my shining backlog.

[Niu]

The laws got more bitchy, but the punishment is less sever. But still, some missions force you to complete the stage without breaking some really ridiculous laws. But the battles in general is more balanced, the illusionists are also less broken. But the double casting Summoners are still ridiculous.

[Dark Holy Elf]

What can I say? RPGs are the only genre where combat is a punishment.

If you honestly think that, why play the genre at all? I really hope it's not for the awesome plotlines (with a few exceptions of course).


XF - Up to the third battle with El Jackson and Samille. I apparently failed at understanding this battle's gimmick correctly, as even bereft of Zone Support, it seems like the enemies have psycho block/reflect/skill rates in general. Oh well, makes for a fun, challenging battle. Challenge had been going downhill recently (only other hard battle in Part 3 was the one against the suped-up Zortroa... surprised the game went back to regular Zortroa after that).


Some of the plot stuff recently has actually been kinda intriguing. Yulia is horrible, though.

Character stuffs:

Clarissa mastered Elementalist, is working on +3 skill slots because hey, Dandelion Shot rules anyway. May send her to Enigmancer for Devastate hell, after making her that for one battle and noticing how nuts that spell is. Does other things like Encourage and the occasional Rob Turn as always, and Sacrifice is what, 350 damage now? hax

Felius I benched, because I just didn't find myself using his unique stuff ever.

Labby... hmm, finding her skillset is slowly diminishing in value, so it's possible she'll be the next I bench. Made her a Gadgeteer of late to help her speed woes and get a second healer as I'd like to at least use Levin's offence every now and then.

Levin is the other healer, having mastered Sacred Slayer. Now going for MAX MAGIC TWINKING with Blast. It's no Sacrifice, but it's solid enough. Not really using anything else about Martial Mage right now, which is a downer, but at least Levin himself has the really high base speed. (Equal to Clarissa, but he's at a level disadvantage.)

Ragnar Hypers things, grabs treasure, and has a decently strong attack in Orbital Ring. Has spent time in Excavator, Secutor, etc., but lacks a single decisive build.

Alexia is Ragnar with Royal Cheer instead of Hyper. Not really sure what to do with her. I just realised that Sacred Slayer OC would fit her awfully well just for the clocktick 0 Turn Shift. Hmm, maybe. Also considered High Cavalier, but eh, she wants to be moving, and Quicken would necessitate someone Rush her. She does have Fantastica OC, since you can never get too much of that.

My one generic is a speed/strength mastered Secutor who has spent time in Berserker, Fantastica, and is currently in Nightstalker, since hey, getting some damage out of THAT speed is fun.

Want to put High Cavalier and maybe Extremist to good use, but haven't yet (HC in particular). Emulator looks kinda crappy though.