What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Excal]

Of the last four classes, High Cavaliers were the ones I used least.  I found they need a little too much in the way of support skills to be worth the effort (Rush, Widespread being the two better ones) but with Widespread and Alexia Turn Shifting my HC then the first turn Reraise on the party did horrible things to game balance.  Emulator turned out surprisingly good as well.  They combine the ability to move then cast with good status and electric attacks that don't rely on Labby of the glacial speed.

[Meeplelard]

MMSF2: Beat Yeti Blizzard and things that followed!

Anyway, so far, the game is better than MMSF1...and MMSF1 was by no means bad!  Feels like they're trying to be less like MMBNs, and more attempting at creating an original series.  The first game, felt like they were a bit too afraid of branching off and creating something new, but here, seems like they're taking that extra step further.

First off, I must say, the difference between Starforces and battle Networks are pretty drastic now that I'm playing one right after the other.  The no Vertical Movement thing is the obvious difference, but Starforce compensates by working this into its system in a variety of ways.  It makes the buster a lot more practical since now its "You charge while you aren't blocking or shooting", which...is better for a number of reasons.  One being you don't have to hate yourself for an accidental movement of your thumb.  The other is its easier on your thumbs since now holding B Button down = Rapid Fire!
Also, Cards are more intuitive!

...but enough of what's different about MMSFs and MMBNs, I should talk a bit about what's actually new between the game's themselves!

MMSF1, the Wave World was basically the same as MMBN's Internet, the one difference is you could jump into other areas that you would normally jack into in MMBNs from the Wave World, and you could seethe world below you and know where you were relative to things.

MMSF2...decided to scrap that.  Instead, the Wave World is just the same as the normal world, but there are extensions and stuff you can only access in Wave Form.  So like while there would be an obvious bridge between two buildings and a pathway up outside...you could only access it in Mega Man form, not Geo Form.  So why not always stay in Wave Form?
Well, one reason is for plot; Geo isn't visible while in Wave Form...barring circumstances the game is slowly making a plot point.  Naturally, NPC interaction wouldn't make sense.
The other is random encounters.  In the normal world, there are no encounters.  All game play is done in the Wave World.  Again, plot reasons, etc.

This just feels a lot better since it pulls a lot less of those pseudo maze areas for no reason that MMBNs love to do. 

As far as plot goes...well, too early, but its been kind of silly.  First PHANTOM OF THE OPERA STRIKES THE MOVIE THEATER, and then YETI ON THE SKI LIFTS...IN THE SUMMER!  No, these aren't quite as absurd as they sound, but still amusing!

The characters...well, Geo's smiling wtf?  Being cheerful and not emo, being friendly, etc.  This only makes sense after MMSF1 where it was basically about Geo's recovery from Emo state.  So far, seems the angle with Geo they're taking this time is how his actions are...actually getting noticed by people other than his few friends, and he's suddenly stuck with the whole Super Hero Crisis of having a secret identity and being able to maintain.

Mega...is Mega.  He's still awesome.  Generally snappy on lines, the same aggressiveness that was funny in MMSF1, etc.  He's a little worse cause one of the fun things about him in MMSF1 was how it was Emo Kid vs. Aggressive Alien interaction that would often clash into one another in hilarity.  Though, they recently started introducing a new angle to do something with...namely how he's basically trying to get Geo to ride out the Super Hero thing for all its worth, rather than complain about.

Luna, Zack and Bud are more or less the same.  They added a few running gags with them cause, well, Luna can't strive on "GO TO SCHOOL DAMN IT!" like she did in MMSF1.  So her new angle?
Trying to hide the fact that she obviously likes Geo.  She tries to smokescreen this by claiming she likes Megaman specifically...even though Luna's one of the few people who knows Geo = MegaMan and has been all too vocal about it to him.  So we get situations like "Geo, you were awesome...er...I mean, Mega Man was awesome!  Yes, that's it!  Not that you were bad...but I don't mean to compliment you! I am complimenting Mega Man!"
Zack now loves to bring up the Zackapedia, to make it even more obvious he's a stuck up nerdy kid.
Bud...bully who loves to eat but has a heart of gold.  Yes, you read that right.  He's also a Flaming Bull when he gets too emotional!

For new characters...well, Amy Gelande feels like she's going to be important, but maybe that was a one arc wonder who Bud's going to constantly refer to.  Hyde is awesome though.  Can't explain why, but he is!

Waiting for when Sonia's going to pop up again; I refuse to believe they're going to leave her out of this game on a shaky excuse like "Oh, she's on tour!"  No, do not spoil whether she's in this game or not.
(I expect Harp Note to be the equivalent of Roll.exe in MMBNs, much like Taurus Fire is obviously going to be the equivalent of Gutsman.exe.)

...yeah, I'm enjoying the game, despite progressing slowly. Blame...

Pokemon Colosseum: Final Boss! He's stupid and retarded but thank god I can go straight back to him, as I don't want to face the 5 battles before him over again.

[Grefter]

Strago.  Empty your cache folder and it will work fine.  The area data stored on your hard drive has just corrupted.  Clear everything out of the Temp directoy in Torment directory.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I started playing Front Mission again. As usual, fun game, dig the story, the giant robots move like tanks with legs, and so on.

My main characters sucks this time. He died a lot early on and when that happens you lose, so I made him a missiler. He's good at everything, but he's not like Sakata, who will be the best at anything you decide to focus him on. Sakata, by the way, just got the Ziege Rifle and is now sodomizing the rest of the game with it.

[Captain K.]

BvS:  Achieving Jonin in Season 2 is hard.  Nuff said.

[Strago]

Strago.  Empty your cache folder and it will work fine.  The area data stored on your hard drive has just corrupted.  Clear everything out of the Temp directoy in Torment directory.

Hrrmm. Nope, that didn't do anything. Still crashes just the same. Plan B?

[superaielman]

Replay PS4?

[Cotigo]

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).

Any number of reasons, really.  Aspects of the plot can be interesting without the plot being particularly well written, particularly characters and the setting.  I know the reason why I still play RPGs with trite plots or dull, flat characters now is 90% the setting,  which is probably why I like the games I do--Earthbound has an awesome, strange setting, even if it doesn't always come through in the writing;, the mythology and history behind, say, DQ4's world is fascinating even though the plot is little more than defeat the big bad and the characters can be summed up in one sentence each.  There are a large number of reasons you can like RPGs despite seeing the combat for what it is most of the time: An exercise in hitting Confirm over and over.

Though, in fairness, this doesn't stop me from thinking most RPGs suck ass nowadays.  DISILLUSIONMENT.

[SageAcrin]

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).

Any number of reasons, really.  Aspects of the plot can be interesting without the plot being particularly well written, particularly characters and the setting.  I know the reason why I still play RPGs with trite plots or dull, flat characters now is 90% the setting,  which is probably why I like the games I do--Earthbound has an awesome, strange setting, even if it doesn't always come through in the writing;, the mythology and history behind, say, DQ4's world is fascinating even though the plot is little more than defeat the big bad and the characters can be summed up in one sentence each.  There are a large number of reasons you can like RPGs despite seeing the combat for what it is most of the time: An exercise in hitting Confirm over and over.

Though, in fairness, this doesn't stop me from thinking most RPGs suck ass nowadays.  DISILLUSIONMENT.

You know, it doesn't *incredibly* help that the games you mentioned as liking are some of the ones I associate most with hitting confirm over and over with.

Maybe you should just try MMBN games. Actually why haven't you yet. Go. Go now.

[Grefter]

Try reinstalling then I guess Strago.  If the area specifically isn't loading it means something to do with its data is corrupted.  Normally it is just something with the stuff stored in the temp folder chucking a wobbly when you leave the area.

[Mad Fnorder]

BvS:  Achieving Jonin in Season 2 is hard.  Nuff said.

It just takes a bit of preparation. Stack +stamina, Silver Elixir/super potion,  for the XP limit. They recently reconfigured the ally bonuses- I think Annie lvl. 2 is the current big bonus one. The bloodlines require a bit of running around for Trade lvl1- that's all you need for the bloodline there, and reaper is a free pass if you got into it at all in S1.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

OGs2 - Raubtier instead of that horrible failure of a Hucky Mk. II for Latooni? Oh god -yes-.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Finally chucked out the cash for The World Ends With You.

On Day 2 of Joshua's chapter.

Despite myself, the part of the game that I'm finding the most intriguing has got to be the shopping.

Since I'm moving to Japan in a few short weeks and I've only been over there once before, getting a little taste of using yen and familiarizing myself with lots of Japanese names and customs and food is actually surprisingly enjoyable all on its own.

But apart from that - the battle system is amazingly fun. The sliding scale of difficulty/rewards is great. Not just the level/difficulty setting, but how one actually plays the game, too. In some ways, it's entirely possible to play the battles without even looking at the screen, just by scratching the touch screen wildly and mashing the ctrlpad in one direction over and over again to control you partner. This ends battles pretty quickly all on its own.

But you can also take the time to play your partner's card game... or to carefully set up combos with Neku... and not to mention all the fun dodging/blocking/jumping things while passing the light puck. It's all face-paced and disgustingly addicting, especially since new features keep getting added to the battle system.

Pin system is... meh. And the fact that this game is so incredibly awesome and so completely unrankable also makes me feel meh. But overall, it's a fun experience and I actually -like- the plot/setting/characters is a nice plus.

-Djinn

[Niu]

On the pins. They only evolve in response to one specific type of the BP nto an mixture of them, and that certain BP must be over 80% of the total BP on that pin. So if just prepare at least 3 pins of each type and fill each up with different BP, at least one is going to evolve.

[Hunter Sopko]

MapleStory- I hit 120, so that means 4th job time. Marksman-city. Funny thing? The jump from 3rd to 4th job helps you exponentially more than the jump from 2nd to 3rd. The first 4th job skill I put points into payed off immediately, and I jumped from 11% an hour to 14% an hour on the same training area, despite the amount of exp needed for the level going up by 1 million. Hooray for critical hit buffs. My max per arrow Strafe went from ~5500 to ~8500 and my max Arrow Eruption went from ~9k to ~11k. I've even gotten 12k off a Mortal Blow. Only downside is due to the low amount of points I have to recast it every thirty seconds. Totally worth it though.

[Idun]

I'm on Disc 2 of Xenogears. Wrrryyy won't it end?? I ended up quitting while fighting Serphita, Tolone et al in their Power Rangers Gear because Ely's Aerods were healing them for 8000+ damage, so I was like "eh. Done for the day."

Wrrrry won't it end?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Xenogears pacing. It's just that good.

[Captain K.]

Xenogears typically runs about 80 hours for a normal playthrough.  You've got plenty of cutscenes to go.

It just takes a bit of preparation. Stack +stamina, Silver Elixir/super potion,  for the XP limit. They recently reconfigured the ally bonuses- I think Annie lvl. 2 is the current big bonus one. The bloodlines require a bit of running around for Trade lvl1- that's all you need for the bloodline there, and reaper is a free pass if you got into it at all in S1.

I've got the bloodlines, it's the 500,000 XP in one day that's a pain.  I've got the tools for it (hairpin pieces, etc.), I just have to time for this weekend when I hit 21 days and 200 spars.  Sucks doubly because you can't use things like Hottie Regneration due to the regular Jonin exam foolishness.

And I did not know there was an Annie level 2.  I must investigate this.

[Idun]

Well I'm about 52 hours into the game. If I have 10+ more, someone seriously kill me and then stab Cmdr for him giving up my hopes. Though, I don't 'speedrun' (wat) through XG like that fine chap.

[Cmdr_King]

My first playthrough was 65 hours or so, and I probably spent a lot more time just randomly levelling up deathblows than you, sooo...

[Dhyerwolf]

You really have very little gameplay left! Just...lots of cutscenes.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Is it really a cutscene if it's a guy sitting in a chair talking in front of a picture OF a cut scene?

[Grefter]

It is if he is as emo as Fei.

80 hours is a bit much.  If you are FAQing it can get standardish RPG length.  Don't worry you have only Gear Battles ahead of you as well.  Enjoy it.  OH WAIT.  Ahahahaha I love it when other people inflict XG on themselves.  Remember the BEST GAEM PLOT EVAR hype while you write a wrap up and then curb stomp every mother fucking person you meet that says it.

Anyway, for that specific fight I THINK Aerods is... some kind of elemental (omni-elemental hits all elements?) or they might absorb magic damage since they are the Elements.  They will die to the usual boring melee them alot until they fall over though.

Edit - Oh and do you still have Xenosaga to get through afterwards.  Ooooh the joy of watching someone with enough taste to know a bad game when they are playing it realise that the hype for stuff is hiding a truely appalling game.

[TranceHime]

Niu convince me that playing the Spectral Force Genesis DS game is an exercise in futility

it's like a horrible fusion of Sangokushi and Sangokushi Taisen. >_>;;

What the heck is this

[Idun]

Yeah, I believe since Aerods is just listed as an ETH ATK then it's probably just going to heal them. I did just figure out, however, that once one of the characters like Serphita announces themselves, Elly can attack with an ETH attack to that specific character's weakness doing some good damage, especially if she's on Booster. It doesn't make sense to me considering all of the Elements just combined themselves, but whatever. Battle over. Yay.