Author Topic: What Games Are You Playing: 2008  (Read 478980 times)

Sierra

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2575 on: July 17, 2008, 02:04:43 AM »
Also, as an aside, yay for the PC version, because replacing music tracks, especially the generic growl-rock battle theme, is extremely welcome. (I shoved in the Guilty Gear 2 version of Holy Orders, and the game was substantially improved by it.)

Wouldn't that improve any game?

Shale

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2576 on: July 17, 2008, 02:13:56 AM »
Well, yes.
"Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology."
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Dark Holy Elf

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2577 on: July 17, 2008, 03:12:59 AM »
Quote
It's a 0.5 point difference in overall effectiveness for me between the two of them, but then I seem to have a higher respect for Hector than the likes of Elfboy and Snow.  Probably more conservative playstyle, I take risks less often so I rely more on concrete defense than dodge.

Naw, 0.5 sounds reasonable enough for me too. I think my playstyle is closer to yours than Snow's.

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Grefter

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2578 on: July 17, 2008, 05:45:42 AM »
Volume control for music tracks is imperative in games.  Things that fail to have it are failures of design.  Turning music off and having your entire music library >>>>>>>>>>>>> changing specific tracks.
NO MORE POKEMON - Meeplelard.
The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
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Shale

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2579 on: July 17, 2008, 05:49:40 AM »
Eh, there's something to be said for using the game to automatically cue a track of your choice in a given situation.
"Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology."
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Grefter

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2580 on: July 17, 2008, 06:20:42 AM »
Yeah and that something would be that cutting into your song half way through fucking sucks and listening to the same song every time that event comes up kills even a decent song.
NO MORE POKEMON - Meeplelard.
The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
Don't worry, just jam it in anyway. - SirAlex
Gravellers are like, G-Unit - Trancey.

Niu

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2581 on: July 17, 2008, 06:49:15 AM »
P4- Once again, I am angry that Nyarly is not here.

Shale

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2582 on: July 17, 2008, 07:02:32 AM »
Yeah and that something would be that cutting into your song half way through fucking sucks and listening to the same song every time that event comes up kills even a decent song.

Eh, if I agreed with that I wouldn't listen to in-game battle, map or town music ever, and I do. Especially since I'm replacing the song with another song that's written to loop over and over while you kill the hell out of enemy grunts.
« Last Edit: July 17, 2008, 07:06:29 AM by Shale »
"Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology."
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Anthony Edward Stark

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2583 on: July 17, 2008, 07:24:53 AM »
DMC4: Aaaaaaand beaten. 19th level is pretty good and the last boss is a joke, in the grand DMC tradition. I did fail the credits challenge, though. Tried Bloody Palace, got my butt kicked by Berial, whose post-stun fireburst is on crack for this mode. Overall a fun game that really needed to be closer to DMC3 in terms of difficulty, especially boss difficulty. More weapon options for Nero wouldn't go amiss, either. Also, as an aside, yay for the PC version, because replacing music tracks, especially the generic growl-rock battle theme, is extremely welcome. (I shoved in the Guilty Gear 2 version of Holy Orders, and the game was substantially improved by it.)

Am I to infer by your comment that you cannot do that on an XBox? That would be quite unusual.

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2584 on: July 17, 2008, 07:26:48 AM »
ToV Demo: because it's worth using a card for a free month of Xbox LIVE (why do I need Gold to download a game demo anyways?)

Well, it's pretty much ToS/TotA 'sides better graphics and less lag.  The camera can be adjusted in battle is a great addition especially if it uses 2 player camera focus like TotA. (I can get 2 other people to play TALES with me. hahaha).  The plot scenes were really bad though.  You have some annoying kid and stupid magic girl bitch and they do nothing but whine.  Then we have NotFEKarel and Doglike just sort of being there and healer bitch loving the ocean.  Urgh.  The boss was really hard for a demo and pretty well done. Lots of support and damage, but you can exploit its weakness for massive damage and the Overlimits or whatever they call it can be bulit up to multiple gauges so you can stay longer in Limit mode.  Enemies seem to deal with Free Run better and most of my struggles was with B button for regular attacks (That be the Xbox version of Circle for Playstation peoples) and A for specials.  It'll probably be fixed in the final release though.

Kind of hyped for this game.  Not the same for ToS2, which I heard got really fucking stupid with monster catching and ToS fanservice.  I don't give a shit about if Zelos is in this game or playing as monsters. >_<

Meeplelard

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2585 on: July 17, 2008, 07:37:39 AM »
FE10: ALMOST beat 4-1 then...Sniper from the fog goes after Rafiel.  FoW sucks, etc.  Should be able to crush the thing easily enough anyway.

4-P was a joke this time.  Amazing how much easier bringing Haar and Jill make that.  Yes, Naesala can butcher everything...except for that one Crossbow wielding guy.  He spells death for Naesala. Jill and Haar, meanwhile, mock him, and most everything else in that map!
Both of them are Dragon Lords now; Jill capped all stats but Skill before promoting (You have FE9 transfer data partially to blame for this!  Admittedly, lots of BEXP abuse was actually the cause.)  Sothe hit level 20 on that map, so got full benefits from his plot promotion, and Marcia and Tanith promoted too, so I have three Seraph Knights! Trying to see if I can get Edward (who has Paragon and is level 11 Swordmaster) to Trueblade just for kicks.
Nealuchi...is a bit lacking on offense now.  Slightly underleveled, iffy strength, and A Class weapon hurts.  However, his evasion is top notch.  No, not quite Naesala level, but things were struggling to break 30 hit against him.  This and the mobility made him good for baiting...
or they would have if Skrimir wasn't just better at it!  Yeah, the boss of the chapter, WITH the brave Sword factored in...does 6 damage total to Shifted Skrimir.  All other enemies, Skrimir ACTUALLY DOUBLES, and near OHKOs them when not doubling anyway, and...yeah.

Basically, I've come to determine that giving Skrimir Halfshift is in fact a bad move; it completely neuters his main use.  Yeah, yeah, permanent shifted form sounds like it offsets it...but 24 Defense vs. 32 defense along is a huge difference (or whatever Skrimir's defense score was), let alone speed, strength, etc.  It completely compensates his worth.  Olivi Grass is all he needs.
Actually, good strategy for this? Use Olivi Grass, have Leanne use Galdr on him, have him use another Olivi Grass.  I recommend this cause Lion transformations are a bit slow (turn 4 w/ one Olivi Grass instead of Turn 3), and the upkeep is low enough that he won't need as much Olivi Grass.  To put things into perspective? He went up against about 8 enemies...and still had enough energy to sustain his form the next turn (he had like nothing left in him mind! But so long as he was still in Lion form, I didn't care; he could use another Olivi Grass to replenish it and last a while longer, etc.)

For Greil Mercs?  Heather's about to promote; she's level 19, in a fight that gives enough EXP to let her gain 2 levels if used wisely easily enough. Ike's already promoted, but that goes without saying!  Otherwise, Gatrie, Soren, Shinon, Titania, Oscar, and Mia are all promoted.  Mist is level 16, of course, has the Holy Crown so she only needs level 20 (trying to conserve Master Crowns, etc. in case i need an emergency promotion.)

I also realize I did a dumbshit move!  I put Mordecai in the Greil Army when, on hindsight, the Hawk Army could use him more.  I only realized this after I beat 4-P (I made a separate save in case I found my team splits too uneven to work with, so yeah, going back and recovering would have been fine otherwise!)  Ah well, hopefully won't matter much, and that team has enough Laguz anyway between Janaff, Ulki and Ranulf.  Said team also has Elincia and Nephenee in it, so they should be fine without relying on Tibarn as a crutch TOO much (certainly nice in 4-P to not rely on Naesala to carry a lot of the weight this time!  Granted, my first file, I got cockey and figured I could get away without using either Haar OR Jill...bad move on my end <_<; )

Mega Man Starforce 2: Just beat Rogue EX.

Spent a while looking for Plesio Surf SP before hand, found him! ...he didn't give what I wanted.  I said fuck it, went to continue the plot.
...only to learn I need to go back underwater to where I was anyway.  Irony can be a cruel thing.  So I go back underwater!  I also along the way get a Search Eye and am reminded what they do...figured they could come in handy so I buy a few...
Sure enough, without even looking, I run into Plesio Surf SP again! THIS TIME, I use a Search Eye, so nearly all my random encounters are going to be against him.   Also learned (good thing too since he can kick my ass if I'm not careful) that Search Eyes do carry over on saves, so yeah.  Anyway, FINALLY got the Mega Card (an EX version no less), then used the remaining Search Eye time to harvest him for money (he's worth 2500 each at least.)

Harp Note seemed to actually use a few new tricks this game.  I didn't remember her doing some of the stuff she did here in MMSF1, like the big HEART WAVE OF DOOM! Still an easy fight, though that seems to be a trend with this game outside of Rogue:
Boss fights are easy, if you want more, go face the EX form for a decent, though not frustrating, fight (and possibly get their card.)  If you're patient and want a bit of a challenge, find their SP form!
Works well.  Boss Fights are still fun despite being a bit easy, and the EX/SP forms do allow the game to have difficulty if you want it.

Hollow...I must confess was a joke.  Though, his quirk seemed like it could be scary...except my initial hand had Queen Ophiuca in it.  Not only was this a straight up 280 damage (weakness hitting yay!), but turned 4 of his 6 special panels into Poison panels, so only the right hand side had enemies pop up.  Yeah, one could say that was a lucky draw <_<

Rogue EX was a tough fight.  Constantly puts pressure, has that limit power up with the sword which is hard as hell to get the timing down for, fast moving, and that defensive quirk to hurt your offense some.  Again, Rogue is the exception for Forced Bosses in this game.

Seems like the end is coming soon!  Yeah, I breezed through this game.  Its a lot of fun though!
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> so Snow...
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> Sonic Chaos
[21:39] <+Hello-NewAgeHipsterDojimaDee> That's -brilliant-.

[17:02] <+Tengu_Man> Raven is a better comic relief PC than A

TranceHime

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2586 on: July 17, 2008, 11:58:22 AM »

 
These are my current FFL2 stats for my PAUNCH!!! ONLY runthrough.

I am only in Ashura's Desert, so you can kinda see what happens when you use only martial arts >_>;;

Still, I am in doubt whether to get Heal Books/Staffs or not in accordance with the guidelines I set for myself, mainly:

2) The only form of healing to be used by the 4 main characters are healing ITEMS.
19:35:58 (trancehime) there's a specific spot in the game that's for item duping
19:36:14 (Sanae) o.o
19:39:11 (Sanae) I'd love to dupe a second trancehime.

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2587 on: July 17, 2008, 05:19:56 PM »
You can totally rotate the camera in Suikoden Tactics. Much better. I do like the talking on the field and the battle situations. It's like a much easier and controlled panel-based Growlanser III. We'll see how that goes once I get more than two hours into the game.

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2588 on: July 18, 2008, 06:24:52 AM »
FFT PSP

Classes unlock slllloooowww in this game comparatively.  It was Zaland Fort City before I had 2nd tier classes like Time Mage, Thief, Monk.  I'm in chapter 3, and the only third tier class I have so far is Summoner.  I'm surprised how I've actually died three times (Goug, Golgorand, Gate of Lionel) though in retrospect it's probably because most of my party has no abilities (beyond Phoenix Down, which I learned just to save my sanity).

A lot of the changes actually do improve game balance.  Gained JP Up costs 250 JP, which while still incredibly useful and totally worth the cost, adds a bit more thought to some early-game setups and learn-sequences.  Ramuh has been massively nerfed, from 4ctr to 7ctr, and from 24 mult to 20 mult.  The charge time is fairly noticeable--the only way I could hit Queklain with Ramuh first turn is by being a Priest with a Green Beret (in other words, maximum speed setup).  It's still a strong ability (6 range magic, unevadable unreflectable magic, 200 JP wide-area multitarget move).  However I'm certainly entertaining the possibility that Black Magic is better (Bolt 2 vs Ramuh is kinda close--almost the same damage, trading CTR for AoE; although right now 24 MP vs 10 MP is a big deal in this comparison).

On the other hand, in some ways balance is worse.  Chemist and Wizard were already on-crack easy-to-unlock classes.  Near as I can tell they aren't nerfed at all (even in terms of their unlock requirements).  And with all the high costs of advanced classes, the "earlygame" essentially lasts a lot longer.

Meeplelard

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2589 on: July 18, 2008, 08:08:41 AM »
Those aren't so much changes as much as...lack of changes from the original Japanese version.

Prime example is Fly costing 5000 JP.  I don't care WHAT you say, this is completely stupid.  1500 JP on Bard/Dancer is already overpriced, 5000 is just overkill.

Or another example, Meteor is 5 CT I believe, and high end summons are just near unusable (something like they take longer to come off and do less damage?  Yeah...)

FFTUS fixed a lot of shit to make things more, well, sane and balanced.  FFTPSP kind of forgot this and thus, the localized version is exactly like the Japanese version.  Kind of annoying given how class level ups are slower *AND* the Class Reqs are higher too as a result (Ninja is like 5 Thief, 4 Archer and 2 Geomancer, instead of 4/3/2 respectively.)

Anyway...

Mega Man Starforce 2: Beaten!  Final Boss wasn't too bad...outside of that first phase which was just *stab* worthy.  Couldn't they have like just added 1000 HP to the boss instead of giving it an invisible HP Barrier that you can only tell based off its color.  Mrf.  Annoying part.  The rest of the fight wasn't too bad once I learned to be more careful on movement and such.

The game is...generally an improvement over the first.  Bosses were the thing that stood out to me, since as a whole, they were all fun.  Granted, plot bosses were a bit easy, though, as I said before, EX forms and later SP forms make up for this and give you good challenge.

The game's story was...like the first in how it was done.  Take a simple, light hearted story, and don't be afraid to make fun of yourself at times.  Mega was funny with his side comments again, Geo's new angle worked based on his development of MMSF1 (having gotten through his little emo stage, he now has to deal with expectations of friends and...slowly becoming a world famous hero by accident.)  The other recurring characters from MMSF1...well, they're better than their MMBN equivalents!  Backhanded compliment, I know, but at least Sonia Strumm serves a purpose other than "Main character's love interest!", also amusing that Geo's first real friend happens to be a world famous Celebrity when you think about it, Luna replacing Chaud is good (despite adding in a bit of a weird Love Triangle.  This wouldn't be weird if the characters weren't all like 10 years old <_<; ) cause Chaud is an emo jackass, Bud...well, he's got the eating obsession! And The Great Budicus was a funny instance; this is a lot more than what Dex can say.  Zack vs. Yai...Zackapedia.  If nothing else, that sticks out.   I can't tell you a damned thing Yai did in *3* games outside of the beginning instance of MMBN2 with the bath.

Villains...Solo vaguely fails.  Though, that did feel like the point.  You're suppose to grow to like Geo in MMSF2 (compared to MMSF1 where you're slowly watching him get in touch with his happy self again), and Solo's meant to be his exact opposite, so you're pretty much meant to hate him.  Granted, they tried to show he wasn't evil in the end, but that felt obvious (the dark brooding rival who hates everything the main stands for often ISN'T evil, he's just a complete and total dick who ends up saving you anyway.  This fits Solo all too well.)  I'm betting he returns in later Starforce games just to cause every Mega Man needs a Bass, sad to say.
Vega...uhh...well, they did try to pull the whole "lets try to make you feel bad for this character!" right at the end thing...didn't work with her the way it did for Cephied or whatever his name was.  I must say, though, her villainous goals are far better than most villains.  Its not quite as simple as world domination, nor is it destroy all humanity...
Its destroy all humanity below a certain intellect.  Yes, she's trying to PURGE THE WORLD OF IDIOTS AND MORONS.

Yeah, that...doesn't sound evil, though, I guess the logic is her standards are incredibly high or something.  Well, no, the game justifies it as being evil and bad in different ways, but won't get into that.  Still, the notion of KILL ALL IDIOTS amused me...

...and yet, its not as awesome as Team Magma's EXPAND THE LANDMASS, but then again, what is?

Hyde was generally amusing.  Worked for the incompetent henchman and all that.  Hollow...plot device, yeah.


Yes, I'm analyzing MEGA MAN PLOT, but Starforce games actually have writing enough to be worth reading!  If nothing else, the game does a good job of at least being amusing through humor and general hilarity.

...its almost like the writers looked at Battle Network series, head desked at how they actually took themselves seriously then, tried to make sense, etc. and decided to go more towards just random amusement.

Not much else to say.  Thinking 8/10 game now.  Now I'm pumped for MMSF3 whenever that's coming out next year or whatever <.<
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> so Snow...
[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> Sonic Chaos
[21:39] <+Hello-NewAgeHipsterDojimaDee> That's -brilliant-.

[17:02] <+Tengu_Man> Raven is a better comic relief PC than A

Niu

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2590 on: July 18, 2008, 08:11:53 AM »
P4- The policemen suddenly got really cute after he got nutty. They should really have gave him a commu.

Grefter

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2591 on: July 18, 2008, 08:14:13 AM »
Slowing down access to super broken stuff by making things tedious is the bad option for balance anyway.  There was a reason they were changed to what they were in the US release and it wasn't because Mercans r dubm.  It really is a shame.  Just a bad port. Edit - Other than the localisation obviously.

FFT:LW - 5 people with mastered Calculator. Never. touching. class. again. so. bad. to. grind.  Not going to use Math Skill either although it would be super easy to cheese even this early before Holy immunity.  CT5 Thundaga because I have oceans of Rubber Shoes.  Trying to work out whether or not to go master everything or just get everything unlocked.  I dunno.  Only thing left to unlock is a single Dancer, maybe Ninja/Samurai on one of my males and Mimes.  No one is even close to unlocking Mime, I am going to have to look it up specifically to get it I guess.
NO MORE POKEMON - Meeplelard.
The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
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Gravellers are like, G-Unit - Trancey.

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2592 on: July 18, 2008, 02:44:55 PM »
Quote
Punch deals 4 times (90 minus uses left) damage,minus defense times 4

Punch deals,with its last use 356 damage.Arsenal I believe has 99 DEF,which means 396 damage resisted.

354-396 equals a negative number translating to no damage.

Also,you probably couldnt get past Magnate if O-Weapon halves damage from Punch(which im sure it does)because a last use would deal about 50,and youd need a punch with 27 uses or so to even scratch Magnate.You'd probably need X-Kicks to beat him.

Odin would probably require plenty of Jyudos to get past.Things would start getting tough at the endgame because to have enough Karates to beat arsenal youd have to kill Bl. Belts.Althogh Jyudo would damage arsenal,Karate would still be better and you only pick up like 2.

Then again,I could be wrong and not only would Punch penetrate O-Weapon,but it would also penetrate defense(It wouldnt be enough to beat Arsenal before he killed you though).

Yeah. Math proves that my FFL2 Punch Only challenge is... uh. Impossible.

Arsenal would make me deal negative damage due to 99 DEF and O-Change
Same with Apollo who has the same but O-All
Odin has 75 DEF and O-Change
Magnate has 63 DEF and O-Change

the last boss I could probably beat with Punch is Sho-Gun
19:35:58 (trancehime) there's a specific spot in the game that's for item duping
19:36:14 (Sanae) o.o
19:39:11 (Sanae) I'd love to dupe a second trancehime.

metroid composite

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2593 on: July 18, 2008, 10:47:45 PM »
Slowing down access to super broken stuff by making things tedious is the bad option for balance anyway.  There was a reason they were changed to what they were in the US release and it wasn't because Mercans r dubm.
Well yes.  And there's a reason that charge times were reduced across the board.  20 CTR is basically unusable.

That said, Gained JP Up going to 250 JP I certainly approve of.  It means you don't auto-learn it before reaching Knight/Archer, and if you decide "Oh I'll get that from spillover while I get my Chemist JP" you will end up noticably behind (whereas before you weren't really punished at all).

Grefter

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2594 on: July 18, 2008, 11:02:29 PM »
I guess yeah.  I have read some fairly convincing stuff from you before on which skills are a bit to JP cheap for their effects on the FFT boards years ago and it was pretty interesting outside of the obvious ones which you only glossed over because they are like that >_>
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The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
Don't worry, just jam it in anyway. - SirAlex
Gravellers are like, G-Unit - Trancey.

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2595 on: July 18, 2008, 11:17:56 PM »
Except that Gained JP up being 50 more isn't so good as to make up for the removal of Summon as a useful skillset, nor for the absurdity of Fly or the lengthening of the process to get the higher tier classes.

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2596 on: July 18, 2008, 11:47:41 PM »
Of course not.  It is just a mish mash of balancing they should have done in the first place.
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The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
Don't worry, just jam it in anyway. - SirAlex
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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2597 on: July 19, 2008, 06:59:47 AM »
Except that Gained JP up being 50 more isn't so good as to make up for the removal of Summon as a useful skillset, nor for the absurdity of Fly or the lengthening of the process to get the higher tier classes.

In fairness, Summon Magic isn't exactly useless, as, as MC observes, the big elemental summons, beaten with a nerf stick, remain very viable options. It may actually be closer to balanced in the JP version, because in the NA PSX version, they really are a bit much, with speed, AoE, solid damage, ITE, IFF, everything.

Granted, the NA version also salvaged the higher-end summons, something I approve of immensely because the JP version is just horrible with high-end charge times of all sorts (Meteor, summons... we inherited Charge's suckiness unfortunately). And I forget how the utility summons compared.

Ultimately JP version has Summon Magic as an alternate Black Magic - probably a bit better, but ultimately the same idea, a good magical beatdown set that wanes as the game goes on (though at least it doesn't get hosed by Mantles the way BM does). Granted, since Summoner is so much weaker as a carrier compared to Wizard, I guess this doesn't reflect too well on Summon.

Higher accession time for classes sucks though, and while Summon may have been an overboard correction, it was still arguably a needed correction most of the other NA changes were strictly positive. Definitely disappointed they adopted the JP ruleset, that + lag is the main reason I don't have that strong a desire to play LW.

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2598 on: July 19, 2008, 08:36:18 AM »
Summon also didn't have friendly fire as a concern. I feel like pointing that out because I abuse the hell out of that towards the end of the first chapter.

Niu

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Re: What Games Are You Playing: 2008
« Reply #2599 on: July 19, 2008, 10:05:39 AM »
P4- Apparently Japanesed based personas are on the better end of the favoritism this time. especially Yoshitsune, he is just WRONG. On the other hand, the western casts got some horrifying nerf. This si the weakest of Gabriel, Metatron, and Lucifer I have seen yet.