What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Hunter Sopko]

Excellent. I think this is where Toodles comes in.

[metroid composite]

Perfect Cherry Blossom Easy with Marissa B.  Did worse than the previous try.  I'm not sure if I should blame the early morning or the fact that Marissa moves too much.

Tried a few games on Lunatic just to see how it was (6, 8, 10).  Stopped or was interrupted early in 8/10.  In 6 got to Stage 4 before I ran out of Continues.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Marisa in PCB is pretty much a bit of a gimp character, mc. MarisaB might be the worst character in the game because of the lacking spread and unfocused damage and the natural gimpery that is only having two bombs per life. And her speed... can actually be hurtful in PCB.

G3 - Wow, Kornell was a good fight. Got game-overed once for being a moron and not focusing on GETTING KORNELL AND THE IRON FIST CANCELLED INTO OBLIVION FIRST and handling support as an aside. But this was really fun. If G3 is going to keep up the pace with its battles, this will be a fun ride.

[Shale]

Tales of Destiny Remake (DC): Started, with an extremely helpful translation site making it mostly intelligible. Liking it well enough so far - the battle system has more possibilities than any other Tales game I've played, the graphics are really nice, and best of all Leon's had two scenes already and I haven't tried to strangle myself yet! A clear improvement in all respects.

[metroid composite]

Phantasmagoria of Flower, Lunatic.  Got to stage 8 without continuing o_O.  Though, really, it doesn't seem like this game changes too much with difficulty setting.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

PoFV AI is kinda odd in that it just becomes increasingly hard to hit, but depends on a few factors like certain bullet patterns and attacks. Depending on the character, you can either hilariously mangle the AI or have epic 18-hour Mystia vs. Mystia matches (there is an AI vs. AI Lunatic match using that matchup that took around that time. Literally).

[Xeroma]

Mana Khemia: Just hit chapter 4. Enjoyable thus far, is getting better as I get to utilize IC more. Hopefully having a new warm "body"[hur hur] will spice the battles up a bit.

[Clear Tranquil]

FFIX Replay -

Memoria. Zidane is my highest levelled character at L44. Despite that he is still one of my least durable characters, dying numerous times to Nova Dragon. Same with Amarant. Really odd considering that I'm always upgrading equipment for my whole party (well ok I didn't visit any shops after returning from Terra but I've picked up a lot of nifty things throughout the game) Eiko of all things was my most durable and I'm guessing that's because I've had the Ribbon equipped on her from way back when she first received it. She's still learning Madeen! Freya was also relatively durable in the Nova Dragon fight. Tried to steal from it with Zidane but things went pear shaped when Amarant died and kept on being killed again as soon as I revived him (Eiko didn't have Full Life) Soon after Zidane died and such was Nova Dragon's speed that trying to have Freya use an Elixir on him as soon as Eiko used Life wasn't working. At one point even Freya died. Thankfully eventually she survived a weaker Aerial Slash after Eiko brought her back, enabling her to use an Elixir on herself. The tide of the battle turned in my favour when Eiko hit Trance and Double White saved the day allowing Eiko to use a Life + Curaga combo. She brought first Zidane then Amarant back safely this way. Managed to steal a Dragon Wrist with Zidane and then he hit Trance. Grand Lethal time. Amarant had been throwing Rising Suns in the mean time (I'd run out of Wing Edges), Freya white drawing and Eiko using Curaga. Nova Dragon survived Zidane's trance >.> Went back to stealing without any luck and the battle ended when Zidane used a counter attack.

Freya's White Draw was immensely useful in that fight. Nifty little ability! I am happy with her as a character choice. Amarant isn't bad but just by playing through the game normally, fighting battles as they come, not extensively doing side quests or training he takes ages to learn new abilities. Still only had Chakra and Spare Change by Nova Dragon >.> Throw is nice though, mmmm yeah.

[Monkeyfinger]

Pissed off Disgaea rant time. RE: the main character.

Fucking do something evil, Laharl. You started out as a contender to the title of Satan, basically, and eventually you won. And you talk the part. But you don't act it. You act like a typical underage JRPG protagonist.

You don't come off as badass running around screaming OVERLORD OVERLORD OVERLORD if all you do is slay demons, help random snotty kids find their lost pets, let your servants escape from hell, and let Flonne influence you. This is an especially hard punch in the gut because there is a certain other N1 game I played before Disgaea which proves that N1 can in fact pull off the whole "genuinely evil protagonist" thing. I don't know if I was being unreasonable by expecting Laharl to be an overlord of hell and not a misunderstood kid with mommy issues, but I'm sure let down.

I'm not a hard-nosed Disgaea hater so far (though not a hardcore fan either; game's a textbook 5/10 SRPG so far) but this one complaint really bothers me.

[Captain K.]

Found the City of Heroes/City of Villains doublepack for $10 at Big Lots.  Always wanted to play it, so I picked it up.  And after 3 hours of downloading patches, I actually got to play it.

I made a hero Defender, and my kid made a villain Stalker.  I ran a couple of missions and beat up random bad guys for a while.  Amazing how many car thieves there are in a city with this many heroes walking around.

[TranceHime]

Mahjong Haou DS Special (麻雀覇王ＤＳスペシャル): I guess I should finally talk about this because I've been playing this on and off for the past year or so. Basically it's a sort of tournament mahjong player career thingy. It's also the first of MYCOM's Mahjong Haoh games to come out on the DS, all the way back in December of 2006. You start as some random nobody guy (or girl) at the lowest rank available (1 dan, 初段) and I believe the highest is 10 dan (十段). Right now I am at the 8 dan. I'm at the 5th year of the game and it's getting tougher to win tournaments I've already won before. The game says I've won well over 5 million yen (5.438 mil) and I'm constantly earning more, with the tourneys I've been signing up for, the 1st place cash prizes are intense. I still don't know the criteria for becoming famous, but I win so often (72.5% 1st place percent) it really isn't relevant.

Still a really fun game despite how old it is.

[Sierra]

Cid: Speaking of Dak'kon, remember that you can converse with your party members. It's good for more than just reminding TNO where to go next!

Yep. The "don't trust the skull" conversation was good times. So yeah, talked to Pharod, got Annah, finally left the damn catacombs. Game's rather bad about making entrances and exits clear. Putting doors on the northern sides of houses when there's no way to look at the northern sides of buildings, placing exits in dark corners that are visually indistinguishable from any other dead-end...bleh. I wandered around down in the catacombs for an hour or so and slaughtered everything in the Warrens of Thought (fucking rat collective) before stumbling upon the entrance to the Drowned Nations.

Alignment already changed to Neutral Good because I'm just such a nice guy. Gotta say, it was a surprise to see Morte's actually chaotic good. Would've pegged him as chaotic neutral from everything I'd heard. What's even more of a surprise is that he's apparently the only naturally good-aligned PC in the game. Yeah, I poked around for info about the PCs online. I figured, I already know who all of them are, so why not? Apparently Nordom shares a voice with Homer Simpson. That should be interesting. Idly, wish I'd known from the start that Wisdom is the god stat in this game. Mine's dead average. Oh well, there's always replays (I'll probably want to give the rest of the PCs a go anyhow, eventually).

~

Also started up Half-Life, because I haven't played a shooter in about a dozen years and the series looked like a decent one from glancing at videos in the LP archive. It was quickly apparent that I am really bad at these. I fell off the ladder and lost half my health in the test chamber! Fun, though.

[Cotigo]

HL1 is like that, for the first few chapters, with the random environmental hazards that kill you. You save and reset a lot because of explosions.  It gets better but yeah.

I can safely say that HL2 is a way, way better game, so if you end up not liking HL1, you should try 2 anyway.

[superaielman]

Excellent. I think this is where Toodles comes in.

Yeah, I just saw him. Though now I need to reorg my front line units. I need to get that one Dragon Knight leader up to the front. Seems very typical SRPG for tactics- grab a chokepoint, defend, wear out the enemies.  Combat is pretty simple, good use of SP/super moves lets you dominate the AI.

[Sierra]

HL1 is like that, for the first few chapters, with the random environmental hazards that kill you. You save and reset a lot because of explosions.  It gets better but yeah.

I can safely say that HL2 is a way, way better game, so if you end up not liking HL1, you should try 2 anyway.

I intend to. My worry is actually whether my computer can run HL2, though. The machine's seven years old. If it can't run Civilization 4, I have my doubts as to whether it can handle a (semi)-modern action game. But I guess we'll find out.

Anyway, while I'm posting again, random PS:T question: just out of morbid curiosity, is there any use for the blob of intestines Marta gave me? I also have to note that I'm pretty sure PS:T is unique in letting you club enemies to death with your own severed arm.

[Shale]

Yeah, they come in handy later on, provided you didn't use INT as a dump stat.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

G3 - Alolso joins! And the more I think of it, the more I realize that G3 is essentially low-end Disney storytelling: utilize stunning audiovisual means to tell a hack'neyed tale. Only this is low-end Disney storytelling written by ten-year-olds hopped up on sugar, anime, antihistaminics and Don Bluth. On the other hand, the gameplay is so sexy.

[Pyro]

FE8: Beaten Eph's route. Little bit different from Eirika's, so glad I did it.

I need to get FE10 and get my REAL fix.

Anyway, thoughts in schizophrenic ordering:

- Lute is awesome. Didn't use her before, and I really should have.
- Eph is a beast. Early on he has Reginlief to own most bosses and potentially dangerous units. Late he gets the Sacred Twin of smash.
- Eirika is good, but not Eph for want of strength. The evade is nice but she didn't feel much better at it than a lot of my other units. Probably because...
- I didn't get anyone to 20/15. When the enemies on the last maps are only 20/5 at most, which is like 8 exp to a 20/11 unit for a kill, so its kind of hard to do so. Doubt its possible to do your whole party without randoms/bonus dungeons?
- Side note: Did Lyon have completely different plot in Eph's route than Eirika's? FIRE EMBLEM PLOT, I know, but still.
- Riev should have been ranked. A PUNY, but should have been ranked.
- Same goes for Myrrh ;_;. (Except, ah, more Godlike than puny!) Oh well.

Playing this as a substitute for FE10 is fulfilling, but I want a Wii and Radiant Dawn.

[Hunter Sopko]

Excellent. I think this is where Toodles comes in.

Yeah, I just saw him. Though now I need to reorg my front line units. I need to get that one Dragon Knight leader up to the front. Seems very typical SRPG for tactics- grab a chokepoint, defend, wear out the enemies.  Combat is pretty simple, good use of SP/super moves lets you dominate the AI.

Pretty much. It's easier in Gena's campaign since the map is revealed gradually. Sometimes it's rough in others where you have the whole map at the start and you need to watch 4-6+ chokepoints at once. Alen's campaign is at least easy in that Zodia's HQ is basically at a dead end unless you build terrain to connect it to near where the Beasts Arcane/Winged Calvary is.

Once you start hitting the hardier units combat will be a bit tougher if you're caught offguard. Getting a random encounter with Yeti in the snow, any of those hardier unit types really, can catch you in a bad spot and make you lose a commander. Different areas of the map determine the randoms though. The worst randoms usually happen near where Nightmare is to the topleft corner of the map.

[Rozalia]

Allens is by far the easiest campaign in the game to me (Great area to start out in and great generals).
Random encounters aren't that big of a bother unless in KOC mode. Then you run into Zeo, Fred and all sorts of other trouble.

[Hunter Sopko]

Allens is by far the easiest campaign in the game to me (Great area to start out in and great generals).
Random encounters aren't that big of a bother unless in KOC mode. Then you run into Zeo, Fred and all sorts of other trouble.

Running into a Behemoth unit with anything lower than a B commander sucks. Period.

But yes, Allen's is pretty easy. You start out with good people, plus you just keep searching The West for people like Orochimaru, Suzu-Oh, etc. You just need to know who to have for the story events. I released Lein since I didn't have enough to pay my commanders at the start and missed out on that whole half of Allen's story. Only saw the common soldiers' half.

[Rozalia]

Don't worry about it because Lein only shows up at the end after his intro scene and the scene itself is quite short.

[Hunter Sopko]

You need to have everyone required for the story scenes or they never happen. Period. Lein may not be IN many scenes, but he's required.

[Niu]

Look on the bright side, you at least prevent Lein from finding out his precious Soldy was deada already.

[Strago]

So, I beat Dragon Quest VIII. It was pretty good. Not great, but fun enough. Can't seem to bring myself to write much about it. Maybe I'll be less lazy later on.

I guess I'll take a whack at Grim Grimoire next, since it was lent to me along with DQVIII. I'm not... that enthused about it, but it's at least worth a try. I really should get around to playing P3, too. Don't know why I've put off getting that for so long.