What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Anthony Edward Stark]

S4 is finally done. And you know what? The ending is not as bad as S5's. But my perception of S5's ending was skewed because everything up to that point was quite good (I mean, Lucretia is like Shu in that she reads minds so I never felt genuinely threatened, but the plot was still good) and then after you take Sol-Falena it goes to shit.

That's the nicest thing I can think of to say about it.

[Niu]

but 5 LP...

That is to handicap his auto revive. Depends on how you manipulate your set up, 5 LP might be a problem at all.

[Taishyr]

Tide: You should be able to fiddle with graphics options and get the menu to appear. That was a problem I had with it at first.

[Niu]

Eph- The elemental spirit part of the plot is actually the only thing done right in arc3. The writer actually did homework there. It is consistent with the general Tales world view on the ecology of elemental spirit. Each planet nautrally gains its own elemental spirit once it approaches maturity, and each planets have its own means in doing it. If you read the Hermes Memo, Del Elumes is already on its way there, it is only artifically sped up due to the circumstances. And no, its has nothing to do with ToS or ToP. It'll even be insulting to claim it does, consider ToS has close to no homework done.

Also, no techs are permanently missable, that is a false claim, they all have other ways to get them.
Nor Judy's Brionac takes up to 8 steps or something, and only step one is missable.
And I must say you can only miss Estelle's BC Rod unless you try. I only find it is missable after I already get it. Missing her master for the first 2 encounter takes skill, and the third encounter is in the same place where two other side quests occur, making it hard to miss as well, and it stop getting time out after the third encounter. And compare to ToV's huge list of side quest, only 5 quests in total are missable is actually pretty fair.


.....and is it just me or are people underselling Repede? Shipuken-Senkureha-Reijinken-repeat is the most broken thing in this game. Combined with Maximum Dog, it is a bluelike level abuse. He walks out the 200 kill arena fight without losing a single hp.
You also don't need overlimit for Rita's spell spam. Save it for others. She can infinite chain Thunder Blade just fine by using Levitation. With the right set up, she can even infinite chain with Meteor Swarm in Levitation too.

Oh, and I didn't make up the yaoi either, read the dialogue I posted earlier. And I am not the only one who catch it. Flynn suddenly turned tsundere there is just fan servicey. Miyano, you did this on purpose did you?

[DjinnAndTonic]

Legend of Dragoon: Beat the Last Kraken, despite the plot claiming it was on -my- side. Why do all giant monsters inevitably turn against me? Went back and kicked the Dragon Campaign Ghosts' collective ectoplasmic asses. Kanzas (old Purple Dragoon) seemed like a neat-ish character from his 7 or so lines of dialog. Plenty of standard RPG plot and character development going on, nothing horrible, nothing amazing.

Then, Zenebatos. This is most unique dungeon design I've ever seen. Zenebatos is the Law City of the Winglies, still functioning since ancient times. The actual ups and downs of the city aren't the newest ideas ever, but the concept is pretty interesting. It's one of the few cases I've ever seen where the gameplay was -enhancing- a story rather than hindering it. In this dystopian city where laws are passed and revised continually by unthinking machines/constructs whose sole purpose is to approve laws, the player steps in and has to re-write a few laws himself to progress through the dungeon. The dialog here is short and to-the-point, but the overall feel of the mindless city is a powerful image. When one considers that video games should at some point evolve into a medium for story-telling where gameplay can enhance/expand a story rather than limiting it, I think this particular city/dungeon in LoD is a step in the right direction. Video games aren't there yet (well, Portal was pretty decent). And LoD -certainly- isn't winning any story awards, but I will give credit to this very well-implemented concept.

-Djinn

[Pyro]

The heck does Levitation have to do with Rita's casting times?

You know what? I'm just going to stick with "Yuri is awesome" and go on my merry way.

[Lord Ephraim]

Just what does Maximum Dog do? There's no real in-game documentation on what it does.  The only reason Repede was weak my whole game was his lackluster strength and weak selection of weapons.  Only until the aftergame I found his ultimate weapon and that's still pretty weak compared to Yuri/Karol.

Niu, I'm sure there's more yaoi in the japanese version for fanservice but Banco of America sees yuri (not Yuri) as superior fanservice.

The poker game is pretty abuseable. Normally poker is not a easy way of winning in videogames, but the High/Low sidegame along with frequent Joker cards make it pretty easy to earn well over 100,000 chips in 30 minutes.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Finished Legend of Dragoon. Finally. Egads Melbu has too many forms. Plot was predictable though mostly inoffensive with only a few holes here and there which didn't bother me. Overall, the polish of the game was pretty good even if the translation was lackluster, if that makes any sense.

The horrible voice-acting killed any chance the ending had at being evocative. Though the little cutscenes at the end were cute and fairly representative of how the whole game felt.

Characters...

Dart: At least he wasn't outright dumb, but his and Shana's relationship = crap. Good melee attacker in battle, luckily.
Shana: Cute enough, but as soon as she left the party, she was just forgotten about and I realized I had never actually grown attached to her. Surprisingly useful in battle, I used her a lot.
Lavitz: I missed him the whole game and cheered during his Ghost scene. Not a great character, but the game presented him well enough that I cared. Used him all the time until... *sigh*
Haschel: Funny, overall positive about him. Generally my third character, solid all-around stats.
Kongol: Also generally funny, though forgettable. He fits an anime trope I tend to like, though, so he gets points. I used him at times because I like his trope, but the slowness got to me.
Meru: Funny, good scenes with Haschel, but ends up being background color for the whole game so I stopped caring. Didn't end up using her much, though she's pretty serviceable as a mage and transforms easily.
Albert: Forgettable in every sense, I almost forgot to add him here. Never really used him much, though Rose Storm is useful.
Miranda: Memorable but completely unlikeable. Her backstory was kind of cool. Shana replacement, used her a lot.

Rose: I really like her as a character and it's obvious the writers gave her enough attention that she didn't feel lacking as a character. Loses points for being fanservice-y, but I can overlook it. Best character overall for me. Surprisingly, I just never used her much in battle. She still had enough screen time to be my favorite, though.

Doel: Probably the most fleshed out villain?
Lenus: Probably the hardest boss fight?
Lloyd: At least he's badass... yeah, I didn't care for him.
Melbu: Hahahhahahaaha.

Whenever I found something I really liked about the game, I generally posted about it already. The rest of the game was merely average. Maybe 6-ish out of 10?

At least I don't feel like I wasted my time by playing a fantasy version of the Power Rangers (which was my initial impression when I played the first disc or so back when it came out).

-Djinn

[AndrewRogue]

Beat God of War II recently, which pretty much amounted to pure, unmitigated awesome. Which is funny, given the game can be summed up as basically "Kratos is angry and kills everyone." Cliffhanger ending is suck, but it is at least set up nicely and led into, and certainly raises anticipation for the third installment.

Otherwise... haven't played much at all lately. Sad times.

[Niu]

The heck does Levitation have to do with Rita's casting times?

It shortens her casting animation. It is surprisingly good at improving her spamming speed.

Just what does Maximum Dog do? There's no real in-game documentation on what it does.  The only reason Repede was weak my whole game was his lackluster strength and weak selection of weapons.  Only until the aftergame I found his ultimate weapon and that's still pretty weak compared to Yuri/Karol.

Maximum Dog is basically Miracle Bangle+Final Symbol.
Aka, it means Repede has infinite supply of TP to sustain is invincibility loop. He is not dying, ever, more so than Estelle. And laughs at unknown mode like a joke. He can even solo Duke's third form without breaking a sweat.

[Fudozukushi]

The heck does Levitation have to do with Rita's casting times?

It shortens her casting animation. It is surprisingly good at improving her spamming speed.

Just what does Maximum Dog do? There's no real in-game documentation on what it does.  The only reason Repede was weak my whole game was his lackluster strength and weak selection of weapons.  Only until the aftergame I found his ultimate weapon and that's still pretty weak compared to Yuri/Karol.

Maximum Dog is basically Miracle Bangle+Final Symbol.
Aka, it means Repede has infinite supply of TP to sustain is invincibility loop. He is not dying, ever, more so than Estelle. And laughs at unknown mode like a joke. He can even solo Duke's third form without breaking a sweat.

Hahaha, go dog god.

[Pyro]

Light Magic + Spell End +  Levitation+Mystic Symbol or whatever didn't result in any noticeable spammability when I used it. Certainly the TP cost for flying is prohibitive, and the fact that enemies seem to LIKE TO TARGET her while she's flying somehow makes her more vulnerable rather than less...

Meanwhile, for those of us who did NOT USE THE VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT DOCUMENTATION TO SOMEHOW FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET EVERY OBSCURE THING...

Yuri is awesome and Overlimit Rita is also awesome. BlahBlahBlah Ground Dasher hype works for me. Alternatively screw Tales sidequests.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

S5 - Everything continues to be fabulous, including the writing. Dear god, I... honestly think I've never seen videogame writing as sharp, fluid and snappy as the one this game has. And you people say it's bound to get -better-? Holy.

Gameplay is "Auto-battle, enemies lose", though. Oh well.

EDIT: Miakis rules.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

S5 - Everything continues to be fabulous, including the writing. Dear god, I... honestly think I've never seen videogame writing as sharp, fluid and snappy as the one this game has. And you people say it's bound to get -better-? Holy.

Gameplay is "Auto-battle, enemies lose", though. Oh well.

EDIT: Miakis rules.

You talk about how great the writing is and then you go on to compliment Miakis? Did your mom drink alot when she was knocked up?

[metroid composite]

Mountain of Faith: I'd noticed some moments of slowdown when running on my home computer, but it seems I was getting rather a lot of it, since nearly everything feels faster on this computer.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

S5 - Everything continues to be fabulous, including the writing. Dear god, I... honestly think I've never seen videogame writing as sharp, fluid and snappy as the one this game has. And you people say it's bound to get -better-? Holy.

Gameplay is "Auto-battle, enemies lose", though. Oh well.

EDIT: Miakis rules.

You talk about how great the writing is and then you go on to compliment Miakis? Did your mom drink alot when she was knocked up?

Yeah, liking characters beyond the scope of brooding badasses is clearly a sign of mental deficiency. Miakis already had a great scene with Euram, at least, and her teasing chemistry with Lymsleia is fine.

[Niu]

Light Magic + Spell End +  Levitation+Mystic Symbol or whatever didn't result in any noticeable spammability when I used it. Certainly the TP cost for flying is prohibitive, and the fact that enemies seem to LIKE TO TARGET her while she's flying somehow makes her more vulnerable rather than less...

Meanwhile, for those of us who did NOT USE THE VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT DOCUMENTATION TO SOMEHOW FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET EVERY OBSCURE THING...

Yuri is awesome and Overlimit Rita is also awesome. BlahBlahBlah Ground Dasher hype works for me. Alternatively screw Tales sidequests.

Take off Mystic Symbol and put on Wonder Symbol. Also tag on Speed Spell and Rhythm, enjoy. I was even be able to spam Meteor Swarm before taging on light spell on this set up.

As for documentation... well, I guess know how to read japanese is a plus? they are all over the place a week after the release.

[Pyro]

No Meteor Swarm. But I forgot about Rhythm. Hmm. Edit: Yeah, works pretty well. Ground Dasher spam worked pretty nicely. Granted sucks TP like nobody's business and makes your hand sore from hitting B. Also eats an accessory slot.

I am unfortunately not fluent in Japanese. Generally if something isn't even on GameFAQs I likely won't find out about it.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

S5 - Everything continues to be fabulous, including the writing. Dear god, I... honestly think I've never seen videogame writing as sharp, fluid and snappy as the one this game has. And you people say it's bound to get -better-? Holy.

Gameplay is "Auto-battle, enemies lose", though. Oh well.

EDIT: Miakis rules.

You talk about how great the writing is and then you go on to compliment Miakis? Did your mom drink alot when she was knocked up?

Yeah, liking characters beyond the scope of brooding badasses is clearly a sign of mental deficiency. Miakis already had a great scene with Euram, at least, and her teasing chemistry with Lymsleia is fine.

I don't generally care for the brooding badass, you very nice person. The sociopath, yes. Generic brooding guy, no. Miakis may have a good scene with Euram, but she also has the worst scene in the entire game... besides the bullshit at the end.

Don't use bad words!

[Niu]

No Meteor Swarm. But I forgot about Rhythm. Hmm. Edit: Yeah, works pretty well. Ground Dasher spam worked pretty nicely. Granted sucks TP like nobody's business and makes your hand sore from hitting B. Also eats an accessory slot.

Meteor Swarm quest don't time out, you can go back and get it.
With Speed Spell, Spell End, Rhythm, Wonder Symbol, you can spam it without Levitation and Light Magic.

[Lord Ephraim]

Yeah, you can't miss Meteor Swarm (just go back to Halure and talk to the mages by the tree) but you can miss Negative Gate though, but whee if there's anything weak to darkness that's not a gimmick enemy.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Rob: Even if we accept the "worst scene in the entire game" being indeed that, it seems a bit unfair to get angry at people liking the character before they even see that scene. <_<

FE7 - Missed Night of Farewells (forgot you had to actually recruit Jaffar. Oh well), onto Cog of Destiny, S ranks still in place. Due to my spreading out exp a -lot- for ranking reasons, people are just promoting now.

[Fudozukushi]

Yeah, you can't miss Meteor Swarm (just go back to Halure and talk to the mages by the tree) but you can miss Negative Gate though, but whee if there's anything weak to darkness that's not a gimmick enemy.

Negative Gate is missable?

[AndrewRogue]

Resumed playing Puzzle Quest. Am collecting Minotaur God Pieces. Forgot how much that game could drive me crazy.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

S5 - The kingdom of Falena is no longer fabulous.

...

;_;