What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Captain K.]

Needless to say, there were lots of values above 9000 in that fight, many a time I saw 9999 (which is a lie! Its higher.) 

WHAT?  OVER 9000?

Oh come on.  Someone had to say it.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Yeah, good thoughts on the FF3 classes, Meep. Though I do agree with your conclusion that Viking > Knight, I'll object to the hype for their better weapons - with lower JLevel, heavier weapons, and molasses-like Agility, their physical damage certainly seemed like a downgrade. Since you're pretty much right about Knight physical anti-hype, that makes Viking's offence generally atrocious, even in lightning-weak dungeons. The vast majority of the time, I feel Viking's time is better spent slapping on shields and using Provoke. This simultaneously negates Viking's speed disadvantage, effectively increases offence due to the defence drop it inflicts, and protects the rest of your party from obnoxious Behemoth physicals or just the offence of whatever enemy you aren't blitzing with your Warrior/Thief/Ranger/Ninja/etc.

[Meeplelard]

Knight isn't much faster than Viking, from what I recall, and while yes, Viking's Weapons are a lot heavier...

They're a lot stronger, which I figured would compensate some.  Blessed Hammer is 120 Power, 2 are gotten in Fargabad.  Defenders, which are gotten just before the Invincible (so only slightly before) are 96 Power.

To credit of Viking, given they have better armors for a good part of the first world, they can opt for a Feather Helmet more readily, there by negating the speed loss some...actually...lets see their stats!

*Checks*

They have identical speed it looks like (26 at level 50, 45 at level 99), and Vikings have higher Strength (50 at level 50 vs. Knight's 45, 99 at level 99 vs. Knight's 86;), which is effectively +that much Power to each hand.

At Amur (when you first get Viking), the weapons in question are...

Knight: Royal Sword (50) + Blood Sword (55)
Viking: Battle Axe (65)x2, gets Hammer in dungeon which is 55 Power and Thunder elemental

Admittedly, hits matter A LOT more this early, so yeah, Knight probably wins?  Also has better accuracy.

In Saronia, Knight's still using the same stuff.  Viking gets a single Dragon Hammer (70 Power, Thunder Elemental)

After Undersea Cavern (should be done first since easiest of underwater dungeons w/ good rewards that help in Temple of Time...a lot.  Odin could be argued first, but both get only defensive benefits anyway)...

Viking: Dual Tomahawk (73) + Triton Hammer (110 Power, Thunder Elemental)
Knight: Blood Sword (55) + Ancient Sword (86)

Can't...honestly see Knight beating Viking here.  That attack difference is too dramatic.  Post Temple of Time, Knight gets rid of that Blood Sword in exchange for a Defender (95 Power), which probably shifts things around again.  I think you get a second Defender in Ancient Ruins, whether its store bought or found, dunno; I know that they're store bought on the INvincible at the latest.
On Invincible, Viking can upgrade to Rune Axe (110 Attack), or you know, not waste the money, and go to Fargabad where he can get Demon Axe (116 Attack, +3 Strength; note that strength boosts function like Attack boosts, but they work on both weapons, so +3 Strength with 2 weapons is like +6 net attack in practice, meaning 2 Demon Axes becomes effectively 122 Power each, if that makes sense), or even better, don't buy them, save money, and get those 2 Free Blessed Hammers (120, Lightning Elemental) instead.

Viking's kind of stop upgrading, Dual Haken (122, +3 Strength) in the Labyrinth aside.  Knight...well, not only does it get Break Blade, but also both of the Eurekan Swords, so it obivously kicks Viking's ass post Eureka; no one ever denied that I don't think.

So yeah, that's the weapon comparison throughout the game.  I left out a few weapons here and there, but they're all pretty much Obsolete Viking Stuff (like those 115 power hammers gotten in Leviathan's Dungeon, which are useless since Blessed Hammers are better and gotten at the same time)

You are right that Vikings have a disadvantage in JLevels off the bat, though, Knight isn't around THAT much longer than Viking (2 dungeons and some over world), and after JL14, Vikings have faster Job Level growth (14 per action compared to 12), so they can catch up pretty conceivably.

Also, because Viking Mail kicks the shit out of Knight Armor, Vikings can opt for Feather Helmet more readily than Knight's Can, thus gaining that +2 Agility, though, Knights can still use this of course, just tossing the option out there...
...then again, I think Knight's LACK a better helmet at that point in the game so they'll be using it anyway, so moot point; non-Class Specific Armor really sucked at that point, hence why Dark Knight's are so frail at that point.  Also worth noting that Knight Armor is worse than what Bard's and Geomancer's get <_< >_>

[metroid composite]

WAXF Gadgeteer SCC

Woohoo, 1.7 is a total breather.  Aaand then there's no place to shop before 1.8, which involves Levin needing to solo four people (barring some range assistance).  Gems are still really expensive, and enemies have still been showing fixed elemental weaknesses, so I'm reluctant to just buy one of each element...which means I was here without range, and therefore loaded back a chapter....

Touhou: Imperishable Night
Re-unlocked Extra on another computer.  Went about unlocking every spell I could for spell practice.  In the process, nearly 1cced Hard with Reimu Team (even though I haven't come close to 1ccing Normal with non-Reimu teams).  At this point, I'm missing a bunch of Last Spell spells (I have maybe a third of them from in-game), all the Lunatic stage 6 spells, and some Extra spells.  Getting Boss Reimu Lunatic spells was actually somewhat nontrivial--I eventually switched from Sakuya team to Marissa team since I figured this was turning into a "bomb lots" exercise.  I also discovered that you can unlock Extra by playing through Easy... so I can now play Extra with Youmu team instead of Reimu team if I feel so inclined >_>.  Oh yeah, unlocked and beat my first Last Word (stage 3 boss).

[AAA]

GTA4-Finished. Chose to let Darko live, and have revenge on Dimitri for the finale, which actually took me a couple tries, mostly because driving a dirt bike on soft, partially wet sand is exactly what it sounds like. Got 100% completion, I doubt I'll ever try for One Man Army or any of the other achievements, I'm pretty much GTA'd out.

So...where to begin? The game is wonderful in so many ways, but a step back in others. It's by far the most seamless game world I've ever seen. The gigantic amounts of effort that went into everything from the design of Liberty City to all the work on the radio stations, the random people you see on the street, the TV shows, the cabaret club and comedy acts, it's just unbelievable how they managed to make the game world feel like a living, breathing city. The physics engine cuts out some of the cartoony thrills from previous games, but it also adds to the immersion, so I can see why they did it. Cars drive like cars, if you shoot somebody they react like a real person would, the first time I ran over a person I felt terrible.

Gameplaywise, they cut out a lot of bullshit. Paramedic, taxi, and vigilante missions are something I just held my nose and did in previous GTA games because the rewards were so useful. Stripping them away and modifing Vigilante so it wasn't so hard and more entertaining was a good decision. Making death less of a pain in the ass by letting you keep your weapons was also helpful. Giving you the opportunity to restart a mission if you failed right away cut out some tedium as well. I wish they would have put in more checkpoints for longer missions, but it never got too grating. None of the sidequests were particularly grating, and they all were fairly entertaining. The car gathering missions for Stevie sort of dragged on at the end, and trying to find the locations without a FAQ is dull as hell, but on the other hand stuff like Most Wanted and the Assassination missions were good fun.

One major issue, though, is the new targeting system. Far too often Niko would randomly decide to target some guy up on the roof 100 yards away while ignoring the dude on the ground 2 feet away plugging him full of lead. It's just wonky and awkward and caused some bullshit deaths. It only becomes a real problem when facing lots of enemies at once, though. The cover mechanics worked pretty well, though moving from cover to cover got kind of annoying and going in and out of cover seemed oddly difficult. I love the new rocket physics, watching them glance off windshields and concrete is hilarious.

The story...first off, the characters were good. Niko is a pretty solid Shell Shocked Senior main character, with some delicious sarcasm and sense of irony thrown in. The game doesn't try to make him sympathetic and completely ignore the innate sociopathy that comes with being a GTA main character, unlike San Andreas, which helps. His coldbloodedness and constant craving for revenge is both commented on and called out by all kinds of people, and helps make him a flawed, interesting character. Side characters were various shades of likable, and the villains were effective sleaze, good to hate. Can't say I cared much for the love interests, but whatever.

I can see the complaints that GTA4 is too depressing. I often got the feeling that the cheerfully insolent potty humor and social satire that Rockstar loves to put in Grand Theft Auto was often fighting against the grim and gritty crime drama that is GTA4's storyline. A lot of the choices GTA4 puts in your hands have no easy answers, and the one where two brothers ask you to kill the other, and you have to blow the head off one of them while they talk together sitting on a park bench was pretty fucked up. The ending is quite depressing and I guess highlights the main themes of the story. Organized crime is slowly dying, the former organizations are eating themselves up from the inside out, and really, what did killing the main villain(s) accomplish? The dead aren't going to come back to life, and Niko's still trapped in a life of crime and constant fear of being killed.

Music is sort of a step down from Vice City and San Andreas. They added a jazz station, which was good, but also some shitty techno and electro stations, which are not. And bring back the opera station already dammit, it was the best music for doing assassinations. There's still good songs (David Bowie!) and the public radio stations are still pretty funny, but I liked VC's and SA's radio better.

So....hmm. I guess if you put a gun to my head and asked for a rating, it would a 9/10 or some such. A fun game, with some blunders, but there's so much to do and see and experience that they're kind of drowned out.

Jesus Christ I'm channeling Meeple guys help

edit-Oh yeah, not quite done with the game yet. I'm going to fuck around with multiplayer tomorrow, and then start Mana Khemia Sunday. Thanks again for sending that Pyro. How long is that game anyway?

edit2-Favorite Niko Moment: When you finally get to execute Dimitri, Niko shoots him in the crotch twice and then in the head. Ice. fucking. cold.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

The real problem with GTA4 isn't so much the stuff that you've done up to this point. It's that after you finish, there's fucking nothing.

[Scar]

Wrath:

Lv 71, it's so annoying.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Shadow Hearts Covenant:
Finally got back to playing some games! I just got passed the whole Alice business and I really liked the imaginary train scene.

Actually, I'm really enjoying the story altogether, it's a really engaging piece of historical fiction. Particularly impressed with Ishimura's motives - he wanted to prove to the Western world that Asian powers (specifically Japan) weren't going to just be trampled over and allow themselves to be divided up into colonies. Considering that history showed us how the Western powers tried to do just that up until the Russo-Japanese war where an Asian power finally won over a Western, I'd say that his actions were justified in a sense.

I'm happy to note that even Yuri realized this, even though his idealistic nature made him think of the immediate horrors that Ishimura caused by starting a war with Russia, as opposed to the potential long-term oppression that Ishimura was hoping to prevent (successfully, according to history).

Two really powerful scenes there. And I remember someone mentioned that Kato didn't seem to have a presence in the game until he became the villain.

...what game were you playing? He's all over the place. You're probably just confused by the fact that the prettyboy Nicolai didn't end up being the main boss. It's understandable, every other RPG uses the prettyboy angle.

Yeah, my only problem with Shadow Hearts Covenant is that I'm -too- into the story. I get annoyed that I have to play the game when really I just want to know what happens next.

Although, apart from the time sink, I actually really enjoy the battle system -and- most of the puzzles/side quests. ...it's just I'd rather get on with the story first and then play around with the gameplay aspects later... >.>;;

-Djinn

[Unoriginal]

WotLK: LOREMASTER

*Ahem*  That said, hit 80 a few days ago, mostly just messing around with stuff right now.

[superaielman]

SN: Just got Galahad as a PC. Still enjoying the hell out of the game, going to try and smash the maingame. Is there any point to getting Lujei? I've seen the cutscenes and don't really need the PC, but.. it's PC Lujei. Mmm, need to find 2.5 million gig points really fast. Been lazy about picking fights with townspeople, so I'm a bit short on cash.

[Yakumo]

Lujei seems like a NG+ sort of thing, you get most of the GP through inspections and the very late game/aftergame skill helps a lot with just smashing those out of the way.

[Rozalia]

And I remember someone mentioned that Kato didn't seem to have a presence in the game until he became the villain.

...what game were you playing? He's all over the place. You're probably just confused by the fact that the prettyboy Nicolai didn't end up being the main boss. It's understandable, every other RPG uses the prettyboy angle.

I don't remember saying he had no presence. I said he seemed minor and like a roadblock villain instead of the main one. That was my feelings at the finishing of the game as I honestly didn't see it coming and can you really blame me for that.
Also how ever did I get it in my head that Nicolai would be the main villain. I mean he wasn't important for 80% of the game or anything was he. He also wasn't the main villain you've been chasing through it either. Maybe I indeed just got blinded by the rascals good looks.
On a wholely serious note I am now reflecting on it quite glad Kato took the main spot. Demon possessed Nicolai makes for a very poor villain and it would've been incredably lame if the game ended in the volcano.

BvS- Amassed about 130K friendship points on Right. I'm doing a sannin run on friday so I'm just doing a few loose ends. Currently I need two colbolt shafts to put my fox rune to good use.

PS4- I now have PS2, 3 and 4. The forth looked like the best one character wise so I went with it first, though I plan on playing the other two later on. Currently strugging with bosses not because I can't beat them but because I really can't find any revival. I want everyone to get exp and currently it seems only Demi has a revival spell (1 shot at that).
Then again maybe its right in front of me as the game not telling you what the spells do means I have to use them to see what they do.

Currently I've just faced Zio's red eyes of DOOM.

[Dark Holy Elf]

The revival spell in PS4 is called Rever. Rune has it, though he's not in the party at the moment I assume. Chaz gets it later, like mid 20's? Another character who joins midgame, with an extremely obvious bias towards healing spells, also has it, as well as a version that revives fully.

Besides that, revival is hard to come by. The items that do it (Sol Dew is it?) are pretty rare. Mechs can be revived with Repair Kits, which are much more common.

I mean he wasn't important for 80% of the game or anything was he.

Appoina Tower's more like 50%. I find it hard to believe you could see him as the main villain any point later in the game than that, though I guess it's possible.

[DjinnAndTonic]

SN: Just got Galahad as a PC. Still enjoying the hell out of the game, going to try and smash the maingame. Is there any point to getting Lujei? I've seen the cutscenes and don't really need the PC, but.. it's PC Lujei. Mmm, need to find 2.5 million gig points really fast. Been lazy about picking fights with townspeople, so I'm a bit short on cash.

Super, are you working through the Demon Path yet?

I personally didn't find Lujei particularly -necessary- for anything, though she could be helpful against the inspection gods.

And I remember someone mentioned that Kato didn't seem to have a presence in the game until he became the villain.

...what game were you playing? He's all over the place. You're probably just confused by the fact that the prettyboy Nicolai didn't end up being the main boss. It's understandable, every other RPG uses the prettyboy angle.

I don't remember saying he had no presence. I said he seemed minor and like a roadblock villain instead of the main one. That was my feelings at the finishing of the game as I honestly didn't see it coming and can you really blame me for that.
Also how ever did I get it in my head that Nicolai would be the main villain. I mean he wasn't important for 80% of the game or anything was he. He also wasn't the main villain you've been chasing through it either. Maybe I indeed just got blinded by the rascals good looks.
On a wholely serious note I am now reflecting on it quite glad Kato took the main spot. Demon possessed Nicolai makes for a very poor villain and it would've been incredably lame if the game ended in the volcano.

If I remember correctly you that he felt 'tacked on' as the main villain, which definitely doesn't fit with my experience of that game. But yeah, you've explained yourself pretty clearly now. As a side note, you probably didn't need to spoiler-tag-size-decrease that last line... >.>;;

PS4- I now have PS2, 3 and 4. The forth looked like the best one character wise so I went with it first, though I plan on playing the other two later on.

Glad you're playing PS4, it's a fun game. I don't recommend playing it first, as PSII and PSIII are a chore to get through once you've played the only -good- installment of the series. Also, half the fun of the Phantasy Star series is seeing how all them connect, so it's kind of imperative to play them in order.

Alternately, just don't play PSII or III beyond the first few dungeons, you won't be missing much as nothing changes so drastically that you can't extrapolate the Stat Topic information for voting purposes.

-Djinn

[TranceHime]

Kimi no Yuusha: Um holy crap Dranko is strong as hell. He's some sort of silent "Dwarf" (Dwarves in these games being super-cute bear thingies)  and he's apparently the leader. He seems kind of tacked on to the story but he must have some CREEPY BACKSTORY as I've only seen him actually talk once in all of 5+ episodes I've had him. Also the token catgirl joined the party. She is typical "lol thief stats" but actually doesn't die to a sneeze and has some semblance of durability. Speaking of durability, every single boss I've fought is durable as everloving hell, taking lots of buffs/debuffs to make battles seem shorter. And it's really silly to grind in this game, even by my standards, where my high levels are only due to /FREE EXP ^___^/.

Free EXP is gained at certain plot points where you're given a choice. Pick the correct one, and the person in question says thank you! and then you're given a set amount of free EXP. Every instance of thank you! (yes, it is really red) gives you the XP. So really you have to think twice about making seemingly meaningless choices. As for the main character(s), Tio and Wander, the story for them is really quite generic. But luckily I like it much better than I enjoyed Eternal Poison, otherwise I would've put this game down ages ago. Tio is typical spoiled brat with PMS-y tendencies, but Wander... I don't get him just yet. Supposedly he's the titular hero (yuusha) of the story, and many NPCs in this game always HAVE to disbelieve it (本物勇者だろ？) for some strange reason. Mainly because Wander looks like some prepubescent kid or something. He uses a key as a weapon. It's not a keyblade, but a key. Kinda like A.B.A from Guilty Gear.

I find it especially funny that there are guns in this game (wielded by the alchemist Tango) given the setting of this game, though I could be misreading the history of the world and such.

So, while I'm still ahead, DRANKO FOR GODLIKE!

[Fudozukushi]

WotLK: LOREMASTER

*Ahem*  That said, hit 80 a few days ago, mostly just messing around with stuff right now.

DIE.

[Grefter]

WoW - So yeah I hit 80 this morning.  Got some upgrades on my lock.  I have like 80 hit rating.  Argh.

[Captain K.]

WO2:  Got all Treasures finally, working on unlocking Dream Stages (yay Proficiency grinding...).

Spore:  Up to Badge level 7 in the Space stage.  Found out when fighting a war, it's much easier to just pay your allies to attack your enemy instead of doing it yourself.

Ninjatown:  Got bit by the FAQ-writing bug, and am working on an A-rank guide for the game.  Not that it's that hard to get A-ranks, but I'm trying to limit myself to not using Ol' Master Ninja powers or Tokens.

BvS:  We're in mass kaiju summoning mode.  There is way too much competition for monster drops though.  You've really got to kill yourself to beat everyone else.  As in, doing over 2600 damage per day with Terri3.  When I'm not fighting for drops, I'm working my way through Monochrome.  Just got Awesome Pants.

[DjinnAndTonic]

SH2: Finished! Sidequests complete! Man, those were a pain in the ass... But yay, Dark Seraphim is sexy.

Went for the 'bad' ending as I'd seen the good ending back when I was playing the game with my brother.

Since I came into the game knowing that Karin was *spoiler*, the time-travel twist didn't seem weird at all. In fact, I think the Shadow Hearts team did a pretty good job wrapping up a lot of the loose ends that normally accompany Time Travel stories like that. Anne's cross is the only weird thing as it seems like it must have spontaneously came into existence at some point and is now stuck in some kind of time loop. Not sure what to think about that.

Bad ending impression: Not a nearly as 'bad' as I was expecting. At least Yuri came out of it in one piece. And Roger's a saint for taking in a foul-mouthed kid like Yuri. Man, it's tough raising kids at that age... But Roger's definitely the best 700-year-old for the job. >.>;;

Also, the mystery of what happened to Princess Anastasia is finally revealed! She married a pretty-boy Harmonixer and went to live in the mountains of Japan where no one would ever find her! Awesome. >.>;;

I'd have to say that I felt that Alice and Karin were pretty good versions of the usual stereotypical JRPG heroine. They were burdened with some pretty heavy sacrifices and no one really came to their rescue. It was nice to see a heroine make a hard choice and then actually have to suffer the consequences. But they both did so very nobly, so I was rather endeared to them.

Keith and Margarete's cameos were nice additions. Do we ever hear from Koudelka or Halley again, though?

-Djinn

[Grefter]

WoW - Naxxramus.  FUCKING AWESOME.  First night in fairly fresh 80 group.  Plague wing down.  One shot Noth in a 15 minute laugh.  A few tries and we got Heigan.  Then go Loatheb as well.  Awesome fun.  Ups and downs, but that is raiding.

[Sierra]

Keith and Margarete's cameos were nice additions. Do we ever hear from Koudelka or Halley again, though?

-Djinn

Nope.

Rozalia: A bit late, but I would've said to play PSIV last. Consider it a reward for struggling through 2/3.

Super: You don't need Lujei, no. I know I didn't bother to get her on my first game. She does kick ass in every conceivable way, though.

~

ES: Just got to Forte. Dude, how was the kid not dead after falling off a cliff that tall? Also, I get thrown in jail after smacking the boss around? Lame. (I know, I know, ES PLOT). Anyway, game inspires nothing but profound apathy and I have to resist the urge to spam sceneskip. How long is this thing?

EDIT: Oh, also, Viola = tactical nuke. Long-range arrows are just WTF-level damage and make exploiting the actual battle system counterproductive.

[Meeplelard]

Besides that, revival is hard to come by. The items that do it (Sol Dew is it?) are pretty rare. Mechs can be revived with Repair Kits, which are much more common.

Sol Dew is one of the two items; that's the full resurrection item. 

Moon Dews also revive, but for less.  Essentially, Moon Dews = Rever, Sol Dew = ...whatever the full resurrection spell is.

Obviously, they aren't EXACTLY like that since Moon Dews are stat independent but you see my point.

(and just to follow up, Star Dews = the MT Healing item)

Anyway...

FF9: Kuja makes his "grand" entrance!  Also Beatrix kicked my ass.  If its not obvious, yes, I finished Disc 1.  Failed to steal the Mithril Sword from her, but I seem to recall you buy that in Treno soon anyway, so probably won't notice.

[Fudozukushi]

Wrath: Also hit 80.  Tanked two 80 instances within 12 hours of hitting 80.  Just waiting for Wintergrasp to be lost so I can try out Steam Tanking.

[074]

Besides that, revival is hard to come by. The items that do it (Sol Dew is it?) are pretty rare. Mechs can be revived with Repair Kits, which are much more common.

Sol Dew is one of the two items; that's the full resurrection item. 

Moon Dews also revive, but for less.  Essentially, Moon Dews = Rever, Sol Dew = ...whatever the full resurrection spell is.

Obviously, they aren't EXACTLY like that since Moon Dews are stat independent but you see my point.

(and just to follow up, Star Dews = the MT Healing item)

Basically, a short reference list to certain items and their comparable effects (I'm sure on most of them, and they're probably in the stat topic, but for the sake of doing so...):

Wood Cane: I've heard of it being able to cast Res as an itemcast.  Haven't bothered with it much, though.
Psycho Wand:Dispel.  One of two Dispel effects in the whole game.  Obvious.
Flame Sword:Itemcasts Flaeli
Thunder Claw:Itemcasts Tandle (Might want to keep it for potential anti-mech properties in two optional dungeons)
Tornado Dagger:Itemcasts Hewn (Don't bother with this one.)
Dream Wand:Itemcasts Bindwa(supposedly)
Laconia Rod:Efess (Off of crappy power, and you can't trigger Grandcross with it anyway.  Don't bother.  And it's EFESS.)
Genocyber Claw ("Genocyclaw"):Randomly IDs enemies upon attack. (Claims it randomly casts Diem, though the animation fits Deathspell moreso)
Guard Rod: Itemcasts Sar
Mahlay Dagger: Itemcasts Nafoi.
Mahlay Shield: Itemcasts Deban(Self only)
Elsydeon: Randomly casts Holyword on a normal attack.  Godly in the final dungeon, pointless outside.

Moon Dew: Equal to Rever
Star Dew: Similar to Gisar
Sol Dew: Equal to Regen

[Sierra]

ES: Recruited the Andantino folks. They make a pretty good team. Falsetto is a lean, mean, doubleturning machine and will likely be a party fixture. Jazz does not turn into a car. I am disappointed.

Poison-inflicting dungeon? Ewww. Oh well, at least the Woodblock Forest actually had woodblocks in the music.