What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Bardiche]

Emerald Dragon. I can tell I'm nearing the end because they just aren't putting any effort anymore.

At first it was like, you enter a cave and a monster appears. And everyone's like, "zoamg a monster guarding something!!"

Now a massive stone soldier appears and no one says anything and just slays it, and this super powerful sorceres is just like, "I won't help you unless you hvae ________ item" and no one's like, "okay" or anything but it becomes my new objective. What the hell. Also the dungeons suck because they're small near the end and unimaginative. ;_;

Remind me to stat topic it, then replay it for all the damn temp characters. Since only Tamryn and Atroshan get exp (and thus level up) it should be easy to stat topic, right? Just a question though, should they be stat'd at the time you get them or at the time Tamryn/Atroshan get the same level as them? There's this MASTER SWORDSMAN (who, funnily enough, uses maces and axes) who joins at level 35 when I was like, level 19. So it'd make him a bit stronger if I took him at join time, but much less impressive if I took him at level 35 when Atroshan/Tamryn are level 35 as well. Fiana for Godlike btw. Infinite MP coupled with decent durability and damage and full healing.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

So I've been 80 in Wrath for a few days, just topped out my defense, so I think I'm ready to start hitting the Big Tyme (by Heavy D and the Boyz). I've also been going around and doing all the daily quests, because a lot of them are pretty fun. My favorite involves Hodir's Spear in Dun Niffelheim.

Basically you take a spear and throw it at a Proto-Drake. You then climb up the chain on to the drake and have to hang on while you stab the fuck out of it. Each attack costs you a certain number of "grip" points, which you replenish by tightening your grip instead of attacking. You also have to dodge his claws, which isn't really that hard (but I have a fuckton of life, sooo...).

Next, he tries to eat you. If you zoom in you see your toon in his mouth. You only have two buttons: open jaws wider, and DEATH STRIKE. Every second you spend, you get one stack of a debuff that takes off 1% of your health per second. So first you lose 1% health per second, then 2% (for a total of 3% of your maximum health, which could be a sizeable chunk of what you have if you didn't dodge the claws well enough) and so on. You basically play chicken with the dragon, opening his jaws as wide as you dare before trying for the Death Strike, where you stab him down his throat and out the back of his skull. It's very inaccurate, which is why you have to hold his jaw open to do it.

Very Shadow of the Colossus. I enjoyed it a lot.

[Shale]

Picked up Dragon Quest VIII to test out the copy I bought at the minimeet, and beat the third through fifth Dragovian Trials (Emerald, Silver and Gold). No real problems once I made the second Timbrel of Tension. Then I hit Darksteel, which...uh, yeah, problems. Super-high-tension-Gigagash-goes-tink sort of problems. And, of course, I don't have spears or axes built up for the auto-crit moves. So I'm currently powerleveling with the various metal slimes.

FF3: About to go after the Earth Fang. Tried out Bards for a while before deciding they take waaaaaay too much leveling to not suck. Eight thief levels to go until I can get Gungnir.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Shadow Hearts 3: Why waste time? I jumped right into this one after finishing SH2.

Well, from the opening cinematic, I can tell the game is going to be consistently pretty... but I get the horrible feeling that it's going to suck. Something about them spending too much money on 'flashy' and not enough on 'story consistency'...

Well, Johnny's not Yuri, but he's like-able enough so far. Shania and Natan haven't -done- anything yet, but Shania is passable as a fanservice character, though slightly on the slutty side. Still sexy, I suppose.

Frank seems like he -could- have been funny - an idiotic Brazillian ninja sounds amusing enough in theory... but in practice... Maybe if he didn't have the angler-fish light I might have liked him more, but he's just a conglomeration of too many annoying things at once and the cast doesn't treat him appropriately for how horrible he is.

Mao is... there? Ricardo's just been introduced and I was shocked to see an RPG character who's supposed to be the smooth-talking type... actually say something smooth! Heh, who would have guessed?

Lady's also cute. By far the best female character. Killer is... awkward? I blame his voice actor.

The game seems to have shed any notion of its 'horror' roots after the opening cutscene. Instead, it seems to be all about 'wacky history', which is cool enough, I suppose, but I liked the horror aspect of Shadow Hearts, even when it was cheesy.

Natan's UMA hunting sidequest seems like it would have suited Johnny's detective thing better. I actually really -like- this sidequest idea, as it deals with American mythology and has a fun exploration aspect to it. It just doesn't seem to suit Natan very well, is all.

And Johnny's Snapshot-trading sidequest is inspiring a blinding rage in me. Also, not nearly as cool of a concept, either!

Still on the fence about Shania at the moment, but I tend to be pretty indifferent towards the 'rebel princess' archetype anyway. Could go either way depending upon how much they force her to be on screen.

Stock Gauge is pretty cool. Not sure how I see it in the DL yet since I don't think I've unlocked all the mechanisms of it yet. It doesn't seem to fill up beyond 1. Still, the potential for SH3 characters to build up to a double-turn is pretty useful. Not to mention that Hard Hit is effectively a Limit-bar draining technique, which is something I haven't seen in any other game. This would really screw over casts like FF7, Lufia2, G3, and LoD.

-Djinn

[Dark Holy Elf]

Stock gauge goes up as far as 2.

SH2 already shed the horror roots pretty handilly. Not that I miss it at all, since SH1 was failing so miserably at it anyway. *SH1 anti-hype goes here* Not that I think the quirky comedy the series has adopted works well either. <_< Basically, despite my low opinion of RPG serious plot, SH has in general worked best when it has stuck to it, as it did in good parts of SH2. ... that didn't involve Rasputin.

That said, SH3 really is not a plot/characters game. If you can take something from it (usually from the villain interaction, though some people go for Hilda's quirkiness, etc.), more power to you, but it's really a gameplay creature. Fortunately it does that well.

<_< Also, if a sidequest is inspiring rage in you, you might as well just skip it. Particularly the snaps, since Purgatory is without question THE hardest sidequest to accomplish (just opening it - I'll get back to you about finishing it after this playthrough <_<). Just FAQ the rewards that really matter - in particular, trading 5 Heinz snaps from the ship dungeon to the trader in the Carribean nets one of Shania's fetishes.


Speaking of which!

SH3 - Cleared Aito Cave. Sidequesting the game up in a big way this time. It is addictive.

FE10 - At 3-12.

[Tonfa]

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.

For what it's worth, you need Lujei to see a spoiler fight on a NG+. Just keep punting those people.

[Clear Tranquil]

Djinn -

SH series
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
Whee~

At least Yuri came out of it in one piece

That wasn't Yuri. Just an empty shell. Everything that made Yuri's soul Yuri is gone. He's alive yeah with physical functions and what not but the whole point of the bad ending was that he'd be spiritually dead. Or something.

I know the idea of living peacefully in Wales with Roger can be appealing. Starting over on a fresh slate. However it would be as an entirely different person/soul~

Sidequesting before Salt Lake is where I last saved in my SH3 replay too yeah. I might pick it up again once I've completely broked GL5 >_>

[Rozalia]

Thanks for the info on the spells everyone.

PS2 and 3- Played a bit of both and I find them both to be terrible so far.

PS4 - Got up to King L. He wiped me out pretty easily so I've got some training to do and some shields to buy. By the way, is there any mp healing in this game?

[DjinnAndTonic]

Thanks for the info on the spells everyone.

PS2 and 3- Played a bit of both and I find them both to be terrible so far.

Newsflash - They're pretty terrible games by today's standards. Back when they were first released, the PS games each did some things that helped push RPGs forward or at least give them some exposure, but apart from PSIV, they are rather 'obsolete' among modern RPGs. PSI was one of the earliest JRPGs to feature a female main and feature a extraplanetary setting, PSII was notable for killing a lead playable character off permanently long before Aeris was such a big deal. PSII also had a fairly good twist for an ending (back then anyway). PSIII's generation system was still somewhat novel when it first came out, as well. And it had a possible ending which featured a fairly interesting time-loop that related back to PSII.

I'm trying not to spoil anything, but honestly you could just look up these points on a youtube video somewhere and you'll have experienced all that PSI-III has to offer. The actual exploration and battle systems for these games are painful and unrewarding, I'm sorry to say. And the only reason that these games are still notable is pretty much entirely a nostalgia factor.

This is coming from someone who considers himself a Phantasy Star fan... The thing I enjoyed most about the series was that each game was set in the same universe and had strong ties between the games, despite the long amounts of time between them. Seeing these ties culminate in PSIV was the highlight of the series for me. If you really intend to play PSII/III, then I seriously suggest you play them first; but since it's a bit late for that, then I'd just say stop while you're ahead and don't play them at all.

Still want to see a Phantasy Star V one day... *continues to dream*

-Djinn

[074]

PS4 - Got up to King L. He wiped me out pretty easily so I've got some training to do and some shields to buy. By the way, is there any mp healing in this game?

Only MP healing in PS4 is Raja's Ataraxia skill.  If you're at Lassic, then you're not seeing him again until much, much later.


Also: Try and find combination attacks that help.  If you can use Grandcross, that will slaughter him like little else. (Mind, Grandcross kills every major boss like crazy.  It's pretty much Game Breaker territory once you get it.)

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Eh, I think the most notable thing about PS2 was that it's the first jRPG I can think of that doesn't have a happy ending.

[Cotigo]

It also is notable for being the first jRPG to accurately simulate the pain of jamming your dick in a car door.  Dragon Quest 1 and 2 may have come first, but I would describe that pain as more like that feeling you get when you take an enormous crap and you're fairly sure your sphincter has torn apart and you're gripping the toilet paper dispenser until the pain goes away.  Incidentally, PS1 came close to simulating both but not nearly as accurately as the above games did.

[Pyro]

It also is notable for being the first jRPG to accurately simulate the pain of jamming your dick in a car door.

Speaking of which.

Last Remnant:

So the game opens with the Generic Dumb Teenage Male Lead running out into the middle of a war zone completely unarmed because he MISTOOK A 40 YEAR OLD BATTLE HARDENED WOMAN FOR HIS 14 YEAR OLD FLOWER LOVING SISTER. The game pretty much continues the same from there.

Combat is... Well, its like Romancing Saga with a bunch of PCs if control was all in the style of the FFX Magus Sisters. Not using macros that make sense, not using any kind of customizable AI, just choosing commands that the game lays out for you. Its pretty bad.

So yeah its kinda like RSMS except it lacks the soundtrack, charm, and plot quality that RSMS had. Yes, plot quality.

[Sierra]

ES: Who builds a graveyard underground? I mean, catacombs are one thing, sure, but a full-fledged graveyard in the middle of a mountain? And it was clearly there before the rebels moved into the neighborhood. Craziness. Anyway, time to move back to the party of no damage output, it seems. Sadness.

[Taishyr]

ES: Who builds a graveyard underground? I mean, catacombs are one thing, sure, but a full-fledged graveyard in the middle of a mountain? And it was clearly there before the rebels moved into the neighborhood. Craziness. Anyway, time to move back to the party of no damage output, it seems. Sadness.

The same people that built one underground in BoF3.

[Talaysen]

So the game opens with the Generic Dumb Teenage Male Lead running out into the middle of a war zone completely unarmed because he MISTOOK A 40 YEAR OLD BATTLE HARDENED WOMAN FOR HIS 14 YEAR OLD FLOWER LOVING SISTER.

This plot sounds awesome.

---

Eternal POIZN - Cleared Thage and Olifen's stories.  Started up Ashley's.  I need more healers.  Though I do get Vivian early on.  Sadly, two of her elements are already taken care of.  Figures.  Also, Nena, which is nice to take over that dark niche.

[NotMiki]

So yeah its kinda like RSMS except it lacks the soundtrack, charm, and plot quality that RSMS had. Yes, plot quality.

So...everyone's short and katanas suck?

[AndrewRogue]

Copy/Paste of the World of Warcraft TCG Ashenvale (NW US) Realms Championship that I wrote. Other notes on the trip will be posted in Good Morning later.

Sigh. Internet ate my post. I am sad. So here is a briefer version of things. Again, I'll take question and try to answer if I can.

Around 27 people showed up.

My decklist:

Thatia Truthbringer

4x Tabards of the Illidari
3x One Draenei's Junk
3x Orders from Lady Vashj
2x An Improper Burial
2x The Defias Brotherhood

4x Quigley Slipshade
3x Zandar Shadesprocket
4x Marksman Glous
4x Cymbre Shadowdrifter
3x Magnus Longbarrel
4x Consul Rhys Lorgrand
4x Woodsie Leafsong
3x High Instructor Campbell
2x Weldon Barov

4x Blessing of the Martyr
4x Holy Shock
4x Blessing of Trials

3x Twig of the World Tree

SIDE

3x Band of the Inevitable
3x Blessing of Salvation
2x Crusader's Sweep
2x Sacred Purification

ROUND 1: Obliveron
Fairly standard Obliveron. Beat him pretty easy Game 1 with quick beats. Game 2 saw him with an early Form of the Serpent and me with no answers. Game 3 I drew a mediocre opening hand, but it had a Sacred Purification, so I held onto it. Broke his Form as soon as it came out, and kept the pressure on. 25 Health isn't that much, unfortunately.

1-0

ROUND 2: Alex's Marlowe Deck
Interesting ally shenanigans deck that was in the same vein as mine. Bad luck for him, a mistake in the written portion of his side scored him a Game 1 loss. Game 2 was a pretty good game, but, in the end, Holy Shock's ability to 2-for-1 allowed me to keep his board from ever building. For kicks, we played two more games and both pretty much went the same way. Seems like it was just a bad match for him overall. He could never get either Stormwind or Helena/Apocanon running, and, between Trials, Martyr and Holy Shock, I managed to keep a strong board at all times.

2-0

ROUND 3: Gavin's Solo Daspien
A match I wasn't looking forward to, given this deck style beat me in the little testing I did. Game 1 went perfectly for me, with him getting a slow start and me hitting a perfect curve (Quigley -> Glous -> Consul -> Barov). Too much damage, way too fast for him. Game 2 was a fairly close affair. Surprise Attacks pretty much sealed the deal, though, shutting down both Holy Shock and Trials. Didn't hit a Woodsie in time and he played around my Band perfectly. Game 3 was ugly. Two Surprise Attacks early. Again, my Band really didn't dent him that much and Woodsie was shut down by Black Amnesty. I wish I'd made different side decisions, or built it differently. Band was a big disappointment. Also worth noting was the speed with which Weldon was destroyed by a Retainer's Blade. If he could have stuck around at all, I probably could have pulled either game out. I curse you, One Draenei's Junk, for moving a copy to the bottom in the games.

2-1

ROUND 4: Kil'zin of the Darkspear

My memory of this match is really bad. The deck was rushy with Lightning Overload shenanigans. I think I beat it in two games? It was close (and I must say, Natural Disaster doubled does hurt), but the deck just seemed to run out of steam.

3-1

ROUND 5: Vorna the Wretched

And thus disaster strikes. I pile shuffle my deck. I appear to be a card short, but hey, I probably just dealt wrong. I pile shuffle again, and still come out a card short. Gettin a little worried, I count cards. 59. Hell. Judge is called over to check it out while I hunt for the missing card. He counts. 59. Lovely. And a missing card is nowhere to be found.

Deck is taken to the Judge/TO table and they help me break it down to find out what the missing card is. Luckily, it is not one of the cards on loan, but merely a Blessing of Trials. A replacement is procured but, of course, I only had the deck sleeved, so I'm short on sleeves now. Judge/TO help me start to desleeve... and the missing Blessing is discovered, stuck to another sleeve.

The blasted Blessing of Trials (fairly ironic, if you ask me) was stuck to another card so well that it survived two pile shuffles, two different people counting it and being broken down completely. Judges confer briefly to determine what to do and, much to my chagrin, I'm awarded a Game 1 loss. Not shocking, but I'd definitely been pulling for maybe a time extension given the circumstances and that the Judge himself had checked the deck. No such luck, and my mood was rapidly on the decline. I didn't come this far to lose because two of my sleeves stuck.

Unfortunately, Game 2 shot my mood to hell. Opening hand is questless. Mulled hand is questless. My efforts to blitz Jon are met with perfect answers, and I proceed to get shut out by Mystic Denial and Solannian's. Illidan comes out and the beats finish me off.

3-2

Final Placement: 10th.

[Ryogo]

Currently, I'm playing Shadow Hearts, Persona 3 FES, and Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana.

Shadow Hearts: I've made it to the Float, and just beat some random boss in there (Its been a few weeks since I've picked it up, but if I recall he's the first one in there. Unsure if there's others yet, but there's always a bijillion bosses in places like this) Loving the game so far, easily a favourite at this point. Looking forward to the rest of the series

Persona 3 FES: I'm in mid-August, and just finished Summer School. I've been neglecting Tartarus way too much lately to boost my Social Ranks and stats instead. Gotta get some levels/climbing in so I don't get raped by the bosses. Also, I gotta start rotating my party more often. Junpei has fallen far behind, Since I like my party of Main, Yukari, Mitsuru, and (usually) Akihiko so much. Ugg. We'll see how things go with this. Also a very enjoyable game. (<3 Yuka-tan)

I actually started playing Persona 2: Eternal Punishment today too. Just made it past the Sky Museum and back into town. Found the controls and battle menus quite weird at first, but I've adjusted. I wish there was a simple "change target" feature though instead of having to reselect the entire command chain through the menu to do so. Not too far in yet, but I really like the cast so far, as well as the "Smooth talk the way outta battle and get stuff for it" system.

Atelier Iris - Eternal Mana: Liking it, but absolutely hate Norn. Her voice just annoys me sooooooooooo much... Otherwise fun, I just beat some Ice Dragon that was frozen in a cave, and about to head north to an Arctic mana village.

Also not to mention I STILL have to to beat FFXII, DQVIII, SO3, and TotA... Uggg....

[Random Consonant]

Shining Force: Final Conflict - Is Shining Force.

Luminous Arc 2 - Beat the final boss, went back to an earlier save, and am now embarking on the epic hot springs sidequest.  Gameplay is somewhat better than the first, plot is worthless fluff but not offensively bad.  Nice fluff game, and nice fluff games get a 6 from me.

[AAA]

Mana Khemia-Up to Chapter 2. Not much to say about it so far, it's just a standard jRPG. The Grow Book system looks like it has potential, as long as they aren't stingy with recipies and don't make you grind too much to find shit. First 'boss' was a total pushover, second one wasn't much better. Then again, Gust game.

I've also been playing some GTA4 Multiplayer, which I guess will have to stop at least temporarily since my free month of Gold ends tomorrow. Depending on who I'm playing with, I've gotten absoulutely slaughtered or had more than double the kills of the 2nd place person. It's a lot of fun, either way. Rocket-duels are hilarious. Headset retards are kind of a pain, though.

[Talaysen]

Persona 3 FES: I'm in mid-August, and just finished Summer School. I've been neglecting Tartarus way too much lately to boost my Social Ranks and stats instead. Gotta get some levels/climbing in so I don't get raped by the bosses. Also, I gotta start rotating my party more often. Junpei has fallen far behind, Since I like my party of Main, Yukari, Mitsuru, and (usually) Akihiko so much. Ugg. We'll see how things go with this. Also a very enjoyable game. (<3 Yuka-tan)

Don't bother with Junpei.  He's not very good.

Atelier Iris - Eternal Mana: Liking it, but absolutely hate Norn. Her voice just annoys me sooooooooooo much... Otherwise fun, I just beat some Ice Dragon that was frozen in a cave, and about to head north to an Arctic mana village.

NORN WINS NORN WINS~~  At least Norn's a good PC.

Luminous Arc 2 - Beat the final boss, went back to an earlier save, and am now embarking on the epic hot springs sidequest.  Gameplay is somewhat better than the first, plot is worthless fluff but not offensively bad.  Nice fluff game, and nice fluff games get a 6 from me.

...is it really short or something?  Anyways, glad the gameplay's better than the first.  Not that this is hard.  Are the characters worth anything this time?  I'm going to assume not.

Mana Khemia-Up to Chapter 2. Not much to say about it so far, it's just a standard jRPG. The Grow Book system looks like it has potential, as long as they aren't stingy with recipies and don't make you grind too much to find shit. First 'boss' was a total pushover, second one wasn't much better. Then again, Gust game.

Bah, you were supposed to fight the Platinum Puni at night.

---

Eternal POIZN - Got to the second stratum.  Taking forest route this time.

The first boss on Ashley's route?  Name's Otakuphant.  His weapon is Trunken Boxing.  Yes.

Not a fan of this group of PCs though.  Ashley's kind of a generic healer and the damage is just decent.  Glynne can only use spears and crappy earth spells and the damage isn't very good.  Reyna is an archer with good damage and crappy fire spells.  Kind of mediocre all around compared to THAGE NUKE and MARIE NUKE and even Raki and Olifen were better attackerss and Levatte was better at support.  Worse at healing than Ashley due to no Cura II but whatever.  A million support skills helps out there.

I still don't even have someone who can cure physical status effects.  Or another healer.  Damnit.  No wind or water damage either.

[Excal]

Starting up Cyril Fantasy Tactics.  And so will be keeping a little travel log of the differences I experience.

The prologue starts the differences, as the boosting knights have gotten gets showcased very, very quickly.  Breaks are used all over the place, and accuracy ranges from mid seventies to 100%.  This, however, is a good thing, as the enemy Knight was still a solid 4HKO even after his armour got busted, showcasing just how effective adding the defense boosters are.  The Knight is already a remarkably good class for Chapter 1, and I suspect it will be dominant.  However, it may actually be worth using and noting during the rest of the game as well with all of these abilities that make it a very noteworthy tank.

Gariland isn't really changed at all.

The Grasslands, saving Algus is very much not recommended now.  With the increased cost of Phoenix Down, revival is not an option here.  As well, the enemies have been quietly upgraded thanks to the dual wielding thief as well as random crossbows on the enemy squires.  I forgot to check to see if any of the grunts had special names, for all that according to this change log I have, that request shouldn't have been implemented yet.  Aside from the thief almost being able to one shot some folks, there isn't really any risk here regardless, and plentiful amounts of potions manage to win the day.

[TranceHime]

Kimi no Yuusha: Okay, encountered this "mermaid" (HAH mermaid my ass! That's no mermaid, SNK Playmore!) called Silk. Episode 9 is pretty boring overall and I really wasn't bothered about this segment of PLOT, I was more focused on killing things and you know, the actual gameplay.

End of episode bonus was sweet: A NEW HEALING MAGIC OTHER THAN CURE FUCK YES

[Fudozukushi]

Wrath: Finished up every normal Instance along with heroic Nexus, tanking about half of them.  Out of all of these, and repeat runs of Lightning and Strath, I've only managed to get one new piece of non-quest gear.  Lovely.