What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Meeplelard]

 Though, from what I've read, the game's plot can be summed up as "FF4 + Shonen Stereotypes + Shit load of retarded"

Redundancy Department of Redundancy.

No no no, you fail to understand.

Its not just retarded like FF4's plot is.  It takes it a step further...then jumps into an airplane and takes it several hundred miles further.  FF4 looks like an actually written, cohesive plot line compared to the stuff The After pulls, and like I said, FF4 at least had an excuse of being old and one of the first jRPGs to try an actual character driven plot (this isn't to say it was the first to pull it off successfully, of course), which of course can only go so far.  The After though?  Its got a plot subFF4, and was written 17 years later.  Not even Grandia 3 pulled THAT off.

Note that I'm not backing up FF4's plot at all, just saying I'm willing to be a bit more lenient with its failings cause its old, but as I said, that excuse can only take it so far; such is the problem with any game that relies too heavily on nostalgic value.

[Captain K.]

Cap K: Would Lacey Unmentionables be the Priestess Shadow in the castle? Or are you somehow further along than me? >_>

Yes.  I also considered calling her I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

P4:  Shadow Yaoi!  YAY!  Let's go deeper!

[Sierra]

You're right, it ISN'T as egregious. But the fact that the game has multiple levels of egregious should say something about the quality of its plot.

SPOILERS!! (who cares?)
Also, I don't know why Polka sacrifices herself... I don't know what she thinks -her- life is so special for that it'll solve the problem, and more importantly, they never really tell you what said problem is... And then Chopin dies... Or Does He?

And not to mention the horrid abortion that is the "Friendly Environmentalist Message" we see throughout the credits...

My brain must have melted by that point. Polka is the Jesus! Umbrellagirl died for your sins! was a laugh riot, though. Yeah, only really good thing I can say about the ending is that the vocal track was pretty. So many varieties of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot in the closing scenes that it's almost impressive from a trainwrecky perspective. Almost. The frue final boss was easy, though it did make me glad that I'd arbitrarily switched to a Falsetto/Polka/Salsa party midway through the last dungeon. The previous battle--Waltz Mk. 2 and Legato Mutato--actually killed me once, but I blame this in part on the stupidly far-off perspective of that fight sometimes making it hard to see where the PCs are facing.

Very glad to be done with the game, if I haven't made that apparent by now. Cast, plot, and dialogue are uniformly worthless. If they'd wanted to go for an all-out, flamboyantly nonsensical fever dream kind of narrative, it could possibly have been entertaining, because the writing staff clearly doesn't have what it takes to pull off anything serious. But no, they devote hour after hour of cutscene to the characters babbling incoherently but basically on-topic and eventually reaching the obvious conclusions (that the player made ages ago) in the most roundabout manner possible. It's painful. I was always relieved to face long stretches of combat, and ES's gameplay isn't even that good.

Well, if there's one nice thing I can say about the gameplay, it's that the way they implented the gradual changes in party level was pretty sensible. Slowly changes the game from almost-traditional turn-based combat to full-fledged action RPG. Of course, this also means that you don't hit Harmony Chains, the most fun aspect (in regards to SMASH potential), until near the end. But at least there are usually plenty of PCs to mix and match. Hey, I'm trying to be positive here, bear with me.

Nah. Really, the only things ES has going for it are Chopin and umbrella beats. And I guess it's decently sparkly, but I was usually too frustrated by the sheer amount of stupid the game threw at me to appreciate this. 4/10, probably. Ugh.

~

Heeey, my dictionary says: USAGE Irregardless, with its illogical negative prefix, is widely heard, perhaps arising under the influence of such perfectly correct forms as : irrespective. Irregardless is avoided by careful users of English. Use regardless to mean 'without regard or consideration for' or 'nevertheless': : I go walking every day regardless of season or weather.

It's not that big a deal though. Bootylicious is in the dictionary too.

Hey now, bootylicious is a perfectly cromulent word.

~

P4: Acquired, along with artbook. Nice, didn't expect Amazon to throw that in. I went and spoiled myself on a couple things by flipping through it. No biggie; I figured, P3 plot was pretty LOL anyway, so what the hell. So: two and a half hours into the game before you can access the menu screen. Three hours before regular combat starts. Wow, Atlus. You guys outdid yourselves.

Anyway, game has me firmly in its neon clutches. Sorry Super, the verdict on VC will have to wait for a while! It's basically P3 with a different color scheme and all the basic, user-friendly features people bitched about P3 not having. So yeah, I'm enjoying it so far. Played through the first month or so yesterday. Castle boss killed me a couple times because I insisted on fighting it with an exhausted party to try and avoid burning a whole 'nother afternoon just on coming back and killing it. Didn't work too well. Came back with full SP the next day; blitzing the summon and making good use of stat uppers/downers worked well enough. Contrarian King was one hard-hitting bastard but only used ST techs so was manageable enough. Currently involved in way too many S. Links and looking to reccruit a biker next.

I fully support Lacy Unmentionables as the spoiler name for the castle boss.

EDIT: Oh yes, Teddie is awesome despite indulging in sub-Sage punnery.

[Pyro]

Eternal Poison:
Thage's route, beat the first stratum.

Game is solid enough for an SRPG. It isn't the second coming of FFT/XF, but its fun. Art style is charming in its own way, and the music/atmosphere is solid. Thage is fun in that trash-talking kind of way, and provides a boatload of SMASH (enemies all seeming to be weak to either fire or dark helps this a lot!). Being immune to magic is a double-edged sword I'd rather she didn't have, honestly. Everyone else is solid with Raki being very useful due to speed/move/smashing things in the face. I love the banter that happens on maps. "The more they boast, the better they roast." -> Pyrosphere -> dead boss.

[OblivionKnight]

Persona 4: Is awesome. 

[Shale]

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - beaten, with 100% glyph collection. Dracula was pretty simple once you learn to dodge his bats. Before that, though, murder. Death was also pretty simple, which is odd considering that overall the game's fairly challenging. Weird. Played a bit of the alternate mode (blanking on the character's name for some reason), will probably pick it up later on.

Picked up Elite Beat Agents for cheap on Friday, finished the two-star difficulty. Really fun game.

[Grefter]

Well, if there's one nice thing I can say about the gameplay, it's that the way they implented the gradual changes in party level was pretty sensible. Slowly changes the game from almost-traditional turn-based combat to full-fledged action RPG. Of course, this also means that you don't hit Harmony Chains, the most fun aspect (in regards to SMASH potential), until near the end. But at least there are usually plenty of PCs to mix and match. Hey, I'm trying to be positive here, bear with me.

Wait what?  That was fucking horrible gameplay and some of the worst I have ever encountered.  It isn't gradually easing you into a combat system, it is starting with a decent one and then having 8 other completely different and shit ones to put up with over the course of the game.  2 combat modes = bad enough normally (say RT/TB option or from the other end of the spectrum, whatever flavour of Xenofail you want [It pleases me so much to be able to use that blanket term because without fail the second mode of combat in any game with Xeno in the title is shit] and just have two mostly independent combat systems), having 9 is pure designer hell.

Edit - Spelling.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Well, if there's one nice thing I can say about the gameplay, it's that the way they implented the gradual changes in party level was pretty sensible. Slowly changes the game from almost-traditional turn-based combat to full-fledged action RPG. Of course, this also means that you don't hit Harmony Chains, the most fun aspect (in regards to SMASH potential), until near the end. But at least there are usually plenty of PCs to mix and match. Hey, I'm trying to be positive here, bear with me.

Wait what?  That was fucking horrible gameplay and some of the worst I have ever encountered.  It isn't gradually easing you into a combat system, it is starting with a decent one and then having 8 other completely different and shit ones to put up with over the course of the game.  2 combat modes = bad enough normally (say RT/TB option or from the other end of the spectrum, whatever flavour of Xenofail you want [It pleases me so much to be able to use that blanket term because without fail the second mode of combat in any game with Xeno in the title is shit] and just have two mostly independent combat systems), having 9 is pure designer hell.

Eternal Sonata has, at most, 6 combat modes. Also, gradually adding one or two features or slightly altering another is hardly having multiple combat systems.

Have you played Eternal Sonata? The changes between party levels are things that just generally speed up gameplay - like shortening the amount of waiting time you have, forcing you to pay more attention to the action. The biggest change the system undergoes is from 5 to 6, where the damage multiplier meter is conserved in certain cases (making for tons of broken, but also rather fun to work out combos and determine which skills to set ahead of time). Also, from 5 to 6 adds another level of 'pay attention' by randomly switching the buttons around on you (it still clearly displays their function, but you have to be watching)... but only when you use the broken abilities of the damage multiplier meter. It's actually fairly balanced, and the system really -does- ease the player into the action RPG element of it quite seamlessly.

My only complaint is that this method of teaching the player how to play was a little long, honestly. I didn't need the game to hold my hand, though it still ended up working as a whole in terms of a battle system. Each party level -did- work on its own as a battle system, but it was definitely clear that it was an evolving battle system, not 6 different unrelated Xenofail-style playmodes.

I am the last person to want to defend Eternal Sonata, but you're definitely attacking the wrong part of the game...

Not that the gameplay doesn't have flaws. It does, plenty (the abundance of items, the broken camera-money system, some really crappy dungeons, no more than 3 enemies in a battle, etc.). But it's gameplay -does- have some good things going  for it (Viola's sniping comes to mind, the Echoes/Harmony Chain system, too).

Notably, the gameplay could have been easily tweaked to make it much more enjoyable.

Actually giving the character a good reason to worry about Light and Dark zones/elements would be one thing (90% of the game's enemies are equally resistant to Light and Dark, the only elements in the game). Making Beat's and Viola's long-range modes more useful would help, too (Maybe allowing them to equip status-inducing/elemental/stronger ammo?).  Making photographs worth a whole lot less money would add some challenge. Opening Party Level 6 before the bonus dungeon would nice, too. In fact, being able to switch between party levels at will would probably be a cool improvement. Though I think this is already possible on a replay?

Still, a lot of the gameplay complaints are easy fixes.

Now, the STORY on the other hand...

-Djinn

[Grefter]

The plot is appalling of course, but the number of gameplay modes they have is entirely unnecessary (I was thinking there was 9 levels to the gauge thing), it is many thigns wrong.  First up, it is insulting because like you said it takes to fucking long to ramp up (HOLY SHIT ACTION COMBAT SO FUCKING HARD.  Wait no it isn't), you would barely even notice the ramp up if they had just you know started with action based gameplay in the first place instead of being an actually decent TB combat thing from the start, that they need to take you through it in baby steps is insulting (how popular are action RPGs again?  Sup Kingdom motherfucking Hearts for fucks sake).  Ultimately the combat system -may- end up decent (I got the shits with gameplay being in constant state of flux and the mega shit plot before I finished) and you can see the directions it is heading from the very first change, but if you can see where it is heading then the minor steps are entirely pointless.  Add on to the fact that the base combat system is actually pretty decent as a TB thing and then the first few steps just turn it into TB with some annoying shit that makes the combat -worse- TB, it is a failure.

Gameplay is something that should be consistent.  ES is in a constant state of change and progressive evolution.  This is bad design.  It isn't sudden genre change, but it means your gameplay isn't around long enough to show any polish at all.  Pointless waste of time.  Sure it is better than Xenofail, but it is still a failed experiment.

There is no fucking wrong part of the game to be attacking.  The plot is horrible, but that doesn't make the gameplay entirely unworthy of getting a big fresh turd dropped on it either.

I mean seriously, look at the shit you yourself have just said

Opening Party Level 6 before the bonus dungeon would nice, too. In fact, being able to switch between party levels at will would probably be a cool improvement.

That is an abject outright failure of game design.  It is like the only way to play the game the entire way through in a consistent manner is to use the New Game + feature.  Endless. Failure. At. Design.  I could praise them for trying to be experimental, but it was an experiment that didn't need to be made (LETS SEE IF WE CAN MAKE A REAL TIME RPG COMBAT GUYS) and quite frankly as everyone who has played the game can say it was the wrong area to be experimental in a game that is about Chopin's fever dreams before he dies.

Edit - Shit man you could have even had it be that if you made the modifications in the combat be the big deal about it and have combat be a variation in settings that the player can set to however they want that suits them the most and market it as a customisable combat system so that no 2 players have to have the same gaming experience.

[Niu]

Viola's ranged shot is actually stronger in PS3 version according to my memory. Beat is still the same though. They did tone down the photo prices, but not enough......

You're right, it ISN'T as egregious. But the fact that the game has multiple levels of egregious should say something about the quality of its plot.

SPOILERS!! (who cares?)
Also, I don't know why Polka sacrifices herself... I don't know what she thinks -her- life is so special for that it'll solve the problem, and more importantly, they never really tell you what said problem is... And then Chopin dies... Or Does He?

And not to mention the horrid abortion that is the "Friendly Environmentalist Message" we see throughout the credits...

My brain must have melted by that point. Polka is the Jesus! Umbrellagirl died for your sins! was a laugh riot, though.

Think on the bright side, you are playing the PS3 version, which has slightly more explanation than the XboX one if you lose to Chopin. But the whole thign eventually boils down to is that err how do I put it? "Chopin needs to stop killing his sister in his mind?"

[DjinnAndTonic]

Grefter: I pretty much agree with the point you have made - there is no wrong part of the game to attack.

I should have more clearly stated that one of the reasons the 'evolving' battle system worked is because it regularly changed the rules to keep the game somewhat fresh. In some ways, it was tedious (I know where this is going), but at the same time, it was forcing you to adapt to the set of rules you have now - which was somewhat challenging (and I thought, fun). The reason it was fun and not Xenofail was because each adaptation had enough of the previous system features that I wasn't having to learn an entirely new game each time, but just learning to adapt to one or two new features that now demanded my attention. And if my attention is kept, then I consider it good game design.

Yes, there were other ways this could have been implemented, but overall, I felt the Party Level system was by far the most successful aspect of the game...

Niu: Oh? PS3 version has more endings? Perhaps I'll watch it to see if I can understand what the hell was going on during those last 30 minutes...

-Djinn

[AndrewRogue]

P4: Through the sauna/bathhouse. Final shadow boss was an absolute pain in the ass. Guarding is REALLY important in this game. Thus far, fights have required a lot more party interaction/strategy to win, but that might be the effect of my lower levels. Otherwise, stat/social link grinding. It feels... a lot more complicated here, with the five stats and such. Still, making good progress.

[Grefter]

I agree, Party Level system probably is the most successful part of the game.  It is still an abject failure though.

Left For Dead - Alex, buy this.

[Xeroma]

Left 4 Dead is pretty good, yeah.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves - How is it that I can use Rock now? O_o I used to suck so much with him.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I agree, Party Level system probably is the most successful part of the game.  It is still an abject failure though.

Now you're just being snarky for the sake of being snarky. (I approve.)

Slightly-more On-topic!
Shadow Hearts 3: Picked this back up (been playing with various Japanese-only handheld fighting games for a while, but now I want to RPG again, yay).

Just got the Sky-Blue Ring from Zonda (Shania's fiance), who proceeded to propose to someone who's already his fiancee. Kind of silly, but I suppose it makes him seem like a forward-thinking human being instead of a mysoginistic 'women are property, and her parents GAVE her to me' character.

In fact, if he wasn't in love with -Shania- of all people, I think he would be a pretty cool guy.

Johnny sputters around in the background during the whole scene where Zonda is being a cool guy and generally treating Shania far better than she deserves. I can only assume his confusion stems from the fact that Johnny is genre-savvy enough to be surprised when 'The Arranged-Marriage Fiance Guy' turns out to NOT be a complete jerk. Sure, it's been done before, but it's rare enough in a video game that this fact stood out to me in the 30 minutes of playing I did today.

-Djinn

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Johnny sputters around in the background during the whole scene where Zonda is being a cool guy and generally treating Shania far better than she deserves. I can only assume his confusion stems from the fact that Johnny is genre-savvy enough to be surprised when 'The Arranged-Marriage Fiance Guy' turns out to NOT be a complete jerk. Sure, it's been done before, but it's rare enough in a video game that this fact stood out to me in the 30 minutes of playing I did today.

-Djinn

It says something about the quality of jRPG writing in general when that sort of thing is a surprise.

[DjinnAndTonic]

It says something about the quality of jRPG writing in general when that sort of thing is a surprise.

While this is certainly true, it would be fair to say that this trope happens a good deal of the time in non-jRPG media too.

[Lord Ephraim]

Last Remnant: Died again on the last Base battle. It was all getting my attacks blocked and crit losing morale and stupid healing AI.  It's all luck.

Fuck this game. I'm putting it on definite hold until some patch comes out that makes the game playable.

Maybe I can bug Grefter to play the PC version when it comes out, so he can have fun with more SaGa shit.  

Oh yeah, the DLC rulez. Hay, optional dungeon with enemies always 5x stronger than you no matter what level, enjoy your shit being blocked.

[Niu]

Niu: Oh? PS3 version has more endings? Perhaps I'll watch it to see if I can understand what the hell was going on during those last 30 minutes...

PS3 version has added scenes here and there, and a secret scene if you lose the final battle. But then, but what comes down to really being important is... uhhh, well Chopin needs to stop killing his sister in his mind, at least what I think it is.

[Lady Door]

Woo, Sannin~

Season 1, yes. But still Sannin!

I used:
Karmic Enhancer Activated (+50 stamina)
Survey Bonus (+100 stamina)
1 x Silver Elixir (100,000XP)
1 x Teriyaki Ramen (+100 stamina)
1 x All-Out Bash (50,000XP)
1 x Karaoke (5,000XP)
Blue Flower Hair Pin quest (+200 stamina)
Obsessive Insight (charged down to cost me 37 chakra per use)


I had expected to need all the bonuses I could get!

Did not use, but had/could have had:
3 more Silver Elixir (300,000XP)
7 Day Bonus (100 stamina)
65 Smoke Bombs (to maximize XP gains per mission)
Dartboard bonus (30 stamina)
2 x ThankYou Potions (100 stamina, no appetite use)
Enough items that I could have thrown another All-Out Bash (50,000 - 100,000XP)
The 60 stamina I had left even after I hit 1mill AND completed the Big Three special mission
A day's worth of bonus stamina (60 stamina every 6 hours)

I must say, being at the top of the Season 1 pool is lovely~ I will miss it when I get around to looping (or am forced, seeing as I'm on Day 10 in my loop timer).

Now we'll see if I can pull off the Out on Top requirement to unlock that theme for S2.

[TranceHime]

Ragnarok Online DS: Did some progression. Will probably plow through this to get the WiFi functionality after reaching Morroc. So yeah. Going off to do this random guy's request to find his son! Burning of many Willows will be had.

Thanks to Hatbot, my character's running Merchant -> Blacksmith :| Which is... Admittedly not a boring class. Would've liked Priest though, except there is no autolock in this game, so "lol miss"

[Sierra]

Djinn/Niu: Yes, Viola's standard physicals are actually pretty useful. Position her across the board and she can put out ~25k damage a shot.

~

P4: Played into mid-June. The sauna boss is hereby dubbed Mr. Faaabulouuus. Bitch of a battle. As before, had to leave and come back the next day fully refreshed to win (which I guess I shouldn't worry about so much, since they seem to give you plenty of time). Even then I got one game over. Strategy went like this: MC with Jack Frost blitzes Tough Guy with Bufula (and casts Rakunda when needed), Yosuke spams Dekaja to keep Nice Guy tied up spamming buffs (and goes on pure defense once Mr. F hits low HP to avoid getting the party One More'd and overkilled again), Chie uses Tarukunda on the MC/chips away at Nice Guy/is item girl when necessary, Yukiko spams Media. Still a nasty fight, but that worked. Levels were 23 across the board, in case anyone's wondering. In-dungeon healer NPC acquired, but dear god, the price tag. Must boost Hermit rank to lower cost...but I can't find whatever the snack lady needs. Probably tied to the grossly obese student's S. Link, but I haven't stumbled upon that one yet.

The campout sequence was totally damned if you do, damned if you don't. Agree with Yosuke and creep the girls out, or imply that they're unattractive? Failure is the only option. Yosuke seems somewhere between the Magician kid from P3 and Junpei. The hero's reliable best friend who's just enough of a dweeb to not be a threat to his romantic interests. Which is pretty much a harem cliche, but hey, it's not like that's the only thing P4 has going on. Anyway, looking forward to recruiting 1x pop star next. Oh, and Kanji is hilarious in general.

Attribute grinding is going pretty well. Knowledge/Courage/Diligence = 3, Expression = 4, Understanding = 2. Beef bowl special is win. Current persona lineup is Titania, Lamia, Jack Frost (I could get King Frost by now, but...JF's got a whole mess of boosts from Arcana Chance wins and I would honestly be taking a downgrade. Mabufula + Ice Boost already? Yes. Have to make sure that combo gets passed on).

Speaking of Arcana Chance, penalty cards = fuck you, Atlus. In a game that's about dungeons being a slow grind, having a chance to miss out on rewards for a random encounter is not a high-tension gamble of risk vs. reward. It's just lame.

Oh, and because I neglected to mention it before: Mr. Garrison's on the staff at the school. YES.

[hinode]

Dragon Quest 4 - Beat the game, started up chapter 6.  Just got the Yggdrasill Flower.

Psaro's first six forms went pretty smoothly, but the last one got a really good round of offense in while Kabuff and Insulate were down and managed to kill all of my main team except Borya.  Things got hairy then, but I managed to pull through thanks to Ragnar tanking most of the damage while defending and Meena pulling off Zing on Kiryl on the first try.

First time I fought Foo Yung and Chow Mein, I got hit with Rock Throw + Punch + Flame Breath thingie, which killed Kiryl and Meena before they could move and nearly killed Solo and Alena.  I immediately gave up and went to get a few levels.  Next time, Chow Mein did neither of those attacks and the fight went without a hitch; go figure.  <_<  I was told that those two moves were stupidly rare, and it looks like that's the case.

Main team so far has been Solo, Alena, Kiryl, Borya.  Solo is all-around jack of all trades.  He benefitted from getting a full set of equips from Riverton before Marquis de Leon and was outright dominant for a while before falling back closer into the field.  Kazap is really good for randoms if I can afford not to hoard MP for a boss.  Lack of speed's a downer, though.  Alena started off C5 not much better than Torneko but got the best level-ups by far of anybody.  By the time I bought the Falcon Knife Earrings for her she was outdamaging Solo already and never looked back.  Her speed's completely insane, faster than Solo with Meteorite Bracer even.  The latter two were there mainly for their buffs, plus Crackle was incredibly good when I first got Borya, best damage of anyone at that point.  I'll drop Borya when I get Psaro, though.

Haven't really used the other PCs much since most of my exp starting coming from dungeons instead of the world map.  Meena got swapped in for Insulate against Psaro and Foo Yung/Chow Mein, but that's about it.

[Cmdr_King]

I'd recommend just FAQing some of those Request, myself.  That said, Chie has the proper item for the snack girl.

P4- slightly less far than Cid.  Beat the Steamy Bathhouse, but haven't advanced into June yet.

[Rozalia]

Woo, Sannin~

Well done. Out on top is considered to be a very bad theme by most people but personally I quite like it.

BvS - Got a soul of steel. Meanwhile in the wasteland I have the best cloak, shades, Scythe and Cowl. So all thats left is the pistol and the boots. I have a spare lightning rune I'm willing to trade for a Ocelot or Mantis rune.