What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[TranceHime]

Phantasy Star ZERO: my friend code is at 5456-3359-9961, name is etudeひめ

[Shale]

With minimal twinking and just gaming the Casino Magic will have a huge lead, but not really advance much.  With explicit twinking, physicals aren't lagging behind much by the point the Casino is really abusable anyway.

Yeah, about that.

As soon as I got the plane, I went back to the casino to see what kind of potential it had, and I kinda sorta ended up with 500,000 medals off a 100G investment. So....yeah, three Rune Armors, 9 Silver Feathers, Gold Feathers, Warrior's Tonics, Volcano Eggs, the Gambler...

I don't think the midgame is going to like me very much.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Or the whole game, really.

EDIT:

PB - So, um. I'm at episode 4-1 and I have a L60 Marona with a 2.5k RES vase, 3.5k Attack, 2.7k Int and 864 Spd. She might be slightly broked.

[Grefter]

That is what I did as well Shale, there is still more you can do

[Niu]

PB - So, um. I'm at episode 4-1 and I have a L60 Marona with a 2.5k RES vase, 3.5k Attack, 2.7k Int and 864 Spd. She might be slightly broked.

You are breaking her a bit too early. At this rate, Sulphur wouldn't be pain inducing.

[Lord Ephraim]

Valkyria Chronocles:  Suprising good game since I've heard nothing about it except it's more of a jRPG version of World War 1.  Certainly better than most 360 RPGs.  I think I can best summerize the game as Fire Emblem minus all the math and fantasy magic and replace it with guns and tanks.  Also most if all generic grunts are voiced by Steven Blum and Crispen Freeman. (Listening Rob?)  Story progress with cutscene/cutscene/battle/cutscene/battle.  The plot goes pretty much nowhere, just destroying enemy bases but the characters are charming enough. OK will love that you can fill your squad with lots of pretty girls, along with some flamers and UOM.  Grinding is pretty simipified with classes gaining levels rather than individuals and cash is overflowing. Not a PS3 seller by a long shot, but it's probably better than Disgaea 3 unless that game is amazingly hilarious.

The main problem is the game is easily soloable with a SCOUT and enemy AI is O_O sometimes, SNIPING TANKS hit me far more than they should.


Dissidia:  Cool cutscenes and the style is pretty, but the gameplay is painfully boring compared to standard fighters or Smash.  Unlike most fighters, you have to grind levels and experence to get the most out of anything at least with story mode.  The CPU is pretty weak at least.  So far I like using Zidane the most.

[Talaysen]

You are breaking her a bit too early. At this rate, Sulphur wouldn't be pain inducing.

I think that is the point.

[Excal]

And see, here I was about to say that the Casino gets you the Warp Shoes which makes Physicals so much better.

[Sierra]

P4: "Group Date Cafe?" This cannot end well.

[Shale]

G3: Hey look, egg fusion.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Crusssssssssssssssh.

PB - Speaking of crush, Ash now has 6.5k Attack and 1.9k Speed. Wheeeeeeeeee~

[AAA]

MK-Done. I was within a few percent of completing everybody's Grow Book. One of the Job quest bosses was actually pretty challenging. I died once! Of course it's mostly due to that triple-turning knock you back and silence you and then get another turn and knock you back again and fuck Anna's dead now what bullshit, but it's the thought that counts. Final boss was a total scrub, though eliminating healing was a cruel trick.

The game is first and foremost about alchemy. In this it succeeds pretty well. It's good fun to making things and try to follow the chain, and the game does a good job of spacing out recipies so you always have something to make. The Grow Book is a good addition to alchemy, which is basically FFX's Sphere Grid, except better. Story's mostly just bland but keeps out of the way, characters are mostly likable. The battle system is quick and fun and generally works very well. Just a pretty good game all around. 8/10 maybe?

Dunno what I'll do next. Maybe I'll get Live Gold and Left 4 Dead or something. And of course there's always P4.

[Veryslightlymad]

Team Fortress 2:
This game is pissing me off more and more. It keeps taking away achievements from me, and it also resets my records. I lost about six points with Sniper and three Pyro achievements.

Titan Quest:
I love this game. Started a new on on my regular box with a Theurgist. I cannot damage the Undead. This seems to be my biggest flaw so far.

[TranceHime]

Phantasy Star ZERO: Mmm. L23 HUnewearl. Man, I kick ass. :3

[Sierra]

P4: I am in the land of sunshine and happy, happy rainbows. Starting to get some brokenish personas, too. Fire Boost/Amp + Maragidyne and nutso MAG? Oh yes. One more level on Daisojou and he learns Samsara. That + Hama Boost = kthbye, enemies. Good times.

Linkwise, finally maxed out Strength. I've got like half a dozen of them sitting at level nine, but the game keeps throwing rainy days at me and no one is available after school on rainy days. Well, almost no one, but it's still annoying. Pretty soon there'll be nothing for me to do on such days, since all my characteristics are maxed except for Diligence.

[Captain K.]

Really?  I find the problem is that there aren't enough rainy days.  Too many things that only happen in the rain.  Huge fish, capsule machines, etc.

Anywho, fused an Oni, which laughs at It's Britney, Bitch.  Boss that came next was easy also, although it had massive durability.  Also beat the extra boss for that dungeon.

Teddie fucking wins.  That is all.

[Idun]

I'm at the Phon Coast and I know what I have to do. Prior to the Phon Coast, I leveled up maybe two spots for Vaan, Basch and Penelo at the Mosphoran Highwaste. Regardless of the extremely homogenous original stats that all of the characters come with, I find the suited roles I gave Bash and Penelo more fitting - warrior and mage. Penelo doesn't have quite enough MP or the right Gambits for her to preserve necessary MP, but I'm greedy with Vaan anyways and'll just run around so she can generate enough for the next field maps.

What am I currently doing? I am trying to get money. After fighting Berghan, I noticed - hey Julia, you need to get more equipment, more LP for equipment and stronger weapons. When I was in the Mosphoran Highwaste, I did an experiment. I turned Penelo's gambits off, and she's equiped with a stick - I just bought one at the Hunter's Camp and forgot what it was called. Anyway, Basch is equiped with an axe and Vaan is sticking to tradition and only being versed in chivalry avec un sword. I just noticed that you can both steal a high level item from an enemy and poach them. Of course this means I negate all EXP and LP that I want, but in the light of money - poaching ten animals throughout a round of the environment costs me roughly 4,000 EXP which is fine since I normally yield more than 10K in gold. And that it is what I am doing now. Grinding.  I'm not farming. what is this "farming" bullshit that's leaked into console RPGs from fucking MMOs? I did a speed run throughout the Phon Coast to see what was next, which is - MORE PHON COAST. And then some plains. So. I have good grinding time ahead for myself. I need to somewhat level out the disparity in levels from Fran, Ashe and Balthier - It goes 34 - Vaan, 30, Balthier, 34 Basch, 27 Fran, 27 Ashe and 32 Penelo. I plan on reaching roughly L38 before I proceed to the next half of Phon Coast because of the grinding that is teh necessaire.

Also. Make sure you have Dispel prior to Phon Coast if you're reading this. Life becomes much less of a hassle.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

PB - Whee 10k RES Vase~

[Shale]

G3: Violetta and Kornell were pansies even without using fusion magic. Or items. And with letting Violetta revive twice while I was trying to set up an aerial finish on Kornell. And yet it's still tougher than Grandia II!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

It's Grandia 2 difficulty. Unless it's Rhapsody, everything is tougher. The game will pick up the pace on disk 2, though.

[Pyro]

Violetta and Kornell was an easy fight for you? I hate being reminded that I suck.

Eternal Punishment: Olifen's route, end of the second stratum.

Thage's route was fun in a few different ways. While the plot of it (find the Eternal Poison!) was boring, the character interaction kept my interest throughout. Mostly because Thage is a ton of fun. One part (or more) crazy, one part cunning, and 3 parts of insult-spewing uber-bitch. The VA helped a lot there. As did the fact that she was silly good in gameplay (Magic immune! Can cast->move to avoid physicals! Can twink to get lots of physical resistance if you go that way!)

Olifen is a more boring main, but yay powerful physical fighter. Meanwhile, Marie picks up the slack on the magic end by being the second coming of Thage, only wind is worse than Dark as a second element (damn sylphs). Logue needed to have better range to start with and *not* be so dang easily sniped by enemy mages. Levatte needed some form of offense, as healers still get the short end of the stick on exp.

Olifen's route has some interesting character work too, even though it lacks someone as charismatic as Thage holding it all together.

[Grefter]

If they are wasting time with revival they are easy.  If they are attacking they are fairly brutal, but meh, not that hard a fight by G3 standards.

[Dhyerwolf]

It's Grandia 2 difficulty. Unless it's Rhapsody, everything is tougher. The game will pick up the pace on disk 2, though.

Or unless it's Grandia 1!

[Veryslightlymad]

Team Fortress 2:
Broke 5 of my medic records, and three of my total records in one match today with medic. All of the records came from the same life. I will cry if TF2 continues its trend of deleting my hard-earned accomplishments, because damn it, that was a hell of a run.

Titan Quest:
I built a mage.

I'm not sure I'm doing it right.

[TranceHime]

Phantasy Star ZERO: I beat the Normal Story Mode. L32 HUnewearl. I now have access to all areas on Hard and Normal difficulties. Now I am just focusing on getting strong and assembling ausum gear. :> And perhaps farming Photon Drops.