What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[NotMiki]

you can only start at the beginnings of chapters, but you don't have to finish them.  it's a pain in the ass for some characters, notably ones that don't get Carroteers until late.  I think velvet's come relatively early, but couldn't swear to it.  but yeah, you can revisit Velvet's chapter without losing your place in the final chapter.

Super Mario Galaxy: nearly done!  Fuck. Luigi's. Purple. Coins.  And 3 other levels I haven't mustered the energy to beat (the bomb minigame, finding the hidden star in Deep Dark galaxy, and the sand level I'm saving for last, since I want a fun note to go out on.)  Dunno if there are more levels or what after those finish.

[metroid composite]

AW:DoR

Most of the "trial" maps are ridiculously easy.  Put me in a situation where I would steamroll any human opponent (I'm in the advantaged starting position on a map with a better CO) then pit me against the computer.  Just unlocked one in the bottom left corner, though, and it looks interesting (4-way where everyone but me starts with units.  Granted, being a 4-way they just fight among themselves...).

Also, interesting fact: Artillery and Rocket damage has been reduced against Tanks in general.  Obviously this was needed for more expensive tanks, but they've also been reduced for regular tanks...which seems less necessary.  (In fact, for a variety of reasons, regular tanks strike me as very strong in this game).

[Fire500]

cs, starcraft, and mario kart for snes.

[superaielman]

Disgaea 2- Done with the main game, clocked in at a bit over 30 hours. Smashed the final, etc. Good game, not sure of the rank? 7-8 range. Tons of playability and some good character work (Rozalin was well done) but several of the supporting characters sucked. Gameplay is much improved, story... mm. Better serious stuff, comedy's generally less in your face but funny. 7-8? This could go up if I really sink a lot of time into heavy item worlding.


Would recommend it to most people. Glad they made the combat and overall gameplay better. Oh, and the big villain was hilariously pathetic and just as much of a failure as you'd expect.

[Niu]

Disgaea3- 100% less seriousness and 200% more funniness, this is a good thing indeed. Too bad there is no hacking codes for PS3 yet, can't break the game from thew start like I always do. The new skill system is annoyn though, what a waste of mana. Yet, plot characters have a lot more original tech that they don't really need to learn much of weapon techs. Though, the combinationtech thign is good, getting exp alot easier.

[Twilkitri]

Played through Squeak Squad, and good times were had by all. Somewhat easy though. For example I remember Dark Matter from KD3 being insanely difficult to beat but I beat Dark Nebula here without losing a life. Lost plenty of lives to faux!Kracko and that bizarrely annoying owl though. Some interesting new powers, although the usefulness of them is somewhat questionable.


Attempted to start on SRWC3 several times only to have oswan consistently die on trying to write out the saveram file, so I've had to swap to wscamp which is somewhat inferior, tsk. Have to turn it off after every level so it will write out the saveram so I can manually back it up since it doesn't allow savestates -_-. Also the sound quality is mildly horrendous.
Game looked to be bizarrely easy in the first few levels with Borot of all things having 100% hit on enemies and doing over half their HP in damage. That didn't last long. Interestingly enough the game seems somewhat modern for a Compact, it has settable support attack/defence and OG-style Pilot Points and such. Also has the sigh-worthy one-up-all-up weapon upgrade system but they can't all be good changes. Also has cutins.
So far: Escaflowne units barring the title one are god-ugly, Acrobunch is a super with SIX pilots o_o, Volke has a redeeming feature in his theme music but that in no way makes up for his stupid hairy unit. Also he supposedly has a skill that gives him permanent Luck after he gets 130 will but he's never gotten that high for me to check yet. There are several of those, actually... Rina (ZZ) apparently has permanent Gain after 120 will, among other. Hum. Some completely pointless skills, though... Sense on 110 PP gives you +10 hit/evade after 130 will. How wonderful.

[Pyro]

RSMS:

Got to the bottom of the Jewel Beast's layer! This involved Overdrive haxing some things that by all rights should have owned me hard. Overdrive + Chalice > Undead, though. So it all worked out. Recharging the Chalice was a nuisance, and realizing that I will have to do it again sucks. Of course all this was for naught as the Jewel Beast woke up and slaughtered me effortlessly with his big MT move that goes first and overkills everyone. Apparently he'd have been asleep had I done some quest available for 3 fights from the start of the game. Whatever. Let the Frontier burn. LET IT BURN I SAY.

Finished up the GIANT FETCH-QUEST OF DOOM from Ice Sword all the way up to virgin. I can only imagine how frustrating that would have been had I not FAQd the thing and done it in reverse (hence avoiding the nuisance of having to go through all the dungeons twice.

Killed Ewei and got the Emerald. Then I picked up the aquamarine I also got all the elemental spirits and tacked on +1BP regen to Claudia. +7 is just awesome for her right now. Overdrive haxing ahoy. Though I CURSE the person who decided to nerf Overdrive from the original by negating the normal BP regen at the beginning of the Overdrive round. I'm sure Hasten Time needed the nerf, but Overdrive didn't ;_;

Game is... well, its Saga with more polish than Saga Frontier.  I don't really like it that much at this point to be honest, but I'm going to see it through to the end.

[Meeplelard]

MMZXA: Finished! Decent game, though the stretch between the usual Mega Man Boss Refights and the Final Boss CAN DIE.

I would mind it a lot less if said area was BEFORE the Boss Refights, as it wouldn't mean screwing up there too much would yield refighting the 8 bosses over again (and they aren't completely jokes either.) But...mrf.  Evil Platforming isn't a bad thing, but at least adhere to the Mega Man standard of Boss Refights then nothing between the final boss and them beyond maybe a basic straight run with a few enemies, platforms, etc.  Having to be ultra careful was not fun, especially should I have game overed (and I did, twice) to the final boss.

I blame MMZ2 for this, really; it pulled the same thing, as far as I can remember >_>

[AAA]

OS-Finished, finally. The Cauldron was terrible in every way. The weakest character fights the tankiest boss with the cheapest attacks and it's a neverending ride of frustration. Took me forever. Last boss wasn't that bad once I figured out all his moves.

The game...at first, it's okay. Bosses are nothing but endless rehashes, but otherwise the battle system is okay. Story is melodramatic trash but interesting enough to keep me curious about what happens. Then roughly halfway through the game things start getting worse. The fact that they basically copy/pasted 70% of the game becomes more and more readily apparent. Excuses for you fighting the same bosses over and over again become hilarious and then sad, as you realize that a good half of the cast apparently does nothing but run around getting their asses kicked by every random schmuck with a glowy weapon.

Bosses either are piss-weak or eye-gougingly difficult, and not in a fun way. Some of the newly introduced enemies are not much better, though at least this is contained to the Titania sections. The final boss rush was just a neverending meanagerie of fucking bullshit fights and the game just feels more and more like a chore as time goes on. It would've been much better if they had either taken the time to come up with some new stuff or just made the game 20 hours long.

Ending..
 

Code: [Select]

Furries save the world. JAPAAAAAAAANNNNNNN! *shakes first*

3/10, maybe? This might go up a bit when my seething rage towards all things Vanillware goes down with time.
Onto Suikoden Tactics, I guess. Hopefully it's not such an utter pile of shit.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

WA3 - All mediums get. Gallows is a freaking magical nuke now, and Clive finally caught up to him with Brave Seal. I still need to check Zephyr's skillset in battle, but statwise, it compliments Virginia tanking damned well. Time to actually see where the Prophets took Virginia's dear damsel in distress.

EDIT: The scene with the Schroedinger spoof was fucking gold. Best reference ever.

[Sierra]

WA3 - All mediums get. Gallows is a freaking magical nuke now, and Clive finally caught up to him with Brave Seal. I still need to check Zephyr's skillset in battle, but statwise, it compliments Virginia tanking damned well. Time to actually see where the Prophets took Virginia's dear damsel in distress.

EDIT: The scene with the Schroedinger spoof was fucking gold. Best reference ever.

Which is that, exactly? (More evidence that Cid needs to rereplay WA3, yes).

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Basically, Maya makes Shady fetch the jewel at the end of Caging Tower. Of course, it's a trap and Shady gets locked inside a pyramid, and he goes nuts screaming things like "NO MORE POISON GAS AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" while Maya serenely explains that Shady is claustrophobic, as kind of a reminiscence of her ancestors. It's basically a huge reference on Schroedinger's conundrum, which wins on about seventy five levels of chantilly-covered win.

[Dark Holy Elf]

That scene is a large part of the reason I hype Shady, yes. If my sig didn't tip you off.

[Dunefar]

Disgaea 2:

I'm still in chapter 1 but I've opened up CoO4. I'm breaking the game wide, wide open, doing all sorts of unpleasant things to it. Anyway, Adell and Rozalin have both turned out well, my Male Warrior is solid, my Female Warrior is a good spear bitch, my Heavy Knight sucks(My fault for giving him axes, I think.) and my mage rapes things. Oh, and my cleric reincarnated into an archer. Uh, I think that's it-oh. I nearly forgot about the one monster I'm using. Cat the Werecat is mauling things like nothing else. The catgirl classes are one note, but they're really damn good at it. Cat Fight is my party best damage and she has solid durability.

[Captain K.]

AW:DoR

Most of the "trial" maps are ridiculously easy.  Put me in a situation where I would steamroll any human opponent (I'm in the advantaged starting position on a map with a better CO) then pit me against the computer.  Just unlocked one in the bottom left corner, though, and it looks interesting (4-way where everyone but me starts with units.  Granted, being a 4-way they just fight among themselves...).

There's a wide variety of Trial Maps.  For the ones where you start with an advantage, it's considerably harder to get an S rank.  The tough maps are much more lenient on rankings.

AWDoR:  All Trial Maps beaten.  Hardest was Jay Islands, followed by Tatter River.  35/64 S ranks.  94 medals, plus the big medal for >50 hours played.

[Sierra]

Soul Nomad: Picked up Lujei. She is totally, batshit insane. Naturally, I approve. The actual fight was pathetic as expected, given the low double-digit levels of the enemies. However, she herself could actually deal damage to my main's party! Impressive, for someone a quarter of his level. And now it is time to level her and the other plot characters up to meet the rest of the army. I guess I should toss 'em all into a Loki's Fortune for that, though that'd make for one mishmash of a squad. Curiously, Galahad came in at level 26 when I got him again. He was much higher than that by the end of the Evil path. I guess when I started the normal path again it set his level to whatever it was at the end of the normal path the first time through? Because 26 sounds right for that.

Oh yes, Lujei attacks people by summoning Grim Grimoire Imps. Score. At least, that's her middle-row attack. I haven't checked out the others yet. Has the connection between her and Endorph been explained in other N1 games or something? I'd thought she appeared in GG first, but she tosses out references to things left and right.

[Tonfa]

Lujei is Grim Grimoire/Soul Nomad only. The Endorph stuff becomes clear if you play Phantom Brave.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

WA3 - So, Beatrice appears randomly in the Cradle of Metal Gods and finishes screwing Malik up by reviving his mother. He turns into Luca Blight and dies horribly. Then, Melody decides she needs to fail epically too. Man, that woman holds a freaking grudge. Well, two prophets down, anyhow. Maya's duel form against Siegfried needs more hype. Possible OHKO damage if held against PC averages, overkill damage held against PC HP zomg and zomg godlike evade yesiu.jpg. Ahem. My guess is that C3 is almost over. Felt actually surprisingly short, I blame its sandbox nature.

[Sierra]

Lujei is Grim Grimoire/Soul Nomad only. The Endorph stuff becomes clear if you play Phantom Brave.

Ah. That would be why he mentioned Sulpher!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I just finished Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa.

It may be the best RPG made since Wild Arms 4.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

WA3 - Okay! So, C3 is done and we get random drunken Virginia. She's kinda funny drunk. As a bonus, we get creepy loli haunting Shane, of which I expect epic swerves. Those final scenes of C3 were awesomely cheesy, though. Maya is a badass motherfucker, indeed.

[Sierra]

WA3 - Okay! So, C3 is done and we get random drunken Virginia. She's kinda funny drunk. As a bonus, we get creepy loli haunting Shane, of which I expect epic swerves. Those final scenes of C3 were awesomely cheesy, though. Maya is a badass motherfucker, indeed.

...Blaah. How do I not remember Virginia getting drunk? I fail at remembering things I like. >.<

[Luther Lansfeld]

Wait wait wait. You like drunken Virginia?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

It's funny! She becomes silly. Plus, it's not like it's a real person annoying me with drunkenness. Cheerful drunkards are amusing at a distance.

EDIT: This might be where Ciato breaks down like she did when I started hyping Maya.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Wait wait wait. You like drunken Virginia?

Liking any kind of Virginia is a cause of concern.