What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Ultradude]

Lufia 2 (because I can!): Looking for a catfish I guess. No real plot to speak of besides a mysterious prophet chick and a ball of light, and still stuck with one character. Strong enough now to smash the local randoms at least.

[Niu]

Disgaea3- *Look at Shura Baal.... Yeah, not touching the thing until hacking device for PS3 comes out. 20million states... ahahahaha no. And for the first time that Baal talks, he certainly sounds weird....

[Twilkitri]

Played through Zork: Grand Inquisitor. Beautiful.

The setting itself is slightly worse than that of Nemesis, but it's carried off far better. The lantern helps - conversation in Nemesis seemed far too sparse at points, although I guess that was part of the point. Still no textual feedback of things onscreen, but it does let you get a description of (most) things in your inventory at least, and I didn't ever find myself wishing that it was there anyway.
Lots of humour. Deaths get a Z-Machine-esque description of varying funniness as opposed to Nemesis' You Have Died + One-liner, and I got myself killed off just to see what it would say a fair amount. Puzzles never descended to Nemesis' level of argh or why exactly am I doing this, although getting into the lair came close to the latter. Um, as does one of the things you have to do in the lair that I only tried out of perverseness in the first place, which has a somewhat shattering effect on places later in the game, to try and not spoil it.

The totemisation sequence is awesome, as is the Lair's tunnel sequence (too bad that neither of the other tunnel sequences come close to it). Some of the spells are highly amusing and I'm sad that they don't have custom responses for much at all.

Definitely in my top 5. Possibly in my top 3 except I can't remember what the third currently is. Highly recommended.



Been replaying dribs and drabs of PW1 during times I haven't been doing much else. You know what these games needed? Support for the DS Rumble Pack. Ah well.

Finished getting all the Built medals for ground units in AWDS. Now to getting ones for flying units which is much more of a pain since the map with the airports takes considerably longer to shut the AI down than Sponn Island does. Also they cost more although to be fair there are more cities there anyway. I have no idea how the heck anyone is supposed to get all the medals for units DESTROYED considering it doesn't count units in multiplayer maps, and there isn't really any way to force the AI to build specific things.

Also started replaying SRWF. Good times.

[Sierra]

Twil: Gonna play Return to Zork at some point? I ask because that's one I'm actually familiar with and I would be curious to see a new player's reactions. The old text ones, too. Nemesis I never tried, and Grand Inquisitor I only saw a little of while my brother was playing--though it was enough for "I. Am. The boss of you!" to get permanently lodged in my brain.

[Twilkitri]

We actually have an actual copy of Return to Zork, but god only knows where it is. I should look for it. Probably find it's too damaged to use or something anyway. I'm not technically a new player as far as RtZ goes anyway since I attempted to play it years ago, although I never got especially far. As far as my memory goes, I liked the camera system and the diamond action grid should be nice in theory, but...
Aside from questions regarding rye and the wantingness of it, the first thing that comes to mind is having some book of foreign jokes and not being able to use it, and consequently having some plant die. I seem to remember you being able to just cut the plant off when you first get it instead of digging it out and consequently killing it, which brings up bad vibes regarding the game being a mess-up-early-and-we-won't-tell-you-you-can't-actually-beat-the-game, despite what the manual says.

[Meeplelard]

Just backing up Ciato's claim.  Gameplay stays generally well since the game has a steady increase in difficulty (which is good, since it doesn't have any retarded difficulty spikes, and makes using basic strategies slowly become obsolete for more thought out ones), though must say I do prefer Grandia 2's Coin system as far as skill progression goes to G3's SaGaesque random learning, but that's the only real thing that G2 did right that G3 didn't as far as gameplay.

Plot...its not so much the characters and plot fail as much as the game likes to pretend they don't.  G3's cast and plot aren't much worse than your typical bland RPG in this regard.  Really, the cast/plot isn't so much different than, say, FF4's...the difference is, though, G3 pretends they don't fail, which just makes things seem worse in comparison.  Then factor in its a modern RPG being compared to an early SNES one in this regard...yeah.  I stand by that Alfina is nowhere the Rinoa Tier that some people put her, Emelious is saved by the Seifer clause to some extent, so really, the only TRULY offensive characters are Raven (completely pointless character who they pretend is important) and Alonso (don't need to explain.)

(Plus I think some people came in expecting this awesome cast after G2 but had their hopes shot down but who knows?)

[superaielman]

G3's plot and characters are pretty  much worthless across the board. Gameplay I found to be pretty boring until you can actually get enough SP to control the (challenging) fights. Mercifully it doesn't get stupid about randoms until the Verse realm.

[AAA]

G3 is only comparable to XS3 as far as character hate goes. With the exception of Miranda, that is. They're all stupid cliches at best and utterly insipid at worst and the more you think about them the worse and worse they appear.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Well, it's a good thing you guys exist so Gate doesn't have to form his own opinions.

PW2 - Investigation is getting lamer again. ;_; 2-3 ruled though.

[Sierra]

Aside from questions regarding rye and the wantingness of it, the first thing that comes to mind is having some book of foreign jokes and not being able to use it, and consequently having some plant die. I seem to remember you being able to just cut the plant off when you first get it instead of digging it out and consequently killing it, which brings up bad vibes regarding the game being a mess-up-early-and-we-won't-tell-you-you-can't-actually-beat-the-game, despite what the manual says.

The bit about the plant is actually backwards, but yeah.

[Sierra]

IN: Trying to clear Normal with another team, but the dodgehax is not with me today. Also, I...can't use the magic team at all, and am only vaguely decent with the ghost team. The problem is that Marisa and Youmu are just too damned fast--most of my deaths come from running into bullets by accident when I'm trying to dodge something else. A lot of the time I focus simply because it's easier to move precisely with the slower character. For what it's worth, I like the ghost team. Max-powered Yuyuko's screen coverage is awesome, and Youmu puts out a lot of damage against a single target. I really don't see any advantages to using the magic team, though, unless you're an Alice fanboy. Incidentally, what does it mean when Alice's laser turns red?

So yeah, focusing on team scarlet right now, though stopping for the day because I'm just not "on."

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Cid: the point of Magic Team is abusing this little trick known as Malice Cannon: rapidly tap the focus button while shooting to constantly swap between Marisa and Alice shots. Due to their shot properties, this means that the damage output goes through the roof, and the fact that the swapping enables Alice laser to hit familiars together with Marisa shots makes things particularly rough for enemies when they shoot familiars. Then, there's also the fact that Master Spark is the game's best normal bomb. The deal with Magic Team is basically killing things dead once you figure the team's gimmicks out.

[Ranmilia]

Cid:  There's a meter at the bottom left corner of the screen that measures your current human/youkai rating.  Unfocused = human, focused = youkai character.  When you're at 80%+ on the youkai side, your shot color changes, indicating that you can gain time orbs by grazing boss shots, and scoring is affected in some way I'm too lazy to look up.  It has no gameplay meaning other than being an indicator. 

With Magic Team, Alice will keep firing her laser for a little while after you release the focus button.  So, if you tap the focus button quickly, the laser will remain constant while Marisa fires a few times every time you blink to her, so you'll get both characters firing at once, which deals absolutely ridiculous damage.  This is called the Malice Cannon.  There are some quite interesting tricks you can pull with it.  The drawback is that it's quite hard to move while doing it, since you're constantly switching speeds.  Magic Team play consists of using Malice Cannon to obliterate everything in your path in half the time or less that anyone else takes, and using Master Spark recklessly on anything that this doesn't work on.

Scarlet Team is probably the hardest to play - Sakuya is terrible and Remi's hard to use and too fast for comfortable focused movement.

[Meeplelard]

OS: Just beat Mercedes with Cornelius.  His fights have been overall much easier than Gwen's...again, I stand by my "why the hell wasn't he the first PC?"  You'd miss out on nothing in the plot since the connections with Gwendolyn's chapters aren't anything that really gain much by seeing them in any particular order, and his fighting style is, again, more familiar, a lot more simplistic, and generally easier.

Typically best to start games off with the simplest thing and work your way to more awkward/advanced characters later on.  OS did a bad job in starting with Gwen, frankly, beyond MAYBE Cornelius having an awkward opening given where he starts.

[Talaysen]

Well, it's a good thing you guys exist so Gate doesn't have to form his own opinions.

This is common with the DL.  >.>

[Fudozukushi]

Soul Nomad: Did my whole "view any ending save".  Now to view any ending!

Lost Odyssey: Slow.  Immortals are awesome.

War3: The amount of which I kick ass in Blimp Tag and Fall cannot be measured in words.

[Sierra]

DMC3: So apparently I really suck at this. Oh well. Played through the first three missions.

[Grefter]

Plot...its not so much the characters and plot fail as much as the game likes to pretend they don't.  G3's cast and plot aren't much worse than your typical bland RPG in this regard.  Really, the cast/plot isn't so much different than, say, FF4's...the difference is, though, G3 pretends they don't fail, which just makes things seem worse in comparison.

Since when did FF4 not take itself super serious as well?  We were supposed to be emotionally touched by two little shits stupidly turning themselves to stone to stop some walls closing in on themselves.  This would be the people with enough magic to level a town and a half before resting.

Oh and like everything with regards to Kain and his (shocking!) repeated betrayals.  WOW NEVER SAW THAT ONE COMING!

FF4 is shit, but this has nothing to do with this rant.  Grandia 3 plot and characters are just downright offensive in their own right.  It isn't that they are cliche  and overwrought.  It is that they are just like this from word go to the end of the plot.  There is no development to anyone and they are all brain dead monkey fuck retarded.  From the very start Yuki is crashing every plane he gets his hands on because of excess jerking off of the gear stick and he is doing the same thign at the end of the game.  Alfina is preaching love and peace and unconditional love saving the world the entire time and it manages to fail every. single. time.  Emolicious is cutting constantly and listening to Super's Linkin Park covers.  No wait sorry they do try to justify this, by making him cut himself with a giant demon horn or some shit and having it crawl in his skin and never heeooooooooooooing.  The BDSM chick is constantly throwing herself at the loligoth male bishie villain and gets herself tentacle raped to death.  Raven the standard "HEY GAIZ I AM GOING TO ROLL UP AN ORIGINCAL CREATION (DARK) ELF THAT DUAL WIELDS CURVED SWORDS" crap just exists, there really isn't anything more you can say about that (I will give FF4 that, it doesn't have a plotless Drizz't clone running around.  Go it.)

Oh and both games have Zeromus, so I guess they share SOME shitty elements.

I will give FF4 its credit.  Edge is really fucking stupid.  Lets have royalty joing hte party (!) who will also be a NINJA (!!) and the LAST OF HIS TRIBE (!!!)  SUPAR ORINGAL  OH and he is liek a <i>total</i> ladies man.  But at least they are trying with something there.  He kicks the pants off Ulf.  Who is a Dragon rider.  Who flies around on a DRAGON.   And that his plot in entirety.  Suikoden 1 has generic dragon riders with more freaking plot than that.

Alfina is Love Jesus, which like I said, never fucking works.  Love Jesus and all her suicidal LSD trips that keep telling her to love the Cutter no matter what he does and everything will be happy super beautiful covered with sugar and cocks.  Which we have to watch in every single cutscene which all end up exactly the same.  Then you keep up that bullshit all the time while Love Jesus tries to use the Power Of Love to solve everything, you get to the very end of the game and Love Jesus uses the unlimited endless Powers Of Love to make a bridge and that is the most useful thing it does THE ENTIRE FUCKING GAME.  It puts masons out of a job.  Fucking AWESOME POWER THAT.  Then you proceed to just pummel Zeromus.  No Love Beam of Doom that projects from a phallic intestinal cannon even, not even some disgusting hooker boots or something like XS3.  Just a bridge.  A single bridge.  In the whole game.  Love Jesus' powers suck and that plot build up was just offensive to culminate in what is honestly not even that interesting a piece of architecture.  It doesn't even have any hand railings.  Love Jesus clearly doesn't love anything enough to consider their personal safety as they run accross the voids of eternity.

Dahna, what the fuck can I say about Dahna?  She is Plotless Drizz't fangirl.  Thankfully she never really does anything ever and ultimately has less plot than Dragon Rider Who Eats Things.

Fuck even Yuki doesn't get THAT big a showing outside of his aerial masturbation.  3/4 of the game is spent dwelling on Love Jesus and her immense fail.

[Meeplelard]

DMC3: So apparently I really suck at this. Oh well. Played through the first three missions.

Nah, you don't suck.  See, DMC3 takes the approach of "learn how to play the game by continually dying over and over again until you get things right!" which somehow works.  So yeah, expect to see Dante dying on a consistent basis, especially against bosses.

Just know that side rolling and back flipping and such are a god send.

And...Grefter...

FF4 is one of the first console games with actual consistent dialog between characters, and full scenes, etc.  No, Phantasy Stars like 4 scenes per games don't count.  It does take itself seriously, but considering the time the game was made, it was actually well done.  The problem is that people hype the game as STILL standing up to modern games, which you know, is stupid cause the game very clearly didn't age well, and the characters are nowhere near up to snuff of that of anything in Mid-late 16-bit era or later. 

So rather than take this massive irrational FF4 hate and going on a huge rant about it, you could at least think about where I'm coming from for once.  Grandia 3 tries to pretend its got more character worth than games of early SNES era like FF4, has this "big epic flashy scenes!", voice acting to make characters seem like they have actual characters, etc.  When in reality, they really aren't better than stuff we see on the SNES.  FF4 didn't pretend to be anything more than it really is; THAT'S the difference.  FF4 was what it was, and what it was just didn't stand the tests of time.  One of the appeals of the game was that it was good back in the day, but it aged poorly (compared to FF5 or FF6 which aged well, granted, both games were more unique and way more polished in gameplay, so that naturally has something to do with it), and some people just can't accept admitting one of their favorites with massive nostalgia just doesn't have what it takes to compare to later games.
Grandia 3 doesn't even have the excuse.  It pretends to have characters and plot depth on par with contemporary games like Star Ocean 3, Valkyrie Profile 2, what have you (basically reffering to games that came out in the past like 4 years or so, which granted is a large time span, but well, pretty sure SO3 predates G3, which means its a fair comparison anyway), when its clearly far below.  I'm not saying those games have OMG GODLY! plot or characters, but they're obviously a dramatic step above Grandia 3.

Now compare FF4 to other contemporary RPGs at the time, at least console ones.  Keep in mind the timeframe FF4 was made...it does stand out in that regard.  As I said, FF4's issue is that once taken out of its own time, the game has very little going for it.  I remember when I first played FF4 on my SNES years ago, I thought it was amazing, but now when I play it seems meh.  Standards shift over time; FF4 did live up to the evolving standards, which is where its issue lies.  The game doesn't pretend to be anything more than an early 16 Bit RPG; that's confusing it with the irrational fanboys who claim it does.  There's a fine line, really.

EDIT: I apologize for saying Grefter went on a huge rant about FF4, cause he didn't, so yeah, ignore that part <_<

[SageAcrin]

*Grefter rant on the reasons G3 sucks*

I agree with this plot rant 100%. I enjoyed Grandia 3's gameplay, enough to make an okay rating(It's not FFT, the gameplay isn't THAT good.), but it's plot was hands down the worst of any game I can recall, and yes, I agree that it's plot sucks notably worse than FF4's for all the reasons he said; In part because there's so damned much more of it so it's harder to ignore without just saying to hell with it and scene skipping, something I shouldn't have to do on a first playthrough.

And I can't really object to Ulf and Yuki just because, while they're trite and unoriginal and boring, there's just not much objectionable there(And Miranda's fine.). Everyone else has some massively emotionally overwrought, overacted, overly trite and OMG LUV POWA scene that they couldn't fob off on Power Rangers so they brought it to Grandia 3. And the problem is, the game really focuses on these scenes, it tends to have very little character building outside of inn scenes(Which have to have been done by a different writer.). No other Grandia game has tried to be as serious as this one, overall, and the results are horrific.

FF4's plot was not terribly excusable for the time compared to other, non-game media. Games just had(have, really, but it used to be worse) lower standards(Suckier, and hence cheaper, writers).

Disgaea:

Bla bla still removing faces with Flonne. Almost done with the main plot, so almost done with this. Wonder what to play next.

[superaielman]

I actually agree with Meep there. Oh, and Edge wasn't the last of his kind or anything, just a hothead who picked a fight well out of his league.

Soul Nomad: Up to the first town. Going to sit down and abuse the hell out of townies as soon as I get some time. Still fu.

[Tonfa]

Apollo Justice: Finished this during the weekend. Excellent as usual for PW games, the (mostly) new cast keeps the setting fresh. Probably tied with Trials and Tribulations for my favorite Ace Attorney game at the moment? All cases were in the upper half of PW cases overall I'd say. The cast is great all around, lack of spoiler tags sucks so I won't go into detailed ranting. Special nods to Klavier, and Payne's new hair.

EDIT:

FFXII Revenant Wings: Right, this exists. Vaguely pleasant which is more than I can say for other RTSes I've played (not a fan of the genre). It's just very average, though.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

SO3 - Okay, beaten! The endgame romp of Firewall to Spiral Tower was really fun. Firewall and the Tower make for two of the most beautiful dungeons I've ever seen, and they were largely unnanoying to romp through. Luther was a pretty fun fight (I had three resets against him, owns Indalecio in-game! <_< >_>), although he -does- die fast. But then, every single SO3 boss does. Final party was Maria/Nel/Peppita, since I just couldn't get over the broken of 300% Power Dances. Completely worth raising Peppita just for that.

Hmmm, not sure how I feel about the game. I certainly enjoyed it, but it had some questionable design decisions (navigation is kinda slow and awkward once your world becomes big, mainly. And BATTLE TROPHY MEMCARD SPACE WHY), and the pacing suffers a bit at times. However, whenever the game started annoying me in a sense, it ended up doing something to pique my interest again, like a baroquely beautiful dungeon or more fun fights. I'm fairly satisfied with it, and it hit the right spots most of the time. I guess it's good enough for a 8/10.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

If I recall, FF4 was one of those FF games that pretended to be some other thing that's not a video game. FF4 was a comic book, FF6 was an opera, FF7 was... some kind of gritty!!! urban dogshit, and FF8 was a love story/dogshit.

Yeah, you aim for comic books as your standard, you're going to get a lot of people dying and coming back to life. A lot.

[metroid composite]

SSBB...or rather not SSBB.  There was a pre-release launch tournament in San Francisco, which I went to, but since I hadn't been waiting for two hours in the rain I was too late to get into the tournament itself.  Now, there were eight screens dedicated to tournament play, but nobody was allowed to touch them, even though the tournament took nearly two hours to start after the doors opened.  There was one TV with smash outside of the tournament room, and such a massive crowd around it that, tall as I am, I still couldn't really see anything.  And given that I've been running around GDC all week, my feet are fairly sore so I didn't want to stand in line for half an hour.

Now, I met a good section of the tournament smash community in San Francisco about two years ago.  There's around 50 of them, maybe a few more that I didn't meet.  This was a 256 person tournament.  The result was that when I actually did see the tournament maches starting (and I had a decent view of these) it was of people pwning newbies.  And not in a super-graceful way or anything--people didn't expect to be forced to use the Classic controller, and aren't that used to the physics, but it was still very obvious that one of the two people playing had a good conception of intelligent positioning, and the other just sucked.  After watching one match of this, and balking at the 10 minute gap between matches (incidentally, the matches were on Battlefield only, but instead of doing the intelligent thing of turning off stage selection and making Battlefield the only option in the random select, they had to instruct each individual person to select Battlefield).  So...anyway, after watching two matches, I left and joined my TF2 clan's scrimmage (I told them I wouldn't be available, but oh well).

AW:DoR: Trial maps are still easy and boring.

FFT: So...I realized that I've never done a real serious poaching game.  Figured I'd start one, and for all I know I may not make it to Chapter 3, but >_>.  So anyway, the obvious weapons to poach for are...

Dragon Lance (start of Chapter 3)
Defender (start of Chapter 3)
Ivory Rod (start of Chapter 3) Whale Whisker (start of Chapter 4)
Stone Gun (start of Chapter 4--you can also poach a Mythril gun in Chapter 3, but it's just as easy to invite a Chemist in Goland Coal City).

And....erm....uhh....

So...the leftover weapons are Zorlin Shape (12 WP in Chapter 3...wait, storebought weapons can do that already).  Madlemgen (You know, I might poach it just for laughs, but I'm not going to have a Stick character AND a Dictionary character--one Oracle is good enough).  Fairy Harp (decent...for a Bard.  That's not exactly praise). H-Bag (Getting them 1.5 chapters early would be cool, but I use them all the time already.  Similarly, FS Bags...what would I do, make a Lancer who wants to have the Dragon Lance anyway?)  Ultimus Bow (only poachable in Chapter 4...at a time when it really ought to be storebought).  Scorpion Tail (Only Chapter 4, and do I really want a Flail character?)  Ryozan Silk (only poachable in Chapter 4.  Only a so-so weapon for Chapter 4).

In the end I decided I didn't want Chapter 4 only stuff, since the character would be so boring for so long, which left it between Zorlin Shape and Fairy Harp.  I picked Zorlin Shape, largely because I'd need some investment in Thief anyway.  I realized afterwards that this was a good decision--12 WP Ninja weapon that adds sleep is actually very badass in Chapter 3.

So now to decide classes...

Spear - Lancer
Stick - Oracle (Ramza--I'm trying to minimize females so that perfumes don't break the game in half)
Knight Sword - Agrias (This came down to, what else are you going to use that Knight Sword for?  Jump?  Dragon Whisker has more WP than Defender, and is a Lance.  She's female, but I can't help that).
Gun - Chemist/Mediator
Knife - Thief/ Ninja

Recruited three males with high brave and low faith (it's not like Oracle has support magic).  First new experience was when I got into a random when my party consisted of two Crossbow archers, one male priest with 41 faith 17 MP, and no staff, and a Chemist Ramza...and the monsters included two Chocobos.  Fortunately the Archers were able to carry my team--as much as people bash early crossbows, 15 damage range 4 is actually pretty cool this early in the game.  The priest, on the other hand...was bad compatibility with BOTH Chocobos, who were in the 45-46 faith range themselves.  Black Magic was dealing 7 damage!  Stop and think about that for a minute--that is pretty much the lowest damage black magic can ever deal to a Chocobo from a mage class (barring faith modification).  Had either chocobo not been bad compatibility, or had either Chocobo had a mere 47 faith, they would have taken more than 7 damage.  The hillarious part is that this 7 damage was instrumental in finishing off each Chocobo in one turn, too....

So next Mr. Knife and Mr. Spear move on to Thief.  Thief's actually decent right now, which is to say 4 move 4 jump and 20 damage (same damage as Squire).  Mr. Gun moved back to Chemist (5 JP away from unlocking Oracle), and Ramza (Stick) switched to Priest with Black Magic.  This has actually been more than powerful enough for Chapter 1--I killed all the other enemies in Dorter at about the same time as Delita and Algus finally killed the Archer (incompetent losers) and my equipment was still a bit behind (only a few Battle Boots, only a couple of people with Feather Hats).

Ramza has moved on to Oracle and...not learned Paralyze.  Seriously?  10 MP?  Ewwww.  I can't see myself using that over Bolt any time soon.  I'll save up for Silence Song I guess.  The drop in MP from Priest to Oracle was also unwelcome--had Ramza not been the highest level of the party, he'd be stuck with three black magics instead of four.  Geez, I had forgotten how much Oracles suck at earlygame.  At least they'll have Thunder Rod soon....