What games are you playing 2014?

[Cmdr_King]

Disgaea D2: Beat.  Unlike most Disgaea games, I played this the way N1 intended: apprenticed FLonne to a series of mages, manipulated enemies using pawns, and had her kill everything.  Aside from the final boss (where I did break for an hour to get money for an endgame staff), this runthrough involved way, WAY less time grinding and frustration than any other Disgaea game.  I am not terribly surprised by this.

(In absolute fairness, DD2 Flonne's ability is "If any allied unit is healed to full, gain 10% stat buff.  Permanent, stackable."  So basically in any scenario where Flonne is not killed in a single turn she wins, so her murdering her way through the game alone is much easier to set up than for any other character.)

Aside from Flonne, Harbinger of Love Death giving me a lot of undue amusement the game was pretty underwhelming though.  Etna in particular was really bad in this, and the story is holy shit incoherent.  The game has three 'story' characters after the Trio and only one ever, EVER matters (Sicily obviously), making this the smallest primary Disgaea cast in a series more or less defined by funny interactions between characters and their comments on the absudity of the plot... which as noted previously is incoherent.  No mistake, it's still pretty funny with good character moments, just not as many as I expect, especially after Disgaea 4 did such a great job with its ensemble.  Fun and breezy, but in  a lot of ways the worst Disgaea game.  7/10.

[Meeplelard]

Tales of Graces f: Finished main game; guess I'll do a write up after I finish F Arc because it sounds like it has actual plot, development, etc. that may adjust some of my opinions or something.  Personally, I blame this entirely on the person who posts directly after me!

[Cmdr_King]

It was Meeeeeeeeee

[Fenrir]

El Cid: In a certain context in Dark Souls 1, your character will roll in the direction that's related to her, not the player. Say she's facing left, if you roll pushing the analog movement stick down, she'll roll to the right of the screen and not towards the camera, tank-control style.
I don't remember when this happens but could probably predict it (unconscious memory) Maybe this was after blocking? If so then I actually can't praise Dark Souls 2 for this since I haven't used a shield.

Also you can get those both of these treasures by going on that ledge near the sorceress then:
For the first treasure: Jumping. As you might have noticed, easier said that done
For the second: Walking veeeeeeeeery slowly, falling on that wooden plank below, then falling down some more.

I think I have my two weapons: Rapier + Double Jack Sparrow's scimitar . Unless I get a bunch of rare ores that's it.

Edit: I like this new boss that basically exists as a big counter to the "Walk around him then stab in the back" strategy!
Edit 2: Couldn't beat it but PROTECTING THE BELL = AWESOME

[Fenrir]

Sorry Cid. Totally ahead of you
I'm already dual wielding +9 whips, and incidentally didn't make any kind of real progress whatsoever.
They're still pretty bad but way better than in Dark Souls 1. They lost the shield bypassing property! You can actually win duels with them and it's so cool.

I saw lots of invaders with really cool magic/pyromancy/miracles. Need to try all those classes later.

[AndrewRogue]

Man. You guys are getting too far ahead. =(

[Fudozukushi]

And I have to start over from square one.

[Sierra]

You have no idea, Andy. I was snowed out of work today and spent my time as productively as you might imagine.

Fenrir: dunno which whips you've got, but the Old Whip actually looks pretty excellent. I've only got it +1 and it gets better numbers than the rapier (+9!) that I've had as back-up weapon all game. It's really the moveset that sells whips, though--the reach is outstanding on mine, it can sweep multiple enemies at safe range, and I now use it to deal with all the fragile-yet-lethal shit I'd rather not let close in ('splosion zombies, curse rats, toxic waste jars, etcetera). I've been thinking of making a poison whip for PVP. The major downside of them, though, is actually that whips are notably more fragile than like every other class of weapon. I've had mine almost break several times just today from relatively little use.

Better collection of bosses today, they definitely shake things up as you get later in the game (the 1-on-1 vs human-sized dude matches were actually the ones I found most disappointing). Theme of the lot split between claustrophobia and swarrrrm (sometimes working together).

-Doors of Pharros first. Rat Authority smaaaash. I liked this fight, had to resort to combined arms strategy to get through. Like most Souls boss fights with multiple targets, 90% of the trouble is just clearing out the goon squad. The winning formula turned out to be: snipe one with bow; toss Flame Swirly Swathe to nuke two more on approach; rapier stab the fourth (club slam leaves me too exposed to the boss). They absolutely all have to go before I can deal with the (incredibly hard-hitting) leader, because one clean hit from any of them inflicts toxic and that's just death. First time I try this out it looks like it's working pretty well, boss is at 15% health man let's just keep chugging away and he'll be down soon enough. Wait what's he doing what's that chartreuse spew pouring out of his mouth ohmygod--*Cid dies from radioactive barf at the exact same time he kills the boss* Unfortunately, such situations no longer count as a win. Had to come back and shoot him to death once he reached barfing phase. This fight was one of those few times the OST being an atonally menacing mush actually worked in the game's favor (there are times for atonal noise).

And oh man I was totally wrong about pyromancy being useless for me. I'm confused, the in-game stat description says INT/Faith contribute to fire damage, but I've got middling single digits for both and Flame Swathe still puts out sometimes over a thousand damage per shot (granted, I only get two). Practically speaking, its importance for me is less the raw damage (leaping R2s get me that much against some targets) and more its room-clearing capacity.

-Although it doesn't always work out perfectly. *Cid walks into cultist congregation, looks all smug tossing baby nukes that wipe two-thirds of the boss health meter. Watches surviving goons heal him back to full. D'oh.*

-Aesir spider was a no-damage victory. (After I died three or four times.) The first couple tries I kept seeing new spiders spawn at like half boss health, thought it was a scripted HP trigger but it didn't happen the time I won (maybe those guys just hang out on the far side of the room). Again, tossing nukes was the only way to be sure, boss is easy when it's on its own (still a pretty cool fight, though).

-Black Gulch is just the worst place you guys. Yes it's even worse than the Gutter. Even running full-bore to the boss gate is problematic with all that shit going on (my brother informs me there's a second bonfire rather belatedly, alas). Died almost immediately to the boss simply by backstepping into flaming environmental hazards. That's not the last time that happens today (not by far but not even in a boss fight).

-Back to the Iron Keep to finish up there after that. Apparently that opening bridge is like the PVP zone right now, red signs and dragon eyes gooddamn everywhere man. Unrelated news, Smelter Demon is still a douche. Had one death against the balrog, though he didn't really have anything to do with it himself--I sidestepped into the lava literally the first second of the fight. Whups, who put a hole there? Weird boss, feels more like he belongs in one of those awkward 3-D Castlevanias than as one of the big four goons you're tasked with murdering in a Souls game.

-Belfry Luna! I'd been putting this off for a while. Ultimately I decided to make the run online after all because man, I've killed plenty of people in PVP there myself, it's only fair I give someone a shot at me (they got two, of course, and the second time someone Fireballed me in the back as I was stepping through the boss gate). Boss fight itself went down on the first try. I can't brag because I went in at level 120 with 40 strength and a +10 weapon. I killed each of them in two hits. Still pretty damn satisfying, though! Would love to jump in as a summon for some people but, you know. It's the Belfry.

-Lost Sinner bites it last. Even overleveled with the room lit up and with the NPC phantom present to distract him, this fight just wrecks me. In the end it comes down to flying leap across the room at like 20% health because why not, every time I try to heal he stabs me in the face.

And with all of the old ones defeated, the world's titanite shard shortage is mysteriously solved and now I can go totally nuts with upgrading [regular] weapons. Well, up to +6 at least. Too bad what I really want at this point is twinkling titanite!

Oh and Grave of the Saints was in there somewhere too. Boss fight was just, man I'm gonna keep hitting people until something happens, so I did and eventually something happened. ...Chariot, too! That was pretty cool. Executioner gives no fucks about his friends. This is one of those fights that made me so glad for having dumped so many levels on HP, so many near-death incidents before I could make it to the necromancers.

So apparently there's plot stuff to handle now but who cares I've got looting and upgrading to do, the world can wait. After exhaustive mental catalogue of things I haven't been able to collect and extensive revisiting of those things, this is what I know is left and can't be bothered to try anymore to get:

-The tree in Najka's room.

-The corpse on the Brightstone Cove wall doorway that has no ledge for you to land on. Also whatever's in the house by the well (jump into the well, I guess?)

-The mushroom loot in the cave under the second bonfire of Huntsman's Copse. Need Jumping.

-The body on that tiny ledge over the 'splosion zombie room at the bottom of the pit. Arrrrgh.

-Magma chests in the Iron Keep*. Even with the fire resist ring and Flash Sweat up, I can only survive long enough to make it to the chests. If these were items on corpses, I'd just grab them and die, but no, I have to be able to survive long enough for the entire chest-opening animation to play out. Ack. Short of taking time to identify and upgrade the most fire-resistant armor set in the game, doubt I am ever getting these two (maybe it would help if my only upgraded armor set was something other than the harem outfit).

(*While I'm passing through Smelter Demon's room to get to one of these spots, Pursuer spawns out of nowhere and drops a cool ring when killed. Nice, makes me wonder if I should ever check back in on other old boss rooms.)

Oh yeah, I probably died 20-30 times trying to nail the platforming required to get that magma island item at the start of the Iron Keep. And I had to fiddle with my equipment extensively just to make sure I could survive long enough on magma islands to make those couple jumps without burning to death! Dark Souls platforming, man, you have to chain jumps here or die. And what is the reward for this entire ordeal? It is a Bonfire Ascetic--an item whose sole effect is to turn your NG into NG+ because you're just that hardcore, right? Dark Trolls!

[Fenrir]

I'm using the only two whips I have, regular whip + notched whip.

The notched whip has bleed damage, which is pretty cool but worthless in PVP. (Pretty sure a poison whip would be the same? Players automatically panic and hide behind a shield + backpedal until the poison . But I'm no pro)
 
I can't change it with the blacksmith (Speaking of which, the upgrade system is so much better) Maybe i should go with two +9 whips, maybe one with elemental damage or something (This does a lot to annoy players hiding behind a shield)

[Sierra]

Old Whip is pro, trade enough rocks to birdbrains and hope for the best.

Yeah, I tried out the poison knife you get from Earthen Peak boss's soul and despite a lot of hits could not tell whether the poison ever triggered on the other player or not. And I took way too many hits myself trying, so shelved that approach.

The upgrade system is so much better. Much as the scarcity of upgrade materials annoys me early in the game, at least everything's so much simpler now. No more tracking a whole mess of upgrade trees, everything uses the same basic type and if you want extra effects or elements you toss one rock on it to alter the weapon's traits and you're done.

I was thinking about this at work today (huge shock) and I really like some of the things they did with online play. Something that wasn't immediately obvious until spending a decent chunk of time in DS2 phantom mode, but compared to DS1: in DS1, if you assist someone as a phantom, you respawn in your world afterwards with all your estus flasks and spell charges restored whether the host succeeds or dies; in DS2, this happens only if the host successfully achieves their goal, and if the host dies everything you spent as a summon remains spent (this basically holds true if you die as well, and in either event you respawn at wherever you left off instead of the nearest bonfire; I also approve of this).

The upshot of this is that you have a subtle incentive to make sure that they do in fact succeed (if helping people/having fun/bunch o' souls wasn't reward enough). Moreover, the effect of allies on enemy durability is so dramatically iincreased in DS2 (it barely mattered in DS1) that sometimes summoning people at all can be kind of a gamble. You can really screw yourself over if you go in with a gang that can't hack it. With a full gang of three PCs, overall boss durability seems to be something like doubled. Sure, you still basically have a numerical advantage that should make things easier, but the game's not about to recalculate boss defenses mid-battle if someone dies. This means that if a phantom dies right out of the gate, they have made the fight substantially more difficult for the host without providing them any benefit at all. So the game is basically punishing you for failure, but they are punishing you for failing someone else. This makes me smile. Also the successful co-op completion award item is a consumable item that heals your host while you're a phantom. They really wanted to push proper teamwork here.

Also, since there's really no mandated linear progression through areas, you can generally bet on finding a wide range of levels (and therefore co-op/PVP partners) in a broad variety of zones at any time. PVP is better without invader healing, no more douchebag runs away and chows down on humanity for full health. Allied phantom healing also locked out during invasion to balance this out. Fight to the death or go home!

And this far into the game it is really starting to tell how they overhauled the stats. A lot of them taper to giving modest but still useful rewards after 20 or so; STR/DEX look to still plummet for bonuses after 40. This is fine, even though it does delineate kind of a clear upper ceiling on physical stats for people who aren't shooting for frue tanking. I'm not sure where the carry weight borders are for movement, but they're definitely broader than they used to be--maybe there aren't any and it's all gradient, I dunno, but I seem to move the same speed naked and approaching 50% burden. Also, elemental weapons all scale with magic stats now, so they don't get to be the default option for people looking to invest a minimum into STR/DEX and just dump everything else on HP. Poise is also far less significant.

I am happy with changes that mean I don't see another entire game full of lightning katanas and giant dads.

So yeah, just to note in light of earlier bitching there is a lot of design stuff that works much better here (though the HP in hollow form thing still annoys me just for that sense of not being able to run at maximum capacity, much in the manner of irritation at being stuck behind a slow driver on the highway rather than being a gamebreaker. At least that damn ring only takes up 1/4 of your slots this time instead of 1/2.)

[Fenrir]

Dark Souls 2: I have one more primordial soul as Fudo continues his despair into madness. Fire Keep was great fun. Boss felt easy but I still died like 6 times. Similar to Iron Golem in that he telegraphs all his moves very obviously but one mistake = Probable death.

Anyway Yattaf looks like this.



Yeah it's a mess but I love it. Dual whips!

I've done way too much bell PVP today and a few people sent me messages about how cool the build was.

I'm actually going with dual whips most of the time, but if I'm up against a jerk I switch to a rapier + fire sword which work extremely well in PvP. So far. Against low poise opponents. Run + L1 -> Extremely quickl slash, then you can combo that into Slash-slash-slash for huge damage.

Faces have been improved in Dark Souls 2, Yattaf is now total waifu material.




Also here is what she looks like with the armor you get for doing insane amounts of PvP for three days. Please note that the whole set I showed above is just found in the open and that this one is ultra-super-rare and 1% of all players will get it.

Behold.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I dig cowgirl Yattaf.

[Captain K.]

BD:  Hey, Chapter 7, I can finally get the last job.  Oh.  No I can't.  Guess I should turn random encounters back on and grind a bit.

DS2:  Found a boss!  Probably easier than any DS1 boss but I still died once because I'm naked and rolled into a wall.

Still rocking the deprived look, except I now wear a monacle for extra item-findys and a Caestus because, yeah, bare fist damage.

[Sierra]

DS2: Dragging the Lake formally in progress. This place is great. It's dark and eerily silent, but that describes a lot of places in Dark Souls, right? But there's just enough life in the castle to suggest someone vacant leaving a light on to ward off prowlers. Neat inversion of Anor Londo. And that was...certainly not what I was expecting to encounter on the top floor. Spoiler mode for one particular thing: Given portrait of ruin on the lower floor, I strongly considered shooting the queen in the face. I did not. Someone else will have to be more adventurous than me!

Lady says go see the king, I figure he'll be in the next room, but alas. Instead, hey Cid, remember that boss you mocked as being total crap like thirty hours ago, how about fighting two of him at once? I died once because surprise, did not spot the sniper version upstairs. Once again Flame Swirly saves the day. Jesus you guys this spell is nuts, obliterated two-thirds of his health bar in one shot (+9 pyro hand, +10 by the end of the day! Still nutty).

Game dumped like three titanite slabs on me today. This is crazy. I have maxed out large club, Ricard's rapier, shortbow, 50% of scandalacious attire. And I've still got one more in storage! (Nothing to use it on because no titanite chunks. What is your deal, game.) Shield/whip still need work because twinkling titanite, where do you find it.

Wait a minute, the fast travel screen now shows an (inaccessible) list of all future bonfires in all future zones of the game (and missed past ones, hi Black Gulch). That...that wasn't always there, was it?

I forgot to mention, dual-wielding Avelyn phantom = just the best thing.

[Meeplelard]

FF10 HD: Started, on Expert Sphere Grid because seriously, if I wanted to just replay FF10, I'd have replayed FF10 normally on the PS2!

This playthrough I'm going to make note of certain plot details that people often complain about.  Like the infamous "Tidus whines!" claim.

So far, Tidus' whining is mostly to himself or at completely justified instances (like...everything in Baaj Temple), and some of it is even kind of ironic style (monster comes out of nowhere right as his fire dies down, his reaction is "Oh COME ON!")  It's notable that he doesn't whine at all when something is actually show a glimmer of hope.  2 obviouse examples are:

Rikku starts talking English, his composure changes entirely.  Before that? "I can't understand you!"  Then Rikku explains it and his reaction is basically "oh, fair enough, beats the alternative!"

Meeting Wakka in general; even when Wakka basically spells out that Tidus is SOL, Tidus takes it pretty well. 

Now for something else!
The thing people tend to ignore?  Tidus takes the attack on Zanarkand pretty well.  He doesn't panic as much as you'd think, keeps a relatively level head despite the GIANT WHALE DESTROYING EVERYTHING IN TOWN, what have you.  Yeah, Auron's presence and relative calmness I'm sure helps, but even then, just keeping anything regarding composure in an extreme situation like that deserves props.

Also, never clicked for me before, but Tidus saying "What are you laughing at?" at the Jecht Billboard is a nice little stroke of foreshadowing (for lack of a better term.) 


Keep notes on things otherwise from here!  No, don't know what I'll notice that I haven't noticed already; this is functionally like my 5th play-through of the game or something, but still!  If someone has a request for stuff to look out for this playthrough that they're curious about (in plot), I'll try to keep that in mind too!

[Dark Holy Elf]

Xenogears: In which the party visits Zeal Shevat.


Hour 28: Actually some of Babel Tower happened in the previous chapter. I will talk about the platforming here because it is so rightfully infamous. First of all: the one really good thing is that the randoms are fixed, so at least you don't waste time with them when you fall (and also, more importantly, it avoids the problem where randoms kick in and interrupt your jumps, which is pretty much the worst thing about Xenogears gameplay and that's not a criticism I make lightly). But yeah still it's quite annoying. There's a tricky platforming puzzle in the first room, especially if you want a treasure chest (which to be fair is optional), and I can deal with that, but what I can't so easily deal with is this stupid swing rope you need to pass every single time you botch the jump and generally colossally wastes your time. Don't do this, video games, especially not to punish the player for making an error on something as mediocre and non-core gameplay as Xenogears platforming.

Moment of awesome, though: I totally perfect the second half of the platforming (jumping on various platforms for the final climb) which saves a lot of wasted time, at least!

As far as plot goes here, well, Ramsus attacks again! Interesting that he knew we were here (the party acknowledges that this is weird, so it's not just a plot hole)... Hammer? Anyway, Ramsus is all going to blow us up (after getting destroyed in a boss fight again since that's what happens to Ramsus) with his big ship's main gun but the party is saved by Shevat. There's another scene with the Gazel Ministry where they express disgust at Ramsus's failure and alarm at the party reaching Shevat, but don't worry, they have another evil plot that will take care of Shevat, oh yes they do~

Finally, at the top of the tower, we meet Maria. There's a boss fight against her which she later reveals is just her "testing" us. Oh RPGs. Then she, and someone called Queen Zephyr, invite the party up to Shevat.

On Shevat, before being able to explore the city, there's an optional scene with Maria which is actually quite touching, where she talks about her father who helped her escape Solaris even though it meant his own capture, how scared she is that now as the years go by she finds herself forgetting him as the years go by, and how she is motivated to save him as he saved her, now. Perhaps it's a bit silly that she would blather to some strangers about this, but I dunno, it worked. I am already officially more sold on this PC than Rico, let's all be impressed.


Hour 29: Shevat's big. I'd kinda forgotten how much. Not so much in raw size, but there are a lot of people to talk to, and most of them like to talk a lot. There's a fair bit of setting work here; some of it is specific to Shevat, but a lot also connects back to the war 500 years ago, which Shevat participated in and remembers well. Lots of significant setting details come out at this point, including:
-The war 500 years ago was between Solaris and Shevat, with Shevat allied with the land-dwellers (which they themselves were at the time) and Solaris playing the same douchey role they still do. (One nice touch is that Elly has a few responses to the slagging of Shevat, though doesn't really know how to feel obviously.)
-Some of the heroes on the Shevat side include their now immortal queen, Zephyr, as well as Bart's ancestor Roni Fatima (already mentioned), and three wise immortals called the Sages, who still live. The names Sophia and Lacan are also dropped at this point.
-Solaris is ruled by the Gazel (I think this is the first time the party formally learns about the council we've been seeing a bunch), 12 immortal jackasses, and by Krelian. Cain isn't mentioned at all, somewhat strangely.
-Krelian was a land-dweller who learned molecular engineering from one of the Sages, but after the war went to serve Solaris for unknown reasons. He was responsible for creating a "limiter" (what this is isn't clear, probably some sort of biological agent since Solaris wouldn't have been able to manually capture every one of their enemies obviously) which destroyed humans' memories of Solaris (hence why they're a big secret now) and also somehow limits their potential in some way though this is hazy and probably mostly a gameplay nod (hyper deathblows!).
-There are 12 "Anima relics" (previously mentioned by the Gazel) which can turn Gears in badass Omnigears. Solaris has some, Shevat has some; one is known to be Roni Fatima's gear, the treasure which Shakhan is desperately seeking.
-The Shevat/Solaris conflict ended with the appearance of a third party which people are pretty vague about: the "Diabolos". The heroes were able to fight those off, but they destroyed most of the world's population in the process, and afterwards Solaris licked their wounds and returned to the role they currently hold. I actually don't remember the specifics here... were "they" just Grahf?

There is also some Shevat-specific stuff, for instance that many of their citizens have been rescued from the surface (including, of course, the Lahan villagers, although at this point you don't run into any? Kinda strange but not unreasonable that you don't explore everything or have time to meet them), and their methods of growing food and dealing with limited resources. We also meet lots of Chu-Chus. Apparenty this is where they are from. Frightening. (It'll get more frightening later.)

We also meet two old friends here: Yui, who confirms her role in rescuing the Lahan villagers, and Wiseman, who is now confirmed as an agent of Shevat, watching the activities of "that man". And we meet Queen Zephyr, 522 years old, made immortal along with a few other Shevites to "atone" for the tragedy of 500 years ago, though she pointedly refuses to talk further about it.

Another scene with Maria, mostly expanding on the previous one, in which she reveals her frustration at not being allowed to go and kick Solarian ass and rescue her father. She has huge confidence in her gear Seibzehn (I see its stats before the hour is up; her feelings are justified) and is frustrated that others stop her, even if she kinda understands why.

Finally, there's a visit to one rather creepy place in the otherwise largely utopian Shevat: its old prison. It hasn't been used in years, but from the NPCs there you can gather it was once used in very nasty ways, so perhaps Shevat hasn't always been so nice. One blames it on war simply making everybody bad. Finally, one cryptic NPC, apparently one of the few alive since 500 years ago, talks of a woman who broke a man free of prison here, and how that man went on to cause the calamity of 500 years past. A savvy player could figure out that he is referring to Miang and Grahf; this will of course be confirmed later.

Interesting stuff! The game is definitely on the move now.


Hour 30: By contrast, this one's all gameplay more or less. An invasion in the lower levels of Shevat by a spy is detected, and the party is recruited to go find out what's going on. With Maria in tow, they head down to the gear hangar. The main elevator is out (that would be too easy), so instead we get the winding route throw the maintenance shaft. This dungeon is actually surprisingly longer than I remembered. The enemies are pretty defensively gimmicky which gives Maria's Controls a chance to shine (too bad about her speed), but otherwise not too much to say; it's XG gameplay and is boring. At least there's no platforming?


Hour 31: Reaching the gear hangar, the party meets the intruder, who turns out to be Dominia. Before making her escape, Dominia decides to taunt Maria about her gear, Seibzehn, revealing that its control circuit was made using countless sacrifices, both figurative (results of Kislev battle arena testing) and literal (humans turned into reapers) as it was supposed to be a better kind of sentient mech or something. Maria understandably freaks out, saying her dad would never do that, but Dominia insists. Jessie shows up and says some misogynistic things to Myuria because this character seems to enjoy pissing me off. She retreats, noting that her work is done; thanks to her efforts damaging the Shevat gate, Solarian forces will soon be invading.

Jessie also reveals that Shevat has gone and picked up the Yggdrasil. Well! If you guys had done that earlier I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO CLIMB THAT STUPID TOWER ahem. I guess it's plausible that they would only do so now that we've sought them out and have offered to assist them, though. But still!

Anyway, a battle sequence follows in which Shevat is defended by various solo PC gears against the Solarian army. Some of these fights are actually a bit tricky, in no small part because I just upgraded my gears after Alkanshel and now there are more upgrades, some of which I can't afford. Unfortunately at this point, Achtzehn shows up, apparently pilotted by Maria's dad Nikolai, who has become quite the baby-eater. He jams the engines of all the gears so all the regular PCs are useless. Not Maria though! But Maria can't bring herself to fight her father, and is still filled with doubt from Dominia's words to boot. So it's Chu-Chu to the rescue.

I'll just leave you all with a collection of Chu-Chu quotes, since I really can't do this part justice otherwise:

"Chu-Chu's not a good girl. I'm in that dangerous age right now."
"I'm not a low level animal. I'm Chu-Chu."
"Well, let's get ready chu rumble you bad boy! Get your butt ready chu be kicked across the other end of the horizon!"
"I did it! I did the big big churansformation!"

Anyway yeah, Chu-Chu beats down big bad Achtzehn despite all his plot hype (and Chu-Chu's subsequent complete in-game worthlessness). Still, Achtzehn gains the upper hand in the cutscene after the fight, revealing that Chu-Chus are native to this planet (unlike humans, as per Balthasar's comments early in the game) and that they were supposed to have Limiters implanted to prevent them from going all giant, but Chu-Chu is apparently special or something.

Midori, meanwhile, shows up, and cryptically tells Maria that her father isn't calling from Achtzehn, but from somewhere else. Maria infers that she means Seibzehn, and rushes to pilot it, being drawn into battle with her apparent father. Achtzehn!Nikolai tries to convince Maria to come to his side, spouting supervillainy even as he assures Maria he will protect her from the calamity to come and that that they can live together in perfect harmony even if he no longer has a body since he is a perfect being fused with a gear. Maria, fortunately, isn't fooled, and neither is her gear, which moves to fight Achtzehn.

As the fight continues, suddenly, Nikolai begins really talking. It's a nice touch; the game hasn't used a portrait for his lines up until now, but suddenly it does, making it clear this is the "real" Nikolai. He reveals that the real him is long gone, brainwashed by Solaris, but that he implanted this message in Achtzehn which would kick in in Seibzehn's presence. He says a fond farewell to his daughter, even as he takes control of Seibzehn and forces it to use a special secret weapon to destroy Achtzehn. Maria is understandably distraught, but the voice of her father assures her that he will always be by her side, as Seibzehn. D'awww.

EDIT: Also there is an implied Chu-Chu orgy. Argh.

The crisis averted, Queen Zephyr gathers the party and gives them some grave news: Shakhan has invaded Nisan. Guess that's our next destination!

Up next: Cleaning up the hanging plot threads from the first sixth of the game. Also lots of baldness jokes.

[Fudozukushi]

Dark Souls 2: I have one more primordial soul as Fudo continues his despair into madness.

I'll have you know the PS3 is fixed now and I started a Deprived with the goal of dual-wielding Caestus.  Awwww yeah.  After pumping inordinate amounts of levels into Adaptability and getting my Agility to 100 I can roll good again!  Also I think the natrual poise straight out lies because I was actually Poising through Forest enemies a few times which shouldn't happen with 1.8 Poise ever.

Last Giant down, Effortless rash down.  Gonna go grab a secret weapon in NMW before attempting Pursuer solos.

Day 8+1 Hour: 59 Million deaths.

[AndrewRogue]

Dark Souls 2: Found Huntsmen's Copse. Spent a little while trying to cross a bridge, only to have my face wrecked by dudes with... axes? I don't know, but enemies should not swing that fast. Went a different way and found a boss. Skeleton Lords was... not what I expected and almost went really badly really quickly. Thankfully I persevered.

Still no Ultra Greatsword =(

[Cotigo]

Anyway yeah, Chu-Chu beats down big bad Achtzehn despite all his plot hype (and Chu-Chu's subsequent complete in-game worthlessness).

Fun fact! The first time I played the game (and the only time I had the patience to beat it), this battle, combined with Chu-Chu being the only Gear-character who could heal without using fuel, combined with a complete inability to manage fuel use, lead to me thinking Chu-Chu was a worthy PC in the endgame.

I also didn't learn many deathblows after Kislev or so, because I didn't realize how I was supposed to build them up.

You can extrapolate how difficult everything... basically past disc 2 was for me.

[Grefter]

Xenogears: In which the party visits Zeal Shevat.

I know you are kind of joking around here, but the clear Chrono Trigger link here has always kind of bugged me.  I can't tell if they decide to make such a majour section of the plot a cute reference to Chrono Trigger just because or is there some broader myth here that I am missing the reference too constantly?  I know obviously that the three Wisemen are reference to the three Kings/Magi, but why tie them to a kingdom in the sky ruled by a Queen?  Is it just a literal nod to the kingdom of heaven not conflated with anything else?  Why is it always a Queen?  It feels like there should be more to it and I am just ignorant, but I have no idea what it is.  Because if you take it at face value for CT I suppose you could see Lavos as like the object of worship (which then turns out to be false), but I don't see anything that really translates here.  They don't have a link to Deus.  Fei plot stuff is all after their time, they didn't really put any faith in him and have it fail (which is a pattern repeating from CT).

I just don't get tying a reference in so closely to the plot and that could just be lost on me.

As for Shevat referencing Gazel Ministry and not Cain at all, I assume CK has a better explanation for it, but I had always interpreted it as Shevat being far more of the way Solaris is actually running than the majority of Solaris itself does as outsiders.  They deal with the outcomes of Gazel made choices, nothing seems to be ordered or directed by Cain himself, just in his name.

Another possibility is that to outsiders Cain just might not even be a thing that outsiders know about if Solaris are really good at housekeeping.  I forget if anyone has made reference to Kain outside of cutscenes either yet?

[Sierra]

Still no Ultra Greatsword =(

You're on the right dungeon chain to find zweihander, at least. Only have to hack through two and half more to reach it! (There's an enemy somewhere else that actually drops it, but that's kind of on the other side of the world.) I could've sworn there was a lootable generic Greatsword in No Man's Wharf too (giant fuck-off Cloud buster sword basically).

[Meeplelard]

Tthe Zeal/Shevat similarities could be because Shevat was intended to be ZEAL originally.  Xenogears was allegedly intended to be Chrono Trigger's original sequel, but mid development, they changed the game into something new (and subsequently, all blatant references sans Tutorial Lucca were removed, aka had their names changed), sort of like how DMC1 was going to be the original RE4, which explains why there are so many things that seem to point out to CT.

EDIT: Researching, seems the scenario may have been along the lines of two different projects entirely, just XG used a lot of the assets they held onto after CT2 was cancelled, probably as a cost and time saving measure.  So XG wasn't originally intended to be CT2, but did indirectly spawn from it, if that makes sense.

Hard to say, but XG does have some link to a Chrono Trigger sequel, be it originally intended to be one and turned into an original project, or just sort of piggy-backed onto the assets of a non-created game, or what.  Either way, combined with the team who worked on XG has a lot of the same guys who worked on CT, it explains the similarities between the two games.

[dude789]

Dark Souls 2: Did some sunbroing in Belfry Luna because the boss there is really fun and I get some bonus souls when I get invaded. People are still trying to figure out the ideal builds, and my typical waiting to be summoned spot puts me in a position to blast them with a Great Soul Arrow before they get their bearings so I actually win most of the time! Also, I discovered that the shield I had been using was pretty shit so I upgraded to one with more stability and the effect was almost instantly noticeable. Probably going to do either Iron Keep or Blightown 2 next. I haven't really decided.

[Niu]

Meep, there is more to the story.
Kingdom of Zeal is an idea conjured purely by the CC writer himself. The original draft of CT has no Zeal at all and Magus was suppose to be the one that's behind most of the stuff, until the CC writer was inserted into the project, where he inserts Zeal into it.
When the idea of doing something more to CT came up, XG was also proposed. In the end, XG was the project that Square wants to go with. The CC writer was also  assigned to the project, because, well, Takahashi really needs to insert his lengthy and messy plot into the game.
But I never once thought that was a good idea. I mean, CC writer of all people.

BTW, even to this day. The CC writer still did not recognize what did wrong in CC and is still disillusioned in his own ego on what Chrono series should be.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I can't even imagine CT's plot without Zeal; not only is it one of the best and IMO most fundamental parts of the game's story, but it serves as crucial development for Magus, the game's best-written character. Guess the CC writer was good for something!