Games You're Playing Right Now III: Return Of The Protagonist

[Reddyne]

Might start a game of Dragon Age: Origins soon after possessing it for nearly 2 years and playing the opening part twice, then quitting after becoming daunted over the scale of things. Do any vets have any recommendations as to what party to choose and how to build them and the PC? I'm not so interested in min/maxing as I am making the game as fun as possible. I'm thinking more along the lines of the characters that are the most interesting and entertaining as party members and a PC build that is the most fun to play as without the party getting its butt kicked.

Meanwhile, Batman: Arkham City. Oh man, you guys, this game. So cool. The villains are great. There's plenty of sidequests and places to explore and things to find and challenges to do and and and the Riddler is so DEVIOUS and he has such a cosplayable outfit oh man so excited!

I'm currently playing Secret of Mana, together with my girlfriend.

Wish I knew a girl with this sorta mindset.

[theshirn]

Might start a game of Dragon Age: Origins soon after possessing it for nearly 2 years and playing the opening part twice, then quitting after becoming daunted over the scale of things. Do any vets have any recommendations as to what party to choose and how to build them and the PC? I'm not so interested in min/maxing as I am making the game as fun as possible. I'm thinking more along the lines of the characters that are the most interesting and entertaining as party members and a PC build that is the most fun to play as without the party getting its butt kicked.

Mages.  Mages shatter DA:O.  Especially Arcane Warrior.  (I got to play AW in the glory days before the 1.02 patch.  Infinite Shimmering Shield?  Hells yes.)

Wish I knew a girl with this sorta mindset.

Amen.

[lumber_of_the_beast]

Finished Circle of the Moon today.

Harmony of Dissonance is ugly as sin.

[Garlyle]

I know I've ranted about it before, but Distorted Travesty is good.  Really really good.  I've been playing it on the hardest difficulty and it is one of the very, very few games that has remained difficult throughout, from start to finish.  Rarely do I find games that have done that.  There's some stuff that is extra absurd (namely to do with platforming for secret areas/powerups) but... yeah.

The game's difficulty settings though are really nicely done.  Enemies and bosses aren't just more threatening because of higher damage, but also higher defenses - NOT their HP, but their actual defensive stats.  Since you can tear apart an enemy's defensive stats by using elemental weaknesses and learning cripple points on enemies, the importance of doing so goes from "completely optional" at easy to "pretty much mandatory" by distorted.  Plus, everything cycles through attacks faster, keeping you constantly on your toes - and especially bosses fire projectiles in far greater numbers as well, turning plenty of boss fights crazy.

Suffice to say there have been extremely few 'trivial' rooms on Distorted difficulty, due to the presence of even normal enemies being really dangerous, combined with the game's already tricky platforming (made harder on the harder difficulties with some extra obstacles - including new terrain hazards in boss rooms!).  I'm only like halfway through and the game has been consistently challenging throughout.

Also this game is clearly much, much longer than I initially thought.

[The ⑨th Zentillion]

Garlyle: It's a pretty awesome game, yeah. At least from what I've seen of Raocow's LP of it, anyway... he's not running it on Distorted, though, I don't think. In any case, probably will pick it up sometime. :getdown:

[lumber_of_the_beast]

I lied, went back to SotN instead.

DOUBLE CRISSAEGRIM OH MY GOD

naturally, i spent half an hour farming them up, and then had a third drop five minutes later

[Ionasal kkll Solciel]

Well, at least you got them relatively fast - when I was playing PoR, I spent about an hour to get the Eye of Decay (despite that I didn't really need it), only to get it in the NG+ from the very first kill of that enemy.

-22 multiplier for my Macca Bonus made me laugh (I had Multi-Strike lined up for my demons, not realizing my enemy had Drain Phys). I don't think I'll be able to handle the ultimate Bonus Boss, considering the fact that the primary strategy for the penultimate one is to leave a single trash mob alive and rely on the fact it only has Drain Phys on its first style, and it won't change over unless the mob gets killed or I initiate the battle. Got basically  only 80k xp out of it, when you can get conceivably inf xp as long as you don't bother with the boss. Ultimate Hit is so worth it, though.

EDIT: Yup, it totally wiped my teams. Even if I remembered to put on Anti-Almighty, it might have only given me one more turn. One of its lackeys heals itself for 1600 damage at the end of a skirmish, the second constantly revives the trash mobs and is damn durable itself, and there's the boss itself. I might actually need to break out Extra Cancel - it never seems to burn its kill shot until Extra Turn. Okay, apparently not.

EDIT2: Wat. Jungo and Lucifer lasted an incredibly long time against this boss, only dying because one of the damn Loa got a Possession off, sealing off my recovery avenue. Even then, they lasted a while before finally dying, thanks to Anti-Almighty, getting the boss nearly to red. I might actually have a chance.

EDIT3: Woot, ultimate Bonus Boss captured! I forgot to equip Anti-Almighty on my offense, but it was strangely reluctant to deliver the kill shots when I was the attacker.

[Reddyne]

Mages.  Mages shatter DA:O.  Especially Arcane Warrior.  (I got to play AW in the glory days before the 1.02 patch.  Infinite Shimmering Shield?  Hells yes.)

Really? My understanding so far as the main character went was that nuke/caster mages were fun but broke the game, supporters might be fun/useful due to the range of buffs/heal/support moves they get, and Arcane Warriors were nigh-broken tanks that were GREAT for fights but they couldn't do much more than self-buff. Maybe it's a build thing? Might be worth a second look since I dunno if that's the truth or not and my knowledge of the game was limited to the first 4 hours of gameplay and now 18 months old. I can dabble around with the party a bit once I get a class since they seem to have innate builds they're good for. Drunken dwarf always tops a high-maintenance stoic jerk , though.

Finished Circle of the Moon today.

Harmony of Dissonance is ugly as sin.

Sure, but it plays much nicer. I found it to be one of my faves amongst the Castlevania series. CotM felt so very clunky, dull, and empty in comparison. What it really came down to wa-

I lied, went back to SotN instead.

D'OH!

[Garlyle]

Garlyle: It's a pretty awesome game, yeah. At least from what I've seen of Raocow's LP of it, anyway... he's not running it on Distorted, though, I don't think. In any case, probably will pick it up sometime. :getdown:

Yeah, the LP got me playing it (Having known the creator when he was first working on it way back when helped though and now I wish I'd followed it more).

I'm not watching past what I've personally seen though.  Going in blind to a lot of this stuff is ridiculously difficult!    He's only playing it on Normal, however, which is interesting, because then I can see just how different the difficulty settings are (It is definitely visible)

Game's a blast though, just like An Untitled Story was (which I also ended up playing because of him... and again on a far harder difficulty)

[Janitor Morgan]

My brother's started picking up Pokemon again, so I've also picked it back up to help him out with stuff. Before I came back up to my apartment for the week, I'd traded him a level 71 Virizion to help him against Landorus (immune to Fissure because higher level, resists Earthquake and Rock Slide). Apparently it was a big help!

I'm also still going with Mabinogi, as well as trying to get into Titan Quest again, although this laptop's graphics card is pretty crappy. It makes the computer run pretty hot when I'm playing Mabi, and has randomly shut down TQ a couple times due to the same issue.

[Cookiejesus]

I just noticed that I still have a savestate of Chrono Trigger running for half a year now. I don't know why I'm hesitating to finish it, the game ist great...

In the last days my fingers also itch to play Might and Magic VI again, if that game rings a bell for someone.

Wish I knew a girl with this sorta mindset.

Well, let's say that my girlfriend will soon be a boyfriend, so that's that...  :V

[NekoNekoRex]

After the third week Recettear becomes armok-damned brutal. 200,000 pix in a WEEK? Outrageous!

It's made worse by the fact people are CONSTANTLY pawning off their crap on me, and it's actually HURTING profits because not enough people are buying the things on the GODDAMN SHELVES. I seriously only sell 3 shelved items on a GOOD shopping period. BEfore my place became a pawn shop I was constantly running out of stuff to sell! (well I still find myself lacking quality stuff to sell alot but not the point)

It's made worse when half my stock always seems to be unsellable at any given point in time due to bullshit market trends.

[Anima Zero]

Distorted Travesty - Ok because of Garlyle I was curious and checked this game out.

...Holy crap this game is seven kinds of awesome.  Started a bit of it on Normal, then decided to start over on Distorted difficulty and I regret nothing.  I've died SO much but it's worth it because it's so much fun on this difficulty.  I only started late yesterday and I'm already 4 hours in.

[Entropy]

I just got back into Civilization IV: BtS after letting it sit for a few months when I found out there was a Touhou mod for it (still amazed at how long I didn't know this). Even unmodded, I'd say it's probably the best (i.e., my favorite) strategy game I've ever played, not that it couldn't be improved.

In favor of a non-paragraph summary, I will say just that modded, it is the funniest/most interesting thing I've come across in a while.

I almost wanted to make a topic on the mod, but apparently somebody tried that a year or two ago and it didn't get past the first page of replies, so I didn't think I'd have too much luck.  :3

[NekoNekoRex]

Playing Lone Survivor

In the dark

At 1:30 AM

After finding the shop I'm in eerily left in strange conditions, with a pair of shoes in the middle of the hallway and an empty room with the light on. Turned the light off, proceeded to search the shop using only the light of my cellular phone

If only Amnesia ran on my machine.,,

[チソウ タイゼン]

Finally got to play Skyrim again. This being my second sitting, and after two months of not touching it because it's actually my brother's.

I KILLED THE FROST TROLL AT LEVEL FIVE WHEEEEE

[NekoNekoRex]

aaaaaaaaaaaa

zombie monsters

aaaaaaaaaa

really BIG zombie monster

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I shined the flashlight on it by accident AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA RUN!!!!!!!!!

[Phlegeth]

I've been playing Digimon Masters Online again.  I stopped playing cause there wasn't a lot of stuff.  Namely no Gomamon, Lopmon, or Terriermon.  But now they're in and I got me a Lopmon.  And even better I have access to it's Data and Virus forms, which is really nice.

I think I was suppose to go to the Icicle Area before the Oil Refinery.  I went from being three levels below most mobs to being five levels above them.

Anyone else play?  I'm on the Leviamon server and my name's Phlegeth on there too.  I'm 26 and Lopmon (Tewi) is 39.

[Garlyle]

So I had the chance to take the brand new Mario Party 9 for a test drive today, since I now own it.

The reason this is significant, if you haven't heard, is that MP9 is the first one to significantly change up the formula.  Each board is now no longer "run around for x turns to try to get your goal, playing a minigame after everyone has moved".  Instead, everyone boards a single vehicle that moves down a track (with a handful of breaks) until it reaches the end.  Along the way, your rolls can get you a variety of rewards and/or trigger minigames, and at various progress points several different special events can occur - including "boss battle" minigames and other such fun things.  Also, there's no more stars.  Or coins.  Everything is in the form of "mini-stars", which are gained either through various things on the field as you travel, or won by placing well in minigames.

The bad: The high amount of RNG-reliance on the field - moreso than previous games it feels like you have very little control over what's going on and I THINK there's enough shit that could happen on the board that it's entirely possible to win or lose a game entirely independant of minigame results, based sheerly on how the board treats its players.  That's... not so hot.  Although the game does make a conscious effort to benefit losing players, it's kinda... I don't know.  It feels like the RNG is going to be the one cheating you out of victory... and not the other players,

The neutral: There seems to be remarkably fewer instances in which the traditional Mario Party backstabbing comes into play.  You know, things like using Boo and sniping someone's star via a Magic Lamp and all that.  That may be good or bad; personally I LOVE that aspect of the series but... yeah.  Also, Bonus Stars are now on various qualities that due to the above you have less real control over - things like "who lost the most mini-stars during the match".  This kinda has a neutral effect overall because they DON'T necessarily go to the ones who were in charge the whole game, so... yeah.  Again, RNG potentially cheating you out of a victory, but it makes things a bit more exciting in this instance?

The good:  The minigames themselves seem great.  Plus, the ability for whoever triggers the minigame (or in the final stretch, whoever is in last) to choose a minigame means you can avoid any minigame you really come to hate; in the meantime though they're a blast?  I had a lot of fun with them, and the fact that everything is now in the compiled "mini-stars" category means that winning individual minigames does matter.

there, and this time it's in the right topic.

[lumber_of_the_beast]

The bad: The high amount of RNG-reliance on the field - moreso than previous games it feels like you have very little control over what's going on and I THINK there's enough shit that could happen on the board that it's entirely possible to win or lose a game entirely independant of minigame results, based sheerly on how the board treats its players.  That's... not so hot.  Although the game does make a conscious effort to benefit losing players, it's kinda... I don't know.  It feels like the RNG is going to be the one cheating you out of victory... and not the other players,

...Welcome to Mario Party?

[UsadaLettuce]

Starting again on 7th Dragon 2020 PSP; Trickster (Yukana), Samurai (Shinichiro Miki) and Hacker (Kazuya Nakai). This is for the EX-Skill quest videos because my sister's YT file got banned. She didn't had any back-ups for the videos to reupload it sadly. >___>

Still have my first file which consists of Samurai (Miyuki Sawashiro), Psychic (Tanaka Rie) and Destroyer (Takaya Kuroda) and currently got that traitor bitch Mizuchi down on Tokyo Tower after ragequitted last December 2011 because of the mistakes that I did. Allocating some skills before heading on to the galaxy to wipe the rest of the dragons...

[Garlyle]

...Welcome to Mario Party?

Well, I've played the entire rest of the series (Including Advance and DS), and I'll put it this way - it feels worse than usual.  There's a LOT less individual control over what happens to you on the board; at most there's maybe a couple of "choose a direction" spots on the board and you'll have a choice of two spaces to be ending you turn on IF you happen to be the one in control when you get there.  The board, in the meantime, likes to hand out mini-stars [or take them away from you] all over the place, sometimes at rates larger than the rewards from individual minigames.

The traditional items are gone, too.  Should you happen to land on a 'gift' space however, you can get a different sized dice (the standard in this one is 1-6 ; I've seen 0-1, 1-3, and 4-6 dice given out... and a single 1-6 sized "slow" dice is given to the player in last shortly before the end of a board, it seems).  But, of course, your ability to even get one of those... requires the RNG to hand you it in the first place.  It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't possible on several boards for a single bad diceroll to cut your mini-stars in half right before the end of a game, among other batshittery from happening-type spaces.

And I know there's Chance Time, King Boo, etc., and that kind of wonderful dickery in the previous games but the thing is, those were things you could make an effort to control in some fashion.  They could still dick you over... but in general the fact was it still felt like it was a player being responsible for the dickery.  And chances are it was - someone could actively take detours to visit King Boo after saving up, etc.  It was something people actively did, as opposed to whoops BAD ROLL.

TL;DR - Less control than previous Mario Party games, same chance of being dicked over - it's just by the RNG this time, not other players.  And being a jackass to other players is what makes Mario Party, well, Mario Party!

I'm not saying it's a bad game though.  Hell once you get used to it you can just kinda roll with it; and like I said the minigames are pretty great, so it all balances out, really.

[チソウ タイゼン]

Ahhh, my little 8 year old sister just picked up Persona 3 :getdown:

"Damn it, Junpei, what are you good for?!"
"Stop falling down!"
"You're not going to make me heal myself, are you?"

Apparently, it's quite the radical shift from the Persona 4 she's used to :V

[theshirn]

Gungnir get.

As usual it's an overwhelming mess of things on screen that don't make a lot of sense but when you figure them out will probably be pretty cool?  It's a Sting game, I'm playing it anyway.

[Ionasal kkll Solciel]

Ahhh, my little 8 year old sister just picked up Persona 3 :getdown:

"Damn it, Junpei, what are you good for?!"
"Stop falling down!"
"You're not going to make me heal myself, are you?"

Apparently, it's quite the radical shift from the Persona 4 she's used to :V

It is hard to remember that "Act Freely" means your allies derp half the time (seriously, why the **** are you using Marin Karin again?!), though they do do some smart things on their own steam (they keep track of enemies their attacks are strong/weak to, they'll toss healing your way if it's available and they aren't on an offensive style).

Also, your parents let her play a game where suicide is the main concept for summoning? Not sure if awesome or scary.

[Zengeku]

An 8 year old playing a Persona game? That can only be considered awesome.

[Jaimers]

Ys Origin

If you liked Oath in Felghana than you'll like this too as it's even better!
Really awesome game, I would recommend everybody to check it out. Fast paced challenging action with awesome music and just fun as all heck.

[trancehime]

First serious run in Dungeons of Dredmor, using a chatbot notorious in one of the places I go to for being unbalanced to randomize my skills instead of the in-game randomizer. Needless to say, the game's been very intense. Monster Zoos are really getting harder at this point without my weapon scaling as fast as I'd like it to.

[チソウ タイゼン]

It is hard to remember that "Act Freely" means your allies derp half the time (seriously, why the **** are you using Marin Karin again?!), though they do do some smart things on their own steam (they keep track of enemies their attacks are strong/weak to, they'll toss healing your way if it's available and they aren't on an offensive style).

Also, your parents let her play a game where suicide is the main concept for summoning? Not sure if awesome or scary.

They let her play Persona 4, and I explained to them that they are not real guns :V
They're still shaky on the concept, though, so shhh.

An 8 year old playing a Persona game? That can only be considered awesome.

It makes me angry. She beat 4 before I did.
And she started later. And she clocked in 110 hours, compared to my 70

[Entropy]

It is hard to remember that "Act Freely" means your allies derp half the time (seriously, why the **** are you using Marin Karin again?!)

Funny story about that. A certain party member of mine decided to Marin Karin instead of bufuing some Tartarus boss once (not that she hadn't done that before), and it actually succeeded, probably saving my party (i.e., my protagonist) from some Ma-somethingorother/mega-phys the next move the boss had (it was a while ago). Of course, I laughed when it actually happened. The success rate on the spell had to be pathetically, improbably low in that situation, and of course I would've been pretty irritated if it didn't work.

Moral of the story: ... Computer dosen't make completely futile moves?

Anyone else try to play P3P with the party control set to off as much as possible?