Author Topic: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E  (Read 282116 times)

commandercool

  • alter cool
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #240 on: September 03, 2015, 03:49:34 PM »
I'm probably more than 2/3 done with Ultra Despair Girls, and I intend to finish it tomorrow or maybe tonight. Playing through a Danganronpa game in a few sittings has always been an emotional roller coaster, but this one is even rougher I think. The themes are even heavier than the other ones
Spoiler:
the plot is basically about child abuse, and puts you in the middle of a huge-scale massacre of innocent people that you can do almost nothing to stop
. They cranked up the self-censorship and cartooniness even further this time, pixellating out the corpses as well as having pink blood, and I think it's good they did or I would probably not be able to play through it this fast.

As for the gameplay, it's fine but slightly choppy. There are some minor menu navigation complaints, and the game doesn't seem to really know what genre it wants to be. It seems to think it's a puzzle shooter or almost a survival horror game, with a lot of big mobs of enemies having obvious ways to take them all out efficiently by using the weirder functions of your gun like dance bullets and knockdown bullets, but there's often no real incentive to go out of your way to do that because ammo isn't exactly in short supply and Genocide Jill (who basically functions as a super move) is extremely powerful and can be used fairly often. And on top of that the enemy AI is slightly too fuzzy to really make for tight puzzle gameplay, since they, and the physics, don't behave completely consistently and nobody likes an unpredictable puzzle.

Danganronpa games are never about the gameplay though, so all of that is forgivable. The gameplay isn't actively terrible or anything, just a little unpolished, and the story is great. It seems to be tying up some thematic loose ends that I feel like the second game created, which have been the biggest thing bothering me about this franchise since I played that game. I haven't finished the game obviously so I don't know exactly how everything shakes out, but it's moving in a direction that I like.

Edit: Finished. A little later than planned because I got sick Friday and just slept all day.

Overall I can't really grade it, like all of the Danganronpa games. "Definitely worth playing but definitely highly flawed" is pretty consistent with the others. It doesn't really move the story forward so much as moving it laterally, so make of that what you will. But as much as Goodbye Despair is kind of an incomplete experience, Ultra Despair Girls sort of complements it at least.

Most of the loose ends got tied up, but there were a few things that right now I'm assuming are setup for future games and a few things I'm assuming are small plot holes.

Spoiler:
Also, there is a literal ghost in this game. Like, a dead person haunts someone and gives them actual, story-relevant information. It is never explained away. What the fuck? Unless I'm forgetting something major, literal magic powers new to this franchise. Nagito's super luck in Goodbye Despair is the closest thing I can remember, and that can be explained away partly as coincidence, partly as cheating, and partly as the fact that he's in a computer simulation the entire time.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2015, 03:41:52 AM by commandercool »
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Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #241 on: September 08, 2015, 09:01:36 AM »
So I've been playing UDG myself, and I've just gotten to the Criminal Girls shoutout. The one who makes the shoutout even calls it Motivation! Oh I enjoyed that... not enough to bother getting a Game Over or prolonging the minigame, but I enjoyed it.

Other than that, I've finally gotten a decent rhythm going in Moe Chronicle, in terms of how to combat enemy monmusus, though I am a bit annoyed that Aura Bonuses stop at 10.

With Soul Calibur: Lost Swords dying at the end of November, I'm just trying to get the last two trophies I need - beat the main story's Epilogue, and get a bunch of equipment accessories to wear all at once. The first one should be easy enough... where the hell am I going to find a belt accessory though?

And Ace Combat Infinity is bringing out the whole Wardog squadron out as reward planes (Edge for top 200, Blaze/original Wardog for top 1000, Chopper as a drop, Archer as a "S Rank 15 games as each type of non-Bomber").
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Raikaria

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #242 on: September 08, 2015, 08:51:47 PM »
Playing EU4; as Brandenburg.

Things going well. I vassaled then Annexed Brunswick; and I had Saxony and Cologne as allies.

I am winning a war against the Hansa and Pomerania quite heavily; and then suddenly:
'Poland has insulted us!'
Me: OK ._.
*Month passes*
POLAND DECLARES WAR! [With Lithuania in tow]
Me: Well; Austria got my back... and Austria drags in other HRE states too...
BOHEMIA DECLARES WAR! [With 4 decent sized HRE allies; and this one Austria isn't back me up. Also the states which followed Bohemia automatically don't join the Poland war]

Me: -_-

I'm decent at EU4 and might have been able to mop up the Hansa quickly [Probobly peaceing out for less than I aimed for] and then win ONE of those other wars. But I can't win basically 3 wars at once; fighting a total of 100k+ with a core alliance force of about 25k [And Austria+Other HRE guys who decided to follow Austria to help derping about and changing the Poland War numbers from 60k on my side vs 50k to 20kv45k somehow. Derpy disparate armies chargeing in on their own AI rarely works; both in EU4 and real life... easy for 25k Lithuanian stacks to wipe 6k HRE princes one at a time.]
« Last Edit: September 08, 2015, 08:57:01 PM by Raikaria »


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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #243 on: September 11, 2015, 08:29:54 PM »
Got myself a copy of Etrian Mystery Dungeon since it was released today here in Europe. When this game was first announced I wasn't really interested in it, but now I'm really enjoying myself. Running a party of Protector/Gunner/Ninja/Princess and it's working pretty well so far. I'm also loving the new arrangements of the old EO songs.
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #244 on: September 12, 2015, 07:14:41 PM »
I just finished Return of Touhou Mother, and I miss it already. It was so good coming back to that Gensokyo. It was definitely the sequel Touhou Mother deserved.

I'll just say one thing.

Dude? That's nuts, brah.

Jq1790

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #245 on: September 12, 2015, 08:23:17 PM »
I just finished Return of Touhou Mother, and I miss it already. It was so good coming back to that Gensokyo. It was definitely the sequel Touhou Mother deserved.

I'll just say one thing.

Dude? That's nuts, brah.
That's a rule.

(I really need to play Return myself.  The first one was amazing.)
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Ionasal kkll Solciel

  • Girl from beyond the 7th Dimension
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #246 on: September 13, 2015, 01:53:09 AM »
So I don't know how much LoLK increased the difficulty over the previous games, but I picked up DDC earlier today and pulled out a 1cc on Easy fairly easily. Maybe it's the extremely large amount of bomb and life shards available in DDC.

Picked up Xeodrifter, and though I've beaten the game, I have no bloody clue where the rest of the hidden stuff is. I think I'll just have to shoot at walls and hope to find one that's passable?

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Reddyne

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #247 on: September 15, 2015, 12:13:05 AM »
An Ultraman fight after a fun and well designed dungeon with a flip gimmick?! Oh Majora's Mask, all is forgiven after I only had scathing comments to say about you for nearly 15 years. I'll be able to get all the masks shortly but will be following a guide for the majority of it since the Kafei and Anju quest is apparently a THING. After that there's not much left but wrapping things up. Don't really need to do ALL the little sidequests to be happy, just the big ones.

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commandercool

  • alter cool
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #248 on: September 18, 2015, 05:05:00 AM »
I've been playing Pillars Of Eternity quite a bit. I have a lot of the mechanics figured out, but I still don't really understand it. Either I'm missing something or it has weird, weird difficulty problems. Some encounters just seem waaaaay too hard compared to the ones leading up to them. I have yet to find anything I just couldn't beat, but given how inexplicably durable enemy spellcasters are compared to how squishy all player characters are I've had some weird fights, often involved half of my guys getting instantly OHKOed by an enemy druid who can somehow cast three spells in the amount of time it takes me to cast one, can stand up to my whole team beating on them for like 45 seconds straight, and is usually part of a group. Are druids just the best class and they're that tough when you use one? Do enemies just cheat?

I've been finding my wizard main character to be a little underpowered based on what I'm used to from Baldur's Gate and similar. Magic Missile is nerfed to hell and back being lacking its instantly casting time (although it is relatively fast) and guaranteed hit rate, all of the Mirror Image-like spells have been reworked to only effect a small fraction of kinds of attacks rather than just making you immune to everything for a while, Haste has the drawback of dealing damage to you over time (although it's still good), Stoneskin doesn't even seem to be in the game or if it is it's higher level now, and summoning spells now seem exclusive to other classes. And on top of all that spellcasting modifiers are now drawn from two stats (Might and Intelligence, rather than just Intelligence) so you can no longer just crank up one stat and be automatically great at magic.

Encounter powers are nice for casters since they keep you from running out of spells after a few fights, but because of the nature of the combat system you need to rest pretty often anyway, so it's not really worth the tradeoff. The biggest thing they do gain is the safe zone at the edges of AOE spells that allow them to hit enemies but automatically miss allies. While that is nice, it doesn't feel like it makes up for all of the nerfs. Might be amazing if Spell Sequencer is in the game so I can do triple Fireballs, but I haven't seen any sign of it yet.
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Reddyne

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #249 on: September 18, 2015, 07:59:12 PM »
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is underrated. And I was one of the people who thought as much for 15 years.

Trying out Wizardry 5: Red Needs Revenge For 20 Years Ago Edition Etrian Odyssey: Untold. The map stuff will take some getting used to but is fine. I've only done the first floor and haven't even gotten the main party yet, but have done a bit of scouting. My first instinct is that I want to almost completely readjust the party because of my instinctive aversion to HP draining moves. My second is that the party setup is limited to 5 so that you will always have a blind spot. If I respec people so that the party is Ronin/Protector/Gunner/Troubadour/Medic then I'm out most negative statuses and AoE attacks but have a lot in the way of DEEPS, buffs, healing, and even elemental attacks. I've scouted so much and I haven't even got the party together yet! Such is my fate.

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Marron

  • Ordinary crow
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #250 on: September 18, 2015, 08:51:20 PM »
I am playing Star Ocean: Second Evolution on PSP. I had already played the beginning long ago but never went too far, I don't know why, at the time I had some other games to do I guess. This time, I REALLY would like to play it through the end. I choosed Rena Side(Yeah, I prefer to play girls in video games, except the games where you create your own char), also she seems to be a fighter, which is a class I like a lot !
I wanted to play touhou puppet dance performance but . . . my computer crash every time I want to play it. It's like LoLK: if I play in high res, it will crash, if I play in low res, it works perfectly . . . *sigh*

Anyway, I also wonder if I should play puyo pop 20 th, it has been a while since I played it. Don't really know which character to main in fever, though.

CyberAngel

  • Retired
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #251 on: September 19, 2015, 08:24:47 PM »
Shadow Warrior, the 2013 one. A great game to show off what my new PC can do, and also the only new big name game I'm interested in. I'm amazed, actually - it has just the right blend of old and new style FPS features. I can't remember the last time I had this much fun.

Ionasal kkll Solciel

  • Girl from beyond the 7th Dimension
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #252 on: September 20, 2015, 10:14:07 AM »
God damn it, I'm being chased by the entire enemy team. Guys, wouldn't it be a good idea to pull them the fuck off of me?! Preferably by shooting them? We're in piston aircraft, for fuck's sake, and I'm making erratic forward movement. They're basically sitting ducks.


...Anyway, Titan Souls.
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Move eternally forward,
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #253 on: September 21, 2015, 05:00:23 PM »
I have been playing a lot of Dark Souls and TF2 lately. I'm really excited for DS3  :D


MewMewHeart

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #255 on: September 27, 2015, 04:26:19 AM »
Playing Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 (Steam version) it's fun, but I think I'm doing a few too many things wrong and need to make sure I get a gaming controller for better enjoyment playing on keyboard makes things so wonky.
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Jq1790

  • Wow I'm back to playing this game.
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #256 on: September 27, 2015, 05:41:07 AM »
If any of what you think is wrong is being strong enough for one dungeon then getting completely clotheslined by stuff in the next, don't worry.  That's normal.  You'll really get this driven home in chapter...2, I believe, with a certain boss battle that will PROBABLY utterly decimate you the first time or two.
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notverycreative

  • The coldest chill,
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #257 on: September 29, 2015, 05:01:25 PM »
That's Idea Factory for you. You're either taking too much damage or none at all.

I got a Vita on September 3rd. I don't have any games of my own for it, but my friend was nice enough to let me borrow: Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus (TITS ARE LIFE ASS IS HOMETOWN), Disgaea 3 and 4, Demon Gaze (actually not that bad!), Nep Rebirth 1 (he left his Vita at my house by accident for a week so I played Rebirth 2 for a bit, too), Noiregame, and Persona 4 Golden (mostly for when my friend comes to visit in December, since she'll want to play that soooooo badly).

The week before I got a Vita I bought Etrian Odyssey Untold 2, and like a casual I'm playing Story on Picnic. I hope I'm at the end: Ginnungagap 5F. I just want the damn game to end so I can NG+ into Classic and make my own party.

I also got Super Robot Wars BX. On stage 33/48 of my 5th playthrough. I pound through these games like crazy until I can get 15 upgrades, because I don't like watching animations when my damage sucks and enemies have a chance to hit me. Thing is, in BX, there are some bosses which will still plow your bunghole at max upgrades due to how statistically-bullshit they are. I'm taking a break from it, though, because the perfect guide doesn't come out until Friday and you need to get ALL OF THE SECRETS in one playthrough in order to fight the true last boss and fill the scenario chart.
I need an option, a reason, and some hope.

Raikaria

  • Do Tank Girls Dream...
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #258 on: September 29, 2015, 08:01:00 PM »
I am playing Naples in EU4.

I get a notification that France has no heir. I investigate. They have no Royal Marriages; and a 67 year old king. They are friendly towards me.

So I enter a Royal Marriage with them and get the notification on monarch death I would enter a succession war with Burgundy; who is only allied with Sweden. Since I'm listed first; it means I would be the rightful claimant, so if Burgundy was to contest; they would have to deal with:

Myself
France
Castile [Aka: Most of central Spain]
Hungry
Milan [A large part of Northern Italy]

There is NO WAY they could win that war.

Of course, the 67 year old king has a kid a few months later. At the ripe old age of 67.

I was so close to having France as a slave. To specify; a country as a lesser partner in the personal union cannot declare their own wars and MUST join yours. They are basically a slave nation. They can fight for independance, but then they'd have to fight all my allies as well. After 50 years, you can intergrate them into your country proper.

Basically; getting a PU on France means I win the game.


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I don't even remember who put the above in my sig. [Wasn't me] Nor do I understand why I keep it here anymore.
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Hanzo K.

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #259 on: September 29, 2015, 08:22:00 PM »
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is underrated. And I was one of the people who thought as much for 15 years.

Trying out Wizardry 5: Red Needs Revenge For 20 Years Ago Edition Etrian Odyssey: Untold. The map stuff will take some getting used to but is fine. I've only done the first floor and haven't even gotten the main party yet, but have done a bit of scouting. My first instinct is that I want to almost completely readjust the party because of my instinctive aversion to HP draining moves. My second is that the party setup is limited to 5 so that you will always have a blind spot. If I respec people so that the party is Ronin/Protector/Gunner/Troubadour/Medic then I'm out most negative statuses and AoE attacks but have a lot in the way of DEEPS, buffs, healing, and even elemental attacks. I've scouted so much and I haven't even got the party together yet! Such is my fate.

Ah, here's the thing though, if you're talkin' about the Highlander skills, don't be afraid of them.
Highlanders also possess an incredibly useful passive skill, 'Turning Tide'. This skill heals the party whenever the holder kills a target.
I usually always get it to at least 3/10 as a minimum before I start using stuff like Draining/Legion Thrust. So long as you have Turning Tide of a higher level than the Thrusts, and can kill multiple enemies with that single attack, you'll be fine! I can personally attest to easily recovering 100+ HP for wiping out the bulk of an enemy crowd.
Incidentally, Gunners also possess a way to AoE on their normal attacks thanks to their 'Vulcan Stance' self-buff, which also greatly improves the power of said attacks. and IIRC, Ronins possess a fairly powerful one as well, and they have a skill that sometimes instant-kills. Gunners also have Head/Arm/Leg Snipe, so that's binds sorted right there. You can pad out the party's lack of Ailments by clever use of Grimoire Stones as well. That's the beauty of Untold, you can cover your weaknesses, or bolster your strengths. Or even use an Enemy's Moves!
Ever wanted a Furyhorn's Baffling Step skill for yourself? You can with Grimoire Stones!

Want your Medic to use a Katana instead of a staff? Sure! Just have your Ronin make a good Grimoire Stone and toss it to your Medic! Boom, a Medic that not only can likely use Ronin Skills(Midareba? yesplz), but use the weapon that requires them too!
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notverycreative

  • The coldest chill,
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #260 on: September 29, 2015, 09:40:16 PM »
I like my Medic with a ranged weapon, because they sit in the back. I think if you wanted a front-row Medic you'd probably need a grimoire for heavy armor or shields. It's easier to do in Untold 2 since you have multiple grimoire slots, thus you can have more than 1 type of out-of-class equipment.

I beat Untold 2, by the way. Finally. Ginnungagap 5F is the last area. I was level 63. Started up in Classic, now. Doing Landsknecht/Dark Hunter/Troubadour in the front row and Gunner and Medic in the back row. I'm stuck at 19F in Untold 1 because the FOEs keep spamming Curse on me and they're the "GUN IT FOR YOU" types so you can't just trail them as they walk their routes. And there's no accessory to decrease the likelihood of Curse, either. wtf. Dammit, I'm stonewalled. Well, I'll just keep playing Untold 2.
I need an option, a reason, and some hope.

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #261 on: September 30, 2015, 01:51:28 AM »

Ionasal kkll Solciel

  • Girl from beyond the 7th Dimension
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #262 on: September 30, 2015, 08:04:14 AM »
P4DAN

Natch.

Before I submerse myself back into Inaba, I'm back in Moe Chronicle. The fight against the Legendary Monster Girl is a bit underwhelming - unlike the Region Leaders, this one's a straight-up damage race. No parts to destroy, weak to Water, but she can wreck your face with doublecasts if she gets mad. Anyway, picked up a succubus that apparently has never done what her species is known for, a golem that I'll probably only use once I find a decent enough job to replace the medusa I picked up earlier, and the Legendary Monster Girl herself - who is kind of sort of beaten out by her own descendant.
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Move eternally forward,
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commandercool

  • alter cool
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #263 on: September 30, 2015, 02:29:28 PM »
Yeah, I've got a copy of P4:DAN set aside for whenever I get around to it. I'm not that excited to play it since I'm kind of burned out on retreading Persona 4 over and over, and I don't really like rhythm games.

My roommate, who is a much bigger Persona 4 fan than me, was kind of pissed about how half-assed the plot seemed at the beginning. That probably sounds silly, but neither one of us cares about the gameplay so that's all we got. Hopefully it picks up later.
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theshirn

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #264 on: September 30, 2015, 10:34:42 PM »
I like my Medic with a ranged weapon, because they sit in the back. I think if you wanted a front-row Medic you'd probably need a grimoire for heavy armor or shields. It's easier to do in Untold 2 since you have multiple grimoire slots, thus you can have more than 1 type of out-of-class equipment.

I beat Untold 2, by the way. Finally. Ginnungagap 5F is the last area. I was level 63. Started up in Classic, now. Doing Landsknecht/Dark Hunter/Troubadour in the front row and Gunner and Medic in the back row. I'm stuck at 19F in Untold 1 because the FOEs keep spamming Curse on me and they're the "GUN IT FOR YOU" types so you can't just trail them as they walk their routes. And there's no accessory to decrease the likelihood of Curse, either. wtf. Dammit, I'm stonewalled. Well, I'll just keep playing Untold 2.
I'm doing Dark Hunter, Dark Hunter, Dark Hunter/Dark Hunter, Dark Hunter

kill me

Also the FOEs on B19F are the best for one simple reason - their turning pattern means they're one of the FOEs you can get a preemptive hit on, and several of them are pretty near the stairs, making them perfect for farming as shiny for huge exp numbers!  They're pretty easy to avoid fighting - all of them either turn or are sitting in a corner and only face one direction, so a little watching means you can sneak past or get preemptive rounds (arm bind is your friend).

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Validon98

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #265 on: October 01, 2015, 05:09:32 PM »
Been playing a lot of different stuff recently. Other than my almost daily forays into the wondrous world of Smite, I've finished up Mother, Mother 3, Ys II, and Live-a-Live within the last couple weeks (Live-a-Live I literally just finished like ten minutes ago). I'm working slowly on Return of Touhou Mother as well (Sound Battles in RPG Maker? More likely than you think, although I'm not sure if the system works perfectly or if it's a little buggy, oh well), as well as Ys: Oath in Felghana to follow up on being done with Ys 2. So a lot of RPGs and action RPGs as per the usual for me, I guess.
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Ionasal kkll Solciel

  • Girl from beyond the 7th Dimension
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #266 on: October 02, 2015, 09:15:58 AM »
Damn it, I haven't played any Persona 4 stuff after the original game and I've played so much Neptunia, so now all I hear from Chie is Noire speaking instead of, y'know, Chie. Also... Tomoe is Angie from Trauma Center, right?

Anyway, I've been trying to play Yomi, and get a feel for my main, Valerie. (Probably way too early to say I main her, but she's all I'm playing right now.) I've been slapping her Yomibot version silly, so there's that, but I'll need to learn the matchups against her eventually. High attack rate doesn't really mean anything if you can't outspeed the initial attack or get dodges up and running. Plus, her highest damage attack is only 21 damage but needs to be pumped twice just to do that.
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Third Eye Lem

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #267 on: October 02, 2015, 09:44:56 PM »
Anyway, I've been trying to play Yomi, and get a feel for my main, Valerie. (Probably way too early to say I main her, but she's all I'm playing right now.) I've been slapping her Yomibot version silly, so there's that, but I'll need to learn the matchups against her eventually. High attack rate doesn't really mean anything if you can't outspeed the initial attack or get dodges up and running. Plus, her highest damage attack is only 21 damage but needs to be pumped twice just to do that.
Man, I tried to play Yomi, and I'll admit I like Valerie too, but the last time I tried it I couldn't get a good feel for the rules. ^^;; Maybe I'll try it again and hopefully not suck at the tutorial.

I've been playing Golden Sun TLA a lot as of late, and by that I mean spending a gross amount of time trying to get the best equipment for my party. Hopefully, by the time I get everything and beat the last two bosses, I'll be done with this game series for good (Golden Sun 4 never ;~; ), and I can move onto other games...Like Gurumin! It's very old-school, I feel like it would fit in perfectly on the Dreamcast if it wasn't on the PSP/PC. Also, it's a redheaded girl fighting enemies with a magical drill staff. How cool is that?

I'm also looking forward to Transformers Devastation! I'm gonna be smart about this and NOT preorder it on Steam, I'd rather not get burned if it this ends up being another Legend of Korra. But if it isn't...Consider me on board! I love the TF franchise and eagerly look forward to bashing some Decepticon faces in.

CyberAngel

  • Retired
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #268 on: October 03, 2015, 09:08:35 AM »
I'm also looking forward to Transformers Devastation! I'm gonna be smart about this and NOT preorder it on Steam, I'd rather not get burned if it this ends up being another Legend of Korra. But if it isn't...Consider me on board! I love the TF franchise and eagerly look forward to bashing some Decepticon faces in.

I hope this'll help you decide.

For myself, I'm on my third playthrough of Shadow Warrior. Still fun, higher difficulties get challenging, but fair. I'd describe the progression like this:

  • Casual: Only one hard battle (the end of second-to-last chapter).
  • Normal: About 10 hard battles, one is expletive-inducing hard (the end of second-to-last chapter).
  • Hard: Every other battle is hard, about 10 expletive-inducing hard already. ...And I'm only 2/3rds in yet.

...I kinda dread the day I start Insane playthrough, but I'll do it. Without using EX mode. I did work out a good upgrade path, so it's not that much trouble. Won't even try Heroic mode, though. No saves at all is too hardcore with hour-long levels.

commandercool

  • alter cool
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #269 on: October 04, 2015, 02:31:15 AM »
I'm now pretty far into Pillars Of Eternity, and the results have been mixed. For a while there I was definitely thinking "This is it, this is Baldur's Gate III. It's the game we've been waiting for", and I mostly still feel that way, but in the last couple of sessions the flaws have been shining through pretty hard.

It's obviously an ambitious attempt to re-create a tabletop roleplaying experience, but it still has so far to go that it makes me question whether any game will ever actually pull a true simulation off, and whether it's even worth bothering to try. I just went back and did a side quest that I missed from earlier in the game involving infiltrating a corrupt lord's stronghold and overthrowing him. The game gives you like a dozen different possible routes to get into the keep, which is great, but once I actually got into his throne room and talked to him, the number of conversation options I had were shockingly low. After all of that nuance in physically reaching him, the only options I was given were basically "Die, evil guy!" or "Yes, I am evil too, let's team up and kill the guy who hired me". Maybe that wouldn't have been that surprising under normal circumstances, but after all of the effort that was put into his castle, the conversation felt almost insultingly simple.

Part of that has to do with the fact that I did this quest out of sequence, I recognize that. Most of the evil stuff this guy did could be attributed to a disease that's wiping out his people, and he's getting desperate and crazy trying to stop it. But at the point in the game that I am right now, I know what the real cause of the disease is. If I had my way I would tell him what I know and try to redirect his efforts to the actual cause. By all logic I should be able to make him my ally, but the game won't let me try, and that's sad. But even if I didn't sequence break this quest, I should still have more options. I should be able to brainwash him with magic or take him out in secret and replace him with one of my people in disguise, or something. If the game is going to give me ten different ways to get into his throne room, I want ten different things to do once I'm there. It feels like they took a ton of care for the first 95% of the quest, then just gave up.

Aside from that, which I feel like is a fundamental flaw with the way the game is built, I've been having a handful of smaller, more one-time problems. Like in the dungeon I'm doing right now I saved before a big fight (because the game almost invariably forces you to start story-relevant fights completely surrounded-although that's a different problem), died on a completely unrelated fight that I didn't see coming a little later, and reloaded. But once I reloaded everything had gone crazy. Upon loading I found that the game had somehow teleported my priest into a room on the opposite end of the map that I hadn't even explored yet, which was full of monsters that shredded him in like a second. That would be bad enough, but apparently encounters are written such that if you enter an encounter while you're also near hostile NPCs who aren't actually fighting you, like I was right before I saved, they'll immediately enter combat without any prompts or options. So not only is my priest gone, but I have to do an extremely difficult encounter without him, and I start that encounter surrounded. I can probably win with a few tries, but it's going to be a serious grind. This is the biggest bug (I'm assuming it's a bug?) that I've encountered so far, but it seems like a big one.

Also, I finally figured out what wizards are supposed to do in this game since nearly every single one of their spells is either nerfed into uselessness or level shifted upward. Turns out that the only spell that isn't nerfed, and is in fact massively buffed by the game's mechanics, is Grease (called Slicken in this game). This means that if I'm playing my wizard right he's just a crowd control machine who constantly knocks down big groups of enemies. No attacking, no summoning, no enhancements, just constant, dedicated crowd control. It's powerful, but it feels kind of lame. Maybe there's a DPS wizard build out there somewhere, I assume there is, but I have no idea how I would go about making one. So instead I'll just cast Grease five times an encounter with occasional Confusion and Sleeps thrown in for variety. Not incredibly happy with that, but it's better than just sucking like I was doing before.

So yeah, I like the game a lot, but the ambition of it is a slightly mixed bag. Is it the true heir to the isometric RPG throne? Probably. I'm not 100% convinced, but there's a lot of good stuff going on here, and relatively little bad. It's just that because most of it is so solid the bad stuff tends to stand out pretty hard, and much of it seems like it's a result of design decisions rather than just technology limitations or oversight, and that's not great.
I made a PADHerder. It's probably out of date though.