What Are You Playing 2

[Collectonian]

The current thread (http://www.animeondvd.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/15022/) is past 400 posts, so it seems like a good time to make a new one :D From now one, this one will be monthly, to keep them from getting to unwieldy.

So, what game(s) are you playing at the moment?

For me, still plugging away on Kingdom Hearts II. Yesterday I finally got the Ultima Weapon for Sora and Save the King for Goofy. Around level 80, so today I'll probably give Sephiroth a run (and probably get my tush kicked). Anyone know what you have to do to get Sora's Second Chance ability? I can't find it in any of the walkthroughs at all, but I'm guessing I need to level up one of his forms more.

[indigo0086]

Last game I played was Lost Planet. I finished it and while it has it's problems, it was far better than the reviews that put it in the mid to low 7s, to me at least. Hard though.

The online levels are huge as hell. If you bought the special edition you get a pretty huge map which is good for on foot fighting and guerrilla tactics against mechs. I haven't played all the online level but an awesome one is this huge, beautiful snow covered level with a few of the snowbike VS's pretty far out, it's a great mech level and if you're on foot you are easily concealed. I like the way the levels balance it so you're only really screwed against mechs if you're out in the open. If you get a nice spot to hide you can damage a mech pretty good, but that's up in the air because some mechs are incredibly maneuverable. I'm glad they didn't incorporate the VS from the single player game that the father rides.

[DustoMan]

I started a Blood Elf Hunter character last night, but server issues are keeping me from playing it for more then 15 minutes at a crack. :grr:

[Johnny]

Last game I played was Lost Planet. I finished it and while it has it's problems, it was far better than the reviews that put it in the mid to low 7s, to me at least. Hard though.



Agreed. I'm sensing the God Hand treatment with some reviewers.
That's not to say it isn't hard/frustrating at times though. Mission 7, for instance, was a cunt.
But yeah, this is great stuff.

Oh and does anyone have a Wii classic controller? If so, what's the d-pad like? I mentioned yesterday that I d/l Contra Spirits from the VC and I also gave in to SF II the night before and it's a real pity that the GC d-pad is crap for games like this so I'm hoping the classic controller d-pad is actually anywhere near decent.

[tuffy]

Oh and does anyone have a Wii classic controller? If so, what's the d-pad like?
It's a little stiffer than the DS-Lite/Wiimote d-pad but also a little larger. The size and placement alone make it a big improvement over the vestigial, GBA-style one on the Gamecube controller.

[DiGiKerot]

Oh and does anyone have a Wii classic controller? If so, what's the d-pad like? I mentioned yesterday that I d/l Contra Spirits from the VC and I also gave in to SF II the night before and it's a real pity that the GC d-pad is crap for games like this so I'm hoping the classic controller d-pad is actually anywhere near decent.

The D-pad on the Classic Controller is alright, but not amazing but better than the GC controller. What I don't really like is the travel on the L/R buttons, which I suspect would really annoy me with fighters like SFII. I keep meaning to grab a PS2->GC converter so I can see how one of my six button pads like the NeoGeo or Saturn pads fair. If you've got any decent PS2 controllers it might be an option worth exploring, anyway.

Its probably worth getting a classic controller for N64 games regardless.

[Chacranajxy]

Last game I played was Lost Planet. I finished it and while it has it's problems, it was far better than the reviews that put it in the mid to low 7s, to me at least. Hard though.



Agreed. I'm sensing the God Hand treatment with some reviewers.
That's not to say it isn't hard/frustrating at times though. Mission 7, for instance, was a cunt.
But yeah, this is great stuff.

Oh and does anyone have a Wii classic controller? If so, what's the d-pad like? I mentioned yesterday that I d/l Contra Spirits from the VC and I also gave in to SF II the night before and it's a real pity that the GC d-pad is crap for games like this so I'm hoping the classic controller d-pad is actually anywhere near decent.

It's the best D-pad Nintendo's had... not as good as the Saturn pad, but then, nothing is. The controller feels really good overall and the d-pad is thankfully much better than you might expect.

[Randall Flagg]

Just playing Twilight Princess right now. I'm just fixing to go beat the boss in the Temple of Time (great temple). The Iron Knuckle mini-boss fight was awesome!!

[Johnny]

It's the best D-pad Nintendo's had... not as good as the Saturn pad, but then, nothing is. The controller feels really good overall and the d-pad is thankfully much better than you might expect.

Sounds good. Doesn't it come with some points for the VC store or something?
Plus doesn't it need to be connected to the remote in order to work? I can live with that but who the fuck decided to put the cable on the bottom?

[Chacranajxy]

It's the best D-pad Nintendo's had... not as good as the Saturn pad, but then, nothing is. The controller feels really good overall and the d-pad is thankfully much better than you might expect.

Sounds good. Doesn't it come with some points for the VC store or something?
Plus doesn't it need to be connected to the remote in order to work? I can live with that but who the fuck decided to put the cable on the bottom?

I don't think that the thing came with any Wii points... I threw them out accidentally if it did. And yeah, it's gotta be hooked up to the Wii-mote to work. The cable on the bottom isn't as bothersome as you might think. At first, I was thinking it'd be a definite problem, but so far I've been fine with it.

[ADC]

Sounds good. Doesn't it come with some points for the VC store or something?
Plus doesn't it need to be connected to the remote in order to work? I can live with that but who the fuck decided to put the cable on the bottom?
Bought mine straight from the Mother Brain and got no Wii points for my trouble. The cord isn't really an issue, though. The controller's big enough that it doesn't interfere with gameplay, and since it's connected to the Wii Remote, you can position it such that the cord never does anything to foul up the action.

[Isuzu Inugami]

Final Fantasy XII (will I be in trouble for not ever using half (ahem... the male half...) of my characters?) and Disgaia 2. Not really that far into either of them. After inital horror, I now find I kind of like how Disgaia forces you to reincarnate into the next stage of each class before you can open the stage after that. Those initial stat boosts start to add up, and it doesn't take very long to get close to your old levels.

[SpaceButler]

Last game I played was Lost Planet. I finished it and while it has it's problems, it was far better than the reviews that put it in the mid to low 7s, to me at least. Hard though.

I'd agree that the game deserves at least an even 8.

Hard though.

So true... I started over last night, 'cause I wanted to put it on Hard difficulty. And fuck man, I can't even beat the first freakin' boss!. On Hard he has two babies with him, and the room is so small... It is seriously way to crowded in there on Hard. I don't even wanna know what it's like on Extreme difficulty.

I've only tried fighting him about 10 times though before I almost threw my controller through my TV. I'm gonna give him a good run in a minute here though. I will have that bastard dead before the clock strikes midnight! That's my goal for the night.

[Suwako Moriya]

Katrina's quest in Romancing SaGa 3. However since I've already completed her quest multiple times this is more of a side focus. With the main ideal here being to restore the lost save. Either way I've more or less worked out the direction I want Zhiling the final party member to go in. So it will be a matter of moving forward whenever I find the time.

There is also of course Sword of Mana and Children of Mana whenever I feel like playing portable. If the DS is accessible at the time I'll bias towards Children of Mana for obvious reasons. Also well Tamber is prettier than the Girl from Sword of Mana. My Tamber of course wears white and has a pink hair. Of course she still has a default look for the dialogue box, but go figure.

Tales of the Abyss remains the main focus console wise of course. Plenty of progress has been made in the game. For the record I've mainly been controlling Natalia with some Anise control on the side. So I guess you can tell where my loyalties lie among the six main characters. In any case I'm more focused on Tales of the Abyss than any of the other games I'm playing right now.

Heh I guess that's basically it. Eventually once Tales of the Abyss is done, I'll need to decide what to play next during the break period. Which I guess will be extended if I'm still undecided. I have multiple ideas to consider. However nothing is set in stone. As each titles has reasons for me to play it next and yet reasons for me to put it off until later. I'm not sure what's harder having many choices or only a few choices based on currently accessible titles. Many means more I have to decide between, but I'm also more likely to have something like Tales of the Abyss which is like an automatic play for me. Few means less to decide between, but it also means I'm running out of easy choices.

[jecca-neko]

I keep meaning to grab a PS2->GC converter so I can see how one of my six button pads like the NeoGeo or Saturn pads fair.

If you ever find a decent one let me know. I tried a RedOctane one and it didn't work out well. I was trying to play DDR Mario Mix with my CobaltFlux platforms.

[FigNewton]

I started a Blood Elf Hunter character last night, but server issues are keeping me from playing it for more then 15 minutes at a crack. :grr:

Tell me about it. Last night I chose a new server because of the queues to get into my usual one, and just tried out a new Draenai Shaman. No problems last night.

Tonight on the other hand, I went back to my normal server for my regular character. World server constantly going down. But, it's a launch week. I should expect things like this.

[Nosredna]

For some odd reason I started playing FIFA 2005 (GC) again. I guess I just missed soccer :nervous:. I'm still slowly playing through Twilight Princess (GC) and I should start Final Fantasy III (DS) some time soon as well.

[SpaceButler]

I will have that bastard dead before the clock strikes midnight! That's my goal for the night.

Last nights goal......FAILED. :(

This boss makes me sad. I did give up pretty fast though. Maybe I'll give him another go today.

[indigo0086]

So true... I started over last night, 'cause I wanted to put it on Hard difficulty. And fuck man, I can't even beat the first freakin' boss!. On Hard he has two babies with him, and the room is so small... It is seriously way to crowded in there on Hard. I don't even wanna know what it's like on Extreme difficulty.

I've only tried fighting him about 10 times though before I almost threw my controller through my TV. I'm gonna give him a good run in a minute here though. I will have that bastard dead before the clock strikes midnight! That's my goal for the night.


Besides achievements, do you get anything special when you shoot all the target marks in a stage?

[Johnny]

Finished off Lost Planet 5 minutes ago. Overall it was a great game but a little on the short side. My final playtime was under 6 hours and I only got the game around 48 hours ago.
Still, a nice mix between human and VS battles, the last fight especially being very good and more than a little reminiscent of Zone of the Enders.
Loved the ending as well and hopefully we'll see a sequel before long.

Up next, finishing up MGS Portable OPs, Castlevania PoR and more attempts at those Blue Dragon bosses.
Kaitou Wario the Seven should be shipping today or tomorrow and that's the calm before the storm of the next 2 weeks which includes the 3 Konami PSP shmup comps, iDOLM@STER, Virtua Fighter 5 and Cooking Mama Wii.

[indigo0086]

I thought the fight against bandero, right before the last battle was the best vs battle. It was kind of like what I would want armored core to be like.

[Johnny]

I thought the fight against bandero, right before the last battle was the best vs battle. It was kind of like what I would want armored core to be like.


Yeah that fight was cool. Even if Bandero is just Jester from DMC3 with weird hair...
And I was thinking the same thing about AC myself while playing the game. I've only played a few of the games in the AC series but have been debating getting #4 and was thinking that if the whole game was like the best Lost Planet mech battles, by Christ would it be fucking great!

[ilmaestro]

Reply to posts in the previous thread:

re: Why y'all will love Blue Dragon. The story is pretty good, but it was more your talk about how far to advance jobs and which skills were best to learn before moving onto the next job. Blue Dragon is great for this, and is even kind enough to provide you with a list of which skills are learnt at which level for every job, so you can use that if you want to really plan out your character development without potentially wasting time. The only problem is the fact that Shadow Points (Job specific exp) become insanely easy to accumulate about half way through the game as long as you've thought about at least one character's progression well enough. It made the game super addictive, but also too easy - I haven't found all of the extra content, but I have only had one game over, and that was because I went into a boss battle very low on HP despite the fact that it warns you when you have a boss battle coming up.

I don't get how the new spoiler tags work, so I'm leaving some space before I answer johnny.

















johnny: Yeah, the main skills your physical damage dealers should have are Magic Sword and Charge Attack, the fundamental skills that come with Sword and Monk respectively. You'll have to level up Sword for any characters that don't have that as their main so that they learn the higher levels of Magic Sword, specifically to level 14 for Magic Sword 3 and level 26 for Magic Sword 5. They are the ones that let you use the higher level water attacks. The water attacks are, in order, Water - Watera - Wateras. In Japanese that's ウォーター　ウォータラ　ウォータム©ã‚¹. They have 'sword' ソード on the end of them when you are selecting them as Magic Sword attacks. You'll need to buy/find the respective spell books before you can use the Magic Sword attacks, just as if you were a black mage trying to use regular magic attacks.

You'll also have to level Monk to level 13 to get Charge Attack for anyone whose main isn't Monk.

I had Shu and Marumaro as front line physical attackers, with Zola also on physical attacks when she is in the party but using her Ranged Attack skill - é�*è·�離攻撃 - which Assassin learns at level 26 means you can leave her in the back row. Kluke for Black Magic attacks (although she falls slightly behind the others because she's not in your party, she can still hit something fierce) and Jiro on White Magic. Have the mages back-ups as the 'other' magic that isn't their main. I also levelled everyone up in Assassin to level 14 to get Ninja Posture - å¿�者ã�®ã�“ã�ªã�— - which increases speed to the same as if your category was set to Assassin.

If you need anything else (what particular skills do, etc) just holler. I was over-levelled (or at least had my Shadows over-ranked) through pretty much the whole game I think and I didn't really have any problems with any of the bosses so if my advice turns out to be crap, sorry! ^_^

[Johnny]

That's great thanks. What level were you at when fighting the bosses btw? I have everyone around lvl 33/34 or so.
As for white magic, I don't have anyone using that atm - what symbol is it on the screen where you select your shadows attributes?

[Suwako Moriya]

re: Why y'all will love Blue Dragon. The story is pretty good, but it was more your talk about how far to advance jobs and which skills were best to learn before moving onto the next job. Blue Dragon is great for this, and is even kind enough to provide you with a list of which skills are learnt at which level for every job, so you can use that if you want to really plan out your character development without potentially wasting time.

Ah so that explains it. Tell me does the game make it clear the pros and cons to each skill? Even before you learn them. Because I've found that while the benefits to some skills are obvious there are times one needs to do some research in actual battle. Either way this does make the game sound at least more interesting than it did before.

As for the thing about Shadow Points becoming easy to gain halfway through. Honestly it probably wouldn't bother me that much. It's certainly better than the alternative which is running in circles around a save for several hours or whatever the case may be. Still even in the case of Blue Dragon, I'd probably try my best to vary each character's progression.

I don't get how the new spoiler tags work, so I'm leaving some space before I answer johnny.

If you're talking about how to hide text like in the old forum. Instead of the word "spoiler", you put the word "hide" in brackets. As for the spoiler button the idea is when people click on the question it opens/closes the answer. Be warned if you decide to have multiple questions in the same post, you'll need to change the "1" to something else. The button fails to do that for you.

[Johnny]

I don't know how you'd cope with Blue Dragon though Yuzu, as there isn't many cute girls in it. Sure, Kluke is cute but she's not magical or anything (well, not counting the fact her shadow is a dragon that fights :nervous:). Zola is awesome in a "big and bouncy" way but it's more of a "boys" RPG if you see what I mean.
Enthusiastic young boys > moody, angst ridden teens

[Lovely]

Hmmmmm, just out of curiosity, Would Lovely like Blue Dragon? Er... if it ever gets released over in the US of course.

Lovely's rpg tastes=

characters/ character development/ character interaction > story > gameplay .


Ah and normally, I don't like Toriyama designs, but for some reason Blue Dragon's actually doesn't look that bad to me.

[Suwako Moriya]

I don't know how you'd cope with Blue Dragon though Yuzu, as there isn't many cute girls in it.

Honestly it would depend on how strongly I felt about the girl Kluke that you mentioned. If I liked her enough then it could make up for the lack of cute girls in the party. Also the more enjoyable the actual game is then the more I can well let's just say forgive it for the crime. Heck to be honest for all I know there may come a time where I find a girl in a game to be extremely cute, but end up hating the actual game. If that were to happen and it becomes impossible to force myself to play the game I may end up doing the following. Which is to just search for images online instead and read spoilers.

[ADC]

I'm in the floating ruins; my party are Red Mage Lenna (not the cutest outfit, but the class is too awesome), Mystic Knight Basch, Summoner Galuf, and Beastmaster Faris; and … my GBm is on the charger.

So I moved on to a game that really hit me over the head, Phoenix Wright: Justice for All. I'll be switching between these as each handheld needs the wall juice.

[Josephine]

I went into Gamestop today to find out that they'd been holding a Wii for me for about a month, fully expecting me to buy it despite the fact I hadn't preordered ^_^; I didn't think I went in there often enough to pull favors like that off.

While I didn't leave with a Wii, I left with Phoenix Wright, and before I was halfway home I realized that they'd handed me the wrong one, so when I finally did arrive home, it was with a sparkling copy of Justice For All. Played a little bit of the first episode, but I kind of regret not playing the bonus episode on the first one. I definitely am in the mood for more of this game now, and the first four episodes of the first one were so good. I feel like I should finish the first one officially before I really get going on the second.

[GHardin]

I wish I could finish the first Phoenix Wright....but I traded mine in. :sd: I enjoyed three of the four episodes, but by the time I got to the bonus episode, I felt kind of burned out, not to mention didn't feel like I had much incentive to go backwards. Of course, it's after I trade it in I feel a little regret. :tired: Maybe I'll give 2 a try some time. :)

[Greywing]

Well, if my PC weren't back at the manfacturer being repaired <only a blown PSU, I hope, but it's still under warranty so I figured I'd save myself the cost of a new one> I'd be playing the just-arrived Secret Files Tunguska.

As it is, I'll be continuing my PS1 backlog with Koudelka. I'm on disc four, so I must be close to the end. Decent story, just wish the battles were faster...

[Chacranajxy]

Finally picked up Phoenix Wright - Justice For All... so Ima play that and I'll have impressions later on. OMIGOD I waited so long for this!!

[wakuchan]

Still on Digital Devil Saga 2, still in love with...the whole game really XD Nearly finished with the first run through the EGG Installation. Also playing Super Mario 64 DS, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (I've been playing slowly, but now that JFA is out maybe I'll actually start the last two cases, heh), and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (on the 9th Floor now)

[ilmaestro]

That's great thanks. What level were you at when fighting the bosses btw? I have everyone around lvl 33/34 or so.
As for white magic, I don't have anyone using that atm - what symbol is it on the screen where you select your shadows attributes?
Your levels sound fine, I finished the game with levels around and above 40 (main Shadow categories into the 50s), although to be more specific I think Kluke was level 33 at that stage and everyone else had moved onto about 35/36 in the meantime.

White Magic is the white feather, and it has some awesome skills that go with it (MP regen whilst walking around fields/dungeons, being able to use two items in one turn [only really useful during the early parts of the game], and the main one being charge time reduced to half when casting which basically allows you to charge every spell without affecting turn order), but most importantly you can fairly quickly get to the stage where you can fully heal your entire party by casting one charged heal spell.

[ilmaestro]

re: Why y'all will love Blue Dragon. The story is pretty good, but it was more your talk about how far to advance jobs and which skills were best to learn before moving onto the next job. Blue Dragon is great for this, and is even kind enough to provide you with a list of which skills are learnt at which level for every job, so you can use that if you want to really plan out your character development without potentially wasting time.

Ah so that explains it. Tell me does the game make it clear the pros and cons to each skill? Even before you learn them. Because I've found that while the benefits to some skills are obvious there are times one needs to do some research in actual battle. Either way this does make the game sound at least more interesting than it did before.
Hmm, well it does a pretty good job of explaining what each skill does in the manual. I'd say that if you think about the general game systems enough (and possibly do a little side reading on exactly how character's stats increase and what affects their rate of increase) you would be able to work out which would be the most interesting jobs to level up. I know that while I was going through the game I spent most all of my time in work plotting out which jobs I was going to level once I got home instead of actually working at my job. ^_^

As for the thing about Shadow Points becoming easy to gain halfway through. Honestly it probably wouldn't bother me that much. It's certainly better than the alternative which is running in circles around a save for several hours or whatever the case may be. Still even in the case of Blue Dragon, I'd probably try my best to vary each character's progression.
Yeah, it wasn't a game killer, but it meant that I didn't feel like I was being rewarded with enough challenging content (I now compare all RPGs to FFXII, and in this respect Blue Dragon doesn't even come close), and also made levelling up seem like I would just be doing it for achievements rather than to get more out of the game. It also killed the tension in the last few boss fights a little.

I don't get how the new spoiler tags work, so I'm leaving some space before I answer johnny.

If you're talking about how to hide text like in the old forum. Instead of the word "spoiler", you put the word "hide" in brackets. As for the spoiler button the idea is when people click on the question it opens/closes the answer. Be warned if you decide to have multiple questions in the same post, you'll need to change the "1" to something else. The button fails to do that for you.
Cheers for that!

[ilmaestro]

Hmmmmm, just out of curiosity, Would Lovely like Blue Dragon? Er... if it ever gets released over in the US of course.

Lovely's rpg tastes=

characters/ character development/ character interaction > story > gameplay .


Ah and normally, I don't like Toriyama designs, but for some reason Blue Dragon's actually doesn't look that bad to me.
The characters are ace, the character development is not quite so hot (it's difficult to think of a character who does change much over the course of the game, although there are a couple of interesting things with two of the characters), the character interaction is definitely a good combination of amusing and at times very serious relationships, the story is good fun (if predictable), with some nice foreshadowing and solid background (like three series of books you can read that indirectly discuss characters and themes in the game). The gameplay (although last on your list) is highly addictive, not overly complicated but quite deep at the same time.

I think the designs really benefit from not being all Toriyama, I think when you look at how well the mech and environment designs blend in Blue Dragon, you really appreciate that Artoon have done a good job for Mistwalker, in conjunction with Toriyama overseeing things, and that Ohshima Naoto probably does still have some talent left in him.

[RedComet]

I finally beat Jumpin' Jack Flash in Elite Beat Agents on Sweatin'. I've had my DSL on or in sleep mode for almost a week trying to beat the song. Now it's time for Phoenix Wright 2. Before I start that, I'll try and finish up Disgaea 2 this weekend.

[Suwako Moriya]

Hmm, well it does a pretty good job of explaining what each skill does in the manual. I'd say that if you think about the general game systems enough (and possibly do a little side reading on exactly how character's stats increase and what affects their rate of increase) you would be able to work out which would be the most interesting jobs to level up.

Ah that's good to know. In any case what I'm reading here does give the impression that Blue Dragon really does have the potential to be a good choice for Job class and possibly customization fans in general. I guess the main obstacle besides the backlog is the extra barrier of having to get a new system.

[ilmaestro]

It is genuinely worth buying a new system for (this is first hand testimony, as I only had a PAL 360 I had to buy a Japanese one to play the game), although I had the sweetener of a spangly faceplate and figures to go with the bundle.

[Mateo_home]

I got and played WarioWare: Smooth Moves and I"M DONE...okay, no. There's still microgames to unlock and it's alot of fun to play the stages again. Great music, even the song in Dribble & Spitz' stage that got dubbed over. Yeah, I prefer if they left it in Japanese, but for a guy who prefers Japanese songs over English dubbed ones, I like it. I just don't like the voiceover for the form intros. Too deep. My other favorite character stages are both Wario ones, Mona, 9-volt/18-volt, and Kat/Ana.

However, some have awkward controls. Like some say the squating I lower the Wii mote and it doesn't quite seem to work.

Oh, I played the dancing boss stage standing up. :P

[SpaceButler]

Well against my better judgement I picked up a used copy of Enchanted Arms for my 360. It is pretty mediocre, but for some reason I'm having fun. I think it's cause of the Golems. I love collecting things, and theirs like 100+ of these suckers to get.

The story so far is absolutely lame, and the dialog is so bad it's almost funny. The way they present the conversations is also crappy, and makes them very boring.

But regardless of the shit story and chars I think the game has some decent gameplay. It's certainly on a higher level than the writing. The battle system is interesting, and collecting Golems is a blast I think.

It's kinda a level grinder if you want to get all the new skills and Golems as soon as they become available as you have to save up a buncha cash to buy them. I don't mind level grinding though. It's especially easy to grind in this game, cause of the auto-fight option and they allow you to fast-forward the fighting.

So anyways, I'm having a good time with it in spite of it's obvious flaws. Part of the reason for this is prolly cause I haven't played a RPG for a while, and this is just filling some sort of gap for me. But whatever works I guess. I'll keep playing it as long as it can hold my intrest. Which I hope it'll hold my intrest for a while, because I want the Achievements to buff up my Gamerscore. As it is right now, my Gamerscore is pretty low considering how long I've had a 360.

[Johnny]

I got and played WarioWare: Smooth Moves and I"M DONE...okay, no. There's still microgames to unlock and it's alot of fun to play the stages again. Great music, even the song in Dribble & Spitz' stage that got dubbed over. Yeah, I prefer if they left it in Japanese, but for a guy who prefers Japanese songs over English dubbed ones, I like it. I just don't like the voiceover for the form intros. Too deep. My other favorite character stages are both Wario ones, Mona, 9-volt/18-volt, and Kat/Ana.

However, some have awkward controls. Like some say the squating I lower the Wii mote and it doesn't quite seem to work.

Oh, I played the dancing boss stage standing up. :P

Yeah, some of the stuff like where you have to balance the remote on the palm of your hand doesn't really register too well unless you're pointing directly at the sensor.

Kudos for doing the dancing stage standing up. Have you unlocked the level where it's nothing but doing that? I can't watch it/play it without laughing.

Oh and what is the voiceover in the US version like? In the Japanese one it's a foreigner speaking Japanese so it sounds kinda weird so I was wondering what they did for the Western release.

[Mateo_home]

Yeah, some of the stuff like where you have to balance the remote on the palm of your hand doesn't really register too well unless you're pointing directly at the sensor.

Didn't have too much trouble with that one. For me it was just the Mohawk one and the boxer forms.


Kudos for doing the dancing stage standing up. Have you unlocked the level where it's nothing but doing that? I can't watch it/play it without laughing.

Isn't that what the Temple of Form is for? You mean there was one that doesn't stop at level 3?


Oh and what is the voiceover in the US version like? In the Japanese one it's a foreigner speaking Japanese so it sounds kinda weird so I was wondering what they did for the Western release.
I think it's kind of deep. Here's a sample (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd0PrCEAkHk&mode=related&search=). I didn't know the Japanese version's VO was a foreigner. Didn't catch that one. :P

[Johnny]

That's great thanks. What level were you at when fighting the bosses btw? I have everyone around lvl 33/34 or so.
As for white magic, I don't have anyone using that atm - what symbol is it on the screen where you select your shadows attributes?
Your levels sound fine, I finished the game with levels around and above 40 (main Shadow categories into the 50s), although to be more specific I think Kluke was level 33 at that stage and everyone else had moved onto about 35/36 in the meantime.

White Magic is the white feather, and it has some awesome skills that go with it (MP regen whilst walking around fields/dungeons, being able to use two items in one turn [only really useful during the early parts of the game], and the main one being charge time reduced to half when casting which basically allows you to charge every spell without affecting turn order), but most importantly you can fairly quickly get to the stage where you can fully heal your entire party by casting one charged heal spell.

Well I set Marumaro up with white magic and beat the 4 bosses but the fucking fifth one beat me :sigh: :sigh: :sigh:
So fucking frustrating. I hate to say it but after this happening a couple more times I'm done with the game more than likely. Absolutely loved it up to now but spending 30 mins beating the first 4 and then getting beat by the 5th and having to start all over again is not my idea of fun.

Seems like he's not really resistant to anything either. I take it there's nothing else after him? Oh and any ideas about how close I am to disk 3? I did the first one in 12 hours and I'm 8 hours into the second one so I reckon it should be pretty soon.

[AbeChinchilla]

Baten Kaitos
Gotta' get ready for Baten Kaitos: Origins.

Metroid Prime
Trying to get used to the controls.

Beyond Good & Evil
And lovin' it.

ICO
Still playin' this baby.

Shadow Hearts II: Covenant
It's my fifth playthrough, and I plan to do EVERYTHING, again (did it all in the first). I want to have a nice current save to keep. Since what if something happens to my current file? That's 4 playthroughs of data and scores and limited items. Gone! I'm also playing with Technical Rings (hit areas are smaller and strike areas are tight).

[ilmaestro]

Well, I really would set up someone else with White Magic as Marumaro is the least suited to using magic (to the extent that I don't equip him with any Mag Att+ items, as he learns a great Monk skill that gives increases in Att, Def and Speed the fewer items you have equipped) and is probably (although depending on how you played it it could be Shu) your best physical damage dealer.

You're right, once you beat the one you are on that's it for the boss run.

You're not very far from disc 3, but to give you a comparison for why you might not be finding it as easy as me I spent 44 hours on the first two discs. ^_^ I basically explored everywhere (you know how you can check pretty much every item? I did. Plus I was reading the books, etc) and spent some time levelling my shadow categories.

[Johnny]

Well, I really would set up someone else with White Magic as Marumaro is the least suited to using magic (to the extent that I don't equip him with any Mag Att+ items, as he learns a great Monk skill that gives increases in Att, Def and Speed the fewer items you have equipped) and is probably (although depending on how you played it it could be Shu) your best physical damage dealer.

You're right, once you beat the one you are on that's it for the boss run.

You're not very far from disc 3, but to give you a comparison for why you might not be finding it as easy as me I spent 44 hours on the first two discs. ^_^ I basically explored everywhere (you know how you can check pretty much every item? I did. Plus I was reading the books, etc) and spent some time levelling my shadow categories.

Yeah, Marumaro is my leading powerhouse. With a fully charged attack he's doing around 500 points of damage at times.
I think I'll give the White Magic to Zola as Shu, Kluke and Jiro have that 25MP Black Magic attack which kills that spear throwing bastard and his small friend in around 5-7 goes.

44 hours eh? That's dedication. I've actually been finding the game easy enough before now. This sudden spike in difficulty was more than a little unexpected, plus I can't leave where I am to fight and level up more.

[ADC]

So I made it to the second world and went into this nasty castle that has all manner of good weapons that I can't get and emerged unscathed and leveled up a bit because the perverted old goat had !Control and basically killed the Shield Dragons without lifting a finger while everybody else just stood their with their teeth in their mouths.

Somehow I think you're supposed to follow the dude's advice in the previous town and skip that castle. :nervous: Anyway, I met the moogles. One of them fell in love with Lenna.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

I just finished Bully. Was a fun game. It had everything I loved about GTA minus the part of GTA I hated...cars. 71% done. Not too bad. I'm not going to go for 100%, but I am going to at least finish up the last few optional missions before I let this one rest.

Now...on too Finaly Fantasy XII. :D Five hours into it...well, 20 if I was playing fairly...and enjoying it so far. Need to save such and such person
Penelo now.

[Johnny]

So yeah, I just started FFXII last night and...I'm underwhelmed.
First impressions were good - gorgeous cut scenes and an interesting story, but it just doesn't feel like a FF game to me at all. It's nice I suppose that they've moved the battle system on but I really don't like this real-time battle stuff. Considering Dragon Quest IX is to be an action-RPG (that phrase makes my heart sink) I'm very worried at this point :(

Generally I don't care about voice acting in my RPGs but the voices just don't sound right here and that is part of what makes it feel very un-FF to me.

Maybe I've just been spoilt by Blue Dragon and its, IMO, almost flawlessness but I'm hoping number XIII isn't too much like this (although I am aware that turn based battles are definitely out).

[AbeChinchilla]

So yeah, I just started FFXII last night and...I'm underwhelmed.

*points to sig*

Hey Johnny, have you played any Shadow Hearts games?

[DiGiKerot]

So yeah, I just started FFXII last night and...I'm underwhelmed.

I think FFXII is a decent enough game, but it completely lacks any real kind of narrative pull to it. I put it down back when I got my Wii in order to play Zelda, and I just haven't really had the incentive to go back to it. The lack of a decent narrative just reduces my interest in going back to it.

I've just grabbed Super Probotector, the UK version of Contra III, for the Wii VC. Oh man, that is such an awesome game. I got pwned on the last stage, though.

[SpaceButler]

So yeah, I just started FFXII last night and...I'm underwhelmed.
First impressions were good - gorgeous cut scenes and an interesting story, but it just doesn't feel like a FF game to me at all. It's nice I suppose that they've moved the battle system on but I really don't like this real-time battle stuff.

I feel exactly the same way johnny. I just cannot get into FFXII. The whole style of it just isn't what I personally want from an RPG.

[GHardin]

I don't know, I like the real-time play of FFXII more...I get sick and tired of random battle after random battle...to be able to see everything on the map is something I appreciate a little more.

Though I haven't really gotten back to it in a long while...that was ruined when I got Gears of War the following week. :sd: Of which that was shot when I got Rainbow Six Vegas (well, I beat GoW on Insane and got all 30 tags...so it's not like I abandoned it), etc. etc. :sd:

[Johnny]

I've just grabbed Super Probotector, the UK version of Contra III, for the Wii VC. Oh man, that is such an awesome game. I got pwned on the last stage, though.

Yeah I bought it off the US VC the other night. I take it the UK version still has the robots replacing the humans? Awesome stuff although I really need to grab that classic controller.
But yeah, more of this sort of thing and less of the Tennis and Baseball etc.

[ADC]

I don't know, I like the real-time play of FFXII more...I get sick and tired of random battle after random battle...to be able to see everything on the map is something I appreciate a little more.
I started out thinking that the FF12 battle system was a bit ponderous, but as many here will recall, I ended up playing it over 100 hours, so I think it's just a matter of getting used to it. I don't mind random battles, and I love me some hyper ATB (FFX-2), but it felt like, especially after getting some extra Gambit slots, this ADB system works pretty well at automating the mundane actions of battle without restricting your control of the minutiae of fighting. At the start, though, when it's real-time without Gambits … that really did suck balls.

[ayareiko]

Medieval II: Total War

Playing as Egypt, just completed the campaign

Conquered all of the mid-east, the Balkans, most of North Africa, most of Italy, and parts pf Spain

Destroyed: Hungary, the Turks, the Byzantine Empire, Sicily.

At war with: the Moors, Spain, Papal States, France, & Venice. Thankfully, almost all of them are nearly dead. (The English and Holy Roman Empire has all but disposed of the French. Spain hasn't done s*** this game. And I'd finally broken the back of the Moors, the Papal States, and Venice.)

[Shadow Raven]

Ridge Racer 7 - PS3

[ilmaestro]

Yeah, I sunk the time into it without even hardly realizing. The game just does such a good job of rewarding you for your hard work, either by finding awesome stuff such as random spells in treasure chests or when you learn a new fantastic skill. Plus I find the strange detached commentary voice almost soothing... gold... defeated... nothing.

As for FFXII, it's difficult for me to weigh in too much as I spent the last nine months telling people how great it was, and mostly they've ended up agreeing but I said that I expected some people to not quite get on with the battle system and a character driven (rather than the usual event driven) story. For me it's comfortably the best RPG I've ever played, and probably my second favorite game ever.

edit: phew! Thought this post might not have got here as the forums started stopping for me just as I hit 'add post'. :sd:

[Merr]

So yeah, I just started FFXII last night and...I'm underwhelmed.
First impressions were good - gorgeous cut scenes and an interesting story, but it just doesn't feel like a FF game to me at all. It's nice I suppose that they've moved the battle system on but I really don't like this real-time battle stuff.

I feel exactly the same way johnny. I just cannot get into FFXII. The whole style of it just isn't what I personally want from an RPG.
My biggest problem with the game is the complete lack of a decent story. I swear, the game has absolutely no character development whatsoever--I mean, Penelo had a grand total of five lines throughout the entire game, 4 of which were of her telling Vaan to shut up.

Additionally, the game has zero sense of humor. People kept saying it would be the darkest Final Fantasy story yet, but last time I checked, the simple lack of any humor or playful characterization is not enough to make a story dark and compelling. In fact, the only thing that makes the game "darker" is Ashe (the most well-developed character IMO), and only because she's not a goody-goody magic user like the lead girls from past games.

It's a shame too. The gameplay was amazing.

[jecca-neko]

I got Super Swing Golf yesterday but I just started playing it today. I literally played it for hours. The only problem is, like others have said, the AI is a bit odd. Sometimes it is constantly hitting balls out of bounds, the next moment it is getting Eagles and Birdies. However, I still very much enjoy the game. I find myself looking forward to the unlockables and I like customizing my characters. I like how Hana can go Neko Mimi Mode. :D

[ADC]

O-motherfuckin'-NOZ, dude. Krile is too cute in that nekomimi White Mage outfit. I admit that I'll sort of miss Galuf, especially after giving him the Dancing Dagger and Blue Mage class — he was John Travolta with a beard! But still, I'm all for this change just because of that White Mage outfit, and she got a nice Monk gi, too.

Yay, Square Enix! :D

[Suwako Moriya]

Ah so you have finally experienced the awesomeness of Krile herself. Plus you've still got Lenna with you. Faris can be fun sometimes. So it's all good. You know with three females in the party and only one male I sometimes like to pretend someone has his own harem now. See there are perks to being a light warrior!

[Foxfossil]

Right now I'm Playing growlanser II on the Ps2. I wish they would have released the first one over here but I'm glad working Designs got this game out before they shut down. I am enjoying it.

[Johnny]

I got Super Swing Golf yesterday but I just started playing it today. I literally played it for hours. The only problem is, like others have said, the AI is a bit odd. Sometimes it is constantly hitting balls out of bounds, the next moment it is getting Eagles and Birdies. However, I still very much enjoy the game. I find myself looking forward to the unlockables and I like customizing my characters. I like how Hana can go Neko Mimi Mode. :D

When do you start unlocking characters? I've only played up to the second person in story mode as the rest of my time has been practicing to try and get to grips with the controls.
All I want is Kooh and all manner of revealing costumes :virgin:

[Johnny]

So yeah, I just started FFXII last night and...I'm underwhelmed.

*points to sig*

Hey Johnny, have you played any Shadow Hearts games?

I haven't actually, no. I have an aversion to anything in the RPG genre that looks and plays like it was made after the late 90's (can't remember whether it was me or ADC that came up with the phrase (it was born out of a discussion between us anyway) but 'Caveman RPGs' are how I would describe what I like).

On that note, aside from Blue Dragon, what other traditional (turn based) RPGs where you can see the enemies on the map are there out there?
I don't mind random battles but after the almost perfectness of Blue Dragon, I want some similar RPGs.

[jecca-neko]

I got Super Swing Golf yesterday but I just started playing it today. I literally played it for hours. The only problem is, like others have said, the AI is a bit odd. Sometimes it is constantly hitting balls out of bounds, the next moment it is getting Eagles and Birdies. However, I still very much enjoy the game. I find myself looking forward to the unlockables and I like customizing my characters. I like how Hana can go Neko Mimi Mode. :D

When do you start unlocking characters? I've only played up to the second person in story mode as the rest of my time has been practicing to try and get to grips with the controls.
All I want is Kooh and all manner of revealing costumes :virgin:

You just play through the various story modes and then once you "unlock" them you go into the shop and actually buy them so you can use them. I got Cecilla by going through Hana's first story mode. She has 2 others though, one where
she must be wearing her bathing suit and one where she must be wearing her schoolgirl outfit. This game sure knows the various fetishes out there. ;)

I just started through Scout's game and I'll probably go through Cecilla's after that.

[ilmaestro]

I'm confused, how does Blue Dragon not look like it was made after the late 90s?

[Aiia]

I'm currently playing Golden Sun II on GBA (but on my DS :P ) and its really time consuming because I try not to use the walk through and end up spending lots of time trying to figure out what to do next. But its a great game and I adore all the puzzles. It might actually be the second best game I've ever played on (Zelda IV being my favourite) on a handheld console. Its exceeded all my expectations after Golden Sun I (which was also fun but not like this one!).

[Pachi]

Lately I got a whiff of Zelda nostalgia and I've just the other day started a new game in the newer GBA port of A Link to the Past.

It's obviously been a long time since I've played an old-school Zelda game, so I was surprised by how small the Hyrule map is and how short some of the dungeons were. But things were obviously different back then, like with the dungeons. For one thing, there are no mini-bosses - instead, the temple item must be unlocked out of a huge chest with the boss key, which you sometimes find only five minutes into playing the dungeon. The difficulty's pretty good, though.

For awhile now I've been playing a campaign in Guild Wars: Prophecies, which is very odd for me as I have been a very non-RPG-player for years, much less an MMO-type RPG. Got a Warrior/Elementalist build going which my brother is strongly opposed to, but it's working for me.

[GHardin]

Right now, it seems like all I am doing is playing Guild Wars: Nightfall. I can't really complain about a gift, and honestly, I'm enjoying myself more than I thought I would. The addition of heroes is a welcome change, I have to admit that; it's a nice alternative if you're a loner (like me :tired: ) who has relatively no one to play with (my two friends are still playing the Burning Crusade day and night. :sd: ).

[Suwako Moriya]

It seems in the case of Golden Sun: The Lost Age if you don't use an FAQ it mainly boils down to what psyenergy you have access to. Sometimes all one can do is leave the area and come back later when new psyenergy is obtained. Granted you can also take the difficulty of the enemies into account as a clue too. Although I must admit I did end up using an FAQ to get through the game. I guess I wasn't patient enough to explore each area multiple times. Especially with the need to recharge batteries.

Golden Sun: The Lost Age was certainly interesting in large part due to how the first game ends and the second begins. It's not only a bit surprising, but kind of funny. Yeah the very people Isaac was planning to rescue take it apon themselves to do the task that Isaac was charged with stopping. It never becomes a truly epic game, but it has a certain charm to it. Mai being my favorite character of party 1 and Jenna of party 2. Ie the party of the second game.

Oh yes be warned of a potential way to get yourself trapped. If a character leaves the party, he keeps his equipment on. Thus you may find the item you need to advance the story forward is on the guy who left your party temporarily. This can actually happen. It was a severe over sight not to automatically remove the items.

[Noodle]

My biggest problem with the game is the complete lack of a decent story. I swear, the game has absolutely no character development whatsoever--I mean, Penelo had a grand total of five lines throughout the entire game, 4 of which were of her telling Vaan to shut up.

....and the whole ending monologue. (Ok, I know I know, that's not quite character development. :P ) Lack of story and character development were my complaints with this game from start to finish, so it isn't that I don't agree, but at least I found Balthier to be pretty darn amusing. :neko:

[GHardin]

I ended up renting Red Steel this morning, and all in all, I'm finding it to be an entertaining rental. It's a hell of a lot better than when I rented Call of Duty 3. :sd:

[dejr8bud]

I'm playing God Hand for the PS2. Awesome game. I wish Yakuza's fighting engine would have been at least half as good as this one. God Hand is tough but fun.

Also just started Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops. I haven't played a game in this series since the second one on the PS2 and that game I did't even finish. So far so good with this new PSP version.

[Johnny]

Also just started Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops. I haven't played a game in this series since the second one on the PS2 and that game I did't even finish. So far so good with this new PSP version.

It's such a fucking game. Seriously, this is worth buying a PSP for. I'm right at the end and just finished playing for an hour or so there and it just gets better and better.
Plus there's so much replay value as you can go back and recruit better soldiers and then take them online.

[seca]

After not touching the game for probably over a year I started on a Suikoden IV kick over the weekend. Took me a while to figure out where I had left things off but it looks like it won't be long until I finish this game off, hopefully with all 108 stars. I can't believe I forgot how much fun this series is.

After I'm done with Suikoden IV I can move on to Suikoden Tactics and FFXII and KH II have been kicked back on my list of games to buy next in favor of Suikoden V which I'll be finally picking up next month.

[Johnny]

I finally got round to starting Shinobido Homura on the PSP tonight. Preordered the game back in November and it went missing so it was late December before the replacement turned up and a month or so later I've started :nervous:

Anyway, yeah, very promising so far. The differences between this and the PS2 game (this is a sequel and not a port) are that the missions are a lot shorter and perfect for portable play. Like the console version, they include killing a certain enemy or certain amoutn of enemies, guiding a box or person to safety or finding a box in a level and returning it to the start of that level.
There's also new playable characters too which is a nice touch.

Only bad thing is the lack of an auto-save feature. It would probably help if I was playing the game in English but I can't seem to find the save feature anywhere...

[RedComet]

I'm slowly making my way through Disgaea 2 with two or three missions left. I'm in the beginning of Case 2 in PW2. I then finished the campagin in Rainbow 6: Vegas on the 360. I'll probably want to beat it on Realistic eventually.

[RommieSG]

After watching Ricky Bobby, I got into a NASCAR fix, so I'm playing NASCAR '06 Total Team Control again.

[ADC]

Krile totally saved my ass while Lenna was off playing princess. The third world is remarkably strange, though, and not devoid of moogles! Red Mage Lenna; Ninja Basch; Mystic Knight Faris; Time Mage Krile. Time Mages are awesome in this game, not all lame and pointless like in FFT. And Ninja … well, they kind of suck. Attack power is below standard, defense is poor …

I guess they didn't learn anything from the complete waste of code they wrought upon us with Prince Edward "Edge" Geraldine of Eblan. And it's seriously not worth it to wait for Shadow at the end of the Floating Continent in FF6. One wonders if someone at Square Company Japan really hated Ninja in the early 1990s. Glad they adjusted their attitude in time for the debut of Yuffie Kisaragi, but it's still to be noted that there haven't been Ninja in the Big Series at any point since FFT.

[Ender]

I know I'm a little late to the party for this one, but I just finished Resident Evil 4. My only complaint was all the interactive cutscenes, I don't know how many times I had to go through the one with Krauser before I finally made it, button mashing is not one of my strengths. Outside of that, it was an awesome game, and I'm looking forward to RE 5. I guess I'll go back to FF IX now.

[Suwako Moriya]

So I'm playing Children of Mana and I experience both a drop and rise in challenge in a row. The boss of the desert was a joke, but the boss of the frozen area was extremely annoying. Ah well either way it just tells me the policy of doing a few side quests after each main quest is probably a good thing.

While magic is questionable in this game due to the whole one spirit at a time restriction. Which is stupid when you consider how easily I can switch my weapons. Which is the whole point I do kind of like the weapon system. Partially because of the varying special uses.

The flail to pick up stuff and since I spin it in multiple direction it can knock things way. The hammer because it breaks stuff I used to had to knock objects or enemies into. The sword's deflection can be rather nice. The bow's charm is not likely too great, but the actual attack does have range. Heh I wonder if I'll get anymore weapons later.

[ilmaestro]

REAL TIME WEAPON CHANGE

Sorry.

And yeah, magic is pretty much pointless in the game.

[NickFalzarano]

I just finished Kirby: Squeak Squad for the DS. Don't like it as much as Canvas Curse. Ended up getting all 120 chests, though for the last few I did use a FAQ, simply because I didn't care enough to not use one.

Stuck in the Demon's lab in Alter Code F. I've printed out a walkthough to finally get past that. Doesn't help that I find it hard to know what is a door and what is a wall. Add to that an encounter rate that is pissing me off; (interestingly -or not- it only started bothering me in this dungeon).

Little progress, if any, made in Rayman. Still, I love the Rabbids.

[Suwako Moriya]

And yeah, magic is pretty much pointless in the game.

Well magic is bit better now that I both have a gem that regenerates MP and a gem that restores MP by 3% of the damage I do to enemies. It means I can use spells more often. However it doesn't change the fact magic is severely shafted compared to even other Mana games. I'm enjoying the game, but this remains a major flaw to the system. Mainly due to the double standard.

[ayareiko]

Medieval II Total War

Playing as the Kingdom of Scotland.

The story so far...

Destoyed the English, leaving me in sole control of the British Isles and Normandy.

Got into a war with Spain and took Brittany and forced them to hand over Bordeaux (with my rather large force bearing down it) before agreeing to a ceasefire (the Pope insisted we stop fighting). Took Flanders, giving me all of Northern and Western France.

With Papal insistence, started a war with the Holy Roman Empire, who is just as large as I am. So far, I have conquered Antwerp and now marching toward Hamburg. Also established an alliance with the Poles who are also fighting the HRE.

Made an alliance with the rapidly declining French, who only hold Anjou and Aragon. This got me out of a brief war with Portugal. (Who I didn't want to fight at the moment, as I had bigger fish to fry.)

Using a force originally meant to take Jerusalem in a crusade (the Sicilians beat me there), I am about to start a war with the Kingdom of Milan who controls eastern France, southwestern Germany, and northwestern Italy. And the Pope is not fond of them either, so they will have no problem with me trying to beat the living daylights out of them.

[Aiia]

When I was playing Golden Sun I I actually missed out on a couple of sidequests (Lumpa town and the hidden island) because I saved after a big boss that turned out to be the final boss. :P That means I have to replay the whole game one day in order to complete those.

And in Golden Sun II I actually had to replay a few scenes because of said problem with characters leaving the party bringing their stuff with them. I try to be careful not to save directly after something happens. The game itself is getting more and more interesting though. :D

[Suwako Moriya]

I'm sure a few missed a few things in Golden Sun myself. It also doesn't help I'd had to rely on the password thing. Never try to enter the gold password as it's torture to try and get right. Even if you copy down the password apparently. I ended up using the silver one. For certain in Golden Sun the Lost Age, I failed to get all the Dijinn. Sometimes I wish the game had more inventory space because it seems to fill up pretty fast. At least in my experience.

[Aiia]

Yeah, I've had to drop stuff a lot of stuff like exilirs and herbs in order to pick up new stuff. And the Gold password, thats just a bad joke. I ended up typing it twice because I miswrote one letter the first time and when I put the new game in the machine again the stuff I just had written was gone. It took me an hour to write and input it alltogether. Never again! :(

[NickFalzarano]

Medieval II Total War



What's the Medieval series like? It sounds interesting based on what you've described, but how does it compare to other games, like Civ IV?

[ilmaestro]

Yeah, I suppose 'pointless' was a bit harsh, but I just remember it being so slow as to put me off using it.

[Chacranajxy]

Put off writing anything for a while, but yeah, I was playing Phoenix Wright: Justice for All a few days ago. Let's get it out of the way: Justice for All is better than... nay, superior to the original game. Let me put it this way: I got the game on Friday and started it on Friday night. I finished it on Monday morning. The game is like... 20 hours long. I simply don't play a game for that long over that short of a period of time. Justice for All is absolutely fantastic and if you liked the original game, you need to get this right away.

It's probably a longer game than the original, so don't be fooled by the fact that the game has 4 cases rather than 5 like the first game had. As for how those cases break down... the first one is relatively short since it serves as an introduction. It's a really good case for an intro. The second case is fantastic. The third case isn't quite as good, but it's still really well done. The fourth case is easily the best out of what this game and the previous game had to offer. It's absolutely phenomenal and it's thankfully the longest of the cases as well.

Once again, the characters in the game are extremely well done... Capcom did a very good job with the translation since all the characters have a distinct personality and there's quite a bit of humorous dialogue throughout, just as the first game had. This game introduces the "psyche-lock" system in the investigation sections of the game which requires you to present certain evidence in order to unlock a person's secrets (which invtiably gets you some info you'll need.) It's a pretty simple way of extending the investigation sequences, but it works well enough since it doesn't feel tedious. It essentially puts the "objections" from the courtroom into the investigations. The courtroom battles are also a bit more interesting this time around simply because they're more challenging. For example, if you continually press somebody for information, it can actually backfire and the judge will penalize you. There's a lot more traps that the prosecution sets for you so you have to be on your toes a lot more often. Overall, the gameplay is fantastic once again and it feels improved from the first game. I also think it's worth noting that the music this time around is much better than what the previous game had... it's all suitably dramatic and there's a couple songs that made me stall in certain scenes simply so that I could listen to more of them.

So if you haven't played the first game, should you jump right into this? No. The game has a lot of returning characters, references to cases in the first game, and a couple familiar locations. If you haven't played the first game, the significance of these things is lost. It wouldn't kill you if you skipped the first game, but I really wouldn't recommend it simply because you'd be missing out on a surprising amount of stuff. So yes, I recommend the hell out of Phoenix Wright: Justice for All. It won't change your mind if you didn't like the first game, but it is definitely one of the best games on the DS if you're a fan of the series.


Aaand now I've started on Final Fantasy V Advance (started yesterday.) About 5 or 6 hours in and I'm really liking it. Definitely liking the job system since it adds quite a bit of strategy to the fights and I'm surprised by how good the story is (mainly because I was expecting something on the level of FFI or something like that.) I'm going to stick with this one and I'll definitely have it finished sometime before VI Advance is out.

Now to find a damn DS Lite.

[Zanza Hiro]

blah, i am totally 2+ months late so i'm gonna be like the uncool kid playing Resistance when every1 has moved on BUT i just opened my PS3 a few days ago and am totally loving Resistance!!!

gawd, after listening to people rave about their PS3 for 2 months, i was like "how good can this black box be?" well, i have my answer. the PS3 is friggin sweet! Resistance is gorgeous, gonna try RR7 this weekend after work

p.s. kinda OT but, how come the PS3 has no theme settings? how do i change the color of the background? want to change it to blue to match my PSP

[ADC]

Aaand now I've started on Final Fantasy V Advance (started yesterday.) About 5 or 6 hours in and I'm really liking it. Definitely liking the job system since it adds quite a bit of strategy to the fights and I'm surprised by how good the story is (mainly because I was expecting something on the level of FFI or something like that.) I'm going to stick with this one and I'll definitely have it finished sometime before VI Advance is out.
Welcome to the 16-bit madness. If I may make a recommendation, and you should feel free to ignore it (at your peril!!), as soon as you can have Red Mages, switch all four characters to the Red Mage class. It takes longer than any other class to master, but it's soooooooooo worth it.

[Chacranajxy]

Aaand now I've started on Final Fantasy V Advance (started yesterday.) About 5 or 6 hours in and I'm really liking it. Definitely liking the job system since it adds quite a bit of strategy to the fights and I'm surprised by how good the story is (mainly because I was expecting something on the level of FFI or something like that.) I'm going to stick with this one and I'll definitely have it finished sometime before VI Advance is out.
Welcome to the 16-bit madness. If I may make a recommendation, and you should feel free to ignore it (at your peril!!), as soon as you can have Red Mages, switch all four characters to the Red Mage class. It takes longer than any other class to master, but it's soooooooooo worth it.

I've got one guy on Red Mage and it's awesome. Being able to use black and white magic is a godsend.

[Suwako Moriya]

Yeah, I suppose 'pointless' was a bit harsh, but I just remember it being so slow as to put me off using it.

As harsh as pointless may be the magic system in this game is pretty close to being pointless due to the double standard. Because of it I mainly rely on Wisp and Luna for extra healing. I'd be more inclined to use the other spirits if I could freely alter my strategy. In terms of being slow I'd have to agree in the long run. The actual charge time isn't that long. What makes it slow is the whole aiming process involved in the attack version. First charge the spell, then unleash it, then wait for the spirit to activate it's attack, and hope something gets hit. Way too many steps involved. Especially for the type of battle system the game has.

Speaking of Mana magic systems and how Children of Mana uses a restricted version of the Sword of Mana magic system. I do find it interesting how in Sword of Mana "attack" magic is based on your current weapon. It kind of makes magic and weapons go hand in hand. Plus I guess it means if my spell misses I can blame the weapon. :>

On another note I'd be making more progress in Sword of Mana, but I'm stuck in the desert right now. I need to find Amanda and the birds Of course the area I can actually explore is very limited and everything is a dead end. I guess I'm probably over looking something either that or the game is requiring me to be all knowing. I'll check some type of FAQ later perhaps.

[ADC]

Well, I've reached the point that I have always hated about RPGs: I'm not leveled enough to proceed, and once the GBm's off the charger, I have to slog through battle after battle to get my persons up to code. On the other hand, I've been polishing off a few job classes and ran the numbers I got from a FAQ only to discover that, once I class-change Faris back to Freelancer, she's going to über the world into submission. Advice to Cha-pii: Once you're done with Red Mages, you want to also master Mystic Knight and Ranger with everybody.

Ah, yes: Black Mage Lenna (not very cute); Thief Basch; Knight Faris; White Mage Krile (the most adorable thing ever rendered in sprites). For the first time in my whole time playing the game, I have a traditional Final Fantasy party!

[Suwako Moriya]

Well, I've reached the point that I have always hated about RPGs: I'm not leveled enough to proceed, and once the GBm's off the charger, I have to slog through battle after battle to get my persons up to code.

I'm not sure how far you are in the game or what your current levels are. However for the heck of it I just checked my save on the PS version and all four members at level 60. Meaning my level was about the same or lower when I beat the game. Of course remembering the exact classes I had everyone use, how easy/hard each boss was, etc is another story.

[Johnny]

blah, i am totally 2+ months late so i'm gonna be like the uncool kid playing Resistance when every1 has moved on BUT i just opened my PS3 a few days ago and am totally loving Resistance!!!

gawd, after listening to people rave about their PS3 for 2 months, i was like "how good can this black box be?" well, i have my answer. the PS3 is friggin sweet! Resistance is gorgeous, gonna try RR7 this weekend after work

p.s. kinda OT but, how come the PS3 has no theme settings? how do i change the color of the background? want to change it to blue to match my PSP


Glad to hear you're enjoying your PS3 Zanza.
As for the theme settings, the only thing it does at the minute is change colour depending on the time of day you are playing (i.e. it turgradually turns darker as the day goes on until it's black during the night) but a later firmware update will allow individual backgrounds/themes etc like the PSP has.

What's your username btw?

[Zanza Hiro]

thx johnny

i have only tested games and a couple bluray movies so far, have yet to hook my PS3 up to internet. will do it by this weekend tho, hopefully i can get the same name as my xbox360 tag, ZanzaHiro

[Johnny]

Put off writing anything for a while, but yeah, I was playing Phoenix Wright: Justice for All a few days ago. Let's get it out of the way: Justice for All is better than... nay, superior to the original game.

True that. I played up to the second case when the game first came out in Japan last year and over the past week or so have picked it up again with the second case. I love the way it features loads of new stuff (characters, scenarios, psyche lock etc) whilst still being the same ol Phoenix Wright we know and love.
When things get heated at the end of case and objections are flying about left, right and centre, the game genuinely conveys as much emotion and anxiousness as any good action game out there.

Really looking forward to the upcoming #4 which is the first to be specifically developed for the DS (although it's unlikely that the JP version will feature English text but I might be tempted anyway with the sweet preorder goodies).

[ADC]

I'm not sure how far you are in the game or what your current levels are. However for the heck of it I just checked my save on the PS version and all four members at level 60. Meaning my level was about the same or lower when I beat the game. Of course remembering the exact classes I had everyone use, how easy/hard each boss was, etc is another story.
That's my holy cow moment of the day. My persons are closing in on level 40. I've found two of the four tablets and tried the Fork Tower, where I was whacked with prejudice. I mean, I never had a chance and that was the first floor!

Well! I guess that means I have plenty of time to master some jobs!

[ilmaestro]

Yeah, I suppose 'pointless' was a bit harsh, but I just remember it being so slow as to put me off using it.

As harsh as pointless may be the magic system in this game is pretty close to being pointless due to the double standard. Because of it I mainly rely on Wisp and Luna for extra healing.
It's funny you should say that, as I used only healing magic through pretty much the whole of Dawn of Mana, too.

[Suwako Moriya]

It's funny you should say that, as I used only healing magic through pretty much the whole of Dawn of Mana, too.

Ah so I guess this means Dawn of Mana is pretty meh when it comes to magic too. I have to wonder how it compares to other Mana games. When I griped about the double standard of Children of Mana at another forum, someone responded that the last good magic system in regards to Mana games was in Seiken Densetsu 3. Sadly the person is probably right.

[Azumangaman]

Put off writing anything for a while, but yeah, I was playing Phoenix Wright: Justice for All a few days ago. Let's get it out of the way: Justice for All is better than... nay, superior to the original game.

True that. I played up to the second case when the game first came out in Japan last year and over the past week or so have picked it up again with the second case. I love the way it features loads of new stuff (characters, scenarios, psyche lock etc) whilst still being the same ol Phoenix Wright we know and love.
When things get heated at the end of case and objections are flying about left, right and centre, the game genuinely conveys as much emotion and anxiousness as any good action game out there.

Really looking forward to the upcoming #4 which is the first to be specifically developed for the DS (although it's unlikely that the JP version will feature English text but I might be tempted anyway with the sweet preorder goodies).

Damn...so I should buy this soon?
Or maybe when I finally finish number 1...
Nah, I'll get it soon.

[Kinomoto_Shinji]

Got the Japanese version of Supernova. Song list is 10x better, plus you get more then 20 crappy songs to start with. Although I'm eagerly awaiting a save file with everything unlocked. Fuck Stellar Dance Mode. Give me all the songs, damn it! Only in Max2 did I unlock stuff fairly. Every other game has been too time consuming to unlock stuff.

[Chacranajxy]

Managed to score a black DS Lite today (4 of these sold in the span of 5 minutes at the store. Holy shit.) Not sure if I should hang onto this or get the white one... the black seems to look really slick (haven't opened it) from the pictures, but I'm not sure which looks better in actuality. I like black gaming stuff though.

[DiGiKerot]

Managed to score a black DS Lite today (4 of these sold in the span of 5 minutes at the store. Holy shit.) Not sure if I should hang onto this or get the white one... the black seems to look really slick (haven't opened it) from the pictures, but I'm not sure which looks better in actuality. I like black gaming stuff though.

Keep the black. I've heard reports of the white ones cracking along the hinges, but I've never heard of a black DS with a cracked hinge. I'm inclined to think the plastic used in the white DS is brittler than the black.

The negative side is that it shows up finger smudges more easily than on the white. Not really a huge deal.

[Johnny]

Managed to score a black DS Lite today (4 of these sold in the span of 5 minutes at the store. Holy shit.) Not sure if I should hang onto this or get the white one... the black seems to look really slick (haven't opened it) from the pictures, but I'm not sure which looks better in actuality. I like black gaming stuff though.

I'm going for a while DSL when I can afford it. I'm happy enough with my old shape one but the Lite just lookfar more sexy and will compliment my Wii's nicely.

As for what I'm playing, nothing really. A little bit of Warioware GC, a little MGS Portable Ops and a little Phoenix Wright: JfA.
I'm in a bit of a lull at the minute as there haven't been any new releases of note sice Lost Planet last week and I can't handle these long periods of no new releases.
Wario the Seven has shipped from YA but if it hasn't arrived by tomorrow it looks like it's yet another YA package gone missing :sigh:
Plus my Salamander/Twinbee/Parodius Portable preorders have gone to "searching from suppliers" with YA which is really fucking annoying as I've had these preordered for quite a while.
iMAS should ship later today.

Can't fucking wait for Feb to start as we're back into regular releases for the next couple of months.
If I could afford to I'd be going shopping tomorrow for some cheap PS2/PSP games but I'm scared to put anything more on my credit card :(

[DiGiKerot]

Plus my Salamander/Twinbee/Parodius Portable preorders have gone to "searching from suppliers" with YA which is really fucking annoying as I've had these preordered for quite a while.

Thats why I don't use YA for game pre-orders. DVDs and CDs are fine, as are games they already have in stock, but game pre-orders are an utter crapshoot. I certainly wouldn't want to be pre-ordering any LE games with them. Reputed high demand for the Konami retro-shooter packs might result in them taking a while to get stock as well.

[Johnny]

Plus my Salamander/Twinbee/Parodius Portable preorders have gone to "searching from suppliers" with YA which is really fucking annoying as I've had these preordered for quite a while.

Thats why I don't use YA for game pre-orders. DVDs and CDs are fine, as are games they already have in stock, but game pre-orders are an utter crapshoot. I certainly wouldn't want to be pre-ordering any LE games with them. Reputed high demand for the Konami retro-shooter packs might result in them taking a while to get stock as well.


I don't know why I keep using them, I really don't. They are easily the cheapest around though and offer free shipping.
If Wario goes missing and those 3 comps aren't shipping by the middle of next week, YA can go fuck themselves.

[Chacranajxy]

Managed to score a black DS Lite today (4 of these sold in the span of 5 minutes at the store. Holy shit.) Not sure if I should hang onto this or get the white one... the black seems to look really slick (haven't opened it) from the pictures, but I'm not sure which looks better in actuality. I like black gaming stuff though.

I'm going for a while DSL when I can afford it. I'm happy enough with my old shape one but the Lite just lookfar more sexy and will compliment my Wii's nicely.


I'm sticking with the black... opened it up and it's pretty fucking nice. The screens on this are infinitely better than what the fat DS had.

[jecca-neko]

Got the Japanese version of Supernova. Song list is 10x better, plus you get more then 20 crappy songs to start with. Although I'm eagerly awaiting a save file with everything unlocked. Fuck Stellar Dance Mode. Give me all the songs, damn it! Only in Max2 did I unlock stuff fairly. Every other game has been too time consuming to unlock stuff.

I'm surprised to hear you complain about that. It doesn't really take that long to unlock everything in a DDR game. Maybe a couple hours worth of game time. That's a drop in the bucket compared to how many hours I put in each game.

I hear JP Supernova has some Festival songs. This is good as Festival is the mix I skipped. I did enjoy Strike so I'll pick up Supernova at some point. Probably not until later this year though.

[Kikaroo]

Been pretty busy, so haven't gotten back to FFXII yet. Haven't picked any new games up, beyond WoW: TBC. So mostly been playing that. Started a Draenei shammy and took my mage and pally to Outlands. And got my hunter ever closer to joining them. :D

[Johnny]

So, in a bid to curb my lull I did a few things today. Firstly started playing Wing Island on the Wii again. Still a lot of fun in small doses but too shallow and at times frustrating. I know it's down for a Euro release sometime in March but I'm not too sure on price. If I were buying again I probably wouldn't pay full price for it this time around.

Also started (finally!) FFIII DS. A lot more impressed with it than FFXII. Nice and old school (obviously) although it does have that where do I go next/pretty damn hard thing as most old school RPGs do.

Finally I bought a game today I've put off getting for ages - Black PS2. I didn't want to pay full price for a game in a genre I'm usually wary of (FPS) so for £15 I thought it was worth a gamble. Absolutely loving it though! Between this, Resistance and Red Steel, I think I'm slowly warming to the FPS genre.

[ADC]

Also started (finally!) FFIII DS. A lot more impressed with it than FFXII. Nice and old school (obviously) although it does have that where do I go next/pretty damn hard thing as most old school RPGs do.
I'll tell you what I really like about FF3: persistent dual-wield. That wingnut Colts dude in the NFL Thread will tell you, the best defense is a good offense. And while he's going to discover how wrong he is as it pertains to football next Sunday, it definitely holds up in FF3.

Hmm … I really have to get back into FF3 once I'm done with FF5. No, that's not true; FF6 is right around the corner. Priorities have been straightened.

[Johnny]

Hmm … I really have to get back into FF3 once I'm done with FF5. No, that's not true; FF6 is right around the corner. Priorities have been straightened.

About VI - is the game/story really that good? It's one of the FF games I haven't played but have heard very good things about it.
Worth picking up going by my RPG tastes?

[ADC]

About VI - is the game/story really that good? It's one of the FF games I haven't played but have heard very good things about it.
Worth picking up going by my RPG tastes?
There are those who say it's the best RPG ever, and those who say it's the best FF ever, and those who say it's the best SNES game ever. I rank it #2 in all of those categories behind FF7, FF7, and Mario RPG, respectively. Excellent story; excellent characters; far and away the best villain in any genre, any platform. So yeah, sell plasma, sell a kidney, sell yourself to Loafy if you have to, but make sure you pick this one up.

[ilmaestro]

It's funny you should say that, as I used only healing magic through pretty much the whole of Dawn of Mana, too.

Ah so I guess this means Dawn of Mana is pretty meh when it comes to magic too. I have to wonder how it compares to other Mana games.
Yeah, it was pretty 'meh' for me, but I've so far only played through the story mode once on 'Normal' difficulty, and the game is set up for multiple playthroughs and playing through the arena battle mode by having a very arcade style scoring system, so I guess there's a small chance magic may have more point on the higher difficulties.

And not very much at all in Dawn compares directly to previous games. :)

[Johnny]

So anyone picked up Hotel Dusk yet? I was down for getting it before release but kinda had a change of mind just before it came out. Watching the 1up show and seeing how excited they were about it has got me thinking I need it again though.
I know a few others here said they were gonna get it and I'm looking for a few impressions.

From what I've read it seems to be what I was expecting plus it's cheap online so I'm just looking to be pushed off the fence really.

[Jarred]

So anyone picked up Hotel Dusk yet?
I'm tryin!! I want to pick it up at EBGames/Gamestop because I have credit, but something happened and the stores around me either only got a couple copies (and are now all gone) or they had no idea it was due out because it "wasn't in [their] system". I may head up north to where some are in stock this weekend and I'll let you know.

I'm surprised you backed out, Mr. I Love Odd DS Games. :D Although this doesn't sound very odd, but just a great story adventure game.

[Johnny]

I'm surprised you backed out, Mr. I Love Odd DS Games. :D Although this doesn't sound very odd, but just a great story adventure game.


Yeah I dunno I just thought it might come off as too serious. I mean I love Phoenix Wright and stuff partly because they don't take themselves too seriously (if PW was all in-depth and full of lawyer jargon, who would really enjoy it).

I think I'll just go for it as I can see it disappearing forever before long. Has to be worth £17.

[DiGiKerot]

So anyone picked up Hotel Dusk yet?

Not yet. It's on order, so if I'm lucky I should get it next week.

Whether it'll get much play over games which might just have left America for the UK today I don't know :sd:

[Johnny]

So anyone picked up Hotel Dusk yet?

Not yet. It's on order, so if I'm lucky I should get it next week.

Where did you order from? VG+? That's who I'm thinking of going with but I'll definitely order right now if it's on order.

Whether it'll get much play over games which might just have left America for the UK today I don't know :sd:

iMAS I presume? Do you need to register with UPS or something to track online? I'm getting errors from the frontpage...

[DiGiKerot]

Where did you order from? VG+? That's who I'm thinking of going with but I'll definitely order right now if it's on order.


NCSX. Its where I end up getting most my imports these days, as I like the typically uber-quick shipping.


iMAS I presume? Do you need to register with UPS or something to track online? I'm getting errors from the frontpage...

Funny thing - they actually ship GEM by USPS rather than UPS, so try here (http://www.usps.com/). Yeah, that confused me too :sd:

[Johnny]

Where did you order from? VG+? That's who I'm thinking of going with but I'll definitely order right now if it's on order.


NCSX. Its where I end up getting most my imports these days, as I like the typically uber-quick shipping.

Ah, cool. Yeah I'll be going to them for Japanese PSP stuff from now on as YA have fucked up one too many times for my liking :sigh:


iMAS I presume? Do you need to register with UPS or something to track online? I'm getting errors from the frontpage...

Funny thing - they actually ship GEM by USPS rather than UPS, so try here (http://www.usps.com/). Yeah, that confused me too :sd:

Thanks for that :)
"Your item left the United States from KENNEDY AMC at 10:10 AM on January 27, 2007"

Woohoo! :D

[DiGiKerot]

Thanks for that :)
"Your item left the United States from KENNEDY AMC at 10:10 AM on January 27, 2007"

Woohoo! :D

Bwahahahaha! Mine left the US 13 HOURS EARLIER than yours! IN YOUR FACE JOHNNY! :>

[Fieri]

So anyone picked up Hotel Dusk yet? I was down for getting it before release but kinda had a change of mind just before it came out. Watching the 1up show and seeing how excited they were about it has got me thinking I need it again though.
I know a few others here said they were gonna get it and I'm looking for a few impressions.

From what I've read it seems to be what I was expecting plus it's cheap online so I'm just looking to be pushed off the fence really.


I have it and I've started playing. Or rather, I'm playing right now but I've just started. ;)

[Johnny]

Thanks for that :)
"Your item left the United States from KENNEDY AMC at 10:10 AM on January 27, 2007"

Woohoo! :D

Bwahahahaha! Mine left the US 13 HOURS EARLIER than yours! IN YOUR FACE JOHNNY! :>

Damn, I was gonna say it might get to me quicker but seeing as you're in England and it'll likely go there first I'll probably get it a day or so after you as it'll have to go US-Eng-NI. Bastard! :D

I'd laugh if I got it first though :>

[DiGiKerot]

I'd laugh if I got it first though :>

Knowing my luck, there'll be no-one in to sign for it the day they try to deliver :(

[Johnny]

I'd laugh if I got it first though :>

Knowing my luck, there'll be no-one in to sign for it the day they try to deliver :(

Shit. Right, mum's on house arrest for the week just in case.

Oh yeah, did they mark yours down? IIRC they usually do with smaller packages but I asked them anyway since this is so bloody huge and they said they would.

[ColoradoJim]

So anyone picked up Hotel Dusk yet?

I picked up my copy yesterday but it will be a while before I get around to playing it as it joins quite a few DS games in my backlog. At least for me, I find that preordering stuff at my local Gamecrazy works pretty well for me as far as getting stuff in time. I did have to cancel a long standing Gamecrazy preorder for Chulip with the news that it was a Gamestop exclusive the other day. But for the most part they have been quite good for me.

I plan to finish the 1st Phoenix Wright game, play a different DS game after that before going to Phoenix Wright 2 with Hotel Dusk sometime after that.

[DiGiKerot]

Oh yeah, did they mark yours down? IIRC they usually do with smaller packages but I asked them anyway since this is so bloody huge and they said they would.

Completely forgot to ask :sd:

Oh well, it's only money...

[Johnny]

Oh yeah, did they mark yours down? IIRC they usually do with smaller packages but I asked them anyway since this is so bloody huge and they said they would.

Completely forgot to ask :sd:

Oh well, it's only money...

:D They probably will I'd say. I'd be more concerned with customs opening it and looking inside though as sticking a value of £18 on something that cost over £100 is a little risky. Not to mention all those scantily clad underage girls (the game/figures I mean, not my bedroom :D )...

[DiGiKerot]

:D They probably will I'd say. I'd be more concerned with customs opening it and looking inside though as sticking a value of £18 on something that cost over £100 is a little risky. Not to mention all those scantily clad underage girls (the game/figures I mean, not my bedroom :D )...

*shrug* They didn't open my 360, my Sakura Taisen V LE or my My-HiME LE. I don't really see them opening it.

[Johnny]

:D They probably will I'd say. I'd be more concerned with customs opening it and looking inside though as sticking a value of £18 on something that cost over £100 is a little risky. Not to mention all those scantily clad underage girls (the game/figures I mean, not my bedroom :D )...

*shrug* They didn't open my 360, my Sakura Taisen V LE or my My-HiME LE. I don't really see them opening it.


Hmm yeah I guess so. I mean I've had a PS3 sneak by undetected and valued at £15 or something so if I got that in, all should be fine.

I'm just trying to make you sweat it out anyway :D

[Mateo_home]

So anyone picked up Hotel Dusk yet?

Yes, and at Wal-Mart of all places because Gamestop was selling it for $5 more. Which is kind of silly because they didn't get any in stock because they said it wasn't a popular game. If it's not popular, why charge more?

As for the game, I'm at the beginning where Kyle broke his suitcase key and I'm trying to get some "thick wire". And by the way you hold the DS, it really is a "novel" game. :P

[ADC]

Yes, and at Wal-Mart of all places because Gamestop was selling it for $5 more. Which is kind of silly because they didn't get any in stock because they said it wasn't a popular game. If it's not popular, why charge more?
Because they're Gamestop and they're uncool like that. In fact, because games is a low-margin business and around 90 percent Gamestop/EB's total business is the games software itself (except right around a console launch), they will stick to or exceed MSRP on pretty much every title in order to increase their profits. It's not evil, it's just business. (I'm still planning to pick FF6 up at TRU or Worst Buy, where they're probably selling it for $30 instead of Gamestop's $35.)

[Mateo_home]

Because they're Gamestop and they're uncool like that. In fact, because games is a low-margin business and around 90 percent Gamestop/EB's total business is the games software itself (except right around a console launch), they will stick to or exceed MSRP on pretty much every title in order to increase their profits. It's not evil, it's just business. (I'm still planning to pick FF6 up at TRU or Worst Buy, where they're probably selling it for $30 instead of Gamestop's $35.)

I only checked there because Best Buy didn't have it in. And according to their website, they're getting it in a week later.

Now that I think about it, I don't think Hotel Dusk is "unpopular", I thnik it's one of those games like Trauma Center where they don't expect a lot of gamers want it, but they do. :P

[Josephine]

Because they're Gamestop and they're uncool like that. In fact, because games is a low-margin business and around 90 percent Gamestop/EB's total business is the games software itself (except right around a console launch), they will stick to or exceed MSRP on pretty much every title in order to increase their profits. It's not evil, it's just business. (I'm still planning to pick FF6 up at TRU or Worst Buy, where they're probably selling it for $30 instead of Gamestop's $35.)

I only checked there because Best Buy didn't have it in. And according to their website, they're getting it in a week later.

Now that I think about it, I don't think Hotel Dusk is "unpopular", I thnik it's one of those games like Trauma Center where they don't expect a lot of gamers want it, but they do. :P


I got my copy of Hotel Dusk at Gamestop on Wednesday (they only got two copies in and held one for me because I'd tried to preorder last week and couldn't). I was wondering why it was $35, usually that honor is only reserved for popular 1st party games and things like Final Fantasy. Pokemon D/P will probably be marked up to $40, though.

Anyway, I haven't gotten to play it yet because I said I'd let my roommate have a go at it first. He alternately loves and hates it, but the hate mostly stems from disliking the DS. He says it's got a good story and the puzzles wind up being a lot of fun, plus apparently there's a few ways to end/game over by doing silly stuff, which he seems to be taking advantage of.

[ADC]

apparently there's a few ways to end/game over by doing silly stuff, which he seems to be taking advantage of.
This goes a long way toward convincing me. I used to love finding the stupidest possible ways to die in Shadowgate and DéjÃ* Vu. I think my favorite was punching the mugger a fourth time. :evil:

[Fieri]

Yes, and at Wal-Mart of all places because Gamestop was selling it for $5 more. Which is kind of silly because they didn't get any in stock because they said it wasn't a popular game. If it's not popular, why charge more?
Because they're Gamestop and they're uncool like that. In fact, because games is a low-margin business and around 90 percent Gamestop/EB's total business is the games software itself (except right around a console launch), they will stick to or exceed MSRP on pretty much every title in order to increase their profits. It's not evil, it's just business. (I'm still planning to pick FF6 up at TRU or Worst Buy, where they're probably selling it for $30 instead of Gamestop's $35.)

I picked up my copy from Amazon. ;)

[Chacranajxy]

So I like me some DS Lite and I also like me some Final Fantasy V Advance. How much do I like me these things? Well... I played 7 hours of FFVA today. That's a lot. I think I'm at the end of the game now since it really seems like I'm just doing various preparations for the finale.

[ADC]

So I like me some DS Lite and I also like me some Final Fantasy V Advance. How much do I like me these things? Well... I played 7 hours of FFVA today. That's a lot. I think I'm at the end of the game now since it really seems like I'm just doing various preparations for the finale.
That didn't take long, did it? I'm about to collect the fourth tablet at 30 hours, so you're ahead of my pace. But then, I think I only put in about three hours today. Maybe tonight or tomorrow, I'll be Freelancing my way to Exdeath, and woe be him because my girlies are going to kick his Golbez-wannabe ass seven ways to Sunday.

[Chacranajxy]

So I like me some DS Lite and I also like me some Final Fantasy V Advance. How much do I like me these things? Well... I played 7 hours of FFVA today. That's a lot. I think I'm at the end of the game now since it really seems like I'm just doing various preparations for the finale.
That didn't take long, did it? I'm about to collect the fourth tablet at 30 hours, so you're ahead of my pace. But then, I think I only put in about three hours today. Maybe tonight or tomorrow, I'll be Freelancing my way to Exdeath, and woe be him because my girlies are going to kick his Golbez-wannabe ass seven ways to Sunday.

Yeah, my playtime right now is about 17 hours... I've spent a decent amount of time levelling and/or racking up ABP for my jobs. I'm still shocked that I missed out on this game on Final Fantasy Anthology partially because I have that compilation and never bothered to put the FFV disc in. I'm pretty much in RPG heaven right now since I've been playing the hell out of this, I still have FFIII to go through on the DS, FFVI Advance is out in a little more than a week, and Rogue Frickin' Galaxy is out on Tuesday.


On a completely unrelated note, I'm thinking I'll have to pick up Hotel Dusk sooner rather than later. I watched Friday's 1UP show and they had a segment that absolutely sold me on the game. It looks like exactly what I want. The only thing preventing me from picking that up is the fact that I'm picking up Vista this coming week which is teh expensive. I'll probably have to pick up the retail version of that since the OEM apparently has quite a significant limitation on how many times you can reinstall it after hardware changes.

[Chacranajxy]

By the way, does anyone know what hardware is necessary to get the DS hooked up to a TV? I've got my broken fat DS lying around and if I can use it for that... then I've got a use for it still.

[Johnny]

By the way, does anyone know what hardware is necessary to get the DS hooked up to a TV? I've got my broken fat DS lying around and if I can use it for that... then I've got a use for it still.

I don't think there is one to be honest. Had a quick look at PA and they don't seem to have anything...

[Suwako Moriya]

All right then I've completed Tales of the Abyss and yes I consider it a pretty awesome game over all. As for comments beyond that well they'll be put in the thread for the series. In a sense I've already made some comments in that thread anyway, but go figure.

In any case while I ponder what I should play next console wise, I can use that time to focus more on the portable side. Ie playing Sword of Mana and Children of Mana. Assuming of course I'm not lazy when it comes to playing either game. Granted it's also possible it may not be that long before I decide what I want to play next.

[Johnny]

Still plugging away at Black and still absolutely loving it.
Also bought two more VC games - Soldier Blade and Victory Run for the PC Engine.

Soldier Blade is easily one of the best shmups I've played. Even better than Super Star Soldier which was released a few weeks ago. Great music too.

Victory Run isn't quite as great but is a decent enough Outrun clone.

I'm loving all these great PCE releases as I never owned one. The games I've played so far look great (hard to believe they're 8-bit. Suppose that's where the 16-bit graphics chip comes in to play) and there have been a couple of Japanese games announced which I'm really looking forward to.
I hear there's a few dating sim/ecchi games on it too so maybe they'll get released on the JP VC :)

[Johnny]

Don't know where to put this but if any non-Euro people can help I'd really appreciate it.
Basically I want to get my fix of loli dating-sim (http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/date-japanese-grade-school-girls-on-yer-psp-163620.php) by way of the Sweet Paradise UMD. It's only £5 or so at Playasia but unfortunately they won't ship to Europe and I don't feel like paying £20 or so on eBay so if anyone is making a Playasia order anytime soon and wouldn't mind adding this to their order and shipping it on I'd be eternally grateful.
I would, of course, cover postage costs from PA to you and from you to me and a little bit extra for the hassle.

Any takers?

[Chacranajxy]

Vile, disgusting and gross. But, who's to blame? The parents for robbing these girls of a childhood, Success for putting out this garbage or society for looking the other way? One thing is for sure, it's a shame that the PSP gets dragged into this trash.

If I'm placing an order at Play-Asia anytime soon, I'll keep it in mind. Not sure if I actually will be placing an order in the near future though, but yeah.

[jecca-neko]

Don't know where to put this but if any non-Euro people can help I'd really appreciate it.
Basically I want to get my fix of loli dating-sim (http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/date-japanese-grade-school-girls-on-yer-psp-163620.php) by way of the Sweet Paradise UMD. It's only £5 or so at Playasia but unfortunately they won't ship to Europe and I don't feel like paying £20 or so on eBay so if anyone is making a Playasia order anytime soon and wouldn't mind adding this to their order and shipping it on I'd be eternally grateful.
I would, of course, cover postage costs from PA to you and from you to me and a little bit extra for the hassle.

Any takers?

I'll let you know next time I place a PlayAsia order, but Cha-kun is likely to place one before me.

[Johnny]

Picked up a couple of games today. Firstly Mario Kart 64 on the Virtual Console and also Sonic Rivals on PSP.
Enjoying both a lot. With Mario Kart I obviously knew what I was getting but it's still as good as ever. Makes me really want Mario Kart Wii though which has to feature online play!

Sonic Rivals is a nice little game too. I'm one of those people who won't accept Sonic is finished and games like this prove he's still got it. Works well in the same way that Rush did on DS - keeping it simple and 2D at heart.
Sometimes a little hard to see what's coming but it just makes it all the more exciting.
Great boss battles too.

Haven't had an update of the status of my copy of the iDOLM@STER SE but it could well be here tomorrow.

[ilmaestro]

I'm one of those people who won't accept Sonic is finished
Unfortuantely, the other group seems to contain the people who made Sonic great in the first place.

[ADC]

First visceral reaction is, was it always this slow? I'm totally spoilt by the later MKs with their fancy 60-fps graphics and feeling of ri-goddamn'd-diculous speed and smoother texturing and what have you, but MK64 feels glacial in comparison. On the other hand, Rainbow Road on MK64 has always taken around six minutes because it's so long.

After taking a few minutes to let it sink in, though, yay! Mario Kart games are awesome regardless of generation. Now they just need to get the original and still best, Super Mario Kart, up on the Virtual Console and all will be right with the world.

And I love the Wii Classic controller. Feels great in the hands, controls are sensitive. It would be awesome if someone came up with an adapter to use the Wii Classic with the PS2 or PS3, as it's really the only thing going that's better than the Dual Shocks and sixaxis.

[PhilipReuben]

First visceral reaction is, was it always this slow? I'm totally spoilt by the later MKs with their fancy 60-fps graphics and feeling of ri-goddamn'd-diculous speed and smoother texturing and what have you, but MK64 feels glacial in comparison.

Weird. Double Dash always felt slower than MK64 to me, and I recall that was one of the big complaints about it when it first came out. Admittedly I haven't played MK64 in a while though.

[ADC]

First visceral reaction is, was it always this slow? I'm totally spoilt by the later MKs with their fancy 60-fps graphics and feeling of ri-goddamn'd-diculous speed and smoother texturing and what have you, but MK64 feels glacial in comparison.
Weird. Double Dash always felt slower than MK64 to me, and I recall that was one of the big complaints about it when it first came out. Admittedly I haven't played MK64 in a while though.
MKDD's environments are so big, that could be. MKSC and MKDS, though, have comparatively small environments and, therefore, feel a lot faster. At least, that's what I think. Those who know me well know that I'm a big fan of the handhelds and, therefore, know my bias toward the handheld games; so take that thought for what you will.

At the end of the day, SMK's still the best of them. I think, though, that MKDS and MKSC are better games than MKDD or MK64. Is the latter worth 1000 Wii Points? You betcha. But MKDS is worth $30.

[Pachi]

Picked up Guild Wars: Nightfall the other day. The lack of challenging enemies so far due to traveling over with a Level 20 from Tyria saddens me. The addition of intelligent, level-gaining Heroes makes me happy.

So, it seems like the Nightfall continent is Middle Eastern-ish in design. If the Prophecies continent is more like the Americas, what does that make the Factions continent - European? *deep thoughts*

[Azumangaman]

Lately I have fallen in love with my PC and 360, leaving my GBA and DS out in the cold (and my PS2, but that's beacause its broken :( :( )
Games playing with game updates in brackets:

PC
Knights Of Honor (Commanding Norway; 5th strongest Kingdom)

Company Of Heroes (on Mission 2)

Call of Duty (yep, the first one)
Other stuff too...

Xbox 360
NHL 2K7 (I love the Predators. Playing in the confrence finals against Phoenix. On All-Star difficulty and whoopin their asses)

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfare (Just finished securing the Mexican President and I don't recall what your supposed to do in the next mission)

Madden '07 (Friggin hell. I'm so awful at this. I hate teh 360 version. Well not really. I'm on my second season in Madden as the Vikings. On all-pro difficulty and I'm 2-8. Grrr. Jay Cutler is my starting QB.

[GHardin]

Picked up Guild Wars: Nightfall the other day. The lack of challenging enemies so far due to traveling over with a Level 20 from Tyria saddens me. The addition of intelligent, level-gaining Heroes makes me happy.

Feh, you're supposed to start over with a new character! :P Then you can go farming and grinding for promotion points! :sd:

I'm still on the islands, and am almost level 20...but GW was never about leveling, fortunately. :)


So, it seems like the Nightfall continent is Middle Eastern-ish in design. If the Prophecies continent is more like the Americas, what does that make the Factions continent - European? *deep thoughts*
Factions has a strong Asian flavor...it's easier to see in some screenshots than others.

[Pachi]

Picked up Guild Wars: Nightfall the other day. The lack of challenging enemies so far due to traveling over with a Level 20 from Tyria saddens me. The addition of intelligent, level-gaining Heroes makes me happy.

Feh, you're supposed to start over with a new character! :P Then you can go farming and grinding for promotion points! :sd:

I'm still on the islands, and am almost level 20...but GW was never about leveling, fortunately. :)

Yeah, I'm planning on making a Dervish in Nightfall eventually. I just felt like exploring a bit with my main character.

[Fieri]

Don't know where to put this but if any non-Euro people can help I'd really appreciate it.
Basically I want to get my fix of loli dating-sim (http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/date-japanese-grade-school-girls-on-yer-psp-163620.php) by way of the Sweet Paradise UMD. It's only £5 or so at Playasia but unfortunately they won't ship to Europe and I don't feel like paying £20 or so on eBay so if anyone is making a Playasia order anytime soon and wouldn't mind adding this to their order and shipping it on I'd be eternally grateful.
I would, of course, cover postage costs from PA to you and from you to me and a little bit extra for the hassle.

Any takers?

I'll let you know next time I place a PlayAsia order, but Cha-kun is likely to place one before me.



Actually, as soon as I decide what I'll be getting I'll be making an order. ;)

[Chacranajxy]

Finished Final Fantasy V Advance just now. Fantastic game. I did quite a bit of extra stuff and including the time spent on other things like lunch and interuptions, I clocked in at 22 hours. So it's definitely longer than Final Fantasy IV Advance was. What I think was particularly interesting for me with this game was that I finished the whole thing in under a week. 6 days. I don't know if I've ever done that with an RPG before.

[untoldsorrow]

First visceral reaction is, was it always this slow? I'm totally spoilt by the later MKs with their fancy 60-fps graphics and feeling of ri-goddamn'd-diculous speed and smoother texturing and what have you, but MK64 feels glacial in comparison.
Weird. Double Dash always felt slower than MK64 to me, and I recall that was one of the big complaints about it when it first came out. Admittedly I haven't played MK64 in a while though.
MKDD's environments are so big, that could be. MKSC and MKDS, though, have comparatively small environments and, therefore, feel a lot faster. At least, that's what I think. Those who know me well know that I'm a big fan of the handhelds and, therefore, know my bias toward the handheld games; so take that thought for what you will.

At the end of the day, SMK's still the best of them. I think, though, that MKDS and MKSC are better games than MKDD or MK64. Is the latter worth 1000 Wii Points? You betcha. But MKDS is worth $30.

I just downloaded MK64 a few minutes ago. I have a classic controller but too lazy to go find it and open it so I decided ot use a GC controller. I've NEVER played MK64 before but have played MKSC and MKDS and all me and my friends do when we get together for a game night is MKDD. We can play MKDD all day long. Ok, back to MK64...I don't know....is it becuase i'm using a GC analog? The controls were jerky, too responsive and of course being used to MKDD, it felt slow. I will have to play it with the classic to see, but I hope it doesn't because then I would have to buy 3 more wii-mote + classics to play 4 players. I was hoping to use the GC just fine.

[ADC]

Ok, back to MK64...I don't know....is it becuase i'm using a GC analog? The controls were jerky, too responsive and of course being used to MKDD, it felt slow. I will have to play it with the classic to see, but I hope it doesn't because then I would have to buy 3 more wii-mote + classics to play 4 players. I was hoping to use the GC just fine.
I played with the Wii Classic controller and your experience dovetails with mine. The controls were very responsive, but the speed of the game felt slow. It's been 10+ years since I played MK64 on an N64 unit, but it seems to me that it shouldn't make a difference. If anything, the emulation on a higher-power system should prevent slowdown more than it causes it. I'd wager that it's a matter of 'fast' being a lot faster in 2007 than it was in 1997.

[ADC]

Finished Final Fantasy V Advance just now. Fantastic game. I did quite a bit of extra stuff and including the time spent on other things like lunch and interuptions, I clocked in at 22 hours. So it's definitely longer than Final Fantasy IV Advance was. What I think was particularly interesting for me with this game was that I finished the whole thing in under a week. 6 days. I don't know if I've ever done that with an RPG before.
Did you beat Omega or Shinryu? I got whacked with prejudice by each of these and have, therefore, not yet completed the main quest. How did Sihnryu fit in that treasure chest?! I mean, maybe in a floor safe with a key and a Materia, but not in a chest, man.

It occurs to me that, a few months ago in the Gaming Thread, I said I was going to open chests all pell-mell and willy-nilly in this game because I'm retarded like that. Now I say that treasure chests suck. :nervous:

[Suwako Moriya]

How did Sihnryu fit in that treasure chest?! I mean, maybe in a floor safe with a key and a Materia, but not in a chest, man.

The same way any monster fits inside a treasure chest or the same way you can carry 99 of any item including large pieces of armor. Ir's all because of magical shrinking magic. Just that one he leaves the chest, he grows to full size. Just like any other monster inside a chest. Of course he's only shrunk just enough to fit. Thus he has little space to move around while waiting for you. So by the time you open the chest, he's already pissed off. :>

[ADC]

The same way any monster fits inside a treasure chest or the same way you can carry 99 of any item including large pieces of armor. Ir's all because of magical shrinking magic. Just that one he leaves the chest, he grows to full size. Just like any other monster inside a chest. Of course he's only shrunk just enough to fit. Thus he has little space to move around while waiting for you. So by the time you open the chest, he's already pissed off. :>
So, what, he's a Chia Monster? Just add water and he grows? And then hits you for 8000 damage points per character? Sakaguchi-sensei must have come into a cache of Miyamoto's Magic Mushrooms, is all I'm saying.

Anyway, I'm just finishing up some character classes before I go and take on Exodus X-Death Golbez Exdeath. And I need a charge before finishing up, as I've a red light on the DS Lite and a bad headphone jack on the GBm. Wait a minute … there's a big silver box collecting dust on my shelf, I wonder if I could … hmm …

[Suwako Moriya]

So, what, he's a Chia Monster? Just add water and he grows? And then hits you for 8000 damage points per character?

Well if you didn't add so much water, he'd grow to a more manageable size. Heh one general rule against him is having protection against water thanks to coral rings. The main problem through is his speed. It seems like he's allowed multiple attacks in a role. Which can be frustrating. Especially since one of the attacks he has access to is that wind spell that puts a member into critical. Perhaps multiple members too, but my memory is fuzzy.

I doubt my current save is properly set up, but if I remember right. While playing the game before the PS version came out, I ended up relying on a strategy of depleting his MP while repeatedly keeping my HP up. That way eventually he became helpless. Having a Mystic Knight cast aspel or whatever it is that drains MP and then having him or her attack with X fight was part of the key. Of course when I checked my FF5 save on the PS awhile ago I didn't have that spell. Ah well.

[Chacranajxy]

Finished Final Fantasy V Advance just now. Fantastic game. I did quite a bit of extra stuff and including the time spent on other things like lunch and interuptions, I clocked in at 22 hours. So it's definitely longer than Final Fantasy IV Advance was. What I think was particularly interesting for me with this game was that I finished the whole thing in under a week. 6 days. I don't know if I've ever done that with an RPG before.
Did you beat Omega or Shinryu? I got whacked with prejudice by each of these and have, therefore, not yet completed the main quest. How did Sihnryu fit in that treasure chest?! I mean, maybe in a floor safe with a key and a Materia, but not in a chest, man.

It occurs to me that, a few months ago in the Gaming Thread, I said I was going to open chests all pell-mell and willy-nilly in this game because I'm retarded like that. Now I say that treasure chests suck. :nervous:

I didn't kill Omega or Shinryu... there was no way I could. Shinryu was a bastard... just hiding in that random chest. Sonuvabitch used Tidal Wave right away and did like 6000 or 7000 damage to everyone. I was like "gwwhoaaahh" and then I yelled "fucking shit."

[porkchopexpress]

I took a short break from Gears of War to crack open Lost Planet yesterday. I loved the demo for LP and played it over and over again. But now that I have the game I find it very disapointing. First I had to adjust the game controls right from the get go, your character aims much to slowly and I had to turn of the auto aim. I would be firing at some explosive barrels (of which there are thousands) and the auto aim would send my bullets at some snow pirates off to the left. On levels where you fight snow pirates you kill hundreds of identicle guys who just stand there and die. I also find the cut scenes to be pretty cringe worthy. I was expecting so much more out of this. The game is gorgeous but thats about it.

[indigo0086]

I have been playing the demo like crazy. I love the agility and it's really fun jumping from roof to roof. I mean when I fall from a large height my stomach turns and I get the chills. The pure destruction is massive and insane. It doesn't get boring like I though. Even though the enemies are pretty weak it can get crazy in a firefight and you can get underwhelmed quite a bit. I was totally not going to buy it but now I'm really wanting this game.

[gnikdrazil]

Picked up Guild Wars: Nightfall the other day. The lack of challenging enemies so far due to traveling over with a Level 20 from Tyria saddens me. The addition of intelligent, level-gaining Heroes makes me happy.

So, it seems like the Nightfall continent is Middle Eastern-ish in design. If the Prophecies continent is more like the Americas, what does that make the Factions continent - European? *deep thoughts*

I was given Nightfalls as a Christmas gift, but I have yet to open it. Currently, I'm playing Factions. I have a little weird history with Guild Wars. I bought Prophecies when it came out and built 2 characters. I completed 4/5 of the game but quit. Factions came out and I bought it. I didn't want to play it before completing Prophecies. I complete Prophecies and started Factions to only get 1/4 through Factions and quit. Now I am just repeating myself for Nightfalls. Hopefully, I won't quit playing it.

[GHardin]

I enjoyed the demo, but I'd enjoy it even more if the multiplayer lobby component wasn't so damn broken. I understand the final game will have the ability to invite friends, but if you're going to have a search parameter function, it would help if the damn thing actually listened to your parameters instead of giving you two or three random games that in no way fit what you're searching for. :tired:

[GHardin]

I was given Nightfalls as a Christmas gift, but I have yet to open it. Currently, I'm playing Factions. I have a little weird history with Guild Wars. I bought Prophecies when it came out and built 2 characters. I completed 4/5 of the game but quit. Factions came out and I bought it. I didn't want to play it before completing Prophecies. I complete Prophecies and started Factions to only get 1/4 through Factions and quit. Now I am just repeating myself for Nightfalls. Hopefully, I won't quit playing it.

Well, you've done more than me. :P I got far in Prophecies, and quit. I got Factions, got quite a ways, and quit. Friend got me Nightfall for Christmas, and I've been playing that now. Maybe one of these days, I'll actually go back and finish the other campaigns. :sd:

It certainly is fun to play as a Dervish, though I'm usually not much for melee...considering I skipped the classes in Factions (I made a Ranger/Warrior and Elementalist/? (didn't get that far with the Ele) for Proph, and a Ranger/Monk for Factions), I was surprised that I made a new character. :sd:

[Jarred]

From what I've read it seems to be what I was expecting plus it's cheap online so I'm just looking to be pushed off the fence really.
Okay, so I've played the game for about an hour or so and I can safely sum up my thoughts as "damn good". In fact, I think I'm going to put Phoenix Wright on hold now to get through this one.

You mentioned you thought it would come off as too serious, well, it is definitely a much more serious game than say PW, but that's why it works. It is a visual novel with a strong noir/detective style of storytelling that combined with the more serious tone makes it quite engaging. Oh, there are good laughs to be had, and I actually enjoy the main guy's total ball-busting and sarcastic personality, but the mood definitely pulls you in.

And it is a "novel", so get ready to read a lot of text, but there are lots of options to take the conversations different places throughout each conversation, so it's not just clicking and waiting. There's probably a bit too much talking to go through, but the script is nicely done.

My one beef is that the game is very linear. There was one part where I could not figure out how to proceed, and it turned out that it was due to me not taking a previous conversation as far as I should. I had to press the person for more info. So before I figured that out, I was wondering everywhere with nothing to do. The lesson, take your time with each conversation and don't rush to the next chapter. In fact, I wouldn't try to rush the game, just get into it and let the mood and characters wash over you.

So yeah, I've had a blast so far. I haven't been this engaged with a DS game since Ouendan, although it's for different reasons. It's not a crack addiction game, but more of a long night at the bar sipping down scotch, getting smoother and smoother as the night progresses. :D

[ADC]

Exdeath was a cupcake. Not quite Sephiroth-level in his ease, as he did manage to KO everybody but Basch at least once; but certainly not at the level of the likes of Zeromus, Chaos, or Necron.

Finished: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, T, 9, X-2, 12. Up next? 3 and (sort of) 3.

At the end of the day, I really did enjoy FF5. It was a different challenge from the other FFs I've finished, but the story was satisfactory — not amazing like 6, 7, or 9, but quite good anyway. The job system was better-implemented in the subsequent job-based FFs, building on a very solid foundation from 3 and intelligent upgrades in 5 — I had some issues with the implementation here, such as having to choose between Command abilities and Support abilities whereas future FFs allowed room for both; but taking it for what it is, a 15-year-old game, I think they did a good job overall.

I'd like to have seen truly better graphics in the field, particularly the character sprites, but the battle graphics were very well done. The soundtrack wasn't one of the best but certainly got the job done.

Graphics: B
Sound: B–
Gameplay: B+
Story: B
Overall: ZOMG (out of ZOMFG)

[Chacranajxy]

Yeah, Exdeath is probably the easiest Final Fantasy boss I've seen. I personally think the hardest bosses were those in 4 and 8 and this wasn't even comparable...

[Suwako Moriya]

The only real annoyance to Exdeath's first form was Whitehole since it leaves you stoned to death. The second form was a situation where you wanted to use attacks that hit multiple targets. In short throw your money away. :> It's been awhile since I faced him, but I seem to remember him becoming more aggressive the less parts of him (NeoExdeath) were left alive. Hence why I started relying on things like GP Toss which when used just makes the battle sad.

I mean sure he may have like over 200,000 HP because of the four parts. However if you're hitting all four parts at once and doing 5,000 damage to them. Well then that's like doing 20,000 points of damage to other final bosses who have only one target spot. Thus making it a likely factor for his challenge level or lack of if you prefer.

[ilmaestro]

Overall: ZOMG (out of ZOMFG)
:D

[Suwako Moriya]

It seems I'm nearly done with Children of Mana. Yeah I defeated the Mana Lord. Heh it was one of those battles where you just run up and whack the guy as fast as you can. Hoping he dies before you run out of items to heal. Yay for double HP recovery! The boss before that was annoying in the sense, I wasn't sure what to do. It was like try method A, then try method B, next method C, and then oh wait method D killed it.

Console wise, I think it's best I go with Altier Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny. After all I've already established a save for the game. Thus making it a logical choice. So sometimes this week or heck maybe later today, I should get back to playing it. As for what will come after that, I'm not sure yet.

[Suwako Moriya]

All right so I've definitely started back up on Altier Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny. I've reached the point where I can switch back and forth between Viese and Felt. I've was going to wait a bit longer, but I wanted to get that aspect set up real quick before doing a few other things. Heh I wonder how much time I'll end up wasting just messing around with the other lead. I mean I could see myself on occasion switching to Viese when Felt reaches a camp just to stock up on supplies. Granted part of it will be used as an excuse to stare play around more with Viese herself. Although I wish Eden was a little less cramped. Hmm maybe it only seems that way.

[Chacranajxy]

This is off-topic and I won't pretend like it's not... I got my Digital Devil 1 and 2 soundtrack today! Some of the best music ever. Go buy it. And go buy the games if you haven't already.

[untoldsorrow]

This is off-topic and I won't pretend like it's not... I got my Digital Devil 1 and 2 soundtrack today! Some of the best music ever. Go buy it. And go buy the games if you haven't already.

Great games. Still have to finish part 2, at the last save point.

Anyways, I stopped playing Zelda Twilight Princess for the Wii to play Zelda Link to the Past on VC. Been on it for 2 days and just saved the 5th maiden.

[Greywing]

After having it sitting on my shelf for months now, I finally started Fahrenheit <edited in the US and known as Indigo Prophesy, I believe>. I've been utterly engrossed in it, story-wise, but can't get past the guards on the military base during the flashback to Lucas' childhood. Most annoying.

[GHardin]

After having it sitting on my shelf for months now, I finally started Fahrenheit <edited in the US and known as Indigo Prophesy, I believe>. I've been utterly engrossed in it, story-wise, but can't get past the guards on the military base during the flashback to Lucas' childhood. Most annoying.

Man, I hated that part...it was most frustrating to figure out how you were supposed to get around this area. :tired:

[Suwako Moriya]

It seems I'm nearly done with Children of Mana.

Correct that I've finished the game as of today. While it has a few flaws such as the double standard I talked about earlier, it was a pretty nice game over. It was kind of fun to whack enemes and knock them around. Plus I like the graphical style. So yeah I'm glad to have played it.

Thus with Children of Mana more or less complete I can give more focus to Sword of Mana and Altier Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny. Heh this should definitely makes things a lot easier. Hmm perhaps it's time to update the backlog status. Of course the question is how often to update. Part of me feels like updating over each game, but I also feel I should wait until I've made a decent dent. I mean sure I could have updated with Tales of the Abyss, but it wasn't long after that Children of Mana got completed. Ah well I'll decide later.

[Johnny]

I picked up Just Cause on the 360 at the start of the week and have been playing it quite a bit. Better than I was expecting as I'm not finding the missions to be too samey or repetative. Travelling between missions can someyimes be a chore but the game looks gorgeous so I can put up with it. The £15 price tag makes it easier to swallow as well!

Oh and I got Hotel Dusk in the post yesterday and am wondering why I was wavering on buying this as I'm loving it. Played it for a couple of hours yesterday and am finding it very addictive and hard to turn off. Great atmosphere too.

Hotel Dusk is likely to be my main game for the weekend with a bit of Shutokou Battle PSP which came today thrown in for good measure.

Digi - how much was your iMAS customs? Got my letter today and have just paid the £25.26 charge. Unfortunately I was right and Tuesday is the earliest they can deliver although the 3 Konami PSP shooter comps will likely be with me on Monday (if they haven't gone AWOL like Wario :sigh: )

[ADC]

I'm not having fun with this game. I think part of it is that, underneath the slick 3D veneer, it's still an NES-era FF: Short on story, long on meandering around so you can afford things.

So, that being the case, I recalled someone in some thread saying that Worst Buy often got games in several days before the release date, and since most games have a soft street date, I figured what the hell. I went down to Elk Grove and asked if they'd received Final Fantasy VI. Not only did they not have it, they don't expect to get it until late next week! It drops Monday! What are they waiting for? (Their games guy kept calling it Final Fantasy VII, too. 'Tard.)

Any of all, I'm struggling with FF3 because I have little patience for fund-raising or power-leveling. There was no call for it in FF4, or 6, or 7, or 9, or X-2! The GBA FF1+2 were geared for faster leveling and generally, therefore, avoided this problem; FF5 had only one instance of power-leveling dead time that I experienced, and that wasn't until the Third World!

[Suwako Moriya]

Honestly I never really had money problems in Final Fantasy 3. Then again it could because I made a lot of use of the Thief class. Also there comes a time when one must decide they don't need to buy everything under the sun. I mean I ended up a town with a variety of spells to buy and decided it was better to move forward rather than just grind to have a complete collection.

As for the level up aspect. All I can say is I was in the 50s when I beat the final boss. Which is honestly on par for other Final Fantasy games I've played and I possibly over leveled. It also helps that part of the reason I split the classes among the characters was so I could learn how to exploit each class. Which I definitely did to some extent.

Edit: Still if you think this version of FF3 is a level up fest. You should avoid the original like the plague. Although to be honest I think some like FF4 would be more of a level up fest due to your options being severely limited. It's not like you can do any adjustments beyond level up and hope along side better stats you get new abilities. Granted FF4 advance changes that slightly near the end, but still....

[Greywing]

After having it sitting on my shelf for months now, I finally started Fahrenheit <edited in the US and known as Indigo Prophesy, I believe>. I've been utterly engrossed in it, story-wise, but can't get past the guards on the military base during the flashback to Lucas' childhood. Most annoying.

Man, I hated that part...it was most frustrating to figure out how you were supposed to get around this area. :tired:

How DO you do it? The Sands of Time-like premonition shows you hiding next to the truck but I'm always spotted when I get anywhere near it. I can't find any gaps in the fence and there doesn't seem to be any other way over it. Gah! :cry:

[ADC]

Although to be honest I think some like FF4 would be more of a level up fest due to your options being severely limited. It's not like you can do any adjustments beyond level up and hope along side better stats you get new abilities. Granted FF4 advance changes that slightly near the end, but still....
It's a difference in pacing. FF4's distribution of EXP and gil never felt stingy, which FF3/ds' definitely does. That's the change they made in FF1+2/gba as well: The EXP and gil in the first, and the stat growth and gil in the second, arrived pretty much when you needed them, so you didn't have to forage or scramble. If they did make a similar adjustment from FF3 to FF3/ds, then yes, I definitely have no need to play the original.

Well! It certainly could be worse. Drawing spells and Junctioning, for example.

[Greywing]

Well! It certainly could be worse. Drawing spells and Junctioning, for example.

Ugh, worst battle system in an FF game ever... One of the many reasons I dislike FFVIII.

[Suwako Moriya]

If they did make a similar adjustment from FF3 to FF3/ds, then yes, I definitely have no need to play the original.

Back in the day I would have recommended playing the original. After all it was not like there was an alternative. However with this vastly improved version there is no real reason to ever play the original. Although having played the original helps me appreciate the improvements to this version.

[Johnny]

Actually, as soon as I decide what I'll be getting I'll be making an order. ;)

Did you ever place that order? (yeah, I'm getting desparate :sd: I'd pay the £20 for it on eBay but knowing I could get it for under £10 is nagging me :P )

[DiGiKerot]

Digi - how much was your iMAS customs? Got my letter today and have just paid the £25.26 charge.

£25.25 I think - it may well have been £25.26, I can't quite remember now :sd:

[GHardin]

I picked up Just Cause on the 360 at the start of the week and have been playing it quite a bit. Better than I was expecting as I'm not finding the missions to be too samey or repetative. Travelling between missions can someyimes be a chore but the game looks gorgeous so I can put up with it. The £15 price tag makes it easier to swallow as well!


That was my problem with Just Cause...it was fun, but it was over way too soon. Yes, you can extend the game's life by doing some side missions, but really, it's just more of the same...liberate spots with the guerillas...whoopee, blow the barricades! Raise the flag! Repeat. Repeat again. Not to mention all of the objectives were more or less the same, with no real challenge presented. Still, it's fun for a little bit to go blowing shit up.

[GHardin]

How DO you do it? The Sands of Time-like premonition shows you hiding next to the truck but I'm always spotted when I get anywhere near it. I can't find any gaps in the fence and there doesn't seem to be any other way over it. Gah! :cry:

To be honest, I had to look it up on Gamefaqs to find out how to do some of these sequences...

Try this guide (http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/indigo_prophecy_e.txt)

If it's too confusing, you might want to look at the other guides on the FAQ page.

(it's been nearly a year since I rented it, so my memory is really hazy...I just remember hating another sequence later in the game. :tired: )

[Suwako Moriya]

All right I've made more progress in Altier Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny. Let's just say that recently Fee joined my party. She looks rather cool and I kind of like her already. So far I'm liking the concept of the game. The whole idea of having a main who's role is actually something besides "How many creatures can I kill?" is more of a change of pace than I was expecting it to be.

Heck I've purposely been switching to Viese on occasion just to see if anything will come up. It's definitely paid off on occasion. Although to be honest I'm hoping for a chapter more focused on Viese than Felt soon. Mainly because I'm hoping to see more of Iris. She's rather cute.

[Johnny]

I think I've just bought my best gaming bargain ever. But first, some background. When I bought my 360, one of the games I bought first (it was actually the first game ever played on it) was Shutokou Battle X, part of the Shutokou series which has been released on everything from the SFC to the DC to the PS2, PSP and so on.
Aside from some spin-offs of the series, Wangan Midnight and Kaido Battle 2 on the PS2, I hadn't played a game in the series before X but ended up putting hours and hours into it.

So I saw someone selling the PSP one on another forum and decided to give it a go and, just like the 360 one, I've been playing this loads - pretty much all weekend in fact. And the best bit? It cost me £5 :D
I did pick up another bargain but I'll leave talking about that until it arrives early next week (probably on the same day another, not so cheap, game arrives ;) )

I did play a bit more Hotel Dusk last night which I'm still loving - where abouts are people who are playing this? I just started Chapter 2.

[Mateo_home]

I did play a bit more Hotel Dusk last night which I'm still loving - where abouts are people who are playing this? I just started Chapter 2.

I finished the game and I'm thinking of starting a New Game+. I loved the ending but I didn't get the complete ending. I got the one where yu leave and Mila joins you.

But right now I'm focusing on Super Robot Taisen: OG on the GBA. :P

[jecca-neko]

So, that being the case, I recalled someone in some thread saying that Worst Buy often got games in several days before the release date, and since most games have a soft street date, I figured what the hell. I went down to Elk Grove and asked if they'd received Final Fantasy VI. Not only did they not have it, they don't expect to get it until late next week! It drops Monday! What are they waiting for? (Their games guy kept calling it Final Fantasy VII, too. 'Tard.)

Oh, thanks for reminding me that's coming out. Lately I've been having a lot of downtime between work and class so I could use a new portable game to play while I wait. :)

[Jarred]

I did play a bit more Hotel Dusk last night which I'm still loving - where abouts are people who are playing this? I just started Chapter 2.
Chapter 6. Just got done putting the smack down on Jeff Angel. :D

I love the end of chapters where you get to put the other people under the "bare bulb". At first I thought it was too straightforward and you couldn't mess up during the questioning with the red question marks, but I ended up getting kicked out during Jeff Angel because I chose wrong options. So it seems to be getting better (and more challenging) with each new chapter, which is cool.

[Fieri]

Actually, as soon as I decide what I'll be getting I'll be making an order. ;)

Did you ever place that order? (yeah, I'm getting desparate :sd: I'd pay the £20 for it on eBay but knowing I could get it for under £10 is nagging me :P )

Not yet, do you want me to order it for you?

[Lovely]

I did play a bit more Hotel Dusk last night which I'm still loving - where abouts are people who are playing this? I just started Chapter 2.

I'm playing it! In fact, I just bought the game this weekend (from Walmart of all places 0_o .)
In fact, since I bought the game, I figured it would be a good idea to buy a DS too. You know, considering I didn't have one ;) .

Yep, I finally made the plunge. The alure of the DS was just too strong. And especially the alure of Hotel Dusk. Ha, ha. Generally, I tend to wait off on getting a system until it has a few games I want. And I realised Friday-- "Wait a minute! There's a whole BUNCH of games I want for the DS now!"

For some reason, this was a huge revalation for me. I guess I had just become too used to saying, "Aw, that looks kind of cool, but I don't have a DS. Ah well." And then just letting it go XD .

Anyways, Hotel Dusk is my proud first DS game, And I'm LOVING it. I just love the presentation in general really. Great use of the DS's two screens, and the "book" approach is wonderful.
Also, Kyle's a likable lead, and I just think all the characters dialouges are written pretty well.

Currently, I'm on chapter 3.

Interestingly enough, I did get kicked out in chapter 2 at one point though. Ha, ha. My own fault though. Apparently, It's a BAD thing to basically tell someone that you broke into their office XD . Who'd a thunk ;) ?


On the topic of other DS games I want in the future:
The two Phoenix Wright games
Cooking Mama
Touch Detective

Er, and maybe Trace Memory and Contact?
Ah, I'm so happy a whole new world of games has opened for me!

[Collectonian]

Yoo hooo! I finally finished Kingdom Hearts II is finally done! I'm glad I didn't go through the insane effort it would have taken to beat Sephiroth. I found the video of the resulting extra video online, and it wouldn't have been worth it. Sora was around level 81 when I beat the game and my approximate total play time was 54 hours 45 minutes. I finished 94% of the journal (because I skipped most of the extra game challenges, and of course Sephiroth).

Next up: Shadow Hearts: From the New World. I can't believe I paid $20 for the e-guide because Prima decided to under print the guides (and the printed ones are now being sold used for $40-50). Ah well.

[Greywing]

How DO you do it? The Sands of Time-like premonition shows you hiding next to the truck but I'm always spotted when I get anywhere near it. I can't find any gaps in the fence and there doesn't seem to be any other way over it. Gah! :cry:

To be honest, I had to look it up on Gamefaqs to find out how to do some of these sequences...

Try this guide (http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/indigo_prophecy_e.txt)

If it's too confusing, you might want to look at the other guides on the FAQ page.

(it's been nearly a year since I rented it, so my memory is really hazy...I just remember hating another sequence later in the game. :tired: )

Would that be the second childhood flashback? Gah! I hate stealth sections in games...

Cheers for the link to the guide. :neko:

[GHardin]

Would that be the second childhood flashback? Gah! I hate stealth sections in games...

Yes, the second flashback is indeed a loathsome area...

I think what frustrated me the most (aside from sneaking around) had to be a certain childhood game
(playing friggin' hide and seek)... :tired:

[Johnny]

Actually, as soon as I decide what I'll be getting I'll be making an order. ;)

Did you ever place that order? (yeah, I'm getting desparate :sd: I'd pay the £20 for it on eBay but knowing I could get it for under £10 is nagging me :P )

Not yet, do you want me to order it for you?



Naw it's cool. Found a good price on eBay last night so I went ahead and ordered that one.
Appreciate the offer though :)

[Johnny]

Yep, I finally made the plunge. The alure of the DS was just too strong. And especially the alure of Hotel Dusk. Ha, ha. Generally, I tend to wait off on getting a system until it has a few games I want. And I realised Friday-- "Wait a minute! There's a whole BUNCH of games I want for the DS now!"

For some reason, this was a huge revalation for me. I guess I had just become too used to saying, "Aw, that looks kind of cool, but I don't have a DS. Ah well." And then just letting it go XD .

Anyways, Hotel Dusk is my proud first DS game, And I'm LOVING it. I just love the presentation in general really. Great use of the DS's two screens, and the "book" approach is wonderful.

On the topic of other DS games I want in the future:
The two Phoenix Wright games
Cooking Mama
Touch Detective

Er, and maybe Trace Memory and Contact?
Ah, I'm so happy a whole new world of games has opened for me!

heh, congrats on the DS purchase :D

Although buying now means that you have about 50 essential games to get caught up on ;)

As for me, I just got Parodius Portable today so I'll be trying to drag myself away from Shutokou Battle long enough to play it.
Also some minor news...Virtua Fighter 5 shipped today! :D

[Jarred]

I did play a bit more Hotel Dusk last night which I'm still loving - where abouts are people who are playing this? I just started Chapter 2.
Chapter 6. Just got done putting the smack down on Jeff Angel. :D

On Chapter 8 now. Six was a bit of a bore, except for the hilarious bar scene with everyone bugging Hyde, but 7 was definitely better in starting to show all the threads to tie up in these last 3 chapters.

This weekend I also took a spin with Elebits on the Wii. My Wii was getting lonely, so I picked this one up as a rental. So far, I'm pleasantly surprised at how easily enjoyable it is. Got through the tutorial and 1st level, and I was engaged the whole time. It's really easy to just want to start chucking everything around the room, but it's cool how it then became harder to move as time went on. Too much clutter makes it harder to find those last few Elebits.

I'm not sure it's worth $50US, but if I can find it in the future for more about $30-35, I might pick it up. In the meantime I'll go through a few more levels before returning it.

[Johnny]

This weekend I also took a spin with Elebits on the Wii. My Wii was getting lonely, so I picked this one up as a rental. So far, I'm pleasantly surprised at how easily enjoyable it is. Got through the tutorial and 1st level, and I was engaged the whole time. It's really easy to just want to start chucking everything around the room, but it's cool how it then became harder to move as time went on. Too much clutter makes it harder to find those last few Elebits.



Yup, this sums up my thoughts on the game exactly. Excellent difficulty curve and things get hard and frantic towards the end as you fling objects everywhere in search of some more Elebits!
Definitely one of the Wii highlights at this point in time although I feel it has slipped under most people's radar unfortunately.

[Johnny]

So, like I mentioned earlier, I got #1 of 3 of the recent Konami PSP shooter compilations today, Parodius Portable.
I've only briefly played some of the Parodius games before on the SFC (and emulated) so this is my first time sitting down with them properly.
I've played the first 3 games so far - Parodius, Parodius Da! and Gokujou Parodius. The best by far is Gokujou which features a lot of the famous bosses and characters from the series and has some real laugh out loud moments. If you like weirdo Japanese games then this is the one for you. Great music and some lovely graphical effects plus loads of colour make this a joy to look at.

Haven't tried Jikkyou Oshaberi or Sexy yet but I'm lead to believe they're even better/weirder :D

Also caved in and bought Super Mario World from the VC :sd:

Hopefully Salamander and Twinbee Portable are here tomorrow...

[Chacranajxy]

So I like shmups, but I only want really, really good ones that are necessary for me to buy... would Parodious or any of the other Konami shmup collections (including Gradius Collection) fit the bill?

[Johnny]

So I like shmups, but I only want really, really good ones that are necessary for me to buy... would Parodious or any of the other Konami shmup collections (including Gradius Collection) fit the bill?

Parodius is a parody of the Gradius series so if you want the original, pick up Gradius Portable, but if you want a more madcap version, go with Parodius. It's worth noting that Gradius isn't the only game that Parodius parodies, but it's the most noticeable influence.

The Gradius games are fairly basic. If you like R-Type then go for it but, IMO, compared to modern day Cave stuff they haven't aged well. Rock hard too. Gradius Portable has been re-released in Japan on the Best label recently and so you can pick it up for around $30.

Salamander plays almost identically to Gradius. Twinbee is a lot more light hearted, easier, vertically scrolling and kiddie. TBH it's probably gonna be my favourite between the 4.

[Chacranajxy]

Naw it's cool. Found a good price on eBay last night so I went ahead and ordered that one.
Appreciate the offer though :)

Interestingly, I also could've bought it for you today. Ended up placing an order at Play-Asia and got:

DJ Max Portable International
Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection

Don't think I went wrong with either of those. Darkstalkers' arcade installments were fantastic from what I played and DJ Max Portable seems like the ridiculous Asian music game I've been looking for for so long. Seriously, all I want is something with great music and gameplay that doesn't use some stupid controller. And this has got 58 songs.

The difficulty I had with buying this game was that I'm not sure how to organize it in my collection now... it only came out in Korea and I don't have anything else from there or Asia. I'm thinking I'll organize it by US - Japan - Asia - Korea - Europe. Yeah, I'm anal like that.

[Suwako Moriya]

I think I'm going to love Iris of Atelier Iris 2: Azoth of Destiny. It's not just the fact she's cute. Although that helps a lot. I just like her personality in terms of how she reacted to Poe. Which to be honest in some ways is understandable since Poe is kind of a jerk to her. Okay maybe I feel a slight bit sorry for him

In any case I'll definitely need to search harder for recipes. I was kind of stuck in terms of making the Glow Lamp and ended up checking for help only to find I over looked something. *Imagines over looking something that's in a long dungeon*. Well relative to this game anyway. I guess I'll be fine so long as the game doesn't pull a "You're missed your time window. Now you can never beat the game" moment. :sd:

[FigNewton]

So a few days ago I finally started playing Yoshi's Island DS. And the whole itme I'm thinking, yeesh, this is way too easy. Cruise through the first three worlds, have like 175 lives saved up, this is ridiiculous! Still fun, but it coulda been more challenging.

Then I get to World 4. A littl more challenging. And it keeps increasing. To where by the time I get to the ice stages I'm slamming my head against a wall ready to throw the DS through the window!!!

It's awesome. I love it.

[Mateo_home]

Then I get to World 4. A littl more challenging. And it keeps increasing. To where by the time I get to the ice stages I'm slamming my head against a wall ready to throw the DS through the window!!!

It's awesome. I love it.

Just wait until you open up the extra levels. It gets alot more frustrating. That is if you want to search for every red coin, flower, and collect thirty stars. :P

[GHardin]

I thought I was done with World of Warcraft...but for some reason, decided to buy a timecard to play for two months. D'oh! :tired:

[Johnny]

Ended up placing an order at Play-Asia and got:

DJ Max Portable International
Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection



Let me know how DJ Max is. I've been meaning to buy it for months but haven't got round to it yet. Was gonna order it and Pump It Up Exceed for the PSP at the weekend but held off.

I still need to pick up the CapKore versions of Darkstalkers Collection and SF III Third Strike too...

I also own only one Korean game (Guilty Gear XX Slash) :P

[Johnny]

So yeah, it's not hard to guess what game has been taking up all of my time today :sd:
iDOLM@STER is finally here and I'm defintiely glad I went for the LE. It was expensive as hell but the overall quality of everything is fantastic plus the game truly is great and has almost limitless replay value. Anyone who is on the fence about buying an NTSC-J 360 should definitely make this a consideration. Definitely worth buying a console for.

I also got Salamander Portable today but haven't had a chance to play it yet unfortunately. Played more Parodius Portable last night, mainly Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius, and I have to say, this game really does have the laugh out loud moments it promised. The first level is a DDR parody which is hilarious (uses a remixed version of the classic DDR intro music as BGM) but the second, IMO, is the best. It's a Tokimeki Memorial tribute/piss-take and the boss fight at the end is definitely the highlight!

PSP is definitely a hot system right now with the 3 Konami collections just out and Metal Slug Collection finally being released in Europe this Friday. Should have it on Thursday :) (not forgetting the Capcom Puzzle Collection which was also finally released in NA today. I'll be picking that up next week probably - anyone else getting it?)

[Azumangaman]

Today I bought Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow for the DS with some credit I had at a local score for trading in some crappy anime (see: DDSH) so I hope its good.

It's my first Castlevania game. Good choice for first?

[DiGiKerot]

Today I bought Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow for the DS with some credit I had at a local score for trading in some crappy anime (see: DDSH) so I hope its good.

It's my first Castlevania game. Good choice for first?

Kind of - it's one of the better games, but it's also a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow. That said, I played DoS first and still enjoyed it.

[Azumangaman]

Today I bought Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow for the DS with some credit I had at a local score for trading in some crappy anime (see: DDSH) so I hope its good.

It's my first Castlevania game. Good choice for first?

Kind of - it's one of the better games, but it's also a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow. That said, I played DoS first and still enjoyed it.

What system is Aria of Sorrow for?

[DiGiKerot]

What system is Aria of Sorrow for?

Its one of the Gameboy Advance Castlevanias, so its still playable on the DS. I don't know how hard it'd actually be to find these days, though - I know it was re-released as a 2-in-1 cartridge with HoD (last year, I think).

[jecca-neko]

I got FFVI Advance today. I haven't played it too long but here are my impressions thus far:

1) The script has definitely been changed a lot. They didn't take the cheap way out - there's no Ted Woosley stuff here. It's all new. So far none of the meaning is actually different, but it's still interesting. For example, at the beginning of the game when the guy in Narshe gets Terra and the empire guys come knocking on the door... Keep in mind the text isn't exact because I'm going off of memory right now but is pretty close.

Ted Woosley translation: Give back the girl and the magitek armor!

New translation: Turn over the magitek armor pilot. That girl is important to the empire!

If you've played FFVI tons of times like I have, you'll notice script changes right away, during the text about the War of the Magi. The ability, monster, etc names were retranslated too.

One thing also neat is something we never had that the Japanese had is finally here - the class names of the characters are listed. :D

2) The music tries to be the same but some tracks are distinctly remixed, I guess to sound better on the GBA? The battle theme is the most different so far. It's not bad, just different.

3) For the question of slowdown, I'm experiencing none so far. However, it's not like I'm doing anything too taxing since I'm at the beginning of the game.

4)Graphics look exactly the same to me. No improvement or detriment.

If anyone has any questions I'll try to answer them. Like I said, I'm at the beginning of the game (just got to Figaro) but I suspect I'll start flying through the game later this week.

[Chacranajxy]

Today I bought Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow for the DS with some credit I had at a local score for trading in some crappy anime (see: DDSH) so I hope its good.

It's my first Castlevania game. Good choice for first?

Kind of - it's one of the better games, but it's also a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow. That said, I played DoS first and still enjoyed it.

Playing DoS first is perfectly fine. It's a great Castlevania game... I'd say it's probably my second favorite after SOTN.

[Suwako Moriya]

One thing also neat is something we never had that the Japanese had is finally here - the class names of the characters are listed. :D

I consider that a huge plus for this version. Now the cast of FF6 can show their pride and happily display their Job Class status to all here. It also means that if you want get technical despite the customization element (Espers), FF6 is in the same boat as FF4 and FF9 with set job classes.

[Chacranajxy]

I got FFVI Advance today. I haven't played it too long but here are my impressions thus far:

1) The script has definitely been changed a lot. They didn't take the cheap way out - there's no Ted Woosley stuff here. It's all new. So far none of the meaning is actually different, but it's still interesting. For example, at the beginning of the game when the guy in Narshe gets Terra and the empire guys come knocking on the door... Keep in mind the text isn't exact because I'm going off of memory right now but is pretty close.

Ted Woosley translation: Give back the girl and the magitek armor!

New translation: Turn over the magitek armor pilot. That girl is important to the empire!

If you've played FFVI tons of times like I have, you'll notice script changes right away, during the text about the War of the Magi. The ability, monster, etc names were retranslated too.

One thing also neat is something we never had that the Japanese had is finally here - the class names of the characters are listed. :D

2) The music tries to be the same but some tracks are distinctly remixed, I guess to sound better on the GBA? The battle theme is the most different so far. It's not bad, just different.

3) For the question of slowdown, I'm experiencing none so far. However, it's not like I'm doing anything too taxing since I'm at the beginning of the game.

4)Graphics look exactly the same to me. No improvement or detriment.

If anyone has any questions I'll try to answer them. Like I said, I'm at the beginning of the game (just got to Figaro) but I suspect I'll start flying through the game later this week.

So from those impressions and given that there's some good extras in this game, it seems that this is actually better than both the PS1 version and the original SNES version. The fact that there's actually a decent translation this time makes me very happy. But did they leave in the one pivotal line for this game -- "Son of a submariner?" It's the FFVI equivalent of the Spoony Bard accusation, so it had better be there.

[EmperorBrandon]

I just got Final Fantasy VI Advance in today and have started playing, and just got to the point where you first leave Narshe. The new translation is pretty interesting I'd say, nothing wrong so far, though of course it definitely feels different from what I'm used to. I though the Moogle names are better in this version. Having the lowest heals named "Potion" and "Ether" will take some getting used to.

This is going to be fun, I can tell. I haven't even finished FFVA yet :sd: , but I guess I will get around to it after I'm done with this.

[EmperorBrandon]

But did they leave in the one pivotal line for this game -- "Son of a submariner?" It's the FFVI equivalent of the Spoony Bard accusation, so it had better be there.

It's "Son of a sandworm" now. Close, I guess...

[Chacranajxy]

But did they leave in the one pivotal line for this game -- "Son of a submariner?" It's the FFVI equivalent of the Spoony Bard accusation, so it had better be there.

It's "Son of a sandworm" now. Close, I guess...

WTF A SANDWORM!!?!??! I'm not buying this fucking game now.


Fuck.


(Yeah, I'm still buying it.)

[EmperorBrandon]

Woohoo, I saw Locke block a physical attack with his Main Gauche. I guess this means the Evade bug has been fixed...

[untoldsorrow]

Oh man, can't wait to get this. My store couldn't get any today. Actually, we can't pick up any copies of Hotel Dusk since release from our distributors. Anyways, I wonder what they changed, wonder if they changed the limit breaks to a higher % or added new spells/espers? Didn't they say they were going to?

[Suwako Moriya]

Woohoo, I saw Locke block a physical attack with his Main Gauche. I guess this means the Evade bug has been fixed...

Ah that's good to hear. Speaking of evasion. Hmm I wonder if the Vanish+Doom trick will still be in this version.

[EmperorBrandon]

Hmm I wonder if the Vanish+Doom trick will still be in this version.

I hear it's been fixed as well. Even if it wasn't, I wouldn't do it, though (only exception I usually made in my later plays was Doom Gaze, just because I get impatient flying around to try and find him again...)

[Aiia]

I finally finished the GBA game Golden Sun II the lost chronicles. Wohoo! Now, what to pick up next... I might continue Mario64 or give Mario Cart 64 a shot. Its me, Mario! :D

[Suwako Moriya]

I finally finished the GBA game Golden Sun II the lost chronicles.

Ah so this means you likely experienced the fun of the final boss directly attacking your Dijinns. That was really annoying. I had to adjust my strategy a bit because of it. In any case part of the fun of the ending was watching Alex get all of his plans screwed over and get whacked near the end.

[ADC]

Ahh, crack in the vein. I got gooseflesh when Kefka laughed.

So screw the whole FF3 noise; there's real games to play!

On a side note, when I got to Worst Buy, they had all their FF6As locked up in the security office! I had to ask the yellow shirt at the door to get one for me. One wonders if someone tried to gank one earlier in the day.

[Chacranajxy]

I'm annoyed... I've been waiting for this game for-fuckin-ever and I've gotta wait till next week to get it now. I've got some tests over the next week and I know I won't study even a little if I get FFVI. Oh well, at least I can relax and play the hell out of it next Thursday.... sigh...

[Aiia]

I finally finished the GBA game Golden Sun II the lost chronicles.

Ah so this means you likely experienced the fun of the final boss directly attacking your Dijinns. That was really annoying. I had to adjust my strategy a bit because of it. In any case part of the fun of the ending was watching Alex get all of his plans screwed over and get whacked near the end.

Yes, the final boss took a while to clear but I managed to use pretty much the same strategy as with the Anemos (sp?) Sanctum boss successfully. And yes, I also laughed at the ending scene. Too bad though, I was hoping Alex's wild plans to take over the world would prepare for a possible Golden Sun III. Apparantly there was supposed to be a GameCube version that was later cancelled. I need more djinni! *on a heavy withdrawal*

As the hopeless romantic I am, I was also kind of hoping for a little more story about the possible relationships between the characters, but it never really happened anything. I wonder if there is any good GS doujinshi out there that dwelves on it... :P

[Suwako Moriya]

And yes, I also laughed at the ending scene. Too bad though, I was hoping Alex's wild plans to take over the world would prepare for a possible Golden Sun III. Apparantly there was supposed to be a GameCube version that was later cancelled. I need more djinni! *on a heavy withdrawal*

Well it's possible that Alex may have in fact survived the encounter. Still it's clear that even if he has survived he's going to need to take action against Isaac. As for Golden Sun III the only thing I know for certain about it is this. That some want it, but it has yet to actually happen.

As the hopeless romantic I am, I was also kind of hoping for a little more story about the possible relationships between the characters, but it never really happened anything. I wonder if there is any good GS doujinshi out there that dwelves on it... :P

Honestly I was expecting Jenna and Isaac to end up together at the very least. As for doujinshi of GS. I'm sure something exists, but I don't really actively search for doujinshi to be honest. Speaking of expanding on things. You ever get the feeling that Sheba and Ivan in fact be related? I mean the two look like siblings. They're both wind. I guess maybe I'm thinking about things too much.

On unrelated note. I decided that for once when playing Katrina's quest of Romancing SaGa 3 that I'll actually use the Noble look. I mean I've used the Adventurer look every other time I played her quest. So this can be a change of pace. Although honestly I wish the game would let you switch back and forth between them. It seems once you go noble, you can't go back to adventurer. In any case time to kill the third one today. Hopefully anyway.

[Aiia]

Honestly I was expecting Jenna and Isaac to end up together at the very least. As for doujinshi of GS. I'm sure something exists, but I don't really actively search for doujinshi to be honest. Speaking of expanding on things. You ever get the feeling that Sheba and Ivan in fact be related? I mean the two look like siblings. They're both wind. I guess maybe I'm thinking about things too much.

What about the hints of Felix having developed some feelings for Sheba at the end of the first Golden Sun game? Maybe I read too much into that. As for Sheba and Ivan, I was so sure the Contiago relevation about Ivan's family would be that Sheba was his sister. I thought the woman who actually turned out to be his sister would be his mother or aunt or something. Alas, I was wrong.

I really hope there will be a GS3 some day. I'd love to have a DS version with dungeon maps. But perhaps that would take away some of the fun. :sd:

[Suwako Moriya]

What about the hints of Felix having developed some feelings for Sheba at the end of the first Golden Sun game? Maybe I read too much into that.

I'm certain that Felix did have some feelings for Sheba. Even if it's along the lines of wanting to be protective Still it did need to be developed further. I guess maybe they wanted to leave some stuff a bit on the vague side.

I really hope there will be a GS3 some day. I'd love to have a DS version with dungeon maps. But perhaps that would take away some of the fun. :sd:

If there ever is a third Golden Sun game they should make it so one of the playable characters is a female earth user. I mean water, wind, and fire had both a male and female counter part. Yet in the case of earth it was male/male.

[mike.motaku]

Currently playing: Rogue Galaxy. Mostly because between leveling up in the final hunts on FFXII and deciding to just say fugit and go for the final dungeon, it was just grinding me down. And Rogue Galaxy is so pretty. So very pretty.

[DiGiKerot]

Currently playing: Rogue Galaxy. Mostly because between leveling up in the final hunts on FFXII and deciding to just say fugit and go for the final dungeon, it was just grinding me down. And Rogue Galaxy is so pretty. So very pretty.

FFXII is just grinding me down, period. I think I'm probably only around 2/3 of the way through, but every time I pick the game up I seem to end up having to spend three hours grinding either for money, EXP, LP or all three. Its just getting tedious beyond belief. With the utter lack of a narritive draw, I'm almost at the point where I'm seriously considering just dropping it and starting on one of the dozen or so other RPGs I've got unplayed.

[Azumangaman]

For the PC: PREY
This game is made of kick-ass. Its completely and totally awesome. I played for about 3-hours straight (for those who don't know, thats A LOT for me).

For the DS: Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow
I'm...stuck. I think I've clocked about 5 minutes and I'm up against a guy with 2 swords, and I CAN'T WIN! Help?